USA > Idaho > History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume II > Part 112
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In 1900 Mr. Johnesse was united in marriage to Miss Mary A. Patten, daughter of F. D. and Emily Patten, who were then residents of Iowa but are now living in Portland, Oregon. Her father was born in the former state and for several years before his removal to the Pacific coast was a chief engineer on the Mississippi river. Mrs. Johnesse is a granddaughter of Colonel Bryan Whitfield and a descendant of Adjutant William Whitfield of the Revolutionary army, who had the distinction of capturing General McDonald, the British commander, at the battle of Morris Creek in North Carolina. Another member of the family was George Whitfield, the dis- tinguished evangelist associated with John Wesley. Mrs. Johnesse is also descended from the William Whitfield family of Whitfield Hall in Cumberland, England. Tra- dition has it that the first member of the Whitfield family went from Denmark into England about the same time as William the Conqueror made his way from Nor- mandy into Britain. On the pages of family history appear many distinguished names. A daughter of Robert Whitfield of Newborough in County Sussex, England, became the wife of the famous Whittington, who seemed to hear the bells say "Turn again, Whittington," thrice lord mayor of London. Elizabeth, a daughter of John Whitfield, whose name also appears in the ancestral records, in 1634 married Sir Edward Culpepper of Surrey, who became prominent in forwarding the early settle- ment of America. In 1707 William Whitfield came to the new world and became the progenitor of a large branch of the family that lived in Virginia in early days and has since become widely scattered throughout the country. To Mr. and Mrs. Johnesse have been born two children, Adaline and Mary Louise. The family occupy a beauti- ful home in Boise which is the center of a cultured society circle.
They are communicants of the Episcopal church, in which Mr. Johnesse has served as vestryman, and in the various branches of the church work they take an active and helpful interest. Mr. Johnesse belongs to the Knights of Pythias and is a member of Boise Lodge, No. 310, B. P. O. E., and of the American Society of
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Mining Engineers. His political allegiance has usually been given to the republican party but he does not hold himself bound by party ties. He was elected to represent his district in the state legislature, where he gave earnest consideration to all vital questions which came up for settlement. His wife has been very prominent in war work and is the president of the Columbia Club, the leading woman's club of Boise. In all that makes for good citizenship, for municipal and cultural progress and for the material development and upbuilding of the state the Johnesse family are deeply interested and for many years Mr. Johnesse has held a place in the front rank of his profession in the northwest and has made valuable contribution to those interests and activities which have figured very largely in connection with the development of the natural resources of Idaho.
WALTER G. SMITHERMAN.
Walter G. Smitherman, conducting business under the name of the Boise Auto Supply Company at the northwest corner of Ninth and Idaho streets in Boise, has been a resident of the capital city for twenty-five years, coming to this state from Oregon. He was born upon a farm in Cass county, Missouri, December 31, 1874, a son of Jesse M. and Matilda E. (Barnard) Smitherman, both now deceased. The parents came to Boise from Oregon in 1895 and spent their remaining days in the capital. They were accompanied by their son Walter, who had been reared and educated in Missouri. He has now been identified with the business interests of Idaho for a quarter of a century. He was associated with W. H. Ridenbaugh in the lumber business for fifteen years and later was in the furniture business for several years. In April, 1918, he purchased the establishment of the Boise Auto Supply Company and has since engaged in handling automobile supplies of every kind, also doing vulcanizing, battery and ignition work. In this connection he has built up a business of substantial proportions.
On the 3d of May, 1917, Mr. Smitherman was married to Miss Gertrude Wil- liams, a native of Seattle, Washington, whose early life, however, was largely passed in Alaska. She was educated chiefly at St. Helen's Hall in Portland.
Mr. Smitherman belongs to the Boise Chamber of Commerce and is much in- terested in the plans of that organization for the development and upbuilding of the city. He likewise helongs to the Yeoman and when leisure permits he enjoys a fishing trip as a means of rest and recreation. In the business circles of his adopted city he has ever maintained an unassailable reputation, and his progress toward the goal of success has resulted from close application and unfaltering energy.
EDWARD E. BUTLER.
