A Short History of Baker Brothers...as best I can remember. And a plan for the future.

By Catherine Dunlap, 2010

After World War II, Allan came home first. Our Dad had always dreamed of having a dairy farm. He and Allan decided that they would start just that. When Jim got home he went to work at the aluminum plant. A year later Frank and I got married and he went to work with Jim at Reynolds Aluminum. It worked well because they were on the same shifts and could ride together. I worked for the Weather Bureau at Troutdale Airport and part of the time we all had the same shift and could all ride together, which was very nice.

In the Spring of 1947, about three months after we were married, Allan decided it was a really big job to start a dairy business. He needed to log to supplement income until the dairy was established. Somehow the agreement was made that Jim and Frank would quit the aluminum plant and go to work with Allan. At first they were going to be Baker Brothers and hire Frank. But as a hired man, he made more than they did...so they quickly invited him to become a partner.

Fortunately for the company, I was still employed at the Weather Bureau, which helped as we drew very little salary. Jim and Ardie were married and lived in a little house that Grandpa owned...just east of Hogg Mill Road where the ladies live now. In March of that year we moved into the put-together house that was the beginning of our present house. Allan still lived at home. When Jim’s house burned we moved in with our parents and they lived in our house until they got their house liveable. Allan married to Ruth that August and they continued living with our parents until they could build their house.

As you can tell it was a busy time. Starting a dairy, logging, getting married, building houses etc. Lots of decisions were made and not much thinking was put into it. There were never any written agreements about being partners or any other plans. We rather flew by the seat of our pants. Considering our lack of planning and communication, it’s quite amazing that we managed to survive as a partnership all those years. The first agreement we wrote down was in 1993 when we decided we needed a plan that would take care of issues upon our old age and death.

Our business was not done very business-like most of the times. We did not have a payroll for the partners. We paid our employees, all drew the same amount of cash each month (usually not very much). At the end of the year we figured our profit and if there was enough we divided it three ways and gave ourselves a bonus. The company always paid our property taxes and our income taxes. It did not mater how many deductions each one had, we all received the same money each month. BB paid for car repairs, tires, car insurance and gas was filled from the tank. For many years we shared a riding lawnmower. It was always my job to keep the books (never a paid position) and to keep track of personal versus business. Of course that wasn’t easy with lost receipts and invoices here and there. We tried our best to be fair, but there were inequities that were inevidable.

Meanwhile, back to the dairy. It was always a lost cause. As times change so does life. In the early days most of the dairies were West of the mountains, close to the population centers. The hay to feed the cows had to be shipped in from Eastern Oregon. But with the introduction of refrigerated trucks, it became possible to take the cows to the hay rather than the hay to the cows, and produce milk on a larger and cheaper scale. They didn’t need big barns because it was warm and dry and the cows did fine in cheaply constructed shelters.

At one time we were told it was cheaper to ship milk from Minnesota than we could produce it. It was like being in the horse shoeing business when cars became popular. We worked hard to build dry barns, buy equipment, nurse cows, clear pasture, pull tansy, build a dam to make a pond, haul hay, haul silage, build and maintain fences, clean barns, clean up loads and loads of you-know-what, watch as the vet did ceseareans on cows (one of which I held the cow’s side open for).

They were fun times. And a lot of work without much money. Dairying never paid for itself so logging was always necessary. We finally realized that our future was not in the dairy business, so the cows had to go. The year we sold the cows was the only year we made money on them. We settled on a few beef cattle...a hobby that was also never profitable, but the meat was good. Change is a constant.

All you kids worked hard too, and had the benefit of cars with filled gas tanks, tools and anything else of your Dad’s that you needed. We didn’t think about it much and were happy to be able to do whatever we could for you.

Our parents were good to all of us. We each got our homesites plus other parcels of land, plus the Baker Brothers land. We continued the practice and many of you got homesites too. Zoning made it impossible to continue that practice so, with the exception of Christine who purchased one of our pieces, there are those who got no individual property. Life and circumstances aren’t always as fair as we would like them to be. Those are the breaks.

Through all the years I have to say our communication was not taken as seriously as it probably should have been. Sometimes tempers flared and perhaps problems were never totally resolved. As we got older we did better because our one really earnest desire was to avoid any family fuss when we were all gone. That is why it’s important that we work on this now, before we too are gone. We want the process of passing on the family legacy to be clear and smooth and without bad feelings.

That brings me to the reason I’m writing this. The Lord was good and we made it. We did not do things equally. We did not keep track of who did what, because it was not possible. We did have misunderstandings that probably could have been resolved better and faster if we had more family talks. It’s important to understand that if there is a continuation of ownership, a new partnership formed, everything won’t always be fair and equal. It’s not possible. If you choose to enter into this partnership, you will need resolve to do your best, and not worry about the rest.

I began praying a few months ago about what to do to sustain us since the money from the sale of the eighty is fast being used. I had only been thinking about our survival, and honestly figured we would let the next generation worry about what to do after that.

However, the Lord answered in a surprising and exciting way. I found out about these small woodlands workshops, and after attending decided that we do have a precious piece of timberland that should be kept and maintained if possible. A family heritage. I hope the answer is also that we’ll be able to sell enough timber to take care of us and do a few other things. After that, the work of keeping a family treasure will be left to those of you who choose to participate. It won’t be easy and there will most likely be no monetary reward (maybe even a need for monetary support), but the rewards of enjoying the process should be as they say, “priceless”. To me, the road ahead seems clear. An agreement forging a new partnership will be made and those of the next generation willing to participate will become partners. Work will need to be done and there will need to be agreements about how that will happen. Communication should happen regularly. And then time will do what it does. And your children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren will take your place as partners and participants in the adventure of owning and managing a family forest. Not for monetary gain, but for the role it plays in God’s creation...not only of the earth, but of this family.