The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1908-03-11
IS THE PATHFINDER.
Spokane Magazine Gives Praise to
A. J. Splawn.

ton are entitled TO the measure OF
credit due the subject of this sketch.
A. j. Splawn, pathfinder, stockman
and empire builder, says the Orator
Outburst of Spokane. His early life
spent upon the plains. of eastern
Washington, with the broad canopy
of heaven for cover and the waving
bunch grass plains for couch, Mr..
Splawn has lived the life of the path
finder, with its stirring adventure,
its adversely and its rewards, and
who, when the merging years brought
newly found conditions, became iden-
titled with many of the new enter
prises, yet first of all and to the last,
a stockman, in all the word implies.
Better known TO numerous friends
in all parts of the northwest as
Jack" his wholesomeness of char
acter, broadness of principle and open
generosity born to the lover of the
wild, has won him the lasting es-
TEEN of many.
Mr.. Splawn was born in 1916 in
Missouri, of Virginia parentage. In
1852 he crossed the plains in COW
cred wagon drawn by OK teams, with
Oregon as his destination. In 1860
he crossed the Cascades via the Bar
low road at the base OF Mt. Hood,
into the Klickitat valley; 81 found
him in the Yakima valley with an
older brother, and together, with F.
NJ. Thorp, composed the first white
settlers in this now famous home of
the big red apple. In August of the
same year this intrepid youth hired
out to Major John Thorp 10 help
drive $50 beef cattle to the Cariboo
mines in British Columbia, trip
which consumed forty days through
a wilderness inhabited only by In
dians, but two white men being en-
countered during that time. The
winter of 61-2 was passed in British
Columbia and for severity of weather
and loss of live stock has no equal
to this date, straight beef being the
only means of subsistence for sixty
days; SO saw the trip to the Cariboo
mines repeated, this time taking
pack train of bacon at charge of
fifty cents per pound; GA saw him
running a pack train of horses and
mules between The Dalles and Can
yon City, Ore, raiding Indians, me-
nacing his every move for days at
a time. The same year he piloted
a party of % Irishmen on passen-
ger saddle horse train to Boise Ba-
sin, Idaho. and during this trip the
party was set upon by rowing band
of Snake river Indians, resulting in
lively skirmish; IS found him driv-
ing band of beef cattle from the
Yakima valley via Lewiston and Ca
mas prairies to Boise Basin, SWIM
ming the Snake river near the mouth
of the Salmon river; sc to Warren's
Diggings; 81 to Blackfoot noun
tains via Occur d'Alene mountains,
and in 6S to Cariboo, B. c., again.
From that time until 1898 Mr..
Splawn lived in the saddle following
cattle, hanging on their tails"
through sunsine and storm, all
through prosperity and adversely.
At the present time Mr. Splawn is
president of the Washington Live
Stock association, owns and conducts
an extensive Hereford pure blood
stock farm and from his place goes
forth yearling bull Herefords sired
by an ancestry with records of
stream of blue ribbons, until in ev-
cry nook and corner of Washington
and even unto it's far beyond,
Splawn's Herefords have found their
way to help upbuild the standard of
cattle of the northwest. Mr.. Splawn
is also largely identified with bust
ness enterprises of North Yakima and
is president of the Yakima Valley
Transportation company, the nucleus
of a greater Yakima valley. He has
served his state we'll and faithfully
at Olympia as senator and is now be-
ing prominently mentioned for the
democrtic nomination for governor.