History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume II, Part 75

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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At her mother's home in Auburn, Oregon, Emma M. Curtis became the wife of Robert Mckenzie, who had been one of their party as they traveled over the plains. It was in 1865 that Mr. and Mrs. Mckenzie returned to Idaho, although the remainder of their original party continued in Oregon. They settled about three miles north of Caldwell on two hundred and twenty-five acres of land which the wife still owns. Mr. Mckenzie was killed on the 30th of November, 1881, in his forty-second year, when riding the wheel horse of a six-horse team. As he was descending a very steep hill the brakes gave way, causing the accident that re- sulted in the death of Mr. Mckenzie. They had traveled life's journey together for a little more than eighteen years, their marriage having been celebrated on the 30th of August, 1863. After nineteen years of widowhood Mrs. Mckenzie on the 20th of February, 1900, became the wife of M. F. Fowler, a native of Indiana, the wedding being celebrated at Central Park, Idaho. Mr. Fowler passed away March 23, 1903. Mrs. Fowler has two children. M. C. Mckenzie, fifty-five years of age, who married Anna Gilagan, a native of New York, resides at New England, North Dakota. To him and his wife have been born eight children: Margaret A., Mazie, John, Robert, Martha, Elizabeth, Edwin and Curtis. The daughter of Mrs. Fowler is Alice E., the wife of Byron Frost, a resident of Willow, California. Mrs. Fowler has also reared three boys: Robert S. Bixby, who is thirty-seven years of age and was with the army of occupation in Germany; Fred J. Henricksen, who is twenty- five years of age and resides in Portland, Oregon; and George H. Loomis, who is twenty-two years of age and lives with Mrs. Fowler.

The Methodist church finds a consistent member in Mrs. Fowler, who has long been identified therewith. She has been very active in the work of the church and in that of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. In fact her aid and influence have ever been on the side of right, reform and progress and she has given earnest cooperation to many interests making for the uplift of the individual and the bet- terment of the community at large. She has now passed the seventy-second mile- stone ou life's journey and is occupying a fine home at Middleton, where she enjoys all of the comforts and many of the luxuries of life.

JOHN BLACKBURN. 1

On the list of county officials in Madison county appears the name of John Blackburn, of Rexburg, who is serving as county assessor. Wyoming claims him as a native son, his birth having occurred in Evanston, that state, on the 18th of March, 1877, his parents being Alfred L. and Catherine (Briggs) Blackburn, who were natives of England and on coming to America made their way westward to Evanston, Wyoming, where the father taught music and also worked at the ma- chinist's trade in the railroad yards, being thus employed for a number of years. He afterward went to Salt Lake City, where he followed railroading for a few years, and in 1885 he came to Idaho, settling in what was then Oneida county but is now Madison county. Here he turned his attention to general merchandising and for a long period was actively and prominently identified with commercial inter- ests as proprietor of a well appointed store. He subsequently returned to Salt Lake City, where he again engaged in railroading for a time and then once more came to Rexburg, where he opened a general merchandise establishment, continuing its conduct with success throughout his remaining days, his life's labors being ended in death May 31, 1916. He had long survived the mother of John Blackburn, who passed away on the 7th of December, 1902.

John Blackburn, whose name introduces this review, was reared and educated at Lyman and at Rexburg. He was but seven and a half years of age when his parents removed to this section of the state and under the parental roof he re- mained until he reached the age of twenty-two years. He then purchased land at Lyman, Madison county, and took up active farm work on his own account. Through-

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out the intervening period he has been connected with agricultural pursuits and has most carefully and successfully tilled his fields. In November, 1918, he was elected county assessor of Madison county and is now dividing his time between his farm- ing interests and his official duties.

On the 11th of October, 1899, Mr. Blackburn was united in marriage to Miss Hannah Burns, by whom he has nine children, namely: John Elmer, Hannah A., Catherine A., Charles A., Harold A., Howard, Demar, Ralph and Keith.

In religious belief Mr. Blackburn is connected with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His political endorsement has always been given to the re- publican party and he has filled various local offices, ever discharging his official duties with promptness and fidelity. Fraternally he is connected with the Wood- men of the World. He has also made for himself a place in commercial circles of Rexburg as a stockholder in the Farmers' Implement Company. His has been an active and useful life and his energy and unfaltering industry have beeu the basic elements of his growing success.

