An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 189

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 189
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 189
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 189

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Of Peter A. Wold it can in truth be said that no man has done more for the upbuilding and ad- vancement of his chosen locality than has he. He has planted a number of orchards, and has improved and developed four good farms, where families are now living in happiness and prosperity. He has toiled hard and suffered many reverses, but is now receiving the reward of an honest, industrious career, in the enjoyment of the comforts of life and the respect and good will of his neighbors.

MRS. HANNAH D. DOTY, the present pro- prietress of "The Albany," a popular lodging house of Ellensburg, began life in Winnebago county, Illinois, in 1838. Her father, George Seaton, a farmer by occupation, was born in Oneida county, New York, in the year 1802, and died in 1855. He was a pioneer of Illinois, settling on government land in Winnebago county, in 1837. His son, John Seaton, now owns and resides upon the old home- stead. Being an active man in politics, he was during his time more or less in public life. He was of Scotch descent on his father's side, while his mater- nal ancestors were German. Abigail (McKinster) Seaton, Mrs. Doty's mother, was of Irish descent, and was born in Connecticut, in 1805. She was a member of one of the oldest Connecticut families, and through her mother she traces her lineage back to the well known Baldwin family. The first thirty- five years of Mrs. Doty's life were spent in the state of her birth. Early in life she learned the trade of dressmaking, which vocation she plied for a number of years in Rockford, Illinois, later opening parlors in Chicago, where she remained in business for seven years. She was married in 1874 to Morgan Nor- dyke. They removed to Iowa, where they settled on a stock farm nine miles west from Des Moines. By the death of her husband one year after he en- tered the stock business, our subject was left a widow with one child, Pearl. This little daughter,

however, was not destined for a long life, and her death followed shortly after that of her father. In 1877, Mrs. Nordyke was married to Milo Doty, a tanner by trade, and four years later moved to Utica, Nebraska, where Mr. Doty established a tan- nery, which he successfully operated for two years. He then sold it and established himself in the same business in Omaha. Later, wishing to change his vocation, he sold this business and, with his wife, removed to the state of Iowa, where they conducted a fruit farm. In 1888 Mrs. Doty came west to Ellensburg to join her brother, Leonard Seaton, who had preceded her and established himself. With her she brought her adopted daughter, Ger- trude, who has subsequently married and lives in Mrs. Doty's old home in Illinois, where she is widely known as an active and persistent tem- perance worker. Especially to this trait in her daughter's character does Mrs. Doty revert with pride. Two years after coming to Ellensburg Mrs. Doty suffered the loss of her brother, whereupon she established herself in the rooming house busi- ness in the Davidson block. This building she occupied for nine years, removing to her present quarters in 1902. Mrs. Doty has one brother sur- viving, John, and three sisters: Dorothy Clover, Missouri Valley, Iowa; Laura Wilcox, Redfield, Iowa, and Adeline Pomeroy, whose home is in Illinois.

Hannah D. Doty is an ardent member of the Woman's Relief Corps of the G. A. R., as well as of the W. C. T. U. Of the latter society she has held the offices of treasurer and of president, and has ever been recognized as one of the most generous and active members of the organization. Indeed, she is known in her city as an aggressive and en- thusiastic temperance worker along all lines. Her church home is with the Baptist faith. Besides her business establishment Mrs. Doty owns consider- able mining stock, and holds a block of shares in the Equitable Loan & Trust Company, of Portland, Oregon. Her ability in matters of business is dem- onstrated by the fact that, venturing forth with practically no capital, she has prospered. and at the present time owns her up-to-date establishment in Ellensburg, besides other holdings of value.

FREDERICK LUDI. It is most fitting and pleasing that among the builders of the great Amer- ican republic are to be found in large numbers former citizens of the little Swiss republic across the sea. Nor is it strange that among these Swiss pioneers, one, the subject of this biography, should have been so attracted by the Kittitas valley, with its scenery so dear to the heart of the mountaineer, as to tarry and become its first permanent settler. As he stood on the lofty Umptanum divide and gazed across at the Alpine-like mountains forming the Cascade range and looked down upon a virgin valley resplendent in its colored garb of foliage and

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silvery streams rimmed with green forest, it seemed to him a magnified reflection of his native land, he says, and then and there he made a firm resolve to spend the rest of his days in the Kittitas land-a resolution yet unbroken.

