An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 172

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 172
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 172
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 172

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JOHN WILLIAM BROWN, residing in Pros- ser, is one of Yakima's successful pioneer farmers, who has retired from his life occupation and now seeks the advantages and opportunities which only a thrifty commercial, social and educational center can afford. Mr. Brown was born in England, in the year 1851, the son of Thomas and Margaret Brown, his father being a farmer. Both parents are now deceased, the mother's demise occurring in 1902. They remained in England all their lives. John W. attended the common schools of his na- tive land and worked on the farm until he was fif-

teen years old, then worked in a foundry until eighteen. At that age he crossed the ocean and during the next five years farmed in New York state. From there he went to Cleveland, Ohio, where he worked in a brickyard four years, then for four years managed C. P. Treat's brickyard in Trinidad, Colorado, next visited Alamosa and then freighted two years out of Prescott, Arizona. At the expiration of that period he moved by team to Salt Lake City and early in the eighties came to Boise, Idaho, where he helped build the Oregon Short Line Railroad. In 1883, he came to Yakima county, settling in the Horse Heaven region, and was engaged in farming and stock raising until 1902. His ranch contained two sections of land, all in cultivation; besides which he owned three hundred head of horses. Mr. Brown's home in Prosser is a very atractive brick residence, the only brick dwelling in the city.

February 1, 1903, Mary E. Lea arrived in Spo- kane from her home in England, and became the bride of Mr. Brown, the ceremony taking place in the Falls City. She is the daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Nowell) Turner. Her father is a prosperous English farmer, and his daughter re- sided in Oregon for some time previous to visit- ing her parents in the old country. By a former marriage Mrs. Brown has one child, Myrtle Lea, a bright little Miss of ten summers, whose birth- place is Oregon. Both Mr. and Mrs. Brown are members of the Episcopal church. The husband is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows ; politically, he is a stanch Republican. Mr. Brown's property interests consist of his home place in Prosser, which contains eleven and one- half acres, sixty acres of land irrigated by Sunnyside canal and other city property of high value. He is an influential and respected citizen of the Yakima valley, a man of substantial attainments and solid integrity.

NELSON D. COX, of the plumbing firm of Jett & Cox, Prosser, is one of that city's enterpris- ing and popular young business men, who has trav- eled a long way to become a citizen of Washington. North Carolina is his native state and he was born May 17, 1865, to the union of Samuel W. and Cynthia (Blalock) Cox, of English-German and English descent respectively. Both were also na- tives of North Carolina, his mother being a sister of Dr. N. G. Blalock, of Walla Walla ; she died in 1867. Samuel W. Cox removed his family to Il- linois two years after the death of his wife, crossed the Plains in 1873 to Walla Walla valley and reached that valley's metropolis October 3, 1873. After being in the employ of Michael Ward and Dr. Blalock for five years, he settled upon a homestead in Garfield county, lived there until 1891, spent a year in Everett, and died in St. Mary's

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hospital, Walla Walla, in 1894. Nelson D. re- mained with his father until 1889, when he com- menced wiping engines for the old Oregon & Washington Territory Railroad Company, now ab- sorbed by the Washington & Columbia River Rail- road Company. After two years at this work, he was promoted to fireman for a service of eight years, and for two years held the responsible position of engineer. During the next three years Mr. Cox was employed by Whitehouse, Crimmins & Company, Walla Walla. In May, 1902, he formed a partner- ship with his father-in-law, James W. Jett, and es- tablished a plumbing shop in Prosser. In connec- tion with this work, Mr. Cox has been in charge of the pumps of the Prosser Falls Land & Irrigating Company for the past two years.

Miss Lillie Jett, the daughter of James W. and Mary (Renfrow) Jett, became his bride in Walla Walla, December 8, 1897. Born in The Dalles, in 1875, she received her education in Walla Walla county and was married at the age of eighteen. Her parents are Missourians. Her father, born in 1849, crossed the Plains to Baker City, Oregon, in 1874, spent a short time there and in The Dalles and in 1875 settled in Walla Walla, where he lived with his family until removing to Prosser. For twenty years Mr. Jett followed his trade as a tinner in the employ of William O'Donald, but in 1895, opened his own shop. He conducted it success- fully until he came to Prosser. Mr. Cox has one brother, William C., a physician in Everett, and four sisters: Mrs. Hulda Parris, in Athena, Ore- gon ; Mrs. Ura E. Price, in Idaho; Mrs. Ada Ras- mus, living in Walla Walla, and Mrs. Victor Yeo, of Dayton, Washington. Mrs. Cox has one sister, Mrs. Lela B. Jett, living in Prosser. Mr. Cox is a Democrat; fraternally, he is connected with the Knights of Pythias and the Maccabees. Mrs. Cox is an earnest worker in the Christian church, of which she is a member. Both Mr. and Mrs. Cox have won many friends since their advent into the Prosser community, while he has been successful in business and is regarded as a citizen of com- mendable qualities.

