Supermarket Innovator and Self-Made Millionaire Joe Albertson [otd 10/17]

Joe Albertson, 1985. Albertson’s, Inc.

Supermarket innovator Joseph A. “Joe” Albertson was born October 17, 1906 near Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The family moved to a homestead west of Caldwell when Joe was three years old. After graduating from Caldwell High School, Joe began classes at the College of Idaho, a small private school in Caldwell [blog, Oct 7].

While he attended college, Albertson got a job as a clerk at a Safeway store. Meanwhile, in chemistry class, he met a pert, pretty native Idahoan, Kathryn McCurry, from Boise. At the time, students called the College “Dr. Boone’s marriage mill,” affectionately referring to the school’s founder and first President, William Judson Boone [blog, November 5].

Joe and Kathryn only added to the legacy. On New Years Day 1930, the Reverend Boone wrote in his diary, “Marry Katheryn [sic] McCurry to Joseph A. Albertson. 52 present, very fine and very pretty.”

Their wedding came just two months after the stock market crash of October 1929 … not the best time to start married life. Both were soon forced to drop out of college, although they retained their belief in the importance of education and their soft spot for their alma mater.

Hard-working and personable, Joe rose steadily through the ranks at Safeway. He eventually held a district manager position with responsibility for over a dozen stores. However, after over a decade in the business, Albertson had his own ideas about how to organize and run a grocery store.

First store, Boise. Albertson’s, Inc.

By then, the young couple had managed to save about $5 thousand in working capital. With that, $7,500 borrowed from Kathryn’s aunt, and two partners, Albertson went into business for himself. The first Albertson’s Food Center opened in July 1939, at Sixteenth and State streets in Boise.

Joe put his own stamp on food-service trends that had begun at the turn of the Twentieth Century.

Before that time, city people bought food from rather small stores that specialized in one part of the menu: produce, meat, and so on. These shops did tend to cluster together, but had separate owner-operators. Then, over the next 20-30 years, corporate-owned chain stores began to replace the independent operators, although the layouts remained relatively small.

By the 1930s, chains were a dominant factor in the food business, and some had begun to offer a wider range of food products.  (A full treatment of this transition is beyond the scope of this article.) Joe’s first layout was much larger  than most competing stores of the time. He didn’t bring everything under one roof right away, but the store had a bakery, made its own ice cream, and featured vending machines for popcorn and nuts. Customers received great variety, bargain prices, and [in Joe’s words] “all the tender, loving care we can give.”

Less than a year later, the partners opened a second store in Nampa. A third followed in November 1940. After World War II, the partnership was dissolved and Albertson's Incorporated was formed. The rest, as they say, is history. They took the company public in 1959 – investors and mutual funds soon made the stock a favorite in their portfolios.

Albertson began easing out of a major management role in about 1976, although he continued as Chairman of the Executive Committee. When he died in January of 1993, the company operated over 560 stores in seventeen states, and annual sales topped the $10 billion mark. After that, the company went through a succession of corporate splits, buy-outs, mergers, and so on … but it still has a presence in Boise.
                                                                                                                                     

References: [Brit]

Albertson’s Inc. – Company History.

“Kathryn Albertson,” Quest, College of Idaho alumni magazine (Summer 2002).

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

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

Merle Wells, Arthur A. Hart, Idaho: Gem of the Mountains, Windsor Publications, Inc., Northridge, California (1985).

George Collister: Boise Physician, Spotted Fever Researcher, and Developer [otd 10/16]

Dr. Collister. H. T. French photo.

Boise physician and developer George Collister, M.D., was born October 16, 1856 in Willoughby, Ohio, just northeast of Cleveland. He graduated from high school there, and attended The Ohio State University. The youngest of eight children, George paid much of the cost of his higher education himself. He attended a medical college in Cleveland and received his M.D. degree in 1880.

Dr. Collister practiced in Ohio for a year. Then, in 1881, his sister Julia recommended that he move to the "coming" town of Boise City. By then Idahoans knew the Oregon Short Line would soon run tracks across the state, but only the most knowledgeable realized that the line would bypass Boise. (Rails would not arrive in Boise until 1887 [blog, Sept 13].)

