USA > Idaho > History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume II > Part 101
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JESSE WILSON PARSONS.
Jesse Wilson Parsons, who follows farming in the vicinity of Burley, was born at Versailles, Ripley county, Indiana, June 24, 1861, and is a son of George and Eliza Ann (Hamilton) Parsons, the former a native of Kentucky, while the latter was born in Indiana. The father spent his early boyhood in Kentucky and later removed to Indiana, where he was living at the time of the outbreak of the Civil war. He enlisted in 1861 as a member of the Eighty-third Indiana Volunteer Infantry and died from wounds at Memphis, Tennessee, in September, 1862. His widow survived him for many years and passed away in Florida. When the republican party was formed to prevent the further extension of slavery he had joined its ranks and was one of its stalwart ad- vocates until his demise.
Jesse W. Parsons was but a year old at the time of his father's death. His boy-
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hood days were passed in Indiana where he pursued his education and then took up the occupation of farming. He left that state when twenty-one years of age, removing to Cass county, Illinois, and again followed farming in the vicinity of Chandlerville, where he lived for two years. He next went to Richardson county, Nebraska, settling near Humboldt, and soon afterward he accepted a clerkship in a hotel at that place. When twenty-eight years of age he went to Aspen, Colorado, where he followed mining, and his next removal took him to Butte, Montana, from which place he came to Cassia county, Idaho, in 1891, settling at Albion. Again he resumed the occupation of farming, which he followed in connection with mining until 1907. In that year he removed to his present farm of eighty acres, securing a tract of sagebrush land which has now been converted into rich and productive fields, supplied with all modern improvements and equipments.
In 1896 Mr. Parsons was married to Miss Mattie Morris, a daughter of William and Martha (Morgan) Morris and a native of Wales. Her father engaged in mining. He made his way westward from the Virginia coal fields in 1854 and settled in California, where he followed mining, while later he became a resident of Albion, Idaho, where lie devoted his attention to agricultural pursuits. Both he and his wife have passed away. Their daughter became the wife of Mr. Parsons at Albion and two children have been born to this union, J. Wendell and Florence Margaret.
Mr. Parsons is a republican in his political views but has never been an office seeker. He has always manifested loyalty and progressiveness in matters of citizenship, how- ever, and in the various localities in which he has lived he has contributed to the up- building and development of the district and has stood for all those things which have been most worth while for the community.
ALLEN WINSLOW PRIDE.
Allen Winslow Pride, a prominent citizen and representative farmer residing four and a half miles west of Boise, on the Boise Bench, near Spaulding Station, came to Idaho from the state of Maine in 1889 and has since been a resident of Boise or of Ada county. He has therefore lived in Idaho for thirty years and has ever been a warm supporter of its best interests. He was born at Westbrook, Maine, December 27, 1870, being the youngest son and fourth child in the family of Allen and Emily (Winslow) Pride. The father died when his son Allen was but four years of age, while the mother survived until 1892. After the death of his father Allen W. Pride was adopted by his uncle, Edmond B. Pride, of North Windham, Maine, who was the father of the late David Porter Baker Pride, formerly a well known lawyer and republican leader of Boise, who passed away March 21, 1894, at the age of thirty-nine years, having been born at North Windham, Cumberland county, Maine, in 1854. David P. B. Pride was reared in Maine and studied law under Eugene Hale. In 1882 he was sent 10 Idaho territory by President Arthur to take a place in the government land office at Boise, where he remained until his death in 1894, serving as attorney general of Idaho. He was a prominent representative of the Knights of Pythias and served the order as grand chancellor of the state.
Allen W. Pride continued to live at the home of his uncle at North Windham, Maine, between the ages of four and eighteen years. This unele had been a sea captain in his younger years but had abandoned the sea and resided upon a truck farm in the suburbs of Windham. Upon this farm Allen W. Pride worked during the summer months until he reached the age of eighteen, when in May, 1889, he left New England and made his way across the country to Boise, Idaho, at the request of his cousin, David P. B. Pride, who had already been sent to this state and had secured a position for his cousin as a melter in the United States assay office at Boise. Allen W. Pride continued to occupy that position until the fall of 1893, or for a period of four and a half years, when he left the office to be succeeded by a democrat under the Cleveland administration.
