The End of  an Era

     After the Civil War visionary people from the South and the Midwest migrated to the West. Searching for peace and harmony, they ventured to pristine lands, building magical, romantic utopians throughout the West. For a short time, they escape the world.  

 

    By1869, to join family members, who had earlier crossed the Oregon Trail in covered wagons, some of  the  homesteaders  traveled by train to San Francisco. From San Francisco, they traveled by ship to Portland, Oregon.  When  they arrived in Oregon they  went by boat up the Columbia River to The Dalles. Some of the pioneers walked to the Mayville homestead area and staked out their claims;  then they walked back to The Dalles to file their claims. Today, Mayville is a hundred miles from The Dalles.  These early pioneers plowed the virgin grasslands and planted wheat, barley, oats and rye. They planted potatoes, watermelon and strawberries. They planted cheery, peach, apple, pear, and prune trees. They raised  horses, cattle, sheep and hogs. They lived in one room shanties until they could build bigger and better homes. Some were proficient carpenters who were successful business men and women. They built tiny divine communities in the middle of nowhere. People from the south and the north lived in harmony     

   If you live in or have lived in Mayville, you will fondly remember  its magical history. Mayville is an abandoned town surrounded by  rolling  hills of  wheat, all of which is in Gilliam County. Dry land wheat fields cultivated by the farmers and their families who live in the area. People who are the most  hard working, down to earth,  gentle people you will ever meet. Farmers whose ancestors came there with only a dream.  

 

   Mayville is located on Highway 19 fifty miles south of Arlington which is on

I-84. 

 

     In the beginning, before roads were built, the mail was delivered to the settlers by Pony  Express. In 1884, Mayville was founded by William and Phebe McConnell. ( In the spring 1885, William was kicked in the face by a horse. He died four days later) They platted the  town Clyde which is still on record today, However,  Mayville  received its official name when the town folks voted that the town  be named Mayville. However, it is unclear exactly why the town was eventually named  Mayville. There are two stories as to how the town  received its name. The book "History of Gilliam County" says the town was named after Mayville, New York which was the hometown of the wife whose husband was     the first postmaster, Samuel Thurston. The other story is the town was named in the month of May. 

     In 1887, Phebe McConnell married Edmund Stinchfield. ( On Phebe's headstone and all other records, her name is spelled Phebe.)

     Before the town had a flour mill, grain was transported  by mule team and wagon to Walla Walla, Washington which is 170 miles north of Mayville. The grain was  traded for flour or ground into flour. For other supplies, annual trips were made to The Dalles. 

   By 1900, Mayville had many different businesses such as a dress and millenary shop, a blacksmith shop, a hotel, two mercantile, a livery barn, a flour mill, a church, a pharmacist, a school. a I.O.O.F Hall and a Grange Hall. The Flour Mill being one of the most prosperous businesses in town. The mill produce  under the  brand name "Klondike. The mill put out  40 barrels of flour a day. The flour was sold from the mill to the local  people.  In the fall,  the 25,000 bushel capacity  wheat storage bins were filled  to the top with No 1 hard wheat which was grown and harvested by the farmers in the area.. For market livestock , the mill also sold grain which was in demand.   In 1904, the railroad arrived in the area, but the railroad only  came as far as Condon, Oregon: the Gilliam county seat which  was 15 miles north of Mayville. According  to history, after the railroad and automobiles arrived in the  area, Mayville slowly vanished into history; the same happened to other tiny towns throughout Oregon.

 

