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 40
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RICHARD S. JONES.
Richard S. Jones is actively connected with a profession which has im- portant bearing upon the progress and stable prosperity of any section or community, and one which has long been considered as conserving the public welfare by furthering the ends of justice and maintaining individual rights. His reputation as a lawyer has been won through earnest, honest labor and his standing at the bar is a merited tribute to his ability. He now has a very large practice, and his careful preparation of cases is supplemented by
MAJones
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a power of argument and forceful presentation of his points in the court room, so that he never fails to impress court or jury and seldom fails to gain the verdict desired.
Mr. Jones is a native of the state of Minnesota, born February 2, 1861, and is of Welsh ancestry, the family having been founded in Virginia in 1652. The grandfather, Rev. S. Jones, was a leading bishop of the Methodist l'ro- testant church and was born in Virginia in 1803. At an early date he went to Minnesota as a missionary bishop there and was a prominent and active factor in establishing the churches of his faith in that new country. He mar- ried Miss Isabel Robinson, a member of the noted Robinson family of Wis- consn, and they became the parents of five children, of whom one, Mrs. Sam- uel Foress, of Minnesota, is still living. Richard Asbury Jones, the father of our subject, was born in La Fayette, Indiana, on the 22d of October, 1831. He married Miss Sarah McClellan, the great-granddaughter of John Ilar- ris, the founder of the city of Harrisburg, Pennslyvania, who received the property there as a grant from the crown and was a pioneer settler of that state. At one time he was captured by the Indians, tied to a tree and a fire was kindled around him but fortunately he was rescued by another band of Indians. Mr. Jones, the father of our subject, was educated in Wisconsin, and in 1850 crossed the plains to California, settling in San Jose, where he studied law and was admitted to practice in 1853. He practiced his profes- sion there until 1858, when he returned to the east, locating in Rochester, Minnesota. He became an eminent member of the profession in that state, taking an active part also in political work. He served his district in the state legislature of Minnesota and in 1884 he was a delegate to the Demo- cratic National convention and seconded the nomination of Grover Cleveland for the presidency of the United States. The following year he was ap- pointed by President Cleveland to the position of chief justice of the territory of Washington. He had acquired the reputation of being one of the ablest lawyers in the state of Minnesota and in the discharge of his official duties in Washington he evinced a profound knowledge of the law, taking to the bench the very highest qualifications for the most responsible office of the state government. His last opinion, given just before his death, was to the effect that the Woman's Rights Bill which had been passed by the legislature was in conflict with the United States Constitution, Washington then being a territory. His record as a judge was in harmony with his record as a man. the same being distinguished by unswerving integrity and a masterful grasp of every problem which presented itself for solution. Judge Jones departed this life August 11. 1888. dying of heart disease at the age of fifty-six years.
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Ilis good wife passed away in 1879. They lived and died in the faith of the Methodist church and their influence was ever on the side of progress, cul- ture and intellectual and moral advancement. They left four children, of whom three are yet living. M. K. Jones is the superintendent of the Great Northern Road at Seattle. Isabel is residing in Rochester, Minnesota. The other daughter, Mrs. Edith H. Wheeler, died in Yakima, Washington, in 1898.
Richard Saxe Jones, the subject of this review, pursued his literary ed- ucation in the public schools and in the University of Minnesota, after which he read law in his father's office for four years and in 1883 was admitted to practice. He then entered upon the profession in South Dakota and was elected prosecuting attorney of his county in 1884, but the following year he resigned and returned to his old home in Rochester, where the son took up the father's practice and remained there until 1892. In that year he came to Seattle and opened a law office here, practicing alone until 1894, at which time the Brinker, Jones & Richards law firm was formed. The senior part- ner was the United States attorney at that time. This business relationship was maintained until 1900 when Mr. Brinker and Mr. Richards went to Alas- ka, Mr. Jones remaining in Seattle in the enjoyment of a large practice. This has been his life work and he has attained a distinguished position in connec- tion with his chosen calling. He is now the attorney of numerous corpora- tions and makes a specialty of admiralty law.
