THROUGH THE EYES OF BRO. HOLMES O.M.S.
St. Johns Heritage, Volume 5, January, 1997. Courtesy of St. Johns Heritage Association

Widmers dairy at the end of North Jersey Street was near the Ogden slough. The Ogden slough emptied into the Willamette river. Terminal No. 4 was built on the Ogden slough channel and the Ogden slough finally disappeared.

Chief Cesanos’ Camp was on the Linnton bank of the Willamette river looking over to the Multnomah Indians on Sauvies Island. Chief Cesano took Lewis and Clark to a village at the mouth of the Ogden slough. The people there traveled the slough in canoes. This mode of travel ma[d]e them muscular of shoulder and arm, though they were diminutive. Women wore dresses woven out of Cedar bark strips. They treated them for an eye infection. After 1860, the relics of the Indian habitation were gradually collected.

Chief Cesano would not guide Lewis and Clark farther than Rocky Butte up the Columbia river, nor beyond Willamette Falls. The Oregon Historical Society has thought about a memorial for Chief Cesano.

Fred and Joe Ramsey took the Ogden slough to the Columbia slough and built their own dwelling and hunters cabins. They dissuaded their friends from the custom of placing the dead in trees. Roy Killion collected arrow heads on Ramsey’s Columbia slough. Ramseys marker is under a cedar tree on Swift Blvd. Gattons family cemetery is farther down the road.

Simmons dairy ranch house and barn, with weather marks of sixty years, was touching Pier Park woods. The Columbia slough third inlet was in view. An Indian path ran through the woods from Cedar Park to the slough. Pier Park woods was grazing ground for Meese’s dairy cows.

Huch and Andy Messe went outside the city limits at the end of North Mohawk street. The farm house and barn are in the center of cultivated fields and rail fenced woods. The mud slough and rail road track ran through it. The track ran through the first inlet of the slough and made a frog pond in the ravine at foot of Oswego street. The pond was covered with algae. During March the chorus of croaking frogs was heard far into the neighborhood. They became quiet at night. Crickets stopped singing in late evening. Owls hooted late and the ranch dog barked for anyone listening.

A wooded ground between the sloughs ended at Catfish Point. The current of the Columbia slough and the back water of the mud slough formed a wide space of water. On the down stream an island with willows and cottonwoods again separated the flowing current and the still water which ended at the St. Johns land fill was called the blind slough. Mud turtles sunned on the fallen trees and dead heads in this still slough near Smith Lake that had once connected to the Bybee Lake.

Van De Bouvier rowed in his scow and the collie dog chased the cows to the basin and they plunged in and swam over to Smith Lake. The faces of the gallant herd swimming the slough were photographed by a reporter for the Saturday Evening Post and their picture was on the magazine cover in 1916. Van and his brother-in-law, a world war veteran, raised grain and potatoes on the dairy. The English walnut tree, by their farm house was photographed by the Eastman Kodak Company in 1914. It was the largest English walnut tree found in the United States and awarded first prize. Germane Van De Bouvier and her close neighbor, Vivian Mihon, graduated at Roosevelt High School in 1927. Van quit the dairy and moved to Smith avenue and Richmond street the same year.

Pete and Mrs. Repp leased lake and duck hunters cabins as Fred and Joe Ramsey had done before them. They drove a black team up to St. Johns to trade. In November hunters came on the St. Johns street car and walked down muddy Oswego street and Swift Blvd. to the duck lakes as they were called. Sunday evening they came with 25 ducks and 8 geese and boarded the street car back to Portland. The pop of shot guns woke us up on Sunday morning at daybreak and we went down to get the Oregonian funny papers on the porch to look at in bed.

My grandmother Lizzie Cook and my mother, Nadean Holmes and I caught catfish on throw lines and angle worms in the Ogden slough in 1910. Mr. and Mrs. Dan drove their lively horse from Dan’s Restaurant on Ivanhoe and Burlington street to the best fishing places in the Columbia slough. Bamboo fish poles were tied to the side of the buggy. Mr. & Mrs. Dean on Fessenden and Charleston street came home with 60 catfish on a string. The two bachelor brothers on Oswego and Seneca Street were fishermen on nice days. Ernie Milhon and “mudcat” Johnny Jewston lived on the slough, weather permitting. An observant fisherman cut down a bee tree to get its store of honey.

A cedar rail fence along the farm road from N. Tyler street to Ramsey’s ranch had five thousand two hundred and thirty-four ten feet long cedar rails. Chipmunks ran on them. Snake trails crossed the dusty road and we spat on them for good luck. A black snake as thick as the width of my hand lay in the weeds by the fence. Its head and tail were not in sight but it was ten feet long, unheard of, but down by the slough. The steam powered thrashing machine belt was rolled up and hid under the fence. Policeman Roberts took charge of it.

