History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume II, Part 96

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 96

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On the 6th of October, 1918, Dr. Buerki was married at Oswego, New York, to Miss Emma Louise Matthews, also a graduate of the University of Wisconsin, in fact they were classmates in that institution. Dr. Buerki is of Revolutionary war descent on his mother's side and is therefore eligible to membership with the Sons of the American Revolution. While he and his wife have made their home in Boise for hut a brief period, they have already gained wide recognition in social circles and the number of their friends is constantly increasing as the circle of their acquaintance broadens.

WALTER S. KEITH.

Walter S. Keith, founder and proprietor of the only exclusive clothing and men's furnishing goods store in Emmett, established the business in 1913 and has now con- ducted it successfully for a period of seven years, developing one of the finest stores of the kind in this section of Idaho, it being the expression of his progressive spirit, his determination and laudable ambition.

Mr. Keith was born upon a farm in Lake county, South Dakota, October 25, 1880, and is the eldest of seven children, four sons and three daughters, whose parents are Elbert C. and Alice (Perry) Keith, the former now a prominent and successful cloth-

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ing merchant of Payette, Idaho, being the founder and senior partner in the firm of E. C. Keith & Son, the junior partner being Robert M. Keith, the youngest brother of Walter. S. Elbert C. Keith is of Scotch descent, his first American ancestor set- tling .in Massachusetts. His father, Sumner M. Keith, was born in Ohio in 1828 and went to Wisconsin abcut 1850. There he followed farming until 1860, when he re- moved to Blue Earth county, Minnesota, there residing until his death in 1906. He wedded Mary Brierly, who was a native of Minnesota and of English lineage. She died in Marquette county, Wisconsin, in 1856.

Their only child was Elbert C. Keith, who was born in Marquette county, Wis- consin, July 12, 1853. He spent his youth upon a farm and was educated in the rural schools of Blue Earth county, Minnesota. After attaining his majority he went to Lake county, South Dakota, where he followed farming and also served for a term as county clerk and for two terms as county auditor. He afterward engaged in news- paper work in Madison, Lake county, as editor and proprietor of the Madison Inde- pendent and on the 1st of October, 1902, he became a resident of Payette, Idaho, where he is now engaged in the clothing business, having a large and well appointed establishment which would be a credit to a city of much greater size than Payette. He belongs to the Commercial Club of that city and is keenly interested in every- thing having to do with the general welfare. He votes with the democratic party but has never been a candidate for office. On the 28th of November, 1898, at Man- kato, Minnesota, he wedded Alice Perry, daughter of Samuel S. Perry and a native of Minnesota. Mr. and Mrs. Keith became the parents of seven children: Walter S .; Robert M., who is his father's partner in business; Eugene G .; Ray G .; Zadie; Nellie; and Wayne.

Walter S. Keith was reared on a farm in South Dakota and pursued his early education in the public schools, while later he attended the State Normal School at Madison, South Dakota. Since that time he has engaged in business pursuits. When a youth of nineteen and for two years thereafter he belonged to an amateur baseball team of South Dakota. In 1912 he came to Idaho and in the following year organized the business in Emmett of which he is now the head. His store carries the Hart, Schaffner & Marx clothing and other attractive and staple lines of men's furnishings and shoes. The store is well appointed in every particular and a very gratifying busi- ness has been built up.

Mr. Keith was married October 7, 1908, at Madison, South Dakota, to Miss K. Blanche Ball, who was born in Lake county, South Dakota, and is a daughter of Fred G. and Julia A. (Hancock) Ball, who are still residing in South Dakota. The three children of Mr. and Mrs. Keith are: Karleen, born October 11, 1909; Marian, Febru- ary 12, 1912; and Eleanor Gene, April 18, 1916.

Mr. Keith is a member of the Emmett Commercial Club and of the Emmett Gun Club and is fond of hunting, fishing and other outdoor sports. Fraternally he is connected with the Knights of Pythias and his wife with the P. E. O. sisterhood and both are consistent and loyal members of the Presbyterian church. Their inter- ests are sane and normal, their activities resultant, and their support of all those interests which make for the uplift of the individual and the betterment of man- kind has resulted to the benefit and progress of Emmett, where they are most widely and favorably known.

FRANK D. BOWEN.

Frank D. Bowen, vice president and general manager of the Cash Bazar Company, Inc., of Emmett, is in this connection actively identified with the management of a leading department store, carrying a large and attractive line of goods, which finds a ready sale upon the market, owing to the reasonable prices of the house and the efforts of the proprietors to render adequate service to the public.

