Mr. Halsey is a Mason, having three times served as master of Clarkston Lodge, No. 143, F. & A. M. For fifteen years he served on the Clarkston school board and the cause of education has found in him a stalwart champion. He was largely instrumental in the legislature in promoting the bone-dry law of Washington and succeeded in having the bill passed through the house. His name is connected with much important legislation which has been enacted during his five terms connection with the house of representatives. His course has been characterized by the utmost devotion to the public good and the record of no member of the legislature has extended over a longer connection therewith and none has been more faultless in honor, fearless in conduct or stainless in reputation.
J. J. ROHN.
J. J. Rohn is now living retired in Walla Walla but for a long period was actively identified with farming interests in this section of the state and through close application and unremitting energy won a substantial measure of success. He was born in Baden, Germany, November 22, 1834, and is a son of Nicholas and Kate (Cipf) Rohn, who were also natives of that country, where they spent their entire lives. They had a family of six children, but so far as he knows, J. J. Rohn is the only one now living. He was reared and educated in his native country and was a youth of seventeen when he bade adieu to friends and native land and sailed for America, having determined to try his fortune on this side of the Atlantic. He crossed the water in 1851, making the trip on a sailing vessel, and landed at New York city, where he remained for two years, working at his trade of picture frame gilder, which he had learned in Germany. Subsequently he removed to Baltimore, Maryland, where he resided for one year, and in 1855 he enlisted for active service in the United States army and was sent to New York harbor, where he remained until May of that year. He was then transferred to San Francisco, California, and afterward was sent to Red Bluff, and still later to Fort Lane, Oregon, to which point he walked, making the entire distance on foot. In 1855 the Indian war broke out and that winter he was engaged in fighting the red men, being in the mountains throughout the entire period. He was fortunate in that he escaped all injury, although he experienced many of the hardships incident to such warfare. In 1857 he was sent to Fort Walla Walla, where he was stationed for several years. He went out with the Wright expedition in 1858 and in 1859 he was transferred to Vancouver, where he remained until honorably discharged in 1860.
Mr. Rohn then returned to Walla Walla and took up a homestead on Mill creek, where he has since lived. He still owns a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, which is highly improved. He has added to it all modern accessories and conveniences and was successfully engaged in farming for many years but eventually put aside the active work of the fields to enjoy a rest which he has truly earned and richly deserves. He is now eighty-three years of age and is most comfortably situated in life, the years of his former toil bringing to him a competence that supplies him with all necessities and many luxuries.
In 1866 Mr. Rohn was united in marriage to Miss Sarah E. Sanders, who was born in Indiana, a daughter of Joseph Sanders, who came to Walla Walla in 1864. To Mr. and Mrs. Rohn were born four children: Kate, who is the widow of T. J. Bryan; Malina J., who is the wife of Harry Gilkerson; Fred, who owns and operates three hundred and eighty acres of land in Whitman county; and Sarah Belle, deceased. The son is married and has seven children. The wife and mother passed away in 1872 and Mr. Rohn has never married again. He reared his children to man and womanhood alone, doing the part of both mother and father in his care of them.
In politics Mr. Rohn has always been a stalwart democrat, actively interested in the success of his party and doing everything in his power to secure the adoption of its principles. His has been a well spent life fraught with good results and characterized by all those traits which in every land and clime awaken confidence and regard. Industry, and perseverance, guided by keen intelligence, have been the basis of his success and he can look back over the past without regret. He has never had occasion to regret his determination to come to the new world, for he here found the opportunities which he sought and in their utilization has made steady progress.
HON. JAMES M. LAMB.
No history of Walla Walla county would be complete and satisfactory were there failure to make reference to Hon. James M. Lamb, who was familiarly known as Governor Lamb. When death called him in 1898 he had been a resident of this county for almost forty years. He was one of its first pioneers and one of its most progressive citizens. He had established the first blacksmith shop in this section of the state and he was the first to demonstrate the possibility of wheat growing on the hills. In many other ways he contributed to public progress and improvement though the utilization of the resources of this section of the country.