Chapter 15

Having in a poor way gone over the history of the settlement of the lower part of the county and most of its early settlers, I will now turn towards the upper country and will as best I can, write briefly of that section and its earliest inhabitants. Salubria valley, formerly known as Upper valley, was next after the Lower Weiser to attract settlers.

For richness of soil and productivity this valley is not excelled by any place in the state. The lands lying near the main and little Weiser Rivers will produce crops without irrigation and there the first settlers made their homes.

The streams were well wooded with a growth of cottonwood timber and of this material the first dwellings were principally constructed. On the mountains, a short distance away there were forests of pine and fir timber, not over difficult to obtain, from which they made shakes to cover their buildings and puncheon for floors and doors. The land lying back from the streams was covered with sagebrush and would not produce remunerative crops which was later brought on and the sagebrush lands were made as productive as those first settled upon and a portion of the water has been applied to the lower lands which has materially increased their yields, although not so much water is required and in some seasons none is used on grain crops.

Among the first settlers in the valley, all of whom I knew in their day quite well were Harrison Abernathy, Alexander Allison and his two sons, David and William and Ed S. Jewell. who made their homes along the main stream. On the little Weiser F.M. Mickey, the Wilkerson brothers, Morris B., Wm. H. and James and a family by the name of Shoffner were the first to settle. All, or most of these people went in there in the latter half of the 1860s, but none survive now to give us more definite information as to the time of their coming or of the hardships and privations they were compelled to endure. Other settlers followed in rapid succession until the entire valley was settled by the time of the arrival of the l880s as well as the land along Pine Creek and Rush Creek. John Cuddy and his brother-in-law, a man by the name of Tyne built the first flour and lumber mill in the county at which the settlers were enabled to get their grain ground and lumber with which to improve their dwellings. Cuddy bought his partners interest in the business and continued to operate it for a number of years, when he abandoned the lumber part of the business and built a much better flour mill down in the valley, which was sold and abandoned by the later owners. Wm. B. Allison is the same person mentioned in a previous chapter as being a member of the tenth territorial legislative session and one of the authors of the act creating the county of Washington. He was also a member of the lower house of the legislature, I believe in 1893 and in '97 and '98 county assessor David Allison was county assessor in '81 and '82, and again in '94 and 1905.

Ed. Jewell was a member of the legislative council in territorial days and a member of the first state senate in 1891 and served also as a county commissioner for a term. F.M. Mickey was a county commissioner for three or four terms and also served in the territorial legislature in 1883. John Cuddy also was a county commissioner for three or four terms. Some of the settlers arriving in the valley, a few years after the first, were Nels and Tom Buhl, who came with their mother, stepfather, Peter Olsen and two sisters. Tom still lives in the valley and I believe, outside of two, is the oldest settler in point of length of time of residence in either Washington or Adams county. Conrad Grab and family were early settlers on the north side of the river. He went there from Boise in the l870s. He was the most thorough farmer in the valley, making every acre count, and raised cattle, hogs and poultry, for which he always got a good price, He sold his splendid ranch in 1882 and moved to Weiser, and was that year elected county assessor, and later engaged in the brewery business. Grab, as a businessman was not successful. He was too easy and liberal, and designing people took advantage of his liberality and he lost his savings in a few years and died poor. He was the father of Mrs. Carrie Barton, of the Weiser Hotel, who went with her parents to Salubria valley when but a small girl.

John Thorp went with Ed. Jewell to the valley and became one of the first settlers, He later sold out his ranch to Jewell and moved to Washoe bottom on the Payette River. Jewell and Bill Allison kept adding to their lands until they had a thousand acres or more each, of as good land as there was in the valley.

Jewell sold out his holdings for enough to keep him the rest of his life and went to California. where he put in the remainder of his days. Allison kept his land holdings and parceled it out among his children by his will.

Jewell had a large family, but only one now remains here in the county, Fred, next to the youngest, who is at the head of the Cambridge Mercantile Co.

Allison had five children, three boys and two girls, one of the girls is dead and the other lives in southern Oregon. Alex, the oldest of the family lives on the old place and Joe, the youngest, also lives in the valley. Bill has a ranch out in the Ruesburg country. Dave Allison had three children, but where they are now I do not know. One of Harrison Abernathys children, Harry lives around Weiser and one of the girls is the wife of Alex Allison.

She and her husband were at the time they became such, no doubt the youngest great-grandparents in the state. I know that they are the only natives of what is now Washington County to have that distinction.

James Colson Family

I must retrace my steps and mention a pioneer family of the l860s I had forgotten while enumerating the others, This was the James Colson family, who lived on the river next above the Bill Allison place. There were five boys and two girls in the family all now deceased unless it is Delia, widow of George B. York. She was living at Salem two or three years ago. Colson sold his ranch to Bill Allison a number of years ago and moved away from the valley and has been dead for several years.

