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 56
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CORNELIUS O. VAUGHN.
Cornelius O. Vaughn, who is a resident of Medical Lake, was born in Cald- well county, Missouri, April 27, 1866, his parents being John C. and Frances (Butt) Vaughn, the former having died in 1901. He Required his education in the public schools of Missouri which he attended until he was sixteen years of age. At that time he was employed on a farm in his native state, but two years subsequently he removed to Kansas City. where he learned the carpentering and plastering trades. After having been occupied in these trades for three years he went to Spokane and followed the same pursuits there. Subse- quently he traveled all through the Spokane country for several years, accepting employment both as carpenter and plasterer until he located permanently at Med- ical Lake and was engaged by the state for employment at the hospital for the insane. He is an efficient and careful workman and the state is fully cognizant of the fact that they have in their employ a man whose duties are his first con- sideration. Mr. Vaughn was married at Medical Lake, December 21, 1893, to Laura Bell Harrison, the daughter of Andrew and Susan Harrison. The father was at one time a member of the state legislature and was active in the political circles of his community. Mrs. Cornelius Vaughn's death occurred November 21, 1908. To this union two children were born, Cornelins A, and Verena Rose. On October 1, 1911, Mr. Vaughn was married to Miss Alma Perl King, only daughter of Mrs. Kate Green, of Cheney, Washington.
In politics Mr. Vaughn gives his allegiance to the men and measures of the democratie party. Fraternally he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is a past grand in that order. His prominence in the lodge is at-
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tested by the fact that he was a representative to the grand lodge in Seattle in 1906. He is looked upon as one of the old residents of Medieal Lake. In addi- tion to his trade he has interested himself in the Medical Lake Telephone Com- pany, an organization which looks to him for advice and able management. His life shows what may be accomplished where persisteney and industry are the prime characteristics, and today he is recognized as one of the leaders in his trade and one of the worthy citizens of the community.
FRANK L. SMITH.
Frank L. Smith is known to the business world through his mining interests, for he is now elosely associated with the development of the rich eoal deposits of Brit- ish Columbia. operating extensively along modern lines. Judged only from a busi- ness standpoint. his life work would be considered of worth in this connection, but his activities have been of far wider range in his efforts to uplift humanity and bring into the lives of his fellowmen those higher ideals which result in the develop- ment of individual character. His life has come into elose and beneficial eontaet with many others. as he has labored not only in this country and in our insular possessions but also in Great Britain for the benefit of his fellowmen in the dissemina- tion of those truths which are a higher and holier force in the world.
He was born in New York city. February 18. 1848. His ancestral history ean be traced baek to the Cromwellian period, for the family are descended from Lord Stephen Smith, who was a member of Cromwell's parliament. His father, Elias Smith, was born in Providence, Rhode Island, and died about 1891. He was recog- nized as a very prominent war correspondent and newspaper man of New York and was associated with Horaee Grecley in journalistic enterprises. He became one of the famous newspaper correspondents at the time of the Civil war and was held in high regard by the press of New York city, the chief journalists of the metropo- lis giving him the eredit of being a real historian of that great conflict. He served on the staff of General Burnside and eame into elose touch with the events that con- stituted the real history of the eivil strife. He seored many "seoops" as corres- pondent during the days of the war, and the first news which the war department had of the fall of Vieksburg was a dispatch which Elias Smith sent. He practically gave all of his life to newspaper work and was eity editor of the New York Times. He was an intimate friend of Henry Ward Beecher and knew many of the leading journalists and distinguished men of the day. His wife, who borc the maiden name of Sarah R. Miller. is of English lineage and a descendant of Roger Williams, the first governor of Rhode Island. Her father was the founder of the Providenee Journal and was a prominent political leader.
In the family of Mr. and Mrs. Elias Smith were three sons: Frank L .; E. C., who is now engaged in mining in Mexico; and Alva M., who is a newspaper man of the south.
