Today I am happy to present guest blogger Evan Filby. Mr. Filby is a writer and author of the blog South Fork Companion where you can read even more about Idaho history. He currently has two books for sale, Boise River Gold Country, and Before the Spud.
Two Families and the Town of Paris, Idaho
Charles C. Rich - photo from Illustrated History of the State of Idaho. |
Fall 1863: Charles C. Rich, Apostle
of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, “the Mormons,”
led a small band of settlers to a spot about 40 miles north-northwest
of Logan, Utah. There, north of Bear Lake, they established the town
of Paris. This action continued an influx that had begun over three
years earlier.
In the spring of 1860, Mormon
colonists founded the town of Franklin, about twenty miles north of
Logan. The hamlet and its outlying areas grew slowly, partly because
of continuing depredations by the Shoshone Indians. Even the
discovery of gold far to the northwest in what was then Washington
Territory had little effect.
Then, on January 29, 1863, Colonel
Patrick Connor led U. S. Army troops in a retaliatory attack on an
Indian encampment 10-12 miles north of Franklin. The Battle of Bear
River – sometimes, with justification, called the “Bear River
Massacre” – cost the Indians dearly. Those losses, and continued
Army pressure, seriously weakened the power of the tribes in the
region.
Congress and President Abraham
Lincoln created Idaho Territory on March 4, 1863. Some months later,
the major Shoshone bands signed a peace agreement, the Box Elder
Treaty. That reduced the Indian threat and made Apostle Rich’s
expedition possible.
However. because the area had not
been formally surveyed, no one knew that Franklin was a mile north of
the Idaho border. Paris was about sixteen miles north of that line,
yet everyone assumed the Mormon colonies were in Utah.
Charles Coulson Rich was a towering
figure in the early history of the LDS church, so I shall only
summarize his amazing life. Born in Kentucky, in 1809, Charles
converted to the Mormon faith in 1832. Throughout his life, he
repeatedly answered the missionary call of the church. He was named
to the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, the next-to-highest governing body
of the church, before he was forty years old.
Joseph Rich - photo from Illustrated History of the State of Idaho. |
More colonists followed Rich into
the Bear Lake region in 1864, and several other towns were founded.
Among the newcomers were many members of Rich’s extended household.
Following the then-practice of the church, Charles had six wives, who
eventually bore him fifty-one children. Sadly, fifteen perished as
infants or young children, and one girl died at age 19. We will soon
learn more about one of his sons: Joseph Coulson Rich, who was 22
years old when Paris was founded.
The Utah legislature created a new
county in 1864 to include the colonies. Originally called Richland,
the name was shortened to Rich County four years later. For the next
eight years, Charles officially represented the county in the Utah
legislature.
Meanwhile, his son Joseph, a
self-taught surveyor, spent several years surveying villages and
towns in western Wyoming and eastern Idaho. He also studied law on
his own. At one point, Joseph accompanied his father to Salt Lake.
There, he landed a temporary job as an Assistant Clerk for the House
of Representatives. Joseph married in 1869, but was immediately
called to a mission in Illinois and Kentucky. That kept him away
until the spring of 1870.
William Budge - photo from Illustrated History of the State of Idaho. |
The second family of interest
arrived that same year, when William Budge came to Paris. Brigham
Young had appointed Budge as Presiding Bishop of Rich County. Born in
Scotland, Budge converted to the LDS faith in 1848, when he was
twenty years old. He served as a missionary in England and on the
Continent and then, in 1860, brought a party of about 600 converts to
the United States. More
adherents joined the group in New
York before William led them on to Salt Lake City.
The family that Budge moved to Paris
included three wives and many children. (He would ultimately father
36 sons and daughters, but ten of them died in infancy and another
before she was eight.) In a moment, we’ll learn more about one of
his sons, Alfred (born in 1868).
On February 15, 1872, the Interior
Department certified the exact location of the Utah-Idaho border,
proving that Paris and the other northern Mormon communities were
actually in Idaho. That little detail did not, however, stop Charles
Rich from attending to his duties with the Utah legislature. He also,
apparently, represented the area at a constitutional convention
called in another attempt to secure statehood for Utah. (The attempt
failed.)
Valley inhabitants found themselves
part of Idaho’s Oneida County, a heavily non-Mormon area, but it
took them a couple years to accept the situation. Fearing that
newly-awakened Mormon vote, Oneida County leaders lobbied for a
split. Thus, in January 1875, the legislature established Bear Lake
County, with Paris as the county seat. The
Idaho Statesman, in Boise, reported (January 21, 1875),
“Message from the Governor … I have the honor to nominate and
appoint Joseph C. Rich, Jonanathan [sic]
Pugmire, and Ed. Austin, as County Commissioners of the county of
Bear Lake.”
Later that year, voters elected
Bishop William Budge to the Idaho Territorial Council (roughly
comparable to a state Senate). He would be elected for a second term
four years later. Meanwhile, in 1877, Budge was made President of the
LDS Bear Lake Stake.
