MAJOR F. A. FENN DEAD
Estimable Idaho Pioneer Passed Away Sunday Evening
At His Home in Kooskia From Complications
Major F. A. Fenn, a highly esteemed Idaho pioneer, passed away last night at 11:30 o'clock at his Kooskia home from complications incident to advanced age. Major Fenn had been in failing health for more than a year but was about town and attended to his duties as editor of the Kooskia Mountaineer until late last week.
Major Fenn was born on Sept. 11, 1853, at Jefferson River, Nevada County, California, and in 1862 came to Idaho with his parents who located in Florence, then a thriving mining camp.
He attended the first public school in Idaho at the Florence camp and in 1865 or '66 the family removed to Lewiston where they resided for a good many years.
In the meantime, Major Fenn received an appointment to the Naval Academy and was in attendance when the Nez Perce Indian War broke out and he resigned to return to Idaho to assist the settlers in the defense of their homes.
In 1877, on Dec. 16, he was united in marriage with Miss Florence Holbrook, a daughter of a pioneer family of Whitman County, who survives him.
To this union were born three sons and two daughters, Lloyd Fenn, associated in the Kooskia Mountaineer and superintendent of the Kooskia schools; Homer Fenn, Sacramento; Fred Fenn, Los Angeles; Mrs. W. B. Willey, Great Falls, Mont., and Mrs. F. E. Quist, Kooskia.
Major Fenn was a member of the territorial Idaho legislature for three terms and served as speaker of the house for one term.
At the time of the Spanish-American War, he served the colors as captain of a company in the Philippines and for his splendid service was advanced to the rank of Major.
He was appointed to the U. S. Forest Service during the administration of the late President
Roosevelt retired from that service in 1919.
Mr. Fenn was one of the first Idaho citizens to take the lead in forest protection and reforestation policies and during his entire life has been an active agent in the promotion of development programs for the Central Idaho country, the state of Idaho, and the entire Northwest.
Major Fenn was known throughout the entire state for his sterling qualities of character. He was possessed of a very pleasing personality and through his wide activities had cultivated an acquaintance throughout the entire Northwest and enjoyed the very high esteem of all who knew him.
He was one of the first in central Idaho country to advance the proposal for highway construction connecting the Clearwater Valley and Montana, through Lolo Pass and during recent years had been closely identified with the movement that has secured allocations of forest service, state, and county monies in excess of 2,000,000. which had been sufficient for financing all but a little over 50 miles of the highway between Kooskia and Missoula. It had been one ambition of Major Fenn's later years to see the completion of this historic and much-needed highway and the liberal allocations secured have been of much satisfaction to him.
Major Fenn is survived by three brothers, in addition to immediate members of his family, they being George Fenn, Lewiston Orchards; and Warren and S. S. Fenn, of Spokane.
The funeral arrangements will not be made until the children at outside points have been heard from.
Lewiston Tribune Tuesday, June 21, 1927 pg. 8
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Frank A. Fenn, newspaper owner/editor, soldier, statesman, lawyer, and conservationist, was born September 11, 1853, in Jefferson, Nevada County, California.
His father had crossed the plains to the goldfields on the Yuba River in 1850, thence to the Salmon River, Florence area, in 1862.
Frank was one of seven children who attended the first public school in Idaho. After continuing his education in Lewiston and Walla Walla, he received an appointment to the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md, in 1869. Frank left the academy in 1872 to voyage off to foreign ports.
Frank returned to Idaho County to the ranch and teach school, which is what he was doing when the 1877 Nez Perce War broke out. He was appointed a first lieutenant in the Idaho militia and engaged in several noteworthy battles.
Lieutenant Fenn was with the volunteers that rescued the survivors of the Norton and Chamberlain families, who had been attacked by Indians in the middle of the night. John Chamberlain and his wife, with two children in a wagon loaded with household goods, had tried to make a run from Cottonwood to Mount Idaho. They prevailed on Ben Norton to go with them and about five miles from Grange Hall, (now Grangeville) the Indians caught up with the luckless party.
Writing about his part in the rescue, Lieutenant Fenn told of finding ten-year-old Hill Norton skulking through the tall grass, trying to get to the Grange Hall ahead of the Indians. Taking the boy to the hall, Fenn and two more volunteers headed out to find the rest of the party and do what they could for them.
Mrs. Norton was found under the wagon, shot through both legs, and helpless. Her husband was a few feet away, dead, and Lew Day and Joe Moore were in the wagon, wounded and near death. (They both died a few days later.)
Lieutenant Fenn was with Colonel Perry as a volunteer on his fateful and disastrous trip into Whitebird Canyon. Years later, as owner/editor of the newspaper, the Kooskia Mountaineer, he would write about an incident in which he could only watch as a grizzled old sergeant fell to the advancing Indians.
The name of F. A. Fenn is engraved on a monument dedicated to the memory of the "Brave Seventeen," a group of seventeen volunteers led by Captain D. B. Randall, who held off a much larger force of hostile Indians on July 5th, 1877.
On December 16, 1877, Frank Fenn married one of his students, Miss Florence E. Holbrook, daughter of Russell & Margaret (Rice) Holbrook, early day pioneers from Douglas County Oregon, and the Camas Prairie. Florence came to Idaho County with her parents during the Nez Perce Indian War of 1877 and helped mold bullets during the siege of Mt. Idaho. Florence was a member of "Women of Woodcraft".
The Fenns took up farming and raising their family five miles north of Mt. Idaho. During this time Mr. Fenn was postmaster at Mt. Idaho, Deputy District Court Clerk of Idaho County, and in 1886 he was chosen to represent the county in the Territorial legislature. He raised sheep in Whitebird until he sold out and was admitted to the Supreme Court in Boise to practice law. The Fenns resided in Boise from 1890 until 1901. In 1890 he was elected to the first state legislature and held the important position of Speaker of the House.
From April 1891 to 1896, he was Chief Clerk of the Idaho State Land Board, and in 1896 was elected to represent Ada County and was the only Republican in the entire legislature.
When the Spanish-American War broke out he offered his services and was appointed Captain of Company H, First Idaho Volunteers which took part in the Battle of Manila, August 13, 1899; Santa Ana, February 5, 1899; Colcocan, February 10-11, 1899. In September 1899, he received an honorable discharge as a Major and returned home to his family.
In June 1901, Major Fenn was appointed Superintendent of the U.S. Forest Reserves in Idaho and Montana. He was responsible for establishing the Forest Service in Clearwater country. He was admired and respected by his employees and the community. Pinchot called him "one of the very best forest officers the west has produced." Frank retired from this position in 1920.
Major Frank A. Fenn died June 20, 1927, at his home in Kooskia, leaving behind his wife Florence and their children, Fred of Los Angeles, California, Homer of Sacramento, California, Lloyd, who was superintendent of the Kooskia Public School, Rhoda of Great Falls, Montana and Allene Florence Quist of Kooskia.
Major Fenn left behind a legacy that endures to this day. He was one of the first to advance the proposal for a highway connecting the Clearwater Valley to Montana through Lolo Pass. After his retirement, he told reporters "The Lolo Pass Highway is my only hobby." He was the owner/editor of the Kooskia Mountaineer newspaper for a while. The house he built in Kooskia still stands and the interior has not changed much from the days when Florence Fenn lived there.
There is a mountain, a town, and several places in the region that bear his name and the names of some of his family. Fenn Ranger Station; Major Fenn Picnic Area on the Lochsa; Fenn Mountain is 8,021 ft and the highest of the Selway Crags in the Selway-Bitterroot wilderness; Florence Lake named for Mrs. Fenn; Lloyd Lake is named for their son, who was briefly a ranger and followed in his father's footsteps as a lawyer, politician, newspaper publisher and educator; when the trail through Jesse Pass and the Crags was completed in the early 1900s, Major Fenn took his family on a pack trip over the new trail. On reaching this large, unnamed creek, called it Rhoda Creek for his daughter, who thought it so beautiful; Friday Pass was named in 1917 after Lloyd Fenn, who was known as "Man Friday" by the Forest Service survey chief. Fenn Lakes was later renamed Kettle, Stove, and Pipe Lakes.
The Fenn family definitely left their mark on Idaho and that may be the reason why some old-timers call it "Major Fenn's Country."
Idaho County IDGenWeb Project 1997- Present-
Keeping Genealogy Free
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Maj. Frank A. Fenn.
It has been given to Major Fenn to uphold most fully the high prestige of a name that has been identified with Idaho history in a specially prominent and distinguished way, from the early pioneer era in the territory to the present days of opulent prosperity and progress. He has been a resident of Idaho since his boyhood days and has marked the passing years with large and worthy achievements and accomplishments such as would naturally be expected on the part of one of so marked ability, loyalty, and progressiveness as designate the man.
His career has been varied and interesting and he has been especially influential in public affairs in his home state, where he has thrice served as a member of the legislature, in which connection he had the distinction of being speaker of the house in the first general assembly after the admission of Idaho to the Union.
As a youth, he served in the United States Navy, and he was an officer of an Idaho volunteer regiment that took an active part in military operations in the Philippine islands incidental to the Spanish-American war, besides which he saw active service in the Nez Perces Indian war.
He is a representative member of the Idaho bar and attained definite precedence in the work of his profession, but since 1901 he has held the office of forest supervisor in the United States Forest Service in Idaho, a position in which he has accomplished the most effective work in protecting and conserving the magnificent forests of the state. Few citizens of Idaho are more widely known and none has a more secure place in popular confidence and esteem, so that it may readily be understood that there is all of the consistency in according to Major Fenn specific recognition in this history of Idaho.
"Maj. Frank Alfred Fenn was born at Jefferson (an early mining town on the South Yuba river, later washed out by hydraulic works), Nevada County, California, on the 11th of September, 1853, and is a son of Hon. Stephen S. and Rhoda M. (Gilman) Fenn, the former of whom were born in Connecticut and the latter in Vermont, both families having been founded in New England in the early colonial era of our national history.
Stephen S. Fenn came to the West as a young man, in 1844, and he was one of the intrepid argonauts who made their way to California soon after the discovery of gold in that state. There he established his home in 1850 as one of the pioneer gold-seekers of that great commonwealth, and there he continued to reside until 1862 when he came to that part of the territory of Washington now included in Idaho. (Idaho was not then known; the territory was created in 1863.)
He was among the first to exploit the gold mining industry in Idaho, lived up to the full tension of life on the frontier, and became one of the prominent and influential citizens of the territory, his noble and devoted wife sharing with him in the vicissitudes and deprivations incidental to pioneer life.
He also became one of the early law practitioners of the territory and was called upon to serve in various offices of public trust, the while he contributed in generous measure to the civic and material development of the territory and state, his death having occurred about two years after the admission of Idaho to the Union.
He was a dominating figure in the political affairs of the territory, as a staunch adherent of the Democratic party, and was twice elected as territorial delegate to the United States Congress, in which body his earnest efforts did much to foster the best interests of the embryonic commonwealth which he ably represented.
