Edward Eli Poulton Life History

Life History of Edward Eli Poulton

written by Ila Vera Poulton Nelson Loveland, daughter

copied by Brenda Bailey g g granddaughter

Edward Eli Poulton

            Edward Eli Poulton was born 9 October 1865 I Coalville, Summit, Utah to William Poulton and Elizabeth Raspas.  The family came to the Untied States from Wombourn, Staffordshire, England in 1861.  They settled in Grantsville, Utah and then moved to Coalville, Utah, where father was born.  They lived there until 1879.  Father and his older brother Richard came to Goose Creek Valley.  They raised cattle and horses.  In the fall of 1882 at the age of 17 the went to Green River Wyoming and bought 1000 head of sheep and trailed them to the Utah desert.  Winlived them on the desert and brought them on to Oakley Valley being the first ones to bring sheep into Goose Creek Valley in the spring of 1883.  They run them on the mountains West of Oakley.  They would shear the sheep, haul the wool to Kamima to sell it, crossed the Snake River at Stars Ferry.

            Her fondest memories were seeing her father enter their home wearing a big bear skin coat, outstretch his arms and then run to them for hugs and kisses.  For seven years she new only love and loving parents.

My father was among the early settler’s who came into the Oakley Valley from Utah.  In 1887 my mother and Etta Hunter came in 1888 from Grantsville Utah to visit their brothers.  Mother met father and they were married Aug 5, 1890 at Marion Idaho.  In those days it took 3 days to travel to Utah to go through the Temple so they married first then went to the Temple and was sealed together for time and all eternity on 25^th of Sept 1890.  Etta Hunter met A.R.O. Neilson.  They were married.  He was a school teacher at Oakley.  The girls started saving money month’s  before to make the trip.

During the summer they moved to the Buckhorn Ranch located 12 miles Northwest of Oakley, and during the winters they lived in a log house with a shingled roof in Oakley.  The house I as born in had a dirt roof and a board floor covered with linoleum.  I was born in mother’s aunt’s home, Isabell Martindale.  It was located 1 ½ miles North of Oakley where Blaine Martindale’s home is now.

            At Buckhorn Ranch they had many experiences.  When I was four our father took Emerald and me to an old sheep camp for a trip one day.  While there he made fried mutton with gravy.  My father’s sheep herder was Eric Tolman.  He herded sheep on the West mountains.  A bear got in the sheep one night.  He shot and wounded the bear.  He hit its face and broke its jaw, so the bear didn’t bite him but just clawed him.  The dog finally scared the bear away and an old sheep herder found him.  Some men took him to the hospital in Marion.  They didn’t expect him to live.  The family went in an old wagon to see him and Ila Vera got sick on the way home.  The man lived but had many scars.

            When Ila Vera was 8 years old her father died, leaving the family to care for the farm.  How often she recalled standing there with her widowed mother, brother and sister, watching out the window of their log house remembering the white top buggy that carried her daddy to the cemetery in Oakley.  Her mother was pregnant and couldn’t attend the funeral because of the cold wintry weather.

The Story of Edward Eli Poulton’s Life

written in 1967 by James Wesley Poulton and Edna Udy

copied by Brenda Bailey

Edward Eli Poulton was born October 9, 1865 at Coalville, Utah.  He was the son of William Poulton and Elizabeth Rasbass.

Edward, better known as Ted, and his brother, Richard came to Idaho.  In 1879 they traded cows and horses to the Caldwells for the Warm Creek Ranch.  They farmed the ranch and in the fall of 1882 the two boys, Ted and Dick, went to Green River, Wyoming.  They bought 1000 head of sheep and trailed them to the Utah desert to winter them.  They hired Owen Tolman to herd them.  I the spring of 1883 they trailed the sheep into Southern Idaho and summered them in the hills southwest of Oakley, Idaho.  This was known as the Bostetter Range.  On November 11, 1883 Owen Tolman trailed the sheep out of the mountains as a bad storm was coming.  They bedded down on Hudson Ridge.  The next morning they had eleven inches of snow.  The sheep were trailed down to the Buckhorn Ranch and wintered.

Ted had traded for the Buckhorn Ranch.  On August 5, 1890 he married Alice Ann Worthington at Marion, Cassia County, Idaho.  This was a small place North of Oakley, Idaho.  Later they went to the Temple.  They lived at the Buckhorn Ranch and had four children, Ila Vera, Martha Emerald, James Wesley, and Edna Alice.

They also owned a house and a few acres in Oakley where they lived while the children attended school.  Ted built onto the house and had an Indian named Joe helping him.  They lost a large framing square and Ted told his wife that he didn’t think Joe would take it as he wouldn’t have any use for it.  Years later Wesley was up in the attic and found the square leaning against the flue.

Ted farmed and raised cows, horses, and sheep.  He also took care of four head of stage horses.  They would leave four horses and take four fresh ones.  This was on the stage route from Kelton, Utah to Boise, Idaho.  He cared for them six years.  During this time the stage was robbed at Robber’s Gulch, about  a mile from the Buckhorn Ranch.

In February 1899 Ted took a bad cold and it went into pneumonia.  He died three days later on February 24, 1899 at Oakley, Cassia County, Idaho and was buried February 27, 1899 at Oakley, Cassia, Idaho.