History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume II, Part 116

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 116

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M. J. Devers attended the common schools to the age of twelve years and then decided to provide for his own support, first hiring out to carry water for contract laborers at twenty-eight cents per day. Later for a time he drove a mule team and subsequently became time-keeper for men who were working in the mines. He next went with a number of men who were making coal breakers, but after three days his mother had him discharged and, taking him home, started him again to school. The work of the school room, however, proved irksome and after a brief period he again abandoned his textbooks and secured a position as delivery boy in a general merchandise store. He later entered a wholesale store as shipping clerk and then became collector for the firm, remaining until 1886, when he came west with the intention of going to Alaska, but his brother, P. A. Devers, who was living in Caldwell, Idaho, persuaded him to remain here. His brother had preceded him to Caldwell several years.

In the spring of 1887 M. J. Devers went out with a surveying party that surveyed the Sebree ditch, now controlled by the Farmers Cooperative Ditch Company, of which he has become the president. He was in the clothing business from 1905 until 1914, conducting his interests under the name of the Caldwell Clothing Company, and was in the lumber trade under the firm name of the Idaho Lumber Company for a few years following 1910. He exercised his desert claim of preemption rights on four hun- dred acres at Ten Davis on the Oregon Short Line Railroad, which farm he still owns and operates, carrying on general agricultural pursuits and also raising sheep and cattle, but gives his attention principally to hogs. He takes great pride in his farm, which is a very attractive place, forming one of the most pleasing features of the land- scape. The trees which he planted are now tall and stately, standing as silent sentinels to the march of time. In years gone by deer crossed his place in great numbers and there was every evidence of frontier life. He was the first to raise clover seed, which he threshed with a horse power threshing machine and sold for nineteen cents a pound in 1895, the yield being about six bushels to the acre. About one-half of this,

M. J. DEVERS

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however, was lost in the threshing. He has likewise been Identified with real estate activity in that he platted the Devers addition in the northeast section of Caldwell, where he has since sold a number of lots. He now has a fine home in that addition, which is one of the attractive residence sections of the city.

Mr. Devers was united in marriage to Miss May E. Kelleher, a daughter of Daniel Kelleher, of Caldwell, who was living retired from active business at the time of his death, which occurred December 25, 1896. His wife, who hore the maiden name of Ellen O'Brien, is also deceased. Mrs. Devers was born in Joliet, Illinois, and by her marriage has become the mother of a daughter, Honore T., who is on the stage with a stock company of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and has also been in the movies. She was born on the ranch and is an ardent exponent of the virtues of Idaho and has a great love for the sagebrush country. She was fourteen years of age when her father took her back to Pennsylvania and showed her the district in which his hoy- hood was passed.

The experiences in the life of Mr. Devers have been indeed broad and varied. Dependent upon his own resources from an early age, he was as a boy a collector for an Insurance company in Pennsylvania who asked him to put up a bond, which he refused to do, whereupon they inquired if his parents would not put up a bond and Mr. Devers replied that he would not ask them to. Notwithstanding this, he was given the posi- tion and in this, as in every other relation of life, was most faithful and trustworthy. Throughout his entire career his word has been as good as any bond solemnized by signature or seal. He was the president of the American National Bank of Caldwell, which failed through the dishonesty of its cashier, but the stockholders, largely through the influence of Mr. Devers, saved one hundred per cent to the depositors. This one act is characteristic of his entire life. Men have come to know that what he says he will do; that his promise is as good as any written contract and that he values his own self-respect and the esteem of his fellowmen more than wealth or position. While he and his wife now reside in Caldwell, they have a deep seated love for the old home farm, which Mr. Devers says he will never let go out of the family. He is a fine, genial gentleman, always hospitable, always courteous and always loyal to any trust.

W. F. HOWARD.

W. F. Howard, a leading live stock dealer of Idaho, makes his home at Cald- well, near which city he is engaged in the raising of pure bred cattle and hogs, of which he has owned some of the finest in the west. He was born in Pontiac, Liv- ingston county, Illinois, September 19, 1868, and there attended the graded schools until he reached the age of sixteen years. He afterward devoted his attention to agricultural pursuits under the direction of his father, W. F. Howard, who was one of the most extensive farmers and stock raisers of the state. He continued with his father until he reached the age of twenty-one years, but in the meantime the family removed to Kansas, where they lived for four years, afterward returning to Illinois. The mother of W. F. Howard, Jr., who in her maidenhood was Miss A. E. Hays, was born in Illinois and died in 1915.

