USA > Idaho > History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume III > Part 38
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crops best adapted to soil and climatic conditions here. He is also engaged in dairying and in stock raising, handling hogs, sheep, cattle and horses. His farm is pleasantly situated three and a half miles northwest of Notus and he has upon his place an old-fashioned, homelike residence, nestled in a grove of fine old trees-a most attractive place, making one wish to linger longer there.
In May, 1897, Mr. Mclaughlin was married to Miss Carrie M. Stafford, a daugh- ter of G. D. Stafford, one of the best known pioneers and highly respected citizens of Idaho. Mrs. McLaughlin crossed the plains with her parents by ox team and wagon and endured all of the hardships and trials that feature in pioneer life. The Indians at that time occasioned much trouble, both on the plains and in Idaho. Mr. and Mrs. McLaughlin have become the parents of five children. Marvin W., born June 13, 1897, was graduated in May, 1919, from the College of Idaho. Edith M. will graduate from the same college in the class of 1920. Sydney E. is now a high school pupil and will enter college in 1920. Anna L. is also attending high school. Harvey, a little lad of nine years, is now a pupil in the common schools. This is a family of which the parents have every reason to be proud. The sons assist their father in the work of the home farm and Mr. Mclaughlin continues to engage in the further development of the property, which is the vis- ible evidence of his life of well directed energy and thrift. He has worked dili- gently and persistently as the years have passed and whatever success he has achieved is the direct outcome of his own labors, so that he may truly be called a self-made man.
WILLIE WESLEY WILKERSON.
Willie Wesley Wilkerson, a prosperous and leading business man of Emmett,- is the proprietor of the Corner Grocery in that city-a business house which enjoys a large trade. Mr. Wilkerson was born in Warren county, Iowa, Febuary 6, 1879, a son of William B. Wilkerson, a blacksmith by trade, who was born at Lexington, Kentucky, and who married Sarah Flesher, a native of the Shenandoah valley of Virginia. The father is now deceased, but the mother is still living, making her home in Iowa.
Willie Wesley Wilkerson of this review was the third in order of birth in a family of eight children, four sons and four daughters, all of whom are yet living, but is the only one residing in Idaho. His youthful experiences were those of the farm-bred boy, for he remained under the parental roof until he reached the age of eighteen years and then began learning the barber's trade at Palmyra, Iowa, fol- lowing the business for only three years, however. On attaining his majority he made his way westward to Boise, Idaho, where for a year and a half he was employed in a dairy near that place. He then went to Huntington, Oregon, where he spent eleven years and during the first five years of that period was employed as clerk in a general store, at the end of which time he purchased the business and later admitted George W. Mutch to a partnership under the firm style of Mutch & Wil- kerson, a connection that was maintained for six years. On the expiration of that period Mr. Wilkerson disposed of his interest in the business to his partner and removed to Ontario, Oregon, where he lived for three years, being employed as clerk in a wholesale house. In October, 1916, he came to Emmett and in connec- tion with Ross McPherson established the Corner Grocery. Three months later he bought the interest of his partner and since that time has conducted the business alone with the assistance of his wife, who is an excellent saleswoman and is pos- sessed of splendid business ideas.
It was on the 19th of July, 1905, at Huntington, Oregon, that Mr. Wilkerson was married to Miss Nellie Pearl Girton. She was born at Heppner, Oregon, Novem- ber 22, 1888, and is a daughter of Charles W. and Embree Trimbire (Bolanger) Girton, both of whom are now living. Mr. and Mrs. Wilkerson have two children: Blanche Mildred, born September 23, 1906; and Billy Earl Mutch, born March 10, 1908.
Mr. Wilkerson is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and his wife is connected with the ladies' auxiliary, the Daughters of Rebekah, both having passed all of the chairs in their respective organizations. Mr. Wilkerson is a repub- lican in politics and served as a member of the city council at Huntington, Oregon,
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for two terms, but his time and attention have chiefly been concentrated upon his business affairs and his close application to the duties at hand, his thoroughness and enterprise have been salient factors in his progress and success.
SYLVESTER HILL.
