Local Farmstead Transports Visitors Back in Time

This month, history came alive at Brunk Farmstead. 

A guided tour over the weekend of December 6, led by volunteers clad in period costumes and armed with a wealth of knowledge about the century farm, transported participants back to the eighteen-hundreds, when the area was just getting on its feet as an established county.

The Brunk House, owned by the Polk County Historical Society and located just off the Salem-Dallas Highway, was built for original owners Harrison and Emily Waller Brunk in 1861. Twelve years earlier, they, along with their five children, arrived in Oregon on October 16, 1849 from Lincoln County, Mo., by way of the Barlow Trail, a segment of the final leg of the Oregon Trail. It was a journey that took the family six months and two wagonloads stuffed full of their belongings. Local carpenter Thomas Pearce built the two-story, seven-bedroom house for eight-hundred and forty-four dollars in gold– a large enough space to allow enough room for the twelve Brunk children that eventually roamed its halls. 

During the guided tour, Brunk Farmstead Manager Christy Short, animated about the home’s story, took small groups through the home, going over each room’s history and use, and allowed people to ask questions and look around. Aiding Short in know-how was volunteer Grant Olds – connected to the house in a personal manner: Emily Waller Brunk was his great-great aunt.  Christmas decorations, some of them handmade by the volunteers themselves, adorned the walls. A large Christmas tree sat in the parlor, and a fire crackled in the grate, giving the space a cozy, homey ambiance. In the hall off of the foyer hang framed, black-and-white photos of each of the Brunk children, and hand-drawn photos of Harrison and Thomas hang in the parlor on the back wall. 

Underfoot, the original wood floors creaked as people traipsed from room to room. Short was never far away to answer questions or pepper in a fun fact, such as the wreath hanging on the wall in the sitting room is made out of hair, which was common in that time to commemorate deceased relatives. Or that Thomas Brunk, one of Bunk’s sons, went on to be elected to the state legislature in 1913. Two of his lawbooks sit on the writing desk. And one of the purses hanging up in a bedroom was made out of a cow udder. 

Among the rooms downstairs are the parlor, a sitting room where family members likely gathered to enjoy and entertain one another, a guest bedroom where friends would stay when they came to visit, a nursery and the kitchen. The upper level is split into two large bedrooms, one for the boys and one for the girls. 

On the walls leading up to the second level are framed photos displaying old swaths of the wallpaper that once spanned the walls. Original pieces, like the organ, purchased by Thomas for his own children at the turn of the century, a thick quilt hanging on the wall sewn by Clara, Thomas’s wife, the bed in the guest room, carried over in the wagon, several articles of clothing, and more, came directly from the family.

Walking through the house, with its high ceilings and narrow halls, and with Short and Olds narrating what the Brunk life may have been like, it was easy to form a picture of how things were for the family, from how they dressed – simple, homespun clothes, leather boots – to the books they read, to the chores they did. 

Through the back door off the kitchen is a small, one-room cottage with a loft, known as the Orchard House. Built in 1900, it was first used to store fruits and vegetables in the winter months before it became a home for one of Thomas and Clara Bunk’s daughters after she married. Now, it sits as a gift shop, the walls decorated with additional information on the Brunk house. During the tour, the volunteers set up a table laden with cookies and other sweet treats for people to munch on as they peruse the souvenirs for sale, with volunteers nearby to answer any questions. 

On the property, once a sprawling eleven-hundred acres, some of the grapevines, apple trees and pear trees were part of the original family farm and still produce fruit that the farmstead hands out for free to homeschool groups and to the tours that come through the farm. Still standing are the original water well, the outhouse, and the granary. The garage, which is now a woodshop, was once a carriage house. At one point, there was a smokehouse, but it was torn down prior to PCHS acquiring the property. There is also a blacksmith shop that was built in 1986. 

Brunk Farmstead is open from May to October. As well as offering tours, the farm offers woodworking and blacksmith classes. 

Brunk Farmstead

5705 Salem-Dallas Highway

Salem, OR 97304

503-623-6251