History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume II, Part 77

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

USA > Idaho > History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume II > Part 77

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Another incident in the life of Mr. Riggs was written in the Emmett Index as follows:

INTRODUCED THE QUAIL.

"How many of our readers who enjoy hunting know that an Emmett man intro- duced the quail into Idaho? And how many know that it was done from purely philanthropic motives at a considerable outlay of money?

"To that grand old man, Henry C. Riggs, now passing the evening of his life with his children in this city, the people of Idaho are indebted for that valuable bird, the quail.

"On December 26, 1870, the first shipment was made from Independence, Missouri. and consisted of two crates, each containing thirty-eight birds. They were consigned to Mr. Riggs, who then lived in Boise. At that time the terminus of the Union Pacific was Kelton, Utah, and express matter was carried by stage. Owing to the severity of the weather and their exposure and long confinement many of the birds died in transit.

"The consignment did not reach Kelton until January 30th and it was nearly spring before it reached Boise. The birds were distributed in different sections of the state. Three dozen were given their freedom on Dry creek, another dozen at the mouth of the Payette, a number along the Boise river, and the balance at more remote points of the state.

"Other shipments were made at later dates from Missouri, and as an experiment a dozen of what are known as the valley quail were shipped in from California. These, however, were too tame and soon fell a prey to cats and wild animals and none survived. The Missouri quail took kindly to Idaho and multiplied rapidly, and today the descend- ants of those quail secured by Mr. Riggs number probably over a million and may be found scattered throughout this and neighboring states.

"The original receipts given by the United States Express Company for the trans- portation charges of the birds are still in the possession of Mr. Riggs. The express charges from Omaha to Kelton were thirty-three dollars and twenty cents for four coops, and the total expense from Independence, Missouri, to Boise was over one hun- dred dollars." '

To Mr. and Mrs. Henry Chiles Riggs eight children were born. Cache, born Sep-

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tember 10, 1854, at Cacheville, Yolo county, California, died on the 26th of November, of the same year. Ada Hobbs, horn April 3, 1856, at Davisville, Yolo county, California, was married at Caldwell, Idaho, February 26, 1884, to John Riggs Coon. It was she in whose honor the county of Ada was named. She passed away May 29, 1909, at San Francisco, California. Henry Chiles, Jr., born January 5, 1862, at Corvallis, Oregon, was married August 3, 1910, to Mary Frances Wilkins at Middleton, Idaho. Their first child, a son, born June 8, 1911, at Emmett, Idaho died at birth. Their second child, Henry Chiles Riggs (III), was born May 20, 1913, at Emmett and their third child, May Putnam Riggs, was born January 26, 1915. Boise Green Riggs, the fourth member of the family of Henry and Mary Ann (Lipscomb) Riggs, was born at Boise, February 26, 1865, and was married March 8, 1888, at Falks, Idaho, to Clara Alice Jackson. Their children were all born at Emmett, Idaho, and are as follows: Clara Ann, who was born March 3, 1889; Boise Green, Jr., born April 14, 1890; Adlia Ruth, November 26, 1892; Mona Lenore, November 7, 1895; Hester Nellie, July 25, 1897; Elma Ada, January 19, 1899; and Mollie Bernice, June 10, 1900. Joel Bennett Riggs, the fifth member of the family of Henry Chiles Riggs, Sr., was born at Boise, Idaho, April 16, 1870, and was married February 19, 1908, at Emmett, Idaho, to Lena Rebecca Kesgard. Their children are: Bryan Kern, born November 24, 1908, at Endicott, Whitman county, Washington; Mary Lena, September 10, 1910, at Emmett, Idaho; an infant son, who was born May 20, 1912, and died on the 1st of June, following; and Samuel James, born October 31, 1913, at Emmett. Mary Susan Riggs, the sixth member of the family of Henry Chiles Riggs, Sr., was born August 27, 1872, at Boise, and on the 15th of May, 1892 at Emmett became the wife of Robert Lee Jordan. She passed away at Emmett, July 15, 1893. Samuel Dabney Riggs, born March 31, 1875, at Boise, is the efficient postmaster at Emmett and is mentioned at length on another page of this work. Idaho May Riggs, the youngest of the family, born on the old homestead near Emmett, in Canyon county, Idaho, May 7, 1879, was married on the 11th of August, 1896, to William Charles Langroise and their children are: Ada May, who was born April 26, 1897; William Henry, born September 4, 1898; Norma Fay, August 24, 1900; and Hazel Marguerite, January 21, 1903, all being natives of Emmett. Of these the eldest died September 24, 1897.

