1 15 5 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/76642/archive/files/7357047dc4f0ffd5a4d1ace08f6cbcce.jpg?Expires=1789603200&Signature=ggyweuqB8P6EKZG9SmPLCObXMopHm1LLal-YEeaSCXQCP0lDO4LdaChDizvl61ucjrGIYlcuIqsEFHNhwq51kBlwRZFGq66Ymdv0FR0isD8AiSaU3cW3t93hv4Jrn8ZeSUpole0ixLyGCtkQoXmyLfggc%7EfS6V5tG5sn7WEGDC%7EN6KcHAQvToal-kgOdwg6wc1btEb2gfIPsuzW44nfdnZd5J5FjV9xYoZzsLODRTeaz-Ac27ZAG2vHnChkCEwoLpFtBNUg2hyIwBR5bSmiZGc4QCRWK0aPnoOIf2gJd9hv7OJ3CEk%7Ezx4jjK3rfuJMdFWm9Wp2OkInTiYleJ5DBQQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 76c55bef8bbae20fc7c57fffbacaf207 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource First Church of the Nazarene Chapel Subject The topic of the resource In 1913, Eugene Emerson with Rev. M. E. Ferdinand decided to build a church which was dedicated in December as the Chapel shown here, at 15th Avenue and Sixth Street South. Northwest Nazarene College started in the fall of 1915, but the administration building was not completed, so students met in the chapel. Photo: Shown standing on the steps are Earl, Cavin and Martha Emerson Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1915 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Northwest Nazarene College Relation A related resource <a href="https://nampalibrary.omeka.net/items/show/884">Northwest Nazarene College</a><br /><a href="https://nampalibrary.omeka.net/items/show/556" title="Eugene Emerson">Eugene Emerson</a><br />Reverend M.E. Ferdinand https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/76642/archive/files/ae5611dad7cd53c4b12100be9027871a.jpg?Expires=1789603200&Signature=vdgt8-UwZKdYoZ8PXaJEdBaYxu89pzW0azJ6Zb3ZZWoVKvg1chQNA2DVBUz4rXdG2ZaCvgiBOE85MgF6wNPh%7EXwFa1xqNUUb3SutKKU2p9jRlG1dzyQgnqnvYEjC6IKaopT2o2P-nQfoC9dUDoACRtj3xLQCjeewzNdJM9sZd%7ESwUh55NvnIA1ATqIe9fZAhR2Gnjk8G19XCr%7Eo1mdPIErsojHK1cAXgsIAzsTNQzCHmjgyXhaj67smR8BeUpaURAGrNhex7MlRW9fzfHksdncAVCEcUAlMT30MWAX2aL00vk0LHRDrSRfEoZ7x0CRwiIA6Us2yD1-XyHw5tgXuiIQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM c4d6c905232de5e9ba317bafb929a513 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource First Church of the Nazarene Description An account of the resource Built 1976-77, located at 600 15th Ave. South. Photo of the sanctuary of the newly opened Church of the Nazarene building, taken on dedication day, April 16, 1978. The seating capacity if nearly 2,000 people. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource April 1978 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Church of the Nazarene https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/76642/archive/files/822f4a692a994f78f3ba384b6db1d9c0.jpg?Expires=1789603200&Signature=UMQdfuEQANXY%7ErLAy7PFinrayyTYBS%7EUKR8ujbA4DKpDANTroPU-W0Or4xnPyovZtkkGrH4AQHkRIX7YEdAAIrxbTNqmMsFav5TOqy-Aokq4Vn4Qwh648ehLMK-XXo-ku1HkdTYvGejg1JNLBfepEi84Cdytg9LX1HIzHEnwI3J6hWUxrJH139FeRPztu%7Eirh-C8cxRpedCfBpW0MKhkuaGxjp8WEuO-73lGyC5eUVhm8ssI8AsnxuauchCt0ckNEsonvYh4O02Meqw%7EiR4jQpZVktbW9s%7Eegn2qeN5%7Ecot4aCo38fIpEwOo3%7ERvGO0reKG7ASq2v8VVaOBqlMI8Fg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 6ef195b7c3807fe07f19794413c1e692 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource College Church of the Nazarene Description An account of the resource Summer of 1937, at Northwest Nazarene College, 45 charter members organized the College Church of the Nazarene. The congregation is comprised of students, faculty and community people creating a "town and gown" mixture. The building shown here was dedicated October 16, 1949. W.D. Parsons was the construction manager at 70 years of age and John E. Riley was the pastor who oversaw the construction. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1949 Relation A related resource <a href="https://nampalibrary.omeka.net/items/show/686">Reverand Duane &amp; Patt Yoesel</a> https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/76642/archive/files/088918730ce50b5286d05aa79cb3c437.jpg?Expires=1789603200&Signature=lLiPJ%7ED09dFQwsyo1qVL9EA9IPeshU1cvJNlfbahr3N8J3ssIYHptW3WQ7tM-nvYNZCqQoPpWoczsrwmMv68KTXTFKE75HYRVNxD3-Y1A6E7rybfkDsr%7EPLH0x4elyGcbU6lyNw7qGknwvRi-VGHIryYUTk7qk%7E27D8CVYHP3O9vHP93aZ8J9ETQednQhupB7xV6sJSz6jufvkshq97ba83kMYnKPuE4b7Paq%7EZzctkKIsL2RfxODD227U6gkv4WvpgcriNyocyd%7EBAtOnlzN5ryVCN9EK7E58bJEqMn6R1fQkJrSs9kIQ210lX9Cc1hY3%7EqxEXI6yww7LtLeF5dGg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 55267ed6e4ffbe39a084565a820fac88 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Karcher Church of the Nazarene Description An account of the resource In 1949, the Frankline Road Church of the Nazarene was established. After a few decades, the congregation outgrew the building. Land was purchased for relocation and a renamed Karcher Church, which stands at 2515 West Karcher Road. The image here is from the architectural rendering, as the building was not yet complete at the time of Nampa's Centennial in 1985. Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Church of the Nazarene Description An account of the resource The First Church of the Nazarene was one of the earliest churches built in Nampa. As the town grew, so did the Nazarene congregations and their presence in the city. For further information, click on each photo. Church of the Nazarene Churches Nampa Idaho-History Nampa People https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/76642/archive/files/370a88bae42ecf5dae616cb1c407a364.mp3?Expires=1789603200&Signature=lOjU4qCmkZZgncKx-DL14hWlQjD-F8x976Aei-yfKigrO06jRZB%7EZPRYQTTxwggEo2AWXXiTYFiKjG%7EoCn5yHoHA3X7yvxC7NsOO0MaawRmrsFaUVkDWwmiYM0rVuPLlWDybyy31LCFQtvW405QwQsxk7JrMz%7EjrkQvBoBSnh1F8OqI7Nak6jVwDnEKFQff7PAjHqfHJGGs9tIP-iRY59dJWpzwy2SbIA-YXYNhbdH5zsl1l87FpHv%7EXgzU-vKjZekbfqzSZ4NllROrs5M5lwyta8eL4-tnt6vAN-kHfBIBjtatTIGtiwzD0ppXLWXnp50%7E7ADpphFkFnf6O9a3v9A__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 6c2752bab8f180b25148f6ba57ca965e Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Effie Isrigg Recording 1 of 2 PDF Text Text BEVERLY: In her home, on August 16th, 1985, the address is 707 11 Badiner South, and the interviewer is Beverly Clark. I got it. Is it playing? EFFIE: Yeah. BEVERLY: Okay. You came to Nampa in... just a minute, let [00:00:30] me check my notes. When did you come to Nampa? EFFIE: 1917, June. BEVERLY: Well you remember. Now how old were you then? EFFIE: Thirteen and a half. BEVERLY: Okay. And what brought you out here? EFFIE: Oh, my father had two friends over here that thought Idaho was great, and he didn't care for Oregon rain and all that. We came over, we heard that the dust over here was so thick on these Idaho roads that [00:01:00] we had to have bells on the horses to keep from running into each other. But we didn't find it that way at all. BEVERLY: What did it look like? EFFIE: Oh, the thing that impressed us most was the green alfalfa fields south of Nampa. BEVERLY: Oh, that's interesting. EFFIE: And then the straight roads. We were used to winding roads in Oregon, you know. The long straight roads were so different. BEVERLY: Did you like that? EFFIE: Yes, we liked [00:01:30] it. We didn't find any fault with Idaho at all. BEVERLY: Can you tell me, how did you come out here? EFFIE: How did we come? Oh, we just came on the train from Oregon. Of course, we came from Kansas to Oregon on the train, but we crossed Kansas in a covered wagon. And my grandchildren and great-grandchildren, they always get it mixed, and they think that we came clear from Kansas to Oregon in a covered wagon. And I said, no, we just crossed Kansas [00:02:00] in a covered wagon between 1907 and 1910. 1910 is when we came West to Oregon on a train. BEVERLY: So now, when did you cover, when did you cross Kansas? EFFIE: In 1907. BEVERLY: You were just a little tiny twerp. EFFIE: Yeah, I remember it well. BEVERLY: What was that? Did you all fit in one wagon? What did it look like? EFFIE: Well, you've seen pictures [00:02:30] on a wagon train. It was like that, you know. Only not that big. BEVERLY: Did you all sit in the back? EFFIE: No. Papa and Mama sat up in front, and we were two little kids back there on the covers, pillows, and bedding and everything. And we sat back there. BEVERLY: Was it dusty? EFFIE: I don't remember much dust in Kansas. BEVERLY: You probably had your head on the pillow. You [00:03:00] were probably sleeping, weren't you? EFFIE: Yeah. BEVERLY: So you came out here in 1907. Well, one of the things that I was curious about, the way that you have it now today, is how you live it through the approach of communication and politics. Which I guess, like, you're talking about the 1930s. EFFIE: Yes. BEVERLY: But you were talking earlier about your husband was kind of an influence [00:03:30] on the business that happened in Kansas. EFFIE: Well, in about 1931, well, before 1931, my husband saw what was coming, and he began preparing for it. He was never pessimistic, but he was realistic and very practical. And he said, we'd better begin to get our act together and pay off our obligations. We [00:04:00] were both very frugal. So we cut to the bone, but any deprivations that we experienced were self-imposed. It wasn't because we had to, but he saw what was coming. And so we began to think of monthly payments. We'd better get them all out of the way. And so we really cut to the bone. And sometimes we wouldn't even have meat. There was one time we didn't have meat on [00:04:30] the table for three months. But we got everything paid off except the house, which was a $19.72 payment every month. BEVERLY: Are we... EFFIE: No. And the man we owed, well, that's quite a story. When the worst of the thing, the worst of the depression came, why, he was so merciful with us because we had tried so hard to pay. And [00:05:00] so when we got to the stage of transfers out there at the college, my husband was teaching in the college. When we got to that stage where we got transfers, why, someone wanted to pay us in slack, coal slack. And we accepted it because we never turned down any transfers. BEVERLY: Now, a lot of people when they get transfers and the fact that he was working during the depression, he didn't actually get a salary, did he? EFFIE: [00:05:30] During the worst of the depression, he didn't. BEVERLY: Do you remember what period? EFFIE: There was a nine-month period when we had transfers, nothing but transfers. BEVERLY: There was a nine-month period with no salary or check. EFFIE: We received less than $100 for the whole nine months term. The rest was, we just took anything we could get. [00:06:00] The Sherman Clark family said, we have boys. We want to pay tuition, but we don't have all. Could any of the teachers use a half of a hog or a quarter of a beef? And we said, indeed we can. And we were glad to take anything we could get. They always brought us produce and vegetables and things like that, we'd give them credit on their tuition receipt. It was just the same as cash [00:06:30] to us. And I know the mother of one professor. She says, well, how do you handle so much meat? I can't handle it. And I said, oh, can it? She says, well, if you think I'm going to stuff sagebrush for four or five hours to can meat, you're crazy. I said, if you get hungry enough, you will. So we just really, [00:07:00] during the worst of the Depression, we lived better than we did that year when we were looking forward to it and trying to get all of our bills