(Published in History of Idaho: The Gem of the Mountains Vol. 3 by James H. Hawley 1920)

Joseph Degen is a well known and honored pioneer settler of Idaho, who makes his home with his daughters, Mrs. Emma Durham and Mrs. Mary Durham upon a farm in the vicinity of Emmett. For a long period he has been an interested witness of the growth and development of this state and has ever borne his share in the work of progress and improvement. He has now passed the eighty-eighth milestone on life's journey, his birth having occurred in Germany, October 4, 1831. He first came to the United States in 1864, when thirty-three years of age, but afterward returned to Germany and while there was married. He came again to the new world in 1869, bringing his bride with him, and since then has remained continuously on this side of the water, devoting his entire active life to the occupation of farming. He resided in Missouri and Nebraska before coming to Idaho, the year 1877 witnessing his arrival in this state. Since then he has lived in the vicinity of Emmett, and although he is now eighty-eight years of age, is still an active and vigorous man, in possession of all his faculties.

It was on the 12th of January, 1869, that Mr. Degen was united in marriage to Miss Louise Huba, a native of Germany, the wedding being celebrated while he was on the only visit that he has made back to the fatherland since first coming to America. For more than a third of a century they traveled life's journey happily together but were separated by the death of the wife, who on the 15th of October, 1903, passed away. They were the parents of a family of five children, four of whom are yet living: Katie, who was born August 19, 1871, and is now the wife of Finley Monroe, a well known lawyer of Emmett, who is mentioned elsewhere in this work; Mrs. Emma Durham, of Emmett, who was born October 29, 1874; Mrs. Mary Durham, of Emmett, born November 11, 1876; and Lewis A., who was born May 1, 1879, and now lives in Lemhi county, Idaho. All three of the daughters reside either in or near Emmett. The daughter Emma was married on the 8th of June, 1905, to Hiram L. Durham, and her sister Mary, on the same day, to George D. Durham. In fact theirs was a double wedding ceremony and the two brothers with their wives reside in a beautiful country home on a highly improved ranch property one mile east of Emmett. The brothers were formerly extensively engaged in sheep raising in Oregon, to which state they removed from Iowa. They became prominently connected with the sheep industry and won a very substantial measure of success as the years passed by, gaining financial independence. Removing to Idaho, they wedded the two sisters and theirs is a notable record, for seldom do two families live so happily and harmoniously together as do the two Durham families, and with them resides Mr. Degen. The Durham home east of Emmett embraces seventeen acres of fine lawn, flowers, shrubbery, orchards, vineyard and meadow. Mrs. Mary Durham has a daughter, Emma Louise, who was born February 22, 1909, and is a namesake of her aunt, Mrs. Emma Durham, who has no children.

In the family of Mr. and Mrs. Degen besides the four who are yet living there was also a son, Joseph Degen. Jr., who was the oldest child and was born October 4, 1869, while his death' occurred on the 15th of December, 1909. It is a singular coincidence that this son was born on his father's birthday — October 4, while the youngest member of the Degen family, Lewis A., was born on his mother's birthday — the 1st of May, his natal year being 1879, while his mother's birth occurred on the 1st of May, 1852. Lewis A. Degen is married and has one son. Joseph Degen, named in honor of his grandfather and born on the 3d of September, 1903. Such in brief is the history of a most interesting pioneer settler of Idaho and his family. For more than four decades he has lived in Idaho, familiar with every phase of the growth and development of the state. Here he has reared a family who are a credit and honor to his name. One of the most attractive homes in Gem county is that of the Durham brothers, with whom Mr. Degen resides, the daughters and their husbands doing everything in their power to add to the comfort and welfare of their venerable father, who, though well advanced in years, retains a keen interest in things of the present and can relate many most interesting incidents of the days of the past.