Brennon Newell

          Brennon Newell lived in Seneca many years ago.  His grandkids went to school in Seneca for a little while. Through their involvement with our history project, they found out that their grandpa used to live in Seneca for a year or two, so they interviewed him for us. 

         Mr. Newell lived in Seneca in 1957 or 1958.  He was 25 or 26 years old when he first started working at the service station in Seneca.  He sold bulk fuel and tires, and used mechanic tools on his job.  His favorite job in Seneca was selling parts and counting the day’s receipts.

         Mr. Newell went to Camp 1 while he lived in Seneca.  He described it as a few cabins, bunkhouses, shops, and a lot of off-road fuel tanks.  There were a lot of loggers in Seneca when Mr. Newell lived here, along with a lot of people working in the Seneca planer mill and lumber drying yard.  He remembered the railroad, but never rode on the train.  He said that there were anywhere from 15 to 35 flatcars in the trains.

         Mr. Newell had this very funny story about working in Seneca.  Hines owned the service station, but was in a lot of debt at the time.  Hines offered to let Mr. Newell by it.  He set up a deal where he would be able to run the station and give a percentage of the receipts to Hines.  When a man from Hines came to pick up the money each day, Mr. Newell kept hearing a ticking sound.  The ticking sound would get faster every time the man spoke.  It turned out that the ticking sound was the man’s artificial heart!  When the man wore a tight shirt, you could see his artificial heart beating.  After the station started making money, Mr. Newell wanted to buy it, but Hines decided not to sell it.

         Some of the other jobs available in Seneca at that time were at the locomotive shops and logging.  The loggers got paid five to six dollars an hour, and the gypos made about one hundred dollars a day. 

         Mr. Newell did not grow up in Seneca.  He lived here for a little while as a young man.  In his free time he ice skated, swam, and rodeoed.  Mr. Newell celebrated holidays like we celebrate them now, with fireworks on the 4^th of July and a tree and presents on Christmas.

         Mr. Newell described where he lived in Seneca.  He told us that he had lived in the upper left-hand corner of town, the northeast corner.  Mr. Newell did not live in a cheese box house, but he saw them while he lived here.  He said that they were not as bad as a tent. 

The thing he remembers most about Seneca was the water, because it had a very distinctive smell and a funny taste.  Mr. Newell did not live here during the record cold temperature of -54º, but it did get pretty cold when he was here.  He remembers that water froze in the houses, the cars wouldn’t start, and the stove oil turned to slush when it got really cold.

         Since there was no doctor in Seneca, people had to take a crooked, narrow road to John Day, which usually took about 30 to 35 minutes.  Mr. Newell went to the Chinese doctor in John Day who lived and practiced near where Dr. Desjardin’s dentist office is today.

         Buildings in Seneca were made from wood, along with some stone and masonry.  The service station was made from stone stucco.  The buildings were pretty nice inside .  The inside of the hotel had a lot of single rooms, a couple of double rooms, a couple of bathrooms, and a recreation hall.

         Seneca money was made for the people who worked for Hines.  In between pay checks, they could borrow Seneca money against their paychecks so they could buy things at the store.  Mr. Newell used some of the money, but he doesn’t have any anymore.

         The funniest thing Mr. Newell remembers happening while he lived here was when his hired hand decided to bulldog a buck deer.  He got down on the deer and before he could get loose, the deer kicked a bad gouge in him.  He was lucky he didn’t land on the horns when he jumped!

         Mr. Newell said that there have been quite a few changes since he lived here last.  He said that there used to be quite a few people here and now there are fewer people in the town and school.  The environment has changed quite a bit as well.  He said the trees are smaller and there is more brush and there is less game for hunting.  Mr. Newell didn’t have much to do with the Olive theatre when he lived here, but he said that he believes one of the reasons it closed down was because there was too much entertainment in John Day, Prairie City, and Burns.  Mr. Newell was gone when the store and service station burned down.  He believes the reason for all the changes is that the logging stopped in Seneca.

         Mr. Newell did not grow up in Seneca and actually spent very little time here, but the time he did spend here left him with many wonderful memories.