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 51
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Archibald L. Herron was reared in North Carolina, but his educational advantages were rather meager and it has been by study at home, through broad reading and observation that he has become a well informed man. Possessing an observant eye and retentive memory he is continually adding to his knowledge facts gained in the school of experience. At an early age he became his father's assistant in the store and afterward was admitted to a partnership in the business, this relation being maintained until the beginning of the war. As a result of that terrible struggle his store, like many other enterprises of the south, was destroyed and his business utterly ruined. Two of his brothers joined the southern army but Archibald L. Herren remained true to the Union cause and upheld the supremacy of the government at Washington. He had served as postmaster of his own town and after the cessation of hostilities he took a prominent part in public affairs during the reconstruction period, doing all in his power to establish peace and to place his district in harmonious relations with the government. He was nominated on the Republican ticket for the office of state senator and filled several federal positions, including that of postmaster. He was also the chairman of the first board of county commissioners of his county after the restoration of peace. He had served as magistrate from 1855 until 1866 and was one of the five magistrates of the county constituting a "select court."
While taking an active part in public affairs during the reconstruc- tion period and rendering valuable aid to the government in public office, Mr. Herren, in business life, was doing what he could to retrieve his lost possessions. He found himself at the close of the war destitute of funds, but with commercial reputation and credit that enabled him to secure a
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stock of goods worth ten thousand dollars from New York city, and with this he resumed business in Waynesville, North Carolina, where he remained in successful trade until 1870. He then removed to Greenville, South Car- olina, and during the next ten years became interested to a considerable extent in Texas lands and also in city lots in Austin, that state. In 1880 lie returned to his old home in North Carolina. Prior to his removal from there in 1870 he had become largely interested in lands in that state and owned and controlled between fifty and one hundred thousand acres. He remained continuously in North Carolina until 1890, when he came to Seattle and after investigating the possibilities and resources of this region he or- ganized the Puget Sound Colony Company, of which he became the presi- dent. The object of this company was to organize colonies and thus in- duce settlement of the Sound country. He has retained iarge land inter- ests in North Carolina, but has been disposing of these since taking up his residence here, believing that the northwest has a brilliant future before it. He has made extensive and judicious investments in real estate in Seattle and now has very valuable property here, his attention being given to the super- vision of his interests.
On the 21st of March, 1875, Mr. Herren was married to Iola Jones, a daughter of Dr. W. R. and Elizabeth (Parkins) Jones, the parents and daughter being natives of South Carolina and representatives of an old southern family of distinction. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Herren have been born eight children : Jennie, who is an artist of local prominence; Elizabeth, who is a graduate of the State University of Washington and a successful and popular teacher; Ellen, Archibald, Lyda, Iola, Mattie and Maude, all with their parents. The family have a fine modern home at No. 512 Highland Drive, overlooking Lake Union from an advantageous site on Queen Anne Hill. The family attend the Baptist church, of which Mr. Herren has been a member for many years. In business circles he is regarded as a man of unusually good judgment, quick perception and decision. He yet has large interests in the south, which he supervises from this point, in addition to the management of his investments in the northwest. A little more than a third of a century ago left almost penniless as the result of conditions arising from the Civil war, he is to-day numbered among the capitalists of Seattle, and his life history stands in splendid exemplification of the fact that the road to success is open to all in this free land of ours and that merit, close application and sound judgment, arising from a thorough study of a business situation, are the elements necessary in gaining prosperity.
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WILLIAM H. BRINKER.
The man who achieves success in the legal profession is even more strictly the "architect of his own fortunes" than is the average self-made business man, there being in the keen competitions of the lawyer's life, with its constantly recurring mental duel between eager and determined antago- nists, no chance for the operation of influences which may be called to the aid of the merchant, the manufacturer or financier. Among the men of Seattle who have demonstrated their abilities in this difficult field William H. Brin- ker holds a leading place, and his history affords an interesting example of ambition rightly directed and pursued with a zeal which overcomes all ob- stacles.
