History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. II, Part 31

Author: Lyman, William Denison, 1852-1920
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: [Chicago] S.J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 1138

USA > Washington > Benton County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. II > Part 31
USA > Washington > Kittitas County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. II > Part 31
USA > Washington > Yakima County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. II > Part 31

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kind in the town. He carries an extensive stock of drugs and druggists' sundries and has built up a large patronage by reason of his enterprising and reliable business metliods and earnest desire to please his customers.

In 1900 Mr. Peterson was united in marriage to Miss Anna Hughes, of Minto, North Dakota, by whom he has a son, Albert Charles, who is now sixteen years of age and is attending high school.

Politically Mr. Peterson is a stanch republican and he has done valuable service as a member of the city council, exercising his official prerogatives in support of all movements and measures for the development and upbuilding of the community in which he lives. He has also served on the governing board of the Commercial Club. Fraternally he is identified with the Masons, being a charter member of Toppenish Lodge No. 178, F. & A. M. He is fond of shooting and is a charter member of the Toppenish Gun Club. His business career has been one of steady progress, result- ing from well directed effort, and he is widely and favorably known as a representa- tive and substantial citizen of the Yakima valley.

DANIEL BARBEE.

A life of intense and well directed activity brought Daniel Barbee, now deceased, to a position among the successful ranchers of the northwest. In 1906 he took up his abode a mile from Zillah. where he purchased thirty-four and a half acres of partly improved land, and his remaining days were devoted to the further develop- ment and cultivation of that place. He was born in Iroquois county, Illinois, June 7, 1841, a son of Solomon and Sarah (McFall) Barbee, the former born May 25, 1812, and the latter born in Indiana, December 19, 1833. The mother was a daughter of Joseph McFall. Mr. and Mrs. Barbee became pioneer settlers of Illinois and subse- quently removed to Missouri while in 1855 they went to Iowa, establishing their home in Mills county, where they settled upon a farm and resided throughout their remaining days.

Daniel Barbee acquired a public school education and took up the occupation of farming as a life work. He was identified with agricultural interests in Iowa for thirty-five years, or until 1905, when he removed to Yakima county and for a year thereafter was a resident of Toppenish. In 1906 he brought his family to their pres- ent home, which is situated a mile northwest of Zillah, and with characteristic energy he began the further development and improvement of the farm of thirty-four and a half acres which he purchased. He planted ten acres of his land to Winesap apples. four acres to pears and also set out two hundred prune trees. Since his demise his wife has built a packing house upon the place and also good barns and thus the work of further development and improvement is being steadily carried forward.

It was on the 14th of June, 1868, that Mr. Barbee was married to Miss Mary E. Fall, who was born in Monroe county, Iowa, March 12, 1850, a daughter of M. W. and Elizabeth (Forshear) Fall, the former a native of Ohio while the latter was born in Putnam county, Indiana. They removed to Monroe county, Iowa, in the spring of 1848, and Mrs. Barbee still has in her possession an old gourd that was raised by her mother in that year. She also has old candlesticks which were used by the family. and an old dresser that was made in Indiana, taken to Jowa and then brought across the country to the northwest. These are cherished heirlooms in the family. Her parents purchased land in Iowa and there her father carried on farming throughout his active business career. He reached the notable old age of ninety-one years, while his wife was eighty-three years of age at the time of her demise. They had a family of twelve children. To Mr. and Mrs. Barbee were born eleven children: Wiley, the eldest, now farming the home ranch, married Annie Hill and they had fourteen children, six of whom have passed away; Stella is the wife of T. C. Mintle, who is engaged in farming in Nebaska, and they have three sons; Arthur a rancher of Hay Springs, Nebraska, wedded Nellie Alderson and has one daughter; Lester, who follows farming near Buena, Washington, married Ellen Peterson and has one son; Lillie is at home with her mother; Charles, who devotes his attention to farming in Iowa, married Laura Stanford and has two daughters; Dollie is the wife of Calvin

DANIEL BARBEE

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Calhoun, a ranchman of Arizona; Mary is the wife of Sylvester Shelley, who follows ranching near Zillah, and they have one son; Ernest, who is engaged in ranching near Buena, married Rose Olson; Maude is the wife of Fred Hickenbotton, who is fol- lowing ranching near Zillah; William who was the second of the family, died March 8, 1873, at the age of six weeks.