He served several terms as a member of the territorial legislature and also held other important office preferments which emphatically attested to the unqualified confidence and esteem in which he was held in the territory.
He was a man of exalted integrity and great intellectual power, was a natural leader in thought and action, and his name merits a prominent and enduring place on the roster of the honored pioneers of Idaho.
He was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and was a Universalist in belief, and his wife was a zealous member of the Baptist church.
Of their thirteen children four sons are now living, and Major Fenn, of this review, who was the third in order of birth, is the eldest of those surviving the honored parents.
Stephen S. Fenn was summoned to the life eternal in 1892, at the age of seventy-two years, and his remains were laid to rest in the cemetery at Blackfoot, Bingham county. His loved and devoted wife passed away in 1884, at the age of fifty-six years, and interment was made at Mount Idaho, in Idaho county.
The family home was first established at Florence, Idaho county, whence removal was made to Lewiston, Nez Perce county, in 1866, and Stephen S. Fenn was prominently identified with industrial development in various other parts of the state, the while he gained prominence as one of the able and pioneer representatives of the bar of the territory. His life was ordered upon a lofty plane and he had the strength of purpose, the indomitable will, the versatility inexpedient, and alert progressiveness which combine to make the ideal pioneer. His career was marked by the earnest and productive endeavor, by fidelity to every trust and by a high sense of stewardship so that the angle of his influence continues to widen in beneficence now that he has passed from the stage of his mortal activities, in the fullness of years and well-earned honors.
"Major Frank A. Fenn gained his rudimentary education in the public schools of California, under the conditions of the pioneer days, and was a lad of nine years at the time of the family removal to Idaho in 1862, about one year prior to the formation of the territorial government, so that he has witnessed the development of the commonwealth from the condition of a wild and thinly populated frontier region into one of the great and prosperous states of the Union.
He had the privilege of attending the first public school established in the territory, the same having been in Idaho county, and its teacher having been Miss Statira E. Robinson.
Thereafter he continued his studies in schools established at Lewiston, and in 1869 he received an appointment to a cadetship in the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. There he remained until the autumn of 1872, after which he passed three years in voyaging to the various foreign ports, having virtually circumnavigated the globe and has met with many interesting experiences, through which he gained a broad fund of information.
"In the spring of 1875, Major Fenn returned to Idaho and established his residence on an extensive ranch near Mount Idaho, Idaho county. He remained in that section of the state until 1891, and in connection with successful operations as a farmer and stock grower, he found requisition for his services in the pedagogic profession, in which he taught several terms in the local schools, besides which he served as a deputy in county offices.
He has ever been a stalwart and effective advocate of the principles and policies of the Republican party and early became influential in public affairs in Idaho county. In 1886 he was elected to represent his county in the territorial legislature, and he was likewise elected a member of the first state legislature, in which he served as speaker of the house. He had much to do with formulating and directing the basic legislation in the new commonwealth, proved an ablest and most popular presiding officer, and added new laurels to the honored name which he bears.
"In the spring of 1891 Major Fenn was appointed chief clerk of the newly established state board of land commissioners, and he thereupon removed to Boise, the capital of the new state. He retained this position until 1896, when he resigned, as he had been again elected a member of the legislature in the autumn of that year, as a representative of Ada county.
In the ensuing general assembly, he had the unique distinction of being the only Republican member of the assembly who advocated the gold standard, all other members of both house and senate have been in favor of the free silver policy. After the close of his term in the legislature, Major Fenn began the study of law, and he made most rapid and substantial progress in his absorption and assimilation of the science of jurisprudence, with the result that he was admitted to the bar of the state in 1897, becoming eligible for practice in all of the Idaho courts, both state and federal.
He became associated in practice with the well-known firm of Kingsbury & Parsons, of Boise, and successfully followed the work of his profession in the capital city until the inception of the Spanish-American war, when he subordinated all other interests to tender his services as a volunteer.
He was made captain of Company H, First Idaho Volunteer Infantry, and in the summer of 1898 accompanied his command to the Philippine Islands, where he took part in a number of engagements with the Spaniards and the insurrectos and was otherwise actively concerned in military operations. He returned with his regiment to San Francisco, and there was mustered out, with the rank of major, in September 1899. His continued interest in his former comrades in arms is indicated by his membership in the United Spanish American War Veterans' Association, in the affairs of which he takes a lively concern.
"After the close of his military career Major Fenn resumed the practice of his profession in Boise, and he thus continued his labors until 1900, when he was chosen chairman of the Republican state central committee. He showed great discrimination and ability in maneuvering the political forces at his command in the campaign of that year, and in 1901 he entered the government forest reserve service, which he has since continued and in which he holds the office of the forest supervisor.
Upon assuming this government post he removed from Boise to Kooskia, Idaho county, where he has since maintained his home and official headquarters. He still takes a lively interest in political affairs, but is not active in party work, owing to his holding office under the civil service regulations.
He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Modern Woodmen of America, and is liberal in his support of all religious denominations, without being formally identified with any church organization, his wife being a zealous member of the Christian church and a leader in the social life of her home community, where her circle of friends is coincident with that of her acquaintances.
Major Fenn is most liberal and public-spirited in his civic attitude, is ever ready to give practical co-operation in the furtherance of enterprises and policies tending to advance the social, moral, educational, and material welfare of the community, and he is at the present time giving most admirable service as president of the board of education of Kooskia.
Vigorous, alert, big of heart, and big of mind, Major Fenn is essentially one of the representative men of the state that has been his home for virtually his entire life, and in which his friends are equal in number to his acquaintances. Thoroughly informed in regard to the resources and advantages of Idaho he is one of the state's most enthusiastic exploiters, and his admiration for the manifold scenic attractions of this favored commonwealth has been heightened through his many exploring expeditions in the beautiful mountains and valleys, with many of which he thus became familiar in his youthful days and when Idaho still was on the verge of civilization.
"On the 16th of December, 1877, in Whitman County, Washington, was solemnized the marriage of Major Fenn to Miss Florence E. Holbrook, daughter of Russell and Margaret K. Holbrook, honored pioneers of that county, Mrs. Fenn having been born at Hillsboro, Washington County, Oregon. The five children of this union are Frederick Danner, Spokane, Washington; Homer Eugene, Ogden, Utah; Lloyd Alfred, Orofino, Idaho; Rhoda Margaret, now Mrs. W. B. Willey, St. Maries, Idaho; Florence Allene, now Mrs. F. E. Quist, Kposkia, Idaho.
"The experiences of Major Fenn included valiant service in the Nez Perces Indian war, in which he participated in the Idaho campaign. In a reminiscent way, he has referred to one of the most pleasant incidents of his career, the same having been in connection with his service as speaker of the first house of representatives of the state legislature. He was called upon to decide a very technical point of parliamentary law. In a strictly partisan contest in the house, he failed of requisite support on the part of his Republican colleagues, who were in the majority.
The lamented Hon. Frank Steunenberg, who later met his death by assassination while serving as governor of Idaho, was at that time a member of the lower house of the legislature, and though he was a staunch Democrat, he recognized with all of the promptitude the correctness of the stand taken by the speaker, and, with his characteristically keen and intense sense of justice, he abandoned for the nonce his partisanship and sustained the ruling of the speaker of the house.
Afterward, there existed between Governor Steunenberg and Major Fenn a most cordial and loyal friendship, and the Major ever speaks with a deep appreciation of the support thus given him in his official stand by Governor Steunenberg, whose name, is written largely in the annals of Idaho history, where his memory shall ever be revered".
History of Idaho: a narrative account of its historical progress. Volume 3 by Hiram Taylor French (1914)
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Idaho Early History
By Major Frank A. Fenn
An Emigrant's Experience
None but those who experienced the trials of a trip by wagon over the old emigrant road across the plains can realize what was endured by the Argonauts of the early 1850s.
Mrs. Rhoda M. Fenn was one of the pioneer women of Idaho County. With her husband, Stephen S. Fenn, and four children she arrived in Florence late in June 1862, from California whither she emigrated from Iowa ten years before.
Leaving his wife in Dubuque, Iowa to follow him when he had prepared a new home for her in the land of golden promise. Mr. Fenn crossed the plains to California early in 1850. In August of that year, Mrs. Fenn became the mother of a daughter, Clara J. Fenn.
After two years of anxious and expectant waiting, the young mother with her baby girl joined an emigrant train destined for Nevada County, California, where, at Jefferson Bar on the South Yuba River, the new home had been made ready.
The train which was under the direction of Captain M.A. Singleton was composed of some 70 persons. Mrs. Fenn was the only woman in the party but, with her babe in arms, she braved the hazards of the perilous trip through the then wilderness from the Missouri river almost to the Pacific. She was typical of the splendid frontier women who indelibly impressed their characteristics of courage and fortitude upon the population of the entire west.
Council Bluffs was the point of departure for Iowa emigrants. To get there was but a preparatory step which might be retraced, beyond there the course led ever to the westward, there was no turning back. To him who looked longingly toward the New Eldorado, the Missouri river was the Rubicon.
The Singleton train left Council Bluffs in May 1852, the year which is recorded in emigrant annals as the "cholera year". Nothing beyond the usual brushes with Indians occurred to the train until it was well out on the Platte Valley, and then, on the night of June 20, cholera came upon it. Several persons were stricken but that first night none but little Clara succumbed. Early in the morning the mother saw the remains of her only child placed in a rude feed box, which had been detached from the back end of one of the wagons, and buried with scant ceremony beside the road whose course during that frightful year was clearly defined through the fatal Platte Valley by the way-side mounds that registered the awful toll exacted from the multitude whom the lure of gold tempted into the western wilds.
To escape the deadly scourge of the valley the train was forced to hurry on and on ever westward, the length of the marches limited only by the endurance of the teams. Death itself was not permitted to retard the flight for life. The dead were hurriedly buried in shallow graves with only the mournful howl of the prairie wolf as a requiem, and the train moved on. While the bereaved mother stood leaning against the wheel of a wagon and looking in mute agony at the newly made grave of her loved one. E.S. Jewette, a member of the company, sat up there a little headboard, a strip plank, on which was inscribed "Clara J. Fenn, aged 1 year and 10 mos", and at the same time placed in the mourner's hand a slip of paper on which was written the following:
"How oft the tenderest tie is broken,
How oft the parting tear must flow,
The words of friendship scarce are spoken,
Ere those are gone we love below,
Like suns, they rise and all is bright,
Like suns they set and all is night.
To Mrs. Fenn, from E.S. Jewette."
Then the command "forward" was given the teams moved out and the lone and sorrowing woman turned from her own dead to minister as best she might to the living companions to whom Israel whispered the dread summons. She was not called but, spared for others' sake and after passing out of the valley of the shadow of death at last reached the California home for which she had endured so much. Very few even of her intimate friends ever heard from her the story of her tribulation there in the Valley of the Platte, but she always preserved the little slip of paper on which Jewette had written his sympathetic words, and when she passed on she left it as a precious heirloom in her family.
