WPA Interviews

Bowen, Bertha (Smith)

July 8, 1940

INTERVIEW

Interview with a Mrs. Bowen who lives six miles east of Lebanon on the Lacomb road. This was just a short interview without intent to record it, but it was finally deemed best to write down what was obtained in case further data could not be secured. This woman was the daughter of William S. Smith and Martha Crabtree Smith and she is there fore the granddaughter of John Crabtree, one of the very earliest permanent settlers in Linn County. It is unfortunate that since this interview was merely to secure the names of older members of the family, the informant's given name was not secured. L. H. (Later. It has since been learned that her name was Mrs. Bertha Bowen. L. H.)

My mother was Martha Crabtree. She was one of a family of fifteen children, sons and daughters of John Crabtree who settled on Crabtree Creek in Linn County in the year 1845. The first old cabin in which the Crabtrees lived was perhaps the first cabin ever built in Linn County. I have always supposed that my grandfather, John Crabtree, assisted by his many sons, built it, but of this I have no positive proof. There is a story in this county that it was built by John Packwood in 1844 and sold to grandfather when he reached the county in 1846. I do not know which story is true but I do know that it sheltered the Crabtree family from the early season of 1846, onward for many years. It was torn down a number of years ago but a few of the original logs were used in the erection of a drying house (fruit drier) which is still standing on the old home place. The original cabin stood not far from the present schoolhouse on the Crabtree claim, on the road now marked "Hungry Hill" just a short distance north of Crabtree Creek bridge between Lebanon and Scio. Crabtree Creek, of course, was named after my grandfather John Crabtree. The station of Crabtree in Linn County, however, was not named for my grandfather but for a cousin of my grandfather, D. F. or Fletcher Crabtree. He did not come to Oregon until some years later than my grandfather.

The Crabtree family started from Missouri in the spring of 1845. They spent the first winter at Oregon city and in the spring they started south, looking for land. When they had crossed the Santiam River and entered Linn County grandfather commenced to look around in earnest. The thing required above all others was good and convenient water and plenty of timber for fencing and fuel. When grandfather came to the big spring on the hillside near here he said, "Here I am going to stay the rest of my life."He did just that.

Grandfather's full name was John J. Crabtree. He was born in Lee County, Virginia, June 20, 1800. He died March 28, 1892 in Linn County. My grandmother was of Dutch descent while grandfather was English. Grandmother 's name was Miss Malinda Yeary but she was always known in the family merely as Linda. She was born March 7, 1808 and her father was William Yeary, a veteran of the Indian wars in the eastern states. Grandfather and grandmother were married in Virginia in the year 1824 or 1825.

As I have already told, there were fifteen children born in the Crabtree family. Of this number five were born in Kentucky, five in Missouri, and five in Oregon. Their names were-

Those born in Kentucky.

George Crabtree. Born Dec. 12, 1825. Died Sept. 22, 1857 in Linn County, Oregon.

Margaret Crabtree. Born June 7, 1827. Died in Oregon June 29, 1859. She married Samuel Smallman, 1849 or 1850.

Job Crabtree, born March 7, 1829. Died in 1919. He was never married.

William Crabtree, born Dec. 8, 1830. Died Nov. 18, 1890, at Spokane, Washington.

Hiram Crabtree, born Oct. 24, 1832. Died in Montana. He never married.

Those born in Missouri.

Isaac Crabtree, born Sept. 28, 1834. Died Apr. 28, 1913, in Linn County, Oregon.

Polly Crabtree. Born August 27, 1836. Died Oct. 14, 1836, in Jackson County, Missouri.

James P. Crabtree, born Nov. 27, 1837. Died July 27, 1910. His death was due to a kick by a horse. He married Eliza Burtenshaw.

Elizabeth Crabtree, born July 17, 1840. She died in 1930. Her first husband was Isaac Griffin. Her second husband was Samuel Gaines who died in his burning house.

Rebecca Crabtree, born Sept. 4, 1842. Her first husband was named Randall. Her second husband was Richard Morris. She died November 18, 1937. "Aunt Becky" Morris, as she was commonly called, was for a number of years the official queen of the Linn County Pioneer Association at Brownsville and reigned over their annual picnic.

Those born in Oregon.

Jasper Crabtree.

These boys, twins, were born on a raft floating down the Newton Crabtree Columbia River, late in the summer of 1845 while the family was coming to Oregon. Jasper married Ruth ------(?). He died July 23, 1891. Newton married Frances Wilson. He died Nov. 1929.

Phoebe Crabtree. Born Nov. 10, 1847. Died on July 20, 1935. She married "uncle Doc" Turner. (Exact name not learned. L.H.) (From cemetery records it was probably "Talton" Turner. L.H.)

Virginia Crabtree. Born Apr. 5, 1850. Died Feb. 11, 1871 at Crabtree Station. Married ------(?) Rose.

Martha Crabtree. Born Oct. 23, 1852. Died Jan. 1, 1925, at Lebanon. Was married to William Smith at Vancouver, Washington on May 28, 1869. (This was the mother of the informant.) She was the youngest of the family. Her marriage was an elopement.

My grandfather spent the first winter in Oregon in the lower valley somewhere, perhaps at Portland, perhaps at Oregon City or Tualatin. Wherever it was I have heard it said that he did not like the low lands and swamps there so came on to Linn County where there was plenty of streams, springs, hills and timber.

My grandfather's ancestors came from England in the year 1799. Grandfather had at least two brothers, one named Frank Crabtree and the other Joe Crabtree. Grandfather was the oldest of the family.

Grandfather was born in Virginia, but as the birth records show, it is plain that the family lived later in Kentucky and finally in Missouri before coming to Oregon.

