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About Herald and news. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1942-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 24, 1958)
r PAGE R A HERALD AND NEWS. KLAMATH FALLS. OREGON SUNDAY, AUGUST 24. 19SR 1 Fort Rock Matriarch Remembers Early Days By HELEN PARKS FORT ROCK Grass up to a horse's stomach and the mice in their makeshift shelter are among the earliest recollections of Fort Rock homestead days for Mrs. Bridget Godon. This matriarch of the Fort Rock Valley, with her sparkling Irish eyes and laughter, will tell you in the rich brogue of her native land that she wished she hadn't come. Nevertheless, she stuck it out. Then there was another earlier trip that she wished she hadn't made. At 17, as Bridget Monahan, she traveled steerage for 14 days from Ireland to New York City. Her mother and father had both died and the property went to the eldest child. She paid her way by selling needlework and embroid ered two nice dresses to take along. It had cost three pounds, then about $15, for steerage passage. "If it had cost any more I couldn't have come," she said. "It was crowded, riding in the bottom of the boat, but there was also a sense of adventure. In America I thought I would get everything I wanted." She went to Philadelphia where she had an older sister whom she scarcely remembered. Jobs were not plentiful but the worst one, she recalled, was work ing long hours as a domestic for a hard-to-please housewife near Hopewell, New Jersey, at a wage of $8 a month. Then it was that she remem bered the old home with Its flow ers and trees and the fireplace which gave warmth and a place for cooking and the view of the ships with white sails billowed against the blue-green of Donegal Bay. Better jobs came along and in time she met and "married Fete Godon, a French chef and a good one. It was October, 1911, when they left Philadelphia with their five small daughters, Louise, Alice, May, Josephine and Mable, to seek their fortune in the West. "Gold on the ground, fruit on the trees" was the kind of advertising that lured them to travel with their friends, the Alec Belletablc family, top homestead 320 acres in the Fleetwood community 11 miles northeast of Fort Rock. They arrived with only their personal belongings at Opal City, then the end of the railroad where they were met by Holly Swingle who hauled passengers and freight to the "land of opportunity." It was two weeks before Swingle hauled lumber for their house and Mrs. Godon wouldn't have minded sleeping in the barn that furnished them shcltor if she hadn't had to share it with the mice. She pre ferred sleeping in the open, she pointed out. "Pete dug our well by hand, 85 feet deep," stated Mrs. Godon. "Louise (now Mrs. Tim Lane of Bend) and I would crank him up and down with a windlass. I was nothing but skin and bones when we finished. He weighed 225 pounds." Before they had their own well they carried water a quarter milo in buckets. That was some distance on washday. With their first spring came the job of grubbing brush by hand and they managed to sow 15 acres to rye. The Godon daughters, Alice and Josephine, are still raising rye on the same 15 acres as well as 230 acres more. Pete Godon had more than he bargained for at har vest time when he cut his crop with a scythe and raked it with a wooden toothed rake, he concocted. "Our whole crop was about enough for the horses we'd bought," re calls .Mrs. Godon. Soon funds were close to ex hausted and Pete, who had been head chef at more than one lead ing Philadelphia hotel or club. sought a job in Reno. There he was chef in the French Hotel for three years. You just can't realize the hard ship and suffering. Mrs. Godon leels. She was left to shoulder the responsibilities of head of the house under forbidding, almost im possible circumstances. Her chief asset was her ability to work hard there were lots of neighbors in the r leetwood community as home' stcaders moved in on available tracts. The town itself boasted a store and post office, a dance hall and a weekly newspaper published ny Li. a. Charles, lather of Glen Chailes, publisher of the Lake County Examiner. Similar commu nities sprang up all over the val ley and schools were built as need ed. The Godons attended the Cou gar Valley School and treasure friendships with children of fami lies who left. Later, while their father worked in Bend to help support the family the girls continued to grow in abil ity to help their mother carry on After most of their neighbors gave up and left, Alice and Josephine took up 640 acre grazing home steads which are a portion of the more than 4,000 acres they have acquired. May (now Mrs. Jack O'Keeffo of Bend), Alice and Josephine milked cows for 20 years and shipped the cream to Bend. There were 27 cows, nine for each to milk. The Godon girls became adept at being self sufficient. Their father died in 1927, still working in Bend. They could haul seven loads of hay a day pitching it both on and off the wagon. When a friend showed them how to roll the load off they could haul nine loads. They still stack hay loose but a hydraulic tractor stacker replaces the pitch forks. They always have an abun dance of hay for their cattle. They sell yearlings as feeders and they consistently nave good weights. In 1939 a Federal Resettlement Administration land purchase pro gram was set up at Fort Rock to enable unfortunate homesteaders to get a new start elsewhere. But, by then, the Godons had purchased Additional land themselves, changed from dairying to commer cial Horefords and owned the larg est beef cattle herd in the valley. As for her amazing ability to AN ALL-WOMAN RANCH OPERATION is unique any where but the Godons at Fort Rock do all the work them selves, farming 250 acres and managing every phase of their cattle business. Constant observation of their Here ford cattle, with selection of top breeding stock, has built quality into their herd end created buyer demand. With Mrs. Bridget Godon, left, are her daughters, Josephine, center, end