TO MINER, FROM GROVER CLEVELAND

----Some stories are so good they become elevated over time, taking on the patina of legend in the retelling and gradually loosing themselves from the fetters of fact.

Such is the legend of Pardee.

At the center of the story is an elegant house overlooking the Clearwater River near Kamiah, and a woman who was rumored to have been the mistress of President Grover Cleveland.

The woman secluded herself in the wilds of Idaho at the turn of the century, the story goes, with a son who was fathered by the president.

The story is widely known in the Clearwater Valley. ''When I was a kid it was all hush-hush,'' said a man who grew up at Kamiah. ''But everybody knew about it. ' '

Descendants of the woman, Frieda Bethmann, have met the rumors largely in silence, some reacting angrily to the hounding of journalists and historians attracted by the tantalizing stories surrounding Pardee.

''They caused quite a lot of discomfort to my father'' and his mother,'' said Bi11 Bethman, a pharmacist at Otbello, Wash., and the grandson of Frieda Bethmann (the family dropped the extra ''n'' in later years). ''But they're just rumors and you can't do anything about them.''

Bethman said he was told his father was the son of a Boston businessman. Frieda Bethmann never married.

Even the family may be in some doubt about the separation between fact and fiction. ''I'm not sure anyone knows the truth, '' said one relative.

But no matter. What is known about Pardee and the Bethmann family from historic records and those who know them is intriguing enough. The lingering mystery only makes the story better.

Pardee was a train stop along the Clearwater River at the turn of the century, on the north side of the river six miles west of Kamiah.

On a knoll above the river was a large house, grand in comparison with most and of an unexpectedly modern design for frontier Idaho.

The house had more than 3,000 square feet of floor space and was surrounded by a wide veranda, a sloping lawn and a profusion of rose bushes. The house was of single-wall construction, built primarily as a summer place, and commanded a fine view of the Clearwater Valley and the river below.

Inside, the rooms on the first floor were arranged around a large, central living room. The ceiling was open for two stories to the roof, and at the peak of the roof was a cupola, with skylights that brought natural light inside the house.

A brass-trimmed staircase rose to the second floor; where the rooms opened from all sides onto a railed balcony overlooking the first floor. Visitors could look down from the balcony into the first floor living area.

Sister M. Alfreda Elsensohn, author of ''Pioneer Days in Idaho County,'' visited the ''Bethmann Lodge'' in 1937 and described it as ''a treasure house.'

It was full of fine furniture, crystal, china, silver, brass, a grand piano, a library of books and display cases full of mementoes from all over the world.

The house was built under the direction of Harry F. Bethmann, a mining engineer from Boston who , came West in 1898. Bethmann spent time in California and in the Coeur d'Alene Mining District before becoming intrigued by the mining prospects in the upper Clearwater Valley while he was working on the Northern Pacific Railroad llne. He purchased a homestead he named the Red Gates Ranch and developed , a mining operation for gold, silver and copper. The office for the Tri-Metalllc Mines still stands on the property.

Bethmann had the elegant house built for the arrival of his mother, Emilie Bethmann, and his sister, Frieda, and her son, Miner. The house design was similar to the Bethmann family home at Boston, called ''The Beehive'' because it was such a busy, social place. The beehive motif was repeated like a family crest on some of the furniture and china in the house. The Bethmann women came west from Boston in about 1910, after the death of the father, Alfred Bethmann. Both Emilie and Alfred Bethmann were from German nobility, superbly educated and wealthy. The family was rumored to be connected to Kaiser Wilhelm, and was in fact related to Theobold Theodor Friedrich Alfred von Bethmann-Hollweg, chancellor of the German Empire during World War I.

The Bethmanns came to the United States in about 1880, when Frieda was a girl. The Bethmann family owned a large sugar manufacturing business in Germany, and Alfred Bethmann established a sugar import business and refinery at Boston, claimed by members of the family to be the first plant of its kind in the United States.

Bill Bethman said he was told his great-grandfather helped develop the sugar cube.

Emilie Bethmann was involved in the kindergarten movement, which had originated in Germany and spread to this country by the late 1800s. She helped establish the first kindergartens at Boston and Washington, D.C., working with Francis Folsom Cleveland, wife of President Grover Cleveland. Some of the materials and charts for the system she developed for kindergarten classes were patented. Frieda Bethmann also spent several years in kindergarten work.

The Bethmanns had an active social life and were ''intimate friends'' of the Clevelands, spending ''much of their time with the chief executive of the land,'' according to the Nov. 12, 1928, obituary of Emilie Bethmann in the Lewiston Banner.

Frieda Bethmann was said to have served as the president's appointment secretary, or governess to the Cleveland's children for a time. But no record could be found that she held either position, and Bill Bethman doesn't recall his father ever telling him his grandmother worked in the White House.

