An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 179

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 179
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 179
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 179

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BRIGGS F. REED. The first successful cream- ery man in Ellensburg and in Kittitas county, and an exceptionally successful business man, is B. F. Reed, the subject of this article. At the present time he is president of the Ellensburg Creamery Company, director of the State Dairymen's Associa- tion, chairman of the business men's committee having in charge the proposed Highland canal for irrigating purposes, president of the Miller-Reed- Peas Company, of Seattle, dealers in dairy prod-

ucts, and, in addition to the performance of his duties in these various capacities, he buys stock for shipment to Seattle and speculates to a considerable extent in lands, besides keeping up, for his own use, several ranches that are well stocked with cattle, dairy cows being made a specialty. Mr. Reed oc- cupies with his family a beautiful residence on the cutskirts of Ellensburg, adjoining which is one of h's stock ranches. He was born in Warsaw. Illi- no.s, December 28, 1863. His father, W. H. Reed, was a stockman and merchant, a native of Pennsyl- van'a, born in 1830, and whence he removed in 1850 to Warsaw, Illinois, laying out in later years Reed's addition to that city. The elder Reed's father and grandfather were physicians and sur- geons. Our subject's mother was Elizabeth Davis (Bliss) Reed, a native of Watertown, New York, where she was born in 1833 ; her family was closely connected with that of the noted evangelist singer, P. P. Bliss, and she was the descendant of a long line of professional men and women In 1869, when Mr. Reed was six years old, his parents moved from Warsaw, Illinois, to Topeka, Kansas, and here he spent the earlier days of his youth and manhood, in the schools of the city and in the bu iness house conducted by his father, commenc- ing his business career at the age of sixteen. After spending his seventeenth year in the mines of Gun- nison county, Colorado, he returned to Topeka, re- entering business with his father, and, a year later, came west via San Francisco to Portland, where he entered the service of the Northern Pacific rail- road as private secretary to an official. He continued for several months in the employ of the railroad as check clerk, yard agent, shipping clerk in handling material for the line from Tacoma to Seattle, and in other capacities, at the age of nineteen having under his direction ninety of the company's men. Leaving the employ of the railroad he next spent two years in travel, endeavoring to recover his health, which had for some time been poor. He went first to British Columbia ; from there by water to San Francisco, during the voyage narrowly escaping shipwreck; thence to Old Mexico; to St. Louis, and at the end of two years back to Topeka, where he again went into business with his father, who carried the largest stock of furniture in the city. He remained in full charge of this business until his twenty-sixth year, when he again found it necessary to travel that he might regain lost health. After two years of wandering, having exchanged his interest in the Topeka business for bank stock at Manhattan, Kansas, he came to Ellensburg in 1891, purchasing what is now the Grand Pacific hotel. Shortly afterward, however, he associated himself with C. I. Helm, under the firm name of Helm & Reed, and dealt for a time in imported blooded horses and cattle; organized the Okanogan Stage Company, which operated a continuous line of stages from Wenatchee to Virginia City and Brit- ish Columbia, conducting at the same time a num-

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ber of stock ranches. The financial panic of 1893 ruined the business of the firm, but Mr. Reed event- ually recovered lost ground, and by the year 1895 was well established in the creamery business, hav- ing purchased the Ellensburg station and placed it on a solid financial basis; with its cheese factories and various separating plants, it is now one of the best systems in the state.

Mr. Reed was married in 1890 to Miss Harriet Burbank, a daughter of Joseph Burbank, of To- peka, Kansas. Mr. Burbank was a native of Can- ada; the mother of Mrs. Reed was a Washing- ton. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Reed are Rainier F. and Winona B. Mr. Reed is a promi- nent Mason and a member of Knights Templar Commandery, No. 5. of Topeka, Kansas. He is recognized as one of the most successful business men of Ellensburg, and, because of his stock and creamery interests, is perhaps the most widely known business man in the county.

