Arthur Pence: Stockman, Legislator, and Hot Springs Owner [otd 02/10]

Senator Pence. H. T. French photo.

Idaho rancher Arthur Lee Pence was born February 10, 1847, near Des Moines, Iowa. He chose to make his own way at an early age. In 1864, his brother-in-law and sister Martha decided to move to the West. Arthur examined his prospects in Iowa, and then found himself a job driving an ox team for a wagon train. The column disbanded at Boise City, so Arthur drove a load of hay to Idaho City.

Pence briefly tried his hand at prospecting but soon turned back to freighting instead. For three years, he bullwhacked trains from Umatilla  to Boise City, and sometimes on into Idaho city. He spent one season on a homestead in the Boise Valley, but then began driving a stagecoach that served the new gold camps in northern Nevada. Contacts there soon led to a blacksmith job at a camp ten miles or so south of the Idaho border.

The stage road from Nevada passed near where the Bruneau River joins the Snake, which led Arthur to explore that part of the country. Encouraged, in April 1869 he filed on some hot springs at the upper end of the Bruneau Valley - the springs still bear the name “Pence Hot Springs.”

Arthur and a brother ran cattle in the Bruneau area for about a decade. By then, Idaho stockmen were exporting tens of thousands of cattle out of state. The brothers may have decided the market was too glutted to be profitable, so they sold off their herds and went into vegetable farming. They did a fine business selling produce in the mining camps until about 1885.

Western sheep herding. Library of Congress.

At that time, the Oregon Short Line had completed its rails across Idaho, which made sheep raising a more attractive alternative. Thus, the Pence brothers ran sheep together as partners for about four years, and then they divided the business. Arthur prospered in the sheep business: The H. T. French History (1914) observed that Pence was “still one of the large factors in that industry in the southern half of the state.”

Pence helped organize the Bruneau State Bank in 1905, and also went into politics. He was elected to the state House of Representatives in 1901, and to the state Senate in 1903 and again in 1907. During his first term, the legislature authorized a reform school to be built in Fremont County.  During the second, they funded the first fish hatchery created in the state. Pence helped create a school district in the Bruneau Valley and became almost a permanent member of the school board.

In 1911, Governor James H. Hawley [blog, January 17] appointed Pence to the state Livestock Sanitary Board. That board served to promote the livestock industry and to protect it from losses due to theft or disease. Thus, they appointed the State Veterinarian, approved the registry of purebred stock, compiled reports about infectious diseases, and much more. Pence spent six years on the board, part of that time as its president.

Arthur and his wife, the former Mary Sydney Wells, remained life-long fixtures in Bruneau society. According to local historian Adelaide Hawes, who knew them personally, Mrs. Pence was universally known as “Aunt Sydney.” Pence Hot Springs, which they left open to all, also became a social center. Hawes wrote, “Every Sunday from early morn till evening the people came.”

Arthur passed away in 1935 and Sydney three years later. They are interred in the Hot Springs Cemetery.
                                                                                 

References: [French], [Hawley]

Adelaide Hawes, Valley of Tall Grass, Caxton Printers, CaIdwell, Idaho (1950).

“[Pence News],” Idaho Statesman, Boise (January 8, 1911 – April 18, 1917).

Attorney and Legal Scholar Colonel Edwin G. Davis, D.S.M. [otd 02/09]

Colonel Davis. H. T. French photo.

Colonel Edwin G. Davis was born on February 9, 1873, at Samaria, Idaho, near Malad City. An early interest in teaching led him to a year as school principal in Utah, followed by a year as a principal in Malad. Then, in 1896, a member of the U. S. House of Representatives from Idaho secured him an appointment to the Military Academy.

Davis graduated from West Point in June 1900. Three months later, he found himself in the Philippine, where the Army was trying to suppress Filipino independence forces. The following May, Davis was reassigned from the infantry to the artillery. He was promoted to 1st Lieutenant less than two months later. He left the Philippines at the end of 1901, and was stationed at Fort Walla Walla for about fifteen months. In 1903, he became an Instructor of Law and History at West Point.

Davis apparently anticipated retirement and a return to Idaho in 1906, and let it be known that he planned to run for Congress in that year's election. His notion was not well received. While conceding his good qualities, pundits observed (Idaho Register, Idaho Falls, March 2, 1906) that after his long absence from the state, "he ought to at least get slightly acquainted with the people before he asks to be rewarded with so important an office."

Perhaps discourage by the reaction, Davis remained in the service. Promoted to captain in early 1907, he was transferred to a post near San Francisco, California, later that year. Nagged by a "physical disability incurred in the line of duty," he applied for a disability retirement, which was granted in 1910. Davis then returned to Idaho and opened a law practice in Malad. That fall, Oneida County voters elected him to the state House of Representatives for the term starting in 1911.

That legislative session was particularly busy, including the promulgation of eight constitutional amendments to be voted on in the next general election. Yet even with that, Governor James H. Hawley had to call a Special Session to correct a revenue Act that was “deficient in several important provisions.” During that Session, Davis served as Floor Leader for the Republican majority in the House.

DSM. U. S. Army

Comparing his prospects in the capital versus those in Southeast Idaho, Davis moved his home to Boise in 1911.

Besides his regular practice, Davis also contributed well-reasoned papers to various legal journals. As an instructor at the Academy, he authored a textbook on constitutional law. A knowledgeable reviewer said of it: “He has accomplished a good work, and not only the Military Academy will be benefited by his labors, but his work is ample for much that the ordinary practicing State lawyer will require.”

He continued to serve in state government, as well as handling a private law practice, until he joined the Judge Advocate General's office during World War I. In July 1918, Colonel Davis received the U.S. Army Distinguished Service Medal "for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services ... in the administration of military justice during the war."

Davis returned to his Boise legal practice after the war for a time, and also served as a U.S. Attorney General for Idaho in 1921-1925. In 1928, he handled national-scope cases out of Washington, D.C. He died in July 1934 and is buried at West Point.
                                                                                 

References: [French], [Hawley]

“Book Review: Law Books at the Military Academy,” Journal of the U. S. Cavalry Association, Vol. XVIII, Leavenworth, Kansas (July 1907-April 1908).

George W. Cullum, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S Military Academy, Supplement, Vol. V, Sherman & Peters, Printers, Saginaw, Michigan (1910).

“People of Sioux County, Neb., vs National Surety Co.,” Case 276 U. S. 238, United States Supreme Court (1928).

C. Douglas Sterner (Ed.), Citations for Awards of the Army Distinguished Service Medal, Volume 1 (1862-1942), HomeOfHeroes.com (2008).

U.S. Veterans Gravesites, ca. 1775-2006, National Cemetery Administration.

