Boise Mayor, Merchant, and Prominent Mason Charles Himrod [otd 11/04]

Mayor Himrod. H. T. French.

Boise merchant and Mayor Charles Himrod was born November 4, 1842, in Burdett, New York, about 55 miles southwest of Syracuse. After completing basic country schooling, he became clerk in a general merchandise store. After eight years of that, he traveled in 1864 with a government-organized emigrant party on the Oregon Trail. The train reached Boise City at the end of September.

Charles decided to settle in the new town and found a job in the dry-goods and general merchandise store owned by Cyrus Jacobs. Jacobs had moved first to Oregon around 1852. After prospectors discovered gold in the Boise Basin, Jacobs headed there with a pack train. Instead of going on, however, he set up a tent store near Fort Boise and helped found Boise City nearby.

By August 1864, he had built a home – the first one made of brick – and was advertising his new permanent store in the Idaho Statesman. Jacobs must have been pleased to find an experienced clerk and bookkeeper in Himrod to help run the store. Himrod remained with that firm for around twelve years, before spending two or three years with another mercantile operation.

He did try to branch out in 1872, serving as business manager and Secretary for a new newspaper called the Idaho Standard (Idaho Statesman, May 2, 1872). That venture soon failed, however.

During the same period, Himrod also served in a number of public offices. He was Mayor of Boise City from 1869 through 1872, part of the time with a concurrent position as Ada County Treasurer (1870-1871). In 1872, “Charley” also served a term in the House of Representatives for Idaho Territory. He was very active in the state Democratic Party structure.

For a few years after about 1878, Himrod ran his own general store. He also returned to public office as the Mayor of Boise City in 1879, and had another stint as Ada County Treasurer.

Then, in 1882, he teamed up with Thomas J. Davis [blog, January 2] to open a dry goods and grocery store, styled “Davis & Himrod.” Like Cyrus Jacobs, Tom Davis was one of the original founders of Boise City. By this time, he owned extensive fruit orchards in the Boise Valley. The initial advertisement in the Idaho Statesman (July 6, 1882) said, “We deal extensively in dried and canned fruits, of our own raising, and better than any of the California or Oregon fruits.”

Main Street, Boise, ca 1912. H. T. French.

Davis & Himrod remained in business through most of the decade. In 1885 and again in 1889, Charley served terms as Treasurer for Idaho Territory. The partnership was dissolved “by mutual consent” after seven years (Idaho Statesman, March 28, 1889), but Himrod continue in the dry good business for another two years or so.

He then liquidated his stock to focus on a new electric trolley project. Later, he acted as an independent business agent, and also went into banking.

During the first decade of the new century, he served four years as a Commissioner for Ada County. Himrod also served for many years as a Director for the Boise School District.

Almost from his arrival in Idaho, Charley took an active part in the Masonic Lodge. For many years he served as Grand Secretary for the state Lodge, and was elected Grand Master in 1879. Starting in 1889, Himrod held the position of Grand Treasurer for the Idaho Lodge for over a quarter century. When Charley died in January 1920, the Lodge played a major role in his memorial and burial service.
                                                                                                                                      

References: [French], [Hawley]

Charles Himrod Papers, MS 512, Idaho State Historical Society, Boise (1985).

“Cyrus Jacobs: December 22 or 23, 1831 – June 28, 1900,” Reference Series No. 580, Idaho State Historical Society (1981).

Daniel W. Church: Locomotive Engineer, Pocatello Mayor, State Senator, and More [otd 10/18]

Versatile pioneer Daniel W. Church was born October 18, 1858 on a ranch near Mankato, Minnesota. In 1879, after five years as a dry goods clerk, he landed a job as a fireman for the Union Pacific in Wyoming. After three years, he was promoted to locomotive engineer. He then worked in Oregon for a time.

Daniel W. Church [Hawley]

Church first came to Idaho in 1883, as an engineer for the Oregon Short Line Railroad. The OSL was then laying track across Idaho and the story is told that Church ran the first train into Weiser in January 1884. Unfortunately, on the return trip, the rear cars of his train toppled off the rails and were wrecked. Although a mechanical failure was the direct cause of the accident, Church was fired anyway.

Daniel found work in North Dakota for a while, but a couple years later he was again an engineer for the OSL in Idaho. Seeing the potential for growth in Pocatello as a major railroad junction, in 1889 he invested in a clothing store there. He kept his railroad job for several months while a partner ran the store, but then committed full time to the business. After two years in the city, Church, with his partner and another investor, commissioned what was reported to be the first brick building in Pocatello. He soon moved the clothing store into part of the structure.

