History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume III, Part 62

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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These four brothers are Samuel A. and Wiliam H., twins, James O. and Louis E. Only one of the number, William H., is married. He and his twin brother, Samuel A., were born October 12, 1868, while the birth of James O. occurred on the 4th of March, 1874, and Louis H. was born January 24, 1876. The Davison family removed from Franklin county, Indiana, to Washington county, Nebraska, in April, 1887, and the first of the family to come to Idaho was William H., who made the trip in 1905. It was not until 1914 that Samuel and James became residents of the state and in the spring of 1919 Louis E. Davison arrived. The last named is a carpenter by trade but is now giving his attention to the Davison ranch in connection with his brothers.

William H. Davison was married on the 21st of June, 1894, to Miss Eugenia Humphrey, and they have one child, Elmer E., born September 14, 1900.

The four brothers reside together, Mrs. William Davison managing the house- hold affairs. The ranch is owned by Samuel A. and James O., who share equally in the property. This was recently purchased by them at a very low figure and is today worth two hundred and fifty dollars per acre owing to the natural rise in land values and also to the many excellent improvements upon it, made by the new owners. They have erected an excellent barn, have remodeled the house and have made other improvements which have converted the place into one of the valuable and highly productive ranch properties of the district. The brothers are all progressive and enterprising men, alert to the opportunities presented to them, and there is no question but what their future career will be one of steady progress.

LOUIS PARE.

Louis Paré, a prosperous rancher residing thirteen miles west of Emmett, was born in Montreal, Canada, March 27, 1857, and is a son of French Canadian parents, Louis and Elizabeth (Lortei) Paré, who are still living in the vicinity of Montreal, the father being now eighty-one years of age and the mother seventy-nine.

Their son Louis was reared and educated in Montreal, and having arrived at years of maturity, was there married on the 24th of May, 1882, to Clementine Lusig- nan, also a French Canadian, who was born in Montreal, January 20, 1863, and is a daughter of Basil and Melie Lusignan, both of whom were born near Montreal, Canada, and have now departed this life. The young couple resided in Montreal until 1887 and then came to the United States, settling at Bozeman, Montana, where they resided for fifteen years, during which time he followed the carpenter's trade, which he had learned in his youth in Montreal, eventually becoming a contractor. Later he lived for a year at The Dalles, Oregon, and in 1906 came with his family to Idaho, purchasing his present ranch property in Gem county, which was then a part of Canyon county. His ranch, comprising eighty acres, was then all wild and unde- veloped land but is now a splendidly improved place, in the midst of which stand a a good residence and other substantial buildings. There is also an excellent orchard upon the place and everything about the ranch indicates the progressive and prac- tical spirit of the owner, who in addition to his home place has two other tracts of forty acres each in the same neighborhood, one of these adjoining the home place of eighty acres.

In the family are five children, a son and four daughters: Marguerite, Joseph H., Rosa, Clementine and Elizabeth. The eldest daughter is now a trained nurse in Seattle, Washington, and has but recently left the service of the United States gov- ernment, which she entered during the World war, while Joseph spent eight months at Camp Lewis, being discharged February 22, 1919. Rosa is the wife of Jack Bane, of Gem county, and Clementine is the wife of Joseph Radandt, of Salem, Oregon, while Elizabeth is the wife of Zack Walker, of Payette, Idaho. The parents

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and family are all members of the Catholic church and in his political views Mr. Paré is a republican. His success in business is attributable entirely to his own labors, his diligence and enterprise being the basis of his growing prosperity.

JOHN H. HALL.

John H. Hall became a leading, successful and representative farmer of Ada county, living near Eagle. He was born near Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1860 and there acquired his early education. When twenty-one years of age he arrived in Idaho and while en route was employed for a time in the mines of Colorado. He made the latter part of bis journey to Idaho on fcot, walking from the eastern portion of the state to Boise. He turned his attention to farming in the Boise valley and in 1894 purchased the site of the present family home, then known as the Willis place. It was all covered with sagebrush, not a furrow having been turned nor an improvement made upon the land. It was necessary to clear the tract of brush, and Mr. Hall not only performed that task upon his own place but also grubbed sagebrush from the farm of Mr. Willis in order to help pay for the land which he had purchased from Mr. Willis. At that period there were only three or four farms between Eagle and Boise. Mr. Hall's property comprised forty acres, eleven of which has been planted to prunes, while the remainder is devoted to the raising of hay and grain. There is now a fine residence upon the farm and all modern equipments and conveniences, and the place stands as a monument to the efforts and energy of the former owner. Mr. Hall also became connected with the commercial interests of Eagle as one of the owners of the store which is now conducted by Diehl & Mace. He was associated therewith in 1914.

