southtillamookcounty.com
southtillamookcounty.com
History
"Short History of the Little Nestucca River Valley and Its Early Pioneers" written about South Tillamook County, Oregon
The page below was written by Mrs. Hardy Rock (Alexandria LEY Rock) and published in 1949. NVMS students have retyped her history so that many may read it. Although some punctuation errors have been corrected the text remains as written by Mrs. Rock.
Note that Alexandria LEY Rock's "Short History of the Little Nestucca River Valley and Its Early Pioneers" has been republished in book form as of January 2007 and is now being offered for sale by the Tillamook County Historical Society!
(This page was typed by Dean Bones.)
In 1898, Pete McInstosh started a cheese factory at Oretown. The building was a little north of the present cheese factory. The first cheesemaker was Ide Hiner.
In 1901, Frd Christensen, son of pioneer Chris Christensen, became the cheesemaker. March, 1909, he became cheese inspector of Tillamook County in which capacity he served thirty-seven years. This factory was made co-operative in 1932. A new building was erected close to the old one in 1932. It has been improved and enlarged and is one of the best in the county.
This industry is the principal one in the community and the dairymen take pride in producing number one cheese.
A cheese factory was started at Meda in 1901 with Will Smith as the first cheesemaker. Some of the others who served there were Ioys Carver, Frank Wilson, Ralph Dunn, Ralph Sutton, and Ralph Gardner. Later, a new factory was fuilt by the dairymen. In 1927, it ceased operations by consolidating with Central Factory situated between Oretown and Cloverdale.
A private cheese factory was started by Chas. Goered between Oretown and Newkowin on the hill north of the present home of Lawrence Whitman. About 1912, it became co-operative in a new building close to the old one and finally concolidated with Oretown factory.
Marie Bauer, wife of Steve Bauer, operated a private cheese factory on their farm at upper end of Slab Creek Valley from 1914 to 1929. Here cheese was of excellent quality which whe sold to private families.
During 1887, a large Salmon Cannery was erected on the east side of Nestucca Bay by Linewebber and Brown of Astoria. The bay and rivers were alive with salmon. A large number of men and boys became fishermen and soon the cannery and adjacent sites became an active, bustling industrial center. Joe Thomas, who was manager, lived with his family in a new cottage on the hillside overlooking the Bay. Supplies were brought by boat; canned salmon shipped out the same way. Mrs. Anna Christensen, who lived on the hill above the cannery, and Mrs. Sarah Bozley, who lived at the junction of the road to the Beach and Bay, furnished board and sleeping quarters to the influx of workers and fishermen. So many transient fishermen and their families moved to the Bay, the Oretown School District was compelled to add a new room to the schoolhouse to accomodate the children.
Many whites as well as Chinese were employed in the Cannery. The chinese were brought by boat from Astoria dn housed in a building by themselves.
After a few good years, salmon became scarce, and the cannery ceased operation. The machinery was moved away by boat, and in time, the buildings became wrecks. Other industries that had sprung up along the Bay closed down, and residents moved away.
Our Bay on which we local people had based many hopes had become a deserted locality. No good road has ever been opened to it, and its location is . . .(The rest is unreadable. If you have a good copy of this history, please give us the final words of this page!)
Continue to page 17 of "Short History of the Little Nestucca River Valley and Its Early Pioneers!"