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 36
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In 1877 he went to the Black Hills, locating at Deadwood. This was a year or more before law and order had been established ir the Black Hills and young McIntyre soon became a leader in the vigilance committee which ruled during all these wild times. Deadwood was crowded with des- perate men and the vigilance committee dealt summary justice to all offend- ers. It was the rule of the committee to hang the offender and try him after- wards, and Mclntyre says no mistake was ever made in hanging the right man.
He bought the Minnesota mine, near the Great Homestead, at Lead City. While away on a surveying expedition three desperadoes, led by Jim Levy, jumped his mine. When he returned, being informed of the situation, he immediately started for the mine alone, with nothing but his trusty re- volver. He walked into the tunnel where the three desperadoes were at work, picked up all their guns and ammunition, threw them over his should-
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er and drawing his own revolver ordered them to come out. They were completely cowed by the boldness of this move, and as he had the "dead sure drop" on them, and knowing that he was a dead shot and a bad man to fool with, they came meekly out. He ordered them to "hit the trail" for Lead City, which they did. The whole town got wind of the trouble, turned out 10 see the sight and young McIntyre became the hero of the camp. Many tales of this kind could be told of him if space would permit.
In many of the early mining camps he is known as Lucky Jack, because of his wonderful luck in mining ventures. He was for many years the lead- ing mining engineer of the Black Hills. He was chief engineer of the Great Homestead mines, before he was twenty-seven years old He examined mines in company with the greatest mining engineers of the nation at that time. There is no doubt that the knowledge acquired in such times was one of the sources of his success in mining ventures in Washington, Alaska and British Columbia. He is the owner of or interested in many paying mines, and will in all human probability become one of the bonanza miners of the Pacific coast at no distant day. He is the owner or part owner of several gold mines that had been wrecked by bad management, and has with those as- sociated with him made them pay well.
In 1890, together with some Tacoma gentlemen, he formed the Mont- zuma Mining Company which owns the coking coal mines at Montzuma. now paying dividends. He, with Henry Hewitt, Henry H. Sweeney and Col. C. W. Thompson, of Tacoma, formed also the Pacific Coast Steel Com- jany, which was a consolidation of the Tacoma Steel Company and the Pa- cific Steel Company, combining virtually all the steel and iron industries on the Pacific coast. He, with E. M. Shelton, of Seattle, and Charles Richard- son, of Tacoma, formed the Bessie Gold Company, whose gold mines are ncar Juneau, Alaska, which company is now paying dividends. He formed the La Rica Consolidated and bought the Peshastin Gold Mine at Blewett. a rich property. He has raised more money from eastern investors than any man in the northwest. There are over six thousand stockholders in his enterprises. He has not only the ability to conceive great enterprises, like those mentioned above, but can organize them, raise money, build the enter- prises and run them economically afterwards. This is a rare gift and one that finds a wide field in the development of the vast resources of the Pacific Northwest. He makes very strong friends and bitter enemies. No one ever accused him of going back on a friend. He is generous to a fault, and many a man will tell you how he helped him in times of trouble. He never drinks,
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sinokes or swears; a cultured gentleman and a good friend as well as a bitter enemy.
In 1882 he went from the Black Hills to Montana, and within eight years he had organized five different irrigation companies, raised the money and built over four hundred miles of irrigating canals. He built the great Gallatin canal, the big Muddy Storage reservoirs, the Chestnut Valley canal, the Sun river canal, the Florence canal and others, making a large amount of imoney out of them. He came to Washington at the request of the Northern Pacific railroad officials and organized the great Sunnyside Canal Company at North Yakima, and sold out to the Northern Pacific. He came to Seattle in 1891, and the following year surveyed the Okanogan Indian reservation for the United States government.
Gen. McIntyre has always taken a prominent part in politics. He is one of the immortal thirteen who organized the People's party of this state, in 1894, and stumped the state in that election. The People's party carried the state by a tremendous majority, electing nearly every man on the ticket. He was formerly prominent in the Prohibition party, and stumped the state for that party. He is a reformer in politics and, while he is socialistic in his views, can scarcely be termed a socialist.
