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 47
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William T. Horr continued to live in Kansas until he was twenty-four years of age, at which time he came to Spokane. He acquired his early education in the public schools of Kansas, but at the age of seventeen years found it necessary to earn his own livelihood and also to assist in the support of the family. The death of the father left the burden of support resting largely upon him and he at once proved his sense of responsibility by becoming his mother's able assistant in man- aging the home farm. On the 19th of March, 1887, he arrived in Spokane, and until 1892 was employed by a lumber company where he laid the fundamentals of the business which has since been his work. In 1892 the present company was formed by Mr. Horr and he has been its manager and president ever since. The Holland-Horr Mill Co. is manufacturing lumber according to the most modern methods and has attained a foremost place as operators, and the development and success of the business is attributed in a large measure to the enterprise and un- flagging efforts of Mr. Horr.
On the 10th of October, 1894, Mr. Horr was married at Spokane to Miss Clara Ellis, a daughter of Samuel and Rhoda (Kennedy) Ellis. To this union one child, Harry, has been born, and is at present attending the public schools at Spokane. Mr. Horr gives his political allegiance to the republican party and has served as its representative on the city council for one term. He holds membership in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows in which organization he has passed through all the chairs. He likewise holds membership in the Ancient Order of United Workmen, Woodmen of the World, the Independent Order of Foresters and the Loyal Order of the Moose. Mr. Horr's business ability won recognition at the time the Independent Order of Odd Fellows was erecting the Odd Fellows' temple and he was chosen one of the trustees of the association. He attends the Con- gregational church. The secret of his rapid advancement from an obscure posi- tion to the prominent place which he now holds is due to the fact that he has done one thing well, throwing all his energies into it. He has also tried to make all his actions in commercial moves the result of definite discrimination and sound judg- ment, based upon integrity in business methods and upon energy and good system.
FRANK W. HILSCHER, M. D.
As educator and practitioner through the period of his connection with the medical profession, Dr. Frank W. Hilscher has gained distinction. The scope of his professional service has embraced all branches of the practice of medicine and surgery, but at the present time he limits his practice to the treatment of diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat. In that department he specializes and the con- centration of his energies upon that line of practice has given him power and ability that places him with the foremost representatives of his specialty in the northwest. It is not alone as a physician, however, that Dr. Hilscher is known to the public. His efforts for the development of an irrigation system in the Yakima valley con- stituted an initial step in drawing federal attention to that district and gaining the cooperation of the government for the solution of a difficult, but most important, problem there. He is thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the northwest and has put forth effective and earnest effort for its advancement.
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DR. F. W. HILSCHER
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Most of his life has been spent west of the Mississippi river, his birth having occurred in Leavenworth, Kansas, October 15, 1867. His father, Charles Hilscher, was born in Germany but came to the United States in early life and devoted his energies to the occupation of farming. He was one of the pioneers of Dickinson connty, Kansas, locating there during the period of the border warfare and living through some exciting experiences of that epoch. With the outbreak of the Civil war he responded to the call for aid and joined Company K of the Thirty-seventh Infantry Regiment of Ohio Volunteers which was recruited at Hamilton, Ohio, where he was then living, but after the close of hostilities he removed to Leaven- worth, and later to Dickinson county, Kansas, where he spent his remaining days, his death occurring in 1895. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Susanna Yanch, was born in Wittenberg, Germany, and died in 1900. The two brothers of Dr. Hilscher are C. M. and Harry L. Hilscher, residents of Kansas City, Mis- souri. An only sister, Mrs. Phoebe Van Scoyoc, is living in Talmage, Kansas.
