Language of the Times

From the Idaho World (Idaho's oldest, continuously published newspaper, by the way) from sometime in November 1902:

One of the most attractive weddings that ever took place here was that of Miss Madie Cooper, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frank H. Cooper, and Mr. Wm. J. McNeil, of Idaho City.

The ceremony was performed by Probate Judge Hart at the residence of the bride's parents. The bride was escorted into the parlor by her father, followed by Mrs. Cooper and Mr. McNeil.

The bride was beautifully attired in a pearl gray gown, a pretty wreath of orange blossoms in her hair, in her hand a cluster of roses. Miss Essie Cooper, sister of the bride, was bridesmaid and looked charming.

Will Cooper, the bride's oldest brother, filled the bill as best man to perfection. The number of invited guests was large, and they passed an enjoyable afternoon; in fact so much so that were a stranger to enter the room he would think that everybody had just been married.

It is said that the bride received more presents and of greater value than any young lady ever married here, which to enumerate would occupy too much of your valuable space.

The wedding repast was served in the dining room, and surely it was a feast fit for the gods. Late in the afternoon the guests bade the bride and groom “by by," at the same time wishing them a long life of prosperity and happiness.

Mr. and Mrs. McNeil will make their home near Idaho City.

Since the wedding, bachelors who have withstood the charms and fascinations of the fair sex for years are trembling in their boots and feelingly asking themselves, "Who'll be next?"

----

idaho_world_1.jpg


Still in business after 164 years...just not as prosaic as a hundred and ten years ago. Madie (Mary) and Frank McNeil were my great grandparents. Madie's father William was the nephew of the Frank, Henry and William Coopers who have been mentioned in the previous letters.

So you can see that sometimes it's a little tough to keep track of who is whom. There are a bunch of Christophers, Henrys and Williams through the generations and it's painfully easy to get one generation mixed up with the other.
 
These days, if we need a certified copy of a government document, like a marriage license or birth certificate, we just trundle down to the county clerk's office, have it printed up and notarized and we're done. How much easier can it be?

Turn on the way-back machine, Sherman. Now it's 1839 and you need a copy of your naturalization papers. As it happens, you were naturalized in Virginia, but you live in Missouri now. I guess that you can't get on the Internet and fill out a form, right? And the Xerox machine is well over a hundred years away anyhow.

So, you send a letter to a friend or relative in Virginia and ask him to run over to the county clerk's office to have the clerk write out a certified copy of your document. By hand. And that's what happened on March 28, 1839.

Cooper_Naturalization_Papers-a-sm.jpg
Cooper_Naturalization_Papers-b-sm.jpg


At the end of the document, the clerk certifies that he is who he says he is and the document is what it says it is, then he affixes the seal of the county. Then, the circuit court judge certifies that the clerk is who he says he is and that he can do what he says that he did.

The bill was $1.87: 50 cents for the copying and $1.37 for the seal.
 
Joseph Cooper was my great great great grandfather's brother. He was a glass cutter, working in Cincinnati, Ohio. Ann Finagin, the woman to whom he was writing, was their oldest sister.

Letters like this are a testament to the fact that cities in the "western" states of 1849 were not the metropolises that they are today. It was addressed simply: Mrs. Ann Finagin, St. Louis Mo.

At the time, there were about 115,000 people living in Cincinnati. St. Louis had a population of around 78,000 (not a tiny place, but definitely not what it is today.) In comparison, New York City was pushing 700,000.

Cincinnati, April 9th 1849

Dear Sister,

I receivd your letter last Wednesday. I promised to send you some cake and the particulars of the wedding but I kept putting of writing from day to day expecting I would get a letter from you before I wrote. I have not wrote to Mother yet but I will write to her to day. We have been married four week last Wednsday. 7th March we was married at the house by the Rev Mr. Jewell. I had Mr. Flin for grommsman and Mary had Augusta Shields for Brides maid. We had a very pleasant time. Shines and Mrs. Shines, Susan Tompson, Mr. and Mrs. Cook, Mr. Webb and Family, George Finagin, Sammy and Charley Hodgkins, Mrs. Shields, Mrs. Alexander, Mrs. Stickney, Mrs. Fithian, Mr. Huner, Mrs. Harrison, James Leslie. the house was pritty well filled. We had a good supper and brok up about one o clock. Everything passed of very agreeable. The room was to small or we would had some danceing.

