Idaho - AHGP/Valley County/bio-Woods-Noland

Gertrude Ireton Noland Reminisces

courtesy of Joe Noland

Velma and Mabel...Esther was Mabel and Mabel was Velma. Of course the folks had told them to stay away from all that.
A prominent Boise man fell In love with one of the prostitutes, but they knew they could never marry. He rented a team and buggy from Dad (who had a freight company), ask for a heavy lap-robe and strong halters for the horses. The next day when they hadn't returned, Dad went to search for them... he found them up by Crown Point cemetery (which is still there on a high dry hill) They were both dead on the robe on the ground. The team was tied to a big pine tree nearby. He had shot his Sweetheart and then himself. Mabe remembers large gunshot holes in the robe.. she said it was heavy plush with big pictures on it.
Mother used to bake bread to sell in the store. She wouldn't take the money from those women, but she would leave the bread on the counter and they took it and left the money. Mother went into the back room.
When Dad freighted into Thunder Mountain from Van Wyck, the roads were mostly on ridges that were steep and rough. Many parts of old wagons, mining equipment, household odds and ends were later found along side of where those old roads had been. Dad hauled just about everything... mostly, I remember he told me about the piano he had such a time getting in there, to one of the saloons. In 1977, some man somewhere told me about that old piano under the water in one of the building. The cemetery is still on a hill up there.
After the folks left Van Wyck they moved to Emmett. Dad worked on the canal from Montour to Emmett... He was a forman. I was born in Emmett... at home, on June 29, 1010. Mother said their old "Bob" dog just couldn't figure out what I was that next morning... but he stuck by me for many years after that. Saved my life once by pulling me out of the canal by the dresstail..(at Horse Shoe Bend)
We all moved to Horse Shoe Bend when I was sixteen months old. The folks managed the hotel there until I was past five years old. Mabel and Ralph attended school there for a while, then Mabel went to Weiser Institute to school. They were soon out working on jobs. We moved to the ranch in the fall. I was the mean little kid then...popping my gum in bed whenever Mabel was home and I got to sleep with her. I did a jillion other irritating things to Mabel and Ralph. I loved them though. Ralph paid me good to scratch his back when he was home. I always cried when they left home to go work. They were very close. They would rather dance together than with others. Good brother and sister.
The town of Cascade started sometime after 1912...anyway, the railroad went through Horse Shoe Bend at that time. It was a big event. I was only two and a half years old, but I can remember that first train chugging along through there. All the town's people were out in the street by the hotel. I was straddle of John Andrew Daley's neck...high above the crowds. There were lots of people there then. it was a stop-over from Boise for travelers. Lots of fights and shootings. I was locked in our room all one day when Mother expected one of the big gun fights. The Indian gave her all of his possesions to send to his sister if he was killed. One saloon across the street from the hotel and one just across the alley. I used to crawl under the bat-wing door and Mr. Sells (bartender) gave me lemonade to take to Mother.
About 1942-1944, divers went down in Roosevelt Lake and brought up fancy liquor bottles (shaped like women) and other old antique relics. Willis and I lived in Stibnite then and I remember all the excitement and stories they told. The water was crystal clear. When we first went there, we could see Three houses under water, but gradually the board rotted and drifted to the lower end of the lake. History says the fill-up was not sudden, so everyone got out but did lose most of their belongings. Two land-slides came together at the lower end...There was no way to channel the stream that went through the town...so everyone left. There were many business establishments there, even Chinese laundries. I've kept lots of this history if anyone wants it. Stibnite had a small weekly newspaper.

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Notes:
When Mary Gertrude Ireton Noland was born on 29 June 1910, in Emmett, Ada, Idaho, United States, her father, Francis Ashby Noland, was 43 and her mother, Ada Gertrude Ireton, was 37. She married Willis Edward Woods on 1 September 1933, in Mountain Home, Elmore, Idaho, United States. She lived in Indian Judicial Township, Plumas, California, United States in 1940 and Stibnite, Valley, Idaho, United States in 1950. She died on 15 March 1997, in Eagle, Ada, Idaho, United States, at the age of 86, and was buried in Horseshoe Bend, Boise, Idaho, United States.

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