Month: March 2020

Fun Fact # 55 Marge Davenport, a staff writer for the Oregon Journal and author of several short story collections, wrote about many amazing dogs. Which dog from her books was the star of a silent film produced in Portland?

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Fun Fact # 55 Marge Davenport, a staff writer for the Oregon Journal and author of several short story collections, wrote about many amazing dogs. Which dog from her books was the star of a silent film produced in Portland?

Fun fact #55: Marge Davenport, a staff writer for the Oregon Journal and author of several short story collections, wrote about many amazing dogs. Which dog from her books was the star of a silent film produced in Portland?

Bobbie at The Reo restaurant at South Water St., Silverton.
Courtesy Vades Crockett, Silverton

The Brazier family of Silverton, Oregon—Frank, Elizabeth, Leona, and Nova—were the owners of Bobbie, a Scotch-collie dog was born in 1921. In 1923, when the Braziers were visiting relatives in Wolcott, Indiana, two-year-old Bobbie was attacked by three other dogs and fled. The Braziers searched for him around Wolcott, but eventually gave    up and returned home.

 

 

Where did the 3,000-mile journey of Bobbie the Wonder dog take him?

Oregonian (published as The Sunday Oregonian.) February 24, 1924 page 12

 

 

What made Bobbie so famous is that he travelled 3,000 miles to get home. Six months after going missing, “wonder dog” Bobbie came home, breaking the bedroom window to greet his master. Witnesses claimed Bobbie’s six-month, 3,000-mile journey started with him walking in ever-widening circles. Bobbie met lots of people on the way home to Silverton—one boy was nice enough to take Bobbie in and restore him to health. Bobbie then escaped and headed west and down the Gorge into Portland. Going south from there, Bobbie finally got back to Silverton.

The Call of the West featuring The wonder Dog “Bobbie” 1924 35mm nitrate film

A group of Portlanders made a silent film called “The Call of the West” , presented by the Columbia Feature Film Syndicate and featuring the actual Wonder Dog “Bobbie”. The film was directed by E. N. Camp, the scenario and title were by S. E. Chambers, and it was photographed by F. C. Heaton and Fred St John. The movie takes place before the family left for Wolcott, Indiana, presenting a fictional story using Bobbie the collie as the star. The plot begins with the dog being taken and driven off by a truck. Then the boy the dog belongs to in the movie gets help because he cannot drive to rescue his dog. He gets Bobbie back. He tries to convince a baseball team called the Tigers to let him be the team’s manager but a boy on the team said he has to pay for the team (or, as the boy puts, it “produce the coin”). He sells his dog to get the money for the baseball team but he steals Bobbie back from the man he sold Bobbie to. Link to watch the Movie. Link to Silverton Road Trip (since like me you’re stuck home out of school and can’t road trip right now. News story about Bobbie’s legacy).

Author of this Fun Fact was Berkeley Sherman’s Guest Author Age 12.  My son will be excited when school reopens.

Serious Fact #55.5 How Many Portlanders Died of the Spanish Influenza?

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Serious Fact #55.5 How Many Portlanders Died of the Spanish Influenza?

Spanish Flu in Portland. October 10, 1918 to January 26, 1919, Portland had 16,633 reported cases of the Spanish Flu and 1,170 deaths. Former classmate and fellow PhD Andree Tremoulet assisted me with this graphic.

Today’s national news references to the 1918–1919 Spanish Influenza pandemic have focused on the contrasting experience of two cities—Philadelphia and St. Louis. In the face of the pandemic in September 1918, Philadelphia held a parade; over the next six months 16,000 residents died. St. Louis canceled its parade; its death toll was only 700. I wanted to learn more about Portland during the Spanish Flu—in particular how many people died in the 1918–1919 flu season? My article on the local quarantine history of that era will appear in the April issue of the NW Examiner. Until I can once again lead walking tours, I will continue to be a Portland history detective!

The answer: From October 10, 1918 to January 26, 1919, Portland had 16,633 reported cases of the Spanish Flu and 1,170 deaths (at that time Portland’s population was around 250,000). I spent weeks looking for daily reports of deaths in the local papers. Even when I found a hand-drawn chart prepared under the direction of Dr. A. C. Seely—which tabulated daily cases as reported to the city health bureau, the state board, and the consolidated health board for city and county—there was no summary data. I had to input Seely’s figures into Excel to show the answer.

City Comparison:

Nurse wearing a mask as protection against influenza. September 13, 1918. In October of 1918, Congress approved a $1 million budget for the U. S. Public Health Service to recruit 1000 medical doctors and over 700 registered nurses. Nurses were scarce, as their proximity to and interaction with the disease increased the risk of death. Record held at: National Archives at College Park, MD. Record number 165-WW-269B-5.

In February 1919, the Oregon Journal reported on deaths in various cities, but omitted a figure for Portland—so I added it back in. (The lack of record in the press is similar to my challenges years ago when looking for information on the smallpox cemetery. Out-of-state news press had more information on Portland than did our local press, which historically had wanted to boost Portland’s image and downplay the negative news.)

City-by city death toll as reported in the Oregon Journal 2/12/19 (with Portland’s figure included):

  • 18,590 Philadelphia
  • 14,563 New York
  • 7,584 Chicago
  • 3,165 San Francisco
  • 2,611 Los Angeles
  • 1,401 Kansas City
  • 1,170 Portland
  • 143 Louisville
  • 94 Grand Rapids
  • 59 Atlanta
  • 81,427 deaths in US

Links to great resources for further study: National Archives “The Deadly Virus”

A link to Portland on the Influenza Archive which uses a great methodology to determine the rate of death in 50 large US cities produced by Influenza Encyclopedia University of Michigan Library with funding from the CDC.  Their findings for Portland are higher than mine and worth exploration.