HomeMy Public PortalAboutPatterson, Horace!ioroce Patterson
with Joe Bennett
liarch 31, 1971
1 Page I
JOB "This is an interview between Mr. ii3recn- Pvtterf,;on of Cascade and this is
March 31, 1971 and this Is Joe Benvett. ',rhc f--'rf;t thing -.ra tvnt to know is
sihere you were born Horace?"
I B=4CS "I vaq born on the ranch th,--re two WIcs out of nlr!, Criwford."
J rte" "wbnt year?"
HO RX-E "Dace.mber 20, 189411
JTJ E I Nben did your folks come to this count-,7,
W R A C E 't-Iy father came in. '88 and homeatanded there and t1hen my nother v.oved out
t hire in '89."
J-1, E "Your d.-,d and mother -wavii't rerried?"
IM A PIZ 'k)b no, they wasn't married until July 1-2. 1893.'*
30 F, '%:here did they co-me frow?"
WRACE 'Iiy Father came from North CakoIA'val and rnyr-mo t tier came from Illfn- -ola. 321c
came with her family. Fly mother v6s only reventeer, when she came."
ME '%ow did they c-ime? Did they corne on a tqvnred vemou or a train?"
'Incy core on a train, 1 think, to. 11zine tbern they cue up I.-rz c coverc,07 vsg on. `
jo"
And your dad homestended."
HORACE "Yeah, my dad howeateAded and my gran-tlfather'f homestaaJ joinaJ my fat-Yor'a
homestead, any mother's &-wl."
JOE Nqlat was their nationalities, Nernce?",
IId) ACA "My grandfather wvs lrisli and Lry grt.ndraother an the Patterson aide was Scotch.
`! Grandpa Dexter, I don't know. Crztdzc Daxtpr �-Pm Wele'il."
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JOE "Give us your dad and mothers' first name Horace."
M RACE "Hy >rother was Stella Edith Dexter and my father was William Denny Patterson."
JOE "What was some of your chores when you was real small, Horace? Did you have
to start work pretty early ?"
UOPLACE "Oh yeah, it was just farm chores. We milked cocas and fed the pigs. Then I
started to ride a horse just when I was very young."
JOE 'IAiere did you go to school first ?"
',HORACE "First went just out of Crawford at an old drug store building."
iJOE Nas Crawford older than Van Wyck ?"
IHORACE "I wouldn't say as it was older."
JOE "It's gust a mile from, Cascade."
I110ptCE "A mile north of Cascade. In fact, the town of Crawford is in the city linits."
!JOE "Can ,vou remember something about the Thunder Mountain days ?"
;11ORACE "Well yes, my father sold them some hay and they bailed it with one of them
{ horse powered bailers. They hauled that into Thunder Mountain. I was pretty
small but I can remember them doing that."
IJOE "I know in 1907 there was still some buildings there at Thunder City."
Ifather raised quite a few cattle, didn't he ?"
HORACE"Yeah, he raised cattle. Hay and grain and cattle."
1JOE "That did you do for recreation, Horace ?"
iiiORACE "Well, we didn't have too.much recreation we ".de our own. In the wintertime
of course. we skied and sled down the hill and stuff like that. In the sua:mer
we rode horses."
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JOE "Can you remember who some of your first school teachers were ?"
'HORACE '14y first school teacher was Lizzie Coonrod."
iJDE "Me taught up here to John Nasi, too."
HOF.ACE "I think she's. still living."
JOE "No, she died a year ago."
IHORACE "I think our next school teacher was Elsie tiackay, Dee Mackay's sister."
JOE "Uhat was some of your parent's background, Horace ?They were farmers back east.
were they ?"
4W RACE "Yea, my father was raised on a ranch in North Carolina. My grandfather had a
farm in Illinois, Grandpa Dexter."
JOE "Can you remember when you was cn:sll was most of that ,ground homeste0 ed irr.
I
there or was your father one of the first homesteaders ?"
!HOItACE "He was one of the first. After I was pretty good sized I can well remember
when those homesteaders came in there and homesteaded. That whole country was
open there. 14y father used to go out And mow hay on the open range. Right out
east of where we lived there."
jJDE "So you saw it be settled there."
GRACE "That's right, the Karnuda's had a homestead across the valley. A fella by
'I the name of Webster had a place up in the north knd of that nook where Bean
finally lived."
!JOE "that's some of those other homesteaders names ?"
JHORACE "Well, one of the first ones that moved in there was Bob Thomas. He was south
of us. Then I think the next was Frank Marshton and then a fella by the name of
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j HORACE '11orehouse."
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JOE "Where did the 14shrler's ?"
jHORACE "Well, you see the Harler's and my dad come in there together from the Peloose
Country. Then Harlher hoatesteatded over on the other side of the hill where
the fish hatchery was."
ME "Was there Cyst's ?"
B "Yeah, Cyst was in there at that time. He was south of Marlher on that side
of the hill."
JOE "Didn't Merhler's have a bunch of boys ?"
HORACE "Yeah, George and Harlold.. Harold was born there. He was younger than I was,
quite a little. You see George was little older then I ain and then Al vies
four or five years older, maybe afore. Then they had a bunch of girls; too.
Then them: was Mat and Jinn Marlher, they were still older."
JOE "Did you boys used to do a lot of rodeoing ?"
HORACE ''nh, you'd get a bunch of cattle together and ride around. Ride these calves
and colts."
JOB "Well, tell us somthing about your home there. How big a house you had."
HORACE "Well, the house when my father and mother were married they just had a little
cabin. Then he built this three room house, it was just one room after
another right in a row. That's the house I was born in. We lived in that till
1904 or '05. Then he bought this Freddy place down there at Crawford. Freddy
had a little store down there in this little town of Caaeviford. Father bought
( this forty acres and bought his store and everything and we moved down there.
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HORACE "In 1905, I'm pretty sure."
JJOE "And you run the store."
1HORACE 'qty mother run the store that first year."
JOE "What was some of your chores there then ?"
HORACE "I milked the cattle and fn them time a kid after he got to be ten years old
could rake hay end drive dairy, he could do anything. He could drive a tease.
When I was eleven years old, we always had to go to Boise twice a year for our
groceries. The year I was eleven years old my father, when we went down for
groceries, and ;he took four horses on a wagon. We led the team down there
and he boought one of these ton wagons and I drove that home from Boise:."
JOE "I heard little Fred mall tell one time that he hauled two tons of butter to
Boise for your dad one time. Who made that butter? Did he buy it from the
neighbors or did your mother make it ?"
HORACE "deli, I suppose my mother and grandmother made it. They both wade lots; of
butter and cheese."
JOE "Somebody told me one time that your dad liked to work so fast that he olvoya
tied his milk stool to him so he wouldn't have to monkey with it.. "'
HORACE "Well, I don't remember that but he was a worker."
09 "What pets did you have, Horace, horses ?'
,HORACE "Yeah, the first horse I had was a little gray more called Fanny. I started
riding her, I don't suppose I was over three or four year €, old. My sister was
two years younger then I was. They didn't let me go to school till I was
it
Page b `
RORACE "eight years old so we could both go together. We rode this little mare when
! we started to school, I was eight and ahe was six."
„fig "Here was the schoolhouse at ?"
i gORACF, "That was down at Crawford. It wasn't a schoolhouse, it was an old drug store
building."
lin "There was just the two of you in the family ?"
WrACE "'that's right"
JOB 'Vhat was some of the other teachers you had besides l.izaie Coonrod ?"
jROAACE "Elsie Mackay I think was the next one. Then Gertrude Kerby."
I
OE. That was Dave Kerby's wife."
IIORACE "No, that was Dave Kerby's sister. Dave had a sister Gertrude and his wife was
also Gertrude. She was Luke riooret a wife. They build a schoolhouse then
where this old drug store was. The next teacher Was Rose Eggar, Jess Af•ever's
wife afterwards."
IJJE "School teachers got married when they come up into this country."
lDORACE "That's right, pretty quick. The first terms I went to was only four month@.
IThen Uncle Ed's children came out here and then vie went to Van Wyck to school.
The first teacher I had there was nary Kerby, frank Kerby's wife. Then the
next one was Dorothy Fowler. Aeename was WillLmnson at that time."
.h?E "Then where did you go to school ?"
IDORACE "Well, I graduated from there out of the eighth grade. Then the other school
I ever had was the two years I went to short courses up there in agriculture
at Moscow when you was up there. I never did go to high school a day."
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JOE "Van Wyck never did have a high school, did it ?"
HORACE "I don't think so. They didn't in them times. I don't think they ever did.
i
I don't think there ever was a high school there till they built the one in
Cascade."