In 1889 Mr. Hall was united in marriage to Miss Gladys C. Smith, a native of Iowa, who passed away on the 3d of September, 1913, while the death of Mr. Hall occurred on the 7th of February, 1919. They were the parents of three children, of whom one daughter died in infancy. The others are Fay W. and Grace, the latter a teacher in the schools of Eagle and also acting as housekeeper for her brother upon the home farm, which is located but a short distance from the town of Eagle on the main road between Caldwell and Boise. The son, Fay W. Hall, enlisted for service in the United States army on the 9th of August, 1918, and was in Camp Fremont, California, for three months and afterward at Camp Mills, New York, for a month. He then went to Camp Stewart, Newport News, Virginia, and was aboard the boat, ready to start for France when the armistice was signed, being a member of the Twelfth Infantry Machine Gun Company. He is now giving his attention to the farm work, which he is carefully and systematically conducting, winning substantial success in the conduct of his affairs.

MRS. MARY FISHBACK.

Mrs. Mary Fishback, who with her three sons, Robert, Roy and carl, resides on a ranch of eighty acres twelve miles west of Emmett, came to Idaho to reside per- manently in August, 1904, and for a time lived in the Boise valley near Eagle, in Ada county. there remaining from 1904 until 1912, since which time she and her children have made their home in the Payette valley in what is now Gem county. They first lived for six years just over the slough from Letha and in the spring of 1919 took up their abode upon their present ranch, which is pleasantly and con- veniently situated three and a half miles west of Letha and twelve miles west of Emmett.

Mrs. Fishback was born January 28, 1865, about eighteen miles from Fort Wayne, in Dekalb county, Indiana, and bore the maiden name of Mary Merryweather, her parents being Charles and Anne (Truelove) Merryweather, both of whom were natives of England but were married in Indiana, although they had been acquainted in their native country. Her father came to the United States as a young man and Mrs. Merryweather crossed the Atlantic with her mother in her girlhood days. Both parents died near Omaha, Nebraska, the mother in 1874, while the father survived until 1885. They had a family of elght children, of whom seven are living, but Mrs. Fishback is the only one now in Idaho. In 1872 her parents removed to Waterloo, Nebraska, where she was reared, and at Columbus, that state, on the 7th of April,

JOHN H. HALL

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1884, she gave her hand in marriage to Henry Fishback. They became the parents of eight children: Charles H., who was born June 24, 1885; Robert A., born June 8, 1887; Ethel M., March 10, 1889; Nora R., December 5, 1891; Sadie I., October 20, 1893; Roy Donald, April 26, 1897; Ernest C., who was born March 30, 1902, and died December 7, 1909; and Carl E., born October 6, 1904. All of the surviving children are single and yet reside in Idaho except Sadie, who resides in Pendleton, Oregon, and who on the 3d of January, 1917, became the wife of Paul A Jones, a civil engineer. The second son, Robert A. Fishback, was called to the colors in the great World war and spent eight months in American training camps, first at Camp Lewis and later at Camp Keough, Montana, having been fully trained for service abroad when the armistice was signed.

It was in the year 1890 that Mrs. Fishback removed with her family from Nebraska to the state of Washington, where they lived for eleven years, while later they resided for a time in Oregon and thence came to Idaho. Here, as previously stated, they have occupied several ranch properties and are now pleasantly located on an excellent tract of land of eighty acres which with the aid of her sons Mrs. Fishback is care- fully developing and improving, having transformed it Into one of the excellent farms of the neighborhood.

Mrs. Fishback is a Methodist in religious faith and she also belongs to the Order of the Eastern Star and to the Red Cross, with which she did much active work during the World war in knitting and sewing.

JOSEPH S. WARDLE.

