Ignatz Weil, 3: Public Servant, Builder, Political Boss?

About Ignatz Weil 

Bonner County Courthouse, c. 1920

Original image, 10.270, courtesy of Bonner County Historical Museum, 

Sandpoint, Idaho

“SIGNING OF BILL”

During the same legislative session in which Ignatz’s case was considered, the legislature passed a law that divided Kootenai County into two counties: Kootenai to the south and Bonner to the north. When Governor Frank R. Gooding signed the bill enacting the division on Thursday, February 21, 1907, Bonner County was officially created. Even as the ink dried on the governor’s signature, Republicans were jostling for control of the several new county positions. (Pend Oreille Review, February 28, 1907, p. 1) 

According to an article in the February 28 edition of the Pend Oreille Review, “appointments of the new officials for Bonner county has proved a hard nut for Governor Gooding to crack. All the officials in Kootenai county whose homes are in the territory of the new county will be appointed to their same positions in Bonner county, but further than that it has been a hard task.” The positions that transferred to Bonner County were Attorney (Peter Johnson), Superintendent of Schools (J.W. Ramsay), Surveyor (J.K. Ashley, Jr.), Coroner, (Dr. William Knapp), and two commissionerships (A.J. Clark and J.P. Dunn). (Pend Oreille Review, February 28, 1907, p. 1) 

The positions that needed to be filled were Auditor, Clerk and Recorder; Sheriff; Treasurer; Assessor; Probate Judge; and one commissionership. Of these six positions, the toughest nut the governor had to crack was the “auditorship,” for which Ignatz had been put forth by state party vice-chair C.L. Heitman and C.J. Shoemaker, Kootenai County chair. According to an article in the February 28 edition of the Review, the “slate makers” (Heitman and Shoemaker) “got at cross purposes in the appointments” with “members of the lower house. (Pend Oreille Review, February 28, 1907, p. 1) 

S.D. Taylor, state representative from Bonners Ferry, sponsor of the bill that divided Kootenai county, and editor of the Bonners Ferry Herald, was the choice of the lawmakers. According to an article in the February 22 edition of the Northern Idaho News, Taylor “is said to seek the scalp of Ignatz Weil.” The article adds that there “is a hard scramble to head off Edwin Doust from being sheriff or the new county.” When Governor Gooding made his appointments in March, it was clear that he followed the Heitman/Shoemaker slate. Not only was Ignatz selected for the auditorship, Doust was appointed sheriff. In addition, Andrew was appointed treasurer; Frank Luce, assessor; George R. Barker, probate judge; and V.W. Roth, commissioner. (Northern Idaho News, February 22, 1907, p. 1; Pend Oreille Review, March 14, 1907, p. 1) 

“WEIL WILL BUILD IT” (…but which Weil?)

Bonner County had a staff, but it did not have a courthouse, and as might have been expected, political partisanship entered into initial discussions of the project. Although the commissioners initially accepted Ignatz’s offer of a lot for no charge in his first addition to the city, A.J. Dunn, the only Democrat on the board, balked when it came time to finance construction of a court house. “Certain local interests,” according to Dunn, “were in readiness to attack the validity of any warrant issues in payment of contract work upon the building under the law which provides that a county cannot expend more than $1,000 in a single contract without a vote of the people and the issue of bonds to carry the expenditure.” In an article in its April 11 edition, the Pend Oreille Review questioned the decision. The commissioners, the paper argues, could have “got around this law” by “letting the contracts piecemeal” in the same manner that commissioners in other Idaho counties had used. (Pend Oreille Review, May 9, 1907, p. 1; Pend Oreille Review, April 11, 1907, p. 1) 

