The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1914-06-19
THE EARLY HISTORY OF
CALDWELL AND
VICINITY

In about 1860 people began to be
attracted to the West by news OF the
gold discoveries in Oregon and Cali
fornia Great numbers packed their
belongings and joined the immigrant
trains for the West AS soon as the
Civil War began many more came
West in order to get away from the
war, after which they intended to go
back. All intended to go to Oregon
or California, but scarcely any realiz-
ed the greatness of the undertaking.
Travel was slow and attacks by the
Indians were not infrequent. AS they
neared the West many were tired and
out of money and were compelled to
stop and work until they could go on.
They found that the country was
good, the climate ideal and the soil
adapted to most anything and so gave
up their ideas of California and Ore
gon, and remained where they were.
The Oregon Trail was the scene OF
many interesting occasions in the rush
for gold mines and from the war The
trail was divided into two divisions at
Cheyenne, Wyoming, and united
again at Vale, Oregon, so that. the
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Snake river and one on the other side.
The trial on this side ran through
what is now called Calloway's ranch
and which is situated at the west end
of the Cleveland boulevard.
The Indians lived in the hills all
around this vicinity Every full moon
(about once every month"; they came
into the valleys and plundered, taking
cattle and horses with them but rarely
ever killing anyone. Mr. Morrow
tells Of an experience with them-One
evening while feeding the chickens,
Mr.. Morrow's oldest daughter accid-
entally left the dog shut up in the hen
coop. The next morning when they
awoke, they found that the Indians
had been there and taken all of their
horses and cattle away. If the dog
had been loose, he would have barked
and awakened the family with the
result that whoever had gone to the
door would have been killed They
consider it as Gods will that the dog
was locked up.
In about 1869 the people erected
some temporary forts-one where
Mr.. Motlow now lives (about l mile
west on the Dixie road and one
across the Snake river. There were
two scares from the Indians, which
forced the people to occupy these
forts, but no real fights occurred there.
No people around here were ever
killed by the Indians, although one
man was shot in the arm.
The first stage lines were from the
mines at Silver City to Boise; from
Payette through Middleton to Boise
and one from Kelton, Utah, to Cald-
WE'LL Robberies were almost daily
occurance on the stage lines. If held
up by white people none was killed,
but when held up by groups of from
five to ten Indians, the result was
usually that everybody was killed and
the balance burned. Mr. Morrow told
an interesting story of Tom Johnson,
who is one OF the oldest settlers in
this vicinity, and who lives in Dixie
with his two brothers. Mr.. Johnson
often walks into town, and one day
while at the Saratoga hotel, he talked
about the early days with some men
from New York. He told of the
generosity of the Idaho people and
how in early times when anybody was
out of fares, his neighbors divided
with him. The New York man asked
what they did when all were out of
provisions. Mr.. Johnson replied:
ooh! Some of the bravest of us held
up the stage" And the New York