History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume III, Part 83

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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After this deal was consummated Mr. Healy came to Boise, where he remained

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during the winter of 1875-6. In the spring of the latter year he went to Atlanta, Idaho, where he worked in the mines until the fall of 1879, when the mines were closed down. Just before they closed Mr. Healy did considerable contract work there. He then returned to Boise, where he formed a partnership with Frank Brailey in a logging contract and also bought the Rossi tollgate and ranch. The next season he purchased his partner's interests and conducted the business until 1887. In company with Amos T. Bennett he bought the Rossi sawmill, his partner being a practical sawmill man and Mr. Healy a thorough cutside man. They got out a large quantity of logs that winter and began sawing in the spring, but soon afterward the partner was crushed by a log rolling over him on the logway. Mr. Healy then purchased his partner's interests. In the winter of 1878 there was no snow and the following season there was accordingly no water. He had two competitors, who, in consequence of the lack of water, could get no logs. Mr. Healy's mill, however, was right in the timber, and with Boise booming, he was conducting a very substantial business. He had thousands of feet of rough and finished lumber piled at the mill to meet the growing demand. But in the face of this prosperity, a fire brought disaster, supposed to have been of incendiary origin. He lost two hundred and seventy-five thousand feet of lumber and this terminated his lumber business. He afterward conducted the toll road until 1909, when he sold out and also disposed of the few head of stock which he possessed. Removing to Boise, he there maintained his residence until the death of his wife on the 25th of May, 1910.

It was on the 8th of April, 1884, that Mr. Healy had wedded Elizabeth Custer, of Pennsylvania, and for twenty-six years they traveled life's journey happily together. In October, 1910, Mr. Healy purchased a half interest with D. E. Clemmens in one hundred and sixty acres of land at Brookside, on Dry creek. His former partner, Jacob Clemmens, was an uncle of his present partner, whom he has known since he was a child. Mr. Healy has always felt a keen interest in the Clemmens family and they have ever had the highest regard for him, so that he now has a good home with the family of D. E. Clemmens in the evening of his days. In pioneer times he acted as scout when the Indians were on the warpath and he has experienced all the trials and hardships of frontier life and can relate many interesting incidents which are more marvelous than any tales of fiction.

WILLIS WEBB.

Willis Webb owns and cultivates a ranch of twenty-one acres adjoining the corpora- tion limits of Emmett on the west. He came to Idaho from southern Utah in 1901 but is a native of the state of New York, his birth having there occurred September 29, 1844. His parents were Charles and Laura (Smith) Webb, with whom he crossed the plains to Utah in a big covered wagon drawn by a yoke of cows and a yoke of oxen. This was in 1849, when he was but four years of age. His parents were converts to the Mormon teachings. The father, Charles Webb, later became a member of the Mormon Bat- talion that went to California and assisted the United States government, being nine months on the trip. The own mother of Willis Webb had died in New York when he was but two years of age and it was his stepmother with whom he came to Utah when the family crossed the plains in 1849.

Willis Webb was reared in the southern part of Utah upon a ranch and in young manhood he did active military duty in the Black Hawk war. He was married at the age of twenty-four years, on the 3d of October, 1868, to Miss Beulah Allen, who was born in Kentucky but was reared in Andrew county, Missouri. She passed away'at the family home west of Emmett, September 18, 1916, when seventy-five years of age. Mr. Webb has one son and two daughters. Mrs. Beulah Harris, who is now the wife of John Harris, resides in a nice home of her own near the home of her father, it being situated on the original thirty-seven acre tract of land which her father cultivated. Willis, who was horn July 26, 1873, was married February 19, 1899, to Clara Black, whose birth occurred at Glendale, Utah, February 19, 1880, and who is a daughter of William and Louisa (Washburn) Black. To Mr. and Mrs. Willis Webb, Jr., have been born eight living children: Clarinda, who was born February 22, 1900; Beulah, whose birth occurred November 16, 1902; Lula, whose natal day was August 3, 1904; Vera, horn July 15, 1906; Willis Andrew, born October 6, 1909; Mildred, born December 29, 1912; Lloyd, born November 15, 1916; and Edward, who was born on the 8th of June, 1918. The third child of the family is Nancy, the wife of

MR. AND MRS. WILLIS WEBB

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Martin H. Smith, residing in the Bramwell neighborhood of Gem county and mentioned elsewhere in this work.

