farming and stock raising interests in the northwest and is now
carrying on general agricultural pursuits on section 22, township 7
north, range 32 east, in Walla Walla county. He was born on the 27th
of September, 1870, in Montana, his parents being Samuel and Mary
E. (Spade) Lambdin. The father was a native of Delaware, while the
mother's birth occurred in Ohio. They were married in Iowa and at the
time of the opening up of the gold fields in Montana, in 1865, they
crossed the plains with ox teams to that state. The father worked
in the mines in Deer Lodge valley and also in the Butte mines for
six years and the family went through the usual experiences of the
mining camp in the west. In 1872 they removed to Walla Walla county,
Washington, where Mr. Lambdin preempted a quarter section of land just
across the line in Oregon, on the present site of Freewater. Ten years
later he crossed the border into Washington and took up a homestead on
section 30, township 7 north, range 32 east, in Walla Walla county. He
then lived in this immediate vicinity until the time of his death and
during the later years of his life made his home with his son, George
E., whose name introduces this review. He passed away April 20, 1908.
George E. Lambdin spent his youthful days upon the home farm and
acquired a district school education. As early as his seventeenth year
he began his career as a sheepman, starting with twenty-five head.
While working for H. C. Adams as a sheep herder he accumulated a small
number of sheep and his herd multiplied rapidly, so that about 1900 he
was in a position to operate for himself on a larger scale and began
independent activities. In the intervening years he has acquired from
three to four thousand acres of grazing land and while he has recently
sold off his own flock, he is associated with C. W. Stevelan in
operating sheep interests under lease. In this connection he is among
the most prominent sheepmen of the county. His business affairs are
wisely and carefully directed. His long experience in connection with
the sheep industry has taught him exactly how to care for his flock so
that the best results will be achieved. There is no feature of sheep
raising with which he is not familiar and his intelligently directed
interests have brought very substantial results.
In 1903 Mr. Lambdin was married to Miss Catherine A. Bradley, of Walla
Walla county, and they have become the parents of three children:
Samuel Allen, Mary Isabelle and Margaret Elizabeth. In politics Mr.
Lambdin maintains an independent course, although he is inclined
to give his support to the republican party. He belongs to Attalia
Lodge, No. 294, I. O. O. F., of Attalia, Washington, and he also has
membership with the Modern Woodmen of America and with the Royal
Neighbors. He is true and loyal to the teachings of these organizations
and exemplifies in his life the beneficent spirit which underlies
the different societies. As a business man his position is one of
prominence and his capability is widely recognized. He deserves much
credit for what he has accomplished, for from an early age he has been
dependent upon his own resources. As the years have gone by his labors
have brought substantial results and he is today accounted one of the
foremost sheepmen of the northwest.
HON. ELGIN V. KUYKENDALL.
Hon. Elgin V. Kuykendall is a member of the state senate of Washington
and is one of Pomeroy's foremost attorneys. His record reflects
credit and honor upon the district which has honored him. He has done
splendid work both as lawyer and lawmaker and has become prominently
connected with a profession which has ever been regarded as having
much to do with the stability, prosperity and upbuilding of every
district, standing as the stern conservator of the rights, privileges
and liberties of the individual. His entire life has been spent in the
west with its boundless opportunities and limitless resources, and with
him opportunity has ever been the clarion call to action. He was born
in Oakland, Oregon, October 8, 1870, a son of Dr. G. B. Kuykendall,
a foremost citizen and leading pioneer physician of Pomeroy, who is
mentioned at length on another page of this work.
