WPA Interviews

INTERVIEW. January 22, 1940

Interview with Mrs. Jessie Reams Nixon. (Near Harrisburg, Oregon.)

(In searching for pioneer data in the Harrisburg region this field worker was again and again told that he should by all means see Mrs. Nixon. When occasion offered he called at her home. He found, unfortunately, that she was not of very early pioneer stock. However, she had lived for many years among older pioneers and had accumulated a considerable fund of information so that it was deemed worth while to write out her conversation concerning them.)

My name is Jessie Reams Nixon. I was born at Plymoth, Marshall County, Ind., August 7, 1856. I came from Indiana to Iowa and then crossed the continent to Oregon in the year 1870. I was then about fourteen years old and the journey was made in company with my parents. We came in the spring of the years and our first destination was San Francisco. (The travel was by railroad.)

Wishing to reach Oregon from San Francisco we looked about for means of transportation. We found that there was a steamer that went every two weeks and the last one had just gone. Our next job was to exchange our Eastern "Greenbacks" for gold, which was done at a rate of 90 cents on the dollar. After that we still had eleven days to wait.

We came north along the coast in the steamer "Moses Taylor. Got into Portland on a Saturday night. From there we took the boat "Fanny Patton" to Oregon City. At that place we had to take the tramway around the falls and re-embark on the old "City of Albany". The pilot of that boat was "Old Bass Miller", a well-known river man. The Captain was J.D. Love whose home was in Harrisburg. Captain Love's wife was Mary Jane, a sister of Asa and D. McCully. The McCully's were among the founders of Harrisburg as well as promoters of navigation on the upper Willamette River and owners of early upper river steamboats.

With my parents we stayed at Albany for one month and then removed to Harris burg where father located in business. Father was a cabinetmaker. His name was Henry Reams. He was a member of a family of seventeen children and was himself born at Berlin, Sommerset County, Pennsylvania. He died at the Odd Fellows Home at Portland at the age of 96 years. He was the second person to enter that home. (Note: In the Alford Odd Fellows Cemetery the inscription on the tombstone shows that Henry Reams died August 15, 1908 and was 91 years at his death. This conflicts with the above. It also fixes Ream's birth date at the year 1817.) Of father's seventeen brothers and sisters only two failed to live beyond seventy years. (Father's birthday was May 1st. 1817.)

My mother's name was Nellie Gordon Reams. She was born at Warsaw, Kosciusko County, Indiana. Father and mother were married in 1854.

I was married on August 7, 1873 to J.W. Sullivan. We had two children. He died in 1833.? I was married again to E.W. Nixon in 1903. We have no children.

When I came to Harrisburg for the first time we came up this road (the Peoria/Harrisburg market road) in an old stagecoach. Mail came to Harrisburg about twice a week. My father brought in furniture with a heavy farm wagon.

In those days the boats came up to Harrisburg regularly in the winter. When the water was too low to reach Harrisburg they would stop at Peoria to unload. Peoria then was a good trading point with a big warehouse on the riverbank. There were then no such towns as Tangent, Halsey or Shedd. They began to build up when the railroad came in 1871-1872.

In those days the whole riverfront at Harrisburg was one solid row of warehouses where the boats would tie up. People brought in wheat with big four-horse wagons. The grain was shipped down the river on the boats. At that time there were six saloons here. The principal stores then were run by May and Senders, Smith and Brafield, Sam Sellers, Sam Levi, and Bill Baber. O.P. Thompson ran a hardware store and Bob Rampy was the druggist. Later Rampy started the bank which is still running.

Smith and Brasfield ran a flour mill here at that time and earlier. The mill was situated near the river a mile or south of town. (Southeast). A little community sprung up about the mill which was called Hogum. Flour from the mill was hauled into town and stored in warehouses to be shipped down river by boat. That mill ceased running about the year 1876. The power for mill was water from the Willamette River taken out at a dam some ways up. The water turned a big old-fashioned overshot wheel. The old millrace is still visible beside the highway south of town. At a later date Hiram Smith extended the race to the southern edge of the village and used the power to run a sawmill. The Sawmill was about where the big hop-houses now stand south of town.