Joseph S. Wardle, a ranchman who resides on the Boise bench two miles south- west of Boise, where he has recently purchased five acres of land, was born in Salt Lake county, Utah, eighteen miles south of the city of Salt Lake, September 13, 1870. His father was Isaac John Wardle, of St. Anthony, Idaho, who passed away in October, 1917, at the age of eighty-two years. He was born in Lincolnshire, Eng- land, June 14, 1835, and came to the United States in 1852 as a convert to the Mormon church. He at once proceeded across the plains to Utah, making the trip on foot with a handcart company, being then a lad of eighteen years. He came to the new world, unaccompanied by relatives, but after he had been in Utah a few years he sent to England for his parents, who joined him in Utah, he paying their passage to the United States. Twenty-two years ago Isaac John Wardle removed from Utah to Idaho and resided at St. Anthony throughout his remaining days. He was a sheep raiser and the excellent opportunities for carrying on the industry in Idaho caused him to locate in this state. He was very active in the work of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving as superintendent of a Sunday school in Salt Lake City for eighteen years. He was married three times and by his first wife, Martha Ann Egbert, had ten children, of whom Joseph S. was the fifth in order of birth. The mother was born in Utah and died December 9, 1916. By his second wife Isaac J. Wardle had one child, a son, William J. Wardle, now living in Teton county, Idaho. By his third marriage he had four children, of whom three are living. His family numbered fifteen children altogether, of whom ten yet survive.

Joseph S. Wardle was reared under the parental roof and while still a resident of Utah was married on the 11th of February, 1891, to Miss Sabina Ann Beckstead, who was born November 30, 1874, in Utah, a daughter of John A. and Sabina Ann (Harrison) Beckstead, who were also connected with the Mormon church. Mr. and Mrs. Wardle have ten living children: Mary, now the wife of Allen Smith; Hiram, Chester, who married Iva Holtsclaw; Geneva Grace, the wife of Willard Farley; Eva Laurel, the wife of Eugene Oviatt; and Maggie Myrle, Zella Sabina, Joseph Alma, Isaac John, Eldred and Verla.

Mr. Wardle and his family resided near St. Anthony, Idaho, for twelve years and in Minidoka county, near Rupert, for two years. In May, 1919, he removed with his family to his present ranch of five acres on the Boise bench and expects soon to pur- chase a large ranch in this locality. He has diligently pursued his farming opera- tions throughout his life and has thus provided a comfortable living for his family.

Mr. Wardle remains a consistent follower of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- day Saints, in which he is an elder, while Mrs. Wardle has been president of the

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Relief Society for five years and was president of the Primary Association for three years. They are ever loyal to any cause which they espouse, true to their honest convictions and are people whose genuine worth is recognized by all who know them.

MARTIN HANSEN SMITH.

Martin Hansen Smith is a prosperous and representative farmer of Gem county who owns ' one hundred and twenty acres of good ranch land eight miles west of Emmett, in the Bramwell district. He is the eldest of the nine living children of Andrew C. Smith, who is mentioned elsewhere in this work, and was born in Salt Lake county, Utah, June 16, 1879. There he was reared and became a sheep herder, being so employed for ten years in his youth. He started to work when but twelve years of age and continued herding sheep until he reached the age of twenty-two. Throughout the intervening period to the present he has followed farming and the raising of live stock and as the years have passed has met with substantial prosperity.

On the 12th of December, 1901, Martin H. Smith was married in Salt Lake county to Miss Nancy Webb, who was born in Kane county, Utah, June 9, 1882, a daughter of Willis and Beulah (Allen) Webb, who were natives of New York and Missouri respectively. In 1902 Mr. and Mrs. Smith came to Idaho and have since lived either in or near Emmett. Three years ago they removed to their present ranch property, which is situated about eight miles west of Emmett and comprises one hundred and twenty acres of excellent land-a forty-acre tract that is improved and in the midst of which stands their home and an eighty-acre tract just a half mile away. Mr. Smith specializes in cattle raising, handling shorthorns, and he also raises hay. His home is pleasantly situated just a short distance from the Bramwell school.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Smith are of the Mormon faith, as are all of their seven children, namely: Lorenzo Earl, who was born August 9, 1903; Martin Merl, whose birth occurred September 23, 1904; Gladys, whose natal day was May 17, 1906; Martina Ann, born October 26, 1907; Lewis, horn May 18, 1909; Raymond, born September 18, 1910; and Ernest Emil, who was born on the 13th of February, 1918.

