An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 178

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 178
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 178
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 178

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HON. JOHN A. SHOUDY.

MRS. JOHN A. SHOUDY.

PATRICK J. CAREY.

MRS. HANNAH D. DOTY.

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are now known as Third and Main streets. This building was eventually removed to be replaced by a more substantial and commodious brick, which was in turn destroyed by the great fire of 1889. Mr. Shoudy is known as the founder of Ellensburg. He constructed the first wagon road from the Kit- titas valley, over the Cascade mountains, to Seattle. He was a member of the territorial legislature in 1883, and it was through his instrumentality that Kittitas county was formed. He was a member of the state constitutional convention in 1889. Po- litically, he was a Republican, but was not an office- seeker. He many times refused the nomination for office, but served as mayor and councilman of Ellensburg and was several times a member of the school board. He was a man of excellent business qualifications, of strictest integrity and most gener- ous impulses. He was a member of the Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows and of the Grand Army of the Republic. No pioneer of the Kittitas valley is held in more respectful remembrance than John Alden Shoudy, and at the time of his death he was borne to his last resting place by his pioneer friends, J. H. Smithson, Thomas Haley, John Olding, R. P. Tjossem, J. L. Vaughn and W. A. Conant. His wife, the partner of his pioneer trials and triumphs, still lives, a resident of Ellensburg and one of its most respected citizens.

HON. JOHN H. SMITHSON. The present mayor of Ellensburg is John H. Smithson who has been a resident of the city continuously since June 29, 1879. Mr. Smithson has led a busy and honor- able life and his history demonstrates what may be accomplished by a man who starts life in the right way, whose methods and ambitions are worthy, whose principles are unassailable, and who has the perseverance and determination to meet and master difficulties of great magnitude.

London, Canada, was Mr. Smithson's birthplace and the date of his birth was September 29, 1856. His father, Thomas Smithson, a native of the same town, was born in 1823 of English parents and was by trade a miller. Leaving London in 1861, the elder Smithson went to the Cariboo mines, where he died in 1867. The mother, Charlotte (Siddall) Smithson, of English descent, was also a native of London, Canada, where she died in 1870. At the time of his father's death, the son was attending the common schools of his native town. In addi- tion to the training received in these schools he spent two years in the schools of Park Hill, Can- ada. At the age of fourteen, both father and mother were dead and young Smithson found it necessary to assume the duties of life unaided by rich inheritance and unsupported by the advice of elders. In two years he left school and began farm- ing on his own account, following this occupation until twenty-two years old. At this age he left Canada and removed, first to San Francisco; thence

to The Dalles, Oregon; thence to Ellensburg on the date previously given. Mr. Smithson arrived at Ellensburg practically penniless, having but fifty cents in pocket, but he at once engaged himself to a stockman at thirty-five dollars a month, spending the first few months of his residence in Kittitas county on the adjacent stock ranges. At that time stock raising was the chief industry of the valley, but little hay and almost no grain being grown; there were no fences; irrigation was in its infancy, and stock grazed unrestrained over the whole coun- try. In Ellensburg there were five residences, one store, one blacksmith shop, two small frame hotels, and a saloon.

In 1882 Mr. Smithson, opened a meat market on a small scale. The following year the Northern Pacific railroad survey was made up the valley, and in furnishing the employees of the company with supplies, Mr. Smithson accumulated sufficient cap- ital to place his business on a solid foundation. By the year 1887 he had become extensively interested in stock and each year since has added materially to his holdings in this industry. For two years, from 1887 to 1889, Mr. Smithson was principal stockholder in a wholesale and retail meat supply company which he organized in the former year, and from which he retired in the spring of 1889, devoting his time thereafter more exclusively to his stock and land interests. In the disastrous fire which visited Ellensburg July 4, 1889, his business building was destroyed, but fortunately it was well protected by insurance and his individual loss was nominal. In the severe winters of 1889-90 and 1890-91 Mr. Smithson lost most of his stock, but he continued in the business, eventually recovering his losses and in future years adding materially to his investments. In 1889 he purchased from the railroad company 165 acres of land, one-half of which he platted into the Smithson addition to Ellensburg. This property he sold in 1890 to an eastern company for $18,000, afterwards re-buying it at greatly reduced figures. In 1882 he entered into partnership with F. A. Williams in the hard- ware business, the company being organized under the name of the Williams-Smithson Co., the name being still retained and the business continued. Mr. Smithson was one of the few business men who weathered the financial storms of 1893 and succeeding years. He has continued to invest in land, now having under irrigation 400 acres ad- joining town and 7,600 acres in other portions of the county. He is president of the Washington State Bank of Ellensburg, of which he was one of the charter members. As one of the promoters and stockholders of the Ellensburg Irrigation Co., he has done much to enhance the value of real estate throughout the valley and invite new settlers to become residents therein. He was one of the pro- moters of the Cascade canal and is now vice-presi- dent of the company.

