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 141

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 141
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 141

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forts to fill posts of trust in private life. He was. however, postmaster of Edison from 1889 to 1893, under appointment by Harrison. Unselfish devo- tion to the interests of county, state and nation is one of the marked characteristics of this all-round man, who holds the unbounded confidence of all who have had the privilege of association with him. His genial, social disposition, combined with strict integrity and high ideals, has given him an honored position in the community.

DANIEL SULLIVAN. Prominent among the agriculturists who have amassed great wealth in the fertile lands of the Northwest, stands the one whose name initiates this article, a well-known resident of Edison, Washington. He was born in New Bruns-, wick. December 20, 1841, the son of Daniel and Mary Sullivan, both natives of Ireland. Having completed his education in the schools of his native province at the age of sixteen, Daniel Sullivan be- gan working in logging camps, following that for the ensuing eleven years. In 1869 he removed to California, and he was employed in the lumber business in the Golden state for more than two years, but in January, 1812, he located in Washing- ton, taking a pre-emption on Samish flats and be- coming one of the earliest pioneers of that sec- tion. He raised his first grain in 1816. Two years previous, in 1844, he filed on a tract two miles east of his original claim, under the homestead act. Sixty acres of the homestead were in marsh lands; the rest covered with brush and trees. He now has seven hundred acres on Samish flats, all in a splen- clid state of cultivation: one hundred and sixty acres on Olympia marsh, in cultivation ; one hun- dred and twenty acres of farm land and three hun- dred and forty acres of timber, on Jarman prairie, and another timber tract comprising three hundred and twenty acres.

Mr. Sullivan was married in Seattle in 188? to Ellen Daily, a native of New Brunswick, born February 22, 1852. Her parents, Timothy and Mary ( Made) Daily, were born and married in Ire- land, but were among the early settlers in New Brunswick. Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan are parents of the following children, all natives of Skagit county, namely: Mary M. E., born July 21, 1883, now at home : Nellie F. M., February 28, 1885, the wife of I. Fredricks, of Clear Lake; Katie J., January 28. 1881; Amelia V. L., died June 21, 1905; Mag- gie M. L., May 26, 1890; John A., January 26, 1895, died July 10, 1895. Mr. Sullivan is a promi- nent member of the Catholic church. In political matters he is a firm believer in Democratic prin- ciples, but has never desired for himself any politi- cal prominence. His splendid business abilities are apparent in the wise and careful way in which he manages his vast holdings, comprising nearly nine- teen hundred acres in Skagit county, one thousand

THOMAS CAIN

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR. LENOX

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR. IFVAI TILDEN TI TIONS

EDWARD W. McTAGGART

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BIOGRAPHICAL

of which are in cultivation. Although occupied with the multiplicity of details incident to the ownership of such an estate, he yet finds time to watch care- fully over the welfare of county and state and freely gives of his time and wealth to the advancement of any enterprise which will redound to the public good. It is not possible to estimate the advantages that accrue to the community and the common- wealth because of the activities of such men as Daniel Sullivan. Like so many American citizens who have sprung from Celtic ancestry, he possesses in a marked degree the power of organization, of systematizing his efforts for the accomplishing a given purpose. During the thirty-four years of his residence in Skagit county he has perhaps accom- plished more in the development of its agricultural resources than any other one individual, and these results have followed the formation of definite plans and the painstaking execution thereof. The development of the homestead of 1814 into the vast estate of 1905 is an attainment that evinces indomi- table courage, keen foresight and superior executive ability. Of the pioneers of the early seventies in Skagit county, no one is more worthy of the pro- found respect and admiration of his fellow-citizens ; no one is better entitled to prommence in the pages of the county's history, than is Daniel Sullivan of Edison.

NICHOLS SHUMAKER, a prosperous farmer residing near Bow, one-half mile southwest of Edi- son, was born October :, 1851, in Germany, the native land of his parents, Henry and Catharine (Sonntaeg) Shumaker. His father, born in 180%. was a shoemaker: he died in Germany in 1901, where the mother's death also occurred. Having acquired his education in the common schools of Germany, Nichols Shumaker was apprenticed at the age of sixteen to learn his father's trade, which he followed a number of years. A longing to try his fortune in the United States, whither so many of his countrymen had journeyed, at length seized him and 'in 1822 he sailed for the new world. He located in Chicago, found employment in a soap factory owned by James Kirk, and remained there two years. Afterwards he farmed nearly a year and a half in lowa, returning then to Illinois. In 1878 he came to La Conner, and he worked for J. S. Conner until the summer of 1880, when he filed on a homestead on Samish flats. becoming one of the first men to dike land in that vicinity. He worked two years before he had the land in condi- tion to raise crops. This place is still his home.

