History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume III, Part 5

Author: Hawley, James Henry, 1847-1929, ed
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 926

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Mr. Curran and his family are all communicants of St. John's Roman Catholio church. Fraternally he is an Elk and is likewise connected with the Knights of Columbus. Since coming to the new world he has five times revisited his native land. He returned first in 1883, at which time his parents were both living. In 1907 he again visited Ireland but in the meantime his father had passed away and since then his mother has died, being called to her final rest in 1911. Mr. Curran finds delight in revisiting the scenes of his youth and renewing the acquaintances of his boyhood but has no desire to return to Ireland to live. He is thoroughly satisfied with Idaho and its opportunities and there are few phases of the state's development and upbuilding with which he is not familiar, for he came to the west at a period of early mining develop- ment and has seen all the phases of life that have led to present day conditions. Work- ing steadily and persistently along well defined lines of labor, he met substantial success in his mining ventures and eventually, as previously related, took up ranching and now has one of the most valuable properties of the kind in the state. His judg- ment in business affairs is at all times sound, his sagacity keen and his diligence unremitting.

RICHARD W. KATERNDAHL.

Richard W. Katerndahl. attorney at law of Dubois, was born in Newark, New Jersey. April 26, 1885, a son of Richard and Angeline (Baxter) Katerndahl. In the maternal line he comes of English ancestry, his mother having been born in London. His father was a native of Pennsylvania and was an Evangelical minister who engaged in preaching during the greater part of his life in Chicago, Illinois, and Newark, New Jersey. He was at the latter place for nineteen years and his last pastorate was in Chicago, where he departed this life on the 19th of December, 1915. His widow survives and is now living at Idaho Falls, Idaho.

The youthful days of Richard W. Katerndahl were spent in his native city and his education was acquired in the schools there and in the West Division high school of Chicago. He afterward won the Bachelor of Arts degree at Elmhurst College and then

HISTORY OF IDAHO

entered the University of Wisconsin, from which he was graduated in 1906. The fol- lowing year he pursued a post-graduate course in law at De Paul University, where he received his Master's degree. He entered upon the practice of law in New York city and was admitted to the bar there in 1907. In the spring of 1908 he returned to Chicago, where he remained for a year, and in 1909 he came to Idaho, taking up his abode at Idaho Falls, where he continued in the active practice of his profession until 1915. In that year he removed to Dubois, where he has since made his home.

On the 10th of August, 1918, Mr. Katerndahl enlisted for service in the World war and was commissioned a second lieutenant. He reached England two days after the armistice was signed and was discharged on the 19th of March, 1919. He organized the town of Dubois as city attorney and has always filled the office. He has also been high- way attorney and he drafted most of the legislation on highways that has been enacted by the state. He has made a specialty of this and he organized the Clark county high- way district and also the Howe-Berenice district. Much of his life has been devoted to public service. He was at one time city attorney of Idaho Falls and was also county attorney of old Bingham county for three months and then resigned. He is a stockholder in the Targhee Construction Company, devoted principally to highway building, with the head office at Salt Lake City, and is one of the board of directors of that company. He owns a dry farm in Clark county, but his attention is largely given now to his law practice and to his newspaper work.

The religious faith of Mr. Katerndahl is that of the Episcopal church and in politics he is a republican. He has been a delegate to state conventions since his arrival in Idaho and is now a member of the state central committee. He has become a member of the American Legion and is keenly interested in the purposes of that organiza- tion to promote true democracy and to advance the ideals of American citizenship.

J. R. McCOLLUM.

J. R. McCollum has reached the Psalmist's allotted span of three score years and ten, and at an age when many men would retire from active business, he is still closely asso- ciated with the farming interests of the Boise valley and has a large amount of land under cultivation. He has been actively connected with the development of this section of the country, especially along the line of agricultural progress and irrigation projects. He was born in Alabama, April 10, 1849, and is a son of R. K. and Emeline (Stovall) McCollum, both of whom were natives of Tennessee, where their ancestors had lived through several generations. The Stovall family is one of the oldest and largest families of that state. J. R. McCollum was but eight years of age when his parents re- moved to the Indian Territory, where his father engaged in trading with the Indians. At the outbreak of the Civil war, however, the family were obliged to leave the territory and remained in Missouri and Arkansas through the period of hostilities.

