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Ketchum Pioneer and Si x Children1ABa:higthocoriwitneitheSej*}toeMrs. Sarah Jane McCoy, who will observe her 92nd birthday anniversary Christmas day, Is shown above with her six surviving children. Lett to right, the children are Janies McCoy, Hailey; Melvin McCoy, Butte, Mont.; Mrs. Gilbert Hickey, Salida, Wash.; Roy McCoy, Gooding; Mrs. Gary Castle, Picabo, and Arnold McCoy, Ketchum. (Staff engraving)lt;fc * * * * * ft **Ketchum’s Oldest Resident, “Grandma”McCoy, Arrived in Area 68 Years AgoBy DOROTHY POVEYKETCHUM, Nov. 1—Mrs. Sarah Jane McCoy, Ketuhum's oldest resident, recently decided it was abouttime her family got together. Consequently her 6 living children, 48 grandchildren, 48 great-grandchildren and 8 great-great-grand-children had a reunion Oct. 18. Pictures of the entire group were taken by one of her great-grandsons, Alvin, now working on the photographic staff at Sun Valley.Grandma McCoy as she is known to all her friends, arrived In Ketchum with her husband, George, and their five children 68 years ago this month, almost on the heels of receding bands of blood-thirsty Indians, who had been driven out, for the most part, by 1878.The first winter they spent intheir new home the population of the town was 74 persons, 40 men, fifteen women, 16 children, and 3 Chinamen.“I’ll never forget that winter, she mused. “Never was a time there wasn’t six feet of snow on the ground. Fifteen feet fell in all. It started to snow on the last night in November and by Dec. 2 we had 38 inches on the level.“We all lived down on the flat and the men shoveled snow that was up to their chins. One thing, it was good insulation for our houses when the chinks began to work loose as the logs dried out.“We had a green log house. There was only one lumber house in the town—all the rest were of green logs with dirt floors and roofs. No windows, but they wouldn’t have done any good anyway with the snow that deep. We had pole bunks for bedsteads and candle and soap boxes for seats. They were palaces to us,“We had a lot of fun that winter though. Surprise parties every little while, and on Christmas (that is my birthday, too) we all got together and had one big Christmas tree. You know, I just sort of doubt if those folks up at ‘the lodge,* with all their fine parties during the holiday season, have any more fun than we did that first winter in ‘Sun Valley.' *•Sarah McCoy’s life has been that of a typical American pioneer woman. Born in Churntown in Sand Flats near Buckeye, Shasta county, Calif,, she married at the age of 15.Chuckling, she said that before her marriage she worked for $2 a wsek and saved enough to buy herself a nice trousseau.Losing one son in infancy, she raised nine children and four of her grandchildren. Eight of her grandsons and six great-grandsons served their country in World war II.Being the daughter of a once prosperous rancher, life started alcng an easy path, but soon it became rough. Her father became obsessed 4 with the “mining fever and mortgaged his large holdings to buy a mine in Humboldt county, Nev. Leaving home in 1862 to superintend the workings of his new' mine, he never returned. Carrying mail, which included a mine payroll, he and his party were set upon and murdered by a band of roving Piute Indians.Grief-stricken and homeless, his widow took her six children the following spring and started for the mine, in a wagon drawn by an ox team.“We got into Nevada and mother took sick with mountain fever anddied. We children were left among strangers. I was taken back to California to live with a family who had knowm my father.’’Grandma McCoy says the only people she ever felt any ill will toward were the Indians, and that in later years she has overcome that.Aside from the killing of her father, she witnessed many blood curdling acts of the Digger Indians in California. She told of one and shuddered a little as she related it.“Mr. Allen, who lived on Cow creek, not far from us, had to go to town for some supplies. His wife begged him not to go, but he felt it necessary. When he returned he found his wife and five children piled on the hearth. She and the baby were dead. Three of the children were scalped and one was left feeble-minded. I went to school with the three who were scalped.