In 1895, Church sold his part of the clothing business to the partner, but kept his interest in the building. Over the next few years, he developed and sold a meat market, purchased a real estate business, and acted as agent for a loan company. In 1907, he sold his real estate company and became cashier for the Bannock National Bank. He retained several real estate holdings, including a farm on the Fort Hall Indian Reservation. He was also treasurer for a petroleum exploration company in Utah. Church became president of the Bannock National Bank in January 1918, but resigned that position when he was appointed to a state office.

Church was active in the city’s Commercial Club, Rotary, and the local Masonic Lodge. In 1901, he was the driving force in establishing an Elks Lodge for Pocatello. A noted raconteur, he was considered “one of the best story tellers and after-dinner speakers in Idaho.”

That ability no doubt served him well in his political career. Church had become active in politics soon after he settled in Pocatello, serving in the county Republican Party organization. He ran for city Treasurer in 1892 and mayor in 1896, but lost both times. Three years later, he was elected to a term in the state Senate. Church also served on the local school board and city council. And, finally, in 1909, he was elected mayor of Pocatello.

Bannock National Bank, ca 1916.
Bannock County Historical Society.

In January 1919, Governor D. W. Davis appointed Church to head the state Insurance Commission, so he moved his family to Boise. At that time, the duties of the Insurance Commissioner included financial oversight that might involve banking institutions. Thus, Church resigned as President of the Bannock National Bank. After serving a second term as Commissioner, Church moved back to Pocatello to manage his business interests.

In 1921, while Church was serving in Boise, the Bannock National Bank had failed, another victim of the postwar agricultural recession. Still, in 1924, he was appointed Receiver to manage the final breakup of the failed First National Bank of American Falls.

About four years later, poor health forced Church to retire and he died in August of 1933.
                                                                                                                                    

References: [Hawley]

“[Dan Church News],” Idaho Statesman, Capital News, Boise, Times-Register, Idaho Falls, Idaho; Standard-Examiner, Ogden, The Tribune, Salt Lake City, Utah (April 1892 – August 1933).

Ben Ysursa, Idaho Blue Book, 2003-2004, The Caxton Printers, Caldwell, Idaho (2003).

Merchant, Legislator, and Public Servant Ezra Monson [otd 09/30]

Ezra Monson. Family archives.

Store owner, and Idaho Senator and Representative Ezra Peter Monson was born September 30, 1874 in Richmond, Utah. Richmond is located about thirteen miles north of Logan, and five miles from the Idaho state line. Ezra’s father came to the U. S. from Norway in 1857, after his conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He continued to Utah as a member of one of the “pushcart companies.” He then married another convert, who was from Sweden.

The family moved to Franklin, Idaho, when Ezra was fourteen years old. Franklin was the first white settlement in what became the Territory and then state of Idaho. Of course, for many years, everyone thought the town was in Utah [blog, January 10]. Monson attended college in Logan for a short time, and married his school sweetheart in 1895. Starting in late 1897, Ezra served two years and a few months as an LDS missionary in Alabama and Florida. About a year after his return, he landed a job as Head Bookkeeper for a lumber company with headquarters east of The Dalles, Oregon.

In late 1908, Monson returned to Franklin and opened a large general store. He also took an active part not only in the LDS church there, but also the school system. Almost immediately, he joined the Franklin school board to begin a long period of service on that body. Then, in 1910, he helped organize the “Oneida County School Trustees’ Association.” The goals of the new organization were “to promote the cause of education, raise the standard of our school system and educate the school trustees of the several districts as to the responsibilities and duties.”

However, three years later, the Idaho legislature split Franklin County off from Oneida, with Preston as the county seat. It’s not clear what happened to the Association at that point. Monson kept busy by taking on the position of Secretary to the Idaho Pioneers' Association at Franklin.

Ezra was also very active in the state Republican Party, serving on many different committees over the years. In 1916, he began the first of two terms in the Idaho House of Representatives. Hawley’s History noted that, for the second term, “He did not seek reelection and never left his town during the campaign but the record which he had already made brought him a large vote.”

After his two terms in the House, Monson served a term in the state Senate, where he Chaired the Committee on Finance. He did not run for re-election. However, the Idaho Statesman reported  (Jan 28, Feb 13, 1923), “Ezra P. Monson of Preston will fill the chair in the house of representatives of the Seventeenth state legislature, made vacant by the resignation of Thomas Preston, if the house concurs in the appointment of Mr. Monson by the governor.”

Blackfoot City Hall. [Hawley]

The appointment was approved, and Ezra filled the House seat for that session. The following month, however, President Warren G. Harding appointed Monson to be the Receiver (basically, the Cashier or Treasurer) of the U. S. Land Office in Blackfoot (Idaho Statesman, Boise, February 13, 1923).

