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 28
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HON. EDWIN H. ESHLEMAN.
This is preeminently the age of the young man. Business conditions and public affairs call for the enterprise, energy and determination of the young. and college training has given them the knowledge which should accompany other qualities and which trains the mind for a ready selection of that which is es- sential. vital and valuable. Possessing the requisite qualities for leadership.
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Edwin H. Eshleman has made for himself a notable position in business circles and has become recognized as one of the political leaders of the Inland Empire. being the present representative of his district in the state legislature. In Spokane he is operating extensively in real estate as the president of The Eshleman-Burr company, and the story of his activity and his rise is an interesting one. He was born at Washington, D. C .. November 8. 1878, his parents being Edwin M. and Emma I. (Hansell) Eshleman. His father, formerly of the United States coast survey is now living retired in Washington, D. C. His wife was a daughter of Emerick W. Hansell, who was with Secretary of State Seward on the night of his attempted assassination. Mr. Hansell was stabbed in defending Mr. Seward.
Edwin H. Eshleman received his education in Washington. D. C .. but with the outbreak of the Spanish-American war he put aside his text-books and enlisted as a member of Company K, First Maryland Volunteers, with which he served for about eight months, when the command was mustered out. Entering business, circles, he became an employe of the Wood-Harmon Company, the largest real- estate operators in the United States, and after some time spent in their service came to the west with the determination to help build up the rich, yet undevel- oped country. Today he is recognized by his friends and many clients as an empire builder. having taken active and helpful part in the development of this section of the country. When he left New York he became associated with The Jacob-Stine Company. of Portland, Oregon, as their sales manager. This com- pany does an enormous real-estate business and is known as one of the largest firms operating on the Pacific coast, but realizing the immense possibilities and the opportunities in Spokane, Mr. Eshleman determined to locate in this city and for a brief period was identified with The Fred B. Grinnell Company. All this time he was actuated by the desire and hope of one day engaging in business on his own account and, feeling that his experience was now sufficient to justify him in his step, he organized the business which is now conducted under the name of The Eshleman-Burr Company. The present partners in the business are among the youngest men who as proprietors are operating in the real-estate field of Spo- kane today. They have displayed many of the methods of the pioneer, in that they have initiated new ways and methods for conducting the business. The Spokes- man-Review wrote of them:
"Since the inception of this company perhaps there are no two young men in Spokane who have shown more marked ability in the real-estate field. They are the type of men who attempt great things and make good, accomplishing more in the short space of time they have been in business than they really anticipated."
It has been the business of The Eshleman-Burr Company to handle large real- estate projects in Spokane, and they have always been chary in the propositions they have offered the people, seeing to it that nothing but the most meritorions projects were sold through their offices. Among the local additions which this firm has been successful in selling to the investing public are West Kenwood, Irvington Heights. North Audubon Park. Mount Pleasant and numerous others which have proved to be property worthy of investment for the reason that in the short spaee of time that has elapsed since. values in all these additions have rapidly increased to the benefit of those who purchased these properties.
It goes without saying that the great success attained by this firm is due not only to the integrity. fairness and ability to select property that would be profit-
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able for the people to buy, but their progressive methods and businesslike way of transacting deals has played an important part in bringing them to the front as a real-estate corporation that is now classed among the best by the most con- servative people in the northwest.
Their labors have been a most effective clement in the upbuilding and im- provement of the northern section of the city, where they are now handling Mount Pleasant. having within a very short space of time sold their lots to the value of more than one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. They have ever made it their rule to handle only such tracts as include the improvements. These improve- ments include cement sidewalks. parking strips, graded streets, curbing and city water. Purchasers do not hesitate to determine upon a location where such im- provements have been or are being made and the firm always holds to the rule that they will handle property of no other class. The Eshleman-Burr Company have met with continuous success in their operations. Their business today has reached extensive proportions and the success which has come to the firm is but the merited reward of persistent, earnest labor, unfaltering energy and progres- sive methods.
