Among the leading agriculturists of Malheur county is to be mentioned the subject of this sketch, whose life has manifested a worthy record of honest and rigorous endeavor, dominated with sagacity and tempered with prudence and display of affability and genial bearing toward all. In Middleville, Barry county, Michigan, on January 5, 1862, occurred the happy event of the birth of Roswell W. Clement, his parents being Judge James T. and Lucy (Hayes) Clement. The family came to Usage, Iowa, while our subject was a small child, and thence they removed to the vicinity of Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1868. In these various places Roswell W. was reared, receiving a good education from the common schools. 1881 marks the date when they again removed toward the west, this time journeying with teams, one of which our subject drove the entire distance, to Payette, Idaho, making the trip in eighty days.
Here on September 11. 1884, Mr. Clement married Miss Harriet, daughter of John and Melissa Neal, and a native of Denver, Colorado. Mr. and Mrs. Neal were early pioneers of the Payette Valley, coming thither from Denver, in which town they also were among the first settlers and lived there when flour retailed at fifty dollars per sack. To Mr. and Mrs. Clement there have been born four children named as follows: Martha Ethel, James R., Walter and Buell J. Mr. Clement came to his present place, which consists of one hundred acres of valuable land six miles southwest from Ontario. in 1895. He purchased the land when it was raw and at once began the work of improvement with the happy result that now he has it producing abundant crops. He harvested as high as three hundred and fifty tons of alfalfa hay in one year, besides much other fruit of the fields. He has plenty of water for irrigating, has good buildings, a fine orchard, and a shade and ornamental grove that adds great beauty and value to his rural home. It is of note that Mr. Clement came here without financial resources and now he is one of the wealthy men of this section of the county, and he is to be credited with having gained it all by hard labor and wise management of the resources placed in his hands. Politically, he is allied with the Democratic party and takes the interest that becomes an intelligent citizen in the affairs of politics, while in educational matters he is ever zealous and always labors for the advancement of the cause.
Mr. Clement’s parents reside in the Payette Valley. The father freighted with ox teams from Kelton, Utah, to the Payette Valley in early days before the railroad was built.