F. Rohner Farm

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes, because there's been so much, so many planted that it's like other crops that if the price is good people get into it and pretty soon there's too many of them. So I think quite a lot of these will end of being, you know for lumber.

Bob Zybach: What do you think about christmas trees as a crop?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Well, it's a nice crop to raise. I think it's been a good deal.

Bob Zybach: Did you ever raise any christmas trees?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No. It's just in the last 20. some years that people have been interested in christmas trees. Now, we cleared all this ground. This was our east boundary about where this little trail is across here. And where those big trees are across there was our south boundary and you can see the south boundary up on that ridge. That's what we called Beals Hill over there.

Bob Zybach: Okay, so that knob up there with the oak is Beals Hill?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yeah, when it all runs into this one, and it might have all been called that I don't really know. But we cleared, it was all in oak timber just like you see up there. Including that ridge that come out there, where the big fir trees are, that was all in oak timber. And then when this place was sold after Camp Adair, people cleared that oak timber off of there and planted fir trees.

Bob Zybach: Oh, so those are planted fir?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes, those are planted fir.

Bob Zybach: Do you know who planted them?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, I don't. I don't. Then when the disposal company, now the disposal company owns all of this, you see, and I think they're the ones I think that planted these christmas trees here.

Bob Zybach: The disposal company?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes.

F. Rohner Farm

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: east boundary. So when did that road come in? Did that maybe have something to do

Bob Zybach: with the christmas trees?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes, that's just access to the christmas trees.

Bob Zybach: Okay, and so when these trees were planted, was that right after Camp Adair?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, it was a few years until they were planted.

Bob Zybach: Okay. And that was the people that bought this land after Camp Adair. Do you recall their name?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, I don't. I don't. And the garbage, well we called it the garbage company, but it's the disposal company now. They bought part of our old place originally after Camp Adair, because they had the garbage, disposal area started not on our property, beyond our property. And they bought part of it and then later they bought all of it. So they own all of it now.

Bob Zybach: On the east side of your boundary there, that'd be Stambaughs?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, no. Stambaughs was way up there on the other side.

Bob Zybach: Okay, so, let's see.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: We're still, we're on our place, but there's the Schulmerick place.

Bob Zybach: Oh, Schulmerick.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Schulmerick. And back here is the Steilmacher place.

Bob Zybach: Okay, Schulmerick, that's who I was trying to think of

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Our east boundary was Schulmerick and Steilmacher.

Bob Zybach: Okay, and then your south boundary was Beals?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Beals.

Bob Zybach: All the way across?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: All the way from that corner to the other corner.

Bob Zybach: Okay.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: And this is harding grass here.

Bob Zybach: Oh, we're looking at harding grass? As we're just coming into the boundary? That's this taller, tufted grass here?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Urn humrn. But of course here on the shoulder it doesn't grow very tall. We'll see some nice harding grass further back there a ways.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: My father had gradually -- every year he hired wood cutters to cut cord wood. This was all oak. And then they used to haul it down to Wells in the fall months. And they'd load it on a freight cars and it was shipped to Portland for fuel. And so little by little. . . and then he had goats, and the goats of course would eat the sprouts and

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: keep them down, and finally the stump would die. And then it would take a few years, several years for the root core to rot out. But he'd get in a hurry so he had this stump puller after they had died, rotted, just enough so the stump puller could pull. We'd work it, every winter we'd work and clear off maybe about 3 or 4 acres of this ground with the stump puller and then farm it. And so all this was once in oak timber.

Bob Zybach: How big was the oak?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Oh, I'd say up to about 10 to 12 inches.

Bob Zybach: So it was younger oak.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: It was younger oak, it wasn't the old growth oak.

Bob Zybach: So it'd probably seeded in since settlement or something.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes, I would think so, yes.

Bob Zybach: Did you have any of the large old oak trees around through here?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes there were some. Well, there's one right behind that curve, is quite a large tree.

Bob Zybach: Now we're looking at a madrone here. Was there very many madrone in the area?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, there wasn't any here on this hill that I can remember, but there was quite a few on the back side of Coffm Butte. On the north side.

Bob Zybach: Okay. Now, these madrone. Did you call them by another name?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes, we always called them laurel. But they was really madrone. Now here, right out here was our building site.

Bob Zybach: On the north side of the road here.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Going back to the douglas-fir earth day plantation sign.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yeah, it was our building site.

