Isaac was the older brother to David S. Bedal (included in the bio below). Isaac's brother Elias, was the mayor of Walnut Grove, and Elias' son Lafayette Bedal, was Laura Ingalls Wilder's real teacher.
Isaac was clearly named for his father, and both his grandfathers, all of whom were named Isaac.
There has been some confusion about Isaac's birth date, however bible records, censuses, his gravestone, and forms he filled out during his life give or imply 1833 as his birth year.
Other dates and ages Isaac gives in various affidavits are inconsistent. In an 1887 homestead application, Isaac states, in answer to the question whether he is a U.S. citizen, "I suppose I am. My father was a native born citizen of the U.S. and moved to Canada, where I was born. He never became a British subject. I have lived in the U.S. ever since I was 8 years old." In a 1908 affidavit for his Civil War pension application, Isaac states "that he moved from Canada in April, 1845, that he was Twelve (12) years of age when he left Canada, he having often seen record of his birth in the old Family Bible." Isaac was at least 18 when he and his parents moved to Wisconsin, probably around 1855. Most likely he had not become naturalized and fudged the date of his arrival here in order to claim citizenship.
In affidavits, Isaac gives two completely different dates for his marriage--one January 15, 1859 and the other February 3, 1858. The true date, as recorded in the courthouse in Green Lake, Wisconsin, was February 3, 1859.
Isaac is listed as a farmer with his wife and 9-month-old son James in the 1860 Brooklin, Green Lake Co., Wisconsin, Census. The family then moved for a time to Dover Township, Olmsted Co., Minnesota, where on February 29, 1864, he enlisted with his brother Elias and brother-in-law Gabriel Huff in the C Co Brackett's Minnesota Cavalry Regiment. At that time he was 5' 8" tall, with hazel eyes, dark hair, and a dark complexion. After his enlistment, his Battalion did not fight the Rebels. Instead they marched West to do battle with the Sioux Indians. While he was in the army, around July 18, 1864, near Fort Rice, Dakota Territory, Isaac drank or used alkali water, which caused him piles that affected him the rest of his life.
At the time of the 1865 Minnesota State Census, Isaac and his family are listed between the families of his sisters Sarah and Rebecca, followed by brothers Cornelius and Elias and their families. He was mustered out on May 24, 1866. In 1868, "I. Bedel" is shown in section 8 of Dover Township on a plat map of Minnesota, still in a tight clump with his siblings. In 1870, Isaac and his family were living in Sioux City, Iowa, where his younger brother David was also living. There he was employed as a general laborer, and according to one affidavit, in the dairy business. In 1880, Isaac's family was living in Sunshine, Boulder Co., Colorado, where Isaac and his two oldest sons worked as miners.
"... the family moved to Colorado and in July 1882, arrived in the Boise Basin of Idaho, where Isaac Bedal homsteaded the ground now covered by the Barber Mill. After twelve years in that locality he sold out and bought eighty acres seven miles south of Boise. This became the scene of his subsequent activites as a farmer and cattle man. He died in March, 1917. He had been a soldier in the Civil war and in after years was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, always voted as a Republican, and he and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Of their five children three are living: James J. [sic]; Hattie, wife of Thomas Mayne, a farmer on the Idaho City road; and Oliver, a logger in timber camps in Washington, whose home is at Walla Walla." [Defenbach, Byron. "Idaho: The Place and Its People (Vol. 3)." Chicago, New York: The American Historical Society, 1933. p. 118.]
Isaac and his family had been living on the land he claimed since September of 1884, when he built a one-story 14 x 24 lumber box house. The house had a shingle roof, battened walls, and one room with two doors and four glazed windows.
According to an affidavit given in October of 1897 by son James, in October of 1887 [or perhaps 1897?] while "riding a fracious horse in the mountains [Isaac] was thrown from the horse on a steep side hill on the summit coming from Highland Valley to Boise City." He fractured his shoulder and suffered from it after that time.
In the 1890 Boise directory there is an Isaac Beddel along with a Frank, Joseph, M, and Wm listed at the Boise Post Office. These may or may not be the Bedal family. In the 1900 census, he was living with his son William and his family, and in the 1910 census he was living on his own.
