USA > Oregon > Oregon, pictorial and biographical > Part 18
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William P. Cheshire was reared at home and received his early education in the common schools. He inherited the spirit of the farmer from his ancestors, and early acquired the rudiments of that occupation by close application. As early as 1854, he started in life for himself and that year emigrated to Oregon, making his settlement at Eugene, in Lane county. On his arrival at Eugene there was only. one store in the place engaged in the general merchandising business.
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This store was owned and operated by James Huddleston, from whom he obtained a position, but remained in this employ for one month only. He then sought his fortune in the mining fields in the Rogue river country and in California, mining throughout the entire district, working in the various mines and diggings wherever the field offered the best and quickest returns for the time invested. In this occupation he continued until October, 1855. The second year after leaving Eugene and entering the mining fields the Indians of the Pacific coast and the far southwest dug up the tomahawk and started on the war path. This created wide-spread disturbance among the set- tlers throughout Oregon and California and at once the government called for volunteers to suppress the Indian uprising. Mr. Cheshire enlisted in this Indian war in Company E, Captain William Lewis' Volunteer Infantry. The hardships of this campaign were very great, consisting of scouting and dilatory skirmishes along the moun- tain gorges and the swift running rivers, pursuing constantly by night and day, almost without rest. The campaign proved to be one which tested the metal of the white soldier in his efforts to bring to bay the noble red man of the plains and the untamed wilderness. They succeeded, however, in forcing the Indians into two pitched battles and the command of Captain William Lewis, to which the subject of this review belonged, was engaged in the battle of Skull Bar and Hungry Hill. As a result of services rendered the government in the suppression of the Indian war he is now on the pension rolls of the government, receiving his quarterly certificate as a reminder of the early days and the struggles of long ago. At the close of this Indian disturbance he again returned to his work in the mines, con- tinuing to follow this business until 1860. During that year he aban- doned the mining fields and returned to Eugene, where shortly after he was married. He then removed to Umatilla county, in this state, where he filed on a government claim and engaged in general farming and stock-raising. Here he continued for the succeeding four years. The condition of his wife's health finally compelled his removal from Umatilla county to San Francisco where he remained for one year. In 1877 he returned to Lane county and became a farmer for the year following. In 1878 he took a band of sheep east of the mountains and gave his entire time to their care for a period of two years. At the expiration of this time he sold his entire holdings in the sheep industry and returned to Lane county and here he finally settled as an agriculturist specializing in hop growing, in which he was very successful and in this line he continued for the following twenty-five consecutive years. Since 1911 he has been living retired.
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Tolilliam P. Cheshire
Mr. Cheshire chose as his life partner Miss Susan Baskett, a daughter of R. D. Baskett, her birth having occurred in Missouri. At the age of two years she came across the plains with her parents to Oregon. To Mr. and Mrs. Cheshire five children were born, three of whom are still living: Dr. Waldo Cheshire, a resident physician of Eugene; William, of Portland, this state; and Mattie, the wife of Abe Kelly, making their residence in Eugene. The mother died at her home in Lane county, at the early age of thirty-two. Her death occurred at the very period in life when she was seemingly most needed as her husband's helpmate. Mr. Cheshire and his wife were in the very midst of their strong and successful years of life and together they had established their home and around their fireside their chil- dren looked to them for support and protection. At the time of her death the prospects looked fair and promised much to this family. In the midst of this apparent contentment and joyous life the in- scrutable wisdom of a wise providence called the mother of this fam- ily from her husband, leaving him widowed with the care of her little children left behind. This apparent misfortune proved to be the most crushing blow thus far in the history of Mr. Cheshire's career. Though young he never again remarried and now in the evening of life the memory of his departed wife is still as fresh and keen as on the day when the happy bridegroom took that most sacred of all oaths to cherish and love and protect his bride until death should part them. This vow he faithfully kept during their married years and still re- spects it as a sacred bond binding him in deathless memory to his de- parted wife, who is waiting in the land beyond for his coming.
