An early miner in Warren, county politician, state politician and Idaho’s second governor.

N.B. was born and educated in New York but came to California as a young man (1858) to mine for gold.  Still chasing the lure of gold, he arrived in Warren in 1864.  He continued to reside in Warren for the next 30 years.  In Warren, he developed an interest in local politics.  He served as an Idaho County commissioner, County Treasurer, and County School Superintendent.

In 1872, he entered Territorial politics as a member of the House of Representatives.  After a short term out of politics, he was re-elected to the house in 1878.  In 1879, he served as council president, and in 1890, the same year Idaho became a state, N.B. was elected as Idaho Lieutenant Governor.  Within a few short weeks of his election, Idaho’s first governor, George L. Shoup, was appointed to the U.S. Senate, and N.B. became Idaho’s second governor (December 1890).

During his career in the territorial House of Representatives, N.B. was one of the few council members who opposed the effort to make northern Idaho part of Washington State and was successful in staving off this attempt.  An achievement many of us in the ensuing generations are grateful for!

N.B. dealt with the transition from a territorial government into a state, which included some of the following; amending election practices, creating governmental agencies, and approving and working on the state seal.  N.B. also dealt with nasty labor disputes in the Coeur d’Alene region between miners and mine owners.

After losing his 1892 re-election bid, N.B. returned to a miner’s life.  N.B. never married or had children and died and was buried in Auburn, Kansas, where his nearest relatives lived.

Sources – Read more:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._B._Willey; https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/13233856/norman-bushnell-willey; https://history.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/0400.pdf; The Governor From Warren, Norman B. Willey by Sheila D. Reddy, found at https://www.lib.uidaho.edu/digital/taylor-archive/items/b08-payettenationalforestliterature61.html; https://www.nga.org/governor/norman-bushnell-willey/

Idaho County resident, Sister at the Monastery of St. Gertrude in Cottonwood, lifelong and acclaimed historian of Idaho County.

Edith Mary was born in Grangeville and later baptized at Sacred Heart (now Holy Cross) church in Keuterville, where her parents had taken up a homestead in 1888. In 1898, the family moved to Mount Idaho, the county seat. When her father’s term of office as Idaho County Superintendent of Schools was up in 1905, the family moved to Pomeroy, Washington, where he died unexpectedly in 1908.

Mary Bosse Elsensohn worked to support her family of three by managing a boarding house in Pomeroy. The children were able to continue their schooling even though their help was needed in the family business. Edith graduated from Pomeroy High School in 1914, winning a prize for writing the history of Pomeroy Public School. This experience encouraged her life-long interest in history and writing.

In 1915, she entered the Monastery of St. Gertrude, making her profession as Sister Mary Alfreda on November 26, 1916. As their new motherhouse was being built in 1919, the workers were dissatisfied with the food and went on strike for a time. To keep the project moving, Sr. Alfreda, along with Srs. Herman Joseph, Pauline, James, and others worked in the quarry in their habits, wielding heavy picks to loosen the rocks that had been blasted.

Sister Alfreda became a teacher with a 42-year career at the schools in Cottonwood and Greencreek in Idaho, and in Colton, Washington. In 1927, she received a B.S. Degree from Gonzaga University, and in 1939, an M.S. from the University of Idaho.

Sister Alfreda’s years of teaching high school science became the foundation for the establishment of the Museum at St. Gertrude in 1931. She taught taxidermy and had students collect natural specimens and family artifacts which she set up as exhibits, both in her classroom and in the attic of St. Gertrude’s Academy. That collection, one of the earliest in Idaho, was moved to the basement of the new school the Sisters built in 1955. In 1980, the present Museum was built and named in her honor.

She took a particular interest in the pioneer families of the Camas Prairie, publishing first a small periodical, The Echo of St. Gertrude’s, supported by the Benedictine Sisters. In the late 1930s, she wrote a series of articles which became Volumes One (1947) and Two (1951) of Pioneer Days in Idaho County.

In 1944, the Governor appointed Sister Alfreda to the Idaho Council of American Trails Association. In 1969, she was honored as Idaho Writer of the Year. In 1970, she published Idaho Chinese Lore, and her last book, Idaho County’s Most Romantic Character: Polly Bemis, was published in 1980. She received the Governor’s Award recognizing contributions to the Arts and Humanities in 1970.

As a scholar and writer, she belonged to the Idaho County Historical Society, the American Association of Museums, the Idaho Writers League, the Idaho Academy of Science, the Northwest Scientific Association, and the American Benedictine Academy.

Sister Alfreda’s pioneering work regarding Idaho Museums has resulted in the Sister Alfreda Elsensohn Award. The award is the highest award given to museums in the State of Idaho and is a joint project of the Idaho State Historical Society and the Idaho Humanities Council.

Sister Alfreda, 92, died of age-related causes in 1989, at the Monastery.

Sources – Read more:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/16480960/mary-alfreda-elsensohn; Historical Museum at St. Gertrude; Pioneer Days in Idaho County (both Vol. 1), by Sister M. Alfreda Elsensohn

Nimiipuu (Nez Perce), a member of White Bird’s band and a leader during the Nez Perce War of 1877. 

Yellow Bull’s son, (Saapsis ilp ilp, “Red Moccasin Tops”), and two friends who were all members of White Bird’s band, apparently became frustrated with the slow pace of deliberations at a chiefs council meeting at Tolo Lake (called Tepahlewam, “Split Rocks” referring to Rocky Canyon just west of the lake).  All the main chiefs (Joseph, Ollokot, White Bird, Toohoolhoolzote, Looking Glass, and Hahtalekin) did not want war regarding the U.S. government’s insistence that all Nimiipuu must move onto the reservation. Leaving the council encampment the three warriors rode to the White Bird area and began a series of killings of settlers that lasted several days.  Thus ensued the Nez Perce War of 1877.

Yellow Bull survived the war and was sent to the “hot land”, Oklahoma Territory. Sickness was a part of life in the “hot land” and Yellow Bull, in a feverish sickened state, dreamed of drinking from Red Rock Spring (Red Rock Road on the prairie). While in the “hot land”, Yellow Bull worked along side Joseph in tirelessly advocating for the Nimiipuu as well as later when they returned to the Pacific Northwest.

