USA > Washington > King County > Seattle > A volume of memoirs and genealogy of representative citizens of the city of Seattle and county of King, Washington, including biographies of many of those who have passed away > Part 11
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buffalo, and our subject killed a number of these noble beasts and other game, with which to supply the larder of the party. That was a year of extensive emigration, and many died of cholera while making their way to the far west, but the company of which Mr. Smithers was a member fortunately escaped the ravages of this scourge. When fifteen miles west of Omaha, Nebraska, a large band of Indians met them at a bridge and demanded a payment of one dollar a wagon before they passed on. The captain refused to pay, and drove his team across the bridge, and as Mr. Olds hesitated, fearing results, our subject took the whip and drove the wagon across, this having been the second to make the attempt, and the oxen in the lead was seized by one of the Indians, who held it by the horn until he was felled with a whip. The savages gave the war cry, greatly frightening the women of the party, but the men showed their determina- tion to fight and the Indians finally withdrew, though they continued to follow the party for three or four days, rendering it necessary to main- tain a guard every night. During the last of the trip Mr. Olds was ill, and Mr. Smithers made himself very useful and helpful, a strong friend- ship being thus cemented. Our subject has lost trace of his old-time friend, whom he pronounces one of the best men he has ever known, and he ex- presses the wish that this tribute be incorporated in this article, hoping that Mr. Olds is still living and that this acknowledgment of his kindness may come to his vision. Six months were consumed in making the trip from Iowa City to The Dalles, Oregon, from which point they continued their way to Portland, where Mr. Smithers secured employment in con- nection with the building of a mill. In April, 1853, he came to Seattle, and here secured employment in getting out piles, which were shipped to San Francisco. He brought with him from Portland three yoke of cattle, and with these he hauled the first logs that were used in the building of Fort Madison mill. When the Indian war of 1855 broke out he volunteered for service, and continued a member of the volunteer militia until 1856, having rendered valuable assistance in the protection of the lives and prop- erty of the pioneer settlers.
In November, 1857, Mr. Smithers was united in marriage to Mrs. Diana Tobin, a native of Maine, and shortly after this important event in his life he came to his present location, taking up homestead and donation claims and securing a total of four hundred and eighty acres. At the time he came here five hundred or more Indians were encamped near, engaged in fishing. The land was a veritable wilderness, and the nearest white neighbors were at Seattle, fifteen miles distant, as has already been noted.
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He and his young wife were without a dollar when they established their home in the primitive wilds, the land being covered with a dense growth of trees and vines. They built a little shack, which constituted their home during the first years of their happy married life, and there their children were born. Their son, Edward M., is now the superintendent of the shoe department of the company store at Roslyn, and the daughter, Ada, who is the widow of Robert L. Thorn, is living at the parental home, as are also her four children,-Robert Maxwell. Herbert E., Jeanette and Vivian. Mr. Smithers is now passing the evening of his useful and honorable life in an attractive and commodious residence which he erected in 1875, and is enjoying that independence and freedom from care which is the just reward for his earnest and indefatigable industry during a long, active and worthy life. The city of Renton is located on a portion of the land which he secured from the government in the early days and which he has brought under a fine state of improvement. He platted the town and placed the lots on the market, and it has been a great pleasure and satisfaction to him to witness the development and progress of the city of which he was the founder and in whose affairs he has maintained a lively interest. He also discovered the deposit of coal here and inaugurated the work of de- velopment, finally disposing of the mine at a figure which insures him in- dependence for the residue of his life.
