USA > Washington > Lincoln County > An illustrated history of the Big Bend country, embracing Lincoln, Douglas, Adams, and Franklin counties, state of Washington, pt 1 > Part 76
USA > Washington > Adams County > An illustrated history of the Big Bend country, embracing Lincoln, Douglas, Adams, and Franklin counties, state of Washington, pt 1 > Part 76
USA > Washington > Douglas County > An illustrated history of the Big Bend country, embracing Lincoln, Douglas, Adams, and Franklin counties, state of Washington, pt 1 > Part 76
USA > Washington > Franklin County > An illustrated history of the Big Bend country, embracing Lincoln, Douglas, Adams, and Franklin counties, state of Washington, pt 1 > Part 76
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88
Mr. and Mrs. Ball came to Lincoln county by way of San Francisco and Tacoma, pur- chased eight hundred and forty acres of unim- proved land and engaged in farming. Mr. Ball has now thirteen hundred and twenty acres all under cultivation and well improved, lying two and one-half miles southwest from Har- rington. He rented his land in 1902, removed to Harrington, where he has a fine home, and engaged in partnership with F. A. Hoes in the retail lumber. paint and oil business. He came to the county with limited means and is now, as may be judged from the amount of val- uable property he owns, in circumstances bor- dering upon wealth. He has one adopted son, Thomas S. Ball.
Mr. Ball was made a Mason thirty-five years ago, and both he and Mrs. Ball are mem- bers of the Eastern Star fraternity.
THOMAS A. HANSARD, born in Knox county. Tennessee, May 19, 1860, the son of Franklin C. and Margaret (Petrie) Hansard, is now a retired farmer living in a handsome modern residence in the town of Harrington, Washington.
The father of our subject came to Linn county. Oregon, in 1871. He was prominent- ly identified with the political affairs of that county for a number of years, and for four terms was a representative in the state legisla- ture. Both parents are now living in Lebanon, Linn county, Oregon, the father aged seventy- seven years and the mother one year his junior.
The brothers and sisters of Mr. Hansard are; G. B., of Lebanon, Oregon : J. L., in Los Angeles, California; G. R., at Lebanon, Ore- gon : S. P. and F. P., of Lincoln county, Wash- ington; and Mrs. Catherine Propst. of Leb- anon. Three sisters, Mrs. Dicey Snodderly, Mrs. Jane Scherer, and Mary Hansard, are dead.
Thomas A. Hansard came to Linn county, Oregon, with his parents in the fall of 1871. He divided his time between attending school at Lebanon and working on the farm for his
444
HISTORY OF THE BIG BEND COUNTRY.
father until the autumn of 1882, when he came to Dayton, Washington. The following year he came to Lincoln county and filed upon his present homestead, on December 6th of the same year.
He was then in poor circumstances and for five years after. coming here he was compelled to work in the harvest field to earn money with which to make improvements on his land.
Mr. Hansard has been twice married. He took for his wife, on July 21. 1895, Emma Allen, a native of Monroe county, Wisconsin. She was a devout member of the Baptist church, and departed this life on April 26. 1903. leaving three children living, Jannie May, Everett Clay, and Carl Bernard. One child. Ora Iris, preceded its mother to the grave.
On September 9. 1903, Mr. Hansard was again married, his wife being Mrs. Minnie (Putnam) Fletcher, a native of Alabama. She was the daughter of John Putnam, son of the famous General Putnam. He is now living at Gerard, Alabama.
Mr. Hansard is a deacon in the Baptist church and both he and Mrs. Hansard are members of that denomination.
Our subject now owns nine hundred and sixty acres of highly cultivated and well im- proved land near Harrington. In the fall of 1901 he rented his farm and established a resi- dence in Harrington. He is in comfortable circumstances and highly respected by all who know him.
