Idaho U. S. Senator, Lawyer and Judge Kirkland I. Perky [otd 02/08]

U. S. Senator from Idaho Kirtland Irving Perky was born on February 8, 1867 in Smithville, Ohio, about 22 miles southwest of Akron. The family surname is generally considered an Americanization of the Swiss and south-German name “Bürki.” His physician father had contracted health problems serving during the Civil War and died when Kirtland was about five years old.

Lawyer Kirtland Perky. [Hawley]

His widowed mother moved the family to Lincoln, Nebraska in 1880 and then to a small town north of Lincoln four years later. Perky went back to study at Ohio Northern University and attained a Bachelor of Science degree in 1888. There, he also met his future wife, whom he married three years after graduation.

Kirkland next studied law as a clerk in the Lincoln office of William Jennings Bryan, later famous in national politics. To expand his education, Perky then did an intense stint at the University of Iowa Law School. He was admitted to the Iowa bar in 1890, but returned to Nebraska to open a practice in the town where his mother still lived. In 1894, Perky followed two friends in the legal community to Idaho. He opened a practice in Albion, then the county seat of Cassia County.

During the 1897 murder trial of “Diamondfield Jack” Davis, defense attorney James Henry Hawley hired Perky to provide essential knowledge of the local situation. Despite their best efforts, Davis was convicted … but would be exonerated and (eventually) released. [Blogs, January 17, December 17, and several others.]

In the fall of 1898, Perky moved to Mountain Home, the county seat of Elmore County. Then, in January 1901, he was appointed a district judge to serve the remaining term of Judge Charles O. Stockslager [blog, this day], who had been elected to the state Supreme Court. However, Kirkland chose not to run for re-election when his term expired. He moved to Boise in the spring of 1903 to open a practice there.

News reports show that Perky handled cases all over the state … as far north as Coeur d’Alene and into the southeast at Montpelier. In keeping with the times, local prosecutors often hired him to help present the state’s case. But he also had many cases as defense attorney. He was so busy that, despite strong support, he refused to run for the position of Boise mayor in 1907.

That same year, and the following, he aided the defense for officials of the Western Federation of Miners, accused in the assassination of ex-Governor Frank Steunenberg [blog, December 30]. In the process, he became a personal friend of famous attorney Clarence Darrow.

In November, 1912, then-Governor James Hawley appointed him to fill the unexpired term of U. S. Senator Weldon B. Heyburn, who had died in office. Again, Perky declined to run for a term of his own.

Protest Meeting, before 1923. Library of Congress.

By this time, it can be inferred that Kirtland’s refusals to run for public office were, at least in part, his “anti-establishment” politics. Thus, he often found himself at odds with the policies of both major parties. They were entirely to blame, he asserted, for the post-war depression and the failure to improve the lot of farmers and other “ordinary people.”

Perky’s wife died in the summer of 1921 and by 1924 he had moved his law practice to Long Beach, California. Most of his cases that made the news had him defending “unpopular” defendants. In the late Twenties, Perky moved to Huntington Park, south of Los Angeles, but continued to practice law. He passed away there in January 1939, after a brief illness.
                                                                                 

References: [Hawley]

Clarence Darrow, The Story of My Life, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York (1932).

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

Patrick Hanks, Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, New York (2003).

“[Perky News],” Elmore Bulletin, Mountain Home; Idaho Statesman, Boise; Twin Falls News; Lewiston Tribune; Idaho (August 1892 – January 1939).

Albert Watkins, Illustrated History of Nebraska, Vol. III, Western Publishing and Engraving Company, Lincoln, Nebraska (1913).

Landowner, Sheep Rancher, and Supreme Court Justice Charles O. Stockslager [otd 02/08]

Judge Stockslager.
Illustrated History photo.

Idaho Supreme Court Justice Charles O. Stockslager was born on February 8, 1847, in Indiana, about ten miles west of Louisville, Kentucky. He attended a Normal school in Lebanon, Ohio, but apparently never taught school himself. Charles decided to become a lawyer instead. He read law at his brother’s office in Indiana, and then with some “prominent attorneys” in Kansas.

