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 4
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ARTHUR R. BLEWETT.
The industrial enterprises of Spokane find a worthy and well known repre- sentative in Arthur R. Blewett, who is the secretary and general manager of the Northwest Harvester Company, an enterprise that has excellent equipment and is well established on the road to suceess. A native of Bowling Green, Kentucky, Arthur R. Blewett was born June 14, 1877, of the marriage of Alexander Chap- man Blewett and Galveston Stone. The mother was named for her native city, Galveston, Texas, and belonged to an old southern family, prominent in antebellum days. She was of English descent, as was her husband, who was a native of Kentucky. The latter died in California, in 1898, and his wife passed away in 1901. In their family were three sons and two daughters: Arthur R .; Hannibal C., who is living in Turlock, California: Roy V., of the same place; Miss Betsy Stark, of Spokane: and Effie, who is also living in Spokane.
Arthur R. Blewett, taken to California in his boyhood days, his parents re- moving to that state in 1890, supplemented his public-school course by study in San Joaquin Valley College at Woodbridge, California. After putting aside his text-books he engaged in farming ninety-five hundred acres of land at Turlock, Stanislaus, California, but withdrew from agricultural pursuits in 1906 and went upon the road as a traveling salesman for The Holt Manufacturing Company, at Stoekton, California, with which he was connected six years. He traveled over
A. R. BLEWETT
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the northwest territory, covering Oregon, Washington, Montana and Canada, and in 1907 was made the district manager for the company at Spokane. continuing in that position through the years 1908 and 1909. Since then he has been the secretary and manager of the Northwest Harvester Company, of which he was one of the organizers. They make a specialty of side hill combined harvesters and build two types of machines-one called the Northwest Side Hill Combined Harvester, and the other the Blewett Side Hill Combined Harvester. The mn- ventions and patents of the latter are owned by Mr. Blewett. In addition to the manufacture and sale of harvesters, the company conducts a general foundry and machine shop business, builds a variety of special machinery and does all kinds of repair work. They have completed their second year in business and in ten months their output in machines amounted to over eighty thousand dollars. They now have plans for the building of sixty machines for the year 1912, which will represent over one hundred thousand dollars. The company owns its own plant adjoining Spokane, with four acres of ground, and has an exceptionally good class of all brick factory buildings, with concrete floors, numbering nine. Modern ma- chinery has been installed and everything is planned for the rapid filling of orders. They have won notable success since embarking in this enterprise and not a little of the result is attributable to Arthur R. Blewett, whose previous experience with The Holt Manufacturing Company well qualified him to undertake the duties that devolve upon him in his present connection. The Northwest Harvester Company has the following officers: Ben C. Holt, president and treasurer; C. Parker Holt, vice president ; and Arthur R. Blewett, manager and secretary. The business is capitalized for three hundred thousand dollars.
In addition to his other interests, Mr. Blewett owns an irrigated ranch at Turlock, California, which he is now improving. He belongs to the Spokane Club, to the Spokane Athletic Club and also to the Chamber of Commerce. His political views are in accord with the principles of the democratic party and he keeps well informed on the questions of the day but does not seek nor desire office, feeling that his time and attention are fully occupied by business affairs, which are growing in volume and importance and which have already won him recogni- tion as an enterprising and successful business man of his adopted city.
G. W. FINNEY.
G. W. Finney, president of the Union State Bank of Odessa, was the founder of the town in the development of which he has always taken a prominent part, being one of the foremost citizens and most progressive business men in the place. He is a native of Missouri, his birth having occurred in Linn county, on the 24th of June. 1861, his parents being Franklin and Nancy J. (Hizer) Finney. The father was a native of Virginia and the mother of Kentucky, but they were long residents of Linn county, where the father engaged in agricultural pursuits.
