Idaho Territory's Sesquicentennial

WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 2013

SECTION G

IDAHO TERRITORY’S SESQUICENTENNIAL A SPECIAL SECTION LOOKING AT THE REGION’S PRE-STATEHOOD HISTORY

When Territories Were Dividing Like Cells

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reating a western territory in the 1860s was not a simple procedure accomplished by a stroke of the pen. Politics, confusion and delay all played a role as the West was carved into new domains under control of the federal government.

Quite often, hasty action at Washington had to be amended later, which resulted in some territories changing their shapes like one-celled amoeba dividing under a microscope.

Idaho Territory must fall within this category. It was conceived and born when the nation was involved in the agony of the Civil War. A great deal of political maneuvering occurred, and it came within a hair’s breadth of not being created at all.

What is now Idaho was part of two other territories before it finally evolved into a territory of its own, and it was later subdivided before taking EARLY MAP | The its present form.

Idaho terr CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 >

STORIES INSIDE THIS SECTION:

itory was huge, en compassing what is now Montana an d Wyoming.

EARLY-DAY POLITICS WERE CUTTHROAT

TERRITORY’S TROUBLED BIRTH RIFE WITH RASCALS

BRINGING ORDER TO CASH-POOR, CHAOTIC IDAHO

WE WAS ROBBED: FIGHT OVER CAPITAL BEGINS

GOLD LURED THOUSANDS TO THE TERRITORY

OTTER, ANDRUS SHARE THOUGHTS ON ANNIVERSARY

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From 1848 until 1853, what is now Idaho was part of Oregon Territory, an enormous plot of land stretching from the Rockies to the Pacific. In 1853, Oregon Territory was divided. The northern part of Idaho was part of Washington Territory, and southern Idaho remained in Oregon.

In 1859, Oregon became a state and all of the present state of Idaho became part of Washington Territory, governed from Olympia. This situation aroused no problems until the discovery of gold in 1860, and the rush of 1861 opened the Lewiston region to settlement. Olympia then became an intolerable distance away from the center of population.

Agitation began for a new territory. Lewiston’s pioneer newspaper, the Golden Age, asked: “Of what good to us is a capital of Washington Territory located at Olympia on the 48th parallel? During four months of last year, no communications could be had with that place at all. Its distance is between 700 and 800 miles, interspersed with huge forests, roaring rivers and rocky-bound shores of ice, with impassable barriers of snow.

“One of the editors of the Washington Statesman was elected to the Legislature by the voters of Walla Walla, and before

he left to perform those legislative duties to his constituents, he made his will, settled all his worldly accounts and bade his friends adieu until next summer, and perhaps forever.”

William H. Wallace, who was later to be Idaho Territory’s first governor, was working assiduously behind the scenes for creation of the new territory. Wallace was at the time a non-voting delegate to Congress from Washington Territory, with aspirations to become the governor of the new territory if it could be maneuvered through Congress.

The action began Dec. 15, 1862, when a resolution was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. William Kellogg of Illinois. It called for a study by the Committee on Territories of the feasibility of creating a new territory in the Pacific Northwest.

The resolution passed, and the committee, headed by Rep. James Ashley, introduced a bill Dec. 22 to provide a temporary government for the Territory of Idaho. It was referred back to the Committee on Territories.

Another bill was reported out Feb. 11, but it was for the temporary government of the Territory of Montana. It was ordered out of committee Feb. 12 with a recommendation that it be passed. With a few amendments, it was passed.

In the Senate, in the meantime,

DECEMBER 1912 - Finished building Front view (looking southwest)

EARLY IDAHO | Washington Territory was divided in 1863 into Washington, Oregon and Idaho, with a little left over for Montana and Wyoming.

Sen. James Lane of Kansas had introduced a measure to provide for the temporary government of Montana Territory. His bill, along with the one from the House, was referred to the Senate Committee on Territories.

With two bills in its possession, the Senate went on to other matters. Wallace, the aspirant for governor, meanwhile kept working behind the scenes.

By March 3, 1863, the eve of congressional adjournment, the bills both appeared on the verge of death because of Senate inaction. Debate on other

LEWISTON CITY HALL 1134 F Street, Lewiston, ID

matters dragged on until Sen. Morton Wilkerson of Minnesota moved that the Senate postpone other matters and take up the House bill.

The need for discussing a new western territory brought opposition from Sen. Sumner of Massachusetts and Sen. Ira Harris of New York; but Sens.

James R. Doolittle of Wisconsin, John Ten Eyck of New Jersey and Garrett Davis of Kentucky were in favor.

After a debate, the Senate passed the measure with some amendments and sent it back to the House. After a close call in the House, the bill was passed and sent to President Lincoln.

As amended, the new western territory was named Idaho. Lincoln signed the bill on March 4 and named W. H. Wallace as the governor.

It was an unwieldy chunk of the West. It covered more than 325,000 square miles. It was carved out of the present states of Idaho, Montana and all of Wyoming, except for a small rectangle in the southwest corner, which was attached to Utah.

Montana was lopped off in 1864 and Wyoming in 1868. Idaho took its present shape in 1868.

— Originally published in the July 7, 1963, Lewiston Morning Tribune

APRIL 1978 - 66 years later (looking southwest)

The settlement of Lewiston, Idaho commenced in May, 1861 and the City of Lewiston was incorporated on January 15, 1863. It was first part of the Washington Territory until the Idaho Territory was created on March 3, 1863. City of Lewiston subsequently became the first capital of the new Idaho Territory. The current Lewiston City Hall building was originally constructed and completed in December 1912.

It served for sixty years as the Lewiston Post Office. The building was remodeled and rededicated on February 15, 1972 and to this day serves as the City of Lewiston City Hall.

The citizens of Lewiston have a lot of history to celebrate as we conclude our 150th anniversary with the dedication of the 1st Territorial Capitol on Saturday, July 10, 2013 at 11:00 a.m. at the corner of 12th and Main. Come join us! www.cityoflewiston.org 385241GJ-13

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IDAHO T ERRITOR Y’S SES QUIC EN TENN IAL Lewi ston T ri bune

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Politicking Was Boisterous When Territory Was Born

By Thomas W. Campbell hen William H. Wallace arrived at Lewiston, Idaho Territory, July 10, 1863, he was already quite familiar with the “territorial business.” Only two years before, he had been appointed governor of Washington Territory, from which the new Idaho Territory had been carved; but he declined this appointment after being elected the Washington territorial delegate to the U.S. Congress.

Additionally, Wallace had been a prime mover in the behind-the-scenes negotiations at Washington, D.C., to get the organic act creating Idaho approved

by Congress. This was at a time when he was still the Washington territorial delegate and his term was running out.

Idaho did not come into being until March 3, 1863, during the last hours of the congressional session. The next morning, President Abraham Lincoln signed the bill creating Idaho Territory and appointed his friend William H. Wallace as the first governor.

It was not an unusual gesture in the

PRIME MOVER | William H. Wallace was Idaho’s first governor. free and easy politics of that era.

Wallace was just nine days short of his 52nd birthday when he arrived at Lewiston on July 10, 1863. His first act was to proclaim that the sprawling boisterous mining camp was to remain as the capital of Idaho Territory.

Numerous historic figures of early Idaho took the field seeking the nomination in the first election.

Two Rivers, One History HISTORIC IMAGES OF THE LEWIS CLARK VALLEY

Among them was Lloyd Magruder, a Lewiston merchant, who was a selfproclaimed “Copperhead,” that is, he was opposed to the policies of Abraham Lincoln in carrying on the war against the southern states. Magruder also expressed himself as an anti-abolitionist, or against freeing the slaves.

Magruder not only lost the nomination, he lost his life as well. He and four companions were brutally slaughtered in the Nez Perce Pass on the present Idaho-Montana border in mid-October 1863.

Other candidates from the Lewiston area were A. L. Downer, the city’s first postmaster; John H. Cranton, editor of the Golden Age; Alonzo Leland, an anti-slavery Democrat and former editor of the Portland Times; Robert Newell, Lapwai, a former fur-trapper and mountain man; and Gilbert Hayes, a ferry operator and Republican leader.

It took weeks for the election returns to arrive at Lewiston. They traveled by pack train from remote mountain peaks and along the shores CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 >

Idaho’s First School District Chartered

The development of Lewiston’s early schools culminated on December 30, 1880, when the 11th Territorial Legislature chartered Independent School District No. 1, Idaho’s first. The first subscription school in Lewiston opened its door in 1863 in a log storefront at 3rd and Capitol Streets. Students shielded themselves from the breezes sailing through unsealed cracks between the logs. Crude woodburning stoves gave the only heat, and the only light was from the sun. Teachers did not use blackboard and chalk until 1867.

The school year was anything but regular, with three-month sessions being the norm, if a “qualified” itinerant teacher happened to stop in Lewiston. According to the ter-

for everyone!

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Historic Figures

1880

The Perfect Gift

$

It was the largest community within the vast region covering what is now Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, although as Lewistonians were to learn in a few short months, the faithful populace would vanish overnight if new gold fields were in prospect.