Sometime in October 1913, the following article appeared in the Idaho Statesman along with a large photograph of Isaac:
_______________
Idaho Pioneer Never Called in a Doctor Until He Was 80
Never to have had a doctor but once from the time of his birth to his eightieth year is the record of Isaac Bedal of Boise. To be absolutely correct, it lacked just a week of his eightieth year when Mr. Bedal had a doctor the second time and that was two weeks ago when a kick from a horse fractured his right arm. Up to that period the only time when Mr. Bedal had a doctor was when he was 22 years old and was taken with typhoid fever. [There is no mention of the fracture his son attested to in 1897.] He attributes his excellent health to the fact that he has never smoked or chewed, only rarely takes a glass of beer, and never anything stronger. Even now, with the bones of his arm literally splintered, he suffers almost pain.
* * *
Mr. Bedal was born at Prince Edward Island [sic], but his family moved to the United States when he was but a mere boy. The west always lured him, he says, and he traveled about as fast as civilization. First he immigrated to Wisconsin 60 years ago, then only a sparsely settled territory, then he pushed on to Minnesota, where he enlisted in the war; afterwards he went to Sioux City, Ia., and then to Denver. In Denver he remained 12 years and having still a desire to be a cattleman, an ambition which he had always had but never attained, he came to Idaho. He took up 160 acres of land where Barberton now stands, and finally took up the cattle business. As he had to depend on dry farming of his claim, he found it profitable to run the Kelly hot springs, which he leased from Milton Kelly. It is as the proprietor of these springs that Mr. Bedal is best known to Boise pioneers. It was to his resort that the village came for its weekly bath, usually on Sundays. The resort t was well equipped, Mr. Bedal said, with hot and cold baths, a swimming pool and a plunge. Meals were served and some rheumatism patients stayed weeks at a time taking the mud and natural hot water baths.
The place was a money coiner until the hot water flow was struck for the Natatorium, and then the hot springs lost their popularity.
Mr. Bedal sold his dry land to the Barber Lumber company and since then has not engaged in active business, although he has always been too fond of work to do nothing. His recent accident was caused by his helping cut hay on his son's ranch. He has four sons and one daughter, Mrs. Hattie Mayne, his wife having died some years ago.
Mr. Bedal has always taken an active interest in public affairs both state and national and he laughingly remarked last week that he thought it about time The Statesman pensioned him since he had never missed a subscription in 30 years, the paper enabling him to keep up with the world's work. Mr. Bedal is at present at St. Alphonsus hospital, where he was taken at the time of his recent accident.
_______________
Isaac's obituary appeared in the March 28, 1917, Idaho Statesman: "Isaac Bedal died at a Boise hospital Tuesday at the age of 84, death resulting from paralysis. He leaves five children, James and Charles E. of Boise, Oliver of Parma, William of Ada county, and Mrs. Hattie Maynes of Moore's creek. The deceased was a civil war veteran and pioneer of this section. He was a member of company C, Brackette battalion, Minnesota cavalry, and was a member of Phil Sheridan post, G.A.R. The funeral will be held Thursday at 1:30 at the Shcreiber & Sidenfaden chapel. Members of the G.A.R. and Ladies of the G.A.R., also W.R.C., are invited to attend. A special funeral car will be provided for friends. Interment will be in Morris Hill Cemetery."
[Family research by: Stephen Handorf]
Isaac was clearly named for his father, and both his grandfathers, all of whom were named Isaac.
There has been some confusion about Isaac's birth date, however bible records, censuses, his gravestone, and forms he filled out during his life give or imply 1833 as his birth year.
Other dates and ages Isaac gives in various affidavits are inconsistent. In an 1887 homestead application, Isaac states, in answer to the question whether he is a U.S. citizen, "I suppose I am. My father was a native born citizen of the U.S. and moved to Canada, where I was born. He never became a British subject. I have lived in the U.S. ever since I was 8 years old." In a 1908 affidavit for his Civil War pension application, Isaac states "that he moved from Canada in April, 1845, that he was Twelve (12) years of age when he left Canada, he having often seen record of his birth in the old Family Bible." Isaac was at least 18 when he and his parents moved to Wisconsin, probably around 1855. Most likely he had not become naturalized and fudged the date of his arrival here in order to claim citizenship.
