An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho, Part 95

Author:
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: [S.l.] : Western Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1524

USA > Idaho > Kootenai County > An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho > Part 95
USA > Idaho > Nez Perce County > An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho > Part 95
USA > Idaho > Shoshone County > An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho > Part 95
USA > Idaho > Latah County > An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho > Part 95

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Mr. Reynold was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on May 10, 1829, being the son of Edwards and Clid- na ( Michaels) Reynold. The father was a native of Ireland, born in 1801. and died in Iowa in 1840, while the mother was born in France in 1809, and her father was a German. She died in 1871. Mr. Reynold, senior, was a farmer and distiller. The par- ents came to America and setled in Pennsylvania and when our subject was six years of age came to Cin- cinnati. Another move was made to Dayton, and then to lowa, in which last place Thomas F. was educated. The father bought land and farmed in lowa and in 1852 came with his family to Portland, where he worked at painting and boating. Our subject was one of a party that accompanied George B. McClellan to meet the first governor of Washington, I. I. Stev- ens, and after that he was in the employ of the gov- ernment for a number of years, being packmaster on the expedition that surveyed the line between British Columbia and the United States. After one year in this work, he returned to Washington. In 1866 he went to farming in Columbia county, Washington, and in 1884 came to Lewiston. He operated a ferry boat there until 1892. when he came to his present home, five miles south from Juliaetta, taking the land from the Nez Perces reservation which was then opened.

Mr. Reynold married a Nez Perces woman, Polly, in 1863, in Lewiston. His brothers and sisters are named as follows: Mary Ann, in Ottumwa, Iowa; Clidna, there also; Joseph, at Oskaloosa, Iowa: Eliza- beth, deceased; James M., in Iowa: Edward, de- ceased ; Agatha, deceased ; John V., deceased. To Mr. and Mrs. Reynold there have been born two chil- dren, Clidna, deceased : Agatha, wife of James H. Evans, on Nez Perces reservation. Mr. Reynold has always taken an interest in the affairs of politics, be- ing a strong Jeffersonian Democrat and is usually a delegate to the county convention. He is an adher- ent of the Roman Catholic church. He has a fine farm of one quarter section and well improved and owns forty head of cattle and raises much wheat and many hogs. He has a large grove of the Lanthos trees. Mr. Reynold is a man of much experience and has done much commendable work in the northwest and is entitled to the credit of a real pioneer.

PART III. HISTORY OF IDAHO COUNTY

CHAPTER I.

CURRENT HISTORY, 1861-1879.

The earliest history of Idaho county, like that of Nez Perces and southern Shoshone, is identical with the placer mining history of the region, which has already been given place in our chapters. The dis- covery of gold at Oro Fino, Elk City, Florence, New- some and Warren had other effects upon the country than simply building thriving towns at these points. Routes of travel and transportation had to be estab- lished and way stations along these provided for the comfort and convenience of gold seeker and packers. Naturally the keepers of these stations were impelled to experiment in raising different farm and garden produce, and the enormous prices received by them for whatever they harvested encouraged the extension of this form of industry. There was one serious draw- back to it, however, during the first two years. Both the miners and station keepers were upon an Indian reservation. They could only remain by sufferance of the Indians and Indian authorities under protection of a treaty permitting occupancy only, and could not se- cure title to any land other than such as was by com- mon consent accorded to squatters.

L. P. Brown, in a lecture before the Idaho County Pioneer Association, made the statement that the first house occupied by white man on Camas prairie was the home of Captain Francois, built on the White Bird divide during the fall or winter of 1861, and that the spring of 1862 witnessed the construction of several way stations along the different trails to the mines ; one at Sweetwater, kept by James Donnelly ; one at what later became known as the Mason place, by Durkee & Crampton; one at Cottonwood, by a man named Allen and one at the foot of Mount Idaho, erected, we have been informed, by Moses Milner and his partner, Francis, the men who cut the pack trail

from the site of the town of Mount Idaho to Florence mining camp in the spring of 1862. However, A. I. Watson says that Arthur Chapman was keeping this station in 1862 and was understood by him to be its owner. During the summer and fall of the same year Hiram Lusk erected a log house on Three Mile creek, which, the following year, became the property of Crooks & Shumway.

