Biographies
"M"

LUCIEN P. McCALLA, M.D.
Engaged in the active practice of his profession in Boise since 1898, Dr. McCalla has attained to distinctive prestige as one of the representative physicians and surgeons of the state and he controls a large and important practice, in which he devotes special attention to surgery. He has had the advantages of the best of technical training, both in America and foreign lands, and is recognized as a man of fine professional and intellectual attainments, as well as a broad-minded and progressive citizen. He is identified with the educational work of his profession in addition to the demands placed uplift him by his representative practice, and he is held in unqualified esteem in the community in which he has elected to establish his home. He has identified himself most thoroughly with local interests, and is associated with Martin Curran in the ownership of one of the fine stock farms of the Boise valley.

Dr. McCalla claims the fine old commonwealth of Mississippi as the place of his nativity and is a scion of old and honored southern stock. He was born in Alcorn County, Mississippi, on the 23d of August, 1865, and is a son of James Moore McCalla and Anne Eliza (Irion) McCalla, the former of whom was born in South Carolina and the latter in western Tennessee. James McCalla received a liberal education in the south, and was a graduate in schools both of medicine and of law. University of Virginia, though his health was so delicate during the greater part of his life that he never found it expedient to engage in the active practice of either of the professions for which he had admirably fitted himself. He was a specially fine linguist, and his proficiency in this direction became noteworthy in his boyhood days, when he was looked upon as somewhat of a prodigy.

The major part of his active career was devoted to stock-raising and he passed the closing years of his life near Corinth, Mississippi, where he died in 1878, at the age of sixty-six years. He was for many years a prominent and influential figure in connection with political affairs in the south and declined urgent importunities made upon him to become a candidate for representative in congress. At the time of the climacteric period culminating in the Civil war he was implacable in his opposition to the secession of the southern states and was earnest in supporting the cause of the Union, as a great admirer of President Lincoln, of whose vigorous policies he heartily approved.

His attitude in this connection made him to a large extent persona non grata in the section in which his interests had ever been centered, and even his devoted wife suffered not a little on account of her husband's fealty to the Union. She did much to relieve suffering and distress during the long and weary conflict between the north and the south, and proved a veritable angel of mercy, without discrimination as to the opinions of those to whom she ministered. She was a resident of Texas during the closing years of her life and there she was summoned to eternal rest in 1888, at the age of sixty-eight years. Dr. McCalla was the tenth in order of birth in a family of seven sons and four daughters, and all of the number are still living with the exception of two sons. The lineage of the McCalla family is traced back to staunch Scottish origin, and the original representatives of the name in America came from Ireland and settled in the south, in an early day.

Dr. McCalla gained his early educational discipline in the public schools of his native state and thereafter was a student for two years in Tulane University, in the city of New Orleans. In preparation for his chosen profession he entered the medical department of Washington University, in the city of St. Louis, in which he was graduated as a member of the class of 1888 and from which he received his degree of Doctor of Medicine. He later completed effective post-graduate courses in the medical department of the celebrated Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore which he attended for two years, and in leading institutions in England, Austria and Germany. His close and appreciative application, which still continues, has given him prestige as one of the most admirably fortified physicians an4 surgeons in Idaho ,and he is held in high regard by his professional confreres, the while his success has been on a parity with his recognized ability.

After his graduation Dr. McCalla was engaged in general practice in central Texas for a period of five years, and thereafter he was engaged in professional work for two years at Trinidad, Colorado, and for an equal period in Salt Lake City. He then, in April, 1898, established his residence in Boise, the capital city of Idaho, and here he has since continued in active and successful practice, in which he specializes in surgery. There stands to his credit many delicate and successful operations in both major and minor surgery and he is an acknowledged authority in this important branch of professional work. He is associated with the affairs of the various hospitals in Boise. He has become widely known as one of the leading physicians and surgeons of the state and his extensive and representative practice places exigent demands upon his time and attention.

The doctor is identified with the Ada County Medical Society, has served as president of both the Idaho State Medical Society and the Southern-Medical Society, and is a member of the American Medical Association. He served six years as a member of the Idaho state board of medical examiners and for thirteen years a member of the board of pension examining surgeons for Ada County, of which body he was made president.

Broad-minded and public-spirited as a citizen, Dr. McCalla is ever ready to lend his influence and tangible co-operation in connection with measures and enterprises projected for the general good of the community, and his political allegiance is given to the Republican Party.

He is affiliated with the local lodge of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and both he and his wife hold membership in the Catholic Church. As already noted, Dr. McCalla is associated in the ownership of a fine stock ranch in the Boise valley, the same being known as the Can Ada Stock Farm and being devoted principally to the raising of high-grade Shropshire and Hampshire sheep, from imported and registered stock.

At Taylor, Texas, on the 23rd of August 1894 was solemnized the marriage of Dr. McCalla to Miss Cecelia McDonald, who was born at Western. Pennsylvania, and who is a daughter of the late M. McDonald. Dr. and Mrs. McCalla have two children; Randolph, who is a student in Georgetown University District of Columbia, as a member of the class of 1916, and Eileen, who is a student in St. Theresa Academy, in Boise.

[HISTORY OF IDAHO VOLUME II; BY HIRAM T. FRENCH, M. S.; Publ. 1914; Transcribed and submitted to Genealogy Trails by Andrea Stawski Pack.]

CHARLES S. McCONNEL
In the territorial era of the history of Idaho this honored citizen of Boise here established his home and he has here maintained his residence for more than thirty years, within which he has contributed his quota to civic and industrial development and progress and been called upon to serve in divers offices of distinctive public trust. He is at the present time secretary of the Boise Water & Land Company, besides which he is serving with marked efficiency as health officer of the capital city. Mr. McConnel is well known in the state that has long been his home, and it may well be said that here his circle of friends is coincident with that of his acquaintances. He has the sterling attributes typical of his Scottish ancestry, the original progenitors of the McConnel family in America having left Scotland at the time of the religious persecutions and having probably remained for a time in the north of Ireland before coming to the new world to establish a home in Virginia, whence representatives of the line later went to Ohio, in the pioneer days of that commonwealth.

