WPA Interviews

INTERVIEW, May 9, 1940

Interview with Mrs. Luella Colbert Robnett whose home is at Crawfordsville, Oregon. The interview took place at Alford Station in southern Linn County where she is at present staying with her son-in-law, a Mr. Frum, farmer at that place.

My name is Luella (Colbert) Robnett. I was born on the Colbert Donation Land Claim about one and one-half miles north of Crawfordsville, Oregon, on September 15, 1855.

My father's name was George F. Colbert. He was born in Geneceo (Spelling uncertain) County, Illinois about the year 1823. Since I do not have my family records here I cannot tell the exact date but I do know that he was about twenty-seven years old when he came to Oregon in 1850.

My father came across the plains with a horse-drawn caravan. So far as any member of his family, father came alone but he was accompanied by a close friend, John M. Moyer. Father and Moyer were both carpenters and in the year 1848 they had been working together and had talked much about the opportunities awaiting on the Pacific Coast. They finally planned to make the trip together but instead of equipping themselves with slow ox-wagons they purchased a wagon, three horses and plenty of grain and started out with the idea of establishing a record for a quick trip. They succeeded, reaching the Foster Ranch at the end of the Barlow pass in just three months, just about half of the time usually taken for that long trip. Father spent his first three weeks in Oregon with a man named Mr. Arthus, on the Clackamas River. Then father and Mr. Moyer sold their outfit and moved on to Linn County and the settlement on the Calapooia River then called "Kirk's Ferry" but later Brownsville. After reaching Brownsville father and Moyer stayed for a time at the Elias Walter's home. Walters came in 1845 and had settled about a mile below present Brownsville and close to the banks of the Calapooia. Walters was really the first settler at Brownsville as he settled near there in the spring of 1846, while the Blakelys and Browns who founded the town did not arrive until late fall of the same year.

Soon after arriving there Moyer went to work building a house for H. L. Brown. (Note: This house is still standing in South Brownsville on Blakely Avenue. L.H.) My father also went to work there at carpenter work and various other jobs.

I might say here that I never knew a single member of my father's family since he was the only one who came to Oregon. I only know that my grandfather Colbert was a Methodist minister; that my grandmother died while father was a very small boy, and that grandfather married again and father was raised by a stepmother.

Father continued to board at the Elias Walters home and to work at carpentering for some time. I cannot tell just what buildings he erected except a few. I know that he built the old Harrison house. I am not sure what Mr. Harrison's given name was but he was the father of John Harrison who still lives at Brownsville. I rather think that his name was Richard Harrison. The Harrisons were English and came to America in 1848 and to Oregon in 1852. Father also worked with a carpenter named Joe Lame who lived near where present Halsey stands. Lame later established a mercantile business at Halsey.

Well, I have been getting away from my father's life story. While father was boarding at Elias Walters there was also a young man boarding there named Zenas F. Moody. Moody was a young surveyor and father and he became strong friends and remained so all of their lives. Boarding at the Walters home was also a young schoolteacher named Edna Whipple. Her home was in the Waldo Hills of Marion County. The young carpenter, my father, and the schoolteacher, Edna Whipple became sweethearts. To complete the picture of romance, Miss Whipple had a young woman pupil named Mary Stephenson. The school which Edna Whipple taught was held in what was known as the "McKinney Meeting House", built by Father John McKinney on his old Donation Claim about a mile southwest of the Walters home. When the last day of school came there was a neighborhood entertainment held at the McKinney Meeting House. At the end of the program the teacher asked Father McKinney to say a few words to the congregation. Father McKinney chose as his topic the beauty and blessings of matrimony. When he had finished my father and the teacher, and Zenas Moody and Mary Stephenson stood up together and were married. It was a complete surprise to those present. Zenas Moody became Governor of Oregon in 1882 and continued to serve as Governor until 1887.

It might not be out of the way here to tell something concerning the girl whom Moody married since she was an early settler in this region. I know her well, for when I was in school I stayed at The Dalles with the Moody family for I was bothered greatly with asthma and the climate east of the mountains relieved my trouble. Mrs. Moody, (Mary Stephenson) was born in Indiana. She was an orphan and she came to Oregon with the family of Dr. Thomas Henry who was an early physician in Brownsville. The Henrys came to Oregon in 1852. With the Henry family there also came another orphan girl named Snyder. These two girls earned their way to Oregon by driving cattle. The Snyder girl later became the mother of Fredrick Home Balch, author of The Bridge of the Gods.

