Marguerite Dilsheimer

DILSHEIMER: Yes, the three of us were born in Portland. I had two brothers. 

Semler: Would you tell me their names? 
DILSHEIMER: There was Herbert, my older brother, Herbert Swett — and he was an attorney — and my younger brother, Meyer. I think he was a junior in college when he was killed in an automobile accident.

Semler: All three of you were born here, were you? 
DILSHEIMER: Oh, yes. 

Semler: Were your parents also born here? 
DILSHEIMER: No, my father came to Portland, I think, when he was eight years old, and they homesteaded in Oregon. My grandfather was a dirt farmer, one of the few Jewish farmers. 

Semler: Where did he farm?
DILSHEIMER: On a homestead, and when they left that, they had a farm that was way out in Mt. Tabor. Now it’s the city limits. 

Semler: That was country then. 
DILSHEIMER: That was country then, and one thing they told me was that he grew strawberries that were so beautiful they were sold as very quality merchandise. He sold to L. Meier and Company, which was a very fancy grocery, and I married L. Meier’s grandson. We didn’t meet until [missing?]… Lloyd was born in Baker and moved to Portland as a young man and worked here. 

Semler: Do you have any idea what year that might have been? 
DILSHEIMER: No, I don’t. I really don’t know. Maybe 1926 or 1927, but that’s a guess. 

Semler: What did his family do in Baker? 
DILSHEIMER: His father was a merchant. He had a big store in that period. Just everything except food.

Semler: A dry goods. 
Dilsheimer A dry goods, yes. But I think they might have carried food, because I remember them telling a story about selling flour. They might have had food, too, but now the same store is a general store without food. 

Semler: Do you know the name of that store?
DILSHEIMER: Neuberger and Heilner, I think that’s the name of it. I mean, that’s the name now, and I think that’s the same store. 

Semler: What did your husband do when he came to Portland? 
DILSHEIMER: He did merchandising and he worked for several people, and then we had our own store, the Baby’s Boudoir. 

Semler: I didn’t realize that was your store. I remember it when my sister was little.
DILSHEIMER: Then my husband wasn’t too well, and we sold the store — we didn’t sell the store; we closed the store. Then he went on and did part-time work for Leland Lowenson. He had a heart condition and couldn’t work too much. 

Semler: Do you remember where you lived as a child and where you grew up here in the city?
DILSHEIMER: Well, we lived — I was born on Hood Street. It’s down near the river. I guess it must be all industrial now. 

Semler: Do you mean down in the Northwest Industrial Area?
DILSHEIMER: I don’t know whether there is a Hood Street. I know it was Hood Street. We had a great big home, and I remember the fruit trees in the yard. Then we moved from there south to around Gibbs Street, and then my father built one of the first homes in Irvington. 

Semler: Oh, really. Where was it? 
DILSHEIMER: On 24th and Thompson. It was a big house, and I lived there until I was married. 

Semler: Do you remember about what year you built that house — your family built that house? 
DILSHEIMER: No, I don’t. It must have been around 1910 or1912, something like that, I imagine.

Semler: Were you among the first people who actually moved to that Irvington area? 
DILSHEIMER: We were probably among the first Jewish people who moved to that area. No, there were a number of homes there, but we lived on 24th and Thompson, and from 25th on down there were no homes. There was no Grant High School; all that district was woods. 

Semler: I didn’t realize that. When was it actually developed? 
DILSHEIMER: As a child I used to — because I went to Irvington School and everything was towards town in those direction — the direction towards town, and that was gradually built up. 

Semler: Where did you go to high school? 
DILSHEIMER: Jefferson. 

Semler: Oh, you did. Jefferson was built at that time. 
DILSHEIMER: Oh, yes. I just missed going to Grant. My younger brother went to Grant. 

Semler: Grant just had its 50th anniversary. Grant must have opened in 1923 to 24. Do you remember your neighbors or your activities as a child, or any activities within the Jewish community at that point? 
DILSHEIMER: Well, I went to the B’nai B’rith Center swimming and gym.

Semler:        Was this the one on 13th and Mill?
DILSHEIMER: 13th and Mill. Oh, yes. I don’t know of any Jewish — I went to dancing and all those things that children go through. 

