USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. III > Part 66
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To the common schools of Calhoun county, Michigan, Earl B. Hughes is indebted for his early education and in due time he was graduated from the Michigan Agricul- tural College. He then took up the undertaking business in his home town and re- mained there for three years, when he removed to Joliet, Illinois, and established him- self in that line of business on his own account. Success attended his efforts for two and one-half years, when a flood, the result of a broken dam, destroyed his plant and left him financially crippled. He was not discouraged by this misfortune, however, and he took a position as instructor in the Barnes College of Anatomy, Sanitary Science and Embalming, remaining with that institution for twelve years. Part of this time he spent on the road as lecturer for the state organization of embalmers and his lecturing tours covered all of the country west of the Rockies. It was upon one of these trips that he visited the Pacific coast, and contracting the "far west fever," he resigned his position and came to Astoria in 1914, purchasing an undertaking busi- ness, which he has since conducted.
On the 2nd of December, 1907, Mr. Hughes was united in marriage at Puyallup, Washington, to Miss Bessie C. Higley, the daughter of O. G. Higley. Mrs. Hughes is
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a direct descendant of Captain John Higley, who came to America in 1664 and was the founder of the American branch of the Higley family. The Higleys are of English origin. Upon the maternal side Mrs. Hughes traces her descent from Josiah Simpson, who came to America in 1620 and founded the family that numbers among its members President U. S. Grant, Alice Freeman Palmer, who was the first head of Wellesley College, and many other noted men and women of America. To the union of Mr. and Mrs. Hughes one child, James Othello, has been born. He is of school age and is attending the Astoria schools.
Mr. Hughes is an enthusiastic member of the Masonic order, is past master of the Blue lodge and has traveled to the Mystic Shrine by the York Rite. He is also con- nected with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, the Knights of Pythias, Woodmen of the World, Modern Woodmen, Rebekahs, Eastern Star and Moose, in which latter order he is treasurer. He is active in the civic affairs of Astoria as a director of the Chamber of Commerce and director of the Young Men's Christian Association. In the line of his business he is chairman of the State Board of Embalming Examiners, a member of the Civic Center Commission, of the City Cemetery Commission, and the National Funeral Directors' Association. The success he has made in his profession was made manifest in 1917, when he was elected coroner of Clatsop county and he was so efficient in this capacity that he was reelected in 1919. The religious faith of Mr. and Mrs. Hughes is that of the Presby- terian church and they are prominent in the affairs of that organization. Mrs. Hughes is widely recognized as a social leader and charming hostess and their home is a center of attraction for the prominent and cultured people of Astoria.
CARL HERBERT MEISSNER, M. D.
For sixteen years Carl Herbert Meissner has been one of the prominent physicians of Oregon City, Clackamas county. He is a native of lowa and was born at Reinbeck, that state, in 1879, a son of William F. and Elfrieda (Beckman) Meissner, both of whom were natives of Germany. His father engaged in the mercantile business in the old country but his health failed and he decided to remove to the United States. He then retired from the mercantile business and removed to this country, with the deter- mination to take up farming or some other outdoor work. Being a cousin of the Roebling family, who were among the prominent engineers and manufacturers in America, he removed to lowa, settling on a portion of a large tract which the Roeblings owned in that state, and commenced farming. The grandfather, Ferdinand, was a man of more than ordinary ability, and was offered the treasurership of the Krupp works, but on account of his political belief he did not accept. He soon afterward left his native land because of his stand politically, going at the time that Carl Schurz and his fol- lowers left Germany in 1848.
