Q.. The Hildebrand Fire

Q. The Hildebrand Fire

Bob Zybach: What was the name of this family?

Eugene Glender: Hildebrand [Bill].

Bob Zybach: Did they farm here?

Eugene Glender: Let's see, yeah, I think they more or less farmed. Before them a [Lee] Brown lived here. They were older people. The originals.

Bob Zybach: Do you know why they moved?

Eugene Glender: I don't know. Couldn't make a living here, I guess.

Bob Zybach: Do you know about when they moved?

Eugene Glender: Oh, gosh, I couldn't say.

Bob Zybach: Can you remember them, the Browns [Lee and Gertrude]?

Eugene Glender: lust barely.

Bob Zybach: So maybe they moved about 1930?

Eugene Glender: I've seen them. I think it was Lyle [Norris Lyle Brown] was the boy and there was old ... the original place ... house is back up over here.

Bob Zybach: Oh, so this place

Eugene Glender: Then they built down here.

Bob Zybach: Was there anything left of the Brown place when you were a kid?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Was it a nice old home?

Eugene Glender: Yeah, it was pretty nice house.

Bob Zybach: Why did they abandon it?

Eugene Glender: This one here?

Bob Zybach: No, the

Eugene Glender: The one over on the hill?

Bob Zybach: Yeah.

Eugene Glender: Oh, I don't know, that ... there wasn't much left of that anymore.

Bob Zybach: Just rotting down?

Eugene Glender: It was too far off the road I think to get back and forth.

Bob Zybach: How would they get there, would they get there through this gate?

Eugene Glender: I don't know where the road was. There's a road up here that goes back up in there now and that goes right up to it now.

Bob Zybach: Tothe old home?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: But was that taken out when Camp Adair?

Eugene Glender: Yeah. There used to be parts of the old barn and stuff up there yet.

Bob Zybach: When you were a kid?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Now this one right here, can you tell me the stoiy on it?

Eugene Glender: Just that Hildebrand bought it from Brown and then when it burned up, it burned three people up in it.

Bob Zybach: Do you remember the year of that?

Eugene Glender: Let's see, it should have been I think I was going to high school then, '38, something like that, '38 or '39.

Bob Zybach: Who died in that fire?

Eugene Glender: The woman and one of the boys and one of their uncles.

Bob Zybach: One of the uncles?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Did ... who survived it?

Eugene Glender: One boy and the Mister.

Bob Zybach: Were they [Hildebrands] hurt or anything in the fire?

Eugene Glender: Yeah, they were burnt.

Bob Zybach: Pretty bad?

Eugene Glender: Well, the boy was.

Bob Zybach: Is he still around?

Eugene Glender: I don't know, I haven't seen him ... last I heard they were in California. Moved to California.

Bob Zybach: The dad and the boy?

Eugene Glender: Yeah. The boy's about my age.

Bob Zybach: But he was burnt pretty bad in it?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: How did the fire start?

Eugene Glender: I don't know. They don't know.

Bob Zybach: Do you rementher about what month it happened?

Eugene Glender: No.

Bob Zybach: can you point out about where the house was located?

Eugene Glender: Yeah. Straight back here.

Bob Zybach: Okay, we're right at the gate here and it would be to the east. About how far off the road here?

Eugene Glender: Well, that wouldn't be east, it would be more north, wouldn't it?

Bob Zybach: Yeah, it sure would be. About how far off the road is it?

Eugene Glender: Fifty or hundred feet.

Bob Zybach: Okay.

Eugene Glender: It wasn't very far off the road.

Bob Zybach: And these trees weren't growing here at that time were they?

Eugene Glender: No.

Bob Zybach: This was all lawn?

Eugene Glender: Yeah, I think ... I don't know, there was some trees, but I don't remember which ones they were anymore now.

Bob Zybach: Was there much help from the neighbors for the dad and the surviving son ... what did the neighbors do?

Eugene Glender: I can't remember anymore what they done then.

Bob Zybach: Was it kind of a shocking event, big news?

Eugene Glender: Yeah, well, it wasn't too long after that was when the Camp wanted to buy it. He was in favor of selling then too, so

Bob Zybach: Did they continue living here after the fire?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Where did they live?

Eugene Glender: He was here someplace, I don't even know where he went after the fire.

Bob Zybach: But he stayed around the neighborhood?

Eugene Glender: He stifi owned the land and that any how.

Bob Zybach: Did hefann it still?

Eugene Glender: I can't remember.

Bob Zybach: How about his son did he have to go into the hospital or

Eugene Glender: Had to have been for a while.

Bob Zybach: But then he moved back with his dad and

Eugene Glender: Yeah, I don't know where they went after this.

Bob Zybach: What kind of house was it that burned?

Eugene Glender: It was a big two story house.

Bob Zybach: Pretty nice house?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Did it have a basement?

Eugene Glender: I don't think so, I don't know. I can't remember being in it.

Bob Zybach: Okay, and did it burn completely up or did it leave kind of a shell?

Eugene Glender: No, it burned, there was no way to put any fires out out here.

