Weiser Stockman and Irrigation Developer Thomas Galloway [otd 06/06]

Tom Galloway. Illustrated History.

Weiser pioneer Thomas C. Galloway was born June 6, 1837 in Iowa County, Wisconsin, about forty miles southwest of Madison. According to the Illustrated History, his grandfather came to America from Scotland in time to fight in the Revolutionary War and was present at Yorktown when Lord Cornwallis surrendered there. Thomas was a teenager when the family emigrated along the Oregon Trail to Yamhill County, Oregon in 1852. Tom pursued a variety of jobs, including some time as a teacher, before leading pack trains to the British Canadian gold camps.

In 1863, Galloway packed supplies into the Boise Basin, then stayed to work in the gold fields. The following year, he and Woodson Jeffreys settled along the Weiser River [blog, February 11]. Tom built a log hut at the future site of Weiser City, and then replaced it three years later with a frame structure. Galloway ran these first buildings in the area as a simple hotel for several years. About 1868, he began a major expansion of his horse and cattle holdings.

His horse herd grew to be one of the largest in the area. Galloway’s Weiser City properties increased in value even more with the arrival of the Oregon Short Line Railroad in early 1884.  Tom served two terms on the Territorial Council (equivalent to the state Senate) in 1882 and 1884. He moved the family to Boise City at that time, partly so their children could take advantage of its better educational institutions. Tom maintained interests in Weiser and they moved back when the children had graduated from high school.

Weiser, ca. 1888. Weiser Museum.

During this period, Galloway was considered such an expert on stock raising that the leading agricultural journal of the day published his views on “Points of a Good Jack.” He recommended various male ass breeds for siring mules for different uses. If one needed a heavy draft animal, “then the Maltese ass or the Poitiers ass is required.”

In addition to his ranch, real estate, and business holdings, Galloway led the way in bringing irrigation to the higher plains along the Weiser River. A cooperative started the project, but apparently had neither the resources nor relevant skills to complete the job. Thomas attracted additional investors to finish the work. However, according to Judge Frank Harris, they eventually sold their rights to a local water district "at somewhat of a loss" because of the hassles involved in running the enterprise.

By the turn of the century, Tom owned over fourteen hundred acres of land around Weiser, some of it within the city limits. In late 1901, Galloway represented Idaho as a Delegate-at-Large at the Annual Convention of the National Live Stock Association. A few months later, he was elected President of the Washington County Stock Raisers Association.

In 1903, he served a term in the state House of Representatives. He also served as a justice of the peace in Weiser City, on the city council, and later on the school board. While the Galloways lived in Boise, they had a son, Thomas C. Jr., who became an eminent medical researcher [blog, March 17.]

Galloway House.

The elder Thomas passed away in June 1916. The Weiser mansion he had built in 1899-1900 is now on the National Register of Historic Places. He reportedly sold eight hundred horses to finance the place. (Today, it is a bed & breakfast furnished in period decor.)
                                                                                 

References: [Illust-State]

Thomas C. Galloway, “Points of a Good Jack,” The American Agriculturist for the Farm, Garden and Household, Vol. 48, Orange Rudd Company, New York (1889).

"T. C. Galloway dies," Oregonian (June 11, 1916).

Frank Harris, 'History of Washington County and Adams County," Weiser Signal (1940s).

Charles F. Martin (ed.), Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Convention of the National Live Stock Association, December 3-6, 1901, P. F. Pettibone & Co., Publishers, Chicago (1902).

Eleven Dead, Millions in Damages Due to Teton Dam Failure [otd 06/05]

On the morning of Saturday, June 5, 1976, observers noticed a major leak in the north abutment of the Teton Dam. This came after two days of increasing seepage. Within about three hours, a whirlpool in the reservoir behind the structure signaled that a substantial flow was undermining the dam.

