Illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties, state of Washington, Part 127

Author:
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Spokane, Wash. : Western History
Number of Pages: 992

USA > Washington > Chelan County > Illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties, state of Washington > Part 127
USA > Washington > Ferry County > Illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties, state of Washington > Part 127
USA > Washington > Okanogan County > Illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties, state of Washington > Part 127
USA > Washington > Stevens County > Illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties, state of Washington > Part 127

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On August 29, 1875, in Lucas county, Iowa, Mr. Northup married Miss Rachel E. Gunter, a native of Iowa. To this union the following children have been born, Zola, Lelia, Charles, Malon, John, Ivan and two deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Northup belong to the Congre- gational church and are devout supporters of the faith. Mr. Northup has labored very ex- tensively to help beautify the country and gave fifty dollars to assist in building the first school house in the valley. It was constructed before there was one in Leavenworth. He is a strong Republican and has held various offices, as school director and road supervisor.

CHARLES E. STOHL, one of the suc- cessful business men of the younger generation in Wenatchee, Chelan county, is pre-eminently a self-made man. From a small beginning he has built up, within the past three years, a most lucrative enterprise in the carriage and wagon- building line.

Our subject is a native of Sweden, his pa- rents, Carl J. and Sophia (Anderson) Stohl. The father was a carriage builder and for many

years conducted an extensive factory, employ- ing as high as fifty workmen. Both the parents were natives of Sweden, where they continued to reside during their lives.

Charles E. Stohl was graduated from the high school of Skeninge, Sweden, and at the age of fifteen years came to New York city. Here for eighteen months he worked in a spring factory, and industriously supplemented the education secured in Sweden by attend- ance on night school in New York. Coming west he worked on various farms in Missouri and Iowa, and in 1894 he engaged in carriage work, continuing the same for six years. He then sold out and began the manufacture of plows on his own account. Although he had made the business an unqualified success, ow- ing to ill health was compelled to discontinue it, and in February, 1901, he came to Wenatchee. Here he purchased a small blacksmith shop, gradually increasing the size of the building until now he has an establishment 25x100 feet in size, employes six men in the carriage de- partment and carries a pay-roll of one hun- dred dollars per week. The horse-shoeing de- partment is in another building, 40x25. He now has the largest institution of the kind in Chelan county, manufacturing carriages and wagons costing as high as five hundred dollars apiece.

Mr. Stohl has one brother and four sisters; Richard Stohl is a graduate of a farriers' col- lege, Stockholm, Sweden. His sisters are Annie, Hilda, Minnie, and Amelia.

At Red Oak, Iowa, July 25, 1888, our sub- ject was united in marriage to Miss Daisy Rob- erts, daughter of William R. Roberts, who was a lieutenant in the federal army during the Civil War. Her mother was Louisa Roberts. Mrs. Stohl has two sisters, Ellen, wife of Rob- ert Wycoff, of Red Oak, Iowa, and Berde, mar- ried to F. W. Swanson, a merchant of Stanton, Iowa.

Our subject is a member of Riverside Lodge No. 112, A. F. & A. M., of the Royal Arch Masons, of Wenatchee, and of Laramie Lodge No. 152, K. of P., Red Oak, Iowa. At present he is an influential member of the We- natchee city council and an active member of the Wenatchee Commercial Club. The family reside in a neat one-story cottage, surrounded by seven lots, corner of A and Palouse streets, Wenatchee.

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HISTORY OF NORTH WASHINGTON.

Mr. Stohl has recently incorporated his business under the firm name of The Stohl- Ross Company, and the concern is taking up jobbing and extensive manufacture of all kinds of vehicles. They are meeting with a good success.

ELIAS MESSERLY is one of the leading and influential citizens of Wenatchee, Chelan county, and one of the first men to cross the Cascades and locate in the beautiful Kittitas valley.