On a farm in Benton Township, Wayne County, Iowa, Charles S. McConnel was born on the 20th of August, 1857, and he is a son of one of the honored pioneer families of the Hawkeye state. He is a son of William and Nancy (Graham) McConnel, both of whom were born and reared in Guernsey County, Ohio, where their marriage was solemnized and whence they removed to Iowa in the late '40s. They were numbered among the early settlers of Wayne county, Iowa, where the father reclaimed a farm and where he also did a considerable amount of work as a carpenter. The parents of Charles S. McConnel continued their residence in Iowa until 1885, when they came to Idaho and established their home in Boise, where they passed the residue of their long and useful lives, secure in the high regard of all who knew them. The loved wife and mother was summoned to the life eternal in 1887, at the age of seventy years, and the father attained to the venerable age of eighty-four years, his death having occurred in June, 1897. They became the parents of eleven sons and one daughter, and of the number eight of the sons and the daughter are still living, the subject of this sketch having been the tenth in order of birth. William McConnel was a man of strong mentality and inflexible integrity of purpose. He was a stalwart supporter of the cause of the Republican party, with which he united at the time of its organization, and both he and his wife were devoted members of the Methodist Episcopal church.

Charles S. McConnel gained his earlier educational training in the public schools of Wayne county, Iowa, the old home of his parents, and when but sixteen years of age he proved himself eligible for pedagogic honors. From 1874 until 1879 he was a successful and popular teacher in the public schools of Iowa, and in the latter year he came to Idaho, where he continued his labors as a teacher for a period of about ten years, in what is now Ada county, in which the capital of the state is situated. In 1884 he was accorded a distinctive mark of popular confidence and esteem, in that he was then elected auditor and recorder of this county, a position to which he was re-elected in 1886 and of which he thus continued in tenure for four successive years. He was made registrar of the state land office, at Boise, at the time of its creation in 1890, and he gave most effective service in this department.

From 1890 until 1893 he conducted a wholesale and retail grocery business in Boise, with headquarters at 624 Main Street, and he has otherwise been prominently identified with business and industrial interests in the capital city and its surrounding country. He is secretary of the Boise Water & Land Company and the Irrigation Company, which is proving an important agency in developing the resources of this part of the state, and he has been the incumbent of the office of city health officer of Boise since June, 1912. In 1909-10 he served as county probation officer.

The basic principles of the Republican party have always received the steadfast support of Mr. McConnel and he has been an active worker in the cause. He stands today as a staunch representative of the old-school branch of his party and is well fortified in his opinions concerning economic and general governmental policies. For a quarter of a century he has been a member of the Boise lodge of Knights of Pythias, and he has held various official chairs in the same. He and his wife are numbered among the most zealous and honored members of the First Methodist Episcopal church in their home city, and he has served as trustee of the same for twenty-nine years.

At Dixie, Idaho, on the 31st of October, 1879, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. McConnel to Miss Laura Kirby, who had been his schoolmate and youthful sweetheart in Iowa and whose father, Henry B. Kirby, is one of the pioneer settlers of Wayne county, that state. Mr. McConnel made the long overland trip from Iowa to Idaho, a distance of three hundred miles, having been made by stage and his wife compassed the same weary journey in coming to the latter state for the purpose of becoming his wife. The home relations have been ideal in all respects, and Mrs. McConnel has proved a devoted wife and mother. A woman whose gentle and gracious personality has won to her the affectionate regard of all who have come within the sphere of her influence. Mr. and Mrs. McConnel own and occupy an attractive home at 1404 Hays Street, Boise, and the same is a favored rendezvous for their many friends. They became the parents of seven children, and only once has death invaded the family circle, the fifth child in order of birth, having passed to the life eternal at the age of one and one-half years.

In conclusion is given brief record concerning the surviving children: Daisy is the wife of Charles W. Wayland, senior member of the representative firm of Wayland & Fennel, architects, in Boise; Lena is the wife of Charles A. Green, of Tacoma, Washington; Mabel is the wife of Judson F. Allen, a prosperous farmer near Roswell, Canyon County, Idaho; Earl W., is a resident of Weiser, this state, where he is engaged in the drug business; Flora is a member of the class of 1915 in the University of Idaho, at Moscow, and Fay is serving as his father's deputy in the office of the city health officer.

[HISTORY OF IDAHO VOLUME II; BY HIRAM T. FRENCH, M. S.; Publ. 1914; Transcribed and submitted to Genealogy Trails by Andrea Stawski Pack.]

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WILLIAM JOHN McCONNELL
William E. McConnell, first United States Senator from Idaho and later governor of the state, came to Idaho originally in 1863 from Oregon. He farmed and ran a pack string in southern Idaho and served as deputy U.S. marshal for Idaho from 1865 to 1867. He then returned to Oregon, where he was a cattleman and served in the State Senate in 1882. In 1886 he returned to Idaho and settled in Moscow with his family. In 1889 he served as a member of the Constitutional Convention, and the first state legislature elected him United States Senator for the short term from December of 1890 to March of 1891. He was elected governor of Idaho in 1892 and reelected in 1894. After leaving that office, he was appointed Indian inspector--a position he held from July of 1897 to July of 1901. In 1909 President Taft appointed him an immigration inspector at Moscow, and he held that federal position until his death in 1925.

Foundation work on the McConnell house began in early July, 1886, with local teams hauling rock. By late August, the Moscow Mirror reported that the house was almost completed and went on to add, "Its appearance indicates comfort and elegance and we are of the opinion that when it is finished it will be a structure of which Moscow may be proud." (August 27, 1886). The family finally moved in in late December of that year, and the house soon became a well-known social center.

