In Memorium of Carol Ann McNeely (March 15th, 1938-September 18th, 2010)

After a long battle with lymphoma, Carol Ann McNeely died peacefully at home on September 18th, 2010. Carol was born on March 15th, 1938 and grew up on her family’s homestead farm in Rainier, Oregon. She attended Oregon State University and then worked in public service for a variety of agencies in Europe and the US, retiring from the Federal Aviation Administration's Renton Office. She began her public service career with the U.S. Army in Europe’s Judge Advocate Division in Heidelberg, West Germany in 1962. Later there were stops at General Service Administration in Auburn, Washington, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Seattle. There were also brief stints at Boeing and Auburn Hospital.

She was an avid gardener and was always delighted to share her knowledge, some good compost or a few bulbs with her friends and neighbors. Her flowers regularly garner compliments from the neighbors and passersby.

One of Carol's passions, second (or perhaps not) only to her love of gardening was 'rooting' out and writing about her family history. Her accomplishments in this arena were impressive, and she spent several years painstakingly compiling a comprehensive history of her family, resulting in a 400 page book that details the Hackenberg family in Europe, their immigration to the U.S., the trip west across the Oregon Trail and their life on the homestead, which is still in the family. While she spent all her adult years in the Seattle area, the homestead farm was never far from her thoughts and she visited there with her ‘Washington’ family often.

Carol was an enthusiastic music lover and accordion player and friends and family were always prepared for an impromptu concert; sometimes they would have to sing, sometimes they got lucky. She was a country music fan and knew all the old tunes, to sing or to play.

Carol was an intrepid traveler in her early years, leaving Oregon State University and her family for a job in Germany for the U.S. Army. She visited much of Europe during this time, even touring the U.S.S.R. during the cold war, when not many Americans had been there. Her stories from this time were legendary, like when she turned the wrong way down a one-way street and found herself surrounded by about a thousand Spanish soldiers on horseback, coming down the street the proper way. In a parade. During some of these foreign travels, Carol became an early critic of the ‘Ugly American’ syndrome when she was frequently embarrassed by the behavior of her fellow tourists. Her favorite spots to visit, though, were Cannon Beach on the Oregon Coast and Vinegar Mountain, in Eastern Oregon.

She was a great baker and a bit of a health food nut. She won a prize for her sourdough rye bread, but tried to slip her kids ‘comfrey milkshakes’ consisting of comfrey, castor oil and wheat bran. She was interested in social issues and was always looking out for the underdog; she was always the first one to offer help to anyone who needed it.

Carol was devoted to her family and loved baking with her grandkids and teaching them garden tricks: the best way to kill a slug or how to propagate a rose. She was married to Cyrus ‘Mike’ on June 4th, 1966 in church with same day receptions at the farm in Rainier, Oregon and at the family home in Renton. In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be made in her name to the Oregon Historical Society (http://www.ohs.org/).

Welcome to Doraville

This glimpse of the past lives of our ancestors is dedicated to Josef’s grandson Joe "Butch" and wife Luella, who own and live on Doraville homestead now known as Hackenberg Tree Farm. Joe and Luella are shown in a photo taken in 2005 in South Dakota.

. . . and in loving memory of Joe Jr. and Wilma Hackenberg.

“We clasp the hands of those that go before us, And the hands of those who come after us.” ~ Wendell Berry

INTRODUCTION: This little history shall give any future generations of this family Hackenberg knowledge of their ancestors, describing their character, birthplace, life and prominent movements with dates of year and months as far as possible. Many people of the United States know nothing about their parents, about ½ know nothing about their grandparents and hardly 1/10 know anything about their great-grandparents, because people move and mix more (more divorces) in the U.S. than in the well settled and stable countries of Europe. It will be divided as follows: 1) The history of the Hackenbergs in Europe, 2) The history of the Winchesters and, 3) The history of the Hackenbergs in Amerika. The present family Hackenberg in Oregon near Rainier has been founded by the marriage of Josef Hackenberg and Mrs. Dora Wells (Winchester) on the 3 of June 1891 in Rainier. It will certainly be interesting for our posterity to look back several centuries of family life in different generations, different conditions and countries. Hoping my few lines may satisfy I am one of your Dadies.

Josef Rudolf Hackenberg
South Beaver, March 8, 1896
* * *

As we ponder our rapidly changing computerized world in the 21^st century it is hard to visualize pioneer life at “South Beaver” over a hundred years ago when 36-year-old Josef Hackenberg sat at his desk, reached for his Ivy Leaf stationery, and with a firm hand wrote the “little history” of his European roots, and a brief sheet on the Winchesters. There is no evidence that he wrote a section on the Hackenbergs in America; however, it is known that his brother William lived in Wheeling,West Virginia.

On that cold March day in 1896 as Josef let his mind wander back to his homeland, he and his wife Dora had three young children [Rudy, William, and baby Ina] and were settled in their shingled home Josef described on final homestead documentation as built of “lumber, 18’ x 18’, 3 rooms and kitchen, 7 doors, 7 windows, and habitable at all seasons of the year.” The house, barn and other outbuildings were situated on a small creek flat adjacent to the neighboring Headlee property line and surrounded by young orchard trees just starting to produce. Josef had a lot to show for his past 10 years of hard work.

For Josef and his country neighbors in the 1890’s it was a time before Apiary Road and easy access to town. There were few roads, no automobiles, no electricity, and no telephones or a way to readily communicate with family and friends in Rainier or surrounding communities. Families were located by geographic designations such as “South Beaver Creek”, and homesteaders either walked or rode a horse on homestead trails through timber and windfalls to help one another, socialize, or procure provisions. Josef made many journal notations of “went to Rishers for flour”, or “went to Doan’s for butter”, etc.

The accomplishments of Josef’s generation of hardy pioneers, both men and women, are now mostly forgotten, their deeds and names lost in time. Through Josef’s journals, family letters, and newspaper articles we have a historical glimpse into a homesteader’s life in rural Oregon written by Josef himself. Nothing is said of the contributions of pioneer women like Josef’s wife Dora who had to manage pregnancy and birth with little or no medical attention; i.e., Josef’s journal entry the day of Joe Jr’s birth “May 31, 1902: Hoed potatoes, 3:20 p.m. Joseph born”. At times Dora and the children would be left isolated in the country when Josef was off for extended periods working in the logging camps, on the road crew, or pruning orchards.

“Mamma [Dora] did not like to shoot a rifle, but like other pioneer women could use it if she had to.” Daughter Ina, 1992