USA > Washington > History of Washington the evergreen state : from early dawn to daylight with portraits and biographies Vol. II > Part 35
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Paul. Mr. Percy Norton, a brother-in-law of Mr. Hewitt, and his partner in banking and mercantile business for twenty years, also arrived, and became As- sistant Treasurer of the company. Their arrival enabled Mr. Hewitt to devote most of his attention to looking up new fields for investment.
On foot or on horseback, he penetrated to almost every part of Western Wash- ington, and in the course of a year and a half bought forty thousand acres more of timber land for the company and fifty thousand acres for himself. To this must be added twenty-three thousand acres of coal and iron lands and sixteen thousand acres which he bought with another syndicate. These mineral lands include the Wilkinson Coal Mine. During a visit to California he acquired a knowledge of the bituminous paving business, and on his return to Tacoma he formed the Bituminous Paving Company, with a capital of $200,000, which is doing a large business. The next step was putting a large smelter in operation at Tacoma, owned by a company of which one of the principal partners of the firm, Hon. George Brown, is President. The plant of the St. Paul and Tacoma Lumber Company is located in front of the city, on the tide lands. They own eighty acres of this land, and have built extensive wharves and docks around the mill. They will build ships and smelters of their own, aud will ship their coal, lumber and iron to all parts of the world, importing the ores of South America in exchange to be smelted. They are to-day the greatest railroad builders, real estate owners, manufacturers and traders in the Northwest.
The last and greatest venture of his life was in starting a new town at the western terminus of the Great Northern Railroad. The town was named Everett, and the location at the mouth of the Snohomish River, known as Port Gardner, was the most desirable, and one of the most beautiful spots on Puget Sound. The deep-water harbor is unsurpassed, and there are eight miles of fresh-water harbor, with a depth of water varying from fifteen to thirty-five feet at lowest tide. All that prevents this point from being the greatest fresh-water harbor is about half a mile of sand-bar. Mr. Hewitt interested some of the greatest and wealthiest financiers of New York with him in this enterprise, including Charles L. Colby, John D. Rockefeller, Colgate Hoyt, E. H. Abbott, and other wealthy manufacturers and capitalists, in building here a great seaport. There is an un- limited amount of timber, coal, iron, etc., tributary to it, and it is to be the future headquarters for mineral smelting and reduction works in the Northwest. In the space of one year $5,000,000 have been expended in manufacturing enter- prises, developing the city, and building railroad entering forty miles into the rugged Cascade range of mountains, where the discoveries of ore are immense- one mine, said to be capable of furnishing ore for smelters, now built and ready for operation in Everett, with a daily capacity of two hundred and forty tons. The famous " whaleback" ships are being built here, and a beautiful passenger ship of four thousand tons is now being built to trade with China and Japan, and running indirectly in connection with the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railroads, and terminating at this wonderful new port.
Mr. Hewitt has also interested with him some of the most influential capital- ists of New York for the purchase of valuable timber lands, and they have already purchased on the Snohomish River, which is navigable for sixty miles, about seven hundred million feet of the finest timber (fir and cedar) in the State
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of Washington. They have also purchased about four hundred million feet of fir and cedar timber on the Stillaguamish River, which is navigable for boats for twenty-five miles, and navigable for driving logs for sixty miles. They also pur- chased at least three hundred million feet of timber on the Skagit River. Now, all of this fine timber, the best in Washington and most accessible by rail and navigable water, is within a few miles of Everett. Large logging and boom companies have been incorporated, and they have the franchises for twelve rivers, all tributary to the new town. Mr. Hewitt confidently expeets that Everett will be the Chicago of the Pacific Coast, it being the principal lumber market. All these men who are interested are wealthy, and as they are well along in years they expect to make the building of this wonderful city their greatest effort.
Mr. Hewitt was married in 1868 to Miss Rocena L. Jones, the daughter of a Wisconsin manufacturer. Three sons and two daughters have blessed their union. The phenomenal success of Mr. Hewitt affords a bright and shining example of the great things in store for young Americans who emulate his energy and pluek. Nor is this success unmerited ; its structure is not only conspicuous, but solid, for ability, fidelity, industry, and integrity are its broad foundation-stones.