Semler:              Was this through the Center? 
DILSHEIMER: No, no. I did nothing through the Center except mostly swimming. 

Semler:       Do you remember some of the things that had to do with your parents’ involvement in the founding of the Center? 
DILSHEIMER: Well, my father was an attorney, and he lost his voice. He couldn’t practice, and so he started the Federated Jewish Society. 

Semler: I never knew that. 
DILSHEIMER: He was the first Director of the Federated Jewish Society. 

Semler: Which has evolved into the Jewish Welfare Federation?
DILSHEIMER: Right, right. My mother had never worked before, but she had done a lot of club work. She was President of the Council of Jewish Women at one time for several terms and did a lot of work with organizations, but when my father lost his voice, she went down and worked with him. He had to talk in a whisper, and when he passed away, she took over his position. 

Semler: As head of the Federation Society? I was not aware of that. Do you remember approximately what year? 
DILSHEIMER: I don’t know what year, but they were the first two directors of the Federation. Before that, there were all these little Jewish organizations that went out and collected funds from everyone. My father’s idea, way before the Community Chest started, was to consolidate so that there wouldn’t be so many fundraising projects and there wouldn’t be so many duplications in that field, and so he started the Federated Jewish Societies. It was his idea to — build the — and I don’t know whether it was his idea — I think the Jewish Community Center was before that, because the Federation office was in the Jewish Community Center. 

Semler: Your father was active in the B’nai B’rith? 
DILSHEIMER: Yes. 

Semler: And the B’nai B’rith did not have a home, before the Center? 
DILSHEIMER: That wasn’t ever the B’nai B’rith’s home. They just called it the B’nai B’rith Center. They evidently donated and worked on it, but it never had any connection officially with the B’nai B’rith. 

Semler: Oh, I didn’t realize that. Now, where did the B’nai B’rith meet during all these years, do you have any idea? 
DILSHEIMER: Well, they met there. I don’t know where they met before, but all the Jewish organizations used that as a meeting place. 

Semler: Now, your father was never the director of the Center? 
DILSHEIMER: I think to begin with he was, but I wouldn’t be sure of that. I think that was under his jurisdiction, as was every other Jewish society. 

Semler:  I saw your mother’s name listed as the secretary of the B’nai B’rith Building Fund for, really, a period of years. Was there, do you remember, some specific reason that they were so anxious to build the Center? 
DILSHEIMER: Well, they just wanted a meeting place for the youth. It was mostly for the young people, a place for Jewish people to meet and be together. 

Semler: Did they see themselves as doing something different from what the Neighborhood House was doing? 
DILSHEIMER: It was entirely different than the Neighborhood House. The Neighborhood House was more social service, as I understood it, a settlement house. This was never a settlement house. It was a community center for people who needed to meet socially. To have a gymnasium, swimming and social activities, club meetings, and to bring Jewish people together. I think that was the idea, but never any welfare work as such, except that they used that as an office later. 

Semler: But it was not social-service-oriented, whereas the Neighborhood House was? You know, I never did think of that before. Do you remember some of your friends as you were growing up, or some people within the Jewish community who were particularly standouts in your mind? 
DILSHEIMER: I guess I thought I knew every Jewish person in Portland through my parents. But let’s see, we had a sorority, a Jewish sorority. 

Semler: What was the name of it? 
DILSHEIMER: Phi — oh, dear. I still have my sorority pin in the other room. 

Semler: That wasn’t Beta Sigma Chi, Phi. 
DILSHEIMER: No, there was a nu in it. 

Semler: Who was active in it? 
DILSHEIMER: Olivia Lipshutz, Delphine Koshland, Suzanne Seller, Amalie Hirsch, Miss Levy — she married a man in San Francisco. I think eventually Selene Lowenson and Felice Driesen, and Carolyn Savinar Selling. Oh, I don’t know. There were so many. 

Semler: What kind of activities did you have?
DILSHEIMER: Oh, it was purely social. 

Semler: You had parties? 
DILSHEIMER: Yes, and meetings. And there was a men’s social fraternity. It was sort of connected with that. 

