USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. II > Part 61
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Mr. Kiddle was a man most devoted to his family and their welfare. To him and his wife were born seven children, of whom Frank and Earl died in infancy, while Greta passed away at the age of ten years. The surviving sons and daughters are: Merton W. and Fred E .; Mrs. Robert Eakin of La Grande; and Leta. Mr. Kiddle found his greatest happiness in ministering to the welfare of his wife and children and counted no personal effort or sacrifice on his part too great if it would enhance their happiness. He was a trustee of the Community church of Island City and contributed much to its financial support and to its moral progress. For twenty years he was a school director of the little town in which he lived and was regarded as its most prominent citizen. Everywhere people who knew him speak kindly of him and attest his sterling worth in every relation of life. He served as mayor of Island City for seven or eight years and when the call came for his service in broader connections he was found willing to perform any duty where needed. He was prominent as a war worker and supported all activities for the benefit of the federal government and the interests of the soldiers in camp and field. On some occasions he wrote his personal check for Union county's quota, thus placing the county in one or two instances the first in the United States to make up her portion of the war drives. He served as a member of the state senate of Oregon in 1913 and again in 1915 and gave the most thoughtful and earnest consid- eration to all the vital questions that came up for settlement. He was always a loyal and stanch supporter of the good roads movement and was appointed state highway com- missioner by the governor to fill out an unexpired term. The chief executive of the state frequently expressed keen satisfaction over the appointment, for Mr. Kiddle gave his time and efforts without compensation, looking after details in road building with the same care that he used when conducting his own business. Only a few days prior to his death he returned from Washington, D. C., where he had been in conference with highway commissioners of the different states of the Union, appearing before congress in behalf of the highway program of the nation. He was one of the most prominent Masons of the state, having been initiated into the order in Nortonville, Kansas, in 1886. After removing to the northwest he demitted to Grand Ronde Valley Lodge, No. 56, A. F. & A. M., of which he became worshipful master in 1891 and again in 1895. Later he joined La Grande Lodge, No. 41, and was made its worshipful master in 1899. He was elected then grand master of state in 1908; grand high priest, R. A. M., in 1909; grand eminent commander, K. T., in 1917; worthy patron of Hope Chapter, No. 13, O. E. S., in 1914: and worth grand patron, of the Grand Chapter of Oregon, in 1919. There are few, if any, in Oregon upon whom so many Masonic honors have been be- stowed as upon Mr. Kiddle and when he passed away the Masonic service was in charge of the Grand Lodge of Oregon and the Grand Chapter of the Eastern Star of the state. When he passed on an editorial in the La Grande Observer said, "It requires very few words to tell of a man's death; it only requires a moment to repeat the sad news of the passing of a neighbor and friend. But it would require volumes of printed matter to tell correctly the story of Edward E. Kiddle's usefulness in this world, to depict his many virtues, to portray his steadfastness, his loyalty to friend and to principle. Edward Kiddle loved the little town of Island City with the same affection that Colonel Roosevelt loved Oyster Bay. Since his first year's residence there he has been a school director of the district, was mayor of the town for many years, and, in everything that benefited the village, Mr. Kiddle was foremost with his energy and substance. In a public way he served Union and Wallowa counties as state senator in an able manner, and was appointed state highway commissioner for the state of Oregon over a year ago. This position has taken all of his time of late and his milling and grain business has been conducted by other members of the firm. As highway commissioner he has followed his early Iowa principle of work, and conscientiously has discharged his duties to the
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state. It is indeed hard to give up a man of Edward Kiddle's qualifications." Such in brief is the history of a man whose record was at all times of credit and honor to the state of his nativity and of his adoption.
ROBERT E. WALKER.
