South Fork Companion

"Doc” Rankin. H. T. French photo.

William Allen “Doc” Rankin was born January 24, 1836, in Lafayette, Indiana. Several ancestors in his paternal line fought in the American Revolution, later being plantation owners in Virginia. Although Doc’s family moved to the Midwest (to Iowa after Indiana), they retained strong family ties to Virginia.

Thus, because his forebears were “old line” Virginians, the young man sympathized with the South during the Civil War. When the war began, Rankin was in Iowa farming and raising stock. In fact, he fit the demographic for one typical kind of “Copperhead” – "agrarians" with Southern roots. Copperheads were Northerners who opposed the war.

Rankin therefore began to procure horses and recruit like-minded men for the Southern forces. However, Iowa apparently became too “hot” for him in 1863, so he and five other men headed west. Along the way, they stopped at Fort Bridger, where Rankin made the first of many western acquaintances: old Jim Bridger himself.

After a winter in California, Doc entered the freighting business. He then “spent twelve years in driving his outfit across the deserts of the West and over pretty nearly all the trails that then led from one center of population to another.”

His draft animals and equipment wore down, of course, hauling heavy loads on primitive roads and over the rugged mountains. To avoid losing part of a freighting season, Rankin made time to recoup his outfit by spending several winters in California.

Rankin came to know “many of the ablest and most famous men of the West.” That included prominent politicians such as Brigham Young and George Hearst (later a U. S. Senator from California, and father of publisher William Randolph Hearst).

Freight outfit in the Sierras, ca 1866. Library of Congress.

When Congress suspended coinage of silver dollars in 1873, miners decamped in droves from the silver mines of Nevada. Rankin’s freight business followed them to the gold fields of California, mainly in the Bodie area. Despite its rich and notorious reputation, the Bodie gold strikes proved short-lived, and rapidly tapered off after about 1880. His business declining, Doc moved to Boise in 1881.

For the next eight years, Rankin engaged in various enterprises to make a living. Thus, a year after he got there, the Idaho Statesman (March 18, 1882) thanked Doc for “a fine salmon trout. He brought in a load of fine fish Sunday, for which he found ready sale. He expects to be here again next week, after which he will visit this market once a week, if possible.”

Finally, in 1889, he took up a homestead two miles southwest of Boise. He remained there for the next quarter century. When H. T. French published his History in 1914, Doc’s biography said, “The street car line runs out Rankin street named in his honor, right past his door.”

Rankin took an active interest in the affairs of the Democratic Party in Idaho. However, he never ran for political office here, perhaps soured by an experience in Nevada, where he was reportedly “deprived of his rightful seat” in the legislature by election fraud. Still, in 1912, at the age of seventy-six, Doc was still serving as a precinct chairman for the party (Statesman, April 7, 1912).

When Old Doc passed away in 1917, the Idaho Statesman (December 16, 1917) said that during his years of traveling, “He came to be thoroughly familiar with the entire country, and was often referred to as an authority on road conditions of the West.”

References: [Brit], [French]

John P. Vollmer, ca. 1875.
Vollmer Family Archives.

Wealthy developer John P. Vollmer was born on January 25, 1847, in Wurtemburg, Germany. The family emigrated to the U.S. when John was about four years old, settling in Louisville, Kentucky. From there, in 1855, they moved to Indianapolis, Indiana.

After some years in a German-speaking private school, Vollmer attended the Indianapolis college that is now Butler University.

During the Civil War, he saw action as an under-age soldier serving a brief stint in an Indiana Volunteer regiment. After a short span as an apprentice clerk in a small retail business, he went to work for a large book company in Indianapolis. He spent several years there, advancing to a Chief Clerk's position.

Looking for greater opportunities, Vollmer relocated to Walla Walla, Washington in 1868. There, he managed a distillery producing “high wine” – a clear 100-120 proof alcoholic beverage, suitable for aging or infusing with other flavor elements.

John P. moved to Lewiston in 1870 and opened a grocery and wholesale liquor business. Three years later his growing temperance convictions led him to quit selling liquor, but he soon greatly expanded the mercantile side. He operated a wide range of enterprises that eventually owned over a score of outlets in various Idaho towns as well as in Washington state.

Vollmer initiated or backed many progressive improvements in the region, including: the first north Idaho telegraph line, telephone service four years later, and the Lewiston Water and Light Company. Other developments included several major irrigation systems, and construction of a “conservatively estimated” mile’s worth of Lewiston buildings. He was also a Trustee of the Lewiston State Normal School.

