USA > Idaho > History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume III > Part 24
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On the 12th of June, 1912, Mr. Howe was united in marriage to Miss Agnes Gavin, of Boise, a native of Boston, Massachusetts. He had previously been mar- ried in the Old Bay state to a Miss Dillingham in 1865, but she passed away some years prior to his second marriage. During the World war Mrs. Howe was chairman of the receiving committee at the Belgian relief headquarters and was very active in Red Cross and other war work.
In politics Mr. Howe is a democrat but has never been a candidate for political office, nor has he desired to serve in any position of political preferment. He has membership in the Boise Commerical Club, is also a member of the Benevolent Pro- tective Order of Elks and is identified with the Grand Army of the Republic, thus maintaining pleasant relations with his old army comrades who wore the nation's blue uniform from 1861 to 1865. In matters of citizenship he has ever been as true and loyal to his country as when he followed the nation's starry banner on the battlefields of the south.
J. H. COLE.
J. H. Cole, engaged in farming near New Plymouth, Payette county, was born in Iowa, March 19, 1858, his parents being James Jerome and Nancy Jane (Kanaw- yer) Cole. The father was born in Illinois and when a young man removed with his bride to Iowa. In May, 1862, they went to California, crossing the plains by ox team. They had no trouble with the Indians save in one instance, when two young men who were of their party wantonly killed an old Indian woman. These murderers were given over to the Indians to deal with as they saw fit. The party were five months on the road before reaching Folsom City, California, in the fall of 1862. The father then engaged in teaming from Sacramento, California, to Nevada for two years and on the expiration of that period removed to the Willamette val- ley of Oregon, where he carried on farming for five years, raising fruit and gen- eral grain crops. He afterward sold his property there and took up his abode on the Pitt river in Modoc county, California, where he raised cattle and also engaged in teaming from Redding and Red Bluff to Alturas, the family there residing for five years. The Indians, however, were troublesome in Modoc county and Mr. Cole would have been killed on one occasion had he not been quicker on the draw than the Indian. He removed with his family from that locality to Tulare county, Cali- fornia, where he followed sheep raising for eight years. He next went to Lewis- ton, Washington, where he carried on farming and cattle raising for eight years, having there one hundred and sixty acres of land about twelve miles south of Asotin. At a subsequent period he returned with his family to California for a short time and then removed to Long Valley, Idaho, where he lived for two years. On the expiration of that interval he went to Winnemucca, Nevada, where a brief period was passed, and from that place removed to Vancouver, Washington, where he remained for one year and later went to the Willamette valley, near Corvallis,
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Oregon, where he lived for eighteen months. At the end of that time he returned to the old homestead in Crook county, Oregon, near Prineville, and thereon passed away on the 21st of August, 1896. The mother died at Traver, California, in 1903, at the home of her eldest son and youngest daughter.
It was in 1901 that J. H. Cole came to Idaho, settling three-quarters of a mile north of New Plymouth. There he engaged in raising cattle for three years, after which he disposed of his place and removed to his present location, having forty acres of land two miles east of New Plymouth. This is known as the old Tyler place and hereon Mr. Cole is devoting some attention to dairying.
On the 18th of July, 1887, at Lewiston, Idaho, Mr. Cole was married to Miss Henrietta Carpenter and to them have been born four children: James Herbert, thirty years of age; Albert Ione, aged twenty-eight; Annie Christina; and Mary Alice. All are married and have families. Mrs. Cole's father, James Henry Car- penter, was one of the early pioneers of the state of Idaho and homesteaded in Long Valley. He owner and conducted a dalry for twenty-five years, his place being about two miles northwest of the home of Mr. and Mrs. Cole. Mr. and Mrs. Car- penter are now residents of Ontario, Oregon, and have reached the ages of seventy- three and sixty-seven years respectively. The former can drive an automobile like a boy. James Herbert and Albert Ione, the two sons of Mr. and Mrs. Cole, have home- steads on the upper Big Willow creek, where they are engaged in sheep raising.
