USA > Washington > History of Washington the evergreen state : from early dawn to daylight with portraits and biographies Vol. II > Part 51
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VAN BROCKLIN, JOHN W., of Seattle, was born in Carthage, Jefferson County, N. Y., April 8th, 1837, received a common school education and learned the trade of wood and iron-worker, also that of machinist. He left home at the age of twenty-one, crossing the plains to Pike's Peak with Senator Tabor, of Colo- rado, during the gold excitement. He remained in Colorado until 1863, mining with but moderate success. A prospecting trip to Montana was followed by four years of mining with disastrous results, and he was engaged in stock-raising for a number of years. Mill-building and smelting was his next venture, pursued for fourteen years, with better fortune pecuniarily. Mr. Van Brocklin was a member for fifteen years of the Vigilance Committee during the most exciting times in the Northwest. In 1866 he brought a wagon-train from Omaha through the Big
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Horn, Powder River country, by the road crossing the Yellowstone. He was at- tacked by Red Cloud's band of hostiles June 21st, but he succeeded in putting the Indians to flight, after a battle in which the whites lost nine men. Being reinforced by other trains, their company finally numbered four hundred emi- grants, who reached Virginia City, Mont., in August. Leaving Montana in 1882, Mr. Van Brocklin removed to Seattle and bought considerable property, and made a prospecting tour of one year in Oregon. He returned to Seattle, then voy- aged to Alaska, making four successive summer trips, spending his winters in Seattle. Returning to make the Queen City his permanent home, he superin- tended the construction of the Seattle Transfer Company's large warehouses, and then accepted the appointment of Building Superintendent of the King County Court House at Seattle. He is at present a member of the Board of Public Works. He was married in February, 1863, to Miss Helen Campbell. Two sons, born in Virginia City, Mont., are the result of this union. Mr. Van Brocklin has been a member of the Masonic fraternity since 1862.
VAN PATTEN, E. H., physician and surgeon, of Dayton, Wash., was born in Illi- nois in 1855. His father, John C. Van Patten, was a native of New Jersey, and by profession a clergyman of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church ; his mother, Rachel (McCoy) Van Patten, was born in Illinois. After attending the public schools, he took a classical and scientific course in Lincoln University, from which he graduated with the degree of Ph.B. in 1879. His medical training was ob- tained at Rush Medical College at Chicago, which gave him his degree of M.D. in 1883. He immediately removed to Washington, located at Dayton, and began practice, which he has so increased by his skill and popularity that it is now thriving and lucrative. He was married in 1884 to Miss Julia Salter White, of Kentucky, and a graduate of the same institution with himself. He has held the office of Coroner of Columbia County for the past six years. He is a stockholder in the Dayton Hotel and the Electric Light Company, and one of the Board of Man- agers. He has a pretty residence and a fine library. He is a Mason and the Grand Orator of the State, also a Knight of Pythias, being Chancellor Com- mander of Dayton Lodge No. 3, and Sir Knight Captain of Uniform Rank No. 11. He is also Grand Patron of the Eastern Star and the Academy Physician. Per- sonally he is a cultured gentleman and highly educated in his art, winning the sincere regard and respect of his fellow-citizens.
VEDDER, WILLIAM, of Pullman, was born in St. Lawrence County, N. Y., in 1840. His father, Van Vlack Vedder, was a farmer and a native of the Empire State ; his mother, whose maiden name was Heaton, being from Vermont. The history of the subject of our sketch may be briefly told as follows : Educated in the common schools of Illinois, he began life in Wisconsin, engaged for twenty- one years in various occupations, then removed to Washington Territory, settled in Whitman County, and devoted himself to farming. He later became a meni- ber of the firm of Vedder & Windus. He was married in 1882 to Miss Jane Par- rott, a native of Oregon, by whom he has three children. He is a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and in political preference a Republican. He is a valued citizen of Pullman. The firm of which he is a member is known as
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Vedder & Windus, and they have neither of them reason to complain of the out- come of their partnership.
