Questions from MWS Youth Program students, collected 09/14/2012
Answers from Johnson Family, 09/15/2012
Dairy Farm
1. How many cows were there?
They averaged 60-75 Jersey cows, but had up to 100 at times. They milked the cows by hand,
using the gutters to channel the milk. There was one bull, named Mars, but then he had another male
who they kept a bull named Jupiter. The father always told them that they “need to respect the bull”.
2. Where did the cows spend most of their day?
They grazed in the pastures, which were where the water currently is as well as up the valleys.
The calves a few months old would stay in the barn, along the south side. The 6-months to 1-year would
graze on the southern hill. When they were yearlings, they would graze in the valley. The bull stayed in
the area along the mowed drive that now has all the blackberries from just east of the barn to the beaver
dam. Cow tags used to be worn around their necks at that time, not in their ear like they are today.
3. Did you raise any other animals, beside cows?
They had a pigeon coup, which was in a portion of the garage. They also had pigs, which were
kept in the northeast corner of the barn.
4. Did you bail the hay?
No, they didn’t grow their own hay. They had hay brought into the barn in bales. They would
have trucks back into the barn and stack the bales in the east end of the barn.
5. When the dairy farm was here, was the dike gate here? (Haley)
Yes.
6. What did the dairy look like before the invasive blackberries?
There were blackberries, but they were out of the way. They were further up the valley, by the
orchard. The girls used to spend hours picking blackberries and would come home with pails full of them,
and their mom would have to make pies, jam, or do something else with them.
The kids used to play baseball in the field just north of the house and garage, when there were
no blackberries there. Instead, some wild rose grew behind the garage. There was a garden by the
current parking lot.
There used to be an orchard up on the southern hillside (near the water tank). Now, there’s only
one or a few apple trees remaining. There’s also a large myrtle up there, which they used to climb and
play at.
7. How old is the barn? When was it built?
The barn was already there when they moved to the place in 1961. They think it is really old,
since the track at the top was used to move lose hay.
8. How long was the dairy farm owned by your family? Why is it not a dairy farm anymore? (Natalie)
The Johnson Family never owned the property. They lived on the Matson property from 19611969. By the late 1960s, some hard feelings had formed between the Johnsons and property owners,
who weren’t comfortable with the size of the dairy. This discomfort led the Johnsons to move off the
property. The father started working at Coos Grange then.
There was another owner, who they knew, from about 1976 to 1989, after the Johnsons left. The
most recent owners were unable to repay a farm loan they had received from the government, so they
lost the farm. At that point, the Coos Watershed Association purchased the land for wetland mitigation.
Life Back Then
9. What did the buildings look like when you were here? How many buildings were on your property?
The siblings all said that everything seemed a lot bigger than when they returned.
The barn used to have doors on the east end, just like those on the west end. The hog pen was in
the northeast corner of the barn. The breeding area was in the southeast corner. The north side was used
for calving, and the south side was where the youngest calves stayed. There was a water trough near the
east end of the nursery. They used to climb up the ladder to the right of the east end opening to get on
the platform and jump in the hay that was stacked up.
They added on two bedrooms to the house when they moved in in 1961.The parlor was probably
only about 10-15 years old at that time.
There used to be a 100-foot long feeder attached to the silo, where the concrete slab (and large
tire) is. There was also a molasses tank behind the garage. A pile of sawdust for bedding was by the
feeder. A bridge went across the waterway by the white depth post that now stands in the water. There
used to be a row of hay bales along the cement lane to the east of the barn/nursery.
“Shorty’s Cabin” used to be along the eastern ridge. All the hills up the canyon have been logged
since the family was there. There were three ditches in the wetland. One was right near the barn,
another on the opposite side, and one in the middle.
The current power lines are new. The old ones didn’t run up the canyon. They pumped water out
of the canyon’s creek for irrigation. They used the spring (which is the current water source) for water.
They had a fence around the sistern, but sometimes and animal would get in it and they would have to
fish it out.
10. How far did you have to walk to finish daily chores?
The kids had to help with chores, especially during the summer. They would shovel manure from
the barn into the manure pit, which was just east of the barn, off the concrete landing. They did this
barefoot! Someone else would come and haul the manure away every so often, spreading it on other
fields.
They scrubbed the pipes in the milking parlor, cut thistles (and received 1 penny per thistle), and
pulled tussucks in the field (even though they flooded it every year). They also had to manually move the
irrigation pipes around the fields by balancing the long pipes perfectly in the middle.
11. What year was it settled? Where was the first homestead?
There was an old log cabin up the canyon that they think was the original homestead. They
believe it’s from the 1930s, since it was “wallpapered” with newspapers from that era. The cabin is no
longer there.
12. How many through the generations lived here?
During the time that Johnsons lived here, there were 8 people. They parents had 6 children (4
girls, 2 boys).
13. What is the “fish history”? Did you go fishing in the creek?
They would fish around the property, but didn’t mention about the creek.
Other Information and Stories
The father found a deer that had been shot, and there was a fawn next to it. He brought the fawn back
to the house, and the children asked to keep it. He let them raise the fawn, which they called Bambi, as
long as they didn’t keep it as a pet. The fed it milk and raised it. When it was old enough, they tried to let
it loose up in the canyon, but it came right back. They say Bambi thought it was a cow, and just hung
around with their cows.
Elk browsed considerably around the property. Where the other house now stands across the wetland,
they used to call “Myrtle Noll”, because it was full of myrtles. Once, Ken was with a friend (Fred
Messerle) looking at elk up by Myrtle Noll. They called, and heard a response from a bull only 40 feet
behind them!
One time, a friend landed a plane in the field. Ken got in to go for a ride, and they almost hit the silo as
they were taking off!
The whole family was involved in 4H. The parents were the leaders and each child showed a cow at the
county fair.
Once, a really bad windstorm was blowing the barn doors. Ken came home from school and had to rush
to help his dad bolt them down.
They had to walk up and down the driveway every day to get the school bus.
Other questions to ask in the future:
How was the dairy started?
How much milk did you produce daily?
How long does it take to make butter?
How many animals did you have?
Did you ever lose any cows?
What was some of the equipment for?
What did the property look like when it was new?
Was there Blue Ridge access?
What was it like back then?
How important was the land to you? (Natalie)
How was it like to live on a dairy as a young boy? (Shanderah)
What did you feel when the dairy closed down? (Shanderah)
Why did they live here?
Did it make the family closer together than others who aren’t living on a farm?
How hard was it to make sure the farm was in good shape?
Did you ever walk around the whole pasture in one day?
Did you ever think this would become what it is today? (Natalie)
Did you agree with it becoming a watershed? (Natalie)
Why did the watershed program buy this pasture? (Haley)
Multiples of questions deleted.