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 56
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In Seattle, on the 12th of July, 1890. Mr. McNatt was married to lda M Dewey, who was born in Indiana in 1867 and came to Seattle in 1889. In his political affiliations Mr. McNatt is a Republican, and fraternally is connected with Queen City Lodge No. 10, K. P., of Seattle. From his old college days his circle of friends in the state has constantly increased as his business interests have widened and his acquaintance accordingly grown, and he stands to-day as one of the leading representatives of the important work of developing the natural resources of this great state.
CHARLES VERD.
In the history of business development and of individual achievement in the northwest Charles Verd of Fremont is deserving of prominent and honorable mention, for with a cash capital of one hundred and fifty dollars he came to Washington, and in the development of a lumber business of magnitude in this section of the state he has advanced to a leading position among the successful business men whose enterprise is leading to the rapid growth and improvement of this section of the country. The great forests of this state furnish ample opportunity for representatives of the lumber in- dustry, and the giant trees converted into building materials are now be- ing shipped not only to all sections of the Union, but to foreign countries as well. Mr. Verd. as the vice president of the Bryant Lumber & Shingle Mill Company, is not only widely known in this state, but also in the east. to which district the firm makes extensive shipments.
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Mr. Verd was born in Ontario, Canada, October 7, 1840, a son of Toussaint and Electa (Waite) Verd. The father was of French extrac- tion and the mother a native of Albany, New York. By occupation Tous- saint Verd was a farmer and followed that pursuit in Ontario until 1849, when he removed to St. Clair county, Michigan, locating in Grant town- ship, where he again engaged in farming. Later, however, he returned to the Dominion, but later again he took up his abode in Grant township, where he is still living, at the advanced age of eighty years. All of his five chil- dren yet survive: Charles. of this review: Thomas, a farmer of Canada : Elizabeth, the wife of M. Nicholson, a resident of Minnesota: Submitta, the widow of John McNellis, and a resident of Michigan; and Melissa, the wife of Samuel McFarland, of Little Falls, Montana.
Charles Verd, the eldest of the family, was a child of nine years when he accompanied his parents to Michigan. He was reared to manhood on his father's farm and in the winter months was employed in the woods in the lumbering and logging camps, where he gained his first knowledge of the business in which he is now so extensively engaged. On attaining his ma- jority he gave his attention chiefly to the lumber trade, and his proficiency and experience in that line gained him the position of foreman, in which capacity he represented various large lumber companies of Michigan.
On the IIth of March, 1888, Mr. Verd came to Seattle and began log- ging on a very extensive scale, purchasing timber and furnishing logs for mills and for dealers for four years. . At the end of that time Mr. Sanders became his partner in one of his camps, Mr. Verd, however, owning two others. In 1893 he established the Bryant shingle mill, which is still oper- ated as the main feature of the company's business, employing from eighty to one hundred men. In 1894 they leased the Fremont mill and after two years purchased it. At this mill lumber and all kinds of building materials, such as moldings, casings, etc., are manufactured, and the mill has a daily capacity of about fifty thousand feet of lumber. In July, 1902, this large plant was almost entirely destroyed by fire, only the planing mill being saved, but with characteristic energy, indicative of the spirit which ever per- meates its business, the company at once began to replace this with a larger and more complete mill than the old one, equipping it with the latest im- proved machinery for the manufacture of lumber and of their building spe- cialties. This company furnished two extremely large logs to the state of Washington for exhibit at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. In the interest of the mill and lumber operations the company has purchased large tracts of timber land, a great deal of which has already
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been cleared, but additional investments in this way are being made from time to time. The mills have also been greatly improved by the introduic- tion of new machinery and modern methods, and yet even with the increased facilities the company has been unable to supply the demands of a constantly increasing trade.
Mr. Verd has also become interested in farming and stock-raising. which he has carried on under his personal supervision, and which is also a good source of income. He has also erected four residences in Fremont. including his own comfortable home. His attention. however, has been mainly given to his lumbering business, and he is well known to lumber buyers in the east as well as locally, and the company sustains a very en- viable reputation for promptness and reliability.