His native state is Ohio, and he was born December 24. 1842. in Fairfield county. His parents were Nicholas and Elizabeth (Swit- zer) Messerly. The father was a native of Ohio and of Swiss ancestry. He died in 1874. The mother was a native of Switzerland, mar- ried in Ohio, and at present lives in Greenville, that state, at the age of eighty-seven years. The Buckeye state was the scene of our sub- ject's early exploits, and here he was reared and educated. His father was proprietor of a marble yard. At the breaking out of the Civil war our subject and his brother enlisted in Company H, Seventeenth Ohio Infantry, the brother as flag-bearer. Later he carried a gun, and was killed at the battle of Chickamauga. Our subject was engaged in a number of warm skirmishes, but participated in no regular bat- tles. At the expiration of three months' serv- ice he returned to Cincinnati, Ohio, and en- gaged in the confectionery business. In the spring of 1865 he came to Helena, Montana, and for a number of years engaged in mining, prospecting and carrying the mails. He made considerable money, and spent it freely. Go- ing "broke" the first' winter, he gathered a lot of back number newspapers and mounting his pony, sold them the first day for sixty dol- lars. He managed to lay by sufficient money to engage in the dairy business in Helena, at which point he sold milk for one dollar a gallon. Two years later he filed on a claim in Kittitas valley, and waited seventeen years for a railroad to make its appearance. During this time he con- tinued to raise stock nine miles north-east of Ellensburg. In 1873 he located at Wenatchee, engaging in mining, near Rock Island, with . Philip Miller, mentioned elsewhere in this work. They took a claim and our subject mined and trapped while his partner "held

down" the ranch. Mr. Messerly finally sold out to Miller and went to Seattle, but returned soon afterwards.

On November 24, 1876, at Ellensburg, Washington, our subject was married to Sarah E. Houser, a native of Pennsylvania. Her parents, Tillman and Louise (Wirkhizer) Houser, are Pennsylvanians, being descended from old Dutch families. The wife has three brothers, Harrison, Clarence and Alvy, and two sisters, Amelia, wife of Chester Churchill, and Pernina, married to William German. The latter was the first white girl born in the Kitti- tas Valley.

To Mr. and Mrs. Messerly have been born two children, Alpheus, a partner in the We- natchee Home Nursery, (Incorporated), and Italia R., a school girl. This nursery is the property of Mr. Messerly, Alpheus and Ed- ward Dennis.

Our subject is one of the most extensive fruit raisers in the valley, and the most suc- cessful. He has captured many prizes at Buf- falo, Spokane and elsewhere for beautiful dis- plays of fruits. Fraternally he is a member of the W. O. T. W. Mrs. Messerly is a very' accomplished lady, and her daughter, Italia, is a beautiful girl of eighteen years of age.

JOHN E. PORTER is one of the leading young men of Chelan county, and the import- ant position as superintendent of the schools of the county is entrusted to him by the peo- ple. and the fact that he is now serving his sec- ond term, being elected with a larger majority this time than formerly, speaks strongly of his capabilities and the appreciation of his efforts on the part of a discriminating constituency. He was born in Port Ludlow, Washington. The date of his birth was May 5, 1870, and his parents were Dana H. and Sarah R. (Buzby) Porter. The father was a native of Maine and descended from the famous family of Porters of New England. He came to the Golden state overland in 1858, and one year later found his way to Puget Sound. He devoted himself to spar building and was employed in this and in the inspection of spars in various ports until his death at Oak Harbor, in 1879. The mother is a native of Illinois, came to Puget Sound with her parents when nine, was

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HISTORY OF NORTH WASHINGTON.

married at Oak Harbor and now resides in Se- attle. Her parents were early pioneers of Illi- nois, the father being native of New Jersey, and the mother born in New York. The father died in Seattle in 1893 and the mother is still living in that city. Our subject was reared on Whidby Island and lived in the family of his grandfather Buzby after his father's death. Later he attended the high school in Seattle and then took the degree of Bachelor of Science from the state university at the same city, in 1894. Following this Mr. Porter taught at Bay View and other points on the sound until 1897. Then he returned to the university for a post graduate course and took a normal di- ploma. He taught again on the sound and in 1899 he came to Wenatchee and taught in the town schools as principal. In 1900 he was chosen to superintend the schools of the county, and in 1902 he was called again to the same po- sition.

Mr. Porter has shown excellent ability in his line of endeavor and his thorough training and resourceful mind amply fit him for the re- sponsibilities of the position. He owns a good residence and orchard adjoining the town and also other property. Mr. Porter is a member of the I. O. O. F., and has been delegate to the grand lodge. He has one sister, Alice, teach- ing in Georgetown, Washington.

PHILIP BELLINGER, local manager of the Wenatchee Produce Company, resides at Mission, Chelan county. He is a young, ener- getic citizen, public spirited and popular with all. He was born at Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, November 17, 1867, the son of Horace and Ella (McDowell) Bellinger. The father is a native of Ohio. The Bellingers came to the United States at the period of the Revolution- ary war, from Germany. Horace Bellinger enlisted in a three-months' regiment, at the opening of the Civil war, but re-enlisted and served three years in the Fifth United States Cavalry. He participated in the battle of Get- tysburg, and was with General Phil Sheridan at the time of the famous ride to Winchester. He now lives at Elmira, Michigan, with the mother of our subject.