In young manhood Mr. Webb of this review was a ward teacher of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for many years and was formerly an elder in the church.

JOHN HARVEY IRETON.

Upon the pages of Idaho's history is indelibly impressed the name of John Harvey Ireton, who was long identified with the industrial and business interests of the state and left the impress of his individuality upon its development and progress through a period of nearly half a century. By reason of his sterling personal worth and the vigor which he lent to the pioneer era, his death was the occasion of deep regret when on the 6th of November, 1917, he passed away in Boise. He was born in Cle=mont county, Ohio, March 15, 1845, a son of John and Sarah (Hadley) Ireton, who were natives of New Jersey and New York respectively. The father followed the occupation of farm- ing. The mother was a devoted member of the Methodist church and both enjoyed the high esteem of those who knew them. Their family numbered five sons and five daughters.

John H. Ireton, who was the sixth in order of birth, pursued his education in the schools of Williamsburg, Ohio, and at the age of eighteen responded to the country's call for troops to aid in crushing out rebellion in the south. He joined Company L of the Ninth Ohio Cavalry and was soon made a sergeant. He took part in many hotly contested engagements as the Federal army advanced through the south, including the battles leading up to the capture of Atlanta, being with the forces under command of General Kilpatrick, while later he went with Sherman on the march to the sea. In May, 1864, he participated in the pursuit of General Forrest's cavalry forces to Florence and on the 16th of July of that year was in the raid under General Rousseau to Lochapoga, while in the following December he took part in the march to Savannah with Sherman. He was also in the continuous fighting under General Kilpatrick, beginning at Chappell Hill, and was present at Johnston's surrender in May, 1865, after which he proceeded with his command to Concord, North Carolina, in July of that year and thence to Lex- ington, North Carolina, where on the 20th of July, 1865, came the order 'o muster out.

When the country no longer needed his military aid Mr. Ireton resumed the occupa- tion of farming in Ohio and in February, 1868, he boarded a steamer at New York that was bound for the Isthmus of Panama. After crossing that narrow neck of land he proceeded up the coast by steamer to San Francisco and traveled from Sacramento by stage to Boise in April, 1868. He first made settlement in Idaho at Centerville, in the Boise basin, which was then a thriving mining camp, and there he spent much of the time during the mining season for about three years. Early during his residence in Idaho, however, he became interested in live stock raising in the Squaw Creek and Payette valleys and for many years he was identified with stock and ranching interests in this state. Soon after his marriage in 1878 he became associated with Messrs. Mitchell and Marsh in the conduct of a ranch on the Payette river, thirty miles north- west of Boise, and for years the Marsh and Ireton ranch was one of the best known in that section of the state. It became the stage station and the roadhouse was there established, while the postoffice was maintained upon the ranch for the distribution of mail to those living in that section. By reason of these things the ranch became one of the best known localities in Idaho. After conducting the property for twenty-five years the firm of Marsh & Ireton sold to Dr. V. C. Platt and removed to Boise, where Mr. Ireton turned his attention to the real estate business and was active along that line for a number of years, again meeting with success in the conduct of his undertakings.

Ou the 30th of May, 1878, at the old postoffice of Marsh, Idaho, Mr. Ireton was married to Miss Josephine Warner, a daughter of Aaron and Huldah (Fuller) Warner, natives of New York and Connecticut respectively. They were married in Michigan. Mrs. Warner by a previous marriage had one son, Edson Marsh, who was for many years the partner of Mr. Ireton. By her second marriage she had two daughters: Mary, who became the wife of David Stem, formerly of Reading, Michigan, and now of Lafayette, Oregon; and Josephine, who was born September 21, 1848, and came west to Idaho with her half brother, Edson Marsh, arriving in this state May 7, 1874 .. During her residence in the east she engaged in teaching school in Ohio and Indiana, and when