Mr. Brinker was born in Missouri on the 23d of December, 1851, and belongs to a good old southern family, being a grandson of Abraham Brink- er, a Virginia planter, who at an early day went to the Louisiana territory and was given a grant of land by the king of Spain in what is now Washing- ton county, Missouri. He was afterward killed by the Indians on the present site of Kansas City in 1818. John B. Brinker, the father of our subject, was born in Kentucky, but when a mere boy was taken by his parents to Mis- souri, where he was reared to manhood. He became a merchant and planter of that state and died there in 1854. In politics he was a Whig and was a stanch supporter of Henry Clay. He married Sarah B. Murphy, and to them were born eleven children, of whom our subject was the ninth in order of birth. Only two representatives of this family now reside in Seattle, our subject and his sister, Mrs. S. W. Hutchcraft.
In early boyhood William H. Brinker attended the public schools of his native state, but at that time the country was involved in civil war, and when thirteen years old, but large for his age, he laid aside his text books and joined the Confederate army. As a member of Shelby's cavalry he partici- pated in Price's raid through Missouri in 1864, and was in all of the enage- ments in that state after the battle of Pilot Knob. He also went with his command to Texas and remained in the service until hostilities ceased. He had two brothers, John D. and Abraham Brinker, who were killed during the war.
At the close of the war our subject drove a six-mule team from Inde- pendence, Missouri, to Fort Union, New Mexico, and later took a drove of cattle from Texas to Salt Lake City. He next engaged in railroad work on the Union Pacific, at first as a section hand, but he worked his way upward to the position of foreman. In the performance of the duties of that posi-
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tion he was injured and had to give up railroad work. Returning to Mis- souri, he was employed on a farm during the summer months and attended school for two winters. For one year he was a student in the Missouri Uni- versity, and subsequently engaged in teaching school, during which time he devoted his leisure moments to reading law, and was admitted to the bar on the 12th of June, 1873. He was engaged in the practice of his chosen profession at his old home in Missouri for a year, and then went to Ne- braska, but was there only six months when the great grasshopper plague visited that state, making the outlook very gloomy, so that he returned to Missouri in the fall. In 1876 he was elected prosecuting attorney of John- son county, and so acceptably did he fill the office that he was re-elected in 1878 and 1880.
In 1885 Mr. Brinker received the first territorial appointment made by President Cleveland, that of associate justice of the supreme court of New Mexico, and he held that position until President Harrison's election, when he resigned. Upon his resignation, in May, 1889, he returned to Missouri, but in December of the same year came to Washington, locating first at South Bend, Pacific county, where he was engaged in practice until taking up his residence in Seattle in 1892, having become a candidate for the supreme judgeship on the Democratic ticket. Here he has made his home ever since. In 1893 he was appointed district attorney by President Cleveland, without solicitation on his part, and he held that office until November, 1897, since which time he has engaged in private practice in Seattle, with the exception of a part of two summers spent in practice at Nome, Alaska. Ile practices before all the courts and has a good clientage.
At Warrensburg, Missouri, April 27, 1874, Mr. Brinker was united in marriage to Miss Lillian M. Hutchinson, a daughter of O. H. P. Hutchin- son, and to them have been born three sons, namely: Jesse E ... who is now with the engineering corps of the United States army at Luzon, in the Philip- pines ; Robert H., bookkeeper for the Fox Saw Works at Seattle; and Will- iam H., Jr., a student at the State University of Washington. Fraternally Mr. Brinker is connected with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Royal Arcanum and Woodmen of the World, and is a non-affiliated Mason and Knight of Pythias. A Democrat in politics, he was active in the councils of the party until its departure from the old established principles of law and justice and went to seeking after new gods, since which time Mr. Brinker has been at sea. Socially he is deservedly popular. as lie is affable and courteous in manner and possesses that essential qualification to success in public life, that of making friends readily and of strengthening the ties of all friendships as time advances.
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ENOCH E. BREECE.
