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 104
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123 | Part 124 | Part 125 | Part 126 | Part 127 | Part 128 | Part 129
The assessment of the various counties for 1896, as reported in August, amounted to $22,- 608,069.25, while the preceding year it was $22,878,500.50. For several years it had been urged upon the counties to increase the valuation of property and decrease the tax levy ; but Cassia
county was the only county that had done this. The railroad assessment was continued this year the same as the preceding year. In his message to the legislature of 1897, the governor called at- tention to the fact that the bonded interest-bear- ing debt of Idaho had almost doubled since 1890, while the assessed valuation of property, was decreasing. Deficiency warrants had been issued .to the extent of $44,298.50.
The area of Indian reservation in the state is 1,364,500 acres, or 2,132 square miles. Indian population, 3,640, and decreasing, there being 132 deaths in 1897 and only 88 births.
BANKS.
Idaho has no state banking law. Incorporated banking associations are governed by genera! incorporation laws. There is no restriction as to classes or kinds of banking, except that a special partnership cannot be formed for the purpose of banking. Banking business is done by private parties without incorporation and without capital. There is no law regarding the organization of savings banks, and there are no. such financial institutions in the state.
On July 14, 1896, Idaho had eleven national banks, whose combined capital was $725,000, and combined resources amounting to $3,187.307, the loans and discounts aggregating $1,265.434. The total liabilities were $2,925,382, while the average reserve held was 27.16 per cent.
During the year 1897 the banks practically held their status. The banking house of C. Bunt- ing & Company, in business at Blackfoot and Dubois, was closed February 15, under an attach- ment of the First National Bank at Pocatello, of which Mr. Bunting was president. The liabilities were placed at about two hundred thousand dol- lars. In the attached bank there were fifty-three thousand dollars of the county funds and nine thousand dollars of state money. The withdrawal of twenty-two thousand dollars of state funds was
577
578
HISTORY OF IDAHO.
the immediate cause of the collapse. The assets, however, were said to be large.
This year (1897) a resumption of general pros- perity was conspicuous.
MINERAL PRODUCTION.
The Boise assay office reported that during the year 1893 the production of gold was 81,930 fine ounces, valued at $1,693,641 ; of silver, 3,455,662 fine ounces, valued at $4,457,823; and lead, 72,- 135,781 pounds, of the value of $2,524,753; total, $8,686,217, as against $7,814,015 the preceding year.
During the year 1894 the secretary of the in- terior rendered a decision, in an appeal from the ruling of the commissioner of the general land office, that "there must be a discovery upon each twenty-acre tract included in a placer location of one hundred and sixty acres; and a location made of that amount of land upon a single dis- covery is made void except as to the twenty acres immediately surrounding it." The secretary indirectly laid down another rule, namely, that while a discovery must be made on each twenty acres, the work can all be done at one place.
During the year 1894 the metal output was: Gold, 111,687 fine ounces, valued at $2,308.775; silver, 3.774,349 fine ounces, valued at $7,188,- 630; lead, $2,605,450; total, $9.793,080,-an in- crease of $1,108,222 over the preceding year. Flour gold, found in great quantities along Snake river, began to attract unusual attention.
In 1895 the production of gold was 125,517 fine ounces, valued at $2,594,666; silver, 4,033,180 fine ounces, of the value of $5,214,498; lead, 65,- 752,037 pounds, valued at $2,301,321. Some of the largest mines were shut down for some time, on account of labor troubles.
The mineral production of the state for the year 1896 was $11,751,845, of which the gold production was $2,323,700; silver, $6,474,765; lead, $2,953,380. By counties the gold produc- tion was: Owyhee, $681,095; Shoshone, $359,- 049; Boise, $325,995; Custer, $106,791; Idaho, $155,349; Blaine, $66,894; Elmore, $63,731; Cas- sia, $18,522; Ada, $27,349; Bingham, $15,528; Canyon, $10,791; Lincoln, $17,426; Lemhi, $451,4II; Oneida, $13,844; Nez Perces, $3,824; and Washington, $6,801.
In 1897 the gold production was $2,500,000; silver, $7,100,000; lead, $3,500,000,-an increase of over $1,358,000 over the preceding year. Re- ceipts of bullion at the United States assay office at Boise, $1,497,146,-an increase of $128,146 over the preceding year.
AGRICULTURAL, ETC.
