WPA Interviews

Frum, "Kim" Archie

Interviews Vol II

INTERVIEW, April 21, 1939

Interview with "Kim" Archie Frum. At his home on the west edge of Sand Ridge, Linn County, Oregon.

My name is Archie Frum. (Note-this informant is universally known as "Kim" Frum. Leslie L. Haskin, Field worker). I was born on January 20, 1859, so I am now over eighty years of age and a month older than the State of Oregon.

My parents were Eugenus Frum, born in Virginia on March 9, 1809 and his wife, Elizabeth Frum who was born in Kentucky on New Years Day, 1823. My father and mother were married before they came to Oregon and had a number of children but just how many of my brothers and sisters were born in the east and how many in Oregon I cannot say. Altogether there were twelve of us children and now I am the only one of them left. In fact, I have no brothers, or sisters, or uncles, or aunts left and no cousins except possibly one who may be still living and may not be. I have not heard for a long time but suppose that he still lives.

My parents came to Oregon in 1851. Their trip to the west was in the main uneventful. The Indians bothered much that year and killed emigrants both ahead and behind our parent's train but somehow did not molest that one much.

My older brother was Alpheus Frum. He was born in the east before our Parents came to Oregon. His birth year was 1849 and he died in 1923. He has a son living on the old farm between here and Brownsville, another son living at Halsey, and a son whose home is near the Alford Cemetery about three miles north of Harrisburg. His wife was Sarah E. Parrish, a daughter or Gameliel Parrish. The Parrish home is still standing on the road between Brownsville and Lebanon and about five miles north of Brownsville. When it was built I cannot tell, but it is one of the oldest houses still standing in all this region. (Note- A photograph of this old house has been sent in. Leslie L. Haskin, field worker.)

Gameliel Parrish was an interesting old pioneer. His family is mostly all gone from the country but you might get some information concerning his life from my nephews and nieces mentioned. Another member of the Pioneer Parrish family whom I remember well was old Jesse B. Parrish whose home was near Sodaville. Jesse Parrish first took up land east of Albany and his old house is still standing there. (Note-Also photographed and sent in. L.H.) Later Jesse Parrish moved to Sodaville and bought land there.

But to get back to my own family history-The Indians were very thick during the immigration, but gave little trouble. One of the worst incidents of the trip was the injury of another of my brothers, Elijah Frum. (Elijah Barnet Frum.) On the trip, by accident, the wheels of a wagon passed over him. The injury caused his breast bone to be seriously depressed and as a result his heart was always afterward on the right side of his chest.

My brother Leopold and my sister Elizabeth both died while small children and are buried in the Sand Ridge Cemetery. Both were born in Oregon. My father died January 6, 1890, and my mother Oct. 22, 1890-both within nine months. Both are buried in the Sand Ridge Cemetery. (Note-Because the informant was exceedingly deaf it was not possible to get all data concerning his brothers and sisters. L.H.Haskin, Field worker.) "My brother Elijah who was injured on the trip west married a granddaughter of Samuel Cooper, a Lebanon pioneer of 1847.(?) (Possibly some discrepancy here. The facts seem confused.)

When my parents reached Oregon they first settled near Frye Station in Linn County. A little later they sold out and came here to Sand Ridge where they took up this land as a donation land claim. I was born on this place.

The original house was a small log cabin a little north and west of the present house. This house where I now live was built, probably, in the year 1870 or about then. I can remember going with my father up on Petersons Butte when he quarried out the stones for the big fireplace here. The bricks were made at a brick yard near Lebanon.

I should have mentioned that among those who came with my people's train were members of the Powell family. Bert Powell of that family still lives at Lebanon. Also, in the train, were members of the Simons family. Old "Doc" Simons was one of them and Emet (?) Simons was another. Old "Doc" Simons was a doctor and a druggist. He used to run a drug store here on Sand Ridge, just down the road and on the east side, opposite my place. The place is now owned by Lay Crossen. Later "Doc" (I do not know his proper name, everyone called him "Doc" Simons, ran a drug store in Lebanon. When "Doc" Simons ran his drug store here in the Sand Ridge neighborhood he sold liquor also. I can remember going along the road as a boy and seeing drunk Indians lying all along the road for a half-mile or so. That frequently happened. In the early days the stores and shops were scattered here and there through the country for the town had not yet developed. I can remember when there was only one store in Lebanon-a little general store run by the Ralstons.

The place where "Doc" Simons kept his drug store here at Sand Ridge was first taken up by Jim Barnett. He held it for a time and then traded it off for a Cayuse pony to George Young. Other early neighbors here were the Fronk family who lived down at the corner, the Coopers, further out on the prairie, and the Douthits who lived west of here, down where the Railroad now runs. Other early settlers of the region with whom I was acquainted were the Ushers who lived about one half mile west of Sodaville and the Coyle family who lived about one mile west of the same place. The head of the Coyle family was Hon. Reuben Coyle who was a member of the Oregon Constitutional Convention and who was the discoverer of the soda spring at Sodaville; I was well acquainted with his sons T. J. Coyle, "Jeff" he was commonly called, and Jerome, Steve and John Coyle. One of the Coyle girls- Sarah was her name- married Alexander Parrish, a brother of Jesse B. Parrish already mentioned. The Parrishes mentioned were sons of Rev. E. E. Parrish who settled at Parrish Gap near Jefferson.

Peterson's Butte to the east of my farm was first called "Washington Butte". Later it received its name from the Peterson families who were very early settlers here. Asa Peterson had his home on the North east corner of the butte. The older Peterson, father of Asa, was a nurseryman. He used to run a little nursery of fruit trees on his farm and all of the early orchards in this region came from there. He had only one variety of plum in his nursery and now that plum is scattered all over this county just from sprouts taken from the original tree. I do not know how that tree was brought from the east, whether as a sprout or as a seed, but now everyone in the region knows it under the name of the Peterson plum. The fruit is small and round and a dark red with a purplish "bloom". The fruit is very acid but has a fine flavor.

