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 80
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 80
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 80
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 80
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Perry H. Chapel was born in Polo, Illinois, .came to Camas Prairie in 1882 and to Lincoln
county in 1884. Mrs. Chapel was born in Mis- souri.
The brothers and sisters of Mr. Chapel are : Arthur C., Lucy M. M., Joseph F., and Lillian.
Mr. Chapel early in life received a good grammar school education, and is in every re- spect a competent and intelligent young tiller of the soil, and is a valuable young man to his county.
J. L. KURZ. In the spring of 1882, ac- companied by a sister, J. L. Kurz came to Lo- gansport, Indiana, from Kolmar, Germany, where he was born on September 22, 1864. After a brief sojourn at Logansport he removed to Chippewa county, Minnesota, whence he came to Spokane in 1889. In the spring of 1891 he came to Lincoln county and took a homestead where Rocklyn is now located, which, after improving it, he sold and bought his present home of three hundred and twenty acres two miles south of Davenport. His land is for the most part adapted to the culture of grain, is well improved and well watered, be- ing one of the most desirable farms in the county both as to soil and location.
Mr. Kurz is the son of Ludwig and Hen- rietta (Martin) Kurz, who live on a farm where our subject was born, and who, in De- cember, 1903, celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. The parents have nine children, only three of whom are in the United States.
On March 25, 1891, occurred the marriage of J. L. Kurz to Maggie Maurer, a native of Bay county, Michigan, and daughter of George J. and Anna (Stenger) Maurer, natives of Germany, who are now living on a farm near Rocklyn. They have been parents of thirteen children, eleven of whom are living.
To Mr. and Mrs. Kurz have been born seven children, whose names are: Elsie, Harry, Meta, Florence, Alma, Mabel and Herbert.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Kurz are members of the German Methodist Episcopal church.
Mr. Kurz started in life in the Big Bend with extremely limited means, but succeeded in accumulating considerable property prior to 1893, when, during the panic of that year he suf- fered the loss of all his savings. He started in anew, however, and worked heard to recover his losses, but not until 1897 did he succeed in making any headway above providing the ne-
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cessities of life for his family, so that all he now owns has been made since that year, and his present standing is good. He is prospering and is considered well-to-do, with a most en- couraging outlook for the future.
WILLIAM F. MAURER, a farmer resid- ing five and three-quarters miles southwest of Rocklyn, was born in Bay county, Michigan, March 15, 1871, the son of George and Anna B. (Stengle) Maurer, native Germans. He lived with his parents on a farm in his native state until coming to Lincoln county, Wash- ington, with them in 1889. The family settled on land here and in 1895 William F. rented a farm in the vicinity of his present home.
He was married February 21, 1900, to Ida Kruger, a native of Minnesota. Mrs. Maurer's parents, George and Minnie Kruger, both were born in Germany. The father is now dead.
This union has been blessed by one child, Lester Herbert, born April 20, 1901.
Mr. Maurer started in life for himself in 1895 without other means at his command than the robust mind and body bequeathed him by nature, and now owns an improved grain farm of three hundred and twenty acres, which he purchased outright in 1900, a first class eight- room modern cottage, an unusually large painted barn, and a large orchard of carefully selected fruit trees all surrounded by a woven wire fence, making his farm one of the most beautiful and artistic ones in appearance in the Big Bend.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Maurer are members of the German Methodist church.
LIBERTY L. RATLIFF is a man who, having experienced various vicissitudes in both the middle west and west, may well be proud of the resoluteness that brought him through the privations of pioneer life to the prosperity of his present home. Mr. Ratliff resides on his farm six and a half miles east and one mile north of Creston. He was born November 17. 1859, in Osceola, Clarke county, Iowa, the son of Tipton H. and Jane ( Collier) Ratliff. The father, a native of Indiana, was one of the first settlers of Clarke county, and a soldier from its
ranks, enlisting at the outbreak of the Civil War, in the Twenty-fifth lowa Volunteers, and dying from a wound received in battle. The mother was born in Kentucky and removed to lowa in an early day. She is now living in Cedarville, Dade county, Missouri. Mr. Rat- liff has one brother, Lloyd, of Alva, Oklahoma, and one half-brother, Fred Morrison, of Dade county, Missouri.
