USA > Washington > History of Washington the evergreen state : from early dawn to daylight with portraits and biographies Vol. I > Part 38
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64
BRIGGS, W. N., a prosperous farmer and stockman of Kittitas Valley, was born in Indiana in 1847. His parents were natives of Pennsylvania, where his father died in 1848. His mother married a Mr. Smith in 1856, leaving young Briggs to the care of his paternal grandparents, who brought him up until the age of thirteen, when he returned to his mother, with whom he migrated to Iowa in 1860, and there received his education. After a sojourn in Nebraska and Minnesota, Mr. Briggs removed to Oregon in 1875, where he engaged in farming, and from thence in 1877 to Kittitas, Wash., where he took up land which he still cultivates and considers highly productive. He was married in 1877 to Miss E. L. Hutchinson, who was born in Wisconsin in 1858, and by whom he has three children. He and his wife are members of the Christian Church. He is also a member of the Farmers' Alliance.
BROOKES, ALBERT M., a veteran of the war, an enterprising business man and ex-postmaster of Seattle, was born in Galena, Ill., September 2d, 1842, and re- ceived his education at the Milwaukee Academy, Wis. £ Mr. Brookes was one of the first to respond to President Lincoln's call to arms for the protection of the
508
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
Union, and on August 15th, 1862, enlisted in Company K, Twenty-fourth Wis- consin Infantry, under the command of Colonel Larrabee, serving for three years under such generals as Nelson and Phil Sheridan. He saw service in many a hard battle, never missing a day's service during his active enlistment. Having faithfully performed his duty as a patriot soldier, he rejoined his parents at the end of the war in San Francisco, whence they had migrated in 1863. Securing a clerkship in the post-office, he served the Government for twelve years, gaining a most valuable experience in this branch of the Federal service. In 1977 he resigned his position to remove to Seattle, where he engaged in the commission business with his brother-in-law, S. Baxter. In 1885 he removed with his family to Black Diamond, but returned to Seattle in 1887 to take the presidency of the Northwestern Cracker Company, a position he still holds with other important interests. Mr. Brookes is one of the oldest members of the Grand Army of the Republic on the coast ; was elected Department Commander for Washington in 1889. He was appointed Postmaster of Seattle in 1889, and won unqualified praise for the efficient discharge of its duties till his resignation to accept the position of cashier of the Boston National Bank. Mr. Brookes was married in 1873 to Miss Laura Hannath, of California.
BROWDER, CHARLES O., of Colfax, who fills the responsible position of Auditor of Whitman County, Wash., was born in Tennessee in 1864. His father, William J., and his mother, Nancy A. Browder, were both from that State, in whose public schools young Browder received his earliest education. Supple- menting this with a collegiate classical course, he graduated and took his degree in 1882. Coming to Washington in 1885, he located at Colfax, where he engaged in various pursuits, more especially in farming, in which he is still interested. Mr. Browder was married in 1891 to Miss Monta McCroskey, of Colfax, a lady of excellent family, being the daughter of Hon. J. P. T. McCroskey. They have one child, Allene. Mr. Browder has filled the position of Deputy Postmaster of Colfax (1887-88), and was appointed to his present office in 1891, which does not expire until 1893. He is a member of the Knights of Pythias and Ancient Order of United Workmen, and a devoted Democrat. Easy and natural in manner, a good conversationalist, and a clear-headed man in all business affairs, Mr. Browder enjoys that confidence which is founded upon a solid and well- earned reputation for honesty in all things.
BROWN, CHARLES A., of Oaksdale, Wash., was born in Oregon in 1863. His father, Samuel Brown, was a Pennsylvania farmer, his mother a native of Illinois. Mr. Brown received his early training in the schools of Salem, Ore., took a classi- cal course at the Willamette University, and on the completion of his studies located in the Palouse country, where he engaged in farming for four years. Coming to Oaksdale at the end of that period, he interested himself for a year in merchandising. Upon the organization of the First National Bank, in 1889, with a paid-up capital of $50,000, Mr. Brown accepted the position of Cashier, an office which he still retains. He was married in 1883 to Miss Emma Miller, a native of Oregon, by whom he had one child. Possessed of a pleasant city home and other monetary interests, the confidence of the community, and that of the
509
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
officials of the institution with which he is connected, the subject of our sketch may well be counted among the leading citizens of Oaksdale. He is a Republi- can, and a member of the Knights of Pythias.
