1893

There was snow in January and it was “cold like hell” [January 31].  February wasn’t much better with a February 6th journal entry “Went to Wilson’s on account of Rudolf’s rupture, snow averaging 2 ½ feet in depth”.  Josef spent February trashing oats, cleaned wheat, made two rakes, cut wood, worked on the well house, and “made some sort of shoes for Rudolf.”

Kitchen caught fire.

Although March brought in snow, wind, and rain, the chores continued:  grubbed and planted garden seeds, changed trail to barn, split fence stakes, worked at Doan’s, Mr. Headlee ploughed, and the roof caught fire again.

March ended with this notation “This has been the worst March I ever experienced in Oregon.”

April 1893: There were more April showers, “Rained all day and night without stop to beat hell… rainy to beat hell” and work:  Made a harrow, worked in garden, sowed oats, made shingles, sawed wood and cleared at J.B. Doan’s, got flour from Risher.  Made a chair and cart for Rudolf.  Visit of the Assessor.  The cow had a calf, last hay fed.  Served papers as constable to Emil Schmidt, subpoened John Nelson as witness.  Attended E. Schmidt’s trial.  April’s notation “This month has been one of the worst spring months experienced here.” 

May 1893:  Three trips into Rainier, towed logs on the river, worked for Harry Doan and J.B. Doan, worked on new road, visited Mr. Whitehead’s place, planted cabbage and potatoes, made shingle timber, killed two chickens.  Hauled flour.

June 1893: Mother [Winchester] came out. Visited Mr. Morris, went to Doan’s for a hen, made shingles. Graded new road, shingled school house roof and planed lumber at the school house. Made hay.

Above: “Mowed” ~ “Made Hay” 
Homestead chores required long hours of repetitive manual labor, often with simple tools. In the early years hay was cut was a scythe, raked, then stacked to be hauled to the barn.

July 1893:  Mowed, hauled hay, made shingles.  Worked on county road by the school house.  Bob [Johnson] came out.  Made shingle timber.  Cleared west of the house and on the hill.  Made hay for Nelson, went to Rainier with Dora and Rudolf.  Hunted for the cow, picked blackberries.

August 1893:  Fixed cow bell, cleared on the hill, picked blackberries, sowed clover seed, made a bed for Rudolf.  Miss Jacobs [school teacher] came to board.  Went to Stehmen/Wilson’s for beef.  Mowed oats and clover, hauled in hay.  Big fire at King’s place. 

September 1893:  Finished grading new road, went to Headlee’s for beef, to Rishers for wheat.  Held school meeting at Wilson’s, visited school.  Cut on road on top of hill.  Made a calf halter, cut wood, grubbed on the hill, dug potatoes.  Dora went to Rainier, “school marm left”.  First frost on September 22nd.  Decennial remembrance of departure from Austria Silesia September 20.

October 1893:   Picked clover seed, sowed wheat, visited the school, cut wood, grubbed.  Made a truss for Rudolf.  Killed a grouse, made a bell strap for the calf.   Cut bolts at Rishers.  Mr. Headlee ploughed ground on the hill.  Dug potatoes for Harry Doan at Stuarts.  Visited Washburn’s, and Whitehead’s.  Decennial remembrance of landing in New York – October 9.  Cut down trees on the hill, cleared them out. Dora’s danger by falling tree – October 13.  School ended – October 20.

November 1893:  Worked for Harry Doan.  Sawed wood, hauled manure, spaded, broke the shovel.  Got two sacks of apples from Doan’s place on the wheelbarrow.  Made sauerkraut, dug parsnips and turnips.  Moved the privy.  Cut down two trees.  Hauled and planted orchard trees.  Dug velvet grass. (Note: Imagine bringing a wheelbarrow of apples up and down the makeshift road over the steep Pellham Hills!)