In affidavits, Isaac gives two completely different dates for his marriage--one January 15, 1859 and the other February 3, 1858. The true date, as recorded in the courthouse in Green Lake, Wisconsin, was February 3, 1859.
Isaac is listed as a farmer with his wife and 9-month-old son James in the 1860 Brooklin, Green Lake Co., Wisconsin, Census. The family then moved for a time to Dover Township, Olmsted Co., Minnesota, where on February 29, 1864, he enlisted with his brother Elias and brother-in-law Gabriel Huff in the C Co Brackett's Minnesota Cavalry Regiment. At that time he was 5' 8" tall, with hazel eyes, dark hair, and a dark complexion. After his enlistment, his Battalion did not fight the Rebels. Instead they marched West to do battle with the Sioux Indians. While he was in the army, around July 18, 1864, near Fort Rice, Dakota Territory, Isaac drank or used alkali water, which caused him piles that affected him the rest of his life.
At the time of the 1865 Minnesota State Census, Isaac and his family are listed between the families of his sisters Sarah and Rebecca, followed by brothers Cornelius and Elias and their families. He was mustered out on May 24, 1866. In 1868, "I. Bedel" is shown in section 8 of Dover Township on a plat map of Minnesota, still in a tight clump with his siblings. In 1870, Isaac and his family were living in Sioux City, Iowa, where his younger brother David was also living. There he was employed as a general laborer, and according to one affidavit, in the dairy business. In 1880, Isaac's family was living in Sunshine, Boulder Co., Colorado, where Isaac and his two oldest sons worked as miners.
"... the family moved to Colorado and in July 1882, arrived in the Boise Basin of Idaho, where Isaac Bedal homsteaded the ground now covered by the Barber Mill. After twelve years in that locality he sold out and bought eighty acres seven miles south of Boise. This became the scene of his subsequent activites as a farmer and cattle man. He died in March, 1917. He had been a soldier in the Civil war and in after years was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, always voted as a Republican, and he and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Of their five children three are living: James J. [sic]; Hattie, wife of Thomas Mayne, a farmer on the Idaho City road; and Oliver, a logger in timber camps in Washington, whose home is at Walla Walla." [Defenbach, Byron. "Idaho: The Place and Its People (Vol. 3)." Chicago, New York: The American Historical Society, 1933. p. 118.]
Isaac and his family had been living on the land he claimed since September of 1884, when he built a one-story 14 x 24 lumber box house. The house had a shingle roof, battened walls, and one room with two doors and four glazed windows.
According to an affidavit given in October of 1897 by son James, in October of 1887 [or perhaps 1897?] while "riding a fracious horse in the mountains [Isaac] was thrown from the horse on a steep side hill on the summit coming from Highland Valley to Boise City." He fractured his shoulder and suffered from it after that time.
In the 1890 Boise directory there is an Isaac Beddel along with a Frank, Joseph, M, and Wm listed at the Boise Post Office. These may or may not be the Bedal family. In the 1900 census, he was living with his son William and his family, and in the 1910 census he was living on his own.
Sometime in October 1913, the following article appeared in the Idaho Statesman along with a large photograph of Isaac:
_______________
Idaho Pioneer Never Called in a Doctor Until He Was 80
Never to have had a doctor but once from the time of his birth to his eightieth year is the record of Isaac Bedal of Boise. To be absolutely correct, it lacked just a week of his eightieth year when Mr. Bedal had a doctor the second time and that was two weeks ago when a kick from a horse fractured his right arm. Up to that period the only time when Mr. Bedal had a doctor was when he was 22 years old and was taken with typhoid fever. [There is no mention of the fracture his son attested to in 1897.] He attributes his excellent health to the fact that he has never smoked or chewed, only rarely takes a glass of beer, and never anything stronger. Even now, with the bones of his arm literally splintered, he suffers almost pain.
