Making a Living in Elba

Robert Parish owned and operated the first store in Elba about 1884. It was a one-room portion of his home. Freight was hauled from Kelton, Utah, from Central Pacific railroad then by wagon team. In these days thousands of wagons passed between Albion, Elba, and Malta to Kelton, drawn by oxen, mules, and horses. The first mercantile store was a frame building owned by Thomas Taylor and George Hadfield. This was later replaced by a brick building, the Roy Eames Mercantile. freight was now hauled from Burley by truck. J. Roy Eames was owner of the Elba store except for a brief, unsuccessful ownership when the store was closed. It has since burned and only a handful of bricks mark the spot. Elba's first telephone was at the store where messages would arrive to be passed on to concerned parties. By 1917, a few families were connected to a telephone line installed be the Forest Service connecting Albion and Cold Spring Creek. Later a system in Elba using wall phones and a switchboard at the Edward Darrington home was used, with most calls going through an operator. It was a party line and neighbors often listened to keep abreast of the latest news. Homes were reached by a series of rings - longs and shorts - accomplished using a crank handle. The earliest telephones were battery-operated wall phones.

The first threshing machine was owned by John Darrington and Moroni Beecher and Robert Parish, arriving in 1892. These were horse powered machines using twelve head of horses. There were six sweeps spaced evenly around it. The horses were hitched to the sweeps and tied in such a way that they went around and around in a circle all day. In the center of this "horsepower" was a platform where a man stood with a whip in his hand to keep the horses on a uniform slow walk. A huge tumbling rod went from the power to the threshing machine. This transferred the power to the thresher and ran the gears that threshed the grain heads as the bundles of grain were fed into the machine. Six men operated this, one to drive horses, one to sack the grain as it came out of the auger into a one-half bushel container, one to cut the bands on the bundle, and one to feed bundles into the machine. The last two men were spelled off by the two extra men.

Grain was cut with binders. the grain was bound in stringed bundles and these were stacked eight or more in a group in what was called a shock. These were stacked all over the field of cut grain. When the straw was completely dried they were hauled and stacked in some centrally located place. the stacks were round and tapered at the top to shed rain. Besides the six machine men two were needed to stack the straw as it was blown out of the machine. Then the grain was hauled to granaries in wagons.

A threshing crew coming to a farm was a major event. Everyone worked fast and hard. The crews usually stayed about three days and it was up to the women to see that they were well fed during their stay. Later with the advent of gas engines, they were owned and operated by Joe Savage and Charley Ottley. A "feeder" on a crew had to be very skilled and careful as it was easy to get one's hands in the way of the machine's blades. Accidents were common.

The Mormons Come to Elba - 1881

Of course, there were members of the LDS Church in Elba prior to 1881, but in that year a meeting was called to organize a branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Elba. James Cole was chosen presiding Elder with John Osterhout and Reuben Beecher assistants. In 1887, the Elba Ward was organized in the Cassia Stake, as well as the Relief Society. The Church headquarters were in Oakley. Plans were soon underway for a church building. Peter Henry Ottley wrote again to his brother telling him that the brethren had hauled rocks and had the walls up for a 30 x 60 foot building. He asked if his brother might have an idea what it would cost for shingles and nails to roof it. The granite church was two stories high with walls 30 inches thick, plaster covered. It was all hand labor. An outside stair led to the hall where dances, basketball games, and socials were held. It was heated in winter time by a pot-bellied stove in the center of the room. Eventually a basement was dug under the stage and classrooms were also added. Many years later this old building underwent remodeling and is incorporated into the present Elba Church house.

In 1896 when the first church house was completed, Fred and Abigail Ottley had been married for three years, so it is likely they were part of the building, and certainly among the earliest to attend services.

A third school was built in the upper part of Elba valley because the large number of children there had too great a distance to travel to get to classes at the other schools. This school was upper district #26 and Emma Williams was the first teacher, receiving a salary of $36.00 per month. She paid $10.00 for board, room, laundry, and the term was three months long in summer. In 1900 a brick school was built to replace the second log building in the center of the village. This was district #8. It had two rooms connected by a hallway and a small stair led to rooms on the second floor. There was a bell which rang at class time and the children from lower grades lined up on the south side and upper grades on the north and both marched to their rooms. This building was replaced by another brick edifice in 1926 and a short time later the three schools were consolidated into District #1. Eight grades were taught and for a short time two grades of high school. Many children went to Albion for high school.

The LDS Church forms the backbone of activity in the community in early days. It is there that all social activities take place, religious ceremonies, community meetings, and funerals.

