History of the Pacific Northwest Oregon and Washington 1889

History of the Pacific Northwest Oregon and Washington. 2 v. Portland, Oregon: North Pacific History Company. 1889.

Biography of Hon. George A. Steel

HON. GEORGE A. STEEL. – The subject of this sketch was born in Stafford, Ohio, on April 22, 1846. Coming to Portland in 1863, he soon received an appointment to a clerkship in the Portland postoffice. Afterwards, accepting the secretaryship of the old Oregon Iron Works, he gave such satisfaction that Ladd & Tilton offered him a situation as accountant in their bank, a position which he held for five years. In 1870 he was elected treasurer of Multnomah county, a place he filled with general approval. During the first year of his official life, he and J.K. gill purchased … Read more

Biography of Hon. Frederick W. Lander

HON. FREDERICK W. LANDER. – This gentleman, who was a civil engineer, first chief justice of the supreme court of Washington Territory, and brigadier-general of United States volunteers, 1861-62, was born at Salem, Massachusetts, December 17, 1822, and received his education at Dummer Academy, Byfield, Vermont, and studied civil engineering at the military academy, Norwich, Vermont. Having practiced for several years his profession in his native state, in 1853 Governor Stevens appointed him estimating engineer on the Northern Pacific Railroad survey. After having crossed the continent, he formed the opinion that the first practical and economical solution of the problem … Read more

Biography of Hon. Eugene Semple

HON. EUGENE SEMPLE. – Eugene Semple was born June 12, 1840, at Bogota, South America, his father being at the time the Minister of the United States at new Granada. Coming with his parents to Illinois, his youth was spent in Madison and Jersey counties of that State. Attending the common schools of the latter county, he finished his education at the St. Louis University in 1858. Commencing the study of law in the office of Krum & Harding, in St. Louis, he afterwards attended the Law School of the Cincinnati College, where he graduated in 1863, taking the degree … Read more

Biography of Hon. Eugene D. Smith

HON. EUGENE D. SMITH. – This pioneer of the logging business of the Snohomish river, a portrait of whom is placed in this history, is a representative man of the Puget Sound country, and almost a typical American. Of large and fine proportions physically, self-reliant, capable of taking a hand at any business, even at politics or war, or, with a little brushing up, at almost any profession, he at present contents himself with being proprietor and patron of the handsome town of Lowell, Washington, and conducting large logging operations, on his own estate of four thousand acres in Snohomish … Read more

Biography of Hon. Enoch Hoult

HON. ENOCH HOULT. – The gentleman above-named was born in Monongahela county, West Virginia, April 18, 1825. His parents were of English descent, coming to American in the Colonial days. He lived in Virginia until his twelfth year, when his father moved to Edgar county, Illinois, in the spring of 1832. There Mr. Hoult grew to manhood and remained until he was thirty-three years of age. In the fall of 1830 he was married to Miss Jeannette Somerville, daughter of John Somerville, who came from Kentucky to Illinois. In the year 1853 he came with his family overland to Oregon. … Read more

Biography of Hon. Emory C. Ferguson

HON. EMORY C. FERGUSON. – Mr. Ferguson, whose portrait is placed in this history, was born on a farm in Westchester county, New York, March 5, 1833, and is the son of Samuel S. and Maria (Haight) Ferguson. He resided in his native county and learned the trade of a carpenter until reaching his majority. April 5, 1854, he with his brother Yates (who came to California in 1849 and had returned East) started via the Isthmus of Panama for the Golden State, arriving in San Francisco in May. Our subject immediately proceeded to the mines on the middle fork … Read more

Biography of Hon. Elisha Ping

HON. ELISHA PING. – In this kindly face we see another of the honored pioneers of the Pacific Northwest. Born in Pulaski county, Kentucky, March 13, 1819, Mr. Ping’s early years were spent in the chase after the fascinating phantom of “Out West” which lured so many of our best people to these pleasant shores. His early years were spent in Illinois and Indiana. In the latter state he was married in 1840 to Miss Lucretia Kuykendall. She died in December,1863. In 1851, Mr. Ping, with his young family, went to Wisconsin; but they still yearned for the “Westmost West,” … Read more

Biography of Hon. Elisha P. Ferry

HON. ELISHA P. FERRY. – Mr. Ferry was born at Monroe, Michigan, August 9, 1825. He studied law there and at Fort Wayne, Indiana, and was admitted to the bar in 1845 at the age of twenty years. In 1846 he removed to Waukegan, Illinois, where he engaged in the practice of his profession. He resided at Waukegan until July, 1869, when he removed to the territory of Washington. He was the first mayor of the city of Waukegan. In 1852 and in 1856 he was presidential elector for the district in which he resided. He was a member of … Read more

Biography of Hon. Edwin N. Cooke

HON. EDWIN N. COOKE. – The subject of this sketch is a lineal descendant of the Puritans, who came to America in the ship Mayflower, and landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts, December 21, 1620. Among the passengers of that historical band were Francisco Cook and his son, John Cooke, who settled and the families of whom for many generations lived in that and other colonies, up to the time of the Revolutionary war. At the commencement of the Revolutionary war, Mr. Cooke’s great-grandfather, Asaph Cooke lived near Boston, Massachusetts, and had four sons who espoused the American cause and enlisted in … Read more

Biography of Hon. Edward Hirsch

HON. EDWARD HIRSCH. – Someone has written, “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them as we may;” and the subject of this sketch is a living exemplification of it. When, away back in “the fifties,” he landed a poor boy in the city of New York, among strangers in a strange land, and looked about him for honest employment in any capacity, how little he dreamed that as years passed by he would hold the purse-strings for the then almost unknown territory of Oregon, when a few years later she should lay aside her swaddling clothes and … Read more

