present site of Notus. After four months- he began work on the Nat Graves ranch
for Charley Simpson. Nat Graves was at that time a large horse raiser in this
section and later sold his interests for one hundred thousand dollars and returned
to Arkansas. In the fall of 1885 Mr. Newport was taken ill and was unable to
engage in work until the following spring, when he once more took up farming,
being thus active until 1886, when he returned to his old home at Buffalo, Dallas
county, Missouri. He remained there for more than a year and then once more
came to Idaho, taking up his abode at his present location. He has dug potatoes
in fields that are now the streets of Parma and he has witnessed almost the entire
development and growth of this section. After eighteen months he went to Puget
Sound and was there employed in the lumber woods. In the following spring he
removed to Tacoma, Washington, where he worked in a sawmill until July. He was
next in the Palouse country and took charge of the threshing outfit of George
Clughnean. thus working until November 13, 1890, when he again visited his
old home in Missouri. He had received a letter from his sister stating that if he
wished to see his mother alive he must come immediately. She lived, however,
until the following June and in February Mr. Newport returned to Idaho, where he
secured a position with M. R. Jenkins, who was farming near Middleton. Six
months later he again went to the Palouse district in Washington and took charge
of a'threshing outfit for Jake Arrowsmith. In November, 1891, he went to Portland,
where he remained during the winter, and in 1892 went by steamer to San Fran-
cisco. When the harvest season was on he took charge of a combined header and
harvester, with thirty-two mules, for Thomas Pope, in the San Joaquin valley.
HISTORY OF IDAHO 989
near Stockton, California. After the threshing season was over he hauled and
loaded grain at Willow, California, for about fifty days in the employ of Jim Boyd
and then returned to the employ of Thomas Pope to put in his fall grain, remaining
with him until November, 1892, when he returned to Parma, Idaho. Here he worked
on the Goodhue ranch until the fall of 1893, when he began operating the threshing
outfit for Stockton Brothers. In the spring of 1894 he rented a ranch and engaged
in farming on his own account for three years, during which time the profits of his
labor brought him sufficient capital to enable him then to purchase a farm of one
hundred and thirty-five acres near Notus, where he continuously cultivated his
fields and raised stock until 1911. In that year he rented the farm and took up his
residence at Notus. At one time he had as many as two hundred head of stock on
his place and his farming and stock raising interests were most carefully and
successfully conducted. At Notus he engaged in the hardware and implement
business until 1915, when he sold out and has since devoted his attention to the
sale of threshing machinery for Altman & Taylor of Mansfield, Ohio.
On the 30th of November, 1893, Mr. Newport was married to Miss Dora Stock-
ton, of Parma, Idaho, who died May 28, 1911, leaving three children: John L.,
twenty-four years of age, who is now married and conducts a garage at Wilder;
James M., twenty-one years of age, a fireman on the Oregon Short Line Railroad;
and Lolo V., who is attending the high school in Caldwell. On the 17th of Febru-
ary, 1916, Mr. Newport wedded Mrs. Lillian (Powell) Culbertson, the widow of
Jesse Culbertson, of Baker City, Oregon, who by her former marriage had a
daughter, Jessie June, now ten years of age. To Mr. and Mrs. Newport has been
born a son, Paul.
Since first coming to the northwest when eighteen years of age Mr. Newport
has in many ways been identified with the development work west of the Rockies
and is familiar with all the phases of pioneer life and of subsequent progress and
improvement here. He has always been an industrious and energetic man and
whatever success he has achieved is the direct result of his own labors.
EDWARD HEIGHTSMENN.
Edward Heightsmenn, who carries on dairying and general farming, about
ten miles southeast of New Plymouth, was born in Ohio, October 24, 1861, a son
of Stephen and Barbara Heightsmenn. The father was a native of Germany and
came to America in early youth. He enlisted for service in the Mexican war and
thus did active military duty for his adopted country. In Ohio he was married
and in his family were six children.
Edward Heightsmenn was educated in Ohio and when a young man went to
Missouri, while at the age of twenty-four years he came to Idaho, settling in Idaho
county, near the town of Denver, taking up a homestead at Cottonwood. After
about two years he removed to Mount Idaho, now Grangeville, and there he followed
farming and carried on his trade of carpentering.
