USA > Idaho > History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume II > Part 36
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MILLER M. HARSHBARGER, M. D.
Dr. Miller M. Harshbarger, a physician and surgeon of St. Anthony, who holds to high professional standards and has made for himself a creditable name and place by reason of his capability and his devotion to the welfare of his patients, was born at Woodbine, Iowa, June 1, 1875, his parents being Henry Clay and Nettie (Edgerton) Harshbarger, the former a native of Indiana, while the latter was born in New York. The father went to Iowa in early life, settling at Wood- bine, where he engaged in the real state business. He became a prominent factor in the public life of that community, filled the office of mayor of his town and served for one term as a member of the state legislature. He also held various county offices, discharging his duties with marked capability and fidelity. He enlisted at Omaha in the First Nebraska Infantry at the time of the Civil war and served throughout the period of hostilities, after which he went to the western frontier and fought the Indians for six months. He was wounded in the battle of Shiloh and on many a battlefield gave tangible proof of his valor and of his loyalty. Later he engaged in farming at Woodbine, Iowa, and in 1901 he removed to Fremont county, Idaho, where he purchased land near St. Anthony. This he improved and cultivated throughout his remaining days, his life's labors being ended 'in death in March, 1912. He had for a long period survived his wife, who died April 9, 1891.
The youthful days of Dr. Harshbarger were spent at Woodbine, Iowa, and he is indebted to its public school system for the early educational opportunities which he enjoyed. He afterward entered Hamline University at St. Paul, Minnesota, and studied there for a year. He then enlisted in the army for service in the Spanish- American war, joining the Twenty-first Kansas Infantry. He was with the Hospital Corps most of the time, and when the country no longer needed his military aid he returned to Hamline University, where he completed a course in medicine with the class of 1902. He sought the opportunities of the new and growing west, making his way to St. Anthony, Idaho, where he opened an office and has since engaged in practice with the exception of a period of two years passed in Brownsville, Texas, and three years at Mount Vernon, Illinois, and while in New York, taking post graduate work. He has always kept in close touch with the trend of modern
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professional thought and practice and has comprehensive understanding of the most scientific methods of the treatment and prevention of disease. He now owns a homestead in Madison county and has proved up on the property.
In October, 1911, Dr. Harshbarger was married to Miss Grace Campbell, by whom he has two children: Raquel G., born in July, 1915; and William M., whose birth occurred in March, 1917.
Dr. Harshbarger is a republican in his political belief. Fraternally he is connected with the Masons and has become a member of the Mystic Shrine. He also belongs to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Woodmen of the World. In these as- sociations are indicated the rules which govern his conduct and shape his relations with his fellowmen. Along strictly professional lines he is connected with the Idaho State Medical Society and the American Medical Association and he has served as city physician of St. Anthony for a number of years and is surgeon for the Oregon Short Line Railroad and also for the Idaho State Industrial School, which is located at St. Anthony. He makes his profession his first interest and does everything in his power to promote the welfare of his patients. To this end he keeps in touch with the latest scientific researches and discoveries and remains a .close student of all that hears upon the profession or has to do with his efforts to restore health and prolong life.
GEORGE E. KNEPPER.
George E. Knepper is widely known throughout the state of Idaho, particularly to the Masons, as grand secretary of the Grand Lodge, A. F. & A. M., of Idaho. In former years he was also closely connected with educational movements and was numbered among the foremost educators in the country. He was born on a farm near Berlin, Somerset county, Pennsylvania, September 7, 1849, a son of Jonathan and Margaret (Meese) Knepper, both of whom have passed away. The parents were also natives of Somerset county, the father having been born in 1804. He was a carpenter by trade, which occupation he followed during the greater part of his life, and in his early manhood took a prominent part in democratic politics in Somerset county, in which he held important positions, including those of sheriff and district associate judge. In 1861 the Knepper family removed westward from Pennsylvania to Lee county, Illinois, locating on a farm there, and on that Illinois farm George E. Knepper spent his boyhood days. The father later became a resident of Wahoo, Nebraska, and there he passed away at the venerable age of ninety years. His wife had preceded him in death, having reached the age of sixty-two. To Mr. and Mrs. Knepper were born ten children, five sons and five daughters, of whom two sons and two daughters are living. The two sons make their home in this state: Samuel Knepper, a farmer of Latah county; and George E., of this review.
