Chapter one:

Johann Michael Seibel (the name is recorded as Seybel, Seibel, Seiwell and Siewell) was a master shoemaker in Eich, a village near Worms, Germany. He was given his release from serfdom by the Archbishop of Trier of the Holy Roman Empire (who was also the bishop of Worms) on April 15, 1728. The release was on the condition of emigrating to a grant of land in America that had been given to William Penn. Caution: The release also stated if they returned they would be returned to serfdom, so if you are traveling in Germany, you might want to do as I did, stay on the train until it passes quickly through Worms.

Johann and his wife, Ottilie, along with their three children; Anton, Agnes, and Anna Margaretha set sail for America aboard the ship Mortonhouse. The ship landed at the port of Philadelphia on August 23, 1728. Anton had died at sea.

Johann and his family settled in what is now Montgomery County in Pennsylvania and were members of the Reformed church of Faulkner Swamp. Johann changed his name from Seibel to Seiwell to both distinguish himself from some Seibel's that he found difficult to get along with and because the German pronunciation of the "b" sounded somewhat like the "w" sound in English. (The Seiwell's on the East Coast still have a family picnic/reunion every year on the 3rd Sunday in July at Knoebels Groves Park in Elysburg, Pennsylvania)

Johann's son Valentine was born in the U.S. in 1737 and in 1759 married Catherine Penneypacker, the daughter of Adolph Penneypacker and the granddaughter of William Penn's surveyor, Heinrick Penneypacker. The name "Henry" enters the family from Heinrick and from Catherine's brother, Henry.

After Anthony, son of Valentine and Catherine, died in 1811, his wife Mary moved with their three sons to Selinsgrove (Snyder County) Pennsylvania. Both Arnold and Charles Edward moved on to Illinois, traveling by covered wagon in the 1830's.

To get some idea of the development of that area at that time, the Black Hawk war was in 1832 and both Chicago and Peoria became towns shortly after the war ended. Peoria was a fort up until about 1833. They both settled in Tazewell County (near present day Peoria) and raised large families. Charles Henry Sr. and Frederick Richard are sons of Charles Edward. While doing the family tree just prior to 2000, I talked by phone with Margaret Martin, a granddaughter of Frederick Richard Seiwell. She lived in Creve Coeur, Illinois and sent me a copy of the letter from Charles Henry to his brother Frederick Richard in 1879 as well as two photographs of Charles Henry. Richard came to Oregon to visit Charles Henry around the turn of the last century. Richard died in 1919.

Charles Henry was born in Illinois in 1848 and went west as a young man.

In the genealogy information of the Seiwell's in Illinois, they just had "went west" noted next to Charles Henry (known to them as Uncle Hen). My best guess is he came in 1874 or 1875 and probably took advantage of the transcontinental railroad that was completed in 1869. The railroad ended in Sacramento so he probably arrived there and worked his way north to Oregon. He married Laura Darrow whose family had come by wagon train in the 1840's or 1850's to the area near Chico, California. Laura was only 15 when she took care of Charles while he was sick. They married in Lane County in March of 1879 and settled near Junction City on 133 acres (NE corner of Section 3, Township 16, South Range 5, West of Willamette Meridian) that Henry had purchased from James Taylor for $2200 on 20 Sept 1879. The letter mentioned above from Charles to his brother Richard in Illinois shortly after the wedding describes how Laura took care of him while he was sick and how she was the best friend he had had in four years.

In 1887 Henry was forced by a court decree to sell the 133 acres to J. K. O'Sherwood for $1240? In 1893, Henry was deeded an 80 acre homestead by the U.S. Government. The marriage was apparently having troubles by the mid 1890's and Henry deeded the property to his daughter, Cordelia, in 1895 in what appears to be an attempt to shield it in the event of a divorce. In 1899, the deed was shifted to Charles Henry Jr. since Cordelia was about to get married and a husband would complicate the matter. The property story gets more mysterious when Laura files for divorce in 1909. On June 22, 1909 Charles Henry Sr. and Laura Seiwell sell the property to a near neighbor, Samuel Ferguson, for $600. This was to allow splitting the proceeds and satisfying the divorce decree (Laura no doubt received half of the proceeds). The mystery is that three years later (6 Nov 1912) Charles Henry Sr. sells the same 80 acres to F. W. Williams for $2400. The question is was the sale to Ferguson just a ruse by Charles and a friend to get Laura off his back and protect his property. Another question for the another researcher…..happy hunting.

