F.. Lawrence Blasch and Cordwood as a Cash Crop

F. Lawrence Blasch4 and Cordwood as a Cash Crop

Eugene Glender: Clearing. You know, they just come up seedlings so.

Bob Zybach: What's the mileage, Jan?

Jan Meranda: [Jan] Eleven.

Bob Zybach: At Eleven there's

Eugene Glender: See there's one right there yet.

Bob Zybach: Okay, where this old apple tree is [on west side of the road].

Eugene Glender: Yeah, but that stuff is all grown in now.

Bob Zybach: This orchard here, was it a plantation or could it have been wild ones?

Eugene Glender: It could have been wild, I don't know, it's just ... there wasn't nothing in rows that I can remember.

Bob Zybach: Just scattered apple trees?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Did you ever eat any of the apples off these trees?

Eugene Glender: Not that I remember.

Bob Zybach: Would this have been one of the Sheppard's, would they have used these apples?

Eugene Glender: They could have.

Bob Zybach: And you were talking about one of the Sheppard kids cut cord wood?

Eugene Glender: No, it wasn't them, it was [Lawrence] Blasch cut cord wood for them.

Bob Zybach: Oh, for the Sheppards?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Who was Blasch?

Eugene Glender: Lawrence Blasch, he lived back over here to the left of the Butte.

Bob Zybach: Okay, so that would be on the north side of Coffin Butte?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

John Blasch (1883-1964) was the son of German immigrants, orphaned at age 8 or 9. He married Ethel Mabel Boyer (1891-1985) of Suver, Oregon in 1917. Their children were Frederick Arthur (1918-1962); Lawrence Edward (1922-1989); Mary Louise (1924-****) Turner; Anna Gertrude (1929-****); and Alma Maxine (1932-1988). John and Ethel were divorced in 1945 and both remarried in later years. The Blasch home in which the children were born still exists in 1994, and is curently being used as a barn along Robison Road in Benton County.

Bob Zybach: So he cut cord wood for the Sheppards?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: And then delivered it to them or would they pick it up?

Eugene Glender: He just done that for a living.

Bob Zybach: Oh, that's how he made his living?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Could he support a family doing that?

Eugene Glender: Well, he wasn't married.

Bob Zybach: So he was just a single man?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: An old bachelor or something?

Eugene Glender: No, just a young kid.

Bob Zybach: Miat kind of wood would he cut for firewood, oak?

Eugene Glender: Fir.

Bob Zybach: Fir?

Eugene Glender: Yeah. They cut it all in four foot lengths, split it, and stack it.

Bob Zybach: In four foot lengths?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: It must have been for large fireplaces?

Eugene Glender: No. They go along with a buzz saw and saw it up into lengths.

Bob Zybach: Oh, I see. Where would he find the wood at; where would he be cutting the wood?

Eugene Glender: Oh, he hauled into town.

Bob Zybach: Okay, so he would go up to Sheppard's place on Sheppard's property, cut the wood there

Eugene Glender: He got so much a cord for cutting wood.

Bob Zybach: From Sheppard's place?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Oh, I see. It's not for Sheppard's house, it's for Sheppard's income?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Okay, then they'd haul it to Corvallis?

Eugene Glender: Yeah, or wherever somebody wanted to buy the wood.

Bob Zybach: How would they haul it, by wagon, car?

Eugene Glender: With a truck then.

Bob Zybach: By truck, not a log truck though?

Eugene Glender: No, just a regular flat bed truck.

Bob Zybach: Maybe a one ton or two ton flat bed?

Eugene Glender: Probably, something like that.

Bob Zybach: Okay, do you know how they would haul the wood to the truck?

Eugene Glender: Just back the truck up to it as far as I know.

Bob Zybach: So the wood was all close enough that you could drive up

Eugene Glender: Yeah, they'd try to get it where you could get to it.

Bob Zybach: What kind of house did Blasch live in?

Eugene Glender: Oh, it was an old big house.

Bob Zybach: Just a regular hoise?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Did that house have a name to it?

Eugene Glender: No, not that I know of.

Bob Zybach: Was it on this side of Highway 99?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: On the west side?

Eugene Glender: Yeah, it was probably ... three miles from here.

Bob Zybach: Oh, about three miles so it would be right at the base of the [Coffin] Butte?

Eugene Glender: Yeah, you go to the other side and then there's a road that cuts to the left. I think there's a cross road up there. He lived right in there, he ... Soap Creek run through their place.

Bob Zybach: Oh, I see. Did he get it from his folks [John], or did he buy the place by himself?

Eugene Glender: No, his folks lived there.

Bob Zybach: So he lived with his folks and worked for Sheppard?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Did he have any brothers or sisters?

Eugene Glender: Yeah, he had another brother [none] and sister [one] or something like that. They were out of our district, too, I just ... I just knew him more or less when we went to high school.