The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1908-12-04
SKETCHES OF COLUMBIAN CLUB
WOMEN.

(Under this heading will be giver
from time to time, interesting items
of history connected with women now
members of the Columbian club.)
In a well known eastern magazine
will appear during the coming season
picture and sketch of the life OF
Mrs. Cynthia A. Mann of the Colum.
bian Club of Boise.
Mrs. Mann Is one of Idahos pio.
neer citizens having come to Boise In
June, 1879. She is also Idaho's old.
est teacher in point of service, hav.
ing taught in this state more than 2s
years.
OF her journey from Kelton to
Boise, $50 miles apart, she has much
OF interest to recall. Mr.. Mann hal
visited Idaho the year before, re-
turning in the spring of 1879 to Kan
sas to bring out his wife. Reaching
Kelton they were dismayel to learn
that Mr.. Mann's father, who was to
have met them at that point, had not
even been heard of on the way.
Having confidently expected his
father to meet them with wagon,
team and supplies, Mr.. Mann had to
make arrangements for himself and
Mrs. Mann to reach Boise.
They had already waited in Kelton
three or four days for the arrival Of
Mr. Mann's father. Deciding finally
that their letters had not reached
him and that they would gain moth
ing by waiting, they started on their
journey, Mrs. Mann in the stage and
her husband driving a freight team.
Mrs. Mann, who was an invalid,
and had not been able to walk for
five years, lay on pallet in the bot
tom OF the stage. With her was an
other woman whom she had met on
the train, a Mrs. White. The only
other passenger was "a man, who rode
on the outside with the driver. The
stage stopped at the stations only
long enough for meals and the chang
ing Of drivers and horses. The
weather was warm and the dust on
the old Overland route was far too
thick Tor comfort. Travelling post
haste" night and day, enduring the
heat and being jostled from side. to
side even with all the care exercised
by the drivers. seeing only the long
stretch of sagebrush plain or rugged
lava cliffs by day and hearing the
weird, dismal howl of the coyote by
night, were dreary Accomplishments
to the strangeness, the vastness and |
Loneliness of the long drive. 1t re- /
quired all the patience of the invalid |
girl to endure, racked with pain as
she was. The drivers were kindness
itself They themselves seemed
filled with foreboding as they drove
regarding some dreaded individual
whom they evidently feared to en-
counter.
That he was a desperate character,
a highwayman at least, the two terri
fled women who overheard the low
cred tones of the driver and pas
senger, or of the drivers as they !
talked to the men at the stations,
were positive. His name they man
aged to learn by listening, was
HALEY, John Haley.
IF we can only reach Boise with 8
out meeting John Haley one of the !
drivers said to the man on the seat h
beside him, I'VE are safe; and the h
women on the inside shivered. v
Look out for Haley" warned an 6
agent at one of the stations as the h
stage ratified away, and so it was all Il
along the line until at night, in every Il
shadow the two women saw the form n
of John HALEY ready to spring out /,
md order them to stop. On and on 4,
hey drove, however, unmolested, but "
With ever lessening strength on the liz
part of the invalid and corresponding It,
'are on the part of the tender-heart- n
I'd drivers, care which necessarily Ii
delayed the progress of the stage and
inally destroyed any lingering posi- q,
'ility of 1t ever reaching Boise on O
chedule time on that trip IL
Mrs. Mann suffered so excruciating- II
that as the next station was made II,
he gave up and asked to be left there ia
nd allowed to die under roof. d,
1t was the loneliest of all places, tt
ne wilderness, the vastness, the aw- ia
IL loneliness terrifying to even e,
rong person in full health. Upon TT
ltering the rude station she learned nj
lere was no woman there, only WI
an, and sick at heart she let the big, m
ndly driver carry her back to the Sc
age and place her again on her lit al