Collister soon developed a large and prosperous practice. His dedication to his profession was such that historian Hiram French said (1914), “During all the years since beginning practice in Boise, he has had but three months of actual vacation time.”

Besides his private practice, Dr. Collister at various times acted as official Physician for Ada County, Boise City, and the State Penitentiary. For a while he served on the Idaho State Board of Medical Examiners. Collister belonged to the the Idaho State Medical Society, serving a term as its President. He was a member of the Ada County Medical Society as well as the American Medical Association.

Dr. Collister, along with Dr. Warren Springer [blog, Mar 30] and others, contributed data to the first detailed and systematic assessment of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.

George also found time to expand into farming, ranching, and general real estate development. To complement winter pasture in the Boise Valley, he owned five thousand acres of summer range in Boise County, running several hundred head of prime cattle.

Fruit Orchard Along Interurban Railway.
Library of Congress.

George, and sister Julia, also had extensive real estate holdings around what came to be called Collister Station on the interurban railway. This station, located about three miles from downtown, was built in the 1890s and made it easy for the doctor to commute to his office in the City.

Dr. Collister had thousands of fruit trees planted on part of his acreage, including some of the first peach orchards in the Valley. Over the years, he and his wife added a greenhouse (which supplied flowers to a shop in the Boise Hotel) and a feedlot.

In 1912, the family moved into a modest (twenty rooms) mansion near Collister Station. When bids were requested for construction, the Idaho Statesman said (March 19,1911), “The palatial home to be constructed for Mr. and Mrs. George Collister … will be one of the best designed and most complete homes ever built in Boise.”

The request included plans for “a large porch with Corinthian columns,” The kitchen would be “fitted up in the most modern and complete manner, having a dumb waiter into the basement and cold storage room, built-in refrigerator, etc.” The full basement would have “a large and well appointed billiard room … and a large den and summer sitting and dining room.”

Although George and his wife had no children themselves, they did have an adoptive daughter: The mother, George’s patient, died of childbed fever a few days after the birth and the couple adopted the baby.

Dr. Collister passed away in October 1935. The mansion was later renovated into a medical rehabilitation center. Even later, that was demolished and the location is now occupied by a Boise fire station. The doctor’s name is preserved as Collister Drive, Collister Elementary School, and the Collister Neighborhood Association.
                                                                                                                                     

References: [French], [Hawley]

Collister Neighborhood Association, Collister Neighborhood Plan, Boise City Council (September 2007).

James F. Hammarsten, “The contributions of Idaho physicians to knowledge of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever,” Transactions of the American Clinical and Climatological Association, Vol. 94 (1983) p. 27–43.

Rogerson Stockman, Banker, and Businessman Louis Harrell [otd 10/15]

Louis Harrell. J. H. Hawley photo.

Idaho stock raiser and businessman Louis Harrell was born October 15, 1846 in Forsyth County, Georgia, 30-40 miles northeast of Atlanta. Of course, the Civil War badly ravaged that area, so right after the war Louis sought better prospects in the West. He was just thirteen years old. Louis eventually landed in Denver, and spent several years in Colorado gold and silver camps.

Around 1870, Jasper Harrell, an older cousin, bought a ranch near Elko, Nevada. Jasper had followed the gold rush to California in 1850 and stayed to become a prosperous cattleman, grain producer, and real estate investor. However, cultivated agriculture was now replacing large-scale cattle operations in California. Jasper hired Louis as part of the crew driving a herd of Texas cattle to his new ranch.

Louis apparently remained in the area as a cowboy working at various ranches, including the Jasper Harrell operation. By the early 1870s, Jasper had “claimed” considerable summer range in south-central Idaho and ran cattle on several satellite ranches there.

