Volume 90 - Number 11, Page 2A - The Journal, Thursday, March 17, 1977 - Rexburg, Madison, Idaho

by Anita Aiken Staff Writer

caption under photo: Times were tough - A farmer in Southeastern Idaho since the 1920's, Earl J. Gardner, recalls the hardships and good times in the farming business.

Story:

Area farmers are preparing for what experts are calling the worst drought in the history of the western united States, but some local residents can recall when times might not have been so dry, but were about twice as tough.

One such local resident is Earl J. Gardner of Rexburg who has farmed over the past five decades in about six different places in Southeastern Idaho.

"I can remember one winter back in the 30's when the creeks didn’t even freee over," Gardner recalls. "There weren’t reservoirs then, but there weren’t as many farmers needing water. They got by, but wer were using ditches to water the cows and for drinking water, too."

Gardner is not a native of Idaho, though he has lived here for many years. He was born in Liberty, Utah, in 1909. His father was a blacksmith in the coal mining region of that state. Gardner’s mother died when he was only 6 years old, the fourth child in a family of six.

"Dad never married again and I guess you could say we just sort of jerked up. My oldest sister was 15 at the time and she took over the house for all of us. Times were pretty tough then," Gardner says.

Gardner and his father moved to Salt Lake City for a time and he recalls that life was not too calm for the bachelor father and son.

"I remember one night we were wrestling on the floor and someone kicked over the coal stove," Gardner says laughing." My father got burned on the stove and I spent about six months alone in Salt Lake while he got better."

The family moved to Wyoming where Gardner’s father and older brothers got work in the coal mines. He landed his first job there on a cherry farm for $1 a day.

"It cost me 60 cents in car fare to get there too," he says. "But I was glad to have the moeny."

Gardner recalls that blacksmiths in the early part ofthe century had to go into the mines to shoe the horses. The horses working deep in the mines didn’t see daylight for 10 or 12 years, he says.

He says he is a man who believes in premonitions because one day his father and brothers woke up feeling that they should not go into the mine that day. It was a pretty good feeling, too, he says because that day a large section of the mine caved in.

The Gardenr family left mining and moved to Idaho to buy a 160 acre farm near Coltman. It was in the late 20's, he says, and times were tough. They were able to buy the farm for the taxes.

Gardner soon struck out on his own. He and his wife, Irma, from Ucon, started farming "40 acres of sagebrush" when they married in 1927.

"We had a lot in common becasue her father had died when she was very young leaving six children," he says.

Gardner says farmers in the area all had about the same equipment, a team and a hand plow and a lot of optimism. The young couple built a one-room, lean-to in Fairview and hauled wood from Kelly’s Canyon to keep the little place warm.

"One of our little girls used to wake up with frost on her eyelashes," he says smiling and shaking his head. "It wasn’t too warm in there, that’s for sure."

Gardner says during the 1930's many of the men had to support their famioies by working for the Progress Works Administration (PWA).

"There weren’t any paved roads," he says. "So many of the men worked shoveling dirt and hauling it to the roads."

Gardner left the farm for a time with his wife and three children and moved to Rigby where he did carpentry work for $35 a month for the owner of a public swimming pool at Riverside. The Gardners ran the concession stand and took care of the dance hall there. When World War II began and many young people left the area, business got bad and the family returned to farming after an unsuccessful try at starting a skating rink.

Gardner recalls he was out hunting rabbits when news of the war first came to the area.

"My wife heard it on the radio and had to wait until we came back to tell us," he says. "We could hardly believe it."

Gardner got into the business of buying, improving and selling Idaho farmland after the war ended. He marvels at how land values changed over the years.

"People didnt use to think this land was worth much of anything, " hes says. "I knew of one guy who traded 40 acres of land for a railroad watch way back there. People thought it was bad when land cost $20, 000 and now they pay that much for a darn tractor."

Gardner has farmed in many areas of southeastern Idaho including Ucon, Driggs and Fairview. He and his wife got out of the farming business about two years ago and came to Rexburg for a rest.

"We just got the house remodeling done three days before the flood hit," he says. "Now we are so busy fixing it up again that we haven’t had much rest."

His 12 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren are scattered in Blackfoot, Ucon and Oklahoma and come often for visits. The couple also enjoy activities with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and he is a member of the Rigby Posse group.

"We are going to see if we can’t take it a little easier now," he says. "But we still have a few things we’d like to do."