In his political views Mr. Smith is a republican but has never been an office seeker, giving his undivided time and attention to his business affairs. His farming and stock raising interests have been conducted along progressive lines. He uses the latest improved machinery to facilitate the work of the fields and by the recent purchase of a new touring car he and his family are now within but a few minutes' ride of Emmett.

DAVID RUSSELL TURNER.

David Russell Turner, a representative farmer living four miles southwest of Boise, was born in Page county, Iowa, April 16, 1881, and is a son of James William and Jennie (McKee) Turner, who are now residing in Oregon near Weiser. The maternal grandmother, Mrs. Mary Elizabeth McKee, is also living at the advanced age of eighty-four years.

David R. Turner was reared upon his father's farm in Page county; Iowa, having the usual experiences that fall to the farmbred boy. He obtained a public school and business college education and throughout his entire life has followed farming. He came to Idaho with his parents in 1899, the family settling on a ranch of one hundred and sixty acres near the Cloverdale school, southwest of Boise. The father paid thirty dollars for this land that is today worth three hundred dollars per acre.

David R. Turner remained upon that place until he reached the age of twenty- four years, when on the 31st of August, 1904, he was married to Miss Leila Esther Ash the only daughter of the late Henry L. Ash, of Boise, who passed away in that city in 1902. Her mother is Mrs. Sarab E. Ash, who still resides in Boise. Mrs. Turner was born in Montgomery county, Illinois, September 20, 1880, and was reared and educated in that state to the age of sixteen years, when she accompanied her parents on their removal to Iowa. She afterward came to Idaho with her mother, who was then a widow, in the year 1903, and resided with her mother and brothers on the Ash Park ranch three miles west of Boise, a property that had been purchased

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by her father in 1902 just prior to his death, which occurred before he had time to move his family to Idaho from Iowa. Ash Park was named in honor of the family, from whom it was purchased by other parties in 1906. Before coming to Idaho Mrs. Turner taught school in Iowa for five years. By her marriage she has become the mother of two children: Helen A., born July 20, 1905; and Russell Lea, born November 5, 1911.

Since their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Turner have lived on four different Boise valley ranches, all their own property except the first. They rented only one year and then purchased land and Mr. Turner has cleared the sagebrush from over two hundred acres of Ada county's valuable farm land and has developed it to a high point of cultivation.

Mr. and Mrs. Turner are consistent members of the Bethany Presbyterian church, west of Boise, and he served as its secretary and treasurer. He is a republican where national issues and questions are involved but at local elections casts an independent ballot. Both Mr. and Mrs. Turner belong to the Knights & Ladies of Security, and Mrs. Turner is a member of the Golden Rod Club, one of the leading social organ- izations for women who reside on the Mesa or Boise bench. Mr. and Mrs. Turner are people of genuine personal worth whose sterling qualities make for popularity among those who know them. They are now occupying an attractive home embrac- ing forty acres, constituting one of the best farms of its size in this section of the state. It is situated on what might be termed the second bench, thirty or forty feet higher and beyond what is commonly known as the Boise bench. It is a gently rolling tract with a 'slight incline and is well watered by a ditch leading from the New York canal. It was all in cultivation when it was purchased by Mr. Turner, but he has added various valuable improvements thereto, making the place more serv- iceable in every particular. Excellent new buildings have been erected, silos have been built and all the accessories and conveniences of a model farm property have been added. He gives his attention to the raising of grain, hay, hogs and cattle, and his business affairs have been most carefully, successfully and wisely conducted. and he has borne his full share in converting Idaho's sagebrush land into good farm tracts.

WEBBER NEWTON REEVES.

Webber Newton Reeves is the president of the firm of Reeves Brothers, whole- sale jobbers of cigars and tobacco, and has not only been identified with the business interests of Boise but with its public life as well, having served as chief of police of the city. He came to Idaho twenty-four years ago, arriving in April, 1895, from Meigs county, Ohio, where he was born April 23, 1874. He was the youngest of the three sons of Jeremiah and Elizabeth (Lathey) Reeves, who were also natives of that county. The mother died when her son Webber was but ten years of age. The father afterward married a Miss Norris, who proved a most kindly and wise step- mother and who still resides on the old Reeves homestead in Meigs county, Ohio. Mr. Reeves also survives and is still active and vigorous at the age of seventy-four years. He represents one of the old pioneer families of that section of the Buckeye state.

