Thursday, February 21,1980
Page 4—Vernonia Freedom
Stanley Matthews left with older brother Martin.
Nehalem Valley People
Jct,elle Wlgf?ins
Those Who Where Here
Stanley Matthews
by Jenelle Wiggins;
“ I was born in Portland Oregon in
1909,” Stanley begins. “July 10,1910
wo moved tothriNehalem and settled
in the Burn. At one- time over 50
families had lived on the Bum but
when we got there hot many were left.
Let’s see, there was the Fishers,.
Hyatts, McMullens, Fred Phillip,
Parkenens, Derocks and Lamonis,”
hé rattles off as if the names and faces
of 70 years ago were still his
neighbors today. “The Kauppi family
didn’t move to the Burn until 1913
and the Ennebergs came in 1916.”
Older brother Martin stands by for
consultation and carefully spells each
naine forme.;
“In November of 1915 we left the
Burn and headed for Clatsop County.
We stopped over at the Neverstill for
2-3 weeks and then lived at Tom
Johnston’s old house for a couple of
months. Comie Màrch we moved into
Lousignont’s old board house which
Paw rented and farmed for. the next 4
years. You know where the
Lousignont’s lived? No? Well I guess
you don’t know much about this
country then. It snowed every month
but August in 1916. And 1919 was
the worst winter they’ve ever had. It
was 16 below with 18 inches of sleet
on thé ground and it stayed cold like
that for 10 days. We walked across
the river the 2nd day. ’ ’
“The fruit jars were stacked behind
the stove and they froze and burst,
pop, pop, pop, just like that,” Martin
adds.
“Paw was a carpenter by trade,”
Stanley continues. ‘ ‘He built the
church at Vesper and built lots of
houses in the valley. Any house with
wide cornices was most likely his.
Paw thought nothing of walking from
the Burn to Vernonia. It was only a 3
hour walk by road. He walked to
Jewell alot too. But Paw had to follow
the road on acount he was no good in
the woods. He’d be lost within 15
minutes. He was from Michigan. Me,
I started working in the woods at 13
and had a steady job at 14.”
“In 1918 we started* to build a
sawmill IpA miles S.E. of Mist and in
1920 we moved back to the Burn
because th a t’s where the timber was.
We ran that sawmill from 1920
through 1948, 28 years. We called it
the Mathew B rother’s Lumber
Company and all five of us brothers
worked there. We’d go out and fall
and yard timber- for a week and then
come back and run the mill for a week.
Martin was a bucker and whistle
punk in the woods and a ratchett
setter in the mill; George was a
sawyer and planer man; Robert ran
the logging end when the rest of us
couldn’t get away from the mill;
Walter ran the edger and cutoffand
Paw worked the off bearer. ’ ’
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“The sawmill averaged 12-14 men
and we put in a million feet a month
when we were gyppoing for Clark and
Wilson. We got paid $5.00 a thousand
for falling, bucking, yarding, loading,
building our own plank road and
hauling 11 miles. D uring the
Depression years a man earned 35
cents an hour, 40 cents if he was a
good man.”
“ A lot of our lumber went to rail road
companies. We sold lumber ties at
$7.50 a thousand. S tructural
stringers sold for $11.50 a thousand
board ft. They measured 9X18, 32
feet long, ho heart, no sap, straight
grain with not less than 6 rings to the.
inch The rail road companies sent out
their own inspectors. We could saw
up to 66 feet in our mill. We had 2 54
inch saws powered by a 200 horse
steam engine.”
' “During World War II "we sold
wood to the government to make
airplane parts for mosquito bombers.
The planes were made of plywood and
the props were fir. Have you ever
noticed the timbers in the Sentry
Grocery store? We sawed-those in,‘29
or ‘30. They’re 12X24 and 50 feet
long. That building used to be
Crawfords Ford Garage. We sold
cedar to the Oregon Casket Company
and sold lots of cedar flume stock to
the W apatu Indian reservation.
Cedar went to Clatsop and Columbia
counties for bridge pilings. We used
to know everybody from here to Elsie.
Elsie was the end of the line.
“You cold?” Stanley pauses to put
some sticks in the stove and tops it
off with some diesel. “You won’t be
cold for long, ’ ’ he chuckles,
“Me, I guess I went to every school
there was. I started school at Burn
when I was 5 and then went to
Sunnyside school back of Boone
Johnston’s. I went to both schools in
Vesper, the Johnny Cahill school and
the Berg school and then back to the
Bum school arid I finished up at the
Mist school. You know where the
Bum school house stood. No? Well
then you don’t know this country
very well,” he scoffs.
After a brief tour of the shop and
out buildings I head for Vernonia
feeling about as dull as a butterknife.
An hour and an half listening to
Stanley and Martin Mathews and
Fve become a foreigner in a foreign
land. My mind is fogged with ghost
images of old growth, steam donkeys,
plank roads, and misery whips. I
clutch the steering wheel and strain
my eyes through the windowshield
for a familiar landmark. Maybe
someday I ’ll learn to speak the
language and cause some youngster
to sit up straight in her chair at the
tales I. tell. Afterall, Stanley did
promise to take me up through the
Burn and show me where that old
school house had stood back in 1914!
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2 0 9 NE LINCOLN 640-231 2 HILLSBORO