USA > Washington > Spokane County > Spokane > Spokane and the Spokane country : pictorial and biographical : deluxe supplement, Volume I > Part 5
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Aubrey Lee White
d'Alene electric railway. Throughout the period of his residence in the northwest he has always seemed to readily recognize the oppor- tunities here to be secured and the possibilities for the upbuilding of the country. His efforts have been an important factor in the substantial growth of the northwest as well as in the promotion of his individual success. He was associated with Mr. Graves in the Spokane & Inland Company and finally in the reorganization of the three companies named into the Inland system under the corporation name of The Inland Empire Railway Company with J. P. Graves as president, Mr. White as vice president, and Waldo G. Paine as second vice president, with Clyde M. Graves as manager and director. These officials resigned when the Great Northern system took over the road in June, 1911, with Carl Gray as president. The Great Northern about a year ago bought the controlling interest. Mr. White has had the satisfaction of seeing the system which was in- stituted with practically nothing develop into a railway line two hun- dred and forty miles in length, proving the greatest source of devel- opment in the district that it traverses.
In connection with Mr. Graves and others Mr. White owned a large area of land and gave ninety acres of it to Spokane for a park which is called Manito, and purchased the old Cook line extending up Riverside avenue to the park. This street railway constituted the nucleus from which has resulted the organization of the Spokane Traction Company, the business of which they have developed, ob- taining a franchise and extending their lines until they now have forty miles of street railway. Their activity in railway matters has been the means of adding from twenty-five to thirty thousand popu- lation to the city, so that these gentlemen deserve prominent mention among those who are regarded as the builders and promoters of Spokane. In all of his business operations Mr. White has never waited until the need was a pressing one but has anticipated condi- tions that would arise and has therefore been prepared to meet the conditions ere the inconvenience and discomfort of a situation were strongly felt.
It would be almost impossible to mention all of the business pro- jects which have felt the stimulus and have profited by the coopera- tion of Mr. White, for his activities have been of a most diverse char- acter and of notable magnitude. After his return from the east he became a director of the Spokane Valley Land Company which owned Green Acres, East Green Acres and other valuable proper-
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ties which they afterward sold to D. C. Corbin. They were very desirous of inducing people to settle along the line of the Coeur d'Alene railway and Mr. White took the matter in hand, bringing it to a successful termination. Mr. White was a director of the Spo- kane Canal Company which irrigated Otis Orchards and did all he could to encourage the enterprise but sold his interest after having it well established. It was he who first demonstrated that the valley was capable of being irrigated and proved the productiveness of its soil. His business connections further extended to the Traders Na- tional Bank and the Granby Company which carries with it the Hid- den Creek properties, and in both of these he is a director. He is also largely interested in many other valuable mining properties both proved and unproved and has extensive real-estate holdings in and near Spokane.
Business affairs, however, represent but one phase of Mr. White's activity, for he has never selfishly centered his interests upon his own personal concerns. He has never been neglectful of the duties of citizenship and has been a most active factor in utilizing the oppor- tunities for the city's development, improvement and adornment. His political support is given to the republican party and during all the period in which he has been so busily engaged in the management of large financial projects he has still found time to advance civic im- provement. He became largely interested in city questions while a member of the Municipal League of New York and when he came to Spokane his knowledge of civic affairs was used in the inception of the 150,000 Club. At a meeting of this club he suggested a "City Beautiful Club" and of the new organization he was made president. He has done much for the city in various ways, including the in- ception and promotion of the playgrounds movement, making the first subscription to the fund and becoming the first officer. Through the assistance of the Chamber of Commerce a charter amendment was passed by the city creating a non-partisan park board and ten men were appointed, of which Mr. White was one. He was then chosen president of the board and still fills the office. The board is composed of ten of the most substantial citizens and busi- ness men of Spokane, vitally interested in the city's welfare and at the same time having the business ability to utilize practical and ef- fective efforts in the attainment of desired ends. They have in- creased the park area from one hundred and seventy acres to twelve hundred acres and have had one million dollars park bonds voted.