McConnell's service as governor of Idaho apparently did not help his business operations. In 1893, he was forced to close his store in Moscow and declare bankruptcy, but he managed to pay all of his debts. In order to save their home, Mrs. McConnell declared a homestead on the house in 1893. They finally sold the house in 1901, and the building has changed hands twice since then. It now houses a local historical museum.

Architecturally, the McConnell house is important since no other house in Idaho has survived in the Eastlake design. Historically, the home is important for its associations with Governor McConnell.

Set on a large corner lot in Moscow, the McConnell house is a large, two-story clapboard dwelling of striking design. Despite alterations both inside and out, the house retains its general style and character which is best described as Eastlake. The tall, narrow look favored by late nineteenth-century architects is achieved in a series of two-story bays topped with sharp gables. The windows and doors are also quite tall, adding to the vertical effect. Band-sawn decoration is profuse, particularly in the gables, front porch, and around the windows. Elaborate brackets, with curled edges and cut-out design, support the wide eaves, small roofs over the entryways and the narrow ledges which encircle the bays at midpoint.

Souce: Idaho.gov
Submitted and transcribed by Sandra Davis

JOHN McMILLAN
Coming from Scotland to America when a young man, the present popular and efficient postmaster of the city of Boise forthwith identified himself with the west, and he has in every sense exemplified its progressive spirit, the while he has shown the true Scottish tenacity of purpose, which, as combined with excellent judgment, well directed enterprise and sterling integrity of purpose, has gained to him distinctive prestige in the state of his adoption. He has served as a member of both branches of the Idaho legislature, has been influential in the furtherance of public and private enterprises that have conserved the civic and material development of his home city and state, and, with a secure place in popular confidence and esteem, he may consistently be designated as one of the representative citizens of Idaho.

Mr. McMillan was born on the old homestead farm, in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, and the date of his nativity was May 12, 1857. He duly availed himself of the advantages of the common schools and supplemented this discipline by a course of study in Douglass Academy, a well ordered institution. After leaving school he continued to be actively identified with agricultural pursuits in his native county for a period of four years, at the expiration of which he severed the gracious home ties to seek his fortunes in America. He is a scion of the staunchest of Scottish stock in both the agnatic and maternal lines and is a son of Anthony and Agnes (MacFadzan) McMillan, who joined him in Boise in 1886 and who here, passed the residue of their lives, the father having been a prosperous farmer in Scotland. Anthony McMillan died in 1906, at the age of eighty-nine years, and his cherished and devoted wife did not long survive him, as she was summoned to the life eternal in 1908, at the age of seventy-seven years. Her father was an extensive farmer and influential citizen in Wigtownshire, Scotland, and attained to extremely venerable age, as did also his wife. Anthony McMillan and his wife were lifelong and zealous members of the Presbyterian Church, in the faith of which they carefully reared their children, of whom five sons and three daughters are now living. Their lives were marked by rectitude and kindliness and they held the high regard of all who knew them, having gained many loyal friends after coming to America.

John McMillan set forth from his native land in 1881, on the 28th of June, four days before Garfield was shot, and arrived in due course of time in the port of New York City, whence he forthwith made his way to the great west, concerning which he had previously informed himself to a considerable degree. Determined and ambitious, he soon found opportunities and his initial experience was in connection with the live-stock business, at Laramie, Wyoming. In 1886 he came to Idaho, and he has since been actively identified with civic and industrial interests in this commonwealth, to which he accords unwavering loyalty and in the great future of which he is a firm believer. Upon coming to Idaho he located at Mayfield, Elmore County, where he engaged in the raising of sheep and where he remained for ten years, within which he developed an extensive and profitable enterprise and became the owner of a valuable landed estate. Later Mr. McMillan disposed of his business in Elmore County and removed to Boise, where he became a stockholder of the company which erected and owns the magnificent Idanah Hotel, one of the finest in the entire northwest. He is still an interested principal in this company and he has made other judicial investments in the capital city. He was the chief promoter of the Intermountain Fair and its president for four years. In 1906 he erected the fine building in which the annual fairs are held, this being one of the important and attractive structures in Boise.

In politics Mr. McMillan accords unfaltering allegiance to the Republican Party and he has been an active worker in behalf of its cause. In 1906 lie represented Elmore County in the lower house of the legislature, in which he made an admirable record, and in the important general assembly of 1908 he was a member of the senate, as representative of Ada County. During both terms in the legislature Mr. McMillan exemplified the deepest interest in the furtherance of wise legislation and was active both in the house and senate bodies as a member of important committees. On the 18th of February, 1910, Mr. McMillan was commissioned postmaster of Boise, and he has given a most admirable administration, with many improvements in the various departments of service. He is an appreciative and popular member of Boise Lodge, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, of which he is past exalted ruler. Mrs. McMillan holds membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church.

On the 20th of November, 1896, at Boise, was solemnized the marriage of Mr. McMillan to Miss Clara Hubbell, daughter of Norman S. Hubbell, a representative citizen of Boise. Mrs. McMillan was born at Union, Oregon, and was reared and- educated in Boise, Idaho. Mr. and Mrs. McMillan have one son, John, Jr., who was born on the 28th of March, 1897, and who is a member of the class of 1915 in the Boise high school.

[HISTORY OF IDAHO VOLUME II; BY HIRAM T. FRENCH, M. S.; Publ. 1914; Transcribed and submitted to Genealogy Trails by Andrea Stawski Pack.]

JOHN U. McPHERSON
In the office of state horticultural inspector Mr. McPherson is working with great enthusiasm for the development of the great resources of Idaho along horticultural and agricultural lines, and his distinctive technical ability is making his administration one of incalculable value to the state and its productive workers. He is a close student and has a broad and accurate knowledge of the industrial lines along which he is directing his attention in a most practical way, and he is proving a most capable and popular state official, his executive duties taking him into all sections of the commonwealth which he represents.

