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 186

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 186
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 186

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discovery of the iron will give pleasure to neighbors and acquaintances.

AARON L. BLAIR, prominent among the men who have been instrumental in the growth and de- velopment of Arlington, and, indeed, of the entire county of Snohomish, stands Aaron L. Blair, now engaged in the real estate, insurance and loan busi- ness. He was born in Fountain County, Indiana, March 30, 1843, the son of John and Sarah (Crystle ) Blair. His father, a native of Tennessee, was a farmer and shoemaker, who in early man- hood settled in Indiana, residing there until 1845 when he moved to Des Moines county, Iowa. Some years later he located in Wapello county. In 1855 he went to Texas to look at the country and was never heard from afterward. It is believed that he was killed there. The mother, a Kentuckian by birth, made the trip to Indiana on horseback in the early days, and was married in that state. Her death occurred in Iowa in 1856. Aaron L. Blair is the youngest of a family of seven children. After receiving his education in the schools of Iowa, to which state the family had moved while he was a child. he left home at the age of thirteen to work on neighboring farms. Although but eighteen years old when the Civil War broke out, he enlisted in Com- pany C. Seventh Jowa Cavalry, and served three years and seven months, receiving his discharge at Omaha. Nebraska, in February, 1866. Returning to Jowa, he resumed farming, following it until 1870 when he moved to Pleasant Hill, Missouri, and was employed in buikling a new railroad from Pleasant Hill to Lawrence, Kansas. Two years later he went back to Jewa. locating in Davis county, and there taking contracts to get out ties used in the construc- tion of the Burlington and Milwaukee railroad. At the end of six months he again engaged in farming. In 1878 he migrated to Neosho county, Kansas, and lived in that part of the state for two years. Going thence in 1880 to Elk county, he filed on a pre- emption claim, located four miles east of Howard, which he shortly afterward sold. He then bought 160 acres from Thomas Chandler upon which he lived until 1887, coming to Washington that year. September 26th marks the date of his arrival at Stanwood. The following February. he loaded two canoes with supplies, and came up the Stillaguamish river to Oso, but as his wife feared to make the trip on account of the various obstructions in the river. the family walked from Stanwood. a distance of thirty miles, the journey lasting three days, Their home for the first two weeks was in the school house at Oso. Mr. Blair then took the family down the river, and rented a farm owned by William McPhee for one year. Soon he filed on a pre-emption of forty acres near the present location of Arlington, and this was his home for eighteen months. Upon it he erected a substantial house and barn, in the

AARON L. BLAIR

JENS THOMSEN

BERNHARD C. W. SCHLOMAN

ALONZO W. SHAFFER

THOMAS JEFFERSON

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BIOGRAPHICAL

meantime clearing up six acres of land around which he built an eight-rail fence. He also set out an orchard of fifty trees. In 1890 he purchased eighty acres of bottom land southwest of Arlington, and that was his home for two years, during which time he cleared twenty acres, built a good house and barn, and put up fences to surround them. Haller City, now known as Arlington, has claimed him a resi- dent since 1892, when he assumed charge of the lo- cal agency for the Haller City Townsite Company, in whose employ he still is. A meat shop was sorely needed in the town, and as there was no one else in position to establish and operate one, he did so for a year and a half. until some one was ready to take the business. That is only one of the manifold ways in which he has advanced the interests of the town. often at an expense to himself of both time and means.

