History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume II, Part 107

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


USA > Idaho > History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume II > Part 107


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JOSEPH E. WEEKS


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traded his stock for the ranch. He then took up farming in a general way and also engaged in sheep raising on an extensive scale for eighteen years, when he disposed of the ranch property and secured a homestead of eighty acres sixty miles west of Boise. There he again engaged in general farming and sheep raising for seven years, at the end of which time he removed to Caldwell in order to provide his children with better educational opportunities. After one year spent at Caldwell he purchased a farm at Eugene, Oregon, and there established his home. He sold the eighty-acre homestead in 1918. He remained in Oregon for one year and then traded his property there for six hundred and forty acres of land in Alberta, Canada, near Monitor, where his son Ralph now resides and carries on the farm.


Mr. Weeks and his family spent the summer of 1918 in Alberta and then returned to the home of his son at Wilder, Idaho. In 1918 he disposed of all his interests in this state but retained the ownership of his home at Eugene, Oregon.


Mr. Weeks was twice married. By his first wife, who bore the maiden name of Fannie Ingle, he had four children. Cecil L., thirty-eight years of age, married Alta Griggs, of Boise, and has one child, Leon, and an adopted daughter, Josephine. He was associated with his father from his eighteenth birthday in sheep raising and is at present connected with the sheep industry. Cassie died at the age of twelve years. Joseph Waldo, thirty-four years of age and a farmer and sheepman of Wilder, mar- ried Belle Keith, of Star, Idaho, by whom he has two children: Lola, who is attending school; and Waldo Ingle. Joy I., thirty-two years of age, married Grace Look, of Wilder, and has four children: Joseph William, Harvey Lee, Cassie M. and Donald Joy. Joy I. Weeks is also engaged in the sheep business near Wilder.


It was on the 25th of August, 1889, that Joseph E. Weeks was united in marriage to Miss Alice Oglesby, of Clay county, Illinois, and they became the parents of five children. Ralph, twenty-nine years of age, married Wilma Zeisler, of Kansas, and has one child, Byrle, aged five. Edgar passed away when two and half years of age. Harlan, aged twenty-five, was in France with the Quartermaster's Corps, operating the steriliza- tion plant, with the Eighty-second Division. Blanche is the wife of L. L. Hurst, a bookkeeper at Wilder. Clair O. is attending school at Wilder.


Mr. Weeks led a very active and useful life and his death, which was occasioned by hemorrhage of the brain on the 5th of April, 1919, at Jennings Lodge, Oregon, was a great shock and blow to his many friends as well as to his immediate family. He was always very considerate for the welfare of others, was devoted to the interests of the members of his own household and his many sterling traits of character natu- rally made him greatly beloved by all who knew him. His widow is at present residing at their old home in Wilder.


PATRICK HANNIFAN.


Patrick Hannifan, of Pocatello, whose worth in public affairs was widely ac- knowledged and whose death accordingly was a matter of deep regret, was born at Freeport, Illinois, May 18, 1854. He acquired his education there and when six- teen years of age went to Cheyenne, Wyoming, while in 1884, at the age of thirty, he came to Pocatello. He was first employed here as fireman by the Oregon Short Line Railroad and worked in that way for about four years, when he was made engineer and served in that capacity for an equal period. He then turned his atten- tion to the transfer and storage business, which he conducted until he retired from business in 1916 on account of failing health. He was one of the early residents of Pocatello. On his arrival here there was but a field of sagebrush where the Reuss building now stands, and he and other railroad men lived in tents, the sagebrush being higher than their tents. It was necessary to employ someone to watch their belongings during their absence on 'account of the thieving propensities of the Indians. With every phase of pioneer life and later development in the district Mr. Hannifan was familiar.