Born in Switzerland, in the year 1833, he is the scion of a Swiss family, his parents being Frederick and Elizabeth (Schonuer) Ludi, both of whom died years ago. Until he was nineteen years old he attended school; then crossed the sea to America with his brother Jacob, who had previously estab- lished himself in business at Rock Island, Illinois. For a few years Frederick remained in Illinois, then worked at his trade, that of a cooper, in Iowa and Missouri, and in 1861 entered the mines of Colo- rado. A year later he formed one of a party that went north from Denver to the Salmon River mines of Idaho. Thence he and others prospected farther east and discovered the Bannock mines of Montana, paving the way for the building of another state. Mr. Ludi remained in Montana until 1867, when, having accumulated a few hundred dollars and being anxious to find a permanent home, he and John Goller, better known as "Dutch John," started for Puget Sound. As previously stated, when they reached the Kittitas valley in August, they found their journey ended, for before them was the Mecca sought. Mr. Ludi first settled on the west side of the river, but in the spring of 1868 he and his partner removed to the east side and commenced improving a farm, which is now embraced in the southern portion of Ellensburg. Elsewhere in this book will be found Mr. Ludi's story of his early experiences in the country. Goller moved away in later years, but the Swiss pioneer could not be tempted to leave his Kittitas home; he remained to assist in the subjugation of the fertile valley and became one of the founders of a new county. Those early years were fraught with hardship and crude living, but perseverance and energy overcame every- thing. In 1882 Mr. Ludi sold his farm, which had then become valuable, to George Smith, and later it was bought by David Murray and platted into city property. Since that time he has lived with his old friend, Carl A. Sander, at the latter's home just northeast of the city, enjoying the peace and comforts of a retired life. Two years ago, in the summer of 1902, after an absence of half a cen- tury, Mr. Ludi made a trip to his old Swiss home. There he found of his immediate family only four living, two brothers, John and Goodlive, and two sisters, Mary and Catherine. Upon his return, he brought with him his nephew, John Ludi, who re- sides with his uncle. The venerable pioneer still retains much of his youthful vigor and when he talks of early experiences and pioneer life in the days gone by, the kindly eyes light up with enthu- siasm, and, despite his silvery locks and seamed face, he appears in the imagination to be again the hope- ful miner, the skilled woodsman, the wary trails- man or the doughty pioneer ranchman. His friends

are countless and their respect and good will un- bounded; in the years to come the memory of Kit- titas valley's first settler will be perpetuated by those who enjoy the fruits of a pioneer's planting, and the name Frederick Ludi will fill a niche in the wall of the Yakima country's history.

MIDDLETON V. AMEN, M. D. Ellensburg's pioneer physician, perhaps the earliest permanently established physician in Kittitas county, is the sub- ject of this biography, who is still a resident of the beautiful valley, to which he came a quarter of a century ago. Born in Licking county, Ohio, Novem- ber 14, 1835, he is the son of Ralph and Corrilla D. (Welsh) Amen, pioneers of that state. The elder Amen was a stockman and farmer, and was a native of Ohio; he died in 1853. Mrs. Amen was born in Maryland; she died in 1857. When Middleton V. was two years old his parents removed to Wiscon- sin; thence, in 1837, to Missouri, where the family resided until 1854. He received an education in the public schools of Missouri, and in 1853 was grad- uated from Dr. McDowell's Medical College, of St. Louis. The following year, the fatherless family crossed the Plains to Oregon, settling in Marion county. There the young physician practiced his profession and farmed for five years, being the principal support of his mother, brothers and sisters. When the Rogue River mines were discovered in 1859, he joined the rush and the next year opened one of the pioneer drug stores of Jacksonville. This business he successfully conducted until 1864, when he sold out and went to Fortland. In 1865 he en- listed with the Oregon volunteers as an assistant surgeon ; subsequently he went, in the same capac- ity, with the Fourteenth United States infantry, under General Lovell, to Arizona, and for three years fought the Indians of the Southwest. Return- ing to Marion county, he remained on the home- stead a year, then visited Puget Sound and was engaged in various occupations until the fall of 1878.

