An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 141

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 141
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 141
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 141

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).

Naches valley in 1896. In Oregon he married Rachel McNary, whose father, James McNary, crossed the Plains in 1843, as captain of the first emigrant train bound for the Willamette valley. This train became famous in history for another reason than having been the pioneer train, for it was these emigrants who discovered the Blue Bucket gold diggings, the search for which led to the settlement of eastern Oregon by miners in 1861-2. For half a century and more the Blue Bucket diggings have been a will-o'-the-wisp to thousands of tireless prospectors, and today are as little known as in 1843. Rachel McNary was with her father on this memorable jour- ney. She died at the Naches river home. John L. Lasswell came to Yakima county with his par- ents in 1876, remaining with them until 1878, when he settled upon pre-emption and homestead claims and engaged in stock raising. For twenty vears he uninterruptedly continued this residence in the Naches valley, his election as county as- sessor in 1896 finally calling him to the city of North Yakima, where he has since lived the bet- ter part of the time. In 1899 he opened a mer- cantile establishment, but abandoned this business after a year's experience. Last year (1903) he built the Lasswell Hotel block, in which is his home. Mr. Lasswell and Miss Mary E. Weddle, daughter of Jasper and Mary J. (Sutton) Wed- dle, pioneers of Indiana who crossed the Plains to Oregon and Washington in 1863 and subse- quently became residents of Yakima county, were united in wedlock in 1885. At the time of her marriage Mrs. Lasswell was only sixteen years old, having been born in 1869. She was reared in Oregon. Their children in the order of their birth are as follows: Mary E., born December 19, 1886; Isaac J., November 19, 1888; Minnie E., November 30, 1890; Cleve J., December 30, 1892; Rosa J., January 31, 1895; William C., De- cember 8, 1896: Lela V., November 3. 1898, and Ben E., May 24, 1901. Mr. and Mrs. Lasswell are members of the Christian church, and he be- longs also to the Woodmen of the World, being a member of the North Yakima lodge. Of real property, Mr. Lasswell owns a quarter-section of improved farming land in the Cowiche valley, the Lasswell block in North Yakima, and several fine residence lots in the same city. As an upright citizen, a devoted husband and father and a ca- pable business man, Mr. Lasswell enjoys the re- spect of his fellow men and, as hardy pioneers who have taken part in the development of Yak- ima county, both he and Mrs. Lasswell are gladly accorded a place among these chronicles.

WILLIAM L. HILDRETH, living near Yak- ima City on rural free delivery route No. 2, belongs to that noble and probably greatest army

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of industrial America to whom all others owe first allegiance-the tillers of the soil. For an entire life time he has assiduously devoted himself to this occupation, and his untiring energy and strict attention to work have not been without their just and pleasurable rewards and substantial reim- bursement. His birthplace is the Empire state, the date of that important event in his life being January 22, 1836. and his parents, Jonathan and Julia A. (Vanlassel) Hildreth, both of whom also claimed New York as their birthplace. The elder Hildreth came of pioneer stock, as did also the mother. He was a mechanic by trade, and suc- cessfully pursued his occupation in York state un- til 1872, when he removed to Iowa, which became his final resting place. His ardent love of coun- try led him in 1812 to enlist in the army which administered to England her second humiliating defeat on Yankee soil. The younger Hildreth re- mained at home, where he received a common school education until twelve years of age, when he left the parental roof and obtained work on a farm. For the next eight years we find him so engaged in New York state. He then went to Michigan, where he remained a year; thence to Iowa, his home for four years; thence to Wis- consin, which was his abiding place three years, his stay here being followed by a residence of four years in Iowa, and in 1868 by his immigra- tion to Washington territory, Vancouver being his first objective point. There he lived for twenty years, successfully engaged in farming and stock raising, but in 1888 the opportunities presented by the thriving Yakima country appealed so strongly to him that he removed there and began raising hops in the Yakima valley. Four years later, or in 1892, he became a pioneer in the newly opened Sunnyside section and there lived for five years. In 1897 he again located his home in the beautiful Yakima valley, where he still lives, leasing the Watson place near Yakima City. Mr. Hildreth's marriage took place in the state of Iowa in the year 1859, the bride being Miss Sarah J., daughter of Benjamin and Ol- ive (Harris) Brooks, her father being of Eng- lish extraction and the mother Scotch. Ben- jamin Brooks was born in Vermont and was one of Iowa's first settlers, locating in that section in 1836. Mrs. Brooks' birthplace was New York. Sarah (Brooks) Hildreth is a na- tive of Iowa, having been born in that state in 1840. There, also, she received her education and was married, at the age of eighteen. Their children, seven in number, are: Daniel H., liv- ing in Vancouver, born in Iowa, May 5, 1858; Curtis (deceased), born in Iowa, February 10, 1860; Milton, born in Wisconsin, January 29, 1861; Allen (deceased), born in Iowa, June 25, 1865; Mrs. Clara Cook, living at North Yakima,