A feeling of the deepest regret and consternation spread throughout Seattle when the news of the tragic death of Enoch E. Breece was received. He was one of the most faithful representatives of the city's public service, his loyalty being above question. Seattle had no truer friend and he mani- fested his belief in her future by investing his means in city property. In every way possible he aided in the improvement and progress of the city and was widely known as one of Seattle's representative men. In private life, too, his characteristics were such as gained for him warm personal regard, and the circle of his friends was extensive.
Enoch E. Breece was born in Licking county, Ohio, July 5. 1856, a son of Benjamin and Martha ( Randalls ) Breece, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Ohio. The Breece family is of Welsh origin and was found- ed in Philadelphia at the time William Penn established the colony which was named in his honor. The grandfather of our subject, leaving Pennsylvania, removed to Virginia and later to Ohio, and it was during his stay in the former state that Benjamin Breece was born. The latter was one of twelve children and was left fatherless at the early age of seven years. Accordingly he was bound out to a man of the name of Murray, who was to give him a horse or one hundred dollars in money when he was of age. He began farm- ing in Ohio on his own account at the age of twenty-two years, renting a tract of land which he cultivated until 1865. when he removed to Effingham coun- ty. Illinois, where he purchased a tract of land, but because of a defective title lost all that he had invested in the property. In 1882 he removed to Robertson county, Texas, but after a short time went to Lincoln county, New Mexico, where he entered land from the government and engaged in agricul- tural pursuits. From there he came to Brooklyn, Washington, a suburb of Seattle, and made his home with our subject for a time, after which he pur- chased the property now occupied by his widow. He died in May, 1899. at the age of sixty-eight years, and his widow is now seventy-one years of age. In their family were four children: William L., who is engaged in mining at Nome: Adam A., a resident of Brooklyn, King county; Enoch E .; and Deborah, the wife of Elijah Peebles of Fort Stanton, New Mexico.
Enoch E. Breece was a child of nine years when he accompanied his parents on their removal to Illinois, where he was reared to manhood upon a farm. He acquired a liberal education and at the age of eighteen years en- gaged in teaching school, which he followed for three years, two years of that time in Moccasin, Illinois. In 1878 he removed to Madison county, 30
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Jowa, where he followed school teaching for a year, and then went to Cass county, where he attended the normal school. He was married in Afton, Union county, lowa, February 26, 1879. to Miss Hattie Yarnall, a native of Moccasin, Illinois, in which place they had become acquainted. It was his desire to secure a home for them, and on the day of their marriage they started in a covered wagon for Norton county, Kansas, Mr. Breece having previously secured the team and wagon for the journey. As it was February and cold and wintry, the trip was not a very pleasant one, but after traveling for a month over bad roads they reached their destination. locating three miles from the Long Branch postoffice in Decatur county, Kansas, their home, however. being across the boundary line between Decatur and Norton counties.
Mr. Brecce pre-empted a quarter section of land and at the same time secured a timber claim in Decatur county, making a half-section altogether. This claim was one of a thousand which proved a success. Mr. Breece com- plying not only with the letter but with the spirit of the law, in cultivating the timber. He owned the property up to the time of his death, and it now has upon it fifteen thousand good ash trees. He made his home in Kansas until after he proved up his claims, and in 1882 he returned to York county. Ne- braska, and taught two terms of school there, also attending the county normal school. His purpose was to prepare for college, for he had an unsat- isfied craving for knowledge, but eventually he abandoned the plan of pursu- ing a collegiate course and in 1883 embarked in the photographic business in Girard. Kansas, where he secured an extensive patronage and had a home of his own. There he remained until the fall, when his wife's mother died. She had long been in delicate health. and Mrs. Breece, who was the eldest of ber children. had taken the mother's part to the younger members of the family. The father desiring to keep his children together, Mr. and Mrs. Breece decided to go with him to Red Willow county, Nebraska, and our sub- ject established a photographic gallery at Indianola, the county seat. There he carried on business until the spring of 1885, when he removed to a home- stead adjoining his timber claim in Decatur county, Kansas, having laid claim to the land the previous fall. His first home in that state had been a sod house and now he moved into a dugout. For five years he made his home upon his new place, breaking one hundred and ten acres of land on both claims, and fencing the two hundred and twenty acres with wire fence. He engaged in agricultural pursuits and stock-raising on quite an extensive scale. and having proved up his claim in October. 1890. he decided to take a vaca- tion after years of hard and continuous labor and make a trip to Seattle.
