USA > Washington > History of Washington the evergreen state : from early dawn to daylight with portraits and biographies Vol. I > Part 55
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LARNE, GEORGE W., Treasurer of Whitman County, and a resident of Colfax, - Wash., was born in Missouri in 1856. His father, John R. Larne, was a. Ken- tucky farmer, his mother, Ethel Barnes, being a native of Virginia. Educated in the public schools of his State, young Larne having completed his studies, located at Moberly, Mo., as Superintendent of his brother's business at that place. Removing from thence to Washington Territory, he settled at Walla Walla and supported himself by working on a farm. He came to Colfax in 1880 and entered the employ of a manufacturing company as collector and salesman. He afterward engaged in real estate, loan, and insurance business, in which he continued until 1890, when he was elected Treasurer of Whitman County on the Democratic ticket. He was appointed Postmaster in 1888, and resigned on the election of Mr. Harrison, but his resignation was not accepted until July following. Mr. Larne was married, in 1882, to Miss Margaret L. Actor, a native of Dixie, Walla . Walla County. Four children have been born to them, of whom three survive. Mr. Larne has not labored unsuccessfully in life, being the possessor of both city and country property, suburban in location. He is a member of the Masonic, Ancient Order of United Workmen, and Knights of Pythias fraternities, a Demo- crat in politics, and a candidate for re-election to his present office.
LAWRENCE, MATTHEW G., farmer, of Latah, Wash., was born in Kaskaskia, Ill., in 1834 .. His parents were L. and Jane (Jacobs) Lawrence. His father, a farmer, was a native of Canada. The early years of young Lawrence were spent on a farm, where he acquired not only a knowledge of the work which was to occupy his future life, but received such rudimentary education as the common schools of his native district could impart. Leaving home he journeyed to Iowa in 1851, and from thence in 1879 to his present location at Latah, Wash., where he finds abundant occupation in the cultivation of his farm. He was not deaf to the calls of patriotism in the dark hour of his country's danger, but enlisted in Company D, of the Fourth Iowa, serving thirteen months in that regiment, until discharged on account of a wound, having been shot in the left shoulder. He was married in 1863 to Miss Martha Lathmar.
LAWRENCE, PHIL A., attorney-at-law and Mayor of Sumas, Wash., was born in Iowa County, Wis., June 13th, 1870. Graduating from the South Dakota Agri-
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cultural College in 1889, he was admitted to the Bar the same year and immedi- ately began practice, first for some months in Dakota and then in his present location, Sumas, Wash., to which place he had removed. He was elected Mayor and re-elected in December, 1892. He was married at De Smith, Dak., Novem- ber 18th, 1890, to Miss Laura B. Remington, of that place. One child has been born to them. Mr. Lawrence takes an active part in politics, and has filled with ability and advantage to the party whose cause he has espoused various local offices, being a member of the Republican Executive Committee of Whatcom County during the recent Presidential campaign. He is also a Commissioner of the United States Circuit Court. A wonderful record for so young a man, the success of whose future, if it may be judged from his past, is already assured.
LAWRENCE, STEPHEN P., a thriving farmer, of Latah, Wash., was born in New Jersey in 1832. His father, Stephen A. Lawrence, was also a farmer, born in America, but of German descent ; his mother was a native of the United States. " Mr. Lawrence while still a young man emigrated to California in 1850, when. that State was booming with the first excitement of the search for gold. Ten years later he removed to Oregon, and from thence in 1879 to his present location in what was then the Territory of Washington. He was married, in 1883, to Miss' Mira Wolfe, a native of New Jersey. They have no children.
LEAMING, E. B., attorney-at-law, of New Whatcom, Wash., was born in Cape May County, N. J., May 24th, 1857. Fully prepared by a private tutor, he finished his college course, and at the age of twenty entered the law office of Judge James Buchanan, of Trenton, N. J., and on the completion of his studies in February, 1881, was admitted to the Bar as an attorney, and in February, 1884, as a counsellor. Immediately on his admission in 1881 he began practice at Camden, N. J., and continued to pursue his profession there until he removed to New Whatcom in September, 1890. At the age of thirty Mr. Leaming was appointed Special Master in Chancery, and made an examiner of applicants for admission to the Bar by the Supreme Court of New Jersey, being the youngest member of the Bar so honored. He came to New Whatcom to enter the well- known law firm of Harris & Black, from which Judge Harris has since retired, leaving the firm now doing business that of Black & Leaming, who are counted most successful practitioners. Mr. Leaming is an active Mason, in which frater- nity he has attained the thirty-second degree.
