E. G. HASTINGS.
E. G. Hastings, who makes his home on section 2, township 13 north, range 40 east, Garfield county, is an extensive wheat and stock raiser, operating with his sons eighteen hundred acres of land. He was born in Davis county, Iowa, November 18, 1850, and is a son of Jacob P. and Martha A. (Graham) Hastings. The father was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, and the mother in Kentucky. They were pioneers of Iowa, removing there in 1847, and for fifteen years they continued residents of that state. In 1862 they again sought the frontier, crossing the plains with ox teams, Washington being their destination. After a hard trip of five months they reached old Walla Walla county and took up their residence on a claim near the present site of Walla Walla. Ten years later they removed to Garfield county and eventually settled in Milton, Oregon, where his mother died in 1899. The father continued to reside there for nine years thereafter and then went to Starbuck, Washington, where he passed away. Only five of their twelve children now survive.
E. G. Hastings received his education in Iowa and in Walla Walla county, Washington, and was reared under the parental roof. The training in farm work which he received under his father proved of great value to him when, at the age of twenty years, he came to Garfield county and took up a claim. He sold that farm in 1884 and came to his present place on the Snake river, which is now one of the good stock ranches of Garfield county. As the years have passed he has extended his farming operations and now, in partnership with his sons, engages in wheat and stock raising on eighteen hundred acres of land. The adoption of the most efficient methods and the use of the latest machinery make it possible for him to keep his extensive interests well in hand and he has gained a good annual income.
In 1872 Mr. Hastings was united in marriage to Miss Alice S. Morris, a native of Iowa, and they have become the parents of six children: Alfred G. and Alvin J., twins; William M.; Essie, the wife of J. G. Krels; John J.; and Ella M., the wife of Walter Long.
Mr. Hastings supports the republican party by his ballot, for two terms filled the office of county commissioner with entire satisfaction to his constituents, and has also been supervisor and a member of the school board. His religious belief is that of the Christian church, to which he belongs, and in its teachings are found the guiding principles of his life. Fraternally he is connected with the Masons, belonging to Evening Star Lodge, No. 30, at Pomeroy. The success which he has gained is proof of his ability, for it has been won solely through his own efforts.
EDWIN HUGH VAN PATTEN, Ph. M., M. D.
Dr. Edwin Hugh Van Patten, a distinguished member of the medical profession practicing at Dayton, was born March 8, 1855, near Springfield, Illinois, and traces his ancestry back to the year 1641, when Charles Frederick Van Patten was born. He came to New Amsterdam, now New York, in 1664 and from that ancestor the line comes down unbroken to Dr. Van Patten of this review. His parents were John Coop and Rachel (McCoy) Van Patten. The father was born in New Jersey, January 22, 1832, and acquired a public school education in Springfield, Illinois, accompanying his parents on their removal to that state during his early youth. He studied for the ministry of the Cumberland Presbyterian church and remained one of its well known pastors until the union of the Cumberland Presbyterian with the Presbyterian church, when he returned to the church of his youth. For a number of years he was general agent for the Lincoln University at Lincoln, Illinois, and he became pastor of the Cumberland Presbyterian church of Lincoln at the time when he accepted the agency, there remaining for five years. On leaving Illinois he removed to eastern Washington in 1880, settling in Dayton, where he had purchased land and where he engaged in preaching the gospel for many years. He was also prominent in the public life of the community and was chosen to represent his district in the state senate, which position he was filling at the time Governor Rodger was elected. He died in the latter part of August, 1912, when in the eighty-first year of his age.
