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Geliesis
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0/11
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Form -3
Collection (or Type)
-r-e.esasfsfz-erig-'
Title
Place of origine
Date'//'1P
Form A Federal Writers' Project
Circumstances of Interview Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker Manly M. Banister Date January 6, 1939.
Address 2071 SW Park Avenue. Portland.
Subject v/ Oregon Mines and Mining Life.
Name and address of informant Mrs. Kitty Gray
1814 SE Madison Street
Date and time of interview January 5, 1939.
Place of interview
1814 SE Madison Street. Portland.
kerne and address of person, if any, who put you in touch with informant Her nephew,
John W. Shea, of the Oregon Historical Records Survey staff.
Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you None
Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
The house is a large, two story one, containing four flats, each of
which has a door opening into a common front hall below. Mrs. Gray was visit-
ing her sister, Mrs. Shea, at the apartment designated D. This flat is on the
lower floor, west. It is well -furnished and comfortable, but not opulent.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the proper heading
and the number to which the material refers).
W1,3500
Form B
Federal. Writers' Project
Personal History of Informant Works PI -ogress Administration
OREGON FOLKWRE STUDIES
Name of worker Manly M. Banister Date January 6, 1939.
Address 2071 SW Park Avenue, Portland
Subject Oregon Mines and Mining Life.
Name and address of informant Mrs. Kitty Gray.
1814 SE Madison Street, Portland.
Information obtained should supply the following facts:
1. Ancestry 6. Occupations and accomplishments with dates
2. Place and date of birth 7. Special skills and interests
3. Family 8. Community and religious activities
4. Places lived in, with dates 9. Description of informant
5. Education, with dates 10. Other points gained in interview
Mrs. Gray was born in Knoxville, Iowa, October 8, 1857. She lived in
Corydon, Iowa, until 1862, when the family came to Oregon. She has four daughters,
three grandsons, four granddaughters, three great-granddaughters, and one great-
grandson. She lives now in Salem.
Mrs. Gray is a very small woman, but she appears bright and intelligent.
As she talked, she rested both hands in her lap, and these shook continually with
palsy. She remarked that a year ago she could have said more than now, for her
memory is not so good.
Given in her own words, this is Mrs. Gray's personal history:
"I first came to Oregon in 1862, by ox team. We landed in Oregon with
a horse,a caw, and half a wagon. The wagon had broken dawn on the way and we cut
it down to two wheels to finish the trip. My father helped build the whole town of
La Grande. He was S. cabinet maker, and he made the first furniture used in Grand
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the proper heading
and the number to which the material refers).
Form B Cont'd 2.
Ronde Valley. Be organized the Odd Fellows Lodge in La Grande, and other plaoes
around there. I will say too that I helped build all the different churches,
because I went around singing, playing, and collecting money for them. My father
was the first treasurer appointed by Governor Gibbs in Eastern Oregon. It was all
Union County then. There was no Baker County like there is today.
"My brother was the first white child born in the Grand Ronde Valley.
His name was Harry Kinsey. That was in the Valley just out of La Grande. The
place was called Iowa Settlement, about ten miles from La Grande, because the
people who settled there were all from Iowa.
"I belong to the Presbyterian Church now, but all my life until late
years I was a Methodist. Our home was the home of all the Methodist ministers
who came to eastern Oregon. They all made their homes with us. There was Father
Flynn, Reverend Hines, and a number of others.
"My father had a furniture store and kept everything necessary for
building purposes. He contracted to build the first building in La Grande.
"When we first came to Oregon we landed under Mt. EMily, in the Grand
Ronde Valley, and there we stayed. The mountain was named after EMily Munsey, who
was in our train. W. took up land there like all the settlers did. But there was
a reason for our coming. My father was in the Army and he contracted a severe cold.
They thought he wasn't going to live, so they discharged him, and he came last for
his health, intending to go to California. By the time the train got to the Grand
Ronde country, everybody had lost so much stock that they took up claims there in
the Valley. They were afraid to go on for fear of losing everything they had, and
they decided they might as well stop here as long as they had something left.
"My father went in to La Grande and built a store for Wilkinson. Also
he built a flouring mill for a man named Mastilla. That was. the beginning of the
Form B Cont'd 3.
town of La Grande. My father did fine work with the lathe. He made cane bottom
chairs for the people, and they were glad to buy them because they needed them.
*ffe lived on the farm four years and then went in to town because my
father was not able to do farming. I can remember yet how it looked there. There
was only one street with buildings on both sides.
