USA > Washington > Spokane County > Spokane > Spokane and the Spokane country : pictorial and biographical : deluxe supplement, Volume I > Part 15
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Home life, social interests and political activity have all had their place in the life of Mr. MacLean. He was married January 15,
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Lauchlin Mac Lean
1888, to Miss Laura G. Stone, a daughter of Nathan N. Stone, of Vicksburg, Mississippi, and her grandmother was a first cousin of Horace Greeley. They now have one son, Donald, who was born February 22, 1904, and resides with his parents at their home at Otis Orchards. Mr. McLean has always voted with the republican party and has been very active in its support, deeming its principles most potent forces in good government. He has been a delegate to various conventions, both county and state, principally from Douglas, Chelan and Okanogan counties. He has always assisted materially in all elections and takes a keen interest in the growth and success of his party. Fraternally he is a Mason, having been made a member of Alexander Lodge, No. 5, Prince Edward Island, under the Grand Lodge of England. He later demitted to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and afterward became a charter member of the lodge under dispensation at North Yakima, which afterward was consolidated and became Lodge No. 24, of North Yakima. He demitted from there to join Lodge No. 34, of Spokane, after the reorganization following the great fire, and became one of the charter members of the Masonic lodge at Wenatchee. His membership is now in Oriental Lodge, No. 74, Spokane, and he is also a Royal Arch Mason, while both he and his wife are connected with the Order of the Eastern Star. He likewise holds membership with the Knights of Pythias at Wenat- chee, was the first president of the Eagles there and is still a member of the aerie. His membership relations with the Elks is in Everett, Washington, he being the first Elk from the central part of this state to place his membership there. He belongs also to the Spokane Club and is a valued member of several organizations which have for their object the advancement and development of the northwest and the exploitation of its resources and opportunities. He belongs to the Chamber of Commerce, of which he was a director for six and a half years but resigned in 1910. He has been a director of the National Apple Show since its organization and was also chairman of the Spokane county committee of the Alaska-Yukon Exposition at Seattle. He has attended six national irrigation congresses and by reason of the extent and importance of his business along that line his opinions have largely come to be regarded as authority con- cerning irrigation projects. The influence and benefit of his work are inestimable and the worth of his service no one doubts, as he has taken cognizance of the conditions and needs of this part of the country and in meeting the latter has contributed in large measure to the development of the country which is fast rivaling any section of this broad land in its productiveness.
William Harris
Carne Harris
William J. Harris
ILLIAM J. HARRIS, a Spokane capitalist inter- W ested in many paying mining propositions and also in hotel properties in Spokane, was born in Halton county, Ontario, on the 17th of August, 1859. ITis parents, Willianı Wellington and Hannah (Aikins) Harris, were pioneer residents of that section of Canada, to which the father removed with his parents from Pennsyl- vania about 1815. William Wellington Harris was a young lad at that time and in the ensuing years he experieneed all of the hardships and privations of frontier life and aided in all the arduous labor inci- dent to the establishment of a home and the development of business interests in a new district. Both he and his wife have been dead many years. Of their family of ten children, six sons and four daughters, four of the brothers came to the west and are well known as business men in the various seetions where they reside. John Harris owns and operates a large stoek farm on the Salmon river. Daniel Harris, who was one of the pioneers of the Rossland mining camp of British Columbia, now lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, with his four sons and one daughter, who have the distinction of being the discov- erers of the Nine Mile mountain near Hazelton. British Columbia, and who are owners of the American Boy group and the Silver Cup mine of that section. Thomas Harris, another brother of the family, now living at Creston, British Columbia, was the diseoverer of the White Grouse Mountain distriet, near the headwaters of the East Kootenai river, and is the owner of several group claims, the most prominent of which is the Bonshaw mine. Of the two brothers who remained in the east, Joseph Harris still lives on the old farm in On- tario, while Hugh Harris, also a farmer, resides about sixteen miles from the old homestead.
William J. Harris received such educational advantages as his native county afforded. The schools, however, were mostly little log buildings and the methods of instruction were quite primitive. As soon as old enough to handle the plow William J. Harris began work in the fields and did other labor ineident to farm life. He was quite young when his father died and he afterward left home, coming to
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William J. Darris
the United States when but twelve years of age. For a time he was employed on a farm near Osage, Iowa, and, accumulating a little money, he worked his way all over Iowa, Nebraska and South Da- kota, finally settling in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where he engaged in farming and stock raising. In the fall of 1884, when the Coeur d'Alene mining excitement broke out, he disposed of his interest in Sioux Falls and made his way to that district, where he arrived with about four thousand dollars in cash. He had no experience in min- ing and after sixty days found himself entirely without capital. He did not become discouraged, however, and the next five years of his life he spent in mining and doing any kind of honest work that he could secure. He was one of the first men to work on the famous Sullivan & Bunker Hill mine, which was his first experience in hard rock mining. As Mr. Harris states, his five years were not a success as far as money was concerned. It was all hard work and very little reward; but he gained much valuable experience which proved the foundation for his later success. However, it is a long lane that has no turning and his way at length led him into more prosperous fields.