Mr. Blair was married at Floris, Davis county. Iowa, in 1861, to Miss Cynthia A. Morgan, born at Pleasant Grove, Jowa, in November, 1842. She re- ceived a careful education in the schools of her na- tive state. Her father, Abraham Morgan, was born in Kentucky. Coming to Washington territory in 1863 he settled near Walla Walla, and lived there for several years. His death occurred at Lyma. Kansas. Mrs. Blair's mother died while she was vet an infant. She and Mr. Blair have the follow- ing children, namely: Mrs. Cathrine Chumb, born in Towa, now living in Alaska; Mrs. Louisa Neff. born in Iowa. now of Everett; James W., born in Missouri ; and Walter .A., also a native of Iowa, the former now in Seattle, the latter in Arlington ; May, Aaron and Calvin, deceased, the first two of whom were natives of Kansas, the last of Jowa. Mr. Blair is an active member of the Grand Army of the Re- public, and in politics a loyal supporter of Repub- licanism. Deeply interested always in political mat- ters, local and general, he has been a force to he reckoned with in many county campaigns and can- didates for office have learned to value highly his support and fear correspondingly his opposition. But it is not alone before and during elections that Mr. Blair's public spirit has been manifested. One of the many ways in which he has contributed to the public welfare has been by an open and per- sistent advocacy of improvements, especially in the line of roads and bridges, and he has to his personal credit the opening of a road for four miles out of Arlington, in the early days of that town, and the starting of the first freight teams, two outfits of two yoke each to the wagon, between Stanwood and the forks of the Stillagnamish. It was also largely through his influence and example that the road from Arlington to Kent's Prairie was made passable. A man of great force of character, un- usual intelligence and persistent optimism, he has contributed not a little to the general progress in many ways, and at this date there is probably no other man in Snohomish county more widely known.

more conversant with local conditions or more wide awake in watching over the interests of his part of the state.

JENS THOMSEN, one of the men who have been identified with the agricultural development of the region contiguous to Silvana from its pioncer days, and one who is to be credited with having contributed not a little toward that development, is like many another man who has aided in the con- quest of American wild lands, a native of Germany. The date of his birth is July 18, 1832. He is the sixth of the nine children of Jens and Sanna (Carstensen ) Thomsen, farmer folk of the Father- land, and acquired his education in the excellent public schools for which Germany is world-famed. Until thirty-six years of age he remained on the parental farm, or at least made his home there. though he was occupied most of the time after reaching man's estate in working for agriculturists in the vicinity.

When at length he left the parental roof he did so to try his fortunes in the new land across the ocean, the land of promise to Europeans. Locating for a time in Burlington, Iowa, he was employed in railroad work and in lumber yards there, but moved to Ilinois later, remaining there until after the great Chicago fire of 1871 had done its terrible work. He returned to lowa, however, from which state. in 1828. he migrated to the territory of Washington, making Stanwood his objective point. Those were the days of small things in most parts of the Stillaguamish valley, there being no roads. and the only way to get in provisions being to trans- port them in cances and on one's back over indis- tinet trails to the pioneer homes in the forest. But nothing daunted, Mr. Thomsen struck out boldly into the virgin forest near where Silvana now is, took a claim and began the battle with trees, turn- overs, rubbish and stumps. He assisted in cutting the first trail from his home to Silvana and, indeed. has done his share toward the general opening up of that country. It has rewarded his devotion to it and his faith in it quite substantially, for though the Sound country may show a man a frowning face. it seldom fails to smile eventually upon a persistent and worthy wooer. He now has 175 acres of valu- able land, eighty of which have been improved. is engaged in the dairy business somewhat extensively. having a herd of forty head, and is in independent circumstances. With dearly bought success in his business and a prosperity which was long on the road, has come also the respect always due and al- ways willingly accorded to men who, defying diffi- cultv. accomplish something worthy, even in a humble way. He is recognized as one of the strong. substantial citizens of the Silvana district. In pol- itics Mr. Thomsen is a Republican, in religion a Lutheran.

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SNOHOMISH COUNTY

BERNHARD C. W. SCHLOMAN, the pros- perous, well known farmer living at Arlington, is one of the earliest pioneers of the upper Stillagua- mish country, having come here in 1881, when the river was the only highway, and it a badly obstructed one. Those were the days when the matter of get- ting provisions up river to the settlers was the big- gest problem confronting the men who were doing the work of turning the forests into farms. Mr. Schloman was born in Germany in the summer of 1854, August 19th, the son of Henry and Mary (Wilhelm) Schloman. The latter passed away at Arlington, January 24, 1902. The father left Ger- many in 1859, when Bernhard was but five years of age, and came to the United States, settling in Min- nesota where he worked at the blacksmith trade. Bernhard Schloman received his education in the common schools of Minnesota, later attending the normal school, and at the age of twenty-four com- menced to teach school. He followed that profes- sion for two years, then came to the territory of Washington, arriving in 1881. After remaining in Seattle for a time, he came up the Stillaguamish, and located on a tract of 162 acres, on a part of which he has ever since made his home. With him came his mother, the first white woman to settle on the upper river. During the first few years of his residence in this part of the country, Mr. Schloman found it necessary to devote a part of each year to working for others in order to get money for sup- plying his house with provisions. The river was the only means of egress and ingress to the settle- ment and log jams were frequent, so that it cost $10 for transporting a canoc load of goods front Stanwood. The first cows in this section of the county were conveyed up the river on a deck built over two canoes lashed together. Stanwood was the nearest postoffice until 1887 when Stillaguamish, now Silvana, was established, and in 1890 Arling- ton was made a postoffice. During these days Mr. Schloman was interested in exploring the head waters of the Stillaguamish and in company with Lord John Robinson penetrated the sources of the river far into the mountains, antedating in the ex- ploit the party of which Charles Burns was the head.

