An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 182

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 182
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 182
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 182

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BIOGRAPHICAL.

then to Vancouver, where he engaged in the hotel business, the venture proving a failure, a prospective boom for the town collapsing and resulting in serious financial loss. Returning to Portland he was employed for a while in the Wil- lamette Iron works, but eventually came to Yakima just prior to the building of the railroad, and there secured the contract for clearing sage- brush from a tract of land within the present limits of North Yakima, receiving therefor $3 per acre. After a year spent in the Yakima country Mr. Willis came to Ellensburg and has since made it his home. Mrs. Anna Manners and Mrs. T. Liddell of Ellensburg, are sisters of our subject. Mr. Willis is independent in poli- tics, has declined to hold office and spends his entire time in looking after his business affairs, which are constantly growing in magnitude.

PROFESSOR J. H. MORGAN. Among the leading educators in the Northwest none, per- haps, enjoys a more enviable reputation than does Professor J. H. Morgan, vice principal of the state Normal school of Ellensburg; Washing- ton. Born on the 9th of September, 1852, in western North Carolina, he began at an early age the pursuit of letters, taking his first lessons in private schools. His secondary education was obtained in Mills River Academy, in which for a number of years he was a student. Upon leaving this institution, he engaged in teaching. The wages of his two and a half years of work in this occupation enabled him to take a course in Furman University, of South Carolina, from which institution, after four years of faithful work, he received the degree of A. M. in 1879.

The call to the west had been sounding in his ears for some time, and he had not long bidden farewell to his alma mater before he. be- came a citizen of the territory of Washington. For three years after his arrival he labored in the country schools of the Walla Walla valley. Then he accepted a position as principal of the Dayton public schools. Having taught there during the school year of 1882-83, he accepted a call to the principalship of the Waitsburg schools, which position he held for four years. During this time the electors of Walla. Walla county gave a substantial testimony of their faith in his abil- ities by electing him county superintendent of common schools and from January, 1885, to Jan- uary, 1887, he combined the duties of that office with those incident to the principalship of the Waitsburg schools.

Professor Morgan's connection with the cause of education in Ellensburg dates back to the spring of 1887, when he became principal of the public schools of that town. In the mean- time, however, he had been appointed by Gov- ernor Eugene Semple to the important office of

superintendent of public instruction. In the fall of 1889 he was nominated for that office on the Democratic ticket, but though he secured many more votes than did the other Democratic nom- inees for state offices, no personal popularity could overcome the Republican majority of that year and he was defeated. Soon after the state election he was chosen principal of the public schools of Montesano, but his work in Ellens- burg had been eminently satisfactory and after he had taught in Montesano for a year he de- cided to yield to the pressure which was brought to bear upon him by citizens of Ellensburg and to accept again the principalship of the schools of that town. During the fall of 1890 he was called by the franchises of the people to the superintendency of the common schools of Kit- titas county and in the summer of 1891 he re- signed the principalship of the Ellensburg schools that he might give his undivided atten- tion to the duties of his office. In the spring of 1892 he was for the third time called to the prin- cipalship of the Ellensburg schools and before the close of that year was elected vice principal and head of the department of mathematics in the Washington State Normal school, which po- sition he still holds. His abilities as an editcator have been frequently recognized in the highest educational circles of the state. In the fall of 1892 the Democratc party again made him its can- didate for the superintendency of public instruc- tion, but it was again unable to elect him. From March, 1897, to March, 1899, he served by ap- pointment of Governor John R. Rogers as a member of the state board of education. In April, 1889. when the State Teachers' Associa- tion was organized at Olympia, Professor Mor- gan took an active part in the councils of that body and at the close of the first session the association bestowed upon him the honor of serving as its president for the ensuing year. He has always been interested in the develop- ment of the schools of the state, attending most of the meetings of the State Teachers' Associa- tion, of the executive committee of which body he has twice served as chairman. He attended the first territorial institute held in eastern Wash- ington and all subsequent ones, and he has the unique distinction of having labored as an insti- tute worker in twenty counties of this state. He has been an active member of the National Educa- tional Association since 1898.

In his present position he has been eminently successful and without doubt the excellent rep- ntation of the school is due in part to his labors. His popularity and efficiency as a teacher are attested by his long tenure of his position and by the uniform kindliness and respect which the graduates and other students of the normal uni- formly manifest toward him.

Unfortunately, during the summer of 1888,

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CENTRAL WASHINGTON.

while traveling in the interests of the schools of Washington territory, Professor Morgan met with a serious accident in a runaway stage and was permanently crippled, though, except for a period of one year, not to the extent of interfer- ing with his school duties.

