Today I am pleased to present my first guest post written by blogger Sharon McConnel from Sharon's Hodge-Podge for the continuing Idaho Territory Sesquicentennial series.
My Swedish-born great-grandfather John
Carlson immigrated in the early 1880's. He and his younger brother
George settled in the east central Colorado where they worked in the
mines and then farmed. At some point John became friends with the
family of Cephas and Celestia (“Lettie”) Barker. Cephas and three
of the children died of typhoid fever and John eventually married
Lettie. Their daughter Alma was grandmother.
In 1903 John brought his family to
Idaho: wife Celestia, her son Ira, her daughter Francis and their
daughter Alma. Alma was nine years old at the time. Carlsons and two
other families rented a railroad box car. They loaded their
belongings, farm equipment and teams on the freight car and came to
Idaho, to Weiser, which had been well-advertised and promoted.
John worked for Butterfield Livestock
in the Price Valley area and Lettie cooked at the ranch. The
following year, John and Mr. Long, one of the neighbors from
Colorado, heard of work in Emmett building a canal. They both had
teams of horses so they checked it out. Carlsons stayed and Longs
went back to Weiser.
Two years later Carlsons bought the
relinquishment papers on a High Valley ranch, northeast of Ola. There
was a 12' x 14' cabin on the property and John added onto it. The
Carlson ranch became the stage stop between Ola and Smith’s Ferry.
In a 1911 photograph the sign reads Jno. Carlsons Wood Side Home. I
can only image how High Valley’s alpine setting must have reminded
John of his native Sweden. John died four years before my father was
born, so what little I know of him has been passed down through my
grandmother's stories and the occasional appearance in public record.
One of my favorite stories is how he walked from the High Valley
Ranch to the then county seat of Idaho City to file his homestead
papers, roughly a round trip of a hundred miles. I wish I could have
known him!
For more photographs and family group
sheet, see
http://freepages.family.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mcconnelhomesteads/index.html
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