From reading the divorce papers, we get the idea that Charles was ornery. It talks about him whipping Eunice. He went through a process to apparently con Laura out of her share of their property. However, it is hard to piece together exactly what happened over a hundred years ago. For instance, Eunice went from here to live as a 'sporting lady' in Tacoma and after a short life came to an untimely end, shot by one of her clients. So who is to say whether the old man was ornery or trying to nip bad behavior in the bud? And Laura took in boarders at their farm and after the divorce ending up marrying one of them. Maybe he had reason to protect his property. However, I have to be suspect of a guy who is thirty-one and marries a sixteen year old; but maybe times were different. My grandfather was estranged from his mother and younger sisters from the time of the divorce until the 1940's. He got along with 'Delia' and 'Et' and spoke often of them in his stories but not the others. When Eunice was killed in 1914, she was not allowed to be buried in the family plot where Great Grandpa Charles was buried. Myrtle and her husband purchased plots adjacent and Eunice is buried just a few plots north of both Charles.

My grandmother's parents (Smith's) have always interested me.

They both came to Oregon as children in wagon trains, probably in 1853. So William Smith would have been nine and Eliza Jane Smelzer would have been six. I can imagine they had some exciting tales to tell and possibly told my Grandmother but I never asked. Both the Smith family and the Smelzer family homesteaded on Donation Land Claims in Linn county north of Brownsville and SE of Albany. William and Eliza were married in Linn County in 1867. They eventually migrated and homesteaded property NW of Junction City (on Ferguson Road) and raised sheep. Of course I never saw either (they both died in the 1920's) but I learned a good lesson in humility from the old man. The first time I saw his picture, I chuckled at the hair growing out of his ears, it was long and bountiful! Now that I am older, I find myself cutting and shaving and shaving and cutting to keep that stuff off my ears. Moral: Don't criticize the attributes of your older relatives lest you surely develop them yourself.

My grandfather, Charles Henry Jr., married my grandmother, Ora Ethel Smith, in 1902.

Sometime in the early 1920's, Charles Jr. (grandpa) gave up farming and delivery work and took his horses and went into logging. Charles migrated to Cottage Grove for a time and finally ended up in southern Curry County near Ophir (working on building the coast highway, 101). They lived in both Coos and Curry counties the next few years and Grandpa continued with his logging. In the mid 30's, he bought a small farm on the Floras Lake road South of Langlois near Denmark and semi retired.

While living in North Bend we visited the farm often on weekends. The visits were fun for us; often our cousins; Eddie and Doris were there also.

Grandpa got up every morning early and went to the old hand pump in the back yard and washed with cold water. He was tough. He also always filled the horse trough with water first thing. He had built a crude wooden aquaduct from the pump to the horse trough, about 30-40 feet. Sometimes Grandpa would hitch the horses to the wagon and take us for a ride, sometimes as far as to his neighbor, Barry, who lived up the road a mile or so. Grandma had some neat old things, one was a viewer that used pictures that were side by side duplicates and when you looked though the viewer it was 3D. She also had a piano and she could pound out a mean "Birmingham Jail". Her daughter-in-laws did not speak glowingly of her piano skills. I was too young to judge. I liked " Birmingham Jail!" She also made sauerkraut with wieners that was probably something from her German heritage. She made it in a milk can (insulated cans used in those days to transport milk from local dairy farms to the creamery, probably about 25 gallons, see left edge of Photo_1) and there was plenty for everyone, especially me since none was plenty. Their house was pretty nice by my standards of the time; it had electricity but no running water or indoor toilets.

One weekend each spring we planted potatoes. Grandpa would gather us four kids (my brother Gilbert, Eddie's sister Doris, and Eddie and I) in a little shed where he kept his seed potatoes. He would give each of us a sharp knife and instructions about cutting the potatoes up so each piece of potato had at least one eye and each kid still had two. We would sack the cut-up seed potatoes and grandpa would harness his two work horses and hook them to the sled and load the potatoes and us kids on board and head for the field. I don't remember our parents ever participating! Grandpa would then hook the horses to a single plow and he would plow a furrow and we would walk behind and put pieces of potato in the furrow with the goal of having them the specified distance apart. The next furrow would cover the first and we kept going until the field was all planted. One week end in the fall, we would gather on the sled again and Grandpa and his horses would take us back to the field. He would hook up the plow again and plow a furrow at just the right depth to uncover the potatoes and us kids would dig them out of the turned over dirt and put them in gunny sacks. We would fill several sacks of potatoes which Grandpa loaded on the sled and hauled back along with us. Grandpa would then give each family a hundred pound sack of potatoes. Maybe they got more later, I don't know.

