THE VOLGA GERMANS IN PORTLAND
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People > Stories > Eastern Washington Harvest

Eastern Washington Harvest

By Roy Conrad Derring

Back in the early 1900’s my father, Conrad Derring, told me that he and a few of his ‘Gums’ would travel up to those wheat fields to help out during harvest time for several years to what was referred as a ‘hoedown’. This was a time when horse drawn harvesters were used in the fields. One particular instance, my father with gloves on, got his fingers caught in one of the machines that hoisted either wheat or hay up to either a barn loft or silo. I can't remember exactly which was the case. Nevertheless, it raised him up off the ground about ten feet or so before the operator of the machinery lowered him back down to the ground. Fortunately he had gloves on and ended up with two broken fingers. It could have been a lot worse. So it just goes to show that young Volga Germans here in Portland participated in the wheat harvests of those Volga German wheat farming areas of Eastern Washington.

Source

Written by and used with the permission of Roy Conrad Derring, Portland, Oregon (January 2015)
Last updated November 12, 2016.
Copyright © 1998-2023 Steven H. Schreiber
  • Home
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    • Historical Timeline
    • Migration to Russia
    • Emigration from Russia
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    • Migration to Portland
    • Little Russia
    • A Short History of Albina
    • World War I
    • The Volga Relief Society >
      • Portland Volga Relief Society Subscribers 1921
    • World War II
    • Assimilation and Dispersion
  • Beliefs
    • Churches >
      • Albina Seventh-day Adventist Church
      • First United Mennonite Baptist Church
      • Ebenezer German Congregational Church
      • Free Evangelical Brethren Church >
        • German Evangelical Congregational Brethren Church
      • Second German Baptist Church
      • St. Pauls Evangelical and Reformed Church
      • Second German Congregational Church >
        • Evangelical Congregational Church
      • Zion German Congregational Church >
        • Rivercrest Community Church
    • Pastors
    • The Brethren
    • Denominations >
      • German Reformed Church
      • German Evangelical Synod of North America
      • Evangelical and Reformed Church
      • German Congregational Church
      • Seventh-day Adventists
      • United Church of Christ
  • People
    • Our People
    • Notables
    • Pioneers 1881-1892
    • Stories
    • Photographs
    • Help Identify These People
  • Community
    • Characteristics
    • Businesses >
      • Bakeries Retailers and Services
      • Garbage Haulers
      • Grocery and Meat Markets
      • Restaurants >
        • Helsers on Alberta
        • McCormick & Schmicks
        • Wildwood
      • Saloons and Taverns
      • Suppliers and Manufacturers
    • Employers
    • Education
    • Sports
    • Maps
    • Documentary
  • Traditions
    • Foods
    • Folk Medicine
    • Expressions
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    • Holidays
    • Folk Music
    • Funerals and Burial Sites
  • Resources
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