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HomeMy Public PortalAboutLaFay, FannySubject: LaFa 5 Fanny Address: New -Meadows , Idaho Date: Pace March 25, 1976 4 5 6 7 8 10 16 20 23 25 26 Born in Colorado-1892 Home at New Meadows Ira and Jenny Irwin Ed Clark Round Valley Hotel Children Drug Store in McCall, New Meadows Owned by Gene LaFay French name-LaFay Grade School at Old Meadows Minnie Dryden (Clay) Hotel -Heigh ho House Col. Heighho's family Stores and saloons at old Meadows Hotel ran by Mrs. Agee Railroad in 1911 Yoakum Hot Springs Dan McRaels townsite Bank at New Meadows -Lee Highley John Kimbrough Andy and Sam Mitchell Church at Meadows RELEASr OV TAPES TO IDAHO BICENTENNIAL commissioNS aii,'?L HISTORY PROJECT hereby Live and grant to the Idaho State Historical Society and the Idaho Bicentennial Commission as a donation for such scholarly and educational purposes as the Idaho Historical_ Society and the Idaho Bicenti.nnial Commission shalt dcterm,ine, .the tape recordings made .today, and all literary right's therein. (-) / (si.gned) (-.•i tness) Fenny LaFay with Joe Bennett and Doug Jones March 25, 1976 Page 1 "Todays' date is March 25, 1976. This is a conversation being taped between Mr. Joe*Bennett and Mrs. Fanny LaFay. We are visiting at Mrs. Lafay's residence in New Meadows. TW time now is approximately 9:00." E "Car you tell us where you were born?" ANNY "Colorado Springs, Colorado." E Vhat year was that?" ANNY "1892, wasn't it? I think so, I'm eighty some years old now. Would that make it?" JOE "Yeah, that would be about right." ,�aYY "I think I'll be eighty-four my next birthday." JOE "Do you know where your folks come from to Colorado? Where they were raised." FANNY "My father was born and raised in England. Re's an Englishman. My mother I can't say where she was born but I think she was born there in Colorado. But I'm not gonna say, cause I'm not sure. That's where we were all raised." JOE Nere they married there in Colorado?" FANNY "I could say in Colorado Springs there." 40E "They probably came out there during the gold rush." OAt+TNY "Evidently. Then we moved from Colorado Springs out to Cripple Creek, That was when that big rush was on, too. We didn't move to Cripple Creek but we moved to a little town five mites from Cripple Creek called Gilette. We had a livery stable there. Of course, all the tourists from all over the country would Page 2 FANNY "come there and he would take them to Pike's Peak." JOE "Did you go to school there?" FANNY "Yes" JOE "Did they just have.a grade school?" FANNY "At that time it seems like to me it was all in one building. We didn't have a seperate high school. It seems like to me there was the ninth and tenth grade in that same building." 'JOE "How many children did your folds have?" (FANNY "We had three girls and a set of twins, a girl and a boy." JOE "Did you grow up there in Cripple Creek, I mean Gilette?" FANNY "Yes" IiJOE 'Was you married there. FANNY "No, I was married in Weiser." JOE "Then did your folks leave?" FANNY "They left Gilette and we traded properties and we went to Fruita, Colorado. We moved over there. That's all fruit. I came from there. That's where I met my husband. They had a barber shop there, he was a barber and his father was a barber. His dad wanted to leave there and started out to find a place. He came up to McCall and he thought he'd like they mountains again. He'd been used to the mountains and hunting deer and stuff. Then he bought that up there. About that time the new town started and we came. I never did live in McCall, myself." JOE "Did the LaFay's have.a farm out here? In Meadows." Page 3 "We did. Three years to the day, we went into the sheep business and went broke. So we had to move back to town and back to the barber shop. You • remember how things were in those days. We had this nice little ranch and we went into the sheep business. About the time we was making a Little money that war ended just like that. Then we had all that wool in the wool sheds down there for over a year before we could even sell them. We cane out ofr. the sheep business and we lost the ranch and we come back. This little new town was starting then. So we built a barber shop. The folks lived in this house was moving out. They didn't want to live here anymore. So we `sat just lucky to get this nice home. We've been here ever since." "Do you know who owned the ranch before you did? Did some of the Arvin's live down there then?" FANNY "Yes, Ira irwin and Jenny lived right just below us. They had that saw mill. Ed Clark was on this side of us." JOE "Be had two boys didn't he? One of them was a game warden. Was one of the boys' name Fred?" FANNY "That's differenty. Fred Clark and Albert Clark they lived next door when we moved to town. But this other man was Ed Clark and she used to teach school, I think. I don't know just where he did come from. I don't think they were related to these other Clark's at all." JOE Irwin that man that was running than saw mill. Were you living down there when that man got cut in the saw?" Page 4 ANNY "Yeah" E "Mark Woods, he was a fella