Ignatz Weil

Ignatz Weil, right side of far back row, c. 1908. Original Image #10.051 courtesy of Bonner County Historical Museum, Sandpoint, Idaho

Ignatz Weil: Bonner County’s Overlooked Booster profiles Ignatz Weil who arrived in the Sandpoint area of Bonner County, Idaho, in the earliest days of the area's colonization by American settlers. Now largely unknown, Weil, whose last name is pronounced "wheel," played a significant role in the “upbuilding” of Sandpoint and Bonner County as a businessman, real estate developer, public servant, and philanthropist.  

This profile is divided into four posts:
Introduction:
Ignatz Weil deserves a better fate than history has given him. Largely unknown today, Weil was as important to the “upbuilding” of Sandpoint and Bonner County as were Lorenzo and Ella Mae Farmin, the husband and wife who platted the City of Sandpoint in 1898. In fact, Weil (pronounced “wheel”) migrated to what would become Sandpoint in 1891, a year before the Farmins’ arrived in 1892. Upon his arrival in the area, Weil set up a general merchandise business and also pursued a variety of commercial interests, including the development of mining and timber properties in Bonner County. At the turn of the twentieth century, he diversified into the sale of insurance and real estate. Three additions to the southeastern part of Sandpoint bear his name. 

As important as he was to the economic development of Sandpoint and the surrounding area, his contributions to the establishment of local government merit greater acknowledgement. An “enthusiastic advocate of” dividing north Idaho’s expansive Kootenai County in half, north to south, Weil participated in a successful grassroots campaign that convinced Idaho lawmakers in March 1905 to abolish Kootenai County and divided it into Lewis and Clark counties. However, almost as soon as he had been appointed Clerk of Lewis County, the Idaho Supreme Court declared the division law unconstitutional. (Bonners Ferry Herald, February 11, 1893, p. 4)

Undaunted, Weil and other supporters of county division persisted, and two years later, on February 21, 1907, the state legislature created Bonner County. Shortly after Idaho governor Frank R. Gooding had appointed him Bonner County’s first Clerk, Auditor, and Recorder, Weil provided the new county with a building to house its services. Over 100 years later, the courthouse he built still stands and still houses the county’s District Court services. 

In addition to his public service, Weil also participated in several civic organizations, such as the Commercial Club, precursor to today’s Chamber of Commerce, and contributed generously to community-wide charitable efforts. During World War I, for example, he not only pledged his financial support but also served as a member of the executive committee that coordinated  Idaho’s participation in two Liberty Loan fund-raising drives. As busy as he was, Ignatz and his wife Irene found time to socialize with friends in Sandpoint and Bonners Ferry and often traveled to nearby Spokane, Washington to enjoy cultural attractions, such as ballets and plays. 

In the mid-1920s, Ignatz began having financial troubles and eventually lost much of his and Irene’s wealth. At the time of his death from an apparent heart attack on April 1, 1931, at the age of 78, he and Irene were living in a rented cottage in the Lakeside area of Bonner County. Only Irene survived him, the couple having had no children. Both Ignatz and Irene, who passed away in Sandpoint in December 1945, are interred in Sandpoint’s Lakeview Cemetery.



Ignatz and Irene's big yellow cat
Heidi Hamilton, 2023


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Frances Sleep: Chair and Advisor, 1966 through 1968

Image
  Sandpoint News-Bulletin , November 10, 1966 About Frances Sleep Meeting Chair In mid-November 1966, just days after being re-elected Bonner County’s Probate Judge in the general election, Judge Sleep presided over the annual meeting of the Idaho Conference of Social Welfare in Boise. If accounts of the proceedings in the Idaho Statesman are accurate, Conference President Sleep oversaw a rancorous meeting. First, Idaho Governor Robert E. Smylie insulted a group of Idaho housewives, and then the conferees nearly censured the Idaho Department of Public Assistance and its director.   An account of the Smiley insult incident is in an article in the November 18 edition of the Idaho Statesman . Unfortunately, it so confusing that an exact sequence of events is difficult to determine. The Idaho Conference on Social Welfare, it seems, had invited the governor to speak at its annual meeting – something he had done in the past. In 1966, however, Smylie was unable to appear in-pers...
Read more

Frances Sleep: President-Developer-Commissioner, 1961

Image
Idaho Statesman , January 1961 About Frances Sleep     President, Idaho Press Women According to an article in the Saturday, January 21, 1961, edition of the Idaho Statesman , Judge Sleep had recently arrived in Boise to preside as president at the annual meeting and luncheon of the Idaho Press Women . Before the women got down to business, however, they enjoyed a luncheon at which Betty Penson, the “Statesman’s woman’s editor,” and former Idaho governor C.A. Bottolfsen, spoke. Penson discussed her experiences on a recent trip to Africa, and Bottolfsen – with Idaho’s territorial centennial only two years away – challenged those present to do more to publicize Idaho’s “rich treasury of history.”” ( Idaho Statesman , January 23, 1961, p. 9) Flag-raising ceremony, Camp Pioneer, Priest Lake, July 1961 Idaho Youth Conservation Corps “Developer” In mid-February, a n article in the February 12 edition of the  Idaho Statesman  reports that , a bill "setting up a pilot ...
Read more

My Company Tis of Thee

Image
Update :  Court OK's Hudson's Bay selling trademarks, like iconic stripes, to Canadian Tire , CBC , June 3, 2025 While the Thirteen American Colonies gained their independence from Great Britain in 1776, another English colony in North America could not claim the same until 1846. Located in the upper northwestern corner of North America, the British originally called the colony the Columbia District , and later, the Columbia Department. When the geopolitical ambitions of the young United States stirred at the turn of the 19 th century, its citizens not only claimed the colony as its own but also renamed it. Nineteenth century Americans called the region, the Oregon Country . Relying on diplomacy, it took the United States and Great Britain nearly 40 years to resolve their conflicting claims on the territory. The first formal agreement between the two nations came in 1818 when they agreed to occupy the region jointly. At that time, however, neither the U.S. nor Great Britain wa...
Read more