We did not invite the Wightmans or Shells. Leslie dont appear to like the Wightmans much ever since they went on that Picnic. I should like to have the Shells, but we intended at first to have it take place privately with nobody but Flin and Augusta as it would be of less expense but Mr. Leslie invited Mr. Cooks and had to have Mary Fithian and if the next hadnt been invited they wouldnt of liken it.

We are boarding at Leslies. They will move out in the country about the first week in May and then we will go to house keeping. I like all of Leslies very well in fact better than I expected to for I youst to think Mrs. Leslie would be cross and ill tempered with anybody that lived with her but have not found her as yet. As for Mary I think we will live very agreeable together. We have been married more than a month and I find no reason to regret it yet.

Page 2

James Leslie died last Wednsday night half past ten oclock. He went down on the steamer Moro Castle the day after we was married. Took sick in New Orleans. Was sick all the way up. No Doctor on the boat. Over ten days coming up and was very bad when he got here with the inflamation of the bowels. He got here Saturday and died Wendsday. they put him in a vault out at Corninsville on Thursday. I sat up with him all Monday and Tuesday night and Wennsday night they thought he was getting better and I laid down and thought I would have a good sleep but I hant bee asleep over half a hour be Mary wokened me up and told me Jim was adiing. They all take it very hard as Jim was the pet of the family. He appeared to know he was going to die. He told them so on the boat but I suppose they laughed at him. I told his mother it was no yues to send for a doctor, he was going to die. He said he felt like as if he was going to die and we couldin make him believe otherwise.

George is now carrying papers to get his money from Easton and bought a route of the Daily Nonpariel. He gave 20 Dollar for the route. There is over 180 subscripers. Besides carrying weeklies, he makes 5 or 6 Dollar a week. He been carrying papers for four or five weeks. I see him every day. I take a paper from him. His hand is perfectly well but is stiff. He cant yous any of his fingers. His hand looks a great deal better. The swelling in the palm of his hand is a going down. I have not seen Mary for two or three week but george says they are all well. I told George that you sent a letter to Mary. He said she did not get it yet, perhaps it is in the Post Office yet.

Mr. Phillips has not been doing anything for the last two month. Seen the Battons yesterday.

Page 3

The youngest child has been very sick but is getting better. They told me Old Mr. Gowers had Poisend himselve by taking arsenick. he was drinking and his wife left him for two or three days when Bill Gowers to see him and asked him if he wanted to send word to his mother. When he tol him he poisend himself. You needent say anything to Mr. Shell about it. I dont know whether it [illegible] or not. Ive not been to Shell since we married. Ill go this week and se them.

I seen Mrs. Alexander yesterday. She was at Leslies. I se the Shieldses sometimes but have not seen the Wightmans for four or five weeks.

Coulters wife Susan is dead. She died about 3 week ago with the dropsy.

Tell Mr. Finagin Im trying to get some Chimneys out of Old Jukes but have not got any yet. I was there this morning. He promised to make some this week but I dont know when he will. He has been promising to make them for a long time but is all way making excuses. He is only been working one Pot all winter and been sick part of the time and making green glass. It aint no ues trying to get any money for I could not get any out of him when he already owd me 4 or 5 Dollar. Soon as I can get this he [illegible] them round or perhaps I can get some Ale glass out of him and cut them if you think Mr. Finagin could sell them as well or some of each. Thats partly the reason why I didnt write before. I wanted to kno wwhen I could get any thing from Old Jukes so I could let you know. It is as uncertain now as it was before.

