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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.
Delicious, Home-Made
ENCHILADAS
Phone TU 2-4441
or TU 2-1S70
Adding Machines - Calculators
FOR SALE - RENTAL - LEASE
Factory TRAINED Service Technician
CLIFFORD C. VOIGHT, Mgr.
Friden Agency
KLAMATH FALLS
Phone 4-3716
MEDFORD
41 So. Grape, Ph. SP 2-4100
9rh & Pine
Phone TU 4-3188
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