VESS, DAVID M., farmer. Eminently the pioneer of the town of Rockford, its first citizen and the builder of the first residence, he there homesteaded his present farm, where he has dwelt ever since, two and a half miles south of Rockford. Mr. Vess was born in Buncombe County, N. C., in 1836. He never attended school, but, quick to learn and anxious to acquire knowledge, so improved his spare time as to become fairly well self-taught. Of the thirteen children born to his parents, David was the fifth. His father was a veteran of the War of 1812. Brought up on a farm until the age of twenty-two, he learned the blacksmith's trade and followed it until 1862. He removed to Kentucky, where he enlisted in the Eighth Tennessee Federal Cavalry, and served for two years, seeing many en- gagements, but though often under fire escaped without a wound. Honorably discharged in 1865, he removed to Tennessee, where he spent three years ; thence to Howell County, Mo., where he lived until 1877 ; thence to Oregon, and, after a brief sojourn, to his present location in the fall of the same year. He arrived with but three dollars in his pocket and a large family to support. Mr. Vess inarried Mary M. (Hyatt) Vess in North Carolina in 1856, by whom he has four children. He is a Methodist, a member of the Farmers' Alliance, and stock- holder in that institution, which he introduced into his district in 1880, being one of the charter members. He is also the owner of several fine farms fully cultivated and abundantly stocked.
WAGNER, G. C., M.D., a practising physician of Tacoma, Wash., comes to us in advance of Canadian annexation, being born across the present line in the Province of Ontario, November 8th, 1859. His early educational training was obtained in his native province, giving a mental stepping-stone to the higher course of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, from whence he graduated with honor in March of 1881 as M.D.C.M. In April of 1881 he secured the necessary license from the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons and began to practise medicine in his native town-Dickinson's Landing, Ont. Here he remained for more than seven years, when he abandoned that colder region for the Evergreen State, coming to Tacoma in December of 1888. Here he opened an office and has found much encouragement to persevere. Dr. Wagner is a mem- ber of the Masonic fraternity, and one of the attending surgeons of that most beneficial institution, the Fanny Paddock Hospital of Tacoma.
WAIT, ANDERSON, merchant, of Elberton, Wash., was born in Lewiston, Ida., November 8th, 1863. He is the son of Sylvester M. Wait, a native of Vermont, born May 23d, 1822, and Mary Hargrove Wait, born in Illinois, March 22d, 1830. Young Wait's early education was received in a private school at Waitsburg, at Dayton, and at Forest Grove University, Ore., supplemented by a course in the New York College of Hygiene and a business college in Illinois, after which he returned to Dayton, Wash. His first occupation placed him in charge of his father's planing-mill and, later on, a flour-mill. When his father sold out at the end of two years he accompanied him to Elberton, where the father, already the
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founder of Waitsburg and Dayton, plotted the town site of Elberton. Our sub- ject remained with his father a short time, engaged in various avocations for about five years, and then went to Puget Sound, where he took charge of a gen- eral merchandise store and town site for Cain Brothers, remaining with them until his father's death in 1891. He then returned to Elberton and took charge of his father's estate. He was married July 21st, 1888, to Miss Nancy B. Short, born March 6th, 1868, daughter of J. H. and Lottie (Kirby) Short, both of whom were pioneers of an early date. They have two children. Mr. Wait has handled the business left to him by his father's death in a very creditable and successful manner. He is a Republican, and is related to Judge Wait of the Supreme Court of the United States.
WALDEN, SMILEY F., of Zillah, a thrifty farmer on Sunnyside, Wash., was born in Louisa County, Ia., in 1867, the third son in a family of nine children born to F. and Mary (Berry) Walden, his father being a clergyman by profession. The boyhood of young Walden saw many changes and not a few removes ; but we find him, after completing his education in the high school of Dallas County, supplemented by a year's study at Drake Seminary, in Des Moines, Marshall County, Ia., engaged in the fruit business. He afterward removed to Dallas County, in that State, where he remained until 1888, when he went to Waitsburg, Wash. Here he devoted himself to the fruit and nursery business for a short time, then settled on his present farm in the Yakima Valley. Here he owns and cultivates some eighty acres, a portion being devoted to nursery stock, and the remainder to alfalfa, hay, and corn. Mr. Walden is still unmarried. He is a Republican in politics, a member of the Christian Church, and a painstaking tiller of the soil, who makes agriculture a success, having all the means and ap- pliances to enable him to do so.