[Illustration: HON. ELGIN V. KUYKENDALL]
Elgin V. Kuykendall was educated in the public schools of Garfield
county and has learned many valuable lessons in the school of
experience, for he has ever been a close and attentive observer of men
and of measures. Determining upon a professional career, he took up
the study of law in 1892, pursuing his reading under the preceptorship
of Samuel G. Cosgrove of Pomeroy, who was afterward governor of
Washington. In 1894 Mr. Kuykendall was admitted to the bar but did
not immediately take up the active practice of the profession but
continued to give his attention to educational work, in which for some
time he had been engaged. He had proven a capable teacher, imparting
readily and clearly to others the knowledge that he had acquired, and
in 1894 he was elected county superintendent of schools, in which
office he served for one term. During the last year of his incumbency
in that position he was appointed to fill out an unexpired term of
six months as principal of the Pomeroy high school. In 1897, however,
he concentrated his efforts and attention upon the practice of law
and in 1898 was elected prosecuting attorney of Garfield county, in
which position he served for one term. In 1900 he was elected mayor
of Pomeroy and occupied that position for one term, giving to the
city a businesslike and progressive administration characterized by
needed reforms and measures of public improvement. At the same time he
continued in the practice of law independently until February, 1898,
when he entered into partnership with Judge Mack F. Gose under the
firm name of Gose & Kuykendall, a relationship that existed until the
appointment of the senior partner to the supreme bench in 1900. Mr.
Kuykendall then practiced alone for two years and in 1911 the present
law firm of Kuykendall & McCabe was formed, C. Alexander McCabe being
admitted to a partnership that still maintains, the firm occupying now
a very prominent position in the legal circles of the state. Their
practice is extensive and of an important character and in the conduct
thereof Mr. Kuykendall has displayed talent, learning, tact, patience
and industry. His legal learning, his analytical mind, the readiness
with which he grasps the points in an argument all combine to make him
a strong advocate and a wise counselor. In connection with his brothers
he has fourteen hundred acres of land held in equity.
In 1896 Mr. Kuykendall was joined in wedlock to Miss Marguerite Scully,
a daughter of Matthew Scully, who was one of the pioneer farmers of
Asotin county, Washington, and now resides near Twin Falls, Idaho.
Mr. and Mrs. Kuykendall have become the parents of four children,
as follows: Matthew Lorraine, a student in the Washington State
College; Ruth Lenore, who attended the State Normal School at Cheney,
Washington, and is now engaged in teaching in Garfield county; Berdina
Claire, a high school student at Pomeroy; and Jerome Kenneth, who is
attending the graded schools.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Kuykendall are members of the Methodist church and
she is president of the Ladies' Aid Society of that church and also
president of the Civic Improvement Club of Pomeroy. She is likewise a
member of the Red Cross Society.
In his political connection Mr. Kuykendall has always been a stalwart
republican and in November, 1916, he was chosen to represent
his district in the state senate, where he was made a member of
a sub-committee for framing a new probate code. He has been a
conspicuous figure in the legislative halls and has served repeatedly
as chairman of the state central committee of the republican party,
thus taking active part in guiding the destinies of his party in the
northwest. While serving as mayor of Pomeroy he was instrumental in
establishing the present city park, which the city purchased from
Governor Cosgrove. Fraternally he is connected with Garfield Lodge,
No. 25, K. P., and has been quite active in the affairs of that
organization. He has been a member of the grand judiciary committee of
the state for sixteen years, a longer period than that of any other
incumbent in the position. He is also identified with the Woodmen of
the World. His interests are broad and varied and in relation to the
great sociological, economic and political problems of the country he
keeps abreast with the best thinking men of the age. He is forceful and
his ability and initiative have made him a dynamic power in the public
life of southeastern Washington.
J. U. STRAHM.
At a period when the government owned most of the land in Washington
and the work of progress and development seemed scarcely begun, J. U.
Strahm and his wife came to Walla Walla county and cast in their lot
with its pioneer settlers. They here underwent many of the hardships
and privations incident to establishing a home on the frontier, but
with resolute spirit they met all these and in the course of years
came to enjoy the comforts of modern day civilization. Mr. Strahm was
born in Switzerland, July 30, 1827, and was but six years of age when
brought to America by his parents, the family home being established in
Ohio. They afterward removed to Iowa and in 1849 J. U. Strahm removed
to California, attracted by the discovery of gold on the Pacific coast.
