USA > Washington > Walla Walla County > An illustrated history of Walla Walla County, state of Washington > Part 60
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to reach the camp for text-books and the rude miners for instructors.
Mr. Perry remained in this camp, far from the haunts of civilization, for thirteen and a half years, locating five mines, one of which, the Mariposa, is a well-known gold and silver producer at this day. He then returned to his old home, recrossing the Death Valley, and confirming the observations of his childhood. Three days after his arrival at home, he set out for San Francisco, and took a contract to supply the Pacific Coast Distilling Company with potatoes. He was thus employed for five years.
On March 2. 1877, our subject arrived in Walla Walla. He purchased one hundred and twenty acres of land three miles below town, where he engaged in diversified farming and gardening. Ile has been adding to his original home from time to time until he is now the owner of seven hundred acres in two tracts, on which he, at present, raises timothy and al- falfa mostly, his annual crop averaging about thirteen hundred tons. Mr. Perry has also been a successful contractor for the past fifteen years. He built the penitentiary, finishing the walls in sixty-nine days, also graded many of the Walla Walla streets, and did much con- tract work on the various railroads running into the city.
Mr. Perry is in every sense of the word a self-made man, having started to work out his own destiny when seven years old without capi- tal or education, and having achieved, in spite of obstacles which would have overwhelmed a less resolute spirit, the high standing in the social and financial world which he now enjoys. He is a man of truly remarkable abilities and giant force of character. He was married at Lewiston. Idaho, on July 11. 1879, to Miss Nettie V. Coffin, a native of Oregon, whose
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parents came overland from Massachusetts to that state in 1855. Mr. and Mrs. Perry have had two children, Fred D .. deceased, and Will- iam C., a student in Whitman College. On February 5. 1901, Mr. Perry had the misfor- tune to lose his wife, who had been ill for over sixteen months previous to her demise. Her remains lie buried in the Walla Walla ceme- tery beside those of her son.
EDWIN W. McCANN. lately dealer in hardware and implements, at Waitsburg, is a native of Dodge county, Wisconsin, born in 1847. When he was quite young, his family moved to a different part of the state, to Omro, and here Mr. McCann resided until fourteen years old. In 1862, he moved to Filmore county, Minnesota, where he completed his public school education. He then engaged in farming. In 1869. he moved to Chippewa county, took a homestead, and engaged in farming there. In 1878, he entered the employ of L. K. Stone as a wheat-buyer and elevator man and this was his occupation until April. 1887, when he sold out his holdings and came to Waitsburg. Washington.
Shortly after his arrival here, he formed a partnership with Mr. Macomber, for the pur- pose of starting a hardware and implement store and to that business his energies have been given ever since nutil quite recently, but he lately sold out. He is an excellent business man, being possessed of the shrewdness; fore- sight and unerring judgment characteristic of the truly successful in commercial life. He is also a public-spirited man, ever ready to do what lies in his power for the social and ma- terial amelioration of the neighborhood in which he lives. In 1889, he was elected a
school director, and has served as such ever since except for a period of two years. In 1897, he was elected to the mayoralty of Waits- burg. His re-election followed in 1898, and in 1899 he declined renomination.
In politics Mr. McCann was a Democrat until 1896, when his gold standard principles compelled him to support Mckinley, and he has since belonged to the Republican party. In fraternal affiliations he is a Mason, a Knight of Pythias and a Workman. He was married at Montevideo, Minnesota, in 1879, to Mary G. Anderson, a native of Minnesota, and to their union have been born two children, Elma L. and Josephine.
GEORGE DELANY, farmer, 422 Rose street, Walla Walla, was born in East Tennes- see in 1831. When eight years old he removed with his parents to southwestern Missouri, whence seven years later he set out on the jour- ney across the continent to Oregon, traveling by team. He resided in the Willamette valley, that state, engaged in farming until 1858, then came to Walla Walla and turned his attention to freighting and handling stock. His teams conveyed supplies into Montana and Idaho, and he drove cattle into British Columbia. In ISSo he again became a tiller of the soil, this time on an extensive scale, for he rented five thousand acres of land and purchased twenty- three hundred, the latter tract being just over the Oregon line from Walla Walla. He is still farming and stock raising in Yakima and Columbia counties.
