Guy Bowerman: Bank Organizer and Investor, and Banking Official [otd 10/08]

East Idaho banker Guy Emerson Bowerman was born October 8, 1866, in Coldwater, Michigan, about forty miles south of Lansing. Armed with just a public school education, Bowerman found bank employment in Dell Rapids, South Dakota (about 20 miles north of Sioux Falls). For fifteen years, he advanced into higher and higher positions at the bank.

St. Anthony in 1907. Vintage postcard.

Then, in 1899, Bowerman moved to St. Anthony, Idaho, the county seat of Fremont County. There, he and some partners organized the Idaho State Bank, and Guy became Cashier* of the firm. In two years, the company designation changed to the First National Bank of Saint Anthony. Bowerman moved up to be President in 1907. Five years later, he sold his interest in the bank.

That did not, however, take Bowerman out of banking. He owned stock in the Rigby State Bank, and held high offices in a number of others: director of the First National Bank of Rexburg, vice president of the Fremont County Bank (Sugar City), and President of the First National Bank of Ashton. He helped organize two of these banks – in Ashton and Sugar City – as well as the First National Bank of Driggs.

Often, he would see a firm through its formative stages and then either divest his holdings or limit his involvement in management. Still, even in 1920, Bowerman held interests in eight different banks around the state of Idaho, as well as two in Salt Lake City. He also had other business interests in Salt Lake.

According to Hawley’s History, Bowerman could have had an extensive political career, but chose to be selective in his public service activities. He did serve one term as mayor of St. Anthony, and one term in the Idaho House of Representative. While in the House, Bowerman chaired the Committee on Appropriations and was a member of the Committee on Banks and Banking.

In 1919, Governor Davis appointed him to be State Commissioner of Finance. Hawley’s History of Idaho asserted that he had to be talked into accepting the appointment, but that “the choice has been most strongly endorsed by public opinion, for Idaho's citizens recognize in Guy Emerson Bowerman a man whose initiative, enterprise and progressiveness have been, and will continue to be of the greatest value to the state.”

Guy Bowerman. J. H. Hawley photo.

Bowerman resigned the Commissioner position within a few months, however, to become General Secretary of the American Bankers Association (The New York Times, November 26, 1919). He had been active in that Association for some time, serving on its Executive Council. (Bowerman also  helped organize the Idaho State Bankers Association and served one term as its president.)

At the Association’s 1927 Annual Convention, he declared that the U. S. was – to use his coined term – “overbanked.” Quite prescient, in retrospect, Bowerman spotted one of several factors that led to the Great Crash of 1929 – too many profit-hungry banks fueling wild stock market speculation.

Bowerman later held an executive position with a Los Angeles investment firm. He died there in March 1940.

* Bank Cashiers held a much higher position than is commonly perceived today. They were significant company officers and could personally write and sign “cashier’s checks” backed by the bank’s reserves. Such a note might circulate like “real” money for some time before being presented for redemption. 
                                                                                                                                     

References: [Blue], [French], Hawley]

“Business & Finance: At Houston,” Time Magazine, (Nov. 07, 1927).

Samuel Eliot Morison, The Oxford History of the American People, Oxford University Press (1965).

Classes Start at College of Idaho, Boise Basin Gold Towns [otd 10/07]

On October 7, 1891, classes began at the new College of Idaho in Caldwell. The Presbyterian Church's Wood River Presbytery began discussing the idea of an Idaho college in 1884. Leaders canvassed the membership and found a considerable groundswell of interest. That interest grew, so in 1889 the Presbytery asked the Reverend William Judson Boone [blog, Nov 5] to explore the idea further.

College of Idaho, ca. 1900. College of Idaho photo.

The 1891 meeting of the Presbytery’s Education Committee accepted an offer of land for the school from the city of Caldwell. (An attempt to attract the school to nearby Nampa was short-lived.) Plans proceeded rapidly to open the new college that fall.

Classes for the first students – 19 of them to start with – were taught in the basement of the Caldwell Presbyterian Church. The institution lays claimed to being the oldest college in Idaho: Although the land-grant University of Idaho was formally authorized earlier, it did not begin classes until 1892. In common with the University, none of the College’s first students were prepared for college-level classes.

That year, College of Idaho moved to its own building in downtown Caldwell. In 1893, Reverend Boone resigned his pastorate to become full-time President of the College, a job he would hold for the rest of his life. Early on, he picked all of the “classically trained faculty,” who became known for their “intelligence and probity.”

The college graduated its first high school equivalent class in 1894, but did not enroll its first full group of college students until 1906. Still, the college grew steadily and, in 1910, moved to a larger campus at what is basically its current location. This privately-supported liberal arts college now has over a thousand students.

On October 7, 1862, miners who had returned to the Boise Basin founded Pioneer City, today’s Pioneerville, on Grimes Creek. George Grimes had led a small band of prospectors into the mountains about two months earlier, chasing a story told by one man’s Indian friend. They did find gold, in considerable quantities, but then Grimes was killed in a skirmish with Indians.

The band of less than a dozen men had seen signs of many Indians in the area.  Thus, they buried Grimes’ body in a deep prospect hole and fled the mountains. Later, a monument was erected in his honor at Grimes Pass. The miners returned in force – fifty to sixty strong – in October and began laying out Pioneer City and recording claims.

By then, word of the discovery had spread, and before winter blocked travel, hundreds of hopeful miners had rushed into the area. In no time at all, other camps sprang into being: Placerville, Centerville, and West Bannock (today’s Idaho City).

Placerville, Lithograph. History of Idaho Territory.

The following spring, thousands of miners poured into the Basin and several mining camps turned into towns. Moreover, the presence of all those prospectors drove the creation of Idaho Territory in March 1863 [blog, March 4]. The first Territorial census enumerated over 15 thousand residents in the Basin, and “conservative” estimates placed that number at 20 thousand by the end of the year.

Miners continued to extract major amounts of gold from the Basin for another eighty years. Over that time, the region yielded over $2 billion worth of gold (using today’s prices). Nor is the area totally played out: Prospectors still find isolated pockets of the precious metal. 
                                                                                                                                     

References: [French], [Illust-State]

Louie W. Attebery, The College of Idaho, 1891-1991: A Centennial History. © The College of Idaho, Caldwell (1991).

“Census of 1863,” Reference Series No. 129, Idaho State Historical Society.

