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 41
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The home life of Dr. Janson has been very pleasant. His wife was formerly Miss Mamie E. Helm, a daughter of Louis Helm, who is now liv- ing a retired life in Seattle. They were married in Madison, Wisconsin, January 8, 1893. They have two daughters: Ellen Margaret and Marie Helen. The Doctor is a member of the Unitarian church and is serving as one of its trustees. In politics he is a Republican. In 1902 he erected his 24
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present residence on Fifth avenue and West Galer streets, and there he and | his wife extend the hospitality of their home to their many friends. Dr. Jan- son greatly enjoys yachting and fishing and in those lines he finds relaxation and rest from his arduous professional duties. He is a pleasant, genial and polished gentleman of the highest social qualities and is very popular, having : an extensive circle of friends and acquaintances who esteem him highly for his genuine worth as well as professional skill.
JOHN W. DORMAN.
Ballard, the lively city which sprang up on Puget Sound almost in a night, like Jonah's gourd, is one of the young wonders of the northwest. Almost ten years ago it was only a straggling village of some four or five hundred inhabitants; to-day it numbers its population well up into the thou- sands and has all the appurtenances of a well ordered city. Nor is it a mere "boom" town, destined to strut its brief hours on the stage like a poor player and then be heard no more. Ballard rests on a sound basis of established in- dustries, has fine advantages as a shipping point, and much capital has been invested there. At the present time it is the largest manufacturing point for shingles in the world, and its product is found not only in all the prin- cipal lumber markets of the Union but in foreign countries. This industry alone would be sufficient to build up a substantial city, but Ballard does not rely upon it alone. The place has been especially fortunate in the class of men who have made it the center of their operations. The men who have built up Ballard and are keeping it to the front as a manufacturing city include some of the most progressive lumber men in the northwest, and they are backed by ample capital. Several of these have been described in this volume, and now John W. Dorman is to be added to the list.
John Dorman, who was born in Nova Scotia in 1818, removed to Canada and there married Susanna Rosser, a native of Swansea, Wales. He es- tablished the first flour mill at Luken, on the Grank Trunk Railroad, was an active member of the Baptist church and a useful citizen in his com- munity. At present he is residing at Muskegon, Michigan, where his wife died in the eighty-third year of her age. John W. Dorman, next to the youngest of their six children, was born at London, Canada, in October, 1851, and from early boyhood has been connected with the lumber business. He came to Michigan in 1859 and remained in the eastern part of that state until 1870, when he removed with his parents to Muskegon. He obtained employment at that point with the Stimsons, noted lumber dealers, and re-
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mained with them until their removal to Chicago, when he went to Minne- apolis. He remained in the Minnesota metropolis until the Stimsons estab- lished their plant at Ballard, when Mr. Dorman rejoined them as a stock- holder in their mill company, and was placed in charge of the work as su- perintendent. With the exception of the shingle mill, which was put up by the Stears Company of Pennsylvania, all the buildings of the Stimson plant have been erected under the supervision of Mr. Dorman. The Stimson's Mill Company gives employment to nearly three hundred and fifty men, and in 1901 the output of their manufactories amounted to one hundred and fifty- six million shingles and forty-four million feet of other lumber. The firm owns a large amount of the fine timber of their section, and have spent much money in improving their facilities for conducting business on an extensive scale. The company manufacture more shingles than any other firm in the world, and thus becomes the leader in the industry in which Ballard excels all other cities. Mr. Dorman, who has been in the business all his life and understands every feature of it from the ground up, has entire charge of the gigantic operations of the Stimson Company, and it is needless to say that it is a place of great responsibility.
On the 21st of January, 1897, Mr. Dorman was united in marriage with Miss Clara I. Gonlet. His politics are Democratic, and his only fra- ternal connections are with Occidental Lodge, No. 72, A. F. & A. M. Mr. Dorman owns two residences, one on Leary avenue, erected in 1897, which he occupies, and the other adjoining it on the north, which he put up in 1902.
JOHN B. LUCAS.