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So well pleased with this locality was Mr. Breece that he never returned to Kansas, and disposing of his property in that state, with the exception of the timber claim, he purchased eighty acres of timber land in Snohomish county. Washington, and engaged in the business pruning and triming orch- ards, for which his previous experience with the cultivation of trees had well qualified him. He followed that business for several years and then, having traded some live stock for a residence and two lots in Brooklyn, he settled in Seattle, in what was the Brooklyn addition to the city. In order to encour- age the settlement of this locality the owners of the land offered one lot free to each of the first twenty settlers who would buy one lot and erect a residence worth one thousand dollars. Mr. Breece was among the number who com- plying with the request thus received the extra lot. In the spring of 1891 he erected the home which is now occupied by his family.
A man of scholarly tastes, Mr. Breece never satisfied his thirst for knowl- edge and not only by broad reading and research did he improve his mind, but even after coming to this city he spent one year as a student in the Uni- versity of Washington, taking up a normal course, and after the new univers- ity buildings were erected he spent another term there as a student, but again he was obliged to give up his studies on account of business complications caused by an effort to assist a friend in procuring a home. This left him with obligations to meet which forced him to discontinue his studies. He then accepted a position under Professor Russell of the State University of Michigan and a United States geologist, and went on a geological expedition to Mount Stewart. Washington, and other parts of the state. for the purpose of securing specimens of minerals for the government. He was thus en- gaged for one season and in the fall he took the civil service examination for a position on the police department of Seattle. Being appointed to a position on the city patrol, he acted in that capacity until his death. From the time of his arrival in Seattle he had the deepest interest in the welfare of the city and its upbuilding. He invested his money here, becoming the owner of twenty-two lots.
In politics Mr. Breece was a Democrat and fraternally was connected with the Woodmen of the World and the Modern Woodmen of America. He held membership in the Brooklyn Methodist Episcopal church, was one of its trustees, and his family also attended services there. To Mr. and Mrs. Breece were born three children. Albert O., who is in the mail service of Seattle, and Cora M. and Dora F., at home.
Mr. Breece was one of the successful and enterprising citizens of Seattle. His comfortable home, which he erected near the university, gave evidence of
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his enterprise and his care for his family. The attractive residence was sur- rounded by many varieties of choice fruits and a profusion of flowers and there Mrs. Breece and her children are still living. In 1902 Mr. Breece erected a fine new business block, with stores below and a hotel above, which is a credit to the suburb of Brooklyn. In the performance of duty he was prompt, reliable and entirely loyal, and it was due to these characteristics that he lost his life at the hands of a notorious desperado and escaped convict. Harry Tracy, whom he fearlessly faced in his attempt to arrest him. Mr. Breece could have shot him down, but he humanely sought to arrest him with- ont taking his life, and the criminal shot him. He died as he had lived, true to duty, but his death came as a telling blow to his family and friends. He leaves behind him an untarnished name and a reputation over which there falls no shadow of wrong. He was true to the attributes of an upright man- hood, was brave, loyal and true, and because of these traits he was uniformly honored by his fellow men.
AMOS BROWN.
Among the residents of Seattle once prominent in her public affairs who have now passed to that "undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns," is numbered Amos Brown, one of the honored pioneers of the city, whose labors were of material benefit in the improvement and upbuilding of this beautiful metropolis. \ feeling of the deepest regret spread through the city as the news of his demise was received by those who knew him, not so much because of the part which he took in business life, not so much for the aid which he gave to public enterprises, but because the sterling traits of his character had endeared him to those with whom he was associated and because his benevolent spirit and generosity were so often and yet so unostentatiously manifested.