On the 27th of February, 1895, Mr. Pride was married in Boise to Miss Marcella Spaulding, the only daughter of Almon W. and Mary Elizabeth Spaulding, who now reside at Spaulding Station, west of Boise, which place was named in honor of the family. The Spaulding farm adjoins the Pride farm on the north. Almon W. Spaulding and his wife came to Ada county in 1890 and in 1892 purchased the present home farm, to which they removed in 1896. Prior to that time they had lived in Boise, where Dr.
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Mary Elizabeth Spaulding had become an active and prominent physician. Before the removal to Idaho she had practiced for a time in Los Angeles, California, and for many years prior to her removal to the Pacific coast had followed the profession in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Her daughter, Mrs. Allen W. Pride, was born in Eau Claire, Wis- consin, June 1, 1874. When thirteen years of age she left her native city with her parents, the family removing to Los Angeles, California, and in 1890 she came with them to Boise, then a young woman of sixteen years. She completed her education in the Boise high school, from which she was graduated in 1893-two years prior to her marriage. Mrs. Pride is one of Idaho's best known women, having been very prominent in club circles and in connection with the suffrage movement and in other ways for a quarter of a century. She has membership in the Columbian Club of Boise, of which she is the financial secretary. She was the first president of the Ada County Federated Women's Clubs, commonly known as the Burbank Federation. She has been very active for the past ten years in the suffrage movement in Idaho as well as in the State Federation of Women's Clubs and she has done much to further the great work carried on by these organizations.
Since 1896 Mr. and Mrs. Pride have resided largely upon ranches in Ada county west of Boise and in 1910 located upon their present fine ranch of forty acres, consti- tuting part of the Almon W. Spaulding ranch. It is splendidly improved with excellent buildings, which they erected in 1910. The house is thoroughly modern in every respect, is supplied with hot and cold water on all three floors, with electric lights, telephone service and in fact with every modern convenience. Mr. and Mrs. Pride have two children. The son, Porter Spaulding, born October 27, 1897, was married October 1, 1917, to Mary L. Myers and they reside on a ranch at Meridian, Ada county. The younger child, Mary Elizabeth, was born July 6, 1902, and is now a young lady of eighteen years. She was graduated from the Boise high school in June, 1919, having made an excellent record and won many honors during her school days. She has also studied shorthand, typewriting and music and is planning to enter the University of California. The son, Porter Spaulding, is also a graduate of the Boise high school.
For recreation Mr. Pride turns to a social game of cards, to fishing, hunting and motoring. In politics he is a republican but has never been an office seeker, preferring to concentrate his efforts and attention upon his business affairs and perform his public duties as a private citizen. He is not remiss in the duties of citizenship, however, for he gives his aid and support to all plans for the general good. Those who know him esteem him as a man of sterling worth, while his wife has for a quarter of a century been a recognized leader in social and club circles, especially along those lines leading to civic betterment and to the uplift of the individual.
MADISON C. SMITH.
Madison C. Smith, of Boise, numbered among the pioneers of the northwest, has passed the eightieth milestone on life's journey. His career has been fraught with many hardships and privations incident to the settlement of the frontier but has also been brightened by the opportunities of a new country awaiting the developing hand of the progressive citizen. These opportunities Mr. Smith has fully utilized and in the course of years has won a fair measure of success.
He was born in the old town of Richmond, in Ray county, Missouri, March 15, 1839, a son of Daniel and Emily (Ringo) Smith, who were natives of Tennessee and Kentucky respectively. Of their four children, two sons and two daughters, three of whom are yet living, Madison was the second in order of birth. He had reached the age of twelve years when in 1851 the family bade adieu to their old Missouri home and started over the Oregon trail for the Willamette valley. The trip entailed the usual difficulties and hardships while en route, but eventually the family established their home upon a ranch and began the development of the fields in preparation for a life of agricultural activity there. The father, however, fell a victim to Indian hostility in the Indian war of 1855 and 1856 and thus the children had to take up the burden of family affairs and responsibilities, Madison C. Smith being at that time a youth of seventeen years. Upon him devolved the care of his mother and the younger children of the family and he manfully met the responsibilities until his mother was again married.
