Fletcherh
Transcribed from "An Illustrated History of The Big Bend Country, embracing
Lincoln, Douglas, Adams and Franklin counties, State of Washington",
published by Western Historical Publishing Co., 1904.
HARRY B. FLETCHER, a well known
Lincoln county farmer, is equally prominent both as a school and church
worker. He has a choice three hundred and twenty acre farm near Sherman,
all under cultivation and well improved, where he makes his home during
the summer months, but during the school year he lives in Wilbur in order
to afford his family better educational advantages than can be had in the
country.
Mr. Fletcher was born August 23, 1856, in
Muscatine county, Iowa, and is one of three children. He has a sister,
Mrs. Mary E. Gristey, of Miami, Indian Territory; and one brother, William
Henry, of Prescott, Washington. His father, Samuel D., was born and
reared in Wheeling, West Virginia, and was one of the pioneer settlers
of Muscatine county, Iowa, where he lived forty years, going thence to
Kansas in 1872. In 1877 he came to Walla Walla, and at the time of
the Indian outbreak was at Camas Prairie. He then returned to his
Kansas home. In 1884 he again came west on a visit to his son, the
subject of this sketch, and while here died, being at the time in his sixty-third
year. Mr. Fletcher's mother, Susan (Overman) Fletcher, a native of
Highland county, Ohio, also is dead.
Mr. Fletcher is a man of educational attainments,
having received his training in the grammar schools and Mohaska College,
at Oskaloosa, Iowa. He went with his father to Springhill, Johnson
county, Kansas, and in 1880 he went to Leadville, Colorado, and engaged
in mining. On October 21, 1881, he was married to Miss Carrie Allen,
whose birthplace was in Waverly, Iowa. Mrs. Fletcher's grandfather,
Samuel Fisher, went to California in 1849 and after a short stay returned
home. Later he went from Wisconsin again to the gold fields of California
and there remained till his death which resulted from disease of the lungs.
He had married Miss Annie Marie Wodard, a native of Batavia, New York.
She died at Homer, Iowa, where she was an early settler. She had
been a devoted Christian all her life and did much for the poor and sick.
At her death, loving and grateful friends erected a monument to her memory.
Mrs. Fletcher's father, Thomas C. Allen, was born November 5, 1829, and
died November 24, 1862, at Benton Barracks, St. Louis. He was a marble
cutter and married Harriet M. Allen, who was born March 23, 1839, near
Laporte, Indiana, and died at Wilbur, October 28, 1903. Their marriage
occurred November 8, 1855, and to them three children were born, Henry
A., Mrs. Fletcher, and Francis M.
In the spring of 1882 Mr. Fletcher removed
to Waitsburg, Washington, and engaged in the hotel business, and
the following year he bought his present farm near Sherman. He has
besides this property a handsome home in Wilbur, two choice lots in Spokane,
and a half interest in a paying mine, known as the LeRoi, near Keller,
Washington.
To Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher have been born eight
children--Clarence, Blanche D., Samuel D. Byron, Zella, Josie, Clifton,
and Florence.
Mr. Fletcher is a member of the W. of W. fraternity,
and elder in the Presbyterian church, of which his wife is also a member.
Upon coming to Sherman, the Fletchers found neither church nor school there,
so they opened their own house to both. They organized a Sunday school,
of which Mrs. Fletcher was superintendent, and later they were instrumental
in the erection of a twelve hundred dollar church, built in 1897, with
a present membership of seventy-five. The church was organized by
Rev. Arthur B. Coart, with an original membership of ten. The church
now has a Y. P. S. C. E. with a membership of seventy-five.
Mr. Fletcher is one of the useful and substantial
citizens of his county.
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