Bob Zybach: Was this a hill then before it was cut away?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Oh, no. No, this has all been filled in here.

Bob Zybach: Oh, isee.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: This has all been filled in.

Bob Zybach: So it would have been on maybe a level with the road.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes. Well, that's the original level right over there, where that grass is growing. See, the road has been built up some. And this has been built up here too, because

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: they brought top soil out here, excavating for the landfill back there. And then they take of course more top soil off and fill over the landfill, you see. See that's been covered over, you see that slope right through there.

Bob Zybach: Did that hill in front of us that you can see from here have a name? Did you call it anything?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: We always called it the Writsman, or Wiles hill, because Wiles run partway up to about where the trees started, and they farmed right up to the trees, their part of it. And the Writsmans was of course across the road from the end there, kind of. So we just called it the Wiles or Writsman Hill. Supposed to be the Writsman Hill, but who actually owned it I don't know.

Bob Zybach: How about the little peak in back of that?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: That I don't know.

Bob Zybach: Can you remember any trees or anything on top of that peak?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: On back of that hill?

Bob Zybach: Yeah.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Oh, yes, that was always forest. And a lot of it's been logged off and new growth up there now.

Bob Zybach: Okay, how about that hill off there to the southwest. Did that have a name?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: I don't know. Not that I know, I'm sure it had a name, but see the Glenders lived on this end of it. And Sulphur Springs Road goes up that side there.

Bob Zybach: When did they start calling that Soap Creek Road?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: I've heard it Soap Creek Road for a good many years. And Tampico Road, too. I really don't know.

Bob Zybach: Okay, we're at the intersection here, the new road that they put in.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: That's where Tampico School used to be. And this is alt new, of course.

Bob Zybach: Okay, this road here is new too then?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Oh, yes. It's new too. This used to all be farm land here and pasture land up there, and we had a trail along, just that we used during the summer. And in the winter if it was dry enough. Right down in that corner, where that little building is right down in that corner, in those trees, that was our boundary with Beals there and Wiles there. And right up where this row of trees is this was our west boundary. It went on up

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: that way quite a ways.

Bob Zybach: Did you see. . . you could see Glenders' barn real clear then, at that time?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Oh yes, and the house, and everything. Of course the house isn't there anymore I don't think.

Bob Zybach: No, they just took it out a few months ago.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Oh, just a few months ago.

Bob Zybach: Yeah, 1 took a picture of Gene and his sister on it, and that's the first time they'd been there since 1940. Then they took it out. But could you see any other houses or buildings through here at that time?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, that's about it. Maybe we could see the Clarence Wiles house, I can't remember clearly, because it was on a knoll. We must have been able to see the Clarence Wiles, or part of it anyway.

Bob Zybach: Okay, that short hill right behind the Glenders, and then there's a hill that's further to the west that's higher. The one that's right behind the house would that be more like Glenders Hill, or would the larger hill up on the back be more of a landmark?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Well, I think this was probably called Glenders Hill, this first one here. And I don't know what the other one would have been called.

Bob Zybach: Okay, and Writsman 's Hill, right there, was that commonly called Writsman 'S Hill, or was that just your family that maybe called it that?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Oh, our family mainly that called it that. I don't remember anybody calling it Writsman Hill or any other name.

Bob Zybach: Okay, so these names that we're kind of attaching to things, it would just be the local family would use it for reference.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes.

Bob Zybach: When you went to Tampico School there -- did you go to Tampico School?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Oh, no, I went to Wellsdale.

Bob Zybach: Okay, that was before Tampico.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yeah, that was before Tampico. I can't remember, but it seemed to me like I was maybe in the second grade or so, maybe the third, when they built Tampico school. I can just faintly remember them building Tampico School. Because we had some good friends, a boy older than I and a boy just younger and they went to Tampico School.

Bob Zybach: How come you didn't? That was a lot closer, wasn't it?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Well, there was no road to it. No road. You'd have to walk across the fields to get to it.

Bob Zybach: Do you recall any creeks in through this area that had a name other than Soap Creek?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Just Berry Creek is all.

Bob Zybach: I saw a reference where they said, and I think they made a mistake, but they said Glenders Creek.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: It's possible there could have been Glenders Creek.

Bob Zybach: Not that you recall?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Not that I recall, no.

Bob Zybach: Okay, I have heard people other than your family refer to that hill up there as Writsman 'S Hill, but never Wiles Hill. Can you recall evely hearing any other family call that Writsmans Hill?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, not really.