Now about my own mother's family history. Mother, Edna Almena (Whipple) Robbnett. I cannot tell you when she was born since I have not my family records at hand. She was born in Massachusetts and her parents names were -------(?) and Nancy Whipple. They never came to Oregon.

Mother came to Oregon in 1852, the same year my father came but by a different train. She traveled with an uncle whose name was Rev. Daniel Bagley and who was a Methodist preacher. His wife's name was Susan. The Bagleys settled near Salem. With the Bagleys in the same train were two of Mrs. Bagley's sisters, Mrs. Anna Mann whose husband was a Methodist preacher and Mrs. Jane West; her husband was also a preacher. Rev. Mann later preached at Brownsville where he finally died.

Mother drove a team across the plains. At the time of her coming to Oregon she was 27 years old which makers her birth date the same as father's, 1823.

My father besides being a carpenter was a farmer and took up a Donation Claim about one and one-half mile northwest of Crawfordsville. His health was poor for a good many years so my mother kept on at her teaching. Father and mother lived at Crawfordsville, at Brownsville, and at Salem and later at Crawfordsville again. Mother taught the schools at all those places as well as at Waldo Hills near Salem. At Brownsville she first taught a public school at the McKinney meeting house but later there was a demand for advanced classes and she taught a private school in South Brownsville in her own home. Her school was situated somewhere near where the Stanwood Service Station now stands facing the "Y" at the south end of the present Calapooia bridge. Later my father's health improved and he again took up carpenter work and mother ceased teaching.

I think that I have not given the date of my father and mother's marriage. It was on November 19, 1853. I am the oldest of their children - there were but four in our family. Their names are:

Luella Colbert. Born Sept. 5, 1855.

Raymond Colbert. Born March 21, 1858.

Viola Colbert. Born Sept. 6, 186_(?).

George Colbert. Born Jan. 4, 186_(?) George, my youngest brother, was the only one of the family except myself who raised a family. He had 4 children.

I went to school at a schoolhouse situated about three-fourths mile east of Crawfordsville. The school was somewhere near the present cemetery there. Later I also went to Salem and at The Dalles. While attending school at The Dalles I stayed with the Moodys. My parents sent me there because I was troubled with asthma. My asthma was much better after I had lived there for a time. My first teacher at Crawfordsville was J. W. McCall from California. I remember him especially because he gave me a little album as a prize in some contest-I do not now remember what sort of a contest it was. Amadon and Charles Williams also taught there, and later William Riggs. A famous teacher in that district (No. 4 District) was Rev. W. R. Bishop, father of Charles P. Bishop of Salem. After finishing school I followed in my mother's footsteps, I took up teaching myself. I taught school at the McHargue district where my mother had taught before me. While teaching at the McHargue school I boarded with Josiah Osborn's, a pioneer of 1845. Osborns had come to Oregon, to the Willamette Valley, and taken up a claim next to the foothills between Brownsville and Crawfordsville. Later, in 1847, they returned to the "upper country" to work. Osborn was a carpenter, wagon maker and millwright. In 1847 he was employed by Marcus Whitman erecting a new mill. When the Indian massacre began there all of the Osborn family were sick with the measles. Mrs. Osborn was also weak from a premature birth of a child. As soon as the killing began Osborn raised some puncheons in the cabin floor and hid his family beneath them. Later, at night, they escaped and walked away through storm and cold to find protection. They were out in the cold, fording waist-deep streams, for several days. It was a terrible ordeal, especially for measles victims. Mrs. Osborn never entirely recovered from the effect of that suffering. After the measles left her she was afflicted for many years with terrible boils. When I knew her one of her arms was disabled and she could not raise it to her head yet she managed to do her own work though under terrible disadvantage. Mrs. Osborn was a large, heavy woman. Josiah Osborn was a skilled workman. He made wagons, coffins and spinning wheels. My own mother's spinning wheel was made by Mr. Osborn. Like almost all the first settlers, the Osborns lived close to the hills where they could obtain good spring water.

The old McHargue school where I taught was southeast of the Osborn home and on the McHargue claim. There is a very old cemetery there and the schoolhouse was just a few rods below the cemetery gate. I went back to see it a while ago-it seems not long ago but when I reckon it up it was about twenty years past-I had a terrible time finding the schoolhouse site. Finally I found the path which used to lead from the school to the spring where we used to get water. Next I found a litter of old shingles and knew that was where the building had stood. After that I was able to find the cemetery which is now all grown up to brush. (Note: The old school spring is perhaps 200 feet west of the cemetery in a shallow draw. The spring now has a cement curb about it. Leslie L. Haskin).

