An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 147

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 147
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 147
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 147

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MR. AND MRS. FRANK B. SHARDLOW.

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BIOGRAPHICAL.

ness and holds the respect of all with whom he comes in contact in business or home life.

ORLANDO BECK, county fruit inspector of Yakima county, fruit grower and horticulturist, is a pioneer of Yakima as well as one of its leading citizens today. He is best known as an expert orchardist and certainly has done much toward bringing his home county to the high position it now occupies in that industry. His father, Judge John W. Beck, was one of the first men in central Washington to raise fruit and was the first nur- seryman in Yakima county, to which he came with his family in 1869, and in whose history he is an important character. Judge and Mrs. Martha M. (Goodwin) Beck were pioneers of Missouri, from which they crossed the Plains in 1865, under the guidance of Dr. L. H. Goodwin, to Walla Walla. At the time of this trip Orlando was only eight years of age, having been born in Sullivan county, Missouri, November 4, 1857, but he bravely did his share of guard duty and other work. His education was obtained mostly in Missouri and in the schools of Walla Walla. After living four years in Walla Walla county, the Becks went to Yakima county and settled in the Yakima valley. The father's long and useful life was brought to a close by sickness at his home in North Yakima in the summer of 1903; Mrs. Beck, hale and hearty for one of her age, survived her husband and continues to live in the metropolis of the county. In 1878 Orlando Beck settled on a homestead in the Yakima valley. This land now forms a portion of the site of North Yakima. Mr. Beck found agricultural pursuits congenial and profitable and since 1878 has been so engaged on his own account.

In 1880 he was united in marriage to Miss Corrina Southern, born in Iowa, August 4, 1864, the daughter of Braxton D. and Nancy J. (Veach) Southern. They were early settlers in the Yakima country also, and for many years have been es- teemed residents of Kittitas county. Their biog- raphy will be found elsewhere in these pages. To the union of Mr. and Mrs. Beck have been born three children, one of whom, Jennie, born Febru- ary 14, 1881, is dead, and two of whom, Eva S., born August 12, 1884, and Edna, born February 8, 1886, are living. Mr. and Mrs. Beck are well known in social and fraternal circles. Mr. Beck being the present venerable consul of Yakima lodge, No. 5,550, M. W. A., and having served as adviser of the lodge for three years previously. Mrs. Beck is an earnest worker in the Congrega- tional church of which she is a member. Polit- ically, Mr. Beck is a Republican and has served a term as deputy sheriff under the administration of his party, and is now in the seventh year of incumbency as fruit inspector. He was one of

the promoters of the Union Ditch Company, of which organization he has been president for the past three years. He is an active participant in all elections held in the county. Besides owning a large block of stock in the Elizabeth Mining Company, operating in the Gold Hill district, Mr. Beck is the possessor of a fine home in the sub- urbs of North Yakima, the tract consisting of five acres, four of which are set out in orchard. He is a substantial citizen; one who is a factor in the progress of his section of the state.

FRANK B. SHARDLOW, who has been a resi- dent of Yakima county since 1880, is one of the substantial business men and real estate owners of North Yakima. He was born in Rochester, New York, July 15, 1855, and there he spent his youth and early manhood, receiving a good education, in the public schools of his native town. In 1873 he went to California, where he learned the gilder's trade, a handicraft which he followed successfully until 1880, when, as before stated, he came to Yak- ima county. Locating at Yakima City, he entered the employ of Alva Churchill, and when North Yakima was established in 1885, he, with Mr. Churchill as a partner in the venture, erected one of the first business buildings. It was located on the northeast corner of Front street and Yakima avenue. In 1886 he went to Ellensburg, where construction work on the Northern Pacific Railroad was then in progress, and for two years thereafter he was engaged in a successful business. In 1888, however, he returned to North Yakima, where his home has ever since been. In 1893 he purchased eighty acres of sage-brush land under the big Sunny- side canal, near Zillah, and eventually he placed it under a high state of cultivation. He gave most of his attention to hop raising, and won from a twenty-acre hop yard an average yield of two thousand one hundred pounds per acre. Other staple crops were also produced with success.

In 1902 Mr. Shardlow disposed of his farm to good advantage and at once erected one of the finest business blocks in North Yakima, a three-story brick of modern design and workmanship, situated on the southeast corner of Front street and Yakima avenue, facing the avenue.

