Friday, 5 June 2009

Sorry for not posting tonight. We went to a wedding reception and I also helped serve and clean up afterwards. It is the start of a new family. And that is what it is all about.

Maybe I can post double tomorrow.

Ottley Family Homestead - Part II

Picture this home as you read the following. Remember, it is the place where Grandpa Ottley, Frederick Edward Ottley was born and raised.

"As families grow and change, so does the house they inhabit. Memory is selective in all of us. Everyone recalls a time and a place differently. From 1893 when Fred and Abbie Ottley began married life in a two-room log house, to 1927 when they left, 34 years passed away. The time chosen to describe the home is 1910 when all the children were born and were still at home.

Living Room (Front room)

Facing South, the front door opened into what was always called the "front room." Two hug tubs of oleanders bloomed there and facing the entry were narrow, enclosed stairs leading to two upstairs bedrooms. Under the stairs was a "cubby-hole" storage area for laundry and medicines. A mammoth walnut pump organ stood alongside the staircase. It had been ordered from a Sears Roebuck catalog whose packing box was used by the children to play "store." Two windows faced South and East, geraniums growing in pots on the windowsills. Curtains were of starched white lace and dark green pull-down blinds kept the room cool and pleasant in summertime. There was an oblong black heating stove on the East wall whose stovepipe went through the ceiling heating one upstairs bedroom. Along the north was was a wire cot with drop-leaves covered with quilts. This was used for company, as Grandad's resting place and for sick children.

In one corner were wall shelves holding precious plates from England and a white porcelain hen atop a nest. These shelves had fancy napkins placed on them, three per shelf arranged to show a pretty border. Above two doors hung embroidered samplers which said, "Home Sweet Home" and "Welcome." Photographs on the wall in old gilt frames were of Grandad's mother and Granmother's father. In early days log and board walls were covered by a heavy cheesecloth-like fabric called factory. Then "whitewashed" with a lime solution but later beige colored wallpaper was purchased and hung. Ceilings were whitewashed and the paper had a narrow border, usually of flowers where walls and ceiling met.

Wood floors in the front room were covered in carpets made from saved rags. These Grandmother would sew together in long strips and two children would sit beside the sewing machine on the floor -- one to cut threads and the other to wind the lengths into large balls. These would then be sent to Liza Chandler who would weave the carpeting. Grandmother was very creative, often using the children's color crayons to achieve the combination she wanted Liza to make.

Spring housecleaning was a glorious upheaval and meant days of hard work. Bed ticks (mattresses covered in heavy canvas ticking) were filled with fresh straw, pillows with new feathers. Carpets were taken up, cleaned, and new straw placed on the floor. Then the carpets were refastened with tacks over this fresh padding which was wonderful to walk on for a long time. the stove would be taken out by the menfolk to reside in a shed or granary and a tin "plate" painted in a pastoral scene was used to cover the stovepipe opening. Curtains would all be washed, blued, starched, stretched, ironed, and re-hung at just-washed windows.

Pictures of the Reunion T-Shirts

The cost of the shirts is $7.00 each and they are available is 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) 656-5601. 

She will send everyone that submits an order an e-mailed confirmation.  If you don’t receive an e-mailed confirmation of your order --- please resend or call. 

Be It Ever So Humble

Soft hills in the background are covered with blue-gray sagebrush and willow trees marked creeks, one of them Cassia Creek which meanders all through Elba and in to Malta, flowing past what became the second Ottley home in 1927, some 10 miles away.

This house looks peaceful, quiet, and unpeopled. Yet we know that people lived here and long ago it must have looked very different. Between the house and the sheds would have been sounds of busy life as children played, tended to livestock, gathered eggs, chopped wood, sharpened mower knives, or pulled cold buckets of water from the well. Grandma Ottley (Abbie) might be in the garden gathering radishes, onions, peas, or new potatoes for dinner, while Grandpa Ottley (Fred) would be busy on the plow or out in the field.

