An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 161

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 161
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 161
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 161

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).

He was married in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1879, to Miss Leah Brown, the daughter of Thomas and Sarah E. Brown, both natives of. England ; the parents are now dead. Mrs. Win- sor was born in Illinois, in 1858, and died in her forty-fourth year, leaving to mourn her loss, besides a devoted husband, four children : Mary E., born in Missouri, April 10, 1881 ; Clark, born in South Dakota, June 1, 1883; Sylvester, No- vember 15, 1887, and Frank, also born in South Dakota, February 14, 1891. All are living at home with their father. He has one brother, Sidney A., living in California. Mr. Winsor is a stanch believer in the principles promulgated by the Democratic party and takes an active interest in all elections. He is a zealous member of the German Baptist Brethren church, better known as the Dunkard society. Mr. Winsor's property interests consist of his fine forty-acre improved farm, all under water and in cultivation, eight acres being devoted to a select orchard, and a band of sixteen cattle. The farm has excellent buildings upon it. As a progressive, reliable citizen he is known to the community and as a man of generous impulses and loyalty he is known to his friends.

FRED MANSFIELD, living five and a half miles northwest of Sunnyside, bears the enviable reputation of being one of the most popular farmers in the Sunnyside valley-a reputation due largely to his generosity in both private and public affairs and the high degree in which he possesses the virtues of industry and persever- ance. Coming to Yakima county in 1891 with just one dollar and seventy-five cents, by faitlı- ful, patient toil he has accumulated a property worth at least five thousand dollars and taken a position among the successful men of the county.

Mr. Mansfield came from that good old state, Missouri, whose sons are scattered far and wide over the west and are everywhere among the west's leading citizens. Kirksville is the place of his birth, and December 17, 1865, the date. His parents, William and Jane (Smith) Mans- field, are natives of Ohio and Pennsylvania, re- spectively, and are still residing in Missouri, where Mr. Mansfield is engaged in the hotel busi- ness. Fred Mansfield was educated in the public schools of his native state, completing his educa- tion at the age of sixteen. The next five years he spent on his father's farm, after which lie

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went to St. Joseph and worked at various pur- smits until 1888. Then he traveled in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and other states, finally arriving in Washington during the year 1890. That year he was employed on the Sound, cross- ing the Cascades to Yakima county in 1891. In 1895 he purchased land under the Sunnyside canal and in the years subsequent to that date Mr. Mansfield has devoted himself to improving this property. Thirty acres of the place are in clover, of which he has been cutting an average crop of five and a half tons per acre per annum- abundant testimony to the soil's fertility. Seven acres are set out to orchard. Recently he com- pleted a fine residence on his farm. He has one sister, Mrs. Grace Arbethnot, and one brother, Walter, both living in Kansas City, Missouri. In political affairs, Mr. Mansfield takes an active interest, voting the Republican ticket. It is said of him that he has never refused to use his hands, his name or his purse when asked to assist in promoting public improvements or en- terprises essential to the best interests of the community. Mr. Mansfield is one of the sub- stantial, progressive citizens of the county.

ALBERT L. YAKEY, another Ohioan who has won success and position among his fellow men in the Yakima country, resides in Sunnyside, and follows agricultural pursuits upon a splendid little farm situated near-by. Like many another citizen of that region, he came to the county with prac- tically nothing except his talents, ambitions and energies, and what he has accumulated since has been won through developing the latent resources of the country around him. Born at Senecaville, Guernsey county, August 3, 1854, he came into the home of Peter H. and Isabella ( McBerney) Yakey, of German and Irish descent. His father was born March 4, 1829, in that same village, and is at pres- ent a retired farmer, living in Indiana. For many years he served as county judge. Mrs. Yakey, also a native of Ohio, died when Albert was four years old. He accompanied his father to Trenton, Mis- souri, in 1860, and in that community was reared, graduating from the public schools in 1879. Sub- sequently he was granted a teacher's' certificate, and during the next eleven years he followed the profession of pedagogy. In 1890 he removed to Washington, locating near Seattle, where he was engaged in carpenter work and logging for four years. The year 1894 witnessed his arrival in Yak- ima county. At first the family picked hops ; then Mr. Yakey leased a farm, and was doing fairly well until the hard times crushed him. With commend- able courage, however, he struggled along, gradu- ally getting into better financial condition. In 1899 he bought forty acres of land in the Sunnyside re- gion, and this he quickly placed in cultivation, and

has farmed since that year, meeting with excellent success. Recently he has added to his holdings in the Sunnyside region another twenty acres, now in crop.

