Finley Mill
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Finley/McKercher Mill [Now McKercher Park]
Andrew Kirk continued. "When Dick Finley built his mill on the upper Calapooia, my father went up and worked for him. He had no horses, and oxen were too slow to use, so he walked to his work. He would start off on Monday morning and walk the seven miles to the mill. Then he would work all week without coming home. Mother and the children were alone all the time with Indians all about. At the end of the week, father would walk home, and if meat was needed, he would kill a deer on the way and carry it on his back. Game was very plentiful all about in those days. Killing a deer was no more in those days than going out and shooting a sheep would be now. The deer were everywhere. Grouse were so thick in those days they were a nuisance. The Indians would kill and eat deer but they never killed grouse. They did not think that the grouse meat was worth eating and never killed them. . .
"When I was a small boy, my father used to run stock all over the open valley around Brownsville. My work was often to ride out and herd the cattle and see whether they had strayed too far away. In those days the whole valley was covered with tall grass - so tall that a cow was often hidden in it. In the heat of the day when the cows would lie down for rest, they were completely lost. Often they would go into the shade of the ash trees among the streams and it was almost impossible to find them. . ."
"The deer were very plentiful about Brownsville in the early days, but that was nothing to the ducks and geese. Ducks came down to the fields and ate at night, and in such flocks that they would clean two or three [fields] across off in a single night. All of the farmers were forced to 'twine' their grain fields in those days. 'Twining' a grain field was done by driving short stakes in rows all across the fields and stretching twine in squares from stake to stake. When the ducks would come flying to eat the grain they would strike the stretched twine and it would scare them away. Also, the farmers would stand guard over their fields in the winter and shoot ducks just to keep them away. The ducks came in flocks of thousands - millions I guess. When a big flock of ducks would start up from a grain field, it would make a roar just like a passing railway train.
"One winter, I remember that I shot four hundred ducks just for family use. If I had hunted just to see how many I could get, I could have bagged hundreds more. The best and fattest of the ducks we ate on the table, the poorer ones were put out for chicken food. One time I remember that I got fourteen ducks with a single shot. It was freezing weather then, and all the ground was covered with ice and snow. The ducks had gathered in a narrow ditch where the water was not frozen. I got 'endwise' with the ditch and shot down the length of the flock. In my boyhood, it was possible to walk up to within a few feet of a feeding flock. . ." {PS, Vol 3, p 8-17}
Iva (Templeton) Galbraith was interviewed in Albany on October 21, 1937. She was the daughter of James Templeton and granddaughter of William T. and Elizabeth (Ramsey) Templeton who came to Oregon in 1847 when James was 15. In 1849, James Templeton, his brother David and Jonathan Keeney went to the California gold mines and returned in three months. James and David had $3,000, which they shared with their father.
". . . Grandfather William Templeton's home was about three miles east of Brownsville. Grandfather's claim reached from the Hugh Fields claim to the ford on the Calapooia . . .
"Uncle David Templeton's claim began at the ford where Grandfather's ended, and extended eastward. My father, James Templeton's claim was next east of that, extending as far as Dick (R. C.) Finley's claim line. . .
"On the east, my father's nearest neighbor was R. C. Finley. He built the first mill on the upper Calapooia River. It is still standing and is now owned by John McKercher. The Finley home was on the rise some distance east from the mill, near where the cemetery is now located.
"Joining my father's claim on the south was that of Josiah Osborn . . .
"My Grandmother Templeton was a very active woman. When the Finleys were building their first mill she helped Mrs. Finley cook for the workmen. She would get up in the morning, get breakfast for her twelve children, then pack a basket and walk up to the Finleys to help with the work there. . ." {PS, Vol 2, p 23-27}
In 1853, Lewis Tycer, Sr. and Jane Frances (Sanders) Tycer, traveled to Oregon with his five children by his first marriage. Lewis Tycer, Jr. was born in 1857. His oldest half brother, John, married Missouri Brown, daughter of Hugh L. Brown, and his sister, Sara Ellen, married Joe Morris, son of P. A. Morris. The Lewis family settled near Crawfordsville, for a time rented from James McHargue, then purchased land on the Calapooia River between Brownsville and Crawfordsville from Andrew Warren, husband of Eliza (Spalding) Warren.
The Lewis Tycer, Jr. was interviewed and recalled, "My parents reached Oregon in 1853, having five months been on the road . . .
"The Finley Mill near Crawfordsville was first built in the year 1848. The first building was only a small one, and was washed away by the floods of 1862. At the time it was washed away it was being used as a pig house, and about twenty fat hogs owned by the miller were lost in the flood. My father hewed out the big timbers which are still standing in the present Finley Mill. No one seems to know just when the present building was erected, but I know from my father's statement that it was since 1855 [1853], for he arrived that year, and worked on the mill a year or two later. . .
