Wiley L. Arnold, a representative and successful agriculturist of Walla Walla county, resides on section 26, township 8 north, range 37 east, where he operates a well improved farm of forty-five acres, and he is also the owner of another valuable farm of one hundred and eighteen acres four miles distant from the aforementioned place. His birth occurred in Tennessee on the 8th of September, 1866, his parents being John and Anna Arnold, who spent their entire lives in that state. They had two sons, the brother of our subject being Grant, who is still a resident of Tennessee.
Wiley L. Arnold spent the period of his minority in his native state and in 1887, when a young man of twenty-one years, made his may to Spokane, Washington. Soon afterward, however, he removed to Vancouver, Washington, where he also spent but a short time and then went to Grants Pass, Oregon, there remaining during a winter season. Subsequently he came to Walla Walla county, Washington, and here worked on a ranch for three and one-half years. On the expiration of that period he returned to Grants Pass, Oregon, but two years later again made his way to Walla Walla county and purchased the farm on which he now resides and to the cultivation of which he has devoted his attention continuously to the present time. It is a highly improved property, comprising forty-five acres on section 26, township 8 north, range 37 east, near Dixie. Mr. Arnold also owns another farm of one hundred and eighteen acres nearby and in the conduct of his agricultural interests has met with gratifying and well deserved success, being energetic, enterprising and progressive. He is also a stockholder in the warehouse at Sapellel.
In 1893 Mr. Arnold was united in marriage to Miss Carrie Perry, a native of California and a daughter of Thomas and Sarah (Shinn) Perry, the former born in Canada and the latter in Michigan. They made the trip to California in 1849 and after a number of years' residence in that state took up their abode in Grants Pass, Oregon, where they spent the remainder of their lives. They became the parents of twelve children, eight of whom survive. To Mr. and Mrs. Arnold have been born six children, as follows: Veora I., who is the wife of George W. Bruce; Marion Harvey; Zeffie A.; Sarah F.; Ivan W.; and one who died in infancy.
Mr. Arnold gives his political allegiance to the republican party and has ably served as school director here. Fraternally he is identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, belonging to Lodge No. 117, and his wife is a consistent member of the Christian church. They are widely and favorably known in Walla Walla county and Mr. Arnold enjoys an enviable reputation as a self-made man whose success is the merited reward of his unremitting industry and sound business judgment.
JOHN HOFFMANN.
John Hoffmann is one of the honored pioneer settlers of Walla Walla and of the Inland Empire. There is no phase of the frontier development with which he is not familiar, for he came here when the work of progress seemed scarcely begun. In the years which have since elapsed he has not only witnessed remarkable changes that have brought this county to a foremost place in the way of improvement and development but he has also taken a most active part in bringing about this result by reason of his extensive interests and activities as an agriculturist.
Mr. Hoffmann was born in Germany, March 28, 1852, and remained in that country until he reached the age of sixteen years, when his father sent him to the new world in order that he might escape Bismarck's compulsory military service law, which had been established at the close of the Franco-Prussian war. He remained for a period in New York and in the eastern part of the country but in 1878 reached Walla Walla, being then a young man of twenty-six years. He began life as a farm hand, and something of the intense activity and enterprise which has ever characterized him is indicated in the fact that he came to be the possessor of eight thousand acres of the finest land in the wheat belt of Washington, having six thousand and eighty acres in one body, which was but bunch grass land when taken by Mr. Hoffmann. It is now well improved with fine buildings, supplied with best modern improvements, including electric light and baths. Water is secured at a depth of nine hundred and forty-five feet, Mr. Hoffmann being the first to drill a deep well in this locality. His fine place certainly indicates what energy, good judgment and determination can do. At the time of his arrival, however, little land had been brought under the plow and the city of Walla Walla was scarcely more than a trading and military post. The wide fields were covered with sagebrush or bunchgrass and there were no railroads. Mr. Hoffmann brought with him a heavy team and with this he at once began work, hauling freight from Wallula to Spokane and into the Coeur d'Alenes. It often required two or three months to make such trips, for the horses had to be fed on grass, as there was little grain for that purpose. With the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad, Mr. Hoffmann recognized the fact that freighting would no longer be profitable and therefore looked about him for some other means of support. He was unable to secure a homestead because he could not remain upon it, necessity forcing him to provide for his support in other ways. He therefore used his preemption right and occupied one hundred and sixty acres of land on what is now Eureka Flats. He used his team in work for others and as opportunity offered rented adjoining land. It was about 1880 that he threshed his first wheat crop from a tract of seventy-five acres, selling the crop at about forty-four cents per bushel after hauling it eighteen miles to Prescott. In his third year he harvested half a section of wheat but as yet had no farm machinery. When sowing and threshing time came, Mr. Hoffmann with his eight horses continued to work for others and in this way paid for putting in and gathering his crops for several years. In the meantime he was most carefully saving his earnings in order to equip a farm, and whenever opportunity offered he also added to his holdings, becoming the owner of four thousand four hundred acres on the Eureka Flats. There he introduced punctuality and regulations as stringent as those of a factory. He began work after three o'clock in the morning to round up the horses and ended the day's work at dark or later. He secured modern steam machinery and with his working system he did more work than if he had forced his employes to continue their labor from daylight until dark. There was no loss of time and each move was made to count for the utmost. He kept in touch with every phase of progressive farming and in fact was a recognized leader in introducing improved methods. He studied agriculture from the practical and from the scientific standpoints and, in fact, he recognized that these two things are one. The results achieved were marvelous and as his financial resources increased he continued making investments. From time to time he purchased cheap land. He bought six sections of railroad land along the Snake river to be used as horse pasturage until rapidly moving settlement required it. For this he paid only seventy-five cents per acre and after a few years he sold it at a net profit of five dollars per acre, thus realizing a handsome sum on his investment. He made other similar purchases of land, which in time he turned into ready money, continuing to realize a fair profit. His holdings at one time embraced over twelve thousand acres. He continued to occupy his farm until 1893, when he removed his family to Walla Walla, and in 1903 he retired from the active management of his farming property. He helped to organize and is a director of Walla Walla's Farmers Agency.
