The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 13

ALEXANDER E. McCREDY.

Alexander E. McCredy, a banker and capitalist of Wapato and a most progressive
and representative business man of the Yakima valley, comes to this district
from Yamhill county, Oregon, where he was born on the 3d of May, 1868. He is a
son of William A. and Elizabeth B. (Beaman) McCredy, the former a native of
Ohio, while the latter was born in Missouri.

A public school education, acquired by Alexander E. McCredy in his native state,
was supplemented by collegiate training at McMinnville, Oregon, and by a course
in a business college at Portland, Oregon. He then became identified with live
stock interests of Klickitat county, where he remained from 1880 until 1893. In
the latter year he removed to the Yakima valley and here turned his attention to
the sheep and cattle industry. In 1902 he was appointed by Secretary of the
Interior Hitchcock as Indian post trader at Simcoe, which was later named
Wapato and at which point a postoffice was established with Mrs. McCredy as
postmistress. In 1905 Mr. McCredy laid out the townsite of Wapato, since which
time he has been closely associated with the development and progress of the
district. On the 9th of April, 1906, he established the Wapato State Bank, which
was nationalized on the 19th of May, 1908, as the First National Bank. He has
remained at the head of the institution as president since its inception,
bending his efforts to administrative direction and executive control. This is
but one feature of his business, however, for he is identified with many
activities. It was Mr. McCredy who established the Post Traders Store, now
conducted under the name of the Hub Mercantile Company and of which he remained
treasurer until 1916. His efforts in behalf of Wapato have been far-reaching and
beneficial. He began the development of the townsite on an eighty-acre tract by
a special act of congress and later another eighty acres was added the following
year. Mr. McCredy purchased the land and organized the Wapato Development
Company, of which he has since been the secretary and treasurer. Good lots were
sold at from one hundred to five hundred dollars and some of these lots that
brought five hundred dollars in the beginning have advanced in price to fifteen
hundred dollars. He became one of the organizers of the Yakima Trust Company and
figures prominently in financial as well as in real estate and commercial
circles. A considerable portion of his landed possessions he is carefully
cultivating, and his home at Wapato is one of the most beautiful in the valley.

In 1900 Mr. McCredy was married to Miss Alice Barge, a native of Illinois but a
resident of Yakima at the time of her marriage. She is a daughter of Professor
B. F. Barge, who was the first president of the State Normal School at
Ellensburg.

Mr. McCredy is a charter member of Wapato Lodge, A. F. & A. M., and has taken
the Scottish Rite degrees, while of Afifi Temple of the Mystic Shrine he is a
life member. He has also passed through the York Rite, being identified with
Yakima Chapter, No. 21, R. A. M., and Yakima Commandery, No. 13, K. T., going up
in the first classes in each organization. He is likewise a life member of the
Elks Lodge No. 318 of Yakima and he belongs to the Yakima Country Club. His
political endorsement is given to the republican party. His activities have
covered a wide scope. Opportunities which others have passed heedlessly by he
has recognized and developed and his labors have been a most potent force in
bringing about desired results. Any one meeting Mr. McCredy face to face would
know at once that he is an individual embodying all the elements of what in this
country we term a "square" man-one in whom to have confidence, a dependable man
in any relation and any emergency. His quietude of deportment, his easy dignity,
his frankness and cordiality, with a total absence of anything sinister or
anything to conceal, foretoken a man who is ready to meet any obligation of life
with the confidence and courage that come of conscious personal ability, right
conception of things and an habitual regard for what is best in the exercise of
human activity.

********************************
Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in December 2007 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.