Document text
Accession no.
WPA L. C. PROJECT
Form -11
Write/rat
UNIT
W 9653
Date received
10/10/40
Consignment no.
1
Shipped from
Wash. Office
Label
Amount 9p.
(incl. forts
&—D)
4.311Are Collection (or Type)
Place of origin _Portia:A, Orezon Date. 2/27.139
Project worker Irezua
Project editor
Remarks
Form A Federal Writers' Project
Circumstances of Interview Works Yrosross Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker
Address
Subject
Sara B. Wrenn
Date February 27, 194,9
505 Elks Buildingaiodaligais_Qraggn___
Pioneer Day Stories
Name and eerlro95 or irfcrmlyit Miss Mares Kelly
2945 S. E. Franklin St., Portland. Oregon
Date and 771.311e of February_21g39, 2:00 to 5:45 P.M.
Place of interview Above addresti, home of informants_
Name and address of nersnn, if any, who put you in to7ch with informant
Miss Jean Slawson, Lower Drive, Lake Grove, Oswego, Oregon
Name and address of person, if any, accompanyng you
IMF
Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
Large, somewhat handsome living room, revealing culture, good taste
and moderate wealth on the part of the occupant. The house is a big, two-
story structure, its architecture typical of the early 1900's. Resting high
above the street level, its grounds are supported by concrete retaining walls,
and the house is reached by a flight of concrete steps. The grounds, though not
extensive, are attractive and overlooking the community. The property is a small
part of the original 650 -acre donation land claim of the owner's grandfather,
Clinton Kelly, who came to Oregon in 1848.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the proper heading
and the number to which the material refers).
Wg653
Form B Federal Writers' Project
Personal History of Informant Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKIPRE STUDIES
Name of worker,
Address
Subject
Sara B. Wrenn Date February 27, 1939
505 Elks Building. Portland. Oregon
Pioneer Day Stories
Name and address of informant Miss Mary Agnes Kelly
2945 S. E. Franklin St., Portland, Oregon.
Information obtained should supply the followille, facts:
1. Ancestry 6. Occupatiors and accomplishments with dates
2. Place and date of birth 7. Special okilis and interests
3. Family 8. Oommuntty and religious activities
4. Places lived in, with dates 9. Des3rintion of infolmant
5. Education, with dates 10. Other points gained in interview
1. Father, Penumbra Kelly, son of Clinton Kelly, who crossed the plains to
Oregon in 1848.
Nether, Mary E. Marv= Kelly, a daughter of pioneers.
Ancestral stock, English, Irish, Scotch and Dutch.
2. Portland, Oregon. February 19, 1877.
3. Spinster, living with brother in old home.
4. Home has always been in Portland, Oregon.
5. Portland Public Schools; Portland Academy and State University Extension work.
6. Juvenile court work. Some achievement as writer.
7. Housekeeper and writing, social work.
8. Member of Daughters of American Revolution, and of Daughters of War of 1812.
Member of Presbyterian church.
9. Tall and slender with blue eyes and brown hair, slightly mixed with gray.
Of gracious personality, well-bred and well -dressed. Genteel in every
respect, verging on the "old school."
10. The informant writes professionally on pioneer subjects, and, for that reason
might be less communicative than she otherwise mould be.
(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 Sug_B. Wrenn
Address 505 Elks Building, Portland, Oregon
Subject Pioneer Day Storiea
Date February 27, 1939
Name and address of informant Miss MmAsnes Kelly
2945 S.E. Franklin St., Portland, Oregon
Text:
My father's people came to Oregon across the plains in 1848. Father's
father was Clinton Kelly, the one who filed on all this country round -about
as a donation land claim. See, up there on the hill, is the house grandfather
built after the burning of his big log house. The house is used now as a sani-
tarium. There are five oberry trees growing there that grandfather bought from
that famous nursery brought across- the plains by the Lewellings. Joseph Watt,
who afterward started the first woollen mill in Oregon, at Salem, was captain
of my people's train. Be had come across earlier, in 1843, and so was well quali-
fied for his responsibilities as captain.
Are you interested in Indian stories? If so, here is one that may be in-
teresting because, if you have imagination, you can see something of the picture
on the hill over yonder. It was the Indian trouble of 1855 and 1856, when the
word went out over the country that the Indians were going to wipe out the whites
the Cayuse and Yakima Indians, I think they were. Of course everybody was panic-
stricken, and all the outlying settlers began to pour in, by whatever means they
could, to the more closely settled community, which seamed to be in this vicinity.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the heading given
above).