He was governor only until Oct. 31 of that same year, when the first territorial election was held, and he was elected Idaho’s delegate to Congress in an election tainted with fraud, although none of it rubbed off on Wallace.

The election in which Wallace was elevated to congressional delegate and returned to Washington, D.C., was heavy with overtones of the Civil War then raging in the eastern United States. Wallace was a Lincoln Republican or, as they were known in Idaho Territory, a Unionist. His opponent was John M. Cannady, a northern Democrat opposed to the southern view of the Civil War.

ritorial superintendent’s report for 1869, the average term was only two months.

Few early teachers stayed for more than one term.

The city constructed its first public school in 1872, raising $2,000 with a levy and various community events. Visitors rated the structure as “the best school building in Idaho.” Students attended for their first nine-month school year in 18781879, when textbooks were adopted. The District created Lewiston High School, Idaho’s second, in 1888.

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special keepsake edition Limited Availability

505 Capital St. Lewiston 208-743-9411 1-800-745-9411 (ID & WA Only)

220 E. Fifth St., Ste. 218 (Above the Post Ofce in the Federal Building)

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7th & 8th graders with teacher, Miss Cornelius Lewiston Public School – 1010 Main Street c. 1889

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Tribune Staff Writer

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of unknown streams where men were panning for gold and from the few civilized communities that existed.

Since there was at that time no such animal as a permanent resident of Idaho, any male over the age of 21 was eligible to vote.

At the time of the first elections, Democrats were more numerous in Idaho than Republicans, but they were split on the slavery issue. Many Democrats voted for Wallace because they were afraid of the Confederate leanings of their erstwhile colleagues.

As the returns trickled slowly in, the issue remained in doubt. Wallace carried Boise County to the south with a commanding 400 votes, but in Nez Perce County, he led by a meager seven votes. The northern sector of the territory was known to favor candidate Cannady, and the issue was still in doubt by mid-November as the plodding mules returned with election results.

U.S. Deputy Marshal Dolphy S. Payne was in the Boise Basin area rounding up returns from isolated precincts when a rumor was received that the Beaverhead country east of the mountains had gone solidly for Cannady.

Payne, who was a solid Wallace supporter, arrived back at Lewiston with what he said were the returns from the Laramie region. They showed that Wallace had won in the precinct 479 to 0. However, a census completed just one month prior to that date showed that the population of Laramie included only 100 voters.

Payne’s Downfall It wasn’t long before it was determined that the “Laramie returns” provided by Payne were a complete fraud.

In fact, an election hadn’t even been held.

William H. Wallace was the beneficiary of the fraud, but all the blame fell upon Payne. It was the opinion of the Republican Party and a majority of the residents in the territory that Payne had fabricated the Laramie returns after hearing the report that the Beaverhead country east of the mountains had gone for Cannady.

Why Payne was so anxious to have Wallace elected that he perpetrated a fraud was not known. Perhaps it was because he hoped for some favor from Wallace when the governor reached Washington, D.C. Guilt for the Fort Laramie episode was never legally established. Payne was charged with forgery at Lewiston and later with

Committed to supporting our local communities

malfeasance in office when he fled the territory.

William H. Wallace picked up the nickname “Old Fort Laramie” from his opponents, and the affair haunted Republican politics for more than 40 years.

But it didn’t stop Wallace from returning to Congress. He left for Washington, D.C., Dec. 6, 1863, the day before the first Legislature met at Lewiston. Despite the uproars over the Laramie affair and the heated election campaign that had preceded it, Wallace had not neglected his duties as territorial governor.

During the summer months, he laid down a solid framework for operation of the government, although the territory had no funds. The provision of money had been overlooked by Congress when it passed the organic act of creation in March.

Never To Return William H. Wallace was never to return to Lewiston. When his term in Congress was up, he was reappointed governor of Idaho July 18, 1865, as successor to Caleb Lyon, but Lyon’s influential friends in the State Department intervened and the new territory was saddled with the peculiar man from New York

1892

state once again.

Wallace’s career was distinguished throughout by public service.

He was born July 19, 1811, at Troy, Ohio, and moved to Indiana in 1817, where he eventually became an attorney.

When his older brother, David, became governor of Indiana in 1837, William moved on west to Iowa, where he served as speaker of the Iowa House of Representatives in the first territorial Legislature of 1838. He was a member of the Iowa Territorial Council in 1842-43.

He met defeat in two elections in Democratic Iowa in 1843 when he ran for Congress, and in 1848 when he ran for the U.S. Senate. He served as a colonel in the Iowa militia and as a federal land office official before pushing on to the new Washington Territory in 1853.

At Olympia, Wallace continued his legislative career. He became president of the Territorial Council in 1855-56.

When his old friend Abraham Lincoln became president, Wallace was favored with appointment as governor of the new Territory of Washington which was organized in 1859.

— Originally published in the July 7, 1963, Lewiston Morning Tribune

No matter the address, Lewiston is our home.

Congratulations to the Territory of Idaho on celebrating your 150th Birthday.

1st location: Third Street

21st Street (208) 743-6070

Bryden (208) 743-2537

Clarkston (509) 758-3388

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Member FDIC

2nd location: Erb Hardware Building

Present location: 505 Capital Street

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IDAH O TER R ITOR Y’ S S ES QUIC ENTENNIAL

LEWI STON TRI BUNE

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Few Men To Admire In Idaho’s Troubled Birth T

his year we celebrate the 150th formed community of Boise. anniversary of Idaho becoming a It is unknown how they secured these territory. From the start, it was a bit lots, but when word of their existence of a struggle. Our territorial government leaked out after Wallace’s departure for had a cast of characters unmatched at Washington, D.C., there was a public any time since then. outcry in Lewiston alleging that they had The first territorial governor, been gifted the lots as a bribe to William Wallace, lived in westmove the capital to Boise. The ern Washington. The easiest outcry caused Daniels much access to Idaho for Wallace was embarrassment, but not so much by taking the boat to Lewiston. that he gave up the lots. He also Since Lewiston was his point refused to discuss how they had of arrival in the territory, he been obtained. made it the capital.

Daniels resigned shortly before But Wallace soon resigned to COMMENTARY the expected arrival of the second become Idaho’s congressional territorial governor, Caleb Lyon. delegate in Washington, D.C. Or, as he preferred to be called, The territorial secretary under Caleb Lyon of Lyonsdale. Lyon Wallace was William B. Daniels. was the governor who transiWith Wallace’s departure from tioned the territorial capital from the territory, Daniels became the Lewiston to Boise. de facto governor. The initial interest Much has been made of Gov. Lyon in moving the capital to Boise appears escaping from Lewiston on a supto have come rather secretly from Gov. posed duck-hunting trip that took him Wallace and Secretary Daniels. In the to Walla Walla and eventually Boise. fall of 1863, not that long after each had There is no doubt that Lyon was perarrived in Idaho, they secretly obtained a haps the most outrageous person to number of building lots in the recently ever hold public office in Idaho.

Martin L. Peterson

Gov. William McConnell wrote in his couldn’t take effect until it was ratified by “Early History of Idaho,” that Gov. Lyon the U.S. Senate, and that didn’t happen didn’t fit in any better in Boise than he until 1867, long after the capital had had in Lewiston. “He insisted on wearing been moved from Lewiston to Boise.

At the second session of the territoclean linens, taking a bath, and even, on rial Legislature in 1864, they state occasions, wearing a dress voted to make Boise, which suit. In fact, he was the first had only been established a individual who had the temerity little more than a year earlier, to appear at a society function in Idaho’s permanent capital.

Boise City in a swallow-tail coat.

The biggest issue in deterIt was even hinted that he wore mining where to locate the capsuspenders.” ital was the 1864 territorial cenJ.S. Butler, a pioneer Idaho sus. The population of northjournalist, described Gov. Lyon Caleb Lyon ern Idaho, covering Idaho, Nez as “a conceited, peculiar man, Perce and Shoshone counties, who made many enemies and misappropriated much of the public was 2,634. The population of southern funds.” He was “a revolving light upon Idaho, covering Alturas, Boise, Oneida and Owyhee counties, was 16,431. the coast of scampdom.”

Lewiston citizens filed a suit in District The selection of Lewiston as the capital had serious legal problems. The fed- Court to invalidate the Legislature’s action eral act creating the territory excluded re-locating the capital in Boise. The local tribal treaty lands from the territory. probate judge, Judge Smith, handed Lewiston was part of the lands reserved down a decision stating that the capital for the Nez Perce Tribe under the treaty of the territory was legally Lewiston.

A new territorial secretary, C. DeWitt of 1855. In 1863, a new treaty was signed that excluded Lewiston from the reservation. But the treaty also provided that it CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 >

1896

Growing with Lewiston for 120 years.

www.lcsc.edu

1896 – Entrepreneur, E.P. Doris opens a new store, in Lewiston, under the name of “Cash Hardware.” 1910 – Robert S. Erb purchases and incorporates the store under the new name of Erb Hardware Company.

