April 30, 2020 Episode.

Uncovering the record of our lives following early settlement is one of the perks of being the City Archaeologist, according to Kimberli Fitzgerald, who also wears the hat of Salem's Historic Preservation Officer. 

Salem's latest Public Archaeology project is just finishing up at the site of a redevelopment project at 960-990 Broadway Street and E Street NE, just kitty-corner from the historic Boon's Treasury restaurant building. The current owner of the property contacted the City to find out about the history of the site and enthusiastically offered to host an archaeological dig site on the property. [Note: If you'd like to see what's proposed for this site, check out the Salem Planning Commission Staff Report.] 

Although the public archaeology project has just completed, you can check out three videos Kimberli created to document the process: ​Taste of History-Jason Lee Archaeological Site - Part 1; Part 2; and Part 3. 

​During this site work, a third inadvertant discovery of sections of the old Scotch Mills millrace occurred. You'll recall the first such discovery was in 2017 at Front Street & Division at the rail crossing, the second during work on the new Police Headquarters at Division & High Streets in 2019, and this new one at Division & Liberty Street. Public records show the entire length of the North Mill Creek millrace was collapsed and covered over in 1924 after numerous complaints about its posing a public safety hazard were lodged.  Evidently, those earlier construction efforts were very husky. 

Since history is a living thing, change becomes inevitable. Sadly, the 1927 Leslie Junior High School on Howard Street SE is being demolished to make room for an expansion of South Salem High School. Many Salemites have fond memories of their school days there, as we've shared in several "Yesterday's Voices" interviews. The Salem-Keizer School District is putting together a memorial book and video and invites you to share those fond memories. You can access that video project here.

To listen to the full episode with Kimberli, click here.

​~~Posted by Deb Meaghers

April 16, 2020 Episode.

​Heading west from Salem on Highway 22 on your way to the coast, you will pass by the historic Brunk Family Pioneer Farmstead on the north side of the highway. This was the second Polk County home for  Harrison & Emily McNary Brunk's family, built in 1861. Their first  homestead was in the boggy Basket Slough area of western Polk County in 1849, where they farmed for 10 years before they acquired better farmland further east. They relocated to the new farm in 1859 and lived in  a log cabin while building this home where their family members would reside until 1974. 

At that time, Earl Brunk, the last member of that well-known family still living, donated the farmstead to the Polk County Historical Society. The PCHS has been lovingly caring for this fine example of a pioneer farmstead since then. Ann Gage, Education and Outreach Coordinator for PCHS, joined us to tell us about this working museum and to ask for our help in preserving this historic treasure.  

The Brunk Farmstead is known for its annual events, all now being put on hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic we're experiencing. The auto clubs' rallies with the cherry desserts from the farm orchard, the annual cider-pressing with heritage apples and desserts, the period technique classes in the blacksmith shop or the craft room, along with many other planned events, are a major fundraiser for this picturesque venue. It is a common misconception that the Polk County Museum & the Brunk Farmstead Museum receive funds from the County, but that is not true--all revenue come from admission fees, donations or grant funds.  All the heritage and cultural venues in our region are experiencing extreme financial stress due to the forced closures. 

The photos above show a planned maintenance project that turned into a larger rehabilitation effort. The beautiful two-story porch that fronted the Brunk House (left) had been leaking and dry rot was detected in a few areas. Grant funds were secured to cover the costs of that work. The project grew exponentially when it was discovered during that work that the entire porch was rotted and would need total replacement. 

Thus began a major fundraising campaign for this small venue, barely off the ground when the Governor's pandemic closure directive was issued. According to a recent Facebook post, through generous donations, they have raised enough funds to begin the Phase 1 planning/drafting component, but still desperately need to secure significant additional funds to begin and then complete the remaining construction work to replace the porch.  You can find information on how you, too, can help preserve this wonderful pioneer farmstead on that Facebook Page.  

All the various heritage venues that preserve and document our history, our stories of who we are and how we got here, have been available for our enrichment because those living before us accepted the responsibility of stewardship. Even though few of us may ever personally be involved in resurrecting and preserving a unique historic resource, we all benefit from our rich historic legacy educationally and economically. It is our ongoing responsibility, both privately and publicly, to secure these treasures for the upcoming generations.  If we cannot understand our history, we have no way to appreciate our future. Please consider investing in your heritage, now!

Many historians are encouraging us to chronicle this history-making pandemic event for future generations to look back on, much like the various news media are presently doing by dredging up all the old stories and photos from the Spanish Influenza outbreak of 1918. 

I will certainly remember the Stay Home-Stay Healthy directive that closed the physical locations of most businesses and schools in mid-March. We learned overnight how to telecommute to work, homeschool our children online, and visit with our medical providers via screen devices. As we had previously scheduled guests set to record interviews for our Salem History Matters radio program when it became necessary to close the KMUZ studios, it was time to get creative to allow the recording to proceed.  Thus, my "satellite studio" was developed.