Following the death of his parents J. R. McCollum removed to Texas, where he engaged in freighting and did railroad contracting for two years. He then returned to the southern part of the Indian Territory, where he carried on farming and also engaged in freighting to Fort Sill for about a decade. In 1879, during the Leadville excitement in Colorado, he took his family to that place, where he resumed railroad contracting and freighting until 1882, which year he witnessed his arrival in Pocatello, Idaho. He then worked on the construction of the Oregon Short Line Railroad until it was completed to Huntington, Oregon, in the spring of 1884. He afterward engaged in freighting during the following two years, delivering freight to Atlanta. Idaho, and receiving thirty-five thousand dollars for fifty days' work with eleven mule teams, two wagons each, the distance being eighty miles from Mountain Home to Atlanta. In 1885 he sold his teams and, returning to the east, engaged in railroading with Kil- patrick Brothers in contract work on the Burlington route in Nebraska. Kilpatrick Brothers are today the richest contractors in the United States. After two years. however, Mr. McCollum returned to Idaho and located on his present ranch five miles northwest of Caldwell, where he has eighty acres under the Cooperative Ditch Com- pany and eighty acres across the Boise river, about three miles west of Caldwell, under the Pioneer Ditch Company. He likewise has two hundred and forty acres under the Black Canyon Irrigation Project, which will be under cultivation in the spring of 1920. His other tracts are most highly cultivated, planted largely to alfalfa, and he also raises some fine stock. This land is now worth two hundred dollars per acre yet.

MR. AND MRS. J. R. MCCOLLUM

HISTORY OF IDAHO

at one time no one wanted it, regarding it as of no value. Mr. McCollum has been an active factor in the development of his locality and the upbuilding of the com- munity. He had charge of the construction work on the Caldwell ditch for irrigation purposes, which he built after withdrawing from railroad construction. He has always recognized the possibilities of the district and labored to promote the utilization of natural resources here and has made therefore valuable contribution to the up- building of his section of the state.

In 1868 Mr. McCollum was married to Miss Elvira Stokes, a native of Tennessee. as were her parents. To Mr. and Mrs. McCollum were born the following children. J. H., thirty-seven years of age, follows farming near his father's place and is mar- ried and has cne child. Minnie is the wife of Russell Smith and has eight children. Nora is the wife of A. J. Dennerline and has one child, their home being in Alaska through the summer months, while the winter seasons are spent with her parents. T. J., deceased, was the father of twin sons who now live with Mr. and Mrs. McCollum. Nannie and Eddie have both passed away.

Mr. McCollum and his wife are people of prominence and sterling worth in Canyon county, enjoying the warm regard of all with whom they have been brought in contact. His worth as a citizen is widely acknowledged and his contribution to the upbuilding of the Boise valley has been a very tangible one.

HAMMOND C. WATSON.

Hammond C. Watson is the proprietor of Watson's Jersey Dairy, located just east of South Boise and a half mile east of the Garfield school. He has been engaged in the dairy business in the vicinity of Boise for three years and for eleven years prior to this period was a dairyman of Caldwell, Idaho. He came to this state in 1906 from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. hringing with him a carload of his personal effects, including a good Jersey cow, and from that period to the present he has been engaged in furnish- ing milk to residents of this state.

Mr. Watson was born in East Central, Pennsylvania, November 23, 1879, and is a son of John N. and Rosa M. (Elliott) Watson, who were also natives of the Keystone state. The mother died when their son Hammond was hut five years of age and the father afterward married again. Hammond C. Watson, however, left home when but twelve years old and has since made his own way in the world. For two years he worked for an uncle on a farm and at fourteen years of age he entered the employ of Jacoh Bower, whose daughter he afterward married when he was twenty-two years of age. She has since heen his faithful companion and helpmate and is now a most important factor in the conduct of the Watson Dairy, driving a: motor truck every day in delivering milk to Boise customers. She bore the maiden name of Ella M. Bower, being a daughter of Jacob Frederick and Elizabeth (Manville) Bower, the former of German and the latter of French descent.

Mr. Watson worked for Jacob F. Bower for three years, receiving eight dollars per month and having charge of the latter's farm. When seventeen years of age he went to work in a foundry at Muncy, Pennsylvania, where he was employed for three years. It was soon after this that he was married. He continued actively in industrial lines and for eight years was head moulder in the cylinder department of the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia, a concern which then employed eighteen thousand men and had a pay roll of seventy-five thousand dollars. Mr. Watson was occupying that position at the time of his marriage.

