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 66
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For his wife Mr. Wolf chose Miss Burns of San Francisco, California, and they are the parents of two boys: Jerome, who was born in 1902; and Charles, whose birth occurred on AApril 18, 1906. the day of the San Francisco earthquake.
Mr. Wolf is a resident of Spirit Lake among whose citizens he is held in high regard, both because of his fine business qualities and personal characteristics, which are of a nature to enable him not only to win but retain the esteem of those with whom he comes in contact.
PHILIP HARDING.
Philip Harding is the organizer and promoter of the New World Life Insurance Company, Inc. It operates in the United States, Canada and Mexico and has its membership exclusively among Catholic people or Protestants who name Catholics as their beneficiaries. In the establishment of this company he has displayed splen- did business ability, executive force and administrative direction and, while yet a young man, has gained recognition as one of the prominent business men of Spokane and the Inland Empire. He was born in Nevada, June 1, 1874. being one of the three children of George P. and Elizabeth (James) Harding. natives of Kentucky and Nevada respectively. The father comes of English French descent and in 1861, making the journey by way of the Panama route, went to Nevada, where in pioneer times he served as district attorney of Humboldt county, being connected with con- siderable important litigation during the period of his incumbency in office. In 1890 he removed to California and is now a prominent lawyer in the northern part of that state. His wife, who was born in 1854, is now living in San Francisco. Their son, George Harding. is now manager for the Paulsen Realty Company, and their daughter, Bessie, makes her home with her mother.
Philip Harding was educated in the public schools of Woodland. California, and in Hesperius College of that place, from which he was graduated in 1892. Since then he has been engaged in the fire and life insurance business, having become connected with the former as an office boy in Oakland, California, in 1892. Grad- nally he worked his way upward. remaining with his original firm until December 31. 1899, when he severed his connection to take up the management of a business in connection with E. B. and A. L. Stone of Oakland. In 1900 he became cashier for the Washington Life Insurance Company at San Francisco, holding that position in connection with the Pacific coast department. Later he entered the life insurance field and traveled as general agent over the western and Pacific states. In 1906 he became identified with the Western Union Insurance Company as one of its organ- izers and secretary, with headquarters in Spokane. He was chosen its general man- ager and under his supervision the company, between March, 1906, and March, 1910, enjoyed an era of notable success, writing insurance in that time to the amount of ten million dollars. During that period Mr. Harding also had charge of the ad- vertising, both as regards office and field business. He left that company in 1910 in order to engage in the work of founding, organizing and developing the New World Life Insurance Company, Inc., for the purpose of transacting a general life insurance business in the United States. Canada and Mexico, having its membership confined exclusively to Catholic people, and those whose policies name Catholics as
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beneficiaries. From the outset the company has been very successful and his man- agement has been the source of the continued and gratifying growth of the organiza- tion. The company is now writing insurance on a par with any doing business in this territory and under his direction there has been sold by subseription about thirty-five thousand shares of capital stoek, the proceeds from which will approx- imate nearly seven hundred thousand dollars. Under his direction the company now maintains offices in Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Portland, Oregon, and Kansas City. The outlook is very bright, in faet almost incomparable, for the company occupies an exclusive specialty field for its operation in insuring only the lives of Catholies or Protestants whose beneficiaries are Catholies.
Mr. Harding is married and with his family resides at No. 25 West Seventh avenue. He has three daughters : Eloise. Phyllis and Eleanor. He is a member of the Spokane Club and during the six years of his residence in this city has become widely known. He had already gained a broad acquaintance in the insurance field of the Pacific coast and in this great department of labor has made continuous prog- ress. a splendid and successful corporation now standing as a monument to his enter- prise and labors.
THADDEUS S. LANE.