In Huron county, Michigan, in January. 1864. Mr. Verd was married to Phebe Huffman, who is a native of Canada and of German descent. Six sons have been born to them: Edward, who is the secretary and treasurer of the Bryant Lumber & Shingle Mill Company: Charles, who is the fore- man of the Fremont mills: William H., the foreman of the logging depart- ment at Bryant: Homer, who is bookkeeper for the company in Bryant : Frank and Fred, the latter a graduate of Wilson's Business College. Two daughters of the family died in infancy.
In his political views Mr. Verd is a Republican, and while in Michi- gan he took an active part in public affairs, serving as supervisor of Huron township and in other positions of public trust. Socially he is a Royal Arch Mason, and his family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. of which he is a liberal supporter. He is a progressive and public spirited citizen, interested in whatever pertains to material development and the so- cal, intellectual and moral advancement of his community, and the north- west has profited by his labors in her behalf, for while promoting his indi- vidual business interests he has also improved the opportunity to labor for the benefit of the section of the country in which he makes his home.
W. E. GIBSON, M. D.
Dr. W. E. Gibson, who is engaged in the practice of medicine in Issa- quah and is one of the leading and influential citizens of the town, was born in Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, near Punxsutawney. on the 6th of August. 1859. and comes of Irish ancestry. His paternal grandfather. An- drew Gibson, was born on the Emerald Isle and in his boyhood was brought to America, becoming a resident of the Keystone state in 1795. He died
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in Indiana county, that state, in 1873. His son, W. S. Gibson, the father of the Doctor, was born in Indiana county January 19, 1822, and followed farming in his native county and in Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, until 1866, when he followed the tide of emigration to the west and became a resi- dent of Delaware county, Iowa. There he remained, devoting his energies to agricultural pursuits, until 1899, when he came to the Pacific coast and is now spending the evening of life in Issaquah in the homes of his sons. W. E. and J. H. Gibson. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Melinda McKee, was born in Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, in 1829, and died in Delaware county. Iowa, in 1876.
The Doctor was only about seven years of age when his parents re- moved to the west and in Delaware county he pursued his early education, which was supplemented by study in Hopkinton, Iowa, in Lenox Collegiate Institute. In 1883 he went to Wilsonville, Furnas county, Nebraska, where he entered upon the study of medicine in the office of Dr. George P. Shoe- maker, and later he became a student in the College of Physicians and Sur- geons at Keokuk, lowa, where he was graduated with the class of 1888. He then returned to Wilsonville, where he practiced for a year, and on the expiration of that period he came to the northwest, settling at Issaquah, where he took charge of the practice of Dr. Shoemaker, his former pre- ceptor. For about seven years he was the local physician for the Northern Pacific Railroad Company. In 1889 he and his brother, J. H. Gibson, opened a drug store in Issaquah, which they have since conducted, the brother practically having charge of that business.
While in Wilsonville, Nebraska, in the spring of 1888, Dr. Gibson was united in marriage to Miss Fannie Garner, who was born in Guthrie county, Iowa, and they now have two children, Olive and Elry, aged respectively eight and three years. In his political views the Doctor is a Republican and takes quite an active part in political affairs here. Upon that ticket he was elected to the office of mayor of Issaquah in 1890 and his administration was practical and beneficial. For several terms he has been a member of the town council and his labors for the welfare of the town have not been without result. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity. the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Foresters, the Order of Washing- ton and the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and for all of these he is examining physician. He has well qualified himself for his professional duties and has strict regard for the ethics of the professional code, so that he commands the confidence and respect of his brethren of the medical fra- ternity as well as of the public.