There also seems to be no evidence Cleveland ever visited the Bethmanns, although the president was rumored to have come several times in a special train car that parked on the siding at Pardee.

There are, however, three pieces of correspondence from Frieda Bethmann and one from Emilie Bethmann among Cleveland's personal papers held at the Library of Congress at Washington, D.C. One is a telegram, two are short notes and the third is a chatty, handwritten letter dated Nov. 9, 1892, from Boston.

The letter from Frieda Bethmann to ''My dear Mrs. Cleveland'' offers congratulations on Cleveland's re-election, asks about the Cleveland's baby daughter, Ruth, and talks about a recent trip Frieda and her mother had taken to Europe.

''My mother and I have just returned from a trip of five months abroad and I have come home engaged to Mr. Ernst Hermann of Braunnechweig, Germany, and of course I am very, very happy,'' the letter reads.

The telegram, also from Frieda Bethmann and dated Jan. 7, 1904, and a note dated Jan. 8, 1904, from Emilie Bethmann, both express condolences to the Clevelands for the death of their daughter Ruth.

The last note from Frieda Bethmann, dated 1906, congratulates Cleveland on his birthday. ''My mother, Miner and I send our love and dearest good wishes,'' the note reads, ''and may the coming year bring you health and happiness.'' Cleveland died two years later.

Cleveland, a Democrat, was elected president in 1884 and was defeated in the next election. But he was re-elected in 1892 for another four-year term.

The first time Cleveland was elected, the Democrats had been out of power for more than 20 years and the campaign was one of the bitterest in U.S. history, noted for mudslinging. The accusations made against Cleveland may explain the origins of the rumors about Frieda Bethmann.

''If ever there was a question as to which political vice Americans were more tolerant of sexual philandering or financial corruption the presidential election of 1884 presented a clear choice,'' said Shelley Ross in her book, ''Fall from Grace.''

''On the Democratic side, it was alleged that Grover Cleveland had seduced a widow, fathered her child, refused to marry her and paid her off. On the Republican front, James Blaine was said to have personally profited from his seat in Congress. He had twisted laws and, as speaker of the House, pushed through legislation for his own financial gain.''

''Ma! Ma! Where's my pa?'' Republicans chanted in street rallies during the 1884 campaign.

''Gone to the White House, Ha, ha, ha,'' the Democrats replied.

Cleveland, who was still a bachelor, reacted to the accusations ''in his intimate wisdom,'' according to Ross, by telling the truth. ''While sheriff of Buffalo, (N.Y.), Grover Cleveland had become involved with Maria C. Halpin, director of the cloak and lace department of a Buffalo store,'' Ross said in her book.

''She actually had been seeing several men, but when she had a son in 1874, she claimed Cleveland was the father. Neither she nor Cleveland were certain, but since the other men ... were married, Cleveland willingly accepted responsibility.''

Cleveland later found a prominent New York family to adopt the boy, who grew up to become a respected physician, Ross said. Cleveland also was rumored to have assisted Miner Bethmann, although there seems to be no evidence to support the rumor.

After moving to Idaho, the Bethmann women continued to visit in the East and to travel abroad from time to time. Harry Bethmann's mining ventures never proved lucrative, so he turned to farming. He also served as mayor of Kamiah for a time.

Frieda Bethmann was a frequent visitor at Lewiston and lived in the Lewis-Clark Hotel in her later years. ''Miss Bethmann, until poor health prevented, was hostess at informal social affairs at the hotel,'' said her 1951 obituary in the Lewiston Tribune.

Miner went to school in the East for a time, then returned to Kamiah, where he owned the movie theaters and Kamiah and Kooskia and worked for Potlatch Corp. Some said he bore a strong ressemblance to Cleveland as he grew older. He died in 1982.

The house at Pardee stood empty for many years and eventually became a target for vandals. The house was razed in the 1960s. An auction of furniture and other items from the house was held Oct. 31, 1976. The auctioneer who handled the Bethmann estate said the sale was attended by more than 1,000 people, about half of whom were registered antique dealers from all over the Northwest.

One dealer alone made purchases totaling $6,000 and the auction total ''was in five figures.''

The auction was only publicized regionally, at the family's request. If the auction had been publicized nationally, the sale would have drawn national attention and been in six figures, he said.

Many of the items offered at the sale were ''exceptional,'' including antique furniture from Europe, as many as nine china and corner cabinets full of mementoes and china, much of it with the family crest, silver pieces ''that would knock your eyes out,'' a grand piano and more.

People who attended the auction recalled a number of items that had a Cleveland connection, including a photograph of Francis Cleveland with a message to the Bethmanns.

One that went quickly, almost before the significance of the item had time to sink in, was a small, silver box engraved ''To Miner, from Grover Cleveland, Christmas, 1904.''