Ohio

Biography of S. P. Marsh

S.P. MARSH. – This leading citizen of Vancouver, Washington, was born in Ohio in 1826. At Cleveland he received his education and learned the trade of a blacksmith. At the age of twenty-four the stories of fabulous wealth on the Pacific, and an invitation from a special friend, started him across the continent for Oregon. He was in the great emigration of 1850, when it is said one hundred and eighty thousand persons were on the plains. Heavy luck struck his party on the Platte. Not far out they were surrounded by a thousand Pawnee Indians, and were given ten … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Edward K. Matlock

EDWARD K. MATLOCK. – This young gentleman, a leading druggist of Mount Vernon, Washington, was born in Ohio in 1858. His father was a Methodist minister. The son traveled with him extensively; but at the age of eighteen, beginning to do for himself, he went South and found employment at a sugar refinery at Bellevue, Louisiana, and there, and at another sugar town, spent four years. The Southern climate, however, becoming disagreeable, he determined to try the famous atmosphere of Washington Territory. Coming as far as San Francisco on his way, he stopped at the metropolis of our coast a … Read more

Biography of Abram A. Raub, M. D.

Abram A. Raub, M. D. One of the oldest and best known physicians and citizens of Kansas is Dr. Abram A. Raub of Topeka, who came to this state in 1879. Doctor Raub is a veteran of the Civil war. During part of his service he was assistant surgeon in the army, and has been practicing medicine for fully half a century. Doctor Raub was forty years of age when he came to Kansas, having been born in 1839 at Blairstown, New Jersey. His father was Philip Raub, also a native of Blairstown. The grandfather emigrated from the Rhine provinces … Read more

Biography of Hon. John McGlynn

HON. JOHN McGLYNN. – This influential resident and proprietor of the well-known hotel that bears his name in La Conner, Washington, and whose portrait appears in this history, is a man fitted by nature with qualities that insure success, and which are held in especial esteem among men. With manners suave, a disposition to accommodate, and generous promptings towards his fellows, he greets the stranger, the customer of the friend in a manner indicating the kindness of his own feelings, and which seldom fails to leave with the recipient a desire to do a favor. This is a happy faculty … Read more

Biography of Charles W. Barnes

Charles W. Barnes. As reporter and newspaper editor, former state superintendent of insurance and now president of the Kansas Life Insurance Company of Topeka, Charles W. Barnes has had an exceedingly busy and successful career covering almost the entire forty-year period since he came to the state. He was born on a farm in Coshocton County, Ohio, October 28, 1869, a son of William O. and Maria Lonisa (McGruder) Barnes. His grandfather Charles Barnes was a lawyer, one of the pioneer members of the Ohio bar, and in the early days served as a judge. William O. Barnes was a … Read more

Biography of Homer Ward Bomgardner

Homer Ward Bomgardner is one of Topeka’s leading business men, and is also active in civic affairs and a prominent Sunday school worker. Much of his life has been spent in Kansas. He was born at Canal Dover, Ohio, February 1, 1865, a son of Benjamin F. and Mary (Ward) Bomgardner, his father being of Swiss ancestry. Reared in Ohio where he obtained an education in the high schools and academies, in January, 1884, Mr. Bomgardner came to Kansas, locating in Smith County, and for seven years was a teacher in the public schools of this state. During that time … Read more

Biography of William P. Brown

William P. Brown, brother of S. Allen Brown, a well known citizen of Independence whose career has already been sketched, has been prominently identified with various business affairs in Southeastern Kansas for nearly forty years, and is now a resident and has his headquarters at Coffeyville. Born in Pomeroy, Ohio, July 29, 1861, a son of Gen. William R. Brown, he received his early education in the public schools of that state, and came with his parents to Independence, Kansas, in 1874. He was then a student in the Independence High School, but at the early age of seventeen started … Read more

Biography of Isaac S. Lightle

Isaac S. Lightle. The influence of a sound, conservative banking house is wide and its practical results far reaching. Without such an institution in its midst, no city can hope to take its place among its sister communities, and to it will come no reliable outside concerns. It may be truly said that the growth and development of a community depends largely upon the quality and stability of its banks, and this means the sagacity and integrity of the men who stand at their head. Therefore the thriving community of Arcadia, in Crawford County, is fortunate in the possession of … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Osgood McFarland

Osgood McFarland, a son of Major Moses McFarland, of the revolutionary war, a Scotch-Irish immigrant, together with his wife, Mary Bartlett, came to town from Haverhill, Mass., in 1809. A few years afterwards he removed to Marietta, Ohio. He remained there seven years, when, on account of his health, he returned to Vermont, driving his own team the whole distance, as he had done on the outward journey. On his second coming to Waterville he located upon the farm on East hill, known as the “Tobin place,” whence he removed, after a few years, to West hill, and tilled the … Read more

Biography of A. B. Rabbeson

A.B. RABBESON. – Mr. Rabbeson, who observes that “he was born of rich but honest parents” at New York in 1824, was devoted from his youth to the most interesting and desperate adventures. Nevertheless, he was always delivered from his perils just at the right time, and lives to-day in hale age at Olympia. His boyish adventures began not many years after the death of his father in 1833. His step-father he did not like, and consequently left home. We find him out in Canada, soon at New York City with his grandparents and attending school, but within a few … Read more

Biographical Sketch of J. M. Pruett, M.D.

