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 190

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 190
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 190

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In 1895 Mr. Rod married Miss Martha Thoen, a native of Norway, who came to the Puget Sound country alone. Her parents are dead. Mr. and Mrs. Rod have three children, Annie, Olga and Myrtle. In politics Mr. Rod is a Republican and in church membership a Lutheran. The principal business on Mr. Rod's farm is dairying, for which purpose he maintains twenty-two head of cattle.

Mr. Rod is in good financial circumstances, his position in life now being very different from what it was when he received his first wages. Hc is a hard worker and of the stuff of which successful men are made.

LORENZ LORENZEN, living four miles west of Arlington, is one of the self made men of the Stillaguamish valley. Coming here from the old country in 1886 with little except his hands and the ability to use them to good advantage, he has now one of the finest of the small farms in this section of Snohomish county. Mr. Lorenzen was born in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, in the spring of 1860, the third of six children of Hans and Botilla (Jensen) Lorenzen, both of whom died when Lor- enz was but fifteen years of age, leaving him at that age to battle with the world. He followed farm work in Germany for several years, then left broth- ers and sisters and came across the Atlantic to join his cousin, Thomas Jensen, a farmer on the Stilla- guamish. Mr. Lorenzen traveled by way of Port- land to reach Snohomish county. Soon after ar- riving here he commenced to farm, and after two years of this occupation purchased an eighty-acre tract of timber. He made his home with his cousin, and a suggestion of the isolated position of his holding may be gained from the fact that save for Mrs. Jensen, Mr. Lorenzen did not see a white woman for a year after he had located up the river. Since settling on his land Mr. Lorenzen has sold forty acres and now has thirty-two of the remain- ing forty cleared and devoted to the purposes of a dairy farm. He has twenty-six head of cattle and does an extensive dairy business. As one of the pioneers of this section of Snohomish county, he has many recollections of intensely interesting hap- penings and experiences of the early days before settlers began to pour into the valley. Mr. Loren- zen during his early days in the Stillaguamish val- ley made his home with Mr. and Mrs. Jensen, but since becoming proprietor of his own farm, has lived upon it. In politics he is independent and he has never sought office. The reputation he has won in the community of being a successful. thrifty, energetic man who thoroughly understands the dairy business is a justly deserved one; his posi- tion as one of the substantial citizens of the valley is assured; and as one of the county's hardy pio- neers his name will be preserved in the history of this region.

AUGUST LAMMERS, an honored pioneer of the Arlington country and one of the leading dairy- men of that region, was born in Ohio January 1, 1855, fourth of the five children of Frederick J., and Martha (Teaman) Lammers, both natives of Germany. The elder Lammers migrated to New

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York early in life and for a time was a merchant there, but in the fifties he changed his residence to Ohio and his business to tilling the soil, which occupation he followed until his death. The mother of our subject came to the United States when twenty years old, was married in New York, moved with her husband to the Buckeye state and died there.

August Lammers, of this review, remained un- der the parental roof until sixteen, acquiring a common school education and assisting his father on the farm, then for three years he was engaged in railroad work. In 1875 he was seized with an ambition to try his fortune in the West, so mi- grated to the Golden state, in the metropolis of which he drove team for a period of three years, coming then to the still more promising Puget sound country. His objective point was Stan- wood, whence he moved up the Stillaguamish to a point three miles east of Silvana to file on a home- stead. Needless to say the place was virgin for- est. approachable only by canoe, presenting diffi- culties which might try the courage of the bravest, but by working in logging camps and at any other jobs he might happen to get and employing his spare time in clearing land, he succeeded in getting sixty acres in shape for cultivation. He remained on this farm until 1902. In 1903 he purchased the place on which we now find him, thirty-four acres a mile south of Arlington, to the improving and cultivation of which he has been devoting his ener- gies since with the same assiduity and ambition that characterized his earlier efforts in the county. At present he has six or seven acres of this land in cultivation. His entire land holdings aggregate 115 acres, seventy of which are producing crops, and he is engaged extensively in the dairy business, a line for which he and his good wife are especially adapted by training and experience. They keep thirty-five head of cattle of the Holstein and Dur- ham breeds, besides a number of other kinds of live stock.