Mr. Smith's identification with Boise dates from 1864, in which year he came to
MADISON C. SMITH
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Idaho, traveling with a pack train. For some time he was in the employ of others and during the early years when every settlement in the northwest sold liquors, which were regarded as much a staple commodity as groceries, he engaged in the liquor business hut after a few years retired from that field of business. He has Ilved to witness great changes in Boise and the state. The capital city was a little village at the time of his arrival, its population numbering only a few hundred. As the years have passed he has watched the replacement of the pioneer cabins with beautiful and substantial homes, while the surrounding country has been converted from a tract of sagebrush into highly cultivated fields and orchards. Something of the development is indicated in the fact that land which was regarded as almost worthless at the time of his arrival now sells for fifteen hundred dollars or more per acre. Mr. Smith has met with a fair measure of prosperity through the conduct of business affairs and wise investments and is pleasantly situated in life. His political allegiance is given to the democratic party but he has never been an office seeker, preferring that his public service should be done as a private citizen. He has, however, always been an interested witness of the leading events of the times-those which have left their impress upon the history of city and state. He knows every phase of pioneer hard- ship and of modern-day comfort and prosperity and he remains one of the valued and honored pioneer settlers of the city in which for fifty-five years he has made his home.
JOSEPH C. PIXTON, Jr.
One of the attractive commercial interests of Burley is the Pixton Confectionery Store, owned and conducted by him whose name introduces this review. Joseph C. Pixton, Jr., was born in Taylorsville, Utah, May 7, 1890, and is a son of Joseph C. and Emma E. (Ashby) Pixton. He left Utah when thirteen years of age in company with his parents, who settled near La Grande, Oregon, in the town of Cove, where the father engaged in farming and fruit raising.
Joseph C. Pixton, Jr., supplemented his early education by attending the Eastern Oregon State Normal School at Weston, Oregon. He afterward became a student in the Brigham Young University at Logan, Utah, and in 1912 he removed to Burley, where on the 19th of March he established a confectionery business north of his present location. On the 15th of September, 1914, he removed to another building and on the 10th of July, 1919, he began to excavate for a new building, which is twenty-five by one hundred and twenty-five feet. This was completed and occupied on the 1st of November, 1919, and he has a very pleasing and beautiful confectionery store, well appointed in every particular. The line of sweets which he carries is most attractive and brings to him a ready sale. He also operates a farm of forty acres and has a homestead property in addition. He is likewise one of the directors of the Burley National Bank.
In 1912 Mr. Pixton was married to Miss Julia Deane Wardell a native of Parowan, Utah, and a daughter of Enoch and Harriet Wardell. The three children of this mar- riage are Dick, Barbara and Harriet. In 1914 Mr. Pixton erected a beautiful modern home on Oakley avenue, Burley, where his family is most comfortably situated. In politics he is a democrat, but the honors and emoluments of office have no attraction for him, for he prefers to concentrate his efforts upon his business interests, which have gradually developed in scope and importance until he is now numbered among the leading representatives of commercial activity in Burley.
ORSON P. BATES.
Orson P. Bates, who is engaged in general farming and stock raising in Cassia county, not far from Oakley, was born at Tooele, Utah, June 7, 1857, his parents being Orson P. and Ann E. (Brower) Bates the former a native of the state of New York and the latter of Vermont. It was in the year 1852 that the father traveled westward across the plains with an ox team and wagon and took up his abode in Tooele county, Utah, where he homesteaded a ranch of one hundred and sixty acres. He built thereon a log house with a dirt roof and in that primitive dwelling began life in the west. As the years passed he improved and developed three hundred and twenty acres of
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excellent land, converting it into arable fields which annually produced good crops. He added new buildings from time to time and at his death was occupying an attractive and commodious home of nine rooms, supplied with all modern conveniences and com- forts. He passed away in 1899, at the age of sixty-three years, dying in the faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His political support was given to the republican party. He had been married at Salt Lake City after coming to the west.