born in Vancouver, January 18, 1868; Frank, at home, born in Vancouver, August 15, 1872; Mary (deceased), born in Vancouver, 1874. Mr. Hil- dreth organized the first Republican club, called the "John C. Fremont club," started in this local- ity, and has been an ardent follower of Republican principles for many years. Mr. and Mrs. Hil- dreth are members of the Christian church and are held in high esteem and respect by all who know them.

GEORGE W. NELSON is engaged in farm- ing on rural free delivery route No. 3, six miles northwest of North Yakima, Washington. He was born in Marion county, Oregon, February 5, 1853. His father, John B. Nelson, was born in Indiana in 1817 and died December 13, 1893. The father crossed the Plains in 1845 with his family and located in Oregon, where he engaged in blacksmithing. He spent some time in California during the gold excitement of forty- nine. He located at different points in the North- west and in 1868 took up a homestead on the Naches river, in what is now Yakima county. His wife, mother of the subject, was Clara (Janes) Nelson, born in Kentucky in 1817 and died July 26, 1893. Mr. Nelson was educated in the common schools of this state and has lived at his present home since he was twelve years old. He was married in North Yakima, February 15, 1893, to Miss Edith G. Herron, who was born in Pennsylvania, February 23, 1875. She was the daughter of David K. and Mary (Warren) Her- ron, natives of Pennsylvania and now residents of North Yakima. Her brothers and sisters, Anna B. (Herron) Brown, Grace J. (Herron) Marsh, Lena Herron and John Herron, also live at North Yakima. Mr. Nelson was the seventh of a family of eleven children, nine of whom are now living, as follows: Margaret Ann Frush, of Portland; Elizabeth Vansycle, of North Yakima ; Thomas B., John, Daniel W. and Alice Sinclair, of Yakima county; Louisa Dix, of North Yak- ima, Washington : Arabella, Seattle: Adam and Jasper, who are dead. Mr. and Mrs. Nelson have three children, as follows: Herbert A., born April 19, 1894; Park A., born January 16, 1898, and Berna G., born August 3, 1901. Mr. Nelson is a member of the Fraternal Brotherhood of North Yakima and is a Republican. He was elected road supervisor in 1897 and served two terms, the first year by appointment. He and his wife attend the Congregational church. He has a good forty-acre farm and a nice home. His grandfather was a Revolutionary soldier and was wounded. His father was recognized as one of the leading pioneers of the county and was gel- erally known as Judge Nelson. The family is highly respected.

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CENTRAL WASHINGTON.

SIMEON PALMER is a farmer living six and one-half miles northwest of North Yakima, Washington, on rural free delivery route No. 3. He was born in Rhode Island, January 28, 1838, being the son of Dr. Horatio A. Pal- mer and Martha (Wells) Palmer. His father was born in Boston in 1810 and was a graduate of Yale. His mother was born on the Isle of Wight in 1814 and died in 1888. Mr. Palmer comes of old Puritan stock. His grandfather, Simeon Palmer, was born on Providence planta- tion, Little Compton. The grant for this planta- tion was given to the Palmer family direct from the crown when the first Palmers came to this country and settled on Massachusetts bay in 1630.