G. W. Finney was given the advantages of a good practical education in the district and public schools of his native county, where he passed the first twenty years of his life. In 1881. he left home and started out to make his own way in the world. In common with the majority of young men of that period he felt that
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better opportunities were to be afforded in the west so he went to Colorado and worked in the mines for several years. At the end of that time he returned to Missouri but only remained a year or two, when he decided to come to the north- west. He arrived in Lineoln county in the spring of 1886 and immediately there- after filed on a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres. Having been reared on a farm he was thoroughly familiar with agricultural pursuits and stock raising. and was in every way well qualified to make a success of the cultivation of his ranch. A man of elear judgment and thoroughly practical in his ideas, he directed his undertakings with intelligence, and although he met with the usual discourage- ments and obstacles that eonfront the pioneers in every section. he possessed the determination of purpose and confidence in his own powers that carried him on to success. During the sueeeeding years he met with constantly inereasing pros- perity, and had brought his land under high cultivation and had it well improved when the Great Northern Railroad Company extended their lines through this seetion of Lincoln county in 1892. They passed directly through Mr. Finney's ranch. and being a man of much foresight and perspicacity he naturally recognized the wonderful opportunity and advantage this afforded him, and determined to utilize it to his own benefit. There was no settlement in this immediate vicinity at that period, and with the improved transportation facilities settlers began com- ing into the country in constantly increasing numbers. and Mr. Finney began for- mulating plans for the location of a town site on his homestead. He had these en- tirely completed and his land platted and laid out ready for settlement before 1898. About the same time he established a lumberyard here and not only sold lots to the new-comers but also supplied them with all building materials. The location was a most excellent one and the town, which had been incorporated and named Odessa, grew with amazing rapidity and is now one of the most prosperous and thriving villages in Lineoln county. Mr. Finney has been tireless in his efforts to promote its development along the various lines and has erected four of the largest and most substantial business bloeks in the town. In 1902 he became associated with other citizens in the organization of the Odessa State Bank, and was one of the directors of this institution and later became the vice president. Its development was promoted with very good success until 1911 when it became consolidated with the First National Bank. In 1911 both of these in- stitutions were liquidated. and the Union State Bank was organized with Mr. Fin- ney as president; Joseph Kriegler and William R. Lesley, vice presidents ; Charles T. Deetz, cashier: and Henry Ryke. assistant cashier. Mr. Finney has been finaneially interested in various loeal enterprises, and he still engages in the lum- ber and real-estate business. He is a very public-spirited man and is always ready to give his indorsement and cooperation to every movement that will forward the financial, moral, intellectual or social welfare of the community. He is an active member of the Odessa Commercial Club, and enthusiastieally champions its var- ious undertakings. In addition to his extensive town property. he is the owner of two thousand acres of fine wheat land that he is leasing.
G. W. Finney was twice married, his first union with Miss Mary S. Ray took place in Colorado and of the children born of this marriage two survive, Trella D. and Pearl M. Mrs. Finney passed away in Odessa in 1891. On February 25. 1893, Mr. Finney was married at Odessa. to Miss Emma Durland.
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Mr. Finney is chairman of the board of trustees of the Methodist Episcopal enurch, with which his family also affiliate, and he is also a member of the Odd Fellows fraternity. His political support he gives to the democratic party, and although he is actively interested in local governmental affairs has always refused to accept office barring that of member of the board of education, of which he now serves as president. He has been connected with this board for eight years. He is one of the representative citizens of the town and belongs to the type of men to whose energies and progressive ideas the northwest is indebted for its rapid and substantial development. Mr. Finney is widely known throughout Lincoln county and is generally accorded the esteem and respect his powers of organiza- tion and executive ability as well as general business sagacity so highly merit.
JOHN J. MOAK.
There is something in the free, open life of the west that brings out the strong- est elements of manhood. that calls forth the real worth of the individual and in riding the range in early manhood John J. Moak became self-reliant, resolute and determined and thus laid the foundation for his advancement and success in later years. He is today well known as a mining engineer and real-estate dealer of Spokane and his life typifies in large measure the progressive spirit which dominates the Pacific coast country. He was born in the state of New York, August 28, 1859, one of two sons of Levi and Cecelia (Van Naton) Moak, who were also natives of New York. His ancestors came to America with Peter Stuyvesant and settled on the Hudson river. They were originally from Holland and in later generations the family was represented in the Revolutionary war. Levi Meak remained a resident of the Empire state until 1853, when by way of Panama and Aspinwall he made his way to California, becoming one of the pioneer residents of that state. He filled the office of assessor of Butte county for many years and was well known as a leading citizen of his district. His wife, who is also a rep- resentative of an old Holland family, is now living in Charleston. Idaho, but Mr. Moak passed away in 1900. Jacob E. Moak. one of their sons, is now a resident of Silver Hill. Washington. The two daughters are: Mrs. Fannie 1 .. Kirkpatrick, also of Silver Hill; and Mrs. Carrie Vadney, of Clarkston, Idaho.
