No summary at this time, please refer to the detailed index below.
0-5:00 Josephine’s father was Ignacio “Jack” Echanis from Mutriku, Gipuzkoa. He first went to Boise, Idaho in 1914 then went to Crane, Oregon. His brothers, Joe Echanis and Ben Echanis, had a sheep ranch in Crane. Jack knew Josephine’s mother, Maria Pagoaga Echanis, in Spain from living in the same duplex as each other growing up. Andres “Andy” Urquiri, Maria’s brother, brought her mother to Boise when she was 19. Maria stayed in Boise for a year in a boarding house with friends from Spain until she was married to Jack in August 28, 1917. In the Crane area she would cook for the sheepherders and had two sons in Boise, Andres and Carmelo Echanis. Many of the sheepherders wanted a place that they could eat Basque food and stay in a Basque house, so her parents went to Ontario to find a big enough house to make into a boarding house. They found one that used to belong to an attorney on Oregon Street.
5-10:00 The three youngest children (including Josephine) were born after they established the boarding house in 1922 at 115 N. Oregon Street. The house burned down and was rebuilt at the same location in 1930. After the fire, her family lived down the street in a home that belonged to a couple who also owned a funeral parlor. The couple who owned those two places lived in the parlor to make room for them. The Echanis Boarding House included 12 sleeping rooms upstairs, each with a small closet, and one large bathroom and one large closet at the end of the hall used for summer clothes storage. Sometimes they had to double up in the beds if they had more that 12 boarders staying there. Each room had its own dresser and a double bed with a brass frame. The bathroom had a shower, a bath tub, a toilet, and a double sink. The main floor had a dining room that had a small living area for the sheepherders to lounge in. The dining table could hold 35 people. Jack Echanis built the dining room table and benches. The table’s legs could be taken off so that it could be removed from the dining room. The first Basque dance held in Ontario or “the Valley” was staged in the Echanis boarding house dining room. The rest of the main floor was for the family only. There were 5 bedrooms, one for their parents, one for Andres, one for Carmelo “Cam”, one for Josephine, and the last remaining room was for the two younger brothers, Frank and John. There was a large bathroom with a shower for the family only. The kitchen was the main room and that is where the family would have breakfast. Meals would be served at 8 am, noon, and 6pm. The meals would always have a soup, a salad, and some sort of steak or fish.
10-15:00 She continues to talk about the meals that would be served at the boarding house. Roasts were a popular option and her mother would can fruits that would be served at every meal. For breakfast she would cook anything that the sheepherders desired, including eggs, chorizos, or pancakes. If they woke up late they would generally only get cereal, but they would be having lunch, or what she calls dinner soon, so it wasn’t too big of a deal. After eating dinner they would have supper at six. Josephine’s mother would cook on a stove with double ovens and double warmers on top. She would keep food inside the ovens so they would stay warm for the sheepherders. Invited guests would come in to eat at different times. Generally four girls at a time were hired on to help cook, clean, and serve meals. Three of the Yraguen girls, Juanita, Timmy, Marie, and Connie Mendive, and other girls would go there to work at the boarding house. Their reasons for working there was that they could be around other Basque people yet be away from home at the same time. The girls were around 15 or 16 when they came to work at the boarding house.
15-20:00 The girls that would help were paid. It is unknown who went to school or, if any of them did, how long they were in school. Her mother had a garden that would be plowed and fertilized by her father before he went off to sheepherder camp. She would grow peppers, garlic, an apple tree, a pear tree, an apricot tree, and other vegetables. Her mother would can up to a thousand and a half gallons of fruits that would last the whole year. Both of her parents made chorizos in the basement by hanging them up and drying them, then rendering the fat in large crocks, and finally putting the chorizos inside them to preserve them. Years later they would just use a freezer to keep them. There was a fruit room in the basement as well as a room that had bins with sacks of onions and potatoes. In the basement was a coal stove, but was later replaced by a gas stove. A porch was on the front of the house and every parade would go by right in front of the porch and all the herders would sit there to watch. On celebrations like New Year’s and Christmas her mother would make jelly rolls and fix chorizos. They would also dance during these celebrations and her parents would bring in different musicians to play for them. There was an accordion player by the name of Johnny Egurrola, a tambourine player, and Don Bombo (Donato Garatea), who was the spoons player. They had a great time and would do any dance they knew how to do.
