Boise and Southwest Idaho Automotive Pioneer Harry H. Bryant [otd 08/05]

Boise Ford dealer Harry H. Bryant was born August 5, 1871 on a farm about eight miles northwest of downtown Detroit. The family homestead was just four to five miles north of where automotive pioneer Henry Ford had been born eight years earlier. Harry grew up with two of Henry’s younger brothers, and his older sister Clara was a close friend of Henry’s oldest sister. Henry Ford and Clara Bryant were married in 1888.

H. H. Bryant. [Hawley]

Around 1890, Harry left home to find work. He married the following year and, for the next two decades, tried diverse ventures, first around Detroit and then in Seattle, Washington. But he had little success and apparently hit rock bottom in 1912. Meanwhile, his brother-in-law grew rich and famous, and sister Clara had become the Bryant family matriarch when their mother died.

After the summer of 1913, Harry and his family traveled east to Detroit. For undisclosed reasons, Harry and Henry (and Clara) decided Harry should represent Ford Motor Company in Boise. Boise had joined the car craze in 1901, when a saloon keeper purchased a gasoline-powered Loomis “horseless carriage.” Three years later, men were racing their cars at the fairgrounds. And by early 1909, Ford had hired a “live hustler” to handle Idaho sales.

On December 7, 1913, the Sunday edition of the Idaho Statesman printed a Ford advertisement placed by “H. H. Bryant & Son.” The firm competed aggressively, with heavy advertising, entries in car races, contributions to local causes, and “technical exhibits.”

They prospered and, in October of 1917, took occupancy of a large two-story building – 150 by 122 feet – at Eleventh and Front streets. The ground floor housed sales areas and a complete garage, while the top floor had machinery for light manufacturing. The plant turned out bodies and transport trailers for commercial vehicles. And, in 1920, Harry purchased a fancy home with a big lot on Warm Springs Avenue, where some of the wealthiest Boiseans lived.

Two years after that, he opened the Bryant Commercial Body Company in a plant that covered two acres of land on Fairview Avenue, about a mile from downtown. The facility assembled Ford automobiles from parts that were shipped in and fabricated truck bodies. At the time, it was one of only a handful of Ford assembly plants in the West. Later, they also produced small boats.

Besides his advertisements and other publicity events, in the 1920s Harry availed himself of educational movies produced by the Ford Motor Company. In 1914, Henry had initiated a film department, a first for a manufacturing company. Many productions, of course, had an obvious promotional slant. However, early on, Ford understood that solid content would generate a lot of interest and goodwill. He counted on the film credits and dealer presentations to gain name recognition.

H. H. Bryant Garage, ca 1982. National Registry.

The release of the Model A Ford in 1927 kept sales hot in Boise, as it did everywhere else. But the Thirties brought the Great Depression. Harry kept the dealership afloat with a loan from Clara in early 1933, but then sold it about a year later. During that same time period, he also shut down the assembly and production plant on Fairview.

In 1935, the Bryants moved north of downtown and leased out the fancy home on Warms Spring Avenue. Harry passed away in May 1938, about four months after the assembly plant had been converted into a sports arena. The historic garage building on Front Street was approved for National Registry listing in 1982, but “renovated” out of existence in 1990.
                                                                                

References: [Hawley]

“[Boise Automotive News],” Idaho Statesman, Boise (October 1901 – May 1938).

Ford R. Bryan, Clara: Mrs.Henry Ford, Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan (2013).

“H. H. Bryant Garage,” Tourtellote and Hummel Architecture Thematic Resource, National Register of Historic Places (1982).

David L. Lewis, The Public Image of Henry Ford, Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan (1976).

Second Idaho Regiment Brought into Federal Service for World War I [otd 08/05]

On August 5, 1917, the War Department drafted the Second Idaho Regiment (National Guard) into the U.S. Army for duty in World War I, part of perhaps 300,000 guardsmen taken into Federal service at that time.

A year earlier, the government had directed the state to mobilize the Second Idaho to patrol the Mexican border [blog, June 18]. Under that call-up, the troops could not be sent outside the country. The troops had been demobilized when that duty was over.

Idaho Guard troops headed for training camp.
Library of Congress.

