An illustrated history of the state of Washington, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 118

Author: Hines, Harvey K., 1828-1902
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1056

USA > Washington > An illustrated history of the state of Washington, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens > Part 118

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In November, 1889, Mr. Ladd purchased a controling interest in the Merchants' Bank of Port Townsend, in which institution Mr. Seal also became a stockholder, and was elected cashier. He at once entered on the duties of his new office by removing to Port Townsend, where he has ever since resided. Under his able management, the bank has enjoyed a pros- perous career and has conducted a large portion of the financial transactions of the eity. In connection with these duties, Mr. Seal has found time to engage in and assist several other im- portant enterprises. He superintends the farm- ing and timber interests of the Ladd estate, situated in Jefferson and Clallam counties. Ile was one of the organizers of the Farmers' Mer- cantile Company, located at New Dungeness, in which he has ever since retained the office

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of Secretary and Treasurer. This company was incorporated with $30,000 paid up capital, and conducts a general mercantile business. He is also manager of the Groveland Improvement Company, who purchased 150 acres at the mouth of the Dungeness river, where, by build- ing a wharf to deep water, erecting stores, etc., they have developed new interests, and are now conducting an extensive and successful bnsi- ness. Mr. Seal also has valuable realty interests in Portland, Port Townsend and other cities of the lower Sound, being altogether one of the most active men in the development of his section of the country.

December 24, 1889, Mr. Seal was married, in Portland, to Miss Margaret A. Humphreys, a native of Wales, and they have one child, Carolyn.

Mr. Seal is a member of the blue lodge, chapter and commandery of the F. & A. M. Although essentially a business man and much engaged in material affairs, yet Mr. Seal finds his greatest and purest enjoyment in his home as well as recreation in music and art.

E MMETT N. PARKER is at the present time Judge of the Superior Court of the State of Washington for the county of Pierce. He is a native of York, Pennsylvania, and was born on May 12, 1859. His parents were John and Mary R. (Phillips) Parker, the former a native of New York, the latter of Pennsylvania. When Emmett N. was three years old his father died. while a soldier in the Union army, soon after the battle of Antietam, having served in that engagement. Ilis mother then removed to Henry county, Iowa, where our subject was reared in the family of his uncle, on a farm, and was educated in the com- mon school and at Whittier College, Salem, Iowa. On leaving college in 1877 he clerked in a dry-goods store for three years, and then went to Cincinnati and began the study of law in the office of Bateman & Harper, with whom he remained for two years, meanwhile attend- ing a course of lectures at the Cincinnati Law School. On the 2d of June, 1882, he was ad- mitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of Ohio. He then removed to Kidder county, Dakota, where he became Probate Judge, which office he held for five years, after which he came

to Tacoma and opened a law office and practiced for about one year, when he became the attor- ney for the Wholesale Merchants' Association of Tacoma, and was in that capacity until elected Judge of the Municipal Court of Ta- coma in 1890. His term of office expired on the first Tuesday of January, 1893, and on the second Tuesday of the same month he assumed the duties of his present office, to which he had been elected in the preceding November.

Judge Parker was married in Iowa, October 22, 1884, to Miss Emma Garretson. They have three children, viz .: Anna T., Theodore and Helen.

Judge Parker was a charter member of State Lodge, No. 68, F. & A. M. He is President of the Liberal Club, composed of business and professional men. He was raised a Quaker, and is now a member of the First Free Church of Tacoma and one of its Trustees, and a member of the Pierce County Bar Association.

JOHN ANTON MULLER, a prominent citizen of Tacoma, is a native of Germany, born in Rhenish Prussia, Mayen, on October 28, 1843. His parents were Andreas and Julia (Triacca) Müller, his father being a merchant, and conducting a dyeing and print establishment in Mayen.

