2011 Interview with Bob & Charlee Moore
Ed Roethe Farm Oak Lodge Aerial April 1956
This painting was drawn by Pete Leavstrand in 1932. Pete Leavstrand was a landscape artist in the Portland area at least from 1934 through 1937, and it appears that he lived on Oatfield Rd. for part of that time. [See our March 8, 2013 blog post for more information about Pete Leavstrand].
It shows Oatfield Hill, looking south from the crest of the hill toward Thiessen Road. Thiessen Road is the brown colored road which runs horizontally from right to left at about the center of the painting. What is today Wallace Road is just to the left of the building on the right. The Thiessen home is the peaked roofed building just to the right of center, behind a pine tree. And Thiessen’s barn is just to the left of center. A haystack is in the foreground. The Cascades show in the background, and Mt. Hood would be well off to the left of the painting.
This painting shows that, even as relatively late as 1932, there has been no development here.
Copy of painting, and identification of features, courtesy of Inez Oatfield West. Scanned image courtesy of Mike Schmeer, June 12, 2009.
Interviewed by the Oak Lodge History Detectives in April 2011 the two sisters, Adele Marie Wilder (L) [June 17, 1928 — Sept. 16, 2018] and Enid Briggs (R) talk about their Briggs and Birkemeier families’ arrival and early days near Milwaukie in Clackamas County, Oregon.
Nancy Hersey is a direct descendant of three significant pioneer families of the Oak Lodge area – the Starkweathers, Risleys and Gordons. Nancy is a daughter of the local educator, realtor, and historian Harvey G. Starkweather, a granddaughter of the Oregon Territorial Legislator and one time Oregon State Senator William A. Starkweather, and a granddaughter of local pioneer Hugh Gordon. In her 2011 interview with the Oak Lodge History Detectives Nancy talks about her family heritage and her life living in Oak Lodge.