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By personal solicitation Mr. White has secured four hundred acres for park purposes and the board has spent only one million dollars doing all of the work in the parks. For five or six years Mr. White was a director of the Chamber of Commerce and was a member of its publicity committee, the work of which attracted many people to Spokane and added materially to the population of the city. He regarded Spokane as in its formative stage and believed that acreage for park purposes should be secured at that time-breathing places for the people to be purchased while land was comparatively cheap instead of waiting until the price was almost prohibitive. Upon that belief he has always based his labors and the citizens of Spokane will ever liave reason to feel grateful to him for his efforts in this connection.
While the veil of privacy should ever be drawn around one's home relations with all their secret ties, it is well known that Mr. White's home is a most attractive and happy one and that warm-hearted hos- pitality is freely accorded to the many friends of the family. He was married in Toronto, Canada, in 1905, to Miss Ethelyn Binkley, a daughter of Judge J. W. Binkley, now of Spokane, her mother being a member of the Clarkson family of Toronto. Mrs. White is of English descent and a B. A. of Cornell University. Mr. and Mrs. White have become parents of three daughters, Mary Jane, Elizabeth Binkley and Ethelyn Louise.
Mr. White is a believer in the Episcopal faith and his family at- tend the services of that church. He recognized the fact that well rounded character is based upon normal physical, mental and moral growth. He is a believer in clean living and in athletics and he has done much along those lines. He feels that every life needs its periods of recreation, its study hours and its time for quiet, thought- ful meditation. He has membership relations with the Spokane Club, the Spokane Riding and Driving Club, the Spokane Country Club and the Spokane Amateur Athletic Club. He also belongs to the St. James Club and the Mount Royal Golf Club of Montreal, the Union League Club of New York, the Santa Barbara Club of California and the Coeur d'Alene Boat Club. He is a life member of the Masonic fraternity, having taken the degrees of Royal Arch Masonry, of the Knight Templar Commandery, of the Consistory and of the Mystic Shrine. He is a past chancellor of the Knights of Pythias, has passed through all of the chairs of the uniform rank and is past captain in the division. He likewise holds membership
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Aubrey Lee dalhite
with the Dramatic Order of the Knights of Khorassan. He has been a strong supporter of many organizations including the Amer- ican Civic Association and the Municipal League, and was an officer of the latter in New York. His activities have reached out to the various vital interests of life and while in business he has won that success which comes of aptitude for management, close application and keen descrimination, he has also made his work of usefulness and value to the world in many directions, especially in upholding the standards of manhood and citizenship. In his life there have en- tered the distinctive and unmistakable elements of greatness. He is endowed with a rugged honesty of purpose, is a man of independent thought and action, one whose integrity and honor are so absolute as to compel the respect and confidence of his fellowmen, one whose life has been filled with ceaseless toil and industry, while his motives are of that ideal order that practically make his life a consecration to duty and to the measure of his possibilities for accomplishing good.
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D. B. Laberee
N EVER courting notoriety nor publicity but quietly and persistently pursuing his way with well defined plans and strong purpose, O. G. Laberee has reached a notable position among the most prominent min- ing and railway men of the northwest. His record needs no especial elaboration nor commendation; it speaks for itself for his labors have been an element in the utilization of the great natural resources of this section of the country and therefore the source of the country's development and prosperity. From each experience in life he has learned the lesson therein con- tained.
Mr. Laberee belongs to that class of representative and ambitious men who have crossed the border from Canada into the United States where competition is greater but where advancement is more quickly secured. He was born on a farm in Melbourne county in the province of Quebec in 1864, his parents being Benjamin R. and Mary Jane (Wakefield) Laberee, the former of French Huguenot and Irish lineage and the latter of English descent. The first mem- ber of the Laberee family in America left France at the time of the persecution of the Huguenots and went to Ireland. He married a daughter of that country and some years afterward with his wife and two sons sailed in his own vessel, loaded with merchandise, for the new world, landing at or near Boston. Soon afterward he secured a homestead in Massachusetts but had not long been a resident of New England when both he and his wife met death at the hands of the Indians. One of the sons escaped but the other was captured by the red men and taken to Quebec, where he was held as a prisoner for about a year. He finally escaped in the winter and traveled through one hundred miles of wilderness before reach- ing a settlement. At length, however, he arrived in Eastern town- ships, Compton county, in the province of Quebec, where members of the Laberee family have since lived.
