Three miles east from Lookout is the home of the subject of this article, who was one of the pioneers of this reservation country. Mr. Starcher owns forty acres in this place and also one hundred and sixty acres in Shoshone County. He handles his land to fruit and has it well improved.
Lafayette Starcher was born in Spencer, West Virginia, on June 25, 1858, being the son of Alfred and Nancy (Nutter) Starcher, natives of West Virginia. They were pioneers in West Virginia and in Washington County, Kansas. The father was a Confederate soldier and was captured near Wheeling. He was born in 1835 and died in 1867. His wife died in 1897. The family went to Atchison County, Missouri, in 1865, and the next year to Washington County, Kansas, where the father died. The mother later’ married a Mr. Ware.
Our subject remained with his mother until he was twenty, gaining his education in those days. Then he went to do for himself. In 1888 he migrated to Rawlins County and took land, but afterwards left the country on account of drouth, and so forth. Two years were spent in Nemaha County and in 1892 he came to Farmington, Washington. Two years were spent on the farm there and some time in town, and in 1896 he made his way to the reservation and located his present place. He has since devoted himself to the improvement of his land.
On May 22. 1877, in Washington County, Kansas. Mr. Starcher married Miss Sarah, daughter of Rowdy and Jane (Covis) Breckinridge. Mr. Breckinridge was born in Ohio, and was a pioneer in Illinois, at Oskaloosa, Iowa, and in Kansas. Mrs. Starcher was born in Ohio and has two sisters, Bell Henry and Rachel McCullough, both in Kansas. Mr. Starcher has the following brothers and sisters: Jacob, Artimacia Stonebraker and Indiana Groh, all in Kansas. Six children have been the fruit of the marriage of .Mr. and Mrs. Starcher: Lenna Sargent, near Spokane; Otis, Carl, Veva, Roy and Oral, at home. Mr. and Mrs. Starcher are members of the Baptist church at Lookout and they are exemplary people. Mr. Starcher has always been an ardent and faithful laborer for the advancement of the schools and general improvement.
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Source: An Illustrated History of Northern Idaho, Embracing Nez Perce, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone Counties, Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903