Indiana

Biography of John Carson

John Carson, born January 25, 1828, in Butler County, Pennsylvania, was a quintessential pioneer of the American frontier. Moving to Perry County, Indiana at age 15, Carson later journeyed to Puget Sound, Washington Territory, in 1853. Carson and his family endured arduous travels, eventually settling near Puyallup, Washington. He established a private ferry and was a key figure during the Indian wars, raising a volunteer company for defense. Carson served in the territorial legislature and was instrumental in local infrastructure development. His contributions to Pierce County, including his success in hop-raising and sawmilling, highlight his legacy as a pioneer and community leader.

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 Major James Bruce

MAJOR JAMES BRUCE. – Major Bruce is one of our citizens who needs no introduction to the people of the Northwest; since he is known personally, not only to all the old pioneers, but to most of the second generation of the toilers of Oregon. He was born November 3, 1827, in Harrison county, Indiana, and at the age of ten moved with his parents to Quincy, Illinois. At twenty he began a border career, going to Texas, making many excursions in that then unsettled region, and at Cross Timbers joined Major Johnson’s rangers. He accompanied these troopers upon their … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Jeremiah W. Borst

JEREMIAH W. BORST. – The subject of this sketch was born in Tyoga county, New York, in 1829. At the age of four years, he removed with his father’s family to Indiana, and was reared on a farm. The days of his youth were spent in Missouri, with a return to the Hoosier State. In 1850, he crossed the plains with ox-teams for the gold fields of California, and dug for the precious metal five years. In 1858, he came north to Washington Territory, finding a home on Snoqualmie Prairie, since famous as the location of the great ranch of … Read more

Biography of Dr. Wilson Bowlby

DR. WILSON BOWLBY. The office of the physician is one of such primary importance in society, that one who worthily sustains that character for a long time in one place becomes one of the fundamental pillars of the community. If the character of a wise and influential public officer and politician and public-spirited citizen be added to the requirements of the skilled physician, we have a life of the highest usefulness. Such in a general way has been the career of this pioneer physician of Washington county. Though now well advanced in a very busy and wearing life, Doctor Bowlby, … Read more

Biography of Hon. Albert Briggs

HON. ALBERT BRIGGS. – Ever green in the memory of the pioneer of the Pacific coast remain the trials and hardships they endured while establishing civilization in the far west. These pioneers, constituted no ordinary class; they were hardy, brave and energetic men; and thousands to-day are reaping the benefits which have accrued from the trials and hardships endured by the early pioneer. None among them deserve more tribute than the subject of this sketch, an excellent portrait of whom is placed in this history, from a photograph taken when he was in his seventy-fifth year. Mr. Briggs was born … Read more

Biography of Joseph Beezley

JOSEPH BEEZLEY. – This pioneer is of distinguished ancestry, tracing his lineage to the Pilgrims. In his own character he exemplifies the qualities of those old heroes. His grandfather was a general in the British army; and his father added new honors to the name by his marriage to Phoebie Reeves of Virginia. Fourteen children were born to this pair, Joseph, of whom we write, being the twelfth, and his birth occurring at Springfield, Clark county, Ohio, in 1819. In 1824 the elder Beezley moved his family to Indiana, where he resided for two years, and from thence, in 1826, … Read more

Biography of Charles Clifford Mack

Charles Clifford Mack, who so capably represented Harvey County in the State Legislature during the session of 1917, is a prominent business man of Newton, proprietor of the Mack Mortgage and Loan Company of that city. Mr. Mack is a comparatively young man, not yet forty years of age, and his record is especially interesting because of the success he had made from nothing except the sources and talents contained in his own energetic nature. Mr. Mack was born July 5, 1878, and his birth-place was the backwoods community of Southern Indiana, at the Town of Rising Sun. His father, … Read more

Biography of William H. Dillon

WILLIAM H. DILLON. – Mr. Dillon, a pioneer of four states of our union, and a perfect example of the frontiersman, whose life story has been recounted in other pages also, was born in Kent county, Delaware, July 4, 1818. His parents were of English and Irish descent, and in 1823 moved west across the Alleghany Mountains to Ohio, then upon the very outposts of civilization. Eight years later they came on to Indiana, locating in Tippecanoe county on the Wabash. The desire, however, of owning and farming his own lands took possession of the elder Dillon, and he pulled … Read more

Biography of James M. De Moss

JAMES M. DE MOSS. – This well-known musician of Eastern Oregon was born at Greensburg, Indiana, May 15, 1837. As a child he removed to Iowa with his parents, and in that state was reared, receiving his higher education at Western College. At eighteen he became a teacher of music, and three years later was married to Miss Elizabeth A., daughter of Reverend Henry Bonebrake. He spent his early manhood as an exhorter in the United Brethren church. In the great patriotic meetings held during the days of the Civil war by Honorable Henry Wilson, and others, he was appointed … Read more