My business has been very dul this winter and I hoped it would be better in spring but it aint much better yet. If I could find any thing else to do I would do it but I have to keep at it till I can find something else to get at.

Mary got your letter. It had been laing in the Post Office for six weeks. They always send Leslies letters to the Teatre and mine all comes to the Shop and I didnt think of going to the office till I saw it advertised.

No more at present. Give my love to all and write as soon as you get this.

Your affectionate Brother,

Joseph C. Cooper

----

"Dropsy" is now known as edema. Since I'm not a doctor, I don't know how one would die from it, but back then, it seems like just about anything was fatal.

For those who have an interest, there's some fascinating old-timey medical advice on treating dropsy and inflamation of the bowels. It ranges from the humorous to the downright scary. I think that the lesson is that getting sick in the mid-19th century was a pretty dicey affair.

Also, the "chimneys" in the letter are, I believe, glass chimneys for oil lamps and candles.
 
On a battered and torn scrap of paper, I found these prescriptions for ailments of the time:

1 dram oil of Lemon
1 drop Essence of Camphor
1 drop Essence of Cinnamon
1 drop Essence of Sassafras
1 drop Essence of Peppermint

1/3 Teaspoonful at a dose

Administer three or four times
in case of vomiting
--------------------------------------------------------------------
If cramp'd in arms & legs take 1 oz Cyan pepper, 1 handfull salt.
Put this in as warm water as the patient can bear it. Immediately rub the legs and arms with a cloth and continue rubbing. Apply hot bricks to the feet in a moist cloth. As soon as the patient says ready give him 4 talbe spoonfulls Castor oil in a little brandy with nutmeg. If the bowels are hard and vomiting continues, make a bandage of woolen clothe and apply.

1 oz of Camphor in a Pint of Brandy and moisten the bandage with it.

Burn some bread and put it in water. 9 drops of brandy. Ground Ivy Tea is good.

------------------

I'm not sure who wrote it, but from the condition of the paper and the style of the writing, I suspect that it's more likely from the first half of the 19th century than the second.

Like I said earlier, illness and injury back then were dicey conditions.
 
I must say, everybody talking about ancestors has gotten me on ancestry.com searching out the family tree. It's rather intriguing. Also, a note about the language of the forefathers; do not assume they spoke as they wrote. If you were to meet me in person you would never guess I wrote this. I do not speak this way. I speak in the dialect of Appalachia with a little deep South thrown in, as most natives of this part of America do. To speak entirely proper English would be, at best, unwieldy in day to day life here. I write as I do because I was taught to and I speak as I do because that's how I was taught to speak. Accents also play a large part as they can make proper word pronunciation difficult, particularly in the South as we tend to soften sharp sounds and speak rhythmically. It can be quite annoying when speaking around people who do not live here, as they tend to attach the label "dumb hillbilly" as soon as you open your mouth.
 
Hardcase, I'm not sure if anyone else has said this but you have there in your letters and photos American History, which at all costs must be preserved.
 
Hardcase, I'm not sure if anyone else has said this but you have there in your letters and photos American History, which at all costs must be preserved.
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Very true - I feel like I'm spending a small fortune on archival storage supplies. That stuff is expensive, but the letters and photos are priceless.
 
In the late 1890s, my great grandfather, William McNeil, was farming with his brother Albert near Garden Valley, Idaho. It's a beautiful spot in the mountains, but it's really more ranch country than farming because the growing season is pretty short. It's possible that they grew hay and perhaps had some cattle.

It was the second homestead for the McNeil boys - the first one was in an area called Round Valley, which was a bit farther north and quite a bit higher in elevation. They didn't last long there, although the cabin they built stood until the late 1960s (I remember seeing it as a boy when we drove up to the lake in the summer).

