Rancher, Businessman, and Party Leader Robert Coulter [otd 08/09]

Robert Coulter.
Family portrait photo.

Political operator, state Representative and agricultural pioneer Robert Coulter was born August 9, 1875 in Richmond, Kentucky, about eighty-five miles southeast of Louisville. In 1892, he moved to Oregon, where he worked at various jobs, including insurance and real estate, ranching, and boiler room operations. He married in 1901, in Portland, and moved to Washington County, Idaho the following year.

He first ran a dairy operation near Cascade (later county seat of Valley county). Coulter sold that after five years to go into general farming and stock raising. He also helped organize an irrigation company to water land midway between Payette and Weiser on the Oregon side of the Snake River.

Rather than the usual gravity flow, they used an electrically-powered pumping station to lift water from the Snake River. The results transformed sagebrush plains and dry-farmed grain fields into productive fruit and vegetable farms. Within a year, the project inspired five imitators.

When boosters formed the Washington County Fair Association, Coulter became one of its first Directors. In 1909, Robert spearheaded formation of a partnership to deal in real estate and mortgage loans. According to H. T. French, in 1914 the firm was “known for one of the largest real estate and loan companies in the county.”

Soon after he arrived in Idaho, he began taking a very active role in Democratic Party politics. For a number of years, he lived near Weiser and served as Secretary of the party Central Committee for Washington County. In the early 1920s, he moved his family back to Cascade.

For quite a long time, Coulter did not seek political office himself, working diligently for other candidates at all levels. In 1922, however, he ran successfully for the state House of Representatives. He would be re-elected for a total of six consecutive terms, running unopposed in at least one of those elections.

In 1931, Governor C. Ben Ross appointed Coulter to be Director of the Bureau of Budget. In that position, Coulter led the preparation of the budget to be presented to the legislature. He was also, ex officio, a member of another board charged with recommending construction of needed public buildings.

Senator Borah, 1937. Library of Congress.

Defenbach’s History of Idaho, published in 1933, characterized him as “one of the most forceful figures in Democratic politics at this time.” He served as Chairman of the Idaho Democratic Party for the first time in 1934-1935. Asked about party prospects, he incautiously predicted that they could defeat popular Republican Senator William E. Borah [blog, June 29] the next time he ran for re-election. Borah won handily.

For most of Coulter’s career in the House, Democrats were the minority party, yet he proved to be a very effective floor leader. When the party attained a majority in 1933, he was elected Speaker of the House. Coulter then apparently did not run for re-election, but filled the position of state Land Commissioner in 1933-1935. He would hold that office again in 1941-1947.

In 1935-1937, Coulter chaired the State Liquor Commission. Some time during this period, he moved to Boise. He served again as Chairman of the Idaho Democratic Party in 1940-1941 and 1942-1943. He ran again for that position in 1952, but was soundly defeated.

Two years later, he retired from the chairmanship of the Ada County Democratic Central Committee. He called that  “the last office I shall hold in the party.”

Coulter lived to be almost one hundred years of age, passing away in August 1974.
                                                                                

References: [Defen], [French]

Robert Coulter Collection, MS 415, Idaho State Historical Society.

“[Robert Coulter News],” Idaho Statesman, Boise; Post-Register, Idaho Falls; The Express, San Antonio, Texas (May 1912 – June 1961).

Bartleson-Bidwell Emigrant Party Enters Idaho, Headed for California [otd 08/08]

John Bidwell, 1840.
Meriam Library, Chico State University.

On August 8, 1841, the group generally referred to as the Bartelson-Bidwell emigrant party entered what would one day become the state of Idaho. By most accounts, John Bidwell had been the driving force behind this first larger movement of settlers to the West.

John was born in 1819, in New York state. Later, the family moved west as far as Ohio. John himself continued further west, and 1840 found him teaching school in Missouri. Unhappy with his prospects there, Bidwell listened with great interest to stories of California told by Frenchman Antoine Robidoux.

Many years later, Bidwell wrote, “His description of California was in the superlative degree favorable, so much so that I resolved if possible to see that wonderful land.”

As a result, sixty-nine emigrants headed west in May 1941. The “captain” of the train was one John Bartleson, who had campaigned for the position and refused to go unless he got it. Bidwell apparently didn’t care, he just wanted to get on with it.

In his account, Bidwell wrote, “Our ignorance of the route was complete. We knew that California lay west, and that was the extent of our knowledge.”

