History of Lee Valley
Lee Valley, Coos County, Oregon

Mrs. Detlefsen Traces Lee Valley Settlers' History
by Mrs. Grace (Summerlin) (Rackleff) Detlefsen,
printed The World, Thursday, Nov. 15, 1962

Mrs. Ed Detlefsen reminisced for members of the Coos Curry Pioneer and Historical Association at a recent meeting in the Pioneer Museum, North Bend.

Mrs. Detlefsen told about her family, who was among the ealiest settlers in Lee Valley, Coos County. Then Grace Summerlin, [she] arrived in Coos County in May of 1917 and taught school in the community where her grandfather [John N. Sumerlin] had located in 1884. Her father had arrived in 1889.

Her mother was a member of the Wagner family, who lived at Wagner, later named Powers. Other early families mentioned were the Masts, Harmons, Hoffmans and Shulls.

Family Birth Record

She displayed many family pictures and a letter written around 1886 or 1889 by her mother to her grandmother, who was already in Oregon. She showed a New Testament and Psalms which was brought by her mother from Tennessee when she moved west. This book has the family birth records.

She read a letter of reminisces from her brother, Cleve Summerlin, now living in Florida. He recalled that the early settlers had to grow most of their food for family and livestock and that their flour was milled at the grist mill from homegrown wheat. The mail was brought in on horse back, he remembers.

Mrs. James Maple, curator of the museum, reported that 35 states were represented by visitors to the museum in September. Tourists accounted for 711 visits and there were 633 local persons. A grand total of 71,327 persons have signed the visitor's register since the museum opened.

Battle-Ax History Sought

Mrs. Dan Keating brought to the museum a letter from Dr. John Butler, who has done extensive research on a battle-ax found in Coos Bay. Dr. Butler is a Coos Bay native and an oil expert now in Caracas, Venezuela.

Mrs. Keating also said that her family, the Sturdivants, came to Gravel Ford in 1873 to homestead on government grant land.

A letter from the Coos County Board of Commissioners told of the gift to the museum of an old safe used in the clerk's office when the courthouse was in Empire.
[A check with the Coos Maritme and Historical Museum in North Bend confirms that they still have this safe in their posession [January 2011]