Washington Pioneers, Biles and Scammon

The following data is extracted from Bancroft Works, Volume 31, History Of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, 1845-1889, Hubert H. Bancroft, 1890. The History Company, Publishers, San Francisco..

Charles Biles was born in Warren County, Tennessee, in Aug. 1809, and reared on a farm in North Carolina, removing when 19 years old to Christian County, Kentucky. In 1832 he married, and in 1835 removed to Illinois, soon returning to Hopkins County, Kentucky, where he resided until 1853, when he emigrated to Washington Territory in company with his brother James, their families, and C. B. Baker, Elijah Baker, and William Downing, and their families, being a part of the first direct immigration to the territory, via the wagon road through the Nachess pass. Mr Biles settled upon Grand Mound Prairie in Thurston County, farming, and sometimes preaching as a minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He died Feb. 26, 1869, leaving two sons (one having died after emigrating) and two daughters, namely, David F., Charles N., Mrs M. Z. Goodell, and Mrs I. B. Ward.

David F. Biles was born in Kentucky in 1833, coming with his parents to Washington Territory. In 1851 he took a claim in Thurston County, and in 1855 became a deputy U. S. Surveyor, but the Indian war coining on interrupted work, and he took to soldiering in defense of the settlements, resuming his surveying when peace was restored. From 1838 to 1862 he resided in Cosmopolis, Chehalis County, but then removed to a homestead claim near Elma, on the line of the Satsop railroad to Gray Harbor, where he owns 400 acres of land. He served many years as county surveyor, and some time as school superintendent. He married in 1854 Miss Mary J. Hill, who was a member of the immigration of 1853, and had 3 sons and 1 daughter.

Charles N. Biles, horn in 1844 in Kentucky, was educated in Portland, Oregon. In 1870 he settled in. Montesano, Chehalis County, and engaged in surveying, and was county auditor and treasurer several terms. He married Miss E. J. Medcalf.

Another Chehalis County pioneer is I. L. Scammon, who was born in Maine in 1822, came to California in 1849-50, making the voyage on the 63-ton schooner Little Traveler. In the autumn of 1850 he took passage for the Columbia River, which was passed by mistake, the vessel making Shoalwater bay. Making his way overland to the Columbia, he went to Salem, Oregon, and to the southern mines, but returning to Washington Territory took a donation claim on the Chehalis River, where the old town of Montesano, now known as Wynoochee, grew up about him. He married Miss Lorinda Hopkins in 1844, who rejoined him in Washington Territory in 1859. The first sermon preached in the region of Montesano was delivered by Rev. J. W. Goodell at Scammon's house, and the second school in the county was on his place, in 1859. The children of this pioneer are, Harriet, married Edward Campbell; George, m. Clara Nye; Cornelia Jane, who died; Eva, who m. I. R. Edwards; Edith, who m. P. B. Briscoe; Elli, who m. Charles H. Finmet, County Surveyor; Norman, who accidentally shot himself when about 17 years of age.

Source: Bancroft Works, Volume 31, History Of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, 1845-1889, Hubert H. Bancroft, 1890. The History Company, Publishers, San Francisco.

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