USA > Washington > History of Washington the evergreen state : from early dawn to daylight with portraits and biographies Vol. I > Part 27
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GROSS, MORRIS, was born in Rypin, Poland, February 19th, 1859. At the age of thirteen he left school and began learning the tailor's trade, at which he worked for some years before coming to this country. In 1879 he came directly to Tacoma, having been sent for by his brothers, and immediately took a position in their store, employing his leisure hours in the study of the English language. Since 1881 he has been the active manager of the Tacoma store, and the marvel- lous growth of the business bears ample testimony to his ability and enterprise. When he took charge of the store in 1881 all the work was done by himself and one assistant ; now about sixty clerks are employed. The magnificent palace of trade known as the Gross Building, situated at the corner of Ninth and Railroad streets, is owned and occupied by the Gross Brothers, and is one of the finest buildings, as well as one of the most extensive mercantile establishments in the State of Washington. Mr. Gross is connected with many secret and social frater- mities ; is a thirty-second degree Mason, member of the Mystic Shrine, Kniglits of Pythias, Ancient Order United Workingmen, Chamber of Commerce, and Commercial Club. He has travelled extensively in Europe. In political prefer- ence he is a Republican and an ardent protectionist. He is actively interested in nearly all the public institutions of Tacoma, is ready at all times to lend his in- fluence and aid to any meritorious project looking to the advancement of the city's welfare, and is in all respects an estimable citizen. The success he has
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achieved in business has been very gratifying, and the community has been a large gainer by his endeavors.
" GROSS, DAVID, was born in Rypin, Poland, August 23d, 1854, and came to America April 4th, 1873, being the first of the family to emigrate to this coun- try. He learned the dress-making trade in his native country. After a short stay in New York City he drifted to Cincinnati, O., where he and his brother, Ellis H., followed the occupation of peddlers for several years. Their subsequent mercantile career has already been noticed. When the Tacoma store was opened, David remained in San Francisco as the buyer for the firm, and to his skill and judgment in this department is largely due the remarkable success and phenome. nal growth of the business of Gross Brothers. He has the reputation of being one of the keenest and best buyers in the country. He now lives in New York City, where he is resident buyer for the firm, the San Francisco market proving inadequate for the growing demands of the business. Mr. Gross was married June 7th, 1882, to Miss Jennie Friedman, of San Francisco. They have three sons, Leonard, Mendes, and Jeffrey.
GROSS, ABRAHAM, was born in Rypin, Poland, April 5th, 1866, and attended school in his native town until the age of fifteen. At that time his brothers, Ellis H., David, and Morris, who had recently established their dry-goods business in Tacoma, sent for him, and he left Poland in the spring of 1881, and arrived in Tacoma on July 14th of the same year. After attending school six months at Tacoma, he went to San Francisco and took a thorough course of instruction in one of the leading business colleges of that city. On his return to Tacoma he entered his brothers' store as bookkeeper and general utility man. His faithful service in this capacity was fittingly rewarded when on April 5th, 1887 -his twenty-first birthday-he was made an equal partner in the business of Gross Brothers. Mr. Gross is an aggressive, energetic business man, and though but twenty-seven years old has, by his enterprising, keen business foresight and untir- ing industry, already attained a prominent position among the leading merchants of the Northwest. He has dealt quite extensively in real estate, in which he has displayed excellent judgment and acquired a considerable property. His admi- rable social qualities have attracted a wide circle of warm friends, by whom he is held in the highest esteem. Like his brothers, Ellis H. and Morris, he is a thirty- second degree Mason and a member of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias and of the Chamber of Commerce, and is a charter member of the Commercial Club of Tacoma.
The truly marvellous career of the four brothers so briefly noticed in the pre- ceding paragraphs furnishes an example of courage, perseverance, and enterprise that has seldom been equalled. Their success has been achieved in enterprises which have contributed to the general good, and their charities and benefactions have been bestowed with a liberal hand. Their lives are in every particular worthy of the highest commendation. Starting on the lowermost rung of the ladder of life, they have worked themselves up to the top by the exercise of those qualities which distinguish born leaders of men. During their whole business career they have borne a high reputation as honorable, straightforward business men. Every
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obligation they have assumed has been faithfully and fully discharged. Their large business has been built up by honorable dealing, by hard and persistent work, and the exercise of excellent business sagacity. They are recognized in the com- munity as men of the highest integrity, and enjoy the perfect confidence of the business public.
