WPA Interviews

Kizer, Francis Marion

Interview with Francis Marion Kizer of Harrisburg, Oregon, February 28, 1939.

The first members of the Kizer family came to Oregon in the year 1852. At that time my grandfather was the head of the family. He was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia in 1807 and died in 1881. His wife, my grandmother was Elizabeth Boyle Kizer. She was born June 15, 1813 and died in Oregon in 1897.

My grandfather first settled in Bear Valley in Linn County. Bear Valley is a little known section even now and in 1853 in 1853 it was one of the most lonesome and untouched places in the whole valley. Grandfather with his family arrived there on the 18th of November 1853 in the worst storm that my father ever saw in the Willamette Valley. To reach the place it was necessary to cut a road through the mountain forests for over two miles.

Bear Valley always was a lonesome place although a number of people have lived there at various times. At the present date no one lives there, nor has for a number of years. The road to the valley is a rough, hilly way and quite impassible, even yet, for cars in the wintertime. In the dry summer time it is possible to drive in, though sometimes very rough. The valley and my grandfather's old claim are in Section 4, Township 15 South of Range 2 West. It is about six miles southeast of Brownsville and twelve miles east or northeast of Harrisburg, and two miles east of the Diamond Hill Schoolhouse. To reach it you go in past the hill known as "Rattlesnakes Den", where, in early days, hundreds of rattlesnakes were killed every spring. It was the worst infested rattlesnake country in Linn County. My people took up most of Bear Valley but some of the Warner family lived there later as well as a man named Lyman Wright. When my grandfather finally sold his claim the buyer was this same Lyman Wright.

My father, Francis Marion Kizer - his name the same as mine - he was born at Cedar City, Iowa, in 1838 (June 11th). He died here in Linn County on June 26, 1926. He came to Oregon with his parents in 1853, being 15 years of age. A boy of that age was forced to do a man's part in their emigration. Father drove one of the teams for his father. After reaching Oregon father lived with his parents in Bear Valley until the time of his marriage when he moved out into the valley on land that was a part of the Jacob Wigle claim. Mother was Mary Wigle a daughter of Jacob Wigle. As there were a number of Jacob Wigles I will clarify the matter by saying that grandfather Jacob Wigle generally went under the title of "Old Jake" to distinguish him from "Big Jake" and "Little Jake". Father and mother were married on July 4th, 1859.

Before leaving my father's boyhood, I must mention that he went to school principally at the Cochran School, situated about three miles north of Brownsville. This schoolhouse was located on the lower slopes of what is known as Cochran Butte. It was the same schoolhouse as that in which the old Pleasant Butte Baptist church was first organized. The schoolhouse has been gone for many years - in fact, it was gone long before I have any recollection. Just how my father happened to attend school there, so far from his home in Bear Valley, I never learned. The most probable thought is that he was working for some farmer for his keep and school at the time.

Later father attended school at Tualatin Academy which was the beginning of Pacific University. My father was elected to the Oregon Legislature in 1882.

Besides my father my grandfather had one daughter who came with them to Oregon. She married Nicholas K. Frazier.

My father Francis Marion Kizer, and my mother Mary Wigle Kizer had eleven children. I cannot give you the exact ages of all of them but will do what I can. They were - in the order of their age -

Nellie (Nancy Ellen) Kizer. She married William Taylor. Died at Corvallis a few years ago.

Infant. Died Young.

Twins, O.J. (Ovid) and O. J. (Otis) Kizer. Otis still lives at Coberg, Linn County. Ovid was killed by a horse in a Livery Stable at Eugene. That was quite a number of years ago - before livery stables went out.

Infant. Died Young.

E. H. (Edward) Kizer. Dead. His widow and children live in California.

(His grave is in the Alford Cemetery north of Harrisburg.)

H. L. (Horton) Kizer. Born Mar. 17, ----. Lives near Knox Butte in this county.

C. P. (Charlie) Kizer. Lives near Rowland.

Martha Kizer. Married a man named Bardwell. He died only recently. She lives at Yakima, Wash.

Anna Kizer. Married name Watson. Lives near Lakeview.

F. M. (Francis) Kizer, (Myself) named after my father. Born July 16, 1876.

As a boy I attended the Rowland School in southeastern Linn County. At that time it was called the "Pike School." My wife's name was Pierce of the pioneer Pierce family of the same neighborhood. My wife and I started to school together under the same teacher. Our first teacher's name was Miss Theodosia Philpott married Calvin Yates. She died only recently and my wife and I went to attend her funeral. Besides being an old teacher to both of us she was in a manner related by marriage. Old Joseph Yates, pioneer and Indian veteran was a relative of my wife's. Calvin Yates was her second cousin.

My wife's grandmother and grandfather are buried at the Luther White Cemetery. Her parents at the Alford Odd-Fellows Cemetery. You can find their birth and death dates at those places. Her mother was a Robnette(1) and she was a descendent of Joab Powell(2). Her name, I believe, was Dora Robnett. Wife's father was D. H. Pierce. Her grandparents James and Martha Pierce.

(Note: Cemetery records show the following data for the above-

J. H. Pierce.
Born Mar. 27, 1824. Died Feb. 18, 1887.

Martha Pierce.
Born Feb. 2, 1832. Died Feb. 19, 1905.

Dora A. Pierce. (Robnette)
Born July 3, 1855. Died Mar. 29, 1887.

