USA > Idaho > History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume II > Part 11
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DAVID E. RATHBUN.
David E. Rathbun, attorney at law of Idaho Falls, was admitted to the bar in June, 1899, and since 1911 has practiced in this state. He was born in Grant City, Worth county, Missouri, in July, 1872, and is a son of George M. and Jane (Garringer) Rathbun, who were natives of Indiana. The father was a contractor and builder who in early life removed westward to Missouri and in 1872 became a resident of Sedan, Chautauqua county, Kansas, where he has since made his home. He is a veteran of the Civil war, having enlisted as a member of Company C, Nineteenth Indiana Volun- teer Infantry, with which he served for four years and three months. He was poisoned by a rebel woman, who put arsenic in the water, and thus hundreds of the soldiers were killed. Mr. Rathbun was unconscious for days on the field, but eventually his strong constitution triumphed and he is still living at Sedan, Kansas, at the advanced age of eighty-four years. His wife passed away in April, 1907.
David E. Rathbun was but a young child when his parents removed to the Sun- flower state and there he was reared and educated. He afterward took up the pro- fession of teaching, which he followed for nine years, and during that period he de- voted his leisure to reading law under the direction of Colonel Nichols and was ad- mitted to the bar in June, 1899. He then opened an office at Sedan, where he continued in practice until 1911, when, seeking the opportunities of the west, he came to Idaho Falls and was admitted to the bar of this state in the following February. He has since practiced in the Idaho courts and has also been called back to Kansas for the trial of several cases and has been heard in the Utah courts. He is a man of recog- nized ability in his profession, and while in Kansas he served as county attorney. He is also well known in financial circles, being a stockholder in the Idaho Falls Na- tional Bank and in the First National Bank of Ririe, Idaho, and a stockholder in the Darlington Land & Irrigation Company. He likewise has farming interests.
In May, 1894, Mr. Rathbun was married to Miss Lillie Foster, and they have become the parents of a daughter, Anna May, whose birth occurred in September, 1905. Po- litically Mr. Rathbun has always been a democrat, giving stanch support to the party. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Brotherhood of Amer- ican Yeomen and he has membership in the Baptist church.
HON. CHARLES F. REDDOCH.
Hon. Charles F. Reddoch, judge of the third judicial district of Idaho and for ten years a representative of the Boise bar, was born in southern Mississippi, October 3, 1879, at a place called Reddoch, so named in honor of the family. He is the eldest of eight children, five sons and three daughters, whose parents were James H. and Susan A. (Huff) Reddoch, who were also natives of the same section of Mississippi, which district is in Jones county. The father is still living in Mississippi but the mother passed away in 1902. The ancestry in the paternal line is Scotch-Irish and in the maternal line Irish and Norwegian. At an early day representatives of both the Reddoch and Huff families lived in South Carolina, whence a removal was made to Mississippi at an early period in the development of that state. Members of both families largely devoted their attention to agricultural pursuits.
Charles F. Reddoch was reared upon a Mississippi cotton plantation and in his youthful days acquired a public and high school education. He afterward took up the study of law in Millsaps College at Jackson, Mississippi, where he completed two years' work in one. Finishing his course there, he was accorded his diploma in 1904 and during the succeeding five years he devoted his time and attention to law practice in Williamsburg and Hattiesburg, Mississippi. In 1909 he arrived in Boise and has since been an active member of the bar of this city. He quickly grasps the salient points of a case, to which he gives due prominence, and his application of legal principles is
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seldom if ever at fault. By appointment of the city council he served as city attorney of Boise from May 27, 1912, until December 31, 1915, and his record in that office was a most creditable one.
On the 9th of May, 1913, Mr. Reddoch was married to Miss Flora Herney, of Hast- ings, Michigan, and to them has been born a daughter, Margaret Edith, whose birth occurred November 2, 1917.
Judge Reddoch is a republican in politics and as the candidate of the party was elected to his present position in November, 1918. He has membership in the Catho- lic church and with the Knights of Columbus and is also identified with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and the Boise Commercial Club. He turns to fishing and hunting for recreation when leisure permits, and he keeps in close touch with the trend of professional progress through his membership in the Ada County, the Idaho State and the American Bar Associations.
JOHN J. GRAY.