Robert E. Walker, a well known capitalist residing at Cottage Grove, is a native of this section of the state, his birth having occurred near Cottage Grove on the 1st of January, 1862. He is a son of John F. and Mary J. (Chrisman) Walker, the former born in Bedford county, Virginia, on the 11th of January, 1827, while the latter was born February 16, 1839, in Andrew county, Missouri, and came with her parents to Oregon in 1852. The father crossed the plains to California in 1850 and in 1852 came to Oregon, taking up a donation claim in Lane county, on which property his son, Robert E., was born. For some time John F. Walker devoted his energies to the improvement and cultivation of that farm and increased his holdings and purchased land at Walker station, which was named in his honor. This was in 1872. He continued to operate that place throughout his remaining days, converting it into a valuable property. He passed away in December, 1915, while the mother's death occurred April 10, 1910, and both were highly esteemed and respected in the community where they made their home.
Their son, Robert E. Walker, was reared and educated in Lane county and subse- quently attended the Oregon State University, although during that period he was obliged to discontinue his studies for four years, owing to ill health. He remained under the parental roof until he attained his majority, at which time his mother gave him three hundred and thirty-six acres of land, which he improved, and later he secured two hundred and twenty-eight acres adjoining, his holdings thus comprising five hundred and sixty-four acres. This property he carefully and systematically im- proved and developed, bringing the land under a high state of cultivation through the employment of the most progressive methods of agriculture. He was thus actively engaged for a period of twenty-seven years, or until 1910, when he moved to Cottage Grove and erected a comfortable and commodious residence, which has since been the family home. He also has other town property and is likewise the owner of farm and stock holdings, which he leases out on shares, deriving therefrom a very gratifying annual income, and he is now numbered among the prominent capitalists of his sec- tion of the state.
On the 26th of April, 1884, Mr. Walker was united in marriage to Miss Minnie Durant, who passed away October 2, 1889. On the 11th of October, 1892, he was again married, his second union being with Kate Smith.
Mr. Walker gives his political allegiance to the republican party and has taken a prominent part in the public affairs of his community, serving for eight years as a member of the town council, while in 1919 he was appointed by that body to fill a vacancy in the office of mayor and is now serving in that capacity, giving to the city a most businesslike and progressive administration, characterized by many needed reforms and improvements. He is possessed of keen business discernment and sound judgment and as a business man his course has been marked by steady advancement. It is well known that he is loyal to every principle which he espouses and to every cause which he endorses and his sterling worth is attested by all who know him.
HARRISON RITTENHOUSE KINCAID.
The west has produced some of the nation's most virile citizens. Few men of Oregon have been so widely known and highly honored as Harrison Rittenhouse Kincaid, who for sixty-seven years made his home within the borders of the state, and as a journalist exerted a most marked influence upon the development of the com- monwealth, aiding in shaping its policy and directing its destiny from an early period. From the driver's seat of an old wagon, directing the course of a team of oxen, he first viewed Oregon, having thus journeyed across the plains with his parents when a youth of seventeen years. For an extended period in his later life he was connected with journalism as the editor and owner of the Oregon State Journal and at various
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periods was called upon to fill public office, at one time filling the position of secre- tary of state.
Mr. Kincaid was born at Fall Creek, Indiana, January 3, 1836, and came of Scotch- Irish ancestry in the paternal line. His father was a native of Virginia but removed to Indiana in 1817, the year of the admission of that state into the Union. It was still a frontier district and in the midst of the forest he hewed out a farm and engaged in the development of the fields for many years. His son, Harrison R. Kincaid, was reared on the old homestead there and pursued his early education in the country schools, dividing his time between attendance at school and the work of the fields. In 1853 the family severed the ties that bound them to their Indiana home and started by ox teams across the country to the Willamette valley of Oregon. The diffi- culties and hardships of the trip were many. They had to carry provisions for the entire way, as there was not a settlement between the Missouri and Oregon City. By slow stages the oxen plodded on over the long stretches of hot sand and across the mountain ranges, H. R. Kincaid driving one of the teams the entire distance. The family settled in Eugene and from that time until his demise Mr. Kincaid made that city his home. He was employed in the mines of southern Oregon in 1855, but the hostility of the Indians caused a discontinuance of operations there and he then walked the entire distance to Crescent City, California, where he cut timber and made rails. Pioneer conditions necessitate much hard labor, but Mr. Kincaid did not falter in his efforts to gain a start in the business world. He worked for a time in the mines and on ranches in the Sierra Nevada mountains and also in the Sac- ramento valley and following his return to Eugene in 1858 again gave his attention to farm labor for a time.