In response to a telegram from  Washington on March 25, the Governor mobilized the Second Idaho, and its companies gathered at Boise Barracks. With a declaration of war close at hand, the Secretary of War wanted Guard units called to duty: “This duty to consist for the time being of protecting traffic, [the] means of communication and the transfer of mails within the state. (Idaho Statesman, Boise, March 26, 1917).

Then, in May 1917, Congress authorized the President to begin inducting Guard units into national military service. Nationalized troops could be sent outside the country. The Idaho regiment was not up to its authorized wartime strength, so officials instituted a vigorous recruiting campaign. By the time the draft order arrived on the 5th, the unit actually exceeded the required enrollment.

The regiment consisted of three battalions. The First Battalion was from northern Idaho: Coeur d'Alene, Grangeville, Lewiston, and Sandpoint. The Second came from Boise, Buhl, Twin Falls, and Idaho Falls. The Third represented Caldwell, Nampa, Payette, and Weiser.

About seven weeks after the draft, the regiment traveled to Camp Greene, near Charlotte, North Carolina. There, commanders parceled the Idaho battalions out to various units of the Army’s 41st Division. Then, when the 41st arrived in France, the high command made it a “replacement” division, so individual units were further distributed. These breakups make it somewhat difficult to track exactly where the Idaho companies fought during the war.

Of course, not every Idahoan who saw World War I action enlisted in the Second Idaho. According to Hawley, the Second Idaho enrolled 5,060 men, while another 12 thousand Idahoans served in Regular Army units, the Navy, or the Marines.

One unit history indicates that an Idaho company provided support to the U. S. Marines in their famous Battle of Belleau Wood, in June 1918. However, the first major action for Idaho soldiers was in the Second Battle of the Marne, in late July.  There, Idaho troops suffered their first significant casualties, including the death of Lieutenant John Regan [blog, Feb 6].

In mid-September, Idahoans participated in the Battle of Saint-Mihiel. American forces caught the Germans in a staged withdrawal and turned it into a hurried retreat. Reportedly, the advance stopped mainly because the American troops outran their artillery and material support.

American soldiers attack at Meuse-Argonne. U. S. Army.

Idahoans next fought in the Meuse-Argonne offensive, in which American and French divisions captured the vital railroad hub at Sedan. The battle began in late September and ended only with the Armistice on November 11. This was by far the bloodiest battle experienced by American troops in the War.

An incomplete casualty list for the Great War, published in 1920, gives the names of 348 Idahoans who were lost to battle deaths, sickness, or accidents. Unfortunately, there may be as many as one hundred names missing from that list.
                                                                                 

References: [Hawley]

W. M. Haulsee, F. G. Howe, A. C. Doyle, Soldiers of the Great War, Vol III, Soldiers Record Publishing Association, Washington, D. C. (1920).

Mark A. Shields (ed.), The History of the 116th Engineers, Training Section, U. S. Army (1918).

Richard A. Rinaldi, The US Army in World War I – Orders of Battle, Tiger Lily Publications, Takoma Park, Maryland (2004).

Idaho Physician-Surgeon Dr. A. Ayer Higgs … Camas Prairie, Gooding, and Boise [otd 08/04]

Dr. Alexander Ayer Higgs was born August 4, 1870 in Owensboro, Kentucky, about eighty miles southwest of Louisville. The Higgs family had been early pioneers in the colonies, arriving around 1650 from Gloucester, England. They settled in Maryland, with descendants proceeding to North Carolina and then, around 1850, to Kentucky. Ayer’s grandfather was a physician, as were several other paternal forebears. 

Dr. Ayer Higgs. [Hawley]

Thus, in early 1894, Higgs enrolled at the Eclectic Medical Institute in Cincinnati. [See blog, February 12, for a discussion of eclectic medicine.] He signed in as “Ayer A.,” the form he preferred for most of his medical career. He received his M.D. in 1896 and operated a practice near his birthplace for a time. He then accepted a teaching position at the Georgia Eclectic Medical College. He married in early 1899 and the couple had their first child, a girl, in Atlanta.