At the age of thirteen, Mr. Ratliff left Iowa going to Barton county, Kansas, arriving there in time to pass through the buffalo and Indian stage of the state's development, and later the grasshopper period. In the fall of 1878, his crops having been destroyed by the last named, in the memorable plagne, he went to railroad- ing on the Santa Fe railroad in New Mexico. Soon after he worked in the smelter at Pueblo, Colorado. In July, 1889, he came to Lincoln county, where, with his wife and five children, he took up a pre-emption claim, then a home- stead and a timber culture. In the interval be- tween 1880 and 1889. Mr. Ratliff traveled throughout the west, visiting Kansas, California Oregon. Washington, Colorado, New Mexico, Indian Territory and Montana. Arriving in Lincoln county with little but health and grit, the family endured the usual privations of the pioneer. Mr. Ratliff worked for a small salary to support his family while he was preparing his ranch for planting. He finally succeeded in fencing his entire farm, four hundred and eighty acres, plowing the most of it, and build- ing his house and barn. He suffered heavy losses in the panic of 1893, but, though badly crippled, he was not discouraged, and entirely regained his former footing with the heavy crop and high prices of 1897. In the spring of this year he removed his family to Bachelor prairie, where he now lives. His present hold- ings are about eighteen hundred and twenty acres, three-fourths of which is good grain land, eight acres in orchard, the balance being timber and pasture land, and a good home. His specialty is raising grain and stock.
February 15, 1881, Mr. Ratliff was mar- ried to Loretta J. Durham, at St. Johns, Kan- sas. Mrs. Ratliff was born in Oakland, Illi- nois, daughter of Edwin and Jane ( McDowell ) Durham.
To Mr. and Mrs. Ratliff have been born ten children: Bessie, wife of John M. Hos- tetter. Reardan: Jesse, married to lda Rose,
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Lincoln county; Clyde C., Tipton R., Ruby S., Pearley M., Naomi, Penelope, Liberty L., and Claud, deceased.
Mr. Ratliff is a charter member of Creston lodge, I. O. O. F., of which lodge he is also a past grand.
WILLIAM SAULSBURY HARPER. Among the first settlers of Virginia, and a founder of the historic town of Harper's Ferry, was Thomas Harper, who came to America from Scotland. Thomas was the father of Robert Harper, and he of Robert, Jr., who fought throughout the Revolutionary War as a scout and spy under General Anthony Wayne. Robert, Jr., was father of Matthew Harper, a soldier under General Hull during the War of 1812, a son of whom was John M. Harper, who came from Ohio to Vigo county, Indiana, in 1835, where he was an early pioneer, and where he purchased from the government a tract of eighty acres of land at one dollar and twenty-five cents an acre, upon which he made his home until he died, Febru- ary 22, 1888. He was born in Ohio, near the city of Cincinnati, July 19, 1816, and was the father of William Saulsbury Harper, the sub- ject of our sketch, who was born May 21, 1838, near Terre Haute, Indiana, and is now living on a farm fourteen miles northwest of Daven- port, on Indian creek, with the city just named as his postoffice.
The mother of William S. Harper was Eliza (Wythe) Harper, born near Brookville, Frank- lin county, Indiana, May 9, 1817. She was the daughter of Elisha Wythe, granddaughter of Joshua, and great-granddaughter of Ebene- zer Wythe, who was brother of George Wythe. one of the signers of the Declaration of Inde- pendence. The American family of Wythes is in direct line of descent from Nicholas Wythe, who came to America from Glasgow, Scot- land, in 1692, and settled at Dorchester Heights near Boston, Massachusetts. Joshua Wythe was a member of the famous Boston "Tea Party" and was an artilleryman under General Washington throughout the Revolutionary War. Mrs. Harper died February 20, 1888, two days prior to her husband's death. The two were buried the same day, and interred in the same tomb. Our subject was their only son, and the eldest of a family of seven, two
of whom, besides himself, are now living : Mrs. Maria Turner, Clay county, Indiana ; and Mrs. Saralı Hyde, Vigo county, Indiana.
William Saulsbury Harper was reared on a farm in the state of his nativity. October I, 1861, he enlisted in Company G, 43rd Indiana Volunteers, served in the Trans-Mississippi department during the Civil War, and was dis- charged October 18, 1864. During his time of service he was engaged in the battles of Island Number Ten, New Madrid, the nine-weeks bombardment of Fort Pillow, the taking of Memphis, Tennessee; Devall's Bluff and Hel- ena, Arkansas; Yazoo Pass, Mississippi ; Little Rock, Prairie D'An, Elkins' Fork and Marks' Mill, Arkansas; and was taken prisoner at the battle of Jenkin's Ferry, Arkansas. Owing to his having been severely wounded at the battle of Marks' Mill, five days before, he was pa- roled, and a few days later was given an honor- able discharge from further duty in the ranks. His army experiences were unusually severe: he suffered extreme hardships, and many times was forced to march when weary and footsore without a bite to eat. Upon his discharge he returned to his farm, where, November 25, 1865, he was married to Laura E. Lawrence, born near Columbus, Ohio, July 26, 1848.
