Woodville Memories

Fackrell Store - Woodville, Idaho

My earliest recollections center around the Fackrell Store, in Grandma and Grandpa Speas's hometown of Woodville, Idaho. Grandma had a running credit account at the store and would allow the grandchildren to walk the short distance down the street to the market for something she needed, or sometimes for candy. As we presented our purchases at the checkout counter, we would innocently proclaim, "Just put it on Grandma's account."  The clerk would open a notebook by the side of the till and write a notation of our purchase on Grandma's page. I remember thinking that we needed such a store in Idaho Falls, where all you had to do was tell someone that Grandma said it was okay to take something home off the shelves.

As I return now to Woodville, the street is narrow, the homes and yards are small and unkempt; it is actually quite a depressing site and doesn't coincide at all with the memories of my youth. I wonder, what was the town really like in the sixties, has the town changed, or did the pervasive love from Grandma tint the image with a rose colored hue?

But then again, does it matter? Either way, my early years were enriched by my time in Woodville, Idaho. I learned there about work, gardening, flowers, strawberry crab apples, crochet, gratitude, generosity, loyalty, laughter, love, and most of all, that family matters more than anything else. 

How did this tiny community come to be and what made it special? Here's a sliver of history ...

It all began in 1888, when a small group of adventurous and enterprising young people living in Hooper, Utah, heard stories of the vast Snake River Valley plains in Idaho, and the possibility of acquiring land and establishing homes there excited them. After looking over the surrounding country, they chose to create a community ten miles southwest of Eagle Rock, (now Idaho Falls). This land was situated between the Snake River and a large bed of lava rock to the west. Only one brave and industrious woman came with the original company; I can't imagine all that was required of her to cook and launder for the group.

A town site was picked, overlooking a high bank of the Snake River. Lots were sold to newcomers to raise money, while those who put the town site together, were each given a lot. After basic homes were constructed, the other wives and families from Hooper joined them. 

Shortly after building, the settlers decided to go out to the lava beds, which were less than one mile away, and harvest the large abundance of dead cedar trees, gnarled and twisted in grotesque shapes and forms, for firewood. They soon discovered that this wood put out a lot of heat. These hardy pioneers decided to haul the wood to Eagle Rock and trade it for groceries and clothes. Industries in Eagle Rock used wood as fuel to generate steam, and wood was also used in most homes for fuel. Little money was in circulation and the cedar wood became a dependable commodity of exchange. Harvesting the wood from the lava beds was dangerous; horses cut their feet on the sharp rocks and wagon wheels broke when they became jammed down in the uneven cracks. Very seldom did they return without having some kind of accident. But cedar wood was in demand. In the winter months, few settlers owned overshoes and when they did, the sharp lava made havoc of them. Sacks were wrapped around their feet to keep them warm in the ice and snow. 

This new community needed a name and because of the importance of the cedar wood to their livelihood, it was voted unanimously that "Woodville" would be its name. 

Sixteen years later, our roots were planted in Woodville when the family of Samuel Harris Hurst moved to the small community. Having been left a widower with 8 children, he had recently married a widow with 7 children, Wilhelmina Klossner Risenmay, meshing to become a family of 15 at the time they arrived in Woodville. 

 
Pioneer life was hard; all the water used in their homes and for their animals had to be hauled from the river, or the livestock had to be driven to the river. Water needed to be brought to their homesteads, the land was fertile and productive, but extremely dry. 

Many things caused the lives of the Woodville pioneer families to be closely knit together; of necessity they depended on each other for help in many ways, but the one big thing that bound their lives was their religion, the majority of them believers in the Mormon faith.

I am grateful for these industrious pioneers, for the traditions they established on a small dingy street in southern Idaho, a place that shaped my youth.