Boise County ID Archives Biographies.....Carpenter, John R. 1846 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 January 12, 2012, 1:18 am

Source: See below
Author: S. J. Clarke, Publisher

    JOHN R. CARPENTER lives at Eagle, Ada county. His memory forms a connecting
link between the primitive past and the progressive present. There is perhaps no
resident of Idaho who has been more closely associated with pioneer events nor
who has experienced greater hardships and privations in pioneer days than he.
There is no phase of the state's development and upbuilding with which he is not
familiar and he rejoices to see the point of progress to which Idaho has
attained. Mr. Carpenter was born in the state of New York, between Schenectady
and Albany, on the 26th of March, 1846, and in 1859 he crossed the plains with
an ox team in company with his father, John Carpenter, who located in Scott's
valley, Siskiyou county, California. The mother, who bore the maiden name of
Mary S. Mallems, was a native of England and made the trip around Cape Horn in a
sailing vessel to San Francisco, California, joining her husband at Yreka, that
state, crossing the mountains by pack train from San Francisco. It was the
intention of the father when he started for the west to go to Pike's Peak,
Colorado, and all the money he had was thirty-five dollars. While en route,
however, he changed his plans and returned to the Platte river, where he traded
his horses for oxen and then went to California. When he was crossing the plains
the Indians tried to induce him to trade his son, John R., for buffalo robes.
The Indians were very hostile at that time and the wagon train preceding and the
one following the train with which the Carpenters traveled suffered the loss of
several of their party, who were killed by the red men. The train with which the
Carpenters traveled, however, journeyed mostly by night and in that way evaded
the Indians. However, much of their stock was stolen. 

    The winter of 1860 was spent by father and son in mining on Indian creek in
Scott's valley. They then went down the south side of Scott's river and for two
seasons engaged in ranching on the old Shores ranch, while in 1862 they removed
to Auburn, Oregon, where they spent the winter in mining. While there residing
their home was next to a saloon in which two men were killed by a Spaniard, who
was afterward lynched and dragged by the neck for several hundred yards, then
hanged to a tree. In the spring of 1863 the Carpenter family came to Idaho,
traveling by ox team to Idaho City but not by the route used at present. John R.
Carpenter drove the third wagon of the first three ox teams that entered Idaho
City, each wagon being drawn by four yoke of oxen. John R. Carpenter has seen as
many as four dead men in the streets of Idaho City at one time. While there his
father became ill of mountain fever and the son took the ox team and hauled logs
and shakes to be used in erecting buildings in Idaho City. He made eight hundred
dollars in this way in a month. In the fall of the same year he and his father
started for Umatilla Landing, Oregon, in order to secure their supplies for the
winter, carrying with them the eight hundred dollars which the son had earned.
But when they were encamped for the night at Placerville, Idaho, they were set
upon while they slept and robbed of five hundred dollars. During the mix-up John
R. Carpenter tried to take a gun away from one of the robbers and was shot
through the hand and wrist, so that two of his fingers are useless today from
the wound. One of their party, Anderson by name, had nine hundred dollars
fastened to his leg, and when the three robbers entered their sleeping tent with
cocked guns and ordered the sleepers to throw up their hands, Anderson began to
pull on his pants, his idea being to cover the money that was fastened to his
leg. When again ordered to throw up his hands or be shot, he protested, saying:
"You wouldn't shoot a man who is freezing to death, would you?" and continued to
pull on his trousers before raising his hands. By so doing he saved all his
money, while Mr. Carpenter's father saved several hundred by slipping one of his
purses inside his underwear. The robbers were later lynched and John R.
Carpenter of this review is one of the few men who knows where they were buried.
The trees to which they were hanged are still standing today but are now dead. 

John R. Carpenter, because of his wound, did not continue the journey to Oregon,
but returned to his home in Idaho and almost bled to death before he could get
medical attention. His father continued to Umatilla and returned with supplies
to Idaho City. He later engaged in the livery business there and also in mining.
About that time a fire broke out in the town and the household goods and
supplies were taken as fast as possible to the creek and unloaded, and the
wagons returned for more. While the wagons returned for the second load, the
first loads were being stolen. One fellow attempted to get away with two hundred
pounds of flour. Coming to a hill, he found it necessary to leave one hundred
pounds at the foot of the hill while he carried the other hundred to the top.
When he again reached the foot of the hill, the flour which he had left there
had disappeared, so he hurried to the top of the hill for the flour which he had
there deposited and discovered that it had also been stolen. 

