USA > Idaho > History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume II > Part 23
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HON. SILAS WILSON.
There is perhaps no name in the state of Idaho or the whole northwest more representative of the highest achievements in the apple growing industry than that of Hon. Silas Wilson. Mr. Wilson not only has wonderfully developed orchards in the neighborhood of Nampa but for many years has been recognized as an authority on pomology, having devoted practically his entire life to that subject. His present success is the just reward of many years of close attention and ripe experience. Moreover, Mr. Wilson has a most interesting military chapter in his life's career as well as a chapter that has connected him with most important legislation in Iowa when he was a resident of that state.
A native of Marshall county, West Virginia, he was born May 16, 1846, and in his native state he attended school until he was sixteen years of age, or in 1862, when, after the outbreak of the Civil war, he joined the Federal army as a private of Company A, Seventh West Virginia Infantry. He served in the capacity of sharpshooter and was one of the best shots in the army. Had he not been taken prisoner he would undoubtedly have been commissioned a captain. He was severely wounded October 27, 1864, and was taken prisoner after having lain out in the field for fifty hours, but was later recaptured. His captors had taken him to the house of Confederate Senator Thompson of Virginia, which had been converted into a hospital. Later he was sent to Alexandria, Virginia, and from there to Washington, D. C., where he was honorably discharged.
After the war Mr. Wilson went to Atlantic, Cass county, Iowa, where he en- joyed two more years of schooling and then took up the professional study of horticulture, to which subject he devoted many years of careful effort. Later in life he was made head of the state board of horticulture of Iowa and remained in that position until 1904. For eleven years he was connected with Colonel G. B. Brackett, chief of the pomological department of the department of agriculture at Washington, D. C., and acknowledged the greatest authority in pomology in the world at that time. From this close connection and careful study comes the superior knowledge which Mr. Wilson possesses in this branch of agriculture.
While a resident of Iowa he was a member of the state legislature for six years
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and was elected speaker of the house of the twenty-third general assembly without opposition. He was chairman of the railway committee of the twenty-second general assembly of Iowa, and his excellent service to that state while chairman of this committee will live forever in the annals of Iowa's history as one of the best pieces of legislative work ever accomplished by any member in the state. This work was accomplished during the time when the railroad policy had become so oppressive in the state. In 1904 Mr. Wilson had charge of the Iowa exhibit at the St. Louis Exposition and was so impressed by the exhibit of Mr. Wessell, of Lewiston, Idaho, that he decided to visit this state and in the same year came west and traveled all over the fruit section of the northwest, in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, finally settling at Nampa, where he bought four hundred acres of land two miles east of the town, on the state road, and two hundred and forty acres at Kuna, which is ten miles from Nampa, on the Oregon Short Line Railroad. His knowledge of horti- culture gave him the advantage of making the best selection of land with perfect air drainage, and therefore his crops never fail and his fruit has a ready market at a handsome profit. He ships under the brand of Mountain Gem and many thou- sand cases of apples are yearly packed and put upon the railroad by the Wilson Orchard Company. For two years he has shipped east and in the past year his shipment was thirty carloads. He has close business relations with the markets of Europe and when the ordinary trade route is again established he will be shipping overseas in profitable quantities. Previous to the outbreak of the war definite ar- rangements had been made by him with German merchants to place his fruit upon the German markets in large quantities.
His four hundred acre orchard is principally planted to Roman Beauty, Jona- than, Winesap and Delicious apples, while the orchard at Kuna is exclusively planted to Roman Beauties, Jonathans and Winesaps, about one-third to each variety. The trees are now six, seven and eight years old. In addition to the apples he has a pear orchard of twelve hundred and fifty trees, including such varieties as Anjou, Bartlett, Clairglou, Duchess d'Angoulème, Gold Nugget and Lincoln.