paid. BEVERLY: In terms of more food? EFFIE: Yes, we had plenty of food. We didn't have just anything we wanted at all, but we had lots of meat. Plenty of meat and vegetables. BEVERLY: Which wasn't true when you and your husband were getting ready for this crash. EFFIE: What did you say? BEVERLY: I said that that wasn't true when you and your husband were cutting back and getting ready for this crash. EFFIE: Oh, no. BEVERLY: [00:07:30] You did not have... EFFIE: We didn't have anything that... BEVERLY: What did you eat? SPEAKER_02: Well, my husband, he didn't know he was using good psychology, but he really praised me for the way I'd fix up the commonest old vegetables in different ways. He said, oh, it's great the way you can make good meals out of just these plain old vegetables. BEVERLY: Give me an example. Do you remember any of these delicious vegetables? EFFIE: No. You don't want to remember. I didn't think they were very wonderful myself, [00:08:00] but he thought they were good. BEVERLY: Do you remember even which vegetables you used? EFFIE: Beg pardon? BEVERLY: Do you even remember which of the vegetables you used? EFFIE: Oh, you know, just like carrots and potatoes and onions and tomatoes, and just things we raised in the garden. BEVERLY: Oh, so you didn't buy the produce. This was from your own garden. EFFIE: Yes, before that worst year, we raised it in our garden, but when we got in the midst of the Depression, [00:08:30] my husband had so much going out after sagebrush every possible moment to burn, because we could not pay our electric bills because we averaged less than $10 a month cash from the school. So we had to use that for water. We couldn't use it for electricity because it just wouldn't cover it at all. We just set the electric stove aside. [00:09:00] And got an old stove and... BEVERLY: Did you have lights? EFFIE: I think we did. I don't know how. I suppose we just felt that, that $10 went for lights and water, but it wouldn't cover the heat at all, so we had to burn sagebrush. BEVERLY: So your husband would go out and... EFFIE: And get sagebrush and bring it home, and it was the messiest stuff to use. [00:09:30] But stuffing sagebrush really wasn't so bad. It made a hot fire, but it took so long to can meat or anything that way. Just hours and hours canning meat and vegetables. I used to can about 600 quarts of vegetables and fruits. BEVERLY: With sagebrush? EFFIE: No. I don't think I did all that... BEVERLY: In the good days with electric heat. EFFIE: Yes. BEVERLY: You didn't get that kind of yield [00:10:00] with your sagebrush? EFFIE: No. I think we just took what was given to us by transfer. And we were strong on tithing to our church, but we didn't have the money, so we'd write out a little note and put it in the offering plate. I hereby transfer to the credit of E. E. Martin $12.50. That would have been the tithe of our monthly salary [00:10:30] if we had gotten it. And he'd take it to the college, and they'd apply it on his son's tuition. So Sherman Park and Parsons, different ones, they owed the college, the college owed us, we owed the church. BEVERLY: Everybody was all in debt. EFFIE: Nobody had any money. And they were all... and then, of course, that story about [00:11:00] the cherries, I think that comes later. BEVERLY: Well, yeah, let me... oh, I've got some notes, too. We have plenty of time. We won't forget anything. Where were we on the Canada meet? You told me that was one of the meetings, accepting a transfer. There were some people who didn't. EFFIE: Well, there's some people... Well, they just moved in the dorms, some of the professors, to get room and board, you know. BEVERLY: Do you think they lost their homes? EFFIE: [00:11:30] No, I don't believe anybody lost their homes. I know that several of our neighbors, they could not... When they lost the furniture, they had to move into a smaller house, you know, they were renting, that they were renting. But I don't know of anybody that really lost their homes. I don't recall that. But we would have if we hadn't have turned that... well, we could have, anyway, but anyway, but Mr. Emerson held the mortgage on our place, and he was so very kind. [00:12:00] He saw how hard we were trying. And so when somebody... I don't know who it was that asked us if we would accept a ton of slack coal, we said, sure, we'll take anything. And so they came and put it in the basement. And my husband asked Mr. Emerson if he would take it on a payment. And so my husband shoveled it all out of the basement, through the window, basement window, [00:12:30] and took it down to Mr. Emerson's. And from then on, Mr. Emerson said never a word until the Depression was all over. BEVERLY: So he suspended the payments? EFFIE: He just waited on us. BEVERLY: He waited. What is slack coal? EFFIE: Well, it's... BEVERLY: A lot of people don't know. EFFIE: That's right. Well, slack coal is just real fine stuff that that accumulates around the big coal. It's just real fine stuff. BEVERLY: Kind of the broken pieces off, or almost dust? EFFIE: Yeah, [00:13:00] it's almost dust. And you have to be very careful when putting it in the stove, because if you put in too much, why it'll just burst out, you know, and get dust... not dust, but coal dust, yes. And yes, it kind of explodes and gets your house dirty, you know. So we had to be very careful in using it. I'd rather use sagebrush almost than to use the slack coal. But Mr. Emerson probably used it in his furnace, [00:13:30] I think he... Anyway, he made use of it. BEVERLY: But that would be... When he saw your husband's willingness to work that hard... EFFIE: Yes. BEVERLY: He knew how badly he wanted to keep that home, huh? EFFIE: That wasn't easy to shovel that out way up high out of the basin of it. BEVERLY: No. EFFIE: And carry it and put it down there. BEVERLY: He ended up breathing a lot of that coal dust, I think. How did he go out... how was he able to get the sagebrush? [00:14:00] So he spent a lot of time... EFFIE: Oh! I think he followed... BEVERLY: Was it right outside of town or? EFFIE: Oh, yes. Not very far, Nampa, went out and got sagebrush. We tried to get the big stuff, because the fine stuff was just too... too fragile. But he'd bring it home, and then we'd cut it up, and the great big pieces of sagebrush would... [00:14:30] It was just about like a stick of wood. It wasn't bad at all. But we really lived well that winter. That was the worst winter. That was '32 and '33. That was the very worst. That '31 and '32 wasn't near so bad. BEVERLY: That '31 and '32 was when you were kind of preparing for the Depression? EFFIE: Well, a lot of people... well, we were preparing even before that. But that [00:15:00] year of '31, we were really preparing. So we got everything under control that year. So when other people were losing things, we never lost a thing. BEVERLY: You told me, too, that one of the things you remember was getting things you remember was getting a certain kind of cherry. What kind of cherry was that? EFFIE: Well, in the summer of 1933, after school was out, [00:15:30] and Mr. Euskrig had to teach on Saturdays, all the faculty members. They were so desperate for finances, they wanted to end the school term as early as possible. So they began teaching on Saturdays. Of course, he then couldn't get sagebrush only on evenings. And that summer, after the school term was over, he went to cut wood. And there comes up that wood story [00:16:00] a little later. But here came a woman that she says, Now, I owe the college, and I can get you some cherries if you will take them. We said, sure, we will. So she brought a whole bunch of cull cherries, and they were really culls. They had sat there in the packing house for a couple of days. And before the Depression, we wouldn't have ever even thought of using them. But we meticulously, [00:16:30] we were glad to get them, we meticulously looked them over and cut off every bad place on every cherry. And the result was, we had 36 cans of beautiful cherries, never lost a can. BEVERLY: Kind of a miracle, isn't it? EFFIE: That's real. BEVERLY: It just takes one bad spot on one cherry in the whole jar. EFFIE: That's all it takes, just one little spot, to spoil them. But we never [00:17:00] lost a can. We were very careful. BEVERLY: You wanted to eat, didn't you? EFFIE: Yes. BEVERLY: So did your husband end up going out end up going out every night for sagebrush? EFFIE: I don't hardly think he did, because I remember some of his pupils, Bunny Duns here lately, told me about how good he was to stay and help her after school with a subject that she didn't... he [00:17:30] was so willing to help. BEVERLY: Pretty nice, huh? Anyway, you told me, too, that the other way he tried to get some money was later in the Depression, you went up in the mountain. EFFIE: That was that same summer, 1933. BEVERLY: Can you tell me about it? EFFIE: During the summer, he went up to cut wood, and that was a lot pleasanter, cutting wood, than it is cutting sagebrush. And while he was gone, [00:18:00] I'd run pretty low on groceries, and I needed soap so badly. So I went over to the store, up here downtown, because there's no little stores. And the stores were not like these supermarkets at all, where you go and help yourself at all. The man would come to meet you with a big smile on his face, and, what will you have today? I said, well, I need some soap and some other things, [00:18:30] but I don't have any money. Could I exchange wood for some soap and some things? He just froze. He said, no, indeed not. And he turned coldly away, and that was it. So I started home, kind of very, very like, you know, until I got clear out to our home. Opened the door, [00:19:00] and there was my husband, from the mountains. Instead of being up there, he was down here. And I burst into tears, and he says, what in the world is the matter? I says, I've been trying to sell your wood, but they won't take it. And he says, well, what is it you need? And I says, I need soap. He says, you don't have to try to sell my [00:19:30] wood. I can sell it right up there. There's a good sale for it. And he handed me a $10 bill, and that looked like $100 to me. BEVERLY: That was your soap, wasn't it? EFFIE: That was good enough to buy some soap and other things. Yes, as I walked home that night, it seemed like a cold, old world. A cold, cruel world. For the first time in my life, I felt the coldness [00:20:00] when you don't have any money in your pocket, not a dime. BEVERLY: And no way to get it. EFFIE: No way to get it. BEVERLY: Even though your husband was working. EFFIE: He was working. But I didn't know he was selling the wood. It was a lack of communication. BEVERLY: Well, he fought through it in the end, didn't he? EFFIE: But it turned out beautifully. BEVERLY: It worked out. EFFIE: It worked out. But it seemed like a cold, cruel old world at the time. BEVERLY: [00:20:30] Were there other people that you know of with similar stories at the time? Do you remember? EFFIE: Well, I think the Sutherland family had it every bit as bad as we did. You see, they had a large family. We only had two children. They had five at least. Anyway, it took one of them firing all the time to keep warm in the wintertime, the sagebrush. Just one person [00:21:00] had to keep just poking in the sagebrush to keep