Frank Simons
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Flailing Grain |
Frank had arrived in Brents with five dollars, a horse and a set of harnesses. His first crop was threshed with a flail and he shot a deer on the Creston Butte which provided him with meat for the winter. During those early years in Brents, while working to improve his land in order to establish his homestead claim, Frank also needed to earn an alternate source of money. Not only did he work on the railroad in Sprague, but Frank also made weekly trips from Brents to the postal terminus (situated either in Spokane or Sprague, depending on which story you believe) in order to pick up the local mail. According to Herbert Jones' account of the early history of the Big Bend country,1 there was an Indian uprisings in either Montana or Wyoming in 1886 or 1887. "Even the Whitestone Indians [the Sanpoil - ed.] put on their war dances across the river." One of Frank's children tells that Frank was occasionally fearful of Indian attack while on his mail run.
There is a
story passed on by Frank's youngest son, that one evening Frank was milking his
only cow when he saw an Indian man with blood on his hands. "Dad didn't
know Indian language, but the Indian's signs told him that he had just killed a
deer. Dad, being hungry for meat, asked how many. In sign, the
Indian answered he had shot one with his arrow, then pointed north, indicating
three more went ("clata-a-wah, clata-a-wah"). After helping the Indian
take care of his deer, Dad took out in pursuit of the other three and got one
for himself."2
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First Log Cabin |
Joseph and
Margaret Jump were neighbours of Frank living a few miles north. They had
started their family in Missouri but had moved on out west, first locating in
Oregon. Their daughter Mary was married in Oregon at the age of
sixteen to a Mr. W. S. Horrell. They had a son names Walter William.
Her husband got involved with a bunch of outlaws and landed in jail, so Mary
divorced him. She later married Mr. Francis Spencer. They had two
sons, Charles and James. Unfortunately, Francis died while Mary was still
pregnant, leaving Mary and her children almost destitute. She
knitted socks to sell in order to help with expenses. Mary's parents,
having moved to the Brents area by this time, were anxious to help their
daughter. And so, Joseph and Margaret hired Frank Simons for $50 to move
the pregnant Mary and her two young boys to the parents' place in Brents.3
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Later Frame House |
Frank married Mary C.
Jump Horrell Spencer
on January 5, 1890. He added a floor and a new kitchen to his log cabin in
order to make his new bride more comfortable. In the fall of 1890,
Frank and Mary had a little daughter, Minnie May. With the pending arrival
of a fifth child in 1892, the little log cabin was proving to be quite crowded,
necessitating the building of a new house. So that year, Frank built a new
frame house which had five rooms. Amy Belle was born on November 5, 1892
and her younger brother Gilbert Leroy arrived on April 16, 1894. Both
these two claim to be the first child to be born in the new house. On
January 5, 1896, Mary Neoma came into the world. A son, Alvah Russell, was
born on August 7, 1897 and Elsie Ellen was arrive a little less than two years
later, on April 16, 1899. Dolly Margaret joined the family on December 5,
1900. Joseph William was born on December 1, 1903 and his little sister
Veda Vera was born February 18, 1906. That same year, faced with a
household of fourteen people, Frank and Mary added four more rooms to the
house. There were two more children born after this: Lela Estella
was arrived November 14, 1908 and Frank Volney closed off the family on June 21,
1911.
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| Frank and Mary Simons Family
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As Frank's family expanded, so did his land holdings. In 1902, he bought a quarter-section of cropland from his mother-in-law, Margaret Jump and shortly after that he bought a quarter-section of pasture land from her. He set out two orchards and raised fruit for the family. There was also an orchard on the Jump place. The Simonses raised their own meat, mostly pork and chicken, and they had milk cows and a large garden. In 1905, some of the older children moved into Creston to go to high school. In 1919, Frank bought five acres from Robert Grinstead, his brother-in-law. A year later, Frank and Mary retired from the farm and moved to the Spokane Valley, while their son Gilbert took over the farm. Mary was never without her knitting needles. In her later years, she provided several bedspreads and pillow covers for her family members. She used a Pennsylvania Dutch pattern which had been used by her mother for a bedspread many years before. All the family members wanted the old spread, so Mary made sure everyone had a spread or a pillow cover in this pattern.
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Simons William F. 1855 - 1933 Mary C. 1966 - 1947 Sherman Cemetery, WA |
In October of
1933, Frank Simons died of a stroke while throwing melons from his garden over
the fence to his cow. Mary Simons died suddenly of a heart attack at the
age of 81 on August 5, 1947 in her home in the Spokane Valley.
Continue onto the story of Frank's brother George and his wife Jenny.
Return to the story of Frank's parents and siblings.
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1 Herbert E. Jones, Early History of the Big Bend Country, 1963, p. 11
2 Frank Volney Simons' recollection of his father's life, as gathered by Mary Anne Simons Kershner, Ardis S. Dashiell and Russell Simons.
3 Sources: Mary Anne Simons Kershner, Ardis S. Dashiell and Russell Simons
