USA > Idaho > History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume III > Part 65
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reared as a farmer boy, pursuing a public school education, while in the summer months his time was given to the work of the fields.
It was in Decatur, Illinois, on the 30th of November, 1904, that Mr. Spoor was mar- ried to Miss Mabel Clare Rule, who was born in Christian county, Illinois, August 9, 1886, and is a daughter of Charles L. and Myra (Thompson) Rule, both now deceased. On the day of their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Spoor started for Idaho and on reaching this state took up a homestead in Valley county. They proved up on this property and occupied it for fifteen years. It comprises two hundred and forty acres of land in Round valley. It has never been irrigated, however, and Mr. Spoor there carries on dry farming. He lived upon that place for fifteen years and is still the owner of that property together with an eighty acre tract adjoining. In November, 1919, he removed to his present home ranch in Gem county. This is a tract of forty acres, largely devoted to the raising of alfalfa, three-fourths of the land being planted to that crop. There are also several acres in bearing apple orchards. This land is all well located and well irrigated and has been highly improved. Upon the farm is a good cement hlock house and other modern equipment that renders the place most attractive.
To Mr. and Mrs. Spoor have been born six children, namely: Lois, who was born April 1, 1907; Haldeen, April 5, 1909; Marjorie, November 20, 1910; Corwin, March 22, 1913; Frances, November 18, 1915; and Gale, January 2, 1918.
The parents are consistent members of the Christian church but in political faith are divided, Mr. Spoor being a supporter of democratic principles, while his wife is an advocate of the republican party. He has served as a school trustee and both are earnest in their advocacy of all interests which tend to promote the material, intellectual, social and moral progress of the district.
WARREN THOMAS NELSON.
Sixteen acres of beautiful orchard constitute a feature of the sixty acre ranch property owned and occupied by Warren Thomas Nelson, whose land is on the south slope of the Payette valley eleven miles west of Emmett. Mr. Nelson is a native son of Idaho, his birth having occurred in Bloomington, Bear Lake county, March 16, 1875, "his parents being Christian and Catharine (Johnson) Nelson, the former a native of Denmark, still living at Bloomington, Idaho, at the advanced age of ninety-four years and still hale and vigorous. The mother, however, passed away in 1918, when almost ninety years of age. The parents were married in Denmark and came to the United States as converts to the Mormon faith. They crossed the plains on foot, bringing their belongings on a handcart.
Warren T. Nelson has spent his entire life in Idaho and was reared to agricul- tural pursuits, to which he has since given his attention, while in later years he has specialized to a considerable extent in orcharding. He attended the public schools of the state and also spent a year as a student in the Brigham Young College at Logan, Utah.
In early manhood, at Bloomington, Idaho, on the 13th of August, 1903, Mr. Nelson was married to Josephine Jensen, who was also of Danish parentage and was born at Rankin, Illinois, June 6, 1882, being a daughter of Thomas and Christine (Larsen) Jensen, both of whom were natives of Denmark, where they were reared and married. Her father died eleven years ago at Logansport, Indiana, when sixty-four years of age, and the mother is yet residing there at the age of sixty-four years. Mrs. Nelson was reared and educated at Logansport, Indiana. To Mr. and Mrs. Nelson has been born a son. Lewis Bailey, whose birth occurred October 18, 1914.
After their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Nelson removed from Bloomington, Idaho, to the Bramwell neighborhood in the Payette valley in 1904 and for six years lived on what is now the Mert Jackson orchard ranch, of which they were then owners and on which they set out the orchard. In 1909 they sold the property and purchased their present place of sixty acres four miles farther west on the south slope from their former home. The ranch when it came into their possession was a tract of wild sagebrush land but within ten years Mr. Nelson has accomplished a work of marvelous development, bringing about a notable transformation in the appearance of the farm. He has erected a full set of buildings and today has sixteen acres of his sixty acre tract planted to apples, prunes and peaches, which are now ten years old. He also has apricots, sweet cherrles and almonds and the almond trees, now fifty in number, are in full bearing. He sold fruit from his orchard in 1919 that netted him over six thousand dollars. Five acres
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of prunes alone brought a hundred and two dollars and a half to the ton, or over three thousand dollars. Aside from his orchard the ranch is in alfalfa and he likewise engages successfully in the raising of live stock, having now more than one hundred head of sheep. Mr. Nelson paid twenty-four hundred dollars for his sixty acre tract of sagebrush and today he would not take fifteen thousand dollars for the property.