Through his perfect system of dry air storage, which is always completely under control so that the temperature can be regulated at will, the fruit can be kept for the entire year and will be just as good then as when picked. For exam- ple: a building forty by sixty feet, extending three feet under ground and eighteen feet above, with a V shaped roof at an angle of about forty-five degrees, will have six intakes eighteen by twenty inches extending to the bottom of the cellar, each intake to have two covers that can be opened and closed automatically by a rope, and four ventilators on the roof of the building to carry off the warm and im- pure air. The proportions of air coming in and going out are thus perfectly regulated. This is but one unit of his storage 'houses and as his product increases he will erect other units. In his packing houses he employed in 1918 sixty-five men and women. Professor Bennett of the State University at Moscow recently visited his air plant and his comment was that one might travel over seven states without finding one its equal. Mr. Wilson also raises peaches in his family orchard that bear from August 15th to October 23d. He was requested by Colonel Brackett to make an exhibit at the Pomological Society Exhibition at Washington, D. C., in 1913 but did so only after strong persuasion on the part of Colonel Brackett, owing to the prejudice which then existed among eastern growers against western products. However, from fourteen boxes of apples he made a selection of two hundred and sixty-seven apples, or three boxes, which he sent as his exhibit, Colonel Brackett looking after his interests, as he himself not even attended the exposition. He received a medal for the highest award given any exhibitor at the exposition. Thus in comparatively recent years Mr. Wilson has called into life a great industrial en- terprise in a new territory, and he finds his reward not only in the brilliant success which has attended his labors but also in the thought that he has done much toward promoting horticultural interests in Idaho.
In 1875 occurred the marriage of Mr. Wilson and Miss Edna Aylesworth, of Woodstock, Illinois, the latter formerly a teacher at Atlantic, Iowa. To this union were horn four children, of whom two sons are living. Fred W., the elder, who is an expert accountant in his father's office, married Perle Patterson, of Des Moines, Iowa, by whom he has a son and a daughter: Max Wilson, twelve years of age; and Dorothy. W. H. Wilson, the younger son, is in charge of the orchard at Kuna and is known as one of the best horticulturists in the state. He married Jessie Goudy, of Iowa, and they have two children, James Morris and Nellie Bernice.
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The family occupy a beautiful home in Nampa at No. 705 Fifth street, which is built on the California bungalow plan and is considered one of the finest residences in the state. Mr. Wilson still enjoys the best of health and at his age is actually as active as a man of thirty and constantly on the go. He has made many friends here, as he has in other parts of the United States, all of whom speak of him in terms of the highest regard as a successful business man, a grand old man and a gentleman in every respect.
JAMES LAIRD.
James Laird, a successful and progressive sheepman living at No. 1265 Canal avenue in Idaho Falls, was born at Mountain Dell, Utah, May 14, 1877, his parents being Edward and Valeria (Flint) Laird, the former a native of Scotland, while the latter was born in Utah. The father came to America with his parents during his boyhood and crossed the plains with one of the handcart companies in 1856, the family settling in Utah, where Edward Laird eventually became a stock raiser. He has continued in that business throughout his entire life and is still conducting a stock ranch but re- sides in Salt Lake. The mother is also living.
James Laird was reared in Utah, where he pursued his education, and after his textbooks were put aside he joined his father in stock raising under the firm name of E. Laird & Sons. In the fall of 1900 he came to Idaho and purchased land in Clark county, formerly Fremont county. He is still conducting his stock ranch there but in 1910 removed to Idaho Falls, where he has since lived. In December, 1918, he com- pleted one of the most modern and beautiful homes in the state of Idaho and from that point he supervises his stock raising interests. He makes a specialty of handling pure bred Cotswold sheep and he and the other members of the firm are also running horses.
In August, 1901, Mr. Laird was married to Miss Mamie Harris, a daughter of Henry H. and Mary (Reese) Harris, who were natives of Wales. They came to America in 1859, settling at Salt Lake, where the father worked at the miller's trade. He after- ward took up a homestead in Salt Lake county and continued its cultivation and im- provement throughout his remaining days, covering a period of forty years. He died September 12, 1902, while the mother survived until May, 1908. Mr. and Mrs. Laird have become the parents of five children: James Vegene, who was born September 9, 1903; Ardella, born November 14, 1906; Mamie, May 18, 1909; Norman Harris, October 31, 1911; and Rulon Flint, March 14, 1914.
