STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
The tragic story of the Timmerman Hill family and a short history of stagecoaches in the Wood River Valley…
Those attending the Blaine County Historical Museum Heritage Court coronation Sunday afternoon got treated to bits and pieces of the rich history of the valley, even as they honored women who have been part of that history.
When you know the history of an area, you’re more likely to become a committed part of the community, Blaine County Historical Museum President Bob MacLeod told those attending the coronation at the Community Campus.
McLeod told about a new exhibit at the Blaine County Historical Museum examining early transportation in the valley.
It took three hours to ride the stage from Bellevue to Ketchum and many days to travel to Boise from the Wood River Valley in the late 1800s, he said.
Dr. Tom Archie added his own take on history when he sang a folk song he’d penned in 2014 about the sad story of a 19-year-old member of the Timmerman Hill family who fell in love with a young man in 1906. When she told her family she wanted to get married, they told her she was too young,
In response, the daughter eloped. And, in a bid to find her, her parents harnessed the wagon and headed to Hailey. But enroute their team of horses was spooked by a hay wagon coming from the other direction, and the wagon overturned throwing John Timmerman afar.
John died of irreparable injuries, his body to be buried in the Timmerman Hill cemetery near where the blinking light at the junction of Highway 20 and 75. And his wife Rebecca was taken to a neighbor where neighbors “repaired” her on a kitchen table.
The newlyweds came home to this tragic scene.
“The song offers hope for reconciliation of family,” Archie said.
Master of Ceremonies Wendy Jaquet treated many of the performers as history pieces in themselves, offering extensive and interesting bios for each. That included Hailey Mayor Martha Burke whom, Jaquet noted, got her nickname “Beaver” because her mother said she was “busy as a beaver” as a toddler.
Finally, the moment came for the 20th Heritage Court to crown Peggy Dean, Carol Eittreim, GeeGee Lowe and Becky Payne.
Dean, nominated by The Community Library and the Center for Regional History, is the daughter of Charlie Proctor, whose name is on the mountain that boasted Sun Valley’s first chairlift. Dean has long volunteered with the Sun Valley Winter Sports Hall of Fame.
Eittreim, nominated by the Blaine County Historical Museum, once worked for Sun Valley Company.
GeeGee Lowe, nominated by The Chamber, has her hands in just about everything in Hailey from the Hailey Memorial Day Ceremony to the Friends of the Hailey Public Library Books and Bake Sale to the Kiwanis Club.
And Becky Payne, nominated by the Carey Senior Center, is the granddaughter of Carey homesteaders and a longtime volunteer with 4-H.
“All the ladies past and present richly deserve this honor,” McLeod told onlookers.