BROWN, EUGENE, of Colfax, Wash., insurance and real estate broker, was born in Orange County, N. Y., in 1848. His father, George W. Brown, was a farmer, and his mother, Sarah (Johnson) Brown, were both natives of the Empire State. Educated in the public schools, young Brown emigrated to Iowa and engaged in farming. Five years later he removed to Nebraska. Enlisting in 1863 in the First New York Light Artillery, he immediately went to the front and joined the Army of the Potomac. He was present at the battle of the Wilderness under Grant, and afterward did garrison duty until honorably dis- charged, June 30th, 1865. He was one of those who passed in the grand review at Washington after the conclusion of the war. Mr. Brown was married in 1866 to Miss Slocum, a native of Oswego County, N. Y. They have one child, a daughter. Mr. Brown is a member of the insurance and real estate firm of Actor & Brown, and one of the most enterprising citizens of Colfax.
BROWN, GEORGE D., the son of John and Mary Brown, was born in Denmark in 1855. He came to this country in 1868, located in Minnesota, and engaged in farming. Wearying of this, he pursued various occupations, latterly railroading, which he abandoned to become a merchant in 1882 in Colorado. From thence he moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, where he engaged in real estate, but allured by the charms of Washington, left it in 1885 to settle in Tekoa. Here, under the firm name of George D. Brown & Co., he engaged in general merchandising, changing its style about a year ago to the Tekoa Mercantile Company. Mr. Brown married in 1884 Miss Annie Nill. From this union there are four chil- dren. He has filled various local offices with credit, and shown marked adminis- trative ability. A. Congregationalist in religion and a Republican in politics, Mr. Brown possesses the higher qualities which distinguish a man whose profes- sion and practice agree, for his fellow-citizens of Tekoa speak with pride of one who owes his business success to the fact that he is actuated by principle in all he undertakes, and well deserves the esteem and confidence bestowed upon him.
BROWN, JOSEPH M., Clerk of Yakima County, and an old pioneer of Washing- ton Territory, was born in Missouri in 1857. His father, James Brown, was an Indianian and a miller, his mother, Mary, being a native of the same State. After receiving such education as the public schools could afford, young Brown went to Nebraska in 1875 and began farming, remaining till 1882, when he removed to Washington and located in Yakima County, resuming the agricultural labors which he still continues. He was married in 1879 to Miss Jessie F. Wells, a native of Wisconsin. Seven children have blessed this union. Besides a com- fortable city home Mr. Brown is the possessor of considerable valuable farm property. He has held the office of County Commissioner of Yakima, and was elected on the Republican ticket to his present office, the duties of which he assumed in January, 1893. He is a man of ability, well esteemed and popular in the community where he dwells.
510
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
BROWN, ROBERT, farmer, near Buckley, Wash., born in England in 1834, was the eldest of three children born to Joseph and Lydia Barron Brown. His parents emigrated to America, locating at Rochester, N. Y., in 1846. Young Brown left home and went to work on a farm at the age of thirteen. In 1857 he journeyed to Ohio, where he lived until the spring of 1861, then moved to Ken- tucky, and from thence journeyed through several States engaged in various pur- suits, remaining in Indiana until 1865, then in Minnesota until 1867, then to New York, from whence he sailed via the Isthmus for San Francisco. In 1868 he made the journey to Oregon on horseback, suffering many privations by the way in that sparsely settled region, being finally obliged to abandon his horse and proceed on foot, walking the greater part of the way and feeling on more than one occasion the pangs of hunger. Arriving in Oregon, he passed two years in farming ; then removed to Pierce County, and in 1882 to his present location. Returning to Oregon, he brought out his family by covered wagon to the fine farm he still cultivates near Buckley. He has been a member of the Board of School Directors for two years. He is a Populist in politics and a member of the Farmers' Alliance. He was married in 1864 to Miss Nancy Davis, daughter of a prominent farmer of Indiana, and by her he has four children.