Miss Mary Agnes Kelly Form C 2.
Grandfather had built a huge loghouse. I've been told it WAS 80 by 100 feet.
The house was built on the order of some of the old southern plantation homes,
in two different sections, roofed over between. As the house and outbuildings
were on an eminence, it formed a fairly strong place for protection. So it was
here the frightened settlers began to congregate. They came from every direction,
especially from the Columbia River and Powell Valley, and they came in every sort
of conveyance. The hill up there was practically covered with horses, oxen and
wagons, and they stayed for days. The man were busy fortifying and getting their
arms and ammunition ready, and the woman, of course, were more than busy cooking
and oaring for the many children. One woman a Mrs. Duvall from the vicinity
of what is now Gresham, had given birth to a baby the very day she had to be moved.
Haw to carry her and the tiny baby safely over the more than ten miles of rough
road was a problem that had to be solved quickly. But a man by the name of Jacob
Jackson Moore, who owned the land where the Gresham cemetery now is, was quick-
witted. Boring holes in the sides of a wagon -bed he then stretched ropes across,
and on the mattress formed by the ropes he placed a feather bed. On this improvised
ambulance, mother and babe rode to safety.
A week or so later troops were ordered out against the Indians, and with
than went Plympton Kelly, grandfather's eldest son.
Grandfather, Clinton Kelly, did considerable preaching for some time
after coming to Oregon, not so much professionally as from a sense of duty. The
tradition is that he preached the second sermon in Portland and that in a
cooperage. Elsewhere he preached at Mount Tabor, Lents, Foster's Milwaukie and
Oregon City. Dr. Samuel Nelson, a physician, had built a small house on the
western slope of Mount Tabor, only it wasn't then named, but it must have been an
attractive spot, for during the summer grandfather and his family would go with
Miss Mary Agnes Kelly Form C 3.
their ox team and wagon, and Sunday would be put in with, first, Sunday school,
then a sermon, and then a class meeting, all in succession. It must have been
pretty hard on the youngsters, but all the people in the community came. It was
on one of these occasions that somebody suggested naming the mountain. Grand-
father's first thought was Mount Zion, but one of his sons, who had been reading
history, spoke up and said, "Father, this reminds me of what I have been reading
about Mount Tabor. Let's call it that." So Mount Tabor it has been called ever
since, though nobody than dreamed they were on an extinct volcano that they
were so close, as you might say, to hell fire and brimstone, even if centuries
ago:
Thames Kelly, the youngest brother of Clinton, took up a homestead on
land where the Grant High Sohool now stands. It was a very remote and lonesome
place then. Great-uncle Thomas VIVA a bachelor. He built himself a little log
house, and did the various other improvements required by law; but he probably
didn't work as hard as he would, had he been driven by the necessity of supporting
A
a wife and several children. He liked to hunt and he had time for it. He had been
hunting one day, and, late in the evening, was carrying home the deer he had shot
carrying it slung over his shoulder, with the head hanging down his back. Dusk had
fallen when he realized that he was being followed by something or someone. It didn't
take himvery long to know that it was a mountain lion or cougar. Knowing the beast's
proclivities, that if he hastened his steps attack would be precipitated, he /brood
himself to hold back when every impulse was to run. Finally, after what seemed to
him an eternity, he reached his cabin door. Be had no more than dropped the heavy
bar inside, when, bang' oame the full weight of the cougar on the door. Luckily
the door was strong and well -fastened, for again and again the animal lunged,
snarling at the barrier. Than it sprang on the roof, and all night long, maddened
Miss Mary Agnes Kelly Form C 4.
by the smell of the deer's blood, it yelled and howled and scratched at the frail
shakes, only a few feet above his head. With daylight the big oat slunk away,
and never was daylight more welcome to great-uncle Thomas, so I've been told.
