Spokane and the Spokane country : pictorial and biographical : deluxe supplement (Volume 1) online

a position with the advertising department of the Chicago Morning
News, where he remained for five years until failing health brought
him to Spokane.

Since 1887 he has been closely identified with the development
of the city and country both in conjunction with general public en-
terprises and through his own initiative. Conspicuous among the
records of his work in Spokane are the development of Hillyard,
Richland Park, The Hill, Cannon Hill Park and a number of other
additions in Spokane as well as suburban properties. His company
is local agent for the United States Mortgage & Trust Company
and The Mortgage Bond Company, of New York, and also loaning
agents for two of the great New York life insurance companies. The
business includes real-estate, rental, loan and bond departments,
banks, etc. He is manager of numerous land companies in which he
is financially interested and is a stockholder in four Spokane banks
and in other enterprises.

Mr. Jones married December 25, 1887, to Miss Ada M. Stinson,
and has two sons and one daughter. In politics he is a liberal re-
publican, and, although he has been keenly interested in political af-
fairs, the only office he ever held or tried for was that of city council-
man for a three-year term.



138 grtftur ji. Sfonti

Mr. Jones literally grew up with Spokane. When he started in
business in this city, his capital consisted of very little money and
the city contained only a few thousand people. For over a quarter
of a century he has watched the city grow and assisted in its growing,
and his own fortunes have prospered with it.




Clp $. £>palbtng

^LY P. SPALDING, president of the Pacific Timber
Preservative Company, was born in Chicago, Illi-
nois, April 18, 1862, his parents being William and
Maria (Sedgwick) Spalding, the former a Board of
Trade operator of Chicago for many years. The son
entered the public schools at the usual age, continu-
ing his studies through successive grades until he left the high school
to enter business life, and for four years he was employed in his na-
tive city. He then resolved to seek opportunities elsewhere and went
to San Pedro, New Mexico, where he worked in the smelter of San
Pedro & Canon del Agua Copper Company of that place. During
the three years there passed he thoroughly acquainted himself with
all branches of mining and assaying. He then returned to New
York city and devoted the next ten years to the brokerage business.
In 1890 Mr. Spalding again came to the west, this time settling
in the Coeur d'Alene country, where he was connected with the old
Sierra Nevada Mining Company first as assistant assayer and then
as assayer for the company. From the Coeur dAlene district he
went to Portland, Oregon, and engaged in handling mining proper-
ties in that state for about three years. After a year spent in Alaska
he returned to the United States and was for some years an exam-
ining mining engineer, examining and reporting on properties all
the way from Mexico to Alaska. In 1901 be took a bond on the
Monarch mine of Monarch, Idaho, of which he is president. He is
also president of the Coeur dAlene-Norfolk Mining & Smelting
Company and thus continues in close connection with mining inter-
ests, with which he has so long been identified in one capacity or
another.

His efforts, too, have been extended to other lines, all of which
have constituted features in the general development as well as in
individual success. He built the Idaho Northern Railroad, which is
now a branch of the Oregon & Washington Railway & Navigation
Company and of which he was vice president and general manager
up to the time of its sale. He was also vice president and general
manager of the Big Bend Water Power Company which is now a

141



142



dp $. Spalding



part of the Washington Water Power Company system and known
as the Long Lake project. It was sold about two years ago and Mr.
Spalding is now concentrating his energies largely upon his executive
and administrative duties as president of the Pacific Timber Pre-
servative Company, of which A. M. P. Spalding, his wife, is the
secretary and treasurer. This company treats railroad ties at a lower
expense than any other process that has been developed and there is
every indication that the business will grow to be an extensive one.
They have portable plants which they can put on cars and take to
the place where the ties are found, thus saving the expense of having
a large central plant and hauling the ties to and from that plant.
In this business Mr. Spalding has an enterprise which is of a most
promising character and undoubtedly he will reap the success which
has usually attended his efforts.

On the 5th of December, 1906, Mr. Spalding was married to Mrs.
Anna M. Phillips, and they reside at the Spokane Hotel. He holds
membership in the Spokane Club, the Spokane Country Club and
the Inland Club and is also a member of the Elks Lodge, No. 331, at
Wallace, Idaho. The salient points in his character have been close
application, unfaltering industry and intelligent investigation of
every subject that has come under his control in connection with busi-
ness interests. His opinions are regarded as expert authority upon
questions relating to the mining interests of the west and he has an
extensive acquaintance in mining circles. Wherever known he com-
mands the good-will and confidence of those with whom he has come
in contact and is now accorded a most creditable position in the busi-
ness circles of this citv.