Mr. Smithson has been twice married; the first

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wife, whom he married in 1882, together with her infant child, died within a year from that date. In 1885 he was again married, on this occasion to Miss Jennie Goodwin, daughter of David and Cathrine Goodwin, of Bureau county, Illinois, where Miss .Goodwin was born in 1861. In 1884 she came to Ellensburg with her father and brother, meeting and forming the acquaintance of Mr. Smithson shortly after her arrival. Mrs. Smithson has three brothers and one sister, one of the brothers living in Kittitas county. Mr. Smithson's immediate relatives who are living, are three sisters, Eliz- abeth, Emaline, and Tressa. To Mr. and Mrs. Smithson have been born four children, William, Frankie, John, and Alice, all of whom are with the parents in Ellensburg. The family attends the Episcopal Church of which the parents are mem- bers. Mr. Smithson has served the city either as councilman or mayor for twelve consecutive years, and has also represented the county in the state legislature. In 1893 he was nominated in the Re- publican convention and was elected. In the foi- lowing session of the legislature he worked untir- ingly for the location at Ellensburg of the State Normal school and was active in the passage of the bill which has given to Ellensburg deserved prominence as an educational center. Mr. Smith- son is recognized at home and throughout the state as a progressive and public spirited citizen ; he is respected for those sterling qualities which have made his life a success both from a moral and a financial standpoint, and, by all who are honored by his personal friendship, he is esteemed, not alone as a public officer and a representative citizen, but also for those personal traits of character which have given him the prominent station in life he now occupies and which have made of him a man among men.

HARVEY J. FELCH, M. D., a physician and surgeon of Ellensburg, Washington, is a striking example of what the inborn pluck and enterprise of a western boy will accomplish even against the most adverse conditions. Dr. Felch never wavered in his purpose to become a physician and triumph- antly overcame every obstacle in his way. He was born near Eugene in Lane county, Oregon, in 1865. His father, a native of New York, David C. Felch, now 70 years old, and his mother, Mrs. Sophronia (Killingsworth) Felch, who was born in Missouri in 1843, are both living and now reside in Califor- nia. The father went to Wisconsin before the days of the telegraph or the steam railway and moved to California and later to Oregon ahead of these mod- ern necessities. He was chief of police at Eugene City, Oregon, for a term of years, and in 1872 moved to Washington, and settled at Colfax, about fifteen years prior to the advent of railroad and telegraph. He engaged in farming and the raising of fine stock. During the Indian war in 1877 a

fort was erected by neighbors at the family farm for mutual protection. The elder Felch was enti- tled to the distinction of being the first person to prove up on a timber culture claim in the United States, the claim being located near Colfax. His papers were in the land office at Colfax ready to place on record when they were destroyed by fire. By the time they had been rewritten a delay had occurred so that the filing took the number 7.

Dr. Felch was but seven years old when his par- ents took a homestead in Whitman county. There he lived on the farm and attended country school and later finished his literary education at Colfax College. His early ambition was the study and- practice of medicine, a "notion" which was not en- couraged by the members of his family. Yet the dream of youth was never lost sight of, but ever. remained a cherished hope. With this purpose in view (a subject little discussed in the family cir- cle, as the boy felt that his desires in the matter were little appreciated), he began the study of Latin while he was working on the farm, copying his lessons on slips of paper which were carried in his pocket, and often referring to them while at work. He thus began the study of the higher branches. After graduating from Portland Busi- ness College, at Portland, Oregon, he succeeded his father in the nursery business at Colfax, which he later abandoned to follow his ambition. He went to Kansas City and entered the Kansas City Med- ical College, where he took the regular course, and, one year previous to graduation, practiced medicine in Kansas, going to Saxman, Rice county, and meeting with great success. Following graduation in 1900 he came to the coast and spent four months at Roslyn, where he practiced as company physi- cian for the Roslyn Coal Co. He then moved to Ellensburg and opened an office, where he now re- sides. He has built up a fine practice and now has a good home and a well appointed office.

