USA > Washington > History of Washington the evergreen state : from early dawn to daylight with portraits and biographies Vol. I > Part 26
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The wife of Mr. Loomis is a daughter of Philip Glover, of Marion County, Ore. She is a lady well calculated to be the companion of her husband in his arduous undertakings and to make happy his domestic life.
PROSSER, COLONEL WILLIAM F., of North Yakima, was born March 16th, 1834, near Williamsport, Pa., was educated in the common schools of that State, including an attendance of three terms at the Johnstown Academy ; engaged in teaching school, studying law. and surveying until twenty years of age, when he emigrated, in 1854, across the plains to California ; engaged in mining, chiefly
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in Trinity County ; was Second Lieutenant of the Trinity Rangers, a company organized to assist the Regular troops of the Indian wars of 1858-59 about Hum- boldt Bay ; was the first candidate of the Republican Party in Trinity County for the Legislature of California in 1860; went East at the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion in 1861 ; was tendered a commission in the Regular Army by President Lincoln, which he declined ; enlisted as a private in the Anderson Troop ; served in the Army of the Cumberland throughout the war ; took part in the battles of Shiloh, Stone River, Chickamauga, siege of Knoxville, and many others ; was commissioned as Major of the Second Tennessee Cavalry Regiment in March, 1863 ; Lieutenant-Colonel same regiment in March, 1864, and Colonel in June, 1865. Mustered out of the service with his regiment July 6th, 1865. After the war, located on a farm seven miles from Nashville, Tenn. ; was elected to the Tennessee Legislature in 1867 ; was elected to Congress from the Nashville district in 1868 ; was Postmaster at Nashville for three years ; was one of the Commissioners from the State of Tennessee to the Centennial Exposi- tion at Philadelphia in 1876 ; was appointed Special Agent of the General Land Office for Oregon and Washington in March, 1879 ; served in that capacity for six years ; was elected Auditor of Yakima County for two years in 1886 ; was a member of the Constitutional Convention of the State of Washington, which met at Olympia July 4th, 1889, elected thereto from Yakima and Klickitat counties ; served on several of the important committees and took a prominent and active part in the deliberations of that convention ; was appointed by Governor Elisha P. Ferry a member of the Harbor Line Commission of the State of Washington, and served as Chairman of that Board from July, 1890, until January, 1893, when it expired by limitation of law ; was elected Mayor of the city of North Yakima in May, 1893.
Colonel Prosser was married April 6th, 1880, at Seattle, in the State of Wash- ington, to Miss Flora L. Thornton, daughter of H. G. Thornton, an old Oregon pioneer. They have three children. In 1882 he located in Yakima County, and founded the town of Prosser, a growing place at the falls of the Yakima River. In politics Colonel Prosser has been a lifelong Republican.
SCHULZE, PAUL, was born in Germany in 1848, and received a collegiate and university education in his native country. He came to the United States in November, 1868, at the age of twenty. After having been engaged in various occupations in California, in November, 1871, he entered the service of the Land Department of the Oregon and California Railroad, in Portland, Ore. During a visit in Germany in 1874 he met Henry Villard, who soon after became President of the Oregon and California Railroad, and Mr. Schulze was appointed Land Agent of that road in July, 1874, which position he held until April, 1884. In August, 1882, he was appointed General Land Agent of the Northern Pacific, and was otherwise connected with various enterprises with Mr. Villard. In 1885 the General Land Office of the Northern Pacific was removed to Tacoma, Wash., since which time he has been identified with that city.
He is President of the Tacoma Railway and Motor Company, which practically controls all the street railways in the city ; Vice-President of the Tacoma Smelt- ing and Refining Company ; President of the Northern Pacific, Yakima and
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Kittitas Irrigation Company, which has nearly completed the largest irrigating canal in the State of Washington ; is a director in the Fidelity Trust Company and Traders' Bank, and identified with a number of other enterprises in this city and State. By his marked ability and unquestioned integrity Mr. Schulze has won a position among the foremost business men and leading citizens of Wash- ington, and it is but logical to infer that still higher honors await him.
