Excerpts from the Lars John Redberg Diaries of 1909 - 1912 of Life in South Tillamook County especially of Oretown, Oregon.
Edna Redberg very kindly excerpted these interesting portions of the Lars John Redberg Diaries and provided them to NVMS. Nestucca Valley Middle School students typed these excerpts during the fall of 2002 as part of their technology classes. Note that the complete diaries of Lars John Redberg spanning many years are in the Pioneer Museum in Tillamook, Oregon. They were donated by Erwin and Edna Redberg.
Page 2 - January 1909 - October 5, 1909
These entries include sleigh riding, freezing temps in house, bay almost covered in ice, 2 months of snow, need rain, shocking hay, barns burning down.
Page 3 - October 6, 1909 - December 30, 1909
Entries include hauling loads of furniture for others, a surprise party, storms with mud slides and bridges washing away, hauling cheese, sleighing, and cutting wood.
Page 4 - January 2, 1910 - April 8, 1910
A chivaree party, cold temps, a dance, ship going aground and hauling lumber and more are in these entries.
Page 5 - April 9, 1910 - June 6, 1910Entries include traveling to Cloverdale, hauling cheese to the dock, very hot weather, Halley's comet, local ball game and barn building.
Page 6 - June 14, 1910 - July 24, 1910
Grave digging, 1 hour & 15 minute ride to Cloverdale to doctor, simming on horses across the bay, suicide, another ball game, 4th of July celebration and clam digging details are included.
Page 7 - August 6, 1910 - September 3, 1910
Included are a house fire, toothache and long trip to the doctor, church at Meda, loads of lumber and gravel, a very huge fire, hauling hay and a trip to Willamina.
Page 8 - September 4, 1910 - October 5, 1910
Entries include hauling bricks, a falling meteor, getting supplies at the dock, church, droves of brown butterflies, a trip to Sheridan and school starting. Page 9 - October 11, 1910 - November 7, 1910
Hauling cheese and hauling bricks for a new house, moving people out of the county, sickness, teeth pulled, hauling lumber and an upset wagon Page 10 - November 8 - 27, 1910
Sickness continues, picked apples, hauled road planks, attended grange, hauled out workers from the cannery to Willamina, roads are very bad, snow and a man & pony were carried downstream Page 11 - November 27 - December 26, 1910
Rescued!, barn building, trip to Tillamook and then another trip to Tillamook moving a family with an overnight stay in Cloverdale, butchering & canning meat Page 12 - Jan. 1, 1911 - Jan. 31, 1911
A dance, barn building, trip to Tillamook, moving a family to Tillamook & staying overnight in Cloverdale, butchering and cannin. Page 13 - Feb. 7, 1911 - Mar. 27, 1911
Finished building horse shed barn for grange, corrected some bad boys, very bad wind and rain, dance in Meda and returned home at 5:00 AM, worked on making a road south with lots of dynamite blasting Page 14 - Apr 1, 1911 - June 25, 1911
Trained chickens (!), worked on road (from Oretown south), it nowed, plated garden, rode ont ehlake, several new barns being built, and 7 automobiles passed by Page 15 - July 2, 1911 - August 29, 1911
Completed road, the first local people to ride in an auto, drownings, 27 chinooks and a large meteor lit up the sk. Page 16 - Sept. 9, 1911 - Oct. 31, 1911 Boats on the beaches, a chivaree, picking huckleberries on Sand Cape (now known as Cape Kiwanda), trouble crossing the bar and shipping 1500 salmon Page 17 - Nov. 1, 1911 - Nov. 27, 1911 Success!, snow, catching many fish, dental work in Cloverdale Page 18 - Dec. 2, 1911 - Feb. 27, 1912 Dynamiting, a wedding, a newborn baby died, basket social, sled making, knitting a chinook net, received 3 mail sacks of garden & flower seeds, broke ground for Oretown Gospel Church Page 19 - Mar. 4, 1912 - Apr. 23, 1912 New teeth, new lamp from Sears & Roebuck, auction sales, snow, grading for new house Page 20 - May 1, 1912 - Jul. 26, 1912 Church, Dr. Williams practicing in Cloverdale, 98 degrees in shade, a dance, drownings, grave digging, Meyer's auto truck went by, and a baptism Page 21 - Aug 3, 1912 - Sept. 27, 1912 Decided to build a new cheese factory, fish camp, treacherous bar, picked huckleberries at Sand Cape Page 22 - Oct. 6, 1912 - Dec. 1, 1912 Thousands of fish, 45 tons of fish at cannery in one day, hauling lumber for Oretown Co-Operative Cheese Factory and a marriage