In the spring of 1880, Louis moved to Cassia County (which then included today’s Twin Falls County) to work full time for the Harrell operation. Then, with major transactions in 1881 and 1883, Jasper sold his holdings to the Sparks-Tinnin outfit (cattlemen John Sparks and John Tinnin). Louis stayed with the ranch, and then, after Tinnin sold his share to Jasper’s son A. J. (Andrew), continued with the Sparks-Harrell operation.

Louis was among those who saw “Diamondfield” Jack Davis on February 4, 1896 … the day when sheepmen John Wilson and Daniel Cummings were shot [blog, Feb 4]. During the time he was not observed by witnesses, Davis would have had to ride all-out to the exact scene of the shooting – and even that might not have been enough. Yet Louis later told his sons that Jack’s horse showed no signs of hard riding – which other witnesses confirmed at the trial. (A jury of sheepman and farmers convicted Jack anyway.)

Cattle brought to water. Library of Congress.

In 1897, Louis started his own small ranch operation not far from today’s Rogerson. An incident the year before might well have played a role in his decision.

According to one of his sons, Louis had been roping wild horses when his riata – woven leather rope – snapped. The backlash flailed his eyes, almost blinding him. It took him over two days, on horseback and then by train to Ogden, to reach medical help. They could save only one of his eyes. He might then have decided it was time to settle down as a ranch manager rather than continue as a working cowboy.

Over the years, Louis expanded his ranch operation. Then, after the Oregon Short Line ran a railroad line south from Twin Falls in 1909, he invested in the town of Rogerson. That included a position as Vice President of the Bank of Rogerson. He also owned stock in a bank in Kimberly.

Louis remained active on the ranch until late in life. He listed his occupation as stock rancher, not “retired,” even as late as the 1930 U. S. Census. He finally retired some time in the Thirties. On October 15, 1946, the Harrell family celebrated Louis’s 100th birthday. He told an interviewer he well remembered “Civil War gun-smoke” and had known people like those portrayed in the hit movie Gone With the Wind. Louis pass away less than two months later.
                                                                                                                                     

References: [French], [Hawley]

Charles S. Walgamott, Six Decades Back, The Caxton Press, Caldwell, Idaho (1936).

James A. Young, B. Abbott Sparks, Cattle in the Cold Desert, University of Nevada Press, Reno (2002).

Cattleman David Shirk Owns Longhorns Driven from Texas [otd 10/14]

“The next day, October 14th, 1871, after all were mounted, we proceeded to divide the cattle,” rancher David L. Shirk said in his memoir.

Ridin' drag. Library of Congress.

Shirk was one of two junior partners with prominent Idaho cattleman George T. Miller. The three of them had purchased 1,500 longhorns in Bell County, Texas and driven them into Idaho.

Born in Indiana in 1844, David Shirk grew up on farms there and later in Illinois. Shortly after the end of the Civil War, he headed west, drawing wages for driving a freight wagon to Denver. From there, he traveled to Silver City, Idaho, arriving in August 1866. He started off well, but then almost died from “mountain fever.” That left him in debt for his care.

Determined to be debt-free, Shirk labored steadily for a farm-ranch operation, and was fortunate … and astute … enough to do well with some small cattle investments. Fifteen months later he found himself ahead by $1,150 – a considerable sum at a time when cow hands made $30 a month.

He spent another year herding cattle for a Silver City butcher. Then the butcher tasked him to drive a flock of sheep south to the gold camps in Nevada. Despite his limited experience, the latter drive was very successful. But Shirk commented, “After getting through with that drive, I could hear a sheep bleat for five years.”

By early 1871, Shirk had accumulated the capital to combine with Miller and the other partner. They bought horses and other equipment in Texas, and then bargained for cattle. The drive finally headed north in mid-April. Their trek was fairly typical: That is, months of punishing work and constant danger – from rustlers, Indian raiders, and the elements.

About a week out of Fort Worth, a severe nighttime storm stampeded the herd and Shirk rode off an embankment into a swollen stream. He struggled onto the dubious safety of a scant island. Still, he said, “All that saved me was the cessation of the storm, otherwise I should not now be relating the venture.”

