South Fork Companion

On December 20, 1835, trapper Osborne Russell said he “bid adieu to the ‘Columbia River Fishing and Trading Company’ and started in company with 15 of my old Messmates to pass the winter at a place called ‘Mutton Hill’.”

The precise location of “Mutton Hill” is uncertain, but Russell said it was on the Portneuf River about 40 miles southeast of Old Fort Hall.

Born in Maine, Russell joined Nathaniel Wyeth’s second fur trade venture [blog, Jan 29] in April 1834. Osborne was then about three months short of his twentieth birthday. Wyeth had also contracted with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company (RMFC) to supply the 1834 Green River rendezvous.

When the RMFC reneged on the contract, Wyeth took his supplies on into Idaho and built Old Fort Hall. For August 5th, Russell wrote, “Mr Wyeth departed for the mouth of the Columbia River with all the party excepting twelve men (myself included), 10 who were stationed at the Fort.”

Lacking experience, the Wyeth men did not attempt a fall trapping expedition. They did, however, traipse through the nearby ranges hunting game to supply the Fort for the winter. During the latter part of September, Russell had his first encounter with a Grizzly bear, prompting the reaction: “Oh Heavens! was ever anything so hideous?”

Too green to know better, he and a hunting partner pursued the animal and killed it, after an extremely close call. Osborne wrote that they “returned to the Fort with the trophies of our bravery, but I secretly determined in my own mind never to molest another wounded Grizzly Bear in a marsh or thicket.”

During the 1835 season, Osborne worked with a trapper party that trekked through eastern Idaho, western Wyoming, and southern Montana. The results were disastrous: two substantial battles with hostile Blackfeet Indians, loss of most of their horses, and a minimum return of furs. Some of these problems arose from inexperience, but Russell decided that the greater cause was their leader’s ineptitude.

Old Fort Hall. Library of Congress.

“I determined not to be so green as to bind myself to an arbitrary Rocky Mountain Chieftain to be kicked over hill and dale at his pleasure,” Osborne wrote, and refused to sign up again with the Company.

Russell learned quickly, and was soon able to sustain himself comfortably. He attended the 1836 rendezvous held on the Green River west today’s Pinedale, Wyoming. Also there were missionaries Henry Harmon Spalding and Marcus Whitman, and their wives [blog, Nov 29]. Osborne said, “The two ladies were gazed upon with wonder and astonishment by the rude Savages, they being the first white women ever seen by these Indians and the first that had ever penetrated into these wild and rocky regions.”

Russell spent the next seven years as a free trapper, mostly in eastern Idaho and western Wyoming. However, even in 1840, he observed that “Beaver also were getting very scarce.”

He struggled along for almost another two years. Then, in August, 1842 an emigrant party arrived at Fort Hall, headed for Oregon. Deciding he’d had enough, Russsell wrote, “I started with them and arrived at the Falls of the Willamette river on the 26 day of Septr. 1842.”

The following spring, Russell helped form the Provisional Government of Oregon and served as a judge under that organization. In 1848, he moved to California. He passed away there in 1892.

References: Osborne Russell, Aubrey L. Haines (ed.), Journal of a Trapper, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln (1965).

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).

Truman Catlin. J. H. Hawley photo.

Rancher and developer Truman C. Catlin was born December 21, 1839 in Farmingdale, Illinois, about eight miles west of Springfield.

In 1862, he boarded a Missouri River steamboat for Fort Benton, Montana. By chance, his party encountered one of Captain John Mullan’s road expeditions [blog, Feb 5] and traveled with them across Montana and Idaho to Walla Walla, Washington.

After spending the winter there, Catlin came to the Boise Basin. Idaho City and the Basin were growing explosively at that time and he had no trouble finding work. Probably because the best Basin placers were already claimed, Truman and some companions traveled to Silver City during the summer. Finding the same situation there, they next tried their hand south of Baker City, Oregon.

Catlin decided that working for wages on someone else’s claim would get him nowhere. He and two partners negotiated a substantial shingle contract with the authorities at Fort Boise. After completing that project, Truman returned to a homestead he had claimed earlier. Located about ten miles northwest of downtown Boise City, Catlin’s claim lay between split branches of the Boise River, on what came to be called Eagle Island.

The location facilitated construction of irrigation ditches, so Catlin and a neighbor began irrigated agriculture in 1864. Truman’s fresh potatoes sold at a premium, while his ground corn could be sold for less than imported meal and still turn a handsome profit. Catlin also started in the cattle business in a small way and expanded that line over the years.

By the mid-1870s, stockmen in Idaho and further west were producing a surplus beyond what could be sold locally or in the mining districts. In fact, U. S. government reports indicate that Oregon and Washington cattlemen were driving herds across Idaho into Wyoming and Colorado by 1875. And, in early 1876, buyers were seeking Idaho cattle to join those drives (Idaho Statesman, January 29, 1876).

Catlin was one of the first (Hawley’s History says “the first”) to run such drives: moving a thousand head into Wyoming in 1876. After that, he and various partners regularly drove cattle east until the coming of the railroad in 1883-84.

Meeting the interurban, 1915. City of Boise.

As new homesteaders and developers arrived, Eagle Island became more and more settled. Truman himself eventually owned over 600 acres in the area and raised hogs as a sideline to his farming and cattle business. A bridge to the island spurred growth. Eagle township really took off in 1907, when the interurban railway linked hamlets all up and down the Boise Valley.

In 1917, Catlin sold off his major cattle interests; Hawley suggested that this was because “nearly all of his cowboys entered the army.” After that he concentrated on farming and a dairy operation for which he procured blooded Jersey and Holstein milk cows.

Even approaching age eighty, Catlin had not released the reins to his son, who was then around 45. Hawley wrote that the older man was “yet extremely active and still takes pleasure in riding the range, which he says he can do with the best of them.”

Truman C. Catlin passed away in June 1922.

References: [Hawley]

Laurie Baker, “The City of Eagle: Yesterday and Today,” City of Eagle, Official Website (May, 2007).

James H. Hawley, Ninth Biennial Report of the Board of Trustees of the State Historical Society of Idaho, Boise (1924).

J. Orin Oliphant, On the Cattle Ranges of the Oregon Country, University of Washington Press, Seattle (1968).

Governor Barzilla Clark.
Bonneville County Historical Society.

Barzilla Worth Clark, sixteenth Governor of the state of Idaho, was born December 22, 1881 in Hadley, Indiana, about twenty miles west of Indianapolis.

The family moved to Idaho Falls (then called Eagle Rock) when Barzilla was about four years old. Described as highly inquisitive and “a tease,” the boy was reportedly well liked by the townspeople.

Barzilla was very active in public school, even serving as school reporter for the Idaho Register newspaper in Idaho Falls. But he wanted to be an engineer like his father, Joseph [blog, December 26]. So, in September 1898, he headed east to attend prep school in Terre Haute, Indiana. He then enrolled at Rose Polytechnic Institute there. However, Barzilla over-did it athletically, to the detriment of his health, and returned to Idaho to recover.

In 1902, the Idaho Register mentioned that he owned ranch property east of town. (Presumably his father helped out with that.) The following year, he acquired ranch and mining properties near Mackay, Idaho, and moved there. Clark also began working more with dam and canal projects for irrigation. In 1905, Barzilla became a licensed professional engineer in Idaho, and also got married.

Three years later, the family moved back to Idaho Falls and Barzilla was elected to the City Council the following spring. Barzilla served another term on the Council, and then became mayor in 1913. Clark pushed for many enhancements for the city, including an improved municipal hydroelectric plant.

