An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 132

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate publishing company
Number of Pages: 1146

USA > Washington > Kittitas County > An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 132
USA > Washington > Yakima County > An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 132
USA > Washington > Klickitat County > An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 132

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

JOSEPH E. ESCHBACH is one of the pros- perous young farmers of Yakima county, who has

a bright outlook before him. He came of French parents, although a native of the United States him- self, as is also his mother. He was born in Blue Earth county, Minnesota, March 19, 1869. His father, John P. Eschbach, was born in Alsace, France, in 1823, where he was married and his wife died, leav- ing three children. He then came to the United States, and settled in Minnesota, where he married Miss Barbara Sugg, of Buffalo, New York, whose parents were born in France, at the same place as her husband. Her father served nine years with Na- poleon. To this marriage were born ten children. She is living in North Yakima; the husband died in 1898. Our subject came to Yakima county with his parents, and received the last three years of his schooling here, working at the same time with his father on the farm until twenty-two. He then worked with his uncle for a year and also a year with his brother. He then tried hop raising, and in 1895 took charge of his father's farm, he and his brother forming a partnership in the business. They have greatly improved the productiveness of the ranch since taking charge of it, having one hundred acres seeded down to alfalfa, and the re- mainder to hops, clover and grain, with some plow land. He started with ten head of cattle, which have been increased to three hundred head, with a good band of well bred horses. He was married in North Yakima in 1899, to Miss Mary Sandmeyer, daughter of Stephen and Theresa E. (Roxlau) Sandmeyer, both natives of Germany, who settled in Minnesota. where they were married. In 1883 they moved to Yakima county, where they have since lived. Mrs. Eschbach was born in St. James, Minn., in 1878, and was raised in Yakima City principally, but spent five years at Cle-Elum with her family. She has five brothers and sisters, all living in North Yakima: Matthew, Anna, Joseph N., Irene and Ernest. They have two children : Barbara and George A., both born in North Yakima. Mr. and Mrs. Eschbach are of the Catholic com- munion. Politically, Mr. Eschbach is an active Democrat. He and his brothers have jointly six hundred and eighty acres of grazing land on the Cowiche, with stock, mining interests and town property in North Yakima. Mr. Eschbach is a wide- awake, rustling young business man, well esteemed by his neighbors and acquaintances.

MRS. CATHERINE F. LYNCH. Among the pioneers of Yakima county, none are more deserving of a place in history than the noble, brave wives and mothers who came from their homes in the East and older settled portions of the West, and faced the dangers and hardships of the early days in the set- tlement of this country; and few of those pioneer mothers, probably, have seen and experienced more of those deprivations than has the subject of this sketch, Mrs. Catherine F. Lynch. She is a native of Cork, Ireland, where she was born September 25,

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CENTRAL WASHINGTON.

1861, and was brought by her parents to the United States the same year, where she was raised under the influences of the customs and schools of her adopted country. The parents, Timothy J. and Julia (McCarthy) Lynch, were both born in Ireland, and settled in New York on first coming to this country, later coming to Yakima county, where they still live, making North Yakima their home. Mrs. Lynch was raised in Washington, where she first met Daniel Lynch, and at the age of seventeen was united to him in marriage. Mr. Lynch was a native of Ireland, born in 1835. He came to California in 1849, with the great influx of gold seekers, and, after mining there for a number of years, came to Yakima county in 1868, and took up the homestead where the widowed wife now lives, and where he lived until his death in 1889. At this time the widow was left with the care of her five children and the man- agement of the farm, which added responsibilities she has met with faithfulness and conducted with tact and business ability equaled by few. Her chil- dren are: Catherine, born in 1880; Mary E., born 1881; John J., born in 1883; Daniel, born in 1886, and Hannah J., born in 1889. Mrs. Lynch and family are members of the Catholic church, and the husband was an active Democrat. Mrs. Lynch has one hundred and seventy-nine acres of land, half of which is in cultivation, and some seventeen acres of hops; also a good bunch of cattle and horses.

