An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 148

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 148
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 148
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 148

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).

Mr. Helm and Miss Carrie Vest, daughter of James E. and Catherine (Abbott) Vest, were united by Hymen's bonds near Tyler, Lincoln county, Washington, in 1897. Her parents are natives of Indiana and were married in Illinois in 1864. James E. Vest is a graduate of Mckinley college, Illinois, and during his early life followed the profession of teaching. In 1885 he immigrated to Washington, locating in Sprague, where he lived a year and then engaged in farming fifteen miles northeast of that town, upon which place he and his wife still reside. He was elected assessor of Lincoln county in 1892, serving four years. Mr. Vest served through the Cival war in the Twenty- second Illinois infantry. Mrs. Vest was reared and educated in Illinois, where in Bond county, July 5, 1865, Mrs. Helm was born. She attended the public schools of Illinois; also the state normal at Cheney, Washington. For ten years she was engaged in teaching school and during her father's administration of the assessor's office, acted as his deputy. Mrs. Helm has four sisters, Mrs. Minnie Kelly, in Spokane, and Mar- tha, Mary and Mable at home, besides whom she had one brother, Charles E., now dead. Two chil- dren brighten the Helm home, Jay V., born July 2, 1898, and Katherine M., January 2, 1902, the reservation being their birthplace. Mr. Helm is identified with the Republican party. Rev. and Mrs. Helm are highly esteemed for their many sterling qualities and are strong factors in the noble work of redeeming the red men from their primitive condition and leading them into civilized lives-continuing the grand work so well begun by Father Wilbur.

JOHN J. HADLEY, ranchman, living near Fort Simcoe on the Yakima Indian reservation, is a typical westerner belonging to that type of fron- tiersmen, soldiers and settlers whose fearless, ad-

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venturous lives have given us such an interesting chapter in national life. The pioneer to whom we refer was born in France, September 24, 1828, and is the son of Frank and Elizabeth (Browne) Had- ley, the father being of French descent, the mother of German. Frank Hadley was born in 1744, served as a high officer in Napoleon's armies and died in 1833 after a distinguished army life. The son John, after his father's death, was brought to New York by an uncle and there educated. When fourteen years old his uncle took him around the Horn to California and in 1847 he joined the first gold min- ers in that state. In eighteen months he took out twenty-six thousand dollars exclusive of expenses. A visit to New York and to his mother and step- father in Pennsylvania followed; then a trip to St. Louis, after which he went to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and enlisted for five years in the regular army. Eighteen months after enlistment, he was advanced to the grade of a sergeant. Upon his discharge at Los Angeles, California, the soldier commenced carrying the express between that city and Fort Marhaiver, in which he was employed fourteen months; then visited San Francisco, Seat- tle, The Dalles and Walla Walla, where he entered the employ of the government again, driving cat- tle. Following this he opened a livery stable at Bannock, Idaho, was burned out and returned to Walla Walla. There he conducted a livery for four years, then visited Portland, Seattle, Tacoma, where he helped to build the first log cabin erected in that town, also helped construct the Tacoma mill, and in July, 1870, came to Yakima county. In Yakima county his first work was for George Tay- lor as a cowboy ; then he worked for Joseph Bowser a year. In the spring of 1874 he married the widow of Nathan Olney. Until the fall of 1880 Mr. and Mrs. Hadley lived on the Ahtanum, but in that year Mr. Hadley re-entered the government's em- ploy, being stationed at Fort Simcoe under Agent Wilbur. He was thus employed six years. Mrs. Hadley then sold her interest in the Ahtanum ranch and they removed to the reservation. where Mr. Hadley has since been engaged in farming and stock raising.