There he remained for three years, after which he returned to Missouri,
where in 1864 he was united in marriage to Miss Mary Jane Farley, a
daughter of Harvey and Elizabeth (Bruett) Farley, the former a native
of Ohio, while the latter was born in Indiana. The father was killed
while serving as a soldier in the Civil war and the mother afterward
passed away in Tennessee.
Following their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Strahm resolved to try their
fortune in the far west and made their way across the country to Walla
Walla county, where he took up a homestead near Dixie. There was
little to indicate the wonderful changes which were still to occur
as the white settlers penetrated into this region and reclaimed its
rich resources for the purposes of civilization. The greater part of
the land was still unclaimed and uncultivated and the most farsighted
could scarcely have dreamed of what the future held in store for this
rich district. Mr. Strahm became actively identified with its farming
interests and bent his energies to the development of his place,
bringing his fields under a high state of cultivation and therefore
annually gathering rich harvests.
To Mr. and Mrs. Strahm were born fourteen children, eleven of whom
are now living: Ann J., the widow of John Byrd; William H., who is
deceased; Elizabeth, the wife of John Glynn; Rosa D., the wife of Tom
Hastings; Mary E., the wife of Eldon Buroker; Nora J., the wife of Joel
Chitwood; John E.; Nannie V., who is the wife of Alfred Brown; Lucretia
R., the wife of Alvin McElvain; Viola, the wife of Fred Wells; Edna,
at home; Alma B., the wife of Jene Green; and two who are deceased.
The death of Mr. Strahm occurred February 11, 1895, at which time his
remains were interred in the Dixie cemetery. He had been a devoted
husband and father and had put forth every possible effort to aid in
promoting the welfare and happiness of his family. His widow still
occupies the old homestead, having eighty acres in her farm near Dixie,
and the careful development and improvement of the property insures to
her a substantial annual income.
CHARLES C. LONEY.
Prominent among the real estate men of Walla Walla is Charles C. Loney
of the firm of Loney, Ginn & Kerrick. He was born in Toronto, Canada,
on the 7th of June, 1876, a son of Charles and Charlotte (Cole) Loney,
both of whom were natives of Belfast, Ireland. They came to Canada
in childhood with their respective parents and were there reared to
manhood and womanhood. In 1883 they came to the United States, arriving
in Walla Walla on the 19th of August of that year. Here the father
engaged in farming and became one of the leading agriculturists of
Walla Walla county, having extensive interests. He acquired some two
thousand acres of valuable land near the city and for a long period
gave personal supervision to the further development and improvement
of his farm. For several years prior to his death, however, he lived
retired from active work, turning his farms over to his sons. He then
took up his abode in the city and throughout his remaining days enjoyed
a well earned rest. He died in 1907, having for a considerable period
survived his wife, who passed away in 1902. Both were consistent
members of the Baptist church and were earnest Christian people whose
well spent lives are worthy of emulation.
Charles C. Loney was educated in the Walla Walla high school, from
which he was graduated with the class of 1896. Following the completion
of his studies he cooperated with his father in the management and
operation of his extensive farming interests until the father's
retirement in 1901, at which time Charles C. Loney took charge of the
farm, continuing its further cultivation and improvement until 1911.
In the meantime he had purchased the property of his father and in the
year designated he sold the home place and became a resident of Walla
Walla, where he opened a real estate and loan office. He has since
been prominently identified with that business and places many loans,
while at the same time he negotiates many important realty transfers.
Since 1911 he has purchased one hundred acres of land in Umatilla
county, Oregon, and eight hundred acres in Columbia county, Washington.
This property he still owns and rents. He also has three hundred and
thirty acres on Dry creek, near Walla Walla, on which he is engaged in
breeding and raising thoroughbred Percheron horses. He thus ranks with
the leading agriculturists and stock raisers of this section of the
state, while at the same time he has won for himself a most creditable
position as a real estate dealer.
On the 12th of January, 1917, Mr. Loney was united in marriage to Miss
Hazel Velma Wright, of Walla Walla, a daughter of Robert Wright, who
is a native of Umatilla county, Oregon, and for many years has been a
prominent farmer of Walla Walla county.
