USA > Washington > History of Washington the evergreen state : from early dawn to daylight with portraits and biographies Vol. I > Part 52
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Mr. Holcolm was born in Medina, O., March 9th, 1853, and was educated at Oberlin College. Graduating from that institution in 1874, he entered the office of Bostwick & Barnard, Medina, as a law student, and three years later was
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admitted to the Bar. The next three years were spent as a Government scout in New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado, after which he settled in Kittson County, Minn., and engaged in law practice. His natural talent, steady application to his profession, and strict reliability of character inspired confidence, and he was soon doing a lucrative business, which he continued with gratifying success until 1887. In that year he removed to Great Falls, Mont., in the interest of the Manitoba Railroad, now the Great Northern, and remained there in charge of their law business for one year. In the spring of 1888 he came to Whatcom, Wash., where he organized what is now known as the South Bend Land Com- pany. This company purchased the principal portion of Fairhaven, Wash., which they sold in the spring of 1889 to Nelson Bennett, of Tacoma. In the following fall they bought sixteen hundred acres on Willapa Harbor, and laid out the present town of South Bend. Mr. Holcolm was made General Manager of the company, which had a paid-up capital of $1,200,000, and has acted in that capacity to the present time. He is also General Manager of the Coos Bay Land Company, which owns the three principal harbors in Southwestern Oregon.
In 1890 he was elected President of the Coos Bay and Umpqua River Railroad Company, and the same year became a Director of the First National Bank of South Bend, both of which positions he still holds. Although he has taken no active part in politics, he was elected and served as Probate and Municipal Judge of Whatcom. In the management of his private affairs Mr. Holcolm has shown a sagacity and sound business judgment which have secured him a large fortune. At the same time the State has been a large gainer through his enterprise, and the work of no one man who came to Washington during the last decade has had a more positive and far-reaching influence upon the material growth and develop- ment of Southwestern Washington. His talents for financiering, the creation and carrying on of great business projects, are universally conceded, and his con- nection with any enterprise commends it to public support.
Mr. Holcolm was married September 15th, 1880, to Miss Ida M. Beauchemin, of Argyle, Minn. They have one daughter, Effie M.
HOLLIS, WILLIAM H., of Tacoma, County Auditor of Pierce County, a most worthy and popular official, was born on a farm in Edgar County, Ill., near Paris. Here he remained until the age of twenty-one-like many another farmer's boy, doing the work in summer and gaining such education as district schools could afford during the winter months. On attaining his majority he removed with his parents to Western Illinois and became a dry-goods clerk, an occupation which he followed for seven years. During this period he became a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Jeplitha Lodge, No. 100, of Clayton, Ill., and formed a more important union with Miss Della Hamilton, daughter of J. E. Hamilton, a leading real estate broker, to whom he was married about this time. Going from Clayton to Ford County, he became the assistant cashier of Madison Wilson & Co.'s bank. In 1884 he journeyed to Harper County, Kan., and en- gaged in the real estate business as a member of the firm of Hamilton & Hollis. He moved to Kiowa in 1885 and became editor and proprietor of the Greensburg Republican, which newspaper he continued to conduct until his emigration to Washington in 1887. Here he entered the office of the Auditor of Pierce County.
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In 1890 he was nominated on the first ballot for Auditor, and in the election fol- lowing received seven to one votes cast for his competitor, being elected by the largest majority of any candidate on the ticket-2132. A genial gentleman, a most efficient and popular public officer, Mr. Hollis is highly esteemed by all who know him.
HOLLOWELL, THOMAS J., farmer, of Waitsburg, Wash., was born in Indiana in 1837. His father, Jonathan Hollowell, was a Carolina farmer, his mother, Hannah Cappell, being from the same locality. He was the elder of two chil- dren born to his parents, and received his early education by private tuition in Indiana and Illinois. In 1856 he removed to Illinois, and began the business of life by engaging in farming, to which pursuit he devoted himself in that section for nine years. In 1865 he removed to Washington, locating in Walla Walla County, settling on unsurveyed land, which he afterward pre-empted and paid for at the rate of $1.25 per acre. He has about three hundred acres under cultiva- tion, having sold his original pre emption at $54 per acre. He was married in 1858 to Miss Sarah H. Bundy, a native of Illinois and daughter of Edward Bundy. They have had twelve children, three of whom survive. Mr. Hollowell is a stockholder of the Waitsburg Hardware Company, in the mercantile house of the S. W. Smith Company, and also in the First National Bank. He owns a hand- some city residence and a valuable farm, is a Democrat with prohibition leanings, and a member of the Christian Church. Personally he is a man generally re- spected as a progressive, carnest citizen who has the best interests of Waitsburg at heart and desires the highest good, both moral and financial, for the community of which he is an honored member.
