History of the Pacific Northwest Oregon and Washington 1889 Collections – Page 14 of 34

Biography of Hon. Josiah Failing

HON. JOSIAH FAILING. – The name brought to our state by this venerable pioneer, now no longer living, will always be revered by reason of the virtues of the man himself, and of the extensive reputation of the family which he founded upon our coast. His great-grandfather came to America from the Palatinate on the Rhine, and settled in the Mohawk valley west of Albany, New York, in 1703. Mr. Failing was born on his father’s farm July 9, 1806, at Canajohane, Montgomery county, New York. When quite a young man he removed to New York City, where he married … Read more

Biography of Hon. Joseph D. Lee

HON. JOSEPH D. LEE. – It is natural for the observing student of mankind to speculate upon the effect which radical changes and new environments have upon a coming generation; and consequently the inquiry has arisen in thinking minds as to what type of manhood and womanhood will spring from the hardy and bold pioneers who peopled these shores in the forties and early fifties. Surely with such heroic and sturdy parentage, growing up under the influence of our grand and magnificent scenery, and breathing in youth the pure air from the balsamic pines, we might expect a fine mental … Read more

Biography of Hon. Joseph A. Kuhn

HON. JOSEPH A. KUHN. – Judge Kuhn has long filled a position of such prominence in Washington that the details of his life will be of public interest. His career illustrates once more the fact that the brawn and brain of the East needs but to touch the earth to spring up in double vigor at the West. He is the fourth in a family of six sons, resident in Pennsylvania; and the year of his birth was 1841. His mother belonged to an old American family of large reputation; and his father enjoyed the rank of colonel, and was … Read more

Biography of Hon. John Stewart

HON. JOHN STEWART. – This gentleman was born February 12, 1800, in Virginia, that grand old state which has given birth to heroes and cradled the world’s best since the white man first took possession of this fair land of ours. There our subject was nurtured through all his infancy and until his fifteenth year, when his parents moved to Terre Haute, Indiana. He resided in that state until 1837, learning the blacksmith trade, which calling so nearly broke down his health that he abandoned it and engaged in trading cattle. He first earned his title of captain in the … Read more

Biography of Hon. John P. Hoyt

HON. JOHN P. HOYT. – “Every man has two educations, – one which he receives from others, and one more important, which he gives himself.” Very early in life the subject of this sketch learned this important lesson; and the fruits of its strict observance are being enjoyed by him at present. He owes his advancement to no accident of birth or fortune, but has earned success through the toilsome avenue of study and hard work. His early education was acquired at a country district school during the winter months, when the plow used on his father’s farm stood idle … Read more

Biography of Hon. John McGlynn

HON. JOHN McGLYNN. – This influential resident and proprietor of the well-known hotel that bears his name in La Conner, Washington, and whose portrait appears in this history, is a man fitted by nature with qualities that insure success, and which are held in especial esteem among men. With manners suave, a disposition to accommodate, and generous promptings towards his fellows, he greets the stranger, the customer of the friend in a manner indicating the kindness of his own feelings, and which seldom fails to leave with the recipient a desire to do a favor. This is a happy faculty … Read more

Biography of Hon. John M. Bacon

HON. JOHN M. BACON. – There are three places in the Northwest that have almost antique associations. These are Astoria, Vancouver and Oregon City. Of none of them is the flavor of old times more pronounced than amid the rocks and bluffs and by the falls and the old buildings of the latter place. Here one of the old pioneers may be found in the person of a gentleman whose portrait appears on the opposite page. It was as to the last place to go that Mr. Bacon came to Oregon. A native of Buffalo, New York, born in 1822, … Read more

Biography of Hon. John Kelly

HON. JOHN KELLY. – Prominent in almost every department of business and public life, Honorable John Kelly is known throughout the length and breadth of our state as a man of great abilities and irreproachable integrity. As a pioneer, none has a more deserving record, nor has sustained amore honorable part. Born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1818, he crossed the Atlantic to Canada in 1838, and in 1840 came to Franklin, Vermont. Three years later he began a career at the West, coming to Wisconsin, and there exercising his natural bent for business and capacity for organization, by which he … Read more

Biography of Hon. John Gates

HON. JOHN GATES. – This gentleman was the chief engineer of the old Oregon Steam Navigation Company during its palmy days of navigation, and will always be remembered as one of the brightest minds of our state, as his inventive genius has earned for him the not inapt title of the Edison of the Pacific coast. He was born at Mercer, Maine, and as a youth learned the machinist’s trade, rising to the position of foreman of the shop in which he had been apprenticed. Coming to California in 1849, he was engaged in mining at Auburn and at Michigan … Read more

Biography of Hon. John Catlin

HON. JOHN CATLIN. – Mr. Catlin is of New England and Scotch stock. His father, Seth Catlin, was born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and from there emigrated with his father and an only sister to the State of Illinois, about the year 1812. His mother came with her parents from Scotland to America when but twelve years of age; and her father, James Ridpath, settled with his family in Randolph county, Illinois, in 1818. His parents were married in the year 1831, and located on a farm at Turkey Hill, St. Clair county, Illinois, where their first child, John Catlin, the … Read more