John Anton Müller was reared and educated in his native place until the age of fourteen, when he entered college at Roermond, Holland, and after a few years' course engaged in the mercantile business in Cologne, Rhenish Prussia. In 1865, he emigrated to America. He first visited an uncle, who was in business in New York, and then traveled over the Southern States looking for a desirable location. He fin- ally engaged in life-insurance work, and was sent later on to Chicago as an agent, and thence to San Francisco as a general agent, in February, 1870. In that year he came to Olympia, where he remained only a few months and then pro- ceeded to Steilacoom and engaged in the milling business with William Niesen at Byrd's creek. Later on he began farming on the Puyallup at a place a part of which now forms the site of the town of Orting. In 1875 he went to Seattle and engaged in a mercantile business for nearly two years, and then started a tannery in part- nership with a Mr. Schroeder. He continued

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at this for more than a year and then accepted a position as Deputy Treasurer, with office at Steilacoom. He went to Tacoma in Jannary, 1881, and in 1882, with a partner, erected the first furniture factory the city ever had. It was located in what was then a dense woods. In 1883, he bought a sawmill at Alderton and ran it for three years, and then removed to South Prairie, where he remained until March, 1887, when he began hop-raising near Alderton, Puyallup valley. He removed to Tacoma in 1889, but still retains two ranches, on which he lias about sixteen acres devoted to hops. He is at present conducting a box factory in Tacoma. Mr. Müller was married, February 7, 1878, in Seattle, to Miss Frances Hess, a danghter of August and Maria Hess.

Mr. Müller is a member in active standing of the Germania Society.

J II. WOOLERY, Sheriff of King county, Washington, and a resident of Seattle, was born near St. Louis, Missouri, March 20, 1851. Ilis parents, Isaac and Margaret (Whoo- bery) Woolery, natives of Kentucky, settled near St. Louis in 1848, and there engaged in agricultural pursuits. In 1853 they joined the tide of emigration and crossed the plains to the Northwest territory, the journey covering about six months. The Indians were very hostile, but by wise management and watchfulness they escaped serious engagements, and in due time arrived at Fort Steilacoom. After passing the winter at the fort, in the spring of 1854 Mr. Woolery located his donation claim in the Puy- allup valley and began improvements upon the same in pioneer style, building a log house and clearing land to get in a crop. With the In- dian uprising in 1855, they barely escaped mas- sacre, and except for the friendly warning of a man named Adam Benson, must have perished by hostile hands, as the family were yet in sight of their home when it was fired by the Indians. Mr. Woolery and his family returned to Fort Steilacoom and he entered the employ of the Government, having charge of stock and being thus engaged for five years, after which he went back to his donation claim to find all its improvements destroyed. Ile again hegan the work of building and improving, and re- mained on the farm until 1876, reclaiming

seventy-five acres from the wilderness and de- veloping it into a productive farm, which he subsequently sold in small ranches for hop- growing and other purposes. In 1876 he re- moved to Walla Walla and purchased a farmn. It was not long, however, before ill health com- pelled him to retire from active labor, and he died in January, 1893.

J. H. Woolery was educated in the schools at Steilacoom, with a finishing course at the Territorial University. From the age of six- teen he has been self supporting. At that age he went to the logging camps in the vicinity of the Sound, where he worked for a number of years. In 1875 he engaged in steamboating, first as a deck hand on the old passenger boat Eliza Anderson, running between Olympia and Victoria. By honesty and faithful service he steadily rose in his calling, passing through the offices of mate, purser and captain, spending six years as licensed pilot, and running upon various boats. He retired from steamboat life in 1888.

Having served four and a half years as Chief of Police of Seattle and one year as City De- tective, in 1888 Mr. Woolery was appointed Under Sheriff by Sheriff J. H. McGraw, now Governor of Washington, and served in that capacity until 1890, when he was elected upon the Republican ticket as Sheriff of King coun- ty. At the Republican convention in 1892 he was renominated for the same position, and re- elected.

Mr. Woolery was married in Seattle, in 1885, to the widow of John D. Reynolds. nee Annie L. Langdon, of Columbia county, New York.

Socially, he is a member of the I. O. O. F. and Encampment, the Uniform and Endow- ment Rank, K. of P., and Rainier Council, Royal Arcanum. He is also a member of the Washington Pioneer Association. Having wit- nessed the growth and development of Seattle, Mr. Woolery has unbounded faith in her future glory and greatness.

C APTAIN JAMES GRIFFITHS, one of the representative shipping commission merchants of Port Townsend, was born at Newport, England, March 19, 1861. At the age of fourteen years, as an apprentice, he entered the employ of the old established house

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of Tredegar Iron Manufacturers, miners of coal and shipping commission merchants, and during his four years of service passed through the various departments of the shipping business and customhouse work. After completing his apprenticeship, Mr. Griffiths engaged in steve- dore work for the same company, also acted as assistant agent and owned interests in steam- boats and tugs on the Bristol Channel.