BYRON AND ELMER E. BERNARD. Among those who, at the present day, are making a splendid success of the important business of stock raising, none, perhaps, can take precedence, for skill and ability in the production of fine draught animals, over the Yakima Valley Horse Company, composed of the two brothers whose names form the caption of this article and E. F. Benson. Though it has not been in the business as long as many of its competitors, its members have brought to their enterprise a fund of accu- mulated experience and an amount of aptitude sufficient to enable them at once to take a place among the leading men in their line in the North-

west ; for, having been born on the frontier, reared on the ranges and habituated to the free, ardu- ous life of the stockman from boyhood, the Ber- nard brothers certainly have had an abundant opportunity to gain an intimate acquaintance with the industry in which they are engaged and to develop the independence, resourcefulness and good judgment it requires. Their father before them was a frontiersman and stock raiser. A native of Illinois, born in 1818, of the sturdy Scotch-Irish stock, Timothy Bernard early deter- mined to heed Horace Greeley's advice, to go West, and in 1849 he crossed the Plains to the occident. For four years he mined in California, but in 1854 lie settled on a nine hundred acre farm in the Willamette valley, where he resided more than a quarter of a century. In 1881, how- ever, he crossed the Cascades to the cattle ranges of eastern Oregon, where the remainder of his days were spent in the stock raising industry. The lady who joined fortunes with him, Margaret Harper, was also a native of Illinois, but of Ger- man and English descent. When five years old she crossed the Plains with her parents and at the age of seventeen married Mr. Bernard. Byron Bernard, the elder of the two brothers, with whom this article is primarily concerned, was born in Oregon, November 1I, 1865. He received a good education in the local public schools, and at the age of eighteen engaged in the stock busi- ness with his father. In 1888 the partnership be- tween them was dissolved, and Byron went to Montana, in which state he was employed by A. F. Melick as a cattle buyer for the ensuing seven years. An idea of the extensiveness of his operations during this period may be had from the fact that his purchases sometimes involved expenditures of one hundred thousand dollars in a single season. Elmer E. Bernard was born in Oakland, Douglas county, Oregon, February 3, 1869. He likewise enjoyed the advantages, dur- ing his boyhood, of the local public schools, and like his brother, early engaged in the stock busi- ness, following it first in western Oregon, then in eastern Oregon, and then for four years in Montana. In 1898 the two Bernards came to Yakima county, formed a partnership known as Bernard Brothers, and engaged in the raising of horses, giving, as has been stated, special atten- tion to fine draught stock, for the breeding of which they early gained an enviable and wide- spread reputation. December 1, 1903, Mr. Benson became a partner in their enterprise and the com- pany was incorporated.

May 14, 1894, in the state of Montana. Byron Bernard married Mary, daughter of John and Anna (McDonald) Matheson, the former of whom, a native of Prince Edward Island, Canada, is now a noted stockman and farmer of Montana. When a small boy he was taken to Ontario, in the excellent public schools of which province he-

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was educated. On reaching young manhood, he went into the Calumet and Hecla mines of Michi- igan, where for a number of years he delved for hidden wealth; but, eventually, he returned to Canada and engaged in farming and stock rais- ing. In 1890 he moved to Chinook, Montana, and took up land. His energy and splendid abilities applied in a country possessed of great natural advantages enabled him to add rapidly to his holdings, and he now has a mammoth estate, con- sisting of a thousand acres under irrigation and several thousand acres of grazing land. He is engaged extensively in cattle and sheep raising, being the owner of nine thousand head of the latter at present. His wife, Alma (McDonald) Matheson, was born, reared and educated in Ontario, Canada, where she married at the age of nineteen. Bothi she and her husband are of Scotch extraction. Mr. and Mrs. Byron Bernard are parents of one child, Melvin, born in Mon- tana, May 29, 1896.

Elmer E. Bernard was married in Chinook, Montana, September 3, 1902, the lady being Donelda Matheson, a sister of Mrs. Byron Ber- nard. She is a native of Lucknow, Ontario, born March 31, 1881, but as her parents moved to Montana when she was nine years old, her com- mon school education was completed there. She also graduated from the Castle Rock high school, in Colorado.

