Portrait and biographical record of the Willamette valley, Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present, Part 174

Author: Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Chicago, The Chapman Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1622

USA > Oregon > Portrait and biographical record of the Willamette valley, Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present > Part 174

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JOHN D. ARTHURS. From 1865 until 1879 the blacksmith shop of the Arthurs Brothers was one of the chief centers of activity in Browns- ville, Ore. All things considered, as much trade came to them as fell to the lot of any other business in the town, its rise from a very small business being steady and substantial, and based upon the excellent work which was done, thus not only maintaining its earlier but adding to its more recent patronage. A stroke of paralysis in 1901 practically ended the business career of the senior partner, John D. Arthurs, although he had ostensibly retired from active participation in its affairs in 1897, intending to devote his re- maining years to his immediate home circle.

Not the least encouraging item of interest in the life of Mr. Arthurs is the fact that he arrived in Oregon with the small sum of twenty-five cents, with which to begin his business career. He had erossed the plains with ox-teams in 1863. taking four months and a half to encompass the same distance which he thirty-three years later traveled over in three and a half days, sur- rounded by every luxury known to modern trans- portation. He had dreamed of a fortune easily made in the mines of California, but this dream seems not to have been realized, for he soon after found employment in Stockton and then in Visalia. Cal., coming from the latter town to Jacksonville, Ore. Through a friend of his brother, Jerry Martin, he succeeded in finding help, and after six weeks set off for Brownsville, a distance of more than two hundred miles, ac-

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complishing the distance in six days and a half. In 1865 . he started the blacksmith shop with his brother, both men being experts in their line.

Mr. Arthurs became known for his unswerving integrity, and for the courtesy and consideration which entered into all of his business relations. Many years before his retirement from business he had won the sincere esteem of the entire community, and his retirement, and subsequent severe illness, have called forth many expressions of regret and good will.

A southerner by birth and early training, Mr. Arthurs was born near Murfreesboro, Tenn., December 10, 1841, and comes of English pa- ternal and Irish maternal ancestry. His paternal great-grandfather came from England and set- tled in North Carolina, where his father, Joseph, was born, and whence he removed at the age of fifteen to near Nashville, Tenn. He married near Murfreesboro, Sarah Bingham, who was born in Tennessee, and died at the age of forty-five years, after rearing five sons and four daughters, of whom John D. was the third child. The ma- ternal great-grandfather, Bingham, came from Ireland at an early day, presumably settling in Tennessee, where William, the maternal grand- father, was born, reared, and where he married and died. Joseph Arthurs served in the Seminole war under General Marion, and he removed to Missouri in 1842, remaining there until enlist- ing in the "last-call" regiment in Missouri in 1864. His Civil war experience though brief, was nevertheless fatal, for he contracted small- pox during the service, and died in an isolation hospital far from friends or family, in March, 1864.

After locating in Brownsville, Ore., Mr. Ar- thurs married Sarah Williams, who was born in Rock Island, Ill., June 15, 1844, and who is the daughter of C. A. Williams, one of the pioneers of 1845. Mr. Williams was born in New York state, but became a very early settler of the farm- ing district around Kalamazoo, Mich., whence he removed to near Rock Island, Ill. Here he became interested in the tales which reached him from the far west, and in 1845 disposed of his interests and with his family crossed the plains to Amity, Yamhill county, Ore. Here he took up a donation claim which proved unsatisfactory, and which he sold in 1846 and took up a claim of a section on the Luckiamute river. To him is given the credit of starting the first sawmill on the Luckiamute, and of improving practically the first claim. In 1850 he removed to near Wells Station, Benton county, and in 1860 traded his land for a farm consisting of a section lo- cated west of Brownsville, Linn county, where his land for a farm consisting of a section lo- complished much good in his life, and lived to be seventy-one years, seven months and fifteen

days old. His wife, formerly Mary Barber, was born in Pennsylvania, and died after the removal of the family to Brownsville. Mr. Arthurs was variously identified with affairs in Brownsville, and in the earlier days held several local offies, including that of councilman for two terms and school director for several years. He was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows and the Rebekahs, and his genial manner ever made him a welcome visitor at these lodges. Mr. Arthurs had a pleasant home in Browns- ville, and his years of industry resulted in the acquisition of a liberal competence. He died at his home April 5, 1903, and was laid to rest in the Odd Fellows cemetery, mourned by a large circle of friends and missed by those who knew him best. The Odd Fellows lodge performed the last sad rite over the remains of their brother. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Arthurs were born two chil- dren : Ione W., the wife of James M. Smith, of Little Rock, Wash .; and Warren C., of Browns- ville.

