Person:Eddy Smith (2)

Edd wrote a history of his life in 1979, when he was 96 years old. He described his life growing up and living in Benton County, Oregon. As a child, his school house was over a big hill and through a forest, about 3 miles away. On the first day of school, his father had to blaze a path through all the trees for Edd and his brother and sister. However, the 3-mile walk, twice a day, was too difficult for the kids, so his parents ended up hiring an Englishman named Mr. Kirkness to teach them at home. Mr. Kirkness loved to smoke, and the smell was too much for Edd's mother, so the teacher was assigned to spend half the day cutting wood and the other half teaching the children. He proved to be a capable teacher, drilling them on multiplication tables until even the youngest could say them forward and back.

A new schoolhouse, called Dixon School, was built on Oak Creek. Eventually Elvin Witham donated land for a school building, which was known as Witham School, about 2 miles away from their house. All eight grades were taught by a single teacher, who also served as the school janitor and a fire-man for the wood-burning stove. Instead of a drinking fountain, a pail of water with a long-handled dipper was used by the students and teacher. The school earned the nickname Woodpecker College, because it seemed like woodpeckers constantly pecked on the wooden building and disrupted the teaching. Frequently a student would be sent out to scare the woodpeckers away. During recess, both boys and girls would play blackman or baseball. The school year ended with a fun day and picnic, usually held near where Camp Adair is located now.

One of the school teachers, George Denman, came out to fish in a creek with Edd one day. Although Mr. Denman took the lead, he couldn't seem to catch much. It was a great day for Edd, though, as he caught the limit. Later Mr. Denman became Superintendant of schools, and for the school's closing day he planned games, races, a spelling bee and a math contest. Edd was very pleased that he won both contests, in two separate years. Many families, including Edd's, traveled to the picnic by horse team and wagon. When the horses got thirsty, there was a big watering trough along the road, which was filled by a pipe running from the creek to the trough.

Edd recalled when he was 8 or 9 years old his father went fishing during the fall rains. His father took a team and wagon and went to his brother's place at Shotpouch, near a small stream in Lincoln County. Salmon were so thick that fishing was done with a pitch fork. His father used the fork to throw the fish onto the bank, and he caught about 50 fish altogether. At that time there were no freezers, and no home canning of fish, so the fish were salted in a barrel.

Edd remembered a massive snowfall when he was about 12 years old, with snow three feet deep. The birds and pheasants couldn't get any food, so they would fly up in trees and eat mistletoe berries. The family could have feasted on the birds, but they didn't have a gun. After a few days, warm sunshine caused the snow to crust over. Edd's father wrapped gunny sacks around the horses legs so they wouldn't get cut on the ice, then drove the horses to town and bought a gun and shells. Fifteen pheasants a day was the limit and they enjoyed many pheasant dinners. The gun and shells, bought on credit, had to be paid for by cutting wood the following summer.

When Edd was 16 or 17 years old, he and his brother used to walk nearly 2 miles and cut a cord of wood each day for $1.00 per cord. The trees were felled and cut with a cross-cut saw, with one of the boys manning each end. Wood was needed at home, too, for both the heating and cooking stoves. In addition, there were the morning and evening farm chores to keep the boys busy: the cows, calves, pigs, chickens and horses had to be fed and cared for.

Soon they moved about 2 miles from Corvallis on Kings Road, onto a section of land bought from Bert Mulkey. Back then, cradles were used for cutting down the grain. The cradle was similar to a modern scythe, and had arms to catch the grain. The boys then tied the grain into bundles. The bundles were tied with wire, picked up and shocked. The first threshing machine was stationary but powered by horses. The men needed for this heavy labor included teams and wagons to haul the bundles to the machine; 3 men to load the wagons; 2 men to cut wires on the bundles; 2 men to sew sacks and stack them about 20 feet from the machine; and 2 boys who were strawbucks. When straw from the separator got to the top of the carrier, the strawbucks would move it away from the machine with a straw rail--a pole about 16 feet long with a horse hitched at each end and a boy riding the horses. The whole threshing crew was fed at the homes where they were working, which meant the women had many busy days cooking. After harvest, Edd's father would take a load of wheat to the mill and exchange it for flour, shorts (a coarse meal), and the middlings which contained the bran.

Edd's father raised and sold horses, with a racetrack for breaking and training them. Edd grew up with a love for horses, and raised purebred Clydesdales which took many prizes at the Benton County Fair. At that time the County Fair was held in Corvallis. They had temporary sheds and stalls for the livestock at about 9th street-- which was the edge of Corvallis at that time. There was a big parade and a speaker, with races and games for entertainment. One of Edd's prize Clydesdale stallions was sold for $1000.00 to a fellow from the Big Bend country in Washington.

