Charles Silver and Agnes Thompson 1900-1923

Charles worked on his father’s farm and in June 1, 1900 he was working on his Uncle’s farm in Oklahoma. He was single. After finishing school Agnes “played around” and became pregnant. According to family oral history she had been dating two different boys named Charles. She chose Charles Edward Silver. They were married sometime after June 1 and before the birth of their first daughter Lillie on August 28, 1900. When Aggie saw her infant daughter she realized she had not married the father of her child.

Charles and Agnes had two more children. Hope Silver was born on October 15, 1904 and Sterling Silver was born on October 19, 1910. Charles rented a farm next to his father’s according to the 1905 Kansas Census. In 1910 the US Census shows that he had taken out a mortgage on a farm; and the 1915 Kansas count records that he is a laborer and renting. This information, if correct, may mean that the Silvers are having financial trouble.

Pleasant Valley School records, perhaps incomplete, show that Lillie and Hope attended school in 1912 and 1913 in Chase County

Trouble struck about 1917 or 1918. World War I had broken out and Charles registered for the draft in September 1918 but it was the tragic death of Lillie Silver, who was full of the promise of youth, which crushed the family, especially Agnes.

As Hope remembers it:

“In Aggies's view Lillie was so beautiful, so perfect, and I was an ugly ducking in the family. My mother put all her attention on Lillie and my father put all his attention on me. Mother felt that Lillie would never live to wear her wedding clothes. She superstitiously believed that the blue vein across the bridge of her nose indicated so.

Lillie was engaged to a beau before the war. One afternoon Lillie was out driving with a boyfriend following a truck with a load of pipes. The pipes fell off and one pierced Lillie who died instantly.

I never saw a mother grieve so. She was sure she was being punished for playing around.

My sister and I did not look alike. My brother Sterling and I did. In 1919 the family moved to Roswell, Idaho where they could get a fresh start.

The Silvers arrived in 1919, 20 years after the Wolfes had begun farming here. Much had changed in the intervening years.

. Electrical power—on at dusk off at midnight

. Two telephone companies

. Municipal waterworks

. Idaho’s first public park

. New county fairgrounds

. Flour mill

. Creamery

. New Hotel

. Several retail stores

. Plans for a sugar beet factory launched

. Construction of interurban trolley to Boise begun

Stores stayed open late on Saturdays for ranchers and sheepherders

Hope Irene Silver married Paul Levine Wolfe on 29 Dec 1923 in Caldwell, Canyon, Idaho.