Shird Eldridge (1857-1937) was a long time resident of Little Valley, before moving over to McArthur. In 1924, Shird was reminiscing with the editor of the Fall River Tidings the newspaper that focused on the events of the Fall River Valley, Shasta County.
Shird remarked, “This year reminds of times nearly forty years ago—when such conditions prevailed—but the people were better off then than they are now. In those days the farmers raised all they needed, went about with horses and buggies—had just as good times as now, and all they cared to raise, besides crops, was their tax money. Some of them had hard scratching, mortgaged their ranches and being unable to pay off their mortgage, lost their places. But today—it takes so much money to buy gas and oil and to keep up payments on automobiles. Living costs are higher and the farmers are living a swifter pace, endeavoring to keep up with the extravagant ways of the people of this age.”