He had affiliations with steamboat and railway companies, and led the organization of substantial banks in Lewiston, Grangeville, and Genesee. Through the banks, and by direct investment, he owned many thousands of acres of prime farm land, said to require “two hundred and forty-eight miles of fencing.”

Since Vollmer acquired much of his acreage via foreclosures, he was not universally admired. The Illustrated History of North Idaho stated that Vollmer had “as few enemies probably, as any man living, of his active, agressive [sic] temperament and extensive business interests.”

That statement is a considerable departure from what subscription histories of that period normally said in their biographies. Almost invariably they praised a pioneer’s “excellent qualities” and noted that the person was “highly esteemed by all.” (The exact words varied, but not the fulsome sentiment.)

Vollmer Mansion, Lewiston. Vollmer Family archives.

Still, while he was clearly seen as a hard-headed man of business, Vollmer seems to have had a more enlightened side – absent from many of the “robber barons” of his day. Thus, he and his wife were known for their literary interests, and their home was considered a center of Lewiston refinement and gentility. His various biographers always saw fit to mention “his fine private library.”

In 1914, people around the state, and beyond, urged him to run for Idaho Governor on the Progressive Party ticket. Although tempted, Vollmer, who was then 67 years old, withdrew from consideration because, he said (Idaho Statesman, April 14, 1914), “My physician advises me that a campaign might endanger my health.”

He passed away in 1917.

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

Sheriff Bennett.
Ada County Sheriff’s Office.

Ada County Sheriff James A. Bennett was born January 26, 1865 in Leavenworth, Kansas. The family moved to farm country 40-50 southwest of St. Louis, Missouri when James was a few years old. He grew up in that area and garnered what education he could from the common schools there.

James came to Idaho in 1886. This was a period of high optimism for stock-raising in Idaho. For example, the Idaho Statesman gushed (October 9, 1886) that the cattle business “has grown to wonderful proportions of late years.” As proof, it went on, readers should consider that “Millions of dollars are invested in stock in Idaho, and the returns from this source excel all others combined.”

A couple years earlier, the Oregon Short Line completed its tracks across Idaho, which further boosted stock raising. Sheep holdings particularly benefited, since sheep raisers rarely drove large flocks to distant markets. Now they didn’t have to.

Bennett easily found work and, in 1888, he claimed a homestead in Ada County, some of which he still owned thirty years later. Along with his stock raising and farming, he worked for some of the regional irrigation companies. Hawley’s History noted that “For eleven years he was headgate keeper and ditch walker for the Ridenbaugh ditch.”

The Ridenbaugh Canal runs along the Boise Bench, today passing through the residential and business districts of southwest Boise. The Bennett Lateral is a feeder canal in that area.

That feeder was first identified publicly in 1902. The Idaho Statesman reported (June 27, 1902) on Ada County government business concerning “what is known as the Bennett Lateral.” The item said, “It is therefore ordered by the County Board of Commissioners that measuring devices and weirs be placed in said canal.”

Bennett’s first wife, Maggie, died from tuberculosis (Idaho Statesman, October 21, 1898) and he remarried two years later. Maggie had come from an old pioneer family, with property in the Wood River area. In 1903, James was appointed executor so he could settle the estate, including payment of back taxes.

Ridenbaugh Canal. Nampa and Meridian Irrigation District.

He then purchased a lot about five miles southeast of Boise. Later, James built a home of “generous proportions … well back from the highway in a cluster of large maples and with a terraced lawn and flower gardens in front.”

He was elected Ada County sheriff in 1908. Bennett had a busy two-year term, during which the office gained a third deputy and the county jail got a new floor. Besides dealing with a rumored Tong war in the Oriental community, the sheriff also had to appear as a witness in a case before the Idaho Supreme Court. At the end of his term, Bennett returned to irrigation work and farming. (Election laws then precluded a second consecutive term.)

In the late 1910s, he served as superintendent of the Nampa and Meridian Irrigation District, a unit that served over 4,000 water users. Today, that District owns the century-old water rights of the original Ridenbaugh Canal.

In 1942, Bennett moved to Meridian, where he was elected a Justice of the Peace. Ill health eventually forced him to resign, and he died in 1947.

References: [Hawley]

“Brooks v. Orchard Land Co.,” The Pacific Reporter, Vol. 121, West Publishing Company, St. Paul, Minnesota (1912).

