Silver Mountain, Sublimity
Submitted by Jim and Shirley Heater

2008 Sesquicentennial Award Family

“The rural community in Oregon is still the strongest bond and network for neighbor helping neighbor.  Many people in the cities never even know their next door neighbors.  The rural communities are fortunate that they have the opportunity to work together, to socialize and bond together in a network of self-help.  Most agricultural communities are close in caring for one another.”

Our family history has been traced back to the early 1700s when John Heater was born in Bavaria. At 20 he was conscripted into the Prussian Army and sent to serve along the border of Netherlands. During this service he met and fell in love with Mary. He deserted the Prussian Army and fled with Mary to England and then to the United States. In 1772 they moved westward to Pennsylvania to farm and raise their family of six children. Their third child, Peter, was born in 1792 and moved to West Virginia in 1810.

Peter married Elizabeth Mace in 1815 and had eleven children. Their third child was a son named Lorenzo Dow, born in 1819.

In 1844, Lorenzo married Sophia Morley and because the economy took a downturn the lure of the free land in Oregon territory inspired Lorenzo and two of his brothers to join a wagon train west in 1850.  At one point the wagon train ran short of provisions in Eastern Oregon and Lorenzo Down and three other men walked to Umatilla for help. They had two hotcakes for breakfast before they started out and three salmon skins they obtained from the Indians. They hired pack horses to take the food back to the wagon train, a trip that took a week. They arrived in Yamhill County on October 31, 1850.  The three brothers and other members of the party built a log cabin on the homestead of 640 acres near Spring Brook in Yamhill County.

Lorenzo operated Graham’s Ferry on the Willamette River his first winter in Oregon, venturing south in 1851, then east and was impressed by the timber and rolling hills of the Cascade foothills. He viewed the water and lush grass as good resources for his family and livestock. He then went on to the gold fields of California and after making $1,000 he thought he had a fortune and started back to Iowa to get his family. He took a ship down the coast of California to the Isthmus of Panama.  He walked across the Isthmus and took another ship up the Eastern Coast. He arrived back in Iowa in 1851 and the following spring he and his family joined a wagon train bound for the Willamette Valley, arriving in Oregon on September 1, 1852.

He took his family to the area along Drift Creek. He didn’t want to be more than a day’s ride from civilization. Lorenzo and Sophia settled on a donation land claim in the neighborhood of Union Hill. To his surprise he found a squatter had settled there and had a rather rough winter.  They had lost one of their oxen and run low on food.  As the story goes, L.D. offered the man one of his oxen and a new pair of store bought britches to move on, which the squatter did.  Lorenzo and Sophia started to prove up on the half section claim that they would eventually stake.  A rough hewn log cabin was constructed along the central fork of Drift Creek and L.D. started the arduous task of clearing the land.  Timber was abundant and many trees were simple cut and burned to make enough open ground for crop production.  Lorenzo and Sophia had five children; Peter was the oldest, born in 1846.

In 1870 Peter married Elizabeth Hanna Scott.  He continued farming the original donation land claim.  Peter and Elizabeth had nine children.  The fourth oldest child was William Adolph, better known as W.A. or Adolph.  W.A. and his younger brother Walt took over the farming operation and the original donation land claim was later split between the two of them.  A portion of Walt’s half of the claim has been purchased by Adolph’s descendents and is back in the home farm operation.

Adolph married Meda Maude Cooley in 1903 and they had three sons and one daughter. All three sons were interested in farming so it became necessary to acquire additional land to support four families.  In order to generate cash to buy land they formed W.A. Heater & Sons Logging Company.  From 1930 to 1936 they logged a large portion of the area that is now behind Detroit Dam, operating one of the first tractor logging operations in the canyon. At the end of five years they had sufficient money to purchase three additional farms.  In 1948, when the farming company of W.A. Heater & Sons was dissolved, each son got his choice of a farm.  Dolph, the oldest son chose the farm on Silver Falls Hwy.  Doug, the next oldest son, chose the farm on Siegmund Road.  The youngest son, Maurice Cooley Heater, born in 1914, was surprised and pleased to have the home farm on the original donation land claim left for his choice.  Adolph retained title to the farm known as the Lewis Place, which adjoined the donation land claim.

In 1936 Maurice married Lucille Marie Rolow and they had three sons, James, John and Jerry.  Maurice worked hard to improve the home and to move it from small grains to grass seed production.  He loved to invent and build things.  He could visualize a piece of equipment or improvements to equipment and then simply build it.  One of the best examples is the Heater machinery trailer which was an arch unit that could pick up a farm implement and suspend it under the arch while being towed down the road.  He built a small car and tractor for his boys to learn to drive.

James Maurice (Jim), the oldest son, born in 1940, married Shirley Kay Eggiman in 1961.  They have three children, Joan, Tim and Amy.  In the late 1960s Maurice and Lucille and Jim and Shirley formed a partnership and began planting Christmas Trees.  Today the Christmas trees provide the largest, single enterprise on the farm.  In 1984 Jim and Shirley bought out the senior partners and continued to expand the land mass to 1,460 acres.  The headquarters farm is the land grant settled by Lorenzo Dow in 1852.  The crops besides Christmas Trees consist of a 200 acre conifer nursery, grass seed production, small grain production, specialty see crops and hay.  Over the years sheep and cattle have always played a part on the Heater farm.  During the 1970s and 1980s a 100 head herd of registered Black angus cattle was developed. Some of these animals were 4-H and FFA projects for Joan, Tim and Amy.

