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 170

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 170
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 170

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JACOB ROBINET, one of the well known farmers residing three-quarters of a mile from Hartford, on the picturesque banks of Lake Ste- vens, was born in Luxemberg, Germany, in June, 1857. His father, Anton Robinet. also a farmer, died in Germany in 1885, at the age of sixty-six. The mother, Elizabeth (Groff) Robinet, died in that country, which was also the land of her birth. Our subject spent his boyhood on his father's farm and attended the common schools of his native country. Desiring to avail himself of the greater opportunities that the United States afforded to young men, he came in 1884, locating first at Iron Mountain. Michigan, where he worked in the woods four years. His residence in the state of Washington dates from 1888. After stopping two weeks in Seattle, he proceeded to Snohomish, then only a little settlement, and made that his head- quarters while working for Eugene Smith, who at that time owned the most extensive lumbering inter- ests of any man in the county. In order to reach LEWIS J. JONES, one of the younger element of successful Snohomish county farmers, resides six miles east of Everett and three and a half miles south of Snohomish on the rural mail delivery route from Everett. Mr. Jones was born in Wales in March, 1848, the son of John D. and Catherine (Davis) Jones, both of whom were born in the southern part of Wales. The elder Jones was a Lake Stevens, where the timber was being cleared off, it was necessary to go by way of Marysville, as there was no road from Machias. In 1890 Mr. Robinet took up the forty-acre homestead on which he now lives, and at once began preparing it for culitivation. As there was no road to the lake, and only the poorest kind of a trail, he, with the other settlers in that region, began very soon to build a miner and farmer who crossed the Atlantic in 1820

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and for two years mined coal in Pennsylvania. He ; own shop, selling out his Seattle interests in 1889 then went to Patagonia, South America, and re- to go to Whatcom. There he conducted a shop two years, selling out to locate at Sedro-Woolley, where he opened a shop and a lumber yard, the yard being the first established in that town. Sedro- Woolley was his home until 1893, when he went to the new city of Everett to open the Monte Cristo market, which he conducted successfully seven vears, or until 1900. In that year he retired from business to engage in agricultural pursuits upon his present farm. mained there two years, returning to Wales for the ensuing seven years. In 1882 he was again in Pennsylvania, engaged in mining. Two years later he came to the Puget sound country and settled on 120 acres of land three and a half miles southwest of Snohomish, on which Lewis J. Jones is now liv- ing. The elder Jones has since added 140 acres to his holdings. He makes his home with his children in this county. Mrs. Jones was the mother of ten children, four of whom died in Wales of black fever. Lewis J. Joues attended the public schools of King county, leaving when fifteen years old to work with his father in the Blue Canyon coal mines of Whatcom county. Two years were passed in this work, when father and son returned to the farm in Snohomish county. The young man passed the following two years on the ranch and then put in six months mining. In the fall of 1899 he went to Seattle and worked in the shops of Moran Bros .. operating a crane for eight months. At Nome Mr. Jones passed eighteen months at gold mining. In 1902 in company with his brother, Reese, Mr. Jones took a ten-year lease of his father's farm, in the operation of which he has since been engaged.

On the old homestead, in 1903, Mr. Jones mar- ried Miss Mary J. Morgan, daughter of Reese and Gwen (Samuel ) Morgan, natives of Wales, who are now living in Mackay, King county. Mrs.

Jones was born in Pennsylvania in 188%, and: fe- southeast of Everett, is one of the successful farm- ceived her education in the Keystone state. , To. Mr. Lers of this county who cast his fortunes with those

and Mrs. Jones one son has been born, Reese J. In fraternal circles Mr. Jones is a member of the Knights of Pythias ; in religion he is a Congrega- tionalist. Mr. Jones is carrying on diversified farm- ing, but goes in quite extensively for stock raising, having thirty-one head of cattle, thirty sheep and fifteen hogs, besides horses for working the place.

