USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. III > Part 24
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95
185
HISTORY OF OREGON
is a man young for his years, he could not be accepted. Dr. Dumble is still actively engaged in practice and meets with excellent success in his undertakings. He is most careful in diagnosis and is seldom, if ever, at fault in foretelling the outcome of disease. He is owner of a large orchard a few miles south of the city, producing the famous Newton apples and he is a member of the Apple Growers' Association.
Dr. Dumble was married to Miss Katharyn Idleman, daughter of Silas Idleman, an extensive farmer of Marion, Ohio, whose parents were among the earliest settlers of that state. Dr. Dumble is a Knight Templar Mason and member of the Mystic Shrine. Along strictly professional lines he is connected with the Oregon Medical Society and the American Medical Association. His standing as a physician is high and as a public- spirited citizen he occupies a place in the front rank.
LEANDER H. BAKER.
Leander H. Baker is closely associated with the educational progress of Portland as the principal of the Schaffer school. Moreover, he is a representative of one of the old and honored pioneer families of the state and is familiar in every way with the early history of Oregon, his reminiscences of the initial work of development and progress in the northwest being most interesting. He was born in Hopkins county, Kentucky, August 18, 1849, and is a son of C. B. and Eliza (Berry) Baker, hoth of whom were natives of Hopkins county, Kentucky. The grandfather in the paternal line was James Baker, who followed Daniel Boone into "the dark and bloody ground" at a very early period in the settlement of Kentucky. He ran away from home at the age of fourteen years in order to participate in the Revolutionary war and suffered the untold hardships experienced by the American troops at Valley Forge. He was horn in North Carolina and the experiences of his life were indeed varied and interesting, covering his military activities and his connection with the pioneer development of Hopkins county, Ken- tucky. He wedded Mary Davis, a cousin of Jefferson Davis and a native of the Blue Grass state.
C. B. Baker, with his wife and family, came to Oregon in 1853. He and his lifelong friend, James Biles, organized what was known as the Kentucky train of one hundred and eighty-three people which had the distinction of cutting the first road from the sum- mit of the Cascades to Puget Sound. In the train were Asher Sargent and his family. His son, Nelson Sargent, had preceded the parents to the Puget Sound country. This son met the train near the present site of Pendleton and advised the leaders to turn north from the Oregon trail and go into the Puget Sound district. They found the road open to the summit of the Cascades and after reaching that point there was no alternative but to cut their way through to the Puget Sound; and in so doing they were able to average only about three miles per day. Feed for the stock was scarce and indeed the animals were starving. One morning Mr. Baker, who owned a fine thoroughbred mare, said to his wife: "Kit is down and can't get up; I can't hear to kill her and I hate to leave her to die." When the train was ready to move Mrs. Baker said: "Go on, I am not ready to go." She stayed with the mare, carried water from a nearby canyon, gathered hits of moss, twigs and scant grass, watered and fed the mare and by noon coaxed the animal to her feet and soon overtook the train. The next morning the situation was the same as the previous morning. When the train was ready to start, Mrs. Baker said: "I am not going to give it up yet." About noon she again overtook the train, leading the mare, and from that time on the animal was able to travel with the train. Twelve years after one of her sons competed successfully in the races at the Oregon State Fair. As the party traveled on they met great hardships and difficulties. Many of the hills on the descent were so steep that wagons had to lowered hy ropes. On reaching one of the last and the steepest it was found that the ropes were so much worn that there was not length enough to reach the bottom of the hill. The night before an ox was so seriously crippled that he had to be shot. His hide was taken off, cut into strips and platted into a rope, but it was not long enough. James Biles, one of the leaders of the train and probably the wealth- iest, said to one of his teamsters: "Bring the poorest ox in my team." The ox was brought, Mr. Biles ordered him shot and the hide was stripped off and platted into rope, but this with all the rope that could be found was not yet enough. Mr. Biles said: "Bring another ox." This, too, he ordered shot and the hide also platted into rope, and this addition to the line proved sufficient, so that the wagons were safely
186
HISTORY OF OREGON
lowered and from that point on the party proceeded to their destination. It was in the fall of 1852 that C. B. Baker and his brother Elijah, made their way from Kentucky to Missouri with their families in order to buy stock for the train with which to make the trip to Oregon the next spring and they were joined by the other travelers from Kentucky at Independence, Missouri, on the 16th of April, 1853, and went into Camp October 16th on American Lake, the long journey having been completed. Mr. Baker took up a donation claim of three hundred and twenty acres of prairie land and re- mained thereon until his death in 1866. His wife had passed away in Kentucky before he started for Oregon. Mr. Baker was an active factor in the early development of the northwest. Both he and his friend, James Biles, were members of the first three territorial legislatures and thus he aided in shaping the early political history of the state as well as its material development.