WILLIAM STOEHR.

William Stoehr is the treasurer and general manager of the Idaho Products Company, with general offices at No. 60612 Main street in Boise. He was born in the village of Bethalto, Madison county, Illinois, March 22, 1880, a son of William and Clara (Meyer) Stoehr, who are natives of Illinois and of Germany respectively. The father is still living and now resides in Salt Lake City, Utah, but the mother passed away January 13, 1920.

William Stoehr of this review was reared and educated in his native town. His father was a cooper by trade and the son worked in the cooper shop of which his father was manager, being thus employed between the ages of twelve and six- teen years. At the latter age he went to St. Louis, Missouri, and for five years was employed in a large brewery there. By this time he had gained a very good knowl- edge of the brewing business, but desiring to become a master thereof, he later completed a course in the American Brewing Academy of Chicago, from which he was graduated in 1901, taking- first honors in his class of thirty-six members. He was awarded the gold medal by the school that year. Afterward he spent three years in Seattle, Washington, as brew master in a large beer manufacturing plant of that city. After coming to Boise in 1904 he was manager of the Idaho Brewing & Malting Company for about twelve years or until the state voted dry in 1916. The Idaho Brewing & Malting Company then went out of business in so far as the manufacture of beer was concerned, but the officers made haste to simply change the name of their concern and the product of their plant. It was then that the Idaho Products Company came into existence as the successor of the former concern. This company acts as buyers, packers and carload shippers and jobbers of fruit and produce and is also engaged in the evaporation of fruits and vegetables. They likewise act as growers' marketing agents. The president of the company is Charles Theis, of Spokane, who is also president of the Boise Gas Company. Its secretary is William Huntley, of Spokane, a banker, grain merchant and live stock dealer, while William Stoehr of this review is the treasurer and manager of the business. He had become a stockholder in the brewing company shortly after his removal to Boise and naturally became a stockholder in the Idaho Products Com- pany in 1916. He is the only one of the principal officers residing in Boise, so that the greater part of the business management and development devolves upon him. He largely organized the new concern and adjusted its property and machinery to the new conditions brought about through the change in the business While the Idaho Products Company has been in existence for only three years, it has already taken its place as one of Boise's successful and firmly established corporations, and Mr. Stoehr as sole manager deserves much credit for building up the new industry to its present profitable proportions. It has two evaporating and packing plants, one at Meridian and the other at Payette. It has also packing houses at Fruitland, Idaho, and Brogan, Oregon. During the years 1918 and 1919 the Idaho Products Company executed a large war contract for the United States government, involving the production of five hundred thousand pounds of dehydrated potatoes for export to the American Expeditionary Forces in France. The armistice was signed, how-

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ever, before the contract had been completed. Aside from his connection with the Idaho Products Company as treasurer an'd manager, Mr. Stoehr is also the secre- tary and treasurer of the Boise Gas Light & Coke Company. In all business affairs he has displayed ready adaptability and initiative and his enterprise and energy have enabled him to adjust himself to new conditions and to rapidly establish and develop an enterprise that is of great benefit to the city and to the various districts in which its operations are carried on.

On the 11th of July, 1904, Mr. Stoehr was married in Boise to Miss Anna Bodendieck, also a native of Madison county, Illinois, and an acquaintance of his boyhood. Four children, two sons and two daughters, have been born to them, namely: Clara Marie, Wilma, Carl Frank and Henry George, all pupils in the public schools of Boise.

Fraternally Mr. Stoehr is an Elk and also has membership with the Order of Eagles. In politics he is a republican but has never been an office seeker, preferring to devote his time and energies to his business affairs. When leisure permits he greatly enjoys a hunting or fishing trip and thus utilizes his vacation periods. He has worked his way steadily upward since starting out in business life on his own account when . a youth in his teens in his father's cooper shop and through the intervening years he has wisely utilized his time and opportunities until he is now a prominent factor in commercial circles in the northwest.

DUDLEY H. VAN DEUSEN.

