Walla Walla County WA

Lee, William Max – Obituary

William M. Lee, who came to Whitman County in 1872 from Walla Walla, died at his home in this city Tuesday evening [June 16, 1925], surrounded by his wife and four surviving children. He suffered an attack of pneumonia about two weeks ago and due to his advanced age of 77 years the after effects proved fatal. Funeral services were held from the Baptist Church Thursday at 2 p.m., Rev. W. P. Osgood, a former pastor coming from Albany, Oregon, to officiate, assisted by the new pastor, Rev. J. L. Peringer. Mr. Lee was an active member of the finance … Read more

Biography of Lee Moorhouse

LEE MOORHOUSE. – It was some years before the Inland Empire realized its own wealth. The hills were formerly accounted worthless. Mr. Moorhouse was among the first to dissipate that notion. The Prospect Hill farm, of four thousand acres, eighteen miles west of Pendleton, of which he was superintendent, during his incumbency of four years, produced two hundred and fifty thousand bushels of wheat. The Moorhouses were from Iowa, Lee having been born there in 1850. They came to Oregon in 1861, locating in Umatilla county, near the present site of Pendleton, and when the country was so sparsely settled … Read more

Loney, Virgil Thomas – Obituary

Virgil Thomas Loney, 71, 108 Donald St., died Friday [July 22, 1983] while cutting firewood in the Luger Springs area, southeast of Tollgate. Funeral services will be 11 a.m. Monday at Groseclose Garden Chapel. Burial will follow at Blue Mountain Memorial Gardens. Memorial contributions may be made to the charity of the donor’s choice through the funeral home. Loney was born May 23, 1912, in Walla Walla, the son of William and Evangeline Stroble Loney. He received his education in Walla Walla, Umapine and Touchet schools, living here all his life. He retired in 1972, after 26 years with Doxol … Read more

Sizemore, Valda L. – Obituary

Enterprise, Wallowa County, Oregon Valda Louina Sizemore died Nov. 9, 1994, at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Walla Walla, Wash. She was born Jan. 8, 1918, the daughter of James E. and Vera K. (Draper) Fisher. On Oct. 4, 1976, she married Roy L. Sizemore at Elko, Neveda. He preceded her in death on June 27, 1985. She is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Vera and Manford Isley; four grandchildren, Stephen Isley, Joseph, Nancy (Isley) Parker, Athena, Brian Isley, Lostine, and Sandra Isley, Eltopia, Wash.; six great grandchildren; brothers, Wolvert Fisher, Enterprise, and Leland Fisher; nieces and nephews; two … Read more

Evens, Bertha E. – Obituary

Services Held For Bertha E. Evans Memorial services for Mrs. Bertha E. Evans were Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Bollman Chapel, with Rev. Harold D. Fuller, pastor of Bethel Assembly of God in Walla Walla, formerly of Enterprise, officiating. Mrs. Lyle Shumway was pianist, and Mrs. Harold D. Fuller sang “Life Is Like a Mountain Railroad” and “Sometimes We’ll Understand.” Casket bearers were: Verne Conrad, Herbert Bork, Earl Conrad, Billy L. Bork, Tracy Puderbaugh, and Marvin Bork, and interment was in the Enterprise cemetery. Bertha Emma Bork, daughter of Rudolph and Bertha Bork, pioneers of Wallowa County, was born … Read more

Biography of Hon. Miles C. Moore

HON. MILES C. MOORE. – The gentleman whose name gives title to this brief memoir was born April 17, 1845, in the little village of Rix Mills, Muskingum County, Ohio, where his well known and widely respected parents resided. When he was twelve years of age, the family removed to Wisconsin, where for six years he attended school at Bronson Institute, a seat of learning conducted under the auspices of the Methodist church. Inspired with a spirit of adventure, through a perusal of the explorations of Bonneville, Frémont and others, and desiring to better his fortune, he resolved to brave … Read more