The year 1906, however, witnessed the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Watson in Idaho, where he turned his attention to the dairy business, remaining at Caldwell for eleven years, while for three years he has been at Boise. In the spring of 1918 he purchased luis present ranch east of South Boise, comprising one hundred and thirty acres of land, upon which he has made many improvements, including the building of silos and the addition of other facilities to promote his dairy interests. He handles Jersey cows exclusively and most of his stock is registered. He has now about eighty-five head of fine Jerseys. Everything about the place is conducted in most sanitary and scientific manner and the products of the Watson Dairy are eagerly sought by a large number of patrons. When Watson's Jersey Dairy was established near Boise in 1916 they began with a business which insured the sale of only two quarts of milk per day. Their trade, however, grew with amazing rapidity and today the income of

HISTORY OF IDAHO

their dairy amounts to fifty-five dollars daily. The dairy farm was giving an income of but four hundred and fifteen dollars before it was purchased by Mr. Watson, while today the gross income is more than twenty thousand dollars annually.

To Mr. and Mrs. Watson have been born three children: Marguerite, Miriam and George, aged respectively eight, six and three years. Both Mr. and Mrs. Watson are widely and favorably known and business ability has brought them from humble financial surroundings to a place of affluence. Mr. Watson deserves much credit for what he has accomplished and he also says that his wife is largely responsible for his success.

ARTHUR E. YOUNG.

Arthur E. Young is numbered among those whose labors have constituted the most forceful factors in the business development of Dubois, where he is now well known as the cashier of the First National Bank. He is a western man by birth and training and possesses the spirit of enterprise which has been the dominant factor in the develop- ment of the northwest. His birth occurred in Portland, Oregon, in May, 1891, his parents being William and Caroline (Young) Young, who were natives of Illinois. At an early day the father went to Kansas and there engaged in farming and raising cattle until about 1884, when he crossed the country to Oregon and purchased land over the line in Washington. He there engaged in ranching for a time but finally re- tired and made his home in Portland throughout his remaining days, passing away in January, 1906. His widow is still living and makes her home at Portland.

Arthur E. Young was' reared and educated in Portland and after his textbooks were put aside secured a situation with the Old Guarantee & Trust Company of that city, remaining in the bank for two years. He afterward spent six years in the Mer- chants' National Bank of Portland and was also with the Northwestern National Bank of Portland for a year. In February, 1915, he left the Rose City and came to Idaho, obtaining a situation with the First National Bank at Blackfoot. In 1917 he removed to Dubois, Clark county, then a part of Fremont county, and accepted the position of cashier with the Security State Bank, now the First National Bank, of which he is one of the stockholders and directors. This bank was organized in October, 1915, with S. K. Clark as president and T. E. Wood as vice president. The bank is capitalized for twenty-five thousand dollars, has a surplus of three thousand dollars and its deposits amount to two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. Mr. Young is also a stock- holder and the treasurer of the Dubois Mill & Elevator Company and he Jends the weight of his aid and influence to all projects for the upbuilding of the community and the development of its trade relations.

In September, 1916, Mr. Young was married to Miss Margaret De Keyser and to them has been born a son, Arthur W., whose birth occurred in July 1919. Politically Mr. Young is a republican and has served as town treasurer, while at the present time he is a member of the town council. Fraternally he is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and his religious faith is that of the Episcopal church. He is a young man of sterling worth, actuated by a progressive spirit in all that he under- takes, and his laudable ambition is tempered at all times by a recognition of the rights of others and his obligations in citizenship.

PAUL A. FUGATE.

Paul A. Fugate, cashier of the Bank of Aberdeen, of Aberdeen, Bingham county, owner of several tracts of farm land, and otherwise identified with the business life and development of that locality, was born in Hastings, Nebraska, December 18, 1884, and is a son of Colonel Marion A. and Isabella B. (Dallas) Fugate, natives of the state of Illinois. Colonel Fugate went to Nebraska while yet a young man, and in partnership with others he organized a cattle company and engaged in farming and the live stock business, at the same time doing some auctioneering, in that state until 1912. In that year he came to Aberdeen, Bingham county, Idaho, and became associated with his son in the banking business. In November, 1918, he was reelected county commissioner of Bingham county, having served in that capacity for two years prior to that date.

HISTORY OF IDAHO

Colonel Fugate is largely interested in land, having some extensive holdings, and he carries on auctioneering throughout the district. His wife is still living.

