Ammon

2011·65.8 MB·English

by  Blatter, Lynn & Crow, Val

AmmonCover.indd 1 6/27/11 6:35 PM
A
MMON

by
Lynn Blatter and Val Crow
©2011 Lynn Blatter and Val Crow
Printed in the United States of America
Designed, published by
emCole Design LLC
www.emcoledesign.com
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form whatsoever
without prior written permission of the publisher.
Lynn Blatter
2212 North Red Cedar Circle
Cedar City, Utah 84720
I N T RO D u C T I O N
This book is an attempt to preserve the histories Walter Davis, knew where everyone lived and mail
of the lives of the people who lived in the village was addressed by name and Route #3. Postage was 2
site of Ammon in the 1940 era before new homes cents initially then rose to 3 cents where it stayed for
were built on their large lots. Ammon was a close a long time.
knit community where most everyone belonged to Industries and other events are included because
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. this is where people worked and socialized. This book
Neighbors were helpful and kind to each other. is a portrayal of Ammon through the eyes of many
Those with wells provided water for others. Doors people. It is not intended to be an in-depth look at
were left unlocked and keys were left in automobiles. everything but only what people have recorded in
Those who had cows sold and delivered milk to their histories. There were many families who lived
neighbors. The telephone system was a party line on farms outside of the village town site whose
with 10 families on the circuit so if you were on the lives intertwined with those of the villagers as they
“J” or “R” line your phone would ring up to 5 times attended church and school together. Their histories
depending on whose number it was. Our number will likely be compiled later. It is our intent for this
was 0101J3. Three rings for us. The mailman, book to be informative and enjoyable for you.
—Lynn A. Blatter
iiiiii
A B O u T T H E Au T H O R S
Lynn Blatter Val Crow
Lynn Blatter grew up in Ammon and spent Val grew up in Ammon. He attended all of his
his early years working on the family dry farm on schooling in Ammon and /or School District 93 after
Taylor Mountain. After graduating from Brigham the consolidation and graduated from Bonneville
Young university in 1956 he attended Washington High School in 1958. He attended Ricks College
university School of Dentistry in St. Louis Missouri. and served an LDS mission in the Great Lakes
upon graduating in 1960 he served two years on Mission. After his return home he married Karleen
active duty as a Naval Dental Officer at the Naval Fielding from Shelley, Idaho and they lived in Logan,
Weapons Station in Concord California. He opened utah while Val finished a degree in Automotive
a private dental practice in Concord and practiced Technology at utah State university graduating in
there until 2004 when he retired and moved to 1965. After serving three years in the Army, stationed
North Las Vegas, Nevada. in Germany, the Crows settled in Jackson, Michigan
His first book consisted of gathering the where Val worked for the Chrysler Corporation at
histories of the homesteaders who settled in the their Chelsea Michigan Automotive Proving Ground
Taylor Mountain area in the 1910 to 1920 era and facility. He retired in 2000 and returned to Ammon
established the community named Owendale with a in 2006 to assist in the care of aged parents. He is
school and church. His next book was gathering the happy to be a resident of Ammon again.
Blatter family history which was printed June 2010. Having never lived in Ammon as an adult, his
His current project is the history of the families who curiosity as to who these people were he knew and lived
resided in the village of Ammon during the 1940’s. around as a child became a quest and he was happy
to join with Lynn Blatter in assisting in research and
sharing his findings of the Ammon of his childhood.
He has found great satisfaction in becoming more
familiar with the
neighbors of his
childhood and trusts
that his findings
may be of value to
the descendants of
these people and
those interested in
the history of this
community.
iv
AC K N OW L E DG M E N TS
This book was made possible through the part of the Ammon family’s lives. The location of
outstanding cooperation of everyone who had old homes and their occupants is a valuable insight
roots in the Ammon townsite in furnishing me with into early Ammon made possible by Val Crow and
their family histories. A debt of gratitude is owed to Paul Bunnell with his working knowledge of Auto
Glenn Blatter, Derlin Campbell, Marvin Anderson, Cad to make the Ammon map. The book “Old
Keith Hansen, Russell Swenson, Ailene Jensen, Ammon” by Miranda Stringham provided much of
Roy Southwick Jr. and Val Crow who provided the seed information along with the church’s “New
invaluable help in locating where the families lived in Family Search” program that made possible dates
the townsite and who to contact for their histories. and relationships to sort out.
The willingness of everyone to contribute was most I have preserved the histories in total as they
gratifying in gathering their histories and providing have been written and sent to me without alteration
historical information about the village. on my part and only in a very few instances have I
My skills on the computer are meager and I needed to select excerpts from a voluminous history.
so appreciate my grandson Brandon Blatter for There will be errors as this book is a compilation of
converting PDF files and other text into Microsoft many authors and my role is simply to gather and
Word so I could prepare the histories for Matt Cole, publish what everyone else has written. It has been a
the graphic artist, who does such an excellent job in work of great joy and interest to me.
formatting the book. My co-author, Val Crow has
contributed greatly with his knowledge of related —Lynn A. Blatter
families and the industries and events that was a
v
TA B L E O F C O N T E N TS
Introduction & Co-Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv
Section 1: Ammon’s Beginnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Section 2: Ammon Land Transactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
Section 3: Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
Section 4: Stores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Section 5: Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Section 6: Ammon Tragedies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
Section 7: Brickmaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Section 8: Sugar Factory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Section 9: Ammon Home Occupants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Section 10: Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Ammon Family Histories
11. Anderson, Jesse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
12. Anderson, Justin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48
13. Armstrong, Mel & Golda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
14. Bailey, Jesse & Mercy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
15. Barrus, B.H. & Jessie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
16. Barzee, Clark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
17. Barzee, Levi & Inza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
18. Stout, Hosea and . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