Mrs. Alice Fletcher at the time the reservation opened and allotments were given, tried to convince Yellow Bull he needed a better piece of land but he was insistent about taking the land of the Red Rock Spring.  He lived in the area for many years, and Yellow Bull Road is named after him.

Yellow Bull died on July 20, 1919, in Spalding where he is buried.

Sources – Read more:

Yellow Wolf, His Own Story by L.V. McWhorter; Pioneer Days in Idaho County (both Vol. 1 & 2), by Sister M. Alfreda Elsensohn; Idaho County Free Press, July 24, 1919 issue; https://www.nps.gov/nepe/learn/historyculture/tolo-lake-history.htm

See Jack’s bio listed under Wild Card at the bottom of this list.

Teacher, Outfitter, Rancher, Cowgirl, Author, National Cowgirl Hall of Fame Inductee

Gertrude was born in 1908 on the family homestead near Elk City, Idaho.  During her childhood years, she actively helped her father with his pack strings and developed life-long skills for packing horses and life on the trail. She attended elementary school in Elk City, high school in Lewiston, and graduated from Lewis-Clark Normal School with a certificate in elementary education.  She later received her bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Idaho.

Gertrude taught school in Clearwater, Lewiston, Golden and Elk City.  She taught for about twenty-seven years in Elk City and also served as principal.  Gertrude was personally known to this author, Raven’s Gambit designer Jerry Johnson, who attended Elk City School as one of Gertrude’s students.  She enjoyed children and loved to tell them stories, including several hunting and packing stories Jerry fondly remembers.  She also instilled in her students her love of nature and all the creatures of the natural world.  Gertrude continued to guide hunters during her education career.

Gertrude was quite a fixture in local parades wearing her pink cowboy hat, boots and clothes, riding horses equally decked out in pink finery.  In 1993, Gertrude was inducted into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame.

After retiring from education, Gertrude continued to outfit and work cattle for a number of years.  Eventually blindness greatly limited much of the activities Gertrude delighted in.

Gertrude wrote and published her memoir, My Yesterdays in Elk City in 1986.

She lived at and maintained her childhood Elk City ranch until her death, after which the world dimmed a bit (certainly on the pink end of the spectrum).

Sources – Read more:

https://www.lmtribune.com/northwest/gertrude-maxwell-89-in-cowgirl-hall-of-fame-66660e96

The Museum at St. Gertrude near Cottonwood features a Gertrude Maxwell exhibit.

Miner (from California to British Columbia), Farmer-Rancher

Peter King was born in Germany, came to America in 1833, and was raised in Indiana.  In 1853, he went to California and eventually chased gold in many places in the western United States and Canada.  He met some success in those endeavors, for example selling the Blue Lead mine in California for five thousand dollars.  

Eventually, by the early 1860s,  Peter came to the South Fork of the Clearwater in pursuit of gold.  During the Nez Perce War of 1877, Peter was one of the guards of the women and children at Slate Creek.  He was in the Mt. Idaho Guards under Captain Ad Chapman.

After the war, Peter and some partners mined in the Chamberlain Basin.  In 1877, Peter took a preemption and later a homestead near Clearwater. The Preemption Act of 1841 allowed individuals to claim federal property as their own. To legitimize the claim the claimant had to accomplish specific things, including residing on the land, etc. The claimant had first purchase privileges if the federal government chose to sell the land. The preemption system was the precedessor to the homestead act.

Peter established a mine and built a cabin at the mouth of a tributary of the Lochsa, which is now named Pete King Creek.  The cabin site is now covered by U.S. Hwy 12.  Many other sites (some no longer existing) were named after Pete King, including Pete King Ranger Station, Pete King Ranger District, and Pete King Trail.

Peter King died on his homestead in 1907 and is buried in the Clearwater Cemetery.

Sources – Read more:

Zona Chedsey and Carolyn Frei, editors, Idaho County Voices, pg 192

An Illustrated History of North Idaho, Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903

https://archive.org/details/illustratedhisto00slwerich/page/512/mode/2up?view=theater

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14176251/peter-king

Born in Connecticut, lawyer, miner (Bullion Mine on the Salmon River), farmer, state and national politician.

Stephen moved west to California in 1850, eventually studying law.  He was admitted to the bar in 1862 and practiced in Idaho County.  He served as a district attorney in 1869.
Stephen was an early resident of Florence and was on the first board of trustees for the Florence School.  He also owned and managed a general store in Florence with S. A. Woodward. Later, Stephen had a store in Warren. 

Stephen eventually became interested in politics and was the first Speaker of the Idaho Territorial Legislature. He also served in the United States Congress as a delegate from Idaho Territory from 1876-1879.

Late in his life, Stephen suffered from dementia, and he died in an asylum in Blackfoot, Idaho in 1892.  The community of Fenn was named after Stephen and his son Frank (also known as Major Frank Fenn).

Sources – Read more:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_S._Fenn; Pioneer Days in Idaho County (both Vol. 1 & 2), by Sister M. Alfreda Elsensohn;

Asian American born in rural northern China.  Sold into slavery at the age of eighteen, and eventually taken to Warren, Idaho.  Became a remote Salmon River pioneer.

When Polly was eighteen, drought struck the northern China area where she lived.  Her father sold her into slavery to buy two bags of seeds for planting.  In 1863, Polly came to Warren, Idaho, working for a Chinese man who ran a saloon in the mining camp.

The popular and generally accepted story was that Charles Bemis won Polly in a poker game in Warren. Later in her life Polly refuted that story.  Somehow she gained her freedom and ran a laundry business and managed a boarding house for a time, before eventually marrying Bemis.

Polly was granted permanent legal residency in the United States in 1896.  Charlie and Polly eventually settled on a remote ranch on the Salmon River (only accessible by river or trail) and lived a very isolated and self-sufficient lifestyle.  Charlie died in 1922. Polly’s cabin is now a privately owned museum.

In 1933 Polly was found at her ranch lying on the ground and incapacitated, the result of what may have been a stroke.  She was hospitalized in Grangeville and died in November. Polly’s life is a remarkable story, the subject of several biographies and the 1990 movie, Thousand Pieces of Gold. 