December 1893:  Wheeled Rudy to old Mike’s, Dora went to Rainier.  Hauled manure, dug velvet grass, turnips, and carrots.  Shingled well house.  Held school board meeting.  Walking and county road work took up much  time :  December 4 – went to Doan’s for the commission as road supervisor, warned out men for work.  December 5 – Went to see Commissioner Barnes, walked 30 miles. Warned the Beaver and Girt crew out to work; worked ½ day on the new bridge below school house; worked on road by Stuarts; warned the Apiary crew out to work; warned the shingle mill crew out; worked with crew at the Doan hill above Kilby’s. December 28 – 30:  Opened with Shelton’s team, the new road at Stuart’s.  Last few logs rolled out of the new county road at Stuarts.
“Financial matters and weather concerned the year 1893 has been the worst I know of.  New buildings:  well house.  Cleared 1½ acre, made road on the hill, grubbed 1½ acre.”

1892

Early journal entries indicate Josef and his wife Dora were settled in the “good and comfortable home” located on a “small creek flat near the top of a hill”.  [Present homesite of Emma Hackenberg Chapman family].  Josef was gradually adding outbuildings to his property and tending homestead business.  Journal entries have been summarized as daily activities of working a homestead were often repetitive and listed here once for the month.  “Went to Rainier” for Josef often meant a good seven mile hike over some steep hills, or a ride on his old horse.

January 1892:  Josef was busy building a smokehouse, “grubbing”, getting groceries “killed two roosters,” and walking “went to Mr. Headlee’s thence to Mr. Doan’s and Stuarts to locate the county road, and to Headlee’s again; gathered signers for road petition”. Went to Rainier.

February 1892:  Finished the smokehouse and cut vine maple to smoke sturgeon, started digging the barn cut.  Twelve waves of an earthquake were felt.  Spaded the garden and sowed wheat, cabbage, potatoes, lettuce, onions, peas, and parsley.  Pruned and poled the orchard.  Trouble with the roof catching on fire .  Worked at Wilson’s mill.  Went to Rainier for smelt. J. Stuart visited.  February 16:  “Went to Rainier for sturgeon, heavy load, fight with Dora about supper.”

March 1892:  Planted cabbage, rutabagas, parsnips, carrots, radishes, beets, potatoes, oats, wheat, and grafted trees.  Split barn timbers, made shingles.  Went to Mr. Headlee’s for flowers, fooled Dora. Worked at Wilson’s mill. Killed a hen.  Mr. Headlee ploughed.  Made a wheelbarrow.  Went to Mr. Headlee’s with Dora on  March 6; Mother Winchester came from town on March 15; baby Rudolf born on March 30.

April 1892:  Split barn timbers, made blocks for barn, made shingles, sawed wood, grubbed, made fence, worked for J.B. Doan, carried flag for surveying, chained county road with Mr. Headlee from Schultz to Elmer Grindel’s place.  Went to Mr. Doan’s for lard, butter and parsnips.  Black rooster killed.  Quit at Wilson’s.  Four shocks of an earthquake felt. Mother Winchester went home April 13; engagement day remembrance on April 17. 

May 1892:  Sawed one tree down, split barn timbers, raised the barn.  Made a stool.  Spaded and planted corn, cabbage.  Worked at Doan’s.  Arrested Higgins as constable.  Subpoened W. Grindel and E. Grindel, called the jury.  Attended trial of W. Higgins.  Wheeled heavy load from the Brandt place to home.  Went to J. Wilson’s about final proof of the land.  Visited Mr. Morris, worked at Dad’s [Winchester].

June 1892:  Wedding anniversary on June 3.  Made shakes for barn, put on rafters, worked on barn roof.  Went to Doan’s for butter.  Went to vote at Meserve’s.  Held school meeting.  Made hay.  Visits from Mr. Headlee and Rishers.  June 19 – first strawberries.  Wilson visiting about final proof.

July 1892:  Made a rake, planted late cabbage.  Went to St. Helens to get second citizen papers.  Made petition for new school district.  Cleared land for pasture at the creek.  Shingled the barn, made a trail west of the house. Picked blackberries.  Went to Risher’s for flour, to Doan’s for butter.  Got honey out of a bee tree.  Made a henhouse for Dad [Winchester].  Cleared pasture west of the hill, cleared northwest of house.   July 4th – went to Rainier with family.  

August 1892:  Bob Lovelace hauled lumber from Wilson’s mill.  Dora having a bad toothache.  Went to Rainier with Dora to get her two teeth extracted (carried Rudolf).  Carried axe ½ day for surveying, worked on the road at the South Beaver Creek.  Tobyty had kittens.  Harvested wheat, oats, and hay, cleared, broke the peavy, shot a mountain beaver.  Went to Mr. Morris, thence to school meeting to locate the school house.  Helped falling trees on the place for school house, slashed on the school house ground. 

