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 75
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Soon after his return home Major Ballantine engaged in the oil-refining business, at Pittsburg, and did a successful business in that line from 1865 to 1883, when the great mining excitement in the Wood river valled allured him to Idaho, and he has since been a valued and influential citizen of this part of the state. He came to superintend the mining and smelting works of a Philadelphia company, doing business at Mul- doon, and was thus engaged for two years, when the company concluded to close their establish- ment. Mr. Ballantine then turned his attention to mining and stock-raising. He has been interested in various gold niines, and was a member of a company that, after taking out considerable ore from the Hub mine, sold the property for ninety thousand dollars. He is still interested in mining ventures, and is now work- ing a copper mine in Nevada. This property is bonded and probably sold. He also has a valu- able cattle ranch twenty miles east of Bellevue, where he is raising cattle and horses on an extensive scale. At Bellevue he is a member of the firm of Hill & Ballantine, proprietors of the largest general mercantile establishment in the Wood river valley. They enjoy an extensive and constantly increasing patronage, and have a
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well equipped store, supplied with everything in their line demanded by the general public. Reasonable prices, honorable dealing and courte- ous treatment have secured for them a good business, and the enterprise has proved a profit- able one.
In 1865, after his return from the war, Mr. Ballantine was united in marriage to Miss Lena McIntyre, a native of Pennsylvania, and they had one daughter, Carrie, who died while the family yet resided in Pittsburg. Mrs. Ballantine is a consistent and faithful member of the Presby- terian church.
Mr. Ballantine gave his political support to the Republican party until 1892, when his opinions concerning the money question led him to with- draw his allegiance. He then aided in the organization of the Populist party, and on that ticket, in 1892, was elected a member of the Idaho state legislature. In 1894 he was honored by the Populist nomination for governor and polled a heavy vote, but was defeated by a small majority of a few hundred. In 1896 he was elected a member of the state senate and was the candidate of his party for United States senator, receiving the full Populist vote, lacking only eight votes of being elected. Before coming west he served as a member of the Pennsylvania legislature. He has long taken an active and influential part in politics, and is a recognized leader in the ranks of his party, his opinions carrying great weight in its councils. Socially, he is connected with the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Grand Army of the Republic, and served as commander of O. H. Rippey Post, No. 41, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. In business he sustains an unassailable reputation, in political life he has the ability and knowledge of the statesman, and in social circles he is known as a courteous, cultured and popular gentleman.
WILLIAM TAYLOR.
For twenty-eight years William Taylor has resided in Latah county, and is therefore one of the honored pioneer farmers of the locality. He has not only witnessed the entire growth and development of this section of the state, but lias ever borne his part in the work of progress, and his name should be enduringly inscribed on the pages of its history. A native of the Emerald
Isle, he was born in county Armagh, Ireland, April 15, 1820, his parents being Joseph and Elizabeth (Rankin) Taylor. In 1840 the father came to America, bringing with him his wife and seven children. They made the voyage on the sailing vessel Fairfield, and were five weeks on the passage. They took up their residence on Bonus prairie, Boone county, Illinois, near where the city of Belvidere now stands, the father purchasing forty acres of land, from which he developed a fine farm. The city of Chicago was then but a little muddy village and the country was largely unimproved. Both he and his wife were members of the Presbyterian church, were highly respected people, and each lived to the age of seventy-three vears.
William Taylor, their eldest child, was edu- cated in his native land, and learned the mason's trade, serving a five years' apprenticeship. After becoming a resident of Illinois he followed that pursuit, doing much of the work in his line in that early day both in Belvidere and Rockford. Many of the substantial structures of those towns still stand in evidence of his excellent handiwork. He was married, in Illinois, to Miss Priscilla Mitchell, a native of Pennsylvania and a daughter of Thomas Mitchell of that state.
