Person:Eugene Lamar (2)

Eugene Arthur Lamar was born on his grandmother's farm in Elmira, Oregon in Lane County.

In researching his family tree, Carl F. Lamar would take pages from telephone books in his travels. He would send a blanket letter out trying to tie loose ends of the family tree.

Eugene A. Lamar, answered his letter and provided the missing link for Wilfred Tyler Lamar's lineage.

Eugene lived at 2738 NE 7th Avenue, Portland, Oregon. He was a journeyman machinist for the Hyster Company in Portland. He had worked for this company for 23 years (1969). He retired in 1971. Since that time, he has been self employed repairing televisions. He bought $2,000 worth of test instruments to work on televisions.

He remembers two trips that he took with his father. In 1912, his father took his mother and him in a covered wagon over the Siskiyou Mountains to California. One night while they were sleeping in their wagon by the side of the road, a bear came near their wagon and frightened the horses. The horses took off down the road at full speed. Eugene's father walked down the road in search of the horses. He found them and brought them back to the place where the wagon was parked. He was carrying a shot gun and didn't have any more trouble from the bear.

It was somewhere in California that Eugene's brother, Harold Richard Lamar was born. However, to this day, they have not been able to find the location or any of his birth records. They only stayed in California for a short period of time. Before the end of the year 1913, they returned to Oregon on a steam ship. Eugene's dad sold his horses, wagon and shotgun in California. That was the last gun that Wilfred Lamar ever owned. Wilfred Lamar and his family lived in three different houses in Bandon, Oregon. Eugene said he remembered some interesting things that he did in each of the three houses. In the first house, he remembered that his father almost had a fight with a neighbor because the neighbor's children said his son, Eugene, had started a fire on their back porch. Eugene also remembered the fun he had climbing the big high trees that grew near their home.

In the second house, Eugene remembered how the chickens used to flop around on the ground after his father had chopped off their heads. He also remembered how the children went swimming in the creek that ran through the woods Both the boys and girls went swimming in the raw. In the third house, Eugene said he remembered the thick cream they got from their neighbors to pour on their cereal each morning for breakfast. He also remembered picking the many wild berries that grew along their fence. He said they would often sit on the dock and watch the fish an crabs moving about on the bottom of the River. The water was crystal clear all of the way to the bottom of the river. Eugene said he and his family revisited this location a few years ago and found the river covered with green scum. Around 1950, the whole town of Bandon and the surrounding woods were burned to the ground. Wilfred Lamar and his family lived in Bandon four years. During that time, Wilfred worked in the lumber mill.

In 1917, Wilfred and his family left Bandon on a riverboat and joined Mrs. Sarah Jane Jackson and her family in Portland, Oregon Eugene said that during the trip on the riverboat, he was almost lost overboard. He tumbled head over heels down the stairs that went to the lower deck. He landed only a few inches from the edge of the deck where there were no guard rails. The experience remained in his mind where he could see the water rushing by the boat, but he was not hurt and he never told anyone of his narrow escape from drowning.

In Portland, Oregon, Eugene A. Lamar was employed by the Hyster Company for 30 years as a journeyman machinist. He worked six days a week for ten months each year. He operated two automatic tape controlled turret drills. He was a democrat . He retired in 1971 and then studied television repairing which he has been following as a pastime hobby. He fixes televisions for his family and friends with test instruments that cost him about $2,000. Eugene was married twice.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Social Security Administration. Social Security Death Index: Death Master File, database. (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service)
   Database online.

   Record for Eugene A. Lamar

2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 State of Oregon, and Ancestry.com. Oregon Death Index, 1903-1998
   Database online.

   Record for Eugene Arthur Lamar