LEARNED, A. FOWLER, of Port Townsend, was born in Boston, Mass., October 17th, 1839, was educated in the common schools of that city and in Comers Col. lege, from which he graduated in 1857. He adopted a seafaring life, making several voyages around the world. Arriving in San Francisco in January of 1860, he shipped as second mate on a sailing vessel bound for Puget Sound. Leaving the vessel at Port Townsend, he accepted a temporary clerkship, and then took a berth as first mate on a ship sailing for Shanghai, China, at which port he arrived June 25th, 1862. Here he entered the employ of Russel & Co., tea and shipping merchants. He commanded three of their vessels and then took the position of Superintendent. Nine years' service in the Flowery Kingdom
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obliged him to leave China on account of ill health. Returning to Port Town- send, he engaged in merchandising until 1878, when he was appointed Deputy Revenue Collector of the First District of California and removed to San Fran- cisco, retaining the office for six years. He also served as United States Board- ing Officer under Cleveland's administration at Port Townsend. Having large landed interests in that section, he returned to Port Townsend to give personal attention to his property. He was married March 5th, 1871, to Miss Isabel McCurdy, of Port Townsend, daughter of the late Dr. Samuel McCurdy. They have six children. Mr. Learned is a member of the Masonic order, and was the organizer of the Ancient Landmark Lodge, of Shanghai, China, being the first American lodge in that empire. He is a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, also a Knight Templar under the York Rite.
LEARNED, W. H. H., of Port Townsend, a citizen who has filled with dig- nity and acceptance many offices, both local and federal, was born in Boston, Mass., November 5th, 1840. His early education was received in the excellent common schools of the capital of the Bay State, supplemented by a year's study in a commercial college of that city. In the spring of 1859 he sailed for San Francisco, via Cape Horn, arriving on the Pacific Coast in the month of August following, and from thence by water to Port Townsend, where he sojourned but a year, and then revisited San Francisco, where he remained until his return to Port Townsend in 1865. In that year he was married on April 15th to Miss Harriet A. Salvin, of Cambridge, Mass. Their union has been blessed with three children, two boys and a girl. The youngest son now fills the position of Post- master at Port Townsend. Mr. Learned, Sr., has held the offices of Postmaster for ten years, Probate Judge, Justice of the Peace, County Treasurer,, United States Commissioner, and Mayor of Port Townsend. Few men can show a cleaner or more satisfactory official record than the subject of this sketch.
LE FEVRE, D. F., Cashier of the Bank of Kent, Wash., was born at Fort Wayne, Ind., in May of 1852, and removed with his parents, at the age of ten years, to Jasper County, Ia. He received a common-school education, supplemented by a course at Simpson's Centenary, a Methodist college at Indianola in that State. Until 1878 he taught school during the winter months and farmed in the summer. He removed to Shelby County, Ia., and engaged in the same pursuits until 1882. He took a course, which he completed in 1883, in the Des Moines Busi- ness College. He removed to Long Pine, Neb., in July of that year, where he followed mercantile pursuits until 1887. He was elected Clerk of the District Court of Brown County, Neb., served two years, and resigned to come to Kent, Wash., where he engaged in the hardware business for over a year. He was elected Cashier of the Bank of Kent, a position which he ably fills. Mr. Le Fevre was married in 1886 to Miss Olive Akin, of Brown County, Neb. They have one child, a daughter. Mr. Le Fevre is a member of the Masonic fraternity. Still in the prime of life, he may well accept the success of his past as an omen of yet greater progress and more satisfactory results in the still untried future.
LEHMAN, R. B., a young attorney of the Tacoma Bar, rapidly making his way to the front, was born in Edenton, Chowan County, N. C., February 12th, 1860.
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His parents removed to New Berne, N. C., where young Lehman received the preparatory education which fitted him to enter the Lafayette College, at Easton, Pa., from which he graduated in July of 1881. Beginning the study of the law, he was admitted to the Bar in October of 1884. He practised at New Berne for four years, leaving there in 1888 to come to Tacoma, Wash., where he has ever since pursued his profession. Mr. Lehman was married November 10th, 1887, to Miss Bettie L. Pierce, of Wytheville, Va. Mr. Lehman is fortunate in having identified himself with a city where pluck, industry, and application to the duties of the hour are fully appreciated and cannot fail to secure a substantial reward.