The appropriation for agricultural education in 1891 made by the general government for Idaho amounted to $33,000, of which sum $15,000 was devoted to the use of the state uni- versity at Moscow and $18,000 to experiment stations in other parts of the state.
In the autumn both the out-going and in-com- ing governors called attention to the importance of having a system of laws for the control of irrigation-canal property which was declared sub- ject to taxation according to the state consti- tution. For the purpose of facilitating the estab- lishment of systems of irrigation, the topograph- ical division of the geological surveying corps was employed in 1893 in gauging the streams and in other necessary work for said purpose. Of the sixteen millions of acres of agricultural lands in Idaho, three-fifths is arid.
In March, 1894, the first session of the Idaho commission of the National Irrigation Congress was held at Boise and organized for work. In September the work of blasting out the rock in Whisky and Bay Horse rapids in Snake river channel was resumed, for which the government had made an appropriation of $25,000.
In April, 1896, the state horticultural inspector reported that about twenty thousand acres in Idaho are devoted to fruit culture,-6,695 acres producing apples, 5,632 prunes, 1,838 pears, 1,030 berries, 972 peaches, and 526 cherries. The rest of the acreage was devoted to other fruits. The next year he reported that the common pests in the state are the San Jose scale, codlin moth, woolly aphis, green aphis, pear-leaf blister mite, oyster-shell bark louse, apple scab, peach blight and "dieback."
The first biennial report of the state engineer, to January 1, 1897, estimated the acreage of the state cultivated by irrigation at 315,000 acres, and the total area under ditch, or that can be covered by laterals and distributing channels from exis-canals, at 1,250,000 acres. The first
579
HISTORY OF IDAHO.
withdrawal of land under the Carey act was made in January, 1897. It consisted of 66,430 acres, on Snake river, which are to be reclaimed by means of a canal leading out of it, water rates to be furnished for ten dollars an acre and the payments to extend over a period of nine years. In 1897 a large irrigation scheme was inaugu- rated, with a capital of one million dollars, and an immense dam was commenced on Bear river, to run a ditch a hundred miles long and irrigate half a million acres, upon 300,000 acres of which there are settlers, and 200,000 acres of it is gov- ernment land.
In 1895 the state land estimator made an esti- mate of the timber on 39,480 acres in Latah and Shoshone counties, calculating it to be 410,297,- 000 feet, divided as follows: White pine, 144,- 219,000 feet; yellow pine, 25,791,000 feet; white fir, 49,671,000 feet; tamarack, 96,601,000 feet; and cedar, 47,129,000 feet.
WILD GAME.
The game law enacted in the year 1893 pro- vided that no moose, caribou or elk should be killed prior to September 1, 1897, and after that only between September I and December 31. The season for deer, mountain sheep, antelope and goats was fixed from September I to January I. None of these animals were allowed to be killed for their hides or hunted with dogs. The Mongolian pheasant was not allowed to be killed until August 1, 1897. The season for killing pheasants, grouse, sage hens and "fool" hens was made to be from August I to January 1; for quail and prairie chickens from October 15 to December 15; and for ducks, geese and swans from August 15 to April 15. No fish except salmon, salmon trout and sturgeon were allowed to be taken excepting by hook and line, and none of any kind should be taken in any way except for home consumption or breeding purposes be- tween November I and October I of the suc- ceeding year.
It was ascertained in 1895 that Ada county alone had paid out since 1878 $31,093.44 for rab- bit scalps, at the legal rate of three cents a scalp, -over a million rabbits! This was said to be a larger amount than the aggregate bounties paid by all the states in the west that had offered bounties on jack rabbits. This amount in Ada
county was so large that the commissioners felt obliged to discontinue the bounty.
EDUCATIONAL.
According to the school census of 1892 there were 27,740 school children in the state, while the per capita of the current appropriation for school purposes was fifty cents. In June the school funds apportioned had increased to $13,674.67,- a large advance over the preceding year. In 1893 the amount of the school fund subject to distribution for the following year was $40,000. The school population was 31,219, an increase of 5,478 during the preceding two years. Mormon children began to attend the public schools this year, as the old prejudice against the "gentiles" began to die out. The state university at Moscow was opened in October, 1892, and by January following there were one hundred and seventeen students enrolled, but only the west wing of the university building was erected, at a cost of $34,749. This year there were three agricultural experiment stations in opera- tion, namely, at Nampa, Grangeville and Idaho Falls,-which were under the direc- tion of the board of regents of the university, where also agriculture is taught. In December, 1893, the enrollment at this university was one hundred and ninety-four. The chair of military instruction was instituted this year, and the ex- terior, basement and first story of the main build- ing were completed, at a cost of seventy-seven thousand dollars. In September, 1895, the uni- versity began its school year with an enrollment of one hundred and eight, an increase for that month, over the preceding year. The next year, 1897, university tuition was made free to resident pupils.