Mr. Cole has spent his entire life in the west, living in this section of the country throughout the period of pioneer development and experience. He was in Tulare county, California, during the Mussel Slough riots, when every man's life in that vicinity depended upon his prowess with the gun. That Mr. Cole survives is indic- ative of his skill in that connection. His reminiscences of pioneer times are most interesting and his memory forms a connecting link between the primitive past and the progressive present.
HENRY OBERMEYER.
The name of Obermeyer is inseparably interwoven with the history of Idaho and Henry Obermeyer is the eldest of four brothers, Henry, William, Lewis and John, who are known as the "Watermelon Kings" of the state. All four have been prominently and extensively engaged in growing and shipping melons and other fruits in Gem county and have contributed much to its development and progress through the conduct of their individual interests. Henry Obermeyer is the owner of the famous Frozen Dog ranch, which is situated four and a half miles northeast of Emmett and is one of the most splendidly developed ranch properties of this section of the state.
Mr. Obermeyer was born in Kendall county, Illinois, September 30, 1885, and is a son of Henry and Mary (Linz) Obermeyer, who were natives of Germany but came to the new world in early life and were married in Illinois. Mention of them is made on another page of this work. Henry Obermeyer was reared at Plano, Illinois, in his native county, and acquired his early education in the public schools there, after which he attended the University of Chicago, also De Paul University of Chicago and the Notre Dame University of Indiana. He took an active interest in athletics during his college days and played full-back on the football team. acting as captain of a football team during two years of his college life and winning a well earned reputation as a crack player.
On the 7th of May, 1910, Mr. Obermeyer was married to Miss Katheryne A. Ewing, who was born in West Superior, Wisconsin, January 9, 1891, a daughter of Henry Watterson Ewing a well known newspaper man of Chicago, and nephew and namesake of the distinguished editor, Henry Watterson, of the Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal. Two daughters have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Obermeyer: Mary Lillian, born February 9, 1911; and Elizabeth Katheryne, December 13, 1913. Both are now in school, attend- ing St. Margaret's Hall of Boise.
In June, 1910, Mr. Obermeyer came with his family to Idaho and they have since lived near Emmett, on the south slope, where he is extensively engaged in the growing of fruits, including grapes and melons. His three brothers previously mentioned have also become actively Interested in the same business. They are not partners, yet their activities and interests are mutual and to a large extent they cooperate in the conduct of their affairs. They are the largest individual shippers of melons and grapes
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HENRY OBERMEYER
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in the northwest. In 1919 they shipped out of the Payette valley over one hundred carloads of melons and grapes for which they received over ninety thousand dollars, the products all being grown on their several ranches on the famous south slope of Gem county.
In 1919 Henry Obermeyer purchased and removed to the famous Frozen Dog ranch four and a half miles east of Emmett, this being one of the most noted as well as one of the most highly improved ranches in the Payette valley. It is situated a few miles up the slope east of his former home ranch and those of his brothers, Will, Lew and John. This ranch was developed by Colonel W. C. Hunter, well known author and for years a member of the staff of The Chicago Tribune. Colonel Hunter purchased and developed the property for his permanent home, spending a hundred thousand dollars in the improvement of the place, which included the erection of a beautiful nine-room bungalow and the development of a splendid orchard. Irrigation pipes were laid between the rows of trees and the best fruit packing house and air storage plant in the valley was built on the place with a capacity of thirty carloads. Every device and accessory of the model ranch and orchard property was secured as part of the equipment. Two years after developing this property Colonel Hunter passed away and his son, Duncan Hunter, then took charge, proving not only a capable manager but also one of the most popular citizens of the community by reason of his jovial nature and democratic spirit, but death made him a victim of the influenza and in 1919 the property was sold to Henry Obermeyer, who is the owner of six other places on the famous Emmett south slope. His total land holdings embrace six hundred and ten acres, there being two hundred and twenty-five acres in the Frozen Dog ranch, of which one hundred and three acres are under irrigation, thirty-three acres being planted to prunes and apples, while seventy acres are in alfalfa. His trees are in the finest possible condi- tion and another most important feature of his place is his field of watermelons. His shipments in 1919 were forty-eight cars of watermelons, six cars of apples and eight cars of mixed fruits, such as peaches and grapes. He expects to ship at least one hundred carloads in 1920, finding a ready market for the products in eastern Idaho, western Wyoming and Montana. He and his brothers have shown what can be accom- plished in the way of melon production in this state under favorable conditions and their example is being followed by many others.