In 1887 while residing in Minnesota, Mr. Schlo- man married Miss Mary Schwarble, daughter of Henry Schwarble, a farmer of the Gopher state. Mrs. Schloman died on the Stillaguamish in 1SSS, and nine years later in Spokane Mr. Schloman married Miss Emma Stutz-Pfisterer, daughter of Conrad Stutz, a tinsmith by profession, who passed away in Minnesota. Mr. and Mrs. Schloman have one child, Reuben Bernhard, born September 6, 1899. In politics Mr. Schloman is aligned with the Socialists, but he has never sought political pre- ferment or public office, though in the days of the old Schloman postoffice on the river he served as postmaster. Of his hundred-acre tract he has forty

acres under cultivation, the improvements thereon including a six-room house. He keeps at the pres- ent time fourteen head of dairy, and forty head of stock cattle; also raises poultry, and other live stock. Mr. Schloman is in prosperous circum- stances, the proprietor of an excellent farm prop- erty and is respected by the entire community in which he lives, as one of the pioneers of the Stilla- guamish, one of the pathfinders of the wilderness, and one of the men who have contributed materially toward its subjugation and industrial evolution.

WILLIAM FOREST OLIVER, M. D .- Sno- homish county was blessed even during its pioneer days by the presence of a few professional men of superior ability and excellent training, conspicuous among whom was the scholarly physician whose life record is the theme of this article. In the years of his residence in the Stillaguamish valley Dr. Oliver has been much more than a practitioner of medicine. Nature designed him for leadership and this quality has been employed by him in promoting the reclamation and industrial development of the valley and in every movement toward better things for his community and county. Like most men of superior native endowments he had the advantage of .a good heredity. His paternal ancestors, who were of Scotch-English stock, came from England to Virginia in 1700 and planted a family tree which became noted for its wealth and influence, but more especially for the persistency with which it fought the nation's battles. The great-grandfather of our subject, Captain William Oliver, was one of George Washington's trusted officers in the war of the Rev- olution and had the distinction of having partici- pated in the celebrated crossing of the Delaware and the battle of Trenton, fought December 25, 1:76. The father of our subject, William L. Oliver, was first duty sergeant of Company H, First Indi- ana, under General Taylor in the war with Mexico and captain of Company E, Thirty-fifth Illinois in the war of the Rebellion. Certainly few can boast a prouder military record than he, and in civil life also he was a man of more than ordinary force, hav- ing been prepared for social leadership by a liberal educational training in Franklin college, Indiana. By profession he was a dentist. He died in Tacoma in 1895. Dr. Oliver's mother, Mary A. (Smith) Oliver, a native of Marion county, Indiana, born in 1828, was of Prussian ancestry, her forefathers having come from that province very early in the eighteenth century. They settled first in Virginia, but later a scion of the family tree. the one from which she sprung, was planted in Kentucky. She died in Indianapolis, Ind., at the age of thirty-five. Dr. Oliver was born in Bloomfield, Iowa, August 8, 1857. Having completed the work of the com- mon school near his home in Montgomery county, Indiana, he prepared himself for college by a course

1027

BIOGRAPHICAL

of four years' duration in Ladoga Seminary. In September, 1872, he matriculated at the University of Illinois, and four years later he graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Literature. Three years later he was honored with a medical degree from the Medical College of Indiana, after graduating from ,which institution he went to Kansas. Locating in Elk county, he practiced there five years, but in the fall of 1884 the cause of education, in which he was deeply interested, claimed his attention and he ac- cepted at the hands of the electors the post of coun- ty school superintendent. For four years he dis- charged the duties of that office. In the fall of 1889 he came to Washington and upon his arrival he filed forthwith on a pre-emption eight miles north- east of Arlington on the north fork of the Stilla- guamish river. He could only secure a squatter's right at the time, so that it took three years to ob- tain a patent, but he lived on the land the required time, meanwhile practicing medicine among the settlers along the river, he being the only physician above Stanwood then. The land secured in this way he still retains. Upon making final proof he opened an office in Arlington where he has ever since resided engaged in the practice of his profes- sion, except about a year during which he traveled considerably, visiting the Chicago fair.