Mr. Bowen was born in Richmond, Missouri, October 22, 1879, a son of John W. and Mary A. (Brown) Bowen, who were natives of Virginia and Ohio respectively. The father was born at Bridgewater, Virginia, September 21, 1853, and is still living, making his home in the city of Louisiana. For the past quarter of a century he has been in the United States postal service and is now the assistant postmaster of Louisiana, Missouri, a position which he has held for twenty years. His wife was born in Knox county, Ohio, February 5, 1856, and departed this life in Louisiana, Missouri,

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July 12, 1894. To Mr. and Mrs. Bowen were born three children, two sons and a daughter, all of whom are yet living.

Frank D. Bowen is the eldest of the children and his only sister is Mrs. Emily O. Holding, of Stanberry, Missouri, while his brother is John R. Bowen, also living at Stanberry. The brother and brother-in-law are partners there in a mercantile business which they are conducting under the name of the Holding & Bowen Dry Goods Company, a husiness which was originally founded by Frank D. Bowen of this review in 1904.

It was at Louisiana, Missouri, that Frank D. Bowen spent the days of his boyhood and youth, his parents having removed from Richmond to that place when he was a little lad of but six years. When eighteen years of age he was graduated from the high school of Louisiana and later he entered upon his business career. From the age of eighteen years he has been connected with mercantile pursuits, at that time entering the employ of a dry goods firm in Louisiana, with which he remained for several years. He then went to Chicago and for three years was a salesman in the dry goods house of Marshall Field & Company. In 1904 he established business on his own account at Stanberry, Missouri, opening a dry goods store, in which he retained an interest for several years but finally sold to his brother-in-law. In the meantime, or in 1906, he went to St. Louis and for six years he was traveling representative in the southern states for the Ely & Walker Dry Goods Company of that city, handling silks and dress goods. In 1912 he resigned his position as a traveling salesman and went to San Francisco, where he spent a year, while subsequently he was for a year a resident of Portland, Oregon, and there filled the position of department manager in one of the large department stores of the city.

In 1914 Mr. Bowen came to Idaho and for two years he was employed by the firm of C. C. Anderson & Company, being thus active as a huyer at their Golden Rule store. He later spent two years as a buyer for the dry goods department of the Pueblo Store Company of Pueblo, Colorado, and in 1918 he returned to Boise and became buyer of the dry goods department of the Cash Bazar of that city. In March, 1919, he resigned his position and with others organized and incorporated the Cash Bazar Company of Emmett, of which he has since heen the vice-president and general manager, Eugene Reilly, of Boise, being its president, while Thomas N. Nelson, of Boise, is secretary and treasurer. Mr. Bowen resides in Emmett and is sole manager of the business. The store is thirty by one hundred and thirty feet and has a balcony thirty by fifty-five feet. This is one of Emmett's best department stores, an attractive line of goods being carried, while the business methods of the house commend them to the public, for the Cash Bazar Company is at all times thoroughly reliable in its business methods and puts forth every effort to please its patrons.

On the 25th of December, 1907, Mr. Bowen was married to Miss Pearl Eugene Timbrook, of Chillicothe, Missouri, who was graduated from the high school there. Mr. Bowen is vice-president of the Emmett Commercial Club and is keenly interested in all the projects put forth by that organization for the upbullding of the city. Fraternally he is an Elk, having his membership in the lodge at Boise, and he is also connected with the Knights of Pythias. He is fond of outdoor sports, such as

hunting and fishing, and turns to these for recreation when opportunity permits. His business affairs, however, claim the major part of his time and attention. He closely studies the trade and the market conditions as well as the demands of the public and his progressiveness is constantly manifest in the appearance of the store and in the methods followed in meeting the trade. Longfellow has said: "The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you can do well, without thought of fame." Throughout his career the business of Mr. Bowen has ever balanced up with the principles of truth and honor and he has made his establishment one of the centers of commercial activity in Emmett and Gem county.

JOHN BUXTON.

John Buxton, a retired farmer living at Driggs, was born in Sheffield, England, in March, 1843. He has therefore passed the seventy-seventh milestone on life's journey and his has been an active and useful career, in which his well directed interests have brought him substantial success, enabling him now to rest from further lahor. He is a son of John and Elizabeth (Carnel) Buxton, who were also natives of England.