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J. It. Gibson, the Doctor's brother and partner, was born in Jefferson county, Pennsylvania. April 19. 1864, and with the family went to Dela- ware county, lowa, in 1866, there continuing his education in the public schools, while spending the days of his minority under the parental roof. In 1886 he removed to Wilsonville. Nebraska, where for three years he was engaged in the drug business and in 1889 he came to Issaquah to enter the field of mercantile activity here as one of the tounders of the Gibson Broth- ers' drug store, of which he has since had charge. Ilis patronage has steid- ily increased and he conducts a well appointed establishment, neat and at- tractive in appearance. He has been postmaster of Issaquah for four years and has almost continuously been chosen as a delegate to the Republican convention, his opinions carrying weight in the councils of the party. He was married in Wilsonville, Nebraska. December 25, 1890, to Ida A. McDonald, who was born in Wisconsin in 1871, and they have one son. Grant M., now eleven years of age.
WILLIAM H. TAYLOR.
Among the men who came to this country before civilization had ef- fected much, and who has a fund of interesting experiences of his early life here, is William H. Taylor. His ancestors were of the hardy Saxon stock and came to the state of Ohio at an early date. His father, William, had his birth in Ohio in 1816 and about the year 1850 went to Iowa, where he made farming his occupation and died in Linn county in 1864: his wife, Hannah Wheeling, was born in Ohio on January 1, 1819, and is still living at Todds- ville, Linn county.
Their son. William H., was born in Linn county, Iowa, on the 12th of February, 1853, and was educated in the district schools of his county. In 1872 he concluded to seek his fortune in the great west and set out for the coast, going by the Union Pacific Railroad to San Francisco, thence to Vic- toria and Seattle: from here he and D. N. Taylor and family, the latter now living at Falls City, made a very difficult and tedious trip overland to the Snoqualmie river, a distance of about fifty miles. At that time the whole county was one vast stretch of dense forests and the only roads were the Indian trails, thus making communication very laborious, and these pioneer settlers found much difficulty in obtaining supplies. For the first eight years of his residence in this wild country Mr. Taylor was engaged in operat- ing a fleet of canoes along the Snoqualmie river. carrying supplies from Snohomish for distribution to the settlers on the river as far as North Bend.
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a total distance of fifty miles ; he hired Indians to paddle and pole the boats and to carry them and their freight around the great Snoqualmie falls, the trip usually taking about five days.
In 1880 Mr. Taylor purchased two one-hundred-and-sixty-acre farms from Matts and Peter Peterson, who had taken them up as homesteads, and liere he has since made his home. When the Northern Pacific Railroad was being built, in 1889, he laid out thirty acres of his land in town lots, and on this the present town of North Bend was built. From 1880 to 1888 Mr. Taylor was engaged in farming, from 1888 to 1892 lie served as one of the King county board of commissioners, and in 1895 he established a general merchandise store at North Bend, which he has conducted most suc- cessfully ever since; he still holds sixty acres of his original land and also some valuable timber interests in the mountains. Of the six men who came to this region in 1872 only one besides Mr. Taylor is still living. In politics Mr. Taylor is a Republican and takes a prominent part in the public affairs of his community.
INGEBRIGHT A. WOLD.
From the "land of the midnight sun" have come many of the stalwart citizens of Washington, men who have bravely met the pioneer conditions with their attendant hardships and difficulties, resolutely setting to work to overcome these and carrying forward the work of improvement and de- velopment until their labors have proved of benefit not only to themselves but also to this and to future generations, for their work in reclaiming the wild districts for the uses of the white man will serve as a foundation for fu- ture progress and improvement. Among the Norwegian citizens who have been active factors in the business life of the northwest is Ingebriglit .1. Wold, who is now living in Issaquah. He was born in Throndhjem, Nor- way, November 27, 1841, and is a son of Andrew and Barbara (Delathimit) Wold, who were also natives of the same locality. The father was a farmer by occupation and followed that pursuit in his native land until his death. which occurred in 1851. His wife long survived him, passing away in 1882.
Mr. Wold of this review was educated in the public schools of his na- tive town. He was only ten years of age at the time of his father's death, and when sixteen years of age he entered upon an apprenticeship to the shoe- maker's trade, serving for a term of five years. He then worked as a jour- neyman in Norway until 1864. when he resolved to test the favorable reports concerning America and her opportunities by seeking a home and fortune in
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the new world. - Accordingly, in June of that year he sailed for the United States and took up his abode in Chicago, where he engaged in shoemaking for a year.