from Long Valley. I think they took him to Weiser and he died before they got, there. I think the saw cut him pret'near in two. Who was itame of your other neighbors down there?" FANNY "The Clark's was this side and the Delbar's were up above there. Then the Irwin's lived mown below us. What uas that lads' name that run the Round Valley Inn?" JOE "Was that called the Round Valley motel at that time? When did they start calling it The Black Bear Inn?" IFARNY "Well, that was the name of the place. I don't know when they started wither. That was a half -way house kind of between the lower country and New Meadows. Especially in ba& weather. There was quite a hotel these at one time." DOUC "Where was that located?" JOE "Located right down there in Round Valley." FANNY '"Yeah, the old road ,`used to go right past it. Now the highway goes down and on Ahis side of it this way. Before we went up and around that little hill and stopped at Round Valley and come back across the flat. But when the highway want, it went straight through." JOTS "The hotel was on the other side of the river." 'FANNY "If you know where to turn there's still a road there. But the hotel is gone. I think the Campbell's own all that back in there now, don't they?" JOE "I think so. Did the snow get pretty deep down there where you were?" FANNY "Yes" JOE "Did you try to winter your sheep in the valley or did you take them down on Page 5 E "the river?" AMY JOE FANNY JOE FANNY �JE LAY "I believe we wintered them right there on the ranch. We had the sheep sheds tbbre=i.ill tight. Yes, because my husband would say he had to go feed. That was before the highway went in. We had plenty of hay land then. When the highway went in it cut it out. It took the very best of the Delbar's and the Erwin's and us, it just took the very best land we had." "Roberts owns that place now, I believe." "I thought Marren Brown owned all that stuff." "I think he owns just up to that place. How many children did you have?" "Four boys." "Where were they born at?" "Everyone of them was born right here in the valley. Lamoine was born over here in old town. I guess Milton was born in old town, too. It was Bill that was born on the ranch down these and Gene was born here in this house." JOE "Gene's the youngest." FANNY "Yeah, Gene's the druggist." JOE "Did any of them ::get to be barbers?" FANNY "Just Bud. Lamoine can barber but he never had to go to barber school. He learned how to from his father. Bud come along and he had to go to school. Lamoine said to Gene one day, he named several businesses and he said, 'Now that you're out of school why don't you take something.' and Gene chose druggist." JOE "Where is he at now; Fanny?" FANNY "He's down at Ontario a few days. They wanted him down there for a few days. He wanted me to go with him but I told him I didn't know anybody down there and Page 6 "I'd rather stay home if he didn't care. He got him a little apartment and he's going to retire for awhile." E "He run the drug store here in Meadows for quite a while, didn't he?" ANNY "Yes, he had a drug store in McCall, and I think down in Meridian and here in New Meadows and Council. He don't own a drug store anymore." JOE "How much family did your husband have? How many children was in his family?" FANNY "There was seven of them that I know of." JOE "Were they all AN:sys?" FANNY "No, they were part girls." JOE "Where did he come from?" FANNY "I guess North Dakota. That's all I can remember is North Dakota g JOE "He had a brother that was a barber." FANNY "Yeah, Bert was a barber." JOE "That did Clarence's father do? Was he a barber?" FANNY "Yes, he was a barber, too." JOE "Is LaFay a French name?" iFANNY "Yes it is. Our really truly name is LaFay. Capital L-a, capital F-a-v. When dad LaFay was in Colorado they got to calling him LaFay. We were married by LaFay and I didn't knowlte.mame was LaFav until after we were married. I'll ' tell you when I found it out was ithen Mbther LaFay come to visit us. And one day whe wrote her name and I said, '"Is that how we spell out name?' and she Page 7 1 ANNY "said, 'Really Fanny that's the way it is.' . They were divorced you see and she never did know why. I'd rather have it LaFav 'cause it's a real French name. Dad LaFav was half French and half something else. I forget what he was. Then Mother LaFav was full-blooded. She'd talk French just as fast as you and I can talk. . She was a darlin g lady." ." JOE "Was she dark-haired?" FANNY "Yes, oh very dark. Her skin was dark." JOE "What nationality was your folks?" FANNY "My dad was born in England, a little place not far from London. My grandmother was true Pennsylvania Dutch I think. But mother was full-blooded French." "Was the boys enough old enou h to go to school out there on the ranch?" [LNNY "They went to Round Valley. They had a little school down in Round Valley. Lamoine would ride his little pony to school every day. Once in a while he'd walk." JOE "Did they have a high school here tit Meadows when you moved here?" ( FANNY "No, it was built since then. They had just a grade school at old Meadows and then they had just