Idaho U. S. Senator, Lawyer and Judge Kirkland I. Perky [otd 02/08]

U. S. Senator from Idaho Kirtland Irving Perky was born on February 8, 1867 in Smithville, Ohio, about 22 miles southwest of Akron. The family surname is generally considered an Americanization of the Swiss and south-German name “Bürki.” His physician father had contracted health problems serving during the Civil War and died when Kirtland was about five years old.

Lawyer Kirtland Perky. [Hawley]

His widowed mother moved the family to Lincoln, Nebraska in 1880 and then to a small town north of Lincoln four years later. Perky went back to study at Ohio Northern University and attained a Bachelor of Science degree in 1888. There, he also met his future wife, whom he married three years after graduation.

Kirkland next studied law as a clerk in the Lincoln office of William Jennings Bryan, later famous in national politics. To expand his education, Perky then did an intense stint at the University of Iowa Law School. He was admitted to the Iowa bar in 1890, but returned to Nebraska to open a practice in the town where his mother still lived. In 1894, Perky followed two friends in the legal community to Idaho. He opened a practice in Albion, then the county seat of Cassia County.

During the 1897 murder trial of “Diamondfield Jack” Davis, defense attorney James Henry Hawley hired Perky to provide essential knowledge of the local situation. Despite their best efforts, Davis was convicted … but would be exonerated and (eventually) released. [Blogs, January 17, December 17, and several others.]

In the fall of 1898, Perky moved to Mountain Home, the county seat of Elmore County. Then, in January 1901, he was appointed a district judge to serve the remaining term of Judge Charles O. Stockslager [blog, this day], who had been elected to the state Supreme Court. However, Kirkland chose not to run for re-election when his term expired. He moved to Boise in the spring of 1903 to open a practice there.

News reports show that Perky handled cases all over the state … as far north as Coeur d’Alene and into the southeast at Montpelier. In keeping with the times, local prosecutors often hired him to help present the state’s case. But he also had many cases as defense attorney. He was so busy that, despite strong support, he refused to run for the position of Boise mayor in 1907.

That same year, and the following, he aided the defense for officials of the Western Federation of Miners, accused in the assassination of ex-Governor Frank Steunenberg [blog, December 30]. In the process, he became a personal friend of famous attorney Clarence Darrow.

In November, 1912, then-Governor James Hawley appointed him to fill the unexpired term of U. S. Senator Weldon B. Heyburn, who had died in office. Again, Perky declined to run for a term of his own.

Protest Meeting, before 1923. Library of Congress.

By this time, it can be inferred that Kirtland’s refusals to run for public office were, at least in part, his “anti-establishment” politics. Thus, he often found himself at odds with the policies of both major parties. They were entirely to blame, he asserted, for the post-war depression and the failure to improve the lot of farmers and other “ordinary people.”

Perky’s wife died in the summer of 1921 and by 1924 he had moved his law practice to Long Beach, California. Most of his cases that made the news had him defending “unpopular” defendants. In the late Twenties, Perky moved to Huntington Park, south of Los Angeles, but continued to practice law. He passed away there in January 1939, after a brief illness.
                                                                                 

References: [Hawley]

Clarence Darrow, The Story of My Life, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York (1932).

David H. Grover, Diamondfield Jack: A Study in Frontier Justice, University of Nevada Press, Reno, Nevada (1968).

Patrick Hanks, Dictionary of American Family Names, Oxford University Press, New York (2003).

“[Perky News],” Elmore Bulletin, Mountain Home; Idaho Statesman, Boise; Twin Falls News; Lewiston Tribune; Idaho (August 1892 – January 1939).

Albert Watkins, Illustrated History of Nebraska, Vol. III, Western Publishing and Engraving Company, Lincoln, Nebraska (1913).

Landowner, Sheep Rancher, and Supreme Court Justice Charles O. Stockslager [otd 02/08]

Judge Stockslager.
Illustrated History photo.

Idaho Supreme Court Justice Charles O. Stockslager was born on February 8, 1847, in Indiana, about ten miles west of Louisville, Kentucky. He attended a Normal school in Lebanon, Ohio, but apparently never taught school himself. Charles decided to become a lawyer instead. He read law at his brother’s office in Indiana, and then with some “prominent attorneys” in Kansas.

Admitted to the Kansas bar in 1874, he practiced there until 1887. Along with his practice, he served as Clerk of a District Court, and later as a County Attorney. Stockslager also became heavily involved in real estate and mining properties. Thus, he helped organize the mining town of Galena (just across the border from Joplin, Missouri) and was elected its Mayor in 1881.

In 1887, President Grover Cleveland appointed Stockslager to be Receiver for the U. S. Land Office in Hailey, Idaho. (The Receiver formally accepts the fees paid by homesteaders when they claim a tract of public land.) Three years later, voters elected him to be Judge of the Fourth Judicial District, which then encompassed much of south-central Idaho. He was reelected four years later, and then again in 1898.

Oddly enough, Stockslager’s biographies do not mention that he owned any specific mining properties in Idaho. Yet, given his activities in Kansas, it’s probable that he did. And in 1910, he was a major organizer of the Idaho-South American Mining & Development Company. Stockslager had many other investments besides that. Those included a share of the Hailey Hot Springs Hotel Company, originated by railroad publicist Robert Strahorn. He was also prominent enough in the sheep business to be selected as a Delegate-at-Large for Idaho at the 1900 Annual Convention of the National Live Stock Association.

As Fourth District Judge, Stockslager handled cases tried at Albion, then the county seat of Cassia County. Thus, in 1897, he presided at the trial of "Diamondfield Jack" Davis, accused of murdering sheepmen John Wilson and Daniel Cummings [blog, Feb 4 and others].

Courthouse, Albion. Cassia County Historical Society.

The prosecution's case was deeply flawed and totally circumstantial. The slugs that killed the sheepmen were .44 caliber; Jack owned only a .45 revolver. Moreover, most of the physical evidence had been grossly mishandled, and the State could not credibly place Davis at the scene of the crime. Nonetheless, the jury found Jack guilty. Stockslager then saw fit to sentence Jack to be hanged.

In 1900, the judge was elected to serve a six-year term on the Idaho Supreme Court, beginning in 1901. He therefore participated in an appeal review for Diamondfield Jack's case. Stockslager did not recuse himself from the ruling. The appeal only bought more time: The court pushed back the hanging date. (In fact, the Idaho courts never did change Jack’s status. That was left [blog, Dec 17] to the Board of Pardons, a panel consisting of the governor, secretary-of-state, and attorney general.)

Stockslager ran unsuccessfully for Idaho governor in 1907 and tried, also unsuccessfully, for a U. S. Senate seat in 1909. Except for one more term as district judge, he engaged in private practice, first in Hailey and then in Shoshone, until his retirement. In 1919, Stockslager led the effort to create Jerome County from portions of Lincoln, Gooding, and Minidoka counties. The Act creating the new country passed on February 8.

