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 19
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mous vote of the board of trustees. Mr. Clise has always been an enthusi- astic worker in all matters affecting Seattle's interests and this city is greatly indebted to him for the success of many projects, especially in securing the location of the Fort Lawton army post and the quartermaster's office at this point."
The ancestors of our subject came form Holland in 1700 and settled in Virginia, the home of the family being known as Whitehall. Samuel Frank Clise, the father of our subject, removed from the Old Dominion to Wiscon- sin, where he was married to Miss Nancy Mckenzie, who removed to that state from Glasgow, Kentucky. After their marriage they continued to reside in Lancaster, Wisconsin, and reared their family there. The father became a man of marked influence and prominence, holding various offices of honor and trust in his county. He was also a member of the Episcopal church and departed this life when comparatively a young man, at the age of forty- two. His wife still survives him and is now in her seventieth year.
Mr. Clise was married in 1886 to Miss Anna Herr, a native of the same town in which his birth occurred. They have three children, Ruth, Charles Francis and James William, Jr. The parents are members of the Episcopal church and their home is one of the beautiful residences that adorn Queen Ann hill.
DEXTER HORTON.
Dexter Horton is one of the honored and prominent pioneer business men of seattle and his history is closely linked with the development of the pioneer west. People of the present period can scarcely realize the struggles and dangers which attended the early settlers, the heroism and self- sacrifice of lives passed upon the borders of civilization, the hardships endured, the difficulties overcome. These tales of the early days read almost like a romance to those who have known only the modern prosperity and conveniences. To the pioneer of the early days, far removed from the privileges and conveniences of city or town, the struggle for existence was a stern and hard one, and these men and women must have possessed indomit- able energies and sterling worth of character, as well as marked physical courage, when they thus voluntarily selected such a life and successfully fought its battles under such circumstances as prevailed in the northwest.
Mr. Horton was born in what is now Schuyler county, New York, near the head of Seneca Lake on the 15th of November, 1825, and is of English lineage, the family, however, having been established in New England at
Dexter Horton
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a very early epoch in the history of that section. The paternal grand- father of our subject was a resident of Massachusetts, while his son, Darius Horton, the father of our subject, was born in Massachusetts January 23, 1790. He removed to the Empire state and was married there to Miss Hannah Olmstead, whose birth occurred February 4, 1790. In 1840 Darius Horton removed with his family to De Kalb county, Illinois, his new home being seventy miles west of Chicago. There he entered land from the gov- ernment and transformed the wild prairie into a richly improved farm on which he resided until his death, which occurred in 1847, when he had at- tained the age of fifty-four years. He was a very industrious and thor- oughly honest man, a kind and obliging neighbor, and a devoted husband and father. His widow continued to reside in Illinois until after the Civil war, when she came to Seattle, spending her remaining days in the home of her son, where she died in her seventy-sixth year. She was the mother of six children, of whom three are now living, namely: Mrs. Harriet Mar- tin, who is now in her eighty-first year; Julius, a resident of Georgetown; and Dexter.
The last named had but limited school privileges. For about three months in a year he was a student in a little school house in a small district in New York, but during the remainder of the year his time was occupied with the work of the farm. When a youth of fifteen he accompanied his parents to Illinois and as he was then as large and strong as a man he did a man's work in the fields, attending school only through two months of the year, the remainder of the time being devoted to the arduous task of reclaiming the wild land for the purposes of civilization. His school books were a Cobb speller, and a Daboll's arithmetic, in which he advanced no further than the rule of three, but in the school of experience Mr. Horton has learned many valuable lessons and through reading and observation he has become a well informed man of practical ideas in business and broad in his views concerning the world and the great questions which affect humanity. While residing in Illinois he took up a claim of eighty acres near his father's home and when he could obtain any leisure from assist- ing in the improvement of his father's farm, he devoted the time to the cultivation of his own land. When but sixteen years of age he became an expert with the axe, cutting and splitting in oak, ash and black walnut timber two hundred rails a day. With these he fenced all of the land. In 1847, when about nineteen years of age, Mr. Horton was happily married to Miss Hannah E. Shondy and unto them were born three children while they were residents of Illinois, but they lost two in infancy. In 1852 Mr.
