Document text
‘,61.(fx A1
Accession no.
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WPA L. C. PROJECT UNIT
Form -3
W >J17/
Date received Title
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Consignment no.
Collection (or Type)
aaa"..4
Shipped from Place of origin Date.1".00i.
Label Project worker .A2144-cr..- Ze.clewrgStArl..r
Amount Project editor
Remarks
Form A Federal Writers' Project
Circumstances of Interview Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker Sara B. Wrenn Date looember 12, 1938
Address 505 Elks BuildinK. Portland. Oroxon.
Subject Early Railway Travel and Small Town Life.
Name and address of informant Mrs. Hortense Watkins
2493 SW Arden Road, Portland, Oregon.
Date and time of interview December 8, 1938.
Place of interview Home. above ddress.
Name and address of person, if any, who put you in touch with informant
iMMOINt
Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you none.
Description of room, house, surroundings, etc. Comfortable home with attractive
surroundings in high-class residential district.
4
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the proper heading
and the number to which the material refers).
W13891
Form B Federal Writers' Project
Personal History of Informant Works Pi -ogress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker
Address
Subject
Sara B. Wrenn Date December 12, 1938.
505 Elks Building, Portland, Oregon.
Early Railway Travel and Small Town Life.
Name and address of informant Mrs. Hortense Watkins
2493 MT Arden Road, 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. English-Sootch-Irish.
2. Erie, Pennsylvania. Deoedber 4, 1851.
3. Father, John McCarter; Mother, Katherine SherrettA
4. Pennsylvania, Kansas, California, Oregon since 1883.
5. Country public school; Young Ladies' Seminary.
6. Housewife, with much cooking.
7. Needlework.
8. No religious affiliations. No reason apparent for denominational faith.
Always tried to follow the Golden Rule. Children grew up as Episcopalians.
9. Tall, dark and "genteel', of the mid-Victorian type.
10. Mrs. Watkins is a woman who has devoted herself always to her family. A
widow for many years, she lives with a married daughter and her life is
centered now in her grandchildren.
(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
Subject
Sara B. Wrenn Date December 12, 1938
505 Elks Building.. Portland. Oregon.
Early Railway Travel and Small Town Life.
Name and address of informant Mrs. Hortense Watkins
2493 SW Arden Road, Portland, Oregon.
Text:
I am hardly what you would call a pioneer, since it was only as far back
as 1883 that I came to Oregon, and not in a covered wagon. But even the way I
came with my four children is something of a day that is no more. We came from
Kansas to Oregon by way of California, in what was known as a family tourist
ooaoh. It took ten days at that time from Kansas to California. I have forgotten
just what the railway fare was, but I do remember that children under twelve were
half fare, and in some manner I had an extra half. So when a fellow passenger who
had six children and not tickets enough to go around found herself in a quandary
after boarding the train, I took the surplus youngster on with my extra half.
Every time we had a new conductor he would say something about haw little that
child resembled the rest of my brood, for he was tow -headed and all of mine were
dark. We had quite a time, but finally got through all right, and I breathed a
sigh of relief when the poor woman and all her six reached their destination.
Those tourist cars weren't very pleasant traveling, but I guess they were
a lot better than six months of oxen and wagon at that. We had to furnish our
awn bedding, even the mattresses, which were made of ticking filled with straw,
so they could be thrown gamy at the end. We had to furnish our awn food too.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the heading given
above).
Form C Cont'd.
-2-
There was a stove in the corner of one end, where we women cooked. I have for-
gotten just how many were in the oar, but I do remember there were sixteen
children, so you can imagine the hubbub. This sounds like an old fashioned funny
story, but it's true. That train went so slowly in places that once when one of
the men had his hat blow off, he jumped off, caught his hat and got on the train
again without stopping. There were two old men that I 000ked for. One of them,
who wore a tall, silk, stovepipe hat, had his overcoat stolen just before he got on the
train, so I loaned him a shawl, which he wore all the time. We had our awn brooms,
with which we had to sweep the oar too. I don't think Heaven can look more
beautiful to ms than Southern California, when we finally got there. We were there
just a few weeks and then came up to Eugene, which then had a population of about
2,000.
The only building of the Oregon University in 1883 was Deady Hall. Villard
Hall was then under construction, if I recollect. My husband, who was a lawyer,
had come to the Coast ahead of me. Later my mother, who was known all over the
country subsequently as 'Grandma Munra', through her operation of famous Oregon
Railway Navigation eating houses, the first one at Bonneville and the last one
at Meaoham, up in the Blue Mountains. After mother joined no we took charge of
the old St. Charles Hotel at Eugene, a two-story, wooden, rambling affair, with a
veranda all around two sides. There were chairs on the veranda in the summer time
and the hotel guests -would line up out there, especially the traveling men. Down
in front were watering troughs and hitching rails, where the country people tied
their horses when they came to town.
We entertained Bob Ingersoll, his wife and two daughters, on one of his
lecturing trips through the country. They were all charming people. It rained
all the time they were here, and he worried a lot, fearing no one would come to his
lecture because of the rain. I told him rain made no difference to people in
Form C Cont'd.
-5-
Henry Villard stopped there too. Another person
Oregon. His hall was crowded
who used to come often was a well-known circuit rider by the name of I. D. Driver.
He was unlucky -with his wives. They all died. I think he had six in all. He
always spoke of the latest deceased as 'my angel wife.'
When I first came to Oregon we seemed to have just two big holidays,
Christmas and Fourth of July. I believe there was more excitement at our house
on the Fourth than at Christmas, because one and sometimes two of my daughters
rode on the liberty ear, and there was an uproar for days before. Liberty oars
are something we don't hear anything of nowadays, but they were mighty pretty.
And instead of queens and princesses as they have for everything today, there was
Columbia. She sat up on top of the liberty oar, and all the little States were
grouped in tiers about her, each little girl in 'white, with a big sash down over
her shoulder, showing the name of the State she represented. Columbia always had
to have fair or golden hair. It didn't matter so much about the States, only they
had to be pretty. The oar MMA a big dray, all painted and draped with bunting and
decorated with flowers and greens, with the seats arranged in rows one above the
other. The oar was drawn by four white horses, with lots of tassels and netting to
set them off. The liberty oar was the most important part of the parade, but the
"plug uglies" young blades about town all rigged out in masks and fantastic
costumes excited a lot of interest. Everybody guessing who they were. Once
in a while they would get a little hoodlumish. I thinir that is why they were
eventually ruled out. Anyway we mothers were always rather relieved when the
parade was over and our little States returned safely to us. There was always
the fear of a runaway, what with the fireoraokers and everything to scare a horse.
We usually had some dignitary from elsewhere to deliver the oration, and at night
everybody turned out to see the fireworks Roman candles and set pieces like the
flag, George Washington, etc.
Those were great days all right. I think everybody was happier then.
Form D
Ezra Comment
Federal Writers' Project
Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker Sara B. Wrenn
Address 505 Elks Building, Portland, nraepyl,
,Date December 12, 1938
Subject Early Railway Travel and Small Town Life.
Name and address of informant Mrs. BOrtense Watkins,
2493 SW Arden Road, Portltacic_Quano
Comment:
Though not in what is generally regarded as Oregon pioneer days, Mrs.
Watkins, recital of certain phases of life in Oregon of over 50 years ago
seemed well worthwhile to the worker, since they relate to people, conditions
and customs that are matters of the past.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the heading given
above).