Under the law providing for normal schools, the state in 1895 made no appropriation; but at Albion the citizens, not waiting for the slow methods of the government, erected a building and opened a flourishing school.
The legislature of 1896, however, provided for the building of state normal schools, the outlay for building and maintenance being $81,521. The appropriation of 1897 for the schools was only $28,000,-a difference of $53,521.
The enrollment here for the half year ending July 1, 1895, was eighty-three, and the expenses
580
HISTORY OF IDAHO.
$5,278.22. In anticipation of a normal school at Lewiston, the people there laid the foundation for a building. The agricultural college for the state was fixed this year, 1895, at Idaho Falls. In June, the next year, the normal schools at Lewiston and Albion were dedicated.
In 1896 the number of school children in the state was 39,288, and of the semi-annual appor- tionment of the public money for school pur- poses the distribution amounted to eighteen and a half cents per capita of the children. In 1897 the superintendent of public instruction an- nounced, in reference to the growth of the schools, that while in 1869 there were but twenty- four school districts in the state, and fifteen school houses, in 1897 there were six hundred and seventy-one districts and six hundred and fifty-eight school-houses. In 1896 the number of children between the ages of five and twenty- one was 43.745. During the years 1895-6 the school census showed a growth in population of nearly twenty-five per cent. Four hundred and forty young Indians were attending government schools in the state, besides fifty-five in a contract school in the Coeur d'Alene reservation, for whom tuition was paid at the rate of one hundred and eight dollars a year.
OTHER STATE INSTITUTIONS.
The control of the soldiers' home was vested by the legislature of 1893 in a board of five trustees, to consist of the secretary of state, com- mander of the department of Idaho of the Grand Army of the Republic, and three others, two of whom were to be members of the Grand Army of the Republic, and all to be appointed by the governor. An appropriation of twenty-five thou- sand dollars was made, to be secured from the sale of public lands given to the state by the general government for charitable purposes in- stead of being taken directly out of the general revenue fund,-the amount appropriated to be loaned to the institution, which takes a lien on the land to secure the amount advanced.
The soldiers' home, two miles from Boise, was completed in November, 1894, the corner-stone having been laid May 23 previously. It is built of brick and cut stone, has a frontage of one hundred feet, with a central tower and a tower at each end, and the capacity of the institution is
sufficient for the accommodation of sixty beds, single and double. The structure cost $13,499. In 1895 the number of inmates was twenty-seven.
Idaho deserves much credit for the provisions made for her unfortunate wards in various lines. The building of the asylum for the insane was instituted in 1885, on ground donated by L. Shilling, about a half mile from the town of Blackfoot, and the new institution was opened for the admission of patients on July 2d of the following year. Prior to this time this class of patients were cared for by the Salem in- sane hospital, in the state of Oregon, under contract, and they were immediately transferred to their new home, under charge of Dr. Cabaniss, the first medical superintendent of the institution. Of the number so transferred there were twenty- six male and ten female patients. The affairs of the institution are administered by a board of trustees.
A fire occurred on the morning of November 24, 1889, and the main or administration building was totally destroyed, together with the greater portion of the records. At that time there were forty-seven male and twenty female inmates, and after the fire five men and two women were missing among the patients. Of these the charred remains of one man and one woman were found in the ruins, and it is probable that others of the missing number met the same fate.
In the summer of 1890 the building of the asylum was commenced in a new location, north of the old site, where a better means of drainage was afforded. The present building is equipped with modern accessories and conveniences. and the state has reason to be proud of the asylum and its management. The original grant of land has been added to from time to time by pur- chase, and it now comprises 2,150 acres, of which about four hundred are under cultivation.
