24. Harvesting Harding Grass

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Yes, I don't remember what area anymore, but I know he was from a different area.

24. Harvesting Harding Grass

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Have we got anything on harding grass?

Bob Zybach: No, we never recorded anything on harding grass. We just kept saying we were gonna hit all the harding grass at one time. ***

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Now we're going to talk about harding grass. Mr. Stambaugh raised harding grass for many years. And he, I believe he started in about 1918 to 1920 raising the grass, and he told me that it was brought from Africa by a man by the name of Harding. So it was called harding grass. And he got some seed from him and raised harding grass. And my father used to harvest the harding grass for him, and he'd have to harvest it at night. It bad a head shaped like a wheat head, but with very fine husks and very small seeds. Smaller than a flax seed and oily like a flax seed. And when the grass was ripe those husks would open up a little bit and if you would turn the head upside down when it was perfectly dry the seed would fall out of the husks. So at night when the dew comes on the husks close up tight and then you could bind it with the binder and the seed wouldn't fall out. And then you shocked it upright, as near perfect as you could so it wouldn't fall over. So my father started, he had a binder, and he started harvesting it for Mr. Stambaugh. And sometimes we'd wait till maybe 10:00 before we could start, other times it would be after midnight, and just as soon as the sun came up it would be not very long we would have to quit. So in those days they used horses, and tied a lantern onto the tongue and a couple of lanterns on the binders so they could see, and after in 1928 when my father bought a tractor then we used the tractor on the binder, and we had lights on the tractor. We harvested the grass for Mr. Stambaugh all the time we lived at Camp Adair, and then when Camp Adair was built he bought a farm in Brownsville and planted the grass there and then we harvested it for a number of years after that for Mr. Stambaugh. And after my father died my sister Wilma helped. She rode the binder and I drove the tractor.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Thought we used to have a sled thrasher.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Oh, yes, the thrashing then. Then they would hand thrash it after it sat in the shock for a few days and got good and dry. And they had a sled about 8 foot wide and about 12 foot long with tight bottom and about 12 inch side boards. And you'd have two men take the bundles, pick up the bundles upright from the shock, and put them into the sled. And then they would take the bundles and put them across their knees with the head down and pat the bundles so that the heads would shake back and forth and the seed would drop out of its head. Then they would take the bundles and set them back up in the shock, and so they would do the whole field that way.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] We had a tarp that we had to wrap around.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Oh, yes, there was a tarp between the sled and the bundle to catch the seed that dropped while we was carrying it to the sled. And after it was all harvested that way then we would hire a thrashing machine to come in and run it through the thrashing machine and it would get a little more seed out of the heads.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Not much, really.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Not much, but I remember back in those days you got about a dollar a pound for the seed and a dollar was worth a lot then. And when the dew went off in the morning and we couldn't bind any more Mrs. Stambaugh, she was a wonderful cook, and she would have a great big meal for all the help.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] During the night they'd bring us out something.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Oh yes, during the night they'd bring us out some snacks.

Bob Zybach: %Wuu kind of meals would she have?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Oh, she'd fry eggs and you know potatoes, and usually a chocolate cake and stuff.

Bob Zybach: For breakfast?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Oh, yeah for breakfast.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Well that was supper for us when we'd work at night!

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] But she always did. I used to see her, but she used to board a lot of people I think in California, cooked in a boarding house didn't she or something? And she'd take three eggs in her hand and she would crack them somehow, and I

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: used to stand there just gawking amazed at her. I have trouble cracking one egg at a time. And she could take three in her hand, and have them somehow, both hands then and she'd have three eggs in one hand and crack them in the skillet, and I'd just stand there with my mouth open and gawk. That amazed me. Them old chocolate cakes, she just whipped them up in a bowl. I've seen her do that, just throw everything in and whip them up. Just put them in an old tin pan you know, and they'd just raise up there like that. They was so good! But she really cooked good.

Bob Zybach: How old were the Stambaughs in the 1920's?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] They was up there, wasn't they?

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

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] I just don't know. They was always old to me, of course I was a little kid.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] They were older than our parents.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] So I thought they was really ancient. You know when you're young you think somebody, about 35 I'd think somebody had their foot in the grave already when I was a kid. That's changed a lot since. Yeah, they was really wonderful people.

