Would You Migrate From
Sussex County Delaware to 1872 Boise, Idaho's Sage Brush Desert
Country?
In the spring of 1872, a
Mr. Cramer of Drawbridge, Sussex County, Delaware, wrote the Idaho
Statesman newspaper of Boise, Idaho, with the question “ what can
a man do in Idaho, who is willing to work and has a good knowledge of
his trade”. Evidently Creamer and several of his neighbors were
contemplating a move.
With the answer he received
he learned that carpenters and joiners were paid $5 a day in the
city, and other mechanical labor was much the same. There was a
need for blacksmiths and there was no difficulty in any one making
himself useful in this country. Farming and the raising of meat
stock , mining, are the principal occupations. Room and board is
$10 a week.
The news told that the
winters were mild, last winter the temperature did not reach more
than 10 degree above zero, the average was about 35 above. The water
is good.
There are daily stages
which meet the railroad in two to three days as do they cross the
Columbia River to the west. Idaho City is north 35 miles and Silver
City is 60 miles south.
Grain cost 2-1/2 cents a
pound, potatoes 2 cents a pound, butter 50 cents, egg also, beef is 6
to 8 cents per pound.
To reach here from the
Atlantic States you take the railroad from Omaha to the top of Utah
Territory, then the stage some 240 miles to this city along a route
of sage brush desert with few stage stations but upon reaching this
valley you will find inviting , well improved and very productive
country.
Source: The Idaho
Statesman, Boise, Idaho, 7 March 1872.
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