Leander H. Baker obtained his early education in the district schools of the Puget Sound country to the age of sixteen years, when he walked from Olympia to Monticello, there to take a boat to Salem in order to attend the Willamette University, while subsequently he became a student in McMinnville College. He later won his degree from Lafayette Seminary when but nineteen years of age. He had taught a term in the country school and it was his ambition to become a lawyer, but events shaped his career otherwise. He was chosen superintendent of schools of Yamhill county and so ex- cellent a record did he make in that position that he was retained in the office for ten years. He was also made a member of the state board of school examiners and so served for thirteen years. He has continued in the profession of teaching throughout the intervening period and for sixteen years has been connected with the Portland schools and for five years of this time was an officer of the juvenile court. He is now principal of the Schaffer school and is recognized as one of the prominent representatives of public education in Oregon.
In 1874 Mr. Baker was united in marriage to Miss Sarah W. McTeer, a daughter of Robert and Sarah (Odell) McTeer, who were natives of Tennessee and Indiana re- spectively, and became Oregon pioneers of 1851. The Odell family is mentioned at length on another page of this work. To Mr. and Mrs. Baker were born six children, five of whom are living: Mabel P., who is the wife of Elwood Layfield, a resident of Mount Vernon, Ohio; Carl C., an attorney at Salinas, California; James C., who died in 1902; Hallie L., the wife of S. B. Allen of Portland; Una G., the wife of Walter Inch of Port- land; and Robert V., a student at Rush Medical College of Chicago, who has been elected president of the Nu Sigma Nu.
Mr. Baker has been identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows since 1875. He also belongs to the Pioneer Association of Oregon and for the past fifteen years has been its assistant secretary. He is a lifelong republican and for many years has been a member of the Evangelical church. He is a representative of one of the old and honored pioneer families and although quite young when the family came to the west he can remember distinctly in 1855-6 of the midnight messenger who called to his father to get his family into Fort Henness as quickly as possible, relating to him the plan of attack and telling him also of the Indian tribes in the league. Mr. Baker has in his possession a complete list of the inmates of Fort Henness, with an accurate pencil drawing of the fort, and also the roster of the volunteers of that fort, including the names of the captain, lieutenants and corporals. The experiences of the pioneer country are familiar to him and he has been a factor in bringing about present-day progress and improvement.
JOHN LAWRENCE HERSHNER.
The labors of John Lawrence Hershner have constituted a valuable contribution to central Oregon in its development and upbuilding and his name is therefore in- separably interwoven with its history. He has been particularly well known in the Hood River country and he now makes his home in the city of Hood River. He was born at Blooming Grove, Morrow county, Ohio, in 1857, and in every position in which he has found himself throughout an active life he has won and merited the praise of his fellow citizens because of the beneficial character of his labors and his uprightness in every relation. He was educated in the graded schools of his native town and in the Lexington Seminary. In 1879 he became a resident of the Willamette valley. Though but little past his majority, he decided that the firmest props of mankind were religion
187
HISTORY OF OREGON
and morality and he took up the study of theology. For two years he served as assist- ant pastor at Albany, Oregon, and from 1882 until 1886 at Independence. His next charge was at Corvallis, where he labored as minister until 1889, when he was called to Albina, and there remained for five years. In 1894 he accepted a call from the Riverside Congregational church at Hood River and for ten years labored untiringly in that field, his efforts being a most potent force in promoting the moral progress of the community. He won the love of the people of all denominations, for he is a man not only of scholarly attainments but of broad sympathy and has the faculty of calling forth the best that is in the individual.