In the spring of 1889 Mr. Harris determined to come to Spokane with the intention of entering into business in this city. At the time of his arrival he had but thirty-five cents in his pocket. He had . learned, however, that industry and determination go far toward se- curing success and he resolved that those qualities should constitute the basis for advancement. He first took a position as manager of a restaurant that was conducted by a Mr. Wolf, whom he had known in the Coeur d'Alene district. A few weeks later he secured a res- taurant that was being conducted in a tent on the present site of the Young Men's Christian Association building by two men from the Palouse country. In a few months he had realized seven hundred and fifty dollars above all expenses and this sum he invested in an interest in a hotel on the present site of the Empire State building. By the following spring he had accumulated enough to purchase an interest in the Merchants Hotel on Riverside avenue and it was while conducting that hotel that he became interested in the LeRoi mine, in which several of the prominent men of Spokane made their for- tunes. A complete history of the LeRoi appears elsewhere in this work. Mr. Harris was a director from the time the company was incorporated and was its general manager at the time the property was sold to the British Syndicate. He was also one of the committee of four to select the site for the Northport smelter. There have been but few intervals during the entire period of his residence in the
Larisa Hlavi
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Valilliam 3. Darris
northwest that he has not been connected in greater or less degree with mining interests, and at the present time he is a director of the June group of copper mines on Vancouver Island, British Colum- bia, and also of the Good Friday Consolidated Company of Red Mountain, British Columbia. He is the sole owner of the Quartz Creek placer mine in Clearwater county, four miles from Pierce, Idaho, and also of the Waldo dredging property which is in Jo- sephine county, forty miles west of Grants Pass, Oregon.
Mr. Harris was married at Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in June, 1882, to Miss Caroline Hanson, a native of Decorah, Iowa, and they had one daughter, Louise, who was born at Sioux Falls, South Da- kota, May 6, 1883. His wife and daughter accompanied him to the Coeur d'Alene district and in all of his wanderings they were together. In the Coeur d'Alene district, at the Argentine gulch about two and a half miles from Wallace, Mr. Harris built a cabin and there the little daughter received her first education. Schools at that time were not very numerous in the district, so the father would mark the letters on the door of the cabin with chalk in the morning, and when he re- turned at night from his work, the little one would copy the examples set her. Later excellent educational privileges were accorded her, her studies being pursued in Brunot Hall, an Episcopal school of Spokane, and later in Los Angeles, California. She was regarded as one of the most beautiful and accomplished young ladies on the Pacific coast and in addition to her intellectual and social graces she displayed great musical talent. In January, 1904, she left Spokane for a visit in Victoria and was one of the passengers on the ill-fated steamship Clallam, which sank in the straits near Port Townsend on the 8th of January, on which occasion Louise Harris and fifty-one other people lost their lives. After speaking of the storm which brought disaster to this ship and death to Miss Harris, one of the local papers said:
"Miss Harris was one of the most popular women in Spokane. She was beautiful, amiable and sole heiress to a fortune estimated at about two hundred thousand dollars. She had many accomplishments and had the faculty of making and retaining friends. Miss Harris would have been twenty-one years old next May. She was born at Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on May 6, 1883. When she was less than a year old her parents emigrated to Idaho. Her father carried her in his arms on horseback into the Coeur d'Alene mining district to Murray during the stampede of 1884. In 1889 her parents removed to Spokane and her father engaged in business here. The child, then
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William J. Darris
six years old, was educated in the public schools of this city and at Brunot Hall, the local seminary for girls conducted by the Protestant Episcopal church. The last seen of Louise Harris in life, she was in the lifeboat bravely seeking to comfort and cheer the frightened women and children who shared the boat with her. Then the lifeboat disappeared from the sight of those on the doomed steamer Clallam. Apparently the others in the lifeboat had been washed out by the great waves or blown from their places by the heavy gale. When the lifeboat was found the body of the brave and beautiful Spokane girl was found lying lifeless under the seat. The water which had swept into the boat more than covered her body. Whether she succumbed to the chill and exposure or was drowned in the boat will never be known. Survivors of the wreck remember Miss Harris well. They were able to do this through her absolute composure and self-assur- ance. They say she was the bravest person on the boat and that while she undoubtedly was frightened she would not show it for a single moment. While the small boat was being filled with women and children, Miss Harris did everything in her power to assist and cheer them. She would take little babies from the arms of their mothers and hold them until the women were safely seated in the boat. At all times she talked encouragingly to those who were among the last to leave the Clallam for the smaller crafts. Men were found who stated that they felt like cheering Miss Harris to the echo for her bravery and composure. It is said that she was the calmest and most self-pos- sessed person on the boat and that had it not been for her the chances are there would have been a serious panic among the women. Miss Harris was well known in Seattle and was a favorite with all who knew her. Two funeral services were held, one from All Saints' Cathedral, Spokane, and at the same hour the friends of the dead girl and her mother in Los Angeles, California, where they spent sev- eral winters, held memorial services in the First Presbyterian church of that city. The music at the two services was identical."