Edward E. Butler is a prominent and representative farmer of Ada county who owns and occupies an excellent ranch property of one hundred and sixty acres eleven miles west of Boise and three miles northwest of Meridian. He was born in Martin county, Indiana, November 25, 1870, and is a son of Hiram C. and Mary (Walker) Butler. The mother died when her son Edward was but one year old. The father afterward married again and with his second wife and his children removed to Sedalia, Missouri, in 1878, Edward E. Butler there remaining until twenty years of age. At that time, attracted by the opportunities of the growing northwest, he came to Idaho and has since made his home in Boise and Ada county.
It was in the spring of 1890 that Mr. Butler reached this state, just a few months before Idaho's admission to the Union. He spent fifteen years in the capital city and the remainder of the time has been passed on ranches west of Boise, in the neighborhood in which he still lives. He removed to his present place in 1908, first purchasing eighty acres of land and later investing in another eighty-acre tract .. He has now one of the finest quarter-section ranches in the Boise valley. He erected thereon a beautiful residence in 1913-a two-story structure containing eight rooms and equipped with all modern conveniences and accessories.
On the 28th of July, 1891, Mr. Butler was united in marriage to Miss Elvie
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May Knox, a daughter of the late George D. and Amanda Martha Knox, who are mentioned elsewhere in this work. Mr. and Mrs. Butler have one living child, James William, who was born March 18, 1893, and is now assisting his father in the management and conduct of the ranch, forty acres of which belongs to him. In February, 1919, he returned home from six months' service in the training camps of the American army.
In his political views Mr. Butler is a republican but has never been a candidate for office, preferring to give his time and attention to his private interests. For the past ten years he has been the secretary of the Settlers Irrigation District. He belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America and his wife is a member of the Methodist church. They are people of sterling worth whose many admirable quali- ties have gained them the friendship and kindly regard of all who know them. Everywhere they are spoken of in terms of high respect, while they are loyal to all those interests which make for the material, intellectual and moral progress of the community.
GEORGE F. NESBITT.
George F. Neshitt, a successful farmer of the New Plymouth district. is numbered among the native sons of Payette county, his birth having occurred on the banks of the Payette river, on the old homestead, about two miles from his present residence, on the 31st of December, 1884. His father, J. F. Nesbitt, is one of the oldest and most progressive of the pioneer settlers of the state and has con- tributed in notahle measure to the development and upbuilding of this region. He has taken an active part in promoting agricultural development, in establishing and successfully conducting banking interests and in promoting irrigation projects.
George F. Nesbitt thus had an excellent example to stimulate and encourage him. He acquired his early education in the district school near his birthplace and for two years was a student in the University of Idaho, there pursuing a course in agriculture and language. The day after he attained his majority he homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres where he now resides and he has recently added forty acres to his original holdings, his place being situated five and a quarter miles northeast of New Plymouth. He has developed his land, which is today highly productive, and he now has one hundred acres planted to alfalfa and grain, harvest- ing about three hundred and fifty tons of alfalfa in 1919. He also has upon his place about two hundred head of graded cattle and two registered shorthorn bulls.
In 1909 Mr. Nesbitt married Priscilla Highbotham, a native of Elgin, Oregon, and a daughter of Thomas H. Highbotham, who with his wife crossed the plains in an emigrant wagon. They are now living on Manns creek, in Washington county, Idaho. Mr. and Mrs. Nesbitt are widely and favorably known in their section of the state, enjoying the respect and confidence of all. As a business man he has made steady progress since starting out in life on his own account and is today the owner of valuable and productive property.
HOMER CHENEY.
Within recent years bee culture has developed into one of the important indus- tries of Idaho and along this line of activity Homer Cheney, a resident of New Plymouth, is directing his energies, being now a prominent and successful apiarist of the district. He has resided continuously in New Plymouth since 1904. He is a native of Michigan, his birth having occurred near Lansing, September 26, 1866. His father, Charles Cheney, was a farmer in Michigan, in which state he was born, and there he married Charlotte Groves, a native of Pennsylvania.
