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Briegel, Jake (audio interview #1 of 3)
INTERVIEW DESCRIPTION - Briegel was interviewed in his home by his daughter. 1/1/1978
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- 2020-10-02
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- *** File: lhowjbriegel1.mp3 Audio Segments and Topics: (0:00-4:39)... Introduction. His paternal grandparents' family came from Germany. They farmed in Missouri on 80 acres of land the family purchased from the government. Their house was made of native timber and stone and they raised corn and hogs. The family members who came from Germany were skilled mechanics. (4:39-7:03)... His paternal grandfather served in the Civil War and received a pension. On their farm, his family had an apple orchard, raised vegetables and hogs and cured meat. They rented farm land to tenants. His dad only had one brother, who later had two children. The family members who originally came from Germany did not teach all of their skills to their children; the children learned to be farmers. (7:03-9:50)... His maternal grandmother, Grandma King, lived in Jamesport, Missouri. She married several times and one husband, Mr. King, distributed a Kansas City newspaper in Trenton, Missouri. She owned and rented out buildings. All of his grandparents had grade school educations and belonged to the Baptist church. He grew up going to church and Sunday School. (9:50-12:34)... His parents were born in Missouri. His maternal grandfather was a farmer and a horse trader. His parents lived on a farm and his dad had a team of horses. Sometimes, often during the winter, he worked at a sawmill, plastered, and did cement and carpentry work. He also hired himself out with his team. He farmed 40 acres that included a barn for storing hay. They raised chickens, hogs and cows that family members milked. He sold hogs, calves, cream, eggs and chickens. Family members and others in the area cut timber for building and for heat. (12:34-16:00)... His grandfather owned two 40 acre plots of land which he divided between his two sons. His dad built a house and a barn on the land he inherited. During WWI his dad worked in Trenton, Missouri at a railroad machine shop. His family lived in a house with an indoor toilet. Later his grandmother, Grandma King, gave them money to build a store in Hickory, Missouri. But there was a depression; farm prices went down, people couldn't afford to buy things and the store went broke. Then his family went back to the farm. On the farm there was neither electricity nor an indoor toilet. (16:00-21:49)... He had two older sisters, Roue and Kate, one older brother, Doyle and one younger brother, Bill. Everybody who lived on the farm worked, even the kids. They had to feed the chickens and hogs, milk the cows, take care of the horses, and sometimes plow the fields. His mother milked cows as well as baking bread, biscuits and cornbread and she washed by hand and canned food. She also wove rugs on a loom that his dad built and sewed dresses and quilts. Some neighbors who didn't sew themselves hired his mother to sew for them. On the farm, they had no running water, but they had oil lamps and a wood stove. (21:49-25:19)... When he was a boy, he worked for an older woman who was a widow and didn't have any children. He earned 75 cents a day helping her cut buck brush and plant her garden. His parents had grade school educations and sometimes attended the Baptist church. During the summers he earned $1a day raking hay. When his family lived in Hickory, he worked in his dad's store. Among his jobs was testing cream, counting eggs, waiting on customers and weighing chickens. His dad sold the store because he was not making a profit. (25:19-30:00)... When he was a child there were only 2 "colored" men who lived near his family's farm. One lived in Jamesport. The other one worked as farm hand and everyone called him "Nigger Bill." When Bill worked with his family at harvest time, he had to eat by himself in the bedroom because he was not allowed to eat with everybody else. As a boy, he also met Mexicans who worked on the section crews for the railroad. One section hand, Vito Soto, did not speak much English and lived in a boxcar without electricity or running water. (30:00-32:48)... The last year he lived in Missouri he was 15 or 16 years old and decided to farm with his dad. He already owned a horse; he borrowed money to purchase a second horse so he had a team. He and his dad rented land and bought hogs. When the hogs matured, they shipped them to market in Kansas City. The price was so low, they made very little profit. This experience "broke [his] back about farming". That fall he and his mother visited his sister who was living in California. It was the first time he had traveled beyond Trenton. In California he found a job that paid more than he'd earned farming and decided not to go back to Missouri. (32:48-34:10)... He was born November 12, 1905, on a farm in Grundy County, Missouri. When he was born, his mother was not attended by a physician but by a midwife. His birth wasn't registered so later, when he needed a birth certificate, he had to get a delayed one. His siblings were all born under similar circumstances. His mother, as well as many other local women, served as a midwives but they were never paid. (34:10-38:24)... Hickory was the small town nearest to his family's farm. It had a stockyard, 3 stores, a bank, a blacksmith, 4 or 5 houses, and a telephone switchboard. Trenton was the nearest larger town. It was the county seat of Grundy County and the division point between Kansas City and Chicago on the Rock Island railroad. It had railroad shops, coal mines, a creamery, and grain elevators. Local farmers who sold hogs shipped them to Kansas City or St. Joseph. Jamesport was another nearby town, smaller than Trenton. It was in Livingston County, 8 or 10 miles from Hickory, and surrounded by prairie (38:24-44:58)... His sister Kate decided to come to California after her husband and baby died. She took a job with Fred Harvey, who operated restaurants and hotels along the Santa Fe Railroad, and worked in New Mexico when she first left home. Later she transferred to Los Angeles and there she remarried. He was 16 when he and his mother visited his sister who was then living in Long Beach. They did not plan to stay in California but while he was here, he wanted some money so he looked for a job. The first one he found was in Belmont Shore which used to be a swamp. Contractors were dredging Alamitos Bay and depositing sand along the shore to build up the land. He worked for about a week on a crew that was laying a storm drain and earned $4 a day. He worked on a pump which left him with blisters on his hands, so he quit. There was a stream of people working and quitting because the working conditions were terrible. On this job there was also a group of Japanese workers. His next job was