20-25:00 Josephine admits she tried to learn how to dance but was not successful. Her mother would get vegetables from the local Japanese resident by the name of Paul Sato in Cairo, Oregon as well as another Japanese individuals who were not named. She would get primarily peppers, onions, potatoes, and pimientos. They were very kind to her and would sometimes deliver the vegetables to the boarding house. Neither party spoke very good English or each other’s language but they somehow managed to get by. For the Fourth of July the family would go on a plane ride with another Basque couple. After that they would travel to Vale, Oregon every year and bring many Basque families over to have a picnic at the park in Vale. During the quiet season for the boarding house her mother would visit many of the Basque families in the area. The topic changes to discussing her siblings, starting oldest to youngest: Andres, Carmelo, Josephine, John, and Frank. The main language in the house was Basque. Her brothers would go out to the sheep camps to work, but the Basque boys wanted to learn to speak English. Josephine went to school in Ontario starting in first grade and graduated from Ontario High School.
25-30:00 Josephine started school at seven years old. She was brought to the house of the doctor who delivered her because the doctor’s wife was a teacher. She was taught the basics, such as the ABCs. All of her other siblings started school at age six. In high school she joined a lot of different clubs but could not participate in many of them due to having to go home to help her mother. Many of the other young girls had left by the time Josephine started helping around the boarding house. She graduated in 1943, and this was during World War II, so all her brothers were gone fighting in the war. With her brothers gone and her mother falling ill she had to stay home instead of continuing on with her education like she wanted to do. Andy was in the Marines, Cam was in the Army Air Force, Johnny was in the Army Infantry, and Frank went into the Navy but the day he was supposed to go overseas the war ended. Johnny was injured in the Pacific Theater. None of the other brothers was injured, however Cam had shrapnel fly over his head into his cockpit while flying which he later sent home to Ontario. Her mother was so upset and ill while her sons were in the military that her hair went completely white. A nurse in Ontario helped take care of her mother while she was sick. When they came back from the war their father threw the brothers a huge party. Their mother did all the cooking. A friend of the family who was in the military and landed in Spain during a mission talked on and on about how nice everyone in the Basque Country was to him and how they cared for him while he was there. The conversation changes to talking about the many boarders who stayed at the boarding house. Patty lists of the names of different borders for any information on them. Patty starts off with the four borders who died in the boarding house. Antonio Alberdi had gotten spotted fever while herding and was brought back to the boarding house to later die of pneumonia.
30-35:00 John Ybarzabal had a heart attack while working in town. Mitchell Olano had cancer and passed away. Baserri (Juan Echevarria) died from a heart attack while sitting down to have breakfast. He was their last boarder and he died while Josephine’s mother was still alive. Today Josephine still takes care of 21 graves that belong to former boarders. She also tends to other graves in different cemeteries. Her mother never took care of the graves because she was too old to by the time they all began passing away. Josephine has taken on that responsibility herself. She did not remember many of the boarder’s actual names as they were referred to by nickname such as “Baserri,” (Juan Echevarria) which was a reference to where he was from. The next person was “Old Grandpa,” or Angel Garechana. He was considered a grandpa to everyone especially because many of the kids Josephine’s age didn’t have a grandfather or their grandfathers were in Spain. Timoteo “Tumba” Goicoechea would help peel fruits and potatoes. “Don Bombo” (Donato Garatea) played with many of the children and would rub his knuckles on their heads. The girls in the house would play tricks on him by putting a mop in his bed and dressing it like a girl. Then he would find out who did it and throw the person into the irrigation ditch nearby. Juan “Kaia” Goicoechea always had a pipe in his mouth and was known for being a teaser. Tony Monasterio was a very religious man. Cecilio Madariaga was a very hungry fellow who would take over the steak cooking when her mother was cooking and after he would eat steak at the boarding house he would go to a restaurant and order another steak. He worked as a logger in the area.
