| Andrew Martin
Glahn was the only son of Joseph Glahn and Susan Louisa Eisele. He
was born at Westport, Missouri on October 24, 1861. When he was but
two and a half years old, his father, Joseph was bushwhacked at
Virginia City, Montana. After Joseph’s death, Andrew’s mother,
Susan, remarried, and Andrew was raised with his half brothers and
sisters. There seems to be no information regarding what age he was
when he struck out on his own, but it appears he was in California
with his new family until he came with them to Idaho, as evidenced
by the death of his half sister, Elma May, in 1883. At some point in
his travels, he was to meet his future bride, Mamie Hauk, who was
born in Westport, Missouri. His trail is dimmed by time, until we
find him September 12, 1898, in Quartzburg, Idaho, where he wrote to
his future bride. “9 years is a long time to stay in one place. I
could not sit down and figer up the diferant jobs and diferant
places I have bin.” The letter stated that he was boarding at Six
dollars per week, and that he had a single room, for which he was
paying a dollar fifty per month. He was working in a mine, and was
paid three dollars per day. “That is miners wages” He said he was
working in the “Ioway” mine. “There is a tunnel on this mine that is
1,000 feet long. Then there is a station or room cut out in solid
rock, and in that room, there is an engine for hoisting purposes.
There is a shaft which goes down 112 feet, then there is a ‘drift’
run off 200 feet. From where I work to the surface is 650 feet.”
Everything is pretty high here. Meals single or other than by the
week are fifty cents. Beds are also fifty cents. Provisions can be
gotten here cheap by ordering from Boise City. About the country, he
had the following to say: It is a beautiful country in summer. There
is no healthier place in the world. It is a timbered country
consisting of Fir, Spruce, and Pine. It is in a basin hemmed in by
mountains. The snowfall is about four feet on the level in the
winter. The mail is brought in by Stage in the summer time, and by
Sleighs in the winter. It leaves Boise City in the morning and gets
here in the evening. It is 55 miles to Boise City. Quartzburg is
about 100 inhabitants. It is about one and a half miles to Garnet
Town, about the size of this place. It is about three miles over to
Placerville, which has about 400 inhabitants. Eight miles to
Centerville, about the size of Placerville. 18 miles to Idaho City,
the County seat of Boise County. It is about 18 miles to Garden
Valley, a farming community, lying on the Payette River. Other
places adjacent are Hogam, Sweet Jerusalem, and Horseshoe Bend. At
Placerville they have put in a big dredge boat to work Placer
ground. “I suppose it has cost over $100,000. At Centerville there
is a large dredge boat being built. This machinery is to be run by
electricity. There has been an electric plant built up on Moore’s
creek this summer. This is an old country, but still in its infancy.
This country has been mined since the 1860’s and many of the old log
cabins that were put up in ’63 to ’65 are still standing. The
country looks old and ancient, and the people are old and ancient,
too. I never saw so many old Ivory-haired people in my life, from 65
to 95 years of age, and hale and hearty looking old people. The old
gentleman that owns this mine where I am working is over 80 years
old, and still he will get out and do a whole lot of work. I like
this place, and it agrees with me. I weigh 170 pounds, and never
felt better in my life. How would you like to give up city life for
frontier life in Idaho?
©Frank Glahn |