1970 –Erb Hardware af¿liates with Ace Hardware Corporation, becoming Erb’s Ace Hardware. 1986 – Erb’s great grand niece Joann and her husband Richard Bennett buy the store. 1996 – The store celebrates its 100th year in business. 1998 –Erb’s Ace Hardware re-locates to a new 23,000 sqft facility in the Lewiston orchards. 2013 – Brett R. Toney, grandson of Richard Bennett, and his wife Laurie Toney, buy out the remaining shareholders, marking only the second time in the store’s history that Erb’s Ace Hardware has been a sole proprietorship.

The team here at Erb’s Ace Hardware continues in the relentless pursuit of superior customer service started all those years ago, always remembering to put the customer ¿rst. We appreciate your patronage and look forward to seeing you in the store!

141 Thain Rd, Lewiston Orchards

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Lew i s t o n Tr i b u n e I DAH O TERRITOR Y’ S SES QUI CENTENNI AL Wed nesday , Ju ly 10, 2013

with $43,000 from the territorial treasury. Gilson was finally tracked down Smith, had been appointed by the in Europe, where he was living high on president. Just as Gov. Lyon was a less- the hog. But he eluded capture, and the than-sterling character, the same could funds were never recovered.

While the executive branch be said of DeWitt Smith. of the territorial According to James Hawley government had its in his “History of Idaho,” Smith fill of difficulties, “yielded to the temptations pecuthe same was true liar to frontier society. Indulged with the legislative in dissipation, from the effects of branch. Many of which he died at Rocky Bar on the citizens of the territory Aug. 19, 1865, six months after had been southern sympathizhis arrival in Idaho.” In other C. DeWitt Smith ers during the Civil War, and words, he was a drunk.

Idaho has many place names Finally the federal government in Washington intervened and dating from the era that reflect southordered the U.S. Marshal to remove ern sympathies, including Leesburg, the territorial records from Lewiston Dixie, the Sesech River, Atlanta and and take them to Boise. This order Pittsburgh Landing.

While the executive branch was was carried out in October 1865, and Idaho finally had a permanent capital. made up of officials appointed by and With DeWitt Smith’s death, yet anoth- loyal to the president of the United er territorial secretary was appointed. States, the Legislature was made up of And just when you thought things would individuals elected by the citizens, and the southern sympathies of many of have to improve, they got even worse.

Smith’s replacement was a man named the legislators put them at odds with Horace Gilson. Caleb Lyon continued the executive branch.

In the 1866 session of the Legislature, to be absent from the territory, and Gilson was effectively in charge. He an effort was made to force legislators was a man looking for opportunities, to take a loyalty oath to the United and in his new position he found them. States before they could be paid. A riot When he left Idaho a year later, it was erupted in the legislative chambers in > CONTINUED from PAGE 5

which furniture was broken up and thrown out through the windows.

Finally, Gov. David Ballard was forced to call troops in from Fort Boise to quell the riot.

But back to Gov. Lyon. Once the

Next came Gen. Gilman Marston.

He resigned after six months and never visited Idaho.

Grant’s third choice was A. H. Conner. He declined the offer as soon as it was made.

Next came Gen. Ebenezer Dumont.

Unfortunately, Dumont died less than a month before he was scheduled to leave for Idaho.

Grant then turned to Thomas Bowen. Bowen, unlike the others, actually showed up in Idaho. He worked hard for a month and then left for Portland on business, never to return.

So, with all of this, you really need to ask yourself the following question: “Why would Lewiston or Boise have ever actually fought to be designated the capital? Are these really the kind of neighbors you would want and the kind of people you would want to expose your children to?”

But nobody ever said that politics were simple and easy to understand.

“Why would Lewiston or Boise have ever actually fought to be designated the capital?”

1903

capital had been moved to Boise, he did eventually return to Idaho. When he finally left the territory for good, he took $50,000 from the territorial treasury. He was eventually tracked down on the East Coast. Unfortunately, as he told it, while he was riding on a train on the East Coast, someone stole the money from his rail car.

With Caleb Lyon gone, the territory finally entered into a period with some effective leadership. David Ballard, a physician from Oregon, replaced Lyon. He was an effective governor during his four-year term.

Then it fell to President Grant to appoint his replacement. He first appointed Samuel Bard, an Atlanta newspaper editor, who resigned after three months, never having visited Idaho.

Marty Peterson grew up in the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley. He is retired and lives in Boise. He serves as president of the Foundation for Idaho History.

1914

The Tradition Continues...

We have been, “Saying it with Flowers” since 1914.

1223 Main - 1903

1440 Main St, Lewiston

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Stillings & Embry is Lewiston’s oldest remaining Florist.

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Mr. & Mrs. P.F. Stillings founded the business in 1914.

In 1916 Mr. C.T. Embry was taken into the business as a partner.

Mr. & Mrs. Melvin White purchased the shop from the Stillings and then sold the shop to Joe and Imogene Vassar January 1, 1959. The Vassar’s sold the shop to Gordon and Sharla Hubbard February 1, 1988.

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From our beginning on Main Street in Downtown Lewiston in 1903, when Teddy Roosevelt was President, and Lewiston’s population was 3,510, to almost 110 years later....

Our professional memorialists have been working here in the valley to assure the finest craftsmanship and customer service.

Some things can go on forever.

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IDAHO T ERRITOR Y’S SES QUIC EN TENN IAL Lewi ston T ri bune

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First Idaho Legislature Worked Without Funds

T

hey faced what appeared to be the insurmountable job of organizing a government for a region so vast it almost defied the imagination and so isolated from the civilized world that a stable governmental organization seemed impossible.

In addition, they had to do the job without any money.

The Congress of the United States had obligingly created Idaho Territory the previous March 3 of 1863, but it had not appropriated one cent to administer it. It was an oversight that weighed heavily on the 18 men who were the upper and lower house of the territorial Legislature.

They had come to Lewiston on horseback, across mountains and along rivers and streams. It had taken them weeks to complete the trip.

When the delegates assembled, they learned that W.H. Wallace, who had been appointed territorial governor in March and arrived in July, was already on his way back to Washington, D.C. He had left Dec. 6, the day before the session convened, to start a two-year term as territorial delegate to Congress.

William B. Daniels, who had been territorial secretary under Wallace, assumed the title of acting governor and gave the first “governor’s message” to the group seated before him in the log cabin.

Members of the Upper House, or Territorial Senate, were E. B. Waterbury, a Lewiston auctioneer, and Stanford Capps, an attorney, representing District 1, composed of Nez Perce and Shoshone counties; Lyman Stanford and Ephraim Smith, representing Boise County, or District 2; and William C. Rheems and A. J. Edwards, representing the eastern district, which was the next year to become Montana Territory.

Members of the Legislative Assembly, or House of Representatives, were L. Bacon, Nez Perce County; Alonzo Leland and John

Nez Perce County Historical Society and Tribune/Kyle Mills

OLD AND NEW | Clockwise from top left: The first territorial Capitol of Idaho was in this frame building in downtown Lewiston in 1863. —— Bill Miller (right) gives Stone Anderson and Lane Martinez directions while they work on the frame for a handicapped access ramp at the Idaho Territorial Capitol replica under construction. The two Lewiston High School senior carpenters are among 10 students who regularly worked on the project at Main and 12th streets in Lewiston.

—— Members of the First Territorial Capitol of Idaho Revitalization Project get help from a crew from K&G Construction as the walls on the replica of territorial capitol building goes up near Main Street across from Lewiston City Hall.

Wood, Idaho County; James A. Orr, Shoshone County; Joseph Tufts, the Beaverhead area east of the Bitterroots; L. C. Miller, East Bannock; and five men from Boise County, C. P. Bodfish, M. C. Brown, R. P. Campbell, Milton Kelly

and W. F. Keithly.

The first Legislature met for several months, wrestling with the many problems that faced it.

RAISE SALARIES Among the first decisions

was to correct what legislators believed to be a stingy attitude on the part of Congress in fixing salaries for territorial officers. The pay of the governor was raised $2,500 a year to $5,000. The additional money was to be paid

in territorial warrants, which were to draw 10 percent interest until paid.

The first Legislature was also generous in handing out franchises for toll roads, CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 >

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bridges and ferries. This was done to solve the transportation problem, probably the greatest single headache facing the territory.

No sooner had the first Legislature organized 10 counties in the east than the Congress pulled the rug out from under it by creating Montana Territory on May 25, 1864.

In the realm of spade work, the first Legislature established judicial districts and put a system of courts in working order. Most importantly, it adopted criminal and civil codes.

Idaho was formed from parts of other territories, and none of the law of those territories carried over. Between March 3, 1863, and Feb. 4, 1864, when the Legislature adopted its first criminal and civil codes, the territory was without any legal restrictions.