(Mrs. Nixon brought out an old photograph of Harrisburg which was taken about the year 1871. A copy of this picture is herewith attached.)

The buildings shown in this picture were occupied by the following person or firms. This is at the foot of Smith Street. Father's place and J.W. Crawford's photographic shop were just next to the first building shown.

1. Elliot's Shoe Shop.

2. O.P. Thompson's Hardware and tin shop.

3. George Honeysucker Drug Store.
Mat. (Mattie) Riley Millinery.
May and Sender Store.

4. Smith & Brasfield's store.

5. Sam Sellers Store.

6. Sam Levi Store.

7. Marion Hyde meat shop.

8. Bill Baber Store and Harness Shop.

9. Geo. Butler Saloon.

10. Hotel.

Across the street from these stores and business houses there was a solid block of warehouses on the riverbank.

High water sometimes bothered Harrisburg very much in the early days. In 1883-1884 the water came up into the town as far as the present Hotel.

Business houses and professional men did their work much different then. Instead of going to College a doctor or a druggist would often simply serve an apprenticeship with some older man. Our present druggist, Mr. L.E. Walton learned the business with the pioneer druggist, Caleb Gray at Halsey. Mrs. Walton is of the pioneer Rector family.

The McCully brothers laid out Harrisburg. It was first called "Thurston". Uncle Asa McCully came from Harrisburg, Pa. And the name was given in honor of his old hometown. McCully Brothers ran the first store at Harrisburg. They finally sold out to Moore and Geist; they sold out to May and Senders. The old Senders was called "Gammon" Senders. Some of the descendents of that family are still in business in Albany.

South and east of Harrisburg were the Spores, the Diamonds and the Whites. Luther White was a well-known Presbyterian preacher as well as a surveyor. He laid out the first plat of the town of Eugene City in Lane County. John Diamond was a bachelor. Diamond Hill in the foothills east of here. The original Spores ran a ferry on the McKenzie River near Coburg. The Spores family took in an Indian girl to raise. Her name was Eliza. She was long known as "The last of the Calapooias." She died at Brownsville about 1923.

There was a Mr. Roth who settled on the Willamette River near here and hoped to make his farm the head of navigation. However, the McCully Brothers settled above him and stole his honors.

My husband was born in Harrisburg in a house opposite the present Methodist Church. He is now 77 years old. His people came to Oregon in (Failed to get date). His mother's name was Harbin and was just child when she came to Oregon. Her father was accidentally shot near Springfield.

My own father brought the first manufactured coffins ever shipped into Harrisburg. They came from St. Louis and were shipped in, several nested together to save space. Father bough his business here from Bill Farrier and Tom Lacy. They made furniture and coffins here. Also old cord beds and trundle beds. Bill Farrier has a daughter now living on Blakely Avenue at Brownsville. He was drowned here near Harrisburg, just across the river from May and Senders Store. He and Joe Permin(?) were on the river in a skiff in the spring of 1873. The water was high and they capsized. I saw that happen while standing on the riverbank.

Grandmother Stimson was the first person buried in the Odd Fellows graveyard near Alford. That was in the year 1872.

This farm on which we live was a Powell Donation Land Claim, but not any of the Joab Powell clan. There was a Powell's grove on the old highway Southwest of Halsey. That was a great place for picnics and "doings".

I have heard Joab Powell preach often. He was very long-winded and sometimes the people would get tired and some of them would leave. One time he spoke of that and objected to their leaving. He kept on preaching but he said, "Pretty soon I will show you rags, tags and bob-tail." A bit later a man got up and left. "There goes rags" shouted Joab. Pretty soon another man left. "There goes tags" shouted Uncle Joab. But the rest took the hint and bobtail never went.

(Mrs. Nixon is an extremely intelligent and active old woman. Her conversation was most interesting.)

January 13, 2001

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.