Idaho Falls Businessman and Booster Frank C. Bowman [otd 01/20]

Idaho Falls businessman and civic leader Frank C. Bowman was born January 20, 1870 in Morgan County, Utah, fifteen to twenty miles southeast of Ogden. Frank started farm work at an early age, but around 1881 the family moved to Salt Lake City.

Two years later, Frank took a job as a “cash boy” at a large dry goods and millinery store. (The cash boy ran money received from a customer by a salesman to the main – often the only – cashier and returned with the proper change.) Starting with that as a base, young Frank advanced in the mercantile world, mostly in Salt Lake but also in Denver and St. Louis.

Then, in 1902, Bowman moved to Idaho Falls to manage the accounting department of the Consolidated Wagon and Machine Company. Created by the merger of two pioneer wagon, machine and implements companies, it became one of the largest of its kind in the Mountain West.

Idaho Falls, ca. 1909. Library of Congress.

Bowman took an immediate interest in his new home town. In 1905, he was elected to the Idaho Falls City Council, where he became known as an advocate for many civic improvements. He would serve on the Council again in 1911.

He resigned his accounting position in the spring of 1907 and became the local agent for a national insurance firm. And his other activities took off. That year, he was probably a founding member of the Chamber of Commerce and definitely a Charter Member of the Idaho Falls Elks lodge, established in early 1908. He was also a member of the Masonic Order, serving as Master of the Idaho Falls Lodge and, in 1911, being elected Grand Master for the state.

In 1910, Bowman founded his own insurance and loan business. But even that wasn’t enough. He had also apparently invested widely in the agricultural sector. Thus, in March of that year, he was identified as Secretary of the Bingham County Wool Growers Association. He was also associated with the “Dry Farming Congress.” Along with that, he was an officer of the Conant Valley Land and Live Stock Company.

In 1911, Bowman helped organize the Bingham County Grazing Corporation. He also acted as Secretary for the Idaho Honey-Producers’ Association and as Secretary-Treasurer of the Idaho Irrigation District. All of that still wasn’t enough, apparently, because he served as Secretary for the Bonneville County Fair Association.

In 1912, Bowman chaired the organizing committee of the Idaho Falls Interurban Electric Railway Company. Along with everything else, Bowman was President of the Chamber of Commerce in 1916-1917. That was enough for awhile, but in late 1917, he chaired the Executive Committee for a Joint Conference of Agricultural, Livestock, and Irrigation Societies, held in Idaho Falls.

Frank Bowman. [French]

Finally, in the spring of 1919, the Idaho Falls newspaper noted that Bowman had sold off his business interests and planned to take a “needed” vacation. He purchased a new business quite soon, but it was several months before he began advertising the South Side Garage, which offered a service station, machine shop, and repair facilities.

Then, in the spring of 1922, Bowman again sold off his Idaho Falls business, and he and his wife moved to Portland, Oregon. There, Frank soon established himself as a manager for automotive-related firms. He apparently tried retirement in the Thirties, but soon went back into management.

After Bowman’s wife died, in the summer of 1946, he finally retired for good. He then returned to live in Idaho Falls, where his son Earl managed a furniture store. He passed away in November of 1960.
                                                                                 

References: [French]

“[Bowman News],” Times-Register, Idaho Falls; Idaho Statesman, Boise; Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake City, Utah (April 1901 – November 1960).

“Golden Jubilee Edition, 1884–1934,” Post-Register, Idaho Falls, Idaho (September 10, 1934).

Army Scout, Yellowstone Park Protector and Ashton Postmaster Felix Burgess [otd 01/06]

Army scout and Fremont County postmaster Felix Burgess was born January 6, 1847 in Reading, Pennsylvania. His father, an immigrant from northern France, moved the family from Reading to St. Paul, Minnesota in 1856. After a brief time there, they moved on to Sauk Rapids, a town about 60 miles northwest of Minneapolis.

Scout Burgess. [French]

For reasons he never explained, Felix ran away from home when he was about ten years old. He was taken in by an Army captain at Fort Ripley, about 40 miles north of the family home. Thus, Burgess began his long career as an Army scout in the Dakota Indian War of 1862. Captured by a band of Indians, he was rescued just before he could be tortured to death. Despite the close call, he continue as a scout in northern Minnesota and in the Dakotas for about five years.

Burgess was next transferred to Fort Vancouver, in Washington Territory. He almost certainly took part in the Snake War, in western Idaho and eastern Oregon when Lieutenant Colonel George Crook was placed in charge [blog, November 25]. He then followed Crook to Arizona to battle Apache Indians.

He had a brief peaceful period in 1874, scouting for the geographical survey team led by Lieutenant George M. Wheeler. But for the next fifteen years or so, he would take part in conflicts with Indian tribes in Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona.

Finally, in the summer of 1891, Burgess joined the Army contingent in charge at Yellowstone National Park [blog, March 1]. His main job was to track down poachers, who by this time were having a severe impact on the Park’s elk and buffalo herds. Thus, in 1893, he was featured in a watercolor created by Frederic Remington used as the basis for an illustration for the article “Policing Yellowstone,” published in Harper’s Weekly.