Grandpa Ottley bought this place, 80 acres, in Elba, Idaho, in 1889 from a man named Sam Wood. It cost $1,000 and the down payment was 25 head of cattle. At the time he was not yet married; four years later he and his new bride came to live here. In the early days, remembered by the older children, the house was a two-room log building, with a dirt roof which leaked, and on which purple flowers grew in the spring. There was a dirt floor later replaced by rough boards. More rooms were added, logs were added to make an attic, and a shingled roof replaced sod. The addition was boards, not log. Grandpa's brother, Edward, (Uncle Ted) came from Utah to help with carpentry work.

A photograph cannot describe the smells of a summer day of barnyard and horses, leather, sagebrush after rain, wild roses, or new-mown hay. Nor can one hear the lazy hum of bees, the sound of robins, meadow larks, killdeer, and sparrows whose nests would be in trees, not seen in an orchard to the south, were planted. There were apples, pears, peaches, and plums, as well as strawberries, raspberries, and currants. The vegetable garden across the road yielded peas, potatoes, squash, onions, carrots, and turnips, some of which were stored in the earthy-smelling cellar at summer's end. Extra food grown was taken to nearby towns to be sold. The fruit cellar held a multi-colored assortment of bottled fruits, jellies, jams, and pickles, all products of long hours of labor over a hot stove on hot days.

At night, bathed in moonlight and shadow, the glow of coal oil lamps would be a bright orange pinpoint of light from windows, and the sounds of crickets, frogs, a hoot owl, or coyotes on the hill would be heard by those venturing out of doors to the outhouse, to do late chores, or arriving home in the horse-drawn buggy.

Another whole landscape is possible, imagining the house in winter, when tree limbs would be bare of leaves and paths through the snow go from the house to barns and sheds. The odor of woodsmoke reminds of warmth by the fire and the house would look altogether different under a blanket of soft white where fences might be completely buried under deep drifts of snow. The silence here would be broken only by the creak of frozen tree branches and the crunch of ice underfoot as one plodded to do chores and tend to restless animals. Children muffled, mittened, and scarved against winter winds would call in voices sharp and clear on the frosty air. In the space between the house and outbuildings there might be a large circle drawn in the snow for playing fox and geese. Older children might be just returning from Parishes hill, pulling homemade sleds.

Nine children were raised here. By 1904 there was a kitchen, living room (front) and bedroom downstairs, and enclosed stairs led to two bedrooms above, one for the boys and one for the girls. Life was good to the family who grew up here. Their lives were enriched by many happy, shared memories through the years. The house, empty of voices now for long years, has fallen into disuse and no longer looks like the one in a photograph which hung on the wall for years, taken by an itinerant photographer. Yet the place lives still in the hearts and minds of the brothers and sisters who called it home.

Moving into the 20th Century

Around 1888 John Darrington donated land for a Relief Society building. It was made of red brick and is still in use (1984) across from the Church house. Local women raised funds from projects ranging from selling eggs and butter to holding box socials. The building was dedicated in 1902. Sophia Ottley was the first president. In 1876, Brigham Young requested the Relief Society women to undertake a grain storage project. Granaries were built and the congregation saved whatever they could spare in specially made bins. During World War I this supply was sold and the money placed in the Burley State Bank. Unfortunately, the bank went broke and the Relief Society sisters were $600 out of savings. The little one room building has undergone some change through the years...it has a different entrance, a new fence, a fireplace, and has been wired for electricity, all financed by persons in the community.

During WWI fifteen men from Elba went into their country's service and there were fifty-eight enlisted boys and girls serving in WWII. Two were killed in action.

In November 1940, the Rural Electric Association brought electricity to Elba, Almo, and Malta, and coal oil lamps were no more. This modernization revolutionalized living for most residents, bringing lights, new style washing machines, refrigeration, and electric cookstoves.

Elba's cemetery lies East of town in a fenced area surrounded by sagebrush. When Etta Hull remarked once to her mother how forlorn and desolate it seemed to be buried there, Abbie said, "I can't think of a more beautiful sight on resurrection morning than to see this valley and these mountains." It has become the final resting place for many Ottleys and their friends and neighbors.

Abbie passed away May 22, 1952 and was buried in the Elba Cemetery.

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.