History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume II, Part 106

Author: Hawley, James Henry, 1847-1929, ed
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 1024

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In the meantime General Wilson had done important service in other capacities outside of military ranks. He was appointed to the United States immigration service in the Chinese branch at Payette, Idaho, in 1903 and was stationed at Port Townsend, Washington. He served in that department from 1903 until 1906 and in the latter year was appointed inspector of meat and meat food products in connection with the bureau of animal industry of the Department of Agriculture and stationed at Seattle, Washington. In 1907 he was transferred to Lewiston, Idaho, in charge of the packing plant of the Inland Meat Company and served in that capacity from 1907 until 1912. He then resigned his position with the govern- ment to accept the appointment of deputy pure food inspector of the state of Idaho under James H. Wallis and occupied that position in 1913 and 1914. In the succeed- ing year he became deputy pure food inspector under J. K. White and held the office through 1916. As previously stated, he entered the army in 1917 and continued in that connection until resigning to become adjutant general of Idaho under appoint- ment of Governor Davis, assuming the duties of the position on the 1st of Janu- ary, 1919, He resigned from the adjutant general's office to accept the appointment of chief inspector of Public Welfare Department.

In Wellsville, Missouri, in 1897, General Wilson was married to Miss Elsie May Kirn, a native of Missouri, and they have become parents of eight children, three sons and five daughters, all of whom are yet living: Ruby, William T., Emma Louise, Barbara Elizabeth, Albert H., Jr., Elsie May, Neika Julia and Robert Lee.

General Wilson turns to hunting and fishing for recreation and greatly enjoys those trips in the open. He is an Odd Fellow and an Elk and is also an exemplary representative of the Masonic fraternity, being a thirty-second degree Mason, loyally adhering to the teachings of the craft concerning the brotherhood of mankind and the obligations thereby imposed. He has ever held to high standards and his record in both civic and military circles is most commendable, being characterized by the utmost fidelity to duty in every connection. He possesses much literary ability, being the author of many popular poems which have been widely published.

JAMES ARTHUR BAKER.

James Arthur Baker, one of the proprietors of the Star Grocery at No. 115 North Tenth street in Boise and well known in the commercial circles of the city for twenty-nine years, was born at Mount Pulaski, Illinois, October 22, 1875, a son of William and Catherine (Schriver) Baker, both of whom are living. They removed to Kansas when their son, James A., was but a year old and he was reared in that state. He first became connected with the grocery trade when but ten years of age. When a lad of eleven he quit school and was afterward steadily employed in a grocery store at Clay Center, Kansas, for some time. Mr. Baker removed from that place to Boise, Idaho, in 1890, arriving in the year in which this state was admitted

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to the Union. Throughout all the intervening period he has been identified with the retail grocery trade. He was first employed as a clerk in the grocery house of Nelson F. Kimball and when the business was purchased by Frank A. Nourse, Mr. Baker was made the manager. The business had been established in the latter part of the '80s, probably about 1886. Mr. Baker became manager for Mr. Nourse in 1898 and so continued until 1906, when he and his brother, Henry W. Baker, pur- chased the business from Mr. Nourse and have owned and conducted it continuously since. In the spring of 1915 they removed the Star Grocery to its present location at No. 115 North Tenth street and theirs is the second oldest house of the kind in Boise in continuous operation and under the same name, the grocery department of Falk's being the oldest. Mr. Baker, however, is today the pioneer in the grocery trade of Boise, having been continuously connected therewith since 1890, and no one now in the business can equal his record. The Star Grocery is one of the three or four exceptionally fine grocery houses of Boise, carrying an extensive line of staple and fancy groceries. The house is most neat and attractive in its arrangement and the business methods followed commend the establishment to the support of the general public.

On the 27th of June, 1900, in Boise, Mr. Baker was married to Miss Mae McPherson, a native of San Francisco, and they have two sons, Carlos Harry and James Aiden. The former is widely known in musical circles as an expert jazz drummer. The latter is attending high school.

Mr. Baker is a prominent Odd Fellow, belonging to lodge and encampment, and is a past grand and past chief patriarch in the order. He is also connected with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. He is fond of motoring and fishing and thus spends his leisure hours. His political support is given to the republican party but without desire for office as a reward for party fealty. He has made for himself a most creditable name and place in commercial circles of Boise and all who know him speak of him in terms of respect and warm regard.

