EIGHT The Gazette-Times, Heppner, Ore.. Thursday. June 2, 1977
teikr$ eniov feolidey
By Justine Weatherford
The big event of Morrow
County's Memorial Weekend
was the Bergstrom-hosted
Pioneer Picnic at the County
Fairgrounds' Pavilion Build
ing on Sunday, which at
tracted about 300 persons.
Out-of-county visitors and lo
cal residents also enjoyed
visiting the County Museum
and its restored one-room
schoolhouse during the week
end. The 24th annual picnic
demonstrated fine effort by
the large group of descendants
of pioneers Olaf and Erik
Bergstrom. Civic groups who
assisted included Legion Post
No. 87, the Heppner Sorop
timists, the Heppner Garden
Club, the Morrow County
Merchants' Committee and
the Morrow County Historical
Society.
After more than 250 guests
had signed the registration
sheets and were name-tagged
by Soroptimists, they enjoyed
visiting, dining and hearing
the program. Master of cere
monies Gerald Bergstrom
presented Heppner's Mayor
Jerry Sweeney, County Judge
Paul W. Jones, Historical
Society Secretary Ruth Mc
Cabe, the County Fair Queen
and others who were seated
with him at the head table.
The Fair and Rodeo Queen,
Mary Anne Proctor, intro
duced her four princesses.
Rev. Edwin W. Sikes of the
Heppner Christian Church
gave the invocation.
The program began with a
memorial flag-presentation
by the Heppner Legion Post
under the command of Ed
Baker, Lexington, with taps
played by Gene Rietmann,
lone, and the audience joining
in the singing of "America
The Beautiful" accompanied
by pianist Ola Mae Groshens.
Judge Jones spoke about the
recent growth of the county,
giving very impressive sta
tistics about the county's agri
cultural development: It is
second in wheat production in
the U.S. and is first in potato
production in the Northwest
(only one county in Maine
produces more potatoes) ; hay
and silage production has
increased and there are 2,000
acres in various specialty
crops. He urged everyone to
go view the more than 600 big
irrigation circles.
Jones said this is no longer a
"small agricultural county,"
that its total evaluation will
soon be considerably beyond
the present 500 million dollars.
During lunch, Ola Mae and
Jo Jean Stevens played duets
on the piano.
After folks finished lunch
ing, Gerald Bergstrom award
ed four special prizes, courthouse-picture
plates, that
were donated by the county's
merchants' committee.
The first awarded went to
the oldest guest present, Mrs.
Carl Haphold (Lillie Currin)
who was 91 last April. Lillie
Haphold is a daughter of
George J. and Jenny Currin,
Morrow pioneers. She attend
ed lone schools and Oregon
Agricultural College and then
taught around this county
before her marriage. She
taught the 3rd grade in Hep
pner from 1908 until 1912 and
also taught at Lena and up on
Balm Fork. Her husband Carl
farmed in the Wasco area. He
was drowned in 1956. Lillie
lives in Portland now near her
daughter, grandchildren and
great-grandchildren. She was
brought to the picnic by her
niece, Mabel Denney, a Port
land neighbor; they were
guests at the Currin Ranch on
Butter Creek until May 31.
Marie Anderson, San Mar
cus, Calif., was awarded a
prize plate for having come
the furthest distance to attend
the picnic. Marie is a daughter
of Heppner's Oma Cox.
Delia (Davidson) McCurdy
received the prize for the
individual who has been mar
ried the longest. Her husband
Harlan was at home; he
hadn't felt up to attending.
Both are children of pioneers.
They were married in lone 60
years ago this coming September.
Bernice Nash (Mrs. Lincoln
Nash, Heppner) was the lucky
recipient of a door prize plate
given to the person whose
name fell on line 77 in the
registration.
After the awarding of the
prizes, Gerald Bergstrom in
troduced Herman Green who,
along with other descendants
of Alex and Mattie Green, will
be in charge of next year's
picnic. Some colored slides
and movie film of last year's
centennial events in Heppner
were projected by Bill Weath
erford. The Morrow County Histor
ical Society displayed a map
of the county which had the
locations of the 59 old county
schools as well as the locations
of the graves of pioneers who
are buried on privately-owned
land and in deeded cemeter
ies. Bill Weatherford was
chairman of the mapping
committee. The society's
grave locating committee has
put permanent markers on all
the known graves that are
outside deeded cemeteries. A
group of colored snapshots
were also shown by the sec
retary, Mrs. McCabe.
During the afternoon, many
visitors and local folk toured
the County Museum and the
small schoolhouse in Hep
pner's Main St. Park. Mrs.
A look hmh
(if f i
By Justine Weatherford
No one has located a com
plete history of Heppner's
Public Library. Some of its
history can be reconstructed
from various old notes, news
paper articles and library
board documents, and there
are still citizens in the
community who can remem
ber back quite a way into its
history.
HOW IT BEGAN
About twenty years after
Heppner's 1872 beginning,
some of its citizens started a
public library. In many com
munities, it is a ladies' club
which takes the first steps;
however, men have really
been the great library build
ers. In Heppner, it was two
men, O.K. Fitzsimmons and
R E. Riner, who began the
library in the fall of 1893.
Perhaps they were nudged
by women, but these two
canvassed the city for books.
