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10A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 2016 Names: Brookield was once a cannery town Continued from Page 1A Puget Island resident Joe Budnick, 69, proposed the new names. He said he lived in Brookield from his birth in 1946 until a logging company razed the town in the late 1950s. He and his siblings are among the last living former residents. For most of his time there, Brookield was a ghost town. But long ago, it was home to as many as 500, mostly immigrant families. Budnick said he’s recently heard from numerous people with ties to the town who are thrilled to see Brookield getting some recognition. “It was quite a history,” Bud- nick said. “The older people I talked to said it was the greatest place on earth. They all still wish they were back there again.” No more Jim Crow A controversy over the three “Jim Crow” landmarks, which are on the Columbia River in western Wahkiakum, arose in April, after state Sen. Pramila Jayapal, D-Seattle, proposed an effort to change Washington’s racist place names. The term “Jim Crow” comes from a racist character that appeared in minstrel shows, cartoons, songs and radio plays between the mid-1800s and mid-1900s. The name became a racial slur, and was eventually used to describe the discrimina- tory laws that were prevalent in the South after the Civil War. Many historians believe “Jim Crow” places were proba- bly named for an early black set- tler named James Saules, who lived in Paciic and Wahkiakum counties during the mid-1800s. However, some locals argue that the places were actually named for an Indian chief or a log- ger named Jim Crow, or for the birds who perched in a tree on the point. While some locals felt strongly that the names should not be changed, others found them highly offensive. Budnick said he got involved because he felt several media accounts of the dispute made it seem like everyone in Wahkia- kum County was racist. “That really bothered me,” Budnick said. He’d grown up with the names and didn’t think much of it for a long time. But after the controversy arose, he came to believe that it was time for a change. Saules — not ‘a stand-up guy’ After researching James Saules, he wasn’t convinced the places should be named after him. As one of a very few black pioneers, and the proba- ble impetus for Oregon’s harsh black exclusion policy, Saules is undeniably an important his- torical igure, but, “He wasn’t a stand-up guy, really,” Bud- nick said. He was bothered by accounts that suggest Saules mistreated Native American women — in 1846, an Oregon court charged him with killing his native wife. Budnick mined the town’s rich history in search of some less controversial alternatives. “I wanted something that was a compromise, but without any disagreement. I wanted a name that everybody could say, ‘Yeah, that’s logically what it should be’” Budnick explained. Company town in the woods In “Company Towns of the Northwest,” author Linda Carl- son said businessman Joseph Megler built his salmon can- nery in 1873, and named the new community after his wife Nellie’s home town, Brook- ield, Massachusetts. A post ofice, docks, the Fink Bros. Stave Company, and the beau- tiful Megler mansion and gar- dens went in too, but the town remained isolated. “Boat travel was vital” to the town, Carlson wrote, because “there was no road out until 1951.” Territorial census records show that many of the early cannery workers were Native American or Chinese. Even- tually though, Megler, a Civil War vet who was born in Sax- ony, Germany, began recruiting workers from Croatia. “That’s where he got my grandfather and my great-grand- father,” Budnick said. His last name is an Anglicized version of the Croatian name “Budinich.” In exchange for ishing or work- ing in the cannery, Megler promised to help the immigrants become citizens. “Most of the people that were in Brookield were kind of like indentured servants. They came and worked for him until Photo courtesy of Joe Budnick The Megler Cannery occupied a small cove in the lee of a small headland with the controversial name Jim Crow. the cannery burned,” in 1931, Budnick said. His grandfather told him that despite their sta- tus, the immigrants were gener- ally very happy, and “loved the area.” From minor leagues to homesteading Under Budnick’s pro- posal, Harlow’s Creek would be named for John and Mary Harlow. In an email, the Har- lows’ granddaughter, California anthropologist Julia Hammet, told Budnick that John Conrad “Con” Harlow’s family came from Milwaukie. From the late 1800s to the 1910s, Harlow was a catcher and manager for minor league baseball teams. He met his future wife, Mary Theresa Konz, while