Semler: Lots of people have mentioned it, but there was nothing that either the fraternity or the sorority ever did that was anything but social. Did they have some kind of a yearly affair, or was it just when you felt like doing something, having a party? 
DILSHEIMER: There really weren’t any parties, unless there was a convention. It was a national organization, so there was a national convention, and we sent delegates to it. Otherwise, it was not really very important except that it was our social life. 

Semler: And it was fun. 
DILSHEIMER: Oh, yes. I think I joined when I finished college. It started while I was away at school, and when I came home I was pledged to it. That was in 1928. 

Semler: Now, when did you marry? 
DILSHEIMER: Oh, don’t ask me dates. I’m just no good at dates at all. 

Semler: Were you home from college a few years before your marriage?
DILSHEIMER: Oh, yes. I didn’t get married until about ten years after I finished college. 

Semler: What did you do during those years? 
DILSHEIMER: When I finished college, I worked for about six months, as assistant director at the Hamburger Home for working girls in Los Angeles, and then I came back to Portland. My mother didn’t like the job because it was too confining, and she thought it was too much responsibility for me. I was so young, and lots of girls were so much older. She just didn’t like it, so she had me come home, and I became a recreational aid at the Veterans Hospital. 

Semler: Now, what did you do as recreational aid? 
DILSHEIMER: It was group social work.

Semler: Occupational Therapy? 
DILSHEIMER: No, not occupational therapy. Recreational therapy. We just took charge of everything in the hospital that wasn’t nursing, doctors. Every visitor went through our department. We brought all the entertainment up for the patients, shows in the auditorium, and cards and games. The Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars, everyone worked through our office. 

Semler: So you really dealt with all services that weren’t medical? 
DILSHEIMER: Yes, or occupational. There was an occupational therapy department. 

Semler: Now, you graduated in social work? 
DILSHEIMER: No, I didn’t take social work. I took social sciences and graduated in that, and then I took group work at Western Reserve in Cleveland. 

Semler: Why did you pick Western Reserve? 
DILSHEIMER: Well, they had a very good department, and I graduated from the University of Illinois. I went to Reed for two years and then went to the University of Illinois and graduated in a year and a half, and I had that extra half year and didn’t want to come home. Times haven’t changed a whole lot, have they? They have this very good department at Western Reserve, so I went there. 

Semler: Did a lot of your contemporaries go to universities at that time? 
DILSHEIMER: Oh, yes. 

Semler: Did a lot of them go to Reed? 
DILSHEIMER: Quite a few. Both my brothers went to Reed. My older brother graduated from Reed, and then he went to Harvard Law School. He was one of the youngest graduates of Harvard Law School. I think he was 21 when he graduated. Most of them started at 21, and he graduated suma cum laude. He was written up in the Harvard Law Review — quite brilliant. 

Semler: My father-in-law used to speak of him, really talked of him as being a lawyer with a great brain. 
DILSHEIMER: My father was, too. My father went in more — his idea was always to be with the people. He didn’t care about the corporation law that my brother went into. He looked out for the underdog, and he was very fair and very social-minded. 

Semler: Did you feel that he was actually happier in his later activities, even though he might have been practicing law? 
DILSHEIMER: I was too young. I don’t really think so, no. He had to earn a living, and he was interested. Things had to be done, and he did them, but he was never afraid of doing anything. I remember them talking about it, but the IWW was in deep trouble. They were very radical at that time. I guess now, they would be anything but radical, but they used to go out with soap boxes and speak on the streets, and they would be arrested. My father thought that was not good, because of free speech, so he went down with a soap box on the streets with all his friends around him with bail I to bail him out[?]. They didn’t arrest him.

Semler: Did he defend any of these? 
DILSHEIMER: Yes, he defended them. He had some cases which were quite nationally known, but I hesitate to even talk about them, because I know so little about them. 

Semler: Do you have any idea of about how old your father was when he passed away? 
DILSHEIMER: He was very young when he passed away. He was only, I think, about 49. 

Semler: Yes, he was young. Do you have any idea of how many years he had been in social work? 
DILSHEIMER: I would rather not name years, because I can’t tell you. I would have to stop and think how old I am. My mind just doesn’t operate that way. 

