Evan E. Filby's Blog: South Fork and More, page 55

Mining and Irrigation Developer, and Boise Founder John A. O’Farrell [otd 02/13]

John O'Farrell. H. T. French photo.World traveler and Boise pioneer John Andrew O'Farrell was born February 13, 1823, in Ulster, Ireland. He went to sea after two years in a naval school: The round trip from London to Calcutta and back made O'Farrell a seasoned sailor at 16. He then became a crew member on an East India Company ship that sailed to Sydney, Australia, and widespread points in between.

O’Farrell remained in England for a year or so, qualifying as a shipyard worker. He then signe...

Pioneer Camas Prairie Physician John W. Turner, M. D. [otd 02/12]

Camas Prairie and Cottonwood, Idaho physician John Wesley Turner was born February 12, 1861, while his parents were visiting relatives and friends in Indiana. Afterwards, the family returned to their home in Kansas and John grew up in an area about forty miles south of Kansas City. As a young man, he worked at a drug store for two years before beginning classes at the Eclectic Medical Institute in Cincinnati.
Dr. Turner. [Illust-North]
Eclectic medicine prided itself on selecting “whatever woul...

Congress Approves Appropriation for Planning the Mullan Military Road [otd 02/05]

Governor Stevens. Library of Congress.On February 5, 1855, Congress approved a $30,000 appropriation to plan the construction of a military road from Fort Walla Walla, Washington to Fort Benton, Missouri. Major impetus for such a road came from Isaac I. Stevens, Governor of Washington Territory, with support from the U. S. Army’s Department of the Columbia.Stevens had the ultimate dream of a transcontinental railroad running along a northern route, ending on Puget Sound.

In theory, a northern...

Two Sheepmen Shot to Death, Could Spark Range War [otd 02/04]

On the morning of February 4, 1896, two riders guided their horses along a rough track through the scrub-covered foothills of south-central Idaho. James E. Bower, a superintendent for the Sparks-Harrell Cattle Company, had headed south from Rock Creek after breakfast. He was in no particular hurry and, after about a half hour, cowboy Jeff Gray had overtaken him. Awhile after they joined up, they glimpsed another horseman galloping far ahead of them along the stony road.
Sheep camp. Library of...

Avalanche Cluster Brings Tragedy to Coeur d’Alene Area, Six Killed at Custer Mine [otd 02/03]

At suppertime on Monday, February 3, 1890, a dozen miners who worked at the Custer Mine sat eating after a long day. The mine, high above Nine Mile Creek about six miles northeast of Wallace, had been located in 1885.
Custer Mill, ca 1890. University of Idaho archives.
Actually, according to the Illustrated History of North Idaho, eager prospectors had combed that area the year before, "but they were looking for placer gold, and were, perhaps, without much skill in their business, so failed to...

Attorney, Montpelier Mayor, and U. S. Congressman Thomas Glenn [otd 02/02]

Congressman Glenn.
H. T. French photo.U. S. Congressman Thomas L. Glenn was born February 2, 1847 near Bardwell, Kentucky, in the extreme southwest corner of the state. His father died two years later. The family moved first to Indiana and then to Illinois, ending in Cairo, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers.

When the Civil War began, Thomas clamored for a chance to fight, despite his youth. (Like many Kentuckians, he supported the Confederacy.) Then, in 1862, his mother died,...

Frontier Missionary and Peacemaker Father Pierre-Jean de Smet [otd 01/30]

Father De Smet, 1860-65.
Library of Congress,
Brady-Handy Photograph Collection.Roman Catholic priest Pierre-Jean de Smet was born in Belgium on January 30, 1801. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1821 and trained as a Roman Catholic missionary with the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits. His first missionary work to the Indians was among the tribes along the lower Missouri.

In 1840, Father de Smet joined a party of American Fur Company traders headed for a mountain man rendezvous on the Green River i...

Rancher, Canal Manager, and Ada County Sheriff James Bennett [otd 01/26]

Sheriff Bennett.
Ada County Sheriff’s Office.Ada County Sheriff James A. Bennett was born January 26, 1865 in Leavenworth, Kansas. The family moved to farm country 40-50 southwest of St. Louis, Missouri when James was a few years old. He grew up in that area and garnered what education he could from the common schools there.

James came to Idaho in 1886. That was a period of high optimism for stock-raising in Idaho. Much of that was fueled by the completion of the Oregon Short Line railroad acro...

Wanderer, Painter, and Sculptor 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...

Snake Brigade Leader Peter Ogden Laments Fur Trade Deaths [otd 01/01]

Peter Skene Ogden.
Oregon Historical Society. On New Year's Day, 1829, Peter Skene Ogden wrote in his journal, “One of the trappers left in charge of the sick man arrived with his horse fatigued and informed me that our sick man, Joseph Paul, died 8 days after we left, suffering most severely.”

Ogden was then leader of the Snake Brigade, a band of trappers and support personnel working for the British-Canadian Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC). Born in Quebec in 1790, Ogden had around twenty years ex...