Joseph Family History

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JOSEPH FAMILY HISTORY

Finally, about 1926, the plans and engineering were all complete. A dam site was settled on, where now the Owyhee Dam is, and they finished all their contracts with the small irrigation districts who were in very bad financial trouble at that time. In 1928, actual construction on the Owyhee Project was started and finished, and the water was turned on in the fall of 1935. The Reclamation operated the project from 1935 until 1957. In 1982, they turned it back to the farmers, and they have been managing and running the system ever since.

The Ontario Road District was formed. This was a District that extended from south of Ontario, down to Dead Ox Flat, and north as far as Jefferson School District, and now we have most of the roads on the flat blacktopped and we have electricity. I was in the Road District for about five years, I believe. So, we have electricity, telephones, and the children are picked up at their door to go to school and brought home at night. The farming has changed from grain and hay. Now, we have mostly row crops. Onions and potatoes are the main crops, with a little corn for feed purposes and quite a bit of alfalfa seed being grown. The old horse-drawn wagons have all disappeared and in their place modern, beautiful tractors, and I have lived to see this flat change from a sagebrush desert to what now is one of the most beautiful green valleys in the world. There have been a lot of changes.

My father was Horace Joseph, and there was J. M. Joseph. He always went by the name of J. M., and that was the only way I ever knew him or heard anyone speak of him. They homesteaded at the same time. They came here together from the same place in Iowa.

I think maybe Frank Gribbin was here ahead of my parents and my grandfather, but he didn’t live on the homestead, he lived in town. I think Frank filed ahead of them but he didn’t move out here until later, wow, can’t say when he proved up, both my father and grandfather proved up their homesteads in 1905. They built about 1904.

“I was one of the first Directors of the Malheur County Onion Growers Association. I served on that Board for about ten years. I made sure to keep up with fertilizers, yes, insecticides unless you are evenly tossed in the air and if you are going to take part, you should see Farmer. That poor guy is a hero. I rested. I know this old man took great pride in his selection. I quit farming in 1966. It was handed over to them. I owe it. I have any of the modern conveniences hone kitchens should they have now. It was a yard work.”

In the early days here on the Flat, there was no such thing as a picture show, television, or anything of that kind. The only recreation that people had was of their own making. Literary Society was in the winter, and they would meet in the Jefferson School about every two weeks and have a party.”

We had a Sagebrush Baseball League when I was going to school over here to the Jefferson School. We even made our own bats and our own baseballs, and we took great pride in seeing who could make the best baseball as nobody had any money to buy them with. There were all kinds of ways to make baseballs. We would take string and wind it as tight as we could and then there was always some horsehide or leather, or something you’d cut that and fit and fit it, and work and sew and sew. It used to take about a week or even days to make a good baseball. Of course, it’s not that good, but we thought it was. We had fun with it anyway.

Every kid made their own kites and always tried to improve a little bit and make one better, and fly a little bit higher than his pal or his neighbor. There was a lot of competition in kites.

The first car that my father had was a Model T and brass-hooded. A 1914 Model T, not sure but I believe that was the first car on the Flat. It’s not much of a car, but we would go to town and sometimes we would get to town without changing tires or having a blowout, but usually, 2 or 3 blowouts between here and Weiser, and hope to get back again. In those days, it was quite a car. I believe our first car was a Plymouth Coupe. I think I had that when I married Dorothy and I think it was about a 1936 Model. A green Coupe and it didn’t have a rumble seat.

From Charles Joseph

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