Fraternally, the professor is identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Woodmen of the World, the first two of which orders he has rep- resented in the grand lodges. On the 25th of February, 1891, he married Margaret B. Hawk- ins, then of Tacoma, and to their union has been born one daughter, Nessa H. Morgan, born October 28, 1893.

ALANSON T. MASON. It is a noticeable fact that many of the successful pioneers of the Northwest are men who have assumed the re- sponsibilities of life at an early age, and who have learned its valuable lessons in the school of experience, unaided by aught save their indi- vidual energies and resources. Such is the his- tory of the man whose name stands at the head of this article. A. T. Mason was born in Cay- uga county, New York, in 1822. His father, Martin Mason, a farmer and lumberman, was a native of Vermont, where his English ancestors settled several generations ago. He was a sol- dier in the War of 1812, participating, among oth- ers, in the battle of Plattsburg; his father before him was a soldier of the Revolution. The mother of our subject was Polly (Grizwold) Mason, also a native of Vermont.

A. T. Mason spent his early life in James- town, New York, where he received his educa- tion in the common schools, associating himself later with his father in the lumber business. At the age of twenty-one he began life as a lumber- man on his own account, at first in New York and afterwards in Forest county, Pennsylvania, where he remained for twelve years. At the end of this time he went to Michigan, settling in his former business, in Big Rapids, Mecosta county, when there were only six voters in the township and only two teams of horses in that part of the state. After clearing a large farm of a dense growth of timber he became both farmer and lumberman, making his home here for twelve years. At the breaking out of the Civil war Mr. Mason was temporarily in New York; returning in 1862 to Michigan, he enlisted in Company I, Eleventh Michigan cavalry, un- der General Stoneman; this regiment was aft- crwards known as Stoneman's Raiders, was at- tached to the Army of the Cumberland and was engaged in the battles of Lookout Mountain, Stone River, and many others. Mr. Mason served throughout the war and was mustered out the last of June, 1865. During the various engage-

ments in which he took part, he had three horses killed under him and experienced many other narrow escapes; on one raid during the winter of 1864-65 the troopers were out four months, during which time they were without tents and without change of clothing, subsisting the while on whatever could be found in the way of provi- sions. Returning to Michigan at the close of the war, Mr. Mason continued in the lumber busi- ness until 1876, when he moved to California, and in May, 1877, came to Kittitas valley and took up land near the present town of Thorp. He was just in time to assist in the protection of the settlers against the Indians, who were sup- posed to be planning a general massacre; he as- sisted in the construction of a fort and did con- siderable scouting for the purpose of investigat- ing numerous rumors of massacres and forming bands of Indians. Although the Indians were restless and there were many indications of a general uprising Mr. Mason brought his family to his ranch in August and prepared to make it his permanent home. This he did and they were not molested by the Indians. He remained with his family on the ranch until 1893, when he moved to Ellensburg, purchasing grounds and erecting a substantial residence, where he has since resided, in the meantime renting the farm until 1899, when it was sold.

Mr. Mason was married in New York in 1843 to Miss Nancy Hollenbeck, a daughter of Dan- iel and Phœbe (Lonsdale) Hollenbeck, both na- tives of New York, the former being of German and English extraction. Mrs. Mason died De- cember 23, 1900. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Mason are Martin, living in West Seattle; James, a citizen of Whatcom, and Mrs. Luna Packwood, of Ellensburg. Mr. Mason is a stanch Republican ; he has never been an office- seeker, but has served the party as county com- missioner and as a member of the city council of Ellensburg. Since the death of his wife he has traveled a great deal, visiting among other places his old homes in Michigan and in New York and attending the Buffalo exposition. He is an honored and highly respected pioneer of the Kittitas valley.

CARLOS S. BULLARD. Among the young business men of Ellensburg, Mr. Bullard occu- pies an enviable position as a man of energy and correct business principles, who is winning deserved success in the commercial pursuit to which the best efforts of his life are now being applied. The same activity that characterizes his management of business affairs enters into all the doings of every-day life and, as this trait is coupled with a jovial and at the same time earnest disposition, he makes personal friends of all with whom he comes in contact and com-

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BIOGRAPHICAL.

mands their lasting esteem and confidence. Al- though a resident of Ellensburg but little more than two years, he is already recognized as one of the most progressive and enterprising citizens of the town.