Semler: Lots of people’s minds don’t. It’s really kind of interesting, because mine does. Tell me, where did you and your husband live after you were married? 
DILSHEIMER: We lived on the west side. In this neighborhood, more or less. 

Semler: Did you belong to Congregation Beth Israel? 
DILSHEIMER: Yes. 

Semler: And had you also grown up in Congregation Beth Israel? 
DILSHEIMER: Yes, most of the time. I think, however, at one time my father belonged to the Ahavai Sholom, because Rabbi Abramson was there and he was very close to him. But my father taught Sunday School at Beth Israel. 

Semler: Even when he belonged to Ahavai Sholom? 
DILSHEIMER: I don’t know. Maybe he belonged to both. I really don’t know. 

Semler: So you really got your religious education there. 
DILSHEIMER: At Beth Israel. 

Semler: And then you married. Did you continue working after you were married? 
DILSHEIMER: Just for a very short time, six months or a year. Then I stopped. 

Semler: Can you remember some of your activities in the community as young marrieds? You must have been married, actually, during the Depression, weren’t you? 
DILSHEIMER: No, we were married during the war, because I know we had the store, and I went down and did volunteer work with the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard Reserve. 

Semler: What did you do? 
DILSHEIMER: Typing, which I knew nothing about, but they furnished us uniforms. We were just like regular Coast Guard, and we were on duty. We didn’t receive any pay, of course, but we had to salute officers. They issued these uniforms to us complete, and it was fun. We got quite a kick out of it. 

Semler: That does sound like it would be fun. So that was about 1943 to 1944, in those years?
DILSHEIMER: Don’t ask me years. I don’t know. 

Semler: I’m trying to pin it down. But since the war started in 1943, that would be about the time, so that you really had no depression experience that you would remember. What were the war years like? 
DILSHEIMER: Well, I do know. I was working at the Veterans Hospital during the Depression. It was a Civil Service job, and you would go to work not knowing whether you would be laid off that day or not. They would give you, they would put you on temporary leave, or surplus leave — I don’t know what they called it. But they were surplus jobs, and [they] just cut the job out entirely. You would go to work, and you would wonder if you would last the day. I was so afraid. I thought the first thing they’d do is get rid of recreation, because it isn’t as necessary as some of the other things. I remember particularly, because I remember my mother saying, “Well, don’t worry. If you lose your job, I’ll give you a trip around the world on a tramp steamer.” I never lost my job, though. 

Semler: Were there a lot of people you knew [who] did? 
DILSHEIMER: Yes, they laid off a lot of people. It was a surplus job. 

Semler: Were the city employees on civil service at that time? 
DILSHEIMER: I wouldn’t know. I don’t know anything about the city or state. 

Semler: I guess I didn’t realize that that happened to people. I thought of Civil Service people as holding on to their jobs. 
DILSHEIMER: Oh, no. They really cut. 

Semler: What do you remember about the war years here, outside of your job that you obviously loved? 
DILSHEIMER: I remember the First World War. At that time, of course, there was no radio, and we would get extras out. They kept yelling, “The war is over, the war is over.” And all the neighbors. You know, at that time people were not as warm and close to each other they might have beer[?], but neighbors were neighbors. People that we didn’t see too often. We would say hello when we saw them. Everyone came out yelling and screaming and throwing their arms around each other, and then it was a false armistice. Then three days later, I think the real armistice was signed, which was sort of semi. I think my father phoned my mother and told her, and she might have spread the news. Anyway, there was quite [a] rejoicing in the neighborhood. We were very tiny, of course. It was something I will always remember. 

Semler: Yes. From my memory, I remember being at the beach and hearing World War II was over. 
DILSHEIMER: I remember when World War II started. I was in my bedroom, combing my hair, and had the radio on and heard that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. I really didn’t get the significance of it. I didn’t realize what it was going to cost. I was quite excited about it, of course. 

Semler: The war was declared almost immediately, then, or was there sort of a period — ?
DILSHEIMER: I think there were several days before it was announced that we were actually at war. Then President Roosevelt went on radio and announced it. 

Semler: Was there a feeling of not knowing what was going to happen at that period?  
DILSHEIMER: I think everyone knew that there was war. 

