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 22
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84
After attending the common schools William C. Gray continued his education in the Pacific Business College at San Francisco. He had left the Pinc Tree state when a small boy and at the age of sixteen had entered the army as a member of Company I, Fourteenth Maine Regiment. This was in the fall of 1861 and he served for nine months at Augusta, Maine, after which he was sent home on ac- count of illness. Later he made his way westward to Michigan, where for a time he was associated with E. M. Avery in the lumber business. In the winter of 1863 he crossed the plains and in the spring of the following year went to Virginia City, Montana, aiding materially in the development of that rich mining region. He helped to make the pole on which was unfurled the first American flag ever raised at the head of the famous Alder Gulch. In the fall of 1864 he went to California with Stanford and Crocker and assisted in building the old Central Pacific Railroad from Sacramento to Salt Lake. He was also engaged in the con- struction of the road from Sacramento to Redding and likewise erected the Redding Hotel by the depot just before the Modock war. During his connection with rail- road work he was assistant superintendent of construction and later was superin- tendent under General Strowbridge. He had in charge the building of the railroad from Oakland to San Leandro in 1869 and did the excavation work for the ship- yards at Oakland Point where the Alameda, El Capitan and the Oakland ferry boats were built. At the time of their construction those were the finest ferry boats in the world. Mr. Gray also took the superintendency for filling up Reclama- tion bay at Potrero, a work that lasted two years and on which one thousand men were employed. They filled in sixty acres from Townsend street in San Francisco and his work now is and has been for years part of San Francisco's busiest thor- oughfares. Mr. Gray also began the building of the Southern Pacific Railroad in each direction from Los Angeles and through the city but before completing the work had to return to Redding to enter upon work in connection with the hotel. He was prominently engaged in railroad construction for fourteen years or until 1878, when he undertook the gigantic contract of draining fourteen thousand acres of. swamp land in Shasta county for Senator Boggs, of Colusa, and A. V. Moore, of San Francisco.
Mr. Gray came to Spokane in August, 1878, and erected the first hotel in this city where the city hall now stands, remaining as its proprietor for nine years, at the end of which he leased it to S. S. Bailey and Mr. Frees, but in 1888 it was destroyed by fire. He afterward erected the Windsor Hotel which he rented to the same gentlemen until that, too, burned down on the 4th of August, 1889, in the big fire which practically wiped out the business district of Spokane on that day. After leasing his hotel Mr. Gray purchased a large farm in Stevens county, at Gray's Station, which was so named in his honor, being situated on the line of the railroad between Springdale and Valley. He spent much of his time there for
207
SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
eleven years, passing his summers on his ranch where he followed farming and stock-raising, and mining.
While a resident of Stevens county Mr. Gray became a candidate for state sen- ator on the citizen's ticket. His name had not been printed on the ticket, so he devised the plan of using stickers to serve in balloting for him. He was defeated by only one vote, holding an extensive vote which plainly indicated his personal popularity and the confidence reposed in him. There was much discussion in the party at the time. The auditor and others became engaged in a fight about the party to be printed first on the ticket. The supreme court ordered the auditor to put Mr. Gray's name on the ticket but he would not do so, claiming that he should have had ten-days notice and that as he had only had two he could not comply with the order. . He was then arrested for contempt of court but won his suit on account of the ten-days notice as required by law. It was at that election that Manse, the populist candidate, was elected by one vote.
After disposing of his interests in Stevens county, Mr. Gray came to Spokane for the purpose of building six miles of the Spokane & International Railway from Summit to Naples, nine miles from Summit to Athol and six miles from Summit to Rathdrum. He also built ten miles of the Lewiston branch of the Northern Pacific, at which time he was conducting business under the firm name of Gray & Chapman, his partner being John W. Chapman. Since then he has built a por- tion of the coal road for D. C. Corbin in British Columbia at Crow's Nest Pass. This is fourteen miles in length, of which Mr. Gray built half. In the meantime he has resided continuously in Spokane, supervising his own investments and affairs which are of an extensive and important character. He is now a director of the National Bank of Commerce and has other investments and interests. He still has a railroad building outfit at Lewiston Junction on the Snake river and will probably engage in other railway work.
