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 163

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 163
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 163

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commenced to lay out the town, clearing off the lands, building roads, etc. The Smith property was secured under an agreement that a paper mill should be built, and machinery for the mill, the barge works and the nail factory were all ordered and brought around the Horn in the Whaleback Wetmore. The buildings were all up ready for the machinery when she arrived in port. He then gave sites for several shingle and saw-mills and built a large mill of their own, the Pioneer, at a site more appropriate for a light house than a saw-mill, the idea being to begin building a bulkhead, which, it was expected, would eventually result in harbor improvements. A town of six thousand people immediately sprang into existence, with six banks, hotels, factories, schools, churches, etc. Sites for all the churches were donated by the company. Then came the panic of 1893 which almost wrecked the enterprise. As a natural result of the depression disputes arose among the members of the com- pany, who disagreed as to the best means of stem- ming the adverse financial tide. The eastern part- ners wanted to bond the town for $1,500,000 with which to proceed with the work, and did go so far as to print the bonds and have them signed by the vice-president, but Mr. Ilewitt would not agree to this ; his plan was to quit spending money and simply hold onto what they had until the hard times were over. The disputes eventuated in threats on the part of the eastern men of lawsuits, bank- ruptcy proceedings, etc., and even accusations against Mr. Hewitt of having used company funds for his own benefit. He had invested forty-eight thousand dollars of his own money in the enter- prise, together with all his salary, and he was still indebted to the company in the sum of $150,000, so they had a chance to do him serious damage, if they wished, by closing down on him. He was, however, fully equal to the occasion. Ultimately they called him to New York for a conference. Before responding to their invitation, he organized the Hewitt Land Company, deeded most of his land holdings to it, and gave stock in the corporation to his creditors, of whom he had many in Tacoma and elsewhere at this time: then he went to the conference. After a two weeks' stay in New York he returned west with all the charges against him withdrawn and armed with still greater powers of management than ever before. He had had a long conference with Rockefeller which resulted at length in the assumption on the part of that finan- cier and his associates of all Mr. Hewitt's out- standing obligations in exchange for his paper mill and factory stock. They also gave him, in this deal, some lands and mortgages and about four- teen thousand dollars in cash, stipulating that he should remain in charge of the work in Everett and should continue his two banks. He maintained

time and did what he could for the upholding and progress of the town, but since the return of pros- perity he has closed out many of his interests there, not on account of any lack of faith in its future, but because of the insistent demands of his other undertakings. He has since purchased a billion feet of timber on the coast from British Columbia to California, has paid every dollar he owed both east and west and has the Hewitt Land Company in his family, also owns the Hewitt Investment Company and other highly valuable holdings, upon which there is not one dollar of indebtedness. He is owner of a one-fourth interest in the St. Paul, Tacoma Lumber Company, which is free from in- debtedness, and owns property worth more than $7,000,000. Of this company he was treasurer for fifteen years, resigning at last because of lack of time to attend to the duties of the office.

In Menasha, Wisconsin, about 1870, Mr. Hewitt married Miss Rocena L. Jones, whose father, Daniel, a native of Vermont, born about 1814, was for years a prominent manufacturer of wagon ma- terials. He is living at present in Appleton, Wis- consin. Mrs. Hewitt's mother, Clarissa L. ( Hib- bard) Jones, was born in Vermont about 1820 and died about 1872. Mr. and Mrs. Hewitt are parents of five children, namely, William, now in the lum- ber business in King county and doing well ; John, a very valuable assistant to his father in his ex- tensive operations ; Henry, just out of college, in- terested in the saw-mill of the Hewitt-Lee Lumber Company on Lake Washington; Mrs. Clara Lee, and Mary, the last mentioned still at home. The family adhere to the Congregational church, and in politics Mr. Hewitt is a Republican, although of the independent type. In reference to his marvel- ous success in the accumulation of wealth it is but fair to add that while the increase of property values has helped him as it must help every man who deals extensively and judiciously in realty, he has won his way not by stock gambling or by or- ganizing trusts or other questionable combinations of capital, but essentially by carrying through legi- timate enterprises on a large scale; that his suc- cess has therefore been the success of the countries in which he has operated and he is entitled to the credit of having been a public benefactor in the direction of contributing immeasurably to indus- trial progress. He has been the means of bringing ten millions of dollars to the state of Washington.

