THE DALLES TIMES-MOUNTAINEER.
27
:' I
' t
.. .. --.'J
SEUFERT BROTHERS COMPANY.
Of the different enterprises that have been instrumental
in bringing about The Dalles' prominence in the commer
cial world, none have played a more important part than
the above-named firm. The development of this enter
prise has been phenomenal. Each year has seen it make
progressive strides to the fore, each year has seen its trade
limits broaden, its trade connections grow stronger, until
to-day it is known and carries on business in two conti
nents. Their plant consists of over two thousand acres of
land, about 2V2 miles from town, including six miles of
river front. On this are located their two canneries, and
tueir orchard of 160 acres of peach, cherry, plum and
apricot trees.They employ about 150 men during the sea
son and pack as high as thirty-five thousand cases. In
addition to this they also freeze a great many fish, send
ing them in carload lots to New York, for foreign shipment,
having two hundred tons to go to Hamburg this year, and
they contemplate building a large plant at an early date
especially for this purpose. Their brands, namely, "An
nie's Favorite," "Tenino" and "Merrimac," are known in
every household where salmon are enjoyed. When one
contemplates that where their plant now is was a barren
waste and drift of sand piles in 1884, he can not help but
admire the pluck and ability of Frank A. and Theo. J.
Seufert, who have made it what it is to-day. They came
here in '81 and '82, without a dollar virtually, but after
making a start, saw this chance, and had the business fore
sight to sieze it. It is just such examples that show the
possibilities of the west, and particularly of Oregon.
M7
F. A. SEUFERT.
T. J. SEUFERT.
DUFUR Past, Present and Rmttire.
The increase of immigration from 1844 to 184G, and the
terrors of rafting all their belongings down the Columbia
to the land of promise, of which The Dalles was then, as
it is now, the "gateway," led a few of the most enterpris
ing pioneers to seek for a more feasible route over the
mountains, and the result was the building of the Barlow
road, connecting Eastern and Western Oregon.
This road was declared open in 1847, and a large propor
tion of the 7000 emigrants of that year, being more accus
tomed to land than to water travel, preferred to risk the
hardships of logs and canyons to the more dangerous but
less laborious journey of floating down the Columbia.
The meadows, and bunchgrass hills of Wasco had in
these days no value to the pioneer, save to thereon rest
and feed his starving stock, that they might be able to
cross tne last great divide that separated him from the far
famed Willamette. The beautiful valleys of Wasco, with
their pure streams, had no names to the pioneer, and to
him: meant but so many miles less to travel. Thus the
names "3-Mile," "5-Mile," "8-Mile," "10-Mile," and "15
Mile Creek," referred to the distance from The Dalles to
the crossing of these streams on the road across the Cas
cades. From the date of the opening of the Barlow road, in 1847,
the valley of "15-Mile Creek" Decame famous as a resting
place to the emigrants and its wild hay gave strength to
many a foot-sore horse and ox that but for it would never
have spent his declining years in Webfoot.
The law provisions were fulfilled and school district No.
2 (The Dalles was district No. 1,) was established.
Upon, the granting of the new district a permanent site
for a more pretentious school house was selected within
the present corporate limits of Dufur, near the large pine
tree opposite the present elegant cottage of Mrs. A. K. Du
fur, and here Mr. W. R. Menefee still an honored resident
of Dufur, built a 16x20 school building, the first regular
school house of District No. 2, a district that was bounded
on the north by the dividing ridge between 5-Mile and 8
Mile Creeks, and on the south by an unexplored region
from which several wealthy counties have been carved.
The difficulties of maintaining a school in those days can
be well imagined when it is explained that according to
law it was necessary to have at least six persons present
at the annual meeting to conduct business legally, and it
was impossible, owing to the sparse settlement, to get the
necessary six together at a meeting just how they held
a legal organization is not the duty of your historian to find
out. Sufficient it is that the 16x20 school house on the
creek was the nucleus around which has formed one of the
handsomest and most prosperous towns of Oregon.
The history of a town is the history of its school system,
so I will continue with the rise and fall of school district
then No. 2.
Forty years takes us back to the time when all the set
tlements of Eastern Oregon were along the streams when
the famous bunchgrass waved on the hills and tablelands
into a spirit of contrariness as to where the school house
should be re-built, each patron of the school being afraid
the other might reap some benefit by location. The usual
result followed, and it was erected a mile south of Its for
mer location, on Pine Hollow, in the most inconvenient
place possible to select. Again the bad part of man's na
ture had triumphed, and all interested were dissatisfied
but even then matters might have quieted down were it
not for a strange combination of circumstances. It seems
that in times like these the devil gets in his work, (such Is
not a matter of history, but simply the opinion of your his
torian,) and this occasion was no exception.
