Archives West Finding Aid

W.H. Chapman came to Idaho from Cohocton, New York in 1866 when the Idaho Territory was only three years old, a wild, largely unsettled place, but the Boise Basin was full of miners. Idaho City, Placerville, Centerville and Pioneer City were boom towns. Chapman was not a miner. His employer, future Gov. W.J. McConnell, owned a ranch on the Payette River four miles above Horseshoe Bend, where he raised potatoes and vegetables to supply the mining camps. Twenty-three year old Chapman worked for McConnell as a farm hand. Faithfully, day by day, he kept a record in his diary of his farm chores and occasional pack trips up into the Basin to deliver the food to the gold fields. He also recorded a wealth of personal details. He spent many a long winter evening in his 12-foot x 12-foot cabin reading books — "Our Mutual Friend," Charles Dickens' last novel, among them. He played "seven up," a card game, with his fellow ranch hands. He read and reread letters from friends at home. He spent time with a girl named Nora who lived at a nearby stage stop. Despite these diversions, he still complained of the "long dreary hours of winter's life in the mountains of Idaho."

Chapman left Idaho in the summer, undertaking an arduous, cross-country horseback ride with a company of fellow travelers to join relatives in Elgin, Ill., where he became a clerk in his uncle's store. He seemed to enjoy the amenities of city life. His usual bedtime in Idaho was 8 or 9 p.m., whereas back in Elgin, he recorded many late nights at parties and dances. Chapman eventually married, had children and spent the rest of his life in Illinois. One mystery that is not revealed in the diary is what led him to Idaho in the first place. It begins on Jan. 1, 1866, with him already here, and contains not a word about when or why he came to the far West.