Eastern Washington Harvest
By Roy Conrad Derring
Back in the early 1900s, 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 to as a ‘hoedown’. This was a time when horse-drawn harvesters were used in the fields. In one particular instance, my father, wearing gloves, got his fingers caught in one of the machines that hoisted either wheat or hay up to a barn loft or silo. I don't remember exactly which one it was. 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. It just goes to show that young Volga Germans in Portland participated in the wheat harvests of the Volga German wheat farming areas in Eastern Washington.
Source
Written by and used with the permission of Roy Conrad Derring, Portland, Oregon (January 2015)
Last updated October 7, 2025