August through October is the time when growers harvest hops. Production began in Oregon in 1867 near Buena Vista. Many farmers added hops as a cash crop. In a manuscript in the archives of the Benton County Historical Museum, Robert Hamill tells his memories of hop harvesting in the early 1900s. He was a boy at the time but accompanied his parents when they went to pick.
“The Hamill family went hop picking first in 1904....My father was a...commercial fisherman on the Columbia River. He needed a new net and while my mother and father could kit the many fathoms required, they needed funds for the twine.”
His mother saw an advertisement in the paper for hop pickers. “Dad read the ad and decided with four adults and my twelve year old sister that the fund for the net could be obtained during the picking season. Since I was but seven they didn't count me in....The ad had stated that a river steamer and paddle wheeler firm was to be contracted for transportation and other detail so dad went the next morning to sign up. The yard he signed for was near Independence …. Dad thought that the family could make fifteen to twenty dollars a day....We had to take some food, clothing, cooking utensils and bedding. Cabins, wood and water were furnished by the farmer....
“We were soon on our way to Independence and the hop fields. Dad told us the the middle Willamette Valley was the hop capital of the U. S. producing more than the rest of the country produced....Many hundreds of persons were moving to the hop yards from Portland and the valley towns headed for intriguing adventures. The trip was beautiful and we saw many wild animals in the fields and woods....
“Finally we arrived at our dock near Independence and saw the large areas was filled with farmers and their wagons. The crowd poured off milling around trying to find the farmers groups they were assigned to. A genial looking farmer called out Hamill—so we promptly loaded our baggage I his wagon and away we went...Arriving at the camp site on the farm, we were assigned to ...nice cabins arranged in long rows with plenty of trees for shade. We soon got acquainted with our neighbors and I found a nice boy to play with.
“Next day we all assembled in the field, the family would pick, I would watch. Some people picked in hop sacs, a few in hoppers arranged with saw horse legs and canvas bottoms. Mainly the picking was in slatted baskets, shaped like a truncated cone, about thirty inches in height. When filled, they were emptied into a large wooden box convenient to the row of pickers. The attentant [sic] gave the picker a ticket for twenty-five cents credit. When the wooded boxes were filled, the farmer hauled them to the hop house.
“...boys of my age, not picking, would play shinney. It was a dry weather form of hockey. The puck was made from a carnation milk can squashed as much as possible, clubs were sticks with knobs or crooks on the ends....We played run, sheep, run, and pum pum pullaway or maybe it was pump, pump, pullaway, which were lots of fund then....
“There was only one drawback to mar the fun in picking. Some persons got hop poisoning-- a more severe malady than poison oak. My mother had it lightly the first time we picked.
“after about three weeks we finished the picking and headed for home. The family made plenty to buy net twine...
“We didn't go picking in 1905 because the Worlds Fair in Portland took all are [sic] spare time.....The family did go again in 1906, same yard, but this time our trip was aborted because mother got a very severe case of hop poisoning. It was so severe that she had to have medical help; as soon as possible all but my two brothers went home, sorrowfully I must say-- as we missed the group.”
Prohibition decreased local demand for hops which was offset by increased exports to war-torn Europe. After the repeal of Prohibition, production expanded but after World War II mechanical harvesters replaced hand labor and the camps described by Mr. Hamill disappeared.
By Martha Fraundorf, Volunteer
for Benton County Historical Society, Philomath, Oregon
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