An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 181

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 181
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 181
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 181

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).

Kittitas county. He was living on his ranch there at the time of the Indian uprising in 1877, when his neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Perkins, were mur- dered by Indians at Rattlesnake Springs, only twenty miles away. In 1883 he moved from Parker Bottom to Ellensburg. Here he made his head- quarters until the time of his death. He was a suc- cessful stockman, ranging as high as four thousand head of cattle at one time and branding as many as one thousand head of calves in a season. He sold out the cattle business about ten years ago.

Mr. Murray was married in 1878 to Minnie May, who died in 1883. His present wife was Miss Catharine Mayer, a native of Pennsylvania and raised at Elmira, New York, who was employed for a number of years as bookkeeper in a large Elmira drygoods store. Mr. Murray's only brother, Alfred, is a retired merchant, living at Rockland, Maine. One sister, Mrs. Eliza Peppard, lives in Iowa and the other, Mrs. Ella O'Dell, is a resident of North Dakota. Mr. Murray was an active and energetic Republican and served as a member of the Yakima county board of commissioners for sev- eral years and was also a member of the Ellensburg city council. He was progressive in his educa- tional ideas and had much to do toward securing fine school buildings for the city where he lived. At the time of his death he owned in real estate a 200 acre farm adjoining town, and also the Mur- ray addition to Ellensburg, which, in addition to looking after numerous loans and investments, oc- cupied his time. He was an enthusiast concerning the Kittitas country, particularly regarding its ad- vantages for stock raising and farming, in which pursuits he acquired his fortune, and always con- tended that it was the best country on earth for an industrious poor man to get to the front in.

REV. WILLIAM PARK, the pastor of the First Methodist Episcopal church of Ellensburg, Washington, determined when a youth to become a merchant. For five years he was in business as a druggist, becoming thoroughly qualified as a phar- macist and studying medicine, when, at the age of twenty-two, he determined upon religious work, feeling that he was called to this higher walk in life. He was born in Windsor, Ontario, March 18, 1865, being the son of Joseph and Isabella (St. Clair) Park, both natives of Scotland. His father was a marine engineer and for thirty-three years prior to his death in 1899 was chief engineer of the car boats running between Detroit and Wind- sor. Mr. Park first engaged in evangelistic work in Canada and later extended his field to the New England states. For eleven years he labored in this line, seeing hundreds of souls brought to Christ through his efforts.

· Mr. Park was married in 1890 at Windsor to Jennie Nister, daughter of James and Anna M. (Boise) Nister, both natives of Holland, in which

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country Mrs. Park was born. Her parents came to this country when she was an infant and her father was a successful merchant at Grand Rapids, Michi- gan. Mrs. Park was converted at the age of sev- enteen years and at once began active Christian work. Three years later she was engaged in evan- gelistic work in Michigan and Indiana. She fol- lowed this line of endeavor four years with much success. She then met Mr. Park and they united in a double sense, joining in heart and hand and in a common effort for Christ's cause. The ill-health of Mrs. Park brought their labors in the evangelistic field to a close. Rev. Mr. Park was first admitted to the Northern Minnesota conference and took his first charge at Ada, a county seat in the Red River valley, where the church had been abandoned. In his three years there he built a fine church for the congregation and restored and built up the member- ship. He then took a three months' vacation, trav- eling in California, and then in March, 1902, took up the work at Ellensburg, which he has since pros- ecuted with untiring vigor. The work has grown under his ministrations and he never fails of a hear- ing when he preaches, a large attendance being the rule at his preaching and prayer service, as well as on all other occasions. He is a man of ability and has ever been a consistent and vigorous fighter of sin in high places. He has been agitating the ques- tion of open saloons on Sunday and vigorously de- nouncing it from the pulpit. The congregation of the church not only meets all its own bills promptly, but is a liberal contributor to outside work. Mr. Park has two sisters and two brothers living at the old honte town, Windsor, Ontario. The sisters are Mrs. Jonathan Robson and Miss Mary Park. The brothers are James Park, an engineer, and Albert Park. Mrs. Park's parents are dead. Four sisters survive. One, who by adoption bears the name of Miss Elizabeth Jones, is a deaconness at St. James' M. E. church in Chicago. Mrs. J. C. Long, another sister, is also a resident of Chicago. Mrs. E. L. Knowlton, who resides in Connecticut, and Mrs. Jessie Wiseman, of Oregon, are the other sisters.