“J. Marion More: Idaho Mining Pioneer (1830-1868),” Reference Series No. 455, Idaho State Historical Society (July 1994).

Merle W. Wells, Gold Camps & Silver Cities, 2nd Edition, Bulletin 22, Idaho Department of Lands, Bureau of Mines and Geology, Moscow, Idaho (1983).

British Canadian Trappers Camp Along the Salmon River [otd 10/06]

On October 6, 1824, a large band of fur traders, trappers, and camp keepers – the so-called "Snake Brigade" – returned to what they called "Canoe Point." (Probably located where the Pahsimeroi River empties into the Salmon, but possibly near Challis.) A unit of the Hudson's Bay Company led by Alexander Ross, the Brigade had earlier hidden their beaver pelts at the spot. At that time, Ross said, "Hiding furs in places frequented by Indians is a risky business."

Now he wrote, "Our cache of May is safe. Length of Salmon River covered this year, 100 miles."

Ship Tonquin, ca 1810. Gabriel Franchère drawing.

A Scotsman, Ross emigrated to Canada in 1804, when he was about twenty-one. He first worked as a schoolmaster and bought some land.

However, he hoped for better prospects in the fur trade. Thus, in 1810, he signed on as a clerk with the Pacific Fur Company [blog, yesterday]. Ross sailed with the ship Tonquin and helped build Astoria in the spring of 1811.

That summer, Ross was a member of the group that established a trading post in (future) Washington. He managed the post for several years, accumulating experience in the trade. When the North West Company (NWC) acquired all of the PFC's western assets, Ross continued working for them.

Donald Mackenzie, another ex-Astorian, led the first Brigade into Idaho in 1816. Two years later, Ross helped build Fort Nez Percés (near today's Walla Walla) and managed the post and its Brigade support operations until 1821.

That year, the British Crown "negotiated" a merger between the NWC and the Hudson's Bay Company. The new management promoted Mackenzie to a post in Canada, and Brigade activities languished for a year. Finally, the HBC appointed an interim leader for the 1823 campaign, then assigned the job to Ross for the following year.

Ross circled through Montana to enter Idaho via Lemhi Pass. Hoping to open new beaver country, he then led the Brigade up the Salmon River. By May, they had done well enough that, as noted above, they cached most of their pelts at Canoe Point.

From there, they had crossed over into the upper Boise River watershed … a very bad idea. Ross observed, "Never did man or beast pass through a country more forbidding or hazardous. The rugged and rocky paths had worn our horses' hoofs to the quick, and we not infrequently stood undecided and hopeless of success."

Mountain pack train. Canadian Archives photo.

The party finally reached the lower Boise. Here, Ross noted, ten of his coworkers with the PFC had been killed by Indians. He also wrote, “At its mouth an establishment was begun by Donald McKenzie in 1819. It was burned and two men killed. In spring 1820, four men more were destroyed by the natives. This river has already cost the whites sixteen men.”

Still, Ross’s expedition did better on the lower Boise, the Payette, and the Weiser before following the Snake upstream into central Idaho. The Brigade next turned generally north, scrambled over the mountains onto the Salmon, and then back to Canoe Point.

Just over a week later, the Snake Brigade met a band of trappers led by Jedediah Smith. These were the first Americans to hunt west of the Continental Divide since the Astorians in 1811-1812, and they ended the British-Canadian fur monopoly in Idaho.

Ross returned to Canada after that season.
                                                                                                                                     

References: [B&W]

Gabriel Franchère, Journal of a Voyage on the North West Coast of North America, Champlain Society, Toronto, Canada (1969).

Frits Pannekoek, “Alexander Ross” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online.

Alexander Ross, T. C. Elliott (Ed.), “Journal of Alexander Ross, Snake Country Expedition, 1824,” Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, Vol. 14 (Dec. 1913).

Fur Traders, the "Overland Astorians," Enter Idaho Via Teton Pass [otd 10/05]

On October 5, 1811, a column of whites led by American Wilson Price Hunt mounted the slope out of Jackson Hole toward Teton Pass: “We climbed it, following an easy and much-traveled trail.  Snow whitened the summit and the northern slopes of the heights.  The Snakes served as our guides … ”

J. J. Astor. Library of Congress.

The Hunt party represented the Pacific Fur Company, founded by fur trade magnate John Jacob Astor [blog, July 17]. Astor, with one American and several British-Canadian partners, created the PFC to exploit the riches described in the reports from the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Over a year earlier, the PFC had sent a shipload of men to establish a Pacific Coast base, Astoria, near the mouth of the Columbia River. Hunt’s “Overland Astorians” had been dispatched from St. Louis, Missouri to explore the country further and then continue on to Astoria. In late May, they encountered three white men traveling down the Missouri River in two small canoes.

The newcomers had spent the winter at a “fort” a few miles west of today’s Ashton, Idaho, on a branch of the Snake River. Andrew Henry, a partner in the St. Louis-based Missouri Fur Company, led the party that built the scattering of huts. For their own reasons, the three men had quit the company and headed east. They had originally traveled west by the route the Astorians planned to use. Now they persuaded Hunt that their more southerly return route was easier, and less exposed to possibly-hostile Indians.

This southern path took them out of the Dakotas into the northeast corner of Wyoming. From there they headed west, then south. In mid-September, Hunt wrote, “One of our hunters who had been on the banks of the Columbia pointed out three immense and snow-covered peaks which, he said, bordered a tributary of the river.”

This was the first recorded observation of les trois tétons, “the Three Tetons,” a famous landmark even to this day. (John Colter [blog, Aug 17] had surely seen them, but he did not keep a journal.)

Finally, a zig-zag trek led them into Jackson Hole. Concerned by the precipitous country and the wildness of the Snake – they called it the “Mad River” – Hunt sent a few explorers downstream. Soon, these men confirmed his worst fears: The river was too dangerous and the ranges practically impassable.

Fortunately, they encountered the Snake (Shoshone or Bannock) Indians who led them over Teton Pass. The Astorians then marched to “Henry’s Fort.” Happy to have reached a tributary of the Columbia, Hunt had the men construct dugout canoes from the abundant cottonwood trees. He assumed, quite erroneously, they could now cruise down the Snake and Columbia to reach their Pacific base.

Snake River upstream from the Idaho Falls. National Archives.

