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 125

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 125
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 125

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affiliations lie is an Odd Fellow, a Royal Highlander, and a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and the Uniformed Rank of the Knights of Pythias.

PHILIP A. WOOLLEY, founder of the town of Woolley and contractor of large experience in varied lines, has been one of the leading forces in Skagit county and was the first to put ax to a tree on the site of the town which bears his name. He has made his home in Washington since 1889, but his operations have been widely extensive and not confined to his home county or state. Mr. Woolley was born at Malone, in the St. Lawrence valley of New York, on the 11th of February, 1831. He is descended on the paternal side from English an- cestry and on the maternal side from the German and French, but in each case his forebears had for generations been residents of the United States, many of them occupying honored and useful posi- tions in life. The Woolleys were represented in the Revolutionary War, espousing the cause of the col- onies and independence. Mr. Woolley's father, Dr. Emerson Woolley, was for many years a practicing physician and representative citizen of Ogdensburg, the chief city of northern New York and a promi- nent shipping point on the St. Lawrence waterway from the Great Lakes to the Gulf. Mrs. Magdaline (Ulman) Woolley was a native of Morrisburg, across the St. Lawrence in the province of Ontario. The elder Woolley died in 1880 and his wife two years later. Their two daughters, sisters of the subject of this biography. Miss Margaret Woolley and Mrs. Alice Chrisler, are residents of Sionx Falls, South Dakota. Philip H. Woolley attended the schools of the Empire state until he was eight- een, when he commenced life on his own recogni- zance. His first undertaking was a lumber contract, but shortly after the completion of this work he en- tered the mercantile business at Russell, Canada, where he continued for a number of years. While in Russell, Mr. Woolley commenced to engage in contracting work, so that in 1864 he was prepared to accept a contract for railroad work at Escanaba, Michigan, in the construction of the road between that point and Green Bay, Wisconsin. Three years were consumed in completing this work and then Mr. Woolley went to Grand Haven, Michigan, where he had a government contract which occu- pied his attention and energy for ten years. Dur- ing this period he also carried on railroad work. For the next subsequent thirteen years Mr. Woolley made his headquarters at Elgin. Illinois, from which place he directed a great amount of contract work for the Chicago & Alton railway. It was in 1889 that Mr. Woolley came to Washington and Skagit county. Here he purchased a large tract of land and so great was his foresight and his faith in the future development of the country that amid trees

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BIOGRAPHICAL

which had never known the ax he laid out the site of the town which was to bear his name, himself felling the first tree on the town site. For a time Mr. Woolley engaged somewhat in mining and one of his enterprises was the construction of a large lumber and shingle mill, which he afterward sold. He has made Woolley his headquarters ever since, continuing an extensive contracting business with operations in various parts of the country. In 1901 Mr. Woolley secured the contract for furnishing all the materials for the Sea Board Air Line, which contract will not terminate until 1908.

In January of 1857, while a resident of Russell, Canada. Mr. Woolley married Miss Catherine Loucks, daughter of Hon. W. G. Loucks, a mer- chant of Ottawa, the capital of the dominion. Mr. Loucks was descended from immigrants from Lux- emburg, Germany, who on settling in Canada be- came adherents to the loyalist cause. In his later years he was in the civil service department of the Canadian government. He passed away in March, 1900, a prominent and highly respected citizen of the community in which he had passed his life. Mr. and Mrs. Woolley have two sons and two daughters. The sons, William and Philip, are associated with their father in his contracting enterprises in Georgia. Florida and other Southern states. One of the daughters, Zaida, is the wife of Horace Pin- hey, a government official of Ottawa; the other, Kate, is the wife of Dr. C. C. Harbaugh, a promi- nent physician of Woolley. In fraternal circles Mr. Woolley is a member of the Masonic order and also of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. In re- ligious affiliations he has been a lifelong Presbyte- rian. In politics he is a Republican and has always taken a commendable interest in political matters, though in no sense is he an active politician. His time and attention are too deeply engrossed in the management of his business to permit him being ac- tive in the usually accepted sense of politics. The political work for the family is done by Philip Woolley, who has several times served as secretary of the Republican county central committee. In- dustry, enterprise and public spirit have character- ized Mr. Woolley's life here in the Pacific North- west, as they also marked his career in other parts of the country. He served as mayor of his home town two terms of two years cach.

