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 16
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LAUCHLIN MACLEAN.
Lauchlin MacLean, commencing his career as a railroad man, in which connec- tion he won success, and advancing from that into the real-estate field, is now a leading factor in the development and sale of irrigated lands, being today one of the best known and most prominent irrigationists of the west. He has not con- fined his efforts alone to Spokane and vicinity but has also promoted many other projects throughout the Inland Empire and if, as has been often stated, "that man is blessed who makes two blades of grass grow where one had grown," Mr. Mac- Lean has contributed much to general progress and has merited the prosperity which has crowned his own labors. He was born in Tyne Valley, Prince Edward Island, July 24, 1856. His parents, Donald and Sarah (Ellis) Maclean, were also natives of that island, the former born near Port Hill and the latter at Bed- ford, of Scotch and English descent respectively. The MacLean family went to Prince Edward Island from Mull, Scotland, and Donald Maclean became a very prominent and influential citizen there, serving as one of the three judges of that district, a judgeship in that locality being equivalent to a seat on the superior court bench in the United States. He was also very active in the Presbyterian church, in which he served as a deacon and treasurer for thirty years. He died in 1891 and the same year his wife passed away. Her family were shipbuilders and went to Prince Edward Island from Bedford, England. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Don- ald MacLean were horn five sons and eight daughters: William, a farmer living at Northam, Prince Edward Island; Hugh, a farmer of that locality; James Ed-
LAUCHLIN MACLEAN
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ward, an agriculturist of Tyne Valley; Dan, living on the old family homestead : Emily, the wife of Alexander McArthur, a farmer of Northam; Mary Ann, the wife of Lauchlin McNevin, a tanner and harness manufacturer of Tyne Valley; Rachael, whose husband, Mr. Horn, is a farmer of Elmsdale, Prince Edward Island; Maggie, Mina and Minerva, all of whom married farmers on Prince Ed- ward Island; and Mrs. Caroline McAusland and Sarah Horn, both deceased.
The other son of the family is Lauchlin Maclean, who was educated in the public schools of his native isle and until he reached the age of fifteen years re- mained on the old homestead. He then worked as water boy for a contractor on the Prince Edward Island Railway, which was then being built, and subsequently he spent three years as a stone cutter and builder, thoroughly acquainting himself with the trade during that period. When the road was completed hc had charge of a section as foreman for three years and then came to the west. He spent two years with an engineering party on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad at Beatrice, Nebraska, after which he proceeded to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and obtained a position as brakeman on the Union Pacific Railroad, being thus employed for six months. Later he was promoted to the position of conductor and ran a train on that line for two and a half years.
Mr. Maclean became connected with the Northern Pacific Railroad Company at the time when the eastern terminus of the west end of its line was just east of what is now Plains, Montana, and was one of the first conductors during its con- struction. Following the completion of the line he ran a passenger train on the Montana division until the company started to build its line from Pasco to Ellens- burg. He acted as conductor of the construction train connected with laying the track from Kiona to Ellensburg, after which he retired from railroad service. Dur- ing the succeeding two years he was general agent for the Home Accident Company of San Francisco for the territory of Washington and at the end of that time formed a partnership with Major Fred R. Reed, now of southern Idaho, in the real-estate and insurance business at North Yakima, entering that field in 1886. The town was owned by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company and he had full charge of the town site and all the Northern Pacific lands in that district. In February, 1890, he came to Spokane, arriving here shortly after the fire.