GEORGE H. BLAND. A well located and substantially established farmer in the neighbor- hood of Lebanon, Linn county, Ore., is George H. Bland, who is intelligently engaged in the cultivation of his farm of one hundred and eighty-five acres. Mr. Bland is the son of Moses and Martha Bland, pioneers of 1851. The for- mer left his home in Jennings county, Ind., to which state he had removed in a comparatively early day, and started across the plains in Feb- ruary, 1851, with five yoke of oxen, one cow and a mare, the stock with which to furnish the bountiful acres which were promised him be- yond the Rockies. In September, 1851, he ar- rived safely with his family in Linn county, in which section he remained until his death in September, 1873, at the age of fifty-four years. He first located on a donation claim of three hundred and five acres one and a half miles west of Lebanon, but later sold this and removed to another farm near Lebanon, where he spent the remainder of his days. Besides the effort which Mr. Bland made to advance the interests of his family, he took great interest in the church work of the community, being an active worker in the Methodist Episcopal Church. His wife was for- merly Miss Martha Needham, and of this union three children were born, namely: George H., of this review, born in Bartholomew county, Ind., November 9, 1840; Samantha, the wife of A. J. Powell, of Lebanon ; and John W., located near this city. The mother died in July, 1895, aged eighty-seven years.

George H. Bland was eleven years old when the journey was made into the west, and it was in the common schools of Oregon that the

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greater part of his education was received. Upon attaining manhood he entered heartily into the work of farming. He has been married twice, his first wife being Barbara A. Leedy, the cere- mony performed in May, 1862. One child was born of this union, William A., now located in Colorado. Mrs. Bland died in December, 1864, and in January, 1866, Mr. Bland married Clara M. Powell, and the four children born to them are: Matilda O., who is the wife of John Miler ; Minnie L., the wife of Marion Needham; Sa- mantha R., the wife of D. W. Lawrence; and Clara P., at home. Mrs. Bland died in April, 1897. Like his father, Mr. Bland is a mem- ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which he has served as a class leader for many years. Interested in all public and educational movements, he has served on the school board in his vicinity. Fraternally Mr. Bland is promi- nent among the Odd Fellows, being a mem- ber of Lebanon Lodge No. 47, which he has rep- resented in the Grand Lodge at several differ- cnt times.

SAMUEL HENRY HORTON. The lessons which one gleans from the life of Samuel Henry Horton are forceful and practical ones, and are entirely destitute of the glamour which surrounds the success of many men in the northwest. Noth- ing but a hard hand-to-hand struggle with a not over-indulgent fate has brought him where he is, a representative of the brain and brawn and un- tiring perseverance of the working noblemen of the coast. To-day his sons are among the promi- nent lumber merchants of Lane county, and he, himself, is living in comfort in Corvallis, after many years' association with crude, pioneer and developing forces in the middle north and north- western sections of the country.

It is supposed that the emigrating Horton an- cestor settled in New Jersey, at least the paternal grandfather, Samuel H., a blacksmith by trade, was born there in Sussex county, and in time re- moved with his family to the vicinity of London, Ontario, Canada. His two brothers, Ezra and John, remained in New Jersey. With Samuel H. to Canada went his son, Peter, the father of Samuel Henry, who also was born in Sussex county, and who in time learned the blacksmith trade in the little shop on the paternal farm, twenty miles south of London. Peter married Elizabeth Ramsey, a native of Canada, and whose grandfather, Henry, was a farmer and large land-owner in Ontario. In the little home near the blacksmith shop Samuel Henry was born April 5, 1834, the sixth of the three sons and five daughters in his father's family, and of whom two sons and one daughter are living. Of the sons who served their country in the Civil

war, Thomas E. D. served in the Ninth Minne- sota Volunteer Infantry and died in Eastport, Miss .; Peter Horton removed to the states in 1846, when his son Samuel was twelve years old, settling six miles from Rockford, Winnebago county, Ill., where he began to vote at the end of the first year, and where he died at an advanced age.