WALKER, CHARLES, deceased, late farmer and stockman, of Kittitas Valley, Wash., was born in Rhode Island in 1819. He was a school-teacher by profession and a miller by trade, following the latter avocation during his stay in Oregon. His fate is still a mystery. He left home, on a trip to The Dalles for provisions, October 18th, 1875, and his body was found the spring following at the mouth of the Columbia. It is believed that he came to his death by violence. He left a wife and eight children. His widow thus sketches her own personal history : " I was born in Ohio in 1832. My parents were natives of Vermont, my father being the mate of a sailing vessel, afterward wrecked on Lake Erie. He died in Illinois in 1877, leaving a wife and three children, of whom I am the second. I received my early education in Illinois, and crossed the plains by ox-train with relatives, arriving in Oregon City August 27th, 1852. There I followed dress- making until I met my late husband, Mr. Charles Walker, to whom I was mar- ried in 1853. He came to Washington in 1872 and bought one hundred and sixty acres, where I reside at present, ten miles east of Ellensburg. It is a fine, fertile farm, averaging thirty bushels to the acrc. My children are thriving, and fill creditably the places in the duties of life to which Providence has appointed them."
Mrs. Walker may well claim to be an old pioneer, one of those wonderful
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women whose lives are unwritten histories of patient toil and yet more uncom- plaining enduranee, braving the perils and privations of the wilderness for the sake of loved ones.
WALLACE, J. W., of Tacoma, a son of W. W. Wallace, of Council Bluffs, was born in Chicago, Ill., June 8th, 1864. He removed with his parents to Oska- loosa, Ia., when but a lad, and received the rudiments of education there. He then accompanied his family to Council Bluffs, where he graduated from the pub- lic sehools in 1881, supplementing the knowledge so acquired with a course of engineering at Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Ia. Being called home by the illness of his father, he began the business of life as Collection Clerk in the Coun- cil Bluffs Savings Bank, and had worked his way up to Receiving Teller when he left in 1886, going to Greeley Centre, Neb., where with his father he estab- lished the Greeley State Bank, which they continued to control until December, 1890, when they disposed of their interest after the inauguration of the Farmers' Alliance trouble. Mr. Wallace then removed to Provo City, Utah, to take the position of Cashier of the National Bank of Commerce, which he relinquished in July of 1892 to accept that of Cashier of the bank of the same name in Tacoma, Wash., which he still retains. He was married April 17th, 1887, to Miss Belle Holt, of Waverly, Ia.
WALLACE, ROBERT, farmer and stockman, of Kittitas Valley, Wash., was born in Pennsylvania in 1823, his parents being also natives of that State. His father served in the War of 1812, returning to his farm after its close, and dying there in 1840, leaving nine children, of whom Robert was the fourth. He re- ceived a common-school education in Pennsylvania, where he afterward worked until the breaking out of the Mexican War in 1846, when he enlisted in Company K, Second Pennsylvania Volunteers, commanded by Captain James Miller. He returned to Pennsylvania in 1848, went to Ohio, and from thence to St. Louis ; served in Texas as Quartermaster Storekeeper ; came to California with a pack train, and remained there for ten years and labored with considerable suceess. In 1870 we find him in Kittitas, Wash., where he took up land west of Ellens- burg, and still owns and farms two hundred and forty acres of productive soil. He was married in Kittitas Valley in 1881 to Mrs. Speir Asher, who was born in Iowa in 1851. Her first husband was a native of Tennessee, born in 1829, by whom she had six children. By her marriage to Mr. Wallace she has four chil- dren. Mr. Wallace has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows since he reached his majority. He was also Commissioner for Yakima County for two years.