Frank L. Smith pursued his edueation in the publie schools and in Fairehild's Academy at Flushing, Long Island. He was still a youth in his teens when he did active duty as a member of the Fifty-sixth Regiment of Volunteers of the New York National Guard during the riots at the docks. He entered business life as a
F. I .. SMITH
1CM FOX IL KU HAT ONS
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commercial traveler in the employ of an unek and afterward was engaged in busi- ness in Galveston, Texas, until 1867. While there residing he was married, in May. 1866. to Miss Charlotte Higgins, of Keyport, New Jersey, a daughter of Charles Higgins, one of the most prominent men of that district, who at that time owned all the stage routes out of Frechold. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Smith have been born seven children, of whom four are yet living: Edward W., a resident of San Francisco; Ernest, who is living in Sebastopol, California: Judson, a pharmacist of Spokane; and Lottie M., the wife of Rev. Alfred Lockwood, who for five years was the predecessor of Dean Hicks of All Saints cathedral and is now rector of the church at North Yakima.
On leaving Galveston, Mr. Smith went to Bloomington, Ilinois, where he was connected with the railroad service until 1871. when he was made assistant treasurer of the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western Railroad, now a branch of the Big Four. He won advancement from the position of office clerk to assistant treasurer in the general office and remained with the road until it changed hands. Becoming deeply interested in religions work, he afterward spent a number of years in im- portant positions in connection with the Young Men's Christian Association. He was also engaged in evangelistic work and held missions not only all over the United States but also in England, Scotland and Ireland, conducting a very interesting campaign in behalf of moral progress on the other side of the water. The meet- ings which he held were all by invitation. for his reputation spread and he became known as an earnest, zealous worker in his church. He continued in the evangelistic field until the Spanish war, when he conducted Christian work among the camps of the south, at Camp Lee. Jacksonville, and at Savannah. He afterward continued his labors in this connection on the island of Porto Rico and assisted General Henry in distributing relief. He instituted his religions work in Porto Rico at the time the troops were first sent to San Juan, conducting this labor under the auspices of the international committee of the Young Men's Christian Association. He afterward took part in instituting similar work among the United States sailors but eventually removed to the northwest. Here he has been connected with a number of important business enterprises and is now sceretary-treasurer of the Boundary Mining & Ex- ploration Company, Limited, of which Dr. C. M. Kingston is the president and S. J. Miller, vice president. In addition to the officers. F. Il. Knight and A. H. Noyes are members of the board of directors. The object of this company is to develop the coal properties of Midway, British Columbia, consisting of crown- granted property of six hundred aeres and other tracts. They have over one thou- sand feet in tunnels and drifts and shafts, and several hundred feet of the mines have been developed. They are now beginning to sink a developing shaft to strike two veins of coal, one to be reached at a depth of one hundred and ten feet and the other of one hundred and seventy feet. They have several well defined veins in tunnel, five feet in width. Their coal is of the bituminous kind and they are now prospecting for semi-anthracite. This is a good blacksmith coal and took first prize at the Interstate Fair. The work of development is being vigorously prosecuted and the company will make its initial shipments in 1912. They have two lines of railroad over the property, the Canadian Pacific and the Great Northern, affording them remarkably good shipping facilities.
While Mr. Smith is proving his worth as an enterprising, progressive business man, capable and determined, he at the same time continues his labors in behalf of
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moral progress and as an evangelist has held missions in every state of the Union exeept Wyoming and Nevada, working largely along undenominational lines. He has served as state evangelist for the Congregational church of California. At Ellensburg he joined the Episcopal church, was confirmed, worked as a layman under Bishop Wells and eondneted services as a layman. During 1908 he was called to the management of the Ondarra Inn in Spokane, an institution for the help of the unemployed, and succeeded in making this great work self-supporting. A free employment bureau provided work for about eight hundred men each month and thousands of men were sheltered and fed. Religious services were held and lectures given by prominent men. The property was purchased in 1910, by the North Coast Railroad to be used as a union depot and the work discontinued. Rev. W. L. Bull, an episcopal clergyman. was the owner and he, with Right Rev. Lem- uel H. Wells, bishop of the diocese, were the instigators and responsible for the work. He is now connected with St. James parish and had charge of the work at St. John's church for one year. He presented a confirmation elass of five to the bishop- rather an unusual thing for a layman. His efforts have been a most efficient foree for good in the districts where he has labored and the radius of his influenee is far reaching.