Notwithstanding the fact that Mr. Smithers began life in the woods of Washington as a poor man, such was his reputation for honor and in- tegrity that he received necessary accommodations from merchants who refused credit to others, and his life has been ever directed upon a high plane of rectitude, so that he commands unqualified confidence and esteem in the state of which he is a worthy pioneer and representative citizen. He has given his allegiance to the Democratic party from the time of attaining his majority, his first vote having been cast in support of Hon. Isaac I. Stevens for governor of the territory. He is a member of the Washington Pioneer Society and during the war of the rebellion he was initiated into the mysteries of the Masonic fraternity, being one of the first members of St. John's Lodge, No. 9, A. F. & A. M., of Seattle, one of the first lodges instituted in the territory. He is a stockholder and one of the board of trustees of the South Prairie Coal Mining Company, and has other important capital- istic interests. He was appointed by Governor Terry and once by Governor Solomon a trustee of the State University and was elected president of the board of regents. Mr. Smithers was appointed one of the administrators of the estate of his friend C. C. Terry, of Seattle, which at the time of his
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death was involved to the amount of nineteen thousand dollars, the prop- erty owned extending from Yessler Way to Madison street, in the city of Seattle, and being a large and very valuable tract. The administrators paid off the indebtedness, kept the family in the meanwhile and finally turned over to the five children one hundred and fifty thousand dollars each, the fidelity shown in handling the affairs of the estate causing the judge who discharged the administrators to say that it had been managed with eminent ability and honor.
ABIJAH I. BEACH, M. D.
The medical fraternity in Washington has an able representative in the person of Dr. Beach, whose is the distinction of being the pioneer phy- sician and surgeon of the thriving little city of Renton, while the high es- timation in which he is held in the community is signalized by the prefer- ment which is his at the time of this writing, since he is mayor of the city and has gained unqualified endorsement for his able and discriminating admin- istration of municipal affairs. His life has been one of marked devotion to the work of his noble profession, in which he has attained distinctive prestige, and his career is properly taken under review in a compilation of this nature.
Abijah Ives Beach is a representative of families which have been long identified with the annals of American history, and he is a native of the Buckeye state, having been born in New Haven, Huron county, Ohio, on the 8th of February, 1836, his lineage on the paternal line tracing back to stanch English progenitors, while it is a matter of record that the original American ancestors settled on Long Island during the colonial epoch. There the great-grandfather of the Doctor passed the closing years of his life and thence two of his sons removed to the state of Connecticut and three to New Jersey, one of the Connecticut brothers being Samuel Beach, the grandfather of our subject. He was a civil engineer by profession and be- came the pioneer surveyor of the Connecticut Western Reserve in Ohio. The maiden name of his wife was Lois Ives and she was a member of one of the old and prominent families of Connecticut. Their son Asahel, the father of the Doctor, was born in Wallingford, New Haven county, Con- necticut, whence he accompanied the family on their removal to Ohio, where he passed the residue of his life, having been engaged in the banking busi- ness for many years and having been one of the honored and influential men of that locality. He married Miss Hannah Clum, a native of Holland,
كنما
ABBEuch, MUND.
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who died at the age of twenty-nine years, leaving three children, of whom two survive, the Doctor, and Hannah E., who is the widow of Benjamin O. Smith and who maintains her home in Bellville, Richland county, Ohio. The father was summoned into eternal rest at the age of fifty-four years. Moses Y. Beach, an uncle of the Doctor, was at one time owner of the New York Sun and his son, Alfred E., was one of the founders of the Scien- tific American.
Dr. Abijah I. Beach enjoyed exceptional educational advantages in his youth, having completed a preliminary course of study in the academy at Ashland, Ohio, after which he went to Europe and entered the preparatory department of the celebrated University of France, taking the course in the school of arts and trades and passing all the examinations in connection with these important departments. He was later in the Ecole de Medicine of the city of Paris, where he continued his studies for some time and then returned to Ohio and entered the Western Reserve Medical College, in the city of Cleveland, where he was graduated as a member of the class of 1856, being but little more than twenty years of age at the time. This fact is significant, as showing that he had thoroughly improved the advantages which had been afforded him, and he was particularly well equipped for the active work of his profession while still a youth, and his judgment and wisdom had been singularly matured by the discipline which had been his and by his devotion to study. After receiving his degree of Doctor of Medicine he entered upon the practice of his profession in Pleasantville, Hancock county, Ohio, where he continued about a year, removing to Kan- sas in 1857 and becoming one of the pioneer physicians of that state, which was at that time the scene of much excitement and turbulence, owing to the protest against the extension of slavery into the territory .- a protest which had much to do with precipitating the war of the rebellion. The Doctor was engaged in practice at Waterloo, Lyons county, for a time and afterward removed to what is now Rice county, which was then practically in its primitive condition, having few settlers and being on the very fron- tier of civilization. The Doctor constructed a bridge over the Little Ar- kansas river, on the old Santa Fe trail, and also constructed the stone corral, and there he was associated with William Wheeler in conducting a trading post, bartering with the Indians and travelers on the Santa Fe trail, and it is hardly necessary to state that the Doctor met with many thrilling ex- periences and narrow escapes while thus living on the border. After a year had elapsed he sold his interests and removed to Cow Creek, a point about twenty miles west, and that much farther removed him from civilization.