the family warm. BEVERLY: Did they more or less stay up then? Like on a shift? EFFIE: I think they did. But really, it was all, in a way, looking back, it's kind of interesting and fun, but sometimes at the time it wasn't so much fun. BEVERLY: Well, it's fun to have lived through it, but not too much fun to be hungry. EFFIE: Well, I can't say that we were ever hungry because [00:21:30] we just had plenty of vegetables and fruits. And that one three-month period we didn't have meat, but we but we certainly had plenty of meat during the worst of the Depression. So we really lived good. I had the president down for dinner one time. I had honey and biscuits. Just ten. I thought it was a very ordinary dinner, but he just thought it was great. [00:22:00] He said, my, this is... could I go back to the biscuits and honey? BEVERLY: He was feeling the pinch a little, maybe, too, wasn't he? EFFIE: Yes. The year that we received less than $100 a month, the president, acting president, President Gilmour, received $115 for the whole nine months period. So that was something. BEVERLY: Pretty difficult. EFFIE: [00:22:30] Very difficult. BEVERLY: What did you do for clothes? EFFIE: During that time, we did not buy clothes, we simply… My mother was an expert at patching, and she was the neatest little mender you ever heard of. And she could just mend a little dress so pretty that that you almost wanted to show it off. And that's the way we got along. We did not buy clothes. There was a two-year period there [00:23:00] when we did not buy clothes at all. We just simply got along. BEVERLY: What about Christmas gifts? EFFIE: My little girl never did get a doll buggy because she came up during that Depression when she wanted a doll buggy so bad. And my husband worked till 2 o'clock one night making her a little doll bed. It was just a darling little thing. It just looked nice [00:23:30] enough to have come out of the store. But he stayed up till 2 o'clock making that. And then another time he made her a little toy chest or a little chest. She didn't really have many toys. And I took the head of an old doll and fixed her up with a doll. We just couldn't buy things for Christmas. BEVERLY: What about medical care? How did [00:24:00] you manage that? Did you need to go to the doctor? EFFIE: It seems to me like we didn't go to the doctor. Any of those two years, I guess, the dear Lord just protected us. BEVERLY: Thank God, huh? He knew there was no way you could afford to get sick. EFFIE: Well, our good Dr. Mangum would have waited all right. BEVERLY: He would have waited too. EFFIE: Yes, he would have waited. Yes, he was our doctor. BEVERLY: [00:24:30] I'm trying to think... I don't know if you're going to tell me this story again, but I thought it was kind of interesting. You told me some stories about your early courtship with your husband. But I don't know if you're going to let that really go on the tape. It's just a very different time. EFFIE: Oh, I don't think they'd be interested in that, would they? BEVERLY: Oh, why not Effie? They'll just throw out [00:25:00] what they don't want. I thought it was kind of interesting. EFFIE: Well, I'll tell you. BEVERLY: Willard would be pleased to know we were still talking about him. EFFIE: Yes. Well, we both, he was taking English. He wasn't a teacher at that time, way back there. He was taking fourth grade high school English, and I was taking third year English. During the noon hour, we were sitting there at the library table in the library, [00:25:30] and we happened to both be writing themes. I noticed he was writing a theme, and he noticed I was writing themes. So we got to talking, and we exchanged themes. And he read a couple of my themes, and he said, your themes show a delicacy of expression. And I thought, oh, what a compliment. And when [00:26:00] he wasn't looking, I wrote down in the corner of my note, delicacy of expression. BEVERLY: I guess I'd write that down, too. EFFIE: I thought, well, my, I didn't know I was a writer. And so every day, it seemed like it'd just come handy for us to be there. BEVERLY: Oh, it just happened that way. EFFIE: Yeah, it just happened that way. And he liked my writing so well, and of course that flattered me. But one day, I came in, and he wasn't there at all. He was turned over in another part of the library, and [00:26:30] he never even looked toward me. BEVERLY: Uh-oh. EFFIE: And I thought, Effie, you just, you're too forward. You just overplayed your part. He's disgusted with you. BEVERLY: You were so bold. EFFIE: Yes, I was so bold. BEVERLY: That was the wrong thing. EFFIE: And so after we were married, I said, say, how come, how come that you just all of a sudden changed your attitude there in the library [00:27:00] that day? Oh, he said, I felt like I was slipping. He said, you know, when I came to NNC, I had determined I was going to get an education. I wasn't going with any girls. BEVERLY: Or a pretty face... EFFIE: And of course, the rules were so strict anyway. You couldn't habitually keep company with a girl at all, or the opposite sex. So he just made up his mind he wouldn't have a girl. And when he found himself slipping, [00:27:30] he thought he better stop while the stopping was good. BEVERLY: Well, I guess he changed his mind later. EFFIE: Evidently. BEVERLY: Yeah, something happened. EFFIE: Yeah, something happened. BEVERLY: That's the part you're not going to tell me. Now, what did you do for dates? There weren't movies, were there? Where did you go for young men? EFFIE: Oh, we'd go to, in fact, we didn't have any dates. We weren't allowed to, you might say. [00:28:00] So he came down here to my house, and we'd sing songs and talk over literature and school subjects. We had very lofty conversations, I can tell you that. And the clock would just go around like that when he was here. We just loved to talk. BEVERLY: But you didn't go out to dances or movies [00:28:30] or that kind of thing. EFFIE: I didn't. In fact, we didn't go to anything except in the summertime. If we'd had got married during the school year, we would have had quit school. They weren't allowing any marriages. You can get married in the summertime, but you came here to get an education. You didn't come here to... BEVERLY: Have a date and fool around and have fun. EFFIE: [00:29:00] Just to be with him is all I ask. BEVERLY: Well, that's just a whole lot better than education. That's a different kind of education. EFFIE: Oh, yes, sure is. BEVERLY: But would he have been kicked out of school if he'd gotten married during that? EFFIE: Oh, yes. He would have just been asked. We would have understood. We were just to quit. And if we hadn't of, why, we'd have been asked to quit. Because there was one couple that did get married, [00:29:30] and they knew that they shouldn't. But they were asked to leave. BEVERLY: That was a different time. EFFIE: Yes, quite different times. BEVERLY: You did go ahead, both of you finished your education? EFFIE: I didn't go through college. After I had married, I took special subjects, and I took music. But he went through. BEVERLY: He did finish. EFFIE: He finished, and then he taught school for a good many years. He taught in the public schools, [00:30:00] math and science, and then he taught out here at the academy, and that's where we went through the Depression. He taught out there at the academy before the Depression and through the Depression. BEVERLY: Now, is the academy Northwest Nazarene College? EFFIE: Northwest Nazarene College, the academy department. And right here in this annual, I have a... BEVERLY: Go on, go get it if you want to show a picture. EFFIE: Linda Clark's father-in-law [00:30:30] wrote here, and my husband, that's what her father wrote. Her father-in-law, Linda Clark's father-in-law wrote. BEVERLY: To your husband? EFFIE: Mm-hmm. BEVERLY: Linda, this is for you. This is what your father-in-law wrote to Effie's husband. Dear Mr. Eastbrook, I have certainly enjoyed having you for a professor, and you have meant a lot to me this year. I hope I can have you again for a professor, and do not forget our picnic [00:31:00] and good time we had. Your friend, Jay Clark. Hey, that's nice. EFFIE: There's Eugene Clark. The Clarks were all loyal to Willard. They all really thought a lot of Professor Eastbrook, and lifelong friends. And of course, this father-in-law of Linda's died many, many years ago. I don't think she ever knew him. I don't suppose she did, I don't remember. BEVERLY: [00:31:30] You've known a lot of people in Nampa. EFFIE: The Parsons family and the Sherman Clark family. The Parsons came here in 1914. BEVERLY: A little bit earlier than you did. They beat you to it. You were going to tell me something about the Dewey Palace. Do you want to go ahead? EFFIE: Dewey Palace? BEVERLY: Do you have some stories you'd like to... EFFIE: Dewey Palace? [00:32:00] I thought the Dewey Palace was a landmark. I mean, when they did away with it, it seemed like Nampa's never been quite the same. END OF RECORDING https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/76642/archive/files/4d52c5b96cd942964811c910b1944448.mp3?Expires=1789603200&Signature=JQhppSKJ9X4B31lOiKnk4G2QlNrYRLOCHArx0OX-%7E6sFiBkj-8DLRsi1NkHKh1TWPRyYJ57JiTOLQ4EDh30Fq7-prfrlWsOgyy7TgQLA8wiKBa6Yvw5OuO6m7QIUAD%7EPqgJjEyNL0z9oPwMbCBFjo2%7ENqFaldP-KS53j3hSbQAdo97JN6GX3Ub7Im4wNL0AfvXyQmBufPrOtqoMfk%7E4KCVsqo3rs3ZSbeMOoiXfv6vF6bEKAIbBMvAR5t4z%7EKO3JiS90OvRM1qv3v%7Ekgg6Ed5JOE2-k-2nrA4pJ2i0OPfE8YhGpaQqaWqAx5n9NbusUTsGYDcF2O0mDgLQYZByeXvQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 89f3d737689e1e68bad2fac8bc79afd5 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Effie Isgrigg Recording 2 of 2 PDF Text Text EFFIE: We were able to buy a used washing machine, which I was very proud of. We got it for $8. That was just previous to the Depression. And was I ever glad we had that during the Depression. BEVERLY: It's pretty modern. EFFIE: It wasn't modern by any means. Oh. I remember showing, I said, oh, come and see my new washer. And I took somebody down there to the basement. And they looked at [00:00:30] it. I guess it looked pretty antiquated to them. And they thought it wasn't anything to be proud of. But I tell you, it was a lot better than washing on the board that I'd been doing for years. BEVERLY: Quite an improvement then, wasn't it? Was it the ringer? That ringer machine? EFFIE: Yes, it had rings. BEVERLY: And what did you do? How did you dry your clothes? EFFIE: Hung them out on the line. BEVERLY: That was a bargain [00:01:00] you got. Was it a used machine? EFFIE: Yes, it was an old, old, old timer. But it got the clothes clean. BEVERLY: Are there some other things that you want to share with us about Nampa? Some other memories, or things that you can share? Kind of an open-ended question, isn't it? EFFIE: [00:01:30] Oh, I remember something. BEVERLY: It's not really Nampa. You had said you were describing some of your interest in joining the Nazarene Church, which was a little bit unusual. But this went against your parents' wishes? Can [00:02:00] you tell us little bit about that? EFFIE: Oh yes, I had a Nazarene teacher out there at Lone Tree. And he influenced some of my best friends, one of them, to go to NNC. And then I went for surgery in Boise. And I stayed in his home for two weeks. And I was deeply impressed