I??m working on setting another ??Finial Point?, here??s the start of this Surveyor's story.
Lorenzo W. Rima's (commonly called just LW) family moved to Fillmore County, Minnesota, from Illinois, by 1857, when he was near 14 years old, where his father built a sawmill on a branch of The Root River. In 1864, When Mr. Rima was 21 years old, he joined Pleasant Grove Lodge #22 AF&AM in nearby Olmsted County.
Rima set his sights on Alexandria, Minnesota and by 1868 had moved North, to Douglas County, where he applied what he had learned from his father and started up his own sawmill and shingle manufacturing business, three miles West of Alexandria. One of the first things he accomplished in Alexandria was to help charter Constellation Lodge #81 F&AM in 1869. He began to lay roots in this town, by working in partnerships to grow his business. He homesteaded 80 acres at Leaf Valley Township, built a house, and got married to Martha Rush, who he knew from his time in Fillmore County. He was also listed as Douglas County Surveyor in 1872. In late 1876 he left all this behind to move west for the benefit of his wife's health, but she died at Monmouth, Oregon in March 1877.
Rima emerged that same year at Spokan Falls, W.T., which at the time, was just a small town of about 300 people. He set about re-establishing himself, bought a store on Front Street, and opened the very first "jewelry store" of Spokane, a rather elegant change from the shingle business. His advertisements declared "Practical Watchmaker and Jeweler, Dealer in Diamonds, Watches, Clocks, Jewelry and Spectacles". Eventually his ads noted that he was "an Agent for The Rockford Watch Company". Interestingly, the inventory in his "jewelry store" ultimately consisted of watches, spectacles, silverware, jewelry boxes, lamps, keys, spittoons, firearms, and stove pipes... not exactly what comes to mind when imagining a modern-day jewelry store!
Once again, L.W. was instrumental in helping charter Spokan Falls Lodge #34 F&AM in 1880. He apparently realized the value in networking through this fraternal organization, and soon came to be well known in the town. After a year in business he moved to Howard Street, North of Main Street, but his building was destroyed in the first big fire of 1883. He rebuilt the same year, a fine two-story brick building known as The Rima Block. He owned and occupied that location until his death. The Rima Block Jewelry Store and all its contents was sold for a whopping $9,100 in November 1886 to Louis Lockhardt, who carried on the business. It was then lost in the next "great fire of 1889? but was rebuilt again in very similar fashion. It remains today as part of three adjoined historic commercial buildings, listed on The Spokane Register of Historic Places commonly known as The Bennett Block (specifically Mizuna, 214 N. Howard St.).
In 1881 Rima was appointed to the very first Spokan Falls City Council by the Territorial Governor, and Lorenzo W. Rima's name was written into the original Spokan Falls city charter. However, he did not seek formal election to the City Council in April 1882, when his appointment ran out, but rather, chose a more entrepreneurial path and role in the town.
During his time at Spokane, Washington, he conducted the first town survey of Spokane Falls for James Glover, Havermale??s Addition, Peone Prairie and the original town plat of Spangle, erected one of the first brick buildings, helped found the first library, helped oversee bridge construction over the Spokane River, helped develop the first telephone connection, first to report weather, and bought much real estate! His life was definitely in full swing and cruelly cut short in his prime, when he suddenly became ill and died of pneumonia in 1885, age 41 years, 9 months, 22 days. Having no offspring, his father was his sole heir.
L.W. Rima was a member of the design/ contracting committee for the first bridge over the Spokane River, The Howard Street Bridge.?ÿ Mr Rima??s lead the Survey crew that established the Right of Way for the Howard Street Bridge.
LW was among the first to be buried at Greenwood Memorial Terrace after it was established in 1888. His second burial took place there on 29 Nov 1889, more than four years after his death. His body, among others, were exhumed and relocated from the old Mountain View Cemetery located in Cannon's Addition on the lower South Hill, which had been his original burial place.