Mable. Alice, not in the picture, is the other member of this all-woman team that has won the battle begun with all odds against them in early homestead days. Parks Photo stick when other homesteaders left by the thousands, Mrs. Godon says they just didn't have money enough to go anywhere else and when they finally did, they found they no longer wanted to go. After 13 years in Chicago Mable Godon returned three years ago to the old homestead. She still misses her friends and the opportunities Chicago afforded. Although not the first to adopt new implements, the Godons have made the change gradually from farming with teams to a well bal anced mechanized operation. One modern convenience not yet employed is electricity. Power lines were built past the house two and one half years ago. Although they use electricity to pump water for cattle at a remote location on the range, they do not yet use it in their home. Lights? We go to our beds when it is dark and are up before the sun. Appliances? They are fine for other people but we don't need them. The furnishings of the comforta ble home of Mrs. Godon and her three daughters, Alice, Josephine and Mable, include the sturdy chairs mnrlo hv Pnta fl n H A n Though some rooms have been, added, much of the house is the original one built when they first I came and is the scene of many I family get-togetherS that include children, grandchildren and now one great-grandson. A fascinating story teller her memory ranges far haggling with buyers of embroidery back in County Donegal struggling for acceptance as an immigrant girl in a strange country, learning the life of a young homemaker in one of the more fashionable parts of Philadelphia, wresting a living for her children from a forbidding land when conditions were at their worst. Few can equal Irish folk in adapting to changing conditions and a few can.cqual Mrs. Godon in rising to meet a wider assortment of them. MIDGET MOTORIST RALEIGH. N.C. m Timothy Lee Bunn, 3'i years old, decided to go for a drive in the family car. He climbed in the vehicle, re leased the brakes, shifted the gears to neutral and it started rolling down hill. I he car struck a tele phone pole, causing $25 damage. BETTER CAL -WESTERN LIFE Announces the establishment of a I . ISM- Ray D. Blair FAST GROWING SOUTHERN New DISTRICT OFFICE Medical -Dental Bldg. 9th & Main KLAMATH FALLS Telephone: TUxedo 4-7428 ( i and the appointment of RAY D. BLAIR as District Manager An outstanding representative of our organization, Mr. Blair comes to his new assignment from Northern California where he represented this company for 2li years. He is eminently well qualified to serve our rapidly-growing clientele in this area. American Friends Service Group Ends Summer Slate By NELSON SHARP KLAMATH AGENCY The sum mer recreation program on the reservation, which had been super vised by Art and Helen Currier of the American Friends Service Committee, was concluded last week. The program proved to be very successful as some 250 per sons had participated in a num ber of activities. The largest and most popular i project, undertaken by the Cur riers was the swimming program. Some 235 youngsters participated in this program. The swimmers in the Chiloquin, Klamath Agency, and Fort Klamath areas met twice a week at Denton Park. In the beginners class, 35 youngsters were taught to swim. In the 12-15 year age bracket six were quali fied as junior life savers. In the 16 and over age bracket, four were qualified as senior life savers. First Jet To Fly . MIAMI (UPD The first com mercial flight of an American built jet airliner takes off today on a flight to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Instead of the 169 passengers the swept-wing plane is designed to carry, the Boeing 707 will haul cargo, mostly cut flowers for flor ists in Puerto Rico. It should make the flight in about two hours. The plane, first flown in 1954, has . been undergoing extensive tests before being turned over to Pan American Airways for pas senger service. Swimmers of the Sprague River and Beatty areas swam once a week in a pre-determined area of the Sprague River near Beatty. Twenty five youngsters were taught to swim in this program. Other activities in Beatty includ ed games, picnics, and singing for both children and adults. Five field trips were also a part of the summer agenda. They in cluded Crater Lava Beds, Weyer haeuser Timber Company in Klam ath Falls, the fish hatchery, the Agency Butte Lookout, the Bend Rock Gardens and Shevlin State Park. A girls softball team was organ ized in Chiloquin and finished the season with an enviable record- three wins and only one loss. Other activities of the summer program included games for the preschoolers at the Chiloquin Grade School and volleyball for all ages. Art and Helen Currier and their three children make their home in Portola Valley, California. Dur ing the fall and winter months they are school teachers. This summer they spent six weeks on the reservation. Sponsorship by the Friends Serv ice Committee does not mean that their representatives are paid a salary, they are merely assisted with their expenditures. In the Curriers case, local organizations also assisted them. These organiza tions were the Reservation Jay cees, the Beatty Recreation Coun cil and the Reservation Discussion Group. f. 3$f - -Scar , Zai ART AND HELEN CURRIER On tiny Fair Isle in the North Sea the flocks of sheep graze on the grassy top of Sheep Rock which is accessible only from the sea. By means of chains, men climb the bare face of the rock, and lower bags of wool and young lambs to waiting boats. PICK UP Air Tickets, domestic ond international, Sfeomihips, Tours, Hotels ... NO EXTRA COST M'clntyre Travel Service 716 Main Ph. TU 4-S143 Natives of the Faeroe Islands, which are about half-way between Iceland and Scotland, catch sea- birds with nets on long poles. But, they catch no birds carrying fish. This is a sign they are bringing food to youngsters m their nests. 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