L. Writsman Place

Bob Zybach: through this area here?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, I don't.

Bob Zybach: There's a couple big pear trees there. Can you remember anything about them?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No.

Bob Zybach: Okay.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: I rather suspect the pear trees were wild because there were lots of wild pear trees around here. Lots of them.

Bob Zybach: Okay.

L. Writsman Place

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Put in up here. And some of them are still in use down at the far end, but these have all, a lot of them have been filled back in.

Bob Zybach: So the rifle ranges came all the way up to the road here?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Just almost to the road, yeah.

Bob Zybach: Was this road about the same place in those days as it is now?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yeah, same place. It's wider now. That's a new orchard and that house that I never knew was in there.

Bob Zybach: Whose place was this in through here?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Writsman.

Bob Zybach: Did they call it the Dobrinin place after Dobrinin got it?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: They didn't call it the Writsman 's place anymore.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No. Well, some old timers might have, but the newer people they called it Dobrinins. Now as I remember, just where that house.. . I think they've maybe, they've widened this road and possibly straightened it just a little bit. I think maybe it made a little more of a bend like that. I think that house had to be pretty close up in here someplace.

Bob Zybach: The Writsman 'S house?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Okay.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Cause we took the picture in front and back there it all slopes down too fast, too

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: steep. And I think it was pretty close right up in here and the barn was down that way. Closer toward that brush. As I remember there was quite a little distance between the barn and the house.

Bob Zybach: The house, but it/aced off toward Coffin Butte?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, the house faced here, and the picture, or that drawing, was taken at Coffm Butte.

Bob Zybach: So the drawing was made up here further? Could we go up there and maybe take a photograph of where you think the drawing was?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Now do you recall anything on the left hand side of the road, on the west in through here?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, I don't.

Bob Zybach: There is some old orchard in there.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Is there? It would almost be possible that the house was on this. Because I think that drawing shows the road maybe bending a little bit in there.

Bob Zybach: Did you have a name for that hill up in there?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No.

Bob Zybach: Did you ever hear it called a name since then? Smith Peak or Smith Hill?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No.

Bob Zybach: Okay. Now there's a little creek that comes back in here. Did that creek have a name?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Not that I know of.

Bob Zybach: Okay.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: I don't know but what the house could have been up in here. [Walking around]. Right in here somewhere there was a boundary between the Writsman place and, well, we called it the Sheppard place, but I don't know who was there when my parents lived here, that is, who owned that place. But in the later years when I was a young fellow I remember the Sheppards living there. And, well, now, prior to that there was somebody else lived there too.

Bob Zybach: Before the Sheppards?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Before the Sheppards. Wauble was her name.

Bob Zybach: Wauble?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Urn hmm, Wauble.

Bob Zybach: Do you know how that's spelled?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, I don't. Can't remember.

Bob Zybach: I've never heard that name before. Do you remember any stories about her?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No.

Bob Zybach: Bia just heard that the Sheppards bought from Mrs. Wauble?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes.

Bob Zybach: No husband.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, no, there was a Mr. and Mrs.

Bob Zybach: Okay, the Waublefainily.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: The Wauble family. And they had, I believe they had one son. I'm pretty sure they had one son.

Bob Zybach: Did you know anything about the Sheppard's logging?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, I don't remember.

Bob Zybach: Okay, on that hill there. That's all in firs now, and there is oak on top. Can you remember how that used to look?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: I don't remember seeing hardly any firs on that place. And Mr. Stambaugh rented that place. Must have, from the Sheppards. Because after Camp Adair came in we were, we harvested it for one or two years, after that. They let us come in and harvest it. We were kind of concerned, they were using the rifle range dawn there, and it was pointed up towards that area.

Bob Zybach: Now when Dobrinin . . . now we're standing on basically your birthplace here. The old Writsman homestead place. Now Dobrinins when they bought it they lived in this house and it burned down.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes, it burned down. I think they lived in it a few years and it burned down and then they built a newer house further down.

Bob Zybach: Maybe where the yellow house is now?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, this side a ways.

Bob Zybach: Okay. What kind of house did they build?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: I can't remember now, not even what it looked like. All I can remember is they built a newer house. I do faintly remember there was a. . . I faintly remember and I'm pretty sure there was an old kind of a log type house there at one time.

Bob Zybach: Can you remember that log house?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes.

Bob Zybach: So the Writsman house was here?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes.

Bob Zybach: And the log house was here when the Writsman 's house was here?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes.

Bob Zybach: Can you remember where that log house was located?

