The Klickitat County News, Goldendale, WA., July 12, 1934, page 4

INTERESTING PIONEER INTERVIEWS

     Joe H. Allyn, local carpenter with a shop located on Broadway, is undoubtedly a real pioneer. Coming here at the age of nine years, Joe has resided in and near Goldendale ever since. A portion of the time he spent on a farm or in the mountains adjacent to this city but as far as history of this action is concerned, Joe has incident, anecdotes and data on nearly every occurrence of importance which may be found concerning the county.
     Joe was the son of a Methodist minister. His father was one of those dauntless circuit riders, and many a tail surrounds the father's life in Washington Territory as well as in Oregon where he spent some years.
     Joe, of course, gives his father and mother credit for having impressed indelibly upon his memory many important verses and chapters of the Bible. Joe, during a brief interview with The News correspondent recently, reeled off verse after versa, and in one case would have quoted an entire chapter if the time had permitted. While not particularly affiliated with any church, Joe extols the work done in this section by all faiths. Those biggest work for the welfare of his fellow man has come through his association with fellow several lodges. The Woodman of the World, the Yeoman, Knights of Pythias, the Eagles and the Brotherhood of American Foresters have all enjoyed Joe's membership. He still maintains his membership in those orders which still exist.
     Joe recently returned from Aberdeen where he attended, along with several younger Goldendale man and women, the state Eagles meet. Joe is familiarly known to his lodge friends in distant cities as "Grandpa Joe."
     Joe remembers when the Methodist church of which his father was a minister, held camp meetings on "the creek" each June. He says: "Every June, no matter what time of the month, it always rained when the church people got together for their camp meeting. I always wondered why they didn't hold more camp meetings for we certainly had some very dry years."
     Joe has ridden the range with the best of 'em. Along this line, he relates some humorous and highly interesting stories. At some future date, The News shall publish a story concerning those range riding cowboys, of which Joe was a part.
     Joe lived in this section when justice was "dished out" by Judge Colt Revolver and law was maintained by the hemp rope. A gruesome description, he says, but it was true, and he believes that perhaps a little more of the same medicine might do for some of the modern desperadoes.
     As to hangings, Joe was present at the one of north of the city. He was 16 years old and remembers every detail. He estimates that some of the hanging stories are grossly exaggerated for he believes that he remembers well nearly all the details.
     Another thing, Joe's says that there were other happenings. He states that a horse thief was hanged from a pine tree just two miles east of Goldendale. If the tree has not been cut or burned down, he says he can take one right to the spot. He was there.
     To return to the original interview and a hurried scan of Joe H. Allyn's life, his story is told in a manner somewhat akin to this:
     "I was born in Freeport, Washington Territory, May 23, 1870. This town exists no more but if it did, it would be in Cowlitz County.
     "The first thing I remember is a terrific flood of the Cowlitz River. I must have been about two years old. I recall that my step brother had obtained a row boat somewhere and had carried us out to the boat and was rowing us out of the danger zone.
     "In 1872, shortly after the flood, my father, a Methodist preacher, was called to Sheridan, Oregon, where he was appointed as circuit rider in his faith. We stayed in Sheridan but one year when the family was moved back to Vancouver where we resided on my mother's place. My mother's first husband had died shortly after they were married and she was the owner of this farm.
     "We stayed in Vancouver where my father preached and the other children work on the farm. I think we were there two years. In 1876 we moved to Montesano where my father continued his preaching.
     "In 1877, we were called back to Oregon. We settled at Hubbard. It was in this year that by step brother was drowned while swimming at Cascade Locks. I remember that he was buried on the beach after his body came to the surface. My father had the remains exhumed and he was taken to rest beside his mother. I do not remember where my father's first wife was buried.
     "In 1879, we came to Goldendale. We first lived in the house now occupied by Etta Hardin across the street from the service garage. Later we moved to a farm east of the city. All the time my father continued his preaching work. My father build a house on the farm located four miles east. In November, my brother, Oscar, was born.
     "In December I recall that there was a snowfall of three feet. We had no wood in the house so my father set out horse back to the nearest neighbor to make arrangements for fuel. On the way he met a group of friends who had surmised that the preacher had no fuel so before nightfall, I remember, that there was a huge pile of wood all ready to burn stacked at our rear doorway.
     "In the spring of the following year, my father started plowing up about 40 acres of bunch grass land. He had previously fenced it. The cattle men did not like his attitude in plowing up the pasture land but my father thought that wheat would be better than the bunch grass especially for the kids.
     "When we first came to Goldendale, my father filed on a timber claim on land west of town. He traded it later for some paint and several head of cayuse ponies.
     "When I became 14 years old, I decided to get out and be independent, so I ran away. I didn't run very far, however. I went into the woods and started to work on logging operation. Shortly after, I broke a leg. My father sent me $2.50, a sizable sum in those days, but I wanted to be independent again, so I sent the money back.
     "Soon, however, my sire offered me a job working on the farm at 75 cents a day during the harvest season. I accepted and went back home after the leg was knitted. I could not get my money for my father's cash was slim. So he paid me off in cattle. I had acquired all of the cattle in a several months work, but I did not take him, I left them on the farm.
     "It was in 1886, when I was 16, that I decided that I should get a college education. Of course, my father being a Methodist and Willamette having an excellent reputation, I started to school there. I had gone but three months when my mother sent the word that "Dad" was sick. He was ill but 11 days when he died.
     "I could not return to school for it was up to me to make a living for my mother and family. There was an $1800 mortgage and a $236 store bill to pay. My sister taught school three months out of the year for $60 a month and I managed the farm for my mother. The ladies would take the cattle and stock to the hills in the summer while I looked after the harvest and marketing of the crops. In three years, and it was three of the most proud years of my life, the sister, my mother and myself paid off the indebtedness.
     "I stayed on the farm until I was 21, then I married Bell Couey. This was in 1891 . She passed away shortly after our marriage as a result of typhoid fever. She died December 6 of that year.
     "For the next three years, I 'batched' in the hills north of Goldendale. I then decided that this was no life for a young man so I came to town. Later I married Buena V. Smith who has lived with me for 40 years. She says that this is a terribly long time to live with any man as 'honory' as I am.
     "It was during the Grover Cleveland administration that I was appointed road boss by the county. I was paid $2.50 a day for actual labor. I furnished my own transportation and board. It was during this time that I built a home in town and then I married.
     "A little bit later I took a homestead in the Three Creeks section. Here I built a shingle mill and worked for three years. A stroke of paralysis cut my shingle mill project short and I moved back to Goldendale.
     "From 1900 to 1905, I helped my brother, Jess, in a carpenter shop. Then for the next five years, I worked for my brother-in-law, Joe Beckett. E.C. Trost later bought him out. I work for Trost for a year and then I built my own shop at my present location. This was then 1914. Since that time I have operated 'on my own hook' and can honestly say that I have enjoyed a nice business since my start.
     "Having been in this territory so long, naturally I knew lots of people and that all helped me to establish my little carpenter, cabinet making and turning business. The farmers called on me for a lot of work and I am now completing 10 watering troughs for two farmers in this section.
     "If you'll come back to the rear of the shop I'll show you some of my work of which I am pretty proud. So after looking over these bits of hand work, you can tell some one that I can do their work if they need it done."
     With this information at hand, and a promise to be able to get more stories of his range riding days, the correspondent left Joe H. Allyn, pioneer of Washington Territory and a true Klickitat Valley pioneer.

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©  Jeffrey L. Elmer