Evan E. Filby's Blog: South Fork and More, page 117

REMINDER: Upcoming Event (Boise): 2013 Roundup, Wild West History Association

History lovers who live relatively near Boise, Idaho have an upcoming event they should consider attending: The 2013 Annual Roundup of the Wild West History Association. For those of you who are not familiar with the organization, go to their web site.

I instantly urge you not to be put off by the organization’s name. Yes, they do tend to lean toward the colorful events (shootouts and battles) and personalities (outlaws and lawmen) of Western history. Of course, such matters did, in fact, ofte...

Shelley Businessman and Theater Owner Francis Davis [otd 07/09]

Theater owner and Mormon Bishop Francis M. Davis was born July 9, 1883 in Provo, Utah. He first found regular employment when he was just twelve years old. After several years in various unskilled jobs, he began working as an accountant. He spent seven years in that line before becoming a traveling salesman. His route took him into Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington.

In 1906-1909, Davis served LDS missions in England and Germany. When he returned to the States, he again worked as an accoun...

Pony Express Links Boise Basin, Glowing Reports from the Mines

On July 8, 1863, the Deseret News in Salt Lake City published an article about Idaho Territory. An express rider, one H. McFarlane, had completed the first regular pony express run between Bannock City, in the Boise Basin, to Salt Lake. The paper said that he had been “about fourteen days in making the first trip.  It is intended however to make regular weekly trips as soon as this new pony institution shall be fully established, which the proprietors intend extending east to Fort Bridge...

Trapper Osborne Russell Observes "Beer Springs" (Today's Soda Springs) [otd 07/08]

In July of 1834, fledgling mountain man Osborne Russell wrote, "We travelled down this river and on the 8th encamped at a place called the Sheep Rock, so called from a point of the mountain terminating at the river bank in a perpendicular high rock."
Sheep Rock, sometimes called Soda Point
… near Soda Springs, Idaho.He then noted: "The Sheep occupy this prominent elevation (which overlooks the surrounding country to a great extent) at all seasons of the year."

Osborne Russell was born June 12,...

Silver Mining Town of Kellogg Platted [otd 07/07]

The Illustrated History of North Idaho said, "The original plat of the town of Kellogg was filed with the auditor of Shoshone County July 7, 1893."
Kellogg, Idaho, ca 1907. University of Idaho Digital Collections.Development of the area began in the late summer of 1885, when prospectors Phil O'Rourke and Noah S. Kellogg discovered what became the Bunker Hill Mine. O'Rourke filed the claim on September 10, and by the end of the month other hopefuls had located several mines along extensions of...

Newspaperman and Printing Company President Harry Syms [otd 07/06]

Harry J. Syms, co-founder and President of the Syms-York Company was born July 6, 1866 in New Zealand. After learning the printer's trade, he found employment in several South Pacific locations, including Australia, Fiji, and the Hawaiian Islands.
San Francisco, ca 1888. National Archives.
He came to the United States in 1888 and worked at a San Francisco newspaper. After a year there, Syms moved to Shoshone, Idaho, where he bought and operated the Shoshone Journal for five years.

In 1894, he so...

Vengeful Assailant Murders Judge Brady in Rathdrum [otd 07/05]

On the night of July 5, 1901, farmer Henry Williambusse shot and mortally wounded newspaper editor and Probate Judge John C. Brady. This event was the violent climax to a dispute of two years standing.
Kootenai County Courthouse, Rathdrum, ca 1908. City of Rathdrum.
During the summer of 1899, locals "charged" Williambusse with insanity and brought evidence for the accusation before Brady in his capacity as Kootenai County Probate Judge. After hearing the evidence, Judge Brady found for the pros...

Site Selected for a New Fort Boise

For this particular date, my regular "On This Day" article does double duty, being also relevant for the Sesquicentennial.

Major Pinkney Lugenbeel Picks Site for Fort Boise [otd 07/04]

Major Lugenbeel, ca 1880.
Idaho State Historical Society.On July 4, 1863 Major Pinkney Lugenbeel formally selected a spot to build a military encampment, which the U. S. Army initially called Camp Boise.

A West Point graduate and Regular Army officer, Lugenbeel had been assigned to train Volunteer recruits in the Pacific Northwest at the start of the Civil War. These partially-trained western Volunteer troops quickly replaced Regular Army units that were transferred east.

Undermanned Army garri...

President Harrison Makes Idaho Territory the Forty-Third U. S. State [otd 07/03]

President Benjamin Harrison, ca. 1897.
Library of Congress.On July 3, 1890, President Benjamin Harrison signed the bill that made Idaho a state, the 43rd. The signing culminated one of the more convoluted pathways taken by any state to its final admission into the Union.

Idaho became a Territory in March 1863. That was largely because political leaders in Washington Territory wanted to be rid of all those voting-age prospectors in the Idaho gold fields [blog, March 4].

Lewiston was selected as...