FRANK EGLIN, farmer and hop grower, liv- ing one and one-half miles east of Tampico, is a native son of Yakima county, born in the Tam- pico valley, October 12, 1878, from the union of Abraham D. and Margaret F. (Crews) Eglin, now living near Tampico. The father was born in Canada, June II, 1834, and his father and mother, Cornelius and Mary (Dolson) Eglin. were natives of New York and New Jersey, re- spectively, and moved to Canada in 1844, later returning to Indiana, where they raised their family. Subject's father was reared in Indiana, and at the age of twenty started for the Pacific coast by ox teams, driving a team of slow-mov- ing bovines over the long, tortuous trail to Eugene, Oregon, where he landed in the fall of 1854 and shortly afterwards departed for the gold fields of California, where he mined four years. He then returned to Corvallis, Oregon, where he followed butchering and operated a dray at the same time, for some five years. In 1871 he moved to Yakima county and took up a quarter section of land, which he has owned ever since, and where he now resides, near Tampico. Here have been reared all of his family, including the sub- ject of this sketch. His mother was born in Lafayette county, Missouri, in 1837, and went to Oregon when a small girl, where she was after- wards married. She is the mother of eleven chil-

dren: Benjamin K., Mrs. Lavina Strong, John S., Mrs. Judith Dithenthaller, Warren M., Mrs. Olivia L. Barth, Thomas W., Charles D., George W., James B. and Frank. Mr. Eglin's father is one of the leading farmers of the county, and in 1899 was elected county commissioner, serving in this capacity for two years. He is at present running one of his father's farms, and is giving his attention to hop growing and hay. The sub- ject of this biography was married in North Yakima, in 1900, to Miss Maggie Bates, daughter of Thomas and Celia (Logsdon) Bates, both na- tives of Missouri, now residing near Toppenish. They were early settlers in Washington, coming to Walla Walla when that city was merely a fort, and there Mrs. Eglin was born in 1878. Her parents removed to Idaho when she was still a young girl, later going to Oregon and thence to Yakima county, where their daughter was mar- ried at the age of twenty-two. Her husband is a young man of energy, perseverance and progress- ive ideas. He is a man of honor and integrity, whose future prospects are bright and who enjoys the confidence and respect of all with whom he comes in contact in a business or social way.

HENRY KNOX, who resides upon his ranch, twenty-one miles west and south of North Yakima, near Tampico, first came into Yakima county in 1865, when things wore the wild and untamed appearance of those very early times, but as his stay was only brief, he dates his resi- dence here from 1873, when he first made perma- nent settlement on the farm where he now re- sides. Mr. Knox is a Pennsylvanian, and comes of Scotch and German parents. He was ushered into this world on July 17, 1828, in the old Key- stone state, where lie lived until eighteen, when he made his first trip from his native state, going into the copper mines of Michigan, where he stayed but one year, returning again to his old home. At the end of four years he went to Min- nesota, took up land and engaged in farming for eight years. When he had the place im- proved, he sold it, just in time to get caught by the gold excitement at Pike's Peak, along with hundreds of other venturesome spirits. He re- mained there but a short time and went to the Indian Territory, remaining for two years, when he returned to Minnesota and engaged in mill- ing for three years. He then fitted out with ox teams and joined a caravan across the Plains, heading for Puget Sound. They went via Walla WValla and up the Yakima river, and attempted to cross the Cascade range. This was in 1865, when there was only a trail making connection with the Sound country, and after reaching the end of the road they were forced to turn back and seek a new route down the Yakima valley,

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BIOGRAPHICAL.

thence to The Dalles and on down to Vancouver by steamer. He stopped there, took up land, and farmed for eight years, then sold out, came to Yakima county and purchased land of the North- ern Pacific Railroad. Here he has reared and educated his family of seven children: Eva D. Anderson, Samuel P., Eliza A. Shaw, Minnie M. Witzel, Jasper, Curtis W. and Jerod A. He was married in Minnesota, in 1857, to Miss Eveline Armstrong, daughter of Samuel and Catherine (Bartolett) Armstrong, natives of Pennsylvania, where she also was born. Mr. Knox's parents were Thomas and Susan (Sheckely) Knox, na- tives of Pennsylvania, where they both died. Mr. Knox devotes his attention principally to hop growing and the raising of hay, in both of which lines he is successful.