“History,” Ada County Sheriff’s Office, online.

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

Judge Rice.
John Campbell Rice Foundation photo.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chief Foster.
Boise Fire Department.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Idaho was then much more of a "farm state" than it is even today. Unfortunately, America's agricultural economy suffered greatly between the two World Wars, even before the Great Depression. (Much of the problem is blamed on excessive expansion to meet demand during World War I.) Naturally, Boise felt the pain along with the state.

As a result, Foster presided over a period when budgets were especially tight. Firefighters had to accept pay cuts, and crew numbers were pared to the bone. One entire fire station was closed in 1924. Yet fires still happened, and over the years the city, grudgingly perhaps, paid for a few new pumpers and ladder trucks.

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

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

References: [Hawley]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wyeth was hard-working and conscientious, but in the end his lack of Western experience – and further bad luck – ruined this first expedition. Still sure there was profit to be had in the fur trade, Wyeth put together another attempt in 1834. This time he also transported supplies west to be sold, under contract, to another trapping company.

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

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

Fort Hall, ca 1849. Library of Congress.

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

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

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

References: [B&W]

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

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

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

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

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

In 1840, an Indian guided Father de Smet further west, where he met some Flathead Indians at Pierre’s Hole (today’s Teton Valley, Idaho). Encouraged by his missionary efforts there and in Montana, he returned with a group the following year. On that trip, the Bartelson-Bidwell emigrant party accompanied de Smet’s missionaries as far as Soda Springs [blog, Aug 8]. The Bidwell expedition was the first company of Americans to emigrate to California by wagon train.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

References: [Brit] [Hawley]

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

Benjamin, Senior.
Driggs Family Archives.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

By that time, Benjamin was spending more and more time in the Valley. He moved his family and law practice there in 1903-1905. As de facto village attorney for Driggs, in 1910 he handled the incorporation paperwork for the town. Soon, the railroad arrived in the village, and it mushroomed: from a population of around 200 in 1910 to about 1,500 in 1918.

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

References: [Hawley]

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

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

Bishop Glorieux. H. T. French photo.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

St. Alphonsus Hospital. Library of Congress.

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

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

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

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

Congressman Glenn.
H. T. French photo.

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

Despite his youth, Thomas clamored to fight in the Civil War and, like many Kentuckians, he supported the Confederacy. He finally joined the Second Kentucky Cavalry – famous as “Morgan’s Raiders.” Late in the war, he received a severe wound and was captured by Union forces.

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

In 1890, he moved his family to Montpelier, Idaho and opened a law practice. In August, 1897, he had a brief encounter with a bit of local notoriety. Bob Meeks, an accomplice with Butch Cassidy in the 1896 Montpelier bank robbery [blog, Aug 13], had been captured and brought to trial. After he had a falling out with his first attorney, the judge appointed Glenn and another man to represent Meeks. The judge, however, gave them no time to prepare and Meeks was convicted.

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

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

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

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

Panama Canal construction, 1907. Library of Congress.

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

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

Reference]: [French], [Hawley]

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

Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, online.

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

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

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

Custer Mill, ca 1890. University of Idaho archives.

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

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

However, for various reasons, some of the mines cut back production during the depth of winter. The Custer was one of those, and just a few days earlier the company laid off all but 15 of the company's 40 men. Without that fortuitous circumstance, the looming disaster might have been even worse.

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

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

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

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

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

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

If fact, a day or so later, another big slide hit the town of Burke, located less that two miles southeast of the Custer Mine. There, “half the business portion” was reported to be in ruins. Fearing more slides, many inhabitants fled the area. At first, survivors thought three men had been killed. However, later reports said that four people had been “buried in the snow slide, but all were rescued with slight injury.”

References: [Illust-North]

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

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

On the morning of February 4, 1896, two riders guided their horses along a rough track through the scrub-covered foothills of south-central Idaho. Earlier, they had glimpsed another horseman galloping along the stony road.

Sheep camp. Library of Congress.

James E. Bower, a superintendent for the Sparks-Harrell Cattle Company, thought the hard rider might be a cattleman suspected of being in cahoots with encroaching sheep raisers. His companion, cowboy Jeff Gray, agreed that it might be.

