By
the early 1900s Cloverdale had become an important stop along
the A.J. Warrin Road between Tetherow Crossing and Sisters Country.
In about 1890 Oscar Maxwell saw the potential for a stop where
the two routes to Santiam Pass met, one coming through Camp Polk
and the other through Sisters. He filed on 160 acres and built
his house and a store on either side of the road at what is now
the intersection of Jordan Road and Cloverdale. Early settlers
in Cloverdale included the Jordan family (1896); the D. W. Farthings
(1899); Enoch and Mary Cyrus (1899), and Homer Street, the first
teacher.
The Cyrus family, who had moved
from the Grey Butte area, bought out Maxwell in the early 1900s
for $1000. They built an addition onto the house and built a
big barn on the south side of the road, which housed horses and
hay for travelers. Near the barn was a store owned by Otis “Ote” Cobb. Attached to the store
was a small, lean-to blacksmith that Enoch Cyrus ran. These services
supplied both travelers and homesteaders in the Cloverdale area.
Other buildings on the corner
included an ice house, a smoke house, and the first cistern in
the area. Weary travelers could camp, rest and feed their tired
horses, get wagons repaired and horses shod at the smithy, and
buy supplies. People camped under the juniper trees and horses
were tied out if there wasn’t room in the
barn. This corner changed hands many times over the years. At one
time Tom and then Frank Arnold owned the corner and then Melvin
Cyrus and later Willard Cyrus bought it. In the 1920s or 30s travel
along Jordan Road became less frequent and the stopping place gradually
lost its importance. The barn eventually collapsed and the store
building was moved from the south side of the road to its present
location. Other buildings were moved or torn down.
In 1900 Cloverdale residents
built the first school house on George Cyrus’s place, to the north of his parents and nearest to
the population center. Warren Farthing and J.L. Melvin split the
roof shakes for it and it served as church and community center.
Cloverdale showed promise as a viable farming community. Water
came from Wychus Creek (Squaw creek) and, after clearing junipers
with horse drawn stump pullers and endlessly removing lava rocks
farmers could plow. They grew crops of alfalfa, clover, grasses,
and vegetables. The school had 41 students in 1915. In 1919 a new
school was built which operated into the 1980s. Now it is the Little
Cloverdale Pre-School.
Hatton, R.R.
1996 Oregon’s Sisters Country: A Portrait of Its Lands,
Waters, and People. Maverick Publications: Bend, OR
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