Stockslager passed away in March 1933.
                                                                                 

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

William G. Cutler, History of the State of Kansas, A. T. Andreas, Chicago (1883).

David H. Grover, Diamondfield Jack: A Study in Frontier Justice, University of Nevada Press, Reno, Nevada (1968).

Charles F. Martin, Proceedings of the Annual Convention, Fort Worth, Texas, National Live Stock Association, Denver (1900).

“[Stockslager News],” Idaho Statesman, Boise, Idaho (September 24, 1890 – June 19, 1910).

Governor Bottolfsen Signs Junior College District Bill into Law [otd 02/07]

Governor Bottolfsen.
University of Idaho archives.

On February 7, 1939, Governor Clarence A. Bottolfsen signed a bill that authorized the formation of local junior college districts in the state of Idaho. The new law allowed district voters to approve a local tax levy to support the school. Also, the district would receive half the state liquor store profits collected in the county where the school was located.

The law arose largely at the instigation of advocates in the Boise Valley, who had long been on the junior college bandwagon.

Small local colleges came and went in the U.S. during the course of the Nineteenth Century. Churches tailored curricula for their members, and towns founded schools as a sign that they had “arrived.” Most struggled or died after a few years of operation.

Toward the end of the century, organizers began to consider offering just the first two years. That would cut costs and offer other advantages: Some felt it would provide a transition between high school and a demanding professional curriculum at a university. Others saw it as a kind of trade school to teach the “practical arts.”

Joliet Junior College, founded in 1901, is considered the first public junior college in the United States. The movement slowly gathered momentum. California authorized the beginnings of its statewide system in 1907, and by 1920, the idea had spread all across the country. In June of that year, forty educators met in St. Louis and initiated what became the American Association of Junior Colleges (now the American Association of Community and Junior Colleges). By 1924, Ricks College, in Rexburg, had embraced the concept and proudly noted its membership in the Association.

People in the Boise Valley felt they needed, and deserved a full-fledged college: By the early Thirties, the area graduated nearly 40% more high school students than all of North Idaho – and the Panhandle had not only the University, but also Lewiston State Normal School. The Valley graduated 300 more high schoolers than East Idaho, which had access to Albion State Normal School, Ricks, and the precursor to Idaho State University.

Unable to make headway toward their own university despite those numbers, Boiseans had settled for a junior college. Boise Junior College began its first classes in September 1932 [blog, Sept 6], as a kind of expansion of the Episcopal Church's St. Margaret's School. Enrollment tripled to over 120 students in its second year.

However, the church had said from the start that other funding must be provided after two years. Thus, locals created a private non-profit corporation in June 1934. After an initial rush of enthusiasm, private donations and corporate membership fees dropped off drastically. So backers sought a more reliable source of funding.

Administration Building, Boise Junior College, 1941.
Boise State University Archives.

But the first JC district law they maneuvered through the legislature in 1937 was vetoed by Governor Barzilla Clark [blog December 22]. He felt that such local districts would prove inadequate and end up throwing the cost onto an already-strained state educational budget.

After Bottolfsen signed the district authorization in 1939, BJC enrollment shot up again, only to stall and then decline due to World War II. Eventually, of course, the school grew to be today's Boise State University. North Idaho College, formed as Coeur d'Alene Junior College in 1933, benefited from the law, and it provided the basis for the College of Southern Idaho, which opened in 1965.
                                                                                 

References: [Brit]

Glen Barrett, Boise State University: Searching for Excellence, 1932-1984,  Boise State University (1984).

Eugene B. Chaffee, Boise College, An Idea Grows, Printing by Syms-York Company, Boise (© Eugene B. Chaffee 1970).

James R. Gentry, The College Of Southern Idaho 1945-1985, College of Southern Idaho (1987).

Jerry C. Roundy, Ricks College: A Struggle for Survival, Ricks College Press, Rexburg (1976).

World War I Hero Army Lieutenant John Regan, D.S.C. [otd 02/06]

Timothy Regan. J. H. Hawley photo.

U. S. Army Lieutenant John M. Regan, D.S.C., was born February 6, 1886, in Silver City, Idaho. John’s father Timothy, with ample capital from his hotel and other business interests, came into possession of many valuable mining properties as they fell on hard times. When the economy improved, Timothy grew not just prosperous, but quite wealthy. The family moved to Boise City in 1889 and father Regan quickly became a prominent leader in area development.

John Regan attended Boise schools and then graduated “maxima cum laude” from Santa Clara College in California in 1904. Upon his return to Boise, he entered a lower position in Timothy Regan’s holdings. Later, he became an official of the Boise Artesian Hot & Cold Water Company.

John also joined in the various social, athletic, and charitable endeavors expected for the son of a wealthy and influential Boise leader. Thus, he often refereed at football games around the area. He also proved to have a gift for acting in amateur stage plays. In 1911, he played the lead in a show whose proceeds were earmarked for the building fund of the Roman Catholic St. John’s Cathedral [blogs February 1 and November 11].

John Regan. J. H. Hawley photo.

He also enrolled, as a private, in the Idaho National Guard, but his impressive educational credentials soon brought officer’s rank. Despite some organizational complications, Regan was part of the Guard unit when it was merged into the Army's 116th Engineering Regiment for service in World War I. The unit sailed for France in 1918.

There, Regan requested, and was granted a transfer to a front-line unit. He joined the 128th Infantry Regiment, 32nd Division, composed of nationalized Guard units from Wisconsin and Michigan. Toward the end of July, the Division was ordered into the counter-attack meant to decide the Second Battle of the Marne. By then, French and American forces had begun to reduce the German salient, despite fierce resistance.

On the 31st, regiments of the 32nd Division advanced through and around the village of Cierges (located 60-65 miles northeast of Paris). Their objective on August 1 was “Hill 230.” Two regiments attacked the hill itself while the 128th assaulted Bellevue Farm, which anchored the German’s defensive line. The attack captured Hill 230, but Lt. Regan was hit clearing the Bellevue Farm defenses.

32nd Division soldiers assembling for attack, August 1, 1918.
U. S. Army Signal Corps photograph.

The medal citation read, “The Distinguished Service Cross is presented to John M. Regan, Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army, for extraordinary heroism in action near Cierges, France, August 1, 1918. Mortally wounded by enemy fire while leading his platoon, Second Lieutenant Regan remained at the head of his men till he collapsed. He set an example of coolness and fortitude to his command, encouraging them by word and action.”

The posthumous biography in Hawley’s History noted that during the service for Lt. Regan at the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, “for the first time a gold star was placed among the one hundred and twenty blue stars of the service flag of the parish.”