In politics Mr. Gray has ever been a stalwart champion of the republican party and an active worker in its ranks. He was serving as a member of the city council when Spokane and Spokane county were organized. The county of Spokane was formed by Captain Wells of Rock Creek and Andrew Lafay of Medical Lake, and Mr. Gray was one of the first councilmen appointed by the governor to organize the city of Spokane when R. W. Forrest was mayor. While appointment called him to the office of councilman for the first term he was later reelected for a second term and four times afterward was chosen by popular suffrage for that position. The first city council was composed of: A. M. Cannon, now deceased; Jack Squires, who is engaged in mining in British Columbia; Jean Hyde, living in Santa Bar- bara, California; and Mr. Havermale, deceased. At that time roads and bridges were built by private subscription, in which manner the roads to Kalispel, Colville and Coeur d'Alene were constructed, Mr. Gray being the most liberal contributor to the project. He has always been actively and helpfully interested in. every movement for the upbuilding of the city and district and is now a cooperant factor in the work of the Chamber of Commerce in exploiting the advantages of Spokane and in furthering its interests.
In October, 1873, Mr. Gray was married to Miss Clara F. Smiley, a daughter of Foster F. and Sarah (Richardson) Smiley. The father was one of the pioneers of California and conducted business at Marysville, that state, and made his home in Indian Valley. He had been in early life a resident of Maine but had crossed
208
SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
the continent to the Golden state. One of the brothers of Mrs. Gray is W. H. Smiley, an attorney at law at Spokane, while another brother in connected with the immigration bureau at Seattle and a third brother is in Oroville, California.
Mr. Gray is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows at San Fran- cisco, connected with Lodge No. 17, which was the original Odd Fellows organiza- tion in that state, meeting in the old temple on Montgomery street, at which time Pickering, the original editor of the Call, and Ralston, of the California Bank, were both members. A life of marked activity and usefulness has brought William Chandler Gray to a prominent position among the business men of the northwest and none more rightly deserves the honor and respect accorded him than Mr. Gray. No story of fiction contains more interesting chapters than can be found in his life record but space forbids an extended account of these. He has met. all of the hardships and experiences incident to railroad building in a pioneer district and his labors have been a most important element in the reclamation and improvement of the great west.
EVAN ENOCH.
Twenty-four years ago Evan Enoch arrived in Spokane county and he may con- gratulate himself on seleeting this county as his home for here he has found friends and has also accumulated a competency. He is a native of Wales, born at Cardi- gan, Aberavon, January 25, 1865, a son of Job and Mary (Charles) Enoch. The father was born May 18, 1841, and the mother September 21, 1842. In their fam- ily were six children, all of whom are now living, the youngest being thirty-two years old. One of the sons is a Congregational minister in Wales.
Evan Enoch was educated in the common schools of his native country, con- tinuing at his studies until fourteen years of age. He then began working on a farm but at the age of nineteen, being a young man of ambition, energy and a great desire to accomplish something in the world worthy of the name, he emigrated to the United States, reaching Dakota, May 10, 1884. He spent three years at farm labor and in 1887 came to Spokane and was employed for four years on a farm near that city. In 1889 he took up his homestead near Deer Park and two years later established his residence upon his farm. Here Mr. Enoch became ac- quainted with and attached to Mr. Short and Mr. Crawford and this friendship re- sulted in his becoming one of the Short & Crawford Lumber Company, their minds all running in the same channel. Afterward the company became the Standard Lumber Company and he was elected vice president and director and he is taking an active part in the latter concern. These positions he still holds. The company is one of the most flourishing organizations of the kind in Spokane county. He is also vice president of the First State Bank of Deer Park and owns consid- erable property in Deer Park and vicinity.
