"Raising" the Victorian Part 1

For 30 years we have wanted to tear down the old house, but it was hard to make the final decision because of all the family memories and history connected to that old house. We tried to interest USU in using it at the American West Center on Highway 89 but it was too political even though the extended Thatcher family offered to pay for the moving. The "Old Victorian" house was purchased by Orson Pratt Thatcher and Nettie Elizabeth Thatcher in 1909 from John C. Dawdle who built the house in 1884 and moved to Canada when they sold the farm.  It is reported to have been the first non-log house in Cache Valley.  Dawdle was also supposed to have been the person who built the first log house in the valley. J.C. Dawdle's descendent, Claudia Findlay, married Ed Prince, the cousin my dad raised. The information concerning Dawdle's building experiences comes from his personal journal in the possession of Claudia Prince. 

Grandpa Orson P. was not a farmer, he had been swindled out of a laundry business by an unscrupulous partner but had enough to make a down payment on 120 acres and house in Young Ward. The purchase price was $3,500.00.  

They raised chickens, eggs, sugar beets and grain crops.  During the depression, Orson 's half brothers at the Thatcher bank threatened to foreclose on the farm until Grandma Nettie went into the bank and read them the 'right act.'  They made him sign the farm over to his wife Nettie.  Grandma Nettie insisted they drill the well down in the West field and it was a real gusher.

Orson Reeder, Orson P's son is in both photos.  Orson P.  was driving a load of sugar beets over the bridge when the load shifted and the valuable work team ended up at the bottom of the creek with the load of sugar beets on top of them. He lost everything - the sugar beets, the team and the wagon.  It was a devastating  financial and emotional blow for grandpa.