WPA Interviews

Wells, William L.

INTERVIEW with Mr. William L. Wells. Interview was given at his home on his large farm situated three miles northwest of Halsey, Oregon, on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 1939.

My name is William L. Wells. I was born in Marion County, Oregon on my father's farm situated a short distance east of the town of Hubbard on June 6, 1859.

My father's name was George A. Wells, born in Missouri, moved first to Illinois and then to Oregon in the year 1853.

My mother's maiden name was Henriette Turner. She was born in Illinois, I think. Father and mother were married in Illinois on June 4, 1850 and came to Oregon together. At the time of their immigration to Oregon their family consisted of one small son. After reaching Oregon their family increased to nine, five sons and four daughters. Their names are as follows:

Richard F. Wells. Born Nov. 19, 1851 in Illinois. He made his home principally in San Francisco, Cal. Died in October 1938.

Mary Susan Wells. Born October 20, 1853. She was born in Clackamas Co., Oregon. She married Willard Bevens.

Sarah Elizabeth Wells. Her married name was Mrs. Alexander Collins who was an Oregon emigrant of the year 1846. Sarah Elizabeth Wells Collins was born on our father's donation land claim in Benton County.

An infant sister. Born and died in Benton County, Ore.

William L. Wells (Informant). Born in Marion County, June 6, 1859. Now lives on farm in Linn County, three miles northwest of Halsey.

C. P. Wells. Born May 2, 1861. Now lives in Marion County, near Salem.

John E. Wells. Born in Polk County, Aug. 8, 1879.

Emma J. Wells. Born in Polk County, Mar. 26, 1867. Married F. B. Ground.

George B. Wells. Born June 3, 1864. Now lives near the old town of Buena Vista.

Richard Wells, my oldest brother was married twice. His first wife was named Collins. She died in 1887. He later married Hattie Claggett of Independence. The Cleggetts were also of a pioneer family. The mother of the family died at Independence at the age of over one hundred years. Richard Wells was an active temperance worker when young. In the early days he spoke on the temperance question in practically every schoolhouse in Polk County and in many in Marion County. In those days there was little music available for public meetings but my brother took a small parlor organ with him wherever he went and a trained quartette of singers and the music and speaking drew large crowds. In later years my brother was the President of an active Presbyterian mission in San Francisco.

I was married to Sarah F. Murphy. The marriage ceremony was performed by Rev. Father Waller of the Christian Church. (Not to be confused with the Pioneer Rev. Waller of the Methodist Church.) My first wife died in 1931. Her grandfather was John E. Murphy, one of the founders of Monmouth University, a Christian Church institution, later to become our present State Normal School at that place. John E. Murphy and his train came from Monmouth, Illinois, and named the community after their old hometown. There is a plaque to his memory in front of one of the present Normal buildings.

To my marriage to Sarah F. Murphy were born the following children:

Leroy Wells, Halsey, Oregon.

Goldie Ruth Wells, now a Christian Church Missionary in Belgian Congo, Africa. Recently she returned home on a furlough, flying from Belgian Congo to Belgium, then to England.

Mrs. Gladys Wells Helseth, now wife of the present Christian minister at Drain, Oregon.

Elbert George Wells, Mexico. He is a Dredge Engineer and has been working in Mexico for many years. He was forced to seek that warmer climate for his health and finding occupation there has never returned.

When my parents reached Oregon in the year 1853 they first settled on a donation land claim somewhere to the west of Philomath in Benton County. I have never been on that place so cannot tell its exact location. Before moving down to Benton County they had spent one winter in Clackamas County where my sister Mary Susan was born. On the Donation claim in Benton County my sister Sarah Elizabeth was born in 1855, also a daughter who died in infancy. Father then sold his place and moved to Marion County, to a farm just east of Hubbard. Father's farm there joined that of Mr. Hubbard. At that place I was born in 1859. In the year 1867, when I was eight years of age my father sold out in Marion County and bought another farm in Polk County near the town of Buena Vista.

The town of Buena Vista was a thriving little spot when we moved there in 1867. Freeman Smith had established a pottery there a year or two previously and it was doing a considerable business. The firm at that time consisted of Freeman Smith Sr. and his sons, Freeman Smith Jr., and Amedee M. Smith. About 1868 Freeman Smith Jr. died and Freeman Smith Sr., retired. The business was then carried on by Amedee M. Smith who took sole management. They continued their business at Buena Vista until some time in the 1880's when it was removed to Portland where it still operates but under different management I believe. However, a son of Amadee M. Smith, and bearing the same name, still lives at Portland and may have some connection with the pottery.