On Christmas day of 1899. in Alexandria. Virginia, was celebrated the mar- riage of Mr. Eshleman and Miss Mary MeGinley, daughter of Patrick McGinley and Kathrine McGinley, nec Worthington, a granddaughter of George D. Worth- ington, the first colonial governor of Florida. Mr. and Mrs. Eshleman now have two children. Edwin M. and Dorothy Lee. He belongs to various fraternal and social organizations, having become a member of Columbia Lodge, No. 3. 1. F. &. A. M. in Washington, D. C., and of the Elks lodge in Elmira. New York. He also belongs to the United Spanish War Veterans, and in Spokane his membership is in the Inland Club and the Spokane Amateur Athletic Club. He has been particularly prominent during his residence here as a member of the Chamber of Commerce, serving on a number of its most important committees, including the membership committee. It was largely due to his activity that the chamber se- cured larger quarters, and his efforts have been equally effective in accomplishing its purpose of making known the possibilities and opportunities of the city and surrounding country, and of promoting the upbuilding and improvement of Spo- kane. Mr. Eshleman is also recognized as a leader in the republican ranks in the Inland Empire and in November, 1910, was elected a member of the state legislature. His study of vital questions and issues of the day has been compre- hensive and as a member of the state legislature he stands loyally in support of legislation which he deems of essential worth to the commonwealth.
WESLEY C. STONE.
The commercial interests of Spokane find a worthy and well known represent- ative in Wesley C. Stone, who is conducting a large and profitable drug business in this city. He also has other business interests, being president of the People's Investment Company and a director of the Land Title Savings Bank. Ile was born in Cazenovia. New York. September 13. 1860, a son of Lafayette Stone, who was also a native of the Empire state and died in 1908. He traced his lineage
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back to the early settlement of Connecticut and was of English descent. On the distaff side Wesley C. Stone also comes of English aneestry, although the family was founded in America in colonial days and sent representatives to the Revolu- tionary war. The maternal grandfather was a resident of New Jersey but was liv- ing in New York when his daughter, Maria Wilson, who became the wife of Lafayette Stone, was born. She died in 1873, leaving but three children, the surviving daughter being Lucy, now the wife of Myron Drury, of Oswego, New York.
The son, Wesley C. Stone, spent his youthful days in his native town and was educated in the Cazenovia Seminary and in the Oswego State Normal School of New York and Cornell University. At the age of eighteen years he entered upon the pro- fession of school teaching, which he followed until forty years of age. For three years he taught in the rural schools of the Empire state and then entered upon graded school work at Fulton, New York. He afterward became principal of the schools of Oswego Falls, New York, and later went to Theresa. New York, where he was prin- cipal of the Union Free School for three years.
Mr. Stone dates his residence in Washington from 1890, when he arrived at Chency at the opening of the normal school at that place. He became one of its teachers, at which time its faculty numbered but four. This was the first normal school in the state and Mr. Stone was elected vice principal in 1892, serving for five years or until 1897, when the school was temporarily elosed for a year because of laek of funds. Mr. Stone then came to Spokane and engaged in the drug business but in 1898 resumed his school work, spending three years as a high-school teacher. He then again entered the drug trade in Spokane and now has a well equipped and well appointed establishment at No. 424 Sprague avenue. He has never ceased to fecl a deep interest in the Chency Normal School, which during its early history put forth a strenuous struggle for existence. At one time the faculty went eighteen months without pay and Mr. Stone took an active part in the work of seeuring an appropriation for the school, which was finally accomplished. In the educational ยท field he has contributed much to Washington's progress and was very active in the county and state teachers' associations, especially in the former, having a place on its programs for ten years as one of the instructors in Spokane. For the last twelve years he has successfully managed his drug business. He is recognized as a re- sonreeful business man whose energy enables him to carry forward to successful completion whatever he undertakes.
On the 15th of July, 1891, in Helena, Montana, Mr. Stone was united in mar- riage to Miss Emma Grigson, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Grigson, of Fulton, New York. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Stone were born three daughters: Elsie, Ruth and Mabel, all high-school students.