September 9, 1880, in Missouri, he was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth L. Wallingford, a daughter of George W. Wallingford, who was un- fortunately scalded to death at Raton, New Mexico, in a railway wreck. Mrs. Yakey was born in Iowa, September 15, 1865, and is the descendant of Iowa native pioneers, her father having been born there in 1834, and her mother about the same year. The latter is now deceased. Mr. Yakey has one sister, Mrs. Cassie M. Saddler, a widow, liv- ing in Newark, Indiana; Mrs. Yakey also has a sister, Mrs. Nettie M. Stombaugh, of Lincoln, Ne- braska. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Yakey: Ethel, a stenographer, born in Mis- souri, August 8, 1881; Berl, born in Missouri, January 31, 1883; Myrtle, born in Kansas, in May, 1886; Frank H., born in Missouri, in May, 1889, died March 6, 1898, and Jennie, born in Washing- ton, in May, 1893. Mr. Yakey is quite prominent in fraternal circles, being connected with the Odd Fellows, as secretary of Sunnyside lodge, No. 149; with the Modern Woodmen, and with the Ancient Order of United Workmen, as recorder of the Sun- nyside lodge. He has been an Odd Fellow since October, 1879. In politics, he is identified with the Republican party. He is a man of high principles, excellent abilities and such qualities as command the esteem of his fellow citizens.

FRANK S. VETTER. One of Sunnyside's youngest, and at the same time most successful and popular business men, is the citizen whose name ap- pears at the beginning of this sketch. He is an ex- cellent representative of the type of young Ameri- cans which is boldly and energetically pushing its way into our national life and making the nation ring with its strong, vigorous blows for progress and expansion along every line of human endeavor. George and Florence (Tupper) Vetter, prominent pioneer residents of the Sunnyside region, whose biographies will be found in this work, are the parents of Frank S. The father is an ex-mayor of Sunnyside, and was recently appointed postmaster of that city. Both father and mother are natives of Chicago, Illinois. While residing in Peoria, Il- linois, Frank S. was born, the date of his birth be- ing July 2, 1882. From Illinois the family soon re- moved to Aberdeen, South Dakota, where the father was engaged in wheat raising for twelve years, and in this state Frank began his education. When a lad of twelve, his parents immigrated to Washington, and settled upon land in the Sunny- side country. The family lived on this farm until 1898, when Mr. Vetter was appointed postmaster at Sunnyside. The young man's school education

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terminated in that town when he was eighteen years old. Three years of clerkship in a general mercan- tile store followed, his resignation taking effect September 16, 1903. With keen foresight the young business man saw an opportunity to do bet- ter in another line, and so purchased the property and business of Jolin Cady, on Sixth street. Shortly after this purchase, Vetter's restaurant, confection- ery and bakery were opened to the general public ; the enterprise met with encouraging success. Later Mr. Vetter bought the old Cady hotel and resi- dence, which have been transformed into a well- equipped hostelry. His places of business are be- ing patronized by an increasing trade, and further improvement, perhaps expansion, may be expected in the near future. Ordinarily men of Mr. Vet- ter's age are regarded as too young to safely con- duct a large business alone, but he has demonstrated a capacity for management extremely rare for one of his years, and appears to be suited by nature for his present occupation. He is connected with the Modern Woodmen and its auxiliary fraternity, and is an active Republican. Mr. Vetter commands the respect and esteem of the community in which he lives, and possesses many loyal friends, both young and old.

WILLIAM THOMPSON STOBIE, Sr. But few, if any, citizens of the Yakima country have had more varied or exciting lives than has the man of whom we now write, who is at present residing in Sunnyside. Of Scottish de- scent, he was born in Perthshire, Scotland, No- vember 20, 1844, to the union of James and Eliza- beth (Thompson) Stobie. At the age of two he crossed the ocean with his parents to Canada, where the family settled upon a farm. The father had followed farming only a few years in Canada, before his death occurred; Mrs. Stobie lived until 1888. While in his eleventh year, the subject of this biography left home and school, because of excessive punishment at the hands of his teacher, and apprenticed himself to a black- smith in Ottawa, under whom he spent four years learning his trade. He then crossed the border into New York state, and there became employed as assistant in a glass factory for a time. Returning to his trade, he worked at that occupation until February, 1863, when he en- listed in Battery K, First New York light artil- lery, and in this battery served his adopted coun- try until mustered out at Elmira, New York, in July, 1865. Because of his ability as a horse- shoer, demonstrated by shoeing Captain Stok- ing's horse, he was assigned to the division black- smith shop as foreman and appointed an artificer, a rank equaling that of sergeant. He partici- pated in many famous battles and skirmishes. After the war he conducted a blacksmith shop

