WPA Interviews

Cunningham, U. Grant

Jul 10, 1939

INTERVIEW with U. G. (Grant) Cunningham. Harrisburg, Oregon.

I was born on a farm south-east of Harrisburg on September 3, 1865. My father's name was William Marion Cunningham, commonly called "Marion". My mother's name was Mary Porter Cunningham. My parents were pioneers of the year 1852 but were not married until after reaching Oregon. D.L.C. #1319(R)

In the same train with my father was my grandfather and grandmother and their daughter, Mary who later became my mother. Grandfather's name was W. D. Porter, my grandmother was "Betsy" Porter. The train in which they came had much hard luck including trouble with thieving Indians though no real open hostilities. They also suffered greatly with the cholera and a great many people died of that disease. My grandfather Porter was stricken with the cholera but recovered. However, I have often heard a story told of his sickness which, at this late date at least, is amusing. Grandfather was very sick and suffering terribly from the cramps of cholera and fully expecting to die. He groaned and rolled and tossed in his pain and all the time he was admonishing grandmother, "Betsy, go on to Oregon with the train after I die and marry again at the first chance."

After my father had started for Oregon my grandfather Cunningham also decided that Oregon was a good place to settle so he sold out his farm and goods and started out too. He was some weeks behind the first train but he sent word ahead that he was following and somewhere on the plains he overtook my father's party.

I have often heard my father relate incidents on the plains while coming to Oregon but none of them were of any special significance. One mental picture that remains with me from father's narratives is of his guarding the cattle of the train at night and the tremendous thunderstorms which would come up and threaten to stampede them. He would tell how he saw in an instant of intense light from the electric flash that the cattle were on their feet and stampeding towards him, and then all was blinding darkness with crashing thunder and not a chance of knowing at what moment the cattle might run him down.

That seems to be about all I can tell you about the actual immigration but perhaps I can tell something about early Harrisburg, partly from what I have heard and partly from my own memory. The town of Harrisburg was established on the donation land claim of William A. Forgey. There had been a ferry across the river here for a great many years and it was but natural that a small town should spring up. I cannot tell who ran the first ferry here; perhaps there is no record of that fact. One of the early ferries was run by a man named Martin. Later, came Thomas T. Roach. I believe that Mrs. Hiram Smith was also a part owner in that ferry. Roach was running the ferry when I was a small boy. He was an emigrant of 1852 and his claim was in the neighborhood where my father also settled.

Other neighbors at an early date were R. A Rampy. He came in 1852 in the train that brought the Wigle family. He was just a young single man then. He ran a drug store in Harrisburg and later established the first bank here. The bank was located where the present Harrisburg Telephone Office stands.

The McCullys opened the first store at Harrisburg. I believe one of them was named Asa McCully.

In 1853 the town of Harrisburg was surveyed and laid out. It was then called Thurston, but due to a conflict in names and the ruling of the post-office department that name was not acceptable and it was called Harrisburg, probably from Harrisburg, Pa, from which town some of the prominent settlers had hailed.

The town of Harrisburg first started right on the river bank and when steamboats began to run on the upper river it encouraged more building close to the river. There was a row of stores running parallel to the course of the stream, then a dirt road before the buildings and right on the bank, at the opposite side of the road, there was another row of buildings, big warehouses for shipping wheat, hay and other farm produce. That was Harrisburg in the early days. The McCully family were greatly interested in steam navigation and finally owned and built boats for traffic on the upper river.

At an early date the boats usually tied up on the Lane County side of the Willamette. That neighborhood bore the name of Lancaster. There was a great deal of competition between the growing young towns as to which should gain the predominance in river traffic. Eugene City, of course, claimed to be at the head of navigation but few boats could go up that far and then only at good stages of the water. The rivalry then settled down between Harrisburg and Lancaster. The people of the rival towns went to great lengths to induce the boats to choose their landing.

What I tell now, I cannot vouch for from personal knowledge but it is a story that was often told me when I was small. The people at Lancaster were determined that Eugene should not become a shipping point to Lancaster's loss. They therefore served notice on the boat captains that they were not to go further up the river than Lancaster landing. To give their order force they also declared that they had big balm trees standing on the riverbank which they were ready to fall on any boat which attempted to pass on up the stream. These big trees they had already cut almost through so that only a few strokes of the ax would send them crashing down. The boats ignored this warning and passed Lancaster by but they pulled as far on the opposite side of the river as was possible. The big trees were felled, true to the threat, but they were not quite tall enough and only scraped the sides of the boats in their fall.

Boats which I remember as coming to the upper river in the early days were The Gypsy, City of Eugene and the Hoag.

