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Accession no.
Site. 42AOSE- )ittr4i6'
Form -3
UNIT
Wa2
Date received
/0/(06/0
Consignment no.
Shipped fro
Label
Amount
f1/9
Title
Collection (or Type)
Place of originif ervi--Date"
Project worker
Project editor
Remarks
%A/1227
Form A Federal Writerst Project
Circumstances of Interview Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker A. C. Sherbert,
Address Project Office
Subject Lo. gtL:6 cm°7;_e_wilL
Date January 3, 1939
Name and address of infcrmfint
Louis Schumacher, 1204 N. E. 53d Avenue,
Portland, Oregon.
Date and time of interview December 27, P.M., December 28, P.M.
Place of interview Informant's place of business, corner Third and Main Sta.
Name and address of person, if any, who put you in touch with informant
Howard MCK Corning, from item in Oregon Journal, Portland.
Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you None
Description of room, house, surroundings, etc. Interview conducted in furrier's
workshop in rear of salesroom. Salesroom modestly equipped and occupies major
portion of single store building. Workshop an organized clutter of furrier's tools
and implements, raw furs, finished furs, and fur garments in various stages of
completion.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the proper heading
and the number to which the material refers).
Form B Federal *.itersi Project
Personal History of Informant Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKWRE STUDIES
Name of worker A. C. Sherbert
Address Project Office.
Subject Folklore and Social -Ethnic Trends,
Date January 3, 1939.
Name and address of informant Louis Schumacher, 1204 N.E. 53d Avenue,
Portland, Oregon.
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
1. Not known.
2. Baden, Germany, December 6, 1868.
3. Five girls and four boys Esther, Frieda, Bertha, Louisa, Lillian;
Carl, Fred, Ben and George.
4. Baden, Germany, 1868 to 1882. Walla ftl/a, Wash., 1882 to 1887.
U. S. Army in Arizona, 1887 to 1889.
U. S. Army, Walla walla, lash., 1889 to 1891.
Tacoma, Washington 1891.
Portland, Oregon 1892 and thereafter.
5. Elementary sohools in Germany.
6. Cavalry training in U. S. Army Expert furrier thereafter.
7. Interested in hiking and mountain climbing -skilled when younger.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the proper heading
and the number to which the material refers).
Louis Schumacher Form B 2.
8. Methodist Sunday school teacher and superintendent for 46 years.
9. Slight of build, gray or hair, firm of feature; active, quick in movement,
erect in carriage.
10. Because of exemplary habits, informant missed the spice and color which centered
around the livelier haunts of western men of a couple of generations ago. Abiding
by the tenants of his religion, he never attended a dance in his life, thumbing
his bible while others danced the schottische and polka. Be knew what went on
in Portland's early -day famous, or infamous, resorts only by hearsay, or what he
could see from the fresh -air side of the swinging doors.
Form C Federal Writers' Project
Text of Interview (Unedited) Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker A. C. Sherbert Date January 3, 1939.
Address Project Office
Subject Folklore and Soeial-Ethnio Trends
Name and address of informant
Portland, Oregon.
Louis Schumacher, 1204 N. B. 53d Avenues
Text:
I was born 70 years ago in Baden, Germany, not far from the famous
1 comic opera town of Heidelberg. As a young lad I thought Heidelberg was the
sA
center of the universe, and I guess I wasn't far wrong, either, at that time,
because before the World War, Heidelberg VIA a recognized center for the world's
best artists, greatest musicians, and most celebrated scientists, doctors, and
teachers. I suppose all that's changed now, in fact I know it is, from what I
read sad learn from people who have been over there in recent years.
All the schooling that I received, I got in Baden before I was four-
teen years of age. My eduoation probably corresponded to what would be called
'grammar school' in this country. I'm not making too many apologies for the
extent of my schooling, though, because when I came to this country at the age of
fourteen, it wasn't often that a common jerker met an American who had very much
education. Things weren't quite so easy fifty-five or sixty years ago as they are
today. Not many persons thought it was necessary to have a college degree in order
to earn a living. Most young fellows were expected to learn some kind of a trade
that is, unless they were living.on a farm and the sooner they could begin learning
their trades the better. Strangely enough, I left Germany before being apprenticed
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the heading given
above).
