Small, Albert

The following data is extracted from Illustrated History of the State of Idaho.

Albert Small, the senior member of the firm of Small & Emery, prominent wholesale dealers in and manufacturers of lumber, and proprietors of the Lewiston Lumber Mills, is a native of the province of New Brunswick, born September 30, 1841, and is of English and Scotch ancestry. His great-grandfather Small was a sea captain who emigrated to the state of Maine, where for many years he made his home and headquarters. He attained the advanced age of eighty-seven years, while his wife, who bore the maiden name of Mitchell, reached the remarkable age of ninety-seven. They were the parents of six sons and seven daughters, and the first member of the family to pass away was fifty-two years of age at the time of his death. One of the number, Daniel Small, the father of our subject, was born in New Brunswick, and having arrived at years of maturity married Lavina Monroe, by whom he had nine children, Albert being the third in order of birth. The father passed away at the age of sixty-two years, and the mother died about the same time, at the age of sixty years. They were industrious farming people, and were members of the Baptist church.

During his early boyhood Abert Small accompanied his parents on their removal to the Pine Tree state, and he is indebted to the public-school system of Maine for the educational privileges he received. He had just reached his twentieth year when the great civil war was at its height, and in response to the president's call for volunteers he enlisted in the First Maine Cavalry and served with the glorious Army of the Potomac until the close of hostilities. He witnessed one hundred and three engagements, great and small, and never was injured in the slightest way, nor was he off duty for a single day on account of illness. He has seventeen months at General J. Irvin Craig's headquarters, in the provost marshal's office, and the remainder of the time at the headquarters of General C. H. Smith, who was commander of the Third Brigade in their division. In 1862 he was sent to General Meade's headquarters and was with him up to and through the battle of Gettysburg, and also saw the great defeat and slaughter of the Union forces at Fredericksburg. On the 27th of May 1865, he received an honorable discharge, at Petersburg, Virginia.

In August of the same year Mr. Small went to Montana, where he remained for nine years. He has engaged in mining and in various other pursuits, spending a considerable portion of that time in Helena, in charge of a freighting business. On leaving that city he went to Walla Walla, where for twelve years he was actively engaged in business pursuits, and then went to the Coeur d'Alene district, where he built a sawmill and furnished the mines in that country with much of the lumber they used. For twelve years he was successfully conducting that enterprise and then came to Lewiston, in 1897. Here he formed the firm of Small & Emery, which is now doing a very extensive and profitable wholesale business. They are proprietors of the Lewiston Lumber Mills, and are doing a large business in the manufacture and sale of lumber, posts, shingles, lath, sash, doors, moldings and casings. They also put up wood and pack ice, and their annual sales have reached a large amount. The firm enjoy a most enviable reputation in commercial circles, for the partners are men of recognized business ability and unquestioned integrity. They manufacture their lumber from logs which come from the Palouse country and also from the large whitepine forests on the Clearwater river, and these are brought down the stream in rafts. The mill has a capacity of twenty-five thousand feet of lumber in ten hours. In addition to the work of the sawmill and factory, they deal in all kinds of building materials, and Mr. Small also has a number of valuable mining interests in Idaho and British Columbia.

In 1880 Mr. Small married Miss Annie Welsh, a native of Canada, and to them have been born four children: Albert, who is associated with his father in business; Melville; and Rodney and Nora, who are in school.

In politics Mr. Small is a stalwart Republican, but has never sought nor desired political office for himself. His name is on the membership roll of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and he has filled all the chairs in the local lodge, while in his life he exemplifies the noble and beneficent principles of the fraternity. He is widely known in northern Idaho and has a host of warm friends, who esteem him for the possession of those sterling traits of character which in every land and every clime command respect.

Source: Illustrated History of the State of Idaho

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