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her half brother returned to Idaho she determined to accompany him and take up teaching in this state. She made her home on the Mitchell and Marsh ranch and some years later became the wife of her brother's partner, John Harvey Ireton. To Mr. and Mrs. Ireton were born a son and a daughter: John Arthur, mentioned at length elsewhere in this work; and Nellie B., who was born on the ranch April 23, 1880. She pursued her education at Emmett, also spent two years in the Portland University and in 1903 was graduated from the University of Idaho at Moscow. She has since served as assistant secretary of the state senate during the eighth assembly and was assistant city librarian at Boise for a time.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Ireton figured prominently in the communities in which they resided. Their aid and influence were always on the side of progress and improvement and their home was ever an attractive social center. They worked earnestly to advance every interest of benefit to county and commonwealth and at all times their ranch home was noted for its splendid hospitality and good cheer. Mrs. Ireton, a member of the Congregational church, was for many years superintendent of a small Sunday school conducted near the country home, thus affording moral and religious teaching to the children of the neighborhood. Mr. Ireton belonged to Phil Sheridan Post of the Grand Army of the Republic at Boise and he gave his political allegiance to the republican party, which was the defense of the nation during the dark days of the Civil war and has always been the party of reform and progress. The death of Mr. Ireton occurred Novemher 6, 1917, in Boise, and with his passing the state lost one of its valued and honored pioneer settlers-a man who bravely faced the conditions and hardships incident to the establishment of homes upon the frontier. For many years the Marsh and Ireton ranch was a prominent feature in the life of the state, known not only through the immediate neighborhood but to many who traveled through Idaho, as it was a roadhouse and stage station. As the years passed Mr. Ireton at all times bore his part in the work of general development and improvement while successfully carrying on his private busi- ness interests, and he lived to witness a remarkable change in the state as it emerged from pioneer conditions and environment and took on all of the advantages and opportunities of the older east.

JOHN ARTHUR IRETON.

John Arthur Ireton is the only living son of John Harvey Ireton, who was a very prominent pioneer settler of Idaho. The son, now residing in Boise, occupies a home of his own at 1323 State street, which he erected in 1909. He was born at Hawkins Tollgate, in Boise county, formerly known as Harris Tollgate, April 30, 1879, and is one of but two children, his sister being Nellie B., now the wife of J. C. Mills, Jr., of Garden Valley, Idaho.

John A. Ireton was reared on what is known as the Marsh and Ireton ranch at Montour, Idaho, there remaining to the age of twenty-three years, his father being a prominent cattleman of that district. The son obtained his education largely in the public schools at Emmett, at Horseshoe Bend and at Sweet. Later he spent two years in Columbia University at Portland, Oregon, and also pursued a course in a business college there. He has been more or less actively identified with ranching and cattle interests from his boyhood days and for twenty years has successfully engaged in busi- ness as a cattle buyer, making his home in Boise since 1903. For several years he engaged in buying cattle for the Idaho Dressed Beef Company and later for the Boise Butcher Company. In recent years he has been engaged in buying live stock for the Idaho Provision & Packing Company and he is now in the service of that concern. He has purchased many thousands of head of cattle, hogs and sheep for the different companies in the past twenty years, the transactions involving the expenditure of millions of dollars.

On the 1st of December, 1901, in Boise, Mr. Ireton was married to Miss Aurilla J. Chaney, who was born at Wahoo, Nebraska, June 25, 1881, a daughter of Samuel G. and Emily (Merriman) Chaney. She came to Boise in her girlhood days and prior to her marriage was a teacher in the public schools of the city for six years. Mr. and Mrs. Ireton have become parents of two sons: John Chaney, born September 1, 1913; and Donald Arthur, January 24, 1917. Mrs. Ireton is a member of Chapter A of the P. E. O. sisterhood. Both Mr. and Mrs. Ireton have a wide acquaintance in Boise and are held in the highest esteem. He is a man of highly developed sense of honor and of

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irreproachable integrity whose sterling qualities have at all times commanded for him the confidence and respect of those who know him, and amid his large circle of acquaintances he is spoken of in terms of the highest regard.

RICHARD L. BAKER.

Richard L. Baker, filling the position of postmaster at Ashton, was born in Salem, Nebraska, June 25, 1881, his parents being J. D. and Nora A. Baker, the former a native of Missouri, while the latter was born in Madison, Wisconsin. The father was for years a traveling salesman. He went to Nebraska with his parents when but five years of age and after attaining his majority was there appointed to the position of postmaster at Edgar, serving in the office for one term. In 1901 he removed to St. Anthony, Idaho, and engaged in general merchandising. He continued to carry on his mercantile pursuits for seven years and then went to Bliss, Idaho, where he bought land. Through- out the intervening period he has continued to till the soil and develop his crops and is now one of the representative farmers of that community. His wife is also living.