Louis Schumacher Form C 2.
out in a trade, like most German boys were. If I had been, my later life would
perhaps have been an entirely different story.
When I am asked if there has been any excitement in my life, I have to
laugh. Sure there has. I think you mould have to look a long way until you found
any man 70 years on this old earth, who hasn't had his share of excitement. Of
course some folks run into more excitement than others, and what I might call the
exciting incidents of my life might not seam exciting to others who have had more
exciting things hoppen to them. When I think back, it was even exciting coming
over to America on a ship, in those days. It took weeks to came across. They
make it now in four days. The little ships of those times were so long on the
way over that they were almost certain to run into at least one bad storm, before
they reached this side. And the ships were so smell compared to today's big
floating cities, that even a mall storm seemed big enough to suit anyone.
Upon landing in this country I headed straight for Walla Walla, Washington,
where I had friends. I did farm work and short -time jobs, but didn't find anything
that I liked at first. At the age of eighteen I decided I mould like to be a
soldier, so I enlisted in the U. S. Army, and was sent to Arizona, where I soldier
ed\f.
or two years with Troup Iff, 4th Calvary. After two years in Arizona my outfit
was transferred to Walla Walla, which suited me fine. I have always been very
proud of my four years in the Army.
One exciting incident which occurred during my service in the Army, though
it didn't happen to me and I had no part in it, I always like to repeat: In the
90's, Walla Walla was a wide-open town gambling houses and all sorts of rowdy
places in operation night and day. Walla Walla was a military post town, and the
soldiers went a long way toward supporting these sporting places. At the time this
incident happened, I was on furlough in Portland. On January 8, 1891, one of my
Louis Schumacher Form C 3.
buddies, a trooper from 4th Cavalry, was shot through the stomach by a gambler
named Hunt, in a gambling house. My buddie died a couple of days later. He was
well liked by the rest of my buddies and they were so riled up over the shooting
that they swore to get the gambler if it was the last thing they did. Hunt was in
the jail in Walla Willa, but some of his friends were raising money to get him
bailed out. This made the soldiers madder than ever, and they decided to do some-
thing about it. Although the post commander had forbid any trooper to go into the
town of Willa Walla, about sixty soldiers vent to town with their carbines on their
shoulders, and demanded that the sheriff turn Hunt over to them. The sheriff
refused to give them the key to Hunt's cell, so the troopers threatened to dynamite
the jail. The sheriff finally decided that the soldiers meant business and thought
he might as well give them the key, as to refuse and have them carry out their
threat. My buddies took Hunt outside onto the jail lawn at 1 o'clock in the morn-
ing, and dropped him with a volley from their carbines. Following the affair the
colonel of our regiment was demoted, as punishment for his laxity in the matter,
though it really wasn't his fault in any way.
I was mustered out of the army, April 8, 1891, with the rank of sergeant.
I worked for a few months at various jobs around Walla Walla, after which I went
to Tacoma to look for work. I wasn't able to find anything to do in Tacoma, so I
came to Portland. And here's a thing that always puzzles anyone who interviews me
and asks when I left Tacoma and when I came to Portland. I always say I left
Tacoma in 1891, and then when they ask *When did you come to Portland?" I answer,
"in 1892". They they ask, *Where did you go in the meantime?" And I smilingly
answer, "no place I came directly from Tacoma to Portland." No one seems to
think such a thing could be possible, but it's all very simples I left Tacoma
a few minutes before midnight New Year's eve of 1891 =dyes on the train en route
to Portland while the new year was being ushered in. When I arrived in Portland it
Louis Schumacher Form C 4.
was 1892, of course.
