Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (June 13, 1963)
HEPPNER GAZETTE-TIMES, Thursday, June 13, 1963 Two Old-Timers Recall Catastrophic Sunday of June l4, 1903, In Heppner I?. H- II " iff nil oil akm Mill K i I -J t 1 ffc-i i mm LOOKING NORTH on "JPrfiSAS? PHoTS was this scene taken from the spot where tune con "e""" ,q,o 0 the le( corner wag the right is the o.a h FNrfi by budding which were washed in h the east side of the street. THE DAY OF THE FLOOD By Arthur Raymond Crawford There are times, perhaps rare occasions, when stark reality can far out -do the most horrible of nightmarish dreams; and in vimlh, when fantasies and imag inings are so often at all-out war against the mere mundane things, then indeed do harsh fads upset ethereal fancies, dreams and nightmares. So jolt ing com(s reality we would wish that after all it was in truth a nightmare. The year was 1903 and the day was the lllh of June. It was I lie day of the II. ppner Flood. On the third of (he month I had reached th ace of 10. Early summer in Eastern Oregon is a time of year which ordinarily gives forth the finest of weather. Hid already in this particular month su 1 try days wire provid ing' a series of electrical thunder storms with resultant flash floods overflowing creeks, gul lies and dry washes. On Saturday the Kith, in the parly afternoon, lalh.T tame in to the house? and announced that since it was such a nice day he thoughts trip out t() Uncle John's would he just fine. Then, too, Virginil, oldest of the child ren, who bud been at the pinch for several: days, could come home wPli; us on our return. So I accompanied father over to (he livery staid;1 whore we stood by while Mr. Thompson hitched the' horses to one of his fanciest "liggies," It was to be the last time that my father, myself, or ;thc horses and the surrey too, would ever again be in that ! stable. (The site of the stable fit that time was on the corner lof Main and Ualti inore, wher' Kami's shoe repair shop Is noV located.) With father and mother and six of us children, four boys and two girls, sister Virginia already being at the ranch, there was a surrey full. My two younger sisters were to come along in later years. The Ki-inile trip over into adjoining I!hea Creek Val ley was uneventful, but I do recall the day was terrifically warm and Jim old country road was very dry ami very dusty. Arriving at the ranch we spent he rest of the day and evening so normally that I would likely not be able to set the time apart from any other pleasant boy hood experience except that it predated an event, a catastro phe would be the better word, that hundreds of persons were never to forget and when things thai were would never be the same again. Sunday morning of this never-to-be-forgotten (lay found a houseful of happiness. It was a peril etly gorgeous early morn ing, but the temperature was rising rapidly, and I remember Uncle John Spencer saying somt tiling also about the hu midity, which didn't moan a thing to me at that time. The early afternoon, even if it was Sunday, was too nice for anyone to deny the suggestion of a few I'ames of pitching horseshoes. So all of us, probably about twenty men, women and child ren were soon out in front of in.' blacksmith's shop and the Miirts" proceeded to show their skill. I recall the partici . us spent much time measur ing and arguing the distances of the respective "shoes" iroin the peg. 'In' 'nine had gone on with rapt interest by all, when sud denly sunshine gave way to semi-darkness and instantly huge raindrops were falling in a sort of easy splatter manner not wet enough to drive one to cover, tin t now someone happen ed to look up the valley and then he yelled. It was not a great distance to the house but t seems now, in looking back to the time, things happened awfully fast, The roar coming down the valley was blended in with the continuous claps of thunder, and by the time we reached the house the deluge had slnuk. In a matter of min utes the house was completely isolated in a sea of water. How ever, the flood water soon re ceded and no real damage re sulted. There seemed to be no misgivings; everyone retired for the night in fine spirits. 1 remember being awakened bv a noise around eleven o'clock i. e-x & 'v if. w w. .wv ,.x v - -v- :i Vis o 3 I - i Ik, x - s, VI Before talking, patient stiown above was nervous, rundown. pressed and lonely. After talking (by long distance to girl friend) patient became happy, smiling, almost ecstatic. For what ails you. there no prescription quite like hearing your loved ones' voices. Why don't you hear some voices tonight, after 6. when ' long distance rates are lower? PACIFIC NORTHWEST BELl I that night. I could see the clock I on the night stand and there I was a lighted lantrrn on the stand by the clock. There was I also a man sitting by the other i bed in the far corner. Coming I out of a sound sleep I was not i sure that I was not having some sort of a nightmare, for this man was telling my mother's cousin, Curtis Rhea, the man in the other bed about homes, houses and many other buildings being washed away in a flood result ing from a huge cloudburst that had struck some eight or nine miles above the town; but more awesome, he was enumerating in some detail, the names of many persons, entire families, who had been drowned. Many of those named were relatives of ours and many of the others were dear and close friends. The late night visitor had brought word of the catastrophe, I learn ed later, by horseback, as all telephone lines were out. The man was still talking as I 'ower ed back on the pillow and went back to