Portrait and biographical record of western Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present.., Part 155

Author: Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago, Chapman publishing company
Number of Pages: 1064

USA > Oregon > Portrait and biographical record of western Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present.. > Part 155

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JOHN WESLEY HAMAKAR. As a law- yer of exceptional ability John Wesley Ha- makar has advanced in popular esteem ever since his admission to the bar of Klamath county in 1884. He makes a specialty of land law. At the time of the separation of Klamath county from Lake county Mr. Hamakar transcribed all of the records of Lake to Klamath county books, completing in January, 1883, what is now the permanent records of Klamath county. In the meantime there have been few important land transactions which have not profited by his coun- sel or been enlightened from his vast store of knowledge, and he has come to be regarded as one of the best authorities on laws covering land possession in the state of Oregon.

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In his youth Mr. Hamakar was surrounded by influences calculated to develop the best traits in his nature. His father, David Hamakar, was an Evangelical Lutheran minister who recog- nized no middle way in dealing with life prob- lems, and his children were reared to value truth, industry and the talents with which their Maker had endowed them. The family was established on American shores by the paternal great-grand- father, who came from Lorraine, France, with his two brothers, settling first in New Jersey, and later removing to Pennsylvania. He was of French-German extraction, and reared a family of considerable size, his son, Jacob, the next in line of descent, doing him special credit as a miller and soldier in the war of 1812. Jacob Hamakar married in his native state of Pennsyl- vania, settled on a farm in Cumberland county. where his son, David, the father of John Wesley. was born in October, 1824, the youngest in a family of five children. When David was a small boy his father removed to Morgan county, Ohio. At the time of his death in 1856, at the age of sixty, he left those dependent upon him in fairly good circumstances.

David Hamakar grew to manhood in Morgan county, and to his common school education added a knowledge of milling, in time turning his attention to school teaching. He married. in Morgan county, Ohio, Rebecca Rogers, who was born in Cumberland county, Pa., in 1827, a daughter of John Rogers, kin of Sir John Rog- ers, the martyr. In 1846 Mr. Hamakar brought his wife to Marion county, Iowa, where, Septem- ber 2, 1847, his second son, John Wesley was born. He began his ministerial work in 1850, and thereafter occupied pulpits in different parts of Iowa almost up to the time of his death, Au- gust 2, 1866. He was survived by his wife until December, 1885. Of the six other children in the family, the oldest son died in infancy ; Lucy also died young ; Joel owns and operates a mill at Bonanza, Klamath county, this state; Eliza- beth died young; Joseph Oliver is city recorder of Bonanza, where he resides; and Seneca C. owns a livery stable at Ashland, Ore.

After completing his preliminary education in the public schools John Wesley Hamakar took a commercial course at Bailey's Commercial Col- lege in Keokuk, Iowa, and continued to remain with his parents until 1869. In that year he made his way to Kansas, and in Montgomery county invested in land and engaged in farm- ing and stock-raising until 1873. In the fall of that year he removed to Diamond City, Utah, and engaged in a brokerage business for a year, and then came to Oregon and took up his resi- dence in Klamath Falls. Two years later he began the study of law, and was admitted to the

bar in 1884, as heretofore stated. Mr. Hamakar married, in Wapello county, Iowa, Amanda Stout, born in the same county, March 13, 1850, a daughter of Milton and Mary (Nelson) Stout. Mr. Stout resides at Olene, on Lost river, where he owns a farm. Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Hamakar, of whom Minnie is de- ceased; Ella is the wife of C. L. Parrish of Salem, Ore .; Charles is a resident of Klamath Falls; Guy lives in Portland, Ore .; Ray is editor and proprietor of the Klamath Falls Express; and one child died in infancy.

A Republican in political affiliations, Mr. Ha- makar has held many offices of trust and re- sponsibility, including that of county treasurer for one term, member of the school board for nine years, county surveyor for one term, and United States deputy surveyor. He is fraternally connected with Klamath Lodge No. 110, A. O. U. W., of which he is a charter member, and in which he has passed all of the chairs.

SAMUEL ELMORE. Inheriting the vigor- ous mental and phyical qualities of a long line of sturdy New England ancestry, Samuel Elmore, of Astoria, naturally takes a dominant position among the leading members of the city in which he resides. He is thoroughly identified with the growth and development of town and county, and to him and his asso- ciates is the community largely indebted for its great canning industry, its railway and transportation facilities, and its shipping in- terests. As proprietor of the Astorian he wields a wide and healthful influence throughout the large territory in which his paper circulates. A son of R. P. Elmore, he was born May 23, 1847, in Rondout, N. Y. He comes of Scotch descent on the paternal side, and is of patri- otic stock, his great-grandfather, Samuel El- more, Sr., having served in a New England regiment during the Revolutionary war.