JERRY W. VANDERBILT. Kittitas county is distinctively a stockman's country, and many of the pioneers of the county are in- debted for the comforts of life they now enjoy to the profits of the stock raising industry, in which they have been engaged for many years. Prominent among the stockmen of the county, and one who has been especially successful in the business, is J. W. Vanderbilt, who has had cattle and sheep on the Kittitas ranges for sev- enteen years. First engaging in the business in Oregon, where he bought a band of sheep in 1885, he came with his stock to the Kittitas val- ley in 1887 and, until 1901, devoted his time almost exclusively to stock raising, at the same time adding yearly to his landed possessions in

various parts of the county. Before coming to Washington Mr. Vanderbilt had been a. resident of Oregon, Illinois and New Jersey. He was born at Rocky Hill, Somerset county, New Jer- sey, in 1852. His father was Peter Vanderbilt, a farmer and carpenter, who was born in 1822, at Flatbush, Long Island, and who died in 1901. The paternal grandmother was a member of the noted Beekman family that settled on Long Island generations ago. The mother of J. W. Vanderbilt was Sarah (Hutchinson) Vanderbilt, a native of New Jersey and of Scotch-Irish an- cestry. J. W. Vanderbilt spent his boyhood and early manhood days in New Jersey, where he attended the common schools and worked on the farm. At seventeen he began doing for him- self, conducting at this time a large farm on the Raritan river belonging to a cousin, a lady of considerable property and a descendant of the Beekman family. This farm was the old home- stead of the Beekmans and Mr. Vanderbilt was the seventh generation to live on the place. He continued here seven years, then went to Illi- nois, expecting to remain away for a few months only, but prolonging his stay to two years, at the end of which period, instead of returning to New Jersey, he went first to Califor- nia ; then to Portland, Oregon; then to The Dalles, where for several years he worked on stock ranches, eventually investing in sheep and, as has been stated, coming to the Kittitas valley in 1887. Among other landed possessions, he owns a fine farm east of Ellensburg, which he pur- chased in 1892 and, in addition to this, in 1900, he became the owner of the Vanderbilt Hotel, in Ellensburg.

Mr. Vanderbilt was married in 1902 to Mrs. Henrietta English, a native of Iowa. For six years previous to the marriage she had been engaged in the millinery business in Albany, Oregon. Her father was Warren Lucore, a stonemason and a native of Pennsylvania; he was among the Argonauts of '49 in the Califor- nia mines and was for several years a successful miner; he died of dropsy in Sacramento. In his earlier days he did considerable mason work on the Capitol building at Washington, D. C. Mrs. Vanderbilt crossed the Plains with her mother to Virginia City, Montana, in 1865. The mother of Mrs. Vanderbilt was Mary (Wright) Lucore, a native of Washington, D. C .; the year of her death was 1888. Mrs. Lucore's father was a soldier of the Revolution and died at its close while on his way home. Mrs. Vanderbilt has one brother living: Warren Lucore, of Minne- apolis, Minn., and four sisters: Millissa Wil- liams, Eliza Stuart, Truelove McCarthy, and Lydia Gleason. Mr. Vanderbilt's brothers and sisters are : Samuel, Summerville, New Jersey: Elizabeth Ab- bott ; Cornelius, Kittitas county ; Aaron R., Amster- dam, New York; Etina Chase, Princeton, New

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Jersey; Edward, Kittitas county. William, an elder brother, is dead. Mrs. Vanderbilt is a member of the Presbyterian church. Politically, Mr. Vanderbilt is a Republican, but does not take active interest in politics. His straight- forward methods and correct principles have won for him the respect of friends, and his energy and business capacity have enabled him to accumu- late a fair share of this world's goods; in addi- tion to the Vanderbilt hotel and to his extensive holdings in livestock, he owns 700 acres of land in the valley. He is one of the very successful stockmen of Kittitas county.