These facts were no doubt given by Mr. Brown from memory and may not be absolutely correct in minor details, but they are corroborated for the most part by Seth Jones, who came to the county with Mrs. Jones in May, 1862. They found a station at what is now Cottonwood, kept by a man named Allen, and Captain Le Francois, then unmarried, at his station on White Bird divide. They found also a small station, just started, where Mount Idaho now stands, and Moses Milner at work cutting his trail to Florence. Loyal P. Brown, who came into the country a few days later than Mr. Jones, bought Mr. Milner's interest in both road and station and later laid claim to a tract of land. For many years afterward he was prominent citizen of Mount Idaho.

Mr. Jones and wife went on to Florence, where they remained until July, returning then to Mount Idaho over the Milner trail. Mrs. Jones gained the distinc- tion of being the first woman to pass over the new route, and in recognition of this fact, she was per- mitted to pass without the payment of toll. About August Ist they opened a small way station at Mount Idaho. Throughout the following winter Mrs. Jones's nearest neighbor of her own race and sex was Mrs. Mary Caroline Wood, wife of John Wood, who lived on Slate creek.

During the spring of 1863, Mr. Jones selected a

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farm on Three Mile creek, about a mile above the Hiram Lusk station. Brown had taken a claim in the foothills near Mount Idaho and this same spring, James Odle laid claim to a ranch in the vicinity of that station. It is related that when Mr. Odle began plowing, the Indians gathered in considerable num- bers, watched the operation with interest and protested mildly, saying that if much of such work should be done, they would be left without pasture for their ponies. He assured them that he wished only a small spot for a garden and they went away apparently satis- fied. Mr. Odle is said to have been in partnership with Brown in the station for several years.

July 6th Mr. Jones left Mount Idaho and took up his abode on his new farm. He plowed and sowed quite extensively, planting an acre and a half of po- tatoes, ten acres of oats and a considerable amount of rutabagas, tomatoes, cabbage, turnips and other garden vegetables. That fall he harvested 54,000 pounds of potatoes and sold them for eight cents a pound. The oats were cut for hay, which found ready sale at $80 a ton; the cabbage brought 121/2 cents a pound ; the turnips four cents. John Londsberry, a Pensylvanian of seventy summers, who had taken a claim adjoining Mr. Jones, was a partner of the latter in the potato venture.

The success of the early experimenters in agri- culture and the enormous prices realized by them could have no other effect than to inspire more persons with a desire to try what wealth the rich black soil of the prairie might have in store for them. A treaty was concluded with the Nez Perces Indians on the 9th of June, 1863, amendatory to that negotiated by Stevens and Palmer in 1855, by which the greater part of Camas prairie and Idaho county, along with the Wal- lowa valley in Oregon and other territory was ceded to the United States. The treaty was not confirmed until some years later, so that title to land could not be secured, but the foundation was laid for hope that the land would some day be the property of the set- tler and interest in agriculture was therefore stimu- lated in some measure.

Prior to the spring of 1862 the route to Florence was up Salmon river to the divide between Slate creek and John Day creek, up that to the summit of the mountains, and thence to the objective point. A sta- tion was early established at the mouth of Slate creek by one Charles Silverman, who seems to have had some kind of a partnership arrangement with the In- dians through a chief known to the whites as Whistle- knocker. In the spring of 1862, John Wood purchased the station, paying Silverman and the Indian $1,000 for it. By this transaction, Mr. Wood not only secured the desired property but he laid the foundation for a lasting friendship between the red men and himself, with the result that in after years, when trouble arose between the two races, Mr. Wood and his family were not molested by the hostiles. At the time of the pur- chase Silverman had a small garden. Wood immedi- ately planted some apple trees, among the first, perhaps, that ever drew their nourishment from the soil of Idaho county except a few planted by Indians, or per-

sons unknown, at Billy's crossing. Mr. and Mrs. Wood kept this station until 1884, but ten years earlier they sold the portion of their place across Slate creek to Charles F. Cone, who also opened a way station.

In the summer of 1862, Henry Elfers and John Wessel took a claim on John Day creek. In 1863 A. Berg squatted on land on the main Salmon, two and a half miles above the mouth of the Little Salmon, and the same year J. Allison settled on a claim six or seven miles above the Berg place. The ensuing winter came James F. Alvord and Michael Storms, who established themselves on a tract adjoining Mr. Wood's home. They opened a small general store. Later came James Baker, who made his abode about a mile and a half from the month of White Bird creek. On all these places stock was kept and on all of them were raised grain, vegetables and everything for which there was a demand among the miners. The land was, of course, unsurveyed.

