Garbage Haulers
Volga German garbage haulers help out during a snow storm in January 1937
Collecting garbage in the City of Portland is often a family affair. And a German Russian one at that. A significant portion of the garbage businesses in Portland were and are operated by Germans from Russia. Italians and Germans who emigrated directly from Germany also operated many routes. Many of these family businesses continue to this day. The garbage business was unregulated in the early 1900's and it gave the German immigrants, many of whom could not speak English, an opportunity to begin a business with a modest investment. The Germans immigrants were accustomed to hard work and long hours and fared well in the competitive garbage hauling business.
An interesting note, the older Portland City Directories list garbage haulers as "scavengers".
List of Garbage Haulers in 1959
Oregon Journal, Monday, January 31, 1977, page 13
Park Story Began With Garbage Man
Although he didn’t have civic improvement foremost in his mind, Ludwig Deines, a Russian-German immigrant, probably did as much as any man to make Overlook Park a reality.
Deines had come to America with his wife, his parents and five children. In his native Norka, a village along the Volga River, he had hauled cargo on sleds for a living when he wasn’t busy farming. It seemed logical to him, therefore, that he should make his fortune by entering into the hauling business when he came to Portland and settled at NE 12 Ave. and Beech St.
So in 1908 Deines invested in a horse an wagon and began his career, hauling off the garbage of Albina and Overlook residents on a six-day-a-week, dawn-to-dark basis. His dump was the steep, useless ravine where Overlook Park sits now, atop his lifetime’s accumulations.
But even though he used his horse and harrow to plow fields for extra money in his few spare hours, Deines never did amass much of a fortune. As the years went by he became the father of seven more sons and daughters, and it became necessary for him to work ever more diligently collecting garbage to take to the Overlook ravine in order to keep food on the table at home.
Other collectors used the dump, and Deines couldn’t claim sole credit for filling it up, but over many years he did more than his fair share of the job.
John Deines of Portland, a longtime community leader and retired secretary –treasurer of Teamsters local No. 220, the sanitary drivers union, still speaks with pride of his dad’s pioneering achievement in civic enhancement.
Cleaning Up Portland
Trash hauler stays in shape with an on-the-job workout
The Oregonian
Monday, December 26, 2005
Julie Tripp
"Every garbageman has his own system," Grant Helzer says of his preferred technique for tossing 55-pound cans of trash into the maw of Alberta Sanitary Service trucks. "I do it one-arm."
That's all wrong, according to the ergonomics people. But when he tried it their way last year, using two hands and lifting more with his legs, he heard a pop in his back and fell in agony to the ground. He was off his Northeast Portland route for two months.
Now Helzer, 33, sticks to the way he's been doing it since he was fresh out of Parkrose High School.
"I come from a long line of German garbagemen," he says.
Five generations of Helzers have been in the hauling business since Grant's great-great-grandfather Henry immigrated to Portland at the turn of the century before last. Grant's dad, Bill, owns and manages the business now, and still runs the routes three or four days a week, tossing cans from Northeast 16th to 33rd avenues between Fremont and Ainsworth streets.
To learn the business he'll assume one day, Grant works in the office three days a week with his mother and aunt, but he clearly enjoys the outdoor work more. He likes lifting the cans manually, eschewing hydraulic lifts that automate the garbage can toss it's taken him years to perfect.
"It's physically demanding," he admits of the work. But it keeps him well-muscled and trim.
"The fun of work is getting the workout," he says. "I couldn't handle being in the truck the whole shift."
He has a nodding acquaintance with many of the 3,300 customers whose garbage he hauls, although contact is a bit more remote now that the garbagemen collect cans from the curb instead of customer backyards. That changed in 1992, when the city standardized collection rules.
Customers still have several ways of dealing with their garbage, Helzer says, and that affects the smells he has to work with.
"In some areas, they like to bag it first; others drop it freely in the can -- we call it 'slop.' "
"This time of year, there's not a lot of smell" either way, he says. "Summer is a different matter."
