Morris Hill
Morris Hill Cemetery
The Morris Hill Cemetery is one of a handful of landmarks from the Territorial period that remains on the Bench today. As Boise’s first Municipal Cemetery, it was open to everyone, regardless of wealth, ethnic heritage, or religious or civic memberships, and so it reflects the economic, ethnic, and religious diversity found in this state's capital city. Its historical presence, and the growth surrounding the cemetery emphasizes the environmental, social, and economic transformation that began to take place on the Bench during the Late Territorial Period.
In 1878 William Morris died, and left his estate to be managed primarily by his nephew by marriage, William H. Ridenbaugh. As the co-executor of the estate with Mrs. Morris, Ridenbaugh oversaw the sale of nearly 17,000 acres of land that Morris had owned on the Bench. In 1882 Mayor James Alonzo Pinney, popularly known as the "father of modern Boise," purchased the land for the city's first municipal cemetery from Ridenbaugh for $2,000. At 80 acres, it represents only a small portion of the land Morris owned. The location of the new cemetery drove the public south, across the river and up the 9th street Pike, to Morris Hill Road, which had become the main approach to public space on the bench.
By 1895 the cemetery is described repeatedly by the Statesman as a wild space, kept in such a “forlorn condition” to make the grounds “repulsive in appearance.” Accessibility was hampered by winter weather, poor road conditions, and the steep and dusty incline up the rim made the trek problematic, which led to important changes in the city’s funding for the provision of public roads. When Peter Sonna became mayor, in 1894, he addressed the funding needs of the public cemetery in his inaugural address, and throughout his term he made increasing calls for improvements to the Municipal budget in regards to the efforts in managing the city’s growth.
These public calls for the need to build and maintain new roads on the Bench indicated that the area would be visited regularly, populated eventually, and was already being used in ways it had not previously been viewed as likely. During the late Frontier Period, Boise’s periphery served as a boundary between the civilized city center, and its wild outskirts. But near the turn of the century, Boise’s citizens began embracing the Victorian ideals of the pastoral, and wanted to see a concerted effort at beautifying the shared public landscape.
Cleaning the approach to the Boise Bench. Left: View of the Bench from Baxter Foundry c. 1905.
Right: Capitol Boulevard Realignment Project (Federal Aid Project 91-D, 1931)
Boise Bench Settlers
After the death of Morris, Ridenbaugh immediately worked to enlarge the canal’s capacity and continued to drive the canal westward. It was one of the largest pre-federal canal systems in the Boise Valley. During the final decades of the 19th Century, he offered land owners perpetual rights to the water in exchange for enlarging the right of way through their property. Speculative railroad-town developers such W.T. Booth, and brothers Henry B. and Benjamin Scott bought and platted land on the Boise Bench, looking forward to future developments on the city's outskirts. The Scotts' vast parcels were initially known as "Scott Ranch" and in 1898, H.B. donated the original plot for what was originally called Scott Schoolhouse, which would later be replaced with Franklin School named for Scott's namesake, Benjamin Franklin. The Scott's additions make up a large part of the Morris Hill Neighborhood, which extends from Latah to Curtis Road, along Franklin and Emerald.
This policy of exchanging property for water rights was not always a straightforward business, especially since ownership of the canals frequently changed hands after Ridenbaugh sold it, in the 1890s. Land owners were often at odds with the canal companies. In 1899 H.B. Scott found himself, along with a number of other land owners, facing a lawsuit brought by George V. Forman, the then-current owner of the Ridenbaugh. Forman was seeking financial reimbursement for the cost of maintaining the canals.
Land owners argued that the original contract had been signed in perpetuity, but the court argued that the water had come “contingent upon the defendants paying a proportionate share of the cost of maintaining the canal.” In 1878, when the contracts had been signed, the cost of the canal was quoted at costing $.30 per acre to maintain, and the defendants argued that it should be the contractual amount agreed to for maintenance, even though the current rate had been $1.15 per acre. The defendants lost the suite and were ordered to pay Forman $.65 cents per acre per year to keep their water rights.
Not all of those who bought land on the bench were developers. After the canal was built families began to homestead, and then sold portions of their lands to newcomers who hoped to settle down. M.F. Eby’s property near present-day Curtis road had one of the first homes known to have been built on the bench, in 1887. Eby sold 80 of his 160 acres to the Curtis brothers, who sold half of their lot to C.A. Larson, and acquired additional property from H.B.Scott. Eby also relinquished acres to Oric and Russ Cole, the brothers who donated land for Cole School on the corner of Cole and Fairview. In 1892 Asa Tillotson arrived in Boise by wagon, along with his six children and pregnant wife. He managed to procure 5 acres from Benjamin Scott in Lake View Subdivision, east of the cemetery, and built a home and a living. Tillotson’s son, Asa, later worked for Meyer’s Orchard on the western rim, and he delivered milk, and ice cut from the electric light pond to Boise patrons by wagon. Asa went on to manage the Electric Light and Power plant below the bench (later Idaho Power at the present-day site of Ann Morrison Park), and eventually the younger Tillotson would open a grocery on the corner of 8th and Idaho Streets, and a sporting goods store in the old Hotel Boise building.
William Allen “Doc” Rankin was a land owner and hay farmer who established himself along the Ridenbaugh Canal, in 1894, when he purchased 160 acres on the Bench. Rankin was born in Indiana in 1863, his mother had immigrated to the United States from Ireland, in 1844. In 1905 Rankin brought a complaint against the Boise City Irrigation & Land Company about their failure to fulfill his contractual water rights as per his contract with Ridenbaugh. He petitioned the district court to compel the company to install a water wheel at the Farmer’s Lateral, so that it might adequately serve each of his 132 acres, “instead of the bare 10 acres [that were] under water.” He believed he had contractually secured his rights when he allowed the lateral directly through his property, but the agreement was ever-evolving. Much of Rankin’s ranch became the Rankin Tract, filed by the State of Idaho in 1924 a few years after the Doc had passed away. In the late 1960s plans for a public park were made for the last uninhabited bit of the Rankin Tract, and in the 1970s what was left of Rankin’s 160 acre claim was developed into Cassia Park, bound by the Ridenbaugh Canal on the north and the Farmer’s Lateral on the east.
By 1912 165,000 acres on the Bench had been reclaimed and were capable of producing apples, prunes, peaches, and cherries that were being grown in J.S.D. Manville’s orchard near the fairgrounds, or Meyer’s Orchards near the Electric Light Pond, or Malanthen Eby’s nursery just west of Curtis Street. Local families oversaw work on the farms that grew hay and asparagus that was sold at the local feed and seed, and to the dairies that relied on those feed farms. The produce grown on the bench was sold downtown, but it was also shipped to markets all over the country, and even to Europe. The Orchards have since been developed into suburban residences.
© Angie K. Davis 2020