Oregon Historical Quarterly

Abstract:

Pearl Alice Marsh shares her father's story as an African American logger in McNary, Arizona, Wallowa County, Oregon, and Kyberz, California. Amos Marsh, Sr., began his journey as a farmer in Jackson Parish, Louisiana, looking for better working conditions, wages, and a chance to escape the harsh realities of Jim Crow laws in the South. Many African Americans migrated from the South to mill towns in the Southwest and West between 1920 and 1960 — “‘every Tom, Dick, and Harry was hoboin' somewhere in search of jobs,” as Marsh said. He arrived in Oregon in 1939 with his wife and young son to work for Bowman-Hicks Lumber Company in Maxville, where he stayed until about 1959. “Marsh's time working in the logging industryis an important piece of the histories of Oregon's African American community, Wallowa County, and the state's lumber industry.”