PAGE 6
JOHN AND EULA PETITE:
SHARING 51 YEARS OF TOGETHERNESS
In Grand Ronde, nestled just off highway 18, along the
South Yamhill River, sits the home of John and Eula
Petite.
Inside, sitting in a brown comforter chair and watching a
TV daytime soap rests John. Eula and John, both
Grand Ronde tribal members, have been married for 51
years.
It is a good day for John. His feet are a bit sore, but
otherwise he feels fine. His health goes up and down
since he suffered a stroke in 1980.
John was born in 1906 in Grand Ronde. His parents are
Henry Petite, Clackamas, and Jane Leno, Rogue River.
He was one of fourteen children.
He attended the Cloverleaf School, just west of Grand
Ronde, until the sixth grade. But work and moving
ended his public education.
John's first job was as a waterboy for the railroad
builders in the Valley Junction area.
By the time he was 17, he was involved in the timber
industry. It would be his lifetime career. He began by
splitting wood for the donkeys, and then moved on to
become a "whistle punk" for the loggers. A "whistle
punk" was a person who blew the steam whistle signals
to the loggers, explains John.
He then moved on to become a hole digger for the
chokers for a short time and eventually became a choker
setter. He later became a "hook tender", a crew boss,
while working for Murphy's Lumber Company.
The lumber business had him working for operators,
such at Polk Operating, and working in locations along
the Columbia River, and around Tillamook and the
Grand Ronde area.
When John first began in the lumber business, the trees
were enormous, perhaps "eight to ten feet through",
said John. Most were Douglas Fir, but Noble Fir,
Hemlock and Cedar were also cut, said John.
In those days, clearcutting was common practice. The
crew would work "patches" perhaps 20 to 40 acres. It
would take some time to clear a "patch" since the trees
were so large, said John.
Close calls have left their mark on John. In 1939, a near
miss resulted in his left arm being broken. A steel plate
was put in his arm. In 1965, he broke an ankle and it
was wired back together. Another time, an accident
resulted in his sternum being broken diagonally. His
heart was almost punctured.
One time, John was helping to straighten a trailer
loaded on a logging truck. They were pushing the tailer
by hand while John was standing under the trailer reach
when it dropped. There was so much "drop to it, it hit
me on the head", said John. The accident resulted in '
both of John's ankles being sprained. He received quite
a jolt which he didn't feel much in those days, but feels
these days with a sore neck, John said.
John retired from the lumber business in the 1970's. In
1980, he suffered a stroke and remained in intensive
care for about four days, but recovered quickly.
Eula was born on November 27, 1911 in Salem, Oregon.
She was the 14th and final child of John B. Hudson, Kal
apuyan, and Magdeline (Hattie) Sands, Rogue River.
Eula's family was originally from Grand Ronde, but
moved to Salem where her father, a blacksmith set up a
shop, while the children went to school.
When Eula was about one year old, her grandmother
became ill and the family returned to Grand Ronde and
lived in the Agency area. She lived there until about age
12 and then her family moved to her grandmother's
original land allotment, where her and John live today.
Eula recalls visiting her grandmother when she lived on
the allotment lands and peeling and gathering Cascara
(chitam) bark to sell for spending money. Chitam was
used as a popular cure-all medicine, said Eula.
She also remembers picking a lot wild blackberries,
huckleberries, and going to the coast to pick a blue lake
berry during the summer months.
Before Memorial Day, Eula remembers her family
climbing Spirit Mountain to pick wildflowers. The
flowers were gathered and made into bouquets to place
on graves the evening before observance. "You couldn't
say a word in the cemetery," in those days said Eula.
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LtoR- George Powers, Ed Powers, Andrew Kenworthy, Walter Kenworthy and John Hudson