In the same article, the Review also opined that it “will probably be necessary to have a temporary building erected by private enterprise for court house purposes and rented to the county.” Two months later, opinion became fact when the commissioners accepted Ignatz’s proposal to build a courthouse and lease it to the county. “Before adjourning last Friday,” reports the Review in its May 9 edition, “the board of county commissioners made arrangements with Ignatz Weil whereby he will build a court house building for the county to be rented the county at $150 a month.” (Pend Oreille Review, May 9, 1907, p. 1) 

Subsequently, however, there was a change in plans.  According to an article in the November 28 edition of the Review, the commissioners arranged with Irene Weil – not Ignatz Weil – to build the court house and to lease it from her. An article in the November 30 edition of the Bonners Ferry Herald echoes the Review’s account. “The new court house at Sandpoint,” the article begins, “has been completed and the county officers are moving in…It is owned by Mrs. Ignatz Weil.” Perhaps this technicality gave the commissioners a way around any potential accusations that, by accepting Weil’s proposal, they had sold their souls to the “Heitman-Weil ring.” (Pend Oreille Review, November 28, 1907, p. 1; Bonners Ferry Herald, November 30, 1907, p. 9) 

“Dirt,” reports an article in the July 11, 1907, edition of the Northern Idaho News, “was broken this week on the new court house. The new structure is to be of brick and will cost about $15,000. It will be two stories in height and 50 feet in width by 80 feet in length. Located on the east side of First avenue and in front of the jail, it will be a very attractive structure and will be a big improvement in that end of town.” Coeur d’Alene architect George Williams designed the building, and Sandpoint builder O.J. Peavey supervised its construction. (Northern Idaho News, July 11, 1907, p. 5) 

 

Bonner County, Idaho, Courthouse, 2023
Author's photograph

Over 100 years later, Mrs. Weil’s building not only still stands but continues to house Bonner County’s district court services. Originally built in the Italianate style of architecture, complete with quoins and pedimented windows, the building has undergone two major remodels. In 1939, an addition was built on the southeastern side of the original building after the Public Works Administration awarded the county a grant of nearly $100,000. Three decades later, in 1973, additions were tacked on the east and west sides of the building. During which remodel workers removed and bricked up the windows of the original building is not known. To the author’s way of thinking, it is fortunate that may of the building’s original quoins were not removed or obscured. 

“COURT HOUSE SITUATION”

Mrs. Weil may have owned the court house building, but it appears her husband managed her financial dealings with the county. In January 1908, during their monthly meeting, the commissioners disagreed over the amount of rent the county would pay for the space it occupied in the building. Roth precipitated the conflict when he proposed a change in the arrangements. Roth suggested that the county purchase the court house building “by paying Mr. Weil $300 a month as rent and Mr. Weil turning over the building to the county when the total amount paid in rentals amounted to the purchase price.” Clark and Dunn not only opposed the “proposition on general principles” but also claimed that they and Weil had agreed verbally to a rent of $150 per month. (Pend Oreille Review, February 14, 1908, p. 2; Pend Oreille Review, January 24, 1908, p. 1) 

In an article in the January 17 edition of the Pend Oreille Review, Weil admitted that the $150 figure had been mentioned when the building was being planned as a frame structure but denied there had been a verbal agreement. Later on, in fact, Ignatz said that he had asked “the board to make the rental of the building $200 a month” after he had decided to build a brick building, the cost of insuring a brick building being less than that for a frame building. Weil also admitted that he had agreed to Roth’s proposition because he thought that “the proposition to purchase” was good for the county. With tempers flaring, the commissioners decided to table further discussion. (Pend Oreille Review, January 17, 1908, p. 1) 

“PURCHASE OF THE COURT HOUSE”

Two months later, at their March meeting, the commissioners decided to purchase the court house. The vote, however, was not unanimous. According to an editorial in the March 13 edition of the Pend Oreille Review, Roth and Clark, “the two republicans on the board,” outvoted democrat Dunn and “decided to take over the court house on the installment plan, paying $300 a month on the purchase price.” The Review supported the decision, describing it as having been made in “accordance with a general public sentiment throughout the county, expressed by overwhelming petitions filed with the board.” According to a front page article in the same edition of the Review, Dunn voted against the purchase because “no effort had been made to secure petitions in opposition” to it. (Pend Oreille Review, March 13, 1908, p. 2; Pend Oreille Review, March 13, 1908, p. 1) 