Both the Bernard brothers enjoy a very envi- able standing in Yakima county and throughout central Washington, being respected for their business ability and for their integrity of char- acter. Byron is a Modern Woodman, and both he and his wife are communicants in the Presby- terian church.

JOHN CHISHOLM, superintendent of the Prosser Falls Land and Irrigating Company, and an extensive wheat raiser in the Horse Heaven region, belongs to that type of Westerners which, by indomitable pluck and untiring energies, is leading in the reclamation of the once repellant and despised western wilderness. Francis Chis- holm, a worker in brass, left his old home in Scotland in 1838 and came to America, settling in Boston, Massachusetts. There he and his wife, Mary (Corbet) Chisholm, founded a home and spent the greater portion of their lives. The hus- band soon engaged in business and successfully conducted it in the city until 1898, at which time he retired from active business, and is now pass- ing his remaining years in Winchester. Mrs. Chisholm, also a native of Scotland, died in Win- chester in 1860. Her son John was born in Bos- ton, February 22, 1855, and in that city was educated and learned the molder's trade with his father. At the age of nineteen the restless young man sailed out of Boston to seek his fortunes in

the South and West. He passed through Cen- tral America at Panama and worked his way to San Francisco. He there worked a year in the foundry of W. T. Garrett & Company; then en- gaged in farming in the San Joaquin valley for two years. A trip to Boston followed this ven- ture, after which he returned to California, cross- ing the Plains, and until 1883 was occupied with farming pursuits near Modesto, cultivating two thousand acres. August 12, 1883, he reached Washington territory and immediately filed pre- . emption, homestead and timber culture claims to land in the Horse Heaven region, in which locality he farmed and raised stock extensively during the next eight years. Early in the nineties he re- moved his family to a fruit ranch near Kiona, the ten-acre tract producing nearly all the varie- ties of tropical and semi-tropical fruits and berries grown in the West. Five years later Mr. Chis- · holm and his family came to Prosser, where he took charge of the interests he is now managing, those of the Prosser Falls Land and Irrigating Company. Since that time he has been engaged in promoting the welfare of this large company and raising wheat in the Horse Heaven region, having five hundred acres devoted to this crop.

John Chisholm and Ottie Rice were united by the sacred ties of matrimony, in California, July, 1883, the bride being the daughter of John and Jane (Linville) Rice, pioneers of the Golden state. Her father was born in Ohio, mother in Missouri, and, as man and wife, crossed the Plains to Oregon in the early fifties. In that state Mr. Rice was engaged many years in farming and stock raising, subsequently removing to California, where his death occurred in 1881. Mrs. Rice is still living. The father was of English descent ; the mother's ancestry is German. Mrs. Chisholm was born in Salem, Oregon, 1863, and received most of her education in California. She has four brothers : Moses, living in Oakesdale, Washington, and John, George and Preston, residing in California. Two children brighten the Chisholm household: Mabel, born on the Horse Heaven ranch in June, 1885, and Frankie, also born on the ranch, during August, 1890. Mr. Chisholm and his wife are consistent church members, he belonging to the Episcopalian, she to the Christian denomination. He is a thorough believer in fraternities and is affiliated with three, namely: The Masons, Odd Fellows and Modern Woodmen. His political sympathies are with the Republican party, in which he is an active worker, and has served his community in various public offices. Mr. Chisholm is well known as a man deeply inter- ested in all public matters, national, state and local, and has the reputation of succeeding in whatever he undertakes to do. He recently organized a local telephone company, himself owning most of the stock, and this enterprise now furnishes Pros-

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ser and the surrounding country with its first telephone service. Mr. Chisholm has disposed of his large Horse Heaven ranch and in return owns fifteen acres of city property, an interest in a meat market, a small band of horses, and other minor property interests. He is one of Yakima's substantial citizens ; popular, capable and influen- tial, enjoying the confidence of his fellow men.

JOHN M. BECKETT, one of Prosser's well known business men, was born in Ohio in 1835, the son of Isaac and Nancie (Wilkison) Beckett, natives of Virginia and Ohio, respectively. John M. was educated in Ohio and Illinois and left the old home at the age of sixteen to learn the wagon maker's trade. After four years' appren- ticeship. the young wagon maker opened a shop in Mahomet, Illinois, where he lived ten years. He then plied his trade twelve years in Peoria county. He then removed to Kansas, living in Marshall county until 1889; then going to Wal- lowa county, Oregon, for a residence of four years, and, in the fall of 1893, came to Yakima county, settling first in Yakima City. In 1894 he set- tled upon a homestead five miles west of Prosser and engaged in farming six years. His residence in Prosser dates from 1900. during which year he opened a livery stable in that growing town. He personally managed the business for a period of two years, but eventually leased it to Bamly & Smith, the present lessees.