As Nathan Olney was one of the best known of Yakima's pioneers, a brief review of his life may not be out of place here. He was born in 1825, a native of Illinois, and crossed the Plains in that pathfinding immigration train which wended its uncertain way to the distant Columbia river settle- ment in the year 1843. After a varied experience in operating a ferry boat across the Shoultz river and in the mines of California, he returned to The Dalles, where he married Jennette, a Wasco Indian, having in the meantime lost his first wife, At The Dalles he conducted a store for several years. At the time of the terrible Salt Lake massacre, Mr. Olney raised a company of volunteers and as its captain was engaged for eight months on that ex-

pedition. Subsequently he served as a government scout several years. After a year in the Hawaiian . Islands, Mr. Olney was appointed Indian agent of the Hot Springs reservation, resigned after six months' experience and served for a time as In- dian agent at The Dalles. He served as sheriff of Wasco county and as mayor of The Dalles with credit. In 1864 he became the first permanent set- tler on the Ahtanum, where his death occurred in 1866. Besides his wife he left four children : Frank, Mrs. Melvina Lincoln, William and George, all born at The Dalles and all now living on the Yak- ima reservation. Mr. Olney was very favorably known throughout the Northwest.

Mr. and Mrs. Hadley have one child, Charles, born on the Ahtanum in 1879. Few men have had fuller experiences or more interesting ones than has Mr. Hadley, and a complete story of his life would occupy most of this volume.

JAY A. LYNCH, superintendent of the Fort Simcoe Indian school and special disbursing agent of the interior department on the Yakima reserva- tion, is a man of high standing among his associ- ates, a man of broad and successful experience in life and well qualified to administer the affairs con- nected with the maintenance of the reservation. With the exception of four years, Mr. Lynch has had charge of the Yakimas since the spring of 1891, and it is a testimonial to his ability and in- tegrity-this long .service under the critical scru- tiny of the public's eyes during a period when the Indian is passing through a transitional stage and reservations are unpopular.

Mr. Lynch is a native of Coshocton county, Ohio, born in 1850 to the marriage of James and Sarah (Platt) Lunch, of Irish and Scotch descent, respectively. James Lynch was born in Ireland, and came to Ohio with his parents when a young man. There he first tilled the soil for a living; then en- gaged in building railroads in the middle west. He went to Wisconsin in an early day and there se- cured the contract for building the first railroad constructed in that state. Subsequently he retired from this business and, removing to Minnesota in 1864, lived on his farm there until his death in 1873. Sarah Platt was born in Newark, New Jer- sey, going to Ohio with her parents when a girl and there marrying Mr. Lynch. The subject of this biography attended the district schools of Wis- consin and Minnesota, remaining on the farm until he was twenty-two years of age. His first inde- pendent work was in Cottonwood county, Min- nesota, where he entered the master industry of his state-lumbering. For three years he was en- gaged in this occupation and in selling farm ma- chinery. In 1876 he sought a newer field of labor in the far west, coming to Dayton, Washington Territory. Here his first work was that of a clerk

JAY A. LYNCH.

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in a general store for two years. Then he pur- chased a sawmill in Garfield county, making his headquarters at Pomeroy. After ten years of profitable endeavor in this field, he sold the busi- ness and a year later moved to Dayton. In the spring of 1890-he was appointed special agent of recorded indebtedness in this state for the census bureau, serving until the following March, when President Harrison appointed him Indian agent of the Yakima reservation. Immediately he took up his new duties with energy and success, but was handicapped in maturing his plans by the change of administration at Washington, in 1893, Presi- dent Cleveland relieving him and appointing in his stead Judge Erwin. Mr. Lynch returned to Day- ton and during the ensuing four years dealt in real estate and grain. However, the installation of President Mckinley recalled Mr. Lynch from private life and again placed him in charge of the government's wards in Yakima county. He con- tinued to serve as agent until that office was abol- ished in July, 1902, when Mr. Lynch was appointed to his present position, which in reality still leaves him in full charge of the Yakima work.

