The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1924-10-30

LATE ALEX. TOPONCE TELLS OF
ADVENTURES OF SIXTY
YEARS PIONEERING

The late Alex. Toponce, former
resident of Bingham county and sew
eral other places, has bequeathed to
the west his "reminiscences covering
sixty years of adventures and bust
ness ventures in Idaho, Utah, Mon
tana and Colorado, and full, rich
life it was.
The book consists of $50 pages,
Ave by seven inches in size and nice
~ bound in leatherette, with stage
coach in relief on the front cover.
The book contains a few illustra-
lions, a few pictures OF men and
women, including Mr.. and Mrs. To-
ponce and Fred j. Keisel, view of
a stage party on Salmon river, the
driving of the golden spike at Pro
montory and few other things. The
stories are told in the inimitable
style of Mr.. Toponce, who was at
once a trail-blazer, a fighter. a
business man and gentleman. He
was a companion or business associ-
ate of so many of the prominent men
of the intermountain region, per-
son of large acquaintance with men
and things can hardly fail to find
the touch of personal interest as he
reads 1t.
Gold miner, freighter, operator Of
sawmills and many other lines of
business scattered over wide field,
ranging from the upper Missouri to
Fort Benton and Helena and down
through the plateau to Virginia
City, Nevada, he touched elbows
with many men now living. Com
panion of the Mormons, the Gentiles,
the vigilantes and the men they
hung, he enjoyed the esteem of all
until he got into his greatest enter
prise, a pursuit of peace in reclama-
ton, and then 1t was that enemies
multiplied and losses shattered his
fortune. He used to pay $3.50 a
year county taxes here, and when he
established the stage line between
Blackfoot and Challis, with branch
es to Custer, Bonanza and Bellevue,
via the present Craters of the Moon,
he never had a holdup nor a fatal
accident on his lines, though the
road agents were operating every
where else.
You would know he was an essen
TALLY western character if you read
his introduction. After saying
"They tell me l must write some
thing dedicating this book to some
one. AS it seems to be the custom
1 will do it, And after saying that
he might dedicate it to his mother
or his sister or his wife, he omits
them and names twenty-four occupa-
tons of the west such as miners,
packers, scouts, stage drivers, horse
wranglers, etc., who had shared
= <r;,r nh with him
and then added, ITO you, good old
boys, dead or living, dedicate this,
my first and last book. Selah!"
There isn't any boast and bonn
hast in the book. The author tells
of his failures along with his sue
cesses. The cowboy will enjoy his
book; the freighter will relish It,;
the man in the lonely cabin and the
historian and merchant, If he knows
the ups and downs of pioneering
will be refreshed and cheered by
reading it and fitting it into his own
memory of contemporary events.
Mr.. Toponce died a year ago at
his home in Ogden. Mrs. Toponce
suryiyes him and finished the ar
for publishing the book
which her husband did not quite get
to see in print. She lives at number
2422 Adams Ave, Ogden, Utah, In a
modest home that is the one piece OF
property saved from the wreck OF
his fortune.
The book sells for three dollars,
and many a person in this valley
would enjoy reading it and present
ing it to friends at Christmas time.