Mr. McPherson is of staunch Scottish lineage and was born at Kansas City, Missouri, on the 24th of March, 1885. His father, Alexander McPherson, was born at New York City and came with his family to Idaho in 1887, in which year he established his home in Ada county, within the limits of which is situated the beautiful capital city of the state. He has been most conspicuously and worthily identified with the development of the agricultural and horticultural resources of Idaho and New Mexico, and to him is due in large measure the splendid horticultural showing that has been made in the Twin Falls district of Idaho within the past sixteen years.

He has acquired large tracts of valuable land in that locality, and at the present time (1912), he has the active supervision of one hundred thousand acres of orchard land near Roswell, New Mexico. He is rapidly bringing about the successful development of this fine tract and the improvement of the same will add materially to the prosperity and advancement of the new commonwealth of New Mexico. He is a Republican in his political allegiance and both he and his wife are members of the Baptist church. In the state of Illinois was solemnized the marriage of Alexander McPherson to Miss Caroline L. Uzzell, who was born and reared in that state, and who is now residing at Long Beach, California, where the family maintain a most attractive winter home and where her husband will eventually make permanent residence, her impaired health rendering it expedient for her to remain continuously in the mild atmosphere of southern California. Of the three children John U„ of this review, was the second in order of birth; Alexander M., the eldest son, is a civil engineer and is engaged in the practice of his profession in Boise, the fair capital of Idaho; and Donald A., who was born and reared in Idaho, is assistant superintendent under his father of the large tract of horticultural land near Roswell, New Mexico.

The present state horticultural inspector of Idaho was about two years of age at the time of the family removal to Idaho, and for the state he has all the affection and appreciation of a veritable native son. He was afforded the advantages of the public schools of Boise, and after completing the curriculum of the high school he passed seven years in perfecting himself in the science and practical work of horticulture and agriculture under the able direction of his father. For six years thereafter he was in service as an instructor in connection with the development of the Carey project in southern Idaho, where he gave technical and practical instructions to farmers in the line of horticultural industry. So pronounced was his success in this field of work that he gained the favorable attention of the state board of horticulture, by which body he was appointed to his present important office of state horticultural inspector, in February, 1911.

He has a most thorough knowledge of all phases of horticultural industry,—soil and climatic conditions favorable to the sane, proper methods of propagation and selection of varieties, and the abolishing of various insect and worm pests and parasitic growth detrimental to the obtaining of desired results. His enthusiasm is unwavering and it is a matter of great pleasure and abiding interest to him to he able to promote the horticultural interests of the fine state that has been his home from his childhood days. His genial personality has gained him warm friends in all sections of the state and his official services have not lacked for the highest popular approval. He is distinctively the right man in the right place and the state is fortunate in having enlisted his service in his present office. He has a valuable and comprehensive library of works on scientific and practical horticulture and agriculture, and is a persistent student of the same. He naturally gives special attention to horticulture in pursing his research and experimentation, and aside from his official duties and enthusiastic work he finds his chief pleasure in the gracious associations of his ideal home, which is in Boise.

In all particulars is Mr. McPherson essentially progressive and public-spirited, and in politics he is found aligned as a loyal supporter of the cause of the Republican party. On the 5th of June, 1912, he had the distinction of being/chosen secretary of the Northwestern Horticultural' Inspectors' Association, and he is also a member of the directorate of the Inter-Mountain Fair Association, of the agricultural and horticultural exhibits of which he has the general supervision at the annual fairs, held in Boise.

He is affiliated with the Masonic Fraternity and is a popular factor in the business and social circles of his home city and state.

[HISTORY OF IDAHO VOLUME II; BY HIRAM T. FRENCH, M. S.; Publ. 1914; Transcribed and submitted to Genealogy Trails by Andrea Stawski Pack.]

CLAUDE D. MASON
One of the ablest men in the state's public service, and one who used his opportunities for effective service in the best possible manner, was the former state chemist, Mr. Gaude D. Mason, who in 1913, much to the regret of all who have the best interests of good government of this state at heart, resigned his office in order to accept a call to a larger field of business. It has long been understood that in America the best men do not long remain in public office, since as soon as efficiency of an unusual order has been demonstrated in behalf of the public interests, immediately there comes a demand from the great business industries which is more satisfying and offers larger and more permanent opportunities of usefulness than under the present system can ever be presented in public life. In leaving the office of state chemist Mr. Mason has the satisfaction of leaving behind him a record which is creditable to himself and from every point of view, beneficial to the state.

Mr. Mason has spent the larger part of his life in Idaho, and to a large degree is a product of its wholesome environment and opportunity. In leaving the office of state chemist he has gone to Indiana, the Hoosier state was the place of his birth, and it might well appear that the old state which gave him birth has now recalled him from the scene of his present and useful activity in the west to larger responsibilities in the older commonwealth. Mr. Mason was born at New Lebanon in Sullivan county, Indiana, October 3, 1882, a son of Richard R. and Nancy (Dodds) Mason. The parents were both natives of Indiana, and on both sides the family is one of the oldest in the settlement and development of that state. Five sons and one daughter of the seven children of the parents are still living, and Claude D. was the fourth in this family.

In 1890 the Masons moved out to Idaho, which in that year was admitted to the union. The parents both reside in Boise, and for many years have been active citizens of this state. Richard R. Mason, the father, has been chiefly identified with mining and real estate and is one of the representative business men of Boise. He has long been a prominent supporter of the Republican party, and he and his wife are both members of the Methodist church.

