WPA Interviews

Sprenger, Thomas Bird

INTERVIEW, Thomas Bird Sprenger, Shedd, Oregon, 21 Nov 1938

(Mr. Sprenger gave the following information concerning his life and his family history.)

I was born in Ohio in the year 1851. With my parents I came to Oregon in the year 1852, being about one year of age at the time when I arrived.

My father was Nicholas Sprenger. He usually signed his name merely N. Sprenger. He was born in Albersweiler, Londou Co., Germany. (Spelling of these places uncertain.) I do not know the year of his birth nor just exactly when he reached America. These dates have been preserved but I do not have them at hand just now. You can secure them from my daughter, (?perhaps niece) Mrs. Mox Hoflich at 1008 Ferry Street, Albany, Oregon.

My mother was Maria Bird. From her family name I received my middle name of Bird. She was born in Pennsylvania. I cannot give you the date of their marriage but they were already the parents of ten children when they began their trip to Oregon. Of these children I was the youngest and am now the only one living. Some of the children died in infancy. The names of those whom I can remember are as follows:

Sons:

Abram.

Isaac.

Jacob.

Charles.

Nicholas.

Henry.

Thomas Bird. (Informant).

Daughters:

Abigail.

Mary Ann.

Mariah.

Sarah.

My brother Henry died at Albany, Oregon about two months ago. (September, 1938.) We were all born near Connellsville, Ohio.

My family brought me to Oregon by ox team in 1852. Of course I remember nothing of that trip but I have heard some of the incidents mentioned many times over. In the first place, I, myself, was the central figure of an adventure that was rather exciting. When our train came to the Missouri river we were ferried over by scow. The boat was very much overloaded and near the center of the stream it sank. My mother was sitting in a wagon holding me with one arm and steadying herself by clinging to the wagon bow with the other. When the boat began to sink the wagon tipped and she was thrown off into the water. She lost her hold on me and I floated off down the river. Mother chanced to seize the tail of an ox that was swimming by and clinging to that she was carried to the shore. A man named Archie Rush saw me floating away down the stream and swam off and rescued me. A little later this same man was swimming out to save other things: boxes, goods and clothing that had floated off. He was very tired from his exertions besides being heavily loaded with gold which he carried and he suddenly sank in the stream. His body was never found, probably buried and held down in the rolling sands at the bottom of the stream.

Except for the above adventure and one other thing, our trip to Oregon was uneventful. The Indians gave little trouble although the year previous and the year following they were very threatening. The one other misadventure of the trip was the presence of cholera in all the trains. That year it was a terrible scourge and hundreds of people died. My people have told that along the way they were constantly seeing new graves left by trains ahead of them and many new graves were made by their own train. One of my sisters died of cholera. She died and was buried at Fort Kearney. Father was also very sick with the disease and came near to dying.

I think that one of the reasons why the Indians did not trouble us was because our train was quite large-more than one hundred and fifty wagons, besides other trains not far away both behind and before us. It is also possible that the presence of the cholera frightened the Indians to some extent.

We began our march at St. Joe, Missouri in March, 1852 and arrived at Oregon City in October of the same year. My parents with their family remained at Oregon City throughout that first winter from October until the next March and then moved to a Donation Land Claim which father took up in Linn County about two miles north of Shedd. However, in that day there was no town of Shedd, of course.

The reason for my father's settling in this locality was that a man by the name of Kendall who used to be a preacher said to him, "Come and settle near me and I will give you sufficient logs already cut and hewed to build you a house. That, of course, was a considerable inducement. Besides, my father, being a Presbyterian, was much pleased to settle in a community where other Presbyterians were already settled. The Kendall to whom I referred was the Rev. Thomas S. Kendall who was a pioneer of 1845 and one of the active organizers of the Presbyterian church at Oakville. He was also active in the union and organization of the first United Presbyterian church and Presbytery which took place at Union Point, just south of Brownsville. Kendall also organized the Calapooia, or "Kendal's Bridge" church on his own claim. My father's claim was next adjoining. I still own part of that old claim and it lies just across the road from the site of the old Kendall or Calapooia church.

Another of our neighbors in that region was Thomas Condon who later became famous as an Oregon geologist. The Condon land was first taken up by a man named Dening (spelling uncertain, perhaps Dunning) Condon bought Denning's or Dunning's land. Denning was a doctor while Condon besides being a geologist and schoolteacher was something of a preacher.

Others of our neighbors in those early days were Mercer Thompson who came in 1840, Vineyard Brock to the eastward on the Calapooia, William Hannon, also a preacher, lived a mile and one half northwest of our place. Haights and Hogues, Yantis and the Earls came at a later date.

On the Calapoois a little further up was the old Boston Mill, built by R. C. Finley and P. V. Crawford. It was one of the very early mills built south of Oregon City. It still operates and does a considerable business.

