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some sort in the creek until they could get all the logs together. Then they would turn them loose. As they got their logs started down stream the float would hang up on trees and sharp bends in the creek. They called that a log jam, Son.
Well, they made it about a mile down stream then the float got jamed in a bend of the creek. There was a deep hole at that bend and the water current was swift. Pa, being the best swimmer of the bunch, was called to the front of the float to try and free up the jam. Somehow on the way up he sliped and fell into the swift flowing water. By the time they found Pa and pulled him from the water, He had drowned. Uncle Will said the water was very cold that day and Pa probably had cramps and was unable to pull himself up.
The deep hole in Hickory Creek where Bill Frye died was later named "The Frye Hole". This was confirmed to me several years after Grandma Cuevas died, by uncle Hugh Lee who was a teenager at the time Bill Frey died. Uncle Hugh wasn't just my uncle,
He was everybody's Uncle as he lived to be 97 years old. Just a few weeks ago, over a cup of coffee, this whole story was told to me again by F. J. Lee, Uncle Hugh's son. He said when he was growing up, his father took him back on the creek where the Frye Hole was and told him the story of how Bill had drowned there.
Even after almost 60 years Grandma still felt the pain of losing her father and mother. Continuing her story, She remembered her Mother (Eran Smith Frye) telling her about losing the? farm after her father died. She said Bill was to collect the money for his logs at the Kiln and continue on to Bay St. Louis and pay the note on the farm that would be due by the time he arrived.
Bill's body was brought back to the farm and the float continued to the Kiln. The other men collected Bill's share of money and brought it back to Eran. By that time the family had waked and then buried Bill.
Grandma said her mother loaded all the kids onto the wagon and they left for Bay St. Louis, money in hand to pay the note


Frye page-3
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