History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume II, Part 60

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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road, so that corporation entered into a combination with the Oregon-Washington Railroad & Navigation Company and built a line from Culdesac to Grangeville, which made it impossible to finance and build the electric line, which would have served that whole country far better than the steam line ever can. Colonel Spofford also owns an interest in the Combination mine at Profile, Idaho, which old Coeur d'Alene miners say will make another Hercules mine. Colonel Spofford is now manager of one of the best farms in the vicinity of Boise, it being the property of Ex-United States Senator Nathan Goff, of West Virginia. In addition to the management of this farm he holds considerable mining interests and is now the owner of a three-fourths in- terest in what is known as the Combination mine in Valley county, rich in gold, silver, lead and copper and promising large returns.

Colonel Spofford was married in Brownington, Vermont, on the 23d of September, 1868, to Miss Nellie F. Goodall and to them have been born three children, two of whom are yet living, a son and a daughter, while one daughter is deceased. The son, Lyman Henry Spofford, is married and has two daughters. He is a resident of Boise. Edith Evangeline Spofford became the wife of Douglas W. Ross, at one time state engineer of Idaho and a resident of Boise. He is now employed in the United States reclamation service as consulting engineer and resides in Berkeley, California. Mrs. Ross passed away August 18, 1904, leaving two daughters who have reached young womanhood. The youngest child of Colonel Spofford is Inez Virginia Spofford, who after the death of her sister, Edith Evangeline, became the second wife of Douglas W. Ross and is with him in Berkeley, California. By this marriage there have been born three sons.

In politics Colonel Spofford has always been a stalwart supporter of the repub- lican party since casting his first presidential vote for Abraham Lincoln in 1864. Since coming to Idaho, however, he has taken no active part in politics save to serve as a member of the republican county central committee, in which position he is now found. He is a past department commander of the Grand Army of the Rupublic in Idaho and is a valued representative of the Sons of the American Revolution. Fra- ternally he is a Knight Templar Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine. His life has been one of intense activity, characterized by the utmost devotion to his country and her welfare. In Boise he has done much to further public progress and the attractiveness of the city is due in no small measure to his efforts, for many of its beautiful shade trees-maples, black walnuts and elms-have grown from seeds planted by Colonel Spofford in his garden at his home at the corner of Franklin and Seventh streets. When the trees grew to be the size of buggy whips he transplanted them along the streets of Boise and some of them are now twenty-four inches in circum- ference and add greatly to the beauty of the city. The activities of Colonel Spofford have been of a most valuable and resultant character since he first offered his services to the government at the age of sixteen years. Whether in days of peace or days of war he has been the same loyal citizen, unfaltering in his allegiance to his coun- try and her high standards. His progressiveness has been manifest in many tangible ways and his cooperation has been a tangible asset in the advancement and upbuild- ing of community, commonwealth and country.

M. H. EUSTACE.

M. H. Eustace, an able member of the Idaho bar practicing at Caldwell, was born in Vernon county, Missouri, December 17, 1885, and is a son of J. H. and Addie J. ( Howell) Eustace. The father was born in Missouri in 1853 and devoted his active business life to the occupation of farming and stock raising but is now living retired in the enjoyment of well earned rest. He married Addie J. Howell, a native of Mississippi, who is now deceased. Her father and brothers were soldiers in the Confederate army, and J. H. Eustace had two brothers who also were soldiers of the southern cause.

Spending his youthful days under the parental roof, M. H. Eustace supple- mented his early educational opportunities by study in the University of Missouri. Having determined upon the practice of law as a life work, he became a law student in the State University and was graduated therefrom with the class of 1906. In the following year he was admitted to practice at the bar of South Dakota and entered upon the active work of the profession in Deadwood, where he maintained a law office until 1914. He then came to Caldwell, where he resumed practice

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under the firm style of Eustace & Groome. In 1918 he was made assistant attorney general and has most capably performed the duties of this office. Few lawyers have made a more lasting impression upon the bar of the state both for legal ability of a high order and for the individuality of a personal character which impresses itself upon the community. He is devotedly attached to his profession, systematic and methodical in habits, soher and discreet in judgment, and diligent in research. He enters the courtroom well prepared to meet the attacks of opposing counsel, and it is known that he has won a notable percentage of the cases entrusted to him.