In 1914, the mayor entered the Idaho Democratic primary to run for Governor, but lost decisively (727 votes versus 3,121 for his opponent). The following year, he lost his re-election bid for Idaho Falls Mayor by a handful of votes. After that, he spent more than a decade focused on mining properties in Central Idaho.

Still, in 1927, Barzilla ran for Idaho Falls mayor again, won, and began a continuous ten-year span of re-elections to that office. His administrations brought great progress to the city: another large hydroelectric power plant, a new city hall and fire station [blog, Nov 16], the first airport, enlarged municipal parks, and more. Amazingly, he did all that by careful budgeting and planning, with no need to take on long-term debt or impose special tax levies.

Downtown Idaho Falls, 1930s. Bonneville County Historical Society.

Clark ran again for the Governor’s seat, won, and took office in 1937. An analysis in the Spokesman-Review newspaper (Spokane, Washington, January 4, 1937) noted a host of problems. These included needed revisions in the state liquor laws (post-Prohibition), departmental consolidations, revamping the state police, and much more.

Naturally, money was a huge problem, exacerbated by the fact that a voter referendum had done away with the state sales tax. In theory, progress should have been possible: Democrats enjoyed a 33 to 11 advantage in the state Senate and a huge 50 to 9 majority in the House. But that preponderance was illusionary: Major conflicts among factions within the party over-rode any disagreements they might have had with those few Republicans. Hard-won agreements within the Senate often met opposition in the House, and vice versa.

In the end, little of substance was accomplished under Clark’s administration, other than creation of a state Water Conservation Board. Barzilla’s bid for a second termed ended in the Democratic primary, and he returned to his private business interests in Idaho Falls.

In 1941, Clark published a local history book, Bonneville County in the Making. He died of lung cancer two years later.

References: [B&W], [Defen]

Barzilla W. Clark Papers, 1937-1938, Manuscript Group 22, University of Idaho, Moscow (June 1979).

Mary Jane Fritzen, Idaho Falls, City of Destiny, Bonneville County Historical Society (1991).

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

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

On the evening of December 23, 1897, “persons unknown” kidnapped mine foreman Fred D. Whitney from his apartment in Frisco, about four miles northeast of Wallace, Idaho. Then he apparently broke for freedom and the abductors shot him. Whitney died two days later.

Frisco, ca 1897.
University of Idaho Special Collections.

The Coeur d’Alene mining district experienced considerable labor unrest during the 1890’s. Lode mining for silver and lead involves brutally difficult and dangerous labor, with constant threats from cave-ins, flooding, and other hazards. Union organizers thus found fertile ground for their recruiting efforts.

Unfortunately, the great silver discoveries in the Coeur d’Alene region generally coincided with a gradual depression in silver prices. Ironically, the large production from those mines contributed to the slump. Mine owners naturally sought wage concessions, which fueled the militancy of the unions. This was, unfortunately, a period of intense labor-management strife anyway. Radical unionists faced off against equally intransigent owners, and both ignored the “voice of reason.”

The first widespread dispute in the Coeur d’Alene region occurred in July 1891. Miners were already paying monthly “hospital dues” – a health care fee. They demanded the right to designate which institution received those funds, rather than letting the companies make that decision. It does not appear they particularly distrusted the choices the owners might make, they simply wanted the freedom to choose … and they won on that issue.

Events turned more serious the following year. To offset higher freight rates imposed by the railroads, owners announced a lower wage scale for some types of workers. When the unions went out on strike, the companies imported replacements. That clash escalated to violence that resulted in the deaths of six men [blog, July 11]. Subsequent talks reached an uneasy settlement, but confrontations and intimidation continued.

As often happened, a three-way clash developed, with non-union workers (“defectors” or imports) adding to the volatile tension between union workers and company representatives.

Ore Mill, Coeur d’Alene mining district, ca 1898.
Illustrated History of the State of Idaho.

In 1894, a band of radical unionists – as many as forty men, by some reports – threatened a supervisor and a foreman, along with two workers who were apparently suspected of being in league with the company. The group ordered the four to leave the country and, to back up their threat, they murdered one John Kneebone. Kneebone was supposedly viewed as a turncoat by the union men. No one was ever arrested or charged for that killing.

It is not known for sure why the band of kidnappers targeted Fred Whitney in 1897; he was a union member himself. As foreman he had virtually no say in setting wages. The Idaho Statesman report (December 25, 1897) about the shooting said, “Whitney had only been at the mine a short time but was disliked by the men.”

Apparently a round of layoffs had followed the arrival of Whitney and a new superintendent. Rightly or wrongly, union men blamed the two, and thugs had tried to run both of them out of the country a few weeks before the attack on Whitney.

Despite $17 thousand in aggregate rewards offered, the killers were never identified. Nor was this the end of the strife: Two years later, the area experienced yet more violence [blog, Apr 29].

References: [B&W], [Illust-North], [Illust-State]

Prominent Murray, Idaho newspaperman Adam Aulbach was born December 24, 1846 in Belleville, Illinois, 4-5 miles southeast of St. Louis, Missouri. He started early in the newspaper business, first in Belleville and then with the St. Louis Republican. In 1863, he and four other young men headed west with a wagon train.

Murray, Idaho, ca 1888. The Sprag Pole Inn and Museum, Murray.

For a year or so, he prospected in the Montana gold fields. The Illustrated History noted that he served with the Vigilance Committees there, and Aulbach never denied his involvement. In 1864, he enlisted in the First Nevada Cavalry, and served for two years.

Adam then worked for newspapers in Salt Lake City and Corinne, Utah before moving on to the San Francisco Chronicle. Aulbach bounced around the west for a time after that and then spent a year or so in the East. While there, he added stints at the Philadelphia Record and New York Herald to his resume.

In 1884, Aulbach established a newspaper in Belknap, Montana – a Northern Pacific Railway station along the Clark Fork. Most of his news concerned the mining boom in the Coeur d’Alenes of Idaho. So, during the summer, he hauled the whole outfit into Murray [blog, Mar 5] on the backs of forty-five mules. The town, located on Prichard Creek about 12 miles north of Wallace, was then only a few months old. He published the first issue of the Idaho Sun on July 8, 1864. The following year he changed the name to the Coeur d'Alene Sun.

Over the next five years or so, he started or purchased newspapers in Wardner, Wallace, Mullan, and Burke. In mid-1890, Aulbach leased the Sun to focus on the Wallace Press. The Sun limped along and was suspended for six months until Adam returned to Murray in late 1892. The Sun ceased publication for good in 1912.

Aulbach also branched into other endeavors. The 1903 Illustrated History said that he, “owns the Murray water plant and has heavy interests in mining, and is one of the leaders of the county.”

Aulbach served a term in the state legislature starting in 1905. His time in the House of Representatives reportedly mirrored his editorial style: feisty, out-spoken, and unafraid to take on the rich and powerful.

Aulbach reminiscing for chronicler Rickard.

By 1919 the bloom had gone off the mines and the Murray economy was “dependent upon the operations of a single dredge.”

Aulbach was still there, and still hopeful. Reporter Thomas Rickard wrote, “He is one of the few pioneers surviving in honorable circumstance, and despite his 73 years of action, continues to take an energetic part in all movements for the public good … ”

A decade later, he still had active operations. The Spokane Chronicle reported (October 18, 1929), “A mill has been installed at the Buckeye mine in Dream gulch, owned by Adam Aulbach,.”