Webber N. Reeves was reared upon the old home farm and had the usual expe- riences that fall to the lot of the farm-bred boy. He came to Idaho about the time he attained his majority and spent the first ten years of his residence in this state in the Boise basin and in and around Idaho City. During that period he was variously employed. He cut cordwood, conducted a boarding house and carried on other busi- ness interests in order to provide a living. In 1900 the gold excitement at Nome, Alaska, took him to that country, but after a year in the snowy regions there, during which time he engaged in mining, he returned to Idaho City. In 1908 he came to Boise, where he has made his home continuously since. During his residence here he has been identified with the cigar and tobacco trade, which he has conducted along both retail and wholesale lines. He was in the retail business from 1909 until 1918 and since September, 1916, he has been engaged as a wholesale jobber of cigars and tobacco and since November, 1918, has concentrated his attention exclusively upon the wholesale trade. Throughout this period, in both the retail and wholesale business, he has been associated with his brother, Wilbert Reeves, under the firm style of Reeves

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Brothers. The retail business was established at No. 820 Main street and was con- tinuously conducted by them at that location until they sold the store. They have since concentrated their efforts upon the development of the wholesale trade at No. 712 Main street, where they opened this branch of their business in September, 1916. The wholesale business was incorporated on the 1st of July, 1919, with Webber N. Reeves as president and Wilbert R. Reeves as vice president. The latter came to Idaho in 1889, making his way at once to Boise.

On the 22d of May, 1902, Mr. Reeves was married in Boise to Miss Isabella Perkins, who was born in Illinois but was reared in Montana. In public affairs of the city Mr. Reeves takes an active and helpful interest. He has twice filled the position of Chief of Police in Boise, the first time for a period of six months in 1909, under the administration of Mayor Joseph T. Pence, and the second time for a period of more than two years during the administration of Mayor Hodges. He has always been entirely independent in politics, supporting the men and measures that he believes will advance the best interests of community, commonwealth and country. Fraternally he is connected with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, the Woodmen of the World and the Loyal Order of Moose and he is a member and one of the directors of the Boise Commercial Club, thus manifesting a keen and helpful interest in all things pertaining to the public welfare, his aid and influence being always on the side of progress and improvement.

CHARLES A. ROBISON.

Charles A. Robison, a rancher who is largely engaged in stock raising, occupying an excellent property of two hundred acres, devoted to the cattle industry and to the raising of hay and grain, his place being situated about eleven miles west of Emmett, in Gem county, was born near Pleasant Grove, Utah, August 5, 1868, and Is one of the two sons and three daughters of Charles Edward and Rosetta Mary (Berry) Robison, both of whom have passed away. The father aud mother were children when they removed to Utah with their respective parents, who were converts to the Mormon faith. Charles E. Rohison was born in Missouri and his wife was a native of Michigan. He died in South Carolina at the age of thirty-eight years, while serving hls church as a missionary there, and the mother passed away in Logan, Utah, in 1918.

When Charles A. Robison was four years of age his parents removed from Utah

. to Bear Lake county, Idaho, and he has since lived in this state, covering the period from 1872 until the present. His youthful days were passed upon a ranch near Mont- pelier, Idaho, and he continued to reside in Bear Lake county from 1872 until 1915, when he sold the large ranch of five hundred acres which he owned there and then removed to Gem county. Through the succeeding winter he lived in Emmett and then took up his ahode upon his present ranch property of two hundred acres eleven miles west of Emmett. Throughout his entire life his time and energies have been devoted to ranching, although he served as sheriff of Bear Lake county for one term about twenty-one years ago and for four years he acted as foreman of a construction force with the Utah Power & Light Company, engaged in canal construction work in Bear Lake county. Mr. Robison has been very successful as a rancher and dealer in live stock. He became a prominent representative of ranching interests in Bear Lake county and is also one of the leading men in this line in Gem county. He not only successfully raises cattle in large numbers but also buys and sells cattle, keeping from fifty to one hundred head on hand most of the time and having at all times a number of good dairy cows.

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History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume III, Part 62

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