USA > Idaho > Madison County > Salem > Salem L.D.S. Ward history, 1883 to 1972 > Part 3
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August 10 - A Ward outing was held at the Church and a chicken cook out was enjoyed. Games were enjoyed by all and everyone had had a good time.
September 3 - M.I.A. Opening Social held games that were played and refreshments that were served .
September 25 - The Barley on the Ward farm was harvested, result- ing in a good crop.
October 29 - A Halloween party was held at M. I.A. Costumes were worn, games were played, and refreshments were served. Everyone had a good time.
November 15 - Relief Society held their annual bazaar. A turkey dinner was served and bazaar items were sold. There was a large crowd and games for children were played.
December 17 - The Ward Christmas party was held and a large crowd enjoyed the program. Santa Claus paid a visit with sacks of goodies. Merry Christmas to everyone.
December 15 - Funeral services were held for Sister Sarah Virgin Shirley, a long time member .
December 28 - Saturday - This is the 3rd day of the blizzard.
This is the worst we have had. All the roads are closed because of about 18" snow.
1969 Ward History
1969 January 31 - Daddy-Daughter date was held and all had a good time. March 27 - The Ward reunion was held, and a large crowd enjoyed themselves .
July 2 - Funeral services were held for James Leland Mortensen, a life member of Salem.
July - Scouts and Explorers went on a camping trip. The Scouts went to Beckler Lake, and the Explorers went to upper Palisade Lake. They all caught a lot of fish and had a good time.
August 5 to 9 - Girls attended Girls Camp. Many passed their Camp Craft.
September 8 to 14 - The youth of the Ward assumed the responsi- bility of the sustained officers of the Ward. They did a good job.
November 7 - Funeral services for the infant son, Steven Lewis Wellard, of Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Wellard.
November 7 - The Relief Society Bazaar was held. Hot dogs and barbecue was served. There was a fine program with a large crowd attending, and everyone enjoyed themselves .
December 16 - The Ward Christmas party was held. A large crowd attended. There was a scheduled program and a visit from Santa Claus.
August 24, 1969 - Ward conference was held.
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SNAKE RIVER VALLEY, SALEM AREA As told by Alma B. Larsen.
In 1883 and 1884 there was a big move to the Snake River Valley. Some time in the fall of 1883, father and my oldest brother, Ed, with three or four other men came up to the Snake River Country in Idaho . They located one hundred-sixty acres and returned to Cache Valley In the spring or early summer of 1884 father homesteaded the 160 acres, During the summer, our cabin was built. In the fall, the family moved to Idaho. I was nine years old at that time.
When father sold his lot in Hyrum, he bought a team of oxen intend- ing to move with them, but had to take a team of small horses as part pay on the City Lot, so the oxen were sold. I remember the little sorrel team, one was Dick and the other was Charley. My brother Ed had bought a little gray pony, and father had gotten hold of three or four calves . They fixed up a covered wagon, and with all of their earthly belongings, father and his five sons started on their trip to the Snake River Valley. I rode the little gray pony and drove cows all the way .
We were eight days on the road. I shall never forget the night we spent in Portneuf Canyon. It was on a camp ground known as Robber's Roost and in Indian country. Idaho was known as Outlaw country, so mother and her two girls had been left. After we were located, they came on the train to Market Lake, now Roberts .
In the spring of 1884 my mother, father, and Ed came before the high water season and for about six weeks the rivers were so high they could not cross them. During that time, she only saw one other woman, who was Mrs. Bob Carter. She came riding to their tent about the first of July. Bob Carter was known as an outlaw, but those two women were as happy to see one another as if they had known each other for years. Father and mother returned to Cache Valley, and in the fall we all made the move
The first winter was a hard one, but game was plentiful, The older boys would go down to the Snake River, cut a hole in the ice, build a fire, and always come home with plenty of fish for the family.
There were no schools, and only three families living in what is now called North Salem. They were the George P. Ward family, the Orvis Dille family, and my father's family, Lauritz Edward Larsen The Dille
family lived one mile south of our home, the Wards one mile west and a little north of us. There were Jim and Mort Mortensen, unmarried at that time, and Ellington Smith. These were all the Mormons living in North Salem that winter,
The winter of 1885/86 was not so lonely. Four more families moved to North Salem. Among these was the Hogan Anderson family, which became very close friends with the Larsen family, which lasted throughout the years .