Semler: Do you have any memories of refugees coming into the country at that time? 
DILSHEIMER: Oh, yes. You see, they all went through my mother’s office, and we had to find relatives and people who would sponsor them. So many of them. The Landaus, who live here in this apartment, my mother brought over. They always felt so grateful to my mother, and oh, so many of them. At first they came over with quite a good deal of money. There was no trouble financially. Many of them might have left before, sensing what was going to happen, and came out with a lot of their belongings. 

Semler: But your mother helped to settle those people. 
DILSHEIMER: She helped settle them, and when they got here she helped with the papers to get them over and, and that sort of thing.
 
Semler: And then later on the people that came had less money. 
DILSHEIMER: Yes, later. They had less money — they couldn’t take the money out. They just had to get out and leave everything behind. Probably their financial condition in Germany was OK, but they couldn’t take anything out. 

Semler: So that the community was much more responsible, or had to be much more responsible, in seeing that they got settled. 
DILSHEIMER: They had to have authorization from someone in the community that they would be responsible for them until they got on their feet. 

Semler: And that was something that your mother did — to find people who would be responsible? 
DILSHEIMER: Yes, and people who wanted to bring people over went to her for help. They also went to Dave Robinson. 

DILSHEIMER: Of course, there were a great many people who did that, who helped people over. I don’t know that they all went through my mother, but there was a setup, and organization.

Semler: And they helped them learn English and get employed. 
DILSHEIMER: After they got here. I mean, the sponsor looked out for them. I think they sort of looked out for themselves, most of them. Some of them learned to bake and some made candies, and they just took any job they could get. The lawyers weren’t allowed to practice law, and even doctors had to find other occupations. I remember we were at the beach once. A log truck was by the side of the road, and a man was sitting on the edge of the road with his head in his hand. When we passed, he saw my mother. He was sitting there crying. He was a German refugee; he was a white collar worker, and he wasn’t used to that type of work. Some of them really weren’t used to it, and they really had a tough time. 

Semler: But eventually, most of them became part of the community. 
DILSHEIMER: Do you think they ever — oh, yes they do, but they still are a group amongst themselves. 

Semler: They flourished and yet they have maintained their own identity.
DILSHEIMER: Although I do see some of them occasionally, socially, but I think they sort of stick together an awful lot. 

Semler: Well, I guess if you share an experience like that, you feel safer with those people who had the same experience. You were never terribly organizationally involved. 
DILSHEIMER: I never was, no. I had too much of it as a child. My mother was too involved with organizations, and my job was nothing but organizations practically. Every organization wanted to do something for the veterans, and everything went through my office. They all had to be thanked and patted on the back. If they did something, they wanted a lot of praise, and if someone else did something, they were hurt. I was just built up with organizations, so I just never belonged to any. 

Semler: But you found you enjoyed working with your husband; that was a better outlet. 
DILSHEIMER: Well,you know, I have always been a social worker, and that was something. I never worked in a store, so that was new and novel. 

Semler: The principle must be the same — dealing with people. 
DILSHEIMER: Yes, yes. They tried to put me in the office. I wouldn’t do office work, so I stayed on the floor and saw that everything went right. I wasn’t supposed to sell, because the girls were on commission. I could only sell when they were busy, and I just loved to sell. 

Semler: It really wasn’t fair, was it? 
DILSHEIMER: I was a much better saleswoman than any of them. 

Semler: Sometimes things are that way. When you think about it, what kind of major changes do you see in this community over the years? Do you feel there is a lot of difference between life now and life as a girl? 
DILSHEIMER: Oh, certainly there is. There is a difference in social structure. People I knew in South Portland [who] were junk dealers are now the leaders of the community, and people who were leaders then amount to not so much anymore. I mean, as far as doing things for the community. 

Semler: Why do you think that is? I do know what you mean. Why do you think that is? 
DILSHEIMER: I don’t know. I just don’t know. Probably the children had too soft a life. I don’t know what it is. Have you found that?

Semler: Well, that many of the people from old families do not assume leadership now, yes, I have found that to be true. What other kinds of changes do you see? You never had any South Portland experience, really. 
DILSHEIMER: No. I went to Fernwood Grammar School and Irvington School. 

