Charles Andrew Negus was born in Vermillion, South Dakota, September 8, 1875, the son of Joshua and Mary Martin NEGUS. His parents died while he was a small child of seven or eight, so one of the neighbors looked after him until arrangements could be made to send him to relatives. On the day he was to leave, the neighbor lady pinned a note to Charlie's shirt stating: Please take care of this little boy until he arrives in Butte, Montana. This was a scary time for him all alone on a big train by himself. He was put on the train and sent to his sister and her husband, Hank and Ada SMITH, in Heckla, (Beaverhead Co.) Montana. He grew up there and attended school. As a young man, he worked in the mines of Butte and Argenta.

Charley married Rhoda Bell WOODSIDE, daughter of John Robinson and Nancy Jane SEYBOLD, November 14, 1895, in Farlain, Montana. Rhoda was born in Maryville, Missouri, and spent her childhood there. When she was nine years of age, her father passed away. When she was eleven, the family moved to Farlain, where her brother was engaged in mining work in around the area.

Charles and Rhoda were blessed with four children while living in Montana: Clarence, born March 5, 1898; Alice, born July 10, 1901; Lloyd, born November 29, 1904; and Ruth, born October 16, 1907.

In the late spring of 1910, Charlie decided to move to Idaho. Rhoda and the children were heartsick. They had a nice cabin and acreage for the horses and cows they owned and Rhoda knew they would have to leave a lot of their possessions behind. Also, she was expecting their fifth child and she knew the long trip in the wagon would be hard to bear. They loaded the wagon with everything they could, leaving behind furniture, the big Monarch cook stove and sleds and wagons the kids had. The family settled in Junction while Charlie worked in the mines at Gilmore and vicinity. On December 18, 1910, Ernest was born and Ruthie was thrilled to have a baby brother.

The next year, the family moved to Gilmore where Charlie had prepared a home for them. He dug a large hole in the side of the mountain for the bedroom, then built a lean-to shack in front for a kitchen. The bedroom was scary at night, with mice, spiders, and other bugs crawling on the beds. Water for the families came from a pipeline over the hill from Meadow Lake for summer use. In the winter, the water was bought from a fellow who hauled it into town. Everyone carried buckets of water into their homes each day. Snow was carried in to a washtub on the wood cookstove to be melted for washing clothes by hand and for bathing. Rhoda baked the bread and made most of their clothing on the treadle sewing machine. Son Clarence provided meat for the table, hunting each day for squirrel, rabbit, and deer as needed.

On May 4, 1914, Harold was born, a twelve pound baby that left Rhoda tired and weak. All of Rhoda's babies were born at home with a midwife or neighbor helping. Hospitals were unknown in theose days. In 1918, the family left Gilmore and homesteaded a ranch on Hayden Creek. Charlie built a log cabin with a dirt roof that had real board floors, which were scrubbed with lye until they were clean. It all seemed like heaven to them after living in the shack at Gilmore. Rhoda lived on Hayden Creek until 1945 when she moved to Salmon to live with her son, Clarence. She passed away May 4, 1949, at age seventy-three. Charlie continued to live on Hayden Creek until his death in the Salmon Hospital August 19, 1963, at age eighty-seven. They are both buried in the Salmon Cemetery.

...by Eleitha Daniels published in Centenial History of Lemhi County Vol. III

Contact Candy about the Negus family.

HORTON

CHASE

 
 
MY FILE CABINET

FAMILY LINES