An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 116

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1172

USA > Washington > Skagit County > An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 116
USA > Washington > Snohomish County > An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 116

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It was at the conclusion of this memorable hunting expedition that Mr. Beale joined the party which will go down in history as forming the first permanent white settlement in what is now Skagit county. There were five of these hardy, courag- cous frontiersmen, a'l hunters and prospectors, roving in search of fortune. Of their experiences a full account will be found elsewhere. They landed on Fidalgo island in March, 1859, and im-

mediately made camp on the fern covered prairie skirting the shores of Fidalgo bay. There Charles W. Beale and Lieutenant Davis, a nephew of the famed president of the Southern Confederacy, took squatters' claims, and erected a crude dwelling. Mr. Beale remained on his claim until late in 1862, then, leaving it in charge of his cousin Robert Beale, went north to the Cariboo mines on what he supposed would be a short trip. However, it lengthened out into a five years' absence, and upon his return to the island in 1867 he found that his cousin had sold the old claim. Undismayed, Mr. Beale at once crossed the bay and took another quarter section, which has since been his home. Of the five pioneer settlers of Fidalgo island, Mr. Beale is the only survivor, so far as is known, and is therefore entitled to the distinction of being Skagit county's oldest pioneer. In 1890 he had his property platted as Beale's Maple Grove Addi- tion to Anacortes, and he still retains two hundred lots. Mr. Beale had two brothers in the Civil War, one a Confederate general, the other a sur- geon in the Union army.

Married in 1865, Mr. Beale has raised a family of which any man might well be proud. The liv- ing children of Mr. Beale are: Charles W. and John R. of Anacortes; Mrs. F. L. Clem, of the Hotel Detroit, Seattle : Mrs. R. E. Bullick, whose husband, a detective in the employ of the Canadian Pacific railroad, had the honor of returning the securities stolen from the company in the famous robbery at Mission Junction : George C., of Ana- cortes ; Francisco D., a graduate of Carlisle, now in the East; Lucretia, living in Anacortes. A daughter, Edith, died in Anacortes in 1903. Mr. Beale has been justice of the peace in Anacortes tor years. In politics he is an enthusiastic Demo- crat. His name is a prominent one in the history of Skagit county, of which he has the honor to be the oldest living pioneer. He is a man of un- usual native intelligence. good education and broad experience : is well preserved and active for a man of his years, and is in all respects a worthy citizen of the county whose settlement he gave inception.

PETER E. NELSON, of Anacortes, Wash- ington, is a man who has been endowed by nature. with those intellectual qualities and personal trait .: of character which inevitably lead to success through whatever avenue the individual may choose to pursue the laborious research. As a youth in the common schools of Illinois he dem- onstrated his ability to apply his mental energies to a given task, thus equipping himself. in a com- paratively brief period, with a practical education, -the foundation upon which he has ever since been building, and building well. In the after years of his life, whether on the farm or in the

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mine, whether in commercial or other business pursuits, the faculty of concentrating his mental and physical powers for a definite purpose has lost none of its vigor, and for this cause success lias come oftener than failure, the realization of hopes oftener than disappointment.

Mr. Nelson was born in Sweden May 23, 1861. The first twelve years of his life were passed in the country of his birth where his experiences were not unlike those of other boys who were his mates and peers. He came to the United States in 1873 and for fifteen years made his home in Il- linois, finishing his education in her common schools and finding employment on her prairie farms. At the close of this period Mr. Nelson decided to seek a new location, desiring better op- portunities than those by which he was surround- ed, and a field for endeavor whose industrial and commercial channels were not overcrowded with restless seekers for the treasure which brings con- tent or crowns the years with success. He started for the Northwest in 1888; stopped for a brief period in Denver, Colorado, and also in Seattle; but before the close of the year had reached Ana- cortes. Here he was given a position with the United States coast and geodetic survey, then chart- ing the lower sound region, with which he served three years. After this he attended business college at Portland, Oregon. Returning to Anacortes he became assistant postmaster, and during the mem- orable boom of '90 engaged in the real estate busi- ness. Later he was a prospector in the tortuous canons and on the slopes of the Cascades, being one of the pioneers of the Slate creek region. A radical change in occupation was when he ex- changed pick and pan to assist in the publishing of the Anacortes American. The next step was from printing office to storeroom, when he asso- ciated with J. G. Hurd in the grocery business. When the Klondike excitement broke out in 1897, Mr. Nelson joined in the stampede. He was one of the first to reach the now historic White Pass trail, which was crossed after weeks of hardship and danger, and in company with other venture- some spirits built a flat boat and made the exciting voyage down the lakes and Yukon river to Daw- son, arriving in midwinter. For five years he struggled with fortune in the northern wilds- driving dog team, mining, and participating in many of the stampedes that made the Klondike famous. He returned to Anacortes in 1902, short- ly afterward becoming interested in the Anacortes Water Company and being elected its vice presi- dent, and he now devotes his energies principally to the water and lighting business. Although his time is well occupied with business cares, Mr. Nel- son has an enduring interest in public affairs, all movements for the betterment of general condi- tions having his hearty support. Although not es- pecially active in political matters, the Republican