In this city Mr. Maclean entered the real-estate business, in which he contin- ued for two years, but the "wanderlust" was not yet satisfied and he removed to Chelan Falls in what was then Okanogan county. There he laid out the town site of Chelan Falls, remaining at that place until the autumn of 1900, during which period he not only managed the town site and conducted his real-estate inter- ests but also owned the hotel, the ferry boat and in addition occupied his super- fluous energies in managing his stock ranch near Chelan Falls. He still owns the stock ranch of one thousand acres. In November, 1900, Mr. MacLean removed to Wenatchee and acted as agent for the Northern Pacific land department, . selling land in Chelan and Douglas counties. In 1901 he promoted the high line ditch at Wenatchee, an immense irrigation project covering at that time eight thousand acres. In June, 1903, he returned to Spokane, organized the Spokane Canal Com- pany and promoted what is now the famous Otis Orchards, one of the garden spots of the Inland Empire and destined to be one of the greatest producing centers of the northwest. He continued as president and general manager of the company until April 24, 1911, and in the development of that project six thousand acres Vol. II- 8
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were irrigated. Since coming to Spokane he has also organized the Methow Canal Company and built the high line canal of the Methow valley, which covers four thousand acres. Three years ago, in 1908, he formed a partnership with Harry L. Irwin, of Chicago, and purchased the Fruit Land Irrigation Company at Kettle Falls and completed the last nineteen miles of ditch line. He is still president of that company, whose line waters eight thousand acres of land. In June, 1910, he bought out the Garden Valley Irrigation Company and still owns that system in Ferry county, on the west side of the Columbia river, near Kettle Falls, irrigating in that connection four thousand acres. Mr. Maclean has closely studied the sub- ject of irrigation and his efforts have been a most practical element in the devel- opment of the Inland Empire in the reclamation of wild lands and the conversion of arid tracts into regions of productivity. Mr. Maclean is also well and widely . known in connection with farming and ranching interests, being now president of the Sheep Creek Land Company, which planted one thousand acres in Stevens county to alfalfa and put in a complete irrigating system to cover it. On his ranch up the Columbia river which he still owns he has two hundred acres under irriga- tion by means of the gravity and pump system. He is also interested in other companies-all irrigation enterprises of great importance and all under develop- ment. The soil of this region is naturally very fertile and the only thing required is the water supply to make the land extremely fruitful. Recognizing these facts, Mr. Maclean has promoted many projects to bring about the desired results and his labors are attended with success. His efforts have not only brought him financial reward but have constituted a most important factor in the development of this section of the state, the entire public being thus indirectly benefited owing to the fact that emigration is constantly attracted to this section and thus values in all lines of business are advanced.
Home life, social interests and political activity have all had their place in the life of Mr. Maclean. He was married January 15, 1888, to Miss Laura G. Stone, a daughter of Nathan N. Stone, of Vicksburg, Mississippi, and her grand- mother was a first cousin of Horace Greeley. They now have one son, Donald, who was born February 22, 1904, and resides with his parents at their home at Otis Orchards. Mr. MacLean has always voted with the republican party and has been very active in its support, deeming its principles most potent forces in good government. He has been a delegate to various conventions, both county and state, principally from Douglas, Chelan and Okanogan counties. He has always assisted materially in all elections and takes a keen interest in the growth and success of his party. Fraternally he is a Mason, having been made a member of Alexander Lodge, No. 5, Prince Edward Island, under the Grand Lodge of England. He later demitted to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and afterward became a charter member of the lodge under dispensation at North Yakima, which afterward was consolidated and became Lodge No. 24, of North Yakima. He demitted from there to join Lodge No. 34, of Spokane, after the reorganization following the great fire, and became one of the charter members of the Masonic lodge at Wenatchee. His membership is now in Oriental Lodge, No. 71, Spokane, and he is also a Royal Arch Mason, while both he and his wife are connected with the Order of the Eastern Star. He likewise holds membership with the Knights of Pythias at Wenatchee, was the first president of the Eagles there and is still a member of the acrie. His membership relations with the Elks is in Everett, Washington. he
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being the first Elk from the central part of this state to place his membership there. He belongs also to the Spokane Club and is a valued member of several organizations which have for their object the advancement and development of the northwest and the exploitation of its resources and opportunities. He belongs to the Chamber of Commerce, of which he was a director for six and a half years but resigned in 1910. He has been a director of the National Apple Show since its organization and was also chairman of the Spokane county committee of the Alaska-Yukon Exposition at Seattle. He has attended six national irrigation con- gresses and by reason of the extent and importance of his business along that line his opinions have largely come to be regarded as authority concerning irrigation projects. The influence and benefit of his work are inestimable and the worth of his service no one doubts, as he has taken cognizance of the conditions and needs of this part of the country and in meeting the latter has contributed in large measure to the development of the country which is fast rivaling any section of this broad land in its productiveness.
