USA > Idaho > History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume III > Part 27
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JOHN CUDDY.
While more than two decades have passed since John Cuddy was called to his final rest, he is yet remembered by many of the residents of the Salubria valley, of Boise and of other sections of the state, and his name will be found upon the pages of Idaho's pioneer history for generations to come. He is numbered among those who have laid broad and deep the foundation upon which has been built the present prosperity and progress of the commonwealth. In 1865 he became a resident of Idaho, being then a man of about thirty years. He was born in County Tipperary, Ireland, November 15, 1834, and was only about six years of age when his parents, Michael and Catharine (Murphy) Cuddy, crossed the Atlantic with their family of ten children, while one of the number having married, remained on the Emerald isle. The parents landed at Boston, Massachusetts, and continued their residence in New England, the father dying at the age of seventy-eight years, while the mother reached the advanced age of ninety-three.
John Cuddy was their youngest child. The opportunities of his youth were extreme- Jy limited and from an early age he depended entirely upon his own resources for a living. He largely acquired his education through attendance at night schools and also in the school of experience learned many valuable lessons, for he possessed an observing eye and retentive memory and was thus continually adding to his knowledge. In his youth- ful days he acquainted himself with the machinist's trade and operated a stationary engine. His identification with the west dated from 1852, when by way of the Isthmus route he made his way to San Francisco, where for a time he was employed in a ware- house. He also engaged in mining on the Tuolumne river and operated a sawmill, and in 1856, after four years' résidence in California, he made his way northward to the Puget Sound country, where he manufactured lumber for a time and later became engineer on a tow boat.
While in Washington, John Cuddy formed the acquaintance of Edward Tyne, a man of good education and fine business talents. Their friendship dated from the time when they became acquainted by working in the sawmills and lumber camps of Washington. Both were from County Tipperary, Ireland, and this naturally drew them together. Mr. Cuddy was at that time superintendent of a sawmill owned by Meigs & Company of San Francisco and had three hundred men under his direction, he acting as head sawyer in the mill, while Edward Tyne acted as saw filer. The two became bosom friends and after spending several years in connection with sawmilling interests in Washington they came to Boise in 1864, bringing with them a stock of groceries, liquors, paints and oils. Mr. Cuddy made the trip with this stock of goods from San Francisco, traveling by water up the coast and over the river route to Umatilla, Oregon, and thence by frelght team proceeding to Boise. The firm of Cuddy & Tyne conducted a profitable
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business in Boise until 1869, when they removed to the Salubria valley in Washington county, Idaho, and built there a sawmill and flour mill, which were the first in that part of the country. Their plants were ready for operation in 1870. Mr. Cuddy made a trip to San Francisco to buy machinery for these mills and on his return he was accompanied by Delia and Nora Tyne, who were sisters of his partner and were coming to Idaho to pay him a visit. The acquaintance thus begun was continued and on the 10th of January, 1871, the marriage of John Cuddy and Delia Tyne was celebrated. The lady had come to the United States alone when a girl in her teens from her native country of Ireland and joined an elder sister in New York city. There they resided for several years, being in the eastern metropolis at the time the funeral parade of Abraham Lincoln occurred, which historic event they witnessed. The sister of Mrs. Cuddy with whom she remained in New York was the second of the Tyne family to come to the United States, the first being Edward Tyne, previously mentioned as the friend and partner of Mr. Cuddy. Later the sister Nora Tyne arrived and accompanied Delia Tyne to the west to visit their brother. Nora afterward married a Mr. Wade and is now .a widow, living in San Francisco.
Having arrived safely in the Salubria valley with his milling machinery, the mills were soon equipped and were ready for operation in 1870. The following year Mr. Cuddy purchased the interest of his partner, Edward Tyne, who died some years later in Albany, Oregon. Becoming sole proprietor, Mr. Cuddy carried on the business alone, devoting his attention to the manufacture of lumber and flour, and it is said that for many years nearly every house in the district in which his mill was located was con- structed from lumber which he manufactured, while almost every household was familiar with the flour that he made. Difficulties and obstacles confronted him in early pioneer times, but as the years passed and the country became more thickly settled he was accorded a more liberal patronage which made his business a profitable one and he gradually approached nearer and nearer to the goal of success. Not only did he operate his mills but he also owned and conducted a valuable farm of three hundred and twenty acres a mile and a half from Salubria and won recognition as a leading agriculturist and stock raiser of his section of the state.
