Frank Hill Family History

HISTORY OF THE FRANK HILL FAMILY

JEFFERSON DISTRICT – OREGON SLOPE

NARRATED BY: MRS. FRANK (RUBY) HILL – 1976

I have known my husband’s family since I was married, and a little bit before. As far as I know, Frank’s Dad (Sam Hill) came here around 1833. I have a little day book that he kept his time in, and part of it is written in Swedish, which I do not understand. He has a note in here in 1883 where he worked at Huntington on the old railroad. Then, he worked for people named Strobe. Don Disen is mentioned quite frequently in his working. He mentioned that he cut brush “for one of them for 25¢ a day and plowed for 50¢ a day,” and that, of course, was the old walking plow. He did cradling. I don’t know much about that except they cut the grain and got it ready for shocks.

I don’t know when Frank’s folks were married. They homesteaded the old place up there, and the homestead deed was in 1900 and it was signed by President McKinley.

One of Frank’s sisters was born in Payette. Frank was born somewhere near here in Malheur County, somewhere between Weiser and Payette. I don’t know about the other sisters. We have the old family Bible that they brought from Sweden. The covers are leather over wood with studs in them. The clasps are made out of brass. The children were Carrie Elizabeth born December 10, 1892, Frank Elner born August 21, 1894, Mary Eleanor born October 9, 1896, and George Hema born January 6, 1899, Emma Evelyn born January 23, 1904.

Frank’s oldest sister, Carrie, is in the Convalescent Home in Payette. Mary still lives in Payette, Emma is living in Portland, and George lives in Weiser. Carrie Elizabeth Wolfe passed away February 8, 1977.

The house up here was built in 1907. It is on the corner, the one with the bricks, Glenn said, but you wouldn’t think it’s that old because it has been remodeled. It has a pitched roof and was made of double wall brick with the air space between it. Clem covered it over with siding, except the back, which Grandma called the old cellar. It is still in the original brick. They all lived up in Moore’s Hollow. They bought land. Some of it was down below. They bought from other people near the river because they had 160 acres that they homesteaded. When our children married, he gave each one of them 40 acres.

They had their irrigation down here and Frank’s Dad, Sam, had many notes on that. This little book was in 1905 and he wrote quite a lot in it. The Directors of the District are listed as: H. E. White, John Fren, Ian Chadfield, S. Hill, S.W. Applegate, H.A. White, and J.E. Thomas. The Treasurer was Dan Joseph. When they were having the District, he wrote this: “How soon after the Directors were deciding some proposition before they could ratify 122 how is the proper way then to enlarge an Irrigation District? Could the outside portions simply be annexed or will the proceedings have to be gone all over again? Can a Matron or body of land be included in a District that already has water and is organized? Can the present boundary be changed? That is, taken out along the river bottom which is sub-irrigated? Does each separate body of land have to be annexed, including into the existing District, have to come in with a petition signed by a certain portion of the bona fide residents of the proposed District? Or can the two faction parts come in with the same 25 as they were of one body? Suppose we take a ditch from Snake down to Dead Ox Flat, can the people living on the upper end of said ditch and having no share of water, can they compel the District to let them have water whether they have any to spare or not? In the District meetings, suppose one of the five Directors is not present, can the four Directors do business? If so, in regard to the one Director and the chairman, opposition, can the Chairman not vote in a tie? If one of the Directors fails to attend and claims he will not have anything to do with the organization and not willing to resign, how do we proceed to fill his place? Will it be permissory to our Treasurer to actify before bonds are issued and sold then? Banks, not willing so far, only willing to patronize a bonded company.”

I know before they had irrigation, Frank’s Grandmother, when they were plowing it up said “Plowed and turned it all up and it will pay her tithing judgment day.” Frank’s Mother always said, “I wish she could see it now.”

As far as I know, they attended mostly the Jefferson School after it was built in 1907. “Before that, the older children I think went to the Mesquite School. Mesquite, I got called on that, as I led it. There was a man down there that fussed about the mosquitoes being so bad that they called it Mosquito. On the map, it is spelled Mesquite, and they have had a school and a post office there. George Hill said the site name was Mesquite and told of an old felon from Mexico and Arizona. He liked the name more like the looks of the brush, and wanted to call it Mesquite. We have an old atlas that Glenn rescued when they were going to tear down the Ontario High School and it used the name Mesquite.

About Frank’s folks, prior to my coming here before 1926, looking in some of the old papers I cut out for my scrapbooks, it said that Sam Hill was building a new brick house on Dead Ox Flat, on the Oregon Side. It is the first brick building erected on the Flat.

From Mrs. Frank (Ruby) Hill

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