The earlier years of the latter were passed at Mt. Pleasant, and later he removed to El-

mira. At both places he attended graded schools, and acquired a good, practical edu- cation. On gaining his majority he entered the employment of the Duluth, South Shore & Atlantic Railway Company, as operator and agent. He reamined with this company until 1899, and then removed to St. Paul, Minne- sota, and was with the Eastern division of the Great Northern railway. Mr. Bellinger, aside from his other railway experiences, was in charge of the station at Mission for two years and six months, and on March 10, 1903, he as- sumed charge of the local office of the We- natchee Produce Company.

He has three brothers, Nelson, Percival and Clifton, the two latter school boys, residing with their parents in Michigan. To Miss Cor- delia A. Freer, a native of Richland county, Ohio, Mr. Bellinger was united in marriage at Mission, Washington, April 21, 1901. Men -. tion of her father, Ira Freer, appears elsewhere in this work. They have one boy, Ira R., born September 30, 1902.

The political views of Mr. Bellinger are in line with the Republican party.

W. EDWARD HINMAN, a leading pub- lic-spirited and progressive citizen of Mission, Chelan county, was born in Whiteside county, Illinois, December 10, 1859. His father, Henry V. Hinman, is a native of Kinderhook, New York, descendant of a family prominent in that state for many generations. He was a member of the Sixty-fourth Illinois Infantry, served four years in the Civil war, and was wounded in battle. At present he is register of the land office at North Yakima. The mother, Jane L. (Brakey) Hinman, was born in Pennsylvania, her father of Irish ancestry, her mother a New Englander. She resides at North Yakima.

Until he was eight years of age, our sub- ject lived in Illinois, then in Missouri, for five years, and from there he went to Kansas, where he resided until he gained his majority, attend- ing district schools and working on a farm. He then traveled in Colorado and California, engaged in mining, and thence to Puget Sound, where he found employment in the lumber busi- ness. In 1884 he came to Mission, Washing- ton, and filed on one hundred and sixty acres of land. With but a small capital he prosecuted

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his work on the property, and finally proved up and settled permanently, and, as it eventually proved profitably. This was in 1891. He re- tains forty acres of the original claim, which is devoted to fruit, garden and alfalfa. He has a six-room, story and a half house, and winters forty head of cattle. He has one brother and five sisters, Charles H., Laura Cash, Mamie Clark, Sadie Dix, Agnes and Pearl.

At Mission, January 1, 1893, Mr. Hinman was married to Miss Alice Burns, a native of Crawfordsville, Indiana. Her father, Paul Burns, was also an Indianian. She has two brothers and one sister, Henry, Hugh, and Anna. Two children, Carl, aged four years, and Paul, aged two, have come to brighten her home.

Mr. Hinman is a reliable Republican, one of the commissioners of Chelan county, and at all times manifests a lively interest in local politics. He is frequently elected a delegate to county conventions, and has represented his party in Washington Republican State conven- tions. Mrs. Hinman is a member of the Pres- byterian church.

WINFIELD S. GEHR, president and manager of the Orondo Shipping Company and Wenatchee Milling Company, is a well- known, popular and influential citizen of Wen- atchee, Chelan county. He is a son of the "Keystone" state, having been born in Penn- sylvania September 9, 1861. His parents, Fos- ter and Bathsheba (Line) Gehr, were natives of that state. The father was of Dutch ances- try ; the mother comes of old Quaker stock, a family which came to America with William Penn. Foster Gehr was for many years en- gaged successfully in the oil business. He died in 1887. The mother at present lives at Lines- ville, Pennsylvania, named in honor of her father, who owned the townsite and vast quan- tities of land in that vicinity, operated flour and saw mills and was largely identified with the growth and development of that section of the state.

At Linesville, the place of his nativity, our subject attended graded schools, and subse- quently was a student in Allegheny College, Meadsville, and three years in Buchtel College, Akron, Ohio. Owing to the illness of his

father he returned home before graduating. Following a year passed in the oil regions, he went to Iowa where he entered a law office, read law and had charge of abstract books. From 1879 until 1881 he was in Spirit Lake, Iowa; the two years after in Flandreau, South Dakota, in a bank, and was then engaged in the agricultural implement business until 1888. That year he came to Orondo, Douglas county, Washington, was for a while in the general merchandise business, and later bought wheat. In 1893, in company with J. F. Hunt, Henry Lawshe and H. H. Cheatham he organized the Orondo Shipping Company, with headquarters at Orondo and Tacoma, buying and shipping grain. They now control warehouses at Bridgeport, Central Ferry, Chelan Falls, Brays Landing, Orondo and Wenatchee. They have flour mills at Chelan Falls and Wenatchee. At present the company comprises our subject, president and general manager; W. W. Ran- dall, London, England, and A. W. Tilmarsh, secretary and treasurer, Tacoma, Washington. The business is being extended throughout the state.

