Heppner, Oregon, Thursday, March 24, 1955
Early History of Area Told by Long-Time Resident
(This is the first of tw0 recent
articles prepared for the Gazette
Times by Bert Mason, one of
Morrow county's pioneers. Mr.
Mason spent most of his life in or
near lone and has one of the
best memories of early times in
Morrow county. He has written
for us another one of his very
interesting recounts of the early
day history of the area.)
By Bert Mason
When the immigrants crossed
the plains their only object was
the Wilamette valley and the
640 acre donation claims which
soon occupied all the open lands
and when the young folks
wished to establish homes they
had just one chance, that was
to go into the dense forests and
cut and burn the timber, then
grub stumps for a lifetime. They
remembered the vast tracts of
bunchgrass covered hills through
which they had traveled in East
ern Oregon and they decided to
return and claim homes and
raise cattle. Most of those who
came to Willow Creek came from
Eugene, Brownsville, Salem and
Oregon City. The names best
remembered by me were the Ad
kins, Casons, Clarks, Cochrans,
Farrens, Hales, Matlocks, Pad
bergs, Petteys, Sperrys and the
Weatherfords.
Soon every spot along the
creek that would afford room for
homes, cattle, corrals and a few
acres for gardens and hay for
saddle horses and a few cows
was claimed.
All those settlers had to go to
The Dalles for provisions, and it
was also their post office until
A. C. Petteys secured a post of
fice at Willow Forks which was
opened on June 3, 1872. It was
changed to Petteysville on Dec.
24, 1878 and was closed May 5,
1887. -
Mr. Petteys was the handyman
of the community he was post
master, mailcarrier, blacksmith,
photographer, dentist, broom
maker and finally was assessor.
He had a device with which he
made brooms, each farmer raised
a few hills of broom corn and if
they would take their old broom
handles and a bundle of corn to
Mr. Petteys he would put a new
brush on it.
My first need for dental at
tention caused me to mount a
pony and ride to Petteysville.
Mr. Petteys was sowing grain for
'a neighbor when I arrived. He
put the pliers into my pocket and
told me how to find the doctor
He was sowing oats for Mr. Jor
dan and I located him and told
him my troubles. He set a sack
of oats on end and sat down upon
it and stretched my neck cross
his knees and the operation was
soon over.
To show how thickly the creeks
were settled I will recall those
whom I knew who lived along
the first 10 miles of Rhea Creek.
They were John Jordan, Purkeyp,
Haneys, Padbergs, Kiggs, bimp-
sons, Masons, Kimseys, tug,
Rhea, J. P. Rhea, T. A. Rhea, T.
Dodson, Jim Dodson, C. A. Rhea,
James Adkins, Spencers; J. J. Ad-
kins, and Tom Morgan.
Everybody started raising cat
tle, and their only market was
among the miners around Can
yon City, Eastern Oregon and
Idaho.
The beef market was soon over
supplied and the price of cattle
went down to 10 per head. John
Jordan and others drove surplus
cattle to Wyoming and Montana
and a buyer, Lang, established a
receiving point, in Eastern Ore
con and bought cattle by the
thousands and drove them across
the Rocky mountains to sell to
eastern markets.
Many of the settlers gave up
and left the country and most of
those who remained took up
raising horses and sheep. Wil
liam Penland became the sheep
king he operated as many as
20 bands of 2,000 each. Lum Rhea
operated five bands.
J. W. Smith located on the last
ranch down Willow Creek and
he opened a store and post office
one mile west of Heppner Junc
tion on Dec. 17, 1878.
J. W. Smith felt the loss of
customers from Willow Creek
and moved his store to Alkali,
now Arlington.
The stock raisers met more
disaster when W. W. Weatherford
sold his Willow Creek holdings
and moved to Shuttler Flats in
cradle, not the same one in
which we kids were rocked. The
grain was bound with a wisp of
straw and hauled to the barn
yard where a spot was leveled off
18S0 and began plowing up the
bunchgrass and sowing .wheat.
He was followed by the Casons,
Cochrans, Hales and others.
When my father, Joseph Mason
went looking for a cattle ranch) and the bundles were broken and
he went into south eastern Ore- the grain scattered in a circle
gon and ended up by finding aland then horses were driven over
place which suited him. William jit for a while. Then the straw
Hughes had a claim 5 miles up was removed and the grain was
thrown into the wind to remove
the west fork of Willow creek
and1 had burned brick along the
bank and had erected a 16 x 20
single room house. This evident
ly was the first brick house erect
ed east of The Dalles. That
house has been occupied contin
uously for the past 86 years and
is now equipped with all modern
builtins and electric applances.
Does anyone know of a house
which equals that one?
My father moved his wife and
worldly goods from Salem via
boat to Oregon City, then up the
Columbia to The Dalles, then
over the Oregon Trail to Cecil and
on up to Rhea Creek. They had
a few cows and mares and a
Pathfinder stallion. They were
accompanied by the Frank Far
rens family and were many days
arriving at their new . home.
Father had a 10 inch single bot
tom plow with which to plow up
the rye grass and sage brush and
it took many years to get the 100
acre bottom into cultivation.
His method of harvesting was
to cut hay with a cythe and the
ripened grain was cut with a
the chaff and dirt. After some
years he bought a small fanning
mill and cleaned his grain. As
the first children became old
enough to sit on a horse, two
horses were tied together and a
child put on to ride them around
over the grain. When my legs
were long enough to sit on a
horse I joined the other children
and we had quite a merry-go-round
in threshing grain. The
first threshing to come to the
community was in 1883. Fred
Geinger bought a machine and
with four men he went up Rhea
Creek and down Willow and did
threshing. Neighbors would fol
low up and exchange work in
order to have a crew. The thresh
ed grain was put into sacks and
the men carried it to the gran
aries. These creek stockmen met
their doom when immigrants be
gan plowing up the bunchgrass
and growing grain. They fenced
the land and then the stockmen
had to dispose of their horses and
cattle and take up a new method
Three School
Bands Present
Concert at lone
By Echo Palmateer
A band concert was presented
in the school gym Wednesday
evening March 16 by the com
bined bands of Echo, Umatilla
and lone. Each band played
three numbers under their lead
ers, Mr. Springer, lone; Mr. Len
neville, Umatilla; and Hr. Hamil
ton, Echo. Echo presented a
saxopnone quartet, Umatilla, a
brass quartet and lone, a brass
trio. A select band, consisting
of members from each band,
played selections directed by Mr.
Springer.
Cake and coffee were served
afterwards by the band mothers.
The audience also enjoyed the
television program in the school
cafetorium.
The American Legion and Its
Auxiliary celebrated the Legion's
36 birthday at the Legion hall
Tuesday evening March 15 with
a pot luck dinner and a party
afterward. This was a no host af
fair. Lee Palmer has enrolled in the
Oregon State college sponsored
sheep shearing school to be held
at Milton-Freewater March 29
30. (Continued on Page Four)
Phil'
of making a living.
Many present residents of Mor
row county may not know where
the names Clarks, Canyon, Rhea
Creek, McKinney Creek, Jordan
Butte, Rood Hill, Eight Mile and
numerous other names originat
ed. Les Matlock, Bill Padberg and
others can identify all of them.
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