The Mt. Adams Sun, Bingen, WA., September 12, 1945, page 1

FUNERAL SERVICES FOR FRANK GROSHONG SUNDAY AFTERNOON

     Funeral services for Frank Groshong, aged White Salmon resident, who died Monday at the White Salmon hospital, will be held Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. at the Gardner funeral home in White Salmon. Interment will be in the Oddfellows cemetery.
     Mr. Groshong suffered a stroke on Labor Day from which he never recovered.

The Enterprise, White Salmon, WA., September 21, 1945, page 1

GROSHONG FUNERAL NEXT SUNDAY

     Funeral services for Frank Groshong, who passed away Monday morning will be held Sunday at Gardner's chapel at 2 p.m. with interment in the Odd Fellows cemetery.
     Frank Groshong was one of the early settlers, coming here in 1888. He was born in Iowa July 9, 1888 and was 86 years of age. He homesteaded here 56 years ago and was a blacksmith by trade and operated a shop here until a few years ago.
     Funeral services were set for Sunday, awaiting the arrival of his grandson, Sgt. Martin Hedman, from Texas.
     Obituary will appear in next week.
 

 The Enterprise, White Salmon, WA., September 28, 1945, page 3

FRANK GROSHONG, PIONEER, LAID TO REST SUNDAY

     Funeral services were held Sunday at the local funeral parlors for Frank Pierce Groshong, who passed away Monday, September 17, at the West Klickitat hospital after a lingering illness at the age of 86 years.
     He was born July 9, 1859 in Humboldt county, Iowa, was married to Sarah Devalld, May 10, 1881.  They came to White Salmon in the fall of 1888 and he made his home here the past 57 years.  He was a blacksmith by trade and operated a shop in White Salmon until a few years ago, retiring because of ill health.
     Frank Groshong was one of the early settlers and his “smithy shop” for many years was one of the central places of business in this section.  He was one of the town's most respected citizens and a host of friends mourn his passing.
     He is survived by two daughters, Margaret Lord, of Los Angeles, and Electa Emstrum, of White Salmon; a son, Fred Groshong, of Woodland, Washington; three brothers: Judge A. B. Groshong, of White Salmon; Hood Groshong, of Huntington, Oregon, and Joe Groshong, of Trout Lake, Washington; five grandchildren, Lt. Helen Groshong, army nurse; Jim Groshong, serving in the coast guards, Margaret Joy, Maxine Johnson, SSgt. Martin Hedman, U.S. army.
     Internment was in the White Salmon I.O.O.F. cemetery, the Masonic order conducting the committal service.

 The Enterprise, White Salmon, WA., September 28, 1945, page 3

IN MEMORY OF THE BLACKSMITH AND THE AGED BROTHER, FRANK GROSHONG

     The walls of many Masonic lodges are graced with a beautiful steel engraving depicting the Hebrew legend of King Solomon and the Iron Worker.  The legend of the smith is one of great antiquity, as it can be recognized in the mythology and folklore of India, Greece and Rome, as well as in the tales of Scandinavian and Teutonic origin.  According to the Rabbinical tradition , King Solomon prepared a feast for the chief craftsman and artificers who had labored on the newly completed Temple.  The throne of the king was on a raised dais facing the head of the table; at his right hand was a seat of honor for that craftsman who might be pronounced most worthy among all who had wrought on the famous structure.  The legend goes on:
     “And when all was ready, he called unto him his chief architects and master overseers, and the head –artificiers who were cunning workers in gold and silver, and bronze and ivory, and wood and stone, yea,  all who had labored in building the Temple of the Most High, and he said unto them, -- ‘Come now with me and partake of the feast which I have prepared.  Stretch forth your hands; eat, drink and be merry.  The skillful artificer is worthy of honor.  Is not the laborer worthy of his hire?  Muzzle not the ox that treadeth out the corn upon the threshing-floor.’
     “And when Solomon and his guests had arrived at the place of the feast they beheld a man, clad in the garb and covered with the soil of labor, seated in the chair of honor not yet awarded.  And the king waxed wroth, and said, ‘What manner of man art thou?  Why comest thou thus unseemingly and unbidden to our feast, where none are invited save the chief workers on the temple?’ And the man answered and said,’ Please you, I came not unbidden.  Was it not proclaimed that this day the chief workmen of the Temple dined with the king?  Therefore am I come.’
     “And when the man had thus spoken, the guests talked with each other and he who carved the cheruhim spake aloud and said, ‘This fellow is no sculptor.  I know him not.’ And he who inlaid the roof with pure gold said ‘Neither is he of those who work in refined metals.’ And he who wrought in raising the walls said, ‘He belongs not with those who are cutters of stone.’ And one who labored in shaping the timbers for the roof said, “We who are cunning in cedar wood, and know the mystery of joining strange timbers together, know him not.  He is not of us.’
     “Then said King Solomon, ‘How sayest that thou now?  Wherefore should I not have thee plucked by the beard, courged with a scourge and stoned with stones, even unto death? ‘ But the man was nowise daunted, and he rose from the seat and came to where the wine was set, and took a cup of the wine and raised it high and spake aloud, saying, ‘O, king! live forever!’ He then drank long until the cup was emptied.
     “He now returned to the seat and spake to the guests who had rebuked him, and said unto the chief of the carvers in stone, ‘Who made the instruments with which you carve?  And he answered, ‘The Blacksmith.,’ And to the chief of workers in wood he said,’ Who made the tools with which you felled the cedars of Lebanon, and shaped the them into pillars and roof for the Temple?’ And he also answered, ‘The Blacksmith.’ Then he spake unto the artificer in gold and ivory and precious stones, saying, ‘Who fashioned the instruments with which you wrought beautiful ornaments for my lord the king!’ And he too made answer the same, ‘The Blacksmith.’
     ‘Then said the man to Solomon, ‘Behold, O king!  I am he whom, when men deride, they call Blacksmith, but when they would honor me, they call me Son of the Forge.  These craftsmen say truly that I am not of them.  I am their superior.  Without my labor first, their labor could not be.  The great Tubal Cain, who are all men honor, taught those who in turn taught me my handicraft, and the mighty Vulcan, who wrought in fire and smoke and sweat, as I do, was it not deemed he should have even the Queen of Beauty to wife?’
     “’Son of the forge,’ said Salomon, ‘I, too, honor thee, thou worthy successor of the great master, Tubal Cain.  Take thou this seat at my right hand prepared for the most worthy.  It is thy due. ‘Thus it came to pass at the feast of Solomon, the wise king of Israel, and from that time forth the smiths were held in high esteem, and greatly increased and multiplied in all lands.” -- Contributed by Judge A. B. Groshong.

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©  Jeffrey L. Elmer