Mrs. Harper's father was Elias Lawrence, born November 19, 1819, in Ohio, later re- moved to Clay county, Indiana, where he died in 1878. His father, Lyman Lawrence, was a pioneer settler of Marietta, Ohio. The mother of Mrs. Harper was Sarah ( Hobart) Law- re:ice, was born at Granville, Ohio, October 23, 1819. and died June 19, 1896, in Clay county. Indiana. Her father was Noah Hobart, direct in lineage from the old family of Hobarts who came from Holland and settled at New Ams- terdam, now New York City, in 1609. Mrs. Harper has one brother and one sister: Noalı M. Lawrence, Clay county, Indiana ; and Mrs. Lucy Jeffres, Almira, Washington.
Mr. and Mrs. Harper lived in Vigo county until January, 1890, when they came to Al- mira, near which town they took a homestead where they lived until 1897, when on account of ill health on the part of our subject, they were compelled to leave the prairie. They came to their present home in the spring of the year mentioned, where they have eighty acres, upon which Mr. Harper makes a specialty of raising vegetables, fruit and berries. They have a
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good house, complete improvements and plenty of water for all purposes.
Mr. Harper is a member of the Masonic fraternity and the G. A. R., of Davenport, and both he and Mrs. Harper are affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal church.
They are parents of four children: Char- lotte, widow of John Latta, Vigo county, In- diana; John L., married to Martha M. San- ders. Davenport : Victoria, Vigo county, and Wilson Harper, who makes his home with his parents.
GUSTAV DEPNER, who, although Rus- sian born, is as good and patriotic an American citizen as can be found in Lincoln county, in which he resides on a farm three-fourths of a mile north of Rocklyn.
Mr. Depner was born October 28, 1860, in Poland, Russia, where he grew to manhood on a farm, and served for five years in the regular Russian army at Odessa, near the Black Sea. In 1892 he came to the province of Assiniboine, Canada, and took work on salary, and came to Lincoln county four years later, where, after working for wages a short time, he filed a homestead claim on his present farm. Since that time he has followed the cultivation of his land and the raising of stock. He with his family came to this place from his farmer home in a small wagon drawn by one horse, which journey entailed many hardships and con- sumed seven weeks' time, and reached here with just fifteen dollars in money. However, he has been a hard-working and frugal farmer, and is now in decidedly comfortable circum- stances.
Gustav Depner is the son of Goetleib and Minnie Depner, both of the same place of birth as himself, and is a member of a family of ten children, two of whom, Frederick and Daniel, also are residents of Lincoln county.
On January 4, 1886. Mr. Depner was mar- ried in Poland, to Bertha Krop, also a native of Poland. Her father and mother were Got- leib and Millie Krop, and they, too, were born in Russia. The issues of this marriage have been seven in number, but only four are now living. Their names, with places and dates of birth are: Gotleib, Poland, October 28. 1888; Martin. Russia proper, April 2. 1892: Gustav. Assiniboine, Canada, March 24, 1894; and
Emil. Lincoln county, Washington, April 15, 1903.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Depner are members of the Evangelical church, and are of the highest standing in the community. Mr. Depner owns his home place of one hundred and sixty acres, for the most part in cultivation, and all well im- proved, with a fine house, good barn, orchard, and so forth, and in addition, three hundred and twenty acres of pasture land.
JOHN MAURER is a prosperous farmer, residing one-fourth mile south of Rocklyn, Lincoln county, Washington. He is of Ger- man descent, and was born in Bay county, Michigan, November 1, 1874. His father, John G., and mother, Annie B. (Stengel) Maurer, were both of German nativity, but early settlers in Michigan. The father came to the United States when young, and from Michigan,. where he was married, came to Lin- coln county in 1889. Both parents are now liv- ing near Rocklyn, the father in his seventy- seventh year.
John Maurer was one of eleven children, and was reared to the age of fifteen, in his na- tive state, where he enjoyed the advantages of a grammar school training. He came to Lin- coln county with his parents, and was married here. February 22, 1897. to Clara Hellinger, a native of Minnesota. Mrs. Maurer's parents were Thomas and Maria Hellinger, whose ad- vent in Lincoln county dates back to 1882. They removed to Whitman county in 1898, where they now reside. Mrs. Maurer, also. is a member of a family of eleven children. To the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Maurer have been born two children : Pearl Lulu and Percy Halley.