May 10, 1888, our subject married Mrs. Jennie P. Munson, a native of Vancouver, Washington, and the daughter of Josiah and Lucinda (Hatton) Lee. Her father was born in Orange county, In- diana, January 27, 1834, came west by ox team when nineteen years old and located at Vancouver, Washington. Thence at a later date he went to Whitman county, in the same state, and from that to Innisfail, Alberta. Northwest Territory, where the family now resides. Mrs. Shardlow had eight brothers and sisters, of whom the oldest sister, Edith R., died some years ago, leaving two chil-

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dren, Archie and Viola Jones, now aged nineteen and eighteen years respectively, who are making their home with Mrs. Shardlow. Albert B. Lee, a brother of Mrs. Shardlow, born in Vancouver some thirty-six years ago, had been a resident of Whit- man county until 1901, when he moved to his large cattle ranch at Riparia. Selling this in 1903, he has gone to join his father in Alberta, Canada.

Mrs. Shardlow came to North Yakima in 1878, and on November 13, 1880, married S. T. Munson, then county auditor of Yakima county. Christmas of the following year a daughter was born to them, whom they named Clare and who died when a year and a half old. Six months later Mr. Munson died also, his demise occurring in California. He had been elected county auditor three times and had served for a season as clerk of the court in Yakima City. By her present husband, Mrs. Shardlow has one daughter, Lois Lee Shardlow, now about four years old.

Fraternally, Mr. Shardlow is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and in politics, he is a Republican, supporting the cause that he conceives to be just in county, state and nation. As a business man he is enterprising and successful, while his intercourse with his fellow citizens has been in all respects such as to win for him their esteem and regard.

JAMES A. MABRY (deceased) was until 1901, when he retired from active business, the proprietor of a harness store and shop in North Yakima. Between that date and his death, which occurred at the family home, No. 512 North First street, North Yakima, November 27, 1903, from pulmonary disease, he had lived quietly with his family, patiently biding the day when his soul should be ushered into eternity. His wife and four children survive him. James A. Mabry was born at Vancouver, Washington, September 23, 1857, to the union of Walter P. and Mary (Stalcup) Ma- bry, natives of Indiana, where they were niar- ried. In 1844 this doughty Indiana pioneer and his faithful wife crossed the Plains and settled near Vancouver, Washington, becoming two of the very earliest pioneers of the Northwest. Mr. Mabry came to Yakima county in 1870 and there lived until he died in 1873. Among the children left to mourn his loss was James, who was then only fifteen years old. For ten years the young man worked on ranches and rode the range, giving little attention to educational matters until he became of age, when he acquired a fair educa- tion by diligent application at winter night schools. Then he bought seventeen acres of the old Nel- son homestead on the Naches and there began raising hops. Five years later, in 1887, he re- moved to North Yakima and in 1888 sold his stock interests and invested his money in the

harness business, in which he was successfully engaged until failing health forced his abandon- ment of it. He left but one brother, Charles, who is living in North Yakima, four sisters hav- ing preceded him to the life beyond.

In 1883, at Yakima City, Mr. Mabry was united in marriage to Emma Parker, the daugh- ter of William and Harriet (Buckmaster) Parker, pioneers of the Northwest. Her father was a native of Illinois, where he spent his boy- hood and young manhood farming and stock rais- ing, crossing the Plains to California in 1849 with his father, where he engaged in mining. William remained in the West, marrying at The Dalles and becoming a pioneer of Goldendale, Washington. He died in Yakima county in 1875. The mother's birthplace was Ohio, the date of her birth being 1844, and that of her death 1897. Mrs. Mabry was born at Fort Simcoe, Yakima county, July 19, 1867, and can therefore lay claim to being one of that county's earliest pio- neers. Her education was obtained in the dis- trict schools. When only sixteen years old she became the wife of Mr. Mabry. To Mr. and Mrs. Mabry have been born the following chil- dren : Harry, July 29, 1884; Charles, October 16, 1888; Eunice, March 30, 1893 ; Eva, March 31, 1896. Mr. Mabry was a member of the Tribe of Joseph order ; also a devout member of the Con- gregational church. In politics, he was an act- ive Republican. Of real estate he owned ten acres, a highly improved tract of orchard land, situated on the Naches river. In life he was an esteemed citizen ; in death he is mourned by a multitude of friends to whom his taking away was a distinct shock.