PETER NELSON, now engaged in farming four and a half miles southeast of Everett, is one of Snohomish county's well known citizens, who has been identified in a business way with the prog- ress of Puget sound for a quarter of a century. Born in Denmark, in 185%, Mr. Nelson is the fourth of ten children of Neils and Catherine (Jen- sen) Nelson, both of whom lived and died in Den- mark. Peter received his education in the Danish schools and when old enough learned the butcher's trade. At twenty-two he came to the United States and immediately settled on a farm near Northfield. Minnesota. A year later he returned to his trade in a shop at Northfield. In 1883 he set his face toward the Pacific coast, locating first in Seattle, where he entered the shop of John G. Gardner. Mr. Nelson continued in business there for six years, one of which he passed as proprietor of his

Miss Annie, daughter of William Kock, of Sil- vana, was married to Mr. Nelson at Everett in 1896. A sketch of her family appears elsewhere in this work. Mrs. Nelson was born at Silvana in 1849, and was reared and educated within the borders of the county. Three children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Nelson: Thomas, Dorothy and Frederick. Religiously, the family are Pres- byterians and in politics Mr. Nelson is a Repub- lican. During his residence in Sedro-Woolley, he served a term as councilman of the city. The home farm consists of fifteen acres, well improved and stocked. in addition to which he owns forty-seven acres of land in Skagit county. Thrifty and ener- getic, controlled by high principles, he commands the respect and esteem of the community.

JOHN STECHER, whose farm lies five miles

of Snohomish county in the early eighties. He was born in Austria December 11, 1856, one of the ·seven children of Antone and Teresa Stecher, na- tives of Austria, who never left that country. After attending the common schools at home. John Stecher learned the trade of a mason, and he fol- lowed that craft in his native land until, at twenty- three, he came to the United States. For a time after his arrival on the new continent Mr. Stecher followed his trade. In 1880 he came to Grant county, Oregon, and the following autumn en- gaged in sheep ranching. In the spring of 1884 he sold out his interests in Oregon and came to Sno- homish county, purchasing 160 acres of land a half mile south of Lowell and at the same time pre- empting forty acres more. Here he lived until 1890, when he bought his present place. A little later Mr. Stecher rented a farm on Snohomish marsh and farmed there for two years. The next two years found him operating land leased from his brother, Frank, and at the close of that term he removed to his present place, where he has fifty- two acres of land under cultivation.

At Port Townsend, in 1885, Mr. Stecher mar- ried Miss Annie Koch, daughter of John Koch, a native of Germany, now a resident of this county. Mrs. Stecher was born in Germany on Christmas

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX TILDES FORMATIONS

MR. AND MRS. EUGENE D. SMITH

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day of 1864. She received her education in the families of Washington county, Maine. Left fatherless when eight years old, the Mr. Smith of this review was denied many of the educational advantages which other boys in his part of the country enjoyed, but being of an adventurous dis- position he soon made up for his lack of book learn- ing by taking lessons in the school of experience. At fourteen he went to sea, and the ensuing six years were spent as a sailor, mostly along the New England coast, though he made a few trips to for- eign ports, and was on the Mediterranean at the time of the Crimean war. llis last voyage was to the head of the Adriatic sea. In 1858, being at that schools of the old country, but came to Snohomish county in 1884. To this union have been born six children, all natives of Snohomish county: Frank, John (deceased), Agnes, Annic, Otto and Paul. In politics Mr. Stecher is a Republican and the family belongs to the Catholic church. Mr. Stecher is in well-to-do circumstances, owning fifty-seven acres of land, well stocked, chiefly with cattle. He is one of the industrious men of the county, and en- joys an enviable reputation both as a citizen and as an agriculturalist. He has discharged the duties of the office of road overseer in his district, but aside from that has aspired to or held no political office. | time twenty-one years old, he came to Port Gamble by way of the isthmus, arriving in September. hav- EUGENE D. SMITH .- Among the pioneers of Snohomish county who have been forceful in its industrial development from the earliest days to the present-leaders in fact in that development-none. perhaps, is deserving of a higher place than the man whose life history is the theme of this article. Coming to the county when its wealth of natural resources was as yet untouched, he had the percep- tion and experience to appreciate the advantages offered, and to him belongs the honor of being the first to engage, in a methodical and permanent manner, in the logging business, giving inception to the master industry of the county, the industry which has cleared its farms, built its cities, sup- ported its people and made it a county of mills. And it has not been in this alone that he has con- tributed to the general welfare. In political mat- ters, also, he has been a force, and in the official records of the early days his name is of frequent occurrence, showing that the county profited. dur- ing the molding period as well as later, by his in- terest in public matters and the wisdom of his counsels. In later days, when wealth had come to him as a reward of well directed effort, it was al- ways bestowed liberally upon enterprises of gen- eral benefit, the Everett town building scheme, the Monte Cristo railroad and numerous other projects profiting by his bounty, some of them to a greater extent than is generally supposed. He has cer- tainly marched in the foremost rank of the pro- gressive men of the sound country. ing escaped without injury in a wreck on the Panama road. From that date until 1862 he worked industriously in logging camps around Port Gamble, learning thoroughly the business in which he was afterward to become a shining light. He then went to the Caribou mines, but unfortunately for him as it seemed at the time and very for- tunately for the development of Snohomish county, his career there was cut short by mountain fever and he was compelled to flee for his life to Vic- toria. In the fall of 1862, he purchased an interest in the logging outfit of a man named Otis Wilson. and together they started to log on Brown's bay, just north of where Edmonds now is. The next summer they came to Lowell, preceding all others of their occupation to the river, and they operated there together until 1865. when Mr. Smith sold to his partner and again turned his attention toward mining. He went to the Boise basin, Bannock City and other Idaho camps, also participating in the Coeur D' Alene rush of 1865. His prospecting and mining trips did not prove profitable, and he was obliged to go to work as an employe, but after laboring a short time in Walla Walla came once more to Lowell, and soon succeeded in making an- other start in logging on his own account. Ilis cf- forts were rewarded by abundant success. At one time he had three camps in active operation, em- ploying seventy-five men, and indeed for a while there were 150 names on his pay-roll. He logged extensively for years on Ebey slough, clearing the timber off the sites of Marysville. Lowell and other towns and putting many millions of feet into the water.

