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News Release Oct. 27, 2006
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Boise State University’s
Albertsons Library has just published the earliest records of marriages,
confirmations, baptisms and burials in historic Silver City, Idaho. “Early
Records of the Episcopal Church in Southwestern Idaho, 1867-1916,” transcribed
by Patricia Dewey Jones, contains records kept by Episcopal clergymen who
visited Silver City and DeLamar, high in the Owyhee Mountains, when they were
booming mining towns.
“These are important records for historians and genealogists,” said Alan Virta,
head of Special Collections in Albertsons Library. The state of Idaho did not
keep records of births and deaths until 1911, so church registers are often the
only vital records in existence from before that date. The records reveal
parents’ names and birth dates of baptized children, and the names of parents of
the brides and grooms. The burial records often contain sad and poignant
stories: a young man killed in a snow slide, children falling victim to scarlet
fever, and a young woman dying in childbirth, followed to the grave by her
motherless child a few months later.
The Episcopal Church was one of the first denominations to be active in Idaho,
sending missionaries to most of the important mining towns early in Idaho’s
territorial history. They built a church in Silver City in 1898, but the closure
of the mines and the town’s dwindling population led them to sell the church in
the 1920s. The building is now Our Lady of Tears Roman Catholic Church, a
landmark on a knoll high above the town.
The Episcopal Diocese of Idaho donated the historic church registers to the
Boise State library in 1989. Jones, a history student at Boise State,
transcribed and indexed them as an internship project in the library’s Special
Collections department. A striking aerial photo of Silver City, taken in 1895
from a nearby mountaintop, is reproduced on the front and back covers of the
book.
“Early Records of the Episcopal Church in Southwestern Idaho” is available for
$10 from the Boise State University Bookstore in the Student Union. The 66-page
paperback book can also be purchased via the Internet at
http://boisestatebooks.com or by
calling the bookstore at (208) 426-2665 (426-BOOK), or at the Owyhee County
Historical Museum in Murphy.
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Contact: Alan Virta, Albertsons Library Special Collections, (208)
426-3958, avirta@boisestate.edu
Media Contact: Kathleen Craven, University Communications, (208)
426-3275, kcraven@boisestate.edu
Where you see blue, we see the largest institution of higher education in
Idaho. For the ninth time in the last 10 years, Boise State University has set
an all‑time state record with a fall enrollment of 18,876 students. Since 1996,
Boise State’s student population has increased 25 percent.
The Office of Communications and Marketing
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Boise State University
1910 University Drive -
Boise Idaho 83725-1030
Located in Capitol Village, 2225 W. University Drive
208-426-1577
(fax)208-426-4001
email communications@boisestate.edu
Last reviewed on Wednesday, January 03, 2007
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