On the Stillaguamish river. in 1891, Mr. Lam- mers married Miss Annie Holding, whose parents are still living in Norway, where she was born in 1856. After completing her education and reach- ing young womanhood, she came to the United States. She has given much attention to practical dairying, especially during the early days in Sno- homish county, and is considered an authority on the subject. Mr. Lammers is also a dairyman of note and his abilities in this line were duly recog- nized by his neighbors in the same line of business who elected him first president of the Arlington Co-operative Creamery Company. In political faith he is a Democrat, in fraternal affiliations a Wood- man of the World and in church membership a Lutheran, as is also Mrs. Lammers, Though inter- ested in political matters and public affairs gener- ally to the extent that good citizenship requires he

is not what might be called a politician and has never sought office, though he has consented to hold such minor offices as school director and con- stable. Ilis ambition impels him rather in the di- rection of industrial achievement, in which he has certainly made a highly creditable record. He is one of the prominent men of his community, pro- gressive, active and influential and possessed of a reputation for integrity and square dealing untar- nished by any act of his.

CARL THOMPSON .- The development of the Stillaguamish valley has been dne in a very large measure to the thrifty sons of Norway who have made their homes there, not the least progressive, industrious and forceful of whom is Carl Thomp- son, whose excellent farm is situated a mile west of Arlington. One of the carly settlers of the val- ley he is also one of its most successful and hon- ored citizens at this date, and while still a young inan he is enjoying the rewards which the rich country always has for those who prove themselves worthy. He was born March 19, 1865, the son of Casper and Ellen Thompson, natives respectively of Norway and France, though the former was of English extraction. The father came to the United States in 1867, settled in Illinois and followed farm- ing there awhile, going thence to Minnesota, of which state he was a pioneer settler, thence to South Dakota, where he took a homestead and timber claim. Hle is now living near Arlington, having come to the West in 1901, but his wife died when our subject was an infant.

After acquiring a good education in the common schools of Illinois and Minnesota, and assisting his father from the time he left school until he was twenty. Carl Thompson came out to Washington territory, arriving at Stanwood April 21. 1885. He went to work forthwith in a local logging camp, and continued in the employ of the same firm for a period of two years, then going up the Stillaguamish, where the ensuing three years were passed in the camp of Henry Dewey. The ensuing twelvemonth was devoted to log- ging for another employer, but in 1891 Mr. Thompson decided upon a change of occupation, so he purchased eighty acres of heavily timbered land a mile west of Arlington, or rather the site of the present Arlington, and began the ardnous task of clearing up a home in the forest. He never paused in his endeavors until every acre was free from the impeding timber; indeed he sought a further field for his teeming ambition, purchasing of Peter Funk forty-one acres adjoining his own place which he has also cleared and put into a fine state of culti- vation. lle has just added to the value of this splendid farm and to the comfort of living upon it by erecting a modern twelve-room house. It was already furnished with an excellent barn and other

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ontbuildings. He is engaged in farming on a some- what extensive scale for this country, where the difficulty of clearing land encourages small holdings and intensive cultivation of a small acreage. Ilis herd consists of one hundred head of excellent dairy cattle of the Holstein strain.

In 1891 in Seattle, Washington, Mr. Thompson married Miss Caroline, daughter of John P. Funk, a native of Norway, and sister of Martin and Peter Funk, of whom biographical mention has been made elsewhere in this volume. She was born in Denmark, but educated mostly in Wisconsin, hav- ing come to this country when still quite young. To her and Mr. Thompson have been born three children, namely. Arthur, Elmer and Myrtle. In politics Mr. Thompson is a Republican. in frater- nal affiliations a Workman and in religion a fol- lower of the famous Martin Luther. Like most other public spirited men he has taken his turn in serving on the school board. He is deservedly pop- ular in his community and held in the highest es- teem by all his neighbors who consider him a man of unstained integrity and honor, worthy of the fullest confidence.

