USA > Idaho > History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume II > Part 86
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ALBERT L. BUSH.
Albert L. Bush, president of the Capital Lumher Company of Boise, was born in Mitchell county, Iowa, December 21, 1864, and is the only son of Professor Alva Bush, who for many years was president of the Cedar Valley Seminary at Osage, Iowa, which school he founded, remaining at its head until his death in 1880. The father was horn in Chautauqua county, New York, and after reaching manhood wedded Eliza J. Moore in the Empire state. They afterward removed to Fayette, Iowa, living there for several years before going to Osage. Mrs. Bush survived her hushand until a few years ago. They had hut one son, Albert L. of this review, hut there were five daughters in the family, two of whom are let living, one in Iowa and the other in South Dakota. The school founded by the father, Professor Alva Bush, -the Cedar Valley Seminary-is still in flourishing condition.
It was in that institution that Albert L. Bush acquired his early education, but he put aside his textbooks when eighteen years of age and started upon his business career as a clerk in a grocery store at Osage, Iowa, his native town. When nineteen years of age he had become part owner of the store and when he was twenty years
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of age he and his partner established a branch store at Riceville, Iowa, twenty miles from Osage, of which he took charge, acting as manager at that point for three years.
It was during that period, on the 25th of January, 1887, that Mr. Bush was united in marriage to Miss Kate L. Smith. In 1889 he disposed of his interest in the two stores and removed to St. Paul, Minnesota, after which he spent three years as a traveling salesman, handling creamery supplies. He next removed to Emmets- burg, Iowa, and during a period of twelve years' residence there he was traveling for a grocery house of Waterloo, Iowa. On leaving Emmetsburg he removed to Boise in 1904 and in connection with William and John A. Ketchen, represented elsewhere in this work, he founded the Capital Lumber Company, of which he has since been the president. This company succeeded to the business of the old Randall Lumber Company and has prospered from the beginning. In addition to conducting a large retail lumber trade, and their business along this line has reached very gratifying proportions, they build the Tulsa silos and have erected many throughout this section of the state.
Mr. and Mrs. Bush have become the parents of three children who are yet living. Alva, who is married and makes his home in Boise, is now in the employ of the Doscher Lumber Company, Marguerite is a successful teacher at Middleton, Canyon county. She is a graduate of the State Normal School at Lewiston, Idaho. Loren S., the youngest of the family, was in the United States Army in France, being a member of Company B of the Fifth Engineers of the United States Regulars, with the rank of sergeant, and is now a student of the Leland Stanford University.
Mr. and Mrs. Bush are members of the Congregational church and Mr. Bush is a Master Mason and also a member of the Royal Arch chapter. He likewise has membership with the Knights of Pythlas. In politics he is a republican but has never been a candidate for office and at local elections, where no issue is involved, he casts his ballot regardless of party ties. His business record has been marked by that steady progress which is the outcome of close application, persistency of purpose and a ready utilization as well as recognition of opportunities.
BENARDIS JUDD HETHERINGTON.
Benardis Judd Hetherington, of Boise, conducting business as a dealer in electrical supplies at 305 North Eighth street, under the firm style of B. J. Hether- ington & Company, removed from Minneapolis to this city in 1906 and established his present business in 1908. He is a native son of Minnesota, his birth having occurred at Hastings, October 28, 1876, his parents being George James and Anna (Judd) Hetherington, the former a native of Canada while the latter was born in Ireland. The father was a wholesale meat dealer and packer and died in Hastings, Minnesota, in 1904, but the mother is still living. The only members of the family in Idaho are Benardis J. and Almond LeRoy, the latter a resident of Emmett.
The former acquired his education in the public schools of Hastings, Minne- sota, and when eighteen years of age went to Minneapolis, where he at once se- cured employment along the line that fitted him for his chosen life work. He first spent a few years in the electric shops of the Twin City Rapid Transit Company and was there initiated into electrical matters. Later he was with the General Electric Company for several years at Minneapolis, and removed to Boise to become superintendent of the Boise Valley Railroad Company, in which capacity he served for two years. In 1908 he established his present business, conducted under the name of B. J. Hetherington & Company, dealers in electric supplies. They are especially equipped for armature and motor repairing of all kinds and are licensed contractors for all classes of electric work. Their skill and ability have given them a place in the front rank in their line and their business extends all over Idaho and eastern Oregon.