Spillway of intact dam. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

Located on the Teton River 13-14 miles northeast of Rexburg, Idaho, the structure was the culmination of over forty years of speculation, and then planning. In 1932, during the heyday of Western dam building, the U.S. Geological Survey studied the Teton River for potential water storage sites. Not much came of that investigation.

The Bureau of Reclamation took another look in 1947, again with no subsequent action. Interest revived in 1961, and a report the following year recommended that a dam be built.

After almost a decade of site studies, construction began in February 1972. By June 1976, the reservoir had been filling for about eight months.

Even some supporters had raised doubts about the siting for the Teton Dam. Unfortunately, their qualms, and protests from outright opponents, had been brushed off or dismissed as unfounded. The claimed benefits from irrigation and flood control supposedly made the project worth the cost. The risks were considered minimal.

Although supervisors sent bulldozers out to plug the growing gaps, subsequent analysis suggests that nothing could have stopped the collapse at that point. The tunnels designed to empty the reservoir were not yet in service, and were probably too small anyway.

By noon, a wall of water was roaring down the canyon. At least two towns were virtually wiped out and Rexburg suffered major damage. Idaho Falls only avoided catastrophe by frantic efforts in sandbagging and digging relief trenches to reduce pressure on a major bridge.

Failure in progress. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

Your blogster well remembers this disaster. I was returning from a conference in Phoenix. The first news I heard came from two men sitting behind me on the plane. They were Federal emergency response people headed for Idaho Falls. The two had no idea of the full scope of the crisis, but they knew it was bad.

Authorities let our plane land, but then sent it south to the Pocatello airport. At that point, all the hotels along the river had been evacuated and the bridges were closed. Since the airport is on the west side and we lived on the other, I ended up staying with friends. We escaped damage at our place. However, a young lady who worked for me lived in a mobile home in the flood’s path. Floating timbers from a pole mill battered everything in the trailer park beyond recognition.

In the end, the flood caused the deaths of eleven people and an estimated 13 thousand cattle. Financial losses included the $100 million building cost as well as over $300 million paid out for damage claims. It is difficult to quantify the value of farmland scoured bare of topsoil, habitat obliterated, and other damage, but some estimates run as high as $2 billion.

An investigating committee concluded that no one factor caused the disaster. They wrote, “The fundamental cause of failure may be regarded as a combination of geological factors and design decisions that, taken together, permitted the failure to develop.”
                                                                                 

References: Stacey Solava, Norbert Delatte, "Lessons from the Failure of the Teton Dam," Forensic Engineering: Proceedings of the Third Congress, American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston, Virginia (October 19-21, 2003).

Committee on the Safety of Existing Dams, Safety of Existing Dams: Evaluation and Improvement, National Academies Press, Washington, D.C. (1983).

Dylan J. McDonald, The Teton Dam Disaster, Arcadia Publishing, Mount Pleasant, SC (2006).

Pettigrew Amendment Clarifies Forest Reserves Management [otd 06/04]

Senator Pettigrew. Library of Congress.

On June 4, 1897, President William McKinley signed a "Sundry Civil Appropriations" bill, which included an amendment crucial to the development of our national forests.

The "Pettigrew Amendment" – for South Dakota Senator Richard F. Pettigrew – addressed issues that had rendered previous forest legislation "ineffectual and annoying."

Initially, the Federal government saw the public lands as simply a source of revenue. The General Land Office sold them off to private interests for whatever money they would bring [blog, Feb 1]. Then the Homestead Act of 1862 sparked a crucial change in the handling of the public lands.

Before, even the supposed bargain prices charged by the Land Office barred most people from ownership. An ordinary workman might make only $50-60 a month. Thus, the $200 cost of a quarter section amounted to about four months income. Although living expenses were proportionally smaller, a family might need years to set aside enough savings to buy land.

Under the Homestead Act, fees came to only $18, and that was not even due all at once. The settler had only to “prove” the plot – build some sort of home, and work the land for five years.

