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 124

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 124
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 124

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SKAGIT COUNTY

father, he determined to take up again the life of an agriculturist so in March, 1905, he moved on the parental farm. The same energy and ambition which enabled him to work out his own way at the territorial university and have characterized all his activities since, whether as farmer, miner, grain buyer and shipper or postmaster, are winning suc- cess for him in the cultivation and improvement of his splendid hundred-acre farm.

In January, 1818, Mr. Chilberg married at What- com Miss Maggie Jenkins, whose father, John R. Jenkins, a native of Wales, moved to Washington in 18:1, after living in Pennsylvania for a time, finally settling in Whatcom county and engaging in min- ing. Mrs. Jenkins' maiden name was Margaret Evans and she also was a native of Wales. Mrs. Chilberg was born during the residence of her par- ents in Pennsylvania, but the major part of her education was received in the public schools of Whatcom and in the territorial university at Seat- tle. After her course in the latter institution, she engaged in teaching in Whatcom, but her career as a teacher was cut short by an early marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Chilberg have had three children, Mrs. Alice Morrow, living near La Conner : Charles, who died in infancy and Lawrence J., born in 1893. Mr. Chilberg is prominent in Odd Fellowship, being a past grand of Delta Lodge, No. 32. and past chief patriarch of Hope encampment, No. 10.

CHIARLES CONRAD is one of the Swedish born American citizens who have easily adapted themselves to life in this country, succeeding by thrift and hard work. He was born in the old country early in the year 1861, the oldest of the three children of Conrad and Ulrika ( Hector) Con- rad, who passed their entire lives in their native land. Mr. Conrad received his early education in the schools of Sweden. When twelve years of age he accompanied an aunt to La Conner and for a time worked on a dairy farm. When fourteen years of age he determined to complete his education and went to Seattle for a course in the schools there. He returned to Skagit county and worked for dif- ferent farmers until in the spring of 1885 he first ! leased the land where he has lived for twenty years. In 1881 Mr. Conrad took up a preemption and on proving up sold out, Out of the proceeds of his farming ot leased land, Mr. Conrad in 1896 bought a farm near Fir. which he still owns, and operates. Being an energetic, ambitious man he has not rested from his labors until every acre of his farm has been cleared of timber and put in the best condition.

In 1885 at Pleasant Ridge Mr. Conrad married Miss Sophia M. Nelson, who died three years later leaving two children of whom one, Arthur, born June 28, 1888, is living. In 1890 at Seattle Mr. Conrad married again, his bride being Miss Annie

B. Olsen, a native of Norway, born in 1866, Mrs. Conrad's father is still living in the old country. Of this union seven children have been born, all in Skagit county, namely, Sophia, Nellie, John, Sadie, Dewey, Rachel and Edna. In fraternal affiliations Mr. Conrad is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, while in politics he is a Repub- lican, though not very active. The Conrads attend the Lutheran church. Mr. Conrad has lived in Ska- git county since 1874 and whether as farmhand or as farmer has earned a reputation for earnestness, uprightness and energy of which he may well be proud. He enjoys in a high degree the confidence and respect of his neighbors and those with whom he comes in contact.

JACOB MAJERUS, who operates a farm seven and a half miles southeast of La Conner, between Brown's and Hall's sloughs, is one of the typical far- mers of that section of the county, having his place in an excellent state of cultivation, doing a general farming business, but also raising fine horses. Mr. Majerus was born in Luxemburg late in the year 1856, the son of Nicholas and Mary (May) Majerus who passed their entire lives in their native country. Farm work and schooling occupied young Majerus' attention until he was eighteen years of age, when he determined to join his older brother in Illinois. Letters from the brother had done much in the way of holding out promises of success for the young man and he came to the United States in 1815, settling in Cook County, Illinois. After a few months he passed on to Minnesota and spent the harvest season there. In the closing days he came to What- com county with his brother, and in January of the Centennial year to the La Conner flats. For two years the brothers worked at diking, ditching and farm work on the Conner and other farms in the vi- cinity of La Conner. In those days the country was wild, and on Beaver marsh no diking or farming was being done except one small place. Mount Vernon had not then sprung into existence. In company with his brother and two other Germans, young Majerus leased four hundred acres of land near La Conner and began farming. the venture being suc- cessful. After two years of partnership Mr. Majerus lived for two years on the Mike Sullivan place and three on the Conner farm, operating in each instance under a lease. In 1884 he bought his present place and in the following year moved on it, commencing to erect buildings and extend the diking already done. Farming in earnest on his own ac- count, Mr. Majerus went to raising oats, developing hay land and drifting into stock raising,

