Memories of Early Aberdeen - BY E. L. Davis
Chapter 1

As to our hearing of and picking Aberdeen; like so many other things, I guess we must blame that on Twin Falls. In about the years 1907 and 1908 Twin Falls had teams of lecturers in Chicago, largely in the churches, with pictures of their country and their great crops.
Miss Hazel VanOrnum and I went to a couple of these lectures and they looked and sounded very good.

Then a former minister of our M.E. church in Chicago came west and landed in Blackfoot where he joined Mr. T.R. Jones and John H. Early in forming the Idaho Irrigated Lands Co., which sold Idaho land on this project. He made a trip to Chicago to talk up Idaho land and convinced the Neff family of the great opportunities to be had and the great value of getting in "on the ground floor". Hazel and I still were not sold on Idaho for sure, but later both the Neffs and we decided to buy. The minister, Mr. Powers, was to pick our land for us, near a town called Aberdeen, which, he said, was very fine farm land. Of course, were were buying "sight unseen".

Before buying, I went to a certain house on Monroe St. and a asked a certain Miss VanOrnum if she really would go to Idaho. She said, "sure", although she had scarcely been out of Chicago, and believe me, there was some difference between Chicago and Aberdeen, Idaho. (She was one of my Sunday school scholars). We were married in April, 1909, and decided that I had better come out first. So, in November, 1909, with Fred Neff, we started from Chicago in an emigrant car which all the railroaders called a "Zulu car". We had 5 horses belonging to the Neffs, and the rest of the car was loaded with lumber, furniture, and anything they thought we might need. It took nine days to come out to American Falls, where we met Walter Neff who had come from Colorado to meet us and get things ready for unloading.

The railroad allowed one free passage only, with the car load, so I paid my fare to come out as company for Fred, but I had to pay in cash at each division point, and someone was right there at each point; before we reached American Falls it had cost me more than full Pullman rates, and there was nothing that could be done about it.

The reason it took so long to come out was that, according to law, we had to stop every so often to water and exercise the animals, I mean the horses of course.

It was raining when we landed at the Falls and kept it up for a solid week. By the time it had stopped raining the mud on the dirt roads was really deep, and the road up the old "dug way" was very slippery and the hill steep. Many of the old timers will remember that hill and also the one at Fairview, which was the way we traveled at that time.

Well, finally, we got started with a partial load. (Fred had stored the rest at the old Fall Creek Sheep Co. store, and it was still there for some years). We had four horses hitched to the load and Fred's riding horse was led by one of us. Like Mutt and Jeff, the horses would slip back almost as far as they went forward, but we gained a little and in due time we reached the top of the "dug way". By this time the heavens had opened up and the going was so slow that we reached the old Walters' place (now farmed by Peter Boldt, Jr.) a little before dark as wet as could be, so we asked permission to stay in their yard all night. Mr. Walters said we might sleep in his granary, which was about half full of oats and made a fine bed for weary travelers. We had our own bed clothes, which had been covered and kept dry. After I had dropped to sleep, I was awakened by the most awful noise I think that I had ever heard. Walt laughed and said "coyotes". I was sure there were hundreds of them but Walt said there were only one or two, so settled for three, and my first experience with them has never been duplicated.

Next day we started for and landed at Aberdeen at last, wet and weary, but glad. Perhaps it would be proper to digress here to find out how Aberdeen got its name. That question has been asked over and over again and there have been many different versions, and opinions, so here goes.

On July 30, 1932, Mr. F.A. Sweet wrote editor John Heer of the Aberdeen Times as follows:
"At the time the town was organized, I was General Manager of the Independent Coal and Coke company which purchased the Aberdeen Coal mine. At the same time I was instrumental in floating the Bond issue to refinance the American Falls Canal and Power Co. A number of business men and bankers of Rockford, Ill., were helping in the purchase of bonds. Partly in their honor, (they were from Scotland or of Scotch descent) and partly because we all liked the name, we called the town Aberdeen."

But, incidentally, the town nearly missed being called Aberdeen. About that time, Mr. C.W. Brown was circulating a petition to have the town called Hamilton after the name of the store owned by Mr. and Mrs. M.L. Haines, who with E.W. Harold, were among the very first people here, (more of this later). Mr. Brown approached Mr. Sweet to sign the petition and Mr. Sweet, at least figuratively, nearly "hit the ceiling" even though he was outside, but, after Mr. Sweet had explained what had been done, everything was settled and the town is still Aberdeen, the finest town in the state, so say I, but, of course, I hope people from other fine towns do not agree with me.

We landed in Aberdeen early in the afternoon on the day before Thanksgiving in 1909, and went immediately to the hotel to get washed up and something for the inner man. Fred went to the Post Office and came back with a bag full of mail, mostly papers, I suppose. The first message I received was a telegram delivered through the post office telling me of the death of a sister in Ohio.

