An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 188

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 188
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 188
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 188

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).

He was married in 1850 to Julia A. Thomas, who was born in Indiana in 1834. She was the daughter of John M. Thomas, a native of Kentucky, and of Ellen (Buckles) Thomas. Thomas J. Ran- dall has four daughters and three sons. The sons are all newspaper men. Amasa S. Randall is the editor of the Cascade Miner. Cle-Elum Echo and Ellensburg Localizer, upon which his brother, Elroy M. Randall, is also employed. The other son, U. M. Randall, is an editor of the Cascade Miner. Two of the daughters, Alice A. Wright and Lizzie M. Denton, live at Vackerville, California. Another, Ida M. Craig, is a resident of White Bluffs, Yakima county, Washington, and the fourth, Mary B. Har- r'man, resides in Minnesota. In matters of politics Mr. Randall has associated himself with no party. It has ever been his custom to vote for the man. He is a member of the Central Christian church, at Ellensburg.

WILLIAM F. DOUGHTY, a man of diversi- fied business interests, ice dealer, stockman and horticulturist, is recognized as one of the foremost citizens of his town, Ellensburg. He was born in Oakland county, Michigan, June 4, 1859. His father, Samuel Doughty, was a native of England, but came to America when quite young and settled in Canada. Later he crossed the border into tlie

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state of Michigan, where he is remembered as a pioneer of that state. While in Canada Samuel Doughty followed the occupation of lumber dealer. He died in 1876. The mother of William F. Doughty died when he was a mere infant, so it is but little he knows of her history. After the death of his wife, Samuel Doughty married again and removed to Washington county, Kansas, where he settled on a homestead in 1871. Here it was that the son grew to young manhood, laboring on the homestead during the summers and attending coun- try school during thewinters. Since he was nineteen years of age, soon after his father's death, Mr. Doughty has fought his way in the world unaided. In 1881 he came west as far as Colorado, where he obtained employment as a railroader. This occupa- tion he followed for two years, being in that time engaged in work for the Denver and Rio Grande and the Oregon Short Line companies. In 1883 he went to Walla Walla, where he obtained employ- ment. After a short sojourn in the Walla Walla country, however, he again removed to Spokane, thence, being moved by the Coeur d'Alene excite- ment of 1885, to the Coeur d'Alenes. Leaving the mines in 1886 he spent a year in Yakima, then, upon the building of the Northern Pacific extension, found his way to Ellensburg: coming as an em- ployee of the above-mentioned company. Soon after coming to Ellensburg, Mr. Doughty established himself in the truck and drayage business, combin- ing with it in 1889 that of dealing in ice. In 1900 he sold out his drayage business in order to devote his entire time to his many other interests which had accumulated since his advent in Ellensburg.

Mr. Doughty has never been married, and his only near relatives are two step-brothers, Samuel and John William, and one step-sister, Mary Doughty. Though not a wealthy man, Mr. Doughty is in comfortable circumstances and is in a position now to enjoy the fruits of his past life of activity and toil. Besides some city property, which includes his home, he has two farms adjacent to Ellensburg. These are in a high state of cultivation, with good orchards, and are well stocked with imported Short- horn Durham cattle, in the breeding of which Mr. Doughtv is greatly interested. He carries on quite an extensive trade in hay. He is a Democrat in politics, yet gives such matters very little serious consideration. The confidence reposed in him by his fellow townsmen is reflected in the fact that for four years he has served as a city official.

GEORGE WRIGHT. Among the successful stockmen of the thriving region surrounding Ellens- burg and North Yakima may be noted the name of George Wright, of the firm of George Wright & Son, who was born in Colchester, England, 1838. His father, James Wright, also a stockman, was born in Colchester in 1805. came to the United States in 1871, where he died seven years later.

