Construction Manager, Entrepreneur, and Prolific Bridge Builder James H. Forbes [otd 07/27]

Pioneer Idaho bridge builder James Hunter Forbes was born July 27, 1862 near Cincinnati, Ohio. His parents were both Scottish emigrants. With only a common school education, James began his working life as a farm laborer. However, after 1884, he spent about three years as a stonemason at various locations in Kansas.

James H. Forbes. [French]

Next, he found a job with a firm that specialized in bridge building. After perhaps ten years of that, Forbes went into business for himself, both directly and as a subcontractor. His first major job in Idaho came in 1902. He handled a subcontract to build a bridge across the Boise River to Eagle Island, about 10 miles downriver from Boise City.

Forbes followed the Eagle bridge job with a direct contract to build a dam and headgates for the Canyon Canal on the Payette River. He also then fulfilled another subcontract to build a wooden wagon bridge across the Payette River at Emmett. Besides some follow-up on that project, he won a contract to install a sewage system for the city. The city also granted him the franchise for an electric light plant. Forbes held his interest in the plant for about eighteen months before selling it.

With so much work coming his way, Forbes moved to Caldwell. He also began to specialize more in building bridges. Perhaps his largest early contract, beginning in 1905 or 1906, called for putting up bridges for the interurban railway, running from Boise out to beyond Caldwell. In January 1907, the Idaho Statesman reported that Forbes had “just completed the erection of the steel bridge over the Boise River near Caldwell. Besides this bridge, 30 pile bridges and three on concrete piers have been built.”

Forbes had a preference for steel truss bridges and his expertise with that design as well as other types won him many contracts as the low bidder. In 1910, he erected two bridges over the Payette River, one near New Plymouth and another about 8 miles down-river from Emmett. That same year, he built a Boise River bridge about 5 miles  southeast of downtown. The stated purpose of the bridge was to allow cattle and sheep drives to cross the river without going through the city itself.

Besides his construction work, Forbes served one term on the Caldwell City Council and briefly held a vice presidency in a Caldwell bank. But he focused mainly on bridges, even handling at least one contract in eastern Oregon. In 1929, when he was over 66 years old, he landed a contract for five bridges on the highway between Jerome and the Intercounty Bridge (now the Perrine Bridge).

In 1931, Forbes opened the Homedale Feed and Commission Company as a sideline. However, five years passed before he shut down the construction outfit and sold off its specialized equipment. He then began selling real estate, using the Homedale store as a base. James kept working after his wife died in 1938. He did sell off the feed company the following year.

Midvale Bridge, Weiser River, built by Forbes. Library of Congress.

On June 5, 1947, Forbes placed an ad as selling agent for a prime 80-acre farm with a “modern six room house” and a “new barn.” He died ten days later from injuries suffered in a car accident. He was just six weeks short of his 85th birthday.

A survey in 1981-1982 found around 25 steel truss bridges – still standing and many of them still in use – built in Idaho by Forbes. Two in Washington County – including the Midvale Bridge – were considered “most notable” in the submission for Historic Registry inclusion.
                                                                                

References: [French], [Hawley]

“[James Forbes News],” Idaho Statesman, Boise; Caldwell Tribune, Caldwell, Idaho; Billings Gazette, Billings, Montana (June 1900 – June 1947).

Kenneth C. Reid, Metal Truss Bridges of Idaho, National Register of Historic Places Multiple Property Documentation Form, Boise, Idaho (August 10, 2000).