In 1917 Mrs. Barbee purchased a beautiful cement home at the edge of Zillah and her place is called Cherry Hill Ranch. The death of Mr. Barbee occurred No- vember 10, 1908, and was the occasion of deep and widespread regret. He was a de- voted member of the Methodist Episcopal church and was a prohibitionist in poli- tics, associations that indicate the high principles that governed his life and shaped his conduct in all of his relations with his fellowmen. He had many admirable traits of character, was kindly in spirit and generous in disposition and had a very exten- sive circle of friends.

RALPH ORCOTT SMITH.

Ralph Orcott Smith, who is engaged in the cultivation of a forty-acre ranch five miles west of Yakima, was born in Geneseo, Illinois, October 14, 1876, a son of John and Kate (Orcott) Smith, who in the year 1884 made the journey to the north- west, establishing their home in Union county, Oregon. Ralph O. Smith acquired a public school education and when sixteen years of age left home in order to start out in the business world independently. Coming to the Yakima valley, he worked on a farm in the employ of others for fourteen months and later he made a prospecting trip in British Columbia. In 1900 he purchased the Pete Taylor ranch on the Cowiche for ten dollars per acre and in 1904 sold that property at thirty dollars per acre. He afterward spent two years in San Diego, California, after which he returned to the Yakima valley, where he remained, however, but a short time. He next went to La Grande. Oregon, and bought a stock ranch of fifteen hundred acres, upon which he remained for two years. Later he again spent a year in San Diego and on the expira- tion of that period removed to Highland, California, where he purchased an orange grove, but lost three successive crops. He next established his home at Paso Robles, California, and devoted five years there to the wheat and stock business. He still owns a six hundred and forty acre ranch in that district. In 1917, however, he sold his stock there and returned to the Yakima valley, where he invested in forty acres of land five miles west of the city of Yakima, of which ten acres is planted to fruit, while the remainder is given to the cultivation of alfalfa and corn,

On the 18th of November, 1900, Mr. Smith was married to Miss Viola May Livengood, a daughter of R. A. and Letitia Livengood, who were pioneers of the Yakima valley. To Mr. and Mrs. Smith have been born seven children: Ervin, Chester, Ira, Ivan, Harvey, Glenn and Katie May. While in California Mr. Smith served as a member of the school board and has always been interested in the cause of education. In politics he may be called an independent republican, for while he usually supports the principles of the party, he does not consider himself bound by party ties and at local elections when no party issue is involved, usually casts an in- dependent ballot. While he has made many changes, he has steadily progressed in his business career and is today successfully conducting fruit raising as well as farm- ing interests in Yakima county.

JOHN K. LUTHER.

John K. Luther, extensively identified with farming and fruit raising interests in the valley, was born in Marion county, Kansas, on the 23d of March, 1880, a son of John and Anna (Klott) Luther, who in 1887 removed to Whitman county, Washing- ton, where the father has since engaged in farming. The mother passed away Oc- tober 18, 1905.

John K. Luther was but seven years of age at the time the family home was

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established in this state, so that almost his entire life has been passed in the north- west. He supplemented his public school education by a course in Walla Walla Col- lege and then entered upon the work of the ministry as a representative of the Sev- enth Day Adventists church. For ten years he engaged in preaching the gospel throughout Washington, Idaho and Oregon, but on the 8th of September, 1916, turned his attention to fruit raising and farming in Yakima county, where he pur- chased thirty acres of land, of which seventeen acres is planted to fruit, while the remainder is devoted to the raising of hay, corn and other crops. His place is pleas- antly and conveniently situated about five and a half miles west of Yakima. He has also leased a ranch of one hundred and sixty acres on the Yakima Indian reserva- tion and is there extensively and successfully engaged in raising grain and alfalfa. In young manhood he had carried on farming interests on a large scale in Whitman county, so that he brought broad practical experience to his work and in the conduct of his affairs he is meeting with well deserved success.

On the 13th of April, 1902, Mr. Luther was married to Miss Elsie E. Getzlaff, of Whitman county, a daughter of Gustave and Otilie Getzlaff, who removed from Min- nesota to Whitman county, Washington, in 1890. Their children are Raymond, Ruby. Edwin, Erma and Emerald.

