History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume II, Part 16

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 16

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During his residence in Omaha, Nebraska, Dr. Heine was a member of the Second Nebraska Regiment of the National Guard for four years. He is a Catholic in religious faith and has membership with the Knights of Columbus. He also belongs to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and his interest outside of his profession is further indicated in the fact that he is a member of the Commercial Club and of the Country Club.

GENERAL GEORGE H. ROBERTS.

General George H. Roberts, for many years an active practitioner at the bar but now living retired in Boise, who has served as attorney general of two different states and was brevetted a brigadier general of the Union army at the close of his service in the Civil war, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 13, 1841. In the paternal line he comes of Welsh ancestry, being a descendant of Thomas Roberts, who came from Cardoan, Wales, to the new world about the time that William Penn founded his colony on this side of the Atlantic. Mr. Roberts made the trip to the new world at the per- sonal request and solicitation of William Penn, of whom he was a friend. He purchased of Penn four thousand acres of land, on part of which the city of Philadelphia now stands. The late Lord Roberts, field marshal of England, came of the same family. The father of General Roberts was George H. Roberts, one of Philadelphia's leading hardware merchants and importers for more than forty years. The Roberts family has been prominent in the business life and public interests of Philadelphia since it was founded and its representatives have served the country in all of the American wars. Thomas Roberts, progenitor of the family in the United States, was the first secretary of the colony of Pennsylvania and he endowed a school at Germantown, Pennsylvania, providing that only Welsh should be taught.

General Roberts of this review pursued his education in the Friends' Central high school of Philadelphia and in the University of Pennsylvania. In 1861 he joined the Union army at the age of twenty years, with the rank of second lieutenant, and served during the entire four years of hostilities between the north and the south. He won various promotions and at the close of the war was a brigadier general by brevet. At Gettysburg he was captured but was afterward paroled. When the country no longer needed his military aid he went to the territory of Montana as superintendent for a mining company and established the first quartz mill within the borders of the terri- tory. After a year there passed he returned to the east, going to San Francisco and thence by way of the Isthmus of Panama to New York. In 1867 he located in Ne- braska City, Nebraska, for the practice of law and two years later he was elected lhe first attorney general of that state, in which position he was continued for three con- secutive terms, his elections coming to him as a candidate of the republican party. During his incumbency in office he made his home in Lincoln.

In 1883 General Roberts came to Idaho, settling at Hailey, where he was attorney for the Union Pacific Railroad Company. He afterward served for one term as district Vol. II-9

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attorney at Hailey and while a resident of that place he was for a time the law partner of James H. Hawley, afterward governor of Idaho. In 1890, when Idaho became a state, General Roberts had the honor of being the first attorney general, as he had been in Nebraska, and occupied the office for a term. Since 1890 he has lived in Boise and following the expiration of his term of office he has given his attention to various mining properties in which he is interested. Otherwise he has retired from business life. He has always been a keen student of political questions and situations and wherever he has lived has become a recognized leader of his party. He enjoys the distinction of having served both Nebraska and Idaho as the first attorney general but has never consented to become a candidate for office since his retirement from the attorney generalship of Idaho. In 1904, however, he was chosen by Governor Gooding to represent Idaho on the staff of General Chaffee, grand marshal of the Roosevelt inaugural parade in Washington, D. C., and went to the capital for that purpose.

In Peoria, Illinois, on the 9th of May, 1865, General Roberts was married to Julia Culbertson, a daughter of Major Alexander Culbertson, managing partner of the Amer- ican Fur Company for more than thirty years and in his day one of the best known business men in the state of Illinois. General and Mrs. Roberts have three living children: Margaret S .; Caroline, now the wife of W. O. Taylor, of Twin Falls, Idaho; and Alexander Culbertson, a well known insurance man of Spokane, Washington. The daughter Margaret has served for six years as secretary of the Free Traveling Library of Idaho.

General Roberts belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic. He -also has mem- bership with the Masons, the Odd Fellows and the Elks and he was one of the founders of the Boise Commercial Club. He is interested in all the questions which are a matter of public concern and his close study and sound judgment regarding such matters have placed him in a position of leadership. He has done much to mold public thought and action and his aid and influence have ever been on the side of progress and improvement, while his efforts have brought about tangible and beneficial results.

