An illustrated history of the state of Idaho, containing a history of the state of Idaho from the earliest period of its discovery to the present time, together with glimpses of its auspicious future; illustrations and biographical mention of many pioneers and prominent citizens of to-day, Part 10

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1014

USA > Idaho > An illustrated history of the state of Idaho, containing a history of the state of Idaho from the earliest period of its discovery to the present time, together with glimpses of its auspicious future; illustrations and biographical mention of many pioneers and prominent citizens of to-day > Part 10

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

HISTORY OF IDAHO.

now votes the "silver" Republican ticket. He has passed all the chairs in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and is probably the oldest repre- sentative of the order in the state, having been identified therewith for forty-eight years. He joined Pioneer Lodge, No. I, of Idaho City, and his name is now on the roll of Bellevue Lodge, No. 9. He is also a member of the Sailors' Be- nevolent Society, and his wife belongs to the Episcopal church. They have a beautiful home in Bellevue, which he erected in 1892. During the sixty-one years of his residence on the Pa- cific coast he has seen the formation of terri- tories, their development into states, the estab- lishment of villages which have become thriving cities, and the introduction of all the lines of busi- ness known to civilization. The rapid and won- derful development of the northwest is a matter of marvel, and it is a glorious thing to have been a part of it as Mr. Redsull has been. He has through more than six decades watched the march of progress and well deserves mention among the honored pioneers.

GEORGE J. LEWIS.

The life history of him whose name heads this sketch is closely identified with the annals of the northwest, and he is ex-secretary of the state of Idaho. An important department of the gov- ernmental service of the commonwealth has thus been entrusted to him, and in the discharge of his duties he manifested a loyalty to the public good that was above question and reflected credit upon the party that called him to office.

He is a western man and possesses the progres- sive spirit so characteristic of the region this side of the Mississippi. His birth occurred in Minne- apolis, Minnesota, on the 28th of March, 1861. He is a representative of an old New England family that was established in Connecticut in early colonial days, and when the war of the Revolution was inaugurated bearers of the name joined the forces of General Washington and fought for the independence of the nation. The father of our subject, Isaac I. Lewis, was born in Meriden, Connecticut, in 1825, and is still living, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. He mar- ried Georgiana Christmas, a native of Wooster, Ohio, and removed to Illinois at an early period

in the history of that state. He was also a pioneer of Minnesota, and in connection with his father aided in founding the city of Minneapolis. He was a druggist, surveyor and metallurgist, and is now engaged in mining on Wood river, Idaho, his residence being in Ketchum. He removed to Montana, in 1872, locating in Helena, and be- came the owner of very valuable mining interests in that state. From the Elkhorn mine, on Wood river, in which he is now interested, gold has been taken to the value of one million one hun- dred and fifty thousand dollars. In public life Isaac I. Lewis has also been an important factor, and while in Minnesota served as a member of the state legislature and in Montana was a ment- ber of the territorial council.

George J. Lewis is the fourth in order of birthı in the family of seven children. His preliminary education was supplemented by a four-years course in the Minnesota University, which he completed in 1882. He then went to the Wood river district of Idaho just as the great boom struck that region, and engaged in the publica- tion of the Ketchum Keystone, of which he was practically the founder, making it one of the best weekly papers in the state. In 1884 he also pub- lished a daily edition, which was imbued with the energetic and enterprising spirit of the owner and the northwest. In 1886 he sold the paper and engaged in the drug business in Butte, Mon- tana; also was for a time city editor of the Daily Inter Mountain, published in Butte. He resigned that position to become assistant cashier of the First National Bank, of Ketchum, and later he was promoted to the position of cashier, in which capacity he served until the bank closed out its business, in 1890. He then established a private banking business under the firm name of George J. Lewis & Company, of which he was principal and manager. In 1896 he paid off all the depositors and closed his bank, be- cause of the many failures of the country caused by the great depreciation in silver. His ten years' career as banker, however, served to demonstrate his marked business ability and evidenced his careful, conservative methods. He won the con- fidence of the public in the highest degree, a confidence that was never betrayed to the slight- est extent. No run was ever made on his bank even during the most severe period of the panic,

HISTORY OF IDAHO.

and he well deserved the regard thus manifest. He is still interested in mining, and in the Sal- mon river mining district, at Elko, Nevada, owns very valuable copper mines.

