USA > Washington > History of Washington the evergreen state : from early dawn to daylight with portraits and biographies Vol. I > Part 60
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had several of their men wounded in skirmishes with hostile Indians engaged in stealing their animals. On reaching Oregon in September of that year, he located in Baker County, and engaged in mining. From thence he went to Idaho and afterward to Portland in 1864, where he resumed his trade as a cooper. He visited Burlington, Ia., in 1866, returning in 1867, stopping at Colorado en route. Then he followed mining at Sweet Water in 1868. He made a trip to Kittitas Valley in 1870, where his restless feet seem to have been stayed by his taking up a pre-emption claim, and he now owns three hundred and twenty acres. During his early sojourn in this locality he experienced some trouble with the Indians. In 1890 he revisited Iowa, and on his return was accompanied by his wife, having married in that year Miss Anna Weidemeier, a lady from Burlington, Ia., born in 1863. They have one child. Mr. Nesallious is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, a worthy veteran, as active in the pursuits of peace as he was in battling for the preservation of the Union.
NEVIN, G. O., of North Yakima, Wash., was born in Pennsylvania in 1852, and died April 2d, 1893. His father, a merchant, was a native of the Keystone State, as was also his mother, Eliza (Harper) Nevin. Supplementing the teachings of the public schools with a business education of a practical character, he began life as a farmer, then learned the carpenter's trade. He came to California in 1872 and located at Sacramento and in other sections of the State. Making his way overland to the Territory of Washington in 1874, he settled at Yakima, where he was engaged in various occupations. In 1890 he was elected Treasurer of Yakima County on the Republican ticket, and was re-elected in 1892. He held other offices also of a local character. Mr. Nevin was married in 1880 to Miss Margaret Daverny, a native of Iowa. Two children were born to them. Mr. Nevin was a member of the Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias and a Republi- can. He was beyond reproach in the duties of his office, and generally esteemed as an upright and conservative citizen of the community.
NEWELL, GEORGE, of Seattle, a living example of what thrift, industry, and patient perseverance in business can accomplish, was born in Canada, March 20th, 1841. At the age of nineteen he started life by establishing a scroll and band shop with only $50 capital ; burned out in six months, he was at work again in three months' time with a new outfit, and continued in the same occupation for nine years, only to see his plant once more a prey to the flames, leaving him literally penniless. Migrating to Washington Territory, he arrived at Seattle in 1877 with just 8 and 10 cents in his purse. Hiring out his labor by the day, and devoting his evenings to preparing the machinery to run a small factory for stair- building and scroll-sawing, he completed his preparations after two years and a half of persistent toil and started his factory. He was again reduced to poverty by the same relentless element, being burned out in seven weeks from the time of beginning operations. Uncomplaining and patient, this hero in the battle of life-for there are heroes on other battle-fields than those of war-once more re- turned to day labor for his support, and at the end of two years had saved $400. With this amount he made another match with fortune, starting his scroll-sawing and wood-working factory again, and this time coming out winner, for in ten
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months he had accumulated $2000. With this sum he purchased a half interest in a small mill, and with five years' earnings of this small mill he started to build and completed the extensive mill which he is running to-day. He is also the proprietor of a large sash-and-blind factory running in connection with his mill, the whole plant being valued at $100,000. Mr. Newell was married in 1863 to Miss Lusetta Annable, of Cornwall, Canada. Three boys and three girls have been born to them, of whom two boys and one girl are deceased. The biography just written is a lesson to the youth of our land, and shows what determination to succeed can do, with a spirit that knows no such word as fail.
NEWMAN, J. M., farmer and stockman, of Thorp, was born in Missouri in 1851. His father, a Virginia blacksmith, born in 1820, was postmaster of the village where he resided, and thus exempted from the draft, escaping the dangers of war to die in 1891, leaving a family of six children, of whom the subject of our sketch was the second. Emigrating with his father to Oregon in 1864, com- ing by way of ox-team across the plains, at the age of thirteen, in a company of one hundred wagons, of which company a certain Mr. Wadkins was captain, the family of young Newman located in Union County. Here the father worked at blacksmithing, removing his business after awhile to Marion County. Mr. New- man removed to Kittitas Valley in the fall of 1878 and purchased land. He now owns one hundred and seventy-seven acres a mile and a half south of Thorp, which he has found well suited to wheat-growing. He was married in Oregon in 1873 to Miss Isabel Forgey, a native of Oregon. Her parents were among the early pioneers, coming to the coast in 1852. Seven children are the fruit of this union. Mr. Newman is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Lodge No. 20, and also of the Farmers' Alliance. He has served as Justice of the Peace for several years, and filled the office of School Clerk. He is an advocate of the People's Party.