In polities Mr. Smith is an independent republican, while fraternally he is con- nected with the Modern Woodmen and the Red Men, being now a trustee of Comanehe Tribe. He also belongs to the Inland Club and in connection with Sena- tor Poindexter and others organized the Fellowship Club, which has been very active in the diseussion of public subjects, thus ereating public opinion and largely influeneing publie work. He has ever regarded life as an opportunity-an oppor- tunity for the development of the trifold nature of man-and has therefore labored to bring to the highest perfection possible the physical, mental and moral forces of the world. He has ever reached out in helpful spirit and sympathy toward all mankind and his is one of the natures that sheds around it much of the sunshine of life.
MRS. NETTA (GEER) HANLY.
Among the pioneer women whose courage has enabled them to face the eon- ditions of frontier life in the northwest is numbered Mrs. Netta (Geer) Hanly, and when eireumstanees demanded she displayed business ability and enterprise which would be ercditable to any member of the sterner sex. She has always lived upon the Pacific coast, being the daughter of F. W. Geer. who made his way to Oregon in 1842 and secured a donation claim of three hundred and twenty acres. Eventually he became a merchant in Butteville, Oregon, but afterward turned his attention to agricultural pursuits, settling upon his donation claim on the Willamette river. There he engaged quite extensively in raising hops, being the third man to cultivate that erop in the state, and thus promoting an industry which is today one of the chief sourees of revenue in the northwest. In his family were three sons: Captain Archie J. Geer, who served as eaptain on a Columbia river steamboat running from Portland to The Dalles and afterward as eaptain on a boat at Nome, Alaska, is at present preparing to go to South America to
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command a steamboat on the Amazon river. Dwight Geer is a stockman in the Big Bend country, and Corydon Geer is agent at Portland for the Northern Pacific Railroad Company. He was a member of the Oregon legislature at the same time Mr. Hanly was a representative in the Idaho general assembly.
Netta (Geer) Hanly was born in Marion county, Oregon, and her girlhood days brought to her many experiences common to life on the frontier. In early womanhood she gave her hand in marriage to James Wynne, the marriage being celebrated in Butteville in March, 1864. Mr. Wynne was a native of Ireland and had lived for eight or ten years on Pcone Prairie, in the territory of Washington, residing there during the period of Indian warfare. He also filed on a homestead. which he recorded in Vancouver immediately after his marriage, and he and his bride made an overland trip to the claim. a part of which is now covered by the town of Colville. For seven years Mrs. Wynne lived upon that place and never saw the face of one whom she had seen before. She was almost literally ent off from the ties and interests that bound her to her past. There were only six other white women in that part of the country and for six months at a time she would see no women except half-breeds or squaws. Mr. Wyune devoted his attention to farming and stock-raising and after he proved up on the homestead he took a pre- emption claim adjoining it. Later, when Mr. Wynne died, his widow took up a second preemption claim which also adjoined the other property. When the town site of Colville was surveyed in January, 1881, it was made to include forty acres of the homestead and subsequently Mrs. Wynne had six acres surveyed and added to the town as the Spokane addition.
Death came to Mr. Wynne suddenly in 1885. He was accidentally killed by boys who were out shooting prairie chickens, being shot on the 5th of December and dying two days later. He had been not only active in the conduct of his business affairs but was also a prominent and influential resident of the community. serving as the first sheriff of Stevens county and also as the second auditor. He likewise held the office of school supervisor and did everything in his power to further the educational progress and material development of his part of the state. Ilis social, genial nature won him popularity, his business integrity gained him honor and confidence and his social qualities won him many friends who deeply regretted his demise.
