An illustrated history of the state of Washington, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 84

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 84

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Mr. Weaver has the bearing of a thorough gentleman, and his looks do not belie him. He is often cited as an example of the brilliant careers open to capable young men in the city of Spokane and other Western cities.

M ATTHEW THOMPSON CURRY, at- torney and counselor at law, Centralia, is a highly respected member of the bar of Lewis county, and is also prominent among the educators of the State. A brief re- view of his personal history is herewith given. He was born in Iowa county, Wisconsin, Sep- tember 14, 1843, a son of Henry Curry, a native of Great Britain, born in England; the father was an expert miner and engaged in this busi- ness after coming to this country. He also fol- lowed farming to some extent in Wisconsin, and resided there until the time of his death, which occurred in September, 1886. Mary Thompson, his wife, was born in Ireland, of Protestant parents; they were married in En- gland, and there were born to them a family of twelve children. Matthew is the eldest; his youth was divided between the district school and the duties that usually fall to the lot of a farmer's son. At the age of seventeen came one of the most important events of his life: there was a call for men to go out in defense of the old flag, and to this he responded with all the zeal of youthful patriotism. Ile enlisted in Company E, Eleventh Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, and served until January, 1863, when he was discharged by reason of disability. He returned to his home, and after regaining his health and strength turned his attention to the

acquirement of a higher education. After spending a year in the seminary at Mineral Point, Wisconsin, he engaged in teaching, and spent the two years following in study at Beloit College; he next was engaged in teaching at Dodgeville for two years, and also taught a year at Linden, Wisconsin. These three years of labor earned another welcome respite. He en- tered the University of Michigan and pursued the studies of the literary department to the end of the junior grade, when, having determined to study law as a profession, he entered the law department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and was graduated from this re- nowned institution in 1871. He returned to Dodgeville, and for two years filled the position of principal of the city schools.

He was admitted to the bar of Wisconsin in 1872, and afterward removed to Lee county, Illinois, where he was engaged in legal practice until 1877. He then removed to Cherokee county, Kansas, and during his residence in that State he was employed by the Extension and Construction Company of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad as bookkeeper and pay- master, a position he held for three years. Coming to this State in 1883, he resided for a brief period in the capital city, and afterward in Tacoma. He then came to Centralia, which was then in its infancy. There was scarcely a demand for legal practitioners, so Mr. Curry returned to his " first love," and assisted in lay- ing the foundation of the excellent public-school system which exists in this State. His reputa- tion was not confined to the borders of Lewis county, for at the end of two years he was called to fill the position of principal of the public schools of La Grande, Oregon. At the end of one year he returned to Centralia, and then re- sumed his professional labors. He holds a life diploma as a teacher in the State of Washing- ton, and in 1889 was a member of the State Examining Board. In 1890 he was elected City Clerk, and the following year City Attor- ney. He is now Court Commissioner for this judicial district. lle is a man of keen intelli- gence, and has never laid aside his habits as a student. Possessing the courage of his con- victions, he is a fearless official, and enjoys the highest regard of the people of his county. Politically he affiliates with the Democratic party, and is a member of the County Central Committee. He belongs to the A. O. U. W., and to the T. P. Price Post, G. A. R.

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HISTORY OF WASHIINGTON.

Mr. Curry was united in marriage to Miss Corda B. Newlin, in October, 1880. Mrs. Curry is a native of Indiana, and has for a number of years been connected with the higher educational movements of the State.

C LARENCE HANFORD, one of the firm of Lowman & Hanford, stationers and printers, of Seattle, was born in Seattle, May 13, 1857, being the youngest son of Ed- ward and Abbie J. (Holgate) Hanford, of Ohio, but pioneers of Washington Territory, whither they came in 1854. The subject of this sketch was educated in the public schools and Territo- rial University of Seattle, and at the age of thirteen years engaged in that line of work which he has so successfully followed through life. In 1870 he began learning the printers' trade in the office of one of the pioneer papers, the Seattle Intelligencer, printed upon the old Ramage press, the pioneer printing press of the Northwest. Young Hanford worked in the office before and after school and on Saturdays, and he rolled the forms, printed the papers, and then took them about the town. From 1872 he gave his entire time to the business and then learned the practical work of type-setting and other details of the "art preservative," and sub- sequently became foreman of the establishment. In 1875 he went to San Francisco and attended the Washington Business College and also fol- lowed his trade up to December, 1876, when he returned to Seattle as foreman of the printing department of the Intelligencer. After about six months he bought out the job-printing de- partment, which he thereafter conducted and thus established the nucleus of his present ex- tensive business. During its incipiency the work of the office was performed with foot- power presses and with two assistants. In 1879 J. 11. McClair purchased an interest, and in 1880 Mr. Hanford made a prospecting tour of the Skagit river and British Columbia mines, re- turning to Seattle in 1881, when he resumed the printing business, bought his partners' in- terest, and continued alone until 1883, when he consolidated the printing business with the stationery business of J. D. Lowman and incor- porated the Lowman & Hanford Stationery and Printing Company. With the increase of bnsi- ness large presses were added and they did the