ELVIS E. HAMMACK, a prominent cit- izen and farmer residing three and one-half miles southwest of Moscow. Washington, was born May 24, 1847. in Anderson county. Ten- nessee, the son of Isaac and Frances ( Rucker) Hammack. The father was born and reared to manhood in the county of our subject's birth, and spent the last seven years in Knox county. Tennessee. He died in 1870, aged forty-five years. The Hammack family came originally from Spain, and some members of the family were soldiers during the Revolutionary War. The mother, a lady of French ancestry, was also born in Tennessee of an old Virginia fam- ily. She died in 1871.
Our subject has one brother, James W .. and two sisters, Mrs. Eliza Dew and Mrs. Nancy Bennett. Mr. Hammack grew to man-
hood on a farm, and though deprived of a school education, he studied privately and suc- ceeded in acquiring an education sufficient to entitle him to teach. He taught his first school when a youth of eighteen years. He enlisted in the federal army near the close of the Civil War, but was never mustered into service. He mastered the carpenter's trade, at which he worked in his native state, in Denver, Colo- rado, where he went in 1872, and elsewhere. In 1877 he came via San Francisco and Port- land, to Linn county, Oregon, where he was first engaged in farming for ten years. In 1884 he was elected on the Democratic ticket to the office of assessor of Linn county, and in 1886 he engaged in buying and selling grain both on commission and for himself. He also was engaged in this business for the Orondo Shipping company, of Moscow, Washington, for two years.
During October, 1872, Mr. Hammack was married to Miss S. J. Wallace, a native of Ten- nessee, who died May 24, 1898, leaving one son, Roy W., a youth of more than ordinary promise. He was a graduate from the Leb- anon, Oregon, high school at the age of four- teen, and is now a student of the University of Oregon at Eugene. He is making a fine record in school, expects to remain until graduation and ultimately to take up the study of medicine.
Mr. Hammack was married to his present wife, Elizabeth (Schyff) McCoy Hammack, on May 15, 1901. She is the daughter of John H. and Gertrude (Camp) Schyff, natives of Holland. The parents of Mrs. Hammack both died in San Bernardino, California, whither, they went with their family by way of New York and Panama in 1862. She was married to John McCoy on June 24, 1884, in San Ber- nardino county, and came to this county in 1885. He took the farm where Mr. and Mrs. Hammack now live as a homestead and made it his home until he died, January 12, 1900, aged forty-one years.
Mr. and Mrs. Hammack, in addition to the original McCoy homestead, own three hundred and twenty acres of grain land near by. The buildings, appointments, and out-of-door im- provements are among the best in the county. Mr. Hammack also owns a modern residence in Tallman, Oregan.
Mr. Hammack is a member of the Masonic fraternity, in which order he has taken all the
1
445
HISTORY OF THE BIG BEND COUNTRY.
degrees up to and including the Knights Tem- plar. He has served his lodge as worshipful master. In politics he is a stanch Democrat and for sixteen years was a member of the county central committee of his party. Mrs. Hammack is a member of the Evangelical church.
GEORGE W. CAMERON was born in Carroll county, Ohio, January 14, 1835, and is now a retired farmer residing in Harrington. His father, John Cameron, born in Hancock county, Virginia, was a pioneer of Carroll county, Ohio, where most of his life was spent and where he died recently aged ninety-one years. He was of Scotch descent. The mother of Mr. Cameron was Betsy ( Williams) Cam- eron, a native of Newark, New Jersey, and lived to the age of seventy-one years. The brothers and sisters of George W. Cameron are: William, a wealthy stockman of Pitts- burg, Pennsylvania; Eliza, a college graduate, now correspondent for a Chicago hardware firm; Oderina, also college bred, now in the employ of a Chicago railroad company ; Henry C., a stockman of Davis county, Missouri ; Mrs. Elnora McCarty, of Topeka, Kansas; and Mrs. Mary Dawson, of St. Joseph, Missouri. George W. Cameron grew to manhood in Ohio, and in 1857 went to Chariton county, Missouri, where for a number of years he was overseer on a plantation. In 1861 he went to Peoria, Illi- nois, where for eleven years he was foreman in a distillery, after which time he went to Jones county, Iowa, and engaged in farming and in the livery business. Later he came west to Colusa county, California, where he farmed until 1891, when he started by wagon with his family to Lincoln county. He entered a home- stead and timber culture claim five miles south of Harrington, and soon succeeded in placing his land all under cultivation. He sold his land and improvements in October, 1903, removed to Harrington and entered upon a life of re- tirement and ease.