Newcomers settled thousands of homesteads within just a few years, and around a million within a half century. So, in that sense, the Act was successful. However, opportunists inflicted much abuse under the law. (A whole story in itself.) Some of that abuse hit forested public lands, which were already under assault. Timber pirates routinely found ways to clear cut forests, take their money, and run.

The Homestead Act allowed them to give a semblance of legality to their depredations. They paid the fees for a whole host of “settlers,” who then filed for homesteads. Besides “improving” their properties, the settlers could work for the timber company for as long as the trees lasted.

With these and their other tactics, big timber companies had razed vast expanses of forest in the East and Midwest. To combat them, in 1891 Congress authorized the President to set aside "forest reserves" encompassing tracts in the public domain [blog, Feb 1]. However, lack of any regulatory guidance or budget made the law "ineffectual" at managing the reserves.

Boise National Forest. U.S. Forest Service photo.

Worse yet, placing those lands legally off-limits for "beneficial use" annoyed locals who depended upon them for their livelihood. As a result, they often connived with lumber companies to circumvent the reserve provisions.

The 1897 law clarified the conditions under which a reserve could be established. Thus, the legislation declared that it was "not the purpose or intent of these provisions" to tie up acreage that was more valuable as farmland or for its mineral resources. Moreover, one specific goal was "to furnish a continuous supply of timber for the use and necessities of citizens of the United States."

Thus, the amendment initiated the development of effective methods for managing the nation's forests. A major revision –  The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 – tried to reinforce the multiple-use concept for the national forests. It required that “the public lands be managed in a manner which recognizes the Nation’s need for domestic sources of minerals, food, timber, and fiber from the public lands … ”

However, more recent Federal interpretations have largely ignored that provision. The Forest Service is responsible for over 16 million acres of timber land in Idaho – roughly five time that held by private interests. Until 1995, the two sectors each produced over 650 million board feet of lumber annually.

Since then, however, production on national forest land has fallen drastically: The Forest Service now allows less than 15% the production sustained for over sixty years by private interests. In fact, state timber lands – a bit more than a million acres (7% versus the National Forests) – have out-produced the Federal forests since about 1999.
                                                                                

References: [French], [Hawley]

Philip S. Cook, Jay O’Laughlin, Idaho’s Forest Products Business Sector, Report No. 26, Policy Analysis Group, University of Idaho, Moscow (August 2006).

Samuel Eliot Morison, The Oxford History of the American People, Oxford University Press, New York (1965).

Harold K. Steen, The U. S. Forest Service: A History, University of Washington Press (1976).

United States Department of the Interior (eds.), The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976: As Amended, U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Washington, D.C. (2001).

Army Doctor M. W. Wood and Spotted Fever Research [otd 06/03]

Marshall Wood. U. S. Army archives.

Lieutenant Colonel Marshall William Wood, Army Medical Corps, was born June 3, 1846, in Watertown, New York, about sixty miles north of Syracuse. He enlisted as an Army Private in late 1864 and was twice wounded in Civil War action.

After his discharge in the summer of 1865, Wood found a position as a medical assistant at a retired solders home in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There, he began his medical studies in a physician’s office.

In 1870, he re-enlisted in the Army, this time as a “Hospital Steward” in the medical department. His duty assignment took him to Chicago, where he could take classes at Rush Medical School. In 1875, he became an Assistant Surgeon in the Army Medical Corps, with the rank of 1st Lieutenant.

Over the next twenty years or so, Dr. Wood served at stations all over the United States. At one point, he spent eight straight years at Western posts and came under fire at least two times in the Indian wars. In 1889, Wood also published a Dictionary of Volapük. Volapük was (is) an artificial language similar to Esparanto. It enjoyed considerable popularity from about 1880 to 1900.

By the time Wood moved to Boise Barracks, he had been promoted to the rank of Major. Major Wood took over as Post Surgeon in late 1894. In 1896, one of his monthly reports referred to a malady, “spotted fever,” that seemed to be common in the Boise Valley.

