Evan E. Filby's Blog: South Fork and More, page 48

Idaho Falls Businessman and Booster Frank C. Bowman [otd 01/20]

Idaho Falls businessman and civic leader Frank C. Bowman was born January 20, 1870 in Morgan County, Utah, fifteen to twenty miles southeast of Ogden. Frank started farm work at an early age, but around 1881 the family moved to Salt Lake City.

Two years later, Frank took a job as a “cash boy” at a large dry goods and millinery store. (The cash boy ran money received from a customer by a salesman to the main – often the only – cashier and returned with the proper change.) Starting with that as...

Geologist, Mining Engineer, and State Mine Inspector Robert Bell [otd 01/16]

Inspector Bell. J. H. Hawley photo.On January 16, 1864, mining engineer Robert N. Bell was born in Yorkshire, England. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1877-1880 and worked first on a farm in Wisconsin. After a year or two there, he moved to Montana and joined a railroad construction crew near Bozeman. When that was completed, Bell found work in a nearby coal mine.

He moved to Salmon, Idaho in 1884 and began prospecting in the surrounding mountains. Two years later, he and a partner made a valuable...

Painter, Sculptor, and Wanderer Charles Ostner Gets Paid [otd 01/15]

Artist Ostner. J. H. Hawley photo.On January 15, 1869, the Idaho legislature appropriated $2,500 to reward artist Charles L. Ostner for the equestrian statue of George Washington he had recently presented to the state.

Born in Baden, Germany in 1828, Ostner emigrated to the U.S. around 1848-1850. Stories that pose him as an untutored natural genius are just that … stories. In reality, Charles received an early grounding in art at the University of Heidelberg and made a living as a sculptor, sk...

Outdoorsman, Writer, Photographer, and Game Warden Otto Jones [otd 01/08]

Outdoorsman Otto Jones.
J. H. Hawley photo.
Photographer and journalist Otto M. Jones was born January 8, 1886 on a ranch near Dillon, Montana. Two years later, the family relocated to a sheep ranch about twelve miles northwest of Boise City. They moved into the city about 1892.

Rather than attending high school in Boise, Otto went to a military academy in Virginia for a year and then spent two years in prep school at Washington State College (now University). He traveled around a bit, and then...

Army Scout, Yellowstone Park Protector and Ashton Postmaster Felix Burgess [otd 01/06]

Army scout and Fremont County postmaster Felix Burgess was born January 6, 1847 in Reading, Pennsylvania. His father, an immigrant from northern France, moved the family from Reading to St. Paul, Minnesota in 1856. After a brief time there, they moved on to Sauk Rapids, a town about 60 miles northwest of Minneapolis.
Scout Burgess. [French]
For reasons he never explained, Felix ran away from home when he was about ten years old. He was taken in by an Army captain at Fort Ripley, about 40 miles...

Boise Developers and Patrons Thomas J. Davis and Wife Julia [otd 01/02]

T. J. Davis. J. H. Hawley.On January 2, 1837,* Boise pioneer Thomas Jefferson Davis was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. His father died when Thomas was a boy, so he and a brother were indentured to an Illinois farmer. Before June 1860 (they were not listed with the household for the 1860 census), the farmer rewarded their years of labor by outfitting them for a trip to the West. They ended up heading for the newly-discovered Idaho gold fields.

Unscrupulous guides led their wagon train into impossib...

Idaho Governor and Boise Developer John M. Haines [otd 01/01]

Idaho governor, and Boise developer and mayor, John Michener Haines was born January 1, 1863 on a farm east of Des Moines, Iowa. He received a solid education to about the age of twenty, including several years at Penn College (now William Penn University), located about 30 miles south of the family farm.
Governor John M. Haines. [French]
After a couple years as a bank clerk in Nebraska, Haines joined Walter E. Pierce [blog, January 9] and another partner to successfully develop real estate i...

Marine Corps Ace and Medal of Honor Winner Pappy Boyington [otd 12/04]

Pappy Boyington. USMC photo.Ace pilot and Medal of Honor winner Gregory “Pappy” Boyington was born December 4, 1912 in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. His mother divorced and remarried while Greg was very young, so he grew up thinking his last name was Hallenbeck. Not until some years later did he discover his birth name.

He grew up in the Idaho Panhandle and developed an early fascination with flying, fueled by “romantic” World War I stories about gallant pilots and their dogfights. His interest was f...

American Sherlock Book

An interesting “near-coincidence” happened with regard to today’s blog topic … criminologist Luke S. May. Two days ago, on Friday, I transmitted the manuscript of my American Sherlock biography of Luke May to a publisher. Earlier in the week, I had signed and sent off a book contract with Rowman & Littlefield, one of the largest – if not the largest – independent publishers in this country.

They generally expect to publish both a hardcopy and e-book version. That could get interesting, sin...

Wholesale Grocery Pioneer and Pocatello Developer Joseph Young [otd 12/01]

Joseph Young. J. H. Hawley photo.Western grocery wholesaler Joseph Taylor Young was born December 1, 1880 on a ranch near Logan, Utah. Three years later the family moved to Rexburg, Idaho, where he grew up and went to school. As a teenager, he attended Ricks Academy [blog, Nov 12]. He then went to work for the St. Anthony Lumber Company, which was then supplying ties, timber and planks to the Oregon Short Line Railroad.

Young’s lumber company experience landed him a job as a supply clerk with...