JOE "I don't believe there was dither. The comunity started to build up along
around 1905, didn't it, the town of Crawford ?"
HORACE "Yeah, Crawford built up quite a little. We had a livery stable there and a
hotel. Then they had a saloon there. It come in, I think, a year or two later.
It was quite a little town, just a settlement then. In 1912 when the railroad
come in it =oved to Cascade. They moved some of the buildings and some of them
are still there."
JOE "When did they start Cascade, in 1912 ?"
HORACE "The first building. I think, was built there in 1910 or '11."
EM OF SIDE ONE
JOE "What was some of the other buildings there in Crawford ?"
I'HOUCE "They had the bank building there which was started."
JOE Vho run that ?"
IHORACE "Henry Simms was the first fella."
JOE "Who owned the bank ?"
HORACE "Wall, the bank was started and there was ten fellas. I don't know whether
I can name every one of there. Each one of them put in a thousand dollars and
Page 8
WrAC8 "ton thousand dollars was the capitol astert of the bank. There was Toss
i
Worthington, Lou Gordon, Henry Croce, Fred Sutherland, hector Patterson and
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j try €ather. and Jack Patterson."
JOE !Vas Luke More on that?"
Ijr RAC% "TZo, that's pretty close to ten. mat's all Z can remember now."
i
Jt?B "When did Cascade„ what was the first start of it ?"
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IHORACE "Cascade started of course there was the post office. Then they started
Moving buildings in there pretty quick after that. Then they moved the
Crawford Mercantile store over there, that must've been 1911. Then Logucats
f
moved from Thunder City, that must've been about '12."
JOE fore they the last store to move out of Thunder City ?"
BDRACIE "They was the only store in Thunder City."
J?E "There war a saloon there."
'HDRACE "Oh yeah, there was a saloon, Quite a little stuff around Thunder City and
it most all come to Cascade. The fella that run the saloon there started the
Cascrde hotel, he built it."
"There was sore move from Van Wyck to Cascade, too."
{WRACE "Quite a bit. That S & S Store that was run by John Madden and they moved to
Cascade. Emery moved the hotel to Cascade."
jOE Nasn't old man Emery, didn't he get shot ?"
l HO-_RACw "Ile got shot in Van Wyck, that was before they moved."
i
JCB "How far was Van Wyck and Crawford?
e It 7 I
Page 9
IRORACE "Van Vyck and Crawford was close to three miles. It was pretty close to two
miles to Von Wyck from Cascade."
JOE "But they both had post offices st the some time."
I MRACE That's right and so did Thunder City. After Lhe railroad got in there and
got organized then they all three come together."
ljoE 'Well, how come Emery got shot ?"
IIRACE "You shouldn't pUt it down here. You might get me hung; Emery didn't get shot,
he shot Bectal."
,Og "Oh yes. I was thinking Emery got shot."
11ORACE "Emery had a hotel and there was another hotel beside Emery that aos closed.
Bectal had it and had it insured, was what the storey was. I don't know, but
that's what the story wasps. That night B€ ctel had fixed some kind of a trrp
in there to set this afire in the night. Then him and his nephew vent downs
and stayed the night with old Jim McAndrews on Clear Creeek so they wouldn't
be in town. During this night there was some lady in there about give birth
to a baby, in fact I think she gave birth to it that night. Well, this fire
was going on :end they had quite a time to save Emery's hotel. So the next
morning when Emery got up-he had figured it out that Bectal had done this. I
don't know what dlues they had or anyphing about this. So Bectal and him
were driving up through town, this other fella was driving for Bectal. Emery
shot and the first time he shot the horses hip, he missed Bectal and the next
time he shot him through and through; Doc Nogal was there, he was the only
doctor and I've heard himAabout it. Of course the bullet went clear through
page 10
HORACE "him. He just got a heavy thread and drug it through that wound. Beckler
healed up, it never killed hire."
IJOE "Oh, he didn't kill him ?"
�HORACE "Oh no."
JOE "Hell, Doc Nogals was the first doctor around that neck of the woods, wasn't
I
he ?"
HORACE 'Jell, tie was the first one around them towns. But the one that brought me
into the world and a lot of the early ones was Doc Tuttle. He was up there a
long time before Noglas."
JOB 114here did he live ?"
iHORACK "He lived on a ranch right west, across the river from the old Ericson
homestead at the Sugarloaf hill. Be had a ranch out in the river bottom over
there."
;JOE 'Vas there many Finns around where you lived there ?"
i
HORACE "The Lake's was about the lowest ones south. Then there was Ericeon's Azad
Cunis a whole bunch of them in that counrty there. Then the Harley's was tip
a little farther, and Koskell'a and Kentol'a."
JOE "They all came in there about the Bayne time."
lHORACE "Pretty close to the same time. Z think Harley's was one of the first families
in here."
;JOE "Well-., most of the men were miners weren't they ?"
IHORACE "They had been. They come from Wyoming or some where over there."
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Page 11.
ME "Quite a few Basque living around there, too, weren't there ?"
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I:'.OI'.ACE "They came a little later. About the first Basquo femily that moved into
Casdacde was Joe Enunis. They come in a little taster and then they started
ry "
working in the woods.
'JOE "then did Boise - Payette first start to work in there ?"
HORACE "They moved in there in the fall of 1916."
JOE "I worked for them the fall of '16 and they had camp 'f.' was right there just
above where Crawford ves."
HORACE "Thant was a hard winter."
J0E "Awf-il hard winter"
HORACR "Then they shoved in the fall of '15."
;JOE "What did you generally do on your Sunday's, Horace ?"
I!I`ORACE "hell, we always had plenty of work to do. My fa:kher, he usually took us to
church on Sunday. We always had plenty to do. We had theme cattle to feed
and chores to do."
JOE "When was your first church built down there? Can you remember ?"
HORACE 'Vell, they never did have a react church building in Crawford. They had church
in the schoolhouse and different places. They had a church at Thunder City, I
couldn't tell you when it was built."
JOE "Did they have one at Van Wyck, too ?"
HORACE "yeah, I think there was two churches in Van UTyck. The Babtist church is the
building they moved over to Crawford and used for the court house feT years.
That's whre we used to have our meetings there, that was the old Bobtist church.
t
Pioge 12
JOE "At Cascade"
HORACE "Yeah"
JOE "idhaat holidays that you had were the most importcut, Horace?"
yHORACE "I suppose Christmas and the Fourth of July were the two main ones."
JOB "Ohaat did you generally do on the Fourth ?"
i
WRACE ` "Vell, we had quite a c&lebration at Thunder City. rte used to go down there
and celebrate when I was a little kid. Then as coon; as Cascade got etaarted we
had that rodeo around there and h&d horse rases."
.TOE "Well, Thunder City was started after Thunder Mountain was d£scoverid."
HDRACE "That's right. Se that little short cut, instead of going up by Crawford and
going west you cut right up by Fig Creek and cut quite a few miles. The
machinery was unloaded there at Thunder City and then hauled out."
JOB "There was a lot hauled in."
HORACE "And there was la lot that was never hauled in. It was unloaded there and left
there. It just blovcd up before they got it all hauled in there."
JOE "t -Ut was some of the special foods and the special games and customs? Can
j you thinly of anything that you can tell us on that ?"
HpRACg ' "dell, we raised lots of vegatables and we always butchered our own meat in
the fall. Father would always butcher and cure the meat and cure the hogs. We
could keep beef in the winter but in the summer. Onee at different times around
through the neighbors they'd butcher beef and devide it up. That's the way we
got our meat through the summer time. My father always butchered quite az few
hogs in the fall and he'd cure that weaat and that would last dor aQ year. Keep
Page lr
! W ACE "them hems and bacon and smoke them."
JOE "ghat was so0-a of the social life? Did you visit ouch ?"
IHORACE "They visited a lot more in them times then they do now.
I know my father and
mother used to visit with Downing sand different ones across the country. They
came to our plece. After we woved there to Crawford r_ay mother kopt ac boarding
house and we lied a stable that kept horses. We didn't run a livery stable
but we, kept horses there till after the livery stable started. We never did
have no buggies and stuff to hire out. My mother run that place there till
they started the hotel. Thera was always a crowd ground there and it was al-
ways busy."
JOE "they had a livery stable there at Crawford."
HORACE 'lee, Bob McDonald started that and he run it for several years. Coonrod run
the livery stable at Van Wyck and then lie moved over to Cascade and he heal
several temus."
!JOE "Coonrodg was one of the early settlers there."
1HORACE "Yeah, I think Coonrod's eras one of the early settlers in Valley County. Of
course it was Boise County at that time. They had that livery barn there at
Van Wyck when I was just as little kid."