The Surgeon General asked for more information. Wood consulted with several Boise City physicians, including George Collister [blog, Oct 16], Warren Springer [blog, Mar 30], and several others. Wood’s report to the Surgeon General, Spotted Fever as Reported from Idaho, is generally recognized as the first systematic description of disease symptoms, treatment methods, likely causes, and so on. (Wood carefully credited the doctors who contributed to his report.)

Post Surgeon’s quarters, Fort Boise. U. S. Army archives.

Major Wood served in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. At the attack on Santiago, he commanded the only divisional hospital that made it to the front. A Medical Corps history noted the danger of their position and that enemy rifle fire had “killed a contract surgeon during the battle of San Juan Hill.” Wood received three commendations for Distinguished Service during this campaign.

Wood retired for the first time in 1904. He said he moved back to Boise because "it has the most favorable climate of any city I know." In Boise, Wood invested in mining ventures and operated a ranch not far from the city. He was also active in the Masons and the Grand Army of the Republic (G. A. R.), the society of Union Civil War veterans.

Wood volunteered for active duty and served during the 1916 Mexican border incident [blog, June 18], and then for World War I. Over 70 years old, Wood handled the examination of younger physicians slated for field duty with the Army.

After his final retirement in 1919, Lieutenant Colonel Wood returned to Boise. There, he again took an interest in the affairs of various patriotic organizations. Thus, a couple years later, he was elected national Surgeon General of the G. A. R.

In 1927, when he was over 80 years old, Wood represented Idaho at an American Legion convention held in Paris, France. He was then believed to be the only living Legion member who had seen active duty in the Civil War, Spanish-American War, Mexican intervention of 1916-1917, and the (first) World War.

Dr. Wood passed away in August 1933.
                                                                                 

References: [French]

Mary C. Gillett, The Army Medical Department: 1865-1917, U. S. Army Center of Military History, Washington D. C. (1995).

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

James H. Wickersham, Fourteenth Biennial Report of the Board of Trustees of the State Historical Society of Idaho, Boise (1934).

“[M. W. Wood News],” Idaho Statesman, Boise (Sept 29, 1904 – Sept 23, 1927).

Boise Replaces Volunteer Fire Department with Professional Firefighters [otd 06/02]

On June 2, 1902, Boise’s volunteer fire crew disbanded and fire protection became the responsibility of the new professional Boise Fire Department.

Early Boise Fire Station. Boise Fire Dept.

Boise City “survived” without an organized fire brigade for quite a long time, considering the threat. As in every other early town, pioneers built almost all their structures out of wooden logs and rough-sawn lumber. It was not like they did not see the risk. They knew that Idaho City had almost been wiped out twice, once in 1865 and again in 1867 [blog, May 17]. Serious fires had also hit several large businesses in Boise City.

In March 1867, hopeful organizers called a meeting at the courthouse, “for the purpose of organizing a hook and ladder company.” According to James H. Hawley’s History, “The meeting was well attended and a volunteer company was formed, but its records appear to have been lost.”

Many towns had a succession of volunteer companies, earlier ones falling apart when a key leader moved away or lost interest. That’s basically what seems to have happened in Boise City. Even when citizens threw together an abortive volunteer brigade, they had no equipment. People simply grabbed whatever ladders and buckets they could.

A fire in December 1875, in the heart of downtown Boise, finally catalyzed the creation of a permanent volunteer fire brigade. Witnesses felt sure the fire could have been quickly controlled, but the large crowd that gathered had no equipment. More importantly, the Idaho Statesman (December 27, 1875) asserted, “There was no one to lead or direct what to do.”

A month later, a group gathered to organize a fire company, and met again three weeks after that for the election of officers (Idaho Statesman, February 17, 1876). The company had enrolled 56 members by mid-May.

Less than a month after that, they had their first “hook and ladder” wagon. In this context, by the way, the “hook” refers to a metal pike and side-hook device mounted on the end of a long pole. Firemen use it to snag burning materials (walls, ceilings, timbers, etc.) and pull them out of the way.

