Helping History Happen: Another Volunteer Interview

Post Submitted by Karreen Busch

If you ever want to learn more about southern Oregon’s wonderful history, Peter and Linda Kreisman can help you out! The married couple resides in Ashland and has volunteered together at the Southern Oregon Historical Society’s Research Library in Medford for two years. They’ve also served on the society’s Foundation Board.

Here, they explain a little about themselves, and why they love to work with history:

What is your favorite part of being a volunteer?

Learning the resources available at the Library. Also, being able to volunteer as a couple means we can share memories of our youth as we come to understand how the community around us evolved. It is a very enriching experience.

Do you have any advice to give to people wanting to learn more about their family or local history?

Become members, come to the Library and start asking us questions. Each answer leads to another question.

What is your favorite event put on by the Society?

We loved taking our grandsons to the threshing of the wheat at Hanley Farms and watching them get absorbed in lifting the sheaves up into the horse-drawn wagons, the threshing, watching the potter, making butter, bobbing for apples—all the things they’ll never see in their Chicago lives.

What is your favorite piece of history within the Research Library?

Peter’s is the history of the railroads in southern Oregon. Linda’s is the personal stories recorded in the words of the people of the past. We both enjoy reading about events that happened here when we were kids and weren’t paying attention (or just seeing them through adult eyes).

What are your favorite things to do when not volunteering?

We both love learning about the birds that come and go in the valley in the different seasons. It gives us an excuse to explore all the back roads and hiking trails!

Do you have another job or volunteer elsewhere? Or are you retired, and if so, what career did you have?

Peter moved to Ashland in 1946 and Linda in 1954. We left after high school but always kept connected through our families. Peter had a small woodworking company making childrens’ creative play things. Linda was a research food scientist for General Mills (Betty Crocker) for 25 years. We came back after we retired.

What are your interests and hobbies?

Peter loves English Country Dancing, woodworking, and just general fixing anything and everything. Linda likes to read, hike, and cook.

The Research Library is located at 106 N. Central Ave. in Medford, Oregon, and is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 12:00 to 4:00 P.M. For more information, visit www.sohs.org.

Helping History Happen

Helping History Happen: A Volunteer Interview

Post Submitted by Karreen Busch

            Do you ever wonder about the way history is recorded?  Where do all the facts go?  In Southern Oregon, one sure place to find history in its many forms is at the Southern Oregon Historical Society’s Research Library.

            But how does all that history get sorted?  Well, the Research Library is run mostly by volunteers who donate their time to help keep Southern Oregon history alive.  The stories our volunteers can share will make you want to experience some history yourself!

Dana Smith Tuley is a part-time staff member and part-time volunteer of the Southern Oregon Historical Society, as well as a lifelong Oregonian.  A resident of Medford, Dana was a legal secretary for 30 years and is now retired.  Here, Dana answers some questions about herself and her job at the SOHS.

What is your favorite part of being a volunteer?

Knowing that we, the volunteers, are helping the society get through a tough time in its history and that we are working to make it better.

What is your favorite piece of history within the Research Library?

[M]y family’s history dating back to 1870 in the valley starting in Eagle Point and on to Jacksonville and surrounding areas in 1881; I found so much history to use in a cookbook I was preparing with family history added.

What is your favorite historic building the Society owns?

I loved going to the Museum as a child (in the 50s) and seeing my great-grandparents’ home displayed there as one of the old homes in Jacksonville.  It was built in 1887 or 1888.

What is your favorite event put on by the Society?

Love Hanley Farm events; love stepping back in time that happens strolling the old farm grounds with a grandchild; all 3 have attended events with me through the years.  They all got to churn butter, which so fun for them and me!  I got to make butter on my grandparents’ ranch on the Applegate so it was special for them to get to do it too.

Do you have a favorite person of interest whose life can be researched in the library?

I love the “Vertical Files” where I can ask about a subject, such as a certain person, town or place in the area, and read articles, letters, etc. about it/them.  I also find it fascinating to ask about photos on a person/place and get a box to go through on my own; it takes you back in time and one picture leads to another box of pictures to look through; it is endless.

Do you have any advice to give people wanting to learn more about their family’s or local history?

Start with the historical society’s Research Library and get help from the people who work there; they try very hard to answer all your questions and find as much information as they possibly can.  The term “it takes a village” applies; we all work together to do the best for the customer.

What are your favorite things to do when not volunteering?

I revised/wrote The Smith Family Heritage Cookbook for the Jacksonville Sesquicentennial which started my love affair with SOHS.

What are your interests and hobbies?

I showed horses for about 20 years; tennis was a passion for 36 years until the knees wore out!  Still a passion but I turned to coaching girls’ high school junior varsity tennis for 5 years.  My husband builds street rods for a living and we travel the country in our 1934 apple green Ford 2-door sedan with a group of friends.  Our ‘34 is not like my grandparents’ ‘34; we have air conditioning, heat, stereo, power steering, tiltback seat; a little more luxurious than in the “old days”! A great way to see the sites of this great country.

            The Research Library is located at

106 N. Central Ave.

in Medford, Oregon, and is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 12 to 4:00 pm.  Call (541) 858-1724 or visit sohs.org for more information.