On October 24, 1856, Mr. Cameron was married to Lucinda Ball, a native of Jefferson county, Ohio, in which county the marriage took place. She was the daughter of Colonel Joseph L. and Mary Ball, who are mentioned in another sketch in this history.
Six children have been born to this union,
all of more than passing prominence in their respective localities: Nora, wife of John M. Maxwell, a farmer of Solano county, Califor- nia ; Jasper J., married to Lillie Lee and now living on his eight-hundred-acre farm seven miles west from Harrington; Georgia A., wife of Charles Ballard, a Woodland, California, grain buyer; Charles E., married to Gertie Wesp, living on four hundred acres of farming land five miles south of Harrington ; Jessie, wife of S. Q. Grafferd, of Okanogan county, Washington : and Luella, wife of Harvey Par- ker, living in the vicinity of Olympia, Wash- ington. The eldest son, whose name is given first, was for two terms a member of the state legislature from Lincoln county.
Mr. Cameron came to the county with little money, but has made a signal success of the business of farming, and has succeeded in plac- ing himself high in the confidence and respect of the entire population of his town and county.
ABRAM SHAW. The farm of Abram Shaw lies three-fourths of a mile south of Mos- cow, Washington. Mr. Shaw purchased three hundred and twenty acres of land where he lives in the fall of 1897, and three years later three hundred acres adjoining. All of his land is tillable and in a high state of cultivation. He has a good house, fine orchard and elaborate out-of-door improvements, including a black- smith shop and an ice house. He derives plenty of water from a well, having water piped into his house, barn and corral, and has plenty of stock and farm machinery, including a large steam threshing outfit. All this he has accumu- lated since coming to the Big Bend a poor man.
Abram Shaw, the son of David and Mary ( Davis) Shaw, both natives of Ontario, Can- ada, was himself born in Ontario, July 4, 1871. His father is now living near Moscow in his fifty-ninth year, while his mother is dead. The brothers and sisters of Mr. Shaw are. James, Albert, David N., William C., Mrs. Mary E. Woodruff, now deceased, Irene and Myrtle.
At the age of twelve Mr. Shaw came with his parents to Bay City, Michigan, where he grew to manhood, employed for the most part in the various sawmills roundabout. In the spring of 1892 he went to Portland, Oregon, thence to Puget sound and then to the Slocan
446
HISTORY OF THE BIG BEND COUNTRY.
mining district. He later took employment as a spiker on the construction of the Great North- ern railroad between Wenatchee and the coast. In January, 1893. he came to Davenport. He cut wood north of the city, worked on a farm, rented land and farmed for himself, and worked at various occupations here until buy- ing his present home.
On December 22, 1895, occurred the mar- riage of Abram Shaw, to Miss Lottie Long, a native of Sebastian county, Arkansas. Her fa- ther was George Long, a native of Tennessee, who was one of the "forty-niners" of Califor- nia. He later returned to Arkansas, and was a pioneer of Lincoln county, Washington. He died in 1903. Mrs. Shaw's mother is Nettie ( Phillips) Long, now living near Moscow. The following are the brothers and sisters of Mr. Shaw : Ella, Isabel, wife of Thomas Talk- ington ; Lee ; and Mace.
Mr. and Mrs. Shaw have three children, Everett Chester, Vernon Abram, and Virgil Garnett.
