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 38
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At that time all the old trading-house buildings were there and William Brown and Marcus Oppenheimer were conducting stores at that point, the town of Marcus being named after the latter. It was about this time that Mr. Norman wrote a series of letters to the Oregonian concerning the legendary lore of the Columbia which attracted wide attention.
In the fall of 1884 the old Dominion mine was discovered and Frank Moore put in a milling plant at the Gold Hill mine in the valley. Thirty or forty Chinese camps were washing gold on the Columbia and all this in connection with the Silver King discovery, at Nelson, British Columbia, attracted an immense amount of attention to the district. The steamer took up a great number of people to Nelson and in fact the Kootenai became a most important factor in the develop- ment of the northwest through the transportation of freight and passengers. In the year previous to this the Blue Bell mine was discovered at Kootenai Lake and this was the first great quartz mineral discovery of the Kootenais. This mine was the Indians' paint store, where were secured the cosmetic colors used to adorn and vivify the glories of the Hiawatha. In 1884 this property was ac- quired by the Ainsworths and it was here that Hammell, the Cornish miner, who had been put in charge of the prospect, was murdered by Sproule, who had put forth a claim in the ownership of the property. Sproule was chased by the British government in one of the most spectacular man hunts of western history and was finally caught, tried and hung in the year 1885.
After shipping had ceased for the winter Mr. Norman came to Spokane in October, 1885, and practiced stenography in the courts of Cheney, where he re- ported all important cases. Prominent members of the bar at that time were Frank Graves, W. C. Jones, Tom Griffiths, F. A. Bettis, John B. Allen, James McNaught, W. R. Andrews, L. B. Nash and J. J. Browne. In the following spring William S. Norman formed a partnership with A. A. Newberry, whose story of the west is one of the most interesting of the Inland Empire. They handled Northern Pacific land and Mr. Norman became assistant secretary to Messrs. Newberry & Cannon and Paul F. Moore in the organization of Spokane's first railway-the Spokane & Palouse. For a year he served as private secretary and at the same time looked after the land business, but as it developed he left the railway service and opened an office in the Hyde block on Riverside avenue. In the fall of 1886 Charles Hop- kins, who had built the system of telephone lines through the Palouse country, largely to aid him in the conduct of two or three newspapers which he owned, or- dered the equipment of a telephone exchange in Spokane. Unable to prosecute the scheme he sold out to Mr. Norman and S. Z. Mitchell, the latter now one of the heads of the General Electric industry of America, Burt Nichols, owner of the Nichols block on Riverside, and Lieutenant Sparling. This new company built the exchange in the front part of the real-estate office in the Hyde block, starting business with forty subscribers. In the next few months Mr. Norman bought out the other members of the company and secured an old government line from Spokane to Coeur d'Alene city and the Coeur d'Alene mountains, thus giving the mines their telephone connection with the outside world. When D. C. Corbin built the narrow gauge road in 1887 Mr. Norman equipped the line with the first copper wire used in the northwest. Mr. Norman and Mr. C. B. Hopkins bought the gov- ernment line to Fort Spokane in 1887 and, in 1889, consolidated their interests
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under the name of the Inland Telephone & Telegraph Company, extending lines in various directions and including connection with Portland.