NEWMAN, W. A., of Dayton, County Treasurer of Columbia County, was born in Adams County, O,, in 1849. His father was a merchant of Maryland, his mother being from Ohio. Third in a family of five children, young Newman completed his rudimentary studies in the public schools. Coming West in 1869, he entered the college at Forest Grove, Ore., taking only the preparatory course. He taught school in Linn County of that State for two years, and two more in Washington County, thence came to Washington Territory and located at Dayton, his present residence, finding employment in the Dayton Flour Mills for a period of twelve years, when he erected a small mill, which he operated for five years. He was appointed in 1890 County Treasurer by the County Commissioners of Columbia County, and was elected to fill that office at the last general election. He was married in 1871 to Miss Mary E. Clark, a native of Indiana. Five chil- dren grace their union. He is a property-owner and deeply interested in the educational interests of Dayton. He is a member of the Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, and Ancient Order of United Workmen, an active politician, and an uncompromising Democrat, being the Chairman of the Central Committee of that party and devoted to its advancement.
NICHOL, W. H., Cashier of the First National Bank of Puyallup, was born in
.
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Bayham Township, Richmond Village, Ontario, in March, 1865. At the age of nine he accompanied his parents to Ripou, Wis., where they settled and where he received such early training and education as the common schools of that sec- tion could supply, until his studies were suddenly interrupted by his running away from home when bnt fifteen and battling ever since with the world. His education was, therefore, mostly acquired in the school of life's hard experience. While in Mankato he learned to become a telegraph operator, and immediately obtained a position at $20 per month, adding to his income by teaching teleg- raphy. From operator he advanced to agent, filling various situations in rail- road employ for ten years. In July, 1889, he came to Puyallup, Wash., where he accepted the position of night operator at the station of the Northern Pacific Railroad. He was afterward advanced to the position of cashier and again to agent, all within a single year's service. In December, 1890, he accepted the Cashiership of the First National Bank of Puyallup, and still continues in that responsible office. He was married, February 27th, 1880, to Miss Anna Groger, of Dodge Centre, Minn. He is a stockholder in the bank, a member of the Masonic fraternity, and of the Presbyterian Church. He is another example of those bright, self-reliant young men who make their way in the world in spite of every early disadvantage and later obstacle.
NICKLIN, T. G., real estate broker, of New Whatcom, a gentleman who has filled most efficiently various public offices, was born in London, England, August 19th, 1859. Emigrating to America with his parents at an early age, they located in Sharon, Pa., where the subject of our sketch received his early education in the excellent common schools of that locality. Coming West in 1883, he settled at Whatcom and engaged in newspaper work, editing the Reveille until May, 1889. He then became a real estate broker. He was Chief Clerk of the Territorial Legislature during the sessions of 1884-85-86-87, and Clerk of the Court at Whatcom for 1889; Delegate to the Territorial Convention in 1886, and the State Convention of 1890. He is at present a member of the City Council. He married Miss Flora Axton, of Whatcon, and has one child, a daughter.
NILSSON, ANDREW, senior partner of the firm of Nilsson Brothers, blacksmiths and wagon-makers, of Dayton, Wash., was born in Sweden in 1844, his parents being also natives of that country. Educated in the public schools of his father- land, Mr. Nilsson came to the United States in 1870, locating at Omaha, Neb. He removed to Montana in 1871 and engaged in mining. In 1874 he settled at Walla Walla, Wash., where he found occupation in railroading, saw-milling, and blacksmith work, and remained until 1877, when he transferred his residence to Dayton and carried on blacksmithing under the firm name of Hutcheon & Nilsson, which continued until their dissolution in 1879. Mr. Nilsson then made a visit to Europe, returning in 1880. Buying business property, he resumed blacksmith- ing, to which he added wagon-making, and in February of 1892 formed the pres- ent firm of Nilsson Brothers. They have an invested capital of about $5000. Mr. Nilsson was married in 1883. He is a stockholder and Vice-President in the Citizens' National Bank of Dayton, and also in the hotel. He is the owner of a pretty home and other realty. He has filled the office of City Councilman, and is
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a member of the Masonic fraternity. He takes a lively interest in all that tends to increase the moral and material progress of the city.
