George Daniels was born July 23, 1875 in Malad City, Idaho, Oneida County. He was the 5th child born to Thomas Daniels and Janet Thomas Dives. Those preceding him were Janet, Elva, Catherine and Henry and after him were born: Theodore and Dora, twins, and Annie. Catherine died very young and also the twins. George, my father, was born into a very unique family. His father, Thomas Daniels was a widower with five children, David, Daniel, Thomas, Sarah and Mary Jane. And Janet, his mother’s children were six in number: William, Verleum, Sarah, Joseph, Gertrude and John. So you see when they were married, 13 sat at the breakfast table. Thomas Daniels had a two room house with a dirt roof. He also had a two room granary where they stored their wheat and oats. Their meat was cured and buried in the granary where it kept very well. The granary was also used for sleeping quarters for the boys. I remember Aunt Gertrude telling me it was her and Ted’s job to keep the granary clean and they scrubbed the floor with lye they made out of ashes in the part that did not have the grain in. The girls slept in the house on clean straw ticks that were laid out on the floor. Then in the morning everything was put in one corner and the house was kept neat and clean. You could ask any of them and they said they lived good and were very happy. The clothes problem was easily taken care of as all they had was one change of clothes so it necessitated a lot of washing with a washboard by hand in a wooden tub.
They all went to church on Sunday in clean clothes. Two of Grandpa Daniels’ sons married two of Grandma’s girls and moved out on farms. Father and his sisters and brothers used to have fun when someone would ask them who their brother Dave married and they would say, their sister Gertrude, and their brother Tom married their sister Sarah. Can you imagine a worse mix-up than that? People would think they were nuts until they explained the situation. Can you imagine a family of 19 children and the parents making a total of 21 eating 3 meals a day? So it was for a while until some moved out.
Their schooling consisted of about 3 months in the winter time. But they did learn to be very good penmen and got a good foundation in Mathematics.
One fourth of July, as George was crawling through a fence, a gun that he was carrying went off, and shot him through the leg. He was laid up all summer and was lucky to be alive. He took part in many 4th of July parades. I remember one where he took the part of Heber C. Kimball. When his brother Dave got married, George went to work for him. But before this he was up to the head of Malad with his sisters Gertrude and Ted when 2 Indians came and asked for food. George told them the food was in the cellar. The Indians took what they wanted and scared the girls by chasing them around the kitchen table with a knife. They were so frightened, they ran out of the house, got a horse and put George on with them and started for town. On the way they met Dave as he was coming with a load of wood. He took them back and sat up all night with a gun, but the Indians did not come back.
Uncle Dave moved to the river bottoms, now known as American Falls. He fed cattle and stayed there all through the winter. When Aunt Gertrude was expecting, Mary Mae Bolingbroke came down to work for them. She had been living in Bannock with her folks, who were farmers and her father was a good carpenter. Mary Mae also taught school while she was there and worked for Uncle Dave for her board and room. Uncle Dave said she was a very beautiful girl and George fell in love with her. When Mae went with her folks to Malad as they lived in Malad in the winter time, George came to Malad and they were married on January 23, 1896. They went back to the river bottoms and lived part of the time but came back to Malad when each child was born.
I was the first born and was born October 7, 1897. Mother was not out of the house until Christmas Day, as she was very ill with gathered breasts. Doctor Mackety was her doctor.
I was born in Grandma Daniels’ home. By this time they had built a new home which consisted of 3 bedrooms, a living room, parlor and kitchen. To this union 9 children were born; Estella, Leon, who died with whooping cough and pneumonia, when 4 months old, then George Jr., Ethel, Merle, Lorin, Orlene, and two babies that died at birth. We were all about two years apart. Grandfather Bolingbroke built 2 large rooms down the Samaria Lane, where we lived during school months. During the summer Dad and Mother lived at American Falls, where he worked for Uncle Dave.