Mr. and Mrs. Riggs reared a family of whom they had every reason to be proud and who have been an honor to their name. The death of Mr. Riggs occurred at Boise, July 3, 1909, while his wife survived until December 14, 1912. They were a most worthy and highly esteemed couple, identified with Idaho from early pioneer times. During his active life Mr. Riggs was considered one of the foremost residents of his part of the state and was instrumental in many ways in the upbuilding of the great commonwealth in which he lived. He left to his family the priceless heritage of an untarnished name and a record which should serve as an inspiration and a source of encouragement to all who knew him.

BISHOP RICHARD H. SMITH.

Richard H. Smith, a bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and an active factor in business circles as the president and manager of the Farm- ers Mill & Elevator Company, of Rexburg, Idaho, and also the president of the Thatcher Realty Company, was born in Macmerry, Scotland, January 14, 1863, his parents being Richard and Helen (Hogg) Smith, who were natives of the land of hills and heather. The father was a coal miner in that country and in 1865 came to America, making his way first to Maryland, where he lived for a year. In 1866 he arrived in Utah, having driven across the plains with ox teams. He located in Logan, where he acquired land which he improved and cultivated until 1884. That year witnessed his arrival in Idaho and he took up his abode in what is now Madison county but was then Bingham county. Here his remaining days were passed, his death occurring in October, 1905. The mother died in October, 1899.

Richard H. Smith was but two years of age at the time of the emigration of his parents to the United States. He was largely reared and educated in Logan, Utah, and remained under the parental roof until he attained his majority. For a time he worked in the timber, hauling lumber until 1884, when he came to what is now Madison county, Idaho. Here he filed on land a mile from the present site of Rexburg and with characteristic energy began the cultivation and development

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of the place, which he continued to further improve and operate until 1916. He then rented the farm and removed to Rexburg, where he became interested in sev- eral business enterprises. He now devotes most of his time to the Farmers Mill & Elevator Company, of which he was one of the organizers. He bought one thousand acres of dry farming land in 1910. He had leased it through the previous eight years and then purchased the property, which he cultivated until the spring of 1918, when he turned it over to his son and son-in-law, who are still further developing and cultivating the tract. Mr. Smith is also a stockholder and director in the Rex- burg State Bank; is the vice president of the Jenson-Patterson department stores of Rexburg and as a member of that firm is also interested in branch stores at Driggs and Ashton, Idaho; and has also been president and manager of the Smith & Mc- Culloch Sheep Company for the past twenty years.

In April, 1890, Mr. Smith was married to Miss Agnes McCulloch and to them have been born eight children, five of whom are still living, namely: James A., who assists in the operation of his father's dry farm; Eva L., the wife of E. A. Arnold, who in conjunction with his brother-in-law is engaged in operating the farm owned by Mr. Smith; Vera C., at home; Kenneth E., who is nine years of age; and Priscilla M., aged six. Agnes, Orville and Richard all died in infancy.

Politically Mr. Smith is a democrat and served as probate judge of Fremont county from 1900 until 1902 and as county commissioner from 1913 until 1916. His religious belief is that of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and he is now bishop of the Rexburg third ward, an office which he has filled for the past ten years. He served on a mission to England from 1907 until 1909 and has always been an earnest supporter of and worker in the church. At the same time he is a most progressive and alert business man, wide-awake to every opportunity presented in the natural ramifications of trade, and his straightforward and pro- gressive business methods have made him a man of affluence in his adopted country.

WILBERT J. BARBER.

Wilbert J. Barber, a general contractor, who came to Boise from Mankato, Minnesota, in 1896, was already at that time an expert workman in his line, al- though but twenty-three years of age. He was born at Winona, Minnesota, July 23, 1874, a son of Obadiah T. and Alice (Wilmot) Barber, the latter of whom passed away in Boise in 1904. Here the father still makes his home at the age of seventy-three years.

