Pioneers' love of community helped build Sandpoint

(Lately, I have been wondering why people move to a town. It seems to me that some people fall in love with a town and want to become part of its history and growth. There are some that leave where there live because they can’t tolerate it anymore. They find the place of their dreams and, for some unknown reason, immediately try to transform it into the exact image of the place they wanted to escape. There are others who move to a town to exploit it for everything they can get out of it without thought of contributing anything except higher property taxes. Sandpoint is fortunate to have had people like the following pioneers who laid a good foundation of giving back to their community to make it a place a person is proud to call home.)

Lorenzo D. and Ella Mae Farmin were pioneer residents of Sandpoint. L. D. Farmin was born in Oshkosh, Wis., on March 4, 1848. Ella was born in Dutch Creek, Iowa, in 1857. L.D. and Ella met in Gold Hill, Nev., and were married in 1876. They came to Sandpoint in 1892 in the employ of the Great Northern Railroad as station agent and telegraph operator. Ella Farmin was the night telegraph operator but, after her husband resigned, she became the station agent.

The Farmins homesteaded 160 acres and in 1893 they gave land for the first school building that was located on the corner of First and Church Street. L.D. Farmin platted the first town site west of Sand Creek in 1897. He was an ardent prohibition worker and refused to sell lots to anyone wanting to build a saloon. He was instrumental in securing the city’s first water system. He formed an insurance company named, L.D. Farmin and Son, and was one of the organizers and directors of the Bonner County National Bank. The Farmins were active members of the Methodist Church and both were active in its formation. Emma Farmin was active in civic organizations and was especially interested in Sandpoint schools.

Charles Ransford Foss, a pioneer druggist, was born in Haynesville, Maine. He spent his early years in that area and moved to Spokane, Wash., with his family when he was a young man. His ambition was to become a pharmacist and he returned back East to enroll in a school of pharmacy. Upon graduation, Mr. Foss returned to the Northwest and in May 1900 he opened the first drug store in Sandpoint. His first store was located on the east side of Sand Creek but later moved to the west side and became the Sandpoint Drug Company.

On Sept. 5, 1905, Charles Foss married Miss Nora Workman and the couple lived in Sandpoint up to the time of his death at a local hospital on Dec. 9, 1944. At that time, he was the oldest merchant in Sandpoint.

Charles Foss was a past exalted ruler of the Sandpoint Elk’s Lodge and, through that organization, took a keen interest in his community.

Joseph L. Prichard, and his wife Mary, came to Sandpoint in 1881-1882, when the Northern Pacific Railroad was being built. Joe Prichard was a cook in the railroad camps. He and Mary stayed after the railroad was completed and made their home in Sandpoint where Prichard opened a stationery, candy, and tobacco store. The Sandpoint post office, then called Pend d’Oreille, was in his store and he was one of the town’s first postmasters. Prichard also became Sandpoint’s justice of the peace.

On Dec. 7, 1889, Judge Prichard filed a possessory claim on 160 acres of land west of the little railroad town of Sandpoint. His home and farm buildings were located approximately where 320 N. Second Avenue is today, near the corner of Second Avenue and Cedar Street.

Unfortunately, Prichard began experiencing health problems and finally had to give up working. He sold his claim to L. D. Farmin in 1893. Part of what was originally Prichard’s claim was platted as the town site of Sandpoint, and the remainder of his claim became the Farmin Addition.