Three years later, the Chronicle announced (Nov 28, 1932), “Adam Aulbach, editor and mining man of the Coeur d’Alenes, is being invited to be the guest of the Northwest Mining association on the first day of the annual mining convention.”

Aulbach passed away about seven months after the meeting.

References: [Illust-North]

Chronicling America: Historic Newspapers, The Library of Congress (online).

“Invite Aulbach to Mining Meet,” Spokane Chronicle (Nov 28, 1932).

Thomas Arthur Rickard, The Bunker Hill Enterprise, Mining & Scientific Press, San Francisco (1921).

Jack Savage. National Academy of Sciences.

On December 25, 1879, world-renowned civil engineer John Lucian Savage was born on a farm about twenty miles south of Madison, Wisconsin. After graduating from Madison High School, “Jack” enrolled at the University of Wisconsin. During two summers while he was in school, he worked as a draftsman for the U. S. Geological Survey.

Jack graduated in 1903 and was offered a teaching position at Purdue University. More interested in field work, he joined the U. S. Reclamation Service, Idaho Division. In that capacity he worked on the Minidoka Dam project, beginning in 1904. Savage also provided engineering input for diversion dams and canals in the Boise and Payette river watersheds.

Jack’s work along the Snake River provided immense satisfaction for the young engineer. The Service’s projects brought water to the land. And with water, Jack said, “Farmers moved in to work the soil. Crops grew. Then came villages and towns. That's why I think this is the happiest, most thrilling work in the world.”

Impressed with prospects in Idaho, he left the Reclamation Service in 1908 and went into consulting work in Boise. While there he participated in projects all over the southern half of the state: Salmon River Dam, canals near Twin Falls, Swan Falls power plant, American Falls, and the Arrowrock Dam on the Boise River. He also found time to develop a farm and ranch near Nampa.

While the consulting was lucrative, by 1917 Jack had apparently decided he wanted to work on more challenging projects. He therefore accepted a position as Design Engineer back in the Reclamation Service (the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation after 1923). About that time, Jack moved to Denver, Colorado, although he retained real estate interests in Boise. However, after he married a Boise girl in 1918, he apparently sold off his Idaho holdings.

In 1924, he became Chief Design Engineer, with responsibility for all civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering designs.

Hoover Dam, 1942. Ansel Adams photo, National Archives.

For over twenty years, Savage contributed to most of the famous western water projects of the era: Hoover Dam, Parker Dam on the Arizona-California border, Shasta Dam, the All-American Canal that irrigates California’s Imperial Valley, and Grand Coulee Dam. He was also involved with many other lesser-known projects

Experienced co-workers admired his remarkable design skills and engineering insights. Yet Jack always deflected that kind of attention and insisted that “important developments are accomplished by the joint efforts of a large number of engineers and not alone by any individual.”

Such was his reputation that other governments asked him to consult. He helped with actual or proposed projects in Mexico, Australia, Israel, Afghanistan, India, China, and at least a dozen other countries. These tasks continued after his retirement from the Bureau in 1945. Although he never sought personal recognition, he won it anyway: several Gold Medal engineering awards, elected into at least two different Halls of Fame, numerous Honorary memberships, three Honorary Doctorates, and more.

Savage passed away in Englewood, Colorado, in December 1967.

References: [French]

Abel Wolman, W. H. Lyles, John Lucian Savage: 1879 - 1967, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D. C. (1978).

Mayor Clark. Idaho Falls Post-Register.

On December 26, 1837, future Idaho Falls Mayor Joseph A. Clark was born in Randolph County, North Carolina, south of Greensboro. The family owned slaves, but Joseph’s father so opposed the institution that he freed them and later moved the family to Indiana. After graduating from a small Indiana college in 1862, Joseph began a career as a civil engineer.

Starting in 1872, Joseph served five consecutive terms (10 years) as county Surveyor for Hendricks County, Indiana (west of Indianapolis). Then, in 1885, he and his family moved to (then) Eagle Rock, Idaho. At that time, stock raising far surpassed crop production in the area.

When Clark arrived, a number of cooperatives and private companies were trying to expand regional canal systems to allow greater irrigated agriculture. Joseph found work there and also, in 1887, received a contract from the U. S. General Land Office to survey portions of the Lemhi and Nez Percé Indian reservations.

By the late 1880s, companies had built several larger canals systems and much more extensive acreage came into production. In 1891, land developers/speculators led a successful campaign to change the town’s name to Idaho Falls. Their promotions were indeed successful in attracting more settlers.

Among the newcomers were farmers who founded New Sweden to the west of Idaho Falls. They then constructed a considerable canal system there, and established the first formal Irrigation District in the Upper Snake River valley. Clark was one of the principles in the construction of the Great Feeder Canal, which delivered its first water in the summer of 1895. The Feeder and its auxiliary canals eventually became the largest irrigation system in the Upper valley.

Great Western Canal construction.
Bonneville County Historical Society.

By 1897, irrigators were operating over 500 miles of major canals in Bingham County alone. (At that time Bingham encompassed today’s Bingham and Bonneville counties.) Besides his investments in canal projects, Clark also operated an Idaho Falls mercantile store.

In 1899, the village Board elected Joseph as its chairman. A year later Idaho Falls qualified as a “city of the second class” – a designation primarily based on population. Clark was then elected as the city’s first mayor.

For several years before that, ambitious developers had tried to promote an electrical power system for the growing city. Clark had been one of the most active backers of the idea. Finally, he and other advocates persuaded voters to pass a bond election for a municipal power plant. As a result, a hydro-power plant soon went into operation [blog, Oct 22].

Joseph left office in 1902. Meanwhile the city continued to grow: The Oregon Short Line railroad built a new station, some streets were paved, two new banks opened, and the main city school was expanded.

Clark passed away in September, 1905. His son Nathan had been the first chairman of the village boards and another – Barzilla – would twice serve as mayor of Idaho Falls. Barzilla [blog, Dec 22] and a third son, Chase, each served a term as Idaho governor. The entire family would play a substantial role in business development in and around Idaho Falls.

References: [Illust-State]

Annual Report of the Commissioner of the General Land Office for the Year 1887, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. (1887).

Mary Jane Fritzen, Idaho Falls, City of Destiny, Bonneville County Historical Society, Idaho Falls (1991).

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

John V. Hadley (Ed.), History of Hendricks County, Indiana … , B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis, Indiana (1914).

On December 27, 1910, a new, larger building was dedicated for use by the Children’s Home Finding and Aid Society. This ceremony was the culmination of over three years of effort, and continued a tradition that went back over half a century.

Children’s Home. ca. 1918. J. H. Hawley.

Records as far back as 1660 in Massachusetts describe how governments in the U.S. grappled with the problem of orphans and other homeless children. Orphanages proved costly and not very effective. In 1853, New York tried a new way to avoid institutionalization: a “placing-out” approach where neglected children ended up in foster homes.

Over the next half century, “children’s aid” and “home finding” societies grew up all over the country. For the approach to work, of course, these organizations needed a residence where the children could live until they were placed in foster homes … or longer if they could not be placed.

The movement came to Idaho in 1907, when the national Children’s Home-finding Society asked the governor if such an organization could be established in the state. The governor responded enthusiastically and put the representative in touch with potential donors. That led to the first tangible step toward a Home when Mrs. Cynthia A. Mann donated a block of land on Boise’s Warm Springs Avenue.

However, a cottage opened in May 1908 proved inadequate. So the state appropriated $20 thousand to help, with the stipulation that the organizers also come up with that amount. A fund-raising campaign allowed them to match the grant.

