Some History of the Oregon 4-H Center Property

Notes from Pillas Howell Diltz--10/15/88

Chapel is a tribute to the wife of Ivan Stewart--Merle Du Rette Stewart--as wall as a show case for Mr Stewart's extensive rock and mineral collection.

Funds for the Chapel were provided by the Stewarts, the Oregon State University Foundation's Chapel Fund and individuals interested in the project.

Many individuals volunteered their services to help build the Chapel. Ken Friedrich, Independence, designed the structure. The Brazilian agates featured in the cross were given to the Stewarts by their friend, the late C R Manerud of Eugene. Phillis Howell Diltz and her Mother Mabel Gordon of Salem, selected the red beach agates and the Brazilian agates and cast the resin panes used for the windows and the cross. Charles Layport, Salem, supervised the construction of the five foot high panels of white sand inlaid with cut and polished stone. The Center staff, Youth Corps and the Navel Reserve provided countless hours of labor.

The stone for the Chapel, the sun dial and the large fireplace in the Dining Area were gathered by Mr Stewart over sixty years as well as purchased for him by Fred A Roner of Albany. Many of the rocks are thunder eggs, Oregon's official rock.

The Sun Dial was built and designed by the Oregon State Penitentiary Lifer's Club. They also did a lot of work on the property, clearing and cleaning and making it ready for groups to enjoy.

I believe that Mr Stewart's friend Mr C R Manerud of Eugene was the one who made the fireplace in the Dining Area.

The McKinlays (by IS) Rev George A McKinlay was one of the ministers who was a pastor of the Spring Valley Church in the 1890's and he had two sons who were owners of part of the 4-H Center. It is interesting to note that the church was built in 1859.

We bought a 26 acre farm from France McKinlay in 1942 and a 70 acre farm from Arthur McKinlay in 1943. France's Farm was located in the area which contains the hostess house and the holly orchard. Arthur's place was clear back on the northwest corner of the place. To get to it you had to follow the old county road for about a mile, and then go on a right-of-way on my land about half a mile to get to his place.

France was a soldier in the Spanish American war, and when the war was over he bought 26 acres which came off the corner of the Mike Smith place, and this purchase included a water right from the big spring which feeds the lake.

His buildings consisted of a small house and barn located near the Holly House, which we tore down and replaced them with the Holly House which we used for a holly packing building. He was a very progressive fruit farmer and the entire place was planted to fruit which consisted of prunes, cherries, pears, apples and holly. He built and operated a large prune drier which we tore down in 1973. Part of the lumber from this building was used in the building of the Chapel.

There is an interesting story about the holly orchards. In 1904 the father, Rev McKinlay was in poor health, so in order for him to be doing something out in the open air Arthur had him plant the two acres of holly on France's place. He bought the holly trees in Portland shipped them by boat to the Lincoln warehouse on the river, then hauled them by horse and buggy up to the Farm. When we bought the place in 1939, the holly orchard was 35 years old. It was very beautiful because it had been so well kept.

The holly orchard was a good source of revenue for the farm In addition to selling wholesale to florists, we developed an extensive business of selling 2 pound gift boxes for shipment all over the country. We built the Holly House to serve as a good packing place for our gift boxes. A unique feature of the business was that each year we sold holly tips to Harry and David of Medford to put in some of their Christmas packages. The tips were 3 to 4 inches long cut from new growth. By constantly going over the orchard and cutting the tips, we caused the whole orchard to be a mass of new growth, and it is from new growth that the fines quality of berried holly is obtained. The holly business was a very good one as some years our gross income was as much as 2500.00 from the holly orchard.

France raised a family, but Arthur was a bachelor. He built a sizeable summer house on what we call the hilltop. This building was wrecked and the salvage lumber, doors and windows were used in the building of the hostess house. Counting the two McKinlay houses we wrecked a total of 5 houses, their barns and a prune drier.

We were particularly anxious to purchase the France McKinlay Farm because it was at the entrance of our farm and we also wanted to get the water right. For a number of years France served as a mail carrier and his wife taught school.

We bought 70 acres from Arthur that was located on the northwest corner of the farm property. It was separated from France's place by over a mile. You had to use the old County road to get to it and he had a right of way of about half a mile to go across our property to get to his, and he also had a water right to use water from a spring on our property.

He was the only one using the County road and we were very desirous of buying him out so we could petition the County to close the road, as it was not being maintained.

He had a ten acre cherry orchard and the balance of the farm was in timber. The only buildings were a large shed where he kept his equipment. We operated the cherry orchard for five years and since we were not fruit people we grubbed it out and planted it to Douglas Fir trees. There is a beautiful fir grove where the cherries were planted.