Mr. Loney holds membership in Enterprise Lodge, No. 2, I. O. O. F., and
also in Walla Walla Encampment, No. 3. He votes with the republican
party and is interested in all matters of progressive citizenship,
cooperating in every plan and measure which he deems of value and
benefit to the community. The greater part of his life has been spent
in this section of the state and he has become imbued with the spirit
of western enterprise that has led to the rapid and substantial
upbuilding of this section of the state. This spirit has been the
dominant factor in the attainment of his own success, a success that
now places him with the men of affluence in his adopted county.
HON. OLIVER T. CORNWELL.
Hon. Oliver T. Cornwell is a dominant factor in the agricultural,
commercial and financial circles of Walla Walla and the Inland Empire
and has also exerted a marked influence over public thought and action
as a member of the state senate, in which he is now representing the
eleventh senatorial district. It was Mr. Cornwell who in large measure
introduced the commission form of government here and in all his
public work he has been actuated by a spirit of progress, improvement
and of marked devotion to the general good. He is indeed prominent as
a man whose constantly expanding powers have taken him from humble
surroundings to the field of large enterprises and continually
broadening opportunities. Bringing to bear a clear understanding that
readily solves complex problems, he has been able to unite diverse
interests into a harmonious whole with results that indicate his keen
sagacity and unfaltering enterprise.
Mr. Cornwell is a native son of Walla Walla county, his birth having
occurred upon a farm six miles north of the city of Walla Walla on
the 22nd of March, 1863. His father, James Madison Cornwell, became
one of the Walla Walla pioneers of 1861 and is mentioned elsewhere
in this work. The son was reared on the old homestead with the usual
experiences of the farm bred boy and acquired his early education
in the district schools, after which he became a student in Whitman
College. When nineteen years of age he assumed the operation of the
home place and continued to cultivate its fields for three years as
a renter. After reaching his majority he went up into the Palouse
country, in Whitman county, and there engaged in the raising of cattle
and horses. He remained in Whitman county for eight years, after which
he returned to Walla Walla and in company with H. S. Stott founded
the drug house of Stott & Cornwell, with which he was identified for
three years. He then resumed active connection with farming and stock
raising interests and also began buying and shipping cattle, with which
business he has since been closely associated, being one of the most
prominent representatives of agricultural interests in this section of
the state. He now owns fourteen hundred acres of wheat land in Walla
Walla county and he also has heavy holdings in Alberta, Canada. Mr.
Cornwell is a man of forcefulness and resourcefulness and has by no
means limited his activities and energies to a single line. In fact,
as extensive as are his agricultural activities, he has also made for
himself a notable place in commercial and financial circles. About
1903 he was one of the dominant factors in the organization of the
Walla Walla County Lumber Company, of which he became president, and
in that capacity he has since continued, his intelligent direction of
the affairs of the company being one of the most potent elements in
his growing and continued success. He was also one of the organizers
of the Peoples State Bank of Walla Walla and was made a member of its
board of directors, which position he has since filled. He has also
been identified with interests of a public and semi-public character
that have had much to do with promoting general progress. He served for
a number of years as president of the Farmers Union and while acting in
that capacity the Walla Walla Farmers' Agency was organized, of which
Mr. Cornwell was elected president, and reelection has continued him in
that position to the present time.
[Illustration: OLIVER T. CORNWELL]
[Illustration: MRS. OLIVER T. CORNWELL]
On the 19th of August, 1888, occurred the marriage of Mr. Cornwell and
Miss Ella Crowell, of Walla Walla, a daughter of Henry A. and Mary
A. (Thurman) Crowell, who came to Walla Walla from Iowa in 1874. The
mother was a niece of Allen G. Thurman, the great democratic leader,
who was long known as "the Old Roman." To Mr. and Mrs. Cornwell have
been born three children, Lessie L., Ethel L. and Olive E.