(This situation has long aroused the interest of students of the Magruder murders, which resulted in the hanging of three men at Lewiston March 4, 1864. Although the legal code had been in effect a month when they were hung, they were arrested and tried at a time when there was no law — except that of the vigilantes. Although there is no doubt the men were guilty, it

Tribune/Kyle Mills

VOLUNTEERS | Bill Miller and Dan Marsh cut lumber as the replica of the Idaho Territorial Capitol takes shape on Main Street in downtown Lewiston. remains that they were probably illegally tried and hung.)

It was during the first legislative session that the first attempt was made to wrest the capital from Lewiston and transfer it to Boise.

Old accounts of this movement give Alonzo Leland, the many sides’

1927

representative from Idaho County and a later editor of the North Idaho Radiator and the Lewiston Journal newspapers, credit for staving off the first attempt to transfer the capital.

When the subject came up in the Legislature, Leland launched into a one-man filibuster. A.W. Goulder, a

pioneer of the region, describes it thusly: “During the first session a strong effort was made to remove the capital, but the framers of the bill made the mistake of introducing it so late in the session that it failed to reach the session in time for its final passage until the last evening.

“Then Alonzo Leland, of happy memory, got to the floor and in spite of everything that could be done to stop him, talked bill, session and nearly everyone else to death. When the gavel fell dissolving the great body of assembled legislative wisdom into its original elements, the bill, having failed to reach a final vote, was found on the clerk’s table along with the unfinished business of the dead session.

“When everybody else had left the hall and the lights were all out, the voice of Leland could be heard talking away to the darkness and the silence, and he was found the next morning seated in the middle of the floor of his office still talking, the torn fragments of the bill scattered around him.”

— Originally published in the July 7, 1963, Lewiston Morning Tribune

1927 mystery surrounds the A Pistol Palace, built in 1927 and located above Lolo

Lolo Sporting Goods is located in historic downtown Lewiston, Idaho in a building constructed in 1927. The store opened as Rich’s grocery, with rooms for rent upstairs – now the Pistol Palace. In 1955 Paul Nolt and Hugh Helpman converted the building to Lolo Sporting Goods and operated continually until Paul died in November of 2004. The family sold to Lori Lohman, who reopened it in May of 2005. She sold the store to Dave Howell, a local businessman, in August 2009.

Lolo wants to be your rst and last stop for all your shooting needs – and that means making sure you are completely satised with their products and services.

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Manager Mike Thomas supplies outdoorsmen with new and used guns, ammunition and reloading equipment and components. They buy used guns and have the lowest consignment fees of any store in the area. A highly qualied gunsmith is on hand at Lolo Sporting Goods to take care of any gunsmithing needs or wants. Need Idaho Fish and Game licenses? They have that too.

LOLO SPORTING GOODS 1026 Main St. Lewiston • 208-743-1031

www.LoloSportingGoods.com • Mon-Sat 10-6

Sporting Goods. While the story varies in some parts, the upstairs was built to be a brothel, some say it never was and others say different. You interpret the worn marks on the wooden oors.

Lori Lohman reopened the Pistol Palace in 2008 so now you can now stay in a piece of Lewiston history. While some updating has taken place it still holds the charm of yester-year.

The beds and dressers in each room are the ones that were there when the building was constructed, but of course the springs and mattresses have been replaced.

A great alternative to a hotel, the Pistol Palace has seven bedrooms, three baths, a sitting area and a bar that seats eighteen. There is a kitchen and laundry room for your use as well.

1028 Main Street • Lewiston 208-798-0909 • www.thepistolpalace.com

Newly restored piece of Lewiston history, located above Lolo Sporting Goods

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IDAHO T ERRITOR Y’S SES QUIC EN TENN IAL Lewi ston T ri bune

9

Where’s the Capital? That was the question

By Thomas W. Campbell

It

Tribune Staff Writer

Tribune/Kyle Mills

A VINTAGE LOOK | Off-duty Lewiston firefighters volunteer their time to help install vintage lumber siding to the exterior of the replica of the Territorial Capitol Building in Lewiston. was ever connected with a legislative body was thwarted, and a set of swindlers has learned that fortune sometimes favors those who act honestly.”

But grimmer times were ahead for Lewiston partisans.

When the second legislative session met Nov. 14, 1864, the rebels from the south were riding high, wide and handsome. Boise County had five legislators, and the delegations from Owyhee, Alturas and Oneida counties were in their pocket. They held the trump cards.

A bill to change the capital from Lewiston to Boise was one of the first introduced in the second session, and it was approved, with voting strictly on geographic lines. Gov. Caleb Lyon, the fantastic man who had succeeded Wallace, signed the bill Dec. 7.

W. A. Goulder, who was the delegate from Idaho County, summed up Lyons succinctly: “He had seen the people of Boise, and he had been seen by the people who know how to see a governor.”

Lewiston residents turned to the courts for help against the inroads made by the “Boise Gang,” when they learned that the capital was to change effective Dec. 24. It was a dreadful blow to those who had worked with such determination for the creation of the territory and with equal vigor for the designation of Lewiston as capital.

Lewiston’s legal counsel, T. M. Pomeroy, found a basis upon which to found his argument. It was his

contention that the Legislature met six weeks before the time legally set for it to convene. This, he contended, made

CONTINUED ON PAGE 10 >

1937

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is still possible, even after the passage of almost 100 years, to raise hackles on the necks of Lewiston patriots by bringing up the story of the tumultuous days in 1864-65 when the capital of Idaho Territory was removed from Lewiston to Boise. To Lewistonians, then and now, the departure of the government was a case of downright theft, even though it had overtones of legality.

That a movement to switch the capital from Lewiston to Boise would develop was a natural consequence of the times. When Idaho Territory was in the process of creation, Lewiston was the epicenter because it had the largest population and was, for that reason, selected as the capital.

The selection of Lewiston was made official July 10, 1863, when Gov. William H. Wallace arrived in the city.

However, an event six days earlier cast a long shadow on the proceedings at Lewiston.

On July 4, Boise City had been founded. When the Legislature convened at Lewiston it was hardly more than a few tents set up on a barren wasteland, but like every other goldboom community in the West, it suddenly mushroomed.

By the time the first Legislature met Dec. 7, 1863, the Boise basin was flourishing, and delegates from that end of the territory were not enthusiastic about Lewiston’s designation as the capital.

They were joined by representatives of Virginia City (now Montana, but then a part of Idaho Territory), who felt that Lewiston was too far away from the shifting centers of population.

The Boise people wanted to move the capital to their community; the Virginia City group wanted a new capital with itself as the capital. After numerous arguments among themselves, the Virginia City and Boise delegations agreed that the capital must be removed from Lewiston.

They put their plan into action as soon as the territorial Legislature opened. But Alonzo Leland, a leading Lewiston citizen, state legislator and editor of the Golden Age, sniffed out the plot and denounced it, largely through a one-man filibuster. This initial conspiracy was broken.

A comment at the time put it this way: “The wheels of the capital refused to roll, and thus as corrupt a scheme as

all its acts null and void.

Nez Perce County Probate Judge John G. Berry issued an injunction against removal of the territorial seal and archives from the city of Lewiston. Notice of the injunction was served upon Gov. Lyon, and he was summoned into court to reply to a variety of charges made by Lewiston residents, including one that he wasn’t even legally the governor.

As Lewiston elements closed in, Lyon and his associates from Boise were laying a few plans of their own. The chief among them was the sudden departure of Lyon to avoid his becoming entangled in the legal noose being prepared for him by Lewiston residents.

How Lyon escaped is detailed in the “History of Idaho,” written by the late Byron Defenbach: “Now a fleeing governor is like any other game animal; before you can arrest him, you have to catch him. Caleb, having heard what was going on, arose from his slumbers in the early morning and taking with him Sol Hasbrouch of

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Owyhee County and a canoe and a shotgun, started out to hunt ducks on John Silcott’s ranch across the Clearwater.

“The frail boat had reached the middle of the river when it became unmanageable and was carried by the swift current down the Snake River to White’s Ferry.

“There, by a remarkable coincidence, a carriage and two horses were waiting. The two fugitives were taken to Walla Walla, and that was the last ever seen of Caleb Lyon of Lyonsdale at any point north of the Salmon River.”

Symbols Retained Caleb Lyon’s famous duck hunt removed the physical presence of the governor from the territorial capital, but Lewiston still held tight rein on the symbols of the office, the official seal and the archives. Without these, no territorial government could function. A strong guard was thrown around the symbols.

Silas D. Cochran, acting secretary of the territory — although he did not have an official appointment — was the only federal representative left at Lewiston. As such, he was regarded as a prize of war by Lewiston dissidents. They gave him the choice of either going to jail or furnishing a $20,000 bond guaranteeing that he

would not depart the city with the seal and the archives.

He refused to do either. Lewiston residents established a perpetual guard of six stalwart citizens to watch the seal and the archives locked in the log cabin serving as Idaho’s first capitol.

This guard prevented an attempt on New Year’s Eve, 1864, to steal the seal and archives. The plot was directed by Caleb Lyon, then in temporary residence at Portland.

