Clark County WA Archives Biographies.....Rood, John E. K. June 21, 1891 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/wa/wafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com September 18, 2009, 3:34 pm Source: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company JOHN E. K. ROOD, a veteran of the World war, affectionately termed “Johnnie” by his many friends in Vancouver, fills an important place in the business life of the city. He is a product of Clark county and a member of one of its old and prominent families. His birth occurred in Image, Washington, June 21, 1891. His father, Charles S. Rood, was a native of Wisconsin and about 1880 settled in Clark county, Washington, purchasing a portion of the old Lieser donation land claim. Here he married Miss Ida L. Bird, a native of Sifton, Washington, and a daughter of Charles J. and Elizabeth (von Pfister) Bird. The Bird family went to California in 1849 and afterward migrated to Washington territory, settling on a donation land claim in Clark county. Charles S. Rood worked as a hay baler throughout Clark county and also developed a productive farm. He was likewise a well digger whose services were much in demand but owing to an accident he was obliged to abandon this strenuous work and in 1912 located in Vancouver. For four years he was associated with his son John in the fish business and 1916 located on the old Bird place, where he engaged in dairying for about a year. Along fraternal lines he was connected with the Modern Woodmen of America and manifested a keen interest in the activities of the order. His ability and probity led to his selection for public office and while a resident of Vancouver he was elected a member of the board of county commissioners. At one time he was clerk of the school board and also served as master of the Pomana Grange in Clark county. In his family were nine children: Cecil, who lives in Los Angeles, California; Leon, of Spokane, Washington; Mabel, who is Mrs. H. L. Heller, of Vancouver; John E. K., of this review; Bessie, the wife of C. O. Piert, of Vancouver; Alice, the wife of Frank Steel, also a prominent citizen of Vancouver; Ray R., who resides in Los Angeles; Eunice, deceased; and Ira, whose home is in Vancouver. Charles S. Rood passed away in January, 1927, his wife having preceded him in 1912. Of her mother, who resides in Seattle, Fred Lockley wrote as follows in the Oregon Journal of July 22, 1922: "About ten years ago I bought a tract of land in Clark county, Washington. On this tract was an old log house. My place, which is a part of the old Covington donation claim, is located on Fourth Plains and was formerly farmed by the Hudson’s Bay Company. I still own this ranch and occasionally go out to see how the man who has rented it is getting along. I met Mrs. Elizabeth Bird, one of the most interesting characters I have met for many a day. As we stepped into the old log house she said: 'I was married in this old house. We stood in front of that inner door. I was born at Hilo, in the Sandwich islands, June 19, 1840. My mother was a Hawaiian. My father was John Ramsey von Pfister. My father’s mother was a Scotchwoman. His father was an officer under Commodore Wilkes and was on the Peacock. My mother lived at Hilo. Her name was Anna P. Kapua. That means, in the Hawaiian language, a flower. My father resigned from the navy, married my mother and took up his residence in the Sandwich islands. The marriage ceremony was performed by one of the missionaries. That was in 1839, the same year that the missionaries in the Sandwich islands shipped the printing press to the Whitman mission. As you know, this was the first printing press ever used west of the Rocky mountains. I was the first child born to my parents. They had two more children, both boys. My mother died at the birth of her third baby. " 'Sanford B. Dole, later president of the territory of Hawaii, lost his mother when he was three years old. I was six years old. Mr. Bishop was a missionary there. Sanford Dole and I were both sent to the Bishop home to be cared for. Serano, one of Mr. Bishop’s children, was a playmate of mine. I stayed at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Bishop for a year. About a year after my mother’s death my father married Sara Rhodes. Her sister Anna had married Richard Covington, the man who owned this old log house of yours. Richard Covington was a civil engineer. He came from London as an employe of the Hudson’s Bay Company. In 1846 he taught the children of the Hudson’s Bay employes in this old house. " 'After my father’s marriage he moved to Honolulu. He and his brother- in-law owned a plantation on which they raised coffee. When gold was discovered in California in 1848 my father’s brother, Captain von Pfister, sent for my father to come to California. He told him he could make his fortunes in the mines. My father sent my stepmother to live with her sister and sent me to a boarding school in Honolulu kept by an English family named Gunner. My father’s brother started a saloon at Sutter’s mill, now called Sacramento. My uncle, who looked very much like my father, had thrown a drunken Mexican out of his saloon. The Mexican swore he would be revenged. He met my father, whom he mistook for Captain von Pfister, and stabbed him and killed him. " 'My father was a Mason, so the Masons raised a fund which kept me at the boarding school until I was eleven years old. My brother John was six years old at the time my father was killed. His uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Covington, sent for him at Honolulu. He went to them at Vancouver. They adopted him and educated him. When I came to Vancouver my