Washington

Biographical Sketch of George Brackett

GEORGE BRACKETT. – Mr. Brackett, whose portrait appears in this work, was born in Canada East, May 22, 1842. There he resided until eighteen years of age. He then with his parents moved to Maine, his father being a native of that state. There they lived for six years, and then moved Eu Clare, Wisconsin, and embarked in the lumber business, which he followed until December, 1869.Then George came west to Washington Territory, and first found employment in Pierce county. In 1870 he came to Seattle, and in 1872 began logging on Salmon Bay, which business he followed until 1877, … Read more

Biography of Hon. Charles Miner Bradshaw

HON. CHARLES MINER BRADSHAW. – The present efficient collector of customs of the Puget Sound district, a portrait of whom appears in this work, is a gentleman who has worked his way from the lowest rung of the ladder until he now stands at the front rank in his chosen profession, as well as having acquired a recognized position among the men who lead public opinion and form institutions and states. Mr. Bradshaw was born in Bridgewater, Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, August 9, 1831, – the son of Salmon and Sarah F. Schurz Bradshaw, and is a lineal descendant of John … Read more

Biography of Joseph Brannan

JOSEPH BRANNAN. – Mr. Brannan was born in Union county, Ohio, near Marysville, September 13,1825, is the ninth child of a family of twelve children, and the son of Joseph and Jane Huls Brannan. On his nineteenth birthday he left his father’s farm and came west to Winnebago county, Illinois, where he resided for six years and followed farming, when he went to Iowa, but soon returned to Illinois. On April 1, 1854, he started for Washington Territory, with Seattle as the objective point, to join his brother William H., who was killed by Indians in the fall of 1855 … 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

Biographical Sketch of Henry Brook

HENRY BROOK. – The record of this gentleman is not only a satisfactory commentary upon his own business capacity, but also upon the dimensions of the business of the city, and a scale of its enterprises, since his coming here in 1883. Mr. Brook was born in England in 1842, and came to America in 1870, locating at Minneapolis. He reached Spokane Falls in 1883, doing since that time a very successful business. In 1885 he was elected a member of the city council, and while in that office favored the measure to buy the waterworks and furnish the people … Read more

Biography of George S. Brooke

GEORGE S. BROOKE. – This gentleman is the cashier of the First National Bank of Sprague, and is also a director and one of the largest shareholders. Mr. Brooke comes of cavalier stock. On his father’s side, he is a descendant of the Brookes of Maryland. In the year 1650, Robert Brooke, of England, having brought out a colony consisting of his wife, ten children and servants, forty persons in all, settled on the east shore of the Patuxent river. The settlement was called De La Brooke. The founder had a patent direct from Lord Baltimore. He was a member … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Ross Beardlsey

ROSS BEARDLSEY. – This gentleman, the present mayor of Arlington, Oregon, was born in Cass county, Michigan, July 7,1856, where he received a good common-school education, and followed the occupation of farming, working with his father until 1876, when he crossed the plains to Woodland, California, remaining until 1877 with an uncle, H.P. Merritt. After a year’s residence in this land of gold, he returned to Michigan, where he lived until 1879, making a trip in the meantime to Montana. Soon after his return to Michigan, he was married to Miss Jennie Speese of White Pigeon, in February, 1880. In … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Samuel Benn

SAMUEL BENN. – There is a certain keenness amounting almost to prescience which enables a man to locate a successful town. The laws of a city’s development are so peculiar that few are able to make much of the riddle. Nevertheless some seem to know where to locate a townsite, and where to invest in real estate. It is a business instinct. Mr. Benn is one of these persons. He is the founder of Aberdeen. He was born in New York City, and, as a youth, learned the carpenter’s trade. In 1856 he came to San Francisco, and mined and … Read more

Biography of Nelson Bennett

NELSON BENNETT. – Though Toronto, Canada, must be accredited as the birthplace of the distinguished personage whose name heads this brief sketch of a most active, useful and busy life, yet were his parentage and ancestry thoroughly American. On the paternal side the Bennetts were natives of Virginia, three generations back; and his mother was of the ancient and time-honored family of the Spragues of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. He was born October 14,1843; and his father died when he was seven years of age, leaving a widow and six children. The family resided upon a farm; and Nelson was … Read more

Biography of Sidney S. Benton

SIDNEY S. BENTON. – This pioneer of Illinois, California and Washington is one of those facile, multiplex characters that give to our Western life its buoyancy. He was born in the first-named State in 1838, while Chicago was yet in her swamps, and his father was at that city in 1831, when it was a mere Indian trading post, and also at Galena, the home of the Grants, in 1832. His father came out to California with ox-teams amid Indians, and over the usual sage-brush plains, and the iron-stone rocks in 1849. He mined on Feather river in Yuba county, … Read more

