Spud Farmer, Expert, and Booster Joe Marshall – Idaho® Potato King [otd 04/03]

Joe Marshall. Beal & Wells photo.

Joseph P. Marshall, who did more than any other one person to improve and popularize the Idaho® potato, was born April 3, 1874 in Versailles, Ohio, about thirty miles northwest of Dayton. He moved west to Montana in 1892 and went to work at a stock ranch north of Billings. Over a period of years, he taught himself civil engineering as it related to canal building and irrigation systems.

 While shuttling between projects in Montana, North Dakota, and Texas, he also examined irrigation possibilities around what was soon to become Twin Falls, Idaho. He claimed land nearby in 1903 and moved his family there three years later. By then, canals were feeding water to acreage in the area, the railroad had arrived, and Twin Falls was booming.

Joe was still busy with his widespread projects so it was 1908 before his Idaho farm produced a full crop of potatoes. Two years later, he leased out the farm to pursue a project in Mexico. However, civil war in that country forced him back to Idaho by about 1915. As he became increasingly involved with his Idaho operation, Marshall spent more and more time studying how to effectively grow high-quality potatoes.  He also expanded his land holdings.

Idaho potato production hit a crisis point in 1921-1922. The quality of the tubers had deteriorated and was further degraded by disease infestations. Land from failed operations depressed the books of regional banks, and many more farmers with mortgages found themselves in dire financial straits. By then, Joe had gained a considerable reputation for his knowledge and attention to detail in raising, handling, and marketing potatoes.

Marshall began acting as an agent for the banks and out-of-state owners, trying to upgrade potato industry practices all over the state. His methods involved upgraded seed potatoes, improved field practices, and more care in post-harvest tuber handling. Soon, the reliably high quality of his potatoes, and those of farmers who followed his lead, began to command premium prices.

Marshall checking Idaho® potatoes in the field.
For high-resolution versions, contact the Idaho Potato Commission.

Naturally, top prices encouraged greater and greater production, which required a heightened effort to maintain the best quality. The University of Idaho (UI) helped with on-going research into all aspects of potato production. Also, the state created what would eventually become the Idaho® Potato Commission. (Idaho spuds became distinctive enough to merit a Registered Trademark.)

Potato history credits Chicago restauranteur Dario Louis Toffenetti with popularizing the huge “Idaho baker” as an inexpensive-but-filling menu item.

As the story goes, Marshall had made a trial shipment to Chicago that contained only the largest tubers. But the load failed to sell. (Joe almost certainly had to charge more to cover the cost of the extra sorting.) Dario dropped by the warehouse, saw the “huge and beautiful” potatoes, and had a vision. He bought the entire lot and began promoting “baked Idaho potatoes” at his restaurants. Toffenetti’s enthusiastic marketing further added to the premium identity of the Idaho® potato.

For over a quarter century Joe was "the face" of Idaho® potatoes, and, in 1940, the United Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Association award him the title of "Potato King." Two years after he died in January 1964, the UI potato facility in Aberdeen was named the "Joe Marshall Potato Research Center" in his honor.
                                                                                                        

References: [B&W]

James W. Davis, Aristocrat in Burlap: A History of the Potato in Idaho, Idaho Potato Commission, Boise (1992).

Sheepman Hugh Fleming Found Dead. Killed by Cattlemen? [otd 04/02]

On April 2, 1894, riders on the range near American Falls, Idaho discovered the body of sheepman Hugh Fleming. The unarmed herder had been shot four times. Suspicion instantly fell on local cattlemen, who had threatened Hugh and his brother John on numerous occasions.

Western sheep herding. Library of Congress.

The dispute centered largely on the use of the public lands in Idaho, as it did in other Western states. Sheep came early to Idaho, arriving in 1860 with the first Mormon colonies along the southeastern border. These small flocks generally produced meat and wool only for local consumption, as did the cattle operations that followed the gold discoveries of 1861-1863.

However, with vast amounts of open range, cattlemen soon looked further afield. By the early- to mid-1870s, Idaho stockmen were trailing many thousands of cattle to railway terminals in Nevada and Wyoming. Sheep bands had also expanded, although not nearly so much as cattle herds. Even so, sheep holdings had become large enough to gain the attention, and ire, of resident cattlemen.

Thus, in 1875, the state passed the first regional “Two Mile Limit” laws, prohibiting the grazing of sheep on range "traditionally" used for cattle [blog, Dec 13.] By 1887, the law had expanded from an initial three counties to the entire state.

Challenges all the way to the U. S. Supreme Court upheld the law, as long as the restriction followed a "first-come, first served" rule for cattle or sheep or, oddly enough, horses. Equitable in theory, the law favored cattle in practice. Until the railroad arrived, large-scale sheep raising was impractical. Long-distance wagon shipment of wool cost too much, and sheep cannot "walk to market" as easily as cattle.

Then the railroad arrived, and sheep flocks grew (as did cattle herds), and crowded the range. Stockmen even pushed into forested lands. Idaho had no widespread range wars, but isolated shootings of sheepmen, and of cowboys, did happen. Back-and-forth slaughters of cattle and sheep were much more common.