three years at Rotterdam, New York, but in 1869 sold it and moved to Missouri, where he first followed his trade and later entered the horse business, buying and selling. Drifting into handling racing stock, he followed the circuits two years. While thus engaged, he rode the famous old English horse, Blackjack, who was never beaten, and often met the noted James and Younger boys, whom he characterizes as honor- able and gentlemanly in their treatment of him. In 1871 he removed to Kansas and followed his trade two years, but upon the Black Hills mining excitement reaching Kansas, he again laid aside the hammer and anvil and started for the mines. At Cheyenne, Wyoming, his party was driven back by the Indians. Then Mr. Stobie visited Denver, conducted a blacksmith shop two years at Idaho Springs, but was again whirled away in a mining excitement-that of the Leadville dis- trict in 1878. He established the first freighting company between Leadville and Weston, operat- ing until the railroad reached Leadville. Next he went to Pitkin, Colorado, with the pioneer six-mule team that reached that camp, occupying seven weeks on the trip. His next experience was in railroad contracting on the Rio Grande in Colorado and New Mexico. After four years of this kind of work he visited Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and Kansas, farming some in the latter state, but finally being driven away by the grass- hopper hordes. Railroad work in Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Oregon and Washington followed this experiment. In 1891, he came to Yakima county and entered the serv- ice of the company constructing the Sunnyside canal, remaining with this company until the great waterway and many of its laterals were completed. He bought sixty acres of land under the canal in 1894 and immediately moved upon it and began improving it. His residence was the best one in the district at the time it was built and he claims the honor of raising the first crop of alfalfa produced in the Sunnyside region. Also Mr. Stobie was given the first mail contract for carrying the mails between Mabton and Sunny- side, and erected the first livery barn in the latter place. Thus it will be seen that he was among the leading pioneers of his community.

Mr. Stobie was married in New York, No- vember, 1866, to Miss Mary J. Martin, a native of New York state, born in the year 1848. Her par- ents, Hugh and Margaret Martin, both dead, were natives of Ireland. Mr. Stobie has three brothers living, Peter, James and Joseph, and two sisters, Elizabeth and Mrs. Amelia Anderson. To this union were born three children: Mrs. Cora Mathieson, of Sunnyside; Mrs. Alice Hay, who lives in Texas, and William T., junior, a prosper- ous citizen of Sunnyside. Mr. Stobie was mar- ried a second time in Denver, on April 27, 1877, to Miss Dorothy Thurmann, daughter of Adol-

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phus W. and Mary E. Thurmann, natives of Ger- many. Mrs. Stobie was born in Germany, and came to the United States in 1868. Mr. Stobie is interested in political matters and is to be found in the ranks of the Republicans on all national issues. He now owns one hundred and forty acres of fine land, all in cultivation, and about thirty head of select horse stock, some of which are registered. It is his intention to en- gage in breeding blooded animals, for which in- dustry he is surely well qualified. In 1879, while with a small party of homeseekers in Colorado, which had started out from Georgetown, Mr. Stobie met with a most exciting adventure. When about one hundred and fifty miles out, near the boundaries of Utah and Colorado, the party encountered a band of five hundred Indians, who ordered their return to the settlements. The chief and several of his sub-chiefs were invited to supper, and during the night all but two of the whites escaped in the darkness; the two who refused to leave were killed. Mr. Stobie himself drove one hundred and twenty-five miles without stopping and for sixty miles was closely pursued by the redskins. Friendly whites finally inter- fered and drove back the Indians. The doughty pioneer has at last found his haven of rest in the beautiful, thrifty Yakima region and is now numbered among Sunnyside's esteemed and suc- cessful citizens.