But even before the voyagers reached Idaho Falls (the actual Falls, not the present city), whitewater upset two canoes and cost them vital supplies. They were then wise enough to portage their gear around the Falls and lead their canoes through on long ropes. Hunt wrote, “The river narrows between two sheer mountain walls to not more than sixty feet, in a few places to even less.”

They had to portage again at American Falls, but also found long stretches that fed their unwarranted complacency about the river. That would change before the month was out [blog, Oct 28].
                                                                                                                                     

References: [B&W]

Wilson Price Hunt, Hoyt C. Franchère (ed. and translator), Overland diary of Wilson Price Hunt, Ashland Oregon Book Society (1973).

James P. Ronda, Astoria and Empire, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln (1990).

First Women on Jury Duty and in the Legislature in Idaho [otd 10/04]

On October 4, 1897, Idaho saw its first trial in which women sat on the jury – they having been granted equal suffrage the year before [blog, Nov 3]. Quoting historian Hiram T. French: “The women who, with W. R. Cartwright and R. F. Cooke, served on this jury were Mrs. R. E. Green, Miss Frances Wood, Mrs. Boyakin, and Mrs. E. J. Pasmore.”

All-woman Jury, Later. Library of Congress.

All the women included in that first jury had been active in the Idaho women’s suffrage campaign. Mrs. Richard E. Green owned the Meridian Creamery. Her husband was a trained civil engineer, managed the Ridenbaugh Canal for a time, and had business interests in Boise and Nampa.

Miss Frances Wood was very active in various Boise social and civic-improvement organizations, and served for many years as Deputy Clerk for Ada County. She also campaigned for the 19th Amendment, giving women the right to vote nation-wide.

Mrs. Boyakin’s husband was Adoniren J. “Jud” Boyakin. A long-time newspaperman, Jud had come to Idaho in 1864, originally working at the Idaho Statesman. From around 1877 until his death in 1899, he was owner and editor of the Idaho Democrat newspaper in Boise.

Mrs. Edward J. Pasmore worked in the advertising department for the Women’s Edition of the Idaho Statesman. Her husband, Professor Pasmore, taught music and singing, and had given speeches supporting women’s suffrage.

The trial they sat for involved a suit brought by Dr. Richard M. Fairchild against the Ada County Commissioners. He had billed the County $125 for an inquest and an autopsy he had performed. They had refused to pay the full amount, offering him just $25. An earlier trial had ended in an impasse, so the judge directed that a mixed jury be assembled for a new attempt.

The Idaho Statesman reported on the trial the next day, October 5, 1897. The panel selected Mrs. Green as their Foreman. The results showed their inexperience, but also a deep concern for law and justice. After over six hours of deliberation, they emerged and Green told the judge they could not agree. When she briefly described the problem, with some key details, the judge said, “You must not disclose the nature of your deliberations.”

Mrs. Green replied, “Well, that is the way we stand.”

According to the Statesman, “Miss Wood spoke up, saying it all hinged on one point.” There was some confusion about what evidence the county had actually presented. It seemed to boil down to the County Attorney’s opinion that “the services were not worth so much.” After some thought, the judge observed that “the county had introduced no witnesses” so there really was “no evidence on its side.”

Minutes later the panel returned from another session in the jury room and awarded the doctor the full amount.

Aside from immediately serving on juries, women quickly tested their newly-won vote. In 1898, three women – Clara Campbell, Hattie Noble, and Mary Wright – won election to the Idaho House of Representatives. They did not serve a second term, and it was not until 1915 that another female was elected. [ Photo of first women legislators.]*

In 1935, the first woman was appointed to the Idaho Senate, and four years later another woman won election to a seat. But only since the 1970s have women appeared regularly in the Idaho legislature.

* The Idaho State Historical Society holds the copyright on this photo and charges a usage fee. (As a member, I know the organization needs the money, but since my blog generates no income, I am not in a position to pay.)
                                                                                                                                     

References: [French]

Articles in the Idaho Statesman, Boise (1895-1921) … too numerous to list.

“Adoniren J. (‘Jud’) Boyakin: 1836- March 28, 1899,” Reference Series No. 568, Idaho State Historical Society (1981).

Civil Engineer, Surveyor, Stock Breeder, and Farmer David O. Stevenson [otd 10/03]

Civil engineer and County Surveyor David Osborn Stevenson was born October 3, 1851 in Dayton, Ohio. After high school, he moved to California and engaged in stock raising, mainly sheep. However, drought and poor agricultural conditions ruined that operation.

David O. Stevenson. [French]

He went to work as an apprentice in engineering for the Union Pacific Railroad, working mainly on spur line construction in Kansas and Nebraska. Around 1882, he transferred to the Oregon Short Line (OSL) and helped complete the tracks across Idaho into Oregon.

Impressed by what he saw in the Boise Valley, Stevenson settled in the area in 1885 and began civil engineering work for the Settlers Canal. The Settlers branches off the south side of the Boise River a mile or so west of the capital building. The Idaho Statesman reported (March 18, 1890) that the company directors wanted to extend the canal and had “determined to send for D. O. Stevenson, the engineer of the company, and prosecute the work as soon as the proper survey is made.”

After that, David worked on a number of different canal and reservoir projects. However, he also bought property somewhere near Eagle and went back into ranching. There, he raised blooded draft horses, for which he often won prizes at the county fair. He also raised grain, both as feed for his animals and for sale to millers. Stevenson held that property until 1908, when he moved into Boise to pursue other interests.

People in the Boise Basin had long wanted a railroad to bring in heavy equipment and export timber. Several failed attempts had been made, but hopes finally ran high at the start of a new century. On October 10, 1901, the Statesman told its readers, “The railway project from Boise to the Boise basin is being put on a firm foundation. Work has actually begun, a large surveying party now being in the field under the supervision of the chief engineer of the new company, D. O. Stevenson.”

Survey Team, ca 1901. National Archives.

However, for various reasons, that effort also fell through. Not until 1914 did work begin on a rail line from the valley up Mores Creek into the Basin. Trains began hauling logs out in May of the following year. Apparently, much of the main line followed the route surveyed by Stevenson over a decade earlier.

David also had an interest in a least one industrial venture. The Idaho Statesman reported (June 9, 1919) that Stevenson was in charge of production for “the Sand-Lime Brick Company, owned and operated entirely by Boise capital, and for the first time in more that a year the plant is once more in operation.”