At Dayton, in 1889, Mr. Lynch was united in inarriage to Mrs. F. E. Spaulding. She is the daughter of Allen D. and Laura (Wood) Scott, born in Vermont and New York respectively. The father removed to Iowa when a young man and died there in 1857. He was of Holland Dutch descent. Their marriage took place at Ma- lone, New York. Mrs. Lynch was born in 1848 in Clayton county, Iowa, but received her educa- tion in Minnesota, going there with her mother when ten years old. At the age of seventeen Miss Scott was married to J. Q. Spaulding, who, after a residence in St. Paul, in 1878, came to Pendle- ton, Oregon. In Oregon he traveled for a com- mercial house. While traveling on the stage be- tween Pomeroy, his home, and Lewiston, in 1887, the stage was overturned, mortally injuring Mr. Spaulding, his death occurring the day following. Mr. Lynch is affiliated with the Masons, the Odd Fellows and Elks and is a member of the Epis- copal church; Mrs. Lynch belongs to the Rebekah lodge at Dayton. She is universally credited with having the finest and largest collection of Indian curios and baskets in Washington and one of the best in the Northwest. The collection is well worth a special visit to Fort Simcoe. Mr. Lynch has always taken a deep and active interest in public affairs, and besides being honored with the posi- tions of trust before mentioned, he served on the first council elected in Pomeroy. He has attended every Republican state convention held in Wash- ington and is recognized as an influential party man. This volume would indeed be incomplete without an account of the life of Superintendent Lynch and his estimable wife, who have for so many years been prominently identified with the

political, business and social life of the Yakima country.

WILLIAM L. SHEARER, for the past eight years agent of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and postmaster, at Toppenish, Washington, is a native of Monroe county, Missouri, where he was born October 31, 1862. He is the son of James M. and Hester (Kennett) Shearer, the father a native of Missouri and the mother of Kentucky. James M. Shearer followed farming and railroading in Mis- souri ; he was of pioneer Kentucky ancestry, his father coming from Kentucky to Missouri in early days and his grandfather being a merchant prince and land owner in the Blue Grass state. The Ken- netts, the mother's family, were also among the earliest pioneers of Kentucky, whose conquest of its primeval forests and savage natives forms a most interesting chapter of United States history. William L. Shearer spent the years of his youth and early manhood in Missouri. As a boy he worked with his father on the farm and attended school, his education being completed in Savannah, Missouri. At the age of fourteen, in 1876, his father having met with financial reverses, he entered the offices of the Burlington railroad as messenger boy, soon learned telegraphy, and afterward became their agent, serving them for several years in this capacity at Savannah and King City, Missouri, and at Davis City, Iowa. After three years as agent at Davis City, in Sep- tember, 1890, he resigned his position and came to Spokane, Washington, and, shortly after his ar- rival, accepted the position of agent for the North- ern Pacific Railroad Company at Marshall Junc- tion, remaining there for seven years. In 1896, at his own request, he was transferred to Toppen- ish, where he has since remained as agent for the company. On coming here he was also appointed postmaster. In addition to discharging his duties faithfully in his official capacities, he engages in farming lands leased from the Indians. He has also invested extensively in valley lands outside of the reservation, and now owns a half interest in two thousand five hundred acres above the canal in the Sunnyside district, which is yearly increasing in value. While having extensive private interests to look after, he has always found time to devote to the general advancement of the town and to any measures having in view the improvement of general conditions. Through his efforts Toppen- ish has one of the best public schools in the county and indeed, for a town with its popula- tion, one of the best in central Washington. In view of the fact that a great deal of pre- liminary work has to be done in order to se- cure the permit for its establishment, too much credit can not be given the prime movers in the undertaking. In his efforts to advance the edu-

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cational facilities of the town he has been ably as- sisted by William McAuliff, E. Lawrence and N. H. Lillie. The school has been equipped with a library, maps and all the apparatus necessary in the advanced methods of instruction. Mr. Shearer has been a school director since its establishment.