Mr. Stone belongs to the Druggists' Association of Spokane and is prominent in Masonry, holding membership in Spokane Lodge, No. 34, F. & A. M .; in Spokane Chapter, No. 2, R. A. M .; Spokane Couneil, No. 4, R. & S. M .: Cataract Com- mandery, No. 3, K. T .; and all of the Scottish Rite bodies up to and including the thirty-second degree. He has likewise crossed the sands of the desert with the Nobles of the Mystie Shrinc and in the different organizations he has filled many offices, being a past master of the lodge, past high priest of the chapter, past thrice illustrious master of the council and past eminent commander of the commandery. In the state organizations he has also attained prominence and recognition, being
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a past grand master of the grand council, while at the present writing he is grand high priest of the Royal Arch Masons. In the moral progress of the community he is also deeply interested, being an active worker and faithful member in the St. Paul's Methodist Episcopal church, of which he served for several years as president of the board of trustees. For a period of three years he served as a valued member of the board of education. His influence has been strongly felt along lines leading to the material, intellectual and moral progress of the city and he seems at all times imbued with the spirit of enterprise which is the foundation of the woarvelous history of the northwest.
HENRY W. NEWTON.
Henry W. Newton is engaged in the general insurance loan and real-estate busi- ness as a member of the Guernsey-Newton Company, Inc. He is likewise very prominent in musical circles, nor have his efforts been withheld from those projects which are helpful factors in the city's progress and improvement. His activity along these various lines renders him a valued and representative resident of Spo- kane and in all things he manifests a public-spirited devotion to the general good. The width of the continent separates him from his birthplace, which was a farm in South Carolina, his natal day being August 22. 1869. He is a son of Larkin and Ruth M. (Wellborn) Newton, both of whom were natives of South Carolina and of English descent, the latter, however, representing one of the old families of Vir- ginia. The Newton family was founded in the United States when this country was still numbered among the colonial possessions of England. Larkin Newton was prominent in his home locality and took an active part in educational work and in politics. He was a farmer and lawyer and was known as Major Newton because of his early connection with the local militia organization. Afterward he enlisted for service in the Confederate army, in which he was a cavalry officer. He died in 1890 and was long survived by his wife, who passed away in 1909. In their family were the following named : Dr. J. C. C. Newton, D. D., Ph. D .. now of Kobe, Japan ; Marion, a farmer of Pendleton, South Carolina; Josephus, who is engaged in the newspaper business, covering all the southeast for a publishing house of Nashville. Tennessee : Mrs. Olivia Evatt, who is a widow and resides in Columbia, South Caro- lina, where she is teaching in the Columbia Orphanage School; Lulu, the wife of Henry Martin, a prominent farmer and merchant of Pickens county, South Caro- lina ; and Henry W .. of this review.
The last named spent the first twenty years of his life on his father's farm with the usual experiences that fall to the lot of the farm boy. He completed his literary education in the Honea Path Academy of South Carolina with the class of 1890 and was liberally educated in music in Chicago and New York, where he studied voice, developing the splendid talents with which nature endowed him. Mr. Newton first made his way west of the Mississippi when in 1891 he became a resident of Kansas City, where he engaged in the piano business. In 1894 he went to Chicago, where he conducted a similar enterprise. While associated with the Weber piano people he pursued the study of music, thus developing his native talents. After three years' residence in Chicago he disposed of his stock in the piano business of
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the McDonald, Newton Company and took up the profession of voice culture. In addition he became well known as concert singer and choir director, having charge of the musie of St. James Methodist church, the leading church of that denomination in Chicago. He was also director of the vocal department of the Wesleyan Meth- odist College at Bloomington, Illinois.