In 1871 Mr. Taylor determined to seek a location in the new and undeveloped west. He first made his way to California, later traveled through Oregon and then came to Idaho. Here he believed he had found the richest farming land in the United States, and the unsettled condition of the country made it possible for hini to take his choice of a claim in the vast region. He selected the farm upon which he now resides, it being then covered with rich verdure. With .1 spade he turned the sod in several places and found a rich black loam, from four to five feet deep. There was also a little stream on the place and several good springs, and he believed that everything could be grown in abundance here. Time has proved the wisdom of his judgment, as his labors have resulted in making this one of the finest and richest farming properties in the state. He built a log house and then wrote for his wife to join him in the new home. With her children she traveled to Ogden, Utah, where Mr. Taylor met them with a team, thus conveying them to the new farm in the wilds of Idaho.
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During those first years he had very little money. He had to go to Walla Walla for sup- plies, and for four years Mr. Silcott, who ran the ferry at Lewiston, trusted him for his ferry bill, but after a time he was able to do some building for the kind ferryman, and thus dis- charged his indebtedness and received twenty- five dollars additional for his labor. Mr. Taylor is a man of great industry, energy, diligence and practical common sense, and in his undertakings he prospered. He improved the place and added to it until he has six hundred and forty acres of the splendid farming land of the district. His son, Thomas J., grew up to be a capable young business man and became associated with W. A. Lauder, a son-in-law of our subject, in the manu- facture of brick. They met with splendid success in the business, did contracting and building and furnished all the brick used in Moscow. They erected many of the finest public buildings, including the State University. In order to help his son and son- in-law in their business reverses, he sold a portion of the old homestead, but still has left one hundred acres of the old homestead and three hundred and twenty acres of timber land in the mountains, not far distant. In addition to the fine springs of pure water which he has on his homestead, there is a rich mineral spring which has fine medicinal properties, being a curative for a number of diseases. Charles W. McCurdy, of the chemical department of the University of Idaho, has made a most careful analysis of this mineral earth showing its ele- ments and properties, and in the hands of an enterprising man the spring might be made a most profitable business undertaking, but Mr. Taylor is now too far advanced in years to under- take a new work of this character.
The children of Mr. and Mrs. Taylor are Thomas J., now sheriff of Lemhi county, Idaho, and a prominent young man; Edward, who was graduated from West Point Military Academy and is now an officer in the regular army, serving his country in Manila; Elizabeth, wife of Mr. Clayton, of Moscow; and Minnie, wife of W. A. Lauder. The other children are now deceased.
In early life Mr. Taylor became a Master Mason, in Illinois. In politics he was formerly a Republican, but differing with the party on the
money question, he now gives his support to the men and measures that, in his judgment, stand for the best interests of the country. He is a gentleman of broad intelligence, of sterling worth and unassailable reputation, and he and his estimable wife are numbered among the honored pioneers of northern Idaho,-pioneers to whose unselfish efforts this section of the state largely owes its prosperity and progress.
JOHN STRODE.
With two of the most important industries that have contributed to the development and pros- perity of the northwest,-mining and stock - raising,-John Strode has long been identified. He became a resident of California in 1852, ten years later went to Oregon. and since 1863 has made his home in Idaho. His birth occurred in Tennessee, on the 6th of February. 1833, and he is of English, German and Welsh descent; but the original ancestors, who came from England, Wales and Germany, found homes in America at an early period in her history and were pioneer settlers of Kentucky. John Strode, the father of our subject, was born and reared in Kentucky, and Miss Nancy Evans, of Ohio, became his wife. Thirteen children were born of this union, five of whom are yet living. The father departed this life in the sixty-third year of his age, and his wife passed away in her sixty-seventh year.