A public-school course constituted the initial educational training which pre- pared Dr. Hilscher for the work done in Beaumont Hospital Medical College, now the medical department of the St. Louis University, from which he received his professional degree in 1895. In the meantime he had had varied experience in busi- ness life. He left home in 1881 when but fourteen years of age and was ap- prenticed to a druggist. He was employed in connection with that business in various places but spent most of the time in Leavenworth, Kansas, and in St. Louis, Missouri. His work awakened his interest in the medical profession and follow- ing his graduation from the Beanmont Hospital Medical College he entered upon active practice in St. Louis, where he remained for a number of years. He also at once became assistant professor of otology in the school from which he had just graduated and had charge of the ear clinic of the college for a year. Later he joined the faculty of the St. Louis College of Physicians and Surgeons in the capacity of assistant professor of ophthalmology, remaining one of the instructors in that school until he came to Spokane in 1899. His ability as an educator and practitioner was recognized by the profession and the St. Louis Medical Society, to which he belonged, honored him with the secretaryship, which position he was filling at the time of his removal to Spokane. In St. Louis he was also connected with the College of Physicians and Surgeons as chief of the eye clinic, was oenlist to the Merchants and Manufacturers Hospital, to the Baptist Hospital, the Amelia Children's Home, the Visitation Convent and other institutions. His marked ability had gained him prominence and the high reputation which he bore in St. Louis has also been accorded him during the period of his connection with Spokane.
Since coming to this city Dr. Hilscher has limited his practice to the treatment of diseases of the eye, ear, nose and throat and for the past four years he has con- ducted a private sanitarium limited to the treatment of those diseases. It is pleas- antly located at the entrance of Rockwood boulevard and has splendid equipment for that department of practice. He keeps in tonch with the advanced work of the profession through the proceedings of the Spokane County and Washington State Medical Societies and the American Medical Association, in all of which he holds membership.
What Dr. Hilscher has accomplished along professional lines would alone en- title him to representation in this volume. His work in other fields, however, is equally interesting and important. Since coming to Spokane he has invested quite
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largely in property in this city and in the Inland Empire and has promoted a num- ber of corporations, chief among which were the Yakima Land & Live Stock Com- pany, of which he was the secretary; the Yakima Development Company, of which he was one of the trustees; the Yakima Land & Development Company, of which he was president for many years and is now secretary; and the Wenatchee Farms Company, of which he is secretary and treasurer.
The Yakima Land & Live Stock Company was organized about April, 1902, by Dr. Hilscher, M. N. Kuppenberg, J. W. Oakes, G. W. Frost and George W. Stoltz. They purchased thirty-seven thousand, seven hundred and twenty-one acres of land in Yakima in the Moxie valley from the railroad company for one dollar and five cents per acre on the six-year payment plan. In this Dr. Hilscher had a third interest, which he turned over to the company and after the company was organized an assessment of eight thousand dollars was made to cover the first payment. Within four months they sold a half interest in contracts for twelve thousand dollars, thus recovering all the money expended and half as much again. Inside of six months they were offered two dollars and a half per acre but declined this. They then employed a corps of engineers to examine the irrigation possibil- ities of the land, the first survey including what is now known as the Titeton pro- ject. They filed appropriation notices on the water of that district. Arriving at the Yakima river, however, with the proposed canal, the engineers found that it would be a very expensive matter to cross the river to the other side where the lands were located. They then employed another engineer, who in connection with the first, made more surveys, which finally culminated in the proposal to dam the three lakes at the head of the Yakima river-the Kachess, Keechelus and Clealum, impounding the water therein and bringing the high line canal down on the east side of the river. This would command approximately two hundred and fifty thousand acres of land. The plans made were practically identical with the ones now known as the Kittitas project of the United States government, which will probably be carried out in the next few years.
The immensity of this project necessitated the incorporation of a promoting company called The Yakima Development Company, which was then organized and was headed by the distinguished Judge Whitson, who was then a practicing attorney of North Yakima. The filing of water appropriations of this company and its plans aroused a good deal of local feeling in the lower Yakima valley, which was then suffering from a dearth of sufficient water to extend the existing canals, especially those at Sunnyside. The company soon found itself involved in a fierce fight with the previous water claimants and there were many meet- ings of commercial clubs in various parts of the Yakima valley, both in the in- terests of and against the project. In the meanwhile information requested by the company of F. H. Newell, chief of the reclamation service, resulted in surveys be- ing made for the waters of the Yakima river and all its tributaries for a whole year, together with measurements for water actually used by the existing irrigators. Under the supervision of Professor O. L. Waller, of Pullman, a final report was made which showed to the people of the Yakima valley that many times the amount of water available had already been appropriated and each succeeding claimant was more or less at the mercy of previous claimants. The agitation re- sulting is now a matter of history and culminated in unanimous appeal of those interested in the valley to the United States government to take over the existing
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water rights of most of the claimants and make an equal apportionment. This is how the government first became interested in the Yakima valley. Thus the aims and objects of The Yakima Development Company passed out of existence and the benefits of the many thousands of dollars spent there by the two companies have thus become the property of the public.
