Boise County by Hawley, 1920

By tracing these boundaries on a map of the state, it will be found that Boise County included all the present county of that name, as well as Ada, Canyon, Gem and Payette counties and the southern part of Washington. The Boise News of February 27, 1864, announced that the governor had appointed the following county officers: John C. Smith, Frank Moore and Henry I. Crow, commissioners; Sumner Pinkham, sheriff; Daniel McLaughlin, probate judge; Washington R. Underwood, auditor; Charles D. Vajen, treasurer. The following justices of the peace were also appointed: Charles Walker, Idaho City; J. H. Johnson and C. W. Depuy, Centerville; T. H. Stringham and Charles Woodbury, Placerville; and Daniel S. Holton, Boise City. The first term of the district court in the county was held beginning on Tuesday, February 23, 1864, before the county officers were appointed, Judge Samuel C. Parks presiding.

The first white men came into the Boise Basin in 1862, attracted thither by the hopeof finding gold—a hope in which they were not disappointed. Among the first to arrive were George Grimes, John Reynolds, Joseph Branstetter, Moses Splawn, D. H. Fogus and a few others, who made the wonderful discovery that led to the settlement and organization of Boise County two years later. Within a few months after the first discovery, several hundred men were prospecting all the valleys and gulches of the Basin. Idaho City, afterward the county seat of Boise County, Centerville, Placerville and Pioneer City were all thriving mining towns in 1863 and 1864, estimating their population in thousands. Late in the year 1862 and the early part of 1863 some of the most active pioneers were Marion Moore, David Alderson, Ralph Bledso, C. C. Higby, William Ritchie, John Hailey, Henry Greathouse, Ben Wilson, Wm. Lynch, George Thatcher and Capt. �Jeff� Standifer. Hailey and Greathouse were the proprietors of the first stage coach lines in the Basin, and Standifer commanded the first volunteer company when an Indian outbreak was threatened in the spring of 1863.

For twelve years the population of Boise County exceeded or equalled the population of the rest of the territory. Boise County had until 1873 four members of the Upper House of the Legislature and eight members of the Lower House, and from 1873 to 1880 had three members of the Upper House and eight of the Lower House, the total membership during that time of the entire Legislature being thirteen in the Upper House and twenty-six in the Lower House.

In 1868 the votes for the democratic candidate for delegate in Congress, upon which the delegations from the several counties were apportioned, were greater in Boise County than in all of the other counties of the state. In fact, the influence of Boise County in political conventions of both of the great parties was commanding until 1878, and the county took the lead in all political and business matters.

The second session of the Territorial Legislature cut off the southern and western parts of Boise County to form the County of Ada. Since then the boundary lines have several times been changed, and in 1917 the northern part of the county was taken to form the new County of Valley. Gem County in 1915, having already taken a part. This left Boise County only a fraction of its original size, bounded on the north by Valley County; on the east by Custer; on the southeast and south by the counties of Elmore and Ada; and on the west by Gem County.

Although Boise was the second county in the state to be permanently settled, it was the last county to have a railroad. In 19I2 the Oregon Short Line branch following the Payette River to Lakeport was completed through the county and gave a new impetus to agriculture, fruit growing and stock raising. On this railroad the stations of Banks, Gardena, Horseshoe Bend and Montour are the principal shipping points for the rich agricultural district of the Payette Valley. Away from the railroad the leading villages are Idaho City, the county seat, Centerville, Placerville and Quartzburg. A number of the old mining camps are still standing, with their deserted log cabins, and there are some who hope to see a revival of the mining industry, which would make a local market for the products of the farms that are being developed along all the streams.