Estimable Idaho Pioneer Passed Away Sunday Evening
At His Home in Kooskia From Complications
Major F. A. Fenn, a highly esteemed Idaho pioneer, passed away last night at 11:30 o'clock at his Kooskia home from complications incident to advanced age. Major Fenn had been in failing health for more than a year but was about town and attended to his duties as editor of the Kooskia Mountaineer until late last week.
Major Fenn was born on Sept. 11, 1853, at Jefferson River, Nevada County, California, and in 1862 came to Idaho with his parents who located in Florence, then a thriving mining camp.
He attended the first public school in Idaho at the Florence camp and in 1865 or '66 the family removed to Lewiston where they resided for a good many years.
In the meantime, Major Fenn received an appointment to the Naval Academy and was in attendance when the Nez Perce Indian War broke out and he resigned to return to Idaho to assist the settlers in the defense of their homes.
In 1877, on Dec. 16, he was united in marriage with Miss Florence Holbrook, a daughter of a pioneer family of Whitman County, who survives him.
To this union were born three sons and two daughters, Lloyd Fenn, associated in the Kooskia Mountaineer and superintendent of the Kooskia schools; Homer Fenn, Sacramento; Fred Fenn, Los Angeles; Mrs. W. B. Willey, Great Falls, Mont., and Mrs. F. E. Quist, Kooskia.
Major Fenn was a member of the territorial Idaho legislature for three terms and served as speaker of the house for one term.
At the time of the Spanish-American War, he served the colors as captain of a company in the Philippines and for his splendid service was advanced to the rank of Major.
He was appointed to the U. S. Forest Service during the administration of the late President
Roosevelt retired from that service in 1919.
Mr. Fenn was one of the first Idaho citizens to take the lead in forest protection and reforestation policies and during his entire life has been an active agent in the promotion of development programs for the Central Idaho country, the state of Idaho, and the entire Northwest.
Major Fenn was known throughout the entire state for his sterling qualities of character. He was possessed of a very pleasing personality and through his wide activities had cultivated an acquaintance throughout the entire Northwest and enjoyed the very high esteem of all who knew him.
He was one of the first in central Idaho country to advance the proposal for highway construction connecting the Clearwater Valley and Montana, through Lolo Pass and during recent years had been closely identified with the movement that has secured allocations of forest service, state, and county monies in excess of 2,000,000. which had been sufficient for financing all but a little over 50 miles of the highway between Kooskia and Missoula. It had been one ambition of Major Fenn's later years to see the completion of this historic and much-needed highway and the liberal allocations secured have been of much satisfaction to him.
Major Fenn is survived by three brothers, in addition to immediate members of his family, they being George Fenn, Lewiston Orchards; and Warren and S. S. Fenn, of Spokane.
The funeral arrangements will not be made until the children at outside points have been heard from.
Lewiston Tribune Tuesday, June 21, 1927 pg. 8
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Frank A. Fenn, newspaper owner/editor, soldier, statesman, lawyer, and conservationist, was born September 11, 1853, in Jefferson, Nevada County, California.
His father had crossed the plains to the goldfields on the Yuba River in 1850, thence to the Salmon River, Florence area, in 1862.
Frank was one of seven children who attended the first public school in Idaho. After continuing his education in Lewiston and Walla Walla, he received an appointment to the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md, in 1869. Frank left the academy in 1872 to voyage off to foreign ports.
Frank returned to Idaho County to the ranch and teach school, which is what he was doing when the 1877 Nez Perce War broke out. He was appointed a first lieutenant in the Idaho militia and engaged in several noteworthy battles.
Lieutenant Fenn was with the volunteers that rescued the survivors of the Norton and Chamberlain families, who had been attacked by Indians in the middle of the night. John Chamberlain and his wife, with two children in a wagon loaded with household goods, had tried to make a run from Cottonwood to Mount Idaho. They prevailed on Ben Norton to go with them and about five miles from Grange Hall, (now Grangeville) the Indians caught up with the luckless party.
Writing about his part in the rescue, Lieutenant Fenn told of finding ten-year-old Hill Norton skulking through the tall grass, trying to get to the Grange Hall ahead of the Indians. Taking the boy to the hall, Fenn and two more volunteers headed out to find the rest of the party and do what they could for them.
Mrs. Norton was found under the wagon, shot through both legs, and helpless. Her husband was a few feet away, dead, and Lew Day and Joe Moore were in the wagon, wounded and near death. (They both died a few days later.)
Lieutenant Fenn was with Colonel Perry as a volunteer on his fateful and disastrous trip into Whitebird Canyon. Years later, as owner/editor of the newspaper, the Kooskia Mountaineer, he would write about an incident in which he could only watch as a grizzled old sergeant fell to the advancing Indians.
The name of F. A. Fenn is engraved on a monument dedicated to the memory of the "Brave Seventeen," a group of seventeen volunteers led by Captain D. B. Randall, who held off a much larger force of hostile Indians on July 5th, 1877.
On December 16, 1877, Frank Fenn married one of his students, Miss Florence E. Holbrook, daughter of Russell & Margaret (Rice) Holbrook, early day pioneers from Douglas County Oregon, and the Camas Prairie. Florence came to Idaho County with her parents during the Nez Perce Indian War of 1877 and helped mold bullets during the siege of Mt. Idaho. Florence was a member of "Women of Woodcraft".
The Fenns took up farming and raising their family five miles north of Mt. Idaho. During this time Mr. Fenn was postmaster at Mt. Idaho, Deputy District Court Clerk of Idaho County, and in 1886 he was chosen to represent the county in the Territorial legislature. He raised sheep in Whitebird until he sold out and was admitted to the Supreme Court in Boise to practice law. The Fenns resided in Boise from 1890 until 1901. In 1890 he was elected to the first state legislature and held the important position of Speaker of the House.
From April 1891 to 1896, he was Chief Clerk of the Idaho State Land Board, and in 1896 was elected to represent Ada County and was the only Republican in the entire legislature.
When the Spanish-American War broke out he offered his services and was appointed Captain of Company H, First Idaho Volunteers which took part in the Battle of Manila, August 13, 1899; Santa Ana, February 5, 1899; Colcocan, February 10-11, 1899. In September 1899, he received an honorable discharge as a Major and returned home to his family.
In June 1901, Major Fenn was appointed Superintendent of the U.S. Forest Reserves in Idaho and Montana. He was responsible for establishing the Forest Service in Clearwater country. He was admired and respected by his employees and the community. Pinchot called him "one of the very best forest officers the west has produced." Frank retired from this position in 1920.
Major Frank A. Fenn died June 20, 1927, at his home in Kooskia, leaving behind his wife Florence and their children, Fred of Los Angeles, California, Homer of Sacramento, California, Lloyd, who was superintendent of the Kooskia Public School, Rhoda of Great Falls, Montana and Allene Florence Quist of Kooskia.
Major Fenn left behind a legacy that endures to this day. He was one of the first to advance the proposal for a highway connecting the Clearwater Valley to Montana through Lolo Pass. After his retirement, he told reporters "The Lolo Pass Highway is my only hobby." He was the owner/editor of the Kooskia Mountaineer newspaper for a while. The house he built in Kooskia still stands and the interior has not changed much from the days when Florence Fenn lived there.
There is a mountain, a town, and several places in the region that bear his name and the names of some of his family. Fenn Ranger Station; Major Fenn Picnic Area on the Lochsa; Fenn Mountain is 8,021 ft and the highest of the Selway Crags in the Selway-Bitterroot wilderness; Florence Lake named for Mrs. Fenn; Lloyd Lake is named for their son, who was briefly a ranger and followed in his father's footsteps as a lawyer, politician, newspaper publisher and educator; when the trail through Jesse Pass and the Crags was completed in the early 1900s, Major Fenn took his family on a pack trip over the new trail. On reaching this large, unnamed creek, called it Rhoda Creek for his daughter, who thought it so beautiful; Friday Pass was named in 1917 after Lloyd Fenn, who was known as "Man Friday" by the Forest Service survey chief. Fenn Lakes was later renamed Kettle, Stove, and Pipe Lakes.
The Fenn family definitely left their mark on Idaho and that may be the reason why some old-timers call it "Major Fenn's Country."
Idaho County IDGenWeb Project 1997- Present-
Keeping Genealogy Free
=====
Maj. Frank A. Fenn.
It has been given to Major Fenn to uphold most fully the high prestige of a name that has been identified with Idaho history in a specially prominent and distinguished way, from the early pioneer era in the territory to the present days of opulent prosperity and progress. He has been a resident of Idaho since his boyhood days and has marked the passing years with large and worthy achievements and accomplishments such as would naturally be expected on the part of one of so marked ability, loyalty, and progressiveness as designate the man.
His career has been varied and interesting and he has been especially influential in public affairs in his home state, where he has thrice served as a member of the legislature, in which connection he had the distinction of being speaker of the house in the first general assembly after the admission of Idaho to the Union.
As a youth, he served in the United States Navy, and he was an officer of an Idaho volunteer regiment that took an active part in military operations in the Philippine islands incidental to the Spanish-American war, besides which he saw active service in the Nez Perces Indian war.
He is a representative member of the Idaho bar and attained definite precedence in the work of his profession, but since 1901 he has held the office of forest supervisor in the United States Forest Service in Idaho, a position in which he has accomplished the most effective work in protecting and conserving the magnificent forests of the state. Few citizens of Idaho are more widely known and none has a more secure place in popular confidence and esteem, so that it may readily be understood that there is all of the consistency in according to Major Fenn specific recognition in this history of Idaho.
"Maj. Frank Alfred Fenn was born at Jefferson (an early mining town on the South Yuba river, later washed out by hydraulic works), Nevada County, California, on the 11th of September, 1853, and is a son of Hon. Stephen S. and Rhoda M. (Gilman) Fenn, the former of whom were born in Connecticut and the latter in Vermont, both families having been founded in New England in the early colonial era of our national history.
Stephen S. Fenn came to the West as a young man, in 1844, and he was one of the intrepid argonauts who made their way to California soon after the discovery of gold in that state. There he established his home in 1850 as one of the pioneer gold-seekers of that great commonwealth, and there he continued to reside until 1862 when he came to that part of the territory of Washington now included in Idaho. (Idaho was not then known; the territory was created in 1863.)
He was among the first to exploit the gold mining industry in Idaho, lived up to the full tension of life on the frontier, and became one of the prominent and influential citizens of the territory, his noble and devoted wife sharing with him in the vicissitudes and deprivations incidental to pioneer life.
He also became one of the early law practitioners of the territory and was called upon to serve in various offices of public trust, the while he contributed in generous measure to the civic and material development of the territory and state, his death having occurred about two years after the admission of Idaho to the Union.
He was a dominating figure in the political affairs of the territory, as a staunch adherent of the Democratic party, and was twice elected as territorial delegate to the United States Congress, in which body his earnest efforts did much to foster the best interests of the embryonic commonwealth which he ably represented.