Bob Zybach: Did they have any children?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] One boy.

Bob Zybach: Did he work with you on it?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] No, he ran a service station as long as I knew. I don't know what he did before that.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] In Suver.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] He wasn't interested in the farm, I don't think at all.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] No.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] They was pretty religious, Joe and her.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Oh, they were fme people.

Bob Zybach: Joe Stambaugh, was "Joe" Stambaugh 's name?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Yeah.

Bob Zybach: What religion were they?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] What was what?

Bob Zybach: W!zat religion were they?

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

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] They used to go to church in Wells.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Just a little community church, you know.

Bob Zybach: You said something about the way he'd wear his clothes during the day, before. When you were working.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Oh, yeah, you'd put on layer after layer to start with. I mean it was cold during the night. Then in the morning he'd start peeling it off and leave it hanging in the bushes and finally he'd go behind the bush and he'd take his overalls and. . he

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: always wore bib overalls, and about half the time he had one suspender open, too, do you remember that?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] No, not really.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Then he'd get where nobody could see him and get his overalls off so he could get his long johns off and then he'd throw them on a bush somewhere and put his overalls on. And one night when we was going up there with the tractor and he was gonna be nice and come and open the gate for us, and I'd drive.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] You drove across the pasture.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Yeah, opened the gate for us, and he had nothing but his union suits on, and he leaned over the tractor tire to talk to Jake and that old back end just gapped open that far, he was just snapping a picture or something, I don't know. I never will forget that. And he was so religious. Oh we laughed and laughed.

Bob Zybach: Did he get pretty embarrassed over that?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] He didn't realize.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] He didn't realize he did it I don't think.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] No, he didn't realize the flap was gapping open.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] I just couldn't wait to tell Jake after he left.

Bob Zybach: What kind of house did they have?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Just out of boards, it wasn't.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] It was rough lumber.

Bob Zybach: Not a vely high quality house?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] It was a nice house, it was nice inside, but it wasn't fancy. And it was

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

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: teacher, I believe, I mean you had to be stern back in them days because those dang kids were ornery. I remember those days. I can remember when we took a horse in the school house and I was a lucky one, it made biscuits all around the desk before the teacher got there and the boys had to pick it up with tablet paper. But I didn't have to. So that's what, you know back in them days the teachers had to be kind of stern.

Bob Zybach: They had to handle things like that, horses in the classroom.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Yeah. I had a key to the school house because Dad was on the school board. And the school teacher did her own janitor work. And if you was one of her pets or something, kind of, well you could help her. And then she was always bringing you a piece of candy or something. So I used to build a fire a lot in the morning. We had a big old round wood stove. Built the fire, and then the boys got there with the horse so we decided it would be fun to ride him up and down the desk rows but we didn't expect him to do that. She came while we was just getting him out of there, but it was too late, the evidence showed.

Bob Zybach: That was the school in Wells?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Yeah.

Bob Zybach: On the Stambaughs, were you the only family that gathered the harding grass for him?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Well, he hired the McCoy kids.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Well, to help. Because we were the only family that ever bound with the machines on it.

Bob Zybach: You took a lot of time with setting tarps and things. Was that normal with grass crops, or seed crops?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Just that kind.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Just that kind because if you packed it to the sled if you at least jiggled it a little bit I mean the seed just started pouring out.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Like water.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] So you had to get it right on that tarp right away, then that way you could save all that seed. Then when we moved from shock to shock one person on each corner of that tarp and it was fastened on the sled up in front. On the back of the sled. One of us on each corner of that tarp and then go to another shock and put it

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: around it gently. And every so often we'd tip it up over the sled and put the seeds in the sled.

Bob Zybach: What was the reason that it cost so much, harding grass was so valuable?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] You lost quite a little harvesting, and the seed was so tiny, it didn't weigh much. And I have no idea what it produced per acre, but would imagine if you ended up with 100 pounds of seed per acre you'd have a good crop.

Bob Zybach: But that would be $100 an acre, which would be a lot of money in the '20's or '30's.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] In those days $100 an acre was a lot of money.

