p i ctur ed i n hi story
The Fickle
Nature of
Fortune
THE IGNATZ WEIL STORY
B
Story by Jennifer Lamont-Leo, photo courtesy Bonner County History Museum.
orn in Vienna in 1853, Ignatz Weil arrived in San Francisco at age 18, where he worked as a bookkeeper. In 1882 he relocated to Helena, Montana, to work for Greenhood, Bohm and Company, a purveyor of “gents’ furnishing goods” such as clothing, “liquor, tobacco, cigars, and bar glass.” As a traveling salesman, Weil’s route covered the West, so he would have passed through Sandpoint many times, viewing the area’s potential through entrepreneurial eyes. In the mid 1880s, Weil won $15,000 in a lottery (roughly $450,000 in 2022 dollars). He bought land in Sandpoint, then purchased E. L. Weeks’ general store and operated it for several years as the Sandpoint Mercantile Company. The enterprise flourished, earning Weil the moniker “Merchant Prince of Kootenai County” from the Kootenai Herald. (Bonner County had not yet been formed). In 1886 he married Irene Henry. Local resident Bertha Johnson recalled a rumor that Irene had worked for many years as Weil’s housekeeper and finally pressured him into marrying her at the point of a pearl-handled Derringer. Whether that story is accurate or not, the marriage was reputed to be a happy one, and the Weils were leaders in the nascent Sandpoint “society.” Even their bulldog, Major, merited his own obituary when he died in 1904 “to the grief of Mr. and Mrs. Weil and the regret of the general public, who had looked upon the faithful old dog as one of the pioneers of the town.” Another pioneer was Jack Waters, who ranched 160 acres where Sand Creek flows into Lake Pend Oreille. In 1892 the hapless Waters was passing a slaughterhouse when a stray bullet, intended to kill a steer, ricocheted and hit him in the arm. The arm was amputated, but Waters died three days later,
leaving no spouse, no heir, and no will. Into the breach stepped Ignatz Weil. After settling Waters’ affairs, he accepted Waters’ 160 acres as payment for services rendered. He divided this acquisition, along with his own acreage, into lots, forming a real estate development called Weil’s Addition. As Sandpoint’s population boomed and the speculation paid off, Weil diversified his interests into an insurance brokerage, a liquor distributorship, and a mine. In 1907 Bonner County was formed. Weil built the courthouse on his property and rented it to the city, which purchased the building in 1908. In 1909 he and Irene built a grand home over Jack Waters’ modest one at 227 S. First Avenue. He also built several downtown commercial buildings. In quick succession Weil became Bonner County’s first county clerk, then a U. S. Commissioner of Idaho. He served on the Republican Central Committee at both county and state levels. Political opponents called him “wily,” a play on his name as well as a probable assessment of his business dealings. One opponent called him a “wiley (sic) son of Israel,” a slur on his Jewish heritage, and pointed out his liquor business to persuade “prohibitionists and temperance people” to vote against him. In 1930 Weil switched parties and ran for probate judge as a Democrat, losing to Andrew Christensen. But this was the least of his troubles. He lost everything, including his house, in the 1929 stock market crash. Sawmill owner L. D. McFarland purchased the house, which locals still call “the McFarland House” even though Weil built it. The Weils moved to Algoma, where Ignatz died in 1931. Irene moved back to town. Neighbors supplied her with baskets of food and looked after her until her death in 1945. Both Irene and Ignatz are buried in Lakeview Cemetery. SandpointMagazine.com SANDPOINT M A G A Z I N E
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