Homer Cheney attended the public schools of his native state while spending his youthful days under the parental roof and in Michigan he followed farming until twenty-one years of age, when he removed to western Nebraska and took up a homestead. There he met with almost every misfortune that nature could in- flict, from hail and drought to grasshoppers. Accordingly he left the homestead in disgust and made his way to the Grand Ronde valley of Oregon. where he
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worked as a farm hand for a year, but was beaten out of his wages. He then returned to Michigan, but the lure of the west was upon him and after a year he made his way to the Payette valley of Idaho and in 1904 took up his abode near Fred French, about a mile and a half east and a half mile south of New Plymouth. There he had forty acres of land, of which he afterward sold ten acres, and upon that place he raised fruit and alfalfa. He now leases the property, however, and gives his time to bee culture, in which industry he is interested on an extensive scale. He has five hundred hives, distributed into nine yards, and he finds the business pleasant and profitable. He utilizes the most scientific methods in bee culture and the care of honey, and his business is conducted along the most pro- gressive and enterprising lines.
In 1909 Mr. Cheney was married to Miss Nora Timmerman, a native of Illi- nois, and they have become parents of five children: Martin, Douglas Harrison, Edna Lucile, Edith Marie and Robert Woodrow. The family occupies a fine home on East boulevard, New Plymouth. In politics Mr. Cheney maintains an independ- ent course, voting for men and measures rather than for party but at all times standing for those measures and interests which are most conducive to public wel- fare and progress.
C. L. BURT.
C. L. Burt occupies an attractive home, standing in the midst of a beautiful grove of trees of his own planting. His farm is a valuable property supplied with all modern improvements and equipment, but when it came into his possession in 1891 it was a tract of wild land, covered with a native growth of sagebrush. Mr. Burt has made his home in Payette county since 1891. He was born in Iowa, November 3, 1863, a son of Calvin L. and Harriet (Brown) Burt. The father was born in Portsmouth, Ohio, and was of Scotch and Irish descent. He removed to Coles county, Illinois, and afterward to Appanoose county, Iowa, where he followed blacksmithing and farming until his son, C. L. Burt, was six years of age, when he became a resident of Cedar county, Missouri. Six years later, however, he returned to Iowa and in 1884 went to Vancouver, Washing- ton, where he remained for only a year, after which he again took up his abode in Iowa. His wife was a native of Ohio and both are now deceased.
C. L. Burt accompanied his parents on their various removals and was reared in the usual manner of the farmbred boy, who learns many lessons from the school of experience and from nature as well as in the schools where the common branches of learning are taught. When he returned from Washington to Iowa with his parents he married Miss S. M. Guffey, a daughter of T. H. and Emeline (Roberts) Guffey. He then outfitted a traveling conveyance and with his wife started for Oklahoma but they met parties from there who discouraged them regarding that country and they pro- ceeded instead to Florence, Colorado, where they spent the winter of 1888. The follow- ing spring they started for New Mexico, but when they reached Grand Junction, Colo- rado, they changed their plans and made their destination North Yakima, Washington. They were traveling by way of Idaho and when they reached this state and saw its wonderful possibilities they decided to go no further. Mr. Burt and his father-in-law homesteaded in the section where Mr. Burt now resides. The place at that time was a wild sagebrush waste without water for irrigation purposes and they had to wait four years before water could be turned onto the land. They arrived in the year 1891 and at once resolutely set to work to reclaim the land which they secured and convert it into fertile fields. The beautiful trees which now surround the house were planted in that year and were watered by Mr. Burt, who carried the water for that purpose from a well. Although this was a difficult task he feels well repaid with the fine trees which are now seen upon the place. Mr. Burt gives great credit to his wife for his success, stating that through all the early years with their many hardships, privations and difficulties she kept up the courage of both and never lost her faith in the future. Mr. Burt today has one hundred and twenty acres of land remaining from his original homestead. The homestead claim of Mr. Guffey joined that of Mr. Burt, but he sold his land and now resides with his daughter and son-in-law. Mr. Burt is engaged in the raising of hay, grain, prunes and peaches and in the year 1919 he raised about fifty tons of prunes, producing a net profit of one hundred dollars per ton; fifteen hundred baskets af Elberta peaches, which sold at two dollars per basket, and one hundred and sixty tons of hay, which brought sixteen dollars per ton. All this has been raised on
MR. AND MRS. C. L. BURT
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forty acres of land. By trade Mr. Burt is a carpenter and he has worked along that line to a considerable extent since becoming a resident of Idaho.
