HomeMy Public PortalAboutWaddell, Virgil and GeorgianayYS - 2** fit--)'/G)?S g23/s-
Waddell came to
Meadows with 65c
As Virgil Waddell herded fami-
ly , cattle from Twin Falls to,
Lewiston in July 1924, he spotted a
young woman in Meadows.
"I saw her across the street and
that ended the trip to Lewiston,"
Waddell, who will be 76 in July,
said of Geofgiana (McMahan)
Waddell, his, wife of 51 years: _"It
took me six/years (to marry her)
and I worked some overtime... I.
w,as` " going to meet tha_ t,.
schoolmarm_ . ' •
Waddell, who was born in Salt
Lake --City,- Utah -a-r,d i ove€1-in
Jackson Hole, Wyo. when he was
four. settled in Mead,'ws Valley
after spotting Georgiana.
As a youngster, Waddell recalls
seeing elk that were fed about 1912
in the Jackson Hole area.
Georgiana saw some of the same
elk in New Meadows.
Because the snow was so deep,
Waddell said; forest service and
fish and game people fed the elk in
Wyoming and took them to Victor,
Idaho to load them on trains
destined for other places.
Georgiana saw some of the
same elk being unloaded in New
Meadows and fed_ in the
stockyards before being let out on
the mountains.
Waddell said the elk headed
toward Mud Creek and it wasn't
until the elk season opened in 1935
that they scattered.
When the Waddells went to
Jackson Hole for their honeymoon
in 1931, Virgil said one thing he
missed was the piles of elk horns.
he remembers from his youth.
The animals shed their horns
every spring, he said, and people
had to get them off the meadows.
"There were piles of horns as,
'aig= as nouses," he said. "My
father said they shipped them out
of the country to build fence_ s and
furniture."
The Waddells' move from
to Twin Falls took place
in 1920.
Virgil Waddell, still tall in the saddle in 1982.
"We were pretty darn poor and
he (father) decided we could
make it better living in Twin
Falls," Waddell said.
The trip was by rail, with the
Waddells getting a box car for the
cattle, horses and furniture.
"I went in the boxcar with the
cattle," he said. "There was a
tram wrecx ana tnere was a
report my hip was broken but I
didn't get hurt at all.
"There was also a stowaway kid
in there. I was too young tobe on`
there. A man could go with each
car."
Before they made the move to
Idaho, his father made him sell
his horse and saddle,, telling him
"they weren't. popular."
"But I found they were so I got
me a saddlehorse after awhile."
he said."
The trip tb Ldwiston started
June 1 four years" later:..
Waddell's sister was in charge
of the furniture. His father, who
was extremely ill at the time, and
stepmother drove the family's
'covered waguii and he drove -the -
cattle: -
t°n's- flea iaiil 6pg/s a
...Waddells
"The old dog and I would start
out PArly in the morning." he said.
He'd travel until the cattle need-
ed to be watered, then wait for the
rest of the family to catch up and
they'd eat. The family would then
take off and he would wait until it
was cool enough for the cattle and
travel until he caught up with
them for the night. .
Making his way through Boise.
with 100 cattle was quite a sight.
They had just come through the
desert, he said, and. it was really
dry. .
"We came over the hill where
the depot is and went right up
Capitol Boulevard," he said. "The
women had their brooms and
mops and beat those cattle off
their flowers and yards."
"Without the help of those
women, he would never have got-
ten through Boise, Georgiana
said.
Once he made it through Boise,
he headed to where he thought he
was supposed to meet his family.
They weren't there.
"I stayed all night. The next
morning I started up the highway
on horse and met him looking for
me. That was the only trouble we
had on the trip:"
The highway at Horseshoe Bend
was just being built then, Waddell
said, so they came through Banks.
--t re_'d stop and T'd work on the
ranches haying," he said.
Blacksmiths along the way
were a help. •
"We would go to blacksmiths
and get horseshoes, like the ones
for race horses," he said. "We'd
put two pieces on each animal's
foot. They'd travel a pretty good
w They reached McCall' the day
before the fourth of July and
camped just outside the city.
Waddell and his sister were
pretty excited about staying in
McCall for the fourth.
"My sister and I loved to
dance," he explained. "I had 65
cents and she had 35 cents. It cost
a dollar to go to the July 4 dance."