she was living in Kansas. He sent for her, and the two married in Astoria. After ending his career as a baseball player, Harlow worked as a isherman and as the post- master of the Brookield Post Ofice. At irst, the couple did not build a house on their creekside property. When Ham- met’s mother, Constance Har- low, was born in June 1916, the Harlows were living in a house- boat on Jim Crow Creek. “They later pulled the house- boat up on land, and dry-docked it, then built the two-story house over it,” Hammet wrote. She believes her mother was the last person to be born in Brookield. Serious about mail In the 1940s, Mary Har- low became the postmistress — something that Budnick vividly remembers. At the time, the arrival of the mail boat was an event, because it also brought food and sup- plies. On mail days, Con Har- low would wait for the boat on the dock, while Mary Harlow chatted with Budnick’s mother. Once the mail bag was in her hands however, Harlow would suddenly become very serious about her role as postmistress. “She’d open the post ofice, go inside, open up the win- dow, hand us the mail through the window, then close it back down again,” Budnick recalled. “It was pretty funny because we were the only ones there. She didn’t smile, even when she opened the post ofice.” The recluse Beares Georgianna and John Beare, for whom Beare Hill would be named, settled in Brookield in the early 1900s. According to a May 1979 Wahkiakum County Eagle article that Budnick pro- vided, Georgianna came west from Missouri and John from Mississippi. Both were mid- dle-aged by the time of their 1909 wedding in Portland. John Beare got a job at Megler’s cannery, and the two grew hay and berries on their 5-acre plot. The author of the article, Mildred Jones, said the two “managed on very little money,” cutting trees for fuel and lumber, and preserving fruits and vegetables from their large garden. The Beares were very iso- lated. To get supplies, John Beare had to hike 4 miles to the boat landing, then travel by river to another town. Accord- ing to Jones, Georgianna Beare only left their homestead twice between 1909 and 1941 — once for a brief business trip to Cathlamet, and the second time when her husband had a stroke in 1941. “Each time she left home, she wore her 1909 wedding suit and her high old shoes,” Jones wrote. When John Beare died at the end of 1941, Georgianna was 78. Locals decided it was best to move her into a Cathlamet nursing and maternity home. The elderly homesteader report- edly adapted well to her new surroundings. “Here is where Georgi- anna heard her irst radio, tele- phone, saw electric lights, indoor plumbing, enjoyed her irst automobile ride,” the article said. She died at the age of 95, in July 1958. Living among the ruins By the 1940s, Brookield had changed a great deal. Megler died in 1915. The cannery was not rebuilt after the July 1931 ire, and the salmon ishery was not what it had once been. Many residents moved away. In 1951, the Crown Zeller- bach logging company bought up a big waterfront site, accord- ing to local historian Irene Mar- tin. The company built the irst road to Brookield, and began using the site as a log-dump, and logging the surrounding areas. The post ofice inally closed in 1954. Budnick remembers the day a man came to ask his father if he wanted to buy up the town. His father tried to scare up enough money to preserve the community, but others didn’t quite believe that the company would really wipe out the town, so they decided not to buy. By that point, everything from the schoolhouse to the Megler man- sion had been abandoned, and the Budnicks were the only ones living among the ruins. “We used to play in the mansion, play in the cannery, the school house — the books were all still there, and those little wooden desks,” Budnick recalled. Budnick and his siblings thought living in a ghost town was “the greatest thing in the world.” “I think about the kids now that hang around 7-11 learn- ing how to smoke and cuss and shoplift — we were in a Disn- eyland for kids,” Budnick said. Last days of Brookield In 1957, the Crown Zeller- bach bulldozers arrived and knocked everything down. Con Harlow had died of a gunshot wound in 1953, so Mary Harlow decided to return to her native Texas. She offered to let the Budnick family stay in her house outside of town. “She knew we were get- ting kicked out of Brookield,” Budnick said. “It was such a shame.” The house had a lush toilet, but no electricity or other modern conveniences, and he still remembers how it made strange creaking noises at night. He and his siblings loved stay- ing there, and so did their friends and relatives. “I see people whom I hav- en’t seen in 40 