Horse and foot races and ball games were the mainstay of early celebrations and recreation. These were held in someone's field or on the road in front of the Church. Across the road Nevin McFarland operated a refreshment stand offering candy, fireworks, and drinks at his home. In 1913 a community effort was launched to purchase five acres of land for a park, costing $600 and purchased from Dan Savage. This has been improved and maintained to the present day and is a popular gathering place for miles around for Church functions, family reunions, and service gatherings. For some years a community fair was held at Elba Park with exhibits of all types, a rodeo, races, contests, and concessions. The rodeo stock, rounded up from the range by local cowboys, was wild enough to provide thrills as well as prize money. The fair usually culminated in a dance and Glen Bates Orchestra from Twin Falls was the featured attraction.

Family Reunion T-Shirts Available to Order - $7.00 each

We will have reunion shirts that will be available to purchase for the reunion.

 

Orders need to be gathered by June 15 so that they can be printed by the reunion. 

The cost of the shirts is $7.00 each and they are available in Youth and Adult Sizes.

 

Youth XS (2-4) S (6-8) M (10-12) L (14-16)

Adult Women’s S-XL

Adult Men’s (S-6XL)

 

Please have the orders sent to Julia Layton at JuliaL@amazingscreenprinting.com or phoned in to her at (801) 656-6501. 

Everyone who submits an order and should receive an e-mail confirmation.  If you don’t receive an e-mailed confirmation of your order --- then please resend or re-call. 

Elba History - from "Looking Back - a Memoir" by Thirza Hull Bruesch

Much of this is transcribed from tapes belonging to Thirza Bruesch. Grandpa Ottley grew up and lived in Elba for a great portion of his life. This will be a good way to learn more about him.

"The town of Elba is really a village, a cluster of houses near the schoolhouse, church, old store, and the post office. The town snuggles up to the broad base of 10,000 ft. Mt. Independence which rises in solitary splendor from the valley floor. Spring thaws melt the cap of snow on the mountain top sending rivulets of icy water down creeks to thirsty farms below, flowing into Cassia Creek on its way to join Raft River, then on into the Snake.

Three theories account for the name Cassia, on whose headwaters Elba is situated. Some say the name came from a plant found along the stream banks by Hudson Bay trappers. Another is that it may be a French peasant word, Cajeaux, a synonym for raft. Others say it was named for an early explorer. In any case, Cassia is the name Elba has become synonymous with and the name of the county which separated from Owyhee county in 1879.

Elba extends about ten miles East and West and about five miles North and South in length. It is 5,000 feet above sea level and Mt. Harrison forms the Northwest boundary. The valley is lush and green in the springtime and spreads from thick scrub mahogany trees at the base of the mountains. Gray-green sagebrush dots rocky hillsides above the farms and coyotes yip as shadows begin on the East hills. The air is clean and fresh and deer, rabbits, rockchucks, and grouse abound. There are also rattlesnakes, mosquitoes, and woodticks..... Lombardy poplars, box elders, elms, and pine tress grow around houses and along lanes. The town is semi-secluded, not located on a main highway and manages a sense of time standing still as if one hand stepped back into another era.

First known as Beecherville in honor of the large number of Beechers who settled here, the town officially became Elba at the suggestion of Charles Cobb of Albion, named for the town in the Mediterranean Sea where Napoleon resided for a time. The first comers to Cassia Creek were ranchers who grazed large herds of cattle in the summertime, feeling that winters were much too harsh for living year round. In 1871 John Shirley and Andrew Sweetzer from California grazed as many as 5,000 head of cattle, but by 1873, settlers began to arrive and the ranchers moved out leaving them free access. Ransome Beecher was the first local dentist, doctor, carpenter, and shoemaker. His wife, Sophia Wheeler was the first school teacher. Beechers were followed by the Rices and the Drakes, all of whom built log houses, cleared land, planted grain, and put up hay from wild meadow grass. Oats were the first crop harvested by hand.

In 1883, a post office was operating in Elba with Charles Brewerton as the first Postmaster and Thomas Taylor mail carrier. By 1875, many settlers had found their way to Elba, taking up homesites along the streams and cultivating the land in earnest. Many were Mormon pioneers from Utah. The first schoolhouse was erected in 1875 and church meetings were also held here. This was the second school built in Cassia County. The first was in Albion. On one occasion the local citizenry had been warned to expect an Indian attack. Women and children were placed in the school for safety and men, holding guns ready, watched all night. Later, they learned that the scare was the mischief of a group of cowboys at Oakley playing a trick on another cowboy.

Indians were occasionally a nuisance, but for the most part were peaceful, interested in trading pinenuts for food. Peter Henry Ottley wrote in a letter to his brother in England that they (the Indians) were camped above his place and had "some nerve" because they would walk into the house without knocking, looking for something to eat.

With settlers moving into the valley now numbering nearly fifty families, another school was built to accommodate the increase in children. This structure was built on the East side of the lot where the present school (now unused) stands, the latter built of brick."

More tomorrow........