When I got my first glimpse of Portland it was a hustling town of probably
sixty thousand people, or so. Sidewalks were wooden, streets were plank, wood-
block, or mud. A horse -car line ran the length of Third street. The chief topic
of conversation was the flood, which they had experienced a short while before I
came here. Portland seemed to be pretty busy and everyone seemed to have jobs
at that time, though all over the country a panic was beginning to grow worse
and worse, reaching a climax in 1893. I landed a job right away, helping to
build the old cable carline that used to run up to Portland Heights. When this
job petered out I got a job working on the new Bull Run water pipeline.
Another exciting incident in my life, which came to me because of my army
training, happened when I answered an advertisement in the paper which reads
'Wanted: Young man, ex -cavalryman preferred'. Well, that was me, so I answered
the ad. A bank had been robbed in the east and the robbers were supposed to have
hidden somewhere in eastern Oregon. I was sworn in as a deputy sheriff and my
job was to help run down the robbers and murderers they had killed a bank official
during the robbery. I went to The Dalles and from there, with several other
deputies, we left on horseback for the vicinity of Condon, where we captured the
robbers. They were sent back east to stand trial, but were released for lack of
evidence. Well that ended that job and I was once more looking for work.
I wasn't very well satisfied with myself at about this point in my life.
Here was I, a big strong lad, not getting any younger and no trade learned yet.
I had had a lot of different kinds of experience but none that you could call a
real trade or that you could hope to build much of a future on. I came to the
decision that I would have to start at the bottom in some good business, and learn
all there was to know about it, if I wanted to get any place in this world. I also
Louis Schumacher Form C 5.
made up my mind that I wouldn't be too particular about wages until I had learned
whatever trade I decided to go into. My chance came when the Silverfield Fur
Company, of Portland, wanted a young man to learn fur cutting. They offered me the
job and I took it. I've never been sorry. The fur business is very exacting and
it isn't everyone who can make good at it. It is also one of the most highly com-
petitive businesses there are. You can can either make a lot of money in it, or,
if you don't know your stuff, you can go broke in one season of bad buying. I
worked for the Silverfield Fur Co., for ten years, and then went into business for
myself.
I hadn't worked for the Silverfield's very long before they began to realize
that I caught on to the fur business quickly. Lots of crooked work in buying pelts,
but it wasn't long until I could tell to a plugged penny what a pelt was worth. In
1897 they trusted me with my first really important jobs Going to Alaska to buy
seal furs directly from the Indians. I made numerous trips for them after that,
until I started business for myself. And so my future was finally mapped out for
me. I was to become a furrier to stick to the business for the rest of my days.
No more running around from pillar to post doing odd jobs. In 1893, with the
security of a fairly good job and fine prospects for the future, I decided it was
high time I got married. I had found the girl of my choice Elizabeth Hagar, a
Swiss, born in Canton Berne, Switzerland, and employed in the household of the Ladd
family. We were married February 24, 1893 by Reverend George Bauer. We raised a
fine family of nine children, all living and doing well. Christmas 1938 there were
forty-four of us, children, grand children, and in-laws, gathered around the
Schumacher Christmas tree. Not bad, eh? In 1904 I quit my job with Silverfield's
and opened a small shop for myself at the west end of the old Madison bridge. It
was quite a struggle at first, but I had acquired a small following and I worked
Louis Schumacher Form C 6.
hard, night and day I had to, because the stork was beginning to camp on our
doorstep and my responsibilities were rapidly multiplying. My oldest son, Fred,
thought he muuld like the fur business, so I broke him in to the business as soon
as he was through school. Fred is now, I claim, one of the most expert furriers
in the Northwest. My son Carl, is also associated with me in the fur business,
and does a great deal of our buying and selling. I have the honor of being the
oldest active furrier in the city of Portland.
As I said before, my first buying trip to Alaska was in 1897. I made
annual trips to Alaska from that year until 1923, when I went on my last buying
expedition 25 trips in all. Many people envy me the experiences I had in Alaska.
