Sepia-toned image of a two story mill with a number of adults and children standing about in front of it and in the windows. The man with the hat in the doorway is J. C. Smock, leading citizen of Sherwood, and the small children lined along the front of the mill are his children. The grist mill ground corn and wheat into flour for local farmers and families.
Sepia-tone image of a large, two-story school building with a basement and a group of students gathered on the front porch steps. A large open belfry sports a United States flag, and power lines run to the building.
Black and white image of a couple standing next to a car, with two men sitting in the front of the car. The road is dirt, though a fence borders one side, and appears to run through a wooded area. This location is near the intersection of Laidlaw and Kaizer Roads and the newly renamed Tualatin Hills Parks and Recreation District's Hansen Ridge Park. According to museum records, the man driving is Henry Hamel, while the couple standing beside the car are Gus and Freda Erickson, Hamel's relatives. The REO Motor Car Company was one of the first to mass-produce automobiles in the United States, though it discontinued its automobile manufacturing to focus on trucks after 1936. They are most famous for their precursor to today's pickup trucks, the REO Speed Wagon light delivery truck.
Black and white image of four men walking down a cobblestone street. This photo is one of a series taken by Hillsboro resident Verne McKinney, who served in France with the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I. The Battle of Chateau-Thierry was one of the first battles fought by the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) after joining France and Britain in declaring war against Imperial Germany. There is an American Battle Monument near the town commemorating the cooperative effort between the French and United States armies.
Black and white image of a number of students outside a one-room schoolhouse with their teacher or principal standing to their left. The witch hazel plant is not native to Oregon, and it has not been determined exactly where the name for this neighborhood came from. However, the name has been associated with this area since the 1850s, and a school has been present in the area since the late 1800s.
Sepia-toned image of a man and an older woman standing in front of a two-story salt-box style home. The woman, Lucy Saxton holds her infant daughter, Grace, up, while her son, George Saxton, stands with a matched team of horses hitched to a plow. George wears a striped shirt, while Lucy wears a skirt and apron. The Saxton family arrived in Oregon in the late 1800s and settled near Reedville on a farm.
Sepia-toned image of a young woman in a suit and bonnet. She wears a two-piece dress with a bustle and a pleated fringe on the bottom, and a pleated detail at the cuffs of her sleeves. Lace trim and fingerless gloves complete her fashionable attire. Her dress is typical of styles in the late 1870s, given its lack of a draped overskirt and relatively minor ornamentation. However, since the addressee in the transcription, Alice Sewell, was born in 1888 and photo postcards were not available until after 1902, it is likely that Ms. Brown had the photo reprinted at a later date. While the museum has no record of just who, exactly, Cleopatra Bella Brown was, Alice Sewell was a student at Pacific University in 1907 and 1908, then in 1911, after studying art in New York, returned to teach art at Pacific for a few years. Ms. Sewell was a sculptor and painter and remained an integral part of the Portland area art scene for much of the first half of the twentieth century.
Sepia-toned image of what appears to be a derailed train engine, with the engineer's cab at the rear still upright but the front of the engine laying on its side beside the tracks which are covered in debris. Various men in suits and in railroad uniforms stand near the engine.
Sepia-toned image of a family on the front steps of a house, the parents seated in chairs and the children standing on the steps in front of them. There are flower boxes on the porch and fresh flowers hang from the eaves of the porch. All appear to be dressed in their best clothes, and Mr. and Mrs. Holmason as well as their oldest child wear corsages. Since the clothing worn in this picture is the same as that worn in WMCpic_012008, it is very likely that these two pictures together form a 'before and after' set of images, showing the family at their 'old' home, the tent, and then at their new, stick-built home. The Holmasons came to Oregon in the early 1900s from Hungary with their two oldest children, August and Josephine, as part of the Hungarian work force recruited by Orenco Nursery. Listed in the 1910 census as owning their home in Orenco and judging by the ages of the children in the image, this picture was very likely taken in celebration of moving into their new house. (See WCMpic_012008 and WCMpic_012007 for other images of this family.)
Black and white image of a number of men lounging beneath a tree while others in the background stare out over a body of water. Trees and groundcover in the image appear to be more reminiscent of the Pacific Northwest than the South Pacific. During World War II, following the attack on Pearl Harbor, much of the 41st Infantry Division was deployed to protect the coasts of Washington and Oregon against a possible Japanese invasion. In 1942, the Division was deployed overseas, including the band, and saw service in the South Pacific. Elroy Gravelle, to the left of the image, was a long-time Portland area resident who enlisted in the National Guard as a musician in 1940.