He served several terms as a member of the territorial legislature and also held other important office preferments which emphatically attested to the unqualified confidence and esteem in which he was held in the territory.
He was a man of exalted integrity and great intellectual power, was a natural leader in thought and action, and his name merits a prominent and enduring place on the roster of the honored pioneers of Idaho.
He was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and was a Universalist in belief, and his wife was a zealous member of the Baptist church.
Of their thirteen children four sons are now living, and Major Fenn, of this review, who was the third in order of birth, is the eldest of those surviving the honored parents.
Stephen S. Fenn was summoned to the life eternal in 1892, at the age of seventy-two years, and his remains were laid to rest in the cemetery at Blackfoot, Bingham county. His loved and devoted wife passed away in 1884, at the age of fifty-six years, and interment was made at Mount Idaho, in Idaho county.
The family home was first established at Florence, Idaho county, whence removal was made to Lewiston, Nez Perce county, in 1866, and Stephen S. Fenn was prominently identified with industrial development in various other parts of the state, the while he gained prominence as one of the able and pioneer representatives of the bar of the territory. His life was ordered upon a lofty plane and he had the strength of purpose, the indomitable will, the versatility inexpedient, and alert progressiveness which combine to make the ideal pioneer. His career was marked by the earnest and productive endeavor, by fidelity to every trust and by a high sense of stewardship so that the angle of his influence continues to widen in beneficence now that he has passed from the stage of his mortal activities, in the fullness of years and well-earned honors.
"Major Frank A. Fenn gained his rudimentary education in the public schools of California, under the conditions of the pioneer days, and was a lad of nine years at the time of the family removal to Idaho in 1862, about one year prior to the formation of the territorial government, so that he has witnessed the development of the commonwealth from the condition of a wild and thinly populated frontier region into one of the great and prosperous states of the Union.
He had the privilege of attending the first public school established in the territory, the same having been in Idaho county, and its teacher having been Miss Statira E. Robinson.
Thereafter he continued his studies in schools established at Lewiston, and in 1869 he received an appointment to a cadetship in the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. There he remained until the autumn of 1872, after which he passed three years in voyaging to the various foreign ports, having virtually circumnavigated the globe and has met with many interesting experiences, through which he gained a broad fund of information.
"In the spring of 1875, Major Fenn returned to Idaho and established his residence on an extensive ranch near Mount Idaho, Idaho county. He remained in that section of the state until 1891, and in connection with successful operations as a farmer and stock grower, he found requisition for his services in the pedagogic profession, in which he taught several terms in the local schools, besides which he served as a deputy in county offices.
He has ever been a stalwart and effective advocate of the principles and policies of the Republican party and early became influential in public affairs in Idaho county. In 1886 he was elected to represent his county in the territorial legislature, and he was likewise elected a member of the first state legislature, in which he served as speaker of the house. He had much to do with formulating and directing the basic legislation in the new commonwealth, proved an ablest and most popular presiding officer, and added new laurels to the honored name which he bears.
"In the spring of 1891 Major Fenn was appointed chief clerk of the newly established state board of land commissioners, and he thereupon removed to Boise, the capital of the new state. He retained this position until 1896, when he resigned, as he had been again elected a member of the legislature in the autumn of that year, as a representative of Ada county.
In the ensuing general assembly, he had the unique distinction of being the only Republican member of the assembly who advocated the gold standard, all other members of both house and senate have been in favor of the free silver policy. After the close of his term in the legislature, Major Fenn began the study of law, and he made most rapid and substantial progress in his absorption and assimilation of the science of jurisprudence, with the result that he was admitted to the bar of the state in 1897, becoming eligible for practice in all of the Idaho courts, both state and federal.
He became associated in practice with the well-known firm of Kingsbury & Parsons, of Boise, and successfully followed the work of his profession in the capital city until the inception of the Spanish-American war, when he subordinated all other interests to tender his services as a volunteer.
He was made captain of Company H, First Idaho Volunteer Infantry, and in the summer of 1898 accompanied his command to the Philippine Islands, where he took part in a number of engagements with the Spaniards and the insurrectos and was otherwise actively concerned in military operations. He returned with his regiment to San Francisco, and there was mustered out, with the rank of major, in September 1899. His continued interest in his former comrades in arms is indicated by his membership in the United Spanish American War Veterans' Association, in the affairs of which he takes a lively concern.
"After the close of his military career Major Fenn resumed the practice of his profession in Boise, and he thus continued his labors until 1900, when he was chosen chairman of the Republican state central committee. He showed great discrimination and ability in maneuvering the political forces at his command in the campaign of that year, and in 1901 he entered the government forest reserve service, which he has since continued and in which he holds the office of the forest supervisor.
Upon assuming this government post he removed from Boise to Kooskia, Idaho county, where he has since maintained his home and official headquarters. He still takes a lively interest in political affairs, but is not active in party work, owing to his holding office under the civil service regulations.
He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Modern Woodmen of America, and is liberal in his support of all religious denominations, without being formally identified with any church organization, his wife being a zealous member of the Christian church and a leader in the social life of her home community, where her circle of friends is coincident with that of her acquaintances.
Major Fenn is most liberal and public-spirited in his civic attitude, is ever ready to give practical co-operation in the furtherance of enterprises and policies tending to advance the social, moral, educational, and material welfare of the community, and he is at the present time giving most admirable service as president of the board of education of Kooskia.
Vigorous, alert, big of heart, and big of mind, Major Fenn is essentially one of the representative men of the state that has been his home for virtually his entire life, and in which his friends are equal in number to his acquaintances. Thoroughly informed in regard to the resources and advantages of Idaho he is one of the state's most enthusiastic exploiters, and his admiration for the manifold scenic attractions of this favored commonwealth has been heightened through his many exploring expeditions in the beautiful mountains and valleys, with many of which he thus became familiar in his youthful days and when Idaho still was on the verge of civilization.
"On the 16th of December, 1877, in Whitman County, Washington, was solemnized the marriage of Major Fenn to Miss Florence E. Holbrook, daughter of Russell and Margaret K. Holbrook, honored pioneers of that county, Mrs. Fenn having been born at Hillsboro, Washington County, Oregon. The five children of this union are Frederick Danner, Spokane, Washington; Homer Eugene, Ogden, Utah; Lloyd Alfred, Orofino, Idaho; Rhoda Margaret, now Mrs. W. B. Willey, St. Maries, Idaho; Florence Allene, now Mrs. F. E. Quist, Kposkia, Idaho.
"The experiences of Major Fenn included valiant service in the Nez Perces Indian war, in which he participated in the Idaho campaign. In a reminiscent way, he has referred to one of the most pleasant incidents of his career, the same having been in connection with his service as speaker of the first house of representatives of the state legislature. He was called upon to decide a very technical point of parliamentary law. In a strictly partisan contest in the house, he failed of requisite support on the part of his Republican colleagues, who were in the majority.
The lamented Hon. Frank Steunenberg, who later met his death by assassination while serving as governor of Idaho, was at that time a member of the lower house of the legislature, and though he was a staunch Democrat, he recognized with all of the promptitude the correctness of the stand taken by the speaker, and, with his characteristically keen and intense sense of justice, he abandoned for the nonce his partisanship and sustained the ruling of the speaker of the house.
Afterward, there existed between Governor Steunenberg and Major Fenn a most cordial and loyal friendship, and the Major ever speaks with a deep appreciation of the support thus given him in his official stand by Governor Steunenberg, whose name, is written largely in the annals of Idaho history, where his memory shall ever be revered".
History of Idaho: a narrative account of its historical progress. Volume 3 by Hiram Taylor French (1914)
==
Idaho Early History
By Major Frank A. Fenn
An Emigrant's Experience
None but those who experienced the trials of a trip by wagon over the old emigrant road across the plains can realize what was endured by the Argonauts of the early 1850s.
Mrs. Rhoda M. Fenn was one of the pioneer women of Idaho County. With her husband, Stephen S. Fenn, and four children she arrived in Florence late in June 1862, from California whither she emigrated from Iowa ten years before.
Leaving his wife in Dubuque, Iowa to follow him when he had prepared a new home for her in the land of golden promise. Mr. Fenn crossed the plains to California early in 1850. In August of that year, Mrs. Fenn became the mother of a daughter, Clara J. Fenn.
After two years of anxious and expectant waiting, the young mother with her baby girl joined an emigrant train destined for Nevada County, California, where, at Jefferson Bar on the South Yuba River, the new home had been made ready.
The train which was under the direction of Captain M.A. Singleton was composed of some 70 persons. Mrs. Fenn was the only woman in the party but, with her babe in arms, she braved the hazards of the perilous trip through the then wilderness from the Missouri river almost to the Pacific. She was typical of the splendid frontier women who indelibly impressed their characteristics of courage and fortitude upon the population of the entire west.
Council Bluffs was the point of departure for Iowa emigrants. To get there was but a preparatory step which might be retraced, beyond there the course led ever to the westward, there was no turning back. To him who looked longingly toward the New Eldorado, the Missouri river was the Rubicon.
The Singleton train left Council Bluffs in May 1852, the year which is recorded in emigrant annals as the "cholera year". Nothing beyond the usual brushes with Indians occurred to the train until it was well out on the Platte Valley, and then, on the night of June 20, cholera came upon it. Several persons were stricken but that first night none but little Clara succumbed. Early in the morning the mother saw the remains of her only child placed in a rude feed box, which had been detached from the back end of one of the wagons, and buried with scant ceremony beside the road whose course during that frightful year was clearly defined through the fatal Platte Valley by the way-side mounds that registered the awful toll exacted from the multitude whom the lure of gold tempted into the western wilds.
To escape the deadly scourge of the valley the train was forced to hurry on and on ever westward, the length of the marches limited only by the endurance of the teams. Death itself was not permitted to retard the flight for life. The dead were hurriedly buried in shallow graves with only the mournful howl of the prairie wolf as a requiem, and the train moved on. While the bereaved mother stood leaning against the wheel of a wagon and looking in mute agony at the newly made grave of her loved one. E.S. Jewette, a member of the company, sat up there a little headboard, a strip plank, on which was inscribed "Clara J. Fenn, aged 1 year and 10 mos", and at the same time placed in the mourner's hand a slip of paper on which was written the following:
"How oft the tenderest tie is broken,
How oft the parting tear must flow,
The words of friendship scarce are spoken,
Ere those are gone we love below,
Like suns, they rise and all is bright,
Like suns they set and all is night.
To Mrs. Fenn, from E.S. Jewette."
Then the command "forward" was given the teams moved out and the lone and sorrowing woman turned from her own dead to minister as best she might to the living companions to whom Israel whispered the dread summons. She was not called but, spared for others' sake and after passing out of the valley of the shadow of death at last reached the California home for which she had endured so much. Very few even of her intimate friends ever heard from her the story of her tribulation there in the Valley of the Platte, but she always preserved the little slip of paper on which Jewette had written his sympathetic words, and when she passed on she left it as a precious heirloom in her family.