There is perhaps no man in all of the northwest more widely known than Thad- deus S. Lane, and he has an almost equally wide acquaintance and reputation in the older east, for his business and financial activities have brought him into close con- neetion with important interests in various seetions of the country. He makes Spo- kane his home and yet is frequently found in the various metropolitan centers be- yond the Rocky Mountains formulating plans concerning important business transae- tions or speaking words that constitute the guiding force in control of a mammoth industrial or finaneial projeet. He was born in Gustavus, Ohio, on the 10th of Feb- ruary, 1872, his parents being Trnman M. and Melissa Lane, who were not only of American birth but traee their ancestry baek to the colonial epoch in our country's history. His forebears were residents of New England but during the first half of the last century representatives of the name traveled with ox teams to Ohio, where they hewed their farm out of the virgin forest. Mr. Lane still owns the aneestral home in the Buckeye state and frequently visits it on his eastern trips.
Like that of most men his rise in the business world has been a gradual one and yet his elose application and his keen insight and his ready perception have enabled him to forge ahead of many who perhaps started out far in advance of him. At length his attention was attracted toward the feasibility of the establishment of in- dependent telephone systems and in 1906 he came to Montana. After a elose scrutiny of local conditions he decided that Butte offered a profitable field for Independent telephone endeavor and established there the Montana Independent Telephone Com- pany which constituted the modest beginning of operations that today eover all of Montana, northern Idaho and Washington. In faet his lines reach from the Da- kotas to the Paeifie. There are eight automatie exchanges in the system of which Mr. Lane is the president, with general offices in Spokane. His combined interests are conducted under the style of the Inter State Consolidated Telephone Company,
THADDEUS S. LANE
I' ARY
AL 4H LENOX PASSATIONS
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which is the holding company of ten companies of which he is president. Ilis Spo- kane company alone represents an investment of two million dollars. From one point to another he has extended his operations and promoted his activities until he is now president of the Billings Automatic Telephone Company, of Billings, Montana; the Helena Automatic Telephone Company, of Helena. Montana ; the Great Falls Auto- matie Telephone Company, of Great Falls, Montana; the Montana Independent Telephone Company. of Butte, Missoula, Anaconda and Hamilton, Montana; the State Telephone & Telegraph Company, at Bozeman and Livingston, Montana; the Interstate Telephone Company. Limited. Coeur d'Alene, Sandpoint and Panhandle, of Idaho; the Idaho Independent Telephone Company, of Pocatello, Idaho; and the Home Telephone & Telegraph Company at Spokane, Washington. The Inter State Consolidated Telephone Company, the capitalization of which is five million dollars is the holding company of all the other companies mentioned above. The northwest's best known independent magazine. The Treasurer State. of Montana, writing of his activities in the field of independent telephone exchanges, said: "Mr. Lane came to Butte four years ago with a good disposition, a world of telephone experience, a genius for inspiring confidence and a sane and monumental optimism that convinced everybody that he had come to the best place in the world for the big and permanent operation of an Independent telephone system. Probably that is another of the so- crets of Mr. Lane's success-he never undertakes anything in which he is not himself vitally and enthusiastically confident. Lane commenced Montana operations hy building the Butte exchange. He coolly and even debonairly weathered the panic and emerged at the beginning of this year with over six thousand independent phones in the Big Camp as compared with about nine hundred in use by the old established company. With Butte as a base and nucleus of his enterprise Mr. Lane kept on ex- tending his activities. He built perfect exchanges at Anaconda, Helena, Great Falls, Missoula and a few lesser Montana places reaching as far as the Dakota line on the cast and as far as Idaho. He picked up all the intervening rural and interurban small lines and then invaded the Panhandle of Idaho. He ran up against local dis- couragement. past failures, automatic misfits and every conceivable obstacle ; but he conquered and eliminated all hindrances and steadily pursued his triumphant mareh as an organizer and builder of safe and modern telephone business. Within the short time of his activities in this northwest region Mr. Lane has established a cohesive chain of forty-nine exchanges in Washington, Idaho and Montana and in Spokane. where he raised more than one million, five hundred thousand dollars for his com- pany, over twenty-five hundred instruments were subscribed for and ready for busi- ness before a bell rang. The Spokane exchange now includes the largest and most perfect automatic service in the northwest. The weakest spot of the carlier inde- pendent telephone companies was their inability to give long-distance service. There- fore Mr. Lane attacked this inability and in perfecting a long-distance system he removed the last and greatest argument against the independent method of telephon- ing. In acquiring weak, incomplete and isolated small companies an enormous amount of money was required. T. S. Lane has proved an ability in financing his projects which has made him the leading spirit in the independent telephone move- ment. He has the invaluable faculty of radiating local confidence, inspiriting de- jected enterprise, restoring self-confidence in others and urging forward the rapid economie success of all his undertakings."