On attaining his majority W. F. Howard of this review left home and he- came foreman of the city gas plant at Pittsburgh, Kansas, where he remained for a year and a half and then returned to the old homestead in Illinois. Three years later he married and began raising live stock and engaged in farming on his own account. At the end of five years he removed to Idaho, making Roswell his des- tination, and since 1901 he has continued a resident of this state. He has devoted his attention to general farming and to the raising of pure bred stock, including Percheron horses, shorthorn cattle and Poland China hogs for breeding purposes only. At present he is devoting his entire energies to hogs and cattle, his sons, however, continuing the raising of pure bred horses. Mr. Howard has owned some of the finest stock in the west and ships throughout the entire northwest section of the country. He owns Sammy, the grand champion Poland China boar of the northwest, also the sow Silver Bell, likewise a Poland China grand champion of 1917, and Hannah's Big Molly, grand champion in 1918, which he has since sold. Lady Roswell, another fine bred sow, he sold at Portland, Oregon, in 1918 for three hundred dollars, the highest price ever paid for a sow west of the Rockies. He

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has sold thirty-one head of hogs since August 1, 1918, at an average of seventy-six dollars and ninety-three cents each. There were six purple ribbon winners at the State Fair at Boise in 1918, Mr. Howard carrying off every one of the prizes of- fered. He has thirty-two head of pure hred shorthorns and was the first man in Caldwell to sell cattle on the halter. At one time he owned a team of four Per- cherons, weighing from two thousand to twenty-one hundred and fifty pounds each, and a stallion weighing twenty-two hundred and fifty pounds. He has done every- thing in his power to improve the stock raised, and standards have been largely promoted through his efforts. He is now the vice president of the Union Stock Yards. He owns a tract of eighty acres near Roswell and eight acres within the city limits of Caldwell.

In 1894 Mr. Howard was united in marriage to Miss Namine Umphenour, of Pontiac, Illinois, and they have become the parents of two daughters and four sons: Henry Merle, a lieutenant of Company D, One Hundred and Sixteenth Engi- neers, who joined the colors as a private when twenty-three years of age and won his promotion, having two years' experience at Moscow and seeing actual service on the horder; Frank Leslie, twenty-one years of age, who is married and follows farming; Della Fern, a stenographer in the Caldwell Flour Mills; Seymour Brant, aged twelve; and Edgar Judson, aged nine, both of whom are attending school; and Emma May, who is the youngest. The children all possess musical talent of an instrumental and vocal character, which they have inherited from their father. Music, therefore, is a continual feature of their home and adds much to the delight of their guests.

Mr. Howard ranks with the wide-awake, alert and enterprising business men of his section, who is not only one of the most prominent stock breeders of the west but is also a director of the Western National Bank of Caldwell. His plans are carefully formulated and promptly executed, and whatever he undertakes he carries forward to successful completion.

JOHN B. NEWPORT.

John B. Newport, actively interested in farming in Canyon county, near Notus, was born in Dallas county, Missouri, September 18, 1865. He attended the public schools there to the age of seventeen and when a youth of eighteen years he came to Idaho, arriving in Caldwell on the 8th of March, 1884. He has since been identified with the northwest and has become an active factor in the farming and stock raising circles of Canyon county. He went to work for C. P. Lee and W. L. Williams, farming in the Dixie country, about three miles south of the present site of Notus. After four months he began work on the Nat Graves ranch for Charley Simpson. Nat Graves was at that time a large horse raiser in this section and later sold his interests for one hundred thousand dollars and returned to Arkansas. In the fall of 1885 Mr. Newport was taken ill and was unable to engage in work until the following spring, when he once more took up farming, being thus active until 1886, when he returned to his old home at Buffalo, Dallas county, Missouri. He remained there for more than a year and then once more came to Idaho, taking up his abode at his present location. He has dug potatoes in fields that are now the streets of Parma and he has witnessed almost the entire development and growth of this section. After eighteen months he went to Puget Sound and was there employed in the lumber woods. In the following spring he removed to Tacoma, Washington, where he worked in a sawmill until July. He was next in the Palouse country and took charge of the threshing outfit of George Clughnean. thus working until November 13, 1890, when he again visited his old home in Missouri. He had received a letter from his sister stating that if he wished to see his mother alive he must come immediately. She lived, however, until the following June and in February Mr. Newport returned to Idaho, where he secured a position with M. R. Jenkins, who was farming near Middleton. Six months later he again went to the Palouse district in Washington and took charge of a threshing outfit for Jake Arrowsmith. In November, 1891, he went to Portland, where he remained during the winter, and in 1892 went by steamer to San Fran- cisco. When the harvest season was on he took charge of a combined header and harvester, with thirty-two mules, for Thomas Pope, in the San Joaquin valley,