Mr. Palmer was educated in the common schools of his native state and from twelve years of age until he was seventeen he attended the Judge Hoar private school at Concord, Massachusetts. Later he attended different collegiate institutes. When twenty-two he engaged in farming in Ala- bama. Later he conducted a hotel in Massa- chusetts and farmed in that state. Then he moved to Colorado, where he was a member of the Greeley colony for a year. He opened a sani- tarium on Elkhorn river, which he sold after one year. He engaged in business in Wyoming for a short time, and in 1877 moved to Yakima county, where he has since been engaged in farming.

Mr. Palmer's brother and sisters are: Mary S. (Palmer) Reed, of Denver Colorado, wife of the vice-president of the Kinsey Agricultural Company ; Frances S. (Palmer) Houghton, of Den- ver, and Horatio A. B. Palmer, a Denver assayer. The latter was a soldier in the Civil war and was captured and imprisoned at Andersonville five months before being exchanged.

Mr. Palmer is a Republican. He owns seven- ty-nine acres of farm land, about one hundred head of range cattle and thirty-five head of dairy stock. He is very well read. Mr. Palmer is a man with a big heart and tender sympathies, especially toward children, and has interested himself in a number of orphans, to whom he has given a home and an education. He is of high intelligence, and is a quiet, studious and successful man, thoroughly respected by all who know him.

JOHN J. NELSON, a farmer living on rural free delivery route No. 3, seven and one- half miles northwest of North Yakima, Washing- ton, is a member of one of the pioneer families of Yakima county, his father being the third settler in the county. He was born in Marion county, Oregon, December 22, 1848, and is the son of John B. Nelson and Clara (Janes) Nelson, both deceased. He was educated in the common schools of his native state and Washing- ton, and when sixteen years old engaged in stock

raising and farming with his father. In the spring of 1864 the family moved to the mouth of the Yakima river, but in the spring of 1865 moved to the Naches, where our subject has since been engaged in farming and stock raising. He took up his present farm as a homestead in 1878. When a child, Mr. Nelson's lower limbs were partially paralyzed from an excessive admin- istration of quinine, but despite his crippled condi- tion he is active and performs as much labor as the generality of able-bodied men. He was mar- ried in North Yakima, January 1I, 1901, to Miss Hattie Kine Rambo, who was born in Nebraska, April 28, 1875. She was the eldest of the eight children of Samuel and Ellen (King) Kine. Mr. Nelson's brothers and sisters were: Jasper (de- ceased), Margaret, Elizabeth, Thomas, Daniel, George and Adam (deceased), Alice, Arabella and Louisa. Margaret lives in Oregon and the others in Yakima county. Mr. Nelson and his wife be- long to the Seventh Day Adventist church, of which denomination her father is a preacher. Mr. Nelson is a Republican. He owns fifty acres of fine farming land, a two-acre orchard, and has a neat modern house on the place and a good barn. His place is known as Locust Grove farm. He is a successful and well posted farmer, re- spected by all.

WALTER T. WHITE is a successful farmer living on rural free delivery route No. 3, eight miles northwest of the city of North Yakima, Washington. He was born in Utah, November 29, 1866, and was the son of John and Anna (Cres- wick) White, both natives of England, and both now deceased. His mother was born in London, England, September 19, 1838, and died in Payette valley, Idaho, April 15, 1891. He went to school in Utah until he was thirteen years old and then came to the Naches valley with his mother and located on the farm, where he now resides. He has followed farming ever since with the excep- tion of one year he spent in Okanogan county in stock raising. He was for a time interested in the butchering business at North Yakima.

Mr. White was married in Yakima county, October 18, 1893, to Miss Emma J. Chamber- lain, who was born in Oregon, November 24, 1874. She is the daughter of James L. and Chris- tiana (Kincaid) Chamberlain, now living in this county. She was the youngest girl of a family of five boys and five girls. Two of the girls and one boy are dead. Mr. White's brothers and sisters are: Louisa (White) Turley, of Boise, Idaho; John White, a farmer and stock raiser in Utah; Mary E. (White) Leach, wife of F. M. Leach, a Yakima county farmer; Joseph S. White, a farmer of Malott, Washington.