In the public schools of California John J. Moak pursued his early education. which was supplemented by study in the State University at Eugene, Oregon, where he specialized in mineralogy, metalurgy and chemistry. His first business ex- perience, however, was in riding the range in California, Oregon and Nevada, and thus his time was occupied until he reached the age of twenty-three years. Ile then engaged in mining at Canyon City, Oregon, where he remained for five or six years, connected with both quartz and placer mining. Later he engaged in placer mining in Susanville, Oregon, and from there went to the Coeur d'Alenes where he remained in 1881-5, doing placer mining. He next located in Farmington and Tekoa, where he carried on general merchandising for two years, and subsequently he again became interested in mining operations at Susanville. At Baker City, Oregon, he engaged in both placer and quartz mining and then went to Boise, Idaho, where he followed placer mining until he located in the Bohemia district above Eugene, Oregon, where he spent four years.
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On the expiration of that period Mr. Moak went to the Black Rock distriet in northern Nevada as a plaeer miner and later was connected with the lumber and wood business for a year in Plumas and Shasta counties. in northern California. After spending three months in examining copper properties in the Washoe river country he went to Shaniko. Oregon, and invested in eity property. While re- siding there he aeted as superintendent of the waterworks and street grading but left that place to go to the Coeur d'Alenes where he devoted ten years to placer and quartz mining. Again he returned to Spokane and entered into the real-estate business as a partner of C. C. Barnard. In September. 1910, he purehased an in- terest in the Garmen Realty & Building Company with which he has since been connected, and has also been identified with placer interests in Idaho. They have five hundred and forty acres lying along California ereek, in Idaho county, Idaho. Work is there earried on under the name of the Humboldt Quartz Plaeer Milling Company with Mr. Moak as general manager and superintendent. They have a diteh two miles long with fourteen hundred feet of steel pipe, two No. 2 giants and two hundred feet head. The work has just been begun and the ground assays from one to twenty dollars per yard. giving a general average of two dollars and a half per yard. It is estimated the contents of deposits are six hundred feet on one channel, four hundred feet wide, with an average depth of thirty-five feet. There are eight elaims a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide with a ereek channel through the eenter. and the average depth is fifty feet. There is plenty of water and dumpage with pressure to spare and the claims are to be worked by the hydraulie method.
While at Susanville Mr. Moak was foreman of the Humboldt mine and he owned ground at Marysville that he worked. He was foreman for the Coeur d'Alene Plaeer Company and was also foreman for Keney Brothers at Maey Ridge. Susanville. He had the Gardner placer diggings at Granite under lease and worked that property for two seasons. He was also foreman and superintendent for the Elk Creek plaeer mines at Baker City and foreman at Baker City for the Second Creek Plaeer Mining Company. He was connected with the Noonday mine and mill at Bohemia, aeting as mill boss. At Murray he was eonneeted with the Golden Chest mill. dividing four years between mill and mine. He afterward seenred a lease on the Faney Guleh plaeers in Eagle Creek distriet near Murray which he worked for two years.