On September 9, 1899, Mr. Gehr was mar- ried at Snohomish, Washington, to Jane Aus- tin.

Fraternally, Mr. Gehr is a member of Ever- ett, Washington, Lodge No. 479, B. P. O. E. Although in line with the principles of the Re- publican party he is not an active politician. He is secreteary and treasurer of the Chelan Falls Power Company.

IGNATIUS A. NAVARRE, of Lakeside, Chelan county, eminent in the profession of civil engineering and prominently identified with the interests of the county, was born in Monroe, Michigan, December 25, 1846. His father, Joseph G. Navarre, was the son of Col- onel Francis Navarre, justice of the old North- west territory, when it was under the French regime, and later American rule. During the War of 1812 he commanded a regiment in which were enrolled thirty-seven Navarres, de- scendants of the "white-plumed Henry of Na- varre." He participated in numerous battles, among which was that of the Thames, where Tecumseh was killed, and General Winchester was his guest the day he surrendered to Proc-

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HISTORY OF NORTH WASHINGTON.

tor. He was grandson of the first Navarre to settle in America, who was deputized as ad- ministrator by the French government. Our subject's father, Joseph G. Navarre, was a practicing attorney, having been educated in Kentucky and practiced in Detroit, Michigan. He died in 1861. The mother, Elizabeth (Martin) Navarre, was a native of Pennsyl- vania, of illustrious ancestors. She died when our subject was eighteen months old.

Until the age of fourteen Ignatius A. was reared in Monroe county, Michigan, where he attended public schools and was graduated with honors from St. Francis College, Loretto, Cambria county, Pennsylvania. During the last year of the Civil war he enlisted in the engineer corps, and after an honorable dis- charge he became a government surveyor, in which vocation he remained for many years. In 1868, while engaged in fortification work at Portland, Maine, he began the study of law, and was admitted to the supreme court bar in 1873. In that year he went to Olympia, Wash- ington, worked at governmental surveys, went to Seattle and entered the law office of Mc- Naught & Leary, with whom he remained two years. Subsequently he was employed two years in British Columbia, in engineering work for the Dominion government. He then prac- ticed law at Yakima, Washington, and was probate judge of Yakima county when it em- braced Kittitas county. From 1883 until 1885 he was engaged on contract surveying work for the government, on land that is now divided between Douglas, Chelan and Okano- gan counties.

In 1886 he filed on land on the beautiful Lake Chelan and there he has since resided. He served as one of the presidential electors during the Harrison campaign, the only one sent east of the Cascade Mountains. He is a stanch Republican, and has served as United States Commissioner. Mr. Navarre has served in various governmental positions, was employed by the state to select lands and to lay irrigating plans under the Corey law. At pres- ent he controls about four hundred acres of land. He has two brothers, Charles F. and Alexander T., and one sister, Mary F. Mackin, of Pittsburg. At San Francisco, November 9. 1879, he was married to Miss Elizabeth E. Cooper, born at Victoria, British Columbia. Her father, James O. Cooper, was a native of

England, and an old sea captain. He was also agent of marines and fisheries for the Domin- ion Government at Victoria. He died at San Francisco, California, in 1898. The mother, Charlotte O. Cooper, was a native of England. Mrs. Navarre has four brothers, Charles V., George, Augustus and Vinter F., and two sis- ters, Jennie Hamfin and Fanny Cooper.

Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Navarre, Grace M. and Joseph R., both living at home. Joseph R. was the first white child born on the shores of Lake Chelan.

SCOTT W. PHILLIPS, fruit inspector and farmer, a veteran of the Civil War and dis- tinguished for past military services, resides near Wenatchee, Chelan county. December 4, 1846, he was born in Cambria county, Pennsylvania, the son of Samuel and Louise ( Wisinger ) Phil- lips, both natives of the Keystone state. Throughout his life the father followed the avocation of a farmer, dying in Bedford coun- ty, Pennsylvania, in 1891. The mother, of Dutch ancestry, died when the subject of this sketch was thirteen years of age.