GEORGE W. BRINDLE, a farmer living one half mile south and two miles east of Mon- dovi, Washington, was born in Ashland county, Ohio, February 14, 1857. His father was John Brindle, born in Pennsylvania, and died in Ohio in the year 1876; and his mother was Susan (Burns) Brindle, who is still living on the old homestead in Ohio at the age of seventy- three years. She, too, was born in Pennsyl- vania, the daughter of Peter Burns, a soldier of the War of 1812, who lived to the age of ninety-six.
Mr. Brindle's brothers and sisters are, Mrs. Elizabeth Cotter, Mary, Mrs. Martha Gong- wer, Mrs. Emma Markley, Mrs. Josephine Boles, Mrs. Alice Simpson, John, Elmer and Edward.
The subject of our sketch was reared to manhood on a farm in the state of his birth. In the month of March, 1889, he came to the Big Bend country and in 1891 he purchased the homestead filing on his present farm. When he came here he settled on his claim of one hundred and sixty acres of raw land, and now owns three hundred and twenty acres of first class soil and all under cultivation. He has the very best and most modern improve- ments, and a water system by which water is
piped into his house and barn by means of a windmill and tank. He makes a specialty of the culture of cereals.
During December, 1881, Mr. Brindle took for his wife Jane Imhoff, who was born in Ohio, to Peter and Anna (Menson) Imhoff, both living in Reardan. To this union three children were born, Ralph, Lule and Earl. On May 15, 1900, the family was bereaved by the death of the wife and mother.
George WV. Brindle is a member in good standing of Reardan Lodge, number eighty- four, I. O. O. F. Although he came to the county with no money nor worldly possessions of any sort he is now doing well and considered in comfortable circumstances.
JOHN WESLEY SETTERS was born in Sullivan county, Missouri, September II, 1858; came to Washington with his parents in 1879: and is now living on a farm three and a half miles northeast of Reardan. His father is Peter Setters, a sketch of whose life is given elsewhere in this history, and his mother is Elizabeth E. (Warren) Setters. The parents are now residing in the town of Reardan, where they lead a life of retirement from active busi- ness.
John W. Setters was given a liberal educa- tion in his younger days, while he lived on a farm. . After coming to this state he was em- ployed by the Northern Pacific railroad in its construction work between Spokane and Mis- soula, Montana. After leaving this work he purchased a piece of railroad land, which he subsequently disposed of to his father when he purchased a quarter section of school land in 1891 upon which he has since made his home. His land is all suitable for agricultural purposes, and is in a good state of cultivation and well improved.
In fraternity circles he is identified with Big Bend Court, No. 55. Foresters of America.
John W. Setters was married to Emma Byrd, a native of Chariton, Iowa, July 6, 1889. Mrs. Setters' parents were Richard and Mrs. Byrd, the mother's maiden name being Russell. She died quite early in Mrs. Setters' life, and the father has since been married to Mary Martin. Mr. Byrd is a native of Ken- tucky. He is a veteran of the Mexican War,
447
HISTORY OF THE BIG BEND COUNTRY.
and came to Reardan in 1886, where he still makes his home.
Mr. Setters began life for himself as a poor young man, working on the railroad for a start. He is now quite well-to-do, and has made himself all that he now owns. Having lived in this vicinity since 1879, he is a man of wide acquaintance, and is highly spoken of wherever he is known.
JUDGE JACKSON BROCK, veteran soldier, pedagogue, attorney and farmer, is, in truth, a self-made man. Born in Scioto coun- ty, Ohio, October 19, 1836, he was the son of John and Sarah (Shoemaker) Brock.
