Document text
WPA L. C. PROJECT
Form -4
Writers,
UNIT
Accession no.
w 9623
Date received
10/10/40
Consignment no.
1
Shipped from
1 Wash. Office
Label
11Amount
A-B
Folklore Collection (or Type)
Title Orern in the vArly 70's
Informant: J. R. Irving.
Place of origin...b..KUNlia...QMOIL Date/14j9_
Project worker_1.124&-___:th..2).22/1ete
Project editor
Remarks
Form A
Federal Writers' Project
Circumstances of Interview Works Progress Administration
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
Name of worker Sara B,. ran
Address 505 Elks Building, Portland, Oregon
Subject Oregon in the early 70's
Date April 14, 1939
Name and address of informant J. R. Irvin5.
Boone's Ferry Road, Route 1, Oswego, Oregon
Date and time of interview April 11, 1939, afternoon.
.Place of interview Home, at above address.
Name and address of person, if any, who put you in touch with infOrmant
Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you
Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
Shabby living roam of shabby old two-story house, built in the 70's.
The room was high-ceilinged, heated by an airtight stove, the pipe of which
entered a closed fireplace. The mantel, of -white fluted lines, had once been
beautiful. The room, as well as the rest of the house, was lighted by kerosene
lamps; old-fashioned hanging lamps with flower -painted, thin China shades, hung
from the ceiling by chains. At one end of the room was a bay -window, where a
sewing machine stood. At the other and was a windowless recess, in which there
was a sleeping cot and chair. Adjoining was a dining -roam, the furniture of
which bore evidence of more prosperous days. An interesting item here was a
large, framed photograph of a huge, cupolaed mansion typical of the early 70's.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the proper heading
and the number to which the material refers).
W9623
J. R. Irving Form A 2.
The garden about the house was apparently begun with much ambition
for the future. Once a large farm, with an orchard at the back and fields
wandering over the farther bills, the entrance is through old brick pillars,
with an avenue of tall lambardy poplars, planted in 1875, leading beyond the
house and up to where the mansion was to have been. A hedge surrounds the
garden, within which, among flowers and shrubbery, are several old colored
porcelain plant containers. Many old outbuildings a huge barn, cow sheds,
wood sheds, etc.-- yet remain; some of them falling into ruins, and all of them,
including the house, badly in need of paint.
Form B Federal Witerst Project
Personal History o; Informant Works Ptogresw Administration
OREGON FOLAWRE STUDIES
Name of worker
Sara B. Wrenn Date April 13, 1939
Address 505 Elks Building, Portland, Oregon
Subject Oregon in the Early. 70's
Name end address of informant J. R. Irvin.
Boone's Ferry Road, Et 1 Oswe
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. Robert trying, latger;- ilaryliargraVas Woiher. loth English.
Father cane to America from England in 1858, returning later for mother.
2. Coin., Lancaster, England, in 1860.
5. Family: Wife, Frances Rohse Irving. Children, Ekw. Mary Patton, daughter
Bose Lane
Carol Knutson
Boland Irving, son
4. England. Victoria B.C., two or three years. Oregon, since 1875 84 years.
5. Public sohools only.
6. Sospmaking, occupation. IC socomplishments.
7. Chief interest, stock and farming.
8. Maribor Protestant church.
9. &all wiry man, with blue eyes, white hair and smooth face.
10. Amen who, while seemingly born to poverty in England, where he began work at
seven years of age, had reason to expeet that he might live in the status of a
country gentlemen, when a young nsm4 as his father mould appear to have been some-
thing of a promoter, who hob-nobbed with Portlsad's early promoters.
(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 Sara B. Wrenn Date April 14, 1939
Address 505 Elks Building, Portland, Oregon
Subject Oregon in the Early 70's
Name and address of informant J. R. Irving
Boone's Ferry Road. Rt. 1, Oswego, Oregon
Text:
Yes, we've lived 'ere all these years, an' now the old 'owe is
about ready to fall on us; while down where you live on the lake, land is
sellin' at all kinds of prices for just a lot. Oswego Lake, built We all'ays
called it Sucker Lake. When the young uns went dawn there to swim years ago
the roads was a foot deep in dust. In winter they was mud.
