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On This Page: Town Histories
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History of Latah
County
Located in northern Idaho, Latah County is mostly rural with striking contrasts between the rolling hills of the Palouse region and thick forests of pine, fir, and cedar. Before white settlement, the Nez Perce and Palouse tribes who wintered along the Clearwater and Snake Rivers, came in the spring and summer to dig camas and kous roots, fish, hunt, and pick huckleberries. The Greater Nez Perce Trail traversed the county from south to north, ending at Spokane Falls which was a meeting and trading center for many northwest tribes. Latah County was originally part of Nez Perce County to the south. Displeasure over the difficult and long journey down the ridges to the county seat of Lewiston, a descent of 2,000 feet, led to the creation of Latah County in 1888 with the county seat at Moscow. It has the distinction of being the only county created by an Act of Congress in the nation. The name, "Latah," derives from the Nez Perce words for the pine tree, La-Kah, and the word for stone pestles used in grinding camas roots, Tah-ol. The northern part of the county boasted the largest stand of white pine in the nation, attracting the Potlatch Lumber Company and an ethnically diverse group of lumberjacks. German Catholics and Scandinavian immigrants settled the fertile prairies to the south. Moscow (Hog Heaven; Paradise Valley)
In 1871 the Lieuallen brothers, Asbury and Noah, and around 20 other families arrived in the valley. Drawn by the abundant grassland and availability of timber for building, they established their homes. They first called the area Hog Heaven and later renamed it Paradise Valley. With the establishment of the business district in 1875, the town, by then called Moscow, began developing as a trading center. The coming of the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company's rail line (now Union Pacific) in 1885 touched off a migration that boosted the young town's population to 2000 in 1890. In 1889, the year before Idaho became a state, the decision to locate the University of Idaho at Moscow gave new impetus to Moscow's growth. A second railroad line, the Northern Pacific, reached the town in 1890. Moscow was not the first name given to this northern Idaho town. The first permanent settlers, many of whom were farmers, brought their families along with all their belongings including their livestock. Their pigs especially enjoyed the wild camas flower bulbs growing on the lush, rolling hills and proceeded to root them out. The farmers called the area “Hogs' Heaven,” but their wives preferred “Paradise Valley.” When it came time to register an official town name the women said no to Hog Heaven, and the postal service said no to Paradise Valley because there already an Idaho town with that name. The origin of the name Moscow has long been disputed. There is no evidence that it was named by a Russian or for a Russian city. What can be verified is this: five of the settlers met to choose a proper name. They wanted a prestigious name, one that would bode well for the town. They failed to come to an agreement quickly, and so they designated the postmaster, Samuel Neff, to complete the official papers. He chose Moscow, which because of its favorable meaning, ‘city of brotherly love,’ met the desired requirements. An interesting sidelight to the choice is that Neff was born in Moscow, Pennsylvania and later moved to Moscow, Iowa.
Francis Warren settled the area of the present town of Bovill about 1890. He built a log home at what is now the center of Bovill, and the vicinity came to be known as Warren Meadows. In 1899 an English Lord, Hugh Bovill, visited the area and in 1901 purchased the land. He soon returned with his wife, Lady Charlotte, and two daughters, Gwendolyn and Dorothy. In a few years the Bovills had built a hotel for the accommodation of sportsmen wishing to enjoy the area's superb hunting and fishing. In 1907 he established a store to serve the homesteaders and was appointed postmaster. The extensive logging of the white pine by the Potlatch Lumber Company and the rowdy logging camps and loggers ruined Bovill's paradise. He and his family left the area in 1911.
This area was settled in the 1880's and 1890's predominately by Scandinavians from the Midwest. In 1905 Potlatch Lumber Company engineers decided to locate a station of the Washington, Idaho & Montana Railway on this site. The town was named for William Deary, the company's general manager, who secured the claims and set up the Deary Townsite Company to sell land after it had been cleared of timber. When sale of lots began in 1907, Deary grew quickly, with lumbering and farming the chief occupations. After the 1920's, with dwindling activity of the lumber industry in this vicinity and the paving of roads to Moscow, Deary settled into its present role as an outlying agricultural community.