In the summer of 1887 Mr. Majerus married Miss Louise Gruben, a native of the Province of Rhine, Prussia, born in 1867, the daughter of Nichola and Catherine Gruben, the latter of whom

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came to the United States with her son and daugh- ter and still lives at Mankato, Minnesota. As to Mr. Majerus' family, there were ten children of his parents, only three except himself attaining adult- ship: Michael, now near Burlington on the Olympic marsh ; Mrs. Annie Schmitz, of Olympic marsh, and Annie Mary. Mr. and Mrs. Majerus have seven children, all at home : Michael, Annie, Frank, Louise, Lillian, Willie and Eva. The members of the family attend the Catholic church at La Conner. In poli- tics Mr. Majerus is a Democrat. Hle owns eighty acres of his own land and operates eighty of school land. He raises some of the best Clydesdales in the county, having recently disposed of one team for $550. Mr. Majerus is a shrewd, thrifty farmer, well liked and one of the men who are highly es- teemed in the community for rigidity of purpose and action.

MORTIMER COOK (deceased), founder of the old town of Sedro, out of which has grown the present city of Sedro-Woolley, has been credited with having been the first manufacturer on the l'a- cific Coast to introduce the Washington cedar shin- gle into the Eastern market. Probably no pioneer of Skagit county contributed more to its advancement than this remarkable man, while his relation to the great shingle industry of the Pacific Northwest will forever identify him prominently with the history of this section of the country.

Mr. Cook's career in Skagit county, beginning with his advent in June, 1884, is but one chapter in his busy life. Born September 15, 1826, at Mans- field, Ohio, a descendant of Francis Cook, who came to America in one of the first ships that followed the Mayflower, he was the youngest in a family of thirteen children. His father was a farmer of the Ohio valley. In 1846, at the age of nineteen, the young Ohioan left farm and school to enlist in the First United States Infantry. While in this regiment he served throughout the Mexican War and afterward along the border until 1850, then re- enlisted, this time for service in the quartermaster's department. In 1852 he went up the Pacific coast to California by water and horse. One of the places at which the schooner put in for water was Santa Barbara, the attractiveness of which lingered so graphically in his memory that years later he re- turned there to live. After several years in the mines of northern California, Mr. Cook joined the rush to Fraser river in 1858, and at a point on Thompson river, still known as Cook's ferry, he built a ferry and opened a general store, the latter at Lytton. Six years later with his fortune he re- turned to Mansfield and farmed on the old home- stead three years, going thence to Topeka and Kan- sas City. At the former place he built the first iron toll bridge across the Kaw river, selling it in 1821 to

the city of Topeka for $100,000 in bonds. With this fortune he went direct to Santa Barbara and es- tablished the First National bank, building also the well-known Cook block of that city. He became president of the bank, serving it as such five vears. Ile was twice elected mayor of the town. During his thirteen years' residence his public spirit and whole-souled way of entering upon anything he un- dertook identified him with every improvement in the growth of the community. Financial reverses finally overtook him in southern California, how- ever, resulting in the loss of all his property, even to his household goods. He soon accumulated a few thousand dollars and once again commenced the building of a fortune.

With this money he came north to Puget sound, selected the undeveloped Skagit valley as the field of his operations and immediately began his career in this section. To afford an outlet to the Skagit river for two thousand two hundred acres of fine timber land which he had purchased, he bought a thirty-four-acre tract on the river at a point south of his timber land, where the river was unusually straight. Here he erected a residence and estab- lished a store in 1885. A post-office was secured right away and thus inception was given to the town of Sedro. This musical, appropriate name was formed from the Spanish word for cedar. Much humor came out of the naming of the place, Mr. Cook at first being determined that it should be known as Bug. His wife, who was ever a power for good in the community, joined him the follow- ing year, June, 1885, with their two daughters. In the spring of 1886 Mr. Cook built what was then the largest shingle mill on the coast and at the same time erected a drier. He was the originator of the idea of reducing the weight of shingles by drying them in order to lower the freight sufficiently to warrant establishing an Eastern market. The idea was scoffed at by most men who heard of it, all sorts of objections being raised against its success, but Mr. Cook persevered as he always did, and success came to him. The plan of drying shingles was sug- gested to him by observing how much lighter a few hand-made shingles became after lying by the fire- place. Then he experimented with a bunch weigh- ing them before and after drying. The first East- ern buyers were skeptical of the cedar's enduring qualities, of its red streaks, and other features, but once they had been given a trial. the battle was won The first car load went to Mansfield, Ohio, and brought about $4 a thousand. The drawbacks at the mill were also serious-unskilled labor, isola- tion and expensive transportation-but all were eventually overcome. Early in 1889 Mr. Cook sold his timber land for five times what he paid for it and at the same time the mill. McEwen & Mc- Donald being the purchasers. About the same time the Fairhaven & Southern railway was built and

