Walla Walla, and in the social circles of the city they are widely
and prominently known. Mr. Young is a stalwart republican, giving
unfaltering allegiance to the party and its principles. He belongs to
Walla Walla Lodge, No. 287, B. P. O. E.; to Enterprise Lodge, No. 121,
I. O. O. F.; and to Columbia Lodge, No. 8, K. P. He is also identified
with Alki Temple of the Dramatic Order of the Knights of Khorassan at
Walla Walla and the Knights of the Maccabees and the Knights and Ladies
of Security. He belongs to the Commercial Club and is interested in
all of its plans and purposes for the upbuilding and development of
the city. His wife is a member of the Christian church and Mr. Young
gives his aid and influence on the side of all those forces which work
for the upbuilding and progress of Walla Walla along material, social,
intellectual and moral lines. In an analyzation of his life record
it will be seen that concentration of purpose along a single line
of business has been one of the salient features in his success. He
started out as a florist and has continued in that field of activity.
He has never allowed difficulties nor obstacles to bar his path but
has overcome these by determined effort and has ever recognized that
satisfied patrons are the best advertisement. He has sought earnestly
to please his customers and his establishment, presenting everything
that is most attractive, unique and beautiful in the line of floral
culture, has been most liberally patronized.
THOMAS P. GOSE.
Thomas P. Gose, attorney at law practicing in Walla Walla as senior
partner in the firm of Gose & Crowe, was born in Sullivan county,
Missouri, May 11, 1855, a son of John M. and Hannah J. (McQuown) Gose.
The father is a native of Kentucky, while the mother's birth occurred
in Virginia. They were married, in Missouri, to which state they had
removed with their respective parents in childhood days. The father
was among the argonauts who started in search of the golden fleece
to California in the year 1849. He made the overland trip by way of
the Santa Fe trail and spent five years in the Golden state. He then
returned to Missouri in 1854, crossing the plains, after which he
continued his residence in Missouri until 1862, when he went to Denver,
Colorado, again making a trip in quest of gold. He spent about one year
there, after which he once more took up his abode in Missouri. The
lure of the west, however, was upon him and in 1864 he removed with
his family to Boise City, Idaho, where he arrived in August. The city
was at that time a frontier village, far removed from civilization to
the eastward or to the westward. Prices were so high that during that
winter he was obliged to pay about fifty dollars for a fifty-pound sack
of flour. In July, 1865, he came to Walla Walla and began farming in
the vicinity of the city. Both he and his wife are still living, Mr.
Gose having reached the notable old age of ninety-two years, while his
wife is enjoying good health at the age of eighty-six years. They now
make their home with their son, Thomas P. Gose, who is looking after
their comfort and welfare and thus with filial devotion is repaying the
love and care which they bestowed upon him in his youth.
Thomas P. Gose was a lad of about ten years when the family arrived
in Washington and much of his education was therefore acquired in the
public schools of Walla Walla, supplemented by study in the Whitman
Academy. In the spring of 1886, having determined to engage in a
professional career, he took up the study of law and in 1889, after a
thorough reading of the principles of jurisprudence, he was admitted to
the bar. In the fall of 1890 he opened his law office in Walla Walla
and in the intervening period, covering twenty-seven years, he has had
several law partnerships, being now senior member of the firm of Gose
& Crowe, which was formed in August, 1914. This firm ranks with the
foremost at the Walla Walla bar. Mr. Bose is devotedly attached to his
profession, is systematic and methodical in habit, sober and discreet
in judgment, diligent in research and conscientious in the discharge
of every duty. An earnest manner, marked strength of character and
a thorough grasp of the law, with ability to accurately apply its
principles, make him an effective and successful advocate and he is
also a safe and wise counselor.
On the 20th of December, 1893, Mr. Gose was united in marriage to Miss
Clara Crowe, of Freewater, Oregon, by whom he has five children, as
follows: Cecile, who was graduated from Whitman College with the class
of 1916 and is now a teacher in the high school at Kalama, Washington;
Gladys and Marjorie, both of whom are attending Whitman College; Vera,
a high school graduate; and Thomas P., who is a high school student.
