Fred Wiese allowed his operation to serve as one of the Corvallis college's first experimental farms

When Edna Wiese talks about her family history, her face glows with pride like a school girl winning a blue ribbon at the county fair.

"I dig for roots and collect ancestors," Wiese, 86, says of the genealogy hobby that has included writing several books about both sides of a family tree whose roots are intertwined with Corvallis back to 1916.

"I wasn't the first baby born at Good Samaritan Hospital, but I was one of the first," said Wiese, who was born in 1923.

Although arthritis makes walking difficult these days, Wiese lives on her own and admits to a stubborn independence — a family trait that dates back to German origins.

Her father, Fred, was an emigrant to Nebraska who worked his way to the Pacific Northwest with grain harvesting crews.

"When he got to the Portland area, he saw a sign seeking a German or Swede to operate a ranch in Central Oregon," Wiese said. He took the job and, two years later, bought the 300-acre irrigated ranch about six miles east of Sisters.

There he met Annie Cyrus, whose family had moved in 1846 to the Scio area from the Midwest, and later had moved to central Oregon. They married and had two children — Frederick in 1910 and Doris in 1913.

In 1916, a doctor recommended that the family move from sunny but dusty central Oregon to the Willamette Valley to protect Frederick's eyesight.

Although Wiese's father never went past the eighth grade in public school, he greatly valued education, and sought a farm near what was then the Oregon Agricultural College, Wiese said. They settled on 300 acres about two miles north of Corvallis on what is now Walnut Boulevard.

The property had been a dairy owned by George Taylor from 1871 to 1900. It included several outbuildings: four big barns, two hog houses, a smoke house, a machine shed, a granary and a small brooder house. The main house featured indoor plumbing, with water piped from three springs. Electricity was added in 1929.

In 1917, Fred Wiese and four neighbors worked together to gravel the road to their farms. The county provided the rock, and the men used teams of horses and wagons to haul and spread it. Each of the landowners hauled 40 one-ton loads.

Education was so important to her father, Wiese said, that he paid tuition so his children could attend Franklin School in town, not the country school near their home.

Wiese said her father was a hard worker. He harvested wheat, oats, barley and hay. Some years he planted corn to be cut as ensilage for livestock feed. The family's main source of income though, was turkeys, Wiese said, up to 6,000 at one point. Wiese's first turkeys had long legs and narrow hatchet breasts and were allowed to roam at will. Over the years, Wiese helped to develop turkeys that had larger, meatier breasts.

Her father also bred registered Guernsey milk cows. He sold the milk to the Winkley Creamery and Green Valley Creamery in Corvallis.

Long before OSU had experimental farms, Fred Wiese worked with the college and its students. Earl Price, who would later become dean of agriculture, would often bring students to the farm to discuss theories.

"My father would always take lots of time to weigh all of the pros and cons of anything," Wiese said. "If he thought it was feasible, he would let them try it out."

Wiese's mother loved flowers and turned that interest into a business. In the 1930s, she acquired a state horticulture license and began commercially growing King Alfred daffodils.

"The bulbs were picked when they showed a little yellow, packed in wooden boxes and shipped by rail to New York or Chicago for the early market," Wiese said. A bunch of flowers contained a baker's dozen, or 13 stems, and sold for 10 cents."

When World War II came around, the bottom fell out of the flower market, Wiese said. By 1943, the bulbs were left in the ground as compost.

Fred Wiese died in 1947, and his widow lived on the farm another nine years. She raised sheep for wool and meat, because the sheep were easier to care for than turkeys. She died in 1971.

Today the original farm is dotted with houses and businesses.

Edna Wiese never married and spent her life teaching school in Waldport and Willamina, but she came home on weekends to help her family farm. For many years, Wiese taught the Write Your Own Story class through Linn-Benton Community College.

"I loved it," Wiese said. "I got to learn how my students grew up. They came from all over the country."

In addition to her genealogy work, Wiese attends the First Baptist Church and belongs to several historical societies.

"It's been a full life," she said.

Alex Paul is a former longtime owner of the Sweet Home New era and also a former Democrat-Herald reporter. He started at the Gazette-Times in January.