Snake Brigade Leader Peter Ogden Laments Fur Trade Deaths [otd 01/01]

Peter Skene Ogden.
Oregon Historical Society.

On New Year's Day, 1829, Peter Skene Ogden wrote in his journal, “One of the trappers left in charge of the sick man arrived with his horse fatigued and informed me that our sick man, Joseph Paul, died 8 days after we left, suffering most severely.”

Ogden was then leader of the Snake Brigade, a band of trappers and support personnel working for the British-Canadian Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC). Born in Quebec in 1790, Ogden had around twenty years experience in the fur trade. His career had blossomed, starting in 1809 with his apprenticeship as a clerk for the North West Company (NWC). The job brought out the best … and the worst … in the young man. His good head for the trade, natural aptitude for Native languages, and boundless energy fueled a rapid rise in the company.

However, the youthful Ogden also possessed a considerable temper, with a penchant for violence. The frontier environment allowed those tendencies free rein. At that time, the NWC was engaged in a bitter trade war with the older HBC. Ogden “made an example of” – executed – an Indian who had traded with their rival.

With an indictment for murder in the works, in 1818 the company transferred Ogden west to the Columbia Department. There, he at various times worked at company posts in Astoria, near today’s Spokane, and in British Columbia.

In 1821, the British government forced a merger of the two companies, after which most records refer to the more familiar HBC. Ogden did some fast talking to retain a position with the merged firm. Fortunately for him, the company decided they couldn’t afford to lose a man with his valuable experience and skills. Three years later, he assumed command of the Snake Brigade. Over the next five years, the Brigade explored and trapped watersheds in (future) Idaho, every adjoining state, and even Northern California.

The 1828-1829 expedition left Fort Vancouver in late September, cut across the southwest corner of Idaho into Nevada, and then moved generally east into Utah. A week before New Years, Ogden had written, “Had a distant view of Great Salt Lake. Heavy fogs around it.” Their New Years camp was most likely south of today’s Malad City, Idaho.

Idaho mountain vista from north-central Utah.

After mulling over Joseph Paul’s death, Ogden observed that, “there remains now only one man” out of all those who had been part of the Brigade back in 1819. He went on, “All have been killed – with the exception of 2 who died a natural death – and are scattered over the Snake Country. It is incredible the number that have fallen in this country.”

After resting for several days, Ogden’s party worked their way north onto the Portneuf River watershed and then southeast toward Bear Lake. Ogden’s journal does not say where they camped for the winter, but they were back in sight of the Great Salt Lake by the end of March. They finished the season in northern Nevada and returned to Fort Vancouver in July.

Ogden considered their hunt moderately successful: He said, “We have no cause to complain of our returns.” However, HBC management knew all too well how the dangerous and grueling work could wear a man down. The following summer, they gave Ogden another posting and assigned John Work to lead the Brigade [blog, Oct 23].
                                                                                 

References: [B&W]

Glyndwr Williams, “Peter Skene Ogden,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography,  John English (ed.), (online), University of Toronto (© 2000).

Peter Skene Ogden, T. C. Elliott (ed.), “Peter Skene Ogden’s Journal - Snake Expeditions,”  Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society (1910).

Mining Investor, Legislator, and Federal Marshal James Crutcher [otd 12/31]

James Crutcher. Illustrated History.

On December 31, 1835, U. S. Marshal James I. Crutcher was born in Shelby County, Kentucky, east of Louisville. In 1860, James followed the rush to the gold fields of Colorado. After two years there, he tried his luck in Elk City, Idaho. Crutcher spent a few months there, made a quick trip into Oregon, and then returned to settle in the Boise Basin.

Crutcher was deputy sheriff in 1865, during the excitement that followed the shooting of Union man Sumner Pinkham by Confederate sympathizer Ferd Patterson [blog, Jul 23]. Whatever his personal views, Crutcher’s job was to uphold the law, and he stood off a band of Pinkham’s friends who wanted to lynch Patterson.