Mr. Beckett was married in Champaign county, Illinois, November 25, 1858, to Miss Maria Franklin, the daughter of William and Lydia M. (Pitman) Franklin. Both parents were pioneers and natives of Ohio. William Franklin removed to Illinois in 1852, later went to Kansas, and his death occurred in that state. Mrs. Beck- ett was born in Ohio in 1838, and received her education in the schools of her native state. The following children are a result of this union: Edmund and Edgar, twins, born November 8. 1859. died in infancy ; Willard, born January 10. 1860; Frank (deceased), born February 4, 1863 : Ralph, February 1, 1867, and Harry, November 9, 1869, died in infancy ; all born in Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Beckett also have an adopted daughter, Gertrude, born in Kansas, March 6, 1882. As a soldier of the Civil war, having enlisted in 1864 in the Second Illinois light artillery, and served until the close of the war, Mr. Beckett is entitled to membership in the Grand Army of the Repub- lic and is a member of that organization. Po- litically, he is a stanch Socialist. Both husband and wife are connected with the Methodist church. Mr. Beckett's property interests consist of his livery barn and a city home in. Prosser, in which place he is respected as a citizen of pub- lic spirit, integrity and stability.

WILLIAM W. SMITH, proprietor of one of Prosser's blacksmith shops, has resided in Pros- ser since the spring of 1899, and in the five years which have since elapsed has built up a lucrative business and firmly established himself in the con- fidence of his fellow citizens. Mr. Smith is a na- tive of Columbus, Ohio, born September 20, 1857, to the union of William and Margaret (Rapon) Smith, both of German descent and born across the seas. William, Senior, came to the United States in 1818 after a lengthy trip of thirty weeks on the ocean, during which time he was ship- wrecked three times. He settled in Ohio, and during the remainder of his long life followed the shoemaker's trade in Columbus. Margaret (Rapon) Smith came to this country when a girl. Her father served in the Napoleonic wars, fighting against the famous general in the battle of Water- ivo, and he also fought on the American side in the War of 1812. William, Junior, attended school in Columbus and learned the shoemaker's trade at his father's bench, working at this trade until lie was sixteen years old, when he began mastering the blacksmith's trade. Six years later he left Colum- bus, going to Cambridge City, Indiana, for a short stay. He remained a short time successively, in Indianapolis, Baltimore, Fort Wayne, Chicago, Omaha and Edison, Kansas, and finally reached Kansas City. He lived six years in that metrop- olis, and then came to ruget Sound in 1890. He was a resident of Tacoma nine years, or until the spring of 1899, when he opened a shop in Prosser.

The year 1884 marks a memorable event in Mr. Smith's life-his marriage in St. Joseph, Mis- souri, to Miss Annic, daughter of Henry Smith. Her parents are natives of Germany, her father coming to the United States in 1857. He settled in Ohio, in which state the family home still re- mains. Mr. Smith is a carpenter by trade and also a successful contractor. Mrs. Annie Smith was born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1859, and in 1894 was called to her home in the life beyond, leaving a grief-stricken husband and four young children to mourn her loss. The children are: John Will- iam, born August 5, 1887, in Kansas City, Kan- sas ; George W., born in the same city, June II, 1889; Elma T., born in Tacoma, February 29, 1891, and Annie L., whose birthday was Novem- ber 20, 1894. The father of the family is affiliated with three fraternal orders; the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of America. He has left the old line political party to which he once be- longed, for the Socialist party, of which he is an active member. Besides his blacksmith shop in Prosser, Mr. Smith owns twenty acres of land in the district irrigated by the Sunnyside canal. He is respected and esteemed by his fellowmen for his many commendable qualities.

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BIOGRAPHICAL.

CHARLES N. BICKLE. It is not given to every man-in fact, to comparatively few-that his name should be perpetuated by a prosperous, growing town, whose future is as bright as that of Bickleton, Klickitat county. Yet the doughty pioneer of central Washington, whose biography is herewith. presented, is the father of the thrifty commercial center that bears his name, and until recent years was its leading citizen.

