OREGON FOLKLORE - WORK PROJECT ADMINISTRATION
Title: Southern Oregon Beliefs and Customs - folkways, Mrs. Ella Burt

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Title Southern Oregon folkways

Name of worker Manly M. Banister Date
Name and address of informant Mrs. Ella Burt; 603 S. E. 12th Avenue, Portland
Date and time of interview: March 13, A.M.
Name and address of person, if any, who put you in touch with informant: Miss
Nettie Spencer--2069 S. W. Park, Portland

Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.: The house is situated across
the street from Washington High School, two blocks north of Morrison Street.
It is a plain dwelling house with a single story. The district is a
respectable one, of moderate class

"I was born in Oregon eighty years ago, near Yoncalla. My first husband was
the son of Charles Applegate. My father was W. H. Wilson. He came to Oregon
with Jesse Applegate."

She refused to give any further vital facts.
Text:

Well now, I don't know what I can say. Folks lived then same as they do
now. I don't see any difference, anyway. Oh, we had dances and things just
like today. I don't know much about the music; just fiddles--violins, and
some folks had organs. They had very sociable people all around--not like
they are today. Everybody lived scattered like. There wasn't any thick
settlement like now. We all had to go horseback whereever we went.

The dress was about line same as it is now. Of course the women dressed
different, but there hasn't been much change in men's clothes. Not that I
can see, anyway. They wore an awful lot of boots. All the men wore them.
And when they were worn out, they tore them to pieces and made shoes for us
children. About one pair a year was all we had.

We had lots of venison and wild game. There were a lot of deer and wild
animals then. My father was an awfully good shot and kept his gun handy.

We had good schoolteachers. I remember my first schoolteacher, whose name was
Binger Herman. He was postmaster, too, for a while, and afterward he was a
Congressman many times. (Coos County Stages) brought in all our mail.

We didn't want for anything. We had plenty to eat and plenty to wear, for
what places we went, anyway. Everybody was happy and contented, well and
strong. [Harper's Weekly?] was the principal paper, and during the
War we got all the pictures.

We lived in log cabins, but that wasn't any hardship. They were comfortable
and well-made.

We had lots of old-fashioned spelling schools. We'd go horseback--that was
the only way to get around in those days.

For supplies, they drove ox-teams into Eugene or Oregon City, where we'yd
load up with supplies and bring them home. There were flour, bacon and
things like that. Didn't need to buy fresh meat because we had plenty of
beeves; and it was awfully good beef, I can remember that.

I can't remember when my mother didn't cook food just like anybody else.
They did things then same as they do now.

There were a lot of Indians around, but they never bothered us. There were
friendly Indians lived close, but the mean ones were farther away. We
watched them pretty close, but mostly they were afraid of the white men. My
father had an awful lot of trouble with them when he first came. He always
kept his gun ready for them.

Cattle-raising is mostly what went on down there (Southern Oregon). Soon
they went into farming and raising grain. They got sheep and sold the wool
at Scottsburg which was the nearest port where the wool could be shipped.

We didn't have anything very nice for Christmas. My mother would make
things for us children out of rags. I never had anything but a rag doll
when I was a child. Then too on Christmas there would be dances and parties
of all kinds, and Camp Meetings where the Methodists and others would hold
church.

There wasn't any school house, so school was kept first at one house and
then at another. The scholars paid so much apiece to the owner of the
household for the privilege of coming there, and they had a teacher. But he
wasn't paid much--usually about eight or ten dollars a month. But those
conditions didn't last; they got better and better all the time. There
weren't any churches either, and the preacher did his preaching at
somebody's home; first at one place then at another, and everybody would
come horseback.

Uncle Jesse was the first person to have a little store at his home about a
mile this side of Yoncalla. He sold things to people there. Uncle Charlie
Applegate raised lots of sheep. He had a great mess of boys, seven or eight
of them; and they worked hard at raising sheep and got wealthy at it. They
would haul their wool, six or eight wagonloads at a time, in shearing
season to Scottsburg for shipment. They was a very industrious lot of
people, my goodness!

Wheat was flailed out with a flail (Illustrative motions), or tramped out
by horses. We always came down to Portland to get flour. Whenever they
traded in their wool, they always brought enough supplies at once to last a
whole year. They laid in supplies of sugar, syrup, coffee, and things like
that.

Extra Comment:

Mrs. Burt is a very difficult person to interview. She is so deaf she
couldn't hear the shot that was heard around the world if it were fired in
the same room with her. Her mind is definitely rusty and requires constant
oiling with persuasive and suggestive phrases, boomed forth with the full
power of one's lungs. Then it is too, too disappointing to have her say,
"henh? What say?" Very trying and discouraging. A little can be done with
writing, but in general she is a very poor informant. Before I was finished
with the interview, an old lady friend came in, and I was politely but
definitely ushered out the door. Therefore the incompleteness of Form B. I
do not recommend Mrs. Burt for further interviewing.