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 5
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In national politics Mr. Sizer is an active, earnest Republican, support- ing the policies of his party at home and on the stump. Though never ac- cepting office, he has acted as campaign chairman of Republican organiza- tions at his old home in New York state and in Seattle. Locally Mr. Sizer votes independently for those whom he believes to be the best men.
EDUARD P. EDSEN.
A man of distinction in political, professional and literary circles, and equally prominent socially, Eduard Polonius Edsen well deserves mention in this volume, for he has left the impress of his individuality upon the 3
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progress and upbuilding of Seattle in many lines. He has accomplished much in the period of his earthly pilgrimage, having become a celebrated lawyer of the northwest, a writer of considerable ability, while in political circles he wields a wide influence, although he has never been connected with political work for the rewards of office, in fact has steadfastly refused to be- come a candidate for any political preferment.
Mr. Edsen is a native of Husum, Schleswig-Holstein. Germany, his birth having there occurred on the 20th of April, 1856. He is a representative oi one of the old families of his native land. Hhis father. Hinrich J. Edsen. was born near the same town in 1825, and was a civil engineer and an officer in the German army, serving in the war of 1848-50 that shaped the destiny of the German empire. Ile married Miss Lucie J. Peterson, who was a na- tive of his own town, born in 1831, and descended from a long line of mili- tary officers. Ile died in 1866, at the age of forty-one years, and his wife passed away in tgoo. in the seventieth year of her age. They were mem- bers of the Lutheran church and so lived as to gain the esteem and good will of a large circle of friends. They had five children, three sons and two daughters, four of whom are living, Eduard and his sister, Mrs. H. F. Nom- mensen, being the only members of the family in Washington.
Eduard P. Edsen was educated in the schools and colleges of his home. After completing his education he spent four years in travel and arrived in Portland, Oregon, on the 18th of November, 1876. He had received a classical and military education in his native land, but being unfamiliar withi the English language in his country he accepted a position on the farm of William Freels near Sandy postoffice, Oregon, where he remained until March, 1877, and as far as possible in that time gained a knowledge of the English tongue. At the date just mentioned he turned his attention to sal- mon fishing, which he followed for a year, at Brookfield, Washington, and then pursued a course in a business college in Portland, perfecting himself in English under private tutors. Subsequently he worked as a deck hand on the Columbia river, followed by six months spent at lumbering and in filling contracts for wood at Walla Walla. In the spring of 1879 he found employ- inent in Stahl's brewery and wholesale liquor business in Walla Walla, where by reason of his faithful attention to business he was rapidly advanced to the position of general manager. About this time he made an unfortunate investment of the greater part of his savings.
In 1881 Mr. Edsen began conducting a real-estate and insurance agency at Walla Walla, in partnership with V. D. Lambert. In the summer of 1883 he visited the Sound. finally locating at Seattle in December. In the fol-
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lowing January he was admitted to the bar of the supreme court at Olympia. and on April 4, 1894. was admitted to the supreme court of the United States at Washington, D. C. Ilis mastery of no less than seven languages soon secured him the major portion of the foreign law business of the city. He readily gained recognition as a leading member of the bar and his busi- ness affairs prospered while liis popularity grew with his wide circle of acquaintances. In November. 1889, Mr. Edsen formed a law partnership with the Hon. Will H. Thompson and the Hon. John E. Humphries, under the style of Thompson, Edsen & Humphries, which partnership continued for eight years and the firm became recognized as a leading one on the Pacific coast. The partnership terminated when Mr. Thompson became attorney for the Great Northern Railway Company, and Mr. Edsen is now practicing his profession alone, with offices in the Hotel Seattle biock.