He was brought up in Gallia county, Ohio, and educated in the common schools and in the Gallia academy. After graduation from the last named institution he taught school for six years in Ohio, then entered upon the study of law. His studies were interrupted however, by the outbreak of hostilities between the North and the South, and in June, 1862, he enlisted in Company E, Eighty-sixth Ohio Infantry, served his time and reenlisted in 1864. He served principally in Virginia, and was en- gaged in many skirmishes but was never wounded. He was a corporal of the One Hun- dred and Forty-first Ohio when he received his final honorable discharge. After leaving the army he returned to his home and again took up the work of teaching and the study of the law, and was admitted to the bar in 1865. In the fall of the same year he went to Bruns- wick, Missouri, where he taught the first free school ever opened there. The following year he was elected on the Republican ticket to the office of superintendent of schools of his adopted county, Chariton, and at the expiration of his term was elected to the common pleas judge- ship of the same county, he also having prac- ticed law there. In 1878 he removed to Ar- mourdale. Kansas, where he was principal of the schools, and in 1886 came to Spokane. Washington, filed and made proof upon a pre- emption. He came to Davenport in 1888. entered his present homestead, and followed the practice of his profession. In November of the same year he was elected judge of the pro- bate court of Lincoln, and in 1894 was elected prosecuting attorney and reelected in 1896,
after which he retired from the law to apply himself to his agricultural interests. He has a handsome home on sixteen hundred and fifty acres of land close to the town of Davenport, all of which is under fence and in a high state of cultivation and improvement.
During his lifetime Judge Brock has been unusually prominent and active in fraternity circles, being a member of the .A. F. &. A. M., of the I. O. O. F., of Brunswick, Missouri, and of the Philo Buckman Post, G. A. R. of Sprague, Washington. He is a thorough be- liever in the Scriptures, including both the Old and New Testaments. Although he has never. attached himself to any denomination, still he believes every man should worship God according to the dictates of his conscience.
ALFRED GRAVELLE maintains a resi- dence in Spokane, though his postoffice address is Reardan, Washington. He was born July 4, 1854, in Montreal, Canada. His father, Oc- tave Gravelle, was born in Canada, of French extraction, and is now living in Big Hole, Montana, at the age of seventy-eight. The subject's mother is Mrs. Sophia (Dow) Gravelle, and is still living at the age of sev- enty-six with her husband at Big Hole. She is of Scotch descent and was born and reared in Canada.
Mr. Gravelle came with his parents to Rut- land, Vermont, in 1865, and was employed for a time in the marble quarries near that city. In 1870 he went to Virginia City, Nevada, spend- ing several years in the mines there. Among the mines in which he was employed was the famous Belcher mine, one of the Comstock Company's properties, which reached a depth of three thousand, five hundred feet,-the deepest mine in America, if not in the world. After eight years spent in Nevada he came to Washington and filed a homestead on a piece of land eight miles southwest of where Reardan now stands, he being one of the first settlers in that section, in fact, but few settlers had found their way to the entire Big Bend at that time. He later sold his homestead and bought two hundred and forty acres of land where Gravelle Station, on the Seattle & Lake Shore railway now is, the station having been named for him. His land is all of good quality
448
HISTORY OF THE BIG BEND COUNTRY.
and well improved. He also has a large tract of land in the vicinity of Fruitland, Stevens county. In addition to his farm property. he, as has been stated, maintains a residence in the city of Spokane, where a portion of his time is spent. He has quite extensive interests in several good mining properties situated in dif- ferent parts of the state. Although coming to the country with but little capital he is at this time comfortably situated and independent in so far as his living in concerned.
HON. AUGUSTUS S. MELCHER, who resides about five miles southeast from Edwall, was born in Greene county, New York, on January 6, 1853. His parents, Christopher H. and Sophia ( Horning) Melcher, are both de- ceased. The father was born in Hanover, Ger- many, on January 27, 1823, came to the United States in 1843, and died on January 12, 1897. in Wisconsin. The mother was born in Baden, Germany, in July, 1830 and died in Wisconsin, in 1894. The common schools of his native place furnished the primary educational train- ing for our subject and then he completed with honors a high school course. Immediately upon his graduation, Mr. Melcher went to teaching and in Wisconsin and Oregon, as well as in Washington, he was faithful for years in the instruction of the young. It was 1877 that he landed in Oregon and in 1882 he made his way to Lincoln county, Washington, where he took a homestead and devoted the winters to teaching and the summers to improving his farm. In 1892, he was nominated on the Re- publican ticket for superintendent of schools in his county but was defeated by H. N. Mar- tin. But in the fall of 1904, his name appeared on the Republican ticket again, this time for representative of Lincoln county in the state legislature. He scored a good majority, is a popular man, and will doubtless make an effic- ient officer.
