Illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties, state of Washington, Part 136

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 136
USA > Washington > Ferry County > Illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties, state of Washington > Part 136
USA > Washington > Okanogan County > Illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties, state of Washington > Part 136
USA > Washington > Stevens County > Illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties, state of Washington > Part 136

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MICHAEL HORAN, one of the most ex- tensive stock ranchers in the vicinity of Wen- atchee, Chelan county, is a man of cultivated literary tastes, and a thorough gentleman. Stockbridge, Massachusetts, is the place of his nativity, and the date of his birth is May 14, 1854.

His parents, Patrick and Mary (Kirk) Horan, were natives of Ireland. When a young men, the father, who was a shoemaker, came to the United States, dying when our subject was eight years of age. The mother survived her husband but four years. Following the death of his parents, young Horan lived, worked, and studied amid the Berkshire hills, and here he laid the foundation of an excellent education. Going to California in 1876 he found employ- ment in various occupations, mining, stock- raising, and so forth, for five years. Going thence to Tombstone, Arizona, he engaged in mining, freighting, and the meat business. In 1884 he went to the Puget Sound country, near Tacoma, where he conducted a stone quarry, mined, and pursued various other lines of busi- ness. It was in 1889 that he first came to Wen- atchee, and here he purchased cattle and de- voted his attention to the meat business. The latter he disposed of a few years since, but con- tinues to raise blooded cattle successfully. He has a beautiful place, surrounded by all that tends to the conveniences and comforts of his vocation. He has taken a number of prizes for choice displays of stock and poultry.

At present Mr. Horan is vice-president of the Wenatchee Columbia Valley Bank, owns one hundred and thirty acres of land at the mouth of the Wenatchee river, and resides in a handsome two-story, twelve-room house. He has also a young orchard of twenty-three acres. He has three sisters, Mary Hart, Julia, single, and Kate Dumford, all residing in Massa- chusetts.

At Cle Elum, Washington, September 25, 1888, our subject was married to Margaret A.

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Rankin, a native of Iowa. Her father was a native of Pennsylvania; her mother of Vir- ginia. Mrs. Horan has one brother and three sisters : Frank, Mary Hunt, Susan Willis, and Elizabeth Cahill. Mr. Horan is a member of the K. of P., D. O. K. K., and M. W. A. Politically he is a Republican.

Six children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Horan, William E., Esther N., John R., Wal- ter E., Kathelene and Mamie.

Mr. Horan is a very active participant in politics, not for personal preferment, but for the welfare of the community and the upbuilding and success of the Republican party. In 1890, he was chosen commissioner of Kittitas county, and in Chelan county has been school director for, twelve years.

PEARL P. HOLCOMB. Though a young man, the subject of this article is one of the leading spirits and enterprising citizens of Wenatchee, Chelan county, where he is engaged successfully in the mercantile business. He is a native of Iowa, having been born in Boone county, January 10, 1871. His father is Ben- jamin B. Holcomb, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere, and his mother is Susie Holcomb, a native of Ohio. They were early pioneeers in the Wenatchee Valley.

Until the age of fifteen years our subject was reared and educated in Iowa. One sum- mer was passed in Nebraska, with his family, and then for the following five years he resided in Kansas. In 1890 he came to Washington, and entered the employment of Hinchliff Broth- ers & Gildea, with whom he remained eighteen months. Following the "big fire" in Spokane, he returned, to Kansas, and in the fall of 1890, he came with the family to Spangle, Washington, where for a few months he worked as a clerk. He attended the Spokane Business College for one winter, and the followng summer worked on a farm. Following his graduation from the business college he engaged in various employ- ments, and in the meantime his family had moved to Wenatchee, where he joined them in the winter of 1893. Again in the spring fol- lowing he was in the employment of Hinchliff Brothers, at Elverton, Whitman county, re- maining with them one year. Returning to Wenatchee he was associated with George W.