Above: Josef Rodolph Hackenburg, (undated)

“Hogweek”

August 30 ~ Went to Mr. J.B. Doan’s for a pig - Dora’s birthday. 
August 31 ~  The pig got away.
Sept 2 ~ Caught the pig in a windfall near Mr. Morris’, the pig escaped again
Sept 7 ~  Dora caught the pig

“August 30. Went to Mr. J.B. Doan’s for a pig.”

September 1892: Went to St. Helens to prove up on my homestead.  Nailed boards on barn, worked on county road, made a road to the spring west of the house, burned the slashing for the school house place, went to John Nelsons, got a cow.  Made bars for cow, went to Rainier for churn pans.  Worked for John Nelson.
October 1892:  Grubbed, fenced, dug potatoes for John Nelson.  Killed a hen, made sauerkraut, shot two grouse, lost one.  Sawed firewood, made a cow trail.  Made a barn door, sowed timothy seed.  Bob [Johnson] came out.

November 1892:  Roof caught fire again, fixed the roof, finished trail to the new spring.  Made a trail to the N.E. corner.  Went to see Dad at Downings.  Finished the hog barn.  Killed a hen.  Mr. Headlee hauled our winter crops, sawed down a big tree, sawed firewood.  Tobyty lost.  Went to Mr. Headlee, Whiteheads, and Morris about the building of a school house.  Went to Wilson’s to post the school notice.  Made a shed for manure, grubbed.   Light snow.[November 7: voted for Cleveland, carried the blankets home.

December 1892:  Dora went visiting  in Rainier, carried Rudolph to the E.  Beaver bridge.  Carried Rudolph home from Doan’s.  Grubbed, split rails for a well house, went to Wilson’s to file saws.  Held school meeting at our place.  Visited Mr. Headlee and Risher with Dora.  Cut logs at Wilson’s mill for school lumber.  Butchered the hog.  December 21: Snow one foot deep.  December 22: Snowed 4 more inches, trees fell from weight of snow.  December 25: “ Dora’s good dinner.” 

“Everything but finances concerned, 1892 has been a good year.  New buildings on the place: barn, smokehouse, hog barn.  Cleared ¾ of an acre, made (road) trail to Morris’s place, made a trail over the hill.”

Working a Homestead by Josef Hackenberg (undated)

This is not a work of fiction, every word is true.

Whoever has seen the magnificent forest of Western Oregon’s gentle swinging tree tops 200 - 300 feet high on a balmy, fair day, yet is otherwise unacquainted there, would hardly believe them a place of danger or treachery.

In August of 1886 I, tolerably ‘green’ yet for Oregon, filed on a homestead of 160 acres in Columbia County in the most tremendous woods, my nearest neighbor was then Mr. Beusch, over 2 miles away; and he was very good too, for he helped me in every way materially and with advice, as he knew the hard lot of a poor man, who tries to make home in this otherwise splendid country.  Everything would have been well, if I could have been working right along on the place, but without any ready money, I was obliged to work out a great deal of my time to buy tools and provisions, and then the road through windfalls cost me very near 3 months work.

My first location in winter was on a small creek flat near the top of a hill in a bunch of the finest and tallest firs on my homestead.  As I hated to slash them down, and because the creek got dry, I located on a knoll, l/4 mile from there in a bunch of dead trees, which I commenced to slash.  Now to give anybody some idea of this immense amount of work for one man, I state this:  it takes from 5 - 6 acres of space slashed over to be out of reach of trees, each acre ground containing from 35 - 50 standing firs 2-6 feet in diameter. 

