USA > Washington > Spokane County > Spokane > History of the city of Spokane and Spokane County, Washington : from its earliest settlement to the present time, Volume II > Part 15
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Aubrey Lee White was one of a family of four daughters, all of whom are now deceased, and six sons, of whom five are yet living. His early education was acquired in the common schools of Houlton, Maine, and later he attended the Rieker Classical Institute which was a preparatory school for Colby College. After leaving school he went to Woodstock, New Brunswick, where for eighteen months he was engaged in the furniture business but at the end of that time severed his trade relations with the east and made his way direct to Spokane, arriving in the fall of that year. Herc he was first employed by Arend & Kennard in the market business on Sprague avenue where the book store of J. W. Graham now stands. He was with that house for four years, covering the period of the great fire, and when he left the establishment he resigned the position of manager of the book department to engage on his own account in partnership with Jay P. Graves in the mining business. Returning to the east Mr. White opened an office in Montreal, Canada, and became interested in the organization and development of the Old Ironside and Granby properties. For six years he remained in the east representing the Spokane interests in the New York, Montreal and Philadelphia offices. During the latter years of his residence in New York he was identified with Mr. Graves in interesting capital in the development and financing of the Spokane Traction Company and with Mr. Blackwell and Mr. Graves he also be- came interested in the Coeur d'Alene electric railway. Throughout the period of his residence in the northwest he has always seemed to readily recognize the oppor- tunities here to be secured and the possibilities for the upbuilding of the country. His efforts have been an important factor in the substantial growth of the north-
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west as well as in the promotion of his individual success. He was associated with Mr. Graves in the Spokane & Inland Company and finally in the reorganization of the three companies named into the Inland system under the corporation name of The Inland Empire Railway Company with J. P. Graves as president, Mr. White as vice president, and Waldo G. Paine as second vice president, with Clyde M. Graves as manager and director. These officials resigned when the Great Northern system took over the road in June, 1911, with Carl Gray as president. The Great Northern about a year ago bought the controlling interest. Mr. White has had the satisfaction of seeing the system which was instituted with practically nothing develop into a railway line two hundred and forty miles in length, proving the greatest source of development in the district that it traverses.
In connection with Mr. Graves and others Mr. White owned a large area of land and gave ninety acres of it to Spokane for a park which is called Manito, and purchased the old Cook line extending up Riverside avenue to the park. This street railway constituted the nucleus from which has resulted the organization of the Spokane Traction Company, the business of which they have developed, ob- taining a franchise and extending their lines until they now have forty miles of street railway. Their activity in railway matters has been the means of adding from twenty-five to thirty thousand population to the city, so that these gentlemen deserve prominent mention among those who are regarded as the builders and pro- moters of Spokane. In all of his business operations Mr. White has never waited until the need was a pressing one but has anticipated conditions that would arise and has therefore been prepared to meet the conditions ere the inconvenience and discomfort of a situation were strongly felt.
It would be almost impossible to mention all of the business projects which have felt the stimulns and have profited by the cooperation of Mr. White, for his activities have been of a most diverse character and of notable magnitude. After his return from the east he became a director of the Spokane Valley Land Com- pany which owned Green Acres, East Green Acres and other valuable properties which they afterward sold to D. C. Corbin. They were very desirous of inducing people to settle along the line of the Coeur d'Alene railway and Mr. White took the matter in hand, bringing it to a successful termination. Mr. White was a di- rector of the Spokane Canal Company which irrigated Otis Orchards and did all he could to encourage the enterprise but sold his interest after having it well established. It was he who first demonstrated that the valley was capable of being irrigated and proved the productiveness of its soil. His business connections further extended to the Traders National Bank and the Granby Company which carries with it the Hidden Creek properties, and in both of these he is a director. He is also largely interested in many other valuable mining properties both proved and unproved and has extensive real-estate holdings in and near Spokane.
