OREGON FOLKLORE - WORK PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION
Title: Ghost Town of Auburn
Surnames: Doane, Brown

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OREGON FOLKLORE STUDIES

Date: February 24. 1939
Address 2071 S.W. Park Avenue

Subject The Ghost Town of Auburn.

Name and address of informant: Mrs. J. N. Doane

Date and time of interview: February 23 -- afternoon.

Place of interview: 2825 N. E. 35th Avenue

Name and address of person, if any, who put you in touch with informant

Project files -- Elks Building

Description of room, house, surroundings, etc. The house is a moderate
dwelling in the neighborhood of Grant High School. The interior plainly and
simply furnished.

None is available except for what already is in the office. Mrs. Doane
absolutely refused to divulge any facts of her own life, declaring that she
would not be mentioned because she never lived in Auburn, but about eight
miles from it. She offered some esoteric reason to the effect that people
would read this stuff and know that she did not live in Auburn and they
wouldn't believe any of it then. It all sounded very difficult and
confusing. The material we have concerning her she declares to be false.
She said that a woman interviewed her the last time, promising not to use
any of the facts she gave her about herself, but these were filed, and now
Mrs. Doane claims they are distorted, and it is very unpleasing to her.

Text:

I don't know why you people come to me to find out about Auburn because I
never lived there. I lived about eight miles from town, over by way of
Sumpter. Of course, I was in Auburn a number of times, but I never lived
there, so anything I could toll you wouldn't be worth much. I'll tell you who
you ought to see and that is W. S. Hughes. He is street commissioner in Baker,
Oregon, and you could get hold of him there by writing him a letter.

Maybe I can tell you a little bit, I don't know what. Mining was all there was
in those days, you know. There were no pastimes to speak of, because everybody
had to work. There were several families lived there and they went visiting
each over on Sundays. Dancing was the only recreation we had. We danced the
popular dances of that time. The parents all went and took their children. I
remember the first time I ever danced. I was just eleven years old at the time
-- but don't you put that in there, I wouldn't want anybody to know that. They
danced all night in those days, and at midnight every one stopped for the
midnight lunch which was really the main attraction. There was a big log house
in Auburn where we used to dance, and I think it is there yet. It had a big,
open floor upstairs, and there were people living in the downstairs. We would
dance upstairs until midnight, then we would all go down stairs for lunch in
these people's place.

Everybody was friendly in those days. If anyone was sick, there was always
somebody would go and sit up with them, or if somebody died, all the people
would go and help prepare for the burial. It was what they called "paying
their respects." I remember one family that had typhoid fever, and the people
all got together to help them out. They got food and clothing and things like
that and took it over to them.

There was very little crime. People left their doors unlocked and never had a
thought that any one would steal from them. Now I don't know whether you have
ever seen a miner's cabin or not, but they were built with a lean-to, a little
kind of shed with a slanting roof, either in front or in back, and in this
lean-to the miner cached all his supplies and his wood and stuff like that.
They would leave the doors of the cabin unlocked and the lean-to piled full of
wood and food and other things like that, and go away sometimes for the whole
winter. All they asked was that things be left as whoever came along found
them. Anyone that passed that way was welcome to use the owner's cabin and his
wood and things while he was gone, as long as they replaced everything.

There weren't many celebrations in those days. About three or four times a
year, I guess was all. There was Washington's Birthday, the Fourth of July,
Christmas, and New Years. Those were the times when the big dances were held,
and I guess that was about all because everybody had to work too hard to get
together often. Sometimes small groups gathered and played cards like Casino,
euchre, and other games of that sort. Almost everything people used was
shipped in. They even raised very little stuff at first because they didn't
know they could. Almost everything had to be hauled in from Umatilla Landing.
Sugar came in 100 pound barrels. People had their own beef, and they made
their own butter. In later years they found out that the ground would really
produce, and they began to raise vegetables. That was when I was a girl.

They didn't have as many vegetables, either, it seems like in those days.
There were cabbages, apples, potatoes, onions, and beets and that was about
all. No carrots or other vegetables like people have now. I don't know why
not. Oh yes, there were dry beans, too, and a little canned stuff, but not
nearly so much as they have nowadays. There was no such thing then as canned
milk. People bought lots of molasses and pickles in five and ten gallon kegs.
When they got vegetables, they got them in large lots and buried them in what
were called root-houses. These were dug underground, except for the roof which
was like a mound just at ground level. It was cool and dark in the root-houses
and vegetables would keep a long time. Another food we had was oyster soup.
Everybody was very fond of oysters, and usually it was the main dish at
parties and dances when they had the midnight supper.

The had to buy material and make their am clothes, but the men bought theirs
already made. All they wore was overalls and a shirt and leather boots. Heavy
mackinaws and coats of that kind were the style. There was no such thing
hardly as dressing up. All shirts came with just a neckband and no collar. The
men more paper collars. They could wear them a time or two then throw them
away because they were so cheap. There was no way at hand in that place to
launder collars. The men never heard of such a thing as pressing their pants.
Later they took to wearing celluloid collars and cravats, and these were more
of a blind than anything else. The cravets were very wide, and with just one
of those and a collar on, a man didn't need to wear a shirt and seldom did. Of
course, they wore a coat, and the cravat covered the front of them so you
couldn't tell whether they had a shirt on or not. The men wore leather boots
for dress, when they come to parties and such-like, and they were usually a
newer pair of the same kind they marked in. They used these for dress until
the old ones wore out, then they would work in the newer ones and buy still
another pair for dress.

There was very little singing in those days. We had no radios or phonographs
or anything like that. My family owned the first organ in that part of the
country, and for the dances they usually had a couple of fiddles; first and
second fiddle they were called. When we did sing, we sang the songs of the
times. I can remember one was "Grandfather's Clock," and then there was "When
You and I Were Young, Maggie," and "Silver Threads Among the Gold."

Criminals were shunned in those days, and mostly everybody was honest. They
had the saying then that a man's word was as good as his bond. There was a
tree near town which I often saw when I was a girl. A man had been lynched
there once, but I don't know as I ever know what for. It was just local
curiosity, and everybody pointed it out as a tree on which a man had once been
hanged.

Speaking of clothes again, young men in later years began to wear silk scarfs
and they pinned these with gold pins made out of curious nuggets they had
found. That was quite a popular thing in those days.

Mrs. Dorcas Brown can't tell you anything about Auburn, either because she
never lived there. Oh yes, she knows about the stage robbery, all right. Her
address is: 2670 S.W. Beula Vista (King's Heights) Beacon 9068

Comment:

Mrs. Doane steadfastly insisted that she knew nothing because she had lived
eight miles from Auburn instead of in it. I was using the data of a former
interview with which to guide my questioning, and the questions were so
curious to her that she asked to see the shoot. She read it and became very
displeased, and refused to give it back, saying that none of it was true and
that she wanted nothing like that in our files. I let her keep the sheet,
since we have the original in the files. However, based upon her insistence
that it bears distorted evidence, it must be valueless.