Mary Schrouder

Written by

By Mary Schrouder and Lindsay Trumbull

Have you wondered about the name on the demonstration garden in the northeast corner of Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center? You know, the garden with the little blue shed. It’s the Wanda Hauser Garden – but who was she? Why did she have a garden named after her? 

Imagine that in 1962, there was a conversation that went something like this…

“Wanda, they want to name the first demonstration garden here at the Ag Station after you.”

“Well, gosh, that’s a surprise. I can’t see why in the world they would think of little ole me.”

“I can give you plenty of reasons. How about the fact that you do so much around here and have such great ideas? Your idea of honoring the pioneers is one of them. Your timing is perfect, as we just had the 100-year anniversary of Oregon becoming a state. Or, how about the fact that you are a woman employee? I think that is rare. There are more reasons but, maybe, you should just smile and say, thank you!”

“Really, I wonder what it’s all about. I wonder if my husband Hank had anything to do with it. Sometimes he can be such a blabbermouth.”

“Maybe he told folks about you being in the service. As common as it was during WWII, not that many women were in the Army during the Korean War. And, in general, you are admired for everything you do.”

“I am proud of being a WAC. I will admit that. Who knows? We’ll see.”

We just don’t know if that conversation ever happened. Speculation can be interesting, but the facts add true depth.

Here is some of what we do know about Wanda Claudine Hauser. She was born in Portland, Oregon on August 19, 1927 to Clyde Ira and Margaret Lynch Campbell. Her ancestry can be traced back as early as 1687 in Germany and Switzerland. The earliest ancestors to come across the Atlantic are found in New Kent County, Virginia in 1712. Who could doubt their gardening skills? Certainly, they knew about balm, bane and wort as found in the Wanda Hauser Garden, as well as the hops that would have been used to develop yeast.

Wanda Claudine Campbell married Henry (Hank) Kenneth Hauser in Bexar, Texas on December 20, 1952 when she was twenty-five years old. Hank and Wanda had three sons: Robert, William, and Michael. Wanda was a U.S. Army veteran of the Korean War. She was in the Women’s Army Corp (WAC) from 1950-1953.

Perhaps the least-known fact about Wanda Hauser was that she was an employee of Oregon State University and retired from the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station in Medford. Yes, she worked here! Additional questions surface now and perhaps you might want to discover more yourself.

Did you catch that name of where she worked? Digging deeper into Jackson County Master Gardeners Association’s history, we find that Oregon Land Grants were established in 1862. Oregon State University was established as the Land Grant College in Oregon in 1868. The Southern Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station was established in 1932, which eventually merged with the Jackson County Extension Service in 1994 to form the Southern Oregon Research and Extension Center – a.k.a our beloved SOREC! It’s not as involved as an archaeological search, but if you can avoid getting lost in the terminology, it’s a fun challenge to peer back into history.

Now we return to our intrepid heroine. Wanda Claudine Campbell Hauser passed away on July 13, 2005, and is buried in Ashville, Buncombe County, North Carolina.

Maybe we’ve answered a couple of your questions. Perhaps you have more. For now, however, we’ll say…Thank you very much, Wanda Claudine. We will carefully tender your garden in your name.

Thank you to Jackson County Genealogical Society, Southern Oregon Historical Society and Oregon State Research and Extension Office. Additional history was found on the JCMGA website “How Did the Jackson County Master Gardener Association Get Created?”