According to available records, David Eugene (Gene) Edwards is the current longest-lived veteran in Oneida County (and the only remaining WWII vet).  This July he will be featured in the Fourth of July Parade as the Honored Pioneer.  This won’t be Gene’s first time in the Fourth of July parade—in fact, he was in quite a few of them as a county commissioner over his eighteen years in the position.  “Though most of the time I was on a horse,” Gene said.  

Edwards is a lifelong resident of Oneida County, having been born in the house he lives in to this day.  The house has been remodeled from its original form, of course (“that was my wife’s doing,” he says), but the original log structure is still part of the house’s core.  As Edwards says about many things in the county, including himself, the house has both changed and remained remarkably the same over time.  And like the older part of the house, the structure has remained just as solid as ever.

“I’ve just lived here all my life, and it’s been good to me.  The local people and the local banks have all treated me well.  There are good people in Malad,” he says.

Edwards entered the Army Signal Corps as a teletype operator when he was eighteen, at the end of the war.  After his service ended, he returned to Malad and was married to Wanda Jones.  Three years later, he bought the family house from his father and moved back out near St. John.  He has farmed and ranched in the area ever since in the fields surrounding the house.  

“When you think about pioneers, you think about those that come here when there wasn’t any improvements at all.  I don’t really think that I’m a pioneer.  I’m probably the oldest one around now, but the real ones were the ones that settled the country.  Everything was already here when I come along.  I’m one of those lucky ones that come along when I did.”

Edwards downplays the extent to which he was part of the generation that saw massive changes come through the valley, bridging the early pioneer settlement with the transition to newer, more modern farming and ranching practices.

“When I started helping on the farm there were no tractors.  I learned horses when I was six.  One of the first tractors I saw was when the teacher took us to Daniels, and that was in the 1930s,” he remembers.

Edwards went to school at the Lower Elkhorn Schoolhouse, which was down the road from his house.  “I went to eight years of school there.  It was a nice brick building about a mile up the road.”  One teacher taught all the grades housed in the building, with the oldest girls helping the teacher out with the youngest students.  His younger sisters, however, spent most of their school days at the at the time newly constructed elementary school in town.

Edwards also spent a long career in local government, as a county commissioner as well as a state representative in Boise.  During his years as a representative, Edwards spent the months of the legislative session in Boise.  “You hear about a lot of problems, but I enjoyed it.  I liked the people and they were good to work with.”

When asked how he thinks things have changed in the county since his days as a commissioner, he says, “Well, I think they’re doing a good job over there.  The population didn’t really change that much in my days there, so we mostly dealt with the same people.  Now you’ve got more people moving in and more problems to deal with.  But like I said, they’re doing a good job.  They’ve only got so much money to work with, and they’ve got to stay within the budget.” 

While the population in the county did not change a great deal during that time, the county’s maintenance of roads and updating of equipment did go through extensive change.  “We serviced a lot more roads, oiled a lot more roads, got much better equipment.  The population didn’t change that much, but there started to be more traffic.  And this is a big county, all the way out to Holbrook, and south of there.  And up towards Arbon,” Edwards says.

Edwards also spent a number of years on the boards of various cattle associations, including the Pleasantview Livestock Association and the St. John Forest Users.  During that time a number of changes, including the nearby reservoir, were put into place.

Asked about how things have changed since he first moved back to Oneida County in the 40s, Edwards says, “Oh, things haven’t changed all that much.  I know the more people that move in we might run into some issues with water, and there’s more turnover in property.  A lot of these farms are going into property and houses.  I bet that Treasurer’s office is pretty busy.”

Asked what he thinks is likely to happen to the county in the next decades, Edwards says “It’ll be interesting to see what happens, but I sure don’t know,” he laughs.

“I’ve always enjoyed Malad.  It was home.  I’ve enjoyed the people and the good neighbors.  It’s been good to me,” he says.  Gene plans to go home after the parade to spend time with his large family.  His sons from Pleasantview and Logan, and his daughter from Weston, will be visiting for the Fourth of July weekend with his grandkids and about 35 great grandkids, filling up his large yard for the holiday.  “It’ll be great to have them here!” Edwards says.