WPA Interviews

Blakeley, Margaret (Baird)

INTERVIEW by M. Sophia Robertson

Mrs. William Blakeley
Name: Margaret Baird Blakeley
Address: 221 South Main Street, Pendleton Born: Lafayette, Indiana. May 1, 1849
Parents: Father - William C. Baird - born, Columbus, Ohio
Mother - Margaret McBride - born, Columbus, Ohio

When Margaret was four years old, family crossed plains from Indiana to Mohawk, Lane county, Oregon in 1853. Mohawk is about 15 miles south of Eugene. Parents had 9 children, two boys and seven girls; Margaret was the middle one - 4 older and 4 younger. Her only living sister, Mathilda, the youngest of family, is Mrs. Charles Durbin, Portland, Oregon.

Margaret's father took up a claim of 160 acres which he farmed; after living a few years in Mohawk, he went over to Brownsville and worked as a blacksmith for a time. He returned to the family in Mohawk, and after a time he traded the 160 acres to Mr. Dick Benjamin for town property and a blacksmith shop in Brownsville, where the family lived for many years, the children moving to new homes of their own as they married, and the parents remaining at the old home until they died.

Margaret went to school in Mohawk; the earliest teachers were Wilson Blain who was the preacher at the Presbyterian Church at Union Point, and Miss Sarah M. Gray who later married a man named Lupton. When Margaret was about ten years old she received from her teacher a little primer, in which is written - "To little Maggie Baird, by Sarah M. Lupton". Mrs. Blakeley's daughter Annie - now Mrs. Milton Lesser of Los Angeles - has the little primer. The Rev. Wilson Blain gave Margaret a Bible which was her first school reader, as she had no other books. Later Margaret attended school in Brownsville. The school in Mohawk was held in a home.

Union Point was a rise of ground on the road due south of Brownsville about 1 mile distant. There was no settlement - only the Presbyterian Church which was attended by the families of the farmers in the neighborhood.

There was a group of large evergreen trees close to the church. The ministers who served the church were - Wilson Blain, Mr. Robe, Mr. Worth, and Mr. Geary. At one time a Jew had a little house near the church in which he sold a little of everything, groceries, clothing, etc. Margaret's eldest sister Julia once asked the Jew to order for her a pair of rubber boots. He did so, and when the boots came they were hip-length. Julia was surprised, as she though they would be only a few inches high. She took them and cut off the tops, and so got the full use of the boots in wet weather. The Jew did not prosper at Union Point - just the Presbyterian Church. The Rev. Robe has a son now living in Brownsville; he looks after the lots of the Blakeley family in the Brownsville cemetery, she believes.

The Rev. Wilson Blain married a Miss Miller; he clerked in a store in Brownsville for many years; he died there some years ago. His remains were later removed to Albany. He may have relatives still living in Albany who would have records of the church at Union Point.

When Margaret was about twelve years old she had a teacher named Mary Willoughby, who lived at the Baird home. One summer she took Margaret with her to spend the summer at her home at Diamond Hill, a few miles from Brownsville. There she knew the family of Joaquin Miller. His sister Ella was a classmate of hers. Joaquin was older. He was rather odd, Margaret thought; he dressed better than most of the boys at that time, and he was 'smart'. He wore top boots - which were too expensive for most boys to have at that time. Ella was much embarrassed by Joaquin's pranks, and would say - 'Go on home and behave yourself'; and 'Oh! that's my fool brother again'. One Sunday Joaquin came to church with a garter snake in each boot-top, their heads poking out, which scared the girls. He liked to wear the high boots with his trousers tucked into the tops. He was rather attentive to Mary Willoughby, so Margaret saw much of him that summer at Diamond Hill. Margaret often visited at the Miller home with Ella, and Ella visited Margaret in her home in Brownsville. She remembers that when Joaquin was going to start a newspaper in Eugene, the neighbors did not think much of the idea. They said 'You don't expect anyone who knows you to take your paper, do you? You'll have to sell it to strangers.' She thinks the paper was 'The Eugene Guard' - but is not sure. One time she saw Joaquin arrive at the school with his face all streaked with the juice of the poke-berry; it looked like blood and everyone thought he had been badly injured. At Diamond Hill there was no church building, but the services were held in the schoolhouse. Diamond Hill was nearer to Harrisburg than to Brownsville.

Mrs. Blakeley remembers one teacher in the school in Brownsville who was a very good teacher, an Englishman named Wheeler. He taught the children to recite, and every Friday afternoon they had to 'speak their pieces'. One time the teacher gave recitation, an English war story, about a rider who carried a message. She does not remember the name of the story, but it was the most dramatic reading the children had ever heard - 'He took the house'!

