USA > Washington > Douglas County > An illustrated history of the Big Bend country, embracing Lincoln, Douglas, Adams, and Franklin counties, state of Washington, pt 2 > Part 55
USA > Washington > Adams County > An illustrated history of the Big Bend country, embracing Lincoln, Douglas, Adams, and Franklin counties, state of Washington, pt 2 > Part 55
USA > Washington > Franklin County > An illustrated history of the Big Bend country, embracing Lincoln, Douglas, Adams, and Franklin counties, state of Washington, pt 2 > Part 55
USA > Washington > Lincoln County > An illustrated history of the Big Bend country, embracing Lincoln, Douglas, Adams, and Franklin counties, state of Washington, pt 2 > Part 55
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On January 3, 1845 Mr. Buchanan was united in marriage with Mary Shaw, of Glas- gow, Scotland, and to them were born seven children : Mrs. Ann Scott: John, of Rio, Wis- consin ; Daniel, in Chippewa Falls, Wiscon- sin ; Mary, married to W. A. Bartholomew, of Pingree, North Dakota; Martha, married to W. H. T. Barnes, at Blair, Washington ; James A., at Buchanan, North Dakota; and William H., of Ulysses, Idaho.
Mr. Buchanan brought the first well drill- ing machinery to Ritzville that was ever in- troduced into the county.
Mr. Buchanan took a keen interest in poli- tics, both state and national, and was a mem- ber of the constitutional convention of Wash- ington in 1889. For a number of years he was also chairman of the Adams county Re- publican central committee. He was well posted and a leading citizen.
On May 23, 1903, Daniel Buchanan de-
parted this life, as deeply and universally mourned as any one who ever died in Adams county.
DANIEL A. SCOTT is a farmer residing in Adams county, six miles southwest of Ritz- ville, and was born in Rio, Columbia county, Wisconsin, March 31, 1869. He was the son of Kennedy and Ann (Buchanan) Scott, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Pais- ley, Scotland. The mother came to the United States with her parents in 1850 and located at Fort Winnebago, Wisconsin.
Mr. Scott is a man of finished education. He taught school four years in Wisconsin and came west in 1890 and entered the employ of his grandfather, Daniel Buchanan, who was one of the earliest settlers and a business man of Ritzville. In the spring of 1891 our sub- ject purchased eight hundred and eighty acres of Big Bend soil upon which he now lives. He has since added to his original holdings until he now has eleven hundred and twenty acres all in one body and all under cultivation. He has his land well improved and keeps an abundance of live stock and farm implements to prosecute his business. In 1903 he erected a strictly mod- ern ten-room house of white pressed brick,- probably the handsomest farm house in Adams county.
In 1895 Daniel A. Scott was married to Alma King. daughter of J. H. and Ellen S. (Grover) King, who crossed the plains by mule teams in 1880, locating in Umatilla coun- ty. Oregon. To this union have been born three children, Nellie L., Anna E., and Ken- nedy.
Mr. Scott is a Republican in politics, and both he and Mrs. Scott belong to the Congrega- tional church. In fraternity circles, Mr. Scott is identified with F. and A. M., the K. of P. and the K. O. T. M. Mrs. Scott also is a member of the latter society.
JOHAN N. G. VEHRS, whose postoffice address is Ritzville, and who lives on a farm three miles west from that city, is a native of Germany, born March 6, 1868. He is the son of Peter and Antge C. Vehrs, who came from their native country, Germany, to America, in
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HISTORY OF THE BIG BEND COUNTRY.
1869 and located in Illinois and engaged in farming. They came to Adams county and took a homestead where our subject now lives. The father later purchased three quarter-sec- tions of land from the railroad company, mak- ing him the possessor in all of a complete'sec- tion of choice agricultural land. The father is now living at the age of seventy-two years, but the mother passed away in 1899.
The subject of our sketch received a gram- mar school education, and at the age of twenty- seven he assumed the management of his fath- er's farm, which he still retains. From time to time he has purchased land for himself until they now own fourteen hundred and forty acres and cultivates it all, raising as high as twenty-six thousand bushels of wheat in a sin- gle season. He keeps on his farm thirty-two head of draft horses.
In the year 1895 Mr. Vehrs was married to Miss Margaret Clodius, a brief sketch of whose life is incorporated with the sketch of her father, C. F. Clodius, which appears else- where in this volume. To this union have been born four children, all now living, Gretchen, Anna, Peter and Joseph.
Mr. Vehrs is a member of a family which originally contained six children, only one of whom, besides himself, is now living, Margaret Maud, now Mrs. J. Denakas, of Adams county.
