USA > Washington > History of Washington the evergreen state : from early dawn to daylight with portraits and biographies Vol. I > Part 61
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OWEN, CHARLES B., a veteran soldier, and resident of Pomeroy, Wash., was born in Wilmington, Essex County, N. Y., March 17th, 1858. His father, John Owen, a farmer, and his mother were both natives of the Empire State. After receiving a common-school education Mr. Owen enlisted in the Regular Army, Battery B, Third Artillery, and re-enlisted at Fort Niagara, in Company E; of the Twelfth United States Infantry. He was honorably discharged at Fort Yates, Dakota, September 7th, 1889. Removing to Washington, he located at Pomeroy in 1890, and entered the employ of the Union Pacific Railroad, in whose service he still continues. Mr. Owen was married, August 22d, 1884, to Miss Eva McDonald, of Canada. He has a residence in the city and a small but well- chosen library. He is a member of the National Guard of Washington, holding the rank of First Lieutenant, the company to which he is attached having been organized in Pomeroy in November, 1890. It numbers three officers and forty-
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seven men. He is a member of various societics, a Republican in politics, a man of large experience, and, like most old soldiers, well satisfied to rest from cam- paigning and occupy himself with the peaceful pursuits of civilian life.
OWENS, JAMES BOWIE, was born at Cedar Hill, in Prince George's County, Md. Hc is a son of James Owens, of Anne Arundel County, one of the largest and best known tobacco planters of that section, and through his mother, Marie Louise Owens, née Bowie, is a descendant of one of the oldest families in the State, several of whom at different times have figured largely in State affairs, two of his great- grandfathers having been among the first governors of the State of Maryland. He is a grandnephew of the Hon. Reverdy Johnson, the eminent Maryland jurist, and General Thomas Bowie, of the late Mexican War. He received the benefits of an excellent education at Charlotte Hall Military Academy, St. Mary's County, Md,, one of the oldest educational institutions in the country, having been organ- ized in 1794. Anxious to enter upon the active business of life, he left school his graduating year, went to Baltimore and engaged as assistant to Clarence C. Whiting, one of the most prominent brokers of that city, in which he continued for three years. Having gained a thorough business cducation, he concluded to go West, and came to Tacoma in 1889. He was shortly appointed Resident Agent of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York. He is now Assistant. General Agent and recognized as one of the most successful in the company's. employ on the Pacific Coast. Mr. Owens was married, July 10th, 1890, in Phila- delphia, to Miss Adèle J. Rigueur, a native of France. A boy and a girl have- since graced their union. Mr. Owens came to the Sound, like many another, without capital save push, business energy, and good judgment, and he has so. utilized those gifts as to be abundantly rewarded both in reputation and substan- tial gain, and to-day stands among the leading business men of his city. It is- needless to say that he is a stanch Democrat, and is sanguine of seeing, at no late day, the State of Washington standing among the foremost Democratic States of the Union.
PAGE, HERMAN, farmer and stockman, of Ellensburg, Wash., was born in. New York in 1833. His parents were farmers and natives of the Empire State. In 1847 they removed to Illinois, where thic father died, leaving five children, of whom Hcrman was the cldest. Educated in the public schools of Illinois, he worked there as a laborer, and in 1858 went to Kansas, where hc farmed for seventeen years with fair success, considering the fact that he endured some. hardship and was disturbed by marauding parties during the Civil War, as also. by the Indians. In 1875 he crossed the plains by wagon, for the most part alone, was at Black Hills during the trouble there, but got through nicely, having no. difficulty either from the hostiles, sickness, or other untoward incidents of the way. He reached Kittitas Vallcy, September 22d, 1875, five months to a day from the time of leaving home. Here he took up land seven miles to the west- ward of Ellensburg, and now owns two hundred and twenty acres, averaging twenty-five bushels of wheat to the acre. He was married in Illinois in 1857 to Miss Rachel Hodsin, a native of Illinois, born in 1837. They have four children, all of whom are married. Mr. Page regards himself as being a scion of the
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William Penn stock. He says that when they had the Indian scare in the Valky and all his neighbors fled or banded together, he kept on running his reaper (the first of its kind in that locality) and was not molested.