You will note by the photos I'm sharing that it was indeed a primitive and temporary solution at best, but it got the job done. We set up a laptop in my home office, placed the cellphone in a glass measuring cup for both proximity to the microphone and amplification. A sturdy woodworking clamp worked as my microphone modulator.

​Both interviews recorded that day have aired successfully, but we don't plan to conduct further interviews in this manner. It is less than ideal to conduct phone interviews as you cannot "read" the guest, nor can you enjoy the back-and-forth flow of conversation that occurs when you are seated together due to the limitations of the technology.  But it was important to get these stories out into the public arena where they can move from person to another.  We'll be airing encore episodes until the real studios can open once again.

As a wordsmith, I am more than tired of hearing the same phraseology repeated over and over, such as "living in unprecedented" or "uncertain" times;" all time is uncertain and unprecedented, not just that within a crisis period.  I've learned that I am truly a "people" person, and this forced physical separation in the name of "social distancing" has been extremely difficult for me, although I fully understand and accept its necessity. All the "video-chats," "virtual hugs" and "air kisses" do not satisfy this need to connect with those we enjoy and love.

Now, five or six weeks (or is it seven or eight--time seems to blur?) into this new life, I have adjusted better and have found ways to feel connected, apart. Not that I'm boasting, but I've completed six 1000-1500-piece jigsaw puzzles single-handedly, which I then swap with my across-the-street neighbors--using the appropriate social distancing, of course--for those they have completed.

It is important for us to document how our lives have changed, how we've adjusted to this "new normal." Just as we love learning about how our ancestors lived, so will our descendants want to know about our crazy times. I personally hope that we will remember the better parts of this crisis--making the unnecessary things and activities obvious to us and clearly marking what is important to each of us, recognizing the wealth of our relationships with family and friends, and that even the smallest acts of kindness can carry immeasurable weight in another's life.

We are being tested. Let's strive for a good outcome--one that lasts for more than a news cycle.  Take care.  We'll be back together yet again.

March 19 & April 2, 2020 Episodes.

The story of the Steffen family begins long before we talked with Stanley Steffen, and he wanted to be sure we were aware of that. The story starts in the area around Berne, Switzerland where his family were Mennonite dairy farmers. Religious persecution caused mass immigration of Swiss and German Mennonites to France, South America, Canada and the midwest states of the U.S. The Nickolas Steffen family immigrated in 1850 and joined other families in the Sonneburg/Kidron area of Ohio who had arrived in the first immigration wave of the 1820s, like the Abraham Lehmann family.

Stan's great-grandfather Nicholas Steffen married Barbara Lehman in 1854, they then moved to Berne Indiana. Three children were born to this union and then they divorced in 1863. Barbara Lehman Steffen and her children returned to the father's home in Sonnenburg, Ohio. In 1877 she relocated with her two youngest children, Abraham, aged 11, and Peter, 9, to Oregon to help her  daughter, Elizabeth, who had married John LIchty and moved to the Switzerland-Howell's Prairie area southwest of Silverton in 1876.

John Lichty, a woodsman and builder, had settled there on a portion of the T.C. Shaw donation land claim--a pioneer from Tennessee who played a vital role in the settling of the Willamette Valley. They soon started a sawmill business on the Pudding River near Silverton, the exact location of which the family is still trying to determine.

Peter Steffen, our guest's paternal grandfather, married Rosina Liechty, from another Swiss immigrant family, in 1887 in Silverton. Peter built several barns in the area and owned several pieces of specialized barn-building equipment, now fondly remembered by grandson Stan.  In 1917, one of their five children, Daniel Abraham, married Linda Leisy, daughter of  Emil Abraham & Magdalena Krebill Leisy, whose families were German Mennonites. 

During Wayne's recovery time, Stan devised a way he could adapt their hay loader to use hand controls so Wayne could continue picking up hay bales and loading them onto trucks to be delivered to their customers all over the valley.  Stan relates that Wayne, no mechanical novice himself, wasn't home very long before he figured out how to also fit their large grain-hauling rig with hand controls. He then began hauling 22 tons of grain to Portland every day.

The Steffen boys continued devising more efficient machines over the years. In 1970, Stan opened up a shop where they worked together with other family members, friends, and neighbors--each bringing their own expertise--to build these machines. They learned to work well together, taking time to make each piece good to look at and good to last. Some years later, the enterprise would become Steffen Systems, run today by Stan's son David, selling their machinery all over the globe.  Most of Stan and Ruth's seven children have worked in one of the family businesses in some capacity.

Stan has seen many changes to farming over the years. He says he would love to see a return to smaller, family farms with owners active in their community rather than the large corporate farms often owned by absentee landowners. He would also love to see a return to the four-crop-rotation farming system that made the Mennonites--the original organic farmers--so well-known in Europe. One-crop specialty farming, which he himself adopted as being modern practice, relies on various soil amendments to return and retain soil fertility, as well as focusing all one's resources on a single crop that could prove to be a profit loss through external pressures.