In politics Mr. Nelson is a republican and keeps well informed on the questions and issues of the day but does not seek nor desire public office. He worked most diligently and persistently in the development of his land and has wrought a marvelous change in its appearance. His orchards are laid out methodically and systematically and all of his work is conducted along progressive lines. He is diligent and enterprising and there are few idle hours in his career. He has studied modern scientific methods of tilling the soil and raising fruit and other crops, and his efforts are most intelligently directed, therefore bringing substantial results.
WILLIAM SCOTT DOIG.
Scotland has furnished to Boise perhaps no better known or more highly respected citizen than William Scott Doig, who is now the president of the Idaho Poultry & Pet Stock Association. He possesses many of the sterling characteristics of the people who come from the land of hills and heather. He was born September 6, 1871, and was reared in his native land, where he learned the shoemaker's trade in his youth. He has largely followed that pursuit throughout his life and he today has one of the largest and best equipped modern shoe hospitals in Boise, known as the Goodyear Shoe Shop, located at No. 205 North Ninth street. Mr. Doig came to the new world in 1889 and throughout the period of his residence in Boise has enjoyed the goodwill, confidence and respect of all who know him. He has not only given his attention to shoe repairing but was formerly engaged in the sheep industry for many years and for an extended period he has been one of the best known and most successful raisers of pure bred chickens in Idaho, his position in this connection being indicated in the fact that he has been honored with the presidency of the Idaho Poultry & Pet Stock Associa- tion and has been one of its officers since its organization. He specializes in the raising of Rhode Island Reds and Buff Leghorns and has been a breeder of pure bred chickens to a greater or less extent throughout his entire life, having exhibited his first fancy chickens when hut six years old. These were Red Pyle game bantams. His father before him had been one of the leading chicken men in Scotland and was a poultry judge. He is still living in Scotland. An older brother of Mr. Doig of this review, now located at White Sulphur Springs, Montana, is one of the best known breeders of Brown Leg- horns in the west and has several times been a blue ribbon winner in the Chicago poultry shows. Mr. Doig of this review has many times exhibited his birds in the leading poultry shows of the northwest. He has his home and chicken ranch at No. 607 South Thirteenth street in Boise and there has secured the best equipment for the care of his birds and is considered an authority upon the question of breeding fine chickens.
Mr. Doig was united in marriage in Boise to Miss Rosina Rogerson, who is but one day his junior, having been born in Scotland, September 7, 1871. They became acquaint- ed in Iowa but were married in Boise on the 9th of May, 1900. Mr. Doig is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and he and his wife belong to the Presbyterian church, of which they are consistent and faithful representatives.
BEN E. STAHL.
Ben E. Stahl is a retired mining man of Boise and a veteran of the Union army. The "boys in blue" are fast passing away and all honor should be paid to those who fought for the Union and thus aided in maintaining the supremacy of the federal gov- ernment. Mr. Stahl was born in Piqua county, Ohio, February 7, 1838, and has there- fore passed the eighty-second milestone on life's journey but possesses the strength and vigor of a man of twenty years his junior. He has a brother in Montana who is two years older than he. They are sons of Benjamin F. and Clarissa (Todd) Stahl, who removed to Des Moines county, Iowa, settling near Burlington when their son, Ben E., was but six years of age. There he was reared to manhood, largely spending Vol. III-34
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the time in Burlington, where he learned the cooper's trade, following that pursuit be- tween the ages of thirteen and twenty-two years. In 1860 he came to Colorado, resid- ing in that state until 1885, during which time he was connected with gold mining.
However, at the time of the Civil war Mr. Stahl joined Company K of the Third Colorado Regiment and was wounded in the battle of Sand Creek, Colorado, being shot through the right wrist and in the right side. When the country no longer needed his military aid he resumed the pursuits of civil life, remaining a resident of Colorado until 1885, when he came to Idaho. He spent several years in mining in the Coeur d'Alenes and at different periods followed mining pursuits in Idaho, British Columbia and Oregon. In 1893 he established his home on South Thirteenth street in Boise, where he now resides, owning a row of three houses on that thoroughfare. The fine maple trees which stand in front were planted by him as tiny saplings.