WILLIAM G. JENKINS, JR.

Among the prosperous commercial houses of Bolse is the Jenkins Furniture Com- pany at Eleventh and Main streets, of which William G. Jenkins, Jr., is the secretary- treasurer and manager. Born in Seattle, Washington, February 8, 1890, he is a product of the west and thoroughly imbued with western enterprise and energy. He is yet a young man who already has displayed rare commercial ability. His father, William G. Jenkins, Sr., is president of the Jenkins Furniture Company although he gives most of his attention to ranching interests, specializing in the breeding of thoroughbreds in Malheur county, Oregon. The Jenkins ranch in the above county is located about sixty miles from Boise. Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins, Sr., located in Malheur county, Oregon, in 1900, removing there from Dawson, Alaska. Mr. Jenkins went to that far northern city from Seattle in 1895 and the family there joined him in 1897. The father became the owner of a rich gold claim his success in the mining line making him wealthy. He and his associates cleared up about a third of a million dollars before the claim became exhausted. In 1900 Mr. Jenkins, Sr., returned to the States and has since been very successful in ranching, specializing in thoroughbred racehorses. He has exhibited his horses on the California tracks and elsewhere.

William G. Jenkins, Sr., was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, and is a descendant of an old Tar Heel family. His wife before her marriage was Jennie Plunkett, who was born in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Their wedding ceremony was performed in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in the early '80s, and our subject is their only child. After the year 1900 William G. Jenkins, Jr., spent his youth on his father's ranch in Oregon, later receiving his college education at Santa Clara College of Santa Clara, California. He then completed a technical course in the Polytechnic Business College of Oakland, California, and in 1910 came to Boise, where he embarked in the furniture business as a partner in the Pugh-Jenkins Furniture Company. Later Mr. Jenkins took over all of Mr. Pugh's interests and in 1913 incorporated the present Jenkins Furniture Company, the stock of which is owned by himself and his parents, the father acting as president, Mr. Jenkins of this review as secretary-treasurer and manager, while the mother fills the position of vice president. The Jenkins Furniture Company is located at the corner of Eleventh and Main streets and occupies one hundred lineal

WILLIAM G. JENKINS, JE.

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feet on Main street having four large sales rooms fronting that thoroughfare. It is one of Boise's important mercantile concerns and one of the largest furniture estab- lishments in the city. Mr. Jenkins of this review has thoroughly proved his executive ability in its management and is now doing an extensive installment business, to which department he has particularly given his close attention. The success of the company is largely due to his untiring efforts.

On the 11th of November, 1914, William G. Jenkins, Jr., was united in marriage to Miss Cora Taylor, of Oroville, California, and to this union were born two sons: William G. III, whose birth occurred on the 25th of December, 1915; and Robert D'- Orville, born February 19, 1917. Both Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins are popular among the younger social set of Boise, having many friends in the city. He is a devotee of golf, being a member of the Boise Golf Club, and also finds recreation in fishing. Fraternally he is connected with the Elks and also is a valued member of the Rotary Club, the Boise Polo Club and the Commercial Club, in the projects of which he ever takes an active interest.

ALBERT HARVEY.

Albert Harvey, who began life in Idaho as one of its pioneer settlers and is now the owner of an excellent farm property of one hundred and twenty acres, on which he is successfully engaged in the raising of grain and fruit and also of sheep and cattle, was born in Dekalb county, Illinois, November 29, 1855. During his infancy his parents, John and Grace Harvey, removed to Chicago but after a short time spent there took up their abode at Kankakee, Illinois. A few years later they returned to Chicago and Albert Harvey, who in the meantime had been acquir- ing a public school education, soon afterward began working at farm labor and was also employed in the shingle mills near Green Bay, Wisconsin. On the 4th of July, 1876, he removed to Iowa, where he engaged in farming on his own account and also for others until 1887, when he came to Idaho and settled on his present place, which is pleasantly and conveniently located about three miles east of Middleton.