From 1906 until 1917 Mr. Hershner was assistant superintendent of Congregational work in the state of Washington. In 1902 he purchased thirty-five acres of raw land in the Hood River valley, north of the village of Van Horn, which he reclaimed and developed, planting the tract to apples and pears, and since his retirement from active ministerial duties he has given a large part of his time to the further development and improvement of his orchard.
In 1886 Mr. Hershner was married at Monmouth, Oregon, to Miss Rachel Loughary, a daughter of a pioneer family of the Willamette valley. The children of this marriage who are still living are: Harold, now the assistant cashier of the Butler Bank of Hood River; Leila Zoe, the wife of Crawford Lemmon of Yakima, Washington; Lawrence Scott, who is a student in the University of Oregon; and Helen, a high school pupil at The Dalles. Mr. and Mrs. Hershner have reared their children to realize that good citizenship must be shown in active interest in public affairs; that patriotism is not confined to the singing of "My Country "Tis of Thee" on special occasions; that the building of the community in which they live, the betterment of local conditions and the promotion of material, moral and religious improvement of each community is a component part of loyal and progressive citizenship. Following these teachings, Harold Hershner served his country in time of war as a member of the gallant Ninety-first Division of the American Expeditionary Forces, doing active duty in France and Belgium and winning advancement to the position of sergeant. Returning home after twenty-two months of service, he has become interested in civic affairs with the determination to do his full duty to his country in days of peace as in times of war and is now the treasurer of the local organization of the American Legion. Lawrence Hershner also tendered his services to his country but upon physical examination was put in the fourth class and was never called. Mrs. Hershner is a graduate of the State Normal School and following the completion of her studies there became a member of the faculty. She is now a member of the Hood River Women's Club and was formerly president of the Ladies' Aid Society of the Congregational church, with which she is still identified. She is likewise a past worthy matron of the Eastern Star. Mr. Hershner is a Royal Arch Mason and is serving as chaplain of Hood River Lodge, No. 105, F. & A. M., and is past worthy patron of the Eastern Star, while twice he has been president of the Oregon Congregational Association. His life has been of distinct value to the state in its mental and moral development.
WILLIAM J. McCREADY.
William J. McCready was born in Jones county, Iowa, February 27, 1875. His parents, Robert W. and Ellen (Gault) McCready, were prepared as teachers and taught in the schools of Wyoming, Iowa, and other places until 1872, when they located on a farm near Wyoming, Iowa, where they lived for many years.
William McCready, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a pioneer in Iowa. Before the time of the railroads, he and his wife and two sons traveled by way of Burlington to Iowa City and settled there in the year 1844. The same year he fell a victim to the fever with which the country was infested and died. The family went back to the old home in Ohio, where the sons were educated and grew to manhood. Robert W. McCready went to Iowa again in 1870 but the balance of the family remained in Ohio. The McCreadys came to this country from Scotland and settled in or near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, about 1789, and many of the family live there at this date and at points nearby in Ohio.
William J. McCready received his common school education in Oak Hill district school near the home farm. He attended one year the Savannah Academy in Ohio, a school that both his father and mother attended in their youth and of which an uncle
188
HISTORY OF OREGON
was a trustee for forty years. He was graduated from Lenox College in Iowa in 1895, and from the law department of the University of Michigan in 1900 with the degree of LL. B. He practiced law in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, until 1903, when he became cashier of the Onslow Savings Bank, at Onslow, Iowa, an institution which he helped to re- organize and in which he was a stockholder and director.
The same year Mr. McCready was married to Miss Mary Copeland, who had been a schoolmate of his at Lenox College. To them were born three children. The two sons, Joseph Robert and William Wick, are in school. The daughter, Marian, the youngest of the family, died at the age of fourteen months.
In 1906 Mr. McCready finding that the confining work of the banking room was doing injury to his health, removed with his family to Perry, Iowa, where he became actively engaged in the retail lumber business as secretary of the Copeland Lumber Company, a position which he holds at the present time. In the year 1910 the Copeland Lumber Company sold its business in Iowa and its owners, consisting of Joseph Cope- land, the father of Mrs. McCready, his two sons, L. A. Copeland and J. W. Copeland, and W. J. McCready, came to Oregon and settled at Hood River and invested in the apple business. This move proved a bad one. All lost heavily. But in 1914 the same owners organized anew the Copeland Lumber Company in Oregon and have not only recovered their losses but have met with abundant success. The Copeland Lumber Company now has fourteen retail stores of lumber and has a paid up capital of over three hundred thousand dollars.