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near Stockton, California. After the threshing season was over he hauled and loaded grain at Willow, California, for about fifty days in the employ of Jim Boyd and then returned to the employ of Thomas Pope to put in his fall grain, remaining with him until November, 1892, when he returned to Parma, Idaho. Here he worked on the Goodhue ranch until the fall of 1893, when he began operating the threshing outfit for Stockton Brothers. In the spring of 1894 he rented a ranch and engaged in farming on his own account for three years, during which time the profits of his labor brought him sufficient capital to enable him then to purchase a farm of one hundred and thirty-five acres near Notus, where he continuously cultivated his fields and raised stock until 1911. In that year he rented the farm and took up his residence at Notus. At one time he had as many as two hundred head of stock on his place and his farming and stock raising interests were most carefully and successfully conducted. At Notus he engaged in the hardware and implement business until 1915, when he sold out and has since devoted his attention to the sale of threshing machinery for Altman & Taylor of Mansfield, Ohio.

On the 30th of November, 1893, Mr. Newport was married to Miss Dora Stock- ton, of Parma, Idaho, who died May 28, 1911, leaving three children: John L., twenty-four years of age, who is now married and conducts a garage at Wilder; James M., twenty-one years of age, a fireman on the Oregon Short Line Railroad; and Lolo V., who is attending the high school in Caldwell. On the 17th of Febru- ary, 1916, Mr. Newport wedded Mrs. Lillian (Powell) Culbertson, the widow of Jesse Culbertson, of Baker City, Oregon, who by her former marriage had a daughter, Jessie June, now ten years of age. To Mr. and Mrs. Newport has been born a son, Paul.

Since first coming to the northwest when eighteen years of age Mr. Newport has in many ways been identified with the development work west of the Rockies and is familiar with all the phases of pioneer life and of subsequent progress and improvement here. He has always been an industrious and energetic man and whatever success he has achieved is the direct result of his own labors.

EDWARD HEIGHTSMENN.

Edward Heightsmenn, who carries on dairying and general farming, about ten miles southeast of New Plymouth, was born in Ohio, October 24, 1861, a son of Stephen and Barbara Heightsmenn. The father was a native of Germany and came to America in early youth. He enlisted for service in the Mexican war and thus did active military duty for his adopted country. In Ohio he was married and in his family were six children.

Edward Heightsmenn was educated in Ohio and when a young man went to Missouri, while at the age of twenty-four years he came to Idaho, settling in Idaho county, near the town of Denver, taking up a homestead at Cottonwood. After about two years he removed to Mount Idaho, now Grangeville, and there he followed farming and carried on his trade of carpentering.

While there Mr. Heightsmenn was united in marriage to Miss Carrie Lamb, a native of Mobile, Alabama, and a daughter of Nicholas and Mary (McGill) Lamb, who came to Idaho in 1877 by way of San Francisco, journeying from the Golden Gate to Lewiston, Idaho, and settling at Mount Idaho, where the father followed farming. Both he and his wife are now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Heightsmenn became the parents of three children: Barbara E., the wife of E. L. Plumber, of Vale, Oregon, and the mother of one child, Doris M .; Frederick C., fifteen years of age, who is attending school; and Dorothy A., likewise in school.

In 1905 Mr. Heightsmenn removed from Mount Idaho to his present location ten and a half miles southeast of New Plymouth, where he rents one hundred and twenty acres of land and carries on dairying and general farming. He owns a place of twenty- three acres three miles west of New Plymouth and also owns ten acres in Ontario, Oregon, and a residence in that town. He has about sixty head of cattle, some of which he uses for dairy purposes and some of which he raises for beef.