Death again entered the Harris household when, on the 29th of September, 1911, Mrs. Harris was called from this life. She died very suddenly, after an illness of two days, at Quartz Creek, near Pierce, Idaho, where she had accompanied her husband on a visit of inspection to the extensive placer diggings he owned in that section. Mrs. Harris had been a resident of Spokane since shortly after the great fire and was thoroughly familiar with the pioneer history of this section of the country. She had personally become a large property owner, although, like other pioneer women, knew the hardships and
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difficulties of frontier life in the mining camps. She accompanied her husband to the Coeur d'Alenes during the boom on the north side in the middle '80s, and when the mines proved disappointing and con- ditions were such that work for men was exceedingly difficult to ob- tain, she herself established a business in Murray. Again she engaged in business after the removal of the family to Mullan. Soon after their return to Spokane, Mr. Harris made a fortunate investment in the stock of the LeRoi mine, and her share of the profits Mrs. Harris invested in property that eventually made her one of the wealthiest women in Spokane. About twelve years prior to her death they pur- chased the Aberdeen Hotel and four years later built the Victoria and five years ago the Westminster, which they designed themselves. In addition they had minor realty holdings having a valuation of between three hundred and fifty and five hundred thousand dollars. It is said that Mrs. Harris was not only the brightest business woman in Spokane but also one of the most beloved women of the city. She was sympathetic, kindly and cordial and the innate refinement of her nature was manifest in the tact with which she met every individual, no matter in what station in life. Her death was a great blow to many friends as well as to her husband.
In political affairs Mr. Harris has never been deeply interested nor has he held public office. He belongs to Corinthian Lodge, No. 27, A. F. & A. M., of Rossland, British Columbia, but has largely concentrated his efforts upon his business interests and is numbered among those whose perseverance, faith, courage and industry have at length been crowned by substantial reward. His efforts, too, have been of a character that have contributed to the development and upbuilding of the northwest and in the capable management and enterprising, honorable control of his interests he has commanded the respect and enjoyed the confidence of all his associates.
INDEX
Abercrombie, W. R. .117
Acuff, W. H. 219
Anderson, J. A. 215
Armstrong, J. M. 271
Belt, H. N. 249
Binkley, J. W. .225
Blake, R. B.
71
Campbell, A. B. 97
Cannon, E. J. 155
Clark, James
211
Coman, E. T.
127
Comstock, J. M.
19
Cowley, M. M.
27
Cunningham, J. G.
173
Danson, R. J. 257
Day, W. T.
233
Dennis, G. B.
5
Dwight, D. H.
193
Flewelling, A. L.
123
Forster, G. M.
107
Gandy, J. E. 199
Glover, J. N.
11
Graham, James
43
Hall, Oliver 55
Hansen, C. T.
237
Happy, Cyrus
65
Harris, W. J.
303
Havermale, S. G.
187
Hutchinson, R. A.
205
Jamieson, E. H.
59
Jenkins, D. P. 111
Jones, A. D.
137
Laberee, O. G. 85
Larsen, L. P.
51
Ludden, W. H. 103
Luellwitz, Gustav
131
MacLean, Lauchlin
295
MeCollough, F. T.
283
Martin, H. S.
167
Monaghan, James
31
Monaghan, J. R.
37
Nickerson, W. J.
289
Paulson, P. A.
241
Perkins, J. A.
277
Preusse, Herman
261
Roberts, L. S. .253
Spalding, E. P.
141
Tannatt, T. R.
161
Taylor, J. R.
229
Wakefield, W. J. C.
149
White, A. L.
77
Witherop, J. W.
91
Yearsley, W. S.
145
Ziegler, Louis
177
Zittel, J. A.
267
311
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