In 1872, in Denver, Colorado, Mr. Stahl was married to Miss Arietta Harlan, who was born at Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, August 11, 1843, and is a daughter of John and Mary A. (Cake) Harlan. They have a daughter, Mrs. Clara May Starn, the wife of Edward E. Starn of Boise, who is mentioned elsewhere in this work.
Mr. Stahl gives his political allegiance to the republican party and he proudly wears the little bronze button that proclaims him a member of the Grand Army of the Re- public. His life record has compassed a wonderful period in American history. Born in the presidential administration of Martin Van Buren, he has lived to see the country emerge victoriously from four wars-the Mexican, the Civil, the Spanish-American . and the recent great World war-and marvelous indeed have been the changes which have occurred during this period and which are compassed by the memory of one who is today a most honored and venerable citizen of Boise-Ben E. Stahl.
JOHN D. ADAMS, D. V. S.
Dr. John D. Adams, a well known veterinarian now living in Boise, was born on a farm near Carthage, Hancock county, Illinois, September 4, 1873, a son of Thomas E. and Mary E. (Massie) Adams, both of whom have passed away. The father was a farmer who at the time of the Civil war responded to the country's call for troops, serving first with the Seventeenth Regiment of Kentucky infantry and later with the Twenty-fifth Kentucky Infantry and thus valiantly defending the Union cause. He died in Missouri in 1907 and the mother, surviving for more than a decade, passed away at the home of a son in Portland, Oregon, on the 11th of February, 1919. Dr. Adams was the second in order of birth in a family of four sons, all of whom are yet living, the others being: Charles J., residing in Portland, Oregon; William O., living at Cherry- vale, Kansas; and Joseph E., also a resident of Portland.
Dr. Adams of this review was a lad of about six years when his parents removed from Illinois to Labette county, Kansas. His boyhood and youth were passed in the two states and he was graduated from the high school at Altamont, Kansas, with the class of 1898. He afterward taught for two terms, one in Kansas and the other in Missouri, and from 1900 until 1905 he was in the service of the United States govern- ment as live stock inspector at Seattle, Washington, at Portland, Oregon, and at Salt Lake City, Utah. In 1905 he resigned his position and took up the study of veterinary surgery in the Washington State College at Pullman, Washington, being there graduated with the D. V. S. degree in 1910. He practiced at Genesee, Idaho, through the succeeding six years and in 1916 pursued a post graduate course in the Chicago Post Graduate Veterinary College. He then located for practice at Moscow, Idaho, in 1917. In January, 1919, he was appointed state veterinarian by Governor Davis and removed to Boise to enter upon the duties of the position. On April 1, 1919, a change in the state form of government placed the bureau of animal industry under the state department of agriculture, thus changing the state veterinarian department, and Dr. Adams was appointed director of the bureau, which position he now holds. He is a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association and of the State Veterinary Medical Association and thus keeps in touch with scientific research and discovery concerning the profession which he has chosen as a life work. If Dr. Adams can be said to have a hobby it would probably be termed dogs. He is now the owner of some very fine registered hunting dogs, used in hunting big game, and he has also ever been very fond of good horses.
On the 12th of January, 1916, at Kellogg, Idaho, Dr. Adams was married to Miss
DR. JOHN D. ADAMS
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Gladys Newsome, a native of Wisconsin but at that time a resident of Kellogg. They have won a goodly circle of friends during the period of their residence in Boise. The doctor is well known in Masonic circles, belonging to the blue lodge at Genesee, Idaho, to the Scottish Rite and Mystic Shrine at Lewiston. He is also connected with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and the Knights of Pythias and is a loyal follower of these different organizations and the basic principles upon which they are founded. He is a member of the Boise Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, tracing his ancestry back in the Funk line on the maternal side to Capt. John Funk, who served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary war.
ISAAC IRVING WILSON.
Isaac Irving Wilson, who resides on the Boise bench, opposite the Franklin school, about two miles west of the city of Boise, came from Wyoming to Idaho in 1900. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, May 3, 1861, the youngest of a family of twelve children, nine sons and three daughters, whose parents were Burrell Jackson and Sarah Ann (Hall) Wilson, who were natives of the state of Virginia. When he was but two weeks old his parents removed to Iowa and he was reared upon a farm in that state. In his youth and early manhood he rode the range and thus developed a strong constitution. While still a resident of Iowa he was married on the 25th of December, 1898, to Sadie Rigney, the eldest of a family of six children, three sons and three daughters, who were born to Reese and Louisa (Woods) Rigney. The birth of Mrs. Wilson occurred in Kentucky, March 19, 1872, and she was reared in Iowa.