(JOE "Where did they live. Most of the Coonrods live over around Van Wyck ?"
HORACE "No, they lived up in Beaver Meadows. Bob lied that homestead and E.C. Coonrod
lived in Van Wyck for a good many years. Then Owen lived there ichen his first
wife died. I don't think Art ever did live in Van Wyck. Art run the saloon in
Cranford for a good many years."
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Paige 1�
JOE "Well, all them town had saloons et that time."
I
�HQRACE "Yeah"
I JOB "Tire Hall's, when did they come in ?"
I WRACE "I think they were there when my father ceme in. They was on the other side
C JOE
of the mountain but I'm pretty sure they were."
"Ike you want to tell about when your father was killed, Horace? Can you tell
us something about that. Might be of interest to people. You don't have to
tell the circumstances, just haw he was frilled."
HDRACE 'yell, this fellas was renting from my father and he bought a bunch of cattle
C e
� and stuff at a sale. he couldn't pay for the cattle and my father was partner
with him and my father peid'For the cattle. I guess he figured he had to on
account he was a partner. This Hogan was goans leave the ranch and he wasn't
sati6f'ied because he thought he weep getting the worst of it. Father told him
that he was gonna let him have everything he had Anen he came here. I never
did know just exactly the deal ties there but theyweanyway he came down there
that night and hid in the barn. Then when my father went out to milk the next
morning and he walked in the door he shot him. The first shot he missed him
and then my father stepped beck and the second shot he hit him."
END OF TAPE AND ITTMRVIEW
RELEASE OF TAPES TO IDAHO BICENTENNIAL C01,241SSION'S ORAL HISTCRY PROJECT
BzcentenniaZ Commission as a donation for such scholarZy and educational
purposes as the Idaho HistoricaZ Society and the Idaho Bicentennial
corrimission shaZZ determine, the tape recordings made today, and aZZ
Z2terary rights therei -1,
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On this day,
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h6reby give and grant
to
the Idaho State Hi.storicaZ Society and the
Idaho
BzcentenniaZ Commission as a donation for such scholarZy and educational
purposes as the Idaho HistoricaZ Society and the Idaho Bicentennial
corrimission shaZZ determine, the tape recordings made today, and aZZ
Z2terary rights therei -1,
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Horace Patterson
with Joe Bennett
and Doug Jones
March 9, 1976
Page 1
DOUG "This is a tape between Horace Patterson and Joe Bennett. The date is March
9, 1976. We are visiting at Horace Pattersons' home in Cascade at 9;00 in
the morning."
JOE "Well, I guess, give us the date of your birth first."
HORACE "December the twentieth, 1894."
JOE "And place of birth ?"
HORACE "Crawford, Idaho"
`9E "You were born out on the ranch were you ?"
jYJtCE "Yeah, it's about two miles from where Cascade is now."
JOE "What was the size of your family ?"
HORACE "Just, mother and my one sister.and father."
JOE "Yourfather's occupation ?"
HORACE "Farmer and stock. raiser."
JOE "Didn't he run the store ?"
'HORACE "Yeah, later on. Well, in 1906 he bought Prunty's store out. Then one of
his brothers, Uncle Jack, came out here and they run the store together. In
i
fact, Uncle Jack run the store but my dad was interested in it."
,JOE "Your dad stayed on the farm."
HORACE "Yeah"
JOE "Do you remember when he came to Idaho, your father ?"
Page 2
HORACE "He came in 1888."
JOE "Where did he come from ?"
HORACE He come here from Washington but he was originally from North Carolina."
JOE "And your mother ?"
HORACE "She cane here in '89 and she came from Illinois. She came with her family,
she was just a girl then. She was seventeen, I think."
JOE "Do you remember what year it was ?"
HORACE "I think it was '89."
JOE 'bh yeah, was there quite a fear people here? What are some of your earliest
recollections?"
HORACE "Yeah, there were quite a few. There were the Marlers, and Downend's and the
Coonor's."
JOE 'Host of the nook was taken up in here then ?"
HORACE "No, that was homesteaded after. It was homesteaded around 1906 to 1910."
JOE "Oh, they homesteaded down here, lower down."
HORACE "Might've been. Of course my father had that homestead and my grandfather and
the Kostics, they were an early family in here. Then there was a fella by the
name of Webster had a place up there, the Smally place. Joe, all that flat
out in there, I can remember seeing my father mow hay out there. Right out in
the open country before it was ever homesteaded."
JOE "What kind of a house did you have ?"
HORACE "Dad, he just built a log cabin when he first homesteaded here. Then after he
was married he built a three room house. The kitchen and the bedroom and that
was where I was born. That's where Cliff Roberts lives now."
Page 3
JOE "Have you got any special memories of that? About the place when you was.."
HORACE "When I was small we lived there we only got to go to town once in a while.
Had to go on horses and the roads wasn't open."
JOE "Was Crawford established then ?"
HORACE "Yeah, they had a post office there and a little store."
JOE "Well, Van Wyck was also a town."
HORACE "I can't remember when Van Wyck was not there. But when my father came here
Van Wyck was across the river then. A fella named Oaks run the store north
of the river. Before I was big enough to realize anything Van Wyck was clown
where if always was."
JOE "What was some of the chores you did when you was a child ?"
HORACE "I always helped,; feed the calves and milk the cows. I learned to milk when
I was just a little kid."
'iJOE !,'Your father raised cattle and farmed, cut lots of hay,"
' HORACE "Yeah he had cattle all the time. Had to build them up."
'JOE "6f course you had other animals, horses."
HORACE "Pigs, we always had hogs and chickens."
JOE "Where did you get your supplies from at that time ?"
HORACE "Twice a year we'd go to Boise and get groceries and try to get enough stuff
to last. Then they had this little store in Van Wyck. And we could get the
odds and ends there. But the main supply we hauled from Boise. Go down twice
a year. Go down in the spring and in the fall."
Page 4
JOE "When you went down there did you go on the west side of the river going down
towards the ferry there ?"
HORACE "Rio we always went through the ferry."
JOE "And then up through High Valley."
HORACE "Then in the spring, early spring, when we went down there we had to cross the
river at Smith's Ferry on the ferry. And in the fall we could ford the river."
JOE 'Where was your first school ?"
HORACE "Well, the first school I went to was in an old drug store just: down here in
the town of Crawford. I went there the first term. Then the second term they
fixed up a little house on the old Marshton place. Father bought that place
from Marshton. They had a little house there and they fixed it up and that's
where I went to school the second term. I think the next time we had it in our
old house, After we moved to Crawford our old house was vacant and we went to
school there, I think for two years." Then they built a little schoolhouse.
Right where the old Crawford school, you remember where that was. In fact that's
where the old dru g store was where I went the first term. I went to school
there, and Lizzy Coonrod was the first teacher in the drug store."
IJOE "Where did Coonrod's live ?"
HCR ACE "They lived in Beaver Meadows where Tamarack Falls is. That's where the
Coonrod's homesteaded."
JOE "I forgot to ask you what year your dad, did he homestead ?"
HORACE "He homesteaded in '$a."
JOE "You said something about your mother teaching school,"
Page 5
HORACE "Yeah, my mother taught school before her and my father were married. She
taught school down, right north of where old Thunder City is. Now there used
to be a little log schoolhouse there. She taught there two terms."
JOE "Do you know what education she had to have at that time to teach, Horace ?"
HORACE "No, I donut. She was a high school graduate and I don't think she had any
college. I don't believe she did. She graduated from high school in Illinois."
JOE "Do you remember what year she taught there ?"
HORACE "Ho, of course that was before I was born. Her and my father were married in
1893, so between '89 and ' 013."
JOE "She probably didn't have to have any more education at that time because
Myrtle Davis said she finished the eighth grade in Meridian and then she went
to summer school then taught. But she had to go to simimer school every summer."
HORACE "I don't think Elsie Mackay that taught us the second grade. I don't know
what education Lizzy Coonrod did have. Elsie Mackay I'm sure was just a high
school graduate."
JOE "How far away were your schools ?"
HORACE "The first school was only about two miles."
JOE "Did you have school in the wintertime or just in the summer ?"
HORACE "Just in the summer. Four month terms. My sister and I rode down there on
horseback."
JOE "Do you remember about how many people went to school there ?"
Page 6
HORACE "Oh, I suppose there were ten, fifteen."
JOE "And just one teacher."
HORACE "Just one teacher for all the grades."
JOE "Do you remember anything especially interesting happening in your school
days ?"
HORACE "I'll tell you onw thing that happened there. Lizzy Coonrod was teaching,
Stowfield went down below and bought a top buggy. And when he brought it
by, that was the first buggy I'd ever saw and a lof of them kids ever saw.