Another recollection of a visit to Grandpa's was the men migrating to the garage whereupon Grandpa would reach up into the rafters and haul down a bottle of Old Grandad and pass it around (not to grandkids). Then onto the barn to ostensibly look at the horses (Grandpa always cautioned us to move slowly behind the horses and not startle them or they might kick) and Grandpa would pull down another bottle he had stashed out there and pass it around. Grandpa gurgled that stuff down like it had no more kick than water. Grandma complained some but not too loudly since she had her camel cigarettes hidden away in the house and kept her smoking from him. Grandpa was the patriarch of the family. Stories of his disciplining his boys and his horses were legendary. He loved his horses but was reported to have brought them to their knees with a 2x4 or chain over the head for misbehavior. My father was apparently capable of working two or four horse teams as a boy and young man.

Grandpa and Grandma sold the farm and moved to Bandon in the early 1950's. It saddened me recently when I drove by the old farm and saw where the house and barn and garage and sheds used to be was now a young forest. I recalled many visits when Grandpa was out in the field with his horses burning and pulling stumps day after day to clear that land so he could farm it. I guess everything has to come full circle

Straders:


There seems to be some uncertainty regarding the actual Strader immigrant who came from Germany. There were several and the names are not exactly Strader but many ended up being Strader. The person who did the Strader genealogy thought that it was Hans Wellem Strader who eventually Americanized it to William Strader. He came from Germany to Rotterdam, Holland and received permission to emigrate on 13 April 1744. He sailed on the ship Aurora and arrived in Philadelphia, on October 8, 1744. He was married two or three times and best guess is he married Anna Eva Klein in 1724 and Anna Catharina Scholtes in 1733. He settled in New Jersey (Sussex county) and eight children were born there: His son, Christopher, is the one of interest and was born in 1745 and lived until 1825. Christopher settled for a time in Virginia (in what is now West Virginia) and lived near Hiser. Christopher was granted 400 acres in 1786 by the Governor of Virginia, Patrick Henry. This was payment for services he rendered as leader of a militia helping to put down a Tory uprising during the revolutionary war. He was also credited with providing some sheep to feed the army during the war. Christopher also had other property in West Virginia, and he sold this other property in 1805 and moved to Ross County Ohio. In 1810 he purchased 430 acres from a supposed ancestor of Douglas McArthur and in 1815 he was deeded some 1200 acres he had purchased from the estate of Robert Rose. Robert Rose was a surgeon in the Revolutionary Army and was given the 1200 (actually closer to 1600) acres of Ohio wilderness as part of his payment for services in the revolutionary war. Christopher died in Ohio in 1825.

Christopher married Elizabeth in 1766 and they had 9 children and are buried together in Ohio but no one has been able to determine her maiden name. Their second child, John, is the one of interest. Prior to moving to Ohio, Christopher divided the 400-acre grant from Patrick Henry between his oldest son, John, and his oldest daughter, Barbara. The location is near the city of Buckhannon, W.Va. John purchased the 200 acres from Barbara and settled on the 400-acre farm. He was the only son of Christopher who stayed in West Virginia when his father moved to Ohio. John married Mary Post in 1792 and their first child was Martin born in 1793. Mary died in 1811 and John remarried to Elizabeth Cooper in 1817. John died in 1844. Martin lived his life in West Virginia. He is buried in the old Strader cemetery on Sand Run. Martin married Mary Rohrbough in 1816 they had 8 children and the 8th child, Adam, was born and died in 1827 and Mary also died in 1827 so it is possible there was a problem in the birth. Martin remarried to Elizabeth Kesling later in 1827 and they had 8 more children. Martin died in 1850. Martin (1793-1850) inherited 100 acres from his father and apparently lived a relatively uneventful life in West Virginia. However, the inheritance must have mostly ran out with Martin as Abel (1823-1906), sixth child of Martin, migrated to Kansas. Abel is my great great grandfather.