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In addition to his mammoth operations in the telephone field Mr. Lane is presi- dent of the Western Empire Fire Insurance Company of Spokane and a director of the Montana National Life Insurance Company, He is also a director and viee president of the Silver Bow National Bank of Butte, Montana. The number of cor- porations in which Mr. Lane is a director is thirty-eight.
In 1897 Mr. Lane was married in New York city to Miss Lilian Payntar, a daughter of George Hoagland and Irene (Merkle) Payntar. They have one child, a daughter, Lilian, aged ten, who is a student at Brunot Hall. Mr. Lean has pur- chased the Gordon home at No. 1323 Eighth avenue and with his family regards this as his permanent residence. He has never sought political nor fraternal prominence and belongs to no lodges nor soeieties save the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. Of him it has been written: "Thaddeus S. Lane of the United States might as well be his address because he seems to go everywhere, and if you frequent the best clubs of Chicago. Minneapolis, Salt Lake or 'Frisco. you are just about as sure to see him sitting in the evening at a quiet game of slough in any one of them as in the Mon- tana Club at IIelena, the Spokane Club of Spokane or the Silver Bow at Butte. Mr. Lane is something more and better than a 'promising young man.' He is a perform- ing young man, a very dynamic personage of wholesome and captivating personality, but of an exhaustless energy which is the wonder of his friends and the despair of his rivals. Imperturbability fits Mr. Lane like his business suit but for all his seem- ing calmness he is endowed with a physical alertness and a mental celerity that are the essentials of his remarkable sneeess. His constructive talents are touched with the daring of all self-reliant men. He infuses others with his own sane optimism and demonstrates his own faith by the performances of his busy days. With men like him nothing is final and failure is not a word at all. His industry is insatiate and yet he loves life and lives it with every ereditable zest for happiness."
FRANK A. REED.
Frank A. Reed, who has for a number of years been identified with the lumber business and is eashier of the First State Bank of Deer Park, is known as one of the most active and progressive men of Spokane county. He was born at Mattawamkeag, Maine. June 1. 1871. a son of Addison P. and Emma Anna Reed, the former of whom died in 1875 and the latter in 1897. The ancestors of the family have been traced to very early times in New England.
Although a native of the Pine Tree state, Frank A. Reed received his early edu- cation in Michigan, to which state he was taken when he was three years old. As his father had died when he was only a small boy, at the age of twelve. he was obliged to begin work on his own account and for two years was employed in lumber mills in Michigan. He then had the opportunity of returning to school and he pursued his studies industriously for two years. At the age of sixteen he arrived in Wash- ington and worked for a year in the lumber mills at Seattle. Believing that op- portunities were more favorable for a young man in the newly opened country in the eastern part of the state, he eame to Deer Park in 1887 and for ten years was employed in the lumber mills of Short & Crawford. later known as the Standard Lumber Company. He became a director and trustee of that company and is still
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one of the stockholders. The next decade was spent at Westbranch, where he was in charge of the Washington Mill Company's sawmill, timber lands and general store. Having severed his connection with the latter company, he returned to Deer Park, which had developed into a flourishing community, and purchased the con- trolling interest in the First State Bank, of which he has since been cashier and a member of the board of directors. He has been a large investor in lands in Stevens county and has developed a hay ranch in the sparsely populated districts. He is also interested in land near Vancouver, British Columbia, and is the owner of valuable city property in Spokane and in Deer Park and vicinity. At an carly date he filed on a homestead, which is now at the corner of Crawford avenue and Main street, and the entire one hundred and sixty acres is within the corporation limits of Deer Park. He seenred other land in and around Deer Park when it was almost valueless, which is now regarded as the finest fruit land north of Spokane, and he has been active in the development of this section.