Prompted by a laudable ambition Mr. Kincaid then entered Columbia College and during the two years of his student life there he was a classmate of Joaquin Miller, Judge J. F. Watson, W. H. Byars, later surveyor general, and others who became leaders in the political and public life of the state. His initial step in the direction of the profession to which he devoted the greater part of his life was made when he entered the office of the People's Press in Eugene, then the leading republican paper of the state. He learned to set type and wrote nearly all of the editorials during the Lincoln and Hamlin campaign and also canvassed the country in support of the re- publican candidates. From that time forward his progress as a newspaper man was continuous. In 1862 he was on the editorial staff of the State Republican and later was thus connected with the Union Crusader. He had gained a wide reputation as an edi- torial writer even before he issued the first number of the Oregon State Journal, which came from the press on the 12th of March, 1864. A contemporary writer said of him while he was still an active factor in the world's work, in relation to the Journal: "The course pursued by Mr. Kincaid in the conduct of his paper has been one of candor, independence, and consistency. Questions have been considered upon their merits alone, and all personalities and attacks upon the motives and private characters of individuals have been discountenanced." He made the Journal a potent influence for progress in the state along the lines of material, intellectual, social, political and moral progress, and as a private citizen and as an official as well as in his editorial capacity did he seek to promote the public good.
Mr. Kincaid filled various public offices. He was for four years county judge of Lane county and in 1868 became clerk of the United States senate, filling the position for eleven years and at the same time writing a weekly letter and most of the edi- torials for his paper, besides acting as Washington correspondent for the Oregonian, the Portland Bulletin and other papers of the state. He advocated the remonetization of silver in vigorous editorials in 1877, when no other paper in Oregon was the cham- pion of the cause, and he continued to support the measure throughout his remaining days. He was one of Oregon's six delegates to the republican national convention in Chicago in 1868, when Grant was nominated for his first term, and he was also a delegate from Oregon to the national convention in Philadelphia in 1872, when President Grant was renominated. In 1870 Mr. Kincaid was made the candidate of the republican party for state printer of Oregon and received the largest vote of any man on the ticket, being defeated by his democratic opponent by only four hun- dred and ninety-three votes. He afterward received the unanimous support of the one hundred and sixty-three delegates in the Lane county republican convention for secretary of state of Oregon, and at the state convention, which met in Portland in April, 1894, he was also the choice of a majority of the delegates and at the succeeding election was chosen for the office, which carried with it the duties of state
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auditor, state insurance commissioner and member of all the state boards. He en- tered upon the duties of the position January 14, 1895, for a four years' term and his course fully justified the faith that had been reposed in him by his fellow citizens and members of the party throughout the state. He always opposed class legislation and every scheme to confiscate lands, property or money, whereby any person or, corpora- tion may live upon the savings of others.
On the 29th of September, 1873, Mr. Kincaid was married to Miss Augusta A. Lock- wood, a daughter of Stephen and Diana Lockwood, of Macomb county, Michigan, and they became the parents of a son, Webster L., who was born in Eugene, Oregon, Septem- ber 16, 1883. He was married January 22, 1909, to Dorothy Catherine Hills, a daugh- ter of J. A. Hills, and they have two sons, Harrison R. and Webster L., Jr. Her pater- nal grandfather was a pioneer of Oregon, having arrived in the state in 1849. Web- ster L. Kincaid makes his home in Laurelhurst and has his offices in the Henry building in Portland.
