Historic Hood River
Berry Pickers
6-3-2020
Notes
Here’s a good seasonal image from the days when strawberries were one of the major crops in the valley. I think that may be an irrigation trough in the foreground.
Faint notes on the reverse indicate this is the T. A. Reavis strawberry patch in 1903. Mr. and Mrs. Reavis are identified, as well as Nellie Lucas Davis and J. V. Crawford Heppner. Also noted are Ed Dreske and a Mr. Gwinn. Another note indicates “Most of the people were from Goldendale Washington.”
You’ll recognize the names Dreske and Reavis from other images. You can click through the tags to see them.
Charlott
Too bad there are no names associated with this photo. I am thinking from the flatness of the land that it is probably on the west side of the valley.
Having spent many summers in the berry fields my question is about the women in this photo. Do you think that they actually got down and crawled along in those long skirts, through the berries?
I don't know, but I imagine that the berries would be flatted up and taken down to the steam boats to go to Portland.
L.E.
Great photo but it makes me thirsty and my back ache, just looking at it.
I wish we knew whose farm.
My grandpa used a row tiller such as the one on the right.
Harold
Looks to me like the first east/west stretch of Orchard Road, looking north.
Like this: https://www.google.com/maps/@45.667788,-121.5397308,3a,75y,351.31h,75.79t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s-X1E_lFS5sQQndedQFMArg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en
ArthurB
Charlott jogged my memory– I posted this in a rush as a place holder, intending to go back and add details. I'll add another paragraph with additional info from the back of the image.
Kenn
Appears to be a large sectioned pipe line in the background, could this pin down a location?
Kenn
The wood cultivator at right reminds me of one I bought up Mosier Creek for $5. Donated to and still displayed at the 1856 Baker log Cabin at Carver..
The dresses do not seem like berry picking garb, but cannot imagine them in trousers.
nels
I constantly am impressed by the women of that day who had to wear long dresses when there was no such thing as paved sidewalks or streets. Plus they had to work outside so much, and then all that dirt was tracked into the house with no such thing as electric vacuum cleaners. Just keeping basic cleanliness was a major time eater. Not to mention ironing them with a hot stove nearby to heat the (heavy) irons. Like I've said, no fat people in that day, or if there were it had to be a sign of some wealth.
Melody Shellman
I agree with Harold that it appears to be looking north. The hill in the background looks like the one behind White Salmon. I imagine Mt Adams is hiding in the sky.
LMH
Thomas Albert Reavis (1853-1938) was an enterprising man arriving in HR in 1903, having purchased the farm in the Barrett district, from of A.S. Disbow. There is a rather large entry in his Idlewilde findagrave page of Mr. Reavis and his family.
nels
Is that a fence or a pipe line in the right rear background? If a pipe that would give a clue to location.
ArthurB
nels & kenn– I thought that was a pipeline too but on detailed examination it seems to be a fence line along a road with another field beyond. It's a little deceptive but there is a sign post which convinces me it is a fence. Sorry you can't see it at this resolution.
L.E.
According to the Glacier, Nellie Lucas married A.L. Davis December of 1905.
Buck Parker
There's probably a missing comma on the back and it should read “J. V. Crawford, Heppner.” I believe he's the man in the bowler hat and vest to the right of center in the back row, looking off slightly to his left. He was my and my sister's (Cecelia Goodnight) great-grandfather. He came across the Oregon Trail with his parents in 1851. He was the first postmaster at Crawfordsville, Oregon, named for his father. Later he became a minister of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and had congregations in Waitsburg and Dayton, Washington Territory, and later in Joseph and Heppner. I had heard that he sometimes preached at the Christian Churches in Hood River, the two churches that are now Hood River Valley Christian Church. This makes me wonder whether the people in the photograph might be a church outing picking berries for a church-related event.
OrMtnMaid
I would say Parkdale and that is Gilhouley/Middle Mountain in the background.