Mr. and Mrs. White have three children, as follows : Harry, born September 16, 1895;

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Florence A. White, born June 26, 1898, and Lowena C., born March 4, 1903. Mr. White is an Odd Fellow, a member of the Rebekahs and of the Woodmen of the World. His wife is noble grand of the Rebekah lodge. He is a Republican. He owns about one hundred and sixty acres of farm land, of which ninety acres are in cultiva- tion. He has eight acres in hops. He has a nice home and a large hop house. He has his own irrigation water rights and is making his farm one of the best in the county. He is in- dustrious and popular with his neighbors, a man of influence in local affairs, progressive in his ideas and one of the more successful agricul- turists of the valley.

JAMES K. JARRATT is engaged in farm- ing, nine miles northwest of North Yakima, on rural free delivery route No. 3. Mr. Jarratt was born in Hopkins county, Kentucky, April 7, 1845, and was the son of John J. Jarratt, a farmer and drover, and of Millie (Veasey) Jar- ratt, both of whom are dead. Mr. Jarratt has one brother, John F., who is farming in Kentucky. He left school when seventeen years old and en- listed in company E, Twelfth Kentucky cavalry, and served until October, 1865, when he received an honorable discharge. In 1869 he was the vic- tim of accidents, which crippled him for life. His right hand was injured by the accidental dis- charge of a gun and a leg was permanently shortened and weakened by a kick on the knee from an ox. When his injuries permitted, he entered an academy near Owensburg and studied three years. Later he taught school, was deputy assessor and was elected constable of Vanover, Kentucky. In 1880 he went to Nebraska and later to Oklahoma. He was driven out by gov- ernment troops and went to Kansas. There he engaged in the restaurant business. A year later he opened a restaurant at Pueblo, Colorado, and after two years went to Portland, Oregon. Later he moved to Goldendale, Washington, where he was appointed deputy sheriff. He resigned two years and a half later to engage in farming. He sold out and opened a store at Vancouver ; sold that and moved to Yakima county, August I, 1900, and purchased a piece of raw sage-brush land, which he has since converted into a fine farm. He was married in Goldendale, May 2, 1888, to Nancy A. (Stumps) Meeker, who was born in Iowa, February 1, 1855, and who was the daughter of John and Mary (Johnson) Stumps. Her brothers and sisters were: William H., Oliver T., Sarah (Stumps) Nelson, Leonard, Jacob and Ulysses, both dead; Elmer E. Stumps and Etta (Stumps) Tuttle. Mr. Jarratt is a Democrat. In 1893 he was burned out and lost practically everything he had. His indomitable pluck and industry have brought to him since

a comfortable property, including a farm of four- teen acres, a good house and a large barn.