In May, 1885, he closed his several interests there and started for Puget Sound, via the steamer City of Rome to New York, and thence overland to Tacoma, arriving June 11, of the same year. His object in coming here was to engage in the shipping and tug-boat business on the Sound. He opened an office in Tacoma, became associated with General J. W. Sprague and I. W. Anderson, and under his special supervision the tug Mogul and the steam launch Little Joe, were built. Mr. Griffiths also engaged in stevedoring, in the importing of pig iron, cement, salt and tin plate, and in a general shipping commission business. In Sep- tember, 1885, he opened a branch office in Port Townsend, under the management of Captain Pierce, and engaged in towing from deep sea to the Sound ports. In June, 1886, the firm was changed to Griffiths, Bridges & Stetson, with Captain Stetson in charge at Port Townsend. In February, 1887, through the death of Mr. Bridges, the partnership became Griffiths, Stet- son & Co. In 1888 the Tacoma office was dis- continued, and Captain Griffiths removed to Port Townsend, as a more central point from which to manage their business. From 1889 to 1892 they operated the tug Colliss, in con- junction with the Mogul in deep-sea towage. Through the death of Captain Stetson in 1892, Mr. Griffiths succeeded to the entire business, although he retained the old firm name. In Jannary, 1890, the firm bought the schooner Ludlow, and towed her with a cargo of coal to San Francisco, an innovation from the general character of work, and which proved very sne- cessful. The Ludlow has since been engaged in work on the Sound, and in a line from Re- dondo island, British Columbia, to Portland, carrying iron ore to the smelter at Oswego. After the whaleback steamer, Charles W. Wet- more, reached salt water at Montreal, the Cap- tain became agent, and superintended the load- ing and fitting of the Wetinore for sea. During her trips to Europe he had charge of the whale- back Joseph L. Caby and barge 110, and started

them in the coal trade between Baltimore and Boston. On the return of the Wetmore, Mr. Griffiths loaded her at New York, Wilmington and Philadelphia with the plants for the paper mill, nail works and ship yards to be located at the new city of Everett, on Puget Sound. After discharging the vessel he returned to Port Townsend, continuing as her agent until her loss on Coos bay, September 8, 1892. Under Captain Griffiths' management the firm have stowed about ninety vessels with lumber for all parts of the world, and have acted as brokers for 320 ships of American and foreign register.

He was married at Newport, England, in 1884, to Miss Susie Griffiths, a native of Brighton, that country. They have two chil- dren, Stanley A. and Albert V. In political matters, Captain Griffiths affiliates with the Re- publican party, but never seeks public prefer- ment.

W ARREN L. GAZZAM, one of the active insurance men of Seattle, was born in Mobile, Alabama, June 8, 1863, a son of Charles W. and Mary (Thomas) Gazzam, na- tives respectively of New York and Ohio. Charles W. Gazzam, the grandfather of our sub- ject, was a native of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and at the age of twenty-one years was ap- pointed by President William Henry Harrison as the first director of the United States Bank established by Congress in Cincinnati, Ohio. After the adoption of the national banking system, this institution was discontinued, and Mr. Gazzam removed to Mobile, Alabama, where, under the new system, he established the First National Bank of Mobile, now one of the oldest banking institutions in the South. This bank was continued by the father of our subject until 1886, when the latter retired from active business, except in caring for his private interests.

Warren L. Gazzam, the eldest in a family of five children, attended school until eleven years of age. Impelled with a desire to enter a busi- ness career, he then seeured a position in the local office of the Home Insurance Company of New York, at Mobile, at the compensation of $1 per week. In 1882 he went to Memphis, Tennessee, in charge of the finance department of Johnson & Vance, wholesale and retail clothiers. In 1885 Mr. Gazzam was appointed

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by President Cleveland as chief clerk of the Interior Department, in the section relating to Indian affairs, with headquarters at the Apache Indian Agency in Arizona Territory. As the duties were attended with great danger, and after several skirmishes with the Indians, he decided that the compensation was not suffi- cient for the hazard involved, and in July, 1886, tendered his resignation. From that time un- til in May, 1888, Mr. Gazzam was engaged in the art business in Seattle, and in the latter year succeeded to the Turner, Engle & Lewis Insur- ance Agency, the oldest in the city, having been established in 1871. With this early education in insurance matters, he put new energy into the business, and at the end of three years had in- creased the annual premium income from $10,- 000 to $104,000. In May, 1891, he was ap- pointed special agent in charge of Washington, Oregon and Idaho for the North British & Mercantile Insurance Company, and his agency was succeeded by the Gazzam Insurance Agency, both of which interests are being continued. Mr. Gazzam was also connected with the pri- vate bank of G. E. Miller & Company, which subsequently merged into the King County Bank.

