Rudolph Naser was born in Switzerland in 1858. His wife, Petrea, was born in 1865 in Manti, Utah. Their children were born in Utah.

About 1905 the Nasers moved to Fairfield, Idaho, where their children grew up. Their children were Rudolph, Grace, Oscar, May, Leona, Merlin, and Bernice. Only three of the younger ones came to Council.

Mr. and Mrs. Naser farmed on Hornet Creek. Rudolph Naser died 1927 and his wife in 1945. They are buried in the I.O.O.F. Cemetery.[1]

Merlin Naser (1900-1963) married Jo Shaw.

1. Jo Naser, Boise, Idaho, oral interview,1973
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NICHOLS

Tom Nichols was born in Marshall County, Missouri, November 30, 1879. He married Clara Kidwell March 4, 1900, at Richland, Washington. They had five children.

He moved his family to Boise in 1907 and to Council Valley February 1, 1912.[1] He wife died April 7 of that same year.

Clara Charlotte Kidwell was born March 20, 1876, in Clark County, Illinois, daughter of William and Mary Kidwell. She moved as a child with her parents to Missouri and spent most of her early life at Rich Hill.

Mrs. Nichols had tuberculosis and was ill when they came to the valley and knew she was dying. She loved the mountains and wanted to rest here forever.

August 7, 1914, Thomas Nichols married Mrs. Maude Marrs. They were divorced.

In 1927 he married Minnie Gilmer, a widow with five children.

Tom was killed by a heavy construction truck belonging to the company for which he worked. He was horribly mangled. He died in September, 1936.

1. Obituary of Thomas Nichols, Adams County Leader , September 4, 1936
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PECK

Peck Mountain was named for Andrew Peck.[1]

He was born in New York March 18, 1835. He was married in Iowa to Julietta Gilmer. They lived in Fayette County before moving to Colorado and, in 1882, to Council.

Julietta Peck was born in Canada.

There were six Peck children, Cora Ada, Frank W., Fred 0., Hattie, Rena, and Blanche.[2]

Andrew Peck died December 17, 1906, and Mrs. Peck February 10, 1912. Both are buried in Hornet Creek Cemetery.

1. Mr. And Mrs. Vollie Zink, Mountain Home, Idaho, oral interview 1973.
2. Matilda Moser, notes.

PECK

Info from Shirley Dahlin, PO Box 124,Souslbyville, CA  95372:
    Andrew Peck married Juliette Sopher or(Gilmer) Came west behind Gen. Custer & party - helped bury the dead at Little Big Horn.  Settled in Carson City, Nevada.
    Children:
     Rena Augusta Peck married John R. Crawford
born 4-11-1887 at Carson City, Nevada died 2-23- 1962 at San Francisco, buried: Carter's Cemetery, Tuolumne, CA.  Rena and John had 5 children:
Elsie, Ellen, Leslie, Chester & Arleen.
     Cora - born in eastern US, married Robert Nelson, had two children: Leona & Clarence
     Frank - never married
     Hattie - married Bud White, had three boys    
     Fred - born in Kansas, married Cora _?_, no children.
     Blanche - married Jack (?) Johnson, had one daughter.
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PEEBLES

Alfred Wood Peebles, son of Daniel and Mary A. Peebles, was born January 11, 1858, at Chester Hill, Morgan County, Ohio.[1] When he was about twenty years old he went to western Iowa, where he remained a few years before going on to Cass County, Nebraska. There he married, February 23, 1881, Miss Eva Clark, his employer's daughter. She was born September 29, 1868, in Illinois and moved with her family to Nebraska when she was three years old.

Alfred and Eva farmed along the Niobrara River. Their first year on the farm everyone had the biggest crop of corn in history, but sales were poor. By hauling the corn thirty or forty miles it could be sold for only eleven cents a bushel, so they burned their corn for fuel. The next spring the Peebleses sold their farm and headed west as part of a large wagon train. They had a span of mules and a wagon.

