FINE AS HOG’S HAIR

Among the personal papers collected by Vera MarsdenWilliams were several newspaper write-ups about her husband, Joseph Elmer Williams, who was a prominent figure in the L.D.S. Church, the Blackfoot community, and the State of Idaho.  One of the articles, in particular, revealed things about Elmer that were new to me. I thought you would be interested in seeing this column that was probably printed in the Boise newspaper after Elmer began serving his first term as Idaho State Senator in 1938.  Since the photocopy of the article is difficult to read, the transcription follows:

“If a one-word description would be applicable in the case of the senator from Bingham County, he might be termed ‘different.’  Two hundred pounds of well-trained bone and muscle with a capacity for tongue lashing when the occasion arises, Senator Joseph E. Williams stands out already as an able legislator, although this is his first senate term.

            “As evidence of his willingness to stay in the background, however, many senators didn’t know about Williams for some time, not until he got up last week in opposition to a bill which would raise salaries for the public utility commissioners. Then in forceful language, and with the scowl of a wrestler which he has been for 25 years, he pounced on the pay raise issue with all fours as fellow senators sat back in surprised admiration. 

“Practically everything about this amiable senator is different, from his closely cropped pompadour to his ability to sling the king’s English.  When you ask the senator how he feels, he doesn’t resort to the common place, unimaginative ‘okay’ or ‘first rate,’ but tells you ‘as fine as hog’s hair.’  And as for his nationality, he tosses this forceful phrase back at you:  ‘I’m a Scandinavian Welshman, and I sing Irish songs.’

“After he left the University of Utah, it seems young Williams asked his dad for a team of horses and a wagon to get started in farming.  His dad refused and told him instead, ‘I’ll give you the whole state of Idaho to make a living.’  As it developed, Williams took the whole country, moving about as a wrestler from match to match and city to city.  But a sense of sportsmanship turned him against many of the phases of the modern theatricals of the grunt and groan business, and eventually he was back in Idaho running a ranch and dealing in livestock.

“Meanwhile, came marriage and subsequently four little wrestlers and two girls.  However, only one of the four boys actually turned to the mat game, and he, Marsden Williams, went far enough to win a couple of amateur crowns.

“The Senator, president of the Blackfoot LDS Stake, has been a member of the school board for many years.  Out of the campaign he has coined an expression, based on the lines made famous by Bottolfsen[1] during campaign days:  ‘I have observed,’ declared the senator, ‘that honesty and simplicity go together.  Complex methods bring corruption.’”            

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[1] Clarence Alfred Bottolfsen (October 10, 1891 – July 18, 1964) was an Idaho politician. He served as the 17th and 19th Governor of Idaho, from 1939 to 1941 and again from 1943 to 1945.