Historic Hood River
Leroy Childs and Gordon Brown
Notes
I’ve been remiss in not showing harvest time pictures yet this year, but I have a good excuse. I’ve been preparing a special treat.
A little while back Ilea at the OSU Mid-Columbia Agricultural Research and Extension Center contacted me for help evaluating their photo archives. She led me up in to their attic, where they have four very heavy boxes with a total of 800-900 glass plate negatives dating from 1912-1950’s. Most are technical in subject matter– things like grafts, insecticide application, diseases and such, and they are meticulously documented. Fortunately they also include images that are of more general interest, as you’ll see as the week goes on.
These are the two men who I believe are responsible for most of the collection. On the left is Leroy Childs, who was an entomologist and superintendent of the research station from 1914-1952. On the right is Gordon Brown, who was horticulturalist at the station from 1916-1952. The photo was taken at their retirement on July 1, 1952.
We actually saw Mr. Childs a while back in this image. He’s 35 years younger, at the beginning of his career, but still recognizable.
I hope you enjoy this week’s tour of agriculture in the valley courtesy of the OSU Mid-Columbia Agricultural Research and Extension Center (MCAREC).
charlott
Leroy Childs was very instrumental is the fruit as we know it in Hood River at present. He did a lot of work in relationship to the fruit pests and wrote numerus articles in relationship to it.
Leroy was of a pilgrim famly, one of hs ancestors being Samuel Childs who arrived on the Massachusettes shores sometime between 1620 and 1624.
Leroy himself was from Redding, California where his father was also involved in the fruit industry. He got his educaton at Stanford..
Leroy and his wife Hazel had two sons, Leroy and Allison.
Jill Stanford
Hazel and Leroy Childs were great friends of my grandfather, A.W. Peters. I remember them so well when I got to visit in Hood River. I was always taken to their house to say hello. Hazel had a wonderful laugh.
l.e.
Is Mr. Brown pointing out a graft that he did when he first began working for MCAREC?
There was the Earnie Childs family of Trout Lake area. I wonder if they are related.
Lesa
Any relation to Sally Childs? She was a great friend of my mother in-law, MaryAnn Scearce-Hanners. I have a great picture of Sally trying pulling at the halter of a mule, trying to get it to move, while mom sits smugly on its back.
The picture must have been taken sometime in the late thirties to early forties.
Mike Childs
Hazel Childs was my grandmother, Sally is my aunt, I remember spending many a day at the Hanners place. It is one of those places that pops in my head all the time.