MR. AND MRS. JOHN BUXTON

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In 1847 the father passed away in England and in 1849 the mother with her family crossed the Atlantic and settled in St. Louis and there in 1849 she passed away, a victim of the cholera epidemic. In 1853 the family came to Utah, crossing the plains with ox teams and settling in Salt Lake City. John Buxton began herding cattle and was employed on various ranches to the age of twenty-two years, when he made his way to the Cache valley of Utah, becoming one of the pioneer settlers of that district. In 1863 he went to Omaha, Nebraska, and the following year returned to Utah with a party of immigrants and a large amount of freight. He experienced all the hardships and privations incident to the settlement of the frontier. He took up land near Smith- field and cultivated and improved the place, continuing its further development until 1900, when he sold the property and removed to Teton county, Idaho, then a part bf Fremont county. He purchased land near Driggs, about four and a half miles west of town, and at once hegan to till the soil and plant his crops. Year after year he continued the work of improving the farm until 1918, when he retired from active business life and removed to Driggs, where he purchased a nice home that he has since occupied. He and his son Stillman own together a thousand acres of good land and he is a stockholder and director in the First National Bank of Driggs, in the Driggs Light & Power Company, of which he is vice-president and one of the directors, and a stock- holder in the Palace Garage Company and in the Beet Growers Sugar Company of Rigby. On the 12th of March, 1865, Mr. Buxton was united in marriage to Miss. Mary A. Pond and to them were horn eleven children: Alfred, Lewis, Elizabeth, Thaddeus, Stillman, Laura, Florence, Verley W., Joseph, Sarah, and Carnel, deceased. The wife and mother passed away in August, 1919 after an illness of two years.

Mr. Buxton's political support is given to the republican party and he has served as county commissioner but otherwise has not sought nor filled office. Throughout his life he has found inspiration and courage for the labors of the morrow through the faith- ful discharge of each day's duties and he is recognized as a man of sound judgment and enterprise whose business affairs have been wisely and carefully conducted and whose industry and perseverance have been the basis of his growing success. He has now largely put aside the more active labors of life and is enjoying in well earned rest the fruits of his former toil.

FRED BRANDES.

Among the progressive business enterprises of Payette is that conducted by the Idaho Vinegar & Pickle Company, of which Fred Brandes is the manager. In the development of this business he has displayed a most progressive spirit, has carefully studied business conditions and has developed the trade according to the demands of the times, the business of the firm having now reached extensive and gratifying proportions. Mr. Brandes is still a young man for whom the future undoubtedly holds greater success. He was born in Omaha, Nebraska, December 31, 1892, and there at- tended the public schools to the age of fourteen years, when he made his initial step in the business world by securing a clerical position that he occupied for two years. He then pursued a business course in Boyles College in Omaha, Nebraska, after which he accepted a clerical position with the Standard Distilling & Distributing Company. Subsequently he spent two years with the Studebaker corporation and in 1914, in order to gain a broader knowledge of the country and its possibilities, he went to Silver City, New Mexico, where he visited friends.

The year 1916 witnessed the arrival of Mr. Brandes in Idaho, and two years later he became the manager of the Idaho Vinegar & Pickle Company, located at Payette. This company was organized in 1915 for the purpose of manufacturing apple cider, vinegar and pickles and their output in vinegar is about thirty-five hundred barrels of fifty gallons capacity or one hundred and seventy-five thousand gallons annually. They employ from five to fifteen people according to the season. It is their intention to immediately enlarge their plant to a capacity of two hundred and fifty thousand gal- lons, after which they will make use of from thirty to forty tanks of various sizes for their product in its various stages of development. They also make a concentrated cider from their own formula, for which patents are pending. A tablespoonful of this concentrated liquid will make a glass of delicious cider. Their trade extends throughout eastern Oregon, southern Idaho and to Butte and Helena, Montana, in the sale of vinegar and pickles, while their cider product has a market throughout the

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entire middle west, as far east as St. Louis, Sioux City, Omaha and Kansas City. This rapidly developing interest is a potential force in the upbuilding of Payette and Fred Brandes ranks as one of the valued and progressive business men of the city.

H. E. WILFONG.

H. E. Wilfong, who follows farming in the vicinity of New Plymouth, was born in Brown county, Kansas, August 25, 1880. His father, Sylvester Wilfong, was a native of Iowa and accompanied his parents to Kansas in pioneer times, the family there resid- ing for thirty years. Sylvester Wilfong was married to Frances Myers, a native of Kansas, whose parents, Samuel and Jane Myers, settled in that state in the early '50s, the father arriving there in 1854 and the mother in 1856.