Samuel Elmore, Jr., the grandfather of the Samuel Elmore whose name appears at the head of this sketch, was born and reared in Connecticut, living there until after his mar- riage, and the birth of some of his children. Removing with his family to Ulster county, N. Y., he was a pioneer of Elmore Corners, and one of the first to engage in steamboat- ing on the Hudson river. He was a man of prominence, serving as county sheriff, and as a member of the legislature. He was also actively identified with the Masonic order.

A native of Sharon, Conn., R. P. Elmore moved with his parents to New York state, and was associated in business with his father for several years. In 1851, in company with his brother, Lyman Elmore, he went to Wis-

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consin, taking the first cargo of coal into Mil- waukee, shipping it from Oswego, N. Y. Locating in Milwaukee as a coal and iron dealer, he built up a large shipping trade, car- rying on an extensive and remunerative busi- ness for many years. His death occurred in that city, in 1897, at the advanced age of eighty-two years and eight months. A promi- nent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, he was devoted to church work, and was noted for his benevolence and phil- anthropy. In politics he was a Democrat until the breaking out of the Civil war, but after that time was identified with the Repub- lican party. He was related to some of the most highly respected families of New Eng- land, being a near kinsman of the Lymans and Beechers of Connecticut. He married Mag- dalene Etting, who was born in Rondout, N. Y., a daughter of Josiah Etting, who came from pure Knickerbocker stock, and was one of the most prominent men of Ulster county. She died in Milwaukee, Wis., in 1857, leaving four children, two sons and two daughters. One son, Etting Elmore, has succeeded to his father's business in Milwaukee.

The eldest son of the parental household, Samuel Elmore received his preliminary edu- cation in the city schools of Milwaukee, after- wards attending Lawrence University in Ap- pleton, Wis., and Genesee College, in Lima, N. Y. In 1863 he enlisted in the Twenty- first Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, and, al- though too young to be mustered in, went with the regiment to the front, accompanying his uncle, Capt. C. M. Paine, who commanded Company B, remaining with him until after the engagement at Missionary Ridge. Return- ing home, he went to Appleton, Wis., in 1864, having received a commission as recruiting of- ficer from Governor Lewis, and there raised a company, which was mustered into service as Company F, Fifty-first Wisconsin Volun- teer Infantry. Being chosen and commis- sioned first lieutenant of his company, he was in active service until the close of the war, fighting the guerrillas, and following Price and Quantrell through Missouri and Kansas, a part of the time, however, acting as assist- ant adjutant general of the third sub-district of central Missouri, being stationed at Pleas- ant Hill. In October, 1865, at Madison, Wis., he was mustered out of service, and returned to his home in Milwaukee.

In the spring of 1866 Mr. Elmore sailed from New York for San Francisco, going by way of Panama, and arriving at the Golden Gate June 12, 1866. Going to Sacramento, he was for a time employed as a book-keeper in a wholesale grocery house, and was afterwards

secretary for the Oneida Mining Company, in Amador county, Cal. Returning to Wisconsin by the Panama route in 1869 he was appointed deputy collector and inspector of customs serving under General Grant. Making another trip to California in 1872, Mr. Elmore, with others, engaged in the smelting business, but not meeting with success in the undertaking he went to San Francisco. Accepting a posi- tion in the San Francisco office of a large Port- land commission firm, he remained there as book-keeper for some time. Becoming greatly interested in the salmon industry, he formed a partnership with R. D. Hume, one of the oldest packers on the coast, and as early as 1875 they began handling this fish. Locating in Astoria, Ore., in 1881, Mr. Elmore built and established his own cannery, which is one of the finest and best equipped of any on the Pacific coast, the machinery and appliances being of the most modern manufacture. Be- ing prosperous from the beginning, he became one of the largest individual packers on the Columbia river. In 1899 he was influential in organizing the Columbia River Packers' Association, of which he is vice-president and manager. This association includes twelve of the principal canneries on the Columbia river, and a large cannery at Bristol Bay, Alaska. The Elmore brand is known and shipped all over the world, and at the World's Fair, held in Chicago, Ill., in 1893, the Elmore Magnolia, and also Mr. Elmore's Royal Seal brand, re- ceived medals.