Thoroughness characterized O. G. Laberee in the acquirement of an education and has been one of his salient characteristics in later life. After leaving the high school he looked about him for a favor-
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D. G. Laberee
able business opening and in the year 1884, when twenty years of age, decided to try his fortune on the Pacific coast, traveling west- ward with a carload of thoroughbred cattle over the Northern Pacific Railroad, which was only partially completed at that time. As a cattle breeder he became well known in the west but still more im- portant interests were to claim his attention as in the recognition of opportunities he has extended his efforts into the fields of min- ing and railroad building.
It was in the year 1895 that Mr. Laberee became a resident of Spokane. He had acquainted himself with the reports concern- ing the Roslyn mining camp of British Columbia and after paying a visit thereto he invested in several mining properties of that district, including the California, Mascot and Eldorado, also becoming a large owner of the Josie. He was the first Canadian investor in properties of that district. He then returned to eastern Canada and it is admitted that it was his influence which caused many other prom- inent capitalists to purchase mining interests at Roslyn and vicinity, particularly the Goodrum and Blackstock interests, the investments of which included the War Eagle and Center Star, while Governor Macintosh, also influenced by Mr. Laberee, made investments for the Whitacre Wright Syndicate.
Mr. Laberee's judgment concerning the material resources of the northwest has proven to be remarkably sound and his insight keen. After a visit made to Boundary Creek, British Columbia, he pur- chased the Knob Hill mine and a large interest in the Old Ironsides, two of the principal properties of the Granby Consolidated Mining Company, these properties constituting the basis upon which the company was formed. He remained a stockholder in the company for many years and derived from his interests a most gratifying profit. He disposed of his Roslyn interests in 1898, soon after the Knob Hill and Old Ironsides properties were placed upon the market in eastern Canada. He was also the organizer of the Mollie Gib- son Mining Company which owns and is operating the Mollie Gibson mine in the Slokane country. At about the same time he purchased the Virtue mine at Baker City, Oregon, which has a record of hav- ing paid over three million dollars in dividends. He also became the owner of the Cumberland mine at Silver City, Idaho, and formed the Virtue Consolidated Mining Company with a capital of three million dollars, the stock of which was easily sold to eastern investors for Mr. Laberee's name in connection with such properties had come to be regarded as a guarantee of their worth. His investments in
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D. B. Laberee
1899 included the purchase of a half block of ground between Coeur d'Alene avenue and Third avenue, fronting Coeur d'Alene Park in Spokane, whereon he began the erection of his palatial residence which was completed in 1900 at a cost of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
He became in 1901 active in the organization of the International Coal & Coke Company, owning coal lands at Coleman, Alberta, and through his representation Canadian capitalists were induced to purchase the controlling interests. Mr. Laberec, however, has re- mained as a large shareholder of the company which for several years past has been paying regular dividends. After the formation of that company and the sale of much of its stock he joined Andrew Laid- law in the purchase of fifty-two thousand acres of coal land situated in the Crow's Nest Pass district fifty miles north of Michel, British Columbia. Again he was instrumental in inducing the investment of eastern capital in the organization of the Imperial Coal & Coke Company, capitalized for four million, five hundred thousand dollars. After disposing of his interests in that connection in 1907, Mr. La- beree secured control of the Pincher Creek Coal Mining Company, owning properties two and a half miles from the town of Pincher Creek, Alberta. Since he has secured controlling interest in this company he has steadily prosecuted development work with the re- sult that the company is now ready to begin a production that will place it on a steady dividend-paying basis. The controlling inter- est in the corporation is held by Mr. Laberee and R. D. Miller, also of Spokane.
