McHargue Mill
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Hugh L. Montgomery's 1937 interview continued, "The second grist mill in this region was the Wm. McHargue mill, still standing in Brownsville, built sometime about 1853 or 54. After the McHargue mill was erected the customers at the Finley mill fell off greatly, since people no longer wished to travel the seven unnecessary miles to reach it. To correct that, R. C. Finley built a third mill, this time about seven or eight miles further down the Calapooia and near the present town of Shedd. This mill, still standing, was erected in the early 50's [1858] and was long known as 'The Boston Mill'. That mill is still standing and in operation. Its present owner is a Mr. Thompson.
"Before these mills were erected, my grandfather and father went to Oregon City for their flour, as well as for other merchandise not procurable nearer.
"Another very early settler in this region was my uncle, Nathaniel Gray Rice. He commonly went by the name of Gray Rice. His wife was my father's sister, Elizabeth Montgomery. Mrs. Lerwell, who lives a mile or two west of Crawfordsville, is his daughter. The old Rice claim was in that neighborhood.
"One of the first tragedies of this region was the death of my oldest brother. He was killed by his own son. The boy was a spoiled, unruly youngster. He had been reproved by his father and in anger he took a gun, shot his mother, his father, and a neighbor, John [Daniel] McKercher, who happened to be passing. This John [Daniel] McKercher was at the time the owner of the Finley Flour Mill.
"The first saw mill that I remember was situated on Brush Creek above Crawfordsville, but I know that there had been a previous mill which was run by water power owned by the miller Finley. The mill which I remember on Brush Creek was an old style sash mill. The saw ran up and down in a sash or frame. When I was small I remember seeing them pull logs into this mill, using yoked oxen. When I was twelve or thirteen years of age I used to work hauling lumber from that mill. . ." {PS, Vol 4, p 10-11}
Catherine Louise (McHargue) Hume continued, "My father was, at one time, a part owner of the flour mill which was built in Brownsville at a very early date--probably in the early 1850's. His chief partner in that venture was a miller named Bassett. Father never actually ran the mill himself. That mill is now being torn down. For many years it has been run with modern machinery, but underneath the floor, when it was taken up, they found one of the large old millstones such as were used in early days. My uncle, William McHargue, was also interested in the business. I remember once his coming up to talk with my father about repairs on the old mill dam, which had become weak and insecure. Uncle William McHargue came to Oregon in the year 1852. . . "
"Another business interest of my father's was his work in the organization and erection of the old Brownsville Woolen Mill, which is still in operation. [No longer.] He was one of the prime movers in that enterprise, which was very successful for a time. The whole growth of the town of Brownsville was dependent upon the old mill. Almost all prominent persons in the neighborhood had a hand in that. Thomas Kay, the well known Oregon Woolen Mill man, came to Brownsville to help operate the mill at an early day. He was a fine mill man--his training was in the woolen mills in England, but he was a heavy drinker and his family were almost destitute. Later he came under religious influences and reformed and became very prosperous. His wife was a 'raw English mill girl.' She once confided to a friend that before coming to Brownsville she had never seen a horse or a cow or even so much as a chicken running at large. She worked in the woolen mill and had a box beside her loom in which she watched over her small children.
"One of the graves in the McHargue Cemetery is that of Alex. Foster. He was an early day mill worker and had charge of the dye room. He lost his balance one day and fell headlong into a vat of boiling dye. He dived in and passed from side to side of the vat before he was pulled out. He died soon. At the time he was only a boy of 21 years or so. His wife was Matilda Templeton, daughter of Wm. T. Templeton. . ." {PS, Vol 2, p 88-93}
Marena Emma (Michael) Fruitt was interviewed by Leslie L. Haskin on April 17, 1940. She was born on October 26, 1864, on the Michael Donation Land Claim near Twin Buttes six miles south of Brownsville. In 1847, her grandparents, Jared and Mary (Kelso) Michael, came to Oregon with their son Eli, a widower with three children - Mary M. who married John Harper; Miranda, who married Rev. John Pearl; and Jared, Jr. Eli married Jane Hodges and their seventh child was Marena, who married Martin Fruitt.
[In March 1861, Rev. Edward R. Geary, pastor of the Brownsville Presbyterian Church, traveled east, met with President Lincoln concerning the growing split in Oregon over the slavery issue, and purchased machinery for the Brownsville Woolen Mill.] "My father helped to haul the machinery for the first grist mill in Brownsville, as well as for the old Finley mill at Crawfordsville, and later for the woolen mill at Brownsville. All of this heavy machinery came from Oregon City. The roads were very poor. As we would think now, there were no roads at all but just mud tracks winding across the country. At that time Corvallis consisted of about two men and a drug store. There was a ferry at Corvallis run by pulling the ferry across by hand. That ferry continued in use for a great many years, and my husband [Martin Fruitt] was operating it for a number of years, about the first of the 1900's. When my husband ran it, of course, it was more modern and was operated with overhead cable and propelled by the push of the current against the slanting sides of the scow. It was finally discarded when the present Willamette River bridge was built. . ." {PS, Vol 2, p 15-16}
Lewis Tycer, Jr. continued, "When we were still living above Crawfordsville we had a neighbor named Philpott. It was the custom of the father, when they were short of flour, to put his two little boys upon a horse, tie a sack of wheat on with them, and send them to Brownsville to have it ground. One day these boys on approaching Brownsville were forced to cross an ash swale where water stood to the depth of a foot or more. While crossing this swale the sack of wheat was shaken loose and fell into the water. The boys were not able to lift the wheat back upon the horse, so it lay and soaked for some time before they could devise means of hoisting it up. They then took it on to the mill. They supposed that the wheat was spoiled, but the miller assured them that he could dry it out and it would be all right. However, it could not be made into flour that day, so he simply exchanged it for an equal amount of flour and sent them home. The delay had caused the day to pass long before they were ready to start back but they took the long trip--perhaps eight or ten miles--alone in the night. They would have been very hungry, for they had no lunch, save that a kindly neighbor saw them pass late at night and called them in for supper. That is merely an illustration of the way small boys learned self reliance in pioneer days. . ." {PS, Vol 5, p 38} The Brownsville Flouring Mills was demolished in 1950.