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About Herald and news. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1942-current | View Entire Issue (June 30, 1963)
At 90, WrenFrain Looks With Contentment On Life, Recalls Many Days Of Years Ago By KITH KING The fruit in the plum thickets along the river was showing prom ise of being heavy with juice and sweet, when Betsy Frain present ed her husband Martin Roderick Frain, a fur trader, with a son. It was June 11, m3 The last echo of musketry in the Modoc Indian War was heard that early summer, when Wren Frain of Klamath Falls a life time resident of Klamath County was born near Shovel Creek, close 6y the California line. This year he celebrated his 90th birthday with oid friends, those who had known him 6ince his youth, who remembered the old ways with him and cherished the memories, The open house on his birthday brought 40 guests to the home of his daughter, Vera Clemens, where Wren Frain lives happily. The family record and old tin' types in a picture album, have kepy fresh the story of his fath er and his mother and the events that have led up to Wren Frain's contentment in his later years. The name of his father, Martin Frain, was first heard in York State, now New York, in Decem ber, 1833, and almost before he was out of short leather britches, he had cut family ties and turned westward, drawn by the lure of gold to the land of adventure, now California. Although this is a bit of history about his son Wren Frain, the telling is needed of the travels of the elder, whose determination was passed from father to son. It took the youth, .Martin Frain from the east, six months by sail ing vessel, to weather the temp ests of Cape Horn, that precipi tous headland that juts far out into the sea, at the crossroads of the Atlantic and the Pacific, and to sit out the calms, while he en dured the waiting. He landed at San Francisco and found there too many settlers. He thrust onward to Yrcka to the north. He traded gold for five strong mules, packed them with colored beads and red blankets and struck out for the Klamath There was one kind of pelt, say country where the Klamaths andcarly historians, that Martin Train, the Modocs. a band of the Snakes never traded for. the skin of the and the Cayuse had learned that white deer, which the Indians furs stripped from the muskrat sometimes displayed but rarely and the beaver, the bear and tire parted w ith. cougar were worth many beads On Martin Frain's first trip into and some blankets. the hunting grounds of the Indian, it'- It V, dLj WREN FRAIN Judge Valker Takes Post County Court Judge Robert Walker has been appointed as an Oregon representative to the ad visory committee of the National Rivers and Harbors Congress, Wash., D.C., the Klamath County Court announced. Judge Walker had been recom mended to the post sometime ago by Congressman Al Oilman of the Second Congressional District. The appointment was officially announced in a letter received by the Judge Friday from Wil liam H. Webb, executive vice president of the Congress. Webb stated in his letter dated June 24. "We are happy to have you serve with us tor the advance ment of a sound and orderly de velopment of our national land and water resources." The Congress is composed of 7.361 individuals located through out the United Slates and was established in 1901 as a non-profit organization dedicated to the con servation and development of the nation's natural resources. The membership is made up of representatives of chambers of commerce, waterway and ship ping associations, business firms, municipalities, and individuals in every state of the union. All members of the Senate and House of Representatives are hon H3ry members and many of them are active in the organization. Occupany Of Salt Cave Goes Back 6,000 Years A sequence of Indian occupan cy, stretching back some 6.000 years and ending shortly after the first contacts with the white man. has been established at Salt Caves on the Klamath River near the Oregon-California border. Details on the finds are con tained in an interim report from the Department of Anthropology at the University of Oregon to tlie Copco Division of the Pacific Power and Light Company. The report has just been sub mitted by Dr. Luther S. Cress man, head of the anthropology department, and Michael D. Oli cn, research fellow. PP&L is