Lewiston began firing off protests to Washington, D.C., alleging that Lyon had deserted his post, that he and the legislators from the south had illegally conspired to remove the capital. They asked Congress to expel from Idaho Territory the offending counties of the south; they asked that a new territory, composed of the Idaho panhandle and eastern Washington be established; they asked that the panhandle be re-attached to Washington Territory and Lewiston be named as capital.

All these attempts were in vain and Idaho Territory was in total chaos, as was so often the situation in a time when the new territories were managed and mismanaged by long distance from Washington, D.C. The Legislature had picked Boise as the capital; the seal and archives were still at Lewiston; Secretary Cochran,

the only representative of the sovereign power of the federal government, was being held captive at Lewiston; and the governor was ensconced at Portland, manipulating all strings within reach.

Lyon was also awaiting the arrival of the new secretary, one Clinton DeWitt Smith, who was en route from the East. Smith was to serve as acting governor and secretary with headquarters at Lewiston, where he would be very close to the seal and archives — as matters turned out, too close. Smith had been thoroughly briefed by Lyon when he arrived at Lewiston March 2, 1865.

Clinton DeWitt Smith was a charming fellow. He easily ingratiated himself with the citizens of Lewiston.

He brought with him expense money for operating the territorial capital at Lewiston, money which was quite welcome, since no funds for operation of the territory had been forthcoming in two years.

But as Caleb Lyon admired duck hunting, Clinton DeWitt Smith was fond of long, solitary horseback rides in the country. He took such a ride on the afternoon of March 29, 1865.

With him were his right hand man, Horace Gilson, and Frank Kenyon, a former editor of the Golden Age. They rode off toward Fort Lapwai.

When night fell and the three men

failed to return, Probate Judge Berry became alarmed, and rightly so. Smith, Gilson and Kenyon had sought refuge at the fort. In addition, they had asked for a military guard to “escort them from the territory,” in other words to Boise.

Judge Berry issued another injunction forbidding the removal of the seal and archives and named J. K. Vincent as a deputy to enforce the order.

But the jig was up. A Lewiston patriot returned from Fort Lapwai with the news that the soldiers had orders to “burn the town if necessary” to get the seal and archives. As the soldiers approached, the residents of Lewiston were in a furious mood. The seal and archives were removed, and the detachment rode away to rejoin Smith, Gilson and Kenyon, who had waited at a discreet distance out of town with another group of soldiers.

A Futile Effort Marshal Vincent, true to his obligation, ran after the departing company of horsemen in an attempt to serve an injunction forbidding them to do the very thing they had just done. It was a futile effort.

The latest depredation left the loyal Lewistonians holding several coal oil lamps, furnishings and a collection CONTINUED ON PAGE 11 >

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of books as the only reminders that it had once been the capital of the Territory of Idaho.

More official protests were made by Lewiston residents. Among them was a claim that Clinton DeWitt Smith, the man who had impressed Lewiston residents as a charming fellow when he first arrived, was actually a “buffoon and drunkard.” Later this was amended to term Smith a man “too dishonorable for an officer, and too great a liar and drunkard to command respect as a man.”

(The pitiful remaining symbols of the capital were locked in the city jail, but in October 1865, were taken away on the strength of an order from Washington, D.C.) Secretary Smith, now regarded as great a villain as Caleb Lyon, entered Boise in triumph on the night of April 14, 1865. At the same time a continent away, John Wilkes Booth entered a box at the Ford Theater and put a bullet into the brain of Abraham Lincoln.

At dawn the next day, Lincoln was dead and Lewiston was no longer the capital.

— Originally published in the July 7, 1963, Lewiston Morning Tribune

IDAHO T ERRITOR Y’S SES QUIC EN TENN IAL Lewi sto n T ribune

11

Idaho And The Big Parade

By John Ward

Idaho Department of Commerce and Development

I

daho’s seaport in the mountains became a thriving center of commerce with the same amazing speed of growth that marked every phase of gold-rush development.

Lewiston was platted as a city in 1861, two years before the name Idaho was applied to the territory. In those and ensuing years, the coast vessels and river boats hauled a fabulous number of fortune seekers up the Pacific streams to the junction of the Snake and Clearwater rivers.

The tide of emigration had turned, and Idaho became the first state to be settled from the west rather than the east; the first settled by a tide of waterborne travelers from the Pacific rather than the Atlantic.

The Steamboat Era The story of “the gold rush by sea” unfolds in completeness with the story of the monopoly carrying passengers and freight from Portland

Tribune file

COMING DOWN THE WAY | The Almota steamboat on the Clearwater River, circa 1890, was part of the area’s growing transportation systems of the late-19th century. to Lewiston using railroad portages around the Cascades and The Dalles of the Columbia River.

This was the daring enterprise which funneled through ever-growing Lewiston enough people to populate several pioneer states; enough equipment and supplies to build the Inland Empire; and earned enough in profits to build many fortunes. It was the Oregon Steam Navigation Co., which, say reports of the Oregon Historical Society, “became a millionaire-making machine.”

The tide of men and material pouring into the gold fields was so great the company had to build new ships quickly.

And so great were the profits of the carrier that the steamship Okanogan paid the entire cost of herself on her first trip.

But with best efforts, the company could not possibly take all the business offered, so enormous was the gold-rush cavalcade hurrying through Lewiston and fanning out over all Idaho. Naturally, as the gold towns mushroomed and multiplied, people came from all points of the compass. But nowhere was there the concentrated, colorful parade that boats brought to Lewiston.

At Portland, the onrush of freight was so great in volume that conveyances had to wait in line for many days and nights at a time. Drivers would leave their wagons for food and sleep, posting a guard or guards in their absence. Shippers needed 24-

hour vigilance to get their goods on the way. They often put empty vans in line, which they loaded from time to time as more goods came in.

Fighting for a place in line was not uncommon. Shippers from distant ports who did not have an agent to hustle their goods onto the river boats often had their goods left at the docks for weeks and months at a time. Like the Oklahoma land rush of later days, it was a time which shouted, “Devil take the hindmost.”

How Charges Were Figured The transportation rate for freight from Portland to Lewiston was $120 per ton. Excepting lead, nails, etc., all freight was estimated by measurement, 40 cubic feet equaling 1 ton.

(That’s about the capacity of an oldfashioned trunk.)

The Oregon Historical Society relates the story of O. B. Gibson, employed by the company at The Dalles. He was trying to measure the tonnage of a small cannon being shipped for the government. He tried the longest and widest measurements possible, and his maneuvers attracted the attention of some soldiers. One called out, “What’s the trouble, Cap?” “I’m trying to get the right measure of this blamed cannon,” said Gibson, CONTINUED ON PAGE 12 >

12

LEWISTON TRIBUNE

IDAHO TERRITORY’S SESQUICENTENNIAL

WEDNESDAY, JULY 10, 2013

> CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

“but I can’t get it right.� “I’ll show you,� said the soldier, and he harnessed a pair of mules and hitched them to the gun. “Try’er now, Cap,� he said.

Gibson thanked him and commented, “Now I see why I was getting the wrong measurement.�

Passengers from Portland to Lewiston paid $60 for passage and a dollar each for meals and beds.

LEWISTON LOOKED LIKE HEAVEN Once aboard the river boat, gold seekers could relax for the trip.

Reaching Lewiston, the ordeal of the trucks, docks and expense was behind.

Growing Lewiston could unload. “Ragtown,� it was called, with its cluster of board buildings and an array of tents which glowed at night like great Japanese lanterns. Here was the atmosphere of eagerness and promise.

One was in Golden Idaho, and news of fresh gold strikes kept coming in as more orders for more equipment for digging gold assured Lewiston of even more prosperous times ahead. — Originally published in the July 7, 1963, Lewiston Morning Tribune

1941

TRIBUNE/BARRY KOUGH

A TOWN OF TEMPORARY BUILDINGS | A richly detailed and colorful mural of growing Lewiston by Peter Goetzinger shows the 1860s version at the left, where the main downtown streets were part real buildings and part tents, due to the nature of the gold rush and uctuating population.

1944

Established in 1941 Rognstad’s Insurance

by Vern Rognstad

Nez Perce County Fair, an important part of our community since 1944.

