The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1922-01-16
GOV. NJ 'CONNELL'
GREAT ADVENTURE
IDAHO'S GRAND OLD MAN TELLS
STUDENTSS A GRIPPING STORY
OF EARLY DAY IDAHO.

Friday afternoon, January 13, was
a red-letter day for the American and
Pacific Northwest history students of
the University of Idaho. The occasion
was thrilling and instructive lecture
by Hon. w J. Mcconnell, of this city.
MY first great Idaho adventure"
was the subject selected by Idaho's
pioneer United States senator and
governor and brought to completion
lecture delivered before the same
classes on January 6. which the
speaker chose to call Preparing for
my first great adventure
Standing before the students with
form erect and sturdy, with un-
wrinkled face and eyes a sparkle, and
unassisted by crutch or cane, the
eX-governors presence belied the
years that have come and gone since
his birth in the ''oak openings" of
Michigan forest 80 years ago. So
thrilling were the adventures de-
scribed, and so often did human lives
hang in the balance in scenes beSet
with Indians, horse-thieves, bogus
gold-dust operators and 'gun-men,'
it was difficult for the students to
realize that they were listening to
simple biography sketch instead
of gripping wildwest scenario tale.
The governors address was greeted
with frequent applause, and at the
request of the students he was urged
to continue his lectures beyond the
allotted time in order to round out a
complete outline of his Boise Basin
adventures. At the close of his ad-
dress Governor Mcconnell was given
an impromptu reception by the stu
dents and visitors present.
Governor McConnell's boyhood had
a unique and romantic setting. AS he
graphically explained in his address,
he was born in the stirring days of
the administration of Martin Van
Buren,. His Scotch-Irish parents
moved to Michigan from New York
with the great tide of immigration
that came over the Erie Canal into
Michigan after 1925 and made Mich1-
gan a greater New York" just as
New York has been made an expan-
sion of New England through the west
ward moving stream of pioneers. In
the primitive Michigan log-school
both as pupil and teacher in those
pre-Civil war days, he studied Kirk
hams grammar which was the same
grammar thumbed by Abraham Lin
coin at district school in the neigh
boring state of Illinois, decade or
two before Governor McConnell's ac-
quaintance with this famous text
book Passing on from other intimate
word pictures of episodes in the
Michigan forest, in which Pottawa-
-omie Indian camps formed back
ground, the speaker told of his over
land trip to Fort Leavenworth, Kan
sas. in the spring of 1860, when he
"the call of the west" Hir-
ing out as a mule driver he went with
a freighting outfit to Salt Lake city
md from there to the placer fields of
Northern California, where he cast
lis first vote for Abraham Lincoln in
he fall of 1860. In 1861, and 1862,
to Governor Mcconnell the
news of the wonderful gold dis
,overies in the Salmon River country
treated feverish excitement in Cal
fornia so in 1862 he Joined the argo-
lauts for this region, sailing steer
lge," from San Francisco on the
Sierra Nevada for Portland, Oregon.
The winter OF lS6Z-lS63 was pleasant
Y spent as teacher in district school
II Yamhill county, Oregon. where he
net the future Mrs. Mcconnell and
where plans were completed for 'the
,reat adventure" into the Boise Basin.
The Governor concluded his STIR
ing narrative by reciting several ex-
,loits selected from a long list of
,lood-curdling adventures. among
hem being his capture of the "block-
louse" gang of horse-thieyes near the
present town of Emmett. the recovery
# prize saddle-horse from Sheriff
Jpdyke's barn in Boise city; the
ynching of the notorious Johnnie
lark on the present state capitol
rounds at Boise; and the Street.
IcConnell duel which was fought at
he Warm Springs dueling grounds
ear Idaho city