While there Mr. Heightsmenn was united in marriage to Miss Carrie Lamb,
a native of Mobile, Alabama, and a daughter of Nicholas and Mary < McGill) Lamb,
who came to Idaho in 1877 by way of San Francisco, journeying from the Golden
Gate to Lewiston, Idaho, and settling at Mount Idaho, where the father followed
farming. Both he and his wife are now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Heightsmenn
became the parents of three children: Barbara E., the wife of E. L. Plumber,
of Vale, Oregon, and the mother of one child, Doris M.; Frederick C., fifteen years
of age, who is attending school; and Dorothy A., likewise in school.
In 1905 Mr. Heightsmenn removed from Mount Idaho to his present location ten and
a half miles southeast of New Plymouth, where he rents one hundred and twenty acres
of land and carries on dairying and general farming. He owns a place of twenty-
three acres three miles west of New Plymouth and also owns ten acres in Ontario,
Oregon, and a residence in that town. He has about sixty head of cattle, some of
which he uses for dairy purposes and some of which he raises for beef.
Mr. and Mrs. Heightsmenn are familiar with all the experiences of pioneer
life. The first meal eaten in a hotel by Mrs. Heightsmenn was at L. P. Brown's
hotel at Mount Idaho, a picture of which is in this history. Both Mr. and Mrs.
Heightsmenn have witnessed the entire transformation of the state from the early
990 HISTORY OF IDAHO
mining days to the present time, when Idaho is largely a rich farming country.
Mrs. Heightsmenn was urged in her early girlhood to teach the Indians as she
speaks the Nez Perce language and is familiar with the character of the red men.
At one time Mr. Heightsmenn served as deputy sheriff of Idaho county, but he
has never been a politician in the sense of office seeking, preferring to concentrate
his efforts and energies upon his business affairs, which are most wisely and care-
fully conducted. Those who know him esteem him as a man of sterling worth, and
he well deserves classification with the representative pioneers of Payette county.
COLIN McLEOD.
Colin McLeod, who is extensively engaged in sheep raising in Idaho and makes
his home at Caldwell, was born in Ardgay, Rosshire, Scotland, February 27, 1880.
His parents were John and Ina McLeod, the former a farmer by occupation, now de-
ceased. The mother, however, still survives.
It was in 1899, when a young man of nineteen years, that Colin McLeod came
to Idaho from Scotland and entered the sheep industry at Rockville with Finley
McKenzie, by whom he was employed for six years. He then began business on his
own account in partnership with John Bruce, having ten thousand head of sheep at
the outset. Their camp was at Jump Creek, eighteen miles south of Caldwell, but
Mr. McLeod disposed of his interests there in 1915 and in the fall of that year
entered into partnership with W. J. Hodgson and purchased the outfit of John Archi-
bald north of Boise, including fifteen thousand head of sheep and about twenty-five
hundred acres of land. They now have about thirty-five thousand head of ewes and
lambs and own over seven thousand acres of land in Ada, Gem, Boise and Owyhee
counties. They give employment to an average of forty-five men. They expect to cut
sixteen hundred tons of hay in 1919 and usually buy each year between twenty-five
and thirty-five hundred tons. Their annual payroll amounts to more than forty
thousand dollars. In the spring of 1919 they shipped six carloads or one hundred
and seventy-five thousand pounds of wool. Mr. McLeod is recognized as one of the
most progressive and enterprising young sheepmen of Idaho and is doing much to
improve the conditions of the business in this state.
On the 8th of August, 1907, Mr. McLeod was married to Miss Anna Purser, a
native of England, who came to Oregon with her parents, Frank and Eliza (Good-
year) Purser, when four years of age. Her father and mother removed to Caldwell,
Idaho, about twelve years ago and live in a beautiful home on Kimball avenue, near
the McLeod residence, Mr. Purser having practically retired from active business.
To Mr. and Mrs. McLeod have been born three children: Constance E., Eleanor Rose
and Ruby Helen, all of whom are in school. The family occupy one of the finest
homes in Caldwell, on Kimball avenue, erected by Mr. McLeod in 1910. It is built
in an attractive style of architecture and furnished with every modern convenience and
comfort that refined taste suggests.
Mr. McLeod deserves much credit for what he has accomplished. Starting out
in the business world as a sheep herder on coming to the United States as a youth
of nineteen years, he has since steadily and persistently worked his way upward,
making time and effort count for the utmost, and he is today one of the successful
sheep raisers 'of the state. His interests are being gradually developed along com-
mendable lines and he has done much to improve conditions and promote prices for
the sheepmen of Idaho.