Mr. Obermeyer is a Knight Templar and thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and also a member of the Mystic Shrine. He likewise belongs to the Benevolent Pro- tective Order of Elks, and his wife is a member of the Eastern Star and also prominent in women's club circles, being now president of the Crescent Improvement Club of Emmett. Mr. Obermeyer gives his political allegiance to the republican party and belongs to the Commercial Club. He is fond of hunting, fishing and athletics but the demands of his constantly developing business leave him little time for outside affairs. That he is a man of most progressive spirit, alert and energetic, is shown by the fact that within a few years he has acquired and improved seven different ranch properties in Gem county, within the borders of which he has made his home for only a decade, but within that time he has gained a place among the leading citizens of this part of the state and has justly won the title of Melon King of Idaho. With a nature that could never be content with mediocrity, he has pushed his way forward, obstacles and diffi- culties in his path seeming to serve but as an impetus for renewed effort on his part and a stimulus for greater activity.
HERMAN R. NEITZEL.
Herman R. Neitzel, founder of the Bannock Motor Sales Company and num- bered among the representative business men of Idaho's capital city, was born in Germany, whence he came to America when eight years of age with his parents John H. and Augusta (Magdanz) Neitzel. Upon their arrival in the new world, the family located in South Bend, Indiana, where the parents spent their remaining days, rear- ing a family of thirteen children, of whom four sons and three daughters, still survive.
Herman R. Neitzel spent his boyhood in South Bend, profiting by the advan- tages afforded the youth of the time and period and laboring assiduously to master the intricacies of a new language and customs that were strange. At an early age
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he became connected with the Studebaker Company, at South Bend, as bookkeeper and accountant, and this association continued for a period of ten years.
In 1895, Mr. Neitzel removed to Nebraska, locating in Murdock. At the time of his location there, Murdock was nothing but a station and he, therefore, became one of its first citizens. He entered actively into the upbuilding of the town and made it his residence place for the ensuing fifteen years. He was the founder and sole owner of the Bank of Murdock, an institution which had no little part in the upbuilding of the surrounding country and which is still enjoying a prosperous career. He also served as the first mayor of Murdock and in other ways contributed toward the advancement of the new community. .
Since 1910, Mr. Neitzel has been a resident of Idaho, making his home in Boise. He at once became identified with various business affairs throughout the state. He is the owner of a large general store at Murphy, Idaho, though he has devoted the major part of his time and attention to the affairs of the Bannock Motor Sales Com- pany, organized in 1914. The company acts as distributing agent for Maxwell and Chalmers motor cars, and the Garford motor trucks, and is widely and favorably known throughout Idaho and adjoining states.
In addition to his other business interests, Mr. Neitzel is known as one of the prominent orchardists of the west, being the owner of a three hundred and twenty acre apple orchard, with sixteen thousand trees, now seven years old and in full bearing. The varieties grown, include Jonathans, Roman Beauties, Stayman Wine- saps and Delicious, and the ripened fruit is shipped to all parts of the country.
In Plattsmouth, Nebraska, on the 26th of April, 1899, Mr. Neitzel was united in marriage with Miss Nellie J. Guthmann, and to them have been born three chil- dren, Francis Herman, John Milton and Elizabeth Anne.
In his political affiliations Mr. Neitzel has always been a republican. He is a member of the Boise Lodge of Elks, the Boise Commercial Club and the Young Men's Christian Association. His entire life has been actuated by a spirit of progress that has taken cognizance of both needs and opportunities, and in the communities in which he has lived his efforts have been in full accord with constructive advance- ment.
EDWIN B. BRUSH.
