6.. Tampico Neighborhood

Charlie Olson: Training Corps, it was a military center, just the same as this one that went in later out by Tampico.

Bob Zybach: Camp Adair.

Charlie Olson: That was Welisdale originally. That was Welisdale, but you never hear Welisdale anymore, and if a fellow would speak of Welisdale five or six years later nobody would know what you was talking about.

Bob Zybach: Did you ever hear that called Wells or Wells Station? It was always called Welisdale?

Charlie Olson: No, no, they forgot that. Today there's only a few things not a lane. [Unintelligible] Lane, a road that is in there now, and Wiles Lane. And that's the only thing that really received the same name continuously. But Welisdale, people wouldn't know. Nobody would know if you call that Welisdale, they wouldn't know what you were talking about.

Bob Zybach: Where Tampico was, and then there's Coffin Butte, you said one of the peaks around there was called Writsman's Hill or Peak?

Charlie Olson: Writsman's Butte. Well, there's Writsman's pasture, and uh

Bob Zybach: Can you find those on these aerial photos I have here? Can you show me where Writsman's Butte or Writsman's Pasture was on the aerial photos?

Charlie Olson: Yeah, just to the left of Coffin Butte, and then up towards Soap Creek.

6. Tampico Neighborhood

Bob Zybach: Okay, here's. . . we're looking at the aerial photo. Here's Coffin Butte from 1936. And here's Tampico Road, and here's Smith Peak, and here's the road down Soap Creek. Sulphur Springs would be down here. So this would be the big prairie up around Sulphur Springs, and this would be Baker Mtn., and this would be a big prairie and meadow complex across from the schoolhouse, back where the Moore's used to live, up in here. And then this is a creek with a bunch of old growth on it, that we don't have a name on. We started calling Garrison Creek, that used to be an old homestead. And then this was a peak that you could see from Hwy 99 and from Berry Creek that they called Forest Peak. And then this is a ridge coming down towards Coffin Butte, and there's another peak or high point right in here. Now this was all open prairie in the early 1900's, but it's timber now. And this is Coffin Butte, here's the mouth of Soap Creek coming out of the valley here. And here's

Bob Zybach: where the road goes by. Can you figure from that where Writsman's Butte was?

Charlie Olson: Just to the left as you go this way, just to the left and a little bit west, no south.

Bob Zybach: Over this way. Okay, here's coming down the road, here's Glenders right here.

Charlie Olson: That's Glenders. Well, you'd have to start from that way to get to Coffin Butte, wouldn't you.

Bob Zybach: Yeah, here's Coffin Butte. And here's Wiles Lane right here in fact. Okay here's Wiles Daiiy Farm right here.

Charlie Olson: On your forefinger.

Bob Zybach: Yes.

Charlie Olson: Well, if you start to go that ways a little way you . . . right in there. Right in there you are in pretty close to that other mountain. I can't tell you the distance now, because on the map it shows up different.

Bob Zybach: Here's Glenders pasture through here. There's a couple older homes right around the marsh area in there, and then this here is where it goes up the hill over to Berry Creek. And so this is where that hill starts out there. And that face of that hill was all open prairie when you were a kid. Now, Writsman's homestead was over here and then it crossed the road over here. Here's where Francis Writsman was and Afred Writsman was back in here. Can you figure out from this where Writsman's Butte was and Writsman's Pasture.

Charlie Olson: Writsman's Pasture and Writsman's Butte would be pretty close together.

Bob Zybach: Okay, so that would be what we call Smith's Hill now?

Charlie Olson: I don't know what they call it now.

Bob Zybach: Okay. And then the Butte was, was that pretiy close to Soap Creek itself? Because there's a Butte right here just in back of his old homestead.

Charlie Olson: Writsman's pasture . . . there wasn't any of those roads in Writsman's pasture in the early days. There wasn't any of those roads.

Bob Zybach: Well, this road here from Airlie to Tampico was in there at that time.

Charlie Olson: Yeah, that road was there, but not through Writsmans. Writsman's Pasture, we went through that when we went to the hopyard. And we opened gates, we opened one gate after another. And went through. Let downs. And when we came back one time from the hop yards they were making a road; I don't know what road it was, I was just a kid. And they were building a road and my brother had his team on that

Charlie Olson: and was making that road.

Bob Zybach: Would that maybe have been Wiles Lane that went from Hwy 99 to

Charlie Olson: Wiles Lane was farther east.

Bob Zybach: Okay. Now, did you call that Smith Hill, or Smith Peak, or Folk Hill when you were a kid? Do you recall?

Charlie Olson: Never heard of it.