supporting the archaeological sal vage work which has been under way for the past two years. Another research team has re cently left for this area to con duct a final summer's excava tions before flood waters from Card Player Wins Twice PP&L's Salt Caves Dam inun date the dig sites on the south bank of the river. The site is near the old Wren Frain Ranch, one of the first in this country, which will also be inundated by tire water. Wren Frain still lives in Klamath Falls. Carbon - 14 dating has estab lished a time of approximately 6,000 years ago for the lowest levels of the excavations, ac cording to the report. A group of 14 pit houses has been discovered, and several of these have been thoroughly ex plored. The houses, some of w hich were similar to those found in the Klamath Lake region, were roughly oval-shaped with a cen tral fire nit and an entrance- way through the top of a wooden superstructure. The people who lived there re ceived cultural influences from the Great Basin Area in the be ginning, but later developed their own local technology in weapons- making. The Indians remained primari ly hunters and gatherers through out their history, and although they may have done some fish ing, they never appeared to de velop a fishing economy like that which grew up around Klamath Lake. Various types of points, scrap pers, drills, mortars, and other artifacts, made chiefly of chert and obsidian, have been found. In addition, two decorated objects, a bird bone whistle and what is a head scratcher the Klamath country, his son Wren has recalled many times, he camped overnight beneath a rocky ledge near Link River. An Indian woman, eager to glimpse his wares, crossed the slow-moving stream ?n a tule raft to meet him. Her feet, that dropped through an opening in the woven craft's center portion, pro vided the power for locomotion. She paddled the waiting Frain, his beads and blankets and his saddle, hack across the river, leaving his mules to graze along the iar bank. His camp made, Frain kindled "two smokes" which meant friend ship and the promise that beads and blankets could be bought with furs. The Indians came and bar tered, and some, before the next sun rose above the hills, had lost to others in a gambling game their new possessions. On one of his trips through the Sliasta Indian country, Martin Frain took a wife, Betsy, the Bet sy who mothered his five sons and a daughter, the Betsy from Shasta Valley, California, who could trace her ancestry to Rising Sun and Sitting Bull, the Betsy who died before her family was grown. With a wife, Martin Frain set tled on a ;iece of land and the family grew. He built a homo nearby on the river at the foot of the present Topsy Grade, contin ued his trade with the Indians and sold fish and furs to settle ments away from this valley. He bought flour and meal and the growing children learned from their mother the foods that the earth provided. Betsy died when her son Wren was six. One son and her daugh ter were younger. Martin Frain worked far afield from the one-room cabin where the older brothers stayed "close by" to keep the younger ones from harm. The memory of Wren Frain is sharp and clear of the time when they were once alone in an old house that had known the roister ing feet of men before a bar. A wooden porch clung to the front of tire shake-roofed building and a single door, swelled from a recent rain could not be held shut by the latch and bar. Steps outside sent the six chil dren cringing into a corner, be fore they remembered, the older ones, that small Nellie wun nair braided to her waist, was to be protected. Thcv threw their weight against the stubborn planks but the crack between door and the jamb was still wide enough to permit the oassage of a man's brown hand palm up. The newcomer made no further effort to enler out asueu for matches. The children Idled his hand from a meager store and the Indian visitor went away The time came when the boy .im. .a ..c ... MUui-jr dipiics. movea io a rancn on me Asn- tended nis Herclord cattle until nc tnal June in 1873 when he was sought work wun Hooert tmmelt. The old Frain ranch was miH land Highway. That. too. went to was well oast 80. born, and he is content to remerrl- tuamatn pioneer, who built the 1(1 tlw CaWornia 0re(;on Powcrncw owners alter W ren Frain had 'r,v-., nr- n)w..