USA > Washington > History of Washington the evergreen state : from early dawn to daylight with portraits and biographies Vol. II > Part 49
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STEINWEG, WILLIAM L., Cashier of the First National Bank of North Yaki- ma, Wash., was born in Baltimore, Md., in 1852, his parents removing to Cali- fornia during his infancy. He was educated in private and public schools of San Francisco. When nineteen years old he was engaged by the Bellingham Bay Coal Company as Secretary to their Superintendent in charge of their coal mines at Sehome, in the Territory now State of Washington. In 1876 he married Miss Susanna H. Engle, of New Jersey, and two years later, on the closing down of the coal mines, he was continued in the employ of the Bellingham Bay Coal Company and placed in charge of their general merchandise store and their prop- erty interests in Whatcom County, Wash. Resigning his position with the com- pany in 1881, he engaged on his own account in the merchandising business in the town of Whatcom, building up a large and lucrative business, and for several years was successively Postmaster of Sehome and Whatcom. Five years later we find Mr. Steinweg at North Yakima, Wash., filling the place of Cashier of the First National Bank, which had been organized a year previous with a capital of $50,000, but now has a capital of $100,000 and surplus fund of $29,000. The present officers of the bank are : A. W. Engle, President ; Charles Carpenter, Vice-President ; W. L. Steinweg, Cashier, and Henry Teal, Assistant Cashier, and among its directors and stockholders the bank numbers some of the wealtlı- iest citizens of Portland, Ore., Seattle, and North Yakima, Wash. Mr. Steinweg has proved himself to be a man of fine financial and executive ability, and has gained a reputation among the best bankers of the State. Fraternally he is a member of the Masonic and Ancient Order of United Workmen orders, and at- tends church with the Episcopalians. An active man in educational matters, he has twice been elected President of the Board of Education of the Nortlı Yakima schools, and has varied interests in both city and county. In his pleasant home, with his wife and two sons, he finds time to greet socially and make welcome his numerous friends.
STEPHENS, SAMPSON DAVID, farmer, of Colfax, Wash., is the son of a North Carolina farmer, his mother being a native of Virginia. He was born in Ten- nessee in 1833, and was the seventh-always counted a fortunate number-in a family of twelve. Educated in the district schools of Tennessee, he finished his education and removed to Missouri, where he engaged in farming. From thence he migrated in 1856 to California, locating in Petaluma, where he became a dairyman. In 1858 we find him once more tilling the soil at Eugene, Ore., an occupation which he relinquished to engage in freighting in Nevada. In 1862, attracted by the superior advantages of that State, he removed to Washington, locating at Walla Walla. Here he cultivated his farm until 1871, when he changed to Whitman County, settling on a homestead near the present site of Colfax. Mr. Stephens is one of the pioneers of Whitman County, having seen the city of Colfax emerge from a hamlet of that wilderness to its present growth and dignity. He married in 1868 Miss Marie Renshaw, of Missouri, by whom he has two daughters, who, grown to womanhood, add a feminine charm to the sunshine of his pleasant home. Mr. Stephens has held the offices of Sheriff of Whitman County, Commissioner and School Director, is a large property-holder, and member of the Plymouth Congregational Church.
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STEWART, A. M., druggist, a leading citizen of Tacoma, was born at Glen Allen, in the province of Ontario, Canada, April 12th, 1858. He received at Branford and Toronto the benefits of a collegiate and university education, and then entered the Ontario College of Pharmacy, graduating in 1878 at the age of nineteen. He then went to Virginia City, Nev., in 1879, and took a position with his brother, A. B. Stewart, as drug clerk ; continued with him for a year, when he accepted the position of Apothecary to the Storey County Hospital of Virginia City, which he resigned at the end of three months to open a drug store in Mammoth City, Cal., which he operated for a year and a half under the firm name of Willis & Stewart. He then moved to Bodie, Cal., where he formed a partnership (Stewart & Brother) with his brother, and continued the same busi- ness until 1884, when their stock was destroyed by fire. They removed to Seat- tle, Wash., and resumed business for a short time, when the subject of our sketch came to Tacoma in October of 1884, buying the assigned stock of Barnes & Co., and reorganizing the firm of A. B. Stewart & Brother, under which name they continued to do business until July of 1888, when they consolidated and incor- porated under the laws of Washington as the Stewart and Holmes Drug Com- pany, with a capital stock of $200,000, A. B. Stewart being the President, H. E. Holmes the Vice-President, and A. M. Stewart the Secretary. The busi- ness, however, has always been conducted under the management of Mr. A. M. Stewart, who has proved himself eminently capable. Mr. Stewart is a member of the Masonic order, having attained the rank of Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He was active in the framing of the State Pharmacy laws which passed tlie Legis- lature in 1891, and is President of the State Board of Pharmacy. He has been a director in the Traders' Bank of Tacoma for the past four years, and bears an enviable reputation with his fellow-citizens for all those qualities which dignify the man.