Bob Zybach: Why didn't other farmers other than Stambaugh grow harding grass.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Well they didn't want to bother about.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] According to that article ["Harding Grass Hand Harvested," Oregon Country Life: December 8, 1923.], there was quite a few, Dad had some and Stump had some, and.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] By God, there were.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Yeah, there was quite a few. Lafe Barkely had some, there was some more in there that I didn't recognize the names. But they gave it up because they had to harvest at night, and that's a nasty job, it was then. And you know everybody had cows, and we had to milk when we got home in the morning yet. We had to milk before we went to work at night. Of course, there was plenty of time because we very rarely started. . . 10:00 was early usually to start.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] And it was kind of miserable. You know those canvases, the drapers we called them on the binder, with the slats on it, canvas, as soon as they got damp they would start to shrink. And if you didn't loosen the canvases every little bit why it would tear, break the straps. So we had to loosen them.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Fix the drapers all the time the next day. Seems like, working on them.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Just continuously, and then . . . [Stambaughs, John Blasch, and Rohners raised flax for the Oregon State Penitentiary in 1928-30. John Blasch had a flax puller machine, Rohners had a tractor. Owen Cook rode the puller. This was all contracted to the State Penitentiary where they processed flax for linen. Also, the inmates made license plates. About then, unions began complaining about the use of convict labor. I think that it was a good idea for the convicts to work -- they should

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: be kept busy. They stopped running the dairy and the hog farm they operated, too. JR]

Bob Zybach: Did you use your own horses or Stainbaugh 's horses?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] No, we used our own horses.

Bob Zybach: Now you said one of your horses was blind.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Well, not then I don't think.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Well, it was blind for years. Well maybe not during. . . yeah, because I didn't help when you did the horses, so you'd know better.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] No, it was blind later.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Dad used the horses after it was blind for years, didn't he? I mean for raking hay, and mowing and stuff.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Oh yeah, for other work at home. But see 1928 we bought the tractor and then, we started using the tractor. Which was a lot more convenient. Although it took two men to bind, whereas before it just took one man to run the binder and the horses. Took one extra man. And one night we was working on the field, and either the draper needed loosening, I don't remember which, or some harding grass wrapped around the roller, and I had to remove it, one of the two things. So I got, this was on the outside small wheel of the binder. And I got down on my knees, was doing my job there. And pretty soon I started getting stung, and there was a yellow jacket nest in the ground, right where I had my foot. And they crawled up my pant leg. Boy, I sure got stung a lot of times that night.

Bob Zybach: So that was one of the dangers of the job then. How come, even though people had to work at night, and even though you had to milk your cows in the morning, that was a lot of money in those days. So it seems like people would have wanted to grow harding grass. Is anyone growing harding grass now?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] I don't know of a soul.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] The only one I ever heard of tried to raise it was Dave McPherson.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] And he tried windrowing it and combining it. Lost most of his seed.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] There's none around anywhere. I don't know where you'd even find it in the United States. There must be some somewhere.

Bob Zybach: So Stambaugh kind of introduced it. He made a real good living off it.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Yes he did.

Bob Zybach: And then nobody else could do it?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Yeah, that's right. And he got it down pat to where he could save most of the seed. I remember Mr. Adams saying, he worked some for Stambaugh, too, you know. And he says, "You know that man's crazy for raising that harding grass. All that work and everything." And I don't remember what I said, but I thought to myself, well he's pretty smart, because he's not working so hard himself. He's hired nearly all of his help. He was getting up there in years then, a long time ago. So he made a good living without working too hard. So he wasn't so darn dumb when you could do that.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] He slept in his Model A out in the field, didn't he, while we was binding. He'd sleep and if you wanted anything, he'd wake up. I mean if you stopped very long or something he'd know you was having trouble. He'd bring us coffee or whatever every so often.

Bob Zybach: So he just kind of had the land and oversaw the operation, but actually farmed out most of the work?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] I don't think he touched anything hardly.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Hardly anything. Just managed it.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] I remember when we got that old Dodge pickup, I hauled some harding grass somewhere. Did it go to Jenks? Jenks in Albany or somewhere. And boy he give me a quarter an hour, two-bits an hour, that was as much money as, you know men was making working hard. And I got to set in that pickup and drive over to Jenks. Them sacks was light to load, so it wasn't hard. But he didn't do nothing, I did it all. And he rode with me, but I got paid well for it. Then at Christmas he'd always come around and give us a bonus.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Yeah, he did.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] If he got a good, especially if he got good money, or an extra big crop. Boy that bonus was big. I mean, if you got 50 dollars extra then, that was one pile of money.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] That's the same as 500 now!