"When R. C. Finley built his flour mill near what is now Crawfordsville, people brought their wheat to be ground for many miles. This was at the time the only flour mill running south of Oregon City. Later the flour mill was built at Brownsville and this cut heavily into Finley's customers, since the farmers naturally did not travel further than was necessary to get their wheat ground. Mr. Finley's reply to this competition was to build the 'Boston Mill' out in the valley several miles below Brownsville. The old Boston Mill is still standing. . ." {PS, Vol 5, p 32-38}
Catherine Louise (McHargue) Hume, daughter of James and Sarah Jane (Montgomery) McHargue, was interviewed on July 7, 1939 by Leslie L. Haskin. Catherine was born on June 12, 1859 and married Joseph Hume on September 20, 1881. Her parents had traveled to Oregon in 1847 with their oldest daughter Mary Ellen, who was born on December 7, 1845. ". . . They arrived in this vicinity on October 20, 1847, and began looking about for a piece of land to settle on. Father finally bought out the squatters rights of a man and settled about three miles southeast of the present town of Brownsville. Father paid his last $20 gold piece for the claim and was then practically penniless. . .
"The land which my father settled on had a small cabin on it a few acres planted to wheat--perhaps 20 acres. My people were so hard up that they did not even have flour to make bread. Father went to Jonathan Keeney, who had settled the year before on the Courtney Creek side of the ridge, and asked for a loan of flour until he could harvest his wheat. Keeney--he later told father this--sized him up, an impecunious [poor] young man whom he could never hope to collect the loan. However, he gave father some flour, but chose the poorest that he had. In about two weeks my father threshed his wheat and took it to Oregon City to be ground. It took a week to make the trip by ox team, but when father returned, he weighed out twice the amount of flour that he had borrowed--and the very best flour he had--and took it to Jonathan Keeney's to repay the debt. In after years, Keeney often told father how ashamed he felt of the way he had treated his new neighbor. . .
"As I have said, my father spent his last twenty dollars to buy the rights to his claim. After that he had to work out to get money. The nearest available work was on the R. C. Finley flour mill, which was being built on the Calapooia, several miles east. That was the first mill ever built in this valley [south of Salem]. All during the winter father worked on that mill. He would leave home long before daylight and work until long after dark, besides walking the several miles each day. The pay was fifty cents a day. Mother was so afraid of the Indians, that as soon as father was gone she would shut and barricade the cabin door and, taking her child, my oldest sister, Ellen, would crawl under the bed and hide, and stay there until father returned at night. That old cabin in which they then lived stood exactly where the kitchen of the old house now stands. When father built that 'new' house, he left the old cabin to be used as a kitchen. Later he tore the old cabin down and built a better kitchen in its place.
"The house standing on the old place was built by a pioneer carpenter named Peter Kessling. He built many of the first good houses in this region, when the settlers became prosperous enough, and when sawmills were started to make sawed lumber available. Among the very old houses still standing, which, I believe, he built, are - the Tom Kirk house, a mile south of Brownsville; the Keeney house; the Fields house and the James Blakely house. Many of these are still in use. Some have been rebuilt so that they do not look anything like they first did. Some, like my father's old house and the J. Keeney house, are falling into decay. I know of but one really old house which Kessling did not build. That is the Alexander Kirk house in Brownsville, built in 1847. That is a log house, though now covered over with sawed lumber. [It is now the home of Edna (Falk) Porter.]
"I know just when our old house was built because that was the year when my brother, George, was born and when my oldest sister, Ellen, died. That was the year when the old McHargue Cemetery was started also, and my sister, Ellen's was the first grave there. Ellen died on the same day that George was born. . ." [Mary Ellen died October 27. 1852; George W. was born on December 27, 1852 and died in 1945.]
"One of the very earliest families to settle here was the Courtneys. Courtney Creek, just over the ridge from our old claim, was named in their honor. When the Courtneys sold out, father bought some of their land.
"Another early settler on the Courtney Creek side of the mountain was Thomas Morgan. There was a very early mill on the old Morgan place. {PS Vol 2, p 88-93}
The 1937 interview with Hugh L. Montgomery continues. ". . . My father was a farmer, but he also worked at carpentry work and as a millwright. Father and Wm. McHargue, and others, helped to build the old Finley flour mill on the Calapooia near Crawfordsville. That was the first grist mill to be erected south of Oregon City. . .
"The first flouring mill in this section was the Finley Mill on the Calapooia near Crawfordsville. It is still standing, but the present building was erected about the year 1853 or '54 after [before] the first building, built in 1848, was washed out. . ." {PS, Vol 4, p 5-10}
The Albany Sunday Democrat for January 29, 1922 contained an article on the history of Crawfordsville written by Everett Earle Stannard. ". . . Crawfordsville was the home of the Linn County milling industry. R. C. Finley, mill builder . . . At a very early date an I. O. G. T. Hall was builded [built] there. W. R. Bishop, pioneer Linn County educator and preacher, lived there for a number of years, taught school and preached there. And the Linn County Pioneer Association had its birth in Crawfordsville. It was largely the result of agitation on the part of Mr. Robert Glass.