Sylvester Hill, a retired farmer living at Boise, was born in Dekalb county, Illi- nois, June 7, 1855. After attending the common schools and a business college at Naperville, Illinois, he started out in the business world as a traveling salesman for William Deering in the sale of harvesting machinery. He traveled in sixteen different states and was representative of the Deering interests for fourteen years, being for seven years special man, two years assistant manager and for the next five years manager for the state of Minnesota, with headquarters in Minneapolis.
On account of failing health Mr. Hill resigned his position in that city and as- sisted in organizing the Favorite Implement & Carriage Company, of which he was vice president and sales manager, also having charge of the shipping department. After three years the firm closed out its business on account of the sudden death of its president, J. F. Byrne. At that time Mr. Hill went to West Pullman, Illinois, and became identified with the Plano Manufacturing Company as its district manager for northern Iowa. The company was engaged in the building of mowers and binders and Mr. Hill remained with the house for five years, after which he returned to Min- nesota and for an equal period was connected with the Milwaukee Harvester Company.
In the fall of 1901 he arrived in Roswell, Idaho, where he purchased a forty-acre tract of raw land covered with sagebrush, paying twenty-three dollars per acre for this property. After improving it, he sold for one hundred and fifty dollars per acre in 1906. He then homesteaded one hundred and sixty acres on Roswell Heights and brought the land to a high state of cultivation, raising alfalfa and as many as from two to four carloads of hogs each year. In 1917 he sold that place for thirty-five thou- sand dollars. His next business venture was in connection with the building of forty- three divisions of the Golden Gate Irrigation Ditch, under contract, for the United States reclamation service. He was for nine years secretary and treasurer for the Riverside irrigation district, which furnishes water to Roswell, and thus for an ex- tended period he was identified with the development of the irrigation interests of Idaho, which have meant so much in connection with the settlement and improvement of the state. He is now retired from active business and occupies an attractive home at 1315 Hays street, Boise, to which city he removed from Parma, in 1919. It has been said that no correct analysis can be made of any man's life and character without knowing something of his ancestry, and in delving into the records of the Hill family we find that W. S. Hill, father of Sylvester Hill, was possessed of the same spirit of pioneering that brought the son to the northwest. The father was born at Brown- ville, Jefferson county, New York, April 5, 1826, and went west to Chicago, Illinois, in 1835. His father, Arunah Hill, had made his way to Chicago in 1834, when scarcely anything marked the site of the present city save old Fort Dearborn. There he estab- lished a cooperage shop and supplied flour barrels to Gage Brothers, one of whom was the father of Lyman J. Gage, afterwards secretary of the treasury. Mr. Hill also made pork barrels for J. Y. Scammon, packer and shipper. W. S. Hill remained in business with his father, Arunah Hill, until the gold excitement broke out in Cali- fornia, when he went overland to the Pacific coast, driving an ox team across the plains. He successfully engaged in mining on the Trinity river in northern Cali- fornia for two years, after which he returned to Chicago and a little later bought land in Dekalb county, Illinois. He then located thereon and followed farming there to the time of his death, which occurred in 1897. His father had passed away in Dekalb county in 1855 and lies buried in Rosehill cemetery of Chicago. He was a native of North Adams, Massachusetts, and belonged to one of the old New England families. In the maternal line Sylvester Hill is connected with the Field family of New York, his mother having been Elizabeth Field, who was born at Houndsville, Jefferson county, New York, and accompanied her parents on their removal westward to Dekalb county, Illinois, in 1845. She was related to the Marshall Field family and her ancestors came from England to the new world in 1629, settling in Dorchester, Massachusetts. The death of Mrs. Hill occurred in Dekalb county, Illinois, in 1868 and there her remains were interred.
SYLVESTER HILL
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It will thus be seen that the pioneer spirit has been strongly manifest in the ancestors of Sylvester Hill and in accordance therewith he came to Idaho, casting in his lot with the early settlers who were reclaiming this region for the purposes of civilization and aiding in the founding of a great commonwealth east of the Cascade range. On the 12th of October, 1881, Mr. Hill was united in marriage to Miss Emma E. McKinzie, of Yorkville, Illinois, a daughter of Hugh and Mary (Mckinnon) McKinzie, who were natives of Scotland but were brought to America in infancy. Her mother died in 1901 and her father, who was a farmer by occupation, passed away thirty years before. From a sturdy ancestry, therefore, come the two children of Sylvester Hill: Bernice, a young lady living at home; and Clarence S., an able attorney of Caldwell, married Leah Wood, of Twin Falls, January 31, 1920.
