Boise Developer, and County and State Treasurer John Eagleson [otd 09/22]

Businessman and financial expert John W. Eagleson was born September 22, 1869 at Cadiz, in eastern Ohio. The family moved twice while he was a youngster, first to central Iowa and then to eastern Nebraska. After high school, he spent two years at the University of Nebraska, but then followed the family to Boise in 1891.

John Eagleson. [Hawley]

John first worked in his father’s lumber business, along with his younger brother Charles, who was still in his teens. Early-on the family took part in Boise politics. A year after arriving in Boise, John sought an appointive government job and, in 1893, brother Ernest was appointed City Engineer [blog, January 13]. A year after that, John’s father was a delegate to the Republican Party state convention, while John served as Assistant Committeeman.

Alongside all that, family business activities continued. Thus, in 1894, the last brother, Harry, moved to the Boise valley and engaged in handling fruits and vegetables. That led to an interest in cold storage, and on into the ice business. By 1897, the company firm was also engaged in chilling meat. At some point, they invested in a 1200 acre ranch on the Boise Bench, where they raised Aberdeen Angus cattle and top-grade hogs.

In 1898 John advertised his “Electric Ice Company,” which was ready to deliver ice for the summer. Presumably he had invested in an electrically-powered ice plant. That effort was short-lived, however, probably because he served from 1898 to 1902 as the Treasurer of Ada County. After that, he was Assistant Cashier for the Capital State Bank of Boise.

In parallel with that, John was Treasurer for the Boise Cold Storage Company. In 1904, that company opened a new refrigerated warehouse and ice-making plant. The state-of-the-art facility was said to create the purest ice available. John left the Capital State Bank in 1907, the year before it closed. For the next few years, he focused on the family businesses, including the cold storage company, a brick fabricator, and real estate sales.

Then, in 1914, John was elected Treasurer for the state of Idaho. He was re-elected in 1916 and 1918, the latter time by “the highest majority ever given a state official.” Because of his popularity, friends in the party “boomed” him to run against incumbent Republican Governor D. W. Davis. Apparently, Eagleson was never that enthusiastic about the prospect. Thus, not seeing any widespread support, he refused to allow his name to be introduced at the state convention. Nor did he run again for Treasurer.

For more than a decade after leaving the state office, John mainly worked as President and General Manager of a fire insurance company. In 1925, he did spend some time to push for a new country club and golf course for Boise. A new Idaho Country Club opened the following year, with John and brother Harry serving on the Board of Directors and as temporary officers. Many years later, the organization’s name was changed to the Hillcrest Golf and Country Club, as it is known today.

Hillcrest Golf Course. All Square Golf.

In 1935, John moved briefly to Omaha and then to Des Moines, Iowa. In Iowa, he served as statewide manager for a national insurance company, a job he held until his retirement in 1944. John and his wife returned to Boise for about three years and then moved to live next door to their married daughter in Altadena, California, near Pasadena.

John W. Eagleson passed away in California in 1958 and is buried in Boise’s Morris Hill Cemetery.
                                                                                                        

References: [Hawley]

“[JW  Eagleson News],” Idaho Statesman, Boise (June 1891 – July 1948).

Hillcrest Neighborhood Plan, Hillcrest Neighborhood Association, Boise, Idaho (2007).

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

"Judge" William Clagett: Mining Investor, Lawyer, and "Silver Tongued" Orator [otd 09/21]

Judge William Horace Clagett played a prominent role in the history of the northern West, including over a decade of activity in Idaho. He was born September 21, 1838 in Prince Georges County, Maryland, which wraps around the east side of Washington, D. C. In 1850, the family moved to Iowa. After high school, William studied at the Albany Law School in New York.

Mark Twain, 1867.
Library of Congress.

In 1861, Clagett moved to Nevada and began a life-long passion for prospecting and mining investments. On one “stampede” to Humboldt County, he was in a party with the later celebrated Samuel Clements (Mark Twain). When Twain’s book Roughing It was published in 1872, it contained the passage, “Young Clagett (now member of Congress from Montana) unharnessed and fed and watered the horses … ”

William also went into Nevada politics, serving in the Territorial and then State House of Representatives. There, he became known as an outstanding speaker, soon earning praise as “the silver tongued orator of the west.”

He then practiced law, served in political offices, and invested in mining properties in Montana and Dakota Territories, as well as around Denver. In 1871-1873, he served Montana Territory as Delegate to Congress. (Delegates have no vote on the floor, but can serve on committees and vote on issues at that level.) While there, he introduced the bill that would eventually result in the creation of Yellowstone National Park.