SEVERIN C. BOEDCHER. No higher compliment can be paid American institutions than that which is implied in the fact that many of the more intelligent men of foreign birth find in these institutions much that is conducive to the higher development and to the rapid ad- vancement of the individual in commercial and in professional pursuits. Severin C. Boedcher was born in Denmark in 1868 and remained in his native land until his twentieth year; his boyhood days were spent in the primary, normal and high schools of that country, and when they were completed he became a teacher, continuing in this profession only a short time, however, when he entered the army in compliance with the provisions of the military laws of the coun- try, remaining in the service the allotted number of years. His military career ended and he received his discharge from the army in December, 1888. He had always held liberal views regarding the relations that should exist between the government and the governed and believed the United States offered better oppor- tunities to the young man seeking preferment than were offered in his native land. January II, '1889, he started for America, coming direct to Olympia, where he eventually took out nat- uralization papers. After his arrival in this country he spent five years in the logging camps, studying diligently during leisure hours to master the language of his adopted country. In this he was remarkably successful ; not satisfied, however, with the superficial knowledge he was able to acquire by intercourse with his daily associates, he sought more accurate scholarship in the schools, going first to the Los Angeles Normal in 1895 and attending one term. In 1897 he entered the State Normal at Ellensburg, remain- ing a student during two terms, following which he taught school for one term. In 1898 he was appointed deputy auditor of Kittitas county, hold- ing the position until June, 1902, at which time he determined to engage in the real estate busi- ness and resigned his deputyship for this pur- pose. He has found the real estate business congenial and remunerative and continues one

of the most active and successful agents in the valley. He holds a commission as a notary public.

The parents of S. C. Boedcher are Peter and Anna (Brogger) Boedcher, the former born in 1843, the latter in 1847, and both still living in Denmark. The Ellensburg townsman was mar- ried in 1897 to Mary A. Crew, who was born in Illinois and grew to womanhood in Iowa. Mrs. Boedcher received her education in the common and high schools of Iowa, finishing with the regular course in the Cedar Falls Normal. She holds a life teacher's certificate and was for ten years engaged in school work. Her parents are both dead. Christen, Mary, Christina, Carrie, Christian, Peter and Doratha are brothers and sisters of Mr. Boedcher living in Denmark; James Boedcher is another brother living in El- lensburg. Hazel, Laverna and Florence are the children of Mr. and Mrs. Boedcher. The fraternal instinct is strong in Mr. Boedcher, and he holds membership in the I. O. O. F., the M. W. A., and the B. A. Y. and the Royal Neighbors. Mr. and Mrs. Boedcher are members of the M. E. church. Aside from his real estate business Mr. Boedcher has varied interests; he is one of the proprietors of the Ellensburg Steam Laun- dry ; he is interested in the Western Coal & Iron Company of Tacoma; he is secretary of the Ellensburg Business Men's Club; he also owns a small tract of land adjoining town. He is actively progressive in all public and private affairs, being especially interested in the educa- tional institutions of the community, believing firmly in education as the foundation of all progress.

JOHN A. SHOUDY, JR. Not many of the business or professional men in any of the townis of the Yakima valley have the distinction of having been born in the valley. Although set- tlements were made here in the sixties thev were not as a rule by men who became permanent residents, and the period of active and perma- tient settlement did not commence until a decade later; it is not therefore surprising that but com- paratively few now live in the valley who claim it as their place of birth. J. A. Shoudy is one of the few business men of Ellensburg who are native residents; he was born here July 26, 1873, and, with the exception of three years spent away at school and a short time spent in Roslyn and Cle-Elum, he has been a life-long resident of this, his native town. In his boy- hood days he attended the Ellensburg public schools, following this later with a course in the old academy and then entering the State Uni- versity at Seattle, where he took a three years' course from 1893 to 1896. In the fall of the vear 186 he became agent for the Northern Pacific Coal Company at Ellensburg, a year later going to.