The hotel had just been completed a few months or even weeks and the building is the one now owned by the IOOF, with Mr. and Mrs. C.H. Dancliff living in the front part of the building.

The first person I saw was a Miss Nora M. Jones in the Canal office, where I had gone to check up. She informed me that the railroad grade was then in about the middle of my eighty. I had heard nothing of that and asked how come? She smiled and said a Mr. Blossom was prepared to settle with me for the land, which he did the first time I saw him. This Miss Jones (later Mrs. H.L. Lowe of course), has proven to be one of the dearest friends of our lives. Always helping someone who needs help. Indeed, she is, and will still be helping me on this story, and if there is any assistance or pleasure to come from it, likely she will be to blame.

Curiously enough, at the time we were talking in Aberdeen, her brother, T.R. Jones, mentioned before, was in Chicago at the Coliseum showing off some of the products of this tract, and, as I suppose, only the best from Aberdeen to Blackfoot. Mrs. Davis was in that great show place talking to Mr. Jones, and, as I found out later, talking of the wonders of Idaho. Of course, the Jones and Davis crowds had never met before. Another curious circumstance in that first meeting when I arrived here, Miss Jones said, "You know I want Mrs. Davis and you to come and stay at my house until you get settled on the farm." On being asked how she knew she wanted her she said "I know." Anyway, that is the way it was settled. We moved into their present house, which the Aberdeen Townsite Company had built for her and which was deeded to her later. This was where our oldest boy Edward was born, the first boy born on the townsite of Aberdeen.

Well, if we don't get out of Aberdeen, we'll never find those farms. We knew the sections of land, but we didn't know which way was North and East. As stated previously, we had bought our places unseen. It was now raining, if possible, harder than ever, so we started out in what someone had said was a north-easterly direction, and came ultimately to what we rightly supposed was my place, the north half of the present Dick Savage farm, on which we saw a rabbit, which I immediately claimed, but it was the last one ever claimed by me out here.

It was raining so hard by now that we didn't even stop to admire the very heavy sage brush on that farm, but went on to try to find another 160-acre Neff farm, which we knew from the small plat, was a couple of miles north of us, but we didn't know the kind of roads we had to travel.

The only bridge that I can remember over any lateral or creek around Aberdeen was a small bridge over "Jackson Creek" near the present Frank Slaugh farm half a mile north from the center of town on Main Street. There were none over "Jackson Creek" by the Experiment Station, nor Nash Spillway, nor many places where we now have bridges, and we were just about to experience the lack of a bridge over D6 straight north of our farm. Due to the pouring rain, it was now dark, and we couldn't see the four or five foot drop we were about to take. The horses saw it OK and were anxious to get it over with, so we hit the bottom so hard that our load might have been called a displaced load, but nothing broke, so we continued to the D.L. Strang corner where decided to hold a council of war. Wet and absolutely lost, we were so wet that we couldn't hold anymore water, so that didn't matter anymore. It was pitch dark, so we lighted lanterns and decided finally that Walt should go east over the hill, I to go north, leading the saddle horse, and Fred to stay there and to drive where and when we called. On my route was a light shining at what looked to be about half a mile away, but didn't seem to be on the road. It turned out to be the Nelson McCauley place (now the Warner place) and the house was over on the middle of the field, of course, off the road. When Walt reached the top of the hill he saw a light at the bottom of the hill to the east and let out such a yell that we weren't bothered any more by coyotes for some time.

This light turned out to be the old Strang place. Walt asked if we could pitch our tent in their yard. Mrs. Strang's answer, "No, by golly, we got beds." I had gone about as far north as Walt had gone east, so when I caught up with them, they were two happy boys. The Strangs proved to be real good Samaritans and we were soon eating such a meal as only Mrs. Strang and Matie (later Mrs. Adolph Teichert) could arrange. I never forgot that night and I had many chances to reciprocate, which I gladly did. I recall that about Christmas, I asked Mr. Strang if there was anything in particular that I could get him. He said "Yes, get me some shaker pipes," (clay pipes with cane stems). I sent to Chicago and got him a box (50 pipes and 50 stems), which he seemed to enjoy all his life. As I was somewhat depressed on account of the death message, I asked to be excused, but the rest talked until late.

Next morning (Thanksgiving) we started out to hunt the Neff farm. When we had gone what we thought was about the right distance, we discovered an empty shack which we later found was across the road from their place, real close, but, of course, in another section. We appropriated said shack and pitched our tent. It had begun to snow while we were working on the tent, snowing all night, and we didn't see the ground again until March. We had a big 10' x 12' house and the tent, so we settled down for the winter.