Fortunately, they learned that a party including Roman Catholic Father Pierre-Jean de Smet [blog, Jan 31] was also starting west. Their guide was experienced Mountain Man Thomas “Broken Hand” Fitzpatrick. Since larger parties were generally safer, de Smet and Fitzpatrick let the Missouri group join them.

Bidwell said the presence of the “old mountaineer” was particularly important when the train’s “easily excited” people first encountered Indians. Without Fizpatrick’s experience and knowledge, Bidwell felt, “the result would certainly have been disastrous.”

Father de Smet. Library of Congress.

The travelers followed what would become the primary route of the Oregon Trail in southeast Idaho. By the time they reached Soda Springs, only sixty-four emigrants remained: one had accidentally shot and killed himself, one stopped along the way, and three turned back.

Fitzpatrick and de Smet planned to head north from Soda Springs, following a path that would take them to Fort Hall. Although the emigrants had only crude maps to go by, they were sure the Fort Hall route would not get them to California. They did know from missionary reports that the more northerly track would take them to Oregon.

Thus, half the party decided to visit the fort and take the known trail to Oregon. They were the largest emigrant party to cross Idaho to that time. A “freelance” Methodist preacher had joined the column somewhere in northeastern Kansas. He gave an account of the trek across Idaho. Fort Hall impressed him greatly, and he observed that it was “in a handsome part of the country.” The party had abandoned their wagons before reaching the fort. Yet even with just a pack train, the preacher wrote, “it is very dangerous traveling up and down the rocky hills.”

The other thirty-two pioneers, including Bidwell, held to their original goal. Fitzpatrick could offer only second- or third-hand information about how they might get to California.

The Bidwell group turned south along the Bear River, having sent four men to Fort Hall to learn what they could. Bidwell wrote, “We were now thrown entirely upon our own resources. All the country beyond was to us a veritable terra incognita.”

Despite their profound ignorance, they did win through to California, although they almost starved along the way. Bidwell later played a prominent role in California history.
                                                                                 

References: [B&W]

John Bidwell, “The First Emigrant Train to California,” Century Magazine, New York (1890).

David L. Bigler, “Bartelson-Bidwell Party” Utah History Encyclopedia, Utah History to Go.

“Site Report - Cache Valley (1822-1884),” Reference Series No. 610, Idaho State Historical Society (December 1981).

Joseph Williams, Narrative of a Tour from the State of Indiana to the Oregon Territory in the Years 1841-2, Edward Eberstadt, New York (1921).

Murphy and Twin Falls Get Regular Train Service [otd 08/07]

Coincidentally, August 7 marks two different Idaho railroad milestones.

On this day in 1898, the Boise, Nampa & Owyhee Railway initiated railroad service to Murphy, Idaho. Colonel William H. Dewey [blog, Aug 1] promoted the line, with construction beginning in September 1896. The venture encountered just one unusual obstacle, but it was a substantial one: They had to bridge the Snake River. Even the economical design chosen – Parker trusses – represented a major expense in the overall budget.

Guffey Bridge, ca. 1898. Directory of Owyhee County.

Right after workers completed the bridge in 1897, the town of Guffey, named for one of Dewey’s partners, sprang up a mile or so downstream from the crossing. Guffey was the railway terminal for a time, and grew to be quite a respectable little town. Shippers transferred their freight to wagons for the long climb into the mountains.

Then crews laid the tracks into Murphy. The transfer point quickly moved there once trains began arriving. At the time, developers had high hopes for the mines around Silver City, but those optimistic notions never panned out.

In fact, the original concept called for the tracks to continue into the town of Dewey, a few miles from Silver City. That would have required the construction of another 25 miles of railway, with an ascent of over 3,800 feet. Needless to say, that line was never completed. By around 1912, all the big mines in the Silver City area had shut down.  Still, shipments of livestock and other agricultural products kept the railway going until 1947.

Today, Murphy – although it is the county seat of Owyhee County – has a population of less than a thousand. Hardly a trace of Guffey remains … but the Guffey Bridge is still in place as a pedestrian crossing.

Citizens of Twin Falls hailed August 7, 1905 as “Railroad Day,” for that was when the first train on the Minidoka and Southwestern Railroad arrived in town. The Milner Dam project, promoted by Ira B. Perrine [blog, May 7] brought irrigation to the plains south of the Snake River Canyon. That, in turn, spurred the formation and growth of Twin Falls.