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Roslyn and afterward to Cle-Elum and taking charge of the company's stores. Returning to Ellensburg October 1, 1900, he purchased Frank Bossong's interest in the bakery and grocery business and formed a partnership with his brother-in-law, Earnest Koepke, under the firm name of Koepke & Shoudy, in which firm he is still the junior member. From the beginning they have had an excellent trade and they have developed into one of the substantial business houses of the city. The father of the subject of this article was John A. Shoudy, Sr., who is commonly spoken of as the father of Ellensburg. He was born in Pawpaw, Illinois, in 1842, and died in Ellensburg in 1901. He was a veteran of the Civil war, serving as sergeant of Com- pany K, Seventy-fifth Illinois infantry. At the close of the war he came by way of the Isthmus to Seattle in 1865; going later from Seattle to California and in 1870 coming to Ellensburg. At that time the town had no distinctive, legit- imate name, but was known among cattle men and miners as "Robbers' Roost"; for what reason we are unable to state. The town was eventually named for Ellen Shoudy, the wife of J. A. Shoudy, Sr., and the mother of our sub- ject. Here in 1870 Mr. Shoudy, Sr., bought out Jack Splawn, who had some years before estab- lished a trading post at the present site of the town, and during that fall made six trips back and forth to and from Seattle, bringing in goods for the store. The business was conducted under the firm name of Shoudy & Dennis, Mr. Den- nis being the partner. Mr. Shoudy, Sr., was a prominent figure in the early history of Ellens- burg and of Yakima and Kittitas counties. He was postmaster for several years; represented old Yakima county in the legislature in 1883 at the time of the formation of Kittitas county, being elected on that issue; was a delegate to the constitutional convention ; was for two terms mayor of Ellensburg; was prominent in the settlement of the Indian troubles in 1877. As an inducement to the Northern Pacific railroad to build through Ellensburg, he, with others, bought and deeded to the company 120 acres of land in Shoudy's second and third additions to the town, with 200 feet additional right of way and a block for machine shop purposes. He also gave to the company one-half of his town property. The mother of J. A. Shoudy, Jr., is Mary Ellen (Stuart) Shoudy, a native of Kentucky, where she was born in 1846. With her brother, Mrs. Shoudy crossed the Plains in an early day to Cali- fornia : she is still living.

J. A. Shoudy, Jr., was married December 17, 1898, to Ollie Davis, a native of Missouri and a daughter of Addison H. and Hattie A. (Um- ber) Davis, both now living in Seattle. Mr. Davis is a retired Methodist Protestant minister. Dexter Shoudy, a brother of our subject, is general

sales agent for the Northwestern Improvement Com- pany at Spokane; another brother, Chester, also lives in Spokane; Loyal is in school in Seattle. He has three sisters: Laura Armstrong and Etta Koepke, of Ellensburg, and Lillie Jenkins, of St. Louis. Mr. and Mrs. Shoudy have one son, John Addison, three years of age, and one daughter, Helen. The father and mother are members of the Presbyterian church. Mr. Shoudy is an active Republican. In addition to his Ellensburg business he has mining interests at Blewett and recently sold one claim for $6,000; he also owns a fine farm five and one-half miles northeast of town. He is one of Ellensburg's most respected citizens.

DEXTER SHOUDY, proprietor of the Palmerston hotel, Spokane, was born in Seattle, Washington, August 21, 1868. He is the eldest son of John A. and Mary Ellen (Stuart) Shoudy, the former a native of Illinois, where he was born December 14, 1842, and the latter a native of Kentucky, where she was born in 1846. John A. Shondy, Sr., died in Ellensburg May 25, 1901. His wife was a pioneer of California, as well as of Washington, having crossed the Plains with her parents in early days, and is still living. John A. Shoudy, Sr., was one of the most hon- ored and respected pioneers of the Kittitas val- ley and his biography will be found on another page of this work. In 1870 he purchased of Jack Splawn the log cabin and trading post located on the present site of Ellensburg and engaged in trading with the Indians and cattle men. Two years later, in 1872, he moved his family, consisting of wife, his son Dexter and his daughter Laura, from Seattle to the trading post, and here Dexter Shoudy grew to man- hood. He attended the public schools of Ellens- burg and at a very early age began clerking for his father in the store, at times also looking after his father's herd of horses on the range. In later years he acquired a practical knowledge of bookkeeping and assumed management of his father's business. In 1888, at the age of twenty, he became half owner of the Ellensburg electric . light plant and also of the city flouring mills, taking an active part in the management of both enterprises.

In 1800, Mr. Shoudy was married in Seattle to Miss Hattie A. Johnson, a native of Rock- land, Washington, where she was born September 3. 1868. Mrs. Shoudy is the daughter of Thomas and Anna (Connell) Johnson, the father now a citizen of Cle-Elum. Thomas Johnson was a pio- neer of Goldendale, Washington, and came to El- lensburg many years ago, engaging in the mer- chandise business. Mrs. Shoudy's mother was a native of Canada. Mr. and Mrs. Shoudy were schoolmates in Ellensburg. Mrs. Shoudy has

