Soap Creek Valley · Monograph #5 · 42 of 46

23. Widmer Photograph

23. Widmer Photograph of John Jacob & Wilma Rohner — printed p. 96 — recorded September 30, 1990 at Jake Rohner's home, Benton County, Oregon (afternoon). Every printed page has its own permanent link.

Zybach, Bob 1993. John Jacob and Wilma Rohner. Family Farming on Coffin Butte Between World Wars, Benton County, Oregon: 1919-1941. Soap Creek Valley History Project, Monograph #05. Oregon State University Research Forests and College of Forestry, Corvallis, Oregon: 132 pp.

p. 47 = printed page 47 of the original book; the link on each page number is a permanent address you can send to anyone.

Provenance

From: #5 John Jacob & Wilma Rohner
Narrator: John Jacob "Jake" Rohner and Wilma "Willie" Rohner
Recorded: September 30, 1990 · Jake Rohner's home, Benton County, Oregon (afternoon)
Interviewer: Bob Zybach
Printed pages: p. 96
Original: http://www.nwmapsco.com/ZybachB/Oral_Histories/Soap_Creek_Valley/05_Rohner/Zybach_1993.pdf
Accessioned: From Bob Zybach’s upload, 23 August 2026

Part III. Printed session note: "The following transcnpt [transcript] was made from an interview with fake [Jake] and Willie at fake's [Jake's] home, during the afternoon of September 30, 1990. After reviewing the initial transcripts, fake [Jake] and Willie provided written corrections and additions. These com,nents [comments] appear throughout the manuscript enclosed in [brackets] and include the initials of the person that has provided the information." Both narrators present; speakers are marked in the printed text as [JAKE] and [WILMA]. A note "Pause in Recording" appears at p.64.

p. 96

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

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] It was as black as that recorder there. So it's some dumb chemical in there, when I boil it, I thought my God if it does that to the kettle, what's it gonna do to our innards. We didn't eat it.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] We threw it away. But I would love to eat some again.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Yeah, but Carl called from Texas. . . he's a one of the Koblers, a cousin, too, there in Kansas. But he's a doctor and he moved to Texas. He called clear from Texas to get that recipe to find out how Mom cooked that tripe.

Bob Zybach: When this is transcribed anybody should be able to get it for the next couple hundred years.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Well they'd better clean their own or it won't be no good, I'm teffing you.

23. Widmer Photograph

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Now, that's just a friend of Dad's, ain't it? Widmer?

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

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] And our old Model T. And Widmer's old barn. I loved that old barn. Because I love barns.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Widmer came from Switzerland. And he was a Swiss, and he was a bachelor all his life. And he met another bachelor, an American [0Steve"], I don't know what ancestry, and they farmed together. And they got some of the first gold delicious trees come into the country here. And he had an orchard, I don't remember how many acres, 8 or 10 acres I think. And he built an apple storage house. Then when we were. . . we didn't have no way to store apples ourselves, we had some apple trees, but no golden delicious. So we'd go visit Widmer and he'd always give us a box of smaller golden delicious apples. For us kids.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Boy they were good.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Oh they were good. We really enjoyed them.

Bob Zybach: Was that the first commercial orchard that you could remember in the area?

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

Bob Zybach: I thought that's what you were telling me before. Now Widmer was Swiss, too?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Yes, he was Swiss.

Bob Zybach: Was he from a dj'ferent area of Switzerland?

Speaker attribution inferred from typography where the printed page prints only Q and A.

How to cite this item

The first line is the citation as it is printed in the original. Use it when you cite the work itself. Use the second when you cite this page.

As printed: Zybach, Bob 1993. John Jacob and Wilma Rohner. Family Farming on Coffin Butte Between World Wars, Benton County, Oregon: 1919-1941. Soap Creek Valley History Project, Monograph #05. Oregon State University Research Forests and College of Forestry, Corvallis, Oregon: 132 pp.
This page: Rohner 1993. 23. Widmer Photograph, p. 96. America's School Trust Library, The Zybach Collection. https://schooltrusts.org/collections/zybach/soap-creek/m05-rohner/23-widmer-photograph/ (accessed 2026).
Cite this passage: Rohner 1993, p. 96 — Monograph #05:96
https://schooltrusts.org/collections/zybach/soap-creek/m05-rohner/23-widmer-photograph/#p96 Swap 96 for whichever printed page you are quoting: every page number in the margin is its own address.
Permalink: https://schooltrusts.org/collections/zybach/soap-creek/m05-rohner/23-widmer-photograph/
Original PDF: http://www.nwmapsco.com/ZybachB/Oral_Histories/Soap_Creek_Valley/05_Rohner/Zybach_1993.pdf

More on citing this collection: How to cite the Zybach Collection.

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