On the 21st of March, 1920, John J. Gray passed on to "that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns." He was then but fifty-one years of age and it seemed that he should have been spared as a factor in the activities of Idaho for many years to come; yet within the years of his residence in this state his life was one of signal service through the vigor which he lent to the pioneer era in making this region habitable, in bringing its resources to light and in stamping his intensely practical ideas upon one of its chief industries-that of sheep raising. Such careers are too near us now for their significance to be appraised at its true value, but the future will be able to trace the tremendous effect of their labors upon the development of the institutions of their time. The possibilities of the attainment of notable success afforded in the United States to industry and enterprise were never better illustrated than in the career of Mr. Gray. Coming to Idaho in young manhood, he worked for his living from an early age, dependent on his own hands for whatever the world was to bring him of enjoyment or honors. He died possessed of wealth and received and merited the high regard of all with whom he came in contact. In his later years he removed from Bellevue to Boise, where he owned and occupied one of the finest residences of the capital city. He came to Idaho in 1887 from Utah county, Utah, and began herding sheep in Cassia county, thus taking the initial step which brought him to the position that he occupied as one of the foremost sheepmen of the state.
Mr. Gray was born upon a farm in Utah county, Utah, March 23, 1869, and was a son of Joseph R. and Elizabeth (Marshall) Gray, who were of the Mormon faith and who died when he was a little child, his father's death occurring when the son was but six years of age, while the mother passed away a few months later. Thus left an orphan, he was reared in the home of an elder half-brother, James Gray, who was also a resident of Utah county. At the age of ten years he began work on a ranch in his native state, working for his board on a place owned by Dick Norman, two miles from Lehi, Utah. He afterward assisted in building the bath house and in constructing the fish ponds and making other improvements at Hot Springs, Utah, four miles from Salt Lake City, being thus employed when but twelve years of age. In the school of experience, however, he learned many valuable lessons and he became a man of broad, practical business educa- tion, who in the conduct of his affairs displayed notably sound judgment and keen fore- sight. During a portion of his youth he worked in a logging camp and he also did some railroad work as a section crew helper. He was but seventeen years of age when he came to Idaho and began work as a sheep herder, being thus employed between the ages of seventeen and twenty-one years, receiving thirty-five dollars per month for two years' labor and forty dollars per month during the last year in which he herded sheep. On attaining his majority he purchased a fourth interest in twenty-four hundred sheep, thus starting in business independently in 1891. In 1893 the widespread financial panic which swept over the country brought disaster to the sheep raisers of Idaho and he soon found himself without funds. In fact his condition was worse than that, for he was left not only without means but with an indebtedness. He was undiscouraged, however, and never lost faith in the sheep industry, but with resolute purpose sought to regain a business footing and eventually became one of Idaho's wealthy men, having "made his stake" in the sheep and cattle industry and through the buying and selling of Idaho lands in Blaine and Minidoka counties. At one period he owned a controlling interest in as
JOHN J. GRAY
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many as ninety thousand head of sheep. In September, 1917, however, he closed out the greater part of his sheep and cattle interests for a sum close to the three-quarters of a million mark. He still remained a member of the National Wool Growers Association and retained important live stock interests which returned to him a gratifying annual income. At the organization of the Overland National Bank in 1917 he became one of the stockholders and a director of that institution.
On the 6th of November, 1894, at Oakley, Cassia county, Idaho, Mr. Gray was married to Miss Goldie E. Cummins, who was born at Grantsville, Utah, January 21, 1877. They became the parents of six children, of whom four are living. Clarice, the eldest daughter, who obtained her education at St. Teresa's Academy, Boise, is married to Walter J. Gooding, of Gooding, Idaho, who was interested with Mr. Gray in the sheep business. The second member of the family, John Golden, received his education at Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, California. He married Miss Elizabeth Gallimore, of San Jose, California, and was also associated with his father in the sheep business. Hazel Rose, a young lady of eighteen, is attending St. Teresa's Academy of Boise and is residing at home. Jack Clifton, nine years of age, is the youngest of the surviving children. Two daughters, Zilfa and Erma, have passed away, the former at the age of four months and the latter at the age of twelve years and seven months, her death occurring in Los Angeles in the winter of 1919, which cast a gloom over the entire family.