Sand-lime bricks are produced by compression molding and then curing under high-pressure steam. They are more uniform in size, with straighter edges and smoother surfaces than conventional clay bricks. According to the Statesman, “Practically all the white brick buildings in Boise have been made out of bricks produced in this plant, prominent among which are the new high school, the Pinney building, and now some 450,000 bricks have been ordered for the construction of the Roosevelt school.”

Over the following years, Stevenson would serve on the Ada County Commissioner as well as several terms as the County Surveyor. After his last stint as Surveyor, he resumed his private practice. David kept it up until about a month before his death, at age 88, in April 1940.
                                                                                                                                     

References: [French]

“D. O. Stevenson, Surveyor, Dies,” Idaho Statesman, Boise (April 13, 1940).

Evan E. Filby, Boise River Gold Country, Sourdough Publishing, Idaho Falls, Idaho (2012).

“Sand-Lime Brick – Description and Specification,” Circular of the Bureau of Standards No. 109, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. (1921).

Prospectors led by Elias Pierce Find Gold on Orofino Creek [otd 10/02]

E. D. Pierce. [Hawley]

Speaking of this day in October 1860, Captain Elias D. Pierce said, “[On] the second we moved down and camped on the stream, afterwards called Oraphenia creek. Here we found better prospects than further up the stream where we first made the discovery, which was a sufficient guarrentee that we had a rich and extensive mining camp, and organized a new mining district, and gave its boundaries, drafted a code of mining laws, to govern our new mining district.”

Their discovery of gold near what would soon become the town of Pierce set off a rush into Idaho that transformed an “empty wilderness” into a thriving U. S. Territory. Of course, the region was not really empty. In fact, the only reasonable access to the gold fields ran right through the Nez Percé Indian Reservation. Many subsequent finds were actually inside the reservation boundary established in 1855.

Elias Pierce was born in 1824 or 1825, most likely in Virginia. (He always gave that or West Virginia as his birthplace to census takers, and suggestions that he emigrated from Ireland are based on probably flawed evidence.) Pierce enlisted in the Army for the 1846-1848 Mexican War, but saw only minor action. After his discharge, Pierce joined the stampede into the California gold fields. He did quite well there, both as a miner and as a storekeeper – he even served a term in the California legislature.

Unfortunately, that soon changed: First, a partner absconded with the company’s funds, then a major customer defaulted. Conflict with Pacific Northwest Indians complicated his efforts to recoup his fortunes.

Still, Pierce now had an unexpected asset: He spoke the Nez Percé language and had traded with the tribe on good terms for several years. His party did avoid confrontations on their way to make the gold discovery, then they marched out openly and had no trouble with surprised tribesmen.

Gold in the pan. National Park Service.

While fear of the Nez Percé checked an early flood of prospectors, many from Pierce’s party returned to Orofino Creek and built cabins for their winter stay. Wise in the ways of gold mania, Pierce did not go with them. He went to Olympia, the Territorial capital, and secured the franchise for a wagon road between Walla Walla and the Nez Percé country.

Pierce tried to continue in the freight business through about 1866, but without any notable success. He then prospected in Montana and mined coal in Montana before going east to Indiana in 1869 and getting married. He died there, virtually penniless, in 1897.

Meanwhile, back in 1860-61, legislators had made Pierce City the county seat of a brand new Shoshone County, although they had only Captain Pierce’s word that the village existed. They created the county in early January and concluded an agreement with the Nez Percé three months later: Whites could freely prospect and mine the watersheds of the Clearwater and Snake rivers within the reservation, but absolutely no permanent settlement was allowed.

Pierce City, technically outside the reservation, blossomed during the following summer, starting from the core of winter cabins. However, the best placers in the area soon played out and the population dropped from a peak of over a thousand to just 131 in 1864. Still, it held on as the county seat until 1885, when that moved to Murray.
                                                                                                                                     

References: [B&W], [Brit], [Illust-North]

“Census of 1864,” Reference Series No. 130, Idaho State Historical Society.

Elias D Pierce., as told to Lula Jones Larrick, The Pierce Chronicle, Idaho Research Foundation, Inc., Moscow, Idaho (1975).

Spain Returns Louisiana to France, L&C Expedition Builds Canoes [otd 10/01]

On October 1, 1800, by the (poorly-kept) “secret” Treaty of San Ildefonso, Spain returned what might be called “greater” Louisiana to France. “Returned” because Spain had received the region from France in 1762-63, during the latter stages of the Seven Years War. The Great Power details of the Treaty transactions don’t concern us.

Napoleon Bonaparte
Portrait by Jacques-Louis David, here cropped.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson dispatched “envoy extraordinaire” James Monroe to France to second our minister there in negotiations to reopen the Mississippi River to American traffic. If they couldn’t buy New Orleans, they were to obtain a “perpetual” right of transit to the Gulf.

Instead, of course, Napoleon sold all of Louisiana to the U.S. He was about to renew the war with Great Britain, needed the money, and knew he might lose the region anyway.

The mission to France addressed the immediate concerns of Jefferson’s constituents west of the Appalachians, but the President also had larger plans. He had a long-standing interest in exploring the West. Then he learned that a British-Canadian fur trader had crossed the Continental Divide, and reached the Pacific via a land route.

He decided to counter with an American expedition … to bolster a claim on the vast northwest region. Thus, when the negotiators returned, preparations for the Lewis & Clark Expedition were already in progress. The Purchase simply meant that the Corps of Discovery would be exploring American territory as far as the Continental Divide.

On the same day five years after the Treaty consummation -- October 1, 1805 -- Sergeant Patrick Gass of the Corps wrote in his journal, “This was a fine pleasant warm day. All the men are now able to work; but the greater number are very weak. To save them from hard labour, we have adopted the Indian method of burning out the canoes.”

They had started canoe construction a few days earlier, but the work had gone slowly because many men suffered from intestinal complaints, probably because of a switch to an unfamiliar diet of roots and dried fish. Stephen Ambrose, in his excellent book about the Corps, Undaunted Courage, wrote that they “put them over a slow-burning fire trench and burned them out.”

Idaho Travel Council.

While it can be done that way, and perhaps some were, an alternate method is as effective and much more controllable: piling hot coals on the surface and letting them eat into the wood. Periodically, workers scoop off the coals and chop out the charred wood. They did at least a few that way because Sergeant John Ordway wrote, “built fires on some of them to burn them out. Found them to burn verry well.”