During his childhood John Strode accompa- nied his parents on their removal to Missouri, where he remained until nineteen years of age, when he drove an ox-team across the plains to California. The dangers and hardships of such a journey can scarcely be imagined, much less realized in this age of parlor-car transportation. The company of which Mr. Strode was a member were four months and eight days upon the way. but though they endured many discomforts, they escaped death through disease or at the hands of treacherous savages, yet many new-made graves marked the route,-the last resting places of those who had hopefully started out to seek fortune in the Golden state. After arriving on the Pacific slope, Mr. Strode engaged in mining for a short time and then conducted a ranch in Contra Costa county. Subsequently he went to Siskiyou county, where he engaged in placer mining until his removal to Auburn, Baker
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county. He was very successful in his mining operations there, often taking out gold to the value of fifty or sixty dollars per day. In Sis- kiyou county he dug out a nugget worth three thousand and thirty-three dollars! He also carried on mining at Independence, but in 1862 left California for Oregon, and the following year came to Boise. He engaged in mining in the Boise basin, at Atlanta Gulch, and in 1865 secured a nugget worth three hundred and thirty-three dollars. He was interested in the Monarch mine, which proved to be a very rich one. He sold some of his stock for fifteen thousand dollars cash, but retained stock to the value of fifty thousand dol- lars. After his removal to Boise, Mr. Strode began stock-raising, which he has followed with excellent success, and is now the owner of seven hundred and fifty-two acres of valuable land in Idaho, a farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Oregon, and two grape vineyards in Sonoma county, California. He has also a thirty-acre orchard at Nampa, and a fine residence and fruit farm one mile west of the center of Boise, and there he makes his home.
In 1869 Mr. Strode was united in marriage to Miss Sophia Youst, and to them were born seven children, namely: Harvey Lee, John, Sophia, William, James, Charles and George. The mother died in 1886, and eight years later Mr. Strode married Mrs. Flora A. Deeds, a native of Indiana. In all his business relations he has commanded the confidence and good will of his fellow men by his honorable and system- atic methods, his fairness and his enterprise. He carries forward to successful completion what- ever he undertakes, and as the result of his sound judgment and unfaltering industry he is now accounted one of the wealthy farmers and stock- raisers of his adopted state.
JOHN L. CHAPMAN.
John L. Chapman, the postmaster and city treasurer of Lewiston, is a native of Wisconsin, his birth having occurred in Evansville, Rock county, that state, on the 27th of December, 1850. He is a representative of one of the old American families. His father, Timothy S. Chapman, was a native of New York, and married Minerva Hurlburt, who was also born in the Empire state.
He was a vocalist of superior ability and a teacher of both instrumental music and singing. In 1844 he removed to Illinois, and there his home became a station on the famous underground railroad. He was a lover of freedom, an oppo- nent of oppression in any form, and, just prior to the war, he assisted many a negro on his way to liberty. Subsequently he removed to Wisconsin, and later came to Idaho, where his remaining days were passed. He died in Lewiston, in 1891, but his wife still survives him, and is now in the eightieth year of her age. In early life they were members of the Presbyterian church, but after- ward united with the Congregational church. Of their family of seven children only three are now living.
John L. Chapman, whose name introduces this sketch, was reared and educated in Mazomanie, Wisconsin, and came to Lewiston in 1870, at the age of nineteen years. He began working in the lumber regions at day's work and engaged in saw-milling, which he followed for sixteen years. He has been a stalwart Republican since attain- ing his majority, and in 1892 was appointed by President Harrison to the position of postmaster of Lewiston to fill out an unexpired term. At the following election he was chosen by popular ballot to the office of city treasurer, which posi- tion he has filled most satisfactorily for the past four years. In January, 1899, he was appointed by President Mckinley to the position of post- master, and at once began a work of improve- ment in the Lewiston office, putting in new boxes of the latest style and otherwise carrying on the business on a progressive scale. As yet this is only a third-class office, but it is now doing the business of a second-class office and will undoubtedly soon be raised to that rank.
Socially Mr. Chapman is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and with the Royal Arcanum, and has filled all the chairs in the former. He was married in 1875 to Miss Emma J. Thatcher. She was born in what was then Oregon, and is a daughter of C. A. Thatcher, an Oregon pioneer of 1852. Eight children have been born of this union, of whom seven are living. Their son, Charles, a promis- ing young man of twenty-two years, was drowned in the Clearwater river while in swim- ming. The surviving children are Ralph H.,
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John E., Guy E., Fannie K., Roy, Helen and Willard L. John E. is efficiently assisting his father in the post-office, in the capacity of deliv- ery clerk. Mr. and Mrs. Chapman are valued members of the Presbyterian church and he is serving as one of the elders. Twenty-three years ago they erected their pleasant home in Lewis - ton, and through the intervening decades it has always been noted for its hospitality and good cheer. Mr. Chapman is regarded as a most trustworthy and efficient officer in both positions which he is filling, and in both public and private life he has ever commanded the confidence and respect of his many friends and acquaintances.