The last named remained on the home farm in Lee county, Illinois, until he was twenty-one years of age, having in the meantime received a good education. At the age of eighteen, however, he took up the profession of teaching, dutifully turning over his wages to his father until he reached his maturity. In the winter months he taught, while during the summer seasons he worked on his father's farm and proved quite successful as a teacher although he had only a common school educa- tion. After reaching the age of twenty-one he went out with a threshing outfit dur- ing the fall and thus earned twenty-five dollars, which were the first wages he really could call his own. With this money he entered the Henry City Academy of Henry City, Illinois, and also taught school while attending that institution, so continuing for several years. Finally, in 1872 he became a student in Heidelberg University at Tiffin, Ohio, from which he was graduated in 1876 with the degree of A. B., and in 1879 received the Master's degree from the same school, and the Ph. D. degree from Highland University, Kansas, in 1904. For the following forty years, from 1876 until 1916, he was prominently connected with educational work, first in the state of Illinois and later in Minnesota, California, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, North Da- kota and then again in Idaho. At Peoria, Illinois, he was principal of the Greeley school for three years, principal of the high school for seven years. He was state institute conductor of Minnesota for one year, was superintendent of public schools at Winona, Minnesota, for one year and superintendent of public schools of Santa
GEORGE E. KNEPPER
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Barbara, California, for two years. In 1895 he came to Idaho and founded the Lewis- ton Normal School, of which he was president for eight years, thus greatly contribut- ing to the forward educational movement in this state. He then went to Kansas in order to become president of Highland University of that state, which position he filled for four years, and then for one year was dean of Jamestown College of North Dakota. He later was president of a Presbyterian school in Missouri known as the School of the Ozarks. In 1911, however, he returned to Latah county, Idaho, and there he gave his attention to farming and teaching, being connected with the Ken- drick schools until 1915. In September of that year he was elected grand secretary of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Idaho and for that reason removed to Boise. He still holds this important position and has done much work beneficial to the order. For a period of seventeen years he has been chairman of the committee on foreign correspondence for the Masonic order in Idaho. He holds all of the degrees in Ma- sonry except the thirty-third.
On July 6, 1876, Mr. Knepper was united in marriage to Laura A. Bossemeyer, of Dixon, Illinois, and they have six children living, one son and five daughters. The son is Ralph B. Knepper, editor and owner of the Kendrick (Idaho) Gazette. The five daughters are L. Margaret, May, Edith, Elizabeth and Ethel.
Mr. Knepper and his family are widely and favorably known in Boise and the state, where they have many friends. He is one of the valued citizens of this com- monwealth, having ever at heart intellectual and moral progress, and particularly in connection with Masonic work has done much that has been of beneficial result to the organization.
MAJOR FRED R. REED.
An idealist with practical methods, Major Fred R. Reed has contributed in substantial measure to the development, settlement and upbuilding of the northwest and Boise numbers him among her most valued and highly respected citizens. A native of New Jersey, he was born in Jersey City on the 9th of August, 1858, a descendant of an old New England family that held to the strict tenets that guided the settlers of that section of the country in the early days. The educational ad- vantages of Major Reed were limited to the opportunities afforded by the public schools and he did not have the chance to continue his studies after reaching the age of thirteen, when he became a sailor. In the intervening years, however, his leisure hours have been wisely utilized in the study of books, of men and of nature and in the school of experience he has learned many valuable lessons, impressing one at once as a man of broad general information.