On the 12th of September, 1889, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Hannifan and Miss Rose E. Burke, of Baraboo, Wisconsin, who passed away March 7, 1905. They became the parents of five children. Prudence is the wife of Ambrose Clemo, of Helena, Montana. Leo P. is conducting the transfer and storage business estab- lished by his father. Nell is now the wife of Frank H. Smerke, a railroad man. She is a graduate of the Academy of Idaho, where she completed a course in


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household economics. James William was in France as a member of the trans- portation service, acting as chauffeur. He was but seventeen years of age when he joined the army and had to tell a "white lie" in order to be accepted, but so strong was his patriotic spirit that he left nothing undone that would enable him to aid in the World war for democracy and he was on duty at Nevers, France. Isabel Mar- garet, after spending two years in high school, became a student in a business college at Helena, Montana. Frank H. Smerke, of Detroit, Michigan, son-in-law of Mr. Hannifan, entered the service of Uncle Sam as a railroad engineer, sustained wounds in battle in France and was afterward transferred to the transportation service.


Mr. Hannifan was a charter member of the Woodmen, also held membership with the Brotherhood of Engineers & Firemen, was a member of the Royal High- landers and of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. He took a most active part in every- thing that would further the interests of the government during the period of the war, being an energetic worker and a most loyal American. His services for the nurses of the Red Cross and the Sisters of Charity will long be remembered by those organizations. He met an accidental death, being struck by a railroad train when crossing the track on the 4th of June, 1918. His demise was the occasion of the deepest regret to those with whom he had been associated, and in his passing Poca- tello lost one of its valued citizens.


N. RUSTON SHAW.


Among those who have assisted in the agricultural development of Payette county is N. Ruston Shaw, whose enterprise and activity along agricultural lines are producing substantial results. Iowa claims him as a native son. He was born in Fayette county on the 9th of November, 1882, his parents heing J. M. and Mary Jane (Slocum) Shaw, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Illinois. Their family numbered seven children: Reuben E., who married Philla M. Weatherby, a native of Minnesota, by whom he has four children; Anna Gertrude, who is the widow of H. B. Cragin and has one son; Eleanor S., the wife of R. L. Ringer and the mother of two children; N. Ruston; Alice, who is living with her parents in Boise; Mary Elizabeth, who is the wife of C. C. Minden and has one child, Maribeth; and Loraine B., the wife of John Lane, of San Francisco, California.


It was in the year 1896 that J. M. Shaw brought his family to Idaho, becoming one of the original colonists of New Plymouth and acting as one of the committee who passed upon the plans for the townsite, the town being laid out in the shape of a horseshoe. From that period to the present the father has been a most promi- nent and influential factor in the development and upbuilding of this section of the state. During the first year of their residence here the family put in a thirty acre orchard and later established the Citizens Lumber Company, with headquarters at Emmett. The father conducted the retail department of the business, while Reuben E. had charge of the manufacturing and sales department and now makes his home at Emmett. J. M. Shaw and his son Reuben E. were interested in the Nobel ditch and N. Ruston also assisted in its construction. In connection with the lumber business they operated a mill on the Payette river that was later burned, but they still own a large tract of timber there. At the time the mill was burned the father owned one of the finest homes in the state at New Plymouth and it was noted for its warm-hearted hospitality, but the building was also destroyed by fire.


N. R. Shaw was a youth of fourteen years when he accompanied his parents to Idaho. His education had largely been acquired in the schools of his native state and after his textbooks were put aside he became the active assistant of his father in the conduct of his business interests in Payette county. He is now engaged in farming and in the raising of beef and dairy stock. He has sixty acres of land, thirteen acres of which lie within the corporation limits of New Plymouth, while the remainder is a mile southwest of the town. He is leading a busy life in the conduct and further development of his farm, which he has brought under a very high state of cultivation and which is now one of the valuable properties of the district.


In 1906 Mr. Shaw was united in marriage to Miss Kittie Ransom and they have become the parents of two daughters, Edith and Margaret. Mr. Shaw has served as


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a member of the school board and is interested in all that pertains to the welfare, development and progress of the district in which he has now made his home for twenty-three years. Throughout this entire period the family has taken a most active and helpful part in promoting the material development of the community and in shaping its history along various lines, their worth being widely acknowledged.


