Larrabeej
Transcribed from "History of North Washington, an illustrated history
of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties", published by Western
Historical Publishing Co., 1904.
JULIUS A. LARRABEE, postmaster
of Chelan, Chelan county, a successful fruit raiser and a pioneer of the
territorial days of Washington, was born in Lester, Addison county, Vermont,
December 18, l841. His father, Alva S., was a native of Ticonderoga,
New York, descendant of an old American family. His father was a
soldier in the War of 1812, and the founder of the town of Larrabee, on
Lake Champlain. The mother, Marion (Enos) Larrabee, was born in New
England, dying when our subject was but two months old. The Larrabee
family is of French Huguenot extraction, and settled in Connecticut in
the seventeenth century. The father's two younger brothers served
in the confederate army during the Civil War. They had located, when
young, in Mississippi. Our subject's father, shortly after the death
of his wife, removed to Illinois, leaving the boy with his grandparents.
In 1846 the family returned to Vermont, going
thence to Wisconsin where they lived until our subject was nineteen years
of age. He enlisted in the First Wisconsin Cavalry, September 1,
1861, and was mustered out July 19, 1865. He was present at the capture
of Jeff Davis, and participated in forty-three battles and skirmishes.
At the close of the war he returned to Wisconsin, and five years filed
on a soldier's homestead in Minnesota. Driven out by grasshoppers
he went back to Wisconsin, and in December, 1888, left Ripon, Wisconsin,
arriving in Davenport, Washington in the same month, accompanied by his
son, Frank T. Both of them were afflicted with asthma. The
June following they came to Lakeside, Chelan county, and engaged with the
Lake Chelan Lumber Company. He had worked for the manager, L. H.
Woodin, in Wisconsin. Our subject conducted the hotel for the company,
the pioneer hotel of the place. He had pre-empted a claim on Chelan
river, but when he decided to commute discovered that the land was open
only to homestead. His son then filed on it, was contested by Indians,
and he lost the best forty acres. The two now own forty acres which
is cultivated. In June, 1898, Mr. Larrabee was appointed postmaster.
He owns a two-story house and four lots in town.
Our subject has four half brothers, Eric,
Edward, Aii and Burt; and one half sister, Edna, wife of Lemuel Richardson.
May 15, 1864, he was married, at Ripon, Wisconsin, to Delphia A. Rich,
born in Addison county, Vermont. Her father, Russell, was a native
of Vermont, her mother, Lydia (Bowker) Rich, was a native of New York.
They have four children, Edson, Earl, Frank and Blanche. Our subject
is a member of Harrison Post G. A. R., of which he was organizer and is
now commander. He is a member of Chelan Valley Lodge No. 118, A.
F. & A. M., and was first W. M. under dispensation and first W. M.
elected. He is a Republican and staunch.
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