What schooling Samuel Henry Horton re- ceived up to his twelfth year was gained in the seclusion of his home on the Canadian farm, for the district as yet boasted of no means of edu- cating its youth. He was strong of limb and stout of heart when the family pulled up stakes in Canada and started out with ox-teams for Illi- nois, and after arriving in the wilderness of Win- nebago county it was well that he had a rugged constitution. It befell him to assist in breaking the hard and unyielding Illinois prairie, which he accomplished with eight yoke of oxen, and after many weary hours of toil with his father and brothers. At the age of eighteen he began to hire out to the surrounding farmers, and about this time became interested in a threshing venture, which he conducted for some years. Threshing, as then conducted, was decidedly primitive, horses being the motive power. Threshing must have proved rather profitable, however, for February 20, 1854, he married, in Rockford, Ill., Agnes C. Fertile, a native of St. Lawrence, Ont., and daughter of Louis Fertile, a native of Paris, France. Mr. Fertile was a ship carpenter by trade, and was orphaned in early life, being compelled to earn his living when very young. After coming to the United States he served in the war of 1812, and subsequently lived in Oswego and Rockford, Ill., where he died at an advanced age. He married Julia De- rosha, born in Ontario, and daughter of Stephen Derosha, of French descent. Of this union there were born fourteen children, ten daughters and four sons, of whom two daughters and one son are deceased. Three of the sons served in the Civil war, and of these Louis C. became a ser- geant in the Ninth Minnesota Infantry ; William was a soldier in the Third Minnesota, and Charles died from freezing, in the campaign against the Kola Indians. The year after his marriage, in 1855, Mr. Horton removed to Roch- ester, Minn., where he entered one hundred and sixty acres of land, which he improved, and where he managed to make a fair living. He be- came well known in his community, and was prospering beyond his expectations, when the breaking out of the Civil war turned men's thoughts from occupations, however peaceful, into channels of carnage and destruction.

In 1862 Mr. Horton enlisted as a private in Company F, Ninth Minnesota Volunteer Infan- try, and was mustered in at Fort Snelling. The

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first fifteen months he was engaged in the Indian campaign along the frontier, and was then sent south to Missouri, remaining there during 1863-4. He next participated in the Sturgis raid, as duty sergeant, and was detailed to act as quartermaster sergeant. Everything was cap- tured by the enemy but a mule which Mr. Hor- ton managed to save, and three men who made their escape owing to his assistance, among whom was Captain M. J. Daniels, of Riverside, Cal. Retreating to Memphis, Tenn., he partici- pated in the battle of Tupelo, Miss., and in va- rious skirmishes in different parts of that state, and afterward went after Price in Missouri. Getting back to St. Louis, the regiment was sent to Nashville, Tenn., and in time participated in the famous battle of that town. Owing to wounds received in the right arm, right side and through the back, Mr. Horton was laid up in the hospital until June 13, 1865, when he returned home, after being mustered out in Louisville, Ky.

After the war Mr. Horton engaged in the ice business in Rochester, Minn., for four years, and in this town was born his oldest son, Henry L., the first white child born in that vicinity, and who is now forty-eight years old. In the meantime he had become interested in surveying, and as an expert in his line was selected to go to North Dakota to locate a colony, which he suc- ceeded in doing in the northwestern part of the state. Pleased with the locality, he moved there himself, and soon after discovered coal on the Cheyenne, which he proceeded to develop until he had spent about all of his money in that way. Thereafter he turned his attention to freighting for the government, from Breckenridge, but soon returned to Minneapolis in the hope of retrieving his depleted finances. For three years he en- gaged in pickling tripe and pigs' feet, and, in 1875, came to Oregon, locating in Harrisburg, Linn county, where he engaged in the butchering business for three years. In 1879 he came to Benton county, and settled on a farm six miles west of Monroe, where he built a water saw-mill on Napoleon creek. This crude mill proved the foundation of the large lumbering business in which his sons are now engaged, and in which Mr. Horton himself made a small fortune. The primitive mill was later transformed into a mod- ern steam mill with a capacity of ten thousand feet of lumber per day. As success came to him he added to his land, and in time had a farm of one hundred and twenty acres, one of one hun- dred and sixty acres, and one of eighty acres, making in all three hundred and sixty acres. He finally sold his saw-mills and lumber business to his sons, but up to this day retains possession of his ranch, which is rented to responsible parties.