First I took the auger and burned them down, but the most of them contained so much pitch, that I had to abandon this method and resort to the axe.  After falling about 100  trees, hardly one third, I left the balance to fall for the winter and started to build a comfortable house out of split cedar boards.  To carry the boards together and fit them with drawing knife and plane took much of my time, and of course my headway was very small, all the while I slept and cooked in the shanty on my first location.  Soon I had to work out again and did not return till the end of October 1887. 
Before going to my place, I visited Mr. Beusch. In the course of our conversation he asked me: "Well, Josef, do you sleep already in your house or in the shanty yet among the standing trees?"  Telling him, that neither house nor slashings would be any ways completed for some weeks yet, and I had to sleep in the shanty of course, he replied: "Well then, I as your good friend advise you to find some sort of safety and make a road to it by all means; we have experienced severe storms here in fall and winter and in the night too, severe, to make anybody's hair stand up, and the noise of the falling, cracking and breaking trees was simply terrific.  It has rained already much, the ground is soft and of course can't hold the roots of these infernal long trees.  I would just as soon be in a battle among whistling bullets as in that timber during a storm, for somebody would finally take care of me after the battle if hurt, but here no soul could know."  I thanked and promised him to follow his advice.  Before leaving, Mr. Beusch again said: "Josef, you know, what I told you, look out for your safety".  Again I promised.

After I got home, I hunted for a safety spot around the shanty and was lucky soon to find it under the butt of a 4 foot in diameter fir turned up by the roots and lying about 15 feet from its root across the roots of another turned up fir tree, leaving a space of safety of 15 x 4 x 4 feet.  The trail I made to it, was not straight to avoid heavy cutting through fallen trees, but good enough, I thought, for such temporary purpose.  As often as possible, I walked along the trail to commit it well to memory and to be master of any emergency I put some dry wood and kindling under the tree; then somewhat triumphantly I said to myself, "ladder comme (let her come)!"  It did come to be sure, but I must confess not quite according to my smart and self-conceited calculations in the terrible night from the 7th - 8th of November 1887, which I shall never forget.

The day had been foggy and misty, so common in this section in fall and winter, then it gets dark very early in these woods, dark, so the darkness can be cut out in pieces.  Coming home that particular evening rather late from work on the house, I went to bed after a scanty supper of black coffee and dry bread, because I hated cooking desperately and in fact there was not much there to make a meal out of.

Like all nights before lantern, slippers, overalls, hat and a long rubber coat were in readiness for danger.  How long I slept, I don't know.  A noise awoke me - and what a noise!  From the cot I flew, mechanically reaching for slippers and hat, when a glaring lightning flash and the instantly following deafening peal of thunder brought me to my senses.  There was to be sure no time to get in the safe place to lose by dressing completely or lighting the lantern, therefore I threw the rubbercoat over me and started for the trail, which in spite of the darkness I found and followed by feeling for the cut end of the logs.  A perfect hurricane blew a drenching rain and some fir brush in my face; the trees seemed to fight, they struck and pounded on another with their tops, sometimes seemingly entangling themselves; their limbs, being in the way, got knocked off by the thousands and came down soaring, whistling and hissing.  At short intervals trees fell.  The noise of the howling wind in the trees, the breaking limbs and tops, the falling trees made a labyrinth of sounds after the thunder, never to be truly described nor forgotten by my mind.  Soon the wind took my hat.  Of course it was no use nor time to hunt for it.

In danger of being crippled or killed at any moment by a falling limb, top or tree, I moved on slowly but surely to safety.  All at once I came to a standstill by a log about breast height.  In the belief I had missed the trail I felt first one then the other way for the sawed end of the log in the trail without result.  A feeling of being completely lost and crestfallen overcame me and my former smartness was all gone.  The cold rain ran from my head down my back and legs.  The fury of the storm increased steady and trees fell everywhere.  About 300 yards from me I judged then and in the direction from which the wind blew, the trees fell as regular as the ticks of a clock and I knew it soon would reach me. 

One who has never seen nor heard one of these trees, growing like a straw 250 - 300 feet high, fall cannot imagine the roar and danger produced by many of them falling at once.  And there I stood meditating perhaps about the insignificance of man and the grandeur of nature or getting ready to die, for there seemed to be no escape, the same danger prevailed everywhere.  Another flash of lightning was my salvation - it revealed to me that the tree had just fallen across the trail, which was to my right close to the place of safety.  Over the log I went in a "jiffy" losing both slippers and landed on the other side in brush and limbs.  Any other time my bare feet would have rebelled against such an experiment.  This however was no time for reflection.  Slowly groping on I was soon in safety; not too soon though for a big fir went cracking across my tree scattering a heap of dirt all over me from its root in consequence of the jar.

