Why Did John Hansen Go To California?

According to the memory of Wayne Bingham, his grandfather, John Hansen went to California to work a piece of property he bought as a retirement home away from the severe Idaho winters.  In 1918 John took the train from Idaho Falls to Winton, California to get things started. The train took him from Idaho Falls down to Ogden, Utah and then across norther Nevada into Sacramento and then down to Winton, California.  It is believed the property in was 20 acres (I am currently working to get a copy of the land documents). John Hansen planned to raise fruit trees on this small acreage in his retirement.

Source: California State Journal of Medicine
February 1924. Page 68.

John traveled back to the property again in 1921 intended to only be gone a few weeks and then return to Idaho Falls, but while there he contracted diphtheria. In the 1920s, there were an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 cases of diphtheria per year in the United States, causing 13,000 to 15,000 deaths per year (Source: Atkinson W, Hamborsky J, McIntyre L, Wolfe S, eds. (2007). Diphtheria. in: Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases (The Pink Book) (10 ed.). Washington DC: Public Health Foundation. pp. 59–70.)  According to the California Journal of Medicine about 600 people each year were dying in California from diphtheria in the 1920's.  The prospects for those who survived the illness were not much better.  Many suffered for the remainder of their life from the effects of having contracted this illness.  By the 1920's a vaccine had been developed to prevent the spread of diphtheria, but it was not widely used until some years later.

As John started to recover from the effects of diphtheria he contracted pneumonia, a common secondary infection and as a result of this illness he passed away October 16, 1921 in Madera, California.  After his death he was transported back to Idaho Falls and buried in the Taylor Cemetery near the homestead he worked so hard to build.

John's wife, Alice Hansen, was very upset about the property in California and refused to go there with him.  He was planning their retirement but it would take her away from her children and grandchildren she loved so much, even if only for the winter.  She refused to go with him.  After his death she refused to deal with the property and allowed it to be taken by the county in lieu of payment, not only for outstanding taxes, but for rodent eradication, which if left unattended to by the property owners, was by statute taken care of by the county with the owners’ paying for the service.

(Thanks to Colleen Reep, daughter of Wayne Bingham, for her interview of her father and providing much of this information)  If other family members have additional memories, stories or documentation I would love to hear from you.

Union Pacific Railroad Map from Idaho Falls, Idaho to Madera, California (circa 1900)