H. F. MESSECAR.


H. F. Messecar, who follows farming near Eagle, was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1864 and in 1887, when twenty-three years of age, crossed the border into the United States. He made his way to the Black Hills of South Dakota, where he remained for four years, raising stock and following farming. In 1891 he removed to Idaho, settling on a claim in Long valley. The country had not at that time been surveyed. The winters were very severe and civilization was advanced to so slight a degree in the locality that he and his wife left Long valley and removed to Boise in 1893. In the spring of 1894 they filed on their present place of two hundred and forty acres, securing one hundred and sixty acres of this place as a homestead, while the remainder has since been purchased. At that time there was no water for irriga- tion purposes and the land was all covered with the native growth of sagebrush. Mr. Messecar built the first station to hold the right of way for the Farmers Union ditch. This station covered one hundred feet and indicated that they were actually doing work on the ditch. The farmers were all poor and the work of construction was a difficult task to perform as it was necessary for the men to provide a living for their families at the same time while attempting to push forward the work on the ditch. By the second year, however, they got water and a small crop. It required five years to complete the ditch, which, however, has proven a wonderful success. Mr. Messecar has most carefully and profitably conducted his farming interests and now produces about two hundred tons of hay a year besides raising some grain and stock.


In 1889, in the Black Hills of South Dakota, Mr. Messecar was united in mar- riage to Miss Nellie Allen, of Norfolk county, Ontario, Canada. They passed through many hardships and trials while living in the Black Hills and often had to hide in caves and other places to escape being killed by the Indians. They have no children of their own hut have reared an adopted son, Arthur B. Mr. and Mrs. Messecar purchased a home in Boise, where they lived for a short time and which they still own, its location being on Hayes and Ninth streets. They preferred to return to the farm, where they built a house of the bungalow type on a prominence overlooking the valley and the town of Eagle, their new residence being situated just across the road from their former home. Mr. and Mrs. Messecar are widely known in their section of the state, having remained in Ada county for twenty-six years and their carefully directed labors have gained them place among the substantial representatives of ag- ricultural interests in the state.


JAY GALLIGAN.


Jay Galligan, manager of the Caldwell Flour Mills and thus actively connected with one of the important productive industries of Canyon county, was born March 2, 1867, in Buffalo, New York. His youthful days were spent in the east and after completing his high school course in his native city at the age of eighteen years, he entered the employ of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Company and served in that connection for a decade. It was in 1900 that he first became identified with the west, making his way to Loveland, Colorado, where he engaged in mer- cantile business for eight years.


In 1908 Mr. Galligan came to Boise, Idaho, where he served as manager of the Boise Mill & Elevator Company, a subsidiary of the Caldwell Flour Mills, occupying that position for eight years. On the 6th of June, 1917, he assumed the position of district manager with the Caldwell Flour Mills and its subsidiary branches, which are located at Boise, Palmer, Nampa, Meridian and Arling, in Long valley. This company handled approximately one million bushels of wheat in Caldwell and the other branches in 1918, milling about forty thousand barrels of flour, while a large


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percentage of the remainder of the wheat was shipped to Milwaukee and Chicago. Following the opening of the season on the 20th of August, 1918, the Caldwell Flour Mills operated continuously for twenty-four hours a day, sending out an extensive output, two-thirds of which has been shipped to other states. Bakers claim that the Caldwell flour is equal to the best grade of flour that is shipped in from Kansas and Minnesota. The Caldwell mills employ altogether from fifty to seventy people. The parent institution is the Colorado Milling & Elevator Company of Denver, Colorado, which established the Caldwell Flour Mills in 1908. This is not only the largest industry of Caldwell but with one exception is perhaps the largest in the state and Caldwell has every reason to be proud of the enterprise. It is Mr. Galli- gan's opinion that Idaho is perhaps one of the greatest clover producing states in the Union. His company paid in 1918 in the neighborhood of seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars to the farmers for clover seed which was raised in the district. The seed and grain industry in Idaho is yet in its infancy and the farmer who turns his attention to the business now is certain to prosper and Caldwell is des- tined to become the center of this industry as a distributing point.


Mr. Galligan was married to Miss Irma Bentley, a daughter of Linn Bentley, of Columbus, Ohio, and they have become the parents of three children: Ruth Claire, William Bentley and Robert Jay. Mr. and Mrs. Galligan are widely and favorably known in Caldwell, and he is regarded as one of the most enterprising and sagacious business men in this section of the state. He is closely associated with the work of development and improvement here and has been the leader in many movements that are proving of inestimable value to his community and will continue a substantial force in its later growth.