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

Bower and Gray rode up to the camp not long before noon. A sheepman stuck his head out and invited them to dismount and come inside. They were just preparing lunch. He and the other sheepman inside seemed friendly enough.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The killings triggered an intensive manhunt, a celebrated trial, and a legal odyssey that would not be settled for over half a decade [blog, Oct 13].

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

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

Governor Stevens. Library of Congress.

On February 5, 1855, Congress approved a $30,000 appropriation to plan the construction of a military road from Fort Walla Walla, Washington to Fort Benton, Missouri. Major impetus for such a road came from Isaac I. Stevens, Governor of Washington Territory, with support from the U. S. Army’s Department of the Columbia.

In theory, a northern route to match the Oregon Trail would encourage Washington settlement, one of the Governor’s cherished goals. He also hoped that a railroad line along the route would make Puget Sound a commercial gateway to the Orient. A fast clipper ship could reach Shanghai three or four days sooner sailing from Seattle as compared to San Francisco … saving about a week on the round trip.

Shortly after his appointment as Governor, in 1853, Stevens had lobbied hard for a survey of the northern route. Naturally, as a trained engineer and surveyor, he could lead the expedition on his way west to take office. His lobbying succeeded, and his party completed the survey to Fort Vancouver in November.

The Army’s concern arose from the growing unrest among the Indians of eastern Washington. Troops stationed in the region could be supplied more easily by a road that connected with the head of steamboat navigation on the Missouri River. Ironically, the general unrest exploded into the Yakima War in late 1855. In the ensuing conflict, the Army had to make do with the supplies they had, with re-supply via the Oregon Trail.

Lieutenant John Mullan led crews east from Walla Walla in the spring of 1859, after the uprising was suppressed. Their route headed north-northwest until it was more or less even with the south edge of Lake Coeur d’Alene, where it turned east. Skirting the lake, the road continued up the course of the Coeur d’Alene River and crossed into Montana.

John Mullan.
Center for the Rocky Mountain West,
University of Montana.

In his report for that period, Mullan described the crossing they used as “probably” the lowest they could find, and said that he had named it "Sohon's Pass" ... “in honor of Mr. Sohon, who made the first topographical map of it in our expedition.” That name appeared on maps for many years, but today’s designation – St. Regis Pass – replaced it by around 1900.

Of course, planners had grossly underestimated the cost of cutting a road through such rough country. By the time crews reached Fort Benton, in August 1860, expenses had escalated substantially. Washouts raised the price even further. In fact, part of the road had to be rerouted, including a major diversion to the north of Lake Coeur d’Alene. In the end, the road cost about $230,000, more than double the original estimate.

As it turned out, the military made very little use of the road – which is probably why no money was ever appropriated for routine maintenance. However, it has been estimated that as many as 20,000 civilians traveled the road the very first year after it was completed.

Later roads and rail lines followed the same route to serve the Couer d'Alene mining towns – Wallace, Kellogg, Mullan, and so on – and today's Interstate-90 highway follows much the same course.

References: [French]

Randall A. Johnson, “Captain Mullan and His Road,” The Pacific Northwesterner, Vol. 39, No. 2 (1995). [Reprinted at HistoryLink.org ]

John Mullan, Report on the Construction of a Military Road from Fort Walla Walla to Fort Benton, Ye Galleon Press (May 1989).

“The Mullan Road,” Reference Series No. 287, Idaho State Historical Society (December 1964).

David Wilma, “Stevens, Isaac Ingalls (1818-1862),” Essay 5314, HistoryLink.org, Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History.

Timothy Regan. J. H. Hawley photo.

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

John Regan attended Boise schools and then graduated “maxima cum laude” from Santa Clara College in California. Upon his return to Boise, he entered a lower position in Timothy Regan’s holdings. He also joined in the various social, athletic, and charitable endeavors expected for the son of a wealthy and influential Boise leader. There, he was apparently popular and well liked.

John Regan. J. H. Hawley photo.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

References: [Hawley]

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

Governor Bottolfsen.
University of Idaho archives.

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

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

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

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

Joliet Junior College, founded in 1901, is considered the first public junior college in the United States. The movement slowly gathered momentum. California authorized the beginnings of its statewide system in 1907, and by the Twenties, the idea had spread all across the country. By 1924, Ricks College, in Rexburg, had embraced the concept and proudly noted its membership in the American Association of Junior Colleges.

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

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

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

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

But the first JC district law they pushed through the legislature in 1937 was vetoed by the governor. He felt that such local districts would prove inadequate and end up throwing the cost onto an already-strained state educational budget.

