A Short History of Wilber Thomas Cranney

(Excerpts related to Marion from Wilber Thomas Cranney’s short history and notes from his son, Ariel Oliver Cranney’s account of his father.)

Wilbur T. Cranney – from his short history

I moved to Idaho in the spring of 1909, and bought a farm at Marion.  In the year of 1910, I was asked to act as 1st Assistant to Albert H. Hale in the Island Sunday School.”

Notes – Wilbur’s son Ariel 

He lived to be seventy nine years old and that’s about all I can remember, except that Dad was always a hard worker and he always seemed to get other people involved in his work also and saw that they were hard workers. But he did work hard and raised a family of ten children.

Louie (Lousia Hancock Tolman Cranney) was a very good stepmother. She made a home for Dad and for us kids when we were around.

They came down the Salt River, where it emptied into the Snake River, and from there they followed down the Snake River more or less on what roads they could find until they hit Burley and then turned South and went up to Goose Creek Country, and took the Oakley Valley and settled in Marion, where he had bought a farm from a fellow by the name of Linhoff, I think.

I don’t remember too much about Mother’s death – she died in July, when I was five years old. I remember that, and Wilda, who was home at the time, had just gotten married. She married Harvery Freestone and they moved up to J.D. Ranch where Harve was working; that was up at Goose Creek, up above the old Oakley Dam. They took Kenneth, the baby, with them. He could talk, and I was about school age at that time; I was five, but wouldn’t have been six until that October.

After the war was over, Clyde came home, and Gerald came home off the mission and they decided to buy the Tolman place. Gerald had gotten married to Martha Smith and moved a house in there at the old Tolman place – they tore down the old house. That gave them 160 acres to farm.

Gerald went into the Island Store and started to run the store and worked part time. In the meantime, Dad was farming the old place and he worked around the country. He helped build the Oakley Dam, I guess, took a team of horses up there, and also helped build the Milner Dam down on the Snake River, so he worked around quite a bit while he was trying to make a living. He had a big family and was trying to farm at the same time. And things went along pretty good.

Shortly after that, Dad bought the place up at, up by the Marion Church. He had saved a little money and he bought sixty acres up there of this old home, anyway he bought it, and left the Kean place. He and Louie lived up there, lived there until he died actually. Dad was a very devoted, religious man. He became Bishop of the Marion Ward, I forget what year, but he was Bishop for many years.