Among the artifacts related to Mesa Orchards in the Council Valley Museum are big record sheets from January and February of 1956. They are score sheets for canned applesauce. Measurements were recorded on these sheets every half-hour, starting at 8:30 and ending with the last entry at 4:30. Spaces for net weight, Degrees BriX (by refractometer) and temperature were filled in each half hour. Also, factors of color, consistency, finish, absence of defects and flavor were given a number. Each sheet is signed by Cleone Frasier. At the bottom, near her signature, on some of the sheets, the number of cans is written. The highest number is “27,467 cans” and the lowest is “23,449 cans.” I suppose that would have been the number of cans of applesauce canned in a day.
Late in 1957, Council’s big brick school had deteriorated to the point where it was feared that it would collapse. It had been built in 1907 and was only being used as a elementary school because a new high school had been built in 1941. The grade school was condemned as unsafe, and the school board had to scramble to find places to hold classes until a new school could be financed and built.
Buildings all over Council were utilized. The January 3, 1958 Leader reported:
“Classes will begin on January 6, 1958. The first, second and third grades will be schooled in the American Legion hall, the split grade in the City hall, the fourth, fifth and sixth grades in the Mesa school building, the seventh and eighth grades in the High school. Hot lunch program will be maintained by utilizing the IOOF hall and hot lunches will be taken to the Mesa school at noon. Indoor toilets are being installed in the Mesa school.”
The Mesa school building had been given to the Mesa School District No.1, but no deed was ever transferred, so ownership went back to Bryan and Emma Ball. Even though it was their private property, they allowed its use for Council students.
The distribution of students to various locations continued through the end of the 1957 – ‘58 school year. That summer (August 1958) fate threw another curve-ball at the community when the main employer at Council– Boise Cascade Sawmill – was destroyed by fire. That steam-powered mill was soon replaced with a modern one powered by electricity.
(Side note: The high school burned in October 1964, and students were again put in ad hoc classrooms all over Council. I don’t think the Mesa school was used this time.)
School started again on September 2, 1958. A new grade school was under construction but was not ready for occupancy, so once again students were dispersed to various locations. The Leader reported: “First, third and seventh grades will be taught in the Legion Hall. Second grade in City Hall. Fourth, fifth and sixth grades at Mesa.”
Classes started in the new grade school after Christmas vacation, in January 1959. (This is the grade school in use today.)
Meanwhile, Bryan and Emma Ball were confronted with the fact that the flume was badly in need of repair or rebuilding. They decided that the cost, exacerbated by new government requirements for such projects, was not worth it. The flume was abandoned. With no flume, there was no use keeping the water rights from the Middle Fork, and they were sold.
Compounding the loss of irrigation to the orchards, at some point in the late 1950s a devastating frost destroyed the fruit crop. 40,000 baskets of picked apples, which were on the ground under the trees, were lost. Emma Ball said that frost finished off “the better apples which we’d been told to leave on the trees until the end of the harvest.” The Balls sold 500 head of cattle to counter the loss. They planned to reinvest the money into the orchards, but another devastating blow came before that could happen.
On September 29, 1960 Bryan Ball was inside one of the cellars when it collapsed on him, killing him. Charles Bryan Ball was 63. The Leader said he was survived by his wife, Emma; four sons, Charles, Patrick and James Ball, all of Mesa, and Bernard Ball of Dillon, MT; six daughters, including Irene and Mildred Ball of Mesa.
Mr. Ball’s death marked the end of an era for Mesa Orchards. Fruit production and harvest virtually ceased.
Adams County Leader, May 5, 1961: “Wendell Collins, Manager of Farm Service, Cambridge, and Council Feed & Fuel at Council is in the chicken raising business in a big way. Currently he has 56,000 broilers nearing marketable weight, which were raised in the old packing sheds at Mesa.”
That September the Leader said Collins had shipped another 20,000 broilers from Mesa to Swift & Co at Caldwell. He will have another 20,000 to ship in about 4 weeks.
In the summer of 1962, Marcella Thompson retired as Mesa Postmaster. Audrey Kilborn became the new postmaster. The post office was moved to her home, located a ¾ mile east of the store. She continued as postmaster until she retired about 1983, at which time the post office was closed.
Next week: Mesa Orchards sells again.
100 years ago
October 31, 1924
J. M. Fruitts “is recognized as an authority and one of the biggest men in the United States in Hampshire swine circles.” He recently returned from the Oregon and Utah State fairs with his showing of 35 Hampshire hogs, where he won several of the top prizes.
The season on Chinese pheasants in Washington County will open on Saturday. “A few Hungarian pheasants were released in the Upper Country last spring. There is no open season on them.”
Died: Mrs. C. E. Kennedy, at Hot Lake, Oregon. She was a pioneer of this section, having arrived in the Salubria Valley about 30 years ago, and was married to Pete Gladhart Sr. She married Mr. Kennedy after the death of Mr. Gladhart. “Mrs. Kennedy was formerly Miss Lois Mitchell, and was a niece of Mrs. Ella Wilkerson, one among the first settlers of the County.”
75 years ago
November 3, 1949
Died: Leonard Green, 66, a resident of Washington County for over 50 years. Burial in the Salubria Cemetery.
“Ten Cambridge ladies of the Martha Kensington drove to Council Tuesday afternoon to attend the Kensington meeting held at the home of Mrs. Nellie Winkler. Five Council members were also in attendance at the meeting.”
“The Red Peppers, popular Cambridge orchestra, played for the school dance given at the high school gym.”
49 years ago
October 30, 1975
Construction is now underway on the Cambridge community library. The concrete floor was poured Wednesday morning.
A daughter named LeeAnn Carol was born to Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Stephens of Midvale on October 17 at the Ontario hospital.
Diane Woody, 17-year-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Woody of Council was reported in critical but stable condition in the Ontario hospital following an accidental shooting in her home Sunday afternoon. Kip Kamerdula of Fruitvale was carrying a 30-06, and “the gun discharged, striking Diane in the right lower quadrant.
Married September 27: Nancy Wiggins and James Nau.
25 years ago
October 28, 1999
Died: Carol Clinton Dale, 69, of Midvale.
Obituary of Charles Crawford Clelland, whose death was reported last week. He was born on Hog Creek to James Edgar Clelland and Lucinda Isabelle Simmons Clelland in 1912.