The interests of Mr. Gray centered in his family and he counted no personal effort on his part too great if it would enhance the welfare and happiness of the members of his own household. Removing to Boise, he purchased what was known as the W. E. Pierce home at the corner of Twenty-first and Irene streets, for which he paid twenty thousand dollars. This Is one of the palatial residences of the city. It was erected by Mr. Pierce, a prominent real estate dealer and business man of Boise, who spared no expense in the construction of the building or in ornamenting and beautifying the grounds. The premises cover a full city block, in the midst of which stands a large and handsome two-story residence. It is thoroughly modern in every particu- lar and contains the latest equipment and conveniences known to architecture which are in keeping with the home, and it is surrounded by fine lawns and ornamental trees and shrubbery.
Fraternally Mr. Gray was a Mason and a member of the Eastern Star. He likewise held membership with the Elks and with the Eagles, and politically he was a repub- lican. He never sought to figure prominently in any public light but concentrated his attention and efforts upon his business. Unfaltering diligence was supplemented by sound judgment in his career and his progressiveness brought him prominently to the front until his opinions were largely accepted as authority upon matters of sheep raising in Idaho. Starting out to earn his own living when a lad of but ten years, he steadily worked his way upward, overcoming the drawbacks of poverty and lack of education, until his self-acquired knowledge as well as his self-acquired wealth placed him in the ranks of Idaho's representative and honored men. For a third of a century John J. Gray had been a resident of Idaho when on the 21st of March, 1920, death claimed him. He had lived and labored for the upbuilding of the west, had measured up to high standards in his business career, in his love and devotion to his family and in his loyalty to his country, thus displaying the qualities that mark the line of a noble life. He commanded the respect and enjoyed the friendship of all, and he leaves to the present generation an example that is indeed worthy of emulation.
RUSSELL G. WILSON.
Russell G. Wilson is a partner in the firm of Wilson Brothers, dealers in dry goods, hardware and shoes at Kimberly, Twin Falls county. He was born in Michigan on the 4th of August, 1882, and is a son of Edgar and Julia (Munger) Wilson, the for- mer a native of Ohio and the latter of Michigan, in which state their marriage was .
celebrated. The father followed the occupation of farming in Michigan until 1874, when he removed with his family to Hamilton county, Nebraska, where he homesteaded land and began the development of a farm, upon which he resided for twenty-eight years, converting it into valuable property. In the spring of 1911 he came to Idaho and settled upon a farm south of Kimberly, securing one hundred and twenty acres of land, which he further developed and improved until 1917, when he retired from
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active business life and took up his abode in Kimberly, where both he and his wife are living at the age of seventy-three years. His political endorsement has always been given to the democratic party.
Russell G. Wilson spent his boyhood days in Nebraska, where he remained to the age of twenty-six years, and he attended business college at York, that state. He was afterward employed in the general passenger office of the Union Pacific Railroad at Omaha, Nebraska, for five years and in 1909 he arrived in Kimberly, where he en- tered into partnership with A. G. Ellis in the conduct of a general mercantile business. They started in a small way but the business steadily increased and after two years Mr. Wilson purchased his partner's interests and conducted the store alone until the spring of 1913, when he sold the business to his brother Frank, formerly of Illinois, who conducted the store for sixteen months. In the fall of 1915, however, Russell G. Wilson again became proprietor and in the fall of 1918 he and his two brothers, Frank and Arthur J., bought out the interest of N. W. Swearingen, who was asso- ciated with Arthur J. Wilson, and established the business now conducted under the firm style of Wilson Brothers. They erected a new building in 1916 with a floor space of twenty-five thousand square feet. They handle an extensive line of general mer- chandise, and their progressive business methods and thorough reliability have won for them a very liberal patronage. In connection with the conduct of the store they engage in buying hogs, cattle and sheep, which constitutes an important source of revenue to them.
In 1907 Russell G. Wilson was married to Miss Anna L. Wrieth, a daughter of Hans and Lena Wrieth and a native of Germany. They have two children, Lilah and Jean- nette. Mr. Wilson belongs to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and the Modern Woodmen of America. In his political views he is a democrat and was the first mayor of the town. He has also been connected with the school board and has been an in- fluential factor in shaping the policy and directing the public interests of Kimberly. Alert and energetic, he carries forward to successful completion whatever he under- takes and in his vocabulary there is no such word as fail. With the passing years he has developed a business of large proportions, and his energy and enterprise have constituted the broad foundation upon which he has built his success.
HON. JOSEPH THOMAS PENCE.