"Crawfordsville, as one might guess, was named in honor of a Mr. [Philemon Vawter] Crawford. The town stands on land once owned by Mr. P. V. Crawford. It was owned previous to Mr. Crawford's purchase by Timothy A. Riggs and Mr. Robert Glass. A daughter of Mr. Crawford, Mrs. Louisa Crawford Lewis, of Mable, Oregon, gives me the following brief history of the town of Crawfordsville.
"'I think that it was in the year of 1860 that my father bought ten acres of land from Timothy [Riggs] who took [another claim a] mile down the river. That may be called the beginning of the town.
"'It was named by W. R. Bishop. He was our old friend and school teacher. I had two brothers, Elvin J. and Jasper V. Crawford, living there at the time the town was named. Mr. Bishop gave the place a name one day when he was at our house taking dinner.
"'My brother, J. V. Crawford, was the first postmaster. The office was kept in Mr. Heister's store at the intersection of the Calapooia and Brush Creek roads, and that was called the McCaw Lane, as the first place after crossing Brush Creek was Mr. McCaw's place. The Heister store was there previous to the town site. [She calls her brother Jasper Vincent Crawford, but his marriage license says James V.]
"'On the south side of the county road, Mr. Robert Glass sold town lots. He and my father, Mr. Philemon V. Crawford, made out the deeds in such a way that if ever intoxicating liquor was sold on the land it would revert to the original owners. Both were strong temperance men and in this early day they saw to it that Crawfordsville should be a temperance town.
"'Before the founding of the village, there was a good strong I. O. G. T. [International Order of Good Templars] lodge and they had a building on Mr. Glass' place, almost, if not exactly, where the I. O. O. F. [Independent Order of Odd Fellows] hall was later erected. The first building was destroyed by fire.
"'I think Tom Shanks had the first blacksmith shop. It was near Heisler's store.
"'My brother did not keep the post office long, but removed to Waitsburg, Washington Territory, and father kept it until we went to Waitsburg in 1870 or 1871, I think. Robert Glass had it many years after that.
"'My husband, T. [Timothy] A. Lewis, had the first shoe shop. The year that we were married, 1877, the shoe shop was erected. . . {PS, Vol 1, p 95-96}
George F. Colbert had traveled to Oregon with his friend John M. Moyer in a horse-drawn caravan. Both were carpenters who worked together. Luella S. (Colbert) Robnett, daughter of George F. Colbert and Edna (Whipple) Colbert, was interviewed twice. ". . . Perhaps . . . it might be of interest to tell a few things about Crawfordsville in the early days. Of course the real beginning of the region was the building of the Finley mill a short distance below the town, in 1847 or 1848. Later there was a carding mill and a power blacksmith shop started in Crawfordsville proper. The carding mill was built by P. V. Crawford for whom the town was named. He later went into partnership with Mr. Finley to build the large flouring mill at Boston a few miles east of present Shedd. Robert Glass gave Crawford the land for his mill (carding mill). Glass was a very early settler there and took his Donation Land Claim including the present site of the town.
"Another early industry at Crawfordsville was a power blacksmith shop. The power for this shop was obtained from the Calapooia River. The owner was a man named Derrick. He forged out axes, knives, and all kinds of fine steel work. His bowie-knives and butcher knives became very famous throughout the country. There was much traffic with Eastern Oregon then, by way of the Cascade Mountain Wagon Road. The cowboys on the eastern range country would buy Derrick's bowie-knives and sharpen them up to such a degree that they used them to shave with.
"After a while a post office and a store were opened at Crawfordsville. A man named Fuller (Note--Probably J. N. B. Fuller. He also ran a planing mill at Crawfordsville in partnership with P. V. Crawford.- L. Haskin.), opened the first store but that enterprise did not last long. Mr. Glass and Charles Bishop then opened a store there. Fuller, by the way, was the post master at that time.
"Some of the very early settlers about Crawfordsville were Timothy Riggs who was Linn County's first assessor and the second county treasurer; William McCaw who was the first County Clerk and Robert Glass who settled on the village site. My husband's people, the Robnetts, were also there very early. . ." {PS, Vol 4, p 65-69}
P. V. Crawford's youngest son, Beverly Vawter Crawford, was born at Boston Mill on August 5, 1862. On October 13, 1889, Beverly married Mary P. Cowgill and their oldest child was James Vawter Crawford, born on July 21, 1890. On January 4, 1939, Leslie L. Haskin interviewed James Vawter Crawford and his mother, Mary P. (Cowgill) (Crawford) Coon at Shedd. Haskin combined their comments rather than quote each one separately. ". . . On the 28th day of March, 1851, he [P. V. Crawford], with his family, consisting of his wife, Letitia (Smith), and five children, the youngest four years of age, and the oldest fourteen, left Madison, Indiana and started for Oregon. Besides the above, he was accompanied by his cousin, Cyrus Vawter. Both these men [P. V. and Cyrus] settled on the upper Calapooia River at a point near the present town of Crawfordsville. Old letters in Mr. Crawford's hand show that he was well pleased with this country from the first. In his new home, Mr. Crawford took up a donation land claim in Section 22, about three miles eastward from Brownsville. Later, being a machinist and millwright, he purchased certain lands and water-power rights from Mr. Robert Glass, where the town of Crawfordsville now stands. Here he erected first a saw-mill and later a carding mill, for the preparation of rolls for spinning . . .