January 1, 1890, Mr. Shearer was married in Missouri, to Miss Emma Hoffman, a native of Illinois, and a daughter of Robert T. Hoffman, a pioneer of northern Missouri. Mrs. Shearer's mother was a descendant of the distinguished Burr family, Pennsylvania Quakers. To Mr. and Mrs. Shearer have been born three children: Paul H., eleven years old; Preston, eight years old, and Robert F., six years old. Mr. Shearer's fraternal connections are with the Masons and the Modern Woodmen. In the past he has been a Democrat, having supported ex-President Cleveland in his campaigns, but is now a stanch friend of President Roosevelt. He is a man of exceptional business ability, of generous impulses, and is popular with all classes. Fair and honorable in all his dealings with others, of strictest integrity, progressive and public spirited, he has won and retains the con- fidence and esteem of his fellow men.

PETER QUEEN, a leaser on the Yakima In- dian reservation, resides one and one-half miles northwest of Toppenish. He is a native of Scot- land, born in 1867. His father, James Queen, a native of Scotland, was born in 1809 and died in 1897. His mother, Ann (McMarkin) Queen, was born in Hamilton, Scotland, 1827, and died in 1891, at the age of sixty-four. The son, Peter Queen, spent his early life in his native country, working with his father on the farm and attending school. At the age of eighteen he left the paternal roof and engaged in various occupations for his own support. He had a num- ber of friends in America with whom he was in correspondence and through whom he learned of the many opportunities afforded here to the in- dustrious and persevering, to gain a competence and an enviable station in life. He at length de- termined to try his fortune in the land of promise and, in 1891, took passage from Scotland to the United States, arriving at Seattle, Washington, February 27th of the same year. For seven years he rented land in the Sound country, near Auburn, and followed farming with varying success. In 1898 he went to Alaska, spending eighteen months in the Dawson region, with two partners, and meeting with fairly good success from a financial standpoint. Returning to Washington in 1899, he located on his present farm near Toppenish, leas- ing the land from the Indians. He has engaged chiefly in growing potatoes, of which he has raised four crops. With Joseph McCloud as a partner, he cultivates one hundred and sixty acres of land,

having in 1903 planted one hundred and thirty- five acres to potatoes, a part yielding eleven tons per acre, and the whole tract averaging seven tons per acre. He also raises considerable grain, his crop of wheat and barley yielding in 1903 seventy- two and one-half bushels per acre. To the produc- tion of grain and potatoes he adds the breeding of Plymouth Rock chickens, with which he has been very successful. September 1, 1903, Mr. Queen was married to Miss Rose Devon, a native of Portland, Oregon, and the daughter of John and Ellen (Dealins) Devon. Mrs. Queen's parents died when she was an infant and she was raised by an older sister. Fraternally, Mr. Queen is con- nected with the Woodmen of the World and in pol- itics he is a Republican. He has witnessed the growth of Toppenish from a village of one store, a hotel and a church to a populous town, and 'has seen the surrounding country developed with equal rapidity. He is a man of energy and enterprise, of sound principles and sterling manhood; is mak- ing a success of life in the true sense of the term, and commands the confidence and respect of all who know him.

FRANK A. HOLT, farmer and stockman re- siding at Toppenish, has been in the Northwest for more than half a century and in that time has wit- nessed nearly every phase of western life that can be imagined in his various occupations as pros- pector, miner, stage driver, stockman and farmer. Both his parents were pioneers, born and reared on the frontier, so it was only natural that the son inherited a love for the free, untrammeled life of the plains and mountains, and that mode of life he has followed since his arrival in this western country. Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the year 1845, he is the son of Thomas W. and Mary E. (Cardwell) Holt, themselves natives of the same state. His father immigrated to Kansas in the early part of the century and settled near Fort Scott, where he died in 1847, leaving two children, Samuel H. and Frank A. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Holt married John L. Kline and with him and her children started across the Plains to Oregon in 1853. Death intercepted her, how- ever, for eighty miles south of Boise, Idaho, she was mortally stricken with disease and there bur- ied on the sage-brush plains. Frank lived with his step-father until sixteen years old, meanwhile at- tending school, and then went to California, where for two years he followed packing into the mines. In 1862 he returned to Oregon for the winter, and the next spring commenced riding the range in Walla Walla county, Washington. A year later he took charge of a stage line running out of Idaho City: he then visited Lewiston and Warren's mining camp, where he mined one season, and finally returned to Lewiston, his home for the

