USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. III > Part 85
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Fraternally Mr. Thompson is a Mason, having attained the degree of Knights Templar and he is likewise a member of the Mystic Shrine. He is high priest of his chapter and captain general of the Bend commandery. Since attaining his majority he has been a stanch supporter of the republican party, in the interests of which party he takes an active part as a member of the county committee. In educational, political and fraternal affairs Mr. Thompson holds high place and he is recognized by all as one of Oregon's most representative citizens.
JOHN WESLEY GOODIN.
The Dominion of Canada has contributed more than one worthy son to the state of Oregon, and John Wesley Goodin, who is now county judge of Washington county is not the least of these. His parents were John M. and Margaret (Bennett) Goodin, and he was born in the Province of Ontario in 1856. When he was seventeen. having completed his high school course in the schools of his native country, he removed with his parents to Nebraska to take up farming. Their new enterprise was hardly launched when the grasshopper plague of 1874 destroyed their crops and left them practically penniless. Two years later the family removed to Oregon and took up residence on lands in Washington county, where they are making their home at the present time.
John Wesley Goodin has long been known as a progressive and public-spirited man. He was elected county judge of Washington county in 1906 and he served in that capacity until 1911 when he retired to his farm of one hundred and sixty acres six miles north of Hillsboro. His fairness and his outstanding sense of justice had made his administration a notable one, however, and he was again elected to the same office in 1918. He has also been school director in his district for many years, and he is one of the most respected and popular men in the county.
Judge Goodin married Miss Donia E. McNamer, a daughter of a pioneer farmer of Washington county. They have two children: Margaret, the wife of J. L. Batch- elder of North Plains, Oregon, and Melville, a student in the Hillsboro high school. Judge Goodin belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is a Knight of Pythias, in which order he has filled all the chairs and has been a representative to the grand lodge. He is a member of the State Grange and is active in that body. During the late war he took a lively interest in all drives and war work and Mrs. Goodin gave herself unsparingly to Red Cross work. Judge Goodin's religious affilia- tions are with the Methodist church and he is a trustee in the local church of that denomination. Mrs. Goodin is an active member of the Methodist church and her friends are legion.
SAMUEL CHRISTIAN KENNELL.
Samuel Christian Kennell, who for fifteen years prior to his death was buyer for the George Lawrence Company of Portland and was well known in the business circles of the city, was born at Wengi, Switzerland, October 16, 1862, and was a son of Christian and Mary (Jagge) Kennell. The father was of French and German par- entage and was a representative of an aristocratic family in the French line. He was
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educated at Heidelberg University in Germany and afterward taught school in Switzer- land and still later in the United States. He came to this country with his wife and children in the year 1871 and subsequent to 1879 resided in Portland, Oregon, to the time of his death, which occurred in 1892.
Samuel C. Kennell obtained his early education in his native land and continued his studies in the schools of San Francisco, California, to the age of twelve years, when he went to work, receiving no regular educational training after that time. Nevertheless, through his own efforts his general education was far above that of the average business man and in science, physics and philosophy he excelled many men trained in the universities. He was a great lover of music and poetry and devoted his leisure to their study and enjoyment. He started out to earn his living by clerk- ing in one of the leading book stores of Portland, in which he remained for a year, after which he began learning the harness and saddlery business, spending five years as an apprentice to the trade. In 1880 he entered the employ of the Sherlock Harness & Saddlery Company and Mr. Kennell continued with them for thirty-five years, most of the time as their buyer. At length the company sold the business to the George Lawrence Company, saddlery manufacturers, and Mr. Kennell remained with the latter to the time of his demise. Throughout his business career he made steady progress as the result of his fidelity, capability, thoroughness and industry and for fifteen years he was with the George Lawrence Company as buyer, fully meeting every obligation and responsibility that devolved upon him in that connection.
