An illustrated history of the state of Washington, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 37

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 37

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

As typing other facts in the material growth of this eity we append the following:

EDISON ELECTRIC ILLUMINATING COMPANY. - The electric light industries in the town were started in the fall of 1885, under the name of the Spokane Falls Electric Light & Power Co., and a modest little plant consisting of

twelve arc lights and 150 incandescents was established in a station building in the center 'of the river on the north side. In 1886 the plant was removed to more commodious quar- ters, and in the fall of that year the Edison Electric Light Company, of New York, became stockholders in the plant, making the concern one of the then thirty-four central stations in the United States. An addition of thirty-five arcs and 1,000 incandescents was then installed. So great was the growth of the business that in 1887 all the available power at the new site in question was being used, and the directors were at their wit's end for increased facilities.

At this time Mr. Norman, who was the owner of the telephone interests in the city and throughout the Coeur 'd Alene country, took the management of the plant, and a large interest in its stock, and set about to find a location upon the river which would give them ample power for all time to come. Engi- neers were engaged, and careful estimates made of the various sites, with the result that a selection was made of what is known as the "lower and main power" of the river, which has a fall of seventy feet and a rated power at the lowest stage of the river of 18,545-horse power. This property, together with the C and C mills, and the whole of the water power of the Spokane river lying west of and embracing some twenty acres of land and more than two- thirds of the entire water power of the Spokane river, with riparian rights on both sides of the river, was under Mr. Norman's management, gathered together under one body, and a new corporation was formed, known as The Wash- ington Water Power Company, for the pur- pose of acquiring the property and developing it, the stockholders in the new company being the controlling stockholders in the Lighting Company.

The capital stoek of this new company was $1,000,000, the officers of the company being F. Rockwood Moore, president; J. D. Sher- wood, treasurer; and W. S. Norman, secretary. The company secured the services of Colonel J.

236

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.

T. Fanning, the eminent hydraulic engineer, as their consulting engineer, and Mr. IIenry A. Herrick, C. E., as their resident engineer, and plans for the entire development of the river were prepared in the spring of 1889, when the work of improving the power was commenced. A dam, sixteen feet high, was constructed across the river on solid basaltic foundations at the great power, and headgates in solid granite masonry were built for the purpose of carrying the flumes to supply the power to the tenants.

The station building of the Edison Company was started in the spring of 1890, and the whole plant was completed, and was in oper- ation in the fall. The Edison plant to-day is the most complete water-power electric-light station in the United States. It is a building, 60 x 120 feet, two stories high, of fire-proof construction throughout, the wheels being run under seventy-foot head. The water is carried to the station through two steel penstocks, each seven feet in diameter. The wheels are of the Victor Twin Horizontal pattern, and the whole plant is so arranged that uninterrupted power can be given for all time. The current has never been shut off since the statiou has been opened.

One of the best evidences of the growth of the city is found in the remarkable growth of this plant. In 1885, as we have said, it was running twelve are lights and 150 incandescents, consuming about thirty-horse power. To-day in its big building it is turning out 10,000 in- candescents and 600 are lights, and furnishing electric power for all the lines in the city, its power users alone consuming 850-horse power, and the whole plant to-day is using over 2,000- horse power. Most of the elevators in the city are run by the electric motor; the current is used to run all the printing-presses in the city, as well as for heating cars, cooking-stoves, and various domestic appliances, and fans for cooling and ventilating purposes are everywhere in cir- culation. The company's arc mains to-day are nearly 200 miles in length, and its incandescent

mains traverse every graded street in the city. The station runs both day and night without interruption, and so popular is the current that to-day upward of 500 residents in the city use it.

In 1886 the first street-car line was built in the city. It was originally installed by Messrs. Browne, Cannon & Ross, who afterward sold their interest to the Spokane Street Railway Company, in 1889. The Spokane Cable Rail- way was organized for the purpose of building a cable railway across the Monroe street bridge. This road was completed in the fall of 1889, and shortly after this time the stockholders of the Cable Railway Company purchased the control- ling interest in the Spokane Street Railway Company.