That afternoon, he and his step-
mother had a quarrel and "I was
going to go back to Twin Falls."
"I never got to the dance," he
said. "I was going to eat with the
65 cents."
Waddell decided to continue on
with the family and after going
through Goose. Creek, which is
narrower than now, he spotted
Georgiana.
She taught grade school for two
years in the Old Meadows
Schoolhouse, which is now Dr.
Dale Smith's vet office. From
there she taught in Emmett for a
year and then in an Indian school
in King` Cove, Alaska one year.
"I was adventurous then," she
said., -
"I thought I had her corralled,".•
Waddell said teasingly. "I got her
to go to Alaska to help make a
wedding stake."
He defined a wedding stake as
"enough to _ buy the license and
have some food."
While Georgiana was away
teaching, Waddell worked at a
garage in New Meadows.
He later admitted Georgiana
may not have been the only
reason he stayed.
"This looked good to me, all the
green grass," he said. "I went to
work in the hayfield... and hayed
all over the valley.
"My father was .terribly sick.
He was here a few years and went
back to Salt Lake and then Teton
Basin."
Waddell cut logs for a time the
first fall he lived in the valley and
then worked at the sawmill for
almost four years. It was the
Kavettes' mill, he said, where the,
stockyards are now located.
".`The .box factory burned
down," he said. "One of the ran-
chers was there to help with the
fire. I said, `well, I'll be out to look
for a job."
The rancher was Floyd Camp-
bell, and Waddell worked for him
about two years.
The garage he worked at later
was the Meadows Valley Auto
Company, owned by C.C. Irwin
and located on the corner where
Shaver's now sits. It later burned,
he said.
When he and Georgiana first
married, they lived in New
Meadows.
"We milked a few cows on the
side and worked wood on
weekends," he said. "We finally
made enough money to buy 20
acres... That took all the money
we had, I'll tell you."
Their first land purchase was in
1936. After that they ran a retail
dairy and continued developing a
wood business. As they saved
money, they bought more land.
The Hamilton Ranch, 160 acres
south and a bit east of New
Meadows, was the next purchase,
and a few years later they bought
`tne adjacent 160 acres. .
"As time went on, we picked up
a few other places," Waddell said.
The Waddells were steady in
reaching their goal.
"I'd milk the cows and peddle
the milk," Waddell said.
Once people learned they could
be depended on for stovewood,
Waddell "made a business of it."
Wood was $4 a cord when he
started and he sold to several
families, the schools and
restaurants.
"At the start we pastured cattle
and had some of our own," he
said. "You have to work a ranch,
level it, get it in condition."
They gradually added on to
their cattle as they bought more
land. At the peak of their activity
they had about 480 acres and
would pasture the cattle and sell
them in the fall.
They never employed anyone
steady but "helped lots of boys" in
the area by employing them in the
spring. One of the boys, Lester'
(Cracker) Lowe was nine years
old when he came to the Waddells
/and stayed until he was about 20.
"We helped him through col-
lege," Waddell said. "He was the
only one of about eight children .
that got a college education."
In 1970 Waddell had hip surgery
qr - ?h'-s ),"(7&7i ins
•
...iGaddeUs
(Continued from Page C-8)
and, since he didn't think he could
run the ranch, the couple sold 320
acres.
They live at the outskirts of New
Meadows and continue to ranch
the 160 acres they have left.
"The city dogs are terrible," he
said, mirroring a common com-
plaint of ranchers in the valley.
"They chase the cattle. The cattle
gain (weight) and you get so
much a pound. They lose a lot of
gain if the dogs chase them."
In addition to the weight loss,
cattle suffer when the dogs chase
them by getting cripple if there is
a mishap dining a run.
- Reflecting on Meadows Valley,
Waddell said at one time it was a
ranching area. Each family
started with about 160 acres and
had a few cows and other animals
such as chickens.
-they just survived," he said.
"The places- we had (previously)
supported five families." .
Waddell counts himself lucky.
"I had 65 cents when I came
here," he said. "I had a pretty
'darn good ranch so I guess it
depends on the luck you have."
I "No, it's hard work,"
Jeorgiana said. "Stick-to-
tiveness."
"No, I'm sure we've been real
%Lrtunate.',' Waddell said- .-
Photo courtesy of the Waddcls
Elk were fed in New Meadows stockyard before being turned out in wn"a-