An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 133

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 133
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 133
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 133

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).

584

CENTRAL WASHINGTON.

the respect which is ever willingly accorded those who prove themselves master of adversity is his to enjoy.

ANDREW C. GERVAIS, retired farmer, liv- ing in Yakima City, is numbered among the earliest pioneers in Yakima county, where he set- tled in June, 1861. He is a native of Franklin county, New York, where he was born in 1834, to the marriage of John B. and Angelica (Aquitt) Ger- vais. His parents were both born in Canada, the father being a farmer and blacksmith. They were the parents of sixteen children. Our subject at- tended school until thirteen, when his father put him out to learn the shoemaker's trade, at which he served an apprenticeship of five years. He then went to New York and followed his trade in Albany, Troy and other points, for two years. At this time, 1852, he was taken with the western fever, and took ship for San Francisco via the Panama route, at which place he landed May I. 1853, and, after remaining there for one year, went to Sacramento for six months and followed shoe- making, then came to Yakima county. He worked the first summer for William Parker, and spent the winter with Mortimer Thorp. During 1860-1, he followed packing from Umatilla to Boise Basin. During one of his trips the Indians stole his pack- train. While trying to recover the goods he was shot through the leg by a redskin, but ultimately recov- ered his goods and continued his trip in a wounded condition. In the spring of 1862 he took as a homestead a tract of land adjoining the pres- ent site of Yakima City, on which he lived until 1893, when he sold it. The next year he went east and renewed his acquaintance with his boyhood scenes after an absence of thirty-five years. In 1897 he again made a trip east, where he was mar- ried to Miss Mary Basonette. He brought his wife to Washington, where she died eight months later. In 1899 he was again married in the east to Miss Eliza Petaud. He brought his new bride to his home in Yakima City, where they have since lived. After the sale of his farm, Mr. Gervais purchased a comfortable home in Yakima City and retired from farm life. He has seen the development of his country from a wild waste of sage brush and grass, inhabited only by the Indian and his cayuse, the pioneer stock raiser with his range cattle, into its present advanced state of cultivation and civil- ization, with beautiful homes and the most produc- tive orchards on the continent covering the val- leys and hillsides, in all of which he has taken an active and honorable part, and in the history of which he is entitled to a permanent and lasting record page.

JAMES M. HENDERSON, farmer, and con- stable in North Yakima, was born in Indiana in

1844, from the union of William B. and Sarah (McKee) Henderson. His father was born in Ohio and went to Indiana in 1842, where he lived until 1856. He then immigrated to Minnesota, where he farmed and where he still lives at the age of ninety. He is of Scotch and English descent. The mother was also a native of Ohio, of Scotch parentage, and is now deceased. Our subject grew to young manhood in Minnesota, and when the war broke out he, at the age of twenty, enlisted and served one year. He then returned home and went to school again for twelve months; then fol- lowed farming until 1873 when he went to Califor- nia. After five years he returned to Faribault, Minnesota, where he served as policeman for two years; then moved to Iowa. His health failing, he went to Kansas at the end of two years. In 1889 he came to North Yakima, following teaming for four years, when he was elected marshal, and at the end of one year purchased a ten-acre tract of land two miles west of town, which he improved by putting out an orchard and building a good house. This he sold later for three hundred dol- lars per acre and purchased an eighty-acre tract farther west, in the Ahtanum valley, which he is now devoting to hay and grain. In 1902 he pur- chased a home in North Yakima, where he resides at present. Mr. Henderson was married in Dela- ware county, Iowa, December 25, 1872, to Miss Louise Morse, daughter of Leonard L. and Julia (Farnum) Morse. The former was a native of Vermont, and was a pioneer of California. He died in Iowa. The mother was a native of New York. Mrs. Henderson is a native of Illinois. She was raised, educated and married in Iowa. She followed the profession of teacher for a number of years. To the union of Mr. and Mrs. Henderson have been born four children as follows : Jennie, wife of David H. Guilland, a pioneer of this county, now living in Idaho; Etha C. Woodcock, living in Yakima county ; Harry and William, deceased. 'The family attends the Christian Science church. Being a veteran of the Civil war, Mr. Henderson is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. Politically, he is a Republican. He is active and progressive in political and business affairs and is esteemed by all who know him.

