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 12

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 12

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One authority states that the first permanent settlement in Idaho was made at Mount Idaho, the present county-seat of Idaho county. Prob- ably the first permanent settlement, however, was made in 1834, in which year Nathaniel J. Wyeth, with a party of sixty men, started across the con- tinent and established Fort Hall as a trading post near Snake river. This fort was the most important point between the Missouri river and Salt Lake to most of the early trans-continental emigrants. It was at the crossing of the Mis- souri-Oregon and Utah-Canada trails.

On the IIth of June, 1834, Wyeth and his party encamped on a branch of the Blackfoot, near Port Neuf; the 12th on Ross' Fork, and the 14th on Snake river. The fort was permanently lo- cated on the east bank of the Snake river, a little north of the Port Neuf. The post became famous and performed good service during the several great overland emigrations. The emigrant trail was made to pass by it: it was near to the Great Salt Lake; was central and valuable in scores of

ways. From this point in time radiated roads in every direction,-to Missouri, to California, to Utah, to Oregon, and to British Columbia. In 1865 Angus McDonald valued the fort and lands belonging to it at one million dollars. It was near the old war ground of the Blackfeet, Snake, and Crows, and prevented many a massacre. It was several times attacked and nearly burned, but stood to its duty nobly. Wyeth and his party crossed the Snake on the 6th of August and ex- plored the region for miles around. Crossing the mountains, they encamped on Malade river. On the 13th Camas prairie was reached. Two days later they reached Boise river, "crammed with salmon." On the 23d they crossed Snake river, leaving Idaho behind them, camping on the rich plains of Malheur.

In 1836 Wyeth was forced to sell Fort Hall to the Hudson's Bay Company. The latter company had already erected, probably in 1835, what is known as old Fort Boise, near the mouth of the Boise river. The original structure fell down about 1847, but was rebuilt a short distance north. The new building continued to be occupied by the Hudson's Bay Company until the United States acquired undisputed title to the land.

According to the published account by Mr. W. H. Gray, the first mission in Idaho was es- tablished in 1836 at Lapwai, twelve miles from the present town of Lewiston. A printing press with type was presented, in 1839, by the mission- aries of the Sandwich Islands to the Presbyterian missionaries of Oregon, and it reached Lapwai that year, where E. O. Hall put it in operation to print books in the Nez Perce language. Messrs. Rogers and Spalding soon learned to set type, and they printed small books in the Nez Perce language that were used in their school. That old press and type are now stored in the state capitol of Oregon, and the building used for that primitive printing office is yet standing, though somewhat modernized, near the Lapwai Mission in Idaho. This was the first printing office on

HISTORY OF IDAHO.

the Pacific coast of America north of Mexico. Thus Idaho has the honor of having the first printing press on the coast.

The Roman Catholic missionaries seem to have been in the main more successful with the In- dians than the Protestants, and in some instances have sustained their missions to the present day. Father De Smet in his Letters, published at Phil- adelphia in 1843. is responsible for the following statement: "The Jesuits De Smet, Mengarini, Point, and others had since 1840 made several missionary tours through the Columbia coun- tries, in the course of which they baptized some thousands of Indians; they also erected a church at a place near the Kallerspelm lake (Pend d'Oreille), on Clarke's river, where the Blessed Virgin appeared in person to a little Indian boy, whose youth, piety, and sincerity, say the good fathers, joined to the nature of the fact which he related, forbade us to doubt the truth of his state- ment."

Early in 1854 a small colony of men of the Mor- mon church was sent here to form the nucleus of a settlement on Salmon river, among the buffalo- hunting Nez Perces. They erected a fort, which they named Lemhi, after an illustrious name in their sacred scriptures commonly known as the "Mormon Bible." The next year others joined them, with their families, horses, cattle, seeds and farming implements. In 1857 Brigham Young visited this colony, attended by a great retinue, and found the people prosperous, their crops abundant and the country giving promise of considerable wealth. As this colony continued to grow, the Nez Perces Indians became sus- picious and jealous, knowing that our govern- ment had not given them permission thus to squat upon these lands, and, making an attack upon them, drove them out, killing three of their men and destroying their crops. The other set- tlements at this time were a few French Cana- dians cultivating farms in the Cœur d'Alene country, the Jesuit missions, and, east of the Bit- ter Root mountains, Fort Owen, in the valley of the St. Mary's branch of Bitter Root river.