He has taken a deep interest and has been an important factor in pro- moting the military organizations of the state of Washington. In 1884 he was the organizer of Company D, First Regiment of the National Guard of Washington, and became its first captain. Being an expert drill master, his company, as well as Rainier Division, No. 18, Uniformed Rank of the Knights of Pythias, organized by him in 1892, ranked among the best in the many competitive drills held at Seattle, Tacoma and New Westminster, B. C., carrying off prizes at each meet. He has held the office of assistant judge advocate general of the Washington brigade, filling the position with dis- tinction since 1892, and was aide de camp on the staff of Governor William A. Newell, with the rank of colonel. It should also be stated that in 1878 he was one of the organizers of the Walla Walla Artillery, which is now the old- est military company in the state, under the name of Company A. Second Regiment, N. G. W.
His membership in social and fraternal organizations is extensive and includes the Knights of Pythias; Knights of Malta; Knights of the Golden Eagle: Ancient Order of Druids; the Ancient Order of United Workmen : the Royal Arcanum; the Order of Chosen Friends : the four branches of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, of which order he is now serving his tenth term as president of the general relief committee : and the Fraternal Order of Eagles, for which order he wrote the rituals for the Grand Aerie and Sub- ordinate Aeries, complete with all its additional ceremonies, etc .. as well as the complete code of laws for the government of the order named. In the last named order he holds the highest office, that of chief justice, with rank of past grand worthy president. Ile was one of the founders of the Seattle Turn Verein and since 1889 has been president of the George Washington
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Branch of the Irish National League. In 1894 Colonel Edsen was the ac- credited representative from the state of Washington at the World's Fair at AAntwerp, Belgium, being present at its formal opening by King Leopold II, on May 5th. The Colonel has also made numerous creditable contribu- tions to periodical literature in both prose and verse, having shown particular ability in the latter in his mastery of the frontier and miner dialects. In politics he has ever been a stanch Republican, but though a recognized party leader and frequently urged to accept nomination for office he has steadfastly refused to become a candidate. For several years, however, he has been president of the German American Republican Club of the state of Washing- ton, as well as of the local branch at Seattle.
Colonel Edsen was happily married, on the ist of July, 1901, to Miss Blanche Marie Clark, and they now reside at his country residence, Eden- wild, in Kitsap county, Washington, whence he cach day goes to his office in the city. Mrs. Edsen is a daughter of Charles Clark, a native of England and a resident of Youngstown, Ohio. Mrs. Edson's mother was formerly Miss Elizabeth Sutton, also a native of England. Colonel and Mrs. Edsen are members of the Lutheran church and stand very high in the social circles of the city in which the Colonel has made such an enviable record. On April !3, 1902, a bouncing boy was born to them, who received the imposing name of Edward Clark Mckinley Edsen. Colonel Edsen is a man of powerful physique and commanding presence and is what he appears to be-a man of integrity, energy and resourcefulness.
WILLIAM HARBAUGH WHITE.
William Harbaugh White is one of the ablest lawyers practicing at the Seattle bar. A man of sound judgment, he manages his cases with masterly skill and tact, is a logical reasoner and has a ready command of English. He was born in Sewickley, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, on the 11th of November, 1859, and is of Scotch-Irish ancestry. He is a lineal descend- ant of Hughey White, who came to this country from the north of Ireland at a very carly day in its history and settled in Virginia near Jamestown. Our subject's maternal great-great-grandfather Hoey was also a representa- tive of an old Virginian family, and on both sides his ancestors participated in the Revolutionary war. ITis great-grandfather White was a native of the Old Dominion, as was also his grandfather, John White, but his father. J. W. I. White, was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, and spent his entire life in that state. He served as justice of the common pleas court
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of Allegheny county for many years, and was still on the bench at the time of his death, which occurred November 6, 1900, when he was eighty years of age. Religiously he was an active and prominent member of the Methi- odist Episcopal church, and was an official member of the same. He attended the first Republican convention, and assisted in organizing the party in his section of the state, where he was a recognized leader in public affairs. In early life he was united in marriage with Mary Thorn, also a native of Penn- sylvania, who is now in her seventy-fifth year, and is still living at the old home in Sewickley, honored and respected by all who have the pleasure of her acquaintance. They were the parents of six children, five sons and one . daughter, of whom five are still living.
