WPA Interviews

Harbin, Linnie (Hutton)

INTERVIEW - Mrs. Linnie Hutton Harbin, Waterloo, Oregon Facts concerning the early history of Waterloo.

I was born near the city of Silverton, Oregon in 1864. My father was J.C. Hutton (OC 3293) who was born in Indiana. My mother's name was Juliett Smith Hutton who also was born in Indiana. My parents were married in 1846 in Indiana and came to Oregon in 1852.

My parents lived at Salem at a later date when the old woolen mill was in operation there. I was well acquainted with the Thomas Kay family at that time. When the Kays first went to Salem they were very poor and lived in a little house in the yard beside the big house in which we lived, renting from my father. Later Kay became very prosperous, was the head of the Salem Woolen mill and started a branch mill here at Waterloo.

My father moved to Waterloo in 1892. He came here because he felt that the soda spring might be beneficial to his health, and because of the chance to work in the woolen mill here. When we arrived at Waterloo the woolen mill was just being built and the machinery being installed. It was first started as a hosiery mill. The machinery was brought from Marysville, Cal., and many of the knitters also came from that place. I worked in that first knitting mill and Mr. Harbin, whom I later married (Note: 3 December 1893), was in charge of the machinery. The hosiery mill did not pay, however, and at a little later date Thomas Kay changed it into a woolen mill, a branch of the Salem Kay Mills.

The official name of the Waterloo branch of the Kay Mills was "The Waterloo Development Company". Mr. Joseph Cordingly was the manager of the mills. He later moved to Brownsville and was connected with the woolen mills there. He was a relative of the Kays.

George Gross had the store and post office here at Waterloo when we first came. Fred Gross also had a store. George Gross also ran a hotel. Mr. Hiram Klum ran the Waterloo Development Company's Hotel, but before that it was run by a man named Parker, while Gross ran a summer hotel for tourists at the Soda Springs. The Waterloo Development Company Hotel was a company hotel and all of the woolen mill hands were compelled to live there if they wished to retain their jobs. However, this rule was not always enforced, for a man named Klutch, a night watchman at the mill was allowed to eat at my father's house as a special favor.

Mr. Klutch was quite a humorist. He especially poked fun at the daughters of the Thomas Kay family, for, after they became prosperous they put on a great deal of style. There were three daughters, Fannie Kay (Bishop), Bertha Kay, and Lenore Kay. Among their other affectations they would pronounce their names Be'tha, and Leno' and F?ñnnie, (giving all the letters the broad sound). Mr. Klutch used to mimic their speech.

In the early days Waterloo was known as Kees' Mills because a man named Kees ran a flouring mill here. After Mr. Kees died his widow married a retired Baptist Preacher named Gadger (Gager). Mr. and Mrs. Gager were still living here when I first came to Waterloo. I can remember them well.

They seemed very fond of one another. I remember how they would come walking into town holding hands like two happy children. Finally Mr. Gager died and Mrs. Gager followed him within just a few days. She had prayed for years that she might outlive him so that she could take care of him in his last days. Mrs. Gager was a very pleasant woman, but a determined one. I remember that at one time she became much displeased at the way certain campers were deporting themselves about the soda springs. She remonstrated with them but it did not good. They were camping near by the spring and the next morning when they went down to get soda water they found Mrs. Gager sitting on the rocks with shoes and stockings off washing her feet in the spring. In that way she eliminated them from the neighborhood.

I never attended school at Waterloo, as I was too old at the time that we moved here, but I can remember quite a bit about early schools. At first there was no school at Waterloo. The district extended quite a ways out into the country and the schoolhouse was on the old Lebanon-Sweet Home road.

Among the girls whom I remember going there were Nettie Gebbard (Now Mrs. Glass of this place. Her husband is a grandson of Mrs. Gager.), Maud Miller, and Dolly Saltmarsh. Later the district was divided and a school built in the town proper. The first teacher that I remember here was a Mr. Jackson. (Probably L.W. Jackson, later Linn County School Superintendent. L. Haskin). We still have a very good school here at Waterloo, but most of the children came from the surrounding country.

The town of Waterloo was incorporated soon after the woolen mill was built here. The mill was operated for about six years and then burned down and the town died with the passing of the mill. I think that there was no election here after the mill was burned, but the original incorporation still stands. Recently certain property holders have been attempting to close some of the streets and others have objected. The attorneys for the objectors inform us that though the city government has lapsed it is by neglect only, and that it may be revived at any time simply by electing officers and going ahead as before. Because of the street trouble spoken of there is now some talk of doing this.

My father, Mr. J.C. Hutton was city recorder at one time. I still have one of the old city record books which he kept. Whether any other books have been kept, I do not know.

When I first came to Waterloo there were a number of business houses in the town; among them a blacksmith shop, a milliners shop, a shoe shop, and a barber. John Turpin ran a store. Mrs. Ike Lebo (Leabo) ran a boarding house. The town was a wild and wide-open one with dances and horse racing the principal Sunday amusements. There is a very large and old maple tree still standing in the east end of town under which Mr. Geo. Gross built a dance floor. Mr. Charlie Divine (Devine) used to be the fiddler there. The majority of the people wanted things wide open and that was the way the town was run. Later that same old maple tree served as a shelter for a skating-rink. Whenever any trouble broke out in town, or there was a quarrel between neighbors, people would say, "Well, there's another battle of Waterloo."

The church here at Waterloo was first built by the Evangelical denomination. Father and Mr. Harbin throwed in to help build the church.

The preacher who was responsible for its erection was a Mr. Plowman. It was built soon after we came to Waterloo, probably in 1892 or 1893. However, there was a very severe church split which developed soon after (This affected the whole Evangelical denomination). The local church was divided into the Fisher and the Bowersox factions, so named after two of the influential preachers. The quarrel was very bitter and at one time while the Fisher faction was holding a camp meeting here the Bowersox faction held a baptismal service at the river. During the service the men of the Fisher faction marched down to the river and forbade the Bowersoxits from using the church ritual.

Under these adverse conditions, the local church being heavily in debt and with a mortgage on the building, soon failed. The mortgage was foreclosed and the building became the property of Mr. & Mrs. Bruce of this place. The Bruces sold it to the Free Methodists, but it has since fallen into disuse.

Now there is not even a Sunday School here. Mr. Linsey was the last active pastor here.

At the present time the waterpower here is owned by the Crown Willamette Paper Company who make no use of it. They purchased it from the Waterloo Development Company about the year 1910. Soon after the exchange the Paper Company built a large dike to prevent the flooding of town property. I can fix the date because at that time I was forced to move to make way for the dike. The Development Company purchased two lots and deeded them to me, and the Crown Willamette Company moved my house upon them. These are the two lots upon which I now live.

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.