At that time he was attracted to the Kittitas valley by the fine mining prospects opened on the eastern slope of the Cascades and came prepared to spend a time in the Swauk district. However, friends prevailed upon him to remain in Ellensburg, then a hamlet, and practice his profession, as the two young doctors then in the valley, Drs. Reed and Walk, were preparing to leave. Dr. Amen con- sented and for twelve years was the only permanent physician in the county, though many came and went. His practice grew steadily and across the valley, over the hills, into the mountains, every- where he went. allaying human suffering as best he could. With the exception of five years spent in traveling through California and Oregon in 1890-5, he has lived in Ellensburo since 1878. But the burdens of old age and sickness, hastened onward by too great exertions in his earlier years and later pioneer life, have broken down his health so that in

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recent years he has been unable to continue his practice or engage in any exacting work. He has two brothers, Ralph, a Methodist minister living in Los Angeles, California, and William R., a fruit grower at Waitsburg, Washington; also a sister, Mrs. Mary E. Hunt, living in Marion county, Oregon.

Several times Dr. Amen has been elected coroner of the county, but never qualified but once. Of one phase of his professional life he is justly proud, the fact that in all his long years of experience not once has he required financial credentials before attend- ing a patient nor has he ever presented a bill for services. Though this idealist's action has prob- ably lost him the financial independence that might now be his, still such sacrifice has not been without its rewards; his name and deeds will ever be in- separably connected with the settlement of Kittitas valley.

MICHAEL ROLLINGER. Michael Rollin- ger has been a resident of the Kittitas valley since 1883. He was born in Luxemburg, be- tween Belgium and Lorraine, in 1848. George Rollinger, his father, was a native of the same country, as were also his ancestors as far back as the family record extends. George Rollinger followed farming all his life, and died in 1899, in the country of his nativity, at the age of eighty- four. Michael Rollinger's mother was Anna (Waggoner) Rollinger, also a native of Luxem- burg, where she died in 1878. The subject grew to the age of nineteen years in his mother coun- try and was given such education as the common schools there offer, when he went to France, re- maining there two years. He came to the United States in 1869, and settled in Illinois. After re- maining there four years he removed to Waton- wan county, Minnesota, bought land and en- gaged in farming, which means of livelihood he followed but one year in this place, when, being eaten out by grasshoppers, he gave up his farm and went to railroading. He worked in a round- house and car shop for eight years, then gave up work for the railroad company and came to Ellensburg. Here he bought a settler's right to the land he now owns and again entered the business of farming. When he came to the Kit- titas valley, Mr. Rollinger had about $1,000, and with what remained of this sum after paying for the right to his land, he at once commenced to improve and stock his farm. Later, as he be- came enabled to do so, he invested in more land, inaugurated a small dairy, purchased water rights and planted an orchard, so that now he has five hundred acres of well improved land in the valley ; his dairy is stocked with a herd of highly bred Durham cows, and he has forty head of cattle on the range. Two hundred acres of his land are under ditch for irrigation. Mr. Rol-

linger was married in May, 1878, in Minnesota, to Frances Haberman, a native Austrian, who came to the United States with her parents in 1873, when she was fourteen years of age. Her father was Frank Haberman, who was born in Austria and died in Minnesota in 1901. Her brother, August .Haberman, is a farmer and fruit grower near Ellensburg. He owns the largest fruit farm in the valley. Mr. Rollinger has one brother, Nicholas Rollinger, a farmer also near Ellensburg, and two sisters, Katie Lordung and May Rollinger, both in the old country. His children are : Sitia Beiren, Lena, Nicholas, Katie, Jacod, Angeline, August and Dora, all of whom are at home, with the exception of the first named. He belongs to the Roman Catholic church. He is deeply interested in educational matters and has repeatedly held office on the school board of his district. He was for a time a director of the District Irrigation Ditch Com- pany, of his county. In his opinion the Kittitas valley is the poor man's haven, as he is con- vinced from his own experience that any man, however poor financially, who is willing to work, can not only produce a living here but can accu- mulate money.

