Gresham Historical Society · Northwest Digital Heritage

Description

Black and white photo of Frank Escobar's home at 33 N.W. 1st St in Gresham. The house is a very small, single-story, wooden frame structure with a row of rose bushes in front and trees at the back. The road in front (1st Street) is unpaved. A man, likely Frank Escobar, is sitting in a chair next to the porch.. People identified: Escobar, Frank

Provenance

Frank Escobar (1860-1948) was a mysterious and charismatic figure in early Gresham. He moved from Monterey, California, where his family had lived since before it became part of the United States. He never spoke about his past. Escobar never married, but locals recalled that he was known to flirt with “schoolmarms and widows.” His handyman skills made him an invaluable partner of Dr. Joseph Short, Gresham’s only medical doctor; Escobar installed the town’s first indoor plumbing system in Dr. Short’s house – essentially an indoor water tower in the Short family’s attic. His own home was not plumbed until city code required it; later, he used his indoor bathroom to store firewood. Escobar tended White Birch Cemetery, the small graveyard behind West Gresham Elementary where people with no family or who could not afford a proper burial were interred, many in unmarked graves. Gresham’s cemeteries were segregated at the time, and this was also where Japanese families buried their dead. Dr. Short’s daughter Dorothea Gilmore recalled Escobar as a lover of nature who taught her and her sister to love bugs and snakes; something of an eccentric, he also talked to trees and animals. Those who knew him described him as a “gentleman in laborer’s clothes.” He saved half of all the paychecks he received and died leaving $28,000 and no will.

Frank Escobar House

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