Evergreen cedar, yew and fir were in the uncleared woods. Wild cherry, maple and alder and ash filled it. Scotland wild roses and blackberry bushes covered the sunny spots. Violet, stars, johnny jump ups, daises and trilliums were everywhere.

Wood loving birds retreated there, robins, chickadees, sparrows, blue birds, canaries, blue jays, wood peckers, thrushes, sap suckers, gross beaks, wrens, finches, Oregon cat birds, humming birds and swifts. Swallows fastened their mud nests on the barn eves. Bob white quail, whip poor wills, pigeons, turtle doves, pheasant, the crows and the hawks stayed near the fields.

Skunks and cotton tail rabbits hid in the thickets but liked to be seen. Pine squirrels munched in the trees. Grey diggers perched on the track rails and burrowed in the fields. Bald head eagles flew above from the coast range to the mountains of the cascades.

Dr. Mary McLoughlin in St Johns in 1906 said Scottish seamen brought wild rose bushes from Scotland and planted them on the banks of the Willamette River. They spread and travelers on the river began calling Portland “The City of Roses”. The wild roses of five pink petals produced red seedy pods. Mrs. Schwab made rose bud jelly out of them. It was a red jammy spread for bread, half sugar. Hazel nut and elderberry picking was a summer time event.

Rising water in the June freshet flooded the slough and lakes. Pools became spawning beds for crappies, perch, bass, sun fish, chubs, catfish, mudcats, carp, suckers, crawfish and rare flying fish. Sandy Scales said the Columbia was the Sandy river, one and the same at an early time.!!

At daybreak, fish jumped as far as the eye could see. The hungry fish were catching lady bugs, snails, earth worms, cut worms, caterpillars, dragon flies, moths, grass hoppers, butter flies, flies, bees, mud dobbers, mice, frogs and minnows Sandhill cranes stood in Bybee lake waiting to catch a fish.

Kingfishers flew close above the water. A flying fish skimmed in flight. A flying squirrel crossed over. The Oregon Fishing Guide advertised the best bass fishing slough to be the Bybee slough.

Al Krustky trapped beaver, otter and mink and muskrats in Smith Lake to sell the pelts to fur buyers. Don Ball said the record shows that Smith gave Smith Lake to Multnomah County for a perpetual wetland preserve. It has not been taken for landfill. Owing to its loss of water Smith Lake has lost its water fowl. Willow and Alder brush has sprung up in Smith Lake. Smiths garage was home base for their tanker trucks that hauled gasoline from out of state. The garage is still standing at the corner of St. Louis and Jersey (Lombard) Streets. Smith’s steam boat, the Sacajawea was a stern wheeler with a derrick up front. Smith said he had a cargo of black powder from the Dupont plant in Ridgefield, Washington. A barrel tipped over and the black pellets rolled toward the fire box but didn’t reach it!

The saw mills had stern wheelers to tow logs, which were rafts floated all along the river bank. The tug boat Ruby towed logs up the Columbia Slough to the Beaver Mill by the railroad bridge in East St. Johns and the Cross Arm Factory on the mud slough.

The Ruby was working at Bonneville Dam in 1963. Swimmers jumped into the slough to ride the Ruby’s waves up until 1925. The Harvest Queen, the Bailey Gazert, the Georgianna, were five hundred capacity passenger boats to Astoria for a small fare. The America and Iralda were diesel sister twins that passed St. Johns daily on schedule. The Iralda whistled punctually at three PM for the ferry crossing. The lone and the Beaver towed logs and hauled cargo. In 1936 the Holman Transfer Co. sent their stern wheeler to Alaska. Other stern wheelers from Portland were put to work on the Yukon, in Alaska.

The S. P. and S. passenger train ran to Seaside and the Y at Holliday until 1930. Emmet Blew of 10009 N. Oswego Street was conductor until the last run.

Conductor Cobb on the S. P. and S. run to Seaside was the father of the fat boy in Our Gang movies who was a star with Farina and three other rascals.

General Motor trucks and busses and hard surfaced freeways became the speedier way. The steam boats and passenger trains largely replaced after 1930.

Swift Packing Plant was built in Kenton in 1905 and Swift Blvd. was named. Cowboys rode on it from the Kenton packing company stockyards. The Webster ferried live stock from Whitwood Court to the ferry slip at the foot of Burlington Street. The long drive of the hurrying animals started up the steep hill, through St. Johns on down Oswego Street and Swift Blvd. to the stock yards in Kenton. Soldiers guarding the bridges and industries marched down Oswego Street to return to camps in East St. Johns near the depot.

