Portrait and biographical record of the Willamette valley, Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present, Part 39

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 39

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Of the union of Mr. and Mrs. Conner five children were born, namely: Mrs. Sarah Olm- stead, who resides on a farm adjoining the pa- rental homestead; Lowman, living at home; El- bert, who is in Idaho: Belle, living at home; and Mrs. Ella Hastings, of Smithfield, Ore. Mr. Conner actively supported the principles of the Republican party, and served his district several terms as school director. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Pleasant Hill while Mrs. Conner belongs to the Baptist Church at Ballston.

PETER WILLIAM MESS, city recorder of Mount Angel, and an educator of extended ex- perience, was born in Luxemburg, November 9.

1842, but received practically his entire training and education in the United States. The fam- ily had long been identified with Luxemburg, his father, Michael, having been born there Sep- tember 12, 1799. The father removed with his family to the United States in 1847, Peter Will- iam Mess being then three years old. After a year near Tiffin, Ohio, Michael Mess removed to a farm in Henry county, where his death oc- curred in 1855. He did meritorious service under King William of Holland, and he not only served the Dutch Republic for five years for himself, but undertook an additional five years for a stranger. His wife, Susan, was born on disputed territory bordering on the Moselle river, September 12, 1803, and her death occurred in Henry county, Ohio, July 10, 1871.

The fourth of the five children in his father's family, two of whom were daughters, Peter William Mess was educated in the public schools of Ohio, at the Wesleyan University at Dela- ware, and at the Heidelburg College at Tiffin, Ohio, leaving that institution to enlist for the Civil war. As a soldier in Company D, One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Ohio Volunteer In- fantry, Mr. Mess participated in many of the important contests of the war, including the bat- tles of Thompson's Station, Chickamauga, Mis- sionary Ridge, Tunnell Hill, Resaca, Cassville, and Pickett's Mill. In the latter he was wound- ed so severely as to necessitate the amputation of his right hand. He was discharged at Nashville, Tenn., November 8, 1864, cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln, and returned to his class work at Tiffin College. At the expiration of the session he engaged in teaching a district school in Henry county for a term, and then studied for a term at the State University at Bloomington, Ind. Re- turning to Ohio, he passed through the fresh- man, sophomore, and junior years at Delaware College, and though within a year of graduation, discontinued his study to engage in teaching in Henry county, Ohio, in the fall of 1869. After five terms in Henry county he removed to Kan- sas in April, 1874, locating at St. Paul, where he engaged in educational work for ten years at St. Francis College, and for six years in the dis- trict schools of the neighborhood. making sixteen years in all. For one year he served as superin- tendent of Kaw Indian schools of Kansas, and was appointed census enumerator of Neosho county in 1890. The same year he located in Mount Angel, Ore., and continued his former occupation of teaching, occupying the chair of mathematics at Mount Angel College.

In September, 1891, Mr. Mess bought a small place in Roseburg, Ore. The following June he returned to Mount Angel, and was appointed postmaster of the city. In 1894 he removed to Grand Ronde, teaching in the male department of

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the Indian school. Since then he has been re- corder of Mount Angel, and has also held a no- tary's commission since 1892. Mr. Mess has had two first-grade certificates, and now holds a cer- tificate which entitles him to teach for six years.

While living in Ohio in 1871, he was united in marriage with Mary Clemmens, who was born in Ohio in 1849, and died in Kansas in January, 1883. A second marriage was contracted by Mr. Mess in Neosho county, Kans., his wife being Eva M. Reischman, a native of Louisville, Ky., who was born in 1855, a daughter of Nicholas Reischman, a native of Bavaria, Germany. Mr. Reischman came to the United States in 1851, locating at New Albany, Ind., where he engaged in farming until removing to Kansas in 1868. He came to Oregon in 1895, and died in the hospital in Portland, June 13, 1902, at the age of seventy-four years.

Seven children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Mess, the order of their birth being as follows: Norbert N .; Lenora M .; M. Cyrilla ; Michael J .; Peter W., Jr .; Theresa Rose, and Benedict Rupert, all of whom are living at home. Mr. Mess is a Republican in politics. He is con- nected with the Grand Army of the Republic. G. K. Warren Post No. 114, Department of Kansas, and finds a religious home in the Roman Catholic Church.

