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Danish immigrant plants seed in Snake River Valley

The life of Charles Valentine, 1846-1907

by Melissa Wheeler TAY03005@BYUI.EDU Contributing Writer

The distinct sound of horse hoofs beating towards the wagon chain echoed through the canyon. He tried to breathe calmly and control the team as his mind swirled with rumors of Indian War Tribes. Arrows. Spears. Scalping.

The Blackfoot and the Utes were rumored to kill anyone who passed on their land. Last he had heard, both tribes were contained on reservations. But would this passing tribe bring peace or danger?

Between 1850 and 1900 Native American Indians warred with the United States and any settlers threatening their way of life.

Travelers crossing the Wild West could quickly find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time. Charley Valentine’s ox team was corralled by Native American Indians twice in 1858 on a freighting expedition from Utah to California. But he was lucky and somehow escaped. After the encounter with two different groups, he continued his trip to California. Charley was only 12 years old.

Charley is just one of the hundreds of early pioneers that settled the local area. Many of them — like Charley — are buried right here in Rexburg.

The courage and work ethic of this 12-year-old would create a place for him in the history of settlers conquering the Western frontier. For the next 120 years, 38 million foreigners immigrated to the United States, approximately 60 percent of the world’s emigrating population. They moved in, shaking up the population and demographics of the new country.

The Valentine family and 335 thousand Danes left their homeland for the United States of America between 1820 and 1940. Some dreamed of wealth and gold, others of business opportunities, but the Valentine family dreamed of a new religion. In 1852 they traveled across the Atlantic, pulled a handcart across the planes and struggled over the Rocky Mountains to join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah.

Charley and his family’s struggle across the Rockies continued after reaching the Salt Lake Valley. They had no home or livelihood.

A farming community existed situated between the northern shore of the Great Salt Lake and the Wasatch Mountains. The Valentines heard the soil was rich and permanently settled there for farming. It was here in Brigham City where Charley displayed the strength of character that would help him brave the harsh frontier later in settling Idaho.

While his father took up farming, Charley conducted several freighting operations, taking him to Montana, Nevada and California. Although he traveled often, he remained involved in community affairs. He established himself as a Democrat and later was the Deputy Sheriff.
For six years he served in Brigham City as sheriff. Among his many acquaintances, Charley met a hotel manager’s daughter named Sarah Sophia Loveland, nicknamed Sophie. Sophie’s family had settled outside Brigham City in the 1870s near the protection of a small fort.

Aware that Indian raids were possible at any time, early settlers built a wall around the first stone building. Here Sophie’s family settled, consisting of five mothers and approximately 35 siblings. Her father, Chester Loveland, was a prominent polygamist in the LDS community and became mayor in 1874.

Although polygamy was obeyed as a teaching of the Church, it was outlawed by the United States government. Those convicted faced jail time and fines. Although Sophia and Charley led a monogamous marriage, their affiliation with the Church invited persecution from local law enforcement. While Charley was the law in Brigham City, the situation was out of his hands when his family moved to the Upper Snake River Valley in Idaho Territory.

The Upper Snake River Valley was arctic cold in winter and scalding hot through the summer.

“Of all the dreary, forbidding areas in America the great Snake River basin was the most outstanding. All early explorers, trappers, and emigrants were in accord that it would forever remain a barren menace,” recorded one historian. The outlook of a desolate land changed in 1871 when the labor of Preston farmers, combined with $30 thousand dollars, created irrigation ditches that watered 15,000 acres. As long as irrigation ditches were built, the land was up for farming. The streams flowing down from the Teton Mountains, combined with volcanic ash soil, made the land rich for growth.

Word trickled into Utah of the fertile soil. In 1883, Thomas E. Ricks established the Bannock County Ward. The Church asked for more members to settle the area. The call of rich farmland once again pulled the Valentine family and uprooted their home. Charley had spent most of his life in Brigham City, but with the death of his parents he decided to move on for a fresh start.

Charley and Sophie packed their children and began the trek north. They were not alone. In one year, the LDS population in the Upper Snake River Valley grew from 369 members to 764.

The people of Salem, Idaho, welcomed the Valentine family with open arms, but the harsh living conditions did not. Charley hauled wood 30 miles to build his family a home on 160 acres purchased from the government.

Life in the Upper Snake River Valley was challenging. Most settlements lacked doctors, but they did the best they could on their own.One early pioneer woman commented, “Whenever any of the children took sick, I gave them a tablespoonful of cold water and prayed the Lord would bless them.” Sophia birthed 12 children during her lifetime and only five survived childhood.

Early Mormon settlers in Idaho also faced persecution from the Federal Deputy Marshal, Fred T. Dubois, and his cronies.

“Through legislation enacted by the Congress of the United States, in March, 1880, every member of the Mormon Church was a criminal either actually in practice or as an accessory. It then dawned on me that I had been made a peace officer of a territory which had within its borders probably more criminals than the state of Illinois,” Dubois said.

Although Dubois claimed he held no personal animosity for Mormons, he thought they were “set in their blind obedience,” and regarded the issue of polygamy as his calling from God to wipe it out.

The saints created a warning system to aid polygamist families. A man would cross the ferry and warn families as soon as Dubois was in the area. They were constantly on guard, because Dubois traveled 100 miles a day, dropping in townships without warning.

Around the turn of the century, the Upper Snake Valley once again realized their dependence on water when another drought hit. Two years before, Charley had bought stock in the Salem Irrigation Canal Company, which gave him access to their canals. The purchase of 40 acres along with five shares in the Salem Irrigation Canal company cost $3,200, which would be $64,000 today. Although 120 canals had been built in the Snake Valley, the drought did its damage. It was during this time that Sophie and Charley lost a daughter, Sarah Sophia, 34.

Two years later, in 1907, a son, Jesse Seymour Valentine, passed away at 16 years old. Charley, 62, followed him to the grave two months later. After a life spent digging an existence out of rough terrain, Charles Valentine was buried in it. But before he died, Charley played his role in settling Idaho Territory. In his lifetime, he crossed the Atlantic Ocean, the Great Plains, settled Utah, braved warring Indian Tribes, settled Idaho and served as a respected Member of the Quorum of the Seventy.