Semler: Fernwood. That’s what, you were close to Fernwood. 
DILSHEIMER: We were equal distance. I went to Irvington to start with, and my father felt that the children at Fernwood were better for me. They weren’t all the rich children that were in Irvington School, and he had the idea that it would be better for me at Fernwood. 

Semler: Why — I guess seeing the neighborhood now … 
DILSHEIMER: You can’t realize what it was then.

Semler: But Irvington was an elite school. So he always had a social conscience. 
DILSHEIMER: Always. 

Semler: Did you like them equally as well? 
DILSHEIMER: It didn’t make any difference to me. I had a good time any place I went. 

Semler: Did you have to travel far to Jefferson to go to high school? 
DILSHEIMER: We took the street car; everyone else did. We didn’t think anything of it. 

Semler: That was really the only high school in that area at that time, wasn’t it? 
DILSHEIMER: Yes, until Grant was built. I just missed Grant. 

Semler: Yes, some people told me they came downtown to Lincoln. 
DILSHEIMER: Yes, a lot of people did because Jewish children went to Lincoln. 

Semler: But you chose to go to Jefferson.
DILSHEIMER: Yes, it just never crossed my mind. That was where I was supposed to go, and my family wouldn’t — you had to give some reason to go to another school. My older brother went to Jefferson, and that’s where I went. It was an entirely different Jefferson than it is now. 

Semler: I am sure that it was. At that time there was no black community. 
DILSHEIMER: There was no black community. There was one black family in our neighborhood. It was a very lovely family, the Kennedys, and we played with the children. I remember Mrs. Kennedy coming to my house to some group meeting. She was a very nice person. We played with their children, but they were the only black family that I was ever associated with, except for cateresses. I remember Mary Alexander, who was just like one of the family. 

Semler: Gosh, her history goes back a long way in this city, doesn’t it? 
DILSHEIMER: She was a lovely person. I mean, those were the people I knew that were blacks, and there were very, very few of them. 

Semler: I think perhaps they didn’t come in until World War II. 
DILSHEIMER: I think so. 

Semler: It is interesting to think of what the city was like. Do you have any memories of Beth Israel? Were you actually confirmed there? 
DILSHEIMER: Yes.

Semler: Who was the rabbi at that time? 
DILSHEIMER: Rabbi Wise, Jonah B. Wise. 

Semler: What do you remember about him? 
DILSHEIMER: Well, I liked him. He was firm, and he always had a little wisecrack. I remember confirmation, when he gave the blessing. It was the one time that I really felt any religious significance to the Jewish religion. Before that, as a child, you were learning the foundation of the Bible and Judaism, but I think that confirmation meant more to me than anything else had at that time. 

Semler: Now, did Rabbi Wise leave this congregation shortly after you were confirmed? 
DILSHEIMER: I just don’t remember that. He went to New York. Stephen S. Wise and his wife were very close friends of my mother and father, and they were in Portland. Stephen S. Wise was before Jonah B. Wise. 

Semler: They were cousins, do I understand? Or no relationship? 
DILSHEIMER: They might have been related. I’m not sure, but not too closely. 

Semler: Then when you were married, was Rabbi Berkowitz at the Temple? 
DILSHEIMER: No, no. Rabbi — he married Phyllis Gumbert — what was his name, Rabbi Hausman. 

Semler: That was actually when Rabbi Berkowitz was in the service, I believe, on leave from the congregation. I had forgotten that Rabbi Hausman had married a local girl. There are a lot of things that I have forgotten. Now, you’ve said you’ve seen a change in the leadership and the social structure of this community. Are there any other kinds of changes that come to your mind? 
DILSHEIMER: Well, of course. All of the freeways and the city has just changed completely. I don’t know what else you mean. 

Semler: That really is what I mean. Sometimes people have different perceptions of whether changes are good or bad, or what it actually has done to community life, but I would imagine living in the Vista St. Clair, you must really have a nice community life here. 
DILSHEIMER: Oh, yes. I have many friends who live right here in the apartment and across the street at the Park Vista, and the other way at Park West, so we really have quite a community right here. Mostly widows. A few men still around. 