Mr. Bullard is a native of Ashtabula county, Ohio, born January 4, 1872. His father, Wal- lace H. Bullard, was one of the pioneer settlers of Ashtabula county, coming in the very early days from Massachusetts, where he had for years been engaged in the agricultural and stock busi- ness and where he was born January 6, 1823. At Cherry Valley, Ohio, he built the first woolen mill in that part of the state, a building that still stands, a monument to the venturesome and progressive spirit of the pioneer of the then "Northwest Territory." The elder Bullard was a veteran of the Civil war, having served for three years and four months as captain in the Sixth Ohio cavalry. In his Ohio county and district he was a prominent and influential Re- publican, was a Knight Templar and a man re- spected by all for his sterling qualities of mind and heart and for the motives by which he was actuated in every-day intercourse with his fel- lows. He was of Scotch descent, his ancestors coming to Massachusetts before the close of the seventeenth century.

The mother was Mrs. Sallie (Slater) Bullard; born in Connecticut in 1830, she died in Ohio in 1896 after a long exemplary life of devotion to husband and family. The Massachusetts Sla- ters, of whom she was a descendant, were voya- geurs with the Puritans in the Mayflower, and her line of descent is traced directly back to the pilgrim sojourners near Plymouth rock.

The subject of this sketch grew to manhood in Ohio and, at the age of twenty-four, had com- pleted the high school course after having spent his earlier years in the common schools of Jef- ferson and Salem. His early education com- pleted, he learned the carpenter's trade, after which he removed to Wisconsin. Here he again entered school, completing a two-years course at the State University. Following this, he en- gaged for a few months in the creamery business in Wisconsin. Disposing of his creamery inter- ests in 1879. he came to Spokane, where he re- mained in the employ of the Hazlewood Cream- ery Company and in that of Rvan & Newton until 1901, when he came to Ellensburg. Here he owned for a time a half interest in the Ellens- burg Creamery, of which he was assistant man- ager. A few months ago he disposed of his creamery property and bought a half interest in the hardware establishment of G. W. Hornbeck, with whom he is still associated.

Mr. Bullard was married at Spokane April 18, 1899, to Miss Etta Belle Hitchcock, a daugh- ter of Alvin and Mary Hitchcock of Jefferson, Ohio. Miss Hitchcock received a careful and

thorough education, adding to the usual train- ing a post-graduate course. For several years she taught in her native state, where her name was well known in educational and literary cir- cles.

Mr. Bullard has three brothers and one sister ; Rolland is assistant manager of the Bell Telephone Company at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; Henry is a citizen of Salem, and William of Richmond Center, Ohio; Charlotte Russell resides at Cherry Valley, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Bullard are members of the Presbyterian church. Mr. Bull- ard is prominent in Masonic circles, is an active Republican and takes a lively interest in the caucuses and conventions of the party. In addi- tion to his hardware business he is interested in real estate to some extent, and in all respects he is public-spirited and has progressive ideas, and he is destined to become an influential factor in the advancement of Ellensburg and of Kitti- tas county.

SUSAN E. COOKE, widow of the Hon. Charles P. Cooke, was born in Waterford county, four miles from Troy, New York, in 1832. She was the daughter of Abraham and Amelia (Van der Cooke) Brewster. Abraham Brewster was a merchant at Waterford, New York. Mrs. Brewster was born in New York state in 1803. She was a member of one of the old Holland families which settled in that state in the early days.

At the age of three years Mrs. Cooke was left an orphan, whereupon she was taken and reared till twelve years of age by her maternal grandfather, then at Sandusky, Ohio. She was given a good education, first in the grammar schools, finishing in the Methodist university at Norwalk, Ohio. At the age of nineteen she crossed the Plains in company with her aunt and uncle, the Hon. E. N. Cooke, late state treas- urer of Oregon. The entire journey was made by wagon. On October 29, 1851, she was mar- ried to Charles P. Cooke, at Salem, Oregon. The couple moved to Polk county, settling on a homestead near Independence. Here they re- mained until 1867, when they took a pre-emp- tion claim in the Moxee valley east of Yakima, where they lived until the spring of 1870. Their next and final change of location brought them to the farm where Mrs. Cooke now resides, in the northeast part of the Kittitas valley on Cooke creek. This stream is known to the Indians as Put-chem-mee creek, in English meaning "plen- ty." Here they lived and reared a family of nine children, as follows: Clara, now MIrs. Charles Coleman, Orilla, Washington; Edwin N., min- ing near Wenatchee; Morand D., stockman and farmer, Ellensburg; Edward, dairyman, Ellens- burg; Eliza F., now Mrs. P. H. Schnebly ;

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George B., stockman, Ellensburg; Rufus, stock- man and farmer, Ellensburg; Nellie R., now Mrs. Al Whitson, and Jay Cooke, a farmer and stock raiser.