"SAMUEL HENRY PILES, Republican, of Seattle, was born on a farm in Livingston county, Kentucky, December 28, 1858, and was educated at private schools at Smithland, in his native state. After being admitted to the bar he started for the West, and in 1882 located in the Territory of Wash- his mills and banks in Everett all through the hard | ington ; opened a law office in Snohomish, Wash-

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ington, in 1883; in 1886 moved for a short time to Spokane, Washington, and later in the same year to Seattle, where he has ever since resided and practiced law ; in 1887-1889 was assistant prose- cuting attorney for the district composed of King, Kitsap, and Snohomish counties; in 1888-89 was city attorney of Seattle. These are the only offices that Mr. Piles ever filled or sought until his election to the United States senate. In 1895 he was ap- pointed general counsel of the Oregon Improve- ment Company, and when that company was reor- ganized by the formation of the Pacific Coast Com- pany he was made general counsel of the latter company, holding this position until his election to the senate. He has taken an active interest in Re- publican politics in the territory and state of Wash- ington for the past twenty years ; was elected Janu- ary 28, 1905. to the United States senate, to suc- ceed Hon. A. G. Foster, and took his seat March 4th following. His term of office will expire March 3. 1911."

Such is the brief outline of Senator Piles' career preserved in the records of the United States sen- ate. It gives no hint of the sustained struggle by which the man fought his way from obscurity and poverty to one of the highest positions of trust within the grasp of the aspiring American. Thor- oughly in love with his profession, he stuck to the law with all diligence until he had gained a place in the front rank among the jurists of the state of Washington, and until the invitation was received to come up higher. Eldridge Morse, the man who first was wont to appear against him in Snohomish county as opposing counsel in the trial of causes, once remarked to the writer that the success of "Sammy" Piles was honestly won and richly merited.

Mr. Piles' father and mother were pioneers of the state of Kentucky. His father was a slave- holder when the war broke out, but did not believe in the institution of slavery. He inherited his slaves from his parents. Senator Piles has two brothers and two sisters; one brother, Hugh, is a merchant at Fulton. Kentucky; the other, Matt., until recently a resident of Olympia, Washington, is at present engaged in business in Alaska. One sister is the wife of W. Henry Yandell. of Seattle, Washington, and the other of Judge John R. Winn. of Juneau, Alaska. Mr. Piles was married on September 15, 1891. at Henderson, Kentucky, to Miss Mary E. Barnard, whose father and mother were also pioneers of Kentucky. He is the father of three children-two sons and a daughter. Although Senator Piles is deeply attached to Seattle, where his home now is, he cherishes towards the city and county of Snohomish feelings of positive and in- swerving affection. More than twenty-three years ago he entered that community and cast his for- tunes with those hardy pioneers, many of whom

were to become powerful and influential citizens of the future state of Washington. Some of those men were at that time struggling for day's wages in logging camps in Snohomish county. They were young boys, full of fun and freak, and they be- came greatly attached to the briefless, penniless young lawyer who had come to make his home among them. The friendships then formed were never to be broken ; and it is perhaps worth more than passing mention that among Mr. Piles' warm- est and most zealous supporters in his contest for the senatorship were some of those old-time boys from the logging camps, who, in the meantime, had grown to be strong and influential citizens of the state. They knew all about Sam. Piles' early strug- gles ; they remembered him when he landed, "flat broke." at Stanwood, and took a job as clerk in Jack Irving's store at $30.00 per month, and they recall with a feeling of pride the fall of 1883, when the young lawyer, after having earned money enough through his clerkship, moved to Snohomish and opened an office there, in which the furniture consisted of a smooth board for a desk, a three- legged stove, a chair and a drug-box presented by Lot. Wilbur, pioneer druggist of Snohomish coun- ty, as a token of goodwill, from which humble be- ginning young Piles built up the largest law prac- tice in the county. Those who knew Sam. Piles in those days do not need to be told now that he looks back most tenderly to his first home in the territory of Washington; that he has a feeling of gentle and sentimental attachment for the county and its people, to whom he will always consider himself greatly indebted, and for whom he has the desire to do all he can in the exalted position with which the state of Washington has honored him. He has frequently been heard to say in public speeches, that he is more indebted to the people of Snohomish county for the success which has at- tended his efforts in life than to any other people ; for there, in his early youth and hardest struggles, he was aided and encouraged beyond his deserts by the people of that county.