Three years later the company got its first steam pumper, equipped with a thousand feet of hose. When the engine arrived, Boise City was still building its first emergency water cisterns. They soon had a basic system  in place, and added piped water to some areas in 1881. Fireman parked the pumper at the nearest cistern, hydrant, or ditch and hoped the hose would reach the fire.

Most of us have seen the stirring vintage photos of an old-time fire wagon that thundered down the street behind straining horses. For a long time, that picture was not accurate for Boise City. To save time, the volunteers themselves hauled their wagons, including the steam pumper. Not until 1895 did the department procure horse teams.

Boise fire wagon. Boise State University Library.

The volunteers initially converted a blacksmith shop on Main Street as their fire station. They eventually moved into a portion of the then city hall. In 1889, that facility was designated the Central Fire Station.

After the transition to a paid unit, the city began to upgrade their equipment, and eventually added two more fire stations. My blog of January 28, about Fire Chief William A. Foster, outlines how the Department expanded in the early decades of the Twentieth Century.
                                                                                 

References: [Hawley]

“The Department's History,” Boise Fire Department, CityofBoise.org (1999-2010).

Arthur Hart, Fighting Fire on the Frontier, Boise Fire Department Association (1976).

Indian Agent Discourses on “The Snake Indians” [otd 06/01]

On June 1, 1863, J. W. Perit Huntington, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon, addressed a report to his Washington, D. C. boss, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. The essay summarized what he had learned about the Indian tribes commonly known as the “Snakes.”

J. W. Perit Huntington.
Image courtesy of
the Oregon State Library.

He wrote, “The word Snake appears to be a general term applied to several bands or tribes of Indians quite distinct in language and characteristic, and inhabiting different tracts of country, but so connected by relationship (having intermarried with each other for long periods), and by long continued friendly intercourse, that they are usually regarded by whites and neighboring Indian tribes as one people.”

The Journals of the Corps of Discovery for 1804 contain the first mention of the “Snake Indians.” Captains Lewis and Clark learned of the “tribe” as a source of horses while they wintered at Fort Mandan, about forty miles north of today’s Bismarck, North Dakota.  The following year, near the Salmon River in Idaho, they traded for horses with the Lemhi Shoshone, one of the tribes collectively known as the Snake.

The next recorded encounter happened in 1811, when a fur company party led by Wilson Price Hunt met some Snakes in Wyoming. Later, two Snakes guided them over Teton Pass into Idaho [blog, October 5].

During the fur trade era that followed, mountain men and the Snakes mixed amicably, some whites acquiring Indian wives. The early flow of pioneers on the Oregon and California Trails through Idaho offered more opportunities for Snake bands to trade profitably. Thus, despite minor incidents, relations between the Snakes and white remained friendly.

However, the discovery of gold in California released a flood of gold-seekers and pioneers on the trails. That further degraded hunting and grazing in those areas, and clashes became more frequent and more violent. Then prospectors found gold in Idaho. Now, the tribes had to deal with miners and merchants who built cabins and stayed.

By the time Huntington prepared his report in 1863, conflict had escalated severely. The Superintendent tried to name the tribes he thought fit under the “Snake” designation. Modern scholarship does not agree totally with his list, which included the Modocs and the Klamaths.

Still, he did correctly identify the groups we now call the Shoshone, Bannock, and Northern Paiute Indians. He estimated their collective population as perhaps “5,000 to 6,000 souls” and said, “They have had but little intercourse with the whites, and that little of a hostile character.”

The worst of that violence, he felt, was between the miners and the tribes: “Many murders and thefts have been committed by the latter, which of course have been retaliated by the whites. In fact an actual state of war has existed there for the last twelve months.”

Shoshone Encampment.
William H. Jackson photo, Library of Congress.

He had conferred with the regional Army commander, and “The general concurred with me in regarding a war with the Indians inevitable, and regretted his inability to send troops to that region sooner than midsummer.”

