The following is an extract from memoirs - probably those of Mary Ella Statham Keppner ( grandaughter )

George Henry Statham, Samuel and Mary’s second oldest son, spent his youth in Wellsville, going to school in the days when the “Cat-O-Nine-Tails” was used
freely and very few books were used at all. These were the days when he paid his show and dance tickets by presenting at the door a sack of dried beans,
wheat, squash, turnips or other vegetables. He left home very early in his youth to earn his own living.
Sometimes he worked in logging and lumber camps ant at various other occupations. At the age of 26, he married Sarah Ann Rowberry, on 1 March 1882 and
on 5 December of that year their first child, Blanch, was born. They pioneered into Idaho, coming in a covered wagon to Rexburg in the year 1884,
where in one of the few scattered log cabins their second child; Fred R Statham was born, being the second child born in Rexburg.
Rex Leatham, Fred’s life-long friend, was the first, having been born about three weeks earlier.
Rex was born on 10 March and Fred on April 2 of that year. With his wife and family George Henry Statham moved to Blackfoot, Idaho for a short time where
he started his freighting business. The population of Blackfoot then was made up mostly of Indians, and often when the wife and family were left
alone they were startled when looking up from their work to find the face of an Indian staring at them through the window, sometimes asking for
bread or other things. Coming back to Rexburg they homesteaded a 160-acre claim on the banks of the Teton River, about two miles west of town, which
was then comprised of one general store, a few log cabins and dugouts. Its original name was Ricksburg, because most of its inhabitants were
Rick’s at that time. (President Thomas E. Rick’s was the man sent by the Church to colonize there.) He (George) cleared sagebrush and built for his family a small
but warm log cabin. He was often compelled, however, to leave them that he might earn a living. He was a freighter, hauling products from the mines at old Challis,
Idaho to Blackfoot and from there hauling foodstuffs to the miners at Challis again. He also carried furs and other meager products to sell to the railroad, then far away.
There were many Indians who wanted to trade blankets and furs for the flour and other things in the wagon, and they always wanted whiskey, even if
they had to steal it. These were also the days of many prowling wild animals and horse thieves. There were no laws, only as a man took it upon
himself; then it was swift and sure. The horse thief would be hung by the neck to a tree out on the lonely road and the ones who did it slipped
quietly away and no questions would be asked. Mr. Statham at one time watched a card game out on the road by a campfire. When a
quarrel arose, one man whipped out a gun and shot the other man’s ear off.