General McIntyre was appointed brigadier-general commanding the National Guards of Washington, in 1896. The state force consisted of the first and second Washington regiments, two troops of cavalry and one bat- tery of artillery. He served all during the Spanish war. The splendid record made by the first regiment in the Philippines was largely due to his training.
Gen. McIntyre is a born leader of men and is possessed of rare executive ability in the organization, financiering and development of great business enterprises, especially in mining. He is considered one of our ablest political organizers, but as he is a reformer in politics he usually starts with the minority.
General McIntyre's domestic life has always been of the most delightful and inspiring character, as he was possessed of those greatest of earthly blessings, a good wife and a good mother. In 1883 he married Miss Lizzie, daughter of Professor A. Hull, one of the most learned men in Iowa. To the wisdom and foresight of this brave and accomplished woman her husband admits his great obligations, and never wearies of saying how much he owes to her encouragement for all the successes of his life. Her father was a great-grandson of Commodore Isaac Hull, who commanded the frigate "Constitution" in her famous battle with the British ship "Guerriere" during
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the war of 1812. She is also a lineal descendant of General Hull, who com- manded the military forces of the United States in the same war. During their early married life Mrs. McIntyre often accompanied her adventurous husband on his dangerous mountain trips, and looks back with pleasure to much of the camp life and other outdoor experiences. They have six chil- dren, all at home: Lucile, an accomplished musician ; Marie, Cedric, Ralph, Marguerite and Phillis Yvonne. Of her to whom he owes his being General McIntyre always speaks as "my beautiful mother." She is living at Spo- kane with his two younger brothers. Laura S. Murphy, the portrait artist, is his sister. General McIntyre joined the Masonic order while living in Montana, and is also a member of the Royal Arcanum. He and his wife are members of the Christian church.
GEORGE M. HORTON, M. D.
Dr. George M. Horton, a prominent member of the medical profession of Seattle, whose marked ability and careful preparation have gained him distinction in the line of his chosen life work, has spent almost his entire life in this city, for he was only five years of age when his parents removed to Seattle. He is a son of Julius Horton and a nephew of Dexter Horton, who are mentioned elsewhere in this volume, and in whose sketch appears the an- cestral history of the family. Julius Horton was born in New York and after arriving at man's estate he married Miss Annie E. Bigelow, a native of Michigan. They had a family of four children, three of whom are yet living. The father now resides in Georgetown, Washington, at the age of sixty-seven years. He is a member of the Protestant Methodist church and in his political affiliations is a Republican. At one time he served as assessor of King county. Both he and his wife are among the well known and high- ly esteemed early settlers of Washington, having located here at an early period in territorial days.
The Doctor was born in Shabbona Grove, De Kalb county, Illinois, on the 17th of March, 1865. He was only five years old when brought by his parents to the west and has since been a resident of Seattle. His literary education was begun in the public schools here and after he had completed his high school course he entered the territorial university, where he com- pleted his general studies. He then began preparations for professional duties as a student in the Bellevue Hospital and Medical College in New York city, where he was graduated in 1890. He then returned to Seattle and at once began the practice of the profession for which he had received
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excellent training in one of the best schools of the land. He entered into partnership with Dr. J. S. M. Smart, who had been his preceptor before he went east to college, but soon Dr. Smart died and Dr. Horton has since been alone, gradually acquiring an extensive and important practice among Seat- tle's best citizens. As a physician and surgeon he ranks among the most skilled in this part of the state and is constantly broadening his knowledge and promoting his efficiency as a practitioner by reading, investigation and experiment. By his marked skill he has attained celebrity and is now meet- ing with excellent financial success as well.
During his practice here Dr. Horton served for four years as county coroner. Fraternally he is a Master Mason, belonging to St. John's Lodge No. 9. F. & A. M., of Seattle. He is also a Knight Templar and has taken the degree of the Scottish Rite up to and including the thirty-second. He is also a member of Afifi Temple of the Mystic Shrine of Tacoma, and he holds membership with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Knights of Pythias and the Woodmen of the World. In the line of his profession he is a member of the King county Medical Society, in which he has been honored with the presidency, the Washington State Medical Society and the American Medical Association, in all of which he is an active and valued representative.