The name of this gentleman is closely interwoven with the history of business activity in Ballard, where he is now extensively and successfully en- gaged in conducting a real estate and insurance business as the senior mem- ber of the firm of J. B. Lucas & Company. He has lived in the town since it was a place of about two hundred population, having located here in 1890. Mr. Lucas was born west of the Mississippi river, and the true western spirit of progress and enterprise has dominated his career. His birth occurred in Wayland. Clark county, Missouri, in 1864. His father, William B. Lucas. was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and when young removed with the family to Missouri. In 1849 he joined a company that crossed the plains with ox teams to California, being attracted by the discovery of gold on the Pacific coast. The trip consumed six months and there were about three hundred people in the emigrant train when they started, but only three families re-
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mained together until the completion of the long trip. Mr. Lucas spent ten years in California. On the expiration of that period he returned to Mis- souri, where he was engaged in farming until his removal to Washington in 1890. His death occurred here six years later. In his mining operations he met with a fair degree of success. Upon his return to Missouri from California he was united in marriage to Maria Agnes Brown and to them were born five children, of whom three are yet living, two brothers being' residents on the coast.
The educational privileges which John B. Lucas enjoyed comprised a common and high school course. He was reared to farm life until he was twenty-five years of age and then went to the town, where he was employed in different branches of mechanical work until his removal to the northwest in 1890. Desiring to locate in a new country with its broad opportunities and almost limitless possibilities he came to this state and after following carpentering in Seattle for six months decided that Ballard offered good op- portunities to its citizens because it promised to become a thriving and enter- prising place. Accordingly he purchased property here and became identi- fied with the building interests of the town. He erected the second house cast of Railroad avenue and to some extent engaged in contracting, follow- ing that pursuit for about three years. Subsequently he conducted a furni- ture store until 1896, when he began his real estate operations, which have occupied his attention continuously since. In 1900 he also extended the field of his labors until they embraced an insurance agency, and he now represents a number of the leading companies of the country, including the Phoenix of Brooklyn, the Connecticut of Hartford, the Springfield Fire & Marine In- surance Company of Massachusetts, the German-American Insurance Com- pany of New York, and the Pennsylvania Underwriters. The firm of J. B. Lucas & Company is composed of our subject, E. B. Cox and T. A. A. Sieg- friedt. While they are largely engaged in handling city property they also control some farm lands as well. Their office is located in the fine new build- ing which was erected by Mr. Lucas and J. W. Peter in the spring of 1902. This building is two stories in height and is twenty-five by ninety-four feet. Mr. Lucas has erected a number of residences in the city, including his pre- sent home at 12 State street, which was built in 1900 and is one of the attrac- tive dwellings of the town.
As a companion and helpmeet for life's journey Mr. Lucas chose Mrs. Lucy L. Lansing, nce Price, the wedding being celebrated May, 9. 1899. They have one daughter. Mildred, and by her former marriage Mrs. Lucas had two sons, Earl and Verne. The Democratic party receives Mr. Lucas's
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political endorsement and he has been actively interested in promoting its growth and success. In 1896 lie was elected a member of the city council and was one of those who favored the sinking of the artesian well from which the water supply of the city is obtained. He is now serving his third term as justice of the peace and in his decisions manifests strict fairness and impartiality. At the last election the city gave a Republican majority, but he was elected by fifty-six votes, while the other Democrats on the ticket were defeated. This is an indication of his personal popularity and of the con- fidence reposed in him by his fellow townsmen. His social relations connect him with the Improved Order of Foresters, the Knights of the Maccabees, the Knights of the Golden Eagle and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He possesses the spirit of business enterprise which has developed and is de- veloping the marvelous resources and wealth of the western states, and Bal- lard claims him as one whose efforts in its behalf have been of great benefit to the town.
BRYON D. SMALLEY.