In 1911 Mr. Eustace was married to Miss Jane Mahau, of Washington, D. C., a daughter of Captain John A. Mahan, of Huntington, West Virginia, and they have become the parents of two sons and one daughter: Marion Howlett, born in 1912; Edward Mahan, born in 1917; and Romaine Elizabeth, born in 1919.

Fraternally Mr. Eustace is connected with the Odd Fellows and with the Knights of Pythias. In 1917 he filled the office of chief clerk in the house of representatives during the fourteenth session of the general assembly and Idaho in this, as in every other connection, has found him a representative citizen.

WILLIAM H. KIMERY.

William H. Kimery, proprietor of the Kimery Hardware & Paint Company of Boise, was born in East Tennessee, August 2, 1868, and is a son of George F. Kimery, who now resides in Boise, being connected in a clerical capacity with the supreme court of Idaho.

In 1896 William H. Kimery came to Boise and has since been engaged in busi- ness here. For several years he has owned and conducted one of the leading hardware and paint stores of the city, carrying also a line of wall paper, and in this he has had the able assistance of his wife.

It was on the 24th of June, 1903, that Mr. Kimery was married to Miss Anna Moore, who was also born in East Tennessee and is the daughter of a Confederate war veteran, while Mr. Kimery's father served in the Union army. Mrs. Kimery devotes her attention and energies largely to the conduct of the business in connection with her hushand. They carry a complete line of general hardware and a large stock of paints and wall paper, and the reliability of their business methods, their reasonable prices and their enterprise have won for them a substantial patronage which is certaintly well deserved.

C. W. GIESLER.

C. W. Giesler, engaged in the real estate business in Payette, was born in Wausau, Wisconsin, January 15, 1859. His father died when the son was but six years of age and in 1867 he and his mother went to Kentucky to live with his maternal grandfather, Walter Cooper, near Louisville. There they continued for a year and then went to Terre Haute, Indiana, where the mother passed away in 1872, her son, C. W. Giesler. being then a lad of thirteen years. He and his grandfather afterward removed to Troy, Lincoln county, Missouri, where the gandfather died at the age of seventy-eight years.

C. W. Giesler was at that time a young man of nineteen years and upon him fell the responsibility of caring for a younger brother and sister. He went to work in a dry goods and clothing store at Elsberry, Missouri, where he remained until 1890, when he joined his brother, who five years before had come to the west and . taken up a homestead near Payette, Idaho. The first year after his arrival in Payette, C. W. Giesler worked for W. A. Coughanour in his sawmill and then entered the employ of F. C. Marquardsen, a general merchant, with whom he continued for a year and a half. The business was then sold to D. S. Lamme, with whom Mr. Giesler remained for two and a half years. With his brother, J. C. Giesler, he then entered the lumber business, which they conducted for two and a half years and then sold to J. M. Bennett. Later they erected a huilding and entered the implement and vehicle business, which they carried on for a short time and afterward added groceries and hardware. In 1917, however, they closed out this business, the brother

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returning to the farm, while C. W. Giesler entered the real estate business, in which he has since engaged, handling both farm and city property and also maintaining a loan and insurance department. He has gained a good clientele and the business is now of substantial proportions.

In 1897 Mr. Giesler was married to Miss Elizabeth J. Trevey, of New Hope, Missouri. His political allegiance is given to the democratic party and he has done effective public work since coming to the west. In 1907 he was treasurer of Canyon county, before the division which resulted in the creation of Payette county, and about 1915 he was appointed by the governor one of the commissioners of Payette county and filled that position until 1919. He has also served as a member of the city council of Payette, was chairman of the County Council of Defense and was also chairman of the War Savings Stamps committee. He gave most earnest support to every project that led to the upholding of American interests during the period of the war and he is at all times one hundred per cent American. Fraternally he is a Mason and exemplifies in his life the beneficent spirit of the craft, which recognizes the brotherhood of mankind and the obligations thereby imposed.

THOMAS B. SMITH.