In February, 1891, the two companies being embarrassed, their plant was offered for sale, and as a result of negotiations was purchased by Mr. Norman in the interest of the Washington Water Power Company. Plans were at once made for the transformation of the system into a complete electric system, and bonds were issued for the purpose, and by September 1, 1891, the plant had been entirely reconstructed and remodeled, and the nucleus had been laid for a large and controlling system. The lines of the old company were principally in the west end of the town and on the North Side, but in September franchises were secured by purchase and grant in the east end of the city, and this section has now been covered with lines, while during the present year the company has acquired control of the Ross Park Street Rail- way Company, the pioneer electric road of the city, which practically gives them control of the entire railway business of the city with the ex- ception of two suburban lines. The company to-day operates twenty-five miles of electric road and three miles of cable road. It operates twenty-three cars daily and has a car equipment of thirty-five cars. The cars are of very hand- some design, the color adopted being white. The company owns large tracts of land lying along the line of its various roads, which radi-

Leconder Hamilton Prather.

237

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.

ate from the center of the city and reach out in all directions with nine arms. The whole of the stock of the companies is owned by The Washington Water Power Company. The total investment in the street-railway system, includ- ing its lands, figures np in the neighborhood of $1,000,000.

The company owns its own repair shops and *all of its machine work, and most of its car- building is now being done on the ground.

The Washington Water Power Company is also engaged in the milling business, owning and operating the C and C Mills with its series of warehouses throughout the adjacent country. This branch of the business is under the super- intendency of George S. Palmer.

TELEPHONE BUSINESS. Spokane is the center of one of the most complete systems of long distance telephoning in the West. The plant in Spokane was started in 1886, under the name of Spokane Falls Telephone Company, Mr. W. S. Norman being principal stockholder, with a plant of fifty subscribers. A line was at this time built connecting the Cœur 'd Alene mines just then discovered with Fort Sherman, and from Fort Sherman messages were transferred by Government telegraph wire to Spokane. In the following year a through line was con- structed from Spokane to the mines, and in 1888 Mr. C. B. Hopkins, the pioneer telephone man of eastern Washington, connected the Palouse country system with the city, and with Mr. Norman built lines from Spokane west- wardly through the Big Bend country. In the spring of 1891 the plants, which had grown so amazingly in the four years that they made an increase of 900 per cent., were consolidated under the name of The Inland Telephone and Telegraph Company, the American Bell Com- pany taking a preponderating share in the stoek. Of the new company the officers at present are W. S. Norman, president; C. B. Hopkins, general manager; F. R. Drake, secretary.

The company has vastly extended its toll line business, and to-day Spokane is within

speaking reach of 100 towns and villages in eastern Washington, eastern Oregon and northern Idaho, through lines extending clear across the State of Washington into Oregon. There are to-day three lines running sonth of the town into the Palouse country alone, and construction has been commenced upon a metal- lic cirenit line from Spokane to Portland, Seattle and Tacoma. The company is now operating exchanges in Spokane, Colfax, Pullman, Palouse City, Moscow, Pendleton, Ellensburg, Dayton, North Yakima and Walla Walla, connection being had at a moment's notice between the subscriber's instrument and the subscriber in any other town. The capital stock of the com- pany is $300,000.

During the recent labor troubles in the Cœur d' Alenes, the lines played an important part and were busy all the time in bringing out news of the calamitous affair. The mileage of line engaged in the telephone system of the city alone is about 400 miles, the number of sub- scribers being between 500 and 600, each sub- scriber having a separate line.

Among those whose life and work have made Spokane, and the great country of which it is the pulsing heart what they are, may be named the following:

L. H. PRATHER, a prominent lawyer and a member of the firm of Prather & Danson, Spokane, Washington, was born in Vernon, Jennings county, Indiana, in 1843, a son of Hiram and Mary A. (Huckleberry) Prather. His father was a leading member of the Indi- ana bar, often representing his constituency in the Legislature of that State, and during the Re- bellion won for himself a brilliant war reeord. He was Lieutenant Colonel of the Sixth Indiana Volunteers, was wounded at the battle of Pittsburg Landing, and was compelled to re- sign his commission in 1863 on account of poor health. The subject of our sketch also took part in the Civil war. He was first a member of the Sixth Indiana Volunteers and afterward of the One IIundred and Fortieth Volunteer Regiment of that State. He was present at the

238

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.

battles of Pittsburgh Landing, Stone River, second battle of Murfreesboro, and the battle of Town Creek, North Carolina. Ile was de- tailed as aeting Quartermaster on General Car- ter's staff and Chief of Ambulances of Third Division of the Twenty-third Army Corps, and was mustered out of the service July 11, 1865. He is now a member of the G. A. R., Sedg- wick, Post No. 8, Spokane, and has served as Fourth Post Commander of the same. He has served two terms as member of the State Board of Education of the State of Washington.