MAJOR F. A. FENN DEAD
Estimable Idaho Pioneer Passed Away Sunday Evening
At His Home in Kooskia From Complications
Major F. A. Fenn, a highly esteemed Idaho pioneer, passed away last night at 11:30 o'clock at his Kooskia home from complications incident to advanced age. Major Fenn had been in failing health for more than a year but was about town and attended to his duties as editor of the Kooskia Mountaineer until late last week.
Major Fenn was born on Sept. 11, 1853, at Jefferson River, Nevada County, California, and in 1862 came to Idaho with his parents who located in Florence, then a thriving mining camp.
He attended the first public school in Idaho at the Florence camp and in 1865 or '66 the family removed to Lewiston where they resided for a good many years.
In the meantime, Major Fenn received an appointment to the Naval Academy and was in attendance when the Nez Perce Indian War broke out and he resigned to return to Idaho to assist the settlers in the defense of their homes.
In 1877, on Dec. 16, he was united in marriage with Miss Florence Holbrook, a daughter of a pioneer family of Whitman County, who survives him.
To this union were born three sons and two daughters, Lloyd Fenn, associated in the Kooskia Mountaineer and superintendent of the Kooskia schools; Homer Fenn, Sacramento; Fred Fenn, Los Angeles; Mrs. W. B. Willey, Great Falls, Mont., and Mrs. F. E. Quist, Kooskia.
Major Fenn was a member of the territorial Idaho legislature for three terms and served as speaker of the house for one term.
At the time of the Spanish-American War, he served the colors as captain of a company in the Philippines and for his splendid service was advanced to the rank of Major.
He was appointed to the U. S. Forest Service during the administration of the late President
Roosevelt retired from that service in 1919.
Mr. Fenn was one of the first Idaho citizens to take the lead in forest protection and reforestation policies and during his entire life has been an active agent in the promotion of development programs for the Central Idaho country, the state of Idaho, and the entire Northwest.
Major Fenn was known throughout the entire state for his sterling qualities of character. He was possessed of a very pleasing personality and through his wide activities had cultivated an acquaintance throughout the entire Northwest and enjoyed the very high esteem of all who knew him.
He was one of the first in central Idaho country to advance the proposal for highway construction connecting the Clearwater Valley and Montana, through Lolo Pass and during recent years had been closely identified with the movement that has secured allocations of forest service, state, and county monies in excess of 2,000,000. which had been sufficient for financing all but a little over 50 miles of the highway between Kooskia and Missoula. It had been one ambition of Major Fenn's later years to see the completion of this historic and much-needed highway and the liberal allocations secured have been of much satisfaction to him.
Major Fenn is survived by three brothers, in addition to immediate members of his family, they being George Fenn, Lewiston Orchards; and Warren and S. S. Fenn, of Spokane.
The funeral arrangements will not be made until the children at outside points have been heard from.
Lewiston Tribune Tuesday, June 21, 1927 pg. 8
==
Frank A. Fenn, newspaper owner/editor, soldier, statesman, lawyer, and conservationist, was born September 11, 1853, in Jefferson, Nevada County, California.
His father had crossed the plains to the goldfields on the Yuba River in 1850, thence to the Salmon River, Florence area, in 1862.
Frank was one of seven children who attended the first public school in Idaho. After continuing his education in Lewiston and Walla Walla, he received an appointment to the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md, in 1869. Frank left the academy in 1872 to voyage off to foreign ports.
Frank returned to Idaho County to the ranch and teach school, which is what he was doing when the 1877 Nez Perce War broke out. He was appointed a first lieutenant in the Idaho militia and engaged in several noteworthy battles.
Lieutenant Fenn was with the volunteers that rescued the survivors of the Norton and Chamberlain families, who had been attacked by Indians in the middle of the night. John Chamberlain and his wife, with two children in a wagon loaded with household goods, had tried to make a run from Cottonwood to Mount Idaho. They prevailed on Ben Norton to go with them and about five miles from Grange Hall, (now Grangeville) the Indians caught up with the luckless party.
Writing about his part in the rescue, Lieutenant Fenn told of finding ten-year-old Hill Norton skulking through the tall grass, trying to get to the Grange Hall ahead of the Indians. Taking the boy to the hall, Fenn and two more volunteers headed out to find the rest of the party and do what they could for them.
Mrs. Norton was found under the wagon, shot through both legs, and helpless. Her husband was a few feet away, dead, and Lew Day and Joe Moore were in the wagon, wounded and near death. (They both died a few days later.)
Lieutenant Fenn was with Colonel Perry as a volunteer on his fateful and disastrous trip into Whitebird Canyon. Years later, as owner/editor of the newspaper, the Kooskia Mountaineer, he would write about an incident in which he could only watch as a grizzled old sergeant fell to the advancing Indians.
The name of F. A. Fenn is engraved on a monument dedicated to the memory of the "Brave Seventeen," a group of seventeen volunteers led by Captain D. B. Randall, who held off a much larger force of hostile Indians on July 5th, 1877.
On December 16, 1877, Frank Fenn married one of his students, Miss Florence E. Holbrook, daughter of Russell & Margaret (Rice) Holbrook, early day pioneers from Douglas County Oregon, and the Camas Prairie. Florence came to Idaho County with her parents during the Nez Perce Indian War of 1877 and helped mold bullets during the siege of Mt. Idaho. Florence was a member of "Women of Woodcraft".
The Fenns took up farming and raising their family five miles north of Mt. Idaho. During this time Mr. Fenn was postmaster at Mt. Idaho, Deputy District Court Clerk of Idaho County, and in 1886 he was chosen to represent the county in the Territorial legislature. He raised sheep in Whitebird until he sold out and was admitted to the Supreme Court in Boise to practice law. The Fenns resided in Boise from 1890 until 1901. In 1890 he was elected to the first state legislature and held the important position of Speaker of the House.
From April 1891 to 1896, he was Chief Clerk of the Idaho State Land Board, and in 1896 was elected to represent Ada County and was the only Republican in the entire legislature.
When the Spanish-American War broke out he offered his services and was appointed Captain of Company H, First Idaho Volunteers which took part in the Battle of Manila, August 13, 1899; Santa Ana, February 5, 1899; Colcocan, February 10-11, 1899. In September 1899, he received an honorable discharge as a Major and returned home to his family.
In June 1901, Major Fenn was appointed Superintendent of the U.S. Forest Reserves in Idaho and Montana. He was responsible for establishing the Forest Service in Clearwater country. He was admired and respected by his employees and the community. Pinchot called him "one of the very best forest officers the west has produced." Frank retired from this position in 1920.
Major Frank A. Fenn died June 20, 1927, at his home in Kooskia, leaving behind his wife Florence and their children, Fred of Los Angeles, California, Homer of Sacramento, California, Lloyd, who was superintendent of the Kooskia Public School, Rhoda of Great Falls, Montana and Allene Florence Quist of Kooskia.
Major Fenn left behind a legacy that endures to this day. He was one of the first to advance the proposal for a highway connecting the Clearwater Valley to Montana through Lolo Pass. After his retirement, he told reporters "The Lolo Pass Highway is my only hobby." He was the owner/editor of the Kooskia Mountaineer newspaper for a while. The house he built in Kooskia still stands and the interior has not changed much from the days when Florence Fenn lived there.
There is a mountain, a town, and several places in the region that bear his name and the names of some of his family. Fenn Ranger Station; Major Fenn Picnic Area on the Lochsa; Fenn Mountain is 8,021 ft and the highest of the Selway Crags in the Selway-Bitterroot wilderness; Florence Lake named for Mrs. Fenn; Lloyd Lake is named for their son, who was briefly a ranger and followed in his father's footsteps as a lawyer, politician, newspaper publisher and educator; when the trail through Jesse Pass and the Crags was completed in the early 1900s, Major Fenn took his family on a pack trip over the new trail. On reaching this large, unnamed creek, called it Rhoda Creek for his daughter, who thought it so beautiful; Friday Pass was named in 1917 after Lloyd Fenn, who was known as "Man Friday" by the Forest Service survey chief. Fenn Lakes was later renamed Kettle, Stove, and Pipe Lakes.
The Fenn family definitely left their mark on Idaho and that may be the reason why some old-timers call it "Major Fenn's Country."
Idaho County IDGenWeb Project 1997- Present-
Keeping Genealogy Free
=====
Maj. Frank A. Fenn.
It has been given to Major Fenn to uphold most fully the high prestige of a name that has been identified with Idaho history in a specially prominent and distinguished way, from the early pioneer era in the territory to the present days of opulent prosperity and progress. He has been a resident of Idaho since his boyhood days and has marked the passing years with large and worthy achievements and accomplishments such as would naturally be expected on the part of one of so marked ability, loyalty, and progressiveness as designate the man.
His career has been varied and interesting and he has been especially influential in public affairs in his home state, where he has thrice served as a member of the legislature, in which connection he had the distinction of being speaker of the house in the first general assembly after the admission of Idaho to the Union.
As a youth, he served in the United States Navy, and he was an officer of an Idaho volunteer regiment that took an active part in military operations in the Philippine islands incidental to the Spanish-American war, besides which he saw active service in the Nez Perces Indian war.
He is a representative member of the Idaho bar and attained definite precedence in the work of his profession, but since 1901 he has held the office of forest supervisor in the United States Forest Service in Idaho, a position in which he has accomplished the most effective work in protecting and conserving the magnificent forests of the state. Few citizens of Idaho are more widely known and none has a more secure place in popular confidence and esteem, so that it may readily be understood that there is all of the consistency in according to Major Fenn specific recognition in this history of Idaho.
"Maj. Frank Alfred Fenn was born at Jefferson (an early mining town on the South Yuba river, later washed out by hydraulic works), Nevada County, California, on the 11th of September, 1853, and is a son of Hon. Stephen S. and Rhoda M. (Gilman) Fenn, the former of whom were born in Connecticut and the latter in Vermont, both families having been founded in New England in the early colonial era of our national history.
Stephen S. Fenn came to the West as a young man, in 1844, and he was one of the intrepid argonauts who made their way to California soon after the discovery of gold in that state. There he established his home in 1850 as one of the pioneer gold-seekers of that great commonwealth, and there he continued to reside until 1862 when he came to that part of the territory of Washington now included in Idaho. (Idaho was not then known; the territory was created in 1863.)
He was among the first to exploit the gold mining industry in Idaho, lived up to the full tension of life on the frontier, and became one of the prominent and influential citizens of the territory, his noble and devoted wife sharing with him in the vicissitudes and deprivations incidental to pioneer life.
He also became one of the early law practitioners of the territory and was called upon to serve in various offices of public trust, the while he contributed in generous measure to the civic and material development of the territory and state, his death having occurred about two years after the admission of Idaho to the Union.
He was a dominating figure in the political affairs of the territory, as a staunch adherent of the Democratic party, and was twice elected as territorial delegate to the United States Congress, in which body his earnest efforts did much to foster the best interests of the embryonic commonwealth which he ably represented.
