John Austin Frank Compiled by L. Arden Frank

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Austin attended the Providence elementary school where his first teacher was Diantha Hammond. He was in the first graduating class of A.E. Allen. Later he attended two Winter Quarters at USAC, riding over and back each day on horseback. He also took a correspondence course in Veterinary Science and received a graduation certificate. Aunt Marie said she could remember when someone's horse broke a leg so Austin fixed a sling from the ceiling of the barn and doctored the horse until it was well again. He had many calls from farmers with sick animals in Providence and also Millville and College Ward.

When Austin was 20 years old, he signed up with the Utah National Guard. He was supposed to be 21, but he got by. He also did not think there would be a war to get involved in, but less than a month after he signed up there was trouble on the Mexican border. Bands of Mexican raiders led by "Pancho" Villa and Emiliano Zapata were harassing small settlements and scattered ranches in Southern Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona along the border. In January 1916, a group of American mine officials and technicians were massacred in Mexico. The American Government sent General Pershing and some troops in to punish the bandits. In March 1916, Villa forces raided Columbus, New Mexico killing 8 soldiers and 9 civilians. In May 1916, Glen Springs, Texas was raided and on 18 June 1916, President Wilson called the National Guard units to active duty hoping to prevent all out war. Austin's Battery of the 145th Field Artillery was one of the units mobilized. He went into the service with Wade Pickett, Oliver Zollinger, David O. Theurer and Benny Janes. They first went to Camp Williams near Lehi, Utah for training and then to Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City. When the call to active duty was certain, these five went to the temple and got their Endowments.

They left Salt Lake 28 June and arrived 29 June, 1916, at Nogales, Arizona where they set up camp on a hill overlooking the border. While the Guard units were camped along the border, there were several skirmishes with bands of Mexican raiders. There were not many casualties among the Americans, but the Mexican losses were fairly heavy. With this show of force from the Guard Units and the Army, and with diplomatic negotiations going on between leaders of the two governments, tension began to ease. General Pershing and his troops withdrew back into the United States and took up positions along the border. On 16 December 1916, most of the 145th was sent back to Salt Lake, but Austin's unit was not sent home until after the first of the year 1917.

While attending a welcome home party given by the school children for the soldiers from Providence, Austin met Christena Garrett, who was a teacher at the Providence school.

John Austin Frank and Christena Garrett

In October 1917, he was called into the service again, as American involvement in World War I was heating up. He went to Fort Douglas and onto Camp Kearney, California where he went to Remount School and learned to shoe horses the Army way. He came home on furlough 1 May 1918, and he and Christena were married on the 29th of May 1918 in the Logan Temple by William G. Noble. They honeymooned at beautiful Tony Grove Lake where they arrived on horseback. While they were camped there, a thunderstorm blew through and their horses ran away. Austin caught them though before they had gone very far.

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