S.R. GEDDIS. – Mr. Geddis, a portrait of whom, together with a view of his beautiful home farm, appears in this history, is a leading and wealthy citizen of Kittitass county. He is one of the men whose success in life has been mainly achieved in the county in which he now lives by the exercise of economy, industry and business integrity, guided by intelligent financial ability. He is now a rich man, while but a few years ago he came to the Kittitass valley with nothing but an unblemished reputation as his entire capital.
Mr. Geddis was born in Warren county, Pennsylvania, February 12, 1838, and was the eldest son of Robert and Margaret Nash Geddis. Six years later, he with his parents moved west to Louisa county, Iowa, where in 1845 our subject suffered the irreparable loss of his father by death. In 1846 his mother married William Clum, and in the spring of that year started across the plains to Oregon, arriving in the following September. They first located on a farm in Linn county, where Mr. Geddis remained until 1865. During the Rogue river war in 1855, Mr. Geddis joined Captain, afterwards General Williams’ company, with whom he served for a time, and then joined Captain Hugh O’Neil’s company, with whom he remained until the close of hostilities in 1865. He moved to Umatilla, Umatilla county, and followed farming and freighting until 1869.
He then came to Eastern Washington, and, being so favorably impressed with Kittitass county, concluded to make it his future home, and located one hundred and twenty acres near the present site of Ellensburgh. At that time the whole domain lay in its virginity; and the feet of white men had hardly passed over it. Mr. Geddis was one of the first to begin to build on and to till the soil, with what success may be judged from the fact that he is to-day one of the wealthiest men in his section of the country, owning two large farms of over eight hundred acres each, close to one of Washington’s most prosperous cities, Ellensburgh. Both of these farms are finely watered, and are stocked with some of the best blood to be had. He also owns a large amount of valuable real estate in and adjoining Ellensburgh. Mr. Geddis is not only rich in worldly goods, but in that which every honest man desires, – the esteem and confidence of his fellow man. This Mr. Geddis possesses to a very large degree as there are none in the territory whose words stand higher than his.
He was united in marriage in Linn county, Oregon, May 29, 1859, to Miss Emily C. Tourman, a native of Illinois. By this union they have a family of ten children, one of whom is deceased.