WPA Interviews

Fruit, Marena Emma (Michael)

Interviews Vol. II

INTERVIEW, April 17, 1940

Interview with Mrs. Marena Emma (Michael) Fruit.

The Fruit farm is in Linn County about six miles south of Brownsville and near Twin Buttes, but Mrs. Fruit's permanent home is at present at Corvallis.

Mrs. Marena Emma (Michael) Fruit is my name. I was born on the Michael Donation Land Claim in Linn County on October 26, 1864.

The Michael family came to Oregon in the year 1847. The head of the family at that time was Jared Michael who was my grandfather. He was born in Virginia but I cannot tell the date of his birth. My grandmother's name was Mary (Kelso) Michael. Both are buried in the Michael family cemetery which is situated on the hill above the George Fruit residence south of Brownsville.

My father was Eli Michael. He was born in Virginia January 2, 1817. He came to Oregon accompanied by his father in 1847 and was already a widower with three children. The names of this family by his first marriage were-

Mary M. Michael. Born April 1, 1837. Married John Harper. Her grave, unmarked except by an oak stake is in the Michael family cemetery.

Miranda Michael. Born Feb. 11, 1839. She married John Pearl in Linn County. John Pearl was an early Methodist preacher and his Donation Claim was south of the Michael claim.

Jared Michael Jr. Born September 30, 1840.

My father was married a second time after reaching Oregon. On the train coming to Oregon there was a man named Monroe Hodges. He had a daughter Jane Hodges, a spinster aged twenty years, (Father was then thirty years old.) These two were married shortly after reaching Oregon. To them there were born seven children. Their names follow-

Monroe Michael. Born August 24, 1852. He died April 24, 1866. At the time of his death he was about fourteen years old. He left home that day, apparently in good health and spirits for he was whistling as he went. He never returned alive. His body was found in the pasture not far from his home but no possible reason for his death could ever be discovered unless it was a sudden heart attack.

David Michael. Born April 15, 1854. He married and his wife and two children lie in unmarked graves in the Michael Cemetery. (No data was obtained concerning David Michaels's death.)

Sarah Michael. Born January 27, 1856.

Elijah Michael. Born January 25, 1856.

Eli Michael Jr. Born Dec. 17, 1859. Died September 1895.

Elizabeth Michael. Born April 20, 1862.

Marena Emma Michael. Born Oct. 26, 1864. (Informant) Now lives at Corvallis and is the last member of this family living. Married Martin Fruit.

Drury Michael. Born October 20, 1866. Died December 19, 1894. He was the youngest member of the family and was killed by being thrown from a horse at the age of 28 years.

Father took up a claim comprising 640 acres about five miles south-west of Brownsville. Having no compass to get his lines straight he staked it out diagonally, almost thirty degrees from true north. Grandfather took up a claim of equal size about three-fourths of a mile north of father's north line and at an equal angle to true north. These two claims this wedged in among the true north-and-south lines of later claims make the map of that region most peculiar. It also influenced the laying out of some peculiarly crooked roads in that neighborhood.

(Note: the following paragraph had an X drawn through it.) "My father was a soldier in the Oregon Indian wars. He carried a sword at that time that had also been carried by his grandfather in the Revolutionary war. This old sword has been hard usage but is still in the family possession. Such mementos were not greatly valued when I was a child and one of my brothers cut the blade short to make a corn knife. It is now, therefore, only half of a sword. My son George has it at his home.

Another member of the Michael Family who came in 1847 was my uncle, Elijah Michael. He was a Methodist Preacher and his home was north of father's claim. He was one of the early circuit riders and preached at Brownsville, Harrisburg, Wesley Chapel near present Halsey, and at various schoolhouses about the country. Uncle Elijah had a son named John, and he, in turn was the father of Claud Michael who is well known at Brownsville and at Springfield.