Anyway, while William and Albert made their living in Garden Valley, they would travel the 25 dusty, mountainous miles through Placerville and Centerville to Idaho City, the seat of Boise County and the nearest town of any size. Around 1900, a pretty girl caught William's eye and he determined to court her. Of course, this was at the close of Victorian times, so these things were done "just so". That meant a fair amount of accompanied meetings and such. As it happened, Idaho City did have a pretty well developed social life, so dances and socials were always going on. The problem for William was getting from Garden Valley to Idaho City.

In the summer, it was a fair ride on a horse, but for the hand of a pretty girl it was well worth it. In the winter...well, it snows like there's no tomorrow up there, deeper than a horse's back. But for the hand of a pretty girl...

William made himself a pair of skis out of a couple of planks that he sawed, carved and steamed, then attached some leather bindings to them and, every couple of weeks, skied the 25 miles from Garden Valley to Idaho City.

It must have impressed that pretty girl because she turned out to be my great grandmother Mary and William became my great grandfather. Now, he died before I was born, but I was lucky enough to hear first hand the story of how my great grandfather courted my great grandmother from Nana herself.

Oh, and those skis are still around. They're hanging on the wall of our cabin in central Idaho. I'll snap a picture this weekend.

mcneils.jpg

The family, around 1920.

Front Row: Mary, Bill, William
Back Row: Everett (my grandfather), Dallas
 
A few posts ago, I transcribed a letter from the Pocket Letter Book of 1852 addressed to George and Edward Cooper. As I mentioned, the boys really disliked farming and were itching to get off the farm in Missouri and head West to join their brothers. Well, they did and George ended up at the Stonewall Mine, just outside of Descanso, California, about 40 miles from Old Town San Diego (which, at the time, was, of course, just San Diego, population: 5,000).

Now, it's interesting to read this letter for a couple of reasons. I guess that the most obvious is that George talks about the "Garden Spot of America" and about how nice the weather in San Diego is.

The other reason is that when I was stationed in San Diego in the Navy, I lived in Alpine, just one exit down the freeway from Descanso. At the time, I had no idea that my great-great-great-great grand uncle had lived there. In fact, I didn't find out until this very evening.

The Stonewall Mine was a hard rock shaft mine, but there's nothing much left now. For those interested, there is an interesting description of an archaeological investigation here.

About all that I know of George Cooper was that he was still working at the mine in 1900 as an "Amalgamator (Gold)" according to the US Census. He would have run the equipment that combined mercury with the gold ore to create an amalgam of gold and mercury, which would be further distilled to recover the gold. He's on my to do list for research.



Stonewall Cal Aug 27th, 74

Dear Brother Chris

I last night received your two letters maild the same date and was really glad to get a letter from you. I had suposed that Frank, Henry, Ed. & myself had several years ago Deeded all our Interests to you. Look over your papers and see if you can not find a Deed. However if not if you will send me the Range Township & Section of the Several pieces of Land, I will send you a Deed. And the $173.75 On Hundred & Seventythree Seventyfive Cents I will give to you.

I have nothing interesting to write or very little that would interest you. This is a nice county to live in but very poor farming county. I have been here five years and farmers have only raised one good crop. It dont rain much and they have no water to irigate with. But there is some splendid land here. The next county above, Los Angeles is called the Garden Spot of America.

But we are waiting for the Texas and Pacific Rail Road to build up the City of San Diego and I don't know of a nicer place to live in. I inclose the weather report for the first eight days in June. That is about as hot as it generally gets in the summer. In the Winter it is never cold. They have no frost or snow. All kinds of Tropical Fruits & Shrubery grows out of doors.

Where I am about 40 miles East of San Diego it snows in the winter sometimes two or three feet. I got a letter from Henry a few days ago. I have not heard from Ed or Frank for sometime and never hear from any of Sister Anns folks. As the Mail will be a long in a few moments I will have to close this.

Give My Love to your Wife & family.

Yours &c, George Cooper

-------------------

The letter is prefaced:

My address is
"Stonewall
San Diego Co
Cal"

as there are several Coopers here in this County. My Name on the Great Register is George A Cooper.

The Post Master at San Diego and in fact most every man in the County knows me by that name.

