Evan E. Filby's Blog: South Fork and More, page 65

BYU-Idaho Predecessor, Bannock Stake Academy, Has Building Dedicated [otd 11/12]

On November 12, 1888, Mormon pioneers dedicated the school building for the Bannock Stake Academy in Rexburg, Idaho. With this small start, the Academy can justly lay claim to being the first organization in the state that eventually grew into an institution of higher learning. Not the first actual college, however; at least three Idaho schools taught college-level classes before them.
Principal Spori. BYU-I Archives.
The Stake selected Jacob Spori, a highly educated Swiss emigrant, as the firs...

Boise Mayor, Attorney, and Earthquake Witness Joseph Pence [otd 11/09]

Mayor Pence. CityofBoise.comOn November 9, 1869, Boise Mayor Joseph Thomas Pence was born in Ottuma, Iowa. He graduated from Parsons College (Fairfield, Iowa) in 1892. Pence then taught at another small Iowa college, serving four years as Chair of its Department of Classical Languages.

After studying law for a year at Georgetown University, he transferred to Drake University Law School. He received his Bachelor of Laws degree in 1900.

Pence moved to Boise immediately after graduation and opened...

University of Idaho Language Professor and Dean Jay Eldridge [otd 11/8]

Dean Eldridge.
University of Idaho Archives.University of Idaho Dean of the Faculty Jay Glover Eldridge was born November 8, 1875, in Janesville, Wisconsin (about 60 miles southwest of Milwaukee).

After much moving around the country, the family ended up in New York state where the young man received his early education. He then graduated with highest honors from Yale University in 1896. (He received a Ph.D. from the school ten years later.)

He then studied modern languages at Yale while also se...

Elections: U. S. President Abraham Lincoln and Lewiston Mayor Ankeny [otd 11/06]

President Lincoln.
National Archives, Matthew Brady.On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States. In March 1863, while leading the nation through the Civil War, Lincoln signed legislation that created Idaho Territory.

Lincoln profoundly impacted the new Territory throughout his time in office. A week after the Territory was created, he appointed William Wallace as the first governor.

Lincoln also appointed a Territorial Secretary, three justices for a Territori...

Reverend William Judson Boone and the College of Idaho [otd 11/05]

Boone statue on College of Idaho campus.William Judson Boone, D.D., first and long-time president of the College of Idaho, was born November 5, 1860, in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, 15-20 miles southwest of Pittsburg.

After high school, he studied at the College of Wooster (Ohio), from which he received A.B. and M.A. degrees. Study at the Western Theological Seminary (Pittsburgh) further prepared him for the ministry (they awarded him a D.D. degree in 1903).

In 1887, Boone took up the Presbyt...

Boise Mayor, Merchant, and Prominent Mason Charles Himrod [otd 11/04]

Mayor Himrod. H. T. French.Boise merchant and Mayor Charles Himrod was born November 4, 1842, in Burdett, New York, about 55 miles southwest of Syracuse. After completing basic country schooling, he became clerk in a general merchandise store. After eight years of that, he traveled in 1864 with a government-organized emigrant party on the Oregon Trail. The train reached Boise City at the end of September.

Charles decided to settle in the new town and found a job in the dry-goods and general me...

Idaho Supreme Court Justice Sullivan … and Women's Suffrage [otd 11/03]

Justice Sullivan. Illustrated History.The state of Idaho’s first Chief Justice, Isaac Newton Sullivan, was born on November 3, 1848, in Iowa, midway between Waterloo and Dubuque. After high school he studied at a college in Michigan and then in a judge's law office in Iowa. He was admitted to the bar of Iowa in 1879 and moved to Hailey, Idaho two years later.

Besides his law practice, Sullivan invested in a number of valuable mining claims as well as farm and ranch land around Hailey. His suc...

Wallace Creates New Fire Brigade After Destructive Downtown Fire [otd 11/02]

On November 2, 1890, the citizens of Wallace, Idaho convened a public meeting and created a new fire brigade to replace their old fire department. By organizing Wallace Hose Company No. 1, the town hoped to improve their fire protection.
Lead-silver mill at Wallace. H. T. French photo.
The first cabins had been built in Wallace just six years earlier, after prospectors discovered placer gold in the area. Major finds of lode silver followed and the town mushroomed. Within a few years, rail line...

Former Toponis Railway Station Fully Linked to Gooding Brothers [otd 11/01]

Governor and U. S. Senator Gooding.
Library of Congress.James H. Hawley’s History of Idaho, asserts that Gooding, “the county seat of Gooding County, was founded on November 1, 1907, by Frank R. Gooding, then governor of the State of Idaho.”

The term “founded” somewhat overstates reality, because settlers had already occupied the area for over a quarter century. The 1907 date actually refers to when the Idaho Irrigation Company finalized details of its big land sale in the area (Idaho Statesman...

Flagrant Voter Fraud in Idaho Territory’s First Elections [otd 10/31]

Governor Wallace. J.H. Hawley photo.On October 31, 1863, the brand new Territory of Idaho held its first elections. The Territory had been created six months earlier because of all the prospectors who rushed into the region with the discovery of gold [blog, Mar 4].

Less than a week after its creation, President Abraham Lincoln appointed William H. Wallace as the Territory’s first governor.

Born about fifteen miles north of Dayton, Ohio, Wallace took up a law career in Indiana and moved to Iowa...