On the 20th of January, 1887, Mr. Lewis was united in marriage to Miss Leta May Crawford, of Anamosa, Iowa. She is a graduate of Iowa College, of Grinnell, Iowa, and is a most cultured and accomplished lady, who presides with grace over her pleasant home in Boise. Four sons have been born of this union.

In his political connections Mr. Lewis is a Democrat and cast his first presidential vote for Hancock and English. He supported the men and measures of the Democracy until the organi- zation of the Populist party of Idaho, with which party he was identified until the Democratic party again took up the cause of bimetallism. He has always been one of its active workers in the convention halls and through the campaigns, and has done all in his power to promote its inter- ests. In 1892 he was elected to the state legisla- ture from Alturas county, and was honored by the solid vote of his party for speaker of the house. He was the author of the famous "anti- test-oath bill," which was defeated through party influence and was afterward passed at the third session, when the honors were unmistakably Re- publican. The passage of the public-printing act was also mainly due to his efforts, and through all the sessions he proved himself an active and capable worker, most deeply interested in the advancement of such measures as he believed would prove of public benefit. In 1894 he was the unanimous choice of the Populist party in convention for state senator from Alturas coun- ty, but owing to a local fusion between Demo- crats and Republicans he was defeated by a small majority. He has frequently been a dele- gate to the county and state conventions of his party and has always been a liberal contributor to the campaign fund. In 1896 he received the nomination for secretary of the state at the hands of the People's Democratic party, and was elected to the office. His record in that position is now a matter of history and reflects credit upon the state. He neglected no duty, however trivial, and at all times manifested a patriotic spirit, showing his deep interest in the real welfare of the commonwealth. At the fourth session of the

legislature of Idaho he was a candidate of the Democratic party for United States senator, re- ceiving seventeen votes for that position.

Mr. Lewis is a member of the Idaho Press As- sociation, and in 1895, largely through his influ- ence, its annual meeting was held in Ketchum. He is now owner and manager of the Capital Printing Company, of Boise. He is one of the popular citizens of Idaho, widely and favorably known throughout the state, and young and old, rich and poor are his friends.

JOHN M. HAINES.

The wise system of industrial economics which has been brought to bear in the development of Boise has challenged uniform admiration, for while there has been a great advancement in all material lines, there has been an entire absence of that inflation of values and that erratic "boom- ing" which have in the past proved the eventual death knell to many of the localities of the west, where "mushroom" towns have one day smiled forth with "all modern im- provements" and practically on the next day have been shorn of their glories and of their possibilities of stable prosperity, so to remain until the existing order of things shall have been radically changed. In Boise progress has been made continuous and in safe lines, and this is due in no small degree to Mr. Haines and those with whom he is associated in the real- estate business under the firm name of W. E. Pierce & Company. To real-estate men, prob- ably more than to any one else, is due the health- ful development of the town, and Boise is cer- tainly indebted to this firm for much of its sub- stantial growth and improvement. It is there- fore meet that its members be represented in the history of the capital city, and therefore witlı pleasure we take up the task of preparing the life record of J. M. Haines.

This gentleman was born in Jasper county, Iowa, January 1, 1863, and is of German and English extraction. Early ancestors of the fam- ily located in Pennsylvania at the time when William Penn planted his colony there, and were members of the Society of Friends, to which religious faith many of their descendants have since adhered. From Philadelphia representa- tives of the name removed to Maryland, where

HISTORY OF IDAHO.

Isaac L. Haines, father of our subject, was born and reared. He married Eliza Bushong, a na- tive of Ohio and a member of the Christian church, while he belonged to the Quaker church. He has devoted his life to agricultural pursuits, and is now living in Iowa, at an advanced age. His wife was called to her final home in 1893, at the age of sixty-three years.

John M. Haines was reared under the parental roof and acquired his education in Penn College, of Oskaloosa, Iowa. In his twentieth year he secured a position as clerk in the Merchants & Farmers' Bank, of Friend, Nebraska, where he remained until 1885, when he removed to south- western Kansas and engaged in the real-estate business. He prospered in his undertakings there and did a large business in locating emi- grants on government land. He also took an active part in the political affairs of that new and rapidly developing section of the state and was a member of the Republican state central com- mittee. He was also deputy clerk of the court of Morton county, and in 1889 was elected register of deeds. For some time he was very successful in his undertakings, and accumulated consider- able capital, but a season of "dry winds" came, the country produced nothing, and in the finan- cial panic which followed he lost nearly all he had accumulated.