OLIVER R. FERRELL. The popular and successful Yakima county stockman who forms the subject of this biography came to the Yak- ima country a quarter of a century ago, and has personally participated in the rise and decline of that region's once master industry-stock rais- ing. Between the years 1878 and 1880, he rode the ranges of Klickitat county ; in 1880, he came with his parents into Yakima county and two years later entered the service of Washington's cattle king, Benjamin Snipes, for whom he worked most of the time during the next ten years. Then he engaged in cattle raising for himself and, with the exception of the first win- ter, has been unusually successful since that time. He still has one of the largest bands in the region, but is reducing its numbers steadily be- cause of the lack of range. Few know the Yak- ima country as well as he, for he rode over most of it when the population was only a few hundred scattered inhabitants and the larger cities were either non-existent or mere hamlets. Mr. Ferrell was born in California, November 5, 1864, the son of John and Julia (Sheldon) Ferrell, natives of Ohio, born in 1833. Mrs. Fer- rell is dead, but her husband is living at the ripe age of seventy-two, residing with his son George. The biography of this honored old pio- neer will be found elsewhere in this history. 46

Oliver R. attended school in California until he reached the age of thirteen, when he accom- panied his parents to The Dalles, Oregon. In 1880, he came with them to the Yakima valley, the father settling where Mr. Ferrell's ranch lies, seven miles southwest of Sunnyside.

Oliver R. Ferrell was united in marriage to Miss Adelia Switzler, November 3, 1897, on Switzler island, in the Columbia river. She is the daughter of John B. and Mary (Smoot) Switzler, natives of Missouri, who are at present living in Walla Walla county, where Mr. Switz- ler is a well known stockman. Mr. Switzler was born in 1842; his wife in 1850. Mrs. Switzler is a cousin of Senator Reed Smoot, Utah's noted Mormon. Montana is the birthplace of Mrs. Ferrell, the date of her birth being April 16, 1867. She has one brother, William, an Oregon stockman, and two sisters, Mrs. Minnie Sharpstein, the wife of a Walla Walla lawyer, and Eva, who lives with her parents. Mr. Fer- rell has six brothers and sisters: Mrs. Louise Adams, in Yakima City; George, a ranchman liv- ing near Mr. Ferrell; Francis, a resident of North Yakima ; Mrs. Kate Gibbons, at The Dalles ; Mrs. Elsie St. John, in Everett, Washington, wife of the principal of the public schools there, and her- self secretary of the State Federation of Wom- an's Clubs; Jolin, also a Yakima stock raiser, living near his brothers. Mr. Ferrell is a Repub- lican in his political sympathies, and fraternally, is affiliated with the Modern Woodmen. They have one child, Mary Thelma, born Feb- ruary 25, 1904. Mrs. Ferrell is a prominent member of the Episcopal church, in the work of which she has been active for years. Among Mr. Ferrell's vivid recollections is that of his experience during the hard winter of 1889-90, one of the severest on record in Northwestern history. There was considerable snow, the cold was intense and stockmen found themselves short of feed in February. Then it started to thaw, leading the worried stockmen to turn out their cattle. Snipes & Allen released about two thou- sand five hundred head below Prosser, and hardly were they on the range before winter resumed its icy blasts. The first of March Mr. Ferrell and other employees went down to see how the cattle were getting along and found five lonely steers. The rest had perished. More than seven hundred and fifty dead cattle were found in one canyon, as high as fifteen being in a bunch. The blow this was to stockmen can bet. ter be imagined than told. Mr. Ferrell owns three hundred acres of fine valley land, of which one hundred and fifty acres are in hay, three hundred head of cattle, a considerable number of horses, and small stock and a comfortable, mod- ern home. The first frame house built below Union Gap stands on his place. Mr. and Mrs. Ferrell possess a host of warm friends and well

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wishers and as a man of strict integrity, energy and progressive ideas, Mr. Ferrell is one of the respected citizens of the county.

ANDREW GREEN, one of the Sunnyside valley's prosperous agriculturists, residing five miles southwest of its commercial center, is a na- tive of the Empire state, his birth having occurred in Rensselaer county, August 2, 1833. His par- ents, both of whom are now dead, were William D. and Anna (Belden) Green, the former born in Rhode Island, the latter a native of Massachu- setts. William D. Green was a farmer by occu- pation, and upon the old New York homestead Andrew spent the early years of his life. His schooling was ended when he arrived at the age of seventeen. After assisting his father a year in the farm work, the young man spent three years in the saw and shingle mills of New York, then entered the pineries of southern Michigan, locat- ing at Big Rapids. For twenty-four years he was engaged in cutting the timber around him and sawing it into lumber, shingles, etc., meeting with fair success in the once master industry of the beautiful peninsula. In 1881, however, he re- moved to North Dakota and commenced raising wheat. Five North Dakota winters convinced him that the climate of that region was uncon- genial, and in 1886 he became a resident of the Kittitas valley, Washington, settling at Thorp. There he worked at the lumber business until 1893, in which year he filed a homestead claim to the quarter section now his farm.