In 1891 Dr. Horton was united in marriage to Miss Ethel G. Benson, a daughter of H. A. Benson, of Portland, Oregon. They now have two sons and a daughter, George M., Kenneth and Gertrude. The Doctor has a very wide and favorable acquaintance throughout Seattle, both profession- ally and socially, and he and his wife enjoy the high esteem of a host of warm friends.
WASHINGTON C. RUTTER.
The history of King county would be incomplete without the record of this representative citizen, whose career has ever been one in which business activity has been blended with unbending honor and unflinching integrity. and his course is well worthy of emulation by him who would justly com- mand the respect of his fellow men. Mr. Rutter was born in Tarentum, Pennsylvania, on the 18th of May, 1854, and is of Puritan ancestry. His ancestors landed at Plymouth Rock from the Mayflower, and later his branch of the Rutter family settled in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and were active participants in the subsequent history and wars of the country. Our subject's grandfather, William Rutter, was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, but when a young man removed to Lawrence county, that
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state, where he was married. As a life occupation he followed the tilling of the soil, and he lived to the good old age of ninety-three years.
John Rutter, the father of him whose name introduces this review, was born in Lawrence county, Pennsylvania, in 1826, and at Tarentum, Pennsyl- vania, in 1850, he was united in marriage to Eliza Jane Horton, who was born in Tarentum, Pennsylvania, in 1824. He, too, followed farming as a life occupation, and became a prominent and influential citizen of his locali- ty. During the dark period of the Civil war he volunteered as a one hun- dred day man in the Union army, and his brother, who was killed at Spotts- sylvania, Virginia, in May 1864, and cousins were also soldiers in that memorable struggle, all loyally aiding in the preservation of the Union. One family sent five sons to fight for the starry banner, and three of the num- ber laid down their lives on the altar of their country. John Rutter passed to his final reward in 1895, at the age of sixty-nine years. He had been a staunch Republican since the formation of the party, and was an upright, loyal and worthy citizen. His wife was called to her final rest on the 3d of March, 1898, at the age of seventy-four years. In their family were three sons and a daughter, all of whom are still living. One son, Jesse W .. is a mine owner and resides at Nome, Alaska, while the son James A. is en- gaged in the lumber business in West Virginia. The daughter, Mrs. Tillie J. Stoops, makes her home near Dayton, Pennsylvania.
Washington C. Rutter enjoyed the advantages afforded by the common schools of Pennsylvania and Ohio, the family having located in the latter state in 1856. where they resided for ten years, and then returned to Kittann- ing. Pennsylvania. His boyhood days were spent on his father's farm, and after attaining to mature years he was engaged in coal mining in western Pennsylvania for twelve years. Since the spring of 1888 he has made his home in Seattle, and during his first year in this state he worked in the coal mines at Gilman, and while thus engaged, in 1889, he was nominated on the Republican ticket to the first house of representatives in the state of Wash- ington. He was successful in the following election. and while thus serving he was made chairman of the committee on mines and mining, was a member of the committee on labor and labor statistics, and also served on the military committee. In 1890 Mr. Rutter was elected to represent the twenty-ninth district in the state senate, in which he served for two sessions, and in the first session he was again made chairman of the committee on mines and mining, was a member of the committee on labor and labor statis- tics, and also on the committee of public buildings and grounds. In 1893 he was appointed by the executive committee of the Washington World's
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Fair Commission to make a collection of the different minerals of the state, which exhibit was shipped to the World's Fair at Chicago and exhibited in the Washington state building under his immediate supervision. In this col- lection was a mammoth piece of bituminous coal weighing twenty-five tons, from Roslyn, Kittitas county, from which he gave away ten thousand small pieces, properly labeled, and these were taken all over the world and thus they proved a great advertisement for the coal deposits of the state. Thus Mr. Rutter rendered a most valuable service to this commonwealth, and his efforts were highly commended in the final report of the executive commissioner from this state. In 1897 he was appointed clerk of the probate court of King county, in which office he served for three years, and he then became interested in mining and organized the Kittanning Mining Company, of which he is the president. Their property is located in the Red Boy mining district of eastern Oregon, and the mines of this company are proving very valuable because of their rich deposits.
