WPA Interviews

Kirk, Andrew

INTERVIEW.

With Mr. Andrew Kirk, Brownsville, Oregon, Nov. 23, 1937

The Kirk family was one of the very earliest families to settle on the site of the present town of Brownsville, Oregon. The family came to Oregon in the year 1846. With them, and leaders of the train were Hugh L. Brown for whom Brownsville was named, Captain James Blakely who platted the town, and some others who settled elsewhere. My father Riley Kirk settled at once on the Calapooia, his claim being located in the north side of the river about three fourths of a mile above the city limits. At the time that my father settled on the Calapooia he was already a grown man, married, and had one son, my half-brother. This half-brother's name was George and he was lame. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 28 years in 1875. Father's first wife also died of tuberculosis soon after they reached Oregon. She was one of the first persons to be buried in the Brownsville "Masonic?

Cemetery just east of Brownsville. The first person to be buried there was Mr. Spaulding, wife of Rev. H. H. Spaulding the Presbyterian missionary.

After a few years my father married again. His second wife, my mother, was Julia A. Burden. To this second marriage eight children were born.

They are:

Andrew (myself) the oldest of the family, born in 1854.

William. He died young, at the age of seven or eight years.

Jane. Never married.

N. J. (Nate). Died about five months ago at the age of 77.

Lizzy. Died young, at age of six or seven years.

Abraham Lincoln "Link". Died in 1921.

America. "Mick" Died 1934 at the age of 66 years. Her first husband was named Cushman of the prominent pioneer Cushman family of Brownsville. Her second husband was "Gusse" Gion, still living at Brownsville.

Alexander "Alex" Died 1921 at the age of 51 years.

My father, Riley Kirk was born in Tennessee, later moved to Missouri near the present town of Kirksville. My mother was Julia A. Burden, born in Missouri. She died January 12, 18__(?) "When the Kirk family emigrated to Oregon my grandfather, Alexander Kirk was the head of the family. At that time he was already an elderly man and brought a family of eight with him besides his wife. Of this family, four were boys and two were girls. Some of his sons, my father among them, were already grown and married and beginning families of their own. My father's children were:

Riley. W. R. Kirk (My father). Born 1827. Died 1901.

Henry. H. H. Kirk. He married Isabell Pearl.

Tom. T. J. Kirk.

Polly Ann. She married R. C. Finley who built the first flour mill in Oregon that was situated south of Oregon City.

Lizzie. She married William "Bill" Burden, my mother's brother.

Amanda "Mandy". She married a man named Hyde. She is still living and is now 88 years of age.

Lee. He is still living at Walla Walla, Washington. I received a picture of him a few weeks ago. He is now 90 years 3 months old.

(Note. The statement that these children were all born before Alexander Kirk left Missouri is evidently incorrect.) "After my grandfather's first wife died he again married, this time a widow by the name of Coyle. (Believed to be the widow of Reuben Coyle, early settler in the Sodaville, Linn County region.) To this marriage there was one daughter born named "Marian". I do not know what became of her. My grandfather after his second marriage moved to Eastern Oregon and I never heard from her after that. In my grandfather's family after his second marriage there was also a stepson named "Wils" {Wilson(?)} Coyle. He stayed here at Brownsville with his mother but was always getting into trouble.

His chief fault was that he was always fighting. My grandfather's second wife also had a daughter named Anna.

When the Kirk family reached Oregon my father immediately settled near Brownsville, but his father, Alexander Kirk spent the first winter near Marysville, now Corvallis, or in Polk County. I do not exactly know where.

