George Daniels was born July 23, 1875 at Malad City, Idaho. His father was Thomas Daniels and his mother was Jannett Thomas Dives. Two of Grandpa’s children married two of Grandma’s children, so my father used to answer if anyone asked him who his sister Gertrude married he would say my brother Dave and my sister Sarah married my brother Tom which was true. My father worked for his older brother Dave for many years on the farm and feeding cattle in the winter time at the river bottoms which is where the American Falls Dam is built now. My mother went to American Falls to teach school and that is where my father met her and married her. (picture of George Daniels age 82. He lived to be 102 ½)
When Dad was 17, he and T.D. Jones, Eli Jones and Dr. Mackety’s son went to Butte Montana driving horses to sell. When they got to Blackfoot and set camp for the night in a man’s field the train went by and whistled and scared the horses so badly they were not able to catch up with them until they got back to the other side of Pocatello. It took two months to make the trip. They sold all the horses but one and Dad traded that one for a gold watch that he still has. He said they got $80 a piece for them that many years ago. While on the trip, the horse he was riding got scared of a snake and jumped into a barbed wire fence and A cut his leg badly but the Dr’s son bandaged it up and they went on their way.
Another time on the 4th of July he crawled through a fence and carrying a gun it went off and he shot himself in the leg. It was a long time getting well at one time the Dr. thought he would have to amputate it but his brother Joe said he would take him to Preston to a Dr. over there and he saved his leg. Another time he jumped over a fence into a pig pen to straighten up the trough and landed on a board with a rusty nail and we had to hammer the board to get the nail out and it was all summer getting well. One day Eli Jones said if we soaked it in wood ashes it would get well. Well it did but it also burned his foot as wood ashes had lots of lye.
The gunshot wound was healed with sage tea. My Dad had many experiences with the Indians as many times the Indians would steal their food supplies. One time he was chased by an Indian with a knife around the table, when he was with his two sisters up at Daniels, Idaho. When we lived in West Fork at the foot of the mountain, we were next door to the Indian Reservation. They used to come to our home and demand food and we always gave them what they asked for as that was the only way you could get along with them..
Dad was a school trustee when he lived there and hired Mime Palmer as a teacher one year and then he moved to Malad and took up a farm at Daniels, Idaho so his kids would be closer to school.
We lived in Malad in the winter and at Daniels in the summer.
George Daniels and Mary May Bolingbroke were married January 28, 1897, at Malad City, Idaho. They had eight children, two died at early ages. He has six living children, Estella D. Jones, George Daniels Jr., Ethel D. Thomson, Elizabeth Merle D. Hughes, Lorin B. Daniels, Margaret Orlean Treasure.
His wife died August 22, 1921, at Malad City, Idaho. He married Emeline Evans November 8, 1927 and they moved into his remodeled home. Emeline had seven children and Dad helped educate and raise them, so he raised two large families. Aunt Emeline died February 9, 1963, leaving Dad alone again so I moved in and have been taking care of him now for over ten years. When Aunt Emeline died, she had 26 grandchildren and 22 great grandchildren.
Now in 1972, Dad is 97 years old and has 21 grandchildren, 61 great grandchildren, 10 great great grandchildren.
Dad tells many interesting stories of the good times they used to have. When they lived in Arbon Valley they used to take the kids and food and go to dances all night. He used to call four square dances and he and Will Gleed run a dance hall upstairs above the flatiron building that used to be the J.N. Ireland Bank.
Many times when they lived at American Falls they used to ford the Snake River with horses and buggies and one time he thought for sure they would be drowned as the team balked in the middle of the river and they had a hard time crossing but finally made it . My mother;s sister lived on one side of the river and us on the other and that was the only way they had of crossing until they built a boat and then we rowed across the river.
I remember one time a baby died and my mother was very young but she washed and dressed the baby and fixed it ready for burial as the people were very poor and dirty too. My father had been a kind man and always good to children. He always had peppermint candy to give them. He always enjoyed company although he can’t hear a thing that is said. He had lived a lonesome life as he lost his hearing because of an abscess he had in his head when a young man. It has been gradually getting worse over the years until now I have to write everything down. He reads without glasses and still does a little hoeing every day in the garden. He likes to see things grow. He has worked hard all his life and hates to give up now. He tries to do more than he is able to. His memory is good and he knows all his friends and relatives when they come to see him. He never forgets his water turn. He likes to see the 4th of July parades as he remembers when he used to take part. One time he took the part of Heber C. Kimball.
Written July 1972
I took care of Father for 15 years. My sister took a turn and gave me a vacation once a year. He was easy to get along with, always checking to see if all his bills were paid. He got sick and the last year of his life was spent in Oneida County Rest Home. They said he was their very best patient. He never complained and was always glad to see company. Now Dad has 6 children, 21 grandchildren, 73 great grandchildren and 18 great great grandchildren.
Written by Estella Jones (Budge)