USA > Washington > Spokane County > Spokane > History of the city of Spokane and Spokane County, Washington : from its earliest settlement to the present time, Volume III > Part 21
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His political activity has also made Mr. Dalke well known for he is a loyal advocate of whatever he believes to be right and the principles of the republican party have found in him a stalwart champion. He has labored for its success and has represented his party in both county and state conventions. For four years. from 1907 until 1910 inelusive, he was councilman of Spokane from the fourth
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ward. This period was notable by reason of the constructive measures which were introduced. It was during that time that most of the bridges were built and im- portant work was done on the extension of the water and sewer systems, including the installation of the Grand Trunk sewer system, the pipes of which are from nine to twelve feet in diameter. One of the councilmen who fathered the measure was Mr. Dalke, who suggested to the engineer that the Grand Trunk system be on the north side in order to operate necessary drainage. He was likewise a member of the council when the franchise to the North Coast and Milwaukee railroads was granted and while one of the city fathers the Mission, Washington, Olive and How- ard street bridges were built and the plans made and work ordered for the Monroe street bridge. As a public official Mr. Dalke discountenanced useless expenditure but never believed in retrenchment to the extent of crippling public progress and improvement. He believes in advancement at all times and feels that Spokane's public work must be in keeping with the growth of the city which has been brought about through private enterprise and industry.
In Menominee, Michigan, in October, 1899, Mr. Dalke was nnited in marriage to Jennie L. Brown, a daughter of Mrs. James Esler, of Varna. Ontario, and unto them have been born two children, Gertrude L. and Robert L., who are in school. Mr. Dalke is a member of the German Lutheran church and his wife holds mem- bership in the Presbyterian church. Their interests are as one in their desire for the moral development of the community and their aid and influence are given along that line. The military chapter in Mr. Dalke's life history covers between two and three years' service as a member of Company L, Third Regiment of the Wisconsin National Guard. Fraternally he is connected with the Modern Woodmen and with the Royal Highlanders and in strictly social lines is a member of the Inland Club. For about thirteen years he has been a resident of Spokane and in that period he has proven his worth as a business man and citizen, never neglecting private in- terests for public affairs nor concentrating his attention so closely upon the former that he neglects his obligations of citizenship.
E. TAPPAN TANNATT.
In making a selection of those men, sketches of whose lives should go to make up the biographical portion of this work, the author has used great care to select none but such as have in some measure left "footprints on the sands of time," or who have, by their lives and labors, aided materially in making this the great center of commercial. industrial and mining activity which it is today. In this connection mention should be made of E. Tappan Tannatt, a civil and hydraulic engineer. whose work has been of an important character not only in Spokane and the Inland Empire, but also in Montana, in California and in Hawaii. He was born in Man- chester, Massachusetts, September 16, 1864, his parents being General T. R. and Elizabeth Foster (Tappan) Tannatt, the former a native of the state of New York. and the latter of Manchester, Massachusetts. They now reside at No. 1311 Seventh avenue in Spokane, and General Tannatt is retired. Their only daughter, Miriam H., is the wife of Dr. C. K. Merriam, a retired physician of Spokane.