Mr. Elmore is also actively identified with many other enterprises of great importance, having been a prime factor in securing the rail- way for Astoria, and having built two of the large coast steamers, first the R. P. Elmore, which he sold for use in the Alaska waters, and then the Sue H. Elmore, now plying along the coast to Yaquina bay. He is identified with several real estate companies, and aside from his interest in the Packers' Association, he has built, and now owns, five canning fac- tories, one on the Nehalem river, one on the Tillamook, one on the Alsea, one on the Sius- law, and another on the Umpqua. The Asto- rian, the oldest paper in the city, having heen established in 1873, is owned by Mr. Elmore, and has a large weekly and daily circulation. It is a live, up-to-date newspaper, and the only one of the city with an exclusive right to print the news from the Associated Press, of which Mr. Elmore is a member.

Mr. Elmore married, in Oakland, Mary E. Hurd, who was born in Monroe, Mich., a daughter of Morgan L. Hurd, who migrated with his family to California in 1850. Mr. Hurd was at first engaged in mining after

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coming to the coast, but was subsequently general claini agent for the Southern Pacific Railway Company. He died in Oakland.

Mrs. Elmore was graduated from the high school, and has always been interested in liter- ary pursuits. She is an ex-president of the Astoria Women's Club, and is now serving as secretary of the Oregon Federation of Wo- men's Clubs. Mr. and Mrs. Elmore have three children, namely: Sute H., Floretta Amelia and Magdalene Elsie. Mr. Elmore is a stanch Republican in his political affiliations, and has served as mayor of Astoria one term. He was appointed by the state legislature as one of the members of the original board of water com- missioners, which built the city waterworks, introducing a water system that has given great satisfaction to all concerned. The reser- voir is very large, and the water pressure unusually high. Mr. Elmore is a member of Cushing Post, No. 14. G. A. R., which he served as commander two terms. He is an active and prominent member of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church, towards the support of which he contributes liberally.

HERBERT ALVADER CORLISS. Prom- inent among the prosperous business men of Josephine county is Herbert A. Corliss, a keen, wide-awake representative of the mining inter- ests of Grants Pass. Thoroughly conversant with the most modern and most approved meth- ods of obtaining the desired ores, he has been very successful in his operations, his energetic and practical efforts meeting with a due re- ward. Of sterling New England stock, he has inherited in a large measure the characteristics and virtues of a long line of ancestors, composed of God-fearing men and women, who served well their day and generation. A native of Maine, he was born November 29, 1855, in Linneus, Aroostook county, near the eastern boundary line of the state, it being the town in which his father, John Corliss, was born. His grandfather, David Corliss, was born of Eng- lish ancestors in New York state, and became an early settler of Linneus. Me., where he was a tiller of the soil during his active life.

Reared to agricultural pursuits, John Corliss chose farming for his life-work, and for many vears was one of the leading lumbermen of his native town, where he resided until his death, in 1897, at a good old age. He married Chris- taney Burton, who spent her entire life in Lin- neus, dying there in 1855, when her son, Her- hert A., was an infant. Her father, Thomas Burton, was horn in Knox county, Me., the son of one of the pioneer settlers of that county, his father having removed there from Massachu-

setts. The Burton family was one of prominence in colonial times, and one of the maternal ances- tors of Mr. Corliss, his great great-grandfather Burton, was a soldicr in the Revolutionary war.

The only child of his father's first marriage, Herbert A. Corliss grew to manhood on the home farm, receiving his education in the district schools. He subsequently assisted his father in farming and lumbering until the spring of 1879, when he started for the far west. After spend- ing a short time in Denver, and in other parts of Colorado, he continued his journey to Port- land, Ore. He first secured work on the Colum- bia river, being employed in lumbering, and later in building dams. Subsequently embark- ing in business on his own account, he took log- ging contracts, supplying St. Helens and Port- land with logs cut from his timber land near St. Helens. Disposing of his interests in Co- lumbia county, in 1893. Mr. Corliss located in Grants Pass, and with his change of residence changed his occupation. Purchasing from va- rious parties the old Dry Diggings, he bought also the claims and water rights until he had possession of six hundred and forty acres of placer mines. He then put in a hydraulic plant. dug three different ditches and had two giants. The water supply being so scant, he could work only about five months a year, but in the ensu- ing ten years he worked out about eight acres. In the fall of 1901 Mr. Corliss sold this entire property to the Golden Drift Mining Company. in which he is one of the stockholders, and has since been superintendent of the diggings, and has had charge of the construction of the mam- moth dam across the Rogue river. Mr. Corliss has other mining interests of value, owning four quartz mines in Josephine county, one hundred and sixty acres of placer mines on the Rogue river. near Galice creek, and the Lucky Queen mine on Jump-off Joe. In 1903 he built the Grants Pass flouring mills, and also owns other citv propertv.