However, Ayer decided the heat and humidity in Georgia were bad for his health, and began to spend more time back in Kentucky. Some years earlier (it’s unclear exactly when), his brother Benjamin had moved to Idaho. In 1900, Ben had a ranch job near Hailey and wrote favorably of the climate and prospects for growth. Finally, in the spring of 1901, Ayer traveled to the state to check it out.

Impressed, Dr. Higgs moved his family to the village of Soldier, located about twenty-five miles southwest of Hailey. The town thrived as a center for farms and ranches supplying the booming gold and silver mines in the high mountains to the northwest. As the only physician for miles around, Ayer’s practice took off, and he soon began investing in ranch properties and a bank. Sadly, the couple’s little girl died there in 1906.

Ayer broadened his horizons after his brother DeWitt, also a physician, joined him around 1907-1908. They opened a hospital in Gooding. Not long after that, the rest of the family – parents and the three youngest brothers – also moved to that town. All told, with Ayer, Benjamin, and DeWitt, the Higgs family included eleven children, all boys. Five of them, however, had already died before the age of five. Ayer’s father passed away in 1910, his mother a year or so later. Then, in early 1914, brother Ben also died.

Meanwhile, the Gooding hospital attracted a solid clientele. As it happened, Ayer himself drew special attention because he proved to be an outstanding surgeon. In fact, he was often called away to perform especially tricky operations. That included going out of state to places like Salt Lake City and Portland. He once boarded a train with a husband whose wife needed his help … in Florida. Finally, in early 1919, he moved to Boise to open a specialized surgical practice.

Dr. Higgs insured that his surgical suite always had the most up-to-date equipment and methodology. He also kept his own skills current, studying in Chicago and regularly at the world-famous Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Reports noted that he was a personal friend of Dr. Charles H. Mayo, co-founder of the clinic. He was a fellow of the American Medical Association and a member of the Idaho State Medical Society. In 1911, he served as a member of the AMA House of Delegates.

Perhaps because of his health, Dr. Higgs moved his practice to Chula Vista, California around 1926. Over the years, he often visited friends and family back in Idaho and Oregon. In the summer of 1940, he fell ill while visiting his brothers in Burns, Oregon, and didn’t recover for several weeks. Not long after that, he retired from active practice. Some time later, he moved into San Diego, where he died September 10, 1943 from a cerebral hemorrhage.
                                                                                 

References:[ Britannica], [Hawley]

“Dr. A. A. Higgs Succumbs To Long Illness,” Chula Vista Star, California (September 17, 1943).

“[Dr. A. A. Higgs News, Statesman],” Idaho Statesman, Boise, Idaho  (March 1908 – September 1940)

“[Dr. A. A. Higgs News, Various Sources],” Owensboro Messenger, Kentucky; Macon Telegraph, Georgia; Shoshone Journal, Twin Falls News, Idaho (October 1899 – September 1939).

Ag Secretary, Author, and LDS Patriarch Ezra Taft Benson [otd 08/04]

LDS President and public servant Ezra Taft Benson was born August 4, 1899 in Whitney, Idaho (located 20-25 miles west of Bear Lake). He was named for his grandfather, who converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1840 and rose to be a member of its Quorum of Twelve Apostles. Growing up on the family farm, Ezra learned the “traditional” agricultural approach, which depended upon draft animals and offered little mechanization.

Sugar beet harvesting in the Mountain West, ca 1915. National Archives

Benson sandwiched a solid education in agricultural subjects around his mission to England in 1921. Thus, upon his return, he completed his degree at Brigham Young University, married, and moved to Ames, Iowa. In 1927, he attained a Master’s degree in agricultural economics from Iowa State University.

Two years after he returned to the family farm, the University of Idaho (UI) Extension Service hired Ezra as their agent for Franklin County. In 1931, the UI promoted him to a statewide position as an agricultural adviser. He travel extensively, helping farmers market their products, with an emphasis on strategies implemented through cooperative organizations. Less than five months after he was appointed, the Idaho Cooperative Council was formed at a meeting in Twin Falls. Its aim was to help individual cooperatives work together for their mutual benefit. A news report said, “Twenty cooperatives of the 68 in the state have joined the organization in its two days of existence  … ”

In 1939, he moved to Washington, D.C. to head the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. While there, he continued his advancement in the LDS: having been a stake president in Boise and then Washington, he was confirmed as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1943. From there, he was called to be President of the church’s European mission, dealing with the devastation left by World War II.