Bob Zybach: So it somebody had afire, they just

Eugene Glender: It just burned up.

Bob Zybach: Kind of like your house [Glender Fire, 1920] ?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Now, nobody was hurt in the fire at your house, was it?

Eugene Glender: No.

Bob Zybach: Was that basement in there when they built the new house? Was there already a basement there? Or did they just dig that out?

Eugene Glender: I don't think there was one. I couldn't tell you, I don't know.

Bob Zybach: So when the first [Glender] house burned they would have excavated out any remains of the house?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Built

Eugene Glender: And then rebuilt.

Bob Zybach: And that was built on the exact same spot?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: But this one here there has been nothing.

Eugene Glender: Nothing built since.

Bob Zybach: Okay, were there any other out buildings around here, barn or anything like that

Eugene Glender: Yeah, they had a barn, it was up ahead here a ways, back off there.

Bob Zybach: Was

Eugene Glender: He had some cattle, I think he raised some cattle.

Bob Zybach: Do you remember how big his place was?

Eugene Glender: No.

Bob Zybach: Okay.

Eugene Glender: It's a fair size place though.

Bob Zybach: But he only lived here five or six years when that happened?

Eugene Glender: Well, yeah, more of less. Maybe ten years, I don't know.

Bob Zybach: Can you remember your feelings when you heard about it?

Eugene Glender: Well, felt sorry for them.

Bob Zybach: Kind of a general sympathy, maybe.

Eugene Glender: Yeah, after he got over, I know, he went to high school a couple of years yet. I can't remember where ... I know where in the dickens they were living up here at that time then. See the school bus came here and picked him up.

Bob Zybach: So you took the school bus to high school?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Okay. Were there any buildings out to the left here?

Eugene Glender: Nothing here until you get up there. That's where Alvie Govier and that's ... he's the one that had the saw mill. If you want any information, some of their kids they had some girls.

Bob Zybach: Everybody had girls around here.

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Jan Meranda: [Jan] Except Glenders.

Bob Zybach: No wonder you played by yourself

Eugene Glender: Govier was all girls.

Bob Zybach: So, ... maybe we can ... I remember that the school and this here and I've got good

Bob Zybach: information on the school down there from Lorna Grabe'4. Now this field on our left was that Ehner Govier's?

14 Grabe, Lorna. Oral History presented in Monograph #1.

Eugene Glender: I don't know. I don't remember where the line fence was in here now.

Bob Zybach: Okay. Then the next place up was ... what was his name?

Eugene Glender: Govier.

Bob Zybach: But I mean, AWe?

Eugene Glender: Alvie.

Bob Zybach: Alvie Govier and he's still got descendants that live there?

Eugene Glender: I thinic so. They call that Govier Lane yet, I think, don't they? All a guy can do is find out sometime and go talk to them.

Bob Zybach: Okay, I think you've probably convinced me that I should talk to Goviers because they're in a d(ferent school district through here.

Eugene Glender: Yeah, you're getting ... here where

Bob Zybach: Right to the edge of what you're familiar with.

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Okay, on the Goviers, then there was the Soap Creek School down there that was built in 1932. So they stopped using this school down here?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: And they started going to that one. There was a sawmill around there, do you know anything about that?

Eugene Glender: I just know where it was, is all. See, it's just right there by the school.

Bob Zybach: Right next to the school?

Eugene Glender: Yeah, just past, you know, where that ... I think there's a road going up there.

Bob Zybach: Do you know about how far up the road it was?

Eugene Glender: Couple hundred yards maybe. It wasn't very far, I think you could see it from the road, they had a bunch of shacks along there where the people that worked there lived.

Bob Zybach: We're looking at the map here, ... what's the name of this place here that burnt?

Eugene Glender: Hildebrand.

Bob Zybach: Would this be the Govier mill right there?

Eugene Glender: That's possible.

Bob Zybach: Would it be up the road about that far?

Eugene Glender: It's possible. His, I don't think, you couldn't see his mill from the road.

Bob Zybach: So it was maybe a quarter mile off the road or third of a mile?

Eugene Glender: Probably.

Bob Zybach: Okay, and they logged up in these hills through here?

Eugene Glender: Yeah, he logged all that up in there.

Bob Zybach: Did anybody live in any mill shacks on their place?

Eugene Glender: As far as I know, I don't think he had any mill shacks.

Bob Zybach: So it was local people that worked there?

Eugene Glender: Yeah. His was more of just local.

Bob Zybach: What kind of mill was it?

Eugene Glender: Fir.

Bob Zybach: Was it pretty nice mill or just like all of them?

Eugene Glender: I don't know, I never saw it.

Bob Zybach: Never saw it, okay, well, don't need to ask any more question about that. You just knew they had it and Govier Mill.

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Were these hills logged offpretty much then?

Eugene Glender: Some places they were.

Bob Zybach: So it would be like ... kind of look like today?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Clear cuts here and there?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: How big were their dear cuts, forly acres any of them?

Eugene Glender: Oh, probably.

Bob Zybach: They didn't plant trees or anything, did they?

Eugene Glender: No.

