I.. The Old Swimming Hole

Eugene Glender: Well, just up here was those houses I was telling you about.

Bob Zybach: Okay, did that hill in front of us there have a name?

Eugene Glender: Not that I know of.

Bob Zybach: How aboia the hill behind us?

Eugene Glender: No, I don't know if there was any name to any of them or not.

Bob Zybach: Do you remember Forest Peak [called Steele Hill, Writsmans Hill, or (Francis) Writsmans Butte]?

Eugene Glender: No.

Bob Zybach: So, Coffin Butte so far as you know

Eugene Glender: Coffin Butte is really the only one that I really knew a name of.

Bob Zybach: And Soap Creek, any other landmarks?

Eugene Glender: Well, up Soap Creek from the house, you could see that one kind of a bald hill up there.

Bob Zybach: What did they call it?

Eugene Glender: I'm not sure if they ... is that [Arnold] Writsman's Butt& up in that area someplace?

Bob Zybach: You've heard of a place called Writsman 's Butte?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

I. The Old Swimming Hole

Eugene Glender: This is where we used to come swimming right down here a lot.

Bob Zybach: Oh. So the swimming hole's right off on the

Eugene Glender: just below the bridge down here.

Bob Zybach: Oh. Would all the kkL in the neighborhood go there?

Eugene Glender: Yeah. Those that lived right in here close.

Bob Zybach: Now this knob up on our left, the Hugharz6 homestead, did anybody have a house up there?

Later known as Bakers Mountain. See Monograph #7, Charlie Olson.

6 Joseph T. Hughart (1804-1886) came to Oregon with his family along the northern route of the Oregon Trail in 1845. He established a Donation Land Claim to the west of Coffin Butte in 1846 with his wife, Martha "Anna" (Henderson) Hughart (1808- 1846), and their children Eliza J. (1828-1849) Smith (she married fellow pioneer, Green Berry Smith in 1848); David E. (1830-1855);

Eugene Glender: Yeah, that's where the Wiles house was.

Bob Zybach: So the Wiles house was on

Eugene Glender: Right up on the hill by them trees.

Bob Zybach: What kind of a house was that?

Eugene Glender: That was a big house and then he had a great big windmill.

Bob Zybach: Wind,nill?

Eugene Glender: Yeah. With a big tank way up on top up in the tower.

Bob Zybach: Was that the only windmill in the neighborhood?

Eugene Glender: That's the only one I can think of around here.

Bob Zybach: Was the windmill right on that hill right next to his house?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: What was it used for?

Eugene Glender: Water for the house.

Bob Zybach: Was that something they built; was it a new one?

Eugene Glender: It was there as long as I can remember.

Bob Zybach: How did he farm this area here?

Eugene Glender: He had mostly a dairy.

Bob Zybach: Dairy?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Where was his dairy barn at?

Eugene Glender: Just over on the ... down below the hill.

Bob Zybach: How far off the hill there maybe?

Eugene Glender: Oh, maybe from the house probably 300 feet.

Bob Zybach: Three hundred feet on the down hill side?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: How many head did he have?

Eugene Glender: That I don't know.

Bob Zybach: Did he have a creamery?

Martha Ann (1833-1895) Wiles (married to fellow pioneer, John Wiles); William T. (1836-1857); and Mary F. (1839-1856). Anna Hughart is reputed to have been the first white woman buried in Benton County.

Eugene Glender: I think he sold the whole milk.

Bob Zybach: So he didn't make cheese or anything else?

Eugene Glender: No.

Bob Zybach: Dkl he have any other crops; raise hay for the cows?

Eugene Glender: I can't remember anymore whether he did that or not. He never farmed very much because he had a big enough dairy that kept him busy.

Bob Zybach: So he was afull time dairy?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Did he run cows on both sides of the road?

Eugene Glender: I can't remember that anymore either.

Bob Zybach: Did he own pretty much up to the [Coffin] Butte?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: So he had a pretty large farm in here?

Eugene Glender: Yeah, it was pretty good size. I think his line fence was pretty close to where that road cuts across down here.

Bob Zybach: Cuts across the west side of the Butte?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: John Wiles, is that the son?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Did ... were those kids your friends?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: What would you do for fun?

Eugene Glender: Well, go hunt and fish.

Bob Zybach: What did you hunt for?

Eugene Glender: Anything.

Bob Zybach: Pheasants?

Eugene Glender: Well, we never hunted pheasants that much. We was small enough all we had were B.B. guns. We'd just go out, shoot birds and stuff.

Bob Zybach: Azything.

Eugene Glender: Yeah. Shoot at cans. You know.

Bob Zybach: Go fishing in the creek?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: When you swain down here, how far below the bridge was the swimming hole?

Eugene Glender: Oh, 100 feet, just a little ways down.

Bob Zybach: Did it have aname?

Eugene Glender: No.

Bob Zybach: Just the swimming hole?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Where would you fish at?

Eugene Glender: The whole creek.

Bob Zybach: Below the swimming hole and up above it?

Eugene Glender: From here clear up to Sulphur Springs.

Bob Zybach: On Sulphur Springs, would your family ever go up there as a group?

Eugene Glender: Once in a while we went up there, picnic.

Bob Zybach: Would other families in the neighborhood go there

Eugene Glender: I never did go when there was a big family deal, I mean, a neighborhood picnic.

Bob Zybach: Did you hear about them?

Eugene Glender: I don't know if I've ever even heard of there being a neighborhood picnic up there.

Bob Zybach: Where would people go on the Fourth of July?

Eugene Glender: We always stayed home.

Bob Zybach: Did you have fireworks?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Other neighbors?

Eugene Glender: No, no our relations all came out.

Bob Zybach: When you went picnicking at Sulphur Springs, what kind of things would you take?

Eugene Glender: Just a regular picnic lunch.

Bob Zybach: Cold chicken?

Eugene Glender: Probably. That and sandwiches.

Bob Zybach: Watennelons?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Beer?

Eugene Glender: Well, I wasn't old enough then.

Bob Zybach: Would your parents take you up, or just the kids go up?

Eugene Glender: Well, we had to go up with the parents then. I wasn't hardly old enough to drive when I was

Bob Zybach: You didn't take horses up or anything?

Eugene Glender: No.

Bob Zybach: So it would be ... in those days the kids didn't have horses or travel much by horseback?

Eugene Glender: Not much, no.

Bob Zybach: So f your parents didn't drive you, you'd walk up and down the creek or walk to the swimming hole or something?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Other than swimming, and fishing and hunting, would there be gaines, play softball or catch?

Eugene Glender: Just at school.

Bob Zybach: So there'd be organized games at school?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: How about ... were there swings or ropes, did they have.

Eugene Glender: Yeah, we had a play shed.

Bob Zybach: Where was that located?

Eugene Glender: Right there where the road is by the school house. See that road; they dozed it out when they built the road.

Bob Zybach: So that was the play shed for like the neighborhood?

Eugene Glender: For the school.

Bob Zybach: Okay, did you build tree houses?

Eugene Glender: No, I never did.

Bob Zybach: Would all the kids pretty much do the same things, do them together in groups or stick to your own family?

Eugene Glender: Usually stayed pretty well alone. Too far to go to all the neighbors. This was about the closest neighbor I had right here.

Bob Zybach: Wiles?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Was this your best friend ?

Eugene Glender: Good as any of them I guess.