5.. Berry Creek Farm

Neil Vanderburg: hill, and no possible way you could get up that hill in the wintertime. In the summertime, we could get through. But when we first moved there, Dorsey Bus Company had to come in through Suver and then back to our place, because we lived in Benton County. Most of our property was in Polk County, but we lived in Benton County. So the bus at driver lived at our house and the bus stayed at our house. We had a 1935 Diamond T bus which was practically brand new -- the pride of the Dorsey Bus Company. I mean, at that time he had six buses. And, but anyway, so we took off from our place and went toward Airlie, and then came up the Suver road until we got almost to Suver and then we started picking up people in that area and I don't know why we were picking them up in Polk County. Because we picked up, oh, Wesley Voss, he's still alive, and a bunch of the Kesters and one thing and another coming out to Suver. Then we went down Highway 99 until we got to what is now Camp Adair, and then we went across over to, I think they call it Independence Road now, and then we came down Independence Road to Highway 20 and then came in and picked all the people up on Highway 20 into Corvallis.

Bob Zybach: Now this was when you were going to High School?

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah. And then, while we lived there, then they came in and punched that road on through and graveled it. And then the bus started going the other way.

Bob Zybach: So that was about, late 1 930's.

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah, probably 1938, '37 or '38 that they pushed that road on through and at the same time just north of our house that was a steep road and they had to do quite a bit of blasting and they made about a four foot cut then, but most of the work was done with teams and horses and that sort of thing, so it was quite an undertaking to put that road on through.

Bob Zybach: When you are saying north, you are talking about Brinkley's Hill there?

Neil Vanderburg: I don't know what you call it.

Bob Zybach: That little hill, just to the north of:

Neil Vanderburg: Right on the county line.

5. Berry Creek Farm

Bob Zybach: What did you think when you first got to Oregon? Was everybody happy to have the trip over, they liked the new place?

Neil Vanderburg: Oregon was beautiful. And everything was green and if you remember where our house was, our house set right behind those maple tees, and we had a. . . let's see, five bedroom home there with a front porch that went clear across the whole front of the house.

Bob Zybach: Was it one of the old farm homes?

Neil Vanderburg: It was a farm home, but it was a well-built, nice home. And they actually moved it when the Camp Adair moved in, that was one of the few homes that they moved out of there.

Bob Zybach: So is that home still in existence?

Neil Vanderburg: Somewhere, but I don't know where it went. But I was told that they moved that out of there.

Bob Zybach: Did the home have a name to it?

Neil Vanderburg: Not that I know of. But then, to go on, it was a nice home and then we had, behind

Neil Vanderburg: the house we had a porch across the back where we hung our clothes to dry and we didn't have any electricity, no telephones, and then we'd, behind that we had our milk house and behind that we had our woodshed, all hooked to the house.

Bob Zybach: So, those were connected to the house?

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah, all connected to the house. So we didn't have to get out in the mud at all from the house to the woodshed to the milkhouse. So once we got done with our chores and took off our rubber boots we could separate the cream and all that sort of thing without having to go back out into the mud again.

Bob Zybach: Was it a dairy farm?

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah, it was a dairy farm. I told you we bought ten cows through the Farm Home Administration, and we had 120 acres there and we had about 27 acres in pasture down along the creek. And then we had oats and vetch down along the bottom land and we raised oats and some wheat and some barley up on the hill. But mostly we raised ferns, because we didn't have sprays, herbicides, to kill the fern and they we tried clean cultivating, we tried everything in the world to try and kill those fern but the more you plowed them the thicker they got. And now its pretty good farm there because they can control the weeds and so forth. And we also had Canadian Thistle that was a big problem. Mostly up on the hill ground. But.

Bob Zybach: Now, your land, was that to the east of Berry Creek Road there?

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: So it would sit down well away from the forest land.

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah. Actually, our property was on both sides of Berry Creek. Once you went. when Berry Creek went about, oh, 500 feet past the road there, across over, it was in our property all the way down to the back except our property was kinda L shaped and Forest Tandy lived in this L back there. And Forest Tandy had water rights on Berry Creek and he was a good truck farmer and he raised a lot of fruits and vegetables and stuff back there. And he built a beautiful barn back there also. I don't know if that barn is still there or not but I didn't see it when I was there last time.

