Written by Ethel Colton in 1979
St. Valentine’s Day, February 14th will be a big day in the life of Charles Lafayette (Leff) Larson of Malad City. Leff was born on that day in 1879.
Leff is the son of Civil War veteran James Larson and his wife, Anna Sorenson Larson. The family left their home in Logan, Utah, headed for Oregon, in the fall of 1876, but due to reports of Indian trouble, they settled in the Malad Valley. Leff claims to be the first white “brat” born in the farming community of St. John, then known as Idaho Territory.
Leff grew to love hunting. He shot his first Jackrabbit at the age of six with a little shotgun made from a cut-down rifle. “They’d come into the crops and haystacks and devastate things,” Leff says. He went on many organized rabbit hunts where the men from St. John and Elkhorn challenged those from Samaria and Pleasantview. In one Oneida County drive Leff was champion with 350 of the 6,400 rabbits shot. Leff bought a $6.50 single barrel 12 gauge shotgun for these occasions. “I killed 100 rabbits above anybody on both sides with that little $6.50 gun,” boasted Leff. “The losers treated us to a chicken dinner, and a storming barn dance was held that night.”
Chief Pocatello was entertained as an occasional visitor at the Larson homestead. An old Indian named John stayed with them when Leff was a boy. They wrestled, hunted and fished, and worked together clearing the ranch of sagebrush. John showed Leff how to pull off an ambush, as Leff recalls, “after John crept through the sage for about an hour, he fired at a fence post–and missed.”
Leff recalls that timber wolves could be seen on the days when they went to the canyons for firewood. Occasionally, “a red fox would run over the ridge, shining in the morning sun like he was made of gold.”
Leff’s dad started in the horse business with about 50 head of cayuses. Leff herded them seven days a week. He wanted to be a bronco buster, but claims that “three jumps was all I could stay on.” A passing group of cowboys moved on with a larger herd, and the Larsons were left short of stock. This venture was followed by cattle and sheep.
At seventeen, Leff was sent to Evanston, Wyoming, in bitter winter weather with a sheep camp. There was no stove and only two quilts for this rescue operation. Driving the herd back after a summer in Soda Springs, disaster struck when they got into poisonous Larkspur. “Four hundred sheep dropped like flies,” says Leff. In the fall of 1903, Leff made a trip to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and was very impressed. He returned to Canada in the summer of 1904, but the season was so different that he decided to stay in the U.S.A.
The ranching business was never very rich, but figuring he had “as much right as anybody to starve one of the cute little cusses,” Leff married his sweetheart, Josephine Ruth Talbot, on Valentine’s Day in 1905.
Leff owned a 160 acre ranch with a log cabin on the Little Malad hollow. He and Josie lived on that ranch for 50 years until she passed away in 1954. Many evenings were spent reading romances and western stories by lamp or candle light. When their son, James Kenneth, was born in 1906, they bought another 160 acre ranch on the upper St. John bench. Their son runs it now, 73 years later. Leff worked these two ranches until old age forced him to retire.
Leff traveled to Los Angeles and San Francisco with his dad in 1912. In 1927, he took his wife to Portland, Oregon, in an old Ford. “We wore out five tires and many other critical parts in nine days. Ever since that trip, I’ve been careful where I went in a Ford car,” Leff remarked.
The main entertainment in the 1930s and ‘40s was talking with people as they shopped on Saturday night. Leff always enjoyed the crowd. His only political venture was as Uncle Sam, leading the Fourth of July parades on his white mare, “Doll.” He closely resembled the “Sam” created for military enlistment posters.
When the airline first started flights across the Valley, in about 1938, he and Josie went for a ride. “We got down in a little hole right over the engine. I thought I’d break my neck trying to keep from falling out. He twisted one way and then the other, but the rod we were holding onto didn’t break. Josie kept sliding over against me,” grinned Leff. “It felt like riding a cigar.”
About 1960, Leff finally moved to Malad, where he is currently living with his son-in-law and daughter, Roscoe and Ethel Colton. As he nears his 100th birthday, all of his descendants are living including: two children, three grandchildren, fifteen great-grandchildren and eight great-great-grandchildren. His daughter, Ethel Colton, was married in the Logan LDS Temple on one of his birthday anniversaries and a great-granddaughter, Maryjo Colton, plans to be married on this special day when Leff will be observing his 100th birthday. He and his daughter will note their wedding anniversaries.
May Valentine’s Day, 1979, be extra special for Leff and his family, who have truly made February 14th very meaningful for the entire Larson clan, and who will be thought of this and every year when Valentine’s Day rolls around. Happy Happy Birthday Leff!
Editor’s Note: Leff Larson died August 4, 1981, at age 102 ½.
Idaho Enterprise, July 6, 1984, p. 4, Special St. John Centennial Edition.
(Photo on the backside of this article of Mr. Leff Larson).