Washington County Oral Histories

Alfreda Austin Wooden oral history recording

An audio recording of an oral history of Alfred Austin Wooden about her life in Beaverton, Oregon recorded on October 6, 1982. Her parents grew up and were married in Wisconsin, but when her mother inherited a farm in Oregon, the family moved. Wooden briefly describes the childhood of each of her parents and the amount of school that they attended. At first, Wooden’s father worked carpentry in Beaverton to provide for the family, but after moving to the farm, they lived and provided for themselves there. Wooden was born on the farm in Oregon and remembers her childhood well including going to school and doing chores. Her father took care of her a lot since her mother was a great seamstress and left for weeks at a time to stay at other families’ homes in order to sew. Wooden mentions a couple families in particular that her mother sewed for: the Walkers and the Weeds. The Walkers lived in Beaverton and had Walker Road named after them. Wooden remembers the great mourning that occurred when Grandpa Walker died. The Weeds had their own farm in Beaverton where they raised irises and peonies and held Open Houses to have them viewed. Wooden describes what the neighborhood looked like when she was young and who lived there, including some Chinese workers. Wooden recounts how traditions like Christmas were celebrated, the importance of religion, and in particular, a doll that she got for Christmas when she was six years old and still had at the time of the recording. The voices are clearly audible in the recording. Attached is a full transcript of the interview.

Austin Wooden, Alfreda

Beaverton Oral History Project

Washington County (Or.) -- History

Austin Wooden, Alfreda

Washington County (Or. )

Beaverton (Or.)

1 sound cassette (1 hr., 1 min.)

English

WCM_OH_246

In Copyright

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Five Oaks Museum

Tanzer, Shirley

Audiocassettes

Sound