In 1873-1874, he held an appointment as a U. S. Special Counsel to investigate possible fraud in the Office of Indian Affairs for Montana. However, he failed to accomplish much in that position. Newspaper reports of the day suggest that backroom politics thwarted his most diligent efforts.

Clagett practiced law in several mountain west towns, including Denver and Deadwood, Dakota Territory, before gold and silver discoveries in the Coeur d’Alene region brought him to Idaho in 1883. According to the Illustrated History of North Idaho, “Mr. Clagett’s cabin was the first one put up in Murray.” [Blog, Murray, March 5.] His law practice flourished and brought him much renown. However, despite his considerable mining knowledge and experience, none of his ventures in that field enjoyed any long-term success.

When residents of Idaho Territory convened their Constitutional Convention in 1889, delegates selected Clagett as Convention President.  He was widely praised for his leadership and solid contributions to that document. Newspaper reports from the convention began referring to “Judge” Clagett, an honorary title he carried for the rest of his life. (There is no record that he served any regular judgeship.)

After Idaho achieved statehood, Clagett became involved in a nasty political dispute with regard to the new state’s first Senatorial seats. Voting together (technically a violation of the legally mandated procedure) the state House and Senate elected Fred T. Dubois to a full six-year term in the U.S. Senate.

Judge Clagett. Library of Congress.

Opponents challenged this process on that and other technical grounds, and a subsequent election designated Clagett to fill the seat. Clagett supported his case in a speech before the entire U. S. Senate. Observers rated his oration as being remarkably eloquent and effective, and the hopeful Senator-elect emerged very confident of success. However, Senators found the technicalities insufficient to unseat Dubois.

Clagett ran again when the other Senatorial seat came up for a vote, but lost. The Illustrated History said, “Friends and foes alike unite in believing he was too uncompromising to succeed in politics.”

After his election disappointments, Clagett moved to Spokane to enjoy its more civilized amenities. (Such a move was common practice for well-off pioneers from the Coeur d’Alene mining districts.) He died there in August 1901.
                                                                                                        

References: [Hawley], [Illust-North]

“Clagett is Very Hopeful,” The New York Times (May 23, 1891).

“William H. Clagett,” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

“Old Friends of the Late Judge Clagett Speak … ,” The Standard, Anaconda, Montana (August 11, 1901).

Businessman, Public Servant, and Local Sports Legend Wes Deist [otd 09/20]

Wes Deist, 1960. Family photo.

Sportsman and business leader Wesley W. “Wes” Deist was born September 20, 1923, in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. A committed Roman Catholic, after high school Deist entered Gonzaga University. There, he became “a standout back” on their freshman football team. However, the University dropped football after the 1941 season, so Wes transferred to the University of Idaho.

Deist lettered in football for the 1942-1943 season and competed on the boxing team. Military records show that he also enlisted in the U.S. Marine reserves on November 4, 1942. After the school year ended, he was activated and sent to Notre Dame University

At Notre Dame, he was identified as a “Marine V-12, of Bonners Ferry, Idaho” … “V-12” being an officer training program for the U. S. Navy and Marines. Asked by the student newspaper to predict when the war would end, Deist said, “Fall of 1944. I don’t believe the countries that we are fighting can keep up their production of war materials to satisfy their needs … ”

Besides the curriculum at Notre Dame, Deist apparently attended specialized courses at Northwestern University. He was next assigned to Fort Pierce, located about 55 miles north of Palm Beach, Florida. Here, the Navy trained elite amphibious warfare and special ops units. Deist became a member of an Amphibious Raider* force.

Despite his rigorous training regime, Deist made time to get married in November 1944. He had met his bride, Lena Hooker, when they were both at the University of Idaho. When Wes was deployed, Lenna returned to Idaho Falls to live with her married sister. Based on the time frame, Deist’s unit would have served in China and India.†

After the War, Wes rejoined Lenna in Idaho Falls. He soon began teaching people to ski. He taught and coached at Kelly Canyon Ski Resort (22-24 miles northeast of Idaho Falls) from its founding in 1957 until about 2006, when he was over 80 years old.

Wes owned a downtown sporting goods store for a number of years and then “managed eastern Idaho’s largest sports store at the time” on Shoup Avenue. Later he opened an insurance agency, which was still in operation at the time of his death. Through all that, he found time for golf, bird hunting, and other sports activities.

Besides his business duties and various avocations, Wes served three terms on the Idaho Falls City Council. He was instrumental in establishing the city’s Greenbelt along the Snake River, and the spacious Community Park in the southern part of town.