STEWART, CHARLES H., real-estate and loan broker, of Ellensburg, Wash., was born in New York some thirty-three years ago, and is a son of William D. and Jane (MeNaughton) Stewart, both of whom were natives of the Empire State. He received his early education in the Mumford public school of New York, and his commercial training later on at the Rochester Business College. He began business life in his native State as book-keeper in the coal and produce trade for his father, remaining in his employ until he reached the age of twenty-one, when they entered into partnership under the firm name of Stewart & Son, and so con- tinued for four years. In 1886 he came to Washington and located at Ellensburg, where he engaged in real-estate and loan brokerage, which he still pursues with unusual success, being a man of good business judgment and possessing the full confidence of the community. He was married in 1891 to Miss Lizzie Rutledge, of California. He has a comfortable city home, with other realty within the cor- porate limits, and seven hundred and sixty acres of land situated in the fertile valley of Kittitas. Fraternally he is a member of the Knights of Pythias, Uni- form Rank, and in politics a Republican.
STEWART, J. P., banker and capitalist, of Puyallup, Wash., was born in Croton, Delaware County, N. Y., October 20th, 1833. He received the benefits:
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of both a common school and academic education in his native county. Reared on a farm, he exhibited at an early age that independence of character so pecu- liarly American by teaching school during the winter and working on a farm dur- ing the summer months, beginning teaching at the age of nineteen. In April, 1855, he migrated to Oregon via the Isthmus, arriving in Corvallis, January 20th, 1855. Resuming his old vocation, he taught school in Corvallis for three years, alternating it with merchandising. He was appointed Sheriff of Benton County in 1855, and served as such until 1859. He came to Puyallup April 29th of the latter year, and took up a pre-emption claim where the town now stands. He taught school for a season, and in 1861 was elected Probate Judge of Pierce County, serving three years. From 1863-68 he engaged in merchandising ; then came a period varied by other pursuits, during which he was appointed Post- master of Puyallup, and engaged in hop and fruit raising, in all of which he was eminently successful. He was married December 24th, 1864, and has three sons, two of whom-C. L. and W. A .- are now in business for themselves. Mr. Stew- art is Vice-President of the Pacific National Bank of Tacoma, and also of the Loan and Trust Company, and is a stockholder in the Bank of Puyallup. Few self-made men can show a better record than the subject of our sketch.
ST. GEORGE, HENRY, Assistant Postmaster at Pomeroy, Wash., was born in New York in 1851. His father, Henry St. George, was an English merchant ; his mother was Henrietta St. George. Fifth in a family of eight children, young St. George was educated in the public schools of his native city, graduating from the high school in 1869. On the completion of his studies he removed to Ind- iana and became a clerk for his uncle at Portland and at other places in that State until 1873, when he enlisted in the Regular Army, Company G, Second Regiment of Artillery, and was sent to Mobile, Ala. Being honorably discharged at the close of his term of enlistment, he located in Idaho, and from thence migrated to Washington Territory. After a year at Dayton he came to Pomeroy, where he has ever since resided. He engaged at first in the hotel business, and after three years became a sewing-machine agent. Two years later he became As- sistant Postmaster, which position he has ever since held. He was married in 1881 to Mrs. Martha J. Pomeroy, the widow of E. M. Pomeroy. He has a pretty city residence, is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and a Re- publican in politics. He is one of Pomeroy's highly esteemed and enterprising men.