There is conflicting info on when this migration occurred. I am rewriting this section because I learned two lessons: first, errors occur and info must be taken with some skepticism. Second, if you are going to make an assumption that is based on a single piece of info, you better confirm it from more than one source. In the Strader family tree books, there is an entry that says that the second child, daughter Zilla, was born in Kansas. I went from that to an assumption that Abel probably migrated to Kansas about the time of his father's death and then returned to West Virginia later when his wife, Tabitha, was ill. Well looking at other sources, I found that Zilla and all the rest of Abel's children were probably born in West Virginia and it is likely that Abel only migrated once, after his wife's passing. Abel's wife, Tabitha, was from West Virginia and was the daughter of Aquilla Ward. Abel and family were in or returned to West Virginia before her death in 1870. The build up to and the civil war occurred in these years and had a pretty profound effect on both Kansas and West Virginia, as they were Border States. After the death of his wife, Abel (with all of his children) set out to Kansas. It is reported that Abel and Zilla took the train and Aquilla and the boys drove a wagon to Kansas. Abel made the migration, exactly when we can't be certain. Abel and Tabitha's first child, Aquilla Worth Strader (1852-1915), is my great grandfather.
Aquilla married Adella Stancliff (1852-1903) in 1873. They had seven children of which I met three.
The oldest was Jenny who was the grandmother of the Boston Red Sox player Bobby Doerr. Aunt Jenny lived most of her life in southern California but her later years in a little house south of Bandon where I visited her several times. She raised her grandson, Johnny Hernberger, at Bandon. Supposedly and somehow, the movie actor, Lon Chaney is related to Aunt Jenny. The second was Elgin who lived on his homestead up two-mile creek just south of Bandon. I probably saw him when I was small but I don't remember him as he died in 1945. He was the first of the colorful names: Elgin Lumnar Rufus Strader. The third was Simon Sylvester Able Chester Strader. The fourth, Alfred Alfonso Ebenezer Strader, lived in LA but made trips through Bandon and made stops to visit my grandfather. I once went out to dinner with them at the Minute Café in Bandon. I believe Uncle Alfred worked for the city of LA. The fifth was Frank Ernest, the sixth was my grandfather, Jesse Grant Strader, and the last was Ray Devota Strader who died very young, possibly at birth. Adella had diabetes and died in 1903 and is buried in Bandon and I was told that Frank died from diabetes and possibly Simon.

The story of Aquilla from here is based on what I remember hearing from my Grandfather (Jesse), from my mother and from Aunt Nadine and Aunt Dorothy.

At some point between 1885 and 1890, Aquilla left Kansas and migrated to Los Angeles. My Grandfather Jesse was born in Los Angeles. Sometime after 1893 they moved to Bandon. Jennie, who is not in the 1893 picture, apparently stayed in Los Angeles and Alfred either stayed in Los Angeles or returned there later. My grandfather told me that his father worked in a shake mill near Bandon. Aunt Dorothy said that Aquilla and Elgin both homesteaded up two mile on adjacent homesteads, separated by two mile road, and that Aquilla sold his to Bob Young before he returned to Kansas. Uncle Kent logged a piece of timber up two mile, past where these homesteads were, and in our travels to and from work he pointed out to me the Young place (he didn't mention, probably didn't know, it was Aquilla's) and where Jesse and family had lived and grown their garden on the hillside just above the two mile school. Jesse, Frank & Simon went to Bandon and Frank and Simon and their mother Ida died in Bandon. Aquilla then took Jesse back to Kansas (sometime between 1903 and 1909) where Aquilla evidently remarried (A picture of Mom and Alford as babies was sent by my Grandmother Lydia as a post card to Mr. and Mrs. A W Strader) in 1913. Aquilla died in 1915.

Jesse married Lydia Alice Thomas in 1909.

Lydia was from Pratt County, Kansas. Sometime after 1913 (my Mom was born near Joplin, Missouri) and likely after the death of his father in 1915, Jesse began a migration west. They lived for a time in Buhl, Idaho. Alfred was killed when a cave he and Bert were playing in, caved in. Nadine was born in Idaho in 1920. Jesse moved his family to Los Angeles when Nadine was a small girl. She told the story of the migration being in an old car that couldn't make it up the hills with everyone in the car so the kids had to get out and walk up (must have been a story she was told because she was 3 at most). Rowena was born in Los Angeles in 1923. Dorothy was born in Bandon in 1927. Jesse and family initially lived up two mile close to Elgin's homestead. Their place was on hillside just above the Two Mile School and may have ben part of Elgin's homestead. My grandfather Jesse was not a great worker. The family survived mostly on a large garden they grew. At one time he left the family there with no means of support while he went to Los Angeles; supposedly to find work and may have stayed as long as a couple of years. Both Aunt Nadine and Aunt Dorothy talked about the difficult time this was. Nadine said her mother sent them to Elgin's to borrow potatoes and onions to make soup and they were embarrassed. Aunt Dorothy said they would not have survived except for Uncle Bert, who worked and made a bit of money he shared with the family, and for Uncle Elgin. Aunt Dorothy said they lived there until she was almost twelve so my guess is they were there from sometime around 1925 to around 1939. At that time they moved to the Gallier place on the beach loop road. They rented that and my first memories of them are at that place. My grandfather was milking cows, probably about two dozen. Aunt Dorothy was his primary helper. We used to drive from North Bend down to Bandon on Saturday and spend the day there and have dinner. They had no electricity and grandma would light the lamps. She also had an organ that she sometimes played. My father had a strong work ethic and he was not very complimentary of Grandpa.