A contemporary biographer said of Mr. Cuddy: "When he brought his materials and supplies from Boise to build his mills, there were no bridges in this part of the state and so he and Mr. Tyne built a boat, which they carried with them. On reaching a stream that was not fordable they loaded their supplies in the boat and swam their stock across, thus eventually reaching their destination. Salubria is only seventy-five miles distant from Boise, but at that time it required twenty-one days to make the trip to and from the capital city. He located seven miles from any habitation, and the mountain near which he built his mill and home soon became known as Cuddy mountain, a name which it still bears. The first winter after his arrival in the Salubria valley the roads became so blocked with snow that for three months Mrs. Cuddy saw no one but her husband and baby. On one occasion he loaded two four-horse teams with dressed hogs and bacon and started for the city, but the snow and mud under it were so deep that it required four days to go nine miles. They left the loads and went back to the house to sleep at night. At another time Mr. Cuddy went to Boise for a ton of salt and was commissioned by a neighbor to purchase a can of kerosene. He paid one hundred and sixty dollars for the salt and secured the oil, but when he reached home he found that it had leaked on the salt, rendering it unfit for use, and thus he was obliged to make the trip again for more salt. The first load he left exposed to the weather, and at the end of a year the oil had evaporated so that the salt could be fed to the stock.
"In 1877, when the Nez Perce war broke out, the settlers were in imminent danger and many of them packed up their goods, left their homes and went to Weiser. Mr. Cuddy sent his family to Boise and thus they lived in constant danger of the red men, who again and again went on the warpath. The men always wore their cartridge belts to the fields where they worked and at the slightest noise glanced apprehensively around, fearful of seeing Indians. In 1878 the Bannocks went on the warpath and when the news reached Mr. Cuddy he put his family in a wagon and took them down the valley to a fort which was built for protection for the settlers. No less than ten times did he thus take his wife and children from home, for he had taken part in an Indian war in Oregon in 1865, and he knew of the cruelties and treachery of the savages. Gradually, however, as civilization advanced and the country became more thickly populated, the Indians were subjugated and thus departed for other regions, leaving this fair district to yield its splendid gifts in return for the labors of the white race."
As the years passed five children came to bless the marriage of Mr. and Mrs.
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Cuddy, Kate, Nellie, John, Marie and Edward, to whom were given good educational opportunities. All are yet living with the exception of Edward, whose death was occasioned by influenza in the fall of 1918. He was at that time a resident of Centralia, Washington, where he was successfully engaged in merchandising. He died at the age of thirty-eight, leaving a wife and two children. The daughters Kate and Nellie reside with their mother in Boise, as does the son John, while the youngest daughter, Marie, is a graduate of the Idaho State University and is now a well known teacher in the Longfellow school of Boise. Three of the members of the family were students in the University of Idaho at the same time. Soon after the death of her husband Mrs. Cuddy removed with her family to Boise and for many years has occupied a comfortable home of her own at No. 1204 North Eleventh street.
Mr. Cuddy was a member of the Roman Catholic church, of which his widow and children are communicants. Politically he was a republican, but the honors and emolu- ments of office never had attraction for him, although he served on the county board of commissioners for eight years. At all times he stood loyally for those interests which have to do with the public welfare and municipal progress. He indeed bore active part in planting the seeds of civilization on the western frontier, and his life work was one of signal service through the vigor which he lent to the pioneer era in making this region habitable, in bringing its resources to light and in stamping his intensely practi- cal ideas upon its milling industry-a business which perforce must be one of the fore- runners of settlement and civilization. Cuddy mountain was named in his honor and will forever stand as a monument to his enterprise and to his memory.
WILLIAM L. HANKINS.