In those early days the Presbyterians were very much opposed to dancing, so the young people would play games which answered the purpose in giving them social activity. One game was to sing a little song, and at the end each boy would grab a girl from the circle and try to kiss her. The song was - as follows, while the young people marched around in a circle -

"Oh sister Mary how happy we'd be
The night we sat under the juniper tree.
The Juniper tree, heigho, heigho!
Take my hat off it will keep your head warm,
Take a sweet kiss, it will do you no harm.
The Juniper tree, heigho, heigho,
The Juniper tree, heigho, heigho!"

The game of 'forfeits' was always popular. Mrs. Blakeley said the games were all right, but not half as nice as real dancing! Some times the young people would turn the house upside down. The home of the Bairds was the one where the young people like best to have their parties, because, while Mrs. Baird was a very particular housekeeper, she was always willing to let the young people use the house. They had a large room at the top of their house; the walls and ceiling of which were lined with canvas. This was a very popular place for parties. At the end of the evening's fun the young people were served refreshments - cake and lemonade, and later on when they were grown up they had coffee, or 'half-and-half' wheat parched and mixed with coffee - to make it go farther. Sometimes Mrs. Baird would tell the girls they could make a cake - which often turned out so heavy that they could not be eaten. Among the families who lived near the Bairds in Brownsville, she remembers - the Blakeleys, the Wilsons, Dunwiddys, the Hendricksons, Michaels, and others; they all attended the church at Union Point. She believes the church at Union Point was built before the church at Brownsville. She remembers the Indians who lived in or near Brownsville.

One squaw she remembers had married a young man named Jim who was twenty years younger than herself. She had one little girl who died when about twelve years old. The white people were kind to the squaw and took her food, etc. She said to them - 'You been kind to me, but I want to bury my child my own way.' She kept the child many days after she was dead, and then buried her in her Indian way. There was an old Indian who was blind and was very ill. The Indians had dug a grave and were going to bury him before he was dead. Captain James Blakeley heard of this and came to remonstrate with them. They said to him - "You see him, he blind, he very old, he not get well. We bury him." Captain Blakeley said 'No, No, you can 't do that', and persuaded them to wait. In a few days the old Indian died, and was buried with the usual Indian ceremonies. Blind Eliza was well known in Brownsville; she came to the home of the Bairds and helped with the work of the house, and for other neighbors also.

Mrs. Blakeley remembers the Rev. H.H. Spalding and his family. She did not know the first Mrs. Spalding, but remembers the second Mrs. Spalding. She knew Eliza and Millie (Amelia) and often the girls would visit each other in their homes. Millie married John Brown, son of Hugh Brown, and Margaret attended both the wedding and the dinner after the ceremony. The ceremony was performed by Mr. Geary, brother of Gov. Geary of Pennsylvania. Henry H. Spalding told Margaret's father that he had never known who his father and mother were; he had been raised by a man named Spalding and had taken his name. He had not much education; was always very religiously inclined, and became a bosom friend of Marcus Whitman. Eliza Spalding Warren gave Margaret a book entitled 'The life of Mrs. Spalding'; she loaned the book to someone, and is troubled because it has not been returned.

Among their closest friends in Brownsville were the Blakeleys, the Templetons, Stillwells, Wagels (spelling doubtful). When William Blakeley was about twenty-one years old his father sent him with a hundred head of calves which he had bought up from the neighboring farmers, to fatten on the range in eastern Oregon. William had a little cabin on Birch Creek and stayed with the cattle for two years. In the second year his father came to see how his son was getting on, and on the way he met a Mr. McCard who was a cattle buyer for the eastern market. He wanted to close a deal with Captain Blakeley for the cattle, but Captain Blakeley said he must consult his son. William held out for a better price than his father would have sold the cattle for, and made several hundred dollars more.

On August 18th, 1864 Margaret Baird and William Blakeley (eldest son of Captain James Blakeley) were married in Brownsville. They decided to make their home in Umatilla county. William's mother did not want them to move to eastern Oregon, but Captain Blakeley encouraged the young people to strike out for themselves in the pioneer country east of the Cascades. So they established their home in 1868 a few miles north of what is now Pendleton. They had five children, Annie - now Mrs. Milton Leser of Los Angeles; May, Forra and Lottie who all three died in one week of scarlet fever; and Fannie, the late Mrs. Sam Thompson of Pendleton.

Copyright © 2000 Patricia Dunn. All rights reserved. This transcription may not be reproduced in any media without the express written permission by the author. Permission has been given by the Transcriber to publish on the LGS web site.