William P. Cheshire is one of the substantial and influential citi- zens of Lane county. In 1886 he was nominated to represent Lane county in the state legislature on the democratic ticket but was de- feated on account of the district being strong republican. In 1896 he was nominated for county judge but again was defeated for the same reason, as the district has always been strong for the republican ticket. He is a prominent Mason, belonging to Eugene Lodge, No. 11, A. F. & A. M .; Chapter No. 10, R. A. M .; and Ivanhoe Com- mandery, No. 2, K. T. He is a Scottish Rite thirty-second degree Mason and holds membership in the Methodist Episcopal church. He has been associated with the growth and improvement of all the interests of this county for more than a quarter of a century and during that time he has been known among his associates as a man of untarnished reputation and character, always ready to lend his assist- ance and influence in the promotion of all matters of interest, affect- ing the business and moral welfare of his county and state.
H. R. Kincaid.
Don. Harrison Rittenhouse Kincaid
ONG a leader of public thought and action, Hon. L Harrison Rittenhouse Kincaid has left his impress in notable measure upon the history of Eugene and of Oregon at large. His labors have taken tangible form in support of progressive measures, and many specific incidents may be cited where advancement has been greatly conserved directly through his efforts. He was long identified with the Oregon State Journal, the oldest weekly news- paper in the state owned by one party, and in addition to the duties which the management of this paper entailed his work of a public nature has been of far-reaching and beneficial effect.
Judge Kincaid has now passed the seventy-sixth milestone on life's journey. He was born in Madison county, Indiana, January 3, 1836, and is the eldest of a family of seven children. With the ex- ception of his sister, Elizabeth M. Gale, the widow of James M. Gale, formerly a noted newspaper man and owner, but now deceased, and himself, all have passed away. The Kincaids come of Scotch-Irish ancestry, the first American representative locating in Virginia, where Francis Kincaid, the grandfather, was born. It was subse- quent to Francis Kincaid's marriage that he moved westward to Madison county, Indiana, and with his family settled eighteen miles northeast of Indianapolis. He became one of the pioneer farmers of that state. His son, Thomas Kincaid, was born in Greenbrier county, Virginia, in 1800, and there spent the first seventeen years of his life, after which he accompanied his parents to the Hoosier state. His business training was of a most practical character. He aided in the various duties of the farm and also learned the black- smith's trade, which he followed in connection with general agricul- tural pursuits throughout his entire life. Morever, he possessed notable musical ability, becoming an excellent performer on the violin, and thus he added not only to his own pleasure but also greatly to the happiness and enjoyment of others. He was ever a wide awake, alert and progressive man, deeply interested in the important ques- tions of the day whether of a local or national character, and while a resident of Indiana he became captain of a company of state mili- tia. No duty of citizenship was ever neglected by him and his political
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allegiance was given to the Republican party, which was formed to prevent the further extension of slavery, of which he was a strong opponent. He was small of stature but was vigorous and active and was a great runner. Pioneer life proved attractive to him, as it had to his ancestors, and with the intention of establishing his home on the frontier of Texas he started for the southwest but in St. Louis met a friend who induced him to choose Iowa as a place of location. He accordingly became a resident of Appanoose county, where he spent the winter, which was a severe one and fixed his determination of becoming a resident of Texas. In April, 1845, he set out once more for the south but in Van Buren, Arkansas, he met so many who were returning that he became discouraged and went east to St. Francis, Arkansas, where he spent the winter. After a short sojourn at Memphis, Tennessee, he returned to Madison county, Indiana, and occupied his old home until 1853. In that year he made the long and arduous journey across the plains to the Pacific coast, settling on a farm three miles southeast of Eugene in Lane county, Oregon. However, the town of Eugene had been laid out only the year before and as yet not a house had been built within its corporate limits, al- though Eugene Skinner was the owner of a house below Skinner's Butte and Hilyard Shaw had one where the main building of the University of Oregon now stands. Jim Huddleston and Captain Ankeny had a plank shanty at the ferry where the bridge has since been built over the Willamette river. The father continued to make his home upon the farm on which he originally settled until he went to live with his son, Judge Kincaid, passing away at his residence in 1865, at the age of sixty-five years. He had married Nancy Chod- rick, a native of Butler county, Ohio, and a daughter of Peter Chod- rick, who removed from Ohio to Indiana, where he spent his remain- ing days. At the remarkable age of ninety-five years Mrs. Kincaid is a well preserved woman and makes her home with her son, Judge Kincaid.