DAVID J. STEEVENS. The subject of this biography first came to Yakima county in the fall of 1868, when he assisted Sumner Barker in open- ing a store at Fort Simcoe, in which he clerked for several months. This was the second store started in the county. In the fall of 1869 the stock was divided and half of it removed to Yakima City, then in its infancy, and the first store that place ever had was thus established, Mr. Steevens act- ing as clerk. The next spring he took up a ranch on the Ahtanum and after living there a short time removed to Fort Simcoe, in the capacity of gov-

585

BIOGRAPHICAL.

ernment carpenter. After two years he returned to his farm and in 1876 opened a carpenter shop in Yakima City. He continued to live there until af- ter the founding of North Yakima, when he re- moved to that city and engaged in carpentering. Here he followed his trade for nine years, at the end of which time he returned to the Ahtanum valley and once more went to farming, and this he has continued to follow ever since. Mr. Steevens was born in Pennsylvania in 1837 to the union of David E. and Adelia (Straight) Steevens, both natives of New York. His father was born in 1816 and died in Illinois. He was a carpenter by trade. The mother's ancestors were banished from Ireland, for political reasons, and settled in the United States during colonial days. She died in Pennsylvania when her son David was thirteen years of age. When a boy he learned the carpen- ter's trade with his father and at eighteen years of age went to Illinois and worked at his trade. The Civil war broke out during his residence there and he enlisted in the Seventh Illinois infantry, Com- pany B. After seven months' service his time ex- pired and he re-enlisted in the Seventy-sixth Illi- nois infantry, and in 1863 went as a member of an escorting party, across the Plains to Oregon. Here he was discharged, but at once enlisted in a volun- teer company to fight Indians, and later enlisted in the First Oregon infantry, from which he was dis- charged at Vancouver, Washington, at the close of the war. He engaged in clerking and working at his trade here for almost two years. He then went to The Dalles and later to Yakima county, as stated in the foregoing. He was married in Yakima county; March 1, 1870, to Martha E. Lyen, daughter of Ezekiel Lyen, to which union was born one child, Henry A., who is now on the United States training ship Mohican. In 1875, af- ter the loss of his first wife, he was married to Mrs. Caltha Deardorf, who died two years later. Fra- ternally, Mr. Steevens is connected with the Ma- sonic order; politically, he is an active Repub- lican.

SILAS H. WOOLSEY is a native of the Buckeye state, and was born in 1850. Three weeks after his birth his father died, leaving the family of children to the care of the mother. The father, Hezekiah Woolsey, was a Pennsylvanian and followed farming. He was a pioneer in Ohio, and came of English stock. The mother, Hannah Cutler, was a native of Wales. She died when young Woolsey was but ten years of age and he went to live with one of his brothers. He remained with him until the close of the war, when another brother, who had served through the war, came home and he went to live with him, where he remained until he was twenty-six, hav- ing an interest in the crops on the farm after he became of age. In 1879 he went to Nebraska,

living there for three years. He then sold out and came to Yakima county, settling at first in the Ahtanum valley. After three years' resi- dence there he moved to Kittitas county and took up a quarter section of land near Cle-Elum, which he sold eighteen months later to the coal com- pany and returned to Yakima county. He then purchased his present farm of eighty acres and took up residence on it, improving and develop- ing the ranch into its present convenient and productive condition. Here he has since con- tinued . to live. He was married in Illinois, in 1875, to Miss Eliza J. Dickerson, daughter of William and Sarah (Housh) Dickerson. Her father, a farmer and native of Illinois, continued to reside in the state of his nativity until his death. Her mother was a native of the Hoosier state and of German descent. There were eleven children in her family. Mrs. Woolsey was born in Illinois in 1855, and learned the millinery and dressmaker's trade. The children born to her union with Mr. Woolsey are: Frank, Mrs. Sarah Hanson, James, Lauren, Maud, Clara, Emma, Edith, Ellis, Gertrude and George. Mr. and Mrs. Woolsey are of the Congregational communion, while he is an active Republican, interested in the success of his party principles.