Mr. Delany has made his way in the world under difficulties, having been denied all the school privileges ordinarily enjoyed by Amer- ican boys, for he has never been within the
GEORGE DELANY
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HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
walls of a schoolhouse in session time. He has, however, by his own efforts largely overcome these early disadvantages, and his industry, good judgment and splendid business ability have enabled him to attain a success in life which may well be the envy of many who have been much more unfortunate in their early en- vironment. He was married in Marion coun- ty, Oregon, in 1870, to Olive Day, a native of Illinois, but an early pioneer of the west. They have six children, namely, Sarah, Roxie, Henry, Burton, George and Harvey H.
JOHN B. McDONALD, deceased, a pio- neer of 1882, was born in Green Lake county, Wisconsin, January 2, 1845. He was the first white child born in that county. His father was an officer in the United States army, and in 1830 had been sent into Wisconsin to keep the Indians quiet. Mr. McDonald resided in the neighborhood in which he was born until nineteen years old, receiving a public school education, then started to do for himself. He visited New York state and Vermont, and finally entered the service of the United States government, his duty being to take horses to the front for the use of the army. He was present in Washington at the time of Lincoln's assassination, and was detailed for a short time to guard the city limits in order, if possible, to prevent the escape of the assassin.
A little later Mr. McDonald went to Bal- timore, where he was taken sick with fever and ague, and practically laid up for two years, but at intervals he was able to do a little at the business he then followed, namely, putting in lightning rods for the protection of buildings. In 1867, he returned to his old home in Wis- consin and farmed a year, afterwards going to
Blue Earth county, Minnesota. He followed farming there one summer and in the fall pur- chiased a threshing machine and engaged in that industry. A serious accident befell him, how- ever. His foot was caught in the cogs of the power, laying him up for two years completely and making him permanently lame. In 1871 he bought railroad land, and for a while fol- lowed farming and teaming, but eventually sold out and engaged in selling farm imple- ments, wagons, etc., for an eastern firm. Two years later, he was called home to take charge of his father's farm, and he was engaged in agricultural pursuits there and at Fond du Lac for the next four years, but in 1878 he removed to Petaluma, California.
After farming there also for a number of months Mr. McDonald started via Portland, for this valley, but, owing to the Indian out- break, wintered on the Lewis river, where the next spring he engaged in the dairy business. Shortly afterwards, he moved to a place thirty miles from The Dalles, and here Mr. McDonald worked in a sawmill until 1882. He then tried farming again, but lost everything by grasshoppers.
In the fall of 1882 he reached Walla Walla, the point he had started for so many years before, and the next spring he took a home- stead on Eureka flat. He was a farmer in that neighborhood until 1891, when he moved into the city of Walla Walla for the benefit of his children. He died on March 27, 1893.
Mr. McDonald was for many years one of the leading men in his part of the county serv- ing in almost all the local offices and once re- fusing the nomination for county commis- sioner. He was married in Fond du Lac, Wis- consin, February 27, 1873, to Miss Eliza L. Sharratt, a native of Wisconsin, who assisted her husband by teaching and in every way in
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her power to acquire the competency they en- joyed before his death. She is now the owner of one thousand one hundred and twenty acres of land in the county.
Mr. and Mrs. McDonald became parents of five children : John H., an attorney in Walla Walla, who has the honor of having served in the Philippine war as a member of the First Washingtons : Elsie M .. now Mrs. Edward H. Bradbury: Jessie E., a student in the Washing- ton Agricultural College, at Pullman : and Lila G., a student in the public schools, also Will- iam F., who died at the age of eighteen. The family affiliate with the First Presbyterian church of Walla Walla, and Mrs. McDonald also belongs to the Woody Glen Circle, Women of Woodcraft, and to the Order of Wash- ington.
MARTIN MEINERS. one of the prosper- ous and well-to-do farmers of the county. re- siding ten miles east of Walla Walla, was born in Germany, March 6, 1847. Like most Ger- man youth, he enjoyed the privileges of the public school until fourteen years old. In 1864, he, with his father and the remainder of the family, except his mother, who had died some years before, came to America. They located in Illinois, where Mr. Meiners lived umtil 1883. In that year, however, he came out to Walla Walla county, invested the savings of the nineteen years he had passed in Illinois in a section of land, and engaged in farming. He has followed the same occupation on the same place contin- uously since, and now has a pleasant home and surroundings.