In 1885 Mr. Jones was happily married to Miss Helen Maude Taylor, of Bethel. Connecticut, a descendant of an old American family. This union was blessed with one son, Richard S., who is now a student in the high school of Seattle. Mrs. Jones departed this life in 1889 and nine years later. in 1898, Mr Jones was again married, his second union being with Miss Mar- garet Barr, who was born in Indiana and was reared in Minnesota. Her father was John Barr, a banker of the latter state and one of her brothers is professor of mechanical engineering in Cornell University. while another brother is state senator in Minnesota and a member of the board of regents of the state normal school. He is also engaged in the banking business. Mrs. Jones was a successful teacher in the kindergarten department of the state normal school prior to her marriage. She has become the mother of one daughter, Margaret Isabel.
Mr. Jones has been a life-long Democrat and a prominent worker in the ranks of his party. He is also a leading Mason of the state of Washington having been made a member of the craft in Rochester Lodge, No. 21, F. & A. M., in 1885. Since then he has received all of the degrees in both the
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York and Scottish Rites, the thirty-third degree having been conferred upon him in Seattle in 1898. He has filled nearly all of the subordinate offices in all the branches of the order and is a past deputy grand chancellor of the Knights of Pythias. He is also an honorary life member and is past exalted ruler of the Elks. Both have a large circle of friends in the city and in his profession Mr. Jones has attained high honor. His legal learning, his ana- lytical mind, the readiness with which he grasps the points in an argument, all combine to make him a very successful advocate and his comprehensive knowledge of the law makes him a wise counselor.
CHRISTIAN HOFMEISTER.
Throughout the history of our country the German element in its popu- lation has been one of its best factors, and among those best known in Seattle is Christian Ilofmeister, who for a number of years has occupied a very con- spicnous place among the leading business men. He is the founder and proprietor of the Washington Floral Company, whose extensive green- houses are located at Fortieth avenue and east Madison street. In Wurtem- berg, Germany, on July 10. 1848, Christian Hofmeister was born to Mat- thew and Frederica ( Kamerer ) Hofmeister, both also natives of that place. When fourteen years of age the son Christian was apprenticed to a florist at Stuttgart, with whom he remained for three years, there laying the founda- tion upon which he has built the superstructure of his life work. In 1868, when he had reached the age of twenty years, he bade adieu to the home and friends of his youth and sailed for the United States, and after his arrival on American soil he made his way to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where he secured cmmployment with the large seed and floral company of J. R. & A. Murdock. So well did he discharge his duties which devolved upon him in this capacity that on the expiration of three years' service he was appointed to the position of foreman. which he continued to fill for the following eight years. In the year 1889 he made his way to Seattle, where he soon secured a tract of land and established his present business which has grown from a small beginning to its present large proportions, and the Washington Floral Company now occupies an enviable position in the business circles of the city. They make a specialty of the raising of choice flowers and plants, the furnishing of cut flowers being one of the principal features of the business. Their various greenhouses require a covering of fifty thousand square feet of glass and in addition to their large local trade they also ship extensively to the neighbor- ing states. Mr. Hofmeister produces only the choicest varieties of plants,
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carefully selected from the most reliable sources, and as a result of his years of experience and his conscientious dealings with his patrons he has estab- lished a satisfactory and constantly increasing trade both at home and in the surrounding towns.
The marriage of our subject was celebrated in Seattle on the 28th of July. 1891, when Miss Anna A. Peterson became his wife. Three children have been born to brighten and bless their home, Annie Marie, Lillie Mar- guerite and Florence Catherine. The family reside in a comfortable and commodious residence in this city, which was completed in 1901. Mr. Hof- meister gives his political preference to the Republican party, but he excer- cises his right of franchise in the support of the men whom he regards as best qualified to fill positions of trust and responsibility. In his fraternal rela- tions he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias, while religiously he is identified with the English Luth- eran church. He has a wide acquaintance in this section of the state, and his honesty in all trade transactions, his reliability in discharging his duties of citizenship and his fidelity to the interests of private life have won him marked esteem.
