USA > Idaho > History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume III > Part 6
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On the 11th of January, 1899, in Boise, Mr. McLeod was married to Miss Philena De Chant, a native of Illinois, who was reared in Boise and is a daughter of Jeremiah De Chant, who was a veteran of the Union army, serving with the rank of lieutenant.
Mr. McLeod is a republican in his political views but has never been an aspirant for office. He belongs to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and is a member of the Masonic fraternity, being a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason and a Shriner, a member of El Korah Temple. He also belongs to the Woodmen of the World and is an active member and one of the directors of the Boise Commercial Club. He likewise belongs to the Boise Rotary Club and his marked characteristics are such as make for a personal popularity wherever he is known.
AUSTIN CARLISLE PRICE.
Austin Carlisle Price, auditor and business agent of the Idaho state board of education, to which position he was called in March, 1917, was born at Hunnewell, Missouri, August 4, 1883, and is the only living son of the Rev. William C. and Alice (Doyle) Price, who are now residents of Long Beach, California. The father devoted many years to the work of the ministry of the Methodist church but is now retired. He is of Scotch descent, while his wife is of Irish lineage. They removed to Colorado Springs, Colorado, when their son Austin was but a year old. Both were then school teachers and the father held the position of superintendent of the public schools of that city for several years, while the mother was one of the teachers in the grades. A few years later they removed to Jordan Valley, Oregon, and not long afterward settled upon a homestead in Canyon county, Idaho. The father proved up on this property, living thereon for five years. On leaving the ranch he entered the Methodist ministry in the state of Oregon and was pastor in a number of churches in various towns of Oregon and Idaho but at length put aside the work of the ministry and is enjoying a well earned rest at Long Beach, California.
Austin Carlisle Price accompanied his parents on their various removals and in different localities was a public school pupil. In 1900 he entered the Willamette University, Salem, Oregon, at which time his father was pastor of a church at Blackfoot, Idaho. He spent eight years as a student in the university, four years in the preparatory department and four years in the college. He was graduated there- from in June, 1908, with the Bachelor of Science degree and since.then has continuously resided in Idaho. He took up a homestead in Canyon county under the Carey act, securing one hundred and sixty acres. He improved this with buildings and still owns the property but is waiting for water to further develop it. For nine and a half years he was in the United States reclamation service, having charge of the distribution of the water on the Boise project during the last three and a half years of that period. He resigned on the 1st day of March, 1917, to accept his present position as auditor and business agent of the Idaho state board of education.
Vol. III-4
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On the 5th of July, 1911, Mr. Price was united in marriage in Boise to Miss Pearl Cleworth, who was born in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada, and was educated at the Northwestern University of Chicago. She is an accomplished musician and an expert needle woman. Her father, like the father of Mr. Price, was also a Methodist minister and she has two brothers who are ministers of that faith, while two of her sisters are the wives of preachers of the Methodist church. Mr. and Mrs. Price have two daughters: Laura Carlisle, born April 15, 1912; and Eleanor Frances, born July 11, 1916.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Price are consistent and faithful members of the First Methodist Episcopal church of Boise, in which he is serving as a trustee. They take an active part in the church work and do everything in their power to promote its growth and extend its influence. Mr. Price is a member of the Boise Commercial Club and cooperates in the plans and projects of that organization for the upbuilding of the city, for the expansion of its trade relations and the development and maintenance of high civic standards.
HENRY F. STEVENS.
Henry F. Stevens, proprietor of the Citizens Coal Company of Boise and one of the partners in the Stevens Land & Livestock Company, was born at Fredericks- burg, Virginia, April 22, 1884, a son of Lewis and Ella Stevens, who are now residing at Richmond, Virginia. The father is a veteran of the Confederate army and comes of ancestry that for several generations had been connected with Virginia.