In 1893 the insane asylum had ninety-eight inmates at the beginning of the year. During the summer seasons many of these were employed at brick-making, and during the winter at cutting cord-wood. The medical superintendent called attention to the fact that the rate of insanity in this state was less than half the rate in other states; but this observation was made before the usual proportion of patients had been examined. In 1895 the asylum for the insane had one
581
HISTORY OF IDAHO.
hundred and fifty-two patients, of whom fifty-six were women. In May, the next year, the gov- ernor reported that the increase in the number of inmates was so rapid that the extra accommoda- tions provided for by the preceding legislature would be crowded before the next session. The number, however, grew only to one hundred and
fifty-eight in 1896. The next year there were one hundred and eighty-seven. The per capita cost of keeping these patients was reported this year as having diminished from eighty-five and three- fourths cents a day in 1891 to fifty-four and a half cents in 1896.
CHAPTER XLI.
INDIVIDUAL RECORDS.
JAY A. CZIZEK.
T HIS is the day of the specialist. The men who are prominent in connection with the administration of difficult and peculiar affairs are men who have given their lives to their study and have an experimental knowledge of them in all their ramifications. The demand for the very best technical knowledge in the office led to the selection of Jay A. Czizek for inspector of mines for the state of Idaho, and his manage- ment of the affairs of the office every day demon- strates the wisdom of his having been chosen.
Jay A. Czizek was born at Mount Clemens, Michigan, October 8, 1864. August Czizek, his father, a German and a native of Berlin, came to the United States in his boyhood and located in Michigan, where he informed himself con- cerning American institutions and became an ardent supporter of the Union cause when war between the north and the south became inevit- able. He served as lieutenant in the Twenty- second Regiment of Michigan Volunteer Infantry from his enlistment, early in 1861, nearly to the close of the war, and died in Michigan soon after his return home. His widow, Mrs. Gertrude Czizek, has since lived at Mount Clemens.
Jay A. Czizek received a common-school edu- cation, and when about eighteen years of age sought his fortune in Colorado, and for about two years before he attained his majority was employed by the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Company, a portion of the time in charge of the commissary and material departments. In association with Thomas H. Wigglesworth, one of the prominent railroad locating engineers of the west, he prospected for and settled the route in which the Colorado Midland Railway was constructed. Since the completion of that work for the development of the new west, he has been engaged in mining in Colorado, Montana and Oregon, and during the last thirteen years in Idaho. He developed a mastery over all the
details of mining and came to be known as one of the most scientific miners in the country. For some years he was manager in Idaho county for two prominent mining companies. This respon- sible position he gave up to accept the office of inspector of mines for the state of Idaho, to which he was elected in 1898.
Politically Mr. Czizek has always been a Dem- ocrat, and he has taken an active and influential interest in the practical work of his party. He was a delegate to the state Democratic conven- tion which nominated him by acclamation for the office which he fills with so much ability and honor and in which he was placed by a majority large enough to amply attest his personal popu- larity.
Personally Mr. Czizek is warmly regarded wherever he is known, and he is one of the leaders in public affairs in Idaho. He is a prom- inent Elk and is in everything a thorough west- ern man, alive to the interests of the western country and with very clear-cut views as to how they may be best promoted.
ROBERT V. COZIER.
On the roll of Idaho's statesmen and eminent representatives of the bar is found the name of Hon. Robert V. Cozier, who has left the impress of his individuality upon the legislation and pub- lic progress. He is a man of strong mentality, of marked patriotism and broad humanitarian principles, and is therefore well fitted for leader- ship in the public movements which affect the welfare of the commonwealth. He is now accept- ably filling the position of United States attorney for Idaho, and his comprehensive knowledge of the principles of jurisprudence and his ability in handling intricate legal problems make him a most competent official.
Robert V. Cozier is a native of Ohio, his birth . having occurred in the town of Wapakoneta, October 20, 1867. He is of German and Irislı
582
583
HISTORY OF IDAHO.
lineage, but for several generations the family has been represented in America. His father, Rev. B. F. W. Cozier, was born in Pennsylvania in 1836, on what is now the battlefield of Gettys- burg, and is a prominent minister in the Method- ist Episcopal church, having devoted his entire life to preaching the gospel of peace and righteousness among men. In 1870 he removed to Iowa, where the greater part of his ministerial labor has been performed. For years he was a presiding elder, connected with different con- ferences in that state. During the entire civil war he served his country as chaplain of the Third Ohio Cavalry, and his voice and talent were used on the side of the Union and for "liberty throughout the land and to all the inhab- itants thereof." He carried comfort to many a soldier upon the tented field, and won the love of many of his comrades of the blue. He is now residing in Iowa and has partially retired from active connection with the ministry, although his interest in the cause of Christianity grows greater with the passing years. He married Zelora A. Carter, a native of Ohio, and to theni have been born five children, all of whom are occupying honorable and useful positions in life.