NILSSON, LARS, a substantial citizen of Dayton, of the firm of Nilsson Brothers, was born in Sweden in 1859, came to the United States in 1880, and located, where he still resides, in the city of Dayton, entering into partnership with his brother, whosc biographical notice will be found elsewhere. Educated in the public schools of his native land, Mr. Nilsson has a fine library and is still a student, taking great pleasure in the perusal of his books. He was married in 1889 to Miss Johanna C. Stahlberg, from Kristianstad, Sweden, and has two chil- dren. He has a pleasant home and other valuable property. He is a member of the Masonic brotherhood and of the Knights of Pythias. He is a strong advo- cate of the Republican Party, and served in the State Convention held at Olympia in 1892. In the winter of 1888-89 he made a six months' visit to his old home in Sweden, which he enjoyed very much.
NORDSTROM, OLOF H., whose fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres, nearly all under cultivation, evinces the careful management peculiar to his nationality, is a native of Sweden, in which country hc was born in 1847. His father, who died in 1883, was a farmer before him, so that he may almost be said to have inherited his present occupation. With a good school education at home and two years morc of study after coming to America, where he arrived in 1871, young Nordstrom was fairly prepared for the battle of life. His youth was spent in the lumber business. After landing in New York, where he lingered but a day, he started for Wilmar, Minn., where he secured work on the St. Paul Rail- road, remaining in their employ until 1878, when he gave up his position to settle in his present location, two and one half miles southwest of Rockford, where he immediately secured his present homestead. Mr. Nordstrom took to himself a wife in 1875, marrying Miss Mary C. Dyring, who, like himself, was a native of Sweden. By this lady he has five children. His farm is located two and one half miles from Rock Creek, Spokane County, Wash. Here he has a pleasant home, a fine orchard and stock, whose water is of the purest, for it is drawn from a well sixty-four feet in depth, half of which penetrates the primeval rock. There is no need to analyze its flow.
O'BRIEN, R. G., Mayor of Olympia and Adjutant-General of the State, was born in Dublin, Ireland, November 7th, 1846, and came with his parents to America in 1850. His carly education was acquired in the public schools of Illinois, at Springfield and Chicago. At the early age of fourteen years he ob- tained a position as clerk in a dry-goods house in Chicago, remaining there two and one half years. In 1863, at the age of seventeen years, he cnlisted in the Ellsworth Zouaves, of Chicago, serving later in the One Hundred and Thirty- fourth Illinois. After a ycar's service, having been promoted to the rank of First Lieutenant of the Zouaves, he returned to Chicago and became Receiving Clerk in the Chicago and Alton freight depot, where he remained for two and one half years. He then entered the school-book and furniture house of George & C. W. Sherwood, having charge of the furniture department for three years. In 1870
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he came to Olympia and was appointed Assistant Assessor of Internal Revenue in July, 1870, which position he held until 1874, when that office was merged into that of Collector, he being a deputy in this office until 1875. In 1876 he ' was appointed Clerk of the Supreme and District Courts of the Second Judicial District, holding that position for twelve years, until the change of administra- tion, at which time he resigned and went into the real estate business. In 1878 Mr. O'Brien was elected Quartermaster-General, and in 1881 Adjutant-General, to which office he has been re-elected each subsequent term. He was also United States Commissioner for twelve years, from 1876 until the election of Cleveland. He was elected to the City Council in 1882 and served eight years, until elected Mayor in December, 1891. He was married, October 23d, 1878, to Miss Fanny Steele, of Olympia, and has had three children, two of whom are living. Mr. O'Brien is an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and is also a prominent Mason, a Past Master Olympia Lodge No. 1, Free and Accepted Masons, Venerable Master Olympia Lodge No. 2, Scottish Rite Masonry, Wise Master Robert Bruce Chapter Rose Croix No. 2, Eminent Commander De Molid Council of Kadosh No. 2, Scottish Rite, and has taken the thirty-third degree in the Scottish Rite. He is also a member of Olympia Chapter Royal Arch Mason.
Mr. O'Brien is one of the most.active, genial, and popular men in the State of Washington to-day, and has done as much public service out of pure enterprise and public spirit as any man in the State. It has been entirely through his efforts that the National Guards of the State have been organized and kept up, he hav- ing gotten together the first company in Olympia in 1883. This was afterward followed by companies at Seattle, Tacoma, Walla Walla, and other points, until now the force amounts to about cleven hundred in the State whose service, young as the State may be, has been of more value than the National Guards of any other State of the Union during the time of their organization. He has held the office of Adjutant-General for the past ten years, with three years yet to run, and it is safe to say will occupy always a prominent position in the foremost ranks of the leaders of the State of Washington in the future.
