Interview by Deanna Rommel-Noland
February 18, 1991
(Present were Mr. Clarence Kohler, Mrs. Hazel Kohler, Mrs. Roberta Rommel)
Deanna Rommel-Noland - I'm interested in that too, because I'm looking at the whole, I mean all the way from the horse drawn equipment to plant the ground to the equipment they used that evolved into the combines and how they transported it. And trying to link that into the bigger picture, where did the grain end up, where did it go from here?
Clarence Kohler - Portland.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - Yeah, and why was that so important? Why was that critical to the farmers.
Clarence Kohler - Well that's the only way they had to get it market for export.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - And export, where did it go after that. And it was important in the world picture. A lot of people don't think about that.
Clarence Kohler - Well it went to all the countries, they sold to like Japan and Korea, all those places, where it went.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - I hope this doesn't make you nervous, please just try to ignore that it's going on. Well let's start with the basics. Could you please state your full name.
Clarence Kohler - I'll give you my middle initial.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - OK. [laughter]
Clarence Kohler - Clarence O. Kohler.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - all right, and what year were you born in?
Clarence Kohler - 1909.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - And, where were you born?
Clarence Kohler - Summerfield, Missouri.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - OK, and your parent name?
Clarence Kohler - You want the, see Ollie is my mother.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - What's her maiden name?
Clarence Kohler - Burrus
Deanna Rommel-Noland - B-u-r?
Clarence Kohler - r-u-s. And dad's was Kohler, of course.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - What's his first name?
Clarence Kohler - Richard.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - OK, now was he born?
Clarence Kohler - Born in Missouri. So was mother.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - And did they marry back there?
Clarence Kohler - Yeah
Deanna Rommel-Noland - And then came out here?
Clarence Kohler - Mother was 19 years old, when they was married. And dad was five years older than mother.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - He was an old man, for then, for getting married wasn't he.
Clarence Kohler - Well it was in those days.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - Yeah, 24 that's pretty old for back then.
Clarence Kohler - His dad had a sawmill and besides he had 2,000 acres of land and he had cattle and corn and they worked in the sawmill all those kids see.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - Yeah.
Clarence Kohler - And they didn't get to go to school like we did. You're going to have to ask questions, because I don't know.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - OK, all right. Now you say your grandparents, that owned the sawmill, back in Missouri. Now, what prompted your dad to come out here?
Clarence Kohler - Well on account of mother for one thing. They thought she had tuberculosis. And he wanted to get her out to a different climate. And that's how come they come out here.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - OK, do you know what year they came out in?
Clarence Kohler - He came out in 1908, and we didn't come until 1912.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - Oh, I know how that goes, that's no fun.
Clarence Kohler - Well, I was just not quite three years old when we got here.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - Now, you're not the oldest.
Clarence Kohler - No, I've got two sisters older than I am.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - OK, and how many younger?
Clarence Kohler - God, we had thirteen, of em.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - Oh Lord! [laughter] OK, can you just give me the first names of your sisters and brothers?
Clarence Kohler - She might have to help me, but Virgus is my oldest sister, Blanche, was the sister just older than I, then me, I was third, Edwin who passed away in March, and then Mabel, she passed away when she was just about eleven. Then there's Raymond, and Dorothy, and Reed, Lester, Gilbert, and Donald, and Ellen Jean, Robert.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - See, as long as you can still do that you know you've still got all your mental faculties.
Clarence Kohler - And all then fingers to count. [laughter]
Deanna Rommel-Noland - That's a memory skill all in it's own.
Clarence Kohler - A lot of memories.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - Were the first four of you born in Missouri, and then the rest born out here.
Clarence Kohler - Rest born out here.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - OK, now would that be on the Mayview place? Did you go directly there?
Clarence Kohler - No, we can here when, Delbert K. Romends had a slaughter house and a meat market. Dad worked for him for about a year. And then he went out to Bent Gilbert's, worked for him until the 1917 and we rented the Montage place. And we was on that a year and he kicked us off cause he found out we were Germans. That was right after WW I. And we went down there to where brother Robert lived, and we been there ever since. That's the home place.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - All right. So then you were about how old when you got to the home place.
Clarence Kohler - Nine years old when we moved down there.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - OK, great, and did you go to school at the Mayview school?
Clarence Kohler - No, went to Lynn Gulch school.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - Lynn Gulch school, OK.
Clarence Kohler - And I never went to high school.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - OK.
