Hughesr
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.
RICHARD T. HUGHES is a young
man of good substantial qualities and worth, well known and appreciated
in Almira and the surrounding country. He owns and operates a fine
blacksmith shop, and stands at the head of a good business. He was
born in Montgomery county, Iowa, in 1875, being the son of Thomas and Jane
(Williams) Hughes, natives of Wales. The father came to America when
a young man and settled in Iowa on a farm, where he gained both wealth
and prominence. In 1882, he sold his holdings there and journeyed
west to the Evergreen state, finally selecting land about seven miles north
of the present site of Almira. He went into the stock business and
did well, but lost heavily during the hard winter. Later, he gave
up that business and went to farming and now owns four hundred acres of
valuable land, just north of Almira. He and his wife are highly respected
people and are among the pioneers of Lincoln county. Our subject
received his education in the district schools of Lincoln county and then
worked on his father's farm for a number of years. In 1898, he rented
a farm which he worked for one year, then went to Spokane and was apprenticed
to W. T. Parker, a blacksmith, of that city. Later, he went to work
for the Diamond Carriage Company, where he made a specialty of horse shoeing,
becoming very proficient in this as well as in every part of his trade.
In 1902, Mr. Hughes went to work for A. M. Aiken at Almira and one year
later bought him out, since which time he has conducted the business himself.
Mr. Hughes has one brother, Abner, a school boy, and one sister, Mrs. Charles
Diebrel, of Spokane.
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