John A. Danielson, residing in Waitsburg, is prominently connected with farming and live stock interests in Walla Walla county. He was born in Sweden, January 7, 1862, his parents being Andrew and Anna (Anderson) Danielson, who came to the United States in 1865 and first took up their abode near Grand Rapids, Michigan. They settled on a farm there and continued to reside thereon until called to their final rest. John A. Danielson was but three years of age on the emigration of the family to the new world. He was reared and educated in the district schools and in the State Normal School at Ypsilanti, Michigan.
For one term Mr. Danielson taught school in that state and in 1884 he came to Washington, settling on Whiskey creek in Walla Walla county, where he filed on a homestead and preempted another quarter section. He afterward purchased additional land, adding to his holdings from time to time until his possessions now aggregate three thousand acres. For the past eleven years he has made his home in Waitsburg in order that his children might enjoy the advantages of the public school system of this city. He is quite extensively engaged in cattle raising as well as in general farming, running two hundred head of Hereford cattle on his ranch. He is a most progressive agriculturist and stock raiser whose interests are wisely directed and carefully managed. He cultivates his farm according to the most progressive methods and as a stock raiser pays close attention to all the scientific principles which have now become a feature of the live stock business on all up-to-date farms. He is likewise a stockholder and a member of the board of directors of the Farmers Union Warehouse Company.
On November 8, 1891, Mr. Danielson was married to Miss Louisa J. Holderman, of Columbia county, Washington. Her father, Gilderoy Holderman, came to this state from Missouri in 1879, settling in what is now Columbia county. His family joined him here in 1881. He was a Civil war veteran and his early death, which occurred October 28, 1883, was the direct result of wounds and exposure which he suffered while defending the Union cause on the battlefields of the south. To Mr. and Mrs. Danielson have been born twelve children, namely: Anna L., Jessie M., Frank, Naomi, Dewey, Cecil, Ralph, Lola, Roy, Inez, John A., Jr., and one who died in infancy. The others are still under the parental roof.
Mr. Danielson is a stalwart republican and for several years he served as a member of the school board while living on his farm and is now a member of the board of education in Waitsburg. He has never sought political office, however, but is always to be found ready and willing to give his aid and assistance to any plans and measures which tend to uphold civic standards or advance the best interests of his community. He and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and they are held in the highest esteem by reason of their sterling worth, their integrity and their fidelity to all measures of individual and community uplift. Mr. Danielson certainly deserves much credit for what he has accomplished in a business way. He started out in life empty-handed but possessed the substantial qualities of industry and determination, and upon those qualities as a foundation he has builded his prosperity. Moreover, the course he has pursued is indicative of the fact that success and an honored name may be won simultaneously.
GEORGE L. BAILEY.
Among those men who have found success in following agricultural pursuits and are now able to live retired is George L. Bailey, of Walla Walla, who was born near The Dalles, Oregon, on the 10th of April, 1874, a son of Lyman J. and Mary (Graham) Bailey. The father was a native of New Hampshire and the mother of Missouri and they were married in Salilo, Oregon. The father's parents died when he was but a boy and at the age of nineteen, in the year 1849, he crossed the isthmus and made his way to the California gold fields. However, he did not work in the mines but drifted north into Oregon and settled at Salilo, where he learned the trade of a ship carpenter. For several years he was employed by the Oregon & Washington Railroad & Navigation Company in boat building and during those years he was associated with Lew Thompson in the cattle business, Mr. Bailey working at his trade while Mr. Thompson took care of their cattle interests. In the hard winter of 1871-2 they lost most of their cattle and Mr. Bailey and Mr. Thompson then dissolved partnership and the former gave up his position in the shipyard and went to Klickitat county, where he took up a homestead. He was the first settler and built the first house near Bickleton on Alder creek, hauling the lumber for floors some sixty miles. There he engaged in the live stock business and farming, being identified with those interests up to the time of his death.
George L. Bailey, whose name introduces this review, pursued a public school education, which was supplemented by four years' study in Whitman Academy. Following the completion of his course there he went east to Boston, Massachusetts, where he attended Burdett's Business College. On finishing his studies on the Atlantic coast he returned to Walla Walla and soon afterward was united in marriage, in July, 1898, to Miss Etta Aldrich, a daughter of Newton Aldrich, one of the earliest of Walla Walla county's pioneers, having come into this section of the state from California with a bunch of cattle in 1858. He was so favorably impressed with the country and its prospects that he decided to remain and make his home. Accordingly he took up a preemption claim two and a half miles southwest of Dixie and thereon resided to the time of his death, which occurred in 1888. He was very successful and acquired large land holdings.
Mr. Bailey engaged in farming in Walla Walla county, his wife owning two hundred acres of land which she received from her father's estate, and Mr. Bailey's career as a farmer was begun upon that tract. As he has prospered in his undertakings he has purchased much other land and is now the owner of twelve hundred and eighty acres, nearly all of which is valuable wheat land. He continued to cultivate his fields until 1917 but has now rented his farm for the coming year and is giving his attention to other business interests. In wheat production he has been very successful. He has cultivated his land and cared for his crops according to the most modern methods and has annually gathered large harvests, the sale of which has added materially to his income and financial resources.