So Lizzy let the school out. Let us all go out and look at that buggy. We
all went out and looked it over and it really was quite a thrill."
JOE "Do you remember the first car yousaw in the valley here ?"
HORACE "I just don't exactly remember the first one."
JOE "Did you ever see any Indians around or near town ?"
HORACE "In the summertime the Indians used to come here and fish and hunt. I don't
believe,there were any Indians lived here at that time. They used to come in
here from up northf¢ and go down through here. I can remember once, I was just
a little kid, I looked up in the north and I seen a big fire." It was the fall
of the year, late. I took off to dad and told him about it and he went and looked
and said, 'That's the Indians. They're going out now, leaving. They've been
up here fishing all summer. They're leaving and they're burning off this under-
brush so it'll be clear next summer so they can get through the woods.' They
Page 7
HORACE "burned off the places where it gets thick. They'd just set it afire and go
off and leave it. Let the fall rain put it out. That's the way they kept it
clear but they kept the forest really in better shape than they are now. You
could just ride around through them forests any place."
JOE "How were they regarded, the Indians? Did the people associate with them ?"
HORACE "I don't think too much. Of course they stayed to themselves pretty much.
My mother was kind of scared of the indinns. I never did know one harming
anybody. But the reason they were scared of the Indians is it hadn't been
but just a few years before when the Indians killed those men who came after
the horses over in these canyons. But of course that was a different deal.
They stole them horses. These Indians when they come in here hunting they
neighbors didn't bother them at all. That I ever knew of."
JOE Nere any Chinese then, were they here ?"
HORACE "I never seen any Chinese then at all."
JOE "They weran't mining here then ?"
IHORACE "Well, not in this country. They might've been some back at Thunder Mountain.
But I was never back in there and I never saw any Chinese. In fact, I don't
remember any Chinese in here until after Cascade started. Then they put in
some restaurants. That's the first Chinese I remember being around here."
JOE "Were there any Basquos around some time ?"
HORACE "Well., I don't remember. But I suppse there was."
JOE "Was they running sheep in here then ?"
HORACE "Yes, they would bring sheep in every summer,. then take them out in the fall."
Page 8
JC "When you were a kid were there quite a few cattle come in, too ?"
1ORACE "That's right. They drove cattle in, in the summer and of course then take
them out in the fall. Of course a lot of this country was just open land then.'
The only foreign people that were in here in the early days that amounted to
anything were the Finnish people. Of course they was all really respected,
highly respected same as everybody else. There were no race riots or anything
like that."
JOE "Can you give us a typical day when you were eight, twelve years? What did
you do, when you got up in the morning ?"
HORACE "When I was twelve years old I'd do as much on the ranch as a lot of people.
Worked four horses on the plows;- In the summer I'd rake and mow the hay."
JOE "I think in those dpys you worked as soon as what ever you could lift."
' HORACE "That's right. I could ride a horse and drive when I was six years old. I
could do pretty good at that."
'iJOE "So probably a typical day if you was haying or hauling hay. And on your
Sundays what was the Sunday like in your family ?"
HORACE "They went to church some usually."
JOE Nas there a church around or did they just hold church ?"
HORACE "No, just held church in the schoolhouse. Then this old man Washburn he
used to preach, he preached here quite a little round in homes. His wife
and my grandmother were sisters. E.E. Auxier came in here pretty early. He
came in here before I was very old. I don't remember what year bit I would say
around 1400.
Page 9
JOF "Do you remember the first doctor that was in here ?"
HORACE "Yeah, Dr. Tuttle. He lived just right up north and across the river from
where Sugar Loaf is. He had a homestead tip there. He's the one that brought
me in the world."
JOE "I noticed in the Long Valley Advocate in 1904 they mention him quite a lot.
So many people had typhoid fever and pneumonia. Seemed like that's what
was killing most of them."
HORACE "They had that epidemic of diptheria, too. And that killed a lot of people.
I heard my dad tell about the morning I was born. He started out to get
Dr. Tuttle add that was up there ghere I told you, Sugar Loaf. IIe got over to
Van Wyck and Boni Whittley asked him where he was going and he told him.
Boni told him to come on home and he'd to get the doctor. And he got the
doctor."
JOE "You say that was Boni Whittley? Did he have a store there at Van Wyck ?"
HORACE "No, he at that time was the mail carrier."
END OF SIDE ONE
JOE "You started to tell about this Whittley, what did he do ?"
HORACE "At that time he was the mail carrier, he carried the mail, I think twice a
week."
JOE "They had a stage so they could run passengers at that time. They ha.I to come
up through Sweet, Ola.."
HORACE "They come up through.Sweet and Ola and then into High Valley when they crossed
the Liver at Smith's Ferry and come over into Round Valley and then come up
Page 10
HORACE "through Round Valley."
JOE "How did the doctor get around? In buggies mostly ?"
HORACE "Horseback or with a buggy that's the only way they had. In the wintertime
it was sleds."
JOE "What were some of the holidays, Horace ?"
HORACE "Well, they usually had the celebration at Van Wyck or somewhere around on
the Fourth of July. We usually had a Christmas program somewhere. That was
about the two holidays that we really celebrated."
JOE "Did they generally have a speaker or something on the Fourth of July ?"
HORACE "Lots of times they would. They'd have a speaker then they'd have horse
races. They usually had a picnic lunch. Lots of times there would be some
singing."
JOE "And the National Anthem. Of course at Christmas, the Christmas program
they always had a tree."
HORACE "That's right."
JOE "When was some of the first churches built? Do you remember ?"
HORACE "The first one that was built over in our part of the country wns built at
Thunder City. I don't remember just exactly when that was but it was in the
early 1900's."
JOE "Do you remember what denomination it was ?"
HORACE "It was Methodist. Fred Logue, they was Methodist people and they was the ones
that got the church started."
Page 11
JOE
"Was there ever a church at Crawford?"
IIORACE
"Never was a church. We always had the
church in the schoolhouse."
JOE
"And how about Van Wyck? Did they have
a church ?"
HORACE
"Yeah, they had a church. In fact they
had two. When the Auxier's came in
they built that Babtist church."
JOE
"Do you know about what year that was ?"
HORACE
"Well, I don't know exactly. But that
was in the early 1900's. I wasn't a
very big kid. That Babtist church they
moved it over, it was the first school-
house they had in Cascade. After that,
when they built the schoolhouse then
they used it for the court house. When
you and me were commisioner that's where
we met. That was the old Babtist church
in Van Wyck."
JOE
"What other school did you go to, Horace
?"
HORACE
"The only school I ever went to outside
of over here at Crawford I went to
Van Wyck two terms. I went over there
two six month terms. That's where I
graduated out of eighth grade. That's
the only school I ever went to outside
of going up to Moscow them two years.
That short course in agriculture."
JOE
"Something about the social life. Did
they ever have literary society down
here that you knew of ?"
HORACE
"I don't believe they did. I don't ever remember it."
JOE
"I seen in 1905 they started one at the
Star school up there. Named a president,
secretary, so on. I know when we came
in toe always had it on Friday nights.
Page 12
JOE "They'd have programs and singing or recitation, a play or something. Some-
body would talk on something special. They had some of them that were good and
some were boring to us kids. I noticed in the paper that it seemed like some
of these special dinners and things they had, their suppers, they'd have an
oyster supper. Do you know where they get the oysters ?"
HORACE "No I don't. They'd have to order them ahead. They'd have to be canned."
JOE "I see where Neebs had had a social, they called it a social, and they served
oyster supper."
HORACE "They'd have had to been canned because that time they had no refrigeration."
"How long did it take to bring a freight team from Boise? From Boise and
back?"
HORACE "Well, it took about eight days. About three days to go down, then be down there
a dry and took about four days to come back."
JOE "Took wagons. A wagon and a trail wagon."
HORACE "Yeah, we never did. Dad always just took four horses and a wagon. The
year that was ten years old we took about four horses and a wagon and took
an extra team. He bought one of them little ton wagons. He used to peddle
meat around quite a lot. And he used that wagon for than and they put a ton
of freight on that and I took this old team and I brought thaw team back up here.
I was ten years old."
JOE "About how much would they haul when they had four horses on them wagons ?"
Page 13
HORACE "He had thirty -five hundred."
JOE "That would be about a typical load. Hardly ever hold over two tons."
HORACE "You know two tons is a big lopd."
JOE !'Can you remember freight teams going into Thunder Mountain ?"
HORACE "I cen remember one year they baled some hay up there with one of these old
horse powered balers. My dad baled a little hay there, a few loads. They hauled
that into Thunder Mountain. It wasn't baled very tight then. I can remem-
ber when they were hauling that stuff in there."