Wilbert J. Barber arrived in Boise with his parents in 1896, the entire family, consisting of father, mother and five children, coming at that time. He had largely spent his youth at Mankato, Minnesota, and when eighteen years of age entered the employ of a general contractor at Alexandria, Minnesota, under whom he thoroughly learned the carpenter's trade. Soon after reaching Boise he took up the business of contracting on his own account and for several years was in partnership with his uncle, E. A. Wilmot, under the firm style of Wilmot & Barber. Subsequently Mr. Barber became a partner of I. J. Allen, with whom he was associated for a number of years under the style of Allen & Barber. For the past ten years, however, he has conducted business alone and has been accorded a liberal patronage, having long since demonstrated his ability to successfully execute any contract awarded him. He is today numbered among the pioneer contractors of Boise and, asso- ciated with his partners and since operating independently, he has erected hun- dreds of the best buildings of the city and surrounding district, including the Long- fellow school, the Garfield school, the Congregational church and many of the best homes of the capital. Outside of Boise his building operations have included the Meridian Bank and the Ustick schoolhouse. As the years have passed he has pros- pered in his undertakings and is now numbered among the men of affluence in the capital city. He has made wise investment in realty and is the owner of nine dif- ferent houses in Boise besides his own home, all being rented and bringing to him a good income. Six of these are situated near the corner of Fifth and Union streets.

On the 2d of December, 1903, Mr. Barber was married to Miss Ida Pearl Davis, . of Boise, a daughter of John A. Davis, and they have two living children: Vera, aged eleven; and Alice H., aged three. A daughter, Ruth, died of influenza in December,

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1918, at the age of thirteen years, having been their eldest child. The family oc- cupies a splendid cut-stone residence at No. 403 O'Farrell street, which Mr. Barber erected in 1908. He belongs to the Sons of Veterans, his maternal grandfather, Wilbert F. Wilmot, having been a soldier of the Union army, and he is also con- nected with the Modern Woodmen of America and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Through industry in the prime of manhood he has fortified himself against the proverbial rainy day and against any exigencies that may arise in the evening of life.

JOHN MALONEY.

John Maloney is the well known treasurer and manager of the Idaho Provision & Packing Company of Boise, wholesale and retail butchers and packers, in which con- nection an extensive business has been developed. He arrived in this city on the 21st of March, 1890, with a knowledge of the butchering business, and here he has since remained, covering a period of twenty-nine years, throughout which time he has been continuously connected with the butchering and meat business. In 1896 he became the founder of the Idaho Dressed Beef Company and was its president and manager until 1910, when it was succeeded by the Idaho Provision & Packing Company, of which Mr. Maloney has since been general manager and also the treasurer. He had served as president and manager of the Idaho Dressed Beef Company from 1896 until 1910 and gained broad and valuable experience through that period. The retail store of the Idaho Provision & Packing Company is at No. 716 Idaho street, which location has thus been occupied since 1906. The slaughter house and packing plant are at the west end of Seventeenth street, on the Foothill road. This is the pioneer concern of the kind in Boise. The building occupied by the retail plant is owned by the com- pany. Mr. Maloney has accomplished much in founding and building up this interest, which is today one of Boise's largest industries. The Idaho Provision & Packing Com- pany, together with its parent concern, the Idaho Dressed Beef Company, founded by Mr. Maloney, has figured prominently in the business life of Boise for more than twenty years and to the efforts of Mr. Maloney, more than anyone else, is due the upbuilding of the enterprise. He is also the owner of a ranch of one hundred and fifty acres, which is one of the finest of the kind of its size in the Boise valley. It is pleasantly situated eleven miles from the city and is improved with every modern convenience and equipment. He is also the president of the Ballentine Ditch Com- pany, an irrigation concern.

In religious faith Mr. Maloney is a Catholic, fraternally is an Elk and politically a democrat. He belongs to the Boise Commercial Club and turns to hunting for recreation when business permits of leisure. His commercial interests are important and extensive, however, and make continuous demand upon his time and energies.

SAMUEL THOMPSON BROWN.

Samuel Thompson Brown, residing in one of the prettiest homes of South Boise, has now reached the age of eighty-four years but is still active, hale and hearty. He was born in Perry county, Pennsylvania, on the banks of the Juniata river, February 8, 1836, and is a son of Alexander and Eleanor (McCord) Brown, also natives of the Keystone state. He was reared upon his father's farm there and remained under the parental roof until he reached the age of twenty-two when he made his way westward to Illinois, spending five years in that state. He then returned to Pennsylvania and it was during this period of his sojourn in his native state that his younger brother, Alexander McCord Brown, died of typhoid fever in 1862, while serving in the Union army. The father went to Fredericksburg, Virginia, to bring home his son's remains and did so, but he was thus exposed to the disease and, becoming ill, passed away within a month.