ANTON KRAETZ, one of the thrifty and hard working German-American citizens who are con- tributing to the agricultural advancement of Sno- homish county, has to his credit the opening of two timbered farms in the Stillaguamish valley, on one of which. near Arlington, he is residing at this date. Born in Germany June 11, 1867, he enjoyed for a time the advantages offered by the excellent public schools which have made that land world- famous, but circumstances forced upon him at an carly age the struggle of life. His father, John E. Kraetz, a baker by trade, died when our sub- ject was still a lad, leaving the mother, Mrs. Cres- zent ( Reindl) Kraetz, with four young children to support and educate. She devoted her energies zealously to the task and had the satisfaction of living to see them all in a fair way to prosperity and comfort. When Anton was little more than thirteen years old he was apprenticed to the baker's trade and after two and a half years of service he was turned out as a competent craftsman. He con- tintied to work as a journeyman in the bakeries of his native land until July, 1888, then put into prac- tice a resolution to try his fortunes in the new land across the ocean, nor did he pause in his journeying until he had reached Tacoma, Washington. After a short residence there he moved to Snohomish county. Soon after his arrival he had purchased forty acres of heavily timbered land in the upper Stillaguamish country, to the clearing of which for cultivation he at once addressed himself with assid- uity and determination. The need 'of supplies forced him to return to Tacoma and the pursuit of his trade, but three months later he was back at his

cicaring, and on the new farm thus wrested from the domain of the forest giants he lived and pros- pered until 1902, when he sold it and purchased his. present place of fifty acres. Much of it has been cicared and the remainder is in shape to furnish' excellent pasture for stock. It is well improved, despite the fact that so few years have elapsed since he acquired it. He carries on a general farming- business, but, like many others in the vicinity, gives considerable attention to live stock, keeping twenty head of neat cattle at present.

In the town of Arlington, in 1898, Mr. Kraetz married Miss Rosa Spoerhase, a native of Minne- sota, whose parents were German born, but came to the Gopher state early in life and were married there. Both are now residents of Arlington. Mrs. Kraetz was born January 2, 1881, and was educated in the public schools of Minnesota and at Arling- ton. having come to the latter place when ten years old. She and Mr. Kraetz have four children, name- lv, Meta, Anton, Bertha and an infant son named Max. In politics Mr. Kraetz aligns himself with the Socialists and in fraternal membership he is a Woodman of the World. He has never manifested any special political ambitions, or desire for per- sonal preferment of any kind. but evidently contents himself with being one of the substantial citizens of his community. He belongs to the great army of toilers who are the real strength, the real boast of any country, the men who produce the wealth and the men who ought to receive a larger share than they do both of the blessings which that wealth brings and of the respect and esteem of their coun- trymen.

ERNEST BOHL. farming near Arlington, has passed a life of unusual activity in different lines of work and now finds himself a Snohomish county agriculturist in comfortable circumstances. Ile was born in Germany December 26, 1859, the son of Ernest and Augusta Bohl, neither of whom left their native land and both of whom are now dead. The elder Bohl was a teacher ly profession. Our subject attended the German schools until he was fourteen years of age, then received a billet aboard ship and followed the sea for fifteen years, during the last five of which he was a pilot. He came to Washington in 1888 and stopped for a time in the Puyallup valley, then went to the lower Columbia river and worked on a steamer for a number of months. In the early part of 1889 Mr. Boh! came for the first time to Snohomish county and took a homestead in the Stillaguamish valley. The following winter he went to San Francisco and engaged as quartermaster in the employ of the Pacific Steamship Company, remaining with that concern until 1892 in which year he returned to Sn hemish county and re-entered upon his home- stead. Selling this in 1900. he purchased eighty

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acres of heavily timbered land, forty of which he has since cleared and put in shape for producing hay and for grazing.

In 1892 at San Francisco Mr. Bohl married Miss Caroline Reidler, daughter of August Reidler. a German farmer who never left his native land. Mrs. Bohl was born in Germany in 1866, and re- ceived her education in the schools of that land. She came to the United States in 1891 and settled in San Francisco. Mr. and Mrs. Bohl have three children : Eliza, Augusta and Lenora. In frater- nal affiliations Mr. Bohl is a Yeoman, in politics a Republican, and in church membership a Luther- an. In his dairy and live stock business Mr. Bohl maintains a herd of thirty head, consisting of Shorthorns and Jerseys. He has recently erected a beautiful eight-room house, a fine commodious structure and a good type of modern farm house, with all conveniences and improvements possible in a rural community. Mr. Bohl is recognized as a man of sterling parts, energetic, thrifty, conserva- tice, possessed of a great capacity for hard work. and in all respects the kind of man that is needed to assist in subdning and developing a rugged coun- try.

