Baley Samuel Rugg was born in 1864 in Pennsylvania. He and his wife, Sarah, who was born in Nebraska move to Nez Perce County in 1902 with their five children. Sarah's sister, Susan had moved to the area sometime before 1900. When Baley and Sarah moved, they brought along her father, Samuel D. Boyd, and sister, Myrtle Ann.

After they arrived at Lenore by train, they walked up the hill to Susan's home in the Gifford/Melrose area. Baley and Sarah later purchased a farm up on Central Grade. Baley and a partner ran the Wodden and Rugg Hardware and Furniture Store and later a livery stable. The livery had buggies, packs and horses for rent. They also ran a coach twice a day from Peck to the stagecoach stop and back. Unfortunately, family records say he went broke and worked in Elk River for the last two years of his life. He died in Peck in 1926 and was buried in the Normal Hill Cemetery in Lewiston.

Baley and Sarah's son, Clarence was born in 1894 in Nebraska and moved with the family to Peck in 1902. In 1916, he married Ella Mae Humphrey. Their first child was born in Orofino in 1918 before the family moved to Saskatchewan, Canada. Two more children were added to the family before they moved back to Peck in 1926. Clarence road in a boxcar with the stock and belongings while the rest of the family rode in a passenger car. They unloaded at Juliaetta, took the ferry across the Clearwater River and moved to a place on Angel Ridge near Peck. They had a round barn on this farm. They had two more children and added a nephew to their family before moving to Orofino in 1944 where Clarence worked for Idaho Bean and Elevator and Lewiston Grain Growers. He then worked for Prairie Flour Mill in Orofino until his retirement.

Clarence and Ella's grandkids remember the house up the creek from the Canyon Inn at Peck. They played in the swimming hole in the creek where they remember seeing bats. The families gathered on Sunday for dinners of fried chicken, fresh from Grandma's backyard.

Several of the family members were involved in baseball teams in the area.

Later, one of the family, Wally Rugg lived in a home on Michigan recently demolished for the expansion of the Clearwater Memorial Public Library. Wally also worked for the Clearwater Tribune for 27 years.

(Photo and courtesy of Renee' Hedrick)

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