Payette County ID Archives Biographies.....Coughanour, William A. 1850 - 1936
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Cheryl Hanson ihansonb@fmtc.com January 18, 2006, 11:56 pm

Author: Hiram T. French

History of Idaho
By Hiram T. French, M.S.
The Lewis Publishing Co
Chicago & New York 1914

WILLIAM A. COUGHANOUR

William A. Coughanour has been prominently identified with the business and 
civic life of Payette, Idaho, of which he has long been a resident, and in 
fact, may almost be looked upon as one of the founders of the city.  He has 
been connected with many of the greatest industries that have come into 
existence in Payette, and has played a large and important part in the growth 
and advancement of the city to its present status.  As mayor of the city 
through nine successive years, he has contributed no little of time and energy 
to the direction of its affairs in a municipal way, and has ever exhibited the 
most worthy interest in the advance of the civic life of the community.

Born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, on March 12, 1850, Mr. Coughanour is the 
son of Dutch parents.  The father, H. S. Coughanour, was born in 1815, and 
passed practically his entire life in Fayette county.  He was a ship-builder, 
and gave his attention to the work throughout all of his active career.  He 
married Caroline Conkle, a daughter of one of the good old Dutch families of 
his neighborhood and they became the parents of four daughters and a son.

William A. Coughanour was thus the one son of his parents.  He was reared in 
the place of his nativity and received his education in the public schools of 
the community.  He was twenty years of age when he made his first appearance 
in the state of Idaho, and this state has since represented his home and the 
center of his business activities.  When he arrived in Idaho, after a long and 
tedious trip overland, he assumed the management of the Gold Hill mine, at 
Quartzburg, becoming secretary and treasurer of the company and retaining the 
position of importance for a matter of fifteen years, as well as being 
superintendent of the mine and mill for  practically the same time.  Today 
this is one of the big mining properties of Idaho, and under his management 
ore to the value of three million dollars was mined. 

In 1885 Mr. Coughanour came to Payette, where he at once assumed a position of 
considerable weight as the promoter of many needed industrial enterprises in 
the community, which have not alone tended to advance his personal interests, 
but have resulted in great good to the community at large.  He has large 
landed interests in Oregon and Idaho and for many years conducted an extensive 
lumber business in Payette, with yard and manufacturing of lumber that would 
supply every demand of the public in the way of building material.  He was a 
director in the Payette Valley Bank and a stockholder and secretary of the 
Lower Payette Ditch Company, a concern which has been a most potent factor in 
the irrigating of lands in this section of the state.  He has been deeply 
interested in fruit growing in Idaho, and it is generally conceded that Mr. 
Coughanour laid the foundation for the wonderful development of Idaho into a 
fruit growing  country, he being the first to enter that enterprise and the 
most enthusiastic in advertising the splendid results that accrued as the 
result of his efforts.  He developed  one of the finest orchards in the state, 
located a short distance from the city.  Further, he has gone into stock 
raising to a considerable extent, and has had as high as five hundred head of 
cattle on his ranch at one time.  His reputation in the fields of agriculture 
and horticulture is wide and he served for six years as president of the State 
Horticultural board of inspection, resigning from his office at the end of 
that time.

Politically, Mr. Coughanour is a Democrat, and prior to his location in 
Payette served as county commissioner of Boise county.  In 1896 he was elected 
to the state senate, from Canyon county, and while serving in his official 
capacity he introduced the horticultural inspection bill, which he pushed 
through to a successful issue, securing at the same time an appropriation of 
ten thousand dollars, in order that the horticultural board might be able to 
carry forward its projected work of protecting the fruit interests of the 
state from destructive fruit pests.  While he served as president of that 
board, he was able to bring about many effective measures for the further 
protection of the fruit  industry of the state, and in that capacity alone he 
has done for the state a work which it can never repay.  As mayor of Payette 
through seven successive terms, the city passed through its greatest period of 
prosperity and municipal activity, as during his incumbency of the office he 
put forth every possible effort to promote such measures as would conduce to 
the greatest public benefit.  He has occupied an important place in the 
political life of the state for a number of years, and has been instrumental 
in bringing about many of the important reforms, as well as aiding in the 
ultimate election of various executives.  In 1910 his was the honor of placing 
in nomination his old time friend, Honorable James H. Hawley, for the governor 
and saw him elected to the gubernatorial chair.  Mr. Coughanour was a member 
of the governor’s staff, and in 1912 placed Governor Hawley in re-nomination, 
and the last official act of  Governor Hawley was the appointing of Mr. 
Coughanour on the board of regents of the State University of Idaho at Moscow, 
Idaho 

In 1874 Mr. Coughanour was united in marriage with Miss Galena Bunting, a 
native of Fayette county, Pennsylvania, like himself, and a son and daughter 
were born to them.  The daughter, Emma L., married Dr. We. R. Hamilton, of 
Weiser, Idaho, where they now reside, and the son. William M., married Miss 
Alta Stroup, of Fayette.  Mr. Coughanour has long been prominent in fraternal 
circles, being affiliated with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and the 
Independent Order of Odd Fellows.  Of the latter named order he is past grand 
master and grand representative, being at the present time grand treasurer of 
the grand lodge of the state of Idaho.  He is vice president and a member of 
the Payette Commercial Club, and is now vice president of the First National 
Bank of Payette.

Mr. Coughanour is a man of splendid attainments, and is widely known 
throughout the state as an orator, as well as a most effective and 
entertaining after-dinner speaker, welcomed everywhere in that capacity.  His 
public speaking is always marked with a spice of humor that wins him the 
attention and applause of any audience.  When the golden spike was driven 
which marked the commencement of the railroad which connected the entire 
Payette valley with Emmett, Mr. Coughanour delivered an address that attracted 
state-wide attention to him as a public speaker, and he is always in great 
demand when forceful, logical and entertaining speech-making is in order.  His 
political, fraternal and business prominence has won to him a wide 
acquaintance throughout the state, and it is not too much to say that hi is 
regarded everywhere as one of the chief citizens of Idaho, who has been up and 
doing in the best interests of the commonwealth since the first day he located 
within its borders, and cast in his lot with its citizenship.  In 1908, on 
Second avenue, North, in front of the depot he built a pavilion in the center 
and on the top of which is mounted an oxidized copper elk, nine feet in 
height, life size, its antlers illuminated with electric bulbs.  Our subject 
has perhaps one of the rarest collections of mineral specimens in the United 
States, which represents in value thousands of dollars among which are several 
gold nuggets ranging in price from $25 to $150.

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