Document text
cession no.
962G
WPA L. C. PROJRCZ Irktvrol UNIT
Form -3
roltacm
Collection (or Type)
,te received
!10/10/40
lasignment no.
1
ipped from
!ash. Office
ibel
)konnt
TitieR•minitgoilmoriarly...slazx sailmach..
prairie, Auror1Lcolocy, etc..
Place of origin....PQ/11111a.,Qrant. Date...0/12M_
Project worker 424,eac 1/k-11.120"
Project editor
Remarks
Form A Federal Writers' Project
Circumstances of Interview Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker Sara B. Wrenn
Date May let 1939
Address 505 Elks Suilding4 Portland,_ Oreggn
Subject Reminiscences early days on French Prairie Aurora Colony, etc.
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Name and address of inforarcat Mrs. Ida Graves
Macksburg, Oregon
Date and time of inA,erview May 11, 1939, Late in afternoon.
Place of interview Home of informant at Macksburg, Oregon
Name and address of person, if any, who put you in touch with informant
Unknown person met while interviewing another
Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you
Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
Large two-story farmhouse, painted white, of about eight rooms, big
and high-ceilinged, probably built in early 80's. Living -room in which interview
took place heated with brick fireplace, on the mantel of which was an old-fashioned
weight clock. The floor was covered with a rag carpet, the wells hung with
pictures, including many enlarged photographs of another period. Fairly comfort-
able furniture; several rocking chairs and an organ filled the room. Incongru-
ously, an up-to-date radio occupied a prominent place on a center table. Of chief
interest to the interviewer was a framed "family tree" engraving, showing the
marriage date of the informant, her age and that of her husband and a few other
items set forth in the ornate penmanship of the travelling agent or peddler
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the proper heading
and the number to which the material refers).
Mrs. Ida Graves Form A page 2.
from whom it had been purchased. Clasped hands and other emblematic tokens of
a sentimental nature were pictured and along the right and left borders were
the names of those purporting to be ancestors, but which in this case were
possibly names suggested by the salesman. The informant said they were all
the names she could remember. Without rhyme or reason Pulaski, Kosciouski,
Hamilton, Washington and some two score of other equally historic names, stood
bravely forth. Asked if these were her ancestors the informant replied. "Those
were all the names I could remember." It is possible they were placed there
merely for ornamental purposes.
Mrs. Graves farmhouse was somewhat remote, with big fields back of it,
and a large yard, filled with flowers, surrounded the house. The various rooms,
most of them carpeted with rag carpets, were neat as the proverbial pin. At the
rear end off from the kitchen was a big open room, connecting with the water
tower, which was comfortably furnished with rawhide -seated kitchen chairs and
a rocker or two.
Form B
Federal Writers' Project
Personal History of InformAnt Works Progreso Administration
OREGON FOLEtOR.E STUDIES
Name of worker Sara B. Wrenn Date May 12, 1939
Address 506 Elks Building, Portland, Oregon
Subject Early days on French Prairie Aurora Colony
Name and address of informant Mrs. Ida Graves.
Maoksburg, Oeson
Information obtained should supply the following facts:
1. Ancestry 6. Occupations and accomplishments with dates.
2. Plaoe 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. Father, R. L. Mister: Mother, Fanny Hinice
German descent
2. Oregon, Mount Angel, March 13, 1856
3. Husband deceased:
Children: Sons, Roy Graves
D. W. Graves
Ma. Edw. Graves, deceased
Daughters, Jenny Graves, deceased
Ivy Tueloo
Eva May Dunkelberg
4. Always in Marion County, Oregon.
1
5. District school.
6. Housewife.
7. Interested in almost everything.
8. Rebecca Lodge: Not member of any church; No use for 'em."
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the proper heading
and the number to whioh the material refers).
Mrs. Ida Graves
Form B page 2.
9. Small and weatherbeaten. Dark gray
neck. Small, shrewd, piercing gray
growing on chin. Calico dress with
shoes. Sleeves short and hands and
worked and independent as they make
hair, cut in short crop around
eyes, sunken mouth, with hairs
apron, and wearing high, button
arms- rough and toil -worn. Hard
'em.
Form C Federal Writers' Project
Text of Interview (Unedited) Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker
Address
Subject
Sr /1- WI -Ann
505 Elks Building, Portland. Oregon.
Date May 12, 199
Early days on French Prairie Aurora Colony.
Name and address of informant Mrs. Ida Graves
Macksburg, Orezort.
Text:
Wh'd ya say? Yeh, Mrs. Graves. Bwaid ya want? Well,.come in.
Take this chair here. I'll set awhile, Wouldn't mind gettine a rest. I'm
tired. It's no fun runnia' a farm when ye get my age.
Yeh, I was born in this country, right in Marion County. Lived here all
my life. Married an'
finger, well I didn't
cousin, an' he had an
had my children here, had fun an' worked hard. See this
lose that workinl. I was out playin' with a little kid
axe, tryin' to chop chips, an' I was holdin' the chips,
ant bang, dawn come the axe an' off went the top o' my finger at first joint.
Pa took care o' my hand; he wuz good doin' things like that. He tuk a rag an'
tied it up, but some way he tied the rag 'round the top so it sort o' split the
stump. It tuk a' awful long time gettin' well, an' for a while it wuz black as
coal an' hard so hard you cu'd whittle it jest like a stick, an' then one day
it cum off clear down to the second joint, an' we tuk it out, my cousin an' me,
buried it in a hole. After that the rest o' the finger got well.