Bickleton's founder was born in Wisconsin fifty-four years ago, and was one of twenty chil- dren, whose parents were William and Sarah J. (Witherell) Bickle, natives of England and the state of Connecticut respectively. Upon arriving in America, William Bickle settled in Jefferson county, Wisconsin, the birthplace of Charles; from Wisconsin the father traveled slowly westward, living in various states, until he reached Kansas, where he is still farming, residing near Beloit. He is prominent in Kansas politics, and ever since lie arrived in the state and settled has served the public in some official capacity. Sarah J. Bickle departed this life in 1903.

Until Charles Bickle was sixteen years old he lived in Iowa, where his education was obtained. At that age, however, he returned to his birthplace and worked in the pineries four years. Returning to Iowa, he attended school five months, and then commenced farming, living three years longer in Iowa, two years in Nebraska, three years in Kan- sas and three months in California. From Cali- fornia he came to Portland, and thence, in 1878, to Goldendale, where he opened a grocery store, after having made a trip to Alder creek and found the Indians too numerous and hostile. Fifteen months later, however, the courageous pioneer decided to fight it out, if necessary, with the red men, and accordingly returned to the sparsely inhabited Al- der creek region in northern Klickitat county, and settled upon the quarter section now occupied by the townsite of Bickleton. The same year, 1879. he established a trading post upon his land, soon after secured a postoffice and thus laid the founda- tion of Bickleton. A full history of this place will be found on another page of this work. During tl:e first twelve years of his residence in Bickleton, Mr. Bickle was postmaster ; he was the promoter of the first school and the principal contributor to its organization fund ; donated land for its site, also land for the sites of the Methodist church and parsonage, and otherwise assisted materially in up- building the town. For more than a year. he car- ried the mails at his own expense to and from Goldendale. During his mercantile career he had two partners, the first being a man named Weaver, then Samuel P. Flower, the latter being in the firm from the year 1880 until 1890. In conjunction with the store Mr. Bickle conducted a hotel and a liv- ery stable. The hotel stable and store were de- stroved by fire in 1892, but with commendable

enterprise the owner rebuilt them and returned to business. For a year S. P. Flower was his partner, conducting the store. Desiring to live near the railroad and to secure better advantages, Mr. Bickle purchased in 1889 a ranch on the Yakima river, about four miles below Prosser, and removed thereto. There his home is at present.

Mr. Bickle and Miss Fannie Bacon, a daughter of Horatio and Eliza ( Pennock) Bacon, were mar- ried in 1869, the ceremony taking place in Iowa, the bride's home state. Her father, an Ohio farmer, became an early pioneer of Iowa, and lived there many years. His death occurred in Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Bickle are parents of sixteen children, of whom thirteen are living: Charles E., William H., Mrs. Phoebe Wommack, Mrs. Alice Ransier, Mrs. Eva Lackey, Mrs. Fannie Williams, Fred, Grace, Ida, David, Helen, Harry and Roy. The other three were: George, Josephine and Adelia. The majority of those living are residing in the Yakima. country. Mr. Bickle is affiliated with only one fra- ternity, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he has attained the rank of past grand, He- is a stanch and active Republican, though himself never seeking office, but content to work for the ad- vancement of his friends. His ranch contains one hundred and ninety acres, all under irrigation, seventy being in timothy and clover, and the rest devoted to orchard and other farm products. Mr. and Mrs. Bickle are highly esteemed by all for their many commendable qualities of heart and mind, and have just reason to feel proud of the part they have taken in the redemption of the Klickitat wil- derness, and proud of their pioneer sons and daugh- ters. The name of Bickle will ever have a place in central Washington history.

ALBERT SMITH, in charge of the Prosser Flouring Mills, and one of that city's popular and respected young citizens, is a native son of West Virginia, born in 1865 to Jacob and Rebecca (Warner) Smith, also born in that state. Both paternal and maternal ancestors came to this conti- try from England. Jacob Smith was a stockman. He removed from West Virginia to Missouri, and died in the latter state in 1880. Albert Smith re- ceived his education in West Virginia and Mis- souri, and is a graduate of the Warrensburg, Mis- souri, high school. When sixteen years old he he- gan learning the miller's trade, and for seven years served as an apprentice-the miller's trade being one of the most difficult trades to master. At the end of his apprenticeship the young man secured the position of assistant miller of a mill located in Bozeman, Montana, remaining with the same com- pany eight years. In 1897 he worked three months in Walla Walla, then returned to Bozeman for a few months, and in 1898 was called to Prosser to assume the management of the large mills situated

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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 172

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