Edwin B. Brush, an enterprising farmer and sheep raiser of Canyon county, making his home at Parma, was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, November 12, 1892, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Andrews, who died from injuries sustained from a prairie fire in Minnesota when their son was but a few weeks old. He was then adopted by Mr. and Mrs. G. H. Brush and has known no other parents. Mr. Brush was born in Bloomfield, Vermont, and when six years of age was taken by his parents to Wisconsin and there remained until he reached the age of twenty-five, when he removed to Minnesota, where he carried on farming for a quarter of a century. In 1898 he came to Idaho, accompanied by his family, and settled on his present home place of eighty acres in the Roswell district, where he located as a pioneer. The land was covered with a growth of wild sagebrush and there was but one dwelling in Parma, which at that time was his postoffice address, being situated about four miles north of his home. Mrs. Brush passed away August 20, 1917.
Edwin B. Brush obtained his education in the common schools of Roswell and in a business college in Boise, where he completed his course in 1913. He has since devoted his entire efforts to farming upon the home place, where he is engaged in raising alfalfa, grain and hogs and has also given considerable attention to sheep raising in later years. He is now largely developing his flocks and has eleven hundred head. It is his purpose to give more and more attention to sheep ralsing. On the 1st of July, 1919, he shipped eleven hundred head of sheep for mutton and purchased two thousand head of ewes for breeding, ranging them on the government range, while during the winter months they are fed upon the home range. At present Mr. Brush employs from one to three people according to the season. As his father is becoming quite old, Edwin B. Brush, who is an only child, is more and more largely assuming the responsibilities of the entire farm, thus relleving his father of its care and labor.
In 1916 Edwin B. Brush was united in marriage to Miss Esther Olson, of
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Wilder, and they now haye one child, Pauline. Having resided in Idaho from the age of six years, Mr. Brush is well known in Canyon county, where he was reared and where he has always lived since coming to the west. Actuated by a spirit of progress, he has made a creditable place for himself in business circles, and what he has already accomplished and the methods that he has pursued indicate that his future career will be worthy of attention and interest.
EDWARD MUMFORD.
Edward Mumford is numbered among Idaho's native sons, his birth having occurred in the Boise valley, three miles south of his present home, on the Boise river, November 17, 1876. He is a representative of one of the old pioneer families of the state and has himself pioneered in Alaska. His father, David Mumford, was born in Pennsylvania, March 25, 1847, and when but seven years of age went to Wisconsin with his parents, who died in that state. After reaching adult age he wedded Mary Froman, who was a native of Missouri and came to Idaho in 1864. It was in 1866 that David Mumford arrived in this state, having crossed the plains with pack horses, while the lady whom he later made his wife made the journey by ox team. They were married on the old Froman ranch in 1875. After reaching Idaho, David Mumford first homesteaded near the mouth of the Boise river where .it flows into the Snake. He secured one hundred and sixty acres of unbroken land, which he improved and devoted largely to the raising of cattle. After some time he sold that property and made investment in the place upon which his son Edward now resides. His original homestead was
what is now known as the Carlyle farm, Mr. Mumford selling it to Mr. Carlyle. His next purchase comprised two hundred and seventy-six acres eight miles from Caldwell and again he performed the arduous task of reclaiming a wild tract for the purposes of civilization. He and his family experienced all of the hard- ships, trials and privations of frontier settlement and at one time had to leave the ranch and seek safety from the Indians by fleeing toward Caldwell. As con- ditions changed Mr. Mumford prospered in his undertakings and became one of the largest live stock raisers in the state, continuing active in the business to the time of his death, which occurred in 1910. His widow survives and is now living in Caldwell at the age of sixty-two years. Her daughter Ora is living with her and is a teacher in the Lincoln school.
Edward Mumford was reared under the parental roof, attended the rural schools and afterward the city schools of Caldwell and at the age of twenty years took up the live stock business in connection with his father. He now carries on diversified farming and raises Durham cattle for beef. A notahle event in his life history was a trip which he made with a party over the Dawson trail to Alaska. He was connected in this enterprise with George W. Froman. It was in 1898 during the great excitement there attending the discovery of gold that these two men took a thousand head of cattle from Montana which they shipped by rail to Seattle, where they started upon an ocean trip of eighteen hundred miles and afterward drove them across the almost impassable Chilkoot pass in the Alaska mountains for more than seven hundred miles. On the trip they had one hundred and forty-one pack and saddle animals and seventy-eight men. It was an undertaking unparalleled in history. One man died on the trip and it was not until three months and seventeen days had been spent upon the road that they reached their destination. They landed their cattle at Carmac's Post on the Yukon river and swam them across the river and then drove them down the north bank to Pelly, where they were slaughtered. Mr. Mumford then entered the live stock industry in connection with Mr. Froman and they made five more successful trips to. Alaska, taking at each time about one hundred and twenty- five head of cattle and five hundred head of sheep. The trips were made by water from Seattle up the Yukon river.