POMEROY, JOSEPH M., deceased, an eminently worthy pioneer of Washington Territory, was born in Ashtabula County, O., March 20th, 1830. In 1850 he re- moved to Kendall County, Ill., and two years later crossed the plains to Oregon and engaged in mining. In 1853 he rented a ranch near Salem, Ore., and worked it for nine years in connection with a wagon shop. In the spring of 1863 he came to Washington and took charge of a ranch and stage station near the present site of Dayton. In December, 1864, he purchased the land on which the city of Pomeroy now stands. Here he farmed and raised fine stock until 1877, when he laid out the town of Pomeroy. In 1878 he built the Pomeroy Hotel, now the St. George. He was married in 1857 to Miss Martha J. Trimble, in Salem, Ore., by whom he has three children, all of whom have reached their majority and hold distinguished places in the community where they dwell.
The widow of Mr. Pomeroy is a native of Iowa, being the daughter of Ed- ward and Abbarilla Trimble, of Scotch descent. She came west with her parents in 1846, a journey of nine months across the plains. On the way her father was killed by the Indians, leaving her mother with a family of five chil- dren to make a home among strangers in a far and almost unknown country. The murdered man had been entrusted by the commander at Fort Madison with correspondence and orders to be delivered to the commander at Fort Vancouver. On his death the widow took and kept them until she delivered them up to Gen- eral McCarver. They announced the cession to the United States Government of the territory then claimed by the British, and on their receipt the British flag was lowered and the Stars and Stripes floated over Fort Vancouver. The lady who brought these glad tidings still lives at Halsey, having reached the good old age of seventy-seven years.
The subject of our sketch was public spirited and generous to a fault, kind hearted, and everywhere known for his hospitality. No needy man was turned empty handed from his door. A lover of justice tempered by mercy, wise in council, firm of purpose, his memory is still honored and cherished by those who knew him best. His three children worthily represent him. They are Clara L., wife of E. T. Wilson, National Bank Examiner for Washington and Idaho, who represents Kittitas County in the State Senate of Washington ; Edward, proprietor of the East Washingtonian, published at Pomeroy ; and Alva E., wife of P. McClung, a newspaper man.
DAY, JESSE N., farmer, of Dayton, Wash., was born in West Virginia in 1828, emigrated to Oregon in 1848, and engaged in lead-mining in Grant County. In 1850 he settled in the Willamette valley, and up to 1857 was engaged in the same occupation in Yreka ; then in stock-raising in another locality. He afterward
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emigrated to Leavenworth, Kan. In 1859 he located his homestead on the Touchet River, in Walla Walla County (now Columbia). He was the first white settler in that section of Washington. He took with him one hundred breeding cows from Oregon, which had increased to two hundred and fifty in 1865. He bought one hundred and sixty acres of land, the site of the present city of Day- ton, for $4000, and later on added two hundred and forty acres, for which he paid $3000. He then turned his attention to farming and stock-raising until 1871, when he filed the plot of the town site of Dayton, forty houses being built the first year after plotting, erected on donated lots. Mr. Day naturally felt a warm interest and no little pride in the remarkable growth and progress of the town which bears his name and of which he was the founder. He had the hon- orable distinction, withal, of being one of Washington's veteran pioneers, one of those for whose gray heads the almond-tree long blossomed.
BOONE, W. E .- This well-known citizen, though not among those who came to Seattle at the earliest day of the city's history to lay here the foundations of municipal and commercial greatness, is a prominent and representative man of the re-enforcement that came when the place was beginning her larger growth ; and to this re-enforcement much of the credit of the city's remarkable advancement is due. Mr. Boone is a native of the Keystone State, and was born in Luzerne County, September 3d, 1830. He received the benefits of a common school edu- cation in his native town, but the school of experience and self-study has been the chief means of preparing him for the part he was to perform in life's battles. He began life as a breadwinner in 1853 in the employ of the Illinois Central Rail- way Company, having charge of their work in Dunleith, Ill. After leaving their employ he went to Minneapolis, Minn., then a town of but seven thousand peo- ple, where he engaged in the business of architecture. In 1860 he removed to San Francisco, where he engaged in contracting and building. This business he continued successfully for about twenty years. During this time he was identi- fied with the building of many of the finest business blocks, public buildings, and churches in the city of San Francisco and on the Pacific Coast.
In 1881 he came to Seattle and immediately took an active part in building and architecture in this region. Mr. Boone is a master of every detail pertaining to his business and its requirements, and many of the most prominent public and private buildings in the city are monuments of his skill and ability. His opera- tions extend to every part of the Pacific Northwest. Mr. Boone has always been a hard worker and a man of most industrious habits. He has, in truth, been the architect of his own fortune. From the most humble financial circumstances, by diligent work, by making right use of his opportunities, and by honorable busi- ness methods he has risen step by step until to-day he is regarded as one of Seat- tle's most successful business men. Although he has almost exclusively devoted his time and attention to his private business affairs, he has not failed to take a helping part in public enterprises or such undertakings as seemed likely to ad- vance the material interests of the city. He was selected by the Board of Land and Building Commissioners as the architect for the State University buildings, and his plans have been adopted by the Board.