NATHAN RICKS.

Nathan Ricks is the vice president of the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Rex- burg and, moreover, is a representative of a family that has been prominently iden- tified with the development and upbuilding of the west for many years. He was born in Centerville, Davis . county, Utah, January 17, 1853, and is a son of Joel and Eleanor (Martin) Ricks, who were natives of Kentucky but in 1848 crossed the plains to Utah, driving sheep and cattle along the way as they journeyed westward. They settled at Centerville, Davis county, where Mr. Ricks operated a sawmill in 1848. In 1849 he settled on land and began its development and improvement. His claim was situated along a little creek, which is still called Ricks creek. He continued the improvement of his farm until 1859, when he removed to Logan, Cache county, Utal, and there bought other land which he successfully cultivated throughout the re- mainder of his days. He passed away in Logan in December, 1888, while the mother died on the 18th of February, 1882.

Nathan Ricks began his education in Davis county, Utah, but was only six years of age when his parents removed to Logan, Cache county, where he continued mis studies. His father built the first log cabin in the city of Logan, and the family shared in all of the hardships and privations of pioneer life. Nathan Ricks con- tinued with his parents until he reached the age of twenty-seven years, when he took up farming on his own account by purchasing land seven miles from Logan, in Benson ward. He then bent his energies to the tilling of the soil and year after year gathered good crops until May, 1888, when he removed to Oneida county, Idaho, set- tling at Rexburg in that part which is now Madison county. He purchased eighty acres of land adjoining the town of Rexburg and this he improved and has since cultivated, transforming it into rich and productive fields. He also owns a section of dry farming land thirty miles from Rexburg, and his four sons also own land in the same locality and are still operating their respective properties. For twenty years, or until 1916, Nathan Ricks was engaged in sheep raising and still has an interest in the Austin Brothers Sheep company. Turning his attention to other lines, he became one of the organizers of the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Rexburg, of

NATHAN RICKS

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which he is now the vice president. He is also a stockholder and one of the directors of the department store of the Henry Flamm Company of Rexburg, and his business interests are of such a nature and extent that he is now deriving therefrom a very substantial income. While an active factor in sheep raising he made a specialty of handling pure bred Cotswold sheep and became known as one of the prominent sheep- men of his section of the state. He also owns five acres of land in Rexburg, where he resides, and in the early days he lived in a log cabin for a number of years. He has gone through all of the experiences of frontier life and has lived to win a sub- stantial measure of prosperity as the direct reward and outcome of his industry and perseverance.

On the 14th of November, 1879, Mr. Ricks was married to Sarah Ann Taylor and to them were born six children: N. Ray, Eva A., Eleanor T., Mary E., Alfred T. and Joel E. The wife and mother passed away May 2, 1890, and Mr. Ricks was again married on the 18th of July, 1891, to Janet Mckinley. They have become the parents of seven children: Carl V., Edna I., Owen R., Sarah J., Agnes, Francis S. and Thora E. The eldest died September 12, 1904, but the others are all living.

Mr. Ricks is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He filled a two years' mission in New Zealand from 1881 until 1883 and in 1916 went back there on a visit. He is now second counselor to President Austin of the Fremont stake and for nineteen years he was counselor to Bishop Thomas E. Ricks of the first ward. Politically he is an earnest republican and served for one term as state representative from Fremont county. Following the division of the county he was chosen state senator from Madison county and has thus been connected with both branches of the general assembly, where his support of progressive public measures established his position and value as a citizen.

WILLIAM A. BRADBURY.

William A. Bradbury, mayor of Idaho Falls and president of the Bonneville Ab- stract Company, was born in Dixon, Illinois, January 25, 1859, and is a son of Josiah and Mindwell B. (Proctor) Bradbury who were natives of Maine. The father followed the occupation of farming in the Pine Tree state until 1855, when he went to Lee county, Illinois, and there carried on farming until after the outbreak of the Civil war, when, at the age of fifty-four years, he enlisted on the 2d of September, 1862, as a member of Company A, Seventy-fifth Illinois Infantry. On account of illness he was discharged in August, 1863, and sent home, his death occurring soon afterward. His widow survived until 1886.