with what a beautiful home they had. Such a lovely atmosphere. They had four little girls in just the happiest home. [00:02:30] And they had devotions every day. And I thought, my, devotions every day? I was used to, at our church, about once a month we'd have a monthly meeting over there in Oregon you know? The church I attended. And there they had devotions every day. And this lady would take her little girls that were in school, the ones that were under school age, and take them out calling on the [00:03:00] Chinese section of Boise. And then she'd talk the scriptures to me and her face would just glow. And she was such a happy, radiant Christian. I really got interested in the Nazarenes. And then, of course, their music. That really appealed to me. Because I had come from a church where nothing was geared to children or young people. Everything was, no instruments, nothing. Nothing whatever for children. [00:03:30] And I enjoyed it because I didn't know anything else. But when I did come in contact with lively music and just beautiful things, it appealed to me. But my folks were very much opposed to me becoming a Nazarene, oh my. BEVERLY: What was your family background? EFFIE: Primitive Baptist. And I appreciate the basic, fundamental beliefs that I caught from my folks. They believed [00:04:00] strongly in the sovereignty of God. And they taught me things that I never have been able to get away from. And I don't want to get away from them. They're basic. And it stuck with me all my life. But they were just very prejudiced against Nazarenes. But my aunt told me with tears in her eyes, she said, oh Effie, you're lost. You're lost in the whirlpool [00:04:30] of Armenianism. BEVERLY: Armenianism. EFFIE: See, they were more like Calvinists. Nazarenes were Armenians. BEVERLY: A whirlpool of Armenianism. EFFIE: Armenianism. And she said, the worst of it is I'm afraid you're going to pull a family with you. And that's just what happened. Eventually, although, she made sure that [00:05:00] her brother, my father, she said, oh, they'll get you yet. And he said, they will not. And so he'd come to our services. And sit there in the back of the church. And tears rolled down his face. He just thoroughly enjoyed the services so much. But he wouldn't, he never broke over and joined the church. Because his sister was bolstering him all the time. She nailed him to it. But anyway, he did say to me, he says, well, we have the right doctrine but [00:05:30] you have the spirit. And when he was dying right here in my house, our pastor came to call on him. And he said, you know, I think it was predestinated for Effie to marry Willard. And that was quite a bit for him to acknowledge, because he had been so prejudiced against him. BEVERLY: Kind of a big turnaround. EFFIE: Yeah, quite a turnaround. BEVERLY: He must have seen [00:06:00] something nice in your marriage. EFFIE: They were strong on predestination, you know. Everything was predestined. And he said, I think that God predestined Effie to marry Willard. Well, that was quite a concession. Willard was definitely Arminian. One time when I got kind of down after I had gone to the [00:06:30] altar and got such a wonderful experience. Then one time when I was kind of down, because of some things people had said to me, I told him about it. He said, Effie, he didn't call me honey or butter me up at all. He just said, Effie, if you're going to make it through to heaven, you've got to get your eyes off of people and fix them on Jesus. And that was just the best thing [00:07:00] he could have said. I just made up my mind that it was all in my own hands and I could just pay no attention to things like that. Get my eyes on people. BEVERLY: But that was kind of difficult for you to leave your family background? EFFIE: Oh, it sure was. BEVERLY: There were, were there lots of people joining the Nazarene Church at that time when you did? EFFIE: Yes, quite a few. BEVERLY: But it was still [00:07:30] a little unusual. EFFIE: Oh, yes. BEVERLY: It was pretty bad, huh? EFFIE: It wasn't like it is now. It wasn't popular. It wasn't a popular thing to do then. The Nazarenes really now are quite... BEVERLY: Why was it unpopular? EFFIE: What? BEVERLY: Why was it unpopular? EFFIE: Well, they seemed to be too strict. BEVERLY: Oh, because it was a disciplined church. EFFIE: Disciplined church. [00:08:00] But I have learned, now the Adventists and different churches where they require a lot, they seem to... It weeds out people that aren't very sincere. Regardless of what the requirements are. You don't go into it if you don't mean business. BEVERLY: It forces you to tow the mark, sort of, huh? EFFIE: Yeah. It seems that young people sort of respond to a challenge. BEVERLY: [00:08:30] So, some of what interested you in the Nazarenes was the challenge. Giving up your rules of... EFFIE: Now, I could go to other churches and feel like, oh, that's pretty good. I'm a pretty good person. But I go to the Nazarene Church and I think, well, I've got to do better. I've got to do better. I don't write very well. I've got to move up. BEVERLY: But you like that music, too. EFFIE: [00:09:00] Oh, I love that music. BEVERLY: Was that unusual at the time, to have music in the church still? EFFIE: No, it wasn't in the Nazarenes. That's their whole existence. I mean, they were strong on music. But the church I came from, Rami Baptists, and I had the greatest respect for them and loved them dearly. But I just couldn't see why that we couldn't have lively music or couldn't use instruments. And [00:09:30] I asked my uncle, who was a preacher, and he said, well, he says I don't altogether approve of that either, but you'll never find a church that just suits you exactly. Well, that's all he'd say. BEVERLY: You think... still good enough. When you said you liked the way the Nazarene Church and the Sunday school, such good youth programs. And they had Sunday school, and you never went to Sunday school. EFFIE: I never went to Sunday school. BEVERLY: It wasn't even there when you were [00:10:00] in Oregon, was it? EFFIE: Yes, there was a community Sunday school, and that's what made it worse. Because we'd have our Baptist services in the same building, in the school building. We'd go in with our folks, and the Sunday school people would be coming out. So, oh, I did so want to go to Sunday school. So when we moved to Idaho, and the Brethren people out here, the Boise Valley Brethren Church, were so nice to us, and they invited us to Sunday school, you know. I said to Mama, [00:10:30] Mama, wouldn't it be all right to go to Sunday school now? And she said, oh, Effie, you've been so true all these years. I was 13 then. She says, you've been so true and didn't go even when your dear Irene went. And she says, you don't want to break over now. So every little, she just wanted to hold me back and hold me true to the way she was taught. BEVERLY: Did you ever get to a Sunday [00:11:00] school? EFFIE: Oh, my, yes. The first time... BEVERLY: That was fun, wasn't it? EFFIE: Yes, the first time I ever went to Sunday school, you wouldn't believe it, was over here at the Christian Church. I was attending the Nazarene College, but there was one weekend when I didn't go home to Lone Tree. I went to the Christian Church Sunday school, and because of the way I had been raised, I came home and knelt down and asked God to forgive me because I had gone. [00:11:30] I had really gone with the wrong reason. See, I was just, I knew that I shouldn't. That's the way I brought up. I knew I shouldn't, but I violated my conscience. So I never went anymore until I... BEVERLY: You went that one time. EFFIE: Yes, until I had that all thrashed out. I came to the conclusion that it was my training, and as wonderful as my parents were, I just could not see anything wrong with Sunday school. So I [00:12:00] made up my mind the next time somebody asked me to go, I would go. So one of the girls out at the college, she says, Effie I'm going to be, I just cannot teach my class Sunday morning. And she says, I've got a bad throat. Would you take my class down at First Church? BEVERLY: Uh-oh. EFFIE: And I never told her I'd never been in Sunday school but once in my life. And [00:12:30] so I went, and that was over here at First Church, Andrew and First Church. And I got up there and did the very best I could and never let on that I had never taught before. And she never had any criticism. This is what she said. BEVERLY: Nobody saw through it. Nobody knew. EFFIE: No. She said, well, Effie, your voice carries well. Well, it needed to carry well because there was one big, long... If anybody remembers [00:13:00] that big, long building, we had about 30 classes all in that one great big room, and it was a matter of competition. Who could speak the loudest to get the attention of their class. And she said, your voice carries well. Well, you know, that was an encouragement. So from then on, I was... Of course, by that time, I had gone to the altar and I had made up my mind, whether my folks were approved of it or not, I was going the [00:13:30] way of the Lord. It seemed like when I went to the altar, the path behind me just closed up. There was no turning back. It was once and forever. And my folks never... they felt bad about it, but they never crossed me anymore. They just said, saw it didn't do any good. Anyway, my mother said to the neighbor, Well, even Effie's been to their altar. But that made her feel [00:14:00] so bad afterwards. You tend to keep saying that because she said, well, that was kind of a mean thing to say. It just humiliate you. But it didn't humiliate me. I had enough on the inside that I was satisfied. It didn't bother me. BEVERLY: It seems a funny thing for a little girl to have to ask forgiveness for going to Sunday school. EFFIE: Well, in fact, I very seldom ever mention that. [00:14:30] So a person's conscience can be trained, you know. And I saw that this wasn't... BEVERLY: That we take them in school, take them to programs with children and music in the church. Quite a... EFFIE: Oh, my, yes. And Willard and I... and Willard's the Sunday school superintendent over here for years. Here at First Church. And he and I would go out and get children. And one lady that sent her three little girls, she asked our [00:15:00] preacher's wife, she said, does anyone pay Mr. Hitchcreek for coming and getting my children and take them to Sunday school? She said, oh, no. And she said, well, that restores my faith in humanity. She says, If he cares that much about my kids to come clear across the town, they're way over where, way over by the beet sugar factory. She said... and to this day, she's a Nazarene [00:15:30] and all. Now I'm sure that her children and grandchildren and all became Nazarenes just through that little incident. BEVERLY: An unusual act of kindness. EFFIE: And I can name other people that said the very same thing. They come and they'll say, I never can forget your husband coming clear across the town. BEVERLY: So he picked up a number of people. EFFIE: We didn't have a bus route or anything that way. We just did it with our car. [00:16:00] But because of my background, I was unusually enthusiastic about Sunday school. And it caught on. BEVERLY: Oh, I'm sure it did. Any girl starved for Sunday school like that, they probably