ANDREW JACKSON CHAMBERS, mer- chant at Ahtanum, is a native pioneer of the state of Washington, making his advent into this world in Olympia, the state capital, in 1853. His residence in Yakima county dates from 1871. His father, Thomas J. Chambers, was born in Nash- ville, Tennessee, in 1823, in the old home of Presi- dent Andrew Jackson, who was a cousin of his mother. He made the trip from Ohio to Oregon in 1845 with ox teams, wintering at The Dalles and the next spring went down the river to Ore- gon City, in boats sawed out of logs with whip- saws and pinned together with wooden pins. He took land there, but two years later moved near Olympia, to the prairie district which now bears his name. He was in the California gold excite- ment of 1849. Returning to Thurston county he took up a donation claim and in 1866 came to Yakima county, crossing the mountains with pack-train and one hundred and fifty head of cattle, his family accompanying him. The next year he moved with his stock to Klickitat county, where he resided until 1871, then returned to Yakima county, where he still lives at the age of eighty. The mother; America McAllister, was . born in Kentucky and crossed the Plains in 1844, at the age of nine, to Thurston county. Her father was killed by Indians in 1856. Mr. Chambers grew up in the farming and stock busi- ness, and at the age of sixteen his father gave him an interest in a bunch of cattle and he con- tinued in that business until 1877, when he

586

CENTRAL WASHINGTON.

opened a butcher shop in Yakima City, the first shop in the county. He continued to reside in that town until 1885, then sold out and moved to North Yakima, where he engaged in supplying beef to the Northern Pacific Railroad, while the line was extending its track over the mountains. He ran a butcher shop in North Yakima two years, until 1889, when he sold and bought the store on the Ahtanum, where he has since con- tinned in business. He was married in Yakima City in 1875, to Miss Elizabeth Brown, daughter of James and Mary (Clogne) Brown. Her father was a native of England and a settler in Cali- fornia in 1857, where he died in 1861. The mother, being left a widow, bought a team and moved her family to Oregon, where she lived until 1902, at which time her death occurred. Mrs. Chambers was born in New York City. in 1855, and was sent to school at Vancouver, Washing- ton, and, after the completion of her education, taught school. To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Chambers were born the following children : Mrs. Ella F. Weiked, North Yakima; Walter A., Claude J., Thomas J., Bernard, Daisy M. and Victor. Mr. Chambers is connected with the In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows, Rebeccas, An- cient Order of United Workmen, Woodmen of the World and Yeomen. Mrs. Chambers is a Re- bekah. Their church connection is with the Con- gregational church. Mr. Chambers is a Demo- crat, and, for ten years, was postmaster at Ahtan- um. As a pioneer, he was prominently identi- fied with the famous Perkins affair. which so stirred the inhabitants of the Yakima country in 1878-79, being a cousin of Mrs. Perkins. A full account of this tragedy will be found in the gen- eral history of Yakima county.

PROFESSOR ERNEST S. WOODCOCK, principal of the Woodcock Academy, is a native of Minnesota, born in 1870; but reared in Yak- ima county, receiving his education in Whitman college, Walla Walla, with a post-graduate course at Columbia College, New York. After the completion of the post-graduate course he returned to his native state and accepted the position of principal of the Colville Academy. At the end of the first year he was called home by the death of his father, to assume charge of his business affairs. He at the same time taught in the Woodcock Academy, at their place, of which his father was the founder, and in 1902 was proffered the principalship, which position he now holds. His father, Fenn B. Woodcock, was born in Massachusetts in 1834, and was a grad- uate of the Hines College, in Connecticut. In 1857 he went to Minnesota, and engaged in farm- ing for a time, but at the first call for volunteers by President Lincoln, he enlisted in the Fourth

Minnesota infantry and served his country for four years, being in many of the principal battles, including Vicksburg and Altoona; was with Gen- eral Sherman, on his famous march to the sea. He left Minnesota for Oregon in 1877, and the next year came to Yakima county, settling in the Ahtanum valley, where he purchased several hun- dred acres of land. He lived there until his death in 1897, esteemed and respected by all for his sterling worth and many praiseworthy qual- ities. Among other marks of permanent progress and value which he leaves to preserve the mem- ory of a useful life is the Woodcock Academy, of which institution he was the founder, and which was named for him, after his death. He traced his ancestry back to the landing of the May- flower. It is not surprising that Professor Wood- cock should turn to pedagogy as a profession, in view of the fact that both his parents were teach- ers. The mother, Frances E. (Taylor) Wood- cock, a native of Connecticut, was a graduate of the Hines college, of that state, and for years was a teacher. She traces hier ancestry back to the very first families of her native state. Mr. Wood- cock was married in Walla Walla, in 1896, to Miss Mary Hunt, sister of Gilbert Hunt, of that place. Mrs. Woodcock was a native of Ver- mont, her birthday occurring in 1876. She was educated at Whitman College, Walla Walla, where she made her home with her brother, at the death of her parents. She followed teaching for a time and was an instructor in shorthand in the Colville school. She died in 1897, leaving one child, Marion F. H. In 1900 Mr. Woodcock was again married in the Ahtanum valley, to Miss Ethel Henderson, daughter of James M. and Louise (Morse) Henderson, residents of the Ahtanum valley. Mrs. Woodcock received her education in the Woodcock Academy and Whit- man College, and has been a teacher in the Wood- cock Academy for the past three years. She was born in Iowa, in 1880. Mr. and Mrs. Woodcock are members of the Congregational church, of which he is a trustee. In addition to his school duties Mr. Woodcock manages his farm of three hundred and eighty acres and gives attention to his herd of fine Holstein cattle. He is progress- ive and enterprising and holds a high place in the esteem of his neighbors and acquaintances. Among the educators of Yakima county, and in- deed of central Washington, none are better known and held in greater esteem for their scholarly attainments and for their success as instructors than are Mr. and Mrs. Woodcock.