EDWARD PRUYN. Among the professional men of Ellensburg, and indeed of the state of Washington, Attorney Edward Pruyn is one of the highly respected and most successful. Receiving his early education in the common schools of Iowa, he next took a collegiate course at Iowa College and followed this with a post- graduate course in the Iowa State University, where he secured a degree. He was admitted to the practice of law in the supreme court of Iowa in 1867 and continued the practice of his profes- sion in that state until 1878, when he came west, locating first in Yakima and remaining there until 1886, the date of his settlement in Ellens- burg. During his residence in Yakima he was associated for a time in the practice of law with Attorney Reavis, removing eventually to Ellens- burg in the hope of benefiting his health by the change of climate. He was in attendance upon the first term of court held in the new county of Kittitas in 1886 and has ever since attended strictly and exclusively to the practice of his profession in this and other county and district courts and in the supreme court of the state. Mr. Pruyn has had cases in nearly every session of the supreme court held in the past fifteen years, some of them involving most important principles, and in the majority of cases has secured decisions favorable to his clients, in many instances reversing the finding of the lower court on appeal. A few years ago Mr. Pruyn became interested in the Red Mountain mines, located between the Yakima and Cle- Elum rivers in the northwest part of the county, was in fact the promoter of the company which has done considerable development work in opening the mines. Although these mines are not yet on a paying basis from a miner's point of view, there is an abundance of ore in sight

assaying good values and thus far eighteen claims have been taken on the mountain. There is reliable evidence that the mines will event- ually develop into paying properties, thus adding materially to the wealth of the individual own- ers and indirectly to the wealth of the county.

Edward Pruyn was born near Troy, New York, in 1844. His father was Samuel Pruyn, a merchant, who was born near Troy, New York, in 1794 and died in 1889. The father's ancestors came from Holland in 1617 and settled at Albany, New York, they being among the first sixteen settlers locating in this part of the state. The paternal grandmother, Maria Van Ness, was given a grant of land by George III. near Hoosic, and on this old homestead the father and a brother were born. The father was in the War of 1812. The mother of our subject was Mary (Sears) Pruyn, who was born in Saratoga county, New York, and died in the early sixties; hers was a family of note at Sears- port, Maine; she was a lineal descendant of the noted Richard Sears, an Englishman who came to the United States early in the seventeenth century and was prominent in the affairs of the old colonies. When Mr. Pruyn was twelve years old his parents moved from Troy, New York, to Iowa, where were spent the earlier years of his life. At sixteen years of age he entered the army, serving in the Civil war with Company K, 139th Illinois infantry, the regiment being engaged during the greater portion of its service in Ken- ticky, Tennessee and Missouri.

In 1882 Mr. Pruyn was married, in Ellens- burg, to Mrs. Nellie (Chandler) Brooks, a native of Auburn, New York. Her father was Win- throp Chandler, whose mother was of the Win- throp family of Massachusetts. Mrs. Pruyn's mother was Elizabeth (White) Chandler, also native of Auburn, New York. Mrs. Chandler's grandfather, White, built the Auburn penitentiary and other state buildings, and later built a female seminary at Auburn in which his daughters became in- structors, Mr. Pruyn's mother being one of them. Mr. Pruyn is a Republican and takes an active part in all campaigns ; he has not been an office seeker, but has represented the party as candi- date for county attorney. As a member of the law firm of Pruyn & Slemmons he is meeting with marked success in his profession.

WILLIAM EDWARD WILSON. Prof. William E. Wilson, principal of the state nor- mal school at Ellensburg, and recognized as one of the ablest educators in the Northwest, was born March 26, 1847, among the hills of western Pennsylvania, in Beaver county, near the town of Zelienople. He is the son of Francis Thomas and Mary Ann ( Morrison) Wilson. His ancestors on both sides came from the north-

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ern part of Ireland early in the eighteenth cen- tury. The Wilson ancestry lived for a time in Northampton county, afterward in Centre county, and in 1803 his grandfather crossed the Alleghanies with a pack train and settled in Beaver county. Mr. Wilson was brought up on the farm that had been cleared by his grand- father and father, his early life not differing widely from that of the average country youth, just prior to the War for the Union. His boy- hood schooling was gained in a log house stand- ing at the edge of a wood, which building was later replaced by a less primitive one of brick. From the beginning young Wilson was an apt student, and with no higher school education than that given by the common schools of the day, he began teaching at the age of eighteen, during the winter time in the country schools. The money thus gained he spent in his educa- tional advancement, attending the state normal school at Edinboro, Pennsylvania, and subsequently the West Virginia state normal school at Hunting- ton, and, having prepared himself for college in an academy at Jamestown, Pennsylvania, he entered Monmouth College, Illinois, where he took a clas- sical course, and was graduated in 1873. He was at once appointed teacher of the natural sciences in the state normal school at Peru, Nebraska, to succeed Prof. H. H. Straight. In this position he labored for two years, a part of which tinie he was acting principal of the institution.