BROWN, WILLIAM L., farmer, of Walla Walla County, Wash., was born in Indiana in 1855. His father, Jacob Brown, also a farmer, was a native of Penn- sylvania, his mother, Sarah (Starbuck) Brown, being from South Carolina. Young Brown obtained his early education in Iowa, and began farming in that State. At the end of three years he removed to Columbia County, Wash., and engaged for two years in lumbering. Going to Walla Walla County in 1881, he resumed the occupation of a farmer, which he still pursues. He owns a half section of superior land, its yield averaging twenty-five bushels to the acre. Mr. Brown was married in 1876 to Miss Catherine C. Kennedy, a native of Illinois. They have five children. Mr. Brown is a member of the School Board and prominent in the Methodist Church, with which he and his family are con- nected. Active and energetic, he takes great interest in the educational and religious welfare of the community where he resides, and proves himself helpful to the extent of his ability in all good works.
BROWNE, HON. GEORGE .- An excellent example of the energetic business men who are creating industrial enterprises upon which the future growth and devel- opment of the great Northwest must depend, is George Browne, of Tacoma. De- scended from a long line of New England ancestors, he inherits those sturdy qualities of mind and heart which have made the sons of New England leaders in every part of this great country. He was born in Boston on July 25th, 1840, the eldest in a family of seven children. His mother was Joanna C., daughter of Charles C. Nichols, of Boston, the inventor of rubber clothing, and whose factory at Lynn, Mass., turned out the first goods of this character ever manufactured. The early education of our subject was acquired at Saybrook, Conn., in 1849, but the family removing to New York soon afterward, he had all the advantages of the public schools of that city. When scarcely fourteen years of age he became a clerk in a large dry-goods house having an exclusively Southern trade.
511
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
Here his business capacity early gave promise of a brilliant commercial career, but on the breaking out of the Civil War he resigned his position to take up the life of a soldier. He enlisted in Company K, Ninth Regiment, National Guard, State of New York, and was at once summoned to Washington, where his com- pany was equipped as a light battery. During the Peninsular campaign this command so distinguished itself by gallant and meritorious service, that the grade of horse battery was conferred upon it, and from this time until the close of the war the Sixth Independent New York Horse Battery was the only volun- teer command of its kind in the Federal Army. The company first served in Virginia under General Pattison, and participated with distinguished bravery in the battles of Harper's Ferry and Ball's Bluff. It next passed under the com- mand of General Hooker, and at the battle of Chancellorsville was largely instru- mental in saving the day, as it was this battery which checked and finally stopped the onslaught of Stonewall Jackson, after breaking through the lines of the Eleventh and Twelfth Corps. At the battle of Malvern Hill the battery received additional honor. In this engagement the first gun from the land forces was fired by Mr. Browne's order, received through General Griffin. The battery was constantly engaged in hazardous and dangerous work, and finally passed under the command of General Sheridan. Under that intrepid commander it shared in the dangers, marches, and fatigues of the campaign of the Wilderness, as well as in that final and masterly manœuvre which brought the war to a close. Mr. Browne enlisted as a private and rose to the rank of senior first lieutenant. He was repeatedly offered promotion, but preferred remaining with his old com- mand.
Just previous to Lee's surrender he resigned his command and returned to New York. He soon afterward became a clerk in the banking house of H. A. Stone & Son, and the following year became a member of the New York Stock Exchange. . For years he continued to share in the successes and reverses of Wall Street. In 1873 he was married to Ella, second daughter of Leonidas Haskell, an early pioneer of California and a native of Gloucester, Mass. This union has been blessed with three sons. Having acquired an independent fortune, Mr. Browne retired from active business in 1882, and in May of that year started with his family on an extended foreign tour. They visited England, Belgium, and Holland, and in the following winter took up their abode at Florence, Italy, visiting all points of interest in that country. In 1883 they went to Paris, re- maining there until 1885. Removing thence to Dresden, they spent a year in Germany, which ended their sojourn in Europe. Immediately after returning to America Mr. Browne accompanied the officers of the Northern Pacific Railroad on their annual tour of inspection. During this trip he made his first investment in the Northwest and at Tacoma. This was in 1886, and his purchases increased in value so rapidly, that with the contemplated improvements it became neces- sary for him to remove to Tacoma in 1888, in order that he might give his per- sonal attention to his interests there. It was during this second visit that he met Colonel Griggs and Henry Hewitt and the great St. Paul and Tacoma Lumber Company was formed, of which Mr. Browne became secretary. He is also presi- dent of the Tacoma Smelting and Refining Company, and is prominently identi- fied with many other important enterprises. He built the first suburban street
512
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
car line, of which he was president. Mr. Browne has been somewhat active in political matters as a member of the Republican Party. He was elected in 1889 a member of the first State Legislature of Washington, and served as Chairman of the Committee on 'T'ide Lands. He is a man of calm, mature judgment, wide grasp, a sympathetic and kindly spirit, and possesses a high order of executive ability, which eminently fits him for the management of large business enter- prises.