Impressed, Boise County voters elected him sheriff. At that time, the county jail also served as the Territorial Prison. Crutcher had occasion to comment on the severe deficiencies of that facility: “The ventilation is so defective that during the summer season, the prisoners are necessarily allowed the freedom of the yard during the greater portion of the day, and complain of the oppressiveness of the heat at night.”

After his time as sheriff, he returned to his mining interests, eventually holding investments in “various mines which have yielded him good returns.”

In 1870, James became involved in a nasty split in Democratic Party ranks. A prominent lawyer who had previously served as Delegate to the U. S. Congress led one faction. Crutcher was part of an opposing group. Leaders finally agreed to fill the electoral ticket with an equal number of candidates from the two factions.

Crutcher, the party nominee for county sheriff, was the only man not elected. The disagreement escalated to violence in June 1870, when Crutcher’s brother-in-law shot and killed the lawyer in a gunfight. Western code duello “rules” prevailed and a court released the shooter.

Between then and 1875, James moved his family (he married in 1865) to Silver City and established mine holdings there. Crutcher also remained active in public affairs. He represented Owyhee County in the 1886 Territorial Council, and was among the delegates who gathered in Boise in 1889 to frame a proposed state constitution.

Downtown Boise. [Illust-State]

In 1894, Crutcher was appointed U. S. Marshal for the new state of Idaho. At that time, he moved his family to Boise. He also established his primary business interests in that city, while still holding investments in some prime mining properties.

Known as an officer of nerve and decision, Crutcher seldom had to resort to strong measures as marshal. He spent most of his term moving prisoners around … out to court for a trial, from jail to prison, and so on. On several occasions, he escorted prisoners all the way to Detroit, Michigan, where Federal convicts were then incarcerated under contract. (The Federal prison system had not been built at that time.)

Over the years, James and his wife, Adelma, had four children, none of whom survived to carry on the family line. When their last daughter died in 1899 at age twelve, the Daily Capital said, “In any form and at any time the angel of death is most unwelcome; but when he enters the home and strikes down the young, the talented, the lovable, … then, indeed, he seems most cruel.”

James passed away in March 1915, in Berkley, California. The announcement of his death said he had been living with his brother after losing his considerable fortune “through his generosity to friends.” The much beloved “Auntie Crutcher” died there in 1926.
                                                                                

References: [Illust-State]

“[Crutcher News],” Idaho Statesman, Boise (July 1869 – March 1915).

Arthur A. Hart, Basin of Gold: Life in Boise Basin, 1862-1890, Idaho City Historical Foundation (© 1986, Fourth printing 2002).

James H. Hawley, Tenth Biennial Report of the Board of Trustees of the State Historical Society of Idaho, Boise (1926).

A Historical, Descriptive and Commercial Directory of Owyhee County, Idaho, Owyhee Avalanche Press (January 1898).

David Musick, Kristine Gunsaulus-Musick, American Prisons: Past, Present and Future, Routledge, New York (2017).

“Poor Law Legislation,” Reference Series No. 151, Idaho State Historical Society.

Ex-Governor Frank Steunenberg Assassinated, Fire Destroys Post Falls Sawmill [otd 12/30]

Governor Steunenberg. University of Utah.

On December 30, 1905, an assassin’s bomb murdered former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg. The resulting investigation, arrests, and trials had worldwide significance in the management- labor conflicts of the time.

Labor union support helped elect Steunenberg to two consecutive terms as governor. However, when union activists blew up the ore mill at Wardner and two men were killed [blog, Apr 29], the governor had to declare martial law. Although Steunenberg was simply doing his duty to maintain order, he began to receive hate mail. Finally, union thug Harry Orchard planted the 1905 bomb to punish Steunenberg for what the unions considered his “betrayal.”

Authorities soon captured Orchard and he confessed to the deed. Prosecutors then tried to convict union leaders as instigators of the crime. This led to a sensational face-off in court between the celebrated Clarence Darrow for the defense and attorney William E. Borah [blog, Jun 29], soon to be famous in the U. S. Senate as the “Lion of Idaho.” The State’s case depended largely upon the tainted testimony of the bomber Orchard … and failed. Orchard “got off” with a sentence of life in prison.