FRANK E. PELLS.
Frank E. Pells is the efficient postmaster at Ballard, and he has been a factor in the upbuilding, advancement and improvement of the town almost from the establishment of the place. He was born in Rockford, Illinois, in :869. The ancestral history can be traced back through three generations. the first representative of the family in America coming from Germany. The grandmother on the paternal side bore the maiden name of Johnson and was a direct descendant of Commodore Johnson, who won distinction in the war of 1812, a man of remarkable size, as well as a brilliant naval officer. Samuel E. Pells was born in Rockford. Illinois, and became superintendent of the tack factory of that place. In 1888 he removed to the west and en- gaged in ranching until his death, which occurred in November. 1900. His wife bore the maiden name of Jennie Hart, and was a daughter of Charles Hart, who was born in Carlisle, Scotland, in 1818, and came to America when about twenty years of age. When passing through Chicago he was urged to locate there, but the town was so unprepossessing that he said he would not accept the location as a gift; instead, he took up his abode in Janesville, Wisconsin, and had a sheep pasture where the principal hotel and the park of that city are now found. He took a claim from the government,
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and his patents are signed by James K. Poik, then president of the United States. Mr. Hart was one of the founders of both Janesville and Monroe,' Wisconsin, and an honored pioneer settler of that portion of the state, and he died in 1897. By the marriage of the parents of our subject they had four children : Charles H., who is now manager of the Pioneer Laundry Company; Frank E .; Mrs. Cooper, of Ballard; and Fred, who is acting as bookkeeper for the Cedar Lumber Company of Seattle.
In the public schools of his native city Frank E. Pells pursued his liter- ary education and afterward took a course in a business college. For four years he was connected with a tea company in Illinois and in Iowa and in the fall of 1889 he came to Ballard, the town having been founded in that year. He decided that the new hamlet was favorably located and that a good future was before it and he turned his attention to the real estate business. Later he became proprietor of a mill, which was afterward burned. Just prior to the great Klondike rush Mr. Pells took a trip to that region of Alaska, in 1898, and ran pack trains from Skagway to Lake Bennett. In 1898, how- ever, he returned to Ballard and established a laundry and also purchased the store adjoining the postoffice. He conducted the latter enterprise until 1901, when he sold his store and organized the Pioneer Laundry Company and built the present building in which to conduct his business. He gives em- ployment to fifteen people there and his patronage is large and profitable.
On the Ist of July, 1901, Mr. Pells was appointed postmaster of Bal- lard by President McKinley, and received a regular appointement on the 16th of January, 1902, the latter being signed by President Roosevelt, so that he holds commissions bearing the signature of our late martyred president and of the present chief executive of the nation. During his incumbency the business of the office has increased fully one third, and the capacity of the office has been doubled. Mr. Pells is a very efficient, popular and active postmaster, having systematized the work of the office, which he conducts along practical business lines. He is an active worker in the Republican ranks and was one of the nine men of the place who claimed to be a Republican when the Populist excitement of 1896 was at its height. He has served as a delegate to city and county conventions and takes much interest in city and county affairs. He belongs to the county central committee and has labored carnestly for the growth and success of his party. although up to the time of his appointment as postmaster he never sought or desired office for himself.
Mr. Pells was married in Ballard to Miss Florence French, whose father, George W. French, is one of the honored pioneer settlers of this place and now a resident of Seattle. Their union has been blessed with four
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children, as follows: Samuel, Howell, Vera, and Louise, who died August 14, 1902. Mrs. Pells is connected with the Ladies of the Maccabees and with the Ladies' Relief Corps. Mr. Pells belongs to the order of the Knights of Maccabees and to the Modern Woodmen of America. During the years of his residence in Ballard he has manifested a public spinted interest in everything pertaining to the general good. He has put forth earnest and discriminating efforts to advance the welfare of the town, and yet his policy has been conservative and never favoring anything in the way of a "mush- room" growth. The town acknowledges its indebtedness to him for his efforts in its behalf and regards him as a most capable officer, worthy the respect and confidence of his fellow men.