The ancestral history of Bryon D. Smalley traces back to colonial days. Prior to 1700 two brothers, Benjamin and David Smalley, came to America, the former settling in New England, while the latter established his home in Virginia, and it is to David Smalley that the subject of this review traces his ancestry. His great-grandfather removed from the Old Dominion to New Jersey and in the latter state Lewis Smalley, the grandfather of our subject, was born. Hiram H. Smalley, the father, was a native of the Empire state, born in Friendship, Allegany county, in the house where Bryon D. Smalley first opened his eyes to the light of day, July 2, 1849. The father became a member of the medical profession and engaged in practice in New York until about 1852, when he removed to Houston, Texas. Later he served as presi- dent of the medical board of New Orleans for a number of years and was there living when the Civil war broke out. He was a stanch Abolitionist and because of his views on the slavery question he was advised to leave the south. Together with twenty-five or thirty other Union men he was smug- gled to Galveston, and on a very dark night arrangements were made to get them aboard a man of war. Two boats were filled, but when they were some distance out from shore lights were turned upon them from land, cannons were fired and all were killed. Dr. Smalley was married in New York to Miss Lenora A. Cunningham, whose father came to America from Ireland.
Bryon D. Smalley attended private schools in Texas, but at the time
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when excitement over the slavery and secession questions was running high in the south he and his mother were sent back to New York and he then attended Friendship Academy. In 1866 he was appointed attorney and general agent of the Clay Fire & Marine Insurance Company of Newport, Kentucky, although but seventeen years of age at the time. He studied law with his uncle in Newport, and later entered the Cincinnati Law School, in which he was graduated in 1873. He then opened a law office in Newport, making a specialty of insurance law, and as a representative of that depart- ment of jurisprudence he tried cases in nearly every state in the Union. In 1875 he removed to Detroit, Michigan, as general agent of the Cooper Fire & Marine Insurance Company of Dayton, having jurisdiction over Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin, and in 1880 he went to Chicago. For several years he was superintendent of agencies at Chicago of the Mutual Fire Insurance Company of that city, but his health broke down and he was advised to go to the Pacific coast.
Acting on this advice Mr. Smalley arrived in Seattle in November, 1889. He established himself here as an independent adjuster of insurance losses and has done business over all parts of this state, Montana and Idaho, as well as British Columbia, and probably has a more thorough knowledge of the state than any other man residing within its borders. In March, 1900, he established a new industry here. Entering into partnership with C. M. Coe he organized the Puget Sound Paper Box Company, of which he has since been the president. This is the only industry of the kind on the Pacific coast outside of San Francisco. They manufacture all kinds of work in their line, including regular and folding boxes, and use the latest machinery for this work. They began business with one man and two girls in the factory, but have gradually increased the number of their employes to meet the grow- ing demands of their trade and now employ five men and twenty girls and occupy the two floors and basement of a building one hundred by one hun- dred and twenty feet. Their trade extends through Washington and Mon- tana and also into British Columbia. They do all kinds of embossing and printing in their own plant and turn out the finest candy boxes known to the trade. The new industry is fast becoming a prominent one, and though its existence hardly covers two years the volume of business has increased manifold.
On the 6th of May, 1875, Mr. Smalley was married in Detroit, Michi- gan, to Miss Lottie Fisher, a daughter of A. C. Fisher, one of the pioneers of that city. They had one daughter. Charlotte, now the wife of Martin Chamberlain, of Detroit. On the 4th of July, 1882, Mr. Smalley was joined
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in wedlock to Mary E. Bell, of Howell, Michigan, and they have four sons, Royal D., Bryon, Jr., Robert B. and George H. In politics Mr. Smalley is independent with Republican tendencies and is a strong advocate of temper- ance principles. He belongs to the National Union and the Manufacturers' Exchange and is a member of the Presbyterian church, in which he has served in the position of deacon, while for many years he has been president of the congregation. His influence has ever been exerted in behalf of in- tellectual and moral progress as well as for the material improvements of the city, and in his life he has manifested a strong desire for the betterment of mankind.
THOMAS C. REED.
In the history of honorable achievement is the record which elicits the earnest attention and commendation of the American citizen. Inheritance or environment count for little in the estimate of character in this country, and it is the man and his accomplishments upon which public opinion passes its comment. Thomas C. Reed stands as a worthy representative of a high type of American manhood, for from a humble financial beginning he has worked his way steadily upward until he now stands as one of the leaders in the great ship-building industry of the northwest.