William Harbaugh White passed his boyhood and youth in his native state and was educated at Allegheny College, where he was graduated in 1880. He read law with his father, Judge White, and for two years was also a student in the office of Slagle & Wiley of Pittsburg. After his admis- sion to the bar in 1882, he engaged in practice in that city for a time, and in 1888 was elected to the Pennsylvania legislature, in which he served one term.
Shortly afterward Mr. White came to Seattle and from 1893 until 1895 was a member of the law firm of Pratt & White, but since that time has been alone in practice. Coming here a stranger it was some time before he became well acquainted, but his ability in his chosen profession is now widely recognized and he is at the head of a large civil law practice, being attorney for a number of prominent corporations. He is not only a good lawyer but is a good business man as well, in fact possesses unusual abil- ity in that direction, and is to-day a stockholder in a number of corporations and business enterprises, which have not only promoted individual prosperity, but have materially advanced the interests of his adopted city. He was one of the organizers and builders of the Seattle Central Railroad.
In 1887 Mr. White married Miss Kate Erwin, a native of his own birth- place, and to them have been born three daughters, Kathryn, Esther and Emma. The family have a delightful home, where hospitality reigns su- preme. Mr. and Mrs. White are active members of the Baptist church, of which he is one of the trustees, and he is also connected with a number of fraternal societies, including the Independent Order of Foresters, the Wood- men of the World, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Benevolent Pro- tective Order of Elks and the Knights of Pythias. Politically he is an ardent Republican, and in 1900 was a candidate of his party for prosecuting attor- ney of the city. Publie-spirited and progressive, he takes an active interest
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in public affairs, and withholds his support from no enterprise calculated to advance the general welfare. His genial, pleasant manner makes him quite popular in both business and social circles, and he is recognized as a valued citizen of the community.
FRED RICE ROWELL.
Fred Rice Rowell 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 promoting 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 is particularly well known in connection with the depart- ment of mining law.
.Although the extreme northwestern portion of the country is now his place of residence, the birth of Mr. Rowell occurred in the extreme north- eastern section of this fair land, for he first opened his eyes to the light of day in South Thomaston, Knox county, Maine, on the 29th of December, 1856. He is descended from English ancestors who were early settlers of Nottingham, New Hampshire. His great-grandfather, William Rowell, was born in 1755, and removed to Thomaston, Maine, where he spent the re- mainder of his life. He volunteered for service in the Revolutionary war and became a private in the company which was commanded by Captain Henry Dearborn and was attached to the regiment under command of Col- onel John Stark. He participated in the battle of Bunker Hill and in other engagements rendered valuable service to the cause of liberty. He departed this life on the 30th of September, 1811. IIis son, Rice Rowell, the grand- father of our subject, became one of the early business men of South Thomas- ton, Maine, where he owned a sawmill and engaged in the manufacture of lum- ber. He owned a farm upon which he resided and where he died when about seventy years of age.
His son, Luther H. Rowell, the father of Fred Rice, was born on the farm at South Thomaston and our subject was the representative in the fourth generation of the family born in the same room. Such a tact is quite unusual among the migratory people of this country and shows that the Rowells believed in letting well enough alone. The property is still in pos- session of a member of the family and thus for more than a century it has been known as the Rowell homestead. Luther Rowell was united in mar-
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riage to Sarah W. Matthews and they continued to reside upon the farm until the time of her death, which occurred when she was forty-nine years of age. She left five children, all of whom are yet living. The father is now retired from active business and is living in Seattle, at the age of sixty- eight years, respected and honored by all who know him. He has been a life-long Democrat and in his early life served as selectman of his town, was also town clerk and held other local offices, filling every position to which he was called with ability and integrity and enjoying the fullest confidence of his fellow men. All of his family now reside on the Pacific coast.
