Historic Hood River
H.S. Lewis Ranch, 1894
10-22-2013
Notes
This W.D. Rogers photo shows the Lewis home on the H.S. Lewis ranch in 1894. The Lewis family worked this land from 1889 to 1899. According to the notes, this house was built in 1893 by Milt D. Odell. Notes also indicate the house in the background is the Shelley house. If I read it correctly, the people are Alice, Henry, Ralph, and Alice Jr. It is further noted that the white climber rose behind Ralph is the same one (or maybe the same type?) as was presented to Mrs. Kemp in 1949.
charlott
I think I know the location of this house, if that is the Shelley house in the back ground. It would be right near Hwy. 35 across from the old mill pond near what is known as the Sunday place. I think, and only think that Hwy 35 would be downhill from this location.
Shelley mentioned would have been Rev. Troy Shelley. Many of his family members were buried on his land there, later removed to Pine Grove Cemetery.
connie
I love this picture. Maybe a new favorite showing an early settler home.
Buzz
Don’t remember ever hearing of a daughter being named after her mother and having Jr. attached to her name. Was this prevalent in this era? Nothing wrong with it, but just sounds odd to me.
charlott
I don’t know about the Jr. part, but it was common for a daughter to be named after the mother, just as to have a son named after the father.
l.e.
Is that a pond or field in the background?
Looks like it might have been hard to find enough space between the stumps to build a house.
I like these early photos of the families standing outside their homes.
longshot
The house has a gutter to catch the drainage off the porch roof, pretty upscale, though I don’t see a downspout. Looks like the porch is supported by rounds either sitting on or partially buried in the ground. Wonder what supports the house? The standing timber isn’t all that large for that era and is pretty well thinned. Wonder if the thinning was done by fires over the years or more recently by the hand of man?
Would you call that a stoop were Ralph is sitting? Looks roundish in shape and is a big step to the ground.
Jill Stanford
I agree with Connie – it is a wonderful early settler house! My mother was named after her mother, Marguerite. She became known as Baby Marguerite, which eventually became "Babe". A name she hated!
Jeffrey Bryant
History of Hood River County, 1852-1982, page 264, says Henry Seymour Lewis came west in 1888 to visit his sister Annie Shelley, wife of Troy Shelley. In 1889 he bought 80 acres of school land next to Troy Shelley’s for $100.
l.e.
I had just read in Fred Lockley’s "History of the Columbia river Valley" that the Rev. Troy Shelly married Annie Lewis in 1871.
So, I thought H.S. Lewis was probably a relative.
http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~westklic/crvrtshelley.html
Bill P.
The early days of clearing the land of trees was to fell the tree and with the slash pile it around the stump and burn the stump into the ground. Very effective way of removing the the slash and the stump.
Bill P.
Jeffrey Bryant
Article on the pioneer struggle of Rev. Troy Shelley of early Odell in the Hood River Glacier, 1924-06-19, page 7.
https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn97071110/1924-06-19/ed-1/seq-7/