Silver Mining Town of Kellogg Platted [otd 07/07]

The Illustrated History of North Idaho said, "The original plat of the town of Kellogg was filed with the auditor of Shoshone County July 7, 1893."

Kellogg, Idaho, ca 1907. University of Idaho Digital Collections.

Development of the area began in the late summer of 1885, when prospectors Phil O'Rourke and Noah S. Kellogg discovered what became the Bunker Hill Mine. O'Rourke filed the claim on September 10, and by the end of the month other hopefuls had located several mines along extensions of the same ledges.

Soon, prospectors found what came to be the Sullivan Mine across the canyon. By early November, miners built the first cabins for the town of Wardner, along Milo Creek, a mile or so north of the main lodes. (It was initially called "Kentucky," but the U. S. Post Office nixed that.) Even before that, brothers Robert and Jonathan Ingalls claimed a ranch further north on the more extensive flats along the Coeur d'Alene River.

The settlement they started in early 1886 as "Milo" was renamed Kellogg before the year was out. The town grew rapidly, having a local newspaper within a few months. Two years later, Kellogg had train service.

With more space to expand, Kellogg soon surpassed Wardner and became the headquarters for many mining companies in the area. By the time the town was platted in 1893, the Bunker Hill & Sullivan Mining and Concentrating Company was one of the largest employers in the region.

Although Bunker Hill had escaped the worse of the miners' union unrest in 1892, they were the primary target for a major incident in 1899 [blog, April 29.] Some level of friction between the unions and mine owners would continue for many years, but eventually a more cooperative climate developed.

In 1901, the Company donated "one of the finest brick school houses in the state" to Kellogg. Then, in 1913, the town was incorporated. Three years later, the demand for batteries and bullets for World War I sparked a boom in area lead mining. That did not last, of course, and a recession followed the war. Still, the Idaho Statesman reported (January 14, 1923) that, “All of the mines that were idle in 1921 resumed operation at capacity production … ”

The revival was attributed, in part, to “the marked increase in the price of lead, zinc and copper.” In fact, ups and downs in metal prices drove the town's economy well into the 1970s. But that same decade saw the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Silver Mountain gondola.
Guide to North Idaho.

People in Kellogg hoped for the best. Even into 1980, high silver prices fueled optimism about the town's economy. The roof fell in the following year: A national recession depressed prices, and major layoffs soon followed. After that, mineral production no longer played a significant employment role for Kellogg. The designation of wide expanses of the valley as a Superfund Site dealt the coup de grâce.

Soon, town leaders began to seek new sources of employment for the area. Although the transition was painful and is not yet complete, Kellogg now features a tourist economy with museums, shops, condominiums, and a nearby ski area – Silver Mountain. Boosters are also striving to expand their role into more of an all-seasons destination.
                                                                                 

References: [Hawley], [Illust-North]

City of Kellogg

Judith Nielsen, “Corporate History: Bunker Hill Mining Company,” Manuscript Group 367, University of Idaho Special Collections (1995).

Julie Whitesel Weston, The Good Times Are All Gone Now, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman (2009).

Genealogy, Family History, and History … From Particular to General

Over the past couple of months, I’ve been digging out new material to expand and revise my On This Day (OTD) blog articles. One recent search reminded me of a couple points that we sometimes “under-appreciate.”

First of all, genealogical data can provide a valuable addition to other forms of historical research. Of course, genealogy is a specialized type of history anyway. And “family history,” which encompasses more than a succession of “begats,” is clearly a subset of history in general.

Family Group, 1898. Library of Congress.

A substantial fraction of my OTD blogs are biographies, which usually start with information from histories of Idaho published in 1920 or before. Most of those people were still living when their bios were published. That being the case, I often turn first to genealogical sites (Ancestry.com and/or the LDS FamilySearch.org) to learn more about my subjects. Those sites pull together a wealth of different sources. For my blog biographies, the census data and death records are the most valuable, but almost everything there can help.

Here’s an example from my soon-to-be published book, the biography of pioneer criminologist Luke S. May. The matter involved May’s protegé, Edward C. Newell. A letter from him to May told me he was headed to Europe on the steamship Bremen on July 17, 1936. It also said he planned to stay until the following spring. And, indeed, I next found him back in New Hampshire in the spring of 1937. (A letter written many years later told me where he had gone on the Continent.) Good enough, right?

