Rigby Hardware, Lumber & Mfg. Co. Ltd.
 

George Eldridge Hill, Jr. was born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1868 and moved to Idaho in 1885. He was seventeen years old at the time. His father George E. Hill, Sr. filed for homestead rights on one hundred and sixty acres of land about one mile west of what would later become the Rigby town site.

After helping his father get the homestead set up, George Jr. returned to Salt Lake City and enrolled in business school. He took bookkeeping classes and also studied the law, ending up with a law degree. He married Sarah Johnson in 1894 in Salt Lake and joined a law and abstract firm there.

Meanwhile by 1888, twenty five families who had homesteaded in the Rigby, Idaho area, filed papers to create a town site. Development of the town site started slowly. The first store was established by George E. Hill, Sr. in 1893. Another general store called the Kimball Store was built in 1898 but development of the town site was still going slowly.

Everything changed in 1899 when the St. Anthony Railroad company, for all intents and purposes a branch of the Oregon Short Line Railroad decided to extend the railroad line from St. Anthony into West Yellowstone, Montana. The larger Mormon communities of Menan and Lewisville didn’t want the railroad’s influence in their towns so the railroad tried to negotiate the purchase of some land at Lorenzo for a railroad siding. The railroad again had trouble buying the land they wanted so the people in the Rigby area offered to donate some land to the railroad about a quarter of a mile east of the Rigby town site. The railroad agreed and thus began the rapid development of the Rigby area. A couple of farmers plowed a road through the sage brush over to the railroad siding and businesses soon began developing on both sides of this dirt roadway.

The St. Anthony Railroad Company siding was completed at Rigby in 1901. Many new businesses sprang up around this time including the Later Hardware & Lumber Company across the street from the old Kimball Store.

In July of 1902 George E. Hill, Jr. decided to take a family vacation to Rigby. He was quick to see the potential growth in the area and so he decided to stay. In the fall of 1902 he purchased the Later Hardware & Lumber Company and changed the name to the Rigby Hardware, Lumber & Manufacturing Company. Business was good and George Jr. incorporated his business in 1904. In 1909 he sold the lumber portion of his business and built a new store called "The Quality Store" on the NW corner of Main and State streets in Rigby.

Mr. Hill was responsible for incorporating the Rigby town site into a village in 1903. In 1907 the Rigby Hardware, Lumber & Manufacturing Company was the first business in Rigby to get electricity followed closely by George Jr.’s home. He also became president of the Rigby State Bank and helped create Jefferson County in 1913. He also served as the first mayor of Rigby when it became a town in 1915. He remained involved in politics and in 1932 served as Idaho’s Lieutenant Governor under Governor Ben Ross.

In 1941 he purchased the Big Springs Resort in Island Park and spent his last years with his family enjoying the Island Park area. He died there in 1958.

After George Jr. sold his interest in the Rigby Hardware, Lumber & Manufacturing Company in 1909, the business continued under different ownership but with the same name until 1916. They briefly had a branch store in Ririe until the business dissolved in late 1916 and the name was changed to the Rigby Hardware and Mercantile Company. I can find no record of this business in either Rigby or Ririe after 1923.

There is only one token known from the Rigby Hardware, Lumber & Mfg. Co. Ltd. It is round, aluminum and measures 21mm. It is not listed in Tatrow’s book on Lumber Company tokens which also makes it a desirable Idaho token.