Resourcefulness and enterprise in business have brought to Dudley H. Van Deusen, a substantial measure of success and he is now well known as the secre- tary and treasurer of the Van Deusen Brothers Company, having large ranching and live stock interests at Emmett, Idaho, where he is also president of the Bank of Emmett. The story of his life is the story of earnest effort and endeavor in- telligently directed. He had no special advantages in his youth but soon recog- nized the value of industry and determination as factors in the attainment of success.

He was born on a farm near Pekin, in Tazewell county, Illinois, November 11, 1869, being the eldest of the four living sons of James T. Van Deusen, who still survives and lives with his four sons on the home ranch of the Van Deusen Brothers Company ten miles north of Emmett, Idaho, a ranch which embraces several thousand acres of land. The father's birth occurred at Hudson, New York, and he was once in the employ of A. T. Stewart, a former merchant prince of New York city. In young manhood he removed to the Mississippi valley, set- tling in Illinois, and was there united in marriage to Miss Mary Gulick, a native of New Jersey, who passed away November 12, 1916, in Boise, where she and her husband lived for several years prior to her death. Soon after losing his wife Mr. Van Deusen came to live with his four sons upon the ranch. Before coming to the northwest, however, the family home was established in Pottawatomie county, Kansas, the parents removing with their four children from Illinois to the Sunflower state when Dudley H. Van Deusen was a young lad of eight years.

Upon a farm in Kansas he was reared, obtaining his early education in the public schools of that place, while later he pursued a business course in Lincoln, Nebraska. About 1895 he entered the employ of A. J. Knollin & Company, a large packing concern of Chicago, with which he remained for seven years. He first served merely as a sheep feeder in their stock yards at St. Marys, Kansas, but later the firm sent him to Casper, Wyoming, to take charge of the trailing of large flocks of western sheep which they owned and which were brought to Kansas. For several years he thus served the company and it was on a mission of this kind that he first came to Idaho in 1898. Recognizing the possibilities for sheep raising in this state, he resigned his position with the Chicago firm and embarked in sheep raising on his own account. It was not long afterward that his brother. John E., came to Idaho and became interested with him in sheep raising in Gem county. The two brothers, Dudley H. and John E., started in the business in a small way, leasing a bunch of sheep from the firm of Bullard & Johnson. They finally purchased the sheep and also the ranch from the former owners, C. J. Bullard and John Johnson, both of whom are now in Boise. After

DUDLEY H. VAN DEUSEN

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a time two other brothers, Frederick G. and Albert M., joined the original firm and today theirs is one of the largest sheep and cattle concerns in Idaho or the northwest. They give more attention to sheep than to cattle raising, having ex- tensive flocks, numbering thousands of sheep. They also have hundreds of head of cattle and many thousand acres of land in Payette, Valley, Gem and Boise counties. Their interests have been gradually developed and the business is now one of gratifying proportions.

Dudley H. Van Deusen is the only one of the four brothers who is married. On the 23d of September, 1901, at St. Marys, Kansas, he wedded Elmina Hayslip, who was born in McLean county, Illinois, February 21, 1873. They have two children: Mary Eva, born December 1, 1902; and Dudley Howard, Jr., born July 9, 1904. Mrs. Van Deusen was reared in McLean county, Illinois, was educated in the public schools and in the Illinois State Normal School and previous to her marriage taught for several years in her native state. She is the youngest of three children whose father, Thomas Brown Hayslip, was a farmer of Illinois and a veteran of the Union army. He was born in Ohio in 1830 and his wife, who bore the maiden name of Catherine Baker, was born in Germany. Both are now deceased.

Mr. Van Deusen is a Mason and in his political views is a republican but does not seek to figure prominently in political circles. He belongs to the National Wool Growers Association, and his interests and activity centers in an important and rapidly developing business which has made him one of the foremost stock- men of the northwest.

CHARLES H. ROBERTS.