HOLM, CHARLES H., was born in Finland, January 7th, 1842. He remained at home with his parents until 1864, when he began life as a sailor, shipping first to England. From there he made a voyage to the United States and back to England. His next voyage was to Valparaiso, thence to Callao, from there to Hamburg, and from the latter port to San Francisco, where he arrived in 1868. From the latter place he shipped to Hong Kong, China, and after the return voyage abandoned his sea life. Going to Portland, Ore., he started out on a prospecting tour, looking for a suitable place to settle. The time from May to September of 1871 was spent in travelling from place to place, and in the latter month he landed at Shoal Water Bay. In making the circuit of the bay he came to the mouth of the Nasel River, where he sounded the depth of water, and ascer- taining the facilities for crossing the bar at all times to the Pacific Ocean by deep- sea ships of all sizes, he foresaw that the present location of Stanley would at some future time become a great seaport city. Accordingly he located there, taking up one hundred and sixty acres of Government land. On November 26th, 1890, the Stanley, Cascade and Eastern Railroad Company was incorporated, con- sisting of Mr. Holm and the following; named gentlemen-viz .: Hon. W. C. Whitthorne, United States Senator, of Tennessee ; Hons. W. H. Stewart and John P. Jones, United States Senators, of Nevada ; H. M. Yerington, of Nevada, President of the Carson and Colorado and the Virginia and Truckee Railroads ; R. J. Laws, of Nevada, Chief Engineer and Assistant Superintendent of tl.e
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Carson and Colorado Railroad ; and Charles Gilchrist, of Washington, President of the Lewis County Bank of Centralia. Stanley was made the terminus of the new road, Mr. Holm giving two thirds of his one hundred and sixty acre tract to the company for a town site. Considerable improvements have already been made, a large hotel has been erected, a wharf built, several houses are completed, and others are in course of erection. Mr. Holm's estimate of the value of the prop- erty has been fully verified, the Government survey showing the greatest depth of water here of any port on the bay. The harbor is an almost perfeet one, being completely landlocked and just far enough from the ocean to be free from surf or action of the waves, and having a nearly straight channel to the sea, eighteen miles distant. The town of Stanley possesses all the natural requirements of a great seaport city, and gives promise of a brilliant future. Its location is one of the finest on the whole coast, looking out upon the ocean. Mr. Holm is the oldest pioneer of this section, having been the first settler on the river. He is a man of progressive ideas, ready and willing at all times to lend his aid to any project tending to advance the material interests of this section or the country at large. He is thoroughly reliable in business, and enjoys the respect and con- fidence of all who know him. He is one of the directors of the new railroad company and of the Stanley Land and Improvement Company. He was married at Shoal Water Bay in Deeember, 1874, to Miss Lucy Smith, of New York City, by whom he has three daughters and two sons.
HOLM, N. N., farmer, of Kittitas County, Wash., near Ellensburg, was born in Denmark in 1853, his parents being also natives of that country. The father, who served as a soldier in the war of 1848 between Germany and Denmark, was born in 1809 and died in 1884, leaving a family of five children, of whom our subject was the youngest. He received his early education in Denmark and emi- grated to America in 1878. After working for seven years in Nebraska as a farmer, he came to Washington Territory in 1886 and settled on one hundred and sixty acres of land three miles east of Ellensburg, which will average a yield of full thirty bushels to the acre, and which he still continues to cultivate. He was married in Denmark in 1877 to Miss Anna Powlsen, a native of that country, born in 1853. Two children were born to this union, both girls, and students in the Ellensburg schools. Mr. Holm is a careful farmer and may be numbered among the enterprising settlers who are making the once wild valley of the Kitti- tas beautiful with blossoming orchards and fair with harvest fields that well repay the toil of the cultivator.
