An illustrated history of the state of Washington, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 137

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

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Olympia. Up to the beginning of the Indian war of 1855-'56 his time and labor were chiefly devoted to acquiring lots and ereeting buildings in Olympia. After this he had about thirty acres of his donation elaim cleared and laid off into lots as an addition to the town. In Febru- ary, 1861, he went to San Francisco, returned in November, 1862, again went to Vancouver, and a year later moved to Portland, Oregon. Returning again to Olympia in 1870, he has sinee resided here.

In the year 1857 Mr. Swan joined the Odd Fellows, becoming at onee a prominent and active worker of that great organization. He has filled the leading official positions in the several branches of the order in the State juris- dietion, and was chosen a member of the Sover- eign Grand body of the order. Being of a re- tiring disposition, he has taken no very active part in politics. He, however, served as As- sessor of Internal Revenue in the southern dis- triet of the Territory during the years 1865 and 1866, and also served as Commissioner of Thurs- ton county six years, from 1876 to 1882. He was ever true to the responsibilities entrusted to him, and in the official positions oeenpied by him he rendered faithful, efficient and satisfae- tory service.

G EORGE E. ROBERTS .- The most im- portant factor in the phenomenal growth accompanying the late development of Washington, has been the building of railroads, and that subject must be a prominent feature in the history of the State. For that reason, a sketch of the life of George E. Roberts, inventor of the celebrated Roberts railroad track layer, the only perfect machine for that purpose ever made, becomes an inter- esting addition to this volume, as his invention was perfected, and first successfully applied, within the boundaries of the State of Wash- ington.

Mr. Roberts is a native of Ontario, Canada, born near the eity of Ottawa, July 17, 1861, his parents being John and Eliza (Earl) Rob- erts, both natives of Ireland and descendants of aneient families. The subject of this sketeh was but thirteen years old when he left home to join a brother at Bay City, Michigan, for whom he took charge of a logging eamp at White Feather, when but fourteen years of age, at which early

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age he had full charge of a camp of seventy men. He remained there in this capacity for two years and then returned home. Two years later, he went to Saginaw, Michigan, where he again engaged in logging for his brother. De- ciding, however, to try his fortunes on the Pacific coast, he, in 1875, left Kalamazoo, Michigan, for San Francisco, California. From the latter city he went to Portland, Oregon, whence, a short time later, he proceeded to Olympia, Washington, near which place he began logging for Frank Roe. Ile afterward left this position and returned to Oregon where he made three lumber drives on the Calipooy river, near Albany. On leaving there, he next took charge of a large logging camp on the Columbia river, for George Weidler, of Port- land, in which work he was engaged for some time. Hle next designed and constructed a craft for boating lumber on the Columbia river, getting the lumber ont of the woods, with which to build it, expending about $2,700 on the en- terprise. This proved completely successful for the uses for which it was intended, and he was getting along well and establishing himself on a firm footing, when he was taken ill, and for a year and a half lay at The Dalles siek with typhoid fever.

When he recovered, his savings were all gone, and he was back where he had originally started from, only worse off. He was not long, how- ever, in making an effort to regain his former foothold. Borrowing $80 from an acquaint- ance, he went ont on Hermann creek, where he bought wood from a German living there, and bringing it to The Dalles sold it, realizing in ten days $800 on his investment. This one event sufficiently indicates the difference be- tween Mr. Roberts and ordinary men. This same opportunity was there for others as well as for himself, yet no sooner had he recovered from his long illness than he saw and took ad- vantage of it. Within sixty days, he had cleared $2,300. lle then proceeded to Spokane, and shortly perceived another chance for profitable speculation. He accordingly bought hogs and sold them to the Chinamen on the Northern Pacific railroad. He next assumed charge for Mr. Cannon, the banker at Spokane, of that gentleman's booms on the Spokane river, in which occupation Mr. Roberts was profitaby employed during one summer. Mr. Roberts remained in Spokane until the ontbreak of the Coeur d'Alene mining excitement, when he