CANNON, HON. A. M. - As the most interesting feature of Western history is that which treats of its industrial development, it follows that many of the men in whom the public has taken the greatest interest have been those who have liad to do with the creation and building of those industries which have con- tributed to the growth and prosperity of the country. While Western communi- ties have not been slow to recognize the merits of their statesmen, orators, scholars, and littérateurs, or to pay due tribute to genius in whatever form it was made manifest, they have always felt a peculiar pride in their self-made and successful men of affairs. The founder of an industry which gives employment to labor, which brings new products into the market, or which contributes to the expan- sion of commerce, has always been justly regarded as one of the most useful eiti- zens of a community, and as a personage worthy to rank with his contemporaries in the liberal professions.
Hon. A. M. Cannon was born at Monmouth, Warren County, Ill., in 1837, the second son of William Cannon, a fearless and well-known Abolitionist. His parents being poor, the early education of their son was limited to the knowledge obtained from attendance at the country sehools of his time. At the age of twenty years he left the parental home and started across the plains for Pike's Peak with two yoke of oxen. When he reached St. Joseph, Mo., he was ap- pointed captain of a band of fifty-two emigrants, whom he safely led through a dangerous Indian country, mueh of the journey being through a barren and deso- late region. When they reached Denver, Col., which at that time consisted of a single eabin and a few tents, young Cannon was offered one half of the town site for $1000 on credit, but did not make the investment.
Mr. Cannon journeyed on to California, and after a brief stay at San Francisco returned to his native State and engaged in the grain commission business in Chicago, which he continued for about thirteen years, making and losing several fortunes in the course of his daring operations. He was one of the first members of the Board of Trade of Chicago. In 1867 he built a flouring mill in Kansas City, at that time the largest mill west of the Mississippi. He operated exten-
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sively in wheat and flour, becoming the largest flour manufacturer in the State. In about two years he sold for $65,000 cash the business which seven years after- ward brought $3,000,000. He then removed to California, and after living at Los Angeles and San Francisco for a few years located at Portland, Ore., where he was successfully engaged in business for five years. Failing health and the advice of his physicians caused him to leave Portland, and in 1878 he started in a buggy on a prospecting tour east of the Cascades. His explorations led him into Washington, and to the present site of the city of Spokane. Here he deter- mined to make his future home, and subsequent events have proved the wisdom of his choice. The supposed impossible feat of bringing the swift waters of Spokane River into the service of transporting logs from Lake Cœur d'Alene was accomplished, and he embarked in the lumbering business. This business has grown to immense proportions, and has been incorporated as the Spokane Mill Company, representing a capital of nearly a million dollars, and being one of the largest lumbering and manufacturing plants in the Northwest.
In every important public enterprise having for its object the advancement of the interests of Spokane or the comfort and convenience of its people, Mr. Cannon has been a prime mover. His business and financial interests are large and varied. He is President and sole owner of the Bank of Spokane Falls, perhaps the most important monetary institution in the city. He is President of the Bank of Palouse City, Vice-President of the Washington National Bank, and Vice- President of the Spokane Savings, Loan and Trust Company. He was the prin- cipal factor in the building of the new and elegant Hotel Spokane, of which he is a part owner. He is also the owner of the magnificent bank building on the corner of Riverside Avenue and Mill Street. This massive structure is built wholly of granite and iron, is six stories high, and is supplied with hydraulic elevator and all modern conveniences. The new Grand Opera House Block on Post Street is largely the result of Mr. Cannon's enterprise. This building, of which he is one half owner, is 150 by 270 feet and five stories high, and is con- structed of pressed brick and granite. Mr. Cannon is also extensively interested in railroad corporations, and the people of Spokane are largely indebted to him for their present excellent railway facilities.
A systematic, thoroughgoing business man, and largely absorbed in his private enterprises, Mr. Cannon has never been an aspirant for political honors, though he has sometimes been induced to accept office. He has been Mayor of the city, and was offered the United States Senatorship, which he declined on account of ill-health.