19. Blatter, John & Bertha. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71
20. Blatter, Reed & Valeria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
21. Brown, Al & Gladys. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78
22. Bunnell, Jesse & Carma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
23. Call, Glenn & Elsie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
24. Campbell, Alfred & Ada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
25. Carter, James . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
26. Crow, Orval. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92
27. Crow, Walter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
vvii
28. Cunningham, Ralph . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
29. Curtis, Paul & Iletta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
30. Day, Sidney Henry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
31. Denning, ude & Grace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
32. Ellingford, Arthur & Martha. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
33. Empey, Earl & Mildred . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
34. Empey, Ernest & Olive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
35. Gardner, Franklin & Effie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
36. Gernand, Henry &Josephine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
37. Hammer, Harold & Grace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
38. Hokanson, Wilford & Afton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
39. Isaacs, Alvin & Blanche . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
40. Jones, Maiben & Leda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
41. Judy, Aaron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
42. Judy, Clark & Dean . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
43. Judy, Clifford & Marjorie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
44. Judy, Ira . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
45. Judy, John & Janice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
46. Judy, Lavern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
47. Kelly, Dick & Ethel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
48. Lee, Wiley & Vera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
49. Long, Glenn & Hazel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
50. Molen, Reed & Leah. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
51. Olsen, Dean & Velma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
52. Owen, Albert & Rosa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
53. Peterson, Leon & Geneva . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
54. Pickett, Ray & Lyman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
55. Porter, Jesse & Pearl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
56. Purcell, Leonard & Tillie. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
57. Reed, Albert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
58. Robison, Roy & Everlyn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
59. Romrell, Roland & Joy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
60. Rosen, Henry & Thula. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
61. Rowbury, Denzel & Viola . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
62. Seamons, Eldon & Lois . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
63. Southwick, Roy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
64. Speas, William & Violet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
65. Thompson, Joseph. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
66. Wadsworth, Wallace & Elsie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
67. Waters, Reuben & Emma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
68. Williams, Azariah & Elizabeth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
69. Williams, John. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
70. Woolf, Fenton & Edna. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
vii
viii
SECTION 1
A M M O N ’ S B E G I N N I N G S
The forces that brought early settlers to Ammon Capt. Bonneville explored along the Snake River,
are a fascinating series of occurrences forged in drifting to the head of the Salmon River in the spring
the development of western America beginning in of 1833. He returned to a camp on the Portneuf
the 1830s and culminating at the beginning of the River in early summer of 1834 and spent the winter
20th century. of 1834-35, after a trip to the Wind River Range in
Ammon Town site is located in the Southeast Wyoming, along the Bear River. He then returned
Quarter of Section 27, Township 2, North Range 38, to Independence that summer. 1
East of the Boise Meridian. The u. S. Homestead The u. S. Homestead Act in 1862 making land
Act of 1862 and the u. S, Geological Survey that in the West available for settlement brought more
followed provided a means of identifying specific white settlers to Idaho. This added interest in the
land description for ownership and is the source of area resulted in the creation of the Idaho Territory
this description. in 1863.
There was little to attract the native inhabitants Gold was discovered in Virginia City Montana,
of Idaho, the Shoshoni, Lemhi and Pauite Indians May 1863. Immediately a freight business between
to this area. It simply lay in the path of their annual Salt Lake City and Virginia City, or Bannock as the
wanderings to hunt and gather roots for their winter area was sometimes called, began. Matt Taylor, one
food supply. Water and big game was scarce and the of many freighters passing through eastern Idaho
snakes, mosquitoes, rodents and predators made it to the only Snake River Crossing in the upper
hostile for them to settle. Snake River Valley between Ft. Hall and the Twin
It also lay in the path of white visitors, early 19th Buttes near present day Menan, was attracted to the
century explorers, scouts, trappers, fur traders and business possibilities of this location. One evening
Christian missionaries to the Indians. he camped along the edge of the river at a narrow
Our present Bonneville County was named for black rock canyon below the cataract of the river to
one of the most prominent of these early explorers, get out the mosquitoes that plagued the sage brush
u. S. Army Captain Benjamin Louis Eualie de flat. He thought of the advantage of bridging this
Bonneville, a French born West Point Graduate narrow canyon. He bought the ferry crossing from
assigned to command an exploring party financed the Barnard Brothers of Box Elder, utah in 1964.
by the fur tycoon John Jacob Astor. There is some The ferry had been established a couple of years
evidence to indicate it was also a spying or fact before at the Flat Head Crossing (located about 9
finding exercise to determine the extent of British miles north of the Broadway Bridge at Idaho Falls).
encroachment in the North West. The expedition With the ferry crossing under his control, he built
left Independence, Missouri in 1832 and returned his bridge, and opened for business in May 1865.
in 1835. During this time they covered much of The Postal service and telegraph came to the Taylor
Idaho, eastern Oregon and Wyoming looking for Bridge in 1866; Gold was discovered on Caribou
furs and trading opportunities with the Indians.
1 WWW. Wikipedia, Captain Bonneville
1