At St. Helens. Columbia county, Mr. Corliss married Mrs. Celia E. (Ridlev) Grav. a native of Searsport. Me., and a daughter of Capt. Wil- liam L. and Persis (Rice) Ridley. Captain Ridley was born in Stockton, Me., and for fifty years followed the sea, going as cabin hov when thirteen years old, and gradually working his wav upward until master of his vessel. Coming to Oregon in 1880, he first engaged in general farming, and is now living retired from active pursuits in Grants Pass. Mrs. Ridley died in Grants Pass, September 18, 1902. By her first marriage Mrs. Corliss had two children. namely: Mrs. Tina Sweetland, of Grants Pass, and Charles G. Grav, engaged in the milling business in Grants Pass. Mr. and Mrs. Corliss have one child, Hazel A. Corliss. Mr. Corliss was made

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a Mason at St. Helens, Ore .; is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and of the Knights of the Maccabees, the Order of Pendo and the Eastern Star.

HENRY HEWITT BALDWIN. Beautiful in the extreme is the cottage home of Henry Hewitt Baldwin, known as Baldwin Villa, Sans Sonsi. On a bluff overlooking the Pacific ocean, surrounded by a profusion of flowers and shrubs and trees, peace is to be found here as in few places selected by man in his nervous energy and restlessness. A scholar and old world gentleman occupies Baldwin Villa, a bachelor to whom na- ture and history and world development have been a profound and absorbing study. His life has touched the rims of obscurity and influence, and of success as embodied in the esteem of his fellow men and a fair share of worldly pos- sessions. His latch string is always out, his larder well filled, and congenial spirits are wont to make frequent pilgrimages to the home where hospitality and good cheer are unstintingly doled out.

Mr. Baldwin has performed his share towards taming the wilderness, and his natural adaptive- ness has led him into participation with many phases of existence. He recalls with zest romp- ing on the green in Bandon, County Cork, Ire- land, where he was born in April, 1825, and he remembers with equal accuracy his life at sea, his mining days, his hunting for big game in the wilderness of the west, his career as a frontier soldier, and the more remunerative pastoral years spent on the farm, which he formerly owned. He is of Anglo-Norman extraction. Walter Baldwin, the first who settled in Ireland, was the son of Herbert and grandson of Henry, the eldest of three brothers who settled there towards the close of Elizabeth's reign. This Henry was the son of Henry, king's ranger of woods and forests in Shropshire, who married Lady Elinor Herbert, daughter of Sir Edward Herbert of Redcastle, who was the second son of the first Lord Pembroke, by Lady Anne, daughter of Lord Parr, of Kendale, and sister of Lady Catherine Parr, surviving queen of Henry VIII. Walter Baldwin was succeeded by his son Henry, who married Miss Ficld, niece of Colonel Beecher, of Sherkin. He was succeeded by his son, Henry, by his third wife, Elizabeth, daugh- ter of Thomas Beecher, Esq., of Sherkin, and relict of Captain Townsend. Henry had two sons : Henry, progenitor of the Baldwins of Mount Pleasant, and William, B. L., progenitor of the Baldwins of Lisarda; the former married Miss Warren, sister of Sir Robert Warren, of Warrenscourt, and the latter married Miss French, daughter of Alderman French, of Cork.

William of Lisarda, who was high sheriff of the county in 1777, and a very eminent barrister, married Miss Morris. He was succeeded by William. William married Miss Mary Kerby, daughter of Franklin Kerby, Esq., of Bambor- ough Grange, Yorkshire, Eng. William was suc- ceeded by his son, Henry, who, dying without issue, the estates fell to a younger son, Godfrey, Hewitt P. Baldwin, the father of Henry Hewitt Baldwin and youngest of many sons, being an uncle to Godfrey and brother to William, who was also high sheriff of the county in 1813. The Baldwins first came to England with William the Conqueror in 1090 and fought at Hastings, the wife of the Conqueror, Maud or Matilda, being a daughter of Baldwin De Lisle, a French nobleman. Hewitt Pool Baldwin lived to be fifty-six years old, and reared a family of four daughters and one son through his marriage with Elizabeth Kingston, also a native of Ban- don, Ireland, born of English parents. Capt. George Kingston, the father of Mrs. Baldwin, was born in Bath, England, but became a soldier in the king's army in Ireland, where his death occurred.