The youthful days of Richard L. Baker were spent at Edgar, Salem and York, Nebraska, and there he pursued his education. He was for three years in the postoffice at Edgar, after which he removed to St. Anthony, Idaho, in April, 1901, and there engaged in general merchandising in connection with his father for seven years. In 1908 he entered the postoffice as assistant postmaster under C. C. Moore and when four years had passed he left that position to enter the railway mail service, with which he was connected for twenty-five months. He then resigned and turned his attention to general merchandising, which claimed his energies for two years. On the 4th of March, 1918, he hecame cashier for the Oregon Short Line Railroad at Ashton and on the 1st of October following he took charge of the postoffice and has since been postmaster. His previous experience in connection with the mail service well qualified him for the duties of this position.

On the 17th of March, 1907, Mr. Baker was married to Miss Nettie E. Slatery. Fraternally he is connected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Those who know him, and he has a wide acquaintance, esteem him as a man of genuine worth who is faithful to duty and loyal to the principles which he espouses.

EDWARD H. STARN.

Edward H. Starn, owning and controlling valuable orchard interests near Collister, in Ada county, and also engaging in sheep raising, was born in Bunker Hill, Miami county, Indiana, September 25, 1865. When he was nine years of age he went to Iowa with his parents, B. H. and Mary C. (Jones) Starn, and remained in that state until 1886, when he removed to Redwillow county, Nebraska. There he was employed by Powell Brothers in the butchering business for four years, and on the expiration of that period came to Boise, Idaho, where he entered the employ of H. C. Branstetter in the same line of business. He continued to work in that connection nntil 1900 and for a time was in partnership with Harry C. Parnell. During the succeeding six years he was superintendent of the Ada county poor farm and then purchased the places of Joe Pence and Jesse Hailey, containing together three hundred and twenty acres of land. Since then he has followed horticultural pursuits and has one of the finest orchards and honies in the state. His residence stands in the foothills overlooking the Boise valley and was erected at a cost of between four and five thousand dollars, while today it could not be built for less than ten thousand dollars or more. He has a fine water system, the water being supplied hy springs, and the amount will be sufficient to irrigate all of his land when he has it piped. Already it is piped to the essential points. His reservoir was huiit at a cost of one thousand dollars. Mr. Starn is also engaged in sheep raising, having now about two hundred head, and he expects to develop this business to extensive proportions. He is a man of enterprise and energy whose well formulated plans are carried forward to success.

In 1890 Mr. Starn was united in marriage to Miss Mary Hawthorne, of Illinois, whose parents were residents of Iowa. She died in 1911, leaving two children, Edgar Clifford, twenty-six years of age, who during the World war was at Camp Stewart,

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Norfolk, Virginia; Sydney, twenty-one years of age, who is with the Mesa Orchard Company in Council valley. For his second wife Mr. Starn married Clara M. Banta, in October, 1912, and they have two children: Wilfred, aged four; and Gretta, in her first year.

For more than a third of a century Mr. Starn has lived in Idaho, and, taking advantage of the business opportunities here offered, he has worked his way steadily upward, his energy and progressiveness bringing him a substantial measure of success. He follows the most advanced methods in the development of his orchards, in pruning and spraying his trees and caring for the fruit, and everything about the place is indicative of his practical methods and progressive spirit, resulting in the attainment of most gratifying success.

THERON L. RAGSDALE.

Theron L. Ragsdale is now living retired in Boise, where he took up his home in 1917, after having been actively identified with ranching in other parts of the state for a number of years. He is a native son of Missouri, having been born near Lancaster, that state, on the 27th of April, 1855, his parents being James Fowler and Mary Ann (Bell) Ragsdale, both of whom passed away in Jackson county, Oregon. The father, who was of Scotch descent, was born in Texas, to which state his father, William B. Ragsdale, had removed from Tennessee. James F. Ragsdale was born in 1824 and was therefore sixty-five years of age when death called him in Jackson county, Oregon, in 1889. His wife was born in Virginia in 1824 and departed this life in Jackson county, Oregon, in 1885. She was of Scotch and German lineage.