Officials laid the cornerstone for the building at an elaborate ceremony in mid-May. The president of the national Society, Hastings H. Hart, attended and said (Idaho Statesman, May 15, 1910), “The significance of this occasion is that it represents not only the philanthropic spirit of the state, but its great wisdom …”

The Society considered the structure dedicated in December to be ideal for their needs. It was made largely of stone with an interior constructed of the best available fire-resistant materials.

The second floor contained separate dormitory rooms for boys and girls. These were large, bright with natural sunlight, and designed for good ventilation. This floor also housed a nursery for the youngest children. Quarters for the immediate caring staff were also located nearby on the second floor, along with medical facilities. The first floor contained administrative offices, some apartments, a large kitchen, and the dining hall.

Besides orphaned and abandoned children, the Home provided a refuge for youngsters from families unable to care for them … due to unemployment, sickness, catastrophic emergency, or whatever. Mostly, the Society hoped that the families could regain a stable environment and recover their children.

National legislative changes in 1966 mandated a new foster care approach and made orphanages obsolete. The Children’s Home arranged its last adoption in 1968. Rather than disband, the Society recreated itself as a source of affordable behavioral health services to families and individuals.

Main building, Children's Home Society.

Today, the private, non-profit Children’s Home Society still provides those services as well as training professionals in the behavioral health fields. Besides family and individual counseling, they work to ease the transition into foster care, matching the child’s background and needs to an appropriate family.

References: [French], [Hawley]

Hastings Hornell Hart, Preventive Treatment of Neglected Children, Russell Sage Foundation, New York (1910).

Author Brink. Publisher photo.

Writer Caroline Ryrie was born December 28, 1895 in Moscow, Idaho. Misfortune dimmed her early years. When she was five, her father died of tuberculosis.

The following year, her maternal grandfather, Dr. William W. Watkins, was shot to death on the streets of Moscow. Watkins was the first President of the Idaho State Medical Society, and I mentioned his murder in my blog about the Society [Sept 12]. That killing, plus a failed second marriage, was blamed for the suicide of Caroline’s mother in 1904.

Grandmother Watkins raised Carol, and gifted the budding writer with a love of storytelling and reminiscences of her own childhood on the Wisconsin frontier. Carol first wrote for herself and then published stories in a high school magazine. In 1914, she entered the University of Idaho (UI), where she worked on the Argonaut, the student newspaper. She also wrote several plays for student production.

However, after three years there, Carol decided Moscow and the University were “too small,” and transferred to the University of California – Berkeley. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Berkeley in 1918, and shortly thereafter married Raymond Brink, a University of Minnesota mathematics professor.

Brink had been an Instructor at the UI Preparatory School starting in 1909. It’s unclear whether or not Carol took high school classes at the Prep, but they evidently became friends at that time. By the time they married, Raymond had completed a Ph.D. and spent a year in France. Except for Raymond’s two sabbaticals in France and a one-year lectureship in Edinburgh, they lived in Minnesota until his retirement.

The couple had a boy and a girl, and Carol eventually began to write stories for children. She had to make time to write, she said, “sometimes at the kitchen sink, on the end of the ironing board, or when the children were in bed.”

Her first published book, Anything Can Happen on the River, released in 1934, benefited from her experiences during one of the family’s visits to France. Her second book, Caddie Woodlawn, in 1936, grew from her grandmother’s stories about early Wisconsin. That book won a Newbery Medal, awarded to outstanding works of children’s literature.

Three of her children’s books – All Over Town (1939), Two are Better Than One (1968) and Louly (1974) – hark back to her early life in small-town Idaho. She also wrote a trilogy of Idaho-based adult novels as well as a nonfiction reminiscence. One of the novels, Buffalo Coat (1944), includes a character loosely based on her murdered Grandfather Watkins.

They moved to La Jolla, California around 1960. Raymond passed away there in 1973, Carol in 1981. All told, Carol published about thirty books during her career, most of them novels. About a third of them have been reprinted or are readily available today in used form.

She received many awards and honors besides the Newbery – including an honorary Doctorate from the University of Idaho in 1965. Over on Goodreads, the social network for readers, almost all her books rate 4 stars or more (out of 5). And it’s not unusual for a reviewer to comment: “I wish she’d written more books.”

References: Richard J. Beck, Famous Idahoans, Williams Printing, (© Richard J. Beck, 1989).

Bernice E. Cullinan, Diane Goetz Person, The Continuum Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature, The Continuum International Publishing Group, New York (2005).

Eighteenth Annual Catalogue of the University of Idaho, 1909-1910, Tribune Publishing Company, Lewiston Idaho.

J. M. H. Olmsted, “R. W. Brink – An Obituary,” American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 81, No. 8) (Oct 1974), pp. 873-875.

People and Places of Buffalo Coat, Latah County Historical Society (online).

Mary E. Reed, Carol Ryrie Brink, Western Writers Series, Boise State University (1991).

Moses Hubbard Goodwin, pioneer builder, mine operator, rancher, and lumber man, was born December 29, 1834 in Waldo County, Maine, northwest of Penobscot Bay. His grandfather, Aaron, was a ship’s boy on the USS Bonhomme Richard under Captain John Paul Jones.

Moses learned the carpenter’s trade and worked first in Boston and then in Minnesota. From there, he moved on to Mississippi. Moses stayed there until the Civil War broke out and authorities attempted to draft him into the Confederate Army.

Back in the north, he contracted a bad cold. Hoping the “salubrious” climate of California would clear his lungs of the lingering illness, Moses booked sea passage there in late 1861. The change did help, and he was again able to work. The following spring, he chased rumors of fabulous gold strikes in Oregon. Finding the claims vastly over-blown, he took a job in a shipyard, helping build steamers for the river trade.

Oregon River Steamboat. Salem Public Library.

Two years later, Goodwin again followed gold rush reports, this time into the Boise Basin. These stories were true and he prospected for awhile. However, he soon found he could do far better practicing his trade. Moses helped build a mill for the Mammoth Mine, near Pioneerville. He also built other mining and mill structures as well as the first large water wheel in the Territory.

In 1865-1867, Moses served as Superintendent of the Mammoth mill. He then became part owner of the facility and stayed on for another five years. However, the rigors of high altitude living brought on a relapse of his lung problem, so he liquidated his holdings and bought a ranch in the Payette Valley. He devoted some of his property to farming, but also apparently bought a considerable herd of cattle. Along with ranching, Moses did some building in the area.

During the national Centennial year, Goodwin traveled east with a new bride to visit family and attend the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Back in Idaho, he settled in Boise City, where he entered the lumber business. By the mid-1880s, he owned a water-powered sawmill and planing machine. For a number of years, he was the only manufacturer of doors, sashes and blinds in the Boise City area.

Sawmill Crew, 1885. Oneida County Historical Society.

Moses took an active interest in politics, mainly as a Republican, but with a very independent attitude. In 1884 and again two years later, he served in the Territorial Legislature. During his terms in the House, that body authorized the construction of a new capitol building and an insane asylum, and created the office of Attorney General. Goodwin also served on the Ada County Board of Commissioners, at times as its chairman.

After about 1900, Moses began dealing heavily in real estate. Three years later, he sold most of his lumber milling and planing properties, retaining only an investment interest. His name was associated with many land transactions in 1905, with other activity into 1910. Moses did operate a retail lumber yard in the city until 1911, when he retired completely. He died suddenly in October 1912.

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

John Henry Sherburne, Life and character of the Chevalier John Paul Jones, Vanderpool & Cole, New York (1825).

Governor Steunenberg. University of Utah.