"When P. V. Crawford purchased land of Robert Glass and established his saw-mill and carding mill there, he was virtually founding a village. The power for his mills was furnished from a ditch running from Brush Creek and discharging into the Calapooia River. A store was soon opened by some of the Glass family; a blacksmith shop helped the growth of the place, and at one time there was a shoe manufactory and an establishment devoted to the forging of butcher and bowie knives. These knives were of the best of steel and won a wide reputation. The buckaroos from Eastern Oregon would buy them and sharpen them to such a keen edge that they could shave with them.
"The town that finally grew up around the mill and store was named Crawfordsville after the Crawford family. A post office was opened and Jasper V. Crawford was appointed the first postmaster. [Jasper Vincent Crawford was P. V. and Letitia's third child, but the first had died. He married Elizabeth Nancy Dunlap on June 6, 1867 [but the marriage license says James V.] and was a minister of the Church of Christ. His sister, Mary Ann Crawford, married David F. Dunlap on November 30, 1867.] {PS, Vol 1, p 93-99, DLC, Vol 6, p 18-20, Marriage Licenses, Vol. 2, p 6 & 7 and PS, Vol 2, p 6-7}
Timothy Ambrose Lewis was the son of 1846 pioneer Stewart Lewis and Elizabeth (Riggs) Lewis, who was the sister of Timothy and Thomas Riggs. Louisa (Crawford) Lewis, wife of Timothy A. Lewis and youngest daughter of P. V. Crawford, recalled the R. C. Finley family and noted that her oldest living brother, Henry Pascal Crawford, married Elizabeth Finley [R. C.'s second daughter on December 25, 1860] and Cyrus Vawter Crawford married R. C.'s oldest daughter, Sarah Ann Finley, [on December 10, 1856]. Sarah's mother was Polly Ann (Kirk) Finley, daughter of Alexander Kirk. R. C.'s fourth daughter, Eliza Finley, married Thomas Brandon on October 5, 1865. George Finley, son of R. C. Finley, married Ina Rice on September 10, 1890.] Mrs. Lewis also pointed out that the ten acres purchased by P. V. Crawford adjoined the Finley claim. P. V. used the ten acres to move his carding machine and some wood-working machinery that he had been operating at the Finley mill.
"One of the first sawmills, if not the first one, in the upper Calapooia Valley, was the King & McDowell mill. The site was about half way between the present McKercher Grist Mill [now McKercher Park] and Crawfordsville. When we first went to the community, it had what we called a 'sash saw.' This was an upright saw, and it did not saw the lumber entirely to the end of the log.
"Cyrus Vawter secured employment as a miller at the R. C. Finley flour mill a short distance below Crawfordsville. . . The old house which formerly stood directly across the Calapooia from the Finley mill was first occupied by this young couple, immediately after their marriage.
"Later, Cyrus Vawter and his wife located at the old town of Boston, a mile or so east of Shedd, and Vawter became part owner in this mill, built sometime in the 1850's. His partners in this venture were his father-in-law, Richard C. Finley, and his cousin, P. V. Crawford." {PS, Vol 1, p 93-99}
Louisa (Crawford) Lewis also provided some family information. "Cyrus Vawter was a cousin of Grandfather P. V. Crawford and came to Oregon with him [in the same wagon train] on the same date [1851]. He settled near Crawfordsville. Apparently he did not take up any land claim. . .
"His grandparents' names were Philemon and Ann Vawter [P. V. said Anna]. His father's name was Beverly Vawter, who was born September 28, 1789. He was married March 15, 1812, to Elizabeth Crawford, who was born March 29, 1792, in Jared County, Kentucky. Elizabeth Crawford was the sister of James Crawford, who married Lucy Vawter, a sister of Beverly. . . {PS, Vol 1, p 98}
In 1882, machinist and millwright P. V. Crawford wrote his "Life Sketch of Philemon Vawter Crawford", which included much family information given from memory. He noted that he was born on September 24, 1814 and married Letitia Smith. His father, James Maxwell Crawford, was the third son of James Crawford, who had married Rebecca Anderson. Early in 1812, James M. Crawford married Lucy Vawter. Jame's sister, Elizabeth Crawford, married Beverly Crawford. Lucinda, called Lucy, was the sister of Beverly Vawter, the father of Cyrus Vawter. P. V.'s maternal grandfather, Philemon Vawter, married his cousin, Anna Vawter. P. V.'s autobiography included the comment,". . . When we arrived in Oregon we found the Willamette Valley more than we looked for, and all we could desire, and we are yet, after twenty nine years' residence here, satisfied that there is no more favorable spot on earth." {PS, Vol 1, p 95 and The Vawter Family in America by Grace Vawter Bicknell} In May 1853, P. V. moved from Yamhill County to Linn County and settled on Muddy Creek two miles west of the present town of Halsey. {"Reminiscences of the Early Settlement of the Willamette Valley" by P. V. Crawford, 1895 Transactions of the Oregon Pioneer Association, p 107}
Helen S. Bjork, the late paternal aunt of LCHS Director Margaret Standish Carey, noted that, "William Ira Vawter [called Ira] was the step-son of Seth Whipple Hayes. His mother, Sarah Ann Finley Vawter married Seth Whipple Hayes on 7 Sept, 1865 [probably at the Boston Mill]. [Ira taught at the University of Oregon them went into banking in Medford.]