The marriage of Mr. Rutter was celebrated on the 3d of September, 1891, when Miss Emma Clow became his wife. She is a native of Buffalo, New York, and by her marriage she has become the mother of two sons, Fred C. and George J. The family occupy a beautiful home at South Park, Seattle, which Mr. Rutter erected in 1892. In his social relations he is a member of the Masonic order, having been made a Master Mason in Olive Branch Lodge No. 114, at Leesburg, Virginia, in 1882. He is also a mem- ber of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and the Seattle Aerie No. 1, of the Fraternal Order of Eagles. On attaining to years of maturity he became allied with Republi- can principles, and he was an active worker in the ranks of that party until the time the Republican national convention convened at St. Louis, of which he was made a member. He left the party with Senator Teller and thou- . sands of others and has since been independent in his political views. Since the year 1888 Mr. Rutter has been a resident of the Pacific coast, and he has nobly performed his part in bringing about the changes which have contri- buted to its present properous condition. As one of the public spirited and leading citizens he is held in high esteem.
AMOS O. BENJAMIN.
The day of small undertakings, especially in cities, seems to have passed and the era of gigantic enterprises is upon us. In control of mammoth con- cerns are men of master minds, of almost limitless ability to guide, of sound
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judgment and keen discrimination. Their progressiveness must not only reach the bounds that others have gained. but must even pass beyond into new and broader, untried fields of operation; but an unerring foresight and sagacity must make no mistake by venturing upon uncertain ground. Thus continually growing, a business takes leadership in its special line and the men who are at its head are deservedly eminent in the industrial world, occupying a position that commands the respect while it excites the admiration of all. There is no one in Seattle who has done a larger business in the line of raising sunken vessels and in the buying and selling of steam-
boats than Amos Oscar Benjamin, who is president of the Alaska Com- pany. He has been the owner of not less than thirty steamers, buying many disabled ones, putting them in repair, then sailing them for a time and after- ward disposing of them at a profit. He, too, has been a successful and practical diver for many years and the splendid degree of prosperity which has attended his efforts is well merited.
Captain Benjamin was born in Rome, Oneida county, New York, on the 22d of June, 1843, and is descended from an old New England family that was early established in the colonies. His paternal grandfather was born in Vermont and emigrated to New York, rearing his family in Her- kimer county, nine miles from Little Falls. There his son, Oscar Benjamin, was born in 1819. Later he married Emaline Cleveland, of Westerville, Oneida county, New York, and followed the business of a contractor and builder, meeting with creditable success. In religious faith he was a Method- ist and in politics a Whig. He died at the early age of twenty-seven years, leaving two little children to the care of his widow. Mrs. Benjamin after- ward became the wife of Francis P. Graves and three daughters were born of that union, of whom two are yet living. The mother died in North Dakota in 1888 at the age of sixty-six years.
In the public schools Captain Benjamin pursued . his education. He was in his seventeenth year when the great Civil war burst upon the coun- try. At once he endeavored to enlist but his mother objected to his entering the service at that early age and he was therefore rejected. In the follow- ing year, however, on the 4th of January, 1862, he succeeded in becoming an enlisted member of Company I, Eighty-first New York Infantry, serving in the Peninsular campaign under General McClellan in Virginia. He was in the seven days battle under that leader at Fair Oaks and at a later period was in the engagements at Cold Harbor, Fort Harrison and in front of Petersburg. The troops then proceeded down the south side road after the army of General Lee, and when the surrender came, Captain Benjamin
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was acting as orderly under General Gibbons and prepared the room in which the articles of surrender were drawn up. He arranged the table and brought the pen and ink with which the terms of agreement were written and signed and he now has in his possession the table spread which was then used. His command was the first to enter Richmond and set at liberty the pris- oners who were incarcerated in Libby. At one occasion in the battle of White Oak Swamp he was wounded in the ankle. He had re-enlisted in his old regiment in January, 1864, and was honorably discharged on the 22d of June, 1865. Efficiently and well had he served his country and to the north he returned as a veteran and victor.
