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A look into Mountain Home's past
This article is the third in a series prepared by Hiler that focus on the background of several parks located in Mountain Home.
Commodore George Jackson was a true Idaho pioneer and considered one of Mountain Home's founding fathers who left a lasting legacy that continues to benefit people today.
He left the midwest in 1864 and reached Virginia City, Mont., after an arduous train journey. Jackson worked for several different contractors as a stage driver including the Wells Fargo & Company Express. The stage stations were located 12 miles apart where the horses were changed. Every 50 miles, a home station was located where travelers and drivers could find refreshments and lodging.
In 1872, he bought a quarter of land section eight miles north of what is now Mountain Home. He ran his own stage stop known first as Rattle Snake Station with the U.S. Postal Service making deliveries to this site. He later changed the name to Mountain Home since it was located at the foothills of the mountains.
Coming to Mountain Home
Under the desert-claim act, the commodore also took up land where Mountain Home currently stands and built a large range where he and his family lived. He sold part of the remaining land to the railroad and another section to a land company.
When the Oregon Shortline Railroad came to the area in 1883, they established a stopping place here to replenishing water for their steam engines. Access to water near the surface made Mountain Home an ideal place to put a train station.
Since the mail now came by rail, Jackson moved his post office down from the mountains and the developing village was later named Mountain Home.
He married in 1868 and fathered three children. For many years, he carried on his many industrious enterprises as the territory that would become Idaho continued to grow.
Jackson is still honored as one of the most esteemed citizens of the southern half of Idaho. In fact, Jackson Street that divides Mountain Home's northern and southern sections of Mountain Home was named after this veteran. People can see Commodore Jackson's headstone in the Mountain View Cemetery on the city's east side.
David Dodge
Shortly after the Oregon Short Line Railroad arrived in Mountain Home, another of the city's prominent citizens arrived. David Dodge, a Civil War veteran, had married Jennie Steers in 1872, and she taught him how to read and write. They had four children: Willis, Frank, Mamie and Lillie.
Dodge was a farmer that also dug wells and operated sawmills. He built his own mill in 1879 in Elmdale, Wis.
The family moved to Shoshone, Idaho, in 1884 where he worked for the Oregon Shortline Railway and built a roundhouse and machine shops. In 1885, they moved to Mountain Home and filed on a 160-acre preemption claim.
Jennie Dodge died in 1892, and David felt his world crushed. He resigned from the railroad and turned to his faith. He served as a traveling missionary traveling for the Seventh Day Adventist Church.
He was the one that gave Mountain Home the land for its cemetery. He planted the first trees in Mountain Home and served on the jury of the city's first murder trial.
Dodge died Dec. 27, 1926, in the city that became his home. But his legacy doesn't end there.
A final wish
In August 1962, local government officials were very familiar with Dodge's wishes and had donated his land for the city's present cemetery.
As the city cleared additional land to expand the cemetery, officials were forced to acquire the whereabouts of their deed for the property. The deed was officially granted to the city with just one conition: Dodge's heirs would receive 10 cemetery lots for their descendants.
David and Jennie Dodge's headstone remains a visible landmark in the cemetery with their descendants replacing the original headstone in 1993.
A look back at history
A tour of the Mountain View Cemetery uncovers additional information on the community's history and a few mysteries as well. One of these mysteries is the date of some burials on this land, some of which includes dates of death as far back as 1828 -- 47 years before Dodge donated the land in 1885.
The reason? He donated the property for a cemetery knowing it was a necessity for the growing community. Once the land was donated, most of the existing burial sites scattered around the area were dug up and the remains moved to the present cemetery, giving the community a centralized cemetery.
Noted headstones
A death of date from 1828 shows how long people had lived in this area. Robbie Porter, the son of J.A. and C.A. Porter, died in Mountain Home on June 25, 1882. The headstone of the 10 year old remains the oldest erected headstone in the cemetery.
Our cemetery includes several war sections for Civil War and Spanish American War veterans. Those laid to rest include Cpl. Joseph Dean, Company F, 15th Illinois Infantry and George W. Smith of Company H, 51st Missouri Infantry. Other veterans include Hector A. Beach, who fought in the Spanish American War with Company F, 14th Minnesota Infantry.
There are sections of the cemetery dedicated to veterans that wish to be buried in the American Legion section. In addition, it includes memorials dedicated to each of the wars, including a large bell and flagpole erected in 1963 by the American Legion in memory of veterans of all wars.
Other local celebrities
One of the more popular men buried in the cemetery is John McKeown, better known as "Johnny-Behind-the-Rocks." He was originally a placer miner by trade.
Before coming to the Mountain Home vicinity, he worked in Silver City, Idaho City, North Idaho and Rocky Bar. He finally homesteaded near Dixie and spent the rest of his life raising cattle and horses.
In many ways, he was a very odd individual, although he was generous to those he liked.
He was a very dirty man at the time of his last sickness. When brought to town, he wore parts of six suits and several pair of underwear with approximately $1,500 in his pockets.
McKeown needed medical care, but the first order was to have him bathed and cleaned up. As the story goes, "He just couldn't take a bath after so many years without one."
He was buried in the Mountain Home Cemetery, and his monument was purchased with the money found on him when he died. Meanwhile, a newly erected sign along the Highway 20 at the base of Bennett Mountain marks the closest location by the highway where Johnny lived.
Another noted person at the cemetery is Charles Sprittles, an Idaho pioneer who lived in the Rocky Bar and Featherville area. Born in 1881, Sprittles would deliver the U.S. mail on foot between Featherville and Rocky Bar.
Charlie went missing in the winter of 1963 and was found dead the following spring, having frozen to death.
Take a tour
Those interested in learning more about the city's history should take time and visit the cemetery. While there, spend a few minutes chatting with Cemetery Sexton Steve Roberts. He's worked there since March 1980.
Roberts has a near-perfect mental index of almost everyone buried in the cemetery, and it's not uncommon for people in town to stop him and ask questions on where certain people are buried there.
Note: Hiler is a recreation coordinator with the Mountain Home Parks and Recreation Department. More photos and history of the cemetery are available online at www.pr.mountain-home.us. Those interested in learning more may also call the parks and recreation staff at 587-2112.