Whistles from several mills were heard morning, noon and at the work days end. Ship building finished and the Grant, Smith, Porter closed. The Portland Woolen Mills took the whistle and used it. Church bells rang on Sunday. The bell on the City Hall rang the curfew at nine or ten PM. It rang whenever necessary to alert volunteer firemen to man the hose carts. Central informed callers as to where the fire was. Train whistles caused a symphony to whistles. Street cars had whistles, too.

Gypsies came to the woods of East St. Johns in horse drawn wagons and stayed a good part of the Summer. In 1915, the Gypsy women offered to tell your fortune and asked that you cross their hand with silver. They would have babies in their arms.

Frank Leasey, on Olympia Street, had a one ring circus of trained animals. Besides, he had Civil War articles, arrow heads, a wood freight train on a wooden guiding track. It had a shiny brass bell on the locomotive cab. My father bought the train from Frank Leasey and we kids, wearing straw hats with a feather in the band, pushed the train. The replica of a freight train ended up in the basement, also.

Three trunk sewers were running into the slough by 1925. The Oswego Street, the Pier Park and thw Willis Blvd. Sewers. The sanitary plant on John Egger’s dairy farm at the foot of Peninsula Avenue altered the pol[l]ution. The city health officer Dr. Parrish, closed the four dairies, Widmers, Meeses, Ramseys, Van De Bouviers, in 1925. He closed a swimming club in the city that had a boat house on the Willamette River in Portland.

In 1963, sight-seers on the Gray Line Columbia Cruiser saw workmen on a barge lowering a pipe into the Columbia River. The Oregonian acknowledged that the [e]ffluent from the Camas Paper Mill would run at the bottom of the Columbia River channel. Since 1963 there has been one smelt run in the Sandy River in 1980. A restaurant in Troutdale put on an annual smelt eating contest annually in March until the smelt run stopped in 1963 and for the last 30 years there has been one run.

Activists in Park Rose have won commitments from county and city commissioners to reopen the Columbia River to its former flow in the Columbia Slough. A plan to stake out a greenway on the slough’s seven mile bank has been approved. Columbia river water can restore the slough to its former freshness. The slough has a depth of 15 feet for seven miles from Kelly point to Blue Lake.

Sara Elizabeth Cook taught Sunday School at the Pioneer Methodist Church on Richmond Street for 20 years. She was a member of the Womens Christian Temperance Union. A Geanor and admired Billy Sunday and Gypsy Smith. Cutting the ribbon for the opening of the St. Johns Bridge was an honor given to Lizzie Cook and T. J. Monohan in 1931.

Dr. Solomon Crews Cook was born in Creston, Iowa in 1851. He studied medicine at the American School of Medicine in St. Louis and practiced medicine in Lyons, Kansas for 25 years. He married Elizabeth Darnell. Daughters Nadean and Jessie were born in Lyons. The family came to Kalama, Washington in 1899 where Dr. Cook practiced medicine until he retired and came to St. Johns and built a house at 1000 N. Oswego Street in 1903.

S. C. Cook was on the City Council when the county ferry “Webster” was assigned. It ran for 25 years. Grocery man Couch, a St. Johns council man, charter member, worked hard to promote the St. Johns Bridge. Father Michael Miller, O.S.M., at Assumption Parish, wrote a script on the importance of the bridge between the Columbia River Highway and the St. Helens Road to Astoria. Two talented Vaudeville and Minstrel Show performers, Bill Burley and Harry Fasset sang a song promoting the bridge during the campaign to pass the bond measure for 3 million dollars; it was passed.

Cook opened a real estate office on Fessenden Street and developed the nineteen ten addition on N. Bank Street. Cook and Henderson the abstract man opened an office on Jersey Street in the old Post Office on Jersey (Lombard) Street next to Jowers Clothing Store. Both men were extremely deaf and kept a hearing aid on the counter. Solomon Crews Cook died in 1922 and he was buried from Assumption Church. C. L. Holmes bought Reeves Grocery on Oswego and Fessenden Street in 1905. He worked in the Grant, Smith, Porter Shipyards and leased the store to the McClaren chain for two years. C. L. Holmes died in 1944 and he was buried from Assumption Church. Nadean Holmes and son John Cook Holmes closed the grocery store in 1948 at the end of the 2nd World war. Nadean died in 1951 and was buried from Assumption Church.

Ben, John, Joe and Mary went to the Sisters School. Ben was at James John High School and moved to Roosevelt High School in 1923. They all went to Roosevelt High School.