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the town of Sedro platted, Mr. Cook's thirty-four acres being embraced in the original town site. In the establishing of the new town he took an active part, though almost wholly in a business way. Ile never was a politician in the ordinary sense of the word, but was a lover of good government and never shirked his responsibilities as a citizen.

Shortly after selling his timber and milling in- terests, Mr. Cook invested in six hundred acres of Olympia marsh land. to the draining and making a model ranch of which he now devoted his exhaust- less energies, still retaining his store at Sedro. Hard times overtook him, however ; the ranch was lost to him and he again entered with vim into the mer- cantile business in the town of Woolley, operating this store successfully until 1898, and living to see the two rival towns merged into one prosperous beautiful little city with a unity of action and aims.

The last page in his history is consistent with his energetic life, for at the age of seventy-two he sailed for the newly acquired Philippines, to develop the hard wood timber industry in the Orient. With broken fortunes and delicate health, but with the fire of youth, he was steadily forging ahead, when the deadly malaria of the wooded regions attacked his wonderful constitution. He died in the United States Brigade hospital at Iloilo, November 21, 1899, and, though thousands of miles from his na- tive land, he yet was laid at rest beneath the Stars and Stripes he loved so well. Though he left no riches in the material sense, he left to his family and friends the memory of an honest. square, blunt man, a devoted husband and father and a friend loyal to the last. He was peculiar in many ways, and stories of his eccentricity are familiar to every pioneer, but his peculiarities were but the mark of an exceptionally strong personality. Of sanguine temperament and ceaseless activity. he embraced his opportunities with such vigor and enthusiasmn that he was ever a leader. It is said that he made and lost four large fortunes. Ilis fraternal affilia- tions were confined to Masonry and Odd Fellow- ship. The name of Mortimer Cook is still a house- hold word in Skagit county ; it has been indelibly written upon the pages of local history, and de- servedly so.

Mr. Cook was united in marriage January 14, 1865, to Miss Nancy P. Pollock, the daughter of a well-known Mansfield family, after a long romantic courtship. She survives him and is at present re- siding with her daughter at Rockford, Illinois. Of her three children, all daughters, Fairie, Fanny and Nina, the first and last named are also living : Mrs. Fairie Litchfield, at Chicago; Mrs. Nina Budlong, at Rockford.

HON. CHARLES F. BINGHAM, banker, and mayor of Sedro-Woolley, is a Pennsylvanian by

birth, born in New Columbus, Luzerne county, No- vember 6, 1862. His father was R. S. Bingham, an educator and a native of the Empire state who located in Pennsylvania about the middle of the nineteenth century. The earlier years of his pro- fessional life were spent as an instructor in the common and high schools of New York and Penn- sylvania. In 1815 he removed to Iowa, where he was successively superintendent of the schools of Marengo, Cedar Falls, and of Clinton county. Later in life he became prominently connected with the educational institutions of the Pacific coast ; he came to Tacoma in 1888 and for a number of years was superintendent of her schools. From Tacoma he went to California, where he died in 1903. He was of English descent. The mother of Charles E. Bingham, Sophia (Brooks) Bingham, was born in Oneida County, New York, and is of English and Scotch parentage.