Hon. Robert V. Cozier acquired his early edu- cation in the public schools of Iowa, and is a graduate of Simpson College, of Indianola, that state, completing the course with the class of 1889. Determining to make the practice of law his life work, he began study under private instruction in Des Moines, Iowa, and later at- tended the Washington Law School, in St. Louis, and was admitted to practice in the supreme court of Iowa in 1891. Immediately afterward he came to Idaho, locating in Blackfoot, where he engaged in the prosecution of his chosen profes- sion until 1895, when he came to Moscow. He soon took rank among the ablest members of the bar in this section of the state. The judgment which the public passed upon him in the first years of his practice has never been set aside or in any degree modified. It has, on the contrary, been emphasized by his careful conduct of im- portant litigation, his candor and fairness in the presentation of cases, his zeal and earnestness as an advocate, and the generous commendation which he has received from his contemporaries. who unite in bearing testimony as to his high
character and superior mind. In 1897 he was admitted to practice before the United States supreme court, at Washington.
In politics he has always been an ardent advo- cate of Republican principles, and is a recognized leader of his party in Idaho. He was elected to the third general assembly of the state and had the honor of being chosen speaker of the house, being an excellent parliamentarian, and one whose genuine interest and zeal for the welfare of the state made him absolutely just in all his rulings. While presiding officer, he was entirely free from partisan bias, although he is a stalwart Republican, and on all proper occasions labors earnestly to promote the growth and insure the success of his party. He attends all the Repub- lican conventions, and in that of 1898 had the honor of nominating W. B. Heyburn, as candi- date for congress. In December, 1897, in recog- nition of his effective service in behalf of the party, President Mckinley appointed him United States attorney for the state of Idaho, and to those who are familiar with his legal ability and unflagging patriotism it is unnecessary to state that his service has been most able and com- mendable.
In 1893 Mr. Cozier led to the marriage altar Miss Lena M. Fife, a native of Michigan, and they now have three children: Mary Helen, Zelora Edna and Robert James. The parents are valued and consistent members of the Meth- odist church of Moscow and they have a nice residence in the city where they make their home and where their circle of friends is almost coextensive with the circle of their acquaintances.
CHARLES L. HEITMAN.
The influence of culture and broad profes- sional and worldly experience upon a new com- munity is visible in Idaho as the result of the work and the example of high-minded men like Charles L. Heitman of Rathdrum, Kootenai county, a lawyer who does honor to the law, to the courts, to himself and to the people among whom he lives and whose interests it devolves upon him to serve from day to day. Charles L. Heitman comes of an old North Carolina family, and is a son of Henry N. and Eve (McCrary) Heitman. His father was for sixty years a local preacher of the Methodist Episcopal church,
584
HISTORY OF IDAHO.
south, and for twenty years was clerk of the superior court of Davidson county. He died at the age of eighty-three years, his wife at sixty- five, and they are buried in the land of their birth and life. Charles L. Heitman was educated at Trinity College, in Randolph county, North Carolina, and was graduated at the head of his class, in 1876. During the succeeding two years he read law under the preceptorship of Chief Justice Pearson, at Richmond Hill, North Caro- lina. He was admitted to the bar of his native state in 1878 and practiced his profession at Lex- ington nine years. In 1890 he went to Idaho and located at Rathdrum, which then had a his- tory covering nine years more or less, and he has attained a standing at the bar of Idaho second to that of no lawyer in the state. He is an un- swerving Republican and takes an active part in the affairs of his party in his county and state, but he does not seek nor want office for himself. When, in 1894, he was given the honor of a · nomination by his party for district judge, he de- clined, preferring to devote himself entirely to the practice of his profession. He is a good public speaker, apt in illustration and skillful in argument, and is in demand during political campaigns. His oratorical triumphs before judges and juries are among the most important successes of their kind in the legal annals of the state. His law library is one of the largest and best selected west of Chicago.
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.