* * *
Mr. Bedal was born at Prince Edward Island [sic], but his family moved to the United States when he was but a mere boy. The west always lured him, he says, and he traveled about as fast as civilization. First he immigrated to Wisconsin 60 years ago, then only a sparsely settled territory, then he pushed on to Minnesota, where he enlisted in the war; afterwards he went to Sioux City, Ia., and then to Denver. In Denver he remained 12 years and having still a desire to be a cattleman, an ambition which he had always had but never attained, he came to Idaho. He took up 160 acres of land where Barberton now stands, and finally took up the cattle business. As he had to depend on dry farming of his claim, he found it profitable to run the Kelly hot springs, which he leased from Milton Kelly. It is as the proprietor of these springs that Mr. Bedal is best known to Boise pioneers. It was to his resort that the village came for its weekly bath, usually on Sundays. The resort t was well equipped, Mr. Bedal said, with hot and cold baths, a swimming pool and a plunge. Meals were served and some rheumatism patients stayed weeks at a time taking the mud and natural hot water baths.
The place was a money coiner until the hot water flow was struck for the Natatorium, and then the hot springs lost their popularity.
Mr. Bedal sold his dry land to the Barber Lumber company and since then has not engaged in active business, although he has always been too fond of work to do nothing. His recent accident was caused by his helping cut hay on his son's ranch. He has four sons and one daughter, Mrs. Hattie Mayne, his wife having died some years ago.
Mr. Bedal has always taken an active interest in public affairs both state and national and he laughingly remarked last week that he thought it about time The Statesman pensioned him since he had never missed a subscription in 30 years, the paper enabling him to keep up with the world's work. Mr. Bedal is at present at St. Alphonsus hospital, where he was taken at the time of his recent accident.
_______________
Isaac's obituary appeared in the March 28, 1917, Idaho Statesman: "Isaac Bedal died at a Boise hospital Tuesday at the age of 84, death resulting from paralysis. He leaves five children, James and Charles E. of Boise, Oliver of Parma, William of Ada county, and Mrs. Hattie Maynes of Moore's creek. The deceased was a civil war veteran and pioneer of this section. He was a member of company C, Brackette battalion, Minnesota cavalry, and was a member of Phil Sheridan post, G.A.R. The funeral will be held Thursday at 1:30 at the Shcreiber & Sidenfaden chapel. Members of the G.A.R. and Ladies of the G.A.R., also W.R.C., are invited to attend. A special funeral car will be provided for friends. Interment will be in Morris Hill Cemetery."
[Family research by: Stephen Handorf]
Isaac was the older brother to David S. Bedal (included in the bio below). Isaac's brother Elias, was the mayor of Walnut Grove, and Elias' son Lafayette Bedal, was Laura Ingalls Wilder's real teacher.
Isaac was clearly named for his father, and both his grandfathers, all of whom were named Isaac.
There has been some confusion about Isaac's birth date, however bible records, censuses, his gravestone, and forms he filled out during his life give or imply 1833 as his birth year.
Other dates and ages Isaac gives in various affidavits are inconsistent. In an 1887 homestead application, Isaac states, in answer to the question whether he is a U.S. citizen, "I suppose I am. My father was a native born citizen of the U.S. and moved to Canada, where I was born. He never became a British subject. I have lived in the U.S. ever since I was 8 years old." In a 1908 affidavit for his Civil War pension application, Isaac states "that he moved from Canada in April, 1845, that he was Twelve (12) years of age when he left Canada, he having often seen record of his birth in the old Family Bible." Isaac was at least 18 when he and his parents moved to Wisconsin, probably around 1855. Most likely he had not become naturalized and fudged the date of his arrival here in order to claim citizenship.
In affidavits, Isaac gives two completely different dates for his marriage--one January 15, 1859 and the other February 3, 1858. The true date, as recorded in the courthouse in Green Lake, Wisconsin, was February 3, 1859.
Isaac is listed as a farmer with his wife and 9-month-old son James in the 1860 Brooklin, Green Lake Co., Wisconsin, Census. The family then moved for a time to Dover Township, Olmsted Co., Minnesota, where on February 29, 1864, he enlisted with his brother Elias and brother-in-law Gabriel Huff in the C Co Brackett's Minnesota Cavalry Regiment. At that time he was 5' 8" tall, with hazel eyes, dark hair, and a dark complexion. After his enlistment, his Battalion did not fight the Rebels. Instead they marched West to do battle with the Sioux Indians. While he was in the army, around July 18, 1864, near Fort Rice, Dakota Territory, Isaac drank or used alkali water, which caused him piles that affected him the rest of his life.