Orson P. Bates spent his boyhood days at Tooele, Utah, with his father upon the home farm and there engaged in raising cattle and developing the fields. He was mar- ried in Utah, in 1878, to Miss Emily V. Tuttle, a native, of Utah and a daughter of Norton R. and Helen E. (Utley) Tuttle. Mr. and Mrs. Bates became the parents of thirteen children: Bertha E., Emily V., Gertrude M., Clara, O. Parley, Glen T., Sarah B., Leo, Ada R., Alice M., Valera, Norton T. and Hector G.
It was in the year 1881 that Mr. Bates removed from Utah to Idaho, settling at Marion, near Oakley. He took up a ranch of one hundred and, sixty acres and built thereon a log house, getting out all of the timbers from the woods. He also did the work of constructing the little primitive dwelling in which he started life in Idaho. In 1892 he removed to his present farm of one hundred and sixty acres and has since erected thereon new buildings until he now has an attractive and substantial home and good barns and outbuildings, furnishing splendid shelter for grain and stock. He has planted trees upon his place, has fenced his farm, has secured the latest improved machinery and in fact has all of the facilities and equipments of a model farm prop- erty of the twentieth century, all of which is indicative of his progressive spirit. He has carefully handled his place and conducted its development until now it is returning to him a most gratifying annual income.
Mr. Bates is identified with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His political support is given to the republican party, and while he has never sought or desired political office, he is serving as a school trustee and is interested in all that has to do with the educational progress of the community. Indolence and idleness have no part in his make-up. He has led a most active and useful life and his energy has been the basis upon which his prosperity has been built.
WILLIAM G. MESSERSMITH.
William G. Messersmith is prominently connected with live stock interests in Ada county, now confining his attention exclusively to the breeding of pure bred Holstein cattle, Hampshire sheep and Poland China hogs. He was formerly a well known figure in real estate and Insurance circles in Boise but disposed of his interests along that line on the 1st of January, 1919, to concentrate his efforts upon his live stock business.
Mr. Messersmith is a native of Germany, where he was born June 27, 1865, a son of Frederick W. and Barbara (Rummell) Messersmith, also natives of Germany, in which country they spent their entire lives. The father passed away in July, 1906, at the age of seventy-six, and the mother died in 1900, when she was eighty years of age. They were the parents of six children, of whom the subject of this review was the eldest.
William G. Messersmith resided in his native land until he reached the age of sixteen years, when in 1881 he crossed the Atlantic to the United States, having in the meantime pursued his education in the public schools of Germany. Landing on American shores, he made his way to Allegheny, Pennsylvania, where he obtained em- ployment in a glass factory, in which he continued until 1886. In that year he removed to the west, locating in Wyoming, where he established an insurance agency, represent- ing the United States Life Insurance Company as state agent. After a time he was transferred to Idaho, where for two years he continued to serve as state agent and then resigned to establish a local real estate and insurance business, in which he was engaged continuously from 1900 until 1919. He also conducted a loan department and the various branches of his business proved very profitable. He bought and sold real estate, operating in this field for twenty-one years and enjoying a large clientage which he won through enterprising methods and well known reliability in business af- fairs. Disposing of his real estate and insurance business on the 1st of January, 1919, he has through the intervening period concentrated his efforts and attention upon live stock as a breeder of thoroughbred Holstein cattle, Hampshire sheep and Poland China hogs and his business in this connection is steadily and profitably growing. He is
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the owner of a number of farms in Ada county and in connection with his other business interests Mr. Messersmith is president of the Ada County Diary Company.
In 1887 Mr. Messersmith was united in marriage to Miss Cecelia Bandholz, of Cheyenne, Wyoming. Fraternally he is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he has filled all of the offices, and with the Woodmen of the World. He likewise has membership in the Boise Chamber of Commerce and his religious faith is that of the Christian Science church. Long residence in Boise has made him widely known, while the sterling traits of his character have gained him favorable regard.
EDWIN GARLAND HURT.