Kline, as assistant postmaster, two years, and was then with D. A. Beal for one year. In March, 1899, he formed a partnership with J. S. Albin, in the general mercantile business, and six months afterwards purchased the lat- ter's interest. Mr. Holcomb has two sisters, Ida Garrett and Nettie Phipps.

At Spokane, March 7, 1896, he was united in marriage to Mattie E. Downing, a native of Washington, born in Whitman county. Her father, E. M. Downing, was the pioneer nier- chant of Colfax, Whitman county, and crossed the plains at an early day. He at present re- sides at Gifford, Idaho. The mother, Mollie (Hinchliff) Downing, was a native of Mis- souri, and died in 1894. April 26, 1901, Mrs. Holcomb was called from earth, leaving one child, Guy H., aged six years.

Our subject is, fraternally, a member of the Odd Fellows and the Maccabees. He is a Re- publican, was a delegate to the last county con- vention, was a member of the city council three years, city clerk one term, and takes a lively in- terest in local politics.

BENJAMIN M. CHAPMAN, one of the prosperous farmers of the Wenatchee valley, residing near Mission, Chelan county, is a na- tive of the "Keystone State," born January 8, 1850. His father, Stedman Chapman, who died in 1880, was born in Connecticut, moved from there to New York and followed farming all his life in the "Empire State," and Pennsyl- vania. The mother, Jane ( Manning) Chap- man, was a native of New York, and died in Pennsylvania in 1892.

From the age of five to twenty years our subject was reared in Iowa, alternately attend- ing school and working on farms. He came to Washington in 1870, and for two and a half years lived in the vicinities of Walla Walla and Dayton, where he taught school and worked in a saw mill. In the fall of 1872 he returned to Iowa, remained five years, and in 1878 went to Portland, Oregon, thence to Marion county, same state, and in the spring of 1881 came to Ellensburg, purchased railroad land, seven miles from that place, and cultivated it. In 1888 he removed to Waterville, Douglas coun- ty, and engaged in farming until 1895. He came I to Chelan county in that year, purchased land,

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disposed of it, and finally settled on forty acres on the "Brown's Flat" side of the river. He has ten acres in orchard, seven in alfalfa, watered by the Jones & Shotwell ditch, and resides in a substantial story and a half house, in the rear of which is a handsome, commo- dious, high gable barn.

Our subject has one brother and nine sis- ters, Walter M., Mary Myers, Sarah Bissell, Hester Baird, Susan Loing, Catherine Puckett, Carrie Hunter, Elnora Edmunds, Wilthy King, and Anna Carber. At Kirksville, Iowa, September 26, 1872, Mr. Chapman was mar- ried to Olive McLain, born in Wapello county, Iowa. They have three children W. Guy, Frank R., and Walter B. The father of Mrs. Chapman, Jocob McLain, died in 1874, and her mother, Harriet (Davis) McLain, in 1893. Mrs. Chapman has two brothers, Daniel and Wilson S., and four sisters, Mary Jones, Ellen Randolph, Addie M. Brown and Ozora Mor- row.

Politically, Mr. Chapman is a pronounced Independent.

GEORGE W. BLAIR is one of the earliest settlers in the beautiful valley, near Wenatchee, Chelan county, where he now resides, success- fully engaged in fruit and stock-raising. Mon- roe county, Ohio, is the place of his nativity ; the date of his birth, February 6, 1850. His parents, James A. and Mary Ann (Drake) Blair, are natives of Ohio, and at present reside in Nebraska, having gone there in 1859. The father is now eighty-four years of age; the mother sixty-eight.

Reared and educated on the frontier, our subject remained in Nebraska until 1881, when he came to Montana and for eighteen months engaged in the livery business. On Oc- tober 13, 1883, he came to Wenatchee, and on the sixteenth located one hundred and sixty acres of land. He was accompanied by eleven other pioneers, many of whom have since passed away. In the summer of 1884 they built what is known as the "Settlers' Ditch," taking water from the Squill-Tac-Chane. The main ditch is three and one half miles long. Of these orignal ditch builders only our subject, Z. A. Lanham and Samuel Miller remain.