Business affairs, however, represent but one phase of Mr. White's activity, for he has never selfishly centered his interests upon his own personal concerns. He has never been neglectful of the duties of citizenship and has been a most active factor in utilizing the opportunities for the city's development, improvement and adornment. His political support is given to the republican party and during all the period in which he has been so busily engaged in the management of large financial projects he has still found time to advance civic improvement. He be- came largely interested in city questions while a member of the Municipal League
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of New York and when he came to Spokane his knowledge of civic affairs was used in the inception of the 150,000 Club. At a meeting of this club he suggested a "City Beautiful Club" and of the new organization he was made president. He has done much for the city in various ways, including the inception and promotion of the playgrounds movement, making the first subscription to the fund and becom- ing the first officer. Through the assistance of the Chamber of Commerce a charter amendment was passed by the city creating a non-partisan park board and ten men were appointed, of which Mr. White was one. He was then chosen president of the board and still fills the office. The board is composed of ten of the most sub- stantial citizens and business men of Spokane, vitally interested in the city's wel- fare and at the same time having the business ability to utilize practical and effective efforts in the attainment of desired ends. They have increased the park area from one hundred and seventy acres to twelve hundred acres and have had one million dollars park bonds voted. By personal solicitation Mr. White has secured four hundred acres for park purposes and the board has spent only one million dollars doing all of the work in the parks. For five or six years Mr. White was a director of the Chamber of Commerce and was a member of its publicity com- . mittee, the work of which attracted many people to Spokane and added materially to the population of the city. He regarded Spokane as in its formative stage and believed that acreage for park purposes should be secured at that time-breathing places for the people to be purchased while land was comparatively cheap instead of waiting until the price was almost prohibitive. Upon that belief he has always based his labors and the citizens of Spokane will ever have reason to feel grateful to him for his efforts in this connection.
While the veil of privacy should ever be drawn around one's home relations with all their secret ties, it is well known that Mr. White's home is a most attractive and happy one and that warm-hearted hospitality is freely accorded to the many friends of the family. He was married in Toronto, Canada, in 1905, to Miss Ethelyn Binkley, a daughter of Judge J. W. Binkley, now of Spokane, her mother being a member of the Clarkson family of Toronto. Mrs. White is of English descent and a B. A. of Cornell University. Mr. and Mrs. White have become par- ents of three daughters, Mary Jane, Elizabeth Binkley and Ethelyn Louise.
Mr. White is a believer in the Episcopal faith and his family attend the services of that church. He recognized the fact that well rounded character is based upon normal physical, mental and moral growth. He is a believer in clean living and in athletics and he has done much along those lines. He feels that every life needs its periods of recreation, its study hours and its time for quiet, thoughtful medita- tion. He has membership relations with the Spokane Club, the Spokane Riding and Driving Club, the Spokane Country Club and the Spokane Amateur Athletic Club. He also belongs to the St. James Club and the Mount Royal Golf Club of Montreal, the Union League Club of New York, the Santa Barbara Club of Cali- fornia and the Coeur d'Alene Boat Club. He is a life member of the Masonic fraternity, having taken the degrees of Royal Arch Masonry, of the Knight Templar Commandery, of the Consistory and of the Mystic Shrine. He is a past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias, has passed through all of the chairs of the uniform rank and is past captain in the division. He likewise holds membership with the Dramatic Order of the Knights of Khorassan. He has been a strong supporter of many organizations including the American Civic Association and the Municipal
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League, and was an officer of the latter in New York. His activities have reached out to the various vital interests of life and while in business he has won that suc- cess which comes of aptitude for management, close application and keen discrim- ination, he has also made his work of usefulness and value to the world in many directions, especially in upholding the standards of manhood and citizenship. In his life there have entered the distinctive and unmistakable elements of greatness. He is endowed with a rugged honesty of purpose, is a man of independent thought and action, one whose integrity and honor are so absolute as to compel the respect and confidence of his fellowmen, one whose life has been. filled with ceaseless toil and industry, while his motives are of that ideal order that practically make his life a consecration to duty and to the measure of his possibilities for accomplish- ing good.