The main danger of getting killed or crippled was over and I felt the cold, wet and the bruises on my feet.  My fire after many failures was a poor success; wood and kindling had got wet, so it gave little or no heat but all smoke, which tortured my eyes and nose.  The storm, it seemed to me, raged for an eternity and numerous trees fell.  It stopped suddenly.  How glad I was in all my plight, I can't describe.  Burning candles from dry cedar wood left from the kindling in hand I hunted the slippers, which I soon found one half full of water.  Surely it was no easy task to walk barefooted on the wet, cold ground, strewn with splinters and limbs.  Two trees had crossed the trail.

My anxiety about the shanty being destroyed was unfounded.  Some of the roof boards had been thrown off, bed and stove were drenched, but the provisions were all right.  The watch showed half past 1:00 a.m.  The remainder of that miserable night was spent in cleaning myself and drying my clothes and blankets at the stove.

The next day showed the havoc of the storm: the ground was literally covered with limbs and tops, some sticking in the ground, trees lay everywhere, many acres completely uprooted.  A terrible fire swept over this windfall the following summer and destroyed what the storm had left, and that way a good deal of this beautiful and useful timber goes to ruin.  The Government undoubtedly made a mistake in throwing this section of Oregon and Washington open for settlement.

That night's experience was a lesson for me.  A little coffin-like hut under the safety tree (all preserved yet) served as my bedchamber during the short but hard winter of 1887-88, and in stormy days I went to bed before night to avoid such danger.  My perseverance overcame all difficulties and obstacles and today I not only have the Warranty Deed for my homestead, but a good and comfortable home also, and a dear wife does the much dreaded cooking.

[Josef’s many notations regarding “windfalls” in his journals indicate large swaths of trees were blown over at his homestead before he arrived.  In a Rainier Review article of 1964, Mrs. May Richard Johnson of Hudson recalled a “terrible windstorm” of 1880 and remembered seeing her mother pray for the safety of her father when the trees were being uprooted.  The little four-year-old consoled her mother with “that’s all right, now we can see the sunshine all around us.”  Some 50 trees were blown down.]

Another eye witness account of windfalls:

“Rainier, Oregon Territory, July 24th 1853 ~ Brother Dexter

 . . . we are situated on the south bank of the Columbia; the country on this side is very hilly & heavyly timbered.  The old growth of trees are now lieing prostrate & cover a great portion of the land.  I have traveled a great distance upon ceder logs that were three & four hundred feet long & from 4 to 10 feet in diameter such trees as these would surprise you were you to see them.  Most of the timber that is standing is very large & lofty. . . Silas.  “Life on the Lower Columbia, 1853-1866”, Oregon Historical Quarterly, Fall 1982, page 254.

Above: Married Dora Winchester, June 3, 1891

Dora was a widow previously married to Thomas Wells for a short time.

Above: “Whereas there has been deposited in the General Land Office of the United States a Certificate of the Register of the Land Office at Oregon City, Oregon, whereby it appears that, pursuant to the Act of Congress approved 20th May, 1862 ‘To secure Homestead to Actual Settlers on the Pubic Domain,’ and the acts supplemental thereto, the claim of Joseph R. Hackenberg has been established and duly consummated, in conformity to law, for the south east quarter of section twenty-seven in Township seven north of range three west of Willamette Meridian in Oregon containing one hundred and sixty acres according to the Official Plat of the Survey of the said Land, returned to the General Land Office by the Surveyor General:”

“Now know ye, that there is, therefore, granted by the United States unto the said Joseph R. Hackenberg the tract of Land above described: To have and to hold the said tract of Land, with the appurtenances thereof, unto the said Joseph R. Hackenberg and to his heirs and assigns forever; subject to any vested and accrued water rights for mining, agricultural, manufacturing, or other purposes, and rights to ditches and reservoirs used in connection with such water rights, as may be recognized and acknowledged by the local customs, laws, and decisions of courts, and also subject to the right of the proprietor of a vein or lode to extract and remove his ore therefrom, should the same be found to penetrate or intersect the premises hereby granted, as provided by law.”