In the early days the Smiths did an active business in stoneware, tile, etc. Thee output was large and they would lead their product in wagons and haul it for sale to quite distant points. Some of their teams traveled as far as the gold mines in southern Oregon. The Smith pottery ware was considered of unusual quality, superior to most of its kind. One time at a fair where Smith and another potter were exhibiting, Smith demonstrated the strength of his work. He took one of his jugs and with it drove a ten-penny spike into a block of hard wood. His competitor would not attempt to duplicate the deed.

A man named William Ramsay worked for the Smiths at the pottery at an early day. Later, about 1870, I believe, "Bill" Ramsay set up a small pottery of his own at Buena Vista. Perhaps it was about 1877 that they started up. With Ramsay was a man named Miller who was, I believe, related to him in some way. One of the two men had a stepson with whom I worked considerably. It has been a good many years and I do not remember definitely all the facts concerning this pottery and the relationship of the various parties.

There was also a potter run by one of the Ramsay's on this farm where I now live. His name, I believe, was Barnett Ramsay. I purchased this place from Barnett Ramsay's son, Jake Ramsay. Just when the pottery was run here I cannot say, but it was undoubtedly at a very early date. When I first came here the old clay pits were very prominent out in the fields and down along Muddy Creek below the house. We have obliterated most of the signs by long cultivation since then. I have owned this place for thirty-five years.

There is an old cedar tree out in the field north of this house and that was where Barnett Ramsay lived and conducted his pottery. You can still find broken fragments of pots and jugs scattered all around the field near the creek. They made flower pots, preserve jars, churns, milk crocks and jars and jugs of all sorts. Barnett Ramsay did not take up this land as a donation land claim but purchased it from the original owner whose name was Yarbrough. The Yarbroughs were Oregon pioneers of 1848. Barnett Ramsay was a brother-in-law of William T. Templeton, Brownsville pioneer of 1847.

My life, that is my active life, has been more intimately connected with Polk and Marion Counties than with Linn County. In Polk County I was successively elected to the offices of Assessor, Sheriff, and County Judge. I was also Mayor of Dallas at one time and a member of the Dallas school board. I was responsible in a large degree for the building of the present Court House at Dallas.

Some of my experiences while Sheriff of Polk county were interesting, at least to me. In those days the Sheriff did not wait for the taxpayers to come into the County Seat to pay their taxes. Instead he would post the county telling that on certain days he would be at the various Precincts to collect and the people would meet him there. Usually it was in the wintertime and the roads were bad and the days dark and short. I would collect taxes up to 4 o'clock each night and by that time it would be beginning to get dark. Then I would have to ride back to the County Seat carrying the money, sometimes very large amounts. There was always considerable danger of a holdup. I had a few good scares riding the dark roads with the tax money, but fortunately no real misfortune. One dark night while riding home, just at a point in the road where the former Sheriff had been robbed, I met a suspicious character. You may be sure that I had my gun in my hand when I heard his horse coming on that dark muddy road, but he proved to be a perfectly trustworthy neighbor.

One trip while sheriff I was very lucky in securing the return of stolen goods, but my wife had a bad time of it for a number of days. Harness and other goods had been stolen from a livery stable and certain suspicious characters had left town on the same morning. I started in pursuit of them and told my wife that I would be back that same night. Then I found that my trip would be longer than I expected so sent word back by a friend not to expect me for some time. This friend forgot the message and I was gone for a number of days without my wife knowing where I was or whether I had been shot or what. We finally overtook the thieves at Scio, in Linn County and got the stolen harness and much other stuff, the owners of which we were never able to locate. However, my wife was certainly glad when I finally returned home. There were no telephones in those days by which communication could be carried on from town to town.

After the death of my first wife, and after coming to Linn County, I was married to Mrs. Winnifred Snyder. That was in 1932. I celebrated my 80th birthday a short time ago. I own this farm on which I live, consisting of 160 acres, and another farm of 160 acres a little further south.

When I was small my father used to grow hops. He was among the first to secure Indian help from the Siletz Reservation for his hop picking. In those days it was not possible just to go out and hire individual Indians to pick, but all business had to be transacted through some chief or agent who would bring in a crew at the required time. The old Indian whom my father used as a go-between was called Wappato Dave. He was the hardest looking Indian that I ever knew in all my life. One day he was talking about the coming of the whites and its effect on the Indians. He said, "Indian big fool, let white man come. Indian should shoot white man when few. Then have land like old time. Now too many white men, no can do." He meant every word of it, too.

In the first years when my father was a newcomer in Oregon, he went over to Fort Hoskins in Benton county and did freighting with his ox teams. He used to move the various officers in to the fort, or out when their terms there had expired. Among other officers whom he moved in this way were Captain Fredrick T. Dent and Lieutenant Philip Sheridan. The country about Fort Hoskins was then a practically untouched region at that time. Indian guides were sometimes required by the troops to lead them from Fort Yamhill to Fort Hoskins, or to the Siletz Blockhouse.

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.