July 11, 2011, 04:36 PM | #101 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: April 14, 2009
Location: Sunny Southern Idaho
Posts: 1,909
|
I found a clipping from either the Idaho Statesman or the Idaho World over the weekend that had an interview with John Hailey, one of the early packers into the Idaho gold mines. He and his partner, William Ish, ran saddle trains from Umatilla, Oregon into the Boise Basin. Here's how he described it:
Quote:
One of the books that I have on the Basin says that the next year, Hailey and Ish started a stage service from Umatilla, advertising that the trip could be made in just four days - about 75 miles a day!
__________________
Well we don't rent pigs and I figure it's better to say it right out front because a man that does like to rent pigs is... he's hard to stop - Gus McCrae |
|
July 11, 2011, 08:21 PM | #102 |
Senior Member
Join Date: June 20, 2009
Posts: 1,102
|
I just picked up a copy of"Cowboy Slang" by Edgar R Potter.
I got it used but it's sure worth every penny that even a new version costs! It dosen't have all the slang of the period for sure but it does highlight much ofthe daily twists of the language you'd run into. It never fails the human animal will twist and turn the "right" word and try to make it humorous in discussion. Some was because of illiteracy and some was simply brilliant twists of a word! Keep your eyes open for this book, its a fun read! ZVP |
July 11, 2011, 11:05 PM | #103 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: April 14, 2009
Location: Sunny Southern Idaho
Posts: 1,909
|
Quote:
It's telling, I think, that one of the first buildings that went up in Idaho City (well, after the saloons and the jail) was a theater. And it worked hard to book acts that traveled between Salt Lake City and Portland. And not bawdy stuff, either, but Shakespeare and the like. I suspect that there were plenty of twists of a word that were quite brilliant in origin. Those old fellers may not have had a finishing school education, but they weren't illiterate hicks, either.
__________________
Well we don't rent pigs and I figure it's better to say it right out front because a man that does like to rent pigs is... he's hard to stop - Gus McCrae |
|
July 18, 2011, 10:52 AM | #104 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: April 14, 2009
Location: Sunny Southern Idaho
Posts: 1,909
|
I was kind of surprised to find out just how literate and, I guess, "socialized" the miners in the early to mid 1860s were. I ran across a book that somebody in my family bought a long time ago about the Boise Basin and one of the chapters discussed entertainment in Idaho City and the surrounding area.
There were plenty of saloons and bars, along with the hurdy-gurdy girls (who were not prostitutes) and the "soiled doves" (who were), but, according to the state historical society, most of the mining towns had a brass band, some of them had theaters (of the live stage kind, of course) and there were even a few literary clubs - Idaho City had a German literary club - there was a sizable German population in the Basin, even though Germany as a country didn't exist until 1870. I suppose that the sort of "high society" level of entertainment isn't so odd when you figure that most of the men (and it was, for several decades, pretty much a "men only" settlement) were immigrants from either the eastern United States or from Europe. They didn't give up on culture - they brought it with them. Or at least, they brought a version of it. Here's a story from the Idaho World from the 1880s about Johnny Kelly, a violinist who was such a fine performer that he caught the eye of the territorial governor, William McConnell (who wrote the following about Kelly's early 1860s performances): Quote:
__________________
Well we don't rent pigs and I figure it's better to say it right out front because a man that does like to rent pigs is... he's hard to stop - Gus McCrae |
|
July 19, 2011, 04:10 PM | #105 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: April 14, 2009
Location: Sunny Southern Idaho
Posts: 1,909
|
I hope that you guys enjoy reading this stuff at least half as much as I do discovering it. I know that a lot of it doesn't have as much meaning to you as to me and I'm honestly not sure just how typical my corner of the West was compared to other parts of the Frontier, but it's all pretty fun to me.
Anyway, among all the papers and photos that were left to me or that I've borrowed from relatives is a copy of The Early History of Idaho by William McConnell. He was one of the early settlers in the Boise Basin area and later one of the first two senators when Idaho became a state in 1890. He was also governor for one term. His book is really quite funny in places - sometimes it was meant to be, other times the clever twists of a phrase to meet with the Victorian sensibilities of the time really make me chuckle. Here's a passage: Quote:
I don't think that a shotgun was necessary for Uncle Frank to keep his vow, though.
__________________
Well we don't rent pigs and I figure it's better to say it right out front because a man that does like to rent pigs is... he's hard to stop - Gus McCrae |
|
July 19, 2011, 04:26 PM | #106 |
Member In Memoriam
Join Date: March 17, 1999
Posts: 24,383
|
The level of education in those times was actually higher than it is today in many ways. Grade school children learned English grammar, mathematics, history, geography, poetry, some classic literature and, of course, writing and penmanship of a quality that has not been seen in decades.
Far from illiterate rabble, the general American public was quite well educated in those days, and the letters of pioneers and Civil War soldiers bear this out. Jim |
July 19, 2011, 05:12 PM | #107 |
Junior member
Join Date: December 6, 2001
Posts: 1,536
|
One occasionally quoted piece of 19th century literature was a letter to a friend from a woman embarked on the western expansion with her new husband. It was an innocent and frank explication of the joys of marital fecundation written in flowery 19th century language and in apparent ignorance of religious prejudices against that sort of thing. It might have been fake but we would like to think it was genuine.
|
August 1, 2011, 01:48 PM | #108 | ||
Senior Member
Join Date: April 14, 2009
Location: Sunny Southern Idaho
Posts: 1,909
|
It seems like the Cooper family members who stayed in Missouri could never quite get ahead financially. The farm at Houses Springs seemed to have been a pretty marginal operation (and it doesn't look like farming-type land on Google Maps), consequently, there was plenty of hustling for work.
Of course, the work was typical for the times - manual labor, for the most part, so if a fella got injured, well, he just didn't work. Here's a letter from (I think) Alexander Cooper to his sister Jennette. They were siblings of my great, great grandfather. Jennette lived on the farm and Alex lived in St. Louis. I added a few periods, but the spelling and grammar are the genuine article. Quote:
Quote:
__________________
Well we don't rent pigs and I figure it's better to say it right out front because a man that does like to rent pigs is... he's hard to stop - Gus McCrae |
||
|
|