Some of the early comers to the valley as well as those of other valleys had hard sledding the first year or two. They roasted barley for a substitute for coffee and ground wheat on a coffee mill to make flour for cakes. There were plenty of deer for meat in the fall of the year which they would keep through the winter, and the fat bear provided lard in which to fry the cakes. It was not more than two or three years until they had plenty of hog meat and poultry to supply their needs at home with some to sell. Hog raising became the chief industry of the valley as they could let them range on the campus and cowse that grew in the hills, until after the grain was harvested, the expense of raising them was at the minimum.

Start Cattle business

The hogs found a ready market in the mines and at Boise, where they were taken, either alive or dressed or converted into bacon and lard, and the prices the product brought were good for a number of years. The people soon got into the cattle and horse raising business and as the hills were clothed in such rich verdure for their sustenance they could not do otherwise than thrive. The people of this valley, like all pioneers, were most hospitable and every home was a welcome place for either friend or stranger who was served with the best they had without money and without price.

A story is told of a young college graduate who drove his horse and cart up to one of these pioneer homes and meeting a small boy out by the stable accosted him in the following polite language: "Please extract the quadruped from the vehicle, stabulate him and donate him an adequate supply of nutrient ailment and when the lustrious aurora of coming morn again illumines the eastern horizon, you shall be rewarded with a pecuniary compensation, full commensurate with the generous hospitality bestowed." The boy was stricken dumb for a moment and on gaining his composure he rushed to the house and told his father that there was a Dutchman out there talking and that he couldn't understand a word he said. The young mans horse was stabutated and donated the desired ailment and he was lodged and supplied with the best the family larder contained, but on the coming morn no pecuniary compensation was exacted for the hospitality, and he went rejoicing on his way.

The village of Sauria began its existence at the cross roads about the middle of the valley in about 1885 when Pat Hickey started a little store on a corner of the Allison land, which he conducted for a year or two and sold out to Haas Bros. of Weiser. Other business houses and dwellings were built and quite a village sprang up, which continued to flourish until 1899 and 1900 when the P&I.N. railroad reached a point on the opposite side of the river about a mile and a half away, where the town of Cambridge was laid out. This spelt the doom of old Salubria and now there is not a vestage of a town there, while Cambridge has grown to proportions never attained by the old town.

Horse racing was the great diversion of mostof the people of Salubria valley. They would have race meetings that would sometimes last for a week, and those who wanted to gamble on the result of a race, and did not have the money, would bring in horses and bet them against other horses or money. In some of the races as many as a dozen horses changed hands on the result of a contest.

Races would be run between meets, sometimes for considerable stakes, and on one occasion a race was made between a Weiser horse and one in the valley, in midwinter, when they had to scrape off two feet of snow to clear the track. After the sports on the track were over, those who were inclined to gamble at cards, would repair to the saloons and play poker 'til morning or until broke. As the small hotels could not furnish accomodations for all the visitors, those who could not get beds and wanted to get some sleep, found lodging in the hay barns.

While many rows ensued and much abusive talk indulged in during the racing and drinking bouts, there was never a homicide to occur, and Salubria valley never had one in its history. There was a man accused of murder and brought to trial, but he was as innocent of the accusation as any person unborn at that time.

I will try to write of this case later when I come to tell of some of the amusing incidents occurring in the courts here in times long past.

Middle Valley was so named because it lies between Upper and Lower Weiser Valleys, but not midway between them as it is but about four miles, at the upper end from the lower end of Salubria valley, while at the lower end it is 20 miles from the upper end of the lower Weiser Valley. The first permanent settler was M.H. Reed, who took a claim along the river where Keithley Creek empties. He had quite a family but I do not know of any of them living there now. He also was for some time engaged in the sawmill business on Pine Creek north of Salubria valley.

John Saling and John Anderson went there at an early day and struck the valley at the beginning of the hardest winter ever known there, when the snow laid several feet deep far into what ought to have been spring time. They were thoroughly disgusted with their venture and left as soon as they could get over the hill, for Mann Creek where they took up some claims. More will be said of them when we come to writing up Mann Creek and Indian Valley. Levi and John Keithley were probably the next to locate there, although not in the valley proper. John told me that he and his brother Levi had been working for the Wilkersons on the Little Weiser, who told them about the good land to be taken on the creek that bears their name. One Sunday they went over to take a look at the situation, and found it all that was represented to them. There was a large rye-grass flat with a creek running through it from which an abundancedance of water could be had for irrigation. They lost no time in making locations, and as they had the choice, of course took the best. They soon quit working for wages and began improving their claims in a systematic manner. Both were thorough farmers and knew how to make a success of the farming business.

