The Just-Reid family is celebrating the Sesquicentennial Plus One of Nels and Emma Just settling in the Blackfoot River Valley near Blackfoot. We had planned to celebrate last year, but that got put on hold along with so much else when COVID hit.
On August 15, we’ll be hosting an open house at the home Nels and Emma built in 1887. It made the National Register of Historic Places last year. More details on that are available here.
In honor of Sesquicentennial Plus One, I’m devoting the Speaking of Idaho blog to my family’s history during August.
On August 15, we’ll be hosting an open house at the home Nels and Emma built in 1887. It made the National Register of Historic Places last year. More details on that are available here.
In honor of Sesquicentennial Plus One, I’m devoting the Speaking of Idaho blog to my family’s history during August.
In yesterday’s post we left Emma and George Bennett getting ready to leave for Helena, Montana where they were to meet Emma’s parents and travel back to England.
George and Emma rented a little miner’s cabin on the outskirts of Helena. She didn’t want to go into town because Helena was teeming with rough and tumble miners, half of them drunk at any given time.
So, George would dutifully go into town every day to see if Emma’s parents had shown up. Every day he would come back and report that they had not. Finally, the last Missouri River flatboat of the season left Helena.
Emma could not understand why her parents had not shown up as planned. It was only later—too late—that she found they had indeed arrived in Helena. They had camped in the middle of the street so they could not be missed. George, who secretly had no desire to go back to England, had gone into town each day only to watch them and stay hidden himself, until the day they left.
It was a cruel blow to Emma, made even more devastating when she later learned that her mother and a newborn sister had both died when they arrived in England, before they even reached their home.
George’s betrayal was not to be his last bad deed. You’ll learn more in tomorrow’s post.
George and Emma rented a little miner’s cabin on the outskirts of Helena. She didn’t want to go into town because Helena was teeming with rough and tumble miners, half of them drunk at any given time.
So, George would dutifully go into town every day to see if Emma’s parents had shown up. Every day he would come back and report that they had not. Finally, the last Missouri River flatboat of the season left Helena.
Emma could not understand why her parents had not shown up as planned. It was only later—too late—that she found they had indeed arrived in Helena. They had camped in the middle of the street so they could not be missed. George, who secretly had no desire to go back to England, had gone into town each day only to watch them and stay hidden himself, until the day they left.
It was a cruel blow to Emma, made even more devastating when she later learned that her mother and a newborn sister had both died when they arrived in England, before they even reached their home.
George’s betrayal was not to be his last bad deed. You’ll learn more in tomorrow’s post.
This is what the main street in Helena looked like in the 1860s. It's no wonder Emma didn't want to go into town.
RSS Feed