W. J. McCready is known in Forest Grove as a good booster. He has served number- less times on the Commercial Club of the city, has been a member of the city council, and served as local chairman of the Liberty Loan drives. He is an Odd Fellow and a life member of the Knights of Pythias Lodge.
Mrs. W. J. McCready was graduated from Lenox College and received the degree of Master of Science. She taught in that college for a number of years and was pre- ceptress of Clarke Hall, the ladies' dormitory. She is a member of Chapter D of the P. E. O. sisterhood and is also a member of the Monday Club and takes an active interest in promoting the welfare of the schools of the community, but her chief delight is in the keeping of her home and in the education and training of her two sons.
HARMON J. McLIN.
For many years Harmon J. McLin, who passed away February 1, 1920, was iden- tified with the farming interests of Oregon but spent his last days in Portland in the enjoyment of well earned rest. He was a native son of this state, his birth having occurred in Washington county, March 10, 1852. His parents were William and Rasana McLin, who were natives of Missouri and who crossed the plains in 1844, settling in Washington county, Oregon, where the father took up a donation claim of six hundred and forty acres situated about two and a half miles southwest of Hills- boro. On the farm which he there developed and improved he and his wife spent their remaining days.
It was on the old homestead that Harmon J. McLin was born and reared and in the district schools he acquired his education. His training was that of the farm bred boy and he early became familiar with the best methods of tilling the soil and caring for the crops. He was also married at the old homestead in 1877 to Miss Drusilla Constable, who was born in Oregon in 1858, a daughter of Edward and Brazilla (Arthur) Constable, both of whom were natives of Kentucky. They removed to Missouri in early life and from that state crossed the plains to Oregon in 1843, braving the dangers of a trip of that character and at a period when one could travel for hundreds of miles without seeing a habitation and for equal distances without seeing a white man, for the Indians were then far more numerous than the white settlers throughout the entire west. After reaching his destination her father secured a claim in Washington county, five and a half miles northeast of Hillsboro, and thereon he and his wife spent their remaining days save for their last six years, which were passed in Hillsboro. Mr. and Mrs. McLin began their domestic life on the old homestead, where they lived until about 1906. Mr. McLin carefully and systematically developed and improved his farm, converting it into a very productive tract of land and gathering therefrom large harvests as the years passed. In 1906, however, he removed with his family to Portland, where his widow has since made her home
HARMON J. McLIN
191
HISTORY OF OREGON
and where he continued to reside until called to his final rest. While he was living on the farm he served as school director for eight years in District No. 1, near his place of residence. This was the first school in Washington county and during his term as a director a new schoolhouse was built and the first large bell in that part of the state installed. The first organ used in that section was put into the schoolhouse and is still there.
To Mr. and Mrs. McLin were born four daughters: Myrtle and Minnie, twins, the former now the wife of F. E. Griffith of Portland and the latter the wife of L. A. Bill of Portland; Agatha, the wife of G. C. Gibson of Portland; and Grace, the wife of R. D. Handibo, a resident of Dunsmuir, California.
Mr. McLin was a lifelong democrat, always giving strong support to the party and with firm belief in its principles. He belonged to the Native Sons of Oregon during the existence of that society, was a faithful member of the Grange and a con- sistent representative of the Independent Order of Good Templars, which indicated his position on the temperance question. It was practically impossible for Mr. McLin to visit any section of the Pacific coast country where he did not have friends or acquaintances, so widely was he known, and his death, which occurred February 1, 1920, was the occasion of deep and widespread regret.
JARVIS VARNEL BEACH.
Jarvis Varnel Beach, well known attorney and business man of Portland, was born in Millport, Missouri, January 31, 1854. His father, Harvey H. Beach, was a native of New York, his birth having occurred on a farm in Saratoga county in 1810. In early manhood he removed to Missouri and there married Eleanor Isabella Henry. He was at one time county judge of Knox county, Missouri, and he passed away in 1860, having for about six years survived his wife, whose death occurred in 1854.