Mr. Meiners is a thrifty, industrious farm- er, possessed of those neighborly qualities which render a man esteemed and respected in the community in which he lives. He is not
especially active in politics, though he takes a lively and intelligent interest in local affairs. Ile was married in Illinois in 1874, to Miss Ettje Beenders, a native of Germany, and they have a family of four children, Cornelius M .. John E., Grace W., and Elsina M.
ANDREW J. TASH. a farmer residing ten miles east of Walla Walla, a pioneer of 1861, was born in the state of Indiana, Jan- mary. 15. 1839. He resided there until nine years old, then accompanied his parents to Mis- souri, in which state the ensuing five years were passed. During the next six years, he was a resident of lowa and there be com- pleted his education.
About that time the emigration to the west was at its height, and the prospects of realiz- ing a fortune in a day were becoming very at- tractive to the adventurous mind of the youth- ful Mr. Tash. so, in 1859. he joined the rush for California. Ile made the long journey with ox-teams, and in due season reached the prom- ised land. He remained in California two years, but, failing to find conditions as he had hoped, he came to Walla Walla county in 1861. For the next half decade. he was operating in the various mining regions of Idaho, among them. Oro Fino, but in 1866 he took a home- stead where we now find him and settled down to the life of a farmer and stock 'raiser. He is, at present. the owner of three hundred and twenty acres of fine land, well improved, and everywhere bearing eloquent testimony to the thrift and industry of its owner.
Mr. Tash was married in Walla Walla county, on September 16, 1866, to Miss Mary E. Brooks, a native of Missouri, who died . April 30, 1874. leaving one child, Frank E. On
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September 16, 1876, he was again married, the lady being Lucy M. Klemgaard, a native of Utah. Of this union, seven children have been born : Harry A., Hattie E., Elmer E., Neoma D., Gertrude, Raymond and Clifford Watson.
HARRY GILKERSON, a farmer resid- ing about seven miles east of Walla Walla, was born in this county in 1866. He received such education as was to be had in the public schools of the neighborhood, then went to the Big Bend country, 'where for four years he was engaged in farming. At the end of that period, he came to the section in which we now find him, and purchased one hundred and thirty acres.of land, twenty acres of which are now under cultivation, the remainder being grazing and timber land. He has a fine home nicely lo- cated and supplied with all the improvements necessary for comfort. For the last six years, he has been agent at the Dudley warehouse for the Pacific Coast Elevator Company, hand- ling about seventy thousand sacks of grain per annum. He is a young man of energy, pro- gressiveness and force, and possesses moral good qualities which win for him the respect and confidence of the community in which he lives. He belongs to the local camp, Modern Woodmen of America. In February, 1890, in Walla Walla county, he married Malina J. Rohn, and they have had three children, two of whom are now living, Freddie and Jessie May. The deceased child was named Harry Lewis.
MATTHIAS A. CARIS, contractor, a pioneer of 1864, was born in Portage county, Ohio, January 8, 1834. He resided with his
father on a farm there until seventeen years. of age, receiving a public school education, then engaged in brick making with a brother, and this was his business for the next five years. In 1855 he went to Illinois, and nine months later he removed thence to Mount Pleasant, Iowa, where for four years he fol- lowed the lightning-rod business. He then crossed the plains with ox-teams, his objective point being Boise City, Idaho, but three weeks after his arrival he started north to the Walla Walla valley.
The first season after coming here Mr. Caris farmed a rented place on the Touchet river, then joining the rush, he went to the Cœur d'Alenes and opened a provision store in the mount- ains among the Indians, twenty-five miles from any other white settler. For four years thereafter he spent his summers in the Cœur d'Alenes and his winters on the Touchet river, where he collected his supplies. Visiting his old home in the east in 1869, he passed the winter there, and in the spring brought a car- load of wagons to Boise City and disposed of them there. He ordered another car shipped to Walla Walla, and as soon as they arrived opened an agricultural implement and wagon establishment here, the first of its kind in the city.
After remaining in this business twelve years he sold out and began farming on a ten-hundred-and-sixty-acre ranch, which he had secured by using his pre-emption and tim- ber-culture rights and by purchase. For ten years he was one of the leading farmers of the county, but in 1890 he moved back into the city and engaged in his present business, teaming and contracting.