When they got to Pocatello in June Mr. Peebles had only seventy-five cents in his pocket. They stayed there a month or so while he worked on the railroad and a surveyor taught him the skills of surveying.

With a little cash they were ready to move on. When they reached Weiser they were still undecided whether to go to California or to Oregon. An old man from Council Valley asked why they didn't go to "God's Country." He told them of the area now known as Council Valley, where berries grew thick, grass was tall and plentiful, game animals were everywhere, and timber was nearby. It sounded good, so that's where the Peebleses went, arriving in the fall of 1883. The land was all taken up on Cottonwood Creek, as was that along Hornet Creek and other choice areas. Alfred Peebles went to work for George Moser, making rails.
Henry Childs, a bachelor, was one of the three first white men in the Valley. He hired Alfred Peebles to make rails for him to fence his place on Hornet Creek. He paid two cents a rail and, in good timber, Mr. Peebles could cut one hundred rails a day. The next year Henry Childs took him in as a partner, which was not a good arrangement. Mrs. Peebles had to cook, wash, and keep house for Henry, who was far from immaculate. She soon said she had had enough of it.

In the summer of 1888 Mr. Peebles took a homestead on Cottonwood and they moved there. He bought a herd of cattle from Childs, going in debt for them. That winter - 1888 - was the worst in history, going to forty degrees below zero. Cattle died everywhere; all but one of Peebles' died. They were left with the obligation to pay for dead cattle.[2]

Mrs. Nellie Peebles Smith shared some of her memories of early days:
Every fall we could see the Indians passing through the Valley on their way to winter on Snake River where it was warmer. They came single file, mile after mile of them. They crossed the Weiser River at Indian Ford, about one quarter of a mile up-river from where Cottonwood Creek empties into it. The Indians often camped there, too. As a child I picked up arrowheads, strings of beads, and even old guns there.

Ma was terrified of Indians. She crossed the plains with a loaded gun at hand. The Indians in the valley frightened her. One night Pa had to be away from home. After dark she and the children heard yelling and screaming outside. She was sure it was Indians so one of the boys went out to check. He, too, was sure it was Indians, but to relieve Ma's mind he said, "It's cougars. Let's go upstairs and go to bed." Ma tried, but it was useless. She absolutely could not sleep with Indians prowling around her house. Something had to be done.

Ma always saved empty whiskey bottles, She proceeded to make bombs from several of them. She put nails, rocks, and anything else that would fit, into the bottle. Next, she added gunpowder and cut a slit in the corks to allow a dynamite fuse to be inserted. She lit the fuse and threw the bombs into the bushes where Indians might be hiding. The explosions sounded like gunfire and had a drastic effect on anything within their range. Rocks, nails, and broken glass flew in all directions.

Ma gathered the children and went across the fields to Jackie Duree's home to spend the night. She carried a big corn knife and took a cut at every shadow and bush they passed. No Indian along the way would have been safe. Next morning Mr. Duree and his sons went to the house to see if it was safe for Ma and the children to go home. They reported that Indians had been in the house and moved things around but they were no longer in the area. Sometime later it was found that it was some white men who knew of Ma's fear and meant to scare her. Several men were seen, the day after the episode, with mysterious cuts and bruises on their faces and hands, presumably from Ma's bombs.

About 1896 the school district was divided and schools were built in Council, on Middle Fork, and on Cottonwood. The first one on Cottonwood was about where Mesa tramway ended years later. The second was east of the highway on Cottonwood Lane. It was on a small knoll east of Fred Beier's lane.

Alfred Peebles was clerk of the school board for twenty-four years on Cottonwood.

In those days school was not a full-time thing. From April until July the little ones went to school. The weather was good then and they did not have to wade deep snow. School was held three months in winter for big students. They were not needed so badly then at home to help with farm work. Most of those who walked in winter had rubber boots, but most often they were taken by team and sled.

