Author’s Note: My sister found these tapes after my grandmother Carol passed away, and gave them to me to preserve. My great grandmother LuElla is 75 years old when she recorded this in 1994, and I found the process cathartic, re-listening to the warbling voice of my great grandmother while the familiar sound of their wind-up clock ticked on endlessly in the background.

Download (.mp3, 25mb): Audio

Speaker: LuElla Frame Rice (1919-2005):

“I was 75 years old yesterday. Jan 15 1994. I was born in Portland, Oregon during the big flu epidemic. Born at home while father was out trying to find an available doctor. Married Thomas Fredrick Rice April 4th 1936 on McCoy Street, Hollywood District, in Salem, Oregon at Aunt Ruthie’s house. Honeymoon at the Rices’ Cabin on the Little North Fork. I was a homemaker–I AM a homemaker.”

Great Grandma (LuElla Frame) and Grandpa Thomas Rice

“Well… I wanted to start in this tape with me, because I’ll be the one who’ll be telling all this information on the family records we have here. Um… let’s see. I like to knit and crochet, and do macrame work. I did some amateur painting.

I love the out of doors, I love to hike and swim the little north fork of the Santiam. We lived there for 21 years in the little north fork. We cleared the ground and made our home there.

We lived in Newport, Oregon for 17 years. I loved to take the children and go to the beach, and have campfires and picnics–them and their friends.

And uh… there we moved to Stayton, uh Mehema–we lived there for four years? From there we moved to Sublimity stayed there for three years, and then moved to the little north fork of the Santiam for 21 years. Moved to Stayton, March the 7th…let’s see that was in um… 87, I believe.

Well… as a child, we moved around a lot. We lived a lot of different places in Warshington and in Oregon. And I guess that’s about enough about me.

My father was Joseph Leroy Frame, he was born July 6th 1885 in Valparaiso, Indiana. Dad died December 22nd 1951 at Orchards Warshington, he was buried at the Park Hill Cemetery, grave 3 and 4, lot 69, section M, Vancouver Warshington. Married Alvena Frame, Coeur d’Alene Idaho, in June 17th 1915. They had two children, Floyd and myself. Floyd being born at Camas Warshington and me at Portland, Oregon. He once was married to Lucy (?) before Alvena. He loved dancing, doing a fancy jig or tap and played the fiddle by ear.

He trapped while living in the east and was on log drives down the rivers to the mills to be made into lumber. He worked a good deal of his life in NorthWest paper mills. He was a fancy dresser, taking great pride in his appearance. He worked in the Portland-Vancouver shipyard in both World War 1 and 2.

source: USAMM Blog

Lived many places in Warshington and Oregon, following his trade of mill-work whenever available. He was a great salesman, he could sale most anything, and built several homes doing all the work himself. Also, tore down barracks at Fort Lewis, Warshington. I remember loving to go with him, spending the day setting on top of the roofs. He hunted deer and elk as a sport, [and he was] known as Roy Frame.

He always said, ‘do anything well that you do and take pride in your work even if it’s only a ditch you dig.’

Joseph Leroy Frame’s father was Joseph Leroy Frame Sr. he was born in 1849 in Ohio, died at Vancouver Warshington July 30th 1920, buried at Parkhill Cemetery. Married Cordelia Sophia Tattrill (?) she was born June 7th 1859 and died 1926.

They homesteaded at Nimrod Minnesota, when they moved west, they turned the homestead over to son Glen. When son Glen died, his widow donated the land claim to the state and it was called Frame’s Landing, and is a public park

[Note from Wadena County website: “FRAMES’ LANDING:  Down river 1 mile from Nimrod is the 14 acre campsite named for one of Nimrod’s first citizens.  A CCC camp was operated here in the early 1940’s.  From here it is 7 miles to Little White Dog, the next campsite on the County Parks system (Indian Mounds are enroute).”].

