An audio recording of an oral history of Tom Delsman and Bob VanderZanden on the Vietnam era. Delsman was a student at Oregon State in 1966-1967 and was a member of the ROTC. He enlisted in 1967 and was sent to Vietnam in 1968. Delsman notes that Oregon State was pretty conservative and the University of Oregon was very liberal. Delsman and VanderZanden say that Hillsboro was fairly conservative and supported the government and people fighting in the war, though attitudes started to change between 1969 and 1970 and people wanted out of the war. They also mention the start of drug culture. There is a transcript of this interview.
An audio recording of an oral history of Miller Duris (March 2, 1928 - March 23, 2014), an American politician in the state of Oregon, on life during the Vietnam War. Duris was 20 years old when he moved to Hillsboro in 1948 and was in the Navy. He worked for Tektronix Incorporated in Beaverton. He was a city councilman for Hillsboro in 1968, elected mayor in 1972 and served until 1976. He was a county commissioner in Washington County in 1977, became chairman of the board, then left in 1980. Duris says that Hillsboro was not very affected by the war and that the Hillsboro Argus newspaper did not do much editorializing about the war. Duris says he did not know of any draft-dodgers in Hillsboro and notes that the My Lai massacre turned many against the war. Duris, a World War two veteran, talks about how servicemen were not treated well when they returned home from Vietnam.
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.
Part two of an audio recording of an oral history of Guy Carr about his life in Beaverton, Oregon, recorded on March 4, 1981. Carr continues talking about Beaverton in broader terms, talking about the people who lived in the city. He describes the early day entertainment as dances and baseball. He describes the different places that hosted dances and how baseball was made up of a “bush league” of men from all over the area. Carr describes how some people settled in the area including his stepdad, Mr. Pegg (the coroner), and the Fannos family, and gives short stories about other people in town including Blathers “The Old Goat” and Fred Vetter. Carr talks about selling tractors to farmers was like selling cars to people. Carr enjoys fishing and describes where he frequents. He tells the story of when he broke his leg and back while walking across a bridge during fishing and how he survived it. Other topics Carr covers include the first bank in Beaverton being the Pegg bank in 1910, where he grocery shops, drivers education, and the Beaverton school district while he served on the school board and his opinions on how the schools are doing. Throughout the interview, Carr mentions his collection of photographs, and the interviewer mentions that making a copy of them for history would be a good idea. A full transcript of the recording and a listed summary of topics discussed is given.
An audio recording of an oral history of William (Bill) Manley, including early childhood in India, World War I and post-war activities. There is a transcript of this interview.
An audio recording of an oral history of William (Bill) Manley, including early childhood in India, World War I and post-war activities. There is a transcript of this interview.
An audio recording of an oral history of Samuel (Sam) Rich, covering the history of Orenco and the nursery business in Washington County. There is a transcript of this interview.
Part one of an audio recording of an oral history of Walter Tews and his life in Hillsboro, Oregon, and the many different positions that he held. Born just a few miles north of Hillsboro in Centerville in 1891, Tews moved into town in 1905. He describes the layout of the town including where buildings like the school are located, even giving exact street names. Wanting to be his own boss, Tews quit school and started working for the mill loading and unloading the train cars that brought in logs. He describes himself as doing the job “better than three men.” When the mill changed ownership, he also started working elsewhere. For four years, Tews worked in a grocery store, managing the storage room in the back, the refrigeration of items, and delivering grocery orders to people in town. During this time, he was also a volunteer firefighter at the local fire department. Everybody in the department was a volunteer and he remembers when they finally got a horse to pull the hoses to fires, instead of carrying the hoses themselves. Tews tells the story of a few fires that he fought. After that, he worked as a sewer inspector, a road builder, and a building inspector. Eventually, he even served as police chief for a while. Tews remembers the sewer system and paved streets adding to the growth of the city, the paved streets especially since they allowed automobiles to drive in the city for the first time. Anytime the city of Hillsboro needed an inspector or chief, they went to him because they “could depend on” him and he “always did a good job wherever” he went. It is hard to understand many of the individual words that Tews says throughout the interview. There is some background noises of cars’ engines roaring by and the clocks chiming, but the interview is still clearly audible. There is an attached page of typed introduction and an index along with the recording.
Part two of an audio recording of an oral history of Walter Tews and his life in Hillsboro, Oregon. The recording starts with Tews continuing his description of a guy approaching him about a spotlight and telling Tews that he had done the best job possible. Tews tells stories of his time as police chief including locking a young man up in the iron cell in the jail for an hour to teach a lesson about curfew. When the discussion turns to Prohibition, Tews talks about his distrust of vaccinations and how there was nothing a shot of whiskey couldn’t cure. He recounts more memories of the fires in town and how the bakery and hospital could have burnt down. The Great Depression definitely had an effect on Hillsboro and he remembers the ways in which people helped each other through the time. During this time, Tews also worked on clocks and describes how he wanted equal money for his work. He also describes how he borrowed money from the restaurant where he worked and how people also borrowed money from him. He goes on to talk about the Fourth of July celebrations that were extremely popular and how they were more well-attended than the county fairs which became something mainly for the farmers. Tews finishes by talking about his time building roads and the process behind it with the different sized rocks. He enjoyed his time living in Hillsboro and taking on so many positions. He always finished every one of his jobs that he took on. As with the first part, it is difficult to understand many of the individual words that Tews says throughout the interview. There is some background noises of cars’ engines roaring by and the clocks chiming, but the interview is still clearly audible. There is an attached page of typed introduction and an index along with the recording.
An audio recording of an oral history of Don McInnis, including some stories from friend Oscar Pierson and his sister Clara who stopped by for the last part of the interview.
An audio recording of an oral history of Don McInnis, including some stories from friend Oscar Pierson and his sister Clara who stopped by for the last part of the interview.
An audio recording of an oral history of Don McInnis, including some stories from friend Oscar Pierson and his sister Clara who stopped by for the last part of the interview.
An audio recording of an oral history of Minor T. Hesse recorded on March 22, 1978, on the settlement and farming in Washington County, Oregon, specifically the Scholl area, during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. His family represents the typical farmer in the area and his experiences convey common characteristics of rural life in the area. His family had come to Oregon with the intention to run a dairy farm and had to clear out the land of timber. He describes how his family made a profit from their cows and other products by making day trips into Portland. When bovine tuberculosis took out their herd of cows, Hesse recounts how his family invested in other crops, especially grains and potatoes to ship to California. He talks about his childhood chores on the farm, the Scholls Fair, the start of 4-H and the implementation of scientific farming, the addition of Ford automobiles and tractors to farm life, and the role that religion played in the area. Hesse describes the neighborhood trust that was built and how the farmers would help each other out, catch scammers and bring them into the town sheriff, and the expectation behind letting strangers stay at their farmhouse as they were traveling. He finishes by talking about the hops industry in the area, the breweries in Portland, the Chinese and Mexican migrant workers that came to help in the fields and stayed in labor camps set up by the farmers, and how Prohibition affected the hops business. There is a full typed transcript of the interview with an index, list of questions, and an introduction.
