Herald and News: Winema portrait on exhibit at museum

    A 1944 portrait of Winema, the Modoc Indian woman who became a local legend in the late 1800s, is now on exhibit at the Klamath County Museum, 1451 Main St.
    The 77-inch-tall portrait, acquired by the museum last month at a cost of nearly $19,000, hung for many years inside the Winema Inn on Main Street.
    The painting was in private ownership for the past several years, and was recently consigned at a downtown antique shop.
    Most of the funds for the purchase were provided by Dr. Bill Bechen, a retired physician and a member of the Klamath County Museum Foundation board of directors.
    Bechen provided his donation in memory of the Bechen and Shive families.
    “Dr. Bechen felt strongly that this beautiful painting deserved to become the property of the people of Klamath Falls,” said Klamath County Museum manager Todd Kepple. “His only request was, should the museum ever close or wish to dispose of the portrait, that it always remain on display in a public building operated by Klamath County.”
    The Klamath County Historical Society contributed $3,000 toward the purchase.
    According to a booklet on the history of the Winema Inn, the idea for creating a large portrait of Winema originated with Merle West, a partowner of the hotel and benefactor of the local hospital. The inn was known as the Hotel Elk at the time, but West planned to rename it after Winema, who was also known as Toby Riddle.
    Winema, sold as a slave at the age of 12, eventually married pioneer settler Frank Riddle. She played a pivotal role as an interpreter and peacemaker between the federal government and several Modoc bands that resisted settlement on the Klamath Indian Reservation.
    Winema died in 1920, but many local businesses and institutions have borne her name, including a national forest created in 1961 from lands formerly in the Klamath Indian Reservation.
    West, along with his partners Andrew Collier and Tom Watters, commissioned a local pastor to create a portrait of Winema. The Rev. Frederick Wissenbach, rector at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in 1944, had already developed a reputation for paintings of Indians in the Northwest.
    Besides his work as a pastor, Wissenbach taught art classes part time at Klamath Union High School. He also painted a mural in the sanctuary of St. Paul’s that remains to this day.
    Wissenbach, a native of Germany, served at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church from 1942 to 1949. He died in 1952 while returning from a trip to the Middle East.
    The portrait of Winema was hung Wednesday in the lobby of the county museum. Admission to the museum lobby is free. The museum is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. It is closed Sunday and Monday.

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