Mr. Maurer's present financial standing borders on the marvelous when one stops to consider that he started out on his own re- sponsibility to do battle with the affairs of life almost without a dollar. He now owns the original homestead of his father, where he lives, and two other quarter sections of land, making in all four hundred and eighty acres, for the most part choice grain land and in a high state of cultivation. His home consists of a fine modern eight-room house with a se- lect orchard and spacious barn and other out- buildings. He has his farm well equipped with
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HISTORY OF THE BIG BEND COUNTRY.
machinery, among which may be mentioned a gasoline engine used for pumping and feed- milling purposes, and all necessary stock with which to carry on his business. Summed up, he is one of the most substantial and progres- sive farmers in Lincoln county.
Mr. Maurer is a member of the A. O. U. W., of Davenport, and of the German Evan- gelical church.
JOHN STANFORD CAPPS was one of the earliest pioneers of the Pacific coast, com- ing as he did to California in 1850. He was born January 16, 1825, in Claiborne county, Tennessee, the son of John and Elizabeth (Cook) Capps, pioneers of the middle states. The mother was born in Claiborne county. The father of John Capps was one of the first to settle in that county, and died there at the age of nearly one hundred. The father of our sub- ject likewise died there at an extreme old age. The ancestors of both were originally from England. John Stanford Capps was the sec- ond child of a family of eight, and is the only one now living. In his native county and in Pike county, Illinois, where he went in 1844, he attended school and received a good liberal education. He served as sheriff of the latter named county before coming west in the spring of 1850. He was married in 1844, to Sarah Baker, who died soon after their emigrating to California, and Mr. Capps was married a sec- ond time, his bride being Elizabeth Morris, a native of Monitor county, Missouri, born No- vember 17, 1837. Her father was Richard Morris, a native of Kentucky and of Welsh descent. Her mother, Polly Isabel, died in the east. Mrs. Capps crossed the plains with her father to California in 1853. They settled for a time in the Sacramento valley, the father later coming to the Palouse country where he died.
Failing health first caused Mr. Capps to take the long journey with a train of ox teams to California. He regained his health and worked for a time in the mines on American river, returning to Illinois in 1851. He took return passage on the ship Union which was wrecked off the Mexican coast. Upon his re- turn home he began fitting out with oxen and so forth to take his family to the Golden state, which he did, in company with a train of other
immigrants, the same year. They consumed six months on the journey finally arriving at Diamond Springs, California, where the sub- ject and family remained until the following spring when they removed to the Sacramento valley and engaged in farming. He was. among the first to till the soil in that vicinity, was the first to import a reaper from the east, which he did in 1853, and owned and operated one of the first threshing machines there. He served as justice of the peace in his precinct for a number of years, also as postmaster at Mid- dletown, California. The latter office he held at Reardan a number of years after coming here in 1881. Upon coming here he took a homestead and timber claim, on a part of which the town of Reardan now stands, and opened the first postoffice, which office was given his name not to be changed until some years after Reardan was founded. He still owns his old homestead, all of which is good grain land and well improved. Capp's addi- tion to the town of Reardan is a part of his original claim.
By his first wife Mr. Capps has been the father of four children: Mrs. Martha Wam- mach, Winters, California; Mrs. Mary Deer- ing, Marion and Amanda, deceased ; and by his second marriage eight: William H., married to Mollie Reynolds, of near Reardan; Alice, wife of Charles Frazer, The Dalles, Oregon ;. George, married to Mollie Kirby, near Rear- dan; John, married to Rosa Wills, California; Dora, widow of Alfred Dryer; Mrs. Ella Dodge, California; Mrs. Nellie Mesker, Cali- fornia, and Joseph, who is dead.
Mr. Capps, although never having been ad- mitted to the ban, has a good legal education and has practiced law to some extent both in this state and California. He has ever been actively identified with the Republican party, and has done considerable stump speaking dur- ing campaigns. He has for years been recog- nized as a guiding spirit of his party in Lin- coln county. He is now leading a life of retire- ment in his handsome and well-appointed home in Reardan.
