History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume II, Part 33

Author: Hawley, James Henry, 1847-1929, ed
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 1024

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On the 21st of March, 1902, Dr. Over was married in Billings, Montana, to Miss Alice Cruse, also a native of Sterling, Illinois, whom he had known in his school days. They have one child, Dorothy C., horn March 4, 1917. Dr. Over is a mem- ber of the Boise Commercial Club and he has membership with the Masons and the Elks. In the former organization he has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and is also a member of the Mystic Shrine. When leisure permits he enjoys a hunting or fishing trip but allows nothing to interfere with the faithful performance of his professional duties and has made for himself a creditable posi- tion in the ranks of the dental profession during the nine years of his practice in Boise.

HON. LOUIS W. THRAILKILL.

Hon. Louis W. Thrailkill is not only widely known in the business world of Boise through his insurance activities but also occupies a foremost position on the public stage of the commonwealth, being at this time senator from Ada county. He has been in legislative work before, having been state representative, and has much experience along that line, so that he is eminently fitted for the position which he now occupies. He has been engaged in business in Boise since 1902 and in the course of years has won the complete confidence and trust of all who have had dealings with him. He is a member of the well known insurance firm of Buis, Thrailkill & Company.

Mr. Thrailkill came to Boise in 1900 from Des Moines, Iowa, where he was born September 15, 1874, a son of Joseph C. and Martha S. (Evans) Thrailkill, the former of Scotch and German descent and the latter of English and Welsh ancestry. The father was born in Holt county, Missouri, February 14, 1840, and throughout his active career successfully followed farming. At the time of the Civil war, how- ever, he laid aside his private interests and served on the Union side. Later in life he became a resident of Boise, where he died March 2, 1916, heing survived by his widow, who here makes her home and is now in her eighty-second year, still enjoying vigorous health. A native of Indiana, she was born June 13, 1838. There are two brothers and one sister of our subject living, one of the brothers being William I. Thrailkill, who is engaged in the grocery business in Boise.

Louis W. Thrailkill was reared and educated in Des Moines, Iowa, where he attended grammar school and rounded out his fundamental learning by a course in a business college. During a part of his youth he spent the summer vacations on the farm, thus becoming quite familiar with agricultural methods. At the age of seventeen, however, he took up another line of work, entering the service of the Bell Telephone Company in Des Moines, Iowa, and from 1891 until 1902 he was connected with the telephone business and with electrical lines in various capaci- ties. While he was in the telephone service he became so interested in things elec- trical that he carefully studied that branch and was chiefly employed in the main- tenance and construction department. During this period he spent his time in various states throughout the west, largely in construction work for hoth the Bell Telephone Company and the Western Union Telegraph Company. He came to Boise in 1900 as foreman of construction for the Independent Telephone Company and continued in that way until 1902. Desiring, however, to have a business of his own, he embarked in the transfer business in 1902, and with W. B. Horn estah-

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lished the White Line Transfer Company. Later he was associated with Bradley Sheppard in the same business but in 1905 sold out his interests of this kind, and since has given his close attention to the insurance business, particularly fire and life, but he also engages in a general line of insurance. In October, 1914, he and W. A. Buis formed the present firm of Buis, Thrailkill & Company, who are promi- nent in general insurance lines. They also act as special agents of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company for southwestern Idaho and southeastern Oregon. Mr. Thrailkill has thoroughly studied the insurance business and is familiar with its intricate angles. He is familiar with all kinds of policies and is careful to ex- plain a contract to a prospective customer so that no misunderstanding may arise and no dissatisfaction result. He has therefore earned a reputation for reliability which places him high as a business man. Moreover, he is enterprising and is a born salesman who readily makes friends and it is therefore but natural that he has taken a very important part in the success of the firm of which he is now a member.