Fisher, Erma – Obituary

Graveside funeral services will be Thursday, January 17 at 1:30 p.m. in the Milton-Freewater Cemetery for Mrs. Erma Fisher 72, of 1818 Walnut Street who died January 14 at Walla Walla General Hospital. Rev. Richard Davidson, First Christian Church, will officiate. Mrs. Fisher was born in Wallowa County December 14, 1907 to W. B. and Grace Heskett. She attended schools there and also Alder Slope and Joseph. She married Ira Fisher in Enterprise on October 18, 1926. They lived in Joseph until 1945 when they moved to Umapine. In 1946, they moved to their present home. She was a member … Read more

Andrews, William H. “Bill” – Obituary

William H. “Bill” Andrews, 74, a longtime Baker City resident, died Feb. 28, 2006, at St. Mary Medical Center in Walla Walla, Wash. There will be a potluck luncheon and get-together at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 18, at Harvest Church, 3720 Birch St. “A good time to visit and reminisce because that is what Bill liked to do best,” his family said. Bill was born on May 18, 1931, at Pompeii, Mich., to Paul and Beulah Andrews. He attended elementary school at Pompeii, and was a 1951 Ithaca High School graduate. Upon graduating, he worked for General Motors at Lansing, … Read more

Biography of M. J. Morlan

M.J. MORLAN. – This prominent citizen of The Dalles was born in Lake County, Ohio, in 1835. In 1846 he moved to La Salle County, Illinois. In that state his parents were successful in securing good land and in improving their farms; and this was the home of our subject until he attained his majority. With a somewhat limited education, but with abundance of muscle and determination, he began life for himself working as a hired hand on his father’s farm, and saving nearly all his earnings. His innate ambition and desire to reach the higher walks of life induced … Read more

Justice, Ralph – Obituary

Ralph Hendricks Justice, 85, of Walla Walla, Wash., died Feb. 23, 2000, at the Jonathon M. Wainwright Memorial Veterans Medical Center in Walla Walla. Memorial contributions may be made to the St. Mary Regional Cancer Center through the funeral home. Mr. Justice was born July 13, 1914, in West Clarkston, Wash., to James G. and Amanda C. Cox Justice. He attended schools in Enterprise and worked in the area after graduating from Enterprise High School in 1932. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1941 and served as an airplane maintenance technician with the Army Air Corps during World War … Read more

Moberly, Cora “Lois” Speelman Mrs. – Obituary

Cora “Lois” Moberly, 78, of Milton-Freewater and a Haines native, died Sunday, Nov. 20, 2005, in Walla-Walla, Wash. Funeral services will be held Saturday, Nov. 26, at 10 a.m. in the chapel of the Munselle-Rhodes Funeral Home, 902 S. Main St., Milton-Freewater. Private burial will be in the Milton-Freewater Cemetery. Contributions may be made to the American Heart Association, Alzheimer’s Association, or to the Diabetes Association through the funeral home. Lois was born Dec. 15, 1926, in Haines to LeRoy and Lela Cross Speelman. She received her schooling in Haines, North Powder and Baker City. She married Joseph D. Moberly … Read more

Biographical Sketch of William M. Blakeley

WILLIAM M. BLAKELEY. – The subject of this sketch, a prominent citizen of the rapidly developing upper country, was born in Missouri in 1840. In 1846 he crossed the plains with his father, who located near the present site of Brownsville, Linn county, Oregon, where he still resides. Mr. Blakely was here favored with the educational advantages afforded by the public school, and assisted his father on the farm until 1860, when he moved to a point near the present site of Prescott, on the lovely Touchet river, in Washington Territory. In the spring of 1861 he tried his fortune … Read more

Poole, Elwyn L. – Obituary

Elwyn L. Poole, 85, of Pendleton, died Thursday, Jan. 23, 1986, at Delamarter Care Center. He was born Feb. 21, 1900 in Rio, Miss., the son of Richard and Inez Poole. He attended Emerson Institute of Technology in Washington, D.C., and worked for various agencies of the federal government. When he retired in 1962 he was employed by the General Services Administration as an air conditioning engineer. On March 8, 1924, he married Ethel Alline Bound of Bailey, Miss. They lived in the District of Columbia, Arlington, Va., Walla Walla and Phoenix, Ariz. Poole came to Pendleton in 1977 to … Read more