O'DELL, JAMES VIRGIL, attorney-at-law, of Colfax, Wash., was born in Hick- man County, Ky., in 1834, his father, John F., being a Virginian, while his mother, Amanda J. (Kniglit) O'Dell, was a native of Kentucky. The eldest in a family of nine, young O'Dell passed from the public schools of his native State to the higher classical course of Hickman Seminary. After graduating from this institution he returned home and assisted his father for awhile in the labor of the paternal acres, then taught school for a number of years. Wearying of this, he determined to fit himself for the Bar, to which end he entered the office of Judge Walker of the Supreme Court of Illinois, with whom he read law till admitted to the Bar of the State of Missouri, May 20th, 1857. He began practice, went to Missouri, where he followed his profession till 1869, was a member of the Legis- lature of that State (1866-67), migrated to Washington in 1872, and located in Whitman County, where he still resides. He represented that county in the Constitutional Convention held at Walla Walla, 1878, and was also elected to the Territorial Legislature in 1888. He was Quartermaster's Clerk in the army for two years and in the Provost Marshal's office as well, having enlisted in 1864 in
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Company G, Forty-seventh Infantry, Missouri Volunteers, and served till the close of the war. He was married in 1859 to Miss Clarissa M. Owen, of Missouri. ' Four children were the fruit of their union, of whom only one survives. A mem- ber of the Masonic fraternity, and a close student, with a fine library and a de- lightful home, he is in all respects a living evidence of well-earned reputation and deserved success.
OGLE, J. M., a prominent nurseryman, was born in Burlington, Ia., in 1838, being the eldest son of James A. and Annie Ogle. Mr. Ogle crossed the plains in 1852 with his parents to Oregon. In 1853 they removed to Douglas County, leaving there in 1869 for Milledgeville. Returning to Illinois, Mr. Ogle married Miss Mary A., daughter of Daniel Starmer, a leading farmer of Illinois. They have five children. He came to California in 1870, and migrated to Washington Territory in 1883, where he engaged in the nursery business, which he still carries on. He resides on his farm in Yakima valley, where he owns one hundred and twenty acres, twenty-five of which he devotes to his nursery, but does not confine himself to this, the remainder furnishing him with hay and all kinds of cereals. He has also valuable nursery property on Puget Sound, a business in which he has been engaged from early youth and finds abundantly remunerative. Mr. Ogle is counted a genial and social gentleman, intelligent and far-seeing in all the inter- ests in which he is engaged.
OLMSTEAD, SARAH F., of Kittitas County, Wash., was born in New York in 1843. Her parents were natives of the same State, her father being a farmer. He removed to Illinois in 1855 and died in that State two years later. Mrs. Olmstead received her education in Illinois, and was married there to Samuel B. Olmstead, who was born in New York in 1834. He enlisted in the Eleventh Illinois Infantry during the Civil War, and also served in the Minnesota Heavy Artillery. He was present and actively engaged at the battle of Nashville. He returned to Illinois at the close of the war and resumed farming. He came West in 1870, locating in the Rogue River Valley in Oregon. Here he remained witlı his family for four years, but in 1875 removed to the Sound, whence, after a sojourn of two years, they came to Kittitas Valley in 1877, where Mr. Olmstead purchased two hundred and forty acres. He died in 1882, leaving a widow-the subject of our sketch-and two children. Mrs. Olmstead still retains and over- sees the cultivation of the fine farm left by her husband. She takes pride in its superior stock, yet continues to reside in the old log-house, one of the first erected in the valley, and whose recollections are so intimately connected with the early struggles and privations of her former frontier life.
O'NEAL, JOHN, farmer, on the North Fork of the Cowiche, was born in Wash- ington Territory in 1862, being the youngest in a family of six born to Abiza and Jane (Underwood) O'Neal. His parents were natives of Illinois and Indiana re- spectively, but migrated to Puget Sound, where the mother died in 1874 and the father in 1887. Removing to Yakima County, and from thence to his present farm, Mr. O'Neal still cultivates his one hundred and sixty acres with that care which betokens the wise and thrifty agriculturist. His fields of grain, his bloom-
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ing orchard, his acres clothed with clustering hop-vines, all speak for them- selves. He is also a breeder of fine stock, and has his own system of ditch-irriga- tion. He was married in 1889 to Miss Jane Reynolds, and has two children. He is a Democrat in his political faith.