A resident of Ballard, he has made his home here since 1890 and has been engaged in the development of his present business since that time. He was born in southern Wales, February 19, 1862. His father was a farmer there, but Thomas was apprenticed to the ship-building trade when fourteen years of age and served for a term of indenture of five years. On the emigration of the family to the new world they settled at Toronto, Can- ada, and the father continued his farming operations. Thomas C. Reed re- mained at home until 1887, when he decided to seek his fortune in the west and located at Port Madison, Washington, because of the ship yards there. He was employed there for a year and a half and then built a couple of boats at Pasco, after which he went to Portland, Oregon, where he made his home until his removal to Ballard in 1890.
Mr. Reed was engaged in building a ship there and later went to Gray's Harbor, where he built the City of Aberdeen, after which he returned to Ballard and was engaged in repair work here until 1893. In that year he returned to Gray's Harbor and built the steamer Josie Burrows. He next came back to Ballard and did the repair work for the Stimson Mill Com- pany for three or four years, following which he went to Shelton and built
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the vessel City of Shelton, in 1896. Repair work again claimed his at- tention in Ballard until 1898, when he returned to Gray's Harbor and built the steamer T. C. Reed, now owned at Seattle. When that task was com- pleted Mr. Reed once more came to Ballard and established his ship yard, in which he has built the largest schooners that have ever been constructed on the coast. In 1897 he built seven boats for the Columbia Navigation Com- pany for work in the Yukon. The present yards were established in 1900 and are equipped so completely that Mr. Reed can build a boat of any size desired. He was the builder of the four masted schooner Stimson, the four masted schooner Nottingham, the Tillicum and a three masted schooner now on the stocks. Two of the schooners are one hundred and ninety-six feet in the keel, with a forty-two-foot beam, with a tonnage of one thousand and sixty-two, and have a carrying capacity of a million and a half feet of lum- ber, for which they are especially designed, being built particularly strong for this purpose. In his yards Mr. Reed furnishes employment to eighty men, securing the best skilled labor in this line, and he has ways for the construction of three vessels at one time. His plant is splendidly located, not only because of its proximity to the sea, but also because of the near- ness of the great forest, which enables him to secure timber of any size de- sired. In the boats now building he has used some very large and long tim- bers, forty-four by fourteen inches, the keel eighteen by thirty inches and one hundred and ten feet in length.
While in Portland Mr. Reed was united in marriage to Miss Lizzie I. Twigg, a daughter of William Twigg, a merchant of that city, and to them have been born two children, Ethel and Percy. In 1894 Mr. Reed erected his fine home on C street. He is a member of the Presbyterian church and in politics is an earnest and active Republican. In November, 1901, he was nominated and elected mayor of the city and is now serving in that office in a most commendable manner, discharging his duties so that his labors have resulted to the benefit of the city along many lines of usefulness and improvement. Socially he is connected with the Woodmen of the World and with Occidental Lodge, No. 72, F. & A. M., Seattle Chapter, No. 3, R. A. M., Seattle Commandery. No. 2. K. T., and with Washington Lodge of Perfection of the Scottish Rite and the Order of the Eastern Star. His is a well rounded character, not so abnormally developed in any direction as to become a genius but due attention has been given to the various labors and interests of life that result in a well balanced mind; he looks at life from a reasonable standpoint and while caring for his individual interests is also mindful of his duties and obligations to his fellow men.
AB Wyckoff
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AMBROSE B. WYCKOFF.
Lieutenant Ambrose Barkley Wyckoff, who will long be remembered by the citizens of Seattle and King county for his services in connection with the starting of the Puget Sound navy yard and other public enterprises in this vicinity, was born in Delhi, illinois, on the 29th of April, 1848. He is the ninth in descent from the Holland progenitor, Cornelius P. Wyckoff, who located on Long Island in 1636, and with his wife now lies buried under the pulpit of the Dutch Reformed church in a suburb of Brooklyn. The parents of our subject, Ambrose Spencer and Sarah (Gelder) Wyckoff, were natives, respectively, of Scoharie county, New York, and of Yorkshire, England. The father was reared in the city of New York, where he was engaged in a wholesale mercantile business until about 1830. In that year he moved westward and became a pioneer of Jersey county, Illinois, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits and also took a prominent part in the early history of that county. His death occurred in the Prairie state in 1872, and his widow survived until 1899, when she, too, passed into eternal rest. In their family were seven children, five of whom still survive.