To Mr. and Mrs. Burt have been born five children. Olive Blanche, the eldest, is the wife of Eben F. Gove, a landscape artist. Lawrence Ernest, twenty-six years of age, was in the field hospital service in France for fourteen months. Dallas, twenty-four years of age, was also in the field hospital service in France, was promoted to sergeant. and Is a fine specimen of young manhood. Eunice Maude, living at home, is engaged in teaching school. Clarke Earl, eighteen years of age, is also at home.
Mr. Burt has ever been keenly interested in the cause of education and was a member of the school board of his district for many years. He stands for progress and improvement along all lines that have to do with the substantial development of the community. He has been closely associated with irrigation interests and was a direc- tor of the Enterprise-Reed and the Farmers Cooperative Ditch Companies, while for the past four years he has been the president of the Canyon county drainage district, No. 1. There is no phase of the county's development in which he has not been keenly inter- ested, and to all he has given his aid and cooperation to the extent of his ability.
JOHN B. FISHER.
John B. Fisher, engaged in farming in New Plymouth, his business affairs being wisely, carefully and profitably conducted, was born in Russia, March 29, 1870, and came to America in 1884, settling in Hamilton county, Nebraska. The following year his parents, John and Dorothy (Schlichenmeyer) Fisher, came to the United States and made their way to Redwillow county, Nebraska, where they were then joined by their son John, who had been quietly sent out of the country ahead of his parents that he might escape the tyranny of military service. The father homesteaded near the town of Indianola, Nebraska, securing one hundred and sixty acres of wild land in a country where settlers were few. Their home was a sod house, in which they resided for twenty-one years, the father there carry- ing on general farming, specializing in the raising of corn, cattle and hogs.
John B. Fisher had acquired a thorough education in his native country which was of great assistance to him in obtaining a further education in English. He has a scholarly mastery of the English language as manifest in his speech . and in his writings and has developed splendid business qualifications. In 1901 his mother died and in the same year John B. Fisher and his family, accompanied by his father, made their way westward to Snohomish, Washington, where Mr. Fisher followed logging in the lumber district for two years. Then, owing to ill health, he removed to Idaho in 1903 and bought eighty-five acres of sagebrush land one and a quarter miles southwest of New Plymouth. He cleared this land and built thereon a good house of six rooms and also the necessary outbuildings for the shelter of grain and stock. For days he was engaged in clearing away the sagebrush before he could get into the place with a team, for up to that time not a furrow had been turned nor an improvement made on the place and in fact there was little promise that the land would be of any worth as a farm. Today the place is now all in orchard, being devoted to the raising of apples and prunes. At the present time Mr. Fisher is leasing the land to a renter, who in 1919 had a crop of about twenty-five thousand boxes of apples. Mr. Fisher is living upon a place of seventeen acres which is but a short distance from his orchard tract. He had sold his former home to a party who defaulted in his payments, so that he had to take back the property and now owns both places. On the seventeen acre tract he has built one of the most beautiful and up-to-date homes in the country and there are seven rooms and four sleeping porches. It is lighted with electricity and supplied with running water throughout and is heated with a furnace. He has
also installed a complete sewerage system. Most of his seventeen acre tract of land is intensively cultivated save a small portion used as pasture. He has twelve Hol- stein cows, which he milks, and eleven thoroughbred Durham cows and calves. He also raises some hogs and sold twenty-two head a short time ago for three hundred and seventy-five dollars. In addition to his other property he has a four hundred and eleven acre stock ranch in Long valley and is planning soon to engage extensively in stock raising.
In 1893 Mr. Fisher was married to Miss Rosa Conrad, a native of Russia and
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a daughter of Jacob and Rosa (Lutz) Conrad, who in 1884 became residents of Nebraska. Mr. and Mrs. Fisher have become parents of two children: William Henry, who married Adalaide Oster, a native of Payette, her parents being also natives of Russia but now residents of Payette county; and Lydia Catherina, who is at home.