Mr. and Mrs. Gose are members of the Congregational church and are
interested in all that pertains to individual uplift and community
betterment. Mr. Gose votes with the democratic party and has served
as deputy prosecuting attorney, while for four years he was a member
of the Walla Walla board of education. He is the present chairman of
the democratic county central committee and for years past has been a
dominant factor in the affairs of his party, doing much to mold public
thought and opinion and putting forth earnest and effective effort to
secure party success. The limitless possibilities of the west have
ever stirred his ambition and his energy, intelligently directed, has
carried him into important professional relations.
BREWSTER FERREL.
Brewster Ferrel now occupies an attractive home at 336 South Palouse
street in Walla Walla, where he is surrounded with all of the comforts
and many of the luxuries of life. For many years he was prominently and
actively identified with farming, taking up that work in Walla Walla
county in early pioneer times and meeting with all of the hardships and
privations which were incident to the settlement of the frontier. He
was born in Trumbull county, Ohio, August 22, 1838, a son of Edward and
Rosella (Fish) Ferrel, the former a native of Pennsylvania, while the
latter was born in Ohio. They were married in the Buckeye state and in
1854 removed to Iowa, where both resided up to the time of their death.
Brewster Ferrel was a lad of sixteen years when his father removed
to Iowa and in the public schools of that state he supplemented the
educational training which he had already received in Ohio. He was
trained to farm work, early becoming familiar with the tasks of
plowing, planting and harvesting, and he early developed habits of
industry and perseverance which later constituted very important
elements in the attainment of his present-day success.
In 1861, Brewster Ferrel was united in marriage in Iowa to Miss
Caroline Bott, a native of Muskingum county, Ohio, whose parents had
removed to Iowa when she was a little maiden of ten summers. The young
couple began their domestic life in the middle west but in 1864 left
their Iowa home and started across the plains with a team of mules and
a prairie schooner. They joined a wagon train and, traveling after
the slow and tedious method of that period, at length arrived in
Walla Walla on the 3d of August, 1864. For some time after reaching
the northwest Mr. Ferrel, like many other of the pioneers, engaged
in freighting and continued in that business up to the advent of the
railroad, when freighting by team was no longer profitable. He then
concentrated his energies upon farming. It was in 1864 that he had
homesteaded and secured the farm property which he still owns. The
first year after his arrival there was little wheat raised and so great
was the demand for it in the mining regions of the Rocky Mountains that
he sold all he had for a dollar and a quarter per bushel, which was
considered a very high price in that day. The following year, however,
the eastern demand fell off and the farmers were obliged to market
their product in Portland, where the wheat brought only sixty cents
per bushel. Stock could be ranged easily in the mountains and for a
time Mr. Ferrel engaged in raising stock, driving his cattle to the
different mining camps, where he would sell them. Eventually, however,
he disposed of his live stock interests entirely. To his original farm
of two hundred acres he gradually added four hundred acres and finally
more and more, paying for his last tract a hundred dollars per acre--a
tract that could have been bought at the time of his arrival for a
dollar and a quarter per acre. Mr. Ferrel has always been actuated
by a spirit of enterprise and progressiveness in anything that he
has undertaken. He was among the first to build a barbed wire fence
in Walla Walla county. Up to this time he had hauled rails from the
mountains and tied them to posts by means of rawhide, thus using the
otherwise useless hides to help fence his crops from the ranging herds.
For the first barbed wire he paid eighteen cents per pound and it was
a very crude article compared to that manufactured at the present
time at that. The most improved farm machine was the old McCormick
reaper, bearing little resemblance to the binders and headers of the
present time. Mr. Ferrel even cradled large portions of his wheat crop
in those early years and all the farmers would unite to harvest and
thresh. At that day many believed that the Walla Walla valley would
be abandoned as soon as the mines to the eastward were exhausted and
many refused to take up land and settle. At times Mr. Ferrel may have
become discouraged but with stout heart he pressed on and his diligence
and determination have at length secured a substantial reward. His
crops today bring ten per cent on an investment rated at one hundred
dollars per acre and he and his sons have built up a grain growing
business that is as carefully, methodically and successfully managed as
any mercantile establishment. The old homestead is located on Russell
creek, about eight miles east of Walla Walla, and thereon Mr. Ferrel
resided until 1902, when he took up his abode in the city, where he has
one of the most handsome homes to be found in southeastern Washington.