Hawley also wrote, “The Ada county post of the World War Veterans has been named the John M. Regan Post in his honor.” John’s remains were repatriated and interred in the family plot in Boise. American Legion “John Regan Post 2” honors his sacrifice each Memorial Day.
                                                                                 

References: [Hawley]

The 32nd Division in the World War I, 1917-1919, Wisconsin War History Commission, Madison (1920).

“[John M. Regan News],” Idaho Statesman, Boise, Idaho (November 26, 1908 – February 27, 1917). .

Boise Watchmaker, Optician, and Inventor James T. Laughlin [otd 02/05]

Boise jewelry store owner, and inventor, James Thomas Laughlin was born February 5, 1863 on a farm about forty miles southeast of Canton, Ohio. While James was still very young, the family moved to a farm in western Illinois. They moved again in 1870-71 to a farm in western Iowa, about twenty miles from Omaha, Nebraska.

James Laughlin. [Hawley]

James worked for his father until about 1884, when he landed a job at a jewelry store in a small town about fifteen miles north of the family farm.

Back then, jewelry itself was only a sideline in many jewelry stores. They mainly sold silverware, fine china and glassware, and especially clocks and watches. For many, their best profits came from selling, adjusting, and repairing timepieces. Laughlin acquired a fascination with watches.

After two year at that store, James moved to a jewelry firm in Omaha for about six months. Then he went to work for the Waltham Watch Company, in Massachusetts. At that time Waltham and the Elgin National Watch Company dominated the industry, surpassing even Swiss watchmakers in quality and accuracy. They had gained a substantial advantage through the use of mass-produced parts that were (mostly) interchangeable.

Laughlin spent eight years “finishing and adjusting” watches for Waltham. At that time, each watch required crucial fine-tuning – by hand – to attain the needed accuracy and precision. (A half century would pass before the industry achieved true interchangeability.)

James eventually decided to go off on his own. He chose to do so in Idaho, where his brother Harvey had been working in Rocky Bar for a time. An announcement in the Idaho Statesmen said the brothers planned to open a jewelry and optical shop in downtown Boise.

Harvey helped get the business on its feet, then left in 1898 to join the Klondike gold rush. For the next five or six years, James ran a fairly conventional jewelry store, offering fancy silver and glassware, fine China, jewelry (rings, broaches and the like), and, of course, watch sales and repair.

However, some time during his tenure in Waltham, James had also added lens grinding to his skill set. By around the summer of 1907, he had an active sideline fitting “spectacle and eye-glass mountings so they will stay on and be comfortable.”

Eyeglasses without temples – the pince nez style – had come back into favor toward the turn of the century. Their popularity surely got a boost because President Theodore Roosevelt wore a set. But Laughlin disliked the designs then in use and began devising his own. In 1910, he received a patent for an eyeglass mounting that used spring wire to grip the nose “thereby eliminating the use of screws.”

Eyeglass Mounting. Patent Diagram.

He immediately began advertising the comfort and simplicity of his “ITFITS” design, which was “almost invisible.” Two years later, Laughlin filed on yet more improvements, although the patent was not granted until late 1915.

That proved good enough for awhile, but in the fall of 1923 he filed on a mounting that was designed for better lens positioning and to “simplify manufacture” of the eyeglasses. While he waited for a decision, he began advertising a “going out of business sale” in Boise. By the time the patent was issued in the spring of 1925, Laughlin had opened a store in Santa Barbara, California.

Over sixty years old when he moved, he perhaps sought a warmer climate. Laughlin remained active in the Santa Barbara jewelry business until his death in the fall of 1933
                                                                                 

References: [Hawley]

Amy K. Glasmeier, Manufacturing Time: Global Competition in the Watch Industry, The Guilford Press, New York (2000).

Dora J. Hamblin, “What a Spectacle! Eyeglasses and How they Evolved,” Smithsonian Magazine, Washington, D.C. (March 1983).

James T. Laughlin, Eyeglass-Mounting, Patent Nos. 957,071; 1,161,699; 1,532,323; U. S. Patent Office, Washington, D. C. (Issued May 3, 1910; November 23, 1915; April 7, 1925).

“[James Laughlin News],” Idaho Statesman, Boise; Los Angeles Times, California (July 1895 – June 1925).

Two Sheepmen Shot to Death, Could Spark Range War [otd 02/04]

On the morning of February 4, 1896, two riders guided their horses along a rough track through the scrub-covered foothills of south-central Idaho. James E. Bower, a superintendent for the Sparks-Harrell Cattle Company, had headed south from Rock Creek after breakfast. He was in no particular hurry and, after about a half hour, cowboy Jeff Gray had overtaken him. Not long after they joined up, they glimpsed another horseman galloping far ahead of them along the stony road.

Sheep camp. Library of Congress.

Bower thought the rider might be a cattleman suspected of being in cahoots with encroaching sheep raisers. Gray agreed that it might be.

The two followed the horseman south until his tracks disappeared from the winding path. Further along, the cattlemen topped a rise and saw two sheep camps in the distance. One looked empty, but the other showed some activity. Its location along Deep Creek, about 26 miles south of the near-future town of Twin Falls, was well west of the "deadline," the informal boundary between sheep and cattle range.

Bower and Gray rode up to the camp not long before noon and dismounted about ten yards from the wagon. A sheepman stuck his head out. He and a partner inside were just preparing lunch. The sheepmen seemed friendly enough and apparently invited the cattlemen inside for a cup of coffee.

However, Bower had lived in the area for a quarter century; the two young sheepmen were strangers. That meant they might be interlopers who grazed their animals on the range but paid no local taxes. After some chitchat, Bower asked quietly, "Do you think it is right to come in here with your sheep?"

The sheepman nearer the door averred that they did pay taxes in the county. The young herders may well have been told that by the owners of the flock. Bower answered in an ordinary tone: “I think you are mistaken about that.” 

The vehemence of the reaction surprised Bower. With an angry retort, the argumentative sheepman rushed him. Bower landed on his back, while Gray was pushed or jumped outside. Physically over-matched, the foreman tried to retrieve his pistol from inside his coat, but the sheepman wrested it away and growled, “I’ll fix you both.”

The attacker ignored Gray’s shouted order to drop the gun, so Gray fired once, then again when the man didn’t react. Still not sure if he’d stopped the assault, he raised the revolver for another shot when Bower called out, “Hold on.” That ended the altercation.

As they helped the active attacker toward the bed, he seemed stunned and said, “I am hurt pretty bad.”

Bower and Gray saw only a little blood on the man’s chin, seemingly a minor, superficial wound. The sheepmen had friends nearby who would have surely heard the shots. They could help with whatever injuries the man might have. Fearing further trouble, the cattlemen hurried off.

(Of course, the surviving cattlemen provided the above self-defense scenario; there were no other living witnesses.)

In actual fact, both sheepmen – John Wilson and Daniel Cummings – had been mortally wounded. Wilson, the aggressive attacker, probably died within hours, while Cummings might have lived a day or so.