On the 23d of January, 1901, Mr. Enoch was married to Miss Alice Hopkins, a daughter of Brayton Hopkins, record of whom appears elsewhere in this work. To Mr. and Mrs. Enoch five children have been born, Mary E., Grace H., Ruth L., Blodwen M. and Aliee L. Mr. Enoch takes the interest of an intelligent and wide-awake citizen in public affairs and in the selection of competent men for office. He votes in support of the republican party and is now serving with gen-
209
SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
eral acceptance as councilman of Deer Park. He is a firm believer in the Bible and is a consistent member of the Congregational church. Having early become imbued with high ideals, he made a favorable start in his contact with the world and is known as one of the reliable and straightforward men whose word may be implicitly accepted and whose influence is always exerted in behalf of the best interests of the community. He believes in the practical application of the Golden Rule in all the affairs of life and as he is strictly honorable in his dealings, he truly merits the gratifying success with which his efforts have been crowned.
JARED A. ROCHFORD.
Jared A. Rochford, who is one of the able representatives of the legal profes- sion in Colville, has been a resident of this city for the past fourteen years. A native of Kankakee, Illinois, his birth occurred on February 16, 1860, his parents being Michael and Lydia A. (Bellamy) Rochford. His father, who was a veteran of the Civil war, during the first two years of the Rebellion was a member of Company I, Michigan Volunteers, but later he joined Company D, First United States Cavalry and was an aide-de-camp to General Sheridan. He saw much active service, participated in thirty-eight conflicts, among them being many of the notable battles of the war. Mr. Rochford passed away in 1894. The mother of our subject was a woman of rare culture and education, and a distant relative of the well known American author, Edward Bellamy, whose book "Looking Back- ward" created quite a sensation about eighteen years ago. Mrs. Rochford was a physician and well known in Kansas, where she was actively engaged in the prac- tice of her profession until her death in 1908.
The education of Jared A. Rochford was begun in the public schools of Michi- gan but was completed in those of Kansas, to which state he accompanied his par- ents, who located there during his early youth. He graduated from the high school at Abilene, in 1882, and very soon thereafter took a position with the Santa Fe Railroad Company, working for them at intervals for the next three years. At the same time he was preparing himself for the legal profession by attending pri- vate law classes until admitted to the bar in 1885. Immediately thereafter he became associated with John D. Hayes, an attorney of Oberlin and they practiced together during the next three years under the firm name of Hayes & Rochford. Mr. Rochford severed his connection at the end of that time and came to Washing- ton and in the fall of 1888 he located in North Yakima as a member of the firm of Rochford, Jones & Newman. Upon his clection to the office of prosecuting attor- ney of Yakima county in 1890 the partnership was dissolved, but he resumed his practice when he withdrew from public life four years later, remaining a resident of North Yakima until 1897. He then removed to Colville and formed a partner- ship with Messrs. Nordike and Stayt, their business being conducted under the name of Nordike, Rochford & Stayt. Two years later Mr. Rochford withdrew from this connection and began practicing alone, which he has ever since continued to do. He is an able representative of his profession and during the period of his residence here has most efficiently filled the chair of prosecuting attorney of Stevens county, having been the incumbent of this office during the years 1907 and 1908.
210
SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
North Yakima was the scene of the marriage of Mr. Rochford, on June 10, 1894, to Miss Nellie L. Stedman, a daughter of Charles R. Stedman. Five children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Rochford: Claire, who is deceased; Ruth; Ynez ; Rose M .; and Jared A. They own one of the most beautiful residences in Col- ville, over which Mrs. Rochford presides in a most charming manner, graciously extending the hospitality of their home to their many friends.
A stanch democrat in his political views Mr. Rochford was a delegate to the state convention in Spokane in 1909 and he has many times represented his district at county conventions. He is a worthy exemplar of the Masonic fraternity, being a past master of the blue lodge, while he was one of a commission of five sent by the Grand Lodge of Washington to the World's Masonic Congress at Chicago in 1893. He is a member of the Modern Woodmen of America and also belongs to the Knights of Pythias, being a past chancellor, by courtesy. Mr. Rochford has been very successful in his practice and in addition to his fine residence owns the ground and building where his office is located. He is held in high regard in Col- ville both by reason of his professional ability and because of his high standard of citizenship and constant effort to promote the best interests of the town, county and state on every possible occasion.