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Horton, accompanied by his wife and little daughter Rebecca, started across the plains to the Pacific coast. Five families traveled together, taking with them sixty horses. There were in the company, eight men, six women, and six children, and a little one was born on the plains. They arrived at The Dalles in safety on the 6th of September, although they had encountered many hardships and trials when on the way. The Indians at one time attempt- ed to steal their horses, but failed. The year of their emigration was the one in which so many settlers suffered from the cholera and newly-made graves along the way marked the route of the wagon trains. Mr. Horton was stricken with the dread disease and when very ill was providentially saved by a heavy dose of morphine. A lady said to his wife, "If that was my husband I would give him a large dose of blue mass," which advice was rejected. Mr. Horton recovered, but the lady took the dread disease. and although she took the remedy which she had recommended, she died in less than twenty-four hours. Mr. Thomas Mercer also lost his wife at the Cascades, but the remainder of the party reached their destination in safety. Mr. Horton and his family spent the winter at Salem, Oregon. During that winter the territory of Washington was formed, the country lying to the north of the Columbia river being included within its borders. In the spring of 1853 our subject and several others walked to Olympia, thence proceed- ing to Seattle, where Mr. Horton secured work with Mr. Bell, chopping piles at two dollars and fifty cents per day. He also went to Port Town- send, where he cleared two lots for a man and was paid ten dollars per day for his work. On the first of July he returned to Salem, expecting to secure work at harvesting, but the great emigration of that year had brought many unemployed men to this portion of the country and he was only able to get one day's work. On the first of September of that year Mr. Mercer and his four daughters and Mr. Horton and his family started with a team for Seattle. They came by the way of Portland, ferried their horses across the river and the family proceeded in a scow to Monticello and then in canoes to the upper landing on the Cowlitz. There Mr. Horton met his family and the ladies of the party with the horses, and putting the wagon together brought them to Olympia, where he left his wife and daugh- ter while he returned after their household effects. They arrived in Seattle on the 15th of September, 1853, at which date he had not a dollar in his pocket and worse than that was indebted to Mr. Mercer in the sum of fifty dollars for bringing him to this country with his team. They were met on the beach by parties from Port Gamble and Mr. Horton and his wife
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were offered one hundred and thirty dollars per month with board to go there and cook for a camp of men. He and his faithful pioneer wife worked in that way for nine months and then gave up the position for the camp had increased to sixty men and the work was too heavy for them. When they went to Port Gamble Mr. Horton had a pair of overhauls, a jumper, a hat and old boots, and his wife was as poorly clad, but while there they managed to pay off their indebtedness, to acquire a good wardrobe and to save eleven hundred and sixty dollars in gold. Our subject afterward worked in a mill owned by Mr. Yesler, while his wife did the cooking for four- teen men for five months. He began work at one o'clock at noon and was released at twelve o'clock at night. He had purchased some lots and after obtaining rest in sleep he would devote the remainder of his time before one o'clock to clearing his lots. All the money possible was saved and stored in an old trunk. About this time our subject became interested in mer- chandising. A. A. Denny had purchased a small stock of goods on com- mission and Mr. Horton became his partner in the new enterprise. They were also joined by David Phillips, who had some experience as a merchant and uniting their capital they purchased more goods and thus became iden- tified with early commission interests in this section of the country. During the first year they managed to pay all expenses and made three hundred dollars each. At the end of the year Mr. Denny was called to the upper house of the territorial legislature and Mr. Phillips to the lower house, so Mr. Horton purchased his partners' interests, giving them credit for their share of the business and he traded on this. Mr. Horton went on a sailing vessel to San Frascisco to purchase more goods, but a severe storm over- took the ship and it was two months before he was able to return with his merchandise, making the voyage on the same vessel on which he had gone to San Francisco. At twelve o'clock at night they passed Port Townsend. An hour before they had heard a cannon and knew there must be trouble with the Indians at Seattle. Captain Boyd decided to land in the darkness at Port Madison, and while approaching the shore he fired a pistol. His boat was then hailed and he was told that if he did not answer they would be blown out of the water. It proved to be the mill hands who made this speech and who told them that they had been fighting at Seattle all day. This occasioned Mr. Horton great anxiety concerning the safety of his family. In the morning he asked an Indian to take him in his canoe to his home, but the Indian refused until Mr. Horton insisted strongly and they started. When they reached the other side of the bay the Indian stopped
