The Princeton-Harvard Highway District was organized on April 22, 1919 by commissioners J.D. Morrissey, John Leinhard, and S.M. Starner. Morrissey was elected president, Leinhard secretary, and J.M. Bottjer, not a member of the commission, was elected treasurer. This commission was charged with the construction, improvement, and repair of highways in the district. To raise money for machinery a $110,000 bond was issued in 1919. Several other bonds were issued in later years. Money was also received from motor vehicle licenses and tax levies.
Melvin Taggart obtained these papers in the early 1980s during a dispute with his neighbors over a road leading to his property south of Princeton. The Latah County Highway District and Taggart's neighbors claimed the road was a private road and some of the neighbors put up fences to emphasize the point. But Taggart's research showed the road had been opened by the county in 1905, had never been abandoned, and was therefore still a county road. In August 1985 Second District Judge Ronald Schilling ruled in Taggart's favor.
The records of the Princeton-Harvard Highway District span the years 1919 to 1950, with the bulk of the material covering the years 1919 to 1930.
The records include correspondence, financial records, petitions, election records, minutes of a few meetings, and plat books.
The material in this record group was in no apparent order when received, therefore a series order was imposed during processing.
The correspondence, with the exception of one folder which was segregated by Taggart, was placed in chronological order. Most correspondence is incoming and concerns legal and financial arrangements, including bond issues and plans for road construction. Occasionally there are letters concerning equipment purchases.
Included in the financial records are warrant registers, bank statements, audits, financial statements, monthly payroll time sheets, and inventories of equipment.
Other papers include petitions, election poll and tally books, legal papers such as rights of way consents and contracts, a contract for the Viola to Potlatch section of the North-South highway, minutes of meetings held by the commissioners, and plat books.
Many invoices, paid warrants, and vouchers were included with the records. Samples of these were retained but the bulk was discarded. Likewise only samples of the bond coupons were retained. In all the records were reduced by three cubic feet.
The records of the Princeton-Harvard Highway District were donated to the University of Idaho Library in July 1985 by Melvin Taggart of Potlatch, Idaho.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.