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Mr. Tannatt, whose name introduces this record, pursued a course in the Uni- versity of Illinois and in Washington State College, being graduated with the de- gree of Bachelor of Science and Electrical Engineer. He became connected with engineering parties in the early development work of the Oregon Railway & Naviga- tion Company, being thus engaged from 1881 until 1883 on the line to Huntington. Ile was also with the Oregon Improvement Company in the development of the western country and later entered the University of Ilinois. However, in 1886. he returned to the northwest to take up engineering work and in 1891 was elected county surveyor of Latah county. Idaho, which position he filled for two years. HIc also followed engineering in that state and for further training along professional lines entered the Washington State College at Pullman, where he spent three years. being graduated in 1898 with the degree of B. S. E. E. He next went to Portland, where he passed the examination for lieutenant in the United States Volunteer En- gineers. He was commissioned by President MeKinley and approved by the senate for important service in that connection, and at the close of the Spanish-American war he accepted a position as engineer in charge of the eivil department of the Waialun Agricultural Company at Honolulu. He served through the period of development work covering two years and resigned to take a position as managing engineer of the Oahu College Trustees. They were doing a large amount of en- gineering development work, developing an addition to Honolulu, placing the city water works and building an electric line, of which he had charge from its inception to its completion. He opened an engineer's office in Honolulu and engaged in devel- opment irrigation work on the islands, constructing the then largest dam and gravity system in the Hawaiian group, at Waiamea and Waialna. Closing that work, Mr. Tannatt returned to the United States and opened an engineer's office in the Em- pire State building in Spokane. A year later, however, he accepted a position as professor of civil engineering in the Montana State College and engineer in charge of the Montana irrigation department of the experiment station. While there he wrote a large number of bulletins on engineering topies and was the man who dis- covered and reported upon the effect of alkali on Portland cement. At the end of five years he returned to Spokane and opened offices in the Empire State building, where he is now located. He is president of the Jordan-Tannatt Engineering Com- pany at Helena, Montana ; also president of the Tannatt-Allen Company, an en- gineering company of Spokane, that makes a specialty of hydraulic and irrigation work with contract to install the same. They have installed pumping plants for the Spokane Brewing & Malting Company, the Blalock Fruit Company of Walla Walla. and many smaller plants. Mr. Tannatt is personally carrying on consulting en- gineering work and is consulting engineer for the city of Pomeroy and also the city of Waitsburg.
His bulletin on the effect of alkali upon Portland cement attracted world-wide attention and resulted in the establishment of a plant for the manufacture of alkali- proof Portland cement at Denver Colorado, by the Colorado Portland Cement Com- pany. When he first issued his statement concerning alkali Mr. Tannatt was subjected to much unkind criticism but the government today agrees with the facts which he presented. He made over five thousand tests before he proved the truth of his theory. The bulletin published by Professor Edwin Burke of the Montana experiment station shows chemical reaction is now recognized as a fact. Cement failures that were eredited to poor work were shown to be due to the action of
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alkali on the eement and manufacturers and builders are now taking precaution against failure from this cause. Sca water was also included in this discovery and its action is identical with that of alkali.
While a member of the Second United States Engineering Corps Mr. Tannatt was stationed at the Presidio in San Francisco and also at Honolulu and did much work on the present Camp MeKinley and also on the preliminary surveys at Pearl harbor.
In 1890, at Farmington, Washington, Mr. Tannatt was married to Miss Vir- ginia Carlton, a daughter of Captain J. F. Carlton. a Civil war veteran, now residing at Kendrick, Idaho. Their four children are: Hazel, who is a gradu- ate of the State Normal School at Cheney and is now teaching history and domestic seience at Reardon, Washington; Carlton, Miriam and Virginia, all in school. The parents are members of the First Presbyterian church and Mr. Tannatt is a teacher of a class of boys in the Sunday school, in the work of which he is much interested. Fraternally he is a Mason, belonging to Pacific Lodge, No. 288, at Honolulu. He is also connected with the United Spanish War Veterans and in politics is a republican. He took an active part in polities in Idaho and was elected county surveyor on the republican ticket. While in Hawaii he was much interested in what is known as the home rule republican party and was instrumental in the appointment of the senate investigating committee. He laid before senator Mitchell the conditions and the report of the commission which was practically the same as the letters written to Senator Mitchell upon the subject. Outside the field of politics, however. Mr. Tannatt's most important publie service has been done. His discoveries concerning Portland cement and the engineering projects with which he has been connected have constituted valuable and im- portant elements in the progress and improvement in this section of the country. His work is of far-reaching influence and value and entitles him to prominent recognition as a citizen and civil engineer.
O. G. LABEREE.
Never courting notoriety nor publicity but quietly and persistently pursuing his way with well defined plans and strong purpose. O. G. Laberee has reached a notable position among the most prominent mining and railway men of the northwest. His record needs no especial elaboration nor commendation; it speaks for itself for his labors have been an element in the utilization of the great nat- ural resources of this section of the country and therefore the source of the coun- try's development and prosperity. From each experience in life he has learned the lesson therein contained.