Claude D. Mason was about eight years of age when the family came to Idaho, and he continued his education in the public schools of Boise, through the high school course. When he was sixteen years of age he began an apprenticeship in the drug firm of McCrum & Deary of Boise, with whom he continued for 3 ½   years and acquired an extensive knowledge of pharmacy and practical chemistry. This experience had fortified his ambition for larger attainments in the scientific field and he entered Tualatin Academy at Forest Grove, Oregon, and after a preparatory course there entered Pacific University, also at Forest Grove, where he was graduated in the class of 1908, with the degree of bachelor of science. He had specialized during his university course in chemistry and in practical research work in that science.

At Portland, Oregon, after leaving college, he was connected for a time with the United States food and drug inspection laboratory, and received many commendations from his associates and superiors in that service. Nine months later, on returning to Boise, he was appointed in May, 1909, by Governor Brady to the office of state chemist. The state chemist of Idaho, and the same is true of other states, collaborates with and works under the general direction of the United States Department of Agriculture, and the work which Mr. Mason was able to do during his three years and a half in the office proved of inestimable benefit in furthering the agricultural and other industrial interests of Idaho, not to mention its also important benefit in conserving the pure food and drug law. Mr. Mason is a member of the American Chemical Society, and in 1912 represented Idaho in the International Congress of applied chemistry, the session of this congress being held both in New York and Washington, D. C.

Mr. Mason resigned his office as state chemist on February 10, icji3, in order to accept the position of chemist in the Rubber Regenerating Company, at Mishawaka, Indiana. This corporation is one of the largest of its kind, and manufactures rubber boots, shoes and a great variety of woolen and other goods. It is a distinct promotion in his personal career to leave the service of the state government and take a place with one of the largest manufacturing plants in the middle west, but at the same time all good citizens of Idaho regret that the efficiency which Mr. Mason displayed in his office could not have been continued in its benefit to the state for a much longer period.

Mr. Mason has for many years been active in his support of the Republican party, and he and his wife are members of the First Methodist church of Boise. Their home in Boise was at 915 Ellis avenue. On September 6, 1911, Mr. Mason married Miss Vesta Hall, who was reared in Boise, and is a daughter of Adna Hall, one of the prominent business men and honored citizens of Boise. Mr. Mason and family have now taken up their residence at Mishawaka, Indiana, but retain a special fondness for the state which was for so many years their home, and in whose continued development .they will take the greatest interest and pride.

[HISTORY OF IDAHO VOLUME II; BY HIRAM T. FRENCH, M. S.; Publ. 1914; Transcribed and submitted to Genealogy Trails by Andrea Stawski Pack.]

WILLIAM G. MESSERSMITH
William G. Messersmith, prominent in real estate and insurance circles in Boise for some years, is a native of Germany, born on June 27, 1865. He attended the public schools of his native land as a boy, and came to the United States, in 1881, being then but sixteen years of age. He located first in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, there securing work in a glass factory.

He remained until 1886 and in that year he came to Wyoming and became engaged in the insurance business. He represented the United States Life Insurance Company as their state agent, and after some little time was transferred from Wyoming to Idaho, where he was employed in the capacity of state agent for two years, after which he resigned to enter into a local real estate and insurance business in Boise in 1900. In addition to the features above named, he also conducted a loan department, and his success in the venture has been most unusual. He makes a specialty of real estate buying and selling, and in the twelve years of his business experience in Boise, Mr. Messersmith has risen from a state of comparative unimportance in the business activities of the city to the position of the leading representative of his line in the city. He is a man of the most splendid integrity, and his character and reputation are without blot or blemish in the community where he is so well known.

Mr. Messersmith is the son of Frederick W. and Barbara (Rummell) Messersmith, both natives of Germany, where they passed their entire lives. The father died there in July. 1906, at the age of seventy six, .and-the mother died in 1900, when she was eighty years, of age. They were the parents of six children, William G. being the eldest of the number.

William  Messersmith was united in marriage with Miss Cecelia Bandholz, of Cheyenne, Wyoming. They have no children. Mr. Messersmith is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he has passed all chairs, and of the Woodmen of the World. He is a member of the Boise Commercial Club and president of the Boise Canning Company, president of the Ada County Dairy Company, and vice-president and director of the John Krall Company. Politically, he is an independent voter, his action in those matters being determined by the issues at stake and the men who are candidates for office. He is of the Christian Science faith.

[HISTORY OF IDAHO VOLUME II; BY HIRAM T. FRENCH, M. S.; Publ. 1914; Transcribed and submitted to Genealogy Trails by Andrea Stawski Pack.]

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CHARLES CALVIN MOORE
After growing up on a farm near Mound City in northwest Missouri, he attended a state normal school in Warrensburg long enough to qualify for a teacher's certificate. Then he taught in rural schools near Mound City (north of Saint Joseph) from 1886-1892. At that point, he shifted to an appointment as deputy county assessor. That job lasted for four years, until William Jennings Bryan's farm campaign swept Moore and his Republican political associates out of office in 1896. Then in June 1899 he moved to Boise long enough to locate a challenging teaching position not far from Saint Anthony.

Soon he joined in operating a drug store, and after winning election to Idaho's legislature in 1902, he switched to a Saint Anthony real estate business in 1904. His success in gaining legislative approval for Idaho's Industrial Training School in Saint Anthony ensured his reelection to another term, after which he left politics to join in founding Ashton as a rail center in 1906. Along with his real estate enterprises, he became an unusually successful postmaster for Saint Anthony (1908-1913), followed by a career in sugar beet farming, supplemented by successful wartime hay and grain crops. By that time he had all kinds of useful experience in different occupations.