Clarence Kohler - They wouldn't let me, well I had to stay home and work.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - That's right, hey. You were the oldest boy.
Clarence Kohler - Yeah, I got the blame for everything. [laughter]
Deanna Rommel-Noland - I can relate to that because I'm a third child too. That old saw you know, the first one thinks of it, the second one does it, and the third catches hell for it. [laughter] That was, yeah, OK. So what are your earliest memories of the Mayview place, the home place?
Clarence Kohler - The home place, moving down there. We moved down there from the Montage place down there, Edwin and I drove a wagon, we had two old horses. Of course we didn't realize they were that old. We had em tied on the back. Dad he drove another wagon loaded with goods, or household stuff. Mother drove a hack, her and the rest of the kids rode in it. And they had this old horse they called Jip and she was pulled by, and we got down there just by where the old road used to go down Deadman, and just before we got to the Shelton Grade, she pulled back and went over, broke the rope and rolled over in the ditch. We thought it'd killed her. We got her out of there and got on down and the other people wasn't moved out yet and they was having a sale. That's my first memories of that place.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - That's great.
Clarence Kohler - Sold our horses, Dad bought three teams, I think it was.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - Now by then were you out helping with the ranch chores?
Clarence Kohler - Yeah, I was all doing that. I was helping out in the field. I drove a team when I was nine years old plowing.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - How many horses, four?
Clarence Kohler - Eight.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - Jesh. [laughter] Did you have to rig it so that you were strong enough to pull back when you wanted them to stop?
Clarence Kohler - No, I never had no trouble.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - They were more than willing to stop for you.
Clarence Kohler - Well, dad never really had no mean horses until he got old enough to have better sense. [laughter]
Deanna Rommel-Noland - Now what kind of plow was that?
Clarence Kohler - Oh, dad's plows were all of sixteen inch Olivers, two bottom. Then they went to twelve horses and a three bottom plow.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - Do you know about what year that might have been?
Clarence Kohler - Well that, when we moved down there it was the fall of 1917 or 18. And then well you take like Oscar Miller, he was already on using twelve mules on his.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - Oh, and he used mules, not horses.
Clarence Kohler - He had mules.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - OK.
Clarence Kohler - That would be the next year we know he did it cause his land joined ours. So
[some skips in the tape]
Deanna Rommel-Noland - So in 19 what, 20? Maybe to go to a twelve team horse.
Clarence Kohler - Well dad never did go to a twelve horse outfit. He always stayed with the eight. We run two teams on his. A lot of em just kept going with twelve horses. Then Shepard during the depression he went to sixteen. It cut down on the labor force.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - Cut down on the manpower. OK, well what I'm interested in now, what do you remember about the Tramway? How close were you mile wise, road wise to the Tramway?
Clarence Kohler - Well, when Hazel and I worked there we was about six miles from it, when we started farming, I should say. We hauled our first two crops over there. And they closed that in 42. Well then we bulked, went to bulk, and hauled it into town. But I worked on that Tramway, worked on both ends of it.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - Oh good.
Clarence Kohler - And I must say, in your book there, who ever drew that track deal out for you exactly the way it was.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - Orlie drew that out for me.
Clarence Kohler - I figured that must have been.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - Oh and he was just having a hay day until he had that headache, he was so excited. [laughter]
Clarence Kohler - Well, one of those pictures in there, I don't know if she still got it or not. Where they handled the sacks, where we loaded the car at the brake house. There was a guy on, two guys, really four guys. But instead of taking a sack by itself, like that one guy was holding it, we took it one on each side and we took it end to end and throwed it down there, cause it was down below the, where the ramp was.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - Now was it, when you were loading, was it at an angle?
Clarence Kohler - Yeah, ours was level, but the car came up here was at an angle.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - About how much of an incline would you say, would it have been?
Clarence Kohler - I don't know, but it was steep, but when it got up there it wasn't quite as steep, but why I'd say from one end to other it was probably a three foot fall.
Roberta Rommel - Did the car just come up to where that platform used to be out there, or did it come on up?
Clarence Kohler - Yeah, it come right up in between those two platforms see and there was two cars and two guys loading over here and two guys loading over here. Well that car came right up to the brake house.
Roberta Rommel - It didn't come clear up on the flat.
Clarence Kohler - No, it come right up agin the brake house, that's where we loaded it. Then the loaded car would pull the empty car back up.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - Right.
