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Form A Federal Writerst Project
Circumstances of Interview Works Yrcsross Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker Sara B. Wrenn
Address
Subject
505 Elks Building, Portland, Oregon.
Date
January 30, 1939.
Early Horticultural History and Lore.
--zreccazs
Name and eddres of informant Mrs. Herman 'Adding
2105 Harrison St., Milwaukie, Oregon.
Date and time of in'„;orview 2:00 to 3115 P.M., Jan. 26, 1939.
Place of interview
2105 Harrison St., Milwaukie, Oregon.
Name and address of person, if any, who put you in touch with informant
Mrs. Oatfield, Oatfield Rd., Oak Grove, Oregon.
Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you
Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
A living -roam, or perhaps more properly, a library, the walls of which were
lined with books, with books and magazines lying on comfortable arm chairs, couches
and tables. A roam that reflected its occupants people who delve into all manner
of literature, old and new, with a leaning torard economic and political problems;
people who like to express themselves also. The many small -paned windows were without
shades or draperies, permitting all the light possible on a dark day. A bright fire
burned in the fireplace, and a few interestinL pictures hung on the walls.
The hnuse, while not new, was of the better sort of architecture, somewhat
formal in type, of two stories, with roofless porches or terraces surrounding it.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the proper heading
and the number to which the material refers).
rs. ernai. Le(' A oLt'd.
-2-
About the building, with its separate garage, was much shruery, a dominate
feature of which were the gorgeous camBlias, just coning irto blossom. The
gmlnds etbraced about a block, the lawns sloping down from the house. Across
one corner ran a small stone -walled brook. Pane buildings a junior high
schocl among them with spacious green lawns, afforded an air of space and
repose to the neighborhood.
Form B Federal Writers' Project
Personal History of Informant Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker Sara B. Wrenn
Address 505 Elks Building, Portland, Oregon
Subject
Early Horticultural History and Lore.
Date January 30, 1939
Name and address of informant
Mrs. Herman Ledding
2105 Harrison Street, Milwaukie, 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. Swedish. -English, prior to the Revolution.
2. North Platte, Neb., 1877.
3. Father, Andrew Olson; step. -father, Seth Lewelling; mother, Sophrania
Vaughn Olson Lewelling.
4. North Platte, Neb., 1877.4880; Carson City, Nevada, 1880-1881; Milwaukie,
Oregon, 1831.4939.
5. Portland Public Schools; Convent of Sacred Heart, Vancouver, Wish.; St. Helen's
Hall, Portland, Oregon; University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, 1896. Law School
1697.
6. Kindergarten work (learned under Kate Douglas Wigcin); Practiced law. For a
year or so owned and operated the "Claokamas CouTty Independent", a newspaper.
First woman in the United States appointed as referee in bankruptcy. First
secretary Oregon. Democratic Lerislative League.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the proper heading
and the number to which the material refers).
Mks. Iferman Ledding Form B 2.
7. Took an active part in securing woman suffrage in Oregon. Interested always
in politics.
8. Not so muoh interested in email community matters as in questions of broader
scope. Was at one time a member of Unitarian Church,
9. Large woman of aggressive type, Brown eyes, gray hair, and a rather smart
dresser along conservative lines.
10. Clever and well educated. She is the sort of person to be treated with
diplomacy. The term "inferiority complex" is not within her ken. Her husband,
who was present at the interview, one would judge to be something of a student.
He appeared to be somewhat your' -or than his wife.
Form C Federal Writers' Project
Text of Interview (Unedited) Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker Sara B. ',:;renn
Address
Subject
Name and address of informan-
Leddiag
2105 HAWASOR 4Peetw Milwaukie, Orogen.
Date January 30, 1939
Text:
so6 7114, Build5r16, Partlend. nregoo
Eally Enrhinnitnrml Histnry mnd Lore,
Oh, I'm afraid I can't tell you very much. I'm not a pioneer, you know,
and neither were my people, since we came here in 1881. Of course I am a step-
daughter of Seth Lewelling, and I mig,ht be able to tell you a few little things
regarding him and his early life here.
You passed the old house down on the corner, that is known as the Lewell-
ing house, on your way here, did you not? The one with the big weeping willow
tree? You perhaps already know that that was built by Elisha Kellogg in 1851,
and leased by him to a man named Noah Habl'r, for use as a tavern. In 1852,
when the Lewellings arrived, there wasn't a house to be had, and it was too
late in the year for them to build. They were not poor, so finally they pre-
vailed on Habler, whose lease ran another year, to let them move in his tavern,
after which they hired him to work for them, and eventually they bought the
house.
Oh, as to the various forms of spelling my stepfather's name. His
ancestors originally came from ?Tales, where the family of Lewellyn, as it was
then spelled was the head of the clan, with the royal prerogatives of that
long ago period. Later, when the faith of the Quakers was embraced, it was
censidered seemly to adopt a simpler form, and the name.was reduced to plain
(Use as many adaitional sheets as necessary, each bearing the heading given
above).
Perm C Leddinc 2.
"Lueling." Here in Oregon it was spelled "Luellinc" by Henderson. Anter a misun-
derstanding between the two brothers, Seth and Henderson, Seth arrived at the
-spelling of "Lewelling" and that, I think, is the way the nano is generally spelled
today.