He was married at Colfax in November, 1892, to Ida Lewis, a native of Missouri. She is the daughter of Thomas L. Lewis, for years associate editor of the Baptist Flag of St. Louis and a min- ister of high standing with his people. He is now residing at Missoula, Montana. He is a branch of the same family tree as that of Capt. Meriwether Lewis, the famous explorer. Mrs. Felch's mother was Martha (Surface) Lewis. Dr. Felch has one brother and two sisters: Charles Felch, a traveling man; Anna Ballaine, wife of J. E. Ballaine, secre- tary of the Alaskan Central railway system; and Emma Chestnut, wife of a prosperous farmer at Colfax. Dr. and Mrs, Felch have two children, Elaine, born at Colfax in 1893, and Lewis, born at Ellensburg in 1901. Both Dr. Felch and his wife are members of the Baptist church, of which he is a trustee. He is a Republican, and on that ticket was elected coroner of Kittitas county in 1902; he is also county physician and health officer of Kit- titas county. He is a member of the Ancient Order

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BIOGRAPHICAL.

of United Workmen; Royal Tribe of Joseph, and of the Woodmen of the World; also of the Whit- man County Pioneers' Association. He is a strong advocate of good schools and educational progress, as is attested by his own efforts for higher educa- tion.

CARROLL B. GRAVES. Carroll B. Graves, senior member of the firm of Graves & Englehart, is an Ellensburg lawyer of marked ability and ad- dress, whose profound knowledge of the law and acumen in its practice are well known, not only in his county, but throughout the entire Northwest. He was born at St. Mary's, Hancock county, Illinois, November 9, 1862. His father, John J. Graves, born in Kentucky, of English descent, is still living in Spokane at the good old age of eighty-two. His grandfather, Reuben Graves, settled in the state of Illinois in the early days of that commonwealth. He took a prominent part in the early struggles with the Indians of that section, and at the time of the death of the illustrious Tecumseh he was serving as aid-de-camp on the staff of Gen. Johnson. The mother of Carroll B. Graves, Orilla Landon (Berry) Graves, was born in Vermont, and died at her home in Spokane in 1894. Her father, Johnathan Berry, M. D., was a surgeon in the army during the War of 1812, serving on Lake Champlain under Commodore McDonough.

When a boy, Judge Graves worked on his father's farm until, at the age of fifteen years, he entered Carthage College, Carthage, Illinois. During his college course he assisted in defraying his ex- penses by teaching, and at one time he was principal of the public schools of Vermont, Illinois. Upon his graduation from college he began the reading of law with the firm of O'Harra and Graves, the latter named member of the firm being his brother, Frank, now a leading member of the Spokane bar. At the law as well as in his course in college, young Graves was an apt student, and at the early age of twenty-three he was admitted to the bar. He at once came west to North Yakima, where he formed a partnership with Judge James B. Reavis, late justice of the supreme court of Washington, and Austin Mires of Ellensburg, with offices in botlı cities named. This partnership continued until the fall of '89, when Mr. Graves was elected judge of the superior courts of Kittitas, Yakima and Klick- itat counties, on the Republican ticket. In this ca- pacity he served until 1897, he having been re- elected for a second term. Upon his return to practice he formed his present partnership with I. P. Englehart, of North Yakima. The first years of Judge Graves' tenure of office were the years of the transition of Washington from a territory to a state. Naturally, during these years many perplex- ing questions of law and equity came up for deci- sion. Thus it fell to Judge Graves, together with the other superior court judges of the state, to in-

terpret the technicalities of the newly made stat- utes. These unusual duties furnished a severe test of the legal capabilities of the judges, and upon no occasion when called upon for a decision was Judge Graves found wanting. It was during his encum- bency, too, that the "boom days" of the state were on. The depression following in the wake of the inflation caused more property to pass through the courts than had done during any prior periods in the state's history. Especially was this the case in Ellensburg, nearly all of the business property of that town passing through the channel of mortgage adjustment. While these were trying times for the judge, they furnished him with a wealth of experi- ence that will stand him in good stead to the end of his career at the bar.