FRANK SCHORMAN. Frank Schorman was born in Denmark, November 2, 1864. His father, Carl Schorman, a brick maker by trade, was born in Germany, in 1839, and came from that country to settle in Denmark in 1854. He has in the past held public office in the country of his adoption, and still lives there, one of its esteemed and trustworthy citizens. Anna (Fred- ericks) Schorman, the subject's mother, born in Denmark in 1843, with her husband continues to make that nation her home. Frank Schorman was reared to manhood in his native land, and was blessed by his father and mother with a liberal education in the lower schools and in the Univer- sity of Copenhagen. His education qualified him to teach, and in fact he has taught, only as a sub- stitute teacher, however, but he did not choose to follow that profession; he chose rather the trade of jeweler, which he learned in the old country, beginning his apprenticeship at the tender age of fifteen years. Young, hopeful and full of ambition to get on in the world, and knowing the great opportunities offered in the United States, he de- cided to cast his lot in this country. Acting upon this decision in 1889 he came across the ocean, and, having a friend in the vicinity of Ellensburg, came directly here. Upon his arrival, being rather short of funds, he shunned no honorable means of earning money. so temporarily he worked at any labor he could find to do, but later found a position working at his trade. He soon found, however, that the confinement was undermining his health and that he needed more out-of-door exercise, so,

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being handy with tools, after three years in the jewelry shop, he went to work at carpentering. He has continued to follow this vocation more or less ever since. By the year 1897 he had accumulated sufficient capital to enable him to buy a farm. He still owns the farm, and rents it out, preferring to follow carpentering rather than to lead a farmer's life. Although he came to Ellensburg the year of the great fire, he was not a loser, in fact, as has been inferred, he had little at that time to lose.

November 28, 1891, Mr. Schorman was mar- ried in Ellensburg to Susie Peterson, also a native of Denmark, born near Aarhus, in 1863. Her father was a carpenter, born in Denmark, 1833, and came to the United States in 1889. Mary (Jensen) Peterson, Mrs. Schorman's mother, a native of Denmark, born in 1836, died in 1869. Mrs. Schorman has but one sister, Anna Peterson, who lives in California, and no brothers. Frank Schorman has two brothers and one sister living in Kittitas county ; Frederick, Michael and Hannah Jacobson, and one sister, Mary Schorman, who makes her home in Spokane. Mr. and Mrs. Schor- man have three children, Ernest, Mary and Alfred, aged respectively, twelve, eight and two years. Mr. Schorman is a member of the Woodmen of the World fraternity, and belongs to the Democratic party, in which he takes a working interest. His farm consists of eighty acres six miles southeast of Ellensburg, all under cultivation and well improved. Besides this farm he owns his residence in town, a pleasant home and, like his farm, in good condi- tion as regards improvements.

NICHOLAS MUELLER. Apart from being a prominent farmer and stock raiser, Nicholas Mueller stands high as an advocate of good schools and liberal education, contributing generously to their support, making possible the boast that more pupils from his district have entered the county high school than from any other district in the county. Mr. Mueller was born in Prussia, Ger- many, in the month of November, 1843. His father, Peter Mueller, born in Prussia, 1817, came to the United States in 1873 and settled in St. James, Minnesota, where he became an extensive property owner, and where he died in 1890. Nich- olas Mueller's mother, Anna (Thiel) Mueller, also born in Prussia, 1819, still lives in the old Minne- sota home. Mr. Mueller was educated in his native country, fitting himself for teaching, which voca- tion he followed in Prussia for three years. In 1866 he came to the United States, making his home in Wisconsin for two years, at the expira- tion of which time he again took up his profession of teaching in Minnesota, teaching for four years in succession. Changing his occupation, he for eight years worked in the car shops of the St. Paul, Sioux City & Omaha Railroad Company. Again changing his work he, for two years, conducted a

butcher shop and a boarding house, to his financial advantage. In 1883 he came west to Portland, Oregon, where he lost in misplaced investments the sum of $1,700. Two years later he came to the Kittitas valley and invested in a farm which he later sold for $6,000, when he bought his present home, one of the finest farms in the valley. His wife, Isabella (Schweingler) Mueller, to whom he was married in 1871, was born in New York state, 1852. Her father, Jacob Schweingler, a native born Prussian, was a soldier in the old country four years prior to his coming to America. He also served four years in the United States army fight- ing Indians in Minnesota and the more remote West. He had learned in his native land not to falter at the smell of powder, nor in this country did he fear the poisoned arrow and scalping knife, as was attested upon the uprising of the hostile tribes, when, leaving his farm in the keeping of his children, he "went in to clean them up." He was quite a literary man, well educated, and through- out his life was prominent in all public matters. Kate (Metz) Schweingler, her mother, deceased, was born in Germany. Mrs. Mueller has a brother, Herman Schweingler, a farmer in the Kit- titas valley, another brother living in Minnesota, and a sister who lives in Iowa.