MAX EITZENBERGER, whose farm lies five miles west of Arlington and three east of Silvana, same to Snohomish county in the eighties, with scarcely any means but his physical powers and his wealth of determination, to do for himself. Ile has now one of the pleasantest farms in the county and is in circumstances which may be rated as well to do. Mr. Eitzenberger was born in Germany De- cember 4. 1819, third of the five children of Joseph and Ottlie (Shorn) Eitzenberger, both of whom lived and died in the old country where the former was a merchant. Max Eitzenberger attended the German schools until he reached the age of four- teen, then commenced an apprenticeship to the cab- inet-making trade. After three years he was de- clared a competent tradesman. He continued to work at cabinet-making until 1881, when he emi- grated to the United States. He passed the first summer in this country in the state of Wisconsin, then went to Chicago and obtained employment in the shops of the Pullman Palace Car Company. He had been there but a short time when the strike broke out, so he moved to Colorado, remaining in the Centennial state for two years, after which he came to Washington, and went to work in the Northern Pacific shops at Tacoma. The following winter Mr. Eitzenberger came to Snohomish coun- ty and took a homestead on the Stillaguamish river, a heavily timbered tract with no trails leading to it. He commenced at once the task of clearing his land, living on provisions he carried in on his back, and he now has forty acres cleared and under cul- tivation or in pasture.

In 1888, at Silvana, Mr. Eitzenberger married Miss Wally Bartl, daughter of Johan and Kath- arina ( Lidl) Bartl, both of whom were natives of Germany. The father still lives though at the ad- vanced age of eighty-five years. Mrs. Eitzenberger was born in 1853. After being reared and educated in the schools of her native land she came, in 1888, to the United States, where she married soon after her arrival. She and Mr. Eitzenberger are parents of two children, Otto and Max. In political faith Mr. Eitzenberger is with the Socialist party; in religion a Catholic.

SYLVESTER S. STEVENS, farmer and stock- man of Arlington, has been a resident of Sno- homish county since 1889, and in that time he has taken a leading place in the social, public and com- mercial life of the community. Mr. Stevens is a native of Bradford county, Pennsylvania, born in 1$19, the oldest of three children of Philander and Hannah (Stiles ) Stevens. The elder Stevens, though a native of New York, passed the greater part of his life as a farmer in Pennsylvania and Michigan. Mrs. Stevens was a native of the Key- stone state. Sylvester S. attended the common schools of Pennsylvania and Michigan until, reach- ing the age of eighteen, he embarked in business for himself, his first venture being hauling logs from the forests to the mills of Michigan. This work he conducted with marked success for ten years, during which he also opened a livery stable at Lake City and operated a stage line between that place and Cadillac, ultimately selling out to enter the hotel and livery business in the latter city. While a resident of Cadillac Mr. Stevens was elected sheriff of Wexford county and served in that and Missaukee counties either as sheriff or deputy for sixteen years. He came to Washington in 1888 and in August of the following year set- tled on land on the north fork of the Stillaguamish which he filed on as a pre-emption. It was heavily timbered when Mr. Stevens took possession, but he has cleared about thirty-five acres of it, and put it in condition for cultivation. He has an orchard of 600 bearing fruit trees. In 1895 Mr. Stevens opened a meat market in Arlington, the second in the town. He also has a home in Arlington. His realty holdings outside the city consist of 326 acres of land, all of which is suitable, when cleared, for agricultural purposes and forty acres of which are already in a state of cultivation.

In 1885 while still a resident of Michigan Mr. Stevens married Miss Belle, daughter of William and Margaret ( Buell) Harding, both of whom passed the closing years of their lives in the l'enin- sala state. The father, a native of England, came to the United States when a young man and fol- lowed his trade. house painting. in Ohio and Mich- igan until his demise. Mrs. Stevens was born in

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1813 and was educated and grew to womanhood in the commonwealth of her nativity, where, also, she was married. She and Mr. Stevens are parents of three children, Sidney. Valley and Everett. In pol- itics Mr. Stevens is a Republican, deeply interested in affairs of public concern, but for himself he has never sought office in this county, though as before stated he had a long experience in office-holding in Michigan. He is looked upon as one of the sub- stantial. strong men of his community, awake to the best interests of his fellow citizens, always ready to do his share toward the promotion of any worthy enterprise and open-handed in giving legiti- mate assistance to the just cause that requires it. In fraternal affiliation he is an Odd Fellow.