Mother had a sister Lizzie that lived across the Snake River and the only way we could visit her was row a boat across the river or they had two horses called Kate and Maude, that would swim the river and pull a buggy across. We children would stand up on the seat and Mother and Dad would put their feet up on the dashboard. One time the team balked in the middle of the river and it took a lot of coaxing to get them out of the river. Then one time a baby died belonging to the Johnson Family who were very poor and dirty. Mother took clean sheets and clothes and washed and dressed the baby and Dad built a casket and they buried the baby for them. Another time after having been to Pocatello for supplies, when they came home a large badger was in front of the house. As we drove up it ran down a hole so Dad put a boiler of water on and when it was boiling hot he poured it down the hole. It brought the badger out and he killed it. Oftentimes he would kill rattlesnakes as they were plentiful where we lived. At one time a man named Dave Cotten brought some syrup that was the best syrup Dad and uncle Dave had ever tasted.
We often visited friends and sometimes the only way you got to their home was to walk along a bull rush fence through swampy land. Mother would walk across carrying us kids one at a time and then come back for more, or another one. Then they moved to Bannock. We lived in the last house up the West Fork that Grandpa Bolingbroke and Dad built. It was one large room at the foot of a beautiful mountain and close by a beautiful Spring that was similar to those in the park, only this was cold and the water shot straight up out of the ground and the stream of water was called West Fork.
The mountain was called George’s Mountain. We used to climb it many times and ride horseback over all the hills around. Along with father, Uncle Dave, Uncle Tom, Uncle Hen, and Aunt Jin all had farms along the creek along with several other farms, also Uncle Donam (John) and Uncle Tom Williams. We kids went to a little country school in the spring and fall and then went to Malad for the winter time. Dad raised cattle and alfalfa, oats and wheat. We always had a good garden. We had a few fruit trees. We raised pigs and chickens and moved them all spring and fall along with us.
When I think of that beautiful setting at West Fork, no wonder everyone was happy. People pay thousands of dollars now to have a place like that to get away from the busy cities. Some mornings when we would get up early we would see deer out in our yard. If we had had cameras at that time we would have been able to have taken some beautiful pictures.
We lived next door to the Indian Reservation and they often visited us begging for food and clothing. All the Daniels family were on good terms with the Indians. We were taught to be kind to them and they would be friends to us.
The Daniels brothers built flumes to carry the water to their land. Some of those old flumes still stand there, unused now as the land was bought by the government and returned to the Indians. At present there is nothing but tall sagebrush covering all that once cultivated land.
They had community dances in a one room schoolhouse and also had church in the same building. Once in a while they would have a dance that would last all night as everyone would take food and blankets and make beds for the kids that wanted to sleep. I remember my father used to stand on a school bench and call for the Plain Quadrille. He loved dancing. Oftentimes we went horseback to dances carrying our dress behind the saddle to dance in and put it on when we got there. When we went to Malad we went over the Rocky Ridge which was the shortest way but it was 45 miles and it would take all day and early evening to make the trip. Sometimes we would all have to get out and walk down the mountain and mother would drive and Dad put rocks under the wheels to help the brakes hold the buggy or wagon from rolling on top of the horses going down the mountain.
I remember one time Dad had a boiler of boiling water ready to scald a large pig and uncle Donam was to come and help him but he did not get there when the water was hot so Dad tried to lift the pig himself and hurt his back. He came to the house all bent over and was a long time getting over that sprained back. Another time I went to gather eggs and a bumble bee stung me in the eye. They finally had to take me to Pocatello as I was poisoned and had a sick spell all summer. We had many accidents as families do. I was thrown from a runaway horse and hurt the back of my head but was afraid to tell the folks for fear they would not let me ride again,
In the fall when the threshers would come, sometimes the snow would fall before they would get through because we were the last ones on the creek. They would come with all their horses as that is how it would run and sometimes they would break down and have to rebuild the machine and by that time the horses were fed and all the men, about all you had left was a grist as we called it to buy us enough food until the next harvest. Many of my mother’s nieces would come up the creek and go picking chokecherries and when I was a baby, they had left me sitting on a quilt while they picked the berries. When they came back a large rattlesnake had crawled on the quilt. They were so afraid but they just stood still and the snake crawled away in the bushes. We used to find snakes curled up in the hen’s nests as they liked eggs. We had a cellar that was a hole in the ground covered with logs and dirt. It had a dirt floor but mother whitewashed the logs with lime and we had shelves and that was our refrigerator. We made our own butter and bread and cured all our meat. Our walls in the house were papered with newspaper so you could read when you did not have anything else to do. I remember Aunt Lizzie saying her son Larry had Diphtheria and she was on the ranch alone and he was dying when Fannie and Johnie, and Indians came to the house and told her to get berries from a cedar tree. She was to steep them and swab his throat and ring a cloth out of it and put on his throat. She did this all night and Larry is alive today.
