The Rogers' Friends -- The Ourada Family

Soon after arriving in Idaho the Rogers lived at an area called Stack Rock Community.  Stack Rock is a prominent landmark on the horizon of the foothills northwest of Boise.  It looks like a giant A-shaped rock jutting up.  I've always been intrigued to hike up to it.  There used to be a little community of people up there, with a school and everything.

The Rogers' neighbors were the Ourada family, who still owns their property there.  The Ourada Ranch recently earned the distinction of being a "Century Ranch" because it has been in the same family for 100 years.  More information about the homesteads is below.  It seems the Rogers met the Ouradas when they lived in Minnesota.   Earl Ourada says he thinks the Rogers came out first then wrote to their friends about the area.  Granddad used to say they came to see what it was like and they liked Wisconsin better but could never afford to move back.

The Idaho Statesman recently published this wonderful story about the Ourada place and Earl, who still lives there.  Also a gallery of over 50 photos to go with the story.  I have planned for several years to take a drive up to see Mr. Ourada but wasn't sure it was still possible.  I made it up there last week.  It is a beautiful drive and Earl and Pat were very nice to visit with me and share some of the information they have.  The air was fresh and the birds were singing (different ones than we have down here).  He had gone out to plant the field but ran out of grass seed, so I'm glad we got to meet.  There has been some confusion over exactly where the Rogers families lived.  He thinks the area with the big new house on the left of their driveway was theirs and around the big locust tree that's just inside their driveway -- behind his mailbox.

This map of Redwood County, Minnesota shows the areas where the Ourada and Rogers families lived before coming to Idaho.  Each square is six miles.  The Rogers were shown to be living at Redwood Falls/Seaforth/Granite Rock, which could all be referring to the same place.  The Ouradas considered their place as being at Lucan/Westline.  Also in this county is the Walnut Grove mentioned in the Laura Ingalls Wilder books and Sleepy Eye is just east of the county line.

But we're not sure exactly when everyone arrived in Idaho.  Trying to piece it together:

In the 1910 census, the Ward Rogers family is shown living in Redwood County, Minnesota in Granite Rock Township.  Their two oldest boys are grown and farming.  Granddad (Ned) is 21 and Claude is 19.  It had been 3 - 5 years since they had left Wisconsin.

The Rogers Family "Just before we left Minn."

L to R:  Edward (Ned), Ward, Claude, possibly Fred Town (Daisy's future husband), Carrie (Cad), Daisy, Blanche.  In front of Daisy is Alice.  One of two little girls is Lilly.  Ida seated with Dewey. 

Ward, Ned, Blanche, Alice, Carrie, Claude, Lillie, Dewey and Ida Rogers

There was a post card sent from Wisconsin by a relative, dated Sept. 17, 1911, addressed to Mrs. Ida Rogers, Lucan, Minn.  The family came to Idaho on board a train.  Granddad rode in the box car with the animals.  It appears they may have landed at Parma, where Ida's sister, Lily Delyria, and her family had been homesteading since 1905.  Their daughters, which each sister named after the other, are in this 1911 school photo.  Unfortunately, we're not sure yet which ones they are.

 Lillie Rogers and her cousin Ida Delyria 

Notes from Canyon County archives:  (1911)  "New pupils in Dist. #31:  Caroline Rodgers 14, Blanch Rodgers 16, Daisy Rodgers 19 has passed 8th grade; Alice Rodgers 12, Lillie Rodgers 7."

I first saw this photo at Canyon County's archives many years ago.  On a recent trip to the county they were not able to help me locate the photo and notes, but I did find out more about the school district and location.  #31 Pleasant Valley School District was organized in 1905 until 1917, when it became part of Parma District #8.  It lies north of the Boise River, just one school district east of the Snake River (which is the Idaho/Oregon state line).  The Canyon County Historical Society, located at the Nampa Depot, also has an original of this photo.

Interestingly, on the back of the Canyon County archives' copy of the 1911 school photo above is handwritten: "Mrs. Mary Ourada, Mrs. Lizzie Ourada".  Why is still a mystery, but it seems to place some of the Ouradas here at that time.  Charles Paul Ourada's wife was named Mary.  Albert Joseph Ourada's wife was named Lizzie.

According to the Ouradas' oral history, Matthias "Mike" Ourada was in Ada County in 1911 but he returned to Minnesota.  In 1914 he and some of his brothers moved out here.  Mike married Gladys Stiff in 1917 and they homesteaded next to the Stiffs at Stack Rock.  Find-a-Grave has a nice story about Earl's mother, Gladys Stiff Ourada.

Gladys' sister, Dorothy Stiff Wyman, wrote a book called Light Upon the Mountain about life on their ranch.  The local libraries have it and a couple of copies are for sale on line.  I just got done reading the book and it is wonderful.  Dorothy was a good writer and of course it's priceless to be able to read an account of the what life was like for these families at this time.  Little details about finding work and decisions of where to live, etc.