Three years before the Edison Illuminating Company with a capital of sixty thousand dollars had a station at the back of the Clark & Curtis and Post mills on the site now occupied by the upper station plant of the Washington Water Power Company. At the time the president of the latter was William Pettit, and the general factotum was Frank O'Connor. Jack Fiskin, who is still with the company, was engineer and electrician, while Frank R. Moore, J. D. Sherwood, Henry M. Hoyt and Fred Chamberlin were stockholders. In the spring of 1887 Mr. Norman purchased stock at the solicitation of Frank R. Moore and became more or less actively interested in the operation. The power plant was very small and the water was often very scarce, and with the approval of his partners Mr. Norman started in to get power, which they then believed would be big enough for all time. In 1888 he secured option on all the power west of Post street and east of Monroe street at a cost of about four hundred and eighty-five thousand dollars, including the Clark & Curtis and the Post mills, forming the Washington Water Power Company for the purpose of acquiring this property. There were eight members to this company and the stock was divided into eight parts. The incor- porators were: Frank R. Moore, president; J. D. Sherwood, vice president and treasurer ; William S. Norman, secretary and general manager; John W. Chapman, Cyrus Burns, Herbert Bolster, Henry Brock and William Pettit. They bought the property from E. C. Brickell, J. J. Brown, Clark & Curtis, the St. Paul & Spokane Water Power Company, represented by Mr. Pettit and one or two others. In the fall of 1889 the Washington Water Power Company bought out the Edison Electric Illuminating Company and made its connection with A. A. Lowe and W. A. White, of Brooklyn, New York, whose families now own the controlling interest in the Washington Water Power Company, for funds to construct the dam across the river and the station building at the foot of Monroe street. The work was well in hand when the great fire of 1889 occurred. Within two hours the entire tele- phone system was wrecked but the fire missed the small power station with which the Edison Company was supplying power although it burned down all the poles and the distributing system.
At that time the street railway service comprised horse cars on Riverside avenue, owned by J. J. Browne and A. M. Cannon, which ran out to the Browne addition and back around the Cannon addition. There was a partially completed electric street railway known as the Ross Park street railway and extending out Main street from Ross Park, with G. B. Dennis as the principal factor. The Spokane cable railway had partially built a cable railway including the Monroe street bridge, extending from Monroe up Boone street to Natatorium Park and to the ground across the river on which is now located the army post. Frank R. Moore, Herbert Bolster, J. D. Sherwood, Henry Brook and some of the other large shareholders in the Washington Water Power Company were promoters and shareholders of this road. The fire naturally brought on consolidation: It resulted in the formation of the Inland Telephone & Telegraph Company and the Hopkins & Norman Tele- phone systems being all consolidated into one holding company, and a half interest in the company was sold to the Sunset Telephone & Telegraph Company which then controlled and is still controlling the Pacific states telephone interests of the American Bell Telephone Company. The street railways, owing to their fire losses,
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needed help and a plan was perfected whereby the Spokane cable railway stock- holders purchased the interests of the Spokane street railway owned by Messrs. Cannon and Browne, and a program of electrifying the system was inaugurated. In the spring of 1892 the Washington Water Power Company increased its capital and having previously bought out the Edison Electric Illuminating Company, ac- quired also the properties of the Spokane Cable Railway Company which had extended its cable lines south on Monroe to Fourteenth street where it owned large landed interests, and the Spokane Street Railway Company was also included in this deal. At a later day the Ross Park Street Railway was taken and still later the City Park Transit Line owned by David and Chester Glass and built to ex- ploit the Lidgerwood addition. These were consolidated and brought into the ownership of the Washington Water Power Company which then controlled all lighting and street railway business except the motor line owned by John R. Cook running south on Washington street to Cook's addition. The panic of 1893 caused the railway interests to suffer severely and in the fall of that year in a town of twenty thousand people the average gross daily earnings at times ran as low as one hundred twenty dollars or barely enough to take care of the pay roll. Values of real estate fell below the amounts of their mortgages and while the Washington Water Power Company in some measure weathered the storm and kept out of the hands of the receiver all of the original promoters with one exception virtually lost their interest in the property. Mr. Norman severed his connection with the com- pany in 1896.
Again his ability, power of organization and initiative spirit were called into play in connection with the hotel interests of Spokane. In the bankruptcy of 1893 the Spokane Hotel had to appeal to its creditors, including the Washington Water Power Company, for help and the question was raised whether the hotel should remain open or closed. Mr. Norman, however, took over the control of the stock and refurnished the hotel. This was four months before the panic, during which the business went to pieces and the property passed into the hands of a mortgage company and the creditors. Perhaps one of the best evidences of the conditions of the times was the fact that in 1894 rather than see the hotel close the mortgage company gave Mr. Norman and his brother, Ben Norman, a lease on the property practically rent free for the first six months and then for two years at five hundred dollars per month. In 1895 the tide turned, for with the discovery of the Le Roi mine mining activity generally made times prosperous. The hotel shared in the general revival of business and in 1899 the two Normans, taking in as partner Mr. James Breen, the well known smelting operator, who at that time had charge of the Le Roi smelters at Northport, bought the real estate and build- ing and at a later day purchased the adjoining ground from John A. Finch. In 1900 they remodeled the hotel and made it what it is today-the finest hotel of the Inland Empire. The famous Tacoma Hotel was bought in 1905 and at present the brothers with their partner are operating a string of hotels in the west under the name of the Norman Hotels, Limited.