Mr. Laberee belongs to that class of representative and ambitious men who have crossed the border from Canada into the United States where competition is greater but where advancement is more quickly secured. He was born on a farm in Melbourne county in the province of Quebee in 1864, his parents being Ben- jamin R. and Mary Jane (Wakefield) Laberee, the former of French Huguenot and Irish lineage and the latter of English deseent. The first member of the Laberee family in America left France at the time of the persecution of the
O. G. HABEREE
MARY
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20 04 LENOX WL FULNDATIONS
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Huguenots and went to Ireland. He married a daughter of that country and some years afterward with his wife and two sons sailed in his own vessel, loaded with merchandise. for the new world, landing at or near Boston. Soon afterward he secured a homestead in Massachusetts but had not long been a resident of New England when both he and his wife met death at the hands of the Indians. One of the sons escaped but the other was captured by the red men and taken to Que- bee, where he was held as a prisoner for about a year. He finally escaped in the winter and traveled through one hundred miles of wilderness before reaching a settlement. At length, however, he arrived in Eastern Townships, Compton county, in the province of Quebec, where members of the Laberce family have since lived.
Thoroughiness characterized O. G. Laberce in the acquirement of an education and has been one of his salient characteristics in later life. After leaving the high school he looked about him for a favorable business opening and in the year 1884, when twenty years of age, decided to try his fortune on the Pacific coast. traveling westward with a carload of thoroughbred cattle over the Northern Pacific Railroad, which was only partially completed at that time. As a cattle breeder he became well known in the west but still more important interests were to claim his attention as in the recognition of opportunities he has extended his efforts into the fields of mining and railroad building.
It was in the year 1895 that Mr. Laberce became a resident of Spokane. He had acquainted himself with the reports concerning the Roslyn mining camp of British Columbia and after paying a visit thereto he invested in several mining properties of that district, including the California. Mascot and Eldorado. also becoming a large owner of the Josie."" He was the first Canadian investor in prop- erties of that district. He then returned to eastern Canada and it is admitted that it was his influence which caused many other .prominent capitalists to pur- chase mining interests at Roslyn and Vicinity, particularly the Goodrum and Black- stock interests, the investments of which included the War Eagle and Center Star, while Governor Macintosh. also influenced by Mr. Laberce, made investments for the Whitacre Wright Syndicate.
Mr. Laberce's judgment concerning the material resources of the northwest has proven to be remarkably sound and his insight keen. After a visit made to Boundary Creek, British Columbia, he purchased the Knob Hill mine and a large interest in the Old Ironsides. two of the principal properties of the Granby Con- solidated Mining Company, these properties constituting the basis upon which the company was formed. He remained a stockholder in the company for many years and derived from his interests a most gratifying profit. He disposed of his Roslyn interests in 1898, soon after the Knob Hill and Old Ironsides properties were placed upon the market in eastern Canada. He was also the organizer of the Mollie Gibson Mining Company which owns and is operating the Mollie Gib- son mine in the Slokane country. At about the same time he purchased the Virtue mine at Baker City, Oregon, which has a record of having paid over three million dollars in dividends. He also became the owner of the Cumberland mine at Silver City, Idaho, and formed the Virtue Consolidated Mining Company with a capital of three million dollars, the stock of which was easily sold to eastern investors for Mr. Laberce's name in connection with such properties had come to be re- garded as a guarantee of their worth. His investments in 1899 included the pur-
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chase of a half block of ground between Coeur d'Alene avenue and Third avenue, fronting Coeur d'Alene Park in Spokane, whereon he began the erection of his palatial residence which was completed in 1900 at a cost of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
He became in 1901 active in the organization of the International Coal & Coke Company, owning coal lands at Coleman, Alberta, and through his repre- sentation Canadian capitalists were induced to purchase the controlling interests. Mr. Laberee, however, has remained as a large shareholder of the company which for several years past has been paying regular dividends. After the formation of that company and the sale of much of its stock he joined Andrew Laidlaw in the purchase of fifty-two thousand acres of coal land situated in the Crow's Nest Pass district fifty miles north of Michel, British Columbia. Again he was in- strumental in inducing the investment of eastern capital in the organization of the Imperial Coal & Coke Company, capitalized for four million. five hundred thou- sand dollars. After disposing of his interests in that connection in 1907, Mr. Laberee secured control of the Pincher Creek Coal Mining Company, owning properties two and a half miles from the town of Pincher Creek, Alberta. Since he has secured controlling interest in this company he has steadily prosecuted development work with the result that the company is now ready to begin a pro- duction that will place it on a steady dividend-paying basis. The controlling in- terest in the corporation is held by Mr. Laberee and R. D. Miller, also of Spokane.