Admitted to the Kansas bar in 1874, he practiced there until 1887. Along with his practice, he served as Clerk of a District Court, and later as a County Attorney. Stockslager also became heavily involved in real estate and mining properties. Thus, he helped organize the mining town of Galena (just across the border from Joplin, Missouri) and was elected its Mayor in 1881.

In 1887, President Grover Cleveland appointed Stockslager to be Receiver for the U. S. Land Office in Hailey, Idaho. (The Receiver formally accepts the fees paid by homesteaders when they claim a tract of public land.) Three years later, voters elected him to be Judge of the Fourth Judicial District, which then encompassed much of south-central Idaho. He was reelected four years later, and then again in 1898.

Oddly enough, Stockslager’s biographies do not mention that he owned any specific mining properties in Idaho. Yet, given his activities in Kansas, it’s probable that he did. And in 1910, he was a major organizer of the Idaho-South American Mining & Development Company. Stockslager had many other investments besides that. Those included a share of the Hailey Hot Springs Hotel Company, originated by railroad publicist Robert Strahorn. He was also prominent enough in the sheep business to be selected as a Delegate-at-Large for Idaho at the 1900 Annual Convention of the National Live Stock Association.

As Fourth District Judge, Stockslager handled cases tried at Albion, then the county seat of Cassia County. Thus, in 1897, he presided at the trial of "Diamondfield Jack" Davis, accused of murdering sheepmen John Wilson and Daniel Cummings [blog, Feb 4 and others].

Courthouse, Albion. Cassia County Historical Society.

The prosecution's case was deeply flawed and totally circumstantial. The slugs that killed the sheepmen were .44 caliber; Jack owned only a .45 revolver. Moreover, most of the physical evidence had been grossly mishandled, and the State could not credibly place Davis at the scene of the crime. Nonetheless, the jury found Jack guilty. Stockslager then saw fit to sentence Jack to be hanged.

In 1900, the judge was elected to serve a six-year term on the Idaho Supreme Court, beginning in 1901. He therefore participated in an appeal review for Diamondfield Jack's case. Stockslager did not recuse himself from the ruling. The appeal only bought more time: The court pushed back the hanging date. (In fact, the Idaho courts never did change Jack’s status. That was left [blog, Dec 17] to the Board of Pardons, a panel consisting of the governor, secretary-of-state, and attorney general.)

Stockslager ran unsuccessfully for Idaho governor in 1907 and tried, also unsuccessfully, for a U. S. Senate seat in 1909. Except for one more term as district judge, he engaged in private practice, first in Hailey and then in Shoshone, until his retirement. In 1919, Stockslager led the effort to create Jerome County from portions of Lincoln, Gooding, and Minidoka counties. The Act creating the new country passed on February 8.

Stockslager passed away in March 1933.
                                                                                 

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

William G. Cutler, History of the State of Kansas, A. T. Andreas, Chicago (1883).

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

Charles F. Martin, Proceedings of the Annual Convention, Fort Worth, Texas, National Live Stock Association, Denver (1900).

“[Stockslager News],” Idaho Statesman, Boise, Idaho (September 24, 1890 – June 19, 1910).

Governor Bottolfsen Signs Junior College District Bill into Law [otd 02/07]

Governor Bottolfsen.
University of Idaho archives.

On February 7, 1939, Governor Clarence A. Bottolfsen signed a bill that authorized the formation of local junior college districts in the state of Idaho. The new law allowed district voters to approve a local tax levy to support the school. Also, the district would receive half the state liquor store profits collected in the county where the school was located.

The law arose largely at the instigation of advocates in the Boise Valley, who had long been on the junior college bandwagon.

Small local colleges came and went in the U.S. during the course of the Nineteenth Century. Churches tailored curricula for their members, and towns founded schools as a sign that they had “arrived.” Most struggled or died after a few years of operation.