"We had a large family I had three sisters and four brothers.
sisters are all living, but two of my brothers are dead.
"I can remember when Lincoln was assassinated. My, there was such a
lot of excitement. Nobody slept at all the night after we heard about it
MY
There were big fires kept blazing along the street and in the square and the people
milled around, talking about what had happened. It was a long time after it
actually happened, of course, before we heard about it, but that didn't make the
news any the less exoitirle."
Form C Federal Writers' Project
Text of Interview (Unedited) Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker Manly M. Banister Date January 6, 1938
Address 2071 SW Park Avian., Portland
Subject Oregon Mines and Mining Life
Name and address of informant Mrs. Kitty Gray
1814 SE Madison Street, Portland
Text: You ought to see my daughter about Cornucopia —she can remember a lot
more about it than I do. She lived there for a number of years --but she lives
in Salsa now, so I suppose, you wouldn't be able to see her. I don't know exactly
what you want, but I will tell what I can remember and you can make what you want
to out of it. You know, a lot of those towns in eastern Oregon have came to life
again, and among them Cornucopia. Robert Betts is general manager there.
Well, I got to Cornuoopia twentp.two years ago —that was in 1916. There
were probably two or three saloons at that time, a couple of hotels, a post office,
and a number of other buildings. There was a blacksmith shop, too, and the mines
were operating at full tilt. There were possibly a hundred and fifty or two
hundred men, all told. It is a wonder they didn't have their ore stolen, they
took scarcely any care of it, but they never had any trouble. It would be a
great deal different nowadays.
I know more about the Columbia Nine, west of Baker, than I do about
Cornucopia. It was awned by the Cable boys. It could have been my father's,
but he chose the Esmeralda. The Cables finally sold out to the Georgia Company.
Walter Meechan's father was the superintendent, and they tried to make away with
some of the gold, but they weren't successful at it.
(Use as many addiuional sheets as necessary, each bearing the heading given
above).
Form C. cont'd. 2.
I took care of the boarding house for them, and my father did the timber-
ing in the mine. There were about a hundred men at work there in the woods and the
nines. I said they sold the mine to the Georgia Company, but instead I meant
they leased it to than. I remember it well. The lease was to expire one Monday
at noon and the company wanted to take up their lease again, and they wanted to
get it cheaper than they had before. Of course, if the mine were really rich,
the Cable boys wanted it for themselves. But the company knew this, and they
wanted it too, so instead of following the main lead, they ran off at an angle
into ordinary rock. They thought the Cable boys would know this and figure the
mine was running out, so they would be willing to continue the lease at any
figure. Well, I knew there was some sort of skullduggery afoot, The Cable
boys investigated, of course, before renewing the lease, and when they found
out what the company had done, they refused to renew. Frank Bailey was the
superintendent there. Mr. Packwood VAS a bookkeeper seven years, and his son
was a store keeper. They took millions out of that nine. My husband was
cyanide man in the mill.
The Esmeralda Mine was three and a -half miles up in the mountains from
Cornucopia, and seven and a -.half miles from Sumpter. That is the one my father
bought. We built fifteen miles of roads and fixed the place all up for opera-
tion, with a five stamp mill and everything. We operated one season, then a
snawslide took out everything, mill, houses, stores, stables and everything.
It broke us up for about 00,000 and that was the end of the Esneralda Mine.
In the Columbia district, on Cable Cove, the Cable brothers had mines
on a paying basis. They were about three and a -half miles west of us. Then
there is the Ibex Mine that was working about the same time. The Red Bay,
awned by Godfrey, employed a great number of men. They sent out more bullion
from that part of the country than from all the other mines put together, I guess.
Form C. cont'd.
3.
Then there was the Baizy Elkhorn --Mr. Shea, my sister's husband, used
to be stationary engineer there, and my husband worked as cyanide man for about
five years before they closed down. I managed the boarding house, and when it
came time to bring in the payroll, I was always called on; because they figured
no one would suspect a woman of bringing in the money. I used to carry it in
a potato sack, or in an old suitcase, or among a box of groceries and supplies
anyway so that people wouldn't suspect I had it. I was never molested, either,
and I always got the money through. The Red Boy was west of Baker and Sumpter,
and so was the Ibex. The Baizy Elkhorn was between these mines and Baker, on
the upper side of the Elkhorn Mountains. Nearby there is a mine that is being
worked now.