Alaska was, and is, a beautiful country. I used to visit Sitka, Ketchikan and Juneau.
I bought my furs directly from the Aleut Indians. The Aleuts are funny people. They
are very proud. Proud of their race. Proud of their accomplishments and abilities.
You must not call them "Indians", that is, if you intend doing business with them.
They insist on being called "natives". They are easily offended and many a fur buyer
cooked his awn goose and went home empty handed because he did or said something to
one of them that went against the grain. No amount of money will induce them to
trade their furs with anyone they don't like. I always got along well with them
because I tried to do business their way. For instance The Aleuts positively
would not trade for gold. They insisted that they be paid for their furs with
silver dollars. Now this was quite a nuisance as you can imagine. If you went out
with the intention of buying five hundred or a thousand dollars' worth of furs in
a day you had to pack along a pretty heavy load of silver dollars. Ever try to pick
up and carry a thousand silver dollars? Not Well it's quite a weighty chunk. In
those days, gold COLOA were common in the Northwest; in fact, more business trans-
actions took place with gold than any other medium. Paper money was practically non-
Louis Schumacher Form C 7.
existent, and silver was common though used only for small purchases and in change
for gold coins of higher denominations. NrAny fur buyers simply would not cater to
the Aleuts' desire for silver money. They blusteringly intended to teach the
Indians that the gold coin was legal tender and they would have to take it, or else.
But the Indian refused to be taught, and the stubborn fur buyer got no furs. I
learned early in the game, that if I MRS to make a success of the fur buying
business I mould have to face the situation as it was, and not to try to change
things. I subsequently learned the Aleut habits and customs very thoroughly, and
also came to know the country up there like I know the back of my hand. I never
could understand how a buyer could go to all the trouble and expense of a trip from
Portland, San Francisco, or Seattle, to Alaska, mad then hold a penny so close to
his eye that he couldn't see the dollar at arm's length. A case in point: I once
went out to do some buying in company with another fur buyer from the States. He
was addicted to the habit of snuffing rubbing snuff into his nose. The Aleut
women chew snuff, when they can get it. Young Aleut girls are very beautiful and
slender and more or less careful about their persons. Their beauty fades quickly,
however, following maturity. They get fat, waddly, and more or less unshapely. As
soon as they begin to reach the stage of fat womanhood, they settle down to the
tasks and habits of the older women. Then they begin to chew snuff. This buyer
and myself were passing an Aleut house before which two maturing girls stood. At
this moment, my friend chanced to pull out his snuff box to take a pinch of snuff.
The girls smiled and motioned to him to come on over and give them some. He refused.
I said, 'go on over and give them some of your snuff.' "Not me," he said, "Louis
if I were to hand them my snuff box they mould scoop out every bit of it, and I
know beoause I have seen them do it to others." I said, *You damn fool, what of
it. Here we are, going out to buy furs from their people and you are running the
risk of having these girls spread the story that we are "tight". Give them some of
Louis Schumacher Form O 8.
your snuff. When we get back to town I'll see that you get your snuff box filled
again and plenty to spare." He said, "Alright, Louis, but just watch what they
do to my snuff." He walked over and held out his snuff box to them, and sure
enough, each in turn scooped out a generous handful and crammed it into her mouth,
while thanking him profusely. *What did I tell you, Louis," he said, showing me
a practically empty snuff box.
I claim I proved my point, however. Wouldn't it be foolish to let five
or ten cents' worth of snuff stand in the way of friendship with these people?