wondered, what is it Effie sees? EFFIE: And I taught Sunday school. I taught different ages and different times. And I supervised for six years of the juniors. Anyway, I've always enjoyed it. BEVERLY: I think [00:16:30] you kind of like... EFFIE: Just 50 years, lacking two months. BEVERLY: That's pretty good, isn't it? EFFIE: I figure if any other couple is half as happy and satisfied as we were for 50 years, then they're doing pretty well. BEVERLY: You even let me see his picture. I thought he was pretty handsome. EFFIE: [00:17:00] My granddaughter, Dina, one time when she was here, or rather, her date was here and she hadn't come. And this date of hers said, Say, you folks are always building each other up. He says, I don't understand it. I said, I didn't realize we were. BEVERLY: You didn't even know what was going on. EFFIE: No, but he said, well, it [00:17:30] is. He says, you just seem to always be kind of boosting the other. BEVERLY: Kind of helping each other. EFFIE: And I think my granddaughters, they're also happily married. I'm very, very happy with the marriages of my three granddaughters. BEVERLY: Well, that's an unusual thing to be married for 50 years. EFFIE: He told me at the end of six years, he [00:18:00] said, when I was to undergo surgery, of course, maybe he felt a little extra, but he said six years with you is worth 600 of any other years. How could I have forgotten that? BEVERLY: No, you wouldn't. He had kind of a way with words, didn't he? EFFIE: He sure did. BEVERLY: Were there any other things we were going to cover, Effie, that we haven't? We talked about the depression [00:18:30] and the transfer, and then hear about the Sunday school, and some of these things. I know, but you're not going to let me keep it. EFFIE: You're not? Oh! But I can tell you, I can talk from now till 10 o'clock about the Ancestry Prayer out on the farm. But I won't go into that, because I know they wouldn't... BEVERLY: [00:19:00] I think the tape is going to... It might run out, but do you want to tell me an Ancestry Prayer? EFFIE: No. BEVERLY: We'll turn the tape off, and then we'll talk about it. EFFIE: Oh, I can? Yes, if you'll turn it off. Because I'm not prepared, you know, I didn't expect... BEVERLY: Well, I think we've got it wrapped up. Thank you. END OF RECORDING Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Nampa Oral History Collection Description An account of the resource Oral histories recorded 1984-1986 for Nampa's Centennial celebration. About 60 individuals shared their recollection of the early days of living in Nampa. Some of these people's stories relate to photos in the Historic Photo Exhibit. Click on the name or subject listed under "Relation" to discover more details about life in Nampa. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984-1986 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Nampa Centennial Committee Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Beverly Clark Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Effie Isgrigg Location The location of the interview 717 11 Badiner S, Nampa, ID Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Effie Isgrigg Description An account of the resource Effie Isgrigg discusses her family's travel to Nampa which was partly done by covered wagon. She describes the Great Depression and the effect it had on her family and other Nampa residents. She also discusses Nazarenes in Idaho. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985, August 16 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Nampa Centennial Committee Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Interviews recorded for the library's oral history program are copyrighted to the Nampa Public Library which maintains rights to reproduce the recordings in all existing and future formats for the purposes of preservation and access. Researchers may quote portions of interviews in non-commercial projects, unless otherwise noted. Proper credit should be given. No part of the interviews may be used in commercial, for-profit projects without permission from Nampa Public Library. Church of the Nazarene Great Depression Northwest Nazarene College Teachers https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/76642/archive/files/4d50d04fc0106d0d391202e1d7387b54.mp3?Expires=1789603200&Signature=ALIOCxLXBw5YN5cc6bVxbOXBH2SU5XIwxBG22Yp1KNIG31G8eGCBSX5v4IMALsf4Nc3ITmW4Lg701GKUVN6nyEbG7D6VKXbcr9xzTblF2z-rwIK0X1V5HPMlw6DeYuK9SJn9IMajLdNM81XjhWz1cDmGcW1wOxwGgDSLwP-Vv8jA%7EPsWJ5skTJIY1DRi4ybwFKYQPg3fZteSwTml8l4twOYdRFIWJZjMHVg49qNW5BkdnMpfeVCZgOfVc09tCC%7ExbGxKgpJI5X5r%7EU6Wpuzy%7EOhfCN7Hvcr2EDwCltOwGjo0JDltErlB0ls8A2EqCyZNGL4wXnDWTG8LBACK8lFKrg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM d3e3ee5d29e9fe2c605708ef0153c98b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Charles and Lela McGowan Recording 1 of 1 PDF Text Text CHARLES E MCGOWAN: -- Mack called me, so that’s where I got it. MARGURITE BROWN: Why is it not working? I can do the rewind on this thing, can’t I? LELA MCGOWAN: Yes. (break in audio) MARGURITE: -- a recording of an oral history taken on May 24, 1985, at 2:30 in the afternoon from Lela and C.E. McGowan. Mr. McGowan is more commonly known as Mack in the community. And we’re going to talk to them a little about their reminiscences of their early days in Nampa, Idaho. Mack, were you here before Lela came to Nampa? CHARLES: Yes, I was. I came to Nampa in 1922. MARGURITE: And Lela, you came in? LELA: 1929. MARGURITE: 1929. What brought you here, your parents? (laughter) CHARLES: No, I came on my own [00:01:00] and I lived in Nampa for quite a while, and then I lived in the McCall area for about seven years. It’s where I got acquainted with Lela and married her. And then I went to work for the Union Pacific in Nampa in 1929. MARGURITE: And Lela, you’re a native Idahoan then, aren’t you? LELA: Yes, I was born right over here at Star. MARGURITE: Well, that’s a very proud thing to be these days. (laughter) We’ve had enough newcomers come in, so most people who are natives of Idaho really tout this. CHARLES: I was born in Denver. MARGURITE: You were. And Lela, I think I saw somewhere that you came to Nampa right after you were married. LELA: That’s right. MARGURITE: You’d not lived here before? LELA: No, I hadn’t. I came to Nampa October 1, 1929, and we were married October 5 over at Vale, Oregon [00:02:00] and came back here. Speaking of you asked about the first impressions on the questionnaire. The thing that impressed me the most was the Dewey Palace, because I’d never even been in a hotel as luxurious as that, and I just thought that was a great place. Another thing that impressed me about Nampa was the parks. You know, coming from the north country, there are so few parks in those days. MARGURITE: What parks were here at that time when you first came? LELA: Lakeview and Kurtz. MARGURITE: And Kurtz was here also. LELA: Mm-hmm. MARGURITE: Was it fully seeded with grass and had the trees and so on at that time? LELA: A portion of it was, but then the college, at that time, it was just really very new. But I was impressed about the college too, because I was very interested in it. [00:03:00] MARGURITE: Where was your first home here? LELA: 1315 Eleventh Avenue South. And that was almost out in the – CHARLES: It was a farmland town. LELA: -- farmland. It was the last house on Thirteenth Avenue. CHARLES: It was Eleventh Avenue. LELA: Eleventh Avenue, South. Uh-huh. MARGURITE: Were there many houses on that street or do you --? LELA: Oh yes. CHARLES: Yeah, several ’em towards town, but there’s none beyond us. And it’s all close to the Hasbrouck House. LELA: Yes. They were our neighbors. CHARLES: Hasbrouck’s were neighbors. Hasbrouck said that was a farm when we lived there, Hasbrouck the estate, which is now [mowed addition?]. That was all farmland. MARGURITE: What sort of crops were they raising on that? CHARLES: Well, Japanese people were farming it when we came here and they raised truck garden stuff mostly, I think, I don’t recall too much, [00:04:00] but I know they had lots of truck garden stuff like potatoes and various small stuff. MARGURITE: The Hasbrouck house was still located at that time on a curve in the road, was it? LELA: Yes. CHARLES: That’s right. It has had a curve in the road. MARGURITE: And were there any other houses close to them at all? Do you remember? CHARLES: Well, they built a house for their son, I think. LELA: For Hazzy, the one that was Hasbrouck’s? CHARLES: Hazzy, no that was – LELA: Yes. CHARLES: -- that wasn’t where they lived, up – LELA: Yes, it was. CHARLES: Okay. LELA: He was in the service. CHARLES: The little house on Eleventh. LELA: Harold was a World War veteran and he lived with his mother in that big old Hasbrouck home. I was there many times. They were always very, very nice to me. CHARLES: They were good neighbors. MARGURITE: Do you happen, either of you, to recall about what the population of Nampa was by the time you came here? CHARLES: When I came here, I think if I recall correctly, [00:05:00] it was around 1,600, between 1,600 and 1,800 people. They had one policeman. MARGURITE: (laughs) Do you remember who he was? CHARLES: I was tryin’ to think of his name. MARGURITE: You obviously didn’t run into any trouble. (laughter) CHARLES: No. Oh, and then they got ambitious, and they hired a second policeman and they had two policemen. I think. Maybe three. But the city clerk took care of all the money and done all the routine work. And the clerk, just one man in there. And I noticed they got quite a lot of help in there nowadays. MARGURITE: Now, was the city hall built by the time you came? CHARLES: Oh yes. The city hall was there and – LELA: But the post office wasn’t. CHARLES: -- the police station. The post office was located over [00:06:00] where the library is, over in that block. There was a bank on the corner, as I recall correctly, and then there was a post office and... No, the post office is around on First, facing First, back of the bank. And some printers finally had -- what is his name? LELA: Schwartz. CHARLES: I can’t remember what that printer’s name was... Print shop in there. Anyhow, it’s incorporated now with the library. MARGURITE: Right. Well now, the City Hall was a fairly good-sized building, and they only really had one active city employee that did most everything. Who else was in there? CHARLES: He had a woman. What was her name? I’ve forgotten what her name was now. There was just two people in the office. He paid all your water bills and your dog license and your bicycle. Well, no, they didn’t license bicycles then, but you paid your water, your [00:07:00] city taxes, and any other city businesses transacted there, your building permits and so forth, you got from the city clerk. MARGURITE: Did you have an impression of the building being full or was there a lot of empty spaces? CHARLES: Oh, they had a city engineer’s office upstairs, and then they had some other rooms up there. I don’t know actually what they used those rooms upstairs for. I think the YMCA maybe had meetings in there. I’m not sure. LELA: It seemed to me that building was mostly vacant, I think. CHARLES: Well, they had the police station in the basement and I don’t remember exactly what they had upstairs. The only thing I can remember is they had a city engineer’s