Mr. Smith was born in Columbia, Maine, April 30, 1837. His father, John D. Smith, was likewise a native of Maine, born in 1802. and for years was a ship-builder in the Pine Tree state, and in Boston, Massachusetts. Hle was one of the best mechanics in all that country, also a prominent militiaman. He died in 1815. Mrs. Louisa ( Barney) Smith, the mother of our subject, was born in Loubeck. Maine, and died in lowa at the age of seventy-eight years. She was of Scotch descent, and her father was a veteran of the War of 1812. Both she and her husband were members of prominent pioneer

In 1890 Mr. Smith built a log chute two thou- sand feet long on a hill at Lowell. expending in the enterprise about five thousand dollars. The same year he started a store at Lowell, the first in the town, and from that on it was his ambition to build a little city there. He put in a hotel about 1821, and in 1889 a saw mill costing sixty thousand dol- lars, with a capacity of 15,000 feet of lumber per diem, and machinery for the production of lath, shingles, etc. It burned in 1895. Starting with a

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homestead and pre-emption, both of which he im- proved, clearing, ditching and putting into cultiva- tion seventy-five acres, he added to his holdings as time went on until he was the owner of five thou- sand acres of timber, stump and farming land, all but sixteen hundred acres of it situated on the Ev- erett peninsula. the rest on Ebey slough. When Everett was founded he sold the promoters twelve hundred acres at a reasonable price in order to permit the town building to progress, and donated five hundred more conditioned upon the building of factories, smelter, railroads, etc.

After spending thirty years in the logging busi- ness, Mr. Smith retired from it in 1890, and since his mill burned down in 1895 he has withdrawn from the more strenuous activities of life, devoting himself to looking after his property interests. For these he was once offered $300,000 by Henry Hewitt, Jr., of Tacoma, but he has since lost heavily by fire and on account of the hard times, though he still retains a fine home at Lowell, an interest in the site of that town and some Everett property. He also enjoys the consciousness of having accom- plished several worthy undertakings in a worthy manner. won a success in the industrial world of which many more favored men to begin with would be proud, contributed immeasurably to the progress and development of his home county and left an in- delible impress upon its history. One of his enter- prises which did not succeed financially was the building, in the carly eighties, of a telegraph" line from Mukilteo to Snohomish, via Lowell.

June 5, 1869, Mr. Smith married Margaret B. Getchell, a native of Marshfield, Maine, born Jan- uary 4, 1840. Iler father, George Stillman Getchell, was born in Machias, Maine, to which town his family had come from the Green Mountain state at an early day. He died in Maine at the age of eighty-five. During his lifetime he followed agri- culture as a business. Her mother, Taphenes (Longfellow ) Getchell, was likewise a native of Machias, and came of old colonial stock. She had the distinction of being a cousin of the noted Henry W. Longfellow, so well known in American litera- ture. She died within five days of the same time as her husband, aged eighty-three. Mrs. Smith lived in the Pine Tree state until twenty-nine, then started for the West, via the isthmus, which she crossed alone, met Mr. Smith at San Francisco and was married to him there, accompanying him to his home in Snohomish county. For the first six months of her residence here she had only one white neighbor of her own sex, a Mrs. Dr. Smith, who lived on the tide lands near Marysville. There were four white women at Snohomish, twelve miles up the river. The children of her union with Mr. Smith are: Lowell E., born at Lowell, April 5, 1877, now a steamboat man at Everett : John D., born May 11, 1878, a contractor living at home ;

