Charles G. Martin is one of the pioneers of what is now Bingham county, Idaho, and has seen this entire section of the state develop from a wild region, whereon civilization had not set its stamp, into one of the finest and richest farming and stock-raising districts of the state. In the work of development and progress he has ever borne his part, and he takes a just pride in the county’s improvement, and deserves great credit for what he has done in its behalf.
Mr. Martin was born in Clark county, Kentucky, November i6, 1847, and is a son of Samuel P. and Eliza (Jones) Martin. His father was born in and is now a resident of Missouri, and has reached the ripe old age of eighty years. His wife was a native of Virginia, and died in Missouri, in 1864. The Martin family removed from Kentucky to Missouri about the year 1850, and the father carried on farming, which has been his life work.
Charles G. Martin spent the greater part of his childhood and youth in Missouri and is indebted to its public-school system for the educational privileges afforded him. He was early trained to habits of industry and enterprise on the home farm and assisted in the duties and labors of the fields upon the old homestead throughout his minority. Until 1870 he was identified with the agricultural interests of that state, and then came to Idaho, settling on the bank of the Snake River. For some time he was employed by Matt. Taylor and then began stock raising on his own account. He resides three and one-half miles east of Idaho Falls, where he owns three hundred and twenty acres of good land. He is extensively engaged in raising horses and cattle and in his business pursuits is meeting with very desirable success. He makes a specialty of beef cattle, for which he finds a ready sale on the market.
Mr. Martin was united in marriage to Mrs. Johanna Wright, a native of West Virginia, who came to Idaho in 1872. They now have two children, Jo and Mary. In politics Mr. Martin is a strong Democrat, believing most firmly in the principles of the party, but his attention is not given to office seeking, his energies being devoted to his business interests, in which he is meeting with deserved success. Throughout this section of the state he is well known, and he deserves mention among Idaho’s pioneers.