ELIAS FLAVEL

Rhoda May and Elias Flavel
(12 April 1905)

     In 1909 Elias and May Flavel came to Southern Idaho.  Elias was employed by the
Idaho Irrigation Company which was constructing Magic Dam.  They and two children,
Jack and Vearl, lived at the south end of the dam near a warm springs.  They returned to
Spanish Fork, Utah, for a short time and then came back to the Richfield area.  Elias, his
father and brother bought some land on the butte northwest of town.  Later that year Elias
took a job with Pete Johnson.  The family moved to a house 1 mile west and 5 1/2 miles
north.  Elias broke the land out of sagebrush and fenced the farm.  During the next ten
years Elias continued to work for Pete Johnson, but bought a farm 5 miles north and 1
mile east of town.
     Elias and May enjoyed their neighbors, the Engles, Johnsons, and Metcalfs.  Many
Sundays were spent traveling to the ice caves for ice to make ice cream.  One day when
they returned they found the younger kids trapped on the kitchen table by a goat.  On
further investigating, they learned that Jack and a cousin Mary Flavel had put the goat
into the house to babysit.
     In 1931 Elias and May bought a home in town south of the railroad tracks.  He bought
a bar on Main Street and operated it for several years.  His son Bill took over the bar
later.  May Flavel worked long hours taking care of her home and family.  She was an
excellent seamstress and quilt maker.  After several sessions of blood clots May died
Sept. 6, 1953.  Elias died Nov. 16, 1958.
from The History of Richfield, Idaho)

Elias, Will, and Mary Flavel (taken about 1890)


Thomas-Snell Family - Taken about 1900 at Spanish Fork
Rhoda May Thomas is 2nd from right on back row

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