On the 29th of September, 1864, when sixteen years of age, Lieutenant Wyckoff entered the naval academy at Annapolis, Maryland, from which he was graduated June 10, 3868, ranking twelfth in a class of eighty-seven members. On the 19th of the following April he was promoted to the posi- tion of ensign, and on the 12th of July, 1870, was made a master, while two years later, October 25, 1872, he rose to the position of lieutenant. His first service was on board the Portsmouth, while later he sailed to the island of Hayti on the Nantasket, thus continuing until 1870, when his health became so impaired that he was obliged to remain at home on a sick leave for two years. From 1872 until :874 he served on the Wyoming and Wachuset in the West Indies and in surveying the coast of Mexico, while from 1875 until 1876 he was on the training ship Portsmouth. In May, 1877, he was or- dered to the United States coast survey schooner Yukon, at Seattle, Wash- ington, and while making a hydrographical survey of Puget Sound he became convinced that the great navy yard of the Pacific coast should be on the shores of these waters. Accordingly he began a correspondence with the authorities at Washington and succeeded in impressing Captain E. P. Luil, hydrographie inspector of the coast survey, Commodore Whiting, chief of the bureau of navigation, and the Hon. R. M. Thompson, secretary of the navy. He urged that two hundred thousand acres of the most accessible timber lands should be selected as a naval reservation, and that amount of
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selected timber would now be worth several millions of dollars and the finest equipped navy yard in the country could be developed without cost to the gov- ernment. A bill was actually introduced in 1880 for a commission to select land on Puget Sound for naval purposes and was favorably considered by the house naval committee, but Mr. Wyckoff was then ordered to China and the prevalent ignorance in congress and among the naval authorities regard- ung the resources and natural advantages of Puget Sound was so great that no measure was passed. However, in 1880, Lieutenant Wyckoff went to Washington at his own expense and interviewed the naval anthorities, but the department insisted on his going to sea, and it is believed that had he remained in Washington the naval station would have been started ten years sooner than it was. During the subsequent seven years he kept up his ap- peals, both by correspondence and personal solicitation, and was so persistent that he became known in the service as the "Puget Sounder."
Lieutenant Wyckoff was a member of the commission in 1890 to select a site for a dry dock on the Pacific coast north of California, and in the fol- lowing year he was ordered by Secretary Tracy to select a tract of land not exceeding two hundred acres in extent suitable for the purposes of a dry dock. Under that order he selected and purchased the present navy yard and located and started the construction of the dry dock. On the 16th of September, IS91, his daughter, Selah, hoisted the flag for the first time, and Lieutenant Wyckoff read his orders to take command of the Puget Sound Naval Sta- tion, the name of which he had suggested to the navy department. On De- cember 19, 1892, his daughter Stella dug the first shovel full of earth for the dry dock, which has always been such a complete success, and the navy yard is generally acknowledged to have more natural advantages than any other in the United States.
From 1881 to 1884 Lieutenant Wyckoff served on the Swatara, Ashue- lot, Richmond and Monocacy in China, Japan and Corea, and when the Ashuelot was sunk off the coast of China, in February, 1883, he left his own boat and took the Chinese sick, servants and other idlers out of three boats into a small unmanageable steam cutter, which was adrift without a boiler in the thick fog and darkness, and sent the three empty boats back to the sinking ship for the captain, officers and men remaining on board. Thus thirty-three men were with difficulty saved in the steam cutter. During the following day and night he pulled with a volunteer crew through the fog about forty miles to the mainland and procured assistance for the survivors on the island. During the years 1884-85-86 Lieutenant Wyckoff was in charge of the hydrographic office at Philadelphia, and while in that city he
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