Major Fire Devastates the Silver Mining Town of Wardner [otd 01/04]

On January 4, 1890, a major fire broke out in a laundry behind a popular restaurant in the village of Wardner, Idaho, about a mile south of Kellogg. The small fire department and “hundreds” of volunteers responded quickly, but for some reason they did not have enough water available to check the flames. This being the dead of winter, firefighters heaved snow as fast as they could. Unfortunately, that failed to stop the fire, which continued for four hours.

Mining Town Fire damage, 1893. National Archives.

The town owed its existence to the discovery of rich lead-silver lodes in the fall of 1885. The site was originally called “Kentuck,” but the Postal Service disallowed that name for a local post office. So about six months after the founding, it was renamed for railroad executive James F. Wardner. Over the next two or three years, it experienced “phenomenal growth,” especially after developers ran a rail line into the mining area.

In the summer of 1886, new telephone lines connected Wardner to the outside world, encouraging further growth. For a time, it seemed like the only limit was how fast nearby mills could deliver lumber to eager builders.

Witnesses said the fire moved rather slowly along the block after the laundry and restaurant became fully involved. (Later, this invoked bitter complaints that even a moderate improvement in the water supply would have allowed the volunteers to stop the fire’s spread.) After consuming several business structures, the flames ate through the telephone office and then a connected block of four buildings.

Citizens battled the fire for hours, then the flames began to threaten the main business district. Desperate, firefighters used “giant powder” to blast a substantial hotel and several nearby structures, but even that failed. They backed off again and totally demolished another large mercantile store, which finally provided a large enough gap to halt the flames.

The fire and counter-measures destroyed four large buildings, including the three-story Grand Central Hotel. Eighteen smaller office buildings and stores – including a jewelry, cigar emporium, barber shop, and tailor’s suite – were also lost. In addition to the telephone facility, the post office went up in smoke (officials did manage to save the mail itself, apparently).

Last but not least, the town lost two restaurants and four drinking establishments. Later, the Owyhee Avalanche in Silver City, Idaho reported (January 18, 1890) on the “very disastrous fire” and said that “Twenty-five of the business houses were destroyed, entailing a loss of $100,000.”

Wardner, 1904. Kellogg in the distance. U.S. Geological Survey.

With regional mines booming, locals quickly replaced the losses. The 1890 U.S. Census enumerated about 860 people in Wardner, out of a total Shoshone County population of 5,882. In April 1891, county commissioners approved articles of incorporation for the town. Wardner continued to grow through the following decade, despite on-going labor-management disputes and violence [blog, Apr 29], and dips in metal prices.

Published in 1903, the Illustrated History of North Idaho proclaimed, “At this writing, conditions in the Coeur d'Alene country are quite favorable. All the mines are at work in full blast; the relations between the employers of labor and their employees are, perhaps, as pleasant as they have ever been in the district; … and the rate of output is greater than ever before.”

Of course, that did not last. Today, Wardner does not exist as a town. It is simply a residential adjunct to Kellogg, and tourism largely drives the rather weak local economy.
                                                                                
References: [Hawley], [Illust-North]

Businessman Peter Sonna Dedicates an Opera House for Boise City [otd 01/03]

On January 3, 1889, the Idaho Daily Statesman, Boise City, Idaho, headlined, “Dedication of the New Opera House under the auspices of the Boise City Board of Trade … ” The article went on, “The dedication … will take place in the above opera house, in Sonna’s new block … ”

Sonna Building. Boise Architectural Project.

The location reference was to a large construction project financed and planned by businessman Peter Sonna.

Born in New York City in November 1835, Sonna followed the gold rush to California when he was a teenager. He remained a miner through 1862, prospecting successively in California, northern Idaho, and the Boise Basin. In 1863, he moved to Boise City and opened a hardware and general merchandise store.

By 1888, Sonna was a prominent leader in the Boise business community. That year, he began construction of a large project anchored at the corner of 9th and Main. The Peter Sonna Hardware Company occupied the ground floor. The second floor became the opera house – the first in Boise City – dedicated on January 3rd.

James A. Pinney, owner of a bookstore and a theater enthusiast [blog, Sept 29], served as first manager of the new opera house. The night after the dedication, the theater offered its first shows: “The brilliant social drama ‘Noemie’ …" and "the laughable farce ‘Turn Him Out’.” During the following summer, Sonna and Pinney increased the seating capacity to about 800 viewers and corrected some “slight acoustic defects.”