Mrs. Cooke was a member of the old and his- toric Dutch family, Van der Cooke, which set- tled in New York on the Hudson river during the seventeenth century. Mr. Cooke was a cous- in of the widely known New York railroad pro- moter and financier, Jay Cooke, who offered to float the United States government bonds dur- ing the Rebellion. Charles P. Cooke was a vet- eran of the Mexican war, having enlisted in Com- pany F, First Ohio regiment, under Captain Brad- ley and Colonel Waller. This regiment was at- tached to General Hammer's command. He was a participant in the battles of Monterey, Cerro Gordo and Buena Vista, serving in the same army corps with General Grant, then a captain, and Jefferson Davis. In 1868 Mr. Cooke was appointed auditor of Yakima county, which of- fice he held until 1872, when he was elected to the legislature. This office he lield two consec- utive terms. In 1876 he served as county com- missioner, and later he was made county super- intendent of schools. In 1884 he was again elected to the legislature and served until 1887. He afterward served in the territorial council. He was always a stanch Democrat, and was each time elected to office as a candidate of that party. He was the first county commissioner for the new county of Kittitas, receiving his ap- pointment through the efforts of John A. Slicu- dy, who at that time was a member of the leg- islature. Mr. Cooke was an Odd Fellow and Mason of high standing, and an honorary mem- ber of the G. A. R. He died in the fall of 1888, leaving a wide circle of friends and. no known enemies. Mrs. Cooke is a member of the Re- .bekah fraternity. She was reared under the in- fluence of the Methodist Episcopal church. Like that of her deceased husband, her reputation and ·standing in the community are of the best. She is a woman of more than ordinary intellect and refinement, is honest and straightforward in all affairs, social or financial.

WILLIAM H. KIESTER, one of the Kitti- tas valley's successful and most widely known farmers and a pioneer of 1869, lives on his val- uable ranch eleven miles northeast of Ellens- burg. He was born in Butler county, Pennsyl- vania, March 24, 1839, and is the son of Jesse, a native Pennsylvania farmer of German descent, and Margaret (Wolfard) Kiester, of German ex- traction, also born in Pennsylvania.

Mr. Kiester received his early education in the district schools of his native county. In 1861 he enlisted as a private in the Eighteenth Ohio volunteers, Company I, under Colonel

Timothy R. Stanley and Captain John J. Hoff- man, and saw his first service in West Virginia as a guard along the railway lines of that state. He was honorably discharged from this regi- ment after a service of ninety days, being mus- tered out in Jackson county, Ohio. He re-en- listed, however, as a second lieutenant in the One Hundred and Third infantry, under Colonel T. F. Laehmann, attached to the Fourth army corps under General Keys, and with that com- mand fought in the battles of Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, the Seven Days' battle before Richmond, Jones's Ford, the four Blackwater fights, at Kinston December 16, 1862, Whitehall on the 17th, Goldsboro on the 18th, and Little Wash- ington, besides many other less important bat- tles. He was taken prisoner by the Confeder- ates under General Hoke's command at Ply- mouth, North Carolina, and with 2,300 other captives was sent to Andersonville prison. He was transferred to Macon, Georgia, thence to Charleston and finally was ordered to Columbia, South Carolina. While en route to the last named prison, Mr. Kiester with two companions leaped from the train and temporarily made their escape, avoiding recapture for twelve days. During this freedom they passed the Confeder- ate lines by means of guessing the passwords, but were finally retaken at Rutherfordton, North Carolina, and taken to the prison at Salisbury. From this prison they were removed to Dan- ville, Virginia, where they were kept all winter, and then sent to the famous Libby prison. Feb- ruary 22, 1865, Lieutenant Kiester and his com- rades were paroled. Upon returning to his com- mand, Lieutenant Kiester was granted a thirty days' furlough, after the expiration of which hẹ returned to his regiment, then stationed at Roa- noke Island. His final discharge from the army took place in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, July 12, 1865. During his career as a soldier, Mr. Kies- ter served under Generals Keys, Foster, Pack, Butler, Casey and McClelland, saw some of the hardest fighting of the war, suffered the agonies of confinement in rebel prisons, and frequently distinguished himself by skill and bravery un- der fire. He rose to the rank of first lieutenant. His war record throughout is one of credit and honor.