In political matters, Mr. Vehrs is affiliated with the Republican party, in the workings of which he takes a deep and aggressive interest. He holds membership in the German Congre- gationalist church.
HENRY BAUER is a native of Lincoln, Nebraska, born April 28, 1879. He is now a prosperous farmer residing three and one-half miles west from Ritzville. Mr. Bauer's parents were Jacob and Elizabeth (Koch) Bauer, natives of Russia and descendants from fami- lies who came from Germany to Russia two hundred years ago. In 1876 the parents of Mr. Bauer came to America and located in Nebraska. From that state they came to Og- den, Utah, and from Ogden to Walla Walla, Washington, having resided in Nebraska only three years. They lived two years at Walla Walla, then came to Adams county, where on April 20, 1884, they settled on a homestead
near Ritzville. They are now living in Ritz- ville, having accumulated sufficient property to enable them to live off their rents and inter- est. They have been parents of nine children, only five of whom are now living, Peter, Hen- ry. Mrs. Mary M. Johnson, Lydia and Minnie, all residents of Adams county .:
The subject of our sketch received his edu- cation in Adams county, since he was a lad of four years at the time of his parents' coming here. After finishing a common school course, he, at the age of twenty-three years, purchased two hundred and forty acres of land and com- menced farming on his own responsibility. Later on he added three hundred and twenty acres to his farm, and now has all of his land under cultivation and in a high state of im- provement. He has excellent farm buildings, and so forth, and raises some cattle and keeps about twenty head of horses continually on his farm. As an illustration of the manner in which the family has prospered since coming to Adams county, it may be stated that the father, upon coming here, was worth two hundred and fifty dollars and is now rated as being worth between thirty and fifty thousand dollars. Mr. Bauer is a Democrat in politics, but is not an active partisan. He is looked upon as being one of the sound young farmers and rising young business men of the Big Bend.
JACOB ROSENOFF was born in Wal- cow, Russia, February 25, 1869. He was the son of Fred and Katherine (Achziger ) Rosen- off and a brother of Henry and John F. Rosen- off, whose lives are sketched elsewhere in this. volume. The family remained together and passed through identical experiences and changes until coming to this state, all of which is chronicled in the biography of Henry Rose- noff and which is unnecessary to repeat here.
Jacob Rosenoff was a lad of eight years when his family came to America. He has always lived on the frontier and in consequence has been deprived of all but a meagre common school education. At the age of twenty-four he launched out upon an independent career. He first took a homestead and engaged in farm- ing and stock raising. Having very modest means to begin life with, he experienced his share of the hardships and deprivations of life,
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HISTORY OF THE BIG BEND COUNTRY.
but having always enjoyed good health and be- ing possessed of an indomitable will to succeed, coupled with never failing ambition, he has ac- complished the realization of his desire to own a home and sufficient amount of the goods of this world to keep him in ease the remainder of his life. Soon after coming to Adams county he and his brother Henry went to work on the ranch of Pete Meyer, in Lincoln county, where they remained five years. Returning to Adams county he took a homestead fifteen miles southwest of Ritzville, which, after making final proof he sold, and with the proceeds and what he. had accumulated meantime, he pur- chased four hundred acres of land where he now lives, three miles west of Ritzville. 'He has his farm well improved and in a high state state of cultivation, with good house, orchard and out-of-door improvements. He also keeps a large herd of live stock.
Jacob Rosenoff was married on November 21, 1894. to Lizzie Bets, daughter of Henry and Katherine (Thaut) Bets, natives of Rus- sia. The parents of Mrs. Rosenoff came to Lincoln county, Nebraska, in 1887, lived there six years, then removed to Franklin county, where they are now living on a farm. They are parents of six children, Fred, Henry, Lizzie, Mrs. Katie Koch, John and Jacob.
The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Rosenoff has been blessed with three children, Martha, Joseph and Theodore.
Mr. Rosenoff is a Republican in politics, and a member of the Congregational church.