MRS. LINNIE ROWE. Among the forces which have wrought the subjugation of the west, the pioneer women deserve a higher place than is usually accorded them by annalists. Their part may not always appeal so powerfully to the story-teller, being less picturesque, as a general rule, than that played by the sterner, sex, but theirs was nevertheless the harder role to main- tain. All the dangers and privations were shared by them, while the loneliness and isolation bore much more heavily upon them than upon their husbands and brothers, whose lot permitted a larger and more diversified sphere of activity. While not numbered among the earliest pioneers of Yakima county, the lady whose name gives caption to this article has certainly seen her share of pioneer conditions, and her peculiar circumstances have compelled her to bear bur- dens unusual even in a new country. She has, however, proven herself mistress of the situation, winning the esteem and honor always due and always willingly accorded those who conquer in the battle of life, at the same time acquiring a confident bearing and a force of character not possible to those nursed in the lap of luxury. Mrs. Rowe has had the advantage of good hered- ity. Her grandfather, John McCormick, was a pioneer of the pioneers, being the man who located the land upon which the city of Indianapolis now stands. Born in Berks county, Pennsyl- vania, in 1779, he had moved west to Indiana with his family, when thirty years old, and gained the distinction of having built, in March of the year 1818, the first house in Indianapolis. His wife was the first white woman in that city. Until his death, in 1828, he was numbered among the leading lights of his home town and his reputa- tion was at least state-wide. Of Scotch descent, he was, nevertheless, a thorough American, serv- ing with distinction throughout the whole of the War of 1812. Our subject's father, John W. Mc- Cormick, was born in Fayette county, Indiana, in 1813. He became identified with the early agricultural development of his native state, in which he spent his entire life, passing away when Mrs. Rowe was about two and a half years old. The mother of our subject. Susana (Gregg) Mc- Cormick, was a native of Frankfort, Kentucky, born June 21, 1823. She received an unusually good education in the schools of that city, not- withstanding the fact that at the early age of sixteen she was married. She died January 12, 1890, at Cartersburg, Indiana. The maternal grandfather of Mrs. Rowe, David Gregg, was born near Richmond, Virginia, in 1781, and served throughout the entire War of 1812. His wife, Sophia (Case) Gregg, was a Virginian also,

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CENTRAL WASHINGTON.

but the couple early moved to a plantation near Frankfort. Kentucky, where their family was raised. Prior to the Mexican war, they bought a tract of land on an Indian reservation in Dela- ware county, Indiana, which later made them well-to-do. Mrs. Rowe, of whom we write, was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, July 10, 1850. She received unusually good educational advantages, taking a course in the public schools of her na- tive city and one in the Young Ladies' Baptist Institute there. For a time she taught school, but an early marriage cut short her professional career. At seventeen she became the wife of William Rowe, a native of Boston, Massachu- setts, born October 14, 1839. He belonged to one of the most highly esteemed families of the Old Bay state, and his father, William Henry Harri- son Rowe, was a godson of the noted president whose name he bore and who was an intimate friend of the family. He began his education in the public schools of his native city, but finished in the normal schools of Pennsylvania, to which state his parents had taken him when quite young. When he was twenty he taught his first term near Sing Sing, New York. In 1860, he went to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where he accepted a position as bookkeeper for a steel manufacturing company. He remained with them two or three years, then migrated to Indianapolis, where his father was and where he obtained employment as bookkeeper for the Indianapolis Rolling Mill. He soon became general manager, which position he held for fourteen years, though for three months during the continuance of the Civil war he was absent, having gone as a volunteer to take part in the conflict. After leaving the mill com- pany, he entered the employ of the First National Bank of Indianapolis. He was with them sev- eral years, then engaged in the insurance busi- ness on his own account, continuing therein until 1889, when his health failed, making it necessary for him to retire from active business. In 1893, he came to Yakima county. The change did him much good, but later he experienced a change for the worse in his physical condition and June 28, 1900, he died. In his family were one brother, Alexander, now deceased, and one sister, Saralı E. Rowe Baldwin, of Erie, Pennsylvania. Mrs. Rowe preceded her husband to Yakima county, coming in 1889, in which year she entered the place that is now her home, situated on the divide between the upper and lower Naches valleys, eleven miles from North Yakima. It was here that an opportunity was given for the exercise of the unusual force of character which was her heritage. Although she knew little about farm- ing, she engaged with energy in the business in hand, and it was very largely through her efforts and management, her husband being an invalid, that a sage-brush desert tract was converted into a splendid farm. Of her one hundred and thirty-

two acres, ten are in hops, fourteen in orchard and sixty-five in hay, while twelve acres above the ditch are in wheat and the remainder is turned to good advantage in the pasturing of cat- tle and other live stock. The place is supplied with a fine eight-room, modern house, two barns, and other outbuildings, while the stock attached to it consists of fifty-five head of mixed cattle and a dairy of twenty cows. The invalidism of Mr. Rowe caused the place to be burdened, at the time of his death, with debt, but by hard work and good management Mrs. Rowe has cleared this off. In her battle with circumstances she has become very skillful in the elaboration of all the products of dairy and farm, and she is very frequently a prize winner at state and county fairs. The second year of the North Yakima state fair she received first prize for butter mak- ing. In addition to the holdings above mentioned, she has a one-fifteenth interest in the Naches Cattle Land Company.