Jarvis V. Beach was but an infant at the time of his mother's demise and he was reared in Millport, Missouri, by his stepmother, attending the country schools in his youthful days and afterward pursuing a course in the normal school at Kirksville, Missouri. He next entered the Christian University at Canton, Missouri, and there pursued his studies until 1876, when he went to Tulare county, California, where he taught school for three years. During that period he devoted the hours that are usually termed leisure to the study of law and after thorough preliminary reading was admitted to practice at the California bar in 1879. Believing that Portland offered an excellent field of labor to the ambitious young lawyer, he then removed to this city and through the intervening years has continued in practice here, covering a period of more than four decades. It was not long until he had secured a good clientage and his ability has kept him constantly before the public as a leading lawyer. He has been connected with much important litigation, analyzes his cases very thoroughly, is seldom, if ever, at fault in the application of a legal principle and carries conviction to the minds of judge and jury by his clear reasoning and his logical arrangement of facts. Into the field of business he has also extended his efforts and is now a director of the Star Sand Company, of the Columbia Arms Investment Company and the Greater Portland Realty Company and of the last named is also the president. His business activities of this character have contributed in substantial measure to his success. At the same time he has always maintained a place among the foremost representatives of the bar and since 1895 has practiced as senior partner of the firm of Beach & Simon.
On the 14th of June, 1888, in Marion county, Oregon, Mr. Beach was united in marriage to Miss Agnes Olympia Cole and they have become the parents of a son, Varnel Cole, who was born in November, 1889, and is now a Harvard graduate. At the present time he is engaged in the lumber business in Portland. He was married in this city on the 30th of December, 1918, to Miss Virginia Menefee and they have one son, Varnel Lee, whose birth occurred in 1920.
Mr. Beach attends the Presbyterian church and he belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and also to the Chamber of Commerce. His political allegiance is given to the republican party and for four or five years in the late '80s he filled the office of city attorney of East Portland. He was also city attorney of the city of Port- land for one term in the '90s and in 1917 retired from the Portland school board after many years as a member of that body, during which time he did active and effective work toward furthering the interests of public education in this city. During the
192
HISTORY OF OREGON
World war period he served on the legal advisory board. Throughout his entire life he has done with his might what his hand has found to do. The duty nearest has ceen the one which has claimed his attention and from the faithful performance of each task that has come to him he has found courage and inspiration for the labors of the succeeding day. Thus he has made his life count for the utmost and his efforts have been an element in Portland's steady advancement along many lines.
ALVIN W. BAIRD, M. D.
Dr. Alvin W. Baird, engaged in the practice of medicine and surgery in Portland was born in San Mateo county, California. His father, Curtis Baird, was a native of New York. His mother's maiden name was Rachel Whisman, a native of Missouri. They were both pioneers in California where they were married and lived until 1877 when they came to Oregon, establishing their home in Oregon City. The father died in 1906, while the mother passed away in 1910.
Dr. Baird pursued his early education in the public schools of California and Oregon and afterward spent two years as a student in McMinnville College at McMinn- ville, Oregon. He entered Leland Stanford, Jr., University, California, in 1897; grad- uated with the Bachelor of Arts degree with the class of 1901. He entered the medical department of Cornell University, New York, in 1901, from which he was graduated with the class of 1905. During the years of his medical studies he was assistant instructor of physiology in the medical department of Cornell University, having specialized in physiology while at Stanford. Following his graduation he spent two years in residence in the Presbyterian Hospital in New York city and was there graduated in 1907. In the latter year he opened an office in Portland and through the intervening period has devoted his attention to the practice of both medicine and surgery. He is a member of the Portland City and County Medical Society, the Oregon State Medical Association, the American Medical Association, the North Pacific Surgical Association, and the American College of Surgeons, of which he is a fellow. He has been attending surgeon of the Multnomah Hospital of Portland ever since its inception. He has been connected with the teaching staff in surgery in the medical school of the University of Oregon at Portland since 1907 and for about eight years has been assistant professor of surgery in that institution. In 1918-1919 he was professor of physiology in the North Pacific Col- lege of Dentistry and Pharmacy of Portland.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.