Edd used the money to buy a fancy driving team. He recalled one time he and his brother Frank were going to town with this team hitched to a light hack, taking eggs to market. Edd drove through the gate and waited for Frank to close the gate. Then Frank jumped into the back end of the hack and climbed over the seat, but this action startled the horses, who took off running. Both brothers pulled on the lines, but couldn't stop them. The horses were following the road, and successfully navigated three turns, but the fourth one tipped the hack. Frank flew out, taking the lines with him, and Edd was left riding behind the galloping team without any lines to control them. Edd jumped out just before the tongue dropped from the neck yoke of the hack. The tongue got stuck in the ground and turned the hack end over end, demolishing all the eggs. The team ran on and was finally caught near the college. When Edd got the team back, he hitched them to a heavy wagon and drove them until they had learned their lesson and would stop when asked.

At one time Edd worked as a road supervisor and was hauling lumber for culverts on Oak Creek, when he fell from the wagon to Monroe Street. Bert Thompson, who knew him, found him unconcious and took him home to his parents. There was no hospital at that time in Corvallis, so he recuperated at home. He was unconscious for three days, but recovered without any problems.

Another time Edd had horses hitched to a disc plow when several boys on bicycles spooked the horses. The horses took off, and Edd ran to catch them. He grabbed hold of the lines sat on the double trees, but couldn't stop them. The disc was half in and half out of the ground when Edd fell off the double trees. The disc passed over him with the end in the air, otherwise he would have been sliced in half. The team circled around and finally stopped, but the disc was ruined.

In the year 1906, Edd bought a 25-acre farm from Sol King, located about 11 miles from Corvallis on Kings Road. That same year, he married Mattie Kester. Mattie died in 1907 when their daughter Edith was born, but before she died she asked Edd's mother to raise Edith, which she did. The W. J. Harpers from North Dakota bought a farm adjoining the Smiths. Edd married their daughter Maude, in 1909. They lived at that farm until 1912, then moved to Corvallis for a few months. While there he helped dig the basement of the Julian Hotel. The dirt had to be hauled out with horse and wagon. He also hauled lumber from Beaver Creek to Corvallis Lumber Co, down 2nd street with a 3-horse team. He used his team to help pave 2nd street-- the first street in Corvallis to be paved. He sawed wood with a power wood saw, and did any work available to keep the family fed. Their daughter Verna was born in Corvallis.

In 1913 they bought a 30-acre farm from the Harpers. Edd built a house and farm buildings, and Lois and Muriel were born while they lived there. The farm buildings used to stand where the Albertson Market is now located, on Kings Road and Circle Drive. In 1920 they bought 179 acres in Irish Bend about 15 miles south of Corvallis. Edd and his family did almost all the work on the farm with the help of their horses, growing grain, alfalfa, clover, Kale for seed, hairy vetch and hay. He used a horse-powered hay baler and the bales were tied with wire. His eight and nine year old daughters had to poke the wires through a space on the block to the other side where a machine tied the wires. He would then haul his hay to Monroe and load a railroad car for shipment to California. He harvested grain with a horse-drawn combine for several years and then got a self-propelled combine. His wife Maude sewed the sacks for the grain. Like most farms back then, they also took care of an assortment of cows, pigs, and chickens. They cut their own wood for heating and cooking.

Edd recalled a near-disastrous event when his daughter Lois was about 5. He was loading a manure spreader in the back of the barn while Lois was sitting on the spreader. Some yellow-jackets stung the horses and they ran off, throwing Lois out of the spreader. Edd tried to get ahead of them, but he was knocked down by the spreader. His wife heard Lois crying and went out to find her. Edd was rolling around on the ground and his wife started to run towards him. He told her instead, "Go to the horses, go to the horses" to calm them down. The team was trembling and scared but had stopped alongside a fence. Edd was none the worse for the experience, and his daughter wasn't hurt.

Edd had several cows and bought a quiet hand-raised Jersey bull, but one time the bull trapped Edd in his pen and started pummelling him. Edd called for his dog Rex, who came and chased the bull over the fence. His wife and daughter Muriel had to help him into the house. The injuries were severe enough that they called the doctor from Monroe. Edd had some broken ribs, a badly swollen face, and spent three days in bed. His neighbor Mr. Jennings came over and did the farm work that needed to be done.

In another incident, Edd described a tractor he had with the two front wheels close together. It had to be cranked to start. Once he accidentally left the tractor in gear while cranking it. The tractor knocked him down, and pinned his legs to the ground between the front wheels. He hollered for help, but his wife didn't hear him until she happened to go out on the porch. When she saw what happened, she went back to the house and called their son-in-law, Chris, who lived 2 and 1/2 miles away. When Chris didn't answer the phone, she called his neighbor, Cleland Herron to go get him. Maude found a car jack and managed to raise one tractor wheel a little, which gave him some relief. When the men came, they were able to back the tractor off. Edd was lucky to have no broken bones, but he had a bad limp for a while.

For many years they leased out the land to be farmed. At age 96, Edd was still taking care of a garden, yard, and orchard. His daughters lived fairly close, except for their daughter Lois who died in 1977.