The inception of the cattle industry was practically contemporaneous with that of agriculture. No farmer, seeing the vast areas of grass-clad land and the shel- tered canyons and valleys of the Salmon river, furnish- ing warm winter retreats for stock, could fail to realize the profit which must surely accrue from this business. In the spring of 1863, John M. Crooks and Aurora Shumway bought out Lusk's station on Three Mile creek. Later Shumway purchased the farm of John Carter, adjoining. The two, under the firm name of Crooks & Shumway, became pioneer stockmen of what is now Idaho county, bringing in a thousand head from the neighborhood of The Dalles, Oregon. They were the leaders in this industry throughout all the early days; nevertheless there were others not far behind them. Seth Jones was the second man to engage in cattle raising as a business, though undoubtedly a num- ber of farmers on Camas prairie and Salmon river had a few head from their first settlement. Jones's start consisted of ten cows, purchased at a cost of $60 each. It was a custom among those early cattle men to drive their beef animals to the mining districts, where they sold for good prices, though beef was never high in proportion to other articles of food. Among the lead- ing cattle men of the years prior to the outbreak of the Nez Perces war were Henry Elfers, who at one time had as many as 2,000 head, and Seth Jones, James Baker, John Wood, Charles F. and Charles P. Cone, A. Berg, Getter & Orcutt, Hickey & McLee. John Doumecq, Victor Glatigny, J. M. Crooks, John and Dan McPhearson, George Sears, Rice Brothers, Ed Byrom, Charles Redman and James Lambert, whose largest herds ranged between 300 and 1,600 head. The stock business never assumed the proportions in north Idaho that obtained in Harney county and other por- tions of eastern Oregon, where the larger herds ranged between fifteen and fifty thousand head, but the quality of the stock was undoubtedly better. The cattle had marked strains of Durham and Devon in their blood. thongh somewhat mixed with Texas stock. It is said that four-year-old steers were known to dress as high as 1, 100 pounds.

In 1861 a few more settlers took homes on Camas

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prairie, among whom were Israel Chapman, who set- tled on land adjoining the Crooks place, and Francis Marion Hughes, whose home was established between Mount Idaho and the site of Granville. Joshua S. Fockler became a resident of the prairie this year, but did not take land. He and Ward Girton were em- ployees for a time of Crooks & Shumway.

Upon his arrival on the prairie in 1865, James H. Robinson took a claim half a mile cast of the J. M. Crooks ranch, and from him we learn that the settlers at that time, besides those already mentioned, were an old trapper, Green B. Profitt, on the creek above the Jones ranch, William C. Pearson, a land holder and a partner in the cattle firm of Crooks & Shumway, John McPherson, on Three Mile creek, three miles be- low Mount Idaho, "Whisky Bill" and A. I. Watson, on Whisky Bill creek, Edward Byrom, proprietor of the Cottonwood station, James Cearley, on Three Mile creek, below McPherson's place, Milton Cambridge, between Three Mile and Butcher creeks, William Jack- son, who kept a toll bridge across the south fork of the Clearwater on the Elk City trail, and John Aram, near the home of Seth Jones, on Three Mile. Mr. Watson says that during this year, also, John Brown settled on Three Mile creek, three miles below Grangeville, and Jack Moran on Butcher creek above Odle's.

A few more settlers came in 1866, among them an ox teamster and freighter named Bush and each sue- ceeding year brought a small augmentation to the num- ber of settlers. The population grew from not to exceed seventy-five in 1866 to perhaps 150 or 175 in 1870. The United States census of the latter year gives Idaho county a population of 849, but these fig- ures, like statisties based upon the assessment rolls to show the increase of wealth, are rendered valueless by the fact that the county's boundary lines have un- dergone important changes. In 1870, Mount Idaho and all the Camas prairie country were included in Nez Perces county, and Idaho county included only the mining country further south.