We claim that my cousin, Marion Crabtree, was the first white child born in Linn County. His father was my mother's brother ------(?) Crabtree.

My mother first went to school at the old schoolhouse which was situated just where the Franklin Butte Cemetery is laid out. Her first teachers there were a Mrs. Hamilton and Hugh McArthur. Besides being a schoolhouse there, there was a store at the crossroads and the first Post Office of the region was also located there. What the name or what Post Office was, or how Franklin Butte ever received its name, I never heard.

A man by the name of Brown was the Captain of the train when the Crabtrees came to Oregon.

The exact date of the birth of the twins, Newton and Jasper Crabtree in the raft in the Columbia was October 22, 1845. There is a picture of our old cabin in existence although I do not know where it can be found. I mean the original Crabtree cabin, claimed to be the first ever built in Linn County. In that picture there is a man standing in the foreground. That is Newton Crabtree, one of the twins. (Note-A copy of this picture has been sent in. L. H.)

Primitive ways were the common life of the Crabtree clan in the early days. I can remember especially the old hazel brooms which my uncles used to make. They were made from green hazel sticks. The stick was shaved down in long, slender ribbons, beginning near the middle and ending near the lower end. Each ribbon was carefully left attached to the stock and when it was all shaved down except enough for a handle the ribbons were turned backward and sewed in shape like any other broom. They were quite good brooms and very durable.

My father, William Smith, was born in 1842. He died in1923. He came to California from the East in 1849 and made several trips back and forth between Oregon and California. He married my mother on May 28, 1869 at Vancouver, Washington. My father and mother eloped as grandfather and grandmother did not at all approve of the match. Grandfather offered anyone $100.00 who would stop the elopers but I think that most of the neighbors were sympathetic with the young couple.

(The following short biography of John J. Crabtree was copied from Illustrated Historical Atlas Map of Marion and Linn Counties, - Edgar Williams & Co., San Francisco, 1878. p. 58.

JOHN W. CRABTREE

Was born in the year 1800, in Lee County, Virginia. His forefathers were English, who came to this continent before the Revolutionary War. Some of them served in the war. They were among the old families of Virginia. Mr. Crabtree's father was born and raised in Virginia, and John J. Crabtree remained in Lee County until he was of age. His early days were spent in toil for his father. His opportunities for education at this early day were of course very limited.

When John J. was 25 years of age, he commenced farming for himself, on a place which his father had given him in reward for his long and faithful service. In 1825 he married Miss Malinda Yeary, the daughter of William Yeary, who was also an old citizen of Virginia, and a prominent man in the Indian wars of those days.

After marriage, Mr. Crabtree went to work with a will to get a home and build up a competence. He understood the business of farming thoroughly, and, as a consequence, he succeeded well. He remained on this farm for about eight years, when he sold out and moved to Missouri, where he took up a claim, and also bought some land. He carried on farming in Missouri with his customary energy; but, owing to sickness, and other unfavorable circumstances, his progress was slow. At length, partly on account of the sickly climate of his then location, and partly because he was convinced that better chances awaited him on the Pacific Coast, he started for Oregon in the year 1845, in the spring, his outfit consisting of ox teams. The trip was, of course, at this early date, a very difficult and tedious one, there being no beaten road, which they had to make as they went. They arrived at The Dalles in October, where he stopped long enough to build a raft in which to descend the Columbia. While there Mr. Crabtree's family was increased by the advent of twin boys-probably the first event of that kind among the white settlers of Oregon.

After the completion of the raft, the family embarked on the river voyage, hardly knowing where they were going, their object being to find some good location for a home. It certainly required a large amount of courage to embark on such an enterprise, encumbered with a helpless family, and ignorant of the extent of the dangers that might menace them. But the pioneer men and women were of the kind to brave and conquer such difficulties.

Mr. Crabtree went to Tualatin Plains, and subsequently went up the Yamhill river, where he worked some time. Finally he settled on the farm where he now lives. At this period the country was in its original garb-no roads, bridges or fences-Mr. Crabtree being the first settler in the forks of the Santiam. For some time his nearest neighbor was ten miles off, and the Indians roamed over the hills and valleys with freedom. At this time he had to travel fifty miles to mill and store, and they had to live for many a long month on boiled wheat and peas.

Gradually he improved the place, but for the first few months it took all that he could do to find food for his family. In 1856, the Cayuse War broke out. Six of Mr. Crabtree's sons served in the Rogue River War. By this time the farm was in a good state of improvement, and he remained at home to care for it, and provide for the boys when they came home. At one time the farm comprised about 700 acres of fine farm and stock land. It is situated about three miles south of Scio, on the Scio and Lebanon road.

Mr. Crabtree is the parent of fifteen children, of whom eleven are now living. The oldest living is Job, born in Virginia in 1829-now on the Yellowstone River in Montana; William, born in Virginia, in 1830-now on Willow Creek; Hiram, born in Virginia, in 1832 is now with his brother William; Isaac, born in Missouri, in 1843, is on the Yellowstone River; James P., born in Missouri, in 1837,--on a farm near his father; Betsey, born in Missouri, in 1840, is married and living near Scio; Rebecca, born in Missouri in 1840, is married and living near Scio; Jasper and Newton, twins, born in Oregon, at The Dalles, in 1845,--married and living in Scio; Martha, born in Oregon in 1852, now married, and lives within six miles of her parents. The children are all grown, and are all honest and respected members of society. Those who are away from Home occasionally return to visit and honor their aged parents. Mr. Crabtree is among the substantial, well-to-do citizens of the country, and did much towards improving the neighborhood. He takes but little interest in political matters. He possesses, as he merits, the esteem and confidence of all his neighbors.

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.