After I taught at the McHargue school I went to Sweet Home to teach. Some have tried to prove that I was the first teacher at Sweet Home, but that, I know, is not true. My proof is my memory of a great pile of chips beside the school house where other teachers had chopped the school wood; also the fact that when I taught there was a deeply worn path leading from the schoolhouse door to the spring below. If I had been the first teacher those things would not have been as they were. The school at Sweet Home was then a mile or so east of the present town and up on the ridge. In fact, there was then no Sweet Home. The place was then called "Buck Head? And there was only a saloon and a blacksmith shop down on Ames Creek. I do not know how Sweet Home got its name but if, as you say, the Nye family claim that honor, it is doubtless true. I knew the older Mrs. Nye and if she says she named the valley you may depend on it that it is a fact. She was a truthful, reliable woman. When I taught at Sweet Home I boarded around which was the almost universal custom in those days.

Speaking of old time teachers, my sister Violet also taught school. Violet went to school at Monmouth and during one of her vacations she brought a teacher friend home her named Trigg who later taught in our neighborhood. Another local teacher was Bessie McMullen who taught at Crawfordsville. She married John Glass who was Brownsville's banker for many years. Mr. Glass still lives at Crawfordsville. I might mention that some of my schoolmates when I was young, and who are still living, were Andrew Kirk of Brownsville, Mrs. Robnett of Brownsville, (My sister-in-law) and William Cochran of Albany. I went to school with "Billy" Cochran at Salem.

My sister Violet died of Tuberculosis when she just lacked four weeks of finishing her course at the State University at Eugene. (Note: Cemetery records show the following data for this young student, "Born Feb. 6, 1858. Died Dec. 19, 1885." Local tradition at Crawfordsville points out the house which was built for her by her sweetheart and ready for her marriage when she died. L.H.)

I was married to David Franklin Robnett on April 12, 1876. He died in 1931. We had the following children:

Ralph Robnett.

Edna Robnett, now Mrs. Slavins of Crawfordsville.

Vernice Robnett. Her married name was Frum. This is her home in which I am now staying. She died some years ago and I stay here to help her daughters with the house.

Gertrude Robnett. Her married name was McKercher.

After my marriage I lived at Crawfordsville almost all my life except for one year at Goose Lake where my husband took me when my asthma returned and one year in Montana where I took my husband for his health during a sick spell. I might say that I was married at my father's home near Crawfordsville and the minister performing the ceremony was Rev. William West from Jefferson, my mother's brother-in-law.

Perhaps in closing it might be of interest to tell a few things about Crawfordsville in the early days. Of course the real beginning of the region was the building of the Finley mill a short distance below the town, in 1847 or 1848. Later there was a carding mill and a power blacksmith shop started in Crawfordsville proper. The carding mill was built by P. W. Crawford for whom the town was named. He later went into partnership with Mr. Finley to build the large flouring mill at Boston a few miles east of present Shedd. Robert Glass gave Crawford the land for his mill (carding mill) Glass was a very early settler there and took his Donation claim including the present site of the town. The carding mill was run by waterpower from a ditch starting from Brush Creek a little ways above town.

Another early industry at Crawfordsville was a power blacksmith shop. The power for this shop was obtained from the Calapooia River. The owner was a man named Derrick. He forged out axes, knives, and all kinds of fine steel work. His bowie knives and butcher knives became very famous throughout the country. There was much traffic with Eastern Oregon them, by way of the Cascade Mountain Wagon road. The cowboys on the eastern range country would buy Derrick's bowie-knives and sharpen them up to such a degree that they used them to shave with.

After a while a post office and a store were opened at Crawfordsville. A man named Fuller. (Note: Probably J.N.B. Fuller. He also ran a planning mill at Crawfordsville in partnership with P. V. Crawford. L. Haskin.), opened the first store but that enterprise did not last long. Mr. Glass and Charles Bishop then opened a store there. Fuller, by the way, was the postmaster at that time.

Some of the very early settlers about Crawfordsville were Timothy Riggs who was Linn County's first assessor and the second county treasurer; William McCaw who was the first County Clerk and Robert Glass who settled on the village site. My husband's people the Robnetts, were also there very early.