On the 19th of June, 1901, Mr. Hetherington was married to Miss Nellie Lough- ren, a native of St. Paul. They have one son, Judd Burton, born August 22, 1908.
Mr. Hetherington is a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite in Masonry, and is also a member of the Mystic Shrine. He belongs to the Boise Commercial Club and co- operates in all movements for local progress and benefit. In politics he maintains an independent course. He belongs to St. Michael's Episcopal church and is inter-
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ested in all that has to do with the welfare of the community and of the country. His interest in war measures is shown by his active service as a member of the Ada County Council of Defense and in this way he has given active cooperation to all the movements for the support of the federal government. He is a man of ster- ling worth and high principles and the many substantial traits of his character have gained him the warm regard of those. with whom he has been associated.
MRS. J. K. NICHOLS.
Mrs. J. K. Nichols is one of the pioneer women of Canyon county, having arrived in Idaho in August, 1881. The nearest railroad at the time was three hundred and fifty miles distant and with every phase of frontier life and experi- ence she became familiar. She was born in Cedar county, Missouri, and bore the maiden name of Nancy L. Edsall. In 1866 she became the wife of J. K. Nichols, who was born in Miller county, Missouri, in 1842 and who came to Idaho in August, 1881, settling on what is now known as the McConnel ranch of one hundred and sixty acres, which he purchased from Mr. McConnel. He afterward homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres adjoining. Very little of this land was at that time under cultivation and Mr. Nichols cleared it and in 1882 began raising cattle thereon. The present home of Mrs. Nichols is a part of the original homestead, but one hundred and sixty acres of their place was sold. Upon the remainder of the tract Mrs. Nichols and her son, W. H. Nichols, carry on farming, raising alfalfa, grain and stock and also conducting a dairy business on a small scale. Mr. Nichols is a veteran of the Civil war and now resides at the Soldiers Home in Boise.
At the time of the arrival of the family in Idaho this was a wild frontier region. The trip to the west had been made to Kelton, Utah, by rail and thence with a light wagon and a good team. There was no rallroad in Idaho at the time and all sup- plies had to be hauled from Kelton, Utah, a trip that required eleven days. Their nearest postoffice was at Middleton, a distance of eight miles, and Mrs. Nichols says that the only reason she remained and endured the hardships and dangers of frontier life in Idaho at that period was that there was no railroad to take her away. Conditions have changed marvelously since then and what was then all sagebrush between their place and the Snake river is now a succession of beautiful alfalfa fields, dotted here and there with fine homes.
Mrs. Nichols has two children: Jasper C., fifty-two years of age, who mar- ried Keturah Shields and is the father of three children, Nancy A., Grace and Dessa; and W. H. Nichols, who married Viola D. York, a native of Georgia. They have also become the parents of three children: Jasper :Lee, twelve years of age; William Logan, aged seven; and Louisa Pearl, who is the youngest. W. H. Nichols carries on the work of the home farm for his mother and the family is one well known in the section of the country in which they reside. For thirty-nine years they have lived in this district and are familiar with every phase of early develop- ment as well as with later day progress and improvement.
JAMES SPIVEY.
Among the industrial enterprises of importance is the Boise Machine & Weld- ing Works, of which James Spivey is the founder and proprietor. His modern plant, which is thoroughly equipped in order to turn out high class work, is located at No. 1210-1212 Grove street, Boise. Mr. Spivey was born in Rock Island county, Illinois, November 11, 1862, a son of James R. Spivey, who was a soldier in the Union army when his son and namesake was born. In fact he did not see young James until the latter was a year old. The father followed agricultural pursuits and also was quite successful as a dealer in live stock. He was born in Crawfords- ville, Indiana, in 1840 and when but eight years old accompanied his parents on their removal to Illinois. In 1888, at the age of forty-eight, he removed to Ne- braska and in that state he died twenty-six years later, on the 2d of July, 1914. He had married Eda Dusenberry, who was born in West Virginia in 1842 and passed away in Illinois in 1874. The paternal grandmother of our subject was Mary Allred
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before her marriage and her father at one time owned the land upon which the present city of Richmond, Indiana, stands.