PAINTER, JACOB S., farmer, of Prescott, Wash., was born in West Virginia in 1850. His parents were natives of Virginia, but removed to West Virginia, where they now reside and where they brought up a family of six children, of whom Jacob S. was the third. He received what little education he obtained in the public schools of his native place, and found his first occupation in life as a farmer in the same locality. In 1880 he was married to Miss Nellie C. Groves. After a few years of fruitless wanderings through Iowa, Illinois, and Texas, he returned home, and from thence came to Washington and settled upon the farm about one mile east of Prescott, which he still continues to cultivate. Shortly after his arrival he had the misfortune to lose his wife, who sickened and died, leaving three children, who have resided, since his bereavement, with their grandfather, in West Virginia. In 1890 Mr. Painter was married to Miss Mary A. Gross, of his native State. They have one child living. He is the owner of two hundred and forty-seven acres of fine land, his principal crops being hay and alfalfa, which cuts three tons to the acre. His place being particularly well fitted for a nursery, he proposes to turn his attention in that direction, the Touchet River running through his place and furnishing him with natural irrigation. On one occasion he captured three fine salmon caught in a hollow during an overflow and left stranded by the receding tide.
PALMER, JOHN W., of Dayton, farmer, was born in Ohio in 1841, fourth in a family of eleven born to Joseph and Eliza (Ammond) Palmer, natives of Pennsyl- vania and Ohio respectively. A common-school education with other occupations held him at home until he attained his majority, when he removed to Pennsyl- vania, engaged in farming, and remained for thirteen years. From thence he journeyed to Wisconsin, adding lumbering to the cultivation of the soil, and con- tinued there for sixteen years. Moving to Washington Territory he passed ten years at Seattle, engaged in various pursuits, until 1882, when he settled on the ground which he now tills. Here he owns one hundred and sixty acres, in addi- tion to four at Dayton. He finds the soil prolific, yielding nobly in response to lis care. He has a fruit and dairy business also, which he finds remunerative. He was married in 1871 to Miss Frances A. Bride, daughter of John A. Bride, of Wisconsin. They have one child. Mr. Palmer is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen and a Republican in his political faith.
PAPE, FRED E., Mayor of Mt. Vernon and Auditor and Recorder of Skagit County, Wash., was born in Sheboygan County, Wis., June 4th, 1861. When he was ten years old he removed with his parents to a farm near Sioux City, Ia. He received his education in the public schools of Sioux City, and at the age of nineteen began the struggle of life as a fireman on the steamer Peninah, plying between Sioux City and Fort Benton on the Missouri and Fort Custer on the Yellowstone. After following this occupation for about eighteen months, he re- turned to Sioux City in 1881. In 1882 he came to the Pacific Coast, and after
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visiting San Francisco, Cal., Portland, Ore., and various other places in search of a suitable location to settle, he reached the Sound country and took up a pre- emption and timber claim of two hundred acres on the Skagit River, and for the next five years worked in a logging camp. In the fall of 1887 he came to Mt. Vernon, where he became bookkeeper for Clothier & English, general merchants, remaining with them about three years. In the fall of 1890 he was nominated on the Democratic ticket for Auditor and Recorder of Skagit County. In the elec- tion which followed he received emphatic evidence of personal popularity, being elected by a majority of 398 in a county considered Republican by 275 majority. In the fall of 1892 he was re-elected by a majority of over 500, and is now serving his second term. In 1891 he was elected to the City Council of Mt. Vernon, having previously been appointed to fill an unexpired term. After a service of one year he resigned from the Council, being unable to properly attend to the duties of Auditor and Councilman at the same time. In March, 1893, Mr. Pape was appointed Mayor of Mt. Vernon, to fill the unexpired term of Mayor C. D. Kimball, who resigned, having been appointed postmaster. The official life of Mr. Pape has been marked by unswerving rectitude and fidelity, and he has won an honorable reputation for faithful, efficient public service. He is connected with the fraternities of Independent Order of Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias, in both of which he takes an enthusiastic interest. He was married, November 24th, 1889, to Miss Anna B. Robinson, of Kansas.
PARKE, JAMES, contractor and builder, of Seattle, was born in Belfast, Ire- land, October 20th, 1846, and was educated in the schools of that city until the age of fourteen, when he was apprenticed to the builder's trade. He served six years, then became a member of the Journeyman's Union as a workman of the first class. In Ireland he was engaged on some of the finest and most elegant structures in the land. He remained there working at his trade until 1868, when he emigrated to the United States, locating in New York City for a time, and then in Chicago, Milwaukee, and other large cities, where he continued his work, and finally started building and contracting in Minneapolis and St. Paul on his own account, which he continued there for seven years. He then pushed on to San Francisco and Oakland, Cal. He took up journey work again for two years, and then relinquished it to assume the position of Building Superintendent in the State of Nevada for two years and a half, also in a similar employment in Portland, Ore., and Alameda, Cal., until 1882, when he removed to Seattle, and has ever since been prominent in business circles as a man of first-class ability in his particular vocation, in which he has been eminently successful. He was mar- ried July 10th, 1872, to Miss Fannie M. Rawson, a native of Maine. They have three daughters and two sons.