Mr. and Mrs. Luther are loyal and active members of the Seventh Day Adventist church and his political allegiance is given to the democratic party. His has been an active and useful life fraught with good results for the material and moral pro- gress of the communities in which he has lived and labored.

CHARLES H. FLUMMERFELT.

Charles H. Flummerfelt, a prominent figure in insurance and real estate circles in Ellensburg, having now an extensive clientage, was born in Delaware, Warren county, New Jersey, on the 31st of July, 1863, a son of Daniel A. and Macrina H. (Hoagland) Flummerfelt, both of whom were representatives of old colonial fami- lies. The father was engaged in the mercantile and milling business and spent his ertire life in the east, passing away in 1884. The mother still survives and is now liv- ing with her son, Charles H., at the advanced age of eighty-two years. She is still well preserved and takes the keenest interest in raising flowers.

Charles H. Flummerfelt obtained a public school education and started out in the business world as a telegraph operator. Later he took up office work and subse- quently began traveling for a southern hardwood lumber company of St. Louis, Missouri, his territory covering the central states. He afterward removed to Haw- ley, Minnesota, where he was appointed agent for the Northern Pacific Railway Company, and his identification with Washington dates from 1885, in which year he made his way to Pasco, becoming the third station agent at that place. He con- tinued to occupy that position until 1888 and it was during his agency that the first passenger train passed over the Cascade division. This was an excursion, held on the 4th of July, 1887, and carried many prominent people, who came from Walla Walla. In 1888 Mr. Flummerfelt entered the live stock business near what was then Lake Station hut what is now Mesa, Washington. He became a prominent and influential citizen of that region and in the fall of 1889 was elected the first representative from Franklin county to the state legislature, where he so capably and faithfully served his constituents that he was reelected for a second term. He gave earnest and thoughtful consideration to all the vital questions that came up for settlement and left the impress of his individuality upon legislation enacted during the period of his service in the general assembly.

In 1891 Mr. Flummerfelt removed to Ellensburg and again entered the employ of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, being in a responsible position in the superintendent's office. In the spring of 1892 he was made traffic manager of the Ellensburg & Okanogan Transportation Company and served in that capacity until the following fall, when he resigned and embarked in business on his own account, establishing a mercantile store at Oroville, Washington, where he continued for a few months. He then returned to Ellensburg and again entered the employ of the

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Northern Pacific in 1893, acting as relief agent in the superintendent's office. In 18944 he was made assistant postmaster of Ellensburg and occupied that position until the fall of 1896. He was then elected county treasurer, serving for two termis and proving a most faithful custodian of the public funds. In 1901 he went to Wenatchec, Washington, where for a year he was associated with the Rose & Wright Fruit Company. In 1902 he returned to Ellensburg and purchased the grocery stock of R. B. Wilson, after which he was continuously and successfully engaged in the grocery business until February, 1909, when he sold out. At that date he entered the real estate and insurance business, in which he has now continued for a decade, and within this period has built up an extensive clientage.

In 1883 Mr. Flummerfelt was married to Miss Ella Mary Sebring, who was born in Monroe county, Pennsylvania, a daughter of Andrew and Theresa B. (Moyer) Sebring. The children of this marriage are two in number. Ray is married and is with the Northwestern Improvement Company of Roslyn, Washington. The daugh- ter, Nellie, is the wife of John J. Brown, a lieutenant in the railway division that went to Russia, in the United States-Russian Rail Service.

Fraternally Mr. Flummerfelt is an Odd Fellow and has held all the chairs in the local lodge. He also has membership in the Elks Lodge No. 1102, of Ellensburg and in the woodmen of the World. He is a prominent member of the Chamber of Com- merce, in which he has served as president, and his religious faith is manifest in his membership in the Presbyterian church. In politics he has always been a democrat since reaching his majority. He has served on the city council of Ellensburg, filling that office at the time the electric light system was extended and at the time plans were laid for the water service. He had the distinction of being the youngest member of the first state legislature in 1889 and in 1913 he was elected to represent his dis- trict in the state senate, where he served for a term. He has served as president of the building committee of the Young Men's Christian Association and was the first president of the association in Ellensburg. He has continuously served as its board of directors and is now its treasurer. His activities have been a factor in material, intellectual, social, political and moral progress in his section of the state.