Fred Rice Rowell, the eldest member of his father's family, obtained his early education in the public schools, later went through the work of the senior year in the Cobern Classical Institute, at Waterville, Maine, and is a graduate of Colby College, in the class of 1881. Wishing to engage in the practice of law as a life work, he then began reading in the office of the Hon. .A. P. Gould, in Thomaston, and was admitted to the bar. For five years thereafter he practiced law with success in Rockland, Maine, and while resid- ing in South Thomaston was elected town clerk and school superintendent.
In May, 1888, Mr. Rowell arrived in Seattle and was first associated with Judge I. M. Hall, in the practice of his profession. Later he was alone in business and then entered into partnership with Judge John O. Robin- son, the relationship being maintained for a number of years, while the firm enjoyed a satisfactory and lucrative general practice. Mr. Rowell, how'- ever, is now again alone in business, and for the past two years he has delivered lectures to the class in mining at the state university. His clientage is large and his ability as a prominent lawyer is widely acknowl- edged.
On the 16th of January, 1884, Mr. Rowell was united in marriage to Mary Florence Stetson, a native of the town in which his birth occurred, and a daughter of Emory L. Stetson. Both Mr. and Mrs. Rowell hold member- ship in St. Mark's Episcopal church. He is also a member of the Brother- hood of St. Andrew and a member of its council in the United States. He takes an active part in church work and does much for the upbuilding of the cause. Like his father he has adhered to the Democratic party and is a strong believer in its principles as advocated by the Hon. W. J. Bryan. He has done much effective campaign work for the party and has taken a deep interest in the affairs of his city, doing all in his power for its substantial im- provement. He belongs to the Washington State IIistorical Society and is a gentleman of broad general information and scholarly attainments, whose courtesy is unfailing and whose integrity is above question.
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JOHN SANFORD TAYLOR.
Prior to the great fire of 1889 which destroyed the city of Seattle and yet gave rise to the growth of a new center in the northwest, John San- ford Taylor took up his abode here. He is one of the upright and pro- gressive men that Scotland has supplied to the United States. He was born in the land of hills and heather on the 18th of February, 1830, and was brought to America by his parents when he was but a baby. When he was a youth of only nine years both his father and his mother died, leaving a fam- ily of five children, of which he is now the only survivor. When left an orphan he went to live at the home of Allen McDermit, with whom he re- mained until his twenty-first year, residing most of that time in Canada. The educational privileges which he enjoyed were very limited and he can be said to be a self-educated man, but is now a citizen of broad general knowledge because of his reading and his wide thought and research, as well as his observation. He began life on his own account in the lumber woods as a chopper and by the time he had attained the age of twenty- six years he was a superintendent of a sawmill. Thus he had steadily worked his way upward. His mechanical skill in the work, his abil- ity in controlling business affairs and his marked enterprise won for him steady advancement. When twenty-six years of age he embarked in the manufacture of lumber, on his own account. at Saginaw, Mich- igan, and was thus employed for thirty years. From that place he removed to Duluth, Minnesota, where he built a large sawmill and was there en- gaged in lumber manufacturing for eight years.
On the expiration of that time Mr. Taylor came on a pleasure trip to Seattle and was so well pleased with the country, its natural resources and its advantages that he returned to his former home, sold his property there and immediately afterward came to Seattle to reside, arriving here in 1889. He invested sixty-thousand dollars in property in this place, build- ing one sawmill and a planing mill, and purchased a portable sawmill, to- gether with the other necessary buildings and secured all the equipments needed for the construction of a large lumber business, but in 1895 there came a land slide, seventy-five acres of land moved down to the lake in one body and washed away his large plant, together with sixteen dwelling houses. By this disaster he met with a very serious loss, but he still owns land and considerable other property. At present he is building a saw- mill at Rainier Beach, with a capacity of forty thousand feet of lumber per day. It is fully equipped with a lath mill, shingle mill. etc. At the present
A. S. Taylor
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time he is living in a pleasant and commodious home, where he is sur- rounded with all of the comforts and many of the luxuries that go to make life worth living.