In 1952, President Dwight Eisenhower selected Ezra Taft Benson to be Secretary of the Department of Agriculture. An ardent anti-Communist and anti-Socialist, Benson disagreed with the system of Federal price supports and other farm aid; to him it smacked of what we would call a “slippery slope” to socialism.

Agriculture Secretary Benson.
Life Magazine*

He believed even more strongly, however, in adherence to one’s civic duty. Ezra performed those duties so well that he remained Secretary through all eight years of Eisenhower’s administration. He authored two books on farming while in office, and one later about his experiences in the Cabinet.

Benson also authored three books having to do with church and civic matters. In 1973, he rose to the Presidency of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Twelve years later, Ezra Taft Benson became President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In April 1986, members sustained Benson as President, Seer, and Revelator, confirming his position as ultimate patriarch of the Church.

Ezra took an active role in Scouting, starting as an Assistant Scoutmaster in 1918. Just over thirty years later, in 1949, he became a member of the National Executive Board of the Boy Scouts of America. Over time, he received all three of the highest awards bestowed by that organization as well as the Bronze Wolf award from International Scouting, their highest, very selective honor.

In 1989, President George H. W. Bush presented Benson with the Presidential Citizens Medal. Fourteen American colleges and universities conferred honorary degrees on Ezra Taft. He passed away in May 1994.

* Photo provided online by Time for “Personal non-commercial use only.”
                                                                                 

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

Sheri L. Dew, Ezra Taft Benson: a Biography, Deseret Book Co., Salt Lake City (1989).

“[ET Benson and the Idaho Cooperative Council],” Daily Post, Idaho Falls (February 4 and June 18, 1931).

Track Star, Olympic Athlete, and Coach "Hec" Edmundson [otd 08/03]

Coach, University of Idaho track star, and Olympian Clarence “Hec” Edmundson was born August 3, 1886 in Moscow, Idaho. In 1901, Clarence enrolled in the UI prep school and soon established himself as an outstanding distance runner.

Edmundson wins! University of Idaho archives.

Hec – “Aw Heck!” being his preferred expletive – basically put UI track & field athletics on the map. At most meets, he ran the quarter mile, the half, the mile, and anchored the mile relay. In 1905, Hec led a three-man “team” to the Lewis and Clark Exposition Games, in Portland, Oregon. Amazingly, the tiny squad placed second in the event, with Hec winning two firsts.

In 1908, Edmundson won one event and placed second in another at the Olympic qualifying trials held at Stanford University. He was not, however, among the 76 athletes selected for the American team that went to the 1908 Olympic Games in London (The Oregonian, Portland, June 9, 1908). Later that year, he organized the first cross country squad for the University of Idaho.

Edmundson was selected for a spot on the team for the 1912 Olympics, held in Stockholm. Hec reached the semi-finals of the 400-meter race, and the finals of the 800-meter. Edmundson was the first Idaho native to compete in the Olympic Games.

After his Olympic experiences, Hec turned to coaching, starting as track coach at the University of Idaho in 1913. After awhile, he also coached the basketball team. Edmondson’s hoopsters specialized in ferocious defense, which led some sports writers to gush that they “vandalized” their opponents. According to tradition, a writer for the student newspaper dubbed the powerful 1917 squad the “vandals” in a season-opening article. Four years later, “Vandals” became the official name for University of Idaho athletic teams.

Coach Edmundson. Seattle Times photo.

In 1919, Hec joined the University of Washington staff, where he started as head trainer as well as the track & field coach. The school’s athletes showed his impact almost immediately. One of his trainees, Augustus “Gus” Pope, won a Bronze Medal for the discus throw in the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. (The following year Pope won both the discus and the shot put in the NCAA championships.) In all, seven of his athletes competed in the Olympic Games, and three of them won medals.

Besides a half dozen other individual NCAA track & field champions, Hec coached world record holders in several events. His teams won three Pacific Coast Conference (PCC) titles, twice finished second in the NCAA championships, and three other times finished in the top five.

