Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 24, 1972)
SECTION 3, PACE 12 ETHNIC BACK GROUNDS U nusual Irishman C ontinued from Page U to America trom County Clare, Ireland, of which coun try they were natives. They first settled in Illinois, where our subject grew to manhood. On account of the poverty of his parents and the poor school faculties in their place, he attended school only one day. He left home at an early age and took up a seafaring life, which he followed for many years. Dur ing this time he saw the need of a better educational train ing and set himself to the task of gaining the same, which be did to a fine de gree, being aided much by his travels. He has learned to speak the German and Spanish languages in addition to his mother tongue and is a well-read man, manifes ting fine capabilities. During his travels he visited all the ports of any size in the en tire world. He crossed the plains in 1871 to California, and in 1878 was employed as scout by the government in the Indian War. Since quit ting the seas he has devoted his attention to farming and stock raising, in which oc cupation he enjoys a very gratifying financial remun eration." Then, after two paragraphs about Mr. Johnson's mar riages and children and fra ternal memberships, the sketch concludes with this appraisal, "He is a man of sterling integrity and upright principles, ever demeaning himself in a praiseworthy and commendable manner." EARLY FARMERS By the time Morrow County farmers were getting well Serving the Heppner Area for 75 Years V1 established and wheat was becoming a major crop, their tools had advanced through manvstaces of horse powered machines headers, threshers, separators. Walk ing plows pulled by two or three horses were replaced by gang plows nude up of a 3-toottom 12" or 16" share and were pulled by six or eight horses. Farmers needed to be blacksmiths to care for this equipment. Be cause few farmers could own threshing machines large custom threshing crews moved through the area from about 1890 for about 35 years building piles of sacked wheat and cones of straw. Giles French covers this period from pages 30 through 50 in Homesteads and Heri tages. Heppner was a popu lar Saturday night spot for the men traveling with these crews, and its bars saw great activity during harvest. After harvest, farmers hauled the sacked grain to warehouses in their wagons. Sacks weighed 140 pounds. Before the railroad came into the county (1888) hauling was so expensive and time con suming that not nearly as much wheat was sold as soon after the R.R. came. The flouring mill at Heppner han dled small amounts of local wheat. i m m mm mr ML- - X "'yiJ as the (An excellent look at early day wheat farming is given in This Was Wheat Farming, a good-sized, full-of-pictures book written by Mr. Klrby Brumfield an Oregon "farm boy" who is presently with KATU television. The Brum field book was an award win ning publication of 1968.) There were many publica tions just before and just af ter 1900 which pictured life at that important date. Many gave projections of future de velopments. One of these s mall "Brag Books' ' was pub lished by the Morrow County Booster Club. It paints this word picture: "It should be constantly born in mind that Morrow County is largely in an un developed, or, at least, a tran sitional stage. The era of unlimited stock raising has been followed by wheat far ming on a scale of similar magnitude. Land is still held in immense areas. The stock man thinks nothing of it that he counts his holdings not by the acres, but by the sec- "7 E J nW-UW " E 'IT 4t .... kteii i r i j m mew . - ti inrnn So Small fortune in wheat from one Morrow farm Century tions. The wheat farmer, likewise, owns several "quarter s," aggrega ting, commonly, some thous ands of acres of land. But a new day is dawnlng-a day of smaller farms and better farming; a day of diversi fied agriculture, with utili zation of the by-products. In all likelihood wheat will re main the staple product, and stock raising will continue to receive a great deal of at tention. But other products fruit, vegetables, etc., are being grown. The dairy cow is beginning to find her place, and stock are being fed on We Started Long Ago TURNER, VAN MARTER and BRYANT Insurance Agency We've been servinq the Heppner-Morrow County area for 45 year since founded in 1927 by Frank Turner. . Complete Insurance Needs Auto Crop Liability Coverage Farm Machinery Boats Bonds Changes the farm as well as on the range. This means, of course, the reduction of the size of the ranches and an increasing population. It means, too, greater pros perity both for the farmers and for the communities. The population of Morrow County is not much above 5,000, half of which Is represented by the various towns and vil lages. To say that the county couldand should support a population tun times that num ber is putting the matter mildly." Continued on page 13