Over the course of the last 69 years, the Nez Perce County Fair has endured many changes. From WR WKH 9DOOH\ÂśV Âż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ÂśV EHVW IRU XV DOO

1504 8th Street, Lewiston, Idaho

(208) 743-9426

0XFK RI WKH IDLU DQG DOO RI LWV DFFRPSOLVKPHQWV DUH KLVWRU\ $QG WKH QHZHU JHQHUDWLRQ KDV WKH inspiration and ingredients for equal and even greater achievements. Every facet of the fair even today PLJKW EH FRQVLGHUHG DQ DYHQXH WR ZKDW FRQWLQXHV WR EH LWV PDLQ SXUSRVH ² LQIRUPDWLRQ DQG HGXFDWLRQ Beneath all the fun, auctions, and show ribbons the serious business of learning how to make a living off the land continues like an underground river. ((Baxter Baxter Black) Black)

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IDAHO T ERRITOR Y’S SES QUIC EN TENN IAL Lewi sto n T ribune

13

A Reporter Views The Gold Rush He Wouldn’t Do It Again For All The Gold In Boise

In

early 1863, a new gold rush erupted with the same suddenness as that which had mushroomed in the Lewiston region in 1861. This time, it was in the Boise Basin. Once again, thousands of miners bent on acquiring untold riches swarmed into the hills and gullies of what are now Ada, Boise, Owyhee and Elmore counties. Among them was C. Aubrey Angelo, a correspondent for the Daily Alta California, a leading San Francisco newspaper. Here are excerpts from Angelo’s dispatches to the home office.

Arriving at the summit of a small hill, we obtained for the first time a splendid view of the Snake River. The scene was CONTINUED ON PAGE 14 >

TRIBUNE/Barry Kough

BUILT FROM METAL MONEY | The first Idaho gold rush was near Pierce, but another scramble happened around Silver City, south of Boise, where big mining money built showplaces like the Stoddard Mansion.

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truly magnificent; by mutual instinct, both man and beast halted in rapturous admiration. Within a few miles we beheld, as far as the eye could reach, an expansive sheet of water equally as wide as the Columbia; on one side an extensive sandy beach, on the other a pebbled strand giving all the appearance of a bay on the sea coast; in the foreground were rolling green hills — at a distance the Boise, Payette and Salmon mountains covered with snow. … The waters alive with fish, whilst flocks of birds added more than common beauty to the landscape. … As we approached the river, the glowing sun was setting over the hills, leaving his purpled rays awhile to gild the clouds, the pale moon was rising in all her native loveliness, diffusing an electric glow over the adjacent prairies, and at a distance reflecting a bright hue on what appeared to be a silver lake — it was a sight seen but once in a life and then never forgotten …

By the light of the silver moon, we began the ascent of the Salmon Range (most mountains of southern Idaho were regarded as the Salmon River mountains at this time; in this instance, Angelo was climbing the Boise ridge). The wind was blowing a perfect hurricane from the northeast, occasional volumes of snow

were drifting in our faces, and with difficulty we preserved our equilibrium on the steep mountainside.

Above us, enveloped in flying clouds, were endless peaks … By dint of great exertion we gained an elevation of 11,000 feet.

(Angelo overestimated his distance above sea level; he was actually at 5,202 feet.) We met a temporary toll gate where a number of men were engaged in keeping the trail open … A tax of $1 on each arrival is demanded and cheerfully paid … Not for all the gold in Boise would I attempt a second expedition to these regions, and even the return trip is associated with such unpleasant anticipations that I hesitate in undertaking it.

Placerville is situated in a ravine in the centre of heavily timbered forest land, graduating from the eastern slope of the Salmon range (of which Placerville is the entrance), for a distance of 50 miles is one continuous mineral region.

At every spot, nook, valley and hill gold is found in more or less quantities. A large proportion of the area I

have mentioned is either too poor to work or entirely deficient in that most essential article for mining purposes — water. This is particularly the case with Placerville and its immediate

proprietors do not work themselves, but give employment to 15 and sometimes 25 men … $9.75 has been taken out of one pan of dirt, but the average is $1 to the pan … The weekly yield of this claim is enormous — In truth I will not risk my established reputation for veracity by stating the amount …

This is Sunday. Thermometer at 92 in the shade — rot-gut, twenty five cents — myriads of mammoth bottle-flies pregnant with poison, sailing through the air — whiskey the beverage and monte the game — angels weep, men curse, dogs fight and heavy peals the thunder from the surcharged atmosphere, announcing the displeasure of the Supreme — rapine and murder are in our midst; a breathless corpse lies weltering in his blood and a knife has penetrated him from breast to abdomen, even to the severing of the heart; law is violated and the victim unavenged.

The Sabbath closes with a clouded moon, frowning on the sins of the day.

Reader, dost thou like the picture? ’Tis but a fraction of the truth of a Sunday at Boise.

— Originally published in the July 7, 1963, Lewiston Morning Tribune

Arriving at the summit of a small hill, we obtained for the first time a splendid view of the Snake River.

The scene was truly magnificent; by mutual instinct, both man and beast halted in rapturous admiration. neighborhood; with the exception of a few springs, the most valuable gulches are mainly dependent upon the melting snows. A company has been chartered for the purpose of bringing in water from the Payette.

Bannock City (now Idaho City) has now become the best mining camp, and a general rendezvous of miners, speculators, loafers and gamblers is situated on what is denominated in mining language as a bar at the junction of Elk and Moore’s Creek … This rising town is destined to become a most important point, situated on a beautiful flat, surrounded by alpine hills … The Idaho claim, inside of the town, is considered to be the richest in the district; it is owned by seven men who last year were penniless … The

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IDAHO T ERRITOR Y’S SES QUIC EN TENN IAL Lewi sto n T ribune

Territorial Justice Was A Rope

By Hal Hollister Tribune Staff Writer

W

hen President Hayes appointed Norman Buck associate justice of the supreme court of Idaho Territory in January 1880, an acidtongued newspaper editor remarked, “He might as well have named a Norman horse.”

Although this assessment of Judge Buck’s ability was far off the mark, the editor’s equally sour estimate of what constituted justice in the territory was no doubt accurate enough.

To a citizenry that had only recently freed itself from the tyranny of outlaws of the Henry Plummer stamp, talk of civil rights and constitutional guarantees was the mark of a Philadelphia lawyer bent on obstructing justice rather than achieving it. What was needed was less fine-spun argument and more corpses dangling from cottonwood limbs.

But the goal wasn’t always easy to achieve. Ordinary standards of fair play demanded that, great though the demand

for a corpse might be, no one should be hoisted aloft without first having laid himself open to strong suspicion.

Due both to the primitive state of crime-detecting methods and the wilderness in which the crimes were committed, this philosophy was doomed from the start. The ease with which a culprit could escape detection — and, once detected, could escape punishment by fleeing — led to an increasing sense of outrage that criminals so seldom received their just desserts.

In September 1885, the murder of a Pierce City merchant named Frazer set the entire Clearwater Valley aflame with indignation. “There was suspicion,” one account of the time reports, “that the murder might have been committed by Chinese.” Why? Well everyone knew that Orientals fought and killed with knives.

And Frazer had been killed with a knife.

“In Lewiston and Mount Idaho,” the account continues, “the citizens vowed the murderers should be hung.

By then it was pretty well established that they were Chinese.”

1961

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Thus, with everyone satisfied as to the nationality of the murderers, a posse was organized and descended on Pierce City. There, a deputy sheriff revealed that he held a dozen Chinese in jail and was sure that the murderers were among them. Judge Buck meanwhile sent word he would impanel a grand jury and have the culprits indicted.

The posse, however, was in no mood for lawyer tactics and devised a faster method. A young cowboy who had been raised among Chinese and understood that language was planted in the jail with the Orientals, disguised as a “drunken Indian.” (The cowboy, for what this is worth, was known as “Loony” Sears.)

In due course, he called the posse members to the cell and pointed out five of the Chinese whose conversations, he said, convinced him of their complicity in Frazer’s murder. The five were forthwith taken out of their cell and hanged.

Three years later (Dec. 12, 1888), a Chinese desperado named Lee Chung shot and killed Wang Good Yen and Lin Gk Goon, who lived near an

15

Elk City mining claim. The job of finding the culprit was complicated by the presence of 15 or 20 other Chinese along the Clearwater. Sheriff Al Talkingwater solved the problem by bundling up every Chinese in the area and shipping them off to Mt. Idaho.

Having cleared the decks for action, Talkingwater and his deputy secreted themselves in a likely cabin and waited for Lee Chung to appear. When a Chinese man stepped cautiously through the door that night, lighted candle in hand, both lawmen cut loose with Winchester shotguns. Lee Chung (for that’s who it turned out to be) was blown backward through the door, a slug of buckshot between his eyes and his left arm almost torn off.

In describing the ambush, the Idaho County Free Press commented, “It was a good piece of work, well and skillfully done.”

The judgment today might be less favorable. The emphasis today is on fulfilling constitutional guarantees CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 >

16

L E W I S T O N T RI B U N E

> CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15

and protecting the rights of the accused. This softening of attitude is due largely to improvements in communications and law-enforcement methods which ensure that the great majority of crimes are solved and the perpetrators brought to justice.

This is illustrated when, on Thanksgiving Day 1949, Charles Lemmon and John Hendley were shot down by a gunman in a Lewiston tavern. The killer escaped, but not without being seen. Police immediately set up roadblocks throughout the area, the killer’s description was broadcast, and an intensive search was begun.

Within hours, a report was received from the landlord of a Main Street hotel saying that a man answering the description of the killer was a guest of the hotel.

Police crashed into the room and found George Martin, an escaped convict from the penitentiary at Walla Walla, in bed.