Our family was crowded in the log cabin, so my sister Caroline took myself and my sister Tillie, who was two years younger than myself, and every night we went to a cabin built by the Anderson family on another homestead where we slept. Father hung a lantern on the corner of the house so we could see the light. The trail we followed through the snow, had willows stuck up every little way by the side of it, so we could follow it and not get lost. Sometimes the blizzards were so bad we could not make the trip. That half mile was made every night and every morning, weather permitting.
This winter about Christmas time, several hundred deer came down from the east to the west, crossing the river on the ice. It was a
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wonderful sight to see. The second winter was without school. In the spring my brother Ed went to Montana to find work, my brother Joe went to Beaver Canyon to work at a saw mill, and my brother Orsen, my father, and I took care of the crops that were planted on the school section where the Roxana Canal had been built. The squirrels were our biggest pest We had to fight them and our best weapon was water. We would drown them out of their holes and kill them by the hundreds
Father and three or four of the neighbors bought a self rake to cut the grain. Four men usually followed and bound the grain. Hyrum Dille and I took the place of one man, we were about the same age. I think this was the first crop of wheat we harvested. It was not very
much Each farmer had a few sacks .
Mr, Poole pulled a thrashing machine from Poole's Island, now Menan, and thrashed our grain. It took men like them to pioneer this and other great Valleys.
I think the first school we had was in the winter of 1886. My brother Joseph, as I remember, was our teacher. He hadn't had much schooling, but he was a beautiful penman and was good in figures. He taught part of that winter, perhaps two or three months. Blizzards often blocked the roads Some of the students had to drive as far as four or five miles. Because of weather conditions and extreme cold, there would be several days at a time when we could not get to the school house . One school teacher that we had was a man we called "Old Man Harris," he was the father of two of my Bishops, George H. B. Harris, Burnice R. Harris, and D Rolla Harris, with whom I served in the High Council and spoke at many funerals. He taught for about three months. This was a tuitition school, our parents paying for the services of the teacher. The school trustees, which included Salem district, were not friendly to our people
The first public school in the territory of Idaho began about 1888. It was at this time that the legislature of the territory enacted a law disenfranchising any person believing in celestial marriage. This was the strongest law enacted against the Mormon people. It deprived any member of the Church from holding any kind of political position.
The first election that was held after the manifesto was held in Rexburg, and included all the smaller Wards in the valley. Those were dark days for our people. Our fathers had to go into hiding just as the polygamists did in Utah.
Our first teacher was a young man by the name of Leech He was well named. We just as well have had no school as the one we attended That winter the name of the post office in post office in Rexburg, it being the only one we had in these parts at that time, was changed from "Rexburg Post Office" to "The Kentuck Post Office" in Idaho This law was fought in the courts. A young boy by the name of Samuel Davis, a Mormon from Bear Lake, demanded that his vote be cast in order that this law be put to the test It was taken to court and a history making trial was held that lasted for several days. The law was declared constitutional.
Our district school for the next three or four years was carried on about like the one referred to above. This was the end of my school- ing
Brother Alma Larsen was a wonderful man. He was loved and honored by everyone. I think he probably gave more blessings and administered to more people than any other man in this part of the country
I have heard him tell many interesting stories about early times in and around Salem I think I would like to tell one here, leaving out the
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names of those he named.
There was a man living in a house on the Salem townsite, who didn't have too much of the things necessary to keep him warm at nights, so he built a large box and made his bed in it. He also made a lid he could slide up over him. Some of the boys in the Ward learned of this and decided they would have some fun with him, so one night they took hammer and nails and went over to his house. Quietly they opened the door, jumped on the box and nailed the old fellow in. He begged them to let him out, but they left him in and went away. After awhile their memory of the pleading and tears got the best of them, and they returned and pulled the nails out letting him free. I guess we had mischievous boys then too.