Mr. Caris is a very energetic, progressive man, possessed of a degree of executive ability which has enabled him to achieve excellent
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HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
success in the various lines of activity in which he has been engaged. He was married first in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, March 11, 1860, to Miss Rachael Johnson, who died in Walla Walla July 30, 1869, leaving one son, Charles F., in business with his father. He was again married at Athena, Oregon, on May 16, 1880, the lady being Miss Maria M. Blum, a native of Pennsylvania, but reared and educated in Wisconsin. She has been a resident of this valley most of the time since 1876. Mr. and Mrs. Caris are both members of the First Congregational church of Walla Walla, which they joined in 1895.
ROBERT M. GRIFFITH, a farmer re- siding twelve miles east of Walla Walla, a pioneer of September, 1860, was born on the island of Barbadoes January 6, 1832. He came to the United States in 1841, landing at Phila- delphia, and before long embarked on a vessel and went to sea. Young though he was, he stuck to that rigorous occupation four years, but, disembarking in Massachusetts in 1845, he accepted a position as overseer of a cotton mill. He was employed thus for thirteen years, then as a napper of cotton flannels in a mill in New York for four years. Influenced by a desire for the wild, free life of the west, he then came out to Minnesota and Dakota, and thence in course of time made his way to the mining regions of Idalio.
In 1860 he came to Walla Walla county, whence for several years he freighted into the various mining regions, Oro Fino, Florence, the Nez Perce country and other places. He took an active part in repressing the various Indian uprisings of this period. Subsequently he engaged in farming, an occupation to which
his best energies have been given ever since. For the past nine years he has resided on his present place, where he has established a com- fortable home for himself and his family. Mr. Griffith has always taken the interest that every good citizen should in the affairs of county, state and nation, and though he has never held or coveted any office, he is recog- nized as one of the representative men in politics. He was married in Walla Walla county in 1882, to Miss Annie Sorrenson, a native of San Pete county, Utah, and now has a family of two children, Catherine A. and Robert W.
While in Utah Mr. Griffith experienced some trying adventures, being at one time fired upon by Mormons, and once robbed by Indians in the neighborhood of Burnt river, losing thirteen hundred dollars' worth of property. The family belong to the Method- ist church.
JOHN BUSH, a retired farmer and stock raiser of Eureka, is a native of Germany, born January 29, 1832. He remained in the land of his nativity until twenty years old, receiving the customary education, but in 1852 he emigrated to New York. After a residence of only a few months he removed to Chicago, Illinois, and enlisted in the regu- lar army. He was sent to Newport Barracks in Kansas, thence to Fort Worth, Texas, where he remained a year, being thereupon sent to the Rio Grande to protect a gang of sur- veyors who were locating artesian wells in New Mexico. Eighteen months were thus passed, then he spent a brief period of time in San Antonio, Texas, from which city he was sent to Fort Meyers, Florida, to assist in settling the Indian difficulties there. He was next or-
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HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
dered to Salt Lake, where he resided until 1857, when he was honorably discharged. However, he served during the next seven months as a volunteer in the United States army in the Mormon war, then hired to a quartermaster as a teamster, coming with him to Fort Walla in 1859.
In 1861 Mr. Bush retired from the army entirely, took up land and engaged in farm- ing and stock raising. For a number of years thereafter he was one of the thrifty and sub- stantial farmers of the county, but of late years he has retired from active participation in any business, and is enjoying a well-earned rest. He was married in August, 1872, to Miss Lena Myer, a native of Germany, who came to this country after she had grown to womanhood. They have one daughter, Anna, born in August, 1873.
GEORGE F. LEWIS, one of the thrifty, enterprising farmers of the vicinity of Dixie, a pioneer of 1862, was born in Iowa Novem- ber II, 1842. He grew to man's estate there, receiving good educational advantages, and when twenty years old started across the plains with ox-teams, determined to try his fortunes in the west. He in due time came to a halt in Walla Walla county, secured an outfit, and en- gaged in the business of hauling freight to the different mining regions in Idaho. In this sturdy occupation ten full years were spent, but in 1870 he located his present place and settled down to the life of a ranchman. He has one hundred acres of excellent land, well improved and furnished with all buildings and machinery necessary to a well-equipped little farm. He raises stock principally, but is a diversified farmer, and does not entirely neg-
lect anything which can be produced at a profit in this section of the county.