Mr. Herbert and Mr. Cushman were prominent patrons
of the school, but differed widely on the slavery question.
Mr. Herbert had a half breed Indian girl, and she was a
pupil of the school. Mr. Cushman had a negro boy whom
he was bent on proving the equal of any in Intelligence,
and was educating; the negro boy also attended school.
About this time the directors employed as teacher John
Michell or his brother Phil, I am not positive which, but
my readers in Wasco county will agree with me that it
must have been John, for he seated the Indian girl and the
negro boy together on the same bench.
Mr. Herbert was terribly angry over the insult to his
Indian girl, and Mr. Cushman thought the insult on the
ocher side. The community, which had grown considera
bly in the ten years, divided on the question, as they al
ways do on trifling things that don't concern them, and
:-'--'.V V' w'.;4:-
I -i-M--jri.arfc.-ifww..-3 H:.-.ai iZZ-V-a m , . . , ... ....
. JUS."-- VSwiit' I .TT--.
V
In the ten years following '47 we find a settler here and
there along the streams, the sound of the ax in virgin for
ests could be heard, and soon rail fences enclosed the
choicest meadow lands of Tygh, 15-Mile and 8-Mile creeks.
In those days men were neighbors though miles of dis
tance separated their cabins, and their animal wants pro
vided for with true American instinct, they began to talk
of schools. Wasco county then reached south to the Cali
fornia line; there was a school at The Dalles, but it was
unsatisfactory to the settlers of Tygh, 15-Mile and 8-Mile
Creeks, and they discussed the advisability of having a
schooi district struck off and a school house erected at
some more convenient point. At a settlers meeting called
for that purpose it was decided unanimously that "15-Mile
Crossing" had more natural advantages, as a school cen
ter than any other place In the county (a judgment that
stands today as it did forty years ago undisputed.)
The law of that time provided that it was necessary to
have a school in session in the proposed district before It
could be set aside, but the settlers were equal to the oc
casion, and on the Herbert place, a half mile above the
present town of Dufur, a double line of poles, were driven
into the ground, planks placed between them for walls, a
covering put over the rude structure, rough- benches pro
vided and the school building was complete. A gentleman
named Hill was secured as teacher, and with some eight
or ten pupils in attendance the first school of Wasco coun
ty outside of The Dalles was in session.
BIRDS' EYE VIEW OF DUFUR,
undisturbed by the farmer's plow; when the whirr of the
header or the hum of the threshing machine had never
been in Wasco county, and it is with pleasure I chronicle
the fact that even at that remote date the settlers of the
beautiful valley of 15-Mile were willing to make sacrifices
that it should be an educational center. In ordor to main
tain a good scnool, children residing at too great distances
to attend from home were boarded free by the settlers
more favorably situated, and school district No. 2 pros
pered for a number of years, but dark days were in store
for it.
War times came on and the war clouds of the east spread
their darkening shadows between homes that miles had
failed to separate war news that brought a bright proud
smile to the face of one were reflected in a scowl on the face
of his neighbor. The hearty handshake gave place to the
cold nod of recognition. During these troublous times the
school of 15-Mile Crossing" was kept alive only by great
effort; but when at last peace was declared and old friend
ships patched, sul went in again with a will and the 16x20
school house by the big pine tree was once more their
pride, and so it might have remained indefinitely were it
not for one of those unlooked for incidents, these trifles
in themselves that tear asunder nations as well as school
districts. About the year 1866 the school house on the
creek burned down, and the germs of enmity planted in
each breast during war times grew rapidly and blossomed
war was declared. Result school District No. 2 was cut
in two with tje negro boy in one district and the Indian
girl in the other, and no school in either.
As to what became of the three parties, the direct cause
of the trouble, your historian has failed to trace the negro
boy or the Indian girl, but John Michell, as might have
been expected, went from bad to worse, and was for years
proprietor and editor of The Times-Mountaineer, but
thirty years after was captured and sent to the Oregon
legislature for four years.
Up to late in the '60's the hill lands of Wasco were con
sidered worthless for agricultural purposes, and were val
ued only as pasture lands for countless herds of stock,
but some time in this decade, "Dutch" Mann, a settler
some four miles east of the present site of Dufur, planted
unknown to himself a few grains of wheat that had acci
dentally become mixed with other seeds, to his astonish
ment the grain produced well and matured; the experiment
was successfully repeated and soon small fields began to
appear on the higher lands. Strange to say, the first sett
lers were the last to take advantage of the wonderful
adaptability of the soil to grain, and to this day many of
the old timers hold that before the land had been trampled
and packed by stock it would not produce a crop of wheat.
For several years after the downfall of the school, and
caused thereby, there was a little settlement in the imme
diate neighborhood of 15-Mile Crossing, and things re