Sister Alfreda Elsensohn (our Queen of Spades) wrote a biography of Polly’s life entitled Idaho County’s Most Romantic Character: Polly Bemis.   A more recent and in-depth biography of Polly’s life was written by Priscilla Wegars.  Both books are available at the Historical Museum at St. Gertrude in Cottonwood.  The museum also has a wonderful exhibit regarding Polly Bemis, including numerous personal items.

Sources – Read more:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polly_Bemis; Historical Museum at St. Gertrude; Pioneer Days in Idaho County (both Vol. 1 & 2), by Sister M. Alfreda Elsensohn;

Born in England, scout, soldier, miner, newspaperman, businessman, author, local politician.

When Aaron was twelve years old he left his home in England and went to sea.  After four or five years (he sailed around the world six times) he came to central Idaho from the Pacific Coast in 1873.  At seventeen, he worked in a quartz mine in the Snake River Canyon.

With the advent of the Nez Perce Indian War in 1877, Aaron became a scout and courier for the U.S. Army.  Aaron also served during the Bannock outbreak in 1878 and the Sheepeater campaign in 1879.  Aaron co-authored a book about the later campaign.

Aaron moved to Lewiston and published a newspaper called The Nez Perce News beginning in 1880.  In 1883 he sold the paper and moved to Coeur d’Alene where he began two newspapers; the Coeur d’Alene Daily and the Weekly Eagle at Eagle City. 

In June 1886, Aaron established the Idaho County Free Press in Grangeville.  He operated the paper for eighteen years and sold the business in 1904.  He then entered the real estate business.

Like N.B. Willey, Aaron was a champion against north-Idaho becoming part of Washington State. Indeed the Idaho County Free Press was perhaps the only newspaper in north-Idaho firmly against joining Washington State, during this time period.

In 1889, Aaron was a member of the convention tasked with writing the Idaho Consitution. Aaron also wrote articles published in the Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s Weekly, etc.

Aaron served in various capacities throughout his lifetime including;  Idaho County Treasurer, President of the North Idaho Pioneer Association, president emeritus of the Idaho Press Association, state land commissioner, and first regent of the University of Idaho.

Sources – Read more:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/98642606/aaron-foster-parker; Pioneer Days in Idaho County (both Vol. 1 & 2), by Sister M. Alfreda Elsensohn;

Soldier, Newspaperman, Politician, U.S. Forest Service

Frank Alfred Fenn was born in California in 1853.  At the age of nine, Frank’s family moved to Florence in Idaho County where his father Stephen owned a general merchandise store and mined.  Frank also for a time, attended school in Walla Walla and took a course at the Whitman Academy when it opened.

In 1869 Frank was appointed to the United States Naval Academy.  In 1872 he left the academy and returned to Idaho where he briefly held a teaching position.

In 1877 at the opening of the Nez Perce War, Frank was a First Lieutenant of Company B, Second Regiment Idaho Militia.  He was commissioned adjutant of the regiment by the current governor of Idaho Territory, M. Brayman.  During the war Frank was with Colonel Perry at his defeat in White Bird and also took part in the Cottonwood skirmish.

Following the war, Frank took up farming near Mt. Idaho and White Bird.  He also served as postmaster in Mt. Idaho, deputy district court clerk of Idaho County, and in 1886 he was elected to represent Idaho County in the territorial legislature.  For a time he served as Speaker of the House.  He also practiced law in the Boise area, about the time of his political service.

When the Spanish-American war broke out, Frank volunteered.  He was appointed Captain of Company H, First Idaho Volunteers.  He was eventually promoted to Major.  He took part in several battles during the war.

For a time Frank was the owner/editor of the Kooskia Mountaineer newspaper.

In 1901, after discharge, Major Fenn was appointed Superintendent of the United States Forest Reserves in Idaho and Montana. 

Major Fenn was a strong and early proponent of highway construction that ultimately connected Idaho County through Lolo Pass and into Montana (U.S. Hwy 12).  And in fact, after his retirement, he told reporters, “The Lolo Pass Highway is my only hobby.”

Some of the geographic features and places named after Major Fenn and his father Stephen include: Fenn Ranger Station, Major Fenn Picnic Area (no longer survives), Fenn Mountain, Florence Lake (named after Frank’s wife), Rhoda Creek (named after Frank’s daughter), and the town of Fenn on the Camas Prairie.

Sources – Read more:

Zona Chedsey and Carolyn Frei, editors, Idaho County Voices, pg 216

An Illustrated History of North Idaho, Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903

https://archive.org/details/illustratedhisto00slwerich/page/456/mode/2up?view=theater

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21153491/frank-alfred-fenn

The Museum at St. Gertrude near Cottonwood features a Major Fenn exhibit.

Pioneer Farmer-Rancher, Mother to Eighteen Children, Twice Widowed 

Anna Kees was born in St. John, Wisconsin, December 15, 1869. She met her first husband Georg Seubert (born in Bavaria Germany) there as well. Georg was a widower with five children from his first wife Elizabeth Kees, who was a distant cousin of Anna. Anna looked after the young family and kept the house in order following Elizabeth’s death in 1887 and married Georg on March 3, 1889. 

Within a month they arrived in Idaho – which was still a territory and part of the “wild west.” After traveling by wagon, ferry boat and stage, the Seuberts found their new home about one mile north of Cottonwood. Georg and Anna went on to create and operate a successful farm. Together they had seven children. 

Seubert helped start the Catholic Church in Cottonwood and also donated the land for the two cemeteries in Cottonwood.  After nine years of marriage, Georg Seubert died in 1898 and Anna found herself a widow, pregnant with her seventh child, responsible for five stepchildren, and a farm to run. Together with the help from the older children, she managed and increased the size of the farm by buying additional acreage.

Anna met and married Jacob F. Jenny in 1903. He was originally from New York. They added six more children to the large family, one of whom died at five months of age. Anna and Jacob continued to farm and raise stock on the 556 acre ranch she started with Georg. Jacob was deeply involved in the community; including being elected to the Idaho legislature multiple times, appointed to the State Board of Education and serving on the Board of Regents for the University of Idaho.  