went to that point. llere again his knowledge of lumber-driving resulted to his advantage in suggesting to him the idea of freighting sup- plies to the mines, in which business he used boats from Coeur d'Alene lake to the mouth of Eagle creek, in the Coeur d'Alene mountains, a distance of about seventy miles in all. During the first winter, all other avennes of communi- cation with the mines were closed on account of the inclemency of the weather, and great difficulty was experienced in taking supplies over the route mentioned. One day forty boats started for the mines, only two of which reached their destination, these two being operated by Mr. Roberts, whose long experience in river driving enabled him to successfully manage a craft over this treacherous water-way. Mr. Roberts received as high as thirty cents a pound for freighting. Two men from Denver, who were running one of the forty boats mentioned, upset their craft on the second day out, whereupon Mr. Roberts kindly took them with him. One of these died at the end of the water journey, at the mouth of Eagle creek. He had a watch and some money on his person, which articles he wished sent to his brother in Denver, but he would not give them to his partner, preferring rather to trust them to Mr. Roberts, who promptly forwarded them to the brother in Colorado. They buried the young man at the month of Eagle creek, where the wild winds and the sweep of the water sang his requiem.

Mr. Roberts continued to be engaged in freighting for six months, and then entered the employ of the Northern Pacific Railroad at Ken- newick, from which point he was engaged in constructing the line to Yakima. Meantime, he had been revolving in his mind the feasi- bility of a track laying machine, and when near Yakima, began work upon it. Under his direc- tion, drawings of the proposed machine were made by a draughtsman in the employ of V. G. Bogue, the railroad engineer, a year being consumed in making the plans and obtaining the patents. He began at Ellensburg, the work of putting the machine together, first construct- ing the patterns for the various parts of the in- vention, and some of the castings were made at Walla Walla. On the first machine which he constructed, the tramways, which run along- side, were ninety feet long, which he then thought was a good length, but after getting his invention into running order, he increased

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this length to 1,500 feet, which showed how far even he had underestimated the greatness of his work. When he had advanced far enough in the construction of his contrivance to accom- modate three cars of ties and one car of steel, he began using his invention. At this time a man came to inspect it, who had been sent by Mr. Huson, of the Northern Pacific Railroad (now Mayor of Tacoma). On this man's re- porting favorably as to the merits of the ma- chine, it was shipped on two cars to Green river for trial. Mr. Roberts, with the assistance of another man who was interested with him in the machine, loaded it on the cars, and Mr. Roberts unequivocally asserts that this was the hardest day's work of his life. The day finally came for its trial, the Green River Northern railroad being that on which its merits were to be tested. On the day appointed, a large crowd was in attendance to watch proceedings, among which were many practical and thoroughly in- formed men, all intent on ascert aining whether the great invention would prove a success. This was just four years after Mr. Roberts had com- men ced his invention, and his feelings on this occasion may be better imagined than described. His heart, however, must have beaten faster as the hour approached which was to determine whether his years of labor were to end in dis- appointment, or whether he was to achieve a victory which would place his name on the list of human benefactors. The decisive moment came, the great machine began its work, and the battle was won. The greatest event in the evolution of railroad building had occurred and this machine had accomplished what had been utterly failed in by forty-two inventors, who had preceded him at the patent office in Wash- ington. Thus it was that, in railroad building, that department of industry which requires the highest order of genius and the best technically educated men in the world, this young man, so lately emerged from boyhood, and with the most meager education, and no technical train- ing, but depending only on the innate develop- ment of his own mind, had accomplished what great engineers had never attempted, and had rendered it possible for them to perform, by the assistance of his machine and thirty men, what had previously required the services fo 600 men and seventy-five teams.

The test completed, the machine was taken to Tacoma, and more new trains were built to put on more cars and handle more material.

Mr. Huson then engaged Mr. Roberts and his invention at a royalty of $35 a mile, the ma- chine being first operated for profit on the Washington Central railroad. Mr. Roberts' feelings of satisfaction may be surmised when he received his first check for $700, which was the first return he had realized from his inven- tion from the time he had conceived the idea of its construction when near Yakima.

From the Washington Central the machine was brought into Tacoma and burned, and Mr. Roberts built a new machine on a much more substantial basis, eliminating all nseless parts. securing new patents, and virtually building a new machine on the lines on which it is now constructed. Following this, he built six ma- chines at one time, one of which was taken to Montana, one to Anacortes, one to Salt Lake, and another to Milford, Utah, where it still re- mains, netting a loss of $2,500, work on that railroad having been abandoned. Mr. Roberts was engaged in railroad building at various places and for different roads until he event- nally came into contact with the San Francisco Bridge Company, who made him an offer and later purchased the control of his invention at a high price.

