USA > Washington > History of Washington the evergreen state : from early dawn to daylight with portraits and biographies Vol. I > Part 58
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MILLER, CHESTER F., A.M., attorney-at-law, and Mayor of Dayton, a promi- nent member of the Bar of Eastern Washington, was born in Linn County, Ore., in 1860. His father, G. W. Miller, was an Indiana farmer, his mother, Sarah E., being from the same locality. Educated in the public schools of Dayton, Wash., young Miller graduated from the State University of Oregon in 1882, taking the degree of A.M. After reading law with Colonel W. A. George, of Dayton, he was admitted to the Bar in 1886 and immediately began practice in that city, where he has ever since remained. He was married May 24th, 1888, to Miss Nettie C. Dorr, a California lady. They have two children. He has a fine city residence, and takes special pride in the completeness of his law library, is a Mason, Odd Fellow, and a Knight of Pythias, a Republican in politics, and Chair- man of the County Republican Committee. He is evidently one of those happy exceptions that prove the rule, " A prophet is not without honor save among his own people," for he has succeeded and eminently so in the town where he studied law and was admitted to its practice.
MILLER, DAVID, farmer, of Walla Walla County, Wash., was born in Scotland in 1852 and came to America in 1869. He received his early education in the country of his nativity. Locating at first in Pennsylvania, he drifted thence to Utah and Wyoming, finally coming to Washington Territory in 1877, buying land eight miles south of Waitsburg, where he now cultivates, with that thrift and wise adaptation of means to ends so peculiar to the " canny Scot." some six hundred and forty acres. He finds time, however, to perform other duties as a progressive citizen of his adopted country, having been elected on the Democratic ticket to the State Senate. He enjoys the confidence of his fellow-citizens, and is regarded as a wide-awake and reliable man, whether in business or politics. He was married in Scotland to Miss Isabel King in 1868. Their union has been blessed with seven children. They dwell in a pleasant home surrounded with all the accessories which should add comfort and happiness to our earthly pilgrimage.
MILLER, HAMILTON, farmer. Three miles north of Rockford, Wash., are to be found the fields that Mr. Miller calls his own. Of the one hundred and sixty acres he possesses, sixty confess to the presence and dominion of cultivation ; the remainder are still to become subject to the plough. Mr. Miller was born in the Buckeye State in 1844. His father was a Jersey man and his mother a native of Ohio. Of their seven children Hamilton was the third. Educated in the coun- try schools of Indiana, young Miller's youth was spent upon his father's farm.
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Leaving the home of his childhood at the age of twenty-two, he visited different States, pausing to look about him for a time, but finally settling in 1882 at Rock- ford, Wash., his present location. He is a Republican, and became a member of the Farmers' Alliance in 1891. Mr. Miller married Miss Mary P. Johnson in 1880, in Reno County, Kan. They have three children.
MILLER, W. L., miller and real-estate dealer, Mayor of New Whatcom, was born in Dodge County, Wis., June 7th, 1847, received a common-school educa- tion, and enlisted in the spring of 1864 in the Thirty-sixth Wisconsin Volunteers, continuing in the active service of his country until the close of the war. He was honorably discharged and removed to Ackley, Hardin County, Ia., where he en- gaged in general stock-raising and dealing for four years. Going thence to West Point, Neb., he became a general grain merchant and buyer, owning two eleva- tors in the vicinity. After three years in this locality he removed his business to Madison, Neb., and added a grist-mill, which he continued to superintend for ten years, when he migrated to New Whatcom, Wash., and there engaged in the lumber and shingle-milling business, to which he added dealing in real estate, the latter being now his principal occupation. He is the original owner of the town of Millerton, Whatcom County. He was Treasurer of Madison County, Neb., for two terms, and is the present Mayor of New Whatcom, a position which he is well fitted to fill. He was married, March 29th, 1866, to Miss Emilie Wolf, of Water- loo, Ia. They have seven children. Mr. Miller is a member of the Elks and the Red Men.