D. H. Pierce.
Born Aug. 9, 1853. Died Oct. 15, 1924.

The Wigles, on my mother's side of the family came to Oregon a year earlier than the Kizers, or in 1852. "Old Jake Wigle" my mother's father settled in the Diamond Hill neighborhood. With them, in the same train was Abraham Wigle, a Unitarian (3) Minister who organized the first Unitarian Church in this region if not in the west. I do not know much about this church but know that they often held meetings in the old "Centre School" over near Bond 's butte. His daughter lives south, near Coburg and could give more church history than I. Her name is Mrs. Susie Bishop. Perhaps she still has her father's old diary. "Big Jake Wigle" was my mother's cousin. "Big Jake's" son, Ed Wigle still lives on the old Wigle claim. Another Wigle married a daughter of Rev. H. J. Spaulding at a very early date. His name was William Wigle. (4) A Daughter of William Wigle and Martha Spaulding still lives near Goshen, in Lane County. Her name is Eliza Wigle Milliard. (9) The Eliza was given her for her Aunt, Eliza Spaulding Warren, who was the interpreter at the Whitman massacre.

Another family prominent in our neighborhood in early days was that of Bird Waggoner. Bird Waggoner was the father of George Waggoner, the writer.

Through the Wigles and other wise I am variously related to the Waggoners.

My aunt(5), a sister of my mother, married Tom Waggoner, a brother to George Waggoner.

There is also a bit of romance mixed up in the Waggoner and Wigle history.

The sweetheart of George Waggoner - the girl mentioned in his book and from whom he parted on his way to the gold mines - was my mother's sister. Her name was Katharine Wigle (6). Later she married Jack Tharp (or Thorpe - spelling uncertain) but did not long survive. She died in childbirth the first year of her married life. She is buried in the Wigle Cemetery (on the Edd Wigle farm). (Grave not marked.)

Tharp "Uncle Jack", as we always called him, lived in the Alsea Valley. I have often heard him speak of his girl-bride Katharine (6), and remark how different his life might have been had she only lived. Tharp finally committed suicide by shooting himself at the age of ninety years. He has a son living at Corvallis.

An important feature in early days was the old Territorial Road which ran south from Brownsville to Diamond Hill. It followed the present "Gap Road" south from Brownsville and through the old town of Union Point. The present road, south from Diamond Hill, does not now follow the original course.

Near Diamond Hill schoolhouse there is a private road leading out to the Luther White Cemetery. The Territorial Road used to turn eastward over the hill about where this private road now begins; then it wound back gain to the route of the private road in the gap near the cemetery and from there south and east to the county line. It passed the old "Miller" place south of "West Point Butte". The Miller place belonged to an early pioneer, the father of the poet Joaquin Miller. There is a marker near that old farm showing the course of the road, but also honoring the poet.

When my father went to school at Tualatin Academy he had for a schoolmate Cyrus Walker, son of the Missionary Walker family. The wife of Cyrus Walker was my wife's aunt.

The Wigles came to Oregon in 1852 - the cholera year - old man Rampy (7) and Paul Belts - pioneers of the country east of here - drove a couple of ox teams across the plains for my grandfather Wigle. One of Uncle Abraham Wigle's children(8) died of the cholera on the trip. I have heard how the child was buried in the middle of the road and all the train driven over the grave so that the Indians would not find it and desecrate it.

Four settlers in our neighborhood took up claims cornering and built one house upon the corner so that all four men might live in the one house and still hold their claims - each in his own corner. Two of those men were Paul Belts and -----(?) Rampy, but I cannot remember who the others were.

Paul Belts was a very good man but with a violent temper. When he got mad nothing could stop him. Everyone in that neighborhood used to recite stories of Belts and his tempers. Between his house and his barn there was a considerable creek. Belts crossed over by means of a small log hewed flat upon the top. One frosty morning Belts slipped from this makeshift bridge into the creek. His fall made him very angry and though the water was chest deep he waded up and down the creek for some time, cursing violently to show "that he could wade the old creek if he had to." Another time, it is said, he lost a mule. He hunted for it for days and finally found where it had slipped over a cliff and been killed. His long hunt had angered him, and he jumped up and down on the mule's body cursing it for "Wandering off and getting killed so that he had to hunt for it." I remember well an old horse which Belts owned, and which had no tail. The story is that this horse so angered him by getting its tail over the lines that Belts finally backed it up to a rail fence and cut its tail off. When the tail was cut off the horse got unruly and ran away and Belts was angered more than ever by having to chase the bob-tailed horse for a long time before he could catch it again. All of these are neighborly tales, and I cannot absolutely vouch for them, but I did see his old bob-tailed horse.

Added by Lois (Wigle) Claspill:

My records show that Francis Marion Kizer (father of informant), was the son of Nicholas and Elizabeth (Boyle) Kizer. He married Mary Wigle, born March 3, 1836, in Pike Co., Ill. And died January 1, 1922 in Linn Co. Ore. Mary was the daughter of Jacob and Nancy (Hunsaker) Wigle. Mary was the sister of my grandfather, Andrew J. Wigle.

1. Francis Marion Kizer, the informant in this interview, married my maternal grandmother's niece, Maude Pierce. Maude's mother was Dora Robnett and she was a sister of my grandmother, Ella Robnett. Their father was John Robnett.

2. Their mother was Mary (Polly) Powell, daughter of Richard Powell and Rachel Jeems. Richard and Joab Powell (pioneer preacher) were brothers.

3. Abraham Wigle was a Universalist, not Unitarian.

4. William Wigle was a son of John and Catherine (Hunsaker) Wigle.

5. Anna Wigle married Tom Waggoner March 25, 1865 6. Margaret (Not Katharine) married "Jack" Jonathon Tharp Dec. 13, 1863.

7. Robert Rampy.

8. It was a nephew of Abraham, not a child, who died on the way to Oregon.

The child was Landy, son of Catherine (Wigle) and Guilford Barnard.

9. Daughter of William and Martha (Spalding) Wigle married Barney Williorn (?).

L.W.C.

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.