In the meantime the firm of Pierce & Com- pany, of Boise, had been formed, the partners be- ing W. E. Pierce, J. M. Haines and L. H. Cox.

They arrived in the city soon after the admission of the state to the Union, when Boise was a town of about three thousand. They at once took rank as the leading real-estate men of Idaho, a position which they have since retained. Their realty transactions amount to almost a million and a half of dollars. During the first three years they handled property to the value of seven hun- dred and fifty thousand dollars, and since that time their sales have amounted to five hundred thousand dollars. They now own much desirable city property and have made many excellent im- provements thereon, in which way they have added to the attractive appearance of Boise, as well as by planting beautiful shade trees. They have sold much property on the installment plan, thus enabling many to gain good homes of their own, and have been important factors in the growth and development of Boise.

In 1883 was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Haines and Miss Mary Symons, a native of Jas- per county, Iowa. They have a pretty home, surrounded by well-kept grounds, and in their residence are seen many evidences of the refined and cultured taste of our subject and his accom- plished wife. In the affairs of the city Mr. Haines has ever taken a deep interest, and is now a mem- ber of the city council. He does all in his power for the advancement of the city in material, moral, educational and social lines, and is a most popu- lar and highly esteemed resident.

CHAPTER VII.

IDAHO-HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE.

A S TO the exact time and period in which the United States acquired possession of what is now the state of Idaho there seems to have been somewhat of confusion in the minds of historical writers, and while it is scarcely de- manded that we enter into a consideration of the various theories and conjectures that have been advanced, it is proper that the matter receive due attention and that the most authentic evidence be recognized. The majority of writers and text- books have assigned the region as a part of the vast area included in the Louisiana purchase, to which due reference is made on other pages of this work. This view, however, can not be held as essentially correct in its premises. What was generally known as the "Oregon Country" was not an integral portion of that purchase, and no better or more concise evidence to this effect may be found than that given in the following excerpt from James G. Blaine's valuable work, "Twenty Years of Congress :"

The Louisiana purchase did not extend beyond the main range of the Rocky mountains, and our title to that large area which is included in the state of Oregon and in the territories of Washington and Idaho rests upon a different foundation, or rather upon a series of claims, each of which was strong .under the law of nations. We claimed it, first, by right of original dis- covery of the Columbia river by an American nav- igator, in 1792; second, by an original exploration in 1805; third, by original settlement, in 1810, by the enterprising company of which John Jacob Astor was the head; and, lastly and principally, by the transfer of the Spanish title in 1819, many years after the Louisiana purchase was accomplished. It is not, how- ever, probable that we should have been able to main- tain our title to Oregon if we had not secured the in- tervening country. It was certainly our purchase of Louisiana that enabled us to secure the Spanish title to the shores of the Pacific, and without that title we could hardly have maintained our claim. As against England, our title seemed to us to be perfect: but as against Spain, our case was not so strong. The pur-

chase of Louisiana may, therefore, be fairly said to have carried with it and secured to us our possession of Oregon.

When the territory of Idaho was set off by act of congress, March 3, 1863, it contained 326,373 square miles, extending from the 104th meridian to the 117th, and from the forty-second to the forty-ninth parallels of latitude. Thus it ex- tended to a meridian within fifty miles of the great bend of the Missouri below the mouth of the Yellowstone river, and included the Milk, White Earth, Big Horn and Powder rivers, and also a vast extent on the North Fork and Sweet- water rivers, tributary to the Platte. It then con- tained the Black Hills, Fort Laramie, Long's Peak, the South Pass, Green river, Fort Hall, Fort Boise and that tedious strip of territory ren- dered notorious by the routes of the emigrants to the Pacific coast along Snake river. As orig- inally constituted it included all the present state of Montana and a large portion of Wyoming.