WALTERS, W. W., farmer, of Prescott, Walla Walla County, Washı., was born in Indiana in 1827. His father was a native of Baltimore, and his mother was a Pennsylvanian. His education, as not unusual with the limited advantages of those early days, was but meagre. He crossed the plains in 1845, losing his way in doing so, the party being obliged to raft from The Dalles to the Caseades, but finally arrived in Washington County, Ore., where Mr. Walters remained until 1852. He enlisted and saw service in Hall's Company of the Oregon Volunteers,
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under General Gilliam. He figured in two engagements, the last, on the Tusha, being the most important. In 1849 we find him mining in California, where he fell a victim to the gold fever and remained several years. He returned to Ore- gon, and in 1853 married Miss Charity Marsh, a school-teacher. She was edu- cated in Pacific University, at Forest Grove, and received her diploma there. She has a fine record as a successful instructor. They have four children. Mr. Wal- ters removed to Walla Walla, took up a homestead and engaged in stock-raising, but lost most of his large herd of cattle and horses in the hard winter. He then turned his attention to farming, having four hundred acres under cultivation one mile east of Prescott, a fine old-fashioned place, as old fashions go in Washing- ton, his barn being the first built on the Tusha. Like most old-timers, Mr. Wal- ters is both eloquent and interesting on the subject of his pioneer days, especially in regard to the Cayuse War, in which he took an active part.
WARD, B. F., of North Yakima, Wash., a farmer on the Atahnam, was born in Massachusetts in 1835, being the only son of Bela and Mary (Smith) Ward, both of whom were natives of the Bay State. Losing his parents when but a child, he was educated in the common schools and learned the trade of a moulder. Becoming enamored of an ocean life, he made his first voyage at the age of sixteen, and for twenty years thereafter followed the seas. Giving up his seafaring life, he journeyed to Kansas in 1865, and located for a year at Fort Scott ; moved to Wilson County, Mo., where he took up land ; removed from thence to Arkansas ; left his family there, and engaged in freighting in Texas. Returning to Missouri, he crossed the plains to Colorado. Then came a series of migrations and wanderings, which include connectively San Juan, Fort Garland, Puebla ; another return to Missouri, Green River City, a stage ride to South Pass, six years' stay in Landis City ; then in 1879 he started for the Pacific Coast, having what now seems the strange experience of being obliged to corral his wagons to protect them from a charge of buffalo. We next find him at Weston, Wash., and at last finding rest on his present farm at North Yakima, where he has since resided. Here he owns eighty acres (twelve in hops), hop houses, orchards, and all that is needed for stock-raising and farming business, in which he is success- fully engaged. He was married in 1868 to Miss Eliza Jane Sardin, daughter of Daniel Sardin, a wealthy farmer of Missouri. They have eight children. Mr. Ward is a member of the Farmers' Alliance and the Hop Growers' Association, and he greatly enjoys the comforts of his settled home, after his more than ordi- narily roving and highly adventurous life.
WARNER, J. W., merchant, of Tekoa, Wash., the son of a Virginia planter, was born in Iowa in 1854. Educated in the public schools of that State, to which his father's family had removed, he migrated to Kansas (1866), and from thence to Missouri (1867) and Oregon (1873), moved by that attraction which must ever draw the representative American westward. During his sojourn in each of the States he followed farming and the raising of fine stock, two pursuits which seem to be intimately blended. Coming to Washington in 1879, the " A-la-bama" of the Northwest, he located at Colfax and then at Tekoa in 1888, where he is engaged in general merchandising. Full of grit and energy, when
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burned out by the fire of September 13th, 1892, suffering a loss but partly cov- ered by insurance, he did not pause to mourn the thousands swept away, but commenced laying in a new stock of goods while the ruins of his property were still smoking and their ashes hot with the flame. He built a two-story brick block where the old frame stood. Mr. Warner is the owner of a pleasant home in the thriving city of Tekoa, a property-holder, a member of the Knights of Pythias and the Odd Fellows, a director of the School Board, a leading man and enterprising merchant, who has deservedly won the respect and confidence of his fellow-citizens. He married in 1885 Miss Eliza E. Kelly, of Missouri -a union blessed with four sons.