STILES, HON. THEODORE L .- Among the Ohioans in Washington who have achieved distinction in their various spheres of life, one of the most successful is the subject of the present sketch. Mr. Stiles, who is a well-known figure in busi -. ness circles, and a power in the legal profession, has been a resident of Washing- ton since 1887. He was born July 12th, 1848, at Medway, Clarke County, O., and was the only child of Daniel J. and Maria S. Stiles. His mother, whose maiden name was Lamme, was a native of the same county. His father was born in Dauphin County, Pa., of English and German parents. The early years of our subject were passed at his birthplace, a small interior farming village. His mother died in 1863, and two years later his father removed to Indianapolis, Ind.,
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and engaged in mercantile business, the son assisting him in the store for a few months. Anxious to fit his son for future responsibilities in life, the father, at great sacrifice to himself, determined to give him the advantages of a liberal edu- cation. After two years of preparatory study at the Ohio University, at Athens, the young man entered Amherst College in 1867, and after the usual classical course of four years graduated in 1871. He at once entered upon the study of law at the Columbia College Law School, New York City, and obtaining the con- sent of the faculty to double the course, finished his studies in June, 1872. A few weeks afterward he was admitted to the Bar at Indianapolis, and began prac- tice there. In the following December, however, he was induced to remove to New York City, and soon afterward became associated with Hon. Edward Jor- dan, theretofore Solicitor of the United States Treasury, and Daniel G. Thomp- son. With these gentlemen the young attorney remained actively engaged in professional work until 1877. Having become impressed with the wonderful ad- vantages and great future of the Pacific Slope, and believing that he would there find a better field for a young lawyer than in the thickly settled East, he deter- mined to " emigrate." Accordingly, in the fall of 1878, he started on his long journey via the Union Pacific Railroad. Arizona was then approachable from the East only by a journey of nine hundred miles by stage from the western terminus of the Santa Fe Railway ; but it was touched by the Southern Pacific at Yuma. Mr. Stiles reached the latter place via San Francisco and Los Angeles, and after a weary stage ride of three hundred miles arrived at Tucson half dead with fatigue on November 21st, 1878. For nearly nine years he remained in Arizona, but on July 4th, 1887, he took up his residence in Tacoma, Wash., and resumed the practice of his profession there. His abilities were soon recognized, and in a short time he was enjoying a prosperous business. He took a somewhat active interest in politics as a member of the Republican Party, and his fitness for public station soon found recognition. In 1889 he was elected a delegate to the Con- vention for framing a constitution for the new State of Washington, and per- formed valuable service in that body as Chairman of the Committee of County, Township, and Municipal Organization, and member of the committees on Rules, Judiciary, and Public Lands. The convention having adjourned, he was sent as delegate from Pierce County to the Republican State Convention, and was chosen Permanent Chairman of that body. The business of this convention included the nomination of five Supreme Court judges, and it was deemed that Pierce County, as one of the largest counties in population, was entitled to one of tlie five, and Mr. Stiles received the nomination by a vote of two hundred and fifty-six of the two hundred and ninety-eight delegates present. On the 1st of the following October he was elected by a large majority. He has discharged the duties be- longing to that high position with a success, and, we may add, a judicial distinc- tion in which the people of the State feel both a satisfaction and pride, and which it is hoped he will long continue to illustrate in a sphere so honorable and important.
STILLEY, JEREMIAH, farmer, near Buckley, Pierce County, Wash., was born in Ohio in 1834, being the second child in a family of four born to Tobias and Susan (Bowles) Stilley, his parents being natives of Pennsylvania and Ohio re-
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spectively. After the usual common school education, young Stilley began the active business of life by farming. Seeking a fresher field in which to labor, he left home in 1855 for Wisconsin, where he resided two years, and then crossed the plains to California by team, meeting en route the train of the unfortunate Captain Fancher, afterward victims to the horrible Mountain Meadow massacre, with whom they travelled in company until but a week or two before the dread- ful event. Mr. Stilley's party, though five months in making the trip, were so fortunate as to escape all difficulty with the Indians, arriving safely in Sacra- mento Valley in October of 1857. He went to the Fraser River Mines, and from thence to Washington Territory by pack mules. He lived four years at Steila- coom, engaged in various pursuits, thence to Slaughter, where he remained four more engaged in farming. Then after a brief sojourn at Puyallup Valley, he came in 1870 to his present farm near Buckley. Here he has one hundred and twenty acres, twenty-two of which are in hops. He has held the office of Post- master, and has been a school director since the formation of the Board. He was married in 1862 to Mies Maria Burr, daughter of Solomon Burr, a farmer of Ohio. They have ten children.