But internal remarks in the “spring” reference suggested he had been back in the U. S. for quite a while. To make a long story short, further research at the genealogical site turned up his name on a passenger list – Steamship Bremen, departed Southhampton, England on October 16, arrived in New York on October 23, 1936. (He never said why he returned early, but tensions were high in Europe at the time because Germany had re-occupied the Rhineland in March and the Spanish Civil War flared into violence in July.)

City directories are another valuable resource. Census data sometimes tells me that a person changed locations, and jobs, over the span of a decade. The directories then allow me to narrow down the time when the person made the change. (Downside: The books are issued yearly, but some may be missing from the archives.)

I’m sure I’m “preaching to the choir” for some (many?) of you out there, but: If you’re not using genealogical resources to supplement your other historical research, you’re missing a bet.

The second point has to do with a matter of family history where our “modern” perspective can lead us to miss a key point. The issue came up during my revision of the OTD article for July 3. My references said that Idaho Territorial Governor Edward A. Stevenson (1831-1895) was a cousin to Adlai E. Stevenson (1835-1914), Assistant Postmaster General of the United States. (Later, Adlai was Vice President under Grover Cleveland.) For various reasons, I wondered how closely they were related. (Having the same last name does not always indicate a close link.)

As you might expect, genealogical information for Adlai was readily available. That traced his lineage back many generations to ancestors living in the Scottish borderlands. Around 1715-1720, Adlai’s direct line ancestor moved to Ireland and then, about twenty years later, the family came to the United States. They settled in Pennsylvania before moving on to North Carolina. Over a couple more generations, they moved to Kentucky, where Adlai was born, and then Illinois. (After the Revolutionary War, they used the Stevenson form rather than the original Stephenson.)

Adlai Stevenson, ca 1880.
Library of Congress.

The lineage of Edward A. Stevenson proved more difficult, so I turned to the family trees posted on Ancestry.com. That finally did take me back four generations in his line, but no location was listed for the oldest ancestor. Two other problems arose. First, none of the names or dates in Edward’s line matched up with those for Adlai’s line. Also, where Adlai’s early ancestors settled in North Carolina and Kentucky, Edward’s ended up in New Jersey and New York, where Edward was born.

So, as a test, I “invented” a common Stephenson link back in Scotland. The genealogy software responded with the information that Edward and Adlai were, at best, fourth or fifth cousins. In a “modern” view, that connection seemed pretty tenuous, even if they did share the same last name.

However, I also came across a key observation in one of the many biographies related to the Adlai E. Stevenson (1900-1965) line. The Baker reference had the passage:
Even as the Stephensons changed locations, their remembered attachments to kin served as a protective shelter in the boundless terrain of their new country. They were a clan, and they carried with them to America an inherited sense of blood relatives – past and present – as a “derbfine,” an ancient arrangement recognized in the laws of northern Britain and Ireland that “encompassed all kin within the span of the last four generations.” They referred to themselves as “our people” and meant by that an extended family whose younger generations carried the names of their forebears and whose dead were remembered in story and legend.

Several times, the author reinforced that persistent remembrance of family. They didn’t need genealogical charts, the information was woven into their lives. So, as I say in the revised blog: There was no such thing as a “distant” cousin; they were simply “family.” Moral: As we read old histories/references, we need to keep in mind that those generations had a far different concept of family than we are used to now.

–––––
Reference: Jean H. Baker, The Stevensons: A Biography of an American Family, W. W. Norton & Company, New York, New York (1996).

Water Starts Flowing Through Egin Bench Irrigation Canal [otd 06/01]

On June 1, 1883, water flowed from a pioneer canal onto Egin Bench farmland. The Bench bends for about 12-14 miles along the west side of Henry’s Fork, some 25 to 35 miles north of Idaho Falls.

Egin Bench farmland near Henry’s Fork.

The first settlers arrived on the bench during the summer of 1879, shortly after Utah & Northern Railway tracks reached Eagle Rock (today’s Idaho Falls). While they saw potential there, they had to be content at first with cutting hay and raising stock. The river level lies 30 to 40 feet below the plain along much of the Bench's expanse. Farming had to wait until a ditch could be dug to take water from the river above today’s St. Anthony.

Still, the area proved attractive to homesteaders and a post office was established at Egin within a year. Locals thought “Garden Grove” would be a suitable name. The U. S. Postal Service said no … that name was already taken within Idaho Territory. As the story goes, the settlers met to pick another name on a nasty, cold day. They then chose “Egin,” an Anglicized version of the Shoshone word for “cold.”