LEMLEY, PLEASANT G., farmer, of Farmington, Wash., was born in Shelby County, Ala., in 1819. His father, Ephraim Lemley, was no ordinary man ; a native of South Carolina, he removed to Alabama and became one of the earliest settlers of that State. He died in Arkansas in 1891, at the ripe old age of ninety- five years, leaving no less than two hundred descendants. He had many children of his own. He was a man of extraordinary vitality, strictly temperate, and beloved by all who knew him. His wife, Elizabeth (Pearson) Lemley, was a native of Virginia. The subject of our sketch was the eldest of a family of twenty-two children. Educated in the district schools of Alabama, his early teaching was for the most part self-acquired. He read law with S. Elsworth, of Eugene City, Ore., a prominent lawyer of that State, and came to Washington in 1878, locating at what is now called Farmington, where he became a wheat-raiser, farming a quarter section of land near the city, which averages forty bushels to the acre. Mr. Lemley was married in 1842 to Miss Nancy Fletcher, of Crawford County, Ark. Twelve children have blessed their union, two girls and ten boys. He was elected Justice of the Peace and has filled that office with marked ability for the past ten years. He also hield the office of Probate Judge of Lane County, Ore., that of County Commissioner for four years, and County Treasurer for three. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity. Like most old pioneers, Judge Lemley is a mine of early reminiscences rich in recollections of past trials and privations of the frontier. He is particularly eloquent when describing, as he does most graphically, his journey across the plains in the dangerous days of 1853, when with his wife and three children he made the passage, a six months' trip, daring the dangers of the wilderness, the arrow of the savage, and the many chances of evil fortune by the way, to reach the Eldorado of his hopes, the fertile fields of Oregon, which they finally reached in October of that year. The passenger by the speedy and luxurious Pullman of to-day little realizes the sufferings of those early travellers who made the slow and toilsome transit by ox-team in the time of pioneer emigration. Washington owes much to such men as Mr. Lemley.
LENTZY, JAMES T., attorney, of Everett, Wash., a man of great force of char- acter, indomitable industry and commendable zeal in all his undertakings, is a native of Ohio, having been born in the town of Loudonville, Ashland County, on June 14th, 1851. In 1856 his father, Jacob Lentzy, removed with his family to Ottawa, Putnam County. Here young Lentzy attended the common schools, and afterward took a course of study at the Vermilion Institute. After leaving college he began the study of law, and. in 1872 was admitted to the Bar. He
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practised for a year at Ottawa, and then removed to Missouri, where he divided his time between his law practice and editorial work on a local newspaper, being editor of the Citizen, at Kingston, Mo., for two years. In 1875 he returned to Ottawa, O., and resumed the practice of his profession. He became active in political affairs, and in 1876 was elected Mayor of Ottawa. Two years later he was elected Prosecuting Attorney for Putnam County, and was re-elected in 1880. For three years he was President of the Ottawa School Board, and his service in that position he considers the most satisfactory and gratifying one of his public career. He is deeply interested in educational matters, and when not officially connected with work in that line he shows great concern as a private citizen. Mr. Lentzy was married in 1878 to Mrs. Anna M. Powell, who in. her girlhood days was a musician and vocalist of more than local fame. Mr. Lentzy has erected a fine residence in Everett, where he now lives.
LEONARD, R., M.D., a leading physician of Rosalia, Wash., was born in Illinois, in 1852. His father's name was Sylvester Leonard, a native of New York, and his mother, Lura (Risley) Leonard, was also a native of the Empire State. Supple- menting the public-school education of Illinois with an academic course in the University of Iowa, he was fully prepared to enter the Rush Medical College, from which institution he graduated with the degree of M D. Locating himself at Portland, Ore., he commenced the practice of his profession and was actively engaged there for four years until compelled to abandon work by the failure of his eyes, when he removed to Rosalia, his present home. Here he practised for awhile, but relinquished it to engage in the flourishing drug business in which he has invested a capital of $5000, and still proposes to extend. Dr. Leonard mar- ried in 1886 an Oregon lady, Miss Hester Jackson. They have one child. A property-holder, with a pleasant home and a thriving business, the doctor enjoys the well-earned esteem and confidence of his fellow-townsmen.