Monson moved his family to Blackfoot to handle this position. But two years later, the Federal government combined the offices of Receiver and Register (Clerk, essentially), leaving Ezra without a job. He therefore opened a grocery store in Blackfoot. Then, in 1931, Monson was himself appointed to the combined Register/Receiver position (Idaho Statesman, October 11, 1931). Ezra remained at that position until his retirement.

Upon his retirement, he moved back to Utah, and passed away in Logan, on May 17, 1941.
                                                                                                                                     

References: [Blue], [Hawley]

“Oneida County Holds School Convention, The Telegram, Salt Lake City, Utah (March 21, 1910).

Idaho Physician-Surgeon Dr. A. Ayer Higgs … Camas Prairie, Gooding, and Boise [otd 08/04]

Dr. Alexander Ayer Higgs was born August 4, 1870 in Owensboro, Kentucky, about eighty miles southwest of Louisville. The Higgs family had been early pioneers in the colonies, arriving around 1650 from Gloucester, England. They settled in Maryland, with descendants proceeding to North Carolina and then, around 1850, to Kentucky. Ayer’s grandfather was a physician, as were several other paternal forebears. 

Dr. Ayer Higgs. [Hawley]

Thus, in early 1894, Higgs enrolled at the Eclectic Medical Institute in Cincinnati. [See blog, February 12, for a discussion of eclectic medicine.] He signed in as “Ayer A.,” the form he preferred for most of his medical career. He received his M.D. in 1896 and operated a practice near his birthplace for a time. He then accepted a teaching position at the Georgia Eclectic Medical College. He married in early 1899 and the couple had their first child, a girl, in Atlanta.

However, Ayer decided the heat and humidity in Georgia were bad for his health, and began to spend more time back in Kentucky. Some years earlier (it’s unclear exactly when), his brother Benjamin had moved to Idaho. In 1900, Ben had a ranch job near Hailey and wrote favorably of the climate and prospects for growth. Finally, in the spring of 1901, Ayer traveled to the state to check it out.

Impressed, Dr. Higgs moved his family to the village of Soldier, located about twenty-five miles southwest of Hailey. The town thrived as a center for farms and ranches supplying the booming gold and silver mines in the high mountains to the northwest. As the only physician for miles around, Ayer’s practice took off, and he soon began investing in ranch properties and a bank. Sadly, the couple’s little girl died there in 1906.

Ayer broadened his horizons after his brother DeWitt, also a physician, joined him around 1907-1908. They opened a hospital in Gooding. Not long after that, the rest of the family – parents and the three youngest brothers – also moved to that town. All told, with Ayer, Benjamin, and DeWitt, the Higgs family included eleven children, all boys. Five of them, however, had already died before the age of five. Ayer’s father passed away in 1910, his mother a year or so later. Then, in early 1914, brother Ben also died.

Meanwhile, the Gooding hospital attracted a solid clientele. As it happened, Ayer himself drew special attention because he proved to be an outstanding surgeon. In fact, he was often called away to perform especially tricky operations. That included going out of state to places like Salt Lake City and Portland. He once boarded a train with a husband whose wife needed his help … in Florida. Finally, in early 1919, he moved to Boise to open a specialized surgical practice.

Dr. Higgs insured that his surgical suite always had the most up-to-date equipment and methodology. He also kept his own skills current, studying in Chicago and regularly at the world-famous Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Reports noted that he was a personal friend of Dr. Charles H. Mayo, co-founder of the clinic. He was a fellow of the American Medical Association and a member of the Idaho State Medical Society. In 1911, he served as a member of the AMA House of Delegates.

Perhaps because of his health, Dr. Higgs moved his practice to Chula Vista, California around 1926. Over the years, he often visited friends and family back in Idaho and Oregon. In the summer of 1940, he fell ill while visiting his brothers in Burns, Oregon, and didn’t recover for several weeks. Not long after that, he retired from active practice. Some time later, he moved into San Diego, where he died September 10, 1943 from a cerebral hemorrhage.
                                                                                 

References:[ Britannica], [Hawley]

“Dr. A. A. Higgs Succumbs To Long Illness,” Chula Vista Star, California (September 17, 1943).

“[Dr. A. A. Higgs News, Statesman],” Idaho Statesman, Boise, Idaho  (March 1908 – September 1940)

“[Dr. A. A. Higgs News, Various Sources],” Owensboro Messenger, Kentucky; Macon Telegraph, Georgia; Shoshone Journal, Twin Falls News, Idaho (October 1899 – September 1939).