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EARLY HISTORY of SALEM as told by Nancy Dille Cherry
Just prior to our Salem Ward reunion of 1970, held in the Cultural Hall, Mabel and I (Frank Belnap) visited Sister Nancy Dille Cherry, the daughter of Arvis C. Dille and Mary Ann Bradley Dille.
The following is an account of the Dille family moving to Salem, as recorded on a tape recorder in Sister Cherry's voice, at the age of 89 years and about 5 months.
Sister Cherry, how old are you now? "I was 89 years September 19, 1969." Sister Cherry, what time of the year did you come up here? "The first part of April some time, I don't know the date . My father and some others, Jim (James) Mortensen, Hans P. Jensen, Jimmy (James) Jansen, came the summer before and selected their land."
Sister Cherry, would you tell us about some of the first meetings held in the Ward, and when the Ward was organized?
"I can't remember much about it, I was only three years, four in September. The meetings were held in each others homes . I wonder how they all got in. Father was the first superin- tendent of the Sunday School. They came to our home quite a lot, we didn't have a meeting house at that time." Someone asked Sister Dille how do you get all the people in your home, you only have two rooms? She answered, "If you have room in your heart, you have room in your home." She always found room for them. When the ladies came, they always brought some picnic with them. When Sunday School was out, they always had dinner together. Then the children would go to play. The little ones would get on top of the house and slide off, on our sleighs .
"The older people would have Sacrament Meeting. When the meeting was out, they would go home and feed their cattle and milk their cows, then come back again, have supper and visit, and have some kind of enter- tainment. They would put the little children to sleep and lay them on top of the beds crosswise. They didn't stay ver late, but always till about ten o'clock. Everyone in the Ward would go, they always did. They go to their homes and have a good birthday supper for them. We were always remembered with a lot of nice little presents."
Sister Cherry, would you tell us about the camping out, when you came up here, how it was and what you would like to tell about it? "Well we came quite early in the day, we didn't move on our land, but camped down by the river where there was water and grass was deeper, then the cattle could eat. The first I remember was father and the older ones chopping the willows down and building a corral, weaving it with willows to keep small calves and sheep in there.
The coyotes would come out of the brush licking their chops wanting to get some. Father had a good big gun with him, he was in the Black Hawk War and knew how to use it, and shot a good many of their heads off. The next morning the boys who stayed all winter came. They had built them a dugout (a room back in the hill). By this time, they had built them a cabin of logs. They had us come and live in their dugout. They helped father get out logs and build a house to live in."
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Sister Cherry, I don't believe we have on our tape who your father and mother are, would you tell us who they are and some of the other people who you would like to talk about?
"Should I tell about the year before?" Yes, that would be fine. "Father, (Arvis C. Dille) with Jim and Morten Mortensen, Hans P. Jensen, Jim Jensen, Edward Larsen, George P. Ward, and maybe others came up, not with President Rick's company, but right after. It seems these boys all went out to North Salem and homestead there. Father and some of the married men went back home and stayed all winter and sold their property. Then the next spring they brought their families. Most of them brought their families, and came back up here.
Father got there in time to raise a small crop. I think I can name all of them, there was James P. Mortensen, Hans P. Jensen, Jim Jensen. I don't know whether I got all of them or not, they were old bachelors. Unmarried men we called them old bachelors. They stayed all winter, and built a dugout to stay in.
During the winter, they got out logs from down the rivers and built their homes, not out of lumber but of logs. All of us pioneers helped each other."
Sister Cherry, was William MacMin here when you came? "I don't remember, I think he was one of the earliest to come here. Yes that is right. Mr. MacMin was the first settler that came there.
Sister Cherry, would you tell us about crossing the rivers in those days? In Salem?
"When we had to cross the river, father would take a big log chain and tied the wagon box on so it would not float away because the water was so high. We all had to set up in the spring seat or on a board so our feet wouldn't get wet when the water came in. The first bridge we had was made of poles. The poles were not tight, they would roll and make a lot of noise. Should I tell that story now?" Yes .
"It was after they had the meeting house built. The older people didn't want to go to Sunday School, so the younger ones would walk to Sunday School so the horses could rest. They all went together for protection. Wards would start first, then would come to Larsens, then on to Andersons, and then they would come to father's place. Then we would go on, we had to cross this bridge. The orders were that we were to all come back together because the Indians were quite bad crossing, especially in June .