Hon. Joseph Thomas Pence, forceful and resourceful and always careful to con- from his practice to the highest standard of professional ethics, has made for himself an enviable place as a practitioner at the Boise bar, and appreciation of his loyalty and capability on the part of his fellow citizens led to his selection for mayor in 1909. His name thus figures in connection with the records of the capital. He was born on a farm near Ottumwa, Wapello county, Iowa, November 9, 1869, and is a representative of an old American family established in Pennsylvania during an early period in the colonization of the new world. His earliest American ancestor, Peter Pence, was with the forces under Washington and was with that section of the army which followed General Braddock on his retreat from Fort Duquesne. He was afterward in active service in the Shenandoah valley of Virginia. William Pence, the father of our im- mediate subject, was born in Pennsylvania and was but a boy at the time the family removed from the Keystone state to Iowa in 1839, traveling across the country with team and wagon. They cast in their lot with the pioneer settlers of Iowa and aided materially in the development and upbuilding of the state. William Pence, who was reared amid the conditions and hardships of frontier life, became one of the substan- tial farmers and stock growers of Iowa and after residing there for many years took up his abode at Big Piney, Lincoln county, Wyoming. Born on the 4th of May, 1835, he neared the eightieth milestone on life's journey and died February 13, 1915. In early manhood he wedded Miss Mary Thomas, who was born in Wales and was brought to America in her girlhood by her parents, who also became pioneer residents of Iowa. Mrs. Pence passed away in Wyoming in 1905 at the age of seventy years. There were but two children in the family, the elder being Margaret, who became the wife of E. R. Noble, of Lincoln county, Wyoming.
Joseph T. Pence, of this review, mastered the elementary branches of learning taught in district schools of Iowa and afterward attended Parsons College at Fairfield, Iowa, from which he was graduated in 1892, winning the Bachelor of Arts degree. He
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then took up the profession of teaching and for four years held the chair of classical lan- guages in Graceland College at Lamoni, Iowa. He regarded this, however, as an initial step to other professional labor and in 1898 entered the law department of Georgetown University at Washington, D. C., where he studied for about a year and then became a law student in Drake University at Des Moines, Iowa, where he won the Bachelor of Laws degree upon graduation with the class of 1900.
It was in the same year that Mr. Pence came to Idaho, taking up his abode in Boise on the 23d of April of that year. Throughout the intervening period he has. remained in active practice in the capital, and unfaltering industry, close study and thorough knowledge of the law have won him a well earned reputation as a leading member of the Boise bar. He holds to the highest professional standards and believes it the duty of every lawyer to assist the court in arriving at a just and equitable decision.
Mr. Pence was married January 17, 1906, to Miss Lucia Leonard, a daughter of Emeric and Caroline Leonard, of Boise, and to them has been born a son, Joseph T., Jr., whose birth occurred May 10, 1907. The parents attend the Protestant Episcopal church, of which Mrs. Pence is an active member, and to the support of the church Mr. Pence makes liberal contributions. He has membership with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, and in the first named has filled all of the offices in the local lodge. He is ever interested in community affairs and in the welfare of the state and in 1902 received appointment from Governor Mor- rison to the office of trustee of the Idaho State Normal School at Albion. He ren- dered capable service in that connection, as was indicated In his reappointment by Governor Gooding in 1904 and 1908, so that his term of office continued until March, 1913. His political endorsement has always been given to the democratic party, and in 1909 his fellow townsmen sought his services in administering the affairs of the city, electing him to the office of mayor for a two years' term, during which time the Julia Davis park was improved and various needed reforms and public measures brought about. He has been very earnest in support of all war activities and served as vice chairman and also chairman of the State Council of Defense and member of its executive committee, in which connection his labors have been far-reaching and re- sultant.
PAUL T. PETERSON.
Paul T. Peterson, city attorney of Idaho Falls, was born in De Kalb, Illinois, January 30, 1892, a son of Gustaf T. and Anna (Peterson) Peterson, who are natives of Sweden. The father came to America when twenty-two years of age and for a time was a resident of Iowa. He afterward for a time attended a theological seminary at Chicago and has for the past thirty years been actively connected with the ministry. In 1909 he came to Idaho and has filled the pastorate of the church at New Sweden, four and a half miles from Idaho Falls, throughout the intervening period of ten years. His wife is also living.