On the 23d of July, 1889, in Portland, Oregon, Mr. Kennell was united in mar- riage to Miss Katie Buck, a daughter of Orsamus David and Mary (Risley) Buck. Her father was of English lineage and on the maternal side she also came of English ancestry. She is a direct descendant of Richard Risley, who came to this country from Braintree, England, with the Hooker party in 1633. He settled in Connecticut in 1636 and was one of the founders of that commonwealth, his name being inscribed on the monument erected in Hartford in memory of those pioneers. Mrs. Kennell is also closely allied to the old Ball family of Connecticut, who spring from the same stock that produced John Ball, the English priest, who with Watt Tyler so stoutly defended the rights of the common people against the injustice and tyranny of the English king of that day. All through their history this quiet, peace-loving, but thoroughly independent family has stood fearlessly for civil and religious liberty and at times has suffered in no small degree to maintain that stand. Orsamus David Buck was of English and Dutch parentage, and his ancestors came to America in very early times.
Mr. and Mrs. Kennell became parents of two sons: The elder, Frank Risley Kennell, inherited his father's love of scholarly pursuits. An altruist by nature, he early evinced an ardent desire to enter into the ministry of the church. He was edu- cated for his chosen calling in the Pacific Unitarian School for the Ministry at Berkeley, California, from which he was graduated in May, 1918, a year after the entrance of the United States into the war against Germany. Feeling was already running high, and the intolerance always engendered in time of war had invaded church and school as well as the secular walks of life. Personally, Mr. Kennell was strongly opposed to the passing of the draft act, believing that it would strike a blow at the very foundation of American liberty. He also deprecated the attitude of intoler- ance towards and persecution of those who could not conscientiousty eumort the war. He took the stand that in such a time of inflamed passions and biased judgment, the highest duty of the church was to hold its people true to the Christian virtues of truth and reason, love and forbearance, whatever side their individual consciences might lead them to espouse, and to minister as impartially to the one as to the other. He failed to secure a pulpit on these terms. Later he was denied readmission to the Pacific Unitarian School for the Ministry, where he hoped quietly to pursue his studies until the end of the war, on the plea that his views might endanger the interests of the school. He then returned his papers of fellowship in the Unitarian ministry and reluctantly abandoned his cherished idea of carrying on his life work through the medium of the church. He and his wife are now devoting their energies to the recon- struction problems that face the world today. He is still a young man, his birth having occurred in February, 1891, in Portland, and on the 6th of July, 1917, he was married to Ruth Epperson. The second son of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Christion Kennell, Raymond Winchton Kennell, born in April, 1893, in Portland, was married in April, 1915, to Helen Yardstrom and is engaged in business in Portland, where he bids fair to become one of the successful business men of the state.
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Mr. Kennell voted independently as far as he took any active part in politics. In early years he was an earnest supporter of the temperance movement. He became a member of the Masonic fraternity, belonging to the lodge and chapter. He was also connected with the Commercial Club and late in life he became a member of the Church of Our Father (Unitarian). He studied the ancient religions and was especially interested in the Chinese religion and how its beautiful precepts were intro- duced into the teachings of Jesus. He passed away June 1, 1915, leaving behind him many friends who had greatly enjoyed his companionship because of his genial nature and sterling worth. Step by step he advanced not only in the business world but in the regard of his fellow townsmen, and there are many who cherish the memory of Samuel C. Kennell.
OTTO ROENICKE.
Otto Roenicke, who developed and conducted the largest paper box factory in Oregon, his establishment being also the pioneer enterprise of this character in the state, remained an active factor in business circles until his death, which occurred August 19, 1915. He was born in Germany, in 1852, and there spent the first nine- teen years of his life, acquiring his education in the schools of his native country. He afterward sailed for the United States, his parents having previously passed away. After arriving in the new world he remained a resident of New York city for about nine months and then crossed the continent to Oregon, making the long trip by train and stage, with Portland as his destination. Here he secured employ- ment in a book binding establishment, having previously learned the trade in Ger- many. He afterward embarked in business on his own account by establishing the first paper box factory in Oregon. His plant was a primitive concern, he even manu- facturing his own tools to work with, but as the years passed this developed into the largest paper box factory in the state, and the output was shipped to all points on the Pacific coast. The growth of his business enabled him to give employment to a large force of workmen and this enterprise became one of the important industries of his section of the country.