Mr. Brown was born in Bristol, Grafton county. New Hampshire, on the 29th of July, 1833, and died April 8, 1899. His parents were Joseph and Relief ( Orduray ) Brown. The father was also a native of New Hamp- shire and was of Scotch and English ancestry. the family, however, having been founded in America at a very early day in the history of the old Granite state. Joseph Brown was a prominent lumber manufacturer with exten- sive mills on the Merrimac river, where he dealt in masts and spars and conducted a general milling business, which he superintended until sixty years of age. He was then succeeded by his sons, who carried on the busi- ness for many years, the enterprise proving a very profitable one.
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Amos Brown was reared to habits of industry and as work was con- sidered more important than study in those days, his opportunity for ac- quiring an education was extremely limited, although in the school of ex- perience he gained much valuable knowledge. At the early age of ten years he began work in the lumber camp and later was employed at driving the logs on the river, becoming a hardy, fearless and daring youth. He soon excelled in this occupation, became an expert in this line of business and was thus enabled to command the highest price for labor of that charac- ter. Subsequently he worked in the mills and rose from one position to an- other until he was made superintendent and possessed a thorough and prac- tical knowledge of the business in all its departments, both in principle and detail. Leaving home at the age of twenty-one years, he followed lumbering up to 1858. when the Fraser mines gold excitement broke out, and desirous of rapidly acquiring a fortune in the gold fields he left for the northwest, after selling his interests in the east. Going to New York he secured steerage passage, by way of the Isthmus of Panama, to Victoria, British Columbia, paying two hundred and twenty-five dollars for a continuous passage. The voyage was uneventful save for the discomfort of over-crowded vessels, but suffering no accident and little delay, he eventually reached Victoria, there to find that the gold bubble had exploded and that the hopes of thousands were doomed to bitter disappointment. The town was crowded with suf- fcring. starving humanity. Disappointed but not disheartened, Mr. Brown began looking about for work, and believing that he might utilize his knowl- edge of lumbering, he at once sailed for Port Gamble, where he found ready employment at seventy-five dollars per month and expenses. During the first year he had charge of a logging camp, and then purchased an interest in logging teams and secured contracts with the milling companies to furnish them with logs. This business he carried on successfully for two years and then sold his interest and returned to the employ of the company with which he had previously worked on salary. He occupied various positions of trust until 1865. when he resigned in order to visit his old home in New Hampshire.
In 1859. without visiting Seattle, Mr. Brown had been induced to pur- chase property on Spring street, between Second avenue and the water front, and in 1861 he made his first visit to the town. In 1863. in connection with M. R. Maddocks and John Condon, he built the old Occidental Hotel, on the present site of the Occidental block, and this hotel was conducted for two years by Messrs. Maddocks. Brown & Company, at the end of which time he sold his interests to John Collins. In September. 1867, following his visit
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to his old home in New Hampshire, Mr. Brown returned to Seattle and entered into partnership with I. C. Ellis, of Olympia. He conducted a lum- ber business in that city until 1882 and was very successful in the conduct of the enterprise. a large business bringing to him an excellent financial return. For ten years he was in partnership with Mr. Ellis and after that was alone. In 1882 he sold out and from that time until his death prac- tically lived retired, merely giving his supervision to his invested interests, which, owing to increased values and extensive operations in real estate, had grown to considerable proportions. U'p to the time of his death he re- tained large interests in Seattle property, in addition to having extensive tracts of timber land in several counties adjoining the sound.
In his political views Mr. Brown was an enthusiastic Republican and in his early life was an active participant in political work, doing everything possible to promote the success of his party and secure the adoption of its principles, but in later years he left the party work to younger men. He was very public-spirited and co-operated in many movements and measures for the general good and for the improvement of Seattle. He served the com- munity in various positions of responsibility and no trust reposed in him was ever betrayed to the slightest degree. He served as a member of the city council and for two years was a state official, acting as a director of the Steilacoom Insane Asylum. He was most generous and benevolent, his gen- erosity amounting almost to a fault. Any tale of distress awakened his ready sympathy and was immediately followed by an impulse to assist in any way which he could.
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