In 1875, Prof. Wilson went abroad to see the world and to study. He took a course in lit- erature and history at Edinburgh University, and later toured on the continent and studied the educational systems of France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium. Upon his return to the United States he taught in Morgan Park academy, Chicago, and subsequently became in turn principal of the high schools of Tekamah, North Platte and Brownville in the state of Nebraska. In 1881 he accepted the chair of nat- ural science in Coe College, at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, an institution just then chartered as a col- lege under the synod of Iowa. He contributed largely to the work of establishing the institu- tion upon a broad and progressive basis, and also entered actively into educational work in the state at large. In 1884 he was invited to the state normal school of Rhode Island, upon the recommendation of his former associate and friend, Gen. T. J. Morgan, who had become prin- cipal of that institution. He taught physics and the biological sciences, and assisted in admin- istrative work, and later became teacher of pedagogy. In 1892 he was advanced to the prin- cipalship. During the six years of his admin- istration the school passed through the period of its most rapid development. A training de- partment was established upon a unique plan, which continues to be characteristic of the school

system of the state. A new building for the school was erected during the years from 1895 to 1898, which cost more than $300,000, and which was at the time of its erection regarded as the most complete and suitable for its purpose in this country. In connection with his work as an educator, Prof. Wilson has held the office of superintendent of schools both in Nebraska and in Rhode Island, and has worked for the cause of higher education both with the pen and on the lecture platform; in each capacity he has been eminently successful.

On June 30, 1881, Prof. Wilson was married in Ceredo, West Virginia, to Miss Florence May Ramsdell, a native of Abington, Massachusetts. In 1858, she was taken by her parents to the place where she later met and married Prof. Wilson. Here she attended the grammar school, and afterwards the state normal school at Hunting- ton, West Virginia. She then taught for a time, after which she finished her education at Hillsdale College, in Michigan. Her father was Zophar D. Ramsdell, a native of the state of Maine, and by occupation a shoe manufacturer. His pater- nal ancestor came from England in the seven- teenth century. The ship on which he came was wrecked off the Massachusetts shore, and Mr. Ramsdell was forced to swim to land. He set- tled on the coast, north of Plymouth, and fromn this point his descendants spread to other parts of Massachusetts, and to Connecticut, and later to Maine, where Mrs. Wilson's father, Zophar D. Ramsdell, was born. When grown to manhood, Mr. Ramsdell removed to Abington, Massachusetts, and began manufacturing shoes. In 1858 he re- moved with his family to West Virginia, settling on the Ohio river at Ceredo. He took an active part in the heated political discussions of the time, and with ardent, loyal citizens of Wayne county, conducted a vigorous and successful campaign to prevent the county from voting for secession. His father had served in the Continental army, under Washington, and also in the War of 1812, and he was among the first to enlist in the War for the Union in 1861. He served throughout the war, first as quartermaster of the Fifth Vir- ginia infantry and afterward as a brigade quar- termaster in the Army of the Potomac; he was among those who witnessed the surrender of Gen. Lee at Appomattox. After the war he was appointed by President Grant to establish post- offices in the reconstructed states, and afterward as a postal detective, in which capacity he trav eled widely throughout the central and southern states. He died at Ceredo, West Virginia, in 1886.

Mrs. Wilson's mother, Almeda (Alden) Ramsdell, was the daughter of Chandler Alden, who was eighth in descent from the immortal John Alden. She still lives in Ceredo. Mrs. Wilson has one brother, William Ramsdell, who

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likewise lives at Ceredo, and three sisters, Mrs. J. H. Whorton, Lake City, Florida; Mrs. Cowley, Ceredo, West Virginia, and Mrs. Blood, Ports- mouth, Ohio. Prof. Wilson has one brother, Charles Cist, and four sisters, Mrs. Anna Scott, wife of Rev. T. L. Scott, D. D., Jhelam, India; James Leiben- dorfer, Elwood, Pennsylvania; Mrs. J. W. Max- well, of Celia, Pennsylvania, and Mrs. Samuel Mc- Kinney, Zelienople, Pennsylvania. To Prof. and Mrs. Wilson have been born five children: Ralph, born April 28, 1882; Florence Alden, born August 5, 1883; Stanley Ramsdell, and Francis Thompson, born August 23, 1887, and Carrie Lucile, born Sep- tember 1, 1889. The eldest son, Ralph, died July 27, 1882.

In 1898 the board of trustees offered to Prof. Wilson the principalship of the state normal school at Ellensburg. This offer he accepted, and left Rhode Island at once to assume charge of that institution. His superior capabilities were soon felt in the school and recognized in the state. The prosperity of the school continued and increased, the faculty was strengthened, the course of study was revised and lengthened, and the accommodations improved. In 1899 the state legislature passed an act providing for opening the normal school at Whatcom, and for the sup- port of the one at Cheney. Naturally, these two institutions located near the centers of popula- tion, and at the opposite ends of the state, drew from the attendance at the Ellensburg school. It has maintained its prestige and grown in favor as one of the leading normal schools of the Pacific slope. Prof. Wilson holds membership in the Beta Theta Pi, and in the Temple of Honor fraternities. Both he and his wife are social leaders in their chosen city.

