HONORABLE NATHANIEL B. PETTIBONE
Hon. N. B. Pettibone, a member of the state senate from Idaho county,
resides on a ranch nine miles from Grangeville and dates his residence
in Idaho from the spring of 1889, arriving here the year before the
state was admitted to the Union. Through all the intervening period he
has lived in Idaho county and has been an important factor in mining
and agricultural development, while in political circles he is wielding
considerable influence in molding the policy and shaping the destiny of
the state.
Mr. Pettibone was born in Warsaw, Hancock county, Illinois, July 10,
1869, being the youngest of ten children, six sons and four daughters,
born to Cephas and Amelia (Belcher) Pettibone. The father was a farmer
by occupation and died when his son Nathaniel was but four years of
age. The mother's death occurred when he was but ten months old, and he
can barely remember his father. He was left an orphan when a little lad
of but four years and was largely reared in the home of Thomas Head, a
wealthy farmer of McDonough county, Illinois, whose attitude was that
of a father to the boy, who remained with him between the ages of ten
and eighteen years. Prior to the time when he went to Mr. Head's home
he had been shifted about "from pillar to post" without much
opportunity. While living on the Head farm he attended the country
schools and later the. village school of Sciota, Illinois, until he
reached the age of eighteen.
Leaving Illinois Mr. Pettibone then spent six months in North Dakota,
where he did farm work, after which he returned to his native state,
attending school the following winter and again living in the home of
Thomas Head. In the spring of 1889 he decided to remove to the west to
make his fortune. He first went to New Mexico but soon proceeded to
Wyoming and after a brief period, having heard glowing reports about
the Seven Devil copper mines in Washington county, Idaho, he came to
this state. He did not remain long in the mining region, however, but
proceeded to Idaho county, where he turned his attention to anything
that he could get to do. He split rails, worked in the hay fields and
later for several years was employed in the gold mines of Idaho county.
In 1900 he built the first house in the town of Stites and helped to
lay out the town. There he resided until 1914, when he removed to his
ranch, nine miles north of Grangeville. It is a four hundred and eighty
acre grain and stock ranch, on which he raises excellent crops of
alfalfa, wheat, oats and barley, as well as good stock. It has
substantial improvements upon it, his home being a modern residence of
the bungalow type, while all of the buildings fully meet the
requirements of modern farming. He likewise has excellent registered
Hereford cattle While living in Stites he gave his attention in some
degree to merchandising and for a time operated a stage line between
Stites and Elk City.
On the 7th of July, 1897, Mr. Pettibone was married to Miss Mary Eliza
Shissler, a native of Idaho county, Idaho, and a daughter of Franklin
and Elizabeth (Shearer) Shissler, who were early settlers of that
county. . Her father established the first sawmill in the county and
was otherwise identified with its pioneer development. He has now
passed away but the mother survives. Mr. and Mrs. Pettibone have become
parents of four sons and a daughter: Franklin T., twenty years of age;
Levi N., aged seventeen; Wilbur C., fifteen; George, eleven; and Mary
Lucille, a little maiden of seven summers. The eldest son, Franklin T.,
was in an American training camp when the World war ended.
The family attend the Episcopal church, and Mr. Pettibone belongs also
to the Odd Fellows society. He greatly enjoys fishing, hunting and
other outdoor sports, to which he turns for recreation. His political
allegiance has always been given to the democratic party and he served
as chairman of the board of county commissioners of Idaho county for
six years. He is now serving his second term in the state senate,
having been first elected in 1916 and reelected in 1918. During his
first term he did much to promote the Idaho good roads law. As chairman
of the highways committee in 1917, he helped to secure the million
dollar appropriation for highways in Idaho. He is now serving on the
committee on state affairs, on immigration and labor, and is
unfaltering in his loyalty to any cause which he espouses. He was the
democratic or minority floor leader in the senate during the fifteenth
session of the Idaho legislature.
[Source: History of
Idaho: the gem of the mountains, Volume 4; Edited by James Henry
Hawley; Publ. 1920; Transcribed and submitted to Genealogy Trails by
Andrea Stawski Pack.]
NORMAN BUSHNELL WILLEY
Willey, Norman Bushnell, governor of Idaho, was born at Guilford,
Chenango Co., N. Y. March 25, 1838. His father being a farmer, his
early years were passed in the usual pursuits of a rural life, while
his education was such as the country schools and the neighboring
academies of that time afforded. At the age of twenty his love of
adventure asserting itself, in October, 1858, he turned his face
towards California, the El Dorado of the period. He at once repaired to
the mining districts of the state, settling near Dutch Flat, a
prominent town of Placer county where he followed mining as an
occupation with the usual successes and reverses incident to that mode
of life. In 1864 he removed to Idaho, where new fields of adventure and
exploration were being opened, and from that time to the present he has
lived at Warren, Idaho. His active participation in public life
commenced with his election to the house of representatives of the
seventh session of the territorial legislature, 1872-73. He afterwards
held numerous county offices and was again elected a member of the
council of the tenth session, in 1878-79. He was chosen president of
that body, somewhat memorable in the political annals of Idaho as the
first legislative assembly where a vigorous stand was made against the
Mormon control of the territory. With the admission of Idaho as a state
on July 3, 1890, a new intellectual and material vigor seemed to be
infused into its citizens, so that at the first state election in
October of that year, men of energy and influence were placed in
nomination for the state offices by both political parties. Mr. Willey
was nominated for lieutenant governor upon the republican ticket, and
was successful by more than the average majority for that ticket, but
the governor elect, George L. Shoup, being chosen to the U. S. senate
by the convention which met in December, Mr. Willey became governor
upon Mr. Slump's resignation. Gov. Willey possesses an extensive
knowledge of the mining affairs of the state, his long experience and
mature judgment placing him in the front rank of the mining men of the
Pacific coast.
Source: [The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, J. T. White 1898 – Transcribed By Therman Kellar]