About half a mile west of Arthur's place he rented 5 acres from the Mann place and planted and English Walnut Orchard. We maintained the orchard for five years but since it was so far from the headquarters and since the squirrels were so bad, we gave up doing anything with it.

One day we learned that Arthur was going to give his 70 acre place to a neighbor family who had befriended him for many years. We took a dim view of having people going through our place in order to get to Arthur's place. We immediately got in touch with him and made him a cash offer for his place. The interesting part of the deal is that he had a lot of old cherry ladders, buckets and some other equipment which he valued highly, and we make a big issue of buying his old equipment in order to make sure that we could get his land.

Buying him out meant that we cleared up a water right, and it also meant that the county allowed us to close the old military road. The right of way for the road was 60 feet wide and with a mile of roadway it added quite a bit of free acreage to our farm.

At least a dozen people have had something to do with the land comprising the 4-H Center, but Arthur McKinlay easily wins the prize as the most interesting character of them all. He was quite small of stature, but large when it came to intellect. He was one of the first graduates from the University of Oregon and he got a PhD from HarvardUniversity. He taught Latin and Greek in the LincolnHigh School in Portland. He went to Europe to study classical languages and became quite and authority on them, and he used to give lectures on them.

When USC at Los Angeles was founded he became the Dean of men. When he died he left a considerable estate in stocks and bonds to the University and an expensive oil painting of him hangs in the Dean's Office. He never married and for a number of years lived with a sister in Los Angeles.

I used to send him a box of holly at Christmas time. He came to Salem from Los Angeles several times on the bus and he would visit me on the farm. he loved to wander away in the woods and on certain occasions he would sit on a stump and recite sonnets to me.

As I mentioned before, Arthur was a most interesting character as is evidenced by two incidents I shall relate. The County road going through the place had a number of mud holes in it and he suggested that I get a wheelbarrow and gather up rocks along the right of way and put them in the mud holes. It would have been quite a job for a mile of road. On one occasion attempted to hire a small neighbor girl at .10/hour to stay in the walnut orchard and keep the squirrels from taking the nuts.

ETC NOTES

Clairbourne Walker in 1845--his wife was a Purvine.

Roy Barker in 1847.

Major Walter M Walker 1848.

Other ___ Pioneers:

J R Shephard--His granddaughter worked for me.

Joseph Taylor Hunt--his son and grandson worked for me.

Wayne Henry--he worked for me, he was a grandson of Major Walter M Walker--1848 pioneer.

Van Mann--owned part of Center.

Peter F Clark in 1874 owned place across road from France McKinlay.

Mrs Skinner in West Salem--granddaughter of _____. Knows of old County road. Mrs Elizabeth Skinner, 3708 Glenwood N(?)E 585-4519. [Zena Store & Lincoln Ferry]

Buildings and Center--letter from 'Scotty' Washburn, notes and recollections from Merle Stewart.

The Big Barn was a small barn that expanded so that it would be an efficient "cattle feeder" with hay stored on upper floor for approximately 15 head.

Jessie Taylor, from Mac Clay, built the fireplace. he also did the patio floor and fireplace on the personal residence at 398 Jervis Ave SE in Salem.

The telephone booth in the barn came from a building being wrecked==as did many other of the unusual items in the barn as Ivan Stewart had a "collector's passion" for the "odd and unique" better known as "one man's junk is another's treasure".

The artistic development of the barn peaked when Richard "Jeb" Stewart, Ivan's youngest son, attempted to organize an "Art Colony" in the early 70's and various art and craft centers were constructed in various parts of the barn.

The Merle D Stewart Chapel was built in honor of Ivan Stewart's wife--Merle DuRette Stewart--an early Oregon Pioneer whose family came to Oregon by wagon train in the mid 1800's

The "rock window panels" were made by Phillas Howell Diltz of Salem, 585-1657, PO Box 17436, Salem, 97305.

They were made from Ivan's life long collections of agates and other polished stone--hand dipped in resin and mounted in translucent panels.

Two men from Independence, Oregon ______did the rock work. The chapel door was another of Ivan's collector's prizes and is very old.

[The Lifer's Club @ Pen. did lots of work.]

House of Doors. A Second Hand Store was the source of the old doors located down on lower Capitol Street. The building was constructed as a "tool house" for the men working on the "Big Slide" which occurred on the property in the early 60's.

Dead Horse Cabin. When Ivan sold their home in SalemHeights, Merle Stewart's only regret was leaving their stone fireplace, so Ivan tore it down and had it incorporated into the "Dead Horse Cabin" building which was used as a "family retreat".