David Shirk.
University of Oregon Library.

 
The herd-split noted above took place on the rugged plains south of Bruneau, Idaho. Shirk drove his band to a grazing area on the Snake River about five miles north of today’s Murphy. He eventually sold the animals for a net return of over $2,000. Considering that outcome, Shirk observed, “When one considers the risk, dangers of the drive, and the risk of losing every dollar you had in the world, not to mention life itself, the profits were not unreasonable.”

He made another successful drive from Texas in 1873. The Owyhee Avalanche in Silver City, Idaho reported (September 27, 1873) the arrival: “Two drovers, named Dill and Shirk, each with about 1,900 head of cattle, have arrived from Texas, and will hibernate in the northwestern portions of our county … Dill is at present at Salmon Falls, and Shirk has reached Bruneau valley.”

A few weeks after his arrival, Shirk made a deal for his cattle at a nice profit. Within a couple years, Shirk had established his own ranch in Oregon, having concluded that the Owyhee region in Idaho lacked room for the operation he wanted.

Ready to ease off in 1896, he bought a winter home in Berkeley, California. The family eventually moved there permanently. Shirk died there in 1928.
                                                                                                                                     

References: Mike Hanley, with Ellis Lucia, Owyhee Trails: The West's Forgotten Corner, Caxton Printers, Caldwell, Idaho (1973).

Byron DeLos Lusk, Golden Cattle Kingdoms of Idaho, Master’s thesis, Utah State University, Logan (1978).

David L. Shirk, Martin F. Schimdt (ed.), The Cattle Drives of David Shirk, Champoeg Press, Portland, Oregon (1956).

Cattleman Bower Describes “Self-Defense” Shooting of Sheepmen Wilson and Cummings [otd 10/13]

On October 13, 1898, James E. Bower, Superintendent for the Sparks-Harrell Cattle Company, appeared before a Cassia County Justice of the Peace and made a sworn statement about the killings of sheepmen John Wilson and Daniel Cummings.  The two had been found shot to death at a spot about 25-30 miles south of today’s Twin Falls, Idaho. The bodies had been discovered in mid-February 1896 [blog, Feb 16].

Sheep wagon. Library of Congress.

Bower stated that he and cowboy Jeff Gray had ridden into a sheep camp between 11 o’clock and noon on February 4th [blog, Feb 4]. The sheepmen had located their wagon well west of the “dead line,” the boundary established by gentlemen’s agreement between sheep and cattle range.

The cattlemen did not recognize either of the herders, leading them to suspect that they were “tramps” out of Utah. So-called “tramp” stockmen – who could be running sheep or cattle – grazed their herds on range normally used by settled stockmen, but hurried the animals away before a tax assessor showed up.

Bower stated that they were invited into the sheep wagon, where he queried the sheepmen about their status in the area. One herder asserted positively that the flock owners did pay taxes in the county. The cattleman, who felt sure the animals were not on the county rolls, said, “I think you are mistaken about that.”

The sheepman angrily leaped at Bower and grabbed his coat collar near the throat. The older man tried to pull a revolver to protect himself. His opponent wrestled it away from him, although Bower still had his arm. Meanwhile, the sheepman’s rush had dumped Gray out of the wagon. Gray yelled at the attacker to stop. When he persisted and the other man lifted a rifle, Gray fired two shots … frightening the sheepmen and ending the attack on Bower.

Bower claimed that when they left the camp the two strangers seemed all right, except for a superficial scrape on the man who seized Bower’s gun. Both sheepmen had, of course, been fatally wounded. Later, Bower realized that he had left behind a new corncob pipe. That pipe had been found along with the bodies of Wilson and Cummings, but prosecutors never attempted to explain its presence.

Diamondfield Jack Davis.
Denver Public Library, Western Collection.

The deposition, with its self-defense assertion, caused a sensation. Eighteen month earlier, a jury had convicted cowboy-gunhand “Diamondfield” Jack Davis of the killings. His attorneys easily answered the prosecution’s flimsy and deeply flawed circumstantial evidence. Yet, despite “reasonable doubt,” Jack’s reputation and earlier threats against sheepmen led to a quick conviction … by a jury made up of sheepmen, farmers, and one miner.