As a boy Henry Hewitt Baldwin attended Rev. Dr. L. L. D. Brown's Collegiate School, better known as the Devonshire Academy of Bandon, County Cork, Ireland. Fellow students with him were the since great General Roberts of Boer war fame, and G. Bennett, Esq., bach- elor of laws, of Trinity College, Dublin, and latterly an old settler of this county. He took a thorough classical course, read Latin and Greek with ease, and, in accordance with the wishes of his mother, prepared for the church of England. He also learned civil engineering, much more to his taste, but the parental pres- sure became too great and he went to sea at sixteen years of age, entering the service of the East India Company as midshipman on the Per- sian in the year 1841. For three to five years he encountered gales and tempests and all man- ner of adventures. In 1846 he came to the United States and located at Cincinnati, Ohio, and clerked for the wholesale dry goods firm of P. McArthur & Co. until 1849. Enlisting in the United States army in St. Louis, he became a soldier in Troop F. mounted riflemen, U. S. A., under Col. Andrew Porter, and crossed the plains to Oregon to quell the Indian excitement and punish the murderers of Dr. Whitman. After a short time at Oregon City, the company was sent to Vancouver to build that post, and after two years of service Mr. Baldwin was trans- ferred to Company C, First Dragoons, under the famous Maj. Philip Kearney and General Stoneman. Receiving his discharge three years later, or in 1854, he engaged in gold mining in Jackson and Coos counties, and during 1855-6

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served in the quartermaster's employ as packer, scout and express rider during the Rogue River war. Afterward he engaged in mining and scouting and Indian fighting until the spring of 1865, when he enlisted in Company A, First Oregon Cavalry, for three years or during the war, under Captain McCall. A year and a half later the regulars came west and relieved the company, and Mr. Baldwin availed himself of his leisure to return to Ireland and visit his mother and sisters in the fall of 1866.

Like all true hearted sons of Erin, Mr. Bald- win treasures the memory of the mother coun- try, yet when he returned to America after a visit of five months it was with renewed con- fidence in the land of his adoption. A natural liking for tented field and the systematic and orderly life of the soldier inspired his re-enlist- ment in the United States army in the spring of 1867, as a soldier in Company I, Fourteenth Infantry, with which company he came to San Francisco by way of the Isthmus, and was sta- tioned at Presidio, Cal. In 1867 the company was ordered to Arizona to restore order among the Indians, and in 1869 was ordered east, a command with which Mr. Baldwin was not obliged to comply owing to his already long and faithful service. Therefore he was transferred to the Twenty-first Infantry and delegated to recruiting service, remaining with the regiment until November, 1869, at the time being sta- tioned at Sacramento, Cal.

Upon locating in Coos county in the winter of 1869, Mr. Baldwin took up a farm five miles east of Parkersburg, carrying his worldly pos- sessions on his back, and settling down to clear- ing his three hundred and twenty acres. This he made his home until 1895, when, on account of impaired health, he sold out and moved into Bandon and soon realized the benefit from the change. He had the usual experiences while vet the county was a stranger to agricultural tactics ; he hunted game in the timber and fish in the clear streams; taking his part also in warding off the encroachments of the resentful Indians. He was one of those rugged and fear- less characters who perseveringly cleared the way for later comers, making this region a safe and piea:" "t and fertile place for them to live in. He is a member of the Grand Army of the T public, and in politics often steps aside from Republican principles, if necessary. to find the man best qualified to serve the county wel- fare. So ardent a lover of nature gladly avails himself of the means of giving expression to his thought, and thus it happens that this pioneer and his muse are boon companions, and that prose also finds its way to current periodicals. A poem called "Solitaire Evening Remi- niscences" voices the principal incidents of his

life, and convinces the reader that scholarly at- tainments and a remarkably lucid mind have brightened the life of one of Coos county's most interesting personalities.

ALFRED KINNEY, M. D. Conspicuous among the leading professional men of Astoria, Ore., is the above named gentleman, who, in addition to being one of the best and most up- to-date physicians and surgeons in Clatsop coun- ty, Ore., has been largely instrumental in pro- moting various enterprises of magnitude for the public good, especially in the building of rail- roads in that section. In fact, he has been the prime mover in railroad building in Clatsop county, and for six years gave more than half his time to that business.

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Portrait and biographical record of western Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present.., Part 155

Author: Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, pub Publication date: 1904 Publisher: Chicago, Chapman publishing company Number of Pages: 1064

Author: Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago, Chapman publishing company
Number of Pages: 1064