Entering state politics as a successful candidate for lieutenant governor in Idaho's tumultuous campaign of 1918, he gained experience as acting governor when D. W. Davis was out of state. Then he advanced to two terms of his own, getting elected by a plurality in 1922 and 1924 during a time in which Idaho's  Non-partisan League had, because of legislative repudiation of direct primaries, to operate as an Independent or Progressive party. Moore represented a conservative Republican minority that retained power only because their opponents were split into two parties. In 1922, Senator William E. Borah took a strong stand in favor of restoration of direct primary elections, but Moore and his associates had strong enough party organization support to defeat that plan. His primary achievements, during an era of severe farm depression, were sales promotion of Idaho products, development of a state highway system, organization of a state budget office, and penitentiary reform. His business success accounted for most of his governmental contributions during an era of severe agricultural discontent. His association with his predecessor, D. W. Davis, who had become commissioner, United States Reclamation Service, helped to develop Idaho's major American Falls dam and irrigation project. In May, 1929 President Hoover appointed Moore as Commissioner of Reclamation, so he was able to continue Davis' tradition in administering that Service.

After retiring from federal office in 1933, Moore returned to Saint Anthony during an era of national depression followed by international war. During that time he remained an active participant of Fremont County's draft board. He continued his interest in public affairs after that, but had reached an age that his activity was directed to other areas.

Source: Idaho.gov
Submitted and transcribed by Sandra Davis

CHRISTIAN MORLER
There should be something of a nature encouraging to the youth of this or any other land in the career of Christian Morler, who, a few short years ago, arrived in this country with only a small cash capital, but with an abundant fund of ambition, energy and native intelligence, and who today ranks among the most progressive and successful business men of Boise. Locating among strangers, content to begin in a humble capacity, he directed his efforts in such an able manner that his progress has been rapid and continuous, and he has gained an enviable position in the esteem and confidence of the people of his adopted community. Christian Morler was born in Hesse Darmstadt, Germany, May 12, 1872, a son of Christopher and Sophie (Steuler) Morler, the former of whom died in 1894, at the age of sixty-four years, while the latter still survives and lives at Bad Nauheim, Germany. The elder Morler was a carpenter and contractor and a highly respected citizen of his locality.

Christian Morler was the second of his parents' three children, and until fourteen years of age attended the public schools of Bad Nauheim. At that age he was apprenticed to learn the trade of machinist, at which he spent three years, and on completing his apprenticeship set about to work assiduously and earn the money with which to come to the United States, an ambition which he had cherished from earliest youth. In 1890 he bid farewell to the land of his nativity, and in May of that year landed at New York City, from whence he made his way to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and there followed the trade of machinist for one year, removal then being made to Custer County, Idaho. There he spent something like ten years in the mining camps, and in 1901 came to Boise, where he immediately established himself in business at 211-13 No. Ninth Street, as the proprietor of a bicycle and sporting goods store.

Lack of capital made it obligatory that he start in a small way, but constant application, progressive methods and honorable dealing have made this the leading establishment of its kind in the city. Mr. Morler handles a full line of the finest sporting goods, including the leading makes of bicycles and motorcycles, and all supplies necessary to the huntsman and fisherman. He takes a pride in seeing his customers satisfied, and this, together with his genial, courteous manner, has gained him many friends and made him popular throughout the community. He is independent in his political views, and takes only a good citizen's interest in public matters, although anything that pertains to the welfare of his adopted city commands his immediate attention. He is a valued member of the local lodge of Odd Fellows.

Mr. Morler was married July 13, 1899, at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Miss Freda Mangold, also a native of Germany, and they reside at their pleasant residence at No. 1019 North Tenth Street. They have no children. As a citizen who has been the architect of his own fortunes, Mr. Morler deserves and receives the respect of his fellow citizens, who recognize and appreciate his many sterling qualities of character.

[HISTORY OF IDAHO VOLUME II; BY HIRAM T. FRENCH, M. S.; Publ. 1914; Transcribed and submitted to Genealogy Trails by Andrea Stawski Pack.]

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JOHN T. MORRISON
John T. Morrison came west from Pennsylvania and New York to settle in Caldwell in the summer of 1890, just at the time Idaho became a state. He had excellent credentials for success when he commenced his Idaho career. In 1880, he entered Wooster College in Ohio, where he excelled in literature, debate, oratory, and baseball as well as in traditional academic pursuits. There he became a close friend of William Judson Boone, who had come to Caldwell to serve as pastor of the Presbyterian Church in 1887, just when Morrison (after time out to teach) completed his A.B. at Wooster and moved on to law school at Cornell. Later in 1890, John C. Rice, who had also graduated from Cornell that spring, came out to join in his law practice. When Boone founded the College of Idaho the next year, the law office of Morrison and Rice contributed substantially to getting that institution started. Morrison served for the first two years as professor of English and history, while Rice handled Greek and mathematics. Rice went on to serve as Idaho’s Chief Justice, and both of these young attorneys supported Caldwell’s Presbyterian Church in a major way. One of half a dozen or so Presbyterians to occupy the governor’s office, Morrison had a really distinguished career as a religious leader, serving as Commissioner to the National General Assembly of his church five different times--a record rarely matched. Boone testified that he also “was a discriminating reader and a real literary critic . . . His home in Caldwell was a gathering place for all who enjoyed the best in music, literature and art . . .” Noted more as a humanist and as a compassionate churchman than as a government leader, Morrison showed too much independence to win consistently after he entered politics. Four times unsuccessful as a candidate for high office, he gave little consideration to picking the winning combines necessary for political success. Often misunderstood in government, he found that much of the Progressive program that he worked for had to be put into effect by others who had more talent in political salesmanship. Yet he joined in bringing a new era to Idaho politics that finally had considerable impact upon the state.