JOE "They bought oats from you, did they ?"
HORACE "I don't remember but they might've. In them days we didn't have no thresh-
ing machine: Only just a little old threshing."
JOE "I see where Joe Webster got two and a half for his, some of his oats.
And I don't know whether that was for seed oats or what because he said that
Thunder Mountain was using most of the grain out of the valley. And they
offered him two six bits for the rest of his oats but he wouldn't sell. He
thought he would get three dollars for them. That was pretty good price for
oats at that time."
HORACE "That was Joe Webster, he was at Horseshoebend, though, wasn't he ?"
JOE "lio, well it was J.C.. Didn't he have the homstead there where the hot springs
was ?"
HORACE "There was a Webster there, yeah."
Page 14
JOE "I think that's the one they meant. I see where it mentioned that Ruff
Conyers lived over in Scott Valley. Did he homestead over there. It;�aaid he
was in town from there. I was just wondering if he did."
HORACE "I don't think he ever homesteaded there. No, Ruff lived out here."
JOE "How many homestead were there in Scott Valley? Do you remember ?"
HORACE "In the early days, the Scott's were the only ones in there. That's where
the old Taylor place was. And the Taylor's homesteaded. There was quite a
few homesteads there in the later years. That was quite a while after
Scott's. See, the Besscher's came in there and the Haid ey's. They all
homesteaded in there. And the Atwaters, the two Atwater brothers they both
homesteaded in there. There was quite a few in there then but I never knew
of Ruff Conyers having,a place in there. The only man M. Williams, he home-
steaded in there."
JOE "What was some of the social life around you, Horace? Dances ?"
HORACE "Dances. Oh they had dances. Dances practically every week. Then there
were just a few churches. Not very many churches..Sunday school and picnics.
And then that's about all the social life there was. In the wintertime, ya
know you used to bunch of them get together and put on a show and stuff like
that. There wasn't a whole lot of social life there really wasn't."
JOE "Most of them skied though, I suppose."
HORACE "Lots of skiing. We used to ski a lot. When I was a kid we used to go up on
top on this hill here. Go clear into the timber. There wasn't no railroad.
This was all just one big field. Slide that old toboggan, we had to watch
Page 15
HORACE "out. You had to stop a lot of the times to keep from hitting the trees!
We skied down there, too. It was a good hill."
JOE "How did you meet your wife ?"
HORACE " I met her at a dance."
JOE "How -many children do you have, Horace ?"
HORACE V'We never had any. But I had one daughter my first marriage,"
JOE "How did the people used to entertain in their homes ?"
HORACE "Well, they'd have parties and dinners. In them days they done a lot more
visiting then they do now. They'd go around to different homes and have big
dinners. There were a few families had organs, weren't very many pianos.
And they'd sing with them."
JOE "Some of them-had fiddles."
HORACE "Yeah, some fiddles, There was a lot of deal like that."
JOE "Tell us about when you first went into politics."
HORACE "Well, I've been on the school boards and the city hoard and stuff like that
before but the first time ever run for office was in'28, county commisioner."
JOE "Served how many years ?"
HORACE "I served thirty -six years. Never was out. Instead of running for County
Commisioner that time I run for Representative. And I was Representative
four years. I never was beat at all, forty years."
JOE "Like the town of Crawford, did they have a city mayor or council or anything ?"
HORACE "Oh no, just a town."
JOE "It run itself. It didn't have any cop or marshal or anything."
Page 16
HORACE "Never had;tno thipgatatabll`:"
JOE "Well, in Van Wyck did they have a marshal ?"
HORACE "Well, they used to have a cop over there part of the time. You see at that
time Crawford and Van Wyck before Cascade was built, well till 1917 we was
at Boise County. We didn't i3ven have a deputy sheriff a lot of the time.
The sheriff was there in Idaho City so we didn't have very much law."
JOE "When was Cascade started ?"
HORACE "I think the first building was about 1911. That's when they vas building
the railroad, Mrs. Jones come over and build the post office. I never did
know just what the deal was on that. But is seemed like the one that got
started there first got the post office. She had that post office for years.
Then LaFever had a home over there then moved the old pool hall from Van
Wyck and the Emery Hotel. Then along about 1912 to '14 was when Cascade,
was really when Cascade was started."
JOE "When did the train first come in there, about 1912 or '13?"
HORACE "I think it was 1912. Pretty sure it was."
JOE "Then it got to Donnelly about '13 and McCall at '14. They built the grade
down here before they did up there, too I think."
HORACE "Yeah, they started build on this grade in 191.0."
JOE "Did they name Cascade then ?"
HORACE "The railroad name Cascade."
JOE . "They didn't have a station here at that time."
i
Page 17
HORACE "Yeah, they built a depot right here then."
JOE "Before the railroad was laid."
HORACE "Yeah, I believe they did, It might have been right after. You see, my dad
got this right of way for them, a lot of it. That was in the agreement that
they was supposed to build this station here."
JOE "So that Van Wyck, Crawford and Thunder City would all come together and make
the town of Ccascaee."
HORACE "I think the some thing happened up at Roseberry, too."
END OF SIDE TWO
)RACE "Levi Kimbell had the first paper at Van Wyck, the Van Wyck Times. Ralk
Womack took over the paper and called it the Cascade Dews."
JOE "And Kimbell got to be appointed Justice of the Peace. I don't know whether he
was judge before they changed the county or after they changed it."
HORACE "It was after, I think before he was Justice of the Peace. Kimbell was."
JOE "Cause I know they called him Judge,"
DOUG''` "Were you serving as commisioner then, during the time that they built the
Cascade Dam ?"
IiORACE "Yeah"
DOUG "Hdw,.long did it take? The actual construction of the dam, say from the time
they started to the time that.."
HORACE "Well, you see they started the dam -"
JOE "They cleared it first, didn't they ?"
Page 18
HORACE "Well, not all of it, no, They finished the clearing, a lot of it after they
had the dam built. It took longer to do the clearing than it did to build
the dam."
DOUG "What was the clearing? Did they cut the trees ?"
HORACE "Yeah, see where all this lake is, up through here there was a lot of that.
And that river bottom was covered in heavy timber. They started that dam
just before the World War II. Then during the war they shut that thing
down for I think two years. It might have been three years. I don't know.
Then they finished it after the was was over,"
JOE "That's why it took so long to build it."
HORACE "I moved this house in hre in '47. When we moved the house here they were
starting to fill it that year. They started to fill the dam then. They had the
water up, we had to go over to the Van Wyck bridge. We couldn't come across
the other way. Couldn't get across Willow Creek 'cause it was flooded. So
you had to go to the Van Wyck bridge and get on the highway there. I moved this
house in here from over on West Mountain about four miles."
JOE "This is Bob Dunns' house,"
DOUG "Did you have a homestead over on West Mountain ?"
HORACE "No, I bought this house."
JOE " Dunns' place was covered with the lake. He just b4tlt this house, I think."
HORACE "Yeah, well, he built it in 128. So it isn't a new house."
DOUG "Hose did you move it? With a truck ?"
Page 19
HORACE "Yeah, this Huckstep that's a house mover now? His dad. This kid that's
moving houses now was just a little kid. His dad moved the house. This kid
was working there. He was twelve years old. The old man was learning him how."
DOUG "When the Cascade Dam was built did they use local people for labor ?"
HORACE "There was quite a lot." I worked dome on that clearing, at the last. I had
� team here then. They had a bunch of stuff that was hard to get. Muddy places
and
deep down in the
gulches,
ya know.
Bill Evans and me and we went over there
and
gathered up some
of that
junk with
that team."
JOE "You logged too quite a bit, didn't you ?"
HORACE "Yeah, I logged one winter."
JOE "You hauled logs."
:,ACE "Yeah"
JOE "Did you cut them or just haul them out ?"
HORACE "I just slayed them. That was the first logs that was put in this mill. It
was in '23 for old Joe Dowden is the one that built the mill."
JOE "Where did Joe get his timber ?"
'HORACE "Ile got the timber in the Forest Service right out back of the old Crawford
ranger station."
JOE NIn t winter was that, Horace? Was that before Boise - Cascade started ?"
HORACE "Oh no, that was in '24 or ' 74. I believe the winter of '23 and '24. Boice-
Cascade moved in here in 1916."
JOE "Yeah, I worked for them in '16. How long didJoe run the mill ?"
Page 20
HORACE "Joe never did run it. He built it and got these logs in there and he run out
of money. He couldn't do nothing and some of us fellers had:some stock in
that mill and we lost that. I lost a thousand dollars. Old Joe he got part
of his money and he sold out to this Echles Lumber Company."
