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    Legendary Locals of Moscow
    Legendary Locals of Moscow
    Legendary Locals of Moscow
    Ebook250 pages1 hour

    Legendary Locals of Moscow

    By Latah County Historical Society

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    The rich and fertile land upon which Moscow sits has sustained a vibrant community of hard working thinkers, creators, and activists for more than 125 years. Just as the area's first inhabitants returned to camas fields in Paradise Valley year after year, pioneers settled in "Hog Heaven" because they found ready access to life's necessities. Businessmen like Nathaniel Williamson and Frank David tied their fortunes to the local farming economy to the same degree as seed pioneer Willis Crites or sustainability advocate Mary Jane Butters. While the bounty that surrounds Moscow feeds its growth, the town's cultural lifeblood is pumped by the University of Idaho. The university has provided Moscow with inventors such as Malcolm Renfrew, talented athletes like Olympian Dan O'Brien, and colorful characters, perhaps best embodied by Dean of Women Permeal French. The picturesque hills of the Palouse roll through the history of this unique town, rooting tomorrow's leaders in the work of yesterday's groundbreakers.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLegendary Locals
    Release dateSep 14, 2015
    ISBN9781439653197
    Legendary Locals of Moscow
    Author

    Latah County Historical Society

    The Latah County Historical Society has been actively collecting and preserving the area's cultural heritage for nearly five decades. With exhibitions at the McConnell Mansion House Museum and educational events throughout the county, the society builds good citizens, strong communities, and satisfying lives.

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      Legendary Locals of Moscow - Latah County Historical Society

      helpful.

      INTRODUCTION

      Before the 1860s, very few Euro-Americans were seen amongst the hills that roll out from the heart of Moscow. Only a handful of white trappers made their way into the region in the early 19th century, likely giving the Palouse hills their name—a derivation of pelouse, meaning lawn or green in French. Others believe that the name is a reflection of the Palouse Native American tribe that had a major settlement in the area. Historians agree, however, that the county’s name was a product of the Nez Perce or Nimiipuu language. As Lillian Otness recounted in A Great, Good Country, "a committee headed by William J. McConnell formed the name by blending the first syllables of [two] Nez Perce words to form Lah-ta, meaning ‘place of the pestle and pine’." Moscow’s present location was known to Native Americans as Tatkinmah, or the place of the young or spotted deer. Members of the Nez Perce and Coeur d’Alene tribes passed through the area and harvested camas that grew in abundance in the lush valley. To this day, traces of the trails that the Nez Perce utilized for hundreds of years can be found along Paradise Ridge to the east of Moscow.

      Unadulterated grasslands and an ample source of timber drew the first homesteaders to the site that would become Moscow in the early 1870s. Most men arrived with a small herd of livestock, intending to raise cattle, crops, and children on a 160-acre homestead claim. Within a few short years, Paradise Valley, as it was then known, had secured a post office, and a handful of enterprising individuals were starting businesses to serve the growing population. Samuel Neff is remembered for opening the first of those establishments in 1873, and within a decade, Moscow had its new name as well as a brewery, dental office, livery stable, and more than one general store.

      Moscow saw a boom in commercial activity during the latter part of the 1880s, which persisted through the turn of the 20th century, despite a significant economic depression in 1893 that was compounded locally by a poor wheat harvest. Much of downtown Moscow was constructed during that period, including such recognizable buildings as the Moscow Hotel, the McConnell-Maguire Building, and Hodgins Drugstore. At the same time, the town’s residential neighborhoods were growing. The Fort Russell Neighborhood Historic District includes some of the finest examples of Victorian architecture in all of Idaho. Yet another benchmark of the town’s settlement was the construction of schools, which evolved from one-room schoolhouses to multi-storied brick structures in less than a generation.

      The fate of the little town in remote northern Idaho forever changed when the placement of a land-grant university was awarded to Moscow. Town forefather James Deakin sold ground on which the first University of Idaho (UI) building was constructed. In 1892, the original administration building was opened to a few dozen young men and women, including an African American coed named Jennie Hughes, who would become the first black student to obtain a bachelor’s degree in Idaho. Over the last 125 years, the university has not only added to the cultural diversity of Moscow, it has also enriched the social fabric of the town. Scholars from all over the world have come to call Moscow home because of their affiliation with UI, and as a result, the community has cultivated a metropolitan atmosphere while maintaining much of its small-town charm.

      Modest but steady growth has allowed the community to manage its expansion with livability and sustainability in mind. Even during the Great Depression, Moscow was able to maintain its population, with the university and other key businesses propping up the town’s economy. Given Moscow’s distance from major arteries of transportation, big businesses and corporations have rarely sought to locate their enterprises in town. Homegrown ventures, like Pyschiana and Northwest River Supply, have instead been much more important job creators and revenue generators in Moscow. The smart growth practiced in Moscow is just one of many reasons why countless publications have identified it as a top-tier town to call home.

      Today, Moscow’s population hovers around 25,000. Much has changed since the days of horse-drawn wagons passing through downtown and university students arriving by train. Indeed, much has changed even since John Mix was fielding requests on KRPL. And yet, in many ways, the character of Moscow has remained constant over generations. The dedication that Lena Whitmore had to her students was emulated by Sue Hovey many decades later. The passionate love for history demonstrated by Grace Wicks and Lillian Otness has been preserved by Mary Reed. And the courage it takes to grow a community out of nothing lives on in the residents of Moscow who each day commit to improving their town for one and all.

      Nathaniel Williamson’s Great Fall Fair

      Each autumn throughout the 1910s, Moscow store owner Nathaniel Williamson hosted a Great Fall Fair, which included agricultural exhibitions, livestock competitions, and children’s games. Williamson’s promotional stunt was the precursor to the modern Latah County Fair.

      CHAPTER ONE

      Breaking Ground

      Northern Idaho was part of America’s last frontier. Although the traditional story of how the United States was settled focuses on a continual march westward by explorers and pioneers, Latah County’s dense forests and rich farmland were difficult to get to, and as a result, this section of the country was skipped over for much of the 19th century. Not until the 1870s did Euro-American families begin to homestead in Paradise Valley, the rich, open meadow where the community of Moscow would sprout. At the same time, the Nez Perce Native Americans who had relied on the area’s bounty for centuries were being forcefully removed from their ancestral lands.

      A number of early settlers in and around Moscow actually immigrated from farther west. Men who had been farming in the fertile valleys of western Oregon Territory were drawn to the Palouse by news of productive agricultural land that was up for grabs. With each passing month, more settlers arrived, either to claim their own piece of farmland or to make their fortune in the growing community.

      Men and women dedicated themselves to bringing order to this little town on the edge of American society. The arrival of a post office, the founding of public schools, the organization of churches, and the electing of officials all provided added stability to the settlement known as Hog Heaven, then Paradise Valley, and finally Moscow.

      While many early residents should be remembered as community builders, four men in particular are credited with laying Moscow’s foundation. John Russell, Henry McGregor, Almon Asbury Lieuallen, and James Deakin each donated a portion of their properties—four corners that met at today’s Sixth and Main Streets—to create Moscow’s original town plot. The lands would provide for the growth of a commercial district, several neighborhoods, and a university.

      Farming was the primary catalyst for the creation of Moscow, but the placement of the University of Idaho on the western edge of town ensured that the community would grow and prosper. In an attempt to allay unease among residents in northern Idaho and having been persuaded by Moscow booster John Warren Brigham, the legislature in Boise awarded the land-grant institution to this community with just 2,000 residents. Although the University of Idaho’s inaugural class had only a few dozen students, soon the institution would account for a significant portion of the town’s population and become an

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