Rathdrum’s Culp Family — Part 2
Thomas Culp’s Headstone and Footstone: Thomas P. Culp was buried in Pine Grove Cemetery in Rathdrum after his murder in October 1898. His parents later sent his brothers, Charles and Joseph, to purchase a headstone. Also purchased was a footstone, a small marker commonly used to mark the bottom boundary of a cemetery plot as seen in this collage of the two markers.
Courtesy of MUSEUM OF NORTH IDAHO
When Part 1 of the Culp Family Story came to a close, it was late 1889. David and Mary Jane Culp were moving their young family from their farm near Helmville, Mont., to Thompson Falls to be closer to schools. Four of the children were of school age: Charles, 10; Joseph, 9; and Thomas, 8. A fifth Culp child, Elizabeth, had joined the family in late December of that year and at less than a year old, was therefore not eligible for schooling for another six years. To house their family, David and Mary Ellen bought a farm a mile north of town where, over the next 13 years, the Culps produced hay, fruit and other crops to sell at the local market.
At 18, Charles was the first of the Culp siblings to leave home. He had been hired by Naegela Printing Company in Helena in early 1897. Perhaps homesick, he moved back home that summer and interned with The Western News in Libby, Mont., a town about 75 miles away.
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