Mr. Prather received his early education in his native town and later attended Asbury University, Greencastle, Indiana. While at home and during his university course his studies were such as to incline him to adopt the legal profession, and he was admitted to the bar at Columbus, Indiana, in May, 1868, since which time he has constantly been engaged in legal practice. During the past decade Mr. Prather has been a resident of Spokane, and has always taken an active interest in its prog- ress. The firm of Prather & Danson, ocen- pying one of the most commodious suites in the Granite Block, corner of Riverside avenue and Washington streets, holds a high position among the legal profession, and justly so, for its individual members have had many years of practical experience in their profession and have been eminently successful therein. Mr. Prather is of a literary turn of mind and de- votes his leisure time to the study of literature. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which church his father and grand- father were also members.

He was married in 1879, to Miss Edna L. Riee, daughter of the late Hon. M. L. Rice of Arkansas, and a grandniece of ex-Governor Letcher of Kentucky. They have five children, Rose, Leander, Kate, Edna, Mary and Rice. Mr. Prather is in Spokane to stay. His attract- ive home in Altamont, one of the finest suburbs of this city, is brightened by the presence of his charming wife and and lovely children; so it

is not surprising to find him always in a happy and cheerful mood.

I. S. KAUFMAN, of the firm of I. S. Kaufman & Co., real estate dealers, Spokane, Washing- ton, has been identified with the interests of this growing city since 1883.

Mr. Kaufman was born in Macon county, Illi- nois, in 1844, second child and only son of. John and Margaret (Montgomery) Kaufman, natives of Pennsylvania and North Carolina, respectively. Ilis father, a contractor and builder, removed to Illinois in 1836, and in that State passed the rest of his life, and died in 1877. In early life he was a Whig, and later a Republican.' Ile was a worthy member of the Methodist Church, as also is his venerable wife, who died August 12, 1892.

In 1862, at the age of eighteen, the subject of our sketch left school and entered the service of his country, becoming a member of Company F, One Hundred and Fifteenth Illinois Infantry, and remained with his regiment until the war closed. He entered as a private and was mus- tered out as Orderly Sergeant. Returning home broken in health after the war, Mr. Kaufman attended school one year and then spent four years in Minnesota, engaged in farming and speculating. At the end of that time he went back to Illinois, located at Decatur, and was there engaged in the real-estate business until he came to Spokane in 1883.

From the time Mr. Kaufman located in Spo- kane his name has been synonymous with hon- esty, integrity and business ability. Probably no man is better versed about the vast resources of the entire State of Washington than Mr. Kaufman, and his faith in her future has led him to become identified with some of the largest enterprises in Spokane. His excellent judgment, together with his enterprise, has enabled him to accumulate a large fortune within a compara- tively short time. Immediately upon his arrival here he entered into the real-estate business and has been identified with that important branch ever since. In public life as well as business

239

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.

cireles he has always commanded the highest respect of his fellow-citizens wlio elected him as a member of the City Council for two years, and subsequently honored him with the election of Mayor of the city during an unexpired term. Mr. Kaufman organized the Ross Park Syndi- cate in 1887, and with Messrs. Dennis and Brad- ley and the syndicate organized and built the Ross Park electric railroad. He conceived the idea of erecting a block of granite, and he and Mr. Tilton, another one of the most prominent capitalists and business men of Spokane, erected in 1889 what is known as the Granite Bloek, occupying ninety feet frontage on Riverside av- enne and eighty-three feet on Washington street, and built at a cost of $120,000. It is five stories with a cupola, and the walls are granite from foundation to roof, the stone being from the famous granite quarries of the Little Spokane. It is lighted by electricity and heated by steam. An elevator is one of the modern conveniences which the occupants of the build- ing appreciate. Another prominent institution with which Mr. Kaufman is connected is the Exchange National Bank of Spokane, of which he is a director. He has served as a member of the School Board and is now a Trustee of Jen- kins University. He is a member of the G. A. R., Sedgwick Post, and both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Church, he being an active worker in the same and having organized the Sunday-school on the North Side.

