Still Farming, Hale Clan Marks 142 Years Of History In Oregon

NOTI, Ore. - Used to be, a trip to the Oregon Coast meant lunch at the Hale House after an early-morning stage ride on the split-cedar corduroy road out of Eugene. Then it was on to Mapleton for the boat ride into Florence.

Back then, you could stand near the big old pioneer house, on a hill browned by summer sun, and look out over the pastures and bottom land of Hale Valley west of Noti.

You could make out the various homesteads of a growing Hale clan, and in a sweep of the head take an instant survey of the uses being made of the family's original 640-acre land claim.

Fact is, you still can track the family from that same hillside vantage point: 142 years after Calvin and Milla Hale came west from Kentucky to settle, the farm they chose still carries their name.

Look to the east. There's the Hale House itself, with squinting little windows spaced in even rows against great expanses of bleached blue siding.

It's rented now, to someone from outside the family, but a branch of the Hale family still owns it, along with half the original land claim.

Look down the hill to the west. There's Bob Hale, "Bobby" to his father. His side of the family still works the farm. He's driving his tractor through the filbert orchard that lies within hollering distance of the great blue house.

Next to the orchard is the aging white house where Bob's sister, Joanna Millegan, lives with her family. Their brother Lester, who works for the state Highway Department, lives in the mobile home up on the hill.

"There's a big pressure not to be the generation that lets it all get away from them," says Bob Hale, who's 49. "You've got that in your head all the time. At least I do."

Gordon Hale, 77, father of the three Hales now living on the family land, unkinks himself up by the barn after commuting 40 miles from Walterville in his pickup truck. He has spent his working life as a naval architect, logger, and heavy equipment dealer.

He has lived in Walterville since 1948 but returns regularly now, working three days a week to help his son make a go of the farm.

"I think Dad's just working the rest of his life out here," Bob Hale says. "This is his hobby."

The Hale farm is one of 900 farms in Oregon to be operated for 100 years or more by the same family, and is believed to be the oldest of about 50 such farms in Lane County.

The frequent drives from Walterville to Noti and back have given Gordon Hale plenty of time to ponder just what kind of a farm he ought to leave his children.

His great-grandparents started the farm in 1853 and passed it on to sons Charles and George, who passed it on to their sons, Darwin and Farmer. Gordon Hale is Darwin's son, Bob Hale his grandson.

"Dad rented the place next door over there," says Gordon, standing on the hillside and looking out over his family's past. "That's where I was born and that's where I lived, was in the rented house, until Dad built the house where Bobby lives now."

The Hale land claim and its family homes have served as stage stop, inn, post office and community center.

There are stories of the county sheriff who lingered two days and died at the Hale House after being shot by an outlaw nearby; of the Hales who served as county commissioners and state legislators; of the widowed grandmother whose farm-wife determination enabled her to withstand the gossip as she took in a succession of orphaned boys to serve as her farm hands; of the two generations of Hales who, each in his turn, drove buggies over the Coast Range hills toward Cheshire and returned with brides.

There have been dairy and beef cattle raised on the rolling pastures now cut by Oregon Highway 126, and there have been Angora goats and Romney and Suffolk sheep.

The fields that have grown oats and grain and hay for the livestock now grow mostly filberts, 4,300 trees, to sustain the farm business. There's also a plot of ginseng root that hasn't yet reached commercial maturity.

Other fields lie fallow or are rented for pasture, as family members toy with other possibilities, maybe grapes, mushrooms or garlic. Maybe fast-growing poplars for wood chips.

"I've sashayed around the country and studied what to do next," says Gordon, the tale-spinning patriarch of the family.

Bob Hale's been looking, too.

"I'm looking for something that's not so labor-intensive," he says. "So far, I have yet to find it."

Of course, there are those who would buy out his family, give the Hales a hefty check to split among themselves. But six generations of family history command a price that no one has yet approached.