Harrison R. Kincaid had become connected with large business interests in both Eugene and Portland and was one of the extensive taxpayers of Lane county. In all business affairs and investments he manifested the same sound judgment that made his opinions upon public questions those of wisdom. Throughout his life he was keenly interested in everything that had to do with the welfare of his city and state. He gave to the University of Oregon its first printing plant and was ever a stalwart champion of the institution. He passed on to a ripe and honorable old age, his death occurring when he was in his eighty-fourth year. His demise was the passing of one whose life constituted a connecting link between the primitive past and the progressive present, and there was no man in all Oregon who contributed in more substantial and effective measure to the progress of the state. Recognizing that the newspaper pub- lisher has a greater scope of influence than most individuals, he was extremely con- scientious in expressing his opinions and at all times attempted to follow a constructive policy with regard to the individual and to the commonwealth.
F. MARION HYDE.
F. Marion Hyde, who since October, 1919, has lived retired in Harrisburg, was for many years prominently identified with stock raising interests of the state, being owner of the finest herd of cattle in Oregon. He was born in Ash Grove, Missouri, April 16, 1851, a son of Perry and Eliza (Tyler) Hyde, the former a native of Iowa and the latter of Missouri. The father followed ranching in Missouri until 1851, when he became a member of a party of one hundred and fifty people who crossed the plains with oxen and mules, with Oregon as their destination. Locating in Linn county, he here took up a donation claim of three hundred and seventeen acres upon which now stands a portion of the town of Harrisburg. He at once set about the arduous work of cultivating his land and gradually brought it to a high state of development, from time to time adding to his possessions until he became the owner of three ranches in Lane county and three in Linn county. Upon these he ran his stock, conducting his operations along that line on a very extensive scale, driving beef cattle across the country to California, where he sold them to the miners. He also became interested in racing and was the owner of some of the fastest horses in the state, having constructed upon one of his ranches a mile track, where many notable meets were held. In his later years he engaged in the dry goods business at Harris- burg and also was the proprietor of a hardware establishment and through these various lines of activity won a notable measure of success, so that his name became a prominent one throughout the state. He was also a veteran of the Indian wars, having participated in the Rogue River campaign, and there was no phase of western development with which he was not familiar. He was one of the pioneer builders of the state who by their labors made possible that superior civilization which is now one of the characteristics of the commonwealth, and great honor is due him not only on account of the individual success which he achieved, but also owing to the part which he played in the upbuilding of his town and county, which benefited greatly by his activities. He was a charter member of Thurston Lodge, A. F. & A. M., No. 28. He passed away in 1886 and his name will ever be an honored one in the annals of this state.
Coming to Oregon when a babe in his mother's arms, F. Marion Hyde has passed
F. MARION HYDE
Vol. II-31
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his entire life within its borders. He remembers the time when travel was on foot or by team before the railroads were built here and when there was no sound to break the silence save when a settler was at work on the arduous task of establishing a new home in the midst of the wilderness. At the time the family settled in Linn county there was no town at Harrisburg and they had hut three neighbors. Mr. Hyde was reared and educated in Linn county and after completing his studies engaged in the stock business on his father's ranches, in which he won notable success, special- izing in pure bred Hereford and Durham cattle. He carried on an extensive business along that line, having at times as many as two hundred head of cattle, and his herd ranked as the best in the state. In 1902 he engaged in the meat business in Harrisburg, in which he continued active for twelve years, during which period he twice suffered considerable loss by fire. In November, 1917, he was gored by a bull and his injuries were so severe that he was unable to walk for six months thereafter. In 1913 Mr. Hyde sold his father's estate, comprising over a thousand acres, and the proceeds were then divided among the six heirs to the property. Since October, 1919, he has lived retired in the enjoyment of a substantial competence, which he has won through hon- orable methods and sound business judgment. Mr. Hyde is the oldest person in Harris- burg and the only one remaining who was here in 1851. At that time the town was known as Thurston.
Mr. Hyde has been married three times. His first marriage was with Miss Mary Kelsey, whom he wedded in October, 1878. They became the parents of three children: Lilly, who died in September, 1918; Rose, who died at the age of two years; and Calvin, who died when but six weeks old. On the 1st of September, 1889, the wife and mother passed away after an illness of six years, and in 1894 Mr. Hyde wedded Florence Hodges. His third union was with Lena Johnson, whom he married in 1910, and she passed away in October, 1914.
