James Jeffreys

Mr. Jeffreys came to Weiser country from Willamette valley in 1864 and taking up 160 acres of land, engaged in stock raising. At the time he went to Weiser, the old Weiser house was the only building standing. It was known as the “Dead Fall,” a rough place although no murders were ever committed there as one would imagine from the name.

He was born in Jackson county, Mo, in 1844. He and his five brothers crossed the plains with their father with an ox team, being six months on the way. They located at Willamette valley in 1845, his father taking up what was known as a donation find claim of 640 acres which he sowed to wheat. The first year, having no flour, the family was obliged to live on boiled wheat. There were 200 wagons in the train under Captain Scott when the Jeffreys started. The father of the family died on the voyage from San Francisco to Portland in 1849 and was buried at sea.

If Mr. Jeffreys had any hobbies in the early days they might be said to be education and temperance. He donated an acre of ground at the mouth of Mann Creek for the first school house in the district, 32 years ago. A fine new school building has recently been completed on the site of the old one and the trustees have asked that Mr. Jeffreys picture be hung on the wall. The only picture which he ever had taken was 10 years ago in the first enthusiasm of the new Mason, with his apron. The picture is about eight by twelve inches and is colored. It will make a charming and historic addition to the school building, as well as serving to commemorate the memory of the generous donor who made the school possible.

Mr. Jeffreys was so interested in the cause of temperance that he persuaded Robert Mobley, at that time head of the Good Templars lodge of Boise, to come to Weiser on horseback in the early days to inaugurate a similar lodge there. The acquaintance made at this time between the two men ripened into a warm friendship which has never been broken,

Mr. Jeffreys says that the winter of 1864-65 was the most severe since the white settlement of this section. He believes that the thermometer went down to 40 and he knows that on the first day of March 1865, It was still bitterly cold. On that day he met three freight wagons coming from Umatilla, where freight was from water to land transportation, each of these wagons with its trail wagon required sixteen mules but the ice was so thick that, meeting them at Olds ferry, he did not wait for them to cross, but rode past all three while they were on the river. During this winter Mr. Jeffreys brother-in- law, John Monroe and son, hunted rabbits and their horses did not break through the crusted snow, which was twenty-eight inches in depth.

On the fourth of April the river was crossed on the ice. There were two feet of water on top of the ice but an intoxicated man drove safely over.

At that time there were four houses, those of Galloway and Monroe, Woodson Jeffreys, elder brother of James, Wm. Logan and N. Harris. The latter two had their families. Then and for several years later the Indians lurked outside the settlement. At one time they came to the ranch of W. Jeffreys at night, entered a granary where men were sleeping. pulled down harness lines hanging directly above the head of Jas. Jeffreys and going a few steps further stole a pair of trousers. The owner, George Williams, lost not only his trousers, but his watch, a twenty dollar gold piece and his supply of tobacco, the last of which was a cause of much mock sympathy.

Mr. Jeffreys brought cattle to Weiser in 1865. For many years the Jeffreys brothers were among the leading stock growers of the then territory. At the beginning of the Chief Joseph war in 1877 Judge Kelly, editor of the Statesman, in the interest of his paper came down from Boise with the first news of the outbreak. He brought guns-all the commandant at Ft. Boise had been able to send for the defense of the furthest outlying settlement, the Upper Weiser valley, to which place Mr. Jeffreys accompanied him.

The journey was made from Boise by stage and the first warning of danger was so given in the absence of telegraphic facilities. Most of the families came for safety to the larger Lower Weiser colony and Mr. Jeffreys returning on horseback passed many of them in their slower moving wagons. One group was greatly in want of water and Mr. Jeffreys recalls that he took a bucket and rode to a creek at a distance, bringing the water back in the open bucket on his horse.

Mr. Jeffreys has spent his life till within a few years in the “Indian country and speaks and sings “jargon,” remembering one long song in that language with which he still sometimes entertains his friends. Very few living people are able to either speak or understand that tongue, at one time a medium of communication common among all the coast tribes.

From The Idaho Statesman – Boise, Idaho – Sunday, April 30, 1911