gaskille
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.
EDWARD
GASKILL lives in the town of Leone, Adams county, Washington, and his business
is that of a farmer. He was born in Holly, New Jersey, November 18,
1844, son of Joseph and Hanna (High) Gaskill, both also natives of New
Jersey, who during their lives lived also in the states of Michigan, Iowa
and Kansas. In the last named state, in Montgomery county, both died,
the father at the age of eighty-nine and the mother aged eighty-six.
The father was a farmer. Both parents were descended from old English
stock, and the father's father, Ebenezer Gaskill, served as a soldier during
the Revolution.
Mr. Gaskill was educated
in the grammar schools of the states of New Jersey, Michigan and Iowa,
and at the age of twenty-two he began work on a farm for salary.
He then followed sailing on the Mississippi river for a brief space of
time, after which he purchased horses and engaged in breaking sod in Illinois
for three years. In 1887 he came to Washington and filed on a homestead
where he now lives. He also purchased eighty acres of railroad land,
to pay for and improve which he was forced to work among various farmers
for wages. In 1893 he bought eighty acres more and four yeas later
a half-section, all of which he has improved and under cultivation.
During the past five years he has also bought and sold, as a matter of
land speculation, seventeen sections of land. His present land is
among the choicest in the Big Bend.
Mr. Gaskill has been
thrice married. In 1875 he was married in Kansas, which union was
blessed with one child, Nettie. The wife died in 1881, and our subject
was again married, by which marriage two children, Mary and Oscar, were
born. In 1886 the second wife departed this life, and in 1898 Mr.
Gaskill took for his third helpmate Etta Start, daughter of John M. and
Hannah (Worden) Start, natives of New York, in which state Mrs. Gaskill
was also born. The father of Mrs. Gaskill was a railroad man, and
during his life lived in the states of New York, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana
and Kansas. He was prominently identified with the construction of
the railroad connecting Cold Water, Michigan, with Chicago. The mother
died in Kansas in 1898 and the father in 1900. They were parents
of six children: Eugene W., Jane A., Fannie M., Hanna, Clarence J.
and Mary H.
Of the children of Mr.
Gaskill, the first born is married to W. Kirkpatrick, and is living in
Ritzville; Mary is married to Walter Noun, Garfield, Washington, and Oscar
is with his father.
Politically, Mr. Gaskill
is a Democrat. He has for a number of years been a member of his
school board, and is a prominent member of the Church of Christ.
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