In September, 1902, Mr. Horton moved into Corvallis, where he intends spending the balance

of his life. Although advanced in years, and after accomplishing more hard work than falls to the lot of the average or even exceptionally busy man, he is still hale and hearty, and the personi- fication of western enterprise. He is an expert mason and carpenter, and during his residence in Benton county has built some of the finest and largest bridges in the county. He is a Repub- lican in politics, and though devoted to the best interests of his party, has never been officially connected therewith. Fraternally, he is identi- fied with the Masons, and with the Ellsworth Post, G. A. R., of Corvallis. Of the four sons and five daughters born to this honored pioneer and his wife, Henry L. is a farmer and en- gineer in Benton county; Everett Jerome is a lumber merchant in this county; Belle is now Mrs. Enbody of Spokane, Wash .; Julia is now Mrs. Robson, of Walla Walla; Agnes is Mrs. Kelly, of Spokane, Wash .; Samuel is a lumber manufacturer of Benton county; Adelaide E. is Mrs. Conrad Gerhard; John is a lumber mer- chant, of this county, and Alice is Mrs. Hauck, of Gold Hill, Ore. Everett, Samuel and John com- prise the firm of Horton Brothers Lumber Com- pany, large lumber manufacturers, with mills sixteen miles west of Monroe Junction.

ELIJAH SKIPTON. The venerable and at the same time successful farmers of Benton county include Elijah Skipton, whose hand has not lost its cunning, or whose judgment has not been impaired by long usage. Since coming to Oregon, first in 1853, many acres of land have been tilled by him, and many harvests gathered into his commodious barns, there to await their utilization as food for man or beast. Even at the present time were Mr. Skipton unable to make his living as a farmer he could turn his at- tention to coopering with reasonable assurance of success, for he learned this trade in Jowa. He was born November 17, 1831, in Monroe county, Ohio. From the age of seventeen he has looked out for himself, and nothing of any practical value has come to him that has not been earned by his own industry. A fair common school edu- cation was acquired during the winter months of his childhood, but it may be said that he has learned far more from practical experience and keen observation than he ever did from books.

In 1851 Mr. Skipton removed to Iowa, and, in 1853, crossed the plains in an ox-train, being six months on the way. After six months of inves- tigation in Oregon he went to California, and for three years mined and prospected with varying success. Returning to Iowa in 1856 he married Mary Marshall, a native of Ohio, and thereafter farmed for six years, or until returning to Ore- gon, in 1865. This time he thought to improve

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upon his former traveling equipment, and chose horses and mules rather than oxen, a change which soon demonstrated its advisability. As be- fore, he got through without any serious mishap, and the first winter in Oregon stopped near Philomath, the following spring purchasing one hundred and seventy acres of the James Chism donation claim, two miles south of Philomath. From time to time he added to his land, for he was successful in his adopted state, and at one time owned six hundred acres. This large prop- erty has been divided among his children, and at present he owns but one hundred and ninety-one acres. He has twenty acres in a prune orchard, but otherwise his farm is devoted to general farming and stock-raising. A fair sized two- story frame dwelling makes a comfortable home for his family, and his barns and outbuildings, agricultural implements and fences bespeak the careful, progressive and painstaking agri- culturist.

A stanch advocate of Democracy, Mr. Skipton has been prominently before the public as an office-holder, having held many positions of trust and responsibility in his county. For two years he served as county commissioner, for nine years as county assessor. Seven children have been born to himself and wife, of whom Isabelle is the wife of Professor Horner, of Corvallis ; Rufus is farming in this vicinity; Frank is a resident of Albany ; Otis lives near this place; Virtue is de- ceased, as is also Columbia and Archie. Mr. Skipton has made the most of his opportunities in this northwestern country, and while doing so has won the respect and good will of a host of friends and associates.

SCHULTZ BROTHERS. No two men living in Albany today are more closely con- nected with its substantial growth than the Schultz Brothers, owners and managers of one of the best meat markets and packing concerns this side of Portland in the Willamette valley. In the make-up of these two men are the social and economic traits which render the firm so admirable an adjunct to any community, and whose conservatism and practicability temper the enthusiasm of less cautious men. However, inheritance rather than birth is responsible for the characteristics noted in the present instance, for both the brothers owe patriotic allegiance to this country, Pennsylvania being their native state.