Dr. Meissner received his elementary education in Reinbeck and later attended school in Chicago, to which city his parents had removed. He chose the medical profession as his life work and entered the Rush Medical College where he was grad- uated with honors in 1902. Wishing to become even more proficient in his profession he spent two years in hospital work and in 1904, came to Oregon. He chose Oregon City as a suitable location and here he has resided for sixteen years during which time he has built up a large and lucrative practice. Dr. Meissner has taken several post- graduate courses in Chicago, New York, and other eastern cities and while his practice is a general one he has a strong leaning to obstetrics and in that line probably enjoys the largest practice of any other physician in the Willamette valley. He is a close student and his extensive library embraces many volumes from the pens of the best medical authorities in the world. This study keeps him in touch with the latest developments and discoveries in therapeutics. He continues his studies even when on his vacations, which are spent on his sixty-four acre farm in Clackamas county. He has erected a unique "log" cabin on this farm, which is completely hidden in a forest, and here it is with his family and books he enjoys that relaxation necessary to keep him fit for performing his strenuous professional duties.
Dr. Meissner was married in 1909 to Miss Laura Avison, a daughter of E. T. Avison, who was associated with the Oregon City Manufacturing Company. One child, William Avison, a sturdy and intelligent youngster, has been born to Dr. and Mrs. Meissner. Mrs. Meissner is an accomplished musician and is a prominent member of the Derthick
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Musical Club. She is active in club circles, is a member of the Congregational church and also active in many of its societies.
Politically Dr. Meissner is a democrat and is the Clackamas county member of the state central committee of that party. Although he takes an active interest in politics he has never been persuaded to accept public office. He has not let his profession entirely eclipse his social life and he is active in the Masonic fraternity, being a Knights Templar and Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He is also an Elk, a Moose, and a Woodman of the World. To these organizations he devotes such time as can be spared from his professional duties, which are very heavy and prove the success he has ob- tained as a physician.
MAJOR CASSIUS R. PECK.
Major Cassius R. Peck, who to the profession is known as a very intelligent and exceptionally able lawyer and to the public as a man of the highest type, has in his career but carried out the principles handed down to him from an ancestry clean mentally, morally and physically for many generations. He was graduated cum laude from the University of Vermont and such antecedents and such an education give a man an interest as wide as the world and as broad as human intelligence. His natal day was July I, 1880, and the place of his birth the town of Brookfield, Vermont. His father, Cassius Peck, was born at the same place in 1842 and was married in his native town in 1867 to Luna Arnold Sprague, a daughter of Asa Sprague. At the time of the Civil war Cassius Peck, Sr., joined the "Boys in Blue," becoming a private of Company F, First Regiment of Berdan Sharpshooters. He enlisted at the first call for troops in 1861 and served until the close of the war, winning the rank of sergeant. He after- ward became a prominent figure in the political history of the Green Mountain state, serving as a member of the house and senate of the Vermont legislature. He was also a trustee of the University of Vermont and of the Vermont Soldiers' Home. His life was devoted to the occupation of farming, which he followed for many years, his labors being ended in death in 1912. He had for more than a decade survived his wife, who passed away in 1901, both dying in Burlington, Vermont. It will be of interest in this connection to note something concerning the ancestral history of the family, which was founded in America in 1638, the first representative of the name in the new world being Henry Peck, who came from England and settled at New Haven, Connecticut. The great-grandfather of Major Peck of this review was Thomas Peck, a native of Connecticut, and the grandfather was Reuben Peck, who was born in Brookfield, Ver- mont, and became a manufacturer of that place.
Cassius R. Peck, whose name introduces this review, was a pupil in the public and high schools of his native state and then entered the University of Vermont, from which he was graduated cum laude with the class of 1902. He then prepared for the bar and in the law, properly studied, he learned the big principles upon which the universe of human civilization lives and develops. He was admitted to the bar in 1902 and practiced in 1903 and 1904 in Burlington, Vermont. In the fall of the latter year he made his way to Oklahoma, where he found a bright people under wholly new conditions, not tied down by any fetters of the past, and in this new environment he readily adjusted himself as a capable, well-educated man should. His surroundings compelled him to consider very largely the elementary principles of life. He soon be- came acquainted with people of every sort and condition and had the respect of everyone whom he met. In February, 1905, he was appointed assistant United States attorney for the district of Oklahoma and filled that position until July, 1906, bethg known as an intelligent, efficient and thoroughly trustworthy officer. At the latter date he was transferred to the interior department as attorney and member of the Osage Indian Allotting Commission, with headquarters at Pawhuska, Oklahoma, his duty being to allot the lands and property of the Osages among the members of that tribe. The work of the board was singularly well done and a fair share of the credit of that work be- longs to Major Peck. When the commission had completed its labors in 1909 it was dissolved and in that year Major Peck came to Oregon, settling at Marshfield, where he practiced law until August, 1917.