Harry F. Stevens was reared on a plantation near Fredericksburg and in 1904 came to Idaho, spending the succeeding four years in ranching near Idaho Falls. He then disposed of his property there and in 1908 removed to the Boise valley. He devoted a year to ranching near Star and another near Eagle, after which he took up his abode on a ranch on Willow creek, in what is now Payette county. In 1911 he established his home in the city of Payette, where he engaged in the meat business for two years, at the end of which time he disposed of his market and removed to a ranch nearby, owning and residing upon that place for several years. He afterward devoted two years to ranching in Union county, Oregon, and for a short time lived near Wilder, in Canyon county, but through all this period still owned his ranch property near Payette. This he sold in the spring of 1919 for two hundred and seventy-five dollars per acre and removed to Boise. On the 1st of April, 1919, he purchased the business of the Citizens Coal Company from Carl See and E. C. Laughlin and is now sole owner of the business, which is one of extensive and gratifying proportions. He is also a partner in the Stevens Land & Livestock Company, which was organized on the 1st of November, 1919, his associates in this undertaking being C. Avery Kingsley and Cartee Wood of Boise.
On the 6th of January, 1909, Mr. Stevens was married to Miss Anna Fuller, a native of the state of New York, and they reside at No. 2413 Ada street in Boise, where they have an attractive home. Mr. Stevens belongs to the Fraternal Order of Eagles and to the Boise Chamber of Commerce, while his political allegiance is given to the democratic party. He has made steady progress since his arrival in the northwest sixteen years ago. His business interests have been carefully and intelll- gently directed and his progressiveness has brought him to the front as one of the leading business men of his adopted city.
WILLIAM J. LLEWELLYN.
William J. Llewellyn, a confectioner of Boise, who is conducting business under the name of Llewellyn's Chocolate Shop, came to this city in 1907 and has since been connected with the candy industry as a manufacturer and retailer. He was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, December 31, 1880, and is of Welsh lineage, his parents being natives of Wales but married in Salt Lake City. They are of the Mormon faith. The father still lives in Salt Lake City at the age of eighty years and is hearty and vig- orous, but the mother passed away at the age of fifty.
William J. Llewellyn obtained his education in the schools of Salt Lake City,
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continuing his studies to the age of nineteen, when he began learning the candy mak- ing business, entering the employ of the McDonald Candy Company in his native city. He remained with that company for eight years and then became a journeyman candy maker, spending four years in San Francisco. In 1907 he came to Boise, where he obtained employment with the Boise Candy Company, and in 1909 he became one of the founders of the Pearl Candy Company of Boise, which is still a thriving concern of this city. He sold his interest in that business, however, in 1912 and has since conducted business independently, being now the proprietor of Llewellyn's Chocolate Shop, which is one of the most popular confectionery establishments in Boise and one of the best patronized. He manufactures practically all of his own candies and confections and yet he also keeps in stock the products of other leading candy manufacturing concerns of the east and elsewhere. The confectionery which he manufactures is very popular with his fellow townsmen and his business has reached gratifying proportions.
In Salt Lake City, on the 19th of January, 1903, Mr. Llewellyn was married to Miss Pearl Hobbs, a native of Atlanta, Georgia, and a daughter of Andrew Hobbs, a veteran of the Confederate army. Both Mr. and Mrs. Llewellyn are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They have become the parents of four daughters: Pearl, Opal, Ruby and Garnet, aged respectively seventeen, thirteen, ten and eight years. Mr. Llewellyn belongs to the Modern Woodmen of America and he gives his political allegiance to the republican party but is not a politician in the sense of office seeking. His attention on the contrary is concentrated upon his business affairs and his close application. his capability and his wise management have been the salient features in his growing success.
JAMES GROVER BURNS.
James Grover Burns, a photographer who is now conducting the Burns Studio at the corner of Thirteenth and State streets, in Boise, is a native son of Idaho, having been born on a ranch one mile east of Meridian, in Ada county, on the 21st of January, 1886. He is the eldest of a family of two sons and three daughters whose father, Samuel Martin Burns, passed away in August, 1918. He was formerly a rancher who owned a good property near Meridian, residing thereon for many years and later conducting a store in Meridian. He was born in Missouri and crossed the plains to Idaho with a wagon train when twenty-one years of age. He at once made his way to Boise and resided in the Boise valley throughout his remaining days, being one of the pioneer ranchers near Meridian and also one of the first merchants of the town. He was married in 1885 to Mary Elizabeth Pfost, daughter of Isaac W. Pfost, now of Nampa, and a sister of Emmitt Pfost, the present sheriff of Ada county, Idaho. Mrs. Burns survives and resides in Meridian, and all of her five children are yet living, as follows: James Grover; Mrs. Elsie Haasch, of Parma, Idaho; Mrs. Almia Burke, of Cambridge, Idaho; Mrs. Apal Friedline, of Boise; and Waldo, of Meridian. The last named was a soldier of the World war, having served as an aviator in France.