ORCHARD, GEORGE FRANKLIN, capitalist, of Tacoma, Wash., was born May 10th, 1848, in Livonia, Washington County, Ind. There in that frontier town he found his first employment at the close of his school-days as a clerk in a grocery store. In 1868 he was engaged in a similar capacity in a general ship- ping establishment, which moved from point to point along the Union Pacific as its construction progressed until its completion in 1869, when he went to Boise City, Ida., and engaged as a clerk until 1870. He then opened a shipping store for himself at Ore Grand Mining Camp, Ida. After remaining a year he was attracted to Washington Territory and removed his interests to Kalama. Fore- seeing, with that wise accuracy which has ever distinguished him, the coming greatness of the as yet unborn City of Destiny, he established in 1873 a branch store at Old Tacoma, and in the spring following sold out his stock in Kalama and removed the old town store to New Tacoma, the first of the many hundreds now lining its busy thoroughfares. He continued his mercantile trade with large profits until 1880, when he retired therefrom to engage in real estate transactions. In this he was so successful that in 1883 he purchased a half interest in the Bank of New Tacoma, of A. J. Baker, the first bank and the first banker of the town. It is now the Merchants' National, one of the most prosperous financial institu- tions in the State. Mr. Orchard was its first Vice-President, but resigned in 1887, though still remaining a director and large stockholder. He was also an incorporator and for two years a Trustee of the Tacoma Trust and Savings Bank. Among other enterprises that have received his aid is the Puget Sound Printing Company, organized in 1888, of which he is the largest stockholder. He was the first City Treasurer of Tacoma, and in 1882 a member of its Council. He is to-day one of the largest holders of Tacoma realty, having seen it grow from the first clearing in its forests to its forty thousand inhabitants of to-day. He began life there with no capital save the accumulation of his toil, and to-day his wealth runs into the hundreds of thousands, all fairly and honestly gained by those honest and straightforward business methods which are characteristic of one of whom his biographer writes from personal knowledge and esteem. He was mar- ried, May 30th, 1873, in Portland, Ore., to Miss Sarah M. McNeal, daughter of Abraham McNeal, of Salem, Ore. Four children grace their union. Mr. Orchard is a member of the Presbyterian Church of Tacoma, and has served as an Elder and its Treasurer since its organization. He is a Republican in politics. The life of Mr. Orchard furnishes to young men everywhere a shining example of what earnest effort can accomplislı.
ORR, EDWARD S., than whom Tacoma boasts no more energetic and reliable business man, was born in Clarion County, Pa., November 8th, 1853. Receiving a common-school education in his native county as a preparation to a seminary of higher grade, Mr. Orr went West, on the completion of his studies, to Wichita, Kan., where he engaged in the stock business and remained one year. From
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thence he journeyed to Colorado, interesting himself in milling and mining in the San Juan County. In this vocation he continued for cleven years, meeting with but moderate success. He came to Tacoma in April of 1888, and for six months was engaged in looking up mining property in British Columbia and Washington. He settled permanently in Tacoma in October of 1888, and became a real estate broker and contractor, forming a partnership with E. S. Craig. He married, October 22d, 1888, Miss Jennie H. McLure, a most estimable lady of Pennsyl- vania.
OUIMETTE, E. N., President of the Tacoma Loan and Trust Company, was born at St. Eustache, P. Q., June 6th, 1840. His education was acquired at St. Eustache College, from which institution he was graduated in 1860. After serving a five years' apprenticeship in the dry-goods trade at Montreal, he re- moved to Portland, Ore., in 1865, and engaged in business on his own account. In 1870 he removed to Olympia, Wash., where he continued as a dry-goods mer- chant until 1880. During his residence in Olympia he took an active interest in municipal affairs, and was twice elected Mayor of the city. For three years he was actively engaged in the building and operating of the Olympia and Tenino Railroad, of which he was a director and the Secretary. The first engine used on this road was named for him. Mr. Ouimette has been a resident of Tacoma since 1880. He continued in the dry-goods trade until 1884, when he engaged in real estate, insurance, and loans. His success in this line of business evinced rare judgment, his real estate ventures being rewarded with uniform good results, and some of them being particularly fortunate, netting him large returns on his investments. In 1889 he was elected Vice-President of the Washington National Bank of Tacoma, and was afterward elected President. At the present time he is devoting most of his attention to the business of the Tacoma Loan and Trust Company, a corporation doing a mortgage loan business exclusively. He is a . member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Union and Commercial Clubs, and has been Trustee and Treasurer of the first-named institution. He is regarded as one of Tacoma's trustworthy business men, and one whose career, already brill- iant in its achievements, promises to be of still greater benefit to the city and State in years to come.
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