Iowa

Van Winkle, Eleanor Powell Staples Mrs. – Obituary

Eleanor Van Winkle, 87, a former Baker City resident, died May 19, 2005, at her home in Indianola, Iowa. Her graveside service will be Friday at 10 a.m. at Mount Hope Cemetery in Baker City, with Pastor Robin Harris officiating. Eleanor was born April 28, 1918, in Baker City. She went to grade school at Rye Valley and graduated in 1936 from Vale High School. She earned an accounting degree from LaSalle Extension University in Chicago. Eleanor was a welder in a shipyard during World War II. She worked as an accountant for Ore-Ida Frozen Foods for 25 years. In … Read more

Erskine, Marjorie Mrs. – Obituary

Marjorie Erskine, 83, a longtime Baker City resident, died April 22, 2005, in Grants Pass at Three Rivers Community Hospital. Her graveside memorial service will be at 3 p.m. Friday at Mount Hope Cemetery. There will be a reception afterward in the Oregon Trail Room of the Rodeway Inn, 810 Campbell St. Marjorie will be interred next to her husband Wayne E. Erskine, who died in December 2000. Marjorie was born on July 25, 1921, at Stuart, Iowa. She married Wayne Erskine on June 8, 1941. Marjorie enjoyed her family and many friends. She was an avid book reader and … Read more

Hanson, Sue Mrs. – Obituary

Baker City, Baker County, Oregon Sue Hanson, 66, of Baker City died June 14, 2005, at Ashley Manor after a five-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease. She joins her husband, Dick, who died six weeks earlier. Today would have been their 46th wedding anniversary. Disposition was by cremation. There will be no funeral. A celebration and remembrance for Sue and Dick will be scheduled this summer to allow distant friends and relatives to attend. Sue was born on April 6, 1939, at Des Moines, Iowa. She graduated from high school at Des Moines and married Richard Lee “Dick” Hanson on June … Read more

Biography of Captain Lyman C. Waite

Captain Lyman C. Waite is one of the pioneers of Riverside. His association with the foundation of the colony, the establishment of schools, churches, horticultural industries, banking, and other incorporations, commenced in the infancy of the colony, and his various enterprises, both public and private, have been conducted by that sound sense, trained business principles, and honest, straightforward dealings that are characteristic of the man. The facts obtained for a brief review of his life are of interest. Captain Waite was born in Walworth County, Wisconsin, in 1844. His parents, Sydney and Parmelia (Barker) Waite, were natives of western New … Read more

Biography of Edgar James Ferrell

Edgar James Ferrell, one of San Bernardino County’s most enterprising and successful business men, was born in Iowa in 1858, and passed the first sixteen years of his life in the Hawkeye State. In June, 1874, he came to California, and the first six years after his arrival worked at the printer’s trade in San Bernardino. Deciding to change his vocation, he entered the employ of W. R. Wiggins as a salesman in his grocery. At the close of two years Mr. Ferrell purchased the business in 1884, and for four years did an exceptionally thriving and prosperous business. He … Read more

Waldo, Joel F. – Obituary

Joel F. Waldo, 45, of Baker City, died Oct. 22, 2004, at his home with his devoted wife, Cindy, his mother-in-law, Phyllis, and his minister by his side. He was diagnosed with lung cancer on Oct. 16, 2003, even though he had never smoked a day in his life. His memorial service will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at First Presbyterian Church, 1995 Fourth St. Pastor Susan Barnes will officiate. Joel was born on Aug. 19, 1959, at Sioux City, Iowa. He worked very hard all his life and was constantly learning new things so he could do it himself. … Read more

Biography of William Francis Holcomb

William Francis Holcomb, a member of the Society of California Pioneers of San Bernardino County, and the discoverer of gold in the valley which bears his name, was born in Indiana in 1831, but his parents moved to Will County, Illinois, in his infancy, where they lived till he was eight years old. They then went, in 1839, to Iowa and located in Portland, Van Buren County Iowa. His father having died, his mother moved with her family in 1845 up into Wapello County and took up a piece of Government land. The same year his oldest brother, Stephen Holcomb, … Read more

Biography of David H. Wixom

David H. Wixom, the tenth of a family of twelve children of Nathan J. and Betsy (Hadlock) Wixom, was born in 1848 in Council Bluffs, Iowa. In 1850 his parents started with their family, consisting then of ten children, to cross the plains to California. They loaded three ox teams and one horse team with their effects, and brought fifty cows, ten head of horses and a small flock of sheep over as far as Salt Lake, where they spent the winter, and there their eleventh child, Charles W. Wixom, was born. In the spring of 1852 they resumed their … Read more

Biography of Reverday J. Pierson

Reverday J. Pierson, junior member and business manager of the well-known firm of Holmes & Pierson, the editors and proprietors of the Riverside Daily Press and Weekly Horticulturist, of Riverside, is a native of Licking County, Ohio, and was born in 1848. When a child his parents moved to Springfield, Illinois, and thence in 1857 to Poweshiek County, Iowa. He was engaged in his attendance in the public schools until fifteen years of age, and then apprenticed to the printers trade at Montezuma, Iowa. After serving his apprenticeship, he commenced his travels as a journeyman, and was engaged on the … Read more

Biography of Charles W. Harvey

Charles W. Harvey is one of the veteran business men and residents of El Dorado, and in recent years had been a leader in the oil development work of Butler County and that vicinity, and had shared in the prosperity that had attended the development of these resources. Mr. Harvey was born in Appanoose County, Iowa, May 10, 1868. His father, Elijah E. Harvey, was a pioneer Kansan and a man of great usefulness both as a minister of the Gospel and citizen. He was of English descent, and some of his forefathers fought in the Revolutionary war. A distant … Read more

Biography of Frank E. Mossman, A. M., D. D.