The cattle industry received a severe setback almost in its very inception by the long, cold winter of 1865-6, which caused quite serious losses .. It was further dis- couraged by the fact that many head of cattle were driven into the mines from Oregon and Washington, making the price of beef relatively low. But all other products of the soil commanded high prices, butter a dollar a pound, eggs a dollar a dozen, vegetables five to ten cents, American horses $100 to $300 each, wild hay $15 to $40 a ton, etc. etc. The inception of fruit raising in the valley occurred in 1864, when trees were brought from Walla Walla and planted at Mount Idaho. Snecess attended experiment in this as in other horticultural and agricultural enterprises.

"The first stage line from Mount Idaho to Lewis- ton." says L. P. Brown, "was put on the route bv Francis & Company in the summer of 1862. The next spring Durkee and George Crampton placed a line on the same route, which was continued until late in the fall of 1863." Then Crampton sold out and went back to his home in Boston, Durkee to Burnt river in Ore- gon, where for years he kept the station known as Ex-

press ranch. A station and small town on the O. R. & N. commemorates his name. Mr. Watson says that Francis & Carnish established the first stage line and he fixes the date as 1863 or 1864. Frank Shissler, he says, succeeded Durkee and Crampton. Among the earliest express riders were Denny Bacon, John Brear- ley, Charles Fairchild, and the Baird Brothers, Ezra and William.

· Up to June 1, 1869, the county seat of Idaho coun- ty was located at Florence but by an act passed by the legislature of 1868, the honors and prestige belonging to the seat of local government were transferred to Washington, in the Warren mining district. The change, however, had no material effect upon the Ca- mas prairie settlers, for as yet these were affiliated politically with Nez Perces county, though their in- terests were with the mining districts, where they mar- keted their products, and they earnestly desired to be identified with Idaho county. This boon was granted them six years later.

Notwithstanding the fact that the earliest years of the ocenpaney of the Salmon river and Camas prairie countries by farmers and stockmen were years when north Idaho was yet overrun by hordes of robbers, desperadoes and murderers, and the mining districts and the trails to them were still haunted by lawless characters, the agriculturists and stockmen seem to have enjoyed practical immunity from criminal opera- tions. The execution of English, Scott and Peoples by Lewiston vigilantes and of the Magruder murderers by process of law caused an exodus of villianous char- acters from the country, and as the settlers before that ciate had nothing specially tempting to maranders, ex- cept, perhaps, a few horses, they never were victimized in the early carnival of crime.

But about July of the year 1869 the people of the prairie thought it necessary to take the law into their own hands and administer summary punishment to an Indian named Shumway Jim, a renegade, whose rep- utation as a desperate man was such that he was feared by both Indians and whites. He received his sobriquet of Shumway from his devotion to and friendship for the stockman of that name. He was credited with the com- mission of several murders, none of which could be proved against him. but he committed one too many. Early in the spring of 1869, several Nez Percees squaws reported to the settlers that they had found human bones under some rocks at the mouth of Three Mile creck and intimated that Shumway Jim probably knew more about them than he would care to tell. Messrs. Crooks and Shumway interviewed Jim regarding the matter, de- manding that if he were guilty he should confess it. Jim ultimately acknowledged that he had killed a pros- pector, a Frenchman, for gain, but had only secured the man's horse, his weapons and blankets and about ten dollars in money. The citizens in general took up Jim's case and finally decided that the time had arrived when his career of crime should be brought to an end, so Jim was escorted to a spot on Ward Girton's ranch near Three Mile creek where three poles had been stood up in the form of a tripod. To the apex of this Jim was hanged, all the settlers present, constituting

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a majority of those on the prairie, taking part in the execution. The body of the Indian was given into the possession of his red brethren, who bore it to Jim's home at Horse Shoe bend on the Salmon, where it was interred. Whites and Indians alike seemed pleased that the country was rid of this assassin and desperado.

In the fall of 1869, also, another serious crime was perpetrated in the Camas prairie country, which led to a lynching. The author of the crime, one Peter Wal- ters, was a young man who, by dint of energy and push, had become the proprietor of a sawmill near Mount Idaho. Joseph Yates, the victim of the tragedy, was an employee in the mill, and had been on terms of intimacy with Walters, living with him the preceding winter. It is thought that the seeds of the quarrel were sown during the continuance of this intimate as- sociation, but an open breach did not take place until some time later. Early in the fall they had some words and the relationship of employer and empoyee existing between them was abruptly terminated. It was agreed that they should meet that evening in Mount Idaho to complete their settlement. After sup- per Walters called Yates out. What words passed between them nobody overheard, but the conversation was brought to an end by Walters drawing his pistol and shooting Yates, mortally wounding him. Wal- ters was taken to Lewiston, the county seat, for trial. He escaped conviction at the next term of court on a technicality. The following term he was convicted and sentenced to be hanged. Preparations were made to execute the sentence, but at the last moment the young man's attorneys gave notice of an appeal to the su- preme court. Becoming tired of the law's delay, a number of the citizens of the prairie, perhaps about thirteen, repaired to Lewiston, battered down the jail door at night, took the prisoner out and hanged him.