HOLMAN, JOHN W., of Dayton, Wash., was born in Indiana in 1842. His father, Thomas Holman, was a native of Kentucky, his mother, Laura (Parker) Holman, being from New York. Tenth in a family of eleven, young Holman was educated in the public schools of Illinois up to the breaking out of the Civil War, when in 1862 he enlisted in the Seventy-seventh Illinois Infantry, Com- pany H. Going to the front he joined the Thirteenth Army Corps under General Grant. He was present and actively engaged at many battles, doing his duty gallantly as a soldier in the field until discharged for disability at New Orleans in 1865, when he returned to Illinois and engaged in farming for three years.
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He then removed to Nebraska, following the same occupation until 1876, when he migrated to the Pacific Coast and located in Columbia County, Wash. Here he established a planing-mill, the first ever started in Dayton, the firm being Holman & Ritter. He took up a homestead claim near Dayton. He was nomi- nated for Sheriff on the Republican tieket, but was defeated at the polls by a small majority, the county being largely Demoeratie. He then became a eon- tractor and builder, which he followed until 1888, when he was appointed Deputy Sheriff, and was afterward elected Justice of the Peace, an office which he still holds, together with that of Police Justice. He has served as a member of the Dayton City Council. He was married in 1869 to Miss Louisa Linn, of Nemahaha County, Neb. They have six children. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and of the Grand Army of the Republic.
HORNBECK, G. W., of Ellensburg, merehant, was born in Iowa thirty-five years ago. His parents, James and Emily Hornbeck, were natives of Indiana. Edu- eated in the publie schools of his native State, he began life by learning the plumber's trade. Removing to Kansas in 1877, he became a hardware merchant, remaining until 1883, when he returned to Iowa. Migrating to Washington Territory in 1885, he established himself in his present business. In 1891 he was burned out in the great fire of July 4th, but started again with renewed energy and most successful results. He was married at Ellensburg to Miss Lulu Mayer, a native of New York. He has two children, one by a former wife. A ten-thou -. sand-dollar house, replete with all modern conveniences, and valuable mining: property render their eireuinstanees more than easy from a pecuniary point of view. He is an independent in politics, a member of the Masonic fraternity,. and retains and expresses that interest in the progress and well-being of the com- munity which should ever characterize the good and progressive citizen.
HOYT, JOHN P., was born in Ashtabula County, O., October 6th, 1841. His early life was spent in work upon his father's farm, in attendance at the public school, and subsequently in teaching sehool. In 1862 he enlisted in the volunteer service and served in the Eighty-fifth and Eighty-seventh Ohio Infantry and. Second Ohio Artillery, continuing in the service until the spring of 1866. He then entered the Ohio State and Union Law College at Cleveland, graduating in 1867. Removing to Michigan, lie there began the practice of his profession. In 1868 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of the county in which he lived, and was re-elected in 1870. In 1872 he was elected to the House of Representatives of Michigan, was re-elected in 1874, and served as Speaker of the House. He was appointed Seeretary of Arizona by President Grant in 1876, was promoted' to the Governorship of that Territory in the spring of 1877, was appointed Gov-' ernor of Idaho in the fall of 1878, but preferring a judicial position, was appointed . Associate Justiee of the Supreme Court of Washington Territory in 1879, serving as such until 1887, when he left the Beneh to assume the duties of manager of a banking house in Seattle. He was elected to the Constitutional Convention from King County, and was chosen by that body as its President.
HUDGIN, JOHN H., physician and surgeon, of Waitsburg, Wash., was born in Pennsylvania. His father, R. H. Hudgin, was a mechanic of that State, and his
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mother, Elizabeth (Call) Hudgins, was also born there. Young Hudgins was educated in the public schools of Pennsylvania and Illinois, and took his medical diploma in 1875 at the State University of Iowa. He located in Illinois and began to practice, remaining until August, 1881, when he came to Washington Territory on account of his health and located at Waitsburg. Here he resumed practice and has ever since continued to build up and increase his business, which is now quite lucrative. He was married in 1875 to Miss Frances M. Bught, of Pennsylvania, whose father was killed in crossing the plains at an early day. They have had two children, but one of whom survives, Hamilton, a boy of four- teen and a student in the public schools. The doctor was appointed Grand Lec- turer of the Masons in 1889, and has been constantly on the road in the interests of that order ever since, his duties requiring him to address the various lodges throughout the State. He has a pleasant city residence and a fine collection of medical books. He takes a warm interest in the cause of education, is a Repub- lican in politics, owns a fine ranch in Whitman County, and realty in other parts of the State. He holds the position of Regimental Surgeon to the Second Regi- ment, Washington National Guard, having been appointed to that office in 1887. He is a man of fine mind, cultivated by study, with a large knowledge, not only of books, but of human nature.