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and looked for canoes, but seeing none they re-crossed and were hailed by the Decatur, on board of which Mr. Horton found his wife safe. The Indians in great numbers had attacked the settlers in the town but the De- catur had shelled the Indian camp and succeeded in making them retire after a day's fighting. The ship on which Mr. Horton had returned from San Francisco did not unload his goods for thirty days more, having to stop at other points in the meantime. The news of the Indian outbreak brought a number of United States ships to the sound and thus a market was created so that within six weeks he had sold the greater part of his stock. He paid off his indebtedness, but later Mr. Phillips again formed a partnership with him, the new relation being maintained for five years, during which time they established a store at Olympia. Mr. Horton con- tinned merchandising for sixteen years and became a very popular and suc- cessful merchant, enjoying the good will and confidence of a large patron- age because of his reasonable prices, his honorable dealing and his unfail- ing courtesy toward his customers. He was in business all through the time of the Civil war and was greatly benefited by the advance in prices.
At the close of the war he had the business sagacity to sell out and became the founder of the Dexter Horton Bank, the first bank established in the territory of Washington. He was made its president and for eigh- teen years continued in the banking business, profiting largely by the same honorable business methods which he employed in merchandising and which actuated all his transactions in commercial life. When he had been in active business for thirty-four years, he sold his bank to W. S. Ladd, of Portland, Oregon, but the old name was continued and the institution is still one of the most reliable and best patronized in this portion of the country. A. A. Denny, the friend and first partner of Mr. Horton was also in the bank- ing business with him for sixteen years and both sold out at the same time, reserving, however, some of their bank stock. All this occurred before the great fire of 1889, which swept over the city, almost wiping Seattle out of existence. At once, however, Mr. Horton began to rebuild and completed the Seattle block in three months, it being the first new block occupied after the fire. It has a frontage of one hundred and twenty feet on third street and one hundred and twenty-six feet on Cherry street and is four stories high on the street and five on the alley. A year later Mr. Horton erected the New York building, which is one hundred and twenty by one hundred and twelve feet and seven stories in height. It is a modern structure, equipped with all the latest accessories and improvements and is a credit
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to the city. These buildings stand as monuments of Mr. Horton's industry and business enterprise.
In 1873 he erected a nice residence at No. 1206 Third avenue. It stands on a slight eminence overlooking the bay and is one of the attractive homes of Seattle. There with his good wife and accomplished daughter he is spending the evening of life enjoying a well merited rest and the comforts which his years of former toil have brought to him. He is en- tirely without ostentation or display but his history is so well known in Seattle that all accord him the respect and honor which is his just due. After the family arrived in this city a little son, Alfred, was born, but his death occurred when he had reached the age of twenty months. A daugh- ter, Nettie, is now the wife of the Reverend W. G. Jones, of Everett. Mrs. Horton departed this life on the 30th of December, 1871. She was a brave pioneer helpmate, the wife of his youth, and her loss was very deeply felt by her devoted husband and by all who knew her. On the 30th of September, 1873, Mr. Horton married Miss Caroline E. Parsons and this union was blessed with a daughter, Caroline E., now a young lady who is the light and life of the household. She has just graduated from the state university. Her mother was only spared to Mr. Horton for five years, passing away on the 4th of March, 1878. Four years later he made a trip to the east and on the 14th of September, 1882, he married Miss Arabella C. Agard, a daughter of Eaton Agard, of Mr. Horton's native county. They had been schoolmates in their childhood days and the marriage has proved a very happy one.
