T.. The Marcks' Place

Charlie Olson: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Okay, I know the name of the family that lived here in the 1930's, but we didn't know the older family. Do you know where Lee Brown moved after this?

Charlie Olson: I think he died here.

Bob Zybach: Okay, because this is a prime prospect for excavation.

Charlie Olson: There was a family that moved in here and the house burned. And I think the whole family burned up except for one.

Bob Zybach: The dad and the boy lived.

Charlie Olson: Yeah. The dad came home and it was a fire and he went in and got the boy out, carried him out. But I think it burned the rest of them. I don't remember the name. It seems like it was Etridge. [}{ildebrandt]

Bob Zybach: I've got the name, I talked with Gene Glender and he knew all about this, so we're getting into an area where I've got a good histoiy on it, back there you're the only history we've got, so. . . okay.

T. The Marcks' Place

Bob Zybach: Okay, we're at the Marc/cs house now, Marcks built this house, didn't he?

Charlie Olson: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: These people here think this house was built in 1850.

Charlie Olson: Goviers built a barn for Marcks right over here and a little wind blew it down.

Bob Zybach: We just passed the old teacher cottage there, where your sister used to come and stay with Mrs. Harris and Miss Allen.

Charlie Olson: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Did they ever use that cottage as a school site? Did they ever teach classes out of there?

Charlie Olson: No. Oh, no.

Bob Zybach: Okay, and this is the Marc/cs house here. Okay. And can you think of anything about this house in particular?

Charlie Olson: No.

Bob Zybach: There used to be a barn across the road that blew down and. . . I've got one more question, there's a real old apple orchard out across the Soap Creek on the road. . . on Tampico Road, do you know anything about any old apple orchards or anything in this area?

Charlie Olson: No. No, I wasn't familiar with that area. We came home from the hop yard and Goviers came out and talked to us and they needed another hand and I was about thirteen years old and my father didn't figure that I should go down there but they out ruled him you know and I kind of wanted to, so I went down there the next morning and I pitched for them for. . . only about two weeks left of threshing. That was my first year out and my first time out to work out. I developed younger than most people and when I was thirteen or fifteen I was as big as I ever got.

Bob Zybach: Let me ask you one or two quick questions about why your family came here, we're just about out of tape. They came here from Sweden right?

Charlie Olson: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Can you tell me what year and how they came the United States?

Charlie Olson: There was a lot of immigrants that came across on the Lusitania from the old country and the desire to get to some place where they could get land, that was it, and my father left you know and came over here and he started in the east and there was nobody that wanted to hire anybody, they all wanted to get land. He kept coming farther and farther west and when he got to Tigard, Tigardville, he got to Tigardville, it's part of Portland now. But it was a separate town then, there he got his first real job and it was a dollar a day.

Bob Zybach: Do you know what year that was that he came out here?

Charlie Olson: I could trace things back a while and I could get it . . . but, you know, I wasn't born yet when that happened.

Bob Zybach: Your brother was born about 1888.

Charlie Olson: He was ten years older than I.

Bob Zybach: So your dad and mom were probably married 1887?

Charlie Olson: Somewhere along in there.

Bob Zybach: And he'd been in the United States for how many years?

Charlie Olson: Well, my brother, I think, was ten years old when or nine years old before my father had enough money so that he could send for the two of them. But he got his first job at Tigardville, a dollar a day, ten hour day. And then he moved from there to Corvallis and he started to work for Fisher's Feed Mill, Fisher's Flour Mill. And there his wages were a little higher and he continued to stay with that until he got

Charlie Olson: enough money so that he could send for them.

Bob Zybach: Where were they at?

Charlie Olson: In Sweden.

Bob Zybach: So your brother was born in Sweden?

Charlie Olson: Oh, yeah.

Bob Zybach: So your dad came out here after 1888? Your dad got married in Sweden, he already had a family when he left there.

Charlie Olson: Yeah, he had to buy two tickets, you know to come out here, to bring his family out here.

Bob Zybach: I see. I misunderstood. He came out by himself, I thought he was a single man. He was married and with a family. What town were they from?

Charlie Olson: Calsang.

Bob Zybach: Calsang, Sweden.

Charlie Olson: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: And your family has been there for a long time?

Charlie Olson: That's one of them. One of them was from Calsang and the other one was from Frieda.

Bob Zybach: Freida? And that was your mother?

Charlie Olson: No, my mother was from Calsang.

Bob Zybach: Okay, what was her maiden name?

Charlie Olson: Anna Frestrom.

Bob Zybach: Frestrom? Okay, so your dad was married there and then he came out here and he worked in corvallis, saved enough money, sent for them, and so about that time must have been when he purchased this land.

Charlie Olson: We worked that flour mill until he had enough money so that he could buy a little something somewhere and he had $400 when he went out on Soap Creek and bought a guy's right that had started to homestead this place that we had. He could have bought about four acres of land right in Corvallis at that same time with that $400, about four acres, but they didn't realize what things was going to be, you know, what things was going to do and he wanted to get out some place where he was free and that was it. He was free there and we could run stock, we had lots of cattle and they

Charlie Olson: could run clear to Kings Valley, clear to Airlie and clear almost to Corvallis and Soap Creek was the shortest distance they could come four miles was about all they could come if they came in this direction. But

Bob Zybach: Who did he buy the claim from?

Charlie Olson: I think his name was Sather or Sether or something like that.

Bob Zybach: Can you. . . I've got a pretty clear idea now. . . we've covered all the time from when you were born until you left here and then some after and some before. Can you think of any think else about the histoty of this valley that we haven't maybe discussed or that you think is important? Have we covered about everything?

Charlie Olson: There's nothing that I can think about is important to this, it would be important to me of course but not in this.

Bob Zybach: Something that's important to you that you think might be important to use here.

Charlie Olson: Well, the thing that's important to me was when the Armistice was signed.