Mr. Harvey first bought one hundred and sixty acres of land, most of which was covered with sagebrush, and here he began his life as an Idaho pioneer, meeting all the hardships, trials and privations incident to the settlement of the frontier. He afterward sold eighty acres of his land to J. L. Shaffer and subsequently acquired a tract of forty acres, thus increasing his place to its present size of one hundred and twenty acres. His daughters, Grace and Maude, also own sixteen acres each, constituting what was the old Clendenen place, and this their father cultivates for them, their land being just across the road from the home farm. Mr. Harvey has upon his place one hundred and six prune trees, which are the only trees that have been profitable, the remainder of the orchard being cut down. In four years he has;taken in cash from these prune trees nine hundred and sixty-six dollars and yet the trees are nearly twenty-five years old. He also has sixty head of sheep upon his ranch and one hundred and twenty head of cattle, two of which are registered shorthorn heifers. His farm was at one time the property of Pleasant Latham, who had resided thereon from the time of the Civil war. Mr. Harvey has in his posses- sion an old rawhide bottom chair which Mr. Latham brought with him across the plains and in which his wife would sit and knit before the camp fire when they made camp for the night. She felt real grief at not being able to take this with her when they left the farm, but had to leave it behind, as there was not sufficient room for it on the wagon which carried away their belongings. This chair possesses all the crude marks of being homemade more than a century ago and should be preserved in a state museum as a relic of pioneer times.

In 1886 Mr. Harvey was married to Miss Margaret M. Calhoun, a native of Iowa City, Iowa, and a daughter of David Calhoun, a farmer. They have ten chil- dren: Maude and Grace, both of whom attended the preparatory school at Caldwell and are at home; Amos L., assisting his father on the farm; James A. and Clarence D., who are farming near Nampa; Cecil, who is assisting his brothers at Nampa, and they are this year seeding one hundred and twenty acres to grain; Mary, the wife of Frank Grove, who was in the motor transport service in France; Olive, the

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wife of Claude Grove, a farmer near Caldwell; Elbert E., twelve years of age; and Kenneth, aged eleven.

Mr. and Mrs. Harvey have a number of interesting souvenirs which were sent to them by their son-in-law in France, their daughter, Mrs. Frank Grove, living at home while her husband was overseas. Mr. Harvey had an exhibit of Ben Davis apples at the St. Louis exposition in 1904 and received first prize and a silver medal for the finest individual exhibit. He is a man modest, quiet and unassuming in demeanor, finding his greatest joy in the companionship of a happy family and of his grandchildren, who are the joy of his life. He occupies a beautiful modern home situated at the hase of the foothills, his place constituting an attractive picture in the landscape.

W. H. CONWAY.

W. H. Conway is one of the pioneer settlers of Idaho. For more than a half century he has been a witness of the growth and development of Boise and this section of the state and has contributed in no small measure to the business advance- ment of the district. He was born in Boise, September 6, 1868. His father, Henry B. Conway, was a native of Kentucky and enlisted in Illinois for service in the Mexican war, later becoming a sergeant. After the close of the war he went to California and thence to Oregon, where he took part in the Rogue River Indian war, holding the rank of first lieutenant. During his service in the Mexican war he had sustained hullet and saber wounds and he was awarded a medal of honor by General Scott for his gallantry. Before coming to Oregon he acted as guide over the Santa Fe trail for emigrants going to the west and there was no phase of pioneer life or experience with which he was not familiar. At the close of the Indian war in Oregon he came to Idaho, where he located permanently. He had previously visited the state, having followed the thousands who were attracted by the mineral discoveries in this section of the country. In 1862 he engaged in the livery business in Boise for a short time and then homesteaded what is now known as the Wood place. He served as one of the early sheriffs of Idaho when the seat of government was at Idaho City. During the Bannock war of 1878 the farmers were all very nervous but were reassured hy Captain H. J. G. Maxon, who had heen a member of the legislature and was prominent in public affairs. Captain Maxon told the farmers that he would warn them when things proved dangerous and finally one night ahout twelve o'clock the warning was given and they all went into Boise for protection, the Conway and Maxon families being the last to leave for the capital city, and when the scare subsided they immediately returned. The volunteers were the fighters whom the Indians feared and not the regular soldiers. Billy West, an uncle of W. H. Conway and a former sheriff of Ada county, was accidentally killed by the discharge of his rifle in removing his pack from his back as he was getting away from Brownlee ferry, on the Snake river, to escape an anticipated Indian raid. He died in Boise from the effects of the wound and lack of proper medical attention. The death of Henry B. Conway occurred at the Old Soldiers Home in 1909. The parents of W. H. Conway had secured a legal separation, and his mother afterward became the wife of John B. Wood, who died in 1904. Mrs. Wood survives and now resides at Long Beach, California.

