Man who lived, loved West’s history dies

When longtime historian and author Jerome Peltier died Friday at age 93, so did a piece of Spokane’s history.

“He’s been a real icon. He was just a wealth of information,” said Spokane author and historian Tony Bamonte, who dedicated his latest book on the history of Spokane and the Inland Northwest to Peltier. “I remember hearing about Jerry when I was in my 20s. It was said he was a man who lived history, and I believe he did.”

Peltier began studying the history of the West as a teen and, over the course of 35 years, wrote 15 books on Western history. He helped found numerous historical societies, museums and art galleries in the Inland Northwest.

“He was widely known and recognized as the prime source of historical information about Spokane,” said Dean Ladd, the “sheriff” of the Spokane Corral of Westerners, a group of Western history buffs. Peltier was one of 28 charter members of the local chapter of the organization.

“He’s left us quite a legacy of knowledge,” Ladd said.

Peltier came to the area from Minnesota in 1925 when he was 14.

He graduated from the Academy of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1930 and started working as a warehouseman at John W. Graham Co., a Spokane paper products company. He would later be promoted to credit manager.

On his lunch hour, Peltier would go over to Clark’s Old Book Store on Main Avenue and peruse the stacks, said his son, Frank Peltier.

“He casually told the owner, ‘For 2 cents, I’d quit my job,’ ” his son said. “And she asked him if he wanted to buy a bookstore.”

In 1950 he bought the store, turning his hobby and love of history into his livelihood. He and his wife, Amanda, owned and operated the store for more than 20 years, buying and selling used, new and rare books. They sold the store in 1979 after Peltier suffered a heart attack.

“He was a great book man. He had his own huge private collection of books and rare documents,” said Bob Clark, whose family owns the Arthur H. Clark Co., specializing in books on Western American history. “He was very soft-spoken, but an internally intense individual who was very curious and fascinated by local history.”

Peltier was named the 16th “living legend” by the Westerners group in the 1980s for his work.

He had a passion for Native American history and interviewed dozens of tribal members. He was a founding member of the Museum of Native American Culture and the Pacific Northwest Indian Center.

As a teenager, Peltier remembered hearing Father Joseph Cataldo give a sermon at the Old Cataldo Mission in Idaho. One of his books is titled, “Manners and Customs of the Coeur d’Alene Indians” (1975).

“I remember going with him to interview very old Native Americans that couldn’t speak any English,” said another son, Charles Peltier. “It was fascinating.”

Peltier was also a founder of the Spokane Realistic Art Association and the Fort Wright Museum. He hosted a television show in the 1940s about Northwest history and wrote guest columns for The Spokesman-Review, his family said. In 1985, the Eastern Washington Historical Society named him its Distinguished Author of History.

“But his main passion was (the history of) the fur trade,” Frank Peltier said.

He wrote a book called “Black Harris” in 1986, about a fur trader and mountain man, and another on pioneer Antoine Plantes.

In 1961, Peltier wrote a book called “The Neglected Spokane House” that disputed the state parks department’s placing of a marker to label the site of the historic fur trading outpost.

The first Spokane House was built in 1810 for fur trading with the Spokane Tribe. Peltier disagreed with where state officials said the first post was actually built, and he maintained that maps and journals he had collected showed that the original site was a half-mile away on an island separating the Spokane River and the Little Spokane River.

“He always wanted a dig on what he called the island site, and they haven’t done it yet,” Charles Peltier said. “He always wanted to see if there was evidence to prove his point.”

Before his health started to fail, Peltier was working on a book called “Rubbing Elbows with the Pioneers.”

“I don’t know what will happen to those now,” Frank Peltier said. “Maybe we can find someone to edit it.”

In the meantime, his family will sort through the 100-by-50-foot shop that houses his book collection and many historical artifacts. Some parts of the collection have been sold over the past few years, and some will be donated to area museums.

“He was a rather obsessive collector, and as with any historian who has a wealth of knowledge in their own mind, Jerry’s death is a great loss,” Bob Clark said. “He knew where some of the facts are buried, and exactly where to find it. Now we’ll lose track of some of that information.”