E. A. TALBOT.


E. A. Talbot, residing near Notus, in Canyon county, has been closely associated with farming interests and with the development of his section of the state. He may well be called a self-made man, for he started out to provide for his own support. when a youth of fourteen years and has since been dependent upon his own exertions. He was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on the 12th of October, 1859, a son of George and Mary (Blanchett) Talbot. The father was born near the city of Quebec and was of French and Scotch descent. He always spoke the French language. His wife was born in the province of Quebec, Canada, of French parents.


E. A. Talbot of this review worked upon his father's farm to the age of fourteen years and in early life learned and followed the carpenter's trade. In 1880, when a young man of about twenty-two years, he crossed the border into the United States and made his way to Minnesota, working at his trade in Minneapolis and St. Paul for a period of five years. He then removed to Portland, Oregon, and was employed at his trade by the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company for another perlod of five years. He arrived in Idaho in 1890 and homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres near Notus. His life has since been one of earnest activity, crowned with success. When he took up his abode in this locality it was a wild region of sagebrush. He cleared one hundred and twenty acres of the land himself, and after his sons had reached an age where they could help they together cleared the other forty acres. About two years after locating on his farm Mr. Talbot got water. He has given his two sons, George Ernest and David Earl, eighty acres each of the old home place, and he resides with them. There are two residences upon the homestead, one on each eighty, and the improvements are among the best in the state, having been put thereon at a cost of more than forty thousand dollars.


In 1886 Mr. Talbot was united in marriage to Miss May Corron, a native of Pennsyl- vania, and their two children are the sons previously mentioned. George Ernest, who is now thirty-one years of age, married Eunice Fallwell, of Iowa, and they have two children, Gerald and Ora. David Earl, twenty-nine years of age, married Myrtle A. Moreland, a native of Iowa, and their two children are Geraldine Ila and Donald Edward.


The sons carry on general farming and stock raising. They breed from two Aber- deen 'Angus bulls, as the Aberdeen Angus are considered the best beef cattle on the market. David Earl is arranging to go into the registered live stock business on an extensive scale in the near future, and George E. expects to do the same, specializing


E. A. TALBOT


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in the breed of cattle which they now handle. These sons raise everything that will grow in the Idaho climate and they can produce almost any crop as their soil is of the best in the state. In addition to their cattle they likewise raise Poland China hogs, and both branches of their business are proving very profitable. They are most enter- prising young men, following in the footsteps of their father, who has been 'actuated by a most progressive spirit in his business career and has thus reached a place among the leading agriculturists of his section of the state.


THOMAS BOWEN LEE.


Thomas Bowen Lee was born at Tooele, Tooele county, Utah, June 20, 1878, he being the eldest of ten children in the family of Thomas Wolkitt Lee and Martha Louisa Bowen, the other members of the family being as follows: Lewis Albert Lee; Mary Ann Lee Hansen; Arthur Wolkitt Lee; Blanche Newell Lee; Eugene Harris Lee; Ernest Lee; Alice Ottella Lee Guptill; Franklin Bracken Lee and Wilford DeLoy Lee.


The subject of this sketch received the foundation of his education in the common schools of Tooele and Salt Lake City, Utah, under the old tuition system, and in the schools of Wyoming and Idaho later on in life. As a child he was unusually precocious, was an apt student and at a very tender age developed remark- able taste for music and ability to master musical problems. His natural ability as a musician was soon recognized and he became a brilliant performer and an unusually efficient musical director and teacher which marked his life from his early childhood to the time of his death. In his capacity as a musician he organized and directed a number of choirs and musical organizations, among which were the Iona ward choir, the Lewisville ward choir, the Star Valley stake choir with head- quarters at Afton, Wyoming, and the Mesa stake choir, with headquarters at Mesa, Arizona. His musical ability caused him to be in great demand on every sort of an occasion and wherever he went his services were placed at the disposal of his friends and acquaintances, and his energies were bent toward the development of musical talent among the people wherever he lived. Many of the young people of the state of Idaho owe something to this man's ability for their knowledge and appreciation of music.