For an exhaustive treatment of this incident, consult the linked blog that specializes in that topic: “Idaho Meanderings: Steunenberg, Trial of the Century, Labor, Legal, Political History.”

The episode was also the subject of the book: J. Anthony Lukas, Big Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town Sets Off a Struggle for the Soul of America, Simon & Schuster (1998).

Post Falls sawmill, early 1900s.
North Idaho Museum.

On December 30, 1902, the sawmill that formed the centerpiece for the town of Post Falls, Idaho, was destroyed by fire. The Illustrated History observed, “As an evidence of the importance of the mill as a factor in the prosperity of the town it may be stated that at the time of the fire Post Falls had a population of six hundred. Two months later the population was but little more that half that number.”

In 1871, German emigrant Frederick Post purchased property at these Spokane River falls from the Coeur d'Alene Indians. (An unusual concession for the time, since most whites tended to simply appropriate tribal lands.) He concentrated on his interests in Spokane, about 20 miles to the west, until 1880, and then built the Post Falls sawmill. The strength of the current at the falls was such that he only had to divert enough water into a millrace to power the plant.

Post first leased the mill to other operators, ran it himself from 1886 to 1889, then leased it out again. One lease operator went over the falls in 1892, after his boat broke loose from its mooring. He and a co-worker were killed in the accident.

As the mill prospered, the area grew, with enough settlement to support a general store and a school (built in 1888). Commissioners incorporated the town of Post Falls in 1891. Post finally sold the sawmill property in 1894. At the time of the fire, the mill belonged to the Idaho Lumber & Manufacturing Company.

Of course, Post Falls was an ideal location for a sawmill to process the region’s timber resources; the facility was soon rebuilt. The Falls also provided a prime setting for irrigation and power dams. Before the end of the decade, dams blocked each of the three natural river channels.

The local utility says the dams “currently provide a combined 14.75 megawatts of electricity.” With average household usage, that would supply about half the power required by the town.
                                                                                 
References: [French], [Hawley], [Illust-North]

Moses Goodwin: Pioneer Builder, Mine Operator, Rancher and More [otd 12/29]

Moses Hubbard Goodwin, pioneer builder, mine operator, rancher, and lumber man, was born December 29, 1834 in Waldo County, Maine, northwest of Penobscot Bay. His grandfather, Aaron, was a ship’s boy on the USS Bonhomme Richard under Captain John Paul Jones.

Moses learned the carpenter’s trade and worked first in Boston and then in Minnesota. From there, he moved on to Mississippi. Moses stayed there until the Civil War broke out and authorities attempted to draft him into the Confederate Army.

Back in the north, he contracted a bad cold. Hoping the “salubrious” climate of California would clear his lungs of the lingering illness, Moses booked sea passage there in late 1861. The change did help, and he was again able to work. The following spring, he chased rumors of fabulous gold strikes in Oregon. Finding the claims vastly over-blown, he took a job in a shipyard, helping build steamers for the river trade.

Oregon River Steamboat. Salem Public Library.

Two years later, Goodwin again followed gold rush reports, this time into the Boise Basin. These stories were true and he prospected for awhile. However, he soon found he could do far better practicing his trade. Moses helped build a mill for the Mammoth Mine, near Pioneerville. He also built other mining and mill structures as well as the first large water wheel in the Territory.

In 1865-1867, Moses served as Superintendent of the Mammoth mill. He then became part owner of the facility and stayed on for another five years. However, the rigors of high altitude living brought on a relapse of his lung problem, so he liquidated his holdings and bought a ranch in the Payette Valley. He devoted some of his property to farming, but also apparently bought a considerable herd of cattle. Along with ranching, Moses did some building in the area.

During the national Centennial year, Goodwin traveled east with a new bride to visit family and attend the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Back in Idaho, he settled in Boise City, where he entered the lumber business. By the mid-1880s, he owned a water-powered sawmill and planing machine. For a number of years, he was the only manufacturer of doors, sashes and blinds in the Boise City area.