ROY HOLLISTER KINGSBURY.
Roy Hollister Kingsbury, of Wallace, holds the position of supply agent of the Federal Mining & Smelting Company, purchasing all supplies for the various mines owned by the concern. His birth occurred at Yankton, South Dakota, on the 19th of January, 1877, his parents being Theodore A. and Frances M. (Hollister) Kings- bury. The father was an early pioneer settler of the Dakotas, being employed in the United States land office at Watertown, South Dakota, and later, in 188.4, becoming a clerk in the Dakota state legislature. He passed away in 1889, leaving a widow and two children, a son and daughter. Immediately afterward the daughter came to Spokane as the Spokane representative of a South Dakota firm, acting as a public and court stenographer. In August, 1891, the mother and son also came to Spokane, being among the pioneers of the new city which was then recovering from the great fire. The mother still resides in Spokane, but the daughter is married and makes her home in Chicago.
In the acquirement of an education Roy H. Kingsbury attended the schools of Watertown, South Dakota, and Spokane, Washington. Under the instruction of his sister he gained a comprehensive knowledge of stenography and in 1894 entered the employ of Bravender & Keats (Echo Roller Mills) of Spokane, whom he served for five years as stenographer and bookkeeper. In 1899 he became connected with the lumber trade as stenographer and bookkeeper for the Washington Mill Company of Spokane, with which concern he remained until January, 1900, resigning his position to become stenographer for F. R. Culbertson, of Burke, Idaho, who was manager of the Tiger-Poorman mine, then owned by the Buffalo-Hump Mining Company. When that concern was sold to the Empire State-Idaho Mining & Developing Company he remained with the latter firm, which was under the management of W. Clayton Miller, being employed as a stenographer at Burke until the 1st of September, 1903, when the Empire State-Idaho Mining & Developing Company was absorbed by the Federal Mining & Smelting Company. At that time he was given charge of the Wardner office of the Federal Mining & Smelting Company, at their Last Chance mine, remaining at Wardner until April, 1906, when he was transferred to the Wal- lace office of the concern to take charge thereof as the successor of Mr. North. At the time of the consolidation of the Spokane and Wallace offices of the Federal mining
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& Smelting Company he took the position of supply agent, attending to the purchase of supplies of all kinds for the various mines belonging to the company. He is still ably discharging the duties devolving upon him in that connection and is a valuable attache of the concern which he represents. He is also interested with Dr. St. Jean in the ownership of the Wallace Hospital and is likewise the secretary and treasurer of the Seclig Grocery Company, of Wardner and Kellogg, Idaho, owning one-fifth of the stock of that company.
About 1895, while living in Spokane, Mr. Kingsbury became a non-commissioned officer of Battery A, Washington National Guard, remaining with that command un- til mustered out of service at the opening of the Spanish-American war. Owing to a slight illness at that time, he was unable to join the new regiment which was formed to take active part in the conflict.
On the 20th of February, 1901, Mr. Kingsbury was united in marriage to Miss Bertha L. Henderson, a daughter of John Henderson of Sprague, Washington. A son was born to them on the 2d of December, 1908, but passed away on the 29th of May, 1910. Mr. Kingsbury belongs to the Holy Trinity Episcopal church of Wal- lace and to the Inland Club of Spokane and is also a member of Wallace Lodge, No. 331, B. P. O. E. His life has been guided by the most honorable principles and his self-reliance and unfaltering industry, combined with his integrity, constitute the salient features in his success.
A. EUGENE WAYLAND.
The prosperity of a community does not depend upon the machinery of govern- ment nor even upon the men who are called to public office, but rather upon those who are upholding the public stability through the establishment and careful and honorable conduct of legitimate business enterprises. From the time of his arrival in the northwest, in 1901, A. Eugene Wayland has been imbued with the true spirit of the pioneer. He is progressive and allows no obstacles to brook his path in carrying out the ideas and plans which he regards as essential for the country's best develop- ment. He has blazed the trail for others to follow in many sections of the Inland Empire not only in farming but also in the development of coal lands and the conduct of other business enterprises, success attending him in all of his ventures because of his determined spirit and straight-forward methods. His location on the Pacific coast, in 1901, did not prove to be a permanent one as he later had to return to the east for two years, but he never lost sight of the fact that the west held the oppor- tunity for progressive men, remembering further that Spokane had made strong ap- peal to him as the most favorable place on the coast to put into tangible form the plans which he had made for his own business development.