The canoes were completed less than a week later. The final transport vessels weighed well over a ton.

They set out down the Clearwater River on the 7th. The very next day, they had their first mishap on the river: The canoe piloted by Sergeant Gass hit a hidden rock and cracked. One man was slightly injured, and most of their load got wet. They spent the next day letting the baggage dry and fixing the canoe.

The following day they reached the Snake River, leaving (the future) Idaho. They would not return for six months.
                                                                                                                                     

References: [Brit]

Stephen E. Ambrose, Undaunted Courage, Simon & Shuster, New York (1996).

Patrick Gass, Carol Lynn Macgregor (ed.), The Journals of Patrick Gass, Mountain Press Publishing Company; Missoula, Montana (1997).

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Gary E. Moulton (Ed.), The Definitive Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln (2002). Journals Online.

Stockman, Banker, Merchant, and Legislator Thomas Stanford [otd 9/30]

Thomas Stanford.
H. T. French photo.

Idaho stockman, developer, and legislator Thomas Charles Stanford was born September 30, 1865, in Logan, Utah. The family moved to Salt Lake City four years later, and by 1880, Thomas was working in a grocery store there. Later, he attended Brigham Young Academy (now University). In about 1884, he sought employment near Albion, Idaho, and then along the Little Wood River.

The year before, his brother Cyrus had taken up a homestead in the Little Wood valley. When Thomas arrived, he too claimed a homestead in the area. Cyrus lived on the property only long enough to “prove up” his claim and then returned to Salt Lake. Thomas stayed in the area, but mostly worked as cowboy, stage driver, and freighter.

Although existing records do not say, it seems likely Thomas watched over the family properties over the next decade. In 1895, he settled down to raising sheep on land near Carey. Cyrus returned four years later, and Thomas married in 1900. As his resources grew, Thomas added cattle, horses, and hogs to his mix of livestock.

After another decade, Stanford owned two properties, both of which were well irrigated. Overall he was, according to H. T. French, “regarded as one of the most successful producers of live stock in Idaho …”

Stanford served in the lower house of the Idaho legislature for a term starting in 1907.

In 1908-1910, he was president of the Idaho Wool Growers’ Association (Idaho Statesman, December 8, 1909). During his term, he organized a meeting of Western wool growers that led to the creation of the National Wool WareHouse and Storage Company. This cooperative firm soon built a substantial warehouse in Chicago. The wool growers’ intent was to deal collectively with buyers to regularize pricing and avoid wide swings in the supply-demand situation.

Sheep On The Move. U. S. Department of Agriculture.

Governor James H. Hawley appointed Stanford to the state Livestock Board in about 1910-1912. According to H. T. French, his reputation was such that “he was urged by many friends all over the state to enter the field as candidate for governor, but declined to take part in this fashion.”

Stanford considered such talk a joke, but partly blamed himself. Unimpressed by the initial array of gubernatorial candidates, supporters told Thomas he was “about as big as some of these others who are running for governor.” In a jovial mood at the time, Stanford had agreed. But, he told the Idaho Statesman (February 16, 1912), “There is nothing to it. I never thought of such a thing.”

Around 1918, Thomas phased out his sheep and horse holdings but kept a sideline in cattle along with, apparently, a considerable hog operation. The remainder of his property he devoted to crop agriculture.

Stanford also had business interests in the small town of Carey. He helped organize the local telephone company, and served the firm as Vice President and then President. He also helped form the Carey State Bank and served as President of the town’s Cooperative Store.

Active for many years with the Mormon Church, Stanford served a three-year mission in New Zealand as well as two years in the United States.

Ill health led him to move to Boise in 1945, and he died there in January of the following year.
                                                                                                                                     

References: [French], [Hawley]

Don P. Haacke, “Biographical Sketch: Thomas C. Stanford,” The Thomas C. Stanford Papers, MSS 12, Boise State University Special Collections (1976).

John T. Haas, David L. Holder, "Livestock and Wool Cooperatives," Cooperative Information Report 1, Section 14, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Government Printing Office (May 1979).

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).

Packer, Merchant, Theater Enthusiast, and Boise Mayor James Pinney [otd 09/29]

James Pinney. H. T. French photo.

James A. Pinney – dubbed the “Father of Modern Boise” by historian Hiram T. French – was born September 29, 1835, near Columbus, Ohio. The family later moved to Iowa, and from there James traveled to California. He spent many years in California, returned to Iowa, then prospected around Pike’s Peak in Colorado and the Rogue River in Oregon. He saw some action in the Rogue River Indian War.

In 1862, he led pack trains from Oregon into the lower Salmon River gold fields. The following year, he moved to Idaho City and opened a general store. Pinney also built a theater there. Unfortunately, he had to rebuild his store after one of the fires that swept through the town [blog, May 17] burned him out. In 1872, Pinney moved to Boise City to operate a bookstore he had opened there three years earlier.

The Owyhee Avalanche in Silver City, Idaho told (August 26, 1876) its readers that James Pinney & Co. had forwarded the “latest numbers of Frank Leslie’s Illustrated and Harper’s Weekly. Messrs. P. & Co. are agents for these and many other publications and will fill all orders that may be forwarded [to] them for any of the same from any section of the Territory.”

In 1881, Boise City voters elected Pinney as their mayor and he set out to correct some deficiencies in the town’s infrastructure: The city purchased the main private bridge across the river and did away with its toll schedule. It also designated a new area for the cemetery, today’s Morris Hill Cemetery.

Leading by example, Pinney personally paid for a concrete sidewalk on the block in front of his own home. Others soon followed his lead. During a second term, the mayor directed the construction of Boise’s first sewer system, and grew the town by annexing a half-mile wide area extending to the river itself.

Boise City had made do with various small schools – some subscription, some free. In 1881, the Territorial Legislature created the Boise Independent School District. Under Pinney, the city opened the all-grades “Central School” near downtown. Critics complained that the facility was too large … a waste of tax dollars. A rapidly growing student population soon proved the administration’s far-sighted wisdom.

Pinney declined to run for the next two mayoral terms, but served two more starting in 1889. The mayor again encouraged progressive developments around the city. That included several private facilities – an electric trolley, a Natatorium that used natural geothermal waters, and a fine new bank. Pinney also spearheaded construction of a new City Hall, opened for use in May 1893.