Semler: Then you have a full social life amongst yourself really? To me, it’s marvelous to have so many people. 
DILSHEIMER: We have a very nice deck in back of the apartment, just a beautiful deck. Last night, five or six of us congregated and sat around the table and talked until it got cool, and then we watched the fire. Then went up to the apartments up high facing the fire, and we watched the fire. A beautiful view. It was quite exciting. 

Semler: Well, I am sitting here looking. You have such a nice view of the garden that Dr. Shiomi takes such good care of. 
DILSHEIMER: This is almost like not being in an apartment. You feel as though you are in a house. 

Semler: I was very surprised to come and look out at that view. They really take such good care of all the property. 
DILSHEIMER: He just really manicures that lawn. 

Semler: And his other lawn, too. I just love to look. It is nice to live this way. Are there any other things and people that you remember that you would like specifically to mention? 
DILSHEIMER: Well, there are so many people. I don’t know. I have a whole community of people. 
I don’t know who you would want mentioned. 

Semler: Anyone who was important to you. I’ve had people who have mentioned particularly Miss Lowenberg, Mrs. Blumauer, Mrs. Ben Selling. 
DILSHEIMER: Of course, I knew all of them. My cousin married and divorced John Selling. 

Semler: Oh, Carolyn Selling is your cousin. I didn’t realize that. 
DILSHEIMER: Her mother and my mother were sisters. My mother had five sisters. 

Semler: What was your mother’s maiden name? 
DILSHEIMER: Segal. 

Semler: And who were her sisters? 
DILSHEIMER: There was Mollie Segal.

Semler: Can I ask you about her? Was Mollie Segal — I kept reading things about somebody who was the sweetheart, or the mascot, or emblem of the Neighborhood House group. And was that your aunt? I was very curious as to who she was. 
DILSHEIMER: She taught school. She was a school teacher and never got married, and then one of my aunts was Bess Segal. She married Albert Bogen. She is the last sister that’s living. She lives in Caldwell, Idaho and married a cattle man. Esther married a doctor in Kansas City, Esther Goldman. Ann Segal didn’t get married. She had a mail advertising shop. And Evelyn Segal Savinar. 

Semler: Now Evelyn Savinar taught at Beth Israel for many years? She was my confirmation teacher. I have wonderful memories of her. 
DILSHEIMER: Wasn’t she a wonderful person? 

Semler: Would you like to talk about her a bit? 
DILSHEIMER: Well, she was my mother’s youngest sister, and she wasn’t too much older than my older brother. They lived just a block from us, and we were always together. I don’t know just what activities she had besides that Sunday school class. She did sisterhood work. 

Semler: She gave so much to her Sunday school class. Do you know, I don’t know how much more one could do. Was she a very happy, kind of fun person? 
DILSHEIMER: Yes, she really was. 

Semler: That was always my feeling about her. She had such love of what she was doing . She was a lovely person, she really was. Now did your mother have any brothers? 
DILSHEIMER: She had two brothers who died. One died when he was about a few years old, and one died in infancy. My mother came to Portland from Fort Scott, Kansas. She was raised in Fort Scott, Kansas and came here, I think, when she was 16 to 17 years old. She was married when she was 18. 

Semler: How did they get to Fort Scott, Kansas? 
DILSHEIMER: I don’t know. I know they came to Portland because my grandmother had a brother living here, but I don’t know how they got to Fort Scott. Julius Cohn’s family came from Fort Scott. 

Semler: I wonder if they were all homesteaders? 
DILSHEIMER: I don’t know what they did in Fort Scott. I saw their home. 

Semler: It’s still standing? 
DILSHEIMER: It was when I was in college. My aunt who lived in Kansas City took me down, and the old house was still there, right next to the park. The park had a grandstand for bands, and I heard them talk about it, and it renewed a lot of memories. 

Semler: How about your father’s family, did he have sisters and brothers? 
DILSHEIMER: Well, Sig Swett was his brother, and he had a sister, Nadia Swett. There was another sister who died before I was born. She was married to — Gavanni, who was Mayor of Seaside. Anyway, I never knew her; I just heard about her. 