Mr. Blair has ever been a successful cultiva- tor of fruit and vegetables. All but twenty

acres of his original property he has sold or given to his children, retaining twenty acres upon which he at present resides. His one story and a half house is surrounded by five acres of young orchard, aside from which he has fifteen acres of bearing trees. He has five brothers living, Brice, J. Harvey, John, Grant and William. He also has five sisters, Sarah A. Townsend, Lizzie Hurlburt, Nancy Connor, Ettie Gillispie, and Zettie Stuart.

Our subject was married at Alexandria, Nebraska, in 1872, to Mrs. Margaret Davis, nee Thompson, a native of Missouri, born in 1847. Her father, David Thompson, was a native of Pennsylvania, of Scotch-Irish descent. An early pioneer of Missouri, he died in 1882. The mother was a native of Ohio, dying when Mrs. Blair was quite young. The latter has three brothers, Isaac, Jacob and Robert. She has one sister, Rachel Kilpatrick, mother of W. H. Kilpatrick, the well-known railroad con- tractor.

Mr. and Mrs. Blair have four girls, Mary France, Grace Stevens, Pearl Cooper and Alice Fry. The political affiliations of our subject are with the Republican party. He served three years as road overseer, was the first school di- rector in the valley, and has always taken a lively interest in school matters.

CHARLES A. HARLIN, although a young man, can justly be claimed as one of the pioneers of Washington, coming to the state at the time of its admission to the union. Saunders county, Nebraska is the place of his nativity, where he was born January 22, 1871. He now owns and conducts the largest meat market in the thriving town of Wenatchee, Chelan county. His parents, Charles and Anna Harlin, are natives of Germany. They came to this country and located in Nebraska in 1869, where they now reside, engaged in farming near Cedar Bluffs.

Our subject was reared on a Nebraska farm, but attended the graded schools of Fremont, that state, and subsequently assisted his father in a meat market. In 1889 he came to Wash- ington and settled on Lake Chelan, at that pe- riod in Okanogan county, now Chelan. Here he followed various employments, and in 1894 he came to Wenatchee and worked for Michael

WILLIAM BLAIR.

GEORGE BLAIR.

CHARLES A. HARLIN.

GEORGE H. FARWELL.

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HISTORY OF NORTH WASHINGTON.

Horn, the pioneer butcher of that place. Subse- quently he went to Seattle and studied six months in a business college, returning to Wenatchee and remaining in the employment of Mr. Horn two years. The latter was desir- ous of giving his whole attention to his exten- sive farm, and young Harlin took charge of the meat business as manager, shortly afterwards purchasing the same.

Mr. Harlin has five brothers, Otto, Louis, George, and Rudolph, farmers and stockmen at Cedar Bluffs, Nebraska, and William, in the employment of a steamboat company, at Wen- atchee.

In April, 1900, Mr. Harlin was married, at Wenatchee, to Mrs. Dora A. Wells. She has two half brothers, Rush Failor, a linotype oper- ator, at Seattle, and Harry Failor, a conductor on the Northern Pacific railway, residing at Tacoma. By her first marriage Mrs. Harlin has three children, Hazel, aged sixteeen, Faun, aged thirteen, and Glenn R., aged eleven years.

Fraternallv Mr. Harlin is a member of the A. O. U. W. and the Knights of Pythias, Wenatchee organizations, and is a trustee and prominent member of the Wenatchee Commer- cial Club. He is an active, energetic young man, highly popular, and esteemed for his prob- ity and business sagacity.

GEORGE H. FARWELL, who is one of the most successful fruit growers in Chelan county, resides but a short distance from Wen- atchee. He was born in the Province of Que- bec, August 27, 1862. His parents, Benjamin W. and Susan M. Farwell, also Canadians, are still living, and at the present writing are visit- ing their son at Wenatchee.