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Really, it was.

Bob Zybach: So that 'd be for the whole family, he'd give your family 50 dollars?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] He'd give each of us!

Bob Zybach: Each of you 50 dollars?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Yeah, I had 50 dollars alone one year, I know.

Bob Zybach: So he was pretty darn generous.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] He was. If he made money he give it to you. I mean he kept some sure for himself. But he shared it with his help, he did. He was a good old boy, and she was too.

Bob Zybach: On my list here, ahead of time, you've reached today and I didn't have to prompt you. But I want you to tell the story about putting a mouse in his pocket. This guy's so nice, why did you do that?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] That was a few years after Camp Adair. We was over at Brownsville, and old Eddy Richards an old logger was helping us. He lives right over here. And he was, he's kind of a crazy old guy. And old Joe always had twine and stuff in his pocket for his cramps on his legs and stuff. So Eddie Richards one day, somebody killed a mouse, and picked it up and pulled his back pocket open and flipped it in there. Well after a couple of days; Joe wore his same overalls for a few days. Old Ed, he says, "We're gonna have to tell him, it's gonna start smelling pretty soon." We let it go for a little while longer and pretty quick, I don't know why, he wanted some string out of his back pocket to tie harding grass sack or something shut with. He reached in there and grabbed that old string and he grabbed the mouse instead and he flipped it out and let out a yell and nobody told; he kept wondering how that dang mouse got in there, but he never did know. That was funny, I always think of old Eddie Richards, he was ornery. [Being an old logger he was quite a prankster. WR]

Bob Zybach: Was Mr. Stambaugh the type of guy that you played practical jokes on or was he the type of person that didn't like them too well?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Well, it didn't bother him I don't think. He still don't know or never did know I don't think how that dead mouse got in there. But we just stood around there and laughed our fool heads off. Of course we knew, I seen old Eddie grab the back of his pocket, just pull it out and drop that mouse daintily in. And it was still in, I thought maybe it would gone out, or he'd found it you know while we were Out

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: harvesting or something, cause it.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] He was one of the first, I believe that planted grass in rows.

Bob Zybach: Oh people didn't.. . you were telling me that before, that where you planted in rows you made good money, and where you broadcast you didn't. But he was one of the first people to plant any type of grass in rows? Was that unusual?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] It was unusual then.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Real unusual. That's the first grass I ever seen in rows.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] But they do plant orchard grass quite a lot in rows now. They didn't used to.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] They plant quite a few different things in rows now. There's two or three different grasses.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Seems to yield better, you know, it has some bare space.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Fescue does too, the tall fescue does better in rows.

Bob Zybach: So he was kind of an innovator not only bringing in a new crop, but planting in rows?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Yeah, that was the first I ever seen.

Bob Zybach: So he started planting in rows maybe sometime a little after World War I? With grass?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] When he first started. He started in rows. And it wasn't until about the '40's that or later than the '40's before we ever saw any other grass field in rows.

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Well I never seen any in rows until, really until Bethel Vernon down here. We planted orchard grass.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: [JAKE] Was that in the '40's? Late '40's?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Yeah, it was after we moved. That was the first. Then Bud and I harvested that orchard grass in rows. That was the first I'd seen in rows. Besides Stambaugh's.

Bob Zybach: How come your family didn't plant harding grass in rows, f he was doing so well?

Wilma "Willie" Rohner: [WILMA] Because we was dairy, used all our land pretty much for dairy. And then up on the hill I don't think it grew good, it dried out. We raised hairy vetch up there. [In 1930-33 we grew navy beans, 14-15 acres. Hand-pulled at 3 cents/lb. Then we bought an old bean thrasher -- a 24-inch wide bean thrasher, head high. In the seed catalog was "White Mexican" or "Prolific Three Bean" --5 lbs. of seed makes 315 lbs of beans. I still have some of the seed. JR]