Mr. Newton's identification with the northwest began in 1903, when he settled in Idaho and joined his father-in-law. O. E. Guernsey, in the mining business in the Seven Devils district on Snake river, a property in which Mr. Guernsey was interested, with headquarters at Lewiston. Mr. Newton established a mortgage loan business for his father-in-law and later extended the scope of the undertaking by opening real-estate and insurance departments. The business was organized under the name of the Lewiston Loan & Trust Company, Inc .. Mr. Newton becom- ing vice president with Mr. Guernsey as president. Five years later they sold out and removed to Spokane, seeking the broader field of labor offered in this city. Here they have operated under the name of the Guernsey-Newton Company and conduct a general insurance, loan and real-estate business. In the insurance field they represent the Royal of Liverpool, the Scottish Union and National of Edin- burgh, Scotland, the Colonial of Hartford, Connecticut, the Philadelphia Under- writers. the Maryland Casualty Company, the Fidelity Deposit Company of Balti- more, and are general agents for eastern Washington and northern Idaho for the two last named. They make real-estate loans in the Inland Empire under the direction of Mr. Guernsey and the various branches of their business are growing and returning substantial profit. Mr. Guernsey remains as president of the com- pany with Mr. Newton as vice president and general manager. J. Riley Chase, treasurer, George H. Schafer. secretary, and Daniel Morgan, trustee. The busi- ness is capitalized for twenty-five thousand dollars and they have gained a good clientage during their connection with Spokane.
Mr. Newton is deeply interested in all the various plans and projects for the development and upbuilding of this section of the country. He has studied the problems which Washington must solve because of elimatie and soil conditions and is taking an advanced stand upon many important questions. He served as the executive chairman of the board of governors for the state of Washington for the fifth international dry congress held in Spokane in October. 1910, on which oeea- sion there were present delegates not only from all sections of the United States but also from twelve or fourteen foreign countries. An active member of the Chiam- ber of Commerce, he has served on the entertainment and membership committees for three years. He was chairman of the city beautiful committee, which did splendid work resulting in the one million dollar bond issue for city parks, succeed- ing A. L. White in this position. He has indeed been a cooperant factor in the work for Spokane's development and improveinent and in all that he does is actuated by a spirit that none questions. His political allegiance is given to the republican party but without desire for office.
On the 4th of April. 1903, in Dubuque. Iowa. Mr. Newton was united in mar- riage to Miss Grace Guernsey, a daughter of O. E. Guernsey and an accomplished musician and pianist who is a graduate of the Mount Vernon Seminary of Wash- ington, D. C. She finished her education by travel, covering Europe, Mexico and Canada. Her musical tastes constitute a bond of sympathy and interest between Mr. and Mrs. Newton in addition to their many other phases of congenial com-
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panionship. They have one son, Ellery Willis Newton, now six years of age. Mr. Newton is well known in Masonic circles, having taken the thirty-second degree in the Scottish Rite, and is also a member of the Mystic Shrine. He likewise belongs to Elks Lodge. No. 228, of Spokane, to the Spokane Club and the Inland Club. He was reared a Methodist. He holds a prominent position in musical circles in Spo- kane, as he has done in other cities where he has made his home, and contributes his services as musical director of a chorus of male voices. now in its third year. known as the Mendelssohn Club. His public activities and his prominence in musical circles constitute an even balance to his business life, making his a well rounded character and constituting him a man of broad, liberal and progressive interests.
FRED C. KIELING.
Fred C. Kieling. who is now living retired in Chewelah, has been a resident of Washington for forty-four years. during which period he has been associated with various activities. Ile was born in Germany on the Ith of August. 1846. and is a son of Albert C. and Johanna (Frohlich) Kieling, both of whom are now deceased. the father having passed away in 1887 and the mother in 1893.
