History Corner

Weiser Signal, January 10, 1895: Council – “We had a nice little stabbing affray a few days ago. It seems that Mart had to be Mark Winkler went to the house of J.J. Jones in this absence and insulted his wife and when Jones returned his wife told him what had happened. In a day or two Jones run across Winkler at the Middle district schoolhouse where they had some hard words and Jones put his hand in his pocket and hit Winkler with a rock. Winkler ran and Jones after him, when the former fell down and Jones popped a jack-knife into him in good shape. Rumor says if outsiders had not pulled Jones off there would have been a first-class funeral. The sympathy of nearly everyone is with Jones.”

You may remember back in June 1893 that Mark Winkler stabbed Louis Kesler and nearly killed him. It’s my impression that both Mark Winkler and James J. Jones had hot tempers.

The February 1, 1895 issue of the Salubria newspaper changed the name of the paper from “Idaho Citizen” to the “Salubria Citizen.” The reason is not clear. In it’s first issue under the new name, the editor advocated a telephone line between Weiser and Payette. There was already a line from Payette to Emmett and from Emmett to Caldwell that connected with lines to much of southern Idaho.

By this time the economic “Panic of ‘93” was still dragging down economies all over the world. It had a fatal effect on the Salubria business of brothers William and Riel Wilson. They had established a store in Salubria in 1888 and “sold as high as $80,000 worth of goods in a single year, during the flush times just previous to the general collapse which struck the entire northwest.”

It’s interesting that the newspaper referred to the world-wide economic depression as “the general collapse which struck the entire northwest.”

The brothers sold their business. William, or “Billy” as he was called, planned to farm on Hornet Creek, while Riel went on to become a prominent attorney.

Meanwhile, John Peters and Isaac McMahan survived by combining their merchandising efforts in ways that are not quite clear, but eventually they would erect a major store in what was becoming the town of Council. They hired the Duree brothers (Nimon “Nim” Duree and David Duree) who were freighters, to haul goods from Weiser to Council. The trip took two days, each way. (Their sister, Viola, married George Gould.) David Duree’s obituary said that he and his brother, Nim, “hauled nearly all of the freight that was brought from Weiser to Council during this period, and also made occasional trips to Warrens.”

Salubria Citizen, Feb 22, 1895 : “Mr. Crawford has sold his ranch in upper Council Fruitvale at 2671 West Fork Road to Bud Addington.” Sylvanus “Bud” Addington had married Anna Biggerstaff in December 1893, and their son, Hugh, was born November 1894. I seem to remember Hugh saying he was born on that place, so the timing of their living there could be slightly different from what is inferred from the newspaper date.

The following, from the March 1, 1895 Salubria Citizen, is partly my notes and partly direct quotes:

The road between Council and Long Valley is to go (if everyone will pitch in to pay for and build it) from the “...Day ranch in Long Valley and come over the mountain by the way of the Beier’s sic saw-mill and down Mill creek to Council valley. The distance on a straight line is twelve miles.” The present road is fairly good half way up the mountain. It takes eight to twelve days to make a freight trip from Middleton to Long Valley, but with the new road, they could “get in their flour and other supplies from this section in from four to six days.”

From this, we can see there was already a road to Fred Bier’s sawmill up on Mill Creek. There was already a 41-mile road mentioned in 1891 as linking Long Valley with Salubria, but I’ve only seen one reference to it. A few settlers in Long Valley were evidently already traveling to Salubria for supplies, as the road down the Payette River to Smith’s Ferry and then over the mountains to Emmett was a long and challenging trip. And apparently Middleton (even farther away) was favored as a supply point if Long Valley people chose that route.

Salubria Citizen, March 8, 1895 – “Dr. W.M. Brown and Eugene Lorton bought the Pioneer drug store and fixtures in Salubria of John Cuddy and will continue the drug business at the old stand under the firm name of Brown & Lorton.”

In March the Citizen announced that Elisha Stevens had established a “stage station, hotel, stable and general stopping place in the Canyon ten miles above Council.” This is the first mention I’ve found of this these facilities.

The March 29, 1895 Salubria Citizen contained this: “The ranchers on Cottonwood are taking down their wire fences and putting up rail fences. The Phipps brothers and Geo. Gould have made and hauled about 15,000 rails this winter.” It’s interesting that they were using wire fences (probably barbed wire) this early, and that they would go to all the work it took to split thousands of rails and build rail fences.

That spring, the Weiser Signal published a booklet of Hannibal “Seven Devils” Johnson’s poems titled “Poems of Idaho.”