He served several terms as a member of the territorial legislature and also held other important office preferments which emphatically attested to the unqualified confidence and esteem in which he was held in the territory.
He was a man of exalted integrity and great intellectual power, was a natural leader in thought and action, and his name merits a prominent and enduring place on the roster of the honored pioneers of Idaho.
He was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and was a Universalist in belief, and his wife was a zealous member of the Baptist church.
Of their thirteen children four sons are now living, and Major Fenn, of this review, who was the third in order of birth, is the eldest of those surviving the honored parents.
Stephen S. Fenn was summoned to the life eternal in 1892, at the age of seventy-two years, and his remains were laid to rest in the cemetery at Blackfoot, Bingham county. His loved and devoted wife passed away in 1884, at the age of fifty-six years, and interment was made at Mount Idaho, in Idaho county.
The family home was first established at Florence, Idaho county, whence removal was made to Lewiston, Nez Perce county, in 1866, and Stephen S. Fenn was prominently identified with industrial development in various other parts of the state, the while he gained prominence as one of the able and pioneer representatives of the bar of the territory. His life was ordered upon a lofty plane and he had the strength of purpose, the indomitable will, the versatility inexpedient, and alert progressiveness which combine to make the ideal pioneer. His career was marked by the earnest and productive endeavor, by fidelity to every trust and by a high sense of stewardship so that the angle of his influence continues to widen in beneficence now that he has passed from the stage of his mortal activities, in the fullness of years and well-earned honors.
"Major Frank A. Fenn gained his rudimentary education in the public schools of California, under the conditions of the pioneer days, and was a lad of nine years at the time of the family removal to Idaho in 1862, about one year prior to the formation of the territorial government, so that he has witnessed the development of the commonwealth from the condition of a wild and thinly populated frontier region into one of the great and prosperous states of the Union.
He had the privilege of attending the first public school established in the territory, the same having been in Idaho county, and its teacher having been Miss Statira E. Robinson.
Thereafter he continued his studies in schools established at Lewiston, and in 1869 he received an appointment to a cadetship in the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. There he remained until the autumn of 1872, after which he passed three years in voyaging to the various foreign ports, having virtually circumnavigated the globe and has met with many interesting experiences, through which he gained a broad fund of information.
"In the spring of 1875, Major Fenn returned to Idaho and established his residence on an extensive ranch near Mount Idaho, Idaho county. He remained in that section of the state until 1891, and in connection with successful operations as a farmer and stock grower, he found requisition for his services in the pedagogic profession, in which he taught several terms in the local schools, besides which he served as a deputy in county offices.
He has ever been a stalwart and effective advocate of the principles and policies of the Republican party and early became influential in public affairs in Idaho county. In 1886 he was elected to represent his county in the territorial legislature, and he was likewise elected a member of the first state legislature, in which he served as speaker of the house. He had much to do with formulating and directing the basic legislation in the new commonwealth, proved an ablest and most popular presiding officer, and added new laurels to the honored name which he bears.
"In the spring of 1891 Major Fenn was appointed chief clerk of the newly established state board of land commissioners, and he thereupon removed to Boise, the capital of the new state. He retained this position until 1896, when he resigned, as he had been again elected a member of the legislature in the autumn of that year, as a representative of Ada county.
In the ensuing general assembly, he had the unique distinction of being the only Republican member of the assembly who advocated the gold standard, all other members of both house and senate have been in favor of the free silver policy. After the close of his term in the legislature, Major Fenn began the study of law, and he made most rapid and substantial progress in his absorption and assimilation of the science of jurisprudence, with the result that he was admitted to the bar of the state in 1897, becoming eligible for practice in all of the Idaho courts, both state and federal.
He became associated in practice with the well-known firm of Kingsbury & Parsons, of Boise, and successfully followed the work of his profession in the capital city until the inception of the Spanish-American war, when he subordinated all other interests to tender his services as a volunteer.
He was made captain of Company H, First Idaho Volunteer Infantry, and in the summer of 1898 accompanied his command to the Philippine Islands, where he took part in a number of engagements with the Spaniards and the insurrectos and was otherwise actively concerned in military operations. He returned with his regiment to San Francisco, and there was mustered out, with the rank of major, in September 1899. His continued interest in his former comrades in arms is indicated by his membership in the United Spanish American War Veterans' Association, in the affairs of which he takes a lively concern.
"After the close of his military career Major Fenn resumed the practice of his profession in Boise, and he thus continued his labors until 1900, when he was chosen chairman of the Republican state central committee. He showed great discrimination and ability in maneuvering the political forces at his command in the campaign of that year, and in 1901 he entered the government forest reserve service, which he has since continued and in which he holds the office of the forest supervisor.
Upon assuming this government post he removed from Boise to Kooskia, Idaho county, where he has since maintained his home and official headquarters. He still takes a lively interest in political affairs, but is not active in party work, owing to his holding office under the civil service regulations.
He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Modern Woodmen of America, and is liberal in his support of all religious denominations, without being formally identified with any church organization, his wife being a zealous member of the Christian church and a leader in the social life of her home community, where her circle of friends is coincident with that of her acquaintances.
Major Fenn is most liberal and public-spirited in his civic attitude, is ever ready to give practical co-operation in the furtherance of enterprises and policies tending to advance the social, moral, educational, and material welfare of the community, and he is at the present time giving most admirable service as president of the board of education of Kooskia.
Vigorous, alert, big of heart, and big of mind, Major Fenn is essentially one of the representative men of the state that has been his home for virtually his entire life, and in which his friends are equal in number to his acquaintances. Thoroughly informed in regard to the resources and advantages of Idaho he is one of the state's most enthusiastic exploiters, and his admiration for the manifold scenic attractions of this favored commonwealth has been heightened through his many exploring expeditions in the beautiful mountains and valleys, with many of which he thus became familiar in his youthful days and when Idaho still was on the verge of civilization.
"On the 16th of December, 1877, in Whitman County, Washington, was solemnized the marriage of Major Fenn to Miss Florence E. Holbrook, daughter of Russell and Margaret K. Holbrook, honored pioneers of that county, Mrs. Fenn having been born at Hillsboro, Washington County, Oregon. The five children of this union are Frederick Danner, Spokane, Washington; Homer Eugene, Ogden, Utah; Lloyd Alfred, Orofino, Idaho; Rhoda Margaret, now Mrs. W. B. Willey, St. Maries, Idaho; Florence Allene, now Mrs. F. E. Quist, Kposkia, Idaho.
"The experiences of Major Fenn included valiant service in the Nez Perces Indian war, in which he participated in the Idaho campaign. In a reminiscent way, he has referred to one of the most pleasant incidents of his career, the same having been in connection with his service as speaker of the first house of representatives of the state legislature. He was called upon to decide a very technical point of parliamentary law. In a strictly partisan contest in the house, he failed of requisite support on the part of his Republican colleagues, who were in the majority.
The lamented Hon. Frank Steunenberg, who later met his death by assassination while serving as governor of Idaho, was at that time a member of the lower house of the legislature, and though he was a staunch Democrat, he recognized with all of the promptitude the correctness of the stand taken by the speaker, and, with his characteristically keen and intense sense of justice, he abandoned for the nonce his partisanship and sustained the ruling of the speaker of the house.
Afterward, there existed between Governor Steunenberg and Major Fenn a most cordial and loyal friendship, and the Major ever speaks with a deep appreciation of the support thus given him in his official stand by Governor Steunenberg, whose name, is written largely in the annals of Idaho history, where his memory shall ever be revered".
History of Idaho: a narrative account of its historical progress. Volume 3 by Hiram Taylor French (1914)
==
Idaho Early History
By Major Frank A. Fenn
An Emigrant's Experience
None but those who experienced the trials of a trip by wagon over the old emigrant road across the plains can realize what was endured by the Argonauts of the early 1850s.
Mrs. Rhoda M. Fenn was one of the pioneer women of Idaho County. With her husband, Stephen S. Fenn, and four children she arrived in Florence late in June 1862, from California whither she emigrated from Iowa ten years before.
Leaving his wife in Dubuque, Iowa to follow him when he had prepared a new home for her in the land of golden promise. Mr. Fenn crossed the plains to California early in 1850. In August of that year, Mrs. Fenn became the mother of a daughter, Clara J. Fenn.
After two years of anxious and expectant waiting, the young mother with her baby girl joined an emigrant train destined for Nevada County, California, where, at Jefferson Bar on the South Yuba River, the new home had been made ready.
The train which was under the direction of Captain M.A. Singleton was composed of some 70 persons. Mrs. Fenn was the only woman in the party but, with her babe in arms, she braved the hazards of the perilous trip through the then wilderness from the Missouri river almost to the Pacific. She was typical of the splendid frontier women who indelibly impressed their characteristics of courage and fortitude upon the population of the entire west.
Council Bluffs was the point of departure for Iowa emigrants. To get there was but a preparatory step which might be retraced, beyond there the course led ever to the westward, there was no turning back. To him who looked longingly toward the New Eldorado, the Missouri river was the Rubicon.
The Singleton train left Council Bluffs in May 1852, the year which is recorded in emigrant annals as the "cholera year". Nothing beyond the usual brushes with Indians occurred to the train until it was well out on the Platte Valley, and then, on the night of June 20, cholera came upon it. Several persons were stricken but that first night none but little Clara succumbed. Early in the morning the mother saw the remains of her only child placed in a rude feed box, which had been detached from the back end of one of the wagons, and buried with scant ceremony beside the road whose course during that frightful year was clearly defined through the fatal Platte Valley by the way-side mounds that registered the awful toll exacted from the multitude whom the lure of gold tempted into the western wilds.
To escape the deadly scourge of the valley the train was forced to hurry on and on ever westward, the length of the marches limited only by the endurance of the teams. Death itself was not permitted to retard the flight for life. The dead were hurriedly buried in shallow graves with only the mournful howl of the prairie wolf as a requiem, and the train moved on. While the bereaved mother stood leaning against the wheel of a wagon and looking in mute agony at the newly made grave of her loved one. E.S. Jewette, a member of the company, sat up there a little headboard, a strip plank, on which was inscribed "Clara J. Fenn, aged 1 year and 10 mos", and at the same time placed in the mourner's hand a slip of paper on which was written the following:
"How oft the tenderest tie is broken,
How oft the parting tear must flow,
The words of friendship scarce are spoken,
Ere those are gone we love below,
Like suns, they rise and all is bright,
Like suns they set and all is night.
To Mrs. Fenn, from E.S. Jewette."
Then the command "forward" was given the teams moved out and the lone and sorrowing woman turned from her own dead to minister as best she might to the living companions to whom Israel whispered the dread summons. She was not called but, spared for others' sake and after passing out of the valley of the shadow of death at last reached the California home for which she had endured so much. Very few even of her intimate friends ever heard from her the story of her tribulation there in the Valley of the Platte, but she always preserved the little slip of paper on which Jewette had written his sympathetic words, and when she passed on she left it as a precious heirloom in her family.