TURNER, GEORGE, was born in Edina, Knox County, Mo., February 25th, 1850. At the age of nineteen years he removed to Mobile, Ala., where he was admitted to the Bar in 1870. He remained at Mobile until 1876, and then re- moved his residence to Montgomery, in the same State. He practised his pro- fession in the latter city until 1884, when he was appointed by President Arthur as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Washington Territory. He had previously held the position of United States Marshal for the southern and mid- dle district of Alabama by appointment of President Grant. From 1876-84 he was Chairman of the Republican State Committee of Alabama, and was Member- at-large of the delegations to the National Convention of that State in 1876, 1880, and 1884. He was one of the famous " 306" in the convention of 1880 for Gen- eral Grant. On his appointment to the Supreme Court Bench he took up his resi- dence at Spokane Falls, where he has since remained. February 15th, 1888, he resigned his position as Judge and resumed the practice of law in Spokane. He is now a member of the firm of Turner & Graves. He is a successful lawyer of acknowledged ability in every branch of a most difficult profession, is a forcible speaker, and possesses the tact, sound judgment, and eminently practical views, without which the most brilliantly endowed men often prove such lamentable failures. As a citizen he takes a deep and active interest in everything he deems calculated to promote the prosperity and improvement of the city he has chosen for his residence.
FEIGHAN, JOHN W., a leading attorney of Spokane, is a native of the State of New York, having been born in Buffalo in 1845. He removed with his parents to Indiana, and later to Kentucky when he was quite young. At the early age of fourteen years he was left an orphan. After attending the country schools he began an academic course ; but the breaking out of the Rebellion diverted for a time the lad's thirst for the knowledge of books, and he determined to enlist in the service of his country. Owing to his extreme youth he was twice rejected, but a third appeal was more successful, and at the age of seventeen years he en- tered the service in the Eighty-third Indiana Regiment, attached to the Second Division of the Fifteenth Army Corps, and with his gun and knapsack went to the front. He was never absent from duty a single day during his entire service, and earned and received a commission for his services at the front. His regi- ment was under fire two hundred and thirteen days.
At the close of the war Mr. Feighan, having a natural bent for legal pursuits, determined to adopt the profession of the law, and with this object in view en- tered the Miami University, at Oxford, O., from which institution he was gradu- ated in the Class of 1870. He then took the prescribed course of study at the Cincinnati Law School, graduating in 1872, teaching school, in the mean time, in order to obtain the means to defray the expenses of his college education. He
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began the practice of his profession at Owensborough, Ky., in 1872, where he remained till the fall of 1880, when he removed to Kansas and settled at Emporia, Lyon County, in that State, where he soon built up a lucrative practice. While at Emporia he was three times elected Prosecuting Attorney, and creditably dis- charged the duties of that office. In 1887 he was elected Department Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic for the Department of Kansas. "As a token of esteem his comrades sent to him, after he removed to Washington, a handsome commander's badge of gold studded with diamonds.
In 1888 Colonel Feighan removed to Spokane Falls, Wash., where he has since resided. In the practice of his chosen profession he has been eminently successful, and the firm of which he is a member enjoys a large and increasing practice. His prominent characteristics as a lawyer have been cool, dispassionate judgment, plain common sense, devotion and diligent loyalty to his client, and thorough hard work for the mastering of the matter in hand. He has always taken a deep interest in political matters, and is a devoted member of the Repub- lican Party. His popularity has been attested by repeated calls to positions of public honor and trust. Before his removal to Kansas from Kentucky he was the candidate of his party for Member of Congress from the Second District in the latter State, and made a number of able and brilliant speeches for his party. He was elected a member of the first Legislature of the new State of Washington from Spokane County, and was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives without opposition. As a presiding officer he was fair, able, and popular, and won the confidence and esteem of the body over which he presided. As a citi- zen he takes a deep and active interest in everything which he deems calculated to promote the prosperity and improvement of the beautiful town he has chosen for his residence. In all the kindly relations of acquaintance, neighbor, and friend, the genial and manly elements that constitute the truest bond of human intercourse are conspicuous ingredients in his character.