JOHN E. McMANU'S was born in Philadel- phia, Pennsylvania, July 21, 1850, a son of John McManus, who was also born in the Keystone state and who was of Scotch-Irish descent. his people settling in Pennsylvania about 1280. John McManus, the father, was a merchant and mam- facturer of prominence in his community ; for sev- eral years he was largely engaged in the mantt- facturer of leather, but also devoted considerable attention to mercantile pursuits. He was nom- inated for congress in the first congressional district of Pennsylvania (afterwards represented by Hon. Samuel J. Randall) by the Democratic party, but declined to run because of his great admiration for Abraham Lincoln. He had the distinguished honor

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of being one of the hundred men chosen to guard the person of Mr. Lincoln at his first inauguration. Mr. McManus, Sr., was united in marriage to Miss Mary A. Moran, who was likewise born in the Keystone state and who was of German-Irish ex- traction, her ancestors having settled in Pennsyl- vania in 1762. Her grandfather was one of the soldiers in the War of the Revolution who fought for American independence, and her brother, the Hon. Benjamin Moran, was for twenty years secre- tary of the legation at London, while subsequently he was appointed and served as minister to Portu- gal. He won distinction in diplomatic circles and belonged to.a family noted for the number of its members who were prominent in military and poli- tical life. To John and Mary ( Moran) McManus were born six sons and three daughters, all of whom passed away in childhood, with the excep- tion of John E. McManus of Seattle, and his two sisters, now living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The father died in 1875 at the age of seventy-three years and the mother at the age of seventy years, in 1889.

John E. McManus was educated in the public schools of Philadelphia, and completed the high school course by graduation on the 11th of July, 1867, when he was 16 years of age. He then entered the government printing office at Washing- ton, D. C., remaining only a short time on account of ill health, when he engaged with a government surveying corps, that he might benefit by the out- door life. With this corps he went to Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico, after which he returned to the Indian Territory and engaged in surveying the Chickasaw Indian Reservation, and the section that now comprises Oklahoma. In 1871 he returned to Philadelphia and was engaged in newspaper work for several years, being successfully employed in the offices of the Press, Times and Record ; dur- ing all of this period Mr. McManus was also inter- ested in mining in Colorado and Arizona, and has maintained his interests in mining property to the present time. In 1884 he returned to Colorado, but remained for only a brief period when he took up his abode in his native city and was engaged on the staff of the Record until 1889, when he came to Washington and located at Tacoma. There he en- gaged in the real estate business and also published The Weekly Record, which was afterwards sold to the Real Estate Record Company of Tacoma. He was also manager of The Daily Globe of Taco- ma for some time. In 1891 Mr. McManus went to Everett and became heavily interested in the Mitchell Land & Improvement Company, which at that time controlled large property interests there. While living in Everett he was also president of the Bank of Everett, and established and was the principal owner of The Everett Herald. In 1898 Mr. McManus removed to Seattle, where he has

been engaged in the mining business continuously ever since.

In 18:1, John E. McManus was appointed United States Commissioner for the Western Dis- trict of Arkansas, and sat as a committing magis- trate for the district embraced in the Indian Terri- tory. In 1892 he was elected to the state senate of Washington, serving for four years in the third and fourth sessions of the general assembly, having the distinction of being the first Democratic sena- tor elected from Snohomish county. He was ap- pointed in 1895 by Governor McGraw, as trustee for the Western Washington Hospital for the In- sane for a period of six years, but after serving for two years resigned in order to accept the appoint- ment as United States Mineral Land Commis- sioner for the Idaho district. This appointment came in May, 1896, and he served until the change in administration.