printing for all the papers of the city. This was continued up to the time of the great fire of June, 1889, when the entire establishment was destroyed. Before the ruins had ceased to smolder plans were made for rebuilding, and just two months later a two-story building was erected. Machinery was in place, operations actively instituted, and have since been steadily continued, With the demand for lithographic work in 1891 the company added a plant for that purpose and are now sending goods through- out the Northwest. The increase of business and the necessity of greater facilities resulted, in 1892, in the conversion of the two-story building into one of four stories, ard by build- ing over and around the original structure the new building was constructed from the founda- tion without interfering with the activities of the business. The present establishment is un- mistakably the most complete of all north of San Francisco, and about 100 hands are kept steadily employed in the retail, wholesale and manufacturing departments. Mr. Hanford has devoted his entire time to the manufacturing, while Mr. Lowman supervised the salesrooms np to 1886, and when other matters demanded his attention J. N. Jackson was placed in charge of that department.

Mr. Hanford was married in Seattle, in 1882, to Miss Eleanor Neff, of San Francisco. Two children have blessed this union: Amnie Lois and Lauron. Mr. Hanford was a charter mem- ber of Harmonie Lodge, K. of P. In addition to his other representative interests he owns valnable improved and unimproved property in and about the city of Seattle.

J HORNIBROOK, a well known farmer of Klickitat county, was born in Perth county, Canada, a son of Samuel and Sarah Horni- brook, natives also of that country. The fam- ily is of a long-life race, and the ancestry can be traced back to Ireland. Our subject, the second in a family of four children, all resi- dents of Washington, speut his early life in Canada. Ile moved to Cherokee county, Iowa, with his parents, and in 1883 he brought his family to Klikitat county, Washington, locating on a farin three miles from Goldendale, buying the right of Melton Sheer, and afterward secur- ing a title. Mr. Hornibrook has since added

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to the original purchase until he now owns 320 acres in one body, and also has 320 acres of monntain timber, a few miles north. Ile is engaged in general farming and stock-raising, and his wheat erop usually averages from eight- een to twenty-five bushels per acre. The farm has good buildings, surrounded by ornamental trees, and an orchard of about two acres, con- taining many kinds of fruit.

Mr. Hornibrook was married in Cherokee county, Iowa, February 28, 1877, to Miss Si- lena Ilill, a native of Wisconsin, and a daugh- ter of Ilenry and Elizabeth Ilill, natives of Germany and England, respectively. They re- sided in Wisconsin for many years, and after- ward removed to Iowa, where the mother still resides. The father died in Missouri in 1879. Our subject and wife have seven children: Sarah Elizabeth, Cintha Malissa, Ira Elmer, William John, Mabel Beatrice, Fanny and Alice Marcel- Ins. The family are members of the Method- ist Church at Goldendale. In political matters, Mr. Hornibrook votes with the Republican party, and takes an active interest in school, county and State affairs. He is always fore- most in any enterprise which tends to uplift or promote the interests of his fellow man, and it may be said he is one of those progressive, whole-souled men who are welcomed in every community.