On a bedside stand beside him lay a cocked and loaded revolver. Martin was tried, convicted and is presently serving a life sentence in the state penitentiary.

There were the Prosser-Furest murders. On the evening of March 1, 1957, Lewiston police received a call that shooting had been heard at 716 10th

IDAH O TER R ITOR Y’ S S ES QUIC ENTENNIAL

St. In the house, they found the bodies of Garnita Prosser and her mother, Mrs. Dorothy Furest. From Mrs. Furest’s husband, who was also shot, police learned that the killer was Seward M. Prosser, Garnita’s former husband.

SURRENDERS IN BAR The alarm went out, and almost immediately a cab driver reported he had taken Prosser to a downtown bar.

The bar was surrounded, and Prosser was captured without resistance. He was convicted on a murder charge and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Neither of the cases was spectacular, and both were handled in a routine way.

“We’re not after drama,” Dale Ferguson, veteran sergeant on the Lewiston police force pointed out. “We’re after results.

They used to solve crimes with sixshooters and hemp rope. We do it with two-way radio, coordination of police agencies and a filing system that permits almost instant identification of anyone ever charged with any sort of offense.

For drama, the old ways would probably beat us all hollow.

“When it comes to results, they weren’t even in the picture.”

— Originally published in the July 7, 1963 Lewiston Morning Tribune

WED NESD A Y, JULY 10, 2013

Territorial

D

ispleasure with the design of the original Idaho territorial seal or perhaps dislike of a man who redesigned it, led the Idaho Territory to have three versions of its great seal and at one time boast a secretary of state who used two versions — it was said, “to please everybody.”

When Caleb Lyon of Lyonsdale, New York, became governor, he reported that Gilson, historically known as the secretary of state who absconded to Hong Kong with Idaho funds, had probably taken the seal with him.

Proofs of a new seal approved by the Third Legislature, Lyons claimed, were incorrect.

It has been debated that these incidents gave him an opportunity he wanted, which was to design the seal himself, as he claimed quite proudly that he had designed the seal of the state of California.

The seal he put forward had some highly interesting characteristics, including what his critics called “the moon shin-

ing by day and a horse’s head with antlers, supposed to be an elk.” Its motto was “Salve” meaning welcome: welcome to the miner, welcome to the farmer, etc. The older seal had used the motto “Union.”

Another well-noted element in Lyons’ seal was a steamboat on a river.

WAS THE SEAL STOLEN? Former Secretary of State G. H. Curtis gives a colorful report of the battle of the seals in his interesting treatise on the subject.

“It would seem that little, if any, change was made when Secretary Howlett returned the seal to San Francisco for correction.

Edward J. Curtis, secretary from 1869 to 1878, used the seal for the laws of four sessions and then, in 1877, reverted to the 1863 seal. One wonders if this could have been the result of the political disorder of the time. Gov. Brayman and Curtis did not get along well together. The latter finally lost his job through the stubborn efforts of the old governor. May it not have happened that in the struggle the governor aided and abetted

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LEWI STON TRI BUNE

Seal Kept Changing SLIPPERY SEAL | From left are the first and second dueling Idaho Territory seals and the current state seal. a raid to steal the seal in order to discommode his hated neighbor by depriving him of the chief symbol of his office? However this may be, a seal does not appear to have been lying around the secretary’s office, for Sidebotham, who succeeded Curtis, did not use any seal to attest the laws of 1879.

“When the next legislative assembly

met, Idaho had another secretary, T. F. Singiser, who either could not locate or did not like the seal with the horse’s head adorned with antlers and the moon shining by day. On the 1881 laws, he used a seal, which we shall call the ‘new’ seal, exhibiting many modifications of the seal from 1869 to 1875.

BATTLE OF THE SEALS “Even here at last, however, the seal could not rest secure. Singiser himself in 1883 employed the bald-faced-horse-withantlers seal. Secretary ‘Alphabetical’ Pride in 1885 preferred the new seal, while E. J. Curtis, who was again secretary for the

17

remainder of the territorial period, played fair with everybody by using the earlier version in 1887 and the new one in 1889.

“Further research is needed to disclose the reason for the unending battle of the seals. But may it not be symbolic of the contrariness which has characterized history.”

“We have a tradition of independence, and our representatives have often been among the insurgents of Washington.

In the territorial period, our delegates were on the minority side in the House of Representatives during 16 out of 27 years. They were of the same political party as the president’s only three years and four months of that time.

“Throughout statehood our senators and representatives have often opposed the policies of the presidents. Idaho presents a good claim to be the original range of the ‘Sons of the Wild Jackass.’ ” — Originally published in the July 7, 1963 Lewiston Morning Tribune

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WED NESD A Y, JULY 10, 2013

Spirit Of Independence Lives On On

March 4, 2013, Idahoans began before thousands of immicommemorated a historic grants passed through what would milestone on the Capitol become the Idaho Territory during steps — our territorial sesquicen- the California gold rush, buildtennial. Elected officials, ing stage lines, schools judicial dignitaries, tribal and communities. Even representatives, members of before fur trade and misthe clergy, military personsionary work brought the nel and thousands of citifirst settlers from what zens came together to reflect was to become the United and remember 150 years of States.

Idaho’s history. Thousands of Idaho’s story began Idahoans participated either with the Native American by stopping at an event in COMMENTARY tribes that lived on the their area or simply turning land for thousands of on the TV. years, learning the secrets The fact is that as Idahoans of the region’s rugged and we are proud of our heritage, diverse geography and treasure the present and preits bountiful resources. pare for the future by studyThrough it all, every sucing how our history has influceeding generation that enced the people and state we has called Idaho home have become. added to a legacy of fierce Idaho’s rich and diverse story independence and a steadfast combegan long before President Lincoln mitment to individual liberty that carved out areas from newly formed still characterizes our state and our jurisdictions of the American West people today. to create this new territory. It For the past 150 years, this place

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hence came the name “Idaho”?

It depends upon which of several versions of the origin of the name you are willing to accept. Many people got into the act years ago when historians searched for the true meaning of the word.

Ask any Idahoan to explain his state’s name and he will automatically respond with a stock answer: It comes from an Indian word meaning “light on the mountain.” The answer is well-grounded in Idaho lore, and there is little doubt that the name has something to do with light, mountains and Indians.

The question is which mountains, what kind of light and which Indians?

Long before Idaho territory was created in 1863 and the name approved by Congress there was an Idaho Springs, Colo. Surely the early white settlers didn’t pick up the word from Idaho Indians when it was already in common usage several states away.

The business started in 1976 by Chuck Shoemaker under the name Chuck’s Radiator. Chuck added mufÀer and exhaust repair a couple years later changing the name to Chuck’s Radiator and MufÀer. It remained Chuck’s until 1986 when Rogers Motors purchased the business. It ran under the Rogers Motors Àag until 1996 when it was purchased by Jim Peterson. It is now Peterson Radiator, MufÀer & Transmission. Today, Jim is proud to be celebrating his 18th year in business. He offers transmission, differential and radiator repair, brakes, tune-ups, cooling system repair and diagnostics, anything that will keep your vehicle running smoothly!

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we call Idaho has brought great pride to our citizens and to our nation. It is known for rich volcanic soil, vast and fruitful farms and ranches, and our beautiful mountains. I am so grateful to live in such a wonderful state that imbues us with great opportunity, strong family values and an inimitable spirit of freedom.

No less today than in 1863, we citizens of Idaho have the opportunity and indeed the obligation to chart a path forward to the next 150 years that reflects our independence, our self-reliance and our love of liberty. It is our birthright and our inheritance, our challenge, our passion and our pride.

I hope all Idahoans will join me in an effort to participate in the festivities surrounding our territorial sesquicentennial. Opportunities abound to commemorate our past, unite our communities and inspire our children to look forward to Idaho’s even brighter future.

Whence

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‘Idaho’? Nobody’s Certain Joaquin Miller, the romantic poet of the early West who did much traveling in Idaho, once discussed the origin of the name in the weekly newspaper “The Continent.”

“The literal meaning is sunrise mountain. Indian children among all the tribes west of the Rocky Mountains, so far as I can learn, use the word to signify the place where the sun comes from.

“These tawny people live out of doors, go to bed at dusk and rise with the first break of day. Sunrise is much to them. The place where the sun comes from is a marvel to the children.

It is a sort of Mecca of the skies, to which every Indian lifts his face when rising from his rest. I am not prepared to say it had any special religion in it. I only assert it is done silently and almost, if not entirely, reverently.”

Miller recalled a trip to Idaho in the early 1860s when he met Col. William Craig, whose homestead in the valley between Lapwai and Culdesac was the

first in the state. Craig asked Miller to ride east with him toward the mines.

They began their journey at night with an Indian guide.

“After passing Craig’s mountain, we came up on the Camas Prairie,” Miller wrote. “We could see through the open pines a faint, far light on the great black mountains. ‘I-Dah-Ho’ shouted our Indian guide as he looked back and pointed towards the break of dawn on the mountain before us. “ ‘That shall be the name of the new mines,’ Colonel Craig said.