Biography of Hon. Edward Eldridge

HON. EDWARD ELDRIDGE. – One of the most useful of Washington’s public men has been Mr. Eldridge, whose portrait we present. He is a Scotchman, having been born at St. Andrews in 1828. The Scotch either stay at home and become doctors, essayists, psychologist or preachers, or else go abroad and found institutions and cities. the mind of these islanders is said to be the most severely logical of any in the world, and their grip upon affairs the most tenacious. As a city builder and legislator, our representative of this great people has brought into effective action these characteristic … Read more

Biography of Hon. E. L. Smith

HON. E.L. SMITH – Although these sketches deal mainly with men who came hither in the forties and fifties, we are yet occasionally reminded of the fact that length of residence does not constitute the only just claim to recognition in our annals. Every decade has its pioneers. Nearly every year has seen added to our number someone who by force of character, intelligence and industry has made himself a place in the esteem of the people, and in the business fabric of the country. The subject of the present subject was a pioneer of 1861. Though thus not f … Read more

Biography of Hon. E. D. Shattuck

HON. E.D. SHATTUCK, – Judge Shattuck has been prominently connected with the public affairs of our state for more than thirty years, and is so closely identified with our interests and society as to be a distinctively representative man among us. His mental strength and clearness, combined with remarkable accuracy and absence of personal bias, have made his services of the highest value. He has ever maintained a peculiar coolness of judgement, and neither has been swayed by popular excitement nor has resorted to sensational methods to advance his own views or interests. He has ever been above suspicion of … Read more

Biography of Hon. E. B. McElroy, A.M., Ph. D.,

HON. E.B. McELROY, A.M., Ph. D. – Among the institutions of our country, none more deservedly attract the attention of all lovers of law and order than do our public schools. It is all-important, therefore, that each commonwealth should have some men of learning and ambition at the head to represent, as it were, in a single individual, the individual interests of very child in the state. Especially is this the case in our state, where we are in reality but just laying aside the swaddling clothes of self-government, and endeavoring to lay broad and deep the foundations of a … Read more

Biography of Hon. Dolphes Brice Hannah

HON. DOLPHES BRICE HANNAH. – This gentleman is the son of Brice and Celia Tade Hannah, and was born in Gallatin county, Illinois, October 11, 1822. His father, who was a substantial business man engaged in trade and forwarding, died in the spring of 1823, leaving a wife and two children, one boy and one girl. He left considerable estate, consisting of personal property. John McLaughlin and the widow were appointed to administer the estate; and, as usual, McLaughlin did the work, pocketed the entire proceeds of the estate, and then left for parts unknown. About two years after the … Read more

Biography of Hon. Dean Blanchard

HON. DEAN BLANCHARD. – Among those who have manifested great interest in the welfare of the Pacific Northwest as a whole, and Columbia county, Oregon, in particular, the gentleman above named figures conspicuously. He was born in Madison county, Maine, on December 20, 1832, where he resided on his father’s farm until 1853, when he left for California, reaching that state in December of that year. In April 1854, he came to Oregon, and located at St. Helens, having secured a situation as salesman and book-keeper in a store there. In 1855, he went with the command of Major Haller, … Read more

Biography of Hon. David Shelton

HON. DAVID SHELTON – Mr. Shelton, one of the very earliest of the pioneers of Washington Territory, who with Mr. L.B. Hastings and F.W. Pettigrove became a founder of Port Townsend, was born in Buncombe County, North Carolina, September 15, 1812. His father, Lewis Shelton, emigrated to the territory of Missouri in the year 1819, and settled in Saline county but kept on the advance wave of settlement, ever moving westward as the state settled up, and died in Andrew county in 1847. In this frontier life young David came to maturity, and on May 30, 1837, was married to … Read more

Biography of Hon. D. F. Percival

HON. D.F. PERCIVAL. – It is a source of pleasure to write a biographical sketch of a man like Mr. Percival, or, in fact, any of the argonauts of the Pacific slope, as their lives were so fraught with diversity, their careers so different and so much more interesting than the monotonous, humdrum life of the average individual. Among the men who came West in “early days” as it is called, there are many who can look back to the times when, in a comparatively few years, they had been miners, mechanics, ranchers, teamsters, merchants, law-givers, office-holders, and turned their … Read more

Biography of Hon. Cornelius H. Hanford

HON. CORNELIUS H. HANFORD. – The subject of this sketch, although a young man, is one of the pioneers of Washington. He was born in the town of Winchester, Van Buren county, Iowa, on the 21st of April 1849. His father was a well-to-do farmer at that place. The gold discoveries in California soon attracted attention to the Pacific coast; and in 1853 he resolved to dispose of his Iowa property and seek a new home on Puget Sound, where his two brothers Seymour and George then were. Accordingly in the spring of that year he started with his entire … Read more

Biography of Hon. Clanrick Crosby

HON. CLANRICK CROSBY. – This gentleman, of whom an excellent portrait appears in our work, was born in East Brewster, Massachusetts, January 6 1838. He is a son of Captain Clanrick and Phoebe H. (Fessenden) Crosby. In 1849 he came with his parents via Cape Horn on board the brig Grecian, of which his father was captain and part owner. The father was a sea-faring man until his arrival in San Francisco in the above year. After a short stay there, he brought his vessel to Portland, and there selling her quit the sea. The family remained in Portland, Oregon, … Read more