On December 30, 1905, an assassin’s bomb murdered former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg. The resulting investigation, arrests, and trials had worldwide significance in the management- labor conflicts of the time.

Labor union support helped elect Steunenberg to two consecutive terms as governor. However, when union activists blew up the ore mill at Wardner and two men were killed [blog, Apr 29], the governor declared martial law. Although Steunenberg was simply doing his duty to maintain order, he began to receive hate mail. Finally, union thug Harry Orchard planted the 1905 bomb to punish Steunenberg for what the unions considered his “betrayal.”

Authorities soon captured Orchard and he confessed to the deed. Prosecutors then tried to convict union leaders as instigators of the crime. This led to a sensational face-off in court between the celebrated Clarence Darrow for the defense and attorney William E. Borah [blog, Jun 29], soon to be famous in the U. S. Senate as the “Lion of Idaho.” The State’s case depended largely upon the tainted testimony of the bomber Orchard … and failed. Orchard “got off” with a sentence of life in prison.

For an exhaustive treatment of this incident, consult the linked blog that specializes in that topic: “Idaho Meanderings: Steunenberg, Trial of the Century, Labor, Legal, Political History.”

The episode was also the subject of the book: J. Anthony Lukas, Big Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town Sets Off a Struggle for the Soul of America, Simon & Schuster (1998).

Post Falls sawmill, early 1900s.
North Idaho Museum.

On December 30, 1902, the sawmill that formed the centerpiece for the town of Post Falls, Idaho, was destroyed by fire. The Illustrated History observed, “As an evidence of the importance of the mill as a factor in the prosperity of the town it may be stated that at the time of the fire Post Falls had a population of six hundred. Two months later the population was but little more that half that number.”

In 1871, German emigrant Frederick Post purchased property at these Spokane River falls from the Coeur d'Alene Indians. (An unusual concession for the time, since most whites tended to simply appropriate tribal lands.) He concentrated on other interests until 1880, and then built the Post Falls sawmill. Post leased the mill to other operators, ran it himself from 1886 to 1889, then leased it out again.

As the mill prospered, the area grew, with enough settlement to support a general store and a school (built in 1888). Commissioners incorporated the town of Post Falls in 1891. Post finally sold the sawmill property in 1894. At the time of the fire, the mill belonged to the Idaho Lumber & Manufacturing Company.

Of course, Post Falls was an ideal location for a sawmill to process the region’s timber resources; the facility was soon rebuilt. The Falls also provided a prime setting for irrigation and power dams. Before the end of the decade, dams blocked each of the three natural river channels.

The local utility says the dams “currently provide a combined 14.75 megawatts of electricity.” With average household usage, that would supply about half the power required by the town.

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

James Crutcher. Illustrated History.

On December 31, 1835, U. S. Marshal James I. Crutcher was born in Shelby County, Kentucky, east of Louisville. In 1860, James followed the rush to the gold fields of Colorado. After two years there, he tried his luck in Elk City, Idaho. Crutcher spent a few months there, made a quick trip into Oregon, and then returned to settle in the Boise Basin.

Crutcher was deputy sheriff in 1865, during the excitement that followed the shooting of Union man Sumner Pinkham by Confederate sympathizer Ferd Patterson [blog, Jul 23]. Whatever his personal views, Crutcher’s job was to uphold the law, and he stood off a band of Pinkham’s friends who wanted to lynch Patterson.

Impressed, Boise County voters elected him sheriff. At that time, the county jail also served as the Territorial Prison. Crutcher had occasion to comment on the severe deficiencies of that facility: “The ventilation is so defective that during the summer season, the prisoners are necessarily allowed the freedom of the yard during the greater portion of the day, and complain of the oppressiveness of the heat at night.”

After his time as sheriff, he returned to his mining interests, eventually holding investments in “various mines which have yielded him good returns.”

In 1870, James became involved in a nasty split in Democratic Party ranks. A prominent lawyer who had previously served as Delegate to the U. S. Congress led one faction. Crutcher was part of an opposing group. Leaders finally agreed to fill the electoral ticket with an equal number of candidates from the two factions.

Crutcher, the party nominee for county sheriff, was the only man not elected. The disagreement escalated to violence in June 1870, when Crutcher’s brother-in-law shot the lawyer in a gunfight. Western code duello“rules” prevailed and a court released the shooter.

Between then and 1875, James moved his family (he married in 1865) to Silver City and established mine holdings there. Crutcher also remained active in public affairs. He represented Owyhee County in the 1886 Territorial Council, and was among the delegates who gathered in Boise in 1889 to frame a proposed state constitution.

Downtown Boise. [Illust-State]

In 1894, Crutcher was appointed U. S. Marshal for the new state of Idaho. At that time, he moved his family to Boise. He also established his primary business interests in that city.

Over the years, James and his wife, Adelma, had four children, none of whom survived to carry on the family line. When their last daughter died at age twelve, the Daily Capital said (January 3, 1899), “In any form and at any time the angel of death is most unwelcome; but when he enters the home and strikes down the young, the talented, the lovable, … then, indeed, he seems most cruel.”

James passed away in March 1915, in Berkley, California. The announcement of his death (Idaho Statesman, March 8, 1915) said he had been living with his brother after losing his considerable fortune “through his generosity to friends.” The much beloved “Auntie Crutcher” died there in 1926.

References: [Illust-State]

James H. Hawley, Tenth Biennial Report of the Board of Trustees of the State Historical Society of Idaho, Boise (1926).

A Historical, Descriptive and Commercial Directory of Owyhee County, Idaho, Owyhee Avalanche Press (January 1898).

“Poor Law Legislation,” Reference Series No. 151, Idaho State Historical Society.

Peter Skene Ogden.
Oregon Historical Society.

On New Year's Day, 1829, Peter Skene Ogden wrote in his journal, “One of the trappers left in charge of the sick man arrived with his horse fatigued and informed me that our sick man, Joseph Paul, died 8 days after we left, suffering most severely.”

Ogden was then leader of the Snake Brigade, a band of trappers and support personnel working for the British-Canadian Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC). They had encamped in northern Utah or southern Idaho. The exact location is unclear, but over the following two weeks they moved by stages onto Idaho’s Portneuf River.

Born in Quebec in 1790, Ogden had around twenty years experience in the fur trade. His career had blossomed, starting in 1809 with his apprenticeship as a clerk for the North West Company (NWC). The job brought out the best … and the worst … in the young man. His good head for the trade, natural aptitude for Native languages, and boundless energy fueled a rapid rise in the company.

However, the youthful Ogden also possessed a considerable temper, with a penchant for violence. The frontier environment allowed those tendencies free rein. At that time, the NWC was engaged in a bitter trade war with the older HBC. Ogden “made an example of” – executed – an Indian who had traded with their rival.

With an indictment for murder in the works, in 1818 the company transferred Ogden west to the Columbia Department. There, he at various times worked at company posts in Astoria, near today’s Spokane, and in British Columbia.

In 1821, the British government forced a merger of the two companies, after which most records refer to the more familiar HBC. Ogden did some fast talking to retain a position with the merged firm. Fortunately, the company decided they couldn’t afford to lose a man with his valuable experience and skills. Three years later, he assumed command of the Snake Brigade. Over the next five years, the Brigade explored and trapped watersheds in Idaho, every adjoining state, and even Northern California.

On this particular trip, they had traveled along the Humboldt River in Nevada and into Utah. A few days earlier, Ogden wrote, “Had a distant view of Great Salt Lake. Heavy fogs around it.”

Idaho mountain vista from north-central Utah.