H. E. Wilfong obtained his education in the schools of his native state. In 1903 he accompanied his mother to Idaho and settled in Payette county, purchasing the forty acres of land whereon he now resides, situated about three miles west of New Plymouth. It was then a tract of raw land and he at once began to clear away the brush and develop the place into productive fields. He has succeeded in bringing it under a high state of cultivation and has built thereon a fine country home. He has eight acres planted to apples and while they are yet young trees, he has raised a fine crop, selling his apples in 1919 for fifty-five dollars a ton, delivered loose. He also raises dairy stock and milks nine cows, and has two hundred and fifteen head of sheep and a few hogs. Seventeen acres of his land is planted to wheat and thirty-three acres to alfalfa and in addition to his first place he has acquired another forty acre tract, making his possessions eighty acres in all. He raises all of his own horses and at the present time has eight head. In addition to his property in Payette county he has a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres at Dead Ox Flat, Idaho, and has an interest in his father's estate of four hundred acres in Kansas, including some of the finest land to he found in the country.

In 1902 Mr. Wilfong was married to Miss Bertha Berkley, a native of Kansas and a daughter of Milton and Mary E. (Stephens) Berkley. Her father was born in Penn- sylvania and her mother in Kansas, the maternal grandfather having been one of the pioneers in the Sunflower state. Mr. and Mrs. Wilfong have two children: Forrest R., sixteen years of age, who was born in Kansas; and Fern R., born in Idaho. Mr. Wilfong has never had occasion to regret his determination to come to the northwest, for here he found the opportunities which he sought and in their utilization has made a place for himself among the representative business men and progressive farmers of Payette county.

WILLIAM S. SNYDER.

William S. Snyder is the manager of the Idaho Falls Times and a member of the firm of Dennis & Snyder, owners of this paper, which is an interesting journal, published at Idaho Falls, Idaho. A native son of Ohio, he was born at Saint Paris, August 12. 1880, his parents being George W. and Mary (Valentine) Snyder, who were likewise natives of the Buckeye state.

William S. Snyder was reared and educated in Ohio. He learned the printer's trade, at which he began to work when a youth of fourteen, and four years later he left Ohio to become a resident of Illinois. He was employed at his trade in Tuscola, Illi- nois, for several years, after which he removed to Garrett, Douglas county, in the same state, in 1901. There he established a newspaper and continued its publication for a year. He afterward worked in different places until October, 1906, when he came to Idaho, settling at Idaho Falls.

In 1915 he formed a partnership with S. W. Dennis and purchased the Idaho Falls Times, which had been established by Mr. Dennis some years before, although his own- ership thereof had not been continuous. They have a finely equipped plant and do a large job printing business, turning out work of the highest order and efficiency. They have also made the Times a most interesting paper and are meeting with substantial success.

In August, 1905, Mr. Snyder was united in marriage to Miss Jessie Wedge at.

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Quincy, Illinois, and to them have been born three children: William W., born in April, 1910; Florence E., in July, 1912; and Julia M., in October, 1915.

Mr. Snyder is a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. His political endorsement is given to the democratic party, and his religious faith Is that of the Presbyterian church. In these associations are found the rules which govern his con- duct and shape his relations with his fellowmen. He is ever loyal to any cause which he espouses, and his devotion to any project which he endorses is unfaltering.

HARVEY E. TAIT.

Harvey E. Tait, of the firm of Hank & Tait, is engaged in sheep raising and ranch- ing on section 16, range 36, Twin Falls county. He was born in Ontario, Canada, on the 13th of August, 1890, his parents being Jobn Osborne and Elizabeth (Baker) Tait. He passed his boyhood and youth at the place of his nativity and pursued a public school education there, but thinking to find better business opportunities and conditions elsewhere, he left Canada and on the 2d of May, 1912, arrived in Idaho, taking up his abode at Twin Falls. Throughout the intervening period he has been connected with the development of this section of the state, especially in connec- tion with its stock raising interests. For a time he was in the employ of a Mr. Quigley on a dairy farm, remaining there for about eight months. Later he and Mr. Hank rented a tract of land known as the Sturgeon ranch, comprising seventy acres, and resided thereon for three years. In 1915 they purchased their present ranch prop- erty of one hundred and seventy-one acres, to which they have since added forty acres. In 1917 they bought three hundred and twenty acres north and west of Shoshone and have converted it into a modern sheep ranch. They are well known sheepmen of this section of the state, having greatly increased their flocks until they now have large interests of that character. Both men started out in life empty-handed, but from the beginning displayed industry and were never afraid of hard work. Gradually they have progressed and they are now large landowners and prosperous farmers of Idaho and are the owners of hundreds of sheep, being thus actively connected with what is today one of the leading industries of the state.