Two years after he started at UW, Edmundson began coaching basketball there. Washington Husky tradition credits Hec with the invention of “fast break” basketball. Other claims for that honor exist. Most likely, many coaches of that era got frustrated with slow, set-piece basketball, and several … including Hec … invented ways to pick up the pace.

Hec’s squads won the PCC Northern Division ten times, and the conference title three times. He coached more wins (488) and compiled the highest career winning percentage (71.5) of any UW basketball coach. Edmundson passed away in August 1964.

Hec belongs to both the Husky and the Vandal Halls of Fame. The indoor sports venue at the University of Washington is called the “Hec Edmundson Pavilion” – generally referred to as the “Hec Ed” – in his honor.
                                                       

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

Jim Dave, W. Thomas Porter, “Hec Edmundson,” The Glory of Washington: The People and Events that Shaped the Husky Athletic Tradition, Sports Publishing, Inc. (2001).

Rafe Gibbs, Beacon for Mountain and Plain: Story of the University of Idaho, The Caxton Printers, Caldwell, Idaho (© The Regents of the University of Idaho, 1962).

“Hall of Famers Arrive on Campus: Clarence ‘Hec’ Edmundson,” University of Idaho news release, Moscow (Sept 6, 2007).

Lewiston Newspaper Golden Age distributed Its First Issue [otd 08/02]

On Saturday, August 2, 1862, the Golden Age newspaper released its inaugural issue in Lewiston, Washington Territory. The Age thus has the honor of being the first newspaper published in what would become, seven months later, Idaho Territory.

The publisher was a man named A. S. Gould. We know very little about him beyond the fact that he had previously run a newspaper in Portland. He expected the Lewiston paper to flourish along with the regional gold rush.

Front page, Golden Age.
Timothy Hughes: Rare and Early Newspaper blog.

But a footnote in Bancroft’s History noted that, “Gould, a Republican, had hot times with the secession element which crowded into Idaho from 1862 to 1864.” When Gould raised the American flag on a pole by his office, “21 shots were fired into it by disunion Democrats.”

In fact, Gould found Lewiston to be generally lawless and violent. Thus, it is perhaps understandable that he stayed with the business for less than a year. John H. Scranton ran the paper for a brief period. Little is known about him beyond the fact that he dealt in real estate.

Then, in August 1863, printer and newspaperman Frank Kenyon took over publication. Born in Michigan around 1842, Frank apparently traveled with the family to California in the early 1850s. He then followed the rush into Idaho.

As the only local publisher, Kenyon became the first official Territorial printer. Even in the first session of the new legislature, representatives from southern Idaho tried to move the capital to Boise City. Although they failed, the proposal created a major division between north and south Idaho. Meanwhile, Kenyon began to question how Acting Idaho Governor William B. Daniels was organizing the new Territory’s administrative operations. This disagreement was apparently separate from the capital location dispute.

Then Kenyon sold a half-interest in the Age to Alonzo B. Leland, and the north-south issue turned white-hot. Leland had been editor of a Portland newspaper when gold was first discovered in Idaho. He became a “true believer” in North Idaho’s promise and moved to Lewiston at the first opportunity.

Lewiston, 1862. Nez Perce County Historical Society.

Leland’s advocacy of keeping the capital in Lewiston exacerbated the friction, and cost them the Territorial printing work. Meanwhile, with so many miners drawn to new gold discoveries in southern Idaho, business in Lewiston nosedived. In late 1864, the legislature did move the capital to Boise City.

A few weeks later, the Golden Age suspended publication. Its equipment eventually ended up in Boise City. Two years later, Kenyon started a newspaper in Leesburg. In fact, Kenyon would start, or try to start newspapers at locations all over the West: Deer Lodge, Montana; Corinne, Utah; Bodie, California; and several Nevada towns.

The North Idaho Radiator began publication in Lewiston during the summer of 1865, a few months after the Age gave it up. However, that died within a few months when the publisher moved the whole operation to the flourishing gold country in Montana.

Lewiston was without a newspaper until January 1867, when Seth S. Slater and a partner established the Lewiston Journal. Slater was one of the original founders of Lewiston. That fall, they sold the paper to Alonzo Leland & Son. That lasted five years, and then was bought out and transformed into the Lewiston Signal.