party candidates receive the benefit of his influ- ence and his vote. Besides his interest in the local water and lighting systems, Mr. Nelson is interest- ed largely in city. real estate, and in the Slate creek mines.

The successful business man,-the man who has unwavering faith in the future of the com- munity ; who builds his home and invests his capi- tal in the various enterprises that surround it; who lends material aid to progressive policies,- such a man is an essential portion of the bone and sinew that build the cities of any section and makes of them commercial and industrial centers. It is to the successful business men, with whom Mr. Nelson is justly classed, that Anacortes is largely indebted for the progress of the last decade and for the commercial and industrial activity of -to- day. He is a man of sound principles, of untiring energy, capable in the mastery of business details and possessing ability as an executive. He holds the confidence and esteem of his immediate asso- ciates as well as of the general public and is well worthy of prominent mention in the history of his home city, with which his worldly interests are so closely identified.

GUS HENSLER. The thriving commercial center of Anacortes holds no citizen who is more representative of that class of practical business men who have brought about the present-day pros- perity of the city, than he whose name is introduc- tory to this brief biography. Mr. Hensler was born in Audrain County, Missouri, October 22, 1864, the son of August and Catherine Dorothy (Lange) Hensler, natives of Germany. August Hensler left the Fatherland for the United States in the fifties, settled in Missouri, married there and made that state his home until 1892, when he immigrated to Washington where he passed away eleven years later, aged sixty-seven. He was of German and French ancestry. His wife, is the mother of four children of whom Gus is the old- est. One son is deceased and two daughters are living. Gus Hensler acquired his education in Fayette, Missouri, supplementing the common school studies with a course in a denominational academy under the supervision of the Methodist church, South. When eighteen years old. he left the parental roof and assumed for himself the re- sponsibilities of life, finding occupation for a time as a cattle buyer for shippers. He bade farewell to the environments of his youth and early man- hood in 1884, and in June, 1889, landed at Seattle. During the intervening period he was variousiy employed as a cattle ranger and deputy sheriff in Harper County, Kansas, and again as a cattle ranger in New Mexico. He remained but a few weeks in Seattle, finding his way in July, 1889, to Fidalgo island, where he purchased a relinquish-

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ment and also filed a preemption on land near Anacortes. Soon after his arrival on the island he became the local agent of the McNaught Land and Investment Company and is still their repre- sentative at this point. He was also engaged as iand agent for the Seattle and Northern railroad, being retained in the same capacity by the Great Northern when this company acquired the rights of the former corporation.

At Springfield, Illinois, August 20, 1890, Mr. Hensler married Miss Annie Baker, daughter of James Baker, a locomotive engineer who lost his life in a railroad accident about the time of her birtlı. Her mother, Mrs. Sarah (Hargraves) Baker, a native of England, is still living in the Illinois home. Mrs. Hensler was born in Indiana in 1867, but the family removed to Illinois when she was young, and in the latter state she was edu- cated, following the common school course witlì several terms in an Episcopal school.