Their son, Theron L. Ragsdale, removed to California with his parents in 1859. He was reared in that state and there on the 8th of November, 1877, he married Ida Goodrich, who was born at Niles, Michigan, a daughter of Hiram and Marietta (Sackett) Goodrich, both of whom have passed away. Mrs. Ragsdale accompanied her parents to California in her infancy and was there reared. Two years after their marriage, or in 1879, they removed from California to Pendleton, Oregon, and resided upon a ranch in Umatilla county for seven years. Subsequently they made their home in the state of Washington for twenty-four years and thence came to Idaho in 1911. While in Washington they lived at College Place, near Walla Walla, for sixteen years in order that their children might attend the Adventist college there. Mr. Ragsda'e has fol- lowed ranching throughout his entire active business life, conducting extensive agri- cultural interests in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. As the years have passed he has prospered and is today one of the men of affluence in Boise. He has owned some large ranch properties in the northwest and his landed possessions still include a ranch of twenty-two hundred acres in the Wood River valley of Idaho-property that is perhaps worth one hundred thousand dollars or more. In 1917 Mr. Ragsdale retired from active ranch work and took up his abode in Boise, where he has since lived, securing his present home property at No. 200 Broad street in the fall of 1919. Since becoming a resident of the capital city he has made large investment in valuable realty here and both his ranch and city properties return to him a good income.

To Mr. and Mrs. Ragsdale have been born five children, four sons and a daughter, and one son has passed away. The four living children are: Robert T., who was born September 11, 1880; L. B., whose birth occurred April 24, 1882; James Roe, whose natal day was December 1, 1884; and Effa M., who was born on the 29th of October, 1888. All are married and Robert and James live in Idaho. The eldest son is a nurse of wide experience, having studied for the profession in hospitals of Chicago and New York city. L. B. Ragsdale has become a minister of the Adventist church in Arizona, while the only daughter, Effa M., is now the wife of the Rev. William Ammundsen, an Adventist minister. They are now in the Philippine Islands, doing missionary work for their church.

Mr. Ragsdale was reared in the Methodist church and his wife in the Presbyterian church, but for forty-two years they have been consistent, faithful and prominent members of the Adventist church. Mr. Ragsdale has been one of the church elders for many years and is one of the most earnest workers and liberal supporters of the church in Boise, having contributed very largely to the erection of the church edifice at the corner of Sixth and Main streets. He has always been a man of kindly and benevolent spirit and he and his wife have assisted thirty children to obtain an educa-

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tion aside from their own family, realizing that in giving them opportunities for in- tellectual progress they were bestowing upon them a gift which nothing could take from them. Mr. Ragsdale is entitled to membership with the Sons of the American Revolution, for his great-great-grandfather was a Revolutionary soldier who served as a member of Washington's bodyguard. Mr. Ragsdale deserves much credit for what he has accomplished as the years have passed by, for his success is the direct and legitimate reward of his enterprise and diligence. He has largely placed his funds in the safest of all investments-real estate-and his industry and progressive spirit have constituted the sure and stable foundation upon which he has builded his prosperity. His path has never heen strewn hy the wreck of other men's failures and as a ranch- man he has contributed in large measure to the development of the northwest through the utilization of its natural resources.

A. M. WOLFKIEL.

A. M. Wolfkiel, the owner of valuable ranch property in the vicinity of Star, was born in Mifflin county, Pennsylvania, August 5, 1862. His father, George Wolfkiel, was a poor man and the son was therefore early obliged to leave home to provide for his own support. His mother hore the maiden name of Sarah Hawthorne and was also a native of Pennsylvania. When a lad of eleven years A. M. Wolfkiel accompanied his parents to Kansas and his father homesteaded in Lincoln county, where he carried on farming. The son worked at various things which a boy of his age could do.

He was a young man of twenty-one years when in 1883 he made his way to Idaho, going first to Boise, after which he engaged in farming for five years on the J. B. Wood ranch. In 1888 he made his way to Silver mountain and there cut wood for two months, after which he took up a preemption claim of one hundred and sixty acres three and a half miles north and a half mile east of Meridian. At once he began to clear this land and resided thereon for three years, at the end of which time he sold the property and took up a homestead three and a half miles north of Meridian, occupying that place for about eight years, during which time he was engaged in the live stock business. After selling that property he made investment in one hundred and thirty-two acres where he now resides, in the vicinity of Star, since which time his attention has heen given to the cultivation of his land and also to stock raising. His place is pleasantly and conveniently located a mile and a half south and a mile and a half east of Star, and his lahors have wrought a marked change in the appearance of the place and in its productiveness. In addition to tilling the soil he has one hundred head of cattle and his cattle raising interests are proving a profitable source of income.

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History of Idaho, the gem of the mountains, Volume III, Part 83

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