Possessed of remarkable executive ability, unerring judgment, tact, and en- thusiasm, Mr. Cannon has succeeded in overcoming obstacles that to many would have seemed insurmountable, and has achieved success where many would have failed. In every capacity in which he has figured prominently, either in public or private life, he has been recognized as a most useful member of the community with which he has been identified from its beginning. His business associates esteem him, and those who know him in all the walks of life entertain for him the greatest respect and most kindly regard.
CLARK, ISAAC ALONZO, son of Isaac Clark, was born in Otsego County, N. Y., October 14th, 1828. His father was born in Massachusetts, and his mother was
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a native of Vermont. They removed to New York State while quite young. They had a family of ten children, seven of whom grew to maturity and three of whom are still living. Isaac was brought up on the farm until he was sixteen years old, when he was apprenticed to a tailor in the town of Oneonta. One year later his employer ran away, and he found another situation in Unadilla, with a tailor named Woodruff. Here he served an apprenticeship of four years and afterward one year as a journeyman. Then he migrated to Madison, Wis., his youngest sister accompanying him. His eldest brother, Darwin, was one of the early pioneers of Madison, and is still doing business there in the same build- ing he has occupied for over forty years. Here Isaac opened a shop and carried on his trade for nineteen months with fair success, when he determined to cross the plains to Oregon. With three other young men-John and James Jones and one Goodnow -he started out with ox-teams on the long journey, April 19th, 1852. Crossing the Mississippi at Dubuque, April 24th, and the Missouri at Council Bluffs, May 19th, they proceeded on their way and reached Oregon City without serious accident, September 25th. Selling their oxen for $50 a head, Clark and Goodnow bought each of them a pony and struck out for the mines. Reaching Aulthouse Creek, near the Oregon and Californian line, they took up claims and began mining with a rocker, making fair wages. In the fall it was decided that Clark should return to the valley for the winter, while Goodnow remained to hold their claim. The former found a home for the winter on Gribble Prairie, twelve miles from Oregon City, and before spring Goodnow sold out the claim and joined him.
They then went to Astoria, where Goodnow found work in Parker Brothers saw-mill, while Clark went into the logging camp. After working in the woods for three months at $75 per month, he determined to see more of the country, and leaving the camp went as far as Olympia and Steilacoom. Having been greatly pleased with the Umpqua Valley as he passed through on his way to the mines, he determined to go there and take up a pre-emption claim. Accordingly he bought a pony and rode out as far as Roseburg, which at that time consisted of two or three houses and a hotel. After looking over the country a day or two, he decided to return to the Columbia and work for wages until he had suffi- cient means to start a ranch. So he sold his pony and saddle and started back on foot. Reaching Tongue Point, near Astoria, he found employment in a steam saw-mill. He soon became head sawyer, and served in that capacity until the following spring (1854), when the mill shut down and he was thrown out of employment. With a friend named George Bowers Mr. Clark then came to Shoalwater Bay. At that time the Indians in this section far outnumbered the whites. The main settlement was at Bruceport, in North Bay. In the following summer it was rumored that a valuable bed of oysters had been discovered on the peninsular side near the shore, and Clark and R. H. Espey packed their belongings in a canoe, paddled across the bay, and pitched their tent on the shore opposite the oyster bed. Mr. Clark took up a donation claim of one hun- dred and sixty acres, with a frontage of three fourths of a mile on the bay, and here he laid out and platted the town of Oysterville, now the county-seat of Pacific County. They built a cabin of alder logs 10 by 12 feet, and other oyster- men joining them a thriving little settlement soon sprang up. They lived in the
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log cabin for two or three years, when a schooner load of lumber was brought from Astoria, which enabled them to put up a board house 16 by 24 feet. With a wing on either side, added later, this house is still the home of the family. The oysters proved to be of the best quality, and Oysterville soon became the business town of the bay. Mr. Clark continued to follow the oyster trade until 1890, when the business was turned over to his sons.