During his boyhood and youth Fred C. Kieling lived in the vicinity of Mil- waukee. Wisconsin, where he worked on a farm and attended the district schools until he had attained the age of fifteen years. In 1863 he went to Michigan and worked in a sawmill for a short time, after which he returned to Wisconsin and enlisted as a drummer boy in the Forty-fifth Wisconsin Infantry, receiving his discharge in July. 1865. After spending a few months in Chicago and Milwaukee he went to Leavenworth. Kansas, apprenticing himself to the butcher's trade. In April. 1866, he again started westward, crossing the plains to Washington, and locating at Walla Walla in the fall of that year. During the succeeding two years he farmed and freighted. except during the winter months of 1867 and 1868, when he had charge of the postoffice at Snebly Bridge, eight miles north of the present city of Spokane. The duties of this position were not arduous as the country was but sparsely settled and the mail which was carried on snowshoes and horseback was largely composed of letters. When he first located near Spokane there were only about six other white settlers between Hangman ereck and Rath- drum, these being "Stonewall" Jackson on Moran Prairie: Charles Kindle at Rath- drum: Bob Doer. Jack Fisher and Joe Harron, this side of Post Walls: Old Camille. a French Canadian. In the spring of 1868 he removed to Colville, remaining there for five years. During that time he worked for the man who had the government meat contract, drove cattle for a Mr. Oppenheim and for a time served as deputy treasurer. In 1871 he filed on a homestead and his entire time and attention was the voted to its cultivation during the period of his residence in 1873-71. Removing to Colville later, he became associated with a friend in filling a government meat contract for four years, following which, in the spring of 1878, he engaged in freighting flour from Colville to the soldiers at the post at Lapawa, Idaho.
In 1880 Mr. Kieling was elected sheriff and assessor of Stevens county and after discharging the duties of these offices for four years he returned to his farm. continuously residing there until 1904, when he disposed of it and moved to
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Chewelah. Here he engaged in the meat business until 1909 when he withdrew from the more active interests of life and has ever since been living practically re- tired, simply giving his attention to the supervision of his personal affairs. Min- ing operations have always largely engaged the attention of Mr. Kieling, who is in- terested in the Windfall Mining & Milling Company and the Rattle Snake Min- ing & Milling Company.
On the 23d of January, 1871, Mr. Kieling was united in marriage to Miss Rubina A. Brown, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Brown of Chewelah, her mother having been the first white woman in Stevens county. Mr. Brown came to the Colville valley in 1854 from the Red River of the North in Canada, taking up a homestead just north of Addy. At that time Mrs. Kieling was only three years old. Mr. Brown and fifteen others volunteered and joined Colonel Wright in Spo- kane. Three children were born unto Mr. and Mrs. Kieling: Albert, who mar- ried May Bunker, now deceased, and has one child, Harold H .; Ellis H., who ehose for his wife Mamie Elfris and also has one son, Kenneth E .; and Calvin F., who married Elva E. Alkier and has one child, Morris C.
The family affiliate with the Congregational church, and Mr. Kieling belongs to the Grand Army of the Republic, while his politieal support he gives to the democratic party. He is not only one of the pioneers of Stevens county but of the state of Washington, which has developed from little more than a wilderness into one of the nation's great commonwealths during the period of his residence.
WILBUR SIMPSON YEARSLEY.
Wilbur Simpson Yearsley, viec president of the firm of Ham, Yearsley & Ryrie, has been a resident of Washington for the past nineteen years, during the greater portion of which time he has been identified with the business interests of Spokane. He is a native of Pennsylvania, his birth having occurred in Westtown township. Chester county. on the 22d of April, 1866, his parents being Washington and Jane (Lewis) Yearsley. In both lines he is of Quaker extraction, his father's family having emigrated to America in 1681, as members of William Penn's colony, while his maternal ancestors came to this country from Wales during the early colonial days. His mother, who celebrated the seventy-ninth anniversary of her birth on the 10th of September, 1911, is now a resident of Spokane and makes her home with her son at 2017 Mallon street.
Wilbur Simpson Yearsley was educated in the public schools of his native town and later for a time studied at Woralls Academy at West Chester, Pennsylvania. He then took a course in the Pierce Business College at Philadelphia, from which he was graduated in 1886. He began his business career in a general merchandise store at Westtown and while there he devoted his spare hours to reading law under the direction of Alfred P. Reid, of West Chester. For six years he was identified with various occupations but still continued his law studies, being admitted to the Chester county bar in June, 1892. On the Ist of the following July he came to Spokane as examiner for the Pennsylvania Mortgage Investment Company, being retained here in that capacity until 1905. When this company retrenched, follow- ing the panic of 1893 and 1894, he was located at Colfax, this state, where he had
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