Jane (Miller) Wright, George Wright's mother, also was of English birth and died in that country in 1863. At the age of seventeen the boy George was, after the manner of those times, apprenticed to a butcher, with wages at a pound a year. Dis- satisfied with his duties, as well as with his salary, le, at the end of a year, ran away from his bondage, coming to Chicago with a companion, about the ver 1857. With a capital of some $500 he began in a small way dealing in stock. To him belongs the distinction of having made the first shipment of cattle and horses from Montreal, Canada, he having gone to that country in 1876. His business venture was so marked with prosperity that at the end of three years he found himself in a position to return to his mother country for a year's visit, and while there was married to Emma Springet, 1860. Upon his return to America he settled in London, Canada, later moving to Watford. In both these cities he dealt in live stock, and while at the latter made several shipments to England. Tlie allurements of the West and the opportunities it held forth to stockmen attracted him, and in '82 he came to Portland, Oregon, and thence to Tacoma. At Tacoma he became president of the Puget Sound Pressed Beef and Packing Company. With this company he was connected for five years, or until 1887, when he removed to Yakima and engaged in his present business of sheep raising. Mrs. Wright was the daughter of Robert and Charlotte Springet, both natives of England, where, in Westboghalt, Mr. Springet owned and operated a grist mill. Both are dead. Mr. Wright is without brothers or sisters. Has three sons: James M., F. G. and Albert. The first two named are business partners with Mr. Wright, the former at Yakima and the latter in Seattle. The third son, Albert, resides at Rochester, not far from Olympia.

Although in the main Mr. Wright's course in the business world has run smooth, he has had his misadventures, like all other successful men. One of these in particular lingers vividly in his memory. This was in the year 1879, when he made a shipment of four hundred and sixty-three head of cattle from New York to Southampton, England. En voyage a severe storm threatened the destruc- tion of the ship; in order to save the vessel and the human lives on board it was necessary to consign the greater portion of her cargo to the sea. Thus Mr. Wright's entire herd was thrown overboard. Aside from the original loss of the cattle, the unfortunate owner expended approximately the sum of $35.000 in a futile effort to recover damages from the owners of the ship. As a young man in Chi- cago, Mr. Wright was a contemporary with the famous packer, Philip D. Armour.and in matters of finance he was at that time rated above him. Politi- cally, Mr. Wright is known as a Republican, of pronounced convictions. His property interests con- sist of a home in North Yakima, as well as one in Ellensburg, and thirty thousand acres of grazing

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land, where the firm pastures its sheep, of which it has, in round numbers, about forty thousand. George Wright & Sons has just recently signed a contract calling for a shipment of five thousand head of sheep, which number on an average they ship cach month. Mr. Wright lives principally in North Yakima, but at the present time is occupying his Ellensburg home. In each of these cities he is counted as one among its leading and most public spirited citizens.

RASMUS P. TJOSSEM, proprietor of the Tjossem mill, two and one-half miles south from Ellensburg, claims Stavanger, Norway, as his birth place. . The year of his birth was 1841. His father, Peder Tjossem, also was born in Stavanger, 1813. Peder Tjossem inherited the old farm that had Leen in the family several hundred years, exhibit- ing deeds on parchment over three hundred years old in proof of the rightfulness of his inheritance. He, however, left the home of his fathers to try his fortunes in a new country, settling in Iowa, where he died in 1892. His wife, Anna (Iverson) Tjossem, the mother of Rasmus, came of an old Norwegian family, and herself was born in Nor- way. Rasmus Tjossem finished his education be- fore coming to America. In 1862 he came first to Quebec, afterward spending two years on a farm in Illinois, when he went to Marshall county, Iowa, to engage in farming. The profits of nine years of toil were eaten up in the great Chicago fire, he losing a heavy shipment of grain. The years '73, '74 and a part of '75 were spent in the Sound country and in Walla Walla. He came to Kittitas county in May, 1875, and took up government land, upon which his mill now stands. He worked his land until he was enabled to erect, in 1881, a small mill on the river. He built also a saw mill on Wil- son creek. These mills he operated, together with his farm and a small herd of cattle until 1889, when le abandoned the saw mill business. In 1887 with John Shoudy he built the City Mill at Ellensburg, soon afterward selling his share to Mr. Shoudy and building the mill he now owns. Mr. Tjossem was at Ellensburg at the time of the Indian outbreak. Unlike the majority of his fellow townsmen he did not seek protection behind the stockade, deem- ing it a safer plan to keep his family in a convenient sheltered retreat near his house.

In 1865 he was married to Rachel Heggem, a native of Norway, who had come with her parents to America previous to his coming. Her people were known to him in the old country. Mr. Tjos- sem has three brothers: Thomas, Ole and Jonas, all of whom are farmers in Iowa. Mrs. Tjossem has a brother, Thore Heggem, who also lives in the state of Iowa. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Tjossem are: Albert, who is interested with his father in the mill; Rebecca, who was married to George Donald; Torene, married to Errick Moe;

Lena, wife of Harl Ruthven; Peder, who is a civil engineer in Spokane, and Anna, who remains at home with her parents. Mr. Tjossem is a member in good standing of the Masonic fraternity, and his religious belief is in the doctrine promulgated by the Society of Friends of the Quaker church. He affiliates with the Republican party and prides him- self in the fact that he cast his vote for Abraham Lincoln for president in 1864. Besides his flour mill, which he owns and operates jointly with his son, he has two hundred and sixty acres of choice land, well stocked, comfortably improved and con- taining a fruit orchard of select and productive trees.

