3. Local Folks and Legends

Bob Zybach: Zundt?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Albert Zundt, yes.

Bob Zybach: Did Mr. Zundt ever get married?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, he was a bachelor.

3. Local Folks and Legends

Bob Zybach: The Folks lived at the base of a hill. Did you have a name for that hill?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: What my folks?

Bob Zybach: No, the Folks family.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Oh, the Folks family. No, I don't remember a name for that hill. But it was just before you got to the Joe Smith property. Right across from the Joe Smith property.

Bob Zybach: Now, next to Joe Smith there is a large swamp and kind of a lake. Do you remember a name for that area?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, I don't. All I know is Berry Creek run through Joe Smith's place.

Bob Zybach: Did you ever hear the name Savage Creek?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No.

Bob Zybach: Or Forest Peak? Or Bakers Mountain or the Baker family?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No.

Bob Zybach: Okay, we've talked about Coffin Butte. Can you remember a hill behind the Glenders?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes, I remember a hill behind the Glenders, but I don't know whether it had a name or not.

Bob Zybach: Okay. There is Soap Creek, can you remember any of the names for any of the small creeks that entered into Soap Creek?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, I can't.

Bob Zybach: Now, when you started school. Your first year, that was at Wells?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: At Welisdale, yes.

Bob Zybach: You said you couldn't speak English at that time.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: That's right.

Bob Zybach: Were there any other kids that couldn't speak English?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, I was the only one.

Bob Zybach: Did that create any problems?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, it didn't. I pIcked it up real fast.

Bob Zybach: Were there any problems with the other kids because of a German accent at that time?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, they were a little younger than I, so they picked it up pretty fast.

Bob Zybach: There was no political problems because of World War I, or.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No.

Bob Zybach: Do you recall any black people?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, only one, and that was in later years in Corvallis. I can't even think of his name right now, but he was well known around Corvallis. Bud, I think was his name, Bud Smith.

Bob Zybach: Bud Smith? But that's the only black you could remember. What do you remember about him?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Oh, he was just a plain nice fellow. He wasn't, probably very little older than I.

Bob Zybach: What would he do for a living?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: I think he shined shoes and things like that. Earlier. I don't know what he did later. Fact is, I think he worked some for Penneys if I remember right, J.C. Penneys, when my wife worked there.

Bob Zybach: Do you recall any Indian people?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, I never knew any Indians.

Bob Zybach: How about Orientals?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Just once in Corvallis, at a chinese restaurant. That's all.

Bob Zybach: So the racial mix was almost entirely white people.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Entirely white people, yes.

Bob Zybach: Would there ever be black visitors or Indian visitors to town that you can recall?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, there probably were. See when we was young we didn't get to town much. We didn't have a car until 1924. So we didn't get to town very much.

Bob Zybach: When you visited Studack in the hospital you had a car by that point though.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes.

Bob Zybach: Can you recall when they built the road over Smith Peak from Berry Creek to Soap Creek?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No.

Bob Zybach: How would most people get around before you got cars? How would you travel?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Horse and buggy.

Bob Zybach: Can you recall what kinds of crops your parents raised?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Well, mostly hay. For the horses and the cows. They milked quite a few cows. That is, for them by hand it was quite a few. Back when we went to grade school we probably had as many as 10 or 12 cows. But my sister milked, well my mother milked too for a while.

Bob Zybach: Was your whole living made from the farm?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: The whole living on the farm.

Bob Zybach: Was it a particular type offarm, did you raise particular types of crops?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: A little grass seed to sell, very little. And most of the other grains we fed. And we had pigs, chickens, cows, the whole works. In those days most farmers had all of those things. It wasn't specialized like it is now.

Bob Zybach: So most of your neighbors were sustenance farmers?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes.

Bob Zybach: Would you say "sustenance farmer" back then or would you just say "fanner?"

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: We just said farmers then. [In those days there were no taxes, fertilizers were just coming in, no bookkeeping, hardly any chemicals--just fly spray for cows. The only herbicide was a hoe. Education came from experience. Now you have to be an accountant and about everything else just to get by! JRJ

Bob Zybach: So f somebody was a fanner then you knew that they had a diverse amount of crops and animals.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes.

Bob Zybach: Did most people have orchards?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Just a small home orchard.

Bob Zybach: So a home orchard would be one. . . mostly fruit for the family.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: For the family, yes.

Bob Zybach: Can you recall anybody with commercial orchards?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Well, the first commercial orchard I ever knew was Mr. Widmer. He lived near Palestine Hill. And he was an old Swiss bachelor. And he was one of the first ones that had gold delicious apples. He built a little apple storage house. And I know he would give us apples every winter, the smaller and #2 apples which we were tickled to death to get. We had no way to store and keep the apples.

[Withheld from this edition pending review. The page keeps its printed number and its permanent link, so a citation to it still lands here.]

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes.

Bob Zybach: What did that mean to you? What did that imply?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Well, I really don't know what to say there. Other than it was just kind of a wild place.

Bob Zybach: Did you ever hear any stories about stage holdups or robberies? Anything to do with gold?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No.

Bob Zybach: How about haunted houses?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No. When I was a kid I used to think houses were haunted when they'd tell me stories.

Bob Zybach: Do you remember any houses in particular that you thought were haunted?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, I don't.

Bob Zybach: Do you recall any stories about religious meetings in the Tampico or Soap Creek area?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No.

Bob Zybach: Can you recall any religious groups in those areas?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No.

Bob Zybach: How about Green Beriy Smith?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Well, I've heard, or seen his name at times for different things, but I don't remember what it was about.

Bob Zybach: Can you remember f you thought he was a good person or a bad person?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, I don't remember.

Bob Zybach: How about Grandma Carter?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Grandma Carter?

Bob Zybach: Uh huh.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: I knew of her, and I probably saw her maybe three or four times. But I knew all of the other Carters, the descendants. There was quite a few of them around.

Bob Zybach: Who would be good members of the Carter family to talk to now about the Carter history?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Well, Vincent Carter, and I think he lives in Albany, I believe, and then Lyle Carter is another one, but he lives over in Fstern Oregon someplace, but I'm not just sure what town he lives in. Vincent Carter I think would be.

Bob Zybach: Vincent? Now we talked about Velma Rawie.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Oh yes, yes. That's right, she would be a good one, a very good one.

Bob Zybach: Okay, so she would be kind of like Vincent? You think she might know as much about the Carters as Vincent Carter?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: I think she probably would.

Bob Zybach: Okay, we talked about Coffin Butte. And your family had kind a tradition there. Could you describe that?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Well, when we were kids we used to like to go up on Coffin Butte. In the winter time of course when it snowed we'd go up with our sleds or toboggans, at that time it was a nice smooth surface, before it was all dug up, and it was good sled riding. And kind of a tradition, Easter my parents would invite..

Tape recorder problem continued.