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.
JACOB J. BARTHOLOMEW is one of
the best known men of the whole Big Bend country. He has been actively
engaged here for nearly thirty years and has always manifested in his career
that spirit of enterprise, progress and uprightness which characterize
the true man and the real pioneer. At the present time Mr. Bartholomew
is living about three miles east from Reardan on an estate which he secured
partly by purchase and partly by timber culture right.
J. J. Bartholomew was born in Springfield,
Illinois, in June, 1860, the son of Morrison and Elizabeth (Phelps) Bartholomew,
natives of Ohio and Grant county, Wisconsin, respectively. They were
married in Wisconsin in 1854. The father was engaged in the tannery
and labored in a manufactory at Galena, Illinois, which at that time was
the largest in the United States. In 1868, he sold his interests
and settled at Yankton, Dakota, engaging in banking and sawmilling.
In the spring of 1875, he came to Milton, Oregon, and went into the hotel
business. In 1879, they moved to Medical Lake, Washington, where
he died in 1899. The mother also died there at the home place.
Our subject received his education in Yankton and was with his father in
business and in his journeys until he came west to Oregon, which journey
was made by team on the old emigrant road. From Milton our subject
started to Montana and when he arrived where Spokane now is, he was taken
sick which detained him sometime and he then engaged in freighting for
the government, from Walla Walla to Forts Sherman, Colville, Spokane and
other points. For four years, he was engaged thus and then he embarked
in the implement business, the firm being known as Russell & Company.
They did business in Portland and throughout the northwest, then he was
associated with Dodd & Company in the same business in the Inland Empire
for nine years. About 1893, Mr. Bartholomew took up a timber culture
claim where he now lives and gave his attention to stock raising and grain
farming. In Spokane county, in May, 1880, Mr. Bartholomew married
Miss Maggie Hamilton, a native of Kentucky. To this union six children
have been born, Bert, Gertrude, Elnora, Edith, Frances and Jacob.
On May 26, 1900, Mr. Bartholomew was called to mourn the death of his beloved
wife.
Fraternally, Mr. Bartholomew is associated
with the W. W., and is prominent in those circles. He has ever taken
a keen interest in educational progress and in the real upbuilding of the
country and is firmly convinced that the Big Bend country is the finest
portion of the state of Washington. In addition to his farming interests,
Mr. Bartholomew operates a threshing outfit. It is interesting to
note that he was one of the first assessors in the Big Bend country and
in 1877, he was appointed sheriff of Spokane county which took in almost
the entire country now embraced in Douglas, Lincoln and Adams counties.
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