Well-traveled Gen. Cartee was Idaho’s key surveyor general and a prominent Boisean

Lafayette Cartee was born in December 1823 in Tioga County, New York, the son of John L. and Seciendia Cartee. He was largely self-taught, but sufficiently educated that he was hired as principal of the high school in Newport, Kentucky, a position he held for two years. In 1846 he began teaching mathematics and civil engineering at St. John’s College in Cincinnati, but failing health forced him to resign after two years.

When his doctor recommended a sea voyage, Cartee took passage on a sailing ship bound for San Francisco, where he arrived in June 1849. Apparently not attracted by the gold rush that would bring thousands to California in a few months, he moved north to Oregon City, making his living in surveying and engineering. He was elected to the first territorial legislature there, and in his second term, he was chosen speaker of the House.

In the fall of 1855 he returned to Potter County, Pennsylvania. where he married Mary Bell, the love of his life. She would die in Oregon in December 1862, a loss from which Cartee would never fully recover. That same month, Cartee was construction engineer for the first railroad in Oregon, a short portage line around the falls of the Columbia River.

In April 1867, after he was appointed surveyor general of Idaho Territory, he and his assistants started on a tour of observation “with a view of locating the base line and meridian for the public surveys.”

On Dec. 3, 1868, the Idaho Tri-weekly Statesman reported: “Township Maps. Happening into the surveyor general’s office yesterday we noticed a few of the township maps being made by Mr. William P. Thompson, draftsman in that institution. They are perfect specimens of workmanship, their uniformity and legibility rarely being equaled.”

In August 1870, the Idaho World of Idaho City revealed another aspect of Cartee’s talents when the editor acknowledged receipt of “a box of the largest and finest tomatoes we have ever seen grown in the Territory. No note accompanied the box, but we know they came from the garden of Gen. Cartee.”

The 1870 U.S. Census reveals that Cartee was 47 years old, had personal property worth $2,000, and had four children, all born in Oregon: Carrie, 13, Ella, 11, Ross, 9, and Mary, 8. Henrietta E. Bell, 36, Cartee’s sister-in-law, was listed as “house keeper, $1400.” Allen Thompson 34, and Peter W. Bell 38, were “civil engineers.” Darius Baker, 27, was a “clerk in a store.”

In June 1872: “General Cartee is building a large stone cellar above ground in the rear of his dwelling, for the accommodation of his nursery and vegetable garden. General Cartee’s grounds and improvements surpass anything this side of California.”

On Nov. 20, 1874, Cartee placed this ad in the Tri-weekly Statesman, where it ran for several weeks: “Warning! I am prepared to shoot all unruly stock that shall break into my nursery. Owners of such stock will take due notice. L.F. Cartee.”