Thomas B. Smith, of Pocatello, is the promoter and the head of the Elkhorn Live Stock and Dairy Company, successfully conducting the business of cattle raising and dairying and the manufacture and handling of creamery products. Executive ability, keen discrimination and unfaltering enterprise have characterized the business career of Mr. Smith, who was born on a farm at Mineral Ridge, near Youngstown, Ohio, June 20, 1857, and is a son of Samuel and Cecelia (Prosser) Smith, the former a native of England and the latter of Wales. On emigrating to the new world the father settled near Cleveland, Ohio, being then a young man of twenty-one years. He came to Idaho in 1881 and here passed away ahout twenty-eight years ago. The mother was a young woman when she became a resident of the United States and she, too, died in Idaho.

Thomas B. Smith spent the days of his hoyhood in Ohio, where he attended the public schools to the age of fifteen and then made his way to the west, arriving at Evanston, Wyoming, in August, 1871. There he became a rider on the Crawford- Thompson stock ranch, where he remained for about three years, after which he took up a desert claim on the Bear river in Wyoming, it being a part of what was known as the Pixley ranch. In 1879 he sold his interests there and came to Idaho, his desti- nation being what was then known as Egin Bench, thirty-five miles north of Idaho Falls. Egin is an Indian word meaning cold and indicates something of the nature of the district into which Mr. Smith made his way. He remained upon the ranch long enough to win his title to the homestead. He and his associates lost over one thousand head of cattle through lack of feed and through cold, as the winters of 1879 and 1880 were very severe. Turning his attention to railroading, he entered the service of the Utah Northern, which at that time was a narrow gauge road. About 1891 he came to Pocatello, Idaho, and established a coal and transfer business, at the same time acting as agent for the Standard Oil Company, which afterward disposed of its business to the Continental Oil Company. In 1910 the T. B. Smith Company took over the interests of Mr. Smith in the business, of which, however, he remains a stockholder and director. In that year he organized the Elkhorn Live Stock and Dairy Company, the purpose of which was to engage in dairying and cattle raising. At the outset it was not the intention of the company to go into the creamery business, but they found it advisable to take that step and began the manufacture of butter and also the handling of poultry and eggs. Their interests have now developed into one of the big industries of the southeastern portion of the state and in the undertaking Mr. Smith has associated with him his five sons: Samuel P., George L., Thomas B., Jr., James K. and Frank H. The last named, however, volunteered for service in the United States army at the age of nineteen years and went to France as a member of the Heavy Artillery. The business of the Elkhorn Live Stock and Dairy Company has constantly increased in volume and importance and they now control about forty outlying stations and give employment to fifty people. Their first building was only twenty by thirty feet. They now occupy a two-story building thirty by one hundred and thirty feet and an adjoining building which is sixty by thirty feet. Each year

THOMAS B. SMITH

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they have been obliged to make an addition in order to keep up with their develop- ment until they now have most spacious quarters. The business constitutes an institu- tion of which Pocatello and southeastern Idaho may well be proud, as it is a splendid enterprise that will undoubtedly develop to still greater proportions with Idaho's up- building.

On the 19th of July, 1890, Mr. Smith was married to Miss Elizabeth King, of Logan, Utah, who passed away in Pocatello in 1912. Their family included, in addition to the five sons named above, two daughters: Eliza, who is teaching school at Bancroft, Idaho; and Jessie L., the wife of Birdwell Finlayson, who is in the employ of the United States government and lives at Provo, Utah.

Mr. Smith gives his political allegiance to the democratic party and for two terms he served as a member of the city council. He is a recognized leader in the ranks of his party and has been chairman of the county central committee. His chief concern, however, is the extensive business which he has developed. He is truly a self-made man. Having started out independently when in his fifteenth year, he has made steady progress and has been the promoter of an industry which is not only a source of great personal benefit but also one which has been of large worth to the community, furnish- ing a market for products raised in this section of the state.

JAMES H. FORBES.