Mr. Boone was married in 1872 to Miss Mercie Slocum, of Syracuse, N. Y.
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Henry M. alla
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HUGGINS, EDWARD, ex-Auditor of Pierce County, for over forty years a resident of Washington, was born in London, England, June 10th, 1832, and acquired his education in the schools of that city. At the age of fifteen years he entered a broker's office as clerk, and served in that capacity and in other positions of minor importance until he reached his seventeenth year. In 1849 lie took pas- sage in the Hudson's Bay Company's ship, the Norman Morrison, and after a long and tedious voyage around the Horn, arrived at Vancouver's Island, where is now Victoria, B. C. He at once entered the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company as clerk, and was sent to Fort Nisqually, Washington Territory, where he served for about ten years under Dr. W. F. Tolmie, agent for the fur company at that place. In 1859 Mr. Huggins succeeded the doctor as agent, and remained in charge there until 1870, at which time the Hudson's Bay Company and the Puget Sound Agricultural Company surrendered the rights they claimed under the treaty of 1846 between the United States and Great Britain for a large money considera- tion. Mr. Huggins was ordered to take charge of the fur company's agency at Fort Kamloops, British Columbia, but refused to go. Resigning his position in the company's service, he entered the site of old Fort Nisqually as a pre-emption claim, having become an American citizen as early as 1856.
He has, at different times, added to the original claim, until he now owns nearly a thousand acres there. During the first few years he dealt quite exten- sively in furs, but afterward gave it up and devoted his attention to farming and stock-raising, which he continued with success and profit until 1886, when he removed to Tacoma, his present place of residence, having in that year been elect- ed to the office of Auditor of Pierce County as the candidate of the Republican Party. At the expiration of his term he was re-elected to the same office. H? also served three terms as Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners. He is Vice-President of the National Bank of Commerce, and is identified with sev- eral other business enterprises. In all matters of public or private life Mr. Hug- gins has won the confidence and esteem of all who know him, and his integrity in business matters is proverbial.
He was married in October, 1857, to Miss Letitia Work, daughter of Chief Factor Work, of the Hudson's Bay Company. They have had six sons and one daughter. The latter died at an early age.
CALKINS, HON. WILLIAM H., was born February 18th, 1842, in Pike County, O. In 1853 he emigrated to Indiana with his father's family, and for the next three years worked on their farm. In 1856, his father being elected County Auditor, young Calkins acted as his Deputy for two years. From 1858 to the spring of 1861 he was city editor and bookkeeper of the Indiana Daily Courier at Lafayette, employing his leisure hours in the study of law, first under the instruction of Major Daniel Mace and afterward in the office of Colonel William Wilson. He also attended the Commercial and Law School at Louisville, Ky., for about three months.
At the breaking out of the late Civil War he enlisted as a private in the com- pany of Captain W. J. Templeton, from Benton County, Ind. This company was intended for three months' service, but the quota being filled, it was transferred to the State service for one year, and temporarily attached to the Fifteenth In-
18,
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diana Regiment, and the following August it was disbanded. Mr. Calkins then went to Iowa, and assisted in raising a company in Jones County in that State, and in 1861 he entered the three years' service as First Lieutenant of Company H, Fourteenth Iowa Infantry. He fought at forts Henry and Donelson, and at the battle of Shilolı. At the close of the first day's fight in the last-named bat- tle the remnant of his regiment surrendered, and he, with the other officers, was taken prisoner.
He was confined in the prisons of Macon and Madison, Ga., and in the famous Libby, and in October, 1862, he was paroled. While in the prisons the treat- ment he received was most severe. After his release he joined his regiment, and was ordered to Springfield, Mo., to repel the invasion of the Confederate General Marmaduke. He was then sent to Cairo, Ill., and thence to Paducah, Ky., where, in 1863, he left the regiment with his health seriously impaired from iin- prisonment and exposure. He re-entered the army in October, 1863, and was temporarily assigned to the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth Indiana Infantry, then being recruited. In February, 1864, he was promoted to the rank of Major of the Twelfth Indiana Cavalry, with which he remained until he was mustered out of service in December, 1865, commanding it more than half the time during active service. At the close of the war he was brevetted for meritorious service.