Biography of Arthur A. Denny

ARTHUR A. DENNY. – With the history of the early settlement of Puget Sound no name is more intimately blended than that of Arthur A. Denny, the pioneer, the founder of one of its chief metropolitan cities, the volunteer in the suppression of Indian outbreaks, the legislator, the politician, the office-holder, the congressman, the successful banker, the liberal philanthropist, the honest man and good citizen. Like many more of those who were his contemporaries in rescuing Washington Territory from the wilderness, he has seen the newcomers who are enjoying those comforts of life, not to say luxuries, to which his … Read more

Biography of David Thomas Denny

DAVID THOMAS DENNY. – Mr. Denny was the first settler of Seattle, Washington. He was born in Putnam county, Indiana, on March 17, 1832, of sturdy pioneer stock, his parents having settled in Indiana as early as 1819. His father, John Denny, lived in Indiana till 1835, when he removed to Illinois, and in 1851 to Oregon. He was a volunteer in the war of 1812, and served under William Henry (Tippecanoe) Harrison at the Battle of the Thames. David T. Denny was a lad of only nineteen years when he joined a party of emigrants with his older brother … Read more

Biography of Catherine S. Davis

CATHERINE S. DAVIS. – One of the beautiful and happy lives among the pioneer women of our state is that of the lady named above. It has, to some extent, been spent amid the utmost dangers, difficulties and privations, but nevertheless has been constantly adorned by works of devotion and benevolence. Hers is a life made beautiful not so much by wealth or technical culture as by patience, fortitude and good works. She was born of Dutch parentage in the State of New York, January 23, 1811. Her father, William K. Sluyter, one of the Knickerbockers, moved to Pennsylvania when … Read more

Biography of Henry Brandley

Henry Brandley was born in Switzerland October 12, 1839, and died at his beautiful home at Matfield Green in Chase County June 1, 1910. When he was about twelve years of age his parents came to America, being fifty-two days in crossing the ocean. In 1852 the family settled in Cincinnati, where he finished his education and worked at the painter’s trade. In 1856 the Brandleys moved to Randolph. County, Indiana, and there the young man had further experience as a farm hand, in a shingle mill, as rail maker and digger of ditches. In the spring of 1859 he … Read more

Biography of R. T. Updegraff

R. T. Updegraff has been perhaps the leading individual factor in the commercial and business development of the Town of Maple Hill in Wabaunsee County for the past thirty years. Mr. Updegraff came to Kansas after completing his education, and the vigor and enterprise which characterized his early life in this state have borne abundant fruit in several different lines. Mr. Updegraff was born at Mount Pleasant, Ohio, November 28, 1862. He is of old Quaker family, the religion of the Friends having received the allegiance of the Updegraffs for many generations. The Updegraffs first came out of Holland in … Read more

Biography of Byron Jennings Carver

Byron Jennings Carver, who served as county attorney for Miami County from 1913 to 1917, had not only proved his ability on many occasions as an able lawyer, but also as a forceful man of affairs and one who is willing to fight for his convictions and his position as to right. Mr. Carver had a hard struggle to get into the legal profession, being a poor young man and having to teach and struggle along at the same time that he was studying and qualifying for the bar. He is a native of Indiana, having been born at Franklin … Read more

Biography of Emerson Carey

Emerson Carey. A chapter of this publication is devoted to the salt industry in Kansas. Salt ranks along with wheat, coal, petroleum and gas in contributing to the great fundamental wealth of this state. Of the individual concerns manufacturing salt in Kansas one of the greatest is the Carey Salt Company of Hutchinson. The head and moving spirit of this business is Mr. Emerson Carey. While the Careys were not pioneer salt manufacturers, they have in the last fifteen years become probably the largest operators when considered as a single family group, and today the name Carey is practically synonymous … Read more

Biography of Anderson Cox

ANDERSON COX. – There has never lived a man in the Northwest more worthy of commemoration than that pioneer of 1845, Anderson Cox. He was born near Dayton, Ohio, in 1812, of Quaker parentage, and moved with the family to Indiana in 1830, and claimed a share in the home formed on the Wabash river at Attica. He was married in 1836 to Miss Julia Walter, and in 1840 removed to New London, Iowa. In 1845, with his wife and four children, he made the journey to Oregon, and was in the company of immigrants who endured the privations and … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Richard Corbaley

RICHARD CORBALEY. – In a city so flourishing as Spokane Falls, Washington, the business of finding and placing loans and the transfer of real property in the town, in the adjoining farming regions, and in the mines, has attained proportions of considerable magnitude. The firm of R. Corbaley & Co., located at the northeast corner of Howard and Riverside avenues, is one of the most important of the houses thus engaged. Their interests are largely in agricultural lands in the Big Bend country near Badger Mountain, where choice locations and exceptionally productive soils, even for this favored territory, may be … Read more

Biography of Oliver P. Coshaw

OLIVER P. COSHAW. – This leading citizen of Brownsville, for many years a merchant of that place, was born July 4, 1831, at Connorsville, Indiana. His parents, who were characteristically thriving and agreeable people of French extraction, went to Iowa in 1843. After leaving school, the young Oliver was employed in a store as salesman, clerk or book-keeper, and there laid the foundation of knowledge and experience which has so well served him in his later years. In April, 1851, he engaged to drive an ox-team to Oregon for Honorable R.B. Cochrane, long known in our state and now, as … Read more