-A V'1-iTn-.tk River. It was over this road that I lmPan-v and lhe Krai' family merchandise and men and women came to the valley and the town of Linkville. Young Wren applied for a job, and in the telling of that happen ing so many years ago. his voice filled with pride. "He looked me over and he said that I was pret ty small, and that he doubted some if I could stand the work. but he put me on. 1 worked as if hard as I could and he told mc later that I was the best durn lilllc Indian on the job." . In 1H98 on a creek bank in Jack son County. Wren Frain married Gussie Way. She too had been born in the Klamath country, the daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Way who ran an overnight station for the comfort of travelers pass ing through or those who came to stay. Wren and Gussie Frain saw hard times and enjoyed the more lucra tive years. He worked as a buck- aroo and broke horses, often far from home. Once, coming home to his family after a serious illness, they didn't know him. There were no telephones to relay a message that he had ncarlv died and Gus sie Frain was too far away to send a neighbor to seek him. His thought go back to the "year of the high water." when every bridge that crossed the river had been washed away. His horses were across on "yonder bank." The time came for putting seeds into the ground to raise a garden. The plot was still unplowed, the waters were wild and unsafe fori crossing. ; Wren Frain hitched himself to the singletree of a footburner plow Gussie Frain held the share deep in the soft loam, and together they plowed the land and plant ed it. 1 For 35 years they stayed on the old home ranch settled by fur trader Frain. They had one daugh ter Vera. Wren Frain and a brother. Rod. ! and a friend of the two by thcl name of Frank Woods, worked the log drives down Die Klamath : River from Klamath Hot Springs i to Klamathon, year after year. Some there wore, said Wren Frain, "who couldn t take the riv-i er's beating, the canyon's rough ness, the thi cat of death, and they left the river. Some, unatraia. lost footing, and died in the rapid waters. But Wren Frain and his brother Rod and their partner. Frank Woods, rode the logs to mill until progress left the rapids uncrowned by logs of fir and pine and the swoosh of logs into the streams was drowned out by tire sound of Ninety years have passed since ber them. 1 HERALD AND NEWS. Klamath Falls. Orr-con Sunday. June 30. 1963 PAGE 1 MiliJlJ WiVflPtffeP rm WWLS mivTh -El rk 8 Beans 1 v4s89W BRIQUETTES i Paper Plates R Ml!1, 8 100-ct. Pkg. - Purity Brand L j J $jr ' 6QC '"v. Charcoal Lighter 'Vjk Wizard one J r EJ yiW "frixV Ounrr A i .; IF EST LEGAX FIREWORKS Premium These Are Not Cheap Imports, Bur Swift's No. 1 Birds Whole Bodied e3T Mrs. John Lake teamed up with Lena Smith and placed first in the north-south section of the early bird duplicate bridge tour nament at the Lakeshore Dupli cate BC Tuesday and then re peated the feat with her hus band as partner in another tour nament at the same club Thurs day evening. Other winning teams last week i believed to be were Ruth Quinn-Nell Killion. made from a large mammal bone, Mrs. V. C. Kexford-Mrs. Bobihave been uncovered. Chilcote; Mrs. George Myers- Pauline Officld: Bob GoLshall Frank Tarr, and Lucille Honzel Margaret Owens. Next Thursday's regular dupli cate bridge tournament at the Lakeshore Club has been em celled because that day falls on July 4. a national holiday, Mrs. Grace Kresse, the tournament di rector, has announced. Last week's complete results: Lakeshore BC 'Tuesday'. NS. I. Katie Lake - Lena Smith: 2. George McClary - Helen Schacf fer: 3. Pauline Officld - Leona Cardinal May Get Freedom Father Kills 4 In Family DENVER iL'PIi A 43-vcar-old falher ran amok Saturday and j Robertson. EW, 1. Lucille Hon slabbed and bludgeoned his wife zel - Margaret Owens 'Red Bluff1: and three of their ten children tol2. Mrs. C. O. Moore - Mrs. Emil death in their beds, police report ed. Denver police detective Stan Griffith said the father, Luis J. Monpe. of Denver, admitted the slayings in a signed statement. Patrolman Clinton Lombard said the four victims apparently were sleeping in their beds at the Griffith said Monce told him hei"" -i"-"-" . . Oiil inn n Vt 1 Mrn fl a t r rr n had intended to kill his wliole ' ' ','-'. . f icials in Budapest next week and Medical Aid Liberalized SALEM lUPP The medical aid to the aged and public