Mr. Moak is prominently known in the Knights of Pythias lodge in which he has filled all of the chairs and is now past ehaneellor commander. While in Oregon he beeame identified with the Ancient Order of United Workmen but has since dropped his membership. In polities he is an active republiean and while in Oregon represented his party in eounty and state conventions. He also served on the republican eonnty eentral committee for several terms and did all in his power to promote the growth and insure the snecess of the party. In 1876 he served as a member of the Walla Walla Home Guards which comprises his military ex- perienee save that while in Butte county, California. he had a number of skirmishes with the Indians who at that time would plunder the farms of the settlers. He often had to live out in the brush two or three days at a time in order to proteet his home. The Mill Creek Indians were then known as the Big Foot tribe and oeeasioned considerable trouble to the settlers. There is no phase of pioneer life on the Pacific coast with which Mr. Moak is not familiar and few men are more
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thoroughly informed concerning its mining development and all the hardships and difficulties incident to the life of the miner. He has, however, lived to enjoy much of the success which is to be attained from the development of the rich mineral resources of the country and because of the extent and importance of his operations and his work he is well known.
ERNEST D. WELLER.
Ernest D. Weller. of the firm of McWilliams, Weller & McWilliams and a representative of the Spokane bar, was born at New London, Iowa, September 13. 1883, his parents being William L. and Martha M. (Roberts) Weller. The father was a prominent agriculturist of Iowa and had four children.
Ernest D. Weller pursued his education in the public schools of New London, completing his literary course by graduation from the Towa Wesleyan University in 1901. Subsequently he became a student in the law department of the Univer- sity of Michigan, from which he was graduated in 1908. Upon being admitted to the bar he immediately settled at Cheney, where he remained for two years, dur- ing which time he served one year as city attorney. In 1910 he came to Spokane to become a member of his present firm and has since been engaged in the practice of law in this city. He does not concentrate his energies upon any special line but engages in general practice and has secured a good clientage, which is proof of his ability. as the public does not place its legal interests in unskilled hands.
On the 24th of August, 1909. Mr. Weller was married. at Burlington, Iowa. to Miss Grace M. Jackman, a daughter of George B. and Sadie A. Jackman. Mr. and Mrs. Weller have one danghter. Elizabeth. Mr. Weller holds membership in the Chamber of Commerce. He possesses admirable social qualities and that spirit of courtesy and kindliness which has gained for him an extensive circle of friends during his two years' residence in this city. The family home is at East 920 DeSmet avenue.
HARRY A. FLOOD.
Harry A. Flood is justly classed with the wide-awake, alert business men of Spokane, for he has contributed in substantial manner to the progress and rapid development of the city, his business affairs being largely of a nature that has promoted general activity and prosperity as well as individual success. He is recognized as one of the leading factors in The Trustee Company of Spokane which owns and controls a number of the best business blocks of the city, and his keen sagacity, enterprise and determination have been salient features in the or- ganization and management of this company which ranks second to none of the kind in the Inland Empire.
Mr. Flood is yet a young man to whom undoubtedly the future holds out much promise. He was born in Decatur, Illinois. May 9. 1873, a son of Henry and Catherine ( Bricker) Flood. The family is of Irish lineage, having been estab-
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lished in America by the great-great-grandfather of Harry A. Flood, who, leaving the Emerald isle, erossed the Atlantic to the new world while this country was still numbered among the colonial possesions of Great Britain. His father. Henry Flood. now residing in Spokane is a native of Kentucky and for a considerable period operated extensively in real estate in the northwest, his success enabling him at length to put aside business cares, and live retired in the enjoyment of the fruits of his former toil. His wife is a native of Ohio and in their family were four sons, of whom William C. and Frank M. are both deceased. The living brother of Harry A. Flood is John R. Flood, now master mechanic of the Black- well Lumber Company at Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.