This, however, is by no means all of Mr. Roberts' inventions, one of the most ingenious of which is a mechanical calculator, which does perfect work, but which he has never patented. In 1892, he invented a hop-sprayer, but has since so greatly improved it that the machine he is now making is practically a new inven- tion. His fonndry and machine shop in Puyallup is running night and day with a large force of skilled mechanies, mainly work- ing on orders for these machines, which have already achieved a wide reputation on the Pacific coast. Mr. Roberts has decided to call his plant the Puyallup Experimental Shop, and will give much attention to the develop- ment of different inventions of commercial im- portance, for the conception of which he has a wonderful faculty. Even the boiler used in his workshop, which was at first discarded as not being good enough for its original purpose, under his efforts, has become wonderfully im- proved and very economical, producing the same result on twenty cents worth of fuel a day as is accomplished by other boilers with a cord of wood in the same length of time.

In January, 1881, Mr. Roberts was married in Weston, Idaho, to Miss Emma Hogan, a

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native of Oregon, born near the Columbia river. They have five children: Lizzie, Jolın, Clara, Henry and George.

Mr. Roberts has already done much to per- petnate his name in the history of human progress, yet it is altogether probable that but a small part of his work has been performed. Whatever be may accomplish in the future, however, his track-laying machine must ever remain his greatest achievement. A book ex- planatory of the workings of that machine has been written by him and recently re-published by the San Francisco Bridge Company, its de- scription being so plain and graphically written that a novice could understand it. In this con- nection it may be stated that while this machine was in operation on the Washington Central Railroad, it made a record of two and a half miles and 450 feet in eight hours, and often laid a mile of track in two and and a half hours.

Mr. Roberts has the unassuming air con- spienous in men who have gained eminence through their works, but through the good natured air which surronnds him, the keen ob- server may discern evidences of the great mind which is best illustrated in the work it has ac- complished.

W ILLIAM D. VAUGHN, is known as the "Nimrod" of pioneer days in Wash- ington and Oregon. Of his life we present the following resume. William D. Vaughn was born in Carroll county, Virginia, in 1831. He left that State in 1846, for Illi- nois, where he spent one fall and winter. In the autumn of 1847 he went to Missouri and thence to Lonisiana, where he worked all winter. The following winter he spent in the swamps of Mississippi, engaged in lumbering, and in the spring he took a raft of Inmber to New Or- leans. The cholera was raging in the South at that time. He went back to the Yazoo river near Vicksburg, Mississippi, and a few days later was a vietim of that dread disease. After he recovered from the cholera he had a siege of chills and fever which reduced him to a mnere skeleton. He then returned to Illinois and re- mained until he regained his strength. after which he went to work in Missouri. We next find him at Fort Leavenworth, employed as teamster by the Government until 1850. After

that he was in the employ of the bridge com- pano, engaged in bridging the Platte river about 110 miles west of Fort Laramie. He was hired by them as a hunter and gunsmith, and spent the winter in hunting. In the spring of 1851 emigrant parties were flocking through that part of the country, and he joined one of trains and kept the emigrants supplied with ganie the entire trip, which covered a period of six months. He arrived in Oregon in October, 1851. There he spent the winter and the following spring, in company with some others, bought a brig and went to Queen Charlotte's island in the British possessions, to hunt for gold. He found nothing, how- ever, and from there directed his course to Puget Sound, landing at Olympia, June 15, 1852. Olympia at that time consisted of a few log cabins. In 1855, he enlisted in the Indian war, and served during that year and 1856. Ile engaged in teaming, logging and rafting on the Sound until 1862. Mr. Vaughn was con- sidered one of the best riflemen in the volun- teer service. After the war he dealt in cattle for a few months, but soon went back to log. ging and subsequently engaged in mining. It would be almost an endless task to follow him through all his pioneer days. Suffice it to say that of the ups and downs of this world he has had his share and that he has made and lost several fortunes. He now has a gunsmith shop and livery stable in Steilacoon City. He has been elected City Marshal and also Road Super- visor, but owing to a distaste for public office he never qualified for either.