William A, Bradbury was reared and educated in Iowa, to which state the mother removed with her family after the father's death. She had eleven children, one of whom passed away in Illinois. The family settled at State Center, Iowa, and after completing his education William A. Bradbury took up the drug trade and became a registered pharmacist in Nebraska and also in Idaho. He did not like the business, however, and in 1884 went to southwestern Nebraska, where he took up land and turned his attention to agricultural interests, cultivating and improving his farm, which he continued to operate until 1891, when he was elected to the office of county clerk of Frontier county, Nebraska. He served in that capacity for two terms and afterward occupied the position of head clerk in the state treasurer's office for two years. He then returned home and was for two years engaged in merchandising at Stockville, Nebraska.

In 1901 Mr. Bradbury came to Idaho Falls and for a time was connected with various business interests. He acted as cashier in the Anderson Brothers Bank at Rigby, Idaho, and also clerked in drug stores at various places. In 1906, associated with others, he bought out the Bingham Abstract Company and when the business was reorganized the name of the Bonneville Abstract Company was assumed and Mr. Brad- bury has since been the president and active manager of the business, which he has developed to large proportions. The company now has an extensive clientage and the business under the control of Mr. Bradbury has assumed large and profitable propor- tions. He also owns farm lands in Bonneville county and has prospered during the years of his residence in the west.

On the 9th of May, 1886, Mr. Bradbury was married to Miss Mary E. Medbury and to them have been born four children, the eldest of whom, Catherine, who was born

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January 18, 1890, passed away September 14, 1903. Alice I. born December 23, 1893, is at home. In May, 1919 she was graduated at Ann Arbor, Michigan, as a registered nurse. Paul, born January 26, 1897, enlisted on the 26th of June, 1916, as a member of Company M, Second Idaho Infantry, and served on the Mexican border until Jan- uary 26, 1917. On the 26th of March of the same year he was called out again and did duty in guarding the bridge in Spokane until October 21, 1917. He was then sent to Camp Mills and on the 10th of January, 1918, embarked for France, being stationed in the First Depot Division in that country. He left France on the 15th of February, 1919, and was discharged at Camp Funston, Kansas, March 7, 1919. He was a ser- geant while in France and on the Mexican border served as corporal. Donald J., born February 18, 1901, enlisted December 14, 1917, with the Twenty-eighth Balloon Com- pany and was stationed at Aberdeen, Maryland, being discharged at Fort D. A. Russell at Cheyenne, Wyoming, June 18, 1919.

The religious faith of the family is that of the Presbyterian church, and fraternally Mr. Bradbury is connected with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and the Masons and in the last named organization has attained high rank, being past high priest of the chapter and past eminent commander of the commandery, and he also holds membership in the Mystic Shrine. His political allegiance is given to the dem- ocratic party and he has been called to fill various offices. He. served on the school board for ten consecutive years and did active and effective work in behalf of the school system. He was for three terms a member of the city council and in the fall of 1917 was elected to represent his district in the fourteenth general assembly of Idaho. He was elected mayor of Idaho Falls in April, 1919, and is now its chief executive officer, bringing to bear in the discharge of his public duties the same substantial qual- ities that he has displayed in the conduct of private business interests. He is seek- ing to uphold in highest measure the civic standards and civic ideals of Idaho Falls and gives to the city an administration in which he avoids useless expenditure and equally useless retrenchment.

GEORGE W. FLETCHER.

George W. Fletcher, deceased, left the impress of his individuality and ability upon the history of Boise and the state. He figured prominently in connection with financial, business and fraternal interests and his personal qualities, his sterling worth, his initia- tive and enterprise in business, made him one of the substantial and highly honored residents of the capital. He was born in Forestville, Minnesota, March 6, 1858, the only child of Francis Fletcher, now a venerable resident of Boise, who at the age of eighty-five is still active and vigorous despite his more than four score years. He is a Civil war veteran and during the early days of Idaho's development he served as a member of the state legislature from Washington county. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Mary Ann Brooks, died in Boise a few years ago.