Another time when all the men were on a roundup to gather their cattle and Uncle Hen’s home burned to the ground. They had to go and live with relatives until all could get logs out and build them another home. They sent to Malad for furniture and George Stevenson was bringing it to them and tipped over on the rocky ridge and everything was broken except a baby bed. Dad said their beds were made with wood horses and boards across and straw ticks until they could save enough feathers to make a feather tick and they made their own pillows from duck and chicken feathers.
Uncle Dave and Dad could call like a coyote and Uncle Dave said he could really whistle loud until he got false teeth and then that ended that. Two Indians that Dad really liked were Jim and George Upee and Pocatello Tom and Pocatello John were two meanies. They would get drunk and really carry on. One time Pocatello Tom stole Uncle Dave’s best saddle horse and came riding up the creek and demanded mother give him some food. All the time he was standing watching the road and when he saw a posse coming he left and when the men came they said he had killed an Indian and they were after him. They killed the horse from under him and he was put in jail in Pocatello. The Indians were so lazy they would chop down the choke cherry trees and sit on the ground to pick them. We wanted to save the trees so we would tell them to hold the tree down but they would always cut them down. We used to pick elderberries and savousberries and wild currents and wild strawberries all along the creek. Dad used to fish and hunt ducks. Sometimes we would go visit a friend and stay all night as it was so far to go.
Then Father sold the ranch at Bannock and Mother filed on a ranch at the Head of Malad. Grandfather came to the rescue again and helped Dad build at first one large room and then later we had a four room house with a well close by. Again we had a creek running down in front of the house and small mountains all around us or hills as you would call them. Mother and Dad lived on the ranch all summer and moved to Malad in the winter time. At first we had two rooms in Malad and then we had a three bedroom home with a large living room and parlor and kitchen and bathroom with two large porches. We used to be able to bring all our friends home.
We had many upsetting things happen but we all came through. When Arlene was born she had crippeled feet and Mother and Dad felt terrible about it. But to Salt Lake they went and after several operations and braces that she wore for several years she has been able to dance, walk and do anything that any of us could do. Then one day Lorin was following the older children down in the oat field and Dad was cutting with a binder and the grain was so tall he did not see Lorin and ran into him and cut his leg badly. I remember Dr. Ray sewed it up on the dining room table without giving Lorin any anesthetic. I can still see his body quivering. But he got along fine. Then a few years later Ethel was running with other kids to get on Mr. Mills’ derrick that was going up the road. The other kids made it but she fell inside and the derrick drug her and ran over her. She survived the ordeal but her face was really ground up in the gravel. Then one time I went out to pick up chips to make a fire and Dad was up to the roundup for cattle and had Tom Price cutting wood. I guess I got too close, anyways the ax slipped off the handle and hit me in the leg cutting a deep gash in my leg. I still have the scar. At the time the water had filled our cellar and mother was trying to get it all wiped up so we were never without problems. About that cellar, we always had it full of apples for winter as we had a large orchard. We used to bring a whole dish pan full of apples up every evening and all sit around and study and eat apples. Of course we had to pick them in the fall. We always had a pit full of potatoes and carrots and cabbage. We seldom ever had to go to the store except for sugar and other special things. On Saturday we always made cakes and pies ready for Sunday and we had a 6 qt. Ice cream freezer. We sometimes made it twice full in a day. We always had plenty of good beef in the winter time, It was nothing special to have steaks for breakfast and we had our own pork also. We made our own headcheese, sausage, and mother made many round
cheeses when she was on the ranch. We made our own butter and bread at all times. We all did our share of work. I think we did anyway.
