In Other Words
January 21
2021
13
The Good Ol ’ Days
By Tobie Finzel
At the time this is being writ-
ten, the “Atmospheric River” is promis-
ing to bring heavy rains and the threat
of flooding to our valley once again.
Predictions of the depth of the Nehalem
and Rock Creek flows are tricky, but the
following memoir, reprinted from our
December 19, 2013 column, mentions
the widespread flood of 1894 that left its
mark in downtown Portland as well as
out in this corner of the state. We also
reprint this article in anticipation of re-
ceiving permission to share a memoir
from the next generation of Birkenfeld
settlers which we hope to include in
next month’s column.
Memoirs of a Birkenfeld Homesteader
Along with the photographic
and physical artifacts on display at the
Vernonia Pioneer Museum are fascinat-
ing documents written by the early set-
tlers in the Nehalem Valley. One such
memoir was written in 1938 by a Mist -
Birkenfeld area pioneer, Anna Katherine
Jepsen Berg, about her life as a home-
steader’s wife. Homesteaders were the
earliest non-native settlers in this inland
part of Columbia County. In exchange
for a government land grant, the settler
had five years to “prove up” his claim
by building a dwelling and clearing the
land for farming.
One of these men, Eric Jepsen,
had taken a homestead claim in 1877 on
Fishhawk Creek. In 1884 he decided to
travel back to his birthplace on the Jut-
land Peninsula (now divided into Den-
mark and a part of Germany) to see his
parents and siblings. He financed the
trip by selling his cattle and rented his
place to N.L. Berg for three years. While
at home he met and married Anna. Two
weeks after their June 1885 wedding,
they left for America. They crossed the
northern United States, presumably by
train, and arrived in Portland.
After enjoying a few days
there, Eric and Anna took a steamboat
to Westport. Steamboats were the pri-
mary means of travel up and down the
Columbia at that time. At Westport they
hired a man with a canoe to paddle them
to Woods Landing (now Woodson).
Anna wrote “My thoughts on that ride
were: Have we crossed the Atlantic just
to drown in this mud puddle? The water
reached up to the edge of that small skiff
loaded with our three large trunks, be-
sides ourselves.” Anna spent the night
in Woodson while her husband walked
over the mountain to get a team and
wagon along with two riding horses to
take them to the Fishhawk settlement.
The Bergs had built a new
home on their own homestead a couple
of miles from the Jepsen land. Eric and
Anna bought some cows, two horses,
a mowing machine, a wagon, and the
other things necessary to establish a
proper farm. They pulled the stumps
left by Eric’s earlier clearing efforts, cut
down more trees and brush, burned the
slash, weeded out the grass, and planted
potatoes, wheat, oats, strawberries, veg-
etables, and eighty fruit trees. At first,
Anna only spoke Danish and a little Ger-
man, but she spent the evenings reading
and having her husband and their hired
man read to her until she learned Eng-
lish. She also found reading the weekly
Oregonian newspaper a big help in her
language studies.
They earned cash from selling
the butter Anna churned from the rich
cream their cows provided. The butter
was formed into two-pound rolls that
were sold to Conyers’ store in Clats-
kanie. When they had more cows, they
put the butter in sixty-pound kegs that
Eric took on horseback to McFarlane’s
Logging Camp near Woodson. Eric left
early in the morning and walked the ten
miles alongside the butter-laden horse.
He walked back home the same day
with the horse bearing the empty kegs.
Anna wrote that “We were all young
and strong, worked hard, lived the sim-
ple life and were happy.”
During this period, oxen were
still used to haul logs from the logging
camps to the Columbia where they were
tied into rafts for hauling to mills up
and down the river. Eric and Anna were
paid to winter eight to ten of these oxen.
Anna recalled, “They brought them
over the mountain from their camps,
and took them back in the spring. When
they came, they were poor, stiff and
full of rheumatism, and it was up to my
husband to straighten them out before
spring. Am very glad there are no oxen
anymore; they were a pitiful sight. My
husband told me about how they had to
pull the logs from the hills to the land-
ing on hot summer days, the driver hol-
lering, lashing them, and on their climb
back on the hills, their tongues hanging
out from sheer exhaustion.”
What couldn’t be grown or
caught by the homesteaders had to be
purchased from grocers in towns like
Clatskanie and Astoria. Each year, the
Jepsens bought a supply of groceries
that included five or six sacks of sug-
ar, several kegs of syrup, green coffee
beans, four barrels of flour, beans, and
salt. They made their own yeast from
grated potatoes, baked their own bread,
roasted and ground the coffee beans,
picked and canned fruit and berries,
raised vegetables, beef, pork, chickens,
and fish so they and their children could
grow up strong and healthy. For eight
dollars a month, they boarded the teach-
er who held school for four months each
year. Anna stated that she enjoyed hav-
ing her for company for herself and the
children.