Mr. Tait is a member of the Presbyterian church and is a loyal supporter of all those forces which work for the uplift of the individual and the betterment of man- kind in general. In community affairs he stands for all those forces which are a mat- ter of civic virtue and of civic pride.

J. R. POTTER.

J. R. Potter is now living retired near Eagle but for many years was identified with mining and agricultural interests in Ada county and by reason of his untiring industry and persistency of purpose acquired the capital that now enables him to enjoy well earned rest. He was born in Springfield, Greene county, Missouri, September 24, 1844. and there acquired his early education. During the period of the Civil war he enlisted for service and became a corporal of Company D, Sixteenth Missouri Volunteer Cavalry, remaining with that command until honorably discharged June 30, 1865. He had been wounded in the Battle of the Blue, which occurred on the present site of Kansas City, Missouri, October 23, 1864. This wound caused the loss of his leg in later life, following his removal to Idaho. He did not feel any serious ill effects from the wound for several years, but it became necessary to amputate his leg above the knee in 1899.

Following the close of his military experience J. R. Potter devoted his attention to farming in Missouri until 1875. 'He was married in that state in July, 1869, to Miss Martha Frances Breshears, a daughter of Reuben Breshears, representative of one of the oldest and best known pioneer families of Idaho, her father coming to this state with Mr. Potter. To Mr. and Mrs. Potter were born seven children, of whom the eldest, Wesley F., is now deceased. James M., forty-six years of age, married Ida Clemens, of Idaho, and became the father of seven children, namely: Edward M., twen- ty-three years of age. who served for four years in the navy before the declaration of war and was in the army in France as supply sergeant of the Three Hundred and Forty-

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sixth Field Artillery, Ninety-first Division, being honorably discharged February .27, 1919; Mabel, the widow of Silas Monroe; Grace, Beulah, Helen and Alice, at home; and Frank, deceased. James M. is the secretary of the Farmers Union Ditch and a school director. Reuben E. Potter, the third member of the family, forty-four years of age, is connected with the sheep industry in Idaho. William A., the fourth son, was in a hospital in France, having sustained a severe shrapnel wound during the bat- tle of Chateau Thierry, in which he served with the One Hundred and Forty-sixth Heavy Field Artillery of the Forty-second (Rainbow) Division as first gunner, and was hon- orably discharged and is now in Idaho. Thomas W., thirty-eight years of age, was also in France as a volunteer in the Three Hundred and Twelfth Field Remount Squad of the First Army, Fifth Corps, and was on detached service, conducting a garden farm. He served with the rauk of corporal. Albert, thirty-six years of age, is a commercial traveler. Jessie F., the seventh of the family, is the wife of Jesse Justus, who follows farming near Nampa, and they have one child, Claude. Mrs. Martha Frances Potter, the mother of these children, passed away in Bellevue, Idaho, in 1888.

It was on the 10th of May, 1875, that Mr. Potter, leaving his family in Missouri, started across the plains with oxen, horses and mule teams from Bolivar, Missouri, and arrived at Montpelier, Idaho, on the 15th of August. He went to Rocky Bar, where he worked in the mines for a year and then returned to Missouri for his family, whom he brought to the northwest, driving across the country with horse team and wagon. The trip was without unusual incident until they reached Cokeville, Wyoming, where they were compelled to remain for a few days while the Indians were being rounded up and put on the reservation .. In 1878 he participated in the Indian war in Idaho. Mr. Potter located at Rocky Bar, where he resumed mining on leased claims with varied success for ten years. He then went to Bellevue, Idaho, where he engaged in mining until he met with a serious accident caused by a cave-in in 1889. This oc- casioned internal injuries which caused him to abandon mining altogether. Removing to the Boise valley of Idaho, he turned his attention to farming, which he continuously and successfully followed until the injury which he had sustained in the Civil war caused him to lose his leg. He made his home at Star but at that time sold the prop- erty, and retiring from active life, now lives with his nephew, Joe H. Breshears, near Eagle.

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History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume II, Part 96

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