R. LEE PURDIN. Among the citizens of Kit- · titas county who are filling positions of honor and trust, none is held in higher esteem than the county treasurer, R. L. Purdin. Mr. Purdin has been in the treasurer's office since January, 1897, first serving as deputy under C. H. Flummerfelt. In 1900 and in 1902 he was the regular nominee of the Democratic party for the office of treasurer and was both times elected. In 1896 he was ap- pointed assistant postmaster at Ellensburg and served in this capacity until his appointment as dep- uty treasurer of the county. Previous to this period he was a teacher in the common schools of the county, having received his education in the State Normal at Ellensburg and in the common and high schools of North Yakima, to which place he came with his parents from Walla Walla in 1875. Mr. Purdin was born in Walla Walla in September, 1873. His father was James H. Purdin, a native farmer and horse dealer of Boone county, Missouri, where he was born in 1835. The father was of Irish extraction, his parents having immigrated

carly in the eighteenth century direct from the Emerald Isle. During the Civil war he was a mem- ber of the home guards, having been rejected from the regular army on account of physical disabili- ties. At the close of the war he crossed the Plains to Idaho, and after a few years spent about the mining camps of that region, still in the horse busi- ness, hie eventually settled in Walla Walla. The wife and mother, Adaline (Cleman) Purdin, who still lives, was born in northwest Missouri, in 1846, her ancestors being of English descent.

In November, 1897, R. L. Purdin was inarried in Ellensburg to Miss Mary Huss, a daughter of Harvey Huss, who crossed the Plains with Mr. Pur- din's father in 1864. Mr. Huss was born in Ohio in 1840 and the daughter in Canyon City, Oregon, in 1876. Mrs. Purdin's mother is a native of Mis- souri. The mother's name is Jane (Graham) Huss. The parents now live in the Kittitas valley. Mrs. R. L. Purdin has nine brothers and sisters, all liv- ing in Kitt.tas valley: William S., Katherine, Ed- ward. James, Naomi, .Oscar, Frank, Bird T. and Anthony. Mr. Purdin has seven brothers living in North Yakima: Hugh B., Owen E., Lloyd W., Walter J. and Wallace A., twins, Charles J. and Ralph N. Mr. and Mrs. Purdin have two children, Edith and "Baby." The family is identified with the Presbyterian church, of which the parents are members. Mr. Purdin is a past chancellor com- mander of the Knights of Pythias and for four years has been clerk of the local camp of the Wood- men of the World. He has always been an active participant in both local and state politics and is at present a member of the state central committee of the Democratic party. He was for several years secretary of the county Democratic committee, and since he has been old enough to vote, has at all times been a hard working and an influential mem- ber of this party. He was a member of the city council for a time, but was compelled to resign this position because of the press of other duties. Hav- ing grown to manhood in the Yakima and Kittitas valleys, and being a close student of affairs, Mr. Purdin is familiar with the history of the settle- ment and development of this section of the coun- try, with which he has become thoroughly identi- fied. Besides having invested in farm lands here, he is an operator in the oil fields of California. Mr. Purdin has had a successful past and has a promising future.

SAMUEL T. PACKWOOD, whose home is two and one-half miles west of Ellensburg, came to the Kittitas valley in 1874. He was born in Platte county, Missouri, July 4, 1842, and previous to coming to Washington resided in Barry county, the same state. He is the son of John and Abigail (Tinder) Packwood, the former a native of Vir- ginia. The elder Packwood was born February 22, 1804, and moved from Virginia to Jackson county,