GRIGGS, CHAUNCEY WRIGHT, President of the St. Paul and Tacoma Lumber Company, was born in Tolland, Conn., December 31st, 1832, and is descended from that brainy, thrifty New England stock which has given to this country so many of its ablest men. His father was Captain Chauncey Griggs, a man of more than ordinary ability, an officer in the War of 1812, and a member of the Legislature of the State of Connecticut for a number of years. Through his mother, Heartie Dimock, Colonel Griggs is connected with the nobility of Eng- land-the Dimocks in New England, through Elder Thomas Dimock, an early set- tler of Barnstable, Mass., tracing their descent from the Dimocks of England, who from the time of Henry II. to that of Victoria, have held and exercised the office of Hereditary Champion of the Kings of England, and for their services have been knighted and baroneted. In this country the Dimocks have always been worthy and influential citizens, and were especially prominent in the Revo- lution, many of them being officers in the Continental Army.
Colonel Griggs attended the common schools of his native town, and at the age of seventeen went to Ohio, where he was clerk in a country store for a short time. Returning home, he finished his education at the Monson Academy, Massa- chusetts, and after his graduation taught school. In 1851 a second time the
POST FALLS-MIDDLE CHANNEL, NOR. PAC. R. R.
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activity and possibilities of the West led him out from his old home. Starting first in a bank at Detroit, Mich., then in Ohio again in the mercantile business, then to Iowa, then back to Detroit, where he engaged for a time in the furniture business with one of his brothers. He finally, in 1856, located at St. Paul, where he engaged in the general merchandise business, contracting, dealing in real estate, etc.
At the breaking out of the Rebellion Colonel Griggs organized a company for the Third Minnesota Infantry, and was, for honorable and brave service, promot- ed through the various grades to that of Colonel, and undoubtedly would have been breveted General had he not been obliged to resign in 1863 on account of sickness.
Returning to Minnesota, he was for several years located at Chaska, a small town thirty miles west of St. Paul, as a general merchant, and also engaged in the brick-making business, dealing in wood, contracting for the government and railroads, etc. At this time he represented his county for some years in the Legislature of the State. In 1869 he returned to St. Paul and embarked in the coal and wood business, first with J. J. Hill, now the well-known railroad magnate, President of the Great Northern, then with General R. W. Johnson, and finally with A. G. Foster. He organized the Lehigh Coal and Iron Company, and was for some time its President, but in the spring of 1887 he sold out his entire inter- est in the fuel business. While best known as a coal and wood merchant, Colonel Griggs was extensively interested in many other business ventures. In 1883 he formed a partnership with others as Glidden, Griggs & Co., and engaged in the wholesale grocery trade, and at present he has considerable capital invested in the firm of Griggs, Cooper & Co., one of the largest wholesale grocery houses in Minnesota. Of this firm his eldest son, Chauncey Milton Griggs, is a member and one of its chief managers. Colonel Griggs has been particularly prominent as an investor in lands, having handled much property in St. Paul and Minneapolis, as well as throughout Minnesota, Dakota, and Montana. He has also made large investments in the pine lands of Wisconsin and in Montana property, and is still the President of the Beaver Dam Lumber Company, a concern that exhibits the same energy and prosperity which characterize all of his enterprises.