MILROY, VAL. A., Postmaster at Olympia, Wash., was born in Rensselaer, Ind., August 17th, 1855. In early life he clerked in various mercantile houses, going in 1866 to Delphi, Ind., where he attended school and worked on farm until 1873, when he came to Olympia. His father was Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Territory, and he held a clerical position under him until 1881. He was afterward engaged in the livery business until 1884. In that year he was appointed Issue Clerk on the Yakima Reservation, remaining there two years. He then attended business college in Portland, Ore., after leaving which he was engaged as a clerk in Eshelman Brothers' stationery store, returning to Olympia in February, 1888. In May, 1889, he was appointed Postmaster of Olympia, which position he has since filled with fidelity and ability. Mr. Milroy is one of the progressive property-holders of Olympia, and popular with all classes, having been active in all matters leading to the advancement of the material prosperity of the city. Through his efforts the postal service of Thurston County has been brought up to its present satisfactory condition, and much credit is due him for the able and efficient office now at Olympia. He is a man of ability and integ- rity, meriting and receiving the esteem and confidence of the entire community.
MINNER, W. H., farmer, of North Yakima, was born in Indiana in 1832, being the fourth in a family of five children born to Peter and Lutica (Golt) Minner. His parents were natives of Delaware. Young Minner left home at an early age, travelled over the States until he was twenty-one, and then, his father being de- ceased, moved with his mother to Jefferson County, Ia., and from thence to Mis-
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souri, where he lived for seven years. Here he was married to Miss Minerva Durea, the daughter of a prominent clergyman of that State. She bore him one child. Mr. Minner enlisted in the army, but was thrown from his horse and so injured as to be transferred to the Home Guards under Colonel Rogers, and did gallant service under that officer, taking in their last charge three flags and pur- suing the enemy to the river. He served three years, and was honorably dis- charged. In 1864 he crossed the plains with a very small party ; had repeated difficulty with hostile Indians, but, thanks to the soldierly experience and cool courage of Mr. Minner, was enabled to repel and stand them off. Between Boise and the Willamette Valley, however, he and his people suffered great privation, being short of provisions and obliged to cut up their wagon cover and blankets to make clothes for the children. Mr. Minner remained in the valley twelve years, and in 1876 came to Yakima County, where he first rented and then bought his present farm of two hundred and eighty acres, with fine orchard and dairy. His first wife being deceased, he married in 1862 Mrs. Archibald, by whom he has six children. Mr. Minner is a living evidence of success obtained under circum- stances of great trial and difficulty.
MIRES, AUSTIN, attorney-at-law, and Vice-President of the Ellensburg National Bank, of Ellensburg, Wash., was born in Des Moines County, Ia., in 1852. His father, John H. Mires, and mother, whose maiden name was Anna Deardorff, were both natives of Ohio. They crossed the plains from Iowa to Oregon in 1853, and settled in Douglas County of that State. Mr. Mires received an aca- demic education in the State of Oregon, attending Wilbur Academy and Chris- tian College, taking the scientific and classical courses. He afterward took a full law course in the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, graduating from the law department of that institution in 1882. During the time he was attending the University of Michigan he was for one year the Private Secretary of Hon. Thomas M. Cooley, then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Michigan and Dean of the Law Department of the University of Michigan. He was admitted to the Bar of the Supreme Court of Michigan in 1882, and also that of the Supreme Court of Oregon the same year. He began the practice of his profession, in partnership with Judge William R. Willis, in Roseburg, Ore., and so continued until 1883, when he removed to the then Territory of Washington, and settled at Ellensburg in June of that year, where he resumed the legal business, in which he is still engaged and has now an extensive practice. He was for three years United States Mail Agent on the route between Portland and Roseburg, in the State of Oregon, and in 1882 was Chief Clerk of the Oregon Senate. He has been Mayor of the city of Ellensburg, City Attorney and Treasurer, and was a member of the Constitutional Convention of the State of Washington, serving in that body on the Judiciary Committee and the Committee on Irrigation and Water Rights, of which last-named committee he was Chairman ; and he was for three years a member of the State Board of Equalization and Appeal for the State of Washington. Mr. Mires was married in 1884 to Mary L. Rowland, a native of Oregon. They have three children. He owns a pleasant home in the city of Ellensburg, a valuable private library and a fine law library, and is still a close student, adding constantly to his professional and general knowledge. In
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politics he is a stalwart Republican, and takes an active interest in the welfare of his party.