"In testimony whereof I, Grover Cleveland, President of the United States of America, have caused these letters to be made Patent, and the seal of the General Land Office to be hereunto affixed.  Given under my hand, at the City of Washington, the fourteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety three, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and eighteenth.  By the President: Grover Cleveland”

William’s letter to niece Carol, dated May 24, 1966: 
. . . Our father married our mother June 3rd, 1891 in Rainier.  Things were a little different in those days, as you well know, but the future must have looked b right that day.  They borrowed a row boat from Uncle Bob and went for a boat ride and laater walked home.  The road was no doubt either muddy or dusty and from Wilson’s (mill site on Pellham Hills) was onlay a trail that went partly over high laying logs.  But they had a home – crude as it was – all proved up on and I guess they would have been “happy ever after” if old Father Time didn’t mess things up.

Working a Homestead

In August 1886, Josef filed on a homestead of 160 acres at South Beaver Creek.  The Homestead Act required land applicants to “improve” their land by clearing trees for livestock pasture, growing crops, and establishing a home.  Josef’s proof that he was living and working on his homestead was established by his journal entries: 

Above: Joesf’s journal

“We herby certyfi that on or about the 11th day of January 1887 that we saw Joseph Hackenberg going to and from his homestead.”

Signed: E.M. Rice, Jacob Beusch, Columbus S.R. Washburn.

“And all so in July and the first part of August.”  

Signed: Jacob Beusch, E.M. Rice

“The month of November from 2 – 3 December 1887” 

Signed: Columbus S.R. Washburn, Jared Wilson

Arrival in “Amerika” - on to Oregon

Above: Joesf Hackenberg

“After landing in New York on October 7, 1883, Josef first went to Altoona, PA, where he had friends and worked in a train car shop.  He didn’t like the climate and moved to Plano, Ill, and worked for a farm machinery company.  Too much thunder and lightning and he moved on.  Nebraska was the next stop where he worked on a farm.  More thunder and lightning and time to leave the Midwest.”

Otto Hackenberg, 1985

He worked in Pennsylvania, Nebraska, and in Illinois where he took out his first citizenship papers (Yorkville).  The climate of the eastern states did not agree with him, and having heard a great deal about the west and the Pacific Coast he came to (Portland) Oregon January 16th in 1886, a very cold winter day, and found conditions in Oregon were very discouraging for a poor man with 15 cents in his pockets, incapable of using English except to swear, wages 50 cents a day of 11 hours work, work scarce and short lived, and pay uncertain.  However, in spite of all the difficulties, he loved the country with its mountains, hills, forests, and hospitality of the people, congregated from all states of the Union.

First he tried to locate in the Willamette Valley, but land prices, being incorporated the year before, were out of sight, and homestead land left was not worth taking.  He therefore turned towards Astoria, and on June 8, 1886, landed in Rainier, a hamlet of about 11 houses, a few barns and outbuildings, several wharves, a sawmill, one store and post office, and two saloons.  The streets were dirt roads, the boardwalks were full of holes, some places tilting, some places missing.  Fences were much dilapidated and refuse heaps, tin cans, and bottles were scattered.

The town consisted of two units.  Rainier and Cedar Landing, now West Rainier (also referred to as Kentucky Flat).  Between the two lay the Winchester place, in the bottom near the mouth of Fox Creek, and southwest of it the Nice place.  There were no other dwellings between Rainier and Cedar Landing, a distance of nearly half mile.  There were two connecting links, the old Beaver Valley road over a low log bridge, now the cement bridge across Nice Creek, and over an old wooden bridge across Fox Creek near the present school house, which road was planked, and a trail on the site of the railroad grade, bridging the creeks by log, impassable in high water.

There were altogether about 150 people in Rainier then.  The families in Rainier 1886 were easily enumerated:  There were the Dibblees, Pomeroys, Silvas,  Weatherwaxes, Dobbins, Suttons, Woodruffs, Winchesters, Moecks, Merrills, Lelands, and two families near the blacksmith shop.  There were quite a number of unmarried men; and only three girls of marriageable age, very desirable objects, and known among the young men by outrageous nicknames:  Edith Dibblee, ‘The Wild West’, Dora Winchester, ‘The Mudhen’ ( to become Mrs. Hackenberg in June 1891), and Emma Kettering, ‘The Swamp Angel’.