Biography of William Billings

WM. BILLINGS. – The name Billings at once suggests the picturesque hills and valleys of Vermont; and we find that the subject of this sketch is indeed a Green Mountain boy, having been born in Ripton in 1827. He lived upon his father’s place until 1846, and in that year went down to New Bedford and shipped before the mast. This step brought him to Washington Territory; for, in 1849, he was left at Honolulu, from whence, in the bark Mary, he came to California, the gold of the Yuba mines detaining him but a few months. Indeed, the best … Read more

Biography of James Birnie

JAMES BIRNIE. – Mr. Birnie was a Scotchman by birth. He was born at Paisley, county Renfrew, Scotland, in the year 1800. In 1816 the ambitious lad left his native health and emigrated to Montreal, Canada. Here, under the tutelage of a Catholic priest, he studied the French language for about two years, at the end of which time he entered the employ of the Northwest Fur Company as one of its clerks, and was sent across the Rocky Mountains to Fort Spokane, where he arrived towards the close of 1818. The fort at this time was in charge of … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Arthur M. Blackman

ARTHUR M. BLACKMAN. – This young gentleman, a flourishing grocer of Snohomish, is a native of Penobscot county, Maine, and was born in 1865. While he was but a boy his parents went to Michigan, living at Bay City, and four years later brought him with them to California, making their residence at Oakland, and giving their son the benefit of the excellent educational advantages of that city. In 1885 he began to seek business of his own, and found employment with Blackman Brothers, at Snohomish. He made such good use of his earnings thus acquired as to be able, … 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

Biography of Dr. N. G. Blalock

DR. N.G. BLALOCK. – Americans in general and those of the West in particular have no equals in the world in versatility. No other people can do so many different things and do them so well as we. No other people so disregard the conventional and regular ways of doing things, and go across lots to conclusions and results so promptly. On our Western border is this especially manifest. Face to face with nature in some of her most remarkable and powerful manifestations, with all things new and untried, we burgeon out our powers untrammeled by custom or artificial restraints. … Read more

Biography of Hon. Dean Blanchard

HON. DEAN BLANCHARD. – Among those who have manifested great interest in the welfare of the Pacific Northwest as a whole, and Columbia county, Oregon, in particular, the gentleman above named figures conspicuously. He was born in Madison county, Maine, on December 20, 1832, where he resided on his father’s farm until 1853, when he left for California, reaching that state in December of that year. In April 1854, he came to Oregon, and located at St. Helens, having secured a situation as salesman and book-keeper in a store there. In 1855, he went with the command of Major Haller, … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Dr. Horace P. Downs

DR. HORACE P. DOWNS. – Doctor Downs is one of those highly educated gentlemen who have deliberately chosen a new country in which to exercise abilities that are ever in demand in the older communities. He was born in Freedom, New Hampshire, in 1840. The family made a number of removals. It was at great Falls that he received his first comprehensive instructions; and at Exeter he pursued his academic course, and graduated from the medical department of Bowdoin College in 1865. Entering at once upon the practice of his profession, he chose a location at Tamworth, New Hampshire, and … Read more

Biography of Henry Drum

HENRY DRUM. – Among the progressive, intelligent and enterprising business men who are lending their energy and strength to the constant and rapid development of the great resources of the State of Washington, no name stands higher, or is more widely known and deservedly popular, than that of Henry Drum. No more conspicuous example of the results of careful attention to business, probity of character and steadfastness of purpose, can be cited than the brilliant career of Tacoma’s ex-mayor. It is to this class of young, keen and active workers that the great Northwest is to-day indebted for its magnificent … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Peter Dueber

PETER DUEBER. – The life of Mr. Dueber exemplifies the rewards which our coast and society hold out to the old-fashioned qualities of industry and economy. He was born in Newport, Kentucky, in 1857. At the age of ten years he removed with his parents from Minnesota and crossed the plains with ox-teams to Oregon, arriving in Portland safely the following autumn. He first attended school, and at the age of fourteen qualified himself for a sure livelihood by learning the trade of harness-making. He followed this actively in Portland and San Francisco until 1870, when he found a new … Read more

Biography of Hon. R. O. Dunbar

HON. R.O. DUNBAR. – It is not always an enviable distinction to be made eminent for political preferments. The exceptions are in the cities where office is held as the currency of political services, and as the opportunity for public plunder. In the smaller communities, however, where personal acquaintance extends to all citizens, and an honest public spirit precludes fraud, one may well feel pride in that confidence of his friends in his ability and probity which selects him as a public servant. Preferment at the suffrage of the citizens of a place like Goldendale, noted for its correct sentiment … Read more