Estimable Idaho Pioneer Passed Away Sunday Evening
At His Home in Kooskia From Complications
Major F. A. Fenn, a highly esteemed Idaho pioneer, passed away last night at 11:30 o'clock at his Kooskia home from complications incident to advanced age. Major Fenn had been in failing health for more than a year but was about town and attended to his duties as editor of the Kooskia Mountaineer until late last week.
Major Fenn was born on Sept. 11, 1853, at Jefferson River, Nevada County, California, and in 1862 came to Idaho with his parents who located in Florence, then a thriving mining camp.
He attended the first public school in Idaho at the Florence camp and in 1865 or '66 the family removed to Lewiston where they resided for a good many years.
In the meantime, Major Fenn received an appointment to the Naval Academy and was in attendance when the Nez Perce Indian War broke out and he resigned to return to Idaho to assist the settlers in the defense of their homes.
In 1877, on Dec. 16, he was united in marriage with Miss Florence Holbrook, a daughter of a pioneer family of Whitman County, who survives him.
To this union were born three sons and two daughters, Lloyd Fenn, associated in the Kooskia Mountaineer and superintendent of the Kooskia schools; Homer Fenn, Sacramento; Fred Fenn, Los Angeles; Mrs. W. B. Willey, Great Falls, Mont., and Mrs. F. E. Quist, Kooskia.
Major Fenn was a member of the territorial Idaho legislature for three terms and served as speaker of the house for one term.
At the time of the Spanish-American War, he served the colors as captain of a company in the Philippines and for his splendid service was advanced to the rank of Major.
He was appointed to the U. S. Forest Service during the administration of the late President
Roosevelt retired from that service in 1919.
Mr. Fenn was one of the first Idaho citizens to take the lead in forest protection and reforestation policies and during his entire life has been an active agent in the promotion of development programs for the Central Idaho country, the state of Idaho, and the entire Northwest.
Major Fenn was known throughout the entire state for his sterling qualities of character. He was possessed of a very pleasing personality and through his wide activities had cultivated an acquaintance throughout the entire Northwest and enjoyed the very high esteem of all who knew him.
He was one of the first in central Idaho country to advance the proposal for highway construction connecting the Clearwater Valley and Montana, through Lolo Pass and during recent years had been closely identified with the movement that has secured allocations of forest service, state, and county monies in excess of 2,000,000. which had been sufficient for financing all but a little over 50 miles of the highway between Kooskia and Missoula. It had been one ambition of Major Fenn's later years to see the completion of this historic and much-needed highway and the liberal allocations secured have been of much satisfaction to him.
Major Fenn is survived by three brothers, in addition to immediate members of his family, they being George Fenn, Lewiston Orchards; and Warren and S. S. Fenn, of Spokane.
The funeral arrangements will not be made until the children at outside points have been heard from.
Lewiston Tribune Tuesday, June 21, 1927 pg. 8
==
Frank A. Fenn, newspaper owner/editor, soldier, statesman, lawyer, and conservationist, was born September 11, 1853, in Jefferson, Nevada County, California.
His father had crossed the plains to the goldfields on the Yuba River in 1850, thence to the Salmon River, Florence area, in 1862.
Frank was one of seven children who attended the first public school in Idaho. After continuing his education in Lewiston and Walla Walla, he received an appointment to the U. S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md, in 1869. Frank left the academy in 1872 to voyage off to foreign ports.
Frank returned to Idaho County to the ranch and teach school, which is what he was doing when the 1877 Nez Perce War broke out. He was appointed a first lieutenant in the Idaho militia and engaged in several noteworthy battles.
Lieutenant Fenn was with the volunteers that rescued the survivors of the Norton and Chamberlain families, who had been attacked by Indians in the middle of the night. John Chamberlain and his wife, with two children in a wagon loaded with household goods, had tried to make a run from Cottonwood to Mount Idaho. They prevailed on Ben Norton to go with them and about five miles from Grange Hall, (now Grangeville) the Indians caught up with the luckless party.
Writing about his part in the rescue, Lieutenant Fenn told of finding ten-year-old Hill Norton skulking through the tall grass, trying to get to the Grange Hall ahead of the Indians. Taking the boy to the hall, Fenn and two more volunteers headed out to find the rest of the party and do what they could for them.
Mrs. Norton was found under the wagon, shot through both legs, and helpless. Her husband was a few feet away, dead, and Lew Day and Joe Moore were in the wagon, wounded and near death. (They both died a few days later.)
Lieutenant Fenn was with Colonel Perry as a volunteer on his fateful and disastrous trip into Whitebird Canyon. Years later, as owner/editor of the newspaper, the Kooskia Mountaineer, he would write about an incident in which he could only watch as a grizzled old sergeant fell to the advancing Indians.
The name of F. A. Fenn is engraved on a monument dedicated to the memory of the "Brave Seventeen," a group of seventeen volunteers led by Captain D. B. Randall, who held off a much larger force of hostile Indians on July 5th, 1877.
On December 16, 1877, Frank Fenn married one of his students, Miss Florence E. Holbrook, daughter of Russell & Margaret (Rice) Holbrook, early day pioneers from Douglas County Oregon, and the Camas Prairie. Florence came to Idaho County with her parents during the Nez Perce Indian War of 1877 and helped mold bullets during the siege of Mt. Idaho. Florence was a member of "Women of Woodcraft".
The Fenns took up farming and raising their family five miles north of Mt. Idaho. During this time Mr. Fenn was postmaster at Mt. Idaho, Deputy District Court Clerk of Idaho County, and in 1886 he was chosen to represent the county in the Territorial legislature. He raised sheep in Whitebird until he sold out and was admitted to the Supreme Court in Boise to practice law. The Fenns resided in Boise from 1890 until 1901. In 1890 he was elected to the first state legislature and held the important position of Speaker of the House.
From April 1891 to 1896, he was Chief Clerk of the Idaho State Land Board, and in 1896 was elected to represent Ada County and was the only Republican in the entire legislature.
When the Spanish-American War broke out he offered his services and was appointed Captain of Company H, First Idaho Volunteers which took part in the Battle of Manila, August 13, 1899; Santa Ana, February 5, 1899; Colcocan, February 10-11, 1899. In September 1899, he received an honorable discharge as a Major and returned home to his family.
In June 1901, Major Fenn was appointed Superintendent of the U.S. Forest Reserves in Idaho and Montana. He was responsible for establishing the Forest Service in Clearwater country. He was admired and respected by his employees and the community. Pinchot called him "one of the very best forest officers the west has produced." Frank retired from this position in 1920.
Major Frank A. Fenn died June 20, 1927, at his home in Kooskia, leaving behind his wife Florence and their children, Fred of Los Angeles, California, Homer of Sacramento, California, Lloyd, who was superintendent of the Kooskia Public School, Rhoda of Great Falls, Montana and Allene Florence Quist of Kooskia.
Major Fenn left behind a legacy that endures to this day. He was one of the first to advance the proposal for a highway connecting the Clearwater Valley to Montana through Lolo Pass. After his retirement, he told reporters "The Lolo Pass Highway is my only hobby." He was the owner/editor of the Kooskia Mountaineer newspaper for a while. The house he built in Kooskia still stands and the interior has not changed much from the days when Florence Fenn lived there.
There is a mountain, a town, and several places in the region that bear his name and the names of some of his family. Fenn Ranger Station; Major Fenn Picnic Area on the Lochsa; Fenn Mountain is 8,021 ft and the highest of the Selway Crags in the Selway-Bitterroot wilderness; Florence Lake named for Mrs. Fenn; Lloyd Lake is named for their son, who was briefly a ranger and followed in his father's footsteps as a lawyer, politician, newspaper publisher and educator; when the trail through Jesse Pass and the Crags was completed in the early 1900s, Major Fenn took his family on a pack trip over the new trail. On reaching this large, unnamed creek, called it Rhoda Creek for his daughter, who thought it so beautiful; Friday Pass was named in 1917 after Lloyd Fenn, who was known as "Man Friday" by the Forest Service survey chief. Fenn Lakes was later renamed Kettle, Stove, and Pipe Lakes.
The Fenn family definitely left their mark on Idaho and that may be the reason why some old-timers call it "Major Fenn's Country."
Idaho County IDGenWeb Project 1997- Present-
Keeping Genealogy Free
=====
Maj. Frank A. Fenn.
It has been given to Major Fenn to uphold most fully the high prestige of a name that has been identified with Idaho history in a specially prominent and distinguished way, from the early pioneer era in the territory to the present days of opulent prosperity and progress. He has been a resident of Idaho since his boyhood days and has marked the passing years with large and worthy achievements and accomplishments such as would naturally be expected on the part of one of so marked ability, loyalty, and progressiveness as designate the man.
His career has been varied and interesting and he has been especially influential in public affairs in his home state, where he has thrice served as a member of the legislature, in which connection he had the distinction of being speaker of the house in the first general assembly after the admission of Idaho to the Union.
As a youth, he served in the United States Navy, and he was an officer of an Idaho volunteer regiment that took an active part in military operations in the Philippine islands incidental to the Spanish-American war, besides which he saw active service in the Nez Perces Indian war.
He is a representative member of the Idaho bar and attained definite precedence in the work of his profession, but since 1901 he has held the office of forest supervisor in the United States Forest Service in Idaho, a position in which he has accomplished the most effective work in protecting and conserving the magnificent forests of the state. Few citizens of Idaho are more widely known and none has a more secure place in popular confidence and esteem, so that it may readily be understood that there is all of the consistency in according to Major Fenn specific recognition in this history of Idaho.
"Maj. Frank Alfred Fenn was born at Jefferson (an early mining town on the South Yuba river, later washed out by hydraulic works), Nevada County, California, on the 11th of September, 1853, and is a son of Hon. Stephen S. and Rhoda M. (Gilman) Fenn, the former of whom were born in Connecticut and the latter in Vermont, both families having been founded in New England in the early colonial era of our national history.
Stephen S. Fenn came to the West as a young man, in 1844, and he was one of the intrepid argonauts who made their way to California soon after the discovery of gold in that state. There he established his home in 1850 as one of the pioneer gold-seekers of that great commonwealth, and there he continued to reside until 1862 when he came to that part of the territory of Washington now included in Idaho. (Idaho was not then known; the territory was created in 1863.)
He was among the first to exploit the gold mining industry in Idaho, lived up to the full tension of life on the frontier, and became one of the prominent and influential citizens of the territory, his noble and devoted wife sharing with him in the vicissitudes and deprivations incidental to pioneer life.
He also became one of the early law practitioners of the territory and was called upon to serve in various offices of public trust, the while he contributed in generous measure to the civic and material development of the territory and state, his death having occurred about two years after the admission of Idaho to the Union.
He was a dominating figure in the political affairs of the territory, as a staunch adherent of the Democratic party, and was twice elected as territorial delegate to the United States Congress, in which body his earnest efforts did much to foster the best interests of the embryonic commonwealth which he ably represented.