Progress was rated by readers, not by grades. Instead of being first graders they started in the first reader. When they finished the fifth reader they were through school. Later, when the grade system began, anyone who completed the eight grade was qualified to teach school. A very few got an eighth-grade education.

Cottonwood could not keep a teacher. The big students were too hard to control. There were often grown boys, weighing as much as two hundred pounds, going to school. I don't know why they went because they apparently weren't interested in learning and they certainly were too big for anyone to force them to go. Their sole aim seemed to be to make life unbearable for the teacher.

One year a small man came to teach. Pa said, "You'll never be able to handle the winter school. Maybe the little ones." He tried, though. They gave him a terrible time. If he had to leave the room to get a bucket of water from the spring they'd spit tobacco juice in his ledger and do all kinds of mischief.

One cold winter day the boys had all been outside playing in the snow. When they came in they were coughing. That was all right with the teacher for awhile, but when it became obvious that they were forcing the coughs he told them to stop. Bill Higgins kept on. The teacher made him stand in front of the class. Bill cussed and cussed. (He said afterward he felt foolish talking and swearing like that before the smaller children.) He invited the teacher out behind the school, but the offer was refused. The boys all went to Higgins' place after school and plotted to beat up the teacher. The teacher knew what they were up to and he ran--leaving the country. He never came back.

There were no churches in the area. Whenever a traveling preacher came through he would hold services in a schoolhouse. Boys had a habit of putting pins in the stool on which the teacher sat. It had a padded cushion and they put the pins in from the bottom so they weren't visible until someone sat on them. A traveling preacher came to Cottonwood and, of course, during the service he sat on the teacher's stool. He was surprised by the pins and fell backward 'tipping the stool over. He stood up, said, "That stool must have had a weak leg." And he went on preaching, never making any further comments on school boys' humor.

John Root was a teacher at Cottonwood. Among his students was Jeph Locke, an ornery kid, about fourteen years old, who would not obey. One day in the school room Jeph was misbehaving so Mr. Root started toward him. Jeph scrooched down in his seat and his sister, Myrtle, jumped up and started screaming, "Don't you hurt him!" Mr. Root stopped and returned to his desk, not wanting to upset the students. When play time came and the students were outside playing, Myrtle gathered rocks in her apron and put them in her desk to throw at Mr. Root if he ever punished Jeph.
Mr. Root remained as teacher for seven or eight years. When the next teacher came he was surprised to find that the students were fairly peaceable. He had been told that Cottonwood was the toughest school in the district, which it was before Mr. Root came.

Linn Peebles relates:[3],
Mr. Root was a big man but very good--if you minded. The second day of school Jeph Locke caused a lot of trouble. Mr. Root licked him and after that he behaved much better.
Mr. Root taught later in Council.
George Gregg was sent to Cottonwood to teach, but he-was ill and was soon taken away for treatment.
The schoolhouse had only one room which was poorly heated and poorly lighted. Windows were small and few. Heat was provided by a pot-bellied stove in the corner. Those near it roasted while those farther away were cold. In winter there was always the odor of wet woolen coats, caps, mittens, and even underwear drying after the trip to school. In summer the room was uncomfortably hot, cooled only by open windows and door.

Benches were used instead of desks, and slates and slate pencils instead of paper and pencils which came into use later.

While those in the fifth reader were giving recitation the younger ones were studying and they had their turn to recite later.

A far cry from today's chrome and tile restrooms was the odorous, fly-infested privy behind the schoolhouse.

Water was carried in a bucket from the spring and set on a bench near the stove, in winter, to keep it from freezing. A drinking cup hung by the bucket.

Lunches came to school tied in a napkin or cloth. Often the children of a family ate together as it was easier to pack the lunch that way. Sometimes a bucket was the container and, in later-years, a lard pail or a cut-plug tobacco pail was the standard lunch bucket. When the weather was bad the students ate at their-desks, but in summer lunches were spread outdoors.