     By 1950, the blacksmith shop was still there with its roof caved in. Pigeons flew in and out of the holes in the roof and roosted there. Smelly dust floated through the air visible in the shafts of sun light that cast down from the holes in the  roof. The Blacksmith's tools were still  hanging on the walls and scattered about covered with dust and pigeon dung.. Where the millinery and dress shop used to be, there were sagging, half rotten boardwalks lined with fragrant yellow roses that bloomed  every summer. In some places, the roses covered the boardwalk completely. From out of the past, your mind visions ladies strolling along the board walk , dignified ladies dressed elegant long dress and warring big hat adorned with feather and ribbons.  Near the old board walk was the Butler resident which  was connected to a small grocery store,  the Mayville Telephone Company and a tiny Post Office, all of which was owned and operated by Earl and Yuba Butler who provided these services for  the farmers and their families who lived in the area. Across the road from the grocery store and post office was the I.O.O.F Hall which  was built in 1895;  it  was white two story building with a front porch that leaned. Out back was a two hole privy for the guest.  In 1954, the downstairs was still used for community dances. The upstairs was used for social gatherings  and weddings. Bobbie Jo Stroud and David Adlard where married there in 1955. Not far from the I.O.O.F Hall was a much larger two story building which was the old Grange Hall. The downstairs wasn't accessible as it had been converted into grain storage bins.  The up stairs appeared to have been a gymnasium.  You could see where a basket ball court had been painted on the wooden floor. The upstairs windows were knocked out.  Pigeons flew in and out and roosted there. The building smelled of pigeon dung and  wheat chaff.  In the late 1800's, this is where community dances were held.  Your mind visions tranquil darkness with only the glow of dim lights from the Grange Hall.  While going on inside, you  imagine people  dancing to the sound of blinkity plunk old time music  mixed with laughter and voices: joyful sounds that transcend  into the lonely darkness until dawn. Sometimes a fight would take place outside the dance hall.  Across the road, you could see what was left of the once prosperous flour mill that burned down years ago.. The hotel  was no longer there,  perhaps it burned down too.. The red brick grade school was the newest and nicest building in town.. High school students attended classes in Condon.

    Today, Mayville is listed as a ghost town.  The post office, the grocery store and the telephone company are closed . Mayville no longer has a zip code: it uses a Fossil zip code. The Mayville Telephone Company switched to dial in 1954. Mayville residents  are listed under Condon phone numbers. There are no schools in Mayville. The red brick grade school was remodeled into a resident. All  students go to school in Condon. Today, less than ten people live in Mayville. Some of the original houses built in the 1800's are still occupied by their owners.  In the summer, rambeling yellow roses bushes still bloom around town.

This page was last updated: 8 November, 2009

William McConnell  1880

Phebe McConnell  1880

In Memory of  forgotten pioneers who rest in un-marked graves.

Courtesy of "A PICTORIAL HISTORY OF GILLIAM COUNTY "

  I know a forgotten place where an old house sits, stripped of all its glory. The windows are boarded up,

and the porch has fallen off.

Towering trees surround

that old abandoned house.

In a warm summer wind,

they sway gracefully to and fro.

Memories of joyful times 

echo through flittering leaves..

When winter nights are cold  and lonely,  heartbreak and tears rest on naked branches

waiting for summer...forever.

Courtesy of :" Rita Gardner"

The Stinchfield House built in 1900

A House of Many Voices

1950

2009

1884

By Alice Stroud Williamson

The First House Built in Mayville

Courtesy of:  "MAC STINCHFIELD"

The Beginning

Stinchfield Log Cabin 2005

Stinchfield Log Cabin 1910

          Harold Ammons 

Grew up in Mayville.

In 1943, the Ammons family come  to  Oregon from Oklahoma.

When Harold was  a boy he lived with his family in the

Old Stinchfield House.

Back Row: High Cook, Loyde Cook and  Arna Slinkard

Sitting : Don Brock

Singing : Don Slinkard

Mayville is a forgotten town that has slipped peacefully into history.

It uses a Condon phone number; it uses a Fossil Zip Code

and no one goes there on vacation.

You can find Mayville listed in a book titled  “Ghost Towns in Oregon”.

If you are old enough, you might find a picture of an abandon house, in shambles, that you lived in when you were growing up; it will be there

on a shinny page, and in color.

There are no mountains in sight; no railroads that whistle, no saw millls with steam whistle that blow.loud enough to wake the dead three times a day, no freeway, and no emergency vehicles with  high-pitched sirens

echoing through town twenty four hours a day.

Nevertheless, sometimes, a motor vehicle  will pass,

through town so quickly, they almost go un-noticed.

The Original Slinkard's Band

played in the Mayville

Odd Fellow Hall in 1954

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