----------------

The "Great Register" was the Great Register of Voters of San Diego County. Incidentally, the Texas and Pacific never made it to San Diego. As far as I know, it wasn't until 1919 that a direct rail line to the east made it to the city.
 
Hard Case,
Dropsy is an accumulation of fluids in the abdominal cavity usually from right sided heart failure, cirrhosis of the liver, or cancer. Also edema of the legs can be part of the above syndromes. Dropsy is an old term to mean an abnormal accumulation of fluids in a body cavity or the tissues.
 
I've been working on letters and photos from the other side of the family (gotta take 'em as they come), so I've had a bit of a dry spell of anything notable for you guys. But I ran across this one over the weekend while I was up at the cabin - it was mixed in with a foot-high stack of Harper's Bazars, some mining journals and an 1879 issue of Scientific American.

Anyway, the letter was written by William Cooper to his brother, my great, great, great grandfather, Charles "Chris" Cooper. At the time, William was in the middle of his crossing from Missouri to what is now just north of the California state line in Oregon. He had paused in Fort Laramie, Wyoming Territory to rest his ox team and his cattle.

Fort Laramie May 21st 1851

Dear Brother

This is the first oportunity I have had to write since we left the States. I left on the 23rd of april the left bank of Missouri river and reached here this morning, making the first eight hundred miles in less than a month. With ox teams, we are a week or ten days ahead of all emigration. We left Wolf river on the 24th with about 30 teams, horses mules and oxen and pack mules and if ever there was rushing and pushing to get ahead it was done thare. We all tried to start first. I was the 7th team that crossed the river. After we raised the bluff we doscovered Robinetts train about five miles ahead with 300 head of loose cattle, then the chase commencet to get a head. Grass being very Scarse it was evry body's object to get ahead. Three of the teams gave out in 5 hours drive by not taking time to water. The other four of us went about 2 miles farther and wattered our teams again. That time the loose cattle came up and before they wattered and raised the hill we ware a mile ahead and Kept gaining all day. We made 40 miles that day and campt at 9 oclock. The next day we counted 12 wagons about five miles in the rear. We camped before dark and made 32 miles. Four horse teams came up that night within a mile of us but we got a early start next morning and left them and ever seen them since.

Page 2

The Salt Lake Mail came up about 10 days ago and reported the horse teams one hundred and the ox teams from one to two hundred miles be hind us, and we have continued to travell from 25 to 30 miles a day ever since laying by half a day now and then to wash and bake and eat. Wood being very scarce sometimes carriing wood 3 to 6 days before we find timber but we have a good substitute in Buffalo chips. We intend going about four miles above the fort and wait for more company to go through the Snake as crow indians they are the worst we have to fear. They say the pawnee is the worst but we came through thair country without seeing one of them. The rest of the tribes was very friendly. We generally gave them a little provision as we passed through. We have had pleasant traveling all the way considering all things. We had a severe hail Storm on the platte but lost no cattle. Robidaux had 18 killed in the same storm. Hail stones fell as large as hen eggs and some larger.

If we have no bad luck in the Mountains we will make the quickest time ever made with oxen. We are 6 days ahead of the quickest time and they went through in 84 days. Our cattle all look well and in good flesh and walk faster now than we could force them up at first. We can go 30 miles a day and never use a whip. Grass is getting good and the road is a better one this far than thare is in Missouri - Just as level as a floor.

Page 3

Plenty of game, Buffalo and antelope &ct. Our cattle followed a herd of Buffalo of which took us half a day to get them again.

I haven't time to write any more at present. Our team is ready to start. We are going above the fort 4 miles and if the grass is bad we will go farther and I won't have a chance to post this.

Yours Wm Cooper

Excuse my bad writing as I am doing it in a hurry out in the wind.
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Here's a fine looking feller! It's one of my great uncles, probably around 1910 or so. I don't imagine that he bagged that bird with a Winchester 1892 takedown rifle, but you never know...there were a lot of crack shots back in the day!

mcneil_hunting_1.jpg


Sad to say, that rifle didn't make it down the family tree, at least not to any of the family that I know.
 