Mr. Horton has long been an active and acceptable member of the Protestant Methodist church, with which he became identified in 1849. He has served as an officer and has always been most active and liberal in ad- vancing the interests of religion and church building in his city. He has taken special interest and pleasure in Sunday-school work and for ten years he filled the office of Sunday-school superintendent. In his early manhood he had no sympathy with the oppression of the slave holders, and therefore became a Freeholder. Later, when the Republican party was formed to prevent the further extension of slavery, he joined its ranks and has since remained one of its advocates, but has never desired or sought office. The secret of his success in business is found in his persistency of purpose and in the untainted honor and unswerving integrity which have ever marked his career. He stands to-day strong in his good name, commanding re- spect and enjoying the unqualified confidence of all with whom he has been associated through the long years of his residence on the Pacific coast.
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JAMES MURRY COLMAN.
The days of chivalry and knighthood in Europe cannot furnish more interesting or romantic tales than our own western history. Into the wild mountain fastnesses of the unexplored west went brave men, whose cour- age was often called forth in encounters with hostile savages. The land was rich in all natural resources, in gold and silver, in agricultural and commercial possibilities, and awaited the demands of man to yield up its treasures, but its mountain heights were hard to climb, its forests difficult to penetrate, and the magnificent trees, the dense bushes or the jagged rocks often sheltered the skulking foe, who resented the encroachment of pale faces upon their hunting grounds. The establishment of homes in this beautiful region therefore meant sacrifices, hardships and oftimes death, but there were some men brave enough to meet the red man in his own familiar haunts and untertake the task of reclaiming the district for purposes of civilization. The rich mineral stores of this vast region were thus added to the wealth of the nation; its magnificent forests contributed to the lumber industries and its fertile valleys added to the opportunities of the farmer and stockraiser, and to-day the northwest is one of the most productive sections of the entire country. That this is so is due to such men as James M. Colman, whose name is inseparably interwoven with the
history of the region. No story of fiction contains more exciting chapters than may be found in his life record, but space forbids an extended ac- count of these. He who was to become such an improtant factor in the development of the northwest first came to Seattle in 1861. He is a native of Dumfermline, Fifeshire, Scotland, born on the 17th of June. 1832. His ancestors lived in the highlands many generations remote, but later removed to the lowlands. His father, Bartholomew Colman, married Miss Isabelle Murray. He and his wife were people of the highest integrity and respectability and were devout members of the Presbyterian church. The father departed this life in his forty-fifth year and the mother passed away in her sixty-second year. They were the parents of seven children, of whom three sons and a daughter still survive.