When the Michaels first reached Oregon they planned to settle somewhere near Harrisburg but it was winter and the Willamette River was very high. When they got a good look at the floods along the river it scared them out and they moved north and nearer to the foothills to take up their claims. The first house was a little one-roomed log cabin but about 1858 they built a better house of sawed lumber. It was quite a large house and one room was made extra large with the intention of suing it for public church services. This old house stood about one-fourth mile south of where my son George Fruit now lives. All of my people were Methodists and with the members of the Michael family and such other Methodists as the Pearls, the Van Winkles, the Kirks and the interested neighbors of other churches there was often a large gathering for worship. I remember one early preacher at father's house was William Craig; another was named Stahl; besides these there were other local preachers and elders such as my uncle Elijah Michael, John Pearl, James Pearl and Father John McKinney.

There has been a report circulated that the Michaels were Germans and could not speak English well when they came to Oregon. I do not know why this report was started and I do not particularly care, if it were true, which it is not. The Michaels had been in America for a number of generations before coming to Oregon. It is true that we have some German blood but now more so than English, Scotch and Irish blood. The name is doubtless Irish but Father was German and English and mother was Scotch, Irish and English, a typical American mixture. The Michaels were tall and slender, not stout and short as so many Germans are.

It took about six months for the Michael train to come from the Mississippi Valley to Oregon. Their journey was not an easy one but not particularly difficult. The Indians contacted them a number of times but did no serious damage. Once their cattle were stampeded but without serious loss.

When they first built the log cabin in the lower slopes of the hills south of Brownsville, I have been told that the Indians had a considerable camp on Twin Buttes just a short distance to the west. All the valley was then covered with tall grass which reached to the mid-sides of the range cattle.

Often it was possible to stand at the old cabin door and see large herds of deer grazing a short distance below.

My father helped to haul the machinery for the first grist mill in Brownsville as well as for the old Finley Mill at Crawfordsville and later for the Woolen Mill at Brownsville. All of this heavy machinery came from Oregon City. The roads were very poor. As we would think now, there were no roads at all but just mud tracks winding across the country. At that time Corvallis consisted of about two men and a drug store. There was a ferry at Corvallis run by pulling the ferry across by hand. That ferry continued in use for a great many years and my husband was operating it for a number of years about the first of the 1900's. When my husband ran it, of course, it was more modern and was operated with overhead cable and propelled by the push of the current against the slanting sides of the scow.

It was finally discontinued when the present Willamette River bridge was built.

In the early days everyone traveled by horseback. Every farmer, and farmer boy had a saddle horse and used it exclusively unless a heavy load was to be moved.

Soon after my father was married the second time it became necessary to provide a cradle for the first Oregon born child. Lumber was very scarce and a sawed board was something to be treasured and valued. Lacking other materials for a cradle father wrecked a wagon box which had been brought across the plains. The lumber was eastern cherry, for a wagon to cross the plains was constructed of the most durable materials. Father took his cherry boards from the wagon to a carpenter at Brownsville named Peter Kessling. Kessling made a very nice cradle from them and all of my father's children were rocked and put to sleep in it, then all of my children, and now my son is still using it for the third generation of Michael descendants. He also had a number of other relics of the Michael trip to Oregon-an old hand-axe, some ox-chains and an old sword used by the Fruit ancestors in the Oregon Indian Wars as well as in the Revolution by his great-grandfather. The sword is only half-length since one of my husband's brothers cut it off to use as a corn-knife.

All of my brothers and sisters, and myself, went to school at the Central Schoolhouse south of the Michael Claim. It was only a log cabin then.

Later, I went to the same schoolhouse which is now in use there but when I went it faced the other way. It has since been turned around and slightly remodeled. The first teacher whom I remember there was named Walker.

This seems to be a very broken-up narrative but the best that I can do.

Our trading place in the early days was Oregon City. Later, a very early store was started at Brownsville by Captain James Blakely. When I can remember it, it was being managed by a lame man named George Cooley. Cooley married Blakely's daughter. His son, W. C. Cooley is still operating the store there. George Cooley's lameness was the result of a broken hip. I believe it was broken three separate times but still he kept on with the store until his son took it over.

Among our nearest neighbors in the early days were the Robnetts, the Grays, the Paxtons, the McKinneys and the Pearls. Mr. Gray started the old cemetery on his claim which was known as the "Union Point" Cemetery. It is now almost lost as stock has run over it and broken down all the old stones.

