Montpelier

Montpelier is the crossroads of the valley. It is situated right on the Oregon Trail and was known on early maps as Tullick Creek and Clover Creek. Due to the rich clover that grew along the banks of the creek, it was a favorite camping place for wagon trains. Montpelier attributes its growth to Mormon pioneers, freighters on the Oregon Trail, and the Union Pacific Railroad Oregon Short Line.

The settlers named the town Clover Creek, but Brigham Young encouraged people not to use geographical names for towns. He is credited with naming the town after Montpelier, Vermont, the state capital of his birth.

In the spring of 1864, the first 16 families came across the valley from Paris. Among them were Clark Ames, Charles Atkinson, John Bunney, John Cozzens, Dr. John Ellis, Gideon Harmison, Christian Hogenson, Ebenezer Landers, Thomas Mantle, John Maughn, Hezekiah Moore, William Severn, William Teeples, Isaac Thorn, John Turner, and William Vaughn. John Cozzens was the presiding elder who built the first cabin and a ferry to cross the Bear River. By summer, there were 35 families, and Joseph C. Rich was sent from Paris to survey the original townsite

The first businesses were built on Fourth Street along the Oregon Trail, where women and children were selling butter, eggs, cheese, produce, etc. from the beginning. Edward Burgoyne was among the first merchants. He established his store in 1865. As many as 43 wagons left Montpelier in a single day to take freight to Star Valley. There was a need for livery stables, freight storage, and blacksmith shops. William Teeples had the first blacksmith shop, where he claimed to have shod as many as 12 teams a day. With the coming of the railroad on July 24, 1882 the business district shifted to Washington Street.

In March 1893, the city was incorporated, and on April 11, officials were elected: Edward Burgoyne, Mayor; Charles H. Toomer, City Clerk; John A. Kelley, Police Judge, and Edward C. Rich, City Engineer. Joseph C. Rich, George Hillier, Charles Hager, George Robertson, Charles H. Hammond, and Peter Mayer were the councilmen.

The first city hall was a single room of logs. A shed for a jail and another shed for the fire department stood on Washington and Sixth Street, where the parking lot north of the LDS Tabernacle sits today.

The Montpelier LDS Stake was organized on December 23, 1917 and the Montpelier Tabernacle was completed September 14, 1919. Presbyterians, Catholics, Methodists, Episcopalians arrived in the valley with the coming of the railroad.

The first school, a one room log cabin, was built in 1867. The Presbyterians started a mission school. Public schools opened later and Montpelier built its first high school in 1907.

Grove C. Gray opened the Bank of Montpelier in 1891. It was the first chartered bank in Idaho and the one that the Butch Cassidy gang robbed on Aug. 13, 1896. This incidence was re-enacted each summer for several years during Butch Cassidy Days.

Resources:

1. J. Patrick Wilde, Treasured Tidbits of Time, Vol. 1
2. History of the Bear Lake Pioneers