Payette County ID Archives News.....Early Days of Payette 1925 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/id/idfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Patty Theurer seymour784@yahoo.com December 8, 2005, 2:52 am Payette Enterprise 1925 1925 Payette Enterprise Payette, Idaho September 17, 1925 EARLY DAYS OF PAYETTE HISTORY OF PAYETTE AND THE PAYETTE VALLEY BY MRS. CELIA A. MOSS, AS ONE OF THE INTERESTING NUMBERS AT THE OLD SETTLERS’ PICNIC, HELD AT EMMETT Since the time, in 1836, when Marcus Whitman demonstrated that it was possible to travel from the Missouri river to Puget sound on wheels, the Payette valley has lain in the direct route of travel to the northwest. But it was not until the building of the railroad in 1884 it was looked upon as a place for permanent settlement. The year previous, the engineers of the Union Pacific, surveying the line through, located bridges over the Snake and Payette rivers, and at that time, Moss Brothers under contract to deliver a quarter million ties, camped near the junction of the Payette and Snake rivers on the site of the Present town of Payette. That marked its birth. In July of that year the Moss Brothers erected the first store building, and A. B. Moss was the first postmaster and express agent. A few venturesome settlers began coming in and he year 1884 saw the completion of the railroad as far as Huntington, Oregon. That year also witnessed the building of the first school house in the infant town on the site of the present Baptist church, and the construction of the Lower Payette ditch by farmers along its route (without bonding aid), and irrigation canal with extensions 20 miles in length, carrying a volume of 7,000 miners inches of water. W. A Coughanour established his sawmill in the year 1887 and in this year and those immediately following there located in Payette the greater number of those men who formed the “Old Guard.” This ancient and honorable phalanx had on its rolls such names as Peter Pence, Henry Ervin, William Ireton, S. W. King, J. T. Clement, Alexander Rossi, John Ashbaugh, James Welch, W. C. Johnson, Samuel and John Applegate, John, Ben and William Bivens, William Case, August and Adolph Jacobsen, John Henshaw, Jacob Stroup, D. S. Lamme, A. B. and F. C Moss; later came W. A. Coughanour, John McGlinchey, Whitney Brothers, and others we all remember. The growth of the town was not particularly rapid from that time to 1890, but the population steadily increased and from a supply station for railway construction gangs it had become a center of trade and base of supplies for a country an hundred miles in extent. The “brick age” was inaugurated in 1890. It received its main impetus from a German syndicate which had sent its representatives, Judge J. H. Richards, an attorney, Mr. Delis, a capitalist, and I. W. Hart, their secretary, who investigated the resources of the valley with a view to making extensive investments in real estate and placing money in various enterprises. The syndicate invested about $200,000. Its faith in the future was pinned to the valley’s horticulture, timber and live stock resources. A two-story central school building had already been erected and there followed what might be termed a real building boom-a two-story hotel (the Commercial), a three-story bank building, two-story Odd Fellows’ building, the large establishments of the Moss Mercantile, Payette Valley and Lamme Mercantile companies and several fine residences, all of brick burned at the Hill Brick Yard just east of town. In addition to these, a number of large frame buildings were erected. Payette was incorporated as a village in 1891, the first municipal officers being W. A. Coughanour, John Lauer, A. B. Moss, S. W. Ruse, D. S. Lamme and John F. Reed. Thus, we has begun to put on metropolitan airs, and in the fall of that year when the first carload of fruit was shipped, things really began to assume a rosy hue for the pioneers as well as the later comers. Payette now had a population of over 3,000, with solid blocks of brick buildings, paved streets and miles of cement sidewalks. Captain and Mrs. Henry Ervin moved down from their old Island Home ranch to the 49 Ranch near Payette in April, 1888. Mrs. Ervin still conducts the farm. Mr. A. Rossi moved his sawmill from Boise to Washoe about 1890. Burt Venable started our first real newspaper in the spring of 1891. The Payette Creamery was started in the ‘90’s and with judicious reorganization and management has developed into a wonderful community institution. Mr. Prestel, who built a large sawmill about the year 1892, I think, gave Payette its first electric lighting system in1902, extending throughout the town. The Payette Cannery was stared about 1902. The McGlinchey orchard was planted in the early ‘90’s, also Jacobsen’s orchard east of town. Messrs. Jacobsen