At the time of the 1865 Minnesota State Census, Isaac and his family are listed between the families of his sisters Sarah and Rebecca, followed by brothers Cornelius and Elias and their families. He was mustered out on May 24, 1866. In 1868, "I. Bedel" is shown in section 8 of Dover Township on a plat map of Minnesota, still in a tight clump with his siblings. In 1870, Isaac and his family were living in Sioux City, Iowa, where his younger brother David was also living. There he was employed as a general laborer, and according to one affidavit, in the dairy business. In 1880, Isaac's family was living in Sunshine, Boulder Co., Colorado, where Isaac and his two oldest sons worked as miners.
"... the family moved to Colorado and in July 1882, arrived in the Boise Basin of Idaho, where Isaac Bedal homsteaded the ground now covered by the Barber Mill. After twelve years in that locality he sold out and bought eighty acres seven miles south of Boise. This became the scene of his subsequent activites as a farmer and cattle man. He died in March, 1917. He had been a soldier in the Civil war and in after years was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, always voted as a Republican, and he and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Of their five children three are living: James J. [sic]; Hattie, wife of Thomas Mayne, a farmer on the Idaho City road; and Oliver, a logger in timber camps in Washington, whose home is at Walla Walla." [Defenbach, Byron. "Idaho: The Place and Its People (Vol. 3)." Chicago, New York: The American Historical Society, 1933. p. 118.]
Isaac and his family had been living on the land he claimed since September of 1884, when he built a one-story 14 x 24 lumber box house. The house had a shingle roof, battened walls, and one room with two doors and four glazed windows.
According to an affidavit given in October of 1897 by son James, in October of 1887 [or perhaps 1897?] while "riding a fracious horse in the mountains [Isaac] was thrown from the horse on a steep side hill on the summit coming from Highland Valley to Boise City." He fractured his shoulder and suffered from it after that time.
In the 1890 Boise directory there is an Isaac Beddel along with a Frank, Joseph, M, and Wm listed at the Boise Post Office. These may or may not be the Bedal family. In the 1900 census, he was living with his son William and his family, and in the 1910 census he was living on his own.
Sometime in October 1913, the following article appeared in the Idaho Statesman along with a large photograph of Isaac:
_______________
Idaho Pioneer Never Called in a Doctor Until He Was 80
Never to have had a doctor but once from the time of his birth to his eightieth year is the record of Isaac Bedal of Boise. To be absolutely correct, it lacked just a week of his eightieth year when Mr. Bedal had a doctor the second time and that was two weeks ago when a kick from a horse fractured his right arm. Up to that period the only time when Mr. Bedal had a doctor was when he was 22 years old and was taken with typhoid fever. [There is no mention of the fracture his son attested to in 1897.] He attributes his excellent health to the fact that he has never smoked or chewed, only rarely takes a glass of beer, and never anything stronger. Even now, with the bones of his arm literally splintered, he suffers almost pain.
* * *
Mr. Bedal was born at Prince Edward Island [sic], but his family moved to the United States when he was but a mere boy. The west always lured him, he says, and he traveled about as fast as civilization. First he immigrated to Wisconsin 60 years ago, then only a sparsely settled territory, then he pushed on to Minnesota, where he enlisted in the war; afterwards he went to Sioux City, Ia., and then to Denver. In Denver he remained 12 years and having still a desire to be a cattleman, an ambition which he had always had but never attained, he came to Idaho. He took up 160 acres of land where Barberton now stands, and finally took up the cattle business. As he had to depend on dry farming of his claim, he found it profitable to run the Kelly hot springs, which he leased from Milton Kelly. It is as the proprietor of these springs that Mr. Bedal is best known to Boise pioneers. It was to his resort that the village came for its weekly bath, usually on Sundays. The resort t was well equipped, Mr. Bedal said, with hot and cold baths, a swimming pool and a plunge. Meals were served and some rheumatism patients stayed weeks at a time taking the mud and natural hot water baths.
The place was a money coiner until the hot water flow was struck for the Natatorium, and then the hot springs lost their popularity.
Mr. Bedal sold his dry land to the Barber Lumber company and since then has not engaged in active business, although he has always been too fond of work to do nothing. His recent accident was caused by his helping cut hay on his son's ranch. He has four sons and one daughter, Mrs. Hattie Mayne, his wife having died some years ago.