Mr. Laird belongs to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and has filled two missions to Great Britain covering five years. He there remained from 1915 until 1918, or throughout the greater part of the World war, and he was one of the first presidents of the One Hundred and Forty-sixth Quorum. Politically he is an earnest republican and he has served as justice of the peace at Dubois, Idaho. His time and energies, however, have largely been devoted to his sheep raising interests and in this connection he has gained a place of leadership, being recognized as one of the promi- nent sheepmen of his part of the state.
MISS LURA VIOLA PAINE.
Miss Lura Viola Paine, filling the position of county superintendent of schools in Ada county, with office and residence in Boise, is a native of Iowa, having been born in Kellogg, that state, her parents being Julian Curtis and Lura Jane (Burton) Paine, who were natives of Massachusetts and Ohio respectively. The father was a farmer by occupation and also followed other business pursuits. He is now living in Boise at No. 910 Pueblo street, but the mother passed away September 7, 1915. On leaving Iowa the Paine family removed first to Nebraska and it was in the year 1909 that their home was established in Idaho.
Lura V. Paine was the eldest child in her father's family and spent her girl- hood days in Beatrice, Nebraska, where she acquired a public and high school ed- ucation. She was graduated from the high school and afterward became a student in Drake University at Des Moines, Iowa. She then took up the profession of teach- ing, which she followed at Beatrice, Nebraska, for several years before coming to
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Janus Lourd
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Idaho. She afterward taught in the public schools of Ada county for nine years, proving most capable in that connection by reason of the readiness and clearness with which she imparted to others the knowledge that she had acquired. Her effi- ciency as a teacher led to her election to the office of county superintendent of schools in the fall of 1918 and she is now serving in that capacity with credit to herself and satisfaction to all concerned. Not only did her early training qualify her for her career as an educator but she has also at intervals continued her studies in the University of Idaho at Moscow, in the University of California at Berkeley and has done much normal work in the normal schools of Idaho.
It was upon the republican ticket that Miss Paine was chosen to her present position in the fall of 1918. She is a member of the National Education Association, also of the Idaho State Teachers Association, and she keeps thoroughly informed concerning any new ideas that have to do with the development of the schools or the improvement of methods of instruction. Miss Paine is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, for on the maternal side her ancestry was represented in the war for independence. She is also a member of the Boise Chamber of Com- merce aud of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.
HON. CHARLES W. POOLE.
Hon. Charles W. Poole, filling the office of county attorney in Madison county and making his home at Rexburg, was born at Ogden, Utah, April 12, 1870, a son of John R. and Jane (Bitton ) Poole and a grandson of McCager and Adeline ( Rawls- ton) Poole. The father was born in Indiana in May, 1829, and when about seven years of age was taken by his parents to southeastern Iowa, then a forest region, wild and undeveloped. Numerous members of the family are still to be found in that state. About 1851 or 1852 John R. Poole drove across the plains to Utah and , here was married to Jane Bitton, who came from England the previous year. She was born in London in September, 1836, a daughter of William and Jane (Eving- ton) Bitton. Prior to the Revolutionary war her father enlisted as a boy in the British navy and never returned to America to live.
In 1878, having meet with severe financial losses in Utah, John R. Poole began operating a grading outfit on the Utah & Northern Railroad, which was built through eastern Idaho. During the winter of 1878-9 this outfit was located on the Snake river, a short distance south of Market Lake, now Menan. Mr. Poole was attracted to that part of the valley where Menan now stands and decided to locate there. Accordingly he and his eldest sons, William and Hyrum, took up claims and with some hired help built cabins and began the plowing and planting of wheat. This was believed to be the first experiment in wheat raising in the Upper Snake River valley. The grain matured nicely where it received moisture, but the crop was never harvested. On the 1st of June of that year the mother of Charles W. Poole arrived at Eagle Rock, now Idaho Falls, where the terminus of the railroad was then located, and the family has since resided in the Menan district of Jefferson county. Menan is located on an island which for years was known as Poole's Island. John R. Poole was very active in matters pertaining to the irrigation of that region and assisted in organizing the Long Island Canal Company. In 1881 his father brought the first threshing machine into the Upper Snake River valley and threshed all the grain raised in the valley that year. The following year he hought a self-binder, which was the first in the valley. Mr. Poole spent the greater part of his time in the interests of the few people who had settled with him there and who looked upon him as their leader in all their enterprises. He established the first school in the valley and his daughter Susie, who is now Mrs. Lawson and postmistress of Menan, was the first teacher there. He also organized the first Sunday school in 1881 and conducted religious services, but though he led a life of activity and one which was useful and helpful to his neighbors, he never recovered from his financial losses. He passed away at Menan in September, 1894.