JOE "Are they the ones that brought in the railroad that they hauled them on ?"
HORACE "Yeah, the Narrow Gauge Railroad."
JOE "What kind of engines did they have on that. Just the same as the Boise -
Cascade had, or I mean Boise - Payette ?"
HORACE "Yeah, only they were a narrower track."
JOE "Only narrow track."
HORACE "They've got one of them down in the mill now."
JOE "Boise- Payette, they welt and sold theirs for junk, Now they with they had
one of them. They were the only ones that were ever built like that. And
they sold out to Halleck & Howard, didn't they ?"
HORACE "Yeah"
JOE "And then they quit...And started logging with trucks didn't they? It was about
then.'' How many feet of logs did you haul on a sled ?"
HORACE "Well, I averaged pretty close to four thousand feet."
JOE "And they were short logs."
HORACE "Yeah"
JOE "That's on what they called a Hinkley Sled."
Page 21
DOUG "How long did it take for the resevoir to fill up after the dam was built ?"
JOE "It filled in one spring. I don't know whether they filled it clear to the
top."
HORACE "No, they didn't fill it clear full the first. Not for two or three years.
I don't know hos long it would have took. But they let it out. I don't know
why they did that. I don't know why they, I guess they wanted to see that
everything was all right."
DOUG NbAt did they do with the old grave yards that were located under the resevoir?"
HORACE "There was no grave yards I don't think under this dam. None that I know of."
"There might of been somebody buried there."
wv "What was the local reaction to the dam at the time it was built ?"
HORACE "Well, sir, there wasn't as much opposition as you'd a thought. Of course
a lof of them hated to see it but there was some of them fellas wanted to sell
out. They didn't get nothing for their land either. About twenty -five dollars
an acre. It was right after that depression and everything and so they picked
a real,:-.ripe time to get it."
DOUG "So people were just ready to pull out."
JOE "Yeah, there was a few that kicked about it, Seems like Ed Davis told me that
he didn't want to sell too bad."
I'HORACE "Any of the fellas that were trying to do something."
JOE Yeah, but a lot of them wanted to get rid of their land."
HORACE "I got into a law suit over mine and I got just about twice what they were
Page 22
HORACE "paying most. But by the time I payed my lawyer I only got a thousand."
DOUG "So you had some land ?"
HORACE "That railroad went through thirteen or fourteen forties and then they covered
it, some of it on the other side, besides."
JOE "You see the railroad had to make that bit turn up around there. I talked to
Ed and did they help him locate a place over by Salmon or something ?"
HORACE "He went from here down to out of Baker. What's the first town this side of
Baker? A little town there. He got off there. That's where the first ranch
they went to. They might of helped him, now I don't know about that."
JOE "He told me they were trying to settle him over around Salmon at one time
and he didn't want to go. So evidently he changed his mind and went over there.'
END OE SIDE THREE. AND INTERVIEW
;,
s�
lforrce r,, kttet: aon
with Joe Bennett
Page 1
"Phis is as conversation between Joie Bennett and Horace Patterson about Boice
I JOE
County. We wcre part of Boise County, Horace. / Can you remember some of the
I
res�wyrd F sie viers eye had that were from Lona Valley, that were Boise County
I
I
MUM
"Lour Gordon was are from our part of the country. He lived of Smirhe Forrry
Ifor a long time and then he moved to Crawford. He was cormissioner once while
he 1 +acs €t Crawford."
i
w31 "I ren,..mbe:r sometimes we had to go through five cou-tties to get to the cozy aty
ec&t. We went on Lhe train. We'd go to Mea r5ows end VA aar, Doiae thre ugh
Piga_Cte, then Ads County P, -,d on up to Idaho City."
l? "7�ACi� "U Cozy %.-ent erirh a tewm they 1ked to go clear into Coo County. �'cm(..- of tLo
oth:ar of"icirals that w s frow our county was Bckrod from rtr puck and Cant-roil.
end 13?avrehe Beaseker w tee was county superir-tenlent for years. I don't ltzow of
any culutr� , av
!I Jag
'Vas Ytai:res as road, Horace, that went straaight through? Could you go from
I
�Round Loral ley over the hill to Garden Valley ?"
i
kCl ""Die "ie on y � zwy you could gm fror, Round Valley over. the bill to gercden V'41 1(-'y was
i e wade —1 a horse. Mere waa a trail through there avid it come out at the old
Scriber ranch.
"
SOB "1"hete never was any road."
103ACFr
a'rhere never was a road that you could get through with a team. 'Then &fter you
got into Gordan Valley these vnv kind of a road up over that cunnit there ?gut
° f.t was a rurally rou3li ,Load."
y
Page 2
'I JOE "So along about 1916 I think they tried bo get cut off as Valley County and
they finally made ib in 1917."
"That right, n
HORACS� a ght, in 1917 Valley County was forr.;ed.
JOE '; %ho was county comeiissioner at that time ?"
i
HORACE 'yell, the first cosmuissioners were Jimxiy Hatrtzel and Leaf Cantrall and my
father, Dilly Patterson. That whole set of officers were appointed at that
E
ti a by Alexander. Alexander was governor and appointed all the county officials."
JOE "uho was - -some of the others? The sherrif and the county treasurer."
i
HORACE "The sherrif was Iner Sherril and the treasurer was that girl. I can't right
now tell you her nmae, as redhead."
JOE "She was one of the Harale girls."
MRACE
ME "Well, was she county treasurer for cwhile? The ilaara:laa girl."
RACg "fas, but ohe was elected afterwards.'
!JOE 'Iho was the clerk ?"
ROIMCF. "Tracy"
JOE 'Te had a ranch right down here, Cruisin owns it now. lie was the rinci al
P p
at the high school at Roseberry for awhile."
(HORACE "Judge Kimball was the judge, Levi Kimball."
JOE Nho was the deputy sherrif."
HORACE "I don't remember."
JOE "Who was elected then first after they was elected ?"
IBDRACE "Then the next time it was Hartzel and Cantrall and Steve Dowl I believe."
Page 3
JOE "I think that's right. I rememdber working on the roads. J.P. Johnson, Bob
'I McBrides' grandfather, was road boss up here of that time. Can you remember
i
when Bob Wilson was first elected? Was he the second sherrif we hed up here ?"
i
HORACE "11o, Bob Wil ®on was elected sherrif for the first time in '28."
JOE '"bo was the sherrif before that ?"
I
HORACE "Deggs was in there before that. There ties t-vo or three sherrifs in there but
Daggs was there several years."
JOE "That's right. Well, can you remember who started the road down the canyon?
Who was commisRionere at that time? Do you remember ?"
�HORACB "I can't tell you. One of the main instigators in trying to get that road
down the canyon was Bob Coulter whan he was state representative. Y don't
remember who the conni.ssioners were."
JOK "Seems to me we met with Bob Coulter wtien he was state representative and
Bob Kalferty when he was state senator and Dick Rutledge with • •, the regional
£orert."
i HOi2ACE
"And Carl Bro:m was stuck on that. tie helped to get that read down there."
"But I remember we had a meeting with Coulter, you and Dave Kerby and I. Ve
i�
i
had a meeting with Coulter and Helferty in Boise and Dick Rutledge. Rutledge
wanted a job for his tether- in -taw, old man Fottenger. B e said if we got a
job for his father -in -law he'd see that we got all the forest money for that
road. So they had to make a door in the Senate chamber for Mr. Potterger to be
he mo to het build the road down the cent ore."
a door watcher. We got t nay p y
Page 4
HORACE "I'd forgot about that. I remember when we met down there."
E "We about lost it because the supervisor down here for the Boise Forest got
drunk and kind of spilled the beans on it.' But that was some of the first
horse trading I ever saw in politics. Dick Rutledge said that old man 4o ttenger
kept the Republican part alive in Long Valley and he thought he ought to be
rewarded. Edell, when I first started there were very few of Ry roads that had
even been graded."
HORACE "There was very few. All the grading at that time and several years after that
was all done with horses."
,Egg "T'uey finally bought that big wheel tractor. I remember I worked with them one
year on that. It was alright when it was going down hill but it wouldn't
hardly pull itself up hill."
11DRACES "Me first machinery that we ever had that done us any good towards grading the
roads was that Cat. We got that and that old, wheel grader and it got pretty
good.
.f
1pg ,,Jerry Logue run that Cat for us a year or two."
HORACE "I don't remember when we did get the first patrol but that was a few years
later."
`3DE "I had twenty -five hundred dollars that I turned over to the Forest Service
to fix the road from McCall to the other side of Burgdorf toward Warren. I
remember once I turned that over and they didn't want to spend any of it till
44 fall. The road got so bad you couldn't hardly get up to Silven Reach.
