Ignatz Weil, 2: Entrepreneur and Booster, 1900 - 1907

 About Ignatz Weil

“SEEN AND HEARD ABOUT TOWN.”

According to his 1900 U.S. Census record accessed via Ancestry. com, Ignatz identified his occupation as “accountant.” Had the Census been taken a year later, Ignatz might have listed his occupation as “real estate developer.” During the period from 1901 through 1907, Weil expanded the City of Sandpoint to the southeast by platting three separate additions, all of which bear his name: Weil’s Addition, Weil’s Second Addition, and Weil’s Third Addition. 

“ALL ARE ENTHUSIASTIC FOR COUNTY DIVISION”

Several years after platting his additions, Weil turned his attention to political matters, and in 1904, was selected to serve on “supervisory committee” formed to promote the division of Kootenai County, in which Sandpoint was located, into two separate ones, to be known as Lewis and Clark counties. The committee achieved its goal in the spring of 1905 when the Idaho Legislature enacted a law that abolished Kootenai County and created two counties: Lewis to the north and Clark to the south. Within days of the bill’s passage, a slate of Lewis County officials was appointed, with Weil serving as County Clerk. By the end of the month, however, he was out of a job. Opponents of the division law challenged it in court, and the Idaho Supreme Court sided with them and declared the law unconstitutional. (Northern Idaho News, December 23, 1904, p. 1) 

“REPUBLICANS HOLD COUNTY CONVENTION”

At the end of July 1906, Kootenai County Republicans selected Ignatz as their candidate for the Idaho State Senate. To say that his nomination was unpopular among certain members of the party is an understatement. Decried by his detractors as a sycophant of county chairman C.L. Heitman, Weil became embroiled in an ugly campaign that ended in his contesting the results of the election. (Pend Oreille Review, July 26, 1906, p. 1) 

C.L. Heitman, second from the right

A native of North Carolina, attorney Charles L. Heitman moved to Idaho in 1890 and settled in Rathdrum, then seat of Kootenai County. After establishing a “lucrative law practice” while also accumulating “considerable ranch property,” Heitman became active in Kootenai County politics. In 1906, as chair of the county organization, Heitman also chaired the party’s convention, held that year in Coeur d’Alene. According to an article in the July 26 edition of Sandpoint’s Pend Oreille Review, edited by Republican George R. Barker, the selection of delegates to the state Republican convention in Pocatello turned into an “acrimonious fight” between Heitman and a faction led by Judge Ralph T. Morgan of Harrison, a community south of Coeur d’Alene. “The debate,” explains the article, “became very heated and lasted “for an hour or two.” Its length delayed the vote on nominations until the evening session, which, according to the Review, few Morgan delegates attended. (Spokane Chronicle, September 20, 1927, p. 20; Pend Oreille Review, July 26, 1906, p. 1)

Keeping in mind that Kootenai County encompassed the present counties of Boundary, Bonner, Kootenai, and Benewah, the party “in convention assembled” put forth the following ticket for the 1906 campaign:

• Idaho state senator, Ignatz Weil of Sandpoint
• Idaho state representatives, Joseph Fallon of Coeur d’Alene, J.C. Finstad of Priest River and J.W. Knight of Bonners Ferry
• Sheriff, Charles McDonald of Rathdrum
• Clerk and recorder, Robert McCrea of Rathdrum
• Probate judge, M.D. Friedenberg of Coeur d’Alene
• Treasurer, C.J. Shoemaker of Coeur d’Alene
• Superintendent of schools, J.W. Ramsay of Kootenai
• County attorney, Peter Johnson of Sandpoint
• Assessor, C.A. Bailor of Emid
• Coroner, Dr. W.M. Knapp of Hope
• County surveyor, J.K. Ashley, Jr. of Sandpoint
• Commissioners, first district, C.C. Edwards of St. Maries; second district, H.A. Clark of Laclede; third district, W.A. Leslie of Bonners Ferry 

Although a Democrat, Al Filson, editor of Sandpoint’s Northern Idaho News, did not hesitate to use his paper to advance the cause of the Morgan faction, of which he was a member. “The republican county convention in Coeur d’Alene,” according to an article in the July 27 edition of the News, “resolved itself into one man’s convention and Charles L. Heitman, who had prepared a slate of county officers as well as a set of rules and resolutions let them through with clock like precision and named his list of 23 delegates to the state convention.” (Pend Oreille Review, September 29, 1927, p. 4)

In contrast, S.D. Taylor, another Kootenai County newspaper editor and a Republican, called on the carpet those Sandpoint Republicans who had found “fault with the nomination of their fellow townsman, Ignatz Weil, for State Senator.” In an editorial in the August 4 edition of his paper, the Bonners Ferry Herald, Taylor, writes, “Sandpoint is not the whole thing in the Republican party. The Republicans of Kootenai had the right to say whom they preferred for their candidate for senator and by a vote of 78 out of a possible 109 they pronounced in favor of Mr. Weil. If the people of Sandpoint could not have their first choice [incumbent H.H. Taylor], they ought to feel grateful that another fellow townsman was honored with the nomination.” “All must admit,” Taylor concludes, “that Mr. Weil is splendid senatorial timber.” (Bonners Ferry Herald, August 4, 1906, p. 3)

“MORGAN TO BOLT COUNTY TICKET”