Bob Zybach: Okay. I found out that on the Berry Creek side they called this hill different than what they called it on the Soap Creek side. So if you were going towards Airlie on Tampico road, where would Writsman's Butte be, if you were heading north towards Airlie?

Charlie Olson: It would be on the right.

Bob Zybach: It would be over here then. [Points to Smith Peak.]

Charlie Olson: It would be on the right. It would have to be.

Bob Zybach: That'd be. . . it's got four names to that hill now. Between your good memory and good recall on this we're getting a lot of good information. This name here on this Peak in the 1852 survey is called Smith Peak. In the 1930's it was called Folk Hill from these people, you are telling me it was Writsman's Butte and now it's called Smith Hill again.

Charlie Olson: Well, Writsman's Butte, again, I'll have to tell you, it is almost touching Coffin Butte.

Bob Zybach: So it would be right in here?

Charlie Olson: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Okay. So Writsman's Butte and Coffin Butte were side by side.

Charlie Olson: They hardly . . . Writsman's would be a little farther southwest.

Bob Zybach: Okay, so here'd be, south and west. Okay, then this shows that as you were going towards Airlie, Writsman's Butte would be on the right or east side of Tampico Road.

Charlie Olson: There was a whole lot of Writsmans area in there at that time. The Writsmans had a big house, and then they had another small house, and it was a separate farm. My uncle lived in that house, the small house, for quite a while, and I don't know how far from one road or from another, because there wasn't any. There wasn't any roads.

Bob Zybach: It looks like there's a small farm here to the west of Tainpico Road, and I know Writsmans

Bob Zybach: had all up here to the east. And that's what we're wondering, if this had been maybe a smaller farm that he let out.

Charlie Olson: There was a smaller farm and the house was right there and he lived in that, I don't know if it was one or two years he stayed there.

Bob Zybach: Were Writsmans still alive at that time? Were there still part of the family still living?

Charlie Olson: I never heard of them or saw them or talked to them. I don't know. All I know is what they call the place. And that we went through it without a road. We didn't cross a road and we didn't follow a road, we went through it with let downs, the gates, wire gates, and came out at Suver. And we took the ferry at Suver and went down to almost the river. Lot of hopyards. Hills was right at the river virtually. And then there was McLaughlins, and Murphys, and I don't know how many more hop yards that would intersect one another.

Bob Zybach: When you went through Wrtisman's Pasture, do you remember a family named Shepherd?

Charlie Olson: Never heard of 'em.

Bob Zybach: So after Glenders then you might. . . how about the Wiles, did they have a daity farm there at that time?

Charlie Olson: Glenders?

Bob Zybach: The Wiles Family. Okay, so the Glenders were there, and after about that point you really didn't know any of those people around Coffin Butte or Welisdale.

Charlie Olson: Glenders. There was a road that took off pretty close to where 99 comes by now. And the road took off at almost straight across from this military establishment there, and went towards Soap Creek. And that road is not there, it's probably there so you can go over it, but it's not open now. You go right by that and go down about a half a mile, and then you turn in to go up to Soap Creek now. And you hit that road, about a half a mile after you turn in, you hit that road and go over and go by Glenders. If you go right on, you'll get over to Suver.

Bob Zybach: On that road they blocked off, was that at Blake's Place where that road went through? At Blakes?

Charlie Olson: Blakes?

Bob Zybach: Yeah.

Charlie Olson: We turned right at Blakes, yes, we turned in. Ed Blake, he was the deputy sheriff,

Charlie Olson: we turned right in at Ed Blakes'. I just can't help you. If we were on that road where we sat and looked across Soap Creek and could see Coffin Butte, I could show you Writsmans. It's right on the left and it shows up.

Bob Zybach: Okay. But now, if we were at Tampico, and we were looking at Coffin Butte, and we look over to the left, to the north, and that's where we we'd see Writsman's Hill at that point.

Charlie Olson: No, it would be to the left. Writsman's would be to the left of Coffin Butte, slightly to the left.

Bob Zybach: Okay, so we'd be looking at Coffin Butte and it would just be just off to the left.

Charlie Olson: Yeah, it would be to your left, and closer to you.

Bob Zybach: Okay, we were just coming up from Blake's place there, where you turned off to the left, and you told me that Ed Blake was the Sheriff Was he sheriff of Benton County? Did you know him at all or ever have a chance to.

Charlie Olson: Gosh yes, his wife taught school.

Bob Zybach: So Ed Blake's wife was your teacher.

Charlie Olson: One of our teachers.

Bob Zybach: At Soap Creek.

Charlie Olson: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Can you remember anything about her?