Mr. Kaufman was married in Illinois to Clara Belle Odell, and has five children: G. Wilson, Raymond T., Ralph, Clara Bessie and Isaac Karl.

JUDGE JOIN R. MCBRIDE, a resident of Spo- kane since June, 1890, has for many years been prominently identified with various portions of the West.

He was born Angust 22, 1833, son of Dr. James MeBride, a native of Tennessee, and Mahala ( Miller) McBride who was born in Mis- souri in 1811. A self-educated man, he was the first Superintendent of Schools in Yam Hill county, Oregon, and during his incumbency

placed the schools of that county on a well-estab- lished basis. He studied law in Oregon with David Logan, son of Stephen T. Logan, of Springfield, Illinois, and in 1855 was admitted to practice in all the State and United States Courts. The following year he opened an office in Yam Hill county, Oregon, and remained there, engaged in the active practice of his pro- fession until 1865, when he went to Idaho. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention in Oregon in 1857, and in 1862 was elected to Congress, on the Republican ticket. In 1865 he was by President Lincoln appointed Chief Justice of Idaho, served three years and then resigned. He practiced law in Boise City until 1873, and from that time until June, 1890, was a resident of Salt Lake City, being engaged in the practice of his profession there under the firm name of Sutherland & McBride. The Judge served as a member of the Republican National Committee of Idaho for eight years and also of the same body in Utah for eight years. Ile was one of the delegates to the Re- publican National Convention at Minneapolis in 1892, which nominated Benjamin Harrison for President. He now has a large legal practice in Spokane, being attorney for the Northern Pacific Railroad Company and doing an exten- sive business for various mining corporations.

Judge McBride has been twice married. In 1852 he wedded Miss E. M. Adams, a native of Illinois and a member of a prominent family. She died in 1866, leaving three children, namely : Isabella Octavia, wife of Secretary Wanamaker's private secretary; Willis P., Clerk of the Superior Court of Seattle, Wash- ington; and Frank M., Assistant Postmaster in the post office at Salt Lake City. In 1871 he married Miss IIelen Lee, of Philadelphia, and they have four children: Iloward, Anne Lee, Walter S., and Henry C.

The Judge is a member of the Masonic fra- ternity.

In connection with his family history, it should be further stated that his youngest brother, George W. McBride, is Secretary of

240

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.

the State of Oregon, and that another brother, Thomas A. McBride, is one of the District Judges of the State of Oregon.

REV. J. B. RENÉ, S. J., the able President of Gonzaga College, in Spokane, Washington, who has been for many years prominently idea- tified with the educational institutions of the Roman Catholic Church, was born in Montre- vault, on the western shore of France, in 1841. His earliest education was received in the Insti- tution of Combrée, where he remained seven years, afterward entering the University of France at Angers, graduating at the latter insti- tution in 1861, when twenty years of age. He then entered the Seminary of St. Sulpice, for the purpose of completing his theological course, with a view of following a religious calling. In 1862, he entered the Novitiate of the Society of Jesus, at Angers, and two years later he was sent to St. Achent, near Amiens, in Cicandy, to study rhetoric. In 1863, he entered the Scho- lasticate in Laval, where he studied philosophy and the sciences for three years. In 1867, he was sent to Paris to begin his career as a teacher in the famous College of Vaugirard. In 1870, he was obliged to leave Paris on account of the Prussian invasion, and went to Le Mans, in order to assist in the founding of the College of Notre Dame de Sainte Croix, where he taught the classics, from grammar np to rhetoric, to sixty students. In 1874, he began the theological course of study at St. Bennos, in England, which institution, situated on a hill in the midst of the beautiful scenery of that region, commanded a view of Liverpool and the ships sailing on the sea to all parts of the world. After four years, he returned to France, and took the direction of the Apostolic School, of Poictiers, Vienna. After one year, he was sent to Brest, in Brit- tany, to be prefeet of study and discipline in in the naval school of this strong and impreg- nable harbor. After a year here, he went to Paray-le-Monial in Burgundy, to give one year to ascetical studies, near the famous sanctuary dedicated to the Sacred Heart, where the beloved Margaret Mary was favored with the wonderful