I. H. DILLS.

I. H. Dills needs no introduction to the readers of this volume, for he is at the head of the oldest and largest clothing business of the Yakima valley, having long ranked with the most progressive merchants of the city of Yakima, where he took up his abode in 1888 and in the fall of that year established his present business, which is conducted under the name of the Star Clothing Company.

Mr. Dills was born in Adams county, Illinois, in 1862 and is a son of Henry and Elizabeth Dills, the former a farmer and a mechanician. The son acquired a public school education in his native state and was reared to agricultural life, early becom- ing an active assistant in the work of the fields through vacation periods. He con- tinued to aid in the labors of the farm until he reached the age of twenty years, when he opened a butcher shop at Corning, Missouri, there continuing for a year. He afterward supplemented his earlier education by a term's study in Shelbina, Mis- souri, and later he again spent a summer in Illinois. He subsequently devoted a year to farming in Missouri, residing there during 1884, and in 1885 he removed to Kansas, taking up a homestead claim in Clark county, upon which he lived until 1886. In that year he again became a resident of Missouri, where he carried on general agricultural pursuits for two years, but the opportunities of the far west attracted him and he made his way to the Pacific coast country.

It was in the spring of 1888 that Mr. Dills arrived in Yakima and established the business of which he is now the head. In this undertaking he was associated with Harry Hampton and the store was opened in the old postoffice building, where they continued for a year. A removal was then made to First street, adjacent to the postoffice, where the business was conducted until 1891, when they removed to Yakima avenue, occupying a building with the firm of Fechter & Ross. With the growth of their trade, however, they took over the whole building and later, or in

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1898, purchased a building on Yakima avenne, between First and Second streets. He there remained until the spring of 1909, when he established his store at the corner of Second street and Yakima avenue in a building with a fifty-foot frontage. This is the oldest and largest clothing house of the Yakima valley. The company was in- corporated in 1900 with 1. H. Dills as president and treasurer and W. L. Lemmon as vice-president and secretary. They employ nine people and the two officers are also active in the conduct of the business. During the busy season a still larger force of employes is secured. They carry a very extensive and attractive line of goods, showing all the styles that the market affords, and their reasonable prices, their straightforward dealing and their progressive methods have brought to them a constantly growing patronage.

It was in 1900 that Mr. Dills was united in marriage to Miss Gertrude Blanker, a native of Tennessee, and they have become parents of five children: Leslie H., William H., Herbert, Elizabeth and Richard, all of whom are yet under the parental roof, the family circle being still unbroken by the hand of death.

In his political views Mr. Dills is an earnest republican, having supported the party since age conferred upon him the right of franchise. In his fraternal relations he is an Elk, loyal to the teachings of the order, and he is also a charter member of the Commercial Club and a valued member of the Country Club.

While Mr. Dills is perhaps best known as a leading clothing merchant, he has not confined his efforts alone to this line and has become an important factor in the valley's progress and development in any fields of activity. He is now the presi- dent of the Yakima Fruit Products Company, which indicates one of the points of his interest. He is likewise the vice-president of the Hub Mercantile Company of Wapato, which he aided in organizing. He has long been interested in farming and is part owner of the U. S. Development Company, cultivating four hundred and eighty acres of wheat land in 1918. Mr. Dills is president of this corporation. Dur- ing the season of 1896 Mr. Dills was in Alaska, sledding in from Diah and crossing the Diah Pass on the 14th of April, 1896. He reached Fort Selkirk and there met George Carmack and his wife, who made the Dawson discovery. Mr. Dills went up the Pelly river and Mr. Carmack went to Dawson, where he found gold. Upon coming out of Alaska in the fall Mr. Dills heard of Mr. Carmack's discovery and was within two days' drive of the place but decided to return home instead of going to the gold camp. In 1915 he went into the Behring Sea country on a mining venture and made five hundred miles with rowboats, going as far as Alamma lake and up the river, then crossing to Cook's inlet, where he had to remain for two weeks, waiting for a steamship. He had planned to cross the inlet .with a Frenchman, having given up the steamship, but was picked up by a gas launch and proceeded to Kodiac Island, where he found the boat. On this trip his son, Leslie H., accompanied him. His travels in the northwest have been extensive and his experiences varied. For thirty years he has been identified with the development of this section of the country and his efforts and energies have constituted a potent force in the work of general prog- ress and improvement, especially in the Yakima valley, where he has become identi- fied with a number of lines of business, all of which have profited by his cooperation and support, his energy, enterprise and business sagacity constituting a stimulating force toward the attainment of success.