sloop. In the morning mother met me at the foot of the stairway and she was sobbing. It seemed like everyone was crying, so I began to cry also. It was then I fully realized I had not been dreaming in the night. On that early Monday morn ing, father and mother and all the children except my next younger brother Spencer and me, were on their sad journey back to town. They were accompanied by my Aunt Edith, who was soon to learn that both her father, Dr. Vaughn, who for years had been the town's den tist and had been serving as postmaster in the President Mc Kinley administration and her mother had lost their lives in the flood. Uncle John had the usual and necessary ranch chores to do and it was some two hours later when we were in the buckboard behind a fast stepping span of horsrs. It was a comparatively fnsl trip and there was very little conversation. Finally we came into the long road at the crest ot the hill which leads into town on the south, and soon my LULLtbt isn't easy -you have to have grades and money. Money at work now at Equitable Savings can carry the college financial burden later. Equitable's cost comparison chart helps. Just call me. e.. i college cost comparison m chart helps. Just call me. Eg Jit Bill Morgan 39 S.W. Dorion Avenu Pendleton. Oregon CR 6-2421 Money at work earning 4 and 4'2 Automatic Pay Off. 'Current rite al maturity if you qualify.) i - uum iilii4 nlnliii nf iSiiiKiri Story of Ah Ling By O. M. YEACER This story was told in the Port land Oregonian a few weeks af ter the Heppner flood, and was titled, "FIGHT BRINGS OUT STORY OF A MURDER: WHY CHINAMEN WERE DRIVEN FROM THE TOWN." "Ah Ling is a Chinaman and has no political influence what ever. Yet he managed by one act to get every Chinaman at Heppner banished from that city, and to this day not a den izen of the flowery kingdom is allowed there. "In the eyes of Ah Ling the charge again.st him was trivial and really deserved no consid erations at all, but the 'Melican men' thought differently. Ling was merely accused of hiring a high-binder to kill a sick man and rob him of $2,000 that he intended to use in getting back to the Orient and supporting himself until his death, which was not far distant, in the nat ural course of events, had he not been murdered. "This story . was told again at the police station yesterday af ternoon when Ling and Wun Lin were arrested and charged with fighting. They stood on the corner of Second and Oak Streets, diagonally across from police headquarters, and after brandishing their fists in each other's faces for a few minutes uncle brought the horses to a stop and my brother and I quickly understood why. Follow ing his gaze off across the val ley below us, we could look over where the long, steep road went up the hill to Masonic Cemetery. It was not yet noon time, but there was already a long pro cession of horse-drawn vehicles, each crarying a wooden box. Sixty years ago, yes but to me it seems only yesterday. began a fight In earnest. Desk Officer Wendorf and Detective Hellyer ran across the street and arrested them. " 'He allee samee owe me brud dah $400 and say he no pay!' screeched Lin to Captain Gritz macher, 'He velly bad man, allee samee kill heap plenty people.' " 'Captain, you know me velly well,' suavely replied Ling. 'This man San Flancissco highbindah. He workee in Blarba shop heah as a blind. He allee samee tellee me many times if I no play him no money he killee me.' I no flight. He thleaten killee me and stlike at me and I hold him away.' "Lin had no money and went to jail. Ling put up $10 bail. Both were charged with fighting. "Ling was arrested shortly af ter the Heppner flood and charg ed with causing the murder of his countryman, who was beaten to death with a club in sight of the railway station. The Chinaman who did the deed con fessed and was the only wit ness. He said the intention was to commit the murder in such a manner that when the body was afterward found in the Wil lows the authorities would think the man drowned and that his body had been washed down during the flood. This story was effectually disapproved, however, by several people, who would have sworn that the murdered Chinese drew money out of the Heppner bank and went to the railway station, where he met his death, sometime after the flood. "The Chinese witness became insane and hanged himself while confined at Heppner. There being no other witness of the murder, Ling had to be re leased. Enraged at this mis carriage of justice, the people rose up as one man and forced every Chinese in the city to leave. Not a single Chinaman has since then been allowed to stay in Heppner." Author's note: I remember this incident and knew Ah Ling pers onally, and the real truth of this matter is this: The China man, Ah Ling, who hired the other Chinaman to do the murd ering, went to our county jail in Heppner and hired the pris oner to hang himself for a small sum of money. This money was found on the table in his cell when they found his body. The sheriff of the county caught the witness in an attic in a vacant cabin out in Eight Mile country a few miles south of Heppner. For a good many years not one Chinaman was allowed to even enter Heppner, but as the years slipped by, the younger generation forgot all about the murder and once again China men were allowed to live in Heppner and operate restaur ants. Eddie Chin, finally came and operated the old Elk Horn restaurant for many years and the people of Heppner liked him very much. He sold out a few years ago and opened up a swell restaurant in Hermiston, Oregon. 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