Document text
A.12.412,1S 4
fUriz-1 Y
Date receiy ed
-.7_4,-,1--..,ec,..A.A..../- au:x.04A
Title..
XConsignment no. WiLa.&42
Shipped fro*
iii)‘
Label
Amount
qp
Cts4FAore:_c}6
UNIT
Collection (or Type)
Place of origi A)-degOixi-2 &ern Date_ .g.2.,
Project worker...1214,21.-.4.- a v.i.
Project editor _
Remarks
Form B Federal Writers' Project
Personal History of Informant Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKWRE STUDIES
Name of worker
Address
Subject
Sara B. Wrenn Date February 13, 1939
505 Elks Bui;dinz... Portland, Oregon.
Early reminiscences Chinese Old Wasco County incidents.
Name and address of informant A. J. Veazie
612 Corbett Bui4lingo Portlapd OreAon.
Information obtained should supply the following facts:
1. Ancestry 6. Occupations and acoomplishments 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. poscrintion of informant
5. Education, with dates 10. Other points gained in interview
1. Scotch -English -Irish.
2. Oregon; 1868.
3. Father, Edmond F. Veazie; mother, Harriet Lyle Veazie. Be has three daughters,
and one son.
4. Always lived in Oregon.
5. Public schools; University of Oregon.
6. Lawyer "and married man".
7. Law and history, with particular reference to Oregon history.
8. Director Y.M.C.A. for many years; Deacon First Baptist Church of Portland;
Trustee, Linfield College at McMinnville.
9. Medium sized blond man, of genial appearance, smooth face, blue eyes and
white hair. Neatly, but not "sprucely" dressed.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the proper heading
and the number to which the material refers).
A. J. Veazie Form B p. 2.
10. Of an old pioneer family of Polk County, Mr. Veazie is well acquainted
not only with Oregon history, but with all the great and near -great of
Oregon. Interested in the State's history, and something of a writer,
his history of Crook County in the early days of the 160s and '70s, was
published in the December number of the Oregon Historical quarterly of
1938. This perhaps accounts for the limited number of folklore stories
he was able to furnish offhand.
Form C Federal Writers' Project
Text of Interview (Unedited) Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker Sara B. Wrenn Dtte February 13, 1939.
Address 505 Ellivpuilding, Portland, Oregon
Subject
Name and address of informant, A. J. Veazie
612 _Corbett BuildinF, Portland, Oregon.
1•1* I fl 1 flflC a
Texts
You ask me, among other subjects, if I can tell you anything of the
early Chinese laborers here in Oregon, and their life as it touched our own
people. I can remember, when a boy in Polk County, in the '70s there was
nearly always a gang of Chinese coolies working somewhere about, either on
our farm, grubbing the scrub oak, or grading with shovels on the railroad con-
struction. Chinese coolies most of them from China's southern provinces
were brought to the Pacific Coast by the thousands in those early construction
days, when our steamshovels of today were yet unheard of. They were industrious
laborers, as a whole, but, contrary to the tradition of today, they were not
always the tractable, gentle workmen for which time gives them credit. While
each small unit had its Chinese boss, the entire gang would be under the super-
vision of a white man, and he sometimes had to take rather severe measures. For
one thing, they were cruel, almost without exception. By that I mean they seemed
to have little sense of kindness toward dumb animals, or even, indeed to one
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the heading given
above).
A. J. Veazie
Form C 2.
of their own. An animal hurt or in pain seemed to furnish them amusement, and
they never made a move toward helping a fellow workman no matter how badly in-
jured. On the contrary, they usually jeered at him.
I remember once, when there was a road gang near our hone, we boys
were going down to watch them one day, when we met one of the bosses. He told us
to stay away. The coolies had been acting ugly for several days and they were get-
ting uglier all the time. Something had happened in some of their Tongs, I suppose.
They were all handled, in their contracts, through the big Tongs at San Francisco.
Well something did happen all right, and that very day too. The coolies suddenly
quit work, and when the white boss ordered them back on the job, they jumped him.
Luckily he was armed, or, as he afterwards said, there would have been nothing
left of him but hacked up pieces, for every manjack of them was coming at him with
pick or shovel or whatever tool they happened to have in their hands. As it was,
when he drew his six-shooter and began firing without much regard as to direct-
ion the coolies fell back and he was soon in control of the situation. And I've
known of Chinese cooks, out on the big ranches in Eastern Oregon, that, when full
of hop or bad whiskey, would chase everybody with a big butcher knife that came
near their kitchens. The house servants wore always, as a rule, pretty faithful
and honest, and they were fine cooks. A11 of the Chinese seemed to be very fond
of children, and whether pick -and -shovel laborers or house servants, they seldom