GEORGE BARKER.
A quarter of a century ago George Barker took up his abode upon the farm
which is still his place of residence and through the intervening period he has
converted a wild tract into richly productive fields, from which he annually gathers
large crops. His place is situated on Big Willow creek in Payette county, not far
from the city of Payette. Mr. Barker was born in western Kansas on the 15th of
October, 1874, a son of C. T. and Ellen (Bowler) Barker, both of whom were
natives of Illinois and removed to Kansas in early life. The father there followed
COLIN McLEOD
HISTORY OF IDAHO 993
the occupation of farming until 1886. His wife had died the previous year and he
then went to Baker county, Oregon, with his son George, who was then about twelve
years of age. Father and son followed farming there for nearly two years and
then removed to Long Valley, Idaho, where Mr. Barker took up a homestead, resid-
ing thereon until 1903. He then removed to Washoe, Idaho, where he is now
living retired.
George Barker accompanied his father to the west and is familiar with every
phase of the state's development and improvement since that time. He removed
from Long Valley to the Payette valley in 1889 and entered the employ of Ben
Bivens as a farm hand, working at the mouth of the Little Willow creek for a
period of about five years. On the 4th of July, 1895, he took up his abode on a
homestead claim of one hundred and sixty acres, which he has since owned and
occupied, and later he acquired forty acres adjoining. This land was all wild and
undeveloped when it came into his possession, but through his efforts it has been
highly cultivated and improved, being supplied with all the accessories and con-
veniences of a model farm of the twentieth century. Today he has fifty acres
planted to alfalfa and seventy acres to wheat, barley and rye. His alfalfa crop
yields about six tons to the acre. He likewise keeps a few head of sheep, cattle,
horses and hogs. His fine residence is one of the most attractive and modern in this
section of the state. He keeps a fine roan Durham registered bull for breeding
purposes and his stock is of high grade. In addition to his home place he also
owns a desert claim.
In 1899 Mr. Barker was married to Miss Laura L. Johnson, a daughter of Cal
nnd Nannie (King) Johnson, who were among the most prominent of the pioneer
settlers of the state and own a fine old homestead on the Payette river. Mr. and
Mrs. Barker have four children: Helen Margaret, Carrie Ellen, William Clayton
and Clifford.
Mr. Barker has served on the school board and is desirous of giving his
children the best educational opportunities possible. He stands for progress and
improvement in all things relating to the welfare of the community and his enter-
prise has been a valuable factor in advancing public good.
FRANCIS M. HAMMER.
Francis M. Hammer, a farmer and live stock grower of Boise, whose farm lies
on both sides of Upper Warm Springs avenue, about a quarter of a mile above
the Natatorium, came to Idaho in the fall of 1864 from Grayson county, Texas,
and through the intervening period of fifty-five years has been a resident of the
northwest. Mr. Hammer was born in Champaign county, Illinois, March 10, 1844.
and has therefore passed the seventy-fifth milestone on life's Journey but is still
hale and vigorous. His father was John Hammer, a farmer by occupation, and the
mother bore the maiden name of Eleanor Grier. Both died in Texas, to which
state the family had removed from Illinois in 1854. The paternal grandfather,
John Hammer, served in the War of 1812. The same military spirit was shown
by Francis M. Hammer when during the Civil war he joined Company H of the
Twenty-ninth Texas Cavalry in the Confederate army, serving for two years. It
was immediately afterward that he came from Grayson county, Texas, to Idaho,
where he arrived in the fall of 1864. He left Grayson county on the back of a mule,
thus traveled north to Council Grove, Kansas, spent a few weeks there and subse-
quently joined a wagon train of seven or eight wagons. They were driving five
hundred head of cattle and the whole outfit set out for Idaho, reaching Boise just
four months later. About one hundred head of the cattle were sold at Denver,
Colorado, but the rest were brought to Idaho. Mr. Hammer, then only twenty
years of age, was in the employ of Leonard Fuqua, who together with his brother,
William Fuqua, owned the cattle. Mr. Hammer made the trip to assist in driving
the herd. Soon after his arrival in Idaho he went to the Grand Ronde valley of
Oregon, where he spent two years on a ranch. In 1867 he again came to this
state, spending four years in Owyhee county, in and near Silver City, where he was
employed at teaming and at general sawmill work. In 1871 he returned to Oregon,
where he engaged in the live stock business in the vicinity of the present town site
of Vale. In 1877 he once more came to Idaho and it was then that he purchased
994 HISTORY OF IDAHO
his present farm just above the Boise city limits. He made investment in one
hundred and six acres of land, for which he paid three thousand dolars. A few
years ago he sold forty acres of this tract for seven hundred dollars per acre
and since then has sold smaller portions of it but still has forty acres of the original
property, which with its improvements is probably worth twenty-five thousand
dollars. Since 1877 Mr. Hammer has devoted his attention to farming and to
the raising of beef cattle and horses. In recent years his three sons, John, Francis
M. and Jetse, have been associated with their father in the breeding and raising
of cattle and horses and have many hundred head on hand always. The cattle
and horses are grazed much of the time on a ranch of one hnudred and sixty acres
which Mr. Hammer owns about six miles from Boise.