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There he improved a ranch, constructed two bridges and engaged in the practice of his profession among the Indians and the white settlers who began to come in and take up the excellent land. In 1858, soon after locat- ing there, the Doctor had two desperate encounters with the Indians, and in each of these instances he showed almost incredible bravery, while his escapes from death at the hands of the savages seem almost phenomenal. On the occasion of their first attack Dr. Beach was absent from his ranch, which he had left in charge of two men. The savages succeeded in captur- ing the ranch, but the two men escaped and met the Doctor as he was re- turning in the night, being about five miles distant from the ranch when he thus learned of the treachery of the Indians, whom he had always treated with utmost fairness and kindness. He took the two men into his wagon and proceeded on his way to the ranch. He approached and made a carc- ful reconnoisance, and discovered that the Indians had found the whisky on the premises and had partaken so liberally of the "fire-water" as to be in a state of absolute intoxication. He entered the house in the darkness, secured all their arms and ammunition, and the entire band, comprising about twenty in number, were then driven from the ranch by the Doctor and his two employes. Knowing well the character of the savages, the Doctor felt sure that they would return and attempt to obtain revenge, and he and his men prepared themselves for the attack as best they could. Three weeks later the Indians returned, surprising John Burr in the yard and captur- ing him. The Doctor went to his rescue and succeeded in getting him into the house, but a number of the Indians also effected an entrance at the same time. and there followed a desperate hand-to-hand fight. The chief suc- cceded in getting behind the Doctor and then garroted him with his arm, while the other savages proceeded to cut and slash at him with their knives. The arm with which he endeavored to ward off the blows was cut in many places between elbow and wrist, the sleeves of his garments being literally cuit to pieces. Finally he received a blow on the head which caused him to fall to the floor, with his head covered with blood. He fell face for- ward into a sack of flour, and when he regained his feet and turned his face, made ghastly with the combined blood and flour, the savages fled front the house with his companions, the Doctor pursuing them, notwithstand- ing his severe injuries. In the yard he picked up a pole which he had cut for a sled runner, and threw it at one of his dusky foes with such force and precision as to break his leg and they fled in dismay, evidently believ- ing the Doctor bore a charmed life and that they could not compass his death. The encounter was one which left our subject incapacitated for
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many days, his injuries having been severe, and to-day he bears on his arms and other parts of his body scars which perpetually mark the wounds received in that desperate struggle. After the fight a party of men returil- ing from Pike's Peak came along and took the Doctor and his man Burr, who was also badly cut, to the stone corral on the Little Arkansas, and it was many months before the Doctor recovered from his injuries. He soon afterward disposed of his ranch property and removed to Council Grove, Morris county, where he engaged in the practice of his profession, while from 1862 until January, 1864, he held the office of acting assistant surgeon with the government troops, during the Civil war, and from Jan- uary, 1864, to the end of the war as assistant surgeon in the Ninth Kansas Cavalry and serving in the Trans-Mississippi department, in Kansas, Mis- souri, Arkansas and Indian Territory, his command being a part of the Seventh Army Corps. After the close of the war Dr. Beach returned to Council Grove, where he was successfully engaged in the practice of his profession until 1878, when he came to Washington, first locating in Fort Madison and thence coming to Seattle. He held for two years the appoint- mment as physician at the Tulalip Indian agency, in Snohomish county ; was later engaged in professional work at Port Blakely for a few months, and then came to Renton, where he became physician for the Renton Mining Company and also held for a time a similar connection with the Black Dia- mond mine, while he soon succeeded in building up a representative private practice as the pioneer physician and surgeon of the town. His prestige is unmistakable and his services have been enlisted by the greater portion of the people of this locality, where he is well known and held in the highest esteem as a citizen and as one of the able members of his profession. Tlie Doctor has ever been a close student and during his long residence in the west has kept in touch with the advances made in the sciences of medicine and surgery, so that he holds rank with the leading members of his pro- fession in the state, while his experience in practice has been of exception- ally wide and varied character. During his early residence in Rice county. Kansas, he conducted the Cow Creek post, and the valley where he resided was then known as Beach valley, having been named in his honor, as its pioneer settler. He was one of the organizers of the county and one of its first commissioners, while later he also held the position of superintend- ent of public instruction and county commissioner of Morris county for a number of years.