CURT J. MURPHY .- Among the honored pioneers of Snohomish county there are few who, like the subject of this article, can claim the Pa- cific Northwest as their birthplace, hence few who can, in quite the same degree, lay claim to its his- tory as their heritage, its development as the fru- ition of their parents' planting and their own. Born in Monmouth, Polk county, Oregon, October 30, 1858. the son of sturdy Kentuckians who braved the dangers of plain and mountain in obedience to the impulse of the race to move westward, he has spent his entire life in the Northwest, mostly on the out- most fringe of civilization's domain, and in all the stern struggles with opposing natural forces he has proved himself a worthy son of his worthy parents. His father, William, and his mother, Eliz- abeth (Roundtree ) Murphy, moved from Kentucky to Washington by ox-team, spending nearly two ycars in making the journey, as they stopped fre- quently en route. They spent the first winter out from their native state, the winter of '51-'52, in Omaha, Nebraska, proceeding thence to Lewis county, this state, where they arrived in 1853, and where the ensuing four years of their life were spent. Later they made their home in Polk county, Oregon, where the father died in 1874, aged fifty- eight. He was an American of Americans, his an- cestors having established themselves in Baltimore as early as 1638. The death of the mother, who was a descendant of the Roundtree family so well known in Kentucky, occurred in 1889, when she was sixty-eight years old.

Curt J. Murphy, of this review, is the eighth of a family of eleven children, seven of whom are liv- ing in Oregon. After securing an excellent com- mon school education in his native state, he went, at the age of nineteen, to eastern Washington and for some time he was a cattle ranger there. He recalls the fact that he was in Spokane in 1877 when the Second Infantry was stationed at that point to defend the inhabitants during the Indian war, also that he cut the logs used in the erection of the first gristmill in that town. In 1879 he left

the range to accept a position as civil engineer for the Northern Pacific railroad, becoming a member of the party that located the stampede tunnel, 1881. `This work brought him to Seattle in 1883, at which time the Queen City boasted a population of 7,000 persons. The same year he came to Stanwood, whence he ascended the Stillaguamish to the forks,. the site of the present Arlington, four miles above the termination of the trail, and there he took the homestead which formed his farm and place of res- idence for the ensuing fourteen years. This re- gion, indefinitely referred to as "above the jam" was considered practically worthless, as it was com- monly believed that no road would be built to it for many years, perhaps not during the lifetime of the settlers of that date. But, indifferent to the rid- icule heaped upon him and fully convinced that his home in the forest must have a bright future, Mr. Murphy extended the trail and began operations with vigor. He had the satisfaction of seeing nu- merous families locating in the same vicinity dur- ing the next few months and he states that during the five years ensuing the land for sixteen miles farther up the river was taken. These early years,. although full of the trials and hardships incident to pioneer life, were not specially unpleasant or dis- couraging to Mr. Murphy, reared as he was on the frontier and thoroughly habituated to its strenu- ous features. It was six years after he located be- fore the first wagon was brought that far up the river, and many times it wa's necessary for him to. carry his supplies on his back. Among other in- teresting experiences he recalls that, while on one trip up the river for mail, he found on nearing his cabin that water was waist deep around it, having risen to that height in the short space of time while he was traveling only a few hundred feet. The flood subsided as quickly as it came, after having lasted only about half an hour. He afterward as- certained that the cause of the freshet was a huge ice jam in the river.

In 1886 Mr. Murphy was elected the first asses- sor of Snohomish county, and the following year he took a census which showed that there were 3,200 people within its bounds. It was through his influence that the first political and educational meetings were held in his neighborhood, and he has distinct recollections of the first school house, a structure erected of split cedar logs and floored' with lumber shipped up the river from Utsalady to the forks, then packed on mules a mile and a half to the point where needed. The first teacher in the district, he says, was John Condit, a Mormon, and there were fourteen names enrolled on the first register, only two of them white children. The next year, 1886, the sole white pupil was a son of L. Mose. In that year logging became one of the occupations of the locality, three different camps being started, owned by William McGee, Al. Mores and Frank Davis respectively. Mr. Murphy has.

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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 190

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