First American Title Company - Flathead County

When our company founder, William.H. Stufflebeam, decided over a century ago that Bingham County, Idaho was in need of an abstract business in order to keep more accurate land records; he couldn’t have imagined it would grow to be one of the largest regional title companies in the western United States.

Born in White Hall, New York W.H. Stufflebeam came west when his family moved to the Springfield area of Bingham County to start a cattle ranching operation in the late 1800’s.

As an adult, he moved to Washington, D.C. to take a job with the U.S. Treasury Department. Years later, while still working for the U.S. Treasury, he came back West to a close a bank in Rexburg and ended up settling in Blackfoot, where there was a need for a business that did title abstracts of the county’s land records.

He started the business by indexing each parcel of land by hand, and later his company “The Bingham Title & Trust Company” started writing title insurance and doing escrow closings. W.H. married Ruth Hilliard in 1929.

William owned and operated the business for 37 years until his death, at which time his wife Ruth ran the business. She was an anomaly in a time and town where few women worked outside the home. She successfully ran the business throughout World War II and the Korean War, serving as the company president until she retired in 1969. Upon her retirement their son Dwain H. Stufflebeam took over the business. Dwain had taken an early interest in the family business coming to work in the office while he was still a teenager.

Upon being named President, Dwain immediately began an aggressive expansion project expanding the company’s footprint outside of Bingham County, throughout Southeastern Idaho. An early partnership with First American Title Insurance Company helped the company expand past the Idaho border into both Montana and Washington.

From one office started in 1905, to now well over 40, First American Title continues to be proud of our small town beginnings.