Reminiscing with Pearl Playford

Published October 25, 1962

Mrs. Bertha Hoffman, long-time resident of Watervliet and one that has a remarkable memory, asks how many people remember “Willow Springs.” Not many, I venture to say, although there may be a few in the Lewis Addition who do. I do not recall ever having known of it and I have failed thus far to talk with anyone who has. But there was such a place back in 1901 and Mrs. Hoffman has a picture to prove it. It’s a Kodak picture taken by the late Audie Bradt and Mrs. Hoffman is shown sitting on one of the rustic seats at the spring.

She says that the spring was fixed up by John Read, who posted signs reading “Visit Willow Springs,” “Take the children for a picnic at Willow Springs,” etc., with arrows pointing the way there. The spring was back of the John Read home, which was east of the David Steele Sr. home on Butternut Street. The picture shows a trellis built over the spring and there were rustic seats, all the idea of Read who later owned and lived on a farm east of town. Mrs. Hoffman’s parents lived nearby.

Mrs. Hoffman recalls that in 1899 a Mr. Valentine was drowned in Mill Creek when he stepped off the bridge while walking in the dark to the paper mill where he was employed. The bridge was a short cut from the Lewis Addition to the mill as Butternut Street did not then connect with Main Street.

In her reminiscing about the South End Grocery she recalls that when it was owned and managed by W.W. Allen, an early day merchant, an evangelist visited the community to hold special meetings. He also held services in Hartford and it was there that he told his audience of Mr. Allen and his remarkable conversion.

I have heard the true story and undoubtedly there are others who have heard comments on it. This preacher told how Mr. Allen was truly converted and following his conversion built a huge bonfire near his store, brought out all the tobacco that he had in his store, amounting to $100, and burned it. Of course people called him crazy, for he believed that it was a sin to sell the dirty stuff. Mrs. Hoffman commented that “It’s too bad that more people who call themselves Christians don’t get crazy now. Some of them burn the dirty stuff but not in the right way.”

An air mail letter received Monday of this week from Mrs. Viola Randall Long, former Watervliet resident but a resident of Portland, Ore., the past several years, tells something of the recent storm that struck the city. Her letter, dated Oct. 17, stated that the weather has been beautiful and sunny ever since the Oct. 12 big blow. She writes:

“It was a hurricane, and people everywhere from San Francisco to way up in Seattle will have plenty to do picking up the debris and sawing up fallen trees. We lost a prune tree and a half of a madrona tree in the storm. No lights, no heat and everyone helped each other. Only a few lives were lost but it was terrific for the two hours it lasted. Never had there been such a storm in Oregon before. I just had to stay in bed all the while; too cold for me to be up at all. Some had the usual facilities, but we who were on General Electric suffered the worst. Some are still in the cold and dark. Our weather got down to 45 at night and that could be pretty chilly.”

Mrs. Long and her daughter, Dorothea, live at 2436 N. Wygant St., in Portland.