Friday, August 19, 2011

Flashback - Before & After the Bunker Hill & Sullivan Mill "Wreck"

I been plugging along at this blog now for going on four years and sometimes it gets hard to find items that are buried deep in the archives. I try to link the older related posts to new ones and every now and then go searching for a specific item for reference purposes. Occasionally I am going to start posting these older items of interest as a "Flashback" since I have gone to the trouble of locating it anyway. If you are looking for a particular topic, use the "Search This Blog" tool powered by Google that is in the left had column (NOT the Blogger search at the top left of the page) just below my profile. That way I make you look at my Idaho pen mugshot too. The search will give you a list related to whatever subject/term you enter....or just ask me for help.

I was thinking of the post below after recently finding and purchasing another "Before the Wreck" post card. I have several of each now and going to do up some double post card frames with the before and after shots (before is actually the harder one to find).

Click on the photograph below to enlarge and on the first blog link to see the "After the Wreck" picture and the second one to see what is waiting if any more trouble occurs.

Sunday, November 16, 2008: April 28th and 29th, 1899 - INSURRECTION IS PROCLAIMED/SIXTY RIOTERS ARRESTED

Saturday, March 14, 2009: June 29, 1899 - WARM RECEPTION WAITING-GATLING GUN TO GUARD THE BUNKER HILL MILL

Couple other related websites below.

University Of Washington Library Digital Collections

From Statehouse to Bull Pen

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Advice From Grandma’s Jigsaw Puzzle



Click on the above photo to get grandma's advice (courtesy of Josh Richards).

Grandma, Brenda Steunenberg Richards, would be pleased to know that her advice, through those ever present puzzles, and with a little help from her grandson Josh, is providing businesses with strategies and solutions to solve their own puzzles. Maybe we should send one of grandma's many boxes of jigsaw puzzles to each of our congressmen/women, senators, president and aspiring presidents. They could gather around one of those big tables at the White House or in the halls of Congress and work like grandma did—until all the pieces came together, the job was done and then keep moving on to the next and the next and the next puzzle—and solve all of those too.

Idaho History: Most pioneers thought Idaho’s fish were limitless | Idaho History | Idaho Statesman

Idaho History: Most pioneers thought Idaho’s fish were limitless | Idaho History | Idaho Statesman

The above link is to an article by Arthur A. Hart, Director Emeritus of the Idaho State Historical Society. Be sure to follow Arthur's continued contributions to historical preservation by reading his weekly articles in the Idaho Statesman.

Related blog post: Governor Steunenberg signs proclamation creating the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Company A of the First Idaho Volunteers

I am on a Spanish-American War binge right now and some of this you have seen before. I am publishing all the names below from Company A in case we might have any descendants out there with information to share. I am particularly searching for photographs of Company A (and any Idaho First) soldiers and artifacts from that time period.

From: The Idaho State Flag
JTR collection
After a declaration of War against Spain by the United States Congress on April 19, 1898, the Secretary of War sent telegrams off to each state "advising them of the allotment of troops under the President's call for volunteers.” Idaho’s contribution was defined as two battalions of infantry composed of four companies each. Governor Frank Steunenberg issued orders for the Idaho National Guard companies composing the First Regiment to report to Boise. These companies were mustered into the service of the United States as the First Idaho Volunteer Infantry in May of 1898 for deployment to the Philippines to fight in the Spanish-American War.

Click on the image below to read about the U. S. Rifle Model 1889 (aka .45-.70 "Trapdoor"). This rifle was carried by most of the state troops (and hence most of the Idaho 1st) during the Spanish-American War.

JTR collection
1st Idaho Volunteer Infantry

Company A (and scroll the list for all company's)

Anyone have ancestors, relics, photos and/or stories to share about Idaho troops in the Spanish-American war?

This company came chiefly from Canyon County and was mustered in with Phil W. McRoberts, captain; Henry J. Syms, first lieutenant; George E. Steunenberg, second lieutenant; William H. Watson, first sergeant; Willard C. Dyer, quartermaster sergeant; Edward A. Martin, Frank Dement, Charles E. Peppard and Durbin L. Badley, sergeants; Jason W. Kelly, Arthur A. Brown, William B. Peppard, John C. Gaunt, Peter Gearhart and Morris E. Bruner, corporals; Claude Hill and Howard R. Hill, musicians; Paul F. Graf, artificer;
Albert Hubner, wagoner.