"Dora Hayes Standish [grandmother of Margaret Standish Carey], who gives this information, states, 'I remember Ira very well, we children thought he was wonderful. He always came to visit us when he came to Halsey to see his mother. He was a very intelligent man, with very polished manners.'"
Eliza (Finley) Brandon was interviewed a second time by Leslie L. Haskin on July 9, 1937. Her parents, Richard Chism Finley and Polly Ann (Kirk) Finley, had traveled with the Brown-Blakely wagon train and arrived in the Crawfordsville area in 1846. She comments, ". . . My father was born in Tennessee, my mother in Indiana. I was born in a log cabin near the old Finley Mill. The exact site was across the road from the 'camp ground.' (Note: The 'camp ground' is the Calapooia Round-up Association's Fair Grounds between the Finley Mill and Crawfordsville. (Leslie L. Haskin, Field Worker.) I was born on April 18, 1850; the house was just a little log cabin.
"When I was three years old we moved from that first cabin to a house north of Crawfordsville 'up against the hill.' I can just remember when we left that old cabin by the mill. My mother rode in an ox wagon, but the children walked. One of father's cows had died a short time before that and on the way to the new house we stopped at the side of a high bank to see the dead cow's body, as children will. It was a new strange thing to me.
"Our new home was a painted house. I had never seen anything like it before. When we got there the doors were locked. We tried to open them but could not. We kicked against the door to get it open. The paint was not entirely dry, and by kicking we marred it and were thoroughly 'licked' when mother came and saw what we had done. . .
"We never wore homespun clothing, except stockings. My mother was too busy caring for her home and cooking for the mill men to take time to weave. Besides owning the flour mill on the Calapooia, my father owned a half interest in a saw-mill where the present dance hall now stands. (In Crawfordsville Roundup Grounds. [-L. H.]) Besides that he had a partnership in the old Boston Mill, near the present town of Shedd. Mother cooked for all of the mill hands as well as for the big crew of men when they were getting out the timbers for the Boston Mill. The getting out of the timbers was a task that had to be done twice, for the first mill burned soon after it was completed.
"The reason why we moved away from the cabin at the mill and went up near the hill was because mother did not wish to raise her house full of girls among a lot of California miners. The miners came in bunches of fifteen to twenty to get flour and would wait about until it was ground. For this reason mother insisted on moving further away. The new house was near the site of the present cemetery. . .
"My father completed his mill on the Calapooia and ground the first flour on the forenoon of one day and in the afternoon he got on a horse and rode away to the California mines. He had become so much in debt in building the mill that he wished to find a quick way to repay what he owed. He would send gold dust back from the mines and my mother would notify everyone whom they were owing to come in and get a share. She made this a fixed rule because the gold was wasted so badly if she kept it long. Every person who came to the mill wished to see some California gold, and by turning it out into the palm of their hands and then pouring it back into the pouch, much of it was lost. [Although it was difficult for R. C. to walk, he had to go the last few miles to the mines on foot because his horse died while he was riding it. {Linn County Historical Museum, Finley file} Peter G. Boag noted that, ". . . it was through the gristmill that settlers first exchanged gold in the fledgling local economy." {Environment and Experience, p 105}]
"My father stayed at the mines only long enough to pay his debts. Then he returned to Oregon City by boat. When he got to Oregon City he became sick. He had two congestive chills. The third chill was almost fatal, it was believed. Father had the third chill but did not die. When mother heard that my father was sick at Oregon City, she went to a neighbor's house and got a pony. She and the neighbor then started out for the lower Willamette. They traveled by the 'ride and tie' method. Oregon City was then on the west side of the river. There was a big hotel with wide porches facing the river and on the porch mother saw my father sitting. He arose and went inside. She could tell him by his manner of walking, for he was always very lame. She knew then that he had recovered. It was a great relief after the hard trip and suspense of thinking that she would find him dead. Father had a very pecular limp. It was easy to know him from a long distance. His lameness came from having his leg broken twice in the lead mines in Wisconsin. He was a very young man, about 21 years old, when he was injured. . ."