Since the war Dr. Beach has been unfaltering in his allegiance to the Republican party, and has ever been known as a progressive and public-
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spirited citizen, giving his influence and practical aid in support of all meas- ures for the general good and thus contributing to the material prosperity of the communities in which he has maintained his residence. The city of Renton was incorporated on the 31st of August, 1901, and to Dr. Beach came the distinction of having been elected its first mayor, in which ca- pacity he is still serving, bringing to bear his progressive ideas, mature judgment and marked business acumen in the administration of municipal affairs and taking a deep interest in all that promotes the advancement and substantial upbuilding of his home city. The cause of education has found in him a stanch supporter, and he has served his district as school director for the past nine years. In 1871 Dr. Beach was raised to the mas- ter's degree in Council Grove Lodge, No. 36, A. F. & A. M., and is past master of his lodge, while he is also prominently identified with the Grand Army of the Republic and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. His history has been one exceptionally interesting and varied, and to enter into details concerning his experiences in connection with pioneer life in the west would be to write a narrative which would constitute a volume in itself. His life has been one of signal usefulness and honor, and it is a pleasure to offer even this brief resume and tribute.
On the 20th of October, 1860, Dr. Beach was united in marriage to Miss Rachel P. Vanderpool, a native of Kentucky and daughter of Hon. William Vanderpool, who was a member of the legislature of Missouri and became one of the pioneer settlers in Kansas. Dr. and Mrs. Beach have two children : William, who is engaged in the practice of medicine at Sheldon, Mason county, Washington; and Ellen E., who is the wife of Fred G. Smithers, of Renton.
DANA W. BROWN.
There are few men of Mr. Brown's years who have an intimate per- sonal knowledge of the early history of California, but in early boyhood he made the long journey across the plains and from that time forward has been an interested witness of the remarkable development of the west- ern country and at the present time he is a most important factor in the growth of a city which is rapidly rising to prominence on the northern Pacific slope-West Seattle. He has noted the methods which have led to the growth of California, has kept in touch with the times along the various lines promoting material progress, and is well qualified to have in charge
Dand U.Brown
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a business looking to the growth and upbuilding of this portion of Wash- ington.