CALVIN L. FARRAR, son of Rev. Robert Buchanan Farrar and Martha E. ( Thompson) Far- rar, was born in Washington County, Pennsylvania, on April 23. 1825. ITis parents came west in 1881, the family stopping in lowa while the father was sent to the Pacific coast as a Sunday school mis sionary of the Presbyterian church. He spent con- siderable time in Portland, going up the Columbia and staging across to Spokane and Walla Walla.

afterwards visiting Seattle, which was then, in his own words, "a thriving village," and coming north across Skagit county to Whatcom (Bellingham). Afterwards he returned east and settled in Dakota. There, in the country of cattle and wheat, the sub- ject of this sketch lived most of the time until 1898 (except a few winters spent in school at Parsons College, Fairfield, Iowa), when he came to Skagit county, settling at Mt. Vernon. In the fall of the same year he went to Ballard and obtained a posi- tion as tallyman in Stimson's mill, which he held for some time, finally having that to engage in car- penter work in Seattle.

In 1900 he purchased the Robert Kerr ranch at Marblemount, where he lived for about five years. He served as deputy county assessor for the upper Skagit district for the seasons of 1901, 1902 and 1905, giving general satisfaction to the county offi- cials and to the taxpayers. He has spent a great deal of time in the mountains prospecting and is now interested in some very promising mining claims. He was appointed a United States forest ranger and served during the season of 1903 in the Ruby Creek district of the Washington Forest Re- serve. The next year, as his farming interests had increased, he resigned this position and remained on the farm, but as he sold the farm the next win- ter he afterwards took the civil service examination and was again appointed forest ranger, and in the past season (1905) was on special duty in the new additions to the reserve.

Mr. Farrar's father died in 1888, while pastor of the Beaver Creek Presbyterian church, Rock county, Minnesota, leaving a widow, who now lives at Ballard, and eight children, whose names and residences are as follows : Frank A., Ballard, prin- cipal of the East Side school, formerly of Mt. Ver- non, where he was for many years editor of the Skagit Valley Herald and was well known through- out the county ; Nellie F. Kinnear, Spokane ; Myrta .A., Ballard ; Robert W., Washington, D. C. ; Luella M. Ilaroldson, Brookings, South Dakota ; Calvin L., Sedro-Woolley; Mary P., Ballard; Grace H., Bal- Iard.

The Farrar family are direct descendants of James Farrar, born in England in 1232, who came over to America when a boy and settled in New Jersey. Several of the colonial Farrars served in the French and Indian War and Andrew Farrar, grandfather of our subject, when but fourteen years old, went into the Revolutionary army as a team- ster, while all his other brothers served as soldiers, two of them dying on the infamous prison ship. Jersey. Mr. Farrar's father was in the theological seminary at the time of our Civil War, and, although he was never an able bodied man, vet he volun- teered as a nurse and served at the battle of Shiloh and in the campaign of "The Wilderness" and at several other times.

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SKAGIT COUNTY

In fraternal circles Mr. Farrar is a member of Patrons of Husbandry, Ridgway Grange 147, and the Modern Woodmen of America. In politics he is a Republican, but always votes for an honest man when one is put up against a rogue. He will always oppose any man or any policy that he thinks will become an obstacle to the progress of the neighi- borhood and for that reason has often been called "The Marblemount Agitator."

HIRAM HAMMER, one of the leading citizens of Sedro-Woolley and a prominent educator of Ska- git county, has been called upon to perform many public duties, which in every instance he has done with great credit to himselt. He was born in Black- ford County, Indiana, July 11, 1849, the son of Peter Hanmmer, who was a native of Ohio. He was a mechanic in that state, but later became a mer- chant in Indiana, where he passed away in 1862, a victim of smallpox. The mother, in maiden life Miss Mary Chandler, was of a pioneer Ohio family. her father being an English born Quaker. She died in Indiana when Hiram was eleven years old. leav- ing six children. Hiram Hammer obtained his early education in the common schools of Indiana, gradu- ating from a high school and later attending the state normal at Bloomington, Illinois, but his studies were interrupted by the demand of the government for more troops. He felt the need of his country and when only fourteen years old, enlisted in Com- pany I, One Hundred Thirty-eighth Indiana In- fantry. This was in 1864, and he served till the close of the great struggle, being finally mustered out in Indianapolis. In spite of this serious inter- ference, he stuck to his determination to obtain a thorough education. and during the following years he was engaged alternately in teaching and going to school. For twelve years he was an instructor in Indiana, Illinois and Kansas, to the last mentioned of which states he went in 18:1. There, in 1879. he was elected county clerk of Lincoln county, a position which he filled for six years. He also was two years register of deeds and in 1890 had the responsible task of gathering mortgage data for twe've Kansas counties, for the United States cen- sus. Upon finishing this work he came west and for four years after his arrival he taught school in different places in Skagit county. He was chosen county auditor in 1894, and served for the ensuing four years, then for half a decade lie was connected with the Green Shingle Company, but he taught again in the school year of 1903-4. He was elected city clerk, police judge and justice of the peace of Sedro-Woolley in 1904.