the grade school there." JOE "Did the boys go to high school here?" .FANNY "Yeah, they all graduated from high school and Lamoine he had two years of college." JOE "Where is he at now?" FANNY "He's in Arizona. They'll be up to see me this summer. He called me the other day and he wanted to know how much snow we had. He said he'd try to be up • • Page 8 ANNY "around May. He spent the summer with me, last summer and the year before." E "Can you tell us something about the other early settlers here in the valley?" ANNY "The only one left is Minnie Clay over in old town. Minnie Dryden, her maiden name was Minnie Clay. She married Howard Dryden and they was the ones that were at the livery stable down there. Of course, the Campbell's and the Osbornes. I wasn't a native here and I think some of those people were born here. Like Rollie and Albert I'm quite sure. And Osbornes, of course, was born here. When they had that Indian raid do you remember?" JOE "Yeah" FANNY "She was down there. .." END OF SIDE ONE FANNY "And Mrs. Clay was here." JOE "She was married to Mr. Osborne, Mrs. Clay was. After Osborne was killed she married Clay." FANNY "No, Minnie Clay and Henry Clay.. .Eddy Osborne..." JOE "It was Eddy's dad that got killed by the Indians, wasn't it?" MANNY "Well, maybe he did, too. I kind of forget to get that mixed up, all of them. But I know they were the early settlers and they was all mixed with that darn Indian. They lived down there on the river more than they did, they • homesteaded up here, didn't they? Isn't that what they come for?" JOE "Yeah, they come up here and homesteaded." FANNY "Minnie Clay and Eddy Osborne had the same mother but they didn't have the same • • Page 9 'ANNY "father. Mr. Osborne was killed in this Indian raid, wasn't that it?" 1E "Yeah, and she married Mr. Clay then. I'd like to get Warren to make a tape. And Mrs. Dryden." -ANNY "Wouldn't that be nice? I don't see Minnie very often. Minnie don't stay here in the wintertime anymore. I think she goes down on the coast some where." JOE "I was just wondering how her health was." FANNY "Well, I think her health might be about like mine. Outside of a cold or something I never hear of her being sick. I think she has very good health. I don't know if hhe's older than I. I think we're about the same age. When I come here I was eighteen and she used to ride out on the cutest dale gray horse to the school down at middle district. She taught there. She'd go past every day. I didn't see her go to school but I'd see her come home from school." , }E "How long did Clarence barber here?" FANNY "Well, all the years we were here. No, I take it back. We got three years on the ranching business. Then we came back to the barber shop. That was about the time the new town started here real good." 3pE "You were living here when the town started, were you?" FANNY "We lived in old town. We were the first ones to move down. Tp that little house across the street. We moved the back end of that down, we just had the -�,r one room when we first married. Then we built on to that. That used to be out Page 10 ANNY "home." JOE "Can you tell us something about the big hotel that was here?" FANNY "I watched that being built every day. It and the.depot and the Heigho House." JDE "That's quite a hotel." FANNY '10h gracious, I tell you. I wash t the only one, there was one, or more than one person that just balled. We we nt over there and just stood there and watched that thing burn down. Now, if that wasn't something. All of us just cried. That was the nicest hotel you ever saw. This Heigho House, their home now, is a duplicate of this hotel, only much smaller. You go in the front door and there's a men's parlor and there was the ladies' parlor. There was a big dining room and a big kitchen. The went beautiful." g g stairway w nt u Oh, it was beautiful E y P I .> "How many stories did that have? Was it three stories?" FANNY "No, it wasn't three stories' It was two and a half. Because all the help and servants stayed clear up in the attic. Everybody that worked for the hotel stayed right in it." JOE "They had:'kdind of a celebrated cook there too, didn't they?" FANNY "Yeah, at one time they did." 30E "Did they hold dances there, too." FANNY "Especially holidays." JOE "I remember it had a big portico, or whatever you call it, reached out and had the big columns. You could get out of your buggy without getting rained on." FANNY "That's right. Along outside the street, that was three four blocks, that was the park. A nice park with trees and lawn and pretty things. For some reason he never developed that. I can't give a reason for that. You go down • Page 11 ANNY "the street this way and then you cut across there if you want to or you go on down to the depot and go around. That's the way it=was at the hotel. This down the middle here was all the lawn. There wasn't to be any buildings on there at all. They had to be on this side or on the other side of town. I think that's One reason that for where the Odd Fellows Hall is now and the post office and the bank used to be. See the bank underneath. I think