Mr. Clark narrates many interesting stories of his thirty-five years' experience as a boatman and oysterman, which it would be a pleasure to give in this con- nection, but space forbids. He was married September 15th, 1858, to Miss Lucy Henrietta Briscoe. She was born August 23d, 1841, at Bloomfield, Conn., and at the age of one year removed with her parents to Indiana. The family crossed the plains to Oregon City, in a four-horse team, in the summer of 1852, and in 1853 moved to Weather Beach, Pacific County, Wash., where they took up a donation claim of three hundred and twenty acres. The father is still living, at Oysterville, in the enjoyment of excellent health. Mr. and Mrs. Clark have reared a family of seven children : John Amos, born September 21st, 1859 ; Evelin Briscoe, July 29th, 1861 ; Henry Edwards, November 26th, 1863 ; Herbert Alonzo, August 29th, 1866 ; Clarrie Ettena, June 1st, 1871 ; Clarence Clements, May 2d, 1877, and Edith Eunice, March 22d, 1879. Beginning life's battles on his own account at an early age, his only capital being rugged health and a plentiful stock of native pluck and energy, Mr. Clark has achieved success not by a single stroke of fortune, but by a life of hard labor and great industry. A man of strong character, positive and aggressive, he is an excellent type of that sterling manhood which so strongly characterizes the pioneers of Washington.
Before closing this imperfect sketch of Mr. Clark's career, we desire to make brief mention of his connection with the laying out and establishment of Ocean Park, the popular camp-meeting ground and summer resort. Some twelve years ago he purchased four hundred acres of land on what was called Weather Beach, on the ocean front, four miles from Oysterville. In the spring of 1883, while Rev. Mr. Atwood, presiding elder of the district, was visiting Mr. Clark, the project of establishing a grand camp-meeting ground and summer resort on this property was first mentioned. After looking over the ground Mr. Atwood became favorably impressed with the idea, and set about to find means to carry out the enterprise.
Rev. William R. Osborn, the founder of the famous Ocean Grove, on the New Jersey Coast, was then in San Francisco, and Mr. Atwood wrote him, urging him to come on and interest himself in the project. The request was successful ; Mr. Osborn immediately came to Oysterville, and after purchasing one hundred and forty acres of land adjacent, went to Portland, Ore., and formed an association of ten Methodist clergymen and ten laymen, called the Methodist Camp Meeting Association. Mr. Osborn was given full authority to carry out the plans of the Association, which he proceeded to do with a heartiness characteristic of the man. A surveyor was engaged, Ocean Park was platted, and a beautiful avenue one hundred feet wide, called Bay View Avenue, was opened up from ocean to bay, through the land of Mr. Clark, who donated about one half of forty acres to the Association. The same surveyor was afterward engaged to lay out Clark's addition to Ocean Park. Great credit is due to Mr. Clark for the establishment
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of this beautiful place, which is destined to become one of the most popular summer resorts on the Pacific Coast. The establishment of this park was the stimulus to the building of the O. R. and N. Company's railroad from Ilwaco along the ocean front to Sealand.
COLLINS, JOHN. - There are few business men morc favorably known in the city of Seattle than the gentleman of whom we write. A resident of the Sound country from early manhood, he has ever been one of the most helpful and power- ful factors in many of the most important enterprises connected with the growth and development of the city from its infancy to its present stalwart growth. He is a man of fine business judgment, progressive in his ideas, and of great public spirit. He is positive and aggressive, and when convinced that a certain course is the right one to pursue, is not casily turned from the purpose he has in view. In his personal character he has maintained an integrity worthy not only of the highest commendation, but of the imitation of young men.