BROWNE, J. VINCENT, Civil Engineer, of Tacoma, a man of large experience, varied pursuits, and great administrative ability, was born in Boston, Mass., July 22d, 1844, was educated at Northampton, Mass., and entered into the auction business with his father, George Browne, in New York City, remaining in his employ up to the age of sixteen. Desiring to see the world, he shipped in July, 1860, as a sailor on a merchant vessel plying between New York and San Fran- cisco. Having finished his " two years before the mast," he accepted a position with Dent & Co., of London, England, as tea and cotton buyer, in which em- ployment he continued for three years, when he returned to New York, and be- came proficient in civil engineering, to which he devoted himself until 1890. Com- ing to Tacoma, he built the Tacoma and Puyallup Steam Motor Line, and then took the contract to build the Northern Pacific Railroad between Tacoma and Olym- pia, completing the same in 1891. Mr. Browne was married to Miss Eliza Leach Edwards, of Philadelphia, Pa., August 12th, 1872. They have two children. He is a member of the Masonic and Elk fraternities, and a trusted and progressive resident of the city where he makes his home.
BURCHAM, DUDLEY B., a leading merchant and citizen of Cle Elum, born in Illinois in 1858, is the son of Alonzo and Cornelia (Schermerhorn) Burcham, his mother being a native of Pennsylvania, while liis father was born in New York. Educated in the public schools of his birthplace, young Burcham began active life as a farmer, which he followed till the age of nineteen, when he removed to Minnesota in 1879, to engage in merchandising. Remaining in that State until 1886, he removed to Washington and located at Cle Elum, where he occupied himself for awhile in various matters, but finally resumed his mercantile pursuits. Mr. Burcham was married in 1888 to Miss Rettie Atwood, a native of the Golden State. One child has been born to them. He is also the happy possessor of a pretty city residence and other valuable real estate. He is a member of various secret societies, and bears the reputation of being a public-spirited citizen, identi- fying himself with the progress and upbuilding of the locality of his choice. A genial gentleman, he is held in high esteem by those best qualified to estimate his worth.
BURGAN, E. S., of Latah, Wash., merchant, was born in Ohio in 1849, of which State his parents were natives. After completing his education in Indiana, he located there as a merchant, but removed to Washington in 1871, where he entered a firm engaged for a time in general merchandising, but returned to Indiana in 1873, where lie engaged in the grain business for three years. In 1875 he removed his business to Rossville, Ill. After various changes 1882 found
513
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
him back in Washington, where he re-established himself in mercantile pursuits. In 1888 he engaged in the crockery business in Spokane, where he remained until a year ago, when he came to Latah and opened his present store, stocking it liberally and attractively. In 1877 he led to the hymeneal altar Miss Emma Hefby, a native of Indiana. The result of this union has been three children, two of whom have passed into the farther land. The survivor is a daughter. Mr. Burgan is a Mason and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in which his wife is also a communicant. He is an earnest worker, a progressive and reli- able man, rapidly taking the prominent place and earning the recognition which his business talents and industry must sooner or later accord.
BURGESS, WILLIAM WARREN, a thriving farmer on the South Fork of the Cowiche, was born in Indiana in 1865, being the oldest of a family of four children born to Herman and Laura Ann (White) Burgess. His parents were from New York and Vermont, respectively. After the usual common school education, young Burgess left home in 1883, coming to Wallula, Wash. Terr. He remained there but one year, removing to Yakima County, where he engaged in lumber- ing. After a brief visit to Minnesota, he settled permanently in Yakima on his present farm. He owns forty acres at Cowiche and one hundred and twenty on the Atahnam, where he raises all kinds of grain, hay, and hops. He has, more- over, a fine orchard and his own system of irrigation. Mr. Burgess was married in 1887 to Miss Minnie Wilcox, a daughter of Edward Wilcox, a farmer of Oregon. They have one child.