James H. Forbes, of Caldwell, a contractor in structural work and proprietor of the Caldwell Transfer Company, was born in Hamilton county, Ohio, July 27, 1862. He comes of Scotch ancestry, his parents, C. H. and Annie (King) Forbes, being natives of the land of hills and heather. The father came to the United States in 1846, settling in Ohio, where he took up agricultural pursuits. The mother was brought to the new world during her childhood days and both have now passed away, the father's death occurring in 1887, when he was sixty-eight years of age, while the mother died in Pueblo, Colorado, in 1907 at the age of seventy-six. They were the parents of seven children, of whom James H. is the third in order of birth.

Between the ages of six and twelve years James H. Forbes was a pupil in the public schools of his native county and then accompanied his parents on their re- moval to Campbell county, Kentucky, where he worked at farm labor until 1884. He then removed to Chautauqua county, Kansas, where for one year he was employed as a stone mason, after which he went to Finney county, Kansas, where he worked as a stone mason for two years. On the expiration of that period he- removed to Pueblo, Colorado, where he again engaged in stone work and in bridge building until 1888. In 1896 he made his way to Cripple Creek and devoted two years to mining, returning then to Pueblo, where he was married. He then took up the bridge contracting business, which he followed on his own account until 1900, when he removed to Montana, where he was instrumental in building a bridge across the Yellowstone river at Glendive. After a year and a half spent in Montana he came to Idaho, making his way first to Boise, where he once more engaged in bridge building, and secured the contract for the construction of a bridge across the Boise river at Eagle island. In the spring of 1903 he went to Emmett, Idaho, and built the canyon canal dam and headgates. He also built the electric light plant at Emmett, which he operated for a year and a half, and then disposed of his interests there, removing to Caldwell, where he took up the general contracting business, with bridge building as a specialty. One of the large contracts awarded him was the building of the Emmett waterworks, which is a model of completeness. The work was done in four months, and he built in two months the waterworks at Parma. He obtained his first practical experience in structural engineering as an employe of a well known bridge building concern doing construction work on the Cincinnati Southern Railroad, and later he was with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad. His experiences have constantly broadened his knowledge and promoted his effi- ciency, and he is recognized as one of the able contractors on construction work and engineering projects in this section of the state. In 1918 he organized the Caldwell Transfer Company, of which he is sole proprietor, but he regards this as a sideline to his construction work, although his modern equipment and enterprising business methods will undoubtedly make this one of Caldwell's big business un- dertakings.

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It was at Pueblo, on the 28th of October, 1898, that Mr. Forbes was united in marriage to Miss Ida May Pollock. Fraternally Mr. Forbes is a Mason and a mem- ber of the Woodmen of the World, and his wife is a member of the Methodist church. He has served as a member of the city council of Caldwell for one term but is not ambitious to hold office. He finds pleasure in the outdoor life necessitated by his work, and in his business has experienced the keen joy of success,

MRS. ETHEL TONKIN CLARK.

It was the great World's war that brought enfranchisement to the women of Europe, but various American states occupy a position in the vanguard in this particular. Idaho was among the number which some years ago gave the franchise to the women of the state and has recognized their ability in calling a number of them to public office. Mrs. Ethel T. Clark is now the efficient county treasurer of Ada county, to which position she was elected in the fall of 1918, assuming the duties of the office on the 13th of January following. Mrs. Clark is one of the native daughters of Boise, where she has practically spent her entire life. Her father was the late John Tonkin, a mining man of English birth, and her mother, Mrs. Sarah (Thomas) Tonkin, is also a native of England. The latter survives and yet makes her home in Boise.

Mrs. Clark was the only daughter in a family of three children. She was reared in the capital city and at the usual age hecame a pupil in its public schools, passing through consecutive grades and eventually hecoming a student in the Boise Busi- ness College. She has occupied positions in the business world as an accountant, stenographer and hookkeeper in Boise, her ability and efficiency increasing with her broadening experience, and at length she was elected to the office of county treasurer. For five years she was in the employ of the McCrum & Deary Drug Company of Boise as bookkeeper and afterward occupied a similar position in the Owyhee Pharmacy for more than a year.

Mrs. Clark was married in 1906. She has a little daughter, Margaret, twelve years of age, now a pupil in the Boise public schools. In religious faith Mrs. Clark is a Methodist, and her political support is given to the republican party. When elected to her present office she was accorded a splendid majority of over two thousand, and she enjoys the distinction of being the youngest incumbent who has ever held the office of county treasurer in Ada county.

