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 73

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 73

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).

Consistory, No. 1, thirty-second degree. He now has the honor of being inspector general of the state of Idaho, and has the great honor of legally wearing the Masonic cross of honor, voted him by the supreme council of the southern juris- diction in 1897, and in October, 1899, he was elected a thirty-third degree Mason. He is a very enthusiastic Mason, taking great delight in the work of the order, and his wife is connected with the ladies' branch of Masonry, being a mem- ber of the Order of the Eastern Star. As pio- neers of Idaho they have a wide acquaintance and many friends, and none are more worthy the high regard of their fellow townsmen.

NORMAN SIMON HUBBELL.

To the brave pioneers of the early '6os and '70s Idaho owes, in a large measure, the pros- perity she now enjoys, as a state. Among those hardy souls and courageous hearts who then believed in her future, and by long years of toil and undaunted perseverance assisted nobly in the development of her resources, is the subject of this article; and no one is more worthy of repre- sentation in the annals of the state.

The ancestors of Norman S. Hubbell were respected American citizens for many genera- tions. He was born near Burdette, in what is now Schuyler county, New York, October 29, 1837, and his parents, Walton and Rebecca Emily (Cure) Hubbell, were likewise natives of the Em- pire state. The father was a millwright by trade, an excellent machinist and a good business man. At one time he was the drum major of a militia company in his own state. He lived to reach his seventy-second year, and died, loved and re- spected by all who knew him. The wife and mother was summoned to the silent land when she was in her sixty-fifth year. Of their eight children but two survive.

The education which N. S. Hubbell acquired was such as the public schools of his boyhood afforded, and from the time he was sixteen until he was twenty-five years of age he gave all of liis earnings to his parents, reserving only what was necessary to his support. On the 12th of June, 1862, he started west from Omaha, bound for the Pacific coast, and on the 3d of the following October reached his destination at what is now Baker City, Oregon. From that place he and

403

HISTORY OF IDAHO.

two companions went to Auburn, Oregon, pros- pecting for gold, and though they found good claims they were obliged to leave them, as the Indians were so hostile that their lives were constantly menaced. In the spring of 1863 Mr. Hubbell came to Boise basin, where he found employment at six dollars a day, and the next winter he returned to Oregon. After a few months he again came to this locality and for a few years he worked at freighting, mining and other occupations,-at anything whereby he might earn money honestly. From 1868 to 1871 he was engaged in the butchering business at Union, Oregon, and at the same time he bought, sold and raised cattle extensively. The country becoming overstocked with cattle, prices declined, and Mr. Hubbell retired from the business in 1873. Returning then to Boise Citv. he opened a meat market here and also owned one at Wood River, but these enterprises did not prove suc- cessful. Then for some years he was interested in sheep-raising, which he continued until 1898. He now owns forty-six acres of land, situated a mile and a half west of Boise City, and here he still makes his home. He built a comfortable house and planted a prune orchard and various other fruits. He is still financially concerned in the raising of sheep, and at this writing has be- tween eight and nine thousand head. The flock is in charge of his son Walton, and some seasons of the year the sheep graze on the ranges and need no feed, while some winters the cost of keep- ing then is considerable. Mr. Hubbell owns stock in the Artesian Hot & Cold Water Com- pany of Boise City and has invested in other local plants.

In his habits of life Mr. Hubbell is strictly temperate, upright and just in all his transac- tions. He was postmaster and a justice of the peace in Oregon, but has never sought nor de- sired public office. Fraternally, he belongs to the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and politic- ally he has been a life-long Republican.

The marriage of Mr. Hubbell and Miss Cyn- thia Elizabeth Reynolds was celebrated Att- gust 14, 1870. Mrs. Hubbell is a daugh- ter of C. F. Reynolds, of New York state, and she was born and reared in the same town as was her husband. In all his joys

and sorrows she has been a true helpmate. cheering and strengthening him with her wifely devotion. She is a valued member of the Method- ist church of Boise City. Of the five children born to our subject and wife, one, Nora P., died at the age of seventeen months. Clara Rebecca is the wife of John McMillan. Walton is manag- ing his father's sheep, and Reynolds, the next son, is in charge of the McMillan sheep ranch in the same locality. Norman S., Jr., is a student in the local schools.