Mr. Norman was married April 25, 1889, to Aimee L. Sherlock, a daughter of Richard and Rosetta Sherlock and a representative of an old Portland family. Her father was a pioneer and merchant there, having made the trip to Portland about 1849 or 1850. He was descended from Irish ancestry. Mr. and Mrs. Norman have three children, Kathleen, Marjorie and Sherlock.
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In politics Mr. Norman is a republican and has been a voter in the second ward since 1885 but his activities have been more in the line of general business development than in politics. He belongs to Spokane Lodge, No. 228, B. P. O. E., being one of the first initiated into that organization. In 1889 and 1890 he was secretary of the Chamber of Commerce and served on the committee which secured the subsidies for the Spokane Falls & Northern and the Great Northern Railways. In more strictly social lines he is connected with the Spokane Club, the Spokane Country Club, the Spokane Athletic Club, Arlington Club of Portland, the Rossland Club of Rossland, British Columbia, and the Rocky Mountain Club of New York city. In a summary of his life Mr. Norman can be accorded a prominent place among the empire builders of eastern Washington, having figured most prominently in the industrial growth of Spokane and in the development of railway, telephone, telegraph and electric interests, whereby the growth and progress of this section have been materially advanced. Possessing broad, enlightened and liberal-minded views, faith in himself and in the vast resources for development inherent in his country's wide domain, and specific needs along the distinct lines chosen for his life work, his has been an active career in which he has accomplished important and far-reaching results contributing in no small degree to the expansion and mate- rial growth of the things from which he himself has derived substantial benefits.
JAMES A. ANDERSON.
Farming, stock-raising, merchandising, banking, mining, real-estate dealing- all have claimed the attention of James A. Anderson, and in each field he has op- erated successfully. He is today a prominent figure in financial circles in Spokane, is also interested in the Division Street Hardware Company and is the owner of considerable valuable property in the Palouse country. He was born in Iowa, May 14, 1859, a son of John and Margaret (Davis) Anderson, both of whom were na- tives of Scotland and were descended from old and prominent Scotch families. Both are now deceased, the mother passing away in 1874. Several sons and daughters of the family are living in this country.
The removal of his parents from Iowa to Kansas in his early youth made James A. Anderson a pupil in the schools of the latter state and in the high school, where he completed his education. He was engaged in farming and stock-raising in Kan- sas during the period of his early manhood but came to Washington in 1889 and turned his attention to commercial pursuits, becoming a dealer in hardware, imple- ments and grain at Rosalia. There he remained until 1906, when he removed to Spokane, and the success which he had achieved along commercial lines enabled him to become one of the large stockholders in the Spokane State Bank, of which he was elected president in 1907. This institution conducts a general banking business, with J. A. Anderson as president; H. A. Steinke, vice president; G. W. Peddycord, cashier ; and H. W. Belshaw, Josh Wilson, J. M. Donovan and J. W. Bursell as directors. The bank is capitalized for fifty thousand dollars and has a surplus of twelve thousand. A general banking business is conducted and this is the only bank on the north side, its location being at the corner of Division and Nora streets. The company owns its own home, known as the Spokane Bank building,
J. A. ANDERSON
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a two-story brick structure, sixty by ninety feet, the first story being used for banking purposes, while the second is divided into apartments. The bank has a large out-of- town patronage and, based upon safe, conservative principles, is doing a good bnsi- ness. Mr. Anderson is also stockholder in the Exchange and Fidelity Banks, is the largest owner in the Spokane State Bank building and holds fifty per cent of the stock in the Division Street Hardware Company, of which he is the presi- dent. He has also made investment in property, owning one thousand acres in the Palouse country all under cultivation, and four hundred and eighty acres under cultivation in Alberta and timber lands in Washington. He is one of the largest owners of the Belcher Mining Company in Terry county, Washington, and is secretary and treasurer of the company.