In the meantime he had added to his possessions until he became the
owner of three thousand acres of farm land, which make him one of the
county's most substantial and prosperous citizens. All that he has
acquired in the course of an active and busy life has been won since he
came to Washington and most of it has been made in the past twenty or
twenty-five years.
Mr. and Mrs. Ferrel became the parents of eight children, seven of whom
survive, as follows: Thomas J., who is engaged in farming in Walla
Walla county; Rosella E., the wife of Walter Barnett, an agriculturist
of Walla Walla county; Seth A., David B. and Joseph W., all of whom
follow farming in Walla Walla county; Fidelia C., the wife of Charles
Maxson, who is a farmer residing in Walla Walla; and Myrtle M., who
gave her hand in marriage to Thomas Jones, an agriculturist of Walla
Walla county.
Mr. Ferrel gives his political allegiance to the republican party,
which he has continuously supported since age conferred upon him the
right of franchise. He and his wife are consistent members of the
Methodist church and have ever been loyal to its teachings, while to
its work they have been generous contributors. They are among the most
highly esteemed citizens of Walla Walla, where they have resided since
early pioneer times, and there is no phase of the county's development
and improvement in all the intervening years with which they are
not familiar. In his business affairs Mr. Ferrel has ever displayed
indefatigable energy, close application and persistency of purpose
and his record indicates that success and an honored name may be won
simultaneously.
FRANK FITZGERALD.
Frank Fitzgerald, who is devoting his time and energies to the
operation of an excellent farm on section 34, township 13 north, range
42 east, Garfield county, was born in Tennessee, April 17, 1855, a son
of Alford and Temperance (Bradshaw) Fitzgerald, natives respectively of
Virginia and North Carolina, who were married, however, in Tennessee.
In 1860 the family removed to Missouri and later in the same year the
father passed away. The mother continued to reside in that state until
her death in 1906. All of their four children survive.
Frank Fitzgerald passed the greater part of his boyhood and youth in
the state of Missouri, as he was but five years of age at the time of
the removal there, and his education was that afforded by the public
schools. In 1887 he removed to Garfield county, Washington, and for
thirteen years operated rented land but in 1900 bought his present farm
of three hundred and twenty acres on section 34, township 13 north,
range 42 east. His success has been based upon the sure foundation of
hard work and the most rigorous attention to the task in hand.
Mr. Fitzgerald was married September 23, 1880, to Miss May Temple, who
was born in Wisconsin, and they have eleven children, namely: Pearl,
the wife of S. E. Fanning; Harold, Frank and Justin, all now in the
United States army; Letta, the wife of Emery Dye; Alford; Otto; Opal;
Louise; and two deceased.
Mr. Fitzgerald supports the republican party at the polls and for years
has been a member of the school board, in which connection he has been
instrumental in securing gratifying progress in the educational system
of his locality. He is well known and highly esteemed and his personal
friends are many.
LEE BARNES.
Lee Barnes, who is now filling the position of sheriff in Walla Walla
county, was born in Boone county, Missouri, July 20, 1866. His father,
John S. Barnes, is a native of Sangamon county, Illinois, born in
February, 1828, and is still a resident of Oregon, having reached
the ninetieth milestone on life's journey. His life has been devoted
to the occupation of farming. His wife, who bore the maiden name of
Lucinda J. Sims, was born in Kentucky and is deceased. In their family
were seven children who are still living: M. C., who is a resident of
Boone county, Missouri; J. T., living in Touchet, Washington; C. H., a
resident of Yakima, Washington; Lucy J., the wife of John W. Parks, of
Freewater, Oregon; W. W., also a resident of Freewater; Lee, of this
review; and Joseph S., of Kansas City, Missouri.
[Illustration: MR. AND MRS. FRANK FITZGERALD]
Lee Barnes largely obtained his education in Saline county, Missouri,
and afterward became a barber, following his trade at various places in
his native state for seventeen years. On the expiration of that period
he turned his attention to the confectionery business in Touchet,
Washington, and has since made his home in Walla Walla county. He
served for four years as deputy sheriff under Michael Toner and in
1914 was elected to the office of sheriff, in which position he is now
serving for the second term, discharging his duties with promptness and
fidelity and without fear or favor.