Mayor Sonna. City of Boise.

Three years after the dedication, Pinney built his own pavilion, the Columbia Theater. The Columbia and Sonna’s venue would be the main entertainment competition in Boise for over a decade. Over the five or six years following the dedication,  Sonna continued to add onto his structure, expanding the store floor space. He may have also added offices to the structure.

In 1893, Sonna was elected to a term as Boise City Mayor. At the time he took office, the financial “Panic of '93” had already crippled businesses across the country, including some in Boise. Still, despite a shoestring budget, the new mayor pushed through a number of civic improvements. That included a small professionalized police force, although he did have to reach into his own pocket to provide uniforms for the officers.

Around the time Sonna’s term ended, contractors completed an extension to the hardware store. In 1901, further alterations raised the roof of the opera house about eight feet, and expanded the seating to a thousand. The following year, the Statesman reported that, “A new system of lighting, including several elaborate electric chandeliers, is being installed.”

In 1903, new managers leased the facility and tried to establish its name as the “Raymond Opera House.” Although their official news releases used that name, many people still referred to it under the Sonna designation. In 1904, the Raymond announced (Statesman, January 31, 1904) that “by special request, a matinee and night performance of the scenic production, ‘A Nut-Meg Match,’ will be given.”

Then, according to Peter Sonna’s obituary, in the latter part of 1905, “the theatre was taken out of the corner building, and a third story added to conform to the rest of the block.”

Sonna died in July 1907. Within a few years, new owners converted the large store expanse into several smaller shops and restaurants. The rest of the structure became office space.

In 1976, developers had the façade remodeled to present a uniform appearance to the street. Today, the building is considered prime downtown real estate.
                                                                                 

References: “Boise’s Progress,” Idaho Statesman, Boise (January 3, 1889).

Arthur Hart, “At Turn of century, Boise Builds a Modern Police Department,” Idaho Statesman, Boise, Idaho December 11, 2016.

Multiple relevant articles: Idaho Statesman (Dec 5, 1901 - July 10, 1907).

“Peter Sonna – November 22, 1835-July 9, 1907,” Reference Series No. 598, Idaho State Historical Society (1981).

Samantha Winkle, “Sonna Building,” Boise Architecture Project, online (2009).

Boise Developers and Patrons Thomas J. Davis and Wife Julia [otd 01/02]

T. J. Davis. J. H. Hawley.

On January 2, 1837,* Boise pioneer Thomas Jefferson Davis was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. His father died when Thomas was a boy, so he and a brother were indentured to an Illinois farmer. Before June 1860 (they were not listed with the household for the 1860 census), the farmer rewarded their years of labor by outfitting them for a trip to the West. They ended up heading for the newly-discovered Idaho gold fields.

Unscrupulous guides led their wagon train into impossible country in the Lemhi area. The scammers hoped the party would abandon their vehicles and supplies, or sell them for a pittance. Instead, the angry gold-seekers loaded what they could onto the draft animals and burned everything else. After considerable hardship, they found their way to Elk City.

However, by the time they arrived, the “bloom” had gone off the North Idaho rush. Thus, after a brief period in Washington and Oregon, Davis headed for Idaho City. He prospected “with fair results,” but decided that supplying the miners offered more certain returns. In late 1862, he moved to a homestead along the Boise River. The following spring, he dug a system of irrigation ditches and planted onions, cabbages and potatoes.

A few months later, Major Pinkney Lugenbee selected a site for Fort Boise [blog July 4]. Davis then became one of the founders of Boise City, with part of his homestead being inside the new townsite. (Over the years, the city grew to encompass his entire property.)

Davis prospered by selling vegetables and fruit locally and in the mining districts. The apple orchard he planted in 1864 returned substantial profits for some 35 years before the groves gave way to urban growth.

He also branched out into stock raising. His cowboys herded horses across ranges from near the Snake River all the way into Nevada. They kept his fine herd of Hereford cattle on pastures southeast of Boise City. Ahead of his time, Davis also owned several hundred acres of winter forage land in the Boise Valley and the hills further north. He not only fed his own herds, he supplied the Army at Fort Boise.

A strong Boise City booster, Thomas owned considerable real estate, was partner in a large mercantile store, held stock in at least two banks, and had many other investments in and around the city. A leader in the state Republican Party, Davis chose not to run for public office himself.

Julia Davis. J. H. Hawley.