CHRISTOPHER A. VANDRAN. When but fourteen years of age Christopher A. Van- dran made the journey with his parents from his home near Wurtzburg, Bavaria, to Amer- ica, and each year has witnessed a forward step in the march of progress for this emi- grant family. The father, Christopher, Sr., was born in Bavaria, and was there engaged as a carriage manufacturer, but hoping to bet- ter the condition of his family he came to America in 1881, settling first in Kansas, re- maining, however, but two months before changing his location to Oregon. In this state he located near Coburg, Lane county, where he died after engaging for several years as a farmer in this vicinity. The wife of Christopher, Sr., also a native of Bavaria, died in Albany, being the mother of five children. all of whom are living.

Christopher A. Vandran was the second of his parents' family, having been born near Wurtzburg, Bavaria, September 2, 1867. He received his education in the public schools of his native country, and on settling in Ore- gon he engaged with his father in farm work. Later he spent two and a half years in St. Paul, Marion county, and in 1884-5 he occu- pied his time as a gardener. Tiring of a farm life, he came to Albany in 1890 and entered

the employ of Mr. Gross, who was then man- ager of the Southern Pacific Hotel. In 1894 Mr. Gross sold out in Albany, and Mr. Vandran was made manager for the company of the Depot Hotel, a transient house and railroad eating station, and has since con- tinted to hold the position. Mr. Vandran is now much interested in the breeding of Chi- nese pheasants, raising for stock birds, and shipping them as far east as New York, in fact, to every section of the United States. He began his raising of pheasants from wild birds. He also owns a few fine bird-dogs. Through the kindness of Mr. Vandran the rose garden and pheasant farm are thrown open to the public, and during the twenty minutes' stop of all the overland trains at Albany the passengers enjoy the interesting sight.

Fraternally Mr. Vandran is a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, and religiously belongs to the Roman Catholic Church.

PRESTON BRUCE MARSHALL. The Albany Farmers' Company, of which Pres- ton Bruce Marshall is secretary and manager, was organized April 25, 1873, and has since held its own among the developing and sub- stantial concerns of Linn county. From a comparatively small beginning it has in- creased its sphere of usefulness until the com- pany now have an elevator at Albany with a capacity of two hundred thousand bushels, one at Tangent of one hundred thousand bushels, and one at Tallman of the same ca- pacity as the latter, the combined capacities being four hundred thousand bushels. The company act as agents for the farmers, tak- ing their grain and general produce, storing it until making the desired sale, and charging them a reasonable per cent for the transac- tion. Needless to say they have facilities for disposing of commodities not at the command of the individual farmer, and to the hard- worker the item of getting this business taken off his hands is by no means an indifferent one. The enterprise has stimulated trade and encouraged the farmers to do their best, for they are assured that a superior grade of pro- duce brings a better price than an inferior one, and besides establishes his reputation as painstaking and progressive.

Mr. Marshall, who has held his present po- sition since 1889, is a member of an old pio- neer family of this state, and was born on a farm near Albany, November 11, 1861. His grandfather, John, was a large farmer near Springfield, Ill., where was born his father,

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Arthur G., in 1831. When the latter was twenty-one years of age, in 1852, he started across the plains with his sire, and on the way grandfather John succumbed to the deprivations of the journey, and the young man was left to complete the distance alone. He located on a claim seven miles from Al- bany, and some time after coming here mar- ried Josephine Morris, who was born in Il- linois, and crossed the plains with her father, Preston Morris, in 1851, settling on a farm in Linn county, where the father died. The young people went to housekeeping on the donation claim settled upon by Mr. Marshall, who proved a good manager, and amassed a competence for his wife and children. His wife, who is still living on the old claim, bore him eleven children, seven of whom are liv- ing, Preston Bruce being the second child.