Bob Zybach: Just came up into brush?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Would they run sheep or anything on the logged off areas, or cattle?

Eugene Glender: I don't think they ran anything up there, that I know of.

Bob Zybach: Do you know how they logged them, with horses?

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

Bob Zybach: Then

Eugene Glender: Probably had to have horses because there' was no

Bob Zybach: Cats or anything?

Eugene Glender: No.

Bob Zybach: How about spar trees, did you ever see any spar trees on the hills?

Eugene Glender: No. Nothing like that.

Bob Zybach: Okay, then this one down here, that's the mill next to the Soap Creek School.

Eugene Glender: Right by the school.

Bob Zybach: And you can't remember a name on that or anything?

Eugene Glender: No.

Bob Zybach: And there's a house just past that, do you know who lived in that house?

Eugene Glender: On the what ... right hand side?

Bob Zybach: That would be in the left hand side it looks like going up there. Let's start down here at Govier's, Alvie Govier's. Do you remember any of the families up past the Goviers?

Eugene Glender: No.

Bob Zybach: Bakers or Moores or

Eugene Glender: I know right across from it there used to be some named Soley.

Bob Zybach: Soley?

Eugene Glender: Yeah. But that's all I know is the name and I can't ... well, they lived there when we was here yet, so they were old people, but I just ... otherwise I don't, I can't.

Bob Zybach: Hosteters or

Eugene Glender: There could have been a lot of names in there, I don't.

Bob Zybach: Did you get up to Sulphur Springs ... how many times do you think you've been up to Sulphur Springs when you used to live here, that's quite a trip.

Eugene Glender: Oh, about six miles up there.

Bob Zybach: So, how many times do you think you went up to it?

Eugene Glender: I don't know, I have no idea.

Bob Zybach: Maybe ten or twenty?

Eugene Glender: Oh, probably more than that all together.

Bob Zybach: Ever fish up there?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Was that good fishing there too?

Eugene Glender: No, the creek too small. You don't catch very many, a few of them up there.

Bob Zybach: Did you drink the waxer?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: What did they tell you about drinking it?

Eugene Glender: Nothing, just that it's sulphur water.

Bob Zybach: Was it supposed to be healthy for you or anything?

Eugene Glender: I don't know.

Bob Zybach: Talking to a couple women in their nineties and they're saying we drank it for our health in those days. I was going, it must have worked.

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: They're in their nineties and they're clear headed and everything else.

Eugene Glender: Yeah, I don't know, I think it's all blocked off now, isn't it?

Bob Zybach: Yeah, a little bit, you can walk down there and there's still a slab there. Did they have any buildings or picnic tables or anything that you remember?

Eugene Glender: The CCCs built picnic tables.

Bob Zybach: The CCCs did? Did you call them CCs or CCCs?

Eugene Glender: CCCs, triple Cs wasn't it?

Bob Zybach: Yeah.

Eugene Glender: CCCs.

Bob Zybach: A lot of people call them the CCs?

Eugene Glender: Well, whatever they are.

Bob Zybach: Okay.

Eugene Glender: Same people I think.

Bob Zybach: Yeah. Do you remember when they caine in?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Did it make a big dfl'erence in the neighborhood here?

Eugene Glender: Oh, not really.

Bob Zybach: People like having them here?

Eugene Glender: Didn't bother anybody around here.

Bob Zybach: Didn't make any difference one way or the other?

Eugene Glender: No, not here.

Bob Zybach: Just when Adair came in, that was the big news?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: How about the Goviers, were they upset about Adair?

Eugene Glender: I don't know if they were or not, because they didn't have to move.

Bob Zybach: Oh, I see, so they got to stay here. Just you people down there that got involved?

Eugene Glender: Yeah.

Bob Zybach: Was there anybody that ... well, and then some offanilies like this one here liked them moving in because they wanted to move out.

Eugene Glender: Because see this side of the road now was.., they could either sell it or keep it.

Bob Zybach: Oh, they had the option. We're right up to about that bounda?y there aren't we?

Eugene Glender: Yeah. Elmer, I think he sold his and Alvie, I think ... I'm not sure now whether he kept his or sold his. I think they kept theirs.

Bob Zybach: Okay. Up at Sulphur Springs what was the attraction for going there, why would people go there?

Eugene Glender: Just a place to go.

Bob Zybach: Just a destination?

Eugene Glender: Picnic area.

Bob Zybach: Were there any other picnic areas where people went?

Eugene Glender: No.

Bob Zybach: That was the only one?

Eugene Glender: The only one around here.

Bob Zybach: Okay. People camp there?

Eugene Glender: I never did see anybody camp there.

Bob Zybach: Would anybody go there to deer hunt?

Eugene Glender: Well, mostly that was all in college use, it was all closed to hunting.

Bob Zybach: Okay. So when the college got the ground in there, they closed it to hunting?

Eugene Glender: Yeah. Well, that was ... that was college ground for a long time, see all this ... over on top of the hill and across was always college.

Bob Zybach: So they just called it college ground?

Eugene Glender: Yeah. That was original.