The next spring he came on to Brownsville and bought out the squatter rights of a Mr. Hutchins and settled in Brownsville. It was my grandfather's intention in settling here to run a ferry, so the land, which he bargained for, took in both banks of the river. He took up 640 acres, as was his due, but the land did not lie in a square, but instead was a very long strip, one mile wide and two miles long. It extended from what is now the corner made by the "lower" Halsey road, one mile south of Brownsville, extended north across the river and for almost a mile north of the river. The ferry, which my grandfather operated, was situated in what is now the Brownsville City Park. In summer the ferry was not necessary, and there was also a ford at that place. From my father'' operation of the ferry here this place was long known by the name of "Kirk's Ferry." At first the neighborhood was simply known as "Calapooia", and for a long time mail was so directed for the settlers here. Then, from my Grandfather's trade it became known as "Kirk's Ferry". Later, when the town was platted by Captain James Blakely, he named it Brownsville in honor of his uncle, Hugh L. Brown.

Besides running a ferry here my father operated a tavern or hotel. This hotel was operated at his home about one fourth mile south of the ferry.

The old building is still standing and is in use as a residence. It is now occupied by Mr. Al Porter, a grain dealer. This old house was built in the year 1847. It is built of logs, but in later years it has been covered with sawed lumber so that its original structure cannot be seen. The exact location of the old house is near the junction of South Main Street and the Halsey-Brownsville road. It stands back of, and a little to the south of the Cooley & Co. Store. The old fireplaces, two of them, are still intact just as my grandfather built them.

Besides running a ferry and an Inn, my grandfather was elected as one of the first county judges in Linn County. There were two county judges elected at the first election, my grandfather one of them. I believe they were to work cooperatively for the large territory covered by the county in that day. The first meeting of the County Court of Linn County was held under a large maple tree near my grandfather's old house. Grandfather was also postmaster at Brownsville at an early date.

The Mr. Hutchins from whom my grandfather purchased the squatter rights of his place was the first Sheriff of Linn County. The Butte situated in North Brownsville and standing just north of the Brownsville High School is now commonly called "Holloway Heights," but in the old days was called "Hutchin' s Butte."

The Ferry which my grandfather operated was quite profitable for a time.

It was on the main line of the Oregon-California road, and all the gold hunters from Oregon who traveled down the east side of the valley used it.

This old road crossed the Santiam over Hale's ferry below the present town of Jefferson. Hale's Ferry was situated at the town of Syracuse, now gone.

Another town known as Santiam City was built up on the south side of the Santiam at that place. It, too, is now gone. Milton Hale who established that ferry has a descendant, Carpus Hale, now living at Brownsville.

From Hale's Ferry the Oregon-California road led south and a little west to the present town of Albany. A marker in Tekanah Park at that place shows its course. From Albany the road again led southeast to Brownsville, or Kirk's ferry as it was then called. South of Brownsville the road kept towards the hills until it passed the old town of Union Point, and then entered the "Big Gap" a pass between high buttes and the foothills of the Cascades. The Big Gap section of the road is four or five-perhaps six miles long. Beyond the Big Gap the road again entered open land but skirted the base of the mountains to avoid winter floodwaters. It passed what are known as the Diamond Hill and West Point communities, then turned westward and crossed the Willamette at Spores Ferry, a few miles west of the present town of Coburg in Lane County.

When the Kirk family came to Oregon they were accompanied by Mr. R. C.

Finley ('Dick' Finley).

He spent the winter with my grandfather in Polk County. Sometime soon after they reached Oregon "Dick" Finley and my father's sister, Polly Ann Kirk were married. At that time Dick Finley was a man of perhaps thirty years, while Polly Ann was but thirteen. On the night of her marriage she cried because she had to sleep with a strange man.

Grandfather Kirk and Dick Finley came on to Brownsville in the spring of 1847. As I have stated, Grandfather took up land in what is now the town of Brownsville, but Dick Finley, who was a miller, was encouraged by the earlier settlers to look out a place where he might build a mill. The best spot found for a mill was on the Calapooia about one mile west of the present town of Crawfordsville. There was a small waterfall there, and a fine site for waterpower. This site, however, had already been taken up by another man, a relative of the Courtneys who settled on Courtney Creek in 1845. This first claimant had staked out his land but had made few or no improvements. Under the encouragement of the Browns, Blakelys and others, Dick Finley settled on this claim. Soon after that the first owner returned and tried to drive Finley off, but after some strong talk but without actual physical fighting, Finley was left in possession.