Mr. Hammer was married in Baker, now Malheur county, Oregon, in 1874,
to Miss Amanda Thomson, who was born in the Willamette valley of Oregon, a
daughter of James Thomson, a pioneer of that state, who removed to the northwest
from Arkansas prior to the Civil war. Mr. and Mrs. Hammer have now traveled
life's journey together for forty-five years and they have reared a family of seven
children, five sons and two daughters. Theirs is a notable family record inasmuch
as the circle has never been broken by the hand of death. The children are:
Ralph; Etta, now the widow of George Richardson and for the past six years a
trained nurse in St. Luke's Hospital in Boise; John; Francis M.; Fred; Jesse, who
served with the United States forces on the Rhine in Germany, being a member of
the Second Idaho Regiment; and Eva, the wife of John Sykes. Ralph is a resident
of Mackay, Idaho, where he is engaged in mining, and John and Francis M. are
acting as their father's assistants in the farming and live stock business, as was
their brother Jesse before he entered the army. Fred also is at home.
In his political views Mr. Hammer is a democrat but has never been a candi-
date for office. His attention has always been given to his business affairs yet he
is not remiss in the duties of citizenship and cooperates heartily in plans and
measures for the public good. His entire business career has been marked by
progress, resulting from close application and energy well directed.
SAMUEL HUGH PROCTOR.
Samuel Hugh Proctor, a rancher and sheepman residing at Kimberly, Idaho,
was born in Decatur, Illinois, May 10, 1868, a son of Hugh and Dorcas (Smith)
Proctor. His boyhood days were passed in his native state and he is indebted
to the public school system of Illinois for the educational opportunities which
he enjoyed and which qualified him for life's practical and responsible duties.
When his textbooks were put aside he took up the occupation of farming and
raising live stock, in which business his father was engaged. While in Illinois
he raised a number of fine race horses and also engaged in the breeding of stand-
ard bred horses. He was at one time the owner of Rex Orator, with a record
of 2:17%. He was often called upon to act as judge of races and has always
been recognized as an authority upon the value of fine horses. In the winter
of 1892-3 he went to Labette county, Kansas, where he engaged in dealing in
cattle and hogs, feeding cattle. He afterward returned to Illinois, where he
remained until December, 1913, arid then came to Twin Falls county, Idaho, where
he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land in 1914. To his original pur-
chase he added eighty acres and took up his abode upon the farm, which still re-
mains his place of residence. He has an excellent ranch property of two hun-
dred and forty acres, much of which he has brought under a high state of culti-
vation, so that the place annually produces good crops. He is also interested in
the Pocatello Security & Trust Company, of which he was one of the organizers,
and he has interests in oil lands. His attention, however, is chiefly given to his
ranching and live stock interests and he is now handling registered Rambouillet
sheep, Shorthorn cattle and P'ercheron horses, having one hundred and fifty head
of registered sheep. He has three bands of sheep in the hills and is one of the
well known stockmen of his section of the state.
In 1894 Mr. Proctor was married to Miss Ada L. Miller, a native of Illinois
and a daughter of John and Charlotte Miller. She passed away in 1907, at the
age of thirty-three years, leaving two children, Charlotte D. and Hugh Miller. In
HISTORY OF IDAHO 995
1917 Mr. Proctor was again married, bis second union being with Miss Cuba A.
Ni block, a native of Missouri and a daughter of Basil and Margaret (Yeager)
Niblock.