35-40:00 Basilio “Abadino” Aguirre worked with the sheep at Quintana’s and was known for really enjoying celebrations. Miguel “Mike” Gabiola owned and ran sheep in the upper country. Luciano “Bisco” Anchustegui was from the same part of Spain as Josephine’s parents and was one of the best bar tenders in the town. “Mike” and “Simon” Aramburu were also from the same town and polar opposites from each other – one was short, the other tall, one was gentle, and the other different. Claudio and Antonio Muguerza were both sheepherders with her uncle in Crane. Sam Gandarias owned a hide house which was later owned by John Egurrola purchased hides, but also sold army surplus equipment and clothes. A couple guys known as the “Moros” and “Chichero” got too out of hand and were kicked out by her uncle. They were the only ones she remembers who were kicked out. “Moros” went back to Spain and “Chichero” had family in Nevada that he went to stay with. Joe Erquiaga was the uncle to Henriqueta Totoricaguena and was known for being a jolly, pleasant man. Julian “Patacon” Ceniga was a hunter and would take Frank on many hunting trips. When he passed away he gave all of his hunting equipment to Frank. “Pudding” Telleria was a very jolly and pleasant person. “Ranchero” was a good friend of her father and that is all she knows.
40-45:00 Domingo “Txomin” Corta was a gambler yet was a gentle man. He left a picture of himself on the wall when he left for Spain. When Cam and his wife, Lourana “Lou”, went back to Spain, they took the picture back to him and he cried seeing it. Jesus Arija was brought over by her uncle at age 16 or 17 because her uncle could see he was a hard worker. He was a sheepherder and today has a sheep ranch of his own. John Jaca had a wife and a five year old daughter in Spain who he temporarily left there, though they did eventually come to the United States. They started a farm at Lincoln Heights and had a son named Julian Jaca who became a teacher. A guitarist only known by the last name of Muguira (from the McDermitt area) was well-known for his music talents. Three men by the name of Henry (Medina), Louie (Incharbe), and Johnny (Barcena) came from Spain. After a mix-up of where they were supposed to go work, they got a job at the saw mill in Burns, Oregon. They all went back to Spain and married there. Juan (John) and Joe Egurrola were sheepherders in the Vale area.
45-50:00 John Egurrola was the accordion player for the dances held at the house and Joe Egurrola got a job at the Elk Lodge as a bar tender. Joe got the job after the two brothers went back to Spain and brought back their wives. Javier and Tony Gomeza were from Spain and worked in Nyssa, married two women from Nyssa, and raised their families there. Her Mom’s brother, Ignacio Urquiri stayed there as a boarder. Gerardo “Jerry” Diera, they called “Deita” lived at the boarding house for a time. He married and had two daughters that he sent one through college at Oregon State University and the other through Albertson’s college. During lambing season they wouldn’t need as many sheepherders so there would be an influx of people staying in the boarding house. Eventually some found other jobs to support themselves – as bartenders, saw mill workers, or worked in different places besides with the sheep and eventually the sheepherding jobs disappeared. Many considered the boarding house their base of operations and many wouldn’t live in other places as they felt the boarding house fit their life better. They loved Josephine’s mother as if she was their own. Eventually they changed one of the rooms into an apartment for Josephine because she got married and raised her children in the boarding house. She met her husband Charles “Chick” Keim during high school and he joined the service in 1942 to join the 101st Army air-borne paratroopers.