W ILLIAM B. ROBERTSON, president of the Robertson Mortgage Company of Seattle, was born in Ashtabula coun- ty, Ohio, August 9, 1843. His parents, Gilman and Phœbe (Blakeley) Robertson, were natives of New Ilampshire and Connecticut respectively, their ancestors being among the early settlers of New England and patriots of the Revolutionary war. Gilman Robertson was reared a farmer, and was among the first to settle on the Holland purchase in western New York, and later on the Western Reserve in Ohio. William B. was the youngest of six children, and as his father died when our subject was in his boyhood, leav- ing the widow and large family with slight sup- port, William B. struck out in life at the age of eleven years to shape his own destiny. He con- tinned in the lines of agriculture up to 1861, when he enlisted in Company II, Twenty-seventh New York Volunteer Infantry, and served in

the Army of the Potomac. He was in the first battle of Bull Run, followed by the battles of West Point and later that of Gaines' Mills, where he was wounded in the leg on the 27th of June, 1862, and taken prisoner. After one month's detention, he was exchanged and then sent to the hospital at Philadelphia, when it was found necessary to amputate his leg, com- plications having set in through neglect while he was a prisoner. After partial recovery he was returned to Elmira, New York, and was honorably discharged. He then sold his trunk and such trinkets as were of valne and with the proceeds seenred instruction at a writing school, and later was offered a position as bookkeeper in a wholesale tea, coffee and spice house, where he remained abont four years. He then en- gaged in the buying, improving and selling of real estate, and in the loaning of money, in which he evineed such wisdom and sagacity as to rapidly acquire an extended and Incrative business, which he continued about twenty years. Save for his service as Assistant Asses- sor of Internal Revenue under the administra- tion of President Johnson, he would accept no political emolument or public office. He was married in Elmira, January 2, 1865, to Miss Eliza J. Chapman, a native of that city.

In 1888 Mr. Robertson come to Washington, and after visiting the cities of the Northwest he decided to locate at Seattle and engage in the real-estate and loan business. In the fall of 1888 he purchased 100 acres and platted the same as Hiawatha Park. He has since been selling lots in their addition, although giving more particular attention to loans. In April, 1892, he organized the Robertson Mortgage Company, with a paid-up capital of $250,000. He is president of the company, while his son and only child, Traey II. Robertson, is secretary and treasurer. The province of the company is the extending of first-mortgage loans on real estate and the purchase of connty and municipal bonds and warrants.

Tracy H. Robertson is a graduate of Union College, Schenectady, New York, in the class of 1891. His graduation was attended with high honor, as he secured the Ingham and the third Allen prizes on his essays in English lit- erature, and also the Blatchford oratorieal medal. Mr. Robertson, Sr., was one of the organizers of the Seattle National Bank, and is a director and member of the loan committee of the Seat- tle Savings Bank, of which he was also one of

J. W. Gordon

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the organizers. Ile is a director of the King County Abstraet and Title Guarantee Company. He is a careful, conservative, and sagacions financier, a gentleman of keen foresight and sound judgment, who by personal effort and discernment has acquired a substantial com- petency, and by advice and financial assistance has done much in furthering the development of Seattle.

HIOMAS W. GORDON, Clerk of King county, was born in Randboro, province of Quebec, Canada, Angust 22, 1862. His father, William Gordon, of Scotch- Irish ancestry, emigrated to Canada at the age of fifteen years, and subsequently engaged in the munufacture of boots and shoes. He married Eliza Hamilton, a native of Canada, and in later life returned to a farm where still resides, engaged in agricultural pursuits. Thomas W. was the fifth in the family of thirteen children. Ile remained with his parents until sixteen years of age, spending liis days in labor and his nights in rest, enjoying no educational advan- tages. In 1878 he left home to gain self- support and by personal effort to gain some knowledge from books. Thus by economy and persevering industry he passed through the graded sehools at Rochester, Vermont, the Ver- mont Methodist Seminary at Montpelier, and then entered the Stanstead Wesleyan College at Stanstead, Quebec, graduating therefrom in 1882. He then followed bookkeeping at Taun- ton, Massachusetts, for two years, when his health failed and he came to Glendive, Montana, and engaged in mercantile business. Opening a branch store at Medora, Dakota. Mr. Gordon became the manager, and while there was ap- pointed by a committee of the citizens to draw up a petition and present it to the governor for the organization of Billings county, which de- sideratum was satisfactorily accomplished with Medora as the county seat. Mr. Gordon was then offered an official position, which he de- clined, as that would interfere with his business. In August, 1884, he sold out and removed to Williston, continuing in mercantile life until December, 1885, when he went to Chicago and into the employ of the United States Express Company, remaining until July, 1889. IIe then came to Seattle, and engaged in the hotel

business as manager of the Russ House. In 1890 he entered the office of the city water de- partment as bookkeeper, and continued until the change of administration in March, 1892, when he retired, but was highly complimented for efficiency in the department and the accurate condition of his books. Mr. Gordon first en- tered politics in 1890, actively endorsing the principles of the Republican party. He was the nominee of his party in 1892 as Clerk of King county and the Superior Court, and was duly elected on the 8th of November, entering upon the duties of his office in January, 1893.