In September, 1889, in Montreal, Canada, Dr. Oliver married Miss Lilian MI. Best, of Litchfield, Illinois, of which city her father, Wesley Best, was one of the founders and at one time mayor. He moved to Kansas in 1884 and twenty years later died in Howard City, that state. Her mother, Mary J. (Whittington) Best, was of English extraction, a member of the well known Whittington family so widely celebrated throughout all the British posses- sions. Mrs. Oliver is a graduate of the Litchfield high school, also of the Jacksonville Female .\cad- emy, of Illinois, and the St. Louis School of Fine Arts. She is a painter of no mean ability and an art teacher of note.

In political faith Dr. Oliver is a Republican, in fraternal connection a Knight of Pythias. He was reared in the religious belief of the Baptist denom- ination. but at present is not a member of any church. His property interests besides the land on the north fork and realty in Arlington, include ten acres of water front near Tacoma, the prospective value of which is enormous. In all the years of his residence in Arlington he has watched over its in- terests with almost paternal care and is justly re- garded one of the fathers of the town, one of the most forceful factors in its past development, one of its leading citizens at this date. Even in the social life of the town he and his accomplished, cul- tured helpmeet are very active participants.

CALVIN L. MARSHI, editor of the Arlington Times, is one of the aggressive and public spirited

men of his home town and a leader in the promo- tion of all proposed enterprises of benefit to the community. His career of but little more than a decade in this state has been a highly ereditable one and his success noteworthy when it is remembered that his capital on reaching the sound consisted of a good education and an ambition to make the best use of it and of his inherent abilities. He was born in Pennsboro, West Virginia, March 18, 1873, the fifth of the ten children of Jefferson and Angelina (Cunningham) Marsh, both of whom were like- wise West Virginians by birth and members of old pioneer families of that state which had come orig- inally from Maryland. The mother is still living in that commonwealth. The father was of English extraction, the mother of Scotch-Irish.

Calvin L. Marsh, of this review, acquired an un- usually thorough education in the public schools of his natal community and in a private academy in West Virginia. On reaching the age of twenty he determined to heed Horace Greeley's advice to young men and set out for the shores of the Pa- cific, where for a few years he followed the pro- fession of teaching. his last school being that of Hal- ler City, now a part of Arlington. On retiring from pedagogical work, he purchased, in the fall of 1894, the Arlington Times, and to its upbuilding. and im- provement as a compiler of current events and a reflector of the life of the community, he has de- voted himself ever since with assiduity and zeal and not without success. He is also United States land commissioner and has been for a number of years. 1Ie is sole owner of the Times, which is justly re- garded as one of the very best weeklies in the coun- ty and one of the most influential, also owns a very pleasant home in Arlington.

In 1894. just before he assumed charge of the newspaper, Mr. Marsh was married in Pullman, West Virginia, the lady being Miss Lora B., daugh- ter of Simon and Ardena (Hall) MeDougal. She was born in West Virginia, April 14, 1876, was educated in the public and normal schools of her native state and at seventeen began teaching. She and Mr. Marsh are parents of the following chil- dren, all born in Arlington: Constance, Paul, Lil- ian, Rufus and Doris. In politics Mr. Marsh is a Republican ; in religion a Methodist. and in frater- nal affiliation a Workman.

THOMAS MORAN, a son of the Empire state in whose veins flows the hot blood of the Celtic race, an honored veteran of the Civil War and now a progressive citizen of the town of Arlington, was born in 1841, the son of Patrick and Mary ( Morer- to) Moran, both natives of Ireland. The father was a stone mason by trade who migrated to New York state early in the 'thirties, moved thence to Wiscon- sin in 1855 and followed his trade in Madison, that state, until 1872, when death claimed him. Mrs.