that's one reason aeon they put:.it over there. On account of that other was supposed to be a park. Do you understand?" JOE "Just where did the hotel set? FANNY "Do you know where the service station is up here?" JOE "Yeah" FANNY "And the service station that was right, straight across the road. Now there's a gas station on all four corners." JOE "The road came in from the south then." FANNY "Yeah, they had it fixed so that it was very nicely landscaped." JOE "I know it was a celebrated hotel all over the country. I'd forgotten just about how it was like." DOUG "You said that as you went through the door there was a men's parlor on one side and the ladies' parlor on the other side." 1 FANNY "That's right." DOUG "Then did you walk into the lobby?" Page 12 FANNY "Yeah, it was a big lobby. Land yes, the lobby was, seems like it was as big as this room or bigger. When you went into the right side there was a great big parlor and a fireplace for the ladies. Off of that was a big, big dining room. The stairway went up a little ways and then turned and went up there. This men's parlor was on this side." JOE "It was quite an elaborate stairway too, wasn't it?" FANNY "It was a very nice stairway and itwas a wide stairway. Then right on the very top is the servants' quarters." JOE "They had those men's parlors and ladies' parlors so that when you come before you went on into the hotel you come in there and freshen up." t NY "The only thing I never could understand why. You went across the lobby, we'll say this way. There's a toilet right here, but the ladies had to go through Y Y 8 � g $ the,:men's parlor and in a door back to the rest, room. On the-rii+en's side. I never could understand that. I Never have. Maybe they just figured if the ladies wanted to go, they could go upstairs to their rooms. I guess they had bathrooms and toilets all upstairs. Maybe that was the reason that was built that way." "Do you know how many rooms they had there to rent?" FANNY "There were fifty-three rooms." JOE "Did they have a Chinese restaurant here?" FANNY "Yes, they did. It was down on the corner but they had a fire in there. On that block and that little Chinese man burned his restaurant down and helleft, • • • Page 13 FANNY "We used to go down there all the time and eat, not for every meal. He was a good little fella." "• DOUG "Can you recall whether there were any other Chinese in New Meadows?" FANNY "I don't know of any Chinese that's around. I don't think McCall ever~: had_-:any." JOE "Well, they had a restaurant there, Charlie Toy." FANNY "Oh,he was a Chinaman. I just didn't happen to hear about it. Now, that little Chinaman down there he was a real nice and friendly. Do you know where Hazel Wisdom lives now?" JOE "Yes" FANNY "That was out property. And we lived in the back it p p y. just like she does now. He used to come up to the shop once in a while and we'd always visit. I used to like his spaghetti so well." JOE "I see they have the depot all boarded up. They don't use that anymore at all? Who does it belong to?" FANNY "Well, I don't know." JOE "I just wondered if the town had bought it or something." FANNY "Well sir, I can't answer that. Somebody lived in there for a bong time now. I don't know if there's a caretaker there or not but they had to board those windows because the damn kids in town would shoot the windows out. I'll tell you it's just heart-breaking when you stop to think of it. Of course, children are children." JOE "But their folks don't get after them." FANNY "No sir, I tell you my kid would have got skinned alive. But that Y Y g at Colonel 1 Page 14 FANNY "Heigho he had a gaited horse. That there where all the forest business is now that was his pasture. I used to watch all the time. Their tails just barely touched the ground and she had the cutest little legs. Then that mane down. Oh, she was a darling mare. Then he'd go to town and his boots shined, that cape would be back over his shoulder just so. And he'd walk from his house clear down to the depot. I used to watch him about every day. You know some- . thing, they had three children. They had two daughters and a son. Thityynever hired a bit of help there. He was a wealthy man but Mrs. Heigho cooked, the girls cooked and those kids had to work." DOUG "Do you know where heHaade his money?" JOE "I think mining, didn't he? Then he got in on this railroad." rANNY "I can't answer that, I really don't know. I just supposed he was wealthy from being in the Army. I don't know where he got his money. Mrs. Heigho like say, she done her own work and those twin girls done their work." y: 8 DOUG "Are any of them still around?" FANNY "No, I don't even know where any of them are." JOE "He wasl;general manager of the railroad. He got to be manager I think when they built it up to Evergreen and from Evergreen up here." DOUG "So he was in charge of the actual construction you think?" 