brother was fifteen years old. He was a fine violinist. He went to the mines in the Boise basin and from that day to this we have never had a word of him, though we suppose, of course, that he was killed there. My mother went back from the Oregon country to the Sandwich islands when I was eleven. She apprenticed me to a dressmaker. When I was seventeen years old I came to Vancouver. I reached here June 1, 1857. The sailing vessel on which we came from Honolulu was consigned to Leonard & Green of Portland. They had the first wharf in Portland and owned the old waterworks and the gas works. Dugald McTavish, an old-time Hudson’s bay man, met us at Vancouver. Captain Ingalls, who was a friend of my uncle, Richard Covington, sent a four-mule team to meet us and brought us to this house here on Fourth Plains. It was a good thing this old house was so roomy, for when I came there were seventeen people living in it. You see, Mr. and Mrs. Covington were running a boarding school, and in addition to our own family they had quite a number of students. " 'Charles J. Bird did the butchering for Mr. Covington. His mother, after the death of Mr. Bird, married John Calder, who took up the first donation land claim on Fourth Plains. My uncle, Richard Covington, took up the second. After the death of Mr. and Mrs. Calder, Richard Covington was appointed administrator of their estate and guardian of their children. The first time I saw Mr. Bird was during a church service at the old stockade half a mile from here. I had not been here long when they employed me as a teacher, and I taught in this old stockade. " 'I married Charles J. Bird, April 5, 1858. Dr. John McCarty, post chaplain at Vancouver, performed the ceremony. Not a person who was present at my wedding is now alive. After the ceremony I moved to my husband’s farm. I have had seven children, five of whom are still living. In the old days Lieutenant U. S. Grant often used to ride over here to visit the Covingtons. He and Richard Covington were warm friends. When Grant became president he appointed Mr. Covington to a position in the bureau of engineers at Washington, D. C. " 'Mr. Covington rented this claim, but the renter did not have success with it, so it was sold at a sheriff’s sale. Jersey Van Fleet bought the six hundred and forty acres for fifteen hundred dollars. Mr. Covington was born the same day as Queen Victoria. He was an artist of considerable ability. You probably have seen the sketches he made of Fort Vancouver in 1855. " 'I often think back to the old days in Honolulu. The Doles, the Castles, Coles, Cooks, Bishops, Diamonds and most of the other missionary families of those days did well financially and their children and grandchildren are now wealthy. My uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Covington, both died in the Sandwich islands. They went there after Grant’s second term. In those days as soon as a president went out the new president put in all of his own friends and let the old officeholders out, so after my uncle lost his place in the bureau of engineers he went to Honolulu, where he died. " 'If you will look up the old records you will find that in about 1861 or 1862 I was teaching in the old log house near here. This old house, in which I was married, is probably the oldest building now standing in the state of Washington, and it should be fixed up and preserved as a relic of the day’s of Oregon’s provisional government.' " John E. K. Rood attended the Russell school. When a young man of twenty-one he embarked in the fish business in Vancouver in partnership with his father, and they were associated for four years, but toward the close of 1916 the business was discontinued. The son then joined his father on the Bird farm near Sifton, Washington, and aided in its operation until 1917, when he enlisted in the United States Navy. He was trained at Goat island and detailed for duty as a baker of the first class. For two years and two months he was in the service of his country and during that period crossed the ocean seventeen times, making ten trips on the United States Steamship Northern Pacific and seven trips on the Panaman. After the war he became a clerk in the B. & M. grocery store at Vancouver, filling the position for a year, and was next employed in a bakery at Portland for several months. In May, 1920, he was persuaded by his friends to reenter the fish business in Vancouver and in 1921 removed to his present location at No. 710 Main street. He has a fine market and is a reliable dealer who has won a large share of the local fish trade. Before receiving his honorable discharge Mr. Rood was married September 6, 1919, in Yonkers, New York, to Miss Olive R. Coleman, a native of that state and a daughter of E. R. and Sadie Coleman, who still reside in Yonkers. Mr. and Mrs. Rood have one child, Katherine Eunice, who was born October 8, 1928. Mr. Rood is an influential member of the American Legion and in 1924 was elected commander of his post. In 1925 he was made commander of the fifth district, which made the largest gain in membership during that year and brought the flag to Vancouver. Mr. Rood is also connected with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and the Chamber of Commerce. He is an enterprising young business man, capable of coping with the strenuous conditions of modern commercial life, and enjoys to the fullest extent the respect and confidence of his fellow citizens. Additional Comments: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. II, Pages 104-106 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/wa/clark/bios/rood56gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/wafiles/ File size: 11.8 Kb