In politics Mr. Thrailkill is a republican and in 1915 was chosen to represent his district in the state legislature, acting as chairman of the joint prohibition caucus and being largely instrumental in passing the prohibition measure in Idaho. That he performed his duties to the entire satisfaction of his constituents is evident from the fact that he was recently elected to the state senate from Ada county. On June 15, 1904, Mr. Thrailkill was married in Boise to Miss Ethel R. Brown, a native of Colorado. Mr. and Mrs. Thrailkill belong to the First Methodist Epis- copal church of Boise, in the work of which they take an active and helpful inter- est, and fraternally he is connected with the Masons, in which organization he has attained the thirty-second degree in the Scottish Rite. He also belongs to the Boise Commercial Club and is deeply interested in its projects for a larger and better city. He finds recreation in hunting and is very fond of outdoor sports, being active in athletics of various kinds. Having come across the plains of Ne- braska and Wyoming and having arrived in the Boise valley simultaneously with the fruit blossoms in the spring of 1900, he was so delighted with the aspect of the place and the beauty of the valley that he decided to remain in Ada county and for eighteen years he has been one of its substantial residents, stoutly maintaining that there is no better place on earth than Boise, that there is no richer valley than this, no better county than his county and no finer, cleaner and more courageous people than those who sought and found a home in the pure mountain country of Idaho.

PETER PENCE.

Peter Pence has passed the eighty-second milestone on life's journey and yet the years rest lightly upon him. He is a remarkable man for one of his age, his mind keenly alert and active, his face glowing with health, and he remains an invaluable factor in the life of Payette, to the upbuilding and development of which he has made so large contribution.

Mr. Pence was born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, October 12, 1837, and his meager education was confined to attendance at the country schools for three months during the winter seasons. At the age of twenty-one years he started out in life on his own responsibility and in the spring of 1858 proceeded by boat to St. Paul, Minnesota, but not being favorably impressed with that city continued his journey to Atchison, Kansas, where he began earning a living by chopping cord- wood. In 1860 he took up the work of freighting with ox teams from Atchison, Kansas, to Denver, Colorado, and on his first trip in March of that year hauled the merchandise for the fourth store in Denver. He made three trips that summer, the round trip being fourteen hundred miles. On his first return trip, at a place known as Boxelder, about one hundred and seventy-five miles east of Denver, the party was held up by the Indians, who were determined to revenge themselves on white people because of a cut inflicted on one of their band by the storekeeper at Boxelder. After a long conference, however, they decided to be pacified by a gift of various kinds of stores and no blood was shed.

At this time of the year buffaloes were migrating and the freighters found it neces sary to shoot the animals to keep them from running over their wagons, so numerous

PETER PENCE

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were they. The men were forced to stop their train and chain their oxen to the wagons to keep them from stampeding. In the spring of 1861 an influential man by the name of Jim Lane took to Atchison a six-pounder cannon and one hundred rounds of ammunition to protect the town from the rebels. With his team Mr. Pence hauled the cannon to the Missouri Heights, from which location they fired thirteen rounds across the river at the enemy, who beat a hasty retreat. The rebel troops were under the command of General Price and their object was to seize the ferry. During that summer Mr. Pence engaged in farming, raising corn, which he sold at fifteen cents per bushel, and during the winter he operated a threshing machine. At that time the country was overrun with horse thieves and murderers, so that Mr. . Pence decided to move farther west. In 1862, therefore, with an ox team, he joined a train of fifty wagons and three hundred and sixty people headed for Idaho. They arrived on the east side of the Malheur river, opposite the town of Vail, September 26, 1862, and there they buried one of their party who had died of jaundice. The following day they resumed their journey, but three of their party soon left them to make their way to the Boise basin. Arriving at Baker City, Oregon, the party found there the foundation for two houses in the way of settlement and at that point awaited the report of the men who were sent to reconnoiter the Boise basin and who returned with reports that caused Mr. Pence to immediately start for Boise basin. He arrived just in time to attend the first miners' meeting at Placerville in the Boise basin on the 3d of November, 1862.