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

References: [Brit]

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

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

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

Judge Stockslager.
Illustrated History photo.

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

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

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

Stockslager’s biographies do not mention that he owned any specific mining properties in Idaho; however, given his activities in Kansas, it’s probable that he did. He owned much other property, and was prominent enough in the sheep business to be selected as a Delegate-at-Large for Idaho at the 1900 Annual Convention of the National Live Stock Association.

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

Courthouse, Albion. Cassia County Historical Society.

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

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

Stockslager ran unsuccessfully for Idaho governor in 1907 and tried, also unsuccessfully, for a U. S. Senate seat in 1909. Except for one more term as district judge, he engaged in private practice, first in Hailey and then in Shoshone, until his retirement. In 1919, Stockslager led the effort to create Jerome County (Idaho Statesman, January 14, 1919) from portions of Lincoln, Gooding, and Minidoka counties. The Act creating the new country passed on February 8.

Stockslager passed away in March 1933.

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

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

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

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

Colonel Davis. H. T. French photo.

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

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

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

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

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

DSM. U. S. Army

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

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

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

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

References: [French], [Hawley]

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

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

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

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

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

Senator Pence. H. T. French photo.

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

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

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

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

Western sheep herding. Library of Congress.

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

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

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

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

References: [French], [Hawley]

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

Larry Johnston, ca 1945. U. S. Army.

Physicist Lawrence Harding “Larry” Johnston was born February 11, 1918, in Shantung (Shandong) Province, China. His parents were missionaries, who returned to the U. S. in 1923, probably to avoid Nationalistic unrest in the area. By 1930, his father held a position as a Presbyterian pastor in Santa Maria, California.

Like many boys of that era, Larry was fascinated by electricity. That led him to a B.S. degree in physics from the University of California at Berkeley. One of his professors was Luis W. Alvarez, later a Nobel Prize winner, but then a newly-minted Ph.D. and faculty member.

The U.S. had not yet entered World War II when Larry graduated in 1940. He began graduate school on schedule, intending to work for Alvarez. However, the professor took a leave of absence to consult at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The “temporary” assignment soon lengthened, and Alvarez drafted Johnston to help. Larry arrived at MIT in January of 1941.

Much of the work there sought to improve the relatively new technology of radar. Soon, Alvarez made Larry the Project Engineer for what became a Ground Control Approach (GCA) radar system. The system provides precise data on a plane’s altitude, and its track versus the runway centerline. A ground controller uses that information to “talk the pilot down.”

Trinity Test Blast. National Archives.

Then Robert Oppenheimer recruited Alvarez for the atomic bomb project, working out of Los Alamos, New Mexico. Alvarez, in turn, brought along Larry. The details are beyond the scope of this blog, but Johnston tackled, and solved, the detonation trigger array for the plutonium-239 atomic bomb (“Fat Man”). In the summer of 1945, he witnessed the first atomic detonation in history at the Trinity site near Alamogordo.

A few days later, Johnston and his team were ordered to Tinian Island. From there, Larry rode an observation plane and witnessed the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan. He was the only person known to have seen all three of those first atomic explosions. They had also seen the enormous supply of coffins stockpiled in case the Allies had to physically invade Japan. A deeply religious man, Johnston later wrote that he and the bomber crews “had come to terms with the inevitable loss of life. We hoped for an early end to the War and its heavy drain of human life and potential.”

The terrible destruction gave the Japanese a face-saving way to avoid a fight to the death, something they were, indeed, prepared to do. Less than a week after the second bomb, they surrendered. After matters settled down, Johnston went back to graduate school at UC-Berkeley.

GCA Radar Console.
National Air and Space Museum.

During the winter of 1948, the GCA system he and Alcarez had pioneered made possible one of the most dramatic peacetime campaigns of the Twentieth Century: the Berlin Airlift. With ground controllers – the “unsung heroes” – talking them down through bad weather, daring pilots flew a steady stream of supply planes into blockaded Berlin. The Soviets finally gave up their unexpectedly-futile obstruction.

After receiving his doctorate in 1950, Johnston taught for over a decade at the University of Minnesota. He then worked back in California before becoming a physics professor at the University of Idaho in 1967. Some of his research results are still considered the definitive works in his field, and he was renowned as a teacher and mentor. After his retirement in 1978, Larry stayed active, including enthusiastic support of Christian ministries in Moscow.

He passed away in late 2011.