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one sister and two brothers: Mrs. Elizabeth Dickson of Ellensburg; Edward and William Johnson of Cle-Elum. Mr. Shoudy has brothers and sisters as follows: Mrs. Laura Armstrong, John A. Shoudy, Jr., and Mrs. Etta Koepke, res- idents of Ellensburg; Mrs. Lillie Jenkins of St. Louis, Missouri; Loyal Shoudy .of Seattle, and Chester P. Shoudy of Spokane. When Mr. Shoudy returned from his wedding trip in 1890, he found the old signboard over his father's place of busi- ness removed, and in its stead was a new one bearing his own name, telling him that, as a wedding present, his father had turned over to him the stock of merchandise and all outstand- ing accounts. He at once took charge of the business and remained in charge until 1894, when he was elected county treasurer. He filled this office in an acceptable manner until Jan- uary, 1897. In March of this year he went to Portland as agent for the Northwestern Im- provement Company, and, later in the same year, was transferred to Spokane, where he es- tablished the present agency at that place. In 1898 he was made general agent of the company and retained this position until March, 1904, when he assumed management of the Palmer- ston hotel, Spokane. Previous to his connection with the Northwestern Improvement Company, Mr. Shoudy's life having been spent in Ellens- burg, no one of the pioneers of that city is more conversant with its history or with the reminis- cent incidents connected with its early days. He has in his possession the first money order issued by the Ellensburg postoffice. It is dated September 4, 1883, and was drawn on the Chi- cago postoffice for forty-seven cents. Mr. Shoudy is a blue lodge Mason and also belongs to the Elks, the Sons of Veterans, the uniform rank, K. of P., the D. O. K. K., the Junior Order of American Mechanics, and the W. of W. He is an active Republican and always takes a lively interest in the success of the party. Although not now a resident of Ellensburg, he is classed with the earliest pioneers of the city and of Kit- titas county and is one of the most highly es- teemed of those who were factors in the settle- ment and development of both city and county.

EDWIN A. WILLIS. One of the popular trading places of Ellensburg is the Willis Bazaar, where is kept a general stock of mer- chandise and an extensive assortment of imported notions. The business was established in Ellens- burg in 1898, having gradually developed from a very small beginning. When Mr. Willis first came to Ellensburg he opened an auction store, building up a good business which was totally destroyed by fire in 1889. Although left by the fire practically penniless, he had previously or- dered a small stock of lamp chimneys, fruit jars,

etc., which he stored in a shed back of the Durgan house and sold from the sidewalk. That he has developed his business from this beginning to its present proportions is highly creditable to the proprietor, showing as it does that he possesses rare qualifications for commer- cial pursuits.

Mr. Willis is an Englishman by birth. His parents, Robert and Ann Willis, died in England a few years after the birth of their son Edwin in 1833. After the death of his parents Edwin lived with his maternal grandparents until their death, during which time he received his educa- tion in the common schools of his native coun- try. In 1854, at the age of twenty-one, he came to the United States, joined the regular army as a dragoon, later became a member of the Third Artillery band and was afterwards transferred to Company G of this regiment; in the following. year he settled in California. In 1858 he went to Oregon with the regular army and, at his own request, was sent with the regiment to join Colonel Wright in his famous campaign against the Indians. Mr. Willis was in the battles of Spokane Plains and Four Lakes and assisted in the work of collecting and killing the 1,500 horses belonging to the Indians, in the execution of bad Indians on the Spokane and on Hang- man's creek, and in the peace councils which fol- lowed the cessation of hostilities. After the close of the Indian war Mr. Willis engaged for some years in the hotel and restaurant business, first in The Dalles, then at Vancouver and later at Portland. In 1861 he sold his Portland business and passing up the Yakima valley by the present site of Ellensburg, went on through Okanogan to the mines of the Similkameen and Kettle rivers in British Columbia. At this time the interna- tional boundary was being surveyed, and Mr. Willis assisted in the construction of the British commission quarters at the mouth of the Kettle river on the American side of the boundary. In the spring of 1862 he went to Orofino, Idaho, and became a partner in the Big Bend Mining Company. The following winter and summer he spent in the Florence mines, returning in 1863 by way of Lewiston and Walla Walla to Vancouver, and, after a short period spent in steamboating on the Columbia and in mining at Ringold near White Bluffs, he returned to The Dalles, working there at the Umatilla House and afterwards for several years in the O. R. & N. machine shops, later taking charge of a bar on a boat plying between The Dalles, Cascades and Portland. Quitting the boat he again went to Portland, where he became interested with Captain Foster in a steam ferryboat plying be- tween Vancouver and the Oregon side of the Columbia. He afterwards sold this business and for a time prospected in southern Oregon and at Gray's Harbor for Portland people, going

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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 181

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