At Portland, Oregon, on March 10, 1879. Mr. Melcher married Miss Mary Misner, the daughter of Christopher and Cordelia (Clark) Misner. The father was a Methodist minister and preached in Multnomah county, Oregon, in 1876. Two years later he came to Wash- ington and preached through the country until
his death in 1889, in Lincoln county. He was a pioneer of the west and did a noble work. The mother is a descendant of General Stark of Revolutionary fame and is related to the Clarks of Illinois. She is now living in Mel- rose, Idaho. To Mr. and Mrs. Melcher the following named children have been born ; Carry J., a graduate of the Blair Business Col- lege of Spokane and now working for a-lead- ing business house in Sprague ; Christopher H .. Edna E., Myrtle, Zella S., Lloyd, Walter, and Genevieve. He is one of the successful men of the country and has a magnificent estate of eleven hundred and twenty acres. His sons own two hundred and forty acres in addition and the place is fitted with all that brings com- fort and is convenient in a rural abode. He has a comfortable residence and is a man of thrift and good taste.
HUGH L. THOMPSON, who resides about six miles southeast from Edwall, is one of the early pioneers of the northwest. As early as 1852, he came to Oregon with his parents and since that time has resided on the Pacific coast. He was born in Newton county, Missouri, on November 2, 1844. His father, Mercer Thompson, was born in Clay county, Kentucky, emigrated to Missouri and in 1849 crossed the plains to California. He returned to Missouri in the winter of 1851-2 and in the spring of 1852, with his family, consisting of his wife and four children, the oldest of whom was seven years, crossed the plains again, set- tling in Oregon. He there engaged in farming and stock raising for some time and also sup- plied several mining camps with provisions. His death occurred on April 16, 1876. The mother of our subject, Sarah W. (Denagree) Thompson, was born in Kentucky and died in Oregon in September, 1891. The train in which Mr. Thompson crossed the plains, con- sisted of about one hundred grown people, be- sides a good many children. They started from Newton county, Missouri, on the 20th of March, 1852. His father was captain and so wisely handled affairs that the entire train landed in the Willamette valley about the mid- dle of September without any special incident or loss. However, two cases of cholera oc-
HON. AUGUSTUS S. MELCHER
HUGH L. THOMPSON
FRANK T. LARRABEE
449
HISTORY OF THE BIG BEND COUNTRY.
curred on the road but the father having read medicine in early life attended them both un- til their recovery. At different times, they discovered fresh signs of Indian massacres on the road, as the train proceeded, but they had no difficulty. Our subject continued with his father until 1864, both in working on the farm and in freighting to the mining camps in Idaho and western Oregon. He was one of the first men to pull freight into the Boise Basin, during the boom times, and provisions cost one dollar per pound. After that, he went to farming and rented land, then purchased the same, making it his home until 1886. After this, we see him in Umatilla county, where he re- mained until the fall of 1895. He removed from that place to Idaho and then to British Columbia, remaining in the last place four years, there giving his attention to prospect- ing and mining. He returned to the United States, locating in Douglas county and from there moved to his present place in 1902. He does not own the land where he resides but has farmed about two sections. He owns one sec- tion of land in Canada and the Indian Head country and has a homestead near Trinidad, Douglas county. He has a full equipment of farm machinery, horses and so forth, to oper- ate the large tract of land, under his care and is a well known citizen. Of all the people who crossed the plains with him, our subject knows of but three still living. They are his aunt, Mrs. Elizabeth (Thompson) Walker, and his cousins, Louis Sullens and W. J. Thompson. Mr. Thompson has the following brothers and sisters, A. N., L. G., Mrs. Amanda Taylor, J. L., and Mrs. Alice Bullein.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.