References: [Brit]

David Bergamini, Japan’s Imperial Conspiracy, William Morrow & Company, New York (1971).

Lawrence Johnston, “The War Years,” Discovering Alvarez, W. Peter Tower (ed.), The University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1987).

Sandra L. Lee, “Idaho Man Witness to 3 Atomic Blasts,” Lewiston Tribune, Lewiston, Idaho (November 19, 2011).

“Obituary: Lawrence H. 'Larry' Johnston, 93,” Moscow-Pullman Daily News, Moscow, Idaho (December 7, 2011).

Stewart M. Powell, “The Berlin Airlift,” Air Force Magazine, The Air force Association, Arlington, Virginia (June 1998).

Attorney and legislator Albertus L. Freehafer was born February 12, 1868, in Mansfield, Ohio, about seventy miles southwest of Cleveland. After high school, he taught for three years, saving as much as he could.

Ohio Northern University, ca 1890.
Vintage postcard, Columbus Metropolitan Library.

With that “nest egg” and what he could earn during the summer, Albertus attended Ohio Northern University, then called Ohio Normal University. He graduated in 1893.

For three years, Freehafer served as a high school Superintendent in Ohio. He then began reading law with a firm in his home town. Albertus married in 1897, and served as a Deputy County Clerk while continuing his law office studies. However, in 1900, the couple and their year-old daughter moved to Scofield, Utah. There, Albertus worked as a school Principal while his wife, Olive, was a teacher.

After two years in Utah, the Freehafers moved to Council, Idaho, where Albertus again had a job as school Principal. Throughout this period, he studied law, and passed the Idaho bar exam in 1905. Albertus then quit his school job and opened a law office in Council. Six years later, his business had increased to the point that he added a partner.

Besides his law practice, Freehafer took up a homestead near Council. He also dealt in real estate and insurance, and was a director of the First Bank of Council. For a time, he provided legal counsel for the bank.

Freehafer served one term in the Idaho House of Representatives, starting in 1907. While there, he was House Leader for the minority Democratic Party. Voters then elected Albertus to two consecutive terms as state Senator from Washington County. Also active in local politics, Albertus served as Chairman of the Council Board of Trustees (roughly equivalent to a mayor’s position), and as City Attorney in 1911-1914.

In 1911, Senator Freehafer introduced legislation to carve Adams County out of Washington County. Washington County officials fiercely opposed the division. However, the proposed new county held about half the assessed valuation and area of the existing Washington County, and about 44% of the voters (Idaho Statesman, January 28, 1911). The bill passed and Council became the county seat.

Adams County Courthouse, built 1915.
Adams County Historic Preservation Commission.

Freehafer was appointed to the state Public Utilities Commission in 1914. During a second term, he then served as Commission President. One of the more interesting 1918 cases denied a request to have electrical power service extended to a village in southeast Idaho. The refusal was, the Commission decided, “necessary for the conservation of raw material, capital, and labor required for the winning of the war.”

Freehafer served through 1921. He then moved his law practice to Payette, later serving two terms as state Senator for Payette County. In the Thirties, he performed legal work for various Federal agencies, generally related to “New Deal” programs.

He moved back to Council in 1939. There, Albertus was nominated for the state Senate from Adams County, but withdrew for health reasons. He passed away in October 1940. (Freehafer was the maternal grandfather of U. S. Senator from Idaho, James Albertus "Jim" McClure.)

References: [French], [Hawley]

Albertus L. Freehafer (Pres.), Sixth and Seventh Annual Reports of the Public Utilities Commission, State of Idaho, The Caxton Printers, Ltd, Caldwell, Idaho (1920).

"Freehafer, Albertus LeRoy - Obituary," Independent Enterprise, Payette, Idaho (November 1940).

Freighter and Rancher “Doc” Rankin – A Legend in His Own Time [otd 01/24]

Millionaire Banker, Business Leader, and Developer John Vollmer [otd 01/25]

Rancher, Canal Manager, and Ada County Sheriff James Bennett [otd 01/26]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sudden Avalanche Kills Six at Custer Mine, Northeast of Wallace [otd 02/03]

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

Congress Approves Appropriation for Mullan Military Road Planning [otd 02/05]

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

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

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

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

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

Inventor, Atomic Bomb Witness, and University Professor Larry Johnston [otd 02/11]

Attorney, Developer, and Public Servant Albertus Freehafer [otd 02/12]