Mr. Laberec has in connection with railway interests become even more widely known. In 1909 he was appointed receiver of the Alaska Central Railway Com- pany on the request of the bond-holders who had commenced foreclosure proceed- ings. This is a railroad project from Resurrection Bay to the Matanuska coal fields and the Yukon river. When Mr. Laberec assumed change as receiver only fifty miles of road had been completed. He added to this twenty-one miles, giv- ing general oversight to the construction work, so that the line is now seventy-one miles in length, and in less than a year he had successfully wound up the busi- ness of the company with credit to himself and satisfaction to all interested.
Directly after the sale of the Alaska Central Railway Company Mr. Laberec incorporated the Alaska Northern Railway Company under the laws of the state of Washington with a capital of thirty million dollars, and with head offices in Seattle. This company purchased the Alaska Central Railway from the bond- holders and is now awaiting development concerning the government's attitude in relation to Alaska ere taking further steps to build the road. However, the company keeps the part of the line now in existence in good repair and operates it for about eight months in the year. At one time Mr. Laberee was an extensive stockholder in the Washington Water Power Company. His present connections are with the Pincher Creek Coal Mining Company and the Alaska Northern Rail- way Company. Of both of these he is serving as president and of the latter he is also general manager. He is also an investor in a large number of Alaska gold and copper properties. Indeed if it were known he has been the moving spirit in consummating many important business deals and operations which are now accorded to others. As previously stated, however, he works quietly, finding his reward in the joy of accomplishing what he undertakes. For intricate and in- volved business problems he finds ready and correct solution and with almost intuitive prescience seems to grasp every point in the case, coordinating all forces so as to produce a harmonious, unified and resultant whole.
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On the 19th of August, 1887, Mr. Laberec was united in marriage to Miss Rose Clark of Olympia. Washington, and they have two children, Ben R. and Gladys. Those who meet Mr. Laberce in social connections find him an enter- taining, genial, social gentleman. He is popular in the membership of the Lamb's Club of New York city, the Spokane Club and the Spokane Country Club, and in the Arctic Club and Rainier Club of Seattle, Washington. An analyzation of his life work shows him to be a most forceful man of ready resources. He has a keen eye that seems to see to the very center of possibilities and to grasp every detail of a situation, yet he says little about what he has accomplished and works as quietly as if he were engaged upon some project of minor importance.
JAMES C. BROAD.
James C .. Broad. a contractor largely engaged on public work, displays in his business connections marked executive ability and keen insight. combined with a thorough knowledge of all that pertains directly to his chosen field of labor. Hc was born in England. October 19. 1865. the only son of William and Maria Broad. who were also natives of that country, where the mother still resides. The father died in 1866 and Mrs. Broad afterward became the wife of Thomas Pierce, by whom she had six children: William, Thomas. Albert and Bessic, all residents of Spokane: Annie, who is the wife of John Toms, also of this city ; and Carrie, living in England.