Judge Kincaid began his education in the district school in the vicinity of his father's home. He was a youth of seventeen when the family started across the plains with ox teams, he driving one of the teams from Indiana to the Willamette valley. The travelers en- countered many hardships and difficulties incident to a trip of that character. Leaving Indiana in February, they crossed the Missis- sippi river on the ice and from the city of Burlington made their way through Iowa to the Missouri river, crossing to the west side of that stream at a point nine miles below where Omaha now is. It was nec- essary for them to tarry for a brief period in order that the grass
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might grow and thus furnish pasturage for the stock. They contin- ued to the northwest over the Barlow route to Oregon, at which time there was not a single house on the site of Omaha nor did they see any habitation on the way until they reached Foster, Oregon, about twelve miles from Oregon City, where they arrived September 29, 1853, reaching Lane county on the 11th of October. During the succeeding two years Judge Kincaid was largely occupied with the task of assisting his father in the development and improvement of the home farm. Especially in the winter time did he give his atten- tion to that work, while in the summers he was employed by Isaac and Elias Briggs in digging a mill race at what is now Springfield. In 1855 he purchased a pony and miner's outfit and started for the Rogue river mines. In the placer mines at Althouse creek the In- dians became troublesome, surprised the miners and killed several before the others saw the necessity of preparing for attack. They then erected a fort in that location and for several weeks were com- pelled to remain continually on the defensive.
Seeing no further chance for mining, Judge Kincaid and his part- ner started for Crescent City, California, where they remained until spring, earning their livelihood by chopping cord wood and splitting rails, making fourteen thousand rails. In the spring of 1856 as a steerage passenger Judge Kincaid journeyed on the steamer Goliath to San Francisco and for several weeks was engaged in erecting a plank fence where the wharves of the Pacific Steamship Company are now found. He then went by steamer to Sacramento, walked from there to Folsom City and was soon engaged in mining on the Ameri- can river near Auburn, where he continued until the water dried up. He afterward worked in the stables of the American Express Com- pany at Marysville and later found employment with Matthew Sparks upon his ranch at Bear river. When his employer sold his property there Judge Kincaid accompanied him to Colusa county and was there engaged in making rails for his employer. The following summer he followed freighting in the mountains near Marysville but in 1857 decided to return to Oregon. However, he expected to go back to California and there left his outfit valued at about five hun- dred dollars, for which he never was paid. At San Francisco he boarded a steamer bound for Portland and thence proceeded to Cor- vallis, whence he walked to Eugene.