He served several terms as a member of the territorial legislature and also held other important office preferments which emphatically attested to the unqualified confidence and esteem in which he was held in the territory.
He was a man of exalted integrity and great intellectual power, was a natural leader in thought and action, and his name merits a prominent and enduring place on the roster of the honored pioneers of Idaho.
He was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and was a Universalist in belief, and his wife was a zealous member of the Baptist church.
Of their thirteen children four sons are now living, and Major Fenn, of this review, who was the third in order of birth, is the eldest of those surviving the honored parents.
Stephen S. Fenn was summoned to the life eternal in 1892, at the age of seventy-two years, and his remains were laid to rest in the cemetery at Blackfoot, Bingham county. His loved and devoted wife passed away in 1884, at the age of fifty-six years, and interment was made at Mount Idaho, in Idaho county.
The family home was first established at Florence, Idaho county, whence removal was made to Lewiston, Nez Perce county, in 1866, and Stephen S. Fenn was prominently identified with industrial development in various other parts of the state, the while he gained prominence as one of the able and pioneer representatives of the bar of the territory. His life was ordered upon a lofty plane and he had the strength of purpose, the indomitable will, the versatility inexpedient, and alert progressiveness which combine to make the ideal pioneer. His career was marked by the earnest and productive endeavor, by fidelity to every trust and by a high sense of stewardship so that the angle of his influence continues to widen in beneficence now that he has passed from the stage of his mortal activities, in the fullness of years and well-earned honors.
"Major Frank A. Fenn gained his rudimentary education in the public schools of California, under the conditions of the pioneer days, and was a lad of nine years at the time of the family removal to Idaho in 1862, about one year prior to the formation of the territorial government, so that he has witnessed the development of the commonwealth from the condition of a wild and thinly populated frontier region into one of the great and prosperous states of the Union.
He had the privilege of attending the first public school established in the territory, the same having been in Idaho county, and its teacher having been Miss Statira E. Robinson.
Thereafter he continued his studies in schools established at Lewiston, and in 1869 he received an appointment to a cadetship in the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. There he remained until the autumn of 1872, after which he passed three years in voyaging to the various foreign ports, having virtually circumnavigated the globe and has met with many interesting experiences, through which he gained a broad fund of information.
"In the spring of 1875, Major Fenn returned to Idaho and established his residence on an extensive ranch near Mount Idaho, Idaho county. He remained in that section of the state until 1891, and in connection with successful operations as a farmer and stock grower, he found requisition for his services in the pedagogic profession, in which he taught several terms in the local schools, besides which he served as a deputy in county offices.
He has ever been a stalwart and effective advocate of the principles and policies of the Republican party and early became influential in public affairs in Idaho county. In 1886 he was elected to represent his county in the territorial legislature, and he was likewise elected a member of the first state legislature, in which he served as speaker of the house. He had much to do with formulating and directing the basic legislation in the new commonwealth, proved an ablest and most popular presiding officer, and added new laurels to the honored name which he bears.
"In the spring of 1891 Major Fenn was appointed chief clerk of the newly established state board of land commissioners, and he thereupon removed to Boise, the capital of the new state. He retained this position until 1896, when he resigned, as he had been again elected a member of the legislature in the autumn of that year, as a representative of Ada county.
In the ensuing general assembly, he had the unique distinction of being the only Republican member of the assembly who advocated the gold standard, all other members of both house and senate have been in favor of the free silver policy. After the close of his term in the legislature, Major Fenn began the study of law, and he made most rapid and substantial progress in his absorption and assimilation of the science of jurisprudence, with the result that he was admitted to the bar of the state in 1897, becoming eligible for practice in all of the Idaho courts, both state and federal.
He became associated in practice with the well-known firm of Kingsbury & Parsons, of Boise, and successfully followed the work of his profession in the capital city until the inception of the Spanish-American war, when he subordinated all other interests to tender his services as a volunteer.
He was made captain of Company H, First Idaho Volunteer Infantry, and in the summer of 1898 accompanied his command to the Philippine Islands, where he took part in a number of engagements with the Spaniards and the insurrectos and was otherwise actively concerned in military operations. He returned with his regiment to San Francisco, and there was mustered out, with the rank of major, in September 1899. His continued interest in his former comrades in arms is indicated by his membership in the United Spanish American War Veterans' Association, in the affairs of which he takes a lively concern.
"After the close of his military career Major Fenn resumed the practice of his profession in Boise, and he thus continued his labors until 1900, when he was chosen chairman of the Republican state central committee. He showed great discrimination and ability in maneuvering the political forces at his command in the campaign of that year, and in 1901 he entered the government forest reserve service, which he has since continued and in which he holds the office of the forest supervisor.
Upon assuming this government post he removed from Boise to Kooskia, Idaho county, where he has since maintained his home and official headquarters. He still takes a lively interest in political affairs, but is not active in party work, owing to his holding office under the civil service regulations.
He is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the Modern Woodmen of America, and is liberal in his support of all religious denominations, without being formally identified with any church organization, his wife being a zealous member of the Christian church and a leader in the social life of her home community, where her circle of friends is coincident with that of her acquaintances.
Major Fenn is most liberal and public-spirited in his civic attitude, is ever ready to give practical co-operation in the furtherance of enterprises and policies tending to advance the social, moral, educational, and material welfare of the community, and he is at the present time giving most admirable service as president of the board of education of Kooskia.
Vigorous, alert, big of heart, and big of mind, Major Fenn is essentially one of the representative men of the state that has been his home for virtually his entire life, and in which his friends are equal in number to his acquaintances. Thoroughly informed in regard to the resources and advantages of Idaho he is one of the state's most enthusiastic exploiters, and his admiration for the manifold scenic attractions of this favored commonwealth has been heightened through his many exploring expeditions in the beautiful mountains and valleys, with many of which he thus became familiar in his youthful days and when Idaho still was on the verge of civilization.
"On the 16th of December, 1877, in Whitman County, Washington, was solemnized the marriage of Major Fenn to Miss Florence E. Holbrook, daughter of Russell and Margaret K. Holbrook, honored pioneers of that county, Mrs. Fenn having been born at Hillsboro, Washington County, Oregon. The five children of this union are Frederick Danner, Spokane, Washington; Homer Eugene, Ogden, Utah; Lloyd Alfred, Orofino, Idaho; Rhoda Margaret, now Mrs. W. B. Willey, St. Maries, Idaho; Florence Allene, now Mrs. F. E. Quist, Kposkia, Idaho.
"The experiences of Major Fenn included valiant service in the Nez Perces Indian war, in which he participated in the Idaho campaign. In a reminiscent way, he has referred to one of the most pleasant incidents of his career, the same having been in connection with his service as speaker of the first house of representatives of the state legislature. He was called upon to decide a very technical point of parliamentary law. In a strictly partisan contest in the house, he failed of requisite support on the part of his Republican colleagues, who were in the majority.
The lamented Hon. Frank Steunenberg, who later met his death by assassination while serving as governor of Idaho, was at that time a member of the lower house of the legislature, and though he was a staunch Democrat, he recognized with all of the promptitude the correctness of the stand taken by the speaker, and, with his characteristically keen and intense sense of justice, he abandoned for the nonce his partisanship and sustained the ruling of the speaker of the house.
Afterward, there existed between Governor Steunenberg and Major Fenn a most cordial and loyal friendship, and the Major ever speaks with a deep appreciation of the support thus given him in his official stand by Governor Steunenberg, whose name, is written largely in the annals of Idaho history, where his memory shall ever be revered".
History of Idaho: a narrative account of its historical progress. Volume 3 by Hiram Taylor French (1914)
==
Idaho Early History
By Major Frank A. Fenn
An Emigrant's Experience
None but those who experienced the trials of a trip by wagon over the old emigrant road across the plains can realize what was endured by the Argonauts of the early 1850s.
Mrs. Rhoda M. Fenn was one of the pioneer women of Idaho County. With her husband, Stephen S. Fenn, and four children she arrived in Florence late in June 1862, from California whither she emigrated from Iowa ten years before.
Leaving his wife in Dubuque, Iowa to follow him when he had prepared a new home for her in the land of golden promise. Mr. Fenn crossed the plains to California early in 1850. In August of that year, Mrs. Fenn became the mother of a daughter, Clara J. Fenn.
After two years of anxious and expectant waiting, the young mother with her baby girl joined an emigrant train destined for Nevada County, California, where, at Jefferson Bar on the South Yuba River, the new home had been made ready.
The train which was under the direction of Captain M.A. Singleton was composed of some 70 persons. Mrs. Fenn was the only woman in the party but, with her babe in arms, she braved the hazards of the perilous trip through the then wilderness from the Missouri river almost to the Pacific. She was typical of the splendid frontier women who indelibly impressed their characteristics of courage and fortitude upon the population of the entire west.
Council Bluffs was the point of departure for Iowa emigrants. To get there was but a preparatory step which might be retraced, beyond there the course led ever to the westward, there was no turning back. To him who looked longingly toward the New Eldorado, the Missouri river was the Rubicon.
The Singleton train left Council Bluffs in May 1852, the year which is recorded in emigrant annals as the "cholera year". Nothing beyond the usual brushes with Indians occurred to the train until it was well out on the Platte Valley, and then, on the night of June 20, cholera came upon it. Several persons were stricken but that first night none but little Clara succumbed. Early in the morning the mother saw the remains of her only child placed in a rude feed box, which had been detached from the back end of one of the wagons, and buried with scant ceremony beside the road whose course during that frightful year was clearly defined through the fatal Platte Valley by the way-side mounds that registered the awful toll exacted from the multitude whom the lure of gold tempted into the western wilds.
To escape the deadly scourge of the valley the train was forced to hurry on and on ever westward, the length of the marches limited only by the endurance of the teams. Death itself was not permitted to retard the flight for life. The dead were hurriedly buried in shallow graves with only the mournful howl of the prairie wolf as a requiem, and the train moved on. While the bereaved mother stood leaning against the wheel of a wagon and looking in mute agony at the newly made grave of her loved one. E.S. Jewette, a member of the company, sat up there a little headboard, a strip plank, on which was inscribed "Clara J. Fenn, aged 1 year and 10 mos", and at the same time placed in the mourner's hand a slip of paper on which was written the following:
"How oft the tenderest tie is broken,
How oft the parting tear must flow,
The words of friendship scarce are spoken,
Ere those are gone we love below,
Like suns, they rise and all is bright,
Like suns they set and all is night.
To Mrs. Fenn, from E.S. Jewette."
Then the command "forward" was given the teams moved out and the lone and sorrowing woman turned from her own dead to minister as best she might to the living companions to whom Israel whispered the dread summons. She was not called but, spared for others' sake and after passing out of the valley of the shadow of death at last reached the California home for which she had endured so much. Very few even of her intimate friends ever heard from her the story of her tribulation there in the Valley of the Platte, but she always preserved the little slip of paper on which Jewette had written his sympathetic words, and when she passed on she left it as a precious heirloom in her family.
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