JOHN MCCLELLAN. .
John McClellan, one of the earliest pioneers of Boise, Idaho, is a native of Ohio, born in Licking county, March 16, 1827, of Irish and English extraction, his paternal ancestors being Insh, his maternal, English. John McClellan, his father, was born in Ireland in 1777, and in the year 1820 came to America, landing at New York, where he remained for some time and where he was married to Miss Amanda Reed, a native of New York and a daughter of English parents. Front New York they removed to Dresden, Ohio, where they resided until 1850. in which year he and his wife and seven children crossed the plains to Oregon, John, the subject of this sketch, at that time being twenty-two years of age. That year many of the overland emigrants died of cholera, and several of the company with which the McClellan family traveled were victims of that dread disease and were buried by the way- side, among them an aunt of our subject. His immediate family, however, made the trip in safety, and stopped first at Milwaukee, on the Willamette river, six miles above Portland. Later they removed to Yam Hill county and settled on a farm, where the father spent the rest of his life and died at the age of eighty-eight years. . Of his family of seven who crossed the plains in 1850, only four are now living,-John and three sisters.
From Dayton, Oregon, in 1863, John Mc- Clellan, the subject of our sketch, came to Boise, arriving on the 6th of May, or, rather, came to where Boise is now located, for this place was then a wilderness and there were plenty
of Bannack Indians camped near the river. The military post was not located until the 7th of July following ; the state capital a little later. Mr. McClellan's trip from Oregon to this place was made with an ox train. He mined in the Owyhee, -without success, however, and was at the Florence mines for a short time, when he took out forty dollars per day, after which he pros- pected, again being unsuccessful. That same year he took a claim to a tract of eighty acres of land on the north side of the river, and built on it a log cabin, which still stands on the property in a good state of preservation, and which lie intends to keep there as long as he lives. Later he built a good frame residence, the one ne now occupies, which is surrounded with large fruit trees, planted by his own hands. In the course of time the city of Boise grew out to his property and he sold thirty acres of it for three hundred dollars per acre, and on it have been built a number of residences. Mr. McClellan, soon after locating at Boise, floated logs down the river, sawed them into lumber and built a ferry-boat, with which for many years he ferried the people across the river. Afterward he, in company with others, built a toll-bridge, and had charge of that some three years. Both of these undertak- ings were a financial success. After selling theni he directed his energies to farming and raising fruit and vegetables, and later gave attention to the keeping of bees, in all of which he has been fairly successful.
Mr. McClellan is a lifelong Republican, taking an intelligent interest in public affairs, but never caring for or seeking official honors. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and was one of the early trustees of the church at Boise. His sister, Miss Letta Ann, who came to Boise in 1867, is his housekeeper, both having remained unmarried. In their pleasant home they extend to their neighbors and many friends that genial hospitality so characteristic of the west.
ADDISON V. SCOTT.
Addison V. Scott is well known throughout southern Idaho as a shrewd and public-spirited financier and real-estate operator, and Mrs. Adelia B. (Dugan) Scott, his wife, has wide dis- tinction as having been the first woman in Idaho elected to the office of justice of the peace, the
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important functions of which she is discharging with admirable ability. They were married in 1883 and are among the prominent families of Idaho Falls.