Discovery of the bodies would trigger an intensive manhunt for the notorious cowboy-gunman “Diamondfield” Jack Davis. His capture was followed by a celebrated trial, and a legal odyssey that would not be settled for over half a decade [blog, Oct 13].
                                                                                 

References: David H. Grover, Diamondfield Jack: A Study in Frontier Justice, University of Nevada Press, Reno, Nevada (1968).

William Pat Rowe, "Diamond-Field Jack" Davis On Trial, thesis: M.A. in Education, Idaho State University, Pocatello (1966).

Avalanche Cluster Brings Tragedy to Coeur d’Alene Area, Six Killed at Custer Mine [otd 02/03]

At suppertime on Monday, February 3, 1890, a dozen miners who worked at the Custer Mine sat eating after a long day. The mine, high above Nine Mile Creek about six miles northeast of Wallace, had been located in 1885.

Custer Mill, ca 1890. University of Idaho archives.

Actually, according to the Illustrated History of North Idaho, eager prospectors had combed that area the year before, "but they were looking for placer gold, and were, perhaps, without much skill in their business, so failed to see the riches that lay before their eyes."

Soon, men more capable of recognizing the lead-silver lodes buried in these ranges arrived. They opened mines like the Custer, the Granite (further down the valley), the Tiger (on the south side of the same ridge), and many more. Operations boomed, especially after rail lines connected the area to the outside world.

However, for various reasons, some of the mines cut back production during the depth of winter. And this particular season had seen “unprecedented” snow levels. Just a few days earlier, the Custer Mine had laid off all but 15 of the company's 40 men. Without that fortuitous circumstance, the looming disaster might have been even worse.

The rattle of dishes and murmur of men's voices masked outside sounds, which were probably muffled further by a layer of snow hanging on the dining hall: None of the survivors mentioned any rumble of warning before the avalanche slammed into the structure. Plummeting sharply down the ridge, the snow crushed the roof first, driving broken beams onto the men who sat facing the hillside, "killing three almost instantly."

Miraculously, those with their backs to the slide escaped with mostly bumps and bruises. Then, the Illustrated History reported, "Building and men were carried far down into the gulch."

The least-buried survivors dug themselves out of the debris and did their best to help the others. However, the History noted, "So great was the danger of another snow slide that one of the men who came to the rescue took the names of those at work."

When all the survivors and victims had been recovered, they found that six men had been killed, including the mine foreman, two cooks and a waiter.

1910 avalanche aftermath, near Custer Mine.
University of Idaho archives.

The Illustrated History said, "This was the most disastrous of a large number of snow slides that had caused loss of life and property in the Coeur d'Alenes during the winter of 1889-90 and previous years. The contour of the country is very favorable to such slides."

The snow had become heavier and less stable because a hard rain had hit the area. So many slides were reported, it became difficult to say exactly when some happened. About a mile or so south of the Custer, a slide hit a railroad camp and killed three men. Two miles to the southwest, a tramway and two flumes were destroyed. Near Wallace, snow buried the main rail lines along a stretch of seventy-five feet.

At Wardner, twenty miles to the west, snow obliterated two tramways and wrecked several buildings, including a blacksmith shop. Fortunately no deaths were reported. And the day after the Custer tragedy, a big slide hit the town of Burke, located less that two miles southeast of the Custer Mine. There, “half the business portion” was reported to be in ruins. Fearing more slides, many inhabitants fled the area. At first, survivors thought three men had been killed. However, later reports said that four people had been “buried in the snow slide, but all were rescued with slight injury.”
                                                                                 

References: [Illust-North]

“Burke Demolished,” Idaho Register, Idaho Falls (February 8, 1890).

"Custer Consolidated Mining Company," Manuscript Group 246, University of Idaho (February 1995).

“Slain by the Snow,” The Oregonian, Portland, Oregon (February 7, 1890).

Attorney, Montpelier Mayor, and U. S. Congressman Thomas Glenn [otd 02/02]

Congressman Glenn.
H. T. French photo.

U. S. Congressman Thomas L. Glenn was born February 2, 1847 near Bardwell, Kentucky, in the extreme southwest corner of the state. His father died two years later. The family moved first to Indiana and then to Illinois, ending in Cairo, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.

When the Civil War began, Thomas clamored for a chance to fight, despite his youth. (Like many Kentuckians, he supported the Confederacy.) Then, in 1862, his mother died, leaving him an orphan. So he joined the Second Kentucky Cavalry – famous as “Morgan’s Raiders.” However, in June 1864, he was severely wounded in a battle in north-central Kentucky. Captured by Union forces, he was paroled three months later.

After the war, Glenn studied at a couple of small local colleges and read law diligently. By around 1880, he had qualified for the Kentucky bar, and voters elected him to the state Senate in 1887.

In 1890, he moved his family to Montpelier, Idaho and opened a law practice. In August, 1897, he had a brief encounter with a bit of local notoriety. Bob Meeks, an accomplice with Butch Cassidy in the 1896 Montpelier bank robbery [blog, Aug 13], had been captured and brought to trial. After the trial started, Meeks had a falling out with his first attorney, so the judge appointed Glenn and another man to represent him. But when the new attorneys asked for more time to get familiar with the case, the judged threatened to replace them. As could be expected, Meeks was convicted.

Glenn also participated in local and state politics, usually with the Democratic party. However, in 1898, Democrats formed a "fusion" slate with the Silver-Republicans. For whatever reason, Thomas ran instead as a Populist for the position of state Attorney General. He was defeated, as the Fusion ticket swept every state office.

Two years later, the Populist party selected Glenn as their nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives (Idaho Register, Idaho Falls, July 27, 1900). About a month later, Democrats and Silver Republicans settled their differences enough to re-form a Fusion alliance. They then also selected Glenn as their nominee for U. S. Representative.

This action pained some Populist Party members, so the election was very close: Glenn won by just over twelve hundred votes out of nearly 55 thousand cast. Records of the U. S. Congress do identify Glenn as a member of  the Populist Party.

He is credited with helping Nevada Congressman Francis G. Newlands pass the Newlands Reclamation Act. Under authorization of the Act, the Secretary of the Interior organized the Reclamation Service, which became the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) in 1923. The USBR ultimately built a vast array of irrigation, flood control, and hydropower projects all across the West.

Panama Canal construction, 1907. Library of Congress.

That session of Congress authorized the president – Teddy Roosevelt – to purchase land for a canal across the Isthmus of Panama, and to treat with the Panamanian government to obtain clear title to the property. Congress also passed a bill to tax colored oleomargarine, which might be mistaken for butter, at 10¢ a pound (equivalent to about $2.60 today). They taxed uncolored margarine at just 1/4¢ per pound.