Today the home farm is part of a family limited partnership which is owned by James M. and Shirley K. and Timothy James Heater (Tim). Tim, born in 1967, is married to Michelle Ballard and has one daughter, Lexi, and three sons, Tyler, Ryan, and Kyle.  Tim works with his dad in managing and operating the family farm.

Joan, born in 1963, is married to Robby Merrell. Robby works on the farm. They have two daughters, Rebecca and Rachel. Joan works part time in the office with marketing, public relations, and human resources.

Amy, born in 1973, is married to Mike Patrick.  Mike is a firefighter-medic with the city of Salem.  They have one son, Wyatt, and two daughters, Katie and Abby.  Amy has been working with her dad on the Northwest Agricultural Show for many years and is now taking over the management of the show which Jim started in 1969.

Currently the farming operation totals around 5000 acres.  Of that amount, 1460 are owned and 3540 are leased.  We have 3500 acres in Christmas trees, 200 in conifer seedling production, 20 in seed orchards, 300-500 in grass seed and small grain production, and the remainder in hay, pasture and timberland.

My wife Shirley and I have enjoyed a wonderful marriage relationship for 47 years.  We’ve also been blessed to have exceptional working partnership with the farm operation. We have been long time members of the Farm Bureau.  We have been members of the Pacific Northwest Christmas Tree Association, the National Christmas Tree Association, the Oregon Association of Nurserymen and women for agriculture.  In each case, we believe that these organizations are vital to the survival of our agricultural industries.  We believe it is a way to support and strengthen our industries and to help agriculture move forward.  We have served on a great number of committees, boards, and task forces associated with each of these fine organizations.  Outside of agriculture but very much in our agricultural community, many members of our family have volunteered as firefighters and paramedics.  Just recently our son, Tim and I were recognized for 25 years of service as firefighters and I am serving my second set of terms on the Fire District Board.  Through this kind of involvement, it gives us the opportunity to give back to the community by providing a necessary service.

Oregon, and particularly the Willamette Valley, had the necessary climate and soil types to become one of the most outstanding specialty crop areas in the nation.  While some parts of our country are limited to two or three commodity crops, the Willamette Valley is blessed with over 120 different crops of economic significance and that list keeps growing.  Back in the mid-a800s, Oregon was thought of as the last frontier.  I think in 2008 it is still one of the last frontiers and has yet to reach its full potential.  There is still a lot of room for innovative, entrepreneurial spirit to flourish in this state.

The potential for agriculture in Oregon is extremely strong.  First and foremost known for feeding the nation, secondly for clothing the nation and now in the last few years for fueling the nation, I believe the demand for agricultural lands will become stronger as time goes by.

In the early years of this farm, most of the crops, grain, grass seed and so forth, were sold as commodities.  Once that product was delivered to a warehouse or an elevator, there was no longer any identification with the farm.  Today our main crop is Christmas trees.  Our second largest is conifer nursery stock.  In both cases, these products carry our name right to the end user.  We rise or we fall based on the quality of the products we produce.  This puts an extra responsibility on us to be sure that we are providing the very best products available and providing the products that the consumers are looking for.  But it also provides an unusual opportunity to maximize our income if our products are perceived to be of a higher quality.  No longer can poor quality be hidden in the mass assembling of commodity products.

Soil conservation has long been a part of our farming operations going back several generations.  In fact, the farm won Cooperator of the Year Award in the 1980s.  While we still use solid set overhead sprinklers in our conifer nursery, we have moved to buried drip line irrigation in most of our specialty seed crops.  GPS mapping has been used for the past 8 years and has been a great help in our farm management activities.  This last year we became members of the Coalition of Environmentally conscious Growers after going through an extensive audit of our programs and practices.

The first settlers primarily raised livestock and crops were secondary.  Over the years, sheep and cattle were the primary stock.  Now, there is only a small herd of beef cattle and crops are the main focus.

Since this land is situated on the western slope of the Cascades it is fairly steep.  Most of our heavy work is done with crawler tractors, mainly Caterpillars with wheeled tractors being relegated to specialty crops and nursery.  We have converted many pieces of equipment to tracks in order to spray and work this steeper ground which is, of course, a challenge to protect from erosion.  The equipment over the years has become much larger, more powerful and much faster.  The first crawler tractor on this farm was a 15 Caterpillar, a small gas CAT purchased in the 1930s.  Later, 1936, a diesel RD4 Cat was purchased and that was the dole power on the farm until the early 60s.  We bought the first Caterpillar Challenger to come into Oregon in 1988.  Today, we have three challengers along with four steel tracked Caterpillars to operate and maintain the farm.

4-H and FFA have played a significant role in our family.  In fact, I showed beef cattle in 4-H and Shirley showed dairy cattle and we started dating at Marion County Junior Leader activities.  We became 4-H leaders when our children were old enough to be in 4-H and spend many years at County and State Fairs.  Tim and Amy were active in all phases of FFA, showing cattle, judging contests and being officers.  Now our grandchildren are following the tradition and showing cattle in 4-H and FFA.  These are tremendous organizations that stress responsibility, accomplishment and self-worth.  The number of members in some projects has declined due to budget cuts and lifestyles.  However, the role of these organizations is as important as ever to teach future generations values and ethics that are frequently not learned elsewhere.

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These are authentic stories from real farmers.  Any editorial content does not necessarily reflect the beliefs of the Agri-Business Council of Oregon or our members.