WPA Interviews

Frum, Ray

Interviews Vol. II

INTERVIEW, July 19, 1939.

Interview with Ray Frum, grandson of Gamaliel Parrish.

(This interview has principally to do with the history of Gameliel Parrish who was a pioneer of the year 1845.)

My name is Ray Frum. I am a son of Alpheus Frum and my grandfather's name (on my father's side) was Eugenius Frum. He came to Oregon in 1852. If you wish to know the full Frum history I suggest that you interview my uncle, "Kim" Frum who lives on the old place on Sand Ridge, west of Peterson's Butte. He can give much of which I know nothing. However, he is very deaf so your interview may be difficult. (Note- "Kim" Frum interview already sent in.)

My mother's name was Sarah E. Parrish Frum. She was born in 1849 and died 1923. (My father, Alpheus Frum, by the way, was born January 28, 1844 and died October 8, 1901.) My mother was raised on the Gamaliel Parrish donation land claim which is situated in Sections 6 and 7, Township 13 South of Range 2 West.) This farm on which I live is a part of that claim but the original claim house stood (and still stands) on the extreme northeast corner of the claim, nearly two miles from here, sin my farm is a portion of the extreme southwest corner. My mother went to school to the Rock Hill school. If you wish to learn more about her girlhood you had better interview the Zoosman brothers, Tom and Monroe, they live on the hill northeast of here and are now both over eighty years old. I have often heard them telling how they went to school with mother, riding behind her on her horse, and what a good horseman she was, and what a fine horse she rode.

My grandfather, Gamaliel Parrish was born July 7, 1821. He died November 12, 1884. My grandmother was Lydia Peterson Parrish and she was a daughter of Henry J. Peterson, the man for whom Peterson's Butte just north of here was named. She was born February 4, 1824 and died May 14, 1876. Both Grandfather and Grandmother Parrish are buried at the old "Claypool Cemetery" on the hill a mile or so south of the Rock Hill school.

I believe that my Parrish grandparents came to Oregon in 1845. They came out here and took up this claim where I now live, although the original house stands on the opposite corner of the claim. After settling here grandfather moved with his family to Waterloo on the South Santiam River where grandfather ran a sawmill for a few years. It was at Waterloo that my mother was born. I have heard my mother tell of trips from Waterloo out to the home claim. She always spoke of the tall grass which grew all over the valley then- as tall as the heads of men on horseback.

The old house on the Parrish claim, still standing, was built a long time ago. I have no way of knowing just when but I presume about 1852. It was situated on what was then known as the "Territorial Road". At that time the road, instead of turning west at the Parrish house kept on past the east side of the house and followed the foot of the hills around what was then "Cochran's Butte" but which is now more often called "Lone Pine Butte."After passing over the saddle just west of Lone Pine it extended on to Brownsville and from their south through what is known as "The Big Gap" and to Diamond Hill School. From there it went on south to Eugene City and the community of Pleasant Hill.

My grandfather's house was one of the stops for stagecoaches which traveled that old road. That was one of the most important roads through the valley in the early days. All the travel to the Southern Oregon and Californian mines passed over it. The Indians also used it and my mother has often told me of Indian tribes passing in the night after there had been a death in their camp and of the horrible wailing and shrieking which was kept up as they went. The Indians moved at night after a death for the reason that they had certain superstitious beliefs about remaining in a camp where a death had taken place.

If you ever go to that old house of which I have been speaking be sure and notice the picture that is painted on the house wall under the back porch.

That picture has been there for a great many years. It was painted by Henry Peterson Jr., one of my mother's uncles and is a portrait of Thomas Nichols who used to live in this region. (Note- This field worker inspected the above picture. It is painted high up on the board wall and shows a very dashing bust of a man of perhaps thirty years with exceedingly fierce black moustache. Thomas Nichols, were he now living, would be a very old man- at least eighty years- so that it appears likely that the picture was painted not later than 1880.) (The Gamliel Parrish house is now falling into decay but show very good evidence of having once been a notable pioneer residence.

A large double fireplace fills the wall between the kitchen and parlor and the great brick chimney, exposed to sight in the chamber rooms, is not less than four feet broad. The stairs to the chamber rooms are very steep and narrow and wind in an almost complete turn in making the ascent.) (A photograph of this old house has been sent in.) "The Henry Peterson mentioned- my grandmother's brother - was an artist. A brother Marshall Peterson was a violinist. I can remember when he used to come and visit at grandmother's. He used to play the violin for them and he had a piece which he had composed himself and which he called "The Indian War Dance." When he played it, it would fairly make your hair stand on end. His home in his later years was in Eastern Oregon.

Others of the Peterson family, my grandmother's brothers, were Marshall Peterson and Asa Peterson. Marshall Peterson was an Indian War veteran. He had been wounded in an action. A belt buckle which he wore was shot into his hip.

To go further back in my family history, the father of Gamaliel Parrish was the Rev. E. E. Parrish who came to Oregon and settled in Marion County at what is now known as "Parrish Gap" near Marion.

On the Frum side of my family- my grandfather Eugenious Frum was the only one who ever came to Oregon. (In 1852) He had about twelve children of whom Archimides Frum, my uncle at Sand Ridge is the only living member. My grandmother was named Barnett before her marriage into the Frum family. The Barnetts were Irish and the Frums were German. The Barnett Claim was on the hills southeast of Rock Hill in what is now know as the "Middle Ridge" neighborhood.

There are a great many Frums in Illinois. The family in America originated at Jamestown, Virginia."

(Mr. Frum showed the writer a number of family possessions dating back into early days, among them a bridle made in Brownsville about 1870 and a very peculiar old-style "washing-machine" in which the clothes were run back-and-forth between a series of wooden rollers- with each reverse motion dropping down into a tub of water and again being squeezed and worked by the rotating rollers. This dated back perhaps sixty years.)

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.