The Apple House Ceiling was the creation of Richard "Jeb" Stewart--during the Art Colony development period--who was a graduate of the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design. It is made from "box shooks" which are sides, ends, tops, and bottoms of wooden boxes. They came following a fire in Ivan's warehouse in West Salem. (Apple House was torn down in the fall of 2004 as an unsafe building and to make way for the FordFamilyFoundationEducationBuilding now occupying a site just steps west of the old Apple House site.)

Notes from Wedding Program of Nancy Washburn & Peter Schmidt 8/22/87

The Stewarts and The Oregon 4-H Center--A Brief History

The lives of Nancy's maternal grandparents are deeply rooted in Oregon history and the origin of the Oregon 4-H Center.

Ivan Stewart was born in 1895 at Fossil, Oregon and his father came from Blairgowrie, Scotland in 1888 to become a sheep rancher--a newspaper editor--and OregonState legislator. His mother came over the Oregon Trail in a covered wagon.

Merle DuRette was born in 1898 at Fairfield, Oregon. Her paternal grandparents came from West Virginia to farm the fertile WillametteValley. Her father was born in a dirt-floor log cabin in 1860. Her maternal grandparents came from Turriff, Scotland.

Ivan and Merle met as students at Oregon Agricultural College (OSU) in Corvallis and were married after he returned from the Marine Corps in 1920.

Ivan went into the seed business and during the 30's began acquiring old homesteads that totaled 720 acres. He was deeply interested in conservation--building ten ponds and planting 200,00 trees, including deer, raccoon, opossum, red fox, grouse, china pheasant, squirrels and song birds.

It also became a collecting place for his life long hobby of collecting rocks and "horse-trades" for cut and polished stones. The "ranch" became a show place for their display in fireplaces, walls, and in the resin panels incorporated into the Chapel he built to honor Merle.

In 1968 the 4-H of Oregon with 42,700 youth and leaders acquired the property as [a] center that would continue and share the love of the land.

MEN WITH A VISIONS--Feb-March 1968 OREGON STATER Ivan Stewart, '21 and Burton Hutton, '27.

"That will be the proudest moment of Ivan's life when the first bus of boys and girls drives in that gate," said Burton Hutton.

He swung the car onto the pavement at BrushCollege junction west of Salem. As the state 4-H director and I returned to Corvallis, we talked of one man, one farm, and many youngsters. Hutton and I had spent the day inspecting Ivan Stewart's 720-care property some 10 miles from Oregon's capital. We had climbed hills, jumped rivulets, and ducked branches of moss covered orchard trees.

I had accompanied Hutton this day to see for myself what it was about this property that had so stimulated the imaginations and enthusiasm of state 4-H leaders. They and the trustees of the state 4-H Foundation had decided they wanted the Stewart property for a 4-H education center.

As long ago as 1960, leaders, foundation directors, Hutton, and others began talking about a 4-H education center--serving not only the state's 37,000-member organization, but dedicated to developing Oregon's most valuable resource: young people. As thinking about the center matured and Hutton gathered information about the handfull of other such centers in the country, a set of criteria evolved describing the kind of property the Oregon 4-H Foundation wanted for its center.

Conscious efforts to find property that met the criteria had failed. It was chance that led 4-Her's to Ivan Stewart. Stewart one day tuned his radio to station KROW in Dallas and listened as Mervyn Filipponi and John Hansen discussed how property owners could develop portions of their land for commercial recreation. Filipponi is an OSU extension outdoor recreation specialist and Hansen is chairman of the PolkCounty extension staff.

Their radio discussion whetted Stewart's curiosity. He had long intended his 720-acre property for recreational use. On the telephone, he invited the men to look at his land. When Filipponi saw the property, he quickly realized that he had stumbled across what might be an ideal location for the long-anticipated 4-H education center. Filipponi suggested that Stewart get in touch with Burton Hutton at OSU. The state 4-H leader's name was not unfamiliar to Stewart: he and Hutton were fraternity brothers at OregonState.

By all means, Hutton told Stewart, he would like to see the property and talk with his old friend about it. Could he call next time he was in Salem? No, Ivan declared, he would come to Corvallis the next day to talk to Hutton. The flame of enthusiasm had been kindled. Two men more likely to keep that flame burning would be hard to find.

Relating the history of what he refers to as "the farm," Stewart told Hutton who he had purchased it in 1939. It was 626 acres then. Ivan wanted a place near his Salem seed-cleaning plant and warehouse. "We wanted something close by that could be easily supervised and a place that would afford part-time work for our warehouse employees when business was slow," Stewart explained. "A combination like that isn't easy to come by. For 10 years we had searched for the kind of farm we wanted."

"Hills. Because of my boyhood love for the rugged hills of the John DayRiver country, I wanted hills. And above all else, I wanted lots of water from those hills."