J.M. PRUETT, M.D. – The native-born sons of Oregon who have had the wisdom to prepare themselves for a professional or business career have quite generally shown themselves fully equal to those born and raised elsewhere. The subject of this sketch is one of these. He was born at Salem in 1849, his father being the well-known pioneer J. W. Pruett, who crossed the plains in 1847. Young James remained with his father until the death of the latter, which occurred in 1866. He then went to California, where he remained for two years, after which he returned to Oregon … Read more

Biography of Hon. Thomas Patton

HON. THOMAS PATTON. – There is scarcely a man in Oregon, who enjoys a greater measure of esteem, both in his own community and abroad, than the gentleman whose name heads this memoir. With the usual substantial and popular qualities of the pioneers, he has a touch of dash and a breadth of view which lift him somewhat above the horizon of even the first business men and thinkers of the Pacific Northwest. He is prominent among those who have given the tone and pose to the peculiarly refined and genial society of the Capital city. He was born in … Read more

Biography of Matthew Patton

MATTHEW PATTON. – This well-known and now venerable pioneer was born in Monongahela county, Virginia, November 15, 1805. As a child he moved with his parents to Highland county, Ohio, and four years later to Brown county, remaining until he was sixteen years old. Being naturally mechanical, he was sought and gladly received as an apprentice to a cabinet business by a certain Mr. Eli Collins, and at the end of four years of diligent application mastered the trade. Being young and ambitious, he turned his face to the far West, as Ohio, Indiana and Illinois were then called. After … Read more

Biography of Lot Livermore

LOT LIVERMORE. – Mr. Livermore is one of the best-known residents of Eastern Oregon, and, as a business man, from the earliest times has been highly instrumental in developing the country. He was born in Marietta, Ohio, in 1835, but the year following came with his parents to Illinois, and in 1851 crossed the plains to Oregon, finding a home in Polk county. Some of the experiences on the plains were exciting, such as a fight of an hour and a half with the Snake Indians on the Snake River. It was the Harpole company with which they came. In … Read more

Biography of Edward Long

EDWARD LONG. – Edward Long was born June 3, 1817, in Columbus, Franklin county, Ohio. His ancestors were Puritans, and emigrated from Londonderry (now Derry), New Hampshire, in 1721. The emigrants who settled that town were Presbyterians of the John Knox school, and are called Scotch-Irish, being descendants of a colony which migrated from Argyleshire, Scotland, and settled in the province of Ulster in the north of Ireland about the year 1612. Soon after the evacuation of Nova Scotia by the French, about the year 1763, a large number of families, among whom were the grandparents of Edward Long, moved … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Jacob Long

JACOB LONG. – This venerable pioneer, the first to settle in the north end of Indian valley, and whose seventy-four years have but little bent his frame, was born in 1815 in Pennsylvania. At the age of nine he became a pioneer of the West, moving with his parents to Ohio. At the age of seventeen he took his flint-lock rifle and made a tour of the woods and prairies of the old West, visiting the French and Indian trading-post of Chicago, and spending a winter on the Elkhart river in Indiana, with Schomack, the chief of the Pottawottamies. Returning … Read more

Biography of Mrs. Frances N. Patton

MRS. FRANCES N. PATTON. – This estimable lady, the daughter of Hon. E. N. and Eliza Cooke was born in Erie county, Ohio, on the 3d day of August, 1837; and the greater portion of her early life was passed in that state. In 1851, at the age of fourteen years, she accompanied her parents across the plains to Oregon, reaching Salem on October 10th of that year. She began attendance at the Willamette University, which up to 1853 was called the Oregon Institute; and from the time her name was first enrolled as a scholar, until she bid adieu … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Moses McFarland

Moses McFarland was born in Marietta, Ohio, June 25, 1821, coming to Waterville when about three years old, where he has since resided. He married Livonia, oldest daughter of Stephen and Asenath Brown Leach, and settled upon the home farm. In 1854, he removed from West hill to the village, his father and mother accompanying him, where he was successively engaged in manufacturing, hotel-keeping, and farming, always putting that energy into whatever he did that roused all other business of the village into renewed and greater activity. In 1861, he enlisted as a volunteer in the Eighth Vermont regiment, serving … Read more

Biography of Judge Columbia Lancaster

JUDGE COLUMBIA LANCASTER. – Judge Lancaster, one of our earliest and most eminent judges, was born at New Milford, Litchfield county, Connecticut, on the 26th of August, 1893. His father was of Quaker descent, and settled in Ohio at an early date. Columbia read law under Whittlesy & Newton in Ohio. The Whittlesy of the firm was the honorable Elisha who was a long time in Congress, and afterwards held office in the auditor’s department under both Whig and Democratic administrations with no charge of his political sentiments. He though almost as much of his student Lancaster as of his … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Samuel I. Lisle

SAMUEL I. LISLE. – Mr. Lisle belongs to the earlier comers to our state. He was born in Ohio in 1843, and after a few years in Iowa made the journey with his parents to Oregon. The father, John G. Lisle, made his home on Sauvie’s Island; and Samuel was there raised on the farm, and enjoyed opportunities for education and business at Portland. In 1865 he turned his attention to mining, making various stoppages at Granite and Olive creeks and on the north fork of the John Day. In 1868 he closed out those interests and located a claim … Read more