ADELBERT M. DEWEY
Adelbert M. Dewey was born in Lewis county, New York, in 1857, the son of Milton and Permelia (Riggs) Dewey, his father being a country schoolmaster and 'squire of the village in which he lived. At the age of six he moved with his parents to Binghamton in the same state, where he attended the public schools un- til fourteen years of age, when he was indentured as an apprentice to learn the printing and newspaper business in the office of the Broome Republican, being asso- ciated with the two men who later organized what is now known as the Associated Press. After five years work as apprentice and journeyman, the future Spokane business man travelled extensively over the country, working in most of the larger cities as a newspaper and job compositor, in both of which he is said to have been highly skilled as a workman. Later he settled in the city of Detroit, where he be- came the proprietor of a publishing house and edited and published several trade and technical journals.
When quite a young man, Mr. Dewey became an active student and writer on economic subjects. This led him to engage in what was at that time called the "reform movement," and he was associated with T. V. Powderly and others in the Knights of Labor and kindred organizations having for their object the uplift- ing of humanity. He edited the Journal of United Labor at Philadelphia, and gave to that paper a position second to no other in the economic field, with a greater weekly circulation than all others of its class in the United States com- bined, reaching more than five hundred thousand persons with each issne. Mr. Dewey was also an active official of the Typographical Union for many years, and is still a firm believer in the men who do the work of the world, but thinks they should organize and meet changing conditions with changed methods, and that the workers should do their striking on election day and at the ballot box.
A. M. DEWEY
213
SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
The temperance reform movement always found an aggressive supporter in the student printer, and he was for two years the high chief ruler of the Order of Recabites in North America, traveling extensively as a lecturer on temperance and other subjects.
In 1884 Mr. Dewey retired from all these various activities and entered the public service at Washington as an expert in the field service of the department of labor. His labors brought him to the state of Washington, and he early determined to make Spokane his future home. On the occasion of his first visit to the Inland Em- pire Mr. Dewey invested heavily in a copper mining prospect in Okanogan county and later came here to take over the management of the corporation, purchasing a home on Cannon Hill. His activities since coming to Spokane include the promo- tion of the Okanogan Electric Railway, the Okanogan Irrigation & Improvement Company, the management for five years of the Q. S. Mining Company, besides being a director in several other industrial enterprises operating in Spokane. At the time of this writing Mr. Dewey is also the proprietor of the Alexandria Hotel, a select family hotel in the residence district of Spokane.
In fraternal circles Mr. Dewey is an active member of the Masonic Order and Elks, and is an advocate of the spirit of fraternity as an antidote for the tendency of the day toward commercialism in all things. He is a man of family, with a son of thirty and a daughter eleven years of age.
WILLIAM W. PALMER.
William W. Palmer is one of the substantial citizens of Bossburg, where he has extensive property interests and is also conducting a general mercantile busi- ness. He was born in Morgan county, Indiana, on the 26th of February, 1862, and is a son of William L. and Esther (Asher) Palmer. The father passed away in 1891, but the mother is still living at the venerable age of seventy-four years.
When William W. Palmer was a small lad he was taken to Kansas, to whose public schools he is indebted for his education. At the age of fifteen his student days were terminated and during the succeeding twenty years he worked at farm- . ing in Missouri, Kansas, Washington and Oregon. He first became a resident of Washington in 1882, when he settled in the vicinity of Walla Walla, where he resided for two years. At the end of that time he removed to Oregon, and there engaged in farming for six years. His next removal was to Spokane, where for a year he was identified with the wood business. In 1896 he located in Clayton, this county, and worked in the lumber camps for nine months, when he withdrew from this occupation to enter the service of the Spokane Falls & Northern Railroad Company. While in their employ he worked in the capacity of section foreman, extra gang foreman and roadmaster, all along their line. He gave up the railroad service on July 15, 1908, and came to Bossburg, where he has been operating a ranch and conducting a general mercantile business ever since. Mr. Palmer has been very successful, and since settling here has acquired quite extensive property interests. He owns a fine ranch of fifty acres, that is well improved and under high cultivation, and some residence and business property in the town. He is president of the Palmer Trading Company, the stock of which is all held by him-
Vol 1-11
214
SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
self and wife and a Mr. Richardson. His rise in the business world is the culmina- tion of long years of persistent effort and tireless energy. He has encountered many defeats and hardships but he does not belong to the type of mankind whose ambition is killed by reverses, but on the contrary they only proved incentives to greater effort.