Addison V. Scott was born in Madison county, Iowa, January 14, 1858, and is descended from English-Irish ancestry. His forefathers settled early in Indiana, and Joseph Scott, his grand- father, became prominent in that state. Joseplı C. Scott, son of Joseph Scott and father of Addison V. Scott, was born, reared and educated in Indiana, and there married Miss Eliza Jane Rawlings, a native of Indiana and daughter of Rev. James Rawlings, of the Methodist Episco- pal church, a man whose good life and good works had a beneficent influence upon the people among whom he lived and labored. Joseph C. Scott and Eliza Jane (Rawlings) Scott had eight children, only three of whom are living. The father died, in 1897, at the age of seventy-one. His wife, who was many years his junior, is now (1899) sixty-five years old. Addison V. Scott, their fourth child, was educated in the high schools of Iowa, principally at Burlington, and at the age of seventeen began to teach school. He was successful in the work, but a business career was more to his taste, and later he was a clerk in mercantile houses until he secured a position with a large real-estate, loan and bank - ing firm. In 1883 he was called to the cashiership of the Creston (Iowa) National Bank, of which J. B. Harsh was president. He resigned the position four years later (1887) to go to Kansas. He did not remain long in the Sunflower state, however, but went to Colorado and there engaged in the real-estate and banking business on his own account. In 1890 he came to Idaho Falls, from Denver, and opened a real-estate and fire- insurance office. He secured a combination of first-class fire-insurance companies, and his knowledge of underwriting and his business ability were such than he soon gained a large and increasing patronage. He also dealt exten- sively in real estate for himself and others and platted Scott's Addition to Idaho Falls, which has been partially sold off and built upon, and built a hotel and a business block which are among the prominent buildings of the town. Soon after he came to southeastern Idaho, the importance of irrigation became apparent to him,
and he became prominent in connection with the work of the Idano Canal Company and later with that of the Marysville Canal & Improve- ment Company, which is doing much for the improvement of Fremont county, and of which he was elected secretary and treasurer, which positions he holds at this time.
Mr. Scott is a Republican and takes an active and helpful interest in the work of his party. While he lived in Iowa he was elected city treas- urer of Creston, and since coming to Idaho he was appointed by Governor Willey one of the first regents of the state university. There is no movement for the public good that does not receive Mr. Scott's hearty indorsement and generous financial support, and Mrs. Scott is equally public-spirited. She is vice-president of the Ladies' Improvement Society, of Idaho Falls, an organization having for its object the improve - ment and beautifying of the town, whose work has been so effective that largely through its agency, directly and indirectly, Idaho Falls is cleaner and more attractive than many of her sister towns.
Mr. and Mrs. Scott, who are communicants of the Catholic church, did very much toward the building of the Catholic church at Idaho Falls and have labored otherwise to advance the cause of their church in the town of their adoption.
MICHAEL J. SHIELDS.
The life of Michael Joseph Shields affords an illustration of the vicissitudes of business under modern conditions; it emphasizes the importance of doing the right thing at the right time, and it teaches a lesson of patience under difficulties and perseverance against obstacles,-a lesson that should not be lost upon all of the many who need it. It is suggestive in another way, too, because it affords an example, in addition to many others that have been given in the past, of the excellent quality of the sturdy Irish-American character.
Mr. Shields, who is one of the most enter- prising and influential citizens of Moscow and who has the reputation of having done as much toward the upbuilding of that city as any other man, was born near Lockport, New York, Sep- tember 15, 1853. His parents were natives of Ireland. His father, John Shields a well known
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contractor, was drowned at the age of thirty- one while making improvements on a section of the Erie canal. After his death his widow, with three children, removed to Lockport, where she died in her fifty-seventh year. After having attended school at Rochester and Lockport, New York, Michael Joseph Shields began the battle of life as a driver on the Erie canal. His business ability was exhibited early in his career, for at seventeen we find him the owner of a team, at work independently, towing canal-boats from station to station, at two dollars a trip. From this work he advanced to towing rafts of lumber between Tonawanda and Troy, New York. In 1871, when he was eighteen, he went to San Francisco, California, and found employment as teamster for a wholesale commission house.
He soon won the confidence of his employers to such an extent that he was made collector and general outside man for the concern. In 1872 he had saved enough money to enable him to buy a truck and team and engage in trucking on his own account. He prosecuted that business successfully until 1878, and then went with a very snug sum of money, the result of his enterprise and good management, to Walla Walla, Wash- ington. He found an investment at Dayton, Washington, where he completed and equipped a hotel, which he sold, however, before it was opened. He then bargained for a ranch consist- ing of land for which he was to have paid the sum of two thousand seven hundred dollars, but other opportunities came to him which he accepted as more promising, and he let the deal fall through. In the light of subsequent events he has considered this the great mistake of his life; yet other men have made just such mis- takes, some of them on a large scale. How could he have known that a portion of the big city would in a few years spring forth upon that ranch? If he had possessed such foreknowledge he would have made a still greater mistake in not securing all the land now covered by Spokane and its suburbs.
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