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Miner, Rancher, Bank Founder, and Legislator Joseph Ireland [otd 05/15]
J. N. Ireland. H. T. French photo.Joseph N. Ireland, co-founder and namesake of the J. N. Ireland Bank, was born May 15, 1839 in Calvert County, Maryland. That's on Chesapeake Bay about twenty miles...
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Snake River Steamboat Shoshone Makes Trial Run [otd 05/16]
On May 16, 1866, the stern-wheel steamboat Shoshone made its first trial run on the Snake River. The Oregon Steam Navigation Company had built the vessel in a rough temporary shipyard near the...
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Second Major Fire Devastates Idaho City [otd 05/17]
The Illustrated History (published 1899) observed, “The second great fire of Idaho City, on the 17th of May, 1867, did not spare St. Joseph's as the first had done.”The statement referred to the St....
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Prospectors Discover Gold in the Owyhee Mountains [otd 05/18]
O.H. Purdy. Commercial Directory.On the morning of May 18, 1863, a band of twenty-nine men broke camp and marched south and west from Reynolds Creek over a regional divide.Early that month, the group...
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Skinner Toll Road Connects Silver City to California Supply Route [0td 05/19]
On May 19, 1866, with great fanfare in the Owyhee mining camps, the Skinner Toll Road opened for business. The new road vastly improved stagecoach and freight wagon traffic into Silver City and the...
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Choirmaster, Musical Leader, and Operatic Composer Eugene Farner [otd 05/20]
Eugene Adrian Farner, who initiated Boise’s annual “Music Week,” was born May 20, 1888 in New York City. A child prodigy, he played his first public violin solo at the age of eight. He later became the...
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Richard Z. Johnson: Developer, Legislator, and Territorial Attorney General...
R. Z. Johnson. Illustrated History.Richard Z. Johnson, who served in the Idaho Territorial Council and as Attorney General, was born May 21, 1837 in Akron, Ohio. Johnson had ancestors on both sides who...
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Coeur d’Alene and Other Indian Reservations Opened to Homesteading [otd 05/22]
President Taft. Library of Congress.On May 22, 1909, President William Howard Taft issued a proclamation that opened "unreserved" agricultural, grazing, and timber lands on the Coeur d'Alene Indian...
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Cornerstone Laid for Idaho Soldiers Home in Boise [otd 05/23]
On May 23, 1893, dignitaries gathered in Boise City to lay the cornerstone for the new Idaho Soldiers’ Home. Meant to care for Union Army veterans of the Civil War who were “aged and in want,” the Home...
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Stockmen Battle Rustlers and Horse Thieves: Then and Now [otd 05/24]
On May 24, 1889, the Secretary of the Idaho County Stock Growers’ Association posted a notice in the Idaho County Free Press (Grangeville): The Association would pay $100 for information leading to the...
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Boise Veterinarian, Horse Breeder and State Veterinary Surgeon George Noble...
Dr. George Edward Noble, Idaho’s first State Veterinarian, was born May 25, 1868 in Nashua, Iowa. (Nashua is about 100 miles west and a bit north of Dubuque.) There are conflicting accounts of his...
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Idaho Territory Reduced in Size to Create Montana [otd 05/26]
On May 26, 1864, the U. S. Congress passed legislation that reduced the previously-massive Idaho Territory by creating Montana Territory and splitting off most of future Wyoming. President Lincoln...
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Snake Indians Defeat U. S. Army at Battle of Three Forks [otd 05/27]
The afternoon of May 27, 1866, a force of white infantry and cavalry encountered a band of about 500 “Snake” (Shoshone-Bannock-Paiute) Indians at the Three Forks of the Owyhee River. Major Louis H....
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Western Film Maker and Adventure Writer Oliver Drake [otd 05/28]
Prolific writer, producer, and director Clarence Oliver Drake was born May 28, 1903 in Boise. While not especially “wild” by that time, Idaho retained much of its Western character: Cowboys rode the...
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Political Operative, U. S. Senator, and Public Servant Fred Dubois [otd 05/29]
Senator Dubois. Library of Congress.Idaho Senator and political operative Fred Thomas Dubois was born May 29, 1851 in Illinois. Dubois graduated from Yale in 1872, then worked in a Chicago dry-goods...
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U. S. Assay Office Added to National Register of Historic Places [otd 05/30]
On May 30, 1961, the old U. S. Assay Office in Boise took its deserved place on the National Register of Historic Places.After the discoveries of 1862, gold – dust, nuggets, and quartz ore – poured out...
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Businessman, Attorney, and Idaho Legislator Lorenzo Thomas [otd 05/31]
Lorenzo Thomas. Family archives.Idaho legislator, attorney, and businessman Lorenzo R. Thomas was born May 31, 1870 in Staffordshire, England. The family moved to the United States three years later...
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Indian Agent Discourses on “The Snake Indians” [otd 01/06]
On June 1, 1863, J. W. Perit Huntington, Superintendent of Indian Affairs for Oregon, addressed a report to his Washington, D. C. boss, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs. The essay summarized what he...
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Boise Replaces Volunteer Fire Department with Professional Firefighters [otd...
On June 2, 1902, Boise’s volunteer fire crew disbanded and fire protection became the responsibility of the new professional Boise Fire Department. Early Boise Fire Station. Boise Fire Dept.Boise City...
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Army Doctor M. W. Wood and Spotted Fever Research [otd 06/03]
Marshall Wood. U. S. Army archives.Lieutenant Colonel Marshall William Wood, Army Medical Corps, was born June 3, 1846, in Watertown, New York, about sixty miles north of Syracuse. He enlisted as an...
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