History of Jerome County, ID

History of Jerome County Idaho

Boomerang Saloon was Jerome's First Business
The town of Jerome, named for Jerome Kuhn, son of the president of the Twin Falls North Side Land and Water Co., was surveyed and platted the summer of 1907. This occured soon after Robert McCollum and Harvey Hurlebaus set up their tent on the future townsite to supervise not only the survey work but also the sale of the town lots.

The first residence in town, the Paul Kartzke home, was completed in July 1907. The following month the first commercial enterprise to begin business was the "Boomerang", a saloon owned by Lume Huggins In the 200 block of East Main Street. Two weeks later I. B. Perrine's Jerome Lodging House and restaurant was operating as was the big company restaurant on North Lincoln.

The Jerome Post Office began service to the town on August 24, 1907, with Adeline Becker as postmistress.

By September 30,1907, the day of the formal opening of the townsite and sale of town lots, Jerome had electricity and piped water from the well east of town.

A petition containing more than 200 signatures was presented to the Lincoln County Commissioners on July 15, 1909, asking that Jerome be incorporated as a village. The petition was granted and the commissioners appointed William Wagner, W. A. Heiss, R. S. Frazer, E. G. Reed and Joseph Josephson as the first board of trustees.

At the first meeting of the village board, Josephson was named chairman of the board and J. L. Roberts was appointed clerk. The new village obtained a room in the Camas Block where the village business could be conducted. The Camas Block was a row of shops facing Maple Street (now named Alder) where the parking lot for Safeway and the China Village now are.

By May 1909, Jerome had 73 businesses in town, one newspaper, a cement block works, one milling and elevator company, two banks, four attorneys, three physicians, two veterinarians and three engineers offices. A sidewalk had been laid to the Idaho Southern Railway depot on south Locust and the North Side Inn was nearing completion.

The first Jerome ordinance was passed in August 1909. Ordinance No. l dealt with offenses against the city government including abusive language, assault and battery, and dangerous and concealed weapons.

A new section of the townsite had been opened in September 1908 and in February 1909 the forty-acre acreage strip around the perimeter of the original townsite was opened in a drawing.

The first attempt at providing oiled streets in September 1914 ended in disaster. The oil stuck to everything, to wheels in big chunks and to shoes in big globs that ended up being tracked into every building in town. Five years later in April 1919 the city awarded a $84,915 contract to C. H. Helmer to pave eleven blocks in the center of town, an improvement project that was completed in 1920.

The village board on April 22,1919, three months after the formation of Jerome County, passed Ordinance No. 86 changing the city government to the mayor and council form that is still followed today. The corporate name had been changed the previous month to the "City of Jerome" and the town divided into wards. Anders Anderson, chairman of the county commissioners, was elected the first mayor. L. M. Zug, L. C. Thompson, C. W. Trounson and Grover Newman were the first trustees. J. R. Keenan was appointed the first city clerk.

Source: North Side News 75th Anniversary Edition - August 5, 1982
Contributed by Carol Shobe

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