In 1895 M. Roenicke was married to Miss Pauline Schulc, a daughter of Christian and Pauline (Nicklan) Schule, the former a native of Germany, while the latter was born in France. Mrs. Roenicke was born in France and in 1888 came with relatives to the United States, settling first in Texas, whence she removed to Oregon in 1890. To Mr. and Mrs. Roenicke were born two sons: Walter Otto, the elder, at- tended the Portland high school, in which he completed his course and then entered the Washington College at Seattle. In 1918 he joined the navy, was sent to the shipyards and afterward completed a course in the naval training school. He is now an ensign located in California, on Comfort Hospital ship; Albert Otto, the younger son, is a student in the Lincoln high school of Portland.
Fraternally Mr. Roenicke was connected with the Woodmen of the World, and his political endorsement was given to the republican party, but he was never am- bitious to hold office, preferring to concentrate his efforts and attentions upon his constantly growing business affairs, which in the course of years brought to him the substantial returns of labor, and made him one of the large manufacturers of the northwest.
MELVILLE COX STRICKLAND, M. D.
A gentleman of Virginia, of the most distinguished ancestry and social connec- tions, and a medical expert at the head of his profession in the state of Oregon, Dr. Strick- land maintains the stateliness of the Old Dominion in his home at Forest Grove, Washing- ton county. The genealogy of the Strickland family shows that they came from the north of England in colonial days, and that they were prominent in Virginia before and during the Revolution. The great-great-grandfather of Dr. Strickland was a soldier in the Revolution and was killed in that struggle for liberty. His grand- father, a prominent physician, served in the Civil war. Dr. Melville Cox Strickland is the son of Dr. M. W. and Martha Hunt (Clark) Strickland, and was born in Patrick
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county, Virginia, in 1866. The descendants of both the Stricklands and the Clarks number some of the most distinguished in American history, among whom may be mentioned Patrick Henry, and General J. E. B. Stuart, the great southern leader. The Stricklands are one of the most exclusive of Virginia's first families and are a power in the state.
Dr. Strickland was educated in the schools of Westfield, North Carolina, and at the University of North Carolina. Descended from ancestors who had been physicians for generations, he naturally took up that profession, and began his medical study at the Medical College of Louisville and then at the Kentucky school of medicine. He supplemented his work here by a course at the Pennsylvania School of Anatomy and Surgery and at the Jefferson Medical College, graduating from the latter in 1889. He then went into practical training in the Philadelphia Lying-In Charity Hospital, and in 1890 won the gold medal of that institution for special efficiency. Practising for seven years in Salem, Virginia, he took a postgraduate course at the New York Post- graduate College, and then, determining to seek a milder climate, he came to Oregon City, where he has since been practising. Dr. Strickland has fifteen diplomas and has completed more postgraduate work than most physicians find it possible to accomplish. He has studied in London, Paris, Vienna and Rome, and has served in the famous Santo Spirito Hospital of Italy, which is said to have been founded one hundred and twenty-two years before the birth of Christ. With such preparation Dr. Strickland's proficiency needs no comment.
In 1901 Dr. Strickland was married to Mary Helen McEldavney, whose forebears were colonial settlers of Pennsylvania, and whose parents were pioneers of Oregon. They have three children: Lee, who is a student at the Hill Military Academy and a major in the Cadet Corps, a young man who will doubtless enter the army as many Stricklands before him have done; Graeme Hammond, a high school pupil; and Janice, a grade pupil, who has developed so strong a musical talent that she is taking a course at the Pacific Musical University.
At his home in Forest Grove Dr. Strickland has collected a handsome library and he lives the life of a true Virginia gentleman. Like all southerners, he is a lover of dogs and horses, and some years ago his Westland Collie kennels produced the prize winners of the coast.
Dr. Strickland has never specialized in his profession, but has devoted himself to internal medicine and office surgery. He is a member of the State Medical Society and of the American Medical Association, an Odd Fellow, an Elk and a Red Man. He is gradually retiring from his practice in order to give all his attention to his library and to the rearing of his children.
HARLEY JAMES OVERTURF.