Paul T. Peterson was reared and educated largely at Pilot Mound, Iowa, but com- pleted a high school course at Idaho Falls. A year later he entered the University of Idaho, where he pursued the study of law and was graduated in 1915. He then returned home and was associated with the prosecuting attorney, James S. Byers, for nine months. At the end of that time he opened an office and continued in the private practice of law until the spring of 1918, when he enlisted and entered the officers train- ing camp. In August he was commissioned a second lieutenant and was stationed at Camp Lewis, Washington, until discharged in December, 1918. He then returned home and opened an office, since which time he has devoted his attention to practice here.
On the 16th of May, 1919, Mr. Peterson was appointed city attorney and is now ac- ceptably filling that office. He possesses a fine law library, with the contents of which he is largely familiar, and he is a close and discriminating student of his profession, preparing his cases with great thoroughness and care.
Mr. Peterson is now president of the Great War Veterans' Association of Bonne- ville county, which was the first county to be organized. He was one of eight state delegates to the national convention at St. Louis for the organization of all soldiers and sailors who took part in the great war. He belongs to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, gives his political allegiance to the republican party and his religious
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adherence to the Swedish Mission church. He is chairman of the citizens non-partisan party for a two years' term and takes a most active and helpful interest in everything that pertains to public progress and civic betterment.
RICHARD FREDERICK BICKNELL.
Richard Frederick Bicknell, well known in business circles of Boise as the president of the Overland National Bank, has also been most active in support of government in- terests, serving as the federal food administrator for the state of Idaho and as a member of the executive committee of the State Council of Defense. He was born in the province of Ontario, Canada, October 11, 1863, a son of Richard and Electa (Parrott) Bicknell and a representative of one of the old New England families founded in Massachusetts early in the seventeenth century by an ancestor who came from England. The family history has been published by Thomas W. Bicknell, of Providence, Rhode Island. Richard Bicknell was born in Ontario, Canada, in 1806 and became a farmer and live stock breeder. He there married Electa Parrott, who was also born in On- tario, a daughter of Jonathan Parrott, whose birth occurred in Utica, New York, and who was of Pennsylvania Dutch descent. The maternal grandmother of Richard F. Bicknell was a member of the Campbell family descended from the well known Scotch clan of that name. Both the Bicknell and Parrott families were represented in the Revolutionary war. Richard Bicknell continued a resident of Ontario, Canada, until his death, which occurred when he had reached the age of seventy-nine years, and his widow still resides there at the advanced age of eight-two.
Richard Frederick Bicknell, whose name introduces this review, was reared on an Ontario farm and acquired a public and high school education, after which he was grad- uated from a business college at Belleville, Ontario. He was but sixteen years of age when his father took him into partnership in his farming and live stock interests, which were extensive, including a thousand acres of good land, in which the son was given a third interest. Their business relations were continued until the father's death in 1889. R. F. Bicknell of this review then located on a two hundred and twenty acre farm of his own near Bicknell's Corners, Ontario, which district was named for his family. He continued to cultivate that tract of land for several years but in 1890 rented his farm and became the owner of a general store at Camden East, near Bicknell's Corners. He conducted business there for seven years, or from 1890 until 1897, carrying on a trade in general merchandising and also engaging in the grain and live stock business. He bought everything that the farmers in the vicinity had to sell and kept everything in his stock which would supply their wants from a needle to a threshing machine. In 1897 he disposed of his store in order to concentrate his efforts and attention upon the live stock business, with which he had been identified from his youth. In 1899 he crossed the border into the United States and after giving his attention to the live stock business in Iowa and Illinois for two years he removed to Chicago in 1901 and there continued his live stock interests in connection with the Union Stock Yards until 1904. In that year he came to Idaho, where he has since re- sided, carrying on business throughout the entire intervening period and by his activities contributing to the development of the state. In 1907 he removed his family to Boise. He owned and operated ranch interests in various counties of Idaho, where he engaged in raising sheep and cattle, but later he disposed of all of his ranch interests and turned his attention to the banking business. He had in the meantime become one of the organizers of the Overland National Bank of Boise in 1915 and was elected its vice president, continuing to serve in that capacity until Jan- uary 1, 1918, when he was chosen president and is now the chief executive officer of that institution, which is recognized as one of the strong moneyed concerns of the state. He is also the president of the Boise Live Stock Loan Company, which was organized March 1, 1917, with a capital of two hundred thousand dollars. He is a director of the Idaho State Life Insurance Company and is accounted one of Boise's men of sound judgment and keen discrimination in business affairs, wisely directing his individual interests and most carefully safeguarding the interests entrusted to his care.
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