One of the first important industries in this neighborhood was a large flouring mill situated about one mile south of Harrisburg. It had a capacity of perhaps 150 barrels of flour a day. The power for running the mill was obtained from what was known as the "Mill Slough". That was a short lateral branch of the river running east of a small island there. The slough was dammed at its lower end and from there a race ran out to the mill. At times of low water they also placed a low dam across the river there with "flashboards" to turn the current into the "slough". I do not know when that mill was first built. That was before my time, but I have an impression that it was moved there from some other site. The owner of the mill in my day was "Old Hiram Smith". I believe that there was also a man named Briggs interested in it at one time. Flour from the mill was hauled into Harrisburg and stored in a warehouse to await the coming of the next riverboat. John Waters was the miller there for a long time. Later Waters removed to Brownsville with his son-in-law; Morelock and they were operators of the flour mill there.

At that old mill they always kept a lot of hogs which they fed on the waste grain and the mill by-products. There was a high walk along the hog corral so that it seemed a risky thing to a small boy to pass lest he fall into the race or into the hog pens. Because of the many hogs there the mill and residences about received the nickname of Hogum. Some have though that there was actually a town by that name but this is not true. Hogum never amounted to more than four or five houses and the mill and offices. (The field worker mentioned an item in an old paper purporting to be the account of an election in Hogum. Mr. Cunningham's reply was, "If there was such an item it was just a burlesque, a josh. There never was any organized town.") "At a later date, after the "Hogum" mill had ceased to run, the millrace was extended and brought further down into the edge of Harrisburg and the power was used to run a saw mill.

One of the pioneer industries in Harrisburg was the "Sherill Cultivator Company." A Mr. Sherill invented a certain new kind of cultivator and made them here for sale. His machines were considered a great improvement over older forms and for years every farmer in the region owned a Sherill Cultivator. These cultivators were somewhat like a modern seeder with plow-like teeth or shovels mounted in a row by which the ground was worked and the grain covers. They were used for sowing grain also as each one was equipped with a seed box besides cultivating tools.

I remember well when the old Oregon-California railroad line was built through here. The work of grading was almost all done by Chinese coolies.

After the road was built these chinamen stayed on for some time. Much early grubbing of timbered farms was done by Chinese laborers.

When the railroad first came through all the engines were named instead of being numbered. As boys we used to listen for the train whistles and we could tell by the sound which engine was pulling the train, even before they came into sight. Of those old engines I remember the "J. B. Stevens", the "Portland" and the "Oakland". Most of them were named after some man.

North of Harrisburg there is a country community which now goes by the name of "Alford". It is on the old claim of Thomas Alford, one of the early settlers. When the railroad came through that place was known as "Muddy Station" since it is on the banks of Muddy Creek. Previously it had been known as "Liverpool". There were stores and a warehouse there at one time.

There was another "Liverpool" in this region, or rather it was called "New Liverpool". It was situated across the Willamette where the Long Tom joins that stream. Both of these places were so named in jest yet they became well-known names locally. Now "Liverpool" in Linn county is merely a service station and there is nothing whatever at "New Liverpool".

(The field worker mentioned certain old army papers, already reported on, which had been found in the attic of a house by the present owner, and whose presence in Harrisburg could not be accounted for. These papers concerned Fort Hoskins, in Benton County and the Siletz Block House and were principally in the handwriting of, and signed by one Lieutenant James Garden.)

I never hear of any James Garden in this country and there is only one explanation for the presence of those papers here, at least only one which seems reasonable to me. I used to own that old house. It was moved to its present site from further east in Harrisburg to make way for the tracks of the Oregon Electric Railroad. It had formerly belonged to my wife's parents, Mr. & Mrs. G. W. Isham. Mr. Isham ran a shoe shop here in Harrisburg for many years. The house was also used by Isham's as a rooming or boarding house. People came and stayed there for a day or a week, or by the month. Now my wife had a sister, a member of that family, who was a crank, perhaps I had better say a miser, in regard to old papers. No matter what it was like she would never destroy or throw away any old papers. She would store them up until the whole room or house was full; she would always have some excuse why old papers should be saved and not destroyed. Now this of course, is only a guess, a speculation, but it is my belief that this Captain James Garden of whom you speak must have stayed at that house and upon leaving have left those papers behind him. My sister-in-law stored them away in the attic and there they remained until the house was moved to a new site and purchased by Mr. Peterson who found them. (Mr. Keith Peterson)

(Mr. Cunningham is an able and intelligent man, now retired from business. His recollections of old Harrisburg seen to be remarkably correct and clear. He lives with his brother in the southern part of the town of Harrisburg.)

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.