Attracted by the opportunities of the growing west, Major Reed made his way to the Black Hills in 1877 and arrived at Glens Ferry, Idaho in 1878. For three years he rode the range as a cowboy and then became interested in railroad building, be- ing made foreman and riding boss of a Chinese construction gang of two thousand five hundred for the Northern Pacific Railroad. Winning promotion in railroad service, he was at length the assistant of the manager of construction of that road. This brought to him knowledge of great value concerning the opportunities of the northwest and through the intervening period there has been no man who has taken a more active, valuable or resultant part in bringing about the settlement and de- velopment of the state of Idaho. He became the general agent for the Kuhn interests and in connection with their great irrigation enterprises he has succeeded in bringing two thousand or more families into the state. For a quarter of a century his life has been devoted to the upbuilding of Idaho, for which he has the keenest love. Pioneer times brought hardships, trials and discouragements to the settlers that he induced to come to Idaho, but with remarkable prescience he recognized something of what the future had in store for this great and growing country and knew that if the men whom he had induced to come to the state could tide over the period of hard times they would reap generous profits for their labors. To many a one in an hour of discouragement he proved a friend in need and a friend indeed. Even at the sacrifice of his own interests he gave for the assistance and benefit of such and helped them over the rough places until their labors have made the desert literally bloom and blossom as the rose. There are hundreds of people in Idaho today who bless him and speak with gratitude concerning the assistance which he
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rendered. He was made commissioner of immigration, labor and statistics from Idaho and did most important work for the state in that connection. He was also made the executive commissioner for Idaho to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition held in San Francisco in 1915. His work in both connections was most satisfactory. He possesses marked executive ability and his enthusiastic support of the west and recognition of its opportunities enabled him to mass and illustrate the vast resources of his adopted state in a splendid manner at the Pan-American Exposition.
In 1882 Major Reed was united in marriage to Miss Carrie M. Budd, a daugh- ter of D. E. Budd and a cousin of Governor Budd of California. Fraternally Major Reed is connected with the Masons as a Knight Templar, is also a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and the Sons of the American Revolution. He has always been interested in military matters and when in New York was a member of the Seventh Regiment of the National Guard of that state. On re- moving to the west he became a private in the National Guard of Washington and rose to the rank of major of the Cavalry Squadron of the state. Such in brief is the history of his career, but to know these facts is not to know the man, for it gives little indication of those characteristics which make Major Fred R. Reed one of the best loved men in Idaho. An editorial from the Idaho Register of Feb- ruary 13, 1914, said of him: "When the history of Idaho is to be written, the history made by men who have helped to make the state what it is, that history will not be complete unless it contains the name and the story of the achievements of one of its biggest men, Fred R. Reed-big physically, big mentally, big minded and, best of all, with a big heart which throbs for humanity and which answers every appeal made and never stops to question. and no higher tribute can be paid a man.
Fred R. Reed is a man men can love, Unselfish devotion to those to whom he is under no legal obligation has whitened his hair and furrowed his face but has not dimmed the kindly light of his eye, which beams with that greatest human asset- honesty. Many men and women of Idaho have first learned to know and then to love Fred R. Reed. There is no gift within their power of franchise that they would not be pleased to honor him with and then they would feel that they had not done enough. The night has not been too dark nor has the way ever been too long for him to fail to heed the cry of distress. His life has been devoted very largely to others and he has let opportunity go by when one word would have brought fortune but would have brought it at the expense of the confidence ex- pressed in him and reposed in him by men-men who have called him friend. His life has heen devoted for more than two decades to the upbuilding of the state of his adoption, which he loves to call home. He has within the last few years been able to realize his dream and has seen what was to the average eye the most desolate land, a land which God forgot, brought under the subjection of man and made a land as fair as it was barren. This has not been done without sacrifice, but to hear the story of the achievement is to honor the man who has done so much to bring it about. With that characteristic modesty which attracts people to him, Major Reed has never asked for credit or reward and is willing-more than willing-to let his work speak for itself and for him."
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JOHN M. BOWMAN.