Mr. and Mrs. Wilson resided for two years in Wyoming and then in 1900 came to Idaho, first settling in Washington county, in what is known as the Seven Devils locality. In 1902 a removal was made to Baker county, Oregon, and in 1908 they eame to Idaho and have since lived on the Boise bench, near the Franklin school, where Mr. Wilson has a four acre tract of land. He has made substantial improvements upon the place in the way of buildings, erecting an attractive residence, a large barn and garage and other buildings necessary for the shelter of his farm products and stock. He has planted fruit and shade trees and has otherwise carried on the work of improve- ment. There was practically nothing on the place but a small four-room house and a few small trees when he took possession, but today it is a beautiful country home. Dur- ing his residence in Bourne, Oregon, Mr. Wilson had served as town marshal for five years. For several years he followed mining and for the past seven years he has been a rider on the Ridenbaugh ditch.
Mr. and Mrs. Wilson have no children, although he was the youngest in a family of twelve and his wife was the eldest in a family of six. His father was also one of twelve sons. Mrs. Wilson is a member of the Christian church. Mr. Wilson gives his political allegiance to the republican party and is much interested in all that pertains to the welfare and progress of the district in which he makes his home. He has never had occasion to regret his determination to leave the middle west and seek the oppor- tunities of the Pacific northwest, for here he has prospered and is now one of the substantial residents in the vicinity of Boise.
CLARENCE L. SPAULDING.
Clarence L. Spaulding is the owner of a good ranch with excellent improvements situated in Gem county. It comprises eighty acres of good land, of which sixty acres is planted to alfalfa, and the waving fields of green are the visible evidence of the life of industry which he is leading. Mr. Spaulding is a representative ranchman of Gem county, highly esteemed by all who know him.
He was born in Osceola county, Iowa, February 11, 1876, and is a son of George L. and Caroline A. (Collins) Spaulding, both of whom were natives of the state of New York, where they were reared and married. The father was a Union soldier during the Civil war, serving with Company M, Tenth New York Heavy Artillery. On leav- ing the Empire state he removed with his wife to Iowa and there passed away July 4, 1901, but Mrs. Spaulding is still living in that state and has remained a widow, true to the memory of her husband.
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Clarence L. Spaulding was reared and educated in Iowa, attending a commercial college in Des Moines after completing his common school education. No event of special importance occurred to vary the routine of farm life for him in his boyhood days. Having arrived at years of maturity, he was married in Iowa, December 3, 1897, to Elvira Amy Daniels, who was born in O'Brien county, that state, April 25, 1876, and is a daughter of Isaac and Patience (Vance) Daniels, who were natives of Penn- sylvania and New York respectively. Her father served in Company I of the Fiftieth Pennsylvania Infantry during the Civil war. The paternal grandfather of Mrs. Spauld- ing, Isaac Daniels, was one of the American soldiers during the War of 1812 and her great-grandfather was a soldier of the Revolutionary war, who lived long to enjoy the fruits of freedom, reaching the notable old age of one hundred and eight years. Prior to her marriage Mrs. Spaulding took up teaching, which she successfully followed in Iowa.
Mr. and Mrs. Spaulding began their domestic life in the Hawkeye state and there resided until 1907, when they came to Idaho, for a short time residing at Idaho Falls. In the autumn of that year, however, they removed to their present ranch property on the Emmett bench in Gem county about twelve miles northwest of the city of Emmett. It was an eighty acre tract of sagebrush when it came into possession of Mr. Spauld- ing, whose labors have converted it into one of the best improved alfalfa ranches in Gem county. All of the buildings have been erected by him and all of the modern farm improvements have heen added during the period of his ownership. His farm is splendidly equipped in every particular and he follows the most advanced scientific methods in the cultivation of his land and the care of his stock. In fact he is one of the most progressive farmers in this section of the state and he is one of the directors of the Emmett irrigation district, serving in this position altogether for eight years.
Five children, four daughters and a son, have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Spaulding: Harry Eugene, whose birth occurred September 29, 1899; Blanche Irene, born October 7, 1901, and now a student in Link's Business College at Boise; Florence Lucile, born June 6, 1904; Alice Maud, March 22, 1906; and Ethel May, January 11, 1910.