Mr. Collins was born in Cootehill, County Cavan, Ireland, and came to this country at the age of ten. Here he began life's battles without friends or money, but possessed of good health and a plentiful stock of pluck and energy, he was not for a moment dismayed. He remained in New York for six years, support- ing himself by his own exertions, and acquiring that self-reliance and indepen- dence of nature which comes only to those who are thus early thrown upon their own resources. In 1851 he went to Machias, Me., where he was employed in lumbering for six years, acquiring a thorough knowledge of that business. His attention having been attracted to the lumbering interests of the Pacific North- west, which at that time had assumed considerable importance, he was induced to start in July, 1857, for the Pacific Coast. On his arrival in San Francisco he secured an engagement to enter the employ of the Puget Mill Company in their mill at Port Gamble, where he arrived in the following September. He con- tinued in the service of the Puget Mill Company for ten years, at the end of which time he had by prudence and good management madc a fair start on the road to financial success. He invested his savings in real estate and built a hotel at Port Gamble, which he still owns. In 1865 he visited Seattle and made his first investment in real estate here. Two years later he removed hither and assumed the management of the Occidental Hotel, in which he owned a two thirds interest. Coming to Seattle at an early period of its history, he at once displayed a belief in its future as wonderful as it was unswerving. Through days of doubt, seasons of sunshine and storm he never lost faith ; and the city's mar- vellous growth during the past few years has been but a fulfilment of what he always claimed was surely coming. His faith led him to make many investments in the city when most men doubted his wisdom in doing so, but the large fortune he now possesses has proven the correctness of his judgment. After managing the Occidental Hotel for twenty years he leased the property in 1887 to a local company, under whosc management it was being operated at the time of the great fire. At that time it was the largest and best equipped hotel north of San Fran- cisco. After the great fire, and while the ruins of the Occidental were still burn- ing, he set about rebuilding, and on the site of the old hotel there stands to-day one of the most notable structures of the city, a fitting monument to the energy
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and public spirit of its builder. Besides his hotel business Mr. Collins has been prominently identified with many important industrial enterprises which have profited by his fine business judgment, excellent executive ability and evenly balanced mind. He was one of the incorporators of and an active factor in the building of the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad, an enterprise of the greatest importance to the commercial prosperity of the city. He was one of the pro- moters of and is still largely interested in the Seattle Gaslight Company. In 1872, in company with John Leary, he opened and operated the Talbot Coal Mines, and in 1884, with James M. Colman, organized the Cedar River Coal Company, and opened the mines of that name, which they have ever since operated.
Politically Mr. Collins is an ardent Democrat, and during his whole term of residence in Washington he has been an active participant in political affairs. During his residence at Port Gamble he served as Commissioner for Kitsap County, and upon removing to Seattle became active in city affairs. He was one of the fifteen freeholders elected to prepare the municipal charter, receiving the largest vote of any candidate on the ticket. On the organization of the city gov- ernment in 1869 he was elected a member of the City Council, in which capacity he performed valuable service for three successive terms. In 1877 he was nomi- nated and elected Mayor of Seattle. He brought to that office the ripe experi- ence of a long training in the Common Council, a sound judgment, and an enter- prising spirit, and it is unnecessary to say his position was filled to the entire satisfaction of the community. In 1881-82 he was again elected to the Council. In 1882 he was elected a member of the Council of the Territorial Legislature, and served during the session of 1883-84. He was Chairman of the Committee of Commerce and a member of the Committee of Ways and Means. Space for- bids a complete account of his valuable services, but a few of the more important may be noted. A bill was introduced to provide for the establishment of pilots on Puget Sound. In an able speech Mr. Collins vigorously opposed the measure, characterizing it as an attempt " to put a tax on God's highway." The bill was defeated by a decided majority. Another matter in which Mr. Collins became deeply interested was the procuring of an appropriation of $6000 for the Terri- torial University, the largest sum which up to that time had ever been appropri- ated to this institution. A vigorous fight was made against this bill, but Mr. Collins at once took a leading part in the discussion, and through his persistent and well-directed efforts the measure was carried.
Mr. Collins was married in 1851 to Miss Mary Ann McElroy, who died in 1871. By her he liad four children, of whom two daughters are living. In 1878 he was married to Miss Angie B. Jacklin, of Seattle. This union has been graced by two children, a son and a daughter.
Such is the brief outline of the history of a man whose active and enterprising spirit, sound business sagacity, open-handed liberality, and high moral principles have contributed largely to mould the character of a growing city, and lay deep and broad the commercial honor, political virtue, enlightened education, and sound principles of our young and growing commonwealth. Mr. Collins is one of those who realize the duties and responsibilities of wealth, and the large assist- ance he has always lent to worthy objects of public effort are among the proofs of his benevolence and breadth of character.
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