Charles W. Poole had but limited educational opportunities. He attended children's classes in Ogden and during the winter following the arrival of the family , in Idaho went to school for a few weeks. He afterward spent two winters in Ricks Academy at Rexburg, which at that time was nothing more than a common school, although it has since developed into an excellent educational institution. In No- Vol. 11-13
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vember, 1890, Mr. Poole went to the Samoan Islands as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and after spending three years there returned in November, 1893. During the succeeding several years he worked for wages as a stationary engineer and fireman. In 1900 he began farming near Rigby and con- tinued the cultivation of his land for three years but on the 30th of September, 1903, had the misfortune to lose his right hand while operating a traction engine. It was this that led him to take up the study of law. He read at home, supporting his family at the same time, and in June, 1908, he was admitted to practice at the bar of Idaho. He has since been admitted to practice before the supreme court and through the intervening years has gained a large clientage. He is very thorough and painstaking in the preparation of his cases and his devotion to his clients' in- terests has become proverbial.
In October, 1894, Mr. Poole was married to Miss Elizabeth Bybee, a daughter of Robert L. Bybee, of Leorin, Bonneville county, Idaho. She was born June 17, 1870, at Smithfield, Utah. Her father came to Menan ward of Idaho in 1883 and was a prominent figure in the public life of the community. He served as bishop of that ward and also acting president of the old Bannock stake in the absence of President Ricks. Later on he removed to Idaho Falls and subsequently to Leorin, where he engaged in farming. He was first counselor to James E. Steele, president of the Bingham stake. He was also elected senator from Bingham county in 1900 and when Bonneville county was created he was appointed by Governor James H. Hawley to the office of county commissioner.
Mr. and Mrs. Poole have five children, as follows: Jane B., who was born July 16, 1896; Leslie E., whose birth occurred August 22, 1898; Leona H., whose natal day was March 23, 1901; Robert R., born July 21, 1903; and Alice B., who was born on the 21st of September, 1905. The religious faith of the family is that of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In his political views Mr. Poole has always. been a democrat and is a recognized leader in party ranks in Idaho. In 1910 he was elected state senator from Fremont county and served during the eleventh session of the general assembly in 1911 and during an extra session of 1912, giving thoughtful and earnest consideration to all the vital questions which came up for settlement and lending his aid and influence to constructive measures. He is now serving as county attorney and again is making an excellent record as a public official.
JAMES C. FORD.
James C. Ford is filling the office of postmaster at Caldwell, giving his atten- tion to the routine duties of the position, but not at all times has his life been of so quiet a nature, as he has lived upon the western frontier and gone through the experiences of cow punching from Texas to South Dakota at a time when the west was largely unorganized. Mr. Ford was born in Gainesville, Arkansas, October 16, 1856, and was but three years of age when his mother died. His father, William Ford, was a native of Kentucky but had removed from that state to Arkansas and afterward became a resident of Tennessee, where he was living at the time of the outbreak of the Civil war. Responding to the call of the south, he joined the Confederate army, sending his son, James C., to southern Illinois. There is an- other son of the family, William A., who is now living in Illinois, though for some years he was a resident of Oregon.