apparitions that gave birth to the Devotions of the Sacred Heart. In 1880, he was dispatched to Ireland, in order to assist in the founding of the Apostolic College of Munqot, near Limerick. He remained at the head of this eollege for eight years, first as director of the students under the rectorship of Rev. W. Ronan, and then as rec- tor himself of this flourishing establishment. Many apostolic priests, now working with zeal in America, Africa, China and Australia, passed from that missionary place. In 1888, he re- turned to France, and devoted one year in the Island of Jersey to the training of the naval students, there committed to the care of the French Jesuits. In 1889, he was sent to Ronen, in Normandy, a city remarkable for its historic monuments, such as Ouen, etc., and by the martyrdom of the heroic Joan of Arc. While here, Father René asked to be sent to the Rocky Mountains Mission, where, after a few months spent at St. Ignatius Mission, Montana, and at the Desmet Mission, Idaho, he was appointed President of Gonzaga College, on April 2, 1891, which position he has ever since filled. Here, as elsewhere, lie has been characterized by that energy and ability which has been the main- spring of his success in life, and which has filled the minds and hearts of so many students with zeal and learning, which they have carried to the uttermost ends of the .earth.

REV. NELSON CLARK .- Few men have in them naturally more of the essential elements of the true pioneer than has the subject of this sketch. Quite careful, methodical, persevering, full of that foresight which sees both opportun- ities and dangers from afar and prepares for them, he could hardly have failed to make a reasonable suceess of life.

In addition to the elements that are in his own being, and in no small measure accounting for them, Mr. Clark had the happy fortune of being well born. He was the son of Archibald Clark and Nancy (Pope) Clark, and was born to them in Deeatur county, Indiana, October 28, 1830. Ilis mother was the daughter of Ben- jamin D. Pope, in whom was mixed the warmth

241

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.

and solidity of the blood of France and Wales, and was also a cousin of Roger Sherman, whose name is among the immortal signers of the Declaration of American Independence. Mr. Benjamin D. Pope was a resident of Canada at the time of the American Revolution, but he so resolutely refused to take up arms against the colonies that he was thrown into prison for six weeks, when he made his escape, took his family and crossed the St. Lawrence river and took up his abode in the colony of New York. Here Mr. Clark's father was born, and from here he re- moved to Decatur, Indiana, at an early day, where Nelson was born. The family removed to Iowa in 1847, and then to Adams county, Illinois, where the father died July 10, 1964. He was for many years a local minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and his was the welcome home of the pioneer itinerants of that region for many years.

In the spring of 1853, Nelson Clark, then but a youth of twenty-three, decided to emi- grate to Oregon. Young as he was, and reared amidst the aspirations of a pioneer life, he was already a licensed preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Like many another who subsequently achieved success on the Pacific Coast, Mr. Clark worked his way across the plains for the weary half-year that it then re- quired to make that journey.

On arriving in Oregon in the autumn, Mr. Clark settled in Grand Prairie, in Lane county, on a land claim. In the spring of 1854 he was called to the work of the active ininistry by Rev. T. II. Pearne, presiding elder of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Willamette valley, who appointed him to a pastoral charge. In 1855 he united with the Oregon Annual Conference, and entered fully upon the work of the ministry. He had not been long in this work when the good genins, that has so often and so long helped his destiny, gave him, as the companion and help of his life, Miss Jane Gilbert, daughter of Lorenzo Dow and Hannah (Belknap) Gilbert, of

Belknap settlement, in Benton county, Oregon, to whom he was married in 1856. By birth- right, by personal endowments, and by those qualities that make a pure and noble woman- hood, she was all that he might have desired as the help and hope of his life.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

An illustrated history of the state of Washington, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 37

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