In crossing the Snake river, seven miles south of Payette, at what was called the Whitley Bottom, he was charged two dollars and a half by a ferryman for taking him across in a skiff, swimming his ponies. In order to pay this ferryman he was compelled to borrow a dollar and a quarter from a companion, so he arrived in Idaho truly empty-handed save for his grubstake. The day following the meeting of the miners Mr. Pence and his associate, Samuel Kenney, went to the present site of Idaho City and there Mr. Pence engaged in prospecting and his partner hauled logs for the building of the town, for which he received a wage of sixteen dollars per day. The two men built a log cabin for themselves large enough to accommodate four people. About this time the rush started. On Christmas day they hired a man who had a scythe to mow hay on Elk creek for their oxen. That winter they whipsawed sluice lumber, paying forty-five dollars for the whipsaw and sawing about one hundred feet per day, which they sold at twenty-five cents per foot, and before their supply of lumber was exhausted they were paid three hundred dollars a thousand for the remainder by Henry Stark and Joe Olden, two of the picturesque gamblers of the times, who were anxious to open a saloon. Prices were very high at that time. Mr. Pence and his partner were paying one dollar per pound for four, two dollars and a half per pound for bacon, twenty-five dollars for gum boots, twelve dollars for a pick and eight dollars for a shovel. In April, 1863, they resumed mining and lost all their lumber profits. The partnership was then dissolved and Mr. Pence engaged in packing with horses and mules from Umatilla, Oregon, to Silver City, Idaho, receiving twenty- eight dollars per hundred pounds. Later he teamed from Umatilla, Oregon, and Walla Walla, Washington, in the years 1864 and 1865, and in 1866 he took his teams to The Dalles, Oregon, and went to Portland, where he purchased a threshing machine, for by this time there was considerable grain being raised in the Boise valley and threshers received from fourteen to twenty-five cents a bushel while grain was worth twenty-five cents a pound as soon as it was threshed.

In the fall of 1866 Mr. Pence sold his threshing outfit and on the 9th of January. 1867, left Boise for Walla Walla, Washington, to buy cattle. In the spring he brought to the Payette valley one of the first bands of cattle. With every phase of pioneer life in this section of the state he is familiar. The town of Boise was just being staked out when he arrived in 1863. He tells a story which indicates the conditions that existed in those days. He and his partner, returning to their mine from Idaho City, stepped into the butcher shop to get a steak. Just at that time a fight broke out in the street and Jones, the butcher, decided to interfere. Being a powerful man, he threw the fighters apart and in so doing stopped a bullet by his head, resulting in his instant death. He was left lying where he fell until the next day, when a rope was put around his neck and he was dragged away-such was the little value placed upon a man's life at that time. In the summer of 1867 Mr. Pence gave Bill Hill fourteen hundred dollars in gold bars to vacate his claim at the month of Big Willow, in Payette county in favor of Mr. Pence, who has since developed the land into one of the best stock ranches in this section. It is now the property of his two youngest

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sons and is known as the Pence Brothers ranch. Thereon they cut annually eight hundred tons of hay, which is fed to stock, which they are raising extensively. Ali of Mr. Pence's children save one were born upon that ranch.

When the Oregon Short Line Railroad was completed into Oregon, Mr. Pence removed to Payette, where he has since lived. For some years he handled real estate and at the same time raised cattle and sheep on his ranch. Later he turned his at- tention to banking, acquiring a large amount of stock in the Bank of Commerce, while subsequently he became one of the chief owners of the First National Bank, into which he merged the Bank of Commerce, and since then he has been the presi- dent of the First National Bank of Payette. He owns an interest with William A. Coughanour in the First National Bank building and they are both largely interested in the Idaho Canning Company of Payette, the only canning plant west of Utah, Mr. Pence being the president. He has also been connected with the irrigation interests and was president of the Lower Payette Ditch Company, which has one of the best irrigation plants and the lowest water rate in the state, this being twenty-five cents per acre.

In 1872 was celebrated the marriage of Peter Pence and Annie Bixby, a native of Nebraska, who passed away July 18, 1906. They were the parents of eight children, two of whom are deceased. Mrs. Belle Satoris, the eldest, is the mother of two chil- dren: Harline now attending the normal school at Moscow, and Fred, a high school pupil in Payette. Edward C., who is connected with the Graves Transfer Company of Boise, married Besse Venable, of Boise, whose brother is private secretary to Senator Borah at Washington. Edward C. and his wife have two children, Earl and Mildred. Albert Lloyd married Cady Taylor, of Missouri, and they have six children: Katherine, Gladys, Peter M., Pauline and Albert Lloyd all attending school in Payette, and Margaret. Harry D. married Delia Applegate, of Idaho. Walter G. married Ada Cram, of Payette, and they have one child, Lucille. Grace E. is the wife of R. D. Bradshaw and they have a daughter and two sons, Edith, Douglas and Kenneth, all attending school in Payette. Mr. Pence is very proud of his grandchildren and pre- sented each one of them with a hundred-dollar Liberty bond at Christmas time of 1918.