Born on a farm in Nebraska, April 6, 1882, Harley James Overturf of Bend, who is the representative of Crook, Deschutes, Jefferson, Grant, Klamath and Lake counties, forming the twenty-first district in the Oregon house of representatives, is a striking example of what a young man with high ambitions, tireless energy and stanch determination, coupled with the genius of devising the right thing at the right moment, can accomplish. He is in every sense of the word a self-made man and the success that he has achieved in the real estate, loan and building business is well deserved. As a member of the state legislature he has the interest of the counties at heart and the high esteem in which he is held in the community is evinced by the following article appearing in the January 21, 1921, edition of the Oregon Voter, commenting on his election to the house: "To be one of the live wires of as live wire a town as Bend is an indication that the man able to do it will be one of the live wires of the legisla- ture." The parents of Mr. Overturf were J. L. and Alzina (Sheldon) Overturf, who were pioneers in Nebraska as their forbears had been pioneers in Ohio.
In the acquirement of an education Harley James Overturf attended the grade, high and preparatory schools of Nebraska and came west in 1903 with but sixty cents in his pockets and a debt of four hundred dollars on his shoulders. Locating in Central Oregon, he took up a timber claim and shortly after selling it entered the University of Oregon, where he remained during the years 1903 and 1904. In the latter year he located in Bend and became an employe of the Pilot Butte Development Com- pany, which company laid out the town of Bend, then in Crook county. By 1905 he was
HARLEY J. OVERTURF
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assistant secretary and manager of the company, his business ability soon manifesting itself, and he was active in that position until 1910, when the company disposed of its interests. He was a potent factor in the organization of the Overturf-Davis-Miller Com- pany in 1911, which was a retail lumber concern, and was successfully engaged in that business until 1913, when he sold his interest and established a real estate, building and loan business, in which he continues. In this section of the country he has loaned more than half a million dollars without the loss of a cent and his judgment is considered safe and sane in every matter of investment. Mr. Overturf is now district agent of the Western Loan & Building Company of Salt Lake City and maintains an interest in many other enterprises as well. He is interested in agriculture and stock raising and is the owner of one thousand one hundred acres of fine ranch land devoted to the raising of cattle and alfalfa.
Mr. Overturf is active in the civic improvement and development of Bend and was one of the organizers of the Bend Commercial Club, which he has served as secretary for some years and is now chairman of the roads committee of that organization. In 1909 he was elected to the city council of Bend and was later county commissioner of Crook county, which office he held until the formation of Deschutes county. For ten years he was a member of the school board and is a stanch advocate of education. Along military lines Mr. Overturf has also taken an active part, and in the National Guard he held the rank of first lieutenant. He enlisted in 1918 in the first officers' training camp at Eugene, Oregon. As a member of the executive committee he took an active and prominent part in all drives-Liberty Loan, Red Cross and Y. M. C. A., and Mrs. Overturf also did her share of war work. In 1920 Mr. Overturf was elected to represent the twenty-first district in the state legislature and he has fulfilled the prophecy of the Oregon Voter by becoming a live wire member of that body. Mr. Overturf is responsible for the bill to force physical connection of railroads where it could be shown there was sufficient business to warrant it and he has been particularly active in irrigation matters and will long be remembered for his action in regard to the opening of the Deschutes river. He has also taken much interest with regard to game laws. He is likewise identified with the Oregon State Chamber of Commerce as a director.
In 1911 occurred the marriage of Mr. Overturf and Miss Ruth Reid, a native of New Brunswick, Canada. Mrs. Overturf was practically the pioneer teacher and builder of the Bend school system. Starting in one room in 1904 with no assistants, she increased the school facilities to eleven rooms in a short time and organized the high school with thirteen teachers in 1910. She is president of the Woman's Club and is as popular and valuable a citizen to the community and state as her husband. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Overturf: Harley James, Jr., a grade student; and Peggy.
The fraternal affiliations of Mr. Overturf are with the Masons, Elks, Odd Fellows, and Modern Woodmen. The true measure of success is determined by what one has accomplished and Mr. Overturf has so passed his life and so directed his ability and efforts as to gain recognition as one of the representative citizens of Bend.
MILTON DELMAR ODELL.
There are comparatively few men fifty-seven years of age who may be termed pioneer residents of Hood River, but this well earned distinction belongs to Milton Delmar Odell, who was born in the section of Wasco county that is now within the borders of Hood River county, his natal year being 1863 and his birthplace being the ranch of his father adjoining the ranch and orchard which he has owned and occupied for many years. He is a son of William and Diana Odell, both members of pioneer families of Tennessee and natives of that state. His mother's people came to Oregon in 1844, but his father did not reach the state until 1861. After their mrriag Mr. Odell sought a place to locate a home and selected the Hood River section of Wasco county, where he took up his abode. His son, Milton, was born on the ranch which his father preempted.