Abner and Keziah Vaughn, parents of the subject of this sketch, were both natives of Vir- ginia, where they owned and lived upon a farm. William D. Vaughn, was married February, 1883. He and his wife have no children.

M RS. ANN MCCLELAN, a resident of Steilacoon City, Washington, was born in the eastern part of Ireland, July 4, 1829. Her maiden name was Dorn, and her parents, William and Anna (Long) Dorn, also natives of Ireland, spent their lives, engaged in agricultural pursuits, on the Emer- ald Isle. She lived with her parents until she was twenty years of age, when, in company with some friends, she came to America. In 1849

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she found herself a stranger and alone in New York city. She was successful in finding work, being an honest, trustworthy servant and hold- ing the best recommendations. From New York she went to Vermont, thence to Wiscon- sin, subsequently returned to Vermont, and re- inained in the latter State until March, 1855. At that time, in company with John Ward's family, with whom she was employed, she started across the plains for the far West. Atter being on the road seven months and ex- periencing untold hardships, they arrived in Amador county, California. There in the fall of 1855, she married John McLanghlin, a highly educated man, a miner and a general contractor. They lived in Amador county six years, after which they moved to Yam Hill county, Oregon, where Mr. MeLaughlin bought a farm. While at work on this farm, rolling logs, he was accidently killed. After his death his widow conducted the farm in au able man- ner until 1863, when she was burned out and lost almost every thing she had except the land, which she sold the following year. In 1864 she married Samnel McClean and came to Seattle, Washington. They bought a farm on Lake Washington, on which they lived twelve years. Disposing of that land in 1883, they moved to Steilacoon City, bonght property and built a home. After living here about two years Mr. McClelan died, and for the second time the subject of our sketch was left a widow. She is a woman of natural shrewdness and abil- ity and since her husband's death has managed her own affairs. She has no children of her own, but has reared two orphans.

F REEMAN W. BROWN, a resident of Olympia and prominently connected with the surveys of the Territory of Wash- ington, was born in Washington county, Ver- mont, September 2, 1832, son of Leonard and Mary (Whitcomb) Brown, natives of that State, lescended from the pioneer settlers of New England.

Mr. Brown was educated in the primary and high schools of Washington county, taking the advanced academie studies and paying particular attention to the higher mathematics in view of the profession of civil engineer. In the spring of 1850 he went to western New York and at-

tended Randolph College, continuing his mathe- matical studies, and in the fall he engaged in engineering work in Iowa, performing work for the Government.

Deciding to visit the Pacific coast, he re- turned to New York city in the fall of 1851 and embarked by steamer, via the Panama route, landing at San Francisco in April, 1852. Fol- lowing the tide of emigration, he then visited the mines on the American river, but after a few months, with no flattering suceess, he re- turned to San Francisco and embarked for Oregon to join his uncle, Lot Whiteomb, then residing at Milwaukee. While there he engaged with David P. Thompson in running the first standard parallel west from the Williamette meridian. Completing this work about Jan- mary 1, 1854, he went to Shoal Water bay to look after the estate of his deceased brother, Joel L. Brown, a pioneer of 1849. After set- tling the affairs of the estate, Mr. Brown went to Cowlitz county and engaged with Henry Stearns in sectionizing several townships of that country and in running the fourth standard parallel west of the Willamette meridian.

In the spring of 1855 Mr. Brown enlisted in Company B, Captain Gilmore Hayes, of Second Battalion, commanded by Colonel B. F. Shaw. Their service began upon the Puyallup river and numbered the severe battles of Connell's prairie, White river, Green river, a continuons fight while crossing the Caseades, and the battles of Umatilla and Grand Ronde in eastern Oregon, besides a large number of skirmishes. IFe con- tinned in the service abont twelve months.

Returning to Olympia, he engaged in Gov- ernment work until 1857. Then he taught school three winters, first in Portland, afterward in Milwaukee and then in North Salem. The summer of 1859 he spent with an exploring and prospecting party through the Cascade, Blue and Rocky mountains. In the spring of 1860 he went to the mines of Salmon river and Mor- mon Basin, remaining till the spring of 1861.

