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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Robin Cady recorded in May, 2001, on the Vietnam War and how it affected Hillsboro, Oregon. Cady, a native of Hillsboro, did not serve in the military, but wrote articles about the war. He describes the reactions to the war in Oregon, which was influenced by there not being military bases in Oregon and a senator who did not support the war. He talks extensively about how the Vietnam War became, for the US as a whole, a situation of “how to get out” versus the historical “how to win”. He talks about the importance of honor and how that impacted the way that the US dealt with the war. The war was eventually seen as a civil war between north and south Vietnam and the South Vietnamese would have to be the ones to win the war. The US involvement was seen as a police action to go in and help the south rather than try to win the war. Cady talks about a gentleman named Jack Kirkland, a teacher in the area who also wrote about the Vietnam War, and how their opinions differed. Cady comments on contemporary Vietnam and the effects the war had on it. He also talks about Ho Chi Minh and his involvement, the Asian democracies and admits that the US might have pushed western democracy too much, and how the war was a popular discussion of debate in schools in the US. He finishes by talking about the people who were brought into the draft were the poorer people who were not going to college. There were many ways to avoid entering the military during this time of war. There is a lot of white noise and background noise including a phone ringing, doorbell ringing, and people’s voices throughout the recording. There is a short transcript of the first couple of minutes of the recording.
An audio recording of an oral history of Judy Berger on life in Hillsboro in the 1960s and during the Vietnam War. Berger talks about public opinion in Oregon starting to change when Oregon senators Wayne Morse and Mark Hatfield start to speak out. She mentions local anti-war demonstrations at Portland State and teacher Jack Kirkwood writing anti-war letters to the very conservative Hillsboro Argus and the Oregonian. Berger discusses propaganda from the John Birch Society and negative attitudes toward Jane Fonda. Traveling throughout Europe in 1968, Berger remembers a nationwide strike in France, Russia
An audio recording of an oral history of Tinh Bao on the Vietnam war and immigrating to the United States. Bao discusses his flight from South Vietnam in 1970 at the age of 14. He left his parents in South Vietnam; his father was in South Vietnam Army. He took a boat from Thailand and was in a Bangkok refugee camp for 8 months. Bao talks about his new life in United States and living in a democracy. There is a transcript of this interview.
An audio recording of an oral history of Phil and Mary Ann Barnekoff and Bob Orme about the impact of the Vietnam War on Hillsboro. There is a transcript of this interview.
An audio recording of an oral history of C. Norman Winningstad about the developent of the high-tech business in Washington County, Oregon. There is an index of this interview.
