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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.

     JOHN C. SULLIVAN is a farmer living two and one-half miles northwest from Fletcher, Adams county, Washington.  He is a native of Pike county, Illinois, born in 1843.  He received a good country school education, to gain which he was compelled to walk a long distance to attend school in a primitive log cabin.  At fourteen years of age he engaged in working for wages on a farm.  Returning home, he gave to his mother all the money he had earned, then started west to gain another start in life.  He came to Walla Walla, Washington, in 1860, remained three months, then went to Bannock City, Montana.  He worked mining for two years, and in all remained in Montana four years, then returned to Washington and engaged in freighting with a yoke of oxen between Walla Walla and Lewiston, Idaho.  Two years later he engaged in the well-digging business in Garfield county, and during the same year he became a volunteer soldier against the Crow Indians on the Platte river.  Previous to this time, however, during the years 1861-62 and '63, he was a government scout on the Western plains.  He came to his present locality in 1887, filed on a homestead, which he now owns, and has subsequently acquired considerable agricultural land.  He has his real estate all fenced and under cultivation, and each year he raises a great deal of wheat.  Also he has some live stock.  He is a careful, intelligent farmer, and knows how to make the business pay.
     During his military service, Mr. Sullivan had many narrow escapes from death at the hands of the savages against whom he was arrayed.  In 1861 he was captured by them and kept a prisoner for eighteen months, or until he made his escape by a clever piece of strategy.
     Politically, John C. Sullivan is active and not influenced by any party, although it is in other fields of life than politics that he is best known.  The only office he has ever held is that of school director, which position he has filled for some years.  The parents of Mr. Sullivan were J. C. and Maggie Sullivan, natives of Ireland, who came to the United States when young and settled in Illinois, where they spent the remainder of their lives.
 
 

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