Glenn did not run for re-election to Congress, but served a term as mayor of Montpelier in 1904. After a stint as a prosecuting attorney, he resumed his private practice before passing away in November 1918.
                                                                                 

Reference]: [French], [Hawley]

“Brief History of the Bureau of Reclamation,” History Program, Bureau of Reclamation, U. S. Department of the Interior (July 2000).

Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, online.

“Fighting For Man’s Freedom,” Idaho Statesman, Boise (April 16, 1901).

Arthur Hart, “Bob Meeks: The Rest of the Story,” The Idaho Statesman, Boise (February 21, 2006).

“Record of This Congress,” The New York Times (June 29, 1902).

Right Reverend Alphonsus Glorieux, Bishop, Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise [otd 02/01]

Bishop Glorieux. H. T. French photo.

The first Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Boise, the Right Reverend Alphonsus Joseph Glorieux was born February 1, 1844, in Belgium. After college, he went to seminary at the American College at Louvain, just east of Brussels. He graduated from there in 1867, and was ordained and sent to Roseburg, Oregon.

After four years at various posts, Glorieux was appointed President of St. Michael's College in Portland, Oregon. Then, in 1884, Catholic authorities made him Vicar Apostolic of Idaho. The following spring, Glorieux traveled to Baltimore, Maryland, where he was consecrated as “Titular Bishop of Apollonia.” (Such designations are used to confer Bishopic status on the leader of an area where there is no formal diocese.)

Glorieux arrived in Boise in June, 1885. The new bishop had to stay in a private home, because the church had no suitable resident hall in the city. A few days later Glorieux headed off to visit every town and hamlet in the Territory.

The new Bishop found that the number of parishioners had dwindled to around 2,500, scattered among ten churches. There was only one Catholic school, and no hospital. The various flocks were served by just six clergymen and fourteen Sisters. A go-getter of epic dedication, Bishop Glorieux set out to change that. Before the year was out, he fostered a new church in Shoshone.

In 1886, he had a new structure built in Boise where he and other priests could live, and could accommodate visiting clergy. That same year, Glorieux dedicated two new churches. The following year, he had the Boise church enlarged and built the first Catholic church in Pocatello. No new structures went up in 1888, but the next year saw: a new parish hall and a school in Boise, plus new churches in Genesee and Bellevue. Even more came in 1890, with five new churches dedicated.

Early the following year, news reached Glorieux that his mother was seriously ill. Fearing the worst, she wanted to see her only son. Alphonsus Joseph rushed back to Belgium, but, sadly, his mother passed away several days before he got there. Afterwards, Glorieux visited Rome, where he had a private audience with the Pope. He then made a Grand European Tour before returning to Boise on October.

In 1892, Catholics built a larger school academy in Boise, three more churches around the state, a school in Pocatello, and a hospital in Wallace. In August 1893, in recognition of all that growth, Pope Leo XIII created the “Diocese of Boise,” with responsibility for the entire state of Idaho. He appointed Glorieux as its first Bishop.

St. Alphonsus Hospital. Library of Congress.

The Right Reverend did not rest on his laurels, however. For each of the next six years, he dedicated at least one or two, and once three, new churches around the state. Growth slowed somewhat in the new century, but did include construction of the St. Alphonsus Hospital in Boise.

By 1914, when H. T. French published his History, Glorieux’s diocese included seventy churches, fourteen Catholic schools, and three hospitals. The number of clergy and Sisters had grown proportionately. At that time, services were being held in the basement of the new Cathedral of St. John being built in Boise.

Bishop Glorieux had laid the cornerstone for that structure in 1906 [blog, November 11]. Unfortunately, he died in August 1917, four year before the cathedral was completed and dedicated.
                                                                                 

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

Attorney and Teton Valley Developer Benjamin Driggs [otd 01/31]

Benjamin, Senior.
Driggs Family Archives.

Teton Valley pioneer and attorney Benjamin W. Driggs, Jr., was born January 31, 1858 in Pleasant Grove, Utah, about ten miles north of Provo. His father had been among early converts to the LDS church, suffered through the expulsion from Nauvoo, and trekked to Utah in 1852. Besides owning and, sometimes, operating a store in Pleasant Grove, the senior Driggs guided, did blacksmith work, and fought Ute Indians in central and southern Utah

Benjamin, Jr. had a bevy of siblings since his father, per then-current Mormon doctrine, had more than one wife. (He later served six months in prison for this practice.) On his own, Benjamin Jr. gathered the wherewithal to study at the University of Utah and Brigham Young College (now University). He then attended the University of Michigan Law School.

After graduating in 1886, he practiced law in Provo for two years before moving to Salt Lake City. He would remain in practice there for about fifteen years.

Benjamin also became interested in locating range suitable for stock raising. With much of northern Utah and southeast Idaho already claimed for farm and ranch settlements, he looked further north. In the spring of 1888, he responded to favorable reports about the Teton Valley by inspecting the area himself. Settlers closer to the river advised them to avoid the valley because it was known as “a rendezvous for horse thieves and outlaws.”

Colonists would later learn that the warning had some merit, but it did not deter them. Ben persuaded his younger brother Don, who was not yet married, to start cutting and hauling logs to a site that looked promising for a town.

By the end of 1889, the Valley contained a small colony of Mormon pioneers, including several Driggs family members. Benjamin himself took up a homestead and built a cabin, even though for many years he only spent part of the summer in the Valley. For a time, the structure served as the area’s only mercantile store.

In 1891, he processed a petition to acquire a post office for the new settlement. Because so many names on the petition were Driggs – three brothers and a cousin, along with Benjamin – that name was assigned to the new office. Brother Don became the first postmaster. A decade later, the local Mormons had established the Driggs Ward, with a school and meeting hall, as part of the Teton Stake.

Driggs, ca 1918. J. H. Hawley photo.

By then, Benjamin was spending more and more time in the Valley. He moved his family and law practice there in 1903-1905. As de facto village attorney for Driggs, in 1910 he handled the incorporation paperwork for the town.

Soon, the railroad arrived in the village, and it mushroomed: from a population of around 200 in 1910 to about 1,500 eight years later. Besides his law practice, Driggs owned a farm about four miles out of town, where he had a dairy operation. He also invested in city real estate and had an interest in a mining company. (Idaho Statesman, August 30, 1912).

When the legislature established Teton County in 1915, Driggs became the county seat and Benjamin was elected as the first county Prosecuting Attorney. He was re-elected to that position in 1922. In 1926, Caxton Printers, of Caldwell, published the first edition of Benjamin’s History of Teton Valley, Idaho. He passed away in July 1930.
                                                                                 

References: [Hawley]

B. W. Driggs, History of Teton Valley, Idaho, Louis. I. Clements and Harold S. Forbush (Eds.), Eastern Idaho Publishing Company, Rexburg (1970)

“Benjamin W. Driggs Answers Last Call,” Deseret News, Salt Lake City, Utah (Oct. 2, 1913).

