Document text
Accession no.
W 9622
Date received
10/10/40
Consignment no.
1
Shipped from
lash. Office
Label
Amount 7p.
U"4'1044.113
WPA L. C. PROJECT Writers,
Form -3
UNIT
Folklore coljection (or Type)
aformanti
Place of origin..2.11rnalli......01111g0.R.
Project
Project editor
Remarks
Form A Federal Writers' Project
Circumstances of Interview Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker Manly M. Banister
Address 2071 S.W. Park Ave., Portland
Date March 30, 1939
Subject Pioneer Railroad Life
Name and address of informant Mr. Dan Cummius
2821 S.E. Franklin Ave., Portland
Date and time of interview Iarch 29_, 1939
.Place of interview 2821 S.E. Franklin Ave.
Name and address of person, if any, who put you in touch with informant
Jo Brough, Treves Hotel
Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you None
Description of room, house, surroundings, etc. The house is a modest little
cottage in the district a few blocks from. Commerce High School. It is well
furnished although nothing swanky; the home of an average workingman who has
managed to make his money go some distance.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the proper heading
and the number to which the material refers).
W22
Form B
Federal Writers' Project
Personal History of- Informant Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLFIGRE STUDIES
Name of worker Manly M. Banister Date March 30, 1939
Address 2071 S.W. Park Avenue, Portland
Subject Pioneer Railroad Life
Name and address of informant Mr. Dan Cummings
2821 S. E. Franklin Ave., Portland
,,btained shoul.d supply thE. 4'olt-)ovin•J,
1. A-Icecury 6, C: r.6 ac.:cm2lisYmeats with dates
2. FlcAce end date of birth 7.. Cre-ir.. iL, s
3. F-)1,,ily. 8, ["'="-lui. r,,71s,:,u,, activities
4. Place,- lived in, with dates 9,
5. Education, with dates 10. Other po_Lats gaallect in interview
1. Of Irish and Scotch descent.
2. Born June 20, 1872; Fall River, Massachusetts.
3. Has wife, a son and a daughter living. One daughter dead.
4. Has lived in Oregon past 50 years; mainly in and about Portland.
5. Very little education. Went to work very young.
6. Did a little logging, but has mainly been a railroad man all his life.
7. Been too busy railroading to have interest in anything else.
9. A tall, sparse man, dry in appearance and speech. Palpably uneducated,
but milling to cooperate.
10. Member of Brotherhood of Railroad Trainsmen since 1898. Leans toward the
Presbyterian church.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the proper heading
and the number to which the material refers).
Form C Federal Writers' Project
Text of Interview (Unedited) Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker
Address
Manly M. Banister Date Mar. 30, 1939
2071 S. W. Park Ave., Portland
Subject
Pioneer Railroad Life
Name and address of informant Mr. Dan Cummings
2821 S. E. Franklin Ave., Portland
Text:
I went to work for the Northwestern Construction Co., when they started
building a railroad in 1896. A. B. Hammond WAS the main guy. Before that, the
only means of transportation was by steamboat. Logging was the only thing going
on down along the coast, and they built the railroad from Astoria to Goble to
join with the Northern Pacific. They certainly done a great passenger business.
I can remember that for twenty-six months the fare was 25X from Portland to
Astoria. They were competing with the boats. Boatfare was fifty cents, but they
threw in a dinner. The fare between points WAS *2.00, but it wasn't much of a
trick at 'tween points to get hold of a through ticket and ride for twenty-five
cents.
That was in 1902 or 3, and I was brakeman at the time.
Before this road was built there was a railroad across Young's Bay,
running to Seaside. There was no Young's Bay Bridge at that time.. They had an old
fashioned wood -burner --that was the only fuel then, and a man named Stoner was part
owner. Nhen the road from Goble to Astoria was built, the two merged, and he was
made an engineer on the line.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the heading given
above).
Dan Cummings Form C 2.
Then they built the branch road at Young's Bay and through trans-
portation was established from Portland to Seaside.