In Seattle, in October 1888, our subject was united in marriage with Miss Lulu Yeaton, a native of Salem, Oregon, and a daughter of Cyrus F. Yeaton, a pioneer of that city. To this union has been born one daughter, Lea. The family reside on the corner of Tenth and Cherry streets, where Mr. Gazzam owns hand- some and valuable property.

C HRISTIAN MAIER, one of the wealthy pioneers of the State of Washington, was born in Germany, February 22, 1833, and lived with his parents until he was fifteen years of age. He had always manifested a love for the sea, and at this time decided to become a sailor, shipping as a cabin boy, and passing seven years on the water in many parts of the globe, and rising from the position of cabin boy to that of Captain. He visited every country in the world, landing in New York about the time of the California gold excitement. He thereupon decided to leave the sea and try mining for a space of three months. However, when he reached California, he found that gold

was about as hard to get there as any other place in the world, and, disgusted, he left. the State and went on into Oregon, and stopped in the Willamette valley. Being out of money, and totally inexperienced in any work except the management of a ship, he was obliged to hire out as a farm-hand, at small wages. He remained there two years, and then came to The Dalles, and there bought himself a Cayuse pony, and started for Washington Territory, landing in Walla Walla in July, 1859, with his pony and $20, which represented the emolument from his two years' work in Oregon.

In this State he hired out as a farm-hand, and after two more years of work, having acquired a great deal of experience, and some few dol- lars, he bought 160 acres of land, improved it and then sold it for $900. That gave him a start in life, and on the road to fortune, and since that time he has never had any misfortune of more than nominal order. IIe has added to his farm until he now is the owner of 2,360 acres of choice land, for a portion of which he paid as high as 865 per acre. He is cultivating 2,000 acres; has 160 in timber, and 160 in pasture. His average grain yield per year is 25,000 bushels. Ilis son-in-law operates 700 acres, and he manages the remainder. He has taken a great pride in his farm, and has a fine brick mansion, where he now enjoys the comforts of lite. This house, which he built at a cost of $20,000, has every modern improvement, while the grounds are kept up in the most approved style; pipes convey hot and cold water all over the house, which is heated in modern style, and the parlors are as large and luxurions as in any house in an Eastern city.

Mr. Maier has on his place all the necessary adjuncts for successfully operating a large farm, the equipment including a black- stnith shop and a gristmill run by a port- able engine, while his agricultural implements are so numerons that his sheds resemble a retail honse for the sale of such goods. The barns and stables are thoroughly modern, water being supplied by hydrants and pipes, and the whole place has ample protection from damages by fire. His orchards are filled with the choicest fruits that can be grown in the State. Perhaps there is a no more complete farin -house in the United States, and the fact that our subject designed it all himself adds to its va!ne. Even the brick utilized in its construction was burned on the place. Ile has honestly made all of his

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money, and thinks the secret of his success has been that he has not been depending upon others, but upon himself, for all of his gains. Ile has strictly attended to his own business, and can show a satisfactory result.

Our subject was married in 1864, to Mary Sommers, and seven children were born of this union, as follows: Harry, Laura, the wife of J. Bartlet; Robert, Mary, James, Margaret and Charles. Mary and Margaret keep house for their father, and are good house-keepers, and bright young ladies. Politically, our subject is a Democrat, and believes firmly in the prin- ciples of that party.

H ON. MORRIS B. SACHS, a legal prac- titioner at Port Townsend, and ex-Judge of the Superior Court, was born in Louis- ville, Kentucky, December 1, 1859, a son of Benedict and Henrietta (Lipstine) Sachs, na- tives of Germany. The father followed the mercantile trade until the opening of the late war, after which he was extensively engaged in handling cotton and tobacco. In 1864 he re- moved to Cincinnati, where he embarked in the wholesale and retail manufacture of boots and shoes, continuing that occupation until his death, in 1882. The business is now conducted by his sons, as " The Sachs Shoe Manufacturing Company."