Washington has drawn her citizenship from all parts of the country. Every state in the Union has furnished her quota of men and Mr. Wayland is among those who have come to the northwest from Tennessee, his birth having occurred in Knox- ville, on the 13th of August, 1877. His father was William H. Wayland, a native of Virginia and a representative of an old New England family of Scotch-Irish ancestry. The grandfather of A. E. Wayland became one of the prominent settlers of eastern Tennessee, and the family established and developed many large plantations in the
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south. William H. Wayland, long connected with agricultural interests in the south, is now living retired in Knoxville. It was subsequent to his removal to that section of the country that he met and married Mary M. Goddard, who was born in Tennes- see and belonged to one of the leading pioneer families of that district. The God- dards are of French and English origin and the family was represented in the Ameri- can army during the Revolutionary war. Later representatives of the name removed from Virginia to Tennessee. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Wayland were born three sons and six daughters. The two brothers of our subject were David G. and Dwight A. Wayland. The daughters of the family are: Lillie, Anna, Edith, Mamie, Carrie and Elsie, all residents of Knoxville with the exception of the first named, who is the wife of Richard M. Caldwell, of Oklahoma City.
A. Eugene Wayland supplemented his early education by a course in the Univer- sity of Tennessee at Knoxville and in 1901, when a young man of twenty-four years, he sought the opportunities of the northwest, making his way to Tacoma where he was employed during the period that he was investigating the subject of suitable irriga- tion. He afterward returned to Chicago where he spent a year in the grocery busi- ness and on the 1st of October, 1903, settled in Spokane. Here he began operating in the real-estate field in connection with R. G. Belden and, watchful of opportunities pointing toward success, the following year he incorporated the International Devel- opment Company for the purpose of mining coal in British Columbia. The scope of their operations was also extended to include extensive farming interests in the Inland Empire and the development of some large tracts of land in southern Utah. They were likewise the pioneers in the San Juan oil fields of southern Utah which are now being extensively developed. They have very large interests there, having put down the first well in that district, since which time they have developed a number of flowing wells. They also put down the first artesian wells in San Juan county and have two flowing wells there at the present time. The business of the company has ever been of a nature which has contributed in substantial measure to growth and progress in the district where they have worked. They were the pioneers in open- ing the coal fields of the north fork of Michel Creek in the Crow's Nest country, and to facilitate the development of that property they secured a charter for build- ing a road in the valley and have partially completed a steam road, standard gauge, which when finished will be fourteen miles in length. This will enable them to mar- ket the output of their mines without difficulty. One of the salient features in Mr. Wayland's success is that he has never been afraid of earnest, hard work, and during the period when initial effort was being put forth to develop the mines, he never hesi- tated to perform any task necessary, engaging in the packing and in other labor that was helpful in advancing the projects in which they were engaged. They now have four properties there, one of them proving to be the largest coal proposition in the west, and furthermore Mr. Wayland and his associates have the distinction of open- ing up some of the largest coal measures in that district. Business is carried on under the name of The Crown Coal & Coke Company with Mr. Wayland as its secre- tary-treasurer, his associate officers being: C. L. Butterfield, of Moscow, Idaho, as president; A. Hopson, of Walla Walla, as vice president; and Charles L. Hower, second vice-president.