After largely mastering the branches of learning taught in the common schools Harry A. Flood left home at the age of eighteen and for six years was upon the road as a traveling salesman, after which he turned his attention to the insurance business, acting for twelve years as manager of life insurance companies, the latter half of that period being spent as manager of the Prudential Insurance Company of America. He entered the insurance field as agent for the Metropolitan Life Company of New Orleans and in 1896 went to San Francisco as agent for the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company, his recognized ability winning him pro- motion to the position of assistant superintendent. The company sent him to Butte, Montana, where for ninety days he superintended its interests and then came to Spokane to open the district for the company in April, 1898. As superin- tendent for the Pacific Mutual he figured in insurance circles in Spokane until January 27, 1902. when he became manager of the Prudential. From the be- ginning of his connection with insurance interests promotions came to him rapidly because of his thorough mastery of every task and duty assigned, resulting in a developing power that qualified him for larger responsibilities. He remained with the Prudential until October. 1906. when he resigned that position to become secre- tary and active manager of The Trustee Company of Spokane. Since that time his duties have been further increased in his election to the presidency and he now acts in the dual capacity of president and general manager. Mr. Flood be- came identified with this company soon after its formation and was instrumental in securing capital and raising the capital stock to two hundred thousand dollars. Enthusiastic and zealous in his advocacy of the northwest and with firm belief in its possibilities and in its future Mr. Flood has made extensive investment in wheat and irrigated lands on the Columbia river in connection with his father, Henry Flood, securing in all over twelve thousand acres of land near Beverly of which they still retain ten thousand acres. His property is erossed by the Chicago. Mil- waukee & St. Paul railroad, thus affording him excellent shipping facilities for his products. He is furthermore known in business circles in Spokane as one of the directors of the Spokane Title Company.
On the 27th of November. 1901. at Glendive, Montana, Mr. Flood was united in marriage to Miss Jennie M. Kirkpatrick, of Malvern, Arkansas, formerly a resident of Michigan and a daughter of William Kirkpatrick, a native of Glasgow, Scotland, who following the establishment of his home in the south became an extensive land owner at Malvern, Arkansas. Mr. and Mrs. Flood have become parents of two children, Kathryn and William Harry, the former now attending school. The parents are members of the Vincent Methodist Episcopal church and are interested in the church work, Mr. Flood serving as a trustee of the Marie Beard Deaconess Home.
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He belongs also to the Spokane Club, the Spokane Country Club and the Chamber of Commerce and in fraternal relations is a prominent Mason, having taken the degrees of the blue lodge, commandery, consistory and Mystie Shrine. On various occasions he has been called to office in the different branches of Masonry, being a past master of the lodge, past commander of the Knights Templar commandery, and a past potentate of the Mystic Shrine. He is a member of the Inland Club and during 1911 served as trustee of the National Apple Show. He regards it his duty as well as the privilege of citizenship to express his political views which he does in unfaltering support of the republican party, and in the days of conventions he frequently attended as a delegate while at different times he has served as a member of the central committee. The interests and activities of his life have been varied and in considerable measure have contributed to the welfare and progress of the communities in which he has lived. He holds to high ideals in business as well as in citizenship, and careful investigation into his life record shows that his path is never strewn with the wreck of other men's fortunes but that constructive measures have always been used in the attainment of the success which is now his.
A. G. MITCHUM.
One of the well known pioneer residents of Lincoln county is A. G. Mitchum, who located in the vicinity of Harrington in 1883, many years before that thriving town was founded. He was born in Colusa county, California, on the 15th of July, 1861, and is a son of James and Anna Mitchum, natives of Kentucky. His parents made the journey overland to the Pacific coast in 1852. locating in California, where the mother passed away during the boyhood of our subject. The father, who was a veteran of the Mexican war, engaged in farming in California until 1879, when he came to Washington with his son A. G. After spending several months in the vicinity of Medical Lake he returned to California. where the following year he died.
The first eighteen years of his life A. G. Mitchum spent in his native county, to whose public schools he is indebted for his early education. Together with his father in 1879 he came to Washington and assisted in surveying and platting the town of Medical Lake. The entire state was but sparsely settled at that time, be- ing little more than a wilderness, even Spokane numbering few white people among its citizens. In the fall, the father and son returned to California, where the latter subsequently spent two years in college, devoting his attention to surveying and other branches of civil engineering. When he was twenty-one he was the successful candidate for the office of county surveyor in Colusa county. but he resigned at the expiration of six months and returned to Washington. Here he filed on a homestead of one hundred and sixty aeres in the vicinity of the present site of Harrington, that he operated for six years. Disposing of his ranch at the end of that period he purchased three hundred and twenty acres of improved land. successfully engaging in its cultivation until 1894. He then leased his ranch and came to Harrington, where very soon thereafter he was appointed postmaster. retaining this office for four years. During that time he became associated with M. F. Adams in the gen-
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