Bob Zybach: How about Beals Hill? Could you recall any other family calling it by that name?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: I can't defmitely, but it seems like I have heard it called Beals Hill by other people but I can't say for sure.

Bob Zybach: Okay, and how about Glenders Hill?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes, I've heard that called Glenders Hill.

Bob Zybach: Okay, can you think of anything else in this area here?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No.

Bob Zybach: ***

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Were there more than one Writsman?

Bob Zybach: Yeah, Frances Writsman was the house you were born in, and Alfred Writsman lived down at the other end of the valley. Writsmans Creek is down there, and what they call Baker Mountain now. Used to be called Writsmans Peak.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Quite a little further south?

Bob Zybach: Towards Sulphur Springs, yeah. No, west towards Sulphur Springs.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Oh, west toward Sulphur Springs. Oh, I didn't know there was another Writsman.

Bob Zybach: Yeah, there's still Writsmans Creek back there. Now they say "Writzmans" [RITZ-munz]. So those are the types of things we're trying to correct here. [Correct pronunciation is RITES-

Bob Zybach: munz. BZ] ***

Bob Zybach: One more question before we leave. We've got quite a bit of trees and it looks like some volunteer [crab] apple and pine. Were any of these trees here back then?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, no. When my father came here. . . see, we're on the 41 acres that my father bought from Ed Wiles. It run up to the base of Beals Hill there. And like I say, the corner was down in there, see. It's a square corner, and it run up over the hill. Well you can see the line there, see the tall trees.

Bob Zybach: Yeah, it's right between the christmas trees and the oak trees on Beals Hill there.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yeah, that was our line. And then the 41 acres run right to the base of the hill where it started to go up. The north-south line, and went up over Coffm Butte, you know that line I showed you there at Coffin Butte. So this was 41 acres here. And there was no fence row here at all because he bought that from Wiles, so they cut it off there, you see there was no fence row.

Bob Zybach: So that fence row there was one that you constructed after you bought it?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes. We put in a line fence and while we were here, until 1942, there was nothing growing there, we kept it clean, excepting where that grove of ash trees is, that was always there.

Bob Zybach: Oh that grove was?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yeah, that grove was there. But none of these this way. But now since they've abandoned farming, why, and those, I would say nearly all of those are thornberries, wild thornberries or wild hawthorn I think they call it. And you know the birds eat the seeds and they sit on a fence post and then a tree starts you see. But there was between the 41 acres and the 112 that my father bought from Joe Smith, there was a line through there, and it was all thornberries like that, bigger, and my father cleared that out by hand.

Bob Zybach: Did anybody call it hawthorn back in those days?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, we just called it thorn trees. They've got thorns nearly an inch long. Miserable things.

Bob Zybach: How about on the madrone, did anybody say madrone back in those days?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Not that I can remember. Not that I can remember.

Bob Zybach: How about on the big oak trees, did you call them any kind of oak. Did you say "white oak," or "Oregon oak"?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, fact is we called it "grub oak."

Bob Zybach: Grub oak?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Grub. Most of the farmers did.

Bob Zybach: Would that even mean the big old growth oak trees?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: We just called them all just grub oak.

Bob Zybach: Oh, okay. On Writsman,s Hill up there, did that have trees on it?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes, but it's got more trees than it used to have.

Bob Zybach: Did it have any prairie ground down lower, or any pasture ground?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes, it had some pasture ground. The Wiles farmed it up to where it started to go up a little steeper, that was their boundary, and then there was open ground above that a ways. A lot of the. . . they used to pasture all those hills, sheep and cattle and one thing and another, and of course that discouraged new seeding. Well, it would seed, but they'd eat the little plants off. Since they don't pasture this ground any more why the trees have come in. Took root.

Bob Zybach: How about the trees that came into that pasture ground that was above Wiles. Wio used that pasture ground?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: I don't know who owned it, who used it.

Bob Zybach: Okay.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: We used to go, when we were kids, we used to go up there and pick strawberries, wild strawberries, quite a bit.

Bob Zybach: Oh, on that hill?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Can you remember any wildflowers up there?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, I really can't. But I'm sure there was plenty of wildflowers up there. We didn't ever go up there to. . . only reason we went up there was at strawberry time to pick strawberries. Where up here, we'd go up here for playing around, and we'd pick wildflowers.

Bob Zybach: On Coffin Butte.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: On Coffin Butte.