Children of John Millard and Sarah Jane Charlesworth

This picture of the Charlesworth children (John, Selma and Glen) also shows part of the log house the Charlesworth's built on their homestead on Sunbeam. This sturdy, servicable, house would have been mostly built by hand of materials gathered locally. Usually logs could be taken to a sawmill to be sawn to obtain planks for floors, window and door frames, and roofing. Often sawmills would accept logs in payment for the sawing bill. The foundations were usually large rocks set into the ground with logs fitted on top of them. By the early 1900's commercially manufactured doors and windows would have been available (If the buyer had money to pay for them) and this house appears to have used them.

Selma Charlesworth (1905-1938) and John William Charlesworth (1902-1982) taken about 1907. Their parents, Sarah Jane and John Millard Charlesworth, made trips to Colorado to see his parents and this photograph was taken in Colorado on one of these trips.

This picture was likely taken before the Charlesworth's moved onto their Sunbeam Homestead but it illustrates another common feature of early farms and homesteads in Idaho-the orchard. Fruit trees were planted as soon as possible and, combined with a big vegatable garden, contributed a great deal to the food supply on the farm. Fruits and vegetables were pressure canned at home in glass jars to preserve them for the winter months. Most farms had a root cellar or basement where the canned goods were stored.

John Millard Hunting

Click on the link above to be taken to the John Millard Hunting page with pictures of travel and hunting in pioneer times.