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ensuing thirty years. For several years after his arrival in Lewiston, Mr. Holt operated in the min- ing camps of Pierce City, Elk City, Warren, Flor- ence, Salmon river and the Clearwater river. He then entered the stock business, devoting his atten- tion principally to horses, remaining in that business for a quarter of a century. In 1894 he was so strongly attracted by the Yakima country that he removed to Yakima county and settled at Top- penish, where he still lives, farming and raising stock. Mr. Holt's marriage took place in 1869 at Lewiston, his bride being Miss Emma Cox, daugh- ter of William Cox. Her father was born in Ken- tucky, crossed the Plains in the early fifties, and died in Lewiston in 1899. He was one of the car- penters who erected the buildings at Fort Simcoe. Mrs. Holt was born in The Dalles, in 1855, July 4, was educated in Walla Walla, and married when only fourteen years old. She died at Toppenish in 1895, leaving the following children: Mrs. Laura Robbins, born April 4, 1870; Francis, May 29, 1873; Robert D., February 9, 1877, who is em- ployed by the government in the Santa Fe Indian school, New Mexico; Thomas L., June II, 1879; William H., August 30, 1881; Frederick C., De- cember 27, 1883, and Mary B. Holt, April 2, 1888, Lewiston being the birthplace of all. March 22, 1899, Mr. Holt was married a second time, Annie J. Robbins becoming his wife. She is the daughter of Jesse and Angeline (Wright ) Robbins, natives of Tennessee and Iowa, respectively, and both de- ceased. Mr. Holt is a member of the Methodist church. Politically, he is a Republican. His property interests consist of eighty acres of fine farming land at Toppenish, a band of forty horses and other stock. He is a prosperous ranchman and a citizen of substantial standing.

CHARLES H. NEWELL, stockman, owner of a large portion of the townsite of Goldendale and also of the Hotel Toppenish at Toppenish, is one of the leading citizens of central Washington and a man without whose biography this history would be incomplete. A native of the Buckeye state, where he was born in 1847, he is one of the children of Samuel and Mary (Flack) Newell, also natives of Ohio. The father was a black- smith by trade. While a small boy, Charles lost his father, thus depriving him of the care and guidance that none can give so well. However, his mother married again and with her family re- moved to Kansas in 1859. where they lived four years. Then they immigrated to Colorado, where they spent a year in Denver and the mines, and in 1864 continued their western journey to Ore- gon, settling in the Willamette valley. There the son Charles finished his education. At sixteen years of age, he commenced farming on shares ; two years later he rented a farm and resided