HENRY ROSENOFF resides on a valua- ble farm two and one-half miles northwest of Ritzville. He was born in Volga, Russia, Au- gust 29, 1862, the son of Fred and Katherine Rosenoff. The parents also were natives of Russia, though their families came from Ger- many two generations since. Our subject came to America with his parents in 1877 and located in Nebraska. Here they took a homestead and one year later removed to another part of the state, in Hitchcock county, where they re- mained three and one-half years. They came to Idaho and the subject and his father worked on the Oregon Short Line, in the southern part of the state, a brief space. Afterwards they went to Baker City, Oregon, and in 1882 came
on to Walla Walla. The next year they came to Adams county in company with other set- tlers, bringing with them a car load of farm implements, pitched their tents on the outskirts of Ritzville and before many days each family had one or more homesteads near by. After locating their claims they repaired to Colfax to make filing, then brought lumber from Sprague with which to erect cabins. The sub- ject of this sketch then went to work on Crab creek, Lincoln county, and was there five years. He returned to his homestead in 1888, built his house and was married to Ella Spanger, daugh- ter of William and Almera M. (Gerdes) Span- ger. The parents of Mrs. Rosenoff were born in Germany, but both came to America when young and located in Woodford county, Illi- nois, where they lived until coming to Adams county in the fall of 1886. They are both now living in Ritzville. They were the parents of the following named children, besides Mrs. Rosenoff : George, Edward, John, William, Anna, Flora, Hannah, Mary, and Mena.
Henry Rosenoff is a Republican. He is a member of his local school board and worships in the Congregational church. He has four children, William, Anna, Mary and Henrietta.
He is one of the most highly respected men of his locality and has done much toward the upbuilding and development of the Big Bend country.
MRS. HANNAH LIPPOLD is an exten- sive property owner residing in Lind, Washing- ton. She was born in Germany, August 25, 1863, the daughter of Mathias and Mary Stof- fels, both of German birth. The family came to America in 1857 and located in Clinton coun- ty, Iowa, but later removed to Pottawattamie county, Iowa, where the father still lives. He is a retired blacksmith, was a soldier in the Rebellion, and well-to-do. The mother died in January. 1883, having been the mother of eleven children, seven of whom survive her. The brothers and sisters of Mrs. Lippold are Rossella, Minnie, Mary, James, Anna and Susie.
Mrs. Lippold received a common schooling during her youth and remained with her par- ents until her marriage on January 1, 1880, to F. W. Lippold, of Avoca, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Lippold lived on a farm in the state of their
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HISTORY OF THE BIG BEND COUNTRY.
marriage until 1883, when they removed to Emerson, Nebraska, where they engaged in the hotel business. Here they remained five years, during which time Mr. Lippold also dealt in real estate. In 1889 they came to Adams coun- ty, located in Lind, where Mr. Lippold engaged in farming and conducted a blacksmithing busi- ness. He early acquired a considerable extent of land which later became part of the townsite of Lind, so in this way his real estate holdings became of great value. In later years he de- voted his undivided time to his town property. Mr. Lippold departed this life in the year 1902, leaving a widow and five children. The names of Mrs. Lippold's children are: Forenz A., Clarence A., William A., Mary B., Alma E., and four, Elmer, George H., Edwin F., and Roy C., who are dead.
F. W. Lippold was born at Davenport, Iowa. in the year 1856. He received a good business education, and at times during his life was a prominent farmer and business man. At the time of his death he owned a section of land beside his city realty, which is all now owned by the subject of this sketch. . She also raises some stock on her land, which is well improved and cultivated, and she has a handsome home in Lind.
Mr. Lippold was a Democrat in politics, and a member of the W. O. W. fraternity. Mrs. Lippold is a member of the Lutheran church, and holds the office of Guardian Neigh- bor in the Lind Circle, Women of Woodcraft of which she is a member of long standing.
WILLIAM W. KING, president of the King Mercantile Company, Ritzville, Wash- ington, was born in Iowa, October 18, 1866. His father, John H. King, a native of Penn- sylvania, is descended from an old Pennsyl- vania family. On August 13, 1862, he en- listed in Company H, Sixth Minnesota Volun- teer Infantry, under Captain W. K. Tattersoll, Major Grant, Colonel Crooks, General Sib- ley and served for three years in the Civil war. He is now living at Helix, Oregon, where he owns five quarter sections of land. His mother, Ellen (Grover) King, a native of Maine and a member of the old Grover family, is living at the Helix home.
Mr. King was raised principally in Ne-
braska and Oregon, where he attended district schools. The family removed from the former to the latter state when our subject was four- teen years of age. Leaving the grammar school, Mr. King spent a year at the normal school at Weston, Oregon, then attended graded school at Athena, after which he entered the Willamette University, at Salem, Oregon, graduating from the business department in 1886: For a year he taught, then returned to the university above mentioned, where he spent the winter in studying shorthand and telegra- phy.