The settlers began digging a canal during the fall after they arrived. However, they lacked the capital to hire more men and equipment, so it took four long years to complete the channel. Still, by all indications, that first water delivery in 1883 was a success. Perhaps enough water came through to mask what they would learn later.

Soon, more settlers began to break out land and dig irrigation ditches. The results were a shock to farmers used to normal flood irrigation: The coarse, sandy soil absorbed the water almost faster than they could deliver it.

Reports indicate that this phenomenon discouraged some settlers, who left. In reality, Egin Bench is one of the few places in the world that provides natural sub-irrigation. Although the ground absorbs a tremendous amount of water initially, a layer of basalt stops the seepage not too far down (the depth varies). After that, the underground flow can only go sideways.

St. Anthony Sand Dunes,
a popular recreational spot west of the bench.

Once the soil is “charged,” crops receive moisture directly to their root systems, and evaporation losses are minimal. With such a structure, the depth of the water table can actually be regulated by raising or lowering the water level in a network of strategically-spaced canals.

Egin Bench subirrigation also has a notable side effect. Water began to “escape” west by percolating underground over the impermeable rock layer. When it had charged all that area, the flow resurfaced to form today’s Mud Lake, 25-30 miles away. Before that, the low area had water only during periods of very heavy run-off.

Today, large greenhouses often use sub-irrigation to water their indoor crops. Sub-irrigation of field crops using man-made structures is very costly and is generally done only in special situations. (The trade-offs involved are far beyond the scope of this brief article.)
                                                                                 

References: [French]

Mark Fiege, Irrigated Eden: The Making of an Agricultural Landscape in the American West, University of Washington Press, Seattle (1999).

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

Andrew Jenson, “The Bannock Stake of Zion: Parker Ward,” The Deseret Weekly, Vol. XLII, No. 9, The Deseret News Co., Salt Lake City, Utah (1891).

L. A. Zucker, L.C. Brown (eds.), “Agricultural Drainage: Water Quality Impacts and Subsurface Drainage Studies in the Midwest,” Ohio State University Extension Bulletin 871, The Ohio State University, Columbus (1998).

Historic True Crime

For those of you who enjoy both history and "true crime" stories, check out my newly-revised post on the South Fork Revue: Murder on the Olympic Peninsula.

This is one of the cases handled by pioneer criminologist Luke S. May in 1922. As mentioned on the other blog, I could not include all of his cases in my book about him ... so I plan to post some of those "extra" online.

Book Release Scheduled: American Sherlock. Scientific Crime Detection

American ​Sherlock is the biography of pioneer criminologist Luke S. May. May played a significant role in the development of scientific methods of crime investigation. Although basically self-taught in scientific matters, May spent over a half century practicing scientific crime detection and built a solid reputation among police agencies and attorneys in the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada as a serious and effective scientific investigator.

This reputation as “America’s Sherlock Holmes” also led to his being consulted on the establishment of the first “full service” public American crime laboratory at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, and on a crime laboratory for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

When May began, few people, anywhere, used scientific tools to investigate crime. Except for a couple of minimal installations in Europe, there were no crime labs. So to solve his cases – criminal and civil – May improved or invented techniques in every area of forensic science in the era before public crime laboratories. Along the way, he exchanged ideas with many other well-known crime fighting pioneers.

Exemplifying “The American Dream”
Born on a Nebraska farm in 1892, Luke S. May rose from the proverbial “humble beginnings” to become one of the most famous detectives of his day. Hard times forced his ancestors out of Ireland, and then Canada, to seek a better life in the United States. But even that faltered when a severe drought sent his father back to life as an itinerant carpenter.

May, About 18 Years Old

Then, young “Lukie” experienced a pivotal moment: He read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The boy decided that scientific criminology would be his life’s work. Luckily, a building boom in Salt Lake City drew the family there and Luke found the resources needed to pursue his dream. Detective May was not yet eighteen years old when clues he spotted solved his first publicized case, a murder during a daytime burglary. As his reputation grew, he moved his base first to Pocatello, Idaho and then to Seattle, Washington. He remained there for the rest of his life, handling well over two thousand cases.