Toward the end of the century, organizers began to consider offering just the first two years. That would cut costs and offer other advantages: Some felt it would provide a transition between high school and a demanding professional curriculum at a university. Others saw it as a kind of trade school to teach the “practical arts.”

Joliet Junior College, founded in 1901, is considered the first public junior college in the United States. The movement slowly gathered momentum. California authorized the beginnings of its statewide system in 1907, and by 1920, the idea had spread all across the country. In June of that year, forty educators met in St. Louis and initiated what became the American Association of Junior Colleges (now the American Association of Community and Junior Colleges). By 1924, Ricks College, in Rexburg, had embraced the concept and proudly noted its membership in the Association.

People in the Boise Valley felt they needed, and deserved a full-fledged college: By the early Thirties, the area graduated nearly 40% more high school students than all of North Idaho – and the Panhandle had not only the University, but also Lewiston State Normal School. The Valley graduated 300 more high schoolers than East Idaho, which had access to Albion State Normal School, Ricks, and the precursor to Idaho State University.

Unable to make headway toward their own university despite those numbers, Boiseans had settled for a junior college. Boise Junior College began its first classes in September 1932 [blog, Sept 6], as a kind of expansion of the Episcopal Church's St. Margaret's School. Enrollment tripled to over 120 students in its second year.

However, the church had said from the start that other funding must be provided after two years. Thus, locals created a private non-profit corporation in June 1934. After an initial rush of enthusiasm, private donations and corporate membership fees dropped off drastically. So backers sought a more reliable source of funding.

Administration Building, Boise Junior College, 1941.
Boise State University Archives.

But the first JC district law they maneuvered through the legislature in 1937 was vetoed by Governor Barzilla Clark [blog December 22]. He felt that such local districts would prove inadequate and end up throwing the cost onto an already-strained state educational budget.

After Bottolfsen signed the district authorization in 1939, BJC enrollment shot up again, only to stall and then decline due to World War II. Eventually, of course, the school grew to be today's Boise State University. North Idaho College, formed as Coeur d'Alene Junior College in 1933, benefited from the law, and it provided the basis for the College of Southern Idaho, which opened in 1965.
                                                                                 

References: [Brit]

Glen Barrett, Boise State University: Searching for Excellence, 1932-1984,  Boise State University (1984).

Eugene B. Chaffee, Boise College, An Idea Grows, Printing by Syms-York Company, Boise (© Eugene B. Chaffee 1970).

James R. Gentry, The College Of Southern Idaho 1945-1985, College of Southern Idaho (1987).

Jerry C. Roundy, Ricks College: A Struggle for Survival, Ricks College Press, Rexburg (1976).

World War I Hero Army Lieutenant John Regan, D.S.C. [otd 02/06]

Timothy Regan. J. H. Hawley photo.

U. S. Army Lieutenant John M. Regan, D.S.C., was born February 6, 1886, in Silver City, Idaho. John’s father Timothy, with ample capital from his hotel and other business interests, came into possession of many valuable mining properties as they fell on hard times. When the economy improved, Timothy grew not just prosperous, but quite wealthy. The family moved to Boise City in 1889 and father Regan quickly became a prominent leader in area development.

John Regan attended Boise schools and then graduated “maxima cum laude” from Santa Clara College in California in 1904. Upon his return to Boise, he entered a lower position in Timothy Regan’s holdings. Later, he became an official of the Boise Artesian Hot & Cold Water Company.

John also joined in the various social, athletic, and charitable endeavors expected for the son of a wealthy and influential Boise leader. Thus, he often refereed at football games around the area. He also proved to have a gift for acting in amateur stage plays. In 1911, he played the lead in a show whose proceeds were earmarked for the building fund of the Roman Catholic St. John’s Cathedral [blogs February 1 and November 11].

John Regan. J. H. Hawley photo.

He also enrolled, as a private, in the Idaho National Guard, but his impressive educational credentials soon brought officer’s rank. Despite some organizational complications, Regan was part of the Guard unit when it was merged into the Army's 116th Engineering Regiment for service in World War I. The unit sailed for France in 1918.