At that date, America having entered the World war, Mr. Peck was admitted to the officers' training camp at the Presidio at San Francisco, where he remained for three months. He was commissioned captain of infantry and was assigned to Camp
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Lewis, in the state of Washington, and almost immediately thereafter detailed to the judge advocate's office at Camp Lewis, where he continued until June, 1918. He was then made camp judge advocate and so served until October 1, 1918. In September of that year he was promoted to the rank of major in the judge advocate general's depart- ment and did duty under that commission until October 1, 1918, when he was ordered overseas, being assigned to a vessel in crossing when the armistice was signed. Orders came to return to Camp Upton, New York, where he acted as camp judge advocate until honorably discharged on the 31st of December, 1918. With his return to Oregon he resumed the practice of law at Portland as a member of the law firm of Griffith, Leiter & Allen. In his business he is alert and persistent and with these qualities combines a high sense of honor and fairness. It is characteristic of him that he entered the training camp at San Francisco and without former military experience obtained a commission as captain at the end of a ninety-day course, later receiving his commission as major at Camp Lewis. The same thoroughness and close application have charac- terized his professional record. He studies his cases and studies his facts and studies the law, after which, it has been said of him, that he studies his cases some more, presenting them as a well prepared lawyer presents his cause. He has been successful with juries and court because of his good preparation for trial and because he did not attempt to misstate the law to the court nor the facts to the jury. His success has been the result of earning, winning and holding the regard, appreciation and confidence of those acquainted with him as an honest, efficient, large-natured man and lawyer.
On the 9th of June, 1903, in Bennington, Vermont, Major Peck was married to Miss Lilian Louise Valentine. They have become the parents of a daughter, Alma Louise.
Fraternally Major Peck is a Knight Templar Mason and member of the Mystic Shrine and his religious faith is that of the Presbyterian church. He belongs to Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Delta Theta, college fraternities, to the Arlington Club and Multnomah Amateur Athletic Club of Portland. He is also a member of the American Legion and has done important work in that connection. He was elected temporary president of Portland Post at its first meeting, May 24, 1919, and then proceeded to take charge of the work of organizing the local post. At its second meeting on the 6th of June he was elected president and guided the organization as president of the post and chairman of the executive committee until May 1, 1920. At the time he retired as president Portland Post was the largest post of the American Legion, having sixty- three hundred members, and his administration turned over to the new administration the sum of fifty-eight hundred dollars. Mr. Peck was a delegate to the state convention of the American Legion of Oregon in September, 1919, and was also elected a delegate to the national convention at Minneapolis in November of the same year. At the Minneapolis meeting he was appointed chairman of the constitution committee and was instrumental in drafting the national constitution of the American Legion which is now in force. He was also chairman of the respective committees which drafted the existing constitution of the Department of Oregon and Portland Post. At a meeting of Portland Post on May 3, 1920, the title of first past commander was conferred upon him. He takes great interest in all civic affairs and is welcomed to any society by reason of the sterling traits of his character.
LOYAL H. MCCARTHY.
Although reared upon a farm, Loyal H. McCarthy early determined to devote his life to professional pursuits and, deciding upon the practice of law, prepared for that calling, which he has followed in Portland since August, 1908. He was born upon a farm in Waukesha county, Wisconsin, July 4, 1877, and comes of Irish or Scotch-Irish ancestry on his father's side, his paternal grandfather having been a native of Ireland, where he was engaged in the flour milling business. He came to the new world, spend- ing his last days in Wisconsin, where he passed away in the '70s. William McCarthy, father of Loyal H. McCarthy, was born in Dublin, Ireland, October 31, 1836, and was a youth of thirteen years when in 1849 he came to the United States with his father, who was on an inspection trip of American mills. On the 7th of February, 1860, he married Lydia Holcombe. His death occurred in Albion, Wisconsin, September 15, 1918, and his widow survived him for about a year, passing away in Albion, November 13, 1919.