The first work that Judge Kincaid did in Oregon was cutting logs, which he hauled to the mill race and had sawed on shares, using the lumber to build his house, having purchased six acres of land in the southern part of Eugene before going to California. He also em-
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ployed the burning of charcoal as a means of livelihood and sold the product to Eugene blacksmiths. In the meantime he had come into full recognition of the value of education and when he had saved a little money he decided to attend school, entering Columbia College as a member of a class which numbered many men who afterward be- came famous, including Joaquin Miller and his brother, John Miller, D. D. S., Judge Watson, Joseph D. Matlock, Judge J. J. Walton and Jefferson Blevins. It was about this time that Judge Kincaid entered upon his journalistic career. It was the year 1860, when most momentous questions were being everywhere discussed. The Herald, a democratic paper, strongly supported the secession movement in articles written by President Ryan, of Columbia College, under the pseudonym of Vindex. At length Judge Kincaid was induced to answer these through B. J. Pengra's paper, called the People's Press, writing under the name of Anti Vindex. President Ryan ascribed the articles to Mr. Pengra and made an attempt to kill him, after which he escaped to Virginia and entered the Confederate army. The next summer found Judge Kincaid as a staff member of the People's Press, the leading republican paper of the state, and when its proprietor was nominated for presidential elector and was making campaign speeches the Judge was left to learn printing ,while the press-work and nearly all of the writing was done by him during the campaign of 1860. A short time afterward he gave up this work and for two summers was engaged in packing flour and produce to Canyon City but again be- came connected with editorial work, writing for a short time for the State Republican, the Union Crusader and the Copperhead Killer. The last named was edited by the Rev. A. C. Edmunds, who wrote principally upon religious subjects, leaving Judge Kincaid to handle the political questions. A year later he and Joseph Ware purchased the paper and changed its name to the Oregon State Journal. The partnership, which had begun March 12, 1864, continued for a year, when Judge Kincaid became sole proprietor. He conducted this paper for forty-five years and twenty-two weeks, the last issue being dated May 29, 1909, owing to the fact that daily newspapers killed the demand for weekly publications. He ever held his paper to the highest possible standard and he is today the oldest newspaper man in the state. As dean of the profession he occupies an honored place. A contemporary biographer has written: "Politically no man has exer- cised more influence than Judge Kincaid, for he has proven himself one of the strong and reliable men of his party and as such has won the commendation of leaders. He has always been a stanchi repub- lican, and in 1896 joined the ranks of the silver republicans
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in entire sympathy with whom he has since remained." When the convention of his party met in Portland, April 7, 1870, all the nomina- tions were speedily made except that of state printer, for which posi- tion there were three candidates, the late Henry L. Pittock, of the Oregonian, Henry Denlinger, of the Oregon Statesman, and Dr. N. C. Gault. The friends of Judge Kincaid, who was then, from 1866 until 1879, a clerk in the United States senate, three thousand miles away, and was not a candidate, used his name. He was nominated on the fifth ballot, receiving one hundred and nine votes, while Denlinger and Pittock were each given seventy-six. The nomination was then made unanimous and Judge Kincaid returned from Washington to conduct the campaign. Further political honors came to him in 1894 in his election to the position of secretary of state on the republican ticket, his service beginning in January, 1895, and covering four years. In 1898 the same position was virtually his but he could not indorse the gold standard platform and, therefore, would not again become a candidate on that basis. He cast his lot with the silver republican ticket 'and was defeated, though he led the ticket. In 1900 he was nominated on the citizen's ticket for county judge and overcame a majority of five hundred votes, entering upon the duties of the position in July, 1900, for a four years' term. For thirteen years, from 1866 until 1879, he was clerk in the United States senate, first in the finance room, later in the executive room and afterward in the enroll- ing room, while subesquently he served as indexing clerk until 1879, when a change in the political situation at Washing- ton made it more profitable for him to return to Eugene. He then again assumed charge of his paper, for which he had writ- ten letters and editorials throughout the entire time. Aside from all his varied activities, Judge Kincaid took a deep interest in agricultural affairs in the county and devoted three hundred and twenty acres of the old Kincaid donation claim to stock-raising. He was likewise inter- ested in mining. He has also dealt largely in real estate, having platted Kincaid's addition of thirty lots, while there are yet seven and a half acres unplatted. At the east end of Eugene he laid out Kincaid Park of one hundred and fifty lots and a sixty-three acre tract which lies across the railroad, extending to his father's donation claim and a mile and a quarter south, making two and a half miles of land from the head of the mill race extending southward. This is called Kincaid Park. His son now has charge of his real-estate interests. Judge Kincaid also owns eight hundred and ninety-four acres two and a half miles from Creswell and the Eugene & Great Western Land Com- pany has charge of the sale of this tract.