Starting out in life on his own account when a youth in his teens, Sylvester Hill throughout his entire career has made wise use of his time, his talents and his op- portunities. He has thoroughly mastered every task assigned him and he early recognized the eternal principle that industry wins. Industry, therefore, became the beacon light of his life and it has been through this quality that he has made steady advance as the years have gone on, bringing him at length to a position of affluence where he can rest from further business cares, giving his attention merely to the supervision of his investments.
STANLEY B. FAIRBANKS.
Stanley B. Fairbanks, filling the office of sheriff of Teton county and making his home at Driggs, was born in Garfield county, Utah, July 11, 1874. He is a son of Cornelius M. and Emily ( Davis) Fairbanks, natives of New Jersey. The father was one of the pioneer settlers of Utah, having crossed the plains in 1847 with one of the early trains of the Latter-day Saints. He shared in all of the hardships, privations and difficult experiences that constituted the lot of the early settlers. The mother made her way to Utah in 1856, each coming to the west with their respective parents. They were reared in Salt Lake City and finally became resi- dents of Utah, where Mr. Fairbanks followed the occupation of farming for several years. He afterward went to southern California and to Nevada, spending several years in those states, but had to leave that section on account of high taxes. Finally he returned to Utah, settling in Garfield county, where he purchased land and engaged in stock raising for a number of years. His next removal took him to Sevier county, that state, where he made his home until 1912, when he removed to Driggs, Teton county, Idaho, where he has since resided. The mother is also living.
Stanley B. Fairbanks was largely reared in Sevier county, Utah, and remained with his parents until he attained his majority. He came to Idaho in 1900 and filed on land near Driggs, thus becoming one of the agriculturists of Teton county. He continued to till the soil and further improve his property until 1916, when he rented his place and accepted the position of deputy sheriff of the county, in which capacity he served for two years. He was then elected sheriff in November, 1918, and has since occupied that position, the duties of which he has discharged in a most prompt and fearless manner. His fellow townsmen, appreciating his worth and ability, have on various occasions called him to public office. For some years he served as school trustee and the cause of education has ever found in him a stalwart champion. In former years he was for some time actively engaged in the cattle business, but his attention is now concentrated almost entirely upon his official duties.
On the 16th of May, 1895, Mr. Fairbanks was married to Mary R. Beautler and they became the parents of the following children: Lloyd, who was born September 8, 1897, and died April 6, 1902; David E., who was born March 27, 1902, and died on the 6th of April of the same year; Maude, born November 7, 1903; Cornelius M., May 6, 1906; and Reed Stanley, October 27, 1911.
Mr. Fairbanks is an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints. He is serving as a member of the high council and has held other offices in the church. For years he was counselor, was superintendent of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association, and for twenty-six months he served on a mission in northern Illinois, laboring in Chicago, Rockford, Joliet and Nauvoo. Vol. 111-21
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His efforts have been attended with excellent results in the upbuilding of the church and in all connections he is recognized as a capable and forceful man who accom- plishes his purposes and carries forward to successful completion whatever he under- takes.
DR. DAN P. ALBEE.
Dr. Dan P. Albee, a rancher living on Rock creek, in Twin Falls county, was born in Arcata, California, on the 9th of January, 1856, a son of Joseph P. and Caltha (Putnam) Albee. His boyhood days were largely passed in his native state and he began his education there but went to the east for a professional course and was graduated from the medical department of Columbia University of New York with the class of 1888. He then returned to California, where he engaged in the practice of medicine until 1891, when he removed to Oxford, Idaho, where he opened an office, continuing in practice until 1894. He then re- moved to Oakley, Idaho, where he followed his profession until 1905, when he established his home on Rock creek, where he has since continued save for a year and a half, which he spent in the practice of medicine and surgery at Buhl, Idaho. At length he purchased a ranch on Rock creek and is engaged in bee cul- ture in connection with ranching. He is now operating the ranch of Lawrence Housen and is successfully engaged in cattle raising. His business affairs are being most wisely and judiciously managed, and his labors are bringing to him a substantial measure of success.