In 1907 Mr. Mumford was united in marriage to Miss Alta Rowland, a native of Idaho and a daughter of J. D. Rowland, one of the state's earliest and most prominent ploneers. Her mother bore the maiden name of Frances Newland and was born on the old Newland place two miles west of Caldwell in 1867. She and
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her parents passed through all of the thrilling experiences of the Indian wars. Mr. and Mrs. Mumford have become the parents of but one child, Dolores Maurine.
There has been much of the picturesque in the life record of Edward Mum- ford, who is familiar with Idaho's history from the time of pioneer development to the present. He was one of the best broncho busters of his day and rode the range for years. His Alaskan experiences were intensely interesting notwith- standing the many difficulties of the trip and there is no section of the northwest with which Mr. Mumford is not familiar. For forty-four years he has been a resident of Canyon county and is acquainted with the various important events which have had to do with shaping its annals and promoting its progress. He has been active in connection with the agricultural development of this section of the state and is today one of the highly respected and progressive farmers of Canyon county.
M. W CARLYLE.
There is perhaps no resident of Canyon county whose life record illustrates more clearly the spirit of western progress and enterprise than does that of M. W. Carlyle, who, following the most advanced methods in his farming and stock raising interests, has become one of the leading business men of his section of the state. He was born January 29, 1882, on a farm two miles northeast of Parma, Idaho, and is a son of W. H. Carlyle, who is mentioned at length on another page of this work. His education was acquired in the district schools of Roswell and at Parma and through vacation periods he became familiar with the work of the home farm, thus gaining that initial expe- rience which was of immense value to him when he started out in life on his own account. He was nineteen years of age when he began farming three hundred and sixty acres of land situated two and a half miles north of his present home. He de- voted his attention to mixed farming for six years and then purchased two hundred and seventy-six acres from his father, about two and a quarter miles south of his first farm, which he sold two years later. He has since made investment in eighty acres in one tract and forty acres in another and these adjoin the home place, making him the owner of an extensive and valuable tract of land. He raises hay, grain, alfalfa and clover seed and annually gathers large crops. Through crop rotation and the wise use of fertilizers he keeps his land in excellent condition. He raises hogs, cattle and horses and this adds materially to his income. He is now devoting his attention to the raising of registered hogs and expects soon to begin the breeding of registered cattle. When a young man he rode the range for several years and he is familiar with every phase of development along the lines of agriculture and stock raising seen in the west, from the early days when the country was open to the present time when it is a succession of highly cultivated fields or rich pasture lands, affording food to fine stock. Mr. Carlyle assisted in developing the Island High Line Ditch Company, of which he is the president. This company is capitalized for ten thousand dollars and the project supplies water to a large acreage. He is also interested in the Ross-Dilley ditch, one of the oldest in the state. This ditch takes water from the Boise river. He likewise owns a half interest in a threshing outfit which threshes a great deal of clover and alfalfa seed. In all that he undertakes Mr. Carlyle is actuated by a most pro- gressive spirit. He is a young man of undaunted energy and obstacles and difficulties in his path seem but to serve as a stimulus for renewed effort on his part. He has closely studied conditions bearing upon the agricultural development of his section of the country and has constantly sought for improvement and advancement along the lines to which he is devoting his life work.
EDWARD C. PENCE.
Edward C. Pence, secretary, treasurer and manager of the Graves Drayage & Storage Company of Boise, is one of Idaho's native sons. He was born in the Payette valley on the 20th of January, 1876, and is the eldest son and second child of Peter and Anna (Bixby) ' Pence, the latter a daughter of Seth Bixby, formerly a well known ranchman and live stock dealer of this section of Idaho,
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