The latter received his early education and training in Bedford county, and at the breaking out of the Civil war, patriotically enlisted in Company D, Fifty-fifth Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers, Captain Sol Netzeker; Colonel Richard White. He participated in the battles of Drury's Bluff, Chapin's Farm, Cold Har- bor, Five Forks, Burksville Junction and Pe- tersburg, and was at the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox Court House. He was slightly wounded at Five Forks, and contracted rheumatism which crippled his health for life. Following the close of the war he returned to Pennsylvania, where he learned the trade of a carpenter, and later removed to Colorado and Oregon, living for the succeeding twelve years in Portland and Oregon City. At that period he was engaged in contracting for extensive buildings, and erected the fifty-five thousand dollar court house at Oregon City. Subse- quently he was identified with the building of many fine residences and business blocks, and as foreman or contractor put up the second brick edifice in Seattle, Washington, in which city he resided six years. In 1888 he removed to Waterville, Douglas county, Washington,

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HISTORY OF NORTH WASHINGTON.

where for four years he was engaged in a furni- ture and hardware store. Thence he went to Wenatchee, where he was in the feed business. This he sold and took up fruit shipping, and ran the same during the building of the railroad at that place. In 1894 he disposed of this busi- ness to Conrad Rose, the latter organizing the enterprise as the Wenatchee Produce Company. He owns twenty-five acres of fine orchard. At the period of the organization of the county he was appointed fruit inspector which position he still holds. Mr. Phillips has two brothers and two sisters; William, of Bedford county, Pennsylvania; Samuel, in the railroad business, New Orleans; Catherine, wife of William Richert, of Pennsylvania; and Mary, wife of James Pierce, of Oakland, California.

December 25, 1868, our subject was mar- ried to Anna Vest, of Indianapolis, Indiana. The ceremony occurred at Springfield, Mis- souri. Her father, Jonathan Vest, descended from one of the most distinguished families, of which United States Senator Vest was a mem- ber, died when Mrs. Phillips was quite young. To them have been born two children, Myrtle and Olive. Mr. Phillips is a member of George M. McCook Post, G. A. R., Wenatchee. He is also a member of the I. O. O. F.

ALBERT P. CLAYTON is one of the live business men of Wenatchee, Chelan county, of influential personality and an important factor in all public and municipal enterprises. He was born in Rome. Richland county, Ohio, June 14. 1846, the son of Lambert D. and Evelina (Booth) Clayton. He is a second cousin of Powell Clayton, United States Minister to Mexico and one of the prominent Republican statesmen of Arkansas. Lambert D. Clayton was a native of South Carolina, of English an- cestry. He died in Spring Green, Wisconsin, in 1864. The mother was born in Holmes county, Ohio, and passed away at Chillicothe, Missouri, in 1901.

Our subject was reared in Wisconsin, whither his family moved, and until he was eight years of age he attended the public schools in his neighborhood. From his father he learned the trade of a harness maker. He was a patriotic youth, and in 1862 enlisted in the Sixth Wisconsin Light Artillery, otherwise

known as the Buena Vista Battery, in which he served until the close of the Civil war, being mustered out July 18, 1865. He participated in thirteen regular engagements, was taken prisoner twice, and escaped each time.

For many years following the war he was engaged in railway service: In 1865 he was with the Milwaukee & Mississippi Railway Company, remaining two years and ten months as fireman and five years as engineer. He was then employed as conductor of freight and passenger trains, until 1889, on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul, Prairie du Chien, I. & D. division. Resigning in that year he came to Washington and located, February 12, 1889, in the vicinity of Ellensburg. The following year he was freight conductor on the Cascade di- vision of the Northern Pacific, and on May 1, 1890, he accepted the position of superintendent of construction on the Gray's Harbor & South Bend railroad. In September, 1894, he was a passenger engineer on the Pacific division of the Northern Pacific railroad, between Tacoma and Portland. On September 9, 1894, he drove a spike, the farthest west in the United States, at Ocosta, the terminus of the road.

In December, 1900, Mr. Clayton came to Wenatchee, and engaged in the real estate, in- surance and loan business. One year from that time he built large safe deposit vaults, burglar. proof, with twenty-four inch walls, and eighty- six steel boxes. He employs night watchmen, and the enterprise has become quite popular in Wenatchee. Mr. Clayton carries about seventy- five per cent of the fire insurance in Wenatchee. His home is a beautiful seven-room cottage, surrounded by five lots, in Nob Hill addition. He also owns the business building and lot ad- joining O. D. Johnson's. It was Mr. Clayton who brought the Entiat mining district into prominence, forming a company for its develop- ment. He has one brother, Mahlon, a mining man of Valdez, Alaska, and one sister, Rachel, wife of William Brown, a boiler-maker, of Chillicothe, Missouri.

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Illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties, state of Washington, Part 127

Author: Publication date: 1904 Publisher: Spokane, Wash. : Western History Number of Pages: 992

Author:
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Spokane, Wash. : Western History
Number of Pages: 992