In the fall of 1865 Mr. Wold! went to San Francisco, by way of the Panama route and there remained until the following spring, when he made his way northward to Seattle, where in company with his brother Peter he established a shoemaking shop on Commercial street. They secured a stock of leather and conducted the only establishment of the kind in the embryo city. The brothers remained in the business for two years, enjoying an extensive trade and manufacturing shoes for all of the pioneer settlers of Seattle and also furnishing shoe supplies to smaller dealers throughout the sound country. In the meantime Mr. Wold purchased a number of lots on what is now Second avenue and University street and also on Pike street and in other parts of the city. making judicious investments in real estate when it was sold at a low figure. Some of this he still holds, and it has constantly risen in value with the growth of the city until it is now very desirable property. In the spring of 1868 Mr. . Wold went to the Squak valley, near the head of Squak lalte, where in connection with his two broth- ers, Peter and L. A. Wold, he purchased the Weich farm of one hundred and sixty acres, for which they paid five hundred dollars. The place was a wilderness, but they soon cieared a portion of it and planted a hop field, from which they shipped the first hops raised in King county, an industry which has since become an important one here. Their shipment was made to Seattle and sold 10 Smek's brewery for a keg of beer. From that time they increased their hop-growing interests until they had forty-five acres in hops and for several years enjoyed a prosperous business through the produc- tion and sale of that commodity. While residing on the Squak valley ranch Mr. Wold also conducted a general store, doing a thriving business with farmers, miners and Indians of the surrounding country.
In 1887 I. A. Wold sold his interest in the farm to his brother, L. .. Wold, and the same year secured a pre-emption claim of one hundred and sixty acres, on which a portion of the town of Issaquah was afterward built. After proving up this property and buying the claim, securing his title after five years, he platted eighty acres in town lots and sold eighty acres to the Seattle Coal & Iron Company, retaining for himself a handsome home in the town, with some adjoining farm land. This town will ever stand as a mon- ument to the enterprise and progressive spirit of Mr. Wold, whose labors in behalf of the development of this portion of the state have been of no unimportant character.
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In Seattle, on the 6th of January, 1893. Mr. Wold was united in mar- riage to Miss Amelia Waler, who was born in Denmark in 1873, and came with her parents to Seattle in 1890. They now have three children : Ida, Walter and Oscar, aged respectively nine, seven and four years. Mr. Wold belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at Issaquah, and in his political affilations is a Democrat. For many years he has taken an active part in public affairs, doing all in his power to promote the success of the party in which he believes, and also contributing to general progress and improvement along other lines. He is familiar with the pioneer history of the state from an early day. his residence here covering thirty-six years. He has witnessed the introduction of the railroad, the telegraph and the tele- phone, has seen the wild land transformed into good farms, the mineral resources of the state developed, while towns and villages have sprung up with their accompanying commercial and industrial interests, and churches and schools have been established. Mr. Wold's name in inseparably inter- woven with the work of pioneer development and of later day progress and he well deserves the rest from active labor which he is now enjoying.
ELWOOD C. HUGHES.
Perhaps there is no part of this history of more general interest than the record of the bar. It is well known that the peace, prosperity and well-being of every community depend upon the wise interpretation of the laws, as well as upon their judicious framing, and therefore the records of the various persons who have at different times made up the bar will form an important part of this volume. A well known jurist of Illinois said: "In the American state the great and good lawyer must always be prominent, for he is one of the forces that move and control society. Public confidence has generally been reposed in the legal profession. It has ever been the de- fender of popular rights, the champion of freedom regulated by law, the firm support of good government. In the times of danger it has stood like a rock and breasted the mad passions of the hour and finally resisted tumult and faction. No political preferment, no mere place, can add to the power or increase the honor which belongs to the pure and educated lawyer." Elwood C. Hughes is one who has been honored by and is an honor to the legal fra- ternity of Washington. He stands to-day prominent among the leading members of the bar of the state, a position to which he has attained through marked ability.