James C. Ford made his home with a distant relative in Illniois during the period of the Civil war and did not see his father again until peace was restored. The father, however, lived for only a short time after the close of the war and James C. Ford was thus left an orphan. He thereafter made his home with strang- ers, working as a farm hand and attending school when he had the opportunity dur- ing the winter months. At the age of fourteen he went to Texas and became a cow puncher near Fort Worth. He has driven cattle from Texas to Nebraska, Colorado and South Dakota, from New Mexico to South Dakota, from The Dalles, Oregon, to Wyoming and from Oregon to Montana. Thus he has traveled on foot through almost the entire western country, gaining most intimate knowledge of its con- ditions and opportunities. In 1877 he settled in Idaho, where he became the owner of a farm and rode the range on the line between Malheur county, Oregon, and
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Owyhee county, Idaho, until 1903, when he abandoned his stock raising interests and sold his farm on the three forks of Sucker creek in Idaho. He then went to Mexico, where he remained for about one year, studying conditions in that country, but was not favorably impressed with the government and returned to this state. Here he resumed the business of buying and selling cattle, with headquarters at Caldwell, and was thus engaged until 1915, when he was appointed postmaster and is now acceptably serving in that position.
In 1889 Mr. Ford was united in marriage to Miss Fannie Smith, a native of Salem, Oregon. He says that there are days when a longing for the saddle and the trail comes upon him. When he lived in Texas the Indians were much of the time on the warpath and at all times seemed to be possessed of a spirit of mischief if not of murder. They were constantly stealing horses and massacring the people and every cowboy felt the necessity of sleeping on his gun. Thus the life of Mr. Ford was fraught with excitement and danger, but he was always alert and managed to escape the fate that came to many others in the frontier country. His reminiscences of the early days are most interesting and his memory forms a connecting link be- tween the pioneer past with its hardships and privations and the progressive pres- ent with its opportunities and its prosperity. He is an exemplary representative of the Masonic fraternity, which he joined at Bolivar, Denton county, Texas, in 1876, while in 1912 he became a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks at Boise.
FRED A. PITTENGER, M. D.
Dr. Fred A. Pittenger, holding rank with the able physicians and surgeons of · Boise, with office in the Overland building, was born in Cardington, Morrow county, Ohio, October 15, 1875, his parents being Willis M. and Margaret (Kern) Pittenger. In the paternal line he comes of Holland ancestry, the family having heen founded in Pennsylvania, however, in the early part of the seventeenth century. The mother was of Irish and English descent. The Pittenger family was represented in the Revolutionary war. The father was a native of Ohio and for a number of years was an engineer in the service of the United States government but death called him when he was only thirty-four years of age. His widow afterward became the wife of Dr. Harlan Page Ustick, of Boise, to which city she removed with her only child, Fred A., in 1890. She is again a widow and yet makes her home in Boise.
After mastering the branches of learning taught in the graded and high schools of Morrow county, Ohio, Dr. Pittinger of this review was for two years a resident of Washington Court House, Fayette county, Ohio, and then became a student in the University of Iowa, where he devoted two years to a college course and two years to the study of medicine. He next entered the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College, from which he was graduated in 1899. He later spent two years as an interne in the Chicago Homeopathic Hospital, gaining that hroad and valuable experience which one readily acquires in hospital practice. He afterward matriculated in the North- western Medical College of Chicago and completed his course there with the class of 1904. He was later associated with Dr. Adams, a well known Chicago surgeon, for a period of five years but at the end of that time returned to Boise, where in the intervening period, covering thirteen years, he has built up an extensive practice, devoting his attention steadily to his profession save for a period of seven months, which he spent upon the Mexican border as a captain in the Medical Corps of the Idaho National Guard from the 19th of June, 1916, to the 23d of January, 1917. Again from the 12th of September, 1917, until January 2, 1919, he served with the rank of major in the Medical Officers Corps at Fort Riley, Kansas. At the time of his discharge, following the signing of the armistice, he was commander of Army Sani- tary Train No. 2. He has been a captain of the Medical Corps of the Idaho National Guard since 1912 and during 1912 and 1913 was surgeon general of Idaho. He was graduated from the Medical Officers Training School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1913, and has done considerable work along professional lines for the benefit of the army. For twelve years he has served as surgeon of the Idaho State Soldiers Home and also as city physician of Boise. To promote his knowledge and efficiency he has at various times taken post graduate work in eastern cities. He belongs to the Idaho State Medical Society and holds to the highest standards of the profession.
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