Wow what an amazing piece of family history you have there, thanks for sharing them I loved reading through them all.
 
A while back, somebody asked if I had any letters about what mining was actually like back in the day. So far, I don't, but I did run across this neat old picture of my great grandmother getting ready to do a little prospecting somewhere between Idaho City and Centerville, Idaho. This was probably sometime between 1900 and 1910.

nana.jpg


If nothing else, she was a really good sport :D

There is one of those family stories that's been passed down over the years about one of my great great grandfather's brothers (I don't recall which one off hand). As it's told, in the late 1800s, he had a mine near Idaho City that had pretty much played out, but with a lot of hard work, it would produce a pittance of gold. He'd go in and salt it a bit, then offer it for sale down in Boise. When somebody would come up to take a look, he'd offer to sell it "on terms", that is, to finance it himself. The, um, victim would take a sample of the ore that he'd "mined" into the assay office, find out that it was a pretty fair deal, make the down payment and set to mining.

Of course, he could never get enough out to make the payments, so the brother would be forced to take back the mine. Then, after a bit of a cooling off time, he'd do the whole thing again.

Now, to my skeptical mind, it's probably an apocryphal tale, but, still, who wouldn't like the idea of having such a scoundrel in the family line?
 
I found a clipping from the Idaho Statesman from almost 110 years ago. It's about my great, great, great uncle, Moses Kempner. He married my great, great grandfather's sister, Annie.

The Idaho Daily Statesman, Wednesday, June 25, 1902

MAIL CONTRACT
---
Mose Kempner, Pioneer Pathfinder, Assumes the Task.
---
TIME SCHEDULE OF THREE DAYS
---
Carrying of Thunder Mountain Mail Will Begin Next Monday from Idaho City - Passengers and Express Will Be Taken Through to the Camp.
---
Mose Kempner, designated by H. B. Eastman as one of the most capable mail carriers ever in the employ of A. H. Bodmer, will carry the mail between Idaho City and thunder Mountain over the Bear Valley trail. Mr. Kempner is a pioneer mail carrier in the mountains and has never been known to stop for blizzards or high water. Wild animals never bother him, and stage robbers are too wise to attempt to interrupt his progress.

He will start next Monday with the first batch of mail, which will weigh over 150 pounds. Mr. Kempner will go through himself with the first mail, selecting the route that will be followed. he will drive a two-horse buckboard over the wagon road into Bear Valley, and from there will ride one horse and pack the mail on the other animal. Returning, he will brin gthe mail in the same manner to the wagon and driver over the wagon road to Idaho City. As soon as the proper route has been selected, Mr. Kempner will establish stations where relays of fresh horses will be kept.

Under his contract he must make the trip in three days when the route is once established. he does not intend to carry mail himself after the distance has been covered, but will employ drivers. The mail will leave Idaho City every alternate day including Sunday. He intends to accept for transportation both passengers and express, but has not yet fixed the rates of tariff. he will not do so until the schedule for carrying the mail is determined. He must also be prepared to feed and shelter his passengers. Mr. Kempner was buying his equipment in the city yesterday. He purchased a two-seated buckboard mountain wagon that has a carrying capacity of three passengers with their baggage. He also bought several horses for the relay service along the route.

Idaho City is preparing to celebrate the departure of Mr. Kempner next Monday morning on his journey as a pathfinder. J. A. Lippincott and Ashby Turner are authority for the statement that there will be much band music and red fire. A boquet of mountain flowers will be woven into a circlet and placed on the brow of Mose Kempner, the mail carrier.
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Now, with all that glowing praise above, consider this bit of salaciousness that I plucked from the Boise County Historical Society:
Old Mose Kempner was a raw hider from the Banner Mine. He seemed to have funds, but was often broke, and his notes of hand floated about. Being once sued, a trial was held in the old courthouse, and Mose’s note was shown around, passing from hand to hand and finally into the hands of Mose himself, who promptly shoved it in his mouth, chewed it up with his wad of cut plug, and spat it down between the boards in the courtroom floor. The note being lost, the debt went unproved. Mose escaped judgment, and for twenty years maintained absolute silence, confessing only in his old age his clandestine mastication in the judicial presence.
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By the way, a "raw hider" is a packer.