Charlie Olson: She was a pretty good teacher. There's nothing outstanding in any way, there was no problems in any way. She was pretty firm. They had no family. Ed Blake somehow well, I was in the National Rifle Association, one of the branches of the National Rifle Association, we had a gun club. And he came in quite often and watched us when we were shooting at targets, just for fun you know. And he was a pretty good friend to me. I liked him, he liked me, and there was a little setup that some boys teamed up, one of 'em was a Brown, and I don't remember the name of one of them that was a pretty heavy set youngster. He was about 19, and he had a funny name, he was a foreigner. And his folks couldn't talk the English language very good. Anyway framed up on Jack Hiller and me, we would come out from town you know to Welisdale to dances. And they had us framed up that they was going to start a ruckus and then clean up on me. And I didn't know anything about it until I was

Charlie Olson: dancing with a kid from Welisdale, and this . . . Sorewide is the name that I was trying to think of

Bob Zybach: Sorewide? Do you know how to spell that?

Charlie Olson: No I don't know how to spell that. Anyway, he hit me from the right side, hard enough to almost knock us apart. And I assumed that it was just an accident, I didn't say anything we just went right on. And he almost knocked me away from my partner, we got ahold of one another again and went to dancing. And I noticed Ed Blake was watching us. He was sitting over there on the bench. I noticed he was watching us pretty close. And, oh maybe two or three days later, Wallace Marcks, Wanda's.

Bob Zybach: Younger brother.

Charlie Olson: Yeah. They had tried to get him in on it. And he told me about what their plan was. He was going to knock the heck out of me, you know, and then I was going to pull him down, and then he was going to start a ruckus, and there was going to be about five or six of them. And they wanted Wallace Marcks to be in on it, and he didn't have an opportunity to tell me in time, but he told me afterwards. And he had time to see Ed Blake. And Ed Blake was watching them.

Bob Zybach: Was Ed Blake the sheriff at that time?

Charlie Olson: He was the sheriff at that time. They wouldn't have gotten anywhere like that.

Bob Zybach: Now you told me before. . . I don't want to forget about them, but the Browns. Now one of the Browns lived in that house that burned down in 1938. You called it the Brown place, right across from Goviers there. Do you remember anything about that family, about the Browns?

Charlie Olson: Lee Brown owned that house and it was rented by some people by the name of Etteridge [Hildebrandt]. And the old man, the father to the family was away, and when he came home the house was ablaze. And the whole family was in there and he managed to somehow get in there and get one of the boys and get him out, but that was all that he could rescue, the rest of them burned up. And from the knowledge that the neighbors had, they analyzed it, and I don't know whether their analysis was correct or not, but this one that he happened to be able to get out was a drunkard, and he was probably in his teens and he would have been out of there, but he was too

Charlie Olson: drunk apparently to know enough to do it. But he got him out, but the others were in other rooms where he couldn't rescue any of them. [It was a two-story house and the upstairs was bedrooms.]

Bob Zybach: Do YOU remember any stories about the Brown family. Because they are an old family that I can't find any relatives or anything on.

Charlie Olson: Well, Lee Brown is the only one that I knew of them. And then one of the other Brown's son I met. But Lee Brown, I worked for him and he was the only one of a the original Brown boys that hadn't murdered somebody. And he was a little bit inclined to be thievy, he put a rock in a bale of wool.

Bob Zybach: Just to make a little extra money, huh?

Charlie Olson: And they shipped him back the rock, C.O.D., he had to pay to get it.

Bob Zybach: How old was he when he did that?

Charlie Olson: Oh, sixty.

Bob Zybach: Wow, so even at that late age. Were the Brown family, were his brothers, did they go to prison or anything for murdering people, or did they do that around the Tampico area?

Charlie Olson: The other brothers . . . Lee Brown owned the Brown territory the farthest southwest of Tampico, and the others lived out in that Tampico area, I don't know where either of them lived, except that one of them, later on, was a bookkeeper for the garage, Rickerts garage in Corvallis. He was a bookkeeper there, and I got acquainted with him a little. He was old. Then I had seen another one by the name of Clint, and he had one of those little two-wheeled race buggies, you know and a horse, a nice horse, and he would come up to Sulphur Springs by the schoolhouse about once every week. Come up and get some sulphur water. I was about 10 then.

Bob Zybach: But both those people, the rumor was that they had murdered somebody.

Charlie Olson: Everyone . . . This was heresay to me. I didn't know it, only from what the neighbors said. Every one of 'em had murdered a man. Except Lee. Lee Brown hadn't.

Bob Zybach: Did they get in trouble for it or was it just kinda normal in those days?

Charlie Olson: No, in those days they didn't, there wasn't anything to get trouble for it.

Bob Zybach: Did you ever hear of a man named Dave English? Or any member of the English family? They were a. . . were the Browns maybe some of the reasons that Tampico had kind of a