and Coughanour have each erected several brick building, the last named having given the town the Elk fountain east of the O. S. L. depot, which refuses to throw out its invigorating spray since out town went on the dry list. The fine Emma theatre he built has passed into the other hands but is still a pleasant place to spend an hour. Several saloons infested our town at one time, before churches were much in evidence, the Methodist being the first one at that time, its bell called the people to worship. Wackerhagen’s saloon caught fire one night, which was before the time of the fire engine; someone yelled, “Ring the church bell,” and a man answered “Where in the heck is the church bell?” In the year 1883, when the Moss Brothers, A. B. and F. C., arrived in Payette, they were working under contract to supply timbers in the form of railroad ties for a company with headquarters in Omaha. Gifted with an eye for the future possibilities of the place, the Moss Brothers decided to locate permanently in Payette. They filled their contact for ties in Long Valley, where they employed a crew of men for that work. They took in the first wagon load of supplies in 1882, several others were hauled in later and packed in on mules by “Con, the Packer,” who brought in mail also. The timbers were delivered on time, the fall of 1883, at a point designated by the railroad company. By the time the first train reached Payette, a year later, the little village had begun to grow in a small way. W. F. Masters filed on the present townsite of 200 acres-afterward sold by him to the Payette Land & Improvement Company for $20,000. It has been my privilege to witness the beginning of the resurrection morn, as it were, to the desert waste lying southerly from the Payette river in the vicinity of New Plymouth and Fruitland section. The transformation of this sage brush waste into fruitful fields began in the spring of 1891, when a few men recognized the possibilities resting in an intelligent union of such desert and the waters running to waste in the Payette river, began the construction of what is now known as the Farmers’ Co-Operative ditch, which runs through your own attractive city. Judge J. H. Richards, now of Boise, was the man who made it possible to finance the building of the ditch. He went cast and raised the money to finance the proposition. In connection with this and other important undertakings, these men of the Payette Land & Improvement Co, having acquired the 200-acre townsite of Payette, laid out and graded its streets and around the public school grounds, organized the Payette Valley bank and erected a three-story building for its use, which is still used for banking purposes. As a result of this activity, a new hope animated our hearts. All felt the impetus for good of this remarkable development from the desert to productive acres, dotted with happy homes, school houses and churches, as the evidence of the faith of these thoughtful men. Whitney Brothers, who brought nursery stock from Walla Walla, Wash., had meantime erected large building and established an important nursery business. The nursery donated hundreds of trees and a committee composed of Peter Pence, Fred Burgen, Dr. W. R. Hamilton, J. H. Richards and A. B. Moss saw to it that all were properly planted along our streets. Peter Pence put his own teams and men on the school grounds, to clear, level and grade them for the trees, which the Whitney Nursery had also generously donated, and as a result the efforts of Prof. M. F. Albert and his boy pupils (many of whom are now the steady going business men of the town) saw to planting and caring for them, as a result of which the Central School park is now known throughout the county as one of its most delightful spots. In 1902 the Payette Valley railroad was promoted, surveyed along right-of-way secured by A. B. Moss, and Hiram E. Dunn, Mr. Dunn coming here from Salt Lake for the purpose of putting the road through the valley. It was finished first to New Plymouth where they had a real celebration at the time of driving the last spike. Later it was extended to Emmett, and in 1914 it was turned over to the O. S. L. by its stockholders, Mr. Nibley, Mr. Murphy, Dunn Bros. and the A. B. Moss estate. It is now owned by the O. S. L. Thus, is human history begun and made, and the character of a community outlined and animated. It is no trifling thing to have had even a small part in converting a desert into fruitful fields and impelling it on its useful career for unnumbered years. I still feel helped in contemplating the struggle of those years which have brought so much of good to the present generation and which must continue to bless in a multiplied degree the generations yet to follow. CELIA A. MOSS. This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/idfiles/ File size: 10.1 Kb