There were no physical education classes. Most students got plenty of exercise walking to and from school and doing farm chores.

Recesses and noon were spent playing tag or ball, racing, jumping. rope, and similar games. Winter fun included throwing snow balls, building snow men and snow forts', or playing Fox and Geese in the snow.

The school report of Council Valley for fall term, 1881, shows there were twenty-five students enrolled. The fall term report of 1894 lists twenty-seven students in White school and fourteen in Upper Council. By summer of 1894 Council School had forty-seven registered and Cottonwood had thirty.

My dad, Alfred Peebles, freighted to mines. He made one trip to Silver City and many to Warren. It took nine days to make the trip from Salubria to Warren and back. Dad had a contract to provide chicken and eggs for the miners. He had a verbal contract with a big Chinese cook called "Pigtail Charlie." In August, 1898, Dad took the family with him to make the delivery.- Besides Dad there were Mother, Dewey, Ralph, Rena, and myself. He had eight wagons. There were more eggs when we got there than when we started because the hens kept laying. Chickens sold for four dollars a dozen and eggs for twenty-five cents a dozen. Dad made $80.00 (four-$20.00 gold pieces) which was the most he ever made on a freighting trip.

Little Bertha Mathias was at Warren with her family when we got there. She was six years old, the same as I. She took me in tow and Pigtail Charlie was real good to both of us. We got candy or anything we wanted and he showed us how the gold was mined.

There was a big deep hole in the ground in which the Chinese had built a ramp, spiraling around the sides to the bottom. The water level was high so they operated a hand pump to pump the water out of the hole. This resembled the pump on a railroad hand car. They scraped the dirt and rock from ledges and put it into wheelbarrows to be hauled to the top. One Chinaman wore a harness over his shoulders, with two loops for the wheelbarrow handles to fit into. Another Chinaman also had a shoulder harness that also had a head band which hooked to the front of the wheelbarrow so he could pull while the other pushed as they ascended the ramp. On the top, the two men shoveled the dirt and rocks into a flume through which a torrent of water raced. Pigtail Charlie showed us the gold when the water was shut off and the gold was collected from the bottom of the sluice box. There were armed guards all around the mine.

Alfred Peebles surveyed and dug more ditches in Council Valley than all others combined did. He built, on contract, the old Middle Fork bridge. He finished it in thirty days, which many had said was impossible. His profit was $200.00. There were some who protested that that was too much money for one man to make in that length of time.

Dad's first contract was to furnish for Mr. Lowe, in Weiser, one hundred cords of wood, cut to sixteen-inch length, for six dollars a cord. This eventually ran to five hundred cords as Mr. Lowe had a contract for resale in Weiser. In 1906 Dad dug out his fence rails, cut them for wood, and sold them to the Weiser Institute for fuel. That was when he built the first wire fence on our farm.

Dad raised two to three hundred head of sheep and my sister and I herded them all over the low hills. I started carrying a .22 caliber gun when I was seven years old. There were coyotes and rattlesnakes to be guarded against.

Indians came to Jackson Creek area to gather tempi--a weed with a honeysuckle-type bloom. They dried the weed and used it as a remedy of some kind. (This was scarlet gilia, used by many tribes as a medicine. Tempi is not a Nez Perce word.) They gathered toweet for food. It grows about two feet high and has a root that resembles small white carrots about the size of a man's finger. They ate the roots. (Tsa' wet-kh is the Nez Perce name for Yampa. It is still one of their foods--eaten either raw or cooked.'

The Indians continued to come to the valley, in smaller . groups, after the white people came. They were always friendly to Dad, knowing him to be an honest man. On one occasion they came to him for help in recovering some horses which had been stolen from them by white men.

Children of Alfred and Eva Peebles were Willis, Ralph, Dewey, Henry, Linn, Steve, Nellie, Mary, Lydia, Clara, and Rena.