Semler: Was Sig Swett also an attorney? 
DILSHEIMER: No, he was a merchandiser. He had the Portland Emporium. There was Lipman, Wolfe, and then Charles F. Berg, and then a piano store, I think, on that corner. Then on down Sixth Street there was the Portland Emporium. 

Semler: What’s there now? 
DILSHEIMER: Well, Fred Meyer was there for awhi1e. I don’t remember. 

Semler: Was there somebody named Zachary Swett? 
DILSHEIMER: That’s him, Zachary Swett. That’s Sig Swett. 

Semler: I’m glad I asked you that, because I wouldn’t have known that. 
DILSHEIMER: I’ve never heard him called Zachary, but that was his name. 

Semler: I saw a picture, and it was labeled Zachary Swett. I would have thought that Sig was Sigmund. 
DILSHEIMER: He had two sons, Ted and William Swett. Theodore Swett. 

Semler: I know Ted — now he is an attorney?
DILSHEIMER: He’s at the beach; he lives down at Road’s End. And William Swett is a doctor, an internist. 

Semler: So you realIy have lots of aunts and uncles. That must have been very nice. 
DILSHEIMER: At one time I was related to half of Portland, but now I don’t seem to have any relatives. 

Semler: I think you really have if you looked. Are there any other people? I heard, but I really don’t know who she was, but several people have mentioned a Mrs. Baum. Do you know who she is? 
DILSHEIMER: Ted Baum’s mother, yes. 

Semler: Was she involved with the Neighborhood House? 
DILSHEIMER: Yes. I am sure she was. There was a Mrs. Lewisohn that was very active in Council and in Neighborhood House. Of course, at one time the Neighborhood House was most of the Council’s work, wasn’t it? 

Semler: I think so. Certainly they were the founders. I think they really did, but their activities seemed to be quite different than what went on later at the Center. They really never seemed to be involved at the Center in those years. 
DILSHEIMER: No, I think most of the Council’s work in the beginning was immigrants, and then when there was no more immigration they had to get into something else. They did very fine work with the immigrants. 

Semler: Yes, I am finding that many people have many memories of the things that they helped. 
DILSHEIMER: There was a sewing class, so many of the older mothers of my friends went to the sewing class at the Neighborhood House and taught sewing to the immigrants. 

Semler: Do you remember who any of those people were? 
DILSHEIMER: Oh, Miss Hirsch, Mrs. Selling. Oh, so many of them. 

Semler: Somebody told me that the concept of the Neighborhood House really came from that sewing class. I mean the spark for it. That really must have been an interesting sewing class. 
DILSHEIMER: The Lowengarts, of course, were very interesting. You would get all of that from Laddie Goodman. 

Semler: Those were her aunts. 
DILSHEIMER: She worked at the Neighborhood House. 

Semler: Why, I didn’t realize that. I knew that she was there, but I didn’t realize that she actually worked there. And her other aunt was the librarian? And who was the lady that was the principal of Failing School? 
DILSHEIMER: Kate Porter. 

Semler: Did you know her? 
DILSHEIMER: Oh yes. My aunt taught school at Failing School before she was married, and there was Kate Porter, and she had a sister. I knew them well. They were lovely people. As I remember, she was a great big woman. Maybe she wasn’t as big as she seemed to me, because I was just a very little girl. 

Semler: She looked very formidable when I saw a picture of her. 
DILSHEIMER: She wasn’t; she was lovely. Her sister hand painted dishes and gave my aunt Bess a number of these painted dishes. I remember that. They painted china in those days. 

Semler: I found that out because I was interested in antiques, but that seemed to be an activity of a lot of people in those years. 
DILSHEIMER: Probably like needlepoint is right now. 

Semler: I think I like needlepoint much better. 
DILSHEIMER: I did that picture over there. 

Semler: Is that a needlepoint? That’s beautiful, fine work. 
DILSHEIMER: And that little peacock over there. 

Semler: You really do beautiful work. It’s nice to have a talent. 
DILSHEIMER: Oh, it’s not a talent. Anyone can do it. 

Semler: No, that’s not really true. I used to say that, but I watch people, and that isn’t really true. Not everyone can do it. It doesn’t seem that difficult, but some people don’t do it well at all. You have to be sort of fussy, I think.