Both the father and mother are supporters of the republican party and he has served as school director in his home district, while his wife is filling that posi- tion at the present time. Mr. Spaulding belongs to the Brotherhood of American Yeomen, and his wife is a member of the Order of the Eastern Star. Their sterling worth has gained for them the goodwill of friends and neighbors. It is well known that they are supporters of all those interests which make for the benefit of the com- munity at large, and the progressive spirit which governs Mr. Spaulding is manifest in the excellent improvements of the ranch property which he has acquired since coming to Gem county.
JACOB SHAWVER.
In a record of pioneer development in Idaho mention should be made of Jacob Shawver, who is living four and a half miles west of Boise and who preempted his present home farm in 1886, securing then a tract of land of one hundred and sixty acres which was covered with sagebrush. Mr. Shawver is a native of Iowa. He was born March 28, 1850, a son of John and Elizabeth (Bogle) Shawver, who were natives of Ohio and Virginia respectively. The father was born near Steubenville, Ohio, August 26, 1817, while the mother's birth occurred on the 4th of March, 1827. They were married about 1845 and reared a family of seven children, of whom five are yet living. The father passed away January 23, 1904, having for only about five weeks survived his wife, who died on the 13th of December, 1903.
Jacob Shawver spent his youthful days under the parental roof and was reared to farm life. He was married at Seneca, Nemaha county, Kansas, September 21, 1871, the lady of his choice being Miss Jane Arbaugh, who was born in Ohio, March 31, 1850, a daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth (Lower) Arbaugh, the former a native of Maryland and the latter of Pennsylvania. Mr. Arbaugh's birth occurred June 23, 1806, while his wife was born April 15, 1813. They were married September 18, 1831, and the death of Mr. Arbaugh occurred July 28, 1872, while his wife died August 23, 1880. Pictures in the Shawver home of the four grandparents of Mr. and Mrs. Shawver show them to have been well bred people of good American stock.
Jacob Shawver had accompanied his parents to Kansas when a lad of seven years
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and there resided until 1882, when he removed from the Sunflower state to Montana, and in 1886 made his way to the Boise valley, at which time he preempted his present homestead, then a tract of wild sagebrush land but now a beautiful, highly cultivated and well irrigated farm worth three hundred dollars per acre. He has sold and deeded some of his land to his children but still retains possession of sixty acres and has brought the place under a very high state of cultivation.
To Mr. and Mrs. Shawver were born four children. Eva, born August 12, 1872, was married February 20, 1890, and had four children by that marriage. On the 9th of July, 1904, she became the wife of David Whitlock, a native of Ada county, Idaho, and they have become the parents of two children. Her six children are: Mrs. Dalsy Drake, of Nampa; Mrs. Florence McMichael, of Boise; Harold Smith and Miss Etta Smith, of Boise; Lucile Whitlock; and Mary Whitlock, who passed away in 1916 at the age of three years. The other three children of Mr. and Mrs. Shawver are: Jesse, who is mentioned elsewhere in this work; Ira Lee; and Raymond. The last named is re- siding in California, while Jesse and Ira are both married and live near their par- ent's home. Mr. and Mrs. Shawver had eleven grandchildren, eight of whom are liv- ing, and there is one great-grandchild, Ada Henton, now eight years of age, who is the child of Mrs. Daisy Drake, born of her first marriage.
Politically Mr. Shawver is a democrat and fraternally is a Mason. In religious faith his wife is a Presbyterian. They are both highly esteemed people, enjoying the goodwill, confidence and respect of all who know them, and they well deserve mention as pioneer residents of Ada county who have contributed to its upbuilding and develop- ment and who have been witnesses of its progress and improvement from early times to the present.
EMIL STAHL.
Emil Stahl, proprietor of Stahl's Bakery & Confectionery, one of the attractive . business houses of Emmett, was born and reared in Baltimore, Maryland. His natal day was February 18, 1886, and he is a son of August and Elizabeth Stahl, both of whom were natives of Germany, where they were reared and married. On coming to the United States they took up their abode in Baltimore, where the father worked at the tailor's trade, which he had previously learned in his native country. He after- ward owned and conducted two large merchant tailoring establishments and prospered in business as the years passed. Both he and his wife died in Baltimore, the latter departing this life when the son Emil was hut seven years of age, while the father died many years later.
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