On June 20th, 1864, he was married to Miss Hattie S. Holton, formerly of Maysville, Ky. In December, 1865, he returned to Valparaiso, Ind., to which place his father had in the mean time removed, and immediately entered upon the practice of law. In October, 1866, he was elected Prosecuting Attorney for the district composed of nine of the northwestern counties of the State, and served to the entire satisfaction of his constituents, as is evinced by the fact that he was re-elected in 1868.
In 1870 he was a member of the Forty-seventh General Assembly from Porter County. In May, 1871, he removed to La Porte, Ind., and entered upon the practice of his profession with Judge Osborn. In 1874 he was nominated for Congress by the Republicans, and was defeated by Dr. Hammond, of Monticello. In 1876 he was again nominated, and was elected by eleven hundred votes over his old competitor, and was re-elected in 1878. In 1880 he was re-elected from the Thirteenth Congressional District, and was re-elected from the same district in 1882. He was nominated for Governor of Indiana at the Republican State Convention held in June, 1884, and was defeated at the ensuing election, the total vote being 550,000. He continued his practice of law in Indianapolis until February, 1889, when he removed to Tacoma, Wash. Terr. In April, 1889, he was appointed one of the four Supreme Judges of the Territory of Washington, which position he held until the Territory was admitted as a State ; since that time he has been practising law in the city of Tacoma.
SAUNDERS, JAMES C., of Port Townsend, Wash., was born in Memphis, Tenn., December 31, 1854 ; attended the private academy of Stewart Brothers ; in 1869 entered the University of Tennessee, and remained until 1871, and then spent three years on his father's farm. We next find him in the national capital acting as Private Secretary to Congressman Casey Young, during which time he read law. He was afterward Clerk of two committees of the House of Representatives. In
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1880 he went to Fort Smith, Ark., and established the Fort Smith Herald, being the first daily sheet ever published in that locality. In 1883 he returned to Washington, D. C., as Clerk to the Committee on Commerce (of which Hon. John H. Reagan was Chairman), a position which he retained for a year and a half. During the campaign of 1884 he was Private Secretary to Senator Gorman, who managed the campaign. After Cleveland's inauguration he was appointed Executive Clerk to the President, in which capacity he continued to serve until 1888, when he accepted the office of Indian Inspector, being assigned to duty in Washington Territory. On May 20th, 1893, he was appointed by President Cleveland Collector of Customs for the Puget Sound district. Few lives have been busier or more fully occupied in positions of trust and confidence than that of Mr. Saunders. His repeated promotion is the best evidence that his work was well done and to the satisfaction of his employers.
In 1882 he was married to Miss Alice E. Sample, daughter of Rev. W. A. Sample, of Fort Smith, Ark. They have three children.
CHARLTON, A. D., the Assistant General Passenger Agent of the Northern Pacific Railway, is a genial gentleman that it is always a pleasure to meet. He is a native of Canada, and was born in Hamilton, November 15th, 1859. His early boyhood was passed in his native town, where he received the advantages of an excellent common school and collegiate education. He terminated his studies at the early age of sixteen, and entered the Auditor's office of the Great Western Railroad, now part of the Grand Trunk system ; he had early evinced an interest in railroad life which deepened as his knowledge expanded. He re- mained in this office two years and then removed to Chicago, where a larger scope was opened in which to exercise his ambitions ; he accepted a responsible position in the General Passenger and Ticket Department of the Chicago and Alton Rail- road. He held this office six years, which attests the fact of his duties being ably and efficiently discharged. His abilities being recognized, he was given charge of all Western passenger business of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and arrived in Portland, Ore., February 15th, 1884, to enter upon his new field of duty. A few months later he was given the more responsible position of Assist- ant General Passenger Agent, with full control over all passenger business west of Helena, Mont. He is now filling the many requirements of this office to the general satisfaction of the company and travelling public ; his long and faithful services in connection with the road have made him thoroughly familiar with the work in every detail. His systematic and economical administration of the affairs under his control entitles him to great credit. With men of his stamp assisting in the conduct of the Northern Pacific's affairs, it is easy to comprehend why the system of this great railroad has reached such perfection, and why the future prosperity of the line is most substantially assured.
Mr. Charlton was married October 9th, 1889, to Miss Ida M. Comstock, daughter of one of Oregon's most prominent pioneers, and a lady of refinement and culture.