Throughout her life, Anna’s home was known for its hospitality and generosity towards travelers, friends, guests and local Nez Perce Indians.  The family farm was also known to be a center of attraction for local gatherings and social meetings. Jacob Jenny died in 1954. Anna lived another 10 years until the age of 94, when she died of natural causes on March 25, 1964.  

Sources – Read more:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/107861620/anna-jenny

The Museum at St. Gertrude near Cottonwood features a small Anna Jenny exhibit.

Miner, Store Owner, Townsite Organizer (Stites), Telephone Line Builder, Idaho County Commissioner, State Representative and Senator

Nathaniel Belcher Pettibone was born in 1869 in Illinois.  By the time Nathaniel was four years old, both his parents had died.  Passed around for several years, Nathaniel was finally raised by Thomas Head a wealthy farmer who treated him as a son.

In 1889, Nathaniel decided to go west, first to Wyoming, then New Mexico and finally to the Seven Devil copper mines in Idaho.  After a short time there he came to Idaho County where he split rail, farmed and worked in gold mines.  He worked in the Elk City mining district, and opened the Iron Crown Mine.  He also located and developed mines in the Buffalo Hump and Thunder Mountain areas. 

In 1900 Nathaniel gave up mining and organized a company that platted the new town of Stites.  Nathaniel built and managed a store in the new town with partner Milo P. Strecker.  The store furnished many of the supplies packed into the Elk City and Dixie mines.

With other partners, Nate constructed the first telephone line between Stites and Grangeville.

In 1906, Nate sold his interest in his Stites store and opened a hotel in Elk City.  He also ran a stage line from Stites to Elk City and Orogrande; was the postmaster of Elk City; and contracted mail transportation.

By 1914, Nate bought a 550 acre ranch on the Camas Prairie north of Grangeville.  During these farming/ranching years Nate served two terms as a county commissioner, served one term as a state representative and three terms as a state senator.

Nate died in Grangeville in 1955.

Sources – Read more:

Zona Chedsey and Carolyn Frei, editors, Idaho County Voices, pg 255

An Illustrated History of North Idaho, Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903

https://archive.org/details/illustratedhisto00slwerich/page/n705/mode/2up?view=theater

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/96023713/nathaniel-belcher-pettibone

Nimiipuu (Nez Perce), leader and war chief.  Leader of the Alpowai band of the Nimiipuu. Died in battle on the final day on the Nez Perce War of 1877.

The Looking Glass village was near the mouth of Clear Creek on the Clearwater River.  Initially opposed to war, Looking Glass reluctantly joined Joseph and others and participated in the retreat towards Canada during the Nez Perce War of 1877.

This participation was prompted by an attack on the Looking Glass band while they were encamped near the mouth of Cottonwood Creek on the South Fork of the Clearwater.  The Looking Glass encampment was within the reduced reservation as required, but soldiers were still sent to arrest Looking Glass (based on reports that Looking Glass planned to join Chief Joseph).  The oldest reports state that an initial shot was fired by an unknown person, however it is now believed it was a U.S. Army soldier who fired the first shot on the unsuspecting camp. Within moments of this first shot, soldiers opened fire on the village with howitzers and small arms fire.  Looking Glass was forced to retreat, sealing his participation in the war that followed.

Looking Glass was known as the war leader as the Nimiipuu sought refuge in Canada and their 126-day (1,170 miles) running war ensued.  Forty miles short of Canada, in the Bear Paw Mountains, the Nimiipuu found themselves surrounded.

After a five-day battle, Chief Joseph proposed surrender.  White Bird and Looking Glass opposed the surrender and their bands attempted to break through and continue to Canada.  White Bird and 150 Nimiipuu succeeded but Looking Glass was killed by a Cheyenne scout working for the U.S. Army.  Looking Glass was the last casualty of the armed conflict. Later that day Joseph surrendered.

Sources – Read more:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looking_Glass_(Native_American_leader); Pioneer Days in Idaho County (both Vol. 1 & 2), by Sister M. Alfreda Elsensohn; Yellow Wolf, His Own Story by L.V. McWhorter;

Born in Switzerland, but came to the U.S. to join the American convent. Prioress at Uniontown, led other sisters to Cottonwood and with others built St. Gertrude’s Monastery.

Anna Vogler was born at Lungren, Switzerland. When Anna told her father of her desire to join the American convent, he was reluctant to give consent. Finally, in 1890, at age 23, she was permitted to sail for the United States in company with Emily Hauser (Sr. Cecilia), who was also en route to Uniontown, Washington.

Anna was Invested by Abbott Frowin Conrad, in the Uniontown Church on July 26, 1891. She made her Profession on August 16, 1892. Mother M. Johanna gave her the name Sister Mary Hildegard. From 1892 until 1901, Sr. M. Hildegard taught at Sacred Heart School in Spokane, Washington. Between 1894 and 1896, she was novice mistress and participated in the transfer of the convent from St. Andrew’s in Uniontown to St. Scholastica’s in Colton. Between 1901 and 1902, she taught at Holy Rosary School in Pomeroy, Washington.

Sister Hildegard was elected Prioress in 1902. She was a faith-filled religious, energetic, self-sacrificing, and unassuming person. She was endowed with qualities that won the hearts of the Sisters so she was well-chosen for leadership. In addition to her gift of leadership, she endeared herself to her community with her gift for entertaining, reciting long dramatic monologues and she had a great sense of humor.

When she was re-elected for another three-year term in 1905, she looked around the severely crowded living conditions at St. Scholastica’s Convent and declared that her first priority would be choosing a site and building a new motherhouse. She went to Cottonwood, Idaho, for the first time February 16-21, 1906. John and Gertrude Uhlenkott, who had two daughters in the convent at Colton, offered to gift the Sisters 85 acres of forested ground if they would settle in Cottonwood. She accepted their offer and later bought more land and buildings from Uhlenkott’s daughter and son-in-law, Joseph and Anna Ungrund, which was to be the site of their new convent.

Mother Hildegard, along with three other Sisters arrived in Cottonwood at the new motherhouse site on April 18, 1907, with a wagonload of belongings, supplies, and a small herd of cattle to begin living at Cottonwood. The next year, the Sisters built their first convent. In 1919, they began building their larger Monastery from blue porphyry stone mined from the quarry on their property. They and their successors have lived at St Gertrude’s since. Mother Hildegard is the Foundress of Saint Gertrude’s Monastery.