On the 27th of February. 1888. Mrs. Wynne was again married, becoming the wife of John Hanly, who was also a native of Ireland and came to the northwest from Michigan in 1886. His father was interested in the Cahunet mines in Mich- igan and thus in early life Mr. Hanly's attention was directed to mining interests. Following his arrival in the northwest he became the owner of a mine near Baker City, Oregon, but the Indians burned his mill and concentrator. He then gath- ered his miners and volunteers to the number of two hundred and fifty or three hundred and with them engaged in active warfare throughout the Modoc war. While riding he was shot through both legs over the saddle but fully recovered from his wounds. He continued to seek his fortune in mining ventures and built the first concentrator at the Hunter mine in Mullen, Idaho, operating it for five years. At the time of the big strike there he took charge of the Dominion mine and conducted operations at that property for eight years. He became recog- nized as one of the foremost representatives of mining interests in that section and yet did not contine his efforts and activities entirely to business pursuits. Ile
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was interested in all that pertained to public progress and improvement and while a resident of Mullen was elected a member of the first legislature of Idaho. In other ways he also furthered publie progress and never faltered in his allegiance to a cause which he believed to be right.
On leaving the Dominion mine Mr. Hanly took charge of the Bonanza mine near Bossburg, where he remained for three or four years and then entered the service of J. P. Graves at Summit, British Columbia, having charge of his in- terests for about three years. On the expiration of that period he went to San Diego, California, and purchased an orange grove. From that point he went to Mexico and opened a mine for Colonel Turner, employing three hundred Mex- icans in its operation. It was while there that he became ill and on the 17th of November, 1902, passed away.
After remaining in Mexico for two years following the death of her husband Mrs. Hanly returned to Colville, where she spent eighteen months. She then went back to La Mesa. San Diego county. California, where she resided for six years, at the end of which time she sold her property and returned to Colville, where she now makes her home. She is a lady of excellent business qualifica- tions, ready and resourceful. Following the death of her first husband she con- ducted the farm herself, employing Indians to plow and cultivate the land. There were times, however, when she could not obtain help and was obliged to run the mower herself. When Mr. Hanly went into the Old Dominion mine she pur- chased eighty acres on the hill above Colville and supplied milk and butter to the mine and also kept two four-horse teams, which were engaged in hauling ore.
By her first husband Mrs. Hanly had seven children, namely: Ella, the wife of A. Trunnells, of Colville; Richard, a contractor, who is just now engaged in completing contracts at Yuma. Arizona. and at Portland, Oregon: Eva. the de- ceased wife of William Miller, the present sheriff of Stevens county, Washing- ton ; Eliza, the wife of William Geitlinger, of Portland, Oregon; Edward, who is raising cattle on a raneh of twenty-five thousand acres in Honduras, Central America ; F. James, a laundry proprietor at Colville; and Nellie, the wife of Dr. Philip Austin. a dentist of Portland, Oregon. By her second marriage Mrs. Hanly had two children: John D., who is deputy sheriff of Stevens county; and Wenona T .. who is residing in San Diego, California.
F. J. WYNNE.
F. J. Wynne has become an active representative of industrial interests in Col- ville, where he was born January 20. 1882, the son of Mrs. Netta Hanly, of whom mention is made above. The public schools afforded him his educational privileges and in 1901 he went to Preseott, Arizona. After a year there passed he took up mining at Baker City, Oregon, and afterward worked in the smelters at Granby and Northport. In 1903. however, he returned to Colville and purchased a steam laundry at this place, equipping it with modern machinery. and has since been carrying on his business most successfully. When he assumed charge there was one girl employed in the laundry and something of the growth of the business is indicated in the fact that his employes now number thirteen. In 1906 he sold
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an interest in the business to John Wright and in 1908 this interest was purchased by his half-brother, J. D. Hanly. They have since continued together, conduct- ing their enterprise under the name of the Colville Steam Laundry, and are now at the head of a profitable and growing business. Their equipment is first class in every particular and the investment represents ten thousand dollars. Mr. Wynne is also interested with his half-brother in the Old Dominion Creamery Company of Colville and owns a ten aere orchard tract adjoining Colville. He is likewise a frecholder of the city.