I remember a bad wreck we had below Linnton. Train 54 left Portland
loaded with stock and I was braking on the passenger train from Astoria. The
stock train overlooked its hand and we had a meet near Holbrook. Some of the
stock and several of the passengers were killed, but I WAS way down near the
end and I didn't know what was going on up by the engines. I flagged all that
night until the wrecker came from Tacoma in the morning. A big nigger came along
and his eyes were rolling in his head.
"Mani" he said, "De people's all dead, de cattle's all dead... dey's
dead ones piled all over like sticks of cordwood."
Well, it wasn't quite that bad, but it was a bad one, all right. Then
we had another wreck down at a place called Bugaby Hole, near Westport. It was a
stormy night and the rain was coming down in sheets. The hillside was loosened
with the soaking it got and down it came in a big slide, pushing the engine and
the lead cars into the river. The engineer was killed, but the fireman floated out
on the wood and so he was saved.
The railroad company had a contract to haul stone from this same place.
The chief engineer dug a hole in the rock back under the mountain and planted
about a carload of dynamite. Then he moved all his equipment to a place of
safety and touched her off. When this thing went up it took them three or four
weeks to dig it out, because the whole mountain came down and slid into the bay.
The people across the bay were nearly drowned in the great tidal wave that rushed
out. They couldn't even get in there with cars and had to take the stone out on
boats.
I was very good on logs in those days. I had been a logger and I WAS
quite nimble of foot. There hapnened to be a regatta at Astoria, with a fifty
Dan Cummings Form C 3.
dollar prize posted for the winner of a log -rolling contest. One of the guys
was from Michigan and he boasted to be pretty good; in fact, he said he was
the best log -roller in the west. Well, when it came time for the match the other
guy didn't show up. The officials were worried as the devil, then some one told
them I was good on logs and I'd be in on the two -thirty train. They were all there
along with the sheriff to meet me when the train came in and they put up the pro-
position. There wasn't anybody else wanted to take on this fellow from Michigan.
I didn't have any caulks and I wasn't particularly keen about it and I said so.
But they wouldn't hear of my refusing. They got a pair of boots from somebody at
the sawmill and gave them to me. Half the caulks were missing, and besides they
were worn out aid hardly any good at all.
It was a light cedar log we were to roll, and I got -out there with my
heart in my mouth. I had never rolled with anybody like that fellow. But he
was too confidant, because it wasn't long before he missed his footing and in
he went. Well, the contest was two duckings out of three, so he climbed back
on and we went at it again. I knew I could win easy this time because he was
met and I was dry. Be couldn't move as nimbly as I could. In he went again,
and I collected my fifty dollars. All the fellows from the railroad stood by
on the tops of box cars and watched, and they sure cheered me.
A fellow brakeman slapped me on the shoulder and said:
"I guess you showed him who was the best roller.'"
"Bell," I said. "Best roller nothing. I had to win that contest."
"Bad to win?" said this fellow.
"Sure," I said. "You see, I can't swim and I might have drowned.*
I remember the time too we came into Portland with a bunch of loggers
in the smoker. I had a devil of a time with them because they were all drunk,
Form C 4.
Dan Cummings
so 'I locked them into the smoker and let them fight. Would you believe it, when we
got into Portland, there wasn't a window in that car. It was things like that we
had to contend with.
When I stayed in Portland, I stayed at the American Hotel down near the
depot. There is a mark on its wall to this day showing the height of water in
the flood of 94. I remember haw the loggers used to OOMB to town gad get drunk
and roar around. Than they'd push the poor Chinamen out into the flood waters,
and you'd see them out there with their cues floating out in the water, trying to
swim or splash their way out.
It WAS always things like that we had to contend with. Times were
wild in those days.
Form D
Extra Comment Works Progress Administration
Federal Writers' Project
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker Manly M. Banister ,Date March 30, 1939
Address 2071 S.W. Park
Subject Pioneer Railroad Life
Name and address of informant Mr. Dan Cummings
2821 S.E. Franklin Ave., Portland
Comment:
Mr. Cummings is a willing enough talker, but he says his memories
come to him slowly. It might be advisable at some future time to interview
him again, but he discouraged the idea of returning at once. He could tell a
lot about the early railroading once he got his mind to working.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the heading given
above).