Wilson Blain, the old Presbyterian preacher at Union Point, was buried there. I can just remember that old church at Union Point for I was very small when it was discontinued. By the way, speaking of cemeteries, the first burial at the Michael family cemetery was not a Michael but a boy named William C. Brown, the son of a Methodist preacher. His father thought the situation on the claim very beautiful and requested that his son be buried there. (Note-This is probably a mistake. William Brown was buried in 1866 at the age of 4 months. It was Elijah G. Michael, May 5, 1858, also a child of 4 months, who was first buried there. L. H.) "One of the interludes between periods of work on the old Michael claim was the three weeks of Methodist Camp Meeting that usually took place each summer in July between the seasons of haying and of harvest. The campgrounds were about three miles south of Brownsville on the road to Union Point. There were wooden booths put up there and people came from miles about to take part in the meetings. That old campground later became the scene of a mining adventure which was, I believe, a pure swindle. Some people came into the neighborhood and professed to find traces of rich minerals there. They got the people of the neighborhood to advance money for prospecting purposes and began to sink shafts and to run tunnels. All of the samples sent in for assay were reported to bear a large percent of gold. Much money was spent but finally the people began to grow suspicious.

They sent in samples of their own to the same assay office and got the same encouraging reports. Stones were sent in from widely separate places, picked up at haphazard in the fields; the report was the same. Finally a skeptical citizen sent in a small piece broken from an old grindstone. The report came back the same as always! That settled the matter and there was no more money forthcoming for mine development there.

I have not given very much as yet concerning my mother's family history.

Mother's maiden name was Jane Hodges. She was born in 1827, probably in Indiana. The family later removed to Allen County, Ohio and in 1839 to Platt County, Missouri. Her father's name was Monroe Hodges. In 1847 Monroe Hodges with his daughter Jane, one other daughter and three of his sons started for Oregon. They had two wagons with four ox teams for each wagon and four loose cows. To help with the wagons and loose stock they took with them two hired men. They reached Oregon in October and settled in Benton County, near Wells Station.

It was on this long trip to Oregon that my father and mother became acquainted and they were married soon after reaching the Willamette Valley.

One of my mother's brothers, Drury Hodges lived at Wells Station, on the old claim, until he died and the family is well known in that neighborhood.

I was married on January 9, 1890 to Martin Fruit. He was born near Santa Rosa, California on Feb. 13, 1862. He died December 9, 1936. He came to Oregon with his parents when he was five years old. We have had the following children, all still living:

Victor Fruit. Born Jan. 28, 1891.

George Fruit. Born Aug. 19, 1893. (Lives on Michael claim.)

Glenn Fruit. Born Nov. 13, 1898.

Celia (Cecil) Fruit. Born Aug. 18, 1901.

(Further account of the life of Martin Fruit are here copied from certain records brought to this writer's notice. In substance they read, dated 1903-

Martin Paris Fruit is a liveryman at Corvallis running the "Brock Stables" in partnership with Mr. McMahan. Mr. Fruit was born at Hellsboro, Sonoma County, California Feb. 13, 1862. Is of German-Scotch descent. His father was Peter Fruit, born in Indiana and from where he came to California with the gold rush of 1849. He engaged in fruit growing near Red Bluff and finally took up the wholesale business at Hellsboro. In 1867 the elder Mr. Fruit moved to Oregon and settled near Crawfordsville in Linn County. There he engaged in the stock business. During the Indians wars Peter Fruit was in service in southern Oregon.

The mother of Martin Fruit was Martha Teeter Fruit, born in Scotland. Her father, Henry Teeters settled at Oregon City in 1849. He later moved to Red Bluff, California. He was killed by being thrown from a horse.

Martin Fruit came to Oregon with his parents in 1867 when 5 years old. He attended school at Brownsville and worked at farming, at a warehouse in Halsey and finally bought a farm of his own near Twin Buttes. He married Emeline (sic) Michaels.

(Note: Celia Fruit. Born Aug. 18, 1901 should read Cecil Fruit. He is now Chief of Police in Corvallis. March 1, 1961. {Mrs. H. E. Youngberg})

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.