In fraternal circles Mr. Hensler is known as a Blue Lodge Mason ; and has served as master of his lodge for four years-1893-4 and 1903-4. As a Democrat, he was elected to the office of city clerk for the period from 1893 to 1897. He was chairman of the board of county commissioners during the years 1892-8. Of the city council he is now an active member, with a total service of six years in that capacity. During fifteen years of residence in the city he has built up one of the largest real estate and insurance clienteles in the county,-an evidence of managing ability and mental energy. He is one of the strong men of Anacortes ; successful in his private business, and earnest and enthusiastic in his support of laudable public enterprises. Firmly established in the con- fidence of his immediate associates and of the gen- eral public, hic stands for the best type of citizen- ship and is an advocate of all measures having in view the material progress of Anacortes and con- tiguous country, and the betterment of the condi- tion of his fellow-citizens.

RICHARD P. MINTER is one of the best known real estate men and townsite promoters in the entire state, having carried several ventures of that character to a successful termination in vari- ous parts of Washington. He is also the pioneer real estate man in Anacortes, though his work has not permitted him to remain continuously a resident of the city. Mr. Minter was born in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri, August 12, 1860. His father, Benjamin A. Minter, was a native of Virginia, a farmer, and the son was born during the journey to settle in Missouri. Mrs. Annie K. (Tisdal) Minter was also a native of the Old Dominion, the mother of eight children, of whom the subject of this sketch is next to the youngest. Richard Minter's formal education was

limited to three months in the public schools, but in native gifts augmented by a mind, active and retentive to what is passing, he is richly endowed and has acquired in the years since childhood what he was unable to gain as a lad. When he was nine years old he was at work helping his father pay for the home and he continued with his father until twenty-five years of age. In 1885 Mr. Min- ter went to Los Angeles, California, and engaged in contract plastering, at the end of a year en- gaging in the real estate business with Schaffer. Lauerman & Town. While with them he assisted in subdividing several tracts of land at Los An- geles, and selling them off. He then went to the Santa Ana valley, nine miles from the city of that name, and started the town of Fairview, building a narrow gnage railroad for communication and traffic with other places. He returned to Missouri and passed the year 1888 in the state of his nativ- ity. On his return to the coast in 1889, Mr. Min- ter passed some time in Tacoma and in Spokane but decided to settle in Ellensburg, Washington, and go into the real estate business. He remained there only a short time and came to Fairhaven, Whatcom county, entering the employ of Gover- nor Black, Rettie Bon Brothers and J. Warder in the real estate business. In 1890 he came to Ana- cortes, Washington, opened the first real estate of- fice in town and sold the first town lot. In 1900 he went to Snohomish county and in the interests of the Snohomish Land Company in which he was a partner, bonded nine hundred acres of the town- site of Everett. The company through Mr. Min- ter handled this property, the site which ultimate- ly became the town of Lowell and outside prop- erty at Everett. In 1893 Mr. Minter handled the townsite of Sultan City for Mrs. Stevens, clearing a good profit for the owner. In the fall of that year he returned to Anacortes and continued in business there until 189? when he accepted a prop- osition from Dan Wilson to go east of the moun- tains and float the townsites of Davenport and Harrington in Lincoln county and Ritzville in Adams county. Of this work he made another big success and by 1901 had returned to Anacortes where he has lived ever since. In company with Ben Badge, J. L. Romer and Soles & Molten he purchased and named the townsite of Burlington but sold out to advantage in six weeks. Mr. Min- ter has considerable property interests in Anacortes and in addition to his realty business does a good business for several insurance companies. He is one of the Democratic leaders in that part of the county. Mr. Minter is a man of great popularity which is partly responsible for his success in busi- ness and his influence in politics.