While he was on the Council, Wes was the designated watchdog over an expansion of the Idaho Falls Municipal Airport. He also sparked local interest in an indoor swimming facility, which eventually came into being as the Idaho Falls Aquatic Center – later renamed the Wes Deist Aquatic Center.

Deist passed away in January, 2008.

* Stories about Wes often say he was a Navy SEAL – SEa, Air and Land force. However, those units were not created until much later. Still, Navy SEALs trace their lineage back to a number of Special Operations units formed during the War, including the Amphibious Raiders. Training for amphibious Special Ops members was extraordinarily demanding, and they performed incredibly dangerous missions on hostile beaches.

UDT quartet, WW-II – masks, fins, and guts. U.S. Navy photo.

Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT) – “Frogmen” – are perhaps the most famous of these early amphibious Special Ops units. However, Hollywood notwithstanding, scenes showing divers using SCUBA (Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) during WW-II are not accurate – the Navy had no such equipment at that time.

† Known operations of the China-India Raiders involved a survey of the Yangtze River during the spring of 1945. They then reconnoitered the enemy-occupied Chinese coast from Shanghai to near Hong Kong.
                                                                                                                                     

References: J. Robb Brady, “Deist’s Half-Century of Service” The Post Register, Idaho Falls (January 2008).

“Introduction to Naval Special Warfare,” U. S. Navy SEALS, Official Web Site.

“Student Opinion … ,” The Notre Dame Scholastic, Vol. 80, No. 3, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana (December 3, 1943)..

“[Wesley Deist – Other News],” Post-Register, Idaho Falls, Idaho; Spokane Chronicle, Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Washington; Deseret News, Salt Lake City, Utah (September 1942 – June 1946).

“Wesley Walter Deist - Obituary,” The Post Register, Idaho Falls (January 2008).

Gold Prospector Julius Merrill Reaches Boise City by Wagon Train [otd 09/19]

Julius Merrill. Merrill family archives.

On September 19, 1864, gold-seeker Julius Merrill wrote in his journal, “We hitched up and turned our faces toward Boise City.” They camped about four miles downriver from the city.

Born in Maine, Julius Caesar Merrill turned 24 early on the trip west. He traveled with a rather ad hoc band of gold-seekers: “At Oak Creek I was joined by Charles Carey, Henry and Stephen J. Durbin. We were to furnish and fit out a team in company. Two of them I had seen but once and was little acquainted with the other. They were bound for Idaho and that was deemed sufficient."

Oak Creek is a town about 10 miles south of Milwaukee. From there they boarded a railroad train to St. Joseph, Missouri. That evening their cars tumbled off the poorly-built track. Fortunately, “No one was hurt. We lay there until daylight, which gave us a good opportunity to sleep.”

They purchased an outfit in “St. Jo” and left on May 23rd, heading northwest to join the main Oregon Trail along the Platte River. It so happened that the Elizabeth (Lee) Porter party [blog, Sept 3] was 8-10 days ahead of them. Unlike Porter’s journal, which mentioned only the better-known landmarks, Merrill’s notes were quite detailed.

Both groups took the Lander Cutoff after crossing the Divide at South Pass in Wyoming. But it’s hard to be sure when Porter’s train hit the future border of Idaho. Merrill’s account clearly shows that his party crossed on August 17.

About two weeks later, Merrill gave a graphic description of the Craters of the Moon: “As far as the eye can reach, there is nothing but this black volcanic rock. … I can give no just description of it. It must be seen to be appreciated.”

Toward the west end of Camas Prairie (near today’s Fairfield), Merrill wrote, “The road is splendid but dusty and quite windy. We pass several dry creeks with the willows yet green but could find no water. Splendid feed at noon but no water. At night we camped beside a creek, and I succeeded in shooting two sage hens.
“Here we found some men from California, with sheep which they were fattening and selling occasionally to some emigrants who were so fortunate as to have money enough to purchase. The real market was South Boise, thirty miles distant. There were said to be some hot springs nearby, but I did not have time to visit them.”

“South Boise,” soon to be renamed Rocky Bar, was the latest Boise Basin boom town.

Blacksmith Working on a Horseshoe.
Library of Congress.

The Merrill party broke up within a few days after they camped downriver from Boise on the 19th. Charles Carey, a master blacksmith, stayed in the city, having learned that his trade was in great demand. In less than three years, he had returned to the Midwest to buy land.

The two Durbin brothers found employment in Idaho City, at first working for wages on a ditch project. The younger man, Stephen, made enough to buy land and settle in Idaho.