PARKER, EMMETT N., Judge of the Superior Court for Pierce County, was born in York, Pa., May 12th, 1859. In 1863 he removed with his mother to Iowa, prior to which time his father added another to the long list of patriotic souls who yielded up life for the Union, dying of typhoid fever while in service soon after the battle of Antietam, having participated in that famous struggle. In 1880 young Parker went to Cincinnati to attend the law school of that city,
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receiving his diploma and degree of B.L. in June of 1882, being admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Ohio. He removed the same year to Kid- der County, Dak. (now North Dakota), commenced the practice of law, and was for five years its Probate Judge. He came to Washington in 1887 and began practice in Tacoma. Shortly after his arrival he was appointed attorney for the Association of Wholesale Merchants. He was elected, in the fall of 1890, Judge of the first municipal court established in Tacoma. Judge Parker was married at Iowa City, Ia., in 1884, to Miss Emma Garretson, of that place. He became a charter member of Masonic Lodge No. 68, of Tacoma, in 1888. In 1892 he was honored with the unanimous nomination of both the Republican and Democratic conventions for Judge of the Superior Court, and elected to that office in Novem- ber following. Few men have more friends, a purer record, or larger possibili- ties for a successful future than Judge Parker.
PARKER, GUSTAVUS A., banker, of Dayton, Wash., was born in Maine in 1836. His father, David Parker, was a farmer of the Pine Tree State ; his mother, Sarah J. (Nellis) Parker, being from the same locality. Educated in the district schools of his native State, and a student also at a preparatory academy, young Parker, with that desire, so strong in the average New England boy, to make a way for himself, struck out for California in 1856, and for five years be- came a miner. He then returned to Maine and engaged in lumbering and ship- building. Twelve years of this brought about another attack of the Western fever, and 1877 finds him in the harness business in the Golden State. From thence he journeys to Washington in 1878, locates at Pomeroy, puts up the sec- ond building erected in that city yet to be, and after this feat of pioneering re- moves to Dayton in 1886, buys out two business houses, and establishes the largest harness concern in the city. Mr. Parker is one of the incorporators of the Citizens' Bank and the President of that institution. He was also one of the organizers of the electric light plant and a stockholder in the Hotel Dayton. He was married in 1852 to Miss Mary L. Stevens, of Maine. They have a family of four children. He is a Mason and a Republican, the owner of a pleasant city home and other valuable property. He certainly has no reason to regret his trans- fer from the Pine Tree to the Evergreen State, where he seems so strongly to have planted himself.
PARKER, JAMES, of Waitsburg, Wash., and farmer, of Walla Walla County, was born in Virginia in 1820. His father, James Parker, was a millwright, and one of the pioneers of the Old Dominion, his mother, Frances Settle, being a native of the same locality. Young Parker received such meagre teaching as the district schools of that early day could afford, and in 1840 removed to Illinois, where he followed carpentering and farming for nearly forty years. In 1876 he be- came a farmer and stock-raiser in Washington Territory, locating near Waitsburg, his present place of residence. Here he has a farm of four hundred and sixteen acres, besides sixteen acres (a fortune in itself) in the city limits. He is also the owner of a fine farm of three hundred and twenty acres in Lincoln County. He was married in 1851 to Miss Achsah Bruce, of Indiana. Eleven children grace their union, eight of whom are filling places in the business of life and society,
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which cannot but be a gratification to their aged parents as realizing their fond- est hopes.
PATRICK, ARCHIBALD, of Roslyn. Wash., born in Scotland, though bred and educated in the State of Ohio, is the son of James and Jane (Stewart) Patrick. His parents came to the United States-the father in 1868, the mother in 1869. Receiving such preparatory education as the public schools of the Buckeye State could afford, young Patrick began life as a machinist, working at this trade and at coal-mining for a number of years. In 1881 he removed to Iowa, where he mined and speculated in real estate. In 1883 we find him in Montana mining and prospecting in the interest of the Northern Pacific Coal Company, who sent him to Kittitas in 1886. Here his explorations proved most successful by open- ing up the greatest coal deposit in the Pacific Northwest. He then took the position of stationary engineer at the company's works until 1890, and later on went to British Columbia in their employ. He prospected on his own account and then went into the service of the Roslyn Water Works as plumber and gen- eral plumber for the city, a pursuit which he continues to combine with contract- ing. He is a Republican, and has been a member of the various county conven- tions. He was married in Ohio in 1891 to Miss Euphemia Simpson, a native of Scotland. They have one child. Mr. Patrick has a pleasant city home, and is one of the largest property holders in Roslyn. He is a Mason and a Knight of Pythias. Such men as Mr. Patrick not only do credit to the high breeding of their native land, but add another element of strength to the country of their adoption.
