Oral History Interview of Sam, Claudia and Monty Smith, December 18, 2017

Partial Transcript: Okay, now this is your time..

Segment Synopsis: Sam begins the interview with the story of how his family came to settle in Oregon after immigrating from Ireland during the Potato Famine. They spent some time in New York, then moved to San Francisco during the gold rush, but through an attraction to Catholicism in the St. Paul area, they eventually found their way to Oregon. When Francis Smith first came to Oregon, he worked the cattle and livestock. It wasn't until he had kids that they began to grow hops. When they began farming hops, they would take the harvested crops to a warehouse in downtown Salem.
Sam shares that all the local growers had a positive relationship in the St. Paul area. His father was the President of the St. Paul chapter of the Growers Association, and his brother Carl, was the secretary and treasurer.

Partial Transcript: What were the objections people had to the marketing order?

Segment Synopsis: Sam elaborates on the Marketing Order that came down on the hops industry, explaining that the brewers were the group that had the largest objections. He moves forward to share about his duties on the farm during his childhood. He was responsible for hand picking, carrying sacks of water for the crew on his pony, driving the truck at 6 years old in the field because all his brothers were away at war. At the time they had approximately 100 acres of hops which required massive amounts of labor. They had roughly 20-25 wood cabins built on the farm where people from out of town would live during the seasonal job.

Partial Transcript: What about sisters, how many sisters did you have?

Segment Synopsis: Sam elaborates on his siblings, specifically speaking about his sister and her jobs on the farm. She was responsible for helping drive cattle and would cook for the crew.
He then shares about some of his memories of growing up in St. Paul as a young kid. They would often ride their horses to Newberg to watch movies on Sunday's.
Along with hops, they grew wheat, alfalfa, and barley and he explained how the grass seed industry hadn't quite taken off in Oregon at that time. He explains that farming was the way of life that he had always known, and he never had any intentions of doing anything else with his life. For a period of time they lived in Eastern Oregon, but even while over there they were still farming. They moved forward to share about their involvement in the St. Paul Rodeo.

Partial Transcript: So you get married, did you move to this house?

Segment Synopsis: When Sam married his wife, they built the house that they currently lived in at the time of the interview. At that point Sam's father had retired, but still functioned as an advisor for the family farm. He continued to live on the property, allowing the rest of the family easy access when they had questions or concerns they wanted help with.
He shares about the farm operations during the 1960's. They had issues with mildew with the specific hops they were growing at the time, which served to be an issue as they were only growing a few strains.
The family speaks about the impact of tourism during harvesting season of the hops. Although it has become more relevant as time has passed, they all remember how tourists have always been interested in the process of harvesting hops on their farm.

Partial Transcript: What was your time growing up like?

Segment Synopsis: Tiah moves on to ask the various family members present about their experiences growing up on the farm. They shares stories about the things they remember, the work that they did, and their favorite parts of working the farm. They then share about how social media has steadily been incorporated into the mechanics of the farm, specifically how the next generation in the family will use it as a tool to build the business.
When the company broke up they no longer shared the facilities, as they were large enough to divide the land/ facilities to each have their own.

Partial Transcript: How was the community changed?

Segment Synopsis: The family shares about how the local community has changed, and in what ways it has stayed the same. They explained that over the course of a few decades, the population of the local high school has remained very similar, which is a reflection of the size of the town remaining the same as well. The entire community is very close knit, and it is easy to see through the family connections throughout the area. Whether it's in the school, or local government, it is not hard to trace the local families that reside within the area.