In 1859 Mr. Barnes was married to Miss Ollie N. Doty, a native of Iowa
and a daughter of Lyman Doty. Mr. and Mrs. Barnes have become the
parents of two children: Walter S., who married Vela Burns and has two
children, Mildred and Audrey; and Lottie, the wife of Elvin Galloway,
of Touchet, Washington, by whom she has one child, Elaine. On March 6,
1902, Mrs. Barnes passed away, sincerely mourned by her family and her
many friends.
In politics Mr. Barnes has always been a stalwart advocate of
democratic principles and has given earnest support to the party. He
holds membership in the Baptist church and his life has been guided by
its principles. Those who know him esteem him highly, for his marked
characteristics of manhood and citizenship are those which commend him
to the warm regard, the confidence and the goodwill of those with whom
he has been brought in contact.
ROY ROBERT CAHILL.
Well qualified for his chosen calling, Roy Robert Cahill has made for
himself a creditable position among the able attorneys of Dayton.
Moreover, he deserves representation in this volume as one of the
native sons of Columbia county, where his birth occurred June 19, 1884.
He is a son of Alph P. and Irene M. (Starr) Cahill. The father is now
cashier of the Broughton National Bank and a leading and influential
business man of this section of the state.
Roy Robert Cahill was educated in the public schools of Dayton, after
which he attended Whitman College at Walla Walla, there winning the
degree of Bachelor of Arts upon the completion of a classical course in
1909. He thus laid broad and deep the foundation upon which to build
the superstructure of professional learning. After his graduation from
Whitman he entered the law department of Columbia University and there
won his law degree as a member of the class of 1912. Following his
graduation he returned to Dayton, where he opened an office and entered
upon the practice of his chosen profession, which he has since followed
independently.
In 1913 Mr. Cahill was united in marriage to Miss Jessie Criffield,
a daughter of W. R. Criffield, of Walla Walla. He belongs to Dayton
Lodge, No. 26, F. &. A. M. and he gives his political allegiance to the
republican party. He is widely known as a representative young business
man, possessing marked ability and enterprise, and that his has been
a well spent life is indicated in the fact that many of his stanchest
friends are those who have known him from his boyhood to the present
time.
REV. ALEXANDER WALTER SWEENEY.
After a useful and well spent life Alexander W. Sweeney passed away on
the 28th of November, 1903, honored and respected by all who knew him.
He was born in Savannah, Hardin county, Tennessee, January 25, 1825,
but before he was five years of age accompanied his parents on their
removal to Arkansas, the family locating near Fayetteville, which was
then a frontier settlement with no educational advantages. Being unable
to attend school he was taught the elementary branches by his father
until the latter's death, which occurred in 1833 when our subject was
still quite young. The father had a contract with the government to
carry the United States mail and during his illness the son often took
the mail.
After his father's death Alexander W. Sweeney started out to make
his own way in the world and was apprenticed to a tanner, whose
cruelty soon forced him to leave and seek the protection of an older
brother. During the autumn of 1839 while attending a camp meeting near
Fayetteville, he joined the Cumberland Presbyterian church and desirous
of becoming a minister, was received under the care of the Arkansas
Presbytery as a probationer when about eighteen years of age. A school
of academic grade had been established in the community and Mr. Sweeney
became a student there, in the meantime working for his support and
doing his studying at night.
When in his nineteenth year he was licensed to preach and according to
the custom of his church was put on the circuit to preach a part of
each year. During a period of six months of continuous service on the
circuit he received only two dollars and forty cents in money, one pair
of home knit socks and had his horse shod free. For four or five years
he continued to attend school as opportunity afforded while preaching
and in that time made sufficient progress in his studies to enable
him to enter the sophomore year in college. Accordingly he went to
Princeton, Kentucky, where he attended Cumberland College until 1850,
and then returned to the Arkansas Presbytery, where he was at once
ordained to the ministry at the age of twenty-five years, having spent
eight years in preparation for his chosen work.
