Sisters Pioneering Spirit - Naomi Smith

Sisters Longest Continuous Resident– Naomi Smith

Sitting in Naomi Smith’s cozy seventy-four year old home in downtown Sisters, I felt as welcome and relaxed as the doe and small fawn munching grass just outside her front door. At eighty-nine Naomi continues to live a“pioneering” life while maintaining a sense of humor and optimism. (She asked for my “credentials” as I walked up to her home – then broke out laughing at the look on my face…)

Naomi Belle (Carroll) Smith has lived in Sisters since 1933. Born in 1919, in Drewsey, Oregon (a small farming community about 60 miles southeast of Burns), Naomi was one of six children born to George and Marie Carroll. “I’m pretty sure I’m the oldest continuously-living resident of Sisters,” she stated.

The Carroll’s circuitous journey to Sisters mirrors the times in which they lived. Naomi’s father, George Carroll, a WWI vet, served in Illinois as a Sergeant in the Medical Corp. After the war George was discharged back to Bend, marrying Marie Sosinsky in Dubuque, Iowa on the way home.

The Carroll’s stay in Bend was short-lived.

While visiting relatives in Drewsey, George borrowed $10,000 and bought the Drewsey Garage, which he operated from 1919 – 1923, during which time Naomi and two sisters were born. Unfortunately times got hard in the area and things had to change.The family moved back to Bend from 1923 – 1928 and George worked in a variety of trades and purchased land from his brother who owned Carroll Acres (just south of Reed Market Road at the time).

In 1928, when Naomi was ten, they moved to Burns and George purchased and operated an auto garage – and found time to play his banjo with Homer Reed’s Orchestra at dances throughout Harney County.

Life was good for the Carroll’s - until the stock market crash of 1929.With no work in Burns the Carroll’s packed up their Reo Flying Cloud Sedan and headed for Stockton, California.

“My father and his cousin, Frank Carroll, saw a “for sale” ad for a garage in Stockton so they decided to move us all there and buy it. When we got there the owner decided not to sell. We were stuck in Stockton for three years during the depression,” said Naomi.

Families survived the depression years any way that they could. The Carroll’s tried watermelon farming but it was George’s banjo playing that fed and clothed his family.

“I finally got in with an orchestra and played three years over the same radio station. I didn’t make much, but with two dances a week we managed to live,” recalled George later in life.

But by 1933 it wasn’t enough to sustain the family. George heard from family members in Sisters that new sawmills were being built. The family sold what possessions they could, bought an old four-cylinder Chevrolet and headed north in July of 1933.

Naomi, then about fifteen, recalls the road trip. “We drove over the unpaved McKenzie Pass (the Santiam Pass highway had not yet been built.) We must not have had any money because, when we ran out of gas and had a flat tire at the same time, my father asked for a dollar from my piggy bank. He walked all the way to town for gas and still had to fix the flat tire.”

The Carroll’s “squatted” on private land on the southeast edge of Sisters along an irrigation ditch, which they used for water. George built a one-room house with a separate outhouse from materials salvaged from abandoned homesteads in the area.

Unfortunately a timber company owned the land and, about two years later, the Carroll’s were evicted from the property.Again the ever-resourceful George, with the help of his cousin George Wilson who owned a team of logging horses, came up with a plan.

They hoisted and “skidded” the home on three large ponderosa pine logs a short way north along the irrigation ditch to land that George Carroll had purchased.

Today it still rests on those three ponderosa pines and is now Naomi’s home, located on the corner of South Larch and Jefferson. Over the years George added additional rooms, modernizing it for his growing family. Naomi has lived there since 1933. “My house is a cute little thing, good enough for me – I raised six kids in it,” she proudly stated.

Naomi married Ray Smith in 1940. Ray served in the army for six years and, during his enlistment, she began purchasing her home from her father – for $1,600.

“Army pay was only $100 a month and it was tough making ends meet as a homemaker. I took in ironing and we ate with my parents so I could pay $64 a month to purchase the house,” recalled Naomi.

Naomi is very optimistic about the growth and development of Sisters. “Of course I miss the old days, and the old people who lived here; the town has grown so much! But I think the Chamber is doing an excellent job for the business people,” she said.