ANDREW J. LEWIS, deceased. With the death of the subject of this biographical chron- icle, January 11, 1904, there passed away one of Yakima county's oldest pioneers, worthiest citi- zens and most highly esteemed residents. He planted his vine and fig tree in the Yakima valley a generation ago and diligently toiled for the welfare of his home and for the advancement of the community's best interests, ever a man of sterling character, public-spirted, courageous, energetic and able. Mr. Lewis was born April 8, 1831, at Danville, Indiana, the son of Henry and Hannah (Griffith) Lewis. His boyhood was spent upon his father's farm and attending the common school of that neighborhood. but when seventeen years old, he began work at brick making for Mr. Parker, and when twenty-one he left the old home to seek his fortunes in the Wabash valley. The country pleased him and for the next nine years of his life the young man followed farming in that section, leaving In- diana for Kansas about 1857, where he settled upon a pre-emption claim. A few years later he

THOMAS KELLY.

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BIOGRAPHICAL.

returned to Illinois and in April, 1861, enlisted in company E, Sixteenth Illinois infantry, to fight for the honor and preservation of the Union. He served under General Grant in the Western army, that regiment being reserved for special duty during the war, until September, 1863, when lie received an honorable discharge. The far Northwest appealed to him as best suited for a home, and in 1865 he joined a wagon train en route to Clarke county, Washington territory, making the journey with ox teams. In 1871 he came to the little settlement in the Yakima val- ley, locating on what is now known as the Ma- bry place near North Yakima. The following spring he went up the Ahtanum and filed upon land, but subsequently established his permanent home upon a railroad section in the Cowiche val- ley, where his death occurred after a lingering ill- ness. This ranch consists of three hundred acres, all except sixty of which are under water and in a highly improved condition. For many years Mr. Lewis was engaged in raising horses, but aban- doned this industry in late years. The home he left is a most substantial monument to his ability, energy and perseverance. Mr. Lewis was always an active member of the Republican party and for many years was a member of the county central committee. He served the county as one of its commissioners in its early days, and surely no better indication of his standing among his fellow neighbors can be found than the fact that for a quarter of a century he served them as school director. He was a zealous member of the Grand Army of the Republic. The last sad rites held over the departed veteran, pioneer and citizen took place in North Yakima, where all that was mortal was laid to its eternal rest.

Mr. Lewis was married, December 15, 1860, at Mount Sterling. Brown county, Illinois, to Miss Isabella L. Parker, a daughter of the Hoosier state. Her parents were Thomas C. and Nancy S. (Harvey) Parker. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis were blessed with the following children: George W., deceased; A. Grant, S. Sherman, Mrs. Mary E. Grewell, (deceased) ; Mrs. Laura J. Fowler; Abra- ham L., deceased; Mrs. Alta A. Clancy; Mrs. Ade- lia D. Austin, Mrs. Lola LaForge, Mrs. L. Flor- ence Talbert; and Lodosca A., deceased. S. Sherman was born during the trip across the Plains. For many years Mrs. Lewis taught school, not giving up the work until increased family cares compelled her to do so. She is a member of the Church of God; and is held in high personal es- teem by all who know her.

THOMAS KELLY (deceased) was a promi- nent and extensive farmer and stock raiser, living twelve miles northwest of North Yakima. He was a Kentuckian by birth, born February 28, 1829, 42

and was the son of Samuel and Nancy ( Kennedy) Kelly, both natives of Virginia, who settled in Kentucky when it was a primeval forest. Thomas Kelly spent his youth and early manhood in his native state. In those days the public school sys- tem had not as yet been inaugurated and he re- ceived his education in subscription schools. His time was divided between the school and the home farm until his sixteenth year. At this time he quit his studies and for one year worked on the farnı of a brother-in-law. For two years longer he continued at farm work in the vicinity of his father's home and, in 1848, at the age of nineteen, started overland for Oregon, enduring all the hard- ships and facing all the dangers incident to the Plains trip in those days, trailing its desert wastes and, in his own language, "Fording all the creeks and rivers between Kentucky and Oregon." Arriv- ing in Oregon, he took up a donation claim on the Willamette river and on a portion of this claim the city of Portland now stands. Here he engaged in milling lumber for five years. In 1854 he sold his sawmill and began farming, which he followed on his Oregon homestead until 1871, coming at that time to Yakima county, Washington, and taking up land where he lived at the time of his death, November 15, 1903. This valuable ranch, on which Mrs. Kelly still resides, consists of five hundred and fifteen acres; is well stocked with cat- tle and horses, and well equipped with implements, a large barn and a comfortable dwelling. It is a monument to the industry, integrity and capability of the honored pioneer who found it a wilderness waste and made of it an ideal home for his family.

