Gehrw

Transcribed from "History of North Washington, an illustrated history of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties", published by Western Historical Publishing Co., 1904.

     WINFIELD S. GEHR, president and manager of the Orondo Shipping Company and Wenatchee Milling Company, is a well-known, popular and influential citizen of Wenatchee, Chelan county. He is a son of the "Keystone" state, having been born in Pennsylvania September 9, 1861. His parents, Foster and Bathsheba (Line) Gehr, were natives of that state. The father was of Dutch ancestry; the mother comes of old Quaker stock, a family which came to America with William Penn. Foster Gehr was for many years engaged successfully in the oil business. He died in 1887. The mother at present lives at Linesville, Pennsylvania, named in honor of her father, who owned the townsite and vast quantities of land in that vicinity, operated flour and saw mills and was largely identified with the growth and development of that section of the state.
     At Linesville, the place of his nativity, our subject attended graded schools, and subsequently was a student in Allegheny College, Meadsville, and three years in Buchtel College, Akron, Ohio. Owing to the illness of his father he returned home before graduating. Following a year passed in the oil regions, he went to Iowa where he entered a law office, read law and had charge of abstract books. From 1879 until 1881 he was in Spirit Lake, Iowa; the two years after in Flandreau, South Dakota, in a bank, and was then engaged in the agricultural implement business until 1888. That year he came to Orondo, Douglas county, Washington, was for a while in the general merchandise business, and later bought wheat. In 1893, in company with J. F. Hunt, Henry Lawshe and H. H. Cheatham he organized the Orondo Shipping Company, with headquarters at Orondo and Tacoma, buying and shipping grain. They now control warehouses at Bridgeport, Central Ferry, Chelan Falls, Brays Landing, Orondo and Wenatchee. They have flour mills at Chelan Falls and Wenatchee. At present the company comprises our subject, president and general manager; W. W. Randall, London, England, and A. W. Tilmarsh, secretary and treasurer, Tacoma, Washington. The business is being extended throughout the state.
     On September 9, 1899, Mr. Gehr was married at Snohomish, Washington, to Jane Austin.
     Fraternally, Mr. Gehr is a member of Everett, Washington, Lodge No. 479, B. P. 0. E. Although in line with the principles of the Republican party he is not an active politician. He is secreteary and treasurer of the Chelan Falls Power Company.