WASSON, ANDREW, of Port Townsend, banker, and Collector of Customs for Puget Sound District, was born in Schenectady, N. Y., December 25th, 1839. This Christmas gift to his parents was educated in the common schools of his native State. At the age of sixteen he went to California and engaged in min- ing until 1872. He was elected Sheriff of Monterey County, Cal., at the time that Vasquez and his band of ruffians were terrifying Southern California. He cap- tured the murderer Moreno, and was instrumental in taking Vasquez and breaking up his gang. He was offered, but refused, a renomination to this office. He was Sergeant-at-Arms of the California Senate for three sessions (from 1878-80) and at one extra session. He is now interested in mines in Arizona, Mexico, and California, and has large property interests in Washington, especially in Jefferson County, which he represented in the State Legislature of 1891, serving on many important committees, and introducing the so-called " Wasson Bill" for regulat- ng traffic on railroads in the State, which promised to solve the difficulties be- tween producers and transportation companies, but was vetoed by the acting Governor. Mr. Wasson always favors the cause of the workingman. He is the President of the Commercial Bank of Port Townsend. September 19th, 1891, he was appointed Collector of Customs for the Puget Sound District, and has ever since been the terror of smugglers, driving them almost out of existence in a region once famous for their successful operations. Among other important cap- tures he seized the steamer Michigan with over eight hundred cases of smuggled opium and a lot of unauthorized Chinese emigrants, all owing to his wonderful detective shrewdness and ability. He has made quite a reputation as a journal- ist, in connection with Governor J. H. McGraw, as owner of the Port Townsend Daily Leader, a progressive and ably conducted sheet. Mr. Wasson was married April 20th, 1882, to Miss Minnie E. Snook, of Sacramento, Cal. Fraternally he is a Mason and an Odd Fellow.
WATROUS, LEVI W., rancher and stockman, of Dayton, Columbia County, Wash., was born in Ontario, Canada, June 13th, 1825. His father, David Watrous, of New London, Conn., was a Methodist minister ; his mother was Rebecca (Hodgkins) Watrous, whose early life was spent in Canada. She was the daughter of a British officer, killed in India. The subject of our sketch was educated in the United States, where he removed with his parents at a very early age. In 1831 he accompanied them to the Western Reserve, Ohio, and after coming of age followed various callings, for the most part milling and farming.
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In 1840 he journeyed to Wisconsin. In 1845 he was married to Miss Elmira Fish, of Cleveland, O., and located in Rock County, Wis. They have a family of nine living children. In 1850 Mr. Watrous went to Iowa, where he became a miller. In 1855 we find him in Minnesota, where the city of Austin now stands, and in 1860 he returned to his saw-milling in Iowa. The war breaking out, he enlisted in 1861 in the Ninth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, did duty for the Govern- ment Secret Service, and then served for nine months as Wagon-Master, after which he once more returned to his old occupation in Iowa. March of 1872 found him in Washington. Four years of saw-milling prepared the way for farming and horse-raising, in which, after his many wanderings, he is now permanently engaged. He has eight hundred acres under cultivation and large stock interests, besides a ranch of two hundred acres and two others within a few miles of the city. He has held various offices, having been the first County Treasurer of Fay- ette County, Ia., and Justice of the Peace. He is a Populist in his political faith. He figured in the Nez Perce Indian War, going out as First Lieutenant of Scouts, and returning in command of the company. Few men are more respected in Eastern Washington than Mr. Watrous. He is full of interesting reminiscences of territorial Washington and Oregon.