One of the Ourada brothers, Jim, was the same age as Granddad (Ned).  He began to work a large homestead west of the Rogers.  He married Granddad's little sister, Alice, and they had a son named Hazel.  Her parents (and brother) didn't approve of the relationship.  She was only 15 years old and Jim drank a lot.  Granddad was always very determined to protect his family from the effects of alcohol abuse.  He had sacrificed a basic education and his childhood to help raise his own brothers and sisters because of his dad's drinking and saw the heartbreak it caused for his mother.

(Maybe with some encouragement) Jim decided to leave the area and his little family.  In doing so, he schemed with his brother, Mike Ourada, to keep the property in his own family.  Toward the end of Alice's two-week recovery at her mother's house after the birth of their baby, he said he was going to town to find work.  He filed to abandon the homestead and wrote a bill of sale for personal belongings to his brother, Mike, and never came back.  The same day Mike filed to claim the homestead and shortly after that dropped by the home place to start packing up the belongings.  It is thought that Jim may have owed Mike money and this was arranged to pay him back.

This was not just Jim and Alice's problem.  Two families that had cared about each other and shared many of the same values were now resentful and suspicious of each other's motives.  They were emotionally charged over issues like teen pregnancy, alcohol and property.  Hot-headed, self-assured young men were making a stand to protect their own families.  It must have been difficult for them to continue to live as neighbors.

Poor Aunt Alice.  She probably was quite worried about finding out she was pregnant and may have waited some time to gather the nerve to talk to her family about it.    During her recovery there was probably some emotional upset and uncertainty.  Then when it was time to return to the homestead, she had someone coming to repossess the furnishings of her home and farm.   The Rogers filed a lawsuit to protect the property from Mike's action.  Before the baby was even four months old, Alice, Ned, Ward and Mike were traveling to town for months of testimony and paperwork.  

A decision was granted for Alice to keep the homestead but there were no winners.  Especially considering that a little boy would not know his father and the joy of having all his family living in peace.  It seems that as soon as they received the grants of their homesteads, the various Rogers family members sold and moved on.  Both families lived similar lives but now in different places.  Working hard, having little, trying to raise their children to be good members of society and being generous neighbors.

Hazel was born a year before Granddad married and he became quite attached to the little boy.  He took him out to the field with him to work and let him ride on the farm equipment.  He was amused to look up and see him all covered with dirt, happy as can be.

The picture of Hazel with the wagon was probably taken at his Grandma Rogers' house at 2612 Idaho Street in Boise.  I have another photo taken at the same spot, same day, of Grandma hiding behind Alice.  I love the candid shots.  She died shortly after this in January of 1920, at the end of the Spanish flu pandemic.

 

By September 1920, Alice's homestead was granted and she was married to Lawrence Porter and some time after that they moved to Horseshoe Bend.  The Porters had another son, named William, and two daughters, Enid and Emily.

Jim Ourada moved back to Minnesota and worked his parents' farm.  In his older years he moved to a nursing home.  The Ouradas say that he loved Alice and lived with regrets.  When Hazel's daughter started researching her family history she contacted people in Minnesota to try to find where Jim was buried and amazingly, someone told her that he was still living and she and Hazel were able to meet him and have a relationship for the last seven years of his life.

1971 - Jim and Jack Ourada 

Photo courtesy of Colleen Lockwood

Hazel went by the nickname Jack and lived in Kemmerer, Wyoming.  He died in 2002.  Here is a link to information about Hazel on Find-a-Grave.  There you can click on his father's name and read more about him and see a photo.  My, they look alike!  You can keep going -- Colleen Lockwood has done a terrific job of submitting interesting information.  Click on the names of James' parents and you can read entries for each of them and all their children.

Someone (my dad, Lee, I think) told me a little story about Alice's homestead.  To me it kind of illustrates the differences in the temperament of the siblings. One day Granddad was walking along the ridge of Alice's homestead with Alice and Claude, building a fence.  Their big roll of barbed wire got away and went bouncing and crashing to the bottom.  Alice and Claude laughed so hard they rolled on the ground, but Granddad was furious.  This makes sense when you see that the map below shows creeks surrounding Alice's property, which means that it ran along the top.

Earl Ourada mentioned that he used to raise turkeys.  Granddad told of a time he had to drive some turkeys (on foot?) between Boise and the Long Valley area.  The road to the high country didn't follow the river, as it does now, but went along the tops of the ridges on the east of the river.  When he and the turkeys reached the area around Banks, something startled the flock and they took off.  In their confusion they decided that the safest place to go was straight across the canyon to the ridge above the other side of the river.  Unfortunately, turkeys can't fly very far and those turkeys managed to fly halfway across.  When they got too tired to go any further, they dropped like bombs to the canyon floor.