From there, the Brigade had turned north toward Idaho. After mulling over Joseph Paul’s death, Ogden observed that, “there remains now only one man” out of all those who had been part of the Brigade back in 1819. He went on, “All have been killed – with the exception of 2 who died a natural death – and are scattered over the Snake Country. It is incredible the number that have fallen in this country.”

The Brigade’s 1828-29 hunt was moderately successful: Ogden said, “We have no cause to complain of our returns.” However, HBC management knew all too well how the dangerous and grueling work could wear a man down. The following summer, they gave Ogden another posting and assigned John Work to lead the Brigade [blog, Oct 23].

References: [B&W]

Peter Skene Ogden, T. C. Elliott (ed.), “Peter Skene Ogden’s Journal - Snake Expeditions,” Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society (1910).

T. J. Davis. J. H. Hawley.

On January 2, 1838, Boise pioneer Thomas Jefferson Davis was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. His father died when Thomas was a boy, so he and a brother were indentured to an Illinois farmer. According to Hawley’s History, in 1861 the farmer rewarded their years of labor by outfitting them for a trip to the Idaho gold fields.

Unscrupulous guides led their wagon train into impossible country in the Lemhi area. The scammers hoped the party would abandon their vehicles and supplies, or sell them for a pittance. Instead, the angry gold-seekers loaded what they could onto the draft animals and burned everything else. After considerable hardship, they found their way to Elk City.

However, by the time they arrived, the “bloom” had gone off the North Idaho rush. Thus, after a brief period in Washington and Oregon, Davis headed for Idaho City. He prospected “with fair results,” but decided that supplying the miners offered more certain returns. In late 1862, he moved to a homestead along the Boise River. The following spring, he dug a system of irrigation ditches and planted onions, cabbages and potatoes.

A few months later, Major Pinkney Lugenbee selected a site for Fort Boise [blog July 4]. Davis then became one of the founders of Boise City, with part of his homestead being inside the new townsite. (Over the years, the city grew to encompass his entire property.)

Davis prospered by selling vegetables and fruit locally and in the mining districts. The apple orchard he planted in 1864 returned substantial profits for some 35 years before the groves gave way to urban growth.

He also branched out into stock raising. His cowboys herded horses across ranges from near the Snake River all the way into Nevada. They kept his fine herd of Hereford cattle on pastures southeast of Boise City. Ahead of his time, Davis also owned several hundred acres of winter forage land in the Boise Valley and the hills further north. He not only fed his own herds, he supplied the Army at Fort Boise.

A strong Boise City booster, Thomas owned considerable real estate, was partner in a large mercantile store, held stock in at least two banks, and had many other investments in and around the city. A leader in the state Republican Party, Davis chose not to run for public office himself.

Julia Davis. J. H. Hawley.

Still, Davis was more than just a man of affairs. He loved music, played the violin, and served in the Boise City band in the early days. In April 1871, he married Julia McCrumb, a native of Ontario, Canada and niece of an Army surgeon stationed at Fort Boise. She became renowned as a gracious hostess and warm “greeter” to Boise newcomers. In her name, Tom Davis bequeathed a grand legacy to the city of Boise.

After she died, in September 1907, Davis gave a tract of land along the Boise River to the city. He stipulated that the bequest should be maintained as a public area under the name Julia Davis Park. He survived his wife by less than nine months. Today Julia Davis Park – now more than doubled in size – is the crown jewel of Boise’s extensive system of public spaces.

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

Julia Davis Park, CityofBoise.org

On January 3, 1889, the Idaho Daily Statesman, Boise City, Idaho, headlined, “Dedication of the New Opera House under the auspices of the Boise City Board of Trade … ” The article went on, “The dedication … will take place in the above opera house, in Sonna’s new block … ”

Sonna Building. Boise Architectural Project.

The location reference was to a large construction project financed and planned by businessman Peter Sonna.

Born in New York City in November 1835, Sonna followed the gold rush to California when he was a teenager. He remained a miner through 1862, prospecting successively in California, northern Idaho, and the Boise Basin. In 1863, he moved to Boise City and opened a hardware and general merchandise store.

By 1888, Sonna was a prominent leader in the Boise business community. That year, he began construction of a large project anchored at the corner of 9th and Main. The Peter Sonna Hardware Company occupied the ground floor. The second floor became the opera house – the first in Boise City – dedicated on January 3rd.

James A. Pinney, owner of a bookstore and a theater enthusiast [blog, Sept 29], served as first manager of the new opera house. The night after the dedication, the theater offered its first shows: “The brilliant social drama ‘Noemie’ …" and "the laughable farce ‘Turn Him Out’.” During the following summer, Sonna and Pinney increased the seating capacity to about 800 viewers and corrected some “slight acoustic defects.”

Mayor Sonna. City of Boise.

Three years after the dedication, Pinney built his own pavilion, the Columbia Theater. For over a decade, Sonna’s venue and the Columbia would be the main entertainment competition in Boise. In 1901, alterations raised the roof of the opera house about eight feet, and expanded the seating to a thousand. The following year, the Statesman reported that, “A new system of lighting, including several elaborate electric chandeliers, is being installed.”

In the years from 1891 through 1895, Sonna continued to add onto his structure, expanding the store floor space. He may have also added offices to the structure. In 1893, Sonna was elected to a term as Boise City Mayor.

In 1903, new managers leased the facility and tried to establish its name as the “Raymond Opera House.” Although their official news releases used that name, many people still knew it under the Sonna designation. In 1904, the Raymond announced (Statesman, January 31, 1904) that “by special request, a matinee and night performance of the scenic production, ‘A Nut-Meg Match,’ will be given.”

Then, according to Peter Sonna’s obituary, in the latter part of 1905, “the theatre was taken out of the corner building, and a third story added to conform to the rest of the block.”

Sonna died in July 1907. Within a few years, new owners converted the large store expanse into several smaller shops and restaurants. The rest of the structure became office space.

In 1976, developers had the façade remodeled to present a uniform appearance to the street. Today, the building is considered prime downtown real estate.

References: “Boise’s Progress,” Idaho Statesman, Boise (January 3, 1889).

Multiple relevant articles: Idaho Statesman (Dec 5, 1901 - July 10, 1907).

“Peter Sonna – November 22, 1835-July 9, 1907,” Reference Series No. 598, Idaho State Historical Society (1981).

Samantha Winkle, “Sonna Building,” Boise Architecture Project, online (2009).

On January 4, 1890, a major fire broke out in a laundry behind a popular restaurant in the village of Wardner, Idaho, about a mile south of Kellogg. The small fire department and “hundreds” of volunteers responded quickly, but for some reason they did not have enough water available to check the flames. This being the dead of winter, firefighters heaved snow as fast as they could. Unfortunately, that failed to stop the fire, which continued for four hours.

Mining Town Fire damage, 1893. National Archives.

Named for railroad executive James F. Wardner, the town owed its existence to the discovery of rich lead-silver lodes in the fall of 1885. Over the next two or three years, it experienced “phenomenal growth,” especially after developers ran a rail line into the mining area. In 1888, new telephone lines connected Wardner to the outside world, encouraging further expansion.

Witnesses said the fire moved rather slowly along the block after the laundry and restaurant became fully involved. (Later, this invoked bitter complaints that even a moderate improvement in the water supply would have allowed the volunteers to stop the fire’s spread.) After consuming several business structures, the flames ate through the telephone office and then a connected block of four buildings.

Citizens battled the fire for hours, then the flames began to threaten the main business district. Desperate, firefighters used “giant powder” to blast a substantial hotel and several nearby structures, but even that failed. They backed off again and totally demolished another large mercantile store, which finally provided a large enough gap to halt the flames.