The bridge across the Calapooia River on the Thomas Kendall claim always was, and still is, known as the "Kendall Bridge." I do not know who built it but probably Rev. Kendall himself. It is one of the very first, if not the first bridge built in Linn County. I can remember that first old bridge when it was still new but not when it was being built. The stringers were simply long trees felled and dragged into place. The decking was made from split puncheons. I have nothing to go by, but believe that it might have been put up about 1856. I believe that Thomas Kendall built it himself. He was something of a carpenter besides being a preacher and farmer. In those days a man had to do everything.

Albany was our trading point in those early days. Sometimes we would go to Corvallis, but not so often. Albany was much the most convenient as there was no river to cross at that place.

The Kendall Church on his claim was built sometime in the 1860's. I can remember when it was being built. I was but a small boy then but would go over almost every day to see how the work was coming on. Wilson Kendall, brother to Rev. T.K. Kendall built it. It was a frame building perhaps twenty by 30 feet in size with walls about fourteen feet high. The main entrance faced towards the east. There was no belfry or steeple. The first seats built for it were rough board benches. The building was sealed within and clapboarded on the outside. Almost, if not quite all of the lumber in it was planed by hand.

There are a number of Indian mounds along the Calapooia on, or near Kendall's claim. The Kendall house originally stood directly on an Indian mound. When the road was improved near that place an Indian skull was dug up by the workmen. It rolled about that neighborhood for years. I do not know what finally became of it. There are a number of small mounds hereabout. One on the Brock place is now being washed away by the Calapooia river. There are two or three mounds on the Poland place. Perhaps some on the Trautman place.

The Trautmans are settlers of a considerable later date. That farm was originally taken up by Joe Thompson who was a brother of Mercer Thompson.

The old town of Boston, or "New Boston" where the Crawford-Finley mill was built, was platted but never grew to any size. There was a store there, perhaps a wagon shop, a blacksmith shop, the mill, and a post office. At first the mail for this old "Boston" post office was carried from Albany without any charge. Simply any neighbor who went to Albany went and got the mail and brought it out for distribution. Later there was an official mail carrier who made the trip twice a week.

When I was small I went to school at a number of places. My elder brothers and sisters were married and scattered and at different times I stayed with various ones of them and went to school. Mainly my schooling was at the Independence Schoolhouse a little east of here, at Albany, at Corvallis, and at Caneman near Oregon City. At the Independence schoolhouse my teachers were named Ettleman, McMichael (spelling uncertain) and Wheeler. I cannot remember the given names of these men but Mr. Wheeler commonly went under the nickname of "Coyote Wheeler", because he was very active in hunting coyotes. A Mr. Fletcher was another of my teachers and a woman named Lizzie Walker.

Another of my teachers was Mr. Thomas Condon. I went to school to him in his own house here on the Calapooia where he had a room fitted up for school purposes.

At Oakville Dr. Irvine, a United Presbyterian Preacher taught for many years but I never attended his school.

Speaking of church activities, my father was a Presbyterian and knew the pioneers of that faith for many miles around. Rev. James (?) Worth was a preacher who often visited this neighborhood. His home was in the Diamond Hills neighborhood in Northern Lane County. The Hamiltons and Stocktons were neighbors to the west in the Oakville Neighborhood. A daughter of the Stocktons still lives in Linn County. She is Mrs. Henry Millholland and her home is near the Dixie Schoolhouse on the Peoria-Corvallis east side road. The McCoys were very active in early church and civic activities near Oakville. Mr. McCoy was one of the first Linn County Judges. His daughter is Mrs. F. M. French of Albany.

In my boyhood days there were no roads and no fences in this valley country. When we wished to start for town to trade we just headed off across country in the general direction of the point we wished to reach. There were no bridges or marked roads of any kind. We just had to wind about among the sloughs and creeks, avoiding low places in winter as best we could. Each farmer had a few acres broke up and some fenced to protect the crops from ranging cattle, but a few acres was all that each man had. Stock raising was a most important part of our work. Cattle ran at large everywhere. The grass, real old prairie grass, grew as tall as a man everywhere. The farmers cut wild grass for hay until they could grow some field crops. My pasture back of my house here in Shedd still grows that old wild valley grass, one of the few places where it may now be found really growing as it used to do. (Note: The interviewer examined this grass and it appears to be what is known to botanists as Aira caespitossa, the "Tufted Hair-grass.) This identification is also confirmed by Dr. Henderson of the State University). Every autumn, until compelled to cease by the settlers, the Indians burned off this grass so as to make deer hunting less difficult. The Indians also claimed that the oaks would not bear their acorns, a most important food crop, unless the grass was burned.

Wild geese flocked over this valley in such great flocks that crops were destroyed by them. It became necessary to stretch cords across all the fields to frighten the geese and ducks away. Even then a field might be green and thrifty one day and by the next morning look as bare and black as though never sown from the grazing of the geese. Still, this did not seem to damage the crops seriously for the grain usually sprang up again and bore well. Some farmers would spend half of the night walking up and down their fields shooting guns to frighten the geese away. A neighbor of ours, a Mr. Robnett, used to hire boys to patrol his fields all night long.

Deer seldom came out on the valley much after the settlement was well started, but earlier settlers say that they formerly roamed in herds all over the valley.