WATSON, WILLIAM, farmer, of Latah, Wash., was born in Ohio in 1836, being a son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Manfel) Watson. His father was a farmer, of English descent, but of American birth, his mother being English born. His father held the office of Justice of the Peace for many years. They lived in Indiana, Missouri, and Iowa for a long period. William was the fourth of thirteen children born to his parents. He came to Washington in 1883. In 1858 Mr. Watson was married to Miss Rebecca C. Clarke, of Indiana. Her father, an Englishman, was for a long time a Justice of the Peace ; her mother was of German descent. They have seven children-four boys and three girls -- of whom five survive. Mr. Watson has a fine farm, well managed, which fairly repays the labor bestowed to cultivate it. It is pleasantly situated and well stocked.
WEATHERWAX, JOHN MARTIN, President of the J. M. Weatherwax Lumber Company, of Aberdeen, Chehalis County, Wash., was born in Peru, Clinton County, N. Y., February 14th, 1827, and is the son of Jacob and Amice (Ketchum) Weatherwax. While Mr. Weatherwax was still young his parents removed to Michigan, and settled on a tract of wild land about three miles from Adrian. His early years were spent in assisting his father with the farm work and attend- ing the district schools in the winter. When he was twenty years of age he agreed to pay his father $50 a year ; and by cutting wood on the farm, succeed- ed in realizing more than the required amount. In his twenty-second year he worked as a joiner for two months and earned $30. He then went with a cousin to Saline, Washtenaw County. Here he met Dr. Post, and engaged to put up some buildings for him at $1.25 a day. While here he determined to study medi- cine, and for the next three years read under the direction of Dr. Post, giving his services in return for his board and tuition. During this time he spent fifteen months at a school in Raisin, and, money having been advanced by his brother,
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attended two courses of lectures in Cleveland. Having finished his studies, his father bought him a horse and sulky, and he began to practice at Addison, Lena- wee County. In a short time he paid his father for these, and bought a buggy and another horse. After following his profession for two years he became seri- ously ill and returned home. On his recovery he contracted to build a house for his father ; and when this was finished, he accepted an offer from his brother of $75 to join him at Grand Rapids. He exchanged a mortgage on a farm for his buggy, three horses, and a lumber wagon. He took charge of thirty men who were constructing a railroad from the pine woods to Grand River, and received $500 for his services a year. When this was completed, he borrowed $9500 and bought of his brother a half interest in eleven hundred and twenty acres of pine land. They took out between three and four million logs a year, and at the end of nine years had paid for the lands. They then bought a saw-mill for $7000, and agreed to pay for it in logs. They were somewhat crippled by the financial crisis in 1858-59, but succeeded in keeping their footing. At the breaking out of the Civil War he was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Second Michi- gan Cavalry, under Captain R. A. Alger, and spent three years and three months in active service. His regiment was first ordered down the Mississippi River, and took part in the battles of New Madrid and Island No. 10. It was engaged in the Mississippi campaign, and was part of the brigade that burned the railroad at Booneville. During the battle of Perryville, previous to which he had been commissioned Captain, he was wounded in the leg by a bullet and disabled for four months. On his recovery he joined his regiment and took part in the cam- paign of East Tennessee. At the close of a four days' engagement at New Mar- ket, above Strawberry Plains, he was seriously wounded in the right shoulder and had to retire from active service. At the end of five months he again joined Iris regiment, and remained until he was mustered out in 1863, being in active service most of the time. He then obtained a position under Colonel Blain, Assist- ant Special Agent of the Treasury Department, and subsequently was Sutler to his old regiment until it was disbanded at Atlanta. He was also for a short time Sutler to a colored regiment. After the war he returned to Grand Rapids and invested heavily in pine lands, which rapidly increased in value, and when he came out to the Pacific Coast he had three mills, each cutting forty thousand feet daily in Michigan, and several large mercantile establishments. He came to Aberdeen in 1885, and started his mill in that town, disposing of his timber lands in Michigan a year later. He still owns two brick and one frame store in that State and two thousand acres of cleared land, which he farms and leases, and has a third inter- est in fifteen thousand acres of timber land in Arkansas.
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