REV. HERBERT H. GOWEN, F. R. G. S.
While it is true beyond peradventure that it is not an easy task to de- scribe adequately a man who has led an eminently active and busy life and who has attained to a position of high relative distinction in the more import- ant and exacting spheres of human endeavor; yet is it equally true that hi- ography finds its most perfect justification in the tracing and recording of such a life history. It is, then, with a full appreciation of all that is de- manded and of the painstaking scrutiny that must be accorded each state- ment, and yet with a feeling of significant satisfaction, that the writer essays the task of touching briefly upon the details of the record of the character of the able and devoted rector of Trinity church, Protestant Episcopal, in the city of Seattle. He has been an indefatigable and zealous worker in pro- moting both the temporal and spiritual growth of the parish over which he is placed in charge, while his influence in diocesan affairs has been potent for good. \ man of high intellectuality and unmistakable consecration to the work of the Divine Master, ever devoted to the mother church in all her gracious and beneficient functions, his life has been one of signal usefulness as a clergyman and a man. and this resume of his career cannot fail to be read with interest to church people and to all others who have had cogniz- ance of his earnest and effective endeavors.
Herbert Henry Gowen is a native of England, having been born at Runham, Great Yarmouth, on the 29th of May, 1864. His early education was secured in the schools of his native place and effectively supplemented by a three years' course of study at St. Augustine's College, Canterbury. ITis educational work was directed with a view to his entering upon missionary work in India, and he thus devoted special attention to the study of the ori-
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ental languages, becoming proficient in Sanscrit and Arabic. He thereafter continued his studies and upon being examined as a candidate for holy or- (lers, in 1886, he was at the head of the list of successful competitors on several subjects, including Hebrew. So closely did Mr. Gowen apply him- self to study that his health became much impaired, and it became imperative that he should abandon his plan of going to India, but in July. 1886, he went to the city of Honolulu, Hawaiian islands, and in December of the same year he was ordained to the priesthood by Rt. Rev. Alfred Willis, bishop of the diocese of Honolulu, and was forthwith made curate of the cathedral in the city mentioned. He entered vigorously upon the work, founded a mis- sion church among the Chinese, becoming proficient in the Chinese language, and in his earnest endeavors in the various departments of the church work were attended with most gratifying results. Mr. Gowen returned to Eng- land in 1890 and became curate in Great Yarmouth, his native parish, while he also entered upon effective service as deputation for the society for the propagation of the Gospel, in which connection he proceeded to British Colum- bia in 1892, He was there appointed curate of the cathedral of New West- minister, and in that city eventually effected the organization of a new parish, that of St. Barnabas. In May, 1894, Mr. Gowen received the crown ap- pointment as chaplain of the government penitentiary in British Columbia, and this incumbency he retained until 1896, when he resigned the same to accept his present charge, as rector of Trinity church, having since consecu- tively presided over the parish and having materially vitalized its work in all departments, extending its field of influence and usefulness. augmenting the list of communicants and ever showing himself to be animated by that deep human sympathy which is so essential in the makeup of those who minister to "all sorts and conditions of men" as God's chosen ambassadors. Since coming to Seattle Mr. Gowen has founded or maintained three mis- sions in the city and suburbs .- the church of the Savior at Tenth and Dear- born streets; St. Luke's mission at Renton ; and St. John's mission in West Seattle. The mother Trinity church has five hundred communicants, and its affairs were in most properors condition when, in January 1902, the church edifice was totally destroyed by fire, and when the ruins were being razed the rector nearly lost his life, being struck on the head by a falling timber. As soon as he had recovered from his injuries he set himself vigor- ously to the task of raising funds for the erection of a new church, and he has been successful to such an extent that the new and modern building has now been completed. his parishioners and the citizens in general showing a desire to co-operate as far as possible in the work.