The following year, in March, Felix Burgess made a contribution to the Park’s future that echoes down to the present day. He caught a notorious poacher literally “red handed.” Coincidentally, a staff writer for the magazine Forest and Stream was visiting the Park just then.

Burgess Finding a Ford. Frederic Remington

The resulting publicity sparked legislation that made poaching in the Park a Federal crime. Before that, the Army could only confiscate the poacher’s gear (a legally questionable practice, actually) and expel them from the Park. Penalties under the new law included up to two years in prison and a $1,000 fine (over $29,000 in today’s values).

Besides his Army duties, Burgess also served two years as a Deputy U. S. Marshall for the district of Wyoming. He stayed with the Army until 1899 when, now over fifty years old, he decided it was time to settle down (he had married in 1892). He first tried farming on land northwest of St. Anthony, Idaho, but quickly found that that was not for him. He then opened a store along the main stage route about six miles northeast of St. Anthony.

In early 1905, Felix was appointed postmaster for an office in Squirrel, a tiny settlement about twenty miles northeast of St. Anthony. However, in late 1906, the railroad built a station that quickly became the village of Ashton. Within about a year, Burgess opened a hotel in the new town. Then, in December 1909, he was appointed postmaster for Ashton, a position he held until the spring of 1915.

Burgess operated a grocery store in Ashton until November 1919. He then sold that and he and his wife moved to Ocean Beach, a coastal suburb of San Diego, California. Felix passed away there in January 1921.
                                                                           

References: [French]

“[Felix Burgess News],” Daily Pioneer, Deadwood, South Dakota; Teton Peak-Chronicle, St. Anthony, Idaho; Idaho Statesman, Boise; San Diego Union, San Diego, California (July 1878 – January 1921).

Collections, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (retrieved, December 2018).

Glade Lyon, Ashton, Idaho: The Centennial History, 1906-2006, Waking Lion Press, West Valley, Utah (2006).

Catherine McNicol Stock, Robert D. Johnston (eds.), The Countryside in the Age of the Modern State, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York (2001).

Idaho Governor and Boise Developer John M. Haines [otd 01/01]

Idaho governor, and Boise developer and mayor, John Michener Haines was born January 1, 1863 on a farm east of Des Moines, Iowa. He received a solid education to about the age of twenty, including several years at Penn College (now William Penn University), located about 30 miles south of the family farm.

Governor John M. Haines. [French]

After a couple years as a bank clerk in Nebraska, Haines joined Walter E. Pierce [blog, January 9] and another partner to successfully develop real estate in southwest Kansas. However, the economy went sour there and, in late 1890, the partners moved to Boise. They were soon recognized as “the leading real-estate men of Idaho.”

Haines had been active in Republican Party politics in Kansas and continued that activity in Idaho. For a while after January 1898, he served on the Boise city council and was elected mayor for a term starting in the spring of 1905.

During his time in office, the mayor managed a number of improvements for the city. Both the police and fire departments were enlarged and reorganized to improve their efficiencies. Officials also planned to pave more streets, or at least surface them with a better grade of crushed gravel.
Early in his term, the city received the bequest for a “Julia Davis Park” from her husband Thomas [blog, tomorrow]. Haines strongly supported the creation of a park, but funding was rejected in a special bond election. Although Haines received the Republican nomination for re-election as mayor “by acclamation,” he was defeated in a close vote.

Still, Haines remained active in politics and took office as Idaho Governor in January 1913. (He was the first to take the oath of office in the brand new capitol building). His messages to the legislature emphasized a methodical, “business-like” approach to government. He also sought action on a number of “social” issues, such as minimum ages for marriage, a one-year residency requirement for divorce, and so on.

In the political arena, the governor asked for many reforms, including the non-partisan election of judges, extension of terms for state officials from two to four years, and more. He also reminded legislators that they must make provision for the direct election of U. S. Senators (required by passage of the 17th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution).

Idaho Capitol Building, ca 1914. [Hawley]

Results from the legislature were mixed, but they did approve three of the governor’s most important suggestions: a Public Utilities Commission, State Board of Education, and Workmen’s Compensation Board. They also voted for non-partisan election of Supreme Court and District judges.

Feeling there was still work to be done, Haines ran hard for a second term. And, until late in the election cycle, he seemed a shoo-in.

Then an investigation uncovered a major embezzlement of funds by the state Treasurer and his deputy. The Treasurer was, and is, a separate elective office. More importantly, the governor – by law – had no control over operations in the Treasury Department. Still, as soon as the miscreant resigned, Haines, as allowed by law, appointed an acting Treasurer. The new man was in place even before the courts had sent the two embezzlers off to state prison.

The legal complexities of the situation apparently escaped most voters. Haines was decisively defeated by Democrat Moses Alexander [blog November 13], even though every other Republican candidate won in the state-level elections.

John M. Haines died from complications of Bright’s Disease, a kidney disorder, in the summer of 1917. He had proved to be a capable and effective public official, but seems to have lacked the “charisma” for long-term success in politics.
                                                                                 

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

“[Haines News Items],” Idaho Statesman, Boise (November 1890 – June 1917).

Robert C. Sims, Hope A. Benedict (eds.), Idaho's Governors: Historical Essays on Their Administrations, Boise State University (1992).