LESH, D. E., farmer, of North Yakima, was born in Indiana, October 5th, 1853. His father was a native of Ohio, his mother, Mary Elizabeth (Baldwin) Lesh, being a North Carolinian, of Quaker lineage, and could trace her ancestry back to the early settlement of that State. Rudimentary teaching in Indiana and an unfinished normal-school course in Nebraska fitted young Lesh himself to become an instructor ; so for two years he taught school in that State, then three in Iowa, and two more in the Territory of Washington, to which he removed, coming overland in 1878. Here he located first in Kittitas County near Ellens: burg. Relinquishing the rôle of instructor for that of the agriculturist, he became for three years a cultivator of the soil. In 1888 he was elected Sheriff of Yakima County for the term of four years, an office which he filled satisfactorily, yet still engaging in fruit cultivation, being the owner of some of the finest fruit land in the State. He acted as Sergeant-at-Arms during the last session of the Legis- lature. He was married in 1881 to Miss Addie R. Gage, a native of Ashtabula County, O. They have five children. Mr. Lesh is a prosperous man, having not only a pleasant home, but one hundred and forty acres under cultivation, prolific in yield of choicest fruit. He is a Mason, Knight of Pythias, a Regent of the Agricultural College at Pullman, and is in charge of the large interests of the
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Moxie farm, which his extensive experience abundantly fits him to superintend. In politics he is a Republican. He is counted a representative man in a very progressive community.
LINDLEY, J. L., County Clerk of Whitman County, Wash., was born in Oregon in 1854. He is the son of Levi Lindley, a native of Tennessee, and Susan (Thomp- son) Lindley, his wife, a native of Kentucky. After completing his education in the public schools of Oregon, Mr. Lindley located at Dayton, Wash., where he became a school-teacher. Here he remained for eight years till his removal in 1884 to Whitman County, to engage in farming. He continued to till the soil for six years. His active interest in the political party he espoused was rewarded in 1890 by his election to the office of County Clerk of Whitman County, having been nominated on the Democratic ticket. He was renominated by the County Convention of 1892 for the same office, and re-elected by a large plurality. Mr. Lindley was married in 1884 to Miss Lillie Johnston, of Illinois. "Two daughters and a son are the fruit of their union. He is a property-holder in the vicinity of Colfax, and owns a pleasant home in that city ; is a Mason and a member of the Order of Knights of Pythias. A genial gentleman, dignified yet unassuming, and eminently efficient in the duties of his office, Mr. Lindley has hosts of friends in Whitman County, where his sterling worth is well known.
« . LIVERMORE, C. B., real estate broker, of Seattle, was born in Earlville, N. Y., July 10th, 1849, and removed with his parents to Berlin, Wis., at the age of seven years. He attended school for a time, and then enlisted at the age of twelve years as a drummer boy in Company I, of the Eleventh Wisconsin Volunteers, but was discharged in the same year for disability on account of age, the certificate being signed by Edward Everett, Assistant Surgeon, United States Army. De- termining, however, to see service in the field, he accompanied his father, who was chaplain of the Sixteenth Wisconsin, and was present at the battles of Shiloh and siege of Corinth. He has in his possession a letter written to his mother April 11th, 1861, the Friday after that memorable conflict. He returned the same year from Vicksburg to Grinnell, Ia., and resumed his studies, remaining for a year at the Iowa College located at that place, and from thence for a two years' course in the State University at Iowa City. Finding his health had been overtaxed and was failing rapidly, he went to farming, a pursuit which he con- tinued for eight years in Southern Iowa, near Chariton. In 1878 he journeyed to Washington Territory and located at Walla Walla, where he read law and specu- lated until 1883, when he formed a partnership with Mr. Somerindyke, with whom he is still associated, having charge of the realty department of the firm. He was married in June, 1885, to Miss Nellie A. Colt, of Walla Walla. They have two children. Mr. Livermore is a member of the Order of Woodmen.