Moses was born in Krakow, Austria (Poland effectively did not exist between 1795 and 1918) in 1838 and came to Idaho in the early 1860s where he owned a store (the tax records say that he was a "dealer in liquor and tobacco") and ran freight in what is now the ghost town of Banner, north of Idaho City.

After the business with his trial and after the mail route, he was also caught up in a huge federal fraud trial that involved Idaho's governor, Frank Steunenberg (who was later assassinated), one of Idaho's senators, William Borah (who prosecuted the assassin, defended by Clarence Darrow) and several other prominent Boise businessmen. They were all involved with the Barber Lumber Company, the predecessor to today's Boise Cascade Company, and were accused of conspiring to file illegal timber claims in the forests above Idaho City. Moses provided pack services and lodging to many of them, so apparently his testimony was somewhat crucial.

On appeal, all were absolved of wrongdoing.
 
Back in 1862, George Grimes discovered gold in his namesake Grimes Creek not too far north from where I live in Idaho. It was pretty big news and started yet another gold rush. For a while, the usual bunch of guys (including the Cooper boys, my ancestors) did the mining the old fashioned way, with pans, sluice boxes, rockers and cradles. But in the 1870s and 1880s, the work turned very industrial. Companies were formed and steam powered dredges were built in the various rivers in the Boise Basin to start pulling gold out in a major way.

By the end of the gold rush in the early 1900s, more gold came out of the 300 square mile area than had come from the Alaska gold rush. Not bad, I think.

Here's a typical gold dredge with its crew. The third man from the left is my great great grandfather, Frank Cooper.

gold_dredge_small.jpg


Here's a link to a very, very large version of the same image.

As usual, there's a story that goes with the picture. My grandfather said that they had gotten into some fairly rough material and the dredge was bogging down, so the engineman tied down the pressure relief valve on the boiler to generate more steam and get more power to the engine. Of course, what ended up happening was that the boiler exploded, shooting the poor guy out one of the windows and at least a hundred feet out into the river. Nobody was killed (!) and they rebuilt the dredge. I don't know if they fired the engineman, though.

The other story is that about 35 years ago, McDonald's opened a new restaurant in Boise, only the second one in the city. It was a pretty big thing (yes, we were a little provincial). So, the whole family went down for a burger. We walked in and my grandmother stopped short and said, "Well, there's Grandpa Cooper!"

Now, that was an odd thing for her to say because he'd been dead for well over 30 years. But instead of losing her mind, in fact that the very picture that I posted above was hanging on the wall at McDonald's. Turns out that there's a copy at the Idaho Historical Society and the restaurant owner had picked it and a bunch of other mining pictures out as sort of a theme for the place.
 
Really cool - thanks for sharing.
My mom's mother came to Texas in 1894 by covered wagon from Mississippi.
I remember the stories she told.
 
My mom's mother came to Texas in 1894 by covered wagon from Mississippi.
I remember the stories she told.
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One of the (or possibly the only) smartest things that I did as a kid was listen to my grandparents and great grandmother when they told stories. My great grandmother's especially fascinated me - it was as if she lived in a completely different world back then!
 
Hardcase: My dads mother was only a year younger and was a native Texan. She would tell stories of towns in Texas and how they grew. How times changed and why they changed.

The one thing that stick in my mind is a day I was about 19 or so, my mothers mother told me she had seen all she ever wanted to see. Two world wars, the great depression, automobiles, radio, TV, man on the moon, a president killed and many other events.

I marveled at all the 1st she had seen.
 
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