Between the two World Wars, May logged – as a private criminologist – an average of one death case every month. Around 80 percent of those were murders. Since roughly two-thirds of the death cases involved firearms, he became an expert in firearms and bullet analysis, with a huge gun collection. He had racks holding thousands of test-fired bullets, and could “read” them to identify every commonly-used firearm in the world.

A Few of May's Guns

May’s other cases ran the full gamut: routine background checks, cattle rustling, questioned documents (most often wills), accident investigations, and on and on.

But perhaps his most visible contribution to the field involved “tool marks.” The most telling marks are the microscopic scratches (striations) that can identify a specific implement (knife, screwdriver, etc.) used to commit a crime. One of his cases set the legal precedent for the use of such evidence, an important factor in the later conviction of Bruno Hauptmann for the murder of young Charles Lindbergh, Jr.

Tool Mark Comparison

American Sherlock is based on extensive research in the Luke S. May Papers, archived at the University of Washington, along with material from over two thousand other sources (mostly newspaper articles about May and his cases). For readers with further interest in the topic, the book contains an extensive endnotes section and a considerable bibliography.

[Note: All photos are from the May-Reid papers and are used with permission.]

Reviews
Well researched and engagingly written, American Sherlock rediscovers Luke S. May, a largely forgotten pioneer in early twentieth-century scientific crime fighting. In recounting May’s colorful career and most remarkable cases, Evan E. Filby traces the development of forensic science in the United States and offers a fast-paced narrative that will be particularly interesting to true-crime aficionados.
— Jeffrey S. Adler, professor of history and criminology at the University of Florida, author of Murder in New Orleans: The Creation of Jim Crow Policing (2019) and First in Violence, Deepest in Dirt: Homicide in Chicago, 1875-1920 (2006)

With Evan E. Filby’s American Sherlock we have, for the first time, a detailed assessment of the life and career of Luke S. May. May was a highly influential figure in the development of forensic science and scientific detection in North America in the first half of the twentieth century, yet he is surprisingly hardly remembered. Filby’s book accurately reinstates him in his rightful place in the history of scientific detection. Clearly and accessibly written, with a wealth of detail on May’s life and work, American Sherlock appeals to a wide audience including fans of true crime writing and those with an interest in the development of scientific detection.
— Alison Adam, professor of Science, Technology and Society at Sheffield Hallam University, UK; author of A History of Forensic Science: British Beginnings in the Twentieth Century (2015).

Ordering Information
Scheduled for release in August 2019, the book can be pre-ordered from the publisher or from major online booksellers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Projected to be about 320 pages long in hardcover, the list price is $32.

Order directly from Rowman & Littlefield for a 30% discount on American Sherlock. Use promotion code RLFANDF30 at checkout for 30% off – this promotion is valid until January 31, 2020. This offer cannot be combined with any other promo or discount offers. You may also contact Customer Service and Order Fulfillment:
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     Orders: orders@rowman.com
     Queries: customercare@rowman.com

American Sherlock Book

An interesting “near-coincidence” happened with regard to today’s blog topic … criminologist Luke S. May. Two days ago, on Friday, I transmitted the manuscript of my American Sherlock biography of Luke May to a publisher. Earlier in the week, I had signed and sent off a book contract with Rowman & Littlefield, one of the largest – if not the largest – independent publishers in this country.

They generally expect to publish both a hardcopy and e-book version. That could get interesting, since I submitted about three dozen photos to go in the book. Last I heard/read, e-books do not do well in the placement of images within the text … but maybe that has improved. We’ll see.

We do not yet have a schedule, but my editor seems eager to expedite the publication process. I’ll be posting updates as I learn more.

Books: Indians, Cowboys, Sheepmen; Gold, Mining, Timber; Prospectors, Bandits, Boom Towns

I received a royalty check from Amazon.com a few days back, which reminded me that it had been awhile since the last one. So, it must be time to plug my books again. I’m sure regular readers of this blog appreciate that fact that I don’t have ads and don’t beat you all over the head about my books. But I do need to sell some books to at least break even on the money we’ve spent of research. Of course, I do also have a blog about the books at Sourdough Publishing, but it does not get much traffic.

So here goes (in alphabetical order):
Before the Spud: Indians, Buckaroos, and Sheepherders in Pioneer Idaho
Tells the story of how the Idaho stock raising industry developed. It begins with the "first stockmen of Idaho" – Shoshone and Nez Percés horse raisers – and carries forward to about 1910, followed by a brief survey of the state of affairs today.