Sawmill Crew, 1885. Oneida County Historical Society.

Moses took an active interest in politics, mainly as a Republican, but with a very independent attitude. In 1884 and again two years later, he served in the Territorial Legislature. During his terms in the House, that body authorized the construction of a new capitol building and an insane asylum, and created the office of Attorney General.

They also performed a legislative reapportionment and split off Bingham County from Oneida County, fixing the seat of the new county as Blackfoot. During Goodwin’s first term, the legislature selected a commission to thoroughly review all Territorial statutes. In the following term, they revised many laws according to the recommendations of the commission.

Goodwin also served on the Ada County Board of Commissioners, at times as its chairman.

After about 1900, Moses began dealing heavily in real estate. Three years later, he sold most of his lumber milling and planing properties, retaining only an investment interest. His name was associated with many land transactions in 1905, with other activity into 1910. Moses did operate a retail lumber yard in the city until 1911, when he retired completely. He died suddenly in October 1912.
                                                                                 

References: [Blue], [French], [Hawley], [Illust-State]

John Henry Sherburne, Life and character of the Chevalier John Paul Jones, Vanderpool & Cole, New York (1825).

Award-Winning Children’s Author Carol Ryrie Brink [otd 12/28]

Author Brink. Publisher photo.

Writer Caroline Ryrie was born December 28, 1895 in Moscow, Idaho. Misfortune dimmed her early years. When she was five, her father died of tuberculosis.

The following year, her maternal grandfather, Dr. William W. Watkins, was shot to death on the streets of Moscow. Watkins was the first President of the Idaho State Medical Society, and I mentioned his murder in my blog about the Society [Sept 12]. That killing, plus a failed second marriage, was blamed for the suicide of Caroline’s mother in 1904. 

Grandmother Watkins raised Carol, and gifted the budding writer with a love of storytelling and reminiscences of her own childhood on the Wisconsin frontier. Carol first wrote for herself and then published stories in a high school magazine. In 1914, she entered the University of Idaho (UI), where she worked on the Argonaut, the student newspaper. She also wrote several plays for student production.

However, after three years there, Carol decided Moscow and the University were “too small,” and transferred to the University of California – Berkeley. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Berkeley in 1918, and shortly thereafter married Raymond Brink, a University of Minnesota mathematics professor.

Brink had been an Instructor at the UI Preparatory School starting in 1909. It’s unclear whether or not Carol took high school classes at the Prep, but they evidently became friends at that time. By the time they married, Raymond had completed a Ph.D. and spent a year in France. Except for Raymond’s two sabbaticals in France and a one-year lectureship in Edinburgh, they lived in Minnesota until his retirement.

The couple had a boy and a girl, and Carol eventually began to write stories for children. She had to make time to write, she said, “sometimes at the kitchen sink, on the end of the ironing board, or when the children were in bed.”

Her first published book, Anything Can Happen on the River, released in 1934, benefited from her experiences during one of the family’s visits to France. Although Brink dearly loved her grandmother, she clearly felt the pain of losing both her parents before she was ten years old. Thus, the protagonist in On the River was an orphan boy, and her novels often featured orphaned or motherless characters.

Her second book, Caddie Woodlawn, in 1936, grew from her grandmother’s stories about early Wisconsin. That book won a Newbery Medal, awarded to outstanding works of children’s literature.

Three of her children’s books – All Over Town (1939), Two are Better Than One (1968) and Louly (1974) – hark back to her early life in small-town Idaho. She also wrote a trilogy of Idaho-based adult novels as well as a nonfiction reminiscence. One of the novels, Buffalo Coat (1944), includes a character loosely based on her murdered Grandfather Watkins.

Through her grandmother’s stories and her own life, Brink lived through the passing of the Western frontier. Thus, one of her goals was to capture those pioneer memories for the next generation. In an article for The Elementary English Review, published in 1936, she wrote, “ A consciousness of these things in the past, hand in hand with the privileges of the modern world, should better fit our children to meet the chaotic future.”