MITCHELL, BENJAMIN R., M.D., of Colfax, Wash., an active practitioner of that city, was born in Fayette County, Pa., in 1848. After receiving the usual common-school education, young Mitchell became a student at Mount Union Col- lege, Pa., where he took a full classical course and graduated with the lionors of A.B. Determining to become a physician, he entered Jefferson College, Phila- delphia, from which institution he received in due course his degree of M.D. This was in 1875. He then located at Scottdale, Pa., where he opened an office and began practice, remaining until 1886, when, attracted by the superior advan- tages presented to young men of enterprise in the West, lie removed to Wasling- ton and settled at Colfax, where he still continues to build up and increase his already large professional engagements. Dr. Mitchell was married in 1887 to Miss Nettie Belle Robertson, a native of Pennsylvania. They have five children. He is a Democrat in politics. IIe has a pleasant residence in the home of his adoption ; is a fine scholar, not only thoroughly versed in all that pertains to the profession of his choice, but in other paths of learning as well.
MITCHELL, R. M., President of the Mitchell Land and Improvement Company, was born in Dufferin County, Ont., in January, 1857, and was educated in the public schools of that county. In 1881 he went to Dakota and was engaged in the general merchandise business there for eight years. In 1889 he removed to Tacoma, Waslı., and engaged in the real-estate business. In August, 1890, Mr. Mitchell heard of the Everett proposition and secured one hundred and forty-four acres of choice land at that point. He is a director of the Bank of Everett and of the Everett Development Company. The Mitchell Land and Improvement Com- pany is an incorporated body, with a capital of $60,000. Its officers are : R. M. Mitchell, President ; John E. McManus, Secretary ; A. F. McLane, Treasurer. These officers, with Melvin Swarthout and James Bradley, constitute the Board of Directors. The company has large real-estate holdings, including three fourths of a mile of water front.
MONTGOMERY, GEORGE S., farmer and stockman, of Kittitas County, Wash., was born in Jackson County, Ore., in 1860. His parents came out to Oregon with a company of one hundred wagons, having no trouble with Indians, but losing a child with measles while en route. Arriving in Portland, the father moved to Linn County, took up a donation claim and engaged in stock-raising. Afterward he went to Jackson County, where our subject was born ; thence to the Kittitas Valley in 1880, where he took up a homestead, and died January 30th, 1889, leaving a wife and ten children, of whom George was the sixtlı. Young Montgomery received his early education in California (after leaving Jackson, Ore.), but first worked for himself in Washington. He resides on forty acres of the parental homestead, four and a half miles east of Ellensburg, a fertile tract which produces largely. Mr. Montgomery was married in Kittitas Valley, February 14th, 1888, to Miss Pet Davis, who was born in King County, Wash., July 11th, 1870. They have one child. Mrs. Montgomery's father was
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Probate Judge for four years, and was elected to the Legislature, but died before the expiration of his term.
MONTGOMERY, W. T., farmer, of Kittitas County, Wash., was born in Linn County, Ore., in 1857. His father was a Kentuckian, born in 1829 ; his mother, a native of Missouri, in the same year. The father came to Oregon, crossing the plains with a large company in 1847 and locating in Oregon, finally settling in Linn County. Their party suffered greatly, both from sickness (cholera) and Ind- ian attacks, while en route. Taking up land and being appointed Justice of the Peace, he reared a family of ten children, of whom the subject of our sketch is the fifth. Young Montgomery was educated in California, where he afterward began farming for himself with very fair success. In 1880 he migrated to Kittitas County and took up land. He now owns one hundred and eighty acres in that region, which averages twenty-five bushels to the acre. He was married in Kit- titas Valley to Miss Ollie Fergeson, December 12th, 1886, his wife being a native of Washington Territory, born November 22d, 1868. They have three children, a pleasant home, and a fertile farm with the usual improvements.