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

Bob Zybach: Towards maybe where the red shed is now?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes, approximately, it was back a ways from the road. It was more down where it got a little more level.

Bob Zybach: Was there a road anywhere through this area heading towards Coffin Butte?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: This was the only road here.

Bob Zybach: Okay, there was no road going off this one?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No.

Bob Zybach: So we had Sheppards, Dobrinins, Stambaughs, Clarence Wiles.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Urn hmm.

Bob Zybach: Okay. And do you know what happened to that log house?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, I don't. I don't remember if it burned down or they tore it down. I just can't remember.

Bob Zybach: Okay. And then the barn was located...

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Down toward the creek there.

Bob Zybach: From the yellow house?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yeah. Not too awful far from this house.

Bob Zybach: Was there an orchard through this area?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: I believe there were some big trees down in there. Old fruit trees.

Bob Zybach: Okay. How about this road here off to the north here. Anything?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: I can't remember. It just wasn't very far, it might have been pretty close to the Sheppard boundary.

Bob Zybach: Did you ever find that log house? Or you remember anything about it?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: I don't remember nothing at this place. I don't know how long my father and mother were here, whether they were here just three years, or whether they were here four

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: years. Possibly five, maybe. Well, they moved here before I was born, and I was born in February. And truthfully, I can't really remember anything before 1st grade.

Bob Zybach: Okay. Now the log house, was that there after this house burned doz?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes, it was there. Wait a minute. That I couldn't say. I do remember that log house being there, I do believe it was. Dobrinins built another house.

Bob Zybach: So they built their house a little closer to where the log house was?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes, a little closer to the log house.

Bob Zybach: Now you can't remember anything about this while you lived here. Do you remember anything about the Dobrinins while they were here?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Well, yes I used to work for them quite a lot. Every harvest, and in between, I'd walk across the pasture, to my place down there. I was tickled to death to have a job in those days.

Bob Zybach: Did it have any special meaning because you were born here?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, not really because I don't remember it! I don't remember the place.

Bob Zybach: Bucking hay on the old birth place didn't make any special difference to you?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, in those days it didn't mean anything. Now it means more. I wish I'd paid more attention and tried to remember things like that.

Bob Zybach: Is this a creek back here?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yeah, it's a little creek. I don't know if it runs all summer or not, I can't remember that. I really kind of think maybe a little trickle runs through there in the summer.

Bob Zybach: Would you just call that a branch of Soap Creek or something?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Well, yes, because I know no other name for it. It's possible it has another name.

Bob Zybach: Is there anything else through this area here?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Now, there's some big walnut. I almost suspect . . . you see there was a driveway into the barn quite a ways this side of the house. And it must have run right along in here because there's bank most of the way in. And I bet that log house sat right out in there.

Bob Zybach: In those remnants?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Now did those walnuts. . . were they here when, can you remember them from the Dobrinins or anything?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes, I remember trees being around that old log house, but I don't recollect what they were. Well, they almost had to be walnuts because I recollect them being fairly large trees. I just wouldn't be a bit surprised if it was right in here where that log house was. I know the log house was quite a little distance from the other house.

Bob Zybach: But you don't remember anything in particular about these walnuts or anything, other than that there were trees around the log house.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes.

Bob Zybach: ***

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Mike had quite a family. He was Russian. And I think he was kind of southern part of Russia, and he must have been a little bit Jewish because he wouldn't eat pork. And he was a little wiry fellow and his wife was a little larger, husky, and Mike thought the world of me. You're not recording, are you?

Bob Zybach: Oh yes, I'd like to. You want me to turn it off?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Oh, well, no that's all right.

Bob Zybach: This is the only stomy we've got on the Dobrinins.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yeah. And he used to think the world of me. He'd take me places like when he'd go to Tillamook and buy some calves, dairy calves, and raise them, and he'd take me with him. And one time we went up to Washington, I can't remember for sure. . . I should pay attention to who the hell is behind me [car approaches from rear] . . . I can't remember for sure why we went up there but he took me along. And he, always when he. . . well, like when we were over in Tillamook, anyway, he'd see a big husky young gal my age you know, he always thought I oughta get married, you see I was single until I was 42, and he says "Oh, you better get acquainted with her and marry her. She's a big husky gal, she could do a lot of farm work."

Bob Zybach: Was he serious?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Oh, yeah, he was serious. He was serious. But I worked for him a lot, every year. Now and then I'd work for during school. And usually during harvest I'd run the combine when he'd run header from the tractor, the lowering and raising of the header, and the daughter, she was a little younger than I, she'd done the sack sewing,