WPA Interviews

Interview with Mrs. Pauline Hackleman Price and Sterling Price, grandson, of Abraham Hackleman and Eleanor Davis Hackleman.

This interview was carried on with difficulty as Mr. Price is completely deaf, and her son, Sterling Price very diffident and apparently unwilling to be interviewed. It was necessary to ask all questions of Mr. Price, who, in turn, would write them out for his mother to read. Since Mrs. Price remained in a separate room during the interview, and her son had to carry the questions in to her and return with the answers, the progress was far from satisfactory. At the time the field worker was particularly investigating Albany schools, so most of the data collected was on school history.

Mrs. Pauline Hackleman Price was born January 12, 1850. Her father was Abraham Hackleman, a pioneer of 1847. Her mother was Eleanore Davis Hackleman. The Davis family was also early Albany settlers but none of them now remain in this locality.

Mrs. Price's grandfather was Abner Hackleman. He was a pioneer of 1845, arrived at Albany in that year, took up a claim which he left in the care of a young man named Hiram Smeed, and then returned to the east for his family. He never returned to his claim for he was taken sick and died in the east. Two years later, however, that is, in 1847, the son Abraham Hackleman came and took over his father's claim.

The story, commonly repeated, that Abner Hackleman took two claims and left both in the care of Smeed, and that Smeed later refused to give one of them up, but kept it for himself, is not true. Abner Hackleman took only one claim. The land, which Hiram Smeed took and held, he took in his own right. There is no truth in that story.

The first Hackleman cabin was built in the south end of what is now called Hackleman's Grove. There is an old well in the south end of the Hackleman Grove. It was near this well that the original cabin stood. At the time of the first settlement the grove was not as large as it now is. Only the largest of the oak trees now standing were here at that time. All of the smaller trees which make up the bulk of the grove have sprung up since then."

Concerning early schools, Mrs. Price said: "My first teacher was Andrew Babb. I also went to school to Abigail Scott Dunniway. She taught some time in the early 1860's. Babb taught in a little schoolhouse where the Madison School now stands. In 1880 Miss Rovie (?) Alexander taught at the Madison Street School. Pape's Creamery, which now stands at the corner of East Fifth and Jackson, is what is left of that old building. It was moved to that place and first used as a Christian Church, and later as a creamery. Originally it was an all-wood building, but it is now altered and refinished in stucco. In the 1880's the schools in the east and west ends of Albany were very alike in size and style of building. "Prof. Moses was principal of the Central School, on the present site of Tekanah Park, in 1882. It was then a three-room building.

Probably the first school taught at Albany was a private one, taught by Eleanor Hackleman (Mrs. Prices' Mother), in her own cabin. She used to teach the children while she sat in the yard picking her geese.

The first ferry at Albany was probably run by a man by the name of Rainmaker. Afterwards Ashby Pierce had a ferry, which crossed the river just where the present steel bridge now stands. The Rainwater ferry was further up the river. Ashby Pierce continued to run his ferry almost up to the time that the first steel bridge was erected.

Abraham Hackleman died in 1904.

Anderson Cox had a sawmill on the Santiam River east of Albany as early as 1851.

Nimrod Price, husband of Mrs. Pauline Hackleman Price came to Oregon in 1851. He spent his first winter in Oregon with Anderson Cox at his sawmill. Anderson Cox came in 1847 with the Hacklemans.

Clake Price, a dairyman living near the Albany Airport is a younger brother of Nimrod Price.

Hiram Smeed came to Oregon in 1845. He has a daughter, Miss Emma Smeed still living at 214 Montgomery Street, Albany. (See interview with the latter. L. Haskin, Field worker.)

Abraham Hacklemans' wife was Eleanor Davis before marriage. She came to Oregon in 1848. The Davis family is almost all gone from this region, but the wife of Edd Sholl (or Shoel) is one of them. They live near Albany.

The line between the Hackleman and Monteith claims is at the southern Pacific Depot, follows somewhat along the line of Lyons Street."

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.