Such shortsightedness often meant the difference between a successful buying trip
and one of no profit at all. Here VAS another thing that proved the downfall of
many unsuccessful fur buyers t The Aleuts lived in square, one -room houses. Each
was a duplicate of the others: a big room with a stove in the center, and a few
chairs here and there around the room. Sometimes there were no chairs, but boxes
to sit on instead. The one roam served as living -room, dining room, bedroom and
kitchen, for a large family. The Aleuts are very polite and courteous to anyone
they invite into their homes. I found that if they invited me in, I had better
go, or else they mould be insulted. Many inexperienced buyers would approach the
threshold, get one whiff of the interior, and then refuse to enter. Needless to say,
their fur -buying expedition was doomed to dismal failure. However, you could not
blame a white man for not wanting to go inside. These Aleut homes invariably stunk
to high heaven. The Aleut diet consisted chiefly of fish, fish -oil, fish cakes,
fish meal, and just plain fish. Rancid fish oil is perhaps one of the most offensive
smells a fellow can bump into. Bland this with the smell of fat, unwashed, bodies
of squaws and bucks, and dirty, runny -nosed papooses then toss a pile of curing
hides and pelts in a corner of the room, and you have an Aleut home.
In spite of the above description of an Aleut home, the Aleuts were quite
modern and not like the Indians of Oregon and Washington of that day. When I first
Louis Schumacher Form C 9.
went up there, Sitka VAS a flourishing town. The Aleuts were missionaried and
oivilised by the Russians as far back as the year 1800. Most of the Indians are
members of the Greek Catholic church, which was once the principal religion of
Russia. Some
and carvings,
of the Greek churches are very
statues, etc., that would make
cheap and insignifant. I made regular trips
beautiful inside and exhibit relics
some of our Portland art look pretty
up to Alaska during the gold rush,
but somehow I escaped getting hit by the gold fever and stuck to the fur businesa.
I have always been glad that I did, for I knew many people who went up there to
get rich and lost all that they had earned the hard way down here.
The Aleuts divide their year into three fairly sharply defined seasons
or periods; Winter and early spring are given to trapping; late spring and early
summer are spent gathering mood; and late summer and fall are devoted to fishing
and sealing. The Indian women are expert at making baskets from sea weed. These
baskets are much finer in weave and workmanship than the finest panama hats. So
fine are they woven that they hold meter without
they are not treated with max, pitch or anything
Even a smell basket takes a squaw a long time to
a touring man and wife stopped before an exhibit
thought a small basket was very pretty and asked
leaking a single drop, although
that would make them waterproof.
make. I was amused one time when
of native baskets. The women
the Indian how much it was. The
Indian said, "That basket twenty-five." The woman's husband, mnarently well-to-do
and puffing on a big cigar, indifferently flipped a twenty-five cent piece on the
counter
for the
respect
in front of the imperturbable Aleut, who never even made a move to reach
coin. The tourist was jolted out of his indifference and quickly registered
for the small basket when the Aleut spoke, "No cents twenty-five dollars
for basket."
Sealing off the Alaska coast used to be anybody's game, but for a good many
Louis Schumacher Form C 10.
years now, the Indians are the only ones who are allowed to catch fur seals and
they are only allowed to spear them. It's a sort of government monopoly. Fur
seals are not quite so important now, though, because Hudson seal (made from
muskrat) has largely superseded the real seal. Speaking of seals, their mortal
enemy in Alaska are the killer whales. No one was more surprised than I was
when Portland's famous whale of a few years ago came up the Columbia. That whale
certainly must have lost its bearings because I never heard of a killer whale
coming so far south before. The Aleuts call them "blaok fish." They are very
dangerous and fierce fighters. They make quick work of the seals which they find
swimming out away from shore. These killer whales, whioh seldom grow to more than
25 feet in length, will attack the big sulphur bottom whales and kill them off
quite as easily as they attack any smaller fish. They reach right into the big
whale's jaws- and bite out the tongue they also out and slash the big whale's
throat and belly until it dies either from wounds or starvation.