In 1894 Dr. Albee was united in marriage to Miss Laura C. Hansen, a daugh- ter of Lawrence and Karen Hansen and a native of Denmark. They have one child, Joseph Porter. In politics the Doctor is a democrat. Twice he has served as county commissioner and has been a most loyal supporter of those interests which he believes will bring about the highest political and civic development. Fra- ternally he is connected with the Masons, the Knights of Pythias and the Wood- men of the World. Those who know him, and he has a wide acquaintance, recog- nize in him a man of strong mentality and marked capability whose interests and activities have been most intelligently directed and whose worth as a husiness man and as a citizen is widely acknowledged.
HAL HAROLD PRESTEL, D. V. S.
Dr. Hal Harold Prestel has won prominence as an able and successful veter- inary surgeon of Emmett, where he located for practice in 1913. He was born on a farm in Montcalm county, Michigan, September 15, 1881, being the fifth in a family of six sons born to John W. and Caroline ( Dell) Prestel, both of whom were natives of Ohio. The father served as a soldier of the Union army during the Civil war and throughout his active business career devoted his attention to farming and to the lumber industry, heing at one time identified with lumber in- terests at Payette, Idaho. He passed away in Portland, Oregon, in 1915, while his wife died at Payette, Idaho, in the year 1909.
H. H. Prestel, whose name introduces this review, was reared on a Michigan farm and acquired all of his academic education in that state. When twenty years of age he left Michigan for the great northwest and at once proceeded to Aber- deen, Washington, where he secured employment in a lumber mill. Subsequently he worked on a ranch at The Dalles, Oregon, and later came to Idaho. He had been reared on a farm and had always been much interested in live stock, especially horses, so that finally he determined to take up the study of veterinary surgery. In 1907, therefore, he entered the Chicago Veterinary College and at the end of three years was graduated from that institution in 1910. He then began the prac- tice of his profession at Payette, Idaho, which city had been his home since 1901, and there he remained until 1913 with the exception of a period of twelve months, in 1911 and 1912, when he was a veterinary surgeon of Tilbury, Ontario, Canada. For the past six years he has followed his profession in Emmett, where he has been very successful, having built up a most lucrative practice. His home at No.
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310 Fourth street is one of the handsomest bungalows in Emmett and is most beautifully furnished. In the rear stands a splendid veterinary hospital, built of concrete blocks, in attractive design. The home was erected by Dr. Prestel in 1917. He is a member of the American Association of Veterinary Surgeons.
On the 13th of May, 1911, in Ontario, Canada, Dr. Prestel was joined in wed- lock to Miss Marie Louise Boismier. who was born, reared and educated in the province of Ontario and comes of a French Canadian family. Both the Doctor and his wife are Roman Catholics in religious faith and they enjoy an enviable social position in Emmett. The chief interests of Dr. Prestel are his home and his pro- fession, and his many excellent qualities have won for him the esteem and friend- ship of all who know him.
DAVID M. STOKESBERRY.
David M. Stokesberry, who for the past eleven years has been police judge of Emmett, was prior to that time a successful rancher, first in Ada county and later in Gem county. He was born in Edgar county, Illinois, October 17, 1859, and is a son of Joshua and Bethany (Reynolds) Stokesberry. He was seven years of age when he went with his parents to Osage county, Kansas, the family home being there established in the fall of 1867. He was reared upon a farm in that county and devoted his time and energies to agricultural pursuits and ranching until a few years ago, when he disposed of his ranching interests and removed to Emmett. Since 1909 he has been city clerk and judge of the police court and has made a most capable official, discharging his duties with marked promptness and fidelity. He came to Idaho in 1892 and for a time resided at Meridian but eventually removed to Emmett, where he has since occupied a place among its most highly respected and substantial citizens.
Mr. Stokesberry was married thirty-five years ago in Melvern, Kansas, to Miss Cynthia Hatfield, a native of Ohio, and they have become parents of four children, two sons and two daughters: Walter; Malissa, now the wife of John Howard; Lucien; and Rowena. Walter and Lucien are married and Mr. and Mrs. Stokes- berry now have eight grandchildren.
In his political views Mr. Stokesberry has always been a stalwart republican since age conferred upon him the right of franchise. He belongs to the Inde -- pendent Order of Odd Fellows and is a past grand in the local lodge, while his religious faith is that of the Methodist church. His life has been guided by high and honorable principles and integrity as well as progressiveness in business has brought to him a substantial competence, while his faithfulness in office has made his political record an irreproachable one.