NATHAN P. HULL. One of the successful educational instructors and agriculturists of Yak- ima county is Nathan P. Hull, the subject of this historical sketch. His ancestors, on both

587

BIOGRAPHICAL.

sides, were among the history makers of the early Mayflower days in this country; and, with the succeeding generations, have passed down to the present day an inheritance of a clean record, of pledges kept and trusts held inviolate, a patri- mony far more to be prized than inherited hoard- ings of gold. Mr. Hull made his advent into this world in Wisconsin, January 20, 1864. His father, Henry Hull, was a native of New York, born in 1822, and from which state, in 1848, he moved to the then wild and almost unsettled por- tion of Wisconsin. He here took up land and en- gaged in agricultural pursuits, which he has fol- lowed from that time to the present, making his home on the old homestead. Caroline Brewster, the mother, was born in Pennsylvania in 1827. Mr. Hull is a thoroughly educated man; starting in the common schools of his native state, he has passed through the high school, Oshkosh state normal and Indiana normal schools, with a post- graduate course in the Wisconsin University. In 1884, at the age of twenty, he engaged in teaching, which he pursued for nine years in the states of Wisconsin and Illinois, with excellent success. In 1893 he accepted the principalship of the Woodcock Academy, having immigrated to Washington in that year. At the end of two. years he purchased land and engaged in agricul- ture, devoting his time to the developing of his farm and setting it to fruit. In this he was remarkably successful, and today has one of the best fruit farms in his section of the country. He has since enlarged his real estate holdings to two hundred acres, and has added hay raising and dairying to his pursuits. He was married in Champaign, Illinois, in 1895, to Miss Minnie Greene, daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Stev- ens) Greene, the father a native of Indiana and now a real estate dealer in Illinois, the mother born in Ohio. Mrs. Hull was born in Champaign county, Illinois, in 1867, where she was educated, graduating from high school. She followed teach- ing for a time both in her native state and in Washington. To the union of Mr. and Mrs. Hull there have been two children born: Edna, Janu- ary 30, 1898, and Carroll, on the 3d of August, 1900. The daughter died in infancy, on Decem- ber 14, 1898. The parents are members of the communion of the Congregational church. Fra- ternally, Mr. Hull is identified with the Modern Woodmen of America order. He is an active Re- publican. He has a fine two hundred acre farm well stocked and in a high state of cultivation, a good residence and pleasant home surround- ings. As a teacher Mr. Hull is recognized as a man of ability. Applying his scholastic train- ing to his rural pursuits, he has demonstrated the peculiar adaptability of the valley lands to diver- sified farming. In educational and social circles he is a man of influence and is counted among the successful and substantial citizens of the county.

