Document text
Accession no.
WPA L C. PROJECT Writers'
Foim—S UNIT
NIN 9629
Date received
10/10/40
Consignment no.
Shipped from
cash. Office
Label
Amount
87).
Wan" Collection (or Type)
lienderin' all of Indian wars
Place of origin_RQ
Project worker BArs BA Wrenn
Project editor
Remarks
Form A Federal Writers' Projeot
Circumstances of Interview Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker Sara B. Wrenn Date May 16. 1939
Address 505 Elks Building, Portland, Oregon
Rush Mendenhall of Indian Wars
Subject Early -thy Portland White House Tavern Toll Road Justice Courts
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~MN
Name and aeAress of inform/Alt Mr. Bert Mendenhall
209 Railway Exchange Bldg., Portland,, Oregon
Date and time of interview Ma I 16, 1939; 11:00 to 12:50 P.M.
Place of interview Law office of informant
Name and address of person, if any, who put you in touch with informant
Miss Nina B. Johnson, Lake Grove, Oregon
Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you
Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
Small consulting room of usual type. One window; desk and table, two
chairs; two or three pictures on wall. Partition of glass, shutting off outer
office. Office building of eight or ten stories, constructed in the early 1900's.
Wee as many additional sheets as'neoessary, each bearing the proper heading
and the number to which the material refers).
Vi9629
Form B Federal Writers' Project
Personal History of Informant Works Progress Adstiniztration
OREGON FOLORE STUDIES
Name of worker Sara B. Wrenn Date May 16, 1939
Address 505 Elks Building Portland. Orezon
Rush Mendenhall of Indian Wars Early -day Portland- White House Tavern
Subject Justice Courts
Name and address of informant Mr. Bert Mendenhall
209 Railway EFehm? B1%!) Porplanda_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
.34 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, Rush Mendenhall Mother, Esther Worden Mendenhall
Quaker English English
2. Washington County, Oregon. August 29, 1861.
3. Wife, Cone
Daughter, Ruth Lien
Sons, Rush Mendenhall, Clifford Mendenhall, Harry Mendenhall
4. Home always in Oregon. Since boyhood in Portland.
5. Public schools of Portland. Studied law in private law office. Admitted
to bar in 1884.
6. Practice of law and ranching.
7. Outdoor life.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the proper heading
and the number to which the material refers).
Bert Mendenhall Form B page 2.
8. Sons and daughters of Indian War Veterans; Sons and Daughters of Oregon
Pioneers. No church affiliation. Mother one of founders of Portland Unitarian
church.
9. Medium, well-built, with brown eyes, dark gray hair and clipped mustache.
Well-groomed, and affable in manner.
10.
Form C Federal Writers/ Project
Text of Interview (Unedited) Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker Sara B. Wrenn
Date May 16. 19.39
Address 505 Elks Buildingo Portland, Oregon
Rush Mendenhall of Indian Wars Early -day Portland Justice Courts
Subject White House Tavern
Name and address of informant Bert Mendenhall
209 Railway Exchange Bldg.. Portland, Oregon.
Text: My dad, Rush Mendenhall, crossed the Plains in '47. He was captain
of the train. Later he took an active part in the Indian wars of the Northwest.
He was sergeant -orderly in the Nesmith company. The missionaries at that time
had plenty of meat, which they traded to the immigrants for clothing. Well, dad's
company was short an food, and particularly short on meat. The men were getting
mighty tired of a diet of cayuse meat. When they heard the squealing of pigs at
the mission station, that was just about the last straw in whetting their appetities.
One night two or three of them went out on what is now called AWOL. The next morn-
ing everybody in camp had some nice fried porkchops. And that same morning the
missionaries discovered they were short several nice fat porkers. They instituted
a search, that included a visit to the soldiers' encampment, but on asking questions
all the reply they got was "See the orderly," "See the orderly," "The orderly is the
one for you to see, if anybody saw the pigs, he did." The orderly was dad. They
hunted for him, but, strangely enough, he was no place to be found.
It Was in 1848 that dad and a partner built a 63 -ton schooner at Linn
City. I don't remember the name of the schooner. Don't know if I ever knew it.
Anyway after the schooner was built dad and his partner realized they had no nevi
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the heading given
Bert Mendenhall Form C page 2.
gator, nor anybody else who knew anything about navigating a ship. About that time
there happened to be a good sized British vessel anchored at Vancouver. Dad and his
partner made a quiet visit over to Vancouver, and when they returned they brought
two British sailors with them. With his full complement of craw and navigators
enlisted from Vancouver dad sailed his ship down the river. When he reached Baker's
Bay he found it expedient to put in there. It seems the British were on his trail,
but their craft was too big for the shallow waters of Baker's Bay, a fact of which
dad was aware when he went in there, so, eluding his pursuers, he made the run safely
down to California, where the gold mining excitement was at its height. Shortly
afterward he sold the schooner and with the proceeds went into the bueiness of
furnishing miners' supplies at Sacramento. He made some money, went back east and
married, and returned with his bride on the "Governor Morton* around the Horn. He
and a partner bought land from the Spanish in California, but in that they got
swindled, so eventually he cane back to Oregon. He built the old courthouse at
Lafayette in '58 or '59. When he started it the brickmakers raised the price of
brick on him, so he bought five acres of land just outside the town limits, built
some kilns and made his own bricks. Then they raised the price of lumber on him,
so he bought a little water -power mill up an the Chehalem mountains; he bought some
standing cedar, and so he made his own lumber and shingles, and in the end found
he cleaned up $2,000.00 more than he otherwise would have on the courthouse con-
tract, and had a brick plant and lumber mill besides. With a partner by the name
of Price, who was father of the girl Senator Mitchell afterward married, dad went
into the mercantile business, with a store at Amity and one at Bethel. In doing
this they staked a fellow by the name of Holman, who was in charge of the stores.