Mr. Brown was born in the historic city of Baltimore, Maryland, on the 28th of April, 1852, a son of Smith and Chloe ( Thayer ) Brown, both representatives of old New England families and of English descent. The father was born in Rhode Island, the mother in Massachusetts, and after their marriage, which was celebrated in New England, they removed to Balti- more, and in 1852 crossed the plains to California. The father was a foun- dryman and owned quite a large foundry in Baltimore. Mr. Bucks, the patentee of the Bucks stove, was a foreman in his foundry and there manu- factured his first stove. Mr. Brown had made arrangements to sell his foundry at a good price, but before the transfer had been effected the plant was destroyed by fire and the father was left almost bankrupt. This was the second time he had suffered heavy losses by fire, and too discouraged to make another attempt in business in the east, he decided to go west. He stopped at St. Joseph, Missouri, looking for a location, and while there became infected with a strong attack of the gold fever, in consequence of which he purchased some fine teams and organized a company of eight or ten men with whom he started across the plains for California. When he reached Salt Lake City the men who had agreed to drive his teams for their transportation made a claim for wages. A trial was held and they were put in the chain gang. Mr. Brown then secured other drivers and proceeded on his way. There was much stock along the trail that had been abandoned by previous emigrants when the animals had become foot- sore and worn out, but after resting for a time these horses had become as good as ever and were quite valuable. This abandoned stock Mr. Brown collected and upon reaching San Bernardino he had one hundred head. He proceeded to San Francisco, where he opened a livery stable. He also located one hundred and sixty acres of government land at the Presidio, which he afterward sold. In 1858 he located at Napa, where he engaged in the livery business, conducted a hotel and established a stage line, being one of the first owners of the early stage lines of the state. He played a prominent part in the frontier development of his portion of California and was active in public and official life. He served on the state board of equal- ization and in various other offices, and his efforts were of benefit to the commonwealth in many ways, both in the material development and in establishing the legal and moral status of the state. He died November 28, 1901. He had been an honored pioneer settler who had aided in laying broad and deep the foundation upon which the present progress and pros-
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perity of the state rest. His widow still survives him and is now living in Napa, at the age of seventy-eight years. They were the parents of five children, two of whom died in Baltimore. Frances B. became the wife of Henry Edgerton but both are now deceased. The surviving sister of our subject is Summit, the wife of Homer S. King, a banker of San Francisco. She was born during the journey to California on the summit of the Sierras, hence her name.
Dana W. Brown was only a few months old when his parents left Baltimore and started westward on a journey that eventually brought them to the Pacific coast. He was reared in San Francisco and Napa, acquiring a common school education. At the age of eighteen years he accepted the position of express messenger for the Wells-Fargo Express Company, his route being between San Francisco and Calistoga-at that time a much more responsible and dangerous position than it is to-day under the present organized system. The distance was eighty miles by rail and boat and the trip was made daily. Mr. Brown continued to fill the position for two years and then entered the Pacific Business College, at San Francisco, in which institution he was graduated on the completion of the course. He then received a government position as inspector of revenue along the line between Mexico and the United States, from San Diego castward to Fort Yuma, a distance of three hundred miles. This was an arduous and hazard- ous position in a desert country where smugglers were numerous and were often of a desperate character. For a year Mr. Brown acted in that ca- pacity and then resigned to become manager and overseer of a large ranch near Napa. He had spent a year there when his father purchased the La Jota ranch, near St. Helena, a tract of forty-four hundred acres, of which our subject purchased two hundred acres of rich meadow land. to which he gave his attention for three years. This place has since become a popular resort on account of its fine scenic location and the village of Anquin is now located there.
Mr. Brown next turned his attention to the lumber business, in which he embarked at St. Helena, in 1873. there remaining for two years, but the enterprise proved a failure. Ile next associated himself with G. A. Meiggs in the humber business in San Francisco, having charge of the red- wood branch of that gentleman's enormous business. and he filled that place successfully for four years, when the business was merged into that of the Meiggs Lumber & Ship Building Company, of which Mr. Brown be- came a stockholder. This, however, ended in failure and Mr. Brown thereby lost all that he had saved. Turning his attention to prospecting and min-
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ing in the vicinity of Tombstone, Arizona, after a year he was taken ill with fever and returned to California. When he had recovered his health he accepted a position as express messenger and baggage agent on a new railroad which was being builded southward from Mound House, its ulti- mate destination being Majave. The road had then been completed for only one hundred miles and was known as the Carson & Colorado Road, being now a part of the Southern Pacific system. Mr. Brown remained in the employ of the road for six years, and during the last four years of that time served as a conductor. He next received a government appointment as weigher in the refining department of the United States mint, at Carson City, remaining there for three years, after which he came to Seattle.
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