Socially, Mr. Gordon affiliates with the Royal Areh Masons, and is Past Chancelor of Lake Lodge, No. 68, Knights of Pythias.

D R. THOMAS L. CATTERSON occupies a leading position among his fellow- practitioners in Spokane and the sur- rounding country. Ilis skill and ability are too well known to require any extended mention in this connection, and the snecess with which his years of practice here have been erowned is a fitting tribute to his thorough knowledge of the profession which he has chosen.

Dr. Catterson was born in Geneva, New York, in 1857, and is the youngest in a family of eleven children. His parents, William and Mary L. (Long) Catterson, were both born in Scotland. llis father came to America at the age of twenty- one years, located in Vermont and engaged in agricultural pursuits. His mother came at the same time, and they were married in that State. Soon after their marriage they removed to New York, where the father died in 1882. The mother is still living on the old estate.

Dr. Catterson came to Spokane direct from the Detroit (Michigan) Medical College, of which institution he is a graduate, with the elass of 1887, although prior to his entering that college he had taken two complete courses in the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Ilis preparatory studies had also been very thorough, so that upon receiving his diploma his qualifications for the practice of his pro- fession were of the highest order. Since taking up his residence here Dr. Catterson has been constantly engaged in general practice, both in this city and throughout the adjoining country. He is on the staff of medical attendants at the

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Sacred Heart Hospital, where he is daily doing much to alleviate the sufferings of those who seek admittance at that noble institution. While the Doctor conducts a general practice, he gives special attention to surgery. He is a member of the Spokane County Medical Society, and also of the State Medical Society. Of the former association he was president in 1891. He is now a member of the Board of Censors of the State. He served as County Physician three years.

In New York, in August, 1880. Dr. Catter- son was united in marriage to Miss Addie Van Houghton. They have one child, Evelyn. The Doctor erected a pleasant home on Fourth avenne, in which he and his family reside. He and his wife are members of the Episcopal Church.

E DWARD F. WITTLER, one of the act- ive, enterprising business men of Seattle, was born in Bielefeld, Prussia, Germany, March 19, 1851. His ancestry had been resi- dent of the locality for many generations, en- gaged in the manufacture of damask. His father was a manufacturer of damask linen, for which the town of Bielefeld was world-famed.

At the age of fourteen years Edward F. came to the United Stated with his uncle, Gottlieb Wittler, who was a prominent contractor in St. Louis, Missouri. Edward remained with his uncle for three years attending the public schools of St. Louis, and learning the language and habits of the American people. He also took a course at Jones' Commercial College, where he graduated. He then secured a posi- tion as errand boy and collector in the commis- sion house of Harris, Franklin & Co., and remained eighteen months. Then, as sewing- machine solicitor, he passed one year, and in 1870 he secured a elerkship in the office of August Gast & Co., who were conducting a small lithographie business and employing about thirty hands. In 1871, young Wittler became traveling salesman throughout the Southwest, and in 1873 purchased an interest in the business. In 1875 Mr. Gast retired from active management owing to advancing age, and our subject became business manager. Under his able management the business of the firm extended and increased, and by importing color artists from Germany and thus raising the

standard of their work, they rapidly grew in prominence. In 1879 they bought ont the firm of John McKitrick & Co. and other smaller es- tablishments, and, adding facilities for steel en- graving and bank-note work, organized the Angust Gast Bank Note & Lithographie Com- pany, of which Mr. Wittler was elected presi- dent. To meet the requirements of their in- creasing trade, they subsequently added depart- ments of printing, stationery and blank-book manufacturing. In 1883 the increasing busi- ness in New York city demanded a local estab- lishment, and the Gast Lithographie & Engrav- ing Company, was instituted at 20 Warren street, New York, with Mr. Wittler as presi- dent. These institutions were then conducted . with great wisdom and success, until they be- came the leading concern of the sort in the United States, employing a working force of from 450 to 470 hands.