Edwin Garland Hurt, a resident of Boise since 1891, is now giving his attention to the management of ranching interests but came to the city as local manager for the Western Union Telegraph Company. He was born at Barry, Pike county, Illinois, June 12, 1866, and for twenty years was connected with railroad interests before removing to the west, acting as telegraph operator, as train dispatcher and station agent for various railroads and in many states of the Union. He took up the study of telegraphy when a mere lad at Barry, Illinois, and was a telegraph operator from 1878 until 1893. He made steady advancement in this connection and at length was sent to Boise as local manager for the Western Union, which position he continued to fill for two years, but in the meantime he recognized the opportunity for judicious and profitable invest- ment in ranching interests and has since managed his ranch properties in Ada county. He displays sound judgment and keen sagacity in his control thereof and his enterprise and business capability have brought to him a well deserved success.
On the 11th of October, 1895, Mr. Hurt was united in marriage to Miss Ada Anna Lemp, a daughter of John and Catherine Lemp, who are mentioned elsewhere in this work. The marriage was celebrated on Mrs. Hurt's twenty-first birthday and they now reside at No. 1805 Harrison boulevard, where they have an attractive home which is the abode of warm-hearted hospitality, its good cheer being greatly enjoyed by their many friends. Mrs. Hurt was born in Boise, where since 1891 Mr. Hurt has made his home, covering a period of more than twenty-eight years. He is therefore largely acquainted with the history of the city and has witnessed much of its growth and de- velopment. In all matters of business he has manifested a progressive spirit and at all times he has been a champion of all measures and movements which have looked to the development and upbuilding of the city and state.
WILLIAM HARRISON BLUNT.
William Harrison Blunt has since 1914 been a resident of Caldwell, where he is manager of a branch of the Hazelwood Creamery. He was born in Fayette county, Iowa, October 19, 1865, and is a son of Harrison and Arrie (Butler) Blunt. The father is a native of Wisconsin but is now living in Caldwell, Idaho, at an ad- vanced age, having passed the ninetieth milestone on life's journey March 31, 1919. His wife was a daughter of Rev. Butler, of West Union, Fayette county, Iowa, where he settled on a homestead in 1841. Her death occurred in 1878.
In his youthful days William Harrison Blunt was a pupil in the schools of Fayette county, lowa, pursuing his studies to the age of eighteen years, when he entered the creamery business at Maynard, Iowa, where was establissed one of the first creameries in the state. After remaining there for two years he went to Fair- bank, lowa, where he spent five years as an employe of the Fairbank Cooperative Creamery. He was next employed for four years at Terril, lowa, by the Cooperative Creamery and in 1902 went to Thief River Falls, Minnesota, where he resided for four years, being employed in a creamery there. The year 1906 witnessed his re- moval to the coast. He made his way to Spokane, Washington, where he became field superintendent for the Hazelwood Creamery, there located, his work covering Oregon, eastern Washington and all of Idaho. In 1914 he removed to Caldwell, Idaho, as the manager of the branch here, although still maintaining his home in Spokane. In normal times he employs seven people at this branch and the trade
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extends throughout the Boise valley, most of the product being shipped to Wash- ington. This branch expends more than one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars a year for cream and is one of the most important and profitable business enterprises of the district, furnishing a market for the dairymen in this region. The headquarters of the business at Spokane was one of the pioneer enterprises of the kind in the northwest, having been established in 1889. The Caldwell branch manufactures butter, cheese and ice cream, and of the last named product about ten thousand gallons are yearly made for local consumption.
In 1888 Mr. Blunt was married to Miss Florence Potts, of Oelwein, Iowa, and they have three children: Floyd H., who is married and is a bookkeper for C. S. Idleman, proprietor of the Ford Garage at Caldwell; Harold U., who is married and is associated with his father in the creamery; and Florence K., who is assistant book- keeper for her father. One son died in December, 1915.
Mr. Blunt is a charter member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, be- longing to Lodge No. 294 at Oelwein, Iowa, with which he has been identified for thirty-two years. He also has membership with the Modern Woodmen of America at Spokane, Washington, while his wife is connected with its ladies'. auxiliary- the Royal Neighbors. His religious faith is that of the Presbyterian church, to the teachings of which he loyally adheres, so that his entire course has been that of an honorable, upright man, commanding for him the respect and confidence of all with whom he has been associated. His success is attributable in no small measure to the fact that he has never dissipated his energies over a broad field but has con- centrated his attention upon the line which he took up in early manhood.
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