APPENDIX. Autobiographical Sketch

APPENDIX

Autobiographical Sketch

The following autobiographical sketch was written by James Hanish after reviewing the text of his oral history interviews.

Grandfather Hanish

James Hanish: Grandpa Hanish came from Austria with his parents when he was a small child. Later in life he met a girl who also came from Austria. They married and had two sons: Fred and Harry, and four daughters: Lora, Nora, Cora, Erma. Grandpa Hanish served in the civil war, and died in the Old Soldier House, Terra Haute, Indiana.

Mother's Family History

James Hanish: My mother's mother, Pearl Meador, was of New England stock. From what I heard, the early ancestors came over on the Mayflower and the ship made several trips from England. The Meador family settled in Battle Creek, Michigan. During that time Kellogg was starting to experiment with Corn Flakes. My grandmother, Pearl Meador, met Thomas O'Neil, her future husband and married him in Chicago. They had six children: Louie, Lint, Clara, Betty, Grace, Anna Marie. My grandfather O'Neil came from Toronto, Canada, year unknown.

Early Life of Father and Mother

James Hanish: My father was 16 years old when his father told him, "I have too many mouths to feed, you will have to go on your own." Dad left Terra Haute and rode box cars to the western states, where he started his future work as a cloth cutter. He cut overalls in Tucson, Arizona, the moved to California. He returned east and then went to England, then to South America where he had a chance to work in Rio De Janeiro, but he didn't speak Spanish.

James Hanish: He returned to Chicago and started to work as a tailor, then became a clothing cutter. In those times men carried revolvers, as protection, and Dad kept his in his high pocket as he worked. The foreman tapped him on his shoulder and told him, "Check the gun, it's not allowed on the job." Dad's clothing cutting shears have been exhibited at the Homer Museum (Oregon State University.)

James Hanish: Dad roamed around Chicago a lot, and finally moved into a flat near where the O'Neil family lived. He and Lint O'Neil went around a lot together. Then he met Connie O'Neil, who was Lint's sister. After a courtship, they married. Mother was 15 and Dad was 30 years old. Her parents were not too happy about it.

James Hanish: Ma was 16 when I was born in the back of Dad's tailor shop. Ma told me about a lady friend her age who also had a baby. Ma and Grace Cushing used to race with their baby buggies down the sidewalk. It was a wonder both of us are alive today.

My Life as a Boy

James Hanish: I remember as a boy, about three or four years old, riding the El train going to the Circus on the lake front. Downtown was very crowded and windy, very hot in the summer, cold in the winter. Cobblestone streets, chain driven trucks and large horses pulling freight wagons, going on the steam boats. Sunday rides on Lake Michigan. My mother was living in Chicago when the tragic Eastland Excursion boat capsized; a great loss of life.

James Hanish: My Dad's brother Harry came to visit us. His family consists of his wife, Elizabeth, and son, Buddy. We never heard of them after the move to California.

Life in Elmhurst

James Hanish: I was two or three years old when we moved from Chicago to Elmhurst, Illinois. The town was 16 miles west of Chicago on the Chicago & Great Northwestern Railroad. I went to Kindergarten at the Eugene Field Elementary School.

James Hanish: I started to become interested in nature, as in rock formations, science, such things as star gazing, when I was 12 years old. My friends and I had similar interests in fishing, hiking, swimming, ice skating on frozen ponds. Never had any girl friends, too shy, darn it.

James Hanish: My friend Clyde Swarnee and I used to ride freight trains. Our folks would drop dead if they knew of it.

Move to San Diego

James Hanish: We left Elmhurst, Illinois, and moved to San Diego, California, where my Mother's family lived. My grandfather was foreman of the San Diego Tribune.

James Hanish: My folks rented an apartment in San Diego. Then they bought a lot in Chula Vista, a city in San Diego Bay, about 12 miles south of San Diego. I helped Dad build a stucco home, then a frame house later. In a few years he sold them and bought ten acres in Sunnyside, a small town 12 miles east of Chula Vista.

James Hanish: My work outside of home was ranch work, cement jobs, building foundations, even for a cemetery as gardener's helper. My hobbies were the same, looking for old mines, fishing, girl watching at the beaches.

Move to Oregon

James Hanish: The Depression really hit and we traded the ranch (10 acres) for 160 acres in Benton County, about twelve miles from Corvallis.

James Hanish: I returned to San Diego, California on my own and decided to work in Los Angeles, first at a cannery then the National Tank Manufacturing Co. on Santa Fe Avenue.

James Hanish: I returned to Oregon to the forty acres, due to severe depression in Steel work. My Dad was in Lakeview, Oregon working. I cut pulpwood. My Mother and I cared for the wood and garden raising.

James Hanish: Timber was all cut out of the 160 acres and we couldn't survive on the 40. Joe Smith foreclosed on the 40 and the 160 was turned back to the State. So my Dad and I worked on Lilly Lane in Corvallis for a lot to build a house. The house was built from lumber salvaged from the Berry Creek barn. I took harvest work or whatever I could find.

Return to California and Into the Service

James Hanish: My uncle, Will Meador in El Cajon, California said his friend and partner was in the Naval Reserve, and was called in to assist the British to operate U.S. destroyers. His ship was the Reuben James. I helped my uncle to run his vegetable and fruit ranch: irrigate, train berry vines, drive a tractor. I made a soil conservation dam and I panned for gold in the creek but no luck.

James Hanish: I registered with the Selective Service Board in El Cajon. My uncle decided to sell the ranch. I went to San Diego to find work with an aircraft plant and was employed by Solar Aircraft, running power machines for parts for aircraft.

James Hanish: After Pearl Harbor I enlisted in the Air Force. Basic training, schooling, then overseas: Scotland, England, France, Belgium, Germany.

Return to Corvallis

James Hanish: Then I came home to Corvallis, found work and met Grace R. Hartman. We married.

James Hanish: I was employed at the Corvallis Lumber Company in Corvallis. Ben Greenwood was my foreman. Ted Huntly, supervisor. After a severe Union strike the mill closed down. Grace Hanish worked at J.C. Penney's Co. in Corvallis.

James Hanish: We decided to try Los Angeles for work. Grace Found work in the Broadway Department Store. We rented an apartment in Inglewood. Grace then worked in a dry cleaning plant, and I found work at Douglas Aircraft Plant, El Segundo.

James Hanish: After various jobs and unemployment, Grace's son Ron wrote about a retirement home being built in Corvallis for which interviews were being done. Employment for 19 years. Then retirement, and shortly we moved to Cedar Crest. We were made managers.

James Hanish: That's my life and ours.

James Hanish

Corvallis, OR

February, 1990