We love to complain about newcomers. After all, they’re loud. They drive too fast. They think they own the place—and they probably do. They’re changing our town. **** Californians!

The Kalispel people might have voiced the same complaints when the first Californians arrived in 1881. That’s right—some of the earliest non-native settlers in Sandpoint were from California.

The Idaho Panhandle was a lively place during the early 1880s with thousands of men building the Northern Pacific Railroad. Moving from west to east, crews cleared, graded, built bridges, and laid rails. Lake Pend Oreille presented a major obstacle to progress until 1882 when the wooden trestle, stretching more than a mile and a half across the lake outlet, was finished.

All of this railroad construction required massive numbers of ties and bridge timbers, along with lumber for everything from railroad buildings to water tanks. Here’s where those Californians came in.

Robinson Jones Weeks, a rancher near La Honda, California, contracted to mill timbers and ties at the north end of the long trestle. He and his sons, Burt and Asa, packed up their sawmill equipment and headed north in the spring of 1881 for an adventure in the sparsely populated Idaho Territory. They had the mill running by mid-summer. Other family members joined them later that fall, including Cordelia and Ella, Robinson’s wife and daughter, and Emma and Percy, Burt’s wife and two-year old son.

Within a short time, the massive railroad construction project moved eastward into Montana, leaving behind the tiny settlement of Sandpoint. At that time, the town consisted of a handful of wooden buildings lining the railroad tracks on the narrow spit of land between Sand Creek and the lake. The enterprising Emma Weeks served as postmaster, agent for Wells Fargo & Co., and proprietor of the general store which bore her name. The Weeks family also owned and operated the Lake View Hotel.

1881 saw the arrival of three other Californians, James and Mary Baldwin and their adult son Harry. After moving from the San Francisco area, James Baldwin established a stage line connecting railroad camps across the Idaho Panhandle and into Montana. Harry Baldwin worked at a number of jobs before opening a restaurant in 1885 and later a hotel.

While the Baldwins remained in North Idaho for the remainder of their lives, the Weeks family returned to California. Robinson and Cordelia were the first to leave, departing sometime in 1883 after completing the contract with the railroad. The elder Weeks sold his sawmill to two men from Spokane Falls and transferred his interest in the hotel to son Asa.

Burt and Emma Weeks remained in Sand Point for ten years. During that time, their family expanded with the arrival of a daughter, Rena Idaho, in 1888. Three years later, Burt and Emma were ready to return to California so they sold their business to Ignatz Weil, another former Californian. He and his wife Irene had recently moved to Sandpoint from Helena, Montana. Mr. Weil was born in Austria but immigrated to the United States at the age of 18. During much of the 1870s and into the early 1880s, he lived in San Francisco with his brother, Leopold, working primarily in sales. Mrs. Weil was born in Kentucky but her family relocated to the Ukiah area of California when she was a small child.

After settling in Idaho, the Weils became well-known citizens in Sandpoint and Bonner County. In the early 1900s, Weil platted his large land holding for an addition to Sandpoint that includes much of the south part of town. Their handsome home remains a local landmark on the corner of First and Superior, where the highway comes into town. In 1907 Mr. Weil was appointed the first clerk and recorder for the newly formed Bonner County. Although their fortunes collapsed in the early 1920s, the Weils remained in Bonner County for the remainder of their lives.

These early Californians laid a strong foundation for our community, contributing to the economy, infrastructure, and government and charting the course of development for Sandpoint and North Idaho.

Don’t you hate it when history challenges your stereotypes and world view?

[A confession: The writer grew up in Southern California but hopes that more than 50 years of living in Bonner County, working and raising a family, have helped to lessen the taint.]

References

J. M. Tiernan, Map showing Geological Formations and Mineral Lands near the Northern Pacific Railroad in Northern Idaho and Washington Territories, March 1882, on file, University of Idaho Special Collections; Roy W. Cloud, History of San Mateo County, California, vol. 2 (Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1928, 320-323, 610-612; Norma T. Hohl, interview with her mother [daughter of Burt D. and Emma L. Weeks], partial typed transcript, n.d., pp. 32-33, 35-56, 40-42, Weeks file, Box B35, Bonner County Historical Society Archives; Kootenai County, Deed Record, Book A:24-26, Kootenai County Recorder’s Office; John M. Henderson, William S. Shiach, and Harry B. Averill, An Illustrated History of North Idaho, Embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone Counties, State of Idaho (Spokane: Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903), 792, 854, 932; “A Trip to Lake Pend d’Oreille,” Northwest Tribune, 3 June 1881, 2:5; “Sandpoint Post Office, Bonner County, Idaho,” on Postmaster Finder, http://webpmt.usps.gov/pmt003cfm, accessed 12 October 2015; “Local and Personal,” Kootenai Herald, 18 July 1891, 5:2; Kootenai County, Deed Record, Book A:24-26, 59, 72; “Sandpoint Pioneer Dies,” Idaho Daily Statesman, 9 May 1922, 10; U.S. Census, 1870, Ukiah Township, Mendocino County, California, 14 June 1870, p. 8; U.S. Census, 1880, Ukiah Township, Mendocino County, California, 16 June 1880, p. 29; San Francisco business directories, 1874:677, 1875:743, 1879:892 1883:1055; Voter Register, 8th Precinct, 12th Ward, San Francisco County, 1882; Standard Certificate of Death, #74771, Ignatz Weil, died 1 April 1931; Certificate of Death, State of Idaho, #146542, Irene Weil, died 14 December 1945; N. W. Durham, History of the City of Spokane and Spokane County, Washington, vol. 1 (Spokane: S.J. Lewis, 1912), 536-537; “Sand Point Pointers,” Kootenai Herald, 8 August 1891, 5:3; “Sand Point Pointers,” Kootenai Herald, 22 August 1891, 5:3; “Sand Point Pointers,” Kootenai Herald, 5 September 1891, 5:2; “The Enterprising Man’s Column,” Kootenai Herald, 14 November 1891, 4:3; “Has Purchased Another Stock,” Pend d’Oreille News, 21 May 1892, 4:1; “Local and Personal,” Pend d’Oreille News, 28 May 1892, 5:2; Purchased Another Store, Pend d’Oreille News, 29 October 1892, 5:2; “Weil And Heitman Gang Have Cut Up The Pie,” Northern Idaho News, 8 February 1907, 1:5-6; “Gooding Names Officers For Bonner County,” Northern Idaho News, 15 March 1907, 1:5-6; “Commissioners Accept Weil Court House Site,” Northern Idaho News, 12 April 1907, 1:1-2; “Weil Builds Court House,” Northern Idaho News, 10 May 1907, 1:1-2; “Weil Wants To Sell The New Court House,” Northern Idaho News, 21 January 1908, 1:1-2; “Two Commissioners Buy The Weil Building,” Northern Idaho News, 17 March 1908, 1:5-6.