W. H. Conway attended the country schools and the city schools of Boise until he reached the age of seventeen years. He remained on the farm with his mother and stepfather until he reached the age of twenty, the place being at Edgewood Station hut a short distance from his present home. He located on the farm of one hundred and forty-four acres on which he now lives in the year 1891. This was school land and he purchased it from the state, having twenty-one years in which to pay for it, the price being seventeen dollars and a half per acre. It was then covered with a valuable growth of timber, so that it was worth the price, although it sold at a higher figure than any other land at that date. On the same day on which Mr. Conway made the purchase the land where the old depot stood in Boise was sold at ten dollars per acre. Having acquired his farm, Mr. Conway at once set about to clear the place and make improvements. Some of the old stumps are still in a good' state of preservation although twenty-five years old. Mr. Conway has carried on general farming and stock raising and has a splendidly developed prop-

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erty. Upon bis farm are two fine silos and he raises a large quantity of corn for silage, having filled a one hundred and eighty ton silo from ten acres. By those well qualified to judge this corn was said to be the best silo corn ever produced. Mr. Conway keeps on hand about two hundred and fifty head of stock, which he raises, and his business affairs are being carefully and profitably conducted. His home is a comfortable residence and there are substantial outbuildings upon the place, providing ample shelter for grain and stock. On first leaving home Mr. Conway tried mining and sheep shearing and, as he states, "was a brilliant failure." That he has displayed excellent business ability as a farmer and stock raiser, how- ever, is indicated by his present affluence, for he is numbered among the substantial farmers of the Boise valley, and he is also interested in the Bank of Eagle and in the Boise Valley Packing Plant, located at Eagle.

On the 23d of October, 1892, Mr. Conway was married to Miss Frances Brashears, a native of Pike county, Missouri, who passed away October 2, 1904. They had a family of four children: Ella May, the wife of Edgar Joplin, a farmer; Mary Ethel, who attended the high school at Eagle and is now acting as house- keeper for her father; Frances Elizabeth, in school; and John Bryan, eighteen years of age, who was a member of Troop E of the First Utah Cavalry and served on the Mexican border, being one of the few who were under fire there. This was the first National Guard unit to get into action on the border, the scene of the encounter with the Mexicans being at Stone House, about seventy-five miles from Nogales, just over the border. He later became a member of Company Three Hundred and Nineteen of the Tanks Corps and was sent to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, being ready to go overseas at the time the armistice was signed. He received his discharge December 5, 1918. When he first enlisted in Utah he was but fifteen years of age.

In his political views Mr. Conway has always been a democrat but never an office seeker, preferring to concentrate his efforts and attention upon his business affairs. He has never been remiss in the duties of citizenship, however, and cooper- ates in all carefully planned projects for the substantial development and upbuilding of the community and for the advancement of the welfare of Idaho. In business he has made steady progress, his success being due to close application and unfaltering industry, which after all is the basis of all honorable success.

JOSEPH F. PLATZ.

Joseph F. Platz is one of the substantial citizens that the little republic of Switzerland has furnished to Idaho. He now makes his home in New Plymouth, where he follows farming. He was born in Graubinden, Switzerland, February 25, 1861, a son of Martin and Marie Ursula (Poltera) Platz, who were also natives of Graubinden and were married at Roffna, where the father was a drayman. There he was killed while hauling a load of tiling which had become loose on the dray and fell on his head.

Joseph F. Platz was educated in the schools of his native country and served his time in the army of Switzerland, which he believes the finest in the world, his military training, therefore, being of excellent character. He is also an expert horse- man, becoming proficient in that line while still in his native land. He came to America in 1883 and later two brothers and a sister also crossed the Atlantic. They settled in Towa and it was in that state that Joseph F. Platz took up his abode on reaching the United States.

In 1903 Mr. Platz came to Idaho and settled on his present place of forty-seven acres a mile and a quarter northwest of New Plymouth. He planted a fine orchard of ten acres and his trees are now in excellent bearing condition. He also carries on dairying in a small way and raises alfalfa and some grain. In 1919 he had eighty tons of hay and he sold his apples for fifty dollars a ton, putting upon the market about seventy-two tons. His industry and perseverance are producing excellent results and he is adding to his property as the years go by.