Elwood Clarke Hughes is a member of the law firm of Struve, Allen.
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Hughes & McMicken. He claims Pennsylvania as the state of his nativity, his birth having occurred near Bloomsburg, Columbia county, on the 25th of August, 1855. He is descended from Welsh-Quaker ancestry who came to Pennsylvania at the time William Penn settled in Philadelphia. Members of the family were very prominent in the early history of that portion of the state. Benjamin Hughes, the grandfather of our subject, was born there, and Ellwood Hughes, the father, was born in December, 1818, on the old homestead farm on which Benjamin Hughes had settled on removing to Columbia county. He married Elizabeth Hill, a native of Hughesville, Pennsylvania. He was a man of very liberal views, prominent and influen- tial in public affairs, and held membership in the Lutheran Evangelical church. In his family were seven children. of whom four are yet living. The father died in 1894, and his wife is now living in Dixon, Illinois, in the eighty-fourth year of her age. She comes of a family of marked distinction, whose representatives were identified with the learned professions, many of them being physicians, clergymen and college professors. Her ancestors left England for Germany at the same time the Puritans sailed on the May- flower for America, and in 1725 they, too, came to the new world. The grandfather of Mrs. Hughes was a soldier of the Revolutionary war.
Elwood Clarke Hughes was reared on a farm near Dixon, Illinois, on which his parents had located when they emigrated westward. He worked in the fields in the summer months, and in the winter seasons attended school until seventeen years of age. He afterward engaged in teaching school through the winter months, and, anxious to acquire a better education, he entered Carthage College at Carthage, Illinois, in which he was graduated in 1878, being the valedictorian of his class, his standing being ninety-nine and three-quarters, the highest ever attained by any college student in that institution. Subsequently he engaged in teaching Latin and Greek in the preparatory department of the college and afterward accepted a position at Mount Morris, Illinois, where he was also instructor in the same branches for a year.
In 1880 Mr. Hughes was happily married to Miss Emma De Hart, a native of Carthage, who had been one of his classmates in college. In the meantime he had begun studying law and was admitted to the bar in the state of lowa in September, 1881. He then entered upon the practice of his profession there and in 1880 was admitted to practice in the supreme court of the United States. His clientage grew rapidly, but his health demanded a change of climate, and in 1890, in company with his partner. H. H. A. Hastings. he made a trip to the Pacific coast, visiting Seattle. Well pleased
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with the city and its future prospects, they decided to locate here, and for three years their partnership relations were maintained. In the fall of 1893 Livingston B. Stedman was admitted to a partnership, and the firm of Hughes, Hastings & Stedman was formed. Not long afterward the present fırın of Struve, Allen, Hughes & McMicken was organized, to which Sena- tor Allen, who died suddenly on January 29, 1903, and Mr. Hughes were the court lawyers. The firm is one of the most prominent in the state and repre- sents a number of leading corporations of Seattle and of Washington. The members enjoy a high reputation for legal talent and integrity and their busi- ness is now assuming very extensive proportions. In his preparation of cases Mr. Hughes is most thorough and exhaustive; he seems almost in- tuitively to grasp the strong points of law and fact, while in his briefs and arguments the authorities are cited so extensively and the facts and reason- ing thereon are presented so cogently and unanswerably as to leave no doubt as to the correctness of his views or of his conclusions.
The home of Mr. and Mrs. Hughes has been blessed with a son and a daughter, Howard De Hart, who is now a student in Harvard College, and Helen M., who has just returned from Europe, where, with her mother, she has been traveling. The cause of education finds in Mr. Hughes a warm friend, and he is now serving as a member of the school board, doing every- thing in his power to advance the standard of the schools in this city. Soci- ally he is connected with the Elks, the Odd Fellows and the Knights Templar, and in politics is a very active and earnest Republican. In campaign years he delivers many addresses, and his oratorical ability is widely recognized, making him an entertaining speaker. His scholarly attainments, his reliable judgment and his charming powers of conversation would enable him to fill any position, however exalted, and he is no less honored in public than loved in private life.
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