Author publishes book four in series on Weiser’s history


Author Ken Walston is Weiser’s unofficial historian. He has just published his latest installment of Weiser’s history which provides readers with a wealth of interesting facts gleaned from primary research materials. Photo by Steve Lyon
Ken Walston’s new book four of Weiser history covers the time period from the beginning of 1892 to the end of 1895. 
 During that period many changes took place and Walston details most of them. Few dig as deep into the details as Walston, who spends hours doing research.
 He uses a metaphor of the Sawtooth Mountains as a means of describing his history books. He instructs a person to draw a line across a string of those mountains so just the very tips are above the line. Imagine those tips represent historical events. 
 If you jam them together that is the way most history books are written. He points out that he includes the peaks and the valleys in his books, so there is much greater detail in describing what happened over the years. 
 He goes so far as to report street addresses, the price paid for lots and he includes a large number of names of people rather than just a significant few. Book four names over 1,600 individuals. Women’s first names were not given in those days. Walston spent extra time researching their names and including their given names as much as he could. 
 Early in the book, the arrival of Rev. Edward Anson Paddock was recorded: A man of vision and boundless energy. He came to Weiser in 1892, tasked to build a church. He did that in grand style and gave the community a beautiful Congregational Church which lasted for over 70 years before it burned down. Rev. Paddock  was very interested in education and realized Weiser needed a preparatory college and founded the Weiser Academy to that end. The book contains a biography of Rev. Paddock’s early years detailing his accomplishments.
 Walston describes the local farmers as being like kids with new toys. They didn’t know what would grow in the area so they tried many crops and trees. Fig trees didn’t grow well, but tobacco grew and made it possible for Weiser to have a cigar factory and later two. The orchard industry was growing. Several varieties of plums, apples and peaches were being raised along with many other fruits such as strawberries and grapes.
 Mining in the area produced sales for the businesses of Weiser. Unfortunately the county commissioners steadfastly refused to fund a road to Mineral for over 12 years and those sales were eroded and lost to Oregon interests. 
 The state of Oregon funded a road on the Oregon side of the Snake River to secure the Idaho business. Walston details how the economy and the financial panic of 1893 ruined the mining ventures in the area. The price of silver dropped from $1.20 to 60 cents an ounce – too low to be economically mined. 
 The steamboat Norma was to haul ore from the Seven Devils Mountains. That venture failed and eventually the boat, in a thrilling account, shot the rapids in the Snake River. Battered but not beaten, she made it to Lewiston. A photo of the repaired Norma is included in the book.
 Many of the early settlers in Weiser were growing old and slowing down, but new folks were taking their place as leaders in the community. The rapid turnover in doctors slowed when the doctors, Waterhouse, Numbers and Shirley, came to town and stayed. Their presence was invaluable to the town as those skilled men combated  many of the endemic diseases of the era.
 The newspaper printed a ballot in a paper of 1895 asking the women to vote yea or nay for suffrage. Their vote was nay by a wide margin, but they would receive suffrage in 1896.
 There were three hotels in Weiser during much of the time period of the book. The Vendome came into being in 1891 and was the premier hotel for several years. A second Weiser Hotel was constructed at the corner of East 11th Street and Main. It replaced the original hotel in Old Town which had burned in the great fire of 1890. The second hotel  didn’t do well and for a year it housed the Weiser Academy. The Valley Hotel struggled for existence with frequent managerial changes.
 Fishing was good in the 1890s. Informally, different groups of fishermen vied for the local record. Four to maybe six Weiserites would bring in scores of 490, or 503 or the apparent record of 530 trout on a long weekend.
 Nowadays the Coeur d’Alene mining war of 1892 is known as an insurrection and much of the literature on the subject favors the mining companies’ viewpoint. Weiser’s Company B of the Idaho National Guard was called out to assist in implementing martial law in the area. It is an interesting read which is not biased toward the mine owners’ position. 
 Walston reported an error in his book. After the book went to press he found an 1894 map of the Weiser River area and it shows the Galloway Ditch originating at the mouth of the Weiser River Canyon. Copies of the book now have an errata sheet showing that map and reporting the existence of a dam at about the same location as the Galloway dam of 1936.
 For folks interested in Weiser history this book and the three prevoius books in the series provide a wealth of information about Weiser. A book signing has been scheduled from 10 a.m. to noon on Oct. 13 at Pepper’s Coffee Shop on State Street in downtown Weiser. 

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18 E. Idaho St.
Weiser, ID 83672
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