LEONARD L. THORP.

Leonard L. Thorp, now living retired in Yakima, is numbered among those who have contributed in large measure to the development of the agricultural and stock raising interests of the Yakima valley, where for many years he owned and operated a large ranch which he brought under a high state of cultivation and to which he added many attractive modern improvements. Mr. Thorp is a western man by birth, training and preference and has always been imbued with the spirit of enterprise which has been a dominant factor in the rapid and substantial upbuilding of this section of the country. He was born in Polk county, Oregon, October 16, 1845, a son of F. M. and Margaret (Bounds) Thorp, the former a native of Kentucky and

MR. AND MRS. LEONARD L. THORP

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the latter of Tennessee. They were married in Missouri and in 1844 crossed the pains, making the long and arduous trip over the stretches of hot sand and through . the mountain passes until they reached the Pacific coast. Locating in Oregon, the father took up a donation claim of six hundred and forty acres of government land in Polk county, becoming one of the first settlers there. He followed diversified farm- ing and stock raising and in the early days he experienced all of the hardships which form features of pioneer life. There were no white settlers near at the time of his arrival. He had a number of relatives who participated in the Cayuse Indian wars of 1855 and 1856. Mr. Thorp was one of the first permanent white settlers in Polk county and his place was near that of Captain Birch. He afterward removed to what is now Klickitat county in 1858 and assisted in its organization. With the

work of development and improvement he was closely connected and at one time served as probate judge of the county. On the 15th of February, 1861, he removed to the Yakima valley, settling on the Moxce, where he secured a stock ranch, becoming one of the first to locate in that district. In 1867 he removed to a farm twelve miles west of Ellensburg and there resided to the time of his death, which occurred in 1898. His wife had previously passed away.

Leonard L. Thorp was educated under private instruction, his father hiring a teacher for his children. He says that he was raised upon a horse, for from his earliest childhood he was almost continuously in the saddle. Reared amidst frontier conditions and environment, he learned to speak the Indian tongue and had In- dian playmates in his youth. He continued at home with his father until he had attained his majority, but went into Idaho and Montana with cattle when twenty years of age, there selling a drove of cattle for his father at a profit of ten thou- sand dollars. On the return trip he brought with him his grandfather, who had been in Montana. They came in the winter, found the stage stations burned and the horses stolen by the Indians, but they managed to escape the red men. On the trip, however, Mr. Thorp of this review had his feet so badly frozen that the ends of both feet had to come off, leaving him a cripple for life. He crossed the Columbia river when it was full of ice, making the trip over with Indians. After recovering from the injuries which he had sustained on the trip he took a ranch on the Moxee and later secured a second ranch. Afterward he sold that property and secured a ranch on the Selah whereon he resided for fourteen years and during that period he turned his attention to the live stock business. He took a trip to California but did not like the state and returned to the Yakima valley, settling on the Naches, where he developed a fine ranch. He was the first man to bring full-blooded Hol- stein cattle to this state, introducing that stock in 1884. He added many splendid improvements to his place, erecting buildings for the shelter of grain and stock and keeping the fences in good condition so that the place was thus divided into fields of convenient size. He devoted much of his land to the production of alfalfa and he also raised cattle on a large scale. Eventually, however, he sold the Naches ranch and afterward took up his abode near Yakima, where he established a fruit ranch, one of the first of the district, and which he well improved with buildings, fences, etc. Thereon he resided until 1899, when he removed to Yakima, where he has since lived retired. For many years he has been a director of the Yakima National Bank and is now vice president. In business affairs he has ever been recognized as a man of sound judgment and progressive spirit and his success has been the direct outcome of persistent labor, intelligently guided.

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History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. II, Part 31

Author: Lyman, William Denison, 1852-1920 Publication date: 1919 Publisher: [Chicago] S.J. Clarke Number of Pages: 1138

Author: Lyman, William Denison, 1852-1920
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: [Chicago] S.J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 1138