JOHN WETZEL, a farmer living near Tam- pico, in Yakima county, and a pioneer of 1873, was born in the province of Alsace-Lorraine, France, of German parents, in 1855. His father, John Wetzel, was a stone mason and a native of Alsace-Lorraine, in which country he also died. The mother, Elza (Blasmeier) Wetzel, was born in the same country as her husband, where she still lives. Mr. Wetzel was raised in the land of his nativity until he reached the age of seventeen, there attending the schools and learning the trade of stone mason with his father. He then turned his face toward the United States, the reputed land of liberty, free homes and unbounded wealth and opportunity for the thrifty and energetic poor man. He landed in New York and started west- ward for the Pacific coast, landing in San Fran- cisco in 1873; thence going to Portland, The Dalles and to Yakima City, where he located, April 17, 1873. The year after his arrival he en- gaged to work for A. D. Eglin, with whom he continued for twelve years. During this time he took up a pre-emption claim and proved up on it, selling the same to Andrew Slavin. He then rented and farmed various places until 1892, when he purchased the place where he now lives, and where he has since resided. In 1883 he engaged in the brewery business at Yakima City, starting the second brewery at that place. He was mar- ried in Yakima City, January 6, 1884, to Miss Minnie Knox, daughter of Henry and Eveline (Armstrong) Knox, pioneers and at present res- idents of Yakima county, whose sketches appear in this volume. Mrs. Wetzel was born in Mon- tana and raised in Yakima county. Her birth occurred while her parents were crossing the Plains from Minnesota to the Pacific coast. To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Wetzel have been born the following children: Zevala Mondor, Mary Mondor, Joseph, Josephine, Orenda, Elsie, Eva, Mabel, Henry, and the last, an infant. They are members of the Catholic communion, and Mr.

Wetzel is an active Republican, taking deep in- terest in the success of his party. In fact he is a man who' takes interest in anything which he thinks is for the betterment of the country at large or his own immediate community, and is counted a man of honesty, and integrity.

EDWARD A. SHANNAFELT, who lives on his farm, one and one-half miles west of Tam- pico, was born of German parents in Michigan, in 1859, November 17th. He pre-empted his present farm in 1884, and it has been in his pos- session ever since. His father William H., was a farmer, born in Ohio in 1824. He was a pio- neer in Michigan, where he went in an early day, took up land, and raised his family. He con- tinued to live there until his death in 1900. His mother, Susan (Bleacher) Shannafelt, was born in Pennsylvania in 1831, and raised seven chil- dren. She still lives on the home place in Michi- gan. Our subject was educated in the prepar- atory college at Oberlin, Ohio, and later attended school one year at Ann Arbor, Michigan. . He grew up on the farm, remaining at home working with his father until becoming of age. He then engaged in farming for himself for three years. In 1882 he came west to Oregon, where he remained but a short time, when he moved to Yakima county. He was married in Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1880, to Miss Carrie M. Howk, daughter of William and Mary (Ren- cuard) Howk. Her father was a farmer, of Eng- lish and German parentage. He enlisted as a soldier in the Civil war in the early sixties and was killed at the battle of the Wilderness. Her mother, who was of French descent, was born in Ohio, and raised six children. Mrs. Shannafelt was born in Ohio, April 16, 1845, and is the mother of four children, as follows: Floyd, born in Ohio, June 19, 1880, now a soldier in Manila ; Ethel M., born in Ohio June 29, 1883 ; Daniel W., born in Washington January 27, 1889, now de- ceased ; Bernice N., born in Washington, May 21, 1893. Mr. Shannafelt is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America, and he and family are connected with the Congregational church. He is an active Democrat and participates in the councils of his party. In 1882 he was proffered the nomination for county assessor by the Re- publican party, to which office he was elected that fall, serving two years. He also served as deputy assessor for a long period prior to his election as assessor. He owns a well-improved place with good residence and other buildings and conveniences. He is making a specialty of raising Holstein cattle, of which he has a nice herd of some twenty head.

CHARLES T. ANDERSON, a native of the Northwest, first settled in Yakima county in

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1877, just at the time he had reached his major- ity. He was born in Washington county, Ore- gon, in 1856, to the union of Charles P. and Mary (Cahoon) Anderson. The father, a native of Kentucky and by trade a cabinet maker, crossed the Plains to Oregon by ox teams in 1852, and took up a donation claim. He lived there for eighteen years, then moved to Lewis county, Washington, where he still resides. His father was Swedish and his mother Scotch and English. The latter, a native of Indiana, died in 1902. She was the mother of eight children.

Our subject learned the trade of cabinet maker with his father when a boy and when twenty-one, built the first house erected in Cen- tralia. Coming to Yakima county in 1877, he worked at his trade there for the ensuing six years, but in 1883 he squatted on his present farm, and held it in this way for eight years, when he filed on it. Putting out his first hop field of three and one-half acres in 1886, he has continued in the industry ever since, and now has nine acres. He is also engaged in general agriculture and in stock raising. Among the many improvements on his place is a fine eleven- room house and outbuildings in keeping with it, and indeed his farm is in all respects well kept, bespeaking thrift and industry in its owner.