George H. remained in Canada and attended district school, then graduated from an acad- emy, and at the age of twenty-two removed to Thompson, North Dakota, coming thence to Ellensburg, Kittitas county, where for six years he was engaged in railroad work, in the shops and as fireman and engineer. Subse- quently he was interested in the transfer, wood and ice business. Coming to Wenatchee in 1900, Mr. Farwell filed on the homestead upon which he now resides, fifty acres of which are devoted to orchard, vineyard, alfalfa and so forth. In 1899 he joined the rush to Nome;

was thirty-three days on the trip, which was a. perilous one, and here he passed one season .. While in Ellensburg our subject, in company with five others, built a boat and endeavored to reach Yakima, but they were capsized, losing their baggage and three months' supply of pro- vision, and it was this serious mishap that an- chored him at Ellensburg. For a period he found it hard sledding, but as a result of indus- try and excellent business sagacity his present place is worth at least ten thousand dollars. Mr. Farwell has taken several gold, silver and bronze medals at general exhibits of fruit, both at the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo and in other places. In 1902 he captured the first prize for the ten best packed boxes of apples and eighteen first prizes for plate exhibits at Spokane. In the fall of 1902 he was awarded twelve first, and six second prizes for apples, pears, peaches, prunes and plums at the Wen- atchee fair. During the spring of 1903, Mr. Farwell shipped twenty-one boxes of apples to Japan and fifty boxes to Dawson.

Our subject has two brothers living, Harley E. and Arthur D. In October, 1899, at El- lensburg, he was united in marriage to Lottie B. Ricker, a native of Michigan. She has one sister, Annie, wife of Charles Becker, Wen- atchee. They are the parents of four children, Hugh B., Roy M., Harley E. and Madie B. Mr. Farwell is a member of Wenatchee Lodge, No. 57, I. O. O. F., and the A. O. U. W. He is a Republican, has been delegate to the county convention, but is not an active politician. It is for most excellent reasons that he has occa- sion to feel a certain degree of pride in his achievements as a fruit grower, for his career in this line has been marked with the greatest degree of success.

On August 18, 1903, Mr. Farwell was ap- pointed delegate to the Mississippi Congress which held a session in Seattle.

FREDERICK C. FARNHAM, descendant of an old New England family, is practically a Bostonian, having been born at Dorchester, Massachusetts, now a portion of the "Hub." The date was August 17, 1846. His parents were natives of Maine, and five members of his father's family participated in the Revolu- tion. His mother, Margaret (Potter) Farn-

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ham, was a descendant of the old New Eng- land Potter family many of whom were dis- tinguished in the lines of the professions and industrial pursuits.

Our subject was educated in the graded and Latin schools of Boston and Dorchester, and when quite young went to sea, which he fol- lowed five years. He then turned his attention to mining in California, Nevada and New Mexico, and has followed that avocation, main- ly, ever since. During the past eight years he has made his home on Mission creek, Chelan county, residing with the family of Stapleton C. Howard, mentioned elsewhere. He is a member of Tuscorora Lodge, A. F. & A. M., of Tuscorora, Nevada, and Wenatchee Chap- ter No. 22, R. A. M.

WILLIAM J. WARNER, the pioneer set- tler of "Warner's Flat," near Mission, Chelan county, is a "Buckeye," born in Fairfield coun- ty, Ohio, April 15, 1834. His parents, William C. and Christina (Stoneburner) Warner were natives of Virginia, descendants of the most prominent families of a decidedly aristocratic state. The father was an active participant in the war of 1812, and was in the battles of Craney Island and Sackett's Harbor. He died in Illinois in 1865. The mother passed away in 1870.

Until he was seventeen years of age our subject lived in Ohio, worked on a farm and attended the public schools. Later he moved to Iowa, thence to Illinois, and after the death of his father he went to Nebraska where he re- mained ten years. Subsequently he was in Cal- ifornia three years and then for eighteen months in Albany, Oregon. The following nine years he passed at High Prairie, near The Dalles, and then he came to his present home, near Mission. This was in 1887. He culti- vates forty acres of land, has an orchard of ten acres, shipping about one thousand boxes of fruit annually. He has one brother living, La- fayette, residing at Portland, Oregon, and one sister, Filiena Kagy.