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Don. Harrison Rittenhouse Kincaid
H. R. Kincaid went to Washington, D. C., in the fall of 1866 along with Hon. J. H. D. Henderson, member of congress from Ore- gon, by steamer from San Francisco via the Isthmus to New York, and thence by rail. While in government service at Washington about thirteen years, most of the time being a clerk in the United States senate, he traveled across the continent to and from Oregon by rail frequently when congress was not in session, the first time just after the Union & Central Pacific Railroad had been completed between Omaha and Sacramento. He was one of the six delegates from Ore- gon in the republican national convention at Chicago in 1868 that nom- inated U. S. Grant for president and Schuyler Colfax for vice presi- dent, and represented one of the other delegates by proxy, which he transferred to and which was voted by Congressman Rufus Mallory. He was also one of the six delegates from Oregon in the republican national convention at Philadelphia in 1872 that nominated U. S. Grant for reelection as president and Henry Wilson for vice-presi- dent, and represented one of the other delegates by proxy, which he transferred to and which was voted by United States Senator Henry W. Corbett. He was elected to and served in many republican county and state conventions in Oregon during a period of more than thirty years.
While serving as secretary of state of Oregon, having been elected by a large popular vote in 1894, at a special session of the legislature, in 1898 he was the choice of the opposition members of the legislature to the regular party candidate, and received twenty-three votes for United States senator on the final vote when Joseph Simon was elected. Secretary of state was then the most influential and by far the most lucrative office of the state and consequently the most sought after and the hardest to obtain, much more so than the office of gover- nor. It included not only the office of secretary of state as in other states, but also the office of state auditor, state insurance commissioner, state incorporation commissioner, state building and loan commis- sioner, and member of the boards that controlled the state insane asy- lum, the state deaf mute school, the state reform school (now called the "state school"), the state blind school, the state agricultural col- lege, the state Normal school, the soldiers home and the sale and management of all state lands and the loaning and management of the large sums of money belonging to the school fund. Governor William P. Lord at the close of his term of office in 1900, appointed his friend, H. R. Kincaid, a regent of the University of Oregon, but his name was withdrawn by Governor Geer immediately after he had entered upon the duties of his office before the senate had an opportunity to
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confirm it, although a large majority of the senators protested against the withdrawal and would have confirmed it had not the chairman of a committee returned it to the governor without giving the senate a chance to vote on it.
Perhaps no two other men ever served in important positions where they were closely associated and their duties sometimes brought them into conflict more harmoniously and cordially than did Governor Lord and Secretary of State Kincaid. Their association made them life- long friends. Mr. Kincaid was very active in securing the passage of the act locating the University of Oregon at Eugene, and remained at the state capitol during the entire session of the legislature, when the act was passed, working for it.
On the 29th of September, 1873, in Macomb county, Michigan, Judge Kincaid wedded Augusta Lockwood, a native of that locality. Her brother, C. M. Lockwood, for many years was identified with the interests of Oregon although he died in Michigan. He and John Haley, of Idaho, father of Judge Haley, owned a stage line from Salt Lake to The Dalles. Mr. Lockwood brought his sister to The Dalles on a visit and there she became acquainted with Judge Kincaid, whom she also met in Washington, D. C., and they were married at her Michigan home. Their only child is Webster Lockwood.
Judge Kincaid is connected with the State Pioneer Association, the Oregon Historical Society, the Eugene Commercial Club and formerly belonged to the Illihee Club of Salem and was a member of the Multapor Club of Portland, which is now out of existence. Judge Kincaid's life has, indeed, been one of great usefulness. His ideas have always been practical and his methods progressive and what he has undertaken he has accomplished.
The years have brought him not only success but honor, and he stands today among the foremost residents not only of Eugene but of all Oregon, where he has a very wide acquaintance.
B.I. Hathaway
B. D. Hathaway
H. HATHAWAY is the owner of three hundred B. acres of highly improved land in Tillamook county in the cultivation of which he met with such grati- fying returns that he is now able to live retired. He is a native of the state of New York, his birth hav- ing occurred in Lewis county, on May 5, 1831, and is supposed to be the only living member of a family of eight born to I. and Rebecca (Higby) Hathaway. His parents were also na- tives of the Empire state, where they spent their entire lives.
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