office [00:08:00] up there upstairs because I went to it a few times, and you got your building permits and you had to go see a city engineer [inaudible]. MARGURITE: Was the street in fairly good condition? Was it gravel or paved? CHARLES: No, the only pavement they had in Nampa when I first came here was around where the Idaho Power Office is now; that was a depot for the Interurban. They had brick in there and then down on Main Street off of Eleventh, they had brick in there. They had a Y in there in front of the Dewey Palace for the Interurban to turn their motors or their engines or whatever they call them. Motors, I guess. There’s cars around, the Interurban [00:09:00] run from Nampa to Boise and around the loop through Star and over that way, I don’t know exactly. LELA: It was the Interurban wasn’t it? That came – CHARLES: It made a loop. LELA: -- through Caldwell and back through Nampa. MARGURITE: Did you use it? LELA: Oh yes. CHARLES: Between here and... We never did go any place except Boise. We went to Boise on the Interurban some. At that same time, when I first went to work here, the Interurban hauled fruit. They’d bring in 10 or 15 cars of fruit at it during the fruit season. MARGURITE: Tell me about it. I have no picture of that. Was it like a train with freight cars attached or? CHARLES: No, they used Union Pacific cars. MARGURITE: Oh they did. CHARLES: Fruit cars, refrigerated cars. And between Nampa and Boise when I first came here, it was practically solid orchards and nothing but orchards. [00:10:00] And it was all Union Pacific and gather up as many as 40 and 50 cars of fruit a day during the fruit season. And then the Interurban, that even brought in eight or nine cars. And sometimes they’d come in twice a day. I don’t know exactly how they brought them in, but they transferred ’em right where our subway is, right between the subway and Ninth Avenue. They had a spur run off on Main. Eleventh Avenue was the Interurbans [hideaway?]. They run the track down 11th Avenue and on over the hill and ’long to Meridian and various places, and they have -- oh, between Nampa and Meridian, now you notice that on Old Highway 30 where there’s a double fence [00:11:00] and the Interurban had a right of way that gave everybody the right of way to the Interurban company. And I had property out here, between here and Caldwell. And the abstract why it showed it, there was 34 feet of my property was deeded to the Interurban to use. Well, it’s still extended all the way from the College of Idaho into Nampa. That 34-foot strip of land there, actually nobody owns it. LELA: [laughs] We found that out. CHARLES: We found that out because we were trying to clear our abstract up and I got ahold of McClusky and Caldwell. He’d spent thousands of dollars trying to get it straightened out and he never was able to cause the Interurban had dissolved, there was no Interurban, there was nobody to deed [00:12:00] it back to us, there was nobody to sign it over. So actually as near as McCluskey and I could come to an agreement, it’s 34 feet there that didn’t belong to anybody. MARGURITE: And is that still the case? CHARLES: It’s still there, it’s still there. But of course, they’ve widened the highway now. I think quite a few people now -- there’s property. See, we had a piece of property right next to this estate of -- (break in audio) -- Eye specialist is now, that five acres in there. He evidently bought a piece of it after we sold it, but that’s where I found out that there was 34 feet there between the highway, and where I was at. It was nobody’s. I told some of the people along the highway that I personally knew, and [00:13:00] they sold their property to get away from it because instead of their houses built up pretty close to the street and figured if they’d clean, come along and move the 34 feet back there. Why, they’d have the highway right up in their door yard. MARGURITE: When was that finally abandoned? The Interurban. CHARLES: Let’s see... In the early ’30s. I don’t remember. They had a little deal, they run out of Boise for a while, and it kind of went haywire too. I don’t remember exactly what time, but I know they did service some properties. Now between here and getting ’em back to Caldwell between here from the Nampa City limits. Down about at that time was about where the PFE shop was. [00:14:00] I think the city limits were up out there. And between there and Caldwell, city limits was nothing but mesquite and [alkaline?]. Even sage brush wouldn’t even grow in there. MARGURITE: Is that why you didn’t take the Interurban to Caldwell ever? (laughs) You didn’t really take part in anything at Caldwell or go over there. CHARLES: Oh no, not during a younger age. MARGURITE: When you took the Interurban to Boise, what did you go for? LELA: To shop or to see relatives or to visit. Mainly just go downtown in Boise. CHARLES: Yeah, it’s fun to go to Boise. It wasn’t such a big deal from here, but they oiled the road, I think, after I came here, part of the street, they still had the Interurban and they oiled it over to about where the Eleventh Avenue starts to go up the hill. That was tarred and they put asphalt [00:15:00] over the rails and one time after they abandoned the Interurban, why they put asphalt over the rails and then eventually they had to tear it up and get the rails out, it wasn’t working out right. LELA: Because they’d just kept sliding off the building. MARGURITE: Lela, I noticed on one of the forms or something you had mentioned that when you came here, and I think you said at the beginning of this talk that you came here in October 1929. What do either or both of you remember about the Depression? CHARLES: Oh no. (laughs) MARGURITE: That’s a whole story. (laughs) LELA: At that time Mack could work probably three to four months out of the season. So he did anything, any other kind of work he could get. CHARLES: Which you couldn’t. LELA: There wasn’t much work. There were an awful lot of people that were outta work. [00:16:00] Our people would have a lot of ingenuity. We had a garden and chickens out there on Eleventh Avenue when we lived out there. And we got along very well, but there were people that were really strapped, you know, that didn’t have very much. We didn’t have a lot, but we utilized what we did have. There were groups of people at different times standing on corners because people were upset because there was so much unemployment. And there was some food available for some people that were in need, like there was flour and beans and a few staple things that you could get. MARGURITE: Where did this come from? Who provided that? LELA: I don’t know who provided it, but I know they had a dispensing place you could get things. Down there where that -- they had a feed store, coal. [00:17:00] They were on the corner of Eleventh and Fourteenth North. Remember, they had a dispensing place there. We never went there, but there were people that lived right next to us that did go there, you know. Not that we were too proud to. And the things you got were mostly just staple things, I think. CHARLES: The one remarkable thing about it I remember very distinctly was that after my last month or so that I worked, we’d saved up a little money and we figured out I wasn’t gonna work for another nine months. LELA: That was a problem. CHARLES: That’s what we agreed on. So we sat down and figured out a grocery list [00:18:00] for staple groceries. How many of this and how much of this we wanted, how many pounds of this and how many cases of that were supplied, we figured it’d last us a considerable time ’cause I had about 150 dollars I’d saved up from working. And as I figured I’m buying groceries with it, some of the staples. And we made out three copies of it. I took one to Safeway, imagine that, for ’em to give me a price list on it. And I took one to-- LELA: Nampa D. CHARLES: Nampa D, down on Thirteenth and Main. And then I took one out to a little store, a storekeeper that I knew up in Long Valley, they had a store out on Twenty-second Avenue. And I [00:19:00] gave each one of ’em a copy of what we wanted for groceries and to give me a bid and I’d come back in a couple days and pick it up. And the store on Twenty-second Avenue I think it was $110, and Safeway’s was $115 and fifteen and Nampa D was $120 dollars. And so I took the one out on Twenty-second Avenue and he delivered the groceries in a Buick touring car and took him all afternoon to deliver all that stuff. LELA: (laughs) You could buy a lot of things for $100 dollars in those days. CHARLES: Couple of sacks of potatoes and cases of canned milk and canned foods and stuff. But they would accept -- imagine Safeway’s wanting to go over a bill of goods for you now for $110 dollars, $120 dollars. (laughter) LELA: [00:20:00] What else do you think you’d like to know? MARGURITE: Nampa D was on the corner of First and Thirteenth still? CHARLES: Yeah, that’s where that apartment -- around there. MARGURITE: And they had a grocery store as well as a mercantile. CHARLES: It was where Nafziger Banks is. It was next to the alley. And Safeway was right across the alley at that time. Safeway was right across the alley. The alleyway between Safeway and Falk's Nampa D. MARGURITE: What was the social life like in Nampa? Did people get together a lot, and if so, what kinds? They listened to radio some, I guess. LELA: Mack went to lodge, he belonged to masons. When he came here in ’22, that was the year they were building the Masonic Lodge. And Mack was a mason when he came here. CHARLES: No, not in ’22. LELA: Not when he came here, but when we came here. And we went to the functions they had, and then the [00:21:00] neighbors would get together and play cards. I’d bake bread and cook beans and fix up what you had. And everybody had a very good time, you know. People in Nampa were very friendly. I didn’t know anyone when I came here. I had a few relatives that lived around here, but I thought people were very, very outgoing, very friendly, and I still think Nampa has a lot to offer from that standpoint, don’t you? MARGURITE: Oh, I do indeed. CHARLES: I’d like to tell you about the entertainment and your social life. When I first came to Nampa, even before she came, it was controlled by -- was under the sponsorship [00:22:00] of the Nazarenes, I would say. Anyway, who had a Nazarene mayor, Emerson Goodnight or something. Emerson Goodnight, I think his name was, and he closed up everything. There was no social life. They had the theater shut down. They couldn’t have motion pictures and they couldn’t have games in the clubs or pool halls. They made ’em quit playing cards and the only thing that the people -- the men could do in those places was they could play dominoes. They finally let ’em play dominoes. I don’t know how, I never did play in there to see, but then they had everything shut down. There wasn’t any social life to speak of. MARGURITE: Was there an honest-to-goodness theater? [00:23:00] Was the old Majestic here at that time or what? CHARLES: Yeah, it was where the fire department is now. Fire station. That’s where the Majestic was. MARGURITE: And those were silent movies or sound? CHARLES: Silent movies when we came here, but during the time that Goodnights run the city, those people, they had that city -- they didn’t have any theaters