HUFFMAN, I. N., Postmaster at Waverly, Spokane County, Wash., was born in Virginia in 1841. His father, a lifelong farmer, continued in the same pursuit after his removal to Oregon. Young Huffman attended the district school till the age of seventeen, when he gave up study to assist his father in the labors of the farm. On attaining his majority he learned the blacksmith's and carpenter's trades, and followed them up to 1874. Desiring a broader field, a natural wish to better himself drew him westward, to grow up with a country which promised a larger return for the enterprise and energy he felt conscious of possessing. Reaching Oregon he resumed farming, but wearying of the " webfoot State" migrated in 1878 to Washington, where he settled at Waverly on land which he homesteaded. He was appointed to the office of Postmaster, which he still holds, in 1890. In 1860 he married in Maryland Miss Esther Shaffer, by whom he has five children. In former days a Democrat, he is now a People's Party man. His fine farm originally covered five hundred and sixty acres, but he has deeded away to his married children all but eighty, which he retains under culti- vation. He is also the proprietor of town lots in Waverly, owns the store in which the post-office is located and some fine cattle. He is, moreover, school director in his district, an office which he has held for more than a decade, to the advantage of educational interests in that vicinity.
HUGHES, E. C., attorney-at-law, of Seattle, was born in Bloomsburg, Pa., August 25th, 1855. At the early age of twelve he took a two years' preparatory. course at the Pennsylvania College at Gettysburg, and then removed to Illinois, where at eighteen years of age he entered Carthage College, took a post-graduate course of one year in Wittenburg College, then became a college tutor for two years, one at Carthage and one at Mount Morris University. He then completed his legal studies, was admitted to the Bar, and commenced his practice at
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Spencer, Iowa. Two years later he was elected President of Carthage College, but declined the position, removed to Seattle, resumed his professional work, and at once built up a large and remunerative business. He is the senior member of the law firm of Hughes, Hastings & Stedman, and too completely engrossed with his clientage to take any active part in political life. He was married in Decem- ber, 1880, at Carthage, Ill., to Miss Emma De Hart, of that city, a lady of fine intellectual attainments and a college graduate. They have two children, a boy and a girl. Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic order, a Knight Templar, and an Odd Fellow, being a Past Grand of the latter organization. Few lives are fuller of labor and careful preparation, few are more prolific in success.
HULL, S. G., farmer and stock-raiser, of Ellensburg, Kittitas Valley, was born in Ohio in 1817. His parents were natives of that State. His father, a farmer, who lived to the ripe age of ninety-two, died in 1887, leaving three children, of whom Mr. Hull was the third. Coming west to Colorado in 1860, the subject of our sketch devoted himself to farming, but removed two years later to Oregon, from whence he returned to Idaho in the spring of 1863. With that desire to return to the Pacific Coast so characteristic of those who have once settled there, we find him revisiting Oregon, and going from thence to his present location in the Kittitas Valley in 1887. Here he bought land, and now cultivates one hun- dred and twenty acres of fertile soil four miles north of the thriving city of Ellensburg. Mr. Hull was married in Ohio in 1840 to Miss Margaret Ann Donny. Seven children grace their union, one of whom, married to a native of Oregon, has provided the old couple with no less than eight grandchildren. Who shall venture to say that the far West is not a great and growing country, or that the American race is likely to die out upon the Pacific Slope ?