Sr. M. Hildegard died on September 22, 1957.

Sources – Read more:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/51011176/mary-hildegard-vogler; Historical Museum at St. Gertrude

Native Kentuckian, moved west at the age of 14.  Trapper, gold prospector, cattle rancher, scout for General Custer, friend of Wild Bill Hickok.

When Moses left home as a teenager he moved to St. Louis and fell in with a party of eleven trappers.  After a winter of trapping along the Platte River, in 1844, a wandering agent for the American Fur Company convinced the men to go to Fort Laramie and enter work for the aforementioned fur company.  It was during his time at Fort Laramie that Moses met and interacted with men like Jim Bridger and others.
 
In 1846, during the Mexican-American War, Milner worked for the Army as a packer and teamster.  Milner was involved in a number of skirmishes and eventually began working as a scout for Colonel Alexander Doniphan.

After the war, Moses married Nancy Watts and moved to California in search of gold.  It was in California that Moses somehow earned the nickname, “California Joe”.   In 1853, Moses and his wife bought and settled on a 640-acre cattle ranch near Corvallis, Oregon.  Nancy spent most of her time there raising their sons.

Eventually, Moses got news of the gold discovered in northern Idaho and eastern Washington. Moses set out for these gold fields from The Dalles, Oregon, with a pack train of provisions.  In Walla Walla, he received such a great offer that he sold the entire pack string and supplies, except for his prized Kentucky mare.  Moses had killed a man in self-defense in Oregon when his mare was challenged to a race and secretly doped before the race by the opposition.

Responding to the Salmon River gold strikes, Milner arrived on the Camas Prairie.  He filed a homestead claim and built a small cabin, naming the area “Mount Idaho”.  He cut out a trail to the gold town of Florence, now known as the Milner Trail.  Charging a toll for travelers on his new route was a steady and significant source of revenue.  He soon built a small tavern serving meals to travelers for $1 a meal. 

One early fall day, a traveler riding a “broken down buckskin pony” stopped to spend the night.  The next morning the traveler went to the stable to feed his horse before he took breakfast.  Not long after, one of Milner’s employees came running to say that the traveler had stolen and ridden off on Milner’s Kentucky mare.  Racing off after his mare, Milner took a shortcut and arrived before the thief and mare arrived.  After riding by Milner’s hidden position, Milner shot the thief in the back of the head.  After catching his mare, Milner returned to the man’s body and left a note saying, “Warning to horse thieves, Moses Milner, Mt. Idaho.”

Moses was also attacked by a cougar near Mt. Idaho.  He killed the cat but his wounds were bad enough that he was taken to Lewiston and placed under the care of several doctors.  His wife came from Corvallis to nurse him back to health.  Bed-ridden for three weeks, he remained in Lewiston all winter recovering from his wounds.  The following spring he sold his toll road and farm to L.P. Brown.

In 1866, Moses returned to his work as a scout for the army.  During his time in Kansas at Fort Riley and Fort Harker, Moses became friends with Wild Bill Hickok and Texas Jack.  Shortly before Wild Bill was murdered in 1876 in Deadwood playing poker (supposedly holding the “Dead Man’s Hand” of black aces and eights) he had been heard to remark that he had “two trusty friends: one is my six-shooter and the other is California Joe.”  When Moses heard of Wild Bill’s murder he grabbed his rifle and unsuccessfully went looking for the killer.

In 1868, General George Armstrong Custer appointed Moses as Chief of Scouts.  This didn’t last long, however, as Custer needed Milner, found him drunk, and immediately demoted him.  Custer described Moses in his autobiography and the two remained friends.

In October 1876, a few months after Custer died in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and Wild Bill was murdered in Deadwood, Moses was shot and killed by Tom Newcomb.  The two had a running dispute involving the deaths of two men (Richard and Pallardie) and unfortunately bumped into each other at Fort Robinson in Nebraska.  Moses was talking to several men near a corral when Newcomb shot Moses with a lever action rifle from about 100 feet away, shooting Moses in the back.  Newcomb fled and was never brought to justice for the murder.  Moses was forty-seven years of age.

Sources – Read more:

https://truewestmagazine.com/article/california-joe-great-scout-and-plainsman; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Joe_Milner; California Joe, Noted Scout and Indian Fighter, by Joe E. Milner and Earle R. Forrest.

Schoolteacher, Miner, Store Owner, Sawmill Owner, Justice of the Peace

John Beede was born in New Hampshire.  After attending Friends College in Rhode Island (his mother was Quaker) and a brief stint as a schoolteacher, he moved west to chase gold in California.  He married Eliza Stewart and they had two children before Eliza died in 1874.  

Beede arrived in Idaho County around 1883 and settled in the Harpster area where he remained until his death.  He built a sawmill and sawed boards for area residents as well as for building his own house.

Beede’s house was built on a hillside.  The lower side of the home was supported by several posts, and was considered a bit of an oddity.  After Beede’s death, men salvaging the building for materials simply knocked out the lower posts and the structure rolled down the hill.

Carl Weholt Sr. in the book Idaho County Voices, stated the following about Judge Beede, “No doubt he was more accomplished in the use of cuss words than in the understanding of design and construction of buildings.  On the slightest provocation, vulgarity flowed from his lips like poetry from a bard.  Each tirade began with the expletive, ‘By the Eternal’.

The Judge, who gained his title by serving as justice of the peace for many years, had a small office at the north end of his residence.  He had an impressive law library on shelves, and he had an unique filing system of stacking his official papers in piles on the floor.  A dirt road went right by his sometimes open door, so the room gathered a lot of dust over the years.  One day when the old fellow was out selling books, some well-meaning neighbor women came in and cleaned the place up.  When he returned three days later, the catastrophe that greeted him just plain drove him up the wall.  The ensuing tirade could be classified as a marathon event.

It was a common sight to see the Judge, his wild hair and bushy whiskers blowing in the breeze, riding in a wobbly-wheeled buggy propelled by his strawberry roan, Rosie, between the shafts…

In 1898, the Surridge brothers charted their part of the village [Harpster] and called it Bridgeport.  In contempt for the Surridge Democrats, Beede, a rabid Republican, called his end of the town Riverside.  In 1900, however, Riverside lost the post office to Bridgeport, thus ending an important source of income for the Judge.”