At present Mrs. Rowe is a resident of North Yakima, having left her farm for a year's rest, but she is too energetic and ambitious to rest much, and is giving attention to many things which others would consider hard work. She has always been an active churchwoman and deeply interested in religious and benevolent work, as well as in the activities of society in general. Indeed. she has fully demonstrated her ability to live successfully the strenuous, inde- pendent, useful life which many women in these days have come to regard as the ideal life for them. Mrs. Rowe has had four brothers and sisters, namely, William H., of Kansas City, Kansas; Mary Burger, of Galena, Ohio; Fannie deceased, and Julia C. Tincher, of Indianapolis. Her children are Katie J. Hedges, born in Indi- anapolis, May 4, 1868, now living near North Yakima; William H., born in Indianapolis, Sep- tember 8, 1869, died in Tacoma, Washington, at the age of twenty years one month and twenty- two days; Charles A., born in Indianapolis, Au- gust 10, 1872, died when eleven months old ; Lin- nie, born in Indianapolis, November 24, 1873, died when four days old; Deborah C., born in Indi- anapolis, April 25, 1877, died in September, 1878; Walter R., born in Indianapolis, May 21, 1884, now first sergeant of company E, Washington National Guard, which position he has held for three years (he will graduate from the North Yakima high school in 1905), and Linnie, born in Indianapolis, August 13, 1887, now a high school girl, a member of the class which graduates in 1907.

JOSEPH O. CLARK is a farmer and fruit raiser whose home is eight miles northwest of North Yakima, Washington. He was born in Vermont, November 29, 1838, and was the son

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BIOGRAPHICAL.

of Ozias and Mary (Gookins) Clark, both natives of that state. He attended the common schools until he was seventeen. Then he attended the Mettowee academy and taught school that winter. In 1858 he entered the Burr and Burton seminary at Manchester, and was there until 1860, teaching during vacation. He then commenced to study medicine, which he continued until August 18, 1862, when he enlisted in Company C, Four- teenth Vermont infantry. He served during a portion of the war, and was honorably discharged July 30, 1863. He resumed his medical studies, and in March, 1865, received his diploma from the University of New York. He practiced his pro- fession in Vermont five years, and, April 13, 1870, he came to Washington under appointment as government physician to Neahbay reservation, but, arriving too late, was transferred to Fort Simcoe. He held that position until January II, 1871, when there was a change of agents and phy- sicians. He moved to Yakima, where he taught school and practiced medicine for four years. He had taken up a homestead, and he moved there and farmed until he could prove up. Then he moved to North Yakima, and remained until 1895, when he located on his present farm. He was married December 25, 1873, to Miss Dora C. Craft, who was born in Oregon, December 28, 1855. She was the daughter of William A. and Amanda (Vannuys) Craft. Mrs. Clark had two brothers and a sister: Alice (Craft) Davis, William H. Craft (now deceased), and Charles F. Craft. Mr. Clark's brothers are: Fitch Clark (deceased) ; Siras, living in Vermont ; John G., living in Louis- iana; Aaron, of Vermont. Mr. and Mrs. Clark have eight children: Joseph R., farming in Ver- mont; Cyrus, Mary E. (Clark) Converse, Dora E. (Clark) Low, William M., John H., George A. and Jay O. Clark. Mr. Clark is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic and a Repub- lican. He has filled public offices on a number of occasions with much success. He was school superintendent two years, was ap- pointed and elected justice of the peace dif- ferent terms, was police judge of North Yakima. He served from 1877 to 1886 as examining sur- geon for pensions at North Yakima. At various times he has served as deputy auditor, asssesor and sheriff. He is now serving as road super- visor. He owns eighty acres of farm land, and a house and lot in North Yakima. He taught the first public school in Yakima county. He is well educated and a man of rare ability and good judg- ment.

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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 141

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