In 1865 Samuel T. Brown again left Pennsylvania and made his way west to Keokuk county, Iowa, where he owned and resided upon a large farm of three hundred and twenty acres for sixteen years, successfully cultivating his fields dur- ing that period. In 1882 he sold the property for forty dollars per acre, regard-

JOHN MALONEY

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ing this as a big price. Twenty-two years later, however, he returned to Iowa on a visit and learned that the property had since sold for one hundred and twenty- five dollars per acre. In 1882 Mr. Brown left Iowa for Harper county, Kansas, where he purchased eight hundred acres of land, and for twenty-two years he remained a resident of the Sunflower state, disposing of his lands there in 1904, at which time one hundred and sixty acres was sold for fourteen thousand dollars. He later spent a winter in Houston, Texas, and a year in the Puget Sound section of Washington. In 1905 he came to Boise, Idaho, and located in South Boise, where he owns much valuable real estate, his possessions embracing forty-five fine lots, largely planted to bearing fruit trees. He is an enthusiast regarding Idaho and says he would not exchange what he has in South Boise for all the vast acreage he had in Kansas if this necessitated his returning to that state to live. Mr. Brown, despite his eighty-four years, is a most active aud energetic man, seeming to pos- sess the strength and vigor of a man twenty years his junior.

At the age of thirty-six, in Keokuk county, Iowa, or on the 6th of November, 1871, Mr. Brown was married to Miss Margueretta Elizabeth McBride and they have since traveled life's journey happily together, Mrs. Brown being now a well preserved woman of seventy-three years. She was born in Ohio, August 13, 1847, and they have become the parents of five children. Charles Sumner, who was born in 1875 and is a teacher by profession, being now connected with the schools of Vallejo, California, is married and has two children. Clarence F., forty-one years of age, is an interior decorator of much ability who is now in the employ of Marshall Field & Company of Chicago at a salary of seventy-five hundred dol- lars per year. He is married but has no family. Helen became the wife of Clark D. Brock, a teacher, and died April 1, 1919, of tuberculosis, passing away at the age of thirty-seven and leaving one son, Robert. The youngest child is Grace Lyle, the wife of Dr. William C. Whimster, a physician of Kansas City, Missouri. The other child of the family was Robert Brown, the first born, who died at the age of five years. Mr. and Mrs. Brown are most happily situated amid pleasant surround- ings, with a host of warm friends who esteem them highly and find pleasure in their companionship.

JOHN F. GROOME.

The life story of John F. Groome if written in detail would present a most clear picture of pioneer life and conditions in Idaho. He was born in Van Buren county, Iowa, October 12, 1848. His father, William Swayze Groome, was a native of Franklin county, Ohio, and in 1834 removed to Iowa, which at that time was still under territorial rule. He became a farmer of Van Buren county, where he resided until his death at the age of seventy years. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Eliza Jane Woolweaver, was also a native of Ohio.

John F. Groome attended the common schools of Iowa until after he attained his majority and in the spring of 1870, attracted by the opportunities of the growing and rapidly developing west, he came to Idaho and entered the employ of Dr. J. B. Wright, of Middleton, for whom he took some hogs to Camas . Prairie. The following summer he worked at dairying for James Harley, of Idaho City, and later drove a butcher's wagon for M. R. Jenkins at Middleton for three months. In the spring of 1873 he returned to his old home in Iowa and on the 1st of January, 1874, married Olive Mussetter, also a native of Van Buren county, Iowa.

In the spring of that year Mr. Groome and his bride came to Middleton and homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres four miles east of the town. Of that tract he still retains the ownership of eighty acres. He remained upon his farm from 1875 until 1899 and then took up his, abode in Caldwell. In 1895 he pur- chased one hundred acres on the state highway between Middleton and Boise, about five miles east of Middleton, and of this tract he has deeded his three sons, C. W., Henry S. and Cleve, each twenty acres. The tract was homesteaded by Rev. George C. Allender, a Methodist minister, who came to Idaho in the early '70s and built the first Methodist Episcopal church in southern Idaho in 1875. The church is still standing near the farm. Mr. Groome has practically retired from farming

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while his sons carry on the work of cultivation and in addition to raising hay and grain they feed beef cattle for the market.

Mr. Groome and his wife occupy a home in Caldwell and are among the valued residents of the city, where they have now lived for twenty years. They have reared a family of three sons, of whom C. W. married Florence Keith, of Star; Henry S. wedded Ada Chamberlain, of Boise; and Cleve wedded Grace Potter of Providence, Rhode Island.

