Frank P. Wellman moved to the San Jacinto Mountains in about 1885 and began a cattle ranch in Kenworthy, about 7 miles below today’s Idyllwild.

Everyone said Wellman was a great guy. He was the kind of man who worked the polls on election day and was even elected to the local school board.

However, when Wellman drank, he turned mean very quickly. After imbibing he often threatened to kill people, especially his neighbors and family. Newspaper accounts said Wellman terrorized his mountain neighbors by riding past their homes and shooting into them without warning.

In the summer 1897, Wellman married Clara Arnaiz. The groom was 39 and the bride was 13 or 14, depending on the source. Who knows if Arnaiz’s parents knew the true nature of Wellman? They may have seen him as a well-off man who could provide for their daughter. Or there may have been a more sinister reason behind the wedding. According an article in a San Francisco newspaper, Wellman held a gun on Clara and said he would shoot her if she didn’t go through with the wedding.

The Wellman’s first child, Mary, was born in May 1898. Their second child, James, was born in March 1901. Clara was forced to put up with Wellman’s mean ways when he drank, which was often. But the situation apparently took a particularly ugly turn after their son was born. Wellman claimed the boy was not his and took out his anger on Clara.

Things came to a head on Aug. 4, 1901. Wellman had spent the day terrorizing Clara and the children, threatening to kill them all, and choking the baby multiple times until he turned blue. Wellman shot up the inside of the family home, including putting bullets through his and Clara’s heads in their wedding photo.

Clara and the baby were inside the house and Wellman was outside when the baby began to cry. Wellman started back into the house, calling them vile names.

He threatened to “shut my wind off, and the baby’s too,” Clara later said. Wellman had left his rifle inside on the bed and Clara ran and grabbed it. When she saw her husband getting his knife out of his pocket she pointed the gun at him and fired a shot. Clara had grown up on a ranch and was used to handling guns.

Wellman was killed instantly.

Sheriff Coburn and Coroner Dickson summoned a coroner’s jury of six local men. After testimony by Clara, her father, and other men who had dealt with Wellman and his mean streak, the jury found that Wellman was shot dead by his wife, who acted in self-defense.

According to the Riverside Daily Press, when informed of his son’s death, Wellman’s father Elijah said, “He that lives by the gun, dies by the gun. It was what I had always expected for the past 20 years. He was always ready to pull his gun.”

In October 1902, Clara Wellman remarried a well-known cattle rancher named Joseph Hamilton. He was 45 and she was 20. They had four children together before Joseph died in 1927. They had been married almost 25 years.

Wellman was buried at San Jacinto Cemetery. Wellman Cieniga and Wellman Divide are named for him.

Contact the writer: If you have an idea for a future Back in the Day column about a local historic person, place, or event, contact Steve Lech and Kim Jarrell Johnson at backinthedaype@gmail.com.