    Mr. Carpenter had a very narrow escape from the Indians while in Siskiyou
county, California, an arrow passing between his legs and lodging in a tree.
Such hairbreadth escapes rendered life on the frontier anything but monotonous,
and not only were the settlers in constant danger but they also experienced many
hardships and privations such as always feature in pioneer life. Flour was very
scarce in Idaho in 1864. Two pack trains laden with flour were en route to Idaho
City, but before they could reach their destination the flour was all sold at
thirty-five dollars per sack. Mr. Carpenter has seen the streets of Idaho City
so congested with teams that it was almost impossible to make one's way among
them. In the fall of 1865 he and his father's family went to the old Saxon
ranch, which his father purchased, and there they carried on farming until 1876,
when the father sold the property and returned east to Pennsylvania, where he
passed away in 1895. John R. Carpenter, however, worked for his father on the
ranch for only two years and then drove stage for Mr. Mathews between Idaho City
and Boise for one winter, during which time he hauled the first prisoners from
Idaho City to the penitentiary in Boise. He next engaged in freighting from
Boise to Idaho City and subsequently from Boise to Kelton, Utah. For two years
he drove stage over the overland route for the Northwestern Stage Company, after
which he engaged in packing and freighting. In 1882 he went to Wood River,
Idaho, stocked the new stage route and built the stations for "Uncle" John
Hailey. This road was between Goose Creek, Wood River and Mountain Home. Mr.
Carpenter continued to work for Mr. Hailey for three years and is today one of
his best friends. Mr. Carpenter was division agent for the road and was also
assistant superintendent of all Mr. Hailey's stage routes. After the building of
the railroads the stages were taken off all the routes except that from Idaho
City and from Boise to Silver City, and later ran only from Nampa to Silver
City. Mr. Carpenter was associated with all these routes. He also drove stage
from Kuna to Boise and it was his privilege to drive the largest stage load of
people, numbering twenty-two in all, that ever went into Silver City. This stage
was drawn by six horses and Mr. Carpenter had practically but one hand to use in
driving, as he never recovered from the wound sustained in his right hand. The
horses had been broken by Mr. Carpenter and John Hailey, the latter saying: "If
we cannot handle them, we will make them know they have gotten into the wrong
family." Mr. Carpenter was known as one of the best stage drivers in the United
States. In 1878 he met Rube Robbins, chief of scouts for the government, in
Boise, and was the first man hired by him for scout duty. He was afterward made
messenger during the Bannock war and had several narrow and thrilling encounters
with the Indians. He served in that capacity for about four months, when the
trouble with the Indians was over, and during that time he always received the
best of treatment for both himself and his horse from the United States army
officers. On one occasion he started at midnight to carry a message to Colonel
Wagner at French John's ferry on the Snake river. At daybreak, reaching the
slope south of Caldwell, he saw a streak of dust in the river bottom and later
learned that it was made by a man on horseback who had just escaped from the
Indians. He reached the ferry simultaneously with this man. The ferryman,
however, refused to ferry them across the river, saying that they would surely
be killed were they to cross, as the Indians were numerous on the other side. So
Mr. Carpenter and the man, Foster by name, continued up the near side of the
river to the stage crossing. On the way Foster stopped to look at some Indian
hieroglyphics, Mr. Carpenter waiting for him, and in the meantime he discovered
some Indians on the sand bar in the river. Foster was prevented from deserting
him by Mr. Carpenter's threat to shoot him should he attempt to do so. They
proceeded on their way to the upper stage ferry, where soldiers were located who
refused to go with Mr. Carpenter across the river, so he returned to Boise and
reported that the soldiers were afraid to cross the river because of the Indians
on the other side, whom they feared to attack. His report greatly incensed the
military authorities at Boise and he was told that he was to be hanged for
reporting falsely. Before this came to pass, however, his late companion,
Foster, who had become separated from him, came into Boise and when interrogated
by the military authorities corroborated Mr. Carpenter's report, so that nothing
further was ever said about hanging. Mr. Carpenter also did telegraph repair
work for the government and in one instance, when ordered to cross the river and
repair the wires, he on account of a presentiment of danger put it off until the
next day. The stage driver, Billy Hemmingway, who made the trip that day and
with whom Mr. Carpenter would have ridden had he not postponed the job, was
killed by the Indians, as he was alone. Mr. Carpenter was sent with a message to
Colonel Green, who was located somewhere on Camas Prairie. He started in the
early morning with a companion, who, however, refused to go farther than
Mountain Home, so that Mr. Carpenter continued the trip alone, meeting a man
from whom the Indians had taken his gun, coat and hat, near Dixie. This caused
the former to change his route, so as to avoid the neighborhood of Dixie. He saw
a large number of Indians but by clever maneuvering avoided them, and he met
friends who were after the Indians, but he continued on his way alone and at the
end of two days and a night, during which he had nothing to eat but hardtack, he
finally found the guards on the other side of Camas Prairie and delivered his
message to Colonel Green, who was dumbfounded to learn that he had made his way
through that portion of the country, for the Indians were most numerous there at
the time. Mr. Carpenter was then sent back to Boise to report that Colonel Green
had gone out after the Indians. 

    For two months succeeding these Indian troubles he rambled around, enjoying
the hospitality extended to him by his friends on account of the glory he had
attained by his work as scout and messenger. It was after this Indian warfare
that he went to the Wood river for Mr. Hailey. In 1895 he bought his present
place of ninety acres, of which he platted and sold fifteen acres for the town
of Eagle, of which he was one of the two founders. He donated to the Odd Fellows
the property on which they erected their headquarters and he has been closely
associated with the development and upbuilding of the town. 

    In 1891 Mr. Carpenter was married to Miss Mary Stierman, of Mariposa county,
California, a daughter of William Stierman, who went to that state in 1848. Her
mother, who prior to her marriage was Annie Otten, came to the United States
from Hanover, Germany, in 1858 and was married in 1860. She died in Idaho in
1876 and Mr. Stierman passed away in Ohio in 1879. Mr. and Mrs. Carpenter are
the parents of six children: J. R., twenty-seven years of age, who has recently
returned from overseas service in the great European war in France and Germany;
Mayme E., at home; Anna M., at home; Willey W., eighteen years of age; Henry L.,
aged sixteen, now attending high school; and Leona Dell, also in school. Such in
brief is the record of John R. Carpenter, who has always led a clean life and is
at present strong, healthy and erect, appearing a man much younger than his
years, for he has now passed the seventy-fourth milestone on life's journey. His
entire course in every relation has commended him to the confidence and goodwill
of his associates and all with whom he has been brought in contact. 


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

IDAHO
DELUXE SUPPLEMENT
CHICAGO
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY

1920

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