Mr. and Mrs. Proctor are widely and favorably known in Twin Falls county,
where his operations as a ranchman and sheepman have brought him prominently
to the front in business circles. In politics he maintains an independent course,
voting for men and measures rather than party. He concentrates his efforts and
attention upon his business affairs and in all that he undertakes manifests a most
progressive spirit.
E. G. DICKERSON.
E. G. Dickerson, who is conducting a transfer and auto livery business in
Parma under the name of the Parma Transfer Company and is also actively identi-
fied with farming in Canyon county, was born in Harrison county, Ohio, August 29,
1869. He was but a young lad when his parents removed with their family to
McLean county, Illinois, and there he acquired his education. He afterward took
up the occupation of general farming arid stock raising in connection with his
father, with whom he was thus associated until 1890, when the parents removed to
Washington county, Iowa, as did also E. G. 'Dickerson and his wife. He there
followed farming for three years, at the end of which time he became a resident
of Marshall county, Kansas, but his parents remained in Iowa. In Marshall county
Mr. Dickerson devoted three years to general agricultural pursuits and then became
a resident of Neosha county, Kansas, where he again followed farming for three
years, after which he disposed of his interests there and made his way to the north-
west with Parma, Idaho, as his destination. Here he purchased the business of
the William Leigh Transfer Company and changed the name to the Parma Transfer
Company. In this connection he conducts a general transfer and auto livery busi-
ness. He and his brother, who has been associated with him for the past four
years, also own about two hundred acres of land under cultivation within a mile
of the town of Parma. Mr. Dickerson likewise buys and sells horses and mulea
and raises a few sheep. He has another brother, F. L. Dickerson, who has about
four hundred acres of land four miles south of Parma, planted mostly to wheat,
and be is likewise engaged in stock raising, having fifty head of cattle, forty head
of sheep and twenty head of horses. In the year 1918 F. L. Dickerson was chair-
man of the county democratic committee.
On the 10th of February, 1892, E. G. Dickerson was united in marriage to
Miss Clara Dodds. of Adams county, Ohio, and they have become the parents of two
children: Jesse Earl, twenty-six years of age, who was with the United States
geographical survey until November, 1918, when he volunteered for service in the
American army as a member of the sanitary department. He was discharged after
the signing of the armistice and returned to his old position with the geographical
survey. Raymond Wilson, eighteen years of age, is attending the Agricultural
College at Corvallis, Oregon.
Mr. Dickerson early learned the value of industry and thrift, and as the years
have passed he has most carefully directed his labors so that his diligence and
perseverance have constituted the foundation upon which he has built his success.
JAMES W. LYNCH.
James W. Lynch, residing at New Plymouth, whero he follows the occupa-
tion of farming, was born in Omaha, Nebraska, December 28, 1860, his parents
being Thomas and Johanna Lynch, natives of Ireland, who on coming to America
settled first in Illinois and afterward removed to Nebraska, where the father home-
steaded. The old log house is still standing on the farm where James W. Lynch
was born. His brother, Thomas T., and a sister, Margaret, are the owners of the
old homestead and are numbered among the richest farming people at Shell Creek.
Platte county, Nebraska. The parents were devout members of the Catholic church
and passed away in that faith on the old homestead.
996 HISTORY OF IDAHO
James W. Lynch supplemented his public school education by a course in a
business college of Dubuque, Iowa, from which he was graduated. He afterward
became connected with mercantile interests in Platte Center, Nebraska, and was
thus engaged for six years. He then turned his attention to the banking business
and for fifteen years was connected with the Farmers State Bank of that place.
Following the failure of the bank in 1898 he removed to Idaho to recoup his for-
tunes and started again at the foot of the ladder as a sheep herder. After two
years, through bis own efforts and the assistance of his wife, who had conducted
a millinery business, he had gained a start and was in possession of five hundred
head of sheep. He then became one of the organizers of the firm of Lynch &
Phillips, his partner being his brother-in-law. In the meantime they had acquired
one hundred and sixty acres of land and after a time, in order to carefully culti-
vate their land, they sold their sheep and are now giving their entire attention
to the raising of fruit and to general farming, including the production of hay
and grain. They have fifty-five acres planted to fruit and in 1919 sold about