File: USS Washington (ACR-11) off Seattle, Washington 1908.jpg
Wikimedia Commons, accessed March 15, 2023

“GO TO SEE THE FLEET”

At the end of May, Ignatz and Irene and nearly three dozen other “Sandpoint People” took an excursion to Seattle. According to an article in the May 27 edition of the Northern Idaho News, the group “took advantage of the excursion rates given by the Northern Pacific to Seattle,” chartered a “Pullman sleeper,” and “went in a body” from Sandpoint to Seattle to “take in the sights.” (Northern Idaho News, May 27, 1908, p. 11)

“BEFORE THE BATTLE”

A few months later, Ignatz and the other Republicans of Bonner County met in convention to nominate candidates for the upcoming general election. The proceedings were far from harmonious; as the Pend Oreille Review predicted in an article in an early August edition, the “white dove of peace” did not “flutter over” the convention. In the weeks leading up to the convention, according to an article in a July edition of the Review, Al Filson, who was still a Democrat and still editor of the Northern Idaho News, “had declared warfare upon the renomination of the republican county officials.” Pend Oreille Review, August 7, 1908, p. 1; Pend Oreille Review, July 17, 1908, p. 1) 

The article adds that Filson had selected S.D. Taylor, who still edited and owned the Bonners Ferry Herald, “as his candidate for state senator and for county chairman.” When Taylor failed to retain the chair, according to an editorial in the August 21 edition of the Pend Oreille Review, he and Filson intimated that sheriff Edwin Doust and Weil, despite not being up for re-election, had “used money to influence the votes of some of the delegates.” Filson also represented the ticket selected by the delegates as proof of the party having “completely broken up” the “court house ring,” which he implied Ignatz headed. (Pend Oreille Review, July 17, 1908, p. 1; Pend Oreille Review, August 21, 1908, p. 2; Northern Idaho News, August 18, 1908, p. 1) 

Apparently not satisfied with breaking up the “court house ring,” Filson additionally indulged in personal attacks against Weil and county commissioner Victor Roth. “Rabbi Roth,” the article states, “was an active nominee again for the First district, his cause being loudly championed by the high priest of the temple,” presumably Ignatz. The article also offers a mean-spirited poem titled “Convention Impressions.” Its only redeeming value is that it provides the correct pronunciation of Weil’s last name: 

“Roth has a bunch of whiskers

   Of which he does often feel

The convention it did clip them

   To make a wig for Weil.

Now that will be the proper stuff

   To cover that flat head

While dreaming all about the mine

   And snoozing in his bed.

It’s too bad the dear old Rabbi

   Was bumped by the convention,

But that awful courthouse deal –

Well, that’s enough to mention.”

Roth was indeed a religious teacher but of Christianity, not Judaism. According to his obituary published in the January 21, 1942, edition of Spokane’s Spokesman-Review, Roth served the Hope and Clark Fork area of Bonner County as a Congregational pastor for 50 years. (Northern Idaho News, August 18, 1908, p. 7)

File: James H. Brady.jpg
Wikimedia Commons, accessed March 15, 2023

 

“REPUBLICAN VICTORY!”

After all the votes were counted, it was clear that the voters of Bonner County had not let the Republican in-fighting influence their decisions. As an article in the November 6 edition of the Pend Oreille Review put it, the “result of the election in Bonner county was a republican landslide from presidential electors to coroner.” It was a grand year for the G.O.P. at all levels of government. William Howard Taft won the presidency, and James H. Brady became Idaho’s governor. (Pend Oreille Review, November 6, 1908, p. 1)

Prosperity and Hardship, 1909 through 1931