James Spivey was reared in Illinois and was connected with farming in Rock Island and Henry counties until nineteen years of age, having in the meantime ac- quired a common school education. He did not care for agricultural pursuits, being of a mechanical turn of mind, and in early manhood he learned the jeweler's trade, which he followed for about fifteen years in Illinois. In 1903 he removed to Clin- ton, Iowa, where he was engaged in the manufacturing business seven years, being one of the owners of the Clinton Spring Bed Company. However, perceiving greater opportunities in the newer west, he came to Boise in 1910 and for several years gave his attention to the retail grocery business, having acquired considerable mer- cantile experience in Illinois in his early manhood. From 1910 until 1918 he owned and managed the Hart Grocery at the corner of Thirteenth and O'Farrel streets but recently sold out and established the Boise Machine & Welding Works at No. 1210-1212 Grove street. On September 23, 1918, he had purchased the plant of the Idaho Machine & Supply Company, Inc., on Front street, becoming owner of the machinery, equipment and complete stock of the above concern, and he then removed to his present quarters on Grove street, it being the nucleus of the Boise Machine & Welding Works. A successful future may be prophesied for this new enterprise as it is closely connected with the automobile industry-a line which has made rapid strides in the last decade and which promises even greater expansion in the coming years. The Boise Machine & Welding Works is especially fitted for the manufacture and repair of automobile parts.
Mr. Spivey has been married twice. On September 28, 1890, he wedded Miss Jennie Carnahan, who passed away December 4, 1894. His second union was with Miss Elizabeth Carnahan, a twin sister of his first wife, the ceremony being per- formed on the 9th of November, 1898. There is a daughter of the first marriage, Snow, now'the wife of Mans Coffin, of Boise, by whom she has a daughter, Eliza- beth, who is three years of age.
Mr. Spivey belongs to the Boise Commercial Club, being helpfully active in its projects and movements, and fraternally in a Master Mason. He is independent in politics but by no means indifferent. He has voted at every presidential election since he was twenty-one years of age and as it is humanly natural to derive satis- faction from backing a winner, it should be mentioned in this connection that Mr. Spivey has had the good fortune to cast his ballot for the winning presidential candidate since 1884. While thoroughly informed in regard to the questions and issues of the day, he has never had aspirations along political lines although in early manhood he served at one time as councilman in New Windsor, Illinois.
DR. EDWIN STANTON OWEN.
Dr. Edwin Stanton Owen, an optometrist of wide reputation, conducting business under the name of the Boise Optical Company, came to Boise in 1909 from Danville, Illinois, where during the previous nine years he had been engaged in the drug busi- ness as a member of the Owen & Raney Drug Company. Ever since he came to Boise, however, he has owned and conducted one of the leading optical establishments of the city at No. 1003 Main street. He was born at New Goshen, Vigo county, Indiana, January 31, 1862, and is the only son of Green Berry and Cyrena (Burtner) Owen, both of whom have passed away, the latter dying when her son was but thirteen years of age. The father, who was a wagon maker and blacksmith by trade, followed mer- chandising in New Goshen, Indiana, where he also served as postmaster, and his last days were spent in Los Angeles, California, where he passed away in 1910. His family numbered six children, two daughters and four sons, and the four sons are yet living.
Dr. Edwin Stanton Owen, however, is the only one of the family in Idaho. He was reared in his native city to the age of seventeen years, when he entered West- field College, a United Brethren school in Clark county, Illinois. There he pursued his collegiate studies for two years and while thus engaged he also clerked in a drug store of Westfield owned by an uncle, in whose home he remained while a college student there. He afterward entered the Northwestern University College of Pharmacy of Chicago, from which he was graduated in 1888, and he has been licensed as a pharmacist in the states of Illinois, Wisconsin and Idaho. He followed the drug busi-
DR. EDWIN S. OWEN
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ness for eighteen years in Wisconsin and Illinois and while thus engaged took up the study of optometry. In 1909 he was graduated from the Illinois College of Ophthal- mology and Otology and utilizes the knowledge of those sciences in his work as an optometrist. Removing to Boise, he has since here engaged in the practice of his profession and is acknowledged one of the leading optometrists of the state. His professional ability and standing are indicated in the fact that he was elected secretary of the Idaho State Association of Optometrists in 1910 and filled the position contin- uously until his resignation in 1919. Although preferring to serve without official recognition, he was appointed a member of the board of examiners in 1915 and filled the position of secretary-treasurer until his term of office expired in 1919. He was elected a vice president of the American Optical Association in 1915 and one of the vice presidents of the National Organization of Optometry Boards in 1916. At the meeting of western boards held in Portland, October, 1916, he was chosen president of the newly organized Intermountain Association of Optometry Boards, and in 1918 at the American Optical Association held at St. Paul was selected as a member of the executive council. At the Rochester convention in July, 1919, he was made a member of the optometry fund commission, which position he still holds. Dr. Owen has also enjoyed that financial success which should accompany intense activity and ability in the profession.