On the 27th of October, 1886, in Dunlap, Kansas, occurred the marriage of James A. Anderson and Miss Jennie F. Webster, a daughter of Captain Webster, who commanded steamboats on the Ohio river. The two children born unto them are Bernice, now the wife of Orville Tupper, cashier of the Wilson Creek Bank; and Rex, who is now attending high school.
Politically Mr. Anderson is a republican and is an active and influential worker of his party who has served as delegate to county and state conventions and has done effective work on the county central committee. He is interested in all that pertains to Spokane's progress and upbuilding and because of this has become a working member of the Chamber of Commerce. He also belongs to the Inland Club and is well known in fraternal circles, holding membership in Spokane Lodge, No. 34, F. & A. M., in Oriental Consistory of the Scottish Rite and in El Katif Temple of the Mystric Shrine. While in Rosalia he filled all of the chairs in the local lodge save that of master. He belongs to Spokane Lodge, No. 134, I. O. O. F., in which he has filled all of the chairs and is now a past grand. He has achieved remarkable success, advancing from farmer boy to his present posi- tion as banker, merchant and landowner, and his prosperity is a visible evidence of intelligence and well directed industry, of determination, perseverance and notable ambition.
GEORGE TILTON DOOLITTLE, M. D.
Dr. George Tilton Doolittle, who in the practice of medicine has demonstrated his ability to cope with the intricate problems that continually confront the physi- cian, has based his success upon thorough preparation and continuous subsequent study following his graduation from Yale. He is one of New Haven's native sons, his birth having there occurred on the 23d of October, 1860. He is a representative of one of the oldest New England families, of English descent, his ancestors having come to America in the early part of the seventeenth century. His father, Tilton E. Doolittle, was also a native of Connecticut, becoming a member of the New Haven bar, and was very prominent not only in local affairs but also as a legislator in molding the destiny and shaping the policy of the state. Having graduated from Trinity College, he was admitted to the bar when only twenty-one years of age. Broad educational training, however, qualified him for his work for he not only pursued the law course but also the academic course in Trinity. Subsequent to
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his admission to the bar he located for practice in New Haven and was accorded an extensive clientage, being regarded as one of the distinguished attorneys of the bar of that city. For seventeen years he filled the office of district attorney of New Haven county, resigning that position two years prior to his death, which occurred in 1896. He had also been chosen to represent his district in the state legislature and his prominence in the ranks of his party was indicated in the fact that he was elected speaker of the house. His knowledge of parliamentary practice and his love of justice made him a most fair and impartial presiding officer. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Mary Cook, survived her husband two years, passing away in 1898. She was a descendant of Colonel Thaddeus Cook, of Revolutionary war fame, and also of Captain Cook, who took part in the Colonial wars. The Cook family, like the Doolittles, has been established in America since the earliest period in the colonization of the country. The children of Tilton and Mary (Cook) Doolittle were: George Tilton, of this review; John A., who is engaged in busi- ness on Long Island, New York; and Sarah D., who became the wife of Dr. P. C. Lane, of St. Louis, Missouri, and is now living at the old family home in New Haven.
