Turner Family History

Our parents, James William Turner (August 22, 1854 – Fall 1931) and Jane E. Turner (May 7, 1862 – July 5, 1952), moved west from Clarinda, Iowa in the spring of 1900 with a family of five girls and five boys, the oldest being 20 years old and the youngest two years. Later, two more boys joined the clan making an even dozen kids.

The location of their new home was at Cloverdale between Boise and Meridian on the land that is now the Cloverdale Cemetery. The country at that time was partly irrigated with gravity water from the Boise River, and as there was no storage water we were sometimes low or late getting water.

The place was all cultivated except 15 acres, which was still covered with sage brush. There was a large family-type orchard and pastures with hay and grain on the balance. The roads were all dirt roads, and while we were only five miles out of Boise, Dad and the older boys baled their surplus hay and loaded it into railroad boxcars to ship it into town. The railroad joined the back-side of the farm. They also milked about 25 cows with the milk going to the creamery at Meridian.

Dad decided he needed more land so he traded his place for a 400 acre ranch in the Wood River Valley, better known now as Sun Valley, and located one mile below the village of Bellevue. He decided to change to range cattle, and leased about 400 head at Boise and trailed them to his new ranch at Bellevue, about a 150 mile trail.

I was just a button 9-year-old but knew how to ride, so Dad bought me a new saddle, and a nice roan pony came with the cattle so I was in business. This pony weighed about 800 pounds but was sure tough and shied at his own shadow. The older men rode him at night as we had to night-herd. I still have my saddle even if it is 70 years old.

Well, Dad’s venture didn’t pan out as he ran into long winters, low markets and, above all, cattle rustlers. He was obliged to get out of his lease obligations even if it left him strapped. So I lost my riding horse as he went with the cattle (but not my new saddle).

Well, we stayed at Bellevue 5 years, and that is where I got the most and the best of my schooling. I never liked school and never missed a chance to be doing something on the ranch. I always would rather work than go to school or even play.

Mother wasn’t too well at Bellevue. That is where Elwyn was born and she took sick and the doctor advised Dad to get her to a lower climate, so he got on his trading clothes and we ended up at Lewiston, Idaho; from there, over to the Columbia Basin in Washington. That country at that time was a dust bowl with lots of cheap land as most all had gone for county taxes or to the mortgage company. So we didn’t last long there as we had only one crop in four years (the reason for cheap land).

Mother was the one to promote the move from there. She declared the next place we settled had to be beside a river and was to be permanent. Of course Dad was ready to move as he thrived on changing locations. He liked to take a place, build up the improvements, and then was looking for new territory.

The fall of 1916, Dad came down to Payette. Eda, our oldest sister and family were living there. He (Dad) had several places in mind so wanted Mother to come and pass her approval. She wanted me to come with her as I had my nose broken playing baseball, and it healed shut on one side until I couldn’t breathe right. There was no surgeon closer than Spokane (100 miles) and she insisted that we get it fixed at Boise (Russ lived there), so that is how I came to be in on choosing a new location.

We spent several days, even weeks, up and down the valley always keeping in mind the place must be next to a river. Don Grafe was the man who brought us out to this place (he was the last manager of the Moore Hotel in Ontario). It was a beautiful fall day such as we have here, and the farms all had large stacks of hay; the Frank Gribbin place, Joseph places, Hills, Holmstrom (where Terou Yao lives), and others clear through to Payette. Also, the grain stubble showed a fair crop had been harvested.

Mr. Gribbin was picking corn just across the road so I went over and talked to him. He had the nicest fields around, and he assured me the ground was all alike if properly leveled and farmed and watered right. He told me the water cost was $5.00 per acre, which was correct up until then, but not anymore.

There were no improvements other than homestead-type. Mother was taken with the location (so was I) as it had the Snake River to draw from and not too far from town, a small family-type orchard, and shade trees set out with a large lawn planted field-style with corrugations. So they decided this was it, and they closed the deal for 200 acres (at $65 per acre) belonging to John Green and the all-important 40 acres of river bottom belonging to Mrs. Green ($1,600). Later they bought 133 acres from Charley Green in Moore’s Hollow, and then later they traded their Washington wheat section to Johnson & Brent of Weiser for 170 acres which joins the Hollow Ranch. Now is when the fun begins.

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From Kathryn Turner Baker