Phene L., October 28, 1880, a graduate of the state university, now teaching German and history in the high school at Snohomish; Cyrus W., April 11, 1883, died in babyhood. Mr. Smith has one brother, George D., in business at Snohomish and one, John, a building contractor at Norwood. Massachusetts, also one sister, Mrs. Josephine E. Friars, at Hazel- son, lowa. Mrs. Smith's brothers and sisters are Martin and Joseph in Snohomish county ; Horace, Oscar, Hannah and Anna, in Maine; Antoinette, in New Hampshire, and Laura in Missouri.

In politics Mr. Smith is a Republican. He has served as county commissioner by appointment and election, has been justice of the peace, was postmaster at Lowell for twenty-one years, served on the first provisional council of Everett and for years was either director or clerk of the local school district, besides holding various other offices of trust. In fraternal affiliations he is a Master Mason and a Workman. His views on educational and re- ligious matters are very liberal, as they are on most other things, and he has never acknowledged allegi- ance to any creed.

ALVAH H. B. JORDAN, chairman of the board of county commissioners of Snohomish county, vice-president of the Everett Pulp & Paper Company, and superintendent of its enormous mills at Lowell, occupies a position of considerable con- sequence to the community at large and one of state importance. He has not resided on the Pa- cific coast as many years as have a large number of his associates, but during this period he has come into unusually close touch with its business activities and has gained the highest confidence of its people.

Mr. Jordan is the son of Eben Jordan, a native of Auburn. Maine, who was for many years a prominent dry goods merchant of Boston, Massa- chusetts. Mrs. Ellen E. (Bedell) Jordan, the mother of the subject of this sketch, was also a na- tive of the Pine Tree state. Of the two children born to this union, one is a daughter, the other Alvah H. B., whose birthplace was Boston. He was born September 23, 1865. His education was obtained in the excellent public schools of that noted center of learning. Upon his graduation from high school at the age of fifteen, the young man entered the employ of Kendall Barrows & Company, woolen importers of Boston, working in their offices, but at the end of six years' service with this firm, he determined to learn the paper business and with that end in view at once accepted a position with the Champlain Paper Company, Willsborough, Essex county, New York. Appli- cation and study, combined perhaps with a natural aptitude for the business, brought its rich rewards, for during the four years he was with this company

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Is was Cathcart

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he mastered the details of the industry so thor- oughly that he finally reached the superintendency of the mills. In 1891, however, he resigned as su- perintendent of the Champlain mills to assume charge of the Clarion mills at Johnsonburg, Elk county, Pennsylvania, and with this concern, the New York & Pennsylvania Company, he remained until 1896. That year marks his removal to the Pacific Northwest and his entrance into the life of Snohomish county. He came direct to Everett as superintendent of the Everett Pulp & Paper Com- pany's mills, in which capacity he is still engaged. It is since Mr. Jordan has become identified with this company, operating the largest paper mills in the Northwest, that the business has reached its immense proportions, supplying demands that come from all over the country, especially from the western part. Probably no industry in the city of Everett has been operated as continuously as these paper mills, and with its hundreds of employees and the no inconsiderable amount of commerce arising from the handling of its products, the Everett Paper & Pulp Company is indeed an in- portant factor in not only the welfare of Everett but of the whole county. More extended refer- ence to these mills will be found elsewhere in this work.

Mr. Jordan is a Republican, influential in the ·councils of his party, and upon that ticket in 1904 was elected county commissioner from the third district. When the board was organized, he be- came its chairman and still fills this responsible office. With true public spirit he has assumed fur- ther public duties in his community, being also chairman of the Lowell board of education. In fraternal circles he is well known, holding mem- bership in the B. P. O. E., Everett lodge, and the Masonic order, having attained the thirty-second degree in the latter. In addition to his paper mill interests, Mr. Jordan is also a director in the First National bank of Everett. He is one of the real leaders in the upbuilding of Snohomish county, a thorough believer in the great future that awaits Puget sound, a man of broad views, powerful exec- utive abilities and withal possessing the confidence of all with whom he comes in contact.