Herman R. Schultz, the senior member of the firm, was born in Pittston, Luzerne county, Pa., November 4, 1859, his father, Rudolph, having settled there when he came to America in 1851. Rudolph Schultz was born on his father's estate (Middle Gulmkau) county of Dantzic, West

Prussia, Germany, and came to the United States at the age of twenty, equipped with a college education and considerable knowledge of busi- ness. With his brother-in-law, Mr. Sturmer, he engaged in a grocery and meat market business at Pittston, Pa. About 1878 Mr. Schultz re- moved to Beverly, W. Va., and engaged in the hotel business, afterward taking up his resi- dence in Omaha, Neb., where he again engaged in the meat business, then removed to Al- bany, Ore., in 1889 and went into the real estate business. He is now living retired in Albany, and having been born May 30, 1831, is past seventy years of age. He is a Republican in politics and is fraternally an Odd Fellow. His wife, Annetta ( Himmen) Schultz, came with her father from Germany and located in Pitts- ton, where her father died. Mrs. Schultz died in March, 1902, in Albany, Ore. The second of the five children in his father's family, Herman R. has a sister living in Albany, while his brother William is engaged in the meat business in Woodburn; his sister, Louise, is now Mrs. Goff of West Virginia; and his brother Freder- ick is his partner in business. From boyhood up Herman worked at the butcher's trade and at the age of eighteen moved with his father to West Virginia and worked in the hotel for four years. At the age of twenty-two he went to Fort Worth, Tex., but not liking it there came · west to Omaha in 1884, and ran a meat market until 1889. He then came to Albany, Ore., and became interested in the real estate business, and among other accomplishments connected there- with laid out the Schultz addition, covering ten acres. In 1891 he became identified with his brother Frederick in their present meat market and packing business, bought this market, and has enlarged and improved it, introducing modern machinery for grinding and preparing meats. The firm has its slaughter house west of the town, and pack bacon and ham, selling at wholesale as well as retail, and it fortunately has at its head two men who thoroughly under- stand their business, and are conscientious and fair in dealing with their constantly increasing trade.

The extent of Mr. Schultz's responsibili- ties is by no means confined to his meat business, for there is scarcely an advance made in the general upbuilding of the town in which he is not in some way connected. His success has enabled him also to proceed independently, as evinced by his building the Albany Opera House in 1902. This place of entertainment would do credit to much larger and older com- munities, and by experts is pronounced the finest in the valley outside of Portland. The building is 50x100 feet, ground dimensions, and has a seating capacity of eight hundred. Mod-

E. Wolford

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ern in construction and suitable in every way to the purpose for which it was intended the stage is of such size that almost anything out- side of grand opera can be produced properly. Mr. Schultz is otherwise a property owner in Albany, and a part of his property has been made through the transference of town and city lands. He is fraternally popular, and is con- nected with the Ancient Order of United Work- men and the Woodmen of the World. He mar- ried in Omaha, Neb., Belle Daniels, who was born in West Virginia, and who is the mother of three children, Irvin, Mabel and Neta.

Frederick Schultz, junior partner in the firm of Schultz Brothers, was born in Pittston, Lu- zerne county, Pa., April 2, 1866, and with his father afterward removed to West Virginia and Omaha, in both of which towns he was inter- ested in business with his father and brother. Like his brother partner, he early learned the butcher's trade, and for years profited by the

business sagacity and ability of his capable and very successful father. In 1889 Mr. Schultz came to Albany and engaged in the meat busi- ness with his brother, William, the latter of whom sold his interest to Herman Schultz in 1891, since which Frederick and Herman have amicably and very successfully conducted their affairs.

In Albany Mr. Schultz married Lucy Gann, who was born in Illinois, and of which union there have been born four children : Earl, Louis, Anna and Helen, the last two being twins. Like his brother, Mr. Schultz is a Republican, and is fraternally associated with the Ancient Order of United Workmen and Woodmen of the World. A shrewd and practical business man, and a genial and large hearted companion, Mr. Schultz has many friends in Albany who pre- dict a career of unusual financial success.

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Portrait and biographical record of the Willamette valley, Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present, Part 174

Author: Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago Publication date: 1903 Publisher: Chicago, The Chapman Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1622

Author: Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Chicago, The Chapman Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1622