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Originally appeared in the June 2020 Cottage Grove Historical Society Newsletter

Memories of a place are best told by those who lived there. The story of Hebron has been forgotten by most, but not by those who lived there. People like Bill Barkemeyer and Marie Geer. The sad truth is when those who remember pass, the only things that remain are the stories they shared with others or committed to historic records through writings or other recorded material. The following article was written when Bill Barkemeyer, longtime friend and contributor to the Cottage Grove Historical Society, passed away leaving the stories he told in the hands of those he gifted with the telling.


Hebron townThe community of Hebron was a small farming community built around a cluster of donation land claims. Many of its early settlers traveled west in wagon trains along the Oregon Trail. The valley was picturesque and ideal for hearty farmers. Wide expanses of flat fertile land surrounded by hills that contained much needed timber, and a river that ran strong all year long, snaking through the base of the valley. Summers proved warm and sufficient for growing crops, with winters often bringing torrents of rain causing soggy grounds, harsh travel, and flooded riverbanks. Many of the claims contained some river frontage but also backed up into the hills. This allowed farm animals to be moved to higher ground during yearly high water.

The forests surrounding the valley provided not only timber for building homes and structures but ample natural produce and game, commodities much needed by early settlers as they start to cultivate their land. Originally called Corpus Prairie, this community was situated at the southernmost part of the Willamette Valley and lined to the south by the Calapooia Mountains. One newspaper article states the name was changed to Hebron around 1883.

Early schools included the Brown School House and the Numbers School House. The schools were used for church services in the 1870s until the Hebron Church was built around 1880.

Bridges were built to aid travel around the community as well as down the valley into neighboring towns. Many articles of the time describe bridges being washed out, rebuilt and washed out again, so fording rivers was also common. Residents of the area describe being cut off from neighboring communities in the winter and fall when torrential waters washed out bridges and made fording the river dangerous. These conditions contributed to the heartiness of the community and its need to be self-reliant and resilient.

The settlers forded the Coast Fork River until the winter storms caused the river to become too high for man and beast to cross. Then the settlers were almost isolated from the tiny settlement that would, many years later, become Cottage Grove. They had no telephones, radios, automobiles, rescue helicopters, or hospitals. They had to be self-reliant. They raised and preserved their own food, hunted, fished, made their own clothes, doctored their families and their livestock, and sometimes buried members of their families.
Excerpt from “They Called it Hebron” By Marie Gilham Geer

Samples of community life in Hebron can be found in short snippets of newspaper articles through the years.

Hebron overlay map1895, August: Visitors from Eugene and Junction city visited Hebron’s “Blackberry Patch” finding “berries enough for 20 families”

1918, April: “A liberty loan bond rally was held at the church Monday night at which several were present from Cottage Grove.”

1928, Feb: Pie Social Held at Hebron Farmers Union Hall. Pie auction was accompanied by readings, … two Hawaiian dance numbers, and several piano numbers.

Newspaper articles share news of Sunday sermons, visits to town, visitors from out of town, birthday celebrations, picnics and basket dinners, 4th of July celebrations, children’s day activities, and more. While this was a hard-working farming community, they clearly enjoyed a good get together.

One of the many stories Bill Barkemeyer told was of all-night social events. Everyone brought food, music was played, and the highlight of the evening was when they were finally allowed to eat the pies that had been lined up on tables. From his story you can tell that the anticipation of getting to eat pie would build through the evening, making the pie taste all that much better when it was finally served.

Sometimes the strength and vitality of a community is not enough to save it from the passage of time and the plans of others. Sometimes the price of progress is high. During the days of federally funded improvement projects that helped raise a country out of the depths of a Great Depression, an idea was born. Build dams up and down the Willamette Valley as a method of flood control. The base of the Willamette Valley and the beginning of the mighty Willamette became a logical focus of this grand plan. In 1940 the construction of Cottage Grove Dam began.

Families relocated, buildings moved, torn down or burned, roads diverted, orchards drowned, the land itself was moved and remolded. Cottage Grove Dam was completed in 1942. The name for the reservoir was chosen by popular vote, a vote held in Cottage Grove. The resilient people of Hebron lost their community and home, leaving only their memories.