(Note. Although the common version of this claim-jumping incident is favorable to the Finleys and their helpers, other versions are quite the contrary. Apparently, according to John McKercher, present owner of the mill, it was as rank an incident of claim jumping as could well have happened. Because the Browns, Blakelys, and Finleys wanted a mill they were willing to go to any lengths. They agreed beforehand that they would back Finley up in his claim at any cost. The first owner found Finley at work starting his cabin. He ordered Finley off. Finley threatened him with an ax. The first claimant left to get reinforcements from his relatives, the Courtneys. Finley also sent word to the settlers at Brownsville who came fully armed, prepared to fight it out to the end. Soon two armed bands were gathered at the mill. The Courtney contingent, however, seeing that bloodshed was inevitable, and not wishing to sacrifice human life, finally withdrew.

In this controversy there were undoubtedly two sides, and legally the Finleys were in the right, but morally, perhaps, utterly wrong. It is true that the first owner had staked out a claim and gone away without making improvements, thus forfeiting his claim. However, it was the custom, and a well-known and recognized custom, to allow the first claimant a whole year to make actual settlement. In many cases claims were staked out and held without settlement while the owner went back to the Mississippi valley to bring his family on. In the meantime all other settlers carefully respecting his claim. This was done by the Hackleman family, first settlers at Albany, and when the elder Hackleman died on his eastern trip, and his son came in his stead, no one questioned his right to the land which his father had staked out.

The only real excuse for the Finley's action, and for the backing of his action by the other Brownsville settlement was the fact that the settlers needed a mill, and needed it badly. This public need might be a partial excuse. Finley could give them a mill. The site was favorable, and Finley wanted it. The others wanted to see the mill built, and were determined that it should be. They came to Finley's aid against the Courtney claim with the intent to have their mill in the face of all odds and at the expense of life if necessary.

Mr. John McKercher, present owner of the mill told the writer the above facts which he learned from his father. McKercher's opinion was that the taking of the mill site was an outrage-an unmitigated steal.

Mrs. Eliza Brand, daughter of R. C. Finley has told the writer that for many years the Courtney tribe would have no dealings with the Finleys, but finally forgot the feud and were willing to become friendly.

Because the Courtney family soon left the region, almost all versions of this feud have been told by their enemies who remained and became very influential in the region.)

Dick Finley who married Aunt Polly Ann Kirk was lame. His legs had been broken while working in the lead mines of southern Wisconsin. As he grew older his crippled condition was complicated by rheumatism.

When my father first settled at Brownsville he had one yoke of oxen and practically no other resources. His first home was made merely by building a rail pen underneath a wide-spreading white fir tree. Beneath this sheltering tree they lived all of the first summer, and far into the beginning of winter. Such a shelter was common in those days. Besides using fir trees for houses it was still more common to use them for barns.

Up to very recent years an Oregon sheep barn, if visited, might often be found to be nothing but such a fence encircled tree.

When my people settled at Brownsville there were Indians everywhere. The bottomland along the Calapooia was one of their favorite camping places for all this region. One of my people's chief difficulties was the fact that any tool, dish, implement, or any small article whatsoever that was laid down would be quickly stolen by any passing Indian. Most settlers were timid of doing anything about these thefts, for Indians resented any sort of punishment, but my father made a reputation for himself by thoroughly thrashing any Indian who became troublesome. It was a dangerous practice, but somehow the Indians soon came to understand and respected him accordingly. Even the Indians deemed him a very brave man.

My father often hired Indians to work for him in clearing land and other work. Some of them proved to be surprisingly good workmen, some were utterly worthless. Some of the boys whom my father hired lived at out house for weeks at a time. I had only Indians to play with when I was small, and some of them were nice fellows. There was one Indian boy who stuck around fathers for a long time, working when father would hire him. We called him Indian Jim. He seemed to prefer to live with the white men from the first.