Morris B. Sachs received his education in the public and high schools of Cincinnati, where he graduated in 1878. At the age of seventeen years he began reading law during his spare moments, spending his summer vacations in the office of Hon. Isaac M. Jordan, and subsequently entered the law department of Cincinnati Col- lege, graduating at that institution in 1880. He was then admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of the State, and immediately began the practice of his chosen profession in Cincinnati. In 1883 Mr. Sachs eame to California, and thence to Port Townsend, where he formed a law partnership with C. M. Bradshaw, a pioneer of this State. The firm of Bradshaw & Sachs continued until 1889, when the former was ap- pointed Collector of Customs, and our subject then continned alone in a general practice.

Soon after his arrival in Port Townsend, Mr. Sachs entered into the Republican politics of the city and State, served one term as City At-

torney, one term as City Treasurer, and in 1889, in the first election after the Territory was ad- mitted to Statehood, was elected Superior Judge. the district then covering Jefferson, Clallam, Island, San Juan and Kitsap counties. Hle served to the expiration of his term, in Janu- ary, 1893, after which he resumed a general practice. In 1889 Mr. Sachs was one of the organizers of the Port Angeles Mill & Lumber Company, of which he has since held the posi- tions of secretary and treasurer. This company purchased 1,300 acres of fine timber land near Port Angeles, and built their mill on the prop- erty at Wenomah, with a capacity of 30,000 feet of lumber and 100,000 shingles daily, which are kiln-dried and shipped to Eastern markets, they having been among the first to ship cedar shin- gles to Chicago. Judge Sachs is also a member of the syndicate who purchased 340 acres on Discovery bay, and laid off the town site of Junction City. He also owns other property in Port Townsend and Port Angeles, but is devot- ing his attention principally to the practice of

The Judge was married in Portland, in 1889, to Miss Mattie, a daughter of Colonel Henry Landes, of Port Townsend. She died in 1891, leaving one child, Bertha. Judge Sachs was married in Victoria, in 1893, to Miss Annie L. Storey, a native of that city.

UDGE FRANCIS HENRY, a resident of Olympia, and the pioneer abstracter in the D Territory of Washington, was born in Ga- lena, Illinois, January 17, 1827.

His parents, William and Rachel ( McQuigg) Henry, were natives of Connecticut and New York respectively. William Henry took an active part in the war of 1812, being a Lien- tenant of artillery. After marriage he moved. to St. Louis, Missouri, and engaged in the mill- ing business. In 1825 he was one of the first settlers of Galena, where he engaged in the mercantile business, continuing the same until 1836, when he removed to Mineral Point, Wis- consin, and there passed the rest of his life.

Francis Henry was the first white child born in Galena, Illinois. He was second in the family of four children and is now the only sur- viving member of the family. His education was secured at the old log schoolhouse, often

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walking several miles distant to improve the simple facilities then offered by the short winter schools. His early manhood was passed in lead- mining and clerking, being thus employed up to 1847, when he was appointed Second Lien . tenant of the Third United States Dragoons for the Mexican war, serving at the city of Mexico under General Scott. After his discharge he joined his family at Mineral Point, Wisconsin, and engaged in the study of law in the office of S. J. Dnnn. In the summer of 1851 Mr. Ilenry started for California, via the Panama route. Duly arriving, he proceeded to the mines at "Hangtown," now ealled Placerville, and commenced placer mining, making good wages but not realizing the sudden wealth which he had anticipated. He proceeded from camp to camp, visiting Yankee Jim and Weaverville, where he passed his first winter, suffering many deprivations and hardships. They were snow- bound for two months. Supplies gave ont and barely became their only food. With the open- ing of spring, he commenced mining with good success. In the fall, with a few friends, he pro- ceeded to Sailor diggings on Smith river, and, later, to Gold Beach at the mouth of the Rogue river. In anticipation the prospects were always rich, and the reality proving a failure their changes were frequent. In the spring of 1855 he crossed the mountains to Jacksonville, south- ern Oregon, where he found profitable diggings; but, with the mining excitement of eastern Washington, he started for that locality, from which he was driven by the Indian ontbreak. Returning to Oregon, he located at La Fayette, Yam Hill county, where he was admitted to the bar and engaged in the practice of law.

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An illustrated history of the state of Washington, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 118

Author: Hines, Harvey K., 1828-1902 Publication date: 1893 Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 1056

Author: Hines, Harvey K., 1828-1902
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1056