Thursday, June 15 1972
Mr. and Mrs. Ray Banks, Takilma Road, had friends visit them from San Diego, Calif. whom they have known for many years, Mr. and Mrs. Art Prager, who stayed with them for five days. They were very impressed with the beauty of Oregon. They had been up the coast once, but this was their first time to see the interior. If you followed sports a number of years ago, perhaps you will remember Prager as a trick canoeist.
George and Opal Martin attended the graduation exercises of their daughter Rhoda at Western Baptist Bible College in Salem, June 3rd. There were 79 in the graduating class. The Martins also attended the Senior Convocation Friday night. Rhoda’s brother Roger graduated from the same school in 1970 and has spent the last two years at Dallas Theological Seminary.
I received a note from Fern Wisham saying “We had wall to wall people again,” but Warren and Fern were happy to receive their guests. Recent houseguests were Warren’s nephew and wife, Jim and Elenore Bradbury of Burbank, Calif. They spent a week enjoying the sites, including Oregon Caves, Lake Selmac, and a trip to the coast. Both fell in love with our beautiful scenery and weather. Also, guests were Fern’s sister and brother-in-law, Clyde and Helen Roberts of Whidbey Island, Washington who were just finishing up a 7,000-mile trip to eastern and southern states in their camper.
Guests of the Wishams included the Chris Reddishes of Cave Junction and the George Wishams of Grants Pass. Everyone enjoyed an outdoor barbecue. Other guests last weekend were Fern’s brother and his wife, Hugh and Marge Walters of Mesa, Ariz. Hugh, a former resident of the Valley, was amazed at the building and progress going on since he left Cave Junction in 1965.
Mr. and Mrs. Art Scofield of Sisters were recent visitors of Walt and Itol Colpitts, Old Stage Road.
Osmond and Margaret Henry have had company again. Several grandchildren and two great grandchildren came for a few hours’ visit last Friday on their way to visit their sister, Mr. Margaret Jones and her family who live in Myrtle Creek. They were Gary and Joyce Ashcraft and two sons, George and Ronald, Bazil and Lawrence Jones. Lawrence is on Furlough from Ft. Ord, where he has been taking basic training. After visiting sister Margaret for the weekend, Lawrence returned to Cave Junction to visit his grandparents.
Friday evening another car, with a trailer, rolled into Osmond and Margaret’s driveway. It was June, one of their daughters, her husband Stanley Kerslake, and their daughter Shannon and son Floyd, who live in Aloha. They left on a three-week vacation trip the next day after Shannon graduated from high school. They visited here for four days, dividing their time between Osmond’s our home. Phayo and I have not had the opportunity to visit with Stanley and June, who is my niece, since their children were small. While they were here, I took them to the museum. They enjoyed the many displays, especially the blacklight in the mineral display room. The trip to the Illinois River Bridge down Eight Dollar Road was another highlight of their visit, as was the movie we showed June and Stan, taken when June was 3 and our girls were small too. This was the first time June had ever seen her baby picture.
I was happy last week to make the acquaintance of the Reverend Claire E. Harsted, Portland, the Assistant Superintendent of the Northwest District of the American Sunday School Union, and the Reverend Curtis Christian, the new missionary of the ASSU for Southern Oregon. He has recently moved to a home on Sardine Creek, Gold Hill, where he will live with his wife Mary Ellen and three children. We talked of business of the ASSU, as it especially concerns to Bridgeview Community Church.
Blossoming peonies and lilies in my front yard now mark the site where several early day trials were held. Justice could be swift sometimes under the overhanging limbs of a large fir tree that stood at that spot, as several persons accused of crime found to their dismay. A dining table and chair for the judge, plus chairs for the jury members, and convenient blocks of wood where the witnesses and spectators could sit in the shade of this large tree, comprised the necessities of this outdoor courtroom in Illinois Valley. One case tried here found the defendant charged with burglary. Court was called to order and jurors were chosen and the prosecuting attorney had called R.P. (Dick) George as the first witness for the state of Oregon. George was an observant man, so his testimony was in great detail regarding method of entry into the house, articles stolen, and he stated that the shoe prints left in the dirt at the site of entry were very unusual, with the left heel having a star of a certain shape and a number of hobnail prints. At this testimony a startled look appeared on the face of the attorney for the defendant. His client had raised his left foot and was carefully counting the hobnails in the star displayed on the left shoe heel. Satisfied that the number was correct, he then put his foot on the ground. The prosecution rested its case with George as its only witness. The defending attorney suddenly decided not to call any witnesses, so the case was given to the jury. In less than five minutes the verdict was given. Guilty as charged. Judge Henry Pfefferle (Justice of the Peace) took even less time in pronouncing sentence; thirty days in the county jail in Grants Pass. Yes, justice could be swift in those open-air courtrooms, and the moral, if any, was that it was best for the defendant to keep both feet on the ground when being tried beneath the large limbs of a fir tree.
That trial was more than 60 years ago, and the fir tree has been gone a long time. The only part of the tree left is a small part of the stump, moss covered, and surrounded by ferns and violets.