Bossburg was the scene of Mr. Palmer's marriage to Miss Clara Clowe, a daughter of J. W. Clowe, on the 17th of September, 1901, and they have become the parents of one daughter, Marjorie, who is attending school. Mrs. Palmer, who is a native of Canada, was left an orphan at a very early age, her mother having died at her birth, while her father passed away a short time afterward. His death occurred in Australia, where he had been commissioned on some official business by the British government. She has a brother who is a veteran of the Spanish-Amer- ican war. He has extensive interests in China, where for some time he was sta- tioned as a vice consul of the United States government, and at present he is inter- ested in the American Importing Company, which has headquarters in Peking, China. She also has a brother, Robert Clowe, who is a locomotive engineer in Australia, living in a suburb of Melbourne.
Fraternally Mr. Palmer is an Odd Fellow and has passed through all of the chairs. At the present time he is financial secretary of Bossburg Lodge, No. 104. He takes an active interest in the development of Stevens county, as well as in promoting the progress of Bossburg, and is an enthusiastic member of the Commer- cial Club. His political views accord with the principles of the republican party, and he is now acting as commissioner from the second district of Stevens county, having entered upon the duties of this office in 1910. In the same year he was a delegate to the state convention at Tacoma, and he has several times represented his party at the county conventions. He is one of the estimable citizens of the town, who can always be depended upon to meet his obligations in both public and private life, as has been manifested during the period of his residence.
HON. JACOB HOOVER.
Hon. Jacob Hoover left the impress of his individuality upon the public life of Spokane and the state of Washington as an eminent lawyer, a successful banker and a public-spirited legislator. Moreover he was numbered among the pioneer residents of this city, having come to Spokane in 1882 when this district was largely undeveloped and the population of the city numbered but a few hundred. He is, however, a western man by birth as well as by training and preference. He was born in Washington county, Oregon, February 9, 1846, a son of Jacob and Matilda Hoover. His father was one of the earliest residents of the Pacific coast who came to this section from the east. He made an overland trip in 1842-six or seven years prior to the time when the discovery of gold in California brought so many people to the west. He took up his abode in Washington county, Oregon, where he secured a homestead and cultivated the same, carrying on general agri- cultural pursuits. Only a comparatively few years before had the expedition of Lewis and Clark opened this territory to immigration, and he found here a district in which the Indians were far more numerous than the white settlers and in which
215
SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
it seemed that the seeds of civilization had scarcely been planted. Since that time members of the Hoover family have been active in promoting the material devel- opment and progress of the northwest.
Jacob Hoover pursued his education in the district schools, but advantages at that time were very meager and when he had mastered the branches of learning taught in his home district, he sought opportunity elsewhere, going to the Pacific University, from which he was graduated with the class of 1866. In 1868 he went to Olympia, Washington, where for a short time he engaged in teaching school, and during that time among his pupils was the lady who afterward became his wife. He regarded school teaching, however, merely as an initial step to other profes- sional labor and in preparation for the bar began reading law under the direction of the Hon. Elwood Evans, who directed his studies until 1869, when he was ad- mitted to practice at Olympia, Washington. He then opened an office at Steila- coom, Washington, where he followed his profession for several years. At the same time he became deeply interested in the political situation of the country and fearlessly espoused the democratic cause, and upon the party ticket was elected, in 1874, to represent Pierce county in the state legislature. That his first term received the indorsement of the general public was indicated by his reelection in 1876, but he did not serve on account of removing from that district. He then located in Colfax, Washington, where in 1878 he opened a law office. It was not long before he had become prominent as a party leader in that section and in 1880 was elected to the legislature from Whitman county. His reelection followed in 1882 but again he failed to serve for a second term because of his removal from the state.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.