In the future, however, Colonel Griggs will be best known as one of the mill- ionaire lumber men of the Pacific Coast, and together with Henry Hewitt, Jr., as having carried through the largest lumber purchase ever made. In May, 1888, these two gentlemen obtained from the Northern Pacific Railroad contracts for the sale of some eighty thousand acres of land and timber lying near the city of Tacoma. This is the finest body of timber in the United States, and will cut from eight to ten billion feet. Associated with many other prominent men in the East and West, as the St. Paul and Tacoma Lumber Company, of which company he has been President since its organization in 1888, Colonel Griggs has become one of the prominent figures in the business circles of the Pacific Coast, and through the company's extensive foreign trade is known abroad, and along all the shores that are washed by the Pacific Ocean is building up a name that is synonymous with energy, ability, and integrity. He has found many other op- portunities for the exercise of these faculties besides the lumber business. As a prominent railroad contractor he has had charge of and has completed several
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extended branches of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and during the last three years, in the various interests of which he has had the chief executive manage- ment, his employés have numbered from fifteen hundred to eight thousand men daily. To employ and control so many men is an immense undertaking in any event ; but to do it successfully, at a profit, and without any labor disputes and to the entire satisfaction of the employés, as Colonel Griggs has done, is at this time almost a marvel. The colonel is a born leader of men. He controls them without friction ; is quick to see a man's good points, and is ever ready to reward ability and energy. In spite of his wealth and large corporate interests he is a true Democrat at heart, and in all his dealings with men his virtues never fail to win their confidence and esteem.
Notwithstanding his enormous private interests, Colonel Griggs has found time to serve the public efficiently in many important capacities. In politics he has always been a strong, conservative Democrat, but has never supported a cor- rupt candidate or a questionable party measure. He was a member of the State House of Representatives of Minnesota for two terms, and State Senator three ternis. He served as Alderman for seven terms in St. Paul, and held various positions of honor and trust on important city committees and boards, his dis- tinguished financial and executive ability making his services invaluable. In 1889 and 1893 he received the full vote of the Democratic members of the Wash- ington Legislature for United States Senator. He was a member and Chairman of the Washington delegation to the Democratic National Convention which nomi- nated Cleveland at Chicago in 1892, and owing to his intimate acquaintance with Mr. Cleveland's closest supporters and warmest friends and to the Republicans who realize his worth and the great value he would be to the State if put into the Senate, Colonel Griggs has held the full Democratic vote against a large Repub- lican majority, and throughout a very long and weary " deadlock" and always with an admitted possibility of election owing to his personal magnetism and to the confidence which the people of the State generally have in him, as a man of large experience, tried and honorable service and broad views.
The business career of Colonel Griggs has been one of great energy, courage, and commercial enterprise. His success has been remarkable, but he has the sat- isfaction of feeling that it has been deserved and is the legitimate reward of worthy exertion. His generosity has kept pace with his prosperity, and in the practical affairs of life he has the happy faculty of helping people to help theni- selves, and of bestowing charities in the most graceful and unostentatious way.
Colonel Griggs was married April 14th, 1859, to Martha Ann Gallup, of Led- yard, Conn. Their children are Chauncey Milton, born February 19tli, 1861, of whom we have already spoken ; Herbert S., born February 27th, 1862, a busy lawyer of Tacoma ; Heartie Dimock, December 12th, 1866 ; Everett Gallup, De- cember 27tlı, 1868, engaged in the lumber business and other pursuits in Tacoma ; Theodore Wright, September 3d, 1872, at present a student at Yale College ; and Anna Billings, June 17th, 1874.