Grandma and Granddad

Claribel and Edward (Ned) Rodgers, Little Zerabel and Baby Johnny (Edward)

Probably 1919

Homesteads:   (These are the actual homestead grant dates.  They probably lived there and improved the land for a number of years first.)

11/07/17  Ward M. Rogers     in Section 28 80 acres
11/07/17  Claud Rodgers        in Section 28, 21, 120 acres N of his dad
11/13/17  Robert E. Stiff         to East and SE of Rogers
03/02/19  Charles P. Ourada
06/04/19  Albert Ourada         Ouradas to E, and SE of Rogers
06/04/19  John P. Ourada
06/05/19  Mike J. Ourada
09/30/20  Alice V. Porter, formerly Alice V. Ourada      West of Ward Rogers (her dad)
09/30/25  Robert E. Stiff         More property to E and N of his first.
04/20/27  Ward M. Rogers     Several miles to the SE of first property, in Boise County. (Neighbors:  John A. Ridenour, Virgil J. Ridenour, Claude A. Rodgers, Charles H. Smith)

Okay, here's a hoot.  If you look at the original survey of this area, done in 1868, the SW portion is mapped,  (Sections 30, 31, 32) but the rest of the township is blank.  Through the center of the map is handwritten:  "Land rough, unfit for settlement.  Unsurveyed."

In the fall of 1874 there was some more surveying done around the edges of the township, but in the center again, it says, "Land rough mountains unfit for settlement & cultivation & unsurveyed."  By 1880, the whole township was finally mapped, including notes of agricultural land, timber, creeks, roads and a toll gate.  Alice testified that before Hazel was born, she and Jim had been living at the "halfway house", which Granddad referred to as the toll gate.  Jim had been getting wood for fenceposts for his place.

Property Owners 1917

(Neighbor Wesley Warner Roberts married Carrie Rogers.)

I have attempted to superimpose this information on a topographical map so it may be easier to visualize where these properties were (1917 owners).   Not sure how it relates to the current roads.  The Ouradas traded amongst themselves and bought out others.  Ironically, even though Mike Ourada worried about losing his brother's homestead, his descendants (also descendants of the Stiffs) now own 800 acres and have a beautiful place full of 100 years of memories to call home.   I think Earl Ourada's current home is on Stiff's first homestead.

W. W. Roberts, Alice Rogers Ourada, Claude Rogers, Ward Rogers, Mike Ourada, Charles Ourada, Albert Ourada, John Ourada, Stiffs 1st and 2nd Homestead

Time Line:

June  1886     Ward Marcellus Rogers and Ida May McNinch, both of Manawa, Waupaca County,                                 Wisconsin, are married.
May  1891      Ida's sister, Lilly DeLyria's last child that was born in Wisconsin
Jan  1892       Ida and Lilly's mother, Cynthia Hautence Wilcox McNinch, dies in Wisconsin
         1892      Jan and Anna Ourada begin farming near Lucan, Minnesota
1893-1895     Lilly DeLyria's two children born in Missouri
April 1897      Ward & Ida Rogers' last child that was born in Waupaca County, Wisconsin (Carrie/Cad)
Aug  1899      Alice Rogers born in Elcho, Langlade County, Wisconsin
June  1900      Lilly DeLyria gives birth to Ida Nepesta en route to the West in Nepesta, Colorado
Aug  1905      Lillie Emiline Rogers born in Elcho
Feb   1905     Lilly DeLyria gives birth to Thomas Valentine in Parma, Idaho
Mar  1907      Lilly DeLyria gives birth to Joseph William in Parma, Idaho
April 1907      Dewey Rogers born in Redwood Falls, Minnesota
Aug  1907      Ida's last living parent, Christopher Wesley McNinch, dies in Wisconsin
July  1908      Baby Dewey is recovering from meningitis.  Mailing address Seaforth, Minnesota
Sept 1908      Ward's last living parent, Caroline Dewey Rogers, dies in Wisconsin
        1910      Ward Rogers family enumerated on the census in Redwood County, Granite Twp, MN
        1911      Children are attending Fair View School at Parma, Canyon County Idaho.                      
                      Mrs. Mary Ourada, Mrs. Lizzie Ourada names written on back of school photo.
        1911      Gladys meets Mike Ourada and he returns to Minnesota
        1914      Ourada brothers move to Idaho
        1915      Hazel Ourada born
April 1916      Edward (Ned) Rodgers marries Claribel Smith at Boise
        1917      Ward Rogers, Claude A. Rogers and Robert E. Stiff are granted their homesteads
        1919      Four Ourada brothers are granted their homesteads
        1920      Ward and Ida Rogers have a house in Boise.  Ida Rogers dies
        1920      Alice Porter, formerly Alice V. Ourada, is granted her homestead
        1925      Robert E. Stiff expands his homestead
        1927      Ward Rogers and Claude A. Rogers, John A. Ridenour and Virgil J. Ridenour are granted                  
                      homesteads in Boise County.