Originally Genesee was a village that grew up about a mile east of the present town beginning in 1872. When in 1888 the Spokane & Palouse Railway was extended to Genesee, the owner of the townsite, Jacob Rosenstein, asked what was considered an exorbitant price for right-of-way and grounds. As a consequence the railway built its terminus a mile west of the village, and the original town was forced to move to the present location. After the village moved, Genesee experienced a period of rapid growth. In the heart of some of the most productive farming land in the county, it became a trade and supply center for a fairly large area. By the time the railroad tracks reached Lewiston in 1898, Genesee had been the end of the line for ten years and was an important shipping point to which cattle and hogs were driven from as far away as Cottonwood and Grangeville. Hay and grain warehouses sprang up alongside the tracks, and business boomed on the main street. In the early 1900's fruit was an important product, and apples were shipped out by the carload. Juliaetta (Schupfer or Schupferville)
In 1878 Rupert Schupfer homesteaded the land where Juliaetta is located. For a short time the town was known as Schupfer or Schupferville. When the post office was established in 1882, the first postmaster, Charles Snyder, renamed the town after his two daughters, Julia and Etta. In the 1890's a tramway was installed and warehouses erected for the grain raised on the ridges above Juliaetta. It was powered by a steam engine and consisted of a track on which sled-like cars operated. Eventually seven wagon roads led to Juliaetta, with lumber, grain, and fruit as the area's principal products. In the late 1890's and early 1900's, Juliaetta was quite a promising town with a flour mill, sawmill, lumber yard, grain warehouses, two general merchandise stores, a drug store, meat market, shoe store, millinery shops, blacksmith shops, three hotels, and a weekly newspaper.
Thomas Kirby founded Kendrick in 1889. He named it Latah and became its first postmaster. In order to assure the Northern Pacific Railroad's building to the town, Kirby gave it a deed to half the townsite. In 1891 it was renamed for James Kendrick, Northern Pacific's chief engineer at the time. Situated in the midst of fertile country suited to growing both fruit and grains, with water power available from the Potlatch River, a timber supply not far distant, and mining activity developing in the Ruby Creek and Boulder Creek districts, Kendrick quickly developed as a trading center. In the early 1890s the town had a flour mill, lumber mill, and an electric power plant.
In 1903 the Potlatch Lumber Company, organized by the Weyerhauser interests, purchased the mill and timber lands of the Palouse River Lumber Company. Instead of building a major mill at Palouse, as local people expected, the company built a new mill, a company town, and a railroad. In 1905 construction began on what was then the largest white pine sawmill in the world. Potlatch built homes, commercial buildings, schools, churches, a post office, and an opera house. Nothing was privately owned until 1952 when the company sold the town, giving residents first option to buy their houses. It donated the library, fire hall and truck, church lots, and other public facilities to the town. The mill operated until 1981 and was dismantled in 1983.
Troy was originally known as Huff's Gulch. In 1890 John P. Vollmer was instrumental in extending the Spokane & Palouse Railway (later the Northern Pacific) to Huff's Gulch from Moscow as a start toward completion of its line to Lewiston. After establishing a general merchandise store and a large livery stable, he had the town renamed after himself. It was incorporated as Vollmer in 1892. As a businessman Vollmer was very successful, amassing large land holdings and great wealth. But in 1897 the citizens rebelled against having their village named after a man who owned more than 32,000 acres of land, much of it gained by foreclosing on bank loans to farmers. A Greek railroad worker suggested "Troy," the name of "the most illustrious city in the world" and backed it with an offer of a drink of whiskey for everyone who would vote to change the name. "Troy" received 29 votes; "Vollmer", 9. In the early 1900's, Troy had a bank, a flour mill, a general store, two meat markets, three saloons, several sawmills, one dentist, and a weekly newspaper.
Latah County History Mystery
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After
a brief appearance by trappers from the North West Company between 1810
and 1830, followed by a few traders and missionaries, miners swarmed
into North Idaho in the early 1860s looking for gold along the Palouse
River and in the Hoodoo Mountains northwest of Potlatch. The first permanent
settlers arrived in the late 1860s, taking up homesteads on the fertile
hills. By the 1880s, the homestead lands had been claimed and the region
dotted with small settlements and larger communities like Moscow, Troy,
and Genesee. The arrival of the railroad in 1885 spurred rapid growth,
and by 1900, Latah and Nez Perce Counties were the two most populous
counties in Idaho. The founding of the University of Idaho at Moscow
in 1889 propelled the city into a trading and population center
for the county.