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Indiana, in 1825. He was married here in 1831 and in 1836 moved to Platte county, Missouri. In 1845 he crossed the Plains with his family, passing through the Willamette valley and locating on Puget Sound. From the Sound country he re- moved in 1849 to California and in 1853 returned to Barry county, Missouri, where he died in 1879. His wife, who was a native of Kentucky, died in 1852, during their residence in California, and was buried near Salmon Falls. Her parents were pio- neers of Indiana. Samuel T. Packwood accom- panied his parents across the Plains, both to and from the Northwest, and continued in the Missouri home until the outbreak of the Civil war, working on the farm and attending the common schools of his native county. In 1861 he enlisted in Shelby's division of Gen. Price's army and served until the spring of 1863, when he was captured by the Fed- erals and taken to the government prison at Rock Island, Illinois. In 1864 he enlisted in Company K, Second U. S. volunteers, serving with this regi- .ment until his honorable discharge, November 22, 1865, participating in the battles of Wilson Creek, Pca Ridge and many other noted engagements of the war. At the close of the war he returned to Missouri, settling in Barry county and engaging in farming and kindred pursuits. In 1874, by mule team conveyance, he crossed the Plains with his fam- ily, settling in West Kittitas valley, on what is still known as the S. T. Packwood homestead. In 1901 he removed to the S. R. Geddis place, also in West Kittitas, where he still resides. Mr. Packwood was married in Rocky Comfort, Missouri, December 24, 1860, to Miss Margaret F. Holmes, daughter of Oliver and Midia (Jones) Holmes, the father a native of Virginia and the mother of Mississippi. Both parents are dead. Mrs. Packwood has two sis- ters living in Ellensburg: Mrs. Modina Russell and Mrs. Ann Murray. Mr. Packwood has six sisters living : Mesdames Margaret Shaser, Lucinda Proc- tor, Melinda Smith, Elvira Lee, Elizabeth McClure, and Miss Mary Packwood. One brother, Isaac, and one sister, Ann, are dead. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Packwood are: John I., born September 29, 1861, living in Cle-Elum; Mrs. Colly. Brad- shaw, born June 4, 1874, now in Ellensburg : Oliver Franklin, born January 11, 18;8, living in West Kittitas valley; William, born September 23, 1879, residing on the old homestead ; Harvey and Harry (twins), born April 28, 1880, living at home. Sam- uel T., Jr., Farnetta and George W. (twins), and another daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Hollenbeck, are dead. Although making his home in the country, Mr. Packwood is identified with numerous business interests and maintains offices in Ellensburg. He has been prominent in the political as well as in the industrial history of the county ; has served two terms as justice of the peace for West Kittitas ; was active in securing legislation providing for the cre- ation of Kittitas county, and, in 1883, was appointed one of the commissioners for the new county. At

the fi st election held in Kittitas county, 1884, he was chosen sheriff; resigned as commissioner in Deceniber, 1884, and served as sheriff until 1889. For many years he has devoted his energies and his capital to the construction of irrigation canals throughout the county and he is a recognized leader in this field of enterprise. He has been closely identified with the construction of every canal of importance in the county, from the Tanum ditch,. built in 1875, on which he worked for $1.50 per day, to the Cascade canal now building. Of the company having this great work in charge, he is president and principal stockholder. He was presi- dent of the Ellensburg Canal Company and of the West Side Canal Company. Mr. Packwood figured prominently in the pioneer life of the county ; was chosen captain of the home guards during the Indian troubles of 1878 and has ever been an active factor in the development of the county's resources. Be- sides his extensive canal holdings, he is heavily in- terested in valley lands and in livestock, and owns one of the most comfortable homes in the valley. Politically, he is affiliated with the Democratic party. He is a thirty-second degree Mason and also belongs to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is one of the most influential and highly esteemed pioneers of the Kittitas valley and of central Wash- ington.

JOHN C. MCCAULEY, M. D. Prominent in the medical fraternity and among the business men of Ellensburg is Jolm C. McCauley, physician and surgeon, the subject of this biographical sketch. He was born March 29, 1861, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where the first four years of his life were spent. His father, Samuel D. McCauley, fromn whom the son evidently has inherited his choice of a profession, was born in Scotland, in 1820, and at the advanced age of eighty-three is spending his declining years at the home of his son in Ellensburg. From young manhood the father has followed the medical pro- fession, practicing first near Mansfield, Ohio, then in Cedar Rapids, Iowa ; in 1865 he emigrated from Iowa to Oregon, settling in Portland. He has ever been an active man in political affairs, being iden- tified with the Republican party, first as one of its founders and subsequently as one of its most ardent and influential supporters. Bathsheba (Smith) McCauley, the mother, was born in the state of Iowa, 1829, and died in Cedar Rapids in 1855. She was of German and English extraction, her parents having been pioneers of Iowa and also of Oregon. Fer father founded the Oregon Pottery Company of Portland, which his son, A. M. Smith, oper- ated until the year 1901, when he died, leaving the valuable property in the hands of his son, A. M. Smith, Jr. This pottery, the oldest in Oregon, was established at Buena Vista, with headquarters in Portland. Shortly after coming to Portland the e'der McCauley removed his family to Salem, where

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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 179

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