WILLIAM H. CAROTHERS. William H. Carothers is one of the substantial business men of Ellensburg. He was born in Shelby county, Missou- ri, in 1850, the son of John C. and Louisa M. (Hen- ninger) Carothers, both of old and historic families. His father was a farmer by occupation, born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, about the year 1820, and died in 1902. John C. Carothers was a pio- neer of Shelby county, Missouri, settling there with his father, James Carothers, in 1828. The Indians were numerous there at that time and the pioneer Carothers family had many a narrow escape from massacre. Before leaving the state Mr. Carothers improved three farms from raw and uncleared land. He came to Oregon with his family in 1874, and settled in the Willamette valley. He was a soldier all through the Mexican war, and later in the Rebellion. He served in the 11th Mis- souri Infantry in the first enlistment, and in the 2d Missouri M. S. M. in the second. Starting in as a lieutenant he was brevetted major before the close of the war. His father, William's grand- father, was a soldier in both the War of 1812 and the Black Hawk war. Louisa M. (Henninger) Car- others was born in Virginia of old Jamestown Dutch stock, tracing her ancestry back to colonial times. Both her grandfather and great-grand- father were soldiers in the Revolutionary war, as was also the paternal ancestry of the subject. Her grandfather was but fifteen years of age at the time of his enlistment in the Continental army. Slie still lives with her son, William, at Ellensburg. Wil- liam H. Carothers grew to manhood in the state of his nativity, where he was educated in the com- mon schools and in the state normal school at Kirks- ville. In his early life he was a school teacher by profession, teaching a year in Missouri, and after coming to the Willamette valley, in 1873, he fol- lowed the profession there for several years. Later he and his brothers combined their capital and in- vested it in stock-cattle, sheep and horses. They pastured their stock in the John Day country, in Grant county. Oregon, whither the subject went in 1876, his brothers having preceded him there. He sold out there in 1880 and removed to what is now

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Gilliam county, where he remained until 1888, en- gaged in the stock business. He, with his brother John and his father, then came to the Kittitas valley, bought land and again entered the stock business. In 1890 they sold the farm and removed to Ellens- burg, still continuing to manage a flock of sheep until 1895, during which time they were the heaviest shippers of sheep and wool in the valley. Since the year last mentioned the firm has been gradually closing out the sheep business and turning its atten- tion more to mining. The brothers have some promising mining interests about twenty-five miles west from Ellensburg on what is known as Tanum Creek, where they are developing some encouraging deposits of gold, copper and coal. The coal beds they are operating are of the semi-anthracite qual- ity, and of the finest grade.

William H. Carothers was married in 1893, in Missouri, to Lucy Samuels, born in Adair county, Missouri. Her father was Marcius Samuels, a native of Kentucky and one of the first three men to settle in Adair county. The townsite of Kirksville was a part of his original farm. Her mother was Emily (Boone) Samuels, born and reared at Boonesboro, Kentucky, and was a direct descendant from Daniel Boone, from whom the town derived its name. Mr. Carothers has two brothers, Andrew A., of Olex, Gilliam county, Oregon, and John H., of both Ore- gon and Ellensburg. He also has two sisters, Mrs. Anna M. Knight and Mrs. Ella Kocher, both of Canby, Oregon. His children are: Warren E., Cal- vin M. and Lillian.

He is a Republican, and an active one, attending all meetings and conventions of his party.

At the time of the Snake and Bannock Indian wars of 1878, Mr. Carothers was in the upper John Day country and was uncomfortably near the seat of trouble. He recalls hearing the boom of General Howard's guns when he engaged the hostile foe as it crossed the John Day river. The settlers fortified their homes and stood ready for a conflict which they expected would take place at any moment.

During the nineties the Carothers brothers met with serious business reverses, but they stood their ground and later prospered again. They are re- garded as men of honor and integrity in the com- inunity in which they live.

