Austin Warner stands by the original farmhouse near Carlton

I first got the call from Austin Warner in December of 2007. Somehow he'd heard that I was working on a book about the history of work in Oregon and thought he might be able to help. Austin was out of state at the time but promised he'd call back when they returned. Sure enough, the call came and I scheduled a visit to the Carl farm in rural Yamhill County.

I ventured out from Salem and passed through the sleepy town of Carlton. To get to the family farm you actually have to travel west out of Carlton, over some low lying hills. When you come down overlooking the farm you can see the beauty of the place and why Wilson Carl wanted to settle here. The land is rich and richly planted. Just to the west is the beginning of the coast range. The setting is truly bucolic.

Austin actually lives in a manufactured home that sits just uphill from the original farmhouse - where generations of Carls and Warners were born (including Austin) but is too run down now for him to live in. Austin greeted me warmly at the door. He's not a tall man but has a winning smile and gentle way that is infectious. He sat me down at the kitchen table and pulled out historic gems from his family's past.

Wilson Carl came to Oregon in 1853 with "only an extremely poor suit of clothes, which he wore, and his willing hands" according to one account. he was a shoemaker and carpenter by trade. One of only 761 carptenters in Oregon at the time, Wilson set to work building houses and even colleges (he helped build what is now Linnfield in McMinnville).

After a while, Wilson decided to try his hand at farming, and the rest, as they say, is history. You can read more about how the town of Carlton came to be on page 21 of Oregon at Work.

What impressed me the most, I guess, was how this family has stayed here. The farm isn't as big as it once was, but Austin and his son Austin (yes, I know) walk the same pathways and see the same vistas that Wilson Carl viewed back in the 1850's. Only 18 acres remain in the family, owned by son Austin, who also works for Oregon Waste Management in McMinnville. You can read his story on page 144 of the book. He is also doing some fixup work on the house and has his 18 acres planted in wheat.

The Warners (and the Carls) were and are hard working people. They think nothing of rising early and working until it gets too dark to continue. Maybe many of us are not used to this kind of work but when pressed, Austin Sr. just shrugs his shoulders as if it's perfectly normal and expected. "If I was younger I would still be out there. How could you survive without it?" Austin says.

Things were different back when Wilson Carl first came to the area.

"Wilson was also in the political realm so he had a lot of spirit. The neighbors all got together. Now they are all too busy and you don’t see them. They got together to help constantly. We would help if someone’s barn burned down the community would get in and build a new one for them.

"What would he say? He was very independent. He was a blacksmith, carptenter. He was helping the neighbors out a lot in the diaries. There were a lot of people that came to him to do things.

"There’s no comparison from Wilson to today. There was more of a community spirit now everybody is for themselves kind of a dog eat dog I want to get ahead of the Jones’ type of thing instead of a community."

Click here to see a Photo Gallery of images from my visit with Austin