ALFRED J. STACEY. until recently a popu- lar resident of Anacortes, was born near Daven-

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port, Iowa, July 20, 1866. the son of Alfred J. and Mary ( Leamer) Stacey. The father, also a native of Davenport, died at the age of twenty- seven, just prior to the birth of his son, and at a later date, the mother, who at present is in Seat- tle, became the wife of Harvey K. Wallace, now deceased. She was born in Iowa in 1845. Brought by his mother to Seattle when four years old, Al- fred J. Stacey lived with the family there, and later moved with them to La Conner, where his stepfather took a homestead. While in Seattle Mr. Wallace was offered his choice of a number of lots if he would erect a house upon it, also forty acres in the heart of the city of to-day for the trifling sum of three hundred dollars, but unable to see the wisdom of accepting these offers, he brought his family to La Conner, whence, seven years later, he went to California. Though a boy of only ten years at the time of his stepfather's departure from the country. Mr. Stacey decided to begin life for himself instead of accompanying the family to California, and hired out as a farm hand. In two years he was able to do a man's work, receiving, however, but a mere pittance, two dollars and a half, for an entire year spent in dik- ing. After a year on Fidalgo island, he went to the woods of Snohomish county, and worked one win- ter, attending school the following summer. Going to Pleasant Ridge he continued to attend school, working for his board, and in this way acquired a practical education, in the face of obstacles that would have seemed insurmountable to a less de- termined nature. At the age of seventeen he and a brother rented farms for three years, after whichi Mr. Stacey attended the territorial university two years. Returning to La Conner he soon purchased forty acres of timber land. In the spring of 1888 he was employed by R. E. Whitney in the reclama- tion of Whitney's island, but at the end of the second month he was taken very ill with inflamma- tory rheumatism. and forced to sell his land to meet the expense of his illness. Upon his recov- ery he made a brief vist to lowa, going thence in turn to Nebraska, Utah, and California, and finally locating in Coupeville, Washington, where he ac- cepted employment as clerk. After working for two years at Bayview, on the ranch owned by E. A. Sisson, he moved to La Conner, and invested in four acres of land, upon which he built a house and barn. He devoted his entire attention to rais- ing cabbage seed, there being an excellent demand for that product. The unusually severe winter of 1893, worked great hardships upon him, and when his next crop was ready for market he found him- self in debt to the amount of $2,250, but practicing strict economy, he toiled on with characteristic en- ergy, until he sold his property in 1901. He then leased a farm for four years, and at the end of the third year found he had cleared $1,100, and had a bank account of $1,800. Coming to Ana-

cortes in February, 1904, he invested in real es- tate, a house and two lots in one part of the town, twelve lots in another locality, and a one-half in- terest in eleven other lots. He accepted a clerk- ship there, and remained at work until the spring of 1906, when, having on January 22th traded his realty to George N. Shumway for a farm in the Samish valley, he moved onto that place and began farming.

Mr. Stacey was married July 20, 1892, to Susan B. Horsey, born in Adair County, Iowa, December 19, 18:0. Her father, P. W. Horsey, now residing in Anacortes, is a Kentuckian, born in 1842. Sarah A. (Singer) Horsey, her mother, was born in 1849 in Clayton County, Iowa, and is now a resident of Anacortes. She is the mother of eight children, Mrs. Stacey being the second. Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Stacey as follows: Sidney, April 26, 1893; Jesse, July 16, 1894; William, July 16, 1896; Carrie, October 18, 1898; Melvin, August 5, 1900; Theo- dore C., April 25, 1903. Mr. Stacey is a member of the Woodmen of the World, while his wife is a prominent worker in the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and in Martha Washington Circle of the Grand Army of the Republic. Al- though for many years a loyal Republican, Mr. Stacey has never accepted any political office. He and his family attend the Baptist church. A man of upright character, broad minded, and pub- lic spirited, he enjoys the confidence and esteem of the entire community.

CAPTAIN JOHN A. MATHESON. The re- spect and honor always due and generally accorded with cheerfuless to the man who has the fore- sight to introduce a new industry and carry it on successfully where its possibilities were not before recognized certainly belongs in abundant measure to Captain John A. Matheson, the pioneer of the cod fishing and packing industry of Anacortes. The captain came naturally by his love for the sea and for the taking and curing of the products thereof, having been connected with both since he was a lad of a few summers. He was born in a maritime country, the province of Nova Scotia, Canada, and has in his veins the blood of a people world-famed for industry. thrift and forcefulness of character, the sturdy Scotch race, for his par- ents, Donald and Flora Matheson, were both na- tives of the land of Burns and Watt. In 1860, when but eleven years old. he forsook the school room, and engaged in shore fishing along the coast of Nova Scotia, which line of industry en- gaged his energies continuously until 1872. In that year, however, he removed to Provincetown, Massachusetts, and engaged in fishing on the Grand Banks, in the vicinity of which he contin- ued to reside and to pursue his chosen vocation