working for a contractor who put in sidewalks in Long Beach. He mixed cement by hand and was paid $5 a day. Before he came to California, he had never worked an 8 hour job for wages. End of tape *** File: lhowjbriegel2.mp3 (0:00-2:26)... His paternal grandparents said they came from Germany to America because in Germany men were drafted into the army for a year when they turned 21. They left Germany to get away from this. (2:26-6:49)... Jamesport was a larger town than Hickory. Although it had no industry, it had a movie theater and drugstore. In Hickory, upstairs above his dad's store, there was a hall where groups met including the Woodmen of the World. He believes the fraternal society was "just a racket " to sell insurance although his dad belonged to it. He thinks there were no farmers' organizations although some hog farmers formed a co-op to sell their hogs in Kansas City rather than to a local middle man. (6:49-12:42)... His father played the violin at square dances. In the fall, people had parties after they brought in the crops. In the summer, they sometimes camped out by a river and went fishing. He also remembers going to the county fair. The Baptist church near Hickory held a "June Meeting" and everyone got a new outfit. It included a potluck and was an important social occasion. He can't remember any Catholic churches in Trenton. He remembers that there were Jews "in town" but not out in the country. (12:42-21:29)... His grandfather Briegel was not an aggressive or ambitious man. He lived comfortably off his Civil War pension, as did his brother. Some people grew sugar cane and made molasses from it. His grandfather rented out most of his land. Most landowners who rented out their land charged half of their renters' income. On the rest of his land, his grandfather raised hogs, and kept cows and chickens. So he made and sold butter, cream, and eggs. Depending on the season, they ate rabbit, chicken, squirrel and pork. His two sisters, who were older, left home while he was a boy. Women had to work hard cooking on wood stoves and washing on washboards, for example. (21:29-24:20)... His father worked as a laborer in the Trenton railroad shops during WWI. There was no union at the time. Later, after his family left Trenton, the workers went on strike and strike breakers were brought in to keep the shops open. The scabs lived in boxcars in the railroad yard. The local sheriff protected them and deputized local merchants to help him. This all happened before the National Labor Relations Act was passed. (24:20-27:16)... He and his mother came to California to visit his sister who lived in Long Beach. He didn't have a car, so he walked to work or rode a bus. There was a Japanese gardener that lived in the area where he was laying cement. A Mexican American man who worked with him made $4 a day, while he made $5. The Mexican American worker complained about the discrepancy in pay and he didn't understand it either. (27:16-31:45)... His brother-in-law's brother, who worked for Superior Oil Company as a tool pusher, helped him get a job there. He began working as a rotary helper. His brother-in-law was a driller. He describes some photographs he's looking at. One shows the oil well drilling crew of Sandburg #1 on Signal Hill. This was his first job on a drilling crew; part of his job was to "dress" or sharpen the bits they used for drilling. He was the smallest man on the crew and had to learn how to handle heavy tools and compensate for his relatively small size. Working on a drilling crew was sometimes dangerous. For example, Bill Keck, founder of Superior Oil Company, was known as "Kill Em' Keck" because a lot of workers were injured or killed while working on his wells. (31:45-38:47)... He describes looking at a photograph of the crew of an oil well that was drilled by Jim O'Donnell. He worked as on the crew as the cat head man. The photo shows some safety equipment such as welded steel guards that cover the chain that drove the rotary bit. A third photo shows a drilling crew in the Rosecrans or Athens field. His brother-in-law's brother, at another time, worked as a driller for Star Petroleum. Workers didn't stay with one company for too long. On the rig in this photo, one person was hurt when the "tongs got away". He decided to stay in California because he found jobs in the oil business at which he could earn $6.50 or $7 a day as a roughneck. He worked 7 days a week and believed he was "making good money." With experience he earned $7 to $8 a day. He wanted to become a cat head man because that job paid more money. (38:47-41:34)... At first, he had to learn to adjust to life in California; it was the first time he'd lived outside of Missouri. Soon he'd saved enough money to buy his first car, a 1923 Model T Ford coup, which cost about $400. His dad, mom and younger brother sold their farm and also moved to Long Beach. This was the first time the farm land was transferred outside the family. In California his dad got a job as a plasterer. (41:34-44:50)... Even before the Depression hit, times got rough. The boom on Signal Hill slowed down and so did construction. His dad got a job in McCloud, California at the McCloud River Lumber Company. He worked there until he retired, and then his parents moved back to Jamesport , Missouri and opened a restaurant. When the Depression hit there, his parents moved back to California and lived with him. Before his parents moved to McCloud, he lived with them in a rented house. After that, he rented an apartment of his own. (44:50-45:54)... During the Depression he worked in Wilmington and other local oil fields helping to maintain oil wells. End of tape
- SUBJECT BIO - Jake Briegel started working in the oil fields in the 1920s and, after World War II, worked in an oil refinery as a pipefitter. He first joined the oil workers union while he was working in the fields and then rejoined when he went to work in the refinery. He strongly supported the union during strikes and turned down opportunities to become a foreman or move into other management jobs. In this three part interview, Briegel talks about his early life in Missouri and his migration to California. He came to visit his sister and found he could earn more here than back home, so he decided to stay. His brother-in-law helped him find a job in the oil fields where he worked until World War II when he went to work in a shipyard. After the war, he found a job in a Texaco oil refinery where he stayed until he retired. These three interviews were conducted by his daughter and they were among her earliest interviews. At the time, she was working on a project to study the impact of the discovery of oil on the development of Long Beach. TOPICS - growing up in Missouri; farming; recreational activities; and migration west;family background in Missouri; and migration to California; finding work in the oil fields;
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