Loyal H. McCarthy was reared on his father's farms in Waukesha and Dane counties,
LOYAL H. MCCARTHY
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Wisconsin, to the age of eighteen years. In the acquirement of his education he at- tended the country schools and the Edgerton (Wis.) high school, while later he became a student in the Albion Academy and Normal Institute, from which he was graduated on the completion of the philosophical course. Before taking up the study of law he felt it advisable to have other business training and pursued a course in the North- western Business College at Madison, Wisconsin. He then entered the University of Wisconsin in preparation for the bar and was graduated in 1901 upon the completion of his course in law. Soon afterward he opened a law office in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at which time he possessed a capital of but twenty-five dollars. He had paid his own way through college and thus displayed the elemental strength of his character, which as the years have passed has manifested itself in determination, energy and persistency of purpose. Although advancement at the bar is proverbially slow, he was not long in gaining a self-sustaining practice and did well during the latter part of the four and one-half years in which he remained in Milwaukee. He then went to Nevada to look after the mining interests of a client and became imbued with the spirit of the west, resulting in his determination to make his home in this section of the country. After looking about for a favorable location he chose Portland, where he arrived in August, 1908, and through the intervening period he has been a representative of the bar of this city. He has been connected with much important litigation and at all times he has displayed accuracy in the application of the principles of jurisprudence to the points at issue. As the years have passed he has also become connected with business enterprises of importance and is general counsel and attorney for the F. B. Mallory Company, dealers in logging supplies, the Clarke County Iron Works, the Oregon Arti- ficial Limb Company, the Portland Brick & Tile Company and other corporations and is a member of the saw-milling firm of McCarthy & Hamlet but allows none of his other interests to divert his attention from the practice of law.
On the 4th of June, 1913, in Portland, Mr. McCarthy was married to Miss Vieve Cecil, her father being William C. Cecil of Portland, a native of Missouri. Mrs. Mc- Carthy is a graduate of St. Helens Hall and finished her education at the University of Oregon. She comes from well known English families in both the paternal and maternal lines. The Cecil family is one of England's most distinguished families, many of its members having held high offices. Lord Robert Cecil of the present gen- eration is an active member of the British government. Mr. and Mrs. McCarthy have become the parents of a son, William Cecil, born May 8, 1916. They are members of the First Congregational church.
Fraternally Mr. McCarthy is a Mason and has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite, while with the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine he has crossed the sands of the desert, the order ever finding in him an exemplary representative. In politics he is a republican and, while not an office seeker, has always been keenly interested in good government and his aid and influence are always on the side of right and progress. He is a member of the Oregon Civic League and is president of the University of Wisconsin Alumni Society of Portland, Oregon.
CHARLES R. LISLE.
Charles R. Lisle, who is engaged in farming and stock raising on the Umatilla river, Umatilla county, Oregon, was born on the ranch where he now makes his home on the 12th of January, 1873, a son of Samuel I. and Martha J. (Marr) Lisle. The father was a native of Van Buren county, Iowa, and the mother of Missouri. When just a lad Samuel I. Lisle came west with his father and mother. This was in the year 1851. His mother died on the plains and Samuel I. Lisle, with his father, con- tinued the journey. When they started on the overland trip they had an outfit of some fifty head of cattle and horses but a number of these were stolen by the Indians. On reaching The Dalles, Oregon, Samuel I. Lisle and his father left their stock for the winter, while they went on to Portland. The winter was a severe one and the cattle and horses froze and starved to death, thereby putting an end to the immediate prospect of the Lisles engaging in the ranching business. For some time Samuel I. Lisle was employed in a mercantile store in Portland and later for two years worked in the mines at Granite creek. About 1869 he removed to Umatilla county, where he was married, and his wife having taken up a claim in this county Samuel I. Lisle obtained one adjoining, also buying some land, and there they resided for many years. Their
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first home on this land was of rough hewn logs but in 1872 Mr. Lisle huilt a fine frame house. His wife died on this ranch and later Samuel I. Lisle leased his farm and bought property in Portland, where he resided until his death. Samuel I. Lisle was known throughout the county as a raiser of fancy stock and in 1881 he planted the first alfalfa crop there, shipping the seeds from California to Umatilla county. Through- out his life he was a stanch supporter of the republican party, his fraternal affiliations were with the Masons and Odd Fellows and his religious faith that of the Methodist Episcopal church.