In 1893, Eric was killed by a
falling snag while clearing land. “Nev-
er will I forget that first night when I
took the three children (then six, four
and two) to bed with me, and all night I
heard my husband’s watch ticking away
in his overalls,” Anna wrote. There
was no cemetery in the vicinity then, so
they buried Eric in their orchard where
“I went every day to cry my heart out.”
Anna wrote her father about Eric’s
death, and her neighbors helped her out
to the extent they could.
A few months later, her twenty-
two-year-old brother came from their
family home in Germany to provide the
ongoing help she needed to manage the
farm. He had just finished his compul-
sory three- year military service, and she
was grateful for his company and assis-
tance. Seven months later, the historic
flood of 1894 that inundated downtown
Portland was echoed in the Nehalem
Valley. Anna’s barn was flooded and all
the hay had to be moved after the water
receded. She lost their bridge over Fish-
hawk Creek, but, she reflected, “what-
ever happens, we just have to make the
best of it, but it was hard sledding.”
Three years later Anna mar-
ried Antoni Berg “which I have never
regretted.” Her brother married their
neighbor’s daughter and took up a claim
further down the valley. Anna had three
more children, and she went on to have
a good life despite the challenges pre-
sented to those who live off the land.
From Virgil Powell’s Diary
Virgil Powell (1887-1963) was a long-
time resident whose family had a farm
in the Upper Nehalem Valley between
Natal and Pittsburg. Each year from
1906 until 1955, he kept a regular di-
ary of his activities. January 1911 was
snowy and cold with heavy rains off and
on, but apparently the illegal hunting
was excellent.
Thursday, Jan. 12, 1911. The
crowd all stayed in all day
because we were afraid of the
Game Warden. Just fooled
around the house all day.
There was not very much
snow fell during the day.
Very bright and nice most of
the day.
Friday, Jan. 13. We all
started out hunting about
9 A.M. We went up by the
Detrick cabin. Ed. Webster
and Perry Mellinger took
to the right and Tom
McDonald, Harold Throop
and I took to the left and on
over to the Archibald Burn.
We killed 3 in the burn about
12.15. Killed 2 of them in
their beds. Got back home
good and tired at 4.30. Very
good day. Ed. Webster and
Perry Mellinger got lost and
did not get in. We stayed
up till about 11 waiting for
them.
Saturday, Jan. 14. Did
not do much of anything
in the forenoon. A crowd
of us consisting of Elmar
Lavender, Jack and Mart
Ray, Tom McDaniels and
I left at 12 to hunt for Ed.
Webster and Perry Mellinger.
Had a big chase after them
all East of here. Tracked
them to the Wolfe burn and
was getting late so we did
not go any further and
came out to St. Helens road
at Henderson cabin. Got
home at 5.15 and heard
that the boys had came out
at Carico. A big bunch here
for supper. Nigara and Ethel
got supper. Very good day for
traveling.
Sunday, Jan. 15. Got up at
4 A.M. and got Daisy and
Tom started out over the
mountain after the other
boys at 6.30 A.M. They went
out in a sled. Elmar and I
went down the road about
10 A.M. about 2 miles to
look where some deer came
in the river but we could
not find any so came back
home. Did not do anything
but sit around the house all
afternoon. Very cold all day
and snowed a little in the
afternoon.
Monday, Jan. 16. Worked
around the house all day.
The wind blew pretty hard
all day. Ed. Webster and the
balance of the bunch got
in from Carico at about 5
P.M. Had a big oyster supper.
Also had another big oyster
supper about 11. Did not get
to bed till about 12.
Tuesday, Jan. 17. Tom
McDaniels and I went up in
the woods and carried those
2 deer out the first thing in
the morning. The bunch went
on up to Vernonia about 11
A.M. Bert Wood and Elmer
were here about all day.
Rained pretty hard all day.
Wednesday, Jan. 18. Stayed
in and cleaned house just
about all day. Received my
new white Leghorn chickens.
Rained terrible hard all day.
The Vernonia Pioneer Museum is lo-
cated at 511 E. Bridge Street and is
normally open all year from 1 to 4 pm
on Saturdays and Sundays. Due to the
current state pandemic restrictions, the
museum is closed until further notice.
We will change our telephone message
(503-429-3713) when we reopen, and
will keep our Facebook page (Verno-
nia Pioneer Museum) and webpage on
www.vernoniahandsonart.org current
with our status.
A Trusted Name in Funeral Service
Fuiten, Rose & Hoyt
Funeral Home & Crematory
2308 Pacific Ave.,
Forest Grove
503-357-2161
741 Madison Ave.,
Vernonia
503-429-6611
Jeff & Kathryn Hoyt
Family Owned & Operated
Formerly Prickett’s Mortuary
Vernonia’s Voice is published on
the 1 st and 3 rd Thursday. Look
for our next issue on February 4.
Forest Grove Memorial Chapel
503-357-3126
To sign the online guest book or to send a
condolence to the family go to
www.fuitenrosehoyt.com