Two year after that, voters sent
Joseph C. Rich to the first of two consecutive terms in the
Territorial House of Representatives. For some years after his second
term, Joseph focused more on county affairs and a growing legal
practice. By then, he had earned a reputation as a skilled frontier
lawyer, fluent and forceful in debate.
Despite his age, Joe’s father
began organizing a new colony for nearby Wyoming in 1880. During that
process, however, Charles suffered a stroke. Although he recovered
enough to attend stake meetings, he never fully regained his health.
Charles Coulson Rich passed away November 17, 1883.
The following year, church leaders
authorized the construction of a tabernacle in Paris, with President
William Budge as superintendent. The structure was built with mostly
local labor and local materials, including red sandstone quarried
from the ridges east of Bear Lake. Within two years, the project was
“progressing finely,” according to a correspondent to the Deseret
News in Salt Lake City (August 18, 1886). Officials
dedicated the tabernacle three years later.
In 1892, one of Joseph’s brothers
became Second Counselor to President William Budge of the Bear Lake
Stake. (In such a small community, the families had interacted
extensively, but here we see a direct public link.)
Two year earlier, Idaho had become a
state, which, among other things, opened up the executive and
judicial branches of government to popular elections. In 1891, Alfred
Budge, son of William, had received his law degree from the
University of Michigan. He returned to Paris and opened a practice.
Three years later, voters elected him as District Attorney of Idaho’s
Fifth Judicial District, which encompassed much of the eastern side
of the state.
About that time, Joseph C. Rich
returned to a more active role in politics. He first became a
delegate to the state Democratic convention, and then attended the
1896 national convention that selected William Jennings Bryan as the
party’s Presidential nominee. Bryan lost nationally, but “Joe”
was elected to the Idaho Senate, where he served for a time as
President pro
tem.
Two years later, Rich chose not to
run for re-election. Instead, he was elected Judge of the Fifth
Judicial District. William Budge took his place in the state Senate.
Alfred Budge became Prosecuting Attorney for Bear Lake County.
Alfred Budge - photo from H.T. French History of Idaho |
An ironic twist occurred in 1902:
Alfred Budge (younger at 34, and a degreed lawyer) foiled Joe Rich’s
re-election bid as Judge of the Fifth Judicial District. Judge Alfred
would be repeatedly re-elected to that post for over a decade.
In 1905, the Budges joined with one
of Joe’s brothers to found the Bear Lake State Bank in Paris. The
Idaho
Statesman reported (June 26, 1905) that “The
incorporators are President William Budge, Judge [Alfred] Budge, …
Hon. W. L. Rich … ”
The following year, William Budge –
then approaching eighty years of age – moved from his position with
the Bear Lake Stake to become President of the LDS Temple in Logan,
Utah.
After losing the judicial election
to Alfred, Joseph essentially retired from politics. In 1908, he and
his wife moved to Centerville, Utah and had a house built there. But
Joe never got to enjoy the new home; he passed away there in October
1908.
Alfred Budge moved to Pocatello in
the spring of 1910, mainly because much of the Judicial District
activity took place there. The following year, under the provisions
of a new constitutional mandate, the Judge filled in for an absent
member of the state Supreme Court. Three years after that, the
Governor appointed him to complete the term of a Supreme Court
Justice who had died in office. Judge Budge then ran unopposed for a
full term in 1918.
That same year, poor health forced
his father to retire from his position as President of the Logan
Temple. William Budge passed away in March 1919.
About a week after his father died,
Judge Budge purchased a home in Boise and moved his family there. For
the next thirty years, he ran successfully for the court position –
“most of the time without opposition.” He passed away half way
through his sixth term, in January 1951.
These two pioneer families
bequeathed an amazing legacy on the West. The siblings of Joseph C.
Rich included four lawyers (one a judge), two medical doctors, two
successful ranchers (one of whom became mayor of Paris), a newspaper
publisher, and a rising horse trainer and breeder (who, sadly, died
young in a riding accident). The siblings of Alfred Budge included
seven medical doctors, a dentist, a lawyer (who served a term as
mayor of Pocatello), and a prominent businessman and banker.
Both families – including other
individuals engaged in less “prestigious” occupations – played
significant roles in local government, as well as in the LDS church:
as missionaries, teachers, and church officials.
Main sources:
Merrill D. Beal and Merle W. Wells,
History of Idaho, Lewis Historical Publishing Company,
Inc. New York (1959).
Jesse R. S. Budge,
The Life of William Budge, The Deseret News Press, Salt
Lake City, Utah (1915).
Hiram Taylor French, History
of Idaho: A Narrative Account of Its Historical Progress, Its People
and Its Principal Interests, Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago
(1914).
James H. Hawley, History
of Idaho : The Gem of the Mountains, The S. J. Clarke
Publishing Company, Chicago (1920).
An
Illustrated History of the State of Idaho, The Lewis
Publishing Company, Chicago (1899).
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