Here's a story in which you may be interested. I don't know just what
year this occurred, but sometime in the early '60's, I think. Anyway the Lowell
in Nursery had ordered a consignment of peach stones from somewhere in the eastern
states, and t:e shipment was delivered and unleaded at Portland. Peach -growing
in Oregon was as yet untrled, so that this peach stone shipment was awaited with
more than a little interest. Noah Habler, behind a safe team and a good, sound
farm wagon, was sent to Portland after the peach stones. Now, Noah WAS a good
worker ordinarily, but he was a bit fond of his fire -water. The first thing he did
at Portland was to get loaded himself. A"ter that he piled his bags of peach pits
in the wagon, climbed to his seat, gathered up his "lines," clucked to his horses
and jogged homeward. Finally, after an r.1l'-day's trip, and still a bit the worse
for his liquor, he arrived at the nursery. The consignees came out to investigate
their long-awaited shipment, only to find a praati ally empty wagon. roah, it
saened, lied overinoked replacing the wagon tailboard, the bags had jostled open,
aid, as was soon discovere,l, e trill o peach pits extended all Filen,: the muddy
1 ghway from Portland to Milwaukie, making it necessary to send another and more
trustnrrthy nan to follow alon, a''s trail in pursuit or the elusive peach stones.
.Lother ctory my step -father as fond of relating is th- one when ae WAS
C woman visitor through his nursery one day during the cherry season. They
came to a tree where there were some particularly luscious cherries hanging j st
within reach. Thera were only a few of these cherries. The woman reached up,
picked them, and all before my step -father had fully comprehended, had plopped them
all into her mouth. 6ho exclaimed over their equisite flavor, and step -father,
Form C Ledding 3.
with a somewhat wry smile, asked if she mould kindly give him the pits, which she
did. Afterwards he heard that the visitor said, *Why, that Seth Lewelling is the
stingiest man I ever heard of. Be asked me to give him the pits from a few cherries
I ate in his old orchard." She did not see the string hanging on the particular
branch of that tree, to show where the process of polonisation had been effected a
year before, and the result of which my stepfather had been eagerly awaiting ell
these months. Under the circumstances he was thankful he got the pits, since he had
to take his visitor's word for the new fruit's taste.
do not know if it is generally known, but aeoording to the old timers,
the channel of the Willamette river used to be along the @eat side of Ross Island
in the early days. The sea -going vessels used to come into harbor loaded down with
rock ballast, and Couch, of the Couch Donation Land Claim at Portland, as it was
said, would pay the captains and crew so much to dump their ballast between the
island and the east shore of the river.
To get back to the Lewellings and their nursery, that the Bing cherry was
named in honor of a Chinese workman, is fairly well known, but not much has been
told about the Chinese himself. Be was a northern Chinese, of the Renohou race, the
men and women of which are large, and very unlike the usual Cantonese Chinese with
which we are familiar. Bing was close to six feet tall, if not more, He MIA fore-
man of the gang of thirty or more Chinese usually working in the orchards, and he
worked here on contract for some thirty years* But he had a family beak in China,
or at least he had a wife there, to whom he sent money regularly, and this wife had
adopted six or seven boys, so that Bing was sure to have sons to provide for the
traditional ancestor worship* Bing was always talking about his family; he wanted
to go back and see his wife and sons. Finally in '89 or '90 he vent, and while he
MIA in China the Oriental exclusion law was passed, and Bing VIA never able to return
Form C Ledding 4.
to the United States. He was very fond of the sang, "Olt Blau* Joe," *doh he would
sing over and over again in a low minor key, Chinese fashion.
The manner in which the cherry was named for him happened thust Hi and
my step.father were working the trees, every other raw each. When they discovered
this tree with its wonderful new cherry, someone said, "Seth, you ought to name
this for yourself," "I've already got one in my name," Seth responded (the Lew
oiling), "No, name this for Bing. It's a big cherry and Bing's big, and any
way it's in his raw, so that shall be its name."
The Levelling cherry was a prize-winner at the Philadelphia Centennial
Fair, or the Philadelphia International Exhibition, as it is named on the bronze
medal, which we have. The cherry sold for a dollar a pound in Philadelphia that
The Levellings were strong for the Union. In 1865 Nara Meeker worked
during the winter for Seth, and when spring came Seth grub -staked him with 1500
one-year old trees, with which he left for Northern California and Nevada. Amongst
these trees was one called the Lincoln cherry. Nara Meeker must have sold trees
to quite a number in Carson City, for on one of the old showplaces of that town
there are Lincoln cherry trees still in existence and still bearing fruit the
only cherry trees of that name that do exist. Other fine fruit trees Seth Levell-
ing propagated, of which nothing is now known, was the golden prune yellow
with pink apots, and a pear, called "Mother's Favorite."
The first commercial prune orchard on the Pacific Coast was that of
Seth Levelling's, in 1857.
year.
Form D
Extra Comment
Federal Writers' Project
Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker Sara Wrenn
,Date jmniAry en, 1939
Address 505 Elks Building, Portland. Orem=
Subject Early Horticultural History and Uwe..
Name and address of informant Mrs. Herman Wding
2105 Harrison St.t_alyeal&a_gregan___
Comment:
It is only fair to mention here that much of the actual data given
was suggested by Ws. Ledding's husband, who, however, requested that his
name net appear an Form 1.
Ws. Ledding brought in and referred to a very interesting looking
scrap book, but seemed averse to showing it to the interviewer. Experience
reveals that old scrap books, with their wealth of old..time obituaries, etc.,
lead to more actual folklore and community history than almost any other souroe,
especially in small country towns.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the heading given
above).