20. Studack and Zundt Accident

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: there and we dug a well to water the garden and stacked Russian thistles for hay. And that's all they had for feed. And that Russian thistle grows kind of like a big ball, when its, the branches come up and off the main root and go out in kind of a ball, and sometimes it can grow several feet high. And a lot of times a lot shorter. So they'd hoe it off and then break 'em, and all you've got is a lot of fluff. And then stack them. And my job was up on the stack to lay them all Out and stomp them down, and you was wading up to your neck in those Russian thistles, but you would stomp and weight it down. I was still pulling stickers out after we got to Oregon.

Bob Zybach: So then your Aunt came ow at the same time.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Yes, my Aunt, and then my Uncle, and then my uncle's brother-in-law, and mother. So there was three families that came out at the same time.

Bob Zybach: And did they settle in the Coffin Butte area too, or just off.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Leslie Davis and his mom lived in Studack's place a very short time.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] That's right, they did.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Grandma Davis and Les. For a while, yeah. And Uncle Oswald was on Wiles's place.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] First, he worked for Wacoma Dairy for a while.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Yeah. And Uncle John and Aunt Agnes Weder went down to Williamsons and worked on that dairy.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Cleve Williamson, which was across the road from Steilmachers.

Bob Zybach: So at one time you had Rohners in three farms right around the Coffin Butte there.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Yeah, well one of them was Rohner, the other was Weder, but it was a Rohner, the woman was a Rohner. And the Davis, that was in-laws.

Bob Zybach: Where did the Davis's live?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] On Studack's place, they moved in where Studack lived for a while. Him and his. . . it was a man and his mother. He was single. He never got married until, oh, a long time later. He was older when he got married.

20. Studack and Zundt Accident

Bob Zybach: While we're on Studack, why don't we skip back to there. That's that part that 1 fouled up before. Can you tell the stoly about how the Studacks purchased that property and what they

Bob Zybach: did for a living?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Oh, well, they purchased the property from Mr. Wiles, Ed Wiles, and I don't remember how big, but I would say at least 60 acres, possibly a little more. And they built a house on it, and a barn. And then to supplement his income he worked for Alvie Govier. Well, I don't know whether he ever worked right in the sawmill, but he felled timber for him, I know, later at least. And then Albert Zundt, who was a friend of the Studacks, and maybe he was even, was he related to them, or not?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] I don't really think so.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Just a friend from Switzerland. He came several years later.

Bob Zybach: How was Studack related?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] My mother's first cousin. So Albert came a little later over here, and then they went, well Albert worked a little bit too, didn't he?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] That I don't know. I was pretty small.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Well, anyway along the line he went to work for Alvie Govier too, so the two of them felled timber for Alvie Govier, and he in 1928, early in 1928, he studied for his citizenship. For one reason he wanted to be a citizen, and another reason he wanted to vote that fall because he believed in Alfred E. Smith. So he got his citizenship papers, a little later in the summer, and so he decided to vote for Alfred E. Smith. So they were about to have a baby and, would you say four weeks?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Yeah.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] And so, in probably close to October, anyway, Mrs. Studack was about to have a baby, and so Mr. Studack was killed in the woods. Oh yeah, they had decided to name the baby Alfred, after Alfred E. Smith. And so anyway, Albert Zundt and Mr. Studack were working in the woods at Goviers, falling timber, and a limb caine down and hit him on the head. Wounded him terribly. And they took him to the hospital, and in 24 hours or something he died. And Alfred was born about 4 weeks before Mr. Studack was killed.

Bob Zybach: But he didn't have a chance to vote then.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] No, he didn't get a chance to vote because he was killed before the election.

Bob Zybach: Is Alfred Studack still alive?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Yeah, he lives in Salem, he works in a bank, he's been a banker all his life.

Bob Zybach: Then the family, after he was killed, they had to move, didn't they?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Yes.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Didn't Rosie stay there a while, didn't Albert stay with her some?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] I believe maybe that's right. I think Albert took care of things for a while there, a year or two maybe.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] And then she moved to town.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] And then she decided to move to town, but then Albert Zundt bought the place. And he farmed a little and he raised mink.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Mink, yeah. Used to go fishing where the sewer run into Corvallis, or something, down by the river.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] And he asked me to go along several different times, to help him fish,

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Catch suckers, you know, and all that yucky stuff.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Where these, I think they had three big sewer lines from Corvallis that dumped directly into the river, raw sewage. And we'd fish in that area and catch these suckers and stuff like that for mink feed.