The county of Shoshone was set off from Walla Walla county by the legislature of Wash- ington as early as January 29, 1858, comprising all the country north of Snake river lying east of the Columbia and west of the Rocky mountains,

with the county-seat "on the land claim of Angus McDonald," and this was subdivided by legisla- tive acts in 1860-1 and 1861-2, according to the requirements of the shifting mining population. This population first overran the Clearwater re- gion, discovering and opening, between the au- tumn of 1860 and the spring of 1863, the placers on Oro Fino creek, North Fork and South Fork of the Clearwater, Salmon river and its tribu- taries, and finally the Boise basin.

We might say that the first distinctive settle- ment of Idaho began in August, 1862, when the Boise mines were discovered by George Grimes, of Oregon City, John Reynolds, Joseph Branstet- ter, D. H. Fogus, Jacob Westenfelten, Moses Splane, Wilson, Miller, two Portuguese called Antoine and Phillipi, and a man whose name is unknown. Previously to this time the movement proposed for the organization of Idaho territory met with but little favor. By the spring of 1863 there were four county organizations and ten mining towns, and the total population in this section was probably about twenty thousand. There had been a large immigration the preced- ing year, owing to the civil war and the fame of the Salmon river mines. Some of the immigra- tions of that year halted on the eastern flank of the Rocky range, in what is now Montana, and others went to eastern Oregon; but none suc- ceeded in reaching Salmon river that year ex- cepting those who took the Missouri river route. Four steamers from St. Louis, Missouri, ascend- ed to Fort Benton, whence three hundred and fifty emigrants came by the Mullan road to the mines on Salmon river. Those who attempted to get through the mountains between Fort Hall and Salmon river failed, some losing their lives and the rest, returning to some distance, went on to Powder river.

Grimes creek was named in commemoration of George Grimes, the leader of the Boise expedi- tion already mentioned, who was killed by the Indians while prospecting for gold on that stream. After that event his party retreated to Walla Walla, where a company of fifty-four men was raised to return and hold the ground. They arrived at Grimes creek October 7th and founded Pioneer City. Others quickly followed, and in November Centerville was started a few miles south on the same stream. Placerville, at the

HISTORY OF IDAHO.

head of Granite creek, contained three hundred houses. Buena Vista, on Elk creek, and Ban- nack City, on Moore creek, also sprang up this season, in December, and before the first of Jan- uary between two and three thousand persons were on the ground ready for the opening of spring. Up to this time the weather had been mild, allowing wagons to cross the Blue moun- tains, usually impassable in winter.

Companies of fifty and over, well armed to protect themselves against the Indians, who were at this time actively engaged in hostilities, were frequent along the route mostly traveled, and supplies for these people poured rapidly into their settlements. During the first ten days of Novem- ber twenty thousand dollars' worth of goods went out of the little frontier trading post at Walla Walla for the Boise country. Utah also contrib- uted a pack-train loaded with provisions, which the miners found cheaper than those from the Willamette valley, as the latter had to be trans- ported a long distance up swift-running rivers and pass through the hands of numerous middle- men. The latter, in order to ascertain the navi- gability of Snake river and the practicability of delivering their goods at less cost, dispatched a party to old Fort Boise to examine the character of Snake river in this regard. After waiting till the river had arrived at its lowest stage for the season, this party descended to Lewiston on a raft constructed by them for the purpose; but subsequent surveys and attempts evolved the fact that Lewiston was hopelessly cut off from Salt Lake City so far as navigation was concerned.

The people of Boise were equally interested in means of travel and transportation, and there was great cause for disappointment when they found that only wagons and pack trains could be relied on to convey their freight from Umatilla landing on the Columbia river, three hundred miles dis- tant. By this time Umatilla had supplanted Walla Walla in this trade.

