The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 124 
A portrait of Austin Mires appears in this publication.

AUSTIN MIRES.

There are names that cannot be effaced from the pages of history; work that has
left an ineradicable impress upon modern progress and future development:
activity that has directed the trend of events and shaped the standards of
present day life in the Yakima valley, and such has been the record of Austin
Mires, lawyer and statesman, of Ellensburg. He was born in Parrish, Des Moines
county, Iowa, February 11, 1852, a son of John Harris and Anna (Deardorff)
Mires. The father's family comes of French ancestry and the line is traced back
to Peter and Catherine (fought) Mires, who were the parents of Andrew Mires,
born March 16, 1766. He married Susanah Livingston, whose birth occurred March
10, 1769, and was a representative of one of the old colonial families. Their
son, Solomon C. Mires, grandfather of Austin Mires of this review, was born in
Morgantown, Virginia, April 30, 1788, and in young manhood went to Ohio, casting
in his lot with the pioneer settlers in the vicinity of Zanesville. He served as
a soldier in the War of 1812, participating in the battle of Tippecanoe. In his
later life he removed to California, where his remaining days were passed. He
wedded Mary Bates. a relative of Edward Bates, of Missouri, who was a member of
President Lincoln's cabinet, and they had a family of nine children. After the
death of his wife, Solomon Mires wedded a Mrs. Slaughter and they had three
children. For over a third of a century he was a member of the Methodist church.

John Harris Mires, father of Austin Mires, was born in Licking county, Ohio,
near Newark, January 8, 1823. At an early day he went to Iowa and after having
worked on the Mississippi river for a short time as pilot on a steamboat,
settled in Des Moines county, that state, where he engaged in farming until
1853. He then crossed the plains to Oregon, settling in what is now Douglas
county, where he carried on general agricultural pursuits until his death in the
year 1886.. He married Mrs. Anna (Deardorff) Byars, widow of Flemming Byars and
a daughter of John and Catherine (Harshbarger) Deardorff, while the latter was a
daughter of Christley and Barbary (Ammen) Harshbarger. John Deardorff, whose
name was originally Dierdorff, was born in Bedford county, Virginia, April 26,
1779, and his wife was born in Virginia on the 6th of October, 1781. They were
married in the Old Dominion in 1804 and afterward removed to Ohio, while
subsequently they became residents of Indiana and afterward of Iowa, making
their home on a farm at the Parrish postoffice near Burlington, in Des Moines
county, where their remaining days were passed. There Mrs. Deardorff died in
1871. By her marriage she had become the mother of twelve children, of whom
Anna, who was born in Ohio, September 18, 1817, became the wife of J. H. Mires.
It is of interest to know that the ancestry of the Harshbarger family can be
traced back four hundred years to Switzerland.

Mr. and Mrs. John H. Mires began their domestic life upon a farm in Des Moines
county, Iowa, ten miles west of Burlington and a half mile from her father's
place. In 1853, however, they made the long journey across the' plains with ox
teams, leaving their old Iowa home on the 30th of March and arriving at
Milwaukee, Oregon, in September. At that time Austin Mires was a little more
than a year old. In June, 1854, the parents removed with their family to the
Umpqua valley and settled on a farm eight miles west of Oakland, in what is now
Douglas county, the father purchasing the possessory right from Bob Stewart,
giving him two yoke of oxen and a wagon in payment. The parents remained upon
that place until called to their final rest. Mr. Mires passing away on the 3d of
April, 1888, while his wife died January 15, 1894. She had been married prior to
her marriage to John Harris Mires, her first husband having been Flemming Byars,
to whom she gave her hand in marriage September 13, 1838. They had five
children: William Henry, born July 7, 1839; Rebecca Frances, born November 29,
1840; Mary Katherine, born October 3, 1842; Elizabeth Barton, born January 14,
1845; and David Nathan, who was born January 13, 1847. and died April 8, 1848.
The husband and father passed away March 30, 1848, and it was on the 27th of
March, 1851, that Mrs. Byars became the wife of J. H. Mires. This marriage was
blessed with six children: Austin, born February 11, 1852; Benton, born
September 26, 1853; Anna, born July 11, 1855; Margaret, born September 23, 1857;
Addie, June 15, 1859; and John Solomon, February 20, 1863.

Austin Mires acquired his early education in the Umpqua Academy at Wilbur,
Oregon, from which he was graduated with the class of 1876. He also attended
Christian College at Monmouth, Oregon, when that institution was under the
supervision of T. F. Campbell, and later he engaged in teaching for several
years in Douglas county, Oregon. For about a year he was employed in a printing
office at Roseburg, Oregon, and for three years was United States railway mail
agent on the route from Portland to Roseburg, Oregon, when the latter was the
terminus of the Oregon & California Railroad, now the Southern Pacific.
Resigning that position in September, 1880, he went immediately to Ann Arbor,
Michigan, where he pursued a full law course in the Michigan State University,
winning the I-L. B. degree on March 29, 1882. While pursuing his studies there
he served as private secretary to Thomas M. Cooley, then dean of the law
department of the university and chief justice of the supreme court of Michigan.