That verdict was under appeal – but several appeals had already failed and Jack was scheduled to hang on June 4. Incredibly, the confession, supported under oath by Gray, only bought time, it did not win Jack’s freedom. After more legal fireworks, the Idaho Board of Pardons set a new hanging date of December 16, 1898.

In fact, Jack Davis twice came within hours of  being hanged for a crime he had nothing to do with. In July 1901, the Board revisited the physical evidence. Then, totally ignoring the Bower-Gray confessions, they decided Davis could not have done the shooting … so they rescinded the death decree and imposed a sentence of life imprisonment!

Davis was not pardoned and released until late in 1902 [blog, Dec 17].
                                                                                                                                     

References: David H. Grover, Diamondfield Jack: A Study in Frontier Justice, University of Nevada Press, Reno, Nevada (1968).

Mike Hanley, with Ellis Lucia, Owyhee Trails: The West's Forgotten Corner, Caxton Printers, Caldwell, Idaho (1973).

Byron DeLos Lusk, Golden Cattle Kingdoms of Idaho, Master's thesis, Utah State University, Logan (1978).

William Pat Rowe, “Diamond-Field Jack” Davis On Trial, thesis: Master of Arts in Education, Idaho State University (1966).

Bishop Tuttle Arrives in Boise, Rancher and Businessman Peter Pence [otd 10/12]

Bishop Tuttle.
Utah State Historical Society.

On October 12, 1867, the Right Reverend Daniel S. Tuttle, missionary bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church, arrived in Boise. In the Episcopal Church, a missionary bishop is basically like any other bishop except that his stipend is paid by the parent church, rather than through local or regional collections.

At that time, Tuttle acted as bishop over Idaho, Montana, and part of Utah. He had first visited Virginia City, Montana, returned to “base” in Salt Lake City, and then headed north. It was not a happy experience: “I arrived at Boise Saturday afternoon, October 12, with broken neck, bruised head, aching bones, sore throat and disturbed temper.”

Still, he also said, “As the name implies, the river on which this town is situated is wooded with willows and cottonwoods. It is very pleasant to see these green growths.”

During his visit, Tuttle helped the resident missionary establish a parish school. He actually bought a full city block for the the church, “fencing it at a cost of $325.88.” Over his many years in the region, he endured thousands of miles in jolting, dusty stagecoach rides to cover his territory. Not until 1881 did the church assign a separate bishop for Montana.

Possessed of a “commanding presence” leavened by a practical and unassuming demeanor, Bishop Tuttle won the respect and admiration of even the rough element in his territory. During his 19 years in the mountains, he personally visited, held services, recruited local leaders, and generally grew the church at over 50 sites in Idaho alone. When church leaders moved him to Missouri in 1886, he had organized missions in Boise, Silver City, Idaho City, Lewiston, Blackfoot, Bellevue, Hailey, and Ketchum.

On October 12, 1837, Idaho pioneer Peter Pence was born in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, northeast of Pittsburg. As a young man, he worked for a time in Kansas and freighted into Denver. In the early 1860s, spillovers from the unrest in the states further south persuaded Pence to moved west. The wagon train he joined arrived in Oregon in September 1862, about the time the Boise Basin gold rush had really begun to boom.

Rancher Pence. H. T. French photo.

Pence followed the rush to Placerville and then to Idaho City. He prospected there, but made more money whipsawing lumber. Pence returned to packing for a time, then threshed grain in the Boise Valley.

In early 1867, he invested his grain-threshing returns in a band of fifteen hundred cattle. These were then moved to a spread he purchased where Big Willow Creek joins the Payette River, about twenty miles downriver from today’s Emmett. His was the first substantial herd set grazing on those ranges.

Pence helped organize several irrigation systems that drew water from the Payette River. In 1899 the Illustrated History said he was “President of three ditch incorporations.”