It will be interesting, in this connection, to quote the language of a prospector, Sherlock Bristol: "In December, 1862, I prospected the country and finally settled down for the balance of the winter and spring on Moore creek (the origin of Idaho City). There we built twenty log houses,-mine, William Richie's and I. Henry's being among the twenty. We made

snow-shoes and traversed the valleys and gulches prospecting. As the snow was deep and it was some distance to the creek, some one proposed that we should dig a well, centrally located, to accommodate all our settlement. One day, when I was absent prospecting, the well-digger struck bed rock down about eighteen feet, but found no water; but in the dirt he detected particles of gold. A bucketful panned out two dollars and seventy-five cents. When I returned at night I could not have bought the claim on which my house was built for ten thousand dollars: it proved to be worth three hundred thousand dol- lars. The whole bench was rich in like manner. My next-door neighbors-the three brothers named White-for nearly a year cleaned up fif- teen hundred dollars daily, their expenses not exceeding three hundred dollars. Bushels of gold were taken out from the gravel beds where Idaho City now stands."

During the winter of 1862-3 and the following - spring the miners were busy developing and working in preparation for further developing. Eighteen dollars a day was ordinary wages, and eighty dollars to the pan was the average taken out on Grimes creek. Water and timber were abundant, which made life much easier here than at many other points. On Granite creek, the headwaters of Placer and Grimes creeks, from ten to fifty dollars, and often two and even three hundred dollars a day were panned out. In the dry gulches from ten to fifty dollars a day were obtained to the man.

During the winter B. L. Warriner erected, on Grimes creek, a sawmill, which was ready to run as soon as the melting snows of spring should furnish the water power, and early in the spring a second mill was erected, near Centerville, by Daily and Robbins, and in May a third was erected. The first steam sawmill was running in July, being built in Idaho City by two men, each known as Major Taylor! This mill cut from ten to fifteen thousand feet in ten hours.

The killing of Grimes and other white immi- grants, with depredations of various sorts, by the Shoshones, led to the organization of a volunteer company of the Placerville miners in March, this year (1863), whose captain was James Standifer, a man noted for his energy and daring. He was six feet in height, with broad, square shoulders,

HISTORY OF IDAHO.

fine features, black hair and eyes and moustache, and as brave as any Norseman. Standifer and his men pursued the Indians as far as Salmon falls, killed fifteen of the savages and wounded about as many more. Returning from this ex- pedition about the last of the month, Standifer raised another company, of two hundred men, who made a reconnaissance until they came upon the Indians, fortified at Malheur, where, by arti- fice, they gained entrance to their camp and killed all the adult Indians and even the children, ex- cepting three boys. One of these, four years old, was afterward adopted by John Kelly, a violinist of Idaho City, who taught him to play the violin and to perform feats of tumbling. He was after- ward taken to London, where he drew great houses, and then to Australia, where he con- tinued on exhibition.

In order to protect themselves against the hos- tile Indians in Idaho, Fort Boise was established, July 1, 1863, by P. Lugenbeel, with two com- panies of Washington infantry in the regular service. It was situated on the Boise river about forty miles above the old fort of the Hudson's Bay Company, near the site of the present Boise City. The structure was erected out of brown sandstone and was a good building. The reser- vation was one mile wide and two miles long.

At this period mine discoveries and develop- ments in Idaho began to attract more of the public attention. Claims in the Beaverhead country, on the headwaters of the Jefferson fork of the Missouri river, were held as high as ten to fifteen thousand dollars. Also claims wonder- fully rich were reported on Stinking Water creek, and in many other parts. Bannack City, on the Beaverhead, and Virginia City, on a tributary of Jefferson fork, sprang into existence, simulta- neously with settlements and towns in the Boise basin. In the spring of 1863 a bateau-load of miners left the northern part of the territory with a ltundred and fifty pounds of gold dust.

In the northern part of the territory, however, there was an almost insurmountable obstacle to immigration, namely, the hostility of the Black- foot Indians, who, despite their treaty, robbed or murdered wherever they could find white men. Sometimes whole parties were killed and whole

pack-trains were seized. The immigration of 1863 was not so large as that of the preceding year. The three principal streams of humanity westward were one for southern Idaho and east- ern Oregon, one for California and one for the Beaverhead mines. The latter party, however, had headed for the Salmon river country, fur- nished by the government with a separate escort under Fisk, and changed their intention before reaching their destination and stopped in the Beaverhead country. Four steamers left St. Louis for Idaho and vicinity, but were unable to reach Fort Benton, disembarking their passen- gers and freight two to eight hundred miles be- low. The emigrants had to make their way to various points as well as they could on horse- back and on foot through a wild and inhospitable country; and, returning east, many miners had gathered at Fort Benton, expecting to take steamers down to St. Louis, but were disappoint- ed, by reason of the failure of the boats above mentioned to arrive at the fort, and the miners, with their gold and provisions, etc., had to go all the way to Salt Lake City and take stages. In anticipation of these steamers, too, one hundred and fifty wagons had gone to Fort Benton, to be ready to convey passengers and freight to their respective destinations.

