O.. The Chaffin Place

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: So, when you come to an area that had been logged off like this it would be back to just a few scattered larger trees?

Neil Vanderburg: That's right. And of course in those days they didn't clean up their mess so there was a lot of brush on the ground. And we see a little bit of evidence of tops and stuff as we walk around here, that are pretty well rotted down. And I wouldn't be surprised if they go back to that era.

Bob Zybach: Can you think of anything else in this particular spot here?

Neil Vanderburg: No, that's about all I can. . . Like I say if a guy took the time, I think a guy could run up and down this draw here and maybe find more evidence of the mill. Or it might have been right here. But you might find the evidence of the sawdust pile down here. We're standing within 300 feet of the mill.

Bob Zybach: Well, I think we've found a new mill site on the forest here.

Neil Vanderburg: Okay!

O. The Chaffin Place

Bob Zybach: Okay, we're at Rowley compartment 14 [compartments are a system of mapping and management developed by Man' Rowley for OSU Research ForestsJ, we've been looking at Rowley compartment 6, and we just came from Rowley compartments I and 9 in South Berry, and we found an orchard up by I and 9, and blackberries, and no sign of the chimney. And we're looking now where we're showing a building site, we've found a bunch of moist moss and an old road on the upper side of the road, but it's not matching up to the Chaffin place. So, Neil can you tell me what between these two sites looks most like the Chaffin place and what we're missing most?

Neil Vanderburg: Now, did you tell them this was the first site we looked at?

Bob Zybach: No.

Neil Vanderburg: Okay, well, that site, the terrain

Bob Zybach: Compartment I and 9 was the first site.

Neil Vanderburg: Okay. Well, the terrain looks good there. This one, down here at the 14 is too flat and the Chaffin place was built on a sloping hill with a pasture down behind the house and then a large pasture Out say 60 or 80 acres down in front of the house. Of course, that's all in trees now, and so for pasture that's pretty hard for cows to eat those trees, and it's a little hard for me to digest them, too, but I think we're pretty close. So, we want to look at some aerial photos of that back in the '30's and I think I can pick it Out.

Bob Zybach: Okay. Now, let's say the upper place is the Chaffin place. You don't remember anything here by compartment 14?

Neil Vanderburg: I remember nothing there. It's a possibility that we came down right past there, because the terrain looks familiar as a road coming out of the Chaffin place, but if there was a cabin in there in 1936 and '37 I walked right by it and didn't see it.

Bob Zybach: On the first place, can you remember any orchard in there at all?

Neil Vanderburg: I'd have to get my bearings a little more. If there was an orchard, I don't think it would have been as far from the building sites as we're looking. We did see two building sites on that upper place there that I had already called the Chaffin place. We saw two building sites and there was a barn, a pretty good sized barn, and a house

Neil Vanderburg: there. And I think the barn was probably closest to the road and the house was down below, so I think probably the terrain is about right. But it's a little confusing with as much change has been there, so if we can look at an aerial map I think maybe it would help quite a bit.

Bob Zybach: Okay. Can you think of anything else about these two sites here?

Neil Vanderburg: Well, I'll say this. Like I said to Bob, when we got up to Bennett's Mill, I was positive where I am. Was. But right here, the road system, all the trees that are growing and stuff, leave me a little bit wondering. But I'm sure it can't be the lower place so I'm virtually positive it has to be the upper.

Neil Vanderburg: Daryll and Wilfred Ray, their mother died and their dad was raising them, and my mother got in touch with them through the McKibbons. And Mrs. McKibbon was looking for somebody to take care of these two boys, so my mother took Daryll and the Tandys took Wilfred. Daryll was a big thorn in my brother Bill's side, because they were both the same age and my brother was jealous of Daryll because he was kind of getting some attention that Bill thought he should get. So there was quite a bit of conflict there. And even today you mention Daryll Ray to my brother and he's fightin' mad. Wilfred went into Tandys, and the Tandys really fell in love with him. They only had an only daughter, and she was at that time about 14 or 15. And so they adopted Wilfred. And Wilfred lives next door to Edith Tandy down at. . . I had it in my mind...

Bob Zybach: Yoncalla?

Neil Vanderburg: Yoncalla. They live side by side at Yoncalla and still are just like brother and sister. But that's the Ray story. Daryll Ray lives in . . . I don't know. No, Daryll Ray lives down by Toledo now, and Wilfred at Yoncalla.

Bob Zybach: Does he have anything to do with Ray Realty there?

Neil Vanderburg: No, maybe his kids do. Daryll was diesel truck mechanic, I understand. Their dad lived in Summit when he brought the kids to us. And that's all I know, but when I saw Edith and Wilfred here about 10 years ago they told me that Daryll was right there at the Siletz junction and worked in a diesel truck shop there.

Bob Zybach: So, how did their dad happen to bring the kids over to Berry Creek?

Neil Vanderburg: Well, he couldn't take care of them. Their mother died, and so.

Bob Zybach: But I mean, how did he happen to know people in the Berry Creek area?

Neil Vanderburg: He knew the McKibbons. And the McKibbons talked at Bible study or some place and found out that my mother and Mrs. Tandy would be willing to take care of them. The Tandys were fairly well fixed because Forest Tandy logged with a team of horses and so forth. All my dad was doing was farming, so we needed the money, but the Tandys took him just out of the kindness of their heart. But then when the old man got laid off, well he came and got Daryll but since the Tandys were willing to adopt Wilfred then he left Wilfred with the Tandys.

Bob Zybach: Oh, so Daryll was only with you like for maybe a year or two?

Neil Vanderburg: Yeah. Or less.

Bob Zybach: Okay.