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until 1890. He then determined to try his for- tunes on the Pacific coast, so sent his fishing ves- sel from New York around the Horn to San Francisco, while he himself journeyed westward overland. The vessel reached its destination very early in the year 1891, and was at once fitted out for a trip to Behring sea and sent to try its for- tunes in the cod fisheries of the far north. That fall it returned to Anacortes, where Captain Matheson had decided to locate, with a goodly catch, the first ship load of cod to enter a Puget sound port. Thus was inception given to the cod fishing and cod curing industry of Anacortes, an industry which has ever since been contributing its share to the commercial prosperity and devel- opment of the town and which promises in future far to surpass in importance the achievements of the past. Captain Matheson has devoted himself almost without interruption to the industry of catching and curing the Behring Sea cod since his arrival in Anacortes in July, 1891, though during the season of 1898 he sent his vessel to Kotzebue sound and St. Michaels on a trading expedition, while he himself remained in Ana- ·cortes.

In Boston, Massachusetts, in the year 1885. Captain Matheson married Miss Kate, daughter of Hugh and Catherine (McDonald) Campbell, of Marble Mountain, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and of this union two children were born, namely, Flora M. and Catherine W., both of whom are still at home. Mrs. Matheson died in 1895, and the Captain has since married Miss Josephine, laughter of Charles H. Merry. She was born in Galena. Illinois. in 1860. In politics Captain Matheson is a Democrat, in fraternal affiliation a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows. He has contributed very materially to the progress of his home town and Skagit county by inaugurating and carrying forward a valuable in- dustry, and the people of Anacortes, who are al- ways watchful to encourage everything which has a tendency to promote the local business inter- ests, do not fail to acord him a prominent place among those who have been progressive forces in the past history of their town, and who will continue to confer industrial blessings in the fu- ture. At the same time they honor his sterling integrity as a man and his disposition to dis- charge always the duties which devolve upon him as a citizen and a member of society.

WILLIAM F. ROBINSON. The truth of the statement that concentration is the secret of success is confirmed in the experience of the en- terprising gentleman whose life record is the theme of this review. Having prepared himself by carly training and experience for a business career. he then devoted his entire mind and ener-

gies to the mastery of the fish industry and the utilization of fish products, securing results of which any man might well be proud. At the same time he has been achieving an industrial success for himself. He has made discoveries which have added to the sum of the world's knowledge, thereby in a measure making all man- kind his debtor and earning a share of that fair fame which should be accorded to all who push out into the realm of the unknown and conquer from it useful secrets.

Mr. Robinson was born in Peabody, Massa- chusetts, September 8, 1859, the son of Benjamin and Catherine (Murray) Robinson, the former of whom, himself a native of Massachusetts, born in Gloucester, in 1829, was not a little proud of the fact that he came of the worthy and justly famed stock, which had its origin in America in the Pilgrim Fathers. Some member of the family has been a resident of Gloucester, in the old Bay „State, since 1830, and some of the Robinsons have been history makers in a true sense, one of the most widely celebrated of them being the Rever- end John Robinson, whose family in the year 1630 came to America after having become famous in history as one of the prominent organizers in the movement that prompted the Pilgrims to throw off an orthodoxical bondage and brave the dan- gers of a new and almost unknown world. And still later, 1713. Captain Andrew Robinson of Gloucester, Mass., having constructed a vessel which he masted and rigged in the same manner as schooners are at this day, on her going off the stocks and passing into the water, a bystander cried out, "Oh, how she scoons." When Robinson immediately replied "A schooner let her be," from which time vessels thus masted and rigged have gone by the name schooners.

For many years the father of our subject was actively engaged in the handling of fish and fish products but he is now spending his declining years in retirement in the state of his nativity. The mother, who was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1834, was of Scotch-English extraction. Orphaned at the age of twelve by the death of her mother, she was brought to Massachusetts, where her education was acquired and the re- mainder of her life was spent.

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An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 116

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.) Publication date: 1906 Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1172

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1172