/L/jl c^A^aJLot/



OTtltmr ^>tmpsion gearslep

(ILBUR SIMPSON YEARSLEY, vice president of

W. the firm of Ham, Yearsley & Ryrie, has been a resi-
^ dent of Washing-ton for the past nineteen years' dur-
Vw ing the greater portion of which time he has been
(SfeijfcSjftS) identified with the business interests of Spokane. He
is a native of Pennsylvania, his birth having occurred
in Westtown township, Chester county, on the 22d of April, 1866,
his parents being Washington and Jane (Lewis) Yearsley. In both
lines he is of Quaker extraction, his father's family having emigrated
to America in 1684, as members of William Penn's colony, while his
maternal ancestors came to this country from Wales during the early
colonial days. His mother, who celebrated the seventy-ninth anni-
versary of her birth on the 10th of September, 1911, is now a resident
of Spokane and makes her home with her son at 2017 Mallon street.
Wilbur Simpson Yearsley was educated in the public schools of
his native town and later for a time studied at Woralls Academy at
West Chester, Pennsylvania. He then took a course in the Pierce
Business College at Philadelphia, from which he was graduated in
1886. He began his business career in a general merchandise store
at Westtown and while there he devoted his spare hours to reading
law under the direction of Alfred P. Reid, of West Chester. For
six years he was identified with various occupations but still continued
his law studies, being admitted to the Chester county bar in June,
1892. On the 1st of the following July he came to Spokane as ex-
aminer for the Pennsylvania Mortgage Investment Company, being
retained here in that capacity until 1905. When this company re-
trenched, following the panic of 1893 and 1894, he was located at
Colfax, this state, where he had charge of the business in Whitman
and Garfield counties and also that of Latah and Nez Perce coun-
ties, Idaho. Two years later, in 1897, his duties were increased by
the addition of the business of Yakima, Kittitas, Adams and Frank-
lin counties, Washington, all of which he cleared up in 1899 and
turned it over to the Spokane office. For two years thereafter he
engaged in the land and loan business on his own responsibility but
in 1901 he became associated with D. T. Ham and C. L. Hoffman

145



146



SSiilbur Simpson gearslep



and together they organized the Palouse Land Company, which they
operated until 1906. In August, 1907, together with David J. Ham,
Donald Ryrie and Shirley S. Philbrick he incorporated the company
of Ham, Yearsley, Ryrie & Philbrick for the purpose of a general
investment business but in 1908 Mr. Philbrick retired to look after
personal business. Since then the firm has been conducted under the
name of Ham, Yearsley & Ryrie, with D. T. Ham, president ; Wilbur
S. Yearsley, vice president; K. Murray, secretary; and D. Ryrie,
treasurer. They do a general fire, liability and indemnity insurance
business and they also handle land, loans and investments and col-
lective!}' and individually they are financially identified with various
local enterprises. Mr. Yearsley has quite extensive interests and at
the present time is president of The Inland Empire Paper Company,
vice president of The Liberty Lake Land Company and Interna-
tional Power Company, while he is also president of The Industrial
Development Company and The Klickitat Columbia River Irrigation
Company. He is one of the enterprising and progressive business
men of the city and is meeting with excellent success in his various
undertakings.

Political activities have always engaged much of the attention of
Mr. Yearsley, although he has never been an office seeker, and his
support is given to the democratic party. He was on the democratic
electoral ticket of this state during the Palmer and Ruckley cam-
paign and while residing in Whitman county he was chairman of the
democratic central committee. Fraternally he is identified with
Thompson Lodge, F. & A. M., of eastern Pennsylvania, and his con-
nection with organizations of a more purely social nature is confined
to his membership in the Spokane and Inland Clubs of this city. Mr.
Yearsley has never married and makes his home at 2017 Mallon
street. He is an enthusiastic admirer of the northwest and has un-
limited faith in the marvelous possibilities it offers, commercially,
industrially and agriculturally, owing to its many natural advantages
and the spirit of energy that characterizes its citizens. He avails
himself of every possible opportunity to advance its interests by
championing every progressive movement inaugurated in Spokane
and giving his cooperation to forwarding the development of the
various public utilities.




^



Mtlltam 5. C. OTakeftelb

)ILLIAM J. C. WAKEFIELD, who ranks high

Wm\ among the prominent lawyers of the Spokane bar,
^-* has engaged in practice in this city since May, 1889,
' and his constantly increasing ability has brought him
continuous recognition in a large and distinctively
representative clientage. He has concentrated his
time, energies and attention upon his professional duties and the work
that he has done as advocate and counselor indicates clearly his fam-
iliarity with the principles of jurisprudence and an analytical power
that enables him to correctly apply those principles to the question
under consideration.

While a resident of the west for more than a quarter of a cen-
tury, Mr. Wakefield is a native son of New England, his birth hav-
ing occurred in Ludlow, Windsor county, Vermont, on the 4th of
September, 1862. The family was founded in Massachusetts dur-
ing the early colonial epoch in the history of this country, and the
great-great-great-grandfather, Jonathan Wakefield, of Sutton, Mas-
sachusetts, took up arms in defense of his country during the French
and Indian war, serving in the expedition under General Amherst
against Ticonderoga and Crown Point in 1759. That the spirit of
liberty was strong within him and that the same spirit was inculcated
in his family is indicated by the fact that six of his sons were soldiers
in the Continental army during the Revolutionary war. One of
these, Samuel Wakefield, was a member of the Lexington company
that at the first alarm marched on the 19th of April, 1775, out upon
the little green in the center of the town to meet the British forces
that demanded immediate surrender. He was a member of the com-
pany commanded by Captain John Putman, attached to Colonel
Ebenezer Larned's regiment, and he continued in the service until
September 17, 1779. The line of descent to William J. C. Wake-
field is traced down from Samuel Wakefield, through his son Samuel,
who removed from Massachusetts to Newport, New Hampshire,
Alpheus Wakefield, who was a resident of Ludlow, Vermont, and
Luther F. Wakefield. The last named spent his entire life in Lud-
low, where he followed the pursuits of mechanic, miller and farmer.