ROBERT GROSTEIN.

Robert Grostein, one of Idaho's most success- ful pioneer merchants, has carried on business in Lewiston since 1862, and through the interven- ing years has borne an unassailable reputation in trade circles, never making an engagement which he has not kept nor contracting an obligation that he has not met. His sagacity and enterprise and moreover his untiring labor have brought to him a handsome competence, and the most envious could not grudge him his success, so honorably has it been acquired.

Mr. Grostein is a native of Poland, born in 1835, and is the eldest in the family of four chil- dren whose parents were Moses and Bena (Herschell) Grostein. They also were natives of Poland, in which country they were reared and married, the father there remaining until 1838, when he came to the United States. He had been in sympathy with Napoleon, to whom he had rendered active assistance, and for this reason he was obliged to flee from his native land. After spending a year in America he sent for his famn- ily, having decided to make his home in the land of the free. He settled first at Mason, Georgia, spending six years there, after which he went to Buffalo, New York, and was engaged in trade there until 1870. In that year he came to Lewis- ton, Idaho, bringing with him his good wife, and here they spent their remaining days with their son Robert, the father dying in 1891, at the age of ninety-two years, while the mother reached the age of eighty-eight years. Of their family two sons and the daughter are yet living.

During his early childhood Robert Grostein was brought to the United States by his mother, and was educated in the public schools of Buffalo, New York. He received his business training in

10-1

HISTORY OF IDAHO.

his father's store and then went to California by way of the Nicaraugua route, in 1854, landing at San Francisco. From the coast he made his way to Downieville, where he engaged in mining for two years, working for wages at eight dollars for six hours' labor. He wisely saved his money, hoping to be able soon to engage in business on his own account, and in 1856 he went to The Dalles, Oregon, where he opened a store and soon built up a large and lucrative trade, suc- cessfully carrying on operations there until 1862, when he chose Lewiston as a new field of labor. The gold excitement here, and the large number of people who were making their way to this point, made Mr. Grostein realize that this would prove an excellent business opening, and accord- ingly he came to the new town, which was then a collection of tents. As in all new mining com- munities there was a rough element mixed in with the better class, and on the first night which Mr. Grostein spent in Nez Perces county a man was ruthlessly murdered. In a small tent he opened the store which has now grown to such magnificent proportions, and began business in the primitive style of the mining camps. He had to pay about one hundred and fifty dollars per ton to get his goods hauled to this place, and he took his pay for his merchandise in gold dust, at from thirteen to fifteen dollars per ounce. He purchased his goods in Portland, and the pioneer merchants of the northwest soon became his in- timate and warm friends. He conducted busi- ness in the tent for a year and a half, and in 1864 erected a log building, twenty by forty feet and one story in height, the logs having been floated down the Clearwater river. In 1865 he admitted Abraham Binnard to a partnership in the store, and they carried on business with mutual pleas- ure and profit for thirty-three years, when, in 1898, Mr. Binnard was called to the home be- yond. In 1890 they erected the fine brick block in which Mr. Grostein now carries a sixty thou- sand dollar stock of goods. This is a double store, fifty by one hundred feet and two stories in height with basement. It is splendidly equipped in the most approved style of modern merchan- dising, and he carries everything found in a first-class establishment of the kind. By close attention to business and liberal and honorable methods he has met with marked success and has

a very liberal patronage, which insures continued prosperity as long as he continues in the trade. He also has a branch store in Warren.