Frontier Missionary and Peacemaker Father Pierre-Jean de Smet [otd 01/30]

Father De Smet, 1860-65.
Library of Congress,
Brady-Handy Photograph Collection.

Roman Catholic priest Pierre-Jean de Smet was born in Belgium on January 30, 1801. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1821 and trained as a Roman Catholic missionary with the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits. His first missionary work to the Indians was among the tribes along the lower Missouri.

In 1840, Father de Smet joined a party of American Fur Company traders headed for a mountain man rendezvous on the Green River in Wyoming (the last such gathering, as it turned out). From there, some Flathead Indians led him to a large Indian encampment at Pierre’s Hole (today’s Teton Valley, Idaho). There, Flathead, Pend Oreille, and Nez Perce tribesmen responded enthusiastically to his preaching and instruction. Later, he preached to attentive audiences near Three Forks, in Montana.

Encouraged, de Smet returned with a group the following year.  On that trip, the Bartelson-Bidwell emigrant party accompanied de Smet’s missionaries as far as Soda Springs [blog, Aug 8]. The Bidwell expedition was the first company of Americans to emigrate to California by wagon train.

Father de Smet’s group reached Fort Hall after nearly four months on the trail. Glad of the respite, de Smet stopped to rest and repair equipment. The factor even sold him supplies at bargain prices, a major concession since everything had to be laboriously packed in from their base on the Pacific Coast.

After a few days, they continued into Montana. There, the Catholics built St. Mary’s Mission, 25-30 miles south of today’s Missoula. That fall, Father de Smet traveled even further west at the invitation of Dr. John McLoughlin, Chief Factor of the Columbia Division of the Hudson’s Bay Company [blog, Oct 19].

Kalispel teepee and canoe on the Pend Oreille, ca. 1860.
Bonner County Historical Society.

On his way to Fort Colville, Father de Smet encountered a band of Kalispel Indians. Though lacking in height, the good Father possessed an impressive physical presence and abundant charisma. His three-day sojourn planted more seeds. Word of the “Black Robe’s” mission quickly spread among the tribes of North Idaho.

When he returned in the spring, he met with more Kalispels, as well as Indians from the Kootenai and Coeur d’Alene tribes.

Fulfilling a promise made by Father de Smet during those meetings, Father Nicholas Point and Brother Charles Huet soon came among the Couer d’Alenes to build a mission church. Their choice of location proved inauspicious: floods inundated the site in the spring. Father de Smet selected a new location about 8 miles west of the later town of Kellogg.

Sacred Heart Mission church, Cataldo, Idaho, 1957.
Library of Congress.

The Mission of the Sacred Heart was moved to near today's Cataldo, in 1846. Four years later, Father Anthony Ravalli arrived to design and build a new church for the mission.

Constructed with simple hand tools, the timber-frame structure contained no nails and took three years to complete. It is the oldest building in the state. (Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961, it was among the sites automatically included when the National Register of Historic Places was created in 1966.)

Father de Smet spent the rest of his life striving, with little long-term success, to maintain peace between whites and the tribes of the Northern Plains. For his day, de Smet traveled an incredible amount: The equivalent of over seven times around the Earth, soliciting funds and new recruits. He passed away in St. Louis, in May 1873.
                                                                                 

References: [Brit] [Hawley]

Robert C. Carriker, Father Peter John De Smet: Jesuit in the West, University of Oklahoma Press (September 1998).

Entrepreneur, Fur Trader, and Fort Hall Founder Nathaniel Wyeth [otd 01/29]

Nathaniel Wyeth, 1840.
Illustration for Harper's Magazine, 1892.

Entrepreneur Nathaniel J. Wyeth was born January 29, 1802, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Despite strong ties to Harvard University on both sides of the family, the young Wyeth chose to go directly into business rather than attend college. He was highly successful in the ice trade, rising to a general manager’s position.

However, pamphleteering by advocate Hall J. Kelley convinced Wyeth that he could make his own fortune by exploiting opportunities in the “Oregon Country.” (That region included today's Pacific Northwest, plus portions of British Columbia.) In early 1832, Wyeth organized a venture to pursue fur trading and trapping in the Rocky Mountains.

Unfortunately, the men he recruited in New England proved unsuitable, and six deserted even before Wyeth’s party started west from Missouri. Then, when they reached the trapper rendezvous, seven more men refused to continue with the expedition.

Wyeth’s party also had the bad luck to observe one of the most intense conflicts ever reported between trappers and hostile “Blackfeet” (actually Gros Ventre) Indians: the Battle of Pierre’s Hole [blog, July 18]. After visiting the Hostile’s redoubt the next day, Wyeth wrote, “It was a sickening scene of confusion and Blood[s]head. One of our men who was killed inside their fort we found mutilated in a shocking manner.”

Wyeth himself took some minor part in the battle, but his party of “Yankees” did not. Thus, his statement about “our men” was a sort of “editorial” license. His men did care for several wounded, one of whom died in their camp.

Wyeth was hard-working and conscientious, but in the end his lack of Western experience – and further bad luck – ruined this first expedition. The final, crushing blow came when the supply ship that was supposed to meet them on the coast struck a reef in the Society Islands and sank.

Still sure there was profit to be had in the fur trade, Wyeth put together another attempt in 1834. This time he also transported supplies west to be sold, under contract, to another trapping company.

As recounted in my December 20 blog about Trapper Osborne Russell, Wyeth’s customer reneged on the  contract. Undeterred, he then built Old Fort Hall, in Idaho, to sell his supplies directly to the trappers and Indians.

Still, this venture also failed, largely because more-established competitors, the British-Canadian Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) in particular, had a strangle-hold on the business. Within a couple years, Wyeth sold his Fort to the HBC.

Fort Hall, ca 1849. Library of Congress.

For the next 20 years, Old Fort Hall was the most important Euro-American trading post in Idaho. Tens of thousands of Oregon Trail pioneers passed by the Fort on their way to the Pacific Coast.

In 1845, the Joel Palmer party [blog, August 23] passed by. Palmer observed, “The bottoms here are wide, and covered with grass. There is an abundance of wood for fuel, fencing, and other purposes. No attempt has, as yet, been made to cultivate the soil. I think the drought too great; but if irrigation were resorted to, I doubt not it would produce some kinds of grain, such as wheat, corn, potatoes, &c.”

Wyeth returned to the ice trade, paid off his considerable debts, and eventually went into business for himself. He left a substantial fortune when he passed away in August 1856. (Ironically, about the time Old Fort Hall was finally abandoned.)
                                                                                 

References: [B&W]

H. M. Chittenden, The American Fur Trade of the Far West, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln (1986)

Nathaniel J. Wyeth, Don Johnson (ed.), The Journals of Captain Nathaniel J. Wyeth's Expeditions to the Oregon Country 1831-1836, Ye Galleon Press, Fairfield, Washington (1984).

