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PA L. P OJ T
Form -3
UNIT
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Date received
Consignment no.
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/614-44,
Label ii Project worker e24 -et.,
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Form A Federal Writers' Project
Circumstanoes of Interview Works Progress A4ministration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker
Address
Wrenn, Sara B.
Date Jan. 1, 1939
Home, Upper Drive, Oswego,Lake Grove, Oswego, Oregon
Subject
Occupational Customs and Early Horse Racing
Name and address of informant
J. KaOderlY
First Street nest* Alder,. Portland, Oregon
Date and time of interview Dee. 2SA 19484A.49 3100 p.m..
Place of interview Hardware store& First near Alder Street, Portland, Ore.
Name and addrees of person, if any, who put you in touch with informant
Name mid address of person, if any, accompanying you none
Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
A little old-fashioned hardware store in an old part of Portland, the interview
taking place in the small glassed -off office. The informant, owner of the store,
sorted out change as he talked, placing it in a noisy little change container that
came in with a rattle and bang over the wire from the sales clerks. Ever so often
he would be too interested in what he was saying to notice the change and the clerk
would yell, 'What's the matter up there? Hurry up with the change." Whereupon the
informant would chuckle, "heht hehe and dive into his desk drawer for change. There
seemed to be quite a lot of money dribbling in. The change cup shot in with such a
racket the worker jumped half out of her seat at every operation.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the proper heading
and the number to *doh the materiel refers).
W 1454
Form B
Peaera Writers' Project
Personal History of Informant Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLEIORE STUDIES
Name of worker Wrenn, Sara B.
Address
Subject
Date Jan.
Upper Drive, Oswego, Lake Grove, Oswego, Oregon
Ocoupational Customs and Earl, Horse Racing
2, 1939
Name and address of informant J. J. Kadderly, Hardware Dealer
First Street, near Alder, Portland, Oregon
&OW
Information obtained should supply the following faots;
1. Ahoestry 6. 00cupations 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. Swiss.
2. Monroe, Wisconsin; June 22, 1854.
3. Jacob Kadderly, father; Barbara Becker Kadderly, mother.
4. Wisconsin, 1854-1878; Oregon 1876, 1939.
5. Public school log school house Four years.
6. Tinner, or Tin -smith.
7. Horses special interest, and driving trotters special skill.
8. *Always tried to follow the Golden Rule.* No church. Mason for many years
Scottish Rite.
9. Little wiry man, with a long nose and a continuous wheh4 hahr chuckle.
His father died when he was fourteen, leaving him the sole support of his
mother and four brothers and sisters. He appears to have got a lot out of
life and to have enjoyed every minute of it. Meticulous in his dress and appearance.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the proper heading
and the number to which the material refers).
01.0
Form C Federal Writers' Project
Text of Interview (Unedited) Works Progress Adildnistration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker Wrenn, Sara B. Date Jan. 2, 1939
Address Upper Drive, Lake Grove, Oswefo, Oregon
Subject Occupational Customs and Early Horse Racing
Name and address of informant J. J. Kadderly
First Street, near Alder, Portland, Oregon
Texts
School? I only went to school four years, in a little old 'log
school house in Viseonsin. Then my father died and I had to get out and earn
some money. Gosh ding it, I can smell that school house yet. There was
about forty kids and I don't think they ever took a bath. I can smell it
just as plain as if it was yesterday.
I came to Oregon in 1878. It was September 1, when we, my -wife and
me first set foot in Portland. We came by of San Fraincisoo and we came
up from there on the old steamship George W. Elder.• God dang it, but that
old ship could roll: I was doing pretty well in Wisconsin too. I had learned
the turners trade. I had enough to get married, Mkt hehl But we had gosh
danged thunder storms back there. One day I was settin, with some of the
boys and there was a bigger storm than usual thunder and lightnie like
blazes, and I sea, "Gosh dang it, if I knew a place where they didn't have
any such storms as this I'd go there right off," and just than somebody spoke
up and sea, "Young man, I kin tell you where to go. Go to Portland, 0 -re -ma.
They don't have no Bich storms .there." 0 -re -ma, he sez, just like that.
I looked 'round and there was an old circus clown of Forepaugh's Circus.
I knew him right away. "Heh," I said, "I knew you. I carried twenty-two buckets
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the heading given
above).