Mr. Kelly was married in Oregon, March 10, 1853, to Miss Christiana E. Sunderland, a native of Illinois, born in 1837. She was the daughter of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Schaeffer) Sunderland, her father a native of Indiana and her mother of Illinois ; neither are living. Mrs. Kelly has broth- ers and sisters, all residents of Portland, Oregon, as follows: Albert Milton Sunderland, Mrs. Eliza- beth Farrell, Mrs. Harriet Paddock, Mrs. Mary Mock, Mrs. Rosa Gupton, Mrs. Lydia Lott and Frances F. Flickenstein. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Kelly are: Mrs. Martha Osborn, Mrs. Sena Ritter, Henry, Mrs. Nanney Bolton, Mrs. Lura Par- rish, Mrs. Minnie Stevens and Wilbur Kelly. Mrs. Bolton and the son Wilbur were born in Yakima county ; all the others in Oregon. All the children live in Yakima county excepting Mrs. Stevens, who resides in Kittitas county. Mr. Kelly was a member of the Methodist church, to which Mrs. Kelly also belongs. He was a Republican in politics, though not an active politician. He served as justice of the peace in his precinct and was influential in all the public affairs of the township in which he re- sided. While a resident of Oregon he took an active part in quelling the Indian uprisings in the

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fifties and at one time was a member of the Ore- gon mounted volunteers, organized to protect the settlers from Indian depredations, for which service a pension was granted him, after a lapse of almost fifty years, the notification reaching his family two days after his death. He was a man well known and greatly esteemed and is worthy of respectful remembrance as a pioneer of Yakima county.

H. F. THOMPSON, of the Thompson Music Company, North Yakima, is one of that city's en- ergetic young business men. He was born in Jordan, Minnesota, July 6, 1871, the son of Enoch A. and Mary E. (Payne) Thompson, natives of Virginia and Indiana respectively. His father has led a life of varied experiences. Previous to 1861 he was manager of the John Robinson circus, but at the call to arms enlisted and served as a special scout under General McClellan during the war. In this capacity he made the special report of the battle of Antietam and was thrice captured, escap- ing each time from his captors. As a young man he was a pioneer of Minnesota, where he settled in 1865, at the age of twenty-four. The maternal side of the house was descended from Lord Paul of London, England, the date of Mrs. Thompson's birth being 1847. H. F. Thompson grew to man- hood in the city of Minneapolis, where he was grad- uated by the high school and Carty Brothers' College. He was also graduated by the North- western Conservatory of Music. He inherited his talent for music from his father. Until 1901 he lived in Minneapolis, teaching music and play- ing in theater orchestras, but in that year came to North Yakima and accepted a position with Briggs & Dam, also continuing teaching. Jan- uary 1, 1903, marks his entrance into the business life of North Yakima in a proprietary way, and the first year has proven an auspicious and highly suc- cessful one. In Minneapolis, June 17, 1896, he was united in marriage to Belle C., daughter of D. M. Rand, of that city. Her father is a promi- nent and wealthy citizen of Minneapolis, an ex- alderman and at one time owner of the Minneap- olis Provision Company. During the Civil war, he was a sailor aboard the Niagara, and at pres- ent is one of the head officers of the Naval Vet- erans' Association. Mrs. Thompson is a skilled musician and instructor. She has a brother in North Yakima, H. J. Rand, who is proprietor of the Columbia meat market. Mr. Thompson has the following brothers and sisters: W. P., a miller in Minneapolis; Myrtle V., also of Minneapolis, of great renown as a musician and said to be one of the finest lady violinists in the country ; Marion, whose husband, Professor Hauk, is dean of the Minneapolis Academy of Music. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson have one child, Willard R., born in 1899. Mr. Thompson is affiliated with several

fraternal orders, being a member of the Knights of Pythias, Woodmen of the World, Maccabees, Fra- ternal Brotherhood and Patriotic Sons of America. In politics, he is an ardent admirer of President Roosevelt. He owns several pieces of city prop- erty, including two houses and three lots and is a thorough believer in the permanency and rise of Yakima real estate values. As might be expected, Mr. Thompson is prominent in musical affairs of North Yakima, being the director of the forty-piece mandolin club of that city. He held a similar posi- tion in Minneapolis. In both a business and a so- cial way Mr. Thompson and his wife are winning the esteen and respect of all who come in contact with them.