William L. Hankins, the president of the Clark County Title & Abstract Company and the manager of the National Park Lumber Company, important business enterprises of Dubois, was born in Asheville, North Carolina, October 19, 1872. He is a son of John W. and Roxie L. (Hall) Hankins, the former a native of Missouri, while the latter was born in North Carolina. The father was a farmer of Missouri, to which state his father had removed at an early day. In 1872, John W. Hankins returned to North Carolina, where he remained until 1874 and then again went to Missouri, driving across the state from St. Louis to Springfield. In the latter district he took up the occupation of farming, which he followed to the time of his death in November, 1881. The mother still survives and is now living in Asheville, North Carolina.
In his native city William L. Hankins was reared and when but thirteen years of age he left school to take up the cabinetmaking trade, which he learned in his grand- father's shop. He continued to follow that business until 1889, when he removed to Oklahoma, where he purchased town lots in Oklahoma City. He accepted a position as manager there with the William Cameron Lumber Company and remained in that connection for three years. The company then sold their business to the Arkansas Lumber Company, with which Mr. Hankins continued until 1896, when they in turn sold to the Gloyd Lumber Company of Kansas City. Mr. Hankins was still retained in the service of the new company until 1900, when he resigned his position and went to Colorado. There he entered the employ of the Newton Lumber Company at Colorado Springs in the responsible position of manager and so served until 1902, when he was transferred to Cripple Creek. In 1907 a second transfer took him to Boulder, Colorado, and he continued with the Newton Lumber Company until 1910, when he again went to Oklahoma. There he was made general manager with the Morse-Campbell Lumber Company and so continued until March 1, 1913, when he went to Salt Lake City, Utah. He became the manager of the branch of the Baker Lumber Company at Richfield, Utah, and served at that place until January, 1915, when he removed to Malad, Oneida county, Idaho and accepted a position as manager of the Malad Lumber & Hardware Company. In that connection he continued until December 15, 1917, when he came to Dubois and was made manager of the National Park Lumber Company. He has so continued to the present time and has further extended the scope of his activities by becoming one of the organizers on the 31st of March, 1919, of the Clark County Title & Abstract Company, in which he is associated with J. C. Palmer and E. M. Whitzel. He has since been presi- dent and manager of this company and is carefully guiding its destiny and directing its business expansion. He is also a well known figure in lumber circles of the intermountain country, where his activities have been of wide scope and importance. In addition to
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his other interests he is the owner of a dry farm of eighty acres and he has also purchased another eighty-acre tract adjoining. He likewise has made further invest- ments in land which he hires men to cultivate. However, he has given much personal supervision to his farming interests and for seven months drove out morning and night to his ranch-a distance of twenty miles. He is the secretary and manager of the Dubois Mill & Elevator Company.
On the 28th of January, 1910, Mr. Hankins was married to Miss Ruby E. Best and to them have been born two children: Gertrude, whose natal day was April 12, 1915; and William Lee, whose birth occurred on the 5th of August, 1917.
Politically Mr. Hankins is a republican and meets with a sense of conscientious obligation every duty of citizenship. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and has served as worshipful master in his lodge at Dubois. He belongs to the Episcopal church and his life at all times has been the expression of high principles and worthy motives.
S. W. VAIL.
About five miles northwest of Caldwell is situated the fine farm of S. W. Vail, who is now numbered among the leading farmers of Canyon county. His life ex- periences have been broad, interesting and ofttimes thrilling, for there is no phase of cowboy life in the west with which he is not familiar, as he rode the range in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and various other sections of the country and there came to him all of the knowledge of wild life in the open in that period of western history to which time has lent a picturesque phase.
Mr. Vail was born in Sparta, Wisconsin, May 4, 1860, a son of William and Phoebe ( Wallace) Vail, who were natives of Canada and of Scotland respectively, while their marriage was celebrated in Wisconsin, where the father died. The mother afterward became the wife of William Dixon, and the family removed in 1869 to Iowa, where Mr. Dixon followed the occupation of farming. In 1871 they went to Smith county, Kansas, where they remained through the winter and then removed to Norton county, Kansas, where Mr. Dixon engaged in cattle raising. The mother passed away in Kansas in 1870.