Like his brothers and sisters, Preston went to the public schools, and he afterward at- tended the State Normal at Monmouth. After teaching school for a year he engaged in farming on the old place, and in 1889 located in Albany, where he was elected to his present position by the board of directors of the Albany Farmers' Company. In this county he was united in marriage with Win- nifred Wilds, a native daughter of Linn county, and daughter of one of the early pio- neers. One child, Arthur, has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Marshall. Mr. Marshall is a Republican in politics, and is an ex-member and secretary of the county committee. At present he is serving his second term in the city council from the Third ward, and is chairman of the license committee. He is fraternally prominent and widely known, and is identified with the Masons, the In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows, the En- campment, the Rebeccas, and the Uniformed Rank Knights of Pythias. He is also a mem- ber of the Native Sons. Mr. Marshall is es- teemed for his many admirable personal char- acteristics, for his unquestioned integrity, and for his appreciation of the duties and de- mands of the highest citizenship.

ARTHUR H. WATKINS. Worthy of special mention among the younger generation of busi- ness men in Polk county is Arthur H. Watkins, general manager and secretary of the Coast Range Lumbering Company, the largest milling concern on the west side of the Willamette river south of Portland. His father, E. H. Watkins, now living at Cathlamet, Wahkiakum county, Wash., is extensively identified with the business interests in Polk county, and has proved himself a veritable master of western opportunities.

In Herefordshire, England., where E. H. Wat- kins was born and reared, he married for his first wife Emma Gaut, with whom he came to the United States in 1867, locating at Plymouth, Lucerne county, Pa., on the banks of the Sus- quehanna. Here he engaged in a general mer- chandise business with considerable success, and here was born his son, Arthur H., May 3, 1873. In 1878 the elder Watkins desired to go west, and his wife and son therefore went to England, where they visited relatives and friends for five years, and where the lad went to school. In the meantime the father reached Leadville, Colo., where he engaged in mining, and in 1881 went to New Mexico, making his headquarters at Las Vegas. In 1884 he came to Oregon and located at Portland, where he became interested in a grocery business on the east side, and after giving that up in 1891 removed to a farm of two hundred and fifty acres near North Yamhill, Yamhill county. About 1893 he became interested in a lumbering, farming, and general merchandise business in Wahkiakum, Wash., which is still operated under his name, as is also a large busi- ness at Seattle, Wash. It will be seen that he has a genius for organization, as well as many- sided business ability. He owns a large town site adjoining Cathlamet, and is prominent and influ- ential in commercial and business circles. A Democrat in politics, he has served as county commissioner, and has been a member of the state central committee of Wahkiakum county. His first wife died in Portland in 1887, and of the three children born of this union Arthur H. only is living. Mr. Watkins married in 1890, Cora P. Church, of Portland, and of the three sons born of this marriage two are living, Ray and Ralph.

Educated in the public schools of England and America, Arthur H. Watkins studied also at the Bishop Scott Academy for one term, and eventually graduated from the Holmes Business College in Portland. From early youth he has been identified with his father's various interests, and at present is connected with both the farming and lumbering enterprises of the elder man. In 1894 he became a member of the general mer- chandise firm of E. H. Watkins & Son, of Wash- ington, and in 1896 engaged in logging in the same state. In the summer of 1901 he came to Falls City and engaged in the general merchan- dise and lumbering business, and now has charge of the Coast Range Lumbering Company's inter- ests, a responsibility which he is proving thoroughly capable of assuming. The mills have a capacity of one hundred and twenty thousand feet per day, and the company have two miles of flume, connecting the mills with the planing mills at Falls City. They are equipped with modern machinery and dry kilns, and for the

Jesse Edwards

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transportation of their output have a switch of the S. W. & F. Railroad. The company was incorporated with a capital stock of $25,000, and from the beginning of its business life Mr. Wat- kins has been its general manager and secretary.

So successful a business man must needs see the advantage of lending his influence to all efforts to improve the general conditions among which he is living and working, and Mr. Watkins is keenly alive to all public-spirited undertakings. Though not particularly active as a Democrat, he is now serving his first term on the city council and his sound judgment and advanced ideas will undoubtedly be called into requisition in other official capacities. He married in Cath- lamet, Wash., Rosa A. Haniagan, of which union there have been born three children, one of whom, Lester, is deceased, and Harold and Arlyn are living at home. Mrs. Watkins is a daughter of C. R. Haniagan, a farmer of Iowa who came to Oregon in 1881, and after living for a time in Portland removed to Washington in 1883. He is still living on his farm in Wahkiakum county, and is devoting his ener- gies principally to stock-raising.