Although these drawbacks were so numerous and heavy, as many as twenty-five or thirty thou- sand people, of whom nearly two thousand were women and children. succeeded in settling in the Boise region. Improvements were rapid and prices high. One importer said. "I sold shovels at twelve dollars apiece as fast as I could count them out, on one occasion." A wagon-load of cats and chickens arrived in August, which sold readily, the cats at ten dollars apiece and the chickens at five dollars! But in the line of woolen socks, in the following winter, the market was for once overstocked, some of the stock being used for cleaning guns and some even left to de- cay in the cellars of the merchants. In July and August ten or more pack-trains arrived daily in the Boise country. Horses proved better than cattle for use on the roads, as their noses were higher above the ground and they were not so mnich affected by the alkaline dust.

CHAPTER IX.

THE GROWTH OF QUARTZ MINING-DISCOVERIES-MINING TOWNS-STAGE ROUTES-INDIAN TROUBLES- EMIGRATION IN THE SPRING OF 1864-SOCIAL DISTURBANCES-EFFORTS FOR BETTER TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES-STAMP MILLS-A REMINISCENCE- EARLY RATING OF GOLD AND SILVER-THE UNITED STATES ASSAY OFFICE.

P ROSPECTING early indicated that the future mineral wealth of Idaho would de- pend upon quartz-mining, and accord- ingly efforts were early made to develop that feature of Idaho's principal industry. In the autumn of 1863 it was found that thirty-three claims of gold and silver quartz-mines had been made on the south Boise alone, all of which promised well. The Ida Elmore, near the head of Bear creek, the first and most famous of the south Boise quartz mines in that year, was dis- covered in June. In an arastra it yielded two hundred and seventy dollars to the ton of rock; but at length it fell into the hands of speculators. The next several mines of this class were the Barker, East Barker, Ophir, Idaho, Independ- ence, Southern Confederacy, Esmeralda, General Lane. Western Star, Golden Star, Mendocino, Abe Lincoln, Emmett and Hibernia. The Idaho assayed, thirty feet below the surface, one thou- sand seven hundred and forty-four dollars in gold and ninety-four dollars and eighty-six cents in silver; Golden Eagle, two thousand two hundred and forty dollars in gold and twenty-seven dollars in silver, from the croppings. At the Ida Elmore a town was laid out called Fredericksburg, and other towns were also laid out elsewhere, many of which remained towns only in the imagination. Rocky Bar, however, laid out in 1864, beautifully materialized, while Boise City, founded at the junction of Moore creek with the Boise river, has long been the capital of this commonwealth.

The first discovery on Granite creek, in the line of quartz-mining, was at first named the Pioneer and afterward Gold Hill, when consoli- dated with the Landon; and it was at length pur- chased by the "Great Consolidated Boise River Gold and Silver Mining Company," which had control also of other mines. Even the poorest

rock in the Pioneer assayed over sixty-two dol- lars to the ton, while the better class went from six to twenty thousand dollars! These assays be- came the occasion of an organization in San Francisco of the Boise River Mining and Explor- ing Company, which contracted for a ten-stamp mill to be used in the Boise country.

One of the rich lodes discovered in 1863 was the Gambrinus, owned by an incorporated com- pany of Portland; but, like many other openings of mines, it lasted but a short time. It was so rich that pieces of rock which had rolled down into the creek and become water-worn could be seen to glisten with gold at a distance of fifty feet. On Granite creek a town was started, called Quartzburg, two miles west of Placerville; but soon after mills were brought into the vicinity at a little distance, the initial town became ex- tinct and forgotten.