“AH the neighborhood was afraid of a squaw-man who was almost as bad as any of the Indians. His name was Silverthome; He must have been consumed with hatred for his fellow white man, for he murdered many and always left his mark so folks would know who did it.”After her marriage, Sarah McCoy and her husband left California for Arizona, Returning from there, they went to Oregon, thence to Nevada, all by ox team. They spent the winter of 1875-1876 in Nevada, then went to Utah. After returning to Nevada they moved to Ketchum— where they stayed. Mr. McCoy died at Ketchum in April, 1826.Sarah McCoy will celebrate her 9 2nd birthday anniversary on Christmas day. She has seen “Lead-ville,” the name turned down by the postmaster-general, renamed Ketchum after its first white settler. The postoffice was established in 1880, She sawr the first bar of bullion turned out of the large smelter erected by the Philadelphia Mining and Smelting company on Warm Springs creek, a mile from the town.She has heard the shouts of joy of the miners as they learned their ore went 50 per cent lead and 100 ounces in silver and seen them spend their money, as recklessly as they made it, in saloons which sprang up in the mining camp. She heard the stories of the men who took the first carload of bullion ever produced on Wood River, The shipment weighed more than 22,000 pounds and containing 1541:! ounces of silver to the ton. It was loaded on six wagons at Hailey on July 1, 1881, and transported toBlackfoot for shipment to Omaha.The lead was worth $42 per ton.She watched the town grow to a population of 2,000 pioneers and fortune seekers, with two banks, seven daily stages, two hotels, seven stores, seven blacksmith shops, three doctors, three lawyers, five restaurants, six stables, two assay offices and a weekly paper.She watched a 20-mule team, made to order and the largest In the state, pull wagons of Horace C. Lewis as they started and returned from haz-*'‘Saved my LifeA God-tend for GAS-HEARTBURN”When excess fitomacb nc1d cause* painful, BUffocafc-HUS tfui. sour stomach and heart burn, doctors uauall v proacrlbo the fjwtest-actlnjf medicines Known tor P to raa tic rel ief—^ J nco!llkothose 1 n Bell-ana Tablets. No laxative, B^l-ans brJtiga comfort In a jluy or return bottJo to ua for double money buck (6)BELL-ANS for Acid indigestion 251ardous trips over the 8,500-foot Trail creek summit, on a road which was built by Bewis and hts partners.'They carried all the mail, express and heavy freighting to Chains, Custer and Bonanza, and they charged a toll fee, for anyone else using the road,” she said.And then, just as she bad watched it grow and fortunes accumulated, she watched Ketchum sink back again to almost as small a popula-fcioh as that first night she slept there. With the drop of silver, the mines gradually closed and the miners left. Only those remained who had “homesteaded ranches, and who had come with the intention of making their permanent homes in the narrow valley.In the summers the sheepmen from the lower country moved in to graze their flocks and ship theirlambs and tourists came—to hunt and fish, and go away again, as winter moved back to the mountain tops nearby.“But we always had a good time The few of us who were left enjoyed ourselves almost as much as we did those first winters. We returned to being almost like one great big family.”And while Sarah McCoy watched all of this she went about her housekeeping, cooking, sewing for herself and family, making a garden and every day being a good neighbor. Many of these things she still does. She has been active in fraternal circles, is a past worthy matron of Bethany chapter, Order of the Eastern Star, of Hailey and a past noble grand of Snowdrop Re-bekah lodge of Ketchum.Each Christmas, after she has enjoyed the Christmas and birthday greetings of these two orders, she sits down and makes a bit of something useful for their kitchens where all members will use and love her gifts. Well she knows the hours of committee work.And now, since 1935, when the Union Pacific railroad, picked Sun Valley as an ideal location for winter sports and made It renowned as a summer resort, the rush of incoming people has been almost as great as it was in 1880, Grandma McCoy just smiles and says,“I have always known it was the most beautiful spot in the whole world. And just think, I’ve spent more time here than anyone else on earth,”serusithebyIIncSe-ISCAuICOlfluerebu:veifin3loaantin
Newspaper Details
Twin Falls Times News
Twin Falls, Idaho, US
Mon, Nov 01, 1948
Page 7
Full Page
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Anonymous
CA, USA 04 Apr 2020
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