50-55:00 A year after he left the Army they started dating and later got married. At a younger age she would go church but as her mother got busier and busier she could no longer go to church frequently. Her father still went regularly. They would go to Catechism and other celebrations. For eight years Josephine would pick up her kids and other children that went to other schools to take them all to Catechism. They had been married for 59 years before Chick passed away recently at the time of the interview. Chick would go to schools around the area and talk about his experience during the war. He would also show souvenirs he took from the Eagles Nest (Adolf Hitler’s summer home). When he died he was given full military honors at his funeral.
55-60:00 Chick and Josephine’s two brothers, John and Frank, became the founding and charter members of the Elk Lodge. Josephine and Chick had three children named Tom, Mary Jo, and Tony Keim. They have given her seven grandchildren and two great grandchildren. She spent her entire life at the location of the boarding house. The topic changes to what businesses in the area were run or owned by Basque people. Genero Plaza bought the Plaza Tavern and he sold it to his son, Dan, and Josephine’s brother, Frank. Genero and his two sons, Dan and Raymond, went into the slaughter house business. Later Raymond Plaza opened up a candy shop. Pat Echanis, Josephine’s brother’s wife, and Vickie Tuttle, owned a vogue dress shop. Toggery Bills, a clothing store, was owned and managed by Joe Marquina. Sam Gandarias owned Sam’s Hides House, he had hides that people brought in that he sold, and then he sold the business to Juan/John Egurrola, who also sold army surplus clothing and supplies there. Juanita and John Ybarzabal owned a grocery store on Oregon Street. Juanita also owned a restaurant. Carmelo “Cam” Echanis ran the Olympic Beer Distributing Plant, which is now owned older son who has two sons working under him. There was a rivalry with Louie Yturri’s Ontario Cold Storage that he owned for several years.
60-65:00 Louie’s daughter, Yvette Yturri, owned a beauty salon called The Hair Company on the east side of town. Anthony Yturri was an attorney and Josephine believes there was an Arriola girl who worked in Tony Yturri’s office who later became an attorney. John Aldecoa was the first shoe repairman in Ontario. He came from Boise and later married an Ontario girl. John Mendiguren later owned a shoe store called “The Harbor of Lost Soles.” The Big Four Tavern was run by George Yturri but was also operated by Red Herring, his partner. Isidro “Cedro” Ceniga owned a barber shop. Joe Berria, an accountant, would help Josephine’s mother with her taxes. An up-town bar was managed by a Chacartegui. One of the residents of the boarding house was a bartender at a bar called The Antler’s Club. At the Plaza Tavern, there was a Luciano Anchustegui “Bisco” who worked there. Joe Egurrola worked at the Elk’s Lodge as a bartender. Maria and Dan Eiguren owned Maria’s Antiques. The locals seem to have really enjoyed the Basque dances whenever they were held. The first Basque dance was held in the Echanis boarding house. The idea of the dance came from Sara (Uberuaga) Mendiguren, who had come to Ontario from Boise and she was quite a good dancer and a teacher. The Basque club was founded in 1947 at the Echanis boarding house. Only women could be members when the club was formed. Men were allowed to join eventually. The dances were held in different halls such as at the boarding house, the armory, and then out to the Japanese hall because they needed more space, and then the club became bigger, so they moved to the grange hall. They sold chorizos and hot dogs and soft drinks.
65-70:00 They had auctions to sell sheep to help raise money for the club. Eventually, they started having dances at the Cultural Center in Ontario. Josephine was one of the founding members of the Basque club in 1947 and helped raised money for different causes. It was always important that these dances were raising money for a cause in the community. Later there was a scholarship set up to send one kid of Basque decent to college. They would have their meetings at the depot and would have parties and funerals there as well. The boarding house was known for being the Basque center in Ontario for many years. American citizen classes were held at the boarding house and would be taught by Anthony Yturri. A dinner would be held after the class and a non-Basque accordion player would occasionally play for them as entertainment.
