H.. Subsistance and Specialty Farming

Bob Zybach: How about the grey fox?

Eugene Glender: Well, they was already ... I think they are native here, because I used to trap them. The red fox I caught I didn't know what it was. When I took it home and got to skinning it, I found a chain around it's neck.

Bob Zybach: It was like apet?

Eugene Glender: Yeah, somebody ... it got away from somebody or what it was. I caught two that year and that's the first ones we ever seen. Didn't even know what they were.

Bob Zybach: How about coyote?

Eugene Glender: There was a few; there weren't no problem much then.

Bob Zybach: No wolves then?

Eugene Glender: No.

Bob Zybach: Do you remember any other animals?

Eugene Glender: No.

H. Subsistance and Specialty Farming

Bob Zybach: We're at a gate, and we've just come down the hill, what's the mileage here, Jan?

Jan Meranda: [Jan] 11.4.

Bob Zybach: And you think this might have been Wiles' line, this old fence line coming up this corner here?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Do you remember any buildings, or any old apple orchards, or anything off to the right [west] here?

Eugene Glender: I don't remember any ever being there, but I think somebody said there was a house there at one time, but I can't ... I never did see anything.

Bob Zybach: To the west of us here?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Do you remember what they told you about that?

Eugene Glender: No, I don't even remember that.

Bob Zybach: Would Wiles be the person that might know?

Eugene Glender: It's possible.

Bob Zybach: No name associated with it or anything, just an old house?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: On the left here, is the cut off to Coffin Butte, is that an old road there?

Eugene Glender: Yeah, that's the original road.

Bob Zybach: An original road?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Can you remember any houses or anything particular off to our left here?

Eugene Glender: Not here.

Bob Zybach: Was this somebody's field?

Eugene Glender: Yeah, this right here was Dobrinin's and you get down here is where Lloyd

Eugene Glender: Stambaugh [son of Joseph and Emma] used to own some down in down below there.

Bob Zybach: So if we took the road to the left, we be coming onto Stambaugh 's place?

Eugene Glender: Yeah, I think there's a house between there or two, but I can't remember. I don't know who owns ... who lived in there.

Bob Zybach: What did Coffin Butte look like in those days?

Eugene Glender: It looked just the same that it does now except that it didn't have those roads and the big holes in it.

Bob Zybach: How far down was Stambaugh 's house off that turn?

Eugene Glender: Just this side of Soap Creek.

Bob Zybach: Okay, so you'd turn here on the left and you'd keep going and right before you cross Soap Creek you'd hit

Eugene Glender: Stambaugh's.

Bob Zybach: Stambaugh 's. Was that a farm?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: What...

Eugene Glender: I think he used to raise Harding grass there.

Bob Zybach: Harding grass?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: What's that used for?

Eugene Glender: I don't know.

Bob Zybach: Who did he sell itto?

Eugene Glender: I don't even know that, that was so many years ago, I didn't ... never ... nobody hardly ever raised that kind of stuff.

Bob Zybach: Oh, I see. So it was a specialty crop?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Were any of these farmers educated at Oregon State [University]?

Eugene Glender: I couldn't say.

Bob Zybach: Did they work with the [OSU] Extension service?

Eugene Glender: I don't think so.

Bob Zybach: So they were ... so when they did something like Harding grass, it was maybe an experiment with Oregon State and maybe not?

Eugene Glender: It could have been.

Bob Zybach: W!iy do you remember that, what makes you remember that.?

Eugene Glender: Well, it's just ... extra grass, it never was grown any place else around here at the time.

Bob Zybach: So he had kind of a reputation?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: What kind of a house did he live in?

Eugene Glender: It was just an old board house.

Bob Zybach: Not a vely fancy one?

Eugene Glender: No.

Bob Zybach: Were most of these houses pretty substantial or were they pretty old and worn?

Eugene Glender: Well, a lot of them were fairly old already.

Bob Zybach: Would people maintain them pretty good?

Eugene Glender: No, they didn't take ... much care of them. A lot of them wasn't even painted.

Bob Zybach: So they were just board color and

Eugene Glender: Just board.

Bob Zybach: Kind of worn out?

Eugene Glender: Yeah. Rough boards.

Bob Zybach: And would they have a barn with all the houses?

Eugene Glender: Most of them did.

Bob Zybach: And an outhouse or two?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Woodshed?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: 'What other kinds of buildings would they have?

Eugene Glender: Not much, just what they had to have. Just a barn and a house.

Bob Zybach: Did everybody have a car?

Eugene Glender: I think at that time they did.

Bob Zybach: Were these roads rocked?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: So what kinds of cars were the family cars?

Eugene Glender: Yeah, a regular car that people drove in those years.

Bob Zybach: It wasn't like Model T or anything, it would be an Oldsmobile or Pontiac

Eugene Glender: It was more ... you know, a lot of Model T and stuff in those years.

Bob Zybach: Would people ... what kind of tractors would they use?

Eugene Glender: When I was a kid they didn't even have tractors yet.

Bob Zybach: What did they use?

Eugene Glender: Horses.

Bob Zybach: What kind of horses?

Eugene Glender: Well, just a regular work horse.

Bob Zybach: No brand name or anything?

Eugene Glender: [Laughs] Well, there probably was on them but

Bob Zybach: So, when you were a kid people were farming this area with horses?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: A plow and what other kinds offobs did they do?

Eugene Glender: They got plow, disc, and harrow and they had a drill to sow with.

Bob Zybach: Would they mow hay or run balers?

Eugene Glender: Wasn't no balers.

Bob Zybach: How was hay stored; how was that stored?

Eugene Glender: It was all ... you would have to cut with a mower and then rake it, and shock it and then you haul it in with a wagon, put it in the barn. It was all loose hay.

Bob Zybach: So everybody had work horses, then?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: And ... how many milk cows would an average family have?

Eugene Glender: Oh, I don't know. Six or seven probably.

Bob Zybach: How much would they raise for beef?

Eugene Glender: Just raise some of the ... some of their calves for beef.

Bob Zybach: What would people pay their taxes with; what crops would they raise to get money with?

Eugene Glender: Anything that they could make off of anything. Sell a few eggs, sell cream.

Bob Zybach: Apples?

Eugene Glender: I never knew of anybody selling apples.

Bob Zybach: How about cherries?

Eugene Glender: No.

Bob Zybach: Any orchard crops?

Eugene Glender: No.

Bob Zybach: Sheep?

Eugene Glender: Yeah, there were sheep. Some sheep and a few goats.

Bob Zybach: So, Just kind of nickel and dime, however

Eugene Glender: Yeah, any way you could make some money.

Bob Zybach: Anybody have trouble paying their taxes around here?

Eugene Glender: Well, it wasn't very easy.

Bob Zybach: So it was pretty tough?

Eugene Glender: Yeah, it was pretty rough then in them years.

Bob Zybach: Do you ... what are the first years that you remember about?

Eugene Glender: I don't know, probably the '30's on.

Bob Zybach: How about when your folks first arrived here?

Eugene Glender: [I can't] ... remember back that far.

Bob Zybach: Everybody old enough to remember back that far died.

Eugene Glender: Yeah, you're just running out of people.

Bob Zybach: If we don't get your memories then we've lost all the memory.

Eugene Glender: Well, I don't know, you're not going to get much from me, either, though.

Bob Zybach: Well, we've already got quite a lot. You'd be surprised. Can you remember ... could you see any houses off in this direction here?