MOODY, J. B., a leading business man of Mount Vernon, Wash., was born in Green County, Wis., November 4th, 1856, and received his education in the pub- lic and normal schools of his native State. Adopting the honorable profession of a teacher, he pursued that calling with distinguished success for eleven years in the graded schools of his native State. In April, 1886, he came to Mount Ver- non, Wash., where he has since resided. Two years were spent as a clerk in the mercantile house of Clothier & English, at the expiration of which time he em- barked in the real-estate business in partnership with Mr. F. D. Cleaves. In 1889 Mr. Cleaves sold out to Mr. Adolph Behrens, and the business was continued under the firm style of Behrens & Moody. They built the Skagit Saw-Mill and Manufacturing Company's plant and bought and sold real estate. At the first State election, in November, 1889, Mr. Moody was elected County Clerk and Clerk of the Superior Court. His performance of the duties of these positions was so satisfactory that he was re-elected in 1890 and served a second term. He is President and one of the principal stockholders of the Mount Vernon Electric Light, Power and Motor Company, a trustee of the Mount Vernon Shingle and Lum- ber Company, and trustee of the Bay View and Northern Pacific Railroad Company, extending from Mount Vernon to Bay View, a distance of eleven miles. Mr. Moody is a friend of every public enterprise, using his prosperity for the growth and improvement of the town. As a public official he was capable and efficient, discharging every duty imposed upon him with strict integrity. He is a careful, thorough business man, punctual in the discharge of every obligation, and under all circumstances can be implicitly trusted. He easily wins and holds the confi- dence of all with whom he associates, and has hosts of loyal friends. He has taken an active interest in the Masonic order for many years, and is a member of the Scottish Rites lodges. He was married April 21st, 1878, to Miss Mary Cleaves, of Appleton, Wis. . Three children, all daughters, have blessed their union.
MOORE, E. L., the Cashier of Coey Brothers' Bank in Fairfield, Spokane County, Wash., was born in Lagrange, Lafayette County, Ind., in 1850. His
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father, Henry R., was an attorney and merchant in Columbia, O., for a num- ber of years, up to the time of his death, in 1855. His mother, a Virginia lady, still survives and resides with her son in Fairfield. After the usual course of common and high school mental training, young Moore entered his father's employ at the early age of fifteen ; but still determined to perfect himself, he de- voted his evenings to study after the labor of the day, up to the age of eighteen, when he became a teacher, having charge of schools in various counties of Kansas until 1880. Migrating to Milwaukee, Ore., he followed the same pursuit. After teaching there for two years lie entered the Portland Business College, from which he graduated with honors. Coming to Washington in 1883 he engaged for a short time in mining, but soon abandoned it to take a clerkship with Coey Brothers at Rockford, Wash., also acting as Assistant Postmaster, and finally as Postmaster, still retaining his clerical duty. In 1892 Coey Brothers showed their appreciation of his faithfulness and energy in their service by appointing him Cashier of their bank in Fairfield, a position which he still retains. Mr. Moore married in 1883 Miss Neville N. Cox, of Kansas. He is a strong example of the excellent results of determined self-education and devotion to duty.
MOORE, F. ROCKWOOD, was born in 1852, and at the age of twenty came West. In 1879 he came to Spokane Falls and embarked in the general merchandise busi- ness, with a credit of $50,000. He possessed the enterprise and daring in business which are so essential for the well-being of new communities. Keen and saga- cious, gifted with the highest order of financial ability, he has steadily risen to the topmost rank in commercial circles. He was the first President of the First National Bank in 1882. He is President of the Washington Water Power Com- pany, Vice-President of the Cable Railway Company, director of the Electric Light Company, Spokane Street Railway Company, and a large owner in the South Side Railway Company. He was a liberal contributor to the Northwestern Industrial Exposition, of which he is now Treasurer. Mr. Moore is one of the most extensive owners of real estate in Spokane, and his residence is one of the finest in the city. He has built up a moderate private fortune, but it has been gained in enterprises which have contributed to the general good, and liis chari- ties and benefactions have been bestowed with a liberal hand. His influence has always been exerted for whatever will add to the city's prosperity or advance the moral or physical good of his fellows. He is a man of whole-souled, genial na- ture, and enjoys the esteem of a wide circle of friends.
MOORE, JAMES E., saddle and harness-maker, of Pomeroy, was born in Mis- souri in 1835, being the son of Rev. Alfred J. Moore, a Baptist clergyman and a native of Tennessee, and Elizabeth (Jackson) Moore, of the same State. The subject of our sketch crossed the plains with his parents in 1845. His father lost his life by drowning at The Cascades shortly after their arrival. Locating in Yamhill County, young Moore received his rudimentary education and began to learn the trade he has since found so remunerative. Working in various places in Oregon and California, he finally removed to Washington in 1879, selecting Dayton, Columbia County, as his residence, from whence he came to Pomeroy in 1886 and immediately established himself in the harness-making business, in
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which he has invested a capital of some $3000. He was married in 1856 to Miss Norisa Cornwall, a native of Arkansas. They have four children. Mr. Moore has held the offices of Justice of the Peace, Clerk and Auditor in Oregon. He is a Democrat in politics and a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church, in the wel- fare of which denomination he takes great interest.