Mr. Grostein is a man of resourceful ability and carries forward to successful completion what- ever he undertakes. As his financial resources have increased he has made judicious investments in real estate, has erected a number of substantial buildings in Lewiston, and is now putting up sev- eral fine brick blocks, the rental from which adds materially to his income. He has also been the owner of about thirty-five hundred acres of land, mostly comprised in farms in Nez Perces county, on which he raises large quantities of wheat. He has also erected one of the finest residences of the city, and his improvements of property have been of incalculable benefit to Lewiston. He has wit- nessed almost the entire growth and development of the city, and has done much for its advance- ment. He has given his support to many meas- ures for the public good, and in 1864, when murder and theft increased to an alarming extent in Lewiston, and life and property were in jeop- ardy, he joined the other law-abiding citizens, and a vigilance committee was formed. A nunı- ber of the worst characters were then caught and hanged, order was effectually restored, and life and property soon became as secure in Lewiston as in any section of the entire country. In many ways Mr. Grostein has been connected with the events which form the early history of the state. At one time he had two hundred mules, used in packing goods to the different mines where he had supply stores, and during the Nez Perces war one hundred and fifty of these mules were rented to the government to carry supplies to the army. He was paid one dollar a day for each mule, and seventy of them were lost and killed, for which the government paid him one hundred dollars each. The remaining eighty mules were returned to him. In the Cayuse war the government again had his mules for ninety days, and he was again paid for the forty that were lost in that war. When the Bannack war came on he was able to once more immediately meet the needs of the government for pack mules, and thus greatly expedited the work of the sol- diers.

In 1864 Mr. Grostein was happily married to Miss Rachel Newman, of Sacramento. Their

George B. Rogers

405

HISTORY OF IDAHO.

union has been blessed with the following named children: Leah, wife of A. Kuhn, a resident of Colfax, Oregon; Bell, wife of H. Keminskey; Henry, who is conducting his father's store in Warren; Louie and Ruth, who are attending school in Portland, Oregon; and Mitchel, the youngest, a student in the Lewiston schools. In connection with one of his school friends, he is now publishing a bright little weekly paper called the M. & M., devoted to local news. The family adhere to the Hebrew faith. Mr. Grostein is a man of excellent business and executive ability, and is widely and favorably known throughout the northwest. He has steadily worked his way upward through his own efforts, and the competence that crowns his labors is well merited.

HON. GEORGE B. ROGERS.

Some men achieve success almost instantan- eously, some by slow accretion, others only after long and patient working and waiting. The ex- perience of men who are willing to work persist- ently and intelligently and wait calmly goes to prove that success may surely be attained during an ordinary life-time, and no man not cut off at an untimely age need work and wait in vain. These reflections have been suggested by a con- sideration of the career of Hon. George B. Rog- ers, receiver of the United States land office at Blackfoot, Idaho, who is one of the most promi- nent and successful citizens of the state. Hc was born in Dodgeville, Iowa county, Wisconsin, February 22, 1842. His father, "John Rogers, was born in England and there married Miss Hannah Bailey. They came to the United States in 1837, bringing with them two daughters, named Susan and Elizabeth, and located at Min- eral Point, Wisconsin, where Mr. Rogers en- gaged in lead-mining and later became a farmer. He died in 1880, aged seventy-six years, and his wife passed away in 1882, aged seventy-three. They were lifelong members and supporters of the Methodist Episcopal church. Six more children were born to them in Wisconsin, of whom George B. Rogers was the second in order of nativity and of whom two others are living.

George B. Rogers was brought up on his father's farm and at a tender age gained an inti- mate acquaintance with hard work and long

hours. The winter schools of that day and lo- cality were poor, but such as they were he at- tended as opportunity presented, and later he attended night schools, but he may be said to be practically self-educated.

In 1862 Mr. Rogers went to California by water and was twenty-six days en route. He left Wisconsin with borrowed capital to the amount of three hundred dollars. For a time he worked for three dollars and a half a day in the middle California mines, and a knowledge of lead-min- ing he had acquired while working with his father in Wisconsin proved of great service to him in this employment. Then he went back to San Francisco and from there to Victoria, British Columbia. Thence he came back to Portland, Oregon, and from Portland he came to Idaho, in 1865, and went to the placer mines in Boise basin and worked for wages in the Elkhorn mine. At the time of Salmon river mining excitement he went to that district. He worked there two months, in 1867, and went from there to Mon- tana. The succeeding two years he put in at the mines at Helena and the next two years in pros- pecting in Nevada and Idaho. He then returned to Montana and worked six months in the old Cable mine. He then bought mules and en- gaged in freighting between points in Utah and Montana and, in partnership with C. W. Berry- man, continued that business successfully for fourteen years. An idea of the extent of their operations will be afforded by the statement that they owned considerably more than one hundred mules and much of the time kept six twelve-nule teams and eight six-mule teams busy. The work was always arduous and sometimes dangerous, but it was profitable, and when, in 1882, Rogers & Berryman sold out, they found themselves well on the way to fortune. Conditions had changed and the business that had served thein so well was of decreasing value. They now turned their attention to stock-raising, in which they have been eminently successful. They own twenty-six hundred acres of land twelve miles northwest of Blackfoot, and most of it is im- proved and fenced. Six hundred acres of this land lies just outside of Blackfoot. This exten- sive property is in every way adapted to stock- raising, and is as valuable as any land of its class in the state. At times there are as many as five