PARKER, HOLLON .- His father, Preston R. Parker, was an early resident of New York, who located his farm about thirty miles east of Rochester, in the northwestern part of the State. After serving in the War of 1812, here with his
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own hands he cleared his farm of a heavy growth of timber and reared his large family of ten children, serving his community and his God by nearly half a century of active work in the ministry. Of this family there were six boys and four girls, the sixth being Hollon Parker, born October 2d, 1832, in Arcada, near Palmyra, Wayne County, N. Y. His early education was that of many of our more cele- brated leaders, acquiring the rudiments in the old-fashioned log school house of our forefathers. His later successes in life may be due not only to his own in- domitable spirit and firmness of character, but also to the atmosphere of his early youth and the worthy example of his honored father and most estimable mother. The latter was a Sanford, of Staten Island, one of the foremost families in New York State at that time. With that spirit of indomitable courage which marks the lives of those rugged characters of our pioneer history, Hollon, at the age of nineteen years, started for tlie Far West, intending to return in two years and enter college. Crossing the Isthmus of Panama, part of the way on foot, he arrived in San Francisco on May 22d, 1852, following the rush into the mines in the northern part of the State. Although fatigued with his long journey, and emaciated by the fevers of the swamps of Panama, he finally succeeded in reach- ing them alive. It was here that the true grain and fibre of his most commend- able nature showed out to the best advantage. Fully seven thousand miles from home, $500 in debt, a veritable walking skeleton, alone and among strangers, with not a dollar in his pocket, and a hard cold winter at hand. Can we wonder at the failure of many with less stamina who with him reached this elysium of their hopes to be disappointed ? After various efforts, he finally obtained a posi- tion indoors at $50 per month for the winter, at a time when flour was worth $1.25 per pound, and salt $16 per pound in the more remote mining districts. This was in the winter of 1852-53. He afterward taught school in the northern part of the State, saving his earnings, and finally, October 28th, 1853, went into business with a partner under the firm name of Parker & Roman, in Yreka, Siskiyou County, Cal., handling a line of books, stationery, and notions. He continued in this line for seven years, until he had accumulated about $40,000 worth of real estate and other property. These investments, mostly brick stores and merchandise, were lost during the dry winters which proved so disastrous to that country at that time, and being deceived in those in whom he confided, and after closing his store at this place, and one at Jacksonville, in Jackson County, Ore., he started North in the spring of 1862 for the then celebrated Orofina min- ing camp in Northern Idaho, arriving at Portland, Ore., in the following April. Continuing north, he reached Walla Walla about the middle of July, 1862, which has been his home ever since. His intention had been to visit his brother, Esbon B. Parker, who had come West and owned some valuable mining property at that place, and then back by the way of San Francisco, where he had his dental in- struments and dental stock, to Lima, South America, to practise dentistry, as he had studied and practised and become an expert in that profession. But after looking around at Walla Walla he decided to embark again in the mercantile business in his old line of books, stationery, and variety.
In 1863 he procured the papers necessary, and organized what was known as the Union League, for the purpose of promoting a spirit of patriotism among the citizens of the community, and was an active and zealous worker in the Union
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cause throughout the entire time of the war. The League, although it met with some opposition, proved a success, and gave to the country the impetus necessary to clear it of the blacklegs and thieves who had secured such a vital hold upon the community that a vigilance committee had to be organized to protect the lives and property of the citizens. During this time Mr. Parker, ably assisted by Mr. Thomas K. McCoy and Anderson Cox, worked incessantly, openly and in secret, to secure for the people an honest and just government, and more favorable con- dition of judicial affairs.
In 1856 Mr. Parker returned to his home in New York State. While there he attended the Wayne County Convention as an active member, which supported James Buchanan for the Presidency. After the election, Mr. Parker attended the inaugural, and while there was one of over four hundred victims who, with Presi- dent Buchanan, were poisoned at one of the leading hotels in Washington, of whom forty or more died, and many left injured for life, he himself not recover- ing for many years from its effects. While living in the East he became a Master Mason at Palmyra Lodge No. 248, Wayne County, N. Y. He also took the third degree in the Odd Fellows of East Palmyra Lodge No. 463. Some years after- ward he took a demit and a travelling card from these societies. But his busi- ness has required so much of his time that he has not affiliated to any great extent on the coast with these bodies.
Mr. Parker was an active member of the first National Woman's Suffrage Con- vention, held in New York City in May, 1869. In the summer of 1863 Mr. Parker was elected as a delegate to the Territorial Republican Convention, held at Vancou- ver, Wash. Terr. While there he entered into a contract with the Registrar and Receiver of the United States Land Office, and agreed to pay their expenses, which the United States refused to do, in order that they might come to Walla Walla and give settlers an opportunity to secure title to their lands before it could be bought by speculators, as there was to be a Government land sale of the same lands the following month. In this he was successful, and saved for the community over $15,000, which otherwise would have been lost had the settlers been obliged to have gone to the Land Officc.
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