The accidents were quite exciting-- men were always getting blown to
bits. I remember I had the boarding house at the North Pole Nine, and there
was a young man who used to pass the boarding house every morning on his way
to work. We were quite friendly, and he was an awfully nice young man; he
would wave at me every morning, and sometimes he would stop to talk for a few
minutes if he had the time. Then one morning he went in to drill --they had
planted a charge that didn't go off and he didn't knew it. He drilled right
into it and was almost blown to bits. They called me down there in a hurry
to take care of him. My, he was a sight. Both of his eyes were blown out.
I picked rocks out of his face and chest and took care of him, and bandaged
him all up. But there wasn't much could be done for him. He died four days
afterward. Then there was another man who was picking in the mines. Somehow
his pick struck, slipped, and bounced back and the steel stuck right in the top
of his head. They got it out and bandaged his head and it looked like he was
going to be all right. He played his violin that night at a dance, and the
next day he suddenly died. I remember two young men were fighting dawn the
Farm C. cont'd. 4.
street a mays from the boarding house. I saw them and ran out, intending to
stop them if I could, but before I could get there, one of them pulled out a
knife and struck at the other.
opened his mouth up clear back
and bandaged him up, aid later
The blade caught him right in the mouth and
as far as it could go. I took him in the house
he went into town to the hospital. The doctors
said there he had been well taken care of and didn't even take off the bandage
I had put on. He got all right, though, and he was back at work later.
The most exciting time we had was at the Columbia. Mr. Bailey
always had trouble with his
ing house. I never did any
there was a commotion going
cooks, so he sent me to take charge of the board
cooking --I just managed. I went down there, and
on all right. For some reason or other, the miners
weren't going to let the two hoist men work. Mr. Bailey said, "le are going
to have trouble." He had sent into town for the officers to come out, mad he
wanted dinner prepared for the officers when they got there.
growling and grumbling and acting nasty, and he wasn't going
He swore he wouldn't get any dinner for the officers because
The cook was
to let me stay there.
he was in sympathy
with the trouble at the mine. But they couldn't bluff me. I picked up a big
meat cleaver and stood by the door.
"Now get to work," I said. "The first man that tries to leave this
kitchen will get this cleaver right between the eyes."
They went to work and got dinner. The officers came and arrested the
men who were causing the trouble. They had taken the clothes off the two hoist
men end sent them off naked. But I ruled the men pretty well. We had more
trouble with the cooks than with anyone else. They were always getting drunk.
I celebrated my silver wedding at the Columbia Mine. A lady from
London was there with her friend, a sea captain, and we showed them all through
the mine. We had a great time.
Form C. Cont'd.
5.
When our folks first located the mines a funny thing happened. There
were a lot of Indians around there, but they liked my father. He had befriended
oneof them once by saving his baby from sickness, so they all looked up to him.
One day he put on a pot of beans to cook, then went away to work. While he was
gone, an old Indian came in and ate the beans. Of course, they had hardly
started to cook, but he ate them anyway. A few days later they found him dead
in the brush. The uncooked beans he had eaten all swelled up in his stomach
and sort of put a stop to his career. I guess he was a surprised Indian all
right.
The Virtue Mine WAS one of the richest mines in the country. Mr.
Virtue was afterwards in the banking business in Baker City. I don't knew
much about the place, but I remember I went down once into the shaft and picked
up pieces of gold from the floor.
The Flagstaff Mine and the Bonanza Mine were owned by the Geyser
brothers. They shipped ore out of there for years. It WAS extremely rich, and
it first began as a placer mine —like the old Nelson Mine.
Firm D
E.7*ra Comment Works ProL:ress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker Manly M. Banister
Federal Writers' Project
Address 2071 SW Park Avenue, Portland
,Date Jan. 6, 1939
Subject Oregon Mines mad Mining Life
Name and address of informant Mrs. Kitty Grm_
1814 SE Madison, Portland
Comment: Mrs. Gray spoke very law, and quite slowly, so that I was enabled to
take oopious notes on what she said. However, her talk was expressionable and
interesting, and I have an idea more might be learned from her if we could
interview her at various tines, but that is almost impossible, since she is
returning in a few days to Salem, where she makes her home.
When she had concluded her story, she said:
"That's about all I can think of right now. I know it isn't much,
but maybe if you should come around some time in the middle of the night when
I can't sleep, I could tell you lots more."
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the heading given
above).