Aebischer Farm Revisited

Here's a more recent (1980) view of the Aebischer Family Farm atop Chehalem Mountain. The view is looking toward Mount Hood. Lilly Morgan says she used to go skinny dippin' in that pond at the top of the picture.

The FOLKS Return!

We played and sang our hearts out at the Oregon-Idaho Border where the famous Jimmie Stewart movie, Bend in the River, was made. We also jammed at the annual Dufur Threshing Bee. On our way to Dufur we stopped in at the county seat of Baker County to research any possible connection with Sherwood's most famous historical figure, Delmar Baker (1892-1975). No such luck, but what a museum Baker City has! Most Haunting Memory of the Trip was found at Maryhill Museum. According to the caption: "This portrait of Tsar Nicholas II, the last ruler of Imperial Russia... hung in the Russian Embassy in Belgrade, Serbia (later Yugoslavia). During a riot which occurred near the time of the outbreak of World War I, the embassy was looted, the painting was slashed and the Russian ambassador was killed." The slashmarks across the Czar's face provide a pretty startling accent to such a tranquil place as Maryhill!

When's the Next Wine Tour Leaving?

July 27 work on the Pine Street crossing.There's been a lot of talk lately about running an excursion train from Sherwood South into the Willamette Valley. The train would have to cross Rex Hill to get there. Lots of luck! "Rex" is said to be a play on the word "wrecks." As in "train wrecks." For example, according to the Sherwood News-Sheet, April 10, 1912, a steam train once "...reached a point where the grade is considerably of a downward pitch, and where the bank is in the neighborhood of forty feet high, owing to which fact the engineer had slowed down, when suddenly they struck something that raised the engine into the air, almost turning it on its side. Several Sherwood citizens were on the train at the time... and they testify that when their coach reached this mark the jar was anything but pleasant." After some investigation, "a small boy" was found to be the cause of the mishap. In spite of it's shakey reputation, Sherwood's train is regarded as one of the most historically significant railroads in Oregon. It was done the Oregon Way!

New Old Photographs

Family photographs of the Dan Aebischer farm reveal a bucolic side of life you can still glimpse during Sunday afternoon drives throughout the Sherwood mailing district. The Aebischer farm was located atop Chehalem Mountain.

Second Visit from Edogawa

25 youth from the City of Edogawa Japan spent a morning at The Sherwood Heritage Center today. This is the second year in a row that the Center has hosted visitors from that distant clime. Their tasks were pretty exotic. They washed some clothes, baked an apple pie and made some butter. After that they relaxed and helped The Folks sing songs about the Oregon Trail.

Music on the Green

Sherwood Historical Society volunteers serving the folks down at Olsen Park. The harmony gets better year by year.

Indoor-Outdoor History Camp

Today it was a trip to Dale's Barber Shop in Old Town Sherwood followed by an archeological dig on Chehalem MountainLilly said she never saw a bunch of kids work this hard. They played hard too...
A traditional round of Red Rover at Veterans Park.

History School Project

"Don't forget to put the iron back on the stove and grab one that's still hot." says the instructor. With their eleven year old imaginations, these kids have no difficulty experiencing how tough it was to keep house in 1900. (Believe it or not, these guys are having fun!)

REMEMBER:

"Monday was wash day. Tuesday was ironing day.

"In those days, an iron was an iron! It was a six or seven pound wedge of metal that would retain its heat for only a few minutes. A man's shirt generally required two irons. Several irons would be heating while one was working. Some folks could not afford irons with handles. They would use the same handle for each iron, or they would protect their hand with a thick potholder.

"Irons were heated on a wood fire stove. You had to keep a blazing hot fire going in the stove, even in summer, in order to get the ironing done. Such stoves generate soot. The irons became dirty as they were heating on the stove. They had to be cleaned frequently and if the soot was too thick, they had to be sanded and scraped. If you got the soot on the clean white shirt you were ironing, the shirt would have to be washed all over again."

--from Robert Caro's The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power Page 510

Snyders of Snyder Park

Lilly Morgan and Mrs. Snyder compare notes at the public park named after the Snyder Family who owned this property from 1868 till its recent purchase by the City of Sherwood.

Workin' on the Buildin'

About a half dozen Rotarians skipped church this morning in order to keep the Smock House project on track. Lilly was there to spur them on with that good old Gospel song, "If I was a liar, I'll tell you what I would do. /I would quit my li-yin' and work on the building too. /I'm a-working on the buildin'....."