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.]
 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.]
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.]
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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