I remember one night when Dad woke up with a severe pain in his head and they called a Doctor from Salt Lake. It was an abscess in his head. I remember the Dr. said at the time if it hadn’t broken and come through the ear, it would have killed Dad. Dad always felt that the Dr. made a mistake and ruptured his eardrum. He was never able to hear in that ear anymore and as the years have gone by his hearing has been gradually getting worse until now it is very hard for him to catch what you say. Then in August 1921 Mother took seriously ill and before we knew hardly what was happening, she was dead. But before that, a few years, she was operated on in Salt Lake and never quite recovered from the operation. We know she hemorrhaged to death. Father had a nurse from Salt Lake take care of her along with Dr. Kerns but in those days there was no hospital in Malad. We were really saddened at the death of mother as she was a good manager and really took over the management of the home. I was the only one married at the time. I had 3 children and one on the way but Dad thought I should move home and help out as the girls were either going to school or teaching. So that is what we did. Walt, my husband, fit in with the family perfectly as we all got along very well. I helped them and the girls helped me. Many things happened. We would all go to the ranch in the summertime and once when we were up there my two little boys set a fire near the haystack and then tried to put it out but could not and then ran and hid. Dad and George saw the fire from the field and came on the work horses. When I saw them I ran to meet them to see what was the matter. Dad hollered and said look back of you and there was the haystack burning. We spent more time trying to find the kids than putting out the fire. One had come in the house and hid under the bed and the other one was in the old out house. I don’t remember Dad getting angry any more than to ask why they did that? We had to stay up that weekend because the hay burned and for two weeks after, before we were sure it was out.
We used to go to Brigham and bring a whole load of peaches and tomatoes home and can them. It was nothing to have 700 quarts of fruit up and put preserves in 5 gallon jars, also pickles in large crocks. When I think of it, we really lived.
I just remembered Dad telling me about when he and uncle Dave were bringing a herd of horses from Montana. They got as far as Blakcfooot and stopped for the night to camp and rest their horses. A train went by and whistled and scared the horses so badly that it took them a long time to get them back together. Then in 1926, lo and behold, Dad, Ethel, Merle, and George all decided to get married and so we all moved into different homes. Lorin had fulfilled a mission and went back to Moscow to college and Orlene came to live with me. Dad married Aunt Emeliine Evans and she had seven children, all home at the time. I think my dad was as good a man as his father because he had raised 6 and then helped Aunt Emeline raise her seven. He has been a good father to us and I am sure to Aunt Emeline’s family. He sold the ranch at the Head of Malad to George and he still owns it and then he sold his haylands to Ed Vaughan to help support his family. At present he still had a few cattle at the bend and his home in town. He and Aunt Emeline live by themselves and still enjoy pretty good health. They have their ups and downs as Aunt Emeline has had several very serious sick spells and been in the hospital. She has worked hard to help support her family. They are all married now and I don’t know how many grandchildren she has or how many great-grandchildren they both have. I will have to get a count on them. Dad has milked cows up until now and always has his garden and fruit trees and does his own irrigating. He feeds a few head of cattle and takes his daily walk to town everyday. If he misses you know he isn’t feeling very well. He has lots of friends and I don’t think has ever said a bad word about anybody. He has always paid anything that has been asked of him in the church but does not attend because he cannot hear anything. He has paid many a doctor bill for relatives from which he has never been paid back but he never says anything about it. I think if you asked him for anything he would give it to you if he could. So far we have all been able to get along without asking for any help from him.
Oh, I must tell you this one. I don’t think anyone in this world ever had a hat taken right off his head and did not know it until he got home. Here is the story as Dad tells it. “ He was sitting in Sam’s when someone came up back of him and said Hi! And lifted his hat off his head and set what he thought was his hat back on his head. But what he had was a new Stetson hat that brother George had given him for Christmas and what was put back on his head was the same size hat but an old one and one that he did not like. Now time went on and he asked Sam if he knew who had stolen his hat and Sam said Verl Daniels asked him to trade. If he did, Dad did not hear him and anyways that’s the story. Dad wound up with an old hat and we haven’t found out who has his hat to this date which is 6 months later.
Dad and Aunt Emeline have spent all their days together in Malad. We are all good friends. All of Aunt Emeline’s family are married and doing well. Dad will be 86 years old on July 23, 1961.
This is my story up to date. I will let my dear old Dad proof read it and maybe he can add more to it. ( 27th 1961 Stella Daniels Jones Budge)
Post Script; Dad was a trustee while in Bannock and hired Mime Palmer for a teacher in a little one room schoolhouse.
Grandpa was fishing in the Park down a steep hill. A branch fell on him. He looked up and a bear was in the tree. He sure did run.