The main occupation was fishing, and many lived in houseboats.  Some worked in the woods, in stores, and on the docks.  The articles in trade were fish, cordwood, lumber, and shingles.  Farm products cut a small figure.

Aside of the slow steamers (fueled by cordwood) there were no communications.  There was a steamer everyday to Portland, and one to Astoria, carrying passengers, mail, and freight, landing at Rainier about noon, while the Kellop and Toledo went up the Cowlitz to Castle Rock every other day and the Manzanillo to Clatskanie twice a week.  The fare to Portland was one dollar and the time consumed five hours.

Roads leading out from Rainier were poor excuses and part of the year almost impassable.”

(Rainier Review article 1936)

Escape Route

It is not known how Josef traveled to the port city of Bremen, Germany, and had money to book passage on the steamer S.S. Salier which landed in New York on October 7, 1883.  Josef called the trip a “stormy voyage of 14 days”, and the S.S. Salier manifest lists Josef Hackenberg as a passenger in steerage class.
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Above: The manifest lists Josef Hackenberg as a passenger.

Steerage referred to the one or more below-deck compartments of a ship located fore and aft where the ships steering equipment or cattle had been located in an earlier era. The steerage compartments of late 19th century steamers were no more than cargo holds which were cold, damp and dark without portholes.  They had poor ventilation, were unpartitioned, six to eight feet high, and crammed with two or more tiers of narrow metal bunks. Travelers had to bring their own bedding and sometimes straw mattresses which were cast overboard on the last day of the voyage. Men and women were segregated, sometimes on separate decks but often by nothing more than some blankets draped over a line in the center of the compartment. Children were permitted to stay with their mothers. Some of the larger ships sailing the Atlantic crammed as many as 2,000 men, women and children into compartments unfit for any human habitation.

The air was always fetid because of poor ventilation. Emigrants had to bring their own cups, plates, and utensils and often their own food. They cooked their meals in one of several galleys shared by all those in steerage.

Some ship companies provided herring because it was inexpensive, nourishing and helped to combat sea-sickness.  Toilet facilities varied from vessel to vessel. Some earlier ships had as few as twenty-one toilets per thousand.

Young Josef

Josef’s life story begins in Nieder Lindewiese, a village of about 7,000 people in what was then the Austria-Hungary Empire, now the Czech Republic.  He was born December 28, 1859, to David and Sophie Hackenberg, and the oldest of six children. Thanks to his “little history” we aren’t left to wonder why Josef left his homeland!  Josef’s own words are in italics and items of special interest in bold.

Josef  showed good learning qualities, for which reason the village parson, Mathias Bendl, after many efforts persuaded his parents to send him to college (1872) in Weidenau, Austria Silesia, to study for a catholic priest.  But as a born farmer and mechanic and a great lover of the fair sex, (priests are not allowed to marry) he firmly and continually during his college term refused to study for that purpose.

The imperial assent commission in Freiwaldau on the 18th of April 1879 recruited him to the 9th Field Artillerie Regiment in Krakau, Galitia, and he commenced the tough service among the Polish soldiers May 11, 1879.  In December the same year he was sent to Lemberg, Galicia’s capital to school for noncommissioned officers and after that term back to Krakau May 1880, received the following June the rank of Vormeister and 14 days later that of Corporal; learned to ride and was in the fall detached for instruction of Polish recruits.

His batterie was moved to Podgordre (from Lodgoosh) near Krakaw in the summer 1881.  The following spring he was sent to the mountain batterie in Lemberg and there he ended his military service September 1, 1882.  After coming home he could find no place to earn his living.  Beginning 1883 one party started an investigation of the fraudulent village administration and chose him as clerk; this investigation ended in a big lawsuit, which resulted in the overthrow of the village board.  But for using square expressions such as thief, scoundrel, etc., the investigation party was sent, after a vain appeal to the Supreme Court of Silesia, to prison.  To escape this unmerited imprisonment he went in September 1883 to Amerika.

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

Above: Josef and Rudy, July 1, 1897

As we ponder our rapidly changing computerized world in the 21st 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.

Above: Original Doraville home in orchard circa June 1902. Left to right: Ina, Josef, Emma, Dora with baby Joe, and Rudy holding a puppy.

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. 