In Salina, Kansas, in 1812, Mr. Hammer mar- ried Miss Catherine Doumyer, daughter of Jacob Doumyer, a native of Pennsylvania of Dutch de- scent, who became a wheat and corn raiser of Kan-

sas. The mother, who in maiden life was Miss Sarah Baumgartner, was also of Pennsylvania Dutch origin. Mrs. Hammer was born in the Key- stone state in 185; and received her education there and in Kansas, at one time being a pupil of her fu- ture husband. Of this union have been born three children : Harriet A., now wife of Hon. N. J. Mol- stad, representative in the last two sessions of the state legislature, and one of the prominent mer- chants of Mount Vernon ; Kathryn S., bookkeeper and stenographer at Sedro-Wooley, and Hiram J. In politics Mr. Hammer is a Republican and in fra- ternal affiliations a blue lodge Mason and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. He has accu- mulated considerable city property. Mr. IJammer is one of the best known and most highly respected citizens of Skagit county, a worthy representative of his high profession.

SAMUEL S. GAY, the popular boarding house man at Burn's mill. Sedro-Woolley, was born in King County, Prince Edward Island, Canada, Janu- ary 26, 1812. His parents, Andrew and Flora (Mc- Phail) Gay, still are living at his boyhood home. The father, who was born in England in 1831. has spent his entire life on the farm. The mother is a native of Nova Scotia, born in 1849. Like many another successful man, Samuel S. Gay started for himself at an early age. He left home at fourteen and served a three-year apprenticeship in a carpen- ter shon, then worked at his trade two years in North Dakota before coming to Washington in 1893. Times were hard and work in his line was scarce, so, with the energy and determination so chiarac- teristic of the man, he worked at whatever offered itself for the first year, then located at Cokedale, where he was employed at the coke furnaces three vears. Ile was employed by the Pacific Coast Steamship Company for a year and went to Skag- way, his capable wife assisting him by cooking for the company. Whi'e in this employment they saved what they could, laving the foundation for their fu- ture prosperity. Eventually returning to Cokedale, he had charge of a boarding house and store there until he sold the latter to the company. A year later he sold the boarding house also and purchased a ranch of forty acres two miles east of Woolley. which, after greatly improving it, he sold five months later at a good profit. He invested his earnings in real estate in Everett, where he still holds a lot and a two-story hotel on Rucker avenue, a half block from Hewitt street. Having rented this, he returned to Cokedale, where he was employed by the same coal company until the mines closed. He was with the New York Life Insurance Company for a year afterward, then entered the employ of Mr. Burn as manager of the boarding house at his mill. a posi- tion lie still retains.

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Mr. Gay married, while living at Cokedale, Miss Lena Johnson, the daughter of John and Mirandy (Anderson) Johnson. When Mrs. Gay was four- teen her mother died, and she came with her father to Skagit county, where he since has been a resi- dent. Mr. and Mrs. Gay have three children : Ran- dolph, born October 8, 1894; Florence, July 14, 1898, and Arthur C. J., February 20, 1901. The family attends the Methodist church of which both he and his wife are members. Mr. Gay is a Re- publican and has been a member of the Republican central committee and a road supervisor, discharg- ing the duties of these positions in a creditable man- ner. Hc is a public-spirited citizen whose influence can be relied upon to support anything for the good of his town and county. He adheres strictly to sound business principles and attends carefully to the comforts of his patrons, thus establishing an en- viable reputation for his house.