1JOE "Yeah, he was general manager of the whole thing. I see ads in the Long Valley Advocate in 1905. They paid a man and a team four dollars a day. He wanted three hundred more men." FANNY "You see all of us)we lived in old town and that was called a nice town. The ill1111111 ___ • • Page 15 FANNY "railroad was supposed to come like it is there and then instead of coming this way going over to old town and then back that way. Well, he got to figuring it out and it would cost so much money. That's how New Meadows was started. So it went like it is now. It never went on down the river at all, it just stopped here at New Meadows. So anyway, we was the first ones down there. My neighbors said, 'You take your baby down there to that darned frog pond he'll "die or catch cold. The mosquitos will eat him up. ' they done everything. Anyway, my husband come and dad stayed in old town quite a while. Then he went to McCall. And of course old town is just old town now." JOE "Can you tell us how many stores was in there and how many saloons?" FANNY "There were three general stores, Kaiser and Sam Mitchell and Webb's. Then there was these two saloons, and that one place is there yet." END OF SIDE TWO JOE "Wes there a hotel there, too?" FANNY "Well, yes Mrs. Agee run the hotel." JOE "That was Merill's mother." FANNY "Yeah" JOE "Was she a widow." FANNY "No, she had a husband and he was one of these kinds of men who let her clean rooms and he'd do the dishes or something like that. Bert, Pappy's brother married Agee's daughter, Alma." Page 16 JOE "You don't have any idea about what the population of old Meadows was, do you? Did they call is Salmon Meadows, was that the post office or was it just Meadows?" FANNY "Just Meadows, I never heard it ever called anything but old Meadows. When they moved down to here they was talking about what to call it. Somebody suggested New Meadows. I don't know who done it. And the colonel let it be named New Meadows." 3?E "It seems like he was gonna call it Heigho and somebody didn't want it and said let's call it New Meadows." FANNY "Yeah, I think that's right. Then on this street going past my home here is Virginia Avenue. There's Heigho Avenue and Virginia Avenue and Sedrik Street. What was the other girls' name? I forget the other girls' name. But other, her name was the same as mine, Fanny. The streets were named after the family." DOUG "Do you remember approximately what year it was he built the hotel? It was after the railroad come up, I guess." JOE railroad"The r ilro d come in here in 1911." FANNY "Well, I could have this mixed up but I think that by the time the railroad got here the depot was done. They was trying to have the depot done. George Brinson I believe he had the contract for the hotel and the Heigho House and the depot and all." JOE "Seems like they had it done before the train come in here because they had a big celebration over here." Page 17 FANNY "Likelseid Blake's mother now and Brinson was the lumber man around here. She built a rooming houne here. Of course then we had our barber shop. We had kind of dug in here before 'a lot of other people could oome in. And all the • people that worked at the depot and the bank started building their homes. Some lived in the Reigho House. Heighley was in the bank." ,10E "Who owned that bank? Did Lukas have that bank at one time?" FANNY "No, I don't think so. He had it in old town, Lukas did. But Eddy Osborne was the main shareholder." E "Was Lee Hiiighley the cashier or manager?" FANNY Nell , he run the bank, so he must have been the cashier." JOE "The bank went broke then." 'Y "Yeah, people didn't come, the railroad didn't go on down. It didn't pan out just like Heigho had it planned. Right now I been thinking. When we came here krwin had the logging outfit." .DE "Was that/it-win, did hies dad log, too? Or do you remember?" FANNY "No, it seems to me he just had a lot of land, he was a farmer. Ira was the logger. Then dins went to Oregon. Then this Kaveck come in and then Jack Morgan come in." JOE "Do you remember who run that saw mill down there by the hot springs? Seems like it was two men by the names of Cunningham and Deal. I worked down there one winter." • Page 18 JOE "I believe some of the Harps run the hill." FANNY "Harps was the main outfit too in here." JOE "But I can't remember who owned the mill. I think it was fellabr-the names of Deal and Cunningham and one of them was a station master here at the depot. I think that was Mr. Cunningham. Well, most of what they raised here was hay and cattle." FANNY "That's all I ever know. Just hay and cattle. Of course the different sheep men, I don't know what they do with their sheep now, but they used to bring their sheep up here for the summer. They bring them in on the train down here." ,TOE "When you came in here you came by horses, didn't you?" "We came on the stage. The train came as far as Evergreen. And goodness saked the stage was there, they had box sleds. A prairie wagon train is what it was. We had to come clear from Price Valley clear over to Meadows. Oh my the snow was deep that year." JOE "I don't think it gets so deep anymore, does it?" FANNY "Now this winter it's kind of, I didn't think we was going to have much of a winter, you see we got quite a bit of snow. One thing we don't have, knock on wood, is that awful, awful cold weather. Forty below and thirty;, below and fifteen below." ,71E "We haven't had that for several years." FANNY "No, it's been below zero several times, I think. I don't know just how low but that awful, awful.cold weather we don't have. This winter is kind of a • Page 19 ANNY "more old fashioned winter on account of the depth of the snow." a$ "Can you remember how they kept the roads open in the winter? Just with the teams and sleds? Did they do anything to them besides just travel over them?" 