Washington County Oral Histories

Guy Carr oral history recording Part 1

Part one of an audio recording of an oral history of Guy Carr about his life in Beaverton, Oregon, recorded on March 4, 1981. Carr was born in Colorado in 1900 and grew up in Virginia. After serving in the military during World War One, he moved to Beaverton in 1918 where his mom and stepdad owned Otto Ericson & Company, a Ford dealership, in Hillsboro and Forest Grove, Oregon. Carr details what Beaverton looked like when he first moved to the city and the farms and people that were around. Having learned to fly airplanes while in the military, Carr and some other men whom who he names, took part in building the Bernard Airport in about 1932. They also built airplanes and flew them around a bit. Carr mentions where some of those planes might have been located at the time of the recording. During the Depression, Carr was able to survive on his dealership businesses and he talks about how he bought and sold dealerships during this time also. During World War Two, there was an automobile shortage and Carr describes how he stayed afloat by working on cars but not selling them. He talks about the tire distributor in town called U.S. and Gates Rubber Company and how there was a large inventory of tires since the government had frozen the selling of tires. Carr involved himself in everything in town during the war to try to help people by being on City Council, the WPA making projects for people to build sidewalks, was chairman of the Water Committee to figure out the water system for Beaverton, was a volunteer fireman, and served as Acting Mayor a few times. Other topics that Carr talked about what the Oregon Electric Railway, the Multnomah Golf Club, the different highways between Hillsboro and Beaverton, the difference in being paid with warrants and scrips (a warrant drew interest, while the scrip was the face value), the Beaverton Airport, and the Premium Pictures Studio. Carr describes his antique car collection, how he was on “Faces and Places,” and talks about his health as what makes him rich rather than his money. The recording ends halfway through a conversation about Carr’s ancestry and his possible relation to Thomas Jefferson. There is a full transcript of the recording attached.

Carr, Guy Crockett

Beaverton Oral History project

Washington County (Or.) -- History

Business enterprises

Carr, Guy

Washington County (Or.)

Forest Grove (Or.)

Beaverton (Or.)

Hillsboro (Or.)

1 sound cassette (1 hr., 5 min.)

English

WCM_OH_283a

In Copyright

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Five Oaks Museum

Olson, Nan

Audiocassettes

Sound