Bob Zybach: So Studack farm became a mink farm, then?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Yes.

Bob Zybach: How many mink did he raise at one time?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] I have no idea.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] He had quite a lot of them but I have no idea how many, whether it was 50 or 200, I don't know. I don't think maybe he had all that many, but he had quite a few.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] And he logged, too, or kept logging.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Yes, he kept logging, and he horse logged. He had a team of big horses, and horse logged. So he horse logged, this was in 1928 when Studack got killed, and he logged until about 1935 was it?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Somewhere in there. I was still fairly young when he got killed.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Oh, it must have been '35, because he was killed after I got back from my trip in '34, so about '35 and possibly '36.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Right in there somewhere when he got killed.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] When he got killed, he was putting logs on the rollaway and doing something and a log rolled over him and he was crushed.

Bob Zybach: And he'd stayed living at that same place until that time?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Yes.

Bob Zybach: Miat happened after he got killed? He was a bachelor?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Yes.

Bob Zybach: What happened to the place after he got killed?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] George Adams probably the next one that lived there.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] I think so. George Adams owned it, and I presume, as I remember it, I think he bought it from the estate. And what money that he had went probably to Switzerland because he had no relatives in this country.

Bob Zybach: George Adams was Swiss?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] No, I mean Albert Zundt. The money that George Adams paid to the estate you see probably then went to Switzerland because there was no relatives over here.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Well Albert was the one that took all his dishes to the creek and washed them. His skillets and stuff in the gravel, wasn't it. He scoured his skillets in the grave.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] I remember Wes Kester, he always admired him. He could out. . . Albert was quite husky and Wes Kester was very very strong for his size, but he wasn't all that big. So Albert could outlift him. For one thing they'd get on a set of platform scales, sit on it and then reach underneath and pull to see how many hundred pounds they could pull down besides their own weight on the scales. Albert Zundt could beat him at that. And something or other, oh, arm twisting and one thing and another. Because he was real powerful. Oh Wes, he went up to visit Albert one Sunday and so Albert had a fish fry, fish I suppose he caught in Soap Creek. There used to be trout in Soap Creek. So I remember Wes Kester telling about Albert after they had the fish fry, Albert went to the creek, the little gravel bar out in the creek, and put a little soap in there and scooped up some gravel and kept swinging it around and had the old pan real shiny.

Bob Zybach: So he was pretty impressed by that. What happened to his mink after he got killed?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] He might have parted with those just before.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] I think he did. I don't think he haLl mink anymore when he got killed. I don't know what he did with them.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] I think put in his full time with the horse logging.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] I'm sure he didn't have them when he was killed.

Bob Zybach: Then after Adams, what happened, why didn't he keep the place?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Well, I think didn't Camp Adair come in?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Camp Adair come in when Adams was there.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] So Adams sold to the government.

Bob Zybach: But didn't you have another relative in there for a while?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Well, that's when. Say, when Les and Grandma Davis lived in there, who owned it then, Adams? No, Adams was the last one in there.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] My uncle's brother-in-law, Les Davis. Do you want this on tape?

Bob Zybach: Yeah. That's rig/u on school [OSU] properly rig/u there. That's why I'm asking all these questions like where did the mink go. So, Les Davis? Okay. It's going.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Oh, it's going. I didn't know. So, Les Davis was a brother-in-law to Uncle Oswald. So he lived there after Albert was killed, he and his mother lived on the place for some time, I don't remember how long. [Uncle Oswald and Les Davis (brother-in-law) and mother-in-law Davis came from Kansas in 1934. First, they worked at the Wacoma Dairy. Les quit first and moved to Albert Zundt's place and went to work for Valley Mills by the Soap Creek Schoolhouse. About six months later Oswald bought Clarence Wiles' place (about 1936). Les and his mother-in-law moved in with Oswald until Camp Adair came in. Mostly they milked Brown Swiss. The windmill was out of use in later years. Originally, it was for water, but it was replaced in 1932 with an electrical system (home built after World War I) to pump water. The house was powered by about 16 glass batteries stored in the basement. JR]

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] I don't remember how long.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Could have been six months or a year, I don't know, remember. And the place was for sale. So then Mr. Adams bought the place and they moved somewhere