Hunt, Herbert and Floyd C. Kaylor.  "Washington: West of the Cascades."  Vol.
II.  Chicago: S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1917.  pp. 10, 12.

HARRY CLAY HEERMANS

	Among the builders of a great empire in the Pacific northwest is Harry Clay
Heermans, who has been a potent factor in the development of Hoquiam, Olympia,
Raymond, and other sections of western Washington. Forceful and resourceful, he
accomplishes what he undertakes and at all times the public has been a direct
beneficiary because his activities have been of a character that have had to do
with the general improvement of this section of the country. He was born in
Fellowsville, Preston county, West Virginia, June 3, 1852, a son of John and
Nancy Heermans, who were natives of Luzerne county, Pennsylvania. The name of
Heermans is of Dutch origin and the ancestors, leaving their native Holland,