150 aHiUtam 3. C. TOafeefielb

He married Lorinda L. Place, a native of northern Vermont, and
also a representative of an old New England family.

Their son, William J. C. Wakefield, acquired his early education
in the district schools of Chittenden and Windsor counties, Vermont,
and afterward attended the Black River Academy of Ludlow, where
he prepared for college, then entering Dartmouth College, from which
he was graduated with the class of 1885. The west with its limitless
opportunities attracted him and on the completion of his college course
he became a resident of Austin, Nevada, where he engaged in teach-
ing school. The hours which are usually termed leisure were devoted
by Mr. Wakefield to the study of law under the direction of Judge
McKenna of that place, and he completed his legal studies in the
office of Archer & Bowden, following his removal to San Jose, Cali-
fornia. Early in 1889 he was admitted to the bar in San Francisco
and then turned to the northwest Pacific country, deciding upon Spo-
kane as a favorable location. Accordingly, in May, he arrived in
this city, which has since been his home and the scene of his profes-
sional labors and achievements. In November, 1889, he formed a
partnership with Judge L. B. Nash, which was maintained until the
spring of 1892, when Mr. Wakefield succeeded Colonel W. W. D.
Turner in the firm of Turner & Forster, the style of Forster & Wake-
field being then assumed. In 1905, following the death of George
M. Forster, Mr. Wakefield organized with A. W. Witherspoon the
present firm of Wakefield & Witherspoon, which is today regarded
as one of the most prominent and successful in the city. Mr. Wake-
field has largely represented clients who have been prominently con-
nected with the development of eastern Washington, northern Idaho
and western Montana. He is well versed in all departments of the
law and upon his professional service has concentrated his attention
to the exclusion of all political activities. Since 1890 he has held the
office of master in chancery of the United States court. He is an
officer or director in many corporations that are active in the develop-
ment of this section of the country and his relations to the northwest
is that of contagious enthusiasm which has led to his support of many
projects and measures of public benefit.

On the 10th of June, 1896, Mr. Wakefield was united in marriage
to Miss Louise Ammann, a daughter of Arnold and Caroline Am-
mann, formerly of Springfield, Illinois. They now have an inter-
esting family of two daughters and three sons, Louise, Channing,
Helen, Newton and William. The family are prominent socially



SaHtUiam 3f. C. OTafeefielb



151



and Mr. Wakefield is also well known in athletic circles and is equally
interested in educational projects which have for their object the
intellectual progress of the community. For years he was identified
with the National Guard of Nevada and Washington, retiring from
the latter with the rank of lieutenant colonel and chief signal officer.
He is recognized as a man of well rounded character whose interests
are varied and who at all times keeps in close touch with the trend
of modern thought and progress.




Cbtoarb fame* Cannon

ELL versed in all departments of the law and espe-
cially proficient in corporation law, Edward James
Cannon by the consensus of public opinion is placed
in a foremost position among the distinguished at-
torneys of Spokane and at the same time is active in
control of important invested interests. He was born
on a farm near Warnerville, Juneau county, Wisconsin, February 21,
son of James and Eliza (Noonan) Cannon, both of whom
were of Irish lineage. The maternal grandparents were both natives
of Ireland and Michael Noonan, the grandfather of Eliza (Noonan)
Cannon, was a civil engineer and overseer of public works in the south
half of Ireland during the famine times. His wife reached the re-
markable old age of one hundred and nine years. James Cannon
has devoted his life to farming and now makes his home in Cresco,
Iowa. His family numbered eleven children, the brothers of Ed-
ward James Cannon being: Harry, who is a prominent physician
and surgeon of St. Paul; John M., an attorney of Ritzville, Wash-
ington ; George, who is practicing law in Minnesota ; and James, who
is engaged in the insurance business in Minneapolis. The daughters
of the household were: Mary, the wife of M. A. Montague, who
is engaged in the land business in Iowa; Lyda, the wife of P. M.
Daly, in the interior department of Washington, D. C. ; Marcella,
the wife of Thomas Gerraghty, an attorney of Valdez, Alaska ; Mar-
garet, the wife of Frank J. O'Rourke, of Freeport, Illinois, who is
assistant editor of a daily paper there; and Theresa and Katherine,
at home.

When Edward J. Cannon was a lad of eight years the family
removed to the Hawkeye state and following the acquirement of his
more specific literary education he went to St. Paul, Minnesota, in
the fall of 1887 and there entered upon the study of law in the office
of Thompson & Taylor, who directed his reading until his admission
to the bar on the 1st of June, 1890. He then entered upon the prac-
tice of his profession in St. Paul, where he remained until January 1,
1906, when he came to Spokane, having received the appointment of
division counsel for the Northern Pacific Railroad Company for that



156