N. Clarence Wiles Place

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: tore that barn down, after Camp Adair took it over. And see my uncle owned the place at the time Camp Adair took it over.

Bob Zybach: Who was your uncle?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Oswald Rohner.

N. Clarence Wiles Place

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: '43 it think it was, when we built our barn, or '44 maybe. And we built it all out of lumber taken out of that old barn and Stambaugh's barn, and some sheds that Stambaugh had because we couldn't buy new lumber.

Bob Zybach: Oh, in the '40's?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yeah, in the '40's. Here's Clarence Wiles' place. Probably the original driveway right here.

Bob Zybach: Right where it's at now.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Where it's at now.

Bob Zybach: Can you remember anything in particular about this house?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: It was a nice house.

Bob Zybach: Nice house.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Nice house. Fact is, that all the windows. . . you know where my nephew is, where the warehouse, the Rohner warehouse?

Bob Zybach: Well you pointed it out.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Well, we tore this house down, and nearly all the lumber in that house came out of this house. This was a huge house. And we tore down and the joists in this house were about 30 feet or longer. And we couldn't haul it on a farm truck so we had to pile it up here. And we finally managed to find a truck. Not too long, just a matter of days, we found a truck that could haul that. We come out here to get it it was gone. And so we found out later that the Army engineers, or not the Army engineers, the Army. . . the upper, you know what I mean, that gets to tell the little guy what to do, they said to go out there was a lot of mud down there around the buildings. They didn't have any sidewalks. They said go out and rustle some old lumber and build sidewalks around here to keep out of the mud. So they sent the soldiers out here and then they found this pile of lumber up here and so they took it

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: and sawed it up in short pieces and made planks out of it. So we complained at what happened. So by God we got a priority to buy some new lumber then to buy some new lumber then to replace those joists so we could go ahead and build the house.

Bob Zybach: Can you remember a windmill up here?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Oh yes, yes, I remember the windmill. And I don't remember exactly when the house was built but it was built right about World War I time. Maybe, right after I think. And the house sit up here on top of this knoll.

Bob Zybach: Was there an older house here before then?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yeah, evidently. I don't remember the older house. Evidently there was an older house. Well it's too messy down in here to go down in here. And then as we go down the knoll there then the barn, the dairy barn was down about where those trees are down just off to the left.

Bob Zybach: There's a bunch of St. Johns Wort out here to our left. Was that somewhere around where the front yard was maybe?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Well, now, let me think now. The house was right up in there, and I think these maple trees was on this side of the house.

Bob Zybach: So they were planted, maybe.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: It could be they were planted. Yeah, because we could see the house plainly from the Butte there, from that side. There was an old cherry tree in there, just the west side of the house. Had big, black beautiful cherries and they used to give us the cherries, what was left. And when we were kids we'd go up across the pasture with the buckets, to get cherries. To eat and can.

Bob Zybach: Is that tree still there?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: I don't know. It may be there yet. It's possible it could have died. Just shut it off for a minute. fl'ells story]

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: These fields were Clarence Wiles' here.

Bob Zybach: This one here?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: This little field in here, yeah.

Bob Zybach: We're just looking at the one on the north side of Soap Creek on the east side of Tampico Road, the little field that's just been plowed here recently.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: And then here's the Studacks.

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Here's the Studacks, yeah.

Bob Zybach: Do you remember an old bridge or a little foot path?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yeah, there was a bridge across there. There was a bridge across there.

Bob Zybach: Was this kind of marshy in those days?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, not where these trees are. They wouldn't grow if it was marshy. Except ash, ash will grow. But there are some other trees in there. Then it starts getting, you wouldn't call it marshy, but it starts getting a little wetter ground out here. And the closer to that, back there it was a little there too, but the closer to this ash swale the wetter the ground got. Now that ash swale all through there is considered marshy more or less.

Bob Zybach: Where this 4 is, and there is a gate there, it's the fourth stop on that [Historic Soap Creek Auto] tour. Can you remember any old road or anything going out through there?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Through there? No, no there was never a road through there.

Bob Zybach: Okay. And where the Studacks were, did they build their house, was there ever a house there before?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: No, they just bought the bare land from Wiles. And then they built the house and the barn, same way the Mackeys, it was bare land.

Bob Zybach: Okay, and where Wiles had that big old barn there, did they buy that barn too, or did Wiles keep that?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Wiles kept that on the other side of the creek. He just sold what was on this side of the creek.

Bob Zybach: And did you get like a contract from the Anny to tear the Wiles barn down and to tear the house down?

John Jacob "Jake" Rohner: Yes, the owners had a chance to buy their buildings back if they wanted to buy them back. For a small fee. And so my uncle bought that barn and the house back for us to tear down, because we knew we couldn't buy new lumber during the war, and we had to build over there because there wasn't a barn fit for milking 20 cows that we had, Of course there was the priority and I got deferred until we could build a barn. So, for the last time, they said, well the barn done or not done this is the last deferral