After the death of her husband Mary Peebles came to Idaho to spend her older years with her son Alfred and his family in Council. She died in 1925 and is buried in the I.O.O.F, Cemetery.

Alfred and Eva Peebles moved to Brownsville, Oregon, for his health in 1927.

1. 1860 census, Morgan County, Ohio.
2. Nellie Peebles Smith, Boise, Idaho, oral interview, 1972
3. Linn Peebles, Emmett, Idaho, oral interview, 1973

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PETERS

John Olaf Peters was born in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, December 26, 1839. He came to America in 1859 and went to the California gold fields and was taken by "gold fever" which lasted all his life. In 1865 he came to Idaho, located in Idaho City, and mined in the placer basin. He married Anna Easley February 17, 1878, at Garden Valley. Their two children Maude and George were born there. George died in infancy.

The 1880 census of Boise County, Idaho Territory, shows them as farmers in Garden Valley.[1]

Next, they moved to Boise where he had a general merchandise store for a year and a half. In 1881 they moved to Weiser and had a small store and worked in the mines for a short time.[2]

At some time during these early years he made trips to Council, carrying dry goods on his back and in suitcases. His packs held mainly small items such as needles, thread, scissors, shoelaces, and buttonhooks. It was obvious to him that the area was growing and needed a store.[3]

About 1887 he built the first business house in Council Valley, about one mile north of the present town, on what later became the Bedwell place. He and his family lived in the building which housed the store. Mrs. Peters taught one term in the nearby school.

Later, Mr. Peters built a store where the Merit Store stood in later years. The store burned and he went into business with Isaac McMahan in 1894 for a short time, then moved to Weiser and engaged in the hardware business for three years. After that he ran a sawmill and a butchershop for a short time each. He returned to Council in the fall of 1898 [4] and again went into business in Council, this time with J. F. Lowe, then sold his interest to J. J. Jones. He worked in the mines, devoting his time to developing his mine--the Golden King--near Steven's Station, twelve miles northeast of Council on the Weiser River.

Before long he was back in business in town, operating a hardware and dry goods store in the building where Peters and Gregg furniture store would be later. After four years he sold out and spent the winter visiting his brother in California. He returned to gold-seeking in the Seven Devils mining district for the summer. That fall, 1908, he opened a furniture store in what was later the location of State Restaurant.

John 0. Peters bled to death from a broken artery in his stomach, May 27, 1910. He is buried in the I.O.O.F. Cemetery.

Anna Easley was born in Ohio, 1845, to Swiss parents. She was educated there and came to Garden Valley as a young school teacher. She married

John 0. Peters. She went to California with their daughter and her family about 1921. She was ninety years old, almost to the day, when she died in Oakdale, California, in January, 1935.

Maude Peters taught school in the schoolhouse on the hill. She was county superintendent of schools for several years. She married the Rev. Mr. Iverson and moved to California.

1. 1880 Census, Boise county, Idaho Territory.
2. Obituary of John Olaf Peters, The Leader, June3, 1910.
3. Matilda Moser manuscript.
4. Ibid.
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PFAAN

George Pfann was born June 8, 1879, at Kalastein, Austria. He was one of sixteen children.

He came to the United States with his grandmother when he was twenty-one and joined other members of his family at Dunbar, Nebraska. He set up a blacksmith shop, having served as an apprentice to his grandfather in Austria.

George and a brother [Mike] came to Adams County about 1912 and homesteaded on the Ridge.

Later he came to Council and started a blacksmith shop, which he operated until his death in August, 1956.

He became a naturalized citizen while in Nebraska.[1]

1. Obituary of George Pfann, Adams County Leader, August 27, 1956

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PHIPPS

Mrs. Patsey Phipps's husband was killed in the Civil War. He served the Confederacy from North Carolina. They had two sons, George Washington and William W. Phipps.
 [Correction/ addition by Patsy Phipps Bethel: They had three sons, Silas, William Mitchell, and George Washington.  George and William came to Idaho to find an area to farm in 1877 and then returned to Missouri for their Mother.  She had married John Austin, a widower with several children.  They had two children.]