John M. Bowman, of Caldwell, has reached the venerable age of eighty-five years. His reminiscences concerning the early days are most interesting and present a vivid picture of conditions that existed in Idaho when this was a frontier district, in which the work of development and improvement had scarcely been begun. Mr. Bowman was born in Greene county, Tennessee, near Greeneville, on the 9th of March, 1834, and is a son of Joseph and Honor (Newman) Bowman. The old home of the Bowman family, on which Joseph Bowman was born, bordered the highway between Tennessee and Virginia, and his people were originally Virginians. Joseph Bowman became the owner of a plantation of over one hundred acres, inheriting the property from his father. He married Honor Newman, whose father was of Irish birth, while her mother, who in her maidenhood was Miss Bird, was born in England. To Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Bowman twelve children were born: Jacob, Cornelius, Joseph, John, Henry, Samuel, Maunce Bird, Elizabeth, Rebecca, Mary, Honor and Martha. After
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the death of the mother the father married again and of the second marriage there were born nine children: George W., Andrew J., Benjamin F., William, Barbara, Liddy Ann, Hannah, Nancy and Eliza.
John M. Bowman was reared in Tennessee. At the time of the Civil war he became a member of Company B, of the First Division of General Y. Slack's army. He had previously been a lieutenant at Lexington, Missouri, and received his com- mission as captain just before the battle of Pea Ridge. He now has in his possession a Cross of Honor which was presented to him by the United Daughters of the Con- federacy and he is justly proud of this gift. He also has a fine gold-headed ebony cane, which was presented him recently by the business men of Caldwell in recogni- tion of his act in knocking down with a hickory cane a socialist who had hit a recruiting officer while he was recruiting troops for the Mexican border. He also retains possession of the hickory cane. As the business men had oversubscribed the cost of the gold-headed cane to the extent of thirty-five dollars he was asked what disposition should be made of this balance. He suggested, and it was accordingly carried out, that the money should be spent in purchasing hickory canes such as the one he used to be given to the old soldiers, both those who wore the blue and those who wore the gray.
Mr. Bowman came to Idaho from Missouri in 1864, crossing the plains with ox teams. When they reached Deer Creek station on the North Platte river in Nebraska, twenty head of their stock were stolen while most of the men were fishing. They immediately followed the Indians as soon as the loss was discovered and the white men killed four of the Indians. A mule which one Indian had been riding returned to camp and this was the extent of the stock recovered. The white men were so greatly outnumbered by the Indians that they were forced to retreat. Soon afterward they met a squad of soldiers who informed them that there were no Indians within fifty miles! They hurried on their way and between Deer Creek station and Box Elder they suddenly met about fifty Indians, with whom they fought a running fight. Four of their party were killed and three were badly wounded. Mr. Bowman escaped only by being fleeter of foot than the Indians, who pursued him and two companions into the timber, into which the red men were afraid to enter. Mr. Bowman and his party then moved on without further incidents of this character save that on several occasions they saw Indians in their war paint and feathers.
On the 6th of September, 1864, Mr. Bowman arrived in Boise and after remain- ing there for a few days moved down the Boise river, locating on the south bank opposite the present site of Notus, although there was no town there at the time. He cut balm trees and built a cabin with a dirt roof and dirt floor and in this he and his family lived for the first three years. Their first table was made from planks rudely split from a log and the second year he put a floor in his cabin of the same kind of planks. A cellar was dug in the bank of a stream as a refuge for his family when in fear of Indians. Upon his farm he raised stock and also raised the first grain grown below the present site of Caldwell, paying twelve and a half cents per pound for the seed and selling his crop at six and a half cents per pound. Eight years later he took up a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres on the north side of the river and in the conduct of his farming and stock raising interests won pros- perity. He lived upon that place until 1880, when he sold both the homestead and his first farm and took up his abode farther down the river on the south bank. In 1877 the Indians became very troublesome and the settlers formed a company and built Fort Tom Johnson, where they kept their families for more than a month. In 1878 they built Fort Kinkaid and for portholes put in large wagon hubs, which in the distance looked like cannon. This camouflage movement proved so effective that the Indians would not venture near. There the settlers kept their families until they felt that it was safe to return to their homes. In 1908 Mr. Bowman sold his farm property and removed to Caldwell, retiring from active business life. His former toil brought to him the competence which now enables him to enjoy all of the necessities and many of the luxuries of life.