The lands of the Yakima Land & Live Stock Company were finally sold at various figures, netting on an average of no more than four dollars per acre, although much of the land has since been sold for prices as high as one hundred dollars per acre. This company has also gone out of existence. The Yakima Land & Development Company planted one hundred and fifty acres of orchard on ir- rigated land near Hayden Lake, Idaho, in 1907, and all has since been sold. The same company has hought and sold lands in Yakima valley near Kennewick and on the Quincy flats. The company is now engaged in retailing about thirteen hun- dred acres in the latter district and land which originally cost the company about five dollars per acre is now being rapidly disposed of at from twenty-five to fifty dollars per acre. The Wenatchee Farms Company, in which Dr. Hilscher is also interested, owns a small body of land on Rock creek in Whitman county, of which one hundred acres is now irrigated and they are planning to supply another hundred acres with water. The company is doing the actual selling of the Yakima company's Quincy land.
In 1889 Dr Hilscher was married and has three children, Schuyler, Earl Durand and Aubrey L., all now in school. Dr. Hilscher attends the Unitarian church and in politics is an insurgent republican. He belongs to the Woodmen of the World, the Royal Highlanders and the Spokane Amateur Athletic Club. He is a broad and liberal-minded man, whose purposes of life are high, whose ambition is commendable and whose labors have been resultant for good in all of the different fields in which he has put forth his effort.
HARRY J. HIBSCHMAN.
Harry J. Hibschman, a member of the Washington bar since 1903 and an active representative of the legal fraternity of Spokane since June, 1909, was born at Washington, Kansas, March 14, 1879, his parents being Jacob and Rebecca (Bom- berger) Hibschman, both of whom are still living. In the public schools of Penn- sylvania he pursued his early education and afterward attended Perkiomen Semi- nary at Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, from which he was graduated with the class of 1900. He formerly followed the occupation of teaching and later took up the practice of law. He was a resident of Minnesota from 1897 until 1903 during part of which period he did good work at the bar, gaining the initial experience which has constituted the foundation for his present success. He arrived in Washington in 1903 and continued in the practice of law at Wilbur from 1904 until 1907. In the latter year he removed to Davenport, where he followed his profession for two years when, seeking the broader field of labor offered in a larger city, he came to Spokane in June, 1909, and is now well known as a representative of the bar here.
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On the 1st of November, 1901, at Balaton, Minnesota, Mr. Hibschman was mar- ried to Miss Maude Murphy, a daughter of John and Mattie Murphy, and they now have one son, Maurice, who is in his fourth year. Mr. Hibschman served with the Fourteenth Minnesota Volunteers during the Spanish-American war. His po- litical allegiance is given to the republican party. He held the office of city attorney at Wilbur from 1905 until 1907, and for one term he served as school director at Davenport. He is identified with a number of fraternal organizations, including the Masons, the Knights of Pythias, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Woodmen of the World. He maintains pleasant relations with the boys in blue as a member of the United Spanish War Veterans and the Bolo Club.
GEORGE C. BECK.
George C. Beck, owner of the San Marco apartments, among the most beautiful and modern of Spokane's apartment buildings, was born at Little York, Pennsyl- vania, May 20, 1843, and was one of a family of two sons and five daughters, whose parents, George and Margaret (Cook) Beck, were natives of Worms, Ger- many. The father was a member of a prominent German family and died at the age of fifty-seven years. Mrs. Beck's father was a leading wine merchant and vineyardist of Germany. She survived her husband for some time, passing away in 1890. Their children were: Conrad, now a resident of Cleveland, Ohio; Mrs. Mary Worley, of Pasadena, Calfornia; Mrs. Elizabeth Combs, also living in Cleve- land; Mrs. Louisa Straus, who is connected with the Evangelical Association paper of Cleveland; Mrs. Margaret Spring, whose husband is bishop of the Methodist church of Cleveland and editor of the Evangelical Assocation paper of that city; and Mrs. Catherine Gardner, the wife of a retired Chicago millionaire.