George W. Fletcher was reared and educated in Minnesota and started upon his business career at the early age of fourteen years. From that time forward he was dependent entirely upon his own resources and he made a most creditable name and place for himself. He was identified with mercantile and banking interests throughout his entire life and during his later years concentrated his attention almost exclusively upon the banking business. At the time of his death he was the president of the Idaho National Bank of Boise, which he founded, and was also the president of the First National Bank of Weiser, Idaho. He came to this state in young manhood and at first worked in the mines at Rocky Bar, while later he clerked in a store there, but he soon turned his attention to merchandising on his own account at Rocky Bar and entered upon a successful career in that connection. Later he and his partner, Mel Campbell, established a branch store at Atlanta, Idaho, and at a subsequent period Mr. Fletcher also had a store at Mountain Home hut about 1892 gave up his interests in other parts of the state and removed to Boise, where he purchased the Peter Sonna hardware store. As the years passed he prospered in his undertakings as a merchant and as his financial resources increased he turned his attention more and more largely to banking and reached a prominent and enviable position in financial circles of the state. There was never any question as to the integrity of his business methods and his forcefulness and resourcefulness enabled him to take advantage of many opportunities that others passed heedlessly by.

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In Bellevue, Idaho, on the 4th of December, 1888, Mr. Fletcher was united in mar- riage to Miss Jeannette Steen, a native of New Brunswick, Canada, who was reared and educated at St. Stephen, New Brunswick, and took up the profession of teaching. She still survives her husband and is well known in the social circles of Boise. She has five living children, three sons and two daughters, all of whom are grown and are well known in Boise. All are graduates of the high school of this city. They are: Arthur, Frank, Steen, Mrs. B. W. Tillotson, of Beulah, Oregon; and Ina, of Boise.

Mr. Fletcher gave his political allegiance to the republican party and his opinions carried weight in its local and state councils. While a resident of Lewiston he served as vice chairman of the republican state committee and he was once a candidate for the republican nomination for governor of Idaho. His residence in the northwest covered thirty-five years and was marked by devoted attention to all those interests which have constituted features in the general progress and upbuilding of city and state. He held membership with the Masons, the Elks and the Odd Fellows and was ever a loyal supporter of these organizations. He passed away on the 19th of July, 1916, in Portland, whither he had gone with his wife for a brief stay. His funeral was one of the most largely attended ever held in the history of Boise. As his remains were laid to rest there were gathered around those who had been his associates and con- temporaries in business, his lodge brethren and the many friends whom he had won in all relations of life. There was a general recognition of the public indebtedness to him for his service in behalf of the general welfare and the important part which he took in building up the business interests of Boise, and thus the news of his demise carried with it a sense of personal bereavement into many homes of the capital city.

GEORGE COLLISTER, M. D.

Dr. George Collister, a past president of the Idaho State Medical Society and the oldest physician of Boise in length of practice in the city, was born at Willoughby, Ohio, October 16, 1856, a son of Thomas and Fannie (Young) Collister. The father was born on the Isle of Man and was of Scotch descent. Crossing the Atlantic, he settled in Ohio, where he spent his remaining days, his death occurring in Willoughby in 1908, when he had reached the venerable age of ninety-six years. During his active life he was connected with the boot and shoe trade for a time and for more than a quarter of a century was in the railway mail service through appointment of Presi- dent Lincoln. He served for a number of years as treasurer of Lake county, Ohio, and occupied a prominent position in connection with community affairs. His wife, who was born in Connecticut and was of Danish lineage, died at the age of forty-nine years.

Dr. Collister was the youngest in a family of eight children. After completing a high school course in Willoughby, Ohio, in 1876 he became a student in the Ohio State University and later in the Herron Medical College of Cleveland, now the Homeopathic Medical College, from which he was graduated with the M. D. degree in 1880. He located for practice in Madison, Ohio, but in 1881 left his native state for the west, ar- riving in Boise in June of that year. He has since continued in practice in Idaho and lias ever remained a close, thorough and discriminating student of his profession, his reading keeping him in close touch with the trend of professional thought and progress. He is a member of the Interstate Medical Society, the Ada County Medical Society, the Idaho State Medical Society and the American Medical Association and of the state organization has been the president.