and they didn’t have -- well, the only thing they had was church. They had church. MARGURITE: Were the elections pretty hotly? CHARLES: I didn’t follow ’em close enough. I wasn’t too civic-minded. LELA: Well, he was pretty young then, in ’22 he was about 18 years old. MARGURITE: When did they start? Do you have any recollections about the early days of the Harvest Festival? CHARLES: Well, they had the Harvest Festival when I first came here. I thought it was real lovely. I was most impressed with the Harvest Festival and the daytime rodeos. [00:24:00] We enjoyed those too because you’d go up there and all the dust had -- you still had it in the same place, but they didn’t have it very nice then like it is now. But they had daytime rodeo and then they had the ... Twelfth from Second to Main was produce, both sides of the street. The street was closed off, had a regular fair deal. Everybody bought different neighborhoods, bought their stuff in to display it. And then from about Thirteenth to Eleventh, they had concessions, all kinds of concessions. Hamburger joints and Ferris wheels. And down on Thirteenth between Main and French Street, they usually put the Ferris wheel [00:25:00] in there. Yeah, it was really nice. And they had -- oh, I don’t know. It seemed to me like the civic-minded people were more civic-minded then than they are now even. That is my impression that I got from them, because the people took care of the city. Of course they did. That’s after I began to notice [this wasn’t long, about ’29?] I began to notice they’d made some improvements. They’d gotten a different mayor and different council and I’m thinkin’ things improved a little bit after that. MARGURITE: Was there a time when you felt that you were really starting to see some rather dramatic changes in the town? You remembered it from quite early stages. For instance, Theater Urban, you say, was closed sometime in the ’30s or so. Were you still seeing teams and horses and things downtown at that time? [00:26:00] CHARLES: Some, yeah. Some even up until then. LELA: Out of the Dewey Falls, they had those old hitching posts where people tie up their teams when there were people still coming around, even in ’29. CHARLES: They had a circle driveway in front of the Dewey Palace and it had hitching post in there. I never did see any teams tied up in there, but they did have them. MARGURITE: Was that used as a gathering place? CHARLES: Yes, elite people gathered there. (laughs) All that was – MARGURITE: Elite people and their horses. (overlapping dialogue; inaudible) CHARLES: I think the Dewey Palace was built in 1902, and that depot building, it was a gathering place too. [00:27:00] Everybody went down to meet the trains when they’d come in. A lot of people didn’t have any relatives going or coming, but it was quite a deal to see the trains come down. There’d be 40 or 50 people standing up around on this walkways and in the depot building was a good place. And the Interurban had a depot, that was a good meetin’ place too. You could say, well, “I’ll meet you down at Interurban Depot” or something. That’s where the Idaho Powers office is. I think they’re still located there. MARGURITE: Do either of you remember anything about the way the town felt when the Interurban was closed and flat and shut down? CHARLES: No, I don’t recall. LELA: Well, by the time they closed it, people were getting cars. There were quite a lot of cars then. I don’t think people felt strapped. They may have missed it some, but I don’t think they felt ... CHARLES: A buddy of mine from Valley County, we came down here for Christmas in 1924, that was before I was married, of course, [00:28:00] and he and I came, and we stayed at the Greystone Hotel and we decided we wanted to go to Boise and it was a nice cool day. And Boise would never admit how cold it was, but we got on the Interurban, he and I. And I had overshoes on, it was cold, it’s 40 below zero, but the weather bureau never did acknowledge it. (laughter) But we went to Boise, and I forgot to put my overshoes on when I got off the Interurban in Boise and nearly froze my feet going to a hotel. We finally found a hotel where we could stay, and we stayed in a hotel in Boise for a couple days, and I finally found my overshoes. [00:29:00] They had ’em at the depot in Boise. I reclaimed them, so I had overshoes to come back on. About that time, I had a radio station in Calgary that we used to pick up the radios. They were pretty new; we had it up in Cabarton where we lived and we sought out and bought parts for buildin’ a radio. And we could get the Calgary station and the station in Nampa. But this Calgary station, they told us how cold it was in Boise, and they’d say, “How do you do, how do you do 40 below down Boise, Idaho? How do you do?” (laughter) MARGURITE: Do you remember anything about when KFXD started here in Nampa? Was that the first radio station? [00:30:00] CHARLES: Yeah, this was out by Kuna’s. Their station was out towards Kuna. MARGURITE: Do you remember about when that would’ve been? LELA: It was on Tenth Avenue, on Tenth and – CHARLES: No, but their broadcasting station was out towards Kuna... Let’s see, that was in 1924. They had a station then. MARGURITE: Did you know Frank Hurt? Was he the one who ...? CHARLES: Aimee Semple McPherson and Calgary and Nampa stations was the only ones we could get up at Cascade. We could get those. And we always got Aimee Semple McPherson in the Calgary station. (laughs) I don’t know. She was quite a character. MARGURITE: Was radio quite a thing then after the local station went in here? CHARLES: No, there was not many people that had radios and the stations [00:31:00] weren’t -- though KFXD was pretty good here in Nampa -- but they didn’t reach out very good. And up in Cabarton where we lived we had this station that we’d built ourselves, this receiving set, and we were getting good reception. And the telephone man from Cascade come down looking for wire trouble right by the clubhouse where we had this radio. The telephone lines ran, and we had our antennas stretched between two big trees and the telephone wire running under it. The snow had broke the wire and had come down with the insulator and wrapped around the long-distance wire about three or four times and we were getting exceptionally good programs. The troubleshooter Ed came by and he asked us how our radio was working. He’d found this deal, see it was always just working wonderful. He said, “You ought to have direct connections with everybody.” (laughter) You said our telephones aren’t working good, but you people want to be all right. [00:32:00] MARGURITE: Well, as the country started pulling out a bit in the Depression, do you remember anything about picked up activities in the railroad? CHARLES: Oh yes, the railroad got so low on commodities that they were moving. It was pathetic, really. And it was down to wherever they only had three switch engines in the yard. One for each eight-hour shift, and then they got along, they finally put on one more. They had four to take care of the PFE shop. I think that PFE shop was built in 1926, if I recall correctly. And where the depot is [00:33:00] now, the new depot, it’s an office building now, but on each side of that had a sunken garden. Were you here in time to see? They had sunken gardens between the building and Eleventh and between the building and Thirteenth. MARGURITE: But it is terraced for that, isn’t it? CHARLES: Yeah, well in there now they got parking. They got it built up in there now. But they had sunken gardens – LELA: Fishponds. CHARLES: -- they had gold fishing, and had trees that I got some of, the trees and the heads. They had some heads around there and they tore it all out and I got six trees. MARGURITE: Do you remember why they tore it out? CHARLES: So they could build those office buildings. Where the office buildings – LELA: When they built the new depot. CHARLES: -- and that parking lot [00:34:00] between the subway and the depot, that was all sunken garden. They filled that in there and they got trees covered up in there. They just got the tops off of some of ’em and covered ’em up with dirt. There’s still trees covered under where those [arcenary?] is. MARGURITE: Was there outcry over that, the way there was when some of our later buildings were torn down? (laughs) CHARLES: No, they didn’t destroy anything except the parking area and where the park is, that was destroyed. Some of the railroad people, they kind of ... Public used to go down and look at the goldfish and it was a nice place. They had some permanent seats in their concrete. It was kind of nice. [00:35:00] It was something to distract, makes the view a little prettier. MARGURITE: Nampa used to be, I am told, known as a railroad town. I mean, that was the main thing. CHARLES: Oh yeah. MARGURITE: Was there any other major employer along in the ’20s and early ’30s that you remember that? CHARLES: There was one of the King’s. LELA: The packing factory, the box factory. CHARLES: Box factory, it didn’t employ... King’s is the biggest. MARGURITE: What kind of boxes? CHARLES: Honey boxes. LELA: Fruit boxes, too. There was lots of fruit and produce. CHARLES: Lettuce. LELA: (overlapping dialogue; inaudible) CHARLES: For a few years there in 1928, 1929, 1930, around in there, they raised the enormous amount of head lettuce here which was a big deal, head lettuce, and [00:36:00] they had packing houses and they made those crates or boxes for that. And then right down here where that – LELA: There was the flour mill too. CHARLES: Yeah, there was a flour mill by the overpass on Sixteenth. There was a flour mill there and Simplot’s had a packing house down here, right where the -- (break in audio) -- a big building, big warehouse down there, and they packed fruits and vegetables and they’d have a lot of carrots. We shipped lots of carrots and head lettuce and potatoes and stuff out of there. There was a lot of vegetables. [00:37:00] They could load 21 cars at a time at that warehouse. They’d park seven cars next to the building on the platform, and then they’d wheel the cars in. They could work on as many as 21 cars at the time in that. MARGURITE: Do you remember names like the Lewis Yoder thing and Henry Chase? They were here before Simplot? CHARLES: Oh yeah. Henry Chase actually built that building and then Simplot took it over. when it burned down, it was known as Simplot’s. And then, Yoder’s had one down on Ninth and where the Union Seed is now, that was Yoder’s packing house. And there’s a little tree beyond Tenth, a little old, rugged [00:38:00] tree of some kind on Tenth and Front Street. I don’t know whether it’s still there or not, but it never did get any water, no attention or anything, and I always marveled at that little old tree, it’s been there all these years. MARGURITE: (laughs) I’ll go by and look. CHARLES: I’ll have to go by and take a look at it. MARGURITE: Tenth and First. CHARLES: Yeah, about there. It’s Tenth and First at -- let’s see this -- (break in audio) When I first came to Nampa, this was a great place to hunt pheasants. LELA: Right here. CHARLES: This right in here where we live now. LELA: When we bought this property they had a little orchard in here. MARGURITE: Do you know when we bought our place from Reba and Cami Campbell? (break in audio) CHARLES: We used to own the little house over across the street. That was the last house on this street when we came in here, and I had a fence around the yard and I had a dog that would bite. [00:36:00] I had him fenced in, picket fence, and during hunting season I had a big lot over there in back of [Goulds?] and pheasants in there and I knew they was out there, heard ’em all summer. One day a couple drove in there and they jumped out their car and come in. The dog met him at the gate and they wanted to come on in. I said, “Where do you want to go in for?” I was out in the yard working. They said, “Well, there’s some pheasants out there,” I said, “I know it.” “Well, we want to get ’em.” I said, “Season’s open.” I said, “Not in here, it’s not open for you. I know they’re out there.” He said, “Oh, well, we’re gonna get ’em.’ I said, “No, you’re not, it’s against the law. Shoot in the city limits. You’re not going to shoot my pheasants.” MARGURITE: Weird for you. LELA: They were so -- (break in audio) MARGURITE: Well, Lela, we forgot to ask you then about some [00:40:00] of your employment during all of these years. And where was it you worked? LELA: I worked at Falk’s Nampa D. MARGURITE: And that was on the corner of? LELA: Thirteenth and Main. That was the major department store. There was another department store, which was CeCe Anderson’s on down the street, between Thirteenth and Twelfth. But I worked nine years there. In fact, at one time I managed the infant’s department, and I worked in the shoe department too later. MARGURITE: Was the Falk family still the owner? LELA: Oh, yes. Theodore and Leo. Theodore Falk was quite the character. He always smoked a pipe, and he always rubbed his pipe over his nose, oil his pipe and make it shine. They’d have store meetings and they’d come, yes, they owned it. Leo and Theodore would come over for a store meeting [00:41:00] have all the help, you know. I loved working here ’cause I liked it, I’d meet the public. I’ve always liked that service. MARGURITE: What other stores, do you remember there being in town at that time where people shopped? LELA: Oh, there was a little store on the corner next to the drugstore and it was called The Style Shop and it was a lady’s exclusive shop and they had really lovely things in there, it was just a small lady shop. And I can’t tell you who run it. I can see her mentally, but I don’t remember her name. [00:42:00] I think that she was a little small, dark-complexioned lady and I don’t remember who ran the store. That was the exclusive Style Shop. MARGURITE: Do you remember anything about a shop where Kalbus now is, where Saltzer? -- CHARLES: Oh yeah. LELA: Alexander’s. CHARLES: A men’s store. LELA: When our son was in high school, he worked there, Alexander’s. Course, that was a lot later than what you’re talking. Saltzer, we knew him real well. He was a nice person. MARGURITE: Was that both a men’s and women’s shop? LELA: No, it was just men’s at the time, it was just exclusively men’s. CHARLES: Then we had a bank there on Twelfth and Main, where that loan company is there now. Let’s see, we had a bank here, there, and then across the street was a bank. That was a Nampa bank, Nampa National or something. And then later it was a drug store and now I don’t know what. Then they had – MARGURITE: Do people remember the Drake Drug fire? [00:43:00] CHARLES: Mm-hmm. One of our friends had his wife burn up in there. MARGURITE: Who was that? CHARLES: The Daniels, Cliff Daniels. LELA: Helen Daniels. Cliff Daniel’s first wife. MARGURITE: Was she in the beauty shop? CHARLES: Mm-hmm, she was up there having her hair done. LELA: She was attached up at that time. They used electric clamps. CHARLES: They couldn’t have done anything. LELA: She was burned so bad, she died. CHARLES: Well, she wasn’t the only one. I think there was several, I don’t remember how many. I know she died because Cliff and I were good friends. LELA: And then one of the things about the buildings downtown, Tom Poole owned a drug store and he sold her to Vic Stoley. [00:44:00] And then Vic’s ran the drugstore. It was under the name of Vic Stoley. MARGURITE: And then, of course, Pete Wheeler and Irvine, them too. When they took it over. LELA: But as I remember, they had a soda fountain in there, and that was quite attractive in a way. It was really a nice looking little fountain. But it was called Vic Stoley Drugstore. CHARLES: There was a place on the corner of 12th and Main, it was Dewey Davis Estate, I think. The phone company had their office in there and they had an ice cream parlor on the corner and the phone offices is next to it. And it was adjacent to the – LELA: And that ice cream parlor, it was called The Rainbow. [00:45:00] CHARLES: And then Dr. Kellogg had an office in that same building. LELA: Upstairs. CHARLES: Back up towards Second, on Twelfth towards Second. MARGURITE: Were there other physicians here in town then, about that same time? Were there very many of them? ` Or did you go to Murray? CHARLES: Murray was up over the Falk’s Nampa D, his office was. LELA: And Dr. Murray, he was – CHARLES: Kellogg, he’s on Twelfth there. LELA: Of course, then the Belnaps came in here. CHARLES: Dr. Ross was in with Dr. Kellogg. LELA: Well, Dr. Ross came here later. CHARLES: Yeah, but later. But then Kellogg was still here. LELA: Oh, yes. CHARLES: When Ross came, he was associated with Dr. Kellogg. And [00:46:00] the Belnaps, they had their office over on Main Street right in there, close to where the bank is now. LELA: No, their offices was on beyond Eleventh Avenue where that hardware store is now. CHARLES: (laughs) Well, they had one there. LELA: Anyway, we went to Dr. Belnap. We went to Dr. Kellogg. We went to Dr. Belnap when they came in here. Old VC Belnap. (break in audio) MARGURITE: If the whole thing recorded properly. (break in audio) END OF RECORDING Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Nampa Oral History Collection Description An account of the resource Oral histories recorded 1984-1986 for Nampa's Centennial celebration. About 60 individuals shared their recollection of the early days of living in Nampa. Some of these people's stories relate to photos in the Historic Photo Exhibit. Click on the name or subject listed under "Relation" to discover more details about life in Nampa. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984-1986 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Nampa Centennial Committee Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Charles E. "Mac" McGowan and Lela Ward McGowan Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Margurite Brown Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Charles McGowan and Lela McGowan Description An account of the resource Lela and Charles describe Nampa’s development over time, commenting on various local businesses and industries, as well as the development of roads and the Interurban railroad. They recall the Depression years, during which Charles was briefly out of work. They discuss changes in Nampa’s local government over time, mentioning the City Hall and a Nazarene mayor who restricted local entertainment. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1985, May 24 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Nampa Centennial Committee Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Interviews recorded for the library's oral history program are copyrighted to the Nampa Public Library which maintains rights to reproduce the recordings in all existing and future formats for the purposes of preservation and access. Researchers may quote portions of interviews in non-commercial projects, unless otherwise noted. Proper credit should be given. No part of the interviews may be used in commercial, for-profit projects without permission from Nampa Public Library. Church of the Nazarene City Hall Dewey Palace Drake Drug Store Entertainment Great Depression Interurban railroad Masons Produce Stores Union Pacific https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/76642/archive/files/f1b65692a386a40db3f576554019946b.jpg?Expires=1789603200&Signature=hVSKSdn80HwSYMzXU8YYwtTeeBclX9Cj0td%7E9WhJUNCHbFPHiYy1G%7Ezp1yJmUbE6HfiFYTPJrt3Rpkao%7EVF84o2krqMPUtohKZUQ0tDsMfIe2vsHS5np7endTuzvkTDm8mTvi3HSkg-2LusVN%7EM-rRlrUH7dAKzURtiuFNzBrJ4zWeJ1Ui66cFvYnC6HxMmal1Xm7Ht3sDvIjRe7VtI6JlcbHgBmhBKSQUE-hTt5NqCiBAxx4vVwsVgFxW9V0ifHn6ZZm0r-oGbN-xv6XHm8K%7EGHTU4X6I1mXLgbxOUB%7EifiLG-8IsABhrk%7Erp%7E-VZV3Lc8ykvzqmpujn7ds%7ELvL8w__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM f0409bbf614c64df062c9c8429c5faea Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Reverand Duane & Pat Yoesel Description An account of the resource College Church of the Nazarene Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Photo Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Reverand Duane & Pat Yoesel Description An account of the resource Reverend Yoesel served as one of the head pastors of College Church of the Nazarene in the mid-1980s. Relation A related resource <a href="https://nampalibrary.omeka.net/files/show/611">College Church of the Nazarene</a> Church of the Nazarene Nampa People https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/76642/archive/files/ebee7dece727592b0b6e0215752f9804.jpg?Expires=1789603200&Signature=WMUYtU8at-%7Ejhjcx5glQ-UvAZ-e7fLUoTADJtrMC5JZX3hCjJapnPpKxieXccPXh7%7E-%7ERfIsw19yN0lAtaCv2l3eKPKiVRRcxkiVP6-BI2aub6ex8psWi%7ERZ20Wlu3dgQNAuhM5LjgB60Y85n0QLxLMsucVT73pz8hTvwDJOuimeHXebcwAs1wBcVDViZgOosSsqTSXUFutfVeYEmaKAOzSEAJiupsy6hBLaee9p-XvfIxFgd8YMmiJ2ZRT6o5GbXa7GZbNNrrBYjs5BCE0Tr4dnAI15LtAycss1aTVIUG7PJ6ecwNc7pNmjS6209P3EJ8iagNpsErNgmjyncppBBg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM afbb8deb7a3638dfc03e447044a6331f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource David and Dennis Ferdinand Description An account of the resource The Ferdinand Zoo started in 1959. Sons of David J. and Carol Ferdinand are shown here with a deer. Photo: David Ferdinand, II and brother Dennis. https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/76642/archive/files/13152a393c5e2cfe5d7b2d765c64f274.jpg?Expires=1789603200&Signature=F5Fb1oCS0Uxct8nRi57dOCrZfAGr1TE2Hw7PRipzeEE9vbF2G8-5mE5t79ThXYnfCDDhuUlGo%7EY6eQZXGw7AnQwKWDf%7Enhc5SSj9yU6Vi5-SneSX-ka9Ycg%7EFRjr%7ES2pUSHHzEpibaaGWNdb8-RYhRHdoaE5Ev71t03OBdepG%7EveZiNopuRvkqb2Fl7gQ9tj%7EWbJYhq5QMgkVe1QvIQTLJcRqVDgmt4%7EC-fQye0-vyt9lxPjBi-8Su1DCjL5VcwNblB4HCT7wNEAWXh%7EQokQAGPsNDvYvzuEcD8zyC3b1l3Ws-nCB%7E2QMKNBpN17AlSCtodzxKDDpA41yFPmqZgNfA__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 3be405862e4d9a225090a4f010f8acd4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource David & Carol Ferdinand with Grandchildren Description An account of the resource Family get-together demonstrated here as David and Carol with 11 grandchildren. Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Photo Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ferdinand Family Description An account of the resource Rev. M. E. Ferdinand accompanied by his wife, Berta, established the First Church of the Nazarene in 1913. The Ferdinand family has continued to be a strong presence in the community of Nampa. Relation A related resource <a href="https://nampalibrary.omeka.net/files/show/179">Birthday Celebration with Mama &amp; Papa Gunderson</a> Church of the Nazarene Nampa People