In 1900 S. W. Vail came to Idaho but previous to this resided in various parts of the west. He had been a buckaroo and broncho buster in Kansas during the period of Indian troubles in that state when Mr. Vail and the cowboys were the only ones the Indians feared, the red men knowing that when they were pursued by the aforementioned that there would be some real fighting, and when the smoke of battle cleared away there were many Indians to the credit of the cowboys. In 1873, when but thirteen years of age, Mr. Vail went with a party that drove a band of forty-five hundred head of cattle from Gonzales, Texas, to Montana, and he was the only white person in the party until they reached Ellis, Kansas, the others being Mexicans and negroes. The stock was wintered at Ellis, Kansas, and the following spring the trip was resumed, the stock being driven to Horseshoe Bend on the Little Missouri river, in Montana. This portion of the trip was made with the aid of white men and the entire trip consumed two years. It was after this time that Mr. Vail worked for the L. F. outfit in Colorado, of which W. W. Iliff was the head. He was known as the cattle king of Colorado. From 1870 until 1877 Mr. Vail engaged in freighting from Sidney, Nebraska, to Deadwood, South Dakota, driving ox teams. He then went to Wyoming, where he entered the employ of the Converse Cattle Company, with which he remained for seven years, or until 1885. He was the foreman on the Red Cloud reservation to protect the interests of that company and was authorized by the United States government to remain on the reservation. In that way he associated with the Indians and ate with them and witnessed many of their war dances and sun dances. After traveling around the country to a con- siderable extent he returned to Kansas, where he was married.
Mr. Vail wedded Miss Amanda Myers, of Norton county, Kansas, and they have become the parents of seven children: Edna, now the wife of Alexander Ballentine, a prominent sheepman of Idaho; Margie, at home; Blanche, who is now at the Star ranch in the pines of Colorado for the benefit of her health; Albert, who is twenty years of age and is associated with his father in business; Russell, aged seventeen, also at home; George, aged thirteen; and Carrie.
As stated, it was in 1900 that Mr. Vail came to Idaho, settling at Dixie on the
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Boise river, on the Charles Myers place of one hundred and sixty acres, which at that time was a tract of unbroken land save that a small family orchard had been planted. Mr. Vail cultivates forty acres of his farm and uses the remainder for pasture. He raises cattle and a few sheep. He also owns eighty acres about a half mile north of his home place. He is likewise engaged in bee culture and has about two hundred hives. His business affairs are wisely and carefully conducted and are bringing to him a gratifying measure of success.
On the 4th of May, 1919, Mr. Vail took a trip back to his old home in Kansas. The Commercial Club there gave a banquet in his honor and he then learned that he was the oldest living of the pioneer settlers of Norton county, Kansas. ' He is a charter member of the Modern Woodmen Camp which was organized at Edmond, Kansas, and this lodge also held a banquet in his honor and he was visited by all of the old settlers. His old friends, at the meeting of the Commercial Club, presented him with a life membership in the club in recognition of the fact that he had "Broken up more sidewalk in the town than anyone else," as he "used to buck his bronchos on the sidewalk." In 1917 Mr. Vail and his wife, accompanied by Charles Vail and his wife. were riding in an automobile near the fair grounds at Boise when Mr. Vail slowed the car down to put on his gloves. In so doing he accidentally opened the gas throttle and the car jumped, crashing into a telephone pole. The car was overturned and wrecked and Mr. Vail had his collarbone broken and his chest crushed, while the others with him were badly shaken up. For some time his life was despaired of but he has now fully recovered from his injuries. He and his family reside in an attractive home near Caldwell and his excellent farm property is the visible evidence of his life of well directed energy and thrift. When one could ride the open range for miles and miles without seeing a trace of human habitation Mr. Vail was a cowboy in the west. He has lived to see remarkable changes and has aided in carrying forward the work of transformation until now the great western country is largely settled with a prosperous and contented people and there are few districts in which one can see the evidences of frontier life. He is now profitably conducting business interests in Canyon county and is numbered among the repre- sentative residents there.
