Alonzo L. Sanford spent the first nine years of his life in the state of his nativity and then removed with the family to Iowa, where he was principally reared and educated, pursuing his studies in a little log school house. In 1864, when nineteen years of age, he enlisted in Company D, Tenth Iowa Infantry, for service in the Civil war, and remained at the front until hostilities ceased. He was with General Sherman on his famous march to the sea and participated in the battle of Bentonville. The war having ended he was mustered out at Little Rock, Arkansas, and honorably discharged at Davenport, Iowa, after which he returned home and resumed farming. In 1871 Mr. Sanford removed from Iowa to Washington and took up a claim of one hundred and sixty acres of land northeast of Dayton in Walla Walla county. After living there for four years, he sold his farm and bought another near Covello in what is now Columbia county, where he carried on farming for some years. On disposing of that place he removed to Covello, where he has since lived retired, surrounded by all the comforts and many of the luxuries of life. Besides his nice residence he owns some lots in the village and is one of the well-to-do citizens of the community.
ALONZO L. SANFORD
In 1881 Mr. Sanford married Miss Alice McBride, a native of Iowa, and they have become the parents of seven children, as follows: W. G., now a resident of Dayton, Washington; Bertrand; Christopher; Pearl, the wife of Jesse Carleton; Bryan; Estella, the wife of Robert Smith; and Elton, at home.
Politically Mr. Sanford is a staunch democrat and for two years he acceptably served as assessor of Columbia county. He has also been a member of the school board and as a public-spirited and progressive citizen he has done much to promote the interests of his community. Wherever known he is held in high esteem and he well merits the confidence reposed in him.
WILFORD H. GROSS.
Wilford H. Gross is actively identified with agricultural interests, although making his home in the city of Walla Walla. He possesses the strong and sturdy characteristics that have dominated the west and have constituted the foundation upon which has been built its upbuilding and progress. His entire life has been passed in the Pacific coast country. He was born in Modoc county, California, on the 17th of January, 1874, his parents being Bailey H. and Julia A. (Rice) Gross, the former a native of Illinois, while the latter was born in Ohio. They were married in the year 1862 and soon afterward crossed the plains with ox teams to Nevada, where the father engaged in the dairy business and in freighting near Virginia City. He spent ten years in that way in Nevada, after which he continued his westward journey to California and located in Modoc county, where he conducted a dairy and stock farm. He concentrated his efforts and attention upon that business for a decade and in 1880 removed from California to Walla Walla county, Washington. Here he purchased a quit claim deed to a homestead and to a timber claim situated in township 8, range 36 east, about eleven miles northeast of Walla Walla. In subsequent years, as his financial resources increased, he bought more land from time to time and became the owner of thirteen hundred and twenty acres, which he held at the time of his demise in March, 1915. His life record should serve to inspire and encourage others, showing what may be accomplished when there is a will to dare and to do. He had no assistance but earnest effort promoted his advancement and the sure rewards of labor came to him in the course of years. His political endorsement was given to the republican party.