What furs did I buy on my trips to Alaska? Mink, otter, blue, gray, red,
black and white fox, lynx, martin, wolverine (the wolverine is the strongest
animal in the world for its size), Kodiak bear skins, sea otter, and fur seal. The
Kodiak bear is a huge animal that weighs as much as 2,500 pounds. The skin of this
bear was highly popular as a floor rug. I brought many of them back in the early
days, but no one would think of having one of them on their parlor floor now. The
sea otter was always an expensive fur. In the old days they cost as much as 4150.00
to $200.00 dollars, which was very high then, but now they are virtually extinct
and prima pelts bring from $1250.00 to 41500.00 dollars each. Mink is another fur
that has increased a great deal in price. In those days we paid around 41.25 for
a good pelt they are worth from eight to ten dollars now. Muskrat pelts were
Louis Schumacher Form C 11.
worth 5? each in those days. We pay 41.00 a piece for them now, although the all
time high for muskrat was during the war, when they went up to five dollars.
I have seen many changes in the fur business since I have been in it, but the
most significant change, of course, was the effect artificial or synthetic furs had
on the trade. Before 1900 there were no artificial furs. Furs were the real,
genuine thing. Seal was seal, mink was mink, otter was otter. Since the turn of
the century, however, almost any kind of natural fur has been duplicated by Lord
only -knows haw many different methods. In many cases, the artificial product is
almost, if not quite, as good as the genuine article. Take, for instance, Hudson
Seal. My son, who is an expert in his awn right, claims that Hudson Seal is
superior in texture, appearance, and durability, to real seal. Probably because
I'm still old fashioned, I argue that real seal is better. Who mina the argument?
That's an open question. Hudson seal is made from muskrat. We do the prelim-
inary work on the muskrat pelts in our own shop. The pelts have many thousands
of coarse, long hairs, which we call 'guide hairs'. These have to be pulled out,
one by one. When the guide hairs are removed that leaves the short, fine, beauti-
ful hair from which the garment is made. We have to send the pelts back to New
York to be dyed. Nobody here on the coast knows haw it is done it's a secret
process which originated in Germany. In recent years most every kind of fur that
ever grew on any kind of animal has been cleverly duplicated in appearance by the
use of rabbit skins. Of late years the fox has been raised in captivity for fur.
There is quite a little turnover in fox fur at present. The latest fur bearing
animal to be domesticated is the mink. Quite a few mink farms have sprung up in
Oregon lately. Most people do not think of Oregon as much of a trapping country
in this day and age, but as a matter of fact there is quite a lot of trapping
going on here. TN buy furs every day from Oregon trappers. Oregon still produces
Louis Schumacher Form C 12.
muskrat, martin, mink, raccoon, skunk, otter, red and grey fox, and there used
to be a lot of beaver, but beaver trapping is now closed to trappers in Oregon
by law. Coyote skins also come in in fair volume. Coyote fur is too heavy for
a garment but makes very beautiful neck pieces.
Do I think the world is getting any better? Well, hardly. You may take
these days I'll take the 'good old days.' I'm inclined to think that the good
old days were really the good old days. Human nature hasn't ohanged a whole lot,
though, with the passing of the years, at least as we see it in the fur business.
You have to match both ends of every deal or you'll come out of the little end of
the horn. Radio has made it possible for the trappers to know exactly what their
pelts are worth before they bring them in to us. A thing that always strikes me
as remarkable, though, is the fact that when the price of a certain kind of fur
declines, the fellow who brings his pelts in hasn't heard about the price falling.
That's always the time his radio goes dead, or something, I guess.
Does my mind ever wander back to the Germany in which I was born? Oh, yes,
occasionally. I guess we needn't discuss the changes that have taken place over
there since I was a boy in Baden. Speaking of Germany, however, here's a coincidence
that seems remarkable to me and probably will to your kr son Fred MA a soldier in
the World War. He fought with the 8th Infantry and rose to the rank of sergeant.
It was his luck to be in the Army of Occupation after the war ended and he VIRS stationed
in Germany for a year after the signing of the armistice. During his service in
Germany he traveled frequently to Baden, where he visited my aged father, his grand-
father, wham he had never seen and never would have seen had it not been for the
war. My father was very pleased to see his grandson even though this grandson bore
arms against the country in which my father spent his entire life. Fred VAS at my
father's side when the old man passed moor.