It was hard to make a living after the war. The slaves were needed to work the land but they had been freed. George and William came west [to Idaho] to find an area to farm [in 1877] and then returned to Missouri for their mother. She had married John Austin, a widower with several children. They had two children. [Correction/ addition by Patsy Phipps Bethel: One child was  Ed Austin.  He married Katie Duree Shaw.  The other child was a girl. The John Austin family was listed in the 1880 census at LaGrande, Oregon.

The Phipps family moved west [from North Carolina], stopping in Independence, Missouri, to rest the mules. They remained there ten years. Their next move was to La Grande, Oregon, and in 1881 or 1882 they moved to Council and settled on Cottonwood Creek.

Patsey Phipps Austin was born in North Carolina, April 11, 1835. She died July 10, 1897 John Austin's death date is unknown. Both are buried in Cottonwood Cemetery.[1]
 

William W. Phipps*, affectionately known to all as "Old Bill," was born January 11, 1858. He never married but made a home for his mother as long as she lived. They lived in a log house on his farm on Cottonwood. This house stood for many years, becoming the first home of Gay and Annie Johnson in 1922, and years later became their chicken house. It was torn down about 1950.[2] [*Correction/ addition by Patsy Phipps Bethel: William's middle name was  Mitchell.]

An interview with Mae Moore Beckman, daughter of Grant and Dora Moore:
I always called William Phipps "Uncle Bill" although he was no relation. Others called him "Old Bill" even though he did not live to be sixty. Our parents loved and respected him, checking on him if they did not see him frequently. He lived alone and had a bad heart and they knew he might die at any time. He told Dad that if he knew he was dying they would find him with his hands crossed on his chest, and that's the way Dad found him the morning he died. He was lying flat on his back in his kitchen where he had been cutting shavings to start his morning fire. His hands were crossed as he had said they would be.

Uncle Bill remains in my memory as a well-loved giant. He was a big man, clean in body and mind, ready to help anyone in need. He had a booming laugh of pure joy and loved people, especially children. I considered him my personal property. I loved to stroke his shiny black beard and to be carried around on his shoulder.

He was one of the early settlers in the Valley and knew much about Indian cures and medicines, often using them to help when the doctor could not.[3]

Old Bill Phipps's blacksmith shop still stands. It is a log building on the property now owned by "Woody" Jones.* Mr. and Mrs. Jones plan to create a museum in it. Bill salvaged the materials to start his blacksmith shop from Burnt Wagons Basin. These included anvils, axes, hammers, and mauls. A wagon train headed for the mines at Florence abandoned their wagons when the going got too rough on West Mountain. They took what they could carry on their backs and went on. People of Council area salvaged what they could, even burning the wagons to get the iron and nails.[4] [*The old Woody Jones place is 2305 Cottonwood Road. Jones donated the forge to the Council Valley Museum when he sold the place in 1999.]

Bill Phipps made the caskets for all burials in Cottonwood Cemetery for many years. He got rough lumber from the mills in the valley and hand planed them with a block and smoothing plane. For linings he used black sateen which he bought from John 0. Peters' store in Council. Until his death Bill had helped dig every grave in Cottonwood Cemetery.[5]

William Phipps died November 20, 1917 and is buried in Cottonwood Cemetery.[6]

George W. Phipps, called "Doc," was born in Ashe County, North Carolina, in 1861. On June 29, 1902, in Council, he married Minnie Isabel Heathco Thompson, widow of Andrew Thompson, who had died in Oklahoma.* They had one son who died in infancy and another son, Ray.[7]  Ray was Council's sheriff for several years.
 [*Patsy Phipps Bethel: After Andrew Thompson died, Minnie  married Andrew's brother, Samuel. Minnie said Samuel was not at all like Andrew who was a wonderful husband. After they went back to Oklahoma, she divorced him and came out here to homestead a place.  I
understand she worked some as a housekeeper for G.W. Phipps also.  Samuel and Andrew were Cousins of G.W. and Bill Phipps. Samuel and Andrew came out in 1900 to visit the Phipps.  Minnie had 2 sons by Andrew, and two sons by her later husband, G.W. Phipps.: Rheul who died at birth, and Ray]