W. S. STUART.
Actuated by a spirit of progressiveness in all that he undertakes, W. S. Stuart is accounted one of the representative farmers and stockmen of Payette county. He was born in Linn county, Missouri, October 24, 1862, and is a son of John and Mary Jane (Scott) Stuart, who were natives of County Tyrone, Ireland, and in early life came to America, settling in Illinois. The father followed the blacksmith's trade and also the occupation of farming until his death. He removed with his family to Missouri, where he passed away fifty-two years ago, and his wife died four years later. One of their daughters, Mary Jane, became the wife of J. F. Nesbitt, one of the best known and most progressive pioneer settlers of the Payette valley. Another daughter, Isabella, is the wife of George W. Byers, of Star Valley, Nevada, and thus the family has become closely associated with the development of the west. A niece of W. S. Stuart is Mrs. Jessie E. Heap, living in Payette county. Not only has the family been connected with the pioneer development of the west but has also been noted for its patriotic spirit and six nephews of W. S. Stuart served in the World war.
It was in the spring of 1881 that Mr. Stuart came west with his elder brother, John G., and located at Falk, about two miles from his present home. He was still a youth in his teens and there attended school. He afterward went to Garden Valley, where he took up the occupation of farming, and later engaged in mining at Quartzburg, where he boarded with the mother-in-law of Governor James H. Hawley. Mr. Stuart continued in the Boise basin for eight years and all the time was interested in a ranch three miles west of Falk, in connection with his brother, who passed away while W. S. Stuart was engaged in mining. He then returned and took charge of the business. At that time, in addition to his other interests, he had about one hundred head of cattle and purchased another ranch, known as the McFarland ranch, comprising one hundred and fifty-nine acres. While making his home thereon he preempted one hundred and sixty acres adjoining. He afterward purchased eighty acres, known as the Maggie Pool place, and subsequently made further investment in one hundred and sixty acres at Pearl, nine
W. S. STUART
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miles east of Emmett, and this he operated as a stock ranch. He afterward purchased the Jim Patten place of one hundred and sixty acres, whereon he raises stock. He has over three hundred head of horses and cattle and at times has had as high as four hundred head. In the early days he ranged his stock west of the Weiser, on Monroe and Rock creeks, where he held government reservations. He assisted in building the Noble irrigation ditch, one of the large irrigation ditches of the state, and was a director of the company. Thus in many ways he has contributed to the development, reclama- tion and improvement of the state.
Mr. Stuart has passed through all of the hardships, privations and experiences of frontier life. In 1881 he aided in protecting a large number of women from the Indians when they were on the warpath. During the early days when the cattle rustlers were very active he had many of his cattle stolen. For many years he has been engaged in the cattle business and is one of the most progressive, successful and best known stock- men of his section of the state. He is planning to build a fine home upon his place near Falk. For the past twelve years his nephew, W. S. Lumsden, has been with him, the nephew being an orphan, to whom Mr. Stuart has proved both parent and friend, educating him and doing for him as if he were his own. Mr. Lumsden is an intelligent and enterprising young man of thirty years and is proving of much assistance to Mr. Stuart in the conduct of his stock raising interests.
HERBERT S. BOWN.
Herbert S. Bown'was actively identified with farming, his interests including dairying and the raising of alfalfa and grain in the vicinity of Nampa, and when death called him the district lost one of its representative business men. He was born in Iowa, August 4, 1856, and crossed the plains with his parents by ox team when he was only eight years of age, the family home being established three miles east of Boise. He thus became familiar with all of the experiences of frontier life, with its privations, its hardships and its opportunities. He acquired his education in the schools of Boise, which he attended to the age of eighteen years, and later he rode the range for several years. In 1883 he married and in the same year home- steaded one hundred and sixty acres of land, including eighty acres on which his widow now resides. Up to the time of his death, which occurred December 20, 1917, he devoted his attention to dairying and to the production of alfalfa and grain. His widow and her three sons now conduct the farm, devoting most of their attention to dairying.
It was in 1883 that Mr. Bown wedded Sophania Duncan, of California, and they became the parents of six children: Grace, the wife of Elmer Tadlock, of Twin Falls; Robert L., thirty-five years of age, who is married and lives on a farm adjoin- ing the old home place; Joseph S., aged twenty-nine, who is married and owns and operates a threshing machine; Charles A., twenty-five years of age, and Clifford B., aged nineteen, at home with their mother; and Herbert S., aged sixteen, also working with his brothers on the farm.
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