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Mr. Gowen is a man of recondite attainments and high literary ability, and his published works and articles have gained distinctive recognition as valuable contributions. Of his more important works may be mentioned the following: "Temperantia," a volume of essays, published in 1891; "Par- adise of the Pacific," 1892; "The Kingdom of Man," and a volume of ser- mons, 1893; and a series of articles in the Clergyman's Magazine (Lon- don ), entitled "Palingenesia, or the New Heaven and Earth;" "The Revela- tion of the Things that are;" and "The Characteristic Symbols of the Apo- calypse." He has also published a series of Hawaiian stories and has con- tributed various articles on antiquarian and philological subjects. Since 1899 Mr. Gowen has been associate editor of the American Antiquarian Journal, published in the city of Chicago. From 1893 to 1896 he was presi- cent of the Royal City Art and Science Association of New Westminster, and while residing in British Columbia he gave considerable time and atten- tion to the exploration of Indian mounds and to investigating the botanical products of the province. In 1895 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Geo- graphical society. For the past two years Mr. Gowen has been president of the standing committee of the missionary district of Olympia and examining chaplain to the bishop. He represented the district of Olympia at the gene- ral convention of the Protestant Episcopal church at San Francisco in 1901. While in British Columbia Mr. Gowen became a member of the Masonic fra- ternity, being initiated in King Solomon's Lodge, and he now affiliates with Ionic Lodge No. 90, F. & A. M., in Seattle, and has held the office of chaplain of the same.
On the 7th of January, 1892, Mr. Gowen was united in marriage to Miss Annie K. Green, who was born in Great Yarmouth. England, the daughter of George E. and Mary ( Burrage) Green, and the family circle of the rectory is graced by two fine sons, Vincent H. and Launcelot E., and one daughter Felicia Joyce.
IVAR JANSON, M. D.
As his name indicates. Dr. Ivar Janson is of Norwegian birth, and his course in life has been a credit to the land of his nativity and to the land of his adoption, for he has gained a very enviable reputation in the ranks of the medical fraternity in Seattle. where his marked ability and close adherence to the high standard of professional principals have won for him the respect, confidence and support of the public and of the medical fraternity.
The Doctor was born in Bergen, Norway, March 1. 1869, and is a son
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of Christopher and Drude ( Krog) Janson. The father is a poet and author, who came to America in 1882 and resided in Minneapolis, where he engaged in literary work. He became interested in the ministry of the Unitarian church and was made a minister of that faith. Becoming desirous of re- turning to his native land, he once more went to Norway in 1893 and is now residing there. The Doctor is one of a family of six children. His young- est brother, Arne K., is a dentist of Seattle. Eiliv came to this city in 1900 and is now engaged in the practice of medicine in partnership with Ivar.
Dr. Ivar Janson pursued a preliminary education in Norway and was thirteen years of age when the family crossed the broad Atlantic to the United States. He afterward attended school in Minnesota, pursuing an academic and a university course with the intention of later entering the medical pro- fession. Accordingly he became a student in the medical department of the State University of Minnesota and was graduated in the class of 1892. He then engaged in practice in Minnesota, in the city of Minneapolis, for two years and for a few months was located in Madison, Wisconsin, but thinking that the opportunities of the west were better than those of the Mississippi valley he made his way to the Pacific coast, locating first in Portland, Oregon, where he lived for eight or nine months. Believing that Seattle had before it a very promising future, more so than any other city in this section of the country, he came here in 1895, and established his office. He started in here at a time when business was dull, but he soon gained a foothold and has built up a splendid practice. He has not made a specialty of any particular branch of medicine, but has given his attention to the general practice of medicine and surgery. In order to attain further efficiency in his chosen calling he has read and studied extensively. His brother, after spending a year and a half in study in Europe, came to Seattle, joining our subject in 1900. In the fall of the same year Dr. Ivar Janson went to New York and pursued a post-graduate course in the New York Polyclinic, also doing post-graduate work in the hospitals there. He also spent a short time in the Johns Hop- kins University at Baltimore. He has been on the staff of the Seattle gene- ral hospital for a number of years and he belongs to the King County Medical Society and the State Medical Association.
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