He came west in 1865, via the Isthmus of Panama, to Puget Sound, settling near Seattle. There he lived until 1868, when he assisted Till- man Houser to establish a home across the Cas- cades in the virgin Kittitas valley. Late in the fall he returned to the Sound and wintered on the western slope, but the beautiful, grassy val- ley proved too irresistible an attraction to the pioneer and in 1869 Mr. Kiester settled upon a pre-emption claim in the Kittitas valley, found- ing a permanent home. He was preceded in the valley by only four white settlers and their fam-

HON. CHARLES P. COOKE.

MRS. CHARLES P. COOKE.

WILLIAM H. KEISTER.

TILLMAN HOUSER.

MRS. TILLMAN HOUSER.

WILLIAM A. CONANT.

JOHN G. OLDING.

MRS. JOHN G. OLDING:

VALENTINE C. WYNEGAR.

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BIOGRAPHICAL.

ilies: Fred Ludi, of Ellensburg, John Goller, now living on the Wenatchee, William Wilson, formerly of Missouri and Oregon, and Tillman Houser, still a resident of the county. Mr. Kies- ter has one brother, Winfield S., a farmer living in Butler county, Pennsylvania; and two sisters, Mrs. Emma Boyles, living in Grove City, Penn- sylvania, and Mrs. Amelda Mortland, of Indian- apolis, Indiana. With characteristic generosity and loyalty, Mr. Kiester has reared two boys, sons of an old friend, W. A. Bull, a Kittitas pioneer. They are still living with him and are both prominent young men in the community. Mr. Kiester is a man of truth and honor, prominent in all affairs of his county, and every man who knows the brave old veteran and doughty pio- neer, it is safe to say, is his friend.

TILLMAN HOUSER. One of the earliest settlers to come into the valley with his family was Tillman Houser, a pioneer of 1868. After having farmed for about six years in the Puget Sound country he arrived in Kittitas valley June 16, 1868, pre-empting a claim ten miles north- east of Ellensburg. Upon his arrival he found but three others settled here, Fred Ludi, John Goller and Bell Wilson, the latter a transient who left the same fall. After erecting a cabin Mr. Houser returned to Renton, Washington, for his family and with them at once began per- manent improvements on his place with a view to making it his future home. In 1870, however, he sold to Walter A. Bull and shortly afterward took a homestead in the same neighborhood. After living on the second claim four years he again sold and this time invested in land. He at first took sheep on shares, but found the business unprofitable owing to losses from dis- ease and other causes. Rigid economy was nec- essary in the early days that the wolf might be kept from the door, and Mr. Houser's experi- ence in the Kittitas valley was as trying as it could well be. Nothing was known, at that time, of irrigation and in one instance Mr. Hou- ser secured eight bushels of wheat for seed at Old Yakima, sowing it on his place with re- sults scarcely in keeping with his expectations. He had hoped that the crop would relieve him from some of the hardships that were falling to the lot of himself and family, but when the har- vest came the yield from the eight bushels of seed was only seven bushels of grain. Wheat flour was a luxury in those days, and Mr. Houser tells of grinding corn in a coffee mill for family use ; making coffee from peas, and in other sim- ilar ways battling with the difficulties of pio- neer life. But better times followed and by the early seventies Mr. Houser had accumulated quite a herd of stock, which proved highly profit- able and which became in fact the foundation

upon which he has built the successes of the past twenty-five years. By the year 1890, in addition to his stock interests, Mr. Houser owned several tracts of land in the north part of the county. Selling these about this time, he bought a place seven miles southeast of Ellens- burg, and in 1899 another small tract just east of town. He resided by turns on these two farms until September, 1901, when he settled in Ellensburg. Mr. Houser was born in Monroe county, Pennsylvania, March 31, 1840. His father, Charles Houser, a Pennsylvanian, was born in 1803 and died in 1883. He moved into the in- terior of that state when it was an unsettled wilderness, and during the Mexican war became an officer of the militia. He was of Swiss par- entage. The mother, Mary C. (Eyer) Houser, also a native of Pennsylvania, died in 1890. Till- man Houser grew to manhood in Pennsylvania, alternately working on the farm and attending school. At the age of twenty-one he took charge of his father's farm, conducting it for three years, until 1861, when he became a soldier of the Civil war, serving for three years under Captain Kin- ney in the Seventeenth Pennsylvania cavalry. At the close of his military service he went to California; thence to the Sound country, from which he came to the Kittitas valley.

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An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 182

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