PAYNE, JOHN, a gentleman well known in financial and social circles in Palouse, Wash., furnishes us with the facts for the following account of the Palouse Farmers' Bank of that city. Its birth as an institution bears date June 4th, 1892. That fortune smiled upon its advent is assured by an endowment of $35,000 in hard cash contributed by its stockholders. Its legal guardians and advisers, who take the place of sponsors to this new-born financial child, and stand in loco parentis, are Benjamin Norman, President ; F. L. Bell, Vice-Presi- dent ; and John Payne, Cashier-a strong and goodly array, whose careful man- agement and wise counsel will doubtless so direct its growth and manage its patrimony as to bring it to a wealthy and respectable old age, being benefited by and in return doing good to many. As it is, it is growing and gaining quite as rapidly as a healthy increase would warrant, and bids fair to justify the most sanguine expectations of its many friends and well wishers.
PEARSON, CHARLES W., hotel-keeper, of Starbuck, Wash., was born in Rio Vista, Cal., August 3d, 1870. His father, J. S. Pearson, was a large farmer and an old pioneer of California ; his mother, Anna (Watson) Pearson, was a native of New Brunswick. Educated in the public schools of California, supplemented by a commercial course at the business college at Walla Walla, young Pearson located at Starbuck, where he engaged in the hotel and butchering business, which he continues to carry on. He has been fortunate in his investments and is a considerable property-owner, having a profitable fruit farm in the county, be-
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sides improved city realty. Hc is a Republican, and warmly interested in the progress and political success of his party. When a young man of Mr. Pearson's age has already obtained so fair a start in the business of life, his ultimate success is almost certain.
PEASE, B. S., farmer, of Ellensburg, in Kittitas Valley, was born in New York in 1827. His father was a native of Vermont, his mother of Massachusetts. They were married in Pennsylvania, where they farmed and reared their children. The father was an ardent Methodist and Ruling Elder of that Church for nearly half a century. He died in 1886 at the ripe old age of eighty-four ; his wife fol- lowed him five years later. They left a family of fifteen children, of whom the subject of our sketch was the second. He received his early education and learned the carpenter's trade in Pennsylvania. In 1855 he went to Iowa, where he farmed, and in 1857 to Minnesota, where he helped to organize the State. He came to Washington Territory in September, 1876, crossing the plains by ox- teams without trouble from the Indians. In March of the following year he reached Kittitas County and took up land five miles west of Ellensburg, where he now farms one hundred and forty-nine acres, averaging thirty-five bushels of wheat to the acre. He has five acres in orchard. He was married in New York in 1866 to Miss Roxey L. Williams, a native of New York, born in 1832. They have five children. He is a Democrat in politics, a stockholder in the West Side Irrigating Ditch, and personally a popular and prosperous man, who has seen the country about him emerge from the wilderness and gradually improve under the influence of settlement and cultivation till it blossomed like the rose.
PECK, M. RAY, physician and surgeon, of Kettle Falls, Wash., was born in Wallace, Steuben County, N. Y., the son of Marcus A. Peck, a dry-goods mer- chant and a native of Massachusetts, and Lucinda M. Jones, born in the Empire State. Young Peck was cducated at the Canisteo Academy, New York, where he remained until he reached the age of eighteen. He then entered the Univer- sity Medical College, graduating in April, 1890, and began the practice of his pro- fession at Greenwood, N. Y. After a few months, however, he removed to Ket- tle Falls, Wash., investing considerably in city property there and returning to the practice of medicine, which he still continues. The walls of Dr. Peck's office are adorned with diplomas, evidences of scholastic triumphs in the fields of physi- cal diagnosis, microscopy, etc. He is a young man of undoubted ability in his profession, and gathering an increasing clientage in the arena of his choice.