406

HISTORY OF IDAHO.

hundred horses and two hundred to five hundred head of cattle on these ranges, and a specialty has been made of bringing fine blooded stock from the east. Thus Mr. Rogers and his partner have improved their own stock and have at the same time raised the standard of stock through- out this whole section.

Mr. Rogers' interest in the growth and pros- perity of Blackfoot has been manifested in many ways, and he has been influential in advancing the public interests to a degree that renders him conspicuous as a public-spirited citizen. In 1885 he erected one of the best residences in the city. He has been a lifelong Republican, and was elected a member of the first Idaho state senate, in which he served on several important commit- tees and was active in securing the passage of the law authorizing the use of the Australian ballot system in the state. For two years he was one of the county commissioners of Binghanı county. In October, 1897, he was appointed, by President McKinley, receiver of the United States land office at Blackfoot, an office which he is filling ably and affably and to the entire satis- faction of every one interested in its administra- tion.

Mr. Rogers was married in 1876 to Elizabeth Toombs, a native of England, whose father, James Toombs, is now a resident of Ogden, Utah. They have four children: Eva, the eldest, is the wife of E. J. Frawley, a prominent lawyer of Boise, Idaho: Walter John, their oldest son, manages a ranch for his father; and Raymond and Susie, two young children, help to make glad their delightful home.

HON. SAMUEL F. TAYLOR.

Hon. Samuel F. Taylor was not a pioneer of Idaho Falls simply. He was one of a very few who were pioneers at that locality before the town had a beginning, and was active in an en- terprise which was influential in locating a town at that point on the Snake river. He came to the place in 1870 with his cousin, J. M. Taylor, who with the firm of Taylor & Anderson, built the bridge across the Snake river at the falls. It was the first bridge in this part of the state, was a great aid to immigration and made Idaho Falls (then Eagle Rock) a point of so much importance on the route into this country, and to the country

beyond, that the springing up of a good town there was a foregone conclusion, and only a mat - ter of time.

Samuel F. Taylor is a member of an old Ken- tucky family, and his paternal grandfather was a pioneer in that state. Samuel F. Taylor, Sr., his father, was born there and married Fanny Simpson, and in his time was prominent in that state. Samuel F. Taylor, Jr., was born in Ken- tucky April 18, 1848, and in 1849 his parents re- moved to Missouri and located in Lafayette county. His father was a lawyer and a farmer. The family were strict Presbyterians.

Samuel F. Taylor, Sr., was an ardent south- erner, and shortly after the beginning of our civil war he enlisted in the Confederate army and served under General Sterling Price, and was killed in battle at Corinth, Mississippi. Records show that he was captain of Company B, Sixth Missouri Volunteers. He left a widow and six children. Mrs. Taylor is now (1899) seventy- two years old. Five of their children survive.

Samuel F. Taylor, the third of the children of Samuel F. and Fanny (Simpson) Taylor, was educated in the common schools of Missouri and in the Kentucky State University, from which institution, after having completed his studies, he came direct to what is now Idaho Falls. After the completion of the bridge he decided to re- main in the vicinity and engage in the stock busi- ness. The whole country then was one vast and almost limitless range, offering the best facilities for such enterprise, and Mr. Taylor put in several years in that way with success, and then turned his attention profitably to breeding fine trotting horses. He has introduced several horses of ability, among them Ryland T., who has a record of 2:074. In 1885 he established his livery stable at Idaho Falls and soon became the leading livery man of the town. Eight miles southeast of Idaho Falls he has a farm of three hundred and sixty acres, where he raises hay and grain for his stock. He has one of the many roomy and elegant residences for which Idaho is famous.