They early engaged in hog raising in connection with crop farming and raised a great many and converted what they did not sell on foot or dressed, into bacon, hams, lard and sausage. Their system of curing meat and making sausage must be a lost art, as I have never seen anything to equal their product. It is needless to say that these two energetic economical and industrious brothers succeeded in their enterprises for they were always surrounded with plenty for home consumption and to sell. They were both bachelors when they settled there, but later married, John first in 1882, and Levi, some later, and raised families. Some of Johns family, including his widow are still living on the old place and have added to it several other ranches, until now they are the largest holders of good agricultural land in that section. G.S. Keithley, a cousin of the brothers mentioned, arrived in the valley a few years later and took a splendid piece of land, near theirs which he soon converted into a most productive farm.

He had a large family, some of whom were born before their coming but the greater part of the children were born on the ranch their father located and improved. Sam, the oldest of the living sons has a fine farm down in the valley, and like his ancestors knows how to handle it. Joe, the first born after the arrival of his parents, died a few years ago at Midvale where he had for some time carried on a mercantile business. With the Keithley ambition, economy and industry he made a success of all his undertakings. Mrs. Florence McCaw, a daughter has a splendid farm in the valley. Where the other members of the family now are I cannot say. Were all the descendants of G.S. Keithley gathered together they would make a respectable sized audience.

Other early settlers in the valley were the Wiggins and Surdam families, John Mc Roberts and family, Joe Burger, the Kilborn family, H.P. Linder and Tom and Bill Mackey. In 1882 Middle Valley saw the largest influx of population it had ever seen in any one year. These new people either bought out others or took up sagebrush lands until they were all located. In this valley, like all the other valleys along the river the only land that would produce crops was near the river; that lying further back being covered with sagebrush which was not productive without irrigation. In order to bring water onto them, which was done by the construction of a ditch from the river which skirted the easterly edge of the valley for a distance of some six or seven miles. This was considerable of an undertaking for poor folks who were not producing anything but they went ahead patiently and slowly by the labor of their hands and teams and after several years completed the ditch and reclaimed this previously desert waste. After the water was applied these lands became much more productive than those first settled upon which had no water for irrigation, and today scarcely any of the former desert is not under intensive cultivation and producing remunerative crops.

Construct Bridge

The first bridge to span the river in the valley was built in1882 or '83, and before that time there was a ferry at the point where the bridge was constructed operated by John McRoberts. The P.&.I.N. railroad reached Middle Valley in 1899, when a depot was located and the building of a town began. The firm of Deaton and Towell opened a general merchandise store there and the Canarys who had bought out McRoberts laid out the townsite of Middle Valley. The post office, which had borne that name for years was moved to the Deaton & Towell store and one of the firm was appointed postmaster. This long name was all right to designate the valley but a name for a town and post office did not seem just the thing to this writer so a proposal was made to the general manager of the railroad that the name of the station be changed to that of Midvale. Mr. Shelby, who was the general manager at that time said that he would be glad to make the change provided the post office department would do likewise. I prepared a petition to the department for the change to Midvale and sent it up to the postmaster who procured a number of signers which immediately granted the request and the name of the post office, station and town has ever borne the shorter appellation. Midale grew quite rapidly for a time and it was the leading shipping point for wool and wheat in the country.

When there were bounteous crops of wheat in the hills there would be a string of wagons a quarter of a mile long waiting their turns to unload, and the last ones in would be well into the night getting rid of their loads. There were at one time a bank, a newspaper, two drug stores, two lawyers and two doctors located there. Owing to the healthful climate and peace loving nature of the people, the doctors and drug stores were not needed nor were the lawyers, so all went out of business at that place. The newspaper also suspended publication because the loss of the advertising patronage of the doctors, lawyers and drugstores. The bank suspended later to the great loss of its stockholders and depositers, and the town now has neither doctor, lawyer, bank, drug store or newspaper, and yet the people appear to be as prosperous as when they had all of these functions.

The valley sends to outside markets great quantities of grain, beef, pork, mutton, wool and cream, so there is money coming in all the year round.

Midvale is only credited with one homicide which occurred in about 1905, when a man by the name of Macomb was knifed to death by a man whose name I do not remember. The slayer was indited by a grand jury, tried and convicted of manslaughter but the judgment of conviction was reversed by the supreme court because of numerous errors in the court procedure. There never was any re-trial, and the case is now forgotten so far as the law is concerned. Politics in Middle Valley has been rather eratic in times past. At first it gave almost solid republican vote; later it went as strongly populist and still later heavily democratic. I recall that in the early 1890s there was but one democrat in the valley and he was elected as a delegate to the county convention of his party, his credentials reading about as follows: "This is to certify that at a democratic primary election held in Middle Valley precinct, John J. Reavis was duly elected a delegate to the democratic county convention to be held at Sauria on thSalubria on the  ----day of October 189--

John J. Reavis

Chairman

John J. Reavis

Secretary

As John's credentials showed that he had received a majority of the party vote, he was seated as a member of the convention to represent the democracy of his precinct. None of the older generation of Middle Valley pioneers are now living unless it is Hom and Bill Mackey, who sold out a number of years ago and went to California.