Mr. and Mrs. Heightsmenn are familiar with all the experiences of pioneer life. The first meal eaten in a hotel by Mrs. Heightsmenn was at L. P. Brown's hotel at Mount Idaho, a picture of which is in this history. Both Mr. and Mrs. Heightsmenn have witnessed the entire transformation of the state from the early

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mining days to the present time, when Idaho is largely a rich farming country. Mrs.» Heightsmenn was urged in her early girlhood to teach the Indians as she speaks the Nez Perce language and is familiar with the character of the red men. At one time Mr. Heightsmenn served as deputy sheriff of Idaho county, but he has never been a politician in the sense of office seeking, preferring to concentrate his efforts and energies upon his business affairs, which are most wisely and care- fully conducted. Those who know him esteem him as a man of sterling worth, and he well deserves classification with the representative pioneers of Payette county.

COLIN McLEOD.

Colin McLeod, who is extensively engaged in sheep raising in Idaho and makes his home at Caldwell, was born in Ardgay, Rosshire, Scotland, February 27, 1880. His parents were John and Ina McLeod, the former a farmer by occupation, now de- ceased. The mother, however, still survives.

It was in 1899, when a young man of nineteen years, that Colin McLeod came to Idaho from Scotland and entered the sheep industry at Rockville with Finley Mckenzie, by whom he was employed for six years. He then began business on his own account in partnership with John Bruce, having ten thousand head of sheep at the outset. Their camp was at Jump Creek, eighteen miles south of Caldwell, but Mr. McLeod disposed of his interests there in 1915 and in the fall of that year entered into partnership with W. J. Hodgson and purchased the outfit of John Archi- bald north of Boise, including fifteen thousand head of sheep and about twenty-five hundred acres of land. They now have about thirty-five thousand head of ewes and lambs and own over seven thousand acres of land in Ada, Gem, Boise and Owyhee counties. They give employment to an average of forty-five men. They expect to cut sixteen hundred tons of hay in 1919 and usually huy each year between twenty-five and thirty-five hundred tons. Their annual payroll amounts to more than forty thousand dollars. In the spring of 1919 they shipped six carloads or one hundred and seventy-five thousand pounds of wool. Mr. McLeod is recognized as one of the most progressive and enterprising young sheepmen of Idaho and is doing much to improve the conditions of the business in this state.

On the 8th of August, 1907, Mr. McLeod was married to Miss Anna Purser, a native of England, who came to Oregon with her parents, Frank and Eliza (Good- year) Purser, when four years of age. Her father and mother removed to Caldwell, Idaho, about twelve years ago and live in a beautiful home on Kimball avenue, near the McLeod residence, Mr. Purser having practically retired from active business. To Mr. and Mrs. McLeod have been born three children: Constance E., Eleanor Rose and Ruby Helen, all of whom are in school. The family occupy one of the finest homes in Caldwell, on Kimball avenue, erected by Mr. McLeod in 1910. It is built in an attractive style of architecture and furnished with every modern convenience and comfort that refined taste suggests.

Mr. McLeod deserves much credit for what he has accomplished. Starting out in the business world as a sheep herder on coming to the United States as a youth of nineteen years, he has since steadily and persistently worked his way upward, making time and effort count for the utmost, and he is today one of the successful sheep raisers of the state. His interests are being gradually developed along com- mendable lines and he has done much to improve conditions and promote prices for the sheepmen of Idaho.

GEORGE BARKER.

A quarter of a century ago George Barker took up his abode upon the farm which is still his place of residence and through the intervening period he has converted a wild tract into richly productive fields, from which he annually gathers large crops. His place is situated on Big Willow creek in Payette county, not far from the city of Payette. Mr. Barker was born in western Kansas on the 15th of October, 1874, a son of C. T. and Ellen (Bowler) Barker, both of whom were natives of Illinois and removed to Kansas in early life. The father there followed

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the occupation of farming until 1886. His wife had died the previous year and he then went to Baker county, Oregon, with his son George, who was then about twelve years of age. Father and son followed farming there for nearly two years and then removed to Long Valley, Idaho, where Mr. Barker took up a homestead, resid- ing thereon until 1903. He then removed to Washoe, Idaho, where he is now living retired.