While Mr. Pence has conducted most extensive and important business interests that have constituted valuable elements in the upbuilding of his city and state, he has also further advanced the public welfare through service in office. In 1890 he was elected to the state legislature and he was chairman of the school board of Payette when the first brick schoolhouse was built in the city and was largely instrumental in buying the block where the school stands. For several terms he served as mayor of Payette, being its first chief executive, and he labored earnestly in the execution of his official duties to advance the general welfare. He is a charter member of the Masonic fraternity of Payette and throughout his life has been a worthy follower of the craft. His is a notable career of activity and efficiency and to him the lines of Victor Hugo may well be applied:

"The snows of winter are on his head,

But the flowers of spring are in his heart."

ROBERT E. SHELTON, D. D. S.

Although a comparatively young man Dr. Robert E. Shelton already enjoys a large practice and has made a name for himself in the dental fraternity of Boise. He maintains well appointed offices in the Yates building and there receives and treats a large number of his patients, all of whom are agreed as to his high qual- ifications in regard to his profession. Born on a Kansas farm, March 12, 1886, he is a son of Andrew M. and Mary (Killion) Shelton. The father, who throughout his life has successfully followed agricultural pursuits, now resides in South Boise and has valuable farming interests in the state. He was born in Wytheville, Vir- ginia, June 11, 1853, while his wife was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, February 10, 1859. On the paternal side Dr. Shelton is of Revolutionary descent.

Robert E. Shelton was reared in Kansas amid farm surroundings and in the acquirement of his education attended the country schools, so continuing until the age of fifteen, or until 1901, when he accompanied his parents to the state of Ore- gon, the family locating in Dallas, in the Willamette valley. In that city he con-

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tinued his education in La Creole Academy, in which institution he completed a high school course. Having decided upon a professional career as most suited to his tastes and ability, he then took up the study of dentistry. For some time he practiced in the state of Washington and also in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, but in 1913 he came to Boise, having been attracted by the advantages offered in the capital city. Since then his professional labors have been accompanied with more than ordinary success and he now has a well equipped suite of offices in the Yates build- ing, where he has been located since 1914. He has continuously kept in touch with the latest discoveries and methods that have been promulgated in his profession and makes good use of all the latest approved ideas. His reputation is therefore firmly established and a continually growing success may be predicted for him.

On October 8, 1908, Dr. Shelton was united in marriage in Salem, Oregon, to Miss Laurella Holmstrom, who is of Swedish descent on the paternal side and was born in Kansas. Mrs. Shelton is a graduate nurse. She and the Doctor first met in Oregon. To this union were born two children, Dorothy and Robert Killion, aged ten and seven years.

Dr. Shelton is quite prominently connected with fraternal and social institu- tions of Boise. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Tribe of Ben Hur and the Royal Highlanders. Along professional lines he is a valued member of the Boise Dental Association, in the meetings of which he participates with much interest, receiving valuable suggestions and also giving readily of his own experience. He is also a member of the Boise Commer- cial Club, in the proceedings of which he takes a laudable interest, readily sup- porting projects and movements undertaken for the expansion of the city along material as well as moral and intellectual lines. Politically Dr. Shelton is a dem- ocrat but in that connection has never proceeded any further than to perform his duties as a private citizen at the ballot box. He finds recreation in hunting and fishing, is fond of a good game of bowling, and thus finds the needed recreation in order to return to his arduous professional duties.

THE IDAHO SANITARIUM.