FRED FLINT.
In Fred Flint Spokane has a citizen who possesses remarkably keen sagacity and foresight and when others were holding vacillating opinions concerning future values he boldly supported his own views and never lost an opportunity to invest in real estate in this city. With intuitive perception and wisdom he selected the right locality and his keen judgment has been proved in the constantly increasing valuation of his property. Moreover, he is one of the few who came through the never-to-be-forgotten period of financial depression in 1893 without losing a dol- lar, although he carried heavily mortgaged property before the pressure ceased. With the return of better days, however, he was able to release his property from mortgages and is today the owner of valuable realty interests, largely handling his own property in the conduct of his present extensive and growing real-estate business.
Mr. Flint is one of New England's native sons, his birth having occurred in Troy, Vermont, May 22, 1856. His parents were Fred and Elvira (Richardson) Flint, the former of Irish and the latter of Scotch descent. There were three brothers of the name of Flint who came from Ireland and took part in the Revolu- tionary war, one settling in Vermont, another in Maine, and a third in Massachu- setts. It is from the Vermont branch of the family that Fred Flint of this review is descended. His father was for many years engaged in the hotel business in the Green Mountain state and owned the stage line which in early days ran through Vermont. He was also engaged in farming and was thus active in business in his locality for many years. He died in 1885, while his wife, surviving for three years, passed away in 1888. It was her grandfather who established the Richard- son family on American soil. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Fred Flint, Sr., were born three sons, of whom Frank J. is now in business with his brother Fred in Spokane, while Albert is living on the old home farm in Newport, Vermont.
In the public schools of his native state Fred Flint of this review pursued his education and when he left New England, in 1877, he went to California, believ- ing that he might have better opportunities upon the less thickly settled and more
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rapidly growing Pacific coast. He secured a position as clerk with Kelley Broth- ers, a mercantile house in San Francisco, with which he remained for two years, and subsequently he went to San Diego, California. At that time the California Southern Railway was being built and he secured a position with the company as commissary, continuing in that employ for eighteen months, when the road was sold to the Southern Pacific. He then returned to San Francisco where he spent the succeeding year, after which he removed to Seattle, where, in 1882, he opened a real-estate office. Three years later he came to Spokane and instantly became a factor in real-estate circles here. He was first associated with Fred B. Grinnell, in 1886, with whom he was connected for eight months. He then started out inde- pendently and has since been alone. In 1908 he organized the business under the name of the Flint Investment Company, for the purpose of conducting a general real-estate business, and in the intervening period he has negotiated many of the most important property transfers that have occurred in the history of the city. Some of his deals have been particularly interesting. In 1887 he purchased a lot on the south side of Front street, between Bernard and Browne, for which he paid forty-five hundred dollars. It was improved with a brick residence and later he removed another house to the same lot. In 1909 he there erected a brick hotel, fifty by one hundred and forty-two feet, and four stories in height, after which he leased it for ten years at one thousand dollars per month, thus receiving for the entire decade one hundred and twenty thousand dollars. The building cost him thirty-two thousand dollars and is now paying him seven per cent interest on one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. It is called the B. M. & R. Hotel. Another one of the business transactions which indicates Mr. Flint's keen sagacity and capable management had its beginning in 1885, when he purchased two lots, one hundred by one hundred and forty-two feet, on the southeast corner of Front and Browne streets for five thousand dollars. In thirty days he sold of this fifty by one hundred feet on the alley for seventeen hundred and fifty dollars, and a portion fifty by ninety-two feet, on the inside, facing on Front street, for seven- teen hundred and fifty dollars, reserving the remainder, fifty by ninety-two feet on that eorner, fifteen hundred dollars representing his investment for that corner. In 1910 his wisdom in reserving the corner was indicated when he refused fifty thousand dollars eash for the property-a notable inerease over the fifteen hundred dollar investment. In 1902 he purchased the southwest corner of Sprague avenue and Ivy street, securing a tract, one hundred and fifty by one hundred and seven feet, for seven hundred and seventy-five dollars. In the spring of 1910 he was offered and refused twenty-five thousand dollars, such had been the increase in valuation in the short space of eight years. In 1904 he purchased the southwest corner of Second avenue and Arthur streets, securing one hundred by one hundred and forty-two fret for four hundred and twenty-five dollars, and in February, 1911, he refused sixty-five hundred dollars for this property. He has made many similar investments throughout the city with a corresponding inerease in values and al- though in the panic of 1893 he was carrying about thirty thousand dollars' worth of property on which was a mortgage of eight thousand dollars, he managed to pass through the troublous times without suffering any loss. He is now president of the Flint Investment Company, Incorporated, and his position as a leading busi- ness man and safe investor has long since been demonstrated.