Mr. Brown went to California in 1861 and enlisted in the First Regiment, California Vol- unteers, Colonel E. D. Baker. He was detailed to the Quartermaster Department and located at Benicia, and after six months was discharged, as his regiment had gone to the front. He then came to Oregon and enlisted in Company B. Oregon Volunteers, Captain C. P. Crandall, which was stationed at Steilacoom; was again detailed to the Quartermaster Department, and

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continued in that service until the close of the war, receiving his discharge in the fall of 1865.

In the spring of 1866 he took a contraet un- der the Territorial government of Washington to make a topographieal survey and map of the Skagit river and tributaries, the passes of the Cascade mountains, Lake Chelan, and the north- ern part of the territory east of the mountains. Hle made this survey, returning by the Wenat- chee and Sank rivers to Puget Sound, and com- pleted his work by fall. The following winter he taught school at Frenel Prairie, Oregon, and in the spring of 1867 settled on his home- stead, eight miles south of Olympia. He had married that spring, and to his home took his bride. Here his family resided until 1887, he meanwhile engaging in publie and private sur- veys and during the intervals of service em- ploying his time by grabbing stumps and diteh- ing and draining marshes, thus reclaiming 130 acres of nature's wilds and making one of the finest farms in the county. His more important work during this period was the sectionizing of five townships on the Kalama river in 1872, and surveying the preliminary line for the Northern Pacific Railroad between Olympia and the Cowlitz river. In 1875 he ran a preliminary railroad line from Olympia to the south side of Gray's Harbor, and about 1878 located the line for the Olympia and Gray's Harbor Railroad. During 1887 and 1888 he was engaged with the Pennsylvania Land Company and the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, in making geologieal and mineralogical surveys in the Cascade monn- tains. Ile has also made extensive topograph- ical surveys of the Rocky mountains and the southern part of Alaska, passing through tribe after tribe of Indians who had never before looked upon the face of a white man. Mr. Brown by taet and diplomacy seeured their friendship and retained their respect.

In 1887 he built his present cottage residence on land he had purchased in 1885, it being lo- cated on East Side street in East Olympia, and here he and his family bave since resided. He sold his farm in 1889 for the handsome sum of 88,500. Sinee coming to Olympia his time has been fully occupied in general survey work, and since the summer of 1892 he has been employed in tide land surveys for the State.

Mr. Brown's marriage in the spring of 1867 has already been alluded to. Mrs. Brown whose maiden name was Ellen E. Mathiot, is of French descent. Iler father, John Mathiot, came to

this coast in 1853. Following are the names of their four children: Frederick M., Edward E., Joel L. and Nellie l'.

Mr. Brown is a member of the George H. Thomas Post, G. A. R. He is a man of honesty and strict integrity, ever trne to the responsi- bilities devolving upon him, and is highly re- spected by all with whom he is brought in con- taet, either socially or in a business connection.

0 B. LITTELL, manufacturer of sash, doors, and moldings at Seattle, was born in Clark county, Indiana, October 31, 1850. His father, Maxwell Littell, was a native of the same county, where his parents settled with the earliest pioneers. The mother of our subject, Louisa, nee Bellows, was born in New London, Connecticut, descended from Puritan stock. Maxwel! was reared npon the farm, sub- sequently removing to New Albany, Indiana, and engaging in the mercantile business, which he followed through life.

(). B. Littell was educated in the schools of New Albany, and assisted his father in the store up to eighteen years of age, then went to Louis- ville, entering the employ of S. G. Henry & Co., dealers in boots, shoes and dry goods, and remained up to 1875, then returned to

New Albany and opened a shoe store, which he conducted seven years, when he sold out, elosed his business and removed to Seattle, arriving in 1882. Then he opened a shoe store and conducted it about eighteen months. In March, 1884, he bought a half interest in the small furniture and jobbing factory of M. F. ('Roke, the partnership continuing to the fall of 1886, when the firm changed to Littell & Smythe, who subsequently incorporated as Littell & Smythe Manufacturing Company, and after increasing the capacity of their plant, they began the manufacture of sash, doors and house-furnishing materials, employing an aver- age of thirty hands, and conducted a very pros- perous business up to the 27th of April, 1893, when the factory was destroyed by fire. The business of the company was then closed and the firm dissolved, and Mr. Littell leased the factory of the Western mill, located on Lake Union. This factory is a two-story frame build- ing, 76 x 120 feet, with a molding room 40 x 80 feet, fully equipped with improved machinery

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An illustrated history of the state of Washington, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 137

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