In Westfield, Illinois, in September, 1889, Dr. Owen was married to Miss Martha Emma Waltrip and they have a daughter, Marjorie June, who is a graduate of the Boise high school and who for five years was the active assistant of her father in carrying on his business in Boise, but who after America's entrance into the war went from a sense of duty to Washington, D. C., and accepted a position as stenographer there in order to render aid to the government. She has since returned home and is now filling the position of office manager in her father's business.
Dr. Owen is a member of the Boise Chamber of Commerce and also of the First Presbyterian church, of which he served as Sunday school superintendent for six years, and is one of the church elders. He gave freely of his time and his means to the work of the Council of Defense, of which he was a member, and he was identified with all the war drives and activities of Boise and the state. His patriotic love of his country, always one of his dominant qualities, was manifest in many tangible ways during the great crisis in the history of the nation.
WILLIAM R. WILKERSON.
Insurance interests in Boise are prominently represented by William R. Wilker- son, who is general agent of the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company of New- ark, New Jersey, for southern Idaho and southeastern Oregon, and in 1906 came to this state from Texas. He first located at Caldwell, Idaho, where he resided for a period of ten years and was engaged in the general insurance business, both fire and life, and there he was also interested in banking, being a director of the West- ern National Bank of Caldwell for some time. In 1907 he was one of the organizers of the First National Bank of Vale, Oregon, and remained as one of its officers until 1914, when he sold his interest.
Mr. Wilkerson was born on a farm near Purdy, in McNairy county, Tennessee, July 25, 1875, a son of Robert J. and Elizabeth A. (Peeler) Wilkerson, both natives of North Carolina. They were married in Tennessee in 1869. The father, who throughout his life followed agricultural pursuits to good purpose, passed away in 1914 in Oklahoma. During the Civil war he served with the Confederate army The mother, who is now sixty-six years of age and enjoys the best of health, makes her home in Oklahoma.
William R. Wilkerson spent his boyhood and early youth on the home farm in Tennessee, receiving his primary education in a country school near his father's place. In 1893, when he was eighteen years of age, the family removed to Gray- son county, Texas, locating on a farm near Sherman, and there Mr. Wilkerson com- pleted his studies, attending for four years the Whitesboro (Tex.) Normal College and later the North Texas Normal College at Denton. There is great credit due him for his persistence in acquiring a good education, as he made his own way through both of these schools by doing work of various kinds. At the same time he had an interest in farming operations at home and thus he. derived the means
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which enabled him to complete his studies. After he left the normal he taught school for five years during the winters but in the summer time he farmed. In 1904, while he was still teaching, in order to augment his income, he began to write life insurance for the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company of Newark, New Jer- sey, and since 1905 he has devoted all of his attention to the insurance and banking business. Since 1906 he has lived in the state of Idaho and in 1916 the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company, whose district agent he had been at Caldwell for ten years, promoted him to the position of general agent of the company, with head- quarters at Boise. This naturally necessitated his removal to this city, where he took up his residence in October, 1916. Through long years of experience he has become thoroughly versed on all insurance matters and has greatly built up the business of his company. He always follows the most honorable methods and is careful to explain his policies to prospective customers so that no misunderstanding may arise and no dissatisfaction result. Therefore he has won the trust and con- fidence of all who have had business dealings with him.
On December 5, 1906, Mr. Wilkerson was united in marriage to Miss Annie Kimbrough, of Bells, Texas, who was born and reared in the Lone Star state. She is a graduate of the North Texas Female College (Kid Key College) at Sherman. To this union has been born a daughter, Doris Mildred, who in 1920 passed her, eighth birthday.
Although Mr. Wilkerson has been a resident of Boise for only a short time he has already built for himself and family a handsome home at the corner of Twelfth and Alturas streets and thus has made closer his relations with the city, which he now calls his home. His religious affiliation is that of the First Methodist Episcopal church of Boise, of which he is a valued member, and fraternally he is connected with the Boise Lodge of Elks and the Odd Fellows. Anything that pertains to the growth and development of his city is of interest to him and he can always be depended upon to assist in movements and measures undertaken for the benefit of his community.