There, Regan requested, and was granted a transfer to a front-line unit. He joined the 128th Infantry Regiment, 32nd Division, composed of nationalized Guard units from Wisconsin and Michigan. Toward the end of July, the Division was ordered into the counter-attack meant to decide the Second Battle of the Marne. By then, French and American forces had begun to reduce the German salient, despite fierce resistance.

On the 31st, regiments of the 32nd Division advanced through and around the village of Cierges (located 60-65 miles northeast of Paris). Their objective on August 1 was “Hill 230.” Two regiments attacked the hill itself while the 128th assaulted Bellevue Farm, which anchored the German’s defensive line. The attack captured Hill 230, but Lt. Regan was hit clearing the Bellevue Farm defenses.

32nd Division soldiers assembling for attack, August 1, 1918.
U. S. Army Signal Corps photograph.

The medal citation read, “The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to John M. Regan, Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action near Cierges, France, August 1, 1918. Mortally wounded by enemy fire while leading his platoon, Second Lieutenant Regan remained at the head of his men till he collapsed. He set an example of coolness and fortitude to his command, encouraging them by word and action.”

The posthumous biography in Hawley’s History noted that during the service for Lt. Regan at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, “for the first time a gold star was placed among the one hundred and twenty blue stars of the service flag of the parish.”

Hawley also wrote, “The Ada county post of the World War Veterans has been named the John M. Regan Post in his honor.” John’s remains were repatriated and interred in the family plot in Boise. American Legion “John Regan Post 2” honors his sacrifice each Memorial Day.
                                                                                 

References: [Hawley]

The 32nd Division in the World War I, 1917-1919, Wisconsin War History Commission, Madison (1920).

“[John M. Regan News],” Idaho Statesman, Boise, Idaho (November 26, 1908 – February 27, 1917). .

Boise Watchmaker, Optician, and Inventor James T. Laughlin [otd 02/05]

Boise jewelry store owner, and inventor, James Thomas Laughlin was born February 5, 1863 on a farm about forty miles southeast of Canton, Ohio. While James was still very young, the family moved to a farm in western Illinois. They moved again in 1870-71 to a farm in western Iowa, about twenty miles from Omaha, Nebraska.

James Laughlin. [Hawley]

James worked for his father until about 1884, when he landed a job at a jewelry store in a small town about fifteen miles north of the family farm.

Back then, jewelry itself was only a sideline in many jewelry stores. They mainly sold silverware, fine china and glassware, and especially clocks and watches. For many, their best profits came from selling, adjusting, and repairing timepieces. Laughlin acquired a fascination with watches.

After two year at that store, James moved to a jewelry firm in Omaha for about six months. Then he went to work for the Waltham Watch Company, in Massachusetts. At that time Waltham and the Elgin National Watch Company dominated the industry, surpassing even Swiss watchmakers in quality and accuracy. They had gained a substantial advantage through the use of mass-produced parts that were (mostly) interchangeable.

Laughlin spent eight years “finishing and adjusting” watches for Waltham. At that time, each watch required crucial fine-tuning – by hand – to attain the needed accuracy and precision. (A half century would pass before the industry achieved true interchangeability.)

James eventually decided to go off on his own. He chose to do so in Idaho, where his brother Harvey had been working in Rocky Bar for a time. An announcement in the Idaho Statesmen said the brothers planned to open a jewelry and optical shop in downtown Boise.

Harvey helped get the business on its feet, then left in 1898 to join the Klondike gold rush. For the next five or six years, James ran a fairly conventional jewelry store, offering fancy silver and glassware, fine China, jewelry (rings, broaches and the like), and, of course, watch sales and repair.

However, some time during his tenure in Waltham, James had also added lens grinding to his skill set. By around the summer of 1907, he had an active sideline fitting “spectacle and eye-glass mountings so they will stay on and be comfortable.”

Eyeglasses without temples – the pince nez style – had come back into favor toward the turn of the century. Their popularity surely got a boost because President Theodore Roosevelt wore a set. But Laughlin disliked the designs then in use and began devising his own. In 1910, he received a patent for an eyeglass mounting that used spring wire to grip the nose “thereby eliminating the use of screws.”