Privates-Oskar Anderson, Charles W. Bechtol, Robert F. Beil, Silas W. Bernethy, Alfred H. Brainerd, John R. Berry, Robert Bonner, Charles O. Cobb, Bert Colvin, Ross J. Colvin, William G. Cottle, Harry F. Craig, William Dawn, Fred M. Dudley, Samuel J. Donaldson, John Dornen, James W. Farmer, George Farrell, Gus C. F. Fieseler, Herman Fuchs, Sidney C. Fuld, Percy W. George, Samuel D. Gilman, Henry Hacker, Silas P. Hagler, Barton S. Harris, Samuel A. Harris, William C. Hicinbothem, Fred Hofman, Asa C. Hylton, George W. Jackson, Jesse H. Jackson, Leslie Jones, Robert J. Kingston, Alonzo Lake, George W. Lee, Thomas McCaffrey, David McIlveen, Harry McKinley, James Malloy, Wheeler H. Martin, Frank A. Morton, Benjamin F. Moore, James J. Mullalley, Thomas C. Napier, Arthur Pearson, Ralph Polker, William T. Rawlings, Charles O. Renn, Harley E. Reynolds, Thomas G. Rutter, William E. Stull, John F. Swank, Wallace E. Tanner, James Taylor, Jesse Thompson, Fred Tucker, Herbert E. Van Housen, Alexander Vaughn, Charles Wilhelm, Fred Wilson, Ames D. Wooden.

1st Lt. George Steunenberg of the 1st Idaho Volunteer Infantry writes of the trip from Hawaii to Manila. That's George to the right. I wonder what happened to that hat with I am guessing an Idaho 1st insignia? Go to Infantry Hat Insignia and scroll down to see one for enlisted men from the Idaho 1st, Compahy H. I keep hunting for one of these.

I guess I am still on a Darrow binge too. I just started reading the recently published new biography, Clarence Darrow: Attorney for the Damned by John A Farrell. I thought maybe everything had been written about Darrow but this appears to be an excellent, fresh, updated look that has grabbed my interest right out of the gate.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Big Trouble Moment-Caldwell City Hall

A recently acquired real photo postcard.

"The governor's first errand that snowy afternoon was...."pages 35-54 (December 30,1905)

"The architectural vista at Seventh and Main inspired lofty comparisons. As plans for the new city hall were unveiled, the Tribune rhapsodized: 'The scene that will present itself to a person as he steps off the train will be the most beautiful in the city.' Aside from the hotel and the bank, 'the two most handsome' buildings in town, 'the city hall in the distance will remind [one]...of Trinity Hall, Boston.'"
--Big Trouble by J. Anthony Lukas

Hopefully some paved walkways if not streets were to come along soon. Click on Idaho Panoramas below and on the photograph to enlarge and see the City Hall far off in the distance as viewed from the Caldwell train station.

Related blog posts.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Which Idaho Railroad?

I am hoping some of our railroad and interurban historians out there can help identify this photograph. Written on the far right side of the railroad car are clearly the letters "IDAHO." I cannot tell if there is more lettering further to the right as that end of the car is beyond the frame of the picture. Perhaps there is a connection to the Boise & Interurban Railway, Boise Railroad Co., or Boise Valley Railroad Co. but no "Idaho" in those names? Or maybe the Washington, Idaho & Montana Railroad Co.? The railroad worker sitting second from the left is wearing a cap with I believe the letters "CB&(R or B). Sorry if the letters are not real clear in this scan. Email me or click on "Post a Comment" below if you have information or know any of these guys. Click on the pic to enlarge and then again for an even larger view. 

 "The most intensively surveilled sector of the late-nineteenth-century America was the railroads, then flinging their silver tracks across the continent. As the burgeoning transportation of goods and passengers across state lines outran the shelter of traditional law enforcement, the trains and their contents—as well as bridges, tracks, and terminals—were increasingly at the mercy of hijackers, hooligans, resentful farmers, and angry homesteaders. But an even greater threat came from railroad employees, who, with astonishing regularity, appropriated fares and freight for their own accounts." "The surveillance of railroad employees inevitably involved detective agencies in the very activity that for centuries had repelled Anglo-Saxons on both sides of the Atlantic: spying. Not surprisingly, both the agencies and their clients preferred the term testing. Those who engaged in it were called 'testers' or 'spotters.' But, to many American workers and much of the public, they were nothing more nor less than spies." "For years, the Thiel agency marshaled the largest force of railroad spotters. Gus Thiel had been one of Pinkerton's most valued operatives as an agent during the Civil War, then in the Chicago office. Disgruntled over some now-forgotten slight, in 1873 he formed his own firm, based first in St. Louis and later in Chicago—a personal betrayal Allan Pinkerton never forgave." "So identified was Thiel with spying on railroad employees that in 1889 a disgruntled railroad man, writing as Martin P. Wheeler, penned a diatribe called 'Judas Exposed; or the Spotter Nuisance,' lampooning Thiel's agency as 'Zeal's Railroad Inspection Service.' Zeal did most of his recruiting in 'the saloons and low resorts of St. Louis,' where he had no difficulty finding agents with the 'faculty for sneaking, lying and dissembling even to [their] most intimate friends and relatives." Big Trouble by J. Anthony Lukas