Mr. Bedal has always taken an active interest in public affairs both state and national and he laughingly remarked last week that he thought it about time The Statesman pensioned him since he had never missed a subscription in 30 years, the paper enabling him to keep up with the world's work. Mr. Bedal is at present at St. Alphonsus hospital, where he was taken at the time of his recent accident.
_______________
Isaac's obituary appeared in the March 28, 1917, Idaho Statesman: "Isaac Bedal died at a Boise hospital Tuesday at the age of 84, death resulting from paralysis. He leaves five children, James and Charles E. of Boise, Oliver of Parma, William of Ada county, and Mrs. Hattie Maynes of Moore's creek. The deceased was a civil war veteran and pioneer of this section. He was a member of company C, Brackette battalion, Minnesota cavalry, and was a member of Phil Sheridan post, G.A.R. The funeral will be held Thursday at 1:30 at the Shcreiber & Sidenfaden chapel. Members of the G.A.R. and Ladies of the G.A.R., also W.R.C., are invited to attend. A special funeral car will be provided for friends. Interment will be in Morris Hill Cemetery."
[Family research by: Stephen Handorf]
Isaac was clearly named for his father, and both his grandfathers, all of whom were named Isaac.
There has been some confusion about Isaac's birth date, however bible records, censuses, his gravestone, and forms he filled out during his life give or imply 1833 as his birth year.
Other dates and ages Isaac gives in various affidavits are inconsistent. In an 1887 homestead application, Isaac states, in answer to the question whether he is a U.S. citizen, "I suppose I am. My father was a native born citizen of the U.S. and moved to Canada, where I was born. He never became a British subject. I have lived in the U.S. ever since I was 8 years old." In a 1908 affidavit for his Civil War pension application, Isaac states "that he moved from Canada in April, 1845, that he was Twelve (12) years of age when he left Canada, he having often seen record of his birth in the old Family Bible." Isaac was at least 18 when he and his parents moved to Wisconsin, probably around 1855. Most likely he had not become naturalized and fudged the date of his arrival here in order to claim citizenship.
In affidavits, Isaac gives two completely different dates for his marriage--one January 15, 1859 and the other February 3, 1858. The true date, as recorded in the courthouse in Green Lake, Wisconsin, was February 3, 1859.
Isaac is listed as a farmer with his wife and 9-month-old son James in the 1860 Brooklin, Green Lake Co., Wisconsin, Census. The family then moved for a time to Dover Township, Olmsted Co., Minnesota, where on February 29, 1864, he enlisted with his brother Elias and brother-in-law Gabriel Huff in the C Co Brackett's Minnesota Cavalry Regiment. At that time he was 5' 8" tall, with hazel eyes, dark hair, and a dark complexion. After his enlistment, his Battalion did not fight the Rebels. Instead they marched West to do battle with the Sioux Indians. While he was in the army, around July 18, 1864, near Fort Rice, Dakota Territory, Isaac drank or used alkali water, which caused him piles that affected him the rest of his life.
At the time of the 1865 Minnesota State Census, Isaac and his family are listed between the families of his sisters Sarah and Rebecca, followed by brothers Cornelius and Elias and their families. He was mustered out on May 24, 1866. In 1868, "I. Bedel" is shown in section 8 of Dover Township on a plat map of Minnesota, still in a tight clump with his siblings. In 1870, Isaac and his family were living in Sioux City, Iowa, where his younger brother David was also living. There he was employed as a general laborer, and according to one affidavit, in the dairy business. In 1880, Isaac's family was living in Sunshine, Boulder Co., Colorado, where Isaac and his two oldest sons worked as miners.
"... the family moved to Colorado and in July 1882, arrived in the Boise Basin of Idaho, where Isaac Bedal homsteaded the ground now covered by the Barber Mill. After twelve years in that locality he sold out and bought eighty acres seven miles south of Boise. This became the scene of his subsequent activites as a farmer and cattle man. He died in March, 1917. He had been a soldier in the Civil war and in after years was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, always voted as a Republican, and he and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Of their five children three are living: James J. [sic]; Hattie, wife of Thomas Mayne, a farmer on the Idaho City road; and Oliver, a logger in timber camps in Washington, whose home is at Walla Walla." [Defenbach, Byron. "Idaho: The Place and Its People (Vol. 3)." Chicago, New York: The American Historical Society, 1933. p. 118.]