GEORGE ELLIOTT FARWELL is a re- tired business man living in Reardan. He was born in Monroe county, Michigan, February 5, 1846. His father was Benjamin E. Far-
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well, a native of Lockport, New York, and was a pioneer in Michigan and California. During his career he followed various occupations, among which were butchering, milling, farm- ing, dealer in live stock and the livery business. He came to California in 1852, and while en- gaged in the livery business at Oakland, was killed by a vicious horse, in 1881. Mr. Far- well's mother was Susan Aldridge in maiden life, and was a native of Onondaga county, New York. The only brother of our subject died at the age of two, and the mother died when George was a lad of five years. Her fam- ily still resides in Onondaga county. Mr. Far- well is a descendant of the old Farwell family which came to America on the Mayflower, and which has since played a conspicuous part in the history of this country. He is a man of finished education, his schooling having been gained in his native state, New York and Cali- fornia, to which last named state he came with his father in 1863.
Among the hardships endured by the pio- neers of Lincoln county are many cases, such as Mr. Farwell experienced the first few years here. Coming here with the intention of going into the stock business, he had several head of good horses, which were stolen by Looking Glass and his Indian followers, and run out of the country, leaving him without stock to har- vest his crop. To carry him through the win- ter he was obliged to work 'on the railroad, his winter's supplies consisting of three sacks of potatoes, one pig and some flour. From the three sacks of potatoes he had to save seed for the next season's crop. Mr. Farwell made his trip to California overland, riding the entire distance from Beloit, Wisconsin, to Sacra- mento in the saddle. Leaving Salt Lake he continued his trip, west, the date being July 4, 1863. Mr. Farwell was unfavorably impressed by the crude methods of fighting fire. The only apparatus then in Salt Lake for fire pro- tection was a bucket brigade.
Upon the outbreak of the Civil war he en- listed in Company D, Fifteenth Michigan In- fantry, but was mustered out about six months later on account of his youth. In California Mr. Farwell was variously employed. H spent some time in Brayton College, was a mem- ber of the Oakland fire department, of which he attained the rank of assistant engineer ; and he also helped organize the first hook and lad-
der company of the department. He then en- tered the composing room of the Oakland Daily News, where he learned the printer's trade. While with this paper he was married at San Francisco, January 27, 1872, to Hanna Adelaid Studley, born near Augusta, Maine ..
Leaving the Oakland Notes Mr. Farwell engaged in the trucking and draying business in Oakland, and later opened a furnishing goods store there, which he conducted until 1879, when he sold out and came to Washing- ton. He settled on a homestead in what is now Spokane county, which place he still owns. Two years later he purchased a quarter section of railroad land, and also a ranch near Chewe- lah, Stevens county. He came to Reardan in 1893 where he was engaged in business for three years, and where he is now living. He owns, besides the land previously mentioned, one thousand acres of good grain land, six hun- dred and forty acres of which is in Yakima county, five valuable store buildings, and other real estate in Reardan. He has always been an active Republican in politics, and a most pro- gressive citizen. He was made an Odd Fellow May, 1870, and a Mason three years later. In both of these orders he is a conspicuous mem- ber in Reardan.
Mr. and Mrs. Farwell have an adopted daughter, Marion P. Farwell, aged eight years. He is one of the substantial citizens of his county.
MAJOR ALBERT M. ANDERSON was the United States Indian agent stationed at Fort Spokane, or Miles postoffice.
Major Anderson was born April 9. 1863. in Vernon county, Wisconsin, the son of Henry and Olive Anderson. His father was killed in the Civil war, and the mother died during the childhood of our subject.
The first fourteen years of Major Ander- son's life were spent in his native state, and in January of the year 1877. he came to the vil- lage of Spokane Falls, where he attended the grammar schools. He soon after went to Fort Colville and entered the employ of Charles H. Montgomery, who kept a store at the fort. After being three years thus engaged Major Anderson came to Fort Spokane to take charge of the store at this point for James Monohan, in charge of which business he remained until
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the spring of 1889, when he was appointed clerk of the Indian agency. In 1893 he re- signed this post to accept a clerkship in the office of Secretary of State J. H. Price at Olympia. Two years later he was appointed to a position in the recently created Bureau of Statistics, which position he creditably filled for two years. During August, 1897, Major Anderson was appointed by President McKin- ley to the position of Indian Agent at Fort Spokane, and succeeded himself in office by appointment of President Roosevelt in March, 1902.
Major Anderson is equally prominent and active in fraternity circles as in those political. He holds membership in, and is past master of the Davenport Masonic lodge, of which he was one of the charter members, and is now a Royal Arch Mason. He also belongs to the Samar- itan lodge, No. 52, I. O. O. F., of Spokane; of the Unique Encampment, No. 32, of Spo- kane: and of Spokane lodge, No. 228, B. P. O. E.
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