Mr. Lewis married at Oakland, Oregon, in 1872, Miss Effie Williams, a native of that state, who was taken from him by death a few years ago. By this marriage he has had two children, David W., deceased, and Dollie F., wife of Samuel Adwell, of Dixie. In 1898 Mr. Lewis again married, the lady being Mina Jackson, a native of Iowa.
CHARLES GILKERSON, a farmer re- siding seven miles east of Walla Walla, is a native of this county, born in 1864. He re- ceived a public-school education, and, having been raised on a farm, naturally turned to that occupation when he went into business for himself. He spent about four and a half years in Whitman county, engaged in tilling the soil, then returned to his home county and purchased a two-hundred-and-forty-acre farm, all wheat land, on which he has ever since re- sided. He is an enterprising man, and ranks among the prosperous and well-to-do farmers of his part of the county. He was married in Walla Walla county in 1898, to Miss Cath- erine Tracy, a member of one of the oldest pioneer families of the Inland Empire. Her father was an Indian war veteran of note. Mr. and Mrs. Gilkerson are parents of one son, Eddie.
THOMAS GILKERSON, a farmer re- siding on Mill creek, six miles east of Walla Walla, was born in England October 19, 1837. When a boy of four he was brought by his parents to New York state. His father located in Homer, and in that town Mr. Gilkerson
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HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
passed his carly youth and acquired his edu- cation. In 1859. influenced by a commenda- ble desire for larger and better opportunities than were to be had in his home town, he started. via Panama, to the coast. Landing in British Columbia, he spent a brief period of time there, but, failing to find anything to his liking, he soon came to Walla Walla county.
During the first two years of his stay here Mr. Gilkerson worked as a farm hand for his wife's first husband, and, by industry and fru- gality, managed to accumulate enough to pur- chase a quarter section, and to start, in a small way, in farming on his own account. Indus- trious and frugal, he was also, as his venture in farming soon proved, a careful and con- servative, yet progressive, man, and he con- tinued to prosper and to increase in wealth until he became one of the comfortable and well-to-do farmers of the county. He now has four hundred acres of land and is raising grain and stock.
Unlike many farmers in this county, Mr. Gilkerson is a believer in diversified farming, so he keeps and raises cattle, hogs, horses, sheep and other live stock, not. however, neglecting wheat, barley, fruits and other farm products. In this way he always has something for sale in every season of the year. He has always taken an active, intelligent interest in the af- fairs of county, state and nation, though he has never manifested any ambition for per- sonal preferment, and has never held an office. . Ilis party affiliation is with the Democrats.
In this county, in 1863, our subject mar- ried Mrs. Eliza McWhirk, nec Sickley, a na- tive of Pennsylvania, and a pioneer of 1859. ller first husband died in 1862, leaving one son. George 11. She and Mr. Gilkerson have four children living, Charles, Harry. Thomas
and Lewis. By her marriage with Mr. Mc- Whirk, in 1860, Mrs. Gilkerson gained the distinction of being the first white lady mar- ried in Walla Walla county. The solemniza- tion was by Judge Kennedy, who gave her a black silk dress in recognition of her being the first to take upon herself matrimonial bonds within the limits of the county. It is worthy of mention, as illustrating the condi- tions obtaining at that time, that Judge Ken- nedy had to send to The Dalles, Oregon, for the dress, there being nothing of so expensive a nature in Walla Walla or any town nearer at that early period.
MOSES SWAIM. one of the leading farmers of the county, is a native of Indiana, born September 15. 1840. When nine years old he accompanied his parents to Illinois, and there he grew to manhood and received his education. He enlisted for service in the Civil war in the fall of 1861, and was a mem- ber of Company I. Eleventh Illinois Cavalry, until after the close of hostilities. He was honorably discharged at Quincy, Illinois, in 1866, after a military career of which he and his family have just reason to be proud.
Our subject then located at Fort Scott, Kansas, where, during the ensuing seven years. he followed farming as a business. In 1873. however, he removed thence to Missouri. where he farmed for seven years more, after which he passed six years in the same business in South Dakota. In 1886 he set out for the west, but did not reach Washington till the spring of 1887. having stopped for the win- ter at Rollins, Wyoming. He finally located in the vicinity of Walla Walla, where he rent- ed land and farmed until 1893. In that year,
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