Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1917-10-18
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FLENNER MONUMENT DEDICATED
Touching Tribute Paid to Idaho Writer
Once Grangeville Resident

A touching tribute was paid to the
memory of Judge j. d. Flenner, one
time resident of Grangeville, at Boise
Saturday, when members of the Celes-
tials, a literary organization, gathered
in Morris Hill cemetery, and dedicated
"a monument erected over his grave.
Judge 'Flenner, who perhaps did more
than any other man to put Idaho on
the literary map, was founder of the
Celestials. The judge was for many
years editor of the Idaho Daily States
man, at Boise.
Inscription on Monument.
4 bronze tablet on the monument
bears the following inscription:
j. d. FLENNER
1851 1916
Here is inferred the tenement of
man who was born unto singing.
Whose inspiring words were
regally adorned in the grab of great
literature.
A man whose style all knew
! Familiarity, yet none could initiate.
The monument is granite from the
heart of the hills near Boise that Judge
Flenner had pictured in classic phrase
| in his writings and which he dearly
loved. The monument is roughly hewn,
its ruggedness typifying the man over
whose grave it stands. The monument
| is about five feet above ground, has a
face three feet in width and is two feet
in depth.
At the cemetery, the Rev. John c.
Mitchell offered prayer. Prof. c. J..
Brosnan of Nampa spoke briefly, paying
high tribute to the pioneer editor and
essayist.
| Tribute by Professor Brosnan.
Professor Brosnan paid Judge Flen-
ner the following tribute:
Judge J. =. Flenner, whose memory
we honor this afternoon, was one of
| Idaho S beloved pioneers. While not
one of that little band or argonauts
who thronged to our golden hills and
valleys in the sixties, yet he came al
most in the gray of the morning of
our history.
| Forty years ago-in lS77-he bade
| goodbye to the old Ohio homeland and
| cast his lot with the new territory. He
came in those picturesque and stirring
DAYS which vanished with the passing
of the frontier He came when Idaho S
! fields were gray instead of green; when
/ the COYOTE sang; when the warWhoop
could be heard; when the prairie smokes
were thin and blue instead of wide
and black. He was here before the com
/ Ing of the railroad or the telephone;
before the irrigation dam, the power
plant, the factory or the college. lie
knew well the old democratic stage
coach. the primitive trail and the hospi-
table miners cabin, with its unlocked
door
Chased the Desert s Frown.
He was part of that stout-hearted
company who helped drive away the
loneliness from our illimitable open
spaces; who helped chase away the
frown of our deserts, and who erected
a few signal stations that civilization
might come and make herself "A home.
Judge Flenner was a unique figure
in this strange, new land Tine iron
tiersman must be practical; he has no
choice Judge Flennrr'S world WIS not
a world of things; it was world of
thoughts He was a book-loNef IN
monev-loving age; he was al iacahst
in a realistic environment.
"But he never repined. lie loved
Idaho; he gloried in her youth; he
shared the JOYS that belong to an era
of creation His fine loyalty to Idaho
is witnessed in all his writings. In
his essays he painted fadeless picture
Of her waving alfalfa fields, her purling
-, Aha uiId flowers that CLEAN like