They persuaded the Oregon
State Library to donate 1,000
books. Fitzsimmons and Riner
each gave $500 to get the
library underway. Mrs. Fitz
simmons acted as the first
librarian. The library was
originally located in part of a
small wooden building on
Main Street.
THEN CAME THE FLOOD
Somehow, Heppner's young
library survived the great 1903
flood. About 1917, it was
moved to the old Baptist
Church building, which had
stood where the Lanham
Apartments are now. Jeff
Jones, a city councilman, had
bought the church building
and then sold it to the City of
Heppner, and it had been
moved from Baltimore Street
to the corner of Gale and West
Willow streets, where the
Christian Life Center is today.
The Gazette-Times of May
28, 1918, reports a fire that
destroyed a big part of four
city blocks adjoining that
intersection (Gale and Willow
Sts. ) on that date was rated as
a $2,500 loss.
Soon, the library was re
organized and re-established
on Main Street in the back of
Mrs. Herron's Millinery Shop,
which occupied a small wood
en building between a two
story rooming house and
Schwarz's Butcher Shop,
about where the Abrams and
Kuhn law office is now. Mrs.
Herron acted as the second
librarian from 1921 when the
library reopened until it was
wiped out again by fire on May
28, 1925. (Harold Becket re-
calls watching this early
morning blaze.) Before the
second opening after the first
May 28 fire, the library had
been restocked by gifts from
citizens and with 300 books
given by the Oregon State
Library. All the library's
books and many beautiful
ladies' hats were burned in the
second fire.
MORE CHANGES
OF LOCATION
After the 1925 fire, it was
several years before the
library functioned again. It
was reorganized and before
1930 was temporarily located
upstairs in the Odd Fellow's
Building, where the I.O.O.F.
Rebekah lounge is now. Many
citizens again helped to stock
the shelves. Josephine Ma
honey Baker became the li
brarian. She also wrote for the
Gazette-Times.
Prior to 1932, the City of
Heppner bought the garage
that Walter LaDusire had
operated on the corner of Gale
and Willow, where the city
building stands today. That
garage had been sold to
LaDusire by a Mr. Hill, who
previously operated it.
Back before 1912 and until
the 1918 fire, there had been a
skating rink on that location
fi l- - - - -:4 i
Speakers at the 1960 Library-Museum dedication include (1-r). Rev. Austin McGhee, J.O.
Turner, Museum Board Treasurer, Amanda Duvall, Bill Collins, former Mayor, Oscar
Peterson, former Judge.
Now's the time for weed control
Both Aerial & Ground Applications Available
WESTERN FARM SERVICE
CUSTOM SPREADING & SPRAYING
NH3 Aqua Dry Fertilizer
Ag Chemicals Seed
Animal Health Products
uu
TERfl Ken Smith - Sales & Service
Bob Davidson - Sales & Service
Bill Wondra - Fieldman
FOR mS E R VI C E Dennis Reisch- Branch Manager
Boardman 481-2921 Heppner 676-9103 Lexington 989-8525
Rachel Harnett kept busy
visiting with them and ans
wering their questions as only
she is able to answer them.
One of the most interested
visitors was Alton Johnson
from Coos Bay, who grad
uated from Idea School, which
preceded the "new" Demo
crat Gulch School. He has
promised to send the museum
his diploma from Idea and
also a picture of the building
where he spent eight years.
library
- -"is (if:,-''- wjimdiij-. , .
" ci tr
; " ;
- -
$ v - r
' .
!; 1
. . V-Tv
. ) r, 1 ' ' j '
) - i
I Y ,,, m.'
7
0
COURT WELCOME Rodeo and Fair Queen picnicers as host Gerald Bergstrom stands to
Mary Anne Proctor extends a welcome to her right.
and how the town's youngsters
moaned when it burned down.
The city remodeled the La
Dusire Garage to include the
present shops, the office and a
corner library. Josephine Ma
honey Baker presided over the
move from the upstairs lo
cation to the new library (now
known as the "old library,"
where downtown voting takes
place). The library stayed in
that location for the 28 years
following 1932.
CHANGING LIBRARIANS
After Mrs. Baker, Frances
Case became librarian. All
through the years, many
women contributed their time
to maintaining the library.
After Frances Case gave up
the chief responsibility, the
library was kept open by a
group who shared the load.
These volunteers included
Madge Thomson, Louise
Becket, Hannah Jones and
Martha Dick. Records are
very hazy for many years
(if you can help make the
history of the Heppner Li
brary more accurate or more
complete.
2.
n
p.
V Mi
PRIZE WINNER Mrs. Carl Haphold Lillie won for being the oldest guest present at the
Currin holds the courthouse picture plate she Pioneer Picnic. She was 91 last April.
viyuuiAiiur' v y v
Thursday, Friday, & Saturday
JUNE 2nd, 3rd, & 4th
Janztcn
West Set
Marbella
Caper
rnn nnnce
rnse rniuii
Albee
Hager
Levi
Lee
Garland
Puritan
Ship n Shore
Bobbie Brooks
0
1 -$100 Gift Certificate
2 SS0 Gift Certificates
100 $5 Gift Certificates
LIVE BROADCAST
FRIDAY & SATURDAY
GOt)
MELANI SQUARE
Pendleton, Oregon
Bank America Card
Hatfield Charge
Master Charge Card
. .. J