Mr. Laberee has in connection with railway interests become even more widely known. In 1909 he was appointed receiver of the Alaska Central Railway Company on the request of the bondholders who had commenced foreclosure proceedings. This is a railroad project from Resurrection Bay to the Matanuska coal fields and the Yukon river. When Mr. Laberee assumed charge as receiver only fifty miles of road had been completed. He added to this twenty-one miles, giving general oversight to the construction work, so that the line is now seventy-one miles in length, and in less than a year he had successfully wound up the business of the company with credit to himself and satisfaction to all interested.
Directly after the sale of the Alaska Central Railway Company Mr. Laberee incorporated the Alaska Northern Railway Company under the laws of the state of Washington with a capital of thirty million dollars and with head offices in Seattle. This company pur-
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chased the Alaska Central Railway from the bondholders and is now awaiting development concerning the government's attitude in rela- tion to Alaska ere taking further steps to build the road. However, the company keeps the part of the line now in existence in good re- pair and operates it for about eight months in the year. At one time Mr. Laberee was an extensive stockholder in the Washington Water Power Company. His present connections are with the Pincher Creek Coal Mining Company and the Alaska Northern Railway Company. Of both of these he is serving as president and of the latter he is also general manager. He is also an investor in a large number of Alaska gold and copper properties. Indeed if it were known he has been the moving spirit in consummating many important business deals and operations which are now accorded to others. As previously stated, however, he works quietly, finding his reward in the joy of accomplishing what he undertakes. For in- tricate and involved business problems he finds ready and correct solution and with almost intuitive prescience seems to grasp every point in the case, coordinating all forces so as to produce a harmoni- ous, unified and resultant whole.
On the 19th of August, 1887, Mr. Laberee was united in mar- riage to Miss Rose Clark of Olympia, Washington, and they have two children, Ben R. and Gladys. Those who meet Mr. Laberee in social connections find him an entertaining, genial, social gentleman. He is popular in the membership of the Lamb's Club of New York city, the Spokane Club and the Spokane Country Club, and in the Arctic Club and Rainier Club of Seattle, Washington. An analyza- tion of his life work shows him to be a most forceful man of ready resources. He has a keen eye that seems to see to the very center of possibilities and to grasp every detail of a situation, yet he says little about what he has accomplished and works as quietly as if he were engaged upon some project of minor importance.
John . W. Witherop
John WUl. Witherop
J OHN W. WITHEROP, a Spokane capitalist whose whole business career has displayed the utmost fear- lessness, capability and initiative, was for a long period connected with the development of the oil fields of Pennsylvania, maintaining an independent position in opposition to the methods of the trust. He was born in Titusville, Pennsylvania, September 29, 1860, his parents being Peter Titus and Olivia J. (Barnsdall) Witherop. His family were among the pioneers in the operation of the oil fields of Pennsylvania, owning and drilling the second completed oil well in the world, for it was at Titusville that oil was first discovered. In that district John W. Witherop was reared and early had the opportunity to witness the development of a great industry, for his father con- tinued to produce oil for many years.
His own interest in the business was thus stimulated, and after the acquirement of his education he turned his attention to that field of activity. In his youthful days he was a student in the Peekskill Mili- tary Academy at Peekskill, New York, graduating as adjutant of the battalion, and in the Buchtel College of Akron, Ohio. He next pur- sued a law course in the University of Pennsylvania-and was vice president of the class of 1881,-in order that he might have the bene- fits of a legal training in his business, for already the oil interests had become sharply contested and efforts were being made toward a con- solidation which would crush out the individual producers and refiners.
Following his graduation, and admission to the bar of Philadel- phia, John W. Witherop returned at once to Titusville, where he became a member of the firm of Rice, Robinson & Witherop and began producing and refining oil. His partners were also men of experience in the business and from the outset the firm became recog- nized as leading factors in the development of the oil fields and in the control of the trade. This was in 1881. The following year the Standard Oil Trust was organized, and so important had the firm of Rice, Robinson & Witherop become that they were offered every in- ducement to join the newly organized corporation; but Mr. Witherop who had the decisive voice in the management of the business, deter-
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John TUI. Talitherop
mined to remain independent and for many years successfully fought the trust in both the domestic and the foreign trade.