James Grover Burns has spent practically his entire life in the Boise valley. He was reared on the home ranch and he supplemented his early education by study in the University of Idaho. In 1905 he was graduated from the Illinois College of Photography. having from early boyhood felt a strong desire to make photography his life work. On the completion of his course he went to Denver, Colorado, where he remained for five years, since which time he has made his home in Boise. Through- out the entire period he has engaged in photographic work and since coming to Boise about six years ago has made a specialty of indoor photography, in which line he excels, building up an enviable reputation in this connection in the capital city. In fact when anyone in Boise wishes fine indoor or outdoor photographic work done in or about his own home the services of Mr. Burns are secured. In 1919 he erected at the corner of Thirteenth and State streets one of the most artistic homes in Boise a building of the semi-bungalow type, it being a residence and studio combined, such a combination as is rarely seen outside of the large cities. The place is of unique design, wholly unlike anything else in Boise or the state, and is admired by all who see it. The design was made by Mr. and Mrs. Burns and is indicative of their artistic taste.
On the 31st of August, 1910. Mr. Burns was married to Miss Ethel June Hedges,
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a native of Nebraska, who came to the Boise valley with her parents when fourteen years of age, the family locating on a ranch near Meridian in 1901. There she spent her girlbood and was graduated from the Meridian high school, supplementing her education by attending Cotner University at Lincoln, Nebraska, from which she was graduated, and then returned to Meridian, where she taught in the public schools for several years before her marriage. She was born near Fairbury, Nebraska, June 16, 1887. To Mr. and Mrs. Burns has been born a daughter, Fern Lucille, whose birth occurred December 24, 1912, and who is a little maiden of rare beauty.
Mr. Burns has displayed notable skill and genius in photography and is the originator and inventor of some very novel yet practical ideas in this line. He originated the firelight idea of photography as applied to studio work and was award- ed a patent thereon in 1909. The interior of the Burns studio-residence has many innovations quite unusual in the way of built-in furniture, equipment and conveniences. In fact it is seldom indeed that any home is so generously supplied with built-in features and all of an intensely practical and yet pleasing nature. The skilled crafts- man who did the work under the direction of Mr. Burns supplied the home with a built-in bookcase of generous proportions, also a cabinet, a complete writing desk including drawer and pigeon-hole features, a sideboard, buffet, china closet, kitchen cabinet and various other kitchen conveniences, together with a number of disappear- ing receptacles in which articles in quantity can be kept in sanitary condition. There is a feature about the place, however, that was not built-in and that is the hospitality which there reigns supreme, for Mr. and Mrs. Burns always have a cordial welcome for their many friends, the circle of whom is constantly increasing.
SHERMAN M. COFFIN.
Sherman M. Coffin, a pioneer in the hardware trade at Boise, now sales manager and one of the stockholders of the Northrop Hardware Company, a large wholesale con- cern, has been well known in this line of business in the capital city since 1879. He came to Idaho in that year from Ottumwa, Iowa, where he was born on the 12th of February, 1860. He was named in honor of John Sherman, the Ohio statesman, and is a son of Thomas Chalkley Coffin and his second wife, who in her maidenhood was Sarah Myers. The mother is still living and makes her home in Boise at the advanced age of ninety-eight years, but notwithstanding the fact that she is closely approaching the cen- tenarian mark, she is still quite active. The father died at Fort Kearney, Nebraska, in 1865, after having served his country as a soldier in the Union army during the Civil war. He entered as a private and by reason of his loyalty and his capability was advanced to the rank of captain. The Coffin family has long figured as one of promi- nence and honor in Boise, where Frank R. Coffin, a half-brother of Sherman M .; is the president of the Boise City National Bank, while others are prominent in business and community affairs.
