Are you a Pioneer? By Samuel A Pioneer

 Anton Malar and his wife Dorathea Thoeni Malar brought their five children from Switzerland to America in 1884, settling in Oregon in 1885. They had three more children and moved to Firwood in 1893. The seventh, named Anton Jr, born in 1888, married Nina Heacook, a Sandy schoolteacher, in 1910.

    In 1928, at a Sandy Pioneer Association meeting, Nina Malar delivered an original poem she had written for the occasion. Even at that early date, it must have evoked feelings of nostalgia. Can you read it now without a pang of longing for days gone by?

                                                    Are you a Pioneer?

                                 Do you remember the long ago,

                                  When wild beasts trekked the paths of snow?

                                     When wolf and cougar and bear and deer

                                          Were often met in the timber here?

                                    When the glarry eyes were seen at night,

                                       Around the edge of the campfire bright?

              Then you are a pioneer.

      Do you remember the days of old

   When this land was cheap and little sold?

     With grand old forests of Noble Fir?

When naught was known of the lumber mills,

   And the virgin timber clothed the hills?

When the houses were built of logs self-hewed

       That lasted a life-time unrenewed?

              Then you are a pioneer.

        Do you remember the many times

   When work was plenty but few the dimes,

     When you needed land so bad to seed

     To raise a crop for your winter’s feed?

   When to the clearing you went your way

   You slashed and chopped and dug all day,

   And when at night you would look around

                               And your whole day’s work could scarce be found?

  When you were discouraged and sad and ill

      And life seemed dreary and all uphill?

 But you marshalled courage and started new

 And took up the work for loved ones true?

              Then you are a pioneer.

    Do you remember the days of yore

                                    When seldom anyone passed your door?

And ruts were many and hills were steep?

When your axle broke and dropped your load,

  And teams gave out on the muddy road?

 When no one dreamed that a Portland trip

   Could ever be made in an hour’s clip:

            Then you are a pioneer.

      Do you remember that night of fear,

    When death and life were, oh, so near?

     When the only doctor was miles away,

      And a loving neighbor came to stay?

        When first your baby saw the light

     You prayed to God to lead him right?

   And thanked the stars that shone above

       For the blessing of a child to love?

              Then you are a pioneer.

      Do you remember his childhood years,

    Youth and manhood, your hopes and fears?

     Your prayer for strength to him be given

     To weather the gale that sin had riven?

 And when he turned from his downward way,

 You paused-and knew that God held sway?

                Then you are a pioneer.

        And now today around your throne

       We reap the fruits of your labor sown:

         We plant the seed and till the soil

       Prepared for us by your faithful toil.

      And now we gather to sing your praise,

          Wishing you many happy days.

      And when your life on earth is o’er.

   May God in heaven throw wide the door.

            Yes, you are the pioneers.