Morrison’s initial candidacy for high office scarcely could be regarded as promising. In 1896 four more or less major Idaho parties entered a slate of candidates for state and national office. Least consequential of these parties--all of which were composed primarily of advocates of unlimited silver coinage--the McKinley Republicans (a decided minority of Idaho’s Republicans who could not go quite so far as to place William Jennings Bryan at the head of Idaho’s Republican ticket), nominated Morrison for Congress. With 6,054 votes, he ran well behind the 8,984 given William E. Borah (another promising young attorney who also had come to Idaho in 1890), a Silver Republican nominated when Fred T. Dubois failed in his efforts to develop a solid Democratic-Populist-Silver Republican combine for congressional as well as state offices. Both lost to a Populist nominee whose Democratic support increased his vote to 14,487. Not entirely discouraged, Morrison agreed to serve as McKinley Republican State Chairman, March 3, 1898. Even though Silver Republicans as prominent as Borah and state auditor Bartlett Sinclair, who had represented Governor Frank Steunenberg’s interests in suppression of the Western Federation of Miners in the Coeur d’Alene region, shifted to Morrison’s Republican faction prior to convention time in 1900, McKinley and his adherents could not win in Idaho that year either. Morrison made a second attempt at election to Congress and did better than the other McKinley Republicans. Unlike Sinclair, D. W. Standrod (who ran for governor), and W. B. Heyburn (who managed a conservative Republican faction in the McKinley Republican forces), Morrison and some of his associates criticized the administration of martial law in the Coeur d’Alene mines as a denial of civil rights and as an unsuccessful operation against the offending miners. This divergence became more prominent in 1902.

As had been the case with every nineteenth century Idaho governor (aside perhaps, from McConnell), selection of a United States senator dominated the entire election. In 1902, Borah decided to challenge Heyburn along with former Senator George L. Shoup and several other conservative candidates for a Senate opening. Prior to the 1902 Republican State Convention, Borah had joined forces with Frank R. Gooding, a prominent sheep rancher who had become state chairman and remained prominent as a leader of the organized Republicans (as opposed to those of more independent inclination) for a generation. Then Gooding unexpectedly shifted into an alignment with D. W. Standrod. This forced Borah to accept Morrison as a political associate. (Ever since Morrison as Republican candidate for Congress, had deposed Gooding as state chairman because he was personally objectionable, Morrison and Gooding had irreconcilable differences that affected the course of Republican factionalism in Idaho for several years.) In a few hours after these shifts in lineup, Borah and Morrison defeated Gooding and Standrod for ascendancy in the 1902 Republican State Convention. This time Morrison did not bother to oust Gooding as state chairman, but Borah dominated the party without excessive regard to Republican organization forces. (Borah continued to get along in Idaho politics in spite of opposition of the state organization for most of the next forty years.) With Morrison as a nominee for governor, and with a Progressive platform appropriate for the twentieth century, Borah led a successful Republican campaign based primarily upon national issues. As a beneficiary of this reversal of Republican misfortune, Morrison entered the governor’s office relatively free from encumbrance of divisive local issues associated with mine labor wars, sheep and cattle wars, and similar conflicts that had disturbed previous administrations.

Most of Borah’s 1902 Republican platform did not involve proposals for state action: government ownership of railroads, anti-trust demands, and direct election of United States Senators, for example, required national attention. Morrison asked the state legislature for statutory regulation of state banks, for improvements (with more state participation) in Idaho’s irrigation district act, for increased support and better planning for the state university, and for equal rights legislation that would give women the same status and powers that men had in ownership and control of property. His request for bank regulation was deferred until the next legislative session. But women’s property rights, equality, reform in the irrigation district act, a new fish and game act, and some important additional progressive reforms gained legislative approval. These included a pure food law, arrangements for state inspection of weights and measures, and provision for party primaries to nominate delegates to local and county political conventions. He was also willing to approve a program to assist the Mormons in starting major Idaho sugar beet factories.

Most legislative attention went to the matter of electing a United States senator, however. Borah had the most votes, but not a Republican majority. More than anyone else he had the 1902 Republican victory to his credit. Still, he ran into a combine of conservatives who had run the party unsuccessfully from 1896-1900. Heyburn had been cool toward Gooding until hostility between Borah and Gooding gave him an opening. In a crisis during the Senate contest, Heyburn took advantage of the Borah-Gooding split to enlist Standrod’s support. Other conservatives lined up with him. They wanted to avoid electing another Idaho Progressive, capable of matching Senator Dubois’ Progressive record. By consolidating all their support behind W. B. Heyburn, they delivered a Republican legislative majority to a strong Conservative Coeur d’Alene mine attorney. Although the Democrats in the legislature were prepared for another fusion arrangement (that had elected Dubois two years before) to give Borah the election anyway, he decided that he ought to honor the Republican caucus decision and avoid the kind of fracas that had come out of most previous Idaho Senate elections. He had to put together a broader combine, though, so that when he might try again in 1906, a similar consolidation of opposition would not ruin his prospects.

In order to break up a solid front of party organization Republicans who had denied him a place in the Senate, Borah decided to join forces with Frank R. Gooding, again. He really had no alternative. Other party leaders such as Heyburn offered no possibility for cooperation. Borah’s arrangement left Governor Morrison in a hopeless situation. In 1904, Gooding wanted a chance to become governor, and Borah decided that he had better go along this time. As a result, Morrison had no opportunity to try for a second term. Although the somewhat unnatural Borah-Gooding combine fell apart again prior to the state convention in 1906, neither Gooding nor Borah had strength enough to exclude the other from high office. So they managed a compromise in such a way that Borah was nominated to the Senate and Gooding secured reelection in 1906.

Still entirely opposed to Gooding, Morrison had no political opportunity either in 1904 or in 1906. He encountered more than a modest amount of enmity from some timberland interests who objected to his policy of gaining a higher return on school endowment land deals. Friends of a Republican state treasurer were alienated after Morrison got the legislature to provide that returns on investment of idle state funds should accrue to the state treasury, rather than to a private account of the state treasurer. (That system had been standard procedure prior to Morrison’s time.) Other complaints of a similar nature afflicted Governor Morrison. At the same time, espousal of public interest in situations like these contributed some political strength to his campaign.

