NERI L. ACKLES. – A man of broad experience in the business world, gained by practical contact with the different lines of enterprise in the northwest, the subject of this sketch is today one of Union county’s prominent and capable farmers and stockmen, whose ability has wrought for the advancement of the welfare of all, while he has prosecuted with vigor the industries that have come to his hand, gaining the reward of wisely bestowed labor in the land of resources and fertility.
In Linn county, Missouri, Neri L. first saw the light and July 30, 1860, was the time of this important event in his career, while his parents are George and Louisa I. (Walker) Ackles, who essayed the tedious and dangerous journey across barren and heated plains and rugged and hard mountains to find a home place in this western land, in 1865, bringing their family with them. They came direct to the Grande Ronde valley and the father purchased a squatter’s right to a quarter section and homesteaded it and settled down to build a home from the raw land. Our subject received his first educational training from the primitive country schools and then matriculated at the Blue Mountain University, from which he took his degree in June, 1881. At that time he returned to his father’s farm and spent one year there and then repaired to Umatilla, where he bought a farm well improved and for eight years he was numbered with the leading agriculturists of that county when he sold out and went to Blaine, Washington, and took a contract to carry the mail from Whatcom to Blaine. After four months he sold the business and went to work for the Northwestern Mail and Transportation Company and from 1894 to 1898 he carried the mail from Orondo to Lake Chelan. Subsequent to the expiration of this period, he removed to Lewiston, Idaho, and there engaged in farming for two years, after which he came to the father’s farm in Union county, where he now resides, three miles north and one and one-half miles east from Lagrande. He has three hundred and twenty acres which is farmed to the cereals and he also raises fruit. He also engages in dairying and handles these industries in a skillful manner. He residence is fine and the barns and outbuildings are commodious and substantial, while the estate is skillfully handled.
On December 25, 1891, the marriage of Mr. Ackles and Miss Alice, daughter of T.J. and Ann (Coyle) Kirk, was solemnized and three children are the fruit of this union. Thomas L., deceased, Elsie A., and Ruth E. Mrs. Ackles was born in Linn county, at Brownsville, this state, on September 1, 1864. In political matters, our subject has always allied himself with the Republican party and he has taken an active part in this commendable field for years. He is also a member of the I.O.O.F. and of the W. of W. His wife is a member of the Rebekahs. Our subject and his estimable wife are valuable members of society and they are esteemed by all who know them.