Charles E. Bingham received his early education in the common schools of New York and Iowa and was eventually graduated from the Marengo (Iowa) High School. At the age of sixteen, he accepted a position with the First National Bank of Marengo. remaining with the institution till 1890. In July. 1890, he came to Sedro, Washington, and opened a private banking house which was known as the Bingham & Holbrook bank. This partnership was dissolved in 1896, Mr. Bingham purchasing the Hol- brook interests, and since that date the establishment has been conducted under the firm name of C. E. Bingham & Co. It is one of the most successful and reliable banking institutions of this section of the state. Mr. Bingham's banking interests are not fully represented by the local house ; he is president and a heavy stockholder of the Arlington State Bank, of Arlington, Washington. Although his life has been devoted to the advancement of his per- sonal business interests, in which pursuit he has manifested a very high degree of business ability, vet he is widely known as a public spirited citizen, and has always been deeply interested in all that is best in American civil life, having a long and honorable record of service to his community and of devotion to the public welfare. He has been four times elected mayor of Sedro-Woolley. Since locat- ing in Sedro in 1890 he has served almost continu- ously as member of the city council and as mayor, first in Sedro and later in the united corporation of Sedro-Woolley, no movement for the betterment of public conditions ever having failed to enlist his liberal and hearty support.

In 1885, while a resident of Marengo, Iowa, Mr. Bingham was united in marriage to Miss Julia T. Reno, daughter of Louis Q. and Amelia ( Nicholas) Reno. Louis Reno, of French descent, was a mer- chant citizen of the Old Dominion state, who mi- grated to Iowa in the fifties and there followed mercantile pursuits until his death in 1883. Amelia

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Reno, now residing in Sedro-Woolley, is a native of New York. Mrs. Bingham was born February 15, 1864, in Marengo, Iowa, and, like her husband, finished her education in the Marengo High School. Following her graduation she taught school for a number of terms, giving up the work at the age of twenty to become the wife of Charles Bingham. Mr. and Mrs. Bingham have three sons, all born in Sedro: Quinby, in July, 1892; Charles S., in April. 1894, and Albert II., November 7, 1895. Mr. Bingham is a prominent Mason. He is influential in the councils of the Republican party ; was a Washington delegate to the National Republican Convention in Chicago in 1904. Besides his prop- erty holdings in Sedro-Woolley, he has large in- vestments in the farm lands of Skagit county, these evidencing his faith in the future of his home com- munity. Ile is recognized as a man of exceptional executive ability, whose untiring efforts have been largely responsible for the rapid growth and de- velopiment of the town and surrounding country. In all the walks of life and with all classes he is held in the highest esteem because of his spirit of devotion to the public weal and for his sterling qualities of mind and heart, both as friend and citi- zen.

U. E. FOSTER, postmaster of Sedro-Woolley and editor of the Skagit County Courier, has for a number of years been connected with the printing and publishing business, and since he established his present paper has made of it an unqualified success and is giving his constituents an able publication. Mr. Foster was born in Racine, Wisconsin, Febru- ary 26, 1866, the son of Isaac L. Foster, a native of Oswego, New York. The elder Foster early in life went to Wisconsin and engaged in farming. In the early days of the Civil War he enlisted in the Twenty-Second Wisconsin Volunteers, and he served through the entire war, much of the time under Rosecrans, participating in Sherman's march to the sea, suffering incarceration in Libby prison. and otherwise experiencing the hardships of war. After the close of hostilities he moved to Iowa and later to California, and he died at Long Beach, in the latter state. in 1902, at the age of seventy years. Mrs. Betsy M. (Titus) Foster was a native of Kokomo, Indiana, of English extraction.

The subject of this sketch is the only child of his parents and he remained with them on the farm and attending school until, at the age of seventeen years, he commenced to learn the printer's art at Spencer, Iowa, in the composing room of the Clay County News. After a year as printer at Parker, South Dakota, Mr. Foster tried railroading, but while at Sioux City once more turned his attention to printing. He went into the newspaper publish- ing business at Norfolk, Nebraska, first with the

Herald and then with the Norfolk Journal. Leav- ing there for Plainview, Nebraska, he passed seven years as editor and publisher of the News. In 1901 he sold out and came to Everett, and later to Sedro- Woolley, establishing the Skagit County Courier at the latter point in the month of May, in com- pany with W. H. Totten. Mr. Foster has always taken an interest in matters political and while liv- ing in Nebraska served during one session of the legislature as journal clerk. In April, 1904, he was appointed postmaster of Sedro-Woolley, the duties of which office he still continues faithfully and effi- ciently to discharge.