The territorial boundary line, according to the act of March 3, 1863, organizing the territory, was as follows: Beginning at a point in the mid- dle of the channel of the Snake river where the northern boundary of Oregon intersects the same, thence following down said channel of the Snake river to a point opposite the mouth of the Kooskooskia or Clearwater river, thence due north to the forty-ninth parallel of lati- tude, thence east along said parallel to the twenty-seventh degree of longitude west of Washington, thence south along said de- gree of longitude to the northern boun- dary of Colorado territory, thence west along said boundary to the thirty-third degree of longi- tude west of Washington, thence north along said degree of longitude to the forty-second par- allel of latitude, thence west along said parallel

HISTORY OF IDAHO.

to the eastern boundary of the state of Oregon, thence north along said boundary to the place of beginning.

In 1868 Idaho was reduced to its present di- mensions, extending from the British possessions on the north to Utah and Nevada on the south; from Montana and Wyoming on the east to Ore- gon and Washington on the west, having a length from north to south of four hundred and ten miles, and a width from east to west varying from fifty to two hundred and fifty-seven miles. In size the state is larger than all New England, or about equal in area to New York and Penn- sylvania combined. The straight western fron- tier is four hundred miles long; the southern three hundred miles; and the northern only fifty ; while the eastern runs due north for one hundred and thirty miles, and then follows the crest of the Rocky mountains northwesterly to the na- tional boundary line.

The United States government prior to 1863 opened a road across the Bear river chain of mountains, at the expense of several millions of dollars, under the direction of Colonel Lander. Hence this shortening of the overland route to the Pacific was known as "Lander's cut-off." Antecedent to the year mentioned, concerning all the country now embraced in Idaho, the public knew scarcely anything beyond the narrow limits of the old trail. The principal thing known to the early travelers was the wonderful Snake river, which stream, by the way, derives its name from the principal tribe of Indians found in the vicin- ity, though it has also been called Shoshone, Lewis and Les Serpents (the French term for snake). This river in sections consists of great pools, both in the plains and in the mountains, and falls and rapids of great extent. In a dis- tance of one hundred and fifty miles it has a fall of over two thousand one hundred feet. Therefore it is not navigable, but renders a vast amount of water power and also water for irri- gation purposes. The first large cataract to be noticed is the American falls, so named on ac- count of the fact that a party of Americans lost their lives here in their effort to cross the river in canoes. It is twenty-five miles southwest of Fort Hall, and the descent of the water is sixty feet. Thence the river flows between banks of trap rock for about seventy miles, when it enters a

deeper canyon, several miles in length and from eight hundred to a thousand miles in width. Soon after this there is a fall of one hundred and eighty feet in one perpendicular descent, of the main portion of the water, while a smaller portion makes its way down the descent gradually to a certain point, where it completes the downward journey to the great pool by a perpendicular de- scent. These descents are called the Twin falls, and sometimes the Little falls, to distinguish them from the great Shoshone falls four miles be- low, where the entire body of water plunges down two hundred and twenty-five feet in a per- pendicular descent, after a preliminary descent of thirty feet down an incline. Forty miles still fartlier west, at the Salmon or Fishing falls, the river makes its last great downward plunge of forty feet, after which it flows, with frequent rapids and canyons, on to the Columbia. Much of the way from the head to the mouth is marked by remarkable scenery,-awful, grand, weird or mysterious.

The American falls are forty feet high, the water plunging over a lava stairway; and the Oregon Short Line Railroad crosses the river amid their roar and spray. Below Goose creek the river enters a deep canyon, within whose gloomy abyss it flows for seventy miles, and in this course the river sweeps through a group of five islands of volcanic origin, amid which occur several cascades, and then forms the magnificent Shoshone falls, descending in full volume nine hundred and fifty feet wide, over a semi-circular cliff two hundred and twenty-five feet high, torn by projecting rocks of lava into cataracts of white foanı and prismatic spray. At times the volume nearly equals that of Niagara, while the descent is a third greater. Richardson calls it "a cataract of snow with an avalanche of jewels, amid solemn portals of lava, unrivaled in the world save by Niagara." This remarkable locality is twenty- five miles from the railway, and of course there is a hotel here for the accommodation of tourists. A more detailed description of this magnificent cataract appears on other pages of this volume. The Snake is navigable from a point a few miles above the Boise river to Powder river, a hundred miles below.

The following beautiful word-picture is from the pen of C. C. Goodwin, who, after a descrip-

GREAT SHOSHONE BELOW THE FALLS

Great Shoshone, Below the Falls.

