This is the day of the specialist. The men who are prominent in connection with the administration of difficult and peculiar affairs are men who have given their lives to their study and have an experimental knowledge of them in all their ramifications. The demand for the very best technical knowledge in the office led to the selection of Jay A. Czizek for inspector of mines for the state of Idaho, and his management of the affairs of the office every day demonstrates the wisdom of his having been chosen.
Jay A. Czizek was born at Mount Clemens, Michigan, October 8, 1864. August Czizek, his father, a German and a native of Berlin, came to the United States in his boyhood and located in Michigan, where he informed himself concerning American institutions and became an ardent supporter of the Union cause when war between the north and the south became inevitable. He served as lieutenant in the Twenty-second Regiment of Michigan Volunteer Infantry from his enlistment, early in 1861, nearly to the close of the war, and died in Michigan soon after his return home. His widow, Mrs. Gertrude Czizek, has since lived at Mount Clemens.
Jay A. Czizek received a common-school education, and when about eighteen years of age sought his fortune in Colorado, and for about two years before he attained his majority was employed by the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Company, a portion of the time in charge of the commissary and material departments. In association with Thomas H. Wigglesworth, one of the prominent railroad locating engineers of the west, he prospected for and settled the route in which the Colorado Midland Railway was constructed. Since the completion of that work for the development of the new west, he has been engaged in mining in Colorado, Montana and Oregon, and during the last thirteen years in Idaho. He developed a mastery over all the details of mining and came to be known as one of the most scientific miners in the country. For some years he was manager in Idaho County for two prominent mining companies. This responsible position he gave up to accept the office of inspector of mines for the state of Idaho, to which he was elected in 1898.
Politically Mr. Czizek has always been a Democrat, and he has taken an active and influential interest in the practical work of his party. He was a delegate to the state Democratic convention which nominated him by acclamation for the office which he fills with so much ability and honor and in which he was placed by a majority large enough to amply attest his personal popularity.
Personally Mr. Czizek is warmly regarded wherever he is known, and he is one of the leaders in public affairs in Idaho. He is a prominent Elk and is in everything a thorough western man, alive to the interests of the western country and with very clearcut views as to how they may be best promoted.
