Friday, July 5, 2013

Wickliffe Hayes Waterhouse (1857-1930), Wickliffe Campbell Lingle (1847-1927), Wickliffe Bond Dashiell (1835-1910), Wickliffe Buren Stratton (1869-1936)


   Endowed with a rather ostentatious sounding name, Westminster, Massachusetts resident Wickliffe Hayes Waterhouse represented the county of Worcester in the Massachusetts General Court from 1910-1911. He was born in Roxbury, Massachusetts on April 3, 1857, a son of Joseph and Lydia Perkins Waterhouse. W.H. Waterhouse married on April 30, 1880, to Nellie Cook (1854-1916), and the couple would later have three children, Marcus (1880-1936), Clara M. (1883-), and Bertha (1888-). Waterhouse spent a good majority of his life farming and is listed by sources of the time as being a successful breeder of American Devon cattle and Shropshire sheep. In addition to farming, Waterhouse also participated in Westminster's 150th-anniversary celebration on August 25, 1909, marching in the celebratory parade as an aide to Chief Marshal (and then-incumbent state representative) Frank W. Fenno. 
   Active in Westminster public life, Waterhouse was elected as a selectman for that city in 1909 and had earlier served as a member of the board of assessors. In 1909 he was elected as a Republican to the Massachusetts State House of Representatives and served during the 1910-1911 session, holding a seat on the committee on agriculture during his brief tenure. 
   Following his legislative service, Waterhouse remained a leading light in Westminster, holding memberships in the local Odd Fellows lodge as well as the Grange. Little else could be found on his life, except mention of his death on August 12, 1930, at age 73. The portrait of him shown above was found in the 1910 edition of  A Souvenir of Massachusetts Legislators, which features portraits and brief biographies of all senators and legislators who served in the General Court during that year's session. Also found here was Savillion W. Longley, a one-term representative from Middlesex County profiled here back in January 2012.

Portrait courtesy of www.legis.state.pa.us.

   One-term Pennsylvania state assemblyman Wickliffe Campbell Lingle was a native of Centre County, being born there on December 19, 1847, the son of Joseph and Elizabeth (Harvey) Lingle. A student in the public schools of that county, Lingle would for the majority of his life being engaged in his state's mining industry, being at various times a mine boss, superintendent, and operator. 
  In the late 1890s, Lingle served as superintendent of the Lingle and Magee Mine Co. in Cambria County and in 1898 was elected as one of two Cambria County representatives to the Pennsylvania General Assembly, polling 6,379 votes on election day. During the 1899-1901 session, he was a member of the committees on Accounts, the Bureau of Statistics, Federal Relations, Mines and Mining, and was defeated for reelection in November 1900.
  Little else is known of Lingle's life following his service, except mention of his death in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania on September 7, 1927, aged 79. He was survived by his wife Permelia Howe Lingle (1851-1939) and daughter Virginia (1880-1958) and was interred at the Union Cemetery in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania.

Portrait from the Texas Legislative Reference Library webpage.

    Another "Wickliffe" who made his name known politically was Wickliffe Bond Dashiell of Kaufman County, Texas. A one-term representative to the Texas State Assembly from that county, Wickliffe B. Dashiell was born on January 9, 1835, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Alfred and Ann Dashiell. His family moved to Shelbyville, Tennessee during his childhood and he returned to Pennsylvania during his adolescence to study at the University of Pennsylvania. He earned a medical degree from that institution in 1856 and in the following year married in Shelbyville to Catherine Greer, a daughter of John Alexander Greer (1802-1855), a former Lieutenant Governor of Texas.
   In the same year as his marriage, Dashiell and his wife removed to Kaufman County, Texas. Here he would farm and practice medicine and at the dawn of the Civil War aligned with the Confederacy, serving as a surgeon with the Nineteenth Texas Cavalry Regiment. He resigned from that post in 1864 out of health concerns and two years later was elected to represent Kaufman County in the Texas State House of Representatives. His one term (extending from 1866 to 1870) saw him chair the house committee on education and after leaving office returned to his farming and business interests.
   Wickliffe B. Dashiell relocated to Terrell, Texas in 1881 to accept the post of representative for the Houston and Texas Central Railway Company. He remarried here in 1883 (his first wife having died in 1867) and later had two children, including Amos Jones Dashiell, who died in infancy in 1882. Dashiell died in Terrell on August 14, 1910, at age 75 and was later interred at the Oakland Memorial Park in that city.

Portrait courtesy of www.atg.wa.gov.

   Wickliffe Buren Stratton was a Wisconsin native who made his mark, politically speaking, in Washington, where he would be elected as prosecuting attorney of Pacific County and in 1900 won election as state Attorney General. Born in Polk County, Wisconsin on July 31, 1869, Wickliffe Buren Stratton was the son of John Buren and Anna (Anderson) Stratton. His early education occurred at the Shell Lake High School, and following graduation was employed as a telegraph operator, law office clerk, and, later, a department clerk in the offices of the Washburn County circuit court.
  In 1887 Stratton enrolled at the University of Wisconsin and turned his attention to the study of law. He graduated from that university's law school in 1890 and shortly thereafter relocated to South Bend, Washington to begin his practice. He married in April 1894 to Georgina Irving Rodd (1872-1940) and had at least one son, Irving Rodd Stratton (1899-1970).
   Following his settlement in South Bend Stratton would win election as city attorney on four occasions and in the late 1890s was elected as prosecuting attorney for Pacific County, serving a two-year term. In 1900 he won the Republication nomination for state attorney general and in November of that year went on to defeat Democratic nominee Thomas Vance by a vote of 54, 841 to 45, 307.  
  Stratton's four-year term saw him especially devoted to "preserving and promoting the power of the state to collect taxes" and saw to it that even the mighty Northern Pacific Railroad paid its fair share of property taxes. Stratton wasn't a candidate for reelection in November 1904 and following his term formed a law partnership in Seattle with Henry McBride, who had served as Washington's governor at the same time Stratton was attorney general. Wickliffe B. Stratton died in Seattle on December 13, 1936, at age 66. He was survived by his wife and son and later was interred at the Acacia Memorial Park in that city.

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