Page 12 RAIN October 1976 This is a somewhat·shortened version of a piece sent to Joel and Sherri Davidson of . · Living in the Ozarks. They didn't.have room for it, so they sent it on to·us. Dulcie Brown . now lives at 2412 E. Thomas Street, Fresno, California 93702. · Pioneering Commuri by Grandma Brown My parents ~ere Americans from several branches of American pioneers ahd in their youth traveled the Oregon Trail with their parents, at different times, not knoWing each other until aft(!rward. They had the knowledge of homesteading and of mutual survival techniques. A man had to know a number of skills: the care of livestock, the maintenance of equipment, building of fences, houses and out-buildings, how.to sink a well, when to plant, when to harvest, and many other things. He could well have passed college exams in husbandry as well as give the college afew pointers not included in their courses. Although many of them were somewhat short on sophisticated education, theirs was education of a different sort, based upon experiments of their ancestors in America. · :My maternal grandfather chose mountain farming and had an up and down farm at Beaver, Oregon, whilemy other grandpa chose to live near the sea at Tillamook. He was a . carpenter. My young parents, during their first years of marriage, lived in the deep forest and peeled tan bark. Now this is the taking of bark from certain·1trees to be used for tanning, but without permanently injuring the trees. They kept two horses, 13 sheep, bees, pigs, a cow, and chickens. · I was the first born, and when I was three we traveled from Tillamook County to Lane County, and my father took a timber claim near Springfield. The trip was made via covered wagon, and I can remember how it rained just about all the way, the horses sometimes walking in water up to their knees; drawing the wagon over graveled roads. We.would have to find a barn by nightfall to shelter the team or they would be sick. The community was well established, but there was one remaining parcel of 13 T acres, which my father filed claim to. But there was a sizable stream running·alorig the roadside edge of it and the strip was occupied by a man named Putnam, as well as the rest of his acres along the side of ours. Upon this strip there was a.maple grove and two springs, and Mr. Putnam I i L __ _ was charging campers 25¢ a night to camp there. ]:>eople were litterbugs in those days too, and the grove and the creek were full of pollution. The whole acreage was one jungle of tall trees, underbi:'"Ush and foliage, woven together with vines. Space for living had to ·be cleared. It was an insurmountable job for one man with nothing but a saw and some axes. But we weren't alone." Soon our forest rang with the sound of ax and saw and calls of ''Timber." The men of the community made short work of it, and soon there was space for a ra.ad, a barn·and a house. The logs were trimmed and sent to the government sawmill up on the hill. And it caine backneatly sawed into lengths of lumber for building. It was stacked o"n the property and left to season. · For a while my father helped Mr. Donaldson on his place, but there was need for a man to work at the sawmill. The government furnished but one overseer at the mill, and the rest of the labor had to be voluntary. There were three government houses at the mill, and one was vacant, so we moved up there for a time. My father was doing his part for his community, the other two families for theirs. · Times when there was no work at the mill, Dad was doing. , things on his place. Having a great deal of skill and knowledge from his carpenter father, he began to erect a barn. Grandpa came by and said, "You don't have enough tools." So in no time Grandpa's.set of complete carpenter tools arrived by· freight. In those days a carpenter did everything necessary when building a house. So there were sets of saws, hammers of several weights; tools for building fireplaces, putting in window sash, installing locks, hanging doors.and installing pipe. There .were levels and planes and chisels and files and screw . drivers. And countless other gadgets, all useful. They were·. ·made of the finest materials imported from Germany. (My people were not German; they were Irish.) Grandpa and Dad finished the barn. On one side were the stables, in the center a place to house wagons and buggy. And . on .the other side bins, a tool room and a bunk room complete . with bunks on the wall and a pot-bellied stove. It was large, that barn. Iri the top of the middle section was the place for storing hay, the hay mow. A one-room house was built as temporary living space, and we moved down from the mountain. Dad made some chairs and tables, and Mr, Donaldson gave us the.stove from the hop house. We had brought beds and some other articles with us from Tillamook. The spring was some d.istance from the house, and wa.ter had to be carried from it until Dad drove down a · pipe and installed a hand pump_. The first winter on the homestead was a bad one. To begin with it was good because there was a barn warming and neigh~ bars came bringing gifts. One brought a young black gelding named Barney, another a milch cow, another a pregnant sow, chickens, hives of bees, a heifer calf, seeds and sprouts for planting, and one barefoot little boy came clutching a brindle kitten which he presented to me. I also had a dog named Brian .that my maternal grandfather had given me when we left. He
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