There is no phase of pioneer life with which John F. Groome is not familiar. When in 1871 he went with hogs to Camas Prairie for Dr. Wright he was accom- panied by Will Montgomery, who was to look after Peter Moore's hogs, and Jim Nelson, who was to look after hogs belonging to William Montgomery. The hogs of the three owners were to be ranged altogether and the three men were to live together, so that each would have company. Everything went well for the first few weeks after their arrival at their destination and then the Indians began to come to Camas Prairie, which was a great resort for the red men during the sum- mer months, but Mr. Groome and his companions were not aware of that. Soon fifteen hundred Indians of seven different tribes were gathered there and began their festivities of horse racing, gambling and feasting. The prairie produced the camas plant in abundance and it was a favorite food with the Indians, so they gathered there each year for the purpose of feasting upon it. The camas is like a large onion in appearance but has none of its onion flavor. The Indian method of cooking it is to dig a hole in the ground, line it with hot rocks and then spread grass over the rocks, after which they lay the camas on the grass and cover them with grass and earth in quantities ranging from five to twenty-five bushels. After several hours it is removed and the camas are delicately and deliciously cooked, white men as well as Indians proclaiming them most palatable. The hogs were as fond of the camas as the Indians and it was but a short time until the red men made complaint to the men in charge of the hogs, saying that the animals were eating all of their camas. The Indians soon began setting their dogs on the hogs and followed this by an ultimatum that the men would have to get their hogs off the prairie or there would be trouble. This threat was met by Will Mont- gomery, who was a fearless man and acted as spokesman for his two companions, who were "tenderfeet," while he knew the Indian nature well. Procuring a large club, which he soaked in water over night until it was like a steel bar, he used this to knock down a horse upon which one of the braves rode up to him, telling him that he must go at once. This left the Indian dismounted. The Indians therefore believed Montgomery to be a brave man and thereafter showed much respect for him. The three white men were living on an island which was completely hedged in by willows except for the old emigrant road across it. A small pathway led through the willows and over a small bridge constructed by them across a stream too deep for the hogs to ford. The hogs were taken over this bridge each night and held on the island for shelter and safety. Seven chiefs charged this bridge on horseback in single file with the hope of destroying it and scattering the hogs. Just as they were nearing the bridge Mr. Montgomery brought his double-barreled shotgun, loaded with seventeen buckshot in each harrel, to bear on the Indians, who knew their man too well to proceed any farther. A fellow tribesman signalled the chiefs to retreat, which they did with- out delay. That evening, however, they held another war council, arrayed them- selves in their war paint and delivered their ultimatum to the white men, telling them to be on the move by sunrise the next morning. They were promptly told that the hogs were not the property of the three white men and that they had been sent to take care of the animals, that they only represented the owners, whose orders were that the hogs were to remain there and that the United States government would back them in their undertaking. After dark that evening the Indians ranged about the hills in a circle, surrounding the camp of the white men and made night hideous with their blood-curdling war whoops, which sounded to the white men as though they were closing in upon them, and they expected every moment to be set upon and massacred. Mr. Montgomery counseled with his companions about the best method to pursue and told them, while he was familiar with the Indians, one could never tell just what they might do, but that in his judgment it would be better for one of the white men to go to Boise for

. help. He said that he would remain with the other and face the worst, should it be their fate, but that the other two should draw straws to see which should go

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to Boise. He told them that the trip would be fraught with every danger and that he who went, if caught by the Indians, would meet death. It fell to the lot of Mr. Groome to make the trip and he accordingly started about two o'clock in the morning with his horse's feet muffled and with Montgomery's admonition to proceed with all caution till out of hearing of the Indians. He made a Paul Revere ride that night, the memory of which he will always retain. He reached Boise the next evening, having covered a distance of one hundred and twenty- five miles in sixteen hours. Acting Governor Curtis and several men from the United States army camp in Boise came to the scene of the prospective trouble and their presence among the Indians effectually quelled any further trouble. So ended what might have been a serious Indian outbreak had Mr. Groome and his friends not proceeded in the manner which they followed. Such and similar conditions did the frontiersmen at all times face. The difficulties and privations which he endured were also humorous and it was only men of courage and deter- mination who faced these conditions and upon the wild western frontier wrested fortune from the hands of fate. Mr. Groome is one of the men that never quails before pioneer conditions and he has lived to see remarkable changes as the work of transformation and improvement has been carried steadily forward.

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History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume II, Part 77

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