The fire and counter-measures destroyed four large buildings, including the three-story Grand Central Hotel. Eighteen smaller office buildings and stores – including a jewelry, cigar emporium, barber shop, and tailor’s suite – were also lost. In addition to the telephone facility, the post office went up in smoke (officials did manage to save the mail itself, apparently).

Last but not least, the town lost two restaurants and four drinking establishments. Later, the Owyhee Avalanche in Silver City, Idaho reported (January 18, 1890) on the “very disastrous fire” and said that “Twenty-five of the business houses were destroyed, entailing a loss of $100,000.”

Wardner, 1904. Kellogg in the distance. U.S. Geological Survey.

With regional mines booming, locals quickly replaced the losses. The 1890 U.S. Census enumerated about 860 people in Wardner, out of a total Shoshone County population of 5,882. In April 1891, county commissioners approved articles of incorporation for the town. Wardner continued to grow through the following decade, despite on-going labor-management disputes and violence [blog, Apr 29], and dips in metal prices.

Published in 1903, the Illustrated History of North Idaho proclaimed, “At this writing, conditions in the Coeur d'Alene country are quite favorable. All the mines are at work in full blast; the relations between the employers of labor and their employees are, perhaps, as pleasant as they have ever been in the district; … and the rate of output is greater than ever before.”

Of course, that did not last. Today, Wardner does not exist as a town. It is simply a residential adjunct to Kellogg, and tourism largely drives the rather weak local economy.

References: [Hawley], [Illust-North]

Meserve Getchell.
Directory of Owyhee County.

On January 5, 1868, Postmaster Meserve M. Getchell was born in Baring, Maine, on the Canadian border and perhaps 25 miles inland from the Bay of Fundy. Mr. Getchell had a distinguished ancestry: his great-grandfather fought in the American Revolution and his mother was a Mayflower descendant.

He grew up on a farm, then found work in a sawmill as a teenager. Wanting something better, he clerked for a short while, then moved south into New Hampshire. After less than a year of working in a shoe factory, he decided to head west.

Getchell arrived in Silver City during the summer of 1889. By then, both mining and stock raising drove the economy of Owyhee County; Silver City was a thriving community. Meserve landed a job as a clerk in the drug store and also assisted an uncle at the post office. Late that year, the uncle bought the Idaho Hotel and Getchell took a position as clerk there.

Around 1892-1893, Meserve herded sheep on range north of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation. (Records don’t say, but it’s possible Getchell’s uncle received a flock in the transaction for the hotel.) He then returned to Silver City and worked in a mill while also helping out at his uncle’s hotel.

In late 1893, Meserve received a temporary appointment to fill the postmaster’s position in Silver City. The following year, President Grover Cleveland made the appointment official for a full term. Meserve had clearly done a fine job: Cleveland, a Democrat, would not ordinarily appoint a staunch Republican to such a position. (Meserve later served as chairman of the Republican Central Committee for Owyhee County.)

Silver City Post Office, Courthouse next door.
Directory of Owyhee County.

Not content with just the postal business, Getchell stocked his shop with candy, tobacco products, stationery, and other notions. He also hired his younger brother Asher to help with the operation. In 1897, President William McKinley, a Republican, appointed Meserve for another term as postmaster

The following year, Meserve also became part owner of the Idaho Hotel. He had to find new help at the post office shop, since Asher went to work in the drug store. In fact, Asher remained in the drugstore business for over thirty years, including stays in Boise City and then Twin Falls.

Meserve married in 1891, but their one child died in 1893 and his wife passed away four years later. He remarried in 1898. Mining around Silver City peaked about 1900 and then began a steady decline. (Most of the mines would be closed by 1912.)

In late 1905, Meserve sold his store and residence and shortly thereafter moved to Seattle. There, along with his brother-in-law, he invested in a sand and gravel business. Census records show that by 1910 Merserve was the company President, and that he and his wife had made a home for Getchell’s parents.

Getchell remained as President of the sand and gravel business until his death in April 1923, at the fairly early age of 55.

References: [Illust-State]

A Historical, Descriptive and Commercial Directory of Owyhee County, Idaho, Owyhee Avalanche Press (January 1898).

“Owyhee County,” Reference Series No. 336, Idaho State Historical Society.

On Monday, January 6, 1896, Lewiston State Normal School – today’s Lewis-Clark State College – opened its doors to receive its first students. That event was a key milestone on the long path to establishing a teacher’s college in the town.

Young students with teacher, ca 1892. Arizona State University.

The second session of the Territorial Legislature, in 1864, passed a “common” school law, but the system developed slowly at first. In fact, most of the earliest local schools were private ventures, or established by churches. Still, by 1880 the system had grown enough that the legislature created two formal school districts, one in Boise City, the other in Lewiston.

A decade later, schools statewide had grown even further, and many regions began to experience a shortage of qualified teachers. In fact, far too many teachers were hired simply because they would accept the meager salaries offered. Local school boards turned a blind eye to their lack of training.

That pressure continued to build, and received further impetus in 1892 when the University of Idaho greeted its first students [blog, Oct 3]. The public school system failed to provide even one student who was qualified to begin college-level classes. (The University would continue to offer prep-school classes for over twenty years.)

Thus, the 1893 Idaho legislature authorized a Normal school in Lewiston: “Normal” schools taught the “norms and standards” of primary-school teaching. To gain support from the southern counties, that same session authorized a Normal school in Albion. Neither school, however, received any state funding at that time.

Anxious to exploit the opportunity, Lewistonians donated some mostly-vacant land on the hill that overlooked the town itself. Then private citizens dug into their own pockets for some early planning and site preparation. However, not until 1895 did the legislature issue bonds to fund construction, and the building was not completed until May of the following year.

While they waited for their building, school administrators leased the second floor of a store in town and remodeled it into space suitable for Normal school classes. It was here the three faculty members, two men and a woman, greeted 46 students on January 6. Between them, the three taught a basic curriculum: English, Latin, history, civics, physiology, commercial arithmetic, mathematics, elocution, pedagogy, commercial law, and physical education.

Lewiston State Normal School, before 1917. J. H. Hawley Photo.

Soon, the Normal School’s graduates were spread all over the state. They had to be well prepared with a broad and thorough education. Until the 1920s, one-room schools served well over half of Idaho’s primary students. In those districts, the lone Lewiston (or Albion) Normal-trained teacher was often the only person who actually knew how a school should be set up and run.

However, in the late 1920s the “Normal School” concept began to give way to a new “teacher's college” approach. By 1935, only five old-style Normal schools remained in the U. S. … and two of those were in Idaho. But financial and political infighting prevented any change in their status. Finally, in 1943, the legislature granted them four-year status: They were the last two-year teachers’ schools to make the change.

Operating as North Idaho College of Education, the school still faced opposition. It was shut down in 1951, but – plagued by a calamitous shortage of qualified teachers – the state re-opened it four years later as Lewis-Clark Normal School. It finally became Lewis-Clark State College in 1971.

References: [French], [Hawley]

Keith C. Petersen, Educating in the American West: One Hundred Years at Lewis-Clark State College, 1893-1993, Confluence Press, Lewiston, Idaho (© Lewis-Clark State College, 1993).

Johnny Grant.
National Park Service photo.

On January 7, 1833, John Francis “Johnny” Grant was born in Alberta, Canada. At the time, his father, Richard, was a clerk working for the British-Canadian Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC). John’s mother died when he was eighteen months old. Richard took a furlough and escorted Johnny and his siblings to live with a grandmother in Quebec.