My father wuz awful good at doctorini folks. They cum from all over.
Once Gran'father Graves most cut his foot off with a broadaxe, an' pa fixed that.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the heading given
above).
Mrs. Ida Graves Form C page 2
He wuz good at fixin' teeth too. Most everybody come to him to get their teeth
pulled. He made some faucets (forceps) hisself. They wuz kind o' rough, but
they did the bizness. Pa al'ays got the tooth; they never broke. Once Pa took
my brother to a real dentist. My brother sed pa wuz the best dentist; he never
hed to push a tooth back to git a hold. We never had no doctor. I never hed a
doctor with all my six children when they wuz born, not even no midwife, as they
call 'elm.
I don't know much about Aurora folks. They wuz all good people. The
colony broke up about '83. I guess they muz too hard on the young folks, mantin'
to tell them jist what to do an' who to marry an' all that. I guess there's more
old maids and bachelors around Aurora then eny place in the country. Mebbe they
wuz afraid if everybody got married the population w'ud grow too fast an' they
wou'n't be able to make 'em do jest what they wanted. But they wuz good folks,
an' looked after one 'nother an' their neighbors' children.
Sure we had a good time back in the early days. Sure, we danced
quadrilles and waltzes. We went to the dances in wagons mostly. I guess only
two people 'round here hed hacks. Everybody hed jest wagons an' cattle. They
talk about oxen now, but I never heard 'em say any -thin' but cattle in them days.
Father got shet o' all his cattle when I wuz jest a little girl; he hed four yoke,
an' he traded 'em for bacon an' sich like to take to the mines in Eastern Oregon.
Yes, we danced, but we worked hard too. Us kids al'ays busy. Seems
like children did more than they do now, an' they wuz quieter too. You wumit
to jump in an' talk when grown folks wuz around, when I wuz little. Mother made all
our clothes spun the wool an' got somebody else to weave it. They called it
linsey. Mhen the sheep wuz sheared mother wu'd wash the wool all nice, an' then
Mrs. Ida Graves Form C page 3
roll it, an' keep it to spin for blankets an' dresses an' pants for the men.
Sure I had beaux. I mind me, once there wuz two young fellows cons
to our house, an' my sister an' me we set 'em to work at somethin', some little
thing I don't recollect jest what, an' when they wuz good an' busy, we slipped
out an' got on their horses, an' away we went lickity-split. We eu'd jest ride
anything, an' we hed a good long ride, an' when we got back those two boys wuz
seared half to death. My God they 'a= scared. They sed they expected to hey to
go out an' find us on the road someeres all jammed up. Well, I don't hey thet
kind o' good times no more, but I enjoy life. I work hard I jest been out
overseein' the men shearins my sheep but I hey my radio an' I read. I read a
lot mostly trash too, if you ask me, but that's all right. I figger I'm so fur
through the woods now nothin' I read wouldn't hurt me eny. I bin alone now fer
sixteen years, an' I guess I'm entitled to anything I c'n git.
Yes, o' course I knew Homer Davenport. He wuz a great artist. The way
he got started, his father wuz goin' some place one day, an' Hamer wanted to go
with him, an' he made him stay home, an' Homer wuz kind o' mad, an' he drew his
father's picture on the barn door with a little piece o' charcoal. A funny
picture it wuz, but it wuz good. Enybody 'ud know it wuz the ol' man. That wuz
the first enybody knew Homer c'ud draw. He wuz jest ten years old then. He's
buried over here at Silverton. SOMB o' the Portland papers hed a lot to say about
Silver -ton not hevin' any hearse when Homer wiz buried, but this is the way it wuz.
Homer arays had a lot of fun in the Davenports' ol' hack, ridin' around in it,
an' all, when he cum home from Nu York, so when he wuz brought home to be buried his
sister tuk that ol' hack an' jest covered it with roses, wheels an' al, an' they
carried Homer in his coffin in that to the graveyard, cause he wuz so fond of it.
Mrs. Ida Graves Form C page 4
You want to know if I got any funny stories. Mebbe this isn't very
funny, I don' know, but you can put it in if you want to. It wuz when we wuz pin' to
school. One day three boys they wuz big boys too, almost young men an' they
wuz sent to get water for drinkin' at grandfather's. Ant what did they do but stick
their heads in the bucket o' water ant wash themselves, an' then they took the water
to the schoolhouse far us to drink. Course they couldn't keep still. They told
about it, ant after that us kids wuz told to bring a bottle of water to school
every day.
You goin' now? Well, I'm sure glad you cum. I got good an' rested.
Fnrm D
Extra Comment
Federal Writers t Project
Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker Sara B. Arenn
Address 505 Elks Building, Portland, Orezon
,Date May 12, 1939
Subject Reminiscences esrly'd ws_on FrAnnh PrAir40 calGay
Name and address of informant Mrs. Ida Graves
Nhojsburz, Marion Co._ Oregon.
Comment:
Mrs. Graves and her surroundings had all the quality of real folk-
lore, lessened in no wise by her truly vernacular speech. The occasional
profanity in which she indulged was revealing as a part of the man's part
she had long occupied in running her farm, rather than the profanity of the moderns.
Her cussing was in tone as well as speech.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the heading given
above).