George Barker accompanied his father to the west and is familiar with every phase of the state's development and improvement since that time. He removed from Long Valley to the Payette valley in 1889 and entered the employ of Ben Bivens as a farm hand, working at the mouth of the Little Willow creek for a period of about five years. On the 4th of July, 1895, he took up his abode on a homestead claim of one hundred and sixty acres, which he has since owned and occupied, and later he acquired forty acres adjoining. This land was all wild and undeveloped when it came into his possession, but through his efforts it has been highly cultivated and improved, being supplied with all the accessories and con- veniences of a model farm of the twentieth century. Today he has fifty acres planted to alfalfa and seventy acres to wheat, barley and rye. His alfalfa crop yields about six tons to the acre. He likewise keeps a few head of sheep, cattle, horses and hogs. His fine residence is one of the most attractive and modern in this section of the state. He keeps a fine roan Durham registered bull for breeding purposes and his stock is of high grade. In addition to his home place he also owns a desert claim.

In 1899 Mr. Barker was married to Miss Laura L. Johnson, a daughter of Cal and Nannie (King) Johnson, who were among the most prominent of the pioneer settlers of the state and own a fine old homestead on the Payette river. Mr. and Mrs. Barker have four children: Helen Margaret, Carrie Ellen, William Clayton and Clifford.

Mr. Barker has served on the school board and is desirous of giving his children the best educational opportunities possible. He stands for progress and improvement in all things relating to the welfare of the community and his enter- prise has been a valuable factor in advancing public good.

FRANCIS M. HAMMER.

Francis M. Hammer, a farmer and live stock grower of Boise, whose farm lies on both sides of Upper Warm Springs avenue, about a quarter of a mile above the Natatorium, came to Idaho in the fall of 1864 from Grayson county, Texas, and through the intervening period of fifty-five years has been a resident of the northwest. Mr. Hammer was born in Champaign county, Illinois, March 10, 1844, and has therefore passed the seventy-fifth milestone on life's journey but is still hale and vigorous. His father was John Hammer, a farmer by occupation, and the mother bore the maiden name of Eleanor Grier. Both died in Texas, to which state the family had removed from Illinois in 1854. The paternal grandfather, John Hammer, served in the War of 1812. The same military spirit was shown by Francis M. Hammer when during the Civil war he joined Company H of the Twenty-ninth Texas Cavalry in the Confederate army, serving for two years. It was immediately afterward that he came from Grayson county, Texas, to Idaho, where he arrived in the fall of 1864. He left Grayson county on the back of a mule, thus traveled north to Council Grove, Kansas, spent a few weeks there aud subse- quently joined a wagon train of seven or eight wagons. They were driving five hundred head of cattle and the whole outfit set out for Idaho, reaching Boise just four months later. About one hundred head of the cattle were sold at Denver, Colorado, but the rest were brought to Idaho. Mr. Hammer, then only twenty years of age, was in the employ of Leonard Fuqua, who together with his brother, William Fuqua, owned the cattle. Mr. Hammer made the trip to assist in driving the herd. Soon after his arrival in Idaho he went to the Grand Ronde valley of Oregon, where he spent two years on a ranch. In 1867 he again came to this state, spending four years in Owyhee county, in and near Silver City, where he was employed at teaming and at general sawmill work. In 1871 he returned to Oregon, where he engaged in the live stock business in the vicinity of the present town site of Vale. In 1877 he once more came to Idaho and it was then that he purchased

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his present farm just above the Boise city limits. He made investment in one hundred and six acres of land, for which he paid three thousand dolars. A few years ago he sold forty acres of this tract for seven hundred dollars per acre and since then has sold smaller portions of it but still has forty acres of the original property, which with its improvements is probably worth twenty-five thousand dollars. Since 1877 Mr. Hammer has devoted his attention to farming and to the. raising of beef cattle and horses. In recent years his three sons, John, Francis M. and Jesse, have been associated with their father in the breeding and raising of cattle and horses and have many hundred head on hand always. The cattle and horses are grazed much of the time on a ranch of one hnudred and sixty acres which Mr. Hammer owns about six miles from Boise.

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History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume II, Part 116

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