Charles H. Roberts is a wide-awake and alert business man prominently con- nected with the furniture trade in Boise as a member of the firm of Roberts Brothers, composed of Charles H., William O. and J. Cyrus Roberts, together with their father, William T. Roberts. They own a large furniture store at Nos. 909-911 Idaho street and have developed a trade of very gratifying proportions. Charles H. Roberts bas made his home in Boise since the 10th of September, 1899. Previous to that time he had spent twenty years in the state of Colorado but is a native of Kentucky, his birth having occurred in Winchester on the 7th of October, 1866. His father, William. T. Roberts, was also born in Kentucky, his natal day being August 20, 1842. He lived in that state continuously until 1879, when he removed with his family to Denver, Colorado. During the period of the Civil war he was in the United States mail service. On the 15th of March, 1865, he was united in marriage to Margaret Herriott Green, who was horn at Georgetown, Kentucky, on the 15th of May, 1843. Both the father and mother are still in excellent health and on the 15th of March, 1915 they celebrated their golden wedding. To them were born seven children, three sons and four daughters, of whom Charles H. was the eldest. Six of the number are yet living and all are residents of Boise with the exception of a sister, Mrs. Florence Whittle, who makes her home at Midway, Canyon county, Idaho.

Charles H. Roberts was the first of the family to come to Boise. As stated, he arrived in 1899 and the following year was joined by his parents. The other members of the family who have since come to this state are William O., Mrs. Alice H. Clements, J. Cyrus, Mrs. Florence R. Whittle and Mrs. Margaret H. Whittle. The former is the wife of Lewis A. Whittle and her sister married his brother, Oliver J. Whittle. Two of the Roberts brothers also married sisters, Charles H. of this review having wedded Lottie E. Swope, while J. Cyrus Roberts married Martha Alice Swope. The Whittle brothers removed from Illinois to Colorado and thence came to Idaho. The Swope sisters removed from Iowa to Colorado and its was in the latter state, on the 7th of December, 1892, that Charles H. Roberts wedded Lottie E. Swope.

The removal of the Roberts family from Kentucky to Colorado occurred in 1879, at which time Charles H. Roberts was a lad of thirteen years. He acquired a public school education and when eighteen years of age he became a cowboy of Colorado and rode the range for five years. At the age of twenty-one years he was made manager of a large ranch in Colorado and upon that property the city of

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Cripple Creek now stands, for the district was used for ranching purposes before the discovery of gold there. Mr. Roberts left the district before gold was discovered, never dreaming that the mountains over which he traveled so frequently on foot and on horseback were full of gold. Within ten years after the discovery was first made over one hundred million dollars in gold had been taken from the Cripple Creek mines. Charles H. Roberts was not looking for gold in those days but was interested in the cattle on the ranch in his care and keeping.

At length, however, he turned his attention to commercial interests. In October, 1899, he became a clerk in a small furniture store on Idaho street in Boise, situated at Nos. 906-908, directly opposite his present establishment. In January, 1901, he and his father and his brother, William O. Roberts, purchased a small second-hand furniture stock on North Ninth street, less than one hundred yards from where he began as a clerk and less than a hundred yards from the present store of Roberts Brothers. At the beginning Charles H. Roberts adopted the name of the Company Store. This is today one of the best known furniture houses in Boise. It has conducted business under the same name for a longer period than any other furniture store in the city. The Roberts Brothers purchased the stock at Nos. 906-908 Idaho street in 1903 and thus Charles H. Roberts acquired an ownership in the business in which he had begun clerking in 1899. In the mean- time the brothers had moved their own store to No. 904 Idaho street and after the purchase of their neighbor's stock they tore out the partition wall and then occupied all three numbers until March, 1919, when they removed their business to the splendid four story brick and concrete building, fifty by one hundred and twenty- two feet, which they now occupy. This is an entirely modern structure and has a basement underneath the entire building. It is supplied with both passenger and freight elevators, operated automatically. The main room also has a mezzanine floor and the combined floor space is thirty-four thousand square feet. They carry an extensive stock of furniture and general household goods, including stoves, carpets, rugs, linoleums, baby vehicles, garden tools, light hardware, queensware, kitchen cabinets, washers, etc. They have the largest line of stove repair parts in Boise, carrying repair parts for all the standard makes of stoves upon the market today. The partners in the firm are the father and the three brothers, Charles H., William O. and J. Cyrus, and while the firm is known as Roberts Brothers, the store has always been conducted under the name of the Company Store. Charles H. Roberts, the general manager of the firm and the buyer for the house, formerly occupied a residence which stood on the site of their present store building.

To Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Roberts have been born three daughters: Florence Martha, now the wife of Edwin Jones; Margaret Charlotte, the wife of Blaine O. Starkey; and Mary Elsie, who acts as bookkeeper at the Overland National Bank.

Fraternally Mr. Roberts is connected with the Knights of Pythias, of which he is a past chancellor, and also a member of the Grand Lodge of Idaho. His religious faith is indicated by his connection with the First Methodist Episcopal church of Boise, and his entire life has been characterized by high and honorable principles, manifest in his relations with his fellowmen, in his business career and in his loyal citizenship. Progress has ever been his watchword and his life has been character- ized by a progress that has as its basis indefatigable energy and straightforward dealing.

CARL PROUTY.

Carl Prouty, who has engaged in the general contracting business in Boise for the past seventeen years, was born on a farm near Emmetsburg, Iowa, but when he was three years of age his parents removed to that town, in which he was reared and educated. His father, Captain Thomas J. Prouty, was an attorney by profession and a native of Pennsylvania. In early life he removed to the Mississippi valley and served throughout the Civil war with the Forty-fifth Illinois Regiment, winning promotion to the rank of captain of Company B of that command. He was on active duty altogether for forty-seven months during the progress of the war. In 1870 he took up his abode upon a soldier's homestead near Emmetsburg, Iowa. His wife bore the maiden name of Laura Pierce and was a native of Indiana. Both are now deceased.

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It was on the 8th of September, 1870, only a few months after the removal of his parents to Iowa, that the birth of Carl Prouty occurred. He has one sister living, Miss Beryl Prouty, who is now in Berkeley, California. When sixteen years of age Carl Prouty made his initial step in the business world, setting himself to the task of learning the bricklayer's trade, at which he worked until he reached the age of twenty-three years, when he began contracting. For eight years he engaged in contracting and building in Emmetsburg, Iowa, before removing to Boise, Idaho, which he did in 1902, and for the past seventeen years he has been a general con- tractor of this city, erecting many important structures here, including the east wing of the high school, the Bristol Hotel, the Hotel Grand, the Park school and several of the leading garages of Boise. He also built the Mutual Creamery build- ing, many warehouses and apartment houses, together with many of Boise's most beautiful homes, including the residence of J. H. Oakes on Harrison boule- vard. He was also the builder of the Shriners' mosque. In addition to his industrial interests he is engaged in fruit raising and one of his farms has a twenty-acre apple and prune orchard upon it that is in full bearing, having been planted eight or ten years ago.

On the 14th of December, 1892, Mr. Prouty was married in Iowa Falls, Iowa, to Miss Emma Doherty and they have two children, a son and a daughter, Cyril A. and Frances Alva, who are graduates of the Boise high school. The son is mar- ried and resides in Boise. Mr. Prouty turns to hunting and fishing for recreation. Fraternally he is a Mason, having attained the Knight Templar degree. He has prospered since coming to the west and in addition to his farm property is the owner of a good home on Washington street, being now most comfortably sit- uated in life.

YOUNG H. ABERCROMBIE.

Young H. Abercrombie, a general contractor in cement and concrete work in Boise, came to Idaho in 1882 from Fort Laramie, Wyoming. Here he has since made his home, covering a period of thirty-eight years, and for the past twenty- three years he has engaged in business as a general contractor in cement and con- crete work, receiving a patronage of large and gratifying proportions. His per- sistency of purpose, his unfaltering industry and determination and his carefully directed labors have been the salient features in bringing to him the success which is now his.

Mr. Abercrombie was born in Lumpkin county, Georgia, October 3, 1860, a son of Clemeth Abercrombie, who was also a native of Lumpkin county and a farmer by occupation. He served as an enrolling officer in the Confederate states army, being too old for active work in the field. The Abercrombie family is an old and numerous one in Lumpkin county, Georgia, where many of the name have long resided. They come of Scotch ancestry and one of Mr. Abercrombie's Scotch fore- bears was a famous general of the land of hills and heather. His mother bore the maiden name of Emeline Jones and both parents reached a ripe old age, both the father and mother being about eighty-four years of age when called to their final rest. In 1869 they had removed from Lumpkin county, Georgia, to Mitchell county, Kansas, where both the father and mother spent their remaining days upon a farm.

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History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume II, Part 75

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