Grandpa and Elmer also had purchased some land south of that place on the Beach loop with a plan to grow cranberries. Several bogs were planted. Aunt Dorothy said she went with Grandpa to get the little plants and helped plant them. She said it was hard work. Elmer was the primary source of money, both while he was in the army during WWII and after he came home. When he got married in about 1950, he lost interest in the project and eventually the land was lost thru foreclosure. A large portion of it later was purchased by the government and became a park.

My mother was probably about 12 when they moved up two mile.

All of the Strader kids went to the two-mile school. Uncle Elgin was on the school board. In those days it was common for kids who lived out of town and who wanted to go to high school to live with a family in town. They did some work for their room and board. My mother did that in Bandon and graduated in 1932. She never talked to me about that period so I have nothing to report. About the time of her graduation, Aunt Jennie was living in Escondido (near San Diego) and had broken her leg. So my mother and her cousin, Catherine, went down to help take care of her.

Jennie's daughter, Frances, had married a Doerr and Bobby Doerr who was their son was about 14. As the story goes, there were several Doerr boys (relatives of Frances' husband) around and Aunt Jennie was concerned that they were showing too much interest in my mother so she sent her back home. Unfortunately, I didn't hear this story until it was too late to get my Mom's version. There is a picture of my Mom and her cousin, Elgin's daughter Catherine, with their bicycles at Aunt Jennie's.

About the time she graduated the favorite entertainment in Bandon was a dance hall called the Silver Spray. It was a large dance hall and you purchased tickets for the dances (I got this from Aunt Nadine who liked to go to the Silver Spray). It was located on the bluff just west of where 9th crosses the beach loop road. My father and Uncle Bert ran around together and so it was pretty natural that my mom would meet my dad. As a note: there were also dances south of Bandon at the Dew Valley clubhouse. Uncle Bert got drunk so often at Dew Valley that he was permanently given the nickname "Dew Valley" and my dad referred to him as such when I was growing up. My dad was also largely responsible for Bert getting set up with Dorothy Kimball; A dubious credit.

I spent quite a bit of time with my Strader grandparents when I was a kid. While Elmer was still supplying some money they started building a house on their place. They never finished it but they got it adequate for them to move into. It had running water, indoor toilet and electricity so was quite an upgrade from the Gallier place. On some family document I saw, it listed Granddad Jesse's occupation as a "tinkerer". He seemed to me to be pretty laid back and I do not remember him ever getting mad enough to yell or use colorful language (unlike my Siewell uncles). Nadine said he was quite good at math. One time, when I was in high school, he gave me this math problem that was a bit of a riddle about how long a fish was. I have forgot the exact riddle, something about the body being as long as the head and tail together and the tail being twice the length of the head or some such. Anyway, he was disappointed when I used algebra and solved it in a few seconds. Grandma was not so laid back which no doubt came about at least partially because she had such a hard time keeping the family fed when Jesse wasn't around or wasn't interested in applying himself. When we were very young and visited overnight, we used to have to sleep at the foot of the bed, me with grandma and Gilbert with grandpa. We were not enthused.

When I was about 11, I spent a couple of weeks with them.

He was still milking some cows then and growing a garden and generally tinkering. I was fascinated by some of the old engines he had lying around and by the fact that his old truck/pick up had holes in the floor and you could watch the street go by underneath. While I was there he decided he wanted to make a site for pumping water to the garden. He had a partial box of dynamite sticks lying around, so we took them and placed a dozen or so in a pattern extending out from the creek (the idea being we would blow a small pit that would be kept full by the creek for the pump. He obviously knew enough about dynamite to make it go off but not enough to predict with any precision the amount needed. We ended up with a huge explosion that rocked the house and created a cavern that was big enough for a swimming pool. But it did the trick.

Granddad also was the local rep for Stark nurseries. He sold fruit trees. I think he was pretty good at that and had an interest in it but it was not enough business to maintain them by itself. Within a few years of my staying with them the house burnt down and they lost the place and had to move into the old house on highway 101 that my folks ended up living in before they went to Astoria. Aunt Dorothy said it broke their hearts when they lost the place. A place of their own with cranberry bogs to provide for them and an orchard and a nice house was probably one of the biggest dreams of their lives and it almost came to be.

LINK TO Chapter Two: CH2_story

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