In 1887 Mr. Wittler decided to retire from business, giving his attention to the loaning of money and living a less laborious life. He had formed many close ties in the line of his profession, and his retirement was accompanied with resolutions of regret from the St. Louis Typothetæ, which embraced the master printers of the city. Mr. Wittler and family then made an extended trip to Europe, and upon their re- turn, in the fall of 1888, they came direct to Washington, arriving at Tacoma on the 15th of December. After spending ten days in look- ing over the town, Mr. Wittler visited Seattle, to present a letter of introduction to J. T. Ronald, from mutnal friends in St. Louis. The enthusiasm of Mr. Ronald aroused the interest of Mr. Wittler, and after looking over the city, he, too, saw the greater opportunities offered for investment, and he decided to locate in Seat- tle. He immediately began to purchase and improve real estate, and on the 2d day of Jan- nary, 1889, began the crection of four houses for rent or sale. This line of investment was continned until twenty-three houses were com- pleted. Upon Jnne 1, following, in connection with Fred Sander, he purchased a controlling interest in the Yesler avenue cable car line, of which he became general manager. Owing to the fire of June 6, the road sustained a heavy loss, but was speedily reconstructed and put in running order. Mr. Wittler then sold his in- terest to Mr. Sander and retired. He then built the St. Lonis block, 90 x 100 feet, three stories, on the corner of Eleventh and Jackson

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streets. On the 1st of March, 1890, he applied to the city council for a franchise to build the several roads now known as the Union Trunk Line System, which organization was duly in- corporated with a capital stoek of $1,000,000, Mr. Wittler becoming president. The road was constructed as soon as practicable and now em- braces the double track cable line on James street, from Pioneer place to the power house, at James street and Broadway, three-quarters of a mile in extent. Electrie lines were then ex- tended from the power house, and are individ- nally known as the Beacon hill line, two and a quarter miles; the Lake Washington branch, two and three-quarters miles, terminating at Madrona park, on Lake Washington, which is beautifully laid out and adorned; the Broadway branch of two and a half miles and the Rainier hill line, of two and a qaurter miles, making one of the most complete street railroad systems of the city. Mr. Wittler is also president of tlfe King County Abstract & Title Guarantee Company, and of the Cascade Steam Laundry. lle is a trustee of Green Lake Home Building Company, and owns the Tower Grove Nursery with a tract of forty-five acres, near York, the same being utilized for gardening purposes.

Mr. Wittler was married in St. Louis, in 1874, to Miss Rosa L. Taylor, a native of New Jersey. To this union have been given five children: Edna F., Milton F., Lester, Lela and Ilomer.

S AMUEL F. COOMBS, for upward of thirty years a resident of Seattle, was born in Thomaston, Maine, April 16, 1831, npon the homestead established by his grandfather, an old soldier of the Revolutionary war. The progenitor of the Coombs family in America descended from the Huguenots of Franec and emigrated to New England about 1760. Asa Coombs, the father of our subject, was born upon the homestead at Thomaston, and subsequently married Lucretia Mann, a na- tive of Castine, Maine, and daughter of Dr. Mann, a distinguished surgeon of the Revo- lutionary war. Asa Coombs followed farming, ship-building and the burning of lime, and was one of the prominent citizens of the State. IIe was Adjutant General under the old militia law, and served several terms in the State Legisla-

tnre. Ile was a Jeffersonian Democrat, and prided himself on having voted for every Dem- oeratic president from Madison to Cleveland, including Horace Greeley. At the age of ninety, he crossed the continent to visit his son in Seat- tle, where he died in 1888, in his ninety-fourth year. .

Samnel F. Coombs attended the common schools of Thomaston during the winter months and passed his summers upon the farm, remain- ing with his parents until his twenty-first year, when he started westward, passing the summer of 1852 with friends in Illinois. The winter following he taught school in Indiana, and in the spring of 1853 returned to Thomaston and was married, in 1854, to Miss Rachel Boyd, a native of an adjoining town and descending from Revolutionary stock. After marriage Mr. Coombs settled on the old homestead and carried on the farm for several years. In 1858 he was elected to the Legislature of which James G. Blaine was an honored member. In 1859 Mr. Coombs started for California by the Panama route, arriving in San Francisco in October, and then meeting his uncles, Captain William and George Boyd, who were navigators of the coast between San Francisco and I'nget Sound. Our subject soon came to Port Madison, and began work in the mill, but shortly afterward was en- gaged to teach the village school, numbering among his pupils the sons of Edward Hanford, namely, Thaddeus, Cornelius H., Frank, Jud, and Clarence, who are now among the promi- nent men of the State.

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An illustrated history of the state of Washington, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 84

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