In the schools of what was then the little village of Hood River, Milton D. Odell pursued his education. At that time there were no railroads into the district or even a wagon road and his attempts to secure an education were fraught with many difficul- ties. Later, when the trails were converted into roads, he finished his education at The Dalles, the county seat. He assisted his father on the ranch until he was eight-
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een years of age and he then obtained employment in a sawmill, where he worked for two years.
In 1894 Mr. Odell was married to Miss Minnie McCoe, daughter of J. M. McCoe, who had located in the valley in 1886. After their marriage the young couple took up a forty-acre tract of land, upon which they now reside, and with characteristic energy Mr. Odell began the work of improving and developing the place. His orchard of eighteen acres produces the finest Newton apples and the crop is always a large one. Cattle and horses of high grade wander over the rich meadows, while waving fields of grain complete the picture of an ideal country home. From his windows Mr. Odell can look across his own acres and over the adjoining ranch upon which he was born, to the lively little town that has honored him by taking his name. He has lived in the neighborhood which was his hirthplace throughout the fifty-seven years of his life. He has seen the wild animals driven out of the valley, their place taken by fine stock, and he can remember the site of the town of Odell as a deer lake, with nothing around it for miles but the uncut forests. Only a few settlers were in the valley when he was born. Many of these have moved elsewhere or heen called by death and he has the distinction of being the Pioneer of Hood River vallev.
Mr. Odell has never held public office except that of clerk of the school district and with a twinkle in his eye remarks that one of the reasons is doubtless hecause he is a dyed-in-the-wool democrat, while almost everyhody else around the neighbor- hood is a republican. In spite of the difference in politics, which has had nothing to do with his social or other relations, he is master of the Grange, an evidence of his high standing among his neighbors and the kindly regard entertained for him. Patriotic to the core, he was foremost in all of the war drives and was a slacker to no call upon his time or purse. Mr. and Mrs. Odell have a daughter. Eunice who is a graduate of the Gillespie College of Elocution at Portland and is now an in- structor in that art. Happy, contented and prosperous, Mr. and Mrs. Odell are spend- ing their lives on a ranch that was hewed out of the wilderness during the early period of their married life and where prosperity has come to them as the result of their well directed labors.
JAMES BILBIE MINER.
Starting out into the world on his own account at an early day, James Bilbie Miner has, as the result of pluck, energy and stanch determination, achieved more than a substantial success and a position among the representative citizens of Bend and through- out the state. He is deserving of his prominence for he has proven a valuable factor in many activities which have counted as of much worth in the upbuilding of the city.
Like many of Oregon's most successful men Mr. Miner is a native of another state, his birth having occurred in Missouri in 1881, a son of Jesse P. and Jane G. (Bommer) Miner, members of pioneer families of Missouri and Tennessee, respectively. In the acquirement of his education he attended the schools of his native state and in early life suffered the loss of hoth parents. Thus heing left an orphan he experienced many difficulties in learning to take care of himself hut with a stanch determination and a grim courage he overcame all obstacles and gradually won his way to success. At the age of nineteen years he came to the Pacific coast, here to seek his fortune, and secured a job in a sawmill at Everett, Washington, where he remained for five years. The following two years he engaged in railroad construction hut subsequently returned to the mill where he had formerly been employed and soon his conscientious performance of every duty assigned him won for him the position of head sawyer, and later foreman. Learning that business thoroughly he determined to operate a mill on his own account and from 1907 to 1909 he gained considerable success in that connection. In 1911 he located in Bend, Oregon, and established himself in the real estate and investment business. Mr. Miner specializes in irrigated farm lands and has built up a vast and important trade. In 1917 he was awarded the contract to sell four thousand, seven hundred and eighty-one acres of state land, which had been well irrigated, and in less than six months he had disposed of the entire amount. He owns more than one thousand acres, four hundred of which are under cultivation, and he is the authorized agent of the Big Johnson Cattle Ranch, which he has put on the market in forty and eighty acre farms, these lands having the unqualified endorsement of the leading men of central Oregon, including the executives of both of the Bend hanks. Mr. Miner
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