Morrison gained an unexpected opportunity to represent an interest contrary to Governor Gooding’s preference after 1906. Along with Edgar Wilson, he joined as local defense counsel for William D. Haywood, who as secretary of the Western Federation of Miners had to respond to charges of conspiracy in the assassination of Frank Steunenberg. Gooding had secured reelection in 1906 on the promise of vigorous prosecution of Haywood. Lack of evidence to corroborate Harry Orchard’s confession that, as an employee of Haywood and the Federation, he had blown up Steunenberg, as charged by Gooding among others, ruined the state’s case against Haywood. Morrison came out victorious on that issue, but his position brought him a great deal of public misunderstanding. In 1908, Morrison had strong support as a candidate for attorney general. But his legal service for Haywood incurred opposition sufficient to ruin him as a potential candidate, although he had gained strong support.

Enactment of direct primary legislation in 1909 gave Morrison a chance to test his strength in two additional state elections. In 1910 he almost gained a Republican nomination for attorney general. This time he lacked only 383 votes. Then he tried for governor again in 1912. Two other candidates--a Progressive and Conservative--came out ahead of him. Yet again, the 1912 election ran incredibly close. Only fifteen votes separated the high candidates. Morrison lacked only 396 votes of gaining another nomination. Yet by dividing the Progressive vote, he finally helped a Conservative Republican become governor.

Aside from addiction to political misadventures that retarded his career in government, Morrison had an austere personality designed to negate his effectiveness in public affairs. His Caldwell associate and supporter, Rees H. Davis, identified part of his problem as:


Regarding the opposition of organization politicians (such as Gooding) as a credit, he chose some of his associates in government with less skill than his situation demanded. “Consequently he is surrounded (in 1904) and victimized by a class of people who, while seeking for themselves every sordid advantage that politics can yield, pretend to be altogether too lovely to mix in the filthy pool.” In church circles, where he felt more comfortable and less imposed upon, he presented a much more friendly and sympathetic appearance. And appropriately enough, he functioned much more effectively and productively in his assignments in church government. Although he compiled a record of substantial achievement in public affairs while governor, he had too hard a time assembling and retaining an effective political combine to enable him to follow an independent course the way Borah did, yet stay in office. As a governor he made a good one-term chief executive; he wasn’t the only one of his time to run into that kind of discouraging experience.

As Idaho’s best example of a Progressive Republican governor, Morrison deserves credit for initiating an era of reform that had to be developed by some of his successors. He was prepared to go a good deal farther than they were, and aside from losing a few elections by exceptionally narrow margins, he and his Progressive colleagues could have had far greater opportunities to advance their reform program. Morrison, as a Republican, and Moses Alexander, as a Democrat, represented a nationally typical transition from an era of Populist proposals to Progressive reforms characteristic of those who advocated significant political change after 1900. Supporting that trend more clearly than other Idaho governors did, their administrations commenced (in Morrison’s case) and concluded (in Alexander’s terms) that interesting period of Idaho’s development.

Source: Idaho.gov
Submitted and transcribed by Sandra Davis

MAURICE M. MYERS
Maurice M. Myers is by profession and training a lawyer, with a distinct leaning toward the realm of practical affairs, but after all, business qualities, added to competent legal knowledge, form the best foundation for a successful legal career. He is an energetic and able representative of the younger professional talent of Idaho and in the few years that he has been located at Boise has won a standing at its bar and has given evidence of those abilities that presage for him a successful career in law. He was born at Pueblo, Colorado, March 13, 1884, and grew up amid the environment of western energy and genius. George Myers, his father, was a pioneer settler in Colorado and became a prominent and wealthy contractor, cattleman and land owner in that state. He and his wife, who was Miss Nettie Booth before her marriage, now reside at La Junta, Colorado.

They are the parents of four children: Claude A. Myers and Maurice M. Myers, both located in Boise, Idaho; Miss Elsie Myers, residing with her parents; and Edith, now Mrs. Frederick Veliquette, of Higby. Colorado. Upon completing his high school course and graduating in 1903, Mr. Myers began the study of law in Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, and concluded his legal preparation in Grant University at Chattanooga, Tennessee. He was admitted to the bar of Tennessee in 1906 and in the-following year of 1907 located at Idaho City, Idaho, for the practice of his profession, remaining there two years. In 1909 he removed to Boise, where he has already acquired a very satisfactory practice and has the most encouraging prospects for a successful professional career.

He devotes considerable time to his mining interests, being the owner of several valuable mineral claims in this state and a manager and a large stockholder of the Centerville Mining & Milling Company, which owns many miles of placer claims near Centerville, Idaho. This company has already obtained very satisfactory returns from these claims and will shortly install steam dredges to facilitate their work. Mr. Myers is also president of the Idaho Motor Car Company, which conducts one of the largest and most successful garages of Boise. In addition to these interests he owns and cultivates a ten acre tract near Boise that is a model for management and intensive farming, and he also owns other ranch lands in Ada County, Idaho. Mr. Myers has no doubts as to Idaho’s future and as a progressive and public-spirited citizen he gives warm support to any project that promises the material advancement of the state and the development of its wealth of resources. In political views he is a Republican and he takes an active interest in the civic affairs of this city and state.

Mr. Myers married Miss Emma P. Coffin, who is a native of Colorado, but was reared in Idaho and is a daughter of the late L. P. Coffin, a prominent mining man of Idaho who died suddenly in 1909. Mr. and Mrs. Myers are numbered among the most estimable young people of their city.

[HISTORY OF IDAHO VOLUME II; BY HIRAM T. FRENCH, M. S.; Publ. 1914; Transcribed and submitted to Genealogy Trails by Andrea Stawski Pack.]

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