Paul A. Fugate was reared and educated in Hastings, Nebraska, and finished his school work at a commercial college. In 1906 he and his brother Dallas came to Aber- deen, Idaho, and bought a tract of land, on which he later made final proof. They were induced, in the first instance, to come to Idaho for the benefit of their health. In 1909, Paul A. Fugate and his father and brother organized the Bank of Aberdeen, which they have conducted ever since. To bring the bank to its present sound position was uphill work, and for the first two years of its existence, the deposits did not exceed twenty thousand dollars. Now, however, owing to careful handling of the bank's affairs, it is in a sound and prosperous condition; its capital is twenty thousand dollars; it carries a surplus of six thousand dollars, and the deposits up to the close of last year amounted to two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. One year after the opening of the bank, Dallas Fugate died and Paul A. Fugate was elected cashier. He has since been serving the bank in that capacity and is also a member of the board of directors. His brother, Glenn, is also a stockholder and is a member of the board of directors. Glenn Fugate has recently returned from France, where he served with the United States army for about a year. In 1917 a handsome brick building was erected and in this new home the affairs of the Aberdeen Bank are now conducted.

On November 17, 1915, Paul A. Fugate was united in marriage to Florence Ruth Fugate. They are members of the Presbyterian church and are earnestly interested in all its work. Mr. Fugate is a member of the Masonic order and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is a supporter of the republican party, but has never aspired to political office, preferring to devote his time and attention to his various business activ- ities. In addition to his connection with his own bank, Mr. Fugate is a stockholder in the Bannock National Bank of Pocatello. He is the owner of several farm tracts, which he rents, and also owns city property. All his business ventures have proved remarkably successful and he is generally regarded as one of the most enterprising citizens of Aber- deen, with whose affairs he has been identified for about fifteen years.

ALBERT ALBRETHSEN.

At a recent date Albert Albrethsen took up his abode in a beautiful home on Howard avenue in South Boise, where he has a half block of ground, his home being surrounded by well kept lawns and gardens, adorned with flowers and fruit trees. While he has lived here for but a brief period, he has made his home in Idaho since 1887, coming directly to this state from Copenhagen, Denmark, bringing with him his wife and their three eldest children. He was born in Denmark, November 6, 1857, in the county of Frederiksborg, and his wife was born there on the 14th of April, 1860. Her maiden name was Hanne Larsen and they were married December 14, 1879.

In 1887 Mr. Albrethsen, with his wife and three children, left Copenhagen for America on the Danish steamer Thingvalla and were nineteen days in crossing. On reaching New York they came direct to Idaho territory and first settled on a home- stead of one hundred and sixty acres three miles south of Picabo, Blaine county, in the Wood River valley. There he improved and developed his ranch, one-half of which he afterward sold to his brother, Martin Albrethsen, who came to America in 1883 and to Idaho in 1885, also settling near Picabo. He still resides in Blaine county and is a prosperous ranchman. Later Albert Albrethsen purchased another one hundred and sixty acres adjoining Carey but finally left his ranch and removed to Carey in 1901, there residing until 1917, when he took up his abode in South Boise. He disposed of his ranch interests in 1916 and retired from extensive farming but still has an acre and a quarter, the care of which will occupy his time to some extent, for indolence and idleness are utterly foreign to his nature and he could not be content without some occupation.

To Mr. and Mrs. Albrethsen have been born eleven children, eight of whom are yet living, four sons and four daughters, as follows: Mrs. Christina Chaumell, Wil- liam, Mrs. Mary Melius, Mrs. Rosa Brooks, Alexander, Alfred, Esther and Norman. All are residents of Blaine county. Two children of Mr. and Mrs. Albrethsen died in infancy, while a daughter, Thora, passed away at Carey, Idaho, when thirty-one years of age.

In politics Mr. Albrethsen is a democrat and served as county commissioner of

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Blaine county in 1907 and 1908. He was also county assessor there through the two succeeding years and made an excellent record in public office. He belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America and he is fond of both fishing and hunting. While they have had a large family of eleven children, Mr. and Mrs. Albrethsen are now alone, living in the midst of pleasant surroundings and enjoying many of the com- forts of life, which have come to them as the result of well directed energy and effort in former years.

WILLIAM ROPER.

