Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1906-08-03
RESTS FROM HIS LABORS
Funeral OF Late Robert Suitor Largely
Attended by Old Friends and
NeighbOrs.

The funeral of the late Robert Suitol
at the Methodist Episcopal Church,
Sunday afternoon, was largely at
tended by old-time neighbors and
friends of the family. The officers
and members of Friendship Lodge,
No. 6. I. 90. F., of which lodge Mr..
Suitor was long a faithful and valued
member, attended the services in a
body.
The remains arrived from Van
couver, Washington, on Friday s
evening train, accompanied by Mrs.
Suitor, her son Elzie, and D. J. Riley.
A large crowd was present at the depot
when the train arrived. The body
was taken directly to Chapman IS
undertaking parlors, and Mrs Suitor
was driven to the home of Mr.. and
Mrs. James Elliott, south of town.
The funeral services Sunday after
noon were simple but impressive. An
able and touching sermon was
preached by Rev. A. G. Brackenbury
the local pastor, and appropriate
music was rendered by the choir. The
church was filled with choicest flowers,
and a pretty wreath Of immortelles
rested upon the casket. At the con
clusion of the services, the friends
were permitted to view the remains.
AS the procession slowly moved by the
open casket, men and women could
not restrain their tears as they gazed
for the last time on the face of one
who had been their friend, and whose
dying wish was that his body might
be laid to rest amid the scenes he had
loved so we'll in the earlier and more
active days of his life.
The services at the grave were con-
Quoted according to the ritual Of the
Order of Odd Fellows, and were
beautiful and impressive. The pail
bearers were Judge J. E. Sibley, U. s..
Grant, J. G.. VanOrsdel, G. E. Shaw,
F. J. Coad and Horace Webster.
In the death of Mr.. Suitor, the
Pacific Northwest has lost one Of its
most useful and active men. He was
a developer and builder in the truest
sense Of the terms, and left the i'm
press of his influence upon every
community in which he lived En-
dowed with indomitable energy, keen
foresight and sound judgment, he
carried to a successful termination
numerous industrial enterprises,
that in the hands of men less bold
and energetic would have resulted in
failures. He engaged in the sawmill
business in Polk county at time
when the industry was far less profit
able than at present, but notwith-
standing the fact that he suffered un-
avoidable losses and that almost
insurmountable obstacles were thrown
in his way by people less progressive,
he proved himself master of his work
by establishing at Dallas one of the
best paying sawmill properties in the
Northwest.
His courage in beginning this
work at a time when he had been
rendered almost penniless by the
burning Of his mill at Falls City the
masterful grasp of mind displayed in
planning and building an extensive
system of fiood-dams in the LaCreole
river and in clearing the stream of
Instructions for a distance Of Is miles
to make it navigable for logs; his
long and stubborn legal fight for the
right to use its waters for logging
purposes, and his final victory in the
Supreme Court of Oregon, where the
rights of sawmill owners in this state
as to the use of streams were definitely
settled, once and for all, are we'll
remembered by the people Of Polk
county. In carrying out this work,
Mr.. Suitor settled question that had
long been uppermost in the minds of
the people of Dallas by demonstrating
chat logs from the vast forests on the
headwaters of the LaCreole river could
be foated to this city and manu-
factured into lumber at profit. 1t is
only truthful to say that Dallas
supremacy as lumber manu-
featuring point was established on
the day that the Suitor sawmill cut its
first stick of timber.
After operating the mill successfully
for several years, Mr.. Suitor sold out
at highly profitable figure and went
to Westport, on the Lower Columbia
river, where he developed another fine
sawmill property Afterwards, in
partnership with D. J. Riley, he built
and operated a sawmill at Linnton,
pronounced by experts to be the most
substantially constructed mill between
Portland and the mouth of the Colum-
bia river. Since selling this mill tc
Eastern capitalists, Mr.. Suitor had
lived in Portland, where he engaged
in buying and selling timber lands
He had been living in Vancouver only
a few weeks when his death occurred