Since he was a very good workman my father finally said, "Jim, how would you like to come and live with me all the time? Jim was mightily pleased but first he had to go and talk it over with his people. After a long consultation it was finally decided that Jim might come if he wished. After that he was a member of our family just like my own brothers. Jim was a good boy, very neat, and a faithful worker. His one fault was he got too fond of whiskey and when he was drunk he was dangerous. However, I never afraid of him and he would usually behave himself, even when drunk, if I spoke to him.

Down at Spores Ferry, near the present town of Coburg, the Spores family raised an Indian girl named Liza. Liza, too, was a good worker, neat, and unusually intelligent. Liza finally married an old Indian man who had two or three other wives. He took her away up to Yamhill, but he was very cruel to her, and she was his drudge and the drudge of his other wives. Liza of Spores Ferry and Jim of Kirk's Ferry finally got acquainted one time when Liza was down here with her tribe. They seemed to take to each other at once. After that Liza would sometimes run away from her husband and come down to the __________to see Indian Jim. Her Indian husband would follow after her to take her home. He would drag her out and start her towards Yamhill on foot, whipping her all the way as he rode behind. This happened again and again. Finally my father said to Jim. "Jim, if you and Liza care so much for each other why don't you buy her for a wife?" Father offered to help Jim with the bargain. That tickled Jim a great deal. He went to his people and asked them to help him get a wife. That was the practice of the tribe. When a young man wanted a wife all of the tribe had to "chip in" and help him buy her. Then, he in return, would help those who had helped him.

Jim got together some property and made an offer to buy Liza. Finally the bargain was made. Jim got Liza by paying ten ponies, a rifle, and fifteen dollars in money. Liza's husband brought her to Brownsville and got the price. He spent the money for whiskey and he and all of his people got drunk, and before they got back to Yamhill he was killed in a drunken fight.

Liza and Jim were very fond of each other and Liza always stuck to Jim, but when he was drunk she had to leave the house and hide out somewhere until he sobered up. Jim used to beat Liza when he was drunk, but he was always fond of her.

Finally in a drunken fight Jim killed another Indian and was sent to the penitentiary. He was there for a while and then the people of this region petitioned for his release. Liza took the petition to the Governor and Jim was granted reprieve. When Liza took the reprieve to the pen Jim was eating dinner but when he heard what it was he jumped up and left right away. He didn't care whether he had any dinner or not just so he could get out.

Jim built a house for Liza up by the "first hop house". (Meaning the Hop-house on the Cushman farm, part of the old Kirk claim, just east of Brownsville.) Liza was a good housekeeper. She kept her house just as neat as a pin, caring for it just like a white woman would. She had learned how to work while staying with the Spores family. She always kept a white tablecloth on her table. I have often eaten meals there and the food was as good as you could get anywhere. Jim and Liza had three children. All died while young. One of the girls, I remember was very pretty. She was about to be married, but died. Lisa's children all died of TB.

There was an Indian reservation at Yamhill where Liza's first husband lived. I have often been there at the fort and seen the soldiers.

My father's first house after the fir tree shelter was a tiny shanty.

Father got a froe and rived out boards to cover it. Later of course we had a good frame house. The old barn on that place was built by my father about the year 1852. The heavy hand-hewn beams in that barn are still sound and in good condition. When they built a barn in those days they built to last.

Some of the great beams in barns that I have known were 12X12 inches.

When Dick Finley built his mill on the upper Calapooia my father went up and worked for him. He had no horse, and oxen were to slow to use, so he walked to his work. He would start off on Monday morning and walk the seven miles to the mill. Then he would work all week without coming home. Mother and the children were alone all the time with Indians all about. At the end of the week father would walk home, and if meat was needed he would kill a deer on the way and carry it in on his back. Game was very plentiful all about in those days. Killing a deer was no more in those days than going out and shooting a sheep would be now. The deer were everywhere. Grouse were so thick in those days that they were a nuisance. The Indians would kill and eat deer but they never killed grouse. They did not think that the grouse meat was worth eating and never killed them.