WILLIAM H. PERRY, the well known and able attorney-at-law, has had more varied and in- teresting experiences than have fallen to the lot of most residents of Sedro-Woolley. He was born in Jefferson County, New York, May 22, 1850, the son of llolbrook Perry of New York, a prominent Horace Greeley man who died in 1881 when sixty- one years old. The mother, Mary (Ross) Perry, was born in 1825, a descendant of the famous Gen- eral Ross of England. She died in August, 1862. The seventh child of a family of nine, William H. Perry began working for himself when ten years old, his first employment being on a farm hoeing corn. For several years he worked out summers, returning home winters to attend school, and later he worked for his board while he continued his education. By diligently improving every oppor- tunity, he acquired an excellent preparation for the profession he afterwards entered. After moving to Illinois he still worked and went to school until 1867, when he went to Minnesota as a trapper. He remembers that, while on his way to Fort Aber- crombie with a load of flour to exchange for furs, he was forced to spend one terribly cold night in his wagon because he had failed to reach the usual stopping place, and that his partner by making a grass fire, set the whole prairie afire, almost burning the fort. They were badly cheated in their trade and the few furs they did receive his partner shipped to Chicago, disappearing himself. Mr. Perry tock a c'aim near Osakis, Minnesota, but abandoned it later to go to Fort Wadsworth, South Dakota. There he lived among the same Indians who perpe- trated the horrible Minnesota massacre in 1860. He cit cord wood for a living at first, then drove oxen for a contractor who was furnishing supplies for the fort. One trip with the oxen he will never forget. The first night he slept in an Indian tepee

near Buffalo lake, where a war dance was in prog- ress. Two nights later he was caught in a blizzard, lost the trail, and was obliged to corral the cattle and sleep as best he could in a sled. In the morning he found his boots frozen so stiff it was impossible to put them on. The rest of the winter he cared for his cattle and traded with the Indians and in the spring took up a claim in Stevens county, Min- nesota, which he sold three years later. He had long cherished an ambition to enter the legal pro- fession, so now he began reading Blackstone and later entered the state university at Minneapolis. He applied himself too closely to his books and found after two years that his health was fail- ing, so went to Illinois for a rest, but resumed his study the following spring, completed his course and was admitted to the bar in 1883. He practiced law three years in Villard, Minnesota, then prac- ticed in Alexandria in the same state, then in Ham- ilton, Washington, and finally in 1895 opened an office in Sedro-Woolley, where he still lives. He has a brother, George W. Perry, who has resided in Seattle since, 1887, and a sister, Mrs. Harriett Martin, who lives in Kansas. Mr. Perry became a stanch Prohibitionist in 1886 and has since worked loyally for the interest of that party. Ile is a promi- nent worker in the Independent Order of Good Templars 'and a faithful member of the Methodist church. He showed his energy and ability as a so- licitor on one business trip by insuring every build- ing between Hamilton and Sauk. On one occasion hic insured a house in the afternoon and that night it burned to the ground. The next morning he ad- justed the loss, sending in a claim for loss with the application for insurance. Mr. Perry is an ener- getic man of irreproachable character who enjoys the confidence and esteem of his fellow citizens.

MENZO B. MATTICE, M. D., the pioneer physician of Sedro-Woolley, Washington, is a na- tive of Albany, New York, born April 2, 1855. He is the son of John J. and Emeline ( Canada) Mat- tice, natives and esteemed residents of the Empire state, who were born about the close of the first quarter of the nineteenth century. The elder Mat- tice was engaged in mercantile pursuits until the year 1861, when he enlisted in the Ninety-first New York Volunteers, for service in the Civil War. Al- though among the very first of New York's patriotic citizens to answer the call to arms, he was not des- tined to serve the full time for which he enlisted. Because of physical disability he received an honor- able discharge from the service in 1863 and returned to the North. He never recovered from the effects of disease contracted while in the discharge of his duties as a soldier and died in 1868.

