Idaho history: E.D. Holbrook had a colorful and eventful life

Edward Dexter Holbrook of Placerville, Boise County, served two terms as Idaho Territory’s delegate to the U.S. Congress, from March 4, 1865, until March 3, 1869. As a Democrat he received and expected nothing but verbal abuse from the Radical Republican Idaho Tri-weekly Statesman.

The Radical Republicans favored harsher treatment of the defeated Confederate States than did Republican President Abraham Lincoln, whose more conciliatory policy, as he expressed it at Gettysburg, was aimed at “binding up the nation’s wounds.”

“Holbrook,” wrote the Statesman in March 1868, “is a fine illustration of the conjunction of ‘cheek’ and ‘luck.’ He is yet a young man, and his energy among the roughs has so far carried him over the heads of far abler and better men. A man of little education, a lawyer of attainments too meager to command any respect, his fortune in being twice chosen delegate is one of those anomalies that are harder to explain than learn. His abilities as a politician consist of his capacity to drink whiskey.”

Thomas Donaldson’s recollections of him in “Idaho of Yesterday,” was also colored by strong political bias: “Holbrook was a noticeable figure, and his manner, though somewhat stylish, indicated the genteel rough. He had a swaggering walk, and always dressed in black broadcloth, with a low vest of buff color, and a broad slouch hat, black in color. He was a well-built man of medium height with black hair and whiskers, and in 1869 appeared to be about 35 years of age. Holbrook was a poor lawyer in culture and extremely verbose as a speaker”

Edward D. Holbrook was born in Elyria, Lorain County, Ohio, on May 6, 1836. He attended the public schools and Oberlin College where he studied law. He was admitted to the bar in 1859 when he was just 23, and began practice in Elyria before moving to Weaverville, Calif., and then on to Placerville, where he continued to practice law before his election to Congress in 1865.

As a Democrat, representing a territory then dominated by southern Democrats and Confederate sympathizers, Holbrook was often frustrated in a Congress where radical Republicans held sway. On Feb. 5, 1869, the New York Times reported in a front page story, “Delegate Censured. The most prominent feature in the house proceedings today was a parliamentary scene during the consideration of the Indian Appropriation bill, in which Mr. Holbrook, delegate from Idaho, extinguished himself (sic) and brought down upon him the unanimous and formal censure of the House by bearding the Butlerian lion in a spirit of foolish bravado.” (Civil War Gen. Benjamin F. Butler was a member of the House from Massachusetts.) “When Butler made some derogatory remarks about Indian Agents, Mr. Holbrook thought this was personal and interrupted Gen. Butler and told him he was uttering what was unqualifiedly false, and that he knew it was false. A point of order was at once made… Mr. Holbrook was given the opportunity to withdraw his words, which he refused to do in a sort of Border ruffian spirit. A vote of censure was then unanimously ordered and he was brought before the bar of the House under arrest, and the Speaker administered the censure of the house in severe terms.”

When his term of office having expired, Holbrook returned to Idaho. On June 21, 1870, the Idaho Tri-weekly Statesman reported in a small item on page two: “E.D. HOLBROOK KILLED — On Saturday evening about 8:30 o’clock at Idaho City, a shooting affair took place between Charles Douglass and Mr. Holbrook, which resulted in the death of the latter.” Holbrook had called fellow Democrat Douglass “a liar, a coward, and an assassin,” and when the two ran into each other outside Holbrook’s law office “some words passing between them, they each drew a revolver and began shooting.” Eleven shots were exchanged before the sheriff arrived and arrested both men. Holbrook had received a shot in the abdomen from which he died next day.

For once the Statesman and the World agreed: Holbrook’s funeral was the largest ever held in Idaho Territory, with some 600 people attending. Douglass was tried for manslaughter, and after one hung jury was eventually acquitted.

Arthur Hart writes this column on Idaho history for the Idaho Statesman each Sunday. Email histnart@gmail.com.