Sheep in the forest. U. S. Forest Service.

The Fleming brothers had brought sheep to the American Falls range before 1884, and by then they had five thousand head. Despite death threats and harassment of their stock, they had hung on … and now, ten years later, one brother was dead. With plenty of known suspects, the Idaho Statesman confidently reported (April 3, 1894), “It is only a question of a short time when they will be placed under arrest.”

Law officers promised quick results, and soon had four cattlemen in jail. However, in those days before scientific criminology, officials had no way – other than some muddled tracks and, apparently, vague rumors – to connect the suspects to the crime. A week later, the newspaper reported that the men had been released for lack of evidence.

 Although the Governor offered a $500 reward for information on the murder (Idaho Statesman, April 21, 1894), nothing further was learned until an unrelated court appearance took a bizarre twist. During a trial for cattle rustling, the defendant claimed (Statesman, January 31, 1895) that he had witnessed the murder. He testified that three of the four men arrested and released earlier had indeed done the shooting. However, later investigation proved that the claimant was in McCammon, fifty miles away, on the actual day of the murder.

No one was ever convicted for the murder of Hugh Fleming.
                                                                                                                                     

References: [B&W]

Byron DeLos Lusk, Golden Cattle Kingdoms of Idaho, Masters thesis, Utah State University, Logan (1978).

"Omaechevarria vs. State of Idaho, 246 U.S. 343 (1918), Omaechevarria vs. State of Idaho No. 102" U. S. Supreme Court case (March 18, 1918).

Cattle Rancher, Idaho Governor, and U. S. Senator George L. Shoup [otd 04/01]

Senator George L. Shoup.
National Archives.

On April 1, 1889, President Grover Cleveland appointed Lemhi cattleman George Laird Shoup governor of Idaho Territory – the last to hold that position. He was also, therefore, first to hold the position of state Governor. Shoup then became one of the state's first two U. S. Senators. Records suggest that some convoluted political machinations lurked behind this progression.

Shoup was born in Kittanning, about forty miles northeast of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in June 1836. The family moved to a ranch in western Illinois in 1852. Seven years later, George followed the rush to Pike’s Peak gold. At the start of the Civil War, Shoup joined an independent scout company, watching Indians in what later became Colorado and New Mexico.

When Colorado Territory was organized in 1861, Shoup became an officer in the Colorado Volunteer Cavalry. He was stationed at Fort Union, New Mexico, in the spring of 1862. He apparently did not see any direct action against the Confederate force that marched north from Santa Fe during that period. In late 1864, Shoup rose to the rank of Colonel in the Colorado Cavalry.

After the War, Shoup’s unit disbanded and he moved to Virginia City, Montana and opened a store. In 1867, George followed eager prospectors into Idaho and helped found Salmon City. He served as commissioner when Lemhi County was established two years later, and then served several terms in the legislature. By 1875, Shoup was one of the largest landowners and cattlemen in the region.

Shoup’s political career flourished and by 1889 he was one of the best-known and most influential figures in Idaho. Almost universally well-liked, any elective office he wanted, he could have. He wanted a U. S. Senate seat, which would open up when (if) Idaho achieved statehood.

However, factional disputes complicated matters. North Idaho leaders demanded one of the two Senate seats, but couldn't assemble a coalition strong enough to achieve that aim. (At that time, Senators were elected by the state legislature, not by popular vote.)

Governor Willey.
J. H. Hawley photo.

The factions finally compromised by promising the governor's chair to the North. Shoup agreed to become governor first, with the assurance of legislative support for his Senate bid. The scheme coupled his appointment with essentially unopposed election of a North Idahoan, Norman B. Willey, for Lieutenant Governor.

Idaho then became a state, with Shoup as Governor and Willey as Lieutenant Governor. When Shoup resigned to take his Senate seat, Willey moved up to the governor's position. A North Idahoan also filled the brief gap until the election of a full-term Senator to take a seat in March 1891. At the end of his four-year partial term, Shoup was reelected to the Senate for a full term starting in 1895.

For a man from a new, and very small state, George did remarkably well on the national stage. That included service on several important Senate committees. Then, in 1900, he was appointed to the five-member Executive Committee of the Republican National Committee (Idaho Register, Idaho Falls, June 29, 1900).

However, his loyalty to the Party cost him in Idaho. A coalition of Democrats and Silver Republicans, led by Fred Dubois [blog, May 29], won a majority in the Idaho legislature that fall. They denied Shoup’s next re-election bid, so he retired from public life in 1901. George passed away three years later.
                                                                                                                                     

References: [Hawley]

“Biographical Sketch: George Laird Shoup,” George Laird Shoup Papers, Manuscript Group 8, University of Idaho, Moscow (1994).

George Elmo Shoup, "History of Lemhi County," Salmon Register-Herald (Series, May 8- October 23, 1940).

"Norman B. Willey, March 25, 1838-October 20, 1921," Reference Series No. 400, Idaho State Historical Society.