Lawbrook Jersey Farm

More about this item

Identifier

ghs20250190003

Description

Glossy black and white photo of the Lawbrook Dairy Farm, formerly DeYoung Dairy, southwest of Gresham (Linnemann/Cedarville/Pleasant Valley area). Photo shows dairy barn and silos with an artifical pond or reservoir in the foreground. Some Jersey cows visible in the photo. Photo appears to be looking south with Bliss Butte in the background. People: Law, Grace; Law, Thomas

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/

Location

Cedarville, Gresham, Multnomah County, Oregon, United States

Date

1942-1946

Subject

Dairy farming

Dairy products

Dairy products industry

Dairying

Cows

Milking

Provenance

Thomas and Grace Law moved to Springdale in 1938 and established the Lawbrook Dairy Farm on the site that would later become Springdale Job Corps. Former residents of California, the Laws had chosen Western Oregon because the climate and vegetation were close to the Isle of Jersey, making it ideally suited for raising Jersey cows. Their herd included some of the last cows brought over from Jersey before World War II and the German occupation stopped all exports. The Lawbrook Dairy moved to Gresham in 1942 when the Laws purchased Byron DeYoung's dairy southwest of town. At the time, the herd was officially registered, with five cows meeting the "excellent" standard (alluded to in the calendar), 19 as "very good," and 10 as "good plus." The Gresham dairy ceased operations when the Laws sold their herd in 1946, after which the buildings were used for warehousing and toy manufacturing. Grace Law had developed a severe reaction to the DDT they used on the farm, and the couple switched to managing motels. They eventually settled in Santa Maria, California, where they lived until their deaths in the 1990s. The Springdale site became a Franciscan seminary before the Job Corps bought it in the 1970s. Peter Binford purchased the 170-acre Gresham farm in 1953. Today there is a park, road, and housing development named after Binford. During the dispersal auction in 1946, 13-year-old David McGregor of Rockwood received a surprise when he was outbid on a 6-week-old calf by none other than Thomas Law, who gifted the calf to the young 4-H member. In 1997, the Laws' neighbors, Margaret and Paul Haley, traveled north with a pile of old photos showing the dairys in Springdale and Gresham, hoping to find the original sites. They donated all of the photos to the Crown Point Country Historical Society.

Type

StillImage

Relation

Agriculture

Item sets

Gresham Heritage

Agriculture