Mr. Graves has been twice married. In 1888 he was married to Ivah Felt of Iowa, who died in August, 1892, leaving two children, Marion and Florence, without a mother. He married again in June, 1898. His bride was Catherine Osborn of El- lensburg, a native of Chicago, Illinois. Her mother, Mrs. Sarah J. Osborn, is still living. Mr. Graves has one child by his second marriage, Carolyn L., now four years of age. Judge Graves has three brothers : Frank H., who was mentioned previously in this sketch as being an attorney of Spokane, Washington; Jay P., a wealthy mining man of Spokane and part owner of the Grandby, B. C., smelter ; and Will G., also an attorney of Spokane. The first and last named are of the law firm of Graves & Graves. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias and of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks fraternities. He is not connected with any church, but his family are Episcopalians. Politically, Mr. Graves is, as has been intimated, a stanch member of the Republican party, in the councils of which, ever since entering politics, he has been an active and predominating spirit. With the exception of one or two he has been a member of every state convention of his party since Wash- ington was admitted to the Union, and is univer- sally conceded to be one among the ablest and most eloquent campaign orators of the state. Judge Graves prefers rather to adhere to the practice of his profession than to devote his time and energies to politics. Since leaving the bench he has been identified with most of the prominent cases in the courts of Central Washington. During this time he has defended five cases in which his clients were charged with murder in the first degree, which, in each instance, resulted in acquittal.

AUSTIN MIRES. One of the most success- ful pioneer lawyers of the Northwest is Austin Mires. The events of his life form an interesting record of intellectual and material advancement well worthy a place in the annals of county and state history. Born near Burlington, Iowa, in 1852, when scarcely one year old he was taken by his

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parents on the long overland journey across the Plains to Oakland, Oregon, where his father lo- cated on a half-section of land donated by the gov- ernment as an inducement to settlement, and which became the home of the family until the death of the father, which occurred in 1888. In the common schools of Oregon, in the Umpqua Academy, and at Monmouth College, Mr. Mires received his early education, spending several years thereafter as a school teacher and printer, and as mail route agent in the railway postal service. Resigning his posi- tion as mail route agent, he entered the law depart- ment of the Ann Arbor university, Michigan, from which institution he graduated in 1882. Returning to Oregon, he practiced law for one year with W. R. Willis in Roseburg; at the close of this period coming to Ellensburg, where he formed a partner- ship with J. H. Naylor in June, 1883. In later years he became a partner with Reavis and Graves, the firm name being Reavis, Mires & Graves, and, in 1894, formed a new partnership with C. V. War- ner, now county attorney. Mr. Mires was the first mayor of Ellensburg, serving two terms in this ca- pacity, and has ever since been prominent in the affairs of the city and county. . He was a member of the state constitutional convention, and in 1900 was supervisor of the United States census bureau in the second district of Washington, was president of the state bar association in 1902; was for six years vice-president of the Ellensburg National Bank, now defunct, and is now a member of the Re- publican state central committee. As an expression of their appreciation of his services as a working and active member of the local Republican organization, the county central committee recently presented to Mr. Mires a cane crowned with gold from the Swauk district and engraved with an appropriate inscription. When Mr. Mires wishes to vary with pleasure the business cares of life, he goes to the mountains for a hunt, in which pastime he is an expert, having already to his credit six bears and several other specimens of "big game." John H. Mires was the father of the Ellensburg attorney and was born in Ohio in 1823, a descendant of the Bates and Livingston stock of New Englanders. The grandfather was Solomon Myers, the family name having been changed by later generations ; he was of German extraction. He was with William Henry Harrison in 1811 when he fought the famous battle of Tippecanoe. The mother of Anstin Mires was Anna (Deardorff) Mires, who was born in Ohio in 1818 and whose brother came to California with the Argonants of 1849; she died in Spokane, Washington, in 1894. Her mother was a descend- ant of the Harshburgers, a Swiss family tracing its ancestry back for hundreds of years. .