Any enterprising man with keen insight and sagacity recognizes the wonderful possibilities offered in the natural resources of this section of the country and does not usually confine his operations to a single field but extends his efforts to various
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activities, the tangible results of which are seen in the already splendidly improved districts. In the extension of his business connections Mr. Wayland has become inter- ested in a development company which is successfully cultivating six hundred and forty acres of land in the Alberta district, of Canada, eighteen hundred acres near Kohlotos, six hundred and forty acres near Eureka, Washington, and three hundred and twenty acres near Helix, Washington. They are also improving two fruit tracts of twenty-four acres near Milton, Oregon, which have already been brought into ex- sellent condition. Mr. Wayland is likewise interested in a fine hog ranch in Idaho, consisting of six hundred and forty acres all in alfalfa. From this ranch they sell about one thousand hogs annually. Further investment has made him one of the owners of a property of seven thousand acres in San Juan county, Utah, on which with an equipment of thirty-six head of horses and necessary machinery, a splendid wheat tract is being developed. The caterpiller engines are used and no effort or ex- pense are spared in making this one of the best wheat-producing ranches in the dis- trict. Mr. Wayland and his associates are also improving one thousand acres of fruit land in the same county, using artesian wells for irrigation, and in so doing accom- plishing a notable engineering feat, for they traced the water by means of geological formation and struck it within fifty feet of where they had believed it to be. They have also invested considerable money in the Coeur d'Alene district in development work and have holdings there at the present time.
Mr. Wayland votes with the republican party but has never taken active part in politics, owing to the demands of his varied business interests. Those who meet him socially find him a genial, courteous gentleman and he is well known to the mem- bership of the Spokane and Spokane Athletic Clubs, and also in the Chamber of Com- merce. He stands with those men to whom opportunity is ever an incentive for re- newed and persistent effort, who find pleasure in solving intricate business problems and in working out means and methods for meeting any condition that exists. With determined purpose he has steadily advanced beyond the goal of success and his operations, conducted on a mammoth scale, have constituted an important factor in the growth and development of the Inland Empire.
HENRY MICKELS.
The newspaper business is constantly attracting men from the various walks of life, many of whom find in this work a pleasant and profitable occupation. To this class belongs Henry Mickels, editor and proprietor of the Free Press of Cheney. He became identified with the publication of newspapers many years ago and is recognized as one of the thoroughly experienced and capable men in this line in the northwest. A native of Winneshiek county, lowa, he was born August 27, 1871, a son of E. and Christina Mickels. The mother died in 1873 and the father in 1901.
Mr. Mickels of this sketch was educated in the public schools of his native state. He depended very largely upon his own efforts in his boyhood in securing an education, attending school in winter and working at such occupation as he could find in summer, in order to meet the necessary expenses. He was a student of Decorah Institute of Decorah, Iowa, and the University of North Dakota. At
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the age of eighteen he began teaching school and continued as a teacher for twelve years in Traill, Cass and Grand Forks counties, North Dakota, with the exception of two years when he was a student at the University of North Dakota. He was also interested in a small newspaper at Portland for two years while teaching school and owned a paper at Northwood, North Dakota, for one year, and at Hal- stad, Minnesota, for the same length of time. In 1899 he came west to Idaho and spent two years prospecting in the mountains. However, he discovered that he was more interested in the newspaper business than in prospecting for gold and silver and, accordingly, he came to Cheney in 1902 and purchased the Sentinel and Free Press, consolidating the two papers into one publication which he has since successfully published as the Free Press.
On the 1st of November, 1901, Mr. Mickels was married in North Dakota to Miss Marie Rauk, a daughter of O. K. Rauk. Mr. Mickels is an active worker in the development of Spokane county and is a valued member of the Commercial Club of Cheney. He is also a member of the Odd Fellows and has proved himself to be eminently efficient in promoting the general welfare. He conducts his paper on a liberal and progressive basis and the popularity of the Free Press is evidence of his ability in meeting the wants of an intelligent and discriminating class of readers. Judging by the respect in which he is held by the community it is evident that he chose wisely when he selected Cheney as his home. Being a man of pleas- ing appearance and fine address, he has made many friends and ranks among the leaders of the country press of Washington.
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