“This expression, its significance and the occasion all conspired to excite deep pleasure, for I had already written something on this name and its poetical import and made a sort of glossary embracing 11 languages.

“Looking over this little glossary, I note the root of the exclamation is ‘Dah.’ Shasta Indian is ‘Pou-DahHo,’ Klamath ‘Num-Dah-Ho,’ Modoc CONTINUED ON PAGE 20 >

TRIBUNE/BARRY KOUGH

NAME GAME | The origin of the name Idaho could be what early pioneers saw: “A faint, far light on the great black mountains,” or as “a purple columbine common to the Rocky Mountain country.” Whatever the origin, it also means a wide variety of beautiful country, including the Clearwater River Valley.

Congratulations First Territorial Capitol of Idaho Revitalization Project and all who participated in preserving this important part of Idaho’s history 1863 ~ 2013 201 Capitol Street ~ Lewiston, ID 83501 208.746.7599

~

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WED NESD A Y, JULY 10, 2013

Gold Has Lost Its Glitter In

Idaho Territory and the early days of statehood, mining meant gold.

Starting with the first discovery by E. D. Pierce on the North Fork of the Clearwater in February 1860, successive placer strikes were made at Canal Gulch; in the Elk City areas; at Florence; and at innumerable way points in the Clearwater and Salmon River watersheds, as well as far south in the Boise Basin.

Fortunes were made and lost, the hurdy-gurdies flourished, the dance hall girls grew rich.

After 30 years of intensive panning, the richest of the placers were worked out and boom towns turned abruptly into ghost towns.

Then hard-rock strikes at Florence, Thunder Mountain and elsewhere again brought boom days. By 1912, $250 million had been taken from the placers and quartz mines of the Clearwater and Salmon River water-

1992

sheds alone.

The second surge of gold mining subsided slowly from a boom to the unspectacular-but-steady production of a permanent industry. Gold in considerable quantities was still being produced in north central Idaho until the outset of World War II. Since then, gold mining has fallen on evil days. In 1940, more than $5 million in gold was taken from Idaho mines and placers. Last year the total was $200,000.

Does this mean that the gold is gone?

No, almost certainly more gold remains in Idaho mountains and in the sands of the Idaho streams than was ever taken out. Then what is the reason?

“It’s a combination of things,” commented Philip Jungert of Lewiston, president of Idaho Mining and Milling Inc. “Pegging the price at $35 an ounce didn’t kill gold mining because that price was a realistic one in 1934, when

Out with the Old ...

the price was fixed.

“The thing that killed gold mining was the wartime gold closure act of 1942, which closed down all gold mining operations. The cost of reopening mines after several years of neglect was just too great in view of the $35 price, which was no longer realistic in terms of production costs.”

So much, then, for gold — at least in the foreseeable future.

NOT GOLD ALONE But mining, in Idaho, hasn’t meant gold alone for a long time. More than half the mineral wealth produced in Idaho since the white man took over from the red has been taken from the ground since the start of World War II. And less than a tenth of the total has been gold.

More than a third of it — $1 billion worth — has been lowly lead, primarily from the fabulous Bunker Hill holdings in the Coeur d’Alenes, discovered

> CONTINUED FROM PAGE 19

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‘Loh-Dah.’ Strangely, they all sound like ‘look there,’ or ‘lo, light.’

In a no-nonsense, straightforward account, the Encyclopaedia Britannica says the word “Idaho” first appeared in history in 1854 in connection with Idaho Springs, Colo. The encyclopaedia says the word comes from the Shoshone Indian language and means a purple columbine common to the Rocky Mountain country.

A field of these flowers on a mountain suggests a descending light “giving rise to the commonly accepted legend.”

Idaho was not a new name when Congress debated establishing the territory in early 1863. It had already been suggested and later rejected as the name for a proposed territory which later became Colorado.

In debating a name, the U.S. Senate toyed with Montana, Idaho and LaFayette.

In the final version of the bill, the name was Montana. The word “Idaho” was penciled in after a debate on an amendment to change the name.

Senator Wilson of Massachusetts made a motion to amend the bill, striking out the word “Montana” and substituting “Idaho.” He was upheld in this suggestion by Senator Harding of Oregon, who observed:

by Neah Kellogg’s recalcitrant burro in 1885.

Silver worth more than half a billion dollars, and only slightly less zinc, has been taken from the same area.

Within the past decade, more than $35 million in copper has been mined, some of it in the Snake River region south of Lewiston.

Production of phosphate rock for the same period has totaled almost $60 million. Production of stone, tungsten and antimony have each passed the $10 million mark.

The clinching proof of changing times — and the final disillusionment to romantics — is the statistic that the production figure for sand and gravel in Idaho in the past 40 years is $75 million. This is more than a third the value of all gold produced in the state during the past 100 years.

— Originally published in the July 7, 1963 Lewiston Morning Tribune

“I think the name Idaho is much preferable to Montana. Montana, to my mind, signifies nothing at all. Idaho in English signifies ‘the gem of the mountains.’ This is a mountainous country, and the name Idaho is well understood in signification and orthography in all that country and I prefer it to the present name.”

Mrs. Luzena Wallace, wife of the first territorial governor, William H. Wallace, also went along with the “gem of the mountain” theory. She admired the name because while visiting relatives in Iowa in 1862 she had met a 2-year-old girl who bore the name Idaho. Mrs. Wallace was taken by the name, which she understood to mean “Gem of the Mountains.”

Mrs. Wallace is believed to have advanced Idaho when a committee met with her husband to determine the name for the territory of which he was to be the first governor.

Thus the true meaning of the word is subject to speculation. Most everyone agrees that it has a romantic lilt, and every Idahoan will testify it is a gem of a state and that the first rays of the sun striking a distant peak produce a radiance which is truly a “light on the mountain.”

— Originally published in the July 7, 1963 Lewiston Morning Tribune

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Reflections on the Sesquicentennial hensive, quality education had come to be seen as the most certain path to a successful life. It still is. We have seen, in my view, a regrettable disinvestment in education at all levels while we have engaged in a divisive debate that too often marginalizes professional educators, while failing to put students first.

A 21st century economy in Idaho will demand a smarter and better educational system that produces citizens and workers equipped to succeed in a globally competitive economy. Better education means more resources, not year upon year of budget cuts and an approach that too often demeans the commitment and dedication of those who teach. Still, as important as more resources will be to a better educational system in the future, we must also work hard — all of us parents, teachers, students and policymakers — to create a shared sense of purpose for Idaho education.

After many years of steady progress

truth our real legacy, dating from even before Idaho was a territory, is a story of cooperation and sacrifice for the greater good. No one single-handedly created Lewiston’s port, conquered the Lewiston grade, built Lewis-Clark State College or accomplished 1,000 other things that have improved and enriched the life of Nez Perce County and Idaho residents. The best we can say is that we did such things together, and that fact allows me to believe, as important as the accomplishments of the last 150 years have been, that Idaho’s best days are in the future.

——— Cecil D. Andrus is the only Idahoan elected governor four times — 1970, 1974, 1986 and 1990. He served more than 14 years as governor and also served as Secretary of the Interior from 1977 to 1981. Andrus started his political career representing Clearwater County in the Idaho State Senate and later served as a state senator from Nez Perce County.

2001

2000

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that improved Idaho’s education system and that was supported by bipartisan majorities in the Idaho Legislature, it is essential that we recommit to financing a uniform, statewide system of quality schools that provide equal opportunity to all our kids. Our historical legacy demands this approach. Our future success makes it imperative.

As we look back on our history and consider our accomplishments, we must also consider the kind of future we desire for our children and grandchildren. I suspect that most of us would agree that we have come to appreciate the environmental safeguards that keep our air and water clean and help provide the abundant outdoor recreational opportunities that are so much a part of life in Idaho. To backslide on such commitment would be both shortsighted and would not do justice to Idaho’s next generation and the next.

It’s often said that rugged individuals built the West and Idaho, but in

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Our facility began with one secured, ¿fteen bed home and over the years has expanded to ¿ve secured homes and a community center.

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The Cottage – 2001

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from educational improvement to job creation, from immigration reform to global climate change.

Ours is a history of sharp political differences, but even in the toughest of times, the Civil War or the Great Depression, Americans and their elected representatives have been able to find a shared common ground that has allowed us to move forward as a nation and a state. We need such a commitment and an attitude of progress from all our political leaders today.

Closer to home, we have recently experienced divisive debates in Idaho over how to make our educational system work better for Idaho students and their parents. I lament the fact that the debate has been too often driven by a philosophy that seems intent on diminishing the value of “public” in public education. Our territorial leaders, I believe, would have found much of this debate difficult to comprehend. One hundred and fifty years ago, a compre-

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L E W I S T O N T RI B U N E

IDAH O TER R ITOR Y’ S S ES QUIC ENTENNIAL

WED NESD A Y, JULY 10, 2013