In 1886, at Spencer, Iowa, Mr. Foster married Miss Ida Crozier, a native of that state, born No- vember 22, 1866. Her father, Samuel Crozier, was in early years captain of a Hudson river steamboat, and later was in the transportation business on Lakes Erie and Ontario. He is now living at Spen- cer, Iowa, in retirement. Mrs. Foster is the young- er of two daughters. In fraternal circles Mr. Fos- ter is a member of the Knights of Pythias, of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Concate- nated Order of Hoo Hoo, and the Dramatic Order of Knights of Khorassan. He has the honor of having established the first Republican paper in the Sedro-Woolley section of Skagit county, and de- veloped it into a journal of influence and large cir- culation, successful alike in its editorial and job printing departments.

HOWARD SEABURY. An ardent love for that profession which has to do with that which has its seat in the bosom of God and whose voice is the law of the universe was developed very early in life in the breast of the rising young man whose career is the theme of this article, and his life story is largely made up of chapters dealing with his strug- gles under difficulties to obtain a deep and compre- hensive grasp, of the principles of jurisprudence. Success in good measure has attended his efforts, and it is but reasonable to assume that the achieve- ments of the past, though really noteworthy, are but trifling compared with those that are yet to be.

Mr. Seabury is a native of Dennison, Iowa, born September 4, 1844, the son of I. C. and Eliza (Wakeham) Seabury, natives respectively of New York state and Southampton, England. His father, who was born near Albany, March 20, 1838. is now residing in the vicinity of Sedro-Woolley. He takes not a little pride in the fact that he belongs to one of the most ancient families on the American con- tinent, his lineage being traceable through his motli- er's people, the Brewsters, to the Pilgrims who came from Europe in the Mayflower. Our subject's moth- er, the date of whose birth is August 3, 1848, came to the new world with her parents in 1855.

When four years old lloward Seabury, of this

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article, was taken by his parents to Nebraska, and in Crawford valley, Antelope county, that state, he obtained his preliminary educational training. Be- fore reaching his majority he had qualified himself for school teaching, a line that he followed for sev- cral years. But his ambitions took a different trend. When twelve years old he had, from the Youth's Companion, as a premium for taking subscriptions, secured a copy of "Law Without Lawyers." The perusal of this book stimulated in him a desire for the further study and practice of law, so all through his years of teaching he had devoted his spare time to the reading of legal works. In 1892 he came to San Francisco where for a time he was employed as claim agent for a fire insurance company, and during his stay in that city he worked industriously in spare moments at his law books, keeping pace with the students of the Hastings Law School, four of whom were accustomed to meet him and another young man regularly in the office of J. N. Young for mutual assistance in the common study. Later Mr. Seabury was placed in charge of the fire in- surance company's interests in Missouri, but for some reason the climate of that state disagreed with his health, and in 1898 he returned to his home in the middle West. For the next year he was a part- ner of M. H. Leamy, a lawyer of Plainview, Ne- braska, but npon being admitted to the bar in June, 1900, he severed his connection with Mr. Leamy and began practice on his own sole account. May 3, 1901, he opened a law office in Sedro-Woolley, where he has ever since practiced. He took in as a partner C. P. Gable, and the two practiced to- gether until May 26, 1905, when, on account of ill health, Mr. Gable was obliged to retire. In the five years of his residence in Sedro-Woolley. Mr. Sea- bury has achieved an enviable success in his profes- sion, building up a very good business. one that takes him into all the courts of the state. For the past four years he has been city attorney of his home town and he is also an active worker in its commer- cial club. His present standing in his profession has not been thrust upon him by Fortune, but has come as a legitimate result of hard, unceasing work ; and this genius for prolonged effort, together with good, native talent for the law, is still his to rely upon for the accomplishment of yet greater things in time to come.

In November, 1901, Mr. Seabury married Miss Margaret Morrow, a native of Iowa and a daugh- ter of T. J. Morrow, who recently located in Sedro- Woolley. Mrs. Seabury is a graduate of Norfolk High School, Nebraska, and for several years pre- vious to her marriage was in the teaching profes- sion. She takes an active interest in the work of the Sedro-Woolley Congregational church. Mr. and Mrs. Seabury have one child, Esther, born Decem- ber 18, 1902. In politics Mr. Seabury is a Repub- lican, but of somewhat liberal views; in fraternal

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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 124

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