Mr. Shumaker was married in Whatcom, March 8. 1885, to Catharine Denis, born in Minnesota, Oc- tober 19, 1864. Her father, Claude Denis, was born in France in 1833 and emigrated to Minnesota in 1863. Ten years later he took up his residence in Whatcom, finding employment in the coal mines

there, but after three years' experience as a collier he moved to La Conner and rented a farm from J. S. Conner for one year. He then leased a place of the Puget Sound Mill Company, upon which he lived three years. In 1881 he returned to What- com, where he later proved up on a homestead. In 1886 he came to the Samish flats and bought one hundred and ten acres of land, upon which he re- sided till his death, January 25, 1893. Elizabeth ( Bessner) Denis, mother of Mrs. Shumaker, was born and married in Germany, but died in Wash- ington in 1898, her demise occurring at Edison. Mr. and Mrs. Shumaker have the following chil- dren, all born in Edison : Alice, December 26, 1886: Louisa, October 13, 1888; Bertha, Decem- ber 10, 1890; William, February 13, 1894. Mr. Shumaker and his family are members of the Catho- lic church and he is a well-known Republican. Ile has been deeply interested in educational matters, and has cheerfully given his time and influence to advancing them, having served as school director for the past eleven years, and being now chairman of the high school board. He owns one hundred and twenty acres, all in a fine state of cultivation ; keeps a large number of thoroughbred cattle, and is surrounded on every hand by evidence of the pros- perity that his years of arduous toil so richly merit. He is recognized as one of the substantial, public- spirited citizens of the town and enjoys the confi- dence and respect of all who come in contact with him.

EDWARD McTAGGART, Probably no man in Skagit county has been more actively connected with the development of the community which claimed him as a citizen than has the gentleman whose name initiates this article, with that of Edi- son and the Samish country, to which he came in 1870. At the time of his advent into that section the Samish flats were a wilderness, with but one or two settlers for miles around, no roads nor trails, and the dugout and canoe the only means of in- gress and egress. The land was boggy and subject to overflow and covered with almost impenetrable forests of mammoth trees and underbrush. Here he took up land and begun the fight against wilder- ness and flood ; and with that broad grasp of pos- sibilities which is peculiarly characteristic of the man, and that progressive public-spiritedness which has ever marked his course in life. he soon begun casting about to see what could be accomplished in the way of development and progress. He it was who deeded the land for the first store to Captain A. J. Edwards, as an inducement to him to bring in a stock of goods, in 1882, and one year later he was instrumental in getting William Gilmore to come to Edison and buy the Edwards stock; and it was at his place the meeting was held by the set- tlers on March 26, 1826, for the securing of a post-

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office and he was selected to fill the position of postmaster. The name Edison, adopted as the name of the postoffice, was of his suggesting, and he appointed Swen Johnson as mail carrier in June, being personally responsible for his conduct until official action could be taken by the postoffice de- partment. He went before the county commission- ers in the early eighties and urged upon them the dire needs of his community for a bridge across the south branch of the Samish river, pledging to raise half of the expense of building the bridge among the settlers, and standing personally respon- sible for the sum. 1le had been instrumental in having a bridge built across the north branch of the Samish by the settlers prior to this, and had taken the lead in digging a ditch along the south side of the main Samish river and constructing an elevated footpath in the shape of a dirt dike thrown up for a half mile or so, with two small bridges across the salt water sloughs which it intersected, thus afford- ing a means of connection between that community and Samish island, where the Seattle steamers landed. Between the years 1870-78 Mr. McTag- gart practiced in the United States land office at Olympia, during which time he secured to the set- tlers of the Samish and other parts of Skagit county their title to lands. Since 1819 he has held the posi- tion of state lumber inspector for the district in which he has resided, having received his appoint- ment first from Governor Elisha P. Ferry, for dis- trict No. 9, composed of Whatcom county, and on the construction of district No. 1, by the legisla- ture in 1881, which comprised the counties of Island, Whatcom, Skagit and Snohomish, Governor Newell appointed him as inspector of that enlarged territory. Since that time he has successively been appointed to the same position by Governors Squire, Semple, Acting Governor Laughton and Governor McGraw. He is now living the life of a retired gentleman, in the city of Bellingham, respected and honored by all, and loved and esteemed as a friend and brother by the old-time citizens of Edison and community, where he is still interested largely, and to which he makes regular visits to look after his interests and talk over old times with his former neighbors.