Mr. Watkins is fraternally connected with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of Astoria. He is popular and well known in Polk county, and has a comprehensive knowledge of both lum- bering and merchandising, occupations which go together in the west, as in Michigan and other lumbering centers, and which in Oregon have been among the prime developing factors of the state.

JESSE EDWARDS. Many enterprises of Newberg owe their establishment and successful conduct to Jesse Edwards, who is now the presi- dent of the Newberg Terra Cotta and Pressed Brick Company. He is classed among the public- spirited citizens, and was largely instrumental in the establishment of the settlement made by the Friends church. He came to Oregon Septem- ber 8, 1880, when a young man, his birth oc- curring in Hendricks county, Ind., February 8, 1849. He represents one of the old families of the south. His paternal grandfather, Anuel Ed- wards, was born in North Carolina and success- fully followed farming throughout his business career, his death occurring in Hendricks county, Ind., when he had reached the advanced age of about ninety years. His son, John Edwards, the father of our subject, was born in Guilford county, N. C., September 4, 1806, and in the year 1830 he removed to Indiana, making a set- tlement in Hendricks county upon the farm on which the birth of his son Jesse occurred. There he continued to engage in agricultural pursuits until 1882, when he disposed of his interests in

the Hoosier state and came to Oregon, settling in Newberg, where he lived retired until his death, which occurred when he was eighty-eight years of age. He was a stock-raiser and also speculated in land in addition to carrying on gen- eral farming pursuits, and in all his business undertakings he prospered and at the same time his integrity and honor were above reproach or question. He married Abigail Stanley, a native of North Carolina, as was her father, Jesse Stan- ley. The latter likewise devoted his energies to farming and prospered in his chosen work. He died in North Carolina at the advanced age of eighty years.

Jesse Edwards was the only child born unto his parents, but both his father and mother had been married before. He supplemented his early educational privileges, afforded by the common schools, by study in the high school at Westfield, Hamilton county, Ind., and then, in order to further fit himself for life's practical duties, he entered Bryant & Stratton's Commercial College, at Indianapolis, Ind., and when he was graduated therefrom he pursued a course in the University of Michigan as a pharmacist. Later he estab- lished a drug store at Mooresville, Ind., and conducted the enterprise in a profitable manner for a year, but at the end of that time he returned to his father's farm and assumed control of the business as manager, devoting his attention to the cultivation of grain and to the raising and shipping of stock. In 1874 he removed to Ham- ilton county, that state, and purchased a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, which he also stocked with good grades of cattle, horses and hogs, living thereon for three years or until 1877, when he once more returned to the old family homestead, which he purchased. When three years had passed he came to Oregon and settled on the present site of the town of Newberg, pur- chasing the land on which the place has since been built. His first purchase made him the owner of one hundred and eighty-five acres; his second purchase brought to him fifty acres; and later he bought one hundred and twenty-four acres. He now owns one hundred and seventy acres, which is highly cultivated and improved. Here he built the Newberg House, which was first his private residence, and in 1885 he erected his present beautiful home. In 1882 he estab- lished a general mercantile store and in 1883 he became the owner of the first steam sawmill in this portion of the country. Mr. Edwards is very quick to recognize and utilize business op- portunities and certainly no man has done more for the upbuilding of Newberg than he. In 1886 he established a tile factory, which was conducted for some time, and in 1890 he assisted in the or- ganization of the Bank of Newberg, becoming its president in the second year of its existence,

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and continuing to serve in that capacity until 1899. In 1892 he organized the Newberg Pressed Brick and Terra Cotta Company, of which he is still the head. This is the only pressed brick manufactory in the entire state, and from the be- ginning Mr. Edwards has been its chief executive officer and to his capable management and keen business discernment the success of the enter- prise is largely due. The other stockholders of the company are members of his immediate fam- ily, his son, O. K. Edwards, being manager, sec- retary and treasurer, while C. J. Edwards is vice- president. The business is capitalized for $50,- 000, with $30,000 paid up, and the trade is con- stantly growing in volume and importance, so that the industry is now an important one. The capacity is two million bricks per annum. In 1898 Mr. Edwards also established a private dairy, which he is continually improving.