HENRY C. ACKLEY. Probably no one in Ellensburg is better known in industrial, political and fraternal circles than is the subject of this sketch, Henry C. Ackley. Born in Tioga county, Pennsylvania, Mav 16, 1859, he was the son of George M. and Susan M. (Yale) Ackley. His father was a contractor and builder, and for a time a farmer. Born in Tompkins county, New York, in 1822, he died in 1901. George M. Ackley's father was born in the state of New York and settled in Pennsylvania at an early day. George M. was a

soldier in the Civil war, being a member of Com- pany M, Forty-ninth Pennsylvania infantry, was wounded in battle and was also taken prisoner by the enemy on one occasion. All through his army life he served under General Kilburn. He was of English ancestry. Mr. Ackley's mother was of Hol- land Dutch descent, born in Cortland county, New York, 1825, and still lives in the state of Pennsyl- vania. Mr. Ackley grew to the age of seventeen in h s native state, living on the farm with his parents. In the meantime he had mastered the stone cutter's trade, and after leaving the farm went to Paw Paw, Lee county, Illinois, where he worked at his trade for a year, then removed to Stockton, Kansas. Here he worked at his trade for two years, in which time he built some of the finest buildings in that town. His next move was to Shelton, Buffalo county, Nebraska. Here he engaged in carpenter work and followed it in Shelton for four years, after which time he came to Washington, settling at Tacoma, where he followed contracting and building for four years. In 1889, just after the memorable fire, he come to Ellensburg. In Ellensburg he was for the first two years connected with the sewing machine and music business ; then he resumed his old trade of contractor and builder, in which vocation he is engaged at the present time. His line of work is for the most part confined to building residences, of which he has built a large proportion of those erected in the city since he went into business.

His married life dates from the year 1882, when he was married to Mrs. Wicker. By this marriage he has two children, Fred and Harry. Later he was again married, to Mrs. Laura J. Burchard, a native Washingtonian, born in Chehalis, Lewis county, October 20, 1861. Since the age of eighteen Mrs. Ackley has been in the dressmaking and mil- linery business, which she still continues to follow. Her father is Timothy R. Winston. a contractor and l'u'lder, a native of the state of Virginia. He is of Scotch-English descent, and was a pioneer of this state. He still lives in Satsop, Washington, at the age of seventy-four. Mrs. Ackley's mother is Lu- cinda ( Moore) Winston, born in Texas of German parents. She, too, is still living at the age of fifty- seven. Mrs. Ackley has five brothers and five sisters. Her children by her first marriage are : Alice St. Clair. Mamie Burchard and Eva Burchard, all of whom reside in Spokane. Mr. Ackley has two brothers and four sisters. Both he and Mrs. Ackley are members of the Roval Neighbors, be- longing to the Royal Tribe of Joseph. Mrs. Ackley belongs to the Degree of Honor and to the M. E. church. Mr. Ackley is a member, in addition to the Royal Neighbors, of the Brotherhood of Car- penters and Toiners of America and of the Sons of Veterans. He is a firm believer in the principles of the Republican party and is an active man in politics. He at one time served his, town in the capacity of city marshal. Mr. and Mrs. Ackley are doing well in their separate callings in Ellens-

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burg, and are living in the enjoyment of the trust and good will of their neighbors.

CHRISTEN EIDAL is well known among the farmers and stockmen of Kittitas county. He first saw the light of day in Norway, May 15, 1864. His father, Ole Olsen Eidal, a farmer and millwright, was born in 1832, in Norway. He was an active public man, enjoying the trust and esteem of his contemporary townsmen, and died in the land of his birth in 1902. Gullaig (Christensdatter) Eidal, Christen Eidal's mother, still lives in Norway at the ripe age of eighty-one. Mr. Eidal enjoyed the advantage of being educated in one of the military schools of his native land. Hearing of the oppor- tunities America offered to energy and pluck, he came, in 1886, to Minnesota, which state he left the following year to push farther to the west, choosing Kittitas county as his location. He prospered in his work to such an extent that, in 1895, he was enabled to buy his present farm, a tract comprising about seventy acres of well irrigated land four miles northwest of Ellensburg.

September 2, 1893, Mr. Eidal and Segried M. Digen were married in Ellensburg. Mrs. Eidal is a Norwegian whose date of birth was 1874. Her father and mother are still living in Norway; the father, Michael Digen, having been born in 1835, the mother, Marguerite (Dalen) Digen, in 1845. Mrs. Eidal has two sisters, Mrs. Sarah Wold, near Ellensburg, and Mrs. Juliette Thompson, living in Minnesota; two brothers and one sister living in Norway. Mr. Eidal has one sister, Ingeborg (Eidal), now Mrs. Ole Bjore, living in Minnesota, one brother and two sisters in the old country. To Mr. and Mrs. Eidal have been born four children : Elmer Oliver, Otto Clarence, Elna Marguerite and Sarah Elizabeth.