failed to remember missy with embroidered silk handkerchiefs, and the small folk
with chee nuts, during Chinese New Year,
Now for an Indian story of not so many years ago. It was in 1914 I
think. One of the Warm Springs Indians was indicted for the murder of an Indian
policeman, and while awaiting trial was held in the federal prison here at
411101
Portland. He was a quiet, well-behaved sort of fellow, and, as it turned out,
A. J. Veazie Form C 3.
he was the victim of a put-up job and had nothing to do with the murder. He
was exonerated by the Grand Jury, and, pending his departure on the evening
train for home, was put in charge of a young fellow, who was given strict orders
to see that his redskin got no firewater and in every other may behaved himself
with decorum. The young man, not knowing just what to do with his charge, asked
him if he would like to go to a show. No, he didn't want to see any show. "Well,
what would you like to do, we have a whole day to put in" he was asked. The
Indian looked at him solemnly, as he answered, "let's get a lot of newspapers
and go and sit in the park and read them."
Here is an early branding story that may be of interest. It's a true
story all right, and as some of the participants may still be living in this
section of the country, I'll mention no names. The gist of it is that a young
chap was arrested for stealing a calf and killing it. As soon as they got him
in jail, a deputy sheriff got astride his horse and rode out to where the butchered
calf lay. It was still unskinned, so, taking out his knife, he cut out the brand
to be used as evidence, an irregular piece of the skin as it proved. Then he
galloped back to town, his bit of evidence safely in his pocket for delivery to
the prosecuting attorney. What he had done was tipped off to a friend of the
accused. "quick:" he told a mutual cowboy friend "Get on that cayuse of yours
as fast as you can, ride hell-bent to that dead calf, and cut a circle out of it
where the brand WAS." Well, of course, the brand evidence didn't amount to much,
when it was found it didn't fit the circle, and the accused went free. As I
remember, this too, was an instance of a put-up game.
A. J. Veazie Form C 4.
Old Eastern Oregon I don't know what it is like these days was
a typical country of dry cowboy humor and jokes, of which the following is a
somewhat imperfect sample: A. man I knew stopped at the gate of an oil acquaint-
ance of his for a drink of water, one hot, summer day. He VAS horseback, and
the old acquaintance, wham he hadn't seen for a long time, was holding a big,
fat baby in his arms. The visitor comented on the fine-looking baby.
"Boy, is it?"
"Yep, a boy."
"Named him yet?"
"Yep, he's named."
"What do you call him?"
"I can't think."
"'thatl you can't remember what you named hii?"
"Naw now what the heck is it anyway?"
"Why, that's the strangest thing I ever heard of--"
"Aw now I rekollect his name's Bill."
This story shows the audacity and nerve that brought some of our young
fellows east of the mountains into prominence in some manner or other. There
wasn't much opportunity in those wide open spaces for a young man who was ambitions
to become something other than a cowboy or sheepherder. This fellow had a keen,
quick mind, and he had a pleasant personality. Be could get away with just about
anything, and he just about did. If he hadn't been quite so smart, he probably
would have gone a long way. Charlie Cartwright, one of our big sheep men in the
'80s, came in to my uncle, Al Lyle's house, one day, just about laughing his head
off. "It's about Ralph R--," he said. "He's been asking me question after question
as to haw to grade wool, every fool thing about it there is to know, until finally
I said, 'What are all these questions about, Ralph, what do you want to know so
much about grading wool for?' And what do you suppose that crazy loon answered?
"I've got a job grading wool,' says he, 'I'm starting on the work tomorrow morn-
ing."
A, J. Veazie
Form C 5.
Just one more story, to show haw hospitable the folks used to be. It
was when we were little tads, my brother Clarence and I. Mother was out with us
on the ranch in Eastern Oregon, and it was pretty lonesome for her, so one day
she took the two of us on a horse and rode over to a neighbor, several mils
distant. When she reached there, half a dozen big, long-eared hounds rushed
out, barking savagely. Naturally she was frightened, and we two kids were yelling
lustily, as we tried to hide behind her, for, unfortunately, she had dismounted.
The noise we made soon brought out our neighbor, but, instead of calling off the
dogs, as anyone might expect, he shouted, between spouts of tobacco juice, "Kick
'em, Mrs. Veazie, kick 'em!" Ever since then when any of our family gets in a jam,
we tell them to "Kick 'em, Mrs. Veazie, kick 'Emit"
Form D
Federal Writers' Project
Extra Comment Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker Sara B. Wrenn
Address 505 Elks Building. Portland. Oregon.
,Date February 134_1939.
Subject Reminiscences Chinese labor Crook Co. Life
Name and address of informant A. J. Veazie
612 Corbett Bldz.. Portland. Oregon.
Comment:
Mr. Veazie, very much interested in the preserving of Oregon history
and folklore, was busy when the interviewer called. Nevertheless he gave her
a cordial reception and took an hour or more off to relate the foregoing yarns,
dealing with life in Oregon in the '70s and '80s.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the heading given
above).