On the 28th of July. 1897, at Deer Park, Mr. Reed was married to Miss Emma A. Short. a daughter of Mrs. S. R. Short and a sister of W. H. Short, principal owner of the Standard Lumber Company. Mrs. Reed was a student at Carleton College of Northfield. Minnesota, and in 1892 came west for the purpose of teaching school. By her marriage to our subject she has become the mother of four children, Donald, Ralph. Emily and Frank, three of whom are now attending the public schools.
Mr. and Mrs. Reed are active members of the Congregational church and he is also connected with the Masonic fraternity. the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. Mr. Reed is a liberal-hearted and public-spirited man and clearly recog- nizes the importance of encouraging educational and industrial institutions as a solid basis for permanent prosperity. He donated a block of ground for the new fifteen thousand dollar high school at Deer Park and also gave five acres as a loca- tion for a cement and concrete plant at this place, which is now in operation. Polit- ically he is in hearty sympathy with the republican party. Energetic and capable in a high degree. he has never bowed before dithiculties but has found a way to conquer even the most formidable obstacles. It would be difficult to draw a line lim- iting a man of this character and, as Mr. Reed has scarcely as yet passed middle life, the possibilities of achievement before him are highly encouraging.
AUGUST F. STROBE.
August F. Strobe, who is engaged in the real-estate business in Chewelah, is a native of Germany. his birth having occurred in Hanover on the 24th of June, 1865. His parents were John F. and Charlotte F. (Wittenberg) Strobe. both of whom are now deceased, the father having passed away in 1880 and the mother in 1906.
When a child of three years August F. Strobe was brought to the United States by his parents, who located in Chicago. After three years' residence in this country he was taken back to Germany, where he remained in school until he was thirteen. He then returned to America, again making Chicago his home. He subsequently fol- lowed various occupations from that time until he had reached the age of twenty. On the 3d of January, 1886, he came to Chewelab, conducting a public bar with his
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brother for three years. At the expiration of that period. he occupied himself in various ways during the next six years, when he removed to Trail, British Columbia. He engaged in mining and shipping lumber at that point for two years, after which he went to Rossland, also in British Columbia, and conducted a hotel dining-room for a similar period. From there he went to Mareus, Washington, and engaged in mining and prospecting for a number of years, subsequently coming to Chicago. On his return to Chewelah Mr. Strobe embarked in the real-estate business and has ever since been successfully identitied with that enterprise. He is now interested in con- siderable Spokane and Chewelah property and has recently closed various deals of importance. He has some good manufacturing property within two miles of Che- welah, there being about seventy acres of such land.
In this eity, on the 18th of June, 1896, Mr. Strobe was united in marriage to Miss Nina A. Van Slyke, a daughter of Darius and Belle Van Slyke, pioneers of Stevens county. Mr. and Mrs. Strobe have become the parents of two children: Belle, who is now eleven years of age ; and Clande H., who is nine.
Mr. Strobe is a member of the Stevens County Pioneer Society and can well remember when this section of the country was wild and unimproved. During the hard times he shot deer, grouse and pheasants, which he shipped to the Spokane market. He has been an active member of the Chamber of Commerce in Spokane and is also connected with the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of America, while his political support he accords to the democratic party. He is an active member of the Chewelah Commercial Club and gives his indorsement to every movement that will promote the interests of the community or tend to develop mu- nicipal enterprises.
WILLIAM J. SUTTON.
William J. Sutton, prominently known in connection with financial interests in castern Washington as president of the Security National Bank of Cheney, has reached his present enviable position through indefatigable energy, keen discrimina- tion and unfaltering enterprise. Moreover, realizing that real estate is the safest of all investments, he has made extensive purchases of land near Cheney and in Adams county. In other connections, too, he has figured prominently as a leading individual and progressive citizen, deserving especial credit for his efforts in behalf of education, the Cheney Normal School largely owing its existence to his self- sacrificing efforts and his high ideals along educational lines.