Judge Beede died in 1912, and was buried in the Harpster Cemetery.

Sources – Read more:

Zona Chedsey and Carolyn Frei, editors, Idaho County Voices, pg 192

An Illustrated History of North Idaho, Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903

https://archive.org/details/illustratedhisto00slwerich/page/536/mode/2up?view=theater

Protestant (Presbyterian) Missionary to the Nez Perce

Sue Law McBeth was born in Doune (site of the beautiful Doune Castle), Scotland, in 1830.  At some point Sue and her sister Kate immigrated to the United States and became involved with the Presbyterian missionary movement.

After Henry Spalding’s death in 1874, Kate and Sue came to Kamiah and continued the Presbyterian missionary movement in east Kamiah (Idaho County).  They supported and built upon the previous missionary work done in Kamiah by Asa Smith (1839-1840) and Spalding.  The Presbyterian Church built in 1874 at the east Kamiah location is now the oldest protestant church in continuous use in the State of Idaho.  The church is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The McBeth cabin was built in 1880 (also listed on the National Register of Historic Places).  The cabin was used as a home for the McBeths and as a schoolhouse.

Kate and Sue provided education and religious instruction to the tribe.  Sue established a theological seminary for Nez Perce men (which saw a number of successful graduates) and Kate focused on literacy and domestic education for the Nez Perce women.  Sue organized a Nez Perce/English dictionary and wrote journal articles.

Around 1885, Sue and Kate encountered difficulties working with the Indian agent, and both left Kamiah.  Sue relocated to Mount Idaho and continued her work with the Nez Perce.  Kate moved to Lapwai and also continued her work.  Kate wrote a book The Nez Perces since Lewis and Clark, which gives the perspective of the sisters and their work.

Sue died in Mount Idaho in 1893 and was buried in the cemetery beside the Presbyterian Church in east Kamiah.  Kate continued her work until her death in 1915.

Sources – Read more:

https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5409147.pdf  page 20

https://www.lib.uidaho.edu/mcbeth/welcome.htm

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/38418827/susan-law-mcbeth

Medical Doctor of Cottonwood for 55 Years

Wesley F. Orr was born in Rochester, Minnesota, one of ten children.  He received medical training at the University of Utah, and received his doctorate of medicine from Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago in 1911.  He married a nurse, Grace Smith of Iowa, in 1903 and she often worked as his nurse.

Wesley came to Cottonwood in 1913 and set up his office in a building that is now the site of the post office. He originally made country calls by team and buggy, or sled.  On many occasions, when called to neighboring towns served by the railroad, he would hire section foremen to transport him via railroad speeder.

Like Dr. Foskett, Dr. Orr was known to be resourceful and absolutely meticulous.  For many years he performed surgeries on kitchen tables in homes.  He performed an emergency appendectomy near Riggins by flashlight and kerosene lantern.  For another operation, light was provided by shining his car’s headlights into the window of a house, reflecting the light off a large mirror.

Wesley was a driving force for the first hospital in Cottonwood, which was finished in 1926.  The modest six-bed, short-term facility existed in a private home owned by the Gual J.M. Feller family.  Dr. Orr pleaded, coaxed and pressured the Benedictine Sisters to organize and staff a more complete hospital and in 1930, Our Lady of Consolation Hospital was dedicated (later becoming St. Mary’s Hospital).  He continued to serve the community of Cottonwood for an amazing fifty-five years.  In 1953 his son Richard, joined the practice as a medical doctor.  The Orr Building located next to St. Mary’s Hospital was dedicated to them.

The City of Cottonwood observed a “Dr. Orr Day” in Wesley’s honor in May, 1957.

Sources – Read more:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/107907721/wesley-f-orr

The Museum at St. Gertrude near Cottonwood features a Wesley Orr exhibit.

Nimiipuu (Nez Perce), leader and war chief.  Led the Lamatta band of the Nimiipuu from its traditional home in the White Bird area during the war of 1877, evading capture and finding refuge in Canada.

White Bird’s original band was second in size only to Joseph’s.  The first battle of the Nez Perce War of 1877 began with the U.S. Army’s attempt to march against White Bird’s village. In October 1877 after the running war from June – October, only about ninety adults arrived at Sitting Bull’s Sioux camp in Saskatchewan, Canada, with White Bird.  The band also included a great number of children and about 300 horses.  White Bird eventually settled in Pincher Creek, Alberta, Canada. 

On March 6, 1892, White Bird was murdered by a fellow Nimiipuu, Charley Hasenahamakikt. Hasenahamakikt was apprehended, convicted, and sent to a prison in Manitoba, Canada.

The town of White Bird and White Bird Hill are both named after this Nimiipuu leader.

Sources – Read more:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Bird_(Native_American_leader); Pioneer Days in Idaho County (both Vol. 1 & 2), by Sister M. Alfreda Elsensohn; Yellow Wolf, His Own Story by L.V. McWhorter

Nimiipuu (Nez Perce), sister of Yellow Bull and wife of a non-native man called Sockeye Bill.  Tolo loved to play cards and was acknowledged as a very skilled poker player (therefore only fitting that she should be honored as the Queen of Diamonds in this deck).

As a result of increasing frustration with the demands placed on the Nimiipuu, hostilities began on June 13-14, 1877.  Three warriors commenced a series of non-sanctioned killings of non-tribal members along the Salmon River.  C. F. Cone (known as a friend of the Nimiipuu) was met on the trail and warned by the warriors of the killings. They advised him and other residents of Slate Creek to lay low, as Joseph’s band from the Wallowas might not know they were their friends.  Residents along the Salmon River congregated at Slate Creek at the Freedom Post Office where a stockade of upright Red Fir logs, 11-12 feet high, was hastily erected.  Some forty women and children sought refuge there, including some Nimiipuu (Tolo and her two sisters and two children).

Realizing the men were ill-prepared (inadequate arms and ammunition) to fend off a determined attack, the men decided to send for additional help for defense.  Tolo volunteered to ride to Florence, provided she was given a letter explaining the situation.  After riding at night Tolo reached Florence in the morning.  Twenty-five miners responded and traveled that night on foot reaching the little stockade around sunrise the next morning.