The greatest discovery of this year, however, and the most sensational, was the result of a search made by a party of twenty-nine from Pla- cerville to rediscover the famous "lost diggings" of 1845. Crossing Snake river near the mouth of the Boise, they proceeded, not in the direction supposed to have been taken by the party of 1845, but went along Snake river, on the south side, to a considerable stream, which they named Reynolds creek, after a member of their own party. While encamped here two of the men, "Wade and Miner, ascended a divide on the west and observed that the formation of the country indicated a large river in that direction. Con- tinuing their course up the Reynolds creek, in the direction of the supposed river, and crossing some very rough mountains, they fell upon the headwaters of another creek, flowing toward the unknown river, where they commenced prospect . ing, late in the afternoon of the 18th of May,

HISTORY OF IDAHO.

and found a hundred "colors" to the pan. This place, called Discovery Bar, was six miles below the site of Boonville, on Jordan creek. The "unknown" river proved subsequently to be the Owyhee, whose course had previously been but partially known. After prospecting ten days longer, locating as much mining ground as they could hold, and naming the district Carson, they prospected two other creeks, Bowlder and Sink- er, without making any further discoveries, and then returned to Placerville.

The story of Discovery Bar naturally set every- body "crazy" to fly to that point as soon as pos- sible, and within two days as many as two thou- sand five hundred men are said to have left Boise City for the new "diggings," with the usual re- sult of disappointment to a large majority. The original discoverers had "hogged" everything. Only about one in ten of the men rushing there remained.

Next was the discovery of silver-bearing ledges of wonderful richness on tributaries to Jordan creek, which caused a second rush of prospectors to the Owyhee region, late in the autumn of 1863. The two first discoveries here were named Oro Fino and Morning Star. As often happens, the first discoveries proved ultimately to be the rich- est. Men made fifty dollars a day pounding up the Oro Fino rock in common hand mortars. It assayed seven thousand dollars in silver and eight hundred dollars in gold to the ton. A year after- ward, when a larger quantity of ore had been tested by actual working, ten tons of rock yielded one ton of amalgam. In one small place a pound and a quarter of rock gave nine ounces of silver and gold, and one pound yielded thirteen dollars and fifty cents, half in silver and half in gold. It was indeed claimed that this discovery was the second in importance, in regard to silver, within the United States.

The first town laid out on Jordan creek was Boonville, at the mouth of a canyon between high and rugged hills, and its streets were nar- row and crooked. In a short time another town, called Ruby City, was started, in a better loca- tion in most respects, the principal nuisance there being the fact that the locality was subject to high winds. During the ensuing winter, 1863-4. each of these places contained about two hundred and fifty men, while about five hundred were

scattered over the Carson district. In December a third town was laid out, about a mile above Ruby City, and called Silver City. Timber was scarce in this region. Lumber, which had to be manufactured with the whipsaw, brought forty dollars per hundred feet.

Throughout Idaho the general condition of the miners in the autumn of 1863 was that of pros- perity. Bannack City, which the next year was changed to Idaho City, had in the spring of that year about six thousand inhabitants, with two hundred and fifty places of business, Protestant and Catholic churches, a theater, a fire depart- ment, three newspapers, etc. At the same time Centerville, a very pretty place, grew and thrived, having about three thousand people. From this point a stage road was in process of improvement each way,-one to Placerville and one to Idaho City. Of this enterprise Henry Greathouse, the pioneer in this species of work, was the proprie- tor. At this time Placerville had a population of five thousand, and that of Pioneer City was two thousand, chiefly Irish, on account of which fact it was sometimes called New Dublin. In Boise society was chaotic, and included numerous rough characters, especially lawless men from the south. As this was during the progress of the civil war, many of the most intractable characters of the rebellious states slipped off to the wilds of the west. Misdemeanor and crime advanced to such a degree as to become reactionary and suicidal, and therefore the criminal period was short-lived. The citizens, however, had a hos- pital, where the sick were kindly cared for; but many a sturdy miner died and was buried far away from his kindred, who have never known what became of their "friend that went out west." From November, 1864, to November, 1865, one year, there were received at this hospital one hun- dred and twenty-five men who had been injured in mining. To avoid the winter, many went east, some into Colorado, Utah, Oregon and else- where, and others would have gone did not the law of the camps require each man to work his claim at least one day in seven in order to hold it. One of the laws here declared that "any citizen may hold one creek claim, one gulch, one hill and one bar claim, by location."

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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 12

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