I Scribner was the supervisor and he didn't want to spend any of it and he wanted
to put the road in good shape to go through the winter. But most of the road
Page S
lJOE "work was done with horses."
iHDRACE "At that time we had a road boss -for a certain district. I think I had three
or four road bosses under any dietrict. I don't know how many you had."
301 "Lee Williams was my ruin one."
HOR.ACE "I had Charlie Hall and Dan Cantrall in Round Valley for a while. In High
i
i( Valley I had that Bectal, that big falls. I forget his first name now."
I
JJDE "I don't remember when we first started to put gravel on, I think it was provably
in the '30. I know the first gravel they put on up here they had that CUA and
they hauled gravel. I let them dig a pit on my place."
HORACE "I'he first gravel I ever remember putting on after I was cowissioner was put
on the road from Cascade to Caabarton.- They put it on with horses and salons.
They had than old durr_p boards. You'd drive dotim the road and then turn them
boards over and it's dumps them."
ijJOE "Merlin Francis, when was he elected sherrif? Was he sherrif before Bob Wilson
Iwawa ?"
HORACE "No, aftenuards. He was sherrif after Jerry Logue was."
JOH "Well, it was you and I and Dave Kerby that was elected there in '28. Veen
Charlie Cantrall took Dave's place."
HOR.ACE "flow long was you c issioner ?"
!JOE "I was commissioner just two terms, four years."
i
1 HOR,ACE "F3ho took your place ?"
i
JJOZ "Bill McCall. Then I had some Democrats come and aske me if I would run on the
Democratic party, they were hawing a recall election. I'd had about enough of
it. It took too much time.
Page 6
HORACE "You were smarter than I was!"
I
'JOE "You were on there a good many years. Who all did you serve with, Horace ?"
HORACE Vell, there was Bill MrcCall. Cherlie Cantrall took Dave Kerby's place. Then
Hasb000k took Cantrall's place. E ahoney took Ben mayor's place. I wes there
thirty -six years as county commissioner. Then I was four years on the legisl-
ature, I was in forty years."
JOE `When did you start on the fair board, llorace ?'Were you one of the starters of
l'he fair? Whone idea was that in the first place?"
HORACE "[dell, the first z: County fair they had was downn here at Lake Park. When they
moved it down to Ctaecade and had it at the schoolhouse they pot me on the
boe.rd and I've been there ever since. I don't remember what year that won."
JOE 'Hhenwe started the Upper Long Valley Grange I was a charter member. I remember
y� we had a3 fair."
HORACE "Oe had it down here in the old Finn Hall, the first one. I had nothing to do
with that. But when they moved down to Cascade they aterted having it at the
schoolhouse and they put we on the board there."
ME "Then they finally got it moved over to the fair grounds."
MRACE "fes, and now it's quite a little fair.. how, we're short of ground, we haven't
got room enough!"
JOE "Well, there's quite a lot of difference the way they build the roach dncw &days
too. I remember even courderoying some roads. It was too far to haul gravel
to them so was just cut some timber and plat..: in there and cover them up."
Page 7
IiaRACE "I'm not sure but I think Bob McBride, lien Mahoney and me was commissioners
j I think vhen about the first oiling was Gone. I think we was the three that
g. years, oiled a few miles each
started the ailin ktar oiled there far two flares
year. We just had to lay it at that tine, lay it with graders. Plow, they've
gat quite a lot of oiling in Valley County."
JOE "When they layed out the highway, seems like I was commissioner when they
started the highway. I remember when they l,revelcd that highway, first.
Several years after they got the road built they graveled it, even. Than they
startod tha Farm to Market road. I don't remember whether I wets on the board
then. Seems like I was wbon they were surveying it. Over there on the hill
anotth of the Finn church I come along there and I was talking to this curveyor
and he was running a line out through this field. I asked him why and he said
i
he couldn't get down that hill. Well, the old road went down the hill and I
couldn't see why the new road couldn't o down the hill end it dl.d."
c y g
HORACE "That rv.-fm to Market was built in three sections, three different times."
JOE "I think so. They surveyed it several years quite a few times before they got
it built."
WRACE "Down there at Johnny Shaw, I never will forget there. When they got there
they could just make a little bend, you can't see it now, but they made the
bend. This engineer did want to do it. Mrs. Shaw didn't went the road to go
to her house and I di& 't blame her, there was no use putting it there. I told
that engineer there's no sense putting that road there against that louse, let's
put it up here and it never will bhow and it won't cost no more money. Ile finally
i
Page 8
HORACE "agreed to do it. Then every time I'd see hire he'd always ask me that that
Shaw women had on me. But there was no sense at all in putting it down there
it was just because he was the engineer."
JOE "Sometimes an engineer is hard to understand. I remember about this road right
out here. There was a bid; mud hole every spring right out in front of the
association house. Boydatun and I went down to Cascade to meet with Joe gall.
Was he the state road boss rt that time? It was Joe comething. Anyhow, he said
well we met with one of the state engineers and him. They told Boydstun to put
a french drain in this deal up here. So when we was coining hinne Billy said,
'Joe, what's a french drain ?' I said, 'dell, I don't know, don't you know what
a french drain is ?' he said 'ilo' I said, "Uhat are you gonna .do ?' he said,
'Y'm just gonna haul a lot of rock and put it in there.' He told me he htulcd
a thousand loads of rock and put in that nud hole. Then I saw hire end the next
spring the road stood up real goad. He said one of the engineers core to him
and said boy, that's the best french drains I ever caw! We built a french drain
when we didn't even know what we was building. That `.as when Billy ryas in
charge of this section of the state ;highway. I was down at Bob Halfertyy's
one time and this Joe called up and said it was imperative for Bob and me to
tweet him at Meadows. Bob said, 'What Cho hell does imperative mean, Joe ?' I said
to get over there d .n quick I guess. We went over there, Bob and Betty end I.
Betty was just a girl. Bob just muttered all the way over there, 'Imperative
imperative.' he was just madder than a hornet all the way over there. What
Page 9
.IDS "trey met for was Oien Hoydstun had to cuit, he had a nervous breakdovn. S.,
they had a meeting and of course I and Hettj we wereu't invited to this
meeting. So we come down to eat our lunch and they wv s all gloomy end said
they didn't know who they was gonna gat to take his il)lrace. I said vhy don't
1
you hire Willard Boydstun7 They said I was crazy and 'said he know more about
roads than his dad ever did and he done all right. Finally Joe said yeah
I guess maybe he did. . e
�o they hired Willard and Willard teas there till they
had a change in administration. I can't remember the year that hapnened."
HORACE "That was a long time ago."
l Jo$ "I romeber having a row with Andy Little over running a brand of : sheep over
a ro&d out here by Lardo when we built thbt new bridge. We hired the Denneson
brothers aawad I was connissioner to build this concrete bridge that's in ti #ere
now across the river. There was ouite a Credo there and Andy run a band of
sheep over it and tromped the devil out of its it was kind of sandy. Somebody
complained about it end he told us they invited hire to drive a band of sheep
down any street in Chica o and here we zrouldn't let him drive the damn sheen
through Laardo! tie was pretty upset about it. I can rer.^ember when the
Warren road was just about a trail. I remember Ed Lessen ,,Alen he had thepail
line he bought one of those rucad trucks, W -D's they called them.. I met
Harry Murphy up there one tune and he stopped. He had a pick handle tied a-
cross the wheel so he could handle it, the road was so darned rough and bad.
The water was just running off of his face and I said snanething to him about
It. He said Hell I could walk it a lot easier than it is to drive this thing!
I think that was the first truck they used on the Marren mail line."
l �
Page 10
1HDRACE "The road into Warm Lake was just a trail at that time and now it's all oiled."
lvifa
"Can you think of anything Else that we could talk about except plowing snow?
I think Jerry Logue plowed the first road plowed by the county between
Donnelly and Roseberry to see how much it would coat. We 41as kind of afraid
that if we started plowing snow we'd break the county. We had him nlow it
from Donnelly to Roseberry, about smile and a half. and keep track of all the
fuel and the time and everything. He plowed it so much easier than we thought
he could that that was the first start of snow plowing, wasn't it ?"
IIORACE "Just about, all we had wan thet Cat and that 'v' made out of two big 1090.
Then he started plowing it and worked a little more and a little more."
IJOE "Finally we had a hard tine plowing till we Finally got those sccop mobiles."
IHoRAcE "They were the beat."
1,0E "They uere the ones that finally give us the chance to really plow snow. I
can remember the patrols would get stuck and they'd have to shovel them out."