Just across the Calapooia from my father's claim was the claim of the Rev.

H. H. Spaulding. The house in which the Goulards now live was first built by Mr. Spaulding, and the locust trees in the yard there were planted by him. Spaulding came to this region at the request of the Browns and Blakelys as they wished a good educated man who could maintain a school here. Before Spaulding reached this place the other settlers had built a schoolhouse for him to teach in. I never went to that first school. My first teacher was a Mrs. G. W. Colbert and the school was somewhere opposite the junction of south Main Street and the Halsey road, and perhaps a block or so east.

Rev. Spaulding was a good man, but rather "cranky" as we would say today.

He was married twice. His first wife died soon after they reached the Calapooia, and was the first person to be buried in the Brownsville Cemetery. The cemetery is situated on father's old claim, on a hill. My father's first wife was perhaps the second person to be buried there.

Mr. Spaulding had three daughters by his first wife. They were Eliza, who later married Andy Warren, Amelia, or "Milly" who married John Brown, son of Hugh L. Brown, and Martha who married a man by the name of Wigle. "Milly" Brown was a complete invalid for a great many years, 25 or 50 years bed-ridden and unable to even turn herself over much of the time, but during that time she bore two sons. John Brown's house is now owned by the Samuelson Brothers. It is a large house on the south side of the road on that place.

Concerning Andy Warren, the son-in-law of H. H. Spaulding, he was a great friend of our family. When I was born Andy Warren was the one who named me, giving me his own name. When I was a little older Andy Warren gave me a pony. It was a very small pony but I named it "Big Enough".

Rev. H. H. Spaulding was married a second time before he went back to his Indian mission at Lapwai. I do not know who his second wife was, never heard of her people, but according to everyone she was a very peculiar woman. A story told of her in the early days was that she went out into the yard where Mr. Spaulding was working among the cattle and inquired, "Which of these cows gives the buttermilk?" Spaulding's reply to that is said to have been, "Tut, tut, tut, woman. Tut, tut."

My uncle Tom Kirk inherited the land just across the road from here. (One mile south of Brownsville. Now owned by Mr. Walt James.) Uncle Tom built the house there about 1858. His carpenter was Peter Kessling. The house is still in good shape. He also planted the great walnut tree which formerly stood there. It was cut down in 1956, almost crushing the house in its fall. You can still see where the house was repaired. Uncle Tom sold that place and moved to Eastern Oregon and became wealthy. He married a woman named Ann Coyle, a daughter of my grandfather's second wife.

My uncle Henry Kirk took up a claim southward, on what is now called the "Lower Halsey Road." William Kirk now owns and occupies that land.

My uncle Lee Kirk who lives at Walla Walla, Wash., also had a farm but he never stayed in any one place for long. He has been married three times.

He married a woman, separated from her, married another woman who thought he had money and was again separated. She left him when she found that he did not have much. Then he married another woman, but left her. He said she was meaner than the Devil. He now lives at Walla Walla with a daughter. He is 90 years 5 months of age.

I married first in 1874. My wife's name was Lottie Hearing. Her mother lived here at Brownsville but her father was killed while coming to Oregon.

He was killed by a team of oxen in a runaway somewhere in eastern Oregon.

They came across the plains in 1862. Mrs. Hearing married again, a man by the name of Garrett. Tom Garrett who died at Brownsville about fifteen years ago was my first wife's half-brother. There are other members of the family still living here. My wife died in 1921.

(To this marriage were born five children but the interviewer failed to get the names of all of them. The following are those whom he knew personally.

Charles Kirk, Albany, Ore.

William Kirk, Portland, Ore.

