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March 29, 2024

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Life of Louis Frank
Written by his daughter, Luella Frank Jensen

Louis, or Louie, as he was affectionately called, was born April 30, 1866. It was raining the night of his birth, and the water was leaking through the roof. His mother was in bed with an umbrella over her and the baby. The cabin with built of willows and dirt, and the roof was made of willows, dirt, and straw. Over the door hung a buffalo hide. He was the second child and the eldest son of Charles Anderson and Anna Cajsa Anderson Frank.

Louis Frank
Louis Frank

Late that spring, the family moved from their humble abode on the corner of what is now called Adam's Field to the mouth of Logan Canyon. Louie's mother became the tollgate keeper, and his father became secretary for the construction of the road through Logan Canyon to Bear Lake. His father was the first banker and commercial attorney in Logan. They use to call him the walking bank as he use to make change and cash checks while walking along the street. He immigrated to America from Gothenburg, Sweden, and located in Logan in 1863.

Louis first attended Sunday School in a frame building located on the north corner of First North and Main where the Low Cost Drug Store now stands. In the winter time, they held Sunday School in the old Bowery building located on the Tabernacle Square. While he was yet a small boy, Louis worked with his father at the ZCMI staying there at nights during the construction of the building. When it was completed, his father became the bookkeeper and night watchman.

When Louis was seven years old, his father built a home on the southeast corner of Second South and Main Street which served as the family home from then on and is still standing (as of 1964). Like many of the children in those days, Louis went to school bare-footed. The school building was located where the Logan High Seminary now stands. He had very little formal schooling, but he was an outstanding penman and a fine mathematician. Throughout his life he searched after truth and knowledge.

When he was fourteen years old, he went to work on the railroad in the summertime. The Thomas Jessop Co. was building railroads into Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington at that time. It was while he was with the railroad crew in Oregon that he contracted Mountain Fever and was ill for several weeks. No one thought he would live. Through the faith of Brother Jessop and Louis' brother, Val Frank, they administered to him, and Louis was able to be up in a few days. Although he was as thin as a skeleton, he grew stronger each day and was soon able to work. When winter came, the crew returned to Cache Valley where he did carpenter work for the ZCMI.

Louis and Ella Frank
Louis and Ella

Louis used to go to Providence to dances with his friends. It was there that he met and courted Ella Haderlie for five years. They were married in the Logan Temple on the 26th of November 1890. Apostle Marriner W. Merrill performed the ceremony.

They made their home in Logan the first winter then moved to Providence. The next winter on December 4th, 1891, their twins were born. They named them Louis and Luella. The baby, Louis, died of pneumonia when nine months old.

Louis and Luella Frank
Louis and Luella Frank - 5 Months Old

Louis moved his family back to Logan for the winters of 1892 and 1893. Another daughter, Hazel, was born on January 11th, 1893. The next summer he worked for Crowther's Mill in Logan Canyon, and the family lived there during the summer. He helped his brother-in-law, (Charles) Henry Haderlie move his sawmill to Star Valley, Wyoming. One of his horses died on the return trip.

The family was back in Providence again and a second son, Austin, was born on November 23, 1895. Louis hauled lumber out of the canyon for the house where the W.R. Zollinger family lives. But before the house was completed, he moved his family to Bear Lake on the old Church Ranch in Nounan Valley, Idaho. Louis left for Bear Lake in April. His wife, Ella, and three children left in May. When they arrived there, Louis was very ill. He had blood poisoning in his hand and inflammatory rheumatism. He wasn't able to do any work until August. His father-in-law and brother, Val Frank, came to move them back to Cache Valley but they didn't go back at that time. Louis stayed to get the threshing done. It was snowing and the weather was really nasty. Another daughter, Marie, was born on the 8th of October 1897, and the family moved into Nounan, Idaho for the winter. They lived in part of the old Skinner home.

The first summer, Brother and Sister Hopkin Rice lived with them on the Church Ranch. The next year John Gibbs and his sister Nellie stayed with them.

Louis filed a homestead the next summer and built a two room house of green lumber he got out of Skinner's canyon. John Minnick sawed the lumber. Ollie LaVenia was born in this house on July 2, 1899. By fall, the lumber in the house had warped so the wind could and did blow through. That fall they moved into Charles Bartschi's home. Louis took part in a show called "Coriantimer" and had to go to Montpelier for rehearsals.

Louis didn't care much for dancing but would dance a square dance occasionally. However, his wife, Ella, loved to dance and he would take her and his big bear skin coat, and while she danced he would curl up on the bench under the coat and sleep.

The following year, due to the poor health of his mother-in-law, Anna Haderlie, they moved back to Providence to care for her. They lived in part of the Haderlie home. Louis started work hauling logs for Crowther's Mill. He loved horses and took a great deal of pride in training them to do just as he wanted them to. He always had an outstanding team of horses.

Louis had a witty and cheerful disposition and had many friends. He sang very well in a beautiful tenor voice. He belonged to the ward choir and to the old "Sunflower Glee Club" conducted by Joseph Smith, Sr. He was Providence City Marshal for two terms and water master on the Blacksmith Fork irrigation ditch in 1908 and 1909.

When the ward was divided in May 1909, Louis was sustained Ward Clerk of the First Ward which position he held for seventeen years. He acted as a home missionary with Joseph Cowley for several years before the Cache Stake was divided.

In the spring of 1911, he, his brother Val, and his son-in-law, Fred Jensen, went to Metropolis, Nevada, and filed on a homestead. This failed and they were back home in July.

He worked at the carpenter trade and farmed his father-in-law, John Haderlie's farm with the help of the family. He finally bought a farm of his own from Gottlieb Gessel, Sr. It was located just north of town. He lived to see the progress of harvesting from the time of the cradle to the combine harvester. His children, Genevieve, Wahneta, Radah, Windsor, and Seth were all born in Providence from 1901 to 1913, making twelve children in the family. In the year 1922, Louis started a small dairy business which was successful until his health broke. So he sold it and just kept the farm. During this time, Windsor passed away July 24, 1926 of a heart ailment.

Louis Frank
Louis Frank - Age: 69

Hazel filled a mission to the Northeastern States in 1920 and 1921. In 1936, Wahneta passed away from Spinal Meningitis following childbirth, leaving two small children. The baby girl also died. Louis' health grew steadily worse and he spent the winters of 1937 and 1938 indoors. A final blow came when his eldest son, Austin, passed away suddenly March 15, 1938 from a heart attack. Louis was ill at this time and grew worse each day until he passed on to his reward at the age of 72 on May 2, 1938. He left his noble wife, Ella Haderlie Frank, six daughters, one son, thirty-four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren to morn his passing.

 
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