The following summer he spent at home. On the 26th of December, 1889, William W. King was married to Lena E. Leabo, at Salen1. Mrs. King was born in Iowa, January 2, 1869. She died January 9, 1894, leaving Mr. King with three small children, Athol W., Ralph and Elepha, to care for. Mrs. King's father, Augustus C. Leabo, is a native of Linn county, Iowa. Her grandfather and grandmother were natives of Tennessee and Kentucky, respec- tively. Her father's father was a Frenchman who had the honor of coming to the United States with the famous LaFayette. Her mother, Paulina B. (Horsman) Leabo, was born in Ohio, and came of one of the oldest pioneer families of the middle states. Mrs. King's grandmother lived to the age of ninety- six. Though Mrs. King's parents have a home near Salem, Oregon, they temporarily reside with Mr. King at his home in Ritzville. Mr. and Mrs. Leabo have two children living, Reese H., and Augusta G., wife of H. D. Hal- lin, of Athol, Idaho.
Shortly after his marriage, Mr. King came to Adams county and settled on' land upon which he had filed the previous year. He was fortunate enough to harvest one good crop be- fore the hard times of 1893, for after that year he shared in the general depression of the coun- try. Although he had only one hundred and fifty dollars when he came here, he managed to continue accumulating land under the con- tract purchase system until he had sixteen hun- dred acres under cultivation. In the fall of 1897 he had a heavy crop on one half of his land, which, besides placing him square with the world, left him with a surplus of twenty-six hundred dollars. In 1894 Mr. King was elected county assessor on the Populist ticket, served one term and refused a second nomin-
WILLIAM W. KING
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HISTORY OF THE BIG BEND COUNTRY.
ation, as he did also the nomination on the Populist ticket for the legislature.
During his tenure in the office of assessor Mr. King with H. M. Martin, founded The Ritsville Mail, the first Populistic newspaper in Ritzville or in Adams county, and Mr. King assumed its editorship.
In the fall of 1898 he formed a partnership with Claus F. Clodius and engaged in buying and selling grain. He made a success of this business and in November of the same year he purchased an interest in Thiel, Dorman & Com- pany's business, the firm name of which was thereupon changed to Thiel, Dorman & King. and handled principally hardware and farm implements. In 1889 the King Mercantile Company was formed by the merger of Thiel, Dorman & King with the Harris & Comparet Company, with William W. King president. W. H. Tuggle secretary and treasurer and J. M. Comparet general manager. The company was launched with twenty-five thousand dol- lars paid up capital. Since that time that amount has increased to sixty thousand dol- lars, and is the largest institution of its kind in the Big Bend. It employs continuously fifteen salaried men, and during the busy season keeps three salesmen in the farm machinery depart- ment alone. The store building is a two-story brick structure with a one-story extension, has seventy-five feet frontage and is eighty feet deep. The company is agent for the Minne- apolis Threshing Machine Company, the Mc- Cormick Harvester Company, Studebaker Brothers. Jolin Deer Plow Company, Perkins Windmill Company, the Benecia Disc Plow Company, the Baker Hamilton Plow Company, besides handling first class lines of furniture, fire-arms, sporting goods, tools, and so forth. The house in 1903 did a total business of one hundred and forty-six thousand dollars.
Mr. King has one brother, J. Ervin, and four sisters : Alma A., wife of Daniel A. Scott ; Elsie, wife of Frank E. King; Daisy, wife of Frank E. Cargill, and Ethel.
Besides the property above mentioned, Mr. King owns thirty residence lots in Ritzville, where he has a handsome home, and an exten- sive interest in the Burnappa townsite com- pany on the Colville reservation ; and varied mining property interests. He is president of the Syndicate Mining Company. Ferry coun- ty; and director of the Jefferson Marble Com-
pany, in Stevens county. His firm also has a branch mercantile house in Hatton. He carries life insurance to the extent of twenty-six thou- sand dollars.
Mr. King is vice president of the public library association of his city. He is a genial and popular man with unusual business sagac- ity, and bears the reputation of being strictly honest and above-board in all his dealings. In fraternity circles, he is identified with Ritz- ville Lodge, No. 58, I. O. O. F., of which he is past grand ; the M. W. A., of which he is a past venerable grand, and which has elected him as a representative of the state to the na- tional convention at Kansas City ; and he is a past, and the present commander of the local lodge, K. O. T. M.
In politics, Mr. King is an ardent Democrat. In 1896, Mr. King was a delegate to the con- vention at Ellensburg, which nominated John R. Rogers for governor.
At Spokane, on November 26, 1903. Mr. King married Miss Victoria C. Willey, a na- tive of Delaware, Ohio. She is the daughter of Ephraim and Catherine (Siegfried) Willey. The former is now living on the same farm in Ohio where he settled just after his marriage, and is aged seventy-seven. The mother died in February. 1874. The family was very prom- inent in early affairs of Ohio and in educational matters always took a leading part. Mrs. King's uncle, Matthew Loy, was president of Capitol University for twenty-five years.