STILLWELL, JOSEPH L., grocer, of Prescott, Wash., was born in Edgar County, Ill., in 1839. His father, William Stillwell, was a Kentucky farmer, his mother was E. Bond Stillwell, of unknown nationality. Mr. Stillwell came to Oregon in 1853, and received his education partly in that State and partly in Iowa. Upon reaching the age of manhood he engaged in various avocations, principally farm- ing and mining, finally coming to Washington and locating at Prescott. Here he established himself in the grocery business, which he still continues to follow, and finds remunerative and constantly improving. Mr. Stillwell was married in 1885 to Miss Annie Frandsham, of Missouri. They have a family of two children, a girl and a boy. Mr. Stillwell is well endowed in the matter of worldly goods, and is a holder of realty in the Cumberland addition, which will one day realize largely. He and his family are members of the Presbyterian Church. He is a Republican in politics, and a man highly respected by all classes. He has seen service as a soldier also, having enlisted in the First Oregon Volunteer Infantry in 1864, doing duty on the frontier for nineteen months until honorably dis- charged July 20th, 1866, at Vancouver, Wash. Mr. Stillwell may also claim the honor of being an old pioneer, having been a settler in the Walla Walla Valley as early as 1856.
STIMSON, F. S., of Ballard, Wash., was born in Big Rapids, Mich., July 22d, 1868 ; received his early education in his native town, and at the completion of his studies entered the lumber milling business under his father. Coming directly to Ballard, Washı., in 1889, he started saw-milling with two brothers under the firm style of the Stimson Mill Company. They ship largely to Southern California and Australia, and have met with good success. Their mill has a capacity of one hundred thousand feet a day, and is kept running to its utmost limit during the whole year. Mr. C. D. Stimson superintends the office business, F. S. the ship- ping, and E. T. the firm's yards in Los Angeles, Cal. They own and control, in addition to their saw-mill, the largest shingle mill in the Pacific Northwest, with
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a capacity of four hundred and fifty thousand shingles a day of ten hours. Mr. F. S. Stimson was married in October, 1889, to Miss Nellie C. Clarke, of Muske- gon, Mich. They have two children, a boy and a girl. The Stimson brothers, though still young men, have proved themselves energetic, enterprising, and gift- ed with no mean amount of business ability. They have fairly earned and well deserve the success which has thus far attended their efforts.
STITZEL, JACOB, real estate and loans, and United States Commissioner, of Colville, Wash., born at Gettysburg, Pa., February 28th, 1831, is a son of John and Sarah (Smith) Stitzel, both of whom were natives of Adams County, Pa., the father being a miller. Young Stitzel had only three months' schooling. In 1837 he removed with his parents to Carlisle, Clark County, O., where at the age of ten he was put to work in a grocery store, where he continued for three years, We next find him in Addison, in the same State, engaged in similar employment, afterward in Troy, O., in a dry-goods store. In 1849 he started for California, arriving in Sacramento September 23d of that year. For fourteen months he mined with fair success on the North Fork of the American River above Sacra- mento. In October, 1850, he attended the first meeting of the California pioneers at San Francisco. In 1850 he sailed for Oregon, arrived at Astoria, November 9th, rowed up the river to Portland, then a place of only five hundred souls, and went thence to Oregon City, where he spent the winter with Judge Pratt. In the spring of 1851 he took up a donation claim sixteen miles above Oregon City in Clackamas County, and was married there to Miss Mary W. Hal- pruner. He resided there for six years, and in the winter of 1857 went to Port- land. In 1859 he engaged in mercantile pursuits, and so continued for two years. In 1861 he tried the lumber business, running the North Portland saw- mill for five years. In 1864 he was elected Sheriff and Tax Collector for Mult- nomah County, Ore., and held those positions for four years. In July, 1868, he engaged in real estate and loans, continuing until December, 1872. He then visited Washington, D. C., remaining there fourteen months. He was appointed Deputy Collector of Customs, and located at Colville, Wash., an office which he held for seven years. In the mean time he took up a homestead claim near Col- ville, where he has ever since resided. At the close of his term as Deputy Col- lector he held the position of Clerk of the District Court of Stevens County until the fall of 1883 ; was then elected member of the Territorial Legislature, and again Clerk of the County Court, which he held up to the time of the admission of Washington to Statehood. After the adoption of the constitution he was elect- ed Clerk of the Superior Court, and held that position until January, 1891, when he was appointed Commissioner of the United States Circuit Court. Three daughters and one son have been born to Mr. Stitzel and his wife-viz., Martha A., wife of Colonel Evan Milo, United States Army, at present living in San Francisco ; Mary E., wife of E. F. Heninf, residing in Tacoma, Wash. ; Kathrine S., wife of Gilbert B. Ide, residing at Colville, Wash., and James Stitzel, still single, and is living with his father on their farm.