In Philadelphia, in January, 1876, Mr. Mc- Manus was married to Miss Harriet Cope Martin, a daughter of John W. and Henrietta S. (Thomas) Martin, who were born in Philadelphia as was their daughter. They belonged to old Quaker families and the town of Martinsville, now a part of the city of Philadelphia, was named in honor of the paternal ancestor of Mrs. McManus, whose family was also represented in the Colonial army during the War of the Revolution. While still residing in his native city, Mr. McManus was elected a member of the Board of School Control for a term of four years and served for two years, resigning in 1888. To him and his wife have been born three children: John B., who was born in Philadelphia twenty-eight years ago and is now associated with his father in mining in old Mexico; William T., twenty years of age; and Elizabeth S., who was the eldest and died in infancy. Mr. McManus is a member of several scientific institutions and is also a Mason, being a member of St. John's Lodge No. 9 of Seattle, Washington.

REV. WILLIAM G. JONES .- Prominent among the earnest and enthusiastic proclaimers of the gospel message in western Washington and no less prominent in business circles since the re- sponsibility of handling a vast estate has been placed upon his shoulders, the learned and able clergyman whose life record it is here our task to outline is certainly deserving of rank among the strong, efficient, progressive men of the state, the men upon whom it must depend for leadership in the moral and industrial struggles through which it must surely pass in the days that are to come. Like many others who have attained some degree of eminence among their fellows, Mr. Jones is en- tirely a self-made man. The call of the higher things which came to him in boyhood did not go unanswered because of his poverty, but he at once

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BIOGRAPHICAL

began the struggle to make the most of himself in spite of difficulties and it is probably safe to assume that his later life has illustrated to him and to those who know him "the uses of adversity, which like a toad, ugly and venomous, hath vet a precious jewel in his head."

Mr. Jones is a native of east Tennessee, born March 20, 1864. His father, Iliram Jones, a na- tive of North Carolina, born in 1825, was by occu- pation a farmer, one of the sturdiest of that hon- ored class, a man respected and admired by those who knew him intimately for his strong Christian character and his sterling virtues. He died in 1898. Sarah (Musgrave) Jones, the mother, was likewise admired in her circle of acquaintances for her un- ostentatious piety, while the members of her family knew of the unwavering faith which gave direction and depth to the current of her life. She was born in Tennessee in 1827 and died in 1822. It will therefore be seen that William G. Jones began life with one valuable asset, the advantage of a good heredity. He took his first steps in the pursuit of knowledge in the district school established in his neighborhood, which he attended intermittently un- til seventeen, going then to Oak Hill academy in Virginia. There he prepared himself to enter the teaching profession, and for one year he taught, carefully husbanding the resources accruing from this work that he might go on with his own educa -.. tion. For a short time afterward he was a student in the Globe Academy of North Carolina, then he entered Wake Forest academy in the same state, in which he was a student for the ensuing two and

a half years. Inasmuch as his worldly wealth at the time of his entrance into this institution con- sisted of seven dollars and lic was compelled to work his way through as best he could, it is not greatly surprising that he was a little in debt when lie left. To earn money with which to pay what he owed and get a start he came out, in February, 1888, to the territory of Washington, where he first took up the work of the Christian ministry, be- coming pastor of the First Baptist church of What- com. In September of that same year. he was enabled, through the kindly aid of Robert Knipe, of Seattle, to return east for the further pursuit of his studies, and by 1890 he was a graduate of Brown university, at Providence, Rhode Island. But he wisely determined to take a theological course also and at once matriculated in Newton seminary, from which he received a degree in 1893. While in the seminary he had organized a Baptist congregation in Boston, building for them what is known as the Center Street Baptist church, and he continued to be pastor of this until 1898. In that year he accepted a call to the pastorate of the First Baptist church, of Everett, which he served very acceptably until 1903, then resigning. Later he be- came pastor of what is now known as the Immanuel

Baptist church, of Seattle, in which he is still labor- ing with marked success. Another responsibility, one for which his previous experience had not so well fitted him but to which his native talents are proving abundantly adequate, came to him on the lemise of his father-in-law, Dexter Horton, of Seattle, who left property worth many hundreds of thousands of dollars to be cared for by him and the other heirs. Indeed he is now manager of the entire estate, which, since the demise of Mr. Hor- ton, has been placed in the hands of a corporation created for the purpose of handling it, of which corporation he is president.