The George Phipps family owned a farm west of the railroad, near the end of Cottonwood lane. They had a large orchard and shipped the first apples, three train carloads, from Council Valley. They also raised registered dairy cattle.

Their house burned three times and was rebuilt.* The first fire was discovered by the train crew, who blew the train whistle to attract attention to it.[8] [*Correction/addition by Patsy Phipps Bethel: The G.W. Phipps house burned two times and was rebuilt. It was located at 1725 US Highway 95.]

George Phipps died in June, 1941.[9] [Correction/addition by Patsy Phipps Bethel: George was  buried in the Cottonwood Cemetery.

Minnie Isabel Heathco, born in Rushville, Indiana, May 9, 1866, married Andrew Thompson. They had two sons. One died at two years of age and the other at twelve years. Mr. Thompson died [10] and his widow homesteaded on the site of the present city of Tulsa, Oklahoma. She and her brother, George Heathco*, came to Council by covered wagon. She wanted to visit some of her late husband's family. She remained and married George Phipps. Her brother returned to Oklahoma for some years, but later brought his family to Council. [11] Minnie Phipps died in October, 1944. She and George are buried in Cottonwood Cemetery.
 *[Patsy Phipps Bethel: She did not come to Council with her brother George Heathco, she came with her husband, Samuel Thompson.]

 1. Patsy Bethel, oral interview, Boise, Idaho, 1975.
 2. Nellie Smith Peebles, Boise, Idaho, oral interview, 1972.
 3. Mae Moore Beckman, Fairbanks, Alaska, interview, 1975.
 4. Linn Peebles, Emmett, Idaho, oral interview, 1973.
 5. Dora Johnson Moore, Boise, Idaho, 1970.
 6. Cottonwood Cemetery records, Idaho Genealogical Society, Boise,
Idaho.
7.Obituary of George W. Phipps, Adams County Leaders May 23, 1941.
8 Patsy Bethel, oral interview.
9 Obituary of George W. Phipps.
10 Obituary of Minnie Isabel Heathco Phipps, Adams County Leader, October 6, 1944.
 11 Patsy Bethel , oral interview.
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PIPER

Seward David Piper, born July 6, 1860, son of Johnson and Samantha Piper, died July 21, 1939.

He married Alice Roselina Powell in 1886 in Minnesota.

They had two sons, John and Jay, and two daughters, Hazel and Marjorie. Jay was killed when he was fishing alone. His gun fell on a rock, causing it to discharge.

Alice Powell was born March 27, 1861, in Verndale, Minnesota.

She taught Sunday school in the Congregational Church in Council for many years.

Mr. and Mrs. Piper were among the early settlers, coming to Council shortly after 1900.[1] [According to a note written on a photo in the Council Valley Museum, they came to Council on March 27, 1900.] Their home was just south of town.

Mrs. Piper died in September, 1947.

1. Obituary of Seward David Piper, Adams County Leader, July 28, 1939
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POYNOR

Joseph D. Poynor was born in Tennessee and grew to manhood there. He was an officer in the Confederate Army as a personal bodyguard for Jefferson Davis and was captured with him at the end of the war.[1]

Just after the Civil War he, his wife, Celia, and their seven sons came west as part of a large wagon train. Two sons became ill and died on the plains, one dying one evening and the other the next morning. They are buried in the same grave alongside the trail.

