Bannock County
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The functions of the historian have never brought him into more
agreeable relations than in narrating the marvelous achievements, the
heroic endurance, the unceasing faith and the pronounced and wonderful
results that attended the planting and continued growth of the Mormon
church in the Great West, and in noting and recording the useful lives
and activities of those powerful spirits who still maintain its
integrity and interests in this fair land of unbounded promise. Standing
among this number in this section of the state of Idaho, where his
capabilities as a man of business are fully demonstrated in his
operations as a successful merchant and the popular postmaster at
Freedom, Bannock county, Bishop A. F. Bracken is one to whom the
historian most willingly gives a place in this memorial volume dedicated
to the men who by their progressive energy are rapidly developing the
dormant possibilities of this portion of the state, by their strength
and multiform potentialities adding to the weal of the commonwealth and
the vigor of its institutions.
A native son of the West, who has
been from his birth connected with the enlightened and beneficent
activities of his church, Bishop Bracken was born on January 12, 1869,
in Tooele county, Utah, a son of Aaron and Elizabeth (Lee) Bracken, the
father, when but a lad, coming to Utah with his parents, who emigrated
from their native land to seek in a distant and forbidding country the
free enjoyment of their religious faith. In Utah he manifested great
interest in agriculture and to a certain extent in horticulture,
financial prosperity following his intelligent and industrious efforts,
and holding the office of elder in the church, and being called to the
higher life in 1875 at the age of twenty-four years. The mother was born
in Nauvoo, Ill., on November 19, 1848, during the Mormon occupancy,
being a daughter of Isaac and Julia Ann (Chapman) Lee, as a child
accompanying her parents to Utah in the early fifties. Their later years
were passed in Bear Lake county, Idaho, of which they were among the
earlier settlers.
From his earliest days Bishop Bracken
manifested great energy and intelligence, and he was especially active
in the acquisition of knowledge, being also unintermitting in his
industrious aid to his parents in their pioneer labors in Bear Lake
county, of which he became a resident at the age of seven years. After
dutifully discharging his filial duties until he had attained mature
years, he engaged in ranching operations for himself, and, in May, 1886,
he located in Star Valley for two years. Thence removing to the Lower
Valley, he there continued in the same vocation, first settling at
Bannock, Idaho, thereafter residing in Bingham county for one year, then
going- to Uinta county, Wyo., where he made his home at Thayne until
1900, for the latter portion of his residence being connected with the
store of Mr. Arthur Robert, where he rapidly acquired the practical
knowledge of those principles of finance that underlie successful
merchandising operations.
In April, 1900, he came to his present
location, establishing here a solid center of trade, by displaying a
well-selected stock of general merchandise, and here he is building up a
fine patronage by his honorable methods, personal integrity and winning
popularity, being considered one of the representative men of his
section of the state. On the establishment of the postoffice of Freedom,
which the subject of this review was a leading factor in securing, he
was commissioned its postmaster, and is still in the incumbency of that
office. His religious nature and fervent zeal have rendered his
association with the church one of the most valuable character, and he
is now holding the office of bishop of Freedom ward, to which position
he was set apart on July 15, 1900, by Apostle A. O. Woodruff, performing
the duties of this high office with great acceptability and to the
manifest advantage of his church, while in 1896 and 1897 he filled with
highly successful results a mission in the Southern states.
Bishop Bracken married, on October 30, 1889, with Miss Amelia Hansen, a
native of Utah, who was born on March 30, 1867, at Big Cottonwood, a
daughter of Ole and Julia T. (Johnston) Hansen, the mother now receiving
the tender care of her daughter at her home at Freedom, while the father
closed his eyes in death on February 7, 1889, at St. Charles, Idaho. The
five children which give an atmosphere of pleasant cheer to the home of
Bishop Bracken are named Aaron F., George A., Heber R., Morley and Milo.
Life is passing pleasantly to the genial bishop in most prosperous
business relations, and he is surrounded by a family and a circle of
highly appreciated friends, and, performing the offices of his clerical
position to the advancement of the spiritual condition of his
parishioners, he is recognized as a decided factor in the various
circles of life making up the aggregate of an intelligent and prosperous
community, while in the Republican political party, to which he gives
support, he has a conceded influence.
Extracted from Progressive Men of Bannock, Bear Lake, Bingham, Fremont and Oneida Counties, Idaho, published in 1904, pages 69-70, contributed 2021 Jun 15 by Norma Hass
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03/20/2025