Mr. McTaggart comes of good old Scotch stock and himself is a native of Argyllshire, born in 1833. At the age of six years lie was brought to the United States by his parents, Edward and Mary (McGeachy) McTaggart, who settled in Virginia in 1839, and engaged in farming. Here young Mc- Taggart was reared and educated. dividing his time between the farm and school until twenty-six years of age, when he turned his face toward the Pacific coast, traveling to San Francisco via the Isthmus of Panama. He turned his attention to mining, and for five years wooed fortune in the gold fields of California, then he returned to his former home and entered the mercantile business with his

brother Archibald. Four years of this business suf- ficed, then he again sought the genial clime of the Pacific coast country, purchasing a farm near Los Angeles, where he continued to live one year. Then after a visit home he came on up the coast to Olym- pia, then to Seattle, and in October of 1870 he first landed on the Samish flats, in what was then What- com1 county.

In 1848 Mr. McTaggart and Miss Mary L. Judson, daughter of Holden A. Judson, of Lynden, Whatcom county, were united in marriage. Mrs. McTaggart's father was a native of Ohio, as was also the mother, Mrs. Phoebe N. (Goodell ) Judson. Iler parents crossed the plains in a very early day and settled at Olympia, where the husband engaged in farming and later in the mercantile business. Still later he came to Whatcom county, and in 1877 he laid out the town of Lynden, of which he was the pioneer merchant. He passed away in 1890. Mrs. Judson shared with her hus- band all of his pioneer experiences, gaining the dis- tinction of being the first white woman to settle north of the town of Bellingham. She still lives at Lynden. Mrs. McTaggart was born in Olympia in 1861 and received her education in the capitol city. She taught school in Whatcom county for a time prior to her marriage. She departed this life in 1894, leaving two children, Edward L. and May E., born in Edison, the latter of whom died in Feb- ruary, 1905.

Politically Mr. McTaggart is a staunch Repub- lican. In 1873 he served his district as a member of the board of county commissioners, of which he was the chairman. He served as member of the school board at Edison and furnished the lumber and personally assisted in the erection of the first school-house in district No. 7, after having secured a grant of land from the government for the site. Broad-minded, energetic and liberal to a fault, Mr. McTaggart has left his impress on the Edison com- munity in such a manner that it will never be ef- faced, and has made a place for himself in the hearts of the people by his many acts of unselfish- ness that will last indefinitely.

NATHANIEL MCCULLOUGH, whose farm is about two miles southwest of Edison, is one of the prosperous and well-to-do agriculturists of Ska- git county, owning a farm of three hundred and twenty acres, all of which is under cultivation and admirably adapted for raising oats. Mr. McCul- lough is a native of the north of Ireland, born March 21, 1852, the seventh of the eight children of Nathaniel and Jane (Beck) Mccullough, both of whom passed their entire lives as farmers of the Emerald isle. The elder Mccullough died when his son was but a lad and the latter remained on the farm with his mother until he was nineteen years of age, receiving a common school education.

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He then emigrated, and, in the fall of 1871, settled in Lucas County, Iowa, as a farmer, and continued there until 1890. In 1883 he made a trip to Skagit County, Washington, and his permanent settling here is the result of that visit seven years before. Mr. Mccullough bought his present place on the Samish flats and later added one hundred and sixty acres more, secured by purchase, to his original tract.

In 1826. in Lucas County, Iowa, Mr. McCul- lough married Miss Amy Young, daughter of Will- iam and Sarah (Graham) Young, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania, but settled in Lucas County, Iowa, in the pioneer days of 1856. They have both died within a comparatively few years. Mrs. McCullough was born in the Keystone state in 1854, and received her education in Iowa, marry- ing when twenty-two years of age. To this union have been born three children: James, in 1877: Charles, November 20, 1879, and Ivy. May 20. 1884. The family attends the Presbyterian church, and in politics Mr. Mccullough is a Republican. The principal crop raised on the Mccullough farm is oats, the land being of excellent quality for that crop. He also raises considerable live stock, keep- ing at present fifty head of cattle and fifteen horses. Mr. Mccullough is not only prosperous as a farmer and business man, but stands high in the esteem of his fellow-citizens. Though he is a newcomer, as compared with some of the earliest settlers of Ska- git county, he has gained for himself a reputation for energy and thrift, has proved himself a man of integrity and fair dealing, and has enrolled him- self with the substantial men of the community whose influence weighs for higher standards, good citizenship, right government and material prog- ress. .