Merrill stayed in Boise City long enough to advantageously sell their wagon and stock, then followed the Durbins to Idaho City. His journal gives no details about their work in the mines, but Julius was in Iowa with a stake in gold by mid-1867.

There, he bought some excellent farm land, and settled down to marry and raise a family. Julius lived there until his death in February 1912.
                                                                                                                                     

References: Julius Merrill, Irving R. Merrill (ed.), Bound for Idaho: The 1864 Trail Journal of Julius Merrill, University of Idaho Press, Moscow (1989).

Elizabeth Lee Porter, “Iowa to Oregon, 1864,” Covered Wagon Women, Vol. 5, Kenneth L. Homes, David C. Duniway (eds.), University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln (1997).

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

Lumber (and Fire) in Pioneer Idaho

A few weeks back, I had to stock up on copies of my book Boise River Gold Country (thank you, Skip Myers). While I was flipping through books to make sure they were okay, one particular image stuck in my mind. (FYI: The book includes over 200 what I call “vintage” photos.) 

Whipsaw. University of Idaho Archives.

The image gives you a whole new perspective on what the pioneers went through. The two men are muscling a “whipsaw” back and forth through a log. (Sometimes they dug a pit to provide a more solid base than the log framework shown in the picture.) I assume these fellas would trade off. Who wants to be the guy on the bottom getting sprayed with sawdust and bark chips?

The earliest solid structures in pioneer Idaho were log cabins. But that’s wasteful of timber and it’s hard to make the structure weather-tight. Even after miners had been around for several years, sawmills were not that common because they needed a reliable source of water power. (Hauling a steam engine into the back country was pretty much out of the question for many, many years.) Also, even when a few mills went into operation, the demand was so great that lumber prices remained high, and men could still make money with a whipsaw.

So when you see an old photo of a cabin, shop, or even just a shed, imagine, if you will, how much sweat and effort went into whipsawing all that lumber. As a matter of fact, many of the early arrivers – Peter Pence, among others (blog Oct. 12) – got their first stake by cutting planks.

Lewiaron, 1862. Nez Pierce County Historical Soc.

All that raw lumber came at some risk. Idaho City suffered a bad fire in 1864, a worse one in 1866, and an even more destructive one in 1867. Other pioneer towns – including Boise City – suffered similar events.
                                                       

References: An Illustrated History of the State of Idaho, The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago (1899). honor.

Army Establishes Fort Lapwai on the Nez Percé Indian Reservation [otd 07/22]

According to Idaho State Historical Society records, a troop of Oregon Volunteer cavalry established Camp – later Fort – Lapwai on July 22, 1862. The location selected was near the mission established by Presbyterian minister Henry Harmon Spalding in 1836 [blog, Nov 29]. Although the church abandoned the mission after the Whitman Massacre in 1847, the Nez Percé Indians continued to occupy the site.

When Elias Pierce discovered gold on Orofino Creek, in 1860, prospectors poured into the region. However, the gold fields lay within the boundary of the Nez Percé Indian Reservation established in 1855. The Indians demanded that white authorities expel the invaders, as stipulated in the 1855 treaty.

White officials met at Lapwai with the Nez Percé in 1861. The Indians agreed to allow mining and the construction of a shipping warehouse – but nothing else – where the Clearwater River entered the Snake. Of course, the full town of Lewiston sprang up immediately. Tribesmen complained, but otherwise did nothing about this violation of the agreement.

Lewiston, 1862. Nez Perce County Historical Society.

 Authorities then stationed a company of dragoons near the meeting place. They claimed the troop was there to protect the Nez Percé, and keep the miners in line. However, the troopers did absolutely nothing to curb trespassers. There’s no question that their real job was to over-awe the more militant factions within the tribe.

Officials decided they needed a more permanent base, so the Army built Camp Lapwai near the old mission. By the fall of 1862, they had stationed two cavalry companies there. That did not solve the problem, and the local Indian Agent convened a meeting at the fort to foist a new treaty on the Nez Percé. The 1863 Treaty drastically reduced the size of the reservation and sowed the seeds of future conflict [blog, June 9].

The Army temporarily vacated Fort Lapwai after the Civil War, when authorities disbanded many Volunteer regiments and there was a delay in replacing them with Regulars. By late 1867, the Department had stationed two cavalry companies at the installation. These troops played a key role when lingering 1863 treaty tensions exploded into the Nez Percé War of 1877. Of course, Nez Percé warriors badly beat the Lapwai soldiers who responded first to the outbreak [blog, June 17]. However, the fort then became a vital staging area for additional troops and supplies to fight the war.

