Cushmani
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.
HON. ISAAC NEWTON CUSHMAN.
Certainly the Big Bend country is favored in having such a large number
of wealthy and capable citizens. Not least among these is the substantial
gentleman of whom we now have the pleasure to speak and who has shown himself
a man of principle and energy. He resides about three miles south
from Wilbur where he has an estate of eighteen hundred acres. Twelve
hundred acres of this are devoted to the production of the cereals while
the balance gives pasture to his herds. The place is well improved
and handled in a skillful manner and is one of the choice properties in
central Washington.
I. N. Cushman was born in Hartland, Vermont,
on July 7, 1851, being the son of Clark and Abagail F . (Tucker) Cushman,
natives of Vermont. The father was born on the same farm where our
subject was and in 1838, moved to Illinois but returned in two years to
Vermont. In 1864, he sold the old homestead and went to New Hampshire,
where he bought another farm, which was his home until his death in 1869.
The paternal grandfather of our subject, Holmes Cushman, was in the Revolutionary
war and on the staff of General La Fayette. Robert Cushman, the ancestor
of the Cushman family, came to the new world the next year after the Mayflower.
He was of Puritan stock and the family has always been prominent.
The primary training of our subject was received in the district schools
of Vermont and New Hampshire and in 1871, he entered the state normal school
at Normal, Illinois, taking there a two years' course. Immediately
subsequent to that, he taught a district school for six months where they
had seventy-five pupils. Then Mr. Cushman turned his attention to
engineering, learning the trade and that of the machinist thoroughly.
In 1876, we find him in Nevada, a mechanical engineer in the mines
and he also wrought in Idaho and California. In 1882, he came to
The Dalles, Oregon, and entered the employ of the O. R. & N. railway
as a machinist. The next year, 1883, he came to his present location
and took a homestead and timber culture claim. Two of his sisters
took homesteads here and like a large majority of the other early settlers,
they were obliged to go to other portions of the country to earn money
to improve their land. Mr. Cushman has labored steadily along until
the present time, winning an excellent success in financial matters.
He has always manifested a studious spirit and surrounded himself with
good books, the result of which is that he has a very well informed mind.
Mr. Cushman had one brother, Oliver, who was
captain of Company E, First Vermont Cavalry, during the Civil War, and
was killed at Cold Harbor in 1864. He has three sisters, Mrs. Jennie
Bridges, Mrs. Abbie C. Hine, and Harriet E. The last named sister
has always made her home with her brother and is interested with him in
their large estate. She received the degree of A. B. in Oberlin College
and has taught in a number of the leading colleges in this country and
also in Honolulu. She spent sometime in teaching in the University
of Idaho.
Mr. Cushman has always taken a keen interest
in political matters and has held various offices, among which may be mentioned
that of representative in the state legislature.
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