In his political views Mr. Hyde is a democrat, and fraternally he is identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, with which he has been connected for a period of forty-three years, and he also belongs to the Artisans lodge, of which he is a charter member. The life record of F. Marion Hyde has been marked hy constant progress, resulting ever in the attainment of his objective in the husiness world. His entire life, covering a span of seventy years, has been passed within the borders of this state and he has well used these years, not only to promote his own prosperity, but to aid and further the general development and progress of his community and district.
WILLIAM WHITFIELD.
William Whitfield is the senior partner of Whitfield, Whitcomb & Company, Cer- tified Public Accountants, and the firm is one of the most prominent on the Pacific coast, having an extensive business that covers this entire section of the country. Mr. Whitfield is entitled to credit for what he has accomplished in this connection as enter- prise, progressiveness and business ability have been the basis upon which he has built his success. He came to America from England, his birth having occurred in Berkshire in 1882, and his parents were Albert and Susan (Smith) Whitfield. After qualifying for his profession in his native country he came to the new world in 1905 and spent six months in San Francisco before making his way northward to Portland. In 1906 he established business in Portland, Oregon, and in 1910 was joined by Mr. Whitcomb in organizing the present company. They have from fifty to sixty employes, all proficient in their chosen profession. The company maintains four offices located at Portland, Seattle, Spokane and Astoria and three agencies, one at San Francisco, another at Los Angeles and the third at Salt Lake City.
In 1915 Mr. Whitfield was married to Miss Isabel Hughes and they have one son, William Hughes Whitfield. Mr. Whitfield votes for the republican party and belongs to the Arlington Club, the Waverly Country Club and the Rotary Club. He is also identified with the Chamber of Commerce, while fraternally he is a Mason. He was largely instrumental in securing the passage of a law establishing the State Board for Certified Public Accountants in Oregon in 1912, and in 1914 was elected to the presi- dency of the state society. In 1915 he was chosen vice president of the American In- stitute of Certified Public Accountants. He holds to very high professional standards
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and has done much to advance its interest and welfare as a representative of this calling.
A most interesting chapter in the life record of Mr. Whitfield concerns his service for the government during the World war. In May, 1917, he was made division auditor in charge of government accounts for construction work at Camps Lewis and Fremont. Later, or in January, 1918, he was transferred to Washington and had charge of government accounts for all construction work of the construction division of the army in the United States. He enlisted as a private in July, 1918, was promoted to the rank of captain in the Engineer Corps and went overseas in August, 1918. He was first stationed in Paris and then sent to London, England, as financial requisi- tion officer. He was subsequently promoted to the rank of major and on the 21st of May, 1919, received his discharge. He did valuable work for the country in bis military and professional capacities and when his aid was no longer needed returned to Port- land, where he again assumed his duties as head of the firm of Whitfield, Whitcomb & Company. As a certified public accountant he enjoys a most enviable reputation, his ability placing him in the front rank in professional connections.
ULYSSES S. GRANT.
Ulysses S. Grant is now serving for the second term as mayor of Dallas and is. also extensively engaged in the raising of pure bred Angora goats, in this connection having served for eleven years as president of the National Mohair Growers Associa- tion. He is a representative of one of the honored pioneer families of the state and was born in the city where he now resides August 5, 1863, his parents being William and Beatrice A. (Robertson) Grant, natives of Missouri. In 1844, when but a boy, the father accompanied his parents on their removal to Oregon, the journey being made by means of ox teams. The family home was established in Polk county, where the grandfather took up a donation claim one mile from the present site of Dallas. He cleared and improved his land, continuing active in its cultivation through- out the remainder of his life. His son, William Grant, learned the trade of a car- penter and many of the buildings in Dallas and the surrounding country were con- structed by him. For eight years he resided in Springfield, Oregon, later removed to Lebanon, where he remained for four years, then took up his abode in Dallas and there spent the balance of his life. The mother survives and is making her home in Portland.
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