The history which is wirhin my grasp is written here as an effort to preserve some of the memories (some good, some bad), hardships, difficulties and everyday living experiences which occured during my lifetime.
When you are young life is full of adventure and challenge; one's life-span seems endless. The trials and tribulations of the past are to be forgotten. The pleasant memories live on indefinitely in one's mind.
As you grow older (the so-called Golden Years) you suddenly realize that a life-span is relatively short, yet, there have been many changes in your lifetime. Transportation by horse and buggy was not unusual. But today one would find it difficult to find a buggy to buy and traveling to town via that mode would be impossible unless you lived in a vontrolled secular environment which permitted such strange vehicles.
One should record some of the events of the past for future generations to read and understand how their ancestors lived; how they earned their living and how the community related to the national or world around them.
It is beyond the scope of this document and this person to evaluate National or World developments. This can best be handled by the historians. Ona more personal basis, it is hoped the following information will be of interest to family generations to come. It is my hope that mya children will consider the information contained herein sufficiently important that they will pass it along to their children. While it may not be presented as eloquently as a historian, it contains facts and incidents which actually occured.
This is not an attempt to write a book but rather an effort on my part to answer some of the questions in my mind as to why did Dad and Mother leave Minnesota with a baby only one year old and travel to Kamiah, Idaho which in 1902 was a pretty remote and primitive area. How did they make a living? What were some of the problems we as a family faced? And finally what were some of the pleasant memores?
Most of the incidents as recorded herein are as told to my by my brothers RD and Lloyd and my sister Pearl. However, it seems that RD is the historian. For some reason the incidents which were told to him by Mother, Dad or one of Mother's brothers, Oscar or Lonnie and Leo Kolmorgan, were vividly etched in his mind.
Mother, born Carrie Belle Kolmorgan, and Dad, RD (no middle name) Omans were both born in Michigan but moved to Minnesota with their parents while children. Before and after they were married February 1, 1899, Dad worked making ties for the railroad. It was hard work by the cold winters made the transportation of ties on sleds over the snow drawn by Dad's team of horses somewhat easier. "I ran beside my team to keep warm," Dad said. "I wasn't fortuate enough to have a fur coat like Carrie's Dad." The trees were felled with a crosscut saw and vut to length. They were then hued on two sides with a broadaxe. The sled was a bobsled with two heavy poles running from the front bunk to the back bunk. The poles were called Sway Bars. The ties were stacked crossways on the sway bars. When Dad got tired of running beside the load, he would step on the sled runners and ride. Crossing the bridges in late winter was frequently a problme. The bridges were often thawed off. So the horses could pull the sled he said he made snowballs and pryed the front of the runners up with a "hand-spike," (iron bar or heavy hardwood stick) and put the snowballs under the runners. Then the team could get the load started and go until they ran out of pulling power when he would repeat the process until he crossed the bridge.
Dad spoke fondly of his team. Nevertheless, they were young broncos and would take off on a run if the lines were dropped. Because of the extreme cold weather, the horses wore leather aprons on their chests for protection against the cold wind. In the summer the mosquitoes were so badm he said, that he could run his hand down the back of his horse and his hand would be covered with blood. Those that could afford it would have nets for the horses to keep off the mosquitoes.
Go West! Leo Kolmorgan (Mother's brother) went west first. A disappointed love affair with a young lady and the urge to go west was the reason for Lea leaving Minnesota. He wrote to Mother and Dad and was the main influence that caused them to go west. The lure of the West and an investment in a gold mine which proved to be non-existent, brought Grandpa and Grandma Kolmorgan with their sons, Oscar, Lonnie, and Leo to East Kamiah where they settled on a 26 acre ranch in an area we later referred to as "The Gulch."
Leaving Minnesota for Idaho must have been a major decision but as Dad said, "We had littel to leave other than neighbors. Carrie's brother wrote us about all the work that was available. My hope was to earn enough money to buy a small farm so we could at least raise ou r own food.."
"Carrie and I got off the train in the dark at Greg, Idaho and slid down the bank with Pearl who was about a year old at the time. Leo was waiting for us with horses and wagon."
Greg is just across the river from Kamiah close to the railroad bridge. The Rawson Lumber Works (A relative of Betty Rose Rawson Omans.) was constructed later at approximately this location.
"We found Carrie's fols waiting up for us. Everyone wanted to see the baby - - Pearl."
It is difficult to determine at this time just what was Dad's first job after he arrived in Kamiah. The ones mentioned here are as correct as we can reconstruct them at this time.
During the summer months work was lentiful but not always the work that was desired. Dad and Leo worked together on the Altmiller place building a very large barn. The Altmiller place was on the hill above the "Aniie Wilson Riffle." The timbers of the barn were tongue and mortised framework. Rd Alfred Omans still has the auger, the "Buck Bros." chisel and the wood mallet that Dad used to make the mortises.
Mother worked in the kitchen at the Altmiller Ranch. Part of her work was to carry water from the Clearwater River up to the ranch. Other than the fact that the barn was very large for that area and for that date, about 1903, the work was routine for Dad and Leo as both were experienced in carpenter work - - or at least they presented themselves as professionals.
Dad's goal originally was to obtain a farm. The opportunity to homestead was available. The location was not favorable but apprently desire overcame better judgement. The homestead was on Tahoe Ridge. Mother said the cabin, a single room, was just right for rattle snakes and skunks to live under.
Mother's vivid memories of the place were not pleasant. To get there Dad hired a man with a team and wagon to take their few belongings up the rocky ridge. There was no road. Mother wrapped her precious "New Home" sewing macine in blankets so the cabinet wouldn't get scratched. Wild horses left by the Indians when they were driven out during the war between whites and the Indians, roamed the hills. In the morning, when he had time, DAd would go out with his 22 rigle and come back before breakfast with 3 or 4 grouse.
To go to work Dad walked to Kooskia. It is unimaginable that anyone would walk that far up and down the mountains to go to work in the morning and then return at night. As a matter of fact it didn't last long before they decided to move. Mother did not like staying alone in the little shack on the homestead. Dad agreed that it wasn't worth trying to "prove-up" on the homestead and they moved to Kooskia.
This may have been about the time that Dad took a temporary job running the Ferry during the winter months at Kooskia across the Clearwater where the Middlefork and the Southfork join. There was a little house by the river and Pearl says she remembers watching Dad grease the cable out in the middle of the river - - -it worried her! Yet she must have been quite young, perhaps 2 years old, because Mother tells the story about rowing across the river in a boat to pick uip a single passenger one day.