Thomas and Eliza (Finley) Brandon were married in October 1865, when she was 15. She continues, "We moved into a house on the present Hughes place between Brownsville and Crawfordsville. It was then the David Templeton place. Our living at first was very scant. To begin with we had what might be called a 'good camp outfit.' The house in which we lived was very open and shabby. The wood rats came in at will and took dried fruit, knives and forks--everything. Later we found much of it hidden away in the attic and salvaged it. The wood rats were very noisy, and always thumping and scratching about in the walls. After we left that house . . . Tennessee Lewis . . . lived there also. The noises which the wood rats made frightened her, and she would call the neighbors in to listen to the 'spooks.'" {PS, Vol 1, p 49-52} [Thomas Brandon was a member of the Oregon House of Representatives in 1909 when he died. His brother was Alex Brandon, a partner of R. C. Finley and P. V. Crawford.]
Eliza (Finley) Brandon continues her early 1937 comments. "Father started his mill in 1847. In building it he became indebted to almost everyone in that region. About the time that the mill was completed, in 1848, news of the gold strike in California reached the Oregon settlements. In this news my father saw hopes of finding a quick way to repay his debts. On the day that the mill was completed, he ground wheat in it in the forenoon, and in the afternoon he mounted a horse and rode away to the mines.
"Father was quite successful at the mines. Frequently he would send back gold dust to my mother to be used in paying off his debts. When the settlers first heard that she was receiving gold they were all anxious to see it. Each man who came would pour out a little of the dust into his palm and finger it over, then pour it back into the pouch. This was very wasteful, for a little would always stick to the hand. At last my mother worked out a scheme to prevent this. She never kept the dust in her possession a moment longer than was necessary. Whenever she received a shipment of gold she would notify all the people about to come and present their bills. Upon the stated day she would portion out the dust in adequate payments as long as it lasted. She made a rule never to keep any over from day to day. If a man failed to come at the appointed time, he must wait until the next shipment to receive his pay. One man disregarded her rule, and came a day late, insisting upon payment. She told him he must be there at the appointed time, that all the gold was gone. He was very much put out and went away complaining: 'Well, I'm just disappointed on every hand.'
"My parents' first winter in Oregon was a very hard one. That was before the mill was finished. The family had almost nothing to eat at times. They ground wheat in the coffee mill and made bread from it merely by mixing it with water. They did not even have salt to season it with, and no grease of any kind for shortening. They ground parched peas to serve as coffee. My father was always more or less of a cripple and could, therefore, do but little hunting. Once in a while he would get a poor, thin deer, but the meat was so bad and rank that never afterwards could my mother bear the taste of venison. My father bought a small pig during the winter. He smoked it and hung the meat up in the cabin to keep it. My mother often told me how her hungry children would sit on the floor before the fireplace gazing up at that pork and crying to have some of it to eat, but she had to save it to use in case of sickness [possibly she means emergency].
"My father's lameness made riding very painful. He went to the mines on horseback, but when he returned he came from San Francisco to Oregon City by ship. When he reached Oregon City he was taken very ill with a congestive chill. He sent word of his sickness to mother. Mother went to a neighbor's, Tim Riggs, and secured the use of his horse. She and Mr. Riggs started for Oregon City together with the one horse. They would 'ride and tie,' that is, mother would ride for a time, and then trying the horse to some tree beside the road would walk on. Mr. Riggs would follow afoot until he came to the horse, ride it until he had overtaken Mrs. Finley, and for some distance beyond, then he in turn would tie the horse and proceed afoot. In this way they finally reached Oregon City. By that time, of course, mother was very anxious, for she did not know whether she would find father alive or not. However, just as they emerged from the woods on the brink of the river opposite the city she saw a man arise from a chair on the porch and go into the house. Mother knew from the man's peculiar limping gait that it was father, and realized that he must be better.
"The first house that my father built was a log cabin. It was situated in the field quite a distance back of the present John McKercher house, well away from the mill. My mother insisted on this location because there were so
"The present Finley house, (situated across the river south of the mill and fast becoming a ruin, -L. Haskin) was built for my oldest sister [Sarah] when she married father's miller, Cyrus Vawter. I can well remember when my sister was married [December 10, 1856] . . .
"The first mill which my father built on the upper Calapooya was not very large. The building was not over twelve or fifteen feet square. This building was washed away during the great floods of 1861-62. I can not tell exactly when the second mill was erected at that place, but it was some time before the first one was washed away. (This second mill, here mentioned, still stands on the original site. -L. Haskin) At the time of the big floods, my father was using the original mill as a hog house. He had twenty big fat hogs in the building and he lost most of them by drowning. A few of them, however, found their way to some floating logs and were saved. They were on the logs in the river for almost two weeks, and without food, so that they had to be fattened all over again. . ." {PS, Vol 1, p 46-48}
George Finley, son of R. C. Finley and Polly Ann (Kirk) Finley, was interviewed at his home in Roseburg. ". . . In addition to my father's farm, he owned a grist (flour) mill, which he erected on his farm near Crawfordsville.