JOHN BRIMBERRY.
John Brimberry, now living retired, making his home at 322 South Twelfth street in Nampa, was born in southern Illinois, September 12, 1860, his parents being Joseph and Mary E. (Jones) Brimberry, the former a native of Pennsylvania, while the latter was born in Iowa. They removed to Illinois in the early '50s, when land there was worth only twenty-five cents an acre, and the father purchased six hundred acres at that price. Both he and his wife died on the old homestead.
It was in the year 1879, when nineteen years of age, that John Brimberry left Illinois and removed westward to Kansas. He purchased a farm in Mont- gomery county, comprising one hundred and forty acres of land, and there carried on agricultural pursuits for seven years, after which he sold out and removed to Independence, the county seat, where he lived for one year. Having thus spent eight years in the Sunflower state, he again started westward, with Idaho as his destination, and took up a homestead five and a half miles east of Nampa. Thereon he resided for more than a quarter of a century, carefully cultivating his place during that period. At length he sold out and established his home in Nampa, purchasing a fine residence at No. 322 South Twelfth street, where he lives re- tired from active business, although he still buys and sells land whenever he can
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do so to advantage. There is perhaps no better judge of land in the state and no little of his success has been due to his judicious purchases and profitable sales.
In August, 1882, Mr. Brimberry was united in marriage to Miss Eliza H. Jones, a native of Illinois and a daughter of John Melton and Amanda (Daugherty) Jones, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Illinois. The father died in Illinois and the mother came in 1888 to Idaho, passing away at Boise in 1902. Mr. and Mrs. Brimberry have become the parents of two children. Lena Pearl is the wife of Hayden Powell and the mother of one son, Eugene, now eight years of age. Laura Hazel is the wife of A. C. Gilbert and has two children, Elenore and Juanita.
Mr. Brimberry's military service covered connection with the state militia at a time when the troops were called to duty at Coeur d'Alene by Governor Steunen- herg to suppress the rioters, some of whom they captured and brought to Nampa, from which point they were sent to California, where they were tried and con- victed. This was just before the governor was assassinated. Mr. Brimberry has ever manifested a progressive citizenship that has prompted his active cooperation with plans and measures for the general good. He is keenly interested in the north- west and its development and his labors have constituted an important element in progress here. His business affairs, wisely and carefully conducted, have brought him success and his life record shows what can be accomplished when there is a will to dare and to do and when enterprise and sagacity point out the way.
THOMAS H. BOYCE.
The late Thomas H. Boyce, who was one of the most prosperous and success- ful farmers of the southeastern part of Idaho, was born in the vicinity of South Cottonwood, Utah, July 19, 1859, and died at his home one-half mile northwest of Lewisville, Jefferson county, Idaho, October 30, 1914, after an illness of one week. He was a son of William and Phoebe (Spears) Boyce, both originally from the state of Michigan, who joined a party of immigrants in 1851, crossed the plains by ox-team and finally settled not far from South Cottonwood, Utah. There they spent the rest of their lives, which were quietly uneventful, applying them- selves diligently to agriculture. The father died in 1887, and the death of the mother occurred April 6, 1908, after she had reached the age of eighty-six years.
From boyhood Thomas H. Boyce was a farmer and he received his training in this occupation under the excellent tutelage of his father, whom he assisted in tilling the paternal acres until he became a man. In 1883 he associated himself with a group of settlers whose destination was southeastern Idaho and after care- fully spying out the land in this section for a suitable location, Mr. Boyce settled near Lewisville, now Jefferson county. Here he filed a claim on the tract which his wife still owns. At the beginning his holding was a mere expanse of wild, new land but by sheer strength of will, consistent application and hard labor he im- proved bis farm until at the time of his death it was considered one of the most modern and best equipped in the state of Idaho. Besides farming Mr. Boyce had other business interests and was a stockholder in the C. A. Smith Mercantile Com- pany of Lewisville. He participated in the construction of the Park and Lewis- ville canal, an irrigation project which has proved to be one of the most important factors in the agricultural development of this section, and he secured the first water right from the Government on record.
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