The Eller Chronicles

Susan Elizabeth McFerrin was born at Brunswick, Mo., June 14th, 1852, and died at Cottonwood, Idaho. on December 14, 1904, aged 52 yeare and 6 months. She was united in marriage to Joseph M. Eller at the place of her birth in November, 1865, and to this union was born 14 children, 5 girls and 9 boys, five of whom preceded her to the better land.
In 1875 she moved with her husband, and three children to Arkansas and resided there for eleven years. In 1886 she accompanied her husband and eight children to Idaho where she resided with her family until the time of her death. She was baptized in the Methodist church at an early age and was a faithful member during her entire life. Her death was due to cancer of the stomach, with which disease she had been troubled for some time. The remains were laid away in the Cottonwood-cemetery on Thursday, Dec. 15. the funeral service being conducted from the Methodist church by Rev. Dake. She leaves a husband, six sons and three daughters besides a host of friends to morn her loss, but their loss is her gain. A large concourse of people attended the last rites, a sorrowful tribute to the universal esteem in which she was held.

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Mrs., Tefft Marks 91 years: Recalls Prairie Pioneer Times

Mrs. Bert "Fannie" Tefft, Grangeville, celebrated her 91st birthday August 6 at her home where she lives and enjoys her flowers. She was characterized by her relatives as having a "green thumb." Built in 1936, Mrs. Tefft and her husband lived in the house until his death in 1960. She remains at her own home where she now lives with her son, Charles.

Mrs. Tefft, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. "Frank-" Eller, settled with her Parents and their other eight children five miles out of Grangeville towards Penn after they crossed the United States in a covered wagon in 1887. Mrs. Tefft, born in 1885, was only two then and doesn't remember the trip, but the barn still stands where they lived. The sod hut that the family occupied is since gone. The "soddy" was later replaced by a log house.

Her father was a farmer and also a Cottonwood-Kamiah mail route carrier. Her husband, Bert Tefft, was a farmer and later in life, drove the stage from Grangeville to Elk City. They married in the Cottonwood Methodist Church, August 16, 1903. Mrs Tefft was later very active in the First Christian Church in Grangeville, where she is still a member.

She said of the Indians in the area of their farm on the reservation, "They never bothered us at all. They'd stand outside on the porch, never knock, just stand there, until you invited them in. They'd eat supper, or bread, or whatever was being cooked, sitting around on the floor. After they were done they'd leave," Mrs. Tefft explained. She said only the squaws and children came, never the bucks.

On the farm that she and her husband had in the Red Rock area, Mrs. Tefft recalled feeding "threshers". The men would travel from one farm to the next all helping with each other's harvest. She recalled fixing at least three big meals a day for the twelve threshers, sometimes five meals. The men worked from dawn until dusk in the fields, prepared the horses for work before dawn, and bedded them down after dusk.

When the Teffts moved to Grangeville, they ran the Electric Laundry, where Asker's is now. They lived behind the laundry in a hours, until they built the home where Mrs. Tefft still lives.
The laundry was quite an innovation to Grangeville, They had four ladies hand-ironing shirts, and a huge mangle for the flat work. Mrs. Tefft said.

Some of the remembrances she had were of the baseball games, where Grangeville and Cotonwood were arch rivals. Living in or about Cottonwood most of her younger years, Mrs. Tefft couldn't help pulling for the Cottonwood team. Her brother,

Charlie was a "noted" ball player for the Cottonwood team. They called him "Cayuse" Eller, "because he ran so fat," Mrs. Tefft explained.

"Grangeville would come over to Cottonwood and we waxed it to them. Sometimes they'd say 'Let's go back to Grangeville to eat, There's nothomg here', to which the Cottonwood rooters would say 'eat your goose eggs,' in reference to their scoreless ball game.

She recalled days that the mud would be axle deep on the wagons, and coming irto Grangeville from their farm six miles out would be an all day trip. "My dad did freightng out of Lewiston. It would take him-two days to go and pack up in Lewiston and three days to come back." She recalled.

Her brother, Bill Eller, was sheriff of Idaho County for a number of years. Her brother, Joe, was a deputy sheriff and jailer. Her father, known to all of Cottonwood as "Uncle Frank" Eller, knew the James boys. "Dad knew Jessie James real well. He said he wasn't as-bad as he was painted. He said that if they'd have left him alone he'd been a good man," Mrs. Tefft recalled her father saying.

Jessie's troubles began in the time of the war between the states. Mrs. Tefft's father was a confederate soldier. "He was only 16 and lied about his age to get in to fight," she said.

Mrs. Tefft recalled that the Grange Hall was all there was of Grangeville, essentially, when she was moved into the prairie area by her parents. Mt. Idaho was the county seat. Lewiston was just a small town.

She celebrated her 91st natal day with family and friends. She is very alert, slightly shy, but a gracious hostess. Her tidbits about the area are very special, as she herself is.

She and her husband had four children; Pearl Howard, Bend, Oregon; Charles Tefft, Grangeville; Donna Morgan, Mattawa, Washington, and Goldie Basinger, now deceased, but a onetime Grangeville resident.

She has eleven grandchildren, 28 great-grandchildren, and numerous great-great-grandchildren.

On her birthday she was visited by Mr. And Mrs. Darryl Altman of Portland, Oregon, a great-grandson and his daughter Paula, great-great-granddaughter; Mrs. Donna Morgan, daughter and son, Michael, grandson; Terry Buckley, great-granddaughter and daughter, Dawn Marie, great-great-granddaughter of Lewiston; Mrs. Joseph Springer, granddaughter, Gennessee; Charles Tefft, Grangeville, son; and Mr. And Mrs. Garold Haskins, Grangeville, friends of the family. Mrs. Tefft expressed appreciation to them all.