Clarence Kohler - I worked there, I worked a couple days up there, and then I'd ride the first car down every morning, and work in the warehouse until the last car at noon and I'd come back up cause that's where we had the cook shack and the bunkhouse. And eat my dinner, then I'd ride the first car down after dinner, work all evening, and then the last car at night, while I'd ride back up again.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - Was that interesting riding those cars down, did you get the first time?
Clarence Kohler - Well when you work all day nothing is interesting to you, you're tired and you don't care.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - OK, what was the first time like though that you climbed on that?
Clarence Kohler - Well I was always kind of adventurous anyway. [laughter]
Deanna Rommel-Noland - You probably enjoyed it, right?
Clarence Kohler - I did, I really did. The first few times but after that the evening I was so tired I didn't care.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - I bet. so what year did you start working there?
Clarence Kohler - Well I worked for my uncle in 28, and we got through seeding, and it was dark, and we was eating supper. He said would you like another job? I said I sure would, he said get your clothes and stuff ready and after supper I'll take you to it. Well, that's where he took me.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - You're not sure to thank him or not.
Clarence Kohler - Well, I'd set on his tractor from the 17th day of March that year till the 8th day of November. We had 60,000 sacks on top to ship down and 55,000 at the bottom to ship out. And, when I went over there and I hadn't done you know no exercise or nothin sitting on that cat all day that,. He had one of the first tractors that came into county. When I come, I didn't know at the time that they all had a bet that, you've heard this old story, had three crews, one a comin', one a workin', and one a goin'. Well that was true there. They all had a bet, with one another, one guy held the jackpot, that I wouldn't last. Well, they shipped me the second day, they sent me down to the bottom to ship out. A boat was there and we was hauling out. And my brother-in-law was working there, about four o'clock her said "how you doin?" And I didn't know nothing about this bet and the manager's son was one of em had the bet on. So I said, I don't know if I can get one foot ahead of the other one or not. He said, "I'll tell you something," this was during prohibition too. He said, "I'll tell you something, there's one place in there you had to drop down about a foot or two and kind of a ramp, he said, you reach around that post back there and there's a lifter in there. Well I knew what he meant by that. [laughter] I reached around that post and came out with a pint of whiskey and I took a big rear of that and I make it fine. The next day [laughter], them guys all lost their money. [laughter] My brother-in-law he was the one that one. [laughter] When we finished up that fall, there was only three of us that started out that was still there. And that was Leo, and Burt, and Walt Chilton and myself.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - How many was a full crew there?
Clarence Kohler - Well, I don't remember what the average was, but there was 20 of us working there at the time. Well when you ship out three boat loads in one day.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - That takes a few men.
Clarence Kohler - Yeah, well there was only three of us bucking down the warehouse below. See that warehouse was full, and we had to ship it out before we could get that down off the top of the hill.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - Right.
Clarence Kohler - So we had two guys tearing down the pile, three of us crooking. We'd take it to the end of the chute and dump it up, and this one guy would dump it down and we'd have to truck up closer to it. And that's how we worked it then. And I'm probably the only one, the last one that ever lived, living that was working on the steamboat.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - Now, they'd come in pretty, quite frequently during the summer, when you guys were loading out?
Clarence Kohler - Well, the river was generally so low they couldn't, they made three loads a day while I was working there on the Tramway. All they was doing was loading and going across the river and unloading in a boxcar for shipping to Portland.
Deanna Rommel-Noland - I see, that was when the rail line had already been in.
Clarence Kohler - The railroad company owned the boat, and run it. When I worked on the boat the rail road company was the one who paid me.
Hazel Kohler - The boat only ran in the winter months, when the water was high. Or spring months.
Clarence Kohler - The thing I hated about working on the boat, that was a work house, but we'd come back up, from down the New York Bar, and we got up to Almota, and the water was so low that we couldn't get up to about where the dam [Lower Granite] the river was so shallow. So the river had to raise, and they had dead mens out on the side of the bank and they had a steam winch, and the water was high enough and if you drug bottom they'd winch you up and over. Well we tied up at Almota cause we couldn't get over there even with a winch, so Christmas Eve they called me up and they had to go down and get that boat, the river had come up three feet. I never will forget that.
Interview ended.
Return to Interviews
Orlie Arn Hannas • Clarence Kohler
Cecil Rommel • Norma and Walter Wills
Introduction
Geography
• Farming
• Transportation
• Grain Chutes
• Mayview Tramway
Bulk Handling
• Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Oral Interviews
• Maps
• Illustrations
Acknowledgements
• Comments