FORREST, ROBERT W., deceased, the subject of this brief memoir, was born at Brandywine Manor, Chester County, Pa., in the year 1833. His early life was
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snent upon a farm, and his educational advantages were of the most limited nature. Until the age of twenty-five most of his time had been passed in labor upon the farm. In 1857 he relinquished that occupation and embarked in the mercantile business at Lionville, Pa. After following that calling successfully for nearly five years, he became enthused with the spirit of the times, and offered himself to the great cause which demanded the services of every patriotic citizen -the suppression of the great Rebellion. He enlisted in September, 1862, in a Pennsylvania regiment, and served with distinction and bravery as Color-Sergeant of the regiment.
Returning home at the expiration of his term of service, the restless spirit of ambition led him westward. Crossing the Mississippi at St. Louis in 1866, he finally settled at Norborne, Carroll County, Mo., where for a period of ten years he was successfully engaged in mercantile business. During this time he took an active interest in public affairs, and was elected to several offices of public trust and honor, the duties of which he performed with the same energy and public spirit which had characterized him in his private business. In 1878 he removed with his family to Tacoma, and one year later to Spokane. At the latter place he again embarked in the mercantile business, which he continued with success and profit until 1884, when, on account of failing health, he was obliged to retire permanently.
On the incorporation of Spokane, in November, 1881, Mr. Forrest was elected the first Mayor of the city, and by re-election held that important office until April, 1883. Without any disparagement to his honorable successors, it may be truthfully stated that Spokane has never had a more progressive Mayor, one wlio better understood its wants and made provision for meeting them. There was no portion of the city's affairs with which he did not at once make himself intelli- gently familiar, and he inaugurated many public improvements which reflect great credit on his sagacity and foresight, and entitle him to be forever remem- bered with gratitude by his fellow-citizens. In 1885 he was elected to the City Council from the First Ward for a term of two years. Mr. Forrest was a pioneer, in fact, of the great Northwest, and always took an active part and laudable pride in the development of its many and great resources. He was a director and stockholder in the Traders' National Bank, the Ross Park Electric Railway Company, Spokane Falls and Big Bend National Bank, Davenport, Wash., and was for several years President of the Pennsylvania Mortgage Investment Com- pany, of Spokane Falls. He dicd at Brandywine Manor, September 14th, 1892.
Mr. Forrest was successful in life not as the result of any single stroke, but rather as the result of patient, persistent, and well-directed effort. He possessed' fine business judgment, excellent executive ability, and an evenly balanced mind. No man in the community stood higher for integrity, business probity, and faith- fulness to every trust and obligation. Spokane was benefited in many ways by his ready willingness to promote every deserving public enterprise. For his friends and intimates he had a frank, warm, and loyal attachment-as warmly and loyally reciprocated. Such, in brief, are some of the prominent characteristics of this man, whose career was one of constant and unflagging devotion to duty, of generous deeds, and active usefulness.
Ralph
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GROSS, ELLIS H., the senior member of the firin of Gross Brothers, of Tacoma, was born in Rypin, Poland, December 10th, 1853. He came to America in the spring of 1874 a poor and friendless emigrant, and after spending a few weeks in New York City went to Cincinnati, O., where he joined his brother, David, who preceded him to this country, and began life as a peddler in and near the city of Cincinnati. He continued that occupation until 1876, when he went to San Francisco and opened a small dry goods store with the very limited capital saved from his peddling business. In partnership with his brother, David, he suc- cessfully continued business in San Francisco until 1878, when they came to Tacoma and opened a sınall store, with a stock of about $1500 worth of goods- the beginning of the present large establishment of Gross Brothers. The firm name was at first Gross & Rudee. The latter retired about six months later, and Morris Gross joined the firm, which has ever since been known as Gross Brothers. In 1881 the management of the Tacoma store was turned over to Morris Gross, and a branch store was established at Port Townsend, under the management of Ellis H. After remaining there two years he sold out and went to Europe. He returned to this country in 1887, and has since resided at Tacoma. While in Europe he was married to Johanne Olsehewitz, of Strasburg, Germany. They have two children, Lydia and Carl. Mr. Gross is a thirty-second degree Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine. He is the eldest of the four Gross brothers. The parents are still living in Rypin, Poland, the father at the age of eighty and the mother seventy. In a personal sense Mr. Gross has had a most successful career, and has also been a potent factor in promoting the growth and develop- ment of the city of Tacoma. He is a man of affable manners and pleasing ad- dress, and is respected and esteemed for his genial social qualities, as well as for integrity and sterling worth of character.
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