In 1881, in Yakima county, Mr. Anderson married Eva D. Knox, a native of Minnesota, born in 1862. She crossed the Plains with her parents when little more than an infant, in 1865, passing up the Yakima river, near where they now live, while on this journey. Her parents, Henry and Eveline (Armstrong) Knox, are now living near Tampico, and their personal histories appear elsewhere in this volume. Her living brothers and sisters are: Eliza Shaw, Minnie M. Wetzel, Jasper, Curtis W. and Jerod A. Mr. Anderson has one brother and three sisters. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Anderson are: Clarence A., Charles H., George C., Adda L., Edythe, Guy, Fred, Amy J. and Lulu. Politically, Mr. Ander- son is a Democrat. His farm of one hundred and sixty acres is in an excellent condition, well stocked with cattle and all horses needful for its successful operation. As a man and citizen, he enjoys a high standing in his community and county, his neighbors all respecting him for his industry and integrity.

JOHN W. SHAW, farmer and stock raiser and a Yakima county pioneer of 1874, was born in Illi- nois in 1852. His father, William Shaw, was a pioneer in Oregon. He crossed the Plains with an ox outfit in 1853, and in making a cut-off became lost on the way, and it was six weeks before they again found the trail. They were without water for three days at one time and, running out of provi- sions, were compelled to kill their own cattle and

subsist upon meat alone without salt. At last reach- ing Douglas county, Oregon, he took up a donation claim, on which he lived eleven years, later spend- ing seven years in the Grand Ronde valley, and finally departed this life in Yakima county in 1898. The mother, Eliza J. Miller, was a native of Penn- sylvania and the mother of nine children. She died in 1900. "Our subject was but one year old when his parents brought him across the Plains, entirely too young to have any remembrance of the hard- ships which they underwent, but he does have a very distinct recollection of the early experiences in that new country of his boyhood days. He grew to young manhood in Douglas county and the Grand Ronde valley, commencing to do for himself at the age of eighteen. When he was twenty he went to California, and later went to the mines in Nevada. He came from the latter state to Yakima county in 1874 and took up a pre-emption claim near the Woodcock Academy. This he sold at the end of six years and purchased of the Northern Pacific Rail- road his present farm of one hundred and sixty acres, where he has since lived. He was married in 1876 to Miss Eliza A. Knox, daughter of the pio- neer, Henry Knox. Mrs. Shaw was born in the Indian Territory in 1861, crossing the Plains with her parents in 1865. To Mr. and Mrs. Shaw have been born the following children: Anna P. Brawt- ner, William, Cecil, Martha, Vida, Carrie, Daisy, Emma and Archie, all living near Tampico. Poli- tically, Mr. Shaw is a stanch Republican. In addi- tion to raising hops extensively, he also handles a great deal of stock. He is one of the solid citizens of the county.

WILLIAM HAYMOND MINNER, deceased, a pioneer of 1875, was born in Indiana February 6, 1834. His father, Peter Minner, a farmer, was a native of Delaware, born in 1804. To him belonged the honor of having been one of the first settlers in Hamilton county, Indiana. He was of Scotch-Irish descent. The mother, Latecia (Holt) Minner, was born in Delaware in 1805 to Dutch and Scotch parents, and died in 1876. She was the mother of nine children. The subject of this sketch was raised in his native state. His father dying when he was a boy two years of age, he had but limited educational opportunities, indeed, and at the early age of nine he began to work out to help the mother in support- ing the family. He continued to pursue this course until he was of age. The mother then sold the home place and moved to Iowa, where she and her two sons bought a place together. The brother dying in a short time, the place had to be disposed of. Mr. Minner then went to Missouri and took up eighty acres of land, and in a short time was married to Minerva Duree, who died two years later, leaving one child, who still lives. Mr. Minner enlisted in the army in the first year of the Civil war and served for almost three years, engaging in many of the

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BIOGRAPHICAL.

hard-fought battles of that contest. He was then discharged for injuries received, and, returning home, outfitted with eight yokes of cows and started across the Plains to Oregon. He lived there for twelve years, and in 1875 moved to Yakima county. He rented land for two years on the Ahtanum, and during that period purchased one hundred and sixty acres, which never passed out of his hands. He improved the place, taking water out of the Ahta- num for irrigating purposes, building good barns and putting up the first good residence in the Ahta- num valley. After the death of his wife in' Mis- souri he was married in 1862, in Iowa, to Harriett J. Shamp, who accompanied him on his trip across the Plains. She died in 1895, leaving six children : Elmer, Julia E., Jennie P. Lyle, Carrie L. Mor- rison, Lydia L. Crosno, Nora Claton. He was mar- ried again in 1897 to Mrs. Endis Hay, from whom he was divorced after five years. He then married Anna Stone, a cousin of the Rothschilds, who died shortly after the ceremony was performed. He was again married in recent years, and his last wife survives him.