James M. Colman, their second child, after acquiring his education, learned the machinist's trade and also mastered the principles of engineering in his native land. In 1854 he took passage on a sailing vessel, The Bogart, bound for the United States, .They had not been long at sea before they encountered a severe storm which so badly damaged the ship that she was obliged to put back to Liverpool. Nothing daunted by this misfortune, our subject sailed
I M bolman
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from the latter port and after a voyage of six weeks reached the harbor of New York. He did not tarry long in the eastern metropolis but proceeded at once across the country to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he had a cousin living. Mr. Colman was then a young man of twenty-two years. He en- joyed excellent health, had mastered a good trade, and had a cash capital of one hundred dollars. Thus he started out in the land of the free. He knew that he could earn a good living but determined to do something more. He accepted work in a machine shop and was soon found to be such a cap- able and intelligent workman that he was made foreman of the enterprise and held that position for seven years, but believing that there were better business oportunities for him on the Pacific coast, he severed his connec- tion with the firm which he had so long represented and in 1861 sailed for San Francisco, proceeding to California by way of the Isthinus of Panama. Upon his arrival at his destination he entered into an engagement to take charge of a large sawmill at Port Madison and for three years successfully conducted that enterprise. He entered upon an agreement to work for one hundred and thirty dollars per month, but after noting his efficiency his em- ployers gave him two hundred and fifty dollars per month. He remodeled and rebuilt the mill and after a year his wages were increased to five hun- dred dollars per month. In 1864 lie embarked in business on his own ac- count, purchasing a mill at Port Orchard, but the building was in rather dilapidated condition so he rebuilt it, securing new equipments and con- tinued its operation until 1869, when the plant was utterly destroyed by fire and he lost everything he had in a material way. Ilis reputation as a mia- chinist and millwright and as an honest man still remained to him, how- ever, and were the means of securing him a good position within a very short time. The firm of Hanson, Ackerman & Company desired to rebuild the mill at Tacoma and increase its capacity and they paid Mr. Colman six hundred dollars a month to do the work. Well may he be proud of the fact that he was given higher wages than any other man for such work on the Pacific coast. When the mill was completed and in good running condi- tion hie supposed his work was at an end, but the firm desired him to con- tinue its operation at the same wages which he was receiving and he re- mained with them for two years altogether. Anxious, however, to again engage in business on his own account, lie accordingly leased the Yesler sawmill at Seattle, which was then standing idle. This he successfully con- tinued until it was also destroyed by fire, having cauglit from a conflagra- tion in adjoining buildings. Once more lie met with heavy losses, large quantities of his lumber being destroyed by the flames. He had, however,
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been most prosperous in the operation of his mill and had accumulated about forty thousand dollars.
Up to this time no railroad had reached Seattle, notwithstanding the citizens had made great efforts to secure the terminus of the Northern Pa- cific. The company, however decided in favor of Tacoma, and Seattle was thus left without railroad communication with the outside world. To offset this the citizens tried, but unavailingly, to secure eastern capital in order to build a road to Walla Walla, but Mr. Colman saw that whatever was ac- complished must be done by Seattle's men themselves, and with a most pro- gressive and enterprising spirit he proposed that they build a road to Renton, a distance of thirteen miles, where there was a coal mine being operated. Eventually he made the proposition to put in twenty thousand dollars if other citizens of Seattle would raise forty thousand dollars. This was agreed upon and Mr. Colman went to San Francisco, where he purchased with his own money twenty-seven thousand dollars worth of rails, and re- turning at once engaged in the construction of the road. There was much enthusiasm over the project at first and even the citizens worked to some extent on the road, but interest lagged after a time and he never received but twenty-five hundred dollars of the forty thousand dollars promised. However, his good name and credit enabled him to keep on with the work, but the miners at Renton decided to remove their works to New Castle and this obliged him to continue the road to the latter place, notwithstanding it was a much harder task. However, with an indomitable spirit the work was accomplished by this remarkable man of genius at a total cost of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. He did his own engineering, superin- tending the work, purchased the material and ultimately received a dollar's worth for every dollar which he had expended. It was a magnificent achieve- ment, showing the greatest determination and splendid business and ex- ecutive ability, and for this accomplishment Mr. Colman deserves the great- est credit and praise. He conducted the road for a year and a half most successfully. It was contemplated that the road would be ultimately ex- tended to Walla Walla across the Cascades by way of Snoqualmie Pass and thus reaching the vast wheat fields of eastern Oregon. With this end in view Mr. Villard purchased the road and Mr. Colman not only obtained what he had invested, but also made some profit.
All this time our subject had been operating his sawmill in Seattle and was anxious to be relieved of the arduous duties attending on that work, but the new company would not hear to his severing his connection. He argued that he was overworked and needed rest but they insisted that he needed work and
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