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

Dedication

Above: Butch and Luella Hackenberg. Circa 2005

This “glimpse of the past” through a collection of various records  is dedicated to Josef’s grandson Joseph “Butch” W. Hackenberg and his wife Luella Souther Hackenberg, shown below, who own and live on Doraville homestead, now known as Hackenberg Tree Farm. (Picture taken 2005 in South Dakota.)

. . . and in 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

About the Author: Carol Ann McNeely, Née Hackenberg

March 15, 1938 ~ September 18, 2010

Carol with Ursa



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 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 garnered 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 this 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. The original homestead, one of very few that is still intact, is currently a tree farm operated by her brother Joseph and sister-in-law Luella.

Above: Back row: Carol with husband Cyrus “Mike” McNeely. In front of them are their daughters holding their grand children. From left to right: Paloma Gulassa, Jennifer McNeely, Teddy Gulassa, Shane Daggett, Anna Daggett, Weston Daggett and Ranger watches on.

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.

She 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. when not many Americans had been there. Her stories from this time were legendary, like the time 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.

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.

Left: Carol, doing two of her favorite things,
being in the garden and picking strawberries.

Carol was devoted to her family and loved baking with her grandkids and teaching them garden tricks: the best way to kill a slug (she favored slicing them right in half with whatever garden implement was handy, including her fingernails) or how to propagate a rose. She is survived by her husband Cyrus ‘Mike’ McNeely, daughter Anna Daggett (Lloyd), daughter Jennifer McNeely, son-in-law Stefan Gulassa, grandchildren Paloma, Weston, Shane and Theodore, sisters Ina Alumbaugh Hammon and Joan Linn, brothers Joseph and Robert Hackenberg, and numerous nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her parents, Joseph and Wilma Hackenberg and sister Ruth Ring.

So Carrie won't be alone....

"...so Carrie won't have to be alone..." were some of Carol Ann McNeely, nee Hackenberg's last words in the early September 2010 days when she was "getting her affairs in order" at Valley Medical Center, Renton, Washington. Having dispensed with immediate family business, she turned the conversation to where she wanted to rest. Her husband, Mike, having pretty much supposed her choice would be either with her mom and dad or at the farm, was a bit surprised with what she said.

During Carol's research into her family's history she had been much impressed with Carrie. Carrie Tobiath Hackenberg, Josef Hackenberg's third wife, was a strong, intelligent activist woman who championed and participated in the enactment of much of the social legislation and reform we take for granted today. She had participated in a communal living experiment; she was acquainted with Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas; she wrote provocative letters to the editor of the Rainier Review. No doubt she was outspoken and assertive. One can understand that this was womanly behavior unfamiliar to a lot of folks in those days and many, including Carol's own mother, Wilma, didn't like Carrie very much. She was criticized and, probably, to some extent ostracized - left alone - from warm family relationships and interaction. Carol felt strongly that Carrie had been slighted and poorly judged in her own time; she wanted to do something about it. And so she directed Mike to put her urn at Carries grave.

Mike's promise to Carol to "get it done" was an easy one to keep. He chose the inscription in her stone, placed next to Carrie's at the Green Mountain Cemetery in Rainier, because these were her words; because they subtly reveal the warm caring person she was; and because they contain a hint of mystery that someday might inspire somebody to investigate - and that would please Carol very much.

Grave

Photos taken on November 2nd, 2011 at the Green Mountain Cemetery in Rainier, Oregon.

Beloved Wife, Mother, Sister, Friend

Carol Ann McNeely

Nee Hackenberg

March 15, 1938

September 18, 2010

"...so Carrie won't be alone"

View of Cemetery from Carol's grave looking towards the Grange

Skyward view from Carol's grave

William Balod

1887 1975

She came, stayed and went in matchless grace

Ina Albertine Hackenberg Esquer

1895 Daughter 1996

Joseph Hackenberg

1859 Father 1942

Mother

Dora Hackenberg

Born August 31, 1868

Died November 11, 1921

Carol's stone adjacent to Carrie's:

In memory of

Carrie Hackenberg

Wilma L. Hackenberg

July 15, 1913

December 14, 2008

Joe Hackenberg

May 31, 1902

Aug 5, 1985

Joe's and Wilma's stones