WPA Interviews

Foster, Clyde

Interviews Vol II

HISTORY OF BROWNSVILLE

Interrupted interview with Mr. Clyde Foster, 22 July 1937

My name is Clyde Foster. My permanent address is 1811 Cedar St., Spokane, Washington. I was born in Brownsville, Oregon in the year 1866. I was raised at Brownsville and lived there until 1873.

My father was Alec Foster who came to Oregon with the Dr. Crawford train in 1852. He died at Brownsville in 1866. My mother was ------Templeton, a daughter of William Templeton who was a pioneer of 1847. She died in 1925 at the age of 82 years.

The Browns and Blakelys arrived in 1846. Hugh L. Brown had 7 children.

Some of them were born before they reached Oregon. I cannot give you the names of all of them but here are the married names of some:

Mrs. Elmore of Brownsville

Mrs. Missouri Tycer, wife of John Tycer Mrs. Moyer, wife of a prominent woolen mill was of Brownsville.

John Brown, a younger brother of John, name forgotten.

Mrs. Montgomery of Brownsville.

The Hugh L. Brown homestead was east of Brownsville. Part of it is now called the Leonard Place. James Blakely, the founder of Brownsville took up his claim westward from the Brown claim. It is now called the McFarland farm. The present McFarlands are grandsons of Captain James Blakely.

After the Whitman Massacre Rev. H. H. Spalding came to Brownsville to settle. The Browns and Blakelys moved their lines so that Spalding might settle between them.

William Templeton, my mother's people, came to Oregon in 1847. When they reached Oregon their cattle were worn out so they stopped in the upper valley to spend the winter, but Jonathan Keeney heard of it (he was an old neighbor) and going back to Brownsville he brought on fresh oxen and helped them to continue on their way to the Calapooia.

John Brown, son of Hugh L. Brown, married Amelia Spaulding, of Rev. H. H. Spaulding. My wife was their daughter Lauretta. My daughter is therefore a great granddaughter of both Hugh L. Brown and Rev. H. H. Spaulding.

Amelia Spaulding, commonly called Milly, my wife's mother was an invalid for over 25 years. Her back was broken. She was the mother of four children, one of them born after years of helpless invalidism. In spite of the fact that she was bedridden, and could not even turn herself over in bed she did a great deal of needle work, clothing her own family and working for hire for her neighbors. She died within a few months of the birth of her last child. That son is still living. Last heard from, he was working in the Los Angeles post office.

John Brown lived in the original Spaulding home, now called the Samuelson Place. Amelia Spaulding Brown inherited it from her father.

My father, Alec Foster, died in 1866-the same year I was born. I was four months and 20 days old when he died. At that time he was working in the Brownsville Woolen Mill, in the dye house. A bucket had somehow dropped into the boiling dye and was floating around on the surface. The dye vats were set almost on a level with the floor. My father reached over to catch the floating bucket, lost his balance, and fell in headlong. The men about him saw what had happened and drew him out of the boiling dye, but he had plunged in all over and was done for.

At this point in the interview Mr. Foster said in a strange voice: "I've got to sit down." The writer looked at him and noticed that he was very pale. We were standing in the lobby of the Brownsville Post Office and he reached over and gripped the desk with both hands. Then his legs began to buckle under him. He hung on to the desk and the writer caught him under the arms but he was a very tall, heavy man and in spite of even this support he slowly sunk to the floor. At present writing the doctor believes that he has suffered a paralytic stroke.

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.