The family of Peter Mueller, besides Nicholas, consists of Michael, a railroad engineer with the St. Paul and Omaha Railroad for the last thirty years; Peter, Jr., railway engineer, Portland, Or- egon ; Jacob Mueller, who came to Kittitas county in 1881, where he first held the office of county treasurer and later was postmaster at Ellensburg under Cleveland's administration, dying in 1889; Nicholas N., engineer for the Northern Pacific Rail- road at Portland for fourteen years; and John, also a railway engineer and merchant for over twenty- five years; and daughter, Lena Sander, at St. James, Minn.

The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Mueller are: Laura, Anna, Jacob, Gertrude, now Mrs. Simeon Wippel; Marie, Kate, Della, Viola, Emma and Verna.

The family is Roman Catholic in religion, and occupies a prominent position in that church.

Mr. Mueller owns one hundred and sixty acres of farming and eighty acres of timbered land. His farm is considered one of the best improved tracts in the valley, with a splendid house, barn and other outbuildings which demonstrate care and thrift on the part of the farmer. At the present time he is managing on his farm a choice herd of dairy cows, furnishing quantities of milk to the Ellensburg creamery.

MARTHA A. WOOD. In the year 1872, when the ground upon which now stands the city of El- lensburg was marked only by a lone log cabin, Mrs. Martha A. Wood made her advent in the valley and settled upon a claim.

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BIOGRAPHICAL.

Born in Warren county, Illinois, 1845, she was the daughter of Samuel and Matilda (Johnson) Welty. Her father was a native of the state of Pennsylvania, born in 1802. He emigrated to Illi- nois when Warren county was a dense and uncivil- ized wilderness. He did service in the Black Hawk war, and was a typical hardy frontiersman. In 1871 he removed to California, where he remained until his death four years later. Matilda (Johnson) Welty was born at Marietta, Ohio, in 1813, and died in Ellensburg in 1893. Her father was a pioneer of Illinois, and a veteran of the War of 1812.

The subject's parents moved from Illinois to Fremont county, Iowa, in 1856, and here her girl- hood days were spent. She received what education the common schools of those days could afford, and at the age of sixteen she was married to Benjamin Frisbee. To them was born one son, Walter, now a resident of British Columbia. She was married to George Wood in February, 1901. He is a native of Minnesota, and came to Ellensburg in 1890. He is a musician, and it was he who organized the Ellensburg band.

For seven years after coming to Ellensburg, Mrs. Wood continued to live upon her farm. In 1885 she was thrown upon her own resources, whereupon she opened a hotel and lodging house. In this venture she has prospered, and continues in the same business at the present time.

Although she was in Ellensburg at the time of the threatened Indian uprising, she was among the few who refrained from seeking shelter in the stock- ade. She also was in the town at the time of the fire of 1889, and was so fortunate as to escape, by a narrow margin, any loss. She relates some inter- esting narratives of her early experiences here-of how the settlers were compelled to go about on shoe- less feet during the summer months-to grind their flour in the kitchen coffee mill, and at times were forced to subsist almost solely upon salmon from the river. During a part of the pioneer history of the place, the supplies for the settlement were brought in on wagons from the trading post that is now known as Umatilla Junction, Oregon, though a few provisions were packed across the Cascades from Seattle. Her husband, Mr. Frisbee, was in the country a year earlier than she.

Mrs. Wood has five brothers: George Welty, a farmer of Stafford county, Kansas ; Johnson, a hotel keeper of Riverside county, California; Joseph, a machinist, of Los Angeles, California; Zachariah, farmer, Lake county, California, and Albert Welty, a dairyman of Ellensburg.

When Mr. and Mrs. Frisbee arrived in the coun- try they were without funds. They found affairs in general controlled largely by a few wealthy cattle men, while the poorer portion of the population had only what they could produce in a small way. Prac- tically all business at that time was done in trading, such as the settlers "swapping" potatoes, and other farm products, to the Indians for salmon, and such

other commodities as they had that the whites needed.

Though Mrs. Wood has had her share of ill fortune and adversity, she is a woman not easily crushed and has risen above them, so that now she has a thriving business, and is a woman of high standing in the financial circles of her city.

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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 189

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