IIORACE "No, it's really these fellas that got the little homes out in the county on
JOE
the highway are better off than the fellas in the city because they get
plowed out better then the city people."
"It sure made it a lot better place to live by having the snow plowed. before
when you got sick you wondered when you could get somebody into town and get
medicin. I've skied from my home to town a good many times. In fact. I wore
lout a lot of skis doing that. FThose good old times we used to have a lot of
fun and didn't have the tensions to contend with that we do now but at the
same time we live a lot easier then we did when we first cane in here. I can
Page 11
JC?B
,"remember some of the homesteaders that you coup purt'near throw a cat through
S
the roof of their houses and betmeen the logs on the side of them. I often
wondered how they kept from freeaing to death when they went to steep. Now
there are homes every-.iore in the valley and the Cascade Resevoir and the
dam was built.."
11ORACE " Q of the nicest homee we've got in Valley County are Gaut of the cities."
I
JO E "tech, they are."
11 RACE "On thing and I should have gone to the court house to find out but if I
remember right the budget was some FAicre around betveen fifty and seventy -
five thousand to run the Bounty when we first took over. Vow it takes that
much to run one office, the sheriff's office takes more than that."
JOB "The sheriff's office, I think, last year v6s 129 thousand dollars."
MRACE "Just about twice what it used to Zane to run the sole county."
i
JOB "what is the budget for this year ?"
TIORACE "They haven't printed it yet."
I JOB "Last year it saes over a million dollars for the county and there wasn't a
great racmymmore people last year Veen when we first come in the valley."
HORACE " lot twice as many."
l J0B "Well, when they run Stibnite end those mines back there the population of
Valley County was about as high as it's ever been."
WRACE "I think it was higher at that time then it is now."
JOE "of course, that's not to say in the summer time. In the summer tier! that's not
regular population that live here year round. It'ts hard to believe that there
was co many people here when Vou had a family on every 160 and most of them
Page 12
JOE 'had big families ay that tike. Then there was so many mineez around. Herman
Blackwell teller of his father and another fella starting to Tt,under Mountian
with a band of sheep and selling them all up here at Cesech Meadows."
END OF TAPE AID IPITERVIMI
ar-/yPyys- ll)p flecons
Patterson born o n father s
by Terry Smith
When Horace Patterson, 86, first
became a ValleyCounty Commissioner
in 1928, county workers used horses for
all the road work.
Heavy equipment similar to that
used today plowed the snow and
:vork %d on the roads at the end of
Patterson's 36 years as a commissioner
in 06,t.
The next four years', the venerated
Cascade resident spent in the Idaho
House of Representatives. "
Patterson also has the distinction of
being arguably the oldest native of
Valley County.'
His mother gave birth to Patierson
six years after his dad homesteaded a
ranch near Crawford, the extinct town
east of present -day Cascade.
Like so many others, Patterson 's
father wound up in Long Valley after
following up rumors about miles of
abundant grain set in a breath - taking
mountain valley.
Originally from near Greensboro,
N.C., the senior Mr. Patterson was
working on a ranch in Washington state
when he and another fellow decided to
move to this area.
"He was looking for a place to find
land," said Patterson simply.
His dad bought the store and a
blacksmith shop in Crawford in 1906,
Another extinct town, Thunder City,
lay .to the south of where Cascade is
now, he said:
The Thunder Mountain Boom in the
early 1890s conceived Thunder City as
a trailhead.
After supplying in the city, miners
set out for the Thunder Mountain gold
strikes over 75 miles to the east.
The famed Van Wyck, currently the
home of fish, algae and about three
trillion gallons of water, is the third
expired city to "precede Cascade.
Established as a post office station in
1888, Van Wyck was Long Valley's first
town. Cascade Reservoir covered the
store, saloon, livery stable,
schoolhouse and blacksmith.
The route of a newly built railroad
into Long Valley missed Van Wyck,
Crawford and Thunder City in 1913,
said Patterson, effectively signing
death certificates for the three short -
lived towns.
Pieces of the towns lived, though, as
residents moved both homes and
businesses to a section of land near the
falls of the Payette lucky enough to
have a railroad go through.
That town, of course, was Cascade.
"Most of the houses moved here in
the early days are torn down or burned
up," said Patterson.
The railroad was good for the valley,
he said, because "it opened the country
Horace Patterson drives the first logs into Cascade mik 1923.
imatest,e(W
For its brief period of existance Van
Wyck contained a hotel, newspaper,
"Before then you couldn't get
anything in nor out."
Before the railroad, said the former
commissioner, his father would take
him and sometimes his mother and
sister down to Boise on his, twice yearly
supply trips. "
Because the canyon was roadless at
:?ei- l :�77ia�, th;! pane _rspn'S would wagon
down through Round Vahey iv SMILithts
Ferry, haul over the hill into High
Valley, go over another hill to Ola, and
then follow Squaw Creek down to Boise.
Asked about cabin fever in the early
days, Patterson shook his head:
"We had plenty to do in the winter,"
he said. "We always had cattle to feed.
He added that people danced many of
the winter evenings at the Moonbeam
dance hall.
In the summer, he said, everyone
spent most of the time preparing for
winter. "
Before cars, said Patterson, people
didn't travel too much between
Cascade and McCall.
The house he now lives in at Hillerest
and the Old Highway originally stood
across the- reservoir, Patterson said.
In 1947, Jim Ready and Bill ' Hoff
helped" him move it with block and
tackle, end around end, to its present
site.
-THE STAR - NEWS-- THURSDAYe-Q IT. '290981
Horace Patterson poses with portrait
that hangs in Valley County Hospital.
Valley's elder
statesman dies
Long Valley's elder
statesman was buried
in Cascade Tuesday.
Horace Jackson Pat-
terson, 86, of Cascade,.
died Saturday in the
Valley County
Hospital.
Aside from being
arguably the oldest
native resident in Long
Valley, Patterson serv-
ed the area and the
state in a number of
ways all his life.
In honor of his ser-
vice and memory, the
county commissioners
authorized the closure
of the county court-
house Tuesday during
the funeral.
Patterson was coun-
ty commissioner for 36
years, from 1928 to
1964, a state legislator
Patterson was born
Dec. 20. 1894 in
Crawford, the small
town that bellied up in
the early 1900s when
the railroad was con-
structed through
present -day Cascade.
His parents, William
and Phalla Patterson,
were both of early
Long Valley
homesteading stock.
Phalla was a sister of
Merton Logue's
mother, and W.D., as
he was known locally,
homesteaded a ranch
near Crawford six
years before Horace's
birth.
Like his son, the
senior Patterson was a
Valley County com-
missioner for many
vears.
from 1964 to 1968 and a
member of the
Cascade School Board
for 15 years. He also
served as Cascade
councilman for two
years, the Valley Coun-
ty Selective Service
Board for three years,
and served many
years on the Valley
County Fair Board.
Patterson ranched
most of his life in Long
Valley. At various
times he operated a
meat market and dairy
in Cascade.
For many years, he
had a dairy barn up on
the hill beside the Old
State Highway. Accor-
ding to his friend
Woodie Bean, when
Patterson decided not
to milk his cow
anymore he sold the
barn and donated the
land for a hospital.
That site now is oc-
cupied by the Valley
County Hospital.
Recently, Patterson
donated an adjacent
piece of land north of
the hospital for possi-
ble future additions.
Patterson hoped that a
clinic could be added.
"He was a source of
strength to different
people when they got in
a bind," Bean said.
"It's hard to capsulize
on a person's life when
he did so much and liv-
ed so long."
Horace Patterson
was educated at
Crawford and attended
the University of Idaho
from 1914 -'16. He mar-
ried Mary Hamaker on
Oct. 4, 1916. He mar-
ried Bertha White on
Dec. 31, 1930, in Las
Vegas, Nev. She died
June 20, 1980, after a
long illness. He mar-
ried Ruth Sevy July 7
of this year in Cascade.
Patterson was a
50 -year member of
Ionic Masonic Lodge
No. 82. He helped
organize and donated
land for the Valley Bi-
ble Center.
He is survived by his
wife of Cascade; a
daughter, Virginia
MacGregor of Salinas,
Calif., and two grand-
daughters.
He was preceded in
death by a sister,
Grace Atkins.
Services were con-
ducted Tuesday at
Community Christian
Church in Cascade, by
Pastor Ron Neumann
and the Rev. James
Schneider, under the
direction of Heikkila
Chapel. His burial
followed in Margaret
Cemetery.
Memorials may be
made to the Valley
County Hospital, the
Idaho Youth Ranch,
Rupert, or the Com-
munity Christian
Church.
Horace Patterson, Horace Patterson with wife Bertha Patterson