"One of my chores was to take my father's lunch to him at noon, at the mill, and during the fall rush of grinding, his dinner or supper was taken to the mill, some three-quarters of a mile away, in the evening, by me, and I was allowed to remain at the mill until he went home, frequently at nine or ten o'clock in the evening. . .
"I was married to Ina Rice, in 1889, at Holley, Oregon. . . To the first marriage six children were born. . ." {PS, Vol 2, p 10} The October 5, 1944 funeral for George Finley was reported on page 1 in that day's The Times.
"George Finley, son of Polly and Richard, told historian Everett Earle Stanard about Mrs. John Johnson, pioneer midwife around Crawfordsville. 'I don't think anybody did as much nursing and waiting on the sick as Mrs. Johnson did. She practiced mid-wifery and never made any charge, accepting whatever anyone was willing to offer her and never accepted anything from the very poor. She waited on my wife [Ina Rice Finley] at the birth of my daughter Lola [1896] and reminded me that she had waited on my mother at my birth [1864] some thirty years previous." {SH, p 90}
John Glass was interviewed in Crawfordsville by Leslie L. Haskin in 1937. He was the son of Robert and Jane (Gray) Glass and grandson of John Glass, all of whom died at Crawfordsville. Robert had moved from Ohio to Illinois, then in 1849 traveled to California gold mines in a wagon train of 140 men and no women. Soon he operated a "teaming" [horse] business and in 1850 came to Oregon with between three and four thousand dollars, claimed 320 acres and lived in a bachelor cabin with two or three other men, one named McEllery or McEllray. Jane Gray came to Oregon in 1852 and they were married in 1853 and settled on the south side of Brush Creek. Their oldest child, John, was born in their first cabin in 1855. John's grandfather arrived later after receiving favorable letters about the country and its climate.
". . . In those early days neighbors were few and scattered. Some of the following had settled before my father came, and some arrived later. Of these neighbors the most prominent were: Wm. McCaw, Timothy Riggs, William Robinett, Thomas Woodfin, and R. C. Finley, the miller.
"The old flour mill erected by R. C. Finley was already in operation before my father arrived. It was built in 1848. This was the original building, not the present one. I can remember when that old first mill was still standing, although the present building had already been erected. The old mill was no longer used for its original purpose, but was utilized for a hog pen. It stood slightly down the river from the present mill and further out on the rocks in the stream channel. Before the building of that first mill, flour was hauled all the way up the valley from Oregon City.
"No one seems to know exactly when the present 'Finley' Mill, (now owned by John McKercher [- Leslie Haskin]), was erected, but my father helped to raise the timbers, so it was sometime after 1850. I have heard my father tell the following incident concerning the raising of the frame of the present mill building. A crew of men, of which I was one, were raising the frame. We had got it partly up, but at such a point that we had no strength to push it further; neither could we let it down without great danger of it falling upon us. At just that time, when we were desperate, Rev. Henry Harmon Spaulding [Spalding] came riding past and saw our difficulty. He seized a pike pole and added his strength to the push. We could feel the effect at once. The heavy frame began to rise, and in a few minutes we had it safely in place. Had he not arrived, there is no telling what might have happened. (Henry Harmon Spaulding was the missionary to the Nez Perce Indians and a friend of Marcus Whitman, who, after the Whitman Massacre, settled on the Calapooia. [- L. H.]) [Spalding had been invited by Brown and Blakely, but when he arrived he thought they had the best land. So they moved their claims apart giving Spalding the claim between them.]
"Because of the great floods of 1862-63 [1861-62] the Finley mill could not be operated. The flood came very early in the winter, took the dam out and washed away the first small building, but spared the second, present structure. In a very short time the settlers were out of flour. I can remember that winter well although I was still quite small. The older people were much troubled by the lack of flour, but to me it was only an adventure. I remember that we lived almost entirely on corn. My father rigged up a sort of homemade grater on which he rubbed the ears of corn and reduced them to meal.
"Concerning the raising of the mill, previously mentioned, I will say that very little hiring of men took place in those days. Neighbor helped neighbor as occasion required. When a man was building a house, his neighbors would
"When I first remember, there was nothing here at Crawfordsville save farms and stock range. About 1867 or 1869, P. V. Crawford built a carding mill here. It was run by water power, the race starting from a dam in Brush Creek and running through what is now the town into the Calapooia River at the mill. A little later Bob Fuller opened up a small store; this store my father acquired later and ran for a number of years. In 1878 my father took C. P. (Charles) Bishop into partnership. This building used by Crawford both for store and residence purposes is still standing. It is now used as a residence by Mr. Duncan McKercher. . .