MELBOURN WATKINSON is one of the old- time men of Skagit county and has done his share toward developing the resources of the country. His life, like that of his father, has been the life of the pioneer farmer and timber man. Mr. Watkin- son was born in Linn County, Oregon, May 3, 1857. the son of Robert Watkinson, a native of Manches- ter. England, who came to the United States and was a school teacher in New Orleans, in Ohio and in Indiana. In 1852 he crossed the plains by ox team and settled in Linn County, Oregon, taking up a homestead and teaching school. He also spent two years in California, but returned to his Oregon home, and in 1869 came to Washington and settled on Hood's canal in Mason county. Two years he passed as a merchant, and then took up a pre-emp- tion and lived on it for ten years. He visited for one year in his old haunts in Canada and died in Skagit county in 1902. Mrs. Rebecca (Beeler ) Watkinson, now living in Skagit county, was born in Missouri, but crossed the plains with her father

in 1852 and was married in Oregon, becoming the mother of ten children, of whom Melbourn is the oldest. Melbourn Watkinson received his educa- tion in the schools of Oregon and Washington, and at the age of sixteen commenced to do for himself, working with Chris Johnson for four years in a logging camp. He afterwards engaged in logging in his own interests and then cruised timber for a year from Hood's canal to Quiniault, on the Pacific coast, traversing the Olympic range of mountains. In 1880 he came to Skagit county and for a year worked for Joe Miller in a logging camp. Then, in company with his brother-in-law and six other men, he formed a plan to take up land and follow log- ging. This arrangement was successful and con- tinued for two years, at the end of which time he bought his present home place of one hundred and forty-two acres, a little over two miles south of Edi- son. It was then in its raw state, butt Mr. Watkin- son has diked and cleared the entire tract and erected a fine eight-room house and large barn.

In 1882 Mr. Watkinson married Miss Ada G. Gilkey, daughter of Franklin and Eliza (Bowen) Gilkey, natives of Pennsylvania, later farmers in Kansas, and Washingtonians since 1875. Mr. Gilkey, who was born in 1840, is living in Snohomish county, but Mrs. Gilkey died here in1 1898. Mrs. Watkinson was also a native of the Keystone state, born in 1865, but edu- cated in the schools of Kansas and Washington. To Mr. and Mrs. Watkinson have been born ten children: Melville E., living at home; Cora M., who died in 1904; Arthur P., Nellie F., Ida, Alice. Nora, Myrtle, Blanch and Frankie. In politics Mr. Watkinson is a Democrat. He is farming but sixty acres now ; the place is well stocked with horses and cattle. He is recognized as one of Skagit's citizens of sterling worth and integrity and is a man respected by all.

CLEMENT CULVER, one of the successful farmers of the Edison section of Skagit county, re- siding two miles and a half south of town, was born in Michigan in 1851, the second of the eleven children of Lyman and Mary ( Closson) Culver. The elder Culver, who was a native of Ohio, was for years a farmer in Michigan and Iowa, but came to Washington in 1885 and has since died here. Mrs. Culver was also a native of the Buckeye state. Our subject received his education in Iowa, whither he was taken when a child by his parents. In 1867 the family went to Kansas. When young Culver was twenty-one years of age he joined a surveying party in Oklahoma, but later he engaged in farming in Neosha County, Kansas, where he resided con- tinuously until 1825. In that year he went to the mines of Cherokee County, Kansas, and he stayed there two years, then going to farming near Chau- tauqua, in the same state. In 1888 he came to

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Washington. The first summer of his residence here he ran a threshing machine for Mr. Dawson on the Samish flats, then he rented the Ed Ames place and farmed it two years. For the ensuing four years he was lessee of the Mccullough place, and subsequently he moved onto the Conner farm, which he operated for six years. During his ten- ancy of this place he purchased sixty-eight acres of it. After the termination of his lease he added forty acres more to his holdings, and upon the splendid farm thus secured he has ever since lived, successfully and profitably cultivating the whole.

