WPA Interviews

Ayers, James A.

Jan 30, 1939

INTERVIEW

Interview with James A. Ayers, Harrisburg, Oregon.

My name is James A. Ayers. I was born at Centerville, Appanoose County on January 14, 1846. Last Saturday I celebrated my ninety-third birthday.

I came to Oregon in 1864. First stopped for one year in the Grand Ronde Valley and then came on to Linn County in 1865.

During the years of 1857 and 1858 I carried the mail from Salem, Marion Co., to Pleasant Hill, in Lane County taking one trip back and forth each week. For this work I drove a two horse hack in summer but in winter I was forced to go much of the time on horseback. All of the mail came from the north at that time as there was no railroad or good stage connections from the south. Can you imagine one man on horseback carrying all the mail for Scio, Lebanon, Brownsville, Coburg, Harrisburg, Eugene and Pleasant Hill in a single trip? Besides the places mentioned there were a number of small country post offices which I served.

When I started out from Salem I had all the mail loaded up in a locked pouch. My first stop was at Scio, and there I would turn the sack over to the Post Master who would unlock the sack and proceed to sort out all the mail, taking only that which belonged to his office. Then he would add to the pouch the mail from his office intended for southern points, lock it up and return it to me. The next stop would be Lebanon and there the process would be repeated, I waiting at each point while the whole sack of mail was resorted, added to, and returned to me. It was a slow and tedious process and it was a hard, trying trip to cover considering the state of the roads at that date. In winter time it was all that a strong team could do to navigate some of the roads.

Usually I could drive a hack from Salem as far as Brownsville. By that time my load would be considerably lightened and from that point on I would cover the route on horseback. South of Brownsville my route took me through the "big gap" which was the route of the old Territorial Road. When I speak of a road I do not want you to think of modern paved, or even graveled roads. I want you to think mainly of a muddy track through the open country often boggy and hub-deep. The "big gap road" was rough and unworked. When the way got too deep for me to drive safely I would simply pull aside and try a fresh place further up on the slope of the hill. There were almost no fences to keep travelers within bounds.

Besides the offices already mentioned I served a number of small country places not now in existence. Usually these post offices were in farm houses and the farmer was the post master. South of Brownsville the first office was kept by a man named Clover. (Possibly Paul Clover, L. Haskin). Again, a little further on there was a post office in a farm house near Diamond Hill. I cannot now remember who the post master was there. Perhaps I never did know, for I would pass through the country and scarcely see a man to talk to, so I got little information about the various places. There was another post office near the present town of Coburg which I think was kept by Tom Vaughn. Also one north of West Point.

The old territorial road kept close to the foot-hills in those days. There were two reasons for that. One was that most of the settlements were there and the other was that the level valley was then so boggy and flooded in winter that it was impossible to travel it. All the first settlers flocked to the poor, shallow foothill lands where clear springs were found and where timber for building could be obtained. At first it was thought that the open valley was too boggy and wet ever to be cultivated. The settlers cultivated little tracts along the hills and turned their cattle out on the open valley to graze. In that way a great livestock industry was soon built up here.

When the open valley began to be settled up each settler would choose his Donation claim and begin to fence it. The next one would join lines with his and fence his tract and so on, leaving no open ways for roads. The old territorial road along the foothills was open, and a few of the more important lines up and down the valley, but if a man wished to cross the valley there was no way to go except through the farms, opening gates as he came to each line fence. These cross country lanes became more and more used and in winter, especially at the gates where it was necessary to use the old tracks, the mud got so deep as to be quite impassable.

You can imagine how it would be even today if all the travel past any given farm had to go through the ungraveled barnyard and then out across the pastures, thence through another muddy barnyard and on to another place. That was the way the whole valley got to be at times.

While I was carrying the mail from Salem to Pleasant Hill my home was at Brownsville. I was a young, unmarried man and made my home with John Sperry with whom I boarded. John Sperry was, I believe, a son of Rev. Wm. Sperry who helped to found the first Baptist Church near that place.

My route in carrying the mail went in somewhat this way. I would leave Brownsville on Monday and go clear through to Salem that same day. On Tuesday, at one o'clock the mail would be made up and I would start south. I could get back to Scio by night on Tuesday where I spent the first night. Wednesday morning I would go on to Brownsville where I kept a change of horses. Thursday I would make it to Pleasant Hill and the end of my route. Sometime Saturday I would be back at Brownsville where I stopped over Sunday. Then on the next Monday morning I would again start for Salem. It made a hard round trip of close to two hundred miles each week. Rain or shine, mud or dry, I had to go.