Mr. Sutton is a native of Lapeer county, Michigan, born September 29, 1865. His parents, Levi L. and Sarah J. (Goodenough) Sutton, were pioneer residents of the Wolverine state. He pursned his education in the public schools of Michigan and in the Fenton Normal School, from which he was graduated with the class of 1886. Coming west in 1887, he located in Cheney and organized its first graded public school. For three years he devoted his time and efforts untiringly to system- atizing the work and developing the interests of the public school system here and in 1890, when the Cheney Normal School was established, he was chosen vice prin- cipal and professor of mathematics, continuing to serve in the dual position for a year and a half. On the expiration of that period he was made principal and so
W. .. SUTTON
Fusi CHEGARY
T. +++ ++ UNDATIONS
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continued until 1897. During that time the main building was erected, the money for which was largely acquired through the untiring efforts of Professor Sutton. After the old normal school building was destroyed by fire the maintenance appro- priation passed by the legislature was vetoed but Professor Sutton continued to conduct the school without an appropriation fund. In this way he became able to obtain the money for a new building. His services in the educational field have been of inestimable value in the intellectual progress of this section and have con- stituted an important element in upholding the high standards of the state in this connection.
In 1897. however, Professor Sutton severed his identification with educational interests as an active factor and turned his attention to agricultural and banking in- terests, giving his time and energies throughout the intervening period of fifteen years to his personal interests.
On the 10th of March, 1897. Mr. Sutton was united in marriage to Miss Nellie G. Hutchinson, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. David Hutchinson, of Auburn, New York. Her parents were early settlers of the Empire state and Mrs. Sutton is a graduate of the State Normal School at Oswego, New York. Mr. Sutton is the present junior grand warden of the grand lodge of Masons in the state. He belongs also to the Odd Fellows and to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. Mr. and Mrs. Sutton attend the Congregational church and are prominent socially, having an extensive cirele of warm friends not only in Cheney but throughout the district in which they have long resided. In all those ventures which contribute most to the upbuilding and progress of a community Mr. Sutton has been deeply interested and his labors have been fruitful of good results. The simple weight of his character and ability has carried him into important relations and he has that confidence and courage that come of conscious personal ability, right conception of things and an habitual regard for what is best in the exercise of human activities.
1 . . .
LOUIS M. DAVENPORT.
The Davenport Restaurant of Spokane is known to every traveler upon the Pacific coast and the Davenport home is a point of interest to every visitor in Spokane. Back of these-each largely approaching the ideal in its respective sphere is the splendid business ability, keen sagacity, firm purpose and laudable ambi- tion of Louis M. Davenport, who well deserves to be classed among the builders of the Inland Empire. He was born at Pawnee City, Nebraska, July 11. 1868, a son of John S. and Minnie E. (Taylor) Davenport. His father, who devoted his life to merchandising, is now deceased but the mother still survives. It was in the year 1876 that Louis M. Davenport accompanied his parents on their removal to San Francisco, California, and in the public schools of that city he largely acquired his education. He has been a resident of Spokane since March, 1889, and soon after the great fire which practically swept away the business center of the city in the fall of that year, be established a restaurant on the corner opposite his present site, where the Whitten block now stands. After a brief period he removed to his present location and in the development of the business Davenport's Restaurant has become
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famous throughout the United States. Its splendid fittings, its excellent euisine. its superior service and its unique furnishings and arrangement constitute the features which make it one of the most popular establishments of this character in the country. To have built up and successfully conducted an establishment of this character would alone be a eredit to any man and yet Mr. Davenport has not confined his efforts en- tirely to this line of business but has been active in many other commercial and in- dustrial enterprises of this eity, being now a director of the Spokane & Eastern Trust Company, the Washington Waterpower Company, the Western Union Life Insurance Company and vice president of the Ryan & Newton Company. The extent and im- portance of his business affairs place him among Spokane's most progressive and valued eitizens.
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