The Presbyterians and Methodists first held church services at Crawfordsville. These were held in the schoolhouse and in private homes. The first preacher that I can remember was a Methodist, Jimmy Pearl, an old, white-headed man. His home was on the prairie near Brownsville. W. R. Bishop of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church also preached there often. He was a great singer and carried on singing classes. There was also a South Methodist preacher named Martin. The Presbyterians and Methodists and others finally built a church there and most of the people attended but William McCaw who was a very good United Presbyterian would not affiliate with them. Every Sunday, rain or shine, dust or mud, he would hitch up his team and drive away to Union Point to attend his own church.

That old U.P. church at Union Point was an active and influential institution in the early days. I can just remember going to church there, but only occasionally. I cannot even remember how the building looked, only of climbing a short little hill from the road to the church door. Rev. James Worth was the preacher at the time I remember.

My people were well acquainted with Rev. H. H. Spalding who was a friend and companion of Marcus Whitman. I cannot remember him distinctly but I was well acquainted with their daughter, Eliza Spalding Warren, Martha Spalding Wigle and Amelia Spalding Brown. Martha Spalding was a wonderful horsewoman. She used to do exhibition riding at the fairs. When she married Wigle, I have heard, she had to use her horsemanship in a wild elopement through the "Big Gap" with her father hotly in pursuit.

I have already spoken of Joseph Lame with whom my father did carpenter work out on the prairie. When I was small it was our task each Saturday to hitch up the hack and team and drive out to Halsey to bring father home for Sunday. Joseph Lame ran a store in Peoria, then with the establishing of Halsey he moved his business there. It was later taken over by his son, Fred Lame in partnership with Martin Koontz. Under the name of Koontz & Sons it is still doing business.

The farmers then, when I was small, had to raise their own hogs and gat them, then butcher them and cure the meat and pack it to ship to the Southern Oregon mines. It was all hard work and lots of it. Young people now, who ride about in soft cars, don't know what it was that made Oregon. I can especially remember how R.C. Finley used to work. He was a lame man, having been crushed in a cave-in in the land mines in Wisconsin before coming to Oregon. He used to grub stumps, working upon his knees because he could not stand properly. He went on horseback to the California mines when riding a horse was terrible torture to his deformed limbs.

That old Finley mill was first built in 1848, but was washed out in 1862 or 1863 in the universal high water of that year. That flood did terrible damage to all of Oregon, the worst ever known and covering all the country. At that time my parents were living near Salem. Father had by great labor hauled enough lumber to build a new house. The nearest mill was at Jefferson. When that flood came all of father's lumber was washed away and he had to buy and haul an entire supply again.

When we were small there was no canning done as now. All fruit was either dried or else put up with sugar or syrup for preserves. No one ever thought of canning meat. It was either dried and smoked or salted down in barrels or great earthen jars. Later we learned to preserved fruit by "canning it" in stone jars with tin caps and sealed with sealing wax. It was a great improvement. Then, soon after the glass "Mason" jars came into use. (Mrs. Robnett brought out an old canning jar to exhibit. It was brown stoneware and quite ornamental. A groove about the lip held the tin lid in place and helped to retain the sealing wax. There were two small holes in the lip to receive wires on the cap and hold it in place.)

The Linn County Pioneer Association was organized at Crawfordsville in 1888. My father was the first President. It has held annual picnics every year since, for 52 years. Most of the meetings have since been held at Brownsville.

In completing this wandering account, I should say something more about the Moody family. They did not stay in Brownsville long after their marriage. Mr. Moody went to The Dalles. There he engaged in business, running a store, and then organizing a steamboat company. (Oregon and Montana Transportation Company.) The Moodys were always true friends to our family. When my sister Viola died they were wonderfully kind. Ralph Moody, their son, is now a prominent Oregon official."

(Note: Mrs. Robnett could give but little on the history of her husband's people. From records at hand the following is copied:

Nancy, wife of Joseph Robnett. Born in Estill County, Kentucky. Died October 5, 1864, aged 77 years, eight months. (Making her birth date 1787). She emigrated from Clark County, Kentucky, to Boone County, Missouri in 1824. She moved from Lafayette County, Missouri to Oregon in 1847."

Her son was William Robnett, born 1809. Died at Crawfordsville, Ore., in 1886. He, also, came to Oregon in 1847.

Her grandson was David Franklin Robnett, (The husband of the informant in this interview.) He was born at Crawfordsville, Oregon in 1855. He died in 1931.

(The above taken from cemetery records.)

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.