In late 1904, further promotion by Perrine and others initiated the construction of a branch line to run from Minidoka to Buhl. The promoters also created the town of Burley where the tracks crossed the Snake River [blog, July 19]. As the tracks neared Twin Falls, townspeople planned a gala celebration in anticipation of their arrival. Celebrants rode into town from all over the region for the big day.

Buhl Depot. Twin Falls Public Library.

In fact, a special dispatch to the Idaho Statesman (published August 8, 1905) on the big day said that, “About 350 people came in this morning on the train, and hundreds came from all portions of the surrounding region by team.”

The dispatch writer estimated that “Five thousand people are in Twin Falls tonight celebrating the advent of the Minidoka & Southwestern railroad to the metropolis of the Twin Falls region.”

The railroad’s arrival sparked an even greater surge in the growth of Twin Falls. Within a few weeks, local stockmen began shipping substantial numbers of sheep and cattle from their depot. In less than a decade, the town had a population of about eight thousand. Similar expansion occurred at the terminus of the line in Buhl, which was incorporated in 1908.
                                                                                 

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

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

Jim Gentry, In the Middle and On the Edge, College of Southern Idaho, Twin Falls, Idaho (2003).

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

Madison County Farmer, Canal Builder and Probate Judge James A. Berry [otd 08/06]

Idaho pioneer and Probate Judge James Allen Berry was born August 6, 1854 in Bristol, England. His father, foreman at a basketmaking plant, suffered from ill health, so James began working at the age of nine. Sadly, the father died in 1870. Two years later, the widow brought the family to the United States. They settled in Salt Lake City.

James A. Berry. [Hawley]

Berry found work with the Utah Northern Railroad. He married in 1876 and they had three children within four years, but only one of them survived infancy. His first wife died in late 1880 and he remarried two years later. The couple would have much greater success, raising a brood of nearly a dozen sons and daughters.

Some time during that period, James was promoted to a foreman’s position with the railroad. By the summer of 1879, the company, now called the Utah & Northern Railroad, had laid track across eastern Idaho beyond Eagle Rock (today’s Idaho Falls). Berry supposedly took up land near Rexburg the same year the town was established, in 1883. He was not listed among Rexburg’s founders, however.

Barry continued as a railroad foreman for quite some time, possibly until 1890-1892. General Land Office records show that he filed on a 160-acre homestead about three miles northwest of Rexburg in 1890. The following year, he also filed on a 160-acre plot about eight miles northwest of Dubois. It seems not unlikely that he started holding acreage as a “squatter” while he still had a steady job with the railroad.

In any case, Berry does not seem to have developed the Dubois land, perhaps because he could not count on a reliable water supply. That area was (and is) sheep country, and there is some possibility that he ran stock there. On the other hand, he quickly upgraded the property near Rexburg. James was described as a “forceful factor” in building the first irrigation canals, and served the Teton Island Irrigation Canal Company as Secretary, Treasurer, and then Director. After about 1904, he returned to the position as Secretary and remained in the job until at least 1920.

Berry was also active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons). He was a member of a Quorum of Seventies and the first president of the local Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association. In 1905, he was called for a mission back in England. (His passport application stated that he had become a naturalized U. S. citizen in 1887.) In December 1907, it was reported that his wife was in Salt Lake to meet her husband upon his return.

A year after he got back, Berry helped organize a Commercial Club in Driggs, Idaho. He became the Club’s first vice president. Besides his mixed-crop farm, he owned an interest in a Rexburg furniture outlet as well as a general merchandise store. Somewhat further afield, he had a share in the Beet Growers Sugar Company of Rigby.

Early Rexburg. Rexburg Historical Society.

In public office, Berry was a Justice of the Peace for four years and, from 1895 to at least 1910, he was a Notary Public. He also served as a Police Judge. In late 1913, the legislature split off a new county, Madison, from Fremont County. The governor then appointed Berry as Probate Judge for the new county. He held that post by re-election for almost a decade.

Berry and his wife retired to Salt Lake City in 1923 or 1924. James passed away there in the spring of 1927.
                                                                                 

References: [B&W], [Hawley]

“[Berry News Items],” Idaho Statesman, Boise; Deseret News, Salt Lake City, Utah (February 1895 – November 1913).

Progressive Men of Bannock, Bear Lake, Bingham, Fremont and Oneida Counties, Idaho, A. W. Bowen & Co., Chicago (1904).

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).