Unfortunately a very few months ago, Mr. Min- ner became involved in a quarrel with Charles Myers, a renter of some of his farm property, and the latter shot and killed him.

CARPUS S. HALE, stock dealer and raiser, North Yakima, was born in the Willamette valley, Oregon, January 28, 1867. He comes of pioneer stock, his parents having grown up there from small children. His father, Milton Hale, was born in Indiana, in 1838, of Dutch and Irish par- ents, and was a stock raiser. He drove an ox team from his native state to Oregon, when but fourteen years of age, and settled with his parents in the Willamette valley. In 1871 he moved to Umatilla county, where he followed stock raising until 1894, at which time he moved to Yakima county, where he died the following year. The mother, Mary E. (Sperry) Hale, a native of Pennsylvania, came west to California with her parents, and later moved to Oregon, where she met and married her husband at the age of fifteen. Mr. Hale was raised in Umatilla county, and was with his father, assisting with the stock, until twenty years of age, at which time lie purchased one hundred and sixty acres and went to do for himself. He then pre- empted another quarter section and also bought three hundred and twenty acres of the railroad. He farmed this for five years, then sold out and in 1892 moved to Yakima county. He first located at Zillah, where he opened a livery barn and butcher shop, operating these for three years, then he purchased a party's right to a homestead. This place he improved and lived upon for three years, at the end of which time he lost it through some technical error in the first filing. He then moved to North Yakima, and engaged in buying and sell-

ing stock, which he has since followed. He is also raising stock, having several hundred head on hand most of the time. He and his brother, Michael A., are business partners. His living brothers and sisters are: Caroline Cason, Cyn- thia Cochran, Sarah Cason, Michael A., Daniel, Perry, Guy, Della Armitage, Ida Grable, and Clay, all but three of whom live in Oregon. He was married in Oregon, in 1887, to Mary E. Haile, to which union were born two children, Hughie and Ida E. He was married the second time, in North Yakima, in 1902, to Lorena Lafferty, daughter of John and Sophia ( Harding) Lafferty, both natives of Iowa, and pioneers of Washington. His wife has one sister, Bessie. Mr. Hale belongs to the Woodmen of the World, and was raised under the influence of the Baptist church. He is among the more prominent and influential pioneers of the county.

EDWARD SLAVIN, a farmer, living two miles north and three east of Tampico, was born in Lewis county, New York, in 1856, to Irish par- ents. His father and mother, Andrew and Ann (Duncan) Slavin, both of whom were born in Ire- land, later settled in Minnesota, where the father farmed. Here young Slavin attended the schools of his district, and worked with his father on the farm until eighteen, when he started out to do for himself, working at any job that came his way, principally, however, in the forests of that country. In 1887, he came to Washington, settling in Yakima county, where he and his brother bought a quarter section of land of the railroad company. They cut logs on their place that fall, also worked together for a time on the brother's hop ranch. Mr. Slavin then spent three years in North Yakima running the street sprinkler and hauling lumber, then he went to the Big Bend country. where he farmed for a year. Returning to Yakima county at the end of that time, he engaged in farming on the Ahtanum, and he has been thus engaged ever since. He follows diversified farming, giving attention to hops, hay and stock, and achieving an excellent success in his line.

In Yakima City, in 1892, Mr. Slavin married Lilian, daughter of George Jervius, a merchant of that place. Mr. Jervius was born in Canada and came to Yakima City at a very early date. Mrs. Slavin is a native of Omaha, Nebraska, born in 1873, but she came to Washington when six years of age, and was educated here, teaching school for a time, after completing her education. Mr. and Mrs. Slavin's children are: Zoe S., born December 6, 1896; Helen M., born Decem- ber 4, 1899, and Lawrence, born in 1902. Mr. and Mrs. Slavin are members of the Catholic church. Mr. Slavin is a pronounced Democrat. Coming to the county with little capital, he has, by industry and thrift, acquired a competency, and

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An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 132

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1904 Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate publishing company Number of Pages: 1146

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate publishing company
Number of Pages: 1146