Joel Palmer, Journal of Travels over the Rocky Mountains, 1845-1846, reprinted, Reuben Gold Thwaites (ed)., in Early Western Travels, Vol.  XXX, Arthur H. Clark Company, Cleveland (1906).

William A. Foster, Boise Fireman and Long-Time Fire Chief [otd 01/28]

Chief Foster.
Boise Fire Department.

Boise Fire Chief William A. Foster was born on January 28, 1870, in Grinnell, Iowa. The family relocated to the high plains of northwestern Kansas when William was about fifteen years old. Then, in 1890, he moved to Idaho. He worked as a teamster hauling lumber for a time and then went into the freight business for himself.

After that, Foster spent five years representing a lumber company before moving out of state for a couple years. He returned to Boise in 1899-1900.

For awhile after 1894, Foster had served as a member of the Boise City volunteer fire brigade. That organization had been formed in 1876, although records also point to an earlier volunteer unit. He returned to that duty after his brief hiatus out of state.

In late 1901, the city decided to fund a fully paid Fire Department. The new Department took over the following summer [blog, June 2]. It started with part-time leadership, a core of firemen, and a body of firefighters who were paid by the calls they answered. Early accounts state that Foster became part of the new, professional Department in 1903. That was the same year the Department got a full-time Chief.

Foster advanced steadily through the ranks, learning new skills as the department upgraded its equipment. Aside from the normal increases in population, and city acreage, these improvements were required because Boise was also growing UP – with its first “skyscraper” (six stories) in 1910 [blog, Jan 9]. In 1912, Foster was promoted to Assistant Chief.

The Department added more equipment over the next several years, and motorized some of the horse-drawn rigs. Foster was promoted to the Chief’s position in 1917. Within a couple years or so, the Department employed nearly forty men, serving in four fire stations scattered throughout the city.

Chief’s car, 1912. Foster on left – then Assistant Chief.
Boise State University.

Idaho was then much more of a "farm state" than it is even today. Unfortunately, America's agricultural economy suffered greatly for many years after World War I. (Much of the problem is blamed on excessive expansion to meet demand during World War I.) Naturally, Boise felt the pain along with the state. That had hardly eased when the Great Depression began.

As a result, Foster presided over a period when budgets were especially tight. To lighten the burden on his crews, he advocated preventative measures, such as clearing over-grown lots and prohibiting wooden shingles in new construction. Little came of that, plus the city was slow to replace worn out and antiquated equipment. After some upgrades in 1924, the council did not fund another major need, a new pumper, until 1927. Another four years passed before two badly-needed fire trucks were purchased.

When the Great Depression hit, firefighters had to accept pay cuts, and crew numbers were pared to the bone. Thus, from 1926 until 1939, the Boise Fire Department went from 33 men (including officers) to 37 … an increase of just 12%. During the same period, Boise’s population rose by nearly 22%.

During the Thirties, the city began to give more attention to fire prevention. The Department was authorized to provide educational programs and sent fire inspectors out to advise property owners about particular problem spots. In 1938, the city created a formal office of Fire Inspector.

Chief Foster led the Department through all these profound changes until his retirement in 1939. He passed away in March 1958.
                                                                                 

References: [Hawley]

“[Chief Foster News],” Idaho Statesman, Boise, Idaho (April 25, 1920 – December 3, 1939).

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

“Foster 60th Anniversary,” Idaho Statesman (Oct 2, 1952).

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

Educator, Attorney, and Supreme Court Justice John Rice [otd 01/27]

Judge Rice.
John Campbell Rice Foundation photo.

January 27, 1864, Idaho Supreme Court Justice John Campbell Rice was born on a farm in Cass County, Illinois, about thirty miles west of Springfield. After high school, he attended Illinois College, in Jacksonville (not far south of where Rice was born). He graduated in 1885 and began teaching mathematics at the college.

Three years later, he enrolled in law school, first at Michigan State University and then Cornell University. He received his law degree from Cornell in 1890.

John T. Morrison, a fellow student at Cornell, had previously met Presbyterian minister William Judson Boone. Boone moved to Caldwell, Idaho in 1887, and Morrison followed him there during the summer of 1890.

John Rice joined Morrison in Caldwell that fall, and they became partners in a law practice. When Boone founded the College of Idaho [blog, Nov 5], the partners both served as instructors there for two years. Rice taught Greek and mathematics, and later, economics.

Some years later, they found themselves in an odd position. The legislature upgraded Caldwell from “town” to “city” status. But the old town Board of Trustees successfully challenged the designation, and the election of a Mayor and City Council. John Morrison, the newly appointed City Attorney, was also a town Trustee and recused himself when the new Council appealed the District Court ruling. So the Council hired Rice, who won the appeal to the Idaho Supreme Court. (Idaho Statesman, June 25, 1897).

In 1897, Rice was elected to the Idaho House of Representatives. During his term he served as chairman of the judiciary committee. That legislature passed an Act to authorize the creation of a state Board of Arbitration to handle labor disputes. Another Act provided for the creation of irrigation districts to regularize the allotment of water rights.

After that, he was elected to the Caldwell city council, and served as mayor in 1902. His time as mayor corresponded roughly to the period when he relinquished the presidency of the Commercial Bank of Caldwell. Rice, along with several partners, including Albert K. Steunenberg [blog, Sept 11], had founded the bank in 1895. He resumed the presidency in 1907 and continued in that position until at least 1920.

He had other active business connections in Caldwell and around the state. Besides holdings in western Idaho, he helped organize the First National Bank of Saint Anthony, all the way across the state.

College of Idaho campus, ca. 1900. College of Idaho.

Rice also continued his involvement with the College of Idaho, although he no longer taught there. He had been among the principals when the College was incorporated in 1893 as a legal entity, separate from the Presbyterian Church. Rice remained a Trustee of the College through its darkest days in the Great Depression. (He was, in fact, chairman of the Board of Trustees when he died.)

Rice was first elected to the Idaho Supreme Court in 1916, and remained there until 1923. He thus served through the turmoil related to World War I, and the implementation of national Prohibition under the Eighteenth Amendment. He was also there when voters amended the state constitution to expand the Supreme Court from three members to five.

After another period in private practice, he was appointed to be a district court judge, a position he held when he passed away in November 1937.
                                                                                 

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

Louie W. Attebery, The College of Idaho, 1891-1991: A Centennial History. © The College of Idaho, Caldwell (1991).

“John T. Morrison,” Reference Series No. 404, Idaho State Historical Society (September 1996).

"Necrology: John Campbell Rice,” Cornell Alumni News, Ithaca, New York (December 16, 1937).