Menzo B. Mattice is the third in a family of five children. The years of his boyhood and youth

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were spent in the state of his birth where he also received his education. After a course in the schools of his home city he was graduated from the acad- emy at Fort Plain in the central part of the state. In 1881 he received a certificate of graduation from the Albany Medical College and soon afterwards located in Brookings, South Dakota, where he began his career as a practicing physician. In 1883, at Brook- ings, he married Miss Fannie Plocker, daughter of James and Fannie ( Spaukling) Plocker, the father a native of England, of Ilolland-Dutch extraction ; the mother born in Augusta, Maine. James Plock- er was a graduate of the Amsterdam ( Holland) University ; was a man of exceptional literary at- tainments and achieved distinction in his day as a writer. He was a pioneer of Wisconsin and died in that state. Mrs. Plocker died at Brookings, South Dakota. Mrs. Mattice claims Wisconsin as the state of her nativity, the date of her birth being April 21, 1858. There, in the common schools and in the State Normal, she received her education. Following her graduation, at the age of seventeen, she became a teacher, in which profession she con- tinued for eight years, meeting with marked suc- cess ; at the age of twenty-five she abandoned her work in the schools and became the wife of Dr. Mat- tice.

After a residence of ten years in Brookings, South Dakota, Dr. Mattice came to Washington, lo- cating at Sedro, which afterwards was joined to the town of Woolley, the two communities uniting in the municipality of Sedro-Woolley. At the time of his coming, there was no physician beween Sedro and Snohomish, and the boundary of the territory over which his practice extended formed a circle whose radius was forty miles long. Here the Doctor has watched and participated in the growth and develop- ment of the town and the surrounding country, in the meanwhile contributing very materially to their general advancement. He has built up an exten- sive practice and an enviable professional and social reputation. In addition to caring for his general practice he has for many years served the Northern Pacific Railroad as Company Physician, and as a condition of the pioneering days we may mention the fact that he was allowed the use of the company's "speeder" in visiting patients living along the right of way. For a number of years he was company physician for the Cokedale Mining Company. Ever watchful of the interests of his home community he has given liberal support to all public enterprises, devoting his energies especially to the advancement of the schools. He has for twelve years been an active member of the school board. and is largely responsible for their high standing among the edu- cational institutions of the county. Both Dr. and Mrs. Mattice believe thoroughly in the advantages of practical education as is evidenced by the care they are taking with that of their five children, here

named. The eldest, Albert F., who was born in Brookings. South Dakota, December 26, 1884, was first graduated from the South Dakota State Col- lege, and has just received his diploma from the School of Pharmacy at the State College at Pull- man, Washington. Ile has also devoted consider- able time to the study of music. Clyde M., born in the Dakota home January 21, 1887, is now in the high school at Sedro-Woolley. Cornelia, also born in Dakota, her birthday being March 16, 1889, is at present a student in the Pullman College. Mil- dred and Menzo, Jr., born in Sedro, the former November 8, 1895 and the latter April 21, 1901, are at home.

Dr. Mattice's fraternal connections are with the Knights Templar, the Knights of Pythias, and the Odd Fellows ; he is also prominent in the Ska- git County Medical Society. The family attend the Presbyterian church in which the Doctor has been a trustee since its organization. In politics he affiliates with the Democratic party. He is a stock holder in the Citizens Bank of Anacortes and in the State Bank of Arlington ; is interested also in the oyster beds at Bay Centre. His varied prop- erty holdings and his professional success make him a leading and influential citizen in financial and professional circles, as well as in the political and other public councils of this section of the state. In church and social circles Dr. and Mrs. Mattice have many personal friends, and here, as well as in the more public walks of life, they are held in the highest esteem.

CHARLES VILLENEUVE is one of the men whose activities in Skagit county commenced in the days when settlers were few and communications difficult. He and Mrs. Villeneuve were the real pioneers of Conway, where they still have inter- ests, though living in Sedro-Woolley and operat- ing the St. Charles hotel in that city. Mr. Villen- cuve was born in Ottawa, Carlton county, in the eastern part of the province of Ontario, February 18, 1830. His father, Charles Villeneuve, was a native of Quebec where his ancestry had gone to engage in the fur trade. He took sides with the American revolutionists when the struggles of the colonists commenced with the mother country, and as one result of this, the Villeneuve estates were forfeited. Mrs. Ann (McKusick) Villeneuve was a native of Ireland. Charles, who was the only son of his parents, attended school until he was six- teen years of age, and his interests being in com- mon with those of his parents, he continued to re- side with them long after he had attained to man's estate, but in 1868, shortly after his marriage, he went to San Francisco, where he passed three years in a sash and door factory, his natural ability with tools supplying in a great measure what he had lacked in experience and training. He finally

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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 125

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