In Neosha, Kansas, in 1874, Mr. Culver mar- ried Honor Eller, daughter of Henry Eller, a native of Indiana, who became a pioneer farmer of Kan- sas, later, however, moving to Colorado, where he now resides. Mrs. Culver was born in the Hoosier state in 1856, but attended school in Kansas. Four children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Culver, of whom the living are Delbert E., now in Oregon ; Alfred and Leo. In fraternal circles Mr. Culver is a prominent Odd Fellow. He is a past grand in the order and was a member of the grand lodge that met in Spokane in 1894 and Seattle in 1900. In politics he is a Republican. Though like most of the farmers in his part of Skagit county, he gives inost of his attention to cereal production, he does not neglect live stock, but keeps eighteen head of cattle and a number of horses. He is a prosperous farmer and a man in whom people repose confi- dence because of his integrity and worth. The success that has attended his efforts under the many difficulties that have beset his paths during the seventeen years of residence in Skagit county, is abundant evidence of the possession of those sterling qualities of character so characteristic of the sub- stantial citizens of any community. He is justly entitled to enrollment with the progressive men of Skagit county.

PETER DENIS, one of the prosperous farm- ers of the Edison part of Skagit county, in which he has lived continuously since boyhood, was born in France. June 17, 1860, the son of Claude and Eliza- beth ( Bessner) Denis. The father, a veteran of the Crimean War, came to the United States in 1863 and settled on a farm in Minnesota. Nine years later he came to Washington, located in Walla Walla and opened a harness shop there. which he ran for a twelvemonth. Coming then to Whatcom, he spent four years in the coal mines near that city. His next occupation was farming near La Conner, but eventually he returned to Whatcom and took a homestead in the vicinity, on which he spent a half decade. At a later date he became once more a resident of Skagit county, but he was again in Whatcom when death claimed him. January 25, 1893. Mrs. Elizabeth Denis, the mother of our subject, was a native of Luxemburg. Germany.

The school opportunities enjoyed by Peter Denis were curtailed by the removal of his father when he was a lad of thirteen to Whatcom. The next year he entered the Seahome mines and for two years thereafter he enjoyed the distinction of being the youngest operative employed in them. When his father rented the J. S. Conner farm he moved with him onto it. deserting the mines. After becoming of age he took a pre-emption, but for the next half decade he devoted most of his time to laboring for others in the vicinities of La Conner and Whatcom. Eventually he came to the Samish flats, where he worked for awhile for his father, finally, in 1889, renting his farm from him. This he operated for three years, thereupon leasing the Gilmore place, upon which he has ever since resided, though he has one hundred and sixty acres of land of his own, which he purchased originally from the state, it having been school land.

In 1890 Mr. Denis married Miss Mary Thein, daughter of Peter Thein, a native of Luxemburg, who came to the United States in the early fifties and settled in Minnesota. He was a blacksmith by trade. Mrs. Cathron (Felton) Thein, the mother, was also a native of Luxemburg. Mrs. Denis was born in Minnesota November 17, 1871. and received her education in that state. Mr. and Mrs. Denis have four children: Thomas P., born November 2:, 1890 : Eugene C., July 5, 1894 ; Marie. December 8, 1896, and Leona, May 3. 1903, all in Skagit county. The members of the family are adherents of the Catholic faith and in politics Mr. Denis is a Democrat. He has served as dike com- missioner and road supervisor. He now owns one hundred and sixty acres of land, half of which is cultivated, and has twenty-five head of cattle, as well as draught and road horses. Mr. Denis is an open-hearted gentleman, successful in business, rich in the esteem of his neighbors and ever contribut- ing his full share to the developing of the re- sources of Skagit county.

JOHN W. MARTIN, whose farm is about three miles southwest of Edison, devotes much of his attention to the industry of raising oats, and in this line of activity has achieved a high degree of success. He is a native of Tennessee, born in Blount county, April 4, 1856, the eleventh of twelve children of Moses and Celia (Carr) Martin. The elder Martin was a native of North Carolina, but moved to Tennessee when a lad and spent the re- mainder of his years there. Mrs. Martin was a native of Tennessee. John W. Martin received his early education in his native state, in the common schools and the college at Marysville, but when nineteen he left home for Illinois to work at farm- ing. He, however, afterward put in several win- ters in school, supplementing his formerly acquired scholarship. After a few years in Illinois he re-

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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 141

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