"The first sawmill here was on the Calapooia River, a little below town where the rodeo grounds are now situated. Mr. R. C. Finley was one of its promoters. When I first remember it, it was run by Kendall and Barter. It was an old style 'sash mill' run by water power from an overshot wheel. In a sash mill the saw blade is straight, and to give it strength and rigidity for its heavy work, it is mounted in a frame or sash. In the simple old form the bottom of this sash is coupled direct to a crank extending out from the main bearing of the water wheel. As the water wheel revolves this 'crank' causes the sash to move up and down. The log, on a carriage, is propelled against this reciprocating saw blade. The cutting is done merely on the down stroke. It is all very slow and primitive, but with time a great amount of lumber may be sawed. The movement of the carriage forward to meet the saw is arranged by a gearing known as the 'rag wheel.' In sawing scantlings, as for instance, 2X4's, a cant was first cut four inches thick and as wide as the log allowed. This cant was then cut into 2-inch segments, but the saw was never allowed to quite sever the piece. Before the cut was complete the carriage was reversed and new cut commenced, again four inches deeper into the cant. This was continued until the cant was quite used up, leaving a group of 2X4 inch pieces, all still joined by a short un-sawed section at one end. This short connecting segment was known in those days as the 'stub-shot,' and when the timbers were delivered to the workman, [the sawing] had to be finished by hand.
"The second mill built on the Calapooia (sawmill) was five miles up the river. This was a sash mill, but they also had a circular saw for finishing work.
"The first steam sawmill was built by a Mr. Linville and was situated on the head of Brush Creek.
"In speaking of sash saws, I must describe a kind which was used at a somewhat later date and was known as a 'muley.' In these mills the saw blade was not mounted in a sash, but the blade was given rigidity by a heavy spring at the upper end, which also served to return the blade to its upper position after the down, or cutting, stroke. These springs were often in the form of a long flexible pole mounted overhead, the base rigidly fixed, the tapering point bending and retreating with the motion of the saw.
"In speaking of mills I might say that Mr. R. C. Finley, who built the first flour mill south of Oregon City, and who promoted the first sawmill on the Calapooia, was handicapped all his [adult] life by lameness. However, he was a very active and ambitious man and besides his mill near Crawfordsville, he built a much larger one in the open valley near the present town of Shedd. This mill is still commonly called the 'Boston Mill,' but is now owned by a Mr. Thompson. Although he could not walk with ease, Mr. Finley used to go out and grub to clear his own fields, working on his knees because he could not stand properly. His lameness was caused by an accident in the pioneer lead mines in southern Wisconsin, where his legs were broken.
"The old Finley mill was standing (present building) as far back as my memory goes, but in my earliest memory the first building, built in 1848, was still standing. That old building was a small one, not over a story and a half high--just high enough so that it was possible to elevate the ground wheat above the bolting machines. . .
"Another memory of my very early childhood was the trains of Indians who came through the valley. They were always peaceable, but I was very much afraid of them. Whenever they came to our house they would enter without formality and sit down about the fire to warm, if it was cold, or to beg for food at all times. About the year 1863, or 1864, they were all taken away to the reservations. The Civil War 'Home Guard' did this work, rounding them up and forcing them to go. Many of them hid out, or returned against orders, and for some time there was a regular patrol which came through whenever the settlers made complaints of Indian returns; they would come through asking everyone whether they had seen any Indians around. . .
"My occupation was, first, farming. Then I entered into the woodworking business here at Crawfordsville (1884-1900) running a sash and door factory and general wood-finishing establishment for a number of years. In this business I had as a partner my brother, W. B. Glass. Later we dissolved partnership and the business was moved to Cottage Grove. (This business was originally founded here at Crawfordsville by Crawford and Fuller. [ - L. H.]) The Crawford of the firm was a son of the pioneer P. V. Crawford. After 1900 I engaged in the banking business at Brownsville."
"Jess Barr was a miller who worked for R. C. Finley at his mill just below Crawfordsville. {Linn County Historical Museum, Finley file} "Anna Kirk Barr, . . . came to Oregon with her husband Jesse in 1852 . . . She was a double cousin of Polly Ann Kirk Finley, wife of the early Crawfordsville area miller, Richard Chism Finley. . . " {Sweet Home In The Oregon Cascades by Margaret Standish Carey and Patricia Hoy Hainline, p 90 to be noted SH}
Richard Chism Finley died on August 5, 1882. His obituary in The Times of Brownsville included, ". . . He built the first grist mill in the country and was the only mill at that time between Oregon City and California, and the calls for flour were numerous both by miners and emigrants. Many of the latter had no money to pay for flour but Mr. Finley always chose to keep his flour for those who had no money and supplied them for fear that they could not get it elsewhere as the miners had money he said and could always get their wants whenever it was for sale. . . [Richard Chism or Chisholm Finley was a cousin of Polly Finley Crockett. Through his mother, Margaret Chism or Chisholm Finley, he was a cousin of Jesse Chisholm for whom The Chisholm Trail was named.] {Linn County Historical Museum, Finley file}
many rough miners coming to the mill to get their wheat ground. The miners would come with their wheat from many, many miles away and were often compelled to remain over night. My father kept them and fed them at the mill, but mother would not allow them to stay at the house to associate with her 'house full of girls.'
organize a 'raising' and all work would be done without any pay except the pay of freely offered work in return whenever occasion required it. . ."