Mr. Martin supports the republican party and has served acceptably as member of the school board. He is a communicant of the Catholic church, and his life has been guided by high moral standards. His residence is attractive and up-to-date and he is enjoying all the comforts of his life as the result of his well directed labors and wise investments. Mr. Martin is strong and vigorous for his years but to enjoy the balmy air of the south he spends his winters in Los Angeles, California.
C. F. ACTOR.
C. F. Actor, a grain dealer and warehouse man of Starbuck, was born in Dixie, Washington, on the 27th of October, 1868, a son of H. C. Actor, one of the veterans of the early Indian wars and one of the well known men of the pioneer period of Walla Walla county. He died August 30, 1917, near Dixie and extended mention of him appears elsewhere in this work.
C. F. Actor was reared under the parental roof and acquired his education in the public schools of Dixie. He also attended the Empire Business College of Walla Walla and thus became well qualified for life's practical and responsible duties. In early manhood he worked for a time in Colfax and was variously employed, after which he returned to Walla Walla county and for some time was engaged in farming. In 1902 he removed to Starbuck and entered the grain trade, managing the Alto warehouse for the Alto Warehouse Company for a year. On the expiration of that period he became the representative of the Balfour-Guthrie Company, with which he continued for four years as grain buyer. In 1907 he engaged in the grain business on his own account and since that time has operated independently and successfully, being today one of the well known grain merchants of Columbia county, controlling a business of large volume that brings to him a good financial return.
In 1900 Mr. Actor was married to Miss Lucy May Buroker, daughter of Martin B. Buroker, of Waitsburg, and they have become the parents of five children, four sons and a daughter, namely: Charles M., Alfred A., Grace, Lester E. and Fred F.
In his political views Mr. Actor has ever been an earnest republican since attaining adult age. In January, 1917, he was appointed to fill a vacancy on the board of county commissioners and is now serving in that capacity, in which connection he is making an excellent record, carefully safe-guarding the interests of the county, yet never blocking public progress by useless retrenchment. He belongs to Tucannon Lodge, No. 106, F. & A. M., of Starbuck, and also to Starbuck Lodge, No. 158, I. O. O. F. In 1916 he was representative to the grand lodge of Odd Fellows. He is also identified with Dayton Lodge, No. 3, K. P. In banking circles he is known as a director of the Bank of Starbuck and he ranks with the leading and representative business men and citizens of the town, his aid and influence being always given on the side of progress and improvement. He at all times displays a public-spirited devotion to the general good and has wisely conducted his private business affairs, which have brought to him substantial and merited success.
M. W. SWEGLE.
A successful career has been that of M. W. Swegle, who now follows farming on section 32, township 7 north, range 35 east, in Walla Walla county. He has lived in this county since 1888 and is concentrating his efforts and attention upon the development and improvement of a farm of five hundred and fourteen acres. This is a memorable locality in the history of the state for it is the site of the Whitman massacre—the identical spot on which the atrocities committed by the red men culminated in the murder of the noble Reverend Whitman and his family, those venerable pioneers, who were doing such inestimable work in claiming this region for the purposes of Christian civilization, laying the cornerstone of the foundation for the moral and materially visible development of the entire region.