STORMS, MARY G., is the widow of Daniel J. Storms, deceased, late of Waitsburg, Walla Walla County, Wash., a farmer of that section, who was born in Ohio in
32
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1814. His parents were natives of Pennsylvania and members of the Presbyterian Church of Dayton, O. His father was a soldier of the War of 1812, and he died in Ohio in 1865. Mr. Storms received an excellent early education in the com- mon schools of Middletown, O., and was married to Mary George in Dayton, O., in 1871, a wealthy lady living on the interest of her money. They came to Wash- ington in 1872, where Mr. Storms purchased the tract where his widow now re- sides, consisting of four hundred and eighty acres, yielding from thirty to forty bushels per acre. It has been well kept up and has all needful improvements, a thrifty orchard and pleasant location. Her husband and herself were members of the Presbyterian Church. He died suddenly in 1892 from heart disease, leav- ing all by will to his beloved wife. Mrs. Storms has proved herself a typical farmer's wife, and allows nothing to go to wreck about her place for want of proper attention and timely care.
SULLIVAN, JUDGE E. H., of Colfax, Wash., was born in Michigan July 31st, 1850 ; removed with his parents to Nebraska in the fall of 1865, remaining there until 1877, when he went to Whitman County, Wash. He is the second son of a family of seven. Judge Sullivan's professional talents were of too eminent an order to be overlooked, for we find that he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of Whitman County in 1884, serving the full term of two years. He was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention of Washington and appointed Superior Judge of Whitman County. A man of large brain, clear views, and logical mind, the Judge has adorned every office which he has been called to fill, presiding with dignity on the Bench and winning hosts of friends in private life by his geniality. He married in 1882 Miss Lucy M. Spaulding, of Oregon.
SUMMERS, MRS. SARAH C., widow of Dr. John S. Summers, deceased, the owner of a fine farm near Waitsburg, in Walla Walla County, Wash., was born in Ohio in 1839, her parents being natives of Delaware. She received her educa- tion in the public schools of her native State, and upon growing to woman- hood she married Dr. John S. Summers, a physician and surgeon who served in the Civil War as Captain of Company I. Fifty-seventh Indiana Volunteers. He was wounded several times, but served gallantly to the end. Upon being mus- tered out he returned to the practice of medicine in Indiana, and was meet- ing with great success when he sickened, and after a short illness passed away in January, 1881, greatly lamented by his family and many friends. Com- ing to Washington in 1890, Mrs. Summers purchased a home place in the town of Prescott. She has five children, all of whom are either settled in life or give promise of future usefulness.
SWAIM, T. A., M.D., of Rosalia, Wash., a pioneer of that section and esteemed practitioner of the healing art, was born in Ohio in 1852. Dr. Swaim is the eld- est in a family of seven children born to .J. M. and Mary (Grimm) Swaim. He received his early education in the public schools of his native State, then entered an Academy at Albany, O., took the preparatory course, but did not graduate. Becoming a student of the Cincinnati Medical Institute, he took his degree of M.D. in 1877, and began practice in the town of Albany, O. In 1879 he came to
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Washington, locating at Pine City, near the present site of Rosalia, being one of the earliest arrivals in the section, where his practice, growing with its growth, is now most extensive. Dr. Swaim was married in 1876 to Miss Flora Moore, a native of Ohio, who died in 1884. Two children were the result of their brief union. He married in 1891 Miss Lena Parker, of Oregon. He has been an offi- cer in the various lodges of the Masonic, Knights of Pythias, and Odd Fellows fraternities, with which he has been connected, having passed through the chairs in all of them. He owns a pleasant city home and considerable outlying realty. A close student, a genial gentleman, and most skilful practitioner, Dr. Swaim holds a high place in the community where he dwells, and is generally esteemed for his many good qualities.
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