Sherman M. Coffin was, reared in Ottumwa, Iowa. He left school at the age of fifteen and became a clerk in a shoe store in his native city, thus making his initial step in the business world. He was employed in that connection until 1879, when he left Ottumwa and came to Boise, chiefly for the benefit of his health, which had become impaired. His brother, Frank R. Coffin, was already engaged in business here and Sherman entered his store as a clerk and thus learned the business. In 1884 a branch store was established at Caldwell, under the name of Coffin & Northrop, with Sherman M. in charge. Removing to Caldwell, he managed the store, of which he was part owner, for several years. In 1897 he returned to Boise and reentered the hardware store of Frank R. Coffin, there remaining until 1900. Through the succeeding thirteen years he was a traveling salesman, being on the road for the Marshall-Wells Hardware Company of Duluth, Minnesota, and throughout the entire period he made his home in Boise. In 1913 he purchased the hardware business of Loree & Son at No. 909 Main street and organized the S. M. Coffin Hardware Company, conducting the business until 1917, when he sold out to the Springer Hardware Company. He has since been finan- clally and actively interested in the Northrop Hardware Company, the largest whole- sale concern in this line in Idaho, being continuously represented on the road by six traveling salesmen. Its trade extends all over southern Idaho and southeastern Oregon. It is one of the principal wholesale concerns of Boise, and Mr. Coffin is the sales manager and also one of the stockholders. His long connection with the hard-
SHERMAN M. COFFIN
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ware trade has made him a familiar figure in this line of business in Boise, and his extensive experience indicates his fitness for the responsible position which he is now filling.
On the 15th of January, 1884, in Ottumwa, Iowa, Mr. Coffin was married to Miss Jessie Phelps, an acquaintance of his boyhood, and they have two sons: Vestal Phelps, a graduate of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis and now engaged in the practice of law at Pocatello, Idaho; and Thomas Chalkley, who is a graduate of the Phillips Exeter Academy and of Yale University and is now in England as a naval aviator in the service of the United States. He was formerly assistant attorney general of Idaho and is now twenty-nine years of age,, while the elder son has reached the age of thirty-one. Both sons prepared for the bar by the study of law at Yale and have become recognized as leaders among the younger representatives of the legal profession of the state.
Mr. Coffin is a prominent Mason and is a past grand master of the Grand Lodge of Idaho. He keeps physically fit by a thorough system of exercises, in which he engages every morning. In politics he is a republican and for two years served as city treas- urer of Boise but has never sought nor desired public office. He recognizes and fully meets his duties and obligations of citizenship, however, and gives stalwart support to all movements for the general good.
RYLAND GORTON SPAULDING.
Ryland Gorton Spaulding needs no introduction to the readers of this volume, for he is widely known as the president of the Boise Ad Club and as the founder and proprietor of the Spaulding Poster Service of Boise. In these connections he has done much to further business enterprise and advance commercial interests in the state. He came to Idaho in 1890 from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, where he was born November 27, 1865, being the only son of Almon W. Spaulding and Dr. Mary Elizabeth (Gorton) Spaulding, who arrived in Boise in the spring of 1890, removing from Los Angeles, California. After a few years' residence in Boise they took up their abode upon a fine ranch four and a half miles west of the city but at that time a tract of wild land covered with sagebrush. Today, however, it is one of the best and most splendidly improved farm properties near Boise. It is situated a quarter of a mile north of Spaulding Station, on the Nampa interurban line. Mr. Spaulding is now eighty-one years of age, while Dr. Spaulding passed away at the age of seventy-nine years, November 12, 1919. Almost throughout the entire period since she attained woman- hood she had been a practicing physician, following the profession for many years in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, while later she practiced in Los Angeles, California, and still later in Boise. Idaho, continuing in the work even after locating upon the ranch. To Mr. and Mrs. Spaulding were born but two children, the daughter being Mrs. Allen W. Pride, who is mentioned elsewhere in this work, and in connection with her record there is also more extended mention of her parents.