years, and it’s the irst thing they ask about,” Budnick said. “It was a place where city kids had never been before. They still have really great memories of going out in the middle of nowhere and liv- ing like we did, with kerosene lanterns.” The family held onto the house, but eventually, it got tough to keep up the only house in such a remote area. By about 1984, there were constant break-ins. “We kind of gave up on it,” Budnick said. He bought his current home on Puget Island and moved away. Town that lives on in memories Today, the frame of the Har- low house still stands, but there are few other signs of the town, aside from a few rotting pilings in the river. Budnick says it’s hard to believe there used to be a dance hall here. He still goes to visit the former town and Har- low house quite often. In its heyday, there were lots of fruit trees by a bend in the creek, and he still feels wistful for the way they perfumed the air. “It hits you. You get that smell when you irst go there,” Budnick said. “That’s the way Brookield was to me — the smell in the air would change to this really beautiful smell of apples and blackberries ...” Training: It’s about making it as realistic as possible Highway: ‘The problem is there is so little money’ Continued from Page 1A The students backstroked into a daisy chain, locking their legs and arms together as they treaded water toward the life raft, climbing in and then out before swimming to Job Corps’ pilot boat Iuka. As students climbed on board, they peeled their suits off and emptied water from their boots and hoods. “It felt good,” said Samuel Perez, a seamanship student from Harbor City, California, who wants to work on tugs at the Port of Los Angeles. The suit shoots the occupant up, he said, and does most of the work keeping them aloat. Student Rick Fuller from Seattle said she was more afraid of jumping off the Iron- wood than treading water. “I’m glad I didn’t have to do this when the ship was actu- ally going down,” said Fuller, who after Job Corps would like to join the Coast Guard or work on a tug. Continued from Page 1A Make it real Overlooking the exercise Wednesday was Capt. Len Tumbarello, head of the sea- manship program and a for- mer commander in the Coast Guard. “I remember as a young cadet … dawning an immer- sion suit, stepping off into the wild blue yonder and doing the very same thing, just get- ting that feel of, ‘OK; I’m going from a safe vessel to the ocean in a suit that’s supposed to protect me,’” he said. “And it did, for the short time I was in there. But I never had to do it for real. But I felt because of that experience, I was ready for a real-life scenario.” Making it as realistic as possible is what Tumbarello said the immersion training is about, putting students in the river rather than a swimming pool. Photos by Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian ABOVE: Job Corps Seamanship students assist one another getting into an emergency life raft during training Wednesday. BELOW: Job Corps Seamanship program students participate in an abandon ship training exercise Wednesday. More photos online at DailyAstorian.com Standing next to Tum- barello was Sarah Little, a crewing administrator with Crowley Maritime, a marine transport and logistics com- pany that reaches out to differ- ent training programs. “This kind of training is pretty much imperative,” she said. “You can’t very well get into the maritime industry without it anymore. The rules and regulations with the Coast Guard are such that you can’t just get on-the-job training.” “I like the quality of mari- ner that comes out of this pro- gram,” she said. “I’ve been working with them for several years. It’s well-rounded.” Johnston said the irst priority is funded and will add a “J-turn” lane near Cullaby Lake. The $6.5 million project is expected to begin in 2018. Another priority in the state’s plan is a major inter- section improvement for Glenwood Village. Work would cost about $7 mil- lion, and include building a new bridge on U.S. High- way 101 just south of the intersection. Johnston said the earli- est money could be avail- able for the intersection is in the next funding cycle in 2021. Long term, other pro- posed projects include wid- ening the shoulders for bicyclists and widening the whole corridor with some medians in between lanes. With any transportation project, the struggle is ind- ing the funds. So little money was available in the last fund- ing cycle, Johnston said, oficials could only focus on small scale bicycle and pedestrian improve- ments when they wanted to request money for the Glenwood Village intersection. “The problem is there is so little money,” John- ston said. “It’s nationwide problem.”