The year following the close of the war, Mr. Benjamin was happily married to Misss Ann Wood, of Oswego, New York. For a short time he was engaged in the shipping and commission business in the east and on the 6th of April, 1867, he followed the advice of Horace Greeley and started westward, going by way of the Lakes and the railroad to Cedar Falls, Iowa, and on to South Dakota. He finally settled at Fremont, Nebraska, where he became engaged in the business of removing buildings. He was also prominent in public affairs there and served as constable and deputy sheriff for three years. Removing to Dixon county, that state, he secured a homestead claim upon which he resided for four years. becoming the owner of six hundred acres of land in that locality, but the grass hoppers destroyed all of his crops and he abandoned his property. After two years passed in Nevada he came by team to Seattle, bringing with him his wife and three children. They started on the 3d of July, and arrived on the 3d of September, 1878.
Here Captain Benjamin engaged in teaming for a year and later turned his attention to the work of moving buildings. In 1881 he began the wreck- ing business which he has followed continuously for the past twenty years. He succeeded in raising a locomotive for the Northern Pacific Railroad from the bay at Tacoma. It was under thirteen feet of sand and several parties had attempted the work without success. He took it out and for his work received a clear profit of ten hundred and fifty dollars. In 1897 the present Alaska Company was incorporated for the purpose of raising sunken vessels. Captain Benjamin became president and in the enterprise he is associated with his sons and his sons-in-law. They have taken a locomotive out of forty-eight feet of water and have raised many wrecked steamers. For the past eighteen years Captain Benjamin has also engaged in steam- boat traffic and is now the owner of the Nellie Jenson and a brig which he is overhauling. Few men are more familiar with the waters of the Sound
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than he. He had sailed on the Atlantic before coming west and since his ar- rival on the Pacific coast he has been master of the Evangel and the Fern- tale, together with other vessels. He has owned as many as thirty steam- crs and several sailing vessels and his business has been an important one, proving of value to the public and at the same time bringing to him a good profit. He has become especially prominent as a diver and wrecker.
In his business Captain Benjamin is associated with his sons William S., Charles A. and Paul S. His daughter Bertha is the wife of D. Van Dyke, a master mechanic. and Annie Gertrude is the wife of A. H. Cogs- well, of Seattle, while Martha Emeline resides at home. The sons-in-law are trustees in the corporation and Mr. Cogswell is now its secretary.
Captain Benjamin entered the war as a believer in the doctrines of Democracy, but before its close he became a Republican and has since stanchly adhered to the party. He is a prominent member of the Grand Army of the Republic and the Ancient Order of United Workmen and he and his wife are connected in membership relations with the Seattle Taber- nacle church. Captain Benjamin is a man of pleasing address, courteous manner, unflinching principle and unquestioned integrity, and yet with all that practical common sense which never runs to extremes; and it is no wonder that wherever he goes he wins friends. His life has been well spent and his honorable and useful career is worthy of emulation.
RALPH COOK.
Ralph Cook, chief of the fire department of Seattle, with headquarters at station No. I, on the corner of Seventh avenue and Columbia street, was born in Suffolkshire, England, on the 16th of October, 1865, and is a son of Edward and Jemima (Griffith) Cook, both natives of that county. Ralph is the eldest of their nine children, the others being: Daniel A., lieutenant of engine company No. 9; Edward, a member of engine company No. 4, both brothers being employed as plumbers; Joseph and Charles, who are en- gaged in mercantile pursuits in Seattle; Jemima, the wife of George Over- ton, a brick layer of this city; Susanna, the wife of A. Edwards, also of Seat- tle: Martha, the wife of John Prichards, of this city; one son, Edward, died in England when only two years of age.
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