Who made Idaho? Who were the founding fathers of Idaho? Remarkably, the beginning of a place named Idaho began with our most famous and beloved president, Abraham Lincoln, whose signature created the Territory of Idaho on March 4, 1863. He approved the name and boundaries of the new territory which then included all of present day Idaho, Montana and most of Wyoming, and then went on to appoint some fifteen territorial officials, including his close friend William H. Wallace to serve as Idaho’s first territorial governor. Wallace later became Idaho’s delegate in Congress and while in Washington he and his wife were invited by Lincoln to join the President and Mrs. Lincoln at Ford’s theater the night of the assassination. Because of his wife’s illness, however, Wallace decided not to attend. Governor Wallace was a pall bearer at the president’s funeral.
Among other leaders who helped build the territory and guide the process which eventually led to statehood were George L. Shoup, Idaho’s first governor, Fred T. Dubois, early territorial delegate to Congress and later U.S. Senator, John Hailey, stage line operator and delegate to Congress, William J. McConnell, U.S, Senator and Governor of Idaho, William H. Clagett, who presided over Idaho’s constitutional convention in 1889, and of course, President Benjamin Harrison, who signed the act granting Idaho statehood on July 3, 1890, and later planted a tree on the statehouse grounds to mark the occasion.
There are two other men often forgotten, however, without whom the state of Idaho may never have come into existence: Territorial Governor Edward Augustus Stevenson and President Grover Cleveland.
Edward Stevenson was a man with integrity, energy and incredible versatility, but whose pioneer life was also filled with hardship and great sorrow. Born in 1831 in Lowville, New York, but raised mostly near Ann Arbor, Michigan, Stevenson’s politically active family included one brother who became governor of Nevada and another who was the first speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. His cousin Adlai E. Stevenson served as Vice President of the United States under Grover Cleveland. Adlai’s son Adlai E. Stevenson Jr. was the Democratic nominee for president in 1956, running against President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
In 1849, at age eighteen, Edward joined the gold rush to California where he settled near Coloma and soon became active in politics. At the young age of twenty-two he was elected to the state legislature where he eventually served four terms including service as Speaker Pro Tempore of the House. At various times he also served as a justice of the peace, deputy sheriff and mayor of Coloma.
Actively involved in hard fighting against the Modoc Indians, Stevenson helped negotiate a peace treaty with that tribe and was later commissioned by the government to promote peaceful relations with various other tribes. After years of activity with Indian affairs, he carried the title of Colonel. Edward married Harriet Marcy in 1855 and the couple settled on a farm in Tehama County where he also served as reservation agent for the Nomelacke and Nomecult Indians. While away on official business on May 11, 1859, evidence indicates that disgruntled Indians set fire to the family home where his wife and three children were found dead in the charred ruins.
Continuing with farming and politics in California after the tragic loss of his family, Stevenson remarried in 1860 to Anna D. Orr, and then followed the gold rush to Idaho, settling in the Boise Basin in 1863, the same year Abraham Lincoln created the Territory of Idaho. Edward Stevenson joined in the building of the new territory and was a true Idaho pioneer; he grew up with Idaho. Filing a successful mining claim near Grimes Pass, he came close to again losing his family when his Pioneer City home was consumed by an early morning fire in 1869, allowing the family just barely enough time to escape with their lives.
As was his nature, Colonel Stevenson soon entered Idaho politics by becoming a justice of the peace and eventually served three two year terms in the territorial legislature, starting with his election to the House in 1866. In 1874, he was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. In 1872, he was also elected as Boise County Commissioner and in 1876 began the study of law which led to his admittance to the Idaho bar. In 1882, he moved his family to the Payette Valley where his business activities began to emphasize farming and stock raising. It was while engaged in these activities that Edward A. Stevenson was selected in 1885 by President Grover Cleveland to serve as Idaho’s first and only Democratic territorial governor. He was also the first Idaho citizen to be appointed governor, breaking a long standing tradition that appointments come from outside the territory. Vice President Stevenson may have had something do with the appointment, but Democrats as well as Republicans throughout Idaho generally favored the appointment. Stevenson went on to become Idaho’s best territorial governor.
As governor, Stevenson strove for non-partisanship and moderation regarding controversial issues in the territory. Frugality marked his political temperament as evidenced by his request that the 1886 session of the legislature pass “a cheap and economical and effective militia law.” He favored more local authority in territorial politics and less federal control over budgets. He promoted prison reform and
hood bill which passed Congress and was signed by the President on July 3, 1890, making Idaho the 43rd state in the Union. Bonfires were lit throughout Idaho in celebration.
After leaving office, Edward Stevenson resumed his farming activities and obtained a contract for carrying mail between Boise and Quartzberg. He served four years as Grand Master of the Masons in Idaho and was president of the Historical Society of Idaho Pioneers. In 1894, he was the Democratic candidate for governor but lost in a state which was becoming predominately Republican. Edwards’ old friend Thomas Donaldson said that in later life Stevenson “suffered many bitter disappointments and afflictions. Fortune treated him severely.” We do not know what all these troubles were, however, because sadly too little biographical information about the governor has survived.
Governor Edward A. Stevenson died in 1895 and is buried in the Pioneer Cemetery in Boise. His wife, Anna, and their only child Charles C. Stevenson, who became City Attorney for Boise, died shortly thereafter.
In 2014, the Idaho legislature established an official Idaho Day to be observed each year on March 4, the day President Lincoln’s signature created Idaho in 1863. It is hoped that all who love Idaho will mark that day to honor Idaho pioneers like Edward Stevenson and to learn more about Idaho, her culture, her beauty, her diversity, her resources, her history, her romance and her greatness.
We love Idaho. Her name conjures up images of wide open spaces, lonely winding rivers and mountain skies slowly fading into sunset. Romance lies in her name. Freedom lies in her name. From the sequin serenity of Lake Coeur d’Alene to the thousand shades of green along the Lochse, Salmon and Clearwater, to the mighty roar of Shoshone Falls and the turquoise blue of Bear Lake, there is no place like Idaho.