LONG, A., farmer, of Elberton, Wash., was born in Kentucky, June 7th, 1833. His father, James Long, of North Carolina, first saw the light on Christmas Day of 1805 ; his mother, Rachel Wells, was a native of Tennessee, where she was born February 22d, 1803. His grandparents were of Scotch descent, his grand- father being a soldier of the War of 1812. Young Long's early education was limited to six or seven years of backwoods district school teaching. He then
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worked on a farm, leaving Illinois at the age of nineteen, started for the West in 1853, crossing the plains by ox-teams to Oregon. Their troubles en route were limited to " Indian scares." Their party consisted of thirteen wagons and one hundred men, women, and children. They left Illinois on May 8th and reached Oregon November 5th following. Mr. Long was elected the captain and leader of the expedition. Filing up a claim in Oregon, he remained twenty-four years, when he sold out in 1877 and removed to Washington. He took up a ranch near his present location, and has since bought land. He has at present about half a section under cultivation, is also the owner of some fourteen lots in the city of Elberton, and a stockholder in the town site. He was married November 1st, 1855, in Oregon, to Miss Amanda Price, a daughter of Reuben Price and Sarah Price, both of English descent. Mrs. Long was born in Indiana, May 21st, 1837. They had ten children, two of whom are deceased. Mr. Long is a Republican and a well-to-do, prosperous farmer.
LOWE, S. J., a retired citizen of North Yakima, was born in Ohio in 1839. His father, John Lowe, was a native of that State ; his mother, Rachel (Johnson) Lowe, being a native of Virginia. Young Lowe, the third in a family of four children born to his parents, received his earliest training in the public schools of his native State, and obtained a good, practical business education. He learned a mechanical trade, which he followed for twelve years, and then; in 1872, emi- grated to California, where he engaged in the hardware business at Anaheim, Los Angeles County. He remained seven years in the Golden State and then removed to Washington, locating at Old Yakima in the same business. In 1879 he selected and settled down at his present home in North Yakima, where after fifteen years he sold out his hardware business, to devote himself to hop culture, having no less than two hundred and forty acres of land, forty of which lie within the city limits. He is also the owner of a comfortable country residence and valuable city realty. He has held office as County Commissioner and was a charter member of the City Council. He is a Mason and takes a lively interest in the welfare and progress of the community in which he dwells. He is a Demo- crat in politics.
LYNCH, TIMOTHY J., of North Yakima, a farmer on the Atahnam, was born in Ireland in 1832, being the eldest of a family numbering no less than eleven children. His parents, both natives of the Emerald Isle, were Henry and Sarah (Downs) Lynch. The father was a veteran of the war, under command of General Sherman, Thirty-fifth New Jersey Volunteers. At the age of twenty young Lynch emigrated to America, landing in New York, where he lived thirteen years, going west in 1865, or at the close of the war, with his family, reaching San Francisco by way of the Isthmus. For five years he was a shipbuilder and joiner in that city. He then removed to Lewis County, Wash., where he added eight years to his life record, coming to Yakima in the spring of 1878 and locating on the farm where he still resides. He is very pleasantly situated, being the owner of one lun- dred and sixty-nine acres of profitable land, fifteen of which are in hops. He has a hop field also of similar size, near North Yakima, fine hop houses, his own irri- gating ditches, and is, moreover, a breeder of a high-class strain of horses and
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cattle. He was married in 1856 to Miss Julia McCarthy, daughter of Dennis McCarthy, an Irish farmer, and has seven children. He is a member of the Hop Growers' Association, and an independent in politics. A hard-working, prosper- ous, and clear-headed man, self-reliant, and making his way in the world with the characteristic energy of his race.
LYON, DR. J. H., of Roslyn, Physician and Surgeon for the Northern Pacific Coal Company, was born forty years ago in the Keystone State. His father, Alonzo F. Lyon, was a Pennsylvania farmer, his mother, Janette Lyon, being a native of North Carolina. A common-school education paved the way for the higher teachings of the Iowa Medical College at Des Moines, from which institu- tion he graduated in 1885 with the degree of M.D. Beginning his professional career, he located at Mongala, Ia., and remained three years, until his removal to Boone in that State, where he built up a lucrative practice. In 1889 he migrated to Washington and established himself at Roslyn, where he was imme- diately engaged as physician and surgeon to the coal company. He was married in 1889 at Ellensburg to Miss Jessie M. Condit, of New Jersey, who died in 1892 at Roslyn, mourned and respected by the entire community. Dr. Lyon has held the office of Coroner of Kittitas County. He owns a handsome residence in the city and other valuable realty. He is a brother of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and, a Republican in his political faith. He is a member of the State Medical and Central District Associations of Iowa, the Washington State Medical Association, and the American Medical Association. He bears the reputation of being a man of high culture and large professional endowments.
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