In 1853 Mr. Taylor was united in marriage to Miss Jeanette Louthian, a native of Canada who, like her husband, was of Scotch ancestry. Their union has been blessed with four children: William D., who is now a resi- dent of Seattle; David P., who is engaged in the lumber business at Daw- son : Margaret, now the wife of M. R. Metcalf and a resident of St. Paul, Minnesota, and John S., who makes his home in Seattle. There are also eight grandchildren. For many years Mr. and Mrs. Taylor have been lead- ing and influential members of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he is now a trustee, while for thirty-two years he has been superintendent of the Sunday-school and has also taken an active part in the important work of training the young to meet the moral obligations of life. He be- came a charter member of a council of the Royal Arcanum upon its or- ganization at Saginaw, Michigan, and has since changed his membership to Rainier Council, No. 1399, in Seattle, of which he served as chaplain. He has made an excellent record as an honorable business man and he and his estimable wife enjoy the good will and confidence of all with whom they have been associated. From early boyhood he has had few advantages given to him. All that he is and all that he has acquired are the result of his own efforts, his remarkable ambition and his determination to progress in life. along moral, material and intellectual lines. His is a strong manhood. strong in its honor and good name and his life record may well serve as a source of inspiration and encouragement to others.
CHARLES H. LILLY.
The name of Lilly figures conspicuously in connection with the com- mercial history of Seattle, for our subject is the president and traesurer of the firm of Lilly, Bogardus & Company, incorporated. doing the largest wholesale business in the northwest in the purchase and sale of all kinds of cereals, flour, feed, seeds, poultry supplies and fertilizers. The business, which has now reached mammoth proportions, is largely the outcome of the enterprise and executive power of our subject, who began life amid un- favoring circumstances upon an Illinois farm, but through his own unaided efforts has advanced to a position prominent among the leading representa- tives of commerce in this section of the country. Of America is the self- made man a product, and the record of accomplishments in this individual
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sense is the record which the true and loyal American holds in deepest regard and highest honor. In tracing the career of the subject of this review we are enabled to gain a recognition of this sort of a record and for this reason there is particular interest attaching to the points which mark his progress in life.
Charles Hervey Lilly is a native of Illinois, his birth having occurred in Champaign county, on the 20th of January, 1860. He is of Scotch an- cestry on the paternal side and of Irish lineage on the maternal. His father, Robert Hervey Lilly, was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and married Miss Valeria Gordon, of Oswego, New York. Ile was an ordained minister of the Presbyterian church and an owner of farm lands in Illinois, where he had settled in 1842, becoming one of the well known and highly esteemed carly residents of Champaign county. Ile departed this life in 1873. at the age of sixty-three years, leaving his widow and six children, of whom Charles H. Lilly, the eldest, was then but thirteen years of age. His large farm was heavily mortgaged and the widow and her son Charles made herculean ef- forts to pay for and save the property. Mr. Lilly assumed the management of the farm and from early morning until dewy eve worked in the fields, aided by the good counsel of his mother, who was a woman of superior busi- ness judgment. They struggled on under the debt for five years, the crops sometimes suffering from frosts, sometimes from excessive rains and again from drouth, but they succeeded in selling some of the farm and thus sav- ing one hundred and sixty acres of it. It was a discouraging experience for a boy to undergo, for all this happened between his thirteenth and eight- eenthi years, but perhaps it worked for his good after all, developing in him a strength of character, self-reliance and manliness which have proved the foundations upon which he has builded the success of his later life. He suc- ceeded in paying the interest upon the farm mortgage and at the same time enabling the younger children to continue in school, and at length gained a clear title to one hundred and sixty-four acres of land and the farm build- ings, which the family continued to own until 1890, when the property was sold.
Mr. Lilly also eventually managed to acquire a good education for himself by entering the State University of Illinois, in which he was grad- uated with the class of 1884, the degree of Bachelor of Science being con- ferred upon him. He then turned his attention to merchandising in Thom- asboro, his partner being Mr. Bogardus, with whom he is still associated in business. In the winter of 1885-6 he purchased his partner's interest and continued the business alone there for two years. During his residence there
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