'ANNY "If I can remember, that's the way they did. What toads was traveled,was traveled) it kept them open. Of course, I think everybody carried a shovel. On account of maybe a slide. You usually carried a shovel, if I'm not mistaken." '+E "Did you have a car when you first came in here? Can you remember your first car?" ' ANNY "Yes, I can remember my first car. It was a Maxwell. Then we had Fords and Chevys. I think that was the first one. Daddy never did have a car, he just had his horse. In fact he never did come down to New Meadows, he stayed in old town. Then he went to McCall, well everybody moved that was beside him. The ones that owned land. He moved to McCall because there was an opening there. He come to McCall and we moved down there." DOUG "Can you remember approximately what year it was when the hotel burned?" FANNY "I couldn't tell you that. I just can't. Usually if I stop and think long enough I'll think. Of course, my children were small, I know that. But I couldn't tell you what grade they was in or nothing. So we couldn't go by that. No, I just couldn't tell you that." JOE "Did that burn at night or in the day time?" FANNY "In the day time." JOE "They didn't have water enough to put it out." FANNY "No" • • Page 20 ++UG "Do they know how it started?" 'ANNY "Yeah, they know how it started. There was a carman coming in from Boise. They were going to Lewiston. Now, what the caravan was going for I don't know. Anyway, they had asked for roams at the hotel. They had scrubbed and varnished and re-carpeted and got new this and new that. As they unwrapped all this junk, no I shouldn't say junk, all this new stuff they put it in the fire- place. It seems like to me that it was in the ladies parlor that they put most of that paper. Anyway, they put it in the fireplace. Instead of putting a piece at a time they put the works in. It went up and then it got all through the varnish and all through the scrub and all through the carpeting, every- thing. Then everything burned up. It just couldn't take that heat. If I remember right it didn't burn from down, it was up in here and come burning down this way. It wasn't from the fireplace itself but it was in the flue somewhere." nu, END OF SIDE THREE X3UG "Do you know who homesteaded the hot springs north of town?" FANNY "I'll tell you, Yoakum. They had that for years and years. They were one of the early settlers in here. They homesteaded that. We owned that once." OE "That was Marvin's uncle that homesteaded that." 'AUNY "Yeah, they lived newt door to me for quite a while." Page 21 E "Edith, I believe was their daughter." ANNY "Yeah, Edith and Jenny-,3" DOUG "How old were you when you left Gilette?" FANNY "Oh, I was just a little girl. I wasn't in school, yet." DOUG "Do you remember much about Cripple Creek? It was a pretty famous mining town." FANNY "Yes, I can remember that because we used to go over there all the time. Like I said my dad had a livery stable. We moved up from Colorado Springs, we were about the first ones that went to Gilette because new comers all crowded Cripple Creek. My dad run this livery stab, that's all he knew. So he thought well, that little Gilette oughta be pretty good, which it was. It turned out to be a wonderful place,to live. His livery business couldn't have been beat. He had all kinds of horses, I don't care what kind of a horse you wanted to have, he had it. Summer trade was everybody goes to Pikes Peak and riding up to Pikes Peat prei near as many times as I've got fingers and toes. Not quite that many." JOE "I have a nephew that lives in Woodland." FANNY "You know, you get up there and look all over. You can't see a blame thing but that beautiful blue sky." JOE "Most days you can see about sixty miles." FANNY "Yeah, if you get up on a clear day. There was a trail and those horses knew that trail just as good or better than anybody. People would come that didn't know the front of a horse from the back of a horse and you put them on. No • Page 22 FANNY "matter what happened those horses, my father would say, 'Leave the horse alone and hang on, if you've never ridden a horse. The horse will take you up there. and we had this one., old Daisy, she was a kids' horse. But we had to share her because sometimes there'd be a younger person come that wasn't too heavy. You never had to show old Daisy nothing. You didn't have to tell her where to go where the rocks were. Then they'd want to buy her. That was quite a time that Cripple Creek and that Gilette." DOUG "Was Cripple Creek a real lively town?" '—NY "Oh yeah. I think it was higher up in the