Adams Family History

HISTORY – GOLDA ADAMS FAMILY

NARRATED BY: MARGUERITE ADAMS POPE 1976

Marguerite Adams Pope tells this about her parents Golda and Opal Adams: They settled in the area up from Dead Ox Flat in the Moore’s Hollow District. At the beginning, Golda Adams and Opal Roe met at a 4th of July picnic and dance in LaVar Washington. They were married later in December, 1907 in Twin Falls, Idaho. My dad farmed with his stepdad out of Walla Walla on a wheat ranch. They moved to Nez Perce in 1911. I was born in 1908 at Milton, then they moved to Nez Perce in 1911. Jack was born in 1911. Later, they moved to Lewiston where Dad ranched and raised dry beans. They decided in March 1918, to move to Weiser, Idaho. Dad put all of his stuff in a freight car. They chartered the freight car and he put his farming implements, his household necessities, an Overland Roadster car, his milk cows and horses in. He rode inside so he could feed the cattle and the horses and milk the cows.  We came with Mom on the the train, passenger train, Jack and I.  It took father about six days to come from Lewiston. They moved across Dead Ox Flat to the point and off Moore’s Hollow. At first we lived in the old Titman’s house which was occupied then by my aunt and her husband, and little girl. The house was owned by Frank Davis, a dryland farmer and cattle rancher. Moore’s Hollow, by the way, is spelled MOORE’S. As near as we know, it was named for an early settler. Dad built a little cabin on our homestead land. Section would be laying west of the interstate now of Moore’s Hollow at the far end. We put down a well that brought in good water but when it came to school times we had to move down closer to school. The opportunity was presented by the Taylors that owned a ranch on down from the little school house and we moved there. The Haydens moved away.

My mother kept the teacher and boarded the teacher every year from then on until I graduated. The school was located on the corner of the land of the Hayden Ranch and Skardie Ranch. It was just a little school. Only about six pupils ever went there. Pearl Wallace was our first teacher that I had, Mrs. Hoyt Sorenson was my 5th-grade teacher. Frank Davis lived not too far from there. The Hoyt Sorenson’s had one little girl. The valley was settled with more people in it, then it is now.

There was the Robert Gillespies on the hill just above us and the Phillips, Pinkerton Phillips, they called him, and Crows, Clarence Crow, and Wesley Crow. There was Albers Hayden that moved away; George Harper, Gordon Arnie, Hartley Sorenson, and Albert Hansen up on the hill. Pete Keeney, Pete Grace bought the Hoyt Benson place and he sold it to the McBrides. Sam Hill owned some land west of us and the Frank Davis place.

After we had gotten settled down and going to school, Dad farmed the place. He was a good wheat farmer. He knew how to summer-fallow his land and to fertilize it. He planted rye around the wheat fields to protect it from the squirrels. At that time, there were so many jack-rabbits, we had to have bait drives. People from Weiser and throughout the flat would come and form lines and make noise to drive the rabbits all towards a rabbit fence enclosure, and there they could be slaughtered. It was the only way we could handle it at that time. Squirrels were abundant, and I guess they still are. But the only thing we could do for them was to poison them. Put poison in the springtime down the squirrel holes, which was a lot of times my job. In the early 20’s, the depression, it was rather hard times. We had chickens and cows to help make it through with the milk and eggs, and also boarding the school teacher nine months of the year. Then, they began to have combines, horse-drawn combines and did a lot. Before that, they did a lot of threshing with the thrashing machines. Then, they began to get tractors.

Dad had about 4,000 acres. After he moved down, the water came in on the Dead Ox, above the Dead Ox Flat. That was from the Owyhee Project in about 1937. So they bought land at the mouth of the old town and built a new house down there and farmed irrigated land. That would be about 1938. They sold to the Harvey DeHavens in 1944, about 4,000 acres. They farmed about 800, and the rest of it was rangeland. This new house that my folks built down there was the first house with electricity or modern conveniences. That made it rather nice for my parents. I was married by then. I was married in 1930 and Jack married in 1932. The Larees moved up and lived in Frank Davis’ house, and my husband came from North Carolina and worked for my Dad. That’s the way I met him. We were married in 1930.

Up on the homestead, we went through, seems to be so few people remember that. But it was a total eclipse of the sun. Having no radios or telephones, TV, or newspapers, we didn’t know what was happening, but it did turn dark. We went to the house and the chickens had gone to bed. The sun came back out, and they jumped off and crowed, and it was really funny. After we found out what had happened, then we knew what it was.

I don’t know how deep Dad had to go for water. I remember he had an old horse hitched and went round and round. It was Jack and me that had to keep the horse going. It was about 50 feet, that’s not really too deep. I remember the old blue muddy Nile that came up and smelled so terrible before we reached the water. The squirrels were so bad up there; we had bought some little chickens, and we had to invest in a rifle to shoot them. Jack got to be pretty sure shot when it came to hitting those squirrels. All of the families up that way burned sagebrush, and we would bring it in with a rope tied around and dragged them. Loads of it. I can still smell how nice it was.

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From Marguerite Adams Pope