In April, 1882, Mr. Mires returned to his old home in Oregon and immediately
entered into partnership with W. R. Willis at Roseburg in the practice of law.
On the meeting of the state legislature in the fall of 1882 he was elected chief
clerk of the state senate of Oregon and served in that capacity through the
term. In the following spring he removed to Ellensburg, Washington, where he has
since engaged in the practice of his profession. Throughout the intervening
period Mr. Mires has been active in promoting the interests and shaping the
policy of Ellensburg and of the valley. When the city was incorporated in 1886
he was chosen its first mayor and his service in behalf of the municipality was
so satisfactory to the general public that he was reelected for a second term.
When the Northern Pacific Railroad was being built through the county in 1885
and 1886 he acted as local attorney and assisted in securing the right of way
through Kittitas county. When the Ellensburg National Bank was organized he was
chosen its vice-president and attorney and served in those positions for six
years. He was again called to public office when on the 14th of May, 1889, he
was elected a delegate to the constitutional convention that met at Olympia on
the 4th of July of that year and framed the present constitution of the state.
He was made chairman of the committee on water and water rights and served also
as a member of the committee on judicial article, of which Hon. George Turner,
afterward United States senator, was chairman. On the 22d of July, 1890, he was
appointed by Governor E. P. Ferry, a member of the board of equalization and
appeal for the state of Washington and continued in the office for three terms.
This board was created by legislative act and constituted a special court,
having to do with all applications for the purchase of state tide lands and also
heard and determined all contests and controversies pertaining thereto. This
board was abrogated by the legislature of 1894.

From President McKinley, in the fall of 1899, Mr. Mires received appointment to
the position of supervisor of census for the second district of the state of
Washington and continued to act in that capacity- while the census was being
taken in 1900. Governor McBride appointed him in February, 1904, a member of the
commission to draft an irrigation code for the state. He was appointed in 1904
to fill out the unexpired term of prosecuting attorney of Kittitas county to
succeed his law partner, C. V. Warner, and at the regular election in November,
1904, was chosen to that office for the full term of two years as the candidate
of the republican party. Refusing to again become a candidate, he retired from
the position in January, 1907. For six successive years he was connected with
the office of prosecuting attorney for Kittitas county. During seven terms he
has served as city attorney of Ellensburg, has been city- treasurer three terms
and school director for one term. His official activities have covered a broad
scope and at all points he has proven his loyalty to his country and her best
welfare. Mr. Mires has ever been a stalwart champion of the republican party and
was a warm admirer of Theodore Roosevelt and the policies which he advocated.

During all these years Mr. Mires has continued in the private practice of law
and his clientage has been large and distinctively representative in character.
He has followed his profession in both the superior and supreme courts of his
state and has become the possessor of a law library of over a thousand volumes.
with the contents of which he is thoroughly familiar. He also has in his home an
extensive general library. His real estate and mining interests are valued at
about twenty-five thousand dollars. In 1912 he served as a presidential
elector, supporting Roosevelt and aiding in carrying the state for that year.
His life has indeed been one of great activity and usefulness. In the
constitutional convention he was responsible for article 17, section 1,
Declaration of State Ownership. "The state of Washington asserts its ownership
to the beds and shores of all navigable waters in the state up to and including
the line of ordinary high tide in waters where the tide ebbs and flows; and up
to and including the line of ordinary high water within the banks of all
navigable rivers and lakes." In 1918 Mr. Mires became a candidate for the
republican nomination for congress but was defeated.

On the 5th of March, 1884, Mr. Mires was married to Mary L. Rowland, who was
born in McMinnville, Oregon, May 24, 1862, a daughter of Jere T. and Hester E.
(Simmons) Rowland. On the 8th of August, 1871, they arrived in the Naches valley
of Washington and took up their abode on a squatter's claim. Mrs. Mires attended
school in Oswego, Oregon, in 1872 and 1873. In 1874 the family home was
established near the town of Robbers Roost, now Ellensburg, where Mr. H. H.
Davies, her stepfather, took up a homestead. In 1877 Mrs. Mires made a trip on
horseback over the Cascade mountains requiring seven days and forded the Yakima
river three times within that period and also forded the Snoqualmie river
thirty-three times. On her return trip she took a steamer from Seattle to
Tacoma, then proceeded by train to Kalama and by steamer of Portland, Oregon,
from which city she proceeded by steamer to The Dalles. From that point she
traveled by freighting wagon to Ellensburg, being twelve and a half days in
completing the trip. In 1880 she made another trip over the Cascade mountains on
horseback, but the trails were better then and the time required was but three
and a half days. Thus both Mr. and Mrs. Mires have been closely identified with
the pioneer development of the northwest and have witnessed almost the entire
growth and progress of this section. To them have been born three children: Anna
Wanda, who was born October 14, 1885, and is the wife of Edward George, living
at Olympia, Washington; John Rowland, who was born October 14, 1885, and is a
graduate of the Oregon Agricultural College, while at present he is practicing
the profession of civil engineering at Astoria, Oregon; and Eve Helen, who was
born June 2, 1893. She is a graduate of the State Normal School at Ellensburg,
Washington, and is now successfully teaching in Ellensburg.

Fraternally Mr. Mires is connected with the Masons, which order he joined at Ann
Arbor, Michigan, and he also has membership with the Benevolent Protective Order
of Elks, the Fraternal Order of Eagles and with the Red Men. Such in brief is
the life history of Austin Mires. Those who read between the lines, however,
will glimpse the picture of pioneer life and conditions in Washington that
existed during his boyhood days. He worked on the farms in the Umpqua valley,
attended the rural schools, chopped wood, broke horses, hunted deer, taught
school, worked in a printing office in Roseburg, cooked for the United States
surveyors and served for three years as United States railway mail agent. Such
experiences brought him up to the point where he entered upon the study of law
and made his initial step in the practice of his profession, since which time
his advancement has been continuous. Not only has he acted as an interpreter of
the law in the application of legal principles to points in litigation in the
courts but has aided in framing the organic law of the state and in many ways
has left the impress of his ability and his individuality upon the history of
Washington. He is honored wherever known and most of all where he is best known
and in the community where he lives he enjoys in an unusual degree the respect,
confidence and esteem of those amid whom he has lived for many years and who
have been daily witnesses of his career-a career that has brought him out of
humble surroundings to a place of prominence as one of the honored and
representative men of the state.

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