TIGARD TIMES, Tuesday, August 25, 1981 Page 5A
George Frank: Two companies, many friends
A familiar figure from old Tigard reaches 90 years
by BOB HUNTER of the Times
TIGARD - To George Frank, the seven-day, 80-hour week was no stranger. He spent much of his life at work, hard work, hauling the refuse others didn't want.
And what, as he approaches Thursday and his 90th birthday, does he have to show for it?
Plenty.
When George Frank looks back on his life, can see two companies born from the sweat of his labor. And, more importantly, he sees six children, 11 grandchildren, 23 great-grandchildren, three great-great-grandchildren and more friends than he could ever count.
George, the original owner and chief laborer of Frank's Disposal Service in Tigard, doesn't work the long hours anymore. The effects of a stroke make it difficult for him to speak, but there's no mistaking the life in his ever‑searching eyes and firm handshake.
He now lives in a studio apartment at the Baptist Manor in southeast Portland, his walls covered with photographic testimony to his claim as patriarch of a sizable clan.
His sons, Herb, the current owner of Frank's Disposal Service, and Art Rossman, now retired after running Rossman's Sanitary Service for decades, tell his story.
It's a story that has been told and retold, in languages as diverse as the people who have brought their lives, and hopes, to the United States in the past 200 years. It’s a story of an immigrant family that turned hard work, love and loyalty into success.
Shortly before moving on to Oregon from Canada, the Frank clan gathered for this photograph in 1924. Pictured are: (front, left to right), George's wife Elisabeth, Herb (age 2), daughter Helen and George; (back, left to right) Art, daughter Lydia, son George, daughter Emma Ruff and her husband, Henry.
The descendents of a German family that, at the beckoning of Catherine the Great, migrated to the Russian Ukraine Valley in the 19th Century, George and a brother left their adopted homeland for North America in 1914, a step ahead of both the Bolsheviks and the onrushing Great War.
Twelve years later, after a two-year detour through the Colorado beet fields and now with a family in tow, George moved to Portland, driving cross‑country in a Model T Ford with stepson Art bouncing along beside him.
When his Portland job ended with the closure of a sawmill in 1929, George and his sons took the first step into the garbage-hauling business.
“I remember the first years.” Art said last week, while his father listened intently from across the small living room. "We had few accounts and a long distance between them. We might go to one place in West Linn and then drive to Tualatin for the next stop.”
Collecting 50 cents a month from their customers, the newly started entrepreneurs picked up “anything we could handle with our hands, feet and back,” Art remembered.
All the able-bodied men in the family pitched in, working every job in the business. Sometimes, in fact, they worked jobs they weren't quite ready for.
Herb vividly recalls one such experience.
“I must have been about 12 or so,” he said with a laugh. “I was sitting in the truck and released the handbrake. The truck started rolling down a hill and all I could see was the truck going through this storefront.”
“I became a driver and didn't even know it. But I stopped it somehow. When my dad came running down the hill, I told him I didn't know what happened. I sure wasn't going to tell him I took the brake off.”
Working the towns of Tigard, Tualatin and Sherwood in Washington County, George was a familiar figure. Door-to-door collection of his monthly fee gave him a chance to meet and talk with all of his customers.
While most such meetings were pleasant, Herb remembered that his father could be very direct in dealing with a tardy account.
“I remember one time he put a guy in a tuxedo to shame,” he said. “The guy had plenty of money, lived in Lake Oswego, but just wouldn't pay off.”
“So, Dad and I went down to the Arrow Club, where this guy was at a party. Somebody came to the door and Dad asked to see the man. When he came to the door, he nearly wilted. He said, 'My God, Mr. Frank, you can't come here.’”
“Dad just looked at him and said, ‘You pay me, and I won't come here.’”
While his two sons roared with laughter, George sat quietly, a smile flickering at the corners of his mouth.
The business that once involved one truck with solid-rubber tires now is two businesses, with some 40 employees and three dozen trucks.
Names of former partners, now all dead, flick through the conversation. Like an ancient firm, they are fixed forever at their silent tasks as the brothers reminisce and the father listens.
“I would say Dad is one of the last living garbage men alive from the old-timers,” Herb said. “The others are all gone.”
But, while the business filled his working hours, his life was, and is, filled by his family. The pictures on the wall, some small snapshots and others in large frames, show the real legacy his life has produced.