My route into Eugene was from the east and I can still see just how the town looked in those days. When I came to Main Street there was a wooden store building and I would drive around behind the building and the post master would open the back door and take my sack of mail inside. I do not think that there was more than half a block of buildings in all Eugene's business section then. I was at Eugene last week and I tried to locate the spot where the post office stood. Finally think that I located it but I had quite a time in deciding. Not a person there could tell me anything about it or who the post master was. When I was carrying the mail the University had a few buildings way out in the hills nearly a mile from town. Now the town is built up all around the University grounds and clear back into the canyons.

At Brownsville where I lived then, John Sperry with whom I boarded was the blacksmith. His father, Wm. Sperry, the preacher, was then dead and his widow had married Billy Cochran. I worked for Billy Cochran on his farm for a year or two before, carrying the mail. Cochran, then pronounced "Caw-horn", owned a big ranch about three miles north of Brownsville. He raised lots of cattle and made good money selling them in various ways. All the hills northeast from his place were open range and he let his cows run free nearly to Sweet Home. The old house on that place still stands and looks not much different than it did seventy years ago. It was built long before I ever came there. Billy Cochran had a partner in the stock business named John Vance. Vance and Cochran bought up a big drove of cattle and Vance took them across the Cascades to sell in eastern Oregon. I went along to help drive them. "Uncle" Billy Cochran trusted Vance implicitly. Vance went to the place where he expected to sell the cattle but found no demand there and no price for what he could sell. He therefore drove them on to another, further place, but conditions were no better for marketing them there so he kept going on from place to place driving the cattle with him.

I was not with him all of that trip so that I cannot tell just where he finally did go, but months passed before he could make a sale. Some say that he finally ended up in California and that it was nearly two years before he disposed of his stock and returned but in all that time Uncle Billy Cochran never doubted his honesty and that he would finally show up with the money. When he finally did return he had the cash in his saddlebags in gold-several thousand dollars-for there were no banks in those days or convenient means of exchange as now. That was in 1866.

When I was staying at Uncle Billy Cochran's they attended church in the old Baptist Meeting House which was situated on a Butte about two miles west. I believe it was called the "Pleasant Butte Church"

(Note-the old Pleasant Butte building is still standing though now used as a barn. L.Haskin) There was a cemetery close to the church there.

At about that time the people of Brownsville were having quite a time about the relocating of their Post Office. In the early days the Post Office was situated in the old town on the South side of the river. Later, with the building of the Woolen Mill, the town increased greatly on the North bank of the Calapooia and the people on that side wanted to move the Office. This was finally done but not without a great deal of to-do about it.

After 1868 I moved from Brownsville to Harrisburg. Here I taught school for about two years. My first school was in the Lake Creek District north of Harrisburg. My second school was at the Dave Busey District. (Note-D.S. Busey had a D.L.C. about one mile east of Harrisburg. Whether this is the place mentioned could not be determined. L. Haskin, Field worker.) "After teaching school for two years I went to farming. My brother and I rented a farm near Peoria for two years. After that I bought a farm on Muddy Creek near Harrisburg. I lived there until about thirty years ago when I sold out and moved to the village of Harrisburg. Here I have lived ever since.

I was married to Matilda Rodgers in 1870. She was born in Missouri in 1850. She came to Oregon with her parents in 1851(?). She died a few years ago. Since then I have lived here alone. I have one daughter, Mrs. Ida Thompson, of Lebanon, four grandchildren and four great grandchildren. My daughter has decided that I am too old to live alone any longer so I am preparing now to move over and stay with her. You will have to excuse me if I cut this interview short as I am now getting my things packed so as to be ready to go to Lebanon when they come for me."

(Thus the interview was cut short without an opportunity to touch on many points of interest. Mr. Ayres is a hearty old man as evidenced by his ability to live alone at his advanced years. His health seems good and he has the appearance of many men of 75 or less. He still chews with his own teeth and his sight seems keen. His hearing, however, is very poor. His house, kept by his own hands, is extremely neat and orderly. The grounds are well kept and tilled. Mr. Ayers was found reading his bible and studying the lesson with the aid of a fat, square-shaped, leather bound Concordance-a book that was published in 1847. L. Haskin, Field Worker.)

Copyright © 2000 Patricia Dunn. All rights reserved. This transcription may not be reproduced in any media without the express written permission by the author. Permission has been given by the Transcriber to publish on the LGS web site.