In 1878, the Army established Fort Coeur d'Alene at what soon became the town of Coeur d'Alene City [blog, April 16]. This provided a post from which authorities could observe activities at both the Coeur d'Alene and Nez Percé Indian reservations.

Fort Lapwai, ca 1890. National Park Service.

When civilian steamboats appeared on Lake Coeur d’Alene in 1883-1884 [blog, Apr 4], it became clear that Fort Coeur d'Alene was the more effective location. The War Department decommissioned Fort Lapwai in June 1884. The structures basically reverted to tribal use by default.

The History page of the City of Lapwai says, “The Northern Idaho Indian Agency, originally located at Spalding, was relocated to Fort Lapwai in 1904. Fort Lapwai was later converted into a government Indian school and then into a tuberculosis sanatorium with a hospital, boys' and girls' dormitories, and a school.
"Lapwai remains as the seat of government for the Nez Perce Indian Nation. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Northern Idaho Indian Agency is also still located in Lapwai."
                                                                               

Reference: [Hawley], [Illust-State]

“Fort Lapwai,” Idaho Museum of Natural History Digital Atlas, Idaho State University, Pocatello.

“Idaho Military Posts and Camps,” Reference Series No. 63, Idaho State Historical Society (May 1971).

Railroad Town of Burley Incorporated [otd 7/19]

The town of Burley, Idaho, was incorporated on July 19, 1909. The village had grown explosively since being platted four years earlier, and many businesses supported the growing farm population. That included a new Bank of Commerce, founded in the spring of 1909 with former Boise Mayor James H. Hawley as Vice President.

Burley, ca 1918. [Hawley]

The location, near where Goose Creek emptied into the Snake River, was a familiar landmark on the Oregon Trail. Other than the river itself, the creek represented the last reliable water source before Rock Creek. Guidebooks warned emigrants that they faced a hard day's travel over rugged terrain. In a moderately poor year, they might find no water whatsoever.

Goose Creek water and grass also attracted stockmen and settlers. By 1900, the area had a number of homesteads. Then developer Ira Perrine [blog, May 7] spearheaded the construction of Milner Dam and its irrigation system, which spurred the creation of Twin Falls.

In late 1904, the Minidoka and Southwestern Railroad Company began construction of a branch line from Minidoka through Twin Falls to Buhl. The next year Perrine and five partners platted a town near where the tracks crossed the Snake River. They called the town Burley, after David E. Burley, an agent for the Oregon Short Line Railroad Company.

After a relatively slow start, the village developed rapidly. Its first bank, the Burley State Bank, was organized in 1906 and, as noted above, the Bank of Commerce in 1909. Then the First National Bank of Burley opened in 1913. The population stood at about 900 in 1910, but had increased to about 2,000 three years later. Four years after that, it had grown to an estimated 2,500.

French's History of Idaho (1914), emphasized the town's rapid development into a substantial, modern municipality: "The streets are well lighted, the cluster lights being used in the down town section. Burley owns and operates its own electric light, heat and power system and has the benefit of exceptionally low rates. There have just been installed municipal waterworks, which cover the entire town. A trunk sewer has also been constructed."

Six years later when Hawley produced his History, he mentioned those advances and more: "Burley ... has two weekly newspapers, three banks, a good public school system, six churches, an elaborate system of rural telephones, a sugar factory, well-stocked stores of all kinds, good hotels, and more hogs are shipped from this place than any other point on the Oregon Short Line in Idaho."

Train stop on the Minidoka-Buhl line. Twin Falls Public Library.

When the Territorial legislature created Cassia County many years earlier, the only towns of any consequence in the region were Albion and Oakley. For various reasons, Albion got the nod as county seat.

Just a year after Burley incorporated, it had a population two-and-a-half times that of Albion. Still, an attempt in 1912 to move the seat to Burley failed. Determined, folks in the area decided to push for their own (new) county, of which they would be the county seat (Idaho Statesman, November 13, 1912). Although the legislature did carve out six new counties in the next session, Burley’s scheme failed.

By 1918, the town's population was four times that of Albion and a vote moved the county seat to Burley, where it still is. In fact, today Burley is a thriving city of around 10 thousand while Albion contains only a few hundred people. Although the railroad is no longer an economic powerhouse, it still plays an important role in transporting the area's farm products.
                                                                                 

References: [B&W], [French], Hawley]

Cassia County History, Cassia County web site.

Kathleen Hedberg, Cassia County, Idaho: The Foundation Years, The Caxton Printers (© Cassia County Commissioners, 2005).