Mr. Fisher has always taken a deep and helpful interest in everything per- taining to the welfare and progress of the community in which he makes his home. He was actively interested in the election of Governor Davis and worked hard to promote his success. He has served as school director in his district and has ever been a stalwart champion of Idaho and its possibilities and opportunities. He is ever willing to assist a neighbor in any possible way, is a progressive citizen, and his efforts have been a helpful factor in the development of the district in which he makes his home.
HENRY D. DURFEE.
Forty-one years have come and gone since Henry D. Durfee became a resident of Idaho and he is now engaged in ranching near Almo. He was born at Mound Fort, Utah, now Ogden, February 6, 1859, and is a son of Henry and Jane (Bar- ker) Durfee, the former a native of Ohio, while the latter was born in England. The father crossed the plains to Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1848 and afterward made several trips, assisting immigrants on the long journey over the plains to Utah. After a time he settled at Ogden and subsequently removed to the Cache valley, where he took up government land, built a log house and began the development of a ranch upon which he lived for ten years. He then went to Beaver Dam, Utah, in Boxelder county, where he resided for a period of six years, giving his atten- tion to farming during that period. He next went to Connor Springs, Utah, and in 1882 removed to Almo, Cassia county, Idaho, where he took up school land. He proved up on this property and spent his remaining days thereon, his death occurring when he had reached the advanced age of eighty-five years. He was a democrat in his political views and his religious faith was long that of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The mother is still living at the age of eighty-one years.
Henry D. Durfee accompanied his parents on their various removals and in 1879 came to Idaho, where he took up a ranch at Shirley's Cove, north of Almo, obtaining one hundred and sixty acres which he tilled and improved. Year after year he continued the work of cultivating and managing his ranch and resided thereon until fifteen years ago, when he sold that property and obtained his present place under the desert act, acquiring two hundred and thirty-nine acres. He has largely given his attention to stock raising.
Thirty-two years ago Mr. Durfee was united in marriage to Miss Ida Nicholas, a native of Willard, Utah, and a daughter of Joseph and Nancy (Allen) Nicholas, who went to Utah from Ohio at an early day in the development of the former state. Mr. and Mrs. Durfee have become parents of ten children: Ivy N., Jennie, Joseph, Vere, Hazel, Myrtle, Melvin, Ralph, Ada and Clifford.
The family adhere to the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints and in politics Mr. Durfee is a republican. He has served as school trustee and as water commissioner and he is keenly interested in all that has to do with the welfare and progress of his section of the state, lending hearty aid and support to all measures and movements which he believes will advance the gen- eral welfare.
WILLIAM BROWER CONNER.
William Brower Conner, a well known pioneer clothing merchant of Boise, who is proprietor of the Toggery on Main street, was born in Berks county, Penn- sylvania, near Reading, March 3, 1865, and is a son of Willoughby Conner, a Civil war veteran, who was born in the Keystone state and throughout his life was employed as an iron worker and smelter, passing away in Pennsylvania many years
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ago at the age of fifty. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Mary Amanda Brower, was born in Pennsylvania and died in that state. in June, 1918, at the advanced age of eighty-three years. On both sides the family comes of Revolu- tionary war ancestry and William Conner, an uncle of William B. Conner of this review, was killed in the Civil war. William B. Conner was one of a family of four sons and four daughters and all are yet living in Pennsylvania with the exception of William B. and his brother, Brower Conner.
In the schools of Berks county, Pennsylvania, William Brower Conner pursued his education and when twenty years of age made his way westward to Chicago, where he was employed by Marshall Field & Company for a period of seven years. He then continued his westward journey with Boise as his destination and for thirty years he has resided in this city, being engaged in mercantile pursuits throughout the entire period. With two partners, he established the first exclusive dry goods store in Boise and for the past ten years has owned and conducted the Toggery, being sole proprietor of this well known and popular clothing establish- ment. He carries a large and attractive line and his progressive and reliable busi- ness methods are bringing to him substantial success.
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