Mr. Green was married to Miss Donna M. Harrison, the daughter of James and Rebecca (Brown) Harrison, at Clarkston, Oakland county, Michigan, September 30, 1863. She is also a na- tive of New York, having been born in James- town, May 12, 1834. James Harrison, born in 1801, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, was a distant relative of President W. H. Harrison ; Mrs. Harri- son was born, February, 1809, in New Hamp- shire. Mrs. Green has the following brothers and sisters: William H., living in Jamestown, New York; Andrew J., a California jeweler; Mrs. Re- becca Dexter, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Mrs. El- len N. Rawson, Jamestown, New York; Mrs. Eliza Green, Edwardsville, Kansas; and Mrs. Mary C. Mason, Seattle; Mr. Green has two brothers, George W., in Spokane; Lewis H., Ed- wardsville, Kansas; and one sister, Mrs. Amanda A. Mason, Big Rapids, Michigan. Mr. and Mrs. Green are the parents of three children, who are Mrs. Lottie H. Spratley, born in Michigan, April II, 1866, living in Virginia City, Minnesota; Mrs. Anna R. Sandel, born in Michigan, April 22, 1869, living at Bucoda, Washington; and Mrs. Florence G. Morrison, born in Michigan, April 21, 1872, living in Yakima county. Both husband and wife

are devout members of the Episcopal denomina- tion, and are highly esteemed for their many vir- tuous qualities. Mr. Green has forty acres of his farm under cultivation and is rapidly improving the remainder. In the pleasant, cozy home they have established in fertile and sunny Yakima county, surrounded by friends and well wishers, these hardy pioneers are contentedly passing the winter of their lives.

AUBREY C. WEBBER, electrical engineer, superintendent of the Sunnyside Co-operative Telephone Company, and farmer, lives two and a half mile east of Sunnyside. He is a native of Maine, born May 4, 1872, in that extreme northeastern section of the United States. His father, John C. Webber, was also born in the Pine Tree state, the date of his birth being 1848; he died in 1876. Mrs. Alice A. (Record) Web- ber is likewise a native of Maine, born in 1852; she is living with her son Aubrey. When a child of six years, his mother removed with him to Minnesota and subsequently into South Dakota. In these states he received his general education. When he was eighteen, he came to the Northwest, going first to Seattle, where he secured work with a grocery company. In 1892 he left Washington and engaged in electrical work for the Salt Lake Rapid Transit Company. His first work was that of a lineman, but after six months of service, the apt young workman was promoted to a foreman- ship and in that capacity remained in the employ of the company until 1897. Then he returned to Seattle, entered the service of the Union Elec- tric Company, first as lineman and then as inspect- or, and subsequently was offered and accepted the position of general foreman of construction work for the Denny-Blaine Land Company, aft- erwards the Seattle Electric Company. How- ever, in March, 1899, Mr. Webber again won pro- motion, this time going back to Salt Lake City as assistant superintendent of the Salt Lake Rapid Transit Street Railway Company. A year later he again went up the ladder of his profession, going to Everett, Washington, in May, 1900, as superintendent of construction for the Everett Railway & Electric Company, remaining in this position until June 9, 1901. At that time he took possession of a twenty-acre tract of land that he had purchased in the Sunnyside valley in 1898, and during the next year improved his farm. He soon found a chance, however, to use his electrical training without leaving home, for in the fall of 1902 he was induced to assume the superintendency of the local telephone company and since that time has been the practical head of this enterprise, besides cultivating his farm. It is a well equipped line which is rapidly spreading its web over the county.

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Miss Minnie Hennsey, a resident of Salt Lake City, became Mr. Webber's bride December 15, 1893, the nuptial knot being tied in that metrop- olis. She was born in Newburgh, New York, April 30, 1872, and when a child was left an or- phan by the death of both father and mother. Mrs. Webber has two brothers, Frank, living in New York, and William, an orange grower of Florida. Mr. and Mrs. Webber's home is bright- ened by the presence of one son, Carroll A., whose birth occurred in Salt Lake City, July 3, 1897. Mrs. Webber is a member of the Congre- gational communion and highly esteemed by all who know her. Mr. Webber is connected with the Independent Order of Foresters and politic- ally, is a stanch Republican. Besides his well improved farm, he owns a small band of horses and twenty-six registered Durock Jersey hogs, devoting especial attention to breeding the latter stock. As a man of sound principles, talent and progressive activities, he is a respected and success- ful citizen of the valley.

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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 161

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