Isaac and his family had been living on the land he claimed since September of 1884, when he built a one-story 14 x 24 lumber box house. The house had a shingle roof, battened walls, and one room with two doors and four glazed windows.
According to an affidavit given in October of 1897 by son James, in October of 1887 [or perhaps 1897?] while "riding a fracious horse in the mountains [Isaac] was thrown from the horse on a steep side hill on the summit coming from Highland Valley to Boise City." He fractured his shoulder and suffered from it after that time.
In the 1890 Boise directory there is an Isaac Beddel along with a Frank, Joseph, M, and Wm listed at the Boise Post Office. These may or may not be the Bedal family. In the 1900 census, he was living with his son William and his family, and in the 1910 census he was living on his own.
Sometime in October 1913, the following article appeared in the Idaho Statesman along with a large photograph of Isaac:
_______________
Idaho Pioneer Never Called in a Doctor Until He Was 80
Never to have had a doctor but once from the time of his birth to his eightieth year is the record of Isaac Bedal of Boise. To be absolutely correct, it lacked just a week of his eightieth year when Mr. Bedal had a doctor the second time and that was two weeks ago when a kick from a horse fractured his right arm. Up to that period the only time when Mr. Bedal had a doctor was when he was 22 years old and was taken with typhoid fever. [There is no mention of the fracture his son attested to in 1897.] He attributes his excellent health to the fact that he has never smoked or chewed, only rarely takes a glass of beer, and never anything stronger. Even now, with the bones of his arm literally splintered, he suffers almost pain.
* * *
Mr. Bedal was born at Prince Edward Island [sic], but his family moved to the United States when he was but a mere boy. The west always lured him, he says, and he traveled about as fast as civilization. First he immigrated to Wisconsin 60 years ago, then only a sparsely settled territory, then he pushed on to Minnesota, where he enlisted in the war; afterwards he went to Sioux City, Ia., and then to Denver. In Denver he remained 12 years and having still a desire to be a cattleman, an ambition which he had always had but never attained, he came to Idaho. He took up 160 acres of land where Barberton now stands, and finally took up the cattle business. As he had to depend on dry farming of his claim, he found it profitable to run the Kelly hot springs, which he leased from Milton Kelly. It is as the proprietor of these springs that Mr. Bedal is best known to Boise pioneers. It was to his resort that the village came for its weekly bath, usually on Sundays. The resort t was well equipped, Mr. Bedal said, with hot and cold baths, a swimming pool and a plunge. Meals were served and some rheumatism patients stayed weeks at a time taking the mud and natural hot water baths.
The place was a money coiner until the hot water flow was struck for the Natatorium, and then the hot springs lost their popularity.
Mr. Bedal sold his dry land to the Barber Lumber company and since then has not engaged in active business, although he has always been too fond of work to do nothing. His recent accident was caused by his helping cut hay on his son's ranch. He has four sons and one daughter, Mrs. Hattie Mayne, his wife having died some years ago.
Mr. Bedal has always taken an active interest in public affairs both state and national and he laughingly remarked last week that he thought it about time The Statesman pensioned him since he had never missed a subscription in 30 years, the paper enabling him to keep up with the world's work. Mr. Bedal is at present at St. Alphonsus hospital, where he was taken at the time of his recent accident.
_______________
Isaac's obituary appeared in the March 28, 1917, Idaho Statesman: "Isaac Bedal died at a Boise hospital Tuesday at the age of 84, death resulting from paralysis. He leaves five children, James and Charles E. of Boise, Oliver of Parma, William of Ada county, and Mrs. Hattie Maynes of Moore's creek. The deceased was a civil war veteran and pioneer of this section. He was a member of company C, Brackette battalion, Minnesota cavalry, and was a member of Phil Sheridan post, G.A.R. The funeral will be held Thursday at 1:30 at the Shcreiber & Sidenfaden chapel. Members of the G.A.R. and Ladies of the G.A.R., also W.R.C., are invited to attend. A special funeral car will be provided for friends. Interment will be in Morris Hill Cemetery."
[Family research by: Stephen Handorf]
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