Historic Hood River
Collecting Autographs
Notes
Grace’s artifact for this week is a nice autograph book in our collection:
This autograph album dates to 1890 and was “presented to Carrie Good for excellence in spelling by her teacher R.C. Hutchinson.” While little is recorded about Carrie’s early life, she eventually married J.O. Cameron, an early settler and farmer in the Dukes Valley area of Hood River. One page from her book, dated (Hood River, Oregon) July 29, 1894, reads, “Friend Carrie, Be good, do right and all will end well. Your friend R.A. Copple.” While this entry mentions Hood River, many of the other autographs in the album came from Yoncalla, Oregon.
Before easy long-distance communication, autograph books were traditionally exchanged between friends, colleagues, and classmates. They were often filled with personal messages, drawings, and poems, a tradition that lives on today through yearbooks and guestbooks.
I was unable to find much information about R.A. Copple in Hood River, but several historic Oregon newspapers mention an R.A. Copple of Pendleton.”
There were several Copple families in the Hood River valley in this era. My guess is “R. A. Copple” was Robert Andrew Copple, son of Simpson and Alice Copple. The 1906 Simpson Copple House at 911 Montello Avenue survives to this day.
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