On September 1, a special dispatch from Sandpoint to Boise’s Idaho Statesman announced that Judge Morgan and his friends had bolted from the county Republican ticket and would “do all possible to elect democratic ticket in Kootenai.” Morgan and his followers explained in a press release that, “it is time for the Republicans of Kootenai county to act, inasmuch as the so-called Republican county ticket put up at Coeur d’Alene six weeks ago was dictated by one man and that inasmuch as the methods used at that convention are un-American and contrary to the principles of Republicanism and the further fact that the various candidates named on the ticket were not chosen by the boss on account of their qualifications to fill the various offices but that, on the contrary, they were chosen because they were men whom he could best control and because these candidates are all members of the ring.” (Idaho Statesman, September 1, 1906, p. 1)

Coverage of the bolt in the Sandpoint and Bonners Ferry newspapers reflected the two sides of the debate. The Review called Morgan and his followers “a fine bunch of democrats and republican soreheads,” while the News claimed that the Republicans had organized “to break boss rule.” The News also exulted in the defeat of the “Heitman Weil machine” in the local school election. “Judge Morgan and a half dozen of his followers,” writes the Herald, “are attempting to betray the Republican party. They were fairly and overwhelmingly defeated in the primaries of the county.” (Pend Oreille Review, September 6, 1906, p. 1; Northern Idaho News, September 7, 1906, p. 1; Bonners Ferry Herald, September 20, 1906, p. 1) 

In the last days of the campaign, the contest crossed state lines. The Spokane Brewing and Malting Company placed an inset letter on the front page of the October 25 edition of the Coeur d’Alene Press in defense of their products, if not Ignatz who distributed them in Sandpoint. The letter reads, 

“TO OUR CUSTOMERS:

            The Coeur d’Alene Press, the leading Democratic paper of the County, is publishing the following with reference to Ignatz Weil, Republican nominee for State Senator in Kootenai County:

            “Ignatz Weil, Republican nominee for State Senator, is the distributing agent for Spokane beer at Sandpoint. Following is a reproduction of the wording of a display advertisement clipped from the columns of the Pend d’Oreille Review, Mr. Weil’s organ and support at Sandpoint: 

‘The kind your neighbor drinks,

“Gilt Top”

Bottled Beer

Is the best that can be made.

Try it. We know it will please you.

Spokane Brewing & Malting Co.,

Spokane, Wash.

Ignatz Weil.                 Distributing Agt.’

How do the temperance people like “The kind of beer your neighbor drinks?” This wiley son of Israel is “Distributing Agent.””

            It is rarely that this company feels compelled to be drawn into politics in any way whatsoever, because amongst its stockholders and directors it includes persons of different political faiths, but the enclosed extract from the Coeur d’Alene Press is as absolutely unnecessary and ridiculous that we feel it a duty to call the attention of our friends to same without any other or further comment than this.

            That through an association of newspapers our “Gilt Top” bottled beer is advertised in about twenty leading towns in Washington and Idaho, principally in county seats, and if there is any distributing agent his name is attached to same.

            Now, it appears the opponents of Mr. Weil have appealed to the prohibitionists and temperance people to oppose him solely on this ground, and the attempt, while ridiculous and absurd, should at least be understood by the saloon men in all its bearings on the case.

            We do not know who his opponent is, either by name or otherwise, but the people supporting him evidently have used him in connection with the prohibition and temperance cause, from which you may draw your conclusions and direct your actions.

                                                                        Faithfully yours,

                                                     SPOKANE BREWING & MALTING CO.”

(Coeur d’Alene Press, October 25, 1906, p. 1)

“WEIL TO CONTEST”

Ignatz’s opponent, Democrat J.L. McClear of Coeur d’Alene, was declared the winner of the race, but at the end of November, Weil announced he would contest the results of the election. According to an article in the November 29 edition of the Pend Oreille Review, the “main contest will be over the vote in Mr. McClear’s home precinct of Coeur d’Alene, where irregularities are charged. It is claimed that the law was not fully enforced at the election and that the counting judges were in the same room with the board of election and that it was possible all during the day for a tab to be kept on the standing of the vote. It is also claimed that electioneering was permitted inside the election place.” (Pend Oreille Review, November 29, 1906, p. 1)

The Northern Idaho News, no friend of Ignatz and his associate, C.L. Heitman, offered another explanation of Weil’s decision to contest the election results. The News, according to an editorial in its December 14 edition, could “see only one reason and that is that Mr. Heitman believes that he can thus defeat the passage of the county division bill. The News doubts whether Mr. Heitman believes himself that he can seat Ignatz Weil, but he does believe evidently that he can keep Hon. J.L. McClear from taking his seat and by prolonging this contest for McClear’s seat he can bring about the defeat of the county division measure.” (Northern Idaho News, December 17, 1906, p. 2) 

Regardless of his (or Heitman’s) motivations, Ignatz proceeded with the contest, and in mid-December, depositions were taken in probate court at Rathdrum. The “question as to who will represent the county of Kootenai in the next state senate” was then presented to that body, which, in mid-January 1907, voted to dismiss the contest and seat McClear. Ignatz was philosophical about the decision. “I am not feeling at all bad over the outcome,” he is quoted as saying in an article in the January 17 edition of the Pend Oreille Review. “It isn’t even fun to be at Boise this winter. There is no senatorial fight, no fight over anything and Boise looks dead this session, much different in appearance than two years ago. I much prefer remaining here [Sandpoint] and attending to my own business, but of course I was in the scrap and was bound to see it through.” (Lewiston Evening Teller, January 15, 1907, p. 6; Pend Oreille Review, January 17, 1907, p. 1)

Public Servant, Builder, Political Boss?, 1907-1908