Dr. Doolittle pursued his early education in the Hopkins grammar school of New Haven, Connecticut, and the Episcopal Academy of Cheshire, Connecticut, and prepared for a professional career by a course in the medical department of Yale University, being numbered among its alumni of 1884. He afterward spent two years in Europe, passing much of the time as a student of medicine in Vienna and also some time in Kiel, Germany. He thus came into close touch with the advanced methods of many of the distinguished physicians and surgeons of the old world and, splendidly equipped for his chosen life work, he returned to Amer- ica, practicing for a few years thereafter in New Haven. It was in 1886 that he opened an office in his native city and during his residence there he served as a member of the board of health and also as health officer. Thinking to find a still better field of labor with the rapidly growing and developing west, he came to Spokane in 1889 and here began the practice of medicine, serving on the board of health for three years and as health officer for two years, his official duties having been discharged in addition to a constantly increasing private practice, the im- portance of which places him in a creditable position among the prominent repre- sentatives of the profession here. He belongs to the State Medical Society and the County Medical Society and of the latter has served as president. He was also a member of the County and State Medical Societies while in New Haven, Con- necticut. In 1905 he was elected a member to the state legislature and also was sitting in the city council for a term of two years.
In his native city, on the 15th of March, 1890, Dr. Doolittle was married to Miss May G. Hendryx, a daughter of Andrew B. Hendryx, of New Haven and a representative of an old New England family. They now have three sons, George H., Andrew B. and Tilton E., all of whom are in school. Dr. and Mrs. Doolittle hold membership in the Episcopal church and he is identified with several of the clubs and societies of the city. In 1909 he was honored with the presidency of the Spokane Club and he belongs also to the Spokane Country Club. While in New Haven he was a member of the Quinnipiac Club. He holds membership with the Society of the Colonial Wars and his prominence in the organization known as the Sons of the Revolution is indicated in the fact that he has been vice president
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of the state society. An eminent American statesman is responsible for the state- ment that the strongest and most capable men of the country are those who have had their nativity in the east and have sought the business opportunities of the west, in which section of the country they use the qualities inherited from a capable ancestry in the upbuilding of a new empire. Alive to the opportunities of the northwest, Dr. Doolittle has cooperated in various projects for the general good and at the same time his liberal training at home and abroad and his sub- sequent study and experience in the practical work of the profession have placed him in a prominent position among Spokane's physicians and surgeons.
JAMES F. HERRICK.
Varied and important interests claim the attention and cooperation of James F. Herrick, who at different times has been identified with mining and with com- mercial and manufacturing enterprises. His efforts are of such a practical char- acter as to make his work a forceful and effective factor in the promotion of public progress as well as of individual success. He was born in Greenbush, New York; December 16, 1854, a son of William H. and Maria (Faulkner) Herrick. The Herrick family is of Danish descent but was founded in New England during the early period of American colonization. One of the name served as a colonel in the Revolutionary war and Admiral Worden was directly related to the family. Wil- liam H. Herrick, born in New York city, became a grain merchant and distiller. He resided for a long period in Oswego, New York, where he became recognized as a prominent and influential citizen, serving there as mayor, as member of the school board and in numerous other offices. He died in 1895 but is still survived by his wife, who yet makes her home in Oswego, New York. She was born in Greenbush, that state, and. represented an old family from Edinburgh, Scotland. In their family were three sons and five daughters, the brothers of James F. Her- rick being: A. Thomas Herrick, assistant to the president of the Spokane & In- ternational Railroad; and W. H. Herrick, a lumber merchant of New York. The sisters are: Mary, who is the widow of J. B. Lathrop and resides in Oswego; Louise, of Oswego, the widow of J. G. Merriman; Hettie, who is the widow of W. H. Weed and lives in Oswego; Fannie, also of that city; and Carrie, the wife of W. D. Wheeler, of New York.
In the Oswego public schools James F. Herrick pursued his education prepara- tory to entering college at New Haven, Connecticut. He became associated with business affairs in the employ of his father, who was a car manufacturer of Oswego, and there James F. Herrick worked at that trade until he turned his attention to the lumber manufacturing business at Fulton, New York. Subsequently he dis- posed of his interest to the Standard Oil Company and operated their factory for eleven years. It was then the largest box factory in the United States and is today utilizing one hundred and twenty million feet of boxes per year.
Mr. Herrick dates his residence in Spokane from 1895, at which time he en- gaged in mining in Rossland, British Columbia, acting as manager of the Iron Mask, a mine which has now been shipping for over twelve years. He also pur- chased an interest in the Buckeye Lumber Company and has since been active in
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