Evan E. Filby's Blog: South Fork and More, page 6

Owyhee Mining Investor and Developer John Scales [otd 05/06]

John Scales. Commercial Directory.Owyhee silver mine developer John Scales was born on the 6th of May, 1840 in County Clare, Ireland. The family moved to the U.S. and settled in Maine when John was a teenager. He first found factory work there before attending business school in New York. In 1868, he traveled to California via the Isthmus.

Scales decided Idaho offered better prospects and immediately moved to Silver City. Like most newcomers, he started out as a laborer and worked his way up to ...

North Idaho Rancher and Businessman Chester Coburn [otd 05/03]

C. P. Coburn. [Illust-State].Pioneer businessman and rancher Chester P. Coburn was born May 3, 1832 in central Vermont. He spent three years working in New York before, in 1852, he caught a boat for the route across Nicaragua to California. He apparently barely made expenses in the gold fields, so he began spending more and more time running a store. That led him into stock raising.

In late 1861, reports circulated about exciting gold discoveries in the Florence Basin of Idaho. Coburn sold his ho...

Major Lead-Silver Discoveries Spark Rush to Wood River Area [otd 04/26]

On April 26, 1879, Warren P. Callahan filed on a lead-silver claim at the base of the ridge a mile or so west of the present town of Bellevue, Idaho. This filing was a major milestone for what would quickly build into a rush into the Wood River mining districts.
Wood River Valley, looking south. Illustrated History, 1899.
The Boise Basin gold discoveries of 1862 [blog, Oct 7] drew thousands of hopeful miners to southern Idaho. Soon, all the best claims had been staked, so prospectors began to broa...

Banker, Idaho Governor, and Reclamation Manager D. W. Davis [otd 04/23]

Idaho Governor David William Davis was born April 23, 1873 in Wales. The family moved to the U.S. two years later, and the father found work mining coal in the districts northwest of Des Moines, Iowa. This being before strict child labor laws, David began working in the coal mines there in 1885, when he was twelve years old.
Boy miners were once common. Library of Congress.
After three years he landed a job in the mining company store. Personable and hard-working, Davis showed a talent for the ret...

Army Leader and Western Explorer Benjamin Bonneville [otd 04/14]

U.S. Army General Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville was born to bourgeoisie parents on April 14, 1796, near Paris, France. His father, perhaps sensing how the political winds were blowing, sent the family to the U.S. in 1803. (Napoleon would crown himself Emperor of France in 1804). He joined them some years later.
West Point, early print, bef. 1835. Library of Congress.
A precocious student, Benjamin graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point when he was nineteen years old. Bonnevi...

Cattle Growers Meet in Shoshone, Discuss Disease and Over-Grazing [otd 04/10]

The April 10, 1886 issue of the Owyhee Avalanche in Silver City, Idaho reported on the Annual Meeting of the Idaho Territorial Stock Growers' Association. The meeting took place in Shoshone. The Association had been organized about three months previously at that same location.
Idaho Hotel, Silver City. Owyhee Directory.
The first documented Idaho stockmen's association began in 1878, when cattlemen held a convention in Silver City to discuss their business. (The Owyhee Cattlemen's Association – s...

Americans and British-Canadian Fur Trappers Meet Along Portneuf River [otd 04/09]

Peter Skene Ogden.
Oregon Historical Society.On April 9, 1826, Peter Skene Ogden, for whom the Ogden River is named, wrote in his journal, "About 10 a.m. we were surprised by the arrival of a party of Americans and some of our deserters of last year, 28 in all."

Ogden led the Snake Brigade, a band of trappers and support personnel working for the British-Canadian Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) [blog, Jan 1]. The column had left Fort Nez Perces (near later Walla Walla, Washington) in November 1825 to ...

Sheepman Hugh Fleming Found Dead. Killed by Cattlemen? [otd 04/02]

On April 2, 1894, riders on the range near American Falls, Idaho discovered the body of sheepman Hugh Fleming. The unarmed herder had been shot four times. Suspicion instantly fell on local cattlemen, who had threatened Hugh and his brother John on numerous occasions.
Western sheep herding. Library of Congress.
The dispute centered largely on the use of the public lands in Idaho, as it did in other Western states. Sheep came early to Idaho, arriving in 1860 with the first Mormon colonies along th...

Stage Line Operator and Coach Driver Charles Haynes [otd 03/27]

Long-time stagecoach driver Charles C. Haynes was born March 27, 1837 in Liverpool, Ohio, about thirty miles south of Youngstown. Before his twenty-first birthday, he had accumulated years of experience driving stagecoaches in Ohio, Michigan, and Iowa.
Took a top driver to handle a 6-horse hitch. Library of Congress.
Railroads were supplanting stage lines there by 1857, so he moved west. The following year he began driving stagecoaches in Missouri and Kansas. Thus, for two years, Charlie staged in...

Freighter, Stagecoach Driver, and Eagle Developer John Carpenter [otd 03/26]

John R. Carpenter.
J. H. Hawley photo.Pioneer John R. Carpenter was born March 26, 1846 near Albany, New York. In 1859, John helped his father drive a covered wagon to California while his mother traveled by ship around Cape Horn. After mining and ranching in California and then Oregon for some time, the family moved to Idaho in the spring of 1863.

John and his father hauled logs and carried freight for several years. On one early trip to procure supplies in Oregon, highwaymen attacked and robbed ...