Black and white image of five and a half men, posed for the camera. Most are in khaki uniforms. Palm trees tower in the background. Elroy Gravelle, on the right in the front of the image, lived near Lone Fir in Washington County as a child, though most of his life was spent in the greater Portland area. Enlisting in September, 1940, Elroy joined the 41st Infantry Division Band and saw service in the South Pacific during World War II.
Black and white image of two men, one in a khaki uniform and one more casually attired, playing their instruments before a wall. A sign stating this is the Draftee Shackee hangs above them. Elroy Gravelle, on the image left, plays a French Horn while Chet Romig, on the image right, plays a clarinet. Gravelle lived in the Portland area for most of his life. He and his twin brother, Edmund, enlisted in the National Guard in September of 1940, and Elroy served with the 41st Infantry Division Band in the South Pacific during World War II.
Black and white image of three men standing in front of a campsite. The men wear khaki uniforms, though one lacks his shirt. Behind them are open tents and washing strung on a line between palm trees. Elroy Gravelle, in the center of the image, was a long-time Portland area resident. He enlisted in the National Guard in September of 1940 as a musician, and saw service in the South Pacific with the rest of the 41st Infantry Division. Years later, after his retirement, Gravelle worked a volunteer with the Oregon Department of Forestry, helping to develop and maintain trails in the Tillamook State Forest, and Gravelle Brothers Trail in the Forest is named in honor of Elroy and his twin brother, Edmund.
Sepia-toned portrait of Verne McKinney wearing a World War I United States military uniform. Other than his overcoat all that can be seen are his boots with leggings or gaiters and his campaign hat.
Sepia-toned image of three men in the window of a train car. The three men, Verne McKinney, Cliff Bagley, and Glen Taylor were new recruits to the military from the Washington County area and were headed out to training camp before being shipped overseas to fight in France as part of the American Expeditionary Forces, the armed forces sent by the United States to fight in Europe during World War I.
Sepia-toned image of two young World War I soldiers in uniform, standing beside a tent. Verne McKinney and Clif Bagley were from Hillsboro, Oregon, where McKinney's mother was a printer who owned a half interest in the Argus, a local newspaper, and Bagley's father was a circuit court judge. Bagley Park, in Hillsboro, is named for the senior Bagley.
Sepia-toned image of five men in World War I uniforms, standing grouped together outside a tent at Camp Mills, on Long Island, New York, an embarkation point for United States soldiers in World War I. There is a stovepipe coming out of the top of the tent, and none of the men appear to have their weapons with them. The 41st Infantry Regiment was composed primarily of recruits from the Pacific Northwest. Camp Mills itself was a tent city set up specifically to mobilize the troops who were being sent to Europe. Clif Bagley was born in Hillsboro, Oregon, and his father was an attorney and eventually a circuit court judge.
Sepia-toned image of a car and two women standing in front of 'The Needles,' large granite rock formations in South Dakota. The dedication on the back of the photo identifies one of the women as Alice Sewell, a student and sometime art instructor at Pacific University, and an artist who was part of the Portland art scene for much of the first half of the twentieth century.
Seventh and eighth grade students from Sherwood, Oregon gathered on the front steps of a school around 1920. Most of the boys wear overalls and all have short hair, while the girls wear a variety of styles of dress, reflecting the more fitted styles of the previous decades. All the children are dressed in more adult fashion rather then the shorter skirts and less-adult styles that became popular in the 1910s for children, girls especially.
Black and white image of a group of men in New Guinea. the men wear khaki uniforms (some without shirts). Palm trees and open tents are visible in the background. Most of these men were members of the 41st Infantry Division Band, a Division consisting of men almost entirely from the Pacific Northwest. The band members saw service in New Guinea, Luzon, and the Philippines during World War II. Elroy Gravelle, on the image right end of the front row, spent most of his life in the Portland area. As a small child, he lived in Lone Fir, near Timber,, with his family, including his twin brother, Edmund. Both brothers enlisted in the National Guard in the fall of 1940, Elroy listing his civilian occupation as a musician and teacher of music.