mountains than New Meadows is. But we had severe winters there. I look back now and to my knowledge I can't ever . remember my father having a sled of any kind. We had our sleds but he didn't. Those buggies and those horses went to Cripple Creek and to Victor, in the buggies." JOE "Why don't you tell us just what a livery stable is. What the function of it is. A lot of people don't know what one is." FANNY "They don't, that's true. Well, a livery stable, in those days we traveled by horses and buggies, and they called it a livery stable. Other than that I don't know how to explain it to you. If they come over for dances, they had dances then, you had a place to put your horses. A livery stable is where you -put your horse." ,?OE "Do you remember how much it cost to keep a buggy and team over night in the livery stable?" • Page 23 ANNY "Well sir, I can't answer that either. I suppose I heard my father say but right this minute I can't tell you what he charged them." 30E "It would be so much different now than that it was then. When they built the railroad here in 1905, from Council to Evergreen, they were paying four dollars for the man and team. Allot of them didn't think:°. that was enough. Colonel Heigho figured it out that it cost him about sixty-three cents a day for oats and hay for the horses." FANNY "You can't get anything for sixty-three cents now." ,IOE "Anyhow, they made about, cleared about two dollars and forty cents. He thought it was a pretty good deal and the company was shipping up oats. But I haven't any idea what a livery stable charged to put horses in." I'AN'NY "Well, I couldn't tell you either. My father bought baled hay I remember that. And we had what we called the hay loft, and we owned about a half a block there." ,IOE "I saw in the paper where Charlie Barringer bought Dan Mc`&hr's town site I think it was. Do you remember whether that was at old Meadows? He had a feed barn and a house, this was long back in 1905. He didn't sell both, he sold the townsite, he owned the townsite." FANNY "Well, that was over in old town." JOE "I thought afterwards Dan must have layed out this townsite for the railroad to come to." Page 24 FANNY "Well, he might have had something to do with it but I think it was Colonel Heigho." E "Yeah, layed la ed out the one here. But this Dan Mc J , he must have had one JO over there towards old Meadows. He sold it to this Barringer. Meadows townsite they called it." -ANNY "Oh did I tell you that all people thought that railroad would go up to old town then down the river. I don't know much but Heigho said later, 'If I run it clear from there clear over there and then clear back down grain it will cost too much.' The it never did even go on through." JOE "I think they thought it would go on over to McCall. That's according to the paper." FANNY "But anyway, it all changed and there was a lot of hard feelings, IAnbw." Off:, "Did some of those stores move over here?" FANNY "Yeah" DOUG "Did they move buildings from over there?" FANNY "A lot of buildings. You know where the post office is here in town?" JOE "Yes" FANNY "That old green house right back of that come from old town. It's just ready to fall down. Likelsay the back end of this little house across the street we moved that down, then we built on to it. Then pret'near all the rest of these houses are new." DOUG "Do you khow who started the first bank in New Meadows?" Page 25 FANNY "Lee ftighley and Kimbrough wasn't it? Nbighley was the manager." JOE "Who was the other?" FANNY "Kimbrough" JOE "Johnny Kimbrough wasn't it?" FANNY "Well, he could've been. I couldn't say what his first name was." DOUG "The bank started after the railroad had come up this far?" FANNY "Yes, the bank was always on the corner in that brick building. The Odd Fellows I think still have it and they had their hall above it." JOE "Was this Mitchell over here was his name Sam?" FANNY "Andy Mitchell and Sam lived on that end of town. They were brothers. Sam run a general store over in old town and Andy was always on the ranch." JOE "Do any Mitchells live around her&Asa ? Is Paul alive?" FANNY "Didn't Paul die just about a year ago? I think he died and I think his wife, I'm not sure, she didn't want to live in that house. So She lived in an apattment down here in the old post office building. I believe somebody was telling me that not too long ago that She Just didn't wants to live up there." JOE "She still owns the ranch." FANNY "Now, I don't know about thht. I don't know who owns the ranch. I don't even know who lives out there." JOE "They wintered our cattle in in the winter of 1907, '08. I know grandma Mitchell was alive at that time. She said that in the fall they got dirt and • Page 26 JOE "put it in boxes and put it in the celler so they'd have dirt to throw on the snow in the spring." FANNY "Of course everything was sleighs then. How the horses ever got through, I'll never know. After they kind of got so they could plow and push the snow back you couldn't see the top of a car go down the street. The snow would be that deep. This is about the nearest of an old fashioned winter we've had for quite awhile. I like the snow. Gene don't care much about it. Gene and I went down to Arizona last year. We was down there a month. I said I wouldn't trade you for anything. I still like my four seasons." JOE "Was there a church in Meadows?" tiY "Yeah, it's still there. I think everybody could go but I think it was the Congregational but it could've been the Methodist. Dr. Berry was the minister." `sE "He preached there and in McCall. What was the first church here?" 