And here's another cougar story of the early days. Grandfather Marquam,
for whom Marquam Bill is named, came to Oregon from California in 1851. He wanted
some land cleared, so he hired a man by the name of Latham to do the work. Latham
had a wife and three or four little children. The clearing was on the crest of
Marquam Hill, where a little house or cabin was built, in which the family might
live. Latham VW absent from home one night. Early in the evening one of the
children was taken sick with some childish ailment, probably colic, for it cried
and cried. With darkness, shut in as the cabin was by towering trees, the child's
complaining cries grew louder, or so it seemed to the frightened and lonely mother.
Presently, to her horror, there came an answering cry from just outside in the
little clearing. By this time all the children were frightened and whimpering,
and the sick child screamed both with fear and pain. For every scream it gave the
cougar or panther answered. Then it, too, leaped on the frail roof, scratching
and tearing to get through. Mrs. Latham had no gun, and wouldn't have known haw
to fire it if she had. But she did have a washboiler, and she had, it appears,
plenty of water and plenty of wood. So all night long she kept the water boil-
ing, her only weapon if the snarling, hungry beast brake through in the midst of
her little brood. This time, also, daylight served as a rescuer, but never again
did Mrs. Latham spend the night up there on Marquam Hill alone. She said after-
ward she thought her hair would be white when morning came.
Miss Mary Agnes Kelly Form C 5.
There is a story, the details of whioh I wish I could remember better.
It is about what we always called the "great-grandfather of all the wolves" story,
o that was o smart to take any of the trap baits put out by grandfather Kelly.
Time after time calves and sheep and pigs were taken, and time after time grand-
father set his traps and his baits all to no purpose. This "great-grandfather
of all the wolves" was just too clever for him. Grandfather grew more and more
disgusted at his failure. Then, if I remember the story correctly, he built a
little pen, in which he placed a live sheep, yet so protected that the wolf
couldn't reach it. Just outside the pan he put some poisoned bait that he had
been careful enough to literally "handle with gloves". The next day grandmother,
and father and all the rest of the young Kellys were taken out by grandfather to
see the "great-grandfather of all the wolves" stretched out stark and stiff, and
dead as a stone.
Grandfather Marquam had a rather keen sense of humor and loved his
little jokes. He got a big laugh from the story of the sanctimonious minister
we won't mention the name who, on returning home from church one Sunday, when
the weather was bitter cold, and all the ponds round about were covered with
ice, met a little boy with his skates slung over his shoulder. This, thought
the sanctimonious minister, is a good time to deliver a moral lecture.. He
spoke to the little boy, who responded in gay, good humor. Then he said, "Sonny,
do you kamalahere little boys go, who carry their skates on Sunday?" "Yes, sir,"
the little boy answered, with a bright smile, "some of 'em goes to Couch's Lake,
and some of 'em goes to Carruthers Pond."
Miss Mary Agnes Kelly
Form C 6
In grandfather's day, the family never went to bed, nor left the house
for the day, without first having family prayers, for whioh the entire family,
including such hired men as there might be, congregated in the living roam. It
was all very patriarchal, and any hired man who refused to comply with this
household custom did not long remain in grandfather's employ. First he would
read a chapter from the Bible, followed by singing in which all took part, and
then there would be a prayer by grandfather.
Another custom in our family, which my brother and I maintain today,
is to say on parting for the night, "Goodnight, and bless you."
A farewell salutation of grandmother's WAS "I wish you well."
Yes, I remember well the Chinese gangs my people employed in clear-
ing land, as well as in oultivating it for garden purposes. They were always
very fond of children and would bring us presents. As a rule they were both
industrious and honest. But I remember once when father found under the big
flat bamboo hats, which they had left on the ground near their work, a number
of potatoes, several to each hat. They were planning to take them to their
camp, no doubt. So father simply had their boss pick the potatoes all up, and
then he gave them to the gang, reminding them at the same time it was unnecessary
for them to steal.
Form D
Extra Comment
Name of worker
Federal Writers' Project
Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Sara Be_ Wrenn
Address 505 Elks Building, Portlandt Oregon
Subject Pioneer Day Stories
Name and address of informant Miss Mary Agnes Kelly
Comment:
,Date February 27, 1939
2945 S. E. Franklin St., Portland. Oregon
Miss Kelly is a very charming and gracious person, much in sympathy
with the work in hand, and who is keenly interested in everything pertaining
to Oregon and its history. It is possible, therefore, that being an occasional
writer of Oregon stories, she felt somewhat justified in not relating anything
of interest that she herself might use.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the heading given
above).