The Signal gave way to the Lewiston Teller after 1876-1878, again with Alonzo Leland part of the ownership. In various incarnations, the Teller lasted until about 1911. Today’s Lewiston Tribune traces its roots back to a short-lived variant that started in 1892.
                                                                                 

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

Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of Washington, Idaho and Montana 1845-1889, The History Company, Publishers, San Francisco (1890).

Chronicling America: Historic Newspapers, The Library of Congress (online).

“Cochran, Daniels and the Golden Age,” Reference Series No. 373, Idaho State Historical Society (July 13, 1966).

“Idaho’s First Newspaper Born 100 Years Ago Today,” Daily Chronicle, Spokane, Washington (August 2, 1962).

Colonel William Dewey: Mining Investor, Road Builder, and Business Developer [otd 08/01]

Prominent Idaho pioneer Colonel William H. Dewey was born August 1, 1823 in Hampden County, Massachusetts (some sources give the birth year as 1822). Raised on a farm, he presumably followed that line until he moved to Idaho, by way of California, in 1863.

Dewey turned out to be what the Illustrated History called “a born miner.” A relative late-comer to the Owyhee mining regions, he balked at what he considered exorbitant real estate prices. Thus, in 1864 he and some associates started a new town that became Silver City. The county seat of Owyhee County moved there two years later. A new toll road that Dewey helped build along with Silas Skinner and another partner [blog, May 19] spurred the town’s growth.

Wedding photo, Belle seated with her sisters standing.
Canyon County Historical Society & Museum.

During the heyday of the South Mountain mines, 1871-1875, Dewey, to quote the Owyhee Directory, “owned nearly one-half of that prosperous camp.” In 1875, Dewey, then a widower with a young son, married Belle Hagan. Soon after that, he opened the Black Jack Mine, which developed into a most valuable property.

Dewey suffered a severe setback in 1884-1885. He was first convicted of murder for a shooting affray, but a retrial acquitted him on the grounds of self defense. Winning, however, put him heavily in debt for legal fees. Persistence and his skill as a prospector recouped his fortune, and then some.

Colonel Dewey, Illustrated History.

In 1889, the Colonel began selling off mining properties. He was, of course, approaching 70 years of age and perhaps contemplated a well-deserved retirement. However, Dewey’s overall business activity soon picked up again. In 1896, he helped found the Boise, Nampa & Owyhee Railway, which eventually linked Murphy with the Oregon Short Line station in Nampa.

Booneville, located 2-3 miles northwest of Silver City, had been a thriving town in the late 1860s, but then withered away. In the spring of 1896, Dewey purchased the town site and rejuvenated its business and mining operations. That included building the topnotch Hotel Dewey. The Directory asserted that its “appointments and architectural structure are unequaled by any hotel in the state.” The following spring, the town got a post office and the name was changed to “Dewey.”

Dewey also looked further afield. He purchased interests in several  central Idaho mining properties and also organized the Idaho Northern Railway Company. That firm then extended the Murphy-Nampa rail line on into Emmett. Dewey’s railroad projects increased his involvement with the town of Nampa, where he became owner of 2,000 lots through a mortgage purchase deal.

Dewey Palace Hotel.
Canyon County Historical Society & Museum.

The Deweys moved there in about 1900 and the colonel commissioned the construction of the Dewey Palace Hotel. In his description of it, Hiram T. French wrote, “At the time of its erection it seemed to be a structure all out of proportion to the size of the town, for it was a magnificent building.”

When the hotel was completed in 1902, he and Belle moved into an apartment there. Sadly, the colonel had little time to enjoy it. He passed away in May of the following year, after a lifetime of intense effort and incredible accomplishment.

Belle oversaw the Nampa properties for a number of years after his death. Fittingly, a recent redevelopment program in downtown Nampa called the area the Belle District, in honor of Belle (Hagan) Dewey.
                                                                                 

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

“Boise, Nampa & Owyhee Railroad (1896-1898),” Reference Series No. 218, Idaho State Historical Society (January 1993)

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

“History of the Belle District,” The Belle District, Nampa, Idaho.