During his incarceration, Walters wrote to per- sons on the prairie, among them Mrs. Seth Jones, protesting his innocence of deliberate murder. He claimed that he had settled with Yates; that Yates ac- cused him of stealing; that he drew his pistol, be- lieving it uncapped, for the purpose of scaring Yates into a retraction of his charges and that the pistol was discharged unexpectedly. Others state that Walters had sharpened his bowie knife and carefully loaded his pistol beforehand giving evidences of premedita- tion and from the testimony of several pioneers it is certain that the homicide was a cold blooded and very atrocious one. Walters was a young man of un- governable passion and somewhat disagreeable dispo- sition. No attempt was ever made to apprehend and punish his self appointed executioners.

After the earliest settlements on Salmon river, no further increase of population took place in that part of the county until about 1870, when there was a small influx into the valley. Hiram Titman took the place now occupied by J. B. Chamberlain, just above the mouth of Skookum Chuck creek. Harry Mason, Samuel Benedict, Larry Ott, Isaac Orcutt, John Get- ter and Mathewson & Cristy settled at various points

on the river about the same time; then immigration again ceased for several years.

The output of the placer mines had been steadily declining since about 1864, and the market for the produce of farm and garden had suffered a proportion- ate depression. In 1869, however, the miners voted to admit the Chinamen to Florence. Those who favored this measure argued that the best deposits were exhausted ; that white men could no longer work them profitably and that the Mongolians ought to be allowed to appropriate the residue. The permission was received with eclat by the Chinese, who came into camp in a body, protected against those who were hostile to them by an abundant guard of white people. Their advent was the signal for others to come in and in 1870 there were several thousand in the different mines. They seem to have infused new life into the districts, and though it is generally considered that a Chinaman lives on a few cents a day and sends the rest of his earnings back to China, yet these Mongo- lians are said to have spent their money freely when- ever fortune favored them, creating a good market for agricultural products. Between 1870 and 1880 they were in almost absolute control of the placer fields. They not only made what they would consider good wages in working claims, but occasionally struck rich ground that had escaped the white miners, realizing thousands therefrom.

But the fact that the number of Chinamen in the county dwindled in the decade to one-third of their original numbers was good evidence of the hopeless decline of placer mining. The effect of this was the upbuilding of stock raising and extensive agricul- ture in Idaho county instead of market gardening. But there were difficulties in the way of this change. Lack of transportation rendered wheat raising un- profitable ; there were no factories in the county before 1870 aside from a few sawmills ; and even the flour con- sumed by the people had to be brought from without. It is true that in 1874 Wheeler & Toothacher started the small grist mill which later became the property of L. P. Brown, but this was not sufficient to encourage the farmers to raise all their own breadstuffs. As the prairie was still in Nez Perces county and the mines had passed to the Chinese, Idaho county, as it then existed, seemed likely to be reduced to the same con- dition into which Shoshone had degenerated, -- a coun- ty only in name, incapable of maintaining an efficient organization and in danger of dismemberment at any time.

Fortunately the year 1874 brought to the prairie the organization of a society which was destined to have much influence upon the future history of the community and of Idaho county. About this time the order known as the Patrons of Husbandry was coming into prominence in the farming sections of the United States. The farmers of the prairie had objects to accomplish requiring united effort and it occurred to some of them that perhaps this popular agricultural association was just the agency through which the de- sired ends might be most speedily attained. Accord-

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ingly Charity Grange was organized. Many of the leading farmers in the vicinity of Mount Idaho and on the banks of the streams joined the society. the charter membership of which numbered about twenty. Within a few months it had one hundred members and later its roll call was still further extended.

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An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho, Part 95

Author: Publication date: 1903 Publisher: [S.l.] : Western Historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1524

Author:
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: [S.l.] : Western Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1524