This Sunday, the boys all went swimming, and this Sunday Myrtle Mortensen (Valentine as she was then) wanted to come home with us. She had to go home and get permission from her mother and father. The boys went swimming down by the bridge, waiting for us girls. The water was quite high at that time. When we got down there we had to jump across places so we wouldn't get our feet wet. The roses were all in bloom, and we were picking some to take home. All at once, a big band of Indians came on to this bridge coming from the North goin to the South, and the boys were in swimming, waiting for us girls. They heard the Indians on the bridge because the poles made such a big noise.
There was a whole band of Indians, and there was us girls all sur- rounded with water It was no time before the boys came running and hollering for us. The Indians bunched up together and picked out five young Indians with horses, like they were coming after us. When the Indians saw the boys coming, they just stood still and we ran around them to meet the boys at the bridge.
When we first saw the Indians coming, we girls took turns praying to the Lord to protect us. I was the youngest, I think I was twelve
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years old. The Indians didn't dare do anything when they heard the boys and saw them coming. Mabel, "Ah imagine," now that was good.
In the olden days, we had Clem Ward for our mailman. The water was so high, we didn't have any bridges to cross, we had Clem. He had a good pony, a saddle, and a big leather bag. He would gather up all the mail and put it in this leather bag. They would take him to town, because they always tied him on so if the horse fell, they thought the horse might stumble or something. The horse had to swim across. Someone on the other side, Mr. Flamm the old man, had a little store. He took care of the mail, and he would bring the mail down to the river. They would take the mail out of the bag and put the mail for Salem in the leather bag, and Clem would bring it back across to the people of Salem. We all called Clem our mail man, and he was a good one too.
We dedicate this part of our Salem Ward History to this lovely, devoted Sister Nancy Dille Cherry, and to all those wonderful Pioneers who made this all possible.
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AUGUSTUS W. BELNAP, FATHER OF THE SALEM UNION CANAL
"Brethren, the time to act is now!" The low pulpit in the little log Salem meeting house trembled under the force of Brother Belnap's closed fist.
"God gave us the gift of that great Snake River for this valley. The fertile soil of our land and the water of that river belong together. When they do come together, there won't be more bounteous harvests gathered anywhere in our whole land than right here in Salem. How is this great union to come about? Brethren! There is only one way. God gave us the natural resources. He also gave us strong bodies. He expects us to go to, now, and by the sweat of our brow and with our own two hands to turn these great natural powers for our own good. .. "
As Brother Belnap went on, every person in the room was busy with his own thoughts. Everyone, to a man, knew he spoke the truth. Such a hard truth it was to face though. It was one thing to dream the dream of a fine canal running through the land ... but with the head twelve miles away through lava rock and sagebrush, and the people! Why the people were a handful and only one another knew how poor they were. A canal project like that would take a lifetime! Surely it was better to wait awhile.
It did not enter into the mind of one listener to question the propri- ety of the second Counselor in the Bishopric closing his Sunday sermon with a plea to the families to build a canal over the land. They lived in the daily faith that God was as pleased to lend his ear to a prayer for the plow about to be set in the furrow as for a prayer for the building up of Zion. Indeed, the building of Salem was part of the building of Zion. The living of the Gospel depended upon establishing homes in this free, wild land, unwanted by the gentiles.
Back in the corner near the door, sat young Alma Larsen, where he had spent most of the meeting time trying to keep his long legs tucked under the bench to cover the painful distance from the bottom of his trouser cuff to his shoe tops. He did not know that his now intently listening face glowed, He only knew that Brother Belnap's talk sounded like a great pro- phecy. If the time ever came that the sage covered acres would be fields of abundant crops and comfortable homes, he hoped he lived to see it. Bro- ther Belnap said it all depended on their getting the water to the land. If that was it, why didn't every able bodied man go to work tomorrow morning?