Downtown Boise, ca 1898. [Illust-State]

Pinney did not run again for mayor until 1903, when he lost. He won two years later. During this, his final term, Pinney focused on expanding and upgrading the sewer system, and improving Boise’s streets. Traffic jams due to increased automobile use had already been reported in several cities. The mayor saw that thoroughfares of graded dirt and gravel would soon be unacceptable.

A committed theater fan, Pinney gave Boise City the Columbia (a state-of-the-art, for 1892, opera house) and then the Pinney Theater in 1908. French’s History asserted that The Pinney “would do credit to a city of several times Boise’s population.”

Although James seemed in good health for a man of 78, he took ill and died suddenly in February 1914.
                                                                                                                                     

References: [French], [Illust-State]

Sue Paseman, Ann Felton, “Father of Modern Boise: James Alonzo Pinney,” Mayoral Albums – Portraits of Boise Mayors, Boise State University (2004-2009).

Army Pathfinder John C. Fremont at The Cedars on the Snake River [otd 09/28]

John C. Fremont, ca 1861-1865.
Matthew Brady photo, Library of Congress.

On September 28, 1843, an expedition led by Second Lieutenant John C. Frémont reached a point along the Snake River that would later be called “The Cedars.”

In August, Frémont’s command had explored the area around the Great Salt Lake, and then turned north into Idaho. At various times he sent men, including famous guide Kit Carson, to Fort Hall for provisions. In the 1830s, Carson had trapped much of northern Utah and southern Idaho. He learned more about trails further west from trappers and traders who had been to the coast and back.

Frémont first gained a name for himself on successful surveying expeditions between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. That notoriety and his personal charisma allowed him to woo and wed Jessie Benton, daughter of Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton. (This despite the stigma of Frémont’s illegitimate birth.)

With Senator Benton’s backing, Frémont led successive survey parties west, including one that reached Wyoming’s South Pass, and then this 1843 trek. In mid-September, they left the Bear River watershed and marched toward the Snake River, camping near American Falls. Then, for September 28th, Frémont wrote, “at evening we found a sheltered camp, where there was an abundance of wood, at some elevated rocky islands covered with cedar, near the commencement of another long cañon of the river.” [My emphasis.]

Sixty years later, Milner Dam [blog, May 7] would be built near Frémont’s campsite at The Cedars. However, the presence of the Snake River canyon was of more immediate concern, because downstream from their camp it was almost impossible to descend to obtain water. Instead, they had to cut across a largely arid, sometimes rocky plain. Frémont wrote, “We encamped about 5 o’clock on Rock Creek – a stream having considerable water, a swift current, and wooded with willow.”

The next day brought another distinctive landmark. Frémont wrote, “Immediately opposite us, a subterranean river bursts out directly from the face of the escarpment.” Crystal Spring is a feature of today’s Thousand Springs State Park.

Three days later, they encountered the difficult Snake River ford that later travelers called the “Three Island Crossing,” near today's Glenns Ferry. Early fall rains had caused the river to rise, and the surveyors had to resort to their inflatable boat to cross.

Four days after that, Frémont wrote, “We came suddenly in sight of the broad green line of the valley of the Rivière Boisée (wooded river).”

After noting that the upstream course turned sharply into “lofty mountains,” the party descended to “the bottoms of the river, which is a beautiful rapid stream, with clear mountain water, and, as the name indicates, well wooded with some varieties of timber – among which are handsome cottonwoods.”

Old Fort Boise, E. Weber & Co. Lithograph.
National Archives.

They followed along the river to (old) Fort Boise, where, Frémont said, “We were received with an agreeable hospitality by Mr. Payette, an officer of the Hudson’s Bay Company.”

They again used their boat, and two borrowed canoes, to cross the Snake River, which they found “broad and deep.” The following day they crossed the future Idaho-Oregon border into “very mountainous country.” The party arrived at the first white settlements in late October. Frémont and a few men went on to Fort Vancouver.

To that point, just over a thousand emigrants had crossed Idaho into Oregon, relying on advice from trappers and sketchy missionary reports. Frémont’s published report, with maps, became a vital guide for Oregon Trail pioneers who followed much the same route across Idaho.
                                                                                                                                     

References: [Brit]

Brevet Captain J. C. Fremont, Report of the Exploring Expedition to The Rocky Mountains … [1842-1843], Printed by order of the Senate of the United States, Washington D.C. (1845).

Jim Gentry, In the Middle and On the Edge, College of Southern Idaho (2003).

John D. Unruh, Jr, The Plains Across, University of Illinois Press, Urbana (1979).

Physician, Businessman, and Civic-Improvement Leader Robert Lee Nourse [otd 09/27]

Dr. Nourse. Illustrated History photo.

On September 27, 1864, Boise physician Dr. Robert Lee Nourse was born about 45 miles southwest of Louisville, Kentucky. He came from a distinguished lineage, with ancestors who fought in the American Revolution. Moreover, one of those hung during the hysteria of the Salem witch trials was his many-times-removed grandmother, Rebecca (Towne) Nurse.

He attended a high school academy in his home state and then, at age seventeen, went to work in an Uncle’s hotel in Wisconsin. After several years there, he entered the Rush Medical College in Chicago. Robert completed his medical degree in 1889 and opened a practice at a lake port east of Duluth. He then worked with an eye, ear, nose and throat specialist in Chicago for two years before returning north.

In 1897, Dr. Nourse moved to Hailey, Idaho, where he developed a thriving general practice. Within a year or so, the governor appointed him to the Idaho Board of Medical Examiners, which he served as secretary and treasurer. A member of the State Medical Society, Nourse was the organization’s President in 1905 (Idaho Statesman, October 6, 1905).

During his address to the Society, Nourse roundly criticized a judge who had tried to overturn a Board decision denying a license to one applicant. (The judge had taken it upon himself to “materially raise” the applicants grades.) The judge responded by slapping Nourse with a contempt charge and a $300 fine. In the end,  physicians statewide chipped in to pay the entire amount.

Soon after that, the Idaho Supreme Court ruled (Idaho Statesman, January 21, 1906) that the Board had acted properly, within the powers granted to it by the legislature. (The Court did not address the matter of the contempt charge.)

