The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1923-01-24


saleable at any price-in the vastly
increased populations, with churches,
schoolhouses and stores at every
country cross roads, where city lots
are staked for sale above old Indian
graves and other influences which
accompany the iron horse when it
thrusts its iron fingers into the one
time inaccessible settlements
| Speaking for the older generation
OF pioneers who spent the best years
! of their lives in civilizing this north
western frontier, I feel that we are
now enjoying the full fruition of the
hopes, the dreams and ambitions of
our younger years. We have con-
quered this country from the Indians,
redeemed it from a wilderness and
made 1T produce millions of bushels
of grain where none grew before, and
this former wilderness now is filled
with the homes of thousands of con-
tented American citizens. But in
these modern times there is a spirit
of discomfort, of unrest, communism,
socialism, nihilism, and so called In
dustrial Democracy" as exemplified
in Russian bolshevism which would
confiscate railroads and all other
property, bringing ruin and desolation
in its wake should their program be
permitted to control the destinies of
these United States.
Territory Organized.
Pioneers are proverbially reticent
In their personal adventure and re-
miniscences of the days ante-dating
the advent of railroad construction in
the Pacific Northwest, and so I will
simply brief the great facts upon
which the foundation of Idaho history
is based. The organization of the
territory OF Idaho was effected by
u S. congressional enactment of the
Organic law approved March 2, 1863,
with Caleb Lyons, of Lyonsda1e, as
its third governor. In making his
report to the honorable secretary of
the interior department at Washing
ton, d. c., he referred to the climatic
conditions of Idaho as being made
up of Italian winters and arctic
summers" There were only six
counties at that time, Nez Perez, Sho-
shone, Idaho, Boise, Olturas, and
OWyhee with a total population of
1880. Three judicial districts were
created by the first territorial legis-
lature of Idaho, assembled at Lewis
ton in 1868, the first comprising Nez
Perez, Shoshone, and Idaho counties;
the second confined to Boise county
alone, with jurisdiction in all the rest |
of what is now the state of Idaho, |
and the third judicial district en-
braced all of what are now the states
of Montana and Wyoming
Placer mining was then the great |
industry of the territory, and it is
now figure of speech to say that the
wealth derived from these mines fux-
nished the U. S. government with the
sinews which enabled it to conduct {
the civil war to successful issue.
AS time progressed and the p1acers
became exhausted no notable change
occurred in Idaho affairs until the
outbreak of the Chief Joseph Indians
in 1877, followed by the Bannack war
Of 1878, and the Sheepeater campaign
Of 1879, which brought peace to the
territory and led to great increases
If immigrant population. Then cameA
The discovery and Development of the
Wood River mining district, followed
IN quick succession by the great STAN
pede into the Occur d'Alenes in 1883.
Meantime, railroad construction was
'apidly progressing, giving a new i'm
)etus to immigration and development
If the irrigation systems in the SOU
,iiCi II SOu1AIiOC, anu qulSh oOttiCllOliC
If the agricultural lands throughout s
he territory. <
Immigrants From East. 4
Following the Indian wars the ter !
'itory was rapidly settling up with {
from Missouri, Kansas, t
Nebraska, and other mid-western E
tates crossing the plains with wagon t
md bull trains, labeled Palouse or |
Bust" In 1881 I was appointed de-
,uty assessor for all the territory /
lorth of the Clearwater river and b
rom that experience learned what Q
lardships pioneer settlers have to v
ndergo. One family had a span of a
orses, another set of harness, an o
Their few agricultural implements, c
nd another wagon or plow, and b
he total assessable value of personal g
roperty was then mighty small in my
fficial territory IN
With the development Of the Pa III
,use country there grew a demand &
N new county with Moscow at its p
ounty seat, and in 1888 congress Gre e
ted Latah county, which thus has 1t
le distinction Of being the only ie:
ounty in these United States owing n
8 parentage to the national CON-
ress.
For. some Vars bitter sectional
ght arose in the territory for the an