Frank E. Mossman, A. M., D. D. One of the institutions which in thirty years of existence had sent hundreds of well-trained and efficient Christians and citizens into the life of Kansas is the Southwestern College at Winfield, of which Frank E. Mossman had been president for the past twelve years. Mr. Mossman is an educator of wide experience and thorough training and had been very valuable to Southwestern College on the administrative side. He was born at Urbana, Iowa, August 26, 1873. The Mossman family were originally Scotch, went from that country to Ireland, and Mr. Mossman’s great-grandfather immigrated … Read more

Biography of Justin Dewitt Bowersock

Justin Dewitt Bowersock. The secret of human leadership is a matter both of determination and temperament. Some men achieve it by a rugged aggressiveness which bears all before them, leaving in their wake many painful bruises and some wounds which never heal; other progress, perhaps even more rapidly, endowed with a decisive elasticity, a considerate and friendly spirit, a broad and attractive outlook, and obtain the enthusiastic cooperation of those who are best qualified to advance laudable enterprises and movements, either private or public in their character. It is to the latter class of elastic, able and pleasing leaders that … Read more

Biography of L. M. Holt

L. M. Holt was born August 9, 1840, in the town of Sylvan, Washtenaw County, Michigan, near where now stands the town of Chelsea. His parents, natives of Connecticut, immigrated to Michigan while this was still a Territory. In 1852 the father died at Hillsdale, leaving five children. From the age of fourteen the subject of this sketch depended upon his own resources for maintenance and education. Attending the Hillsdale College from 1856 to 1859, he then went to Iowa, where he learned the printing business in the office of the Eagle, Vinton, Iowa. In 1860 he was married to … Read more

Biography of Edward Bumgardner, A. M., M. D., D. D. S.

Edward Bumgardner, A. M., M. D., D. D. S., of Lawrence, had been a resident of Kansas for over thirty-five years. Though not a native, he is a loyal Kansan and deeply interested in its progress and standing among the states. He had read and studied with sympathy and understanding Kansas history, and his pride in the state’s past and her institutions had prompted him so far as consistent with his professional work to assist in various public and semi-public undertakings. Doctor Bumgardner is a native of Indiana, born in Warren County, April 10, 1865. His parents were Andrew and … Read more

Biography of Alexander McCrary

Alexander McCrary was born in Ross County, Ohio, in 1825, son of Alexander and Mary (Summers) McCrary. His father was a native of South Carolina and his mother of Kentucky. Mr. McCrary spent his youth upon a farm, receiving such an education as the common schools afforded and was early inured to the hard labor of pioneer farming. His natural mechanical tastes and ideas prompted his taking up a trade, and at the age of twenty-one years he started out in life as a carpenter, and later as a bridge builder and millwright. In 1856 he moved to Iowa and … Read more

Biography of Edwin Hart

Among the leading horticulturists of Riverside colony none are more deserving of mention than the subject of this sketch. Mr. Hart is a native of Cortland County, New York, born in 1835, and reared and received his education in his native place. At the age of eighteen years he started for the great West, and located in Beloit, Wisconsin. His boyhood days, when not attending school, were spent in his father’s store, and was somewhat schooled in mercantile life, but upon his advent in Wisconsin he engaged in farming. He spent eight years in that State, and in 1862 moved … Read more

Biography of Walter Fremont Grow

Walter Fremont Grow, one of the young and enterprising horticulturists of San Bernardino County, living on Base Line, six miles east of the city, was born in Maine, July 19, 1856, the son of Lorenzo and Harriet (Currier) Grow. His father was born in Hartland, Windsor County, Vermont, March 11, 1806. His parents were Samuel and Jerusha (Stowell) Grow; the former was a native of Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, and the latter of Pomfret, Connecticut. Their ancestors were owners of large tracts of land and were of English origin. Lorenzo Grow was the third of a family of seven children. He … Read more

Biography of Richard T. Keefe

Richard T. Keefe is secretary and treasurer of Henneberry & Company, packers and provisioners at Arkansas City. Mr. Keefe was one of the founders of this packing industry, and had been closely associated with its development. His active career had been devoted almost entirely to the packing industry and he had an ample experience with the great packing concerns of the country before he helped establish this independent plant at Arkansas City. Mr. Keefe was born in Keokuk, Lee County, Iowa, September 20, 1873. His father, Thomas Keefe, was born in County Tipperary, Ireland, in 1829, came to the United … Read more

Biography of James H. Roe

James H. Roe, a member of the firm of Holmes, Roe & Pierson, the publishers of the Riverside Daily Press and Weekly Horticulturist, is classed among the pioneers of Riverside, and for the sixteen years preceding this writing has been prominently connected with the interests and industries of the colony. The brief facts gathered relating to his life are of interest: He was born in Birmingham, England, in 1843, his parents being the Rev. Charles Hill, a native of the north of Ireland, and Mary (Steadman) Roe, a native of England. His father emigrated with his family to the United … Read more

Biography of E. J. Whittle

E. J. Whittle, of Arkansas City, had had a most diversified business experience. He had lived in many states, had been a farmer, merchant, real estate man and is now enjoying the income from his property and residing in comfort and contentment among his children and grandchildren. Mr. Whittle was born in Boone County, Illinois, February 20, 1851. His father, James Whittle, was born in Canada, near Detroit, Michigan, in 1821, and was the first of the family to come to the United States. James’ father, Thomas, spent all his life in Canada as a farmer. The Whittles went from … Read more