During the period Mr. Witherop was president of the Independ- ent Oil Refiner's Association of Titusville, Pennsylvania, and as the head of this association and as a member of the firm of Rice, Robinson & Witherop, he prosecuted the fight against rebates which the rail- roads were giving to the Standard Oil trust, and at the same time ex- acting from the independents excessive rates for transportation to seaboard. Such was the condition of affairs when he undertook this great cause, but Mr. Witherop was equal to the occasion and single- handed he fought the railroads for their discrimination in favor of the Standard, and for a fair chance and square deal for the independents, and he won, as usual. He not only obtained for the independent refiners greatly more reasonable rates, but he stopped the rebating to the Standard, and on this fairer basis of rates the independent oil refiners have ever since competed favorably to themselves with the trust, and owe their continued existence, to a very great extent, today. to John W. Witherop. There are many other cases that he fought out with the Standard trust, and fought well and won. One being when the trust tried to freeze out Mr. Witherop's firm in Buffalo, but in a short time he brought the trust to terms, and the business of the independents was put on a profitable basis. This and many other fights he won despite all the efforts of trust magnates to either force the independent oil refiners into the combination or put them out of business. At length, however, his health failed him and in 1891 he sold his oil interests to his partners and in 1892 came to Spokane, where he has during the past twenty years, with unremitting action and determination, exerted his lifelong tendency of curbing the un- lawful movements of the corporate powers.
Mr. Witherop was one of the pioneers in the great mining in- dustry of the northwest, and as early as the year 1893 he penetrated the wilds of the mountains of Washington, Idaho, Oregon and British Columbia, riding on the back of a "cayuse" over the old Indian trails, searching for some of the mineral wealth contained in those vast fields of opportunity. In the early history of the Rossland Camp, in Brit- ish Columbia, Mr. Witherop was one of the large owners of the famous Josie mine, and was vice president and a trustee of the com- pany then owning that property. The Josie adjoins the great Le Roi mine, and is now operated by the Le Roi Company, a British corporation. Mr. Witherop owns valuable and extensive mining in- terests in various parts of the northwest, and he is a large owner of
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real estate in Spokane and elsewhere, his most recent purchase being the Elks' Temple, which is one of the largest and handsomest blocks in the heart of the business section of the city.
On the 29th of September. 1885, occurred the marriage of Mr. Witherop and Miss Belle Rose Andrews, a daughter of William H. and Rose (Eddy) Andrews, of Titusville, Pennsylvania. Her father was for years a prominent figure in the republican party of that state and for a long period served in the state senate and as chairman of the republican state committee of Pennsylvania. For some years he has resided in New Mexico, from which territory he is now a delegate to congress. Mr. Witherop has never become actively engaged in poli- tics, nor has he sought nor held public office. He prefers the quiet of home life, and the association of a select circle of friends. Ilis resi- dence for eighteen years has been at West 2430 Pacific avenue.
Amuse B. Campbell
Amasa B. Campbell
A MASA B. CAMPBELL, who passed away on the 16th of February, 1912, was one of the foremost mining operators in all of the northwest, being asso- ciated with John A. Finch under the firm name of Finch & Campbell. He was one of the owners in some of the most valuable mining properties of the Inland Empire and various other business interests felt the stimulus of his cooperation.
His birth occurred in Salem, Ohio, April 6, 1845, and he was a son of John A. and Rebecca Perry (Snodgrass) Campbell. The family numbered ten children, of whom Amasa B. Campbell was the youngest, his father dying before the birth of this son. At the usual age he entered the public schools of Salem and began work in a grain and wool commission business at the age of fifteen years. It will thus be seen that no special advantages or influence aided him at the outset of his career. Indeed he was forced to prove his own worth and he placed his dependence upon the substantial qualities of in- dustry, determination and integrity, recognizing the fact that there is no royal road to wealth.
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