LEM A. YORK.

Lem A. York, president and manager of the Syms-York Company, Incorporated, of Boise, was born in Lewiston, Maine, March 13, 1866, a son of Jerome and Martha ( Read) York, who were also natives of the Pine Tree state and representatives of old New England families. The York family comes of Scotch ancestry, while the Reads are of English lineage. The father was a stationary engineer and thus pro- vided for the support of members of his household.

Lem A. York was a little lad of but five summers when his parents removed from Maine to Concord, New Hampshire, and at twelve years of age he accompanied them to Michigan. Through the succeeding four years he lived in Evart, Michigan, and at the age of fifteen he left school to learn the printer's trade in the office of the Evart Review. When seventeen years of age he made his way to Colorado, set- tling at Telluride, where he worked at the printer's trade until 1884, when he went to Edgeley, North Dakota, his parents having hecome residents of that locality, making their home upon a ranch near the town. In North Dakota, Mr. York en- gaged in farming and also worked at his trade at intervals until 1889. „He then returned to Telluride, Colorado, and resumed his old position. He afterward went to Salt Lake City, where he was employed on the Salt Lake Tribune, and in 1890 he came to Idaho, settling at Silver City. There he was employed as a printer on the Owyhee Avalanche for a time and afterward leased that paper and later pur- chased it. This is one of the oldest newspapers of Idaho, having been established on the 15th of August, 1865. Mr. York continued as the owner and publisher of the

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paper until 1902, when he sold it and removed to Weiser, Idaho, where he bought the Weiser American, with which paper he was connected until 1905, when he came to Boise and was one of the founders of the present Syms-York Company, which was incorporated in 1909, with H. J. Syms as president and Mr. York as secretary, treasurer and superintendent. This is one of the best and largest printing plants in the northwest and is by far the biggest in Idaho. It occupies all of the main floor and basement of the splendid new Elks Temple in Boise at the corner of Ninth and Jefferson streets. The Syms-York Company, Incorporated, of Boise is today one of the solid and substantial and also one of the widely known concerns of Idaho. On the 1st of January, 1920, Mr. Syms disposed of his interest in the firm and Mr. York became president, taking active charge of the business.

At Weiser, on the 19th of September, 1893, Mr. York was married to Miss Catherine Brady, of Weiser, who was born in Wisconsin but has lived in Idaho since early childhood. They have become parents of six children, two sons and four daughters, namely: Ralph W., who was educated in Leland Stanford University and in the University of Idaho, and is now a director and secretary of the Syms- York Company; Ruth A., who was graduated from the University of Idaho in June, 1919, and married Adna M. Boyd, of Portland, Oregon; Lorna E., a sophomore in that institution; Walter R., who was graduated from the Boise high school in June, 1919; and Catherine A. and Jean M., who are public school students.

Mr. York finds his chief recreation in camping and when leisure permits greatly enjoys a period spent in the open. He belongs to the Boise Country Club, the Boise Rotary Club and the Boise Commercial Club. He is a member of the Masonic order, also an Elk and an Odd Fellow, belonging to both the subordinate lodge and en- campment, and is a past grand in the organization. His political endorsement is given to the republican party. He is affiliated with Boise's various civic and com- mercial interests and with the club life of the city and is an active and progressive business man who at the same time cooperates heartily in all plans and movements for the general benefit and upbuilding of the capital and of the state.

JAMES MONROE JACKSON.

James Monroe Jackson, the president of the Meridian Hardware & Imple- ment Company, was born May 18, 1857, in Sullivan county, Missouri, and is a sơn of Andrew G. and Sarah (Frances) Jackson. The father was born in Ohio in 1823 and the mother was born in Iowa, in which state their marriage was celebrated. On leaving the Buckeye state Andrew G. Jackson removed to Iowa and afterward went to Missouri, where he lived for a number of years, being there successfully engaged in farming and stock raising. For a time he lived in Kansas and there his wife passed away in 1876, when forty-five years of age. The death of Mr. Jackson occurred in the state of Washington in 1909, when he was eighty-six years of age.

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History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume II, Part 60

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