On March 1, 1854, our subject was married to Miss Nancy Powell, a native of Iowa. She died at High Prairie, Oregon. On February 27, 1885, at Walla Walla, Washington, he was united in marriage to Mrs. Amelda Brian, nec

Rea, a native of Pennsylvania. Her father, Joshua, was a Pennsylvanian, a member of an old Quaker family of English descent. Her mother, Mary (Lower) Brian, was born in Pennsylvania, of Dutch ancestry. . Mrs. War- ner has five sisters, Anna Vogan, Selinda E. Cooper, Margaret Wirt, Kate Laird and Lucy Paget.

Mr. Warner has two children by his first wife, Melville M. and Orilla, wife of Jefferson Dripps, a horse dealer in The Dalles, Oregon. His second wife has four children living, Annie, wife of Logan Rayburn, of Acton, Los Angeles county, California ; Maud, wife of Clark Stru- thers, Walla Walla, Washington; Stella, mar- ried to William Cross, Wenatchee; and Virgil Brian, an only son, living on a farm adjoining his father's property. Mr. and Mrs. Warner are members of the Church of God. Politically he is an Independent.

Our, subject was among the first white set- tlers of this district, and they saw no white women during the first five months of their location. His family is highly esteemed by all with whom they are associated, and he is a popular citizen.

ALEXANDER PITCHER, who for the last forty-three years, has been a frontiersman, having been on the plains as early as 1859, is now pleasantly located near Wenatchee, Chelan county, engaged in general farming and stock- raising.

Mr. Pitcher was born in Dutchess county, New York, November 24, 1836, the son of Jacob and Huldah ( Uhle) Pitcher, natives of New York state. The ancestors of the father were Holland Dutch, and early settlers of the state. He died in Illinois in 1867. The an- cestry of the mother was English. She passed away in Iowa in 1894.

At the age of four years our subject was taken to Illinois by his parents, and in 1859 he went to Pike's Peak, but shortly afterwards re- turned to Council Bluffs, Iowa, and engaged in freighting across the plains. In 1863 he was in Boise City, Idaho, arriving there two weeks after the town was laid out. He erected the first hous there that was provided with a door. The following ten years were passed in various employments, mining, restaurant keep- ing, prospecting, and freighting. In 1879 he

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pushed on to Seattle, remaining but a few weeks, and going thence to Roseburg, Oregon. Having lost an arm there in a saw mill, he re- turned to Humboldt county, California, where he stopped ten years. It was in 1889 that he came to his present handsome location in Che- lan county, six miles from Wenatchee, called Pitcher's Canyon.

Our subject has five brothers, John, Adam, Jacob, Solomon and Henry, and three sisters, Maria Birchley, Elizabeth Smith and Jane. On March 27, 1862, at Council Bluffs, Iowa, he was married to Sarah E. Bell, a native of Marietta, Ohio. Her father, James Bell, de- ceased, was a native of Pennsylvania; her mother, Mary (Johnson) Bell, was born in Ohio, and now lives at Nashville, Tennessee, aged eighty years. Our subject has three chil- dren, George, Benton, and Effie, wife of David Murray, a miner and stockman of Republic, Washington.

Fraternally he is a charter member of Wenatchee Lodge No. 157, I. O. O. F., and past noble grand. He took the degrees in California in 1876. Politically he is a Repub- lican, and has served two terms as county com- missioner of Kittitas county. He has frequently been a delegate to county conventions, has been a Republican since the election of Lincoln, and intends to remain in that party. Mr. Pitcher was the first assessor of Chelan county.

