Soap Creek Valley · Monograph #5 · 7 of 46

C. Walter Wiles House

C. Walter Wiles House of John Jacob & Wilma Rohner — printed p. 21 — recorded September 30, 1990 at Automobile tour of the Coffin Butte area, Benton County, Oregon. 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 · Automobile tour of the Coffin Butte area, Benton County, Oregon
Interviewer: Bob Zybach
Printed pages: p. 21
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 II. Printed session note: "The following transcript was made from a recorded interview with Jake Rohner that took place during an automobile tour of the Coffin Butte area on September 30, 1990. Stopping points along the tour route are noted on the map at the front of this book with alphabetized letters. The same alphabetic system is used in the following text to coordinate discussions with speqfic [specific] locations." Fifteen lettered stops, A-O.

p. 21

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: And he was a gruff man when we were little kids. We were kind of afraid of him because he was gruff and his voice was rather gruff. But they were nice people. Mrs. Steilmacher especially was nice.

Bob Zybach: Did they have any kids?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No. Or yes, yes, they did. They had two, I think two daughters.

Bob Zybach: Oh. They don't live around here anymore or anything?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, they're gone, the daughters. They're gone. And the one daughter never had any kids. I don't know about the other one.

C. Walter Wiles House

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: This was the Walter Wiles house, the building area was right in here.

Bob Zybach: Okay. Was this orchard in here at this time?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: It's been here ever since I can remember. There were apple trees in there.

Bob Zybach: Now let's see, we're on the north side of Coffin Butte. Just on the corner of Highway 99. And then Walter Wiles, he would have been an old timer to you?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes, yes. I never met Walter Wiles. He would have been an old timer.

Bob Zybach: Now you said he had one daughter?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: As far as I know just one daughter.

Bob Zybach: Who purchased this place after he died?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: The daughter. I'm pretty sure the daughter did. And they rented to Wes Kester.

Bob Zybach: Oh, okay. This is where Kester lived.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes, this is where Kester lived and he rented since about 1929, I think was when he rented this place and they rented it until Camp Adair took over. And then afterwards Mrs. Walter Wiles I think didn't particularly want it, so Wes Kester had a chance to buy it back. But he decided he didn't want to go in debt that much. And so then I don't remember. I rather think maybe Mrs. Walter Wiles did buy it back.

Bob Zybach: Now, this place had Coffin Butte. What did they use Coffin Butte for?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Pasture.

Bob Zybach: Just for pasture?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Just for pasture, yes.

Bob Zybach: And then how much of the flat far,nland out here did they have?

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. C. Walter Wiles House, p. 21. America's School Trust Library, The Zybach Collection. https://schooltrusts.org/collections/zybach/soap-creek/m05-rohner/c-walter-wiles-house/ (accessed 2026).
Cite this passage: Rohner 1993, p. 21 — Monograph #05:21
https://schooltrusts.org/collections/zybach/soap-creek/m05-rohner/c-walter-wiles-house/#p21 Swap 21 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/c-walter-wiles-house/
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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