thereon until 1870, when he bought a band of cat- tle in Oregon and the following spring brought them to the Klickitat county range. He kept the band until the summer of 1872. Then he returned to Oregon and farmed until 1877, still owning an interest in stock in Klickitat county, to which place he removed his family at this time and filed on a homestead ten miles from Goldendale, where he lived until 1891. In 1879 he formed a partner- ship with W. D. Hoxter for the purpose of deal- ing in horses and land, a partnership which lasted for many years, four years of which time, from 1879 to 1883, they sold stock in Oregon. Among . their largest shipments were those of 1884, when seven hundred horses were driven across the Plains to Nebraska, where they were shipped to Ohio; of 1885, when four hundred and seventeen head of horses were shipped from Prosser to the New York market ; and of 1886, when shipments were made to New York and two carloads sent as far east as Rhode Island. They shipped east until 1888, when they be- gan sending their horses to the Sound and Califor- nia. In 1892 they shipped extensively to Minnesota. Mr. Newell has made himself very widely known on account of his connection with the horse industry and is still an extensive operator in this line, ship- ping horses all over the United States. In 1871 Mr. Newell's step-father filed on a portion of the townsite of Goldendale and there in 1897 his aged mother passed into the world beyond. Mr. Newell has one brother, Robert J., who lives in Klickitat county, and one sister, Mrs. Olive Hendricks, also a resident of Klickitat county. The year 1876 witnessed Mr. Newell's marriage in Ore- gon to Miss Mary Wren, daughter of Michael and Christena ( Monroe) Wren, natives of Can- ada. Michael Wren was a pioneer of the Northwest, entering the employ of the Hud- son's Bay Company when that corporation prac- tically owned this section of the United States. The Monroes were also employees of this great company. Mrs. Newell was born in Washington county, Oregon, 1862, and there attended school until she was seventeen years old, when her mar- riage took place. Mr. and Mrs. Newell have only one child, Charles H., Junior, born at Goldendale, December 9, 1900. Mrs. Newell is a member of the Presbyterian communion and also a member of the Rebekahs, her husband being an Odd Fel- low; he also belongs to the United Artisans. Mr. Newell has prospered unusually in a worldly way, owning the largest individual interest held in the townsite of Goldendale, several additions being in his name, besides which he has a quarter section adjoining Goldendale, one hundred cattle and a band of six hundred horses. He is also interested deeply in mining, possessing considerable stock. Few men in central Washington have more ably grasped the opportunities presented by that thriv- ing section of the state than has Mr. Newell, and

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as a pioneer, keen business man and a man of sterling character he is esteemed and respected.

WILLIAM McAULIFF, residing a mile southeast of Toppenish, is one of Yakima county's leading farmers and stockmen and is a man of stability and influence in his community. His whole life, from his birth at The Dalles in 1859 to the present writing, has been spent in the Northwest and in this section of the United States his experience has been a varied as well as a successful one. Of English and Irish extrac- tion, he is the son of James and Isabella (Kin- caid) McAuliff, the mother being of Irish birth. The paternal ancestry of Mr. McAuliff is quite interesting. James was born on the island of Malta, in European waters, in the year 1828, his father being a lieutenant in the British army at that time and stationed there. The son James immigrated to the United States in 1842 and three years later enlisted in Company D, Second United States infantry, at Buffalo, New York. He served all through the Mexican war, in which he was twice wounded, and at its close was trans- ferred to the Fourth infantry. In this regiment he served two years, re-enlisted in 1850, and in 1852 went to California with his company. Sub- sequently he was mustered out at The Dalles, his rank then being first duty sergeant. In 1855, under a proclamation of the governor of Oregon, he raised a company of volunteers and as its cap- tain participated in the famous Walla Walla campaign of that year, the Indian tribes of east- ern Washington and Oregon being the objects of chastisement. Captain McAuliff's company was in the four days' fight just below the Whit- man mission, and for gallantry both captain and company were commended officially by the colo- nel commanding and the governors. This brave old veteran, the father of William, is peacefully passing the remainder of his life in the city of Walla Walla. William was educated in Walla Walla and there learned telegraphy when a young man. When only seventeen years old the am- bitious Irish lad was placed in full charge of an office and for the next nine years of his life con- tinued to follow the occupation of a telegrapher. In 1881 he joined the Northern Pacific forces in Montana in the capacity of chief packer for sur- veying parties and as such spent sixteen months in that mountainous region. He then brought the pack-trains to the Yakima valley, where he wintered in 1881-2, remaining with the survey- ing parties until June, 1882, when for a short time he became wagon master for the same cor- poration. Subsequently he shipped the outfit to Seattle, went to Walla Walla on a visit and in 1883 returned to Yakima county and engaged in raising stock. For twelve years he assiduously

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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 148

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