Pence later branched out into real estate, banking, and other investments … and was elected to the state legislature in 1901. He played a significant role in the development of the city of Payette and served as the first chairman of the town Board of Trustees, staying on the Board for several terms. (In a common practice for the times, news reports after that began referring to Pence as "The Honorable," as though he were the mayor of Payette.) The ranch he established in 1867 is on today’s list of “Century Ranches” – properties that are still operated by descendants of the original owners.
                                                                                                                                     

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

Melville Knox Bailey, The Right Reverend Daniel Sylvester Tuttle, Church Missions Publishing Company, Hartford, Connecticut (1923).

Daniel Sylvester Tuttle, Missionary to the Mountain West, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City (1987).

Packer Lloyd Magruder and Others Murdered on Nez Perce Trail [otd 10/11]

On the night of October 11, 1863, conspirators murdered packer Lloyd Magruder and four other men. The killings took place on the South Nez Percé Trail. The Trail – now also called the Magruder Corridor – twists crazily through the deep Central Idaho wilderness to cross a regional divide into Montana at Nez Percé Pass.

Magruder Corridor segment. U. S. Forest Service.

Scion of a prominent Maryland family, Lloyd Magruder had fought in the Mexican War and earned a promotion from private to second lieutenant. He resigned that commission to try his hand in the California gold fields. Bad luck reversed his initial success, so he moved to Lewiston, Idaho in July, 1862.

Within a year, the hard-working and intelligent Magruder owned both a pack train and a store. In August, Magruder’s string of mules headed east from Elk City on the South Nez Percé Trail, which provided the most direct route across the Bitterroot Mountains. Their initial destination might have been Bannack, the first gold camp in the area. But rumors had reached Lewiston of a new, richer strike at Alder Gulch, 40 to 50 miles further east.

So Magruder took his train straight there to a brand new Virginia City, where he soon profitably sold his goods. He returned by way of Bannack, where he bought more mules at bargain prices. Then he headed home, leading a train of six horses and about forty mules. Eight other men accompanied him.

About fifteen trail miles into Idaho from Nez Percés Pass, the party encamped on a side stream at the base of a ridge. They released the stock on a good forage area about a half mile up the slope. Magruder and a man named Christopher Lower drew the sundown-to-midnight watch over the animals.

When they left camp, Lower carried an ax, purportedly to clear some brush intruding on the pasture. Before midnight Lowe, or another conspirator who had joined them, split Magruder’s skull from behind with the ax. Those two and a third conspirator then slaughtered four other innocent bystanders. Hunter and guide William “Billy” Page knew about the plot but kept quiet through fear or greed. He later turned state’s evidence.

The men disposed of the evidence and headed surreptitiously for Lewiston. A few days later, they waited until after dark to enter the town. Page arranged to corral the animals out of sight. With no steamboat scheduled any time soon, they decided to take the early morning stagecoach to Walla Walla.

Luna House, ca. 1868. Illustrated History.

The nearest ticket office happened to be at Luna House, the hotel operated by Hill Beachy, a friend of Lloyd Magruder. Beachy, schooled on Mississippi River steamboats and in California gold camps, knew how to read men, and situations. When a conspirator bought tickets for four men, his furtive manner caught Beachy’s attention: Perhaps they planned a stage robbery.

Beachy passed a warning to the other passengers and watched them leave the next morning. That’s when he realized the strangers had considerable gold themselves. That induced other suspicions: Where had that gold come from? Investigation soon uncovered some of Magruder’s animals and gear that had been stashed with a friend of one of the conspirators.

Beachy's pursuit of the men became the stuff of legend, as he just missed them when they sailed from Portland on a coastal packet. Beachy had to race overland to apprehend the killers in San Francisco. He then returned them to Idaho for trial and execution.
                                                                                                                                     

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

Julia Conway Welch, The Magruder Murders: Coping with Violence on the Idaho Frontier, Falcon Press Publishing, Helena, Montana (© Julia Conway Welch, 1991).