She and Raymond moved to La Jolla, California around 1960. He passed away there in 1973, Carol in 1981. All told, Carol published about thirty books during her career, most of them novels. About a third of them have been reprinted or are readily available today in used form.

She received many awards and honors besides the Newbery – including an honorary Doctorate from the University of Idaho in 1965. Over on Goodreads, the social network for readers, almost all her books rate 4 stars or more (out of 5). And it’s not unusual for a reviewer to comment: “I wish she’d written more books.”
                                                                                 

References: Richard J. Beck, Famous Idahoans, Williams Printing, (© Richard J. Beck, 1989).

Bernice E. Cullinan, Diane Goetz Person, The Continuum Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature, The Continuum International Publishing Group, New York (2005).

Carol Ryrie Brink, “Make It a True One,” The Elementary English Review, Vol. 13, No. 1, National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, Illinois (January 1936).

Eighteenth Annual Catalogue of the University of Idaho, 1909-1910, Tribune Publishing Company, Lewiston Idaho.

J. M. H. Olmsted, “R. W. Brink – An Obituary,” American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 81, No. 8) (Oct 1974), pp. 873-875.

People and Places of Buffalo Coat, Latah County Historical Society (online).

Mary E. Reed, Carol Ryrie Brink, Western Writers Series, Boise State University (1991).

New Home Dedicated for Neglected Children in Boise [otd 12/27]

On December 27, 1910, a new, larger building was dedicated for use by the Children’s Home Finding and Aid Society. This ceremony was the culmination of over three years of effort, and continued a tradition that went back over half a century.

Children’s Home. ca. 1918. J. H. Hawley.

Records as far back as 1660 in Massachusetts describe how governments in the U.S. grappled with the problem of orphans and other homeless children. Orphanages proved costly and not very effective. In 1853, New York tried a new way to avoid institutionalization: a “placing-out” approach where neglected children ended up in foster homes.

Over the next fifty years or so, “children’s aid” and “home finding” societies grew up all over the country. For the approach to work, of course, these organizations needed a residence where the children could live until they were placed in foster homes … or longer if they could not be placed.

The movement came to Idaho in 1907, when the national Children’s Home-finding Society asked the governor if such an organization could be established in the state. The governor responded enthusiastically and put the representative in touch with potential donors.

That led to the first tangible step toward a Home when Mrs. Cynthia A. Mann donated a block of land on Boise’s Warm Springs Avenue. Mann had taught school in Idaho for many years. She had been active in the women’s suffrage movement and was still active in the temperance (prohibition) campaign. Her husband, who died in 1901, had owned “considerable” real estate in the region.

However, a cottage for the children opened in May 1908 proved inadequate. So the state appropriated $20 thousand to help, with the stipulation that the organizers also come up with that amount. A fund-raising campaign allowed them to match the grant.

Officials laid the cornerstone for the building at an elaborate ceremony in mid-May. The president of the national Society, Hastings H. Hart, attended and said (Idaho Statesman, May 15, 1910), “The significance of this occasion is that it represents not only the philanthropic spirit of the state, but its great wisdom …”

The Society considered the structure dedicated in December to be ideal for their needs. It was made largely of stone with an interior constructed of the best available fire-resistant materials.

The second floor contained separate dormitory rooms for boys and girls. These were large, bright with natural sunlight, and designed for good ventilation. This floor also housed a nursery for the youngest children. Quarters for the immediate caring staff were also located nearby on the second floor, along with medical facilities. The first floor contained administrative offices, some apartments, a large kitchen, and the dining hall.

Besides orphaned and abandoned children, the Home provided a refuge for youngsters from families unable to care for them … due to unemployment, sickness, catastrophic emergency, or whatever. Mostly, the Society hoped that the families could regain a stable environment and recover their children.

National legislative changes in 1966 mandated a new foster care approach and made orphanages obsolete. The Children’s Home arranged its last adoption in 1968. Rather than disband, the Society recreated itself as a source of affordable behavioral health services to families and individuals.