Huntington strongly recommended that “the Indian Department” meet with the Snakes, hand out presents, and negotiate “the purchase of their lands.” He went on, “In my opinion the public interests urgently demand that an effort be made to accomplish this object.”

Unfortunately, the administration had no attention to spare for his recommendation. Over five years would pass before protracted military action brought a measure of peace with the western Snake bands.
                                                                                 

References: [B&W]

Wilson Price Hunt, Hoyt C. Franchère (ed. and translator), Overland diary of Wilson Price Hunt, translated from the original French Nouvelles Annales des Voyages (Paris, 1821), Ashland Oregon Book Society (1973).

Daniel S. Lamont (Director), The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. (1897).

Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Gary E. Moulton (ed.), The Definitive Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln (2002).

“The Snake War: 1864-1868,” Reference Series No. 236, Idaho State Historical Society (1966).

Businessman, Attorney, and Idaho Legislator Lorenzo Thomas [otd 05/31]

Lorenzo Thomas. Family archives.

Idaho legislator, attorney, and businessman Lorenzo R. Thomas was born May 31, 1870 in Staffordshire, England. His grandparents had converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints over twenty years earlier. Finally, in 1873, the family moved to the United States and settled in Salt Lake City.  Then, in 1882, they moved to Eagle Rock (now Idaho Falls), Idaho. As a teenager, Lorenzo went on a mission for the LDS church in England.

Upon his return, he began work in a store in Eagle Rock (the town name changed not too long after that). Thomas showed immediate talent for the retail trade and became manager of the Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution (ZCMI) store in Rexburg at the age of twenty-two.

In 1895, Thomas was elected to the state House of Representatives, serving during the term of Governor William McConnell [blog, Sept 18]. That session of the legislature dealt with a wide range of issues vital to the young state. Early on, they worked out a reapportionment of the state Senatorial and Representative Districts, and restructured several counties in central Idaho.

The legislature also created several offices within the Executive branch. These included a Horticultural Inspector to oversee fruit grading and suppression of insect pests, and a Sheep Inspector to examine herds for possible infectious diseases. They also devised three amendments to the state Constitution. One amendment called for granting women the right to vote, a key milestone in women’s suffrage [blog, Nov 3].

Lorenzo so impressed leaders in Boise that he was appointed Deputy State Treasurer at the end of his term. Then, in rapid succession he became United States Commissioner and then Register of the Federal Land Office in Blackfoot.

Thomas was active in the LDS church, serving many years as a Bishop in Blackfoot. He also belonged to the Blackfoot Commercial Club, served as Director for several regional corporations, and rose to a captaincy in the Idaho National Guard. For a time, he acted as President of the Southeastern Idaho Fair Association.

Blackfoot, Idaho, ca 1898. Illustrated History photo.

Thomas also operated a mercantile business and owned considerable farm land in the area. Not content with all that, Lorenzo studied law, passed the bar exam, and began a successful legal practice

After ten years in the Land Office, Thomas retired to his law practice, interrupted by a term as a Probate Judge in Bingham County. He served as Blackfoot city attorney, and then was elected in 1915 to the first of his four terms in the Idaho Senate. He served two and two, with one term out of office between. During his final Senate term in 1921-1924, Thomas was selected as President Pro Tem.

Besides his political and legal activities, Lorenzo bolstered his farm holdings by supporting key irrigation ventures. Thus, the Idaho Statesman reported (February 15, 1919) that “Senator L. R. Thomas” and two others were trying to “interest the active support of the Pocatello Commercial Club” in an irrigation project in Bannock County.

Although he held no state public office after his final Senate term, he remained active in the Republican Party. As a sign of his commitment to service, Rotary International acknowledged Lorenzo as one of its three oldest District Governors … in 1939, when he was almost seventy years old. He passed away in July 1944.
                                                                                 

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

"Jottings from Convention Folk," The Rotarian, Rotary International (August 1939).