BURKE, THOMAS .- Few citizens of Seattle have done more to advance the moral and commercial progress of the Queen City than Judge Burke, a resident of that metropolis for the greater part of his active career. He was born in Clinton County, N. Y., December 22d, 1849, and removed with his parents to Iowa in 1861, remaining there for four years. He worked on a farm at Ypsilanti, Mich. (1868), until he obtained money enough to pay his way in the seminary, from which institution he graduated, teaching school meanwhile for support. In 1870 he spent six months in the University of Michigan. The following year was occupied in alternate teaching and the study of the law. In 1872 he went to Marshall, Mich., where, after two years of close application, he was admitted to the Bar. In May, 1875, he removed to Seattle, began practice, and in less than two years was elected Probate Judge of King County. In 1880 and again in 1882 he was nominated for Delegate to Congress by the Democrats, but was defeated, the Republican majority being too great to overcome. Since then he has declined to be a candidate for any office. In 1880 he formed a partnership with Unit M. Rasin, the firm taking a leading place until its dissolution in 1885, when he entered into business with G. Morris Haller, a connection which was severed by the death of Mr. Haller in 1889. In the following year the firm of Burke, Shepard & Woods was inaugurated, which numbers among its clients some of the most substantial corporations now operating in Washington. Any sketch of this distinguished jurist would be incomplete which did not refer to his brief but notable career as Chief Justice of Washington Territory. In 1884 the District Court of the Third Judicial District was in a doleful plight. The sick-
514
HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.
ness and death of its two successive justices had left the docket crowded almost to hopelessness. Attorneys and litigants were in despair ; for three years no civil case had been tried. In this emergency the bar turned to Judge Burke for relief, and without regard to party lines unanimously urged him to accept the office of Chief Justice. He consented to serve, with the proviso that he should at the end of a few months be permitted to retire. He was appointed in 1888, and resigned in April following. During this brief period he cleared the calendar of its most important cases, bringing order out of chaos. His retirement was universally regretted. Our space forbids the enumeration of the many enter- prises in which Judge Burke is a prominent factor .. He is a man of broad intel- lectual culture, a wise and prudent counsellor, an able lawyer, and most convinc- ing pleader, well fitted in all things for the life work he has undertaken and so successfully carries out.
BURTON, I. L., yet another of those sturdy tillers of the soil without whom no land can prosper, dwells upon his fertile homestead acres some five miles northeast of Ellensburg, in the Kittitas Valley. Mr. Burton was born in New York in 1844. His father, also a native of the Empire State, died in the year 1853, leaving a widow and five children, of whom the subject of our sketch was the second, to mourn the loss of their parent and bread-winner. Receiving his early education in Pennsylvania, he removed to. Wisconsin in 1857, and thence to Iowa, reaching California in 1875, in all of which States he followed the pursuit of his choice-farming. Then, coming to Kittitas Valley in the spring of 1877, he took up a homestead, and now owns and cultivates one hundred and sixty acres. He was married in Wisconsin in January, 1866, to Miss Mary J. Banister, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1846. Three children bless their union. Mr. Burton is a veteran of the Civil War, having served as a volunteer in Company F, Second Wisconsin Cavalry. He was wounded, and is an honored member of the Grand Army of the Republic. .
CAHILL, C. I .- The traveller who explores the pleasant surroundings of Fair- field will find some three and a half miles east of the town the farm of the gentle- man whose name heads this sketch. Of Irish descent, Mr. Cahill was born in Western New York in 1833. The Cahill family was a large one, the member in question being the sixth out of nine children born to his parents. Mr. Cahill moved to Wisconsin with his father's family in 1848, attended the district school there about three months in each year until he was nineteen years old, when he took charge of his father's farm till he was twenty-four. He then married Miss Jane Vader, a native of New York, and began farming for himself. Five chil- dren have been born to them-four boys and one girl. In the fall of 1872 they removed to Kansas, and after farming in that State for five years came to Wash- ington Territory. After living on a farm near Dayton for ten years Mr. Cahill moved to his present home. He has a farm of one hundred and twenty acres, all improved, with fine orchards and comfortable buildings.
CAMERON, MARTIN, Clerk of Kittitas County and a prosperous citizen of Ellensburg, the son of Alexander and Mary Stewart Cameron, was born in Nova
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.