About twenty-eight years ago, in Nebraska, Mr. Platz was united in marriage to Miss Emelia Marie Ackerman, whose parents, Antone and Anna Marie Ackerman, were natives of Switzerland and became pioneers of Idaho. Mr. and Mrs. Platz have ten living children. Martin Antone, twenty-six years of age, married Mildred Blay- den, a native of Idaho, and they have one child, Richard. Thresa Veronica is at

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home. John Joseph, twenty-two years of age, was a member of the Twelfth Regi- ment and was stationed at Norfolk, Virginia, during the World war. Clarence George, twenty-one years of age, is at home with his father. Clara Marie is also at home. Don Albert, aged sixteen, Arnold Frank, fifteen, Carrol Christian, aged twelve, born on Christmas day, Leonard Paul, aged eleven, and Antone Francis, nine, are all in school. Glenn William died in infancy. Mr. Platz has an interesting family who are a credit to his name. He has never regretted his determination to try his fortune in America for here he found the opportunities which he sought. and is today the owner of a valuable property worth three hundred and fifty dollars per acre.

THOMAS K. HARRIS.

Since 1898 Thomas K. Harris has heen a resident of Payette county and is now devoting his attention to farming on Whitney bottom, in the Fruitland district. He was born in Tennessee, August 26, 1857. His father, Archihald Wood Harris, also a native of that state, removed to Arkansas with his wife, who hore the maiden name of Mary Klepper, in the year 1872. A year and a half later they took up their residence in the Willamette valley of Oregon, where Mr. Harris followed farm- ing for four years and then removed to the vicinity of The Dalles, where he again engaged in farming for a period of twelve years. There the mother passed away.

Thomas K. Harris accompanied his parents on their various removals during the period of his boyhood and youth and in 1898 came to Payette county, Idaho, where he hecame identified with the sheep industry. He devoted ten years to that busi- ness and then sold out and removed to his present place of eighty acres, which he secured as a desert claim fifteen years ago. It is planted to alfalfa and to general grain crops and the place is pleasantly and conveniently located four miles southwest of Fruitland.

In 1896 Mr. Harris was united in marriage to Miss Edith Craft, a native of Vernon county, Missouri, and a daughter of Jacob and Rosanna (Decker) Craft. Her father was one of the leading farmers and large owners of town property in Vernon county and was also a prominent Mason and Odd Fellow. Mr. and Mrs. Harris have become parents of six children. Edna Rae is the wife of Earl Hobbs and the mother of one child, Elizabeth Ann, who is with her parents at Cornelius, Oregon. Benjamin F., twenty-three years of age, was with the Medical Corps of the Forty-first Division in France during the World war. Robert B., twenty-one years of age, is assisting in the work of the home farm. Kate Marie is the wife of Joseph Divish and the mother of one son, Donald Joseph, nicknamed Buster. Thomas A. and Bonnie Madge are at home, the latter now a high school pupil. The family is widely and favorably known in their section of Payette county, where they have many friends. Mr. Harris is accounted one of the progressive farmers of the dis- trict and is a self-made man whose enterprise and industry have constituted the basic elements of his present-day success.

JOSEPH E. WEEKS.

For forty years Joseph E. Weeks was a resident of Idaho and enjoyed the good- will and high regard of all who knew him throughout Canyon county. He passed away April 5, 1919, at Jennings Lodge, Oregon, being then ahout sixty-five years of age. He was born in eastern Canada on the 16th of November, 1853, and was but three months old when his parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Weeks, removed to Linn county, Iowa. There the father engaged in farming and continued to make his home in that locality to the time of his death, which occurred when he was nearly ninety years of age.

Joseph E. Weeks obtained his education in the schools of Linn county, Iowa, and when twenty-four years of age went to the Black Hills of South Dakota. where he remained for a year and then removed to Idaho. He rented the Davis farm on Eagle Island, near the town of Eagle, and continued its cultivation for three years, after which he removed to the Simpson ranch, about fifteen miles west of Boise, where he engaged in stock raising in connection with Charlie Simpson, to whom he afterward

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History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume II, Part 106

Author: Hawley, James Henry, 1847-1929, ed Publication date: 1920 Publisher: Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company Number of Pages: 1024

Author: Hawley, James Henry, 1847-1929, ed
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 1024