By the time all this happened, Nourse had left Idaho for an extended course of specialist study, first in New York City and then in Europe.

Upon his returned, he opened a practice in Boise, specializing in eye, ear, nose and throat medicine. Certified by the American Board of Otolaryngology, Dr. Nourse was also a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.

Along with his practice, Dr. Nourse invested in a wide variety of business enterprises. For example, he served as a Director and also acted as Secretary for the Empire Hardware Company. He was associated with the YMCA, YWCA, and the Presbyterian church.

His wife, Marie, became a leader in several civic improvement organizations, including a term as President of the Columbian Club. Some of their causes included improvements at the library, creation of parks, and a campaign against objectionable street signs. She appeared in the 1914-1915 issue of Who’s Who in America (The American Commonwealth Company, New York, 1914).

The source caption for the photograph says the American
driver of the ambulance was killed in November 1916.

The couple's two sons, Robert L., Jr. and Norman C., served with the American Field Service in France during World War I. The AFS provided volunteer ambulance drivers to recover wounded from the front lines – the first time motor vehicles had been used for that purpose. Robert Jr. was burned about the face and eyes by mustard gas and also received the Croix de Guerre.

In 1918, Dr. Nourse helped organize Idaho’s section of the nation-wide Volunteer Medical Service Corps (Idaho Statesman, August 30, 1918). For many years, Dr. Nourse served on the staffs of St. Luke's and St. Alphonsus hospitals in Boise. He passed away in June 1949.
                                                                                                                                     

References: [French], [Illustrated-State]

History of the American Field Service in France, Houghton Mifflin company, New York (1920).

"Cite American Officer: French Decorate Lieut. R.L. Nourse, Jr., for Bravery Under Fire," New York Times, (March 3, 1918).

Loyal P. Brown: North Idaho Merchant, Rancher, Developer, and Legislator [otd 09/26]

Loyal P. Brown.
Historical Museum at St. Gertrude,
Cottonwood, Idaho.

North Camas Prairie businessman, rancher, investor, and public servant Loyal P. Brown was born September 26, 1829 in Stratford, New Hampshire, in the northeast corner of the state.

His mercantile experience began when he was 16 years old. After a few years of that, he became a Forty-Niner, traveling the isthmus route to California. He did well in the gold fields, and then with stores he opened in northern California and in Oregon. After a year back East, he returned to Oregon and settled in the Umpqua Valley.

When gold was discovered near Florence, he brought his family to Idaho. In July 1862, they reached the waystation of Mose Milner, near the southeast edge of the Camas Prairie. Sensing opportunity, Brown and a partner purchased what would become Mount Idaho.

Brown, a life-long temperance advocate, disagreed with his partner about building a saloon onto the hotel, so Brown bought him out three years later. The structure then housed a post office, with Brown as postmaster, and a modest store. L. P. also opened a small blacksmith shop. Brown’s holdings grew extensively: many leased lots in Mount Idaho, a grist mill, another store in Elk City, and a substantial ranch. The ranch held “quite a band of cattle” and exported horses into Montana.

Mount Idaho Courthouse, built in the early 1870s. [Hawley]

Brown represented Nez Perce County on the 1874-75 Territorial Council. (He had also held that office in 1866-67.) During that session, he worked a bill through the legislature that redrew county boundaries, resulting in the selection of Mount Idaho as the county seat of Idaho County. That fueled even further growth before the Nez Perce War broke out.

L.P. played a major leadership role in the 1877 War: His dispatches provided the first warning of the outbreak to the Army units at Fort Lapwai. He also supplied materials and supervised construction of a hastily-built stockade on a hill just north of Mount Idaho. Rifles could still cover the town from the high ground, while the fort provided shelter for all who had to flee their homesteads.

Brown expanded further after the war. Merchants added new structures on a hill just north of Mount Idaho. and he built a steam sawmill northeast of town. Elsewhere, he bought up much of the town of Cottonwood and encouraged its growth: a post office in 1879, a blacksmith shop, and, in 1880, a store and Brown’s own hotel. For four to five years during the mid-Eighties, the town also served as a gathering center for cattle and horses. Cottonwood became quite a lively place during the main roundups, and locals recalled informal rodeos with bronco and bull riding.

During the early 1880s, Brown broadened his holdings even more to include six or seven thousand head of sheep along with his cattle and horses. Of course, he wasn’t the only stockman. On July 20, 1885, ranchers in Idaho County created the Idaho County Stock Growers' Association. (As elsewhere in the state, one of their main concerns was rustling). The Association elected Brown as its first president.

Settlers continued to arrive in the area and, in July and August of 1887, leaders organized the Idaho County Pioneer Association [blog, July 16]. Again, L. P. Brown was its first president.

Brown even found time to invest in Clearwater mining ventures. However, he sold perhaps his most promising lode mine property to a California firm in early 1894. He passed away in April 1896.
                                                                                                                                     

References: [Illust-North]

M. Alfreda Elsensohn, Eugene F. Hoy (ed.), Pioneer Days in Idaho County, Caxton Printers, Caldwell, Idaho (1951).

Idaho Attorney General Roy Black, "Lady Bluebeard" Prosecutor [otd 09/25]

Attorney Roy Black.
J. H. Hawley photo

Idaho Attorney General Roy L. Black was born September 25, 1878 in Lagrange County, Indiana, about forty miles east of South Bend. He became a teacher at an early age and continued for a number of years in the county schools near his parent’s home. After some advanced study at Valparaiso University and an institute in Michigan, he entered the University of Michigan Law School.

Roy drove a stagecoach in Yellowstone National Park during one summer while he was at the University. He graduated with an LL.B. in 1907, having served as Associate Editor of the Michigan Law Review during his junior year. Soon after graduation, Black formed a partnership with Nicodemus D. Wernette, a Law School classmate, and they moved to Coeur d'Alene.

Earlier that year, Kootenai County had been drastically reduced in size by the creation of Bonner County. Coeur d'Alene became the county seat of this smaller Kootenai County in 1908.

The firm of Black & Wernette operated successfully for over a decade, even as the partners also found positions in public service. In 1909, Black was elected to a two-year term as City Attorney for Coeur d'Alene. The following year, Wernette was elected Prosecuting Attorney for Kootenai County, and Black was elected to a term in the Idaho House of Representatives. There, leaders made him chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

During his term, Roy sponsored an act known as the “Black Law,” which allowed cities of over 2,500 population to adopt a commission form of government. The Black Law generated a great deal of controversy, especially when advocates applied it to Boise, which operated under a special Charter. Still, in a close election (52-48%), voters did overturn the Charter.

