Payette County ID Archives Biographies.....Brainard, C. E.  1937 - 1922
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Patty Theurer seymour784@yahoo.com September 17, 2005, 6:32 pm

Author: The Idaho Magazine

The Idaho Magazine
Vol. 1, No. 2
July 1905
By F. W. Ellis

Just a Word About C. E. Brainard,
The Master Home-Finder of Idaho, and Practically the Builder and Sponsor of the 
New Plymouth Colony the Coming Pride and Glory of The Payette Valley.

In reviewing the remarkable progress of the Payette Valley the writer can not 
forego saying a word about a man he first met several years ago, C. E. 
Brainard, a man who, though not a politician, has played a potent part in state 
making in Idaho, one who has induced the investment within her borders of an 
incalculable amount of money in lucrative fields, and brought hundreds of 
useful, hardworking men and women to the larger and more abundant life and joy 
that its opportunities offer.  He has, indeed, been the soul, and genius in 
turning the tide of wealth and home-makers Idahoward, and especially toward the 
Payette Valley and the model, matchless New Plymouth Bench, hence, shrink as he 
may at our assertion, he has claims on the gratitude and admiration of not only 
those whom he has been instrumental in vitally interesting in the state, but 
all Idahoans who rejoice in the development of our lusty young commonwealth, 
along right lines.  It is due Mr. Brainard to say he has never been the man to 
court publicity for himself, but he has been little less than a providence in  
heralding forth opportunities for which investment-seekers and home-seekers 
were eager, and he has proven the type of man to whose projects the investing 
public could safely tie, a fact which is its own comment on his honor and 
integrity.  He is a man of performances, one whose energy runs far up into the 
horse power, but above all things he is a practical, hard-headed, hard-working 
business man, a man of shining candor, of unexampled initiative, and one who 
plays fair and treats his fellows with justice in all business life.  
This man who has mightily helped to people and enrich the Payette Valley 
anchored his destiny here some five years ago, as he had previously discovered, 
after 15 years of active colonization work that in all of Uncle Sam’s husbandry 
there was no irrigated domain that matched it, and that it offered unequalled 
opportunities to the world in a practically virgin region.  He at once became a 
pace-setter in enterprise, was eager to shake hands with every laudable 
enterprise, and as a result, great enterprises sprang up in the wake of his 
achievements.  

Mr. Brainard first devoted all his powers and energies to unfolding the great 
possibilities of the New Plymouth bench with is farm colony, only 12 miles from 
Payette, and in the very heart of the Valley’s most desirable lands.  And this 
colony is still the object of his almost paternal solicitude and ambition, and 
well it may be, for its prolific acres are marvelously productive of all the 
fruits, vegetables, grain and hay grown in this latitude-it is a section 
indeed, which is the pride and glory of the Payette Valley, and it is peopled 
with a higher type of farmers and fruit growers, probably, than any other given 
territory in the Union, an agricultural aristocracy, if you please, who enjoy 
nearly all the outgrowths of civilization. 

As a directing energy in the industries that are developing and upbuilding all 
this portion of the New West a brief summary of those with which he is 
prominently connected will hint.  He is the president and general manager of 
the New Plymouth Land & Colonization Company and judging from the rapid 
development of its thousands of acres of sage brush land during the past three 
years, it is one of the most successful colonization forces in the state.  He 
is president of the Noble Ditch Company and principal stockholder and director 
of the Farmer’s Co-operative Irrigation Company, the two main irrigation 
systems on the South side of the Payette river and covering the New Plymouth 
Bench. 

The organization of the New Plymouth Colonization Company and Farmers 
Irrigation company under his inspiring leadership marked the transition of the 
whole valley to New life and prosperity.  He was also instrumental in the 
organization of the settlers Canal Company in Boise Valley in which company he 
is still retained as a director.  He is secretary of the Malheur Irrigation 
company and the Idaho-Oregon Colonization Company, organized recently for the 
purpose of irrigating and colonizing 50,000 acres of land in Malheur county, 
Oregon, a large portion of which is tributary to Payette; also a director in 
the Payette Irrigation Company and Bank of Commerce of Payette.

In fact it is a proverb in men’s mouths that C. E. Brainard came as an advance 
agent of prosperity to these parts; that the dash of energy of his business 
methods gave a new thrill of energy and hope even to the state-makers of this 
section, and that he has as watchful an eye for the welfare of Payette, the 
city of his home, as for the New Plymouth Colony, of which he is practically 
the builder and in the hollow of whose lands its destinies largely rest. 

He had a far-reaching vision to see that thousands else-where were in quest of 
just such opportunities as this valley afforded.  He knew the art of spreading 
these opportunities before multitudes and all who have come and embraced them 
have now a springier step and a vastly more hopeful outlook on life. 

Almost incredible has been the growth of the Payette Valley and New Plymouth 
Colony since Mr. Brainard’s advent into it, but it is still in the infancy of 
what it is capable of becoming.  

If you would confer, reader, with a citizen of the Payette Valley for other 
inside information about it, the Idaho Magazine can say without qualification, 
that it can vouch for all the statements of Mr. Brainard touching it as he is 
conservative in his claims and is standard authority on its resources and 
inducements and if you visit the Payette Valley you will find him ever ready to 
aid desirable citizens to find a congenial spot for a home in this section.  


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