Biography of Hon. John C. Leasure

HON. JOHN C. LEASURE. – Mr. Leasure needs little introduction to the people of Oregon, having become universally known as an elector on the ticket for Blaine in 1884, and more recently as vice-president and attorney for the Oregon & Washington Railway. This road, which has commanded much popular interest, particularly in Eastern Oregon and Washington Territory, skirts the whole Umatilla and Blue Mountain foothills country, traverses the great Inland Empire wheat belt, and having a western terminus at tide water is able to complete actively with the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company, thus reducing transportation tariffs to the minimum. … Read more

Biography of Hon. John Burnett

HON. JOHN BURNETT. – Among the prominent self-made men of Oregon is the subject of this sketch. He was born in Pike county, Missouri, on the 4th of July, 1831. He lost his father at the age of fifteen, and was turned out in the world to fight his way as best he might. He first engaged as an errand boy in a store, but, becoming tired of the confinement, at the end of a year hired out to work on a flat-boat on the Mississippi, boating wood to St. Louis. His early education was obtained in the common schools … Read more

Biography of Hon. John Bird

HON. JOHN BIRD. – This venerable pioneer of our state comes from that stock of state-makers and town-builders who have ever been at the front. He was born in 1810 in Boone county, Kentucky, and lived there with his father until the year 1827, thereafter making Illinois his home until 1847. In the latter year he joined the train of Captain Sawyer, and set forth for Oregon, starting from Missouri about the 1st of May. Upon the trip nothing was more notable than the appearance of about one hundred Pawnee Indians, who laid a blanket on the ground for the … Read more

Biography of Hon. John B. Allen

HON. JOHN B. ALLEN. – “I think Walla Walla is destined to be the central and commercial city of that large area of country in Eastern Washington lying south of the Snake river, and of much of Eastern Oregon. Probably no city of its population in the Northwest equals it in wealth. It is just now emerging from years of transportation extortions, which few other regions could have borne. Competitive systems will infuse new life to every industry, and stimulate the developments of resources heretofore lying dormant.” This is the horoscope of the young city as cast by Mr. Allen; … Read more

Biography of Hon. Jesse B. Ball

HON. JESSE B. BALL. – Twenty miles up the Skagit river, in the heart of one of the richest timber sections of Washington, is Sterling, a thriving young city, with high hopes for the future. The founder of the place is the man whose name appears at the head of this sketch. Mr. Ball is a pioneer of 1853, having crossed the plains in that year and stopped at Downieville, where he worked a short time for a company of miners, – his only work for anybody but himself on this coast. His career has had the restless activity and … Read more

Biography of Hon. James Willis Nesmith

HON. JAMES WILLIS NESMITH. – Oregon has given a few men to the nation; and the luster of their memory still shines in the galaxy of her heroes. Colonel Baker, one of the most brilliant men ever at Washington, District of Columbia, has coupled with his title that of senator from Oregon. Yet he was in no sense an Oregon-made man, but rather made use of Oregon to elevate him to a seat which it was impossible for him to attain from Illinois. With Colonel Nesmith, however, the case was the reverse. He was as truly an Oregon man as … Read more

Biography of Hon. James P. Stewart

HON. JAMES P. STEWART. – In a notice of the Honorable James P. Stewart by the local press, when his name was presented for the suffrages of his fellow-citizens for a seat in the legislature of Washington Territory, it was most truthfully said: “he is a man of affairs, – a big, bronzed, broad-shouldered man, who moves about among his fellow-men with that quiet consciousness of strength that carries conviction and wins. He has been a winner all his life; and people applaud his winning. He has been as honest as he has been progressive. Mr. Stewart is a native … Read more

Biography of Hon. James Kerr Kelly

HON. JAMES KERR KELLY. – Among the men of distinction in our state, none have held a position of eminence for a longer time than Senator Kelly. It requires stamina to stand for thirty years upon “the hard and wintry peaks of fame.” We are the more assured of eminent qualities of the Colonel when we consider that he came to this coast and started upon bed-rock. Family ties, name, favoritism, may elevate men of no ability to high positions in older communities; but in the Oregon of an early day artificial conditions did not exist. A man came near … Read more

Biography of Hon. James Harvey Slater

HON. JAMES HARVEY SLATER. – Mr. Slater has ever borne a conspicuous part in the public affairs of Oregon; and no one has preserved a more honorable name. His mental qualities are solid rather than brilliant, and his operations weighty rather than keen. He is a man whose integrity has never been impeached; and he has ever been relied upon as a friend of the people. In his two terms at Washington, once as congressman, once as senator, he has performed some very effective work for our state; and all Oregonians hold him in high esteem. The following brief sketch … Read more

Biography of Hon. James H. Koontz

HON. JAMES H. KOONTZ. – It is a mistake to suppose that all the fortunes are made in the large places. Many of the most considerable competences on the coast have been gained from trade in the small towns. The career of Mr. Koontz is to the point. Born in Belmont County, Ohio, in 1830, young James, upon coming to his physical strength, learned the trade of a carpenter and joiner, thereby acquiring a foundation for a life of independence. Living a time at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, he joined the Ellis train, and in 1862 came across the plains to … Read more