Polly Bemis House was the home of pioneers to Idaho County, Idaho, USA, Charles Bemis and his wife

Polly Bemis Polly Bemis (September 11, 1853 – November 6, 1933) was a Chinese American pioneer who lived in Idaho in the late 19th and early 20th century. Her story became a biographical novel, and was the subject of the 1991 film '' Thousand Pieces of Go ...

, who lived alongside the Salmon River in the late 19th and early 20th century. Polly was a

Chinese American Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from ...

former teenage slave whose story became a

biographical novel The biographical novel is a genre of novel which provides a fictional account of a contemporary or historical person's life. Like other forms of biographical fiction, details are often trimmed or reimagined to meet the artistic needs of the fiction ...

and was fictionalized in the 1991 film '' A Thousand Pieces of Gold.''

History and background

Charlie and Polly Bemis were among the first pioneers to settle along the Salmon River ''(The River of No Return)'', only a few yards from the riverside. It was a mining claim rather than a homestead. Even today this house is not accessible by road; boats are a common means of access. In 1922, a fire gutted the Bemis home on the Salmon River, possibly caused by an untended or overheated woodstove; Charlie died soon afterwards. He had been ill in the previous several years, reportedly suffering from a lung ailment (probably tuberculosis). In 1923, Peter Klinkhammer and Charlie Shepp, who lived on the other side of the Salmon River on the east side of the confluence of Crooked Creek, helped Polly to rebuild a new home in the same spot as the one that burned down. Except for a short stay in

Warren, Idaho Warren is an unincorporated community in the remote north central region of the U.S. state of Idaho, near the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness. Geography Located within the Payette National Forest in southern Idaho County, Warren is no ...

, she lived there until 1933, when she moved to

Grangeville, Idaho Grangeville is the largest city in and the county seat of Idaho County, Idaho, United States, in the north central part of the state. Its population was 3,141 at the 2010 census, down from 3,228 in 2000. Geography According to the United Sta ...

, dying shortly thereafter. While on a trip to Boise, Idaho, she stayed at the Idanha hotel and saw her first movie, rode her first streetcar, and had her first elevator ride. The Polly Bemis House is located east of

Riggins, Idaho Riggins is a city in the western United States in Idaho County, Idaho. Nestled deep in a canyon at the confluence of the Salmon and Little Salmon rivers in west central Idaho, it is approximately north of Boise, and south-southeast of Lewisto ...

, and north of

. The house meets two criteria of the National Register of Historic Places: criterion A for its connection with the social history of Chinese women in Idaho and criterion C as an excellent example of wooden logs and shingles construction and of the gable-front single-pen dwellings used in the central Idaho mountains. Some stone was also used in its construction. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 4, 1988. It is also the only structure on the inventory constructed with

whipsaw A whipsaw or pitsaw was originally a type of saw used in a saw pit, and consisted of a narrow blade held rigid by a frame and called a frame saw or sash saw (see illustrations). This evolved into a straight, stiff blade without a frame, up to 1 ...

n lumber. About 15 x 20 feet in dimension, it has two rooms on the first floor, a half story sleeping loft, a gable front, and overhanging roof. Chinese miners made up almost half the population of this region during the late 1800s but suppression forced most to move to Chinatowns on the west coast. Few records exist of most of them, but there are many documents about Polly, making her home and experience significant. It is now part of the non-profit Polly Bemis Ranch. The home of Klinkhammer and Shepp is now a guest ranch known as Shepp Ranch.

References

External links

Polly Bemis Ranch
- official site
Idahonian Daily News article announcing placement on the NRHP is pending
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bemis, Polly, House Houses in Idaho County, Idaho Chinese-American culture in Idaho Chinese-American history Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Idaho Pre-statehood history of Idaho National Register of Historic Places in Idaho County, Idaho

History and background

See also

References

External links