MORAN, ROBERT, of Seattle, Wash., was born in New York City, January 26th, 1857, was educated in the schools of that city, and learned the trade of a machin- ist. In 1875 he migrated to the Pacific Coast, and after a brief sojourn in San Francisco, arrived at Seattle in the fall of the same year. With that same energy which has been so conspicuous in liis subsequent career, he at once set about to seek employment, which he found as engineer on one of the steamers plying be- tween the Sound ports and Alaska. In 1882 his mother, brothers and sisters came to Seattle. Giving up steamboating, he then started a small machine-shop on Yesler's Wharf, together with his brothers. Their capital was very small, but they were all practical mechanics, and their venture proved successful. Their business steadily increased and had grown to large proportions when the great fire of June 6th, 1889, completely destroyed their plant, entailing a loss of $40,000. Undismayed by this great calamity, they immediately began to rebuild on a larger scale in the southern part of the city, and in ten days after the fire temporary shops were erected and in operation. The present foundry and ma- chine-shops were completed later, and their establishment is now the largest of its kind on the Pacific Coast north of San Francisco. Mr. Robert Moran is also Secretary and Treasurer of the Moran-Durie Supply Company, and Vice-Presi- dent and Manager of the Seattle Dry Dock and Ship-building Company, whose plant adjoins the Moran foundry. For some years Mr. Moran took an active in- terest in public affairs. In 1887 he was elected a member of the City Council from the Fourth Ward, and in the following year he was elected Mayor. So satis- factory to the people was his administration of affairs that he was again nominated and elected in 1889 to the same office. The great fire of 1889 occurred during his first term, and during the period succeeding this calamity the abilities of Mayor Moran had ample scope for their exercise. In all of the important work devolv- ing upon him he acquitted himself admirably, applying to the public service true business principles and making use of the same unostentatious and upright methods that mark his private life.
In all of his enterprises Mr. Moran has exhibited rare judgment and ability. In business and financial management he has proved himself to be a force in the community, while the integrity of his course, both public and private, commands respect and esteem. His success lias been gained by his own exertions in legiti- mate business channels, and through the attainment of his present position of power and influence the city of his adoption has been enriched in many ways. Mr. Moran was married in Seattle in 1882 to Miss M. Paul, and their union lias been blessed by three children.
MOREHEAD, J. A., merchant, of Sealand, Wash., was born in Ohio in 1859. . His boyhood was spent on a farm in Southern Michigan, to which State he re- moved with his parents at an early age. On reaching his majority he came to
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Oregon, which in his, as in almost all other cases, seems to be but a stepping- stone to final selection of and settlement in Washington. Here he taught school for a year and then migrated to Pacific County, in the Evergreen State. In 1886 he engaged in mercantile business at Oysterville, but has since removed it to his present location in Sealand. Mr. Morehead was married in 1885 to Miss Lizzie W. Brown, daughter of Captain John Brown, of the United States Life Saving Service at North Cove. Mr. Morehead is the fortunate owner of five hundred acres of valuable land in Pacific County. He was Postmaster of Oysterville for four years, and is the present County Commissioner for the First District.
MORRIS, NELSON S., of Fairfield, Wash., follows man's first occupation as a tiller of the soil. His farm, all under cultivation, lies three miles west of the city, in which he also owns improved property. His parents were natives of the Keystone State, where the subject of our sketch was born in Bucks County in 1816. In education he is self-taught, a graduate of a long life's varied experi- ences. Leaving the parental roof at the age of twenty-six he purchased a farm in Davis County, Ia., where he made his home for twenty-three years. Selling out, he crossed the plains, driving his own ox-teams to the present site of Walla Walla City, Wash., where he arrived in 1863. Buying a farm within a few miles of the town, he became dissatisfied and removed to the Snake River, where he became a cattle-dealer, buying and selling stock until 1877, when he migrated to Spokane. County and located in his present home. He married his first wife in Indiana, a: Miss Catharine Dickinson, who died in June of 1857. His second wife, whom he- married in Davis County, Ia., in 1860, is still living. His family is a large one,. having six children by his first and five by his present partner. Mr. Morris has- much to brighten the sunset of his long and laborious life, is a member of the- Christian Church, a Republican of the milder type, owns a pleasant home, and is- generally esteemed by his neighbors.
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