Mr. Mires was married March 5, 1884, to Miss Mary L. Rowland, daughter of J. and Hester E. (Simmons) Rowland, pioneers of Oregon, to which they immigrated in the forties, and where the wife was born May 24, 1862. Mrs. Mires' mother and

stepfather, H. H. Davies, were among the first set- tlers in Yakima county. She has one sister, one brother and three half-sisters in the Northwest. Mr. Mires has two brothers, one half-brother, two sisters and three half-sisters: W. Byars, Benton Mires, of Drain, Oregon, John S. Mires, of Repub- 1.c, Washington, Anna Bonham. of Tyler, Wash- ington, and Addie Cole, of Spokane. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Mires are Anna W., age seven- teen, John R., age sixteen, and Eva H., age ten years. Mr. Mires is prominent in the lodges of Ellensburg, being a Mason, an Elk and an Eagle. He is a man of pleasing address and possesses rare social qualities, making friends of all with whom he comes in contact. His success in life is due to thorough education, excellent business capacity, in- domitable energy, and in all his dealings with oth- ers, courage and uprightness.

FREDERICK D. SCHNEBLY. Thirty-three years ago, in 1870, F. D. Schnebly came from Walla Walla to the Kittitas valley and took up a homestead; since which time he has been closely identified with the public affairs of Ellensburg and of Kittitas county. In 1878, when Yakima county extended from the Klickitat line to British Colum- bia, Mr. Schnebly was elected sheriff on the Dem- ocratic ticket. It was just previous to his first term of office that the massacre of the Perkins family and the subsequent Indian scare occurred; he was instrumental in the capture of the Indian murder- ers, executed three of their number, and assisted in the killing of the remainder. A detailed account of this massacre and of the capture and execution of the Indians will be found in the chronological history of the county. Before coming to the Yak- ima valley Mr. Schnebly was variously engaged in different parts of the west, having immigrated from Maryland to California in 1854, after the completion of his collegiate education at the Frank- lin and Marshal college, at Lancaster city, Penn- sylvania. He remained in California, mining and trading, until 1858, when he organized a company and went to the Frazier river district. After spend- ing some time in the mines of this section he went to Walla Walla and engaged in farming and trad- ing; also in driving stock to the British Columbia mines. During the severe winter of 1862-63 all of his stock perished and he was forced out of the mine supply business. The five years intervening between 1865 and 1870 were spent in Helena, East Bannock and other Montana mining camps, where he followed both mining and trading, returning to Walla Walla and coming to the Kittitas valley, as previously stated, in 1870. In the fall of 1872 he stocked his Kittitas ranch with cattle and during his residence here brought all his supplies by wagon from Walla Walla and from The Dalles.

At the close of his second term as sheriff he returned to Ellensburg and for a number of years,

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BIOGRAPHICAL.

until 1898, dealt in real estate, buying and selling lands in various parts of Kittitas county. Some time previous to this D. J. Schnebly, a cousin of our subject, who had for years been editor and pro- prietor of the Spectator at Oregon City, Oregon, established at Ellensburg a weekly newspaper which he called the Localizer. In 1898 F. D. Schneb- ly quit the real estate business and became editor and proprietor of the Localizer, which he con- ducted for several years as the only Democratic paper in Kittitas county. Although he has retired from active participation in political and business affairs, he has always been a leader of the local Democratic forces, declining since his terms as sher- iff to become a candidate for other offices, but al- ways taking part in local conventions and several times representing the county in state conventions. He has four times been a delegate to national edi- torial conventions and has for the fifth time been elected to serve in that capacity. He was one of the first members of the city council, serving in that body for many years; is a member of the Masonic fraternity ; takes a lively interest in all public meas- ures and is highly esteemed as a man of intellectual worth, excellent business judgment and commend- able principles.

Mr. Schnebly is a native of Hagerstown, Mary- land, where he was born June 27, 1832. His father was Daniel H. Schnebly, a farmer, born at Aslı- ton Hall, on the Pennsylvania-Maryland state line. He was of German stock, his ancestors coming to this country from Switzerland several generations ago, his great-grandfather, a physician, settling on the homestead in Cumberland valley. The mother of our subject was Anna M. (Rench) Schnebly, a native of Maryland. Both parents have been dead many years. Among the pioneers of Kittitas county and of the Northwest there is none who has ex- perienced more fully the ups and downs, the hard- ships and crude comforts of frontier life than has Mr. Schnebly, who began life in Kittitas valley with few neighbors and no conveniences, with little capital and with markets far removed from the field of his endeavors. That he has been successful is due a'one to that courage, perseverance and hon- orable dealing so characteristic of many who braved the perils of the early sixties in the North- west and opened the way for the later march of the forces of civilization.

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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 178

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