Some days later, several Nimiipuu warriors came to the stockade to pay grocery bills (credit balances at the little store of Wood & Fockler) as they knew they might not be returning. Tolo came out of the stockade and upbraided the warriors for killing their friends and hers, including an apparent attack on her friend Mrs. Manuel.  She also made clear her intention to stay put on the Salmon River.

Tolo later lived at the mouth of Slippy Creek and the Salmon River a few miles below Slate Creek.  She was buried on the prairie at a little grave site on her brother Yellow Bull’s allotment. Her desire for peace and concern for minimizing bloodshed certainly has earned the admiration of many.

Tolo Lake on the Camas Prairie west of Grangeville is named after her.

Sources – Read more:

Pioneer Days in Idaho County (both Vol. 1 & 2), by Sister M. Alfreda Elsensohn; https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/124005341/tulekats-chikchamit; The Historical Marker Database, found at https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=141246

Rancher, town founder of Mount Idaho, and business owner.

L.P. was born in New Hampshire, and initially came west, first to California around 1849 and later to Oregon.  Along with his wife Sarah, L.P. came to Idaho County on his way to Florence after hearing of the discovery of gold.  Seeing and understanding a good business opportunity, L.P. bought the property of Moses Milner. 

The beginnings of Mount Idaho were a turbulent period.  An outlaw gang called the Dave English gang used the small town, preying on those traveling between there and Florence.  Some of the gang, including English, were later captured and hanged at Lewiston on November 9, 1862.

In September of 1863, the first Republican convention held in the Territory of Idaho, was held in Mount Idaho. L.P. described the convention as being held (aside from Lewiston) at the most important town in North Idaho.  William H. Wallace had been appointed by President Lincoln as governor of the new Idaho Territory and he took office July 10, 1863.  After the Mount Idaho convention, Wallace was selected as a delegate from Idaho Territory and vacated his gubernatorial appointment to serve in the U.S. House Of Representatives.  Wallace is said to have been one of a few people who declined President Lincoln’s invitation to join him at Ford’s Theatre the night Lincoln was assassinated.

L.P. was for a time the postmaster and established a small blacksmith shop.  Eventually, the old Milner structure was replaced with a larger hotel. In 1875, the Camas Prairie and Elk City region became part of Idaho County, and Mount Idaho became the new county seat. 

As the Nez Perce War of 1877 began, many settlers (around 250) took refuge at a fort in Mount Idaho. L.P. and Sarah took a lead role in feeding people at the fort, calling for government help, and tending to the wounded at their hotel (which became an impromptu hospital with Dr. Morris of Lewiston as the physician).

Later a sawmill (owned by L.P.), flour mill (owned by L.P.), county courthouse, etc. were all built in the growing town.  The courthouse and a small building that served as the office of the county superintendent of public instruction were both located on land donated by L.P. and Sarah Brown.

In 1888, L.P. was featured in a photograph standing in front of his Mount Idaho Hotel admiring the “thoroughbred Herefords”, which he had purchased in Iowa the previous fall.  They were described as the first Hereford cows brought to the Camas Prairie.

L.P. and Sarah owned the Mount Idaho Hotel until L.P.’s death in 1896.  L.P. was buried on his own land a quarter mile from the hotel.

Sources – Read more:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19003245/loyal-parson-brown; Pioneer Days in Idaho County (both Vol. 1 & 2), by Sister M. Alfreda Elsensohn; History of Idaho Territory, Showing Its Resources and Advantages, W.W. Elliott & Co., first edition (pg. 147 features sketches of L.P.’s home and hotel)

Medical Doctor of White Bird for 26 Years

Wilson Abner Foskett was born in New York in 1870.  He attended Rush Medical School in Chicago and soon moved west, where he established a medical practice in the bustling town of White Bird.  Soon after arriving, Wilson met his future wife, Loris Otto, and they were married in 1902. Although White Bird was experiencing it’s boom years, Dr. Foskett found himself traveling to many far flung areas around the county to those needing a doctor.

Wilson had never ridden horseback before coming west, and soon found himself spending considerable time on a horse as he traveled between calls.  As stated in the book Idaho County Voices, “His horse often took him home while he slept.”  This may have become a practice he would have been better off not indulging in (as related to his death).

Idaho County Voices also said of Wilson, “For more than twenty years Dr. Foskett made his calls, practicing medicine and even surgery under the most primitive of conditions.  He never refused a call and never asked whether the people who needed him had money to pay.”

Stories survive of Wilson’s inventiveness and determination.  For example, Wilson needed light to operate on a rancher who lived in a windowless cabin, so he punched a hole in the roof so he could see to perform the operation.

Wilson opened a pharmacy in White Bird next to his home.  The building still remains and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  Wilson learned to compound medicines so he could provide the service to his patients who desperately needed those medicines.

On the dark night of April 13, 1924, Dr. Foskett was driving his car home after delivering a baby at a ranch near Riggins, when he apparently fell asleep and drove into the Salmon River.

Hundreds of his patients, friends and family attended the funeral with the eulogy delivered by Dr. Orr, a friend and fellow physician from Cottonwood.  Wilson’s twenty-six year career faithfully dedicated to his patients in far flung areas is certainly worthy of remembrance and commemoration.  A monument stands along the Salmon River near Slate Creek where Wilson’s fatal accident occurred.

Sources – Read more:

Zona Chedsey and Carolyn Frei, editors, Idaho County Voices, pg 305

https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5409147.pdf

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/16398902/wilson-abner-foskett

Singer-Songwriter, Composer, Guitarist and Actress

Lena Corinne Taylor was born in 1897 in Cove, Oregon, located near the Wallowa Mountains, just across Hell’s Canyon from Idaho County.  Lena was born the ninth of twelve children to Pleasant John Taylor (a local pastor) and his wife Olive.

Prior to Lee’s birth, the Taylor family had toured Idaho (by covered wagon) as a musical group known as the Taylor Family Concert Company.  After the family’s Oregon ranch was foreclosed on, they moved to property three miles east of Kooskia, where Lee grew up.  Having been born into a musical family, Lee learned to sing with her family and often was heard singing on her way to school.  