CHARLES H. BURR, farmer on the Ahtanum, was born in Rutland county, Vermont, October 8, 1843, from the union of Carlos and Mary (Ellis) Burr. His father was a farmer by occupation and was ushered into this world in the Green Moun- tain state in 1818. His ancestors were pioneers in Vermont, living there when Rutland was one of the state capitals. The mother, who is of Scotch- Irish descent, was a native of Vermont, born in 1815. She learned the tailoring trade when young and worked at it for many years. 'She still lives in her native state at the age of eighty-eight. Mr. Burr grew up on the home farm in Vermont, until the Civil war broke out, when he, at the age of eighteen, enlisted in Company C, Tenth Vermont volunteers, in defense of his country. He served until the close of the war, being mustered out at Alexandria, Virginia. He returned home at the close of the war and remained until 1868, when he went to Wisconsin, and later to Sioux Falls, Dakota, where he took up land. This he sold after two years; in 1872 he went to Iowa, and in 1878 to Kansas, in which state he lived for ten years. In 1888 he moved to Wash- ington, and 1892 found him farming in Yakima county. In 1899 he purchased his present place, where he has made a comfortable home. He was married in Iowa in 1876, to Miss Henrietta Mon- roe, daughter of George and Christia (McIntosh) Monroe. Her father and mother were both natives of Scotland. Her father was born in 1819 and lived at home until his father's death, then came to Canada with his mother, and in 1869 removed to Iowa, where he later died. He was married in Canada and was the father of a family of ten children. Mrs. Burr was born in Canada in 1856, and was married at the age of nineteen. To this union were born the following children: Beatrice B., Florence, Emma E. and Robert. Mr. Burr is one of the original Lincoln Republicans and takes pride in that distinc- tion.

ELIZABETH SIVERLY. Mrs. Siverly is one of the pioneer settlers in that portion of Washing- ton where she resides, settling there with her hus- band in the early seventies. She was born in Indi- ana in 1851. Her father, George Wilson, was a native of Virginia, and a millwright. He brought his family from Iowa to Oregon, in 1862, by ox team, settling in the Grand Ronde valley, and seven years later moving to Douglas county, where he died in 1891. Martha Coil, her mother, was a na- tive of Kentucky, of which state her parents were early pioneers. She was the mother of five children. Mrs. Siverly lived in Iowa until she was ten years old, and then made the trip across the Plains with her parents to Oregon. She finished her education in the schools of LaGrande, and at the age of fifteen was united in marriage to John Siverly, a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1833, of Dutch parents. He

588

CENTRAL WASHINGTON.

was left an orphan when young and was taken to raise by a brother. When but sixteen he ran away and crossed the Plains to California, in the great exodus from the east to the gold fields of that state during 1849. He mined there and in all of the lead- ing mining districts of the Pacific coast, for a num- ber of years. In 1867, he met and married Mrs. Siverly in Oregon, and a few years later they moved to Yakima county. To this union were born the fol- lowing children: George W., March 12, 1868; Lawrence, June 10, 1870, now in Nome; John A., deceased : Mrs. Viola Brown, February 24, 1875 ; Floyd, August 4, 1877; Mrs. Clara Hughes, Octo- ber 24, 1880; Roy H., November 14, 1889; Jack, August 3, 1893. Mrs. Siverly is a member of the Congregational church. She owns eighty acres of good land and has a comfortable home. Among the many brave women who endured the hardships and risked the dangers of pioneer life in the Yakima valley, no one is more worthy of a place in the his- tory of the country than is Mrs. Elizabeth Siverly, and it is with pleasure that we ettroll her name with the honored pioneers of Yakima county.

WILLIAM GRANGER. Although an actual resident of Yakima county only since 1897, Will- iam Granger is a pioneer of 1861 in California and of 1863 in central Washington. No man is better known by the early settlers of this region and no one has been more active in the development of this part of the state, and we are therefore pleased to ac- cord him a place in this volume among its honored pioneers. Mr. Granger was born in Canada, near Toronto, September 2, 1837. He is the son of Will- iam and Elizabeth Granger, natives of England, both long since dead. The father was born in the latter part of the eighteenth century, was a pioneer of Eaton county, Michigan, and died there at the age of sixty-two. While the son William was an infant, the parents moved from Canada to Eaton county, Michigan, and here he spent his youth and early manhood. Educational advantages were limited but he spent several winters in the primitive schools of the neighborhood, doing farm work in the sum- mers, however, from the time he was eight years old. In 1861, at the age of twenty-four, he left home and went to California, engaged in mining there for a time and. in 1863, removed to Umatilla, Oregon, whence he operated a pack-train to Boise, carrying provisions to the Idaho mining regions. After three years in this occupation, he went to Ok- anogan county, Washington, and engaged in stock raising, meeting with good success. In 1897 he sold the greater part of his Okanogan interests and lo- cated on his present place in the Moxee valley, four and one-half miles east of North Yakima, where he has united farming with stock raising. In 1903 he disposed of his remaining stock in Okano- gan county, and his entire holdings are now in the Moxee, where he is having excellent success, both

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 133

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