In 1859 Mr. Bowman was married to Miss Sarah Elizabeth Ireland, of Missouri, and they became the parents of the following children: Hester Ann; Martha H .; Henry Newman; Mary Ada, who is the wife of George Froman and has five children, Walter, Harry, Grace, Georgia and Ethel; John Calhoun, who married a Miss Brown and has three children, Lola, Luther and May; Maunce Bird, who wedded Mary Marrs and has one child, Birdie; Robert E. Lee, who is living near Nampa and who Vol. II-20
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married his cousin Liddy Bowman, by whom he had two children, Charles Richard and Helen, while after the death of his first wife, he wedded Minnie Bader, by whom he has two children, Palmer and Roberta; Martha Honor, the widow of Harry Cook; and Luther; Charles Richard Bowman, son of Robert E. Lee Bowman, has recently returned from France, where he was in the balloon service. The second wife of John M. Bowman was Mrs. Sarah Duncan, of Duncans Ferry, who passed away thirteen years ago.
Mr. Bowman was one of Governor Hawley's old pioneer friends and relates many interesting incidents of the early days in which the former governor figured. He is familiar with every condition of frontier life, when the settlers had to travel long distances to market, when they lived in log cabins or other rude pioneer homes, when the land was unclaimed and uncultivated, the streams unbridged and the forests uncut. He has lived to witness a remarkable change as the years have passed and has borne his part in the work of transformation that has been steadily carried forward.
HON. GEORGE E. HILL, JE.
One of the most prominent citizens of Rigby, Jefferson county, is the Hon. George E. Hill, Jr., who for a number of years has taken a leading part in all the major com- mercial and political activities of the southeastern part of Idaho. He was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, October 10, 1869, the son of George E. and Frances (Van Tassell) Hill. George E. Hill, Sr., was one of the pioneers and first settlers in the Rigby coun- try, where he brought his family in 1886. Here he took up a homestead and began straightway the difficult task of bringing his tract of stubborn wild land into a state of cultivation.
George E. Hill, Jr., was only seventeen years of age when he accompanied his father to Idaho and here he remained for four years, rendering valuable assistance in the development of the homestead and undergoing all the hardships of pioneer life and of the work incidental to the early settlement of the eastern part of the state. After he had become of age, he returned to Salt Lake City, where he entered college in 1890 and graduated a few years later from the commercial department. While he was yet a resident of Salt Lake City, Senator Hill received some practical experience which was of great value to him when he entered a broader field of usefulness in later years. In 1890 he was appointed private secretary to Hon. Brigham H. Roberts, then a member of the United States congress from Utah, and served in that capacity for one year, at the end of which time he engaged in the newspaper business in Salt Lake City as reporter on the Deseret News, then the leading paper of Utah. In 1893 he entered the law office of Hon. James H. Moyle, where he remained for four years in the study and practice of law, also doing abstract and title work.
It was not until 1902 that events so shaped themselves that Senator Hill decided to return to Idaho. In that year the Yellowstone branch of the Oregon Short Line was completed north from Idaho Falls through Rigby. This improvement in the means of transportation and communication to Rigby caused Senator Hill to return and be chiefly instrumental in the organization of the Rigby Hardware, Lumber & Manufac- turing Company, which firm has since gone out of the lumber business and now op. erates one of the largest department stores in the eastern part of the state. For seven- teen years Senator Hill served as secretary-treasurer and manager of this enterprise, the success of which was largely due to his efforts. During his residence in Rigby he has organized and promoted several other successful concerns of which he is now a director and which are now doing a prosperous business in the county seat of Jef- ferson county. He is a director and the general manager of the Beet Growers Sugar Company, which recently completed a twelve hundred thousand dollar sugar manufac- turing plant near Rigby and is now in successful operation. Senator Hill has been associated with this company from its organization, the success of which has been largely due to his business capacity and executive ability. This enterprise is an inde- pendent and cooperative one, the stockholders of which number nearly three thou- sand farmers and men in other lines of business in this and neighboring communities. In 1919 Senator Hill took an important part in extending the credit facilities of this section by being largely instrumental in the organization of the Jefferson County
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