The other member of the family is George C. Beck, whose name introduces this review. The removal of the family from Little York, Pennsylvania, to Cleve- land, Ohio, enabled him to pursue his education in the public schools of that city, which he attended until he enlisted for the Civil war as a member of the Chicago Board of Trade Battery. He served with the Army of the Cumberland and was mustered out at the close of hostilities. He afterward engaged in the pork packing business, which he followed in Cleveland and in Indianapolis until he retired from that pursuit in 1902.
Removing westward to Spokane, Mr. Beck here erected the beautiful San Marco apartments, a three-story structure and basement, containing forty apartments. It is an ideal location at the junction of Sprague and Riverside avenues, with a frontage of four hundred feet on two streets. This is one of the finest of the high- class apartments of Spokane and scarcely has an equal in the city. It is built of white pressed brick, in Renaissance style of architecture, with a foundation of sandstone brought from the vicinity of Portland. It is heated with a hot water plant and oil burners will probably be used for heating the water. Mr. Beck in- tends to keep the San Marco thoroughly modern in its equipments and appoint- ments and thoroughly satisfactory in its service. Aside from this he is inter- ested in the Ware Brothers Company and owns land in Canada to the extent of six thousand acres.
GEORGE C. BECK
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Mr. Beck was married in 1865, in Cleveland, Ohio, to Miss Amelia Berger, a daughter of Frederick Berger, of Tallmadge, Ohio, who was a burgomaster in Germany and a fine musician, connected with one of the prominent families of his native land. In 1909 Mr. Beck was called upon to mourn the loss of his wife, who died on the 14th of July of that year. They were the parents of three daughters: Bessie, now the wife of George Roberts, an electrician of Omaha, Nebraska; Mayme, the wife of Archibald F. Rigg, an architect of Spokane; and Edith, the wife of Dr. Charles F. Rigg, a physician of this city.
Mr. Beck is a member of the Spokane Club and the Spokane Athletic Club and he also belongs to the Chamber of Commerce. While he has resided here for only a comparatively brief period, he has become thoroughly identified with the north- west and its interests and is an enthusiastic supporter of Spokane, doing every- thing in his power to further its welfare and promote its upbuilding. His life has always been a busy and useful one and he has ever worked toward high ideals and utilized practical methods in the attainment of substantial results.
WILLIAM E. CULLEN, JR.
William E. Cullen, Jr., is a practicing attorney of Spokane and a representative .of various important corporate interests, being connected with lumber companies and with land and irrigation projects which are now regarded as essential features in the development of this section of the country. He is a western man by birth, training and preference and is imbued with the spirit of enterprise which is so characteristic of this section of the country.
His birthplace was Helena, Montana, and his natal day August 7, 1872. His father, William E. Cullen, Sr., was for many years one of the distinguished lawyers of the northwest, prominently connected with litigation and with legal interests that did much toward shaping the destiny of this part of the country. A sketch of him appears elsewhere in this volume. The son pursued his college preparatory course in the Shattuck Military Academy of Faribault, Minnesota, from which he was graduated in 1889. He then pursued a three years' course in the University of Michigan, from which he was graduated in 1892, and he is also a Harvard man, having spent two years in the study of law within the classic walls of that institu- tion. Following his graduation in the spring of 1894 he was admitted to practice at the Montana bar in July of that year and entered the office of his father, who at that time was division counsel for the Northern Pacific Railroad Company in addition to conducting a large mining practice. The son became a partner of the firm and so continued until the removal of the family to Spokane in 1899. He re- mained a resident of Helena and was afterward associated in practice with Mr. Day until 1905, when the partnership was dissolved and William E. Cullen, Jr., also came to Spokane. He then joined F. M. Dudley and they became attorneys for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company. This partnership was terminated in July, 1910, upon the removal of Mr. Dudley to Seattle to become general attorney for the company. William E. Cullen then formed a partnership with A. B. Lee and W. H. Foster, under the firm name of Cullen, Lee & Foster. On the 1st of January, 1912, the firm of Happy, Cullen, Lee & Hineman was
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formed and they are local attorneys for the Milwaukee Railroad Company. They also conduct a general law practice and now have a clientage that is large and of a distinctively representative character. Mr. Cullen has been connected with F. Augustus Heinze since 1897 and conjointly with his father was interested in the Butte litigation, the father acting as general attorney for the Heinze interests. William E. Cullen, Jr., has also represented Mr. Heinze as general attorney, supervising the legal phases of his business in the Coeur d'Alenes and also in his successful contest with the Amalgamated Company. He is likewise representative of different lumber companies and other corporations and his professional work is of a most important and extensive character, indicative of his high standing as a leading member of the Washington bar. As opportunity has come to him for judicious investment he has become connected with various important interests and now owns considerable land and extensive stock in irrigation projects in Idaho and Montana. He is connected with the Stewart Mining Company of Coeur d'Alene and was formerly one of the owners of the mines at Radersburg, Montana. He is secretary and a large stockholder in Powell & Sanders wholesale grocery company of Spok- ane, of which his father was one of the organizers and founders. His varied experience and his study have acquainted him with the possibilities of this part of the country and he is an enthusiastic advocate of the northwest and its opportunities.