Ryland G. Spaulding was reared in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and obtained a good public school education. In his youth he learned the printer's trade and developed a degree of efficiency that entitled him to rank with the expert hand compositors. After coming to Boise he was identified with newspaper interests in various capacities, acting as compositor, as reporter and as city editor. He was associated at different periods with various papers of Boise and of Salt Lake City, including the Statesman of Boise and the Tribune of Salt Lake City. In 1899 he organized what is known as the Spaulding Poster Service of Boise and southwestern Idaho and has very suc- cessfully conducted the business since that time, steadily employing several men. This is the chief business in its particular line in Boise and has all the bill-posting' service of the city. An exclusive poster service is carried on and the Spaulding con- cern is noted for its efficiency, discharging its contracts with promptness and dispatch. The business has now been established for twenty years and has become one of Boise's permanent institutions, built and developed upon a solid business basis.
On the 9th of August, 1896, in Boise, Mr. Spaulding was united in marriage to Miss Laura Mott, who was born on a ranch near Parma, Idaho, October 24, 1871, a daughter of the late John R. and Victoria (Brown) Mott, who were pioneers of this state and were born, reared and married in Wisconsin. They came to Idaho in 1870 and both have now passed away, the mother dying in 1906 and the father later.
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Mr. and Mrs. Spaulding have become parents of five children: Helen Elizabeth, who was born August 21, 1897; Maxine Marcella, whose birth occurred May 5, 1902; Vic- toria Donnazetta, whose natal day was May 24, 1906; Almon Walter, born November 26, 1908; and Mary Louise, who was born on the 24th of August, 1917.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Spaulding are members of the Baptist church, contributing liberally to its support and actively interested in its work. Mr. Spaulding has mem- bership with the Woodmen of the World and he is the president of the Boise Ad Club. His experience as the head of the bill-poster service has well qualified him to under- take the duties involved in the presidency of the Ad Club and he is proving a most efficient officer whose labors are effective and resultant. He is actuated hy a most pro- gressive spirit, leading to the substantial development and upbuilding of his section of the country, and the worth of his work is widely acknowledged. He is a prominent representative of the Knights of Pythias fraternity, being a past chancellor of Ivanhoe Lodge, No. 3, and a past grand chancellor of the state of Idaho. He is Ilke- wise identified with Boise Aerie, No. 115, Fraternal Order of Eagles, of which he is past worthy president, and he is at present state president of the Idaho State Aerie. Mr. Spaulding is also a past dictator of Boise Lodge, No. 337, L. O. O. M. He gives his political allegiance to the republican party but has never sought or desired office. He was formerly active in the Typographical Union and is now a valued member of the Boise Chamber of Commerce. Motoring affords him recreation when leisure permits.
LOUIS P. KIELDSEN.
Louis P. Kieldsen, a brick and stone contractor of Boise, was born in Denmark, March 29, 1865. His parents, both now deceased, never came to the United States. His father, James Kieldsen, was a farmer by occupation and thus provided for the support of his family. When fifteen years of age his son, Louis P. Kieldsen, started out to learn the trade of a brick and stone mason and after serving his apprentice- ship worked as a journeyman for a few years, spending two years of that period in Hamburg, Germany. In 1888, when twenty-three years of age, he crossed the Atlantic to the new world, landing at Halifax, Nova Scotia, from which point he at once proceeded to Fresno, California, where he remained for a year. He then went north, first into Oregon and later to Washington, working at his trade in various cities of the two states. For a year and a half he resided in Spokane, Washington, and assisted in rebuilding the city after the big fire of 1890. Later he returned to Fresno, Cali- fornia, where he spent the following winter and then for a short time was in Salt Lake City. In August, 1891, he came to Boise, where he has since been located, and after a brief period he began business on his own account as a hrick and stone con- tractor. In this business he has since continued and his steady advancement has brought him to a place of leadership in this line. Among the many important build- ings of Boise with which he has been connected in contract work is the Overland building, the Idanha Hotel, the old Y. M. C. A. building, the Carnegie library, the Central school, the Washington school, the Garfield school and many of the leading business blocks. Between 1900 and 1910 he was very active and sometimes had as many as a dozen buildings under construction at the same time. In 1904 he erected his own residence at No. 409 Jefferson street, this being one of the substantial brick homes of Boise. He owns much good rental property in Boise and derives there- from a very gratifying income.
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