Form C Cont'd. 2.
of water to one of your little old elephants once." He laughed. Sure
'nough, it was that same old clown. He told me some more about Oregon,
and finally I jumped up and said "I'm goin' out there, gosh ding/ I'm
goin' right away." And I did, too. Hehi hehS
When me and my wife landed in Portland I had just eighteen dollars,
and as I sez I WAS awful seasick. I felt just like a fellow does when
he's been on a drunk. Somebody on the boat told us where to go so it
wouldn't cost so much, and the very next day here came a man wanting to
know if there wasn't a young fellow just arrived who was a timer. He
*played a cornet or something, and he was going up to the State Fair at
Salem, and he wanted me to take his bench. I said I would if I'd got over
my drunk, he'll hehl and he said, "Oh jest drink a lot of coffee and you'll
be alright." I wasn't all right. I felt pretty bad; but I had to get some
money, so I went down to where he worked next morning, and right away the
boss sent me out to put on a drain pipe on a new house. It was hard work,
that first job, out on Union Avenue. But I did a good job. Why gosh ding it,
the last time I went by there that old house was still standing, and I bet
that same drain pipe was still there.
Well, pretty soon I had enough to start a little shop of my awn. I
went over to East Portland. HehS hehl I had just enough to pay my first
month's rent. It was eighteen dollars. There was only 350 people in East
Portland then. Rents were a lot lower than on the West Side. God dang it,
on First Street, in 1878, they asked as much as 160 or 170 a month. I had
my tinner's tools and some tin and sheet iron. Right away I made a coffee
pot and painted it red and hung it out for a sign, and pretty soon I was doing
a fair trade. It was a good while later that I came over to the West Side.
Form C Cont'd 3.
I bet I've sold more cook stoves to bride and grooms than anybody in
this town. In 1888 I bought four carloads of cook stoves and wood ranges,
and I think I sold 'an all to bride an' grooms. I don't make so much money
these days, but I keep goin'.
And say, you asked some back there what I like best to do. Well, horses,
that's what I like best. I've had some fine horses and I've got some now.
There ain't anything any better than a horse.
Portland's first race track was out at Bellwood. It was a mile track.
I mind me the world's first 2:10 trotter showed on that track. It was in
2880, and his name was Alteo, out of A1tamont, the greatest
ever knew. I used to drive my own horses in the matinees.
successful drivers of those days was a race track man named
sin) the world
One of the most
George Meisner.
He used to drive for Charlie Lohmire. Charlie was some driver himself. Once
at a Fourth of July meet he challenged me to drive a big mare I awned, known
as Bessie Lovelace, against a trotter of his called Redskin. I could out
drive Lohmire and I knew it. Otherwise I wouldn't have been such a gol darned
fool as to have accepted his challenge, hehl heht That was out on the old
Rose City track. We drove in carts. They're something like a sulkey, only a
little heavier. Matinee races used to be always driven in carts.
Well, Lohmire and I pulled out on the track. Redskin was
than my big filly. But Bessie was steady ant I could drive,
It was a half -mile track. Lohmire lead after the first quarter
a lot faster
heh I heh 1
him heh 3 heh I I jest eased tound after him on that first lap.
an' I let
After we
got goin, good on the second lap I gave Old Bessie the word I never teched a
whip to any of my horses. We pulled up even with Redskin and I let Lohmire
think I was makin' an awful effort. Than on the last quarter I begin to draw
Form C Cont'd 4.
away easy like. At the finish I was sixty feet in the lead* Lohmire never
did get over that, hell hehi
The first macadam road in this part of the country was the stretch
along the river, of what is new called the Riverside Drive. It was always
called the Macadam Road in early days, and everybody with any kind of a
harness horse went out there to speed it. Pretty speedy folks some of them
were too, and maybe they'd finish up at a tavern or roadhouse known as the
White House, at the end of the speedway, where there was a little track --I think
it'was a quarter -mile. I wasn't much interested in that sort of Arivint.
Yep, I've had some good horses, and gosh ding it I've got some now. Wife
sez we'll go broke on horses, but we haven't yet.
Form D Federal Writerst Project
Extra Comment Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker Wrenn, Sara B. ,Date Jan. 2, 1939
Address Upper Drive, Lake Grove, Oswego, Oregon.
Subject Occupational Customs and Horse Racing.
Name and address of informant J. J. Kadderly
First Street, near Alder, Portland, Oregon.
Comment:
A colorful little old man, who lived over his life as he reminisced.
Part of the time his English or American was quite grammatical, but
soon he would lapse into the vernacular. I have tried to present his speech
exactly as I heard it.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the heading given
above).