HARRY I. SHOTWELL, superintendent of the Wenatchee Water Power and Ditch Company, residing four miles northwest of Wenatchee, was born at Topeka, Kansas, No- vember 21, 1874. His father, Jacob A. Shot- well, is a native of Indiana, born in LaPorte county, March 21, 1851, of old and distin- guished ancestry, his parents, grandparents and great-grandparents having been New England people. The mother of our subject, Susan (Canfield) Shotwell, is a native of Illinois. Harry I. Shotwell has three brothers and three sisters, Frank, Ralph and Lyman, residing at home, and Lora, wife of Thomas McDonald, of Madera, California, Nora and Grace, living with their parents.

When he was five years of age, in 1879, our subject was taken to Klickitat county, Wash- ington, by his parents, and here he was afforded

an opportunity of attending the public schools. In 1883 the family removed to Ellensburg, where he enjoyed the privileges of the Ellens- burg Academy. In 1889 his parents went to Wenatchee, accompanied by Harry, who at that period was fifteen years of age. Seven years later he purchased eighty acres of land, his pres- ent home, which is a handsome property, thirty- five acres under ditch, twenty-five devoted to the cultivation of alfalfa and eight acres set out in a fine orchard. He resides in a one- story cottage, has other buildings, and a com- modious barn with a capacity of one hundred tons of hay. In 1896 he and his father dis- posed of the extensive irrigating ditch which they had constructed to the Wenatchee Water Power & Ditch Company, since which period he has been superintendent of the same.

At Mission, Chelan county, September 10, 1896, Mr. Shotwell was married to Miss Daisy McClimans, a native of Wyoming. Her fa- ther, Robert McClimans, was born in Illinois ; her mother, Julia (Warren) McClimans is a native of Kansas. Both of her parents at pres- ent reside in San Diego, California. Mrs. Shotwell has four brothers and five sisters, Joseph L., Frank, Scott, Harvey, Rose, wife of John Kulbes, Ethel, wife of Lawrence Cade, Etna and Stella, school girls, and Ida, a baby.

Mr. and Mrs. Shotwell have one child, Ber- tha, born November 26, 1897. Mr. Shotwell is a member of the A. O. U. W., of Wenatchee. He is a Republican, politically, but not at all partisan in his affiliations.

Jacob A. and his son, Harry I. Shotwell, were the pioneer irrigators in the Brown Flat country, and they have made a remarkable suc- cess in this line of agricultural industry.

PAUL SWANSON. Without doubt the subject of this biographical sketch is the larg- est farmer on the lake of Chelan. His estate lies about eight miles northwest from Chelan and consists of two hundred and eighty acres of his own land and two hundred acres of land leased from the school authorities. He makes a beautiful and valuable estate of it all and raises abundance of grain, as wheat, oats, bar- ley, corn, and so forth. He owns the only threshing machine on the lake and threshed out one thousand bushels for himself this year.

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Mr. Swanson also raises cattle, having about fifty head, as well as hogs and other stock. He is a man of ability and has shown it in his enter- prises here. Mr. Swanson has a beautiful place, and has stimulated much improvement and effort in others, while he has by his industry and wise management made this excellent hold- ing for himself.

Paul Swanson was born in Sweden, on August 2, 1867, the son of Swen P. and Per- nill ( Parsdotter) Swanson, natives of Sweden, where they died in 1900 and 1895, respec- tively. Our subject was well educated in his native land and in 1887 came thence to the United States. He landed in Grand Forks county, North Dakota, in due time and worked on a farm for one year. After that he jour- neyed to Montana and rode the range for three years, when he came direct to Lake Chelan, lo- cating where he find him at the present time. He at once set to work to make his ranch one of value and productive and he has suc- ceeded in a remarkable degree, being now the leading farmer in this vicinity.

In October, 1902, Mr. Swanson married Miss Etta Yerden, whose parents are natives of St. Lawrence county, New York, where they now live. Mrs. Swanson has one brother, Frank, living near our subject ; and one sister. Mary. To Mr. and Mrs. Swanson one child has been born, Paulina, an infant. Mr. Swan- son is a stanch Republican and is always inter- ested in the welfare and advancement of the community.

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Illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties, state of Washington, Part 136

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