Mr. Edwards was married in Hendricks coun- ty, Ind., to Miss Mary E. Kemp, whose birth occurred in Park county, that state. Her father, Jeremiah Kemp, was a native of North Carolina and a tinner by trade. Removing westward he took up his abode in the Hoosier state and there he died in early manhood. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Edwards have been born four children, three sons and a daughter: Clarence J., who is pro- prietor of the Newberg Electric Light Plant and an excellent business man; Walter F., who deals in wood and builders' supplies, both wholesale and retail, in Portland as a member of the firm of Timms & Edwards, agents and manufacturers ; O. K., who is manager of the pressed brick and terra cotta business of this place; and Mabel, who is at home. She has attained considerable pro- ficiency in painting and music. The sons have all completed a college course and the family is identified with the Friends church, in which the different members are active and faithful mem- bers. In 1879, in Indiana, Mr. Edwards served as a recording minister of the church and he took a very active and helpful part in the organ- ization of the denomination in Newberg. For ten years he was president of the board of man- agers of Pacific College, an institution under the auspices of the Society of Friends, serving in that capacity until 1901, while at the present time he is one of its members. He has given gener- ously to the support of this institution and has also labored effectively for its upbuilding and promotion. Three times has he made trips to the east in the interest of the college. In politics an carnest Republican, he served for two or three vears as a member of the city council at New- berg, and was also a school clerk and trustee in his younger years. For almost a quarter of a century Oregon has numbered him among its prominent and progressive citizens. He may well be termed one of the founders of Newberg,

for he not only owned the site of the town, but has been the promoter of many of its leading business enterprises. His connection with any undertaking insures the prosperous outcome of the same, for it is his nature to carry forward to successful completion whatever he undertakes. He has earned for himself an enviable reputation as a careful man of business, and in his dealings is known for his prompt and honorable methods, which have won him the deserved and unbounded confidence of his fellow men.

MERRITT L. THOMPSON. The drug store of Merritt L. Thompson is one of the active business centers of Falls City, and in its appointments would do credit to a much larger and older community. Since coming into the possession of the present owner in 1893, a marked change has taken place in the enterprise, the trade has steadily increased, and the stock has been correspondingly en- larged to meet more exacting and discriminat- ing patronage. Since September, 1897, Mr. Thompson has been the postmaster of Falls City, and as a stanch upholder of Republican principles other honors have been conferred upon him. He was mayor for one term, and for the past four years has been city treas- urer. It will thus be seen that he is possessed of characteristics which inspire confidence and suggest authority, and which place him in the front rank of promoters of the general well- being.

The representative of an old New York family, Mr. Thompson was born in Cayuga county, N. Y., August 18, 1864, his father, Charles H., and his grandfather, Lovell, being natives of the same state. Charles H. mar- ried Jerusha Merritt, who was born in New York state, and with her he removed to a farm of eighty acres one and a half miles from Greenville, Mich., where he is now living, and is about sixty years of age. Of the two sons in the family, both were educated in the pub- lic schools, and both started at a practically early age to earn their own living.

Merritt L. began to work in a drug store at Genoa, N. Y., when fourteen years old, and the following year accompanied his parents to Michigan. After going to school for a year he entered a drug store in Greenville for a year and a half, and then filled a similar position in a store in Howard City, Mich., for about the same length of time. Returning to Greenville he engaged in the drug business for about four years, and then made up his mind to try his luck in the far west. In Aber- deen, Wash., he found employment in a drug store, and during his two years' association

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with this concern visited his home in Michi- years' absence of his father grew to sturdy man- gan on two occasions. Desiring to go further west, he came to Portland in 1890, but after vainly looking for a position for a couple of months went to Independence, Ore., where he remained for five months. In the meantime he had been looking around for a desirable permanent location, and hearing of a drug store for sale in Falls City came here in 1893 and purchased the business of Otto Messman.

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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 39

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