It wasn't long before word reached dad and his partner that if they hurried they
might get to Amity and Bethel in time to find the buildings and that was about
all they did find. Holman and everything else had disappeared.
Bert Mendenhall Form C page 3.
Yes, I used to go to most of the dances round about. North Plains was a
popular place. We danced on a puncheon flocr in a log cabin, and all we had was one
fiddle to dance to. They were most square dances and I never cared much for those.
I remember our first dancing master was a man named Cardinell. He had a daughter
who helped him. Afterward she was Mrs. Cyrus Dolph and became pretty tony.
For a long time I lived out on South Third and Hall streets, here in
Portland. The Nhnns, John Mann and his wife, who founded the Mann Home on the
east side, lived up the street just a block away. They were awful good church
people in their later years. I can remember when old John Mann though he wasn't
old then started his money -making out of fast horses and his livery stable. Mrs.
Mann raised flowers. She got a young fellow to sell them for her. He peddled them
about town every place, bawdy houses and all.
Do I recall anything about the old Mate House, out on the Riverdale
Road? I'll say I do. I VAS there a lot in my young days. The White House was
started, if I recall rightly, by a man named Leonard. H. C., I think, were his
initials. The road leading out to the place was the first macadamized road in this
part of the country, and for a long time it was known as the Macadam Road, where
anybody who awned a horse, fast or otherwise, went out to take their girls buggy
riding. All the gay folks in town went out to the White House where no questions
was asked and most anything could he had. I was under age, I remember, and couldn't
get anything in town, but nobody questioned me out there. Once, hell! hehl I saw
a fellow come running out of the place with no hat or coat on, and another fellow
was chasing him and yelling: "I'll learn you haw to break up my family," and about
then he caught up with him and knocked him out. Then another fellow ran up with a
pan of dishwater that he threw on him and somebody else emptied a cuspidor over him
and pretty soon they brought him to.
Leonard kept up the Macadam Road through levying a toll. It began at
about the foot of Hall street, if I remember correctly, where the toll gate was.
Bert Mendenhall Form C page 4.
About half way out there was a place called the Red House, but that was later and
not high-toned like the White House.
When I began the practice of law I WAS in my brother Ed's office. There
was another young fellow in the office named Gordon Hayes. He was afterwards county
judge of Clackamas county. My brother turned over little cases to us to start us off,
such as those in the justice courts. IN couldn't understand why we lost 'em all
every damned one. IN couldn't imagine what was wrong. Well, of course, we weren't
on to the ropes. The justice court was held in a room over a saloon, and the jury
was selected by the constable, who picked 'am up in the saloon downstairs. All the
jurors got was a dollar. Jack Evers kept the saloon. The jury would go into
deliberation in a little room back of the court. There was a window in the little
room, and the jurors had a gallon can with a rope tied to the bail. They would put
their money in the bucket or can and then lower it out the window and knock it
against the back door of the saloon. Then the barkeep would come out, peek in the
bucket to see if there was any money, and if there was, it was o.k., he'd send it
up full of beer or whatever they wanted. Then the jury would come to an agreement,
but what they agreed on, depended on which side furnished the money for the bucket.
Once there was a State case involving a criminal charge. The jury was pretty full
that time. It brought in a verdict that read, "State guilty as charged."
It was about '84 or '85 that there was a justice court out an Ninth and
Glisan streets, where the front room was the bar and the rear room with a side
entrance, the place for holding court. The justice of the peace owned the place and
the barkeeper was the constable.
At one time, when the justice court was held opposite of where the court-
house now stands, there was a case where a JAW junk -man among the jurors kept ask-
ing who the attorney for the defence was. When he found out, he said, "Vell, I'm for him.
Bert Mendenhall Form C page 5.
Right or wrong, I'm for him." Later, when the verdict was brought in for the
defense, the lawyer for the plaintiff said to the Jew, "Why, what diya go
against me for? I'm a friend o' yours. You remember, I was down in your place
not long ago, looking at a stove" "Sure, I remember, answered the Jaw, "you
vas down in my place, an' you vas lookin' at a stove, but did you zly the stover
Form D
Extra Comment
Federal Writers' Project
Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker Sara B. Wrenn
,Date May 16. 193Z
Address §05 Elks Buildine. Portland, Oregcm_
Rush Mendenhall of Indian Wars Early -day Portland Justice Courts
Mate House Tavern
Subject
Name and address of informant Bert Mendenhall
209 Railway Exchange Bldg.,. Portland. °raglan
Comment:
The interviewer is of the opinion that Mr. Mendenhall possesses
considerable other information of a folklore nature that would be of interest,
but he refused to grant further time in an interview at the present time.
(Use as many additional sheets as neoessary, each bearing the heading given
above).