Turpen Andrew Daughters (1869-1943)

From the Boise Evening Capital News, February 6, 1917.

   Native Hoosier Turpen Andrew Daughters found success in his adopted home state of Idaho, being at various times a school teacher, farmer, newspaper editor, and politician. A one-term member of the Idaho house of representatives, Daughters later removed to Spokane, Washington, where he was an Episcopal minister. One of several children born to William Turpen and Elvira Daughters, Turpen Andrew Daughters was born in Lawrenceburg, Indiana on August 15, 1869.

  Early in his life Daughters left Indiana for Kansas, and subsequently earned his B.A. degree from the Kansas Normal College and also graduated from the Philadelphia Divinity School. In 1892 he removed to Moscow, Idaho to accept the post of Episcopal lay leader, and from 1892-1895 taught school in Montpelier. After further study at the University of Idaho, Daughters married in Colfax, Washington in April 1902 to Pearl Howard (1881-1952). The couple would later have three children, Freeman Howard (1903-1927), George Turpen (1905-1975), and Milo Phillip (1910-1983).

   Following his marriage Daughters and his family resided in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, where in 1909 he entered the publishing field, becoming editor of the prohibition leaning Coeur D'Alene Journal. He served as editor until at least 1913 and afterward engaged in farming in the Kootenai County area, being the owner of "valuable wheat and timber farm lands". Daughters' first step into politics came in 1914 when he entered into the race for the Idaho state house of representatives as a candidate of the Progressive Party. In an October 1914 write-up on his candidacy in the Rathdrum Tribune (shown below), Daughters outlined his platform, relating that high taxes and graft in the state could be curbed with the election of Progressive candidates to serve in state government.

A Daughters campaign notice from the Rathdrum Tribune, October 30, 1914.

  Although he would lose that contest, Daughters reemerged on the political scene two years later, again being the Progressive Party candidate for representative from Kootenai County. This time he was successful at the polls, and after taking his seat at the start of the 1917-19 term was named to the committees on Education, Educational Institutions, and Engrossed and Enrolled Bills. Daughters term in the house saw him come out a firm advocate for the division of the state, introducing resolutions that would have allowed a new state to be created out of Idaho's northern territory. Having resided in both the north and south portions of the state, Daughters believed the creation of a new state from northern Idaho was in the best interest of the state "due to the different industries and because of the geographical barriers."

  Daughters served one term in the legislature and by 1920 had left Idaho for Washington, and in that year's census is recorded as residing in Ritzville. He would return to church work during his residency in that state, being a minister in the St. James and St. Andrews churches in Spokane. Daughters died at his home in Ritzville on July 24, 1943, aged 74, and was survived by his wife Pearl. Both are interred at the Greenwood Memorial Terrace in Spokane. In an intriguing coincidence, this cemetery is also the resting place of another odd named political figure, Wisconsin state representative Menzus Raynard Bump, profiled here in August 2016.

Daughters' death notice from the Living Church, Vol. 107, 1943.