Dr. Collister was married March 16, 1897, to Mrs. Norden, a native of Illinois. Fra- ternally he is connected with the Masonic lodge of Boise, the Knights of Pythias and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and he also belongs to the Boise Commercial Club. For two terms he was a member of the city council. His interest in and sup- port of affairs of moment to the community has been manifest in various tangible ways. He has served as city physician, county physician and also as physician to the state penitentiary. His professional service has been of real and signal benefit to his fellowmen and at the same time Dr. Collister has largely advanced his individual interests, his success being evidenced in the fact that he is the owner of considerable valuable real estate, including a beautiful home at Collister station, on the interurban railroad, standing in the midst of a tract of land of one hundred and fifty-six acres, and splendid ranch property in Boise county aggregating five thousand acres, on which he grazes several hundred head of cattle during the summer months. His life has been

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one of intense activity in which there have been few leisure hours and his record measures up to a standard of life set by Theodore Roosevelt-that "the thing supremely worth having is the opportunity and the ability to de a piece of work the doing of which shall be of vital significance to mankind."

RICHARD C. ADELMANN.

When Idaho was a vast unbroken country of mountain and plain, of hill and val- ley, when its lands were largely uncultivated, its mineral resources undeveloped and its water power unutilized for the purposes of civilization, Richard C. Adelmann took up his abode within the borders of the state. As the years passed he became an active factor in its development, figuring prominently in connection with its business and civic interests, and Boise has long numbered him among her valued citizens. He is now living retired, the fruits of his former toil supplying him with all of the comforts and necessities and many of the luxuries of life.

Mr. Adelmann was born in Heilbronn, Germany, May 8, 1846, but in his boyhood days came to the new world and proved his loyalty to his adopted land by active service in the Union army during the Civil war. Later he was connected with business inter- ests in New York city and afterward removed to the west. It was in June, 1854, that he accompanied his parents on their trip from Wurtemberg, Germany, to New York, at which time he was but eight years of age, and he was a lad of only eleven years when his mother passed away in 1857. Almost from that time forward he was dependent upon his own resources. As opportunity offered he continued his education in English and German until the outbreak of the Civil war, when he ran away from home and without his father's knowledge or consent enlisted on the 25th of August, 1862, in New York city, as a member of Company G, Fifth New York Volunteer Infantry, joining the organization known as the Duryee Zouaves. He first served as a drummer boy but during the three succeeding years became acquainted with every phase of soldiering. The first battle in which he participated was that at Antietam, Maryland, September. 17, 1862, and later he was in the sanguinary struggle at Fredericksburg, Virginia, in Janu- ary, 1863. He also participated in the battle of Chancellorsville and while there was transferred to Company H of the One Hundred and Forty-sixth New York Infantry, with which command he participated in the battle of Gettysburg, and a little later he was made a corporal of his company. He also took part in the Wilderness campaign, in the battle of Spottsylvania Courthouse and in the engagement at North Anna, Vir- ginia, where he sustained a gunshot wound in the head, his service being thereby terminated. Gangrene set in and the injury impaired his eyesight, ultimately leading to the blindness which about four years ago came upon him. At the time he was wounded he was taken to Columbia Hospital in Washington on the 21st of May, 1864, and continued in the hospital until the call for volunteers from among the hospital men to defend Washington was issued. He responded and was placed in charge of the mounted and foot orderlies at Fort Reno, brigade headquarters of defenses at Wash- ington, D. C., at the time that General Early made his raid on the national capital. When quiet was restored he was sent as a convalescent to a company but after a thor- ough examination was returned to Carver Hospital. As he could not have adequate treatment for his eyes there he was transferred to Satterlee Hospital at West Phila- delphia and was there honorably discharged under general order of the war depart- ment on the 19th of May, 1865.

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History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume II, Part 16

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