In Angust, 1890, Mr. Jones married Miss Net- tie H. Horton, daughter of Dexter Horton, the celebrated banker of Seattle, whose name is familiar to almost everyone who has ever lived in the state of Washington. Born in New York in 1826, he moved thence as a young man to Illinois, whence in 1852 he came to Portland, Oregon, traveling by team. In the spring of 1853 he located in Seattle, then a small village, and during the ensuing year he worked in a saw-mill, then he opened a general merchandise store and later he established the pio- neer banking institution of the state, which is still doing business bearing his name. At the time of his demise Mr. Horton was more than a million- aire, but he was still richer in the esteem and re- gard of the pioneers and later comers to Washing- ton than in material wealth, no well known busi- ness man standing higher than he in the confidence and good will of the people generally. In his will no one was forgotten who should be remembered and many charitable institutions received generous bequests. It is worthy of record in this connection, as illustrating the changes which have taken place in Seattle since Mr. Horton first saw it that at one time he bought the site of the Alaska building for fifty dollars and the site of the New York block, with a substantial frame building thereon, for a thousand dollars. Mrs. Jones was born on the ground upon which the latter structure stands in 1863. She and Mr. Jones have had two children, of whom Myrtle, aged fourteen, is still living.

Mr. Jones is said by those who know him inti- mately to be a man of remarkable personality, large- hearted, generous and in all respects broad gauged -gigantic in heart and mind, and possessed in a remarkable degree of that most winning quality, the ability to take a kindly interest in the sorrows and trials of others. In Everett he is remembered kind- ly by a host of friends, and his visits to the pulpit of the Baptist church of that city always call out a large number who are not now in the habit of attending there.

A. F. HEIDE .- Perhaps one of the most highly accomplished and successful architects that ever practiced his profession in Snohomish county

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is A. F. Heide, whose office is now in the Wash- ington building in Seattle. He was born in Alton, Illinois, in 1862, the son of Henry and Hermina ( Suess) Fleide, both natives of Germany, born in the years 1826 and 1834 respectively, and both residents at present of Alton, Illinois. The father came to America upon reaching the age of twenty- one and for years afterward was in the mercantile business, following it until advancing age occasioned his retirement.

The subject of this article, who is the third of the seven children of his parents, acquired his pre- liminary education in the public and high schools of his native town, then, at the early age of seven- teen, began as an apprentice the study of the pro- fession to which all his later years have been de- voted. Afterward. in Chicago, he took instruction in architecture from private teachers for four or five years. Going to Los Angeles, California, in 1886, he spent three years there in the employ of a firm of architects, filling the double position of foreman in the detail department and superintend- ent of construction, but in 1889 he journeyed north- ward to Tacoma, where the ensuing three years were spent in an office of his own. During his stay there it fell to his lot to superintend the architec- ture of the Tacoma theatre. The intimate connec- tion of Mr. Ileide with Snohomish county began in 1892 when he moved to the then rapidly grow- ing town of Everett just in time to take a leading part in the building boom. He was the Everett Improvement Company's chosen architect for all its most difficult work, and the planning of almost all the large buildings in Everett erected at that time and since was the labor of his well trained and original mind. His abilities gained a splendid recognition from the great state of Washington, which called upon him to prepare the plans for its state buildings to be erected at the St. Louis and Portland fairs. In the year 1901 Mr. Heide be- came associated in business with Emil de Neuf, a Seattle architect, and in the fall of 1905. he, too, moved to Seattle to take up the work with his partner there. He is still a resident of the Queen City, in which he is achieving a splendid profes- sional success, a goodly share of the architectural work arising out of the city's rapid growth coming to the office of Mr. Heide and his partner.

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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 163

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