From youth Mr. Taylor has always been a strong Democrat, active in promoting the inter- ests of his party. In 1884 he was elected sheriff of Oneida county, which then comprised the whole of southern Idaho, and filled that impor- tant office, with signal ability, during two elective

407

HISTORY OF IDAHO.

terms. There were in Oneida county at that time many horse and cattle thieves, and Sheriff Taylor's work toward ridding the county of them was so effective as to be practically complete in its results. His efficiency as a public official was not forgotten, and later he was elected a mem- ber of Idaho's last territorial legislature, and he was a member of the constitutional convention that framed the constitution of the new state.

In 1880 Mr. Taylor was happily married to Miss Bettie Hays, daughter of Judge Gilmore Hays, and a native of Kentucky, she being a sister of Senator Charles M. Hays, of Boise, Idaho. They have five children,-Edward Lee, Fanny Simpson, Samuel F. (third), Betsy Jane and Mary Ellen. Mrs. Taylor is a member of the Presbyterian church. Mr. Taylor was made a Master Mason in Eagle Rock Lodge, No. 19, of Idaho Falls, and is one of its past masters.

SANFORD EVANS.

The self-made man, when he has made a place for himself in the world and installed himself in it, has done as much for the world as he has done for himself. The builder of his own fortunes is an active factor in advancing the best interests of the community in which he lives and flour- ishes, and every dollar he makes for himself becomes, in a sense, public capital. Such a pro- gressive and helpful citizen is Sanford Evans, of Genesee, a prominent farmer and mill owner, who has done as much for the development of Genesee and its tributary territory as any other man. A glance at the successful incidents in his career affords an index to his character and a suggestion of the prime reason of his success. He would appear to be a man who plans far ahead, and, adhering tenaciously to his plans, works untiringly to insure their success.

Sanford Evans is of Welsh ancestry. His fore- fathers settled in the part of old Virginia now known as West Virginia, where Benjamin Evans, his grandfather, was a successful farmer. Silas Evans, son of Benjamin and father of Sanford Evans, was born in Virginia, succeeded to the old Evans homestead, married Miss Peggie Walker, a native of his own state, and lived well- to-do and respected until after his sixty-ninth birthday. His wife died in her sixty-sixth year. They had eight children, seven of whom are liv-

ing. Sanford Evans, their third child, was born in what is now known as West Virginia, January 8, 1848. He was educated in schools near his home, and at the age of twenty-one years went to Missouri and began life for himself. He worked at first as a farm hand and remained there with varying fortune for about six years. In 1874 he crossed the plains with a team and went to the Willamette valley, thence to Walla Walla and from there came on to Nez Perces county, Idaho, and located on one hundred and sixty acres of government land.

At that time Mr. Evans had little besides his horse and wagon and his few personal belong- ings. But he was rich in ambition and had splendid capital in power for a goodly aggregate number of days' work, upon which he drew lib- erally, and which he invested profitably. For eight years he lived a lonely bachelor life on his place. He paid for it and enlarged his holdings from time to time until he was the owner of eleven hundred and forty acres of nice land. Meantime his attention was directed to another means to the improvement of his fortune and he availed himself of it and improved it with the tenacity of purpose that has characterized his ca- reer. While he was building a fine large resi- dence and other good buildings on his property he engaged in conducting a ware-house business in Genesee. This enterprise grew to such pro- portion that when his ware-house burned, January 9, 1899, he lost forty-eight thousand bushels of wheat. Notwithstanding he carried heavy insur- ance, he sustained an actual cash loss of about three thousand dollars. But he has already erected a new flouring mill and ware-house and has entered upon a new era of prosperity. His mill is supplied with modern roller-process ma- chinery and has a capacity of seventy-five barrels of flour a day. He sows four hundred acres of wheat every year, and one year he garnered twenty-one thousand bushels from eleven hun- dred acres, and on four hundred acres of summer fallow he once raised twelve thousand bushels.

Mr. Evans returned to West Virginia in 1886, and, at his old home, married Miss Erma Bur- gess, daughter of Columbus Burgess, who came of an old Virginia family. They have three in- teresting children, named Edgar, Roy and Min- nie. Mr. Evans is a Republican, but is not

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 73

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