The Denny family lived on the north point of Peterson's Butte. Judge Denny was Consul to China and was the first to introduce the Mongolian Pheasants to Oregon. He sent the birds to his brother on the home farm here and they were taken up on the foot of the Butte to be released. They multiplied very rapidly almost at once. I remember when they were turned loose although I was not present to see it done. I saw one of them- a big rooster- only a few days later but did not know what it was. That was forty or fifty years ago. The name of the man who sent them from China was John (Note: Owen) Denny.

Other early settlers here were the Morgan- Miller and John Morgan- they are all dead now as are almost all the people whom I used to know.

All of the first settlers to this valley chose their homes on the foothills of the Cascades or about the various buttes. The reason was that good springs and plentiful wood was found there and they could live conveniently and still pasture their stock all over the open valley. The valley seemed very wet and marshy at first and unfit for cultivation and besides that the first comers believed that it would never be settled up because enough people would never get to Oregon to take up the flat, poorly drained land. They did not believe that the valley ever would be thickly settled.

At one time Sand Ridge was the county seat of Linn County, that was about 1855, I believe. The matter was put to a vote of the people and as there was considerable contention, especially between Brownsville and Albany, the site was finally chosen at Sand Ridge as a sort of compromise proposition.

There was no town here then- nothing on the site of the County Seat save the claim house of Raphael Cheadle, nevertheless contracts were let for a Court House and much of the materials were already on the ground ready to begin construction when there was another vote taken and the choice this time went to Albany. The county court was forced to pay a considerable sum to the contractor to cancel his contract and for work already done. The site of the proposed courthouse was on the Wheeler farm north of here and about half way between the present Sand Ridge schoolhouse and the cemetery. The man who took the contract to build the courthouse here was John Kendall, a brother of the well-known Presbyterian preacher, Thomas S. Kendall.

All this region was tall grass when the first settlers came- so tall that a man on horseback would be nearly hidden. On this tall lush grass the settlers pastured their stock- great herds of cattle and horses. Every so often there would be a sort of round-up. The men would ride out with their lass (?) ropes and drive the horses up here near the old cabin and run them into a corral. Then they would take their ropes and "'lass' em" and take them out to break them. Cattle were rounded up too, and marketed or butchered. At first all stock ran together but little by little the sod was broken up and fenced for grain growing.

I have heard old John Reed (he died at Lebanon a few years ago at a great age), tell how he came over to my fathers farm in the early days and paid father $9.00 a bushel for wheat. Bayless(?) (spelling uncertain) Cooper bought a big place down on the lower ground and raised enough wheat the first crop to pay for it completely.

North of here, in what is now known as the Tallman district, but which was first known as "Oak Creek District" lived the McKnights. One of the sons of that family, "Judge" B. McKnight lives about two miles north of here. (Was County Judge of Linn County) Alvin McKnight was the oldest son of the family. He got shot at Tombstone Prairie while the family was crossing the Cascades about the year 1871. There is a memorial at the spot where he died in the mountains, just at the summit of Seven-Mile-Hill. That is what gives the name to "Tombstone Prairie", but he is not buried there but his body was brought bout and placed in the Sand Ridge Cemetery. The killed boy was about seventeen or eighteen years of age.

I first went to school here on Sand Ridge. My first teacher was named Asa Olin. He was a relative of Captain Frank Shedd, after whom the town of Shedd was named. Later he bought a farm and settled in the Plainview neighborhood. (Possibly he was a brother-in-law of Shedd.) Later, when I was about sixteen years old my father moved to Sodaville and I went to school there for a time. William Jones was my first teacher at Sodaville.

Here on Sand Ridge preaching was held in the schoolhouse. Old Alfred Powell preached there pretty often. He was a Christian Church preacher and his home was on the Santiam east of Albany.

I forgot to mention that when my father moved to Sodaville he built a house there. It was situated part way up the hill and directly across the street from the old store there. It was burned down only a few years ago. (Note- The field worker was well acquainted with the house mentioned and with its big fireplace in the "front room".

My wife was Alice Emma Williams, a daughter of Alfred Williams. She died two years ago. I have a daughter and a son in Lebanon. The daughter is Mrs. Fred Pierce. She brings out "grub" for me every Sunday. She wants me to go to Lebanon to live with her but I had rather stay here on my own farm.

I live here all alone. I have one hundred and eleven acres of land in this place.

I raised seven children but one of them died when about 25 years old. I have four boys alive and one dead. Two sons live at Los Angeles, one of them is a fireman and the other is a store-keeper. I have one boy working in Portland for the Crown Willamette Paper Company. He has worked for them for over twenty years. The son in Los Angeles who is a fireman has also held that position for twenty years.

For a short time I lived at Brownsville a number of years back. My wife bought a millinery store there and we lived there for one year. It was while were living at Brownsville that I saw my first automobile. That must have been thirty or forty years ago.

(Field worker's notes. Mr. Frum, though over 80 years of age lives alone in his neat farmhouse. He seems to be hale and healthy except for stiffening joints caused by rheumatism. He is cheerful and has an active mind but is badly handicapped- as was this worker in interviewing him-by his extreme deafness. Because of this deafness and the difficulty of making him understand questions much was omitted which would be of interest. This is especially true concerning exact birth and death dates and the exact names and ages of certain persons mentioned.)

Copyright © 2000 Patricia Dunn. All rights reserved. This transcription may not be reproduced in any media without the express written permission by the author. Permission has been given by the Transcriber to publish on the LGS web site.