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Moran was married in Ireland, accompanied her husband to this country and likewise died in Wis- consin. She was the mother of ten chiklren, of whom our subject is seventh.

Thomas Moran was eagerly pursuing his studies in the Wisconsin schools when the war broke out, then a patriotic spirit prompted him to enlist. not- withstanding he was only fourteen years old, and for the ensuing three years he followed the flag as a member of Company G, Twenty-ninth Wisconsin Infantry, discharging all his duties with credit to himself and making an honorable record, nor did he lay down his arms until the last disloyal gun had been silenced. He was mustered out of the service in Louisiana. Returning home immediately upon receiving his discharge, he followed various occupa- tions until 1822. when he began a career of railroad construction which eventually brought him to the Pacific coast. He has been foreman, and superin- tendent of construction and has held numerous other positions of a similar character. The superintend- ency of the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern from Lake Washington through Arlington to McMurray was intrusted to him, and when the road was com- pleted, he located at Arlington, built the first hotel there and instituted the pioneer hardware store, all in the fall of 1>91. The hotel he ran until 1896, when he rented it to another man; the hardware business he still conducts. But Mr. Moran is too energetic a man to confine his efforts to one line of business and can gange too accurately the future not to perceive that land is sure to be valuable in the sound country, so he has made it a point to acquire extensive realty holdings and to improve the same as far as possible. In 189? he took a home- stead on the Pilchuck and since that date he has purchased three other ranches, making his holdings now aggregate five hundred acres, one hundred of which are in cultivation. He is interested to some extent in the dairy business, keeping twenty-three head of cattle suited to that industry.

In the state of lowa in 1882. Mr. Moran married Miss Eveline, daughter of Lewis and Mary Sich- man, both natives of Germany and both now living in Iowa, engaged in farming. Mrs. Moran was born in Iowa in 1861 and received her education in the public schools of that state. She and Mr. Moran are parents of three children, namely, Jesse T .. Larena and Elmore. In politics Mr. Moran is a Democrat. Ile carries into his interest in public af- fairs something of the same ardor which has made him successful in the commercial, agricultural and other enterprises he has undertaken. doing what he can for the amelioration of general conditions. For four years commencing with 1893 he discharged with faithfulness and ability the duties of county commissioner, and he has given further token of his public spirit by accepting the salaryless and too often thankless office of school director. He is one of the leading men of Arlington, a man of ag-

gressive, strong character whose influence is al- ways on the side of a forward movement, who is ever alive to the best interests of community and county. Fraternally he is affiliated with the I. O. O. F., the Rebekahs, the Elks, the Grand Army of the Republic and the Concatenated Order of Hoo Hoos ; in religion he is a Catholic.

NILS C. JOHNSON, merchant at Arlington, is one of the leading factors in the business community of the upper Stillaguamish river settlements, a man of integrity and enterprise. He was born in Sweden January 23, 1859, the youngest of seven children of John and Ellen ( Person) Johnson, who left the old country in 1823 and took a homestead in Minne- sota, passing the remainder of their days as tarmer folk in that state. Young Johnson received the chief part of his education in the schools of Min- nesota. remaining at home on the farm until he was twenty-four years of age. His introduction to the mercantile business was at Clitherall, Minnesota, where he worked in a grocery store for six months at $20 per month. Then followed two years as clerk in a hardware store and one season in a farm im- plement store. At a subsequent time Mr. Johnson lecame clerk in a drug store, and immediately be- fore coming to Washington he was connected for some time with a general store at Battle Lake. Mr. Johnson came to Stanwood in April of 1888 and shortly after ascended the river to Norman, where he purchased an interest in a general store of N. K. Tvete. This partnership was successful and the firm of Tvete & Johnson decided to open a general store further up the river, so Mr. Tvete went to Seattle, purchased the stock and brought it up the river in a small steamer. The store was opened in May of 1888, the first in this section of the county. Mr. Johnson sold out to Mr. Tvete in 1898 and the following spring went to Nome. Alas- ka, returning after one summer. A year in Seattle followed, and then another summer in Alaska. then, in 1903, in company with Gilbert Wick he opened the general merchandise store at Arlington which has since been conducted by them.

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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 186

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