Benjamin Franklin "Frank" Koontz

  Born February 11, 1826, near Yorktown, Delaware County, Indiana.  Died February 8, 1868, just three days short of his 42^nd birthday, at his home on Burnt River in Oregon.  Buried in family cemetery near his home.  Frank was the son of Jacob and Deborah (Coombs) Koontz.  Married Elizabeth Jane "Jane" Walling on March 14, 1847.  Jane was born November 5, 1833 and died April 20, 1874, at age 40, at Clarksville, Oregon.  Buried in family cemetery next to her husband.  Frank and Jane were married in 1847 in Indiana and then, two years later, he left for the goldfields in California.  The 1850 census shows him in El Dorado County, Calif.  He is listed as a miner.  He also may have had a store there.  In 1863, word spread about gold strikes in Eastern Oregon and Frank came with his family to Clarksville, Oregon.  He found that there were hundreds of miners working the streams so he started a small hand-sawing operation at "Log Town", which was situated just above Clarksville.  He also opened a general mercantile store in Clarksville.  The demand for lumber was so strong that Frank purchased a water-powered mill from San Francisco.  .He scouted the area, looking for a site to build his mill.  He found a suitable site a few miles up Burnt River from Clarksville, which had timber nearby, and sufficient water to power the mill.  Apparently, the mill came by way of sailing ship to Portland and was probably loaded on to a smaller vessel which came up the Columbia River to The Dalles or to Umatilla Landing.  There the machinery was loaded on wagons and hauled over the Oregon Trail to the small settlement which would later become Baker City.  At that point, the wagons left the Oregon Trail and followed a crude wagon road to Auburn.  A military road had been built up to the top of Dooley Mountain, and Frank used this road.  He then constructed his own road from the top of Dooley Mountain down into the Burnt River valley and then on to the mill site he had prepared.  While the machinery was en route, Frank also constructed a ditch, which started from the Burnt River at a point several miles upstream from the mill site.  A crude metal pipe would carry the water from the ditch down the steep hillside to the mill.  The water, contained in the pipe provided enough water pressure to turn shafts to run the saws.  His mill produced lumber for homes, mine and mill construction, ranches and for sections of wooden flumes used in building the 90-mile long El Dorado ditch, which was later constructed to provide water for mining operations in the El Dorado/Malheur City/Amelia City areas.  The mill was situated near Burnt River and the family home was located just up the hill from the mill.  Frank had a tunnel built from the home to the mill for use in the event of an Indian attack.  He set up a logging operation uphill from the mill and constructed a wagon road into the timbered area.  The main draw above the mill still shows on modern maps as, "Koontz Creek". 

In January, 1868, Frank snow shoed from the mill over Dooley Mountain to Auburn.  While in Auburn, he became ill.  After several weeks, he decided to return home.  Friends in Auburn tried to convince him to wait, but he decided to make the trip.  Soon after his departure, a heavy snow storm, which soon turned into a violent blizzard, set in.  More than likely, visibility was nearly zero in the densely-timbered mountains.  The deep snow on the ground and the blinding wind-driven snow made walking extremely difficult through the steep rugged mountains.  At some point, one of his snowshoes became unusable, so he struggled on with only one snowshoe.  Two days later, in the afternoon, his family and the mill workers heard strange sounds which resembled the howling or yelping of coyotes.  The sounds continued and later in the afternoon, Jane Koontz insisting the sounds resembled a human voice, said the men must investigate.  They did so and some distance above the mill, they found him, badly frozen and only partly conscious.  He was hurriedly taken home where a further examination showed that both feet were badly frozen that they would have to be amputated.  The nearest surgeon was in Boise, Idaho, Frank's nephew, Tabor Reed, volunteered to make the trip.  It was growing dark and snowing heavily when Reed set out on snowshoes.  The best route would be through Malheur City, a small mining camp about 15 miles southeast of the mill.  This route would take him to the crossing of the Snake River at Farewell Bend, where he could pick up the Oregon Trail.  At first, he made good time, then, many miles beyond Malheur City, The snow storm changed to a Chinook rain which made slush out of the snow.  Reed struggled on for some distance, but was soon compelled to discard the snowshoes.  The going got so rough that he sometimes had to crawl on his hands and knees.  He was exhausted when he reached the Snake River crossing.  Luckily, he found the ferryman at his post and Reed was soon of the Idaho side of the river.  Late that evening, he was picked up by the stage bound for Boise.  He arrived in Boise the next day.  There were only two surgeons in Boise and neither would agree to go to Burnt River to treat Koontz.  Reed was in despair when he talked with a man on the street who advised him to see the governor.  He did meet with the governor and got quick results.  The surgeons were told that one of them would return to Burnt River with Reed or else both surgeons would lose their license to practice.  It worked.  They took the doctor's light horse-drawn wagon and set off on the return trip.  When they reached Malheur City they were met by a messenger who told them that Frank Koontz had passed away.  Frank Koontz was laid to rest on the little knoll just above the home and mill, close by the Burnt River.  A few years later, his wife was buried beside him.  Then his son, Henry, who had shot himself accidentally while hunting, was laid by his parents.  Then the two children of Amelia Koontz Lurchin were buried there.  And in 1900, their mother was laid to rest in the little pioneer cemetery.  To Benjamin Franklin and Elizabeth Jane Walling Koontz, eight children who grew to adulthood were born as follows:  Mary Koontz Boswell and Amelia Koontz Lurchin were born in Indiana.  Chester Koontz, Adelia Koontz Good, Henry Koontz and Emma Koontz McLoughlin were born in California.  Alice Koontz Moffitt and Minnie Koontz Nibler were born at the mill home on Burnt River.