JOHN A. WILLIS, a prominent farmer and postmaster of the postoffice which bears his name in Adams county, was born in Jefferson county, Iowa, January 1, 1859, was edu- cated in the state of his birth, and at the age of twenty-one started in life for himself as a farmer. He rented a farm in Iowa which he cultivated for six vears and in 1886 he came to his present locality and filed upon the homestead where he now lives. With the exception of J. H. Cusick, now a resident of Ritzville. Fred and C. P. Lowe. and David Kirby. Mr. Willis was the first settler in his section of Adams county. As he came to the country with only two him- dred dollars he found it very difficult to make improvements on his land, and was compelled
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HISTORY OF THE BIG BEND COUNTRY.
for a number of years to work in the harvest fields of Columbia county in order to make a living. In 1889 he broke ten acres of sod on his land, the next year one hundred acres, and since that time he has made his living and more from his land. From time to time he has by purchase added to the extent of his farm until he now has eight hundred acres of choice agri- cultural land all under cultivation and well improved. His land is abundantly supplied with water, produces a fine orchard and is im- proved with a handsome house and many large and up-to-date outbuildings, making it one of the best farms in appearance in the county.
John A. Willis is the son of Shelby and Sarah J. (Bradley ) Willis, the former a native of Kentucky and the latter of Indiana. The parents settled in Iowa during the early days, and there spent the greater portion of their lives. in fact the mother died there. In 1894 the father removed to Kansas, where he still lives at the age of seventy-six years. He was a Civil war soldier, and his business all during his life has been farming.
Mr. Willis is a member of a family origi- nally comprising ten children, of whom six sur- vived Mrs. Mary Wilson, John A., Mrs. Etha Waln, Mrs. Lucy Kelley, James S., and Mrs. May Bicknell.
On December 24. 1883, John A. Willis was married to Mary E. Newhirter, daughter of James and Sarah J. Newhirter, both born in Ohio. They were early settlers in Iowa, where. they lived until the death of the father in 1896. The mother is now making her home with the subject of this sketch. They were the parents of twelve children, nine of whom are now living. Adam, Mrs. Lydia Foulk, Daniel, Mrs. Willis, Mrs. Rachel Smith, Mrs. Jane Buck. Brough, Marvin, and Mrs. Iva Eason.
To Mr. and Mrs. Willis have been born seven children, two of whom have passed away. Those now living are : Chloe, married to Peter Teynor; Wroe, Dean M., Claud, and Claire, the latter four living with their father. Achsah and Hazel are dead.
Mr. Willis, in regard to politics, was origi- nally a member of the Greenback party, but is now a Populist. He has served four years as county commissioner of Adams county, and in 1802 was appointed postmaster at Willis, and is still the popular incumbent of that office. He has ever been an active man in matters pertain-
ing to the betterment of the educational facili- ties of his locality and has assisted in the organ- ization of his home school district. He is a member of the W. O. W. and of the Methodist Episcopal church.
HENRY W. SAUNDERS, a farmer whose home is nine miles west of Ritzville, is a native of Madison county, New York, born January 25, 1839. He was the son of A. V. and Perlina (King) Saunders, natives of New York, both of whom could trace their ancestry back to the earliest settlers of the "Empire State." From Madison county, the family re- moved to Dodge county, Wisconsin, in 1846, and to Kansas in 1859, where the father and mother subsequently died. They were the parents of eight children, Julia, Lester, H. W., Devillo, Jeanette, Rose, Ella, and Adelbert.
Mr. Saunders received a common school education, principally in Dodge county, \Vis- consin, and at the age of twenty he went to Kansas, where he followed farming and stock raising on the plains until 1862. Upon reach- ing Kansas he found large game, buffalo in particular, in abundance, and many of these animals fell victims of his sportsmanship. In 1862 he enlisted in Company C, Ninth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, under Captain Steward, a noted character of the plains. Mr. Saunders served three years in the army, the most of which time he was doing duty on the frontier, and was mustered out at DuVall Bluff, Arkan- sas, in the spring of 1865. He then resumed farming and stock raising in Kansas, where he remained until 1887, when he sold his interests in Kansas and came to Adams county, Wash- ington. During the meantime he made several trips to the mines of Colorado as a freighter.
Upon coming to this county he took a homestead and timber culture where he now lives, to which he has since added by purchase enough to make him the owner in all of four hundred acres of cultivated and improved land. The general financial depression of 1893-94 which prevailed the country over was unusually severe with the subject of this sketch, and he was forced to live as best he could until the relaxation of 1896 and 1897. He, among many other Big Bend farmers, knows what it means to haul wheat miles to market and sell it for
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