Image Source: Wadena County

He worked in different mills, she ran houses–rooming houses–and restaurants. She was very successful, not reading or writing in English. She spoke French fluently. She was born in Canada of French and Indian [native] parents. I was told she was part Indian, but I don’t know that for sure. They had seven sons: David, Glen, Charles, Joseph Leroy, William, Auto, and Herbert. All played a stringed instruments and had music sessions every night. Joseph Leroy Sr’s parents are unknown. They were all in the big Hinkley Fire, it was on Glen’s 12th birthday. They were out picking cranberries when the fire came. They all jumped in the crick and lived on chickens that had been cooked on the roost. 480 people died in that fire. I believe that was in Minnesota. Joseph was Pennsylvania Dutch.

Hinckley Minnesota after the great fire of 1894

My mother was Alvena Fink, she born December 31, 1889 in Jackson County Iowa. Died July 17th 1982 in Salem Oregon. Buried at Park Hill Cemetery Vancouver Warshington next to my dad Joseph Leroy Frame. They were married  in Coeur d’Alene Idaho, in June 17th 1915. Fifteen. Had two children Floyd and LuElla. Worked at many things, waitresses, cannery working, cooking for harvest crews, and once at Tulelake California during World War 2 for the Japanese Americans were interned because of the war with Japan. Also, at the Vancouver Shipyards and the Portland Shipyards during both World War 2 and 1. Working 20 years as a nurses aide, earning a Nurses Pin for her achievements. She retired from that work at age 75 years.

Great Great Grandma Frame (Alvena Fink)

She told of growing up on her father’s farm with eleven brothers and sisters, and how they would ride a horse to school and on the way home how a horse would buck first one and then other off until none were left on.

She rode a horse to Arlington Oregon to have a aching tooth pulled by a horse doctor as that was the only one available. She became frightened when hearing indians coming and got down in the gully to hide, avoiding running into them, as she was alone. She was very gutsy lady she’d tackle any kind of a job. If she liked you, she’d give you the shirt off her back. She loved children, and they loved her.

Now this is her father, Adie Kiel Fink, he was born March 5 1858 in Pennsylvania. He died June 8th, 1952 at Underwood Warshington. He married Isabelle Tar (?) November 14 1878, they were married at her mother’s home. Isabella was born June 25th 1862, and died November 4th 1921. They are both buried at Arlington Oregon. They had twelve children: Albert, Uzeti, Lenard, Alice, Alvena, Bertha, Emmet and Elise—who were twins, Earl, Ivan, Glenn, and Harper who died as an infant. Aide had always said when a child got too old to play with, they’d have another one. He was a farmer, who moved west to the Gilliam County Oregon where he took up a homestead at Rock Crick.

When he first moved west he worked for Mark Williford(?) who became an attorney. Aide was a graduate of a military college in the east. He loved to play the drums, and amused himself later in life with drumming. He died June 8th in 1952 at the age of 94. He would tell, when you’d sit down to play poker, when he was young, you’d take your gun out and lay it beside you on the table. When he was young he swam across the Mississippi River.

Adie Kiel Fink’s father was David Fink, who was born in 1833 at uh…no, he was born May 18th, 1829 in Strongstown, Pennsylvania. Mother of Aide was Margaret Watterson, she was born 1833 at Watterson’s Ferry [Wattersonsville], Pennsylvania.

Margaret Watterson is center back row, eldest, with daughter Lida.

They were married Oct 18th, 1849 at Mount Pleasant Hills Pennsylvania. Their children were Miles Jefferson born July 29th 1850, Isadora Jane April 10th 1853,  Rolandus David February 28th 1856, Aida Kyle March 5th 1858, Uzeetta Melivina July 17th 1860, Eliza Ellen Jan 6 1863.

No further information. David [Fink] died serving in the civil war age 43, Margaret did warshing to send her children through school.”

Enlistment Date 26 Aug 1862; Union 149th Regiment, Pennsylvania Infantry; Company B
Died serving in the civil war age 43; Fatal Gunshot to the abdomen at Battle of the Wilderness Battlefield, Virginia

[Listen/Read: Side 2]

Do you have audio tapes from your own family? What fun fact about your heritage did you learn?