Eyeglass Mounting. Patent Diagram.

He immediately began advertising the comfort and simplicity of his “ITFITS” design, which was “almost invisible.” Two years later, Laughlin filed on yet more improvements, although the patent was not granted until late 1915.

That proved good enough for awhile, but in the fall of 1923 he filed on a mounting that was designed for better lens positioning and to “simplify manufacture” of the eyeglasses. While he waited for a decision, he began advertising a “going out of business sale” in Boise. By the time the patent was issued in the spring of 1925, Laughlin had opened a store in Santa Barbara, California.

Over sixty years old when he moved, he perhaps sought a warmer climate. Laughlin remained active in the Santa Barbara jewelry business until his death in the fall of 1933
                                                                                 

References: [Hawley]

Amy K. Glasmeier, Manufacturing Time: Global Competition in the Watch Industry, The Guilford Press, New York (2000).

Dora J. Hamblin, “What a Spectacle! Eyeglasses and How they Evolved,” Smithsonian Magazine, Washington, D.C. (March 1983).

James T. Laughlin, Eyeglass-Mounting, Patent Nos. 957,071; 1,161,699; 1,532,323; U. S. Patent Office, Washington, D. C. (Issued May 3, 1910; November 23, 1915; April 7, 1925).

“[James Laughlin News],” Idaho Statesman, Boise; Los Angeles Times, California (July 1895 – June 1925).

Two Sheepmen Shot to Death, Could Spark Range War [otd 02/04]

On the morning of February 4, 1896, two riders guided their horses along a rough track through the scrub-covered foothills of south-central Idaho. James E. Bower, a superintendent for the Sparks-Harrell Cattle Company, had headed south from Rock Creek after breakfast. He was in no particular hurry and, after about a half hour, cowboy Jeff Gray had overtaken him. Not long after they joined up, they glimpsed another horseman galloping far ahead of them along the stony road.

Sheep camp. Library of Congress.

Bower thought the rider might be a cattleman suspected of being in cahoots with encroaching sheep raisers. Gray agreed that it might be.

The two followed the horseman south until his tracks disappeared from the winding path. Further along, the cattlemen topped a rise and saw two sheep camps in the distance. One looked empty, but the other showed some activity. Its location along Deep Creek, about 26 miles south of the near-future town of Twin Falls, was well west of the "deadline," the informal boundary between sheep and cattle range.

Bower and Gray rode up to the camp not long before noon and dismounted about ten yards from the wagon. A sheepman stuck his head out. He and a partner inside were just preparing lunch. The sheepmen seemed friendly enough and apparently invited the cattlemen inside for a cup of coffee.

However, Bower had lived in the area for a quarter century; the two young sheepmen were strangers. That meant they might be interlopers who grazed their animals on the range but paid no local taxes. After some chitchat, Bower asked quietly, "Do you think it is right to come in here with your sheep?"

The sheepman nearer the door averred that they did pay taxes in the county. The young herders may well have been told that by the owners of the flock. Bower answered in an ordinary tone: “I think you are mistaken about that.” 

The vehemence of the reaction surprised Bower. With an angry retort, the argumentative sheepman rushed him. Bower landed on his back, while Gray was pushed or jumped outside. Physically over-matched, the foreman tried to retrieve his pistol from inside his coat, but the sheepman wrested it away and growled, “I’ll fix you both.”

The attacker ignored Gray’s shouted order to drop the gun, so Gray fired once, then again when the man didn’t react. Still not sure if he’d stopped the assault, he raised the revolver for another shot when Bower called out, “Hold on.” That ended the altercation.

As they helped the active attacker toward the bed, he seemed stunned and said, “I am hurt pretty bad.”

Bower and Gray saw only a little blood on the man’s chin, seemingly a minor, superficial wound. The sheepmen had friends nearby who would have surely heard the shots. They could help with whatever injuries the man might have. Fearing further trouble, the cattlemen hurried off.