Grace Kirk,

and two other daughters, names not remembered. One of them was the late Mrs. Albert Weber who died in 1936.)

I was married a second time (1923) to Miss Iris Dinwiddie of this place. Iris was born at Union Point in 1866. Her people were the pioneer Dinwiddie family, emigrants of 1852."

(Note: Mr. Andrew Kirk, now in the eighty fifth year is a hale and hearty man, active and well able to do a hard days work in spite of his advanced years. His life has been one in the open air, occupied with agriculture and stock-raising. At present he lives on a two acre place one mile south of Brownsville. His address is Halsey, Oregon. Rt. 1.) Kirk interview continued:-

When I was a small boy my father used to run stock all over the open valley around Brownsville. My work was often to ride out and herd the cattle and see whether they had strayed too far away. In those days the whole valley was covered with tall grass, so tall that a cow was often hidden in it. In the heat of the day when the cows would lie down for rest, they were completely lost. Often they would go into the shade of the ash trees among the streams and it was almost impossible to find them."

My father was among the active promoters of the Pioneer Brownsville woolen mill. At a later date when the mill was almost bankrupt he took part in its reorganization. He was also active in the promotion of the Brownsville schools. I still have a fine mahogany cane with solid silver head that was given to my father by other citizens of Brownsville as a token of their esteem because of his work for schools and for the mill.

For a great many years my father ran a store in North Brownsville. During part of that time my grandfather was also a partner in the business. When grandfather went to eastern Oregon he sold his share in the store to Fred Croft. When my father finally discontinued his store he held notes given by a great many of the pioneers who had been unable to pay. At a recent date I still had over ten thousand dollars worth of these worthless notes. In the early days much more credit was given by merchants than now. A settler would often go for a whole season on the credit of some store, expecting to pay when his crops were sold in the autumn. Most of these notes were paid.

However, the great bulk of my father's business mad it inevitable that some would fail to make good their word.

In the early days there was a strange custom among the Indians here. An Indian often had many names, but no name was good if it had not been paid for. An Indian's feeling that he needed a new and "stronger" name would go to some white man and ask for the privilege of buying a name. Then he would work for the farmer for one or two days and whatever name was given him at the end of the bargained time was received with great ceremony and carried as an honor. A name had to be paid for to be of value.

Whiskey was the Indians worst failing. One old Indian who came to my mother's door begging for whiskey was cured effectively. Mother, growing tired of his begging finally poured for him a big cup full of pepper sauce.

He drank it at a gulp, and then left the cabin in great haste, running for the banks of the river to quench the "fire". Just as he went, father chanced to return home. The Indian never stopped to greet him, but went down the riverbank in great jumps, exclaiming "Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! At every leap. He never came back to beg for whiskey.

The deer were very plentiful about Brownsville in the early days, but that was nothing to the ducks and geese. Ducks came down to the fields and ate at night, and in such flocks that they would clean two or three acres off in a single night. All of the farmers were forced to "twine" their grain fields in those days. "Twining" a grain field was done by driving short stakes in rows all across the fields and stretching twine in squares from stake to stake. When the ducks would come flying to eat the grain they would strike the stretched twine and it would scare them away. Also, the farmers would stand guard over their fields in the winter and shoot ducks just to keep them away. The ducks came in flocks of thousands, millions I guess. When a big flock of ducks would start up from a grain field it would make a roar just like a passing railway train.

One winter I remember that I shot four hundred ducks just for family use.

If I had hunted just to see how many I could get I could have bagged hundreds more. The best and fattest of the ducks we ate on the table, the poorer ones were put out for chicken food. One time I remember that I got fourteen ducks with a single shot. It was freezing weather then, and all the ground was covered with ice and snow. The ducks had gathered in a narrow ditch where the water was not frozen. I got "endways" with the ditch and shot down the length of the flock. In my boyhood it was possible to walk up to within a few feet of a feeding flock.

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.