One place which was a thriving little settlement west of here, but which is now gone, was the town of Burlington. It was situated perhaps three fourths of a mile, or a mile north of the present town of Peoria. There was a store there, a blacksmith shop, and, I think, a post office. The town was finally moved south to the present site of Peoria because there was no good boat landing at the old town.

In the early days Robert Shanklin ran the blacksmith shop at Peoria. There was also a well-known horseman who lived there named Harry Rudd. He lived at the south end of Peoria and he and the Keeneys of Brownsville worked together breeding and running racehorses. J. Q. Worth and John C. Worth ran the store and warehouse at Peoria. It was at one time the important wheat shipping point for all this section of the country. There was also a brickyard and a Pottery at Peoria. I remember that fact very definitely. Tin milk pans were costly and hard to obtain in those days and I well remember my parents talking of, and planning to go "to Peoria to the pottery to buy milk crocks." I cannot tell just where it was situated or who ran it, but I have an impression that it might have been a little east of Peoria on the McCartney place. There was a brickyard there and the pottery might have been run in connection with that. For facts concerning the pottery you would best interview Mrs. Ella Klingman Cruse who may be still living there, two miles this side (west) of Peoria. (Note: This field worker located the site of a brick yard at the place indicated by Mr. Sprenger but could learn no further details concerning a pottery. However, the rumor persists that one did exist at a very early date. Leslie L. Haskin.) "I believe that the pottery must have been running sometimes during the latter 1850's.

Among the boats which ran to Peoria during my boyhood was one under Captain J. W. Cochran (pronounced ca-horn). He was my brother-in-law.

Brownsville was a rather thriving town in my youth but there was no town at Shedd, Halsey, or at Tangent. Captain Frank Shedd owned the land where Shedd now stands, John Beard owned the land where Tangent now stands and Whipple Hayes owned the site of Halsey. At the town of Boston there was the mill owned by Crawford and Finley, a store run by a Jew named A. Lewis. At Albany the Monteiths owned most of the land. At Brownsville there was quite a settlement but I was not well acquainted there. However, I have often heard my parents speak of their friends there, the Browns, Blakleys, Templetons, Keeneys, Robes and other good Presbyterian brothers.

The Indians along the Calapooia in Linn County were almost always harmless and peaceable. However, during the Rogue River Indian troubles every one was nervous and anxious. We had one Indian scare during that time. My father was away at Albany and my oldest brother was cutting wood along the river at some distance from home. He saw some Indians passing through the country and ran home to report that "The Indians are coming." My mother had just hung a wash out to dry and was baking. She had some cookies in the oven but she left everything just as it was and started out with her family to seek safety. They went away as far as the Shedd farm where Shedd now stands. There they met a man and told their troubles. He said, "I do not think that the Indians mean any harm. I will go back with you." When mother had put out her wash to dry she had hung one red handkerchief across a head of cabbage in the garden. When they came near home my brother said, "I see one Indian. See his red head down near the house." The man with them said, "If it is an Indian I will shoot him. He shot, the supposed Indian did not move. He shot again. H said, "I am sure I didn't miss it. If it is an Indian, he is dead." They went up and found the red handkerchief on the cabbage head with two bullet holes in it.

The Indians often came to the house to beg for food. One day my mother was sewing near a window when suddenly she noticed that the light was shut off. She looked up and there was a sick Indian looking in. He made motions and asked for "camas" "Blue flower". Mother had no camas and made him understand that he was free to look for it anywhere on the place. We never ate the camas as we always had plenty of flour and meat without resorting to Indian foods.

When we first came, like most of the emigrants we were none too well supplied with money or materials. When Father first came he made a trip over to Peterson's Butte to buy seed wheat. He had to pay fifteen dollars per bushel which ate into his little supply of money very fast.

Near the Petersons there lived a widow by the name of Denny. Her husband, John (?) Denny had died on the way to Oregon (with cholera). However, she had three grown children. Francis, usually called "Frank" and two sons, John and Owen. Owen Denny, now commonly known as "Judge" Denny was in the consular service in China for many years and he sent the first Chinese or Mongolian pheasants to the valley. The Dennys were in the same train with my people, at least for a few days, later they pulled off and joined another train.

(Asked concerning the naming of a local variety of plums commonly distributed throughout the region, Mr. Sprenger replied) - "I do not know how the Peterson plums got their name. I have some of them still growing on my farm. My mother was over at the butte one day and old Mrs. Denny had the trees growing and offered mother some sprouts. We have had them ever since. I suppose that they are named after the Petersons of "Peterson Butte" but whether they brought them with them from the east as trees, or whether they originated from seed I do not know. I think them a very good plum. (Rich in flavor but too utterly acid. L. Haskin, Field worker.)

The son of the Mrs. Denny who gave us the plums, the Judge Denny who introduced the pheasants, was a lawyer in Albany and later in Portland.

The Boston Mill was first built by Finley and Crawford but was burned in a very short time. The second mill was built by Simons and Crawford.

Thomas Condon, to whom I went to school, was a good teacher. A very pleasant man.

My people came down the Columbia River by boat from The Dalles on their trip to Oregon.

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.