CAPTAIN GILBERT DONALDSON.
Through successive stages of business progress Captain Gilbert Donaldson reached the point of success" that now enables him to live retired, deriving a very substantial income from judicious investments in real estate. He has made his home in Idaho since 1900. He was born in Londonderry, Ireland, in 1849, at which time his father was a customs officer at Londonderry in the employ of the British gov- ernment. The family is of Scotch-Irish lineage. His mother was a grandniece of Lord Keith of Scotland and a woman of most exemplary Christian character who exerted a marked influence upon the lives of her children.
Captain Donaldson was quite young when his parents emigrated with their family to the new world. It has been characteristic of him that he has utilized every advantage that has come his way and along the legitimate lines of trade and industry has made steady advancement. In early manhood he was engaged in the wholesale white goods business in the city of New York, but turned his attention to electrical interests in the eastern metropolis when thirty years of age as an employe of the United States Electric Lighting Company. He applied himself earnestly to the mastery of the business, and his efficient service and developing powers won him rapid promotion. In 1880 he was sent to Milwaukee, to St. Paul and to Minneapolis to install electric light plants, taking the initial step in that direction in each city. He resigned his position with the United States Electric Lighting Company at the earnest solicitation of the St. Paul Gas & Electric Lighting Company and became the general manager and electrician of the latter. In that position he continued for a number of years but ultimately entered the manufacturing field on his own account, devoting his attention to the manufacture of electrical generators, dynamos, motors and electrical apparatus, a business which he conducted for a period of fifteen years. At length Captain Donaldson disposed of his interests in Minnesota and purchased the electric lighting plant at McGregor, Iowa, and there he broadened the scope of his activities to include the operation of a sawmill and the building and ownership of a number of boats and barges, which he sailed on the river in connec- tion with his other interests. In 1900 he disposed of all of his business investments
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at McGregor and removed to Idaho, where he purchased a large amount of real estate and has since lived practically retired save for the supervision which he gives to his property interests.
Captain Donaldson has been married twice. He first wedded Annie Merriman, who passed away in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1886, leaving five children, three sons and two daughters, to whom Captain Donaldson had to then take the place of both father and mother. He made their welfare, interests and education his chief concern and has lived to see them reach an honored manhood and womanhood. In later life Captain Donaldson wedded Dr. Mary E. Johnston in Boise on the 9th of January, 1912. Their life interests are largely along the same lines, particularly their efforts in hehalf of benevolent and philanthropic projects, one of which reached fruition in the building and establishment of the Donaldson Home for the Aged. Well de- scended and well bred, Captain Donaldson is a man whom to know is to respect and honor and with whom association means expansion and elevation.
PATRICK HENRY QUIRK.
Patrick Henry Quirk, proprietor of the Boston Grocery at No. 1008 Main street in Boise, was born December 22, 1890, in the city which is still his home. His entire life has heen passed in Boise and he is the only son of Patrick Henry Quirk, one of the pioneers of the capital, a native of Ireland, who crossed the ocean when hut four years of age with his parents, Patrick Henry and Mary (O'Connell) Quirk. The family home was first established at Marlboro, Massachusetts, and Patrick Henry Quirk of this review is of the third generation in direct succession to hear that name. His father still resides in Boise, active in business though now past eighty-two years of age, and his wife also survives. She bore the maiden name of Pertina Rock, and is also' a native of Ireland. Patrick Henry Quirk II followed mining pursuits and the cattle business in his active life and is still the owner of ranches' although living practically retired. In his young manhood he went to South America and was in Ecuador when gold was discovered in Cali- fornla. He hastened northward to that state and later came from California to Idaho during the gold excitement here. It was in Boise that he was married and to him and his wife were horn four children, who are still living, Patrick Henry and three daughters, Mary A., Catherine E. and Violet B., all of whom are graduates of St. Theresa's Academy of Boise. The daughter Catherine is now an X-ray operator in a hospital at Los Angeles, California, and Violet is a graduate nurse, now in Boise. There was also another son older than our subject, Frank Quirk, who died March 27, 1915," at the age of twenty-eight years. He was a most prominent and popular young man.
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