JUDGE JOHN W. HOLMAN.
Judge John W. Holman, of Dayton, has an unusual record of public service, having for twenty-two years been police judge and justice of the peace, and for seven years he was court commissioner. He was born in Monroe county, Indiana, May 22, 1844, a son of Thomas and Laura (Parker) Holman, pioneers of the Hoosier state. He was reared under the parental roof and at the usual age entered the district schools. When eighteen years old he volunteered for service in the Union army and from the time of his enlistment, on the 6th of August, 1862, until after the close of the war he was with the armed forces of the government. His record includes service in the battles of Ball Bluff, Port Gibson, the siege of Vicksburg and the engagements at Jackson, Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Grandicor, Fort Gaines, Fort Morgan, Big Black, Champion Hills and Raymond.
On returning to civil life Judge Holman removed to Illinois, where he engaged in farming until 1868. In that year he became a resident of Nebraska and there made his home until 1876, when he cast in his lot with the Pacific northwest. During the intervening forty-one years he has lived at Dayton and has become one of the foremost citizens of that town and, in fact, of Columbia county. In 1888 he was appointed deputy sheriff under W. R. Marcus, and two years later was elected justice of the peace. Subsequently he became police judge and for twenty-two years he filled both offices. In the discharge of his duties he manifested a fine sense of justice and an unusual ability to read human nature. For seven years he was also court commissioner under Judge R. F. Sturdevant, and in that connection also he was thoroughly competent.
Judge Holman was married in Nebraska in 1869, to Miss Louisa E. Linn, a native of Ohio. They became the parents of the following children: Laura A.; Ernest A.; Jessie P.; Olive F.; Lola C.; Nellie L.; John W., Jr., deceased; Dorothy C.; Charles D.; and Donald L.
Judge Holman has been a republican almost since the organization of the party and his advice has often been sought by the local party leaders. At one time he was the republican councilman from Brooklyn. He has always been justly proud of the fact that at the time of the country's need he offered himself in defense of the Union, and he finds great pleasure in the association with other veterans of the Civil war in the local post of the Grand Army of the Republic. Fraternally he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His strength of character and his unswerving adherence to high standards of morality have gained him the respect of his community, and, moreover, he has won an unusually large number of personal friends, owing to his kindly nature and his evident goodwill toward all. One evidence of his popularity is the fact that while serving as justice of the peace he performed more marriages than any other official or clergyman in the county and in many instances married two generations of the same family. He has the satisfaction of knowing that he has discharged in full every duty devolving upon him, and that during a long life he has at all times proven a man of genuine worth, an official devoted to the public welfare.
JUDGE BENJAMIN L. SHARPSTEIN.
No history such as this work defines in its essential limitations will serve to offer fitting memorial to Judge Benjamin L. Sharpstein, who left the impress of his individuality for good upon the commonwealth in many ways and whose career ever reflected honor upon the state that honored him. A Mexican war veteran, a pioneer, lawyer, legislator and member of the state constitutional convention, he indeed played an important part in shaping the annals of Washington. For forty-two years he was a resident of Walla Walla and through that period was not only closely connected with its interests and development but was also associated with many of the movements which have shaped the policy and directed the upbuilding of the state.
Judge Sharpstein was a native of the state of New York, his birth having occurred in Bath, Steuben county, October 22, 1827. He was a lad of seven years when his parents removed westward to Michigan, settling first in Macomb county, where they resided until their removal to Sheboygan county, Wisconsin. In the family were two sons, John and Benjamin L. The former became an attorney of Kenosha, Wisconsin, and later went to San Francisco, California, where he served as a judge of the supreme court. After the Civil war his brother Benjamin read law with him for some time. Reared upon the home farm, Judge Sharpstein divided his time between the work of the schoolroom, the pleasures of the playground and such tasks as were assigned him in connection with the development of the fields. He did not care, however, to make farming his life work and turned from agriculture to a professional career, it being his desire to prepare for the bar. He therefore entered upon his studies, which, however, were interrupted when he was nineteen years of age, for in 1846 his patriotic spirit was aroused and he joined the American army as a soldier in the Mexican war. Upon the close of hostilities with that country he returned to his home and resumed the study of law, being admitted to the bar in 1852.