Judge Rand is Dead.

Judge Jasper Rand died at his home two miles out of the city last Monday night. He had poor in poor health for years; so much so that he had lived a very retired life. The Immediate cause of his taking off was an attack of pneumonia. His last severe illness was of short duration.

The funeral took place on Wednesday at the country residence. He was an active member of the local order of Knights of Pythias and the last rites of the honored dead were conducted by that order. He was followed to his last resting place by a large concourse of friends The pioneer element of our society was fully represented as the deceased had been intimately associated with the social, business, fraternal and religious interests of the city for many years.

Judge Rand was truly a maker of western history. He was one of the earliest of the Argonauts. He was well educated, intelligent and ambitious and in every community in which he lived he left the impress of his personality. He was a pioneer lawmaker and a teacher. The civilization of the northwest owes much to the moral worth and intelligence of such pioneers as Judge Rand. Many of the laws which are now upon the statute books of the western states and of the United States were promulgated in the mining camps of California, before the enactment of a formal, civil or criminal code was dreamed of. The unwritten laws of the mining camps of California have been largely preserved in later enactments. The wholesome equity and sturdy justice that was enforced in the mining camps of California have been golden examples of jurisprudence in the years of our evolution. The first we hear of Judge Rand in a public field, he was a dispenser of justice by common consent and to a great extent the office made him a legislator as well, as he was called upon to administer justice or to dispense equity when statute, precedent and reports were unknown. He was called upon to settle disputes about titles to mining claims as well as to interpret the codes of honor to establish the guilt or innocence after deadly conflicts. His criminal procedure may not have promulgated new principles of code ethics, but he is credited with pioneer rulings in the jurisprudence of mines and disputes about mines that are as sacred as the decisions of the Supreme court of the United .States. Some sections of the important mineral laws of the United States are said to have been founded upon a decision rendered by Judge Rand at Yuba camp, California, as early as 1849.

Judge Rand at one time was one of the most active placer miners in all of California. He owned a half interest in the great Smartsville hydraulic mines, the output of which was estimated at millions. All other partners in the great mine retired with fortunes. Judge Rand received half of every dividend, but be never accumulated wealth. He enjoyed every comfort of life that gold dust would buy and lived as gorgeously as any prince, during the years in which he enjoyed the great income from his mines. He dispensed charity most lavishly. The unfortunate, the needy and the sick of the whole country were the special charges of Judge Rand. He disbursed thousands as the ordinary charitable man distributes dollars. If a case of sickness was reported or a miner was injured Judge Rand was the good angel to visit the sufferer. Every need was satisfied from the individual purse. He entertained all the most prominent men of early days in California. He probably spent more money in charity and in convivial pleasures than any man in the northwest.

Judge Rand came to Idaho in 1861. He mined in Florence during the winter of 1861 and 1862. We also find a record of his legal procedure in the case of homicide, tried in Florence in Jan. 1862, when "Cherokee Bob" was shot by Orlando Robins. He soon left Florence, not being a lucky miner in that great camp. He engaged in business in Lewiston for two years. He followed a rush to the gold fields of Montana as early as i860. He lived in that state about five years. He was active there in business and was a member of the Montana legislature in 1867.

His radical views on progressive measures caused him to lead a very exciting life during the unsettled social condition of the new territory of Montana. Even there, as in California and Idaho, his success depended upon his moral courage in some instances. He had enforced his own court orders with a revolver In the course of his career and he defended his rights in Montana with equal effect and in the same ways. He belonged to that class of pioneers to whom we owe so much for the progress of the great west. He had positive ideas of justice and right and be had the courage to impress his social and political reforms when occasion demanded a personal defense.

Since 1870 Judge Rand has resided continually in Lewiston. He enjoyed the blessings of civilization more fully because he had experienced the hardships of the very first pioneers. He married Mrs. Mary Harrison in 1872 and since that time has maintained a home in this city. His home has ever been one of elegance and refinement.