Still, Davis was more than just a man of affairs. He loved music, played the violin, and served in the Boise City band in the early days. In April 1871, he married Julia McCrumb, a native of Ontario, Canada and niece of an Army surgeon stationed at Fort Boise. She became renowned as a gracious hostess and warm “greeter” to Boise newcomers. In her name, Tom Davis bequeathed a grand legacy to the city of Boise.

After she died, in September 1907, Davis gave a tract of land along the Boise River to the city. He stipulated that the bequest should be maintained as a public area under the name Julia Davis Park. He survived his wife by less than nine months. Today Julia Davis Park – now more than doubled in size – is the crown jewel of Boise’s extensive system of public spaces.

* The Davis biographies list 1838 as his birth year, but he gave several different ages to successive census takers. He was most likely born in 1836 or 1837.
                                                                                 

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

Julia Davis Park, CityofBoise.org

Idaho Governor and Boise Developer John M. Haines [otd 01/01]

Idaho governor, and Boise developer and mayor, John Michener Haines was born January 1, 1863 on a farm east of Des Moines, Iowa. He received a solid education to about the age of twenty, including several years at Penn College (now William Penn University), located about 30 miles south of the family farm.

Governor John M. Haines. [French]

After a couple years as a bank clerk in Nebraska, Haines joined Walter E. Pierce [blog, January 9] and another partner to successfully develop real estate in southwest Kansas. However, the economy went sour there and, in late 1890, the partners moved to Boise. They were soon recognized as “the leading real-estate men of Idaho.”

Haines had been active in Republican Party politics in Kansas and continued that activity in Idaho. For a while after January 1898, he served on the Boise city council and was elected mayor for a term starting in the spring of 1905.

During his time in office, the mayor managed a number of improvements for the city. Both the police and fire departments were enlarged and reorganized to improve their efficiencies. Officials also planned to pave more streets, or at least surface them with a better grade of crushed gravel.
Early in his term, the city received the bequest for a “Julia Davis Park” from her husband Thomas [blog, tomorrow]. Haines strongly supported the creation of a park, but funding was rejected in a special bond election. Although Haines received the Republican nomination for re-election as mayor “by acclamation,” he was defeated in a close vote.

Still, Haines remained active in politics and took office as Idaho Governor in January 1913. (He was the first to take the oath of office in the brand new capitol building). His messages to the legislature emphasized a methodical, “business-like” approach to government. He also sought action on a number of “social” issues, such as minimum ages for marriage, a one-year residency requirement for divorce, and so on.

In the political arena, the governor asked for many reforms, including the non-partisan election of judges, extension of terms for state officials from two to four years, and more. He also reminded legislators that they must make provision for the direct election of U. S. Senators (required by passage of the 17th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution).

Idaho Capitol Building, ca 1914. [Hawley]

Results from the legislature were mixed, but they did approve three of the governor’s most important suggestions: a Public Utilities Commission, State Board of Education, and Workmen’s Compensation Board. They also voted for non-partisan election of Supreme Court and District judges.

Feeling there was still work to be done, Haines ran hard for a second term. And, until late in the election cycle, he seemed a shoo-in.

Then an investigation uncovered a major embezzlement of funds by the state Treasurer and his deputy. The Treasurer was, and is, a separate elective office. More importantly, the governor – by law – had no control over operations in the Treasury Department. Still, as soon as the miscreant resigned, Haines, as allowed by law, appointed an acting Treasurer. The new man was in place even before the courts had sent the two embezzlers off to state prison.

The legal complexities of the situation apparently escaped most voters. Haines was decisively defeated by Democrat Moses Alexander [blog November 13], even though every other Republican candidate won in the state-level elections.

John M. Haines died from complications of Bright’s Disease, a kidney disorder, in the summer of 1917. He had proved to be a capable and effective public official, but seems to have lacked the “charisma” for long-term success in politics.
                                                                                 

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

“[Haines News Items],” Idaho Statesman, Boise (November 1890 – June 1917).

Robert C. Sims, Hope A. Benedict (eds.), Idaho's Governors: Historical Essays on Their Administrations, Boise State University (1992).

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

Peter Skene Ogden.
Oregon Historical Society.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Idaho mountain vista from north-central Utah.

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

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

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

References: [B&W]

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

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

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

James Crutcher. Illustrated History.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Downtown Boise. [Illust-State]

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

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

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

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

References: [Illust-State]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Governor Steunenberg. University of Utah.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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