'A`NY "Right over here on the corner." 14E "What denomination was it?" 'AWN "Let's see, what was Colonel Heigho?" 1+E "Seems like it was Congregational." ANNY "I was gonna say I think it's the Congregational Church." a "Was Colonel Heigho married when he came, first came to town?" i NNY "Oh yes" �'+E "Do you know where his wife is from?" •ANNY "No, I don't. She had the same name as I got." • END OF SIDE FOUR AND INTERVIEW . High Country April 1981 Trade Tokens of the Past High Country Money I appreciated hearing from Mr. Hal Frasier about an interesting token he has from Indian Valley. Also my thanks to Mr. Bud LaFay for supplying much of the in- formation for this month's article. If you have or know of Idaho trade tokens, I would apreciate hearing from you. If you don't care to write, just drop me a card with your name, telephone number, and a convenient [evening] time for me to call you and I will do so. If anyone knows the whereabouts of newspaper copies from either Meadows or New Meadows, the Idaho Historical Society Library in Boise would like to microfilm them so researchers like myself will have access to the information contained in them. Please contact the Library at 610 N. Julia Davis Drive, Boise, ID 83706. For future High Country articles and for the historical book I am researching on Idaho token -using businesses, I need information on the following: 1. Who ran the Horseshoe Cigar Store in New Meadows? 2. Who operated the Inland Hotel in Salubria? When was it in operation? 3. There is a token enscribed C. & F. from Grangeville. What do the initials stand for? CLARENCE LaFAY OF MEADOWS VALLEY By John D. Mutch The LaFay family was among the early settlers to come to Central Idaho's scenic Meadows Valley. The head of the family, William LaFay, was born on the ninth of November, 1860 and came to Idaho from Wisconsin in 1909. Of his 5 children, Edward, Clarence, Albert, Ethel, and Mabel, two sons, Albert and Clarence, took up barbering with him in the valley. Clarence was born on January 11, 1889 at Rice Lake, Wisconsin; his brother Albert was born in 1891. William and Clarence LaFay ran a barbershop in rented quarters in Meadows until 1911. The Weiser American of March 30, 1911 noted that "Messrs LaFay have purchased ground for the erection of a building for an up -to -date barbershop, the fittings of which Clarence bought at Spokane last week." Later that year Clarence moved to the new Pacific & Idaho Northern Railroad terminus town of New Meadows. There his shop shared a building on the main street with I. N. Ripper's cigar store and soft drink parlor. In 1913 William and Albert LaFay relocated to McCall where they were partners in a barbershop. William died on Janary 12, 1914 after suffering a heart attack while ice skating on Payette Lake. Bert continued barber- ing in McCall, pursuing his interests in boxing, baseball, and fiddling. He was killed in an automobile accident in 1946. Clarence LaFay followed many interests during his career. He ranched, had a partnership in what is now Zim's hot springs resort, owned a theater, and, of course, barbered. He purchased the billiard parlor in which his shop was located in the 1920's. At that time he ordered the trade tokens featured this month. There are three varieties of the Clarence LaFay Pool Hall token, all the size of a nickel with a hole in the center. The aluminum variety is good for 5c in trade and the two brass types are both good for 121 /2c in trade. These tokens were us- ed as payoffs in games of pool —gam- bling for money was against the law in Idaho so winners in games of chance or skill were often rewarded with tokens which they could use to buy candy, beer, food, cigars, to even pay for another game of pool. Such tokens were often holed like the LaFay ones to allow them to be placed on a string or peg for each player. The difference in color between the 5c aluminum and 121/Zc brass tokens allowed a player's total to be seen at a glance. In 1937 Clarence LaFay's son "Bud" started working in the barber shop while he was still in high school. He is the current proprietor of the business as Clarence passed away February 26, 1955. The building now housing LaFay's business was moved from Meadows where it was original- ly a saloon owned by Mort Jones. Its ornate Brunswick - Balke - Collender Company backbar dates from the first decade of this century. This token is a reminder of a con- tinuing family business in the High Country. In fact, Clarence LaFay was the second of four generations involved in hair cutting in Idaho. Bud LaFay's son, Miles, operates LaFay's Razor Cut in Lewiston.