HUMPHRIES, JOHN E., of the firm of Thompson, Edsen & Humphries, of Seattle, is a native of Illinois. He was an only child, and his father, also a lawyer, died when Mr. Humphries was two years of age. His father had not accumulated any property, and left the boy and his mother without means. Mr. Humphries inherited a desire for his father's profession, and resolved, when a small boy, to attain it. He laid his plans and bent all his energies to that pur- pose. His early life was employed in working upon a farm and attending the common schools. He completed a course in the high school, attended the Indiana State University, and then taught school four years. While teaching he devoted his spare time to the study of law, purchased his own books, and began the for- mation of a library. In the vacations he spent his time in the law offices of Max- well & Puett and Hon. D. H. Maxwell, at Rockville, Ind. In 1872 he was ad- mitted to the Bar. He still continued studying, teaching school, and practised as opportunity offered until 1875, when he opened a law office at Rockville, Ind. He was appointed Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, and served in that capacity until 1878, during which time he had charge of all the criminal business of that county, and prosecuted some of the most noted criminal cases in the history of Indiana. During his stay in Rockville he was in partnership with Hon. A. B. Carleton, of Terre Haute, who was afterward on the Utah Commission. In 1878 he moved to Crawfordsville, Ind., and there formed a partnership with Hon.
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G. W. Paul, of that city, which continued until 1880, when he formed a partner- ship with ex-Judge Albert D. Thomas, which partnership continued but a short time, when he again went into partnership with Hon. G. W. Paul and Hon. M. D. White, ex-member of Congress. He was afterward in partnership with Hon. W. W. Thornton, the law writer, now of Indianapolis. In 1889 he moved to Seattle, Wash. During his professional life he has been associated with lawyers of experience, talent, and learning, and has continually been engaged in an active litigated practice. He has continued his purchase of law books, has kept his library up with the times, and now has one of the finest law libraries on the coast. Mr. Humphries has devoted his time and attention to a general practice, and has had large experience in damage cases and in the defence and prosecution of crim- inals, and during his life has had remarkably good success. It is only necessary to refer to the Supreme Court reports of Indiana from Volume LVII. down to the present time, and the Washington State reports, to see the character of legal business with which he has been connected. He is a Republican and takes an active part in the political campaigns. He is also a member of the Uniform Rank, Knights of Pythias.
HUNT, H. S., farmer, of Elberton, was born December 27th, 1838, in New York. His father, H. N. Hunt, was a farmer and stock speculator, and a native of the Empire State, his mother, Eliza (Isham) Hunt, being from Massachusetts. His education was obtained in the district schools of his native State, supple- mented by university instruction and a course at the Chicago Business College, from which he graduated. Beginning life as a fireman on a dredging machine, he became a steamboat engineer, and served for three years on the Mississippi and- Lake Superior. An equal length of time was spent as a farmer in Illinois. He then passed two years in Texas, followed by six in California, running an express and freighting business. Coming to Washington in the fall of 1877, he located near Elberton, took up three hundred and twenty acres of land, and has added to his farm, until now H. S. Hunt & Son are the owners of twelve hundred and fifty acres, all under cultivation. His home place boasts one of the finest orchards in the vicinity. Mr. Hunt was married in Illinois, in 1864, to Miss Georgia Park- hurst, a daughter of Horace Parkhurst and Nancy (Hill) Parkhurst, of New York State. She was born in November, 1844. They have two children. Mr. Hunt is a Mason, is not only a prosperous farmer, but has just finished one of the finest country-home residences in Whitman County. He is, moreover, the owner of a fine herd of cattle and horses, numbering over one hundred head.
HYE, THOMAS F., bookkeeper, of Farmington, Wash., was born in Providence, R. I., in 1863, his father, Frank Hye, being a carpenter and builder of that city, and his mother, Catherine Golden, being a native of Ireland who came to the United States when a child. Thomas was the second in a family of seven. He was educated in the public schools of Pawtucket, R. I., and in the high school of the same place, from which he graduated. He lived in Pawtucket until 1879, when he removed to New Mexico to fill a clerkly position. He remained in that employ for ten years, then went to Cooper City, N. M., where he engaged; as bookkeeper with the San Magel Mining Company, worked there five years, and.
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then left to become a salesman in a large carpet house at Denver, Col. Two years later he came to Washington and located at Farmington, engaging with J. Kasper until the Farmington Trading Company was formed, when he became their bookkeeper, a position which he continues to fill. He is a stockholder in the concern, as well as in the Odd Fellows' Hall Association. Fraternally he is a member of the Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, Daughters of Rebecca, Wood- men of the World and Good Templars. In his political faith he is a Democrat. Though one of the youngest business men of the city, he has already made for himself an enviable record as one fully identified with its best interests and most substantial progress.
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