In the public schools of his native country James C. Broad pursued his educa- tion and first became connected with mining in Cornwall. England. He afterward engaged in the butchering business for a year and in 1881, then a youth of nineteen. crossed the Atlantic and made his way to Chicago, where he conducted a butchering business for two years. He went to British Columbia at the time of the building of the Canadian Pacific Railroad and there continued for a year. after which he spent the succeeding six months in Chicago. He next went to Omaha, Nebraska, where he remained for three months and spent a half year in Kansas City before his re- moval to Telluride. Colorado. He was there engaged in mining until he came to Spokane. Here he began general contracting and has continued in this place to the present time. For about three years, from 1889 until 1892, he was engaged on contract work for the Washington Water Power Company, being thus employed at the time it was consolidated with the Edison Electric Illuminating Company. He did construction work for that corporation and also did the construction work for the Arlington Heights Street Railway Company and the City Park Transit Com. pany in the building of an electric railway. For the past fifteen years he has been largely engaged in the exception of city contracts, bnikling waterworks, sewers and doing street grading. He put in the north side force mains and a twenty-eight-foot force main from the pumping station to Division street. He also graded Seventh avenue. Maple. Ash. Walnut, Perry and Nora streets. In sewer work he built the sewer for No. 1 district for seven miles; in No. 5 district in the fifth ward, three miles: No. 7 district. in the first ward, three miles ; also the sewers in Second, Fourth and Fifth avenues. Jefferson street. Sprague and Grand avenues. Mcclellan street, Twenty-sixth street, Thirteenth. Fourteenth and Sixteenth streets, Wall and How-
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ard strects, Cataldo avenue. Washington street, Spofford avenue, Maxwell, Nora. Sinto, Sharpe, Stevens, Dean, Gardiner. Boone, Kalispell, Normandy, Atlantic, Montgomery, Mansfield and Mission streets. He put in the drainage in Brown's addition for about six miles and also the Cannon Hill drainage for about five miles. He also installed the sewer system at Moscow, Idaho, extending for twenty miles; the waterworks at Potlatch; the waterworks at Davenport ; and the waterworks at Wilbur. Mr. Broad is also interested in the Snowstorm Mining & Milling Com- pany of which he is a director. This property is located in Idaho' and is now mak- ing shipments. He is also interested in the Rambler-Cariboo in British Columbia and the Stewart in Idaho. He is a freeholder and is one of Spokane's foremost citi- zens who has witnessed much of its growth and progress. He was residing here during the time of the great fire in 1889 and recalls many interesting details of that disaster.
Fraternally Mr. Broad is a prominent Mason, holding membership in the lodge. chapter, council, commandery and consistory, also in the Mystie Shrine and the Order of the Eastern Star. He likewise belongs to the Spokane Athletic Club and politically he is an active republican who recognizes the obligations as well as the privileges of citizenship and strives to advanee the public welfare through the adop- tion of political principles that are permanent factors in good government. His business interests, his politieal activities, his Masonie connections, have all brought him into prominence as a leading citizen of Spokane and in an analyzation of his life record it is found that his success has its root in elose application, thorough preliminary training and promptness and reliability in the execution of his con- tracts. Such a man naturally enjoys public confidence and wins the high regard and warm esteem of his fellowmen.
ALBERT HELD.
Albert Held, a Spokane architect, with offices in the Realty building, was born at New Ulm, Minnesota, March 25, 1866, a son of Albert and Christine (Stupp) Held. of that city. The father was a contractor and builder and still makes his home there. The son pursued his education in the public schools and in the Uni- versity of Minnesota, which he attended for two years, pursuing the technical course. He then followed his calling as a draughtsman in various places in Minne- sota and when the disastrous Spokane fire occurred in the fall of 1889 he realized that there would be much building in the city and opened an office here and has sinee occupied a leading position in the profession in the Inland Empire. He designed the Holly-Mason building-the first real fireproof structure in Spokane, -the Palace department store, the Home Telephone building, the North Central high school, the Marshall-Wells Company storehouse, the Realty building, the ter- minal station and all the work on the Inland Empire system. He was also the architect of the new gas works, the Centennial Mills, St. Luke's Hospital, the State Veterinary Hospital and the entire interior of Sacred Heart Hospital above the third floor, and among Spokane's fine apartment houses he designed the new Kniekerbocker apartments for Graham B. Dennis. the finest ever erected in the far west, and also the San Marco and Breslin apartments. Among the early resi-
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