The Company soon promoted Richard to a Chief Trader position at a post in central Canada. He moved to the Columbia District in the Pacific Northwest around 1840. Two years earlier, the HBC had bought Idaho’s Old Fort Hall [blog, January 29]. Richard took over management of the Fort in 1842. When traffic increased on the Oregon Trail, he began trading fresh stock for worn-out emigrant cattle.

Around 1845, Richard decided to bring his children west. If his aging mother took sick or died, there would be no one to look after Johnny and the others. Arrangements and their travel took awhile, but John Francis arrived at Fort Hall early in the summer of 1847.

For various reasons, Johnny did not get along with his father at first and moved out on his own when he felt able – in about 1850. He took very well to the life of a trapper and fur trader, and made many friends among the small remaining Mountain Man community as well as the various tribes in the area.

Along with that, Johnny supported himself by dealing with Trail emigrants. In his memoir, Grant said, “Every summer we went on the road to trade with these newcomers at Soda Springs. I traded for lame cattle and they were always the best, because somehow the best got lame the quickest.”

As time passed, he reconciled with his father. When Richard’s resignation from the HBC became effective in 1853, they worked together to build up a fair-sized herd. These bands were the first significant cattle holdings in what would become the state of Idaho.

Cattle allowed to drink. Library of Congress.

In 1857, Johnny wintered in the Deer Lodge Valley of Montana, and then returned to Idaho. (By this time Richard’s health had deteriorated and he retired from the business.) Johnny returned to Montana two years later and built a ranch in the Deer Lodge area.

John generally got along well with the native inhabitants, and one of his Indian wives (he apparently had several) was sister to Tendoy, a powerful chief of the Lemhi Shoshones. However, clashes between whites and Indians had become more common, and it seems likely Johnny moved to Montana to avoid getting caught up in those disputes. Grant continued to build up his cattle and horse herds in Montana. However, when his wife died in 1866, he sold his holdings to stockman Conrad Kohrs and moved back to Canada. He died there in 1907.

Starting from the herd established by Grant, Kohrs became one of the first Montana “cattle kings.” In 1870, his crews drove two thousand head of cattle across Idaho and then turned east through Wyoming into Nebraska. The Kohrs ranch operated successfully into the next century. Its core facilities form the basis for today’s Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site.

References: [B&W]

John N. Albright, Grant-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site, Historic Resource Study, National Park Service, http://www.nps.gov/grko/hrs/hrsi.htm (March 6, 1999: last update).

John Francis Grant, Lyndel Meikle (ed.), Very Close To Trouble: The Johnny Grant Memoir, Washington State University Press, Pullman (1996).

“John Grant Biographical Sketch,” Provincial Archives of Alberta, ArchivesCanada.ca (online resource).

Outdoorsman Otto Jones.
J. H. Hawley photo.

Photographer and journalist Otto M. Jones was born January 8, 1886 on a ranch near Dillon, Montana. Two years later, his father sold the Montana property and they relocated to a sheep ranch on Dry Creek, about twelve miles northwest of Boise City. The family moved into the city about 1892.

Rather than attending high school in Boise, Otto went to a military academy in Virginia for a year and then spent two years in prep school at Washington State College (now University). He traveled around a bit, and then settled for two years in Ashland, Oregon. During this period, Jones began making his living as a writer, publishing articles on hunting, fishing, and other outdoor sports.

Otto returned to Boise in 1909 and was married to a native Boisean two years later. She became an indispensable assistant as he collected photographs of outdoor life and scenery to illustrate his articles. They became active in the “sporting life” in and around Boise. Both were outstanding skeet shooters, placing high or winning in many city and regional matches.

Fisherman and lady photographer on Big Creek. Otto M. Jones photo, Library of Congress.

Jones also served as an official for professional boxing and wrestling bouts. (Professional wrestling was then "straight," not a show.) His sports knowledge and credibility were such that the Idaho Statesman reported (April 26, 1916), “One of the best drawing cards for the Friday night wrestling match … will be the referee, Otto Jones.”

Otto’s sporting articles, with photographs, appeared in national publications, such as Field & Stream magazine. He also submitted material to the Idaho Statesman in Boise. For a time, he “owned” a page or two of the Sunday edition. There, he wrote about various outdoor activities, supported by his own sketches and photos.

His spread for Sunday, April 21, 1918 was about “Motor Touring” in the West. His text surely invoked nostalgic memories for many still-living pioneers. His comments about the old mining camps ring true today. He said, “These fast disappearing camps fairly teem with sentiments and reveries for the traveler who halts long enough in his whirling pilgrimage to explore and conjecture as to the life of the ghost towns … ”

In January 1919, Idaho Governor D. W. Davis appointed Jones to be the top state Fish & Game Warden. By then his stock of photos had “more than twenty-five hundred negatives” on file. The Library of Congress catalog notes that several hundred of his vintage images are archived in their files.

Shotgun Rapids, Salmon River, Idaho. Otto M. Jones photo, Library of Congress.

Jones held the Idaho Game Warden position into 1923. For three years starting in 1924 he served as Educational Director for the Oregon State Game Commission. After a period as a freelance and contract photographer, in 1931 he took a similar position with the Washington State Game Conservation Association.

After about 1936, in addition to his commercial photography, Otto spent four years taking real estate photos for the King County Assessor’s office in Seattle. He passed away there in August 1941 from an apparent heart attack.

References: [Hawley]

“First Idaho Game Law when Buffalo Ran Wild,” Idaho Statesman, Boise (March 11, 1919).

“Otto M. Jones, Photographer, Dies at Home,” The Seattle Times, Washington (August 27, 1941).

"Sports Magazine is Planned,"Register-Guard, Eugene, Oregon (July 24, 1924).

Mountain Man Osborne Russell Becomes a "Free" Trapper [otd 12/20]

Truman C. Catlin: Boise Valley Stockman, Irrigator, and Eagle Developer [otd 12/21]

Civil Engineer, Idaho Falls Mayor, and Idaho Governor Barzilla Clark [otd 12/22]

Kidnapping and Murder in the Coeur d'Alene Mining Districts [otd 12/23]

Murray Newspaperman and Developer Adam Aulbach [otd 12/24]

Civil Engineer and Western Dam Builder John Savage [otd 12/25]

Canal Builder and Idaho Falls Mayor Joseph Clark [otd 12/26]

New Home Dedicated for Neglected Children in Boise [otd 12/27]

Award-Winning Children’s Author Carol Ryrie Brink [otd 12/28]

Moses Goodwin: Pioneer Builder, Mine Operator, Rancher and More [otd 12/29]

Ex-Governor Frank Steunenberg Assassinated, Fire Destroys Post Falls Sawmill [otd 12/30]

Mining Investor, Legislator, and Federal Marshal James Crutcher [otd 12/31]

Snake Brigade Leader Peter Ogden Laments Fur Trade Deaths [otd 01/01]

Boise Developers and Patrons Thomas J. Davis and Wife Julia [otd 01/02]

Businessman Peter Sonna Dedicates an Opera House for Boise City [otd 01/03]

Major Fire Devastates the Silver Mining Town of Wardner [otd 1/4]

Silver City Merchant and Postmaster M. M. Getchell [otd 1/5]

Lewiston Normal School Receives its First Students [otd 1/6]

Fur Trader and Pioneer Cattleman Johnny Grant [otd 01/07]

Outdoorsman, Writer, Photographer, and Game Warden Otto Jones [otd 01/08]