(Of course, the surviving cattlemen provided the above self-defense scenario; there were no other living witnesses.)

In actual fact, both sheepmen – John Wilson and Daniel Cummings – had been mortally wounded. Wilson, the aggressive attacker, probably died within hours, while Cummings might have lived a day or so.

Discovery of the bodies would trigger an intensive manhunt for the notorious cowboy-gunman “Diamondfield” Jack Davis. His capture was followed by a celebrated trial, and a legal odyssey that would not be settled for over half a decade [blog, Oct 13].
                                                                                 

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

William Pat Rowe, "Diamond-Field Jack" Davis On Trial, thesis: M.A. in Education, Idaho State University, Pocatello (1966).

Avalanche Cluster Brings Tragedy to Coeur d’Alene Area, Six Killed at Custer Mine [otd 02/03]

At suppertime on Monday, February 3, 1890, a dozen miners who worked at the Custer Mine sat eating after a long day. The mine, high above Nine Mile Creek about six miles northeast of Wallace, had been located in 1885.

Custer Mill, ca 1890. University of Idaho archives.

Actually, according to the Illustrated History of North Idaho, eager prospectors had combed that area the year before, "but they were looking for placer gold, and were, perhaps, without much skill in their business, so failed to see the riches that lay before their eyes."

Soon, men more capable of recognizing the lead-silver lodes buried in these ranges arrived. They opened mines like the Custer, the Granite (further down the valley), the Tiger (on the south side of the same ridge), and many more. Operations boomed, especially after rail lines connected the area to the outside world.

However, for various reasons, some of the mines cut back production during the depth of winter. And this particular season had seen “unprecedented” snow levels. Just a few days earlier, the Custer Mine had laid off all but 15 of the company's 40 men. Without that fortuitous circumstance, the looming disaster might have been even worse.

The rattle of dishes and murmur of men's voices masked outside sounds, which were probably muffled further by a layer of snow hanging on the dining hall: None of the survivors mentioned any rumble of warning before the avalanche slammed into the structure. Plummeting sharply down the ridge, the snow crushed the roof first, driving broken beams onto the men who sat facing the hillside, "killing three almost instantly."

Miraculously, those with their backs to the slide escaped with mostly bumps and bruises. Then, the Illustrated History reported, "Building and men were carried far down into the gulch."

The least-buried survivors dug themselves out of the debris and did their best to help the others. However, the History noted, "So great was the danger of another snow slide that one of the men who came to the rescue took the names of those at work."

When all the survivors and victims had been recovered, they found that six men had been killed, including the mine foreman, two cooks and a waiter.

1910 avalanche aftermath, near Custer Mine.
University of Idaho archives.

The Illustrated History said, "This was the most disastrous of a large number of snow slides that had caused loss of life and property in the Coeur d'Alenes during the winter of 1889-90 and previous years. The contour of the country is very favorable to such slides."

The snow had become heavier and less stable because a hard rain had hit the area. So many slides were reported, it became difficult to say exactly when some happened. About a mile or so south of the Custer, a slide hit a railroad camp and killed three men. Two miles to the southwest, a tramway and two flumes were destroyed. Near Wallace, snow buried the main rail lines along a stretch of seventy-five feet.

At Wardner, twenty miles to the west, snow obliterated two tramways and wrecked several buildings, including a blacksmith shop. Fortunately no deaths were reported. And the day after the Custer tragedy, a big slide hit the town of Burke, located less that two miles southeast of the Custer Mine. There, “half the business portion” was reported to be in ruins. Fearing more slides, many inhabitants fled the area. At first, survivors thought three men had been killed. However, later reports said that four people had been “buried in the snow slide, but all were rescued with slight injury.”
                                                                                 

References: [Illust-North]

“Burke Demolished,” Idaho Register, Idaho Falls (February 8, 1890).

"Custer Consolidated Mining Company," Manuscript Group 246, University of Idaho (February 1995).

“Slain by the Snow,” The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon (February 7, 1890).