On the 6th of February, 1906, in Colville. Mr. Wynne was united in marriage to Miss Maggie Ryan, a daughter of William Ryan, deceased, of this city. The two children of the marriage are E. Jane and Margaret Rose Wynne. The family are of the Catholic faith, and Mr. Wynne is a republican in his political views. He belongs to the Maccabees and the Royal Highlanders and also to the Col- ville Commercial Club, and is an interested factor in all that pertains to the public progress, his support being generously given to every measure which he regards as beneficial to the community at large.
JOHN D. HANLY.
.fohn D. Hanly is one of the younger business men of Colville but his years do not seem a bar to his progress, as he has already made rapid advancement and is now active in control of important commercial and industrial interests of the town. He was here born November 30. 1888, the son of Mrs. Netta Handy, and in the public schools of this place and the high school of San Diego, California, he pursued his education. He first worked with the Great Northern engineers on the Victoria. Vancouver & Eastern Line in British Columbia for six months and was afterward with the Nickel Plate mine at Hadley, British Columbia. Sub- sequently he secured a position as sampler in the stamp mills and later entered the assay office. All of his varied business connections brought him wider experi- ence and developed his powers so that his efficiency continued to increase. From British Columbia he went to San Diego, California. where he paid a visit to his mother and thence proceeded to Morenci, Arizona, where he worked for the De- troit Mining Company for a year and a half, acting as timekeeper and running the ore trains. He was afterward at Le Cananea. Sonora. Mexico, where he had charge of about one hundred and seventy-five Mexicans. While there he had trouble with the natives, who at two different times tried to run the American miners across the line, attempting to thus tie up the work. They burned the him- beryards and killed five or six Americans. When the first attack was made Mr. Hanly went to the top of a hill. with others, and from there threw dynamite with short fuses among the Mexicans, which stopped further trouble, but about twenty- five of them were killed before they were willing to quit. Later on the Arizona Rangers, the Rurales and about six hundred miners from Bisbee came in to help subdue the Mexicans.
From La Cananea Mr. Hanly went to Tucson, Arizona, in 1906 and became a fireman on the Southern Pacific Railroad, traveling between that point and Maricopa for one winter. He then went to San Diego, California, where he
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worked for the Park-Grable Investment Company as foreman and timekeeper for a year. He then proceeded northward to Delta, Idaho, where he became time- keeper for a mining company but later returned to Colville, where he purchased a half-interest in the steam laundry condueted by his half-brother, F. J. Wynne. These two gentlemen have also organized the Old Dominion Ice & Creamery Com- pany for the establishment of an iee and cold storage plant and expeet to ereet a building twenty-five by cighty feet. The company is capitalized for twenty-five thousand dollars and its officers are: F. J. Wynne, president; J. A. Rochford, vice president ; J. D. Hanly, secretary-treasurer; and W. A. Acorn, manager. Their plant will be ready for operation in April, 1912.
While in Morenci Mr. Hanly was a member of the Second Territorial Cavalry Troop of the National Guard of Arizona and after serving for one year was hon- orably discharged. He holds membership with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Modern Woodmen of America, and he gives his politieal allegi- ance to the republican party. On the 15th of January, 1911, he was appointed deputy sheriff and is now serving in that office. While in Arizona with the Detroit Mining Company he was field deputy sheriff. He has always been interested in athleties and while in Portland was a member of the Multnomah Athletic Club. He has been captain of football and athletic clubs wherever he has been and put up the first game of football north of Spokane. He is a progressive and enter- prising young man. wide-awake and thoroughly alert, who enters heartily into everything which he undertakes and accomplishes that to which he sets his hand. Colville regards him as a valuable addition to her citizenship.
M. F. MORIARTY.
Probably no one citizen has been more prominent or influential in the com- mereial development of Reardan than the late M. F. Moriarty. who had been snc- eessfully identified with the business interests of the town for nineteen years at the time of his death and had contributed largely toward the financial suecess of various local enterprises. He was born in Fillmore county, Minnesota, on the 10th of June, 1857, and was a son of Florenze and Mary (Pierce) Moriarty, both natives of County Kerry, Ireland. The father engaged in railroad contracting in Minnesota during the early years of his residence in this country. but he subse- quently turned his attention to agricultural pursuits.
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