The boyhood of Charles R. Lisle was spent on the ranch of his father. He attended the country schools in the winter and in the summer rode the range as far as Walla Walla, Washington. In due time he entered the University of Willamette at Salem and after completing his course of study there, returned to the ranch for a short time. His first venture in the business world was as a traveling salesman for a Chicago sporting goods house, after which he engaged in the hardware and farm implement business at Echo for a time. Selling the latter business he entered the real estate circles of Portland and subsequently returned to his old ranch home, where he now resides. The ranch consists of four hundred and eighty acres of fine improved land and Mr. Lisle is specializing in the raising of Poland-China hogs.
In 1902 occurred the marriage of Mr. Lisle and Mrs. Bessie Taylor, a daughter of J. M. Young, a prosperous farmer of Umatilla county. Mrs. Lisle is a native of Kansas.
Like his father Charles R. Lisle is a stanch supporter of the republican party, in the interests of which he takes an active part, although he has neither sought nor desired public office. His fraternal affiliation is with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and he is prominent in the affairs of that organization. When Mr. Lisle was born there were no railroads here and the town of Echo was not in existence. Umatilla was the center of trade for the community, to which goods were shipped hy hoat and hauled out by freighting outfits. He has seen the country grow from the bleakness of these early pioneer days to a prosperous and progressive community and his course proves that upon the sure foundation of industry and indefatigable energy success may be built.
HON. GEORGE RUSSELL WILBUR.
George R. Wilbur, a practicing attorney of Hood River, and a veteran of both the Spanish-American war and the World war, was born in Dixon county, Nebraska, in March, 1879. His parents, Guy R. and Ella J. (Lineberger) Wilbur, were natives of Illinois and representatives of old pioneer families of Nebraska. The father became one of the leading lawyers of the latter state and held many public offices, hoth ap- pointive and elective. For many years he served as county judge of Cedar county; was district attorney of the seventh judicial district of that state and county attorney of Wayne county. He was the son of Russell H. Wilbur, who was a member of the con- stitutional convention of Nebraska and was twice a member of the state legislature, to the work of which he brought a keen perception of public needs.
George R. Wilbur was educated at the grade and high schools of his native county, at the Nebraska Normal College, and at the University of Nebraska. He took his law course at Ann Arbor, Michigan, and received his degree in 1903. He commenced the practice of his profession at Wayne, Nehraska, where he remained until 1905, when he removed to Portland, Oregon. After a stay of six months in Portland, Mr. Wilbur returned to Nebraska and in 1907 he was elected county attorney, holding that office for one term of two years. But the call of the coast was too strong and in 1909 he returned to Oregon, locating in Hood River, where he has since carried on the practice of his profession.
Mr. Wilhur served as city attorney of Hood River for three years and in 1916 he was elected state senator. He discharged the duties of the latter position until he resigned to go overseas for war duty in September, 1918. When America entered the World war in 1917 he organized the Twelfth Company of the Oregon Coast Artillery and was elected its captain. In July of that year the company was ordered to Fort Stevens and Captain Wilbur entered the service of his country. He was transferred to other commands and was on duty at Fort Sill, Fort Caswell and other camps, and while a captain in the Thirty-eighth Artillery, C. A. C., he was ordered to Newport
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News for embarkation overseas. Just prior to the departure of the regiment, the armistice was signed and on November 30, 1918, it was ordered to Fort Hamilton for demobilization.
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