HISTORY OF IDAHO.

tion of the Columbia river and its beauties, con- tinues in these words :

The Columbia is grand, but you must follow it up to its chief tributary if you would find perfect glory-fol- low it into the very desert. You have heard of the lava beds of Idaho. They were once a river of molten fire from three to nine hundred feet in depth, which burned its way through the desert for hundreds of miles! To the east of the source of this lava, the Snake river bursts out of the hills, becoming almost at once a sovereign river, and, flowing at first south- westerly and then, bending westerly, cuts its way, with many bends, finally, far to the north, merging with the Columbia.

On this river are several falls. First are the Amer- ican falls, which are very beautiful. Sixty miles below are the Twin falls, where the river divides into two nearly equal parts and falls one hundred and eighty feet. They are magnificent. Three miles below are the Shoshone falls, and a few miles lower down are Salmon falls.

It was of Shoshone falls that I began to speak. They are real rivals of Niagara. Never anywhere else was there such a scene; never anywhere else was so beautiful a picture hung in so rude a frame; never any- where else on a background so forbidding and weird were so many glories clustered. Around and beyond there is nothing but the desert, sere, silent, lifeless, as though Desolation had builded these everlasting thrones to Sorrow and Despair.

Away back in remote ages over the withered breast of the desert, a river of fire one hundred miles wide and four hundred miles long was turned. As the fiery mass cooled, its red waves became transfixed and turned back, giving to the double desert an indescrib- ably blasted and forbidding face. But while this river of fire was in flow, a river of water was fighting its way across it, or has since made the war and forged out for itself a channel through the mass. This chan- nel looks like the grave of a volcano that has been robbed of its dead!

But right between its crumbling and repellent walls a transfiguration appears; and such a picture! A river as lordly as the Hudson or the Ohio springing from the distant snow-crested Tetons, with waters transpar- ent as glass but green as emerald, with majestic flow and ever-increasing volume, sweeps on until it reaches this point where the august display begins. Suddenly, in different places in the river bed, jagged, rocky reefs are upraised, dividing the current into four rivers, and these, in a mighty plunge of eighty feet downward. dash on their way. Of course the waters are churned into a foam and roll over the precipice white as are the garments of morning when no cloud obscures the sun. The loveliest of these falls is called the Bridal Veil, because it is made of the lace which is woven with a warp of falling waters and a woof of sunlight, Above this and near the right bank is a long trail of foam, and this is called the Bridal Train. The other

channels are not so fair as the one called Bridal Veil, but they are more fierce and wild and carry in their furious sweep more power.

One of the reefs which divides the river in mid- channel runs up to a peak, and on this a family of eagles have through the years, maybe through the centuries, made their home and reared their young, on the very verge of the abyss and amid the full echoes of the resounding boom of the falls. Surely the eagle is a fitting symbol of perfect fearlessness and of that exultation which comes with battle clamors.

But these first falls are but a beginning. The greater splendor succeeds. With swifter flow the startled waters dash on and within a few feet take their second plunge in a solid crescent over a sheer precipice two hundred and ten feet to the abyss below. On the brink there is a rooling crest of white, dotted here and there, in sharp contrast, with shining eddies of green, as might a necklace of emerald shimmer on a throat of snow, and then the leap and fall.

Here more than foam is made. Here the waters are shivered into fleecy spray whiter and finer than any miracle that ever fell from India loom, while from the depths below an everlasting vapor rises,-the in- cense of the waters to the waters' God. - Finally, through the long, unclouded days the sun sends down his beams, and to give the startling scene its crowning splendor, wreathes the terror and the glory in a rain- bow halo. On either sullen bank the extremities of its arc are anchored, and there in its many-colored robes of light it stands outstretched above the abyss like wreaths of flowers above a sepulcher. Up through the glory and the terror an everlasting roar ascends, deep-toned as is the voice of fate, a diapason like that the rooling ocean chants when his eager surges come rushing in to greet and fiercely woo an irresponsive promontory.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

An illustrated history of the state of Idaho, containing a history of the state of Idaho from the earliest period of its discovery to the present time, together with glimpses of its auspicious future; illustrations and biographical mention of many pioneers and prominent citizens of to-day, Part 10

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn Publication date: 1899 Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 1014

Author: Lewis Publishing Company. cn
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1014