In 1915, Lee married Elmer Morse, a local Kooskia woodworker.  As Lee’s singing career began to take off, and her traveling time increased, the marriage ended in divorce.

Her big break came when she accompanied her father, who had been elected as a delegate from Idaho to the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco.  She performed a song and was noticed by a famous producer, who quickly signed her to a contract.  Her brother Glen later commented, “she left home when we were barefoot and had the best suite in a Portland hotel when I saw her again.”

Lee’s tomboy upbringing near Kooskia was evident to those who knew her.  As a writer remarked at the time, “She could hunt and fish and, if you deserved it, she could punch your lights out!”

Lee was a gifted singer with a rich, resonant contralto voice, three octaves in range.  She was known for hitting amazingly deep notes for such a petite, delicate woman.  A skill she probably learned at home singing and imitating her older brothers.

Lee quickly became one of the most popular female blues singers in the 1920s.  She went on to record over 200 songs, many of which are still available to enjoy on Youtube.

Lee suffered from acute stage fright and as her success mounted so did her drinking. By the 1930s her drinking began to affect her career and left many of her close friends and family worried about her health.  Producer Florenz Ziegfeld dropped her from the musical “Simple Simon” when she showed up to the opening night in Boston drunk.  Ziegfeld called the singer and actress Ruth Etting to step into Lee’s role.  The team quickly discovered that the song, “Ten Cents a Dance” as written for Morse, had much too great a musical range for Etting’s voice.  The team spent the night rewriting the music for their new star. 

Lee died in 1954 at the age of 57.

Sources – Read more:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Morse#cite_note-Bedoian-12

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Morse_discography

https://www.oregonlive.com/entertainment/2019/05/oregons-great-jazz-age-star-lee-morse-captured-the-blues-on-stage-and-in-tragic-personal-life.html

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lena+morse+

The Museum at St. Gertrude near Cottonwood features a Lee Morse exhibit.

Miner, Guide, Trapper, Mountain Man

Jerry Johnson was born in 1838 in Prussia, now Austria.  It is unknown when he immigrated to the United States.  In his book, In the Heart of the Bitterroot Mountains: The Story of the Carlin Hunting Party of 1893, Abraham Himmelwright (who personally met and talked with Jerry) states the following.  “A Prussian by birth, he emigrated at an early age to New Zealand.  There he became interested in mining, and since then he has devoted his life to prospecting for the precious metals in the wildest and most unfrequented regions of the earth, and occasionally acting in the capacity of guide, hunter and packer.”  Himmelwright described Jerry’s appearance as, “Six feet in height, with a powerful frame slightly bent by advancing years, black hair mixed with gray, jet black eyes and a stubby gray beard.”

In the spring and summer of 1886, Jerry found himself in the company of Billy Rhodes and another companion exploring potential mineral deposits near the head of Cayuse Creek.  The area they were exploring encompasses the divide separating the upper Lochsa from Kelly Creek and the North Fork of the Clearwater.  The area now features, Billy Rhodes Creek and Rhodes Mountain.

Near Blacklead Mountain they discovered a silver ore deposit.  Jerry wanted no part of the find as he knew it would take a great deal of money to develop, owing to the fact that it would be a lode mine and in such a remote area.  Jerry was only interested in placer gold.

Rhodes and others returned to begin developing the mine and Rhodes died at the mine from illness in March of 1887.  Rhodes’ companions buried him in a snow drift and later reburied him after the fifteen feet of snow had melted in June.  Rhodes’ cabin near Blacklead Mountain survived as late as the 1960s.

Jerry was known to frequent the upper Lochsa and had a cabin in the area of what is now known as Jerry Johnson Hot Springs.  It was there members of the ill-fated Carlin Hunting Party met Jerry.  The six men went on a poorly planned hunting trip to the area in 1893, and became trapped when high mountain snows blocked their retreat.  Eventually their camp cook, George Colegate, was abandoned and died due to issues associated with an enlarged prostate and bladder inflammation that prevented urination.  Colegate’s grave is located beside U.S. Hwy 12 at the Colgate Licks rest area.  Read more online at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlin_Party

Jerry also searched for a number of years for the Lost Indian Prospect, also known as Isaac’s Mine (after the Nez Perce, Isaac Hill, who told Jerry about the mine and was guiding Jerry there when he died of sickness). 

Jerry was thought to have lived his old age near Missoula and been buried there.  A Spokesman-Review obituary, however, mentions that Jerry died and was buried in Wallace, Idaho.  In addition to Jerry Johnson Hot Springs, Jerry Johnson Campground on the Lochsa River is named after him.

Sources – Read more:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlin_Party

https://npshistory.com/publications/usfs/region/1/clearwater/story/chap18.htm

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/261429760/jerry-johnson

Rodeo performer, trick rider, western movie star

Jack was born in Indian Territory in Oklahoma. Just a short time before Jack’s birth, his father Bart Hoxie (a veterinarian) was killed in a horse accident. Jack’s mother, Matilda E. Quick, was Nez Perce (Nimiipuu), and a short time after Jack’s birth, she and Jack moved to the Riggins area.

Jack soon became a working cowboy and ranch hand around Riggins.  His mother remarried to Calvin Stone, a rancher and horse trader.  After the family relocated to the Boise area, Jack worked as a packer for the US Army and began competing in rodeos.  In 1909, Jack joined Dick Stanley’s Wild West Show.  

In 1913, Jack was asked to perform in a short Western silent film called The Tragedy of Big Eagle Mine.  Jack used his middle name for this show and several others and starred as Hart Hoxie.  After 1919, he was billed as Jack Hoxie.

After working in numerous short films Jack’s career began to blossom.  In 1923, Universal Pictures put Jack under contract and he began appearing with all the big stars of the era.  Jack’s brother Al Stone started to appear in pictures with him, became a successful Western actor, and changed his name to Al Hoxie.

In 1926, Jack received his most famous role as Buffalo Bill Cody in the film The Last Frontier.  Jack continued to intersperse his movie career with circuit rodeos and Wild West Shows.

In his later years, Jack and his wife moved to his mother’s old homestead in Oklahoma.  Jack developed leukemia and died in 1965 at 80 years of age.

Sources – Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Hoxie