WILLIE EASTMAN CHASE, of Lowell, Washiington, is prominently identified with what perhaps may be regarded as Snohomish county's leading industry, the lumber business, the branch to which he is devoting his best abilities and ener- gies being the furnishing of raw material. For twelve years he has been thus engaged with marked success, denuding the hills and bench lands of their magnificent timber and materially contrib- uting to the development of a new country and to thie prosperity of its people. A product of the New

England states, born at East Charleston, Vermont, November 5, 1870, he comes from a land of strong men and women, notably strong in every way, and is of good old colonial American stock. Charles II. Chase, the father, also a native of Vermont, his birtliplace being Charleston, was born in 1842. Early in life he learned the mason's trade and at one time managed the hotel in Charleston, but most of his life has been spent in farming. He is still living near the old homestead. For many years Mr. Chase served as organist in the village church, being of a decidedly musical turn. Mrs. Clase, his wife, was Orissa Eastman before her marriage, the daughter of a Vermont farmer, who passed away in his forty-sixth year. She was born at Sutton, in that state, January 23, 1852, and is also living. The subject of this review received his educational instruction in the public schools of his native state. At the age of seventeen he com- menced assisting his father on the farm, and in this way spent the next three years of his life, or until he arrived at legal age. With the passing of this inilestone, however, he left the family roof tree to make his own way in the world, first enter- ing the grocery business nearby. The next year, 1892, he joined the army of young Americans pushing into the West, coming to Lowell. The great paper mills there were then being opened and he at once secured employment in them, re- maining in that line of work two years. In the meantime he had been casting about for a better opportunity to get ahead, with the result that he selected the logging business and into this he plunged with such energy and determination that he forged ahead rapidly and is to-day reaping the rewards of worthy, painstaking efforts and in- vincible courage in overcoming obstacles and diffi- culties that arise to impede the progress of all suc- cessful men.

Miss Alice M. Harmon, a native of Vermont also, descended from a noted family of that state, was united in marriage to Willie E. Chase in 1892. Her father, Stephen M. Harmon, was born at Bux- ton Centre, Maine, April 1, 1844, and came to Ver- mont when a young man. Although he had just been married, when the call came for volunteers, he nobly responded, enlisting in Company K, Thirty-fifth Regiment, Massachusetts, January 27, 1863, serving throughout the remainder of the long. bloody struggle and making the memorable march with Sherman to the sea. His regiment was present at nineteen battles and participated actively in seventeen of that number, engaging in some of the heaviest fighting in the war. With his com- rades Mr. Harmon was mustered out August 11, 1865. After the war he returned to his family in Vermont and for several years was employed as a fireman on the Grand Trunk railroad. Later he engaged at his trade, that of a carpenter, and to

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building and contracting has since devoted most of his time. Roxana E. (Stevens) Harmon, the mother of Mrs. Chase, was born at Island Pond, Vermont, August 6, 184%, and is a daughter of Susana Aldrich Stevens, one of the most notable personages in the pioncer history of Essex county, Vermont. This distinguished woman was left a widow early in life with a family of five children to rear. With admirable courage she undertook the management of her farm and business affairs and met with unusual success in the difficult task shifted to her shoulders by the unkindly turn of fortune. Three of her sons enlisted in the Union army at the outbreak of the war, of whom only one came back. When she passed away in 1903 at the venerable age of eighty-five, she was mourned as one of the best loved and most dis- tinguished citizens of the community, a woman of rare worth. Both Mr. and Mrs. Harmon are still living, residing at Island Pond. Island Pond is the birthplace of Mrs. Chase, the date of this event being February 12, 1869. She was educated in the public schools of her home community and upon finishing engaged in teaching. Subsequently she devoted her attention to dressmaking, being thus occupied until her marriage. Five children have been born to this union, of whom one is deceased. The living are: Elton W., born August 14, 1896; Vernita I., born April 22, 1900; Howard E., Octo- ber 2, 1902; and Robert W., February 2, 1904. Both Mr. and Mrs. Chase are well known in local fraternal circles, he being affiliated with the Ma- sons, Odd Fellows. and the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and she with the Eastern Star Chapter, the Degree of Honor and the Women's Relief Corps; she is also a member of the Epis- copal church. The Chase home is one of the finest modern dwellings in Lowell, the center of a wide social circle, and the gathering place of a host of loyal friends and genial acquaintances. As one of the younger generation of pioneers in the work of opening and developing the resources of the Puget sound country, a business man of ability, and a public spirited citizen, Mr. Chase is justly recog- nized as one of the substantial and rising men of Snohomish county.

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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 170

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