The Idaho Sanitarium since its founding in 1897 has been an institution of which Boise and the state have had every reason to be proud. The most efficient work has there been done in the restoration of health, with recognition of every scientific method for the prevention of disease. The location of the sanitarium is ideal. It stands on a natural elevation amid picturesque surroundings and the quiet restfulness and peace of the place appeal to every visitor. The building is a large and substantial brick structure with spacious rooms and broad verandas. It is surrounded with beautiful and well kept lawns overlooking Boise valley and every accessory necessary to the restoration of health has been introduced. The institution is supplied with pure soft artesian water and various hydropathic treatments are given to patients together with scientific massage.

It has ever been the policy of the institution not only to study the disease of the patient but the cause which has brought about that disease and in a quiet and unobtrusive but effective manner it has been the purpose of the institution to educate the afflicted and increase their powers of resistance by giving them an understanding of the laws of nature.

Dr. Mary E. Donaldson is at the head of the institution and her work has brought her the greatest praise from physicians, from philanthropists and from the general public. Her love of humanity and desire to help have ever been the basic principles of her professional service. Her labors have been carried out in accordance with the divine law of health. In this connection Dr. Donaldson has said: "Since sickness is the sure result of the transgression of God's natural laws, how vastly important it is that the great problem of how to properly carry on life should be constantly and enthusiastically considered and taught. It is a well known scientific fact that one of the chief causes of that hydra-headed disease, dyspepsia, which baffles the skill of so many physicians, is indirectly due to the use of condiments; and it is also a well known fact that condiments possess no food value whatever. On the contrary, they are irritants, and positively injurious to health. Chief among these irritants are cayenne, or red pepper, horse-radish and

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mustard, all of which sting and bite as they pass downward. The diet at the sanitarium eschews all these unnatural and artificial stomach whips, believing and teaching that if the moderate use of right foods and healthful drinks were taught and used in the nursery and at the home board the parents and guardians who are entrusted with the sacred responsibilities of rearing the young would not be called upon to regret the implanting of false appetites in their children, which logically leads to dissipation in the saloon and the brothel and thence, perhaps, to an un- timely and dishonored grave, or to the ignominy of the penitentiary or the gallows. The prevention of these deplorable conditions is of priceless value and of far greater moment than the cure of them. In Brillat-Savarin's great work, entitled, 'The Physiology of Taste,' are to he found axioms as profound as ever Plato or Epictetus set down. For example: 'The education of the tastes and the appetite should be an index to the degree of civilization.' 'The fate of nations depends upon how they are fed.' 'A man of sense and culture alone understands eating.' The sanitarium diet prevents the formation of false appetites, abnormal, un- natural-preventing those thus taught and reared from falling a natural prey to the universal curse of drunkenness by thus cutting off the demand for intoxicants; and when this demand is cut off the vexed and pathetic question of the ages, the abolition of drunkenness, will be forever solved and a most glorious heritage will be left to posterity in wide-spread sobriety. And may God hasten that day!" Her career has been the embodiment of the spirit and words of Abraham Lincoln: "There is something better than making a living-making a life." Moreover, she has ever realized that "It is not from the few spectacular or so-called great deeds that the blessings of life chiefly come, but from the little ministries that fill the every days," and her entire career has not only been one of assistance and helpful- ness to her fellowmen but also one of inspiration.

JOHN McGLINCHEY.

John McGlinchey was born in Pennsylvania in 1838 and passed away in Payette, Idaho, January 12, 1916, at the age of seventy-eight years. No history of this region would be complete without extended reference to "him. He was twelve years of age when he left home and from that time he made his own way in the world, obtaining his education through study and self-teaching. When about twenty years of age he made his way westward to Utah and engaged in merchandising at Salt Lake City until 1862, when he came to Idaho City, Idaho, and again established a mercantile store, which he conducted successfully for several years. Believing that better opportunities were offered in Wyoming, he then went to that state and was engaged in the hardware trade at Evanston. He was sheriff of Sweet Water county one term and represented Uinta county one term in the Wyoming legislature. In 1881, however, he sold out and again went to Utah but after remaining there for a brief period returned to Idaho, taking up his abode at Weiser in 1885. He purchased a relinquishment claim from the original homesteader and upon that property were located fine medicinal hot springs, which he called the McGlinchey Hot Springs. These are now designated on the map as Meadows.

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History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume II, Part 33

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