In 1918, the Republican Party nominated Black as their candidate for Attorney General and he won easily. He was also elected for a second term.

The most famous case of Black's period as Attorney General involved the trial of serial killer Lyda Southard, variously known as “Idaho’s Lady Bluebeard,” “Flypaper Lyda,” Lyda Trueblood (her birth name), or any of her numerous married names.

Lyda [Southard etc]. Associated Press.

Lyda’s family had moved to Twin Falls in 1906. There, in 1912, she married Robert Dooley, who died three years later. Forensic evidence eventually showed, with varying degrees of certainty, that he, his brother, a daughter, and three husbands that followed, all died from arsenic poisoning – apparently extracted from many, many sheets of flypaper.

Paul Southard, her husband at the time of the trial, escaped that fate, as did two later spouses. Showing arsenic as the means, life insurance payoffs as the motive, and (sometimes) apple pie as the opportunity, Roy and the team of prosecutors convicted Lyda for the murder of her fourth husband.

In 1923, after his final term as Attorney General, Black moved to Pocatello. There, he became heavily involved in legal issues associated with reclamation and irrigation enterprises. He played a role in the American Falls Dam Project. Besides his thriving law practice, he also served as Chairman of the Pocatello school board in 1929, and was an active member of the Chamber of Commerce. 

In 1937, Roy’s son John, who had attained a law degree three years earlier, joined him in his practice. In 1950-51, the two were involved in a very interesting dispute in Chubbuck (just north of Pocatello). One faction wanted to incorporate 15 acres containing just the business district, rather than the 345 acres approved earlier by the county commissioners. The advocates for the larger size won

Roy retired in 1965, when his wife of over fifty years died. He passed away in August 1970. In honor of his long association with the Pocatello Elks Lodge, the Exalted Ruler conducted his funeral.
                                                                                                                                     

References: [Blue], [French], [Hawley]

William C. Anderson, Lady Bluebeard: The True Story of Love and Marriage, Death and Flypaper, Fred Pruett Books (1994).

“Roy L. Black – Longtime Pocatello Attorney Dies,” Idaho State Journal, Pocatello, Idaho (August 16, 1970).

“[Chubbuck Size Dispute],” Idaho State Journal, Pocatello, Idaho (December 1950 – February 1951).

“‘Flypaper Lyda’ and Her Special Apple Pie,” Newsletter, Idaho Legal Historical Society, Boise Idaho (January 2010).

Cattleman Con Shea Drives Texas Longhorns to Owyhee Ranches [otd 09/24]

On September 24, 1870, the Owyhee Avalanche (Silver City, Idaho) published the following item: “From Texas – Con Shea, one of Owyhee's most adventurous and enterprising citizens, just got back from Texas. He and Tom Bugbee left here in March last, since that time they have purchased in Texas, and driven to within one hundred miles of Denver City, some 1300 head of cattle. Bugbee remains with the stock, which will winter on the waters of the Arkansas river. Grass is very short along the route, which accounts for their not coming on this season.”

Longhorns on the move.
International Texas Longhorn Association.

Originally from Canada, Cornelius “Con” Shea arrived in Idaho in the spring of 1864. He worked as a miner and then teamster for awhile, but by 1867 had established himself as a cattleman. The following year, a well-off rancher bankrolled him to go to Texas and bring back a herd of longhorns. (Texas had a “glut” of cattle, and prices were low.)

Con started east, but at Raft River ran into a drive already on its way from Texas. The owners agreed to sell him the herd. Con drove the cattle to range along Sinker and Catherine creeks (southeast of today’s Murphy). These are believed to be the first Texas cattle brought into the “Owyhee Country” of southwest Idaho and southeast Oregon.

The following year, Con and some other cattlemen bought longhorns along the Brazos River in Texas and drove them to Idaho. As noted by the lead newspaper item above, Con repeated the process in 1870. Many of these cattle went, as needed, from the range to meat markets in the Owyhee mining camps. But ranchers like Shea also began to build up their breeding stock.

In 1874, Con moved his herds to grazing land that straddled the Oregon border, about 15 miles northwest of Silver City. He and a brother also ran a meat market in a mining camp that flourished near Silver City from 1871 to about 1876. Con and two of his brothers took part in the Battle of South Mountain during the Bannock War of 1878 [blog, June 8]. For the next twenty years, Shea played a major role in the Owyhee Country cattle business. He left his name on Idaho’s Con Shea Basin and on Sheaville, Oregon.

Con Shea, ca 1898.
Savings Bank of Santa Rosa.

Around 1883, Shea purchased a winter home in Santa Rosa, California. After that, he “commuted” to Idaho and Oregon to oversee his ranch and business properties. Local newspapers usually referred to his town visits with the lead: “Con Shea of Cow Creek ...” (Cow Creek rises about ten miles northwest of Silver City.)

After the Oregon Short Line laid tracks across Idaho, Shea began selling cattle to the Eastern markets. Thus, the Owyhee Avalanche in Silver City, Idaho, reported (July 4, 1885) that Shea had sold a consignment to a company in Chicago. The item said he was about to “turn over 1500 or 2000 head to the agent of the firm at Caldwell.”

Around 1897, Shea disposed of his Idaho and Oregon ranch holdings and moved permanently to Santa Rosa. There, he had invested in land and other real estate, and served as Director of the Savings Bank of Santa Rosa. After the 1906 Bay Area earthquake, a Santa Rosa newspaper lauded the fact that Shea intended to rebuild his commercial properties using reinforced concrete.

Con passed away in May 1926.
                                                                                                                                     

References: [Illust-State]

Mildretta Adams, Owyhee Cattlemen, 1878 – 1978, Owyhee Publishing Co., Homedale, Idaho (1979).

Adelaide Hawes, Valley of Tall Grass, Caxton Printers, Caldwell, Idaho (1950).

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

“Savings Bank of Santa Rosa,” Sonoma County Homes and Industries, Reynolds & Proctor Publishing, Santa Rosa, California (1898).

“Solid Block of Concrete: Santa Rosa Will Have Substantial Structure,” Santa Rosa Republican (July 16, 1906).