Mr. Lee was also a great lover of sports and was an athlete of no mean ability and often contested in such sports as wrestling, boxing, foot racing and baseball, and also interested himself in developing himself and others in athletic sports and events and wherever he went was prominently connected with things of this sort and eventually lost his life as a result of an accident received while playing baseball with his men in an army camp. He also liked dramatics and was always promi- nently connected in the organization and directing of dramatic associations and was known to be very clever in impersonating characters on the stage. While residing in Afton, Wyoming, Mr. Lee organized a ladies' baseball club and under his efficient leadership trained them to a point where they were able to go out and meet organiza- tions of the opposite sex and on several occasions decidedly defeated them.


In 1890, when Mr. Lee was twelve years of age, he moved with his parents, to Salt river valley (Lower Star valley), Wyoming, where his father had taken a home- stead. Six years of his life were spent here, during which time many experiences common to pioneers of a new country came to him. Located in a country where the nearest neighbor lived two miles away, the nearest store twelve miles and the nearest railroad seventy-five miles over a great range of mountains and where the people were snowbound for from four to six months in the year, experiences came to this boy, as well as to his brothers and sisters, which gave to him and them the self-reliance and courage which is so necessary to the life of men and women. Here the family buried Eugene, aged three, and Ernest, newly born, in the winter of 1890, both in one grave, the people of the valley having to break a road to the snow-bound family to attend the last rites. At this time young Thomas nearly lost his life by freezing while making a long trip by team over the almost impassable roads for medicine and assistance.


In 1896 the family moved to Iona, Idaho, where the parents still live. The year following Mr. Lee was called by his church to fill a mission and at the age of nineteen he left his home for that purpose, spending twenty-eight months in this


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work in Texas. Upon his return from his labors as a missionary he maintained his activity in church work and held numerous responsible positions but was especially prominent in his work with church choirs.


On February 5, 1913, Mr. Lee was united in marriage to Emma Kinghorn, of Lewisville, Idaho, the daughter of Alexander and Jane Kinghorn, they being married in Salt Lake City, Utah, and immediately took up their residence in Mesa, Arizona and on July 4, 1914, a son, Thomas Harold, was born.


Not long after his arrival in Mesa, Mr. Lee, following his natural inclinations, became identified with the local company of the Arizona National Guard, he having. enlisted April 24, 1914. Shortly afterward he was chosen as second lieutenant of the company and February 9, 1915, resigned as second lieutenant to accept a commission as first lieutenant of the company. Soon after his appointment as first lieutenant of his company he was called out on strike duty and served at Bisbee, Arizona, for about six months and owing to the unusual tact of Lieutenant Lee as well as the other officers and men of the company, this work was done without the slightest friction between the army men and the miners. The company had only been back a short time when the United States government called out the First Arizona Regiment for duty on the Mexican horder and Lieutenant Lee with his company responded to this call May 12, 1916, being one of the very first regiments to respond. They were mustered into the United States service May 27, 1916. This service extended continuously for about one and one-half years, during which time the men experienced almost every phase of guard duty and Lieutenant Lee, showing himself to be an unusually efficient officer, was assigned during this period to many important tasks. In October, 1917, he with his regiment, was ordered to Camp Kearney, Cali- fornia, where the regiment was designated as the One Hundred and Fifty-eighth Infantry, a part of the Fortieth Division under command of Major General Strong. The regiment was here brought up to war strength, the veterans of this regimens being unusually well prepared to bring the organization up to the highest standard of efficiency from the fact that the men were veterans from a long campaign previous to going to camp. Among his other duties Lieutenant Lee was assigned to train the expert riflemen or sharpshooters of the regiment in company with English and French officers. He also had charge of special athletic activities in his company which was under his supervision up to the time of his death. He was a wonderfully efficient officer, his natural tact and early training having been very useful to him in this work and for several months prior to his death and up to the last he was assigned as the special instructor of all of the officers in the regiment in their night school work. During the last two months of his life he was in active command of the company and was the senior first lieutenant of the regiment. Some time shortly prior to his death he was called up for promotion to a captaincy, passed every examination, both physical and otherwise, and undoubtedly, had he lived, would have forged ahead very rapidly in his promotions.




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