70-75:00 Her father did become a citizen but her mother never did. Many of the Basque men wanted to be citizens. Josephine’s mothers was a very jolly person and it seems all the boys enjoyed her. She loved her grandkids, and all the children who were born in the family were taken to her to be examined soon after they were born to check fingers, toes, ears. Josephine’s mother would talk on the phone to her sister, Dominga Pagoaga, who was still in the Basque Country. Neither parent returned to the Basque country. Her father was a gentle and lovable man. He would teach them anything they wanted to know as he was a camp tender. He kept everything at the camp very clean. Josephine learned how to make a lot of food from her mother and would teach her brother how to make chorizos. Cam and Josephine’s daughters learned how to make chorizos from their grandmother.
75-80:00 Some of her favorite things that her mother would cook were tripe, bakalau (cod fish), garbanzo soup, smelt, pork chops, pork steaks, lamb, and pork shanks. The boarders loved playing a game called moose and would play all night. Her mother would invite the women over to play casino on Saturday nights. She says you get to know a lot of people if you stay in one place for a long time.
NAMES AND PLACES
NAMES:
Aguirre, Basilio “Abadino”
Alberdi, Antonio
Aldecoa, John – first shoe repair man in Ontario
Arija, Jesus
Aramburu, “Mike”
Aramburu, “Simon”
Anchustegui, Luciano “Bisco”
Barcena, Juan “Johnny”
Berria, Joe
Ceniga, Julian “Patacon”
Ceniga, Isidro “Cedro”
“Chichero”
Diera, Gerardo “Jerry” “Deita”
Echanis, Andres
Echanis, Ben
Echanis, Carmelo “Cam”
Echanis, Frank
Echanis, Ignacio “Jack”
Echanis, Joe
Echanis, John
Echanis, Josephine
Echanis, Maria Pagoaga
Echevarria, Juan “Baserri”
Egurrola, Joe
Egurrola, Juan/John
Eiguren, Dan
Eiguren, Maria
Erquiaga, Joe
Gabiola, Miguel “Mike”
Gandarias, Sam
Garatea, Donato – “Don Bombo”
Garechana, Angel “Old Grandpa” – boarder at Echanis’
Goccoechea, Timoteo “Tumba”
Goicoechea, Juan”Kaia”
Gomeza, Javier
Gomeza, Tony
Hering, Red
Inchaurbe, Louis “Louie”
Jaca, John
Jaca, Julian
Keim, Charles “Chick”
Keim, Mary Jo
Keim, Tom
Keim, Tony
Madariaga, Cecilio
Marquina, Joe
Medina, Enrique “Henry”
Mendiguren, Sara (Uberuaga)
Mendiguren, John
Mendive, Connie
Monasterio, Tony
“Moros”
Muguerza, Antonio
Muguerza, Claudio
Olano, Mitchell
Pagoaga, Dominga
Plaza, Dan
Plaza, Genaro
Plaza, Raymond
Sato, Paul
Telleria, Jose/Joe – “Pudding”
Totoricaguena, Henriqueta
Tuttle, Vickie (Mendazona)
Urquiri, Andres “Andy”
Urquiri, Ignacio
Toggery Bills – a clothing store in Ontario
Ybarzabal, John
Yraguen, Juanita – worked at Echanis’
Yraguen, Marie – worked at Echanis’
Yraguen, Timmy – worked at Echanis’
Yturri, Anthony
Yturri, Yvette
Yturri, George
Yturri, Louie
PLACES:
Boise, Idaho
Burns, Oregon
Crane, Oregon
Cairo, Oregon
Mutriku, Gipuzkoa
Vale, Oregon
THEMES:
Boarding houses
Business
Children
Citizenship
Clubs and Organizations
Community events
Cooking
Dances
Education
Family
Family relations
Food
Games
Language
Language barrier (towards the Japanese.)
Marriage
Military
Schools
Sheep
Sheep herding
Social events
US army
US marines
US navy
War
Work
Wold War II