Mr. and Mrs. Eidal belong to the Lutheran church, and he belongs to the Ellensburg camp, Modern Woodmen of America. In politics he is independent, belonging to no party but casting his ballot for the man best fitted, in his judgment, for the office.

When Christen Eidal settled in Kittitas county he did so almost without a dollar, but, full of hope and energy, by the dint of relentless toil and per- severance his farm is now one of the garden spots which cover the valley. His annual crops consist in the main of timothy hay ; he also conducts a small dairy.

He is optimistic of the valley's future, being of the opinion that any intelligent man who is willing to work jointly with his head and hands can here live a happy and prosperous life. Mr. Eidal's own experience here seems to have exemplified the truth of these deductions.

PETER A. WOLD. Peter A. Wold is one of the picturesque characters of the Yakima valley.

He began life at Druntenie, in northern Norway, in 1835. His father was Arnt Lorsen Wold, a farmer in Norway, who died while still a young man, and his mother was Barbora (Rusmus) Wold, also a native of Norway, who died in 1883.

Mr. Wold's boyhood days were spent in his mother country, where he was given advantage of a good education. While a youth he learned the trade of shoemaker, which he followed at home for nine years. In the meantime he read a great deal regarding the United States, and of the opportu- nities it held forth to young men of meager means with push and energy, with the result that he de- cided to try his fortunes here. He settled in Chi- cago in 1862, and, being an expert shoemaker, had no difficulty in securing work at his trade. After two years he went to California and located in San Francisco, there, too, working at making shoes. He was so pleased with the country that he induced his two brothers, Lors and Ingelbregt, to join him, and together they three lived in San Francisco for two years, going thence to Seattle, where the subject opened a shop and started in business for himself. Before leaving Chicago, however, Mr. Wold be- came the owner of eighty acres of land not far from the city, which later brought him quite a snug sum. When he arrived in Seattle that city was a mere hamlet, not exceeding three hundred inhabitants. He purchased a block of lots near where the Occi- dental hotel now stands, and these, too, turned to money in the course of time. Later he purchased a farm near Giltman and tried the hop raising busi- ness, but this venture proved a failure ; so after four years he sold out for $800 and came to Yakima county and settled in the Kittitas valley. This was in the spring of 1871. Here he leased two hundred head of cows and took up two pieces of land, in all four hundred acres. He did well in the cattle busi- ness and made money. As the country developed he began to irrigate his land and raise hay. Here it might be well to note that Mr. Wold was one of the first to lead off in the great scheme of irrigation in the Yakima and Kittitas valleys; he with A. A. Munsen, in 1881, making a ditch heading at First Creek to carry the water fifteen miles down to their farms. Two years later the Ellensburg ditch was begun, and the railroad was constructed through the country.

He was in Ellensburg at the time of the 1889 fire, and also was on the scene during the Indian troubles, so historic in central Washington. He recalls how at night time the hostile red men kindled fires on the summits of the surrounding hills, sup- posedly as signals to the Snake tribe, which they evidently were expecting to arrive. Mr. Wold assisted in the erection of block houses near the Catholic cemetery by Ellensburg, and a log house where Mr. Olsen's place now stands.

He was married May 2. 1801, to Mrs. Sarah (Digen) Belgum, who was born in Norway and came to the United States in 1881. She came alone

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to join an uncle who lived in Minnesota. Her father, Michael Digen, born in Norway, September 21, 1835, still lives in the old country on his farm. Her mother, Marguerite (Dalen) Digen, also a Norwegian, lives in her native land. Mrs. Wold has two sisters, Julia Thompson and Segried Eidal, both of Kittitas county. Mr. Wold had two sisters, Carrie Anderson, living in Seattle, and Mary Chris- topher, now deceased. He has also two brothers whose names were mentioned earlier in this sketch.

He is a member of the Lutheran church. He is an admirer and supporter of Roosevelt, but be- longs to neither of the parties, and in no sense is he a politician.

Mr. Wold has leased his land and his cattle, and is now living in retirement from active work. He now owns only sixty acres of land, but he is rated as being well-to-do. He likes his country and con- siders it an ideal location for the man with limited means.

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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 188

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