MAHLON SYMMONDS, although among the more recent settlers in Yakima county, is nevertheless thoroughly identified with the recla- mation of central Washington, of which Yakima county is a portion, having resided in the great Columbia basin for nearly a decade and a half. In that time he has watched the marvelous growth of the Big Bend region, and for that matter all of central Washington, from a sparsely inhabited grazing section into one of the finest farming and fruit raising portions of the Northwest. More than that, he himself has taken a part in the transfor- mation. Mahlon Symmonds was born in Hancock county, Illinois, June 25, 1858, his parents being L. F. and Nancy (Tyner) Symmonds, natives of the Buckeye and Hoosier states respectively, the father having been one of Ohio's pioneers. Both are still living in the east. Like the majority of our successful men, Mr. Symmonds was reared upon the farm. After attending the common schools he went to Carthage college and there was a schoolmate of Judge Carroll B. Graves, of Ellens- burg. After graduation he took up in earnest the profession of pedagogy, teaching in Illinois and Kansas until 1891. In that year he came to the Northwest, settling in Lincoln county, where he secured homestead and timber culture claims north of Wilbur and engaged in farming and stock raising, meeting with success from the first. The panic of '93 was very severely felt by residents of the Big Bend country and Mr. Symmonds, in common with others, suffered, though not so se- verely because he found work at his old profes- sion of teaching school and for four years was thus able to greatly relieve his financial stress. He came to Washington with four hundred dollars as his cash capital; a short time ago he sold his property in Lincoln county for ten thousand dollars. Tiring of the cold winters, he came to the Yakima valley, noted as possessing the mildest climate in the Northwest. and there purchased his present holding of land near the city of North Yakima and also two thousand acres under the projected high

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line ditch. Last fall he brought his herd of sixty- five cattle to Sunnyside, where they were wintered. The family expect to make their home in North Yakima, that the children may have the best of school advantages. Mr. Symmonds and Anna Reis, daughter of Russell B. and Eliza (Leonard) Reis, were united in marriage in Illinois, Septem- ber 5, 1888, and to this union have been born seven children: Kenneth, Raymond, Loyal R., Esther, Minnie, Burchard and Ivan. Mr. Reis is a native of Ohio and Mrs. Reis a native of Illi- nois. Both are now residents of Washington. Mr. Symmonds is an enthusiastic member of three fra- ternal orders, the Maccabees, Ancient Order of United Workmen and Woodmen of the World, be- longing to Wilbur Camp, 415 of the latter order. Neither of the old line political parties counts him as one of its members, he being a supporter of Socialism. As a man of ability, substantial ideas and integrity he has been welcomed to his nev. home and will undoubtedly become a man of in- fluence in the community.

REV. JAMES WILBUR HELM, for thirteen years past in charge of the Methodist Episcopal church interests at Fort Simcoe, is one of the early pioneers of the Northwest and a man commanding the high respect which should be associated with his profession. His parents, George W. and Julia A. (Henderson) Helm, were pioneers of the mid- dle west, the father having been born August 6, 1825, in Kentucky and settled in Missouri in his sixteenth year. In 1845 ke joined the historical train of emigrants which sought the shores of the distant Pacific and great Columbia river in that year and assisted materially in saving to the United States the region now comprising the northwest- ern group of states. In this same wagon train was the Henderson family, who settled in Yamhill county, where subsequently George W. Helm mar- ried the daughter Julia. The subject of our sketch was born to this union in 1849, Marion county being his birthplace. In 1863 the Helms left Ore- gon and settled in the Klickitat valley, where for the succeeding thirty years George W. Helm was a prominent stockman. After a year's residence in Seattle, he went to California and there, in 1902, passed to his eternal rest. The mother died in Portland.

James Helm was educated in Salem, Oregon, finishing his schooling with a course in the Willa- mette University. Until he was of age, the young man remained at home, but, having attained his majority, he boldly set out into the world to hew his own way. The first year, that of 1872, he spent in the employ of Phelps & Wadley, extensive stock men; then he and his uncle formed a partnership and for several years handled stock. In 1880 Mr. Helm went to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and from that

point assisted in driving one thousand six hundred head of cattle across the Plains to Wasco, Oregon. About this time Mr. Helm abandoned the stock business and commenced in earnest his real life work, that of preaching the Gospel. Between 1882 and 1885 he was a lay preacher in Klick- itat county, but in the latter year he was admitted to the Columbia River Conference of the Methodist church and assigned to the Bickleton circuit, sev- enty miles in length. A year later he was placed on the Wasco circuit and after a like period of service in Oregon, returned to Bickleton, where he remained two years. Then he was assigned to the west Klickitat circuit, spent a year on the Harrington circuit and finally, in 1891, came into his present reservation charge. He has three brothers, Charles, at Priest Rapids, Thomas and Eugene in British Columbia, and one sister, Mrs. Josephine Welsh, who lives at Cheney.

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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 147

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