PEDIGO, THOMAS W., farmer, of Garfield, Wash., was born in Oregon, Octo- ber 26th, 1860, and is a son of James H. Pedigo, born in Iowa, Angust 7th, 1840, and Martha (Foster) Pedigo, born in Texas, August 4th, 1847. He received his rudimentary education in the district schools of his native State, then learned the spinning trade, and worked at it in Oregon for seven years. In 1885 he came to Washington, and after renting several places finally settled on a farm about five miles distant from Elberton. Here he owns and cultivates some two hundred and eighty acres. He was married to Miss Theresa Pedigo, daughter of Everman and Sarah (Hanna) Pedigo, of Iowa. Two children grace their union. Mr.
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Pedigo votes the People's Party ticket, is a Good Templar and a successful farmer, his land yielding some thirty bushels of wheat to the acre. He has a pleasant home and all modern improvements, owns a number of horses and cat- tle, and may well be regarded as a fairly prosperous man.
PEIRCE, H. H., of New Whatcom, Wash., County Clerk of Whatcom County, was born in Wilkesbarre, Pa., December 12th, 1855. In 1858 he went with his parents to Galena, Ill., where he resided until 1863, when they removed to Winona, Minn. Here our subject was reared, and received his education in the common schools. At the age of twenty-two years he settled at Salem, Dak., where he engaged in agricultural pursuits for the next thirteen years. During this time he was elected Register of Deeds for three successive terms, first in 1879. He was also appointed Clerk of the District Court for the Fourth Judicial District of Dakota, and served in that capacity until 1890, when he resigned and canie to New Whatcom, Wash., where he has since resided. In 1891 he was ap- pointed Deputy County Clerk, and in November, 1892, he was elected County Clerk, and has since held that office. Mr. Peirce has already established a high reputation as a public official in Whatcom County, and has proved himself thor- oughly competent. During his short residence here he has made many friends, and is highly esteemed in the community. He was married January 3d, 1876, to Miss Emma A. Ten Eyck, of Minnesota. Two daughters grace their union, aged respectively ten and five years.
PENCE, J. S., one of three brothers engaged in the hardware business in Fair- field, Washı., was born in Green County, Ill., in 1854. His father, now a resident of California, was a Pennsylvanian by birth, while his mother, who lives in Fair- haven, Whatcom County, Wash., is a r ative of the Green Mountain State. Mr. Pence received a good common-school education, and at the age of eighteen en- tered a business college in Keokuk, Ia., from which he graduated with honors. Returning home, he took charge of his father's business during his absence for two years in the West. While thus engaged he married Miss Josephine Fisher, of Memphis, Tenn. Of this union were born four children. Alice, one of their daughters, was the first child born in Fairfield. Mr. Pence came to Washington in 1878 from Green County, Ill., and settled at once in his present location. He is credited with influencing the migration of at least one hundred persons from his old home to that which he now occupies. Coming to Washington fourteen years ago, almost literally penniless, Mr. Pence is now the owner of a town residence, a farm of one hundred and sixty acres four miles east of Fairfield, all under culti- vation, and one third interest in a farm of one hundred acres, also fully improved. Few men in his section can show better returns for thrift, industry, business talent, and hopeful perseverance than the subject of this sketch.
PERRAS, LOUIS, merchant and liveryman, of Colville, Wash., was born at Montreal, Canada, November 26th, 1834, the son of Hubert Perras, a Canadian farmer, and Catherine Desautels, also of Canadian birth. - He received no formal education, being entirely self-taught. He remained with his parents on their farm until 1855, when he went to St. Paul, Minn., where he worked in a saw-
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mill during the summer months and at logging in the winter until the fall of 1858, and then at Fort Garry, B. C. In 1859 he crossed the plains with a party, using two-wheeled carts drawn by oxen and horses. Their destination was the Frazer River ; but weary with travel, Mr. Perras stopped at Colville, where he worked at various jobs until the spring of 1863, when he went to the Idaho mines, but returned in the fall, working a ranch on shares. Then came successful min- ing in British Columbia, followed by various migrations to Montana and Walla Walla ; the droving of eighty head of cattle to Colville, where he bought a ranch and raised stock until 1886. In that year he engaged in the livery business, which he still continues. He is also interested in general merchandise, the firm being Perras & Lemery. Mr. Perras was married September 1st, 1868, to Miss Mary Gendron, by whom he has two children. In 1887 he exchanged the ranch above named for one nearer Colville, which cut two hundred and forty tons of hay last season. He is an honest and highly respected citizen, financially suc- cessful. and a thorough-going business man.
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