Mr. Cornwell holds membership with the Masonic fraternity, belonging
to Blue Mountain Lodge, No. 7, F. & A. M.; to Walla Walla Chapter,
No. 1, R. A. M.; to Walla Walla Commandery, No. 2, K. T.; to Oriental
Consistory, No. 1, A. & A. S. R, of Spokane; and to El Katif Temple;
A. A. O. N. M. S., also of Spokane. He likewise has membership with
Washington Lodge, No. 19, I. O. O. F., and with the Walla Walla
Encampment of that order.
His chief activity aside from business has been as a supporter of
the republican party and a recognized leader in its ranks. The first
position to which he was called was that of city councilman of Walla
Walla in 1897. In 1900 he was chosen to represent his district in the
Washington state senate, where he served for four years with honor
and ability. In the November election of 1915 he was again chosen a
member of the state senate and during his present term has been called
upon for much important committee service. He is now a member of the
committees on municipal corporations, on education, on industrial
insurance, on irrigation and arid lands, public utilities, roads and
bridges, rules and joint rules, banks and banking. He has done much to
shape the policy of his party and for eight years was chairman of the
republican county central committee and has been a member of the state
central committee. It was Mr. Cornwell who organized and successfully
carried through the campaign establishing the commission form of
government in Walla Walla. His career has at all times reflected credit
and honor upon the people that have honored him. The universality of
his friendships interprets for us his intellectual hospitality and the
breadth of his sympathy, for nothing is foreign to him that concerns
his fellows. Anyone meeting Mr. Cornwell face to face would know at
once that he is an individual embodying all the elements of what in
this country we term a "square" man--one in whom to have confidence,
a dependable man in any relation and any emergency. His quietude of
deportment, his easy dignity, his frankness and cordiality of address,
with the total absence of anything sinister or anything to conceal,
foretoken a man who is ready to meet any obligation of life with the
confidence and courage that come of conscious personal ability, the
right conception of things and an habitual regard for what is best in
the exercise of human activities.
SAMUEL LOVE GILBREATH.
Samuel Love Gilbreath, an honored pioneer of Columbia county,
Washington, became a resident of Old Walla Walla county when there
were few white settlers within its limits, and took up a homestead
three miles from the city of Dayton, although it was a number of years
later that the town was laid out. He was a successful farmer, loyal
friend and a public-spirited citizen, and his demise was the occasion
of sincere regret. He was born in McMinn county, Tennessee, March 25,
1825, and was of Scotch descent. He was a representative of one of the
old families of the south, being a grandson of Archibald Rowan, the
third governor of Tennessee. His education was that afforded by the
common schools and he remained in his native state until he became
of age. He then determined to try his fortune in the far west and,
crossing the plains, settled in Yamhill county, Oregon. For a number
of years he farmed there and then went into the cattle business, which
occupied his attention until 1855, when the Cayuse Indian war broke
out. He enlisted for six months' service in the First Oregon Mounted
Cavalry Regiment, which did good work in putting down the uprising
both in Oregon and Washington. He was later for six months assistant
wagon master and one of his duties was the gruesome task of hauling
the bodies of the dead back to The Dalles, from which point they were
shipped to relatives in the Willamette valley.
Following his marriage in 1859 Mr. Gilbreath drove a herd of cattle
to Old Walla Walla county, Washington. At that time the city of Walla
Walla comprised but a very few buildings and the settlers in the
county were few and far between. He took up a homestead three miles
southwest of the present city of Dayton and built a log cabin with
puncheon floors, which remained the family home for a number of years.
There were many hardships to be endured in those early days but the
lot of the pioneer was lightened by the spirit of hospitality and
cooperation which prevailed. Travelers were welcomed at every log cabin
and the service of each settler was at the disposal of the others.
Mr. Gilbreath worked hard and gave careful attention to his business
affairs and as time passed his resources increased. The first crude
buildings upon his farm were at length replaced by substantial and
commodious structures and the place was brought to a high state of
development. At the time of his death he owned two hundred acres of
fine orchard and alfalfa land, of which his widow has since sold one
hundred and twenty acres, still owning eighty acres, which is valued at
a high price per acre.