In Spokane, in September, 1908, Mr. Cullen was united in marriage to Miss Genevieve Bell, a daughter of Henry Bell, a prominent pioneer citizen here, and a sister of Mrs. D. W. Twohy. The children of this marriage are two daughters, Corlin and Genevieve. In politics Mr. Cullen is a conservative republican. He does not believe in the revolutionary movements which upset the established order of things but rather in the gradual working out of progressive plans which have for their object the welfare and benefit of the majority. He belongs to the Spokane Club, the Spokane Country Club, the Spokane Athletic Club and the Montana Club. He is popular among his friends, who are many, and his position, socially and professionally, is established. It is true that in the practice of law he had the benefit of association with his father and yet in no calling does advancement de- pend more largely upon individual merit and ability. In this field wealth or in- fluence availeth little or naught and success results from broad knowledge intel- ligently applied to the points in litigation. Mr. Cullen recognized this fact at the outset of his career and in his cases has never failed to give a thorough prepara- tion and to fortify for defense as well as for attack.
JOHN JOSEPH MARISCHAL.
John Joseph Marischal, whose operations in the lumber business have been most advantageous, constituting the source of his success, belongs to that class of men to whom difficulties and obstacles serve as an impetus rather than a deterrent. His qualities of perseverance, determination and energy have formed the founda- tion upon which he has built his prosperity, and the methods he has pursued in busi- ness have gained for him the regard and respect of his fellowmen. He was born in Friedensau, Nebraska, on the 26th of April, 1877, and is a son of Alexander J. and Constance (Henry) Marischal, both of whom were early settlers in Nebraska, where the father is still residing and the mother's death occurred in 1905.
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The early days of their son John Joseph were passed in Nebraska and in the public schools he acquired his education until he was fourteen years of age. At that time he assisted his father in his work on the farm and for two years assisted in the operation of a stone quarry owned by the family. During this period he engaged in the cattle and stock-raising business to some extent, and subsequently took a trip through the west, looking for an advantageous place to start in business. Find- ing nothing to his liking he returned home and worked for one year, at the same time taking a course in bookkeeping in a night school. Ambitious to carry on his busi- ness course he went to Omaha, and during the winter of 1895 was a student in a business college of that city. After he completed that course he accepted a posi- tion with the Omaha Stove Repair Works and was in their employ for several months. During the following years he worked in various offices in that city, but at the outbreak of the Spanish-American war he joined the Seventh Regular United States Cavalry and remained in service until 1898. That winter he spent at home but in the spring returned to Omaha, where he entered the office of the Adams & Kelly Company, remaining there until 1907. When he entered their employ he was engaged as a stenographer, but so quickly did he learn the details of the business that by the time of his resignation he was sales and office manager. After he left this concern he came to Spokane and was at once made secretary of the Overland Lumber Company which company he organized. He remained associated with this company for one year, but at the end of that time returned home for a short visit before engaging independently in the lumber business in Spokane. He is still connected with this undertaking and has built up a large patronage and proven himself to be thoroughly fit to handle lumber and to deal with the public. In his offices in the Lindelle block he transacts a business which is commensurate with the energy and labor which he is constantly expending. He is also a member of the executive committee of the Western Casualty Company, of this city.
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