scheussm
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.
MATTHEW SCHEUSS was born in Blackenburg,
Prussia, on April 6, 1850, the son of Christian and Margaret (Quart) Scheuss,
natives of Germany. They both died when our subject was small. Matthew
was educated in his native country and when seventeen years of age, learned
the blacksmith trade. He followed it there until twenty then came to the
United States to avoid being conscripted for the Franco-Prussian war. He
landed in the United States in 1870 and went to Pittsburg where he followed
his trade and later worked in the oil refinery until 1873, then he enlisted
for the Modoc war, being enrolled in the regular army at Pittsburg, on
September 25, 1873. He was discharged on September 25, 1878, at Boise,
Idaho, at the close of his term. His enlistment paper shows his name correctly,
but by error the discharge has it Schultz. During this enlistment he served
at Forts Vancouver, Walla Walla and Camp Harney. He participated in the
Nez Perce and Bannock war and took part in the Pilot Rock battle, and at
Umatilla, near Pendleton, where seventy-five soldiers thrashed three hundred
and seventy Indians. Following the war, he bought land near Walla Walla
and farmed it until 1881, the year in which he took his present homestead,
which lies about six miles northwest from Sprague. Since that time, he
has devoted himself to general farming and now has five hundred and twenty
acres of good grain land besides forty acres of timber and meadow. He bought
one hundred and twenty acres this year at twenty-five dollars cash per
acre. The place is well improved with a fine two-story residence, barns
and so forth and he has a very valuable farm. Mr. Scheuss experienced considerable
hardship during the hard times of 1890 but was enabled by careful management
to winter through without leaving his property. The farm is supplied with
plenty of running water and well equipped with all stock and machinery
necessary. Mr. Scheuss may well take pride in his labors as a soldier in
quelling the Indians on the frontier as well as in his labors of development
and upbuilding since. He has three sisters, Mrs. Katherine Mueller, Mrs.
Agnes Lave, and Christine.
Mr. Scheuss married Miss Maggie Jensen, at
Walla Walla on October 19, 1880. Her parents are Peter and Ingeborg (Peterson)
Jensen, natives of Denmark, now deceased. Mrs. Scheuss has one brother,
Harry, and two sisters, Mrs. Dawell and Mrs. Sophia Anderson. To Mr. and
Mrs. Scheuss seven children have been born, Christian, Grace, William,
Hannah, Lillie, Harry, all at home except Grace who is deceased. One other,
Christina, is now the wife of Jake Hays, who is in the creamery business
at Sprague.
BACK