The Poynors went first to Warm Lake Fort, near La Grande, Oregon. One or two winters were spent there before making the move to Council, where they settled down to farming near Mill Creek.[2]

Joseph D. and Celia Poynor are buried in Portland, as are sons Hub and John. Joseph died in March, 1926.

Charles Poynor and wife, Maude, had the first fruit ranch on Mill Creek. Prospective buyers in the valley were shown these orchards to prove what could be grown in Council's fertile valley.

1. Obituary of Joseph D. Poynor, Adams County Leader,  March 26, 1926.
2. Neal Poynor, Boise, Idaho, oral interview, 1974
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PURNELL

Harry Marcus Purnell was born September 27, 1875, at Hillsboro, Indiana, the youngest of ten children of Henry and Nancy (Justice) Purnell.

When he was a small boy his family moved to Kerads, Kansas where they lived for eight years, and later moved to Coffeeville, Kansas, where he grew up. He spent three years at Veedersburg, Indiana, in school and was married there to Rosa May Price February 4, 1906.[1]

They moved west to the area of Bellingham, Washington, where he worked in the lumber industry until 1916. That year they traded their farm at Ferndale, Washington for that of Wiley B. Duncan at Council.

On June 6, 1916, the family started to Council, taking one month and one day to make the trip. They traveled by car--a one-cylinder Cadillac with carbide lights. There were no doors on the driver's and front passenger's seat. The back seat was enclosed. It was not an easy trip with six children and camping equipment in and on the car. The oldest child was ten-year-old Irene and the youngest was Herbert, who was nine months old. Mrs. Purnell said she carried the baby and pushed the car over Whitebird Hill.

Along the way they always tried to camp where there was a wire fence so they could suspend a black iron kettle from the wire and build a fire under it to cook beans for the next day's food.

George Winkler said he'd always remember the day the Purnell family arrived in Council. There were kids spilling out all over the car.

The farmhouse had a little furniture, so they shipped only a few things. When they got settled they traded their car for a milk cow. They did raise some garden the first summer but it was late before they could plant it and the crop was not very good. The milk and butter provided by the cow was more important than an automobile.

Mr. and Mrs. Purnell worked in the fields and Irene did the housework and cared for the younger children.

There was a lot of thorn brush on the farm, which was difficult to grub out, but Mr. Purnell cleared most of it. There was one particular thicket, between the house and the river, that had an infestation of rattlesnakes. It was impossible to clear the thorn brush as long as they were there. Alfred Peebles and Harry Purnell drove a herd of hogs into the area and they soon ate all of the snakes. Many weary backbreaking hours went into clearing the land by hand.
The Duncans had built a large two-story building on the farm. The lower floor had rock walls and was used as a woodshed and milk house. The upper story was an open-air dance floor. The roof was supported by studs and the only enclosure was of three-foot chicken wire around the house.

For a while the nearest neighbors were two young Indians, the Shaeffer boys, who lived in a little house on the Purnell farm. They were hard-working and friendly. After they moved away Mr. Purnell moved the little house and used it as his shop.

There were many hard years. At least once, Mr. Purnell paid his taxes by killing coyotes and collecting the bounty for them. He also had a permit to trap beaver and shipped many of their pelts.

Harry Purnell was an enthusiastic musician who played the harmonica, banjo, and violin exceptionally well.

Nine children grew to maturity. They were Irene, Arthur, Beulah, Ruth, Audrey, Herbert, Doris, Dorothy, and Florence. Three-month-old Henry died of whooping cough in 1918 and Raymond died at birth.

Indian Ford was near the Purnell farm. Some arrowheads and a few stone tools and weapons were found near there.

Harry Purnell died December 15, 1955, and his wife, Rosa, born in Springfield, Ohio, April 18, 1880, died December 12, 1956. They were both buried in the I.O.O.F. Cemetery December 17--one year apart.[2]
 

1. Audrey Kilborn, Mesa, Idaho, letter interview, 1974.
2. Doris Sheer, Boise, Idaho, oral interview, 1975.