Many of the smiling faces on his wall will be at a party this weekend, the second such party celebrating his 90th birthday. The first party, held in Canada, drew over 75 people.
George Frank has plenty of reason to celebrate. So do those who know him.
History of the Walker Garbage Service
From the City Sanitary Service of Tillamook, Oregon website: http://www.tillanet.com/~rpoppe/citysanitary.html
In 1950 Bud Walker and Joe Dietamoso became partners under the name City Sanitary Service. They were waste collection partners until Bud left Tillamook in 1955. In 1958 Bud returned to Tillamook, buying City Sanitary Service from Joe. The waste collection service has been a Walker family operation ever since.
In 1979 Bud invited sons, Lee and Doug to become partners. Bud retired in 1989 leaving Lee and Doug to operate the business. In 1999 City Sanitary Service became a limited liability company to make easy entry for the next generation of family members to continue operation.
The Walker family has been operating waste management services for 90 years. Beginning in Portland, the original 'Walker Garbage Service is still operated by the fourth generation. The fifth generation are teenagers waiting in the wings!
Johnny Walker, Sr. started trash hauling in a horse-drawn wagon in the early 1900's. He was the first trash hauler in Portland to use a motorized truck. That truck was a 1917 Garford.
Rather than grow and take on employees, Johnny would sell what work he and his family members could not do themselves. One of his first sales developed into a large corporation named 'MDC Disposal', which became USA Waste and is now Waste Management, Inc.
In the late 1930's and early 40's, Johnny Walker became 'Walker and Son', then 'Walker and Sons'. Bidding on and winning the Vanport Community (Kaiser Steel employee town, now a shipyard) caused an operation larger than the family could handle. It is not known if the "Johnny Walker" Scotch delivered to decision-makers was of any influence. Son Henry decided a case of scotch would not hurt the Walker's chances! Subcontracting to any German family who had a wagon or truck and was willing to work was the alternative to employees once again.
The Portland area continued to develop into small family-owned hauling firms until the 1950's. The number of hauling firms reached to between two and three hundred until the third generation family members either sold or took on employees to replace the grandfather and father.
Submitted by Amy Reaney whose grandfather Henry and great-grandfather Johnny Walker Sr. are mentioned in the article.
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Trash hauler stays in shape with an on-the-job workout
Monday, December 26, 2005 JULIE TRIPP
"Every garbageman has his own system," Grant Helzer says of his preferred technique for tossing 55-pound cans of trash into the maw of Alberta Sanitary Service trucks. "I do it one-arm." That's all wrong, according to the ergonomics people. But when he tried it their way last year, using two hands and lifting more with his legs, he heard a pop in his back and fell in agony to the ground. He was off his Northeast Portland route for two months. Now Helzer, 33, sticks to the way he's been doing it since he was fresh out of Parkrose High School. "I come from a long line of German garbagemen," he says. Five generations of Helzers have been in the hauling business since Grant's great-great-grandfather Henry immigrated to Portland at the turn of the century before last. Grant's dad, Bill, owns and manages the business now, and still runs the routes three or four days a week, tossing cans from Northeast 16th to 33rd avenues between Fremont and Ainsworth streets. To learn the business he'll assume one day, Grant works in the office three days a week with his mother and aunt, but he clearly enjoys the outdoor work more. He likes lifting the cans manually, eschewing hydraulic lifts that automate the garbage can toss it's taken him years to perfect. "It's physically demanding," he admits of the work. But it keeps him well-muscled and trim. "The fun of work is getting the workout," he says. "I couldn't handle being in the truck the whole shift." He has a nodding acquaintance with many of the 3,300 customers whose garbage he hauls, although contact is a bit more remote now that the garbagemen collect cans from the curb instead of customer backyards. That changed in 1992, when the city standardized collection rules. Customers still have several ways of dealing with their garbage, Helzer says, and that affects the smells he has to work with. "In some areas, they like to bag it first; others drop it freely in the can -- we call it 'slop.' " "This time of year, there's not a lot of smell" either way, he says. "Summer is a different matter."
Julie Tripp: 503-221-8208; julietripp@news.oregonian.com