Soon after his ordination Rev. Sweeney joined a company of gold hunters
who with ox teams crossed the plains and arrived at a gold camp on the
American river in California, August 26, 1850. The following Sunday
he preached to a company of miners that collected under the shade
of a live oak tree, thus beginning a ministry on the Pacific coast
which lasted until his physical health failed him. In 1851 he went to
the Willamette valley in Oregon and was present as a visitor at the
organization of the Oregon Presbytery, November 3, 1851. For seven
years he preached throughout the Willamette valley, exerting a strong
moral influence wherever he went.
[Illustration: MRS. ALEXANDER W. SWEENEY]
[Illustration: REV. ALEXANDER W. SWEENEY]
On the 15th of July, 1852, Rev. Sweeney was united in marriage to
Miss Angeline Allen, of Marion county, Oregon, a daughter of Samuel
and Sarah (Benson) Allen. Of the three children born to Rev. and Mrs.
Sweeney, Adelia, the eldest, died at the age of fifteen years. Those
still living are Samuel B. and Mrs. Adna Sharpstein.
On account of throat trouble Mr. Sweeney and his family went to
California in 1858 and remained in that state for about four years,
during which time he taught school for a year and a half at Sonoma,
being principal of the female department of a Presbyterian college. In
1862 he again came north, going with the gold seekers to Clearwater,
Idaho, where he devoted his time to the work of the ministry and to his
duties as justice of the peace. In 1867 he removed to Umatilla Landing
on the Columbia river in Oregon, where he not only engaged in preaching
but also taught school. There was no organized church at that place but
he was paid about six hundred dollars by popular subscription, which
was the best salary he had ever received for his ministerial services
up to that time. For one year he served as superintendent of schools
for Umatilla county.
In 1869 Mr. Sweeney returned to California, traveling by way of the
Columbia river and Pacific ocean, and during his sojourn in that state
taught school under supervision of the church at Collegeville, about
eight miles from Stockton, in San Joaquin county for a year and a half,
and on his retirement from that work returned to Oregon, spending
two years at Albany. From there he came to western Washington about
1872 and did considerable missionary work among the pioneers of this
region, traveling over a large territory, more than one hundred miles
in extent. He started the first Presbyterian church in Walla Walla
with but two members. He preached in Waitsburg, Dayton, Pomeroy and
Colfax and often held services in school houses and groves throughout
the country. Failing health at length caused him to retire from the
active work of the ministry after thirty-five years of most faithful
service. He preached occasionally up to the year 1900. His wife was
a most competent help and by her good management made the sunset of
his life much easier financially. His unselfish life and devotion to
the work of the Master gained him the unqualified regard of all with
whom he came in contact. Although now eighty-one years of age, Mrs.
Sweeney is still well preserved, being strong and active and able to do
considerable work, including the care of her own garden. Her intellect
seems unimpaired and she appears to be much younger than she really is.
She was always a faithful wife, a capable financier and a hard worker,
being able to support herself and children and secure the property
which kept Mr. Sweeney in comfort during his declining years.
GUY S. DEMARIS.
An excellent farm of one hundred and thirty acres pays tribute to
the care and labor bestowed upon it by Guy S. Demaris, whose place
is situated on section 12, township 7 north, range 37 east, in Walla
Walla county. He was born November 4, 1885, on the farm where he now
resides, his parents being Orlando and Mary (Lewis) Demaris, who are
mentioned elsewhere in this work. His youthful days were spent under
the parental roof and he early became familiar with the best methods
of tilling the soil and caring for the crops, dividing his time between
the acquirement of an education in the district schools, the pleasures
of the playground and the work of the fields. He also had the advantage
of a business course in the Empire Business College at Walla Walla
and after completing his studies he worked for his brothers, Fred and
David, in connection with their farming operations. In 1912 he began
farming on his own account and has since given his attention to general
agricultural pursuits. He took charge of the old home place of one
hundred and thirty acres, which he is now cultivating, and the neat and
thrifty appearance of his place indicates his careful supervision and
his practical and progressive methods. The farm is divided into fields
of convenient size by well kept fences, there are substantial buildings
upon the land and he utilizes the latest improved machinery in carrying
on the work of the fields. He annually harvests good crops and is
winning success as the years go by.
On the 25th of December, 1906, Mr. Demaris was united in marriage to
Miss Gertrude Tash, a daughter of Andrew J. Tash, one of the pioneers
of Walla Walla county, still living on Mill creek. To this marriage
were born two children but both have passed away.