Bob Zybach: There is a barn still standing right next to Berry Creek, pretty close, was that Tandy's?

Neil Vanderburg: On the road?

Bob Zybach: Yeah.

Neil Vanderburg: Forest Tandy's father-in-law built that. Mr. White built that. And he built that while we lived there.

Bob Zybach: Tandys lived right next to Berry Creek. Wasn't there another family on the other side of Berry Creek from Tandys?

Neil Vanderburg: Well Tandy lived behind us. Tandy lived east of us. He lived just directly east from our house. See we went. . . our property came like this and Tandy set right in there.

Bob Zybach: If. . here's a little drawing of. . if this is Berry Creek, and here is the Coote's house .

Bob Zybach: here, and Hanish is back here, and Dickeys are right there. . . fsee map on page.. - . .1

Neil Vanderburg: No, Dickeys are over here.

Bob Zybach: Okay.

Neil Vanderburg: And then, we were right straight across from that house.

Bob Zybach: There's the Vanderburgs.

Neil Vanderburg: Uh huh. And then, our property, this is Berry Creek, well Berry Creek goes like this and Tandys had road went right along the creek here and then across the creek right here, and that's here the creek came into our property, and then Tandys lived back here.

Bob Zybach: So Tandys were. . now, wasn't there somebody living about right there on the creek?

Neil Vanderburg: There was four people lived in there while we lived there.

Bob Zybach: Okay. Was there two houses, one on either side of the creek, or just one on.

Neil Vanderburg: No, just one over there.

Bob Zybach: Okay.

Neil Vanderburg: And there was two houses back here. Tandy built two houses there, one for himself and one for the Whites.

Bob Zybach: And the Whites was his father-in-law.

Neil Vanderburg: Was his father-in-law, yeah. And they both lived together back here and this was just strictly a summer road. And the school teacher lived back there and it was about a half mile walk out for her through the mud to get to school every day. I was talking to Mrs., or Miss Ramona (Moehnke) Dodson, here last week, and I said "Remember walking that mud?" and she says, "I sure do!" But anyway, that was about the location and then on, see our property came down here and then it made an L and

Bob Zybach: So it just excluded the Tandys there.

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah, and Tandy came out this way, his farm did.

Bob Zybach: So, Tandys had a fairly large place, too?

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah, I'd say they probably had 150, 160 acres in there.

Bob Zybach: Then somewhere over in here would be Joe Smith?

Neil Vanderburg: Joe Smith is back on the next road back.

Bob Zybach: Okay.

Neil Vanderburg: And Joe Smith owned this property right here.

Bob Zybach: So he owned all the way up to the road here?

Neil Vanderburg: He owned on this side of the road. He owned the Coote's place.

Bob Zybach: Okay.

Neil Vanderburg: And he owned that whole hill that you said there was snakes on.

Bob Zybach: Well, I'm quoting Jim Hanish on that, so. . that hill, did you have a name for it?

Neil Vanderburg: No, I didn't.

Bob Zybach: Now, Jim calls it Folk's Hill. Does that ring any bells? He says there was a Folk family right at the base of it that farmed it. And an old house and orchard in there in the / 930's. And there was an old road that goes around the base of it.

Neil Vanderburg: That's the one right next to the [Berry Creek] school house.

Bob Zybach: Okay. The school house is over here, kinda against the base of the hill on that side of the road?

Neil Vanderburg: Okay, well when I lived there, Mr. Folks [Bert] lived in this house.

Bob Zybach: Okay, I saw that on the map and I was thinking maybe he was forgetting "Folks" for "Polk", so

Neil Vanderburg: Folk. Okay. And Folk had kinda the same job I did, he was on the Soil and Water Conservation Board of Directors, the same as what I was only back in 1936.

Bob Zybach: Oh, so he was with the Soil Conservation Service back when you were living there?

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah, clear back in '36.

Bob Zybach: Are any of his relatives still alive? Any of the kids that he raised or anything?

Neil Vanderburg: Ethan Folks was the only son that they had, and he went to Washington. And Mr. Folks sold the farm over there to Dick White and he moved over here on Highway 20. I don't know if you've been around here long enough to remember when there was a bull farm over there or not. Highway 20.

Bob Zybach: I've been over in Lincoln County for 40 years, so.