HAPPY 100TH BIRTHDAY TO THE FRANK MURRAY BARN

PHOTOS BY STARLISA BLACK PHOTOGRAPHY

THIS IS ONE OF THE 1984 GLENWOOD SCHOOL ANNUAL BARNS IDENTIFIED BY OSMAR KUHNHAUSEN.  OSMAR CALLED IT THE FRANK MURRAY BARN AND HARRY AND TRAVIS MILLER CALL IT THE MURRAY BARN.  THAT MADE RESEARCH EASIER.  A SPECIAL TREAT, IS THAT THE BARN IS 100 YEARS OLD THIS MONTH.

I TRIED TO BE ACCURATE IN MY RESEARCH, BUT LIKE ALL HISTORY, I AM SURE THERE ARE SOME MISTAKES.  IF YOU HAVE MORE INFORMATION TO ADD, OR FIND A MISTAKE, DON'T HESITATE TO EMAIL ME.  

SOME HISTORY ABOUT THE FRANK MURRAY BARN

How does Harry Miller know that the Murray Barn is 100 years old this May of 2017?  

Harry said, years ago, he was doing repair work on the barn and Ervin Schweighoefer pulled in.  Ervin said,  “You know, I can remember when I rode by here and Frank Murray was building this barn.”  Harry asked him, “When was that?”

“Well, I don’t remember the day,”  said Ervin,  “but it was May, of 1917.”

Fredrich Wilhelm Schweighoefer,  came to Camas Prairie, from Prussia Germany around 1900.  He was single and a hired man for John and Betsy Wyers.  By 1906, he was married and had filed for a land patent  on land in the Laurel area, along the old Laurel/Trout Lake Road.  The Schweighoefers had two sons.  Ervin and Kurt.  Ervin was born around 1908.  He attended the Lincoln School, the Laurel School and White Salmon High School.  He spent most of his adult life in Trout Lake

At the time he stopped to talk to Harry, he was staying with Willie and Gail Gribner.  Willie’s mother was a Schweighoefer. 

The land where the barn sits was first filed on for a land patent by Reuben Medley.  Reuben was living here in Camas Prairie in 1880, along with about 15 other families.  By 1900 the Medley family was gone.  

On the 1913 survey map, Frank Frazier owns the land where the Murray barn sits. He also owned several other parcels in the Lakeside area including his home place which is just below the Lakeside School on the west side of the BZ/Glenwood Hwy.   It was one of the locations of the Fulda Cheese Factory.  
Frank and wife Bertha Wellenbrock Frazier moved to the Yakima Valley in about 1918.

I would guess that Frazier sold the property to Frank Murray. Some of his other land holdings Frazier sold to the Castle family.   

Frank Murray was born in 1873 to James and Emily Jane Murray who came to the Panakanic-Missouri Flats area in the 1880’s from the Willamette Valley.  He was a brother to Ed, Riley, Martha, (Della),  and Nora. 

Frank’s WWI military draft registration lists him as "stout physical build, medium height, hair color black and eye color gray".   

In 1900 Frank is single and   working in Camas Prairie as a farm hand for Richard Kreps.  In 1902 he marries Suzetta Castle at the home of her parents Crockett and Ann Castle.

Suzetta  was a sister to Garver Castle, and Piccola Hathaway.   

On the 1913 maps, the Castle families own land up on the Plateau and at Lakeside.  I suspect Frank and Suzetta were living up on the Plateau after their marriage since daughter Gladys was born at Panakanic in 1904.  Daughter Wanda was born at Laurel in 1917. 

 Frank passed away January 1, 1926 at the age of 52.    Suzetta had to auction the farm and household possessions in order to pay expenses.  I think Frank may have been ill, because she had some medical expenses to pay.  Just about every resident of the valley is listed on the auction list for their purchases.

10 chickens, 21 head of cattle, 1 brindle cow and calf, 1 post hole digger, 3 hay slings, 1 pare schaps, 1 lamp, 1 wooden bowl, etc.  

When I was a kid, we would come to Glenwood for the Rodeo. As we passed the Murray barn, my dad would point and say,  “that’s where the telephone office was.”  That doesn’t mean my dad knew what he was talking about, but, Suzetta, also known as Zettie, eventually moved to Lyle, where she was the telephone operator for years.  

Mrs. Kamma Sorensen Clark, in her history of Lyle says:

“The Castles settled in Glenwood and raised cattle. Zettie (Mrs. Frank Murray) became a telephone operator in Glenwood. Her husband, Frank, died while quite young and Zettie was left with two daughters to raise. Later on she accepted the telephone office in Lyle, ………She was the operator here for many years, about 25 or 30, almost until her death. She was on duty day and night, and would go out of her way any time to help anyone in trouble. 

     Everyone loved her and she is greatly missed. She surely made a great contribution to Lyle. She bought several houses here and improved them. Her daughter, Wanda Rutledge, lives here.”

Suzetta Castle Murray Tol, passed away August 22, 1958 at her home in Lyle.

Hazel Parsons tells a great story about how telephone central worked.  You would turn the crank for one long ring, and that would put you through to the operator.  She would answer, and you would tell her where you wanted your call directed.  If residents had to make an emergency call during the night, the operator better hear the one long ring. 

For a time, the Fulda Post Office was located at the home of H.E. Mitchell, where Travis now lives. Pauline Mitchell was the last postmaster, and Fulda PO was disbanded in 1912.  They must have kept it on the map for 1913.
 There was a time when Lakeside was a busy area, with a school, cheese factory, post office and telephone office.  

The Bertschi/Medley Canyon Road that comes out at the Murray Barn was a well traveled route to the Plateau and Pankanic, in those days.

THE BLUE IS THE LOCATION OF THE FRANK MURRAY BARN

RED IS THE LOCATION OF THE FULDA CHEESE FACTORY.

I HAVE ALSO MARKED, IN RED,  THE LOCATION OF THE LAKESIDE SCHOOL, BUT I AM NOT SURE IT WAS BUILT IN 1913.  I NEED TO ASK JERRY LADIGES.

THE ORANGE IS THE LAKESIDE CHURCH.

NOTICE THE BERTSCHI/MEDLEY CANYON ROAD WHICH COMES OUT AT THE MURRAY BARN. 

BLACK IS THE 1913 FULDA POST OFFICE 

GREEN IS WHERE ERVIN SCHWEIGHOEFER WAS STAYING WHEN HE STOPPED TO TALK TO HARRY MILLER.