William Roper, president of the Roper Clothing Company of Burley, is a native Missourian, having been born in Dallas county in 1883. He attended the rural schools in Missouri and later the South West Baptist College. He spent two years in the Springfield Normal and Business College and then resolved to learn the mercantile business. He was employed for seven years by the Schwab Brothers Clothing Com- pany of Springfield but young Roper was very ambitious and realizing the limited opportunities in the middle west and having fond visions of owning a store of his own decided to try the west. Coming to Bude a 1911, he secured employment with the Alexander Clothing Company, where he stayed for six months. In 1912 he came to Burley and with I. E. Masters opened a small clothing store known as the Roper & Masters' Store. A year and a half later the name was changed to the Roper Tomlinson Company, and in 1914, they purchased a store in Rupert, Idaho. On July 1, 1917, the Roper Tomlinson Company was dissolved, Mr. Roper taking the men's clothing store in Bnrley and the store at Rupert, while Mr. Tomlinson took the ladies' ready to wear and dry goods department of Burley. However, on January 1, 1920, Mr. Roper pur- chased from Mr. Tomlinson this store, making it a part of the Roper Clothing Com- pany's stores. Thus, the Roper Clothing Company has grown from a very small store in 1912 to the largest and most attractive of its kind in southern Idaho, now employing from thirty-six to forty people.

WILLIAM J. McLEOD.

One of the attractive commercial establishments of Boise is the haberdashery store owned by the firm of McLeod & Johnson, of which William J. McLeod is senior member. They conduct business at No. 107 North Eighth street and handle not only a full and attractive line of haherdashery but also do a merchant tailoring business. Mr. McLeod dates his residence in Idaho from 1891 and after four years spent at Hailey, during which time he carried on merchant tailoring, he came to the capital city.

He was born near Toronto, Canada, August 17, 1868, and is of Scotch descent. His parents, Roderick and Nancy (Henderson) McLeod, were natives of Nova Scotia and have now passed away. The father, who followed farming throughout his entire business career or until he put aside active business interests, removed from Nova Scotia to Ontario with his parents when a youth of but thirteen years and spent his remaining days in Ontario, where he died in 1909, in his eighty-first year, having been born in 1829. His wife departed this life in 1886, at the age of fifty-four years, her birth having occurred in 1831. This worthy couple had a family of eight children, four sons and four daughters, of whom three sons and a daughter are yet living, these being: William J .. of this review; George A., who has been a resident of Blaine county, Idaho, since 1886 and who served for two terms as county auditor there; Dr. John A. McLeod, a prominent physician of Brooklyn, New York, who in young manhood taught school at Hailey, Idaho; and Mrs. Janet Pearson, the wife of Robert Pearson, of Clinton, Ontario. The deceased son of the family was Rev. Alexander Henderson McLeod, a Presbyterian minister, who passed away in 1906 at the age of thirty-five years.

William J. McLeod is the youngest of the four living children. The youthful experiences that fell to his lot were those of the farm-bred boy, for he was reared upon his father's farm to the age of fifteen years, when the property was sold and the father retired from active business, removing to Brucefield, Ontario. Not long after- ward William J. McLeod was sent away to school, entering the Seaforth Collegiate

WILLIAM ROPER

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Institute of Huron county, Ontario, where he studied for two years. At the age of eighteen he put aside his textbooks and entered upon an apprenticeship to a merchant tailor in the town of Seaforth. He spent three years in learning the trade and on the 1st of January, 1891, came to Idaho as a journeyman tailor. In April of the same year, however, he formed a partnership with Elof Anderson and engaged in the merchant tailoring business at Hailey, Idaho, until the spring of 1895, when he sold his interest in the business to his partner and later in the same year removed to Boise. Here he again worked as a journeyman for about four years and in 1899 entered into partnership with Carl O. Johnson, forming the present firm of McLeod & Johnson. This concern has been in continuous existence for twenty years and has long been a thoroughly established firm, conducting a successful business in the capital city. They are now located in the Overland building, to which they removed on the 1st of August, 1915. Here they have one of the most thoroughly modern and up-to-date men's furnish- ing goods establishments in the state. They carry an attractive line of haberdashery and clothing and at the same time maintain a fine merchant tailoring department. They handle Kuppenheimer's ready-made clothing, also the Hirsh-Wickwire clothing and are the largest distributors of Manhattan shirts in the state of Idaho. Their business methods are such as will bear the closest investigation and scrutiny and their enterprise and close application are basic elements of their growing and continued prosperity.

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History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume III, Part 5

Author: Hawley, James Henry, 1847-1929, ed Publication date: 1920 Publisher: Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company Number of Pages: 926

Author: Hawley, James Henry, 1847-1929, ed
Publication date: 1920
Publisher: Chicago, The S. J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 926