Do I know anything about the old White 'Ouse, dawn on the river? Why
damn it, o' course I do. I knew all them fellers that went out there. Every-
body that lad a fast horse and all the bloods 'ad fast horses in them days
drove out the old Macadam Road along the river to the Elite 'Ouse. It lad
vide porches, out over the river, and a body could get most anything to drink.
They used to say that was where a man took another man's wife. Then if he
found out some way his wife was there with 'abbe the husband of the woman
with 'in, te'd drive around the 'alf-mile racetrack ant go back to town,
as good as you please. That's what they said, ant that you could hey just
about anything you vented at the White 'Ouse, besides fine food and champagne.
But damn it, the White 'Ouse VIVA a purty good sort of a place. I never saw
anything wrong with it, and I see plenty of men there with their wives, too.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the heading given
above).
J. R. Irving Form C 2.
Joe Leonard, it wee, built the White 'Ouse and the 'elf mile race
track adjoining. Joe was a sport, but le was a party fine feller,
liberal with 'is money as 'ell. Why God damn it, of course they gambled.
Heverybody gambled them days. They played poker some out there. But
mostly they played a sort 0 shuffle board, built like a billiard table,
with halleys on the side, en' they shuffled with quoits. Urdly ever
played that game for less than $20.00 a throw. They 'ad 000kfights there
too, but I never took much interest in tem. Mostly it was 'ores races.
Sometimes there'd be as many as two to three lundred people matchinl
them for the best three in five rounds o' the track. La's see, there
was DeLashmutt, au' Bob Wilkes ant Dick Aberdeen, an' Count Wilson. Oh
'all I can't remember them all heirerybody in town what was anybody.
Bob .Smith, le was another. Wilkes, le was lorseman for Simeon Reed.
When a MAU drank them days, le drank. Went to the sideboard or put
'is foot on the rail of a bar, and took 'is whiskey down neat. These
fancy cocktails today le 'tough to make a real man sick. Them was the
days they 'ad prizefights too, but they couldn't allays lave 'am in
PortUnd. I remember once when the sports in town tired a boat 'an went
down to Lewis River, mil Jack Demswy ant Joe Reilly fought five rounds.
Then Dempsey knocked Dave Campbell out in 'mother five rounds. Then they
'ad a real fight; a feller named Sullivan an' Bunco Kelly fought a 'underd
rounds; an' fore they called a draw they was jest rollinl in the mud. It
was Cap. Carroll engineered them fights.
Them VW the days o' shanghainl too. Jim Turk an' the Grant bays,
an' Larry Sullivan, they was in cahoots with the sailor boardinl louses;
an' some 0 them they run too. Shanghainl wasn't so bad sometimes. I
J. R. Irving Form C 3.
remember old Flavel, te was rich an' owned a lot o' property. Flavel I
guess there isn't anything left of it 71404 That was to be a big town
down on the Columbia, off from Astoria, wasn't it? Anyway old Flavel
tad a son, an' lets no good; just spoiled with money, so the old man got
Jim Turk to shAmehai him. tE was out at sea about a year, ant after 'a
got back lame le be'aved 'imself party good.
Yes, we got a telephone 'ere. I bet it's the honly one of its kind
in the world. Babout thirty years ago twelve of us out 'ere in this
community got together an' built 11s a telephone line. We got the poles
an lad the wires stretched ant then we got connection with Portland
an' now God damn it, they can't get rid o' us. They'd like to, hall
right, but they can't. They've tried hall which ways, but we can go
right to that old 'phone on the wall an' ring Broadway 1140 get heny
number in town we want, sin' hall it costs us his 113.50 a year. I
guess it'll last as long as hany of us are alive, but we can't add any,
body to our list. Just that horiginal twelve families.
Form D
Extra Comment Works Progress Administration
Federal Writers' Project
Name of worker
Address
Subject
OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES
SarA B. Wrenn
,Date April 13. 199
505 Elks Buildiulo Portland, Oregon
Oregon in the Early 70's
Name and address of informant J. R. Irving
Boone's Ferry Road. Et. 1. Owego. Oregon.
Comment:
While Mr. Irving received what education he has in this country,
strangely enough, he is strongly addicted to cockney English, which the
interviewer has triad to reproduce, together with his healthy profanity.
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, each bearing the heading given
above).