He knew that Brother Belnap had given sermons like this before. He knew he had visited every home in the Ward and talked canal. Folks would tell how it was so even when the Bishopric made their annual visit to every home in the Ward. When it was Brother Belnap's turn to speak, he would take his place behind the back of his chair and exhort the members of the family to live the Gospel all right, but he never failed to add his plea to the man of the house to see to it that he looked out for his water rights to his farm. "Can't you see, Brother," he would plead, "how we've got to get prior filings on the water? When the river is low, it is the early filings that get first priority to the water. You know we can't even keep ourselves alive if we don't get water on our ground."
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Some of the men said it was just an idea born in Gus Belnap's head that he couldn't get rid of, so he had to keep talking about it. Bishop Harris was one who spoke right up in favor of the plan. "Think what it would mean for the Salem Townsite," he would say. "And think of the squirrels. Men, the only way we can fight them squirrels is to water 'em out." As for Alma, he liked the way Brother Belnap never gave up.
The boy's father said he didn't know whether Alma grew with the country or that the country grew with the boy. Anyway they were both getting over the ground. New settlers slowly drifted into the new untried country. Each new family was received as a new recruit to fight the elements of a new frontier for the good of all.
The day finally came when five other men stood behind Gus Belnap for his canal and set their signatures on a filing paper at the county seat in St. Anthony .- Brother Belnap got out and rustled together four men and two young fellows to begin the work. Although Alma had done a man's work for more than two years, he tingled with an unbelievable delight when Uncle Joseph Larsen came and asked him if he would go in his stead.
Early on a Monday morning this sixteen-year-old youth turned his team and covered wagon onto the course toward St. Anthony along with the four other outfits. Hans Hansen, the other youth, shared a wagon with his brother Pete, Gus Belnap, his brother Amasa3 and James Olsen each drove a seperate outfit, Into each wagon was packed the driver's bed and pro- visions to last until the next Saturday night. It was easy to drop four or five dozen eggs in the can of oats for the horses, and find room for the frying pan and a bag of potatoes and grease Some of the men had a piece of pork or wild meat to take besides. Only enough hay was thrown in to feed the horses at noon, Mr. Hoft4 had offered his pasture for night feed for the animals .
About twelve miles north east from the townsite just below the lavas, two groups of tongue scrapers were guided into the first furrow of the new canal Each three worked as a team in an oblong circle of two or three hundred feet, going down into the canal and bringing the dirt upon the bank Each flat, one piece, wooden scraper had a four inch blade across the bottom front and a pair of wooden handels at the top. An adjustable chain from the upper side to the tongue held it to the proper tilt The team carried the load of dirt to the bank. The driver tipped the scraper forward to empty the load. Hard work it was for both man and beast. As the canal grew deeper the bank became to high to drive the horses upon it. So, for each circle, runways had to be made. In a mile there would be many runways. So anxious were the men to push on with the excavating only jurried, slipshod filling of the runways was made at the time .
1The source of this story is largely from interviews with Alma B. Larsen, Rexburg, but also with Emma B. Romrell, wife of L. J. Romrell, deceased; Norman Romrell; Hyrum Romrell, Ogden, Utah; Charles H. Meyers, treasurer of the Salem Union Canal from 1921-31 and watermaster of the same canal for 1927 and 1928. The articles of Incorp. at the Fremont Co Courthouse were the only written records available .
2Mr Larsen testifies a company was formed and a filing made about 1881, but I could find no record of it.
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For awhile, Alma was not sure whether his real struggle was with the lava and the boulders and the hard unyielding earth, or the bay colt he drove in his team for Uncle Joseph. He promised he would break that colt on this job. The family had come by her in a horse trade and ever since she came on the place whe was known as the mean one. The first hooking of the harness was a touch off to set her kicking furiously and attempting to run away. To handle her, Alma applied the war hobble, a rope fastened to the horse's right front leg, down by the ankle, and run up over the withers, through a ring, just back of the collar, and down to the ankle of the left front leg. From then on, the minute the colt began kicking or running, Alma, with one tug on the rope could bring her instantly to her knees.
Thus, they took their place in the scraping team. An eight hour shift straight through every day, with fifteen minutes in the morning and again in the afternoon for the driver to get a drink. 5 By the time two or three weeks had passed, horse and man had learned to work in per- fect coordination. "The mean one may turn out to be the best horse Uncle Joseph has," though Alma, in a prophecy more true than he realized.
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