Governor Shoup. National Archives.

Among the pioneer stories is that of George L. Shoup who, in one routine 1888 transaction, sold a thousand cattle from his Salmon River ranches. Two years later, he became Idaho's first state governor and then one of its first two senators.
In 1897, a jury convicted hired cowboy-gunman "Diamondfield Jack" Davis of murdering two sheepmen south of Twin Falls. Although two other "respectable" cattlemen soon confessed to the killings, Davis twice came within hours of hanging and was not pardoned until 1902.

Excerpt. The Idaho Statesman newspaper, in Boise City, has been lamenting the damage done to Idaho stockmen by the passage of nearly a quarter million cattle across their range in 1880:
Five days later, the Statesman had occasion to repeat this theme. “There is no greater curse to the stock growing interests of a country than the large bands of cattle that have been driven through this country for the past few years.”
The earlier article offered a solution. “The only practicable remedy for this, and the only hope of the afflicted is in the advent of the railroad, which will take the cattle at or near the points where they are purchased and collected.”
Fortunately, the Oregon Short Line (OSL) Railway was incorporated in Wyoming in April 1881. Because of an odd provision in the Union Pacific company charter, the OSL was created ostensibly as an independent company. However, with half its shares held by UP stockholders, its independence was merely a sham.
Track laying began in May at the Union Pacific station in Granger, Wyoming. …

Boise River Gold Country
Tells the story, in words and pictures, of the settlement of the mountainous regions drained by the Forks of the Boise River. In 1862, a party led by Moses Splawn and George Grimes found gold in the Boise Basin, a mountainous area northeast of today’s Boise. Large-scale gold mining continued in Boise River gold country for almost a century. Also, at the dawn of the Twentieth Century, logging began to increase in importance. Large-scale timber harvesting surpassed mining in value after about 1955, peaking around 1980. Today tourism and recreation are the mainstays of the economy, with small-scale mining and timber operations.

Boise Basin Gold/Quartz

Excerpt.
Big companies were not the only people seeking gold during the Depression. Louie LeRoy Packer was born in Ola, Idaho, a tiny hamlet 20-25 miles north of Emmett, Idaho. A skilled carpenter and mechanic, he eventually opened an automobile service and repair station in Middleton. …
By the summer of 1935, Packer had a claim on Spanish Fork, about a mile and a half north of Idaho City. They started with just the tent on the claim, but later built a comfortable cabin. Early on, Louie acquired a partner
to help work his holdings
Soon, Packer began to improve his claim, rebuilding an abandoned flume system to deliver more water. Eventually, he had a large enough flow to work a hydraulic giant. Louie also prospected for quartz claims and after several years had properties the family considered worth $150 thousand dollars.

Idaho: Year One, An Idaho Sesquicentennial History
On March 4, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation that created the Territory of Idaho, a geographical monstrosity roughly the size of Texas and Illinois combined.

President Lincoln. Library of Congress.

Newspapers in the East went a week before they could published details (often erroneous) about the new Territory. One fact stood out: Idaho had Gold! and perhaps a lot of it. But the Civil War raged and the Territorial birth had to share headlines. Interest eventually centered a some crucial questions: Where, exactly, could one find gold? Guidebooks say to be alert and have our guns ready: Are the Indians really that dangerous? Using contemporary published articles and letters from the gold camps, Idaho: Year One, captures the day-by-day excitement and uncertainty as hopeful prospectors poured into the area.

Excerpt.
August 3 [1863]
The Oregonian reported, “Our merchants are constantly receiving letters from their correspondents at Boise and at other trading points in the mines, full of complaints because of the impossibility of safely sending out the immense amounts of dust now accumulated.”
Unfortunately, dangers lurked along every trail. The newspaper said, “On account of the enormous expense of maintaining Expresses of sufficient strength to be prepared to resist the possible attacks of highwaymen and Indians, none now transport treasure, except in very small sums, and parties coming out are always unwilling to bring or have in charge any more than belongs to them.”
One miner braved the trails by himself and managed to slip through. From him, The Oregonian heard that, “If he had taken all that he was begged to bring, he should have had over a million dollars worth, and from others we get similar statements.”

Besides the links at the Sourdough Publishing web site, the books are also available directly from Amazon.com:
Before the Spud
Boise River Gold County
Idaho: Year One