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The Hood River Glacier, Hood River, OR., April 24, 1913, page 7

HINRICHS, PIONEER, TELLS OF EARLY DAYS

J.W. Henrichs, who came to the valley with his family March 23, 1874, declares that people are very much mistaken if they think the cost of living today is high, that is, compared with that of the pioneer days of the Hood River valley. "I bought an ordinary farm wagon in Portland," says Mr. Henrichs, "and paid for it the sum of $50. It cost me to $22.50 to have it transported by boat from Portland. For third class finished lumber for my house I paid $58 per thousand. The boat company charged $15 per thousand for bringing in a here. Lime cost $2.50 per barrel, and the transportation was $2.50 per barrel. I paid the boat company $300 to bring myself, my wife and two children and my meager amount of household goods and some supplies to Hood River. Yes, one had to live in those days to realize that the necessities of life where high. We didn't have it any luxuries. They were out of our reach.
"And the Hood River valley was a wilderness. Why, I have been lost a number of times, riding from the town to my place on the West Side. All the country was covered thickly with pines and firs. Money was an unknown quantity then. We cleared our land, working night and day. We never dreamed that the valley would be a thickly populated and prosperous region, highly developed and covered with the best known orchards of the country.
There were but 14 families here when I arrived, seven on the East Side and seven on the West Side."
Mr. Henrichs was born at a point in Holstein near the city of Hamburg in 1842. When he first came to this country he located in Kansas. He was accompanied here by his brother, the late Peter Hinrichs. On our arrival he purchased 80 acres of school land and homesteaded a tract that was a little short of a quarter section.
"There were about six orchards, small plots set in varieties of all kinds for home purposes. I don't think there was a Spitzenburg or Yellow Newton tree in the valley. The residents had not yet begun to raise strawberries. They made their living by raising wheat and rye."