assistance programs were liberalized, and increased fees for nursing home care were approved Friday at a lengthy meeting of lire State Pub lic Welfare Commission. Nursing home rates were in creased $5 monthly, effective July 1, for three types of care. The present rates are $145 per month for moderate care. $169 a month for maximum care, and $192 a month for exceptional care. A 10 per cent increase in doc tors fees was approved for medi cal care under the public assist ance program. Benefits and eligibility require ments under the medical aid to the aged program were liberal- the L'nited Slates. Thant would not discuss the n..c.,kilit, nl Uia Im 4 lin ',, ' , ' Vi. " case of Mindszonty. who was Mrs. P. J. Calhoun. !trjcd b he HunRarian Commu. Lakeshore BC 'Thursday. Kc-.. ,m c ha, ii'.'n i, i, p'mti " i hecn luiuon; 2. .mis. Liauue wavis-i Mrs. David Vandenberg Sr.; 3, UNITED NATIONS. N Y. UPIi Secretary General Thant loaves Sunday on a trip to Hungary andiizrd. the Vatican that could lead tof The annual income ceiling for freedom for Jnszef Cardinal eligibility was upped from $1,500 Mindszenly and ea tire tenseito $1,750 for a singlo person, and relations between Budapest and; from $2,000 to $2,500 for a couple Mary Juckeland-Kathleen Thomp.jf'an, SUI'PS'" son. EW, 1. Mrs. V. C. Rex- 'dom revolt ,n ford. -Mrs. Bob Chilcote: 2. Dor othy Schupp-Gcrtrude Tolle; 3, in rciugc in the U.S. lega tion in Budapest since the Rus sian suppression of Hungary si liBtt. But the case of the Roman Catholic primate of Hungary seemed certain to be on tlie agenda of Thant's talks with ol- family but "couldn't of his audience with Pope Paul with it." Monce telephoned police ' " s, ",'". ;." ..,,. , VI at the Valican on Julv II. himself. VJ..1.-11 l-.i t '. - -i.,..'' Thant's trip, at the Invitation of The victims were Lennarna Hungary, marks the first visit to Monge. 43, Alan Moncc. 6. Vin cent Monce. 4. and Teresa Monce. 11 months old. .1. Mrs Frank Tarr - Mrs. I Gotshall. lBudajpst of an official of the A single person can have liquid assets of up to $1,500, and a cou ple $2,000 and still be eligible. The $100 deductablc feature has been removed, and persons en rolled in the program have medi cal tHMicfils paid with their fiil cost. As a policy matter, people out of work because of current labor disputes will be placed under the general assistance program, rath er than being enrolled in the Aid to Doiendenl Children (ADO pro gram. The commission decided to ex tend tire food Mamp program for several more months on a trial basis. The commission also agreed to Israel Buys U.S. Missiles Rebel Leader Seeks Support vorld organization since (he In.Vt.sifin a contract to have the roc- revolt. rotary of Mate do statistical work nn data prncein;i equipnnt In be purchased by the sccrctvy of 4 Sentenced VIENNA 'L'PIi-FoMr Czechs were renlenced Friday to terms WASHINGTON iL'PI' The De-1 ALGIERS l'PI - Premier ranging from 12 to 20 months for fens Department announced Fri- Ahmed Ben Bella told an Alger- jfighting with African and Middle dav that Israel will purchase $23ian cabinet meeting Friday that Eastern students in Prague last million worth of I S. Hak nli-1 former rebel leader Mohammed May. tlie Communist Czech Radio aircraft missiles. iBoudaif and three other "sedi-l.-iniounced. The Hawk is designed to knock jtious persons were seeking sup dnun attacking airplanes at low port from abroad. He did not and medium altitudes over a bat- give details. i;r;d. V communique published after Toe Pentagon said Israel would the meeting charged the four nuy enough missiles to supply one men, ail of whom are under ar baitalion It did not specify how rest, with seeking "the dnision many ".hat would be. 'and poisoning" of Alcena. bale's otfice. WALLS CLEANED BY MACHINE nlrrc'4 far rfH milti. Haft Mint an racara!ln. I If la Uaaaiaa. BARRY'S Hmt Wall I IfBnlrif frlr4 Formers! Loggers! Bulk Gasoline Competitive Prices and S&H Green Stompi TANKS AVAILABLE CliffYaden's SERVICE 2540 So. oth TU 2-7201 OPEN 24 HOURS HEY KIDS! The Biggest CARNIVAL In The West! Coming To Klamath Falls I aLitim aUm . . W OPENS Mondoy, July 1st o July 6th Inclusive CARNIVAL GROUNDS SOUTH SIXTH ST. Auipicci of Klamath Basin Rodeo Assn. THRILLS & CHILLS for YOUNG & OLD 100 Attractions In All! S th M.jhlr MouM in action! ftrrj Hi Scrambler! 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