Shaw, M. C. – Obituary

Killed By a Cable Car Death of a Well-known Railroad Locating Engineer Mr. G.W. Hunt, who has been in the city for several days, left for his home in Walla Walla last evening. Mr. M.C. Shaw, who was killed by a Geary street cable car in San Franscisco a few days since, was in the employ of Mr. Hunt for four years as locating engineer, and located all the lines of the Hunt system of railroads, except about 40 miles. He was one of the best locating engineers in the country, and a very bright, genial fellows, highly esteemed by … Read more

Biography of Mrs. Hannah J. Olmstead

MRS. HANNAH J. OLMSTEAD. – Life upon the Pacific coast brings out the heroic qualities in women as well as in men. It is a social and conventional form which keeps them in the shadow of their husbands’ names. But everybody knows that the greater part of the incentive which a man has to win a position or a fortune comes from his wife. It has long been remarked that the women in the immigrant trains showed more pluck than the men; and many a dispirited husband was cheered up and almost carried through by his brave better half. Delicate … Read more

Biography of David Diggins

Although the subject of this sketch has not resided in Wallowa County so long as some others, nevertheless, he is one of the earliest pioneers of this section, having braved the dangers and suffered the hardships and deprivations in the fifties to assist in opening this country for the advent of civilization’s march. Mr. Diggins has lived the life of a typical frontiersman and pioneer, and to him and his companions is due the honor and distinction of discovering the leading placer mines of this northwest country, which in fact rivaled any on the Pacific coast, and during these long … Read more

Biography of W. H. Mastin

W.H. MASTIN. – As a lien upon the gratitude of his fellow-men, one writes a book, another opens a mine, a third builds a house. Each one may do the work for himself, but nevertheless, in recognition of the wants and needs of others, suiting his operations to their tastes and necessities, and finding his chief satisfaction, not so much in the profit that he reaps from his industry, as from the position which he fills in the world of business and society, making himself, his skill and his work, a necessary part of the great whole. It is in … Read more

Seney, Marjean Chisholm Henry Mrs. – Obituary

Marjean Chisholm Henry Seney, 78, a former Baker City resident, died Jan. 31, 2008, of cancer at her son’s home in Eden Prairie, Minn. Her memorial service will be at 3 p.m. March 1 at the First Presbyterian Church, 325 First St., in Walla Walla, Wash. Disposition was by the Cremation Society of Minnesota. Marjean was born on June 3, 1929, at Walla Walla to Julian J. and Mae Wattenberger Chisholm. She attended Walla Walla High School, The Bishop’s School in La Jolla, Calif., and graduated from Annie Wright Seminary at Tacoma, Wash., in 1947. She attended Washington State University … Read more

Coulter, James – Obituary

La Grande, Union County, Oregon James Coulter, several years a citizen of Elgin, but of late years a resident of La Grande, died in that city August 31, 1945, aged 86 years and 21 days. Although his health had been generally failing, due to his advanced years, his final illness was of short duration. Graveside services were conducted at the Elgin cemetery at 2:30 Tuesday afternoon, and entombment followed immediately thereafter. Only two direct relatives survive deceased. They are two sons: F. L., of Sisters, Ore., and Jas. J., of Joseph. James Coulter was born at Mulkeytown, Ill., August 12, … Read more

Moulton, Elmer La Grande – Obituary

Elmer La Grande Moulton, 92, of Baker City, died Sept. 24, 2005, at his home. At his request, there will be no funeral. Elmer was born on Oct. 22, 1912, at La Grande, the first child of Harry and Cora Moulton. Elmer grew up at Walla Walla, Wash. He received his early education at Walla Walla and then went on to Business School at Boise. Elmer married Georgia Mildred Rose in 1939 and they had two daughters: Rosemarie and Darla Jean. They later divorced. Elmer worked for Pacific Fruit and Produce and Baker-La Grande Grocery as a traveling salesman and … Read more