Main building, Children's Home Society.

Today, the private, non-profit Children’s Home Society still provides those services as well as training professionals in the behavioral health fields. Besides family and individual counseling, they work to ease the transition into foster care, matching the child’s background and needs to an appropriate family.
                                                                                 

References: [French], [Hawley]

Hastings Hornell Hart, Preventive Treatment of Neglected Children, Russell Sage Foundation, New York (1910).

Canal Builder and Idaho Falls Mayor Joseph Clark [otd 12/26]

Mayor Clark. Idaho Falls Post-Register.

On December 26, 1837, future Idaho Falls Mayor Joseph A. Clark was born in Randolph County, North Carolina, south of Greensboro. The family owned slaves, but Joseph’s father so opposed the institution that he freed them and later moved the family to Indiana. After graduating from a small Indiana college in 1862, Joseph began a career as a civil engineer.

Starting in 1872, Joseph served five consecutive terms (10 years) as county Surveyor for Hendricks County, Indiana (west of Indianapolis). Then, in the fall of 1885, he and his family moved to (then) Eagle Rock, Idaho. At that time, stock raising far surpassed crop production in the area.

When Clark arrived, a number of cooperatives and private companies were trying to expand regional canal systems to allow greater irrigated agriculture. Joseph found work there and in other projects, including the survey to lay out the town of Iona. Also, in 1887, he landed  a contract from the U. S. General Land Office to survey portions of the Lemhi and Nez Percé Indian reservations.

By the late 1880s, companies had built several larger canals systems and much more extensive acreage came into production. That spurred settlement that helped offset the loss of town population when the railroad shops were moved to Pocatelo in 1887. In 1891, Clark was selected by the governor as an official Idaho delegate “to the great Irrigation Congress to be held at Salt Lake in September … ” That same year, land developers/speculators led a successful campaign to change the town’s name to Idaho Falls. Their promotions were indeed successful in attracting more settlers.

Among the newcomers were farmers who founded New Sweden to the west of Idaho Falls. They then constructed a considerable canal system there, and established the first formal Irrigation District in the Upper Snake River valley. Clark was one of the principles in the construction of the Great Feeder Canal, which delivered its first water in the summer of 1895 [blog, June 22]. The Feeder and its auxiliary canals eventually became the largest irrigation system in the Upper valley.

Great Western Canal construction.
Bonneville County Historical Society.

By 1897, irrigators were operating over 500 miles of major canals in Bingham County alone. (At that time Bingham encompassed today’s Bingham and Bonneville counties.) Besides his investments in canal projects, Clark also operated an Idaho Falls mercantile store.

In 1899, the village Board elected Joseph as its chairman. A year later Idaho Falls qualified as a “city of the second class” – a designation primarily based on population. Clark was then elected as the city’s first mayor.

For several years before that, ambitious developers had tried to promote an electrical power system for the growing city. Clark had been one of the most active backers of the idea. Finally, he and other advocates persuaded voters to pass a bond election for a municipal power plant. As a result, a hydro-power plant soon went into operation [blog, Oct 22].

Joseph left office in 1902. Meanwhile the city continued to grow: The Oregon Short Line railroad built a new station, some streets were paved, two new banks opened, and the main city school was expanded.

Clark passed away in September, 1905. His son Nathan had been the first chairman of the village boards and another – Barzilla – would twice serve as mayor of Idaho Falls. Barzilla [blog, Dec 22] and a third son, Chase, each served a term as Idaho governor. The entire family would play a substantial role in business development in and around Idaho Falls.
                                                                                 

References: [Illust-State]

Annual Report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office for the Year 1887, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. (1887).

Mary Jane Fritzen, Idaho Falls, City of Destiny, Bonneville County Historical Society, Idaho Falls (1991).

“Golden Jubilee Edition, 1884–1934,” Idaho Falls Post-Register (September 10, 1934).

John V. Hadley (Ed.), History of Hendricks County, Indiana … , B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Indiana (1914).