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On the 2d of April, 1890, Mr. Flint was united in marriage to Miss Alice L. Gray, a daughter of Captain Mark Gray, of Boxport, Maine. Mr. Flint belongs to the Independent Order of Foresters, also to the Spokane Club and the Inland Club. He is likewise a member of the Chamber of Commerce and in politics is a republican but has never found time to put aside business cares even for a brief moment to enter actively into politics. When he left New England he was com- paratively without financial interests, having little more than was necessary to bring him to the coast. Today he is numbered among Spokane's capitalists and his record indicates what may be accomplished through the wisc use of time and opportunities when enterprise, industry and intelligence form the basis of success.
ZACH STEWART.
Zach Stewart is a faithful custodian of the public funds and since 1909 has filled the office of county treasurer, his reelection coming to him as the expression of pub- lic faith and confidence on the part of his fellow townsmen. He was born in Miami county, Ohio, October 19, 1864, a son of Er. and Eliza (Gephart) Stewart, who were likewise natives of the Buckeye state and are now residents of Pine Village, Indiana. The father is descended from an old North Carolina family, whose estab- lishment in America antedates the Revolutionary war, Scotch colonists of the name having come to the new world and founded the family on this side of the Atlantic. The father of our subject was a soldier of the Civil war and for many years followed farming but is now living retired. His wife belonged to an old family of Hollandish origin that was also established in America in colonial days. Her father was a resi- dent of Pennsylvania before his removal to Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart became the parents of three sons and two daughters: Zach; Joseph A., who is deputy county auditor of Spokane; William, a farmer of Troy, Ohio; Mary, the wife of Harry Mc- Kenzic, who follows farming near Attica, Indiana; and Mabel, the wife of A. J. Mckenzie, of Chicago.
In the common schools of Warren county, Indiana, Zach Stewart acquired his early education and afterward attended De Pauw University, at Greencastle, In- diana. He was reared to farm life, early becoming familiar with the duties and labors incident to the devolpment of the fields. He afterward took up the profession of teaching in Warren county, Indiana, and to that work devoted his energies until he came to Spokane in April, 1889. He at once became identified with educational interests here, serving one year as principal of the Spangle school, but in 1891 left the schoolroom to establish a grain business at Plaza, Washington. In the fall of 1894 he was elected superintendent of schools of Spokane county, which position he acceptably filled until 1897. He then became a teacher in the city schools of Spokane and was thus identified with the educational interests of the city until 1903, serving for four years of that time as principal of the Garfield school. In 1903 he was elected county auditor and served until 1907, after which he spent about two years in farming. In 1909 he was elected county treasurer and in the fall of 1910 was reelected for a two-years' term, his incumbency in the office to continue until January, 1913.
Mr. Stewart is a republican, active in the ranks of the party and has been a delc- gate to the county convention. Some idea of the high regard in which he is held by
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his party may be gathered from the fact that at the last election there was no oppo- sition in the nominating convention and practically no opposition at the polls, the democrats placing no name upon their ticket as a candidate for office. For four years Mr. Stewart has served as a member of the city board of education. His in- terest in the public schools is unfaltering and his efforts have been of a practical and tangible character in promoting the welfare and progress of the schools and in raising the standard of public instruction.
On the 7th of April, 1891, Mr. Stewart was married to Miss Annie Jackson, who lived near Pine City, Whitman county, her father, John Jackson, having been a pioneer farmer there, dating his residence in that locality from 1877. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart are the parents of five children: Harriet, at home; Mabel, Donald, Mary and Margaret, all of whom are attending school. The family attend the Vin- cent Methodist Episcopal church and Mr. Stewart is an exemplary representative of the Masonic fraternity, holding membership in Tyrian Lodge No. 96, A. F. & A. M., of which he is a past master. He is likewise a member of Red Cross Lodge, K. P., and a past chancellor commander. He has been honored with election in the In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows, being a past noble grand of Samaritan Lodge No. 52. He belongs to the Spokane Athletic Club and is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, in which organization are gathered the representative men of the city who desire to promote public progress and who uphold the principles and projects that work for the continuous and substantial growth of the city.
JOHN A. NEAVILLE.
The veterans of the Civil war who willingly risked their lives in defense of the Union are entitled to the gratitude of all lovers of liberty. Their numbers are each year diminishing but their deeds will stand out more gloriously in proportion as the years descend into eternity. Of the old soldiers now living in Spokane county John A. Neaville, of Deer Park, is one of the most favorably known. He is a native of Council Hill, Jo Daviess county, Illinois, and was born January 31, 1844. His father, John D. Neaville, died in 1853, and his mother, whose maiden name was Maria L. Meredith, passed away in 1846. The father was of good pioneer stock and participated in the Black Hawk war under Captain Abraham Lincoln, afterward the great war president of the United States. The grandfather of our subject on the maternal side was also a fighter and served as major in the United States army.
Mr. Neaville of this review received his early education in the common schools of Wisconsin and subsequently became a student of Tafton Academy and was graduated from that institution. In response to the call for men to protect the flag, he enlisted in the Civil war in Company F, Tenth and Forty-ninth Wisconsin Volunteers, and performed his duty in the field for three years, participating in many of the impor- tant battles and movements of the war. During this time he learned many lessons which can be acquired only by contact with men and which had an important effect in shaping his character. He became a school teacher and taught for twenty-two years in Wisconsin, also serving for four years as treasurer of Grant county. In 1893, having heard of the great development which was taking place in the north- west, he came to Spokane, Washington, and maintained an office as pension attorney for five years and for three years was superintendent of the county poor. In 1901
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he located in Deer Park as pension attorney, but after three years went to Colville, where he spent a short time, and then returned to Deer Park. Here he has been appearing in behalf of clients in the justice courts and for three years past he has filled the office of justice of the peace, discharging its duties in a manner that meets the hearty approval of the best people of the community.
On the 14th of September, 1875, Squire Neaville was married at Potosi, Wiscon- sin, to Miss Myra Goodrich, a daughter of David Goodrich. To this union four children have been born: Anna, who is married to Roy R. Grove; James D., who married Sarah Crowel; Libby M., who is now Mrs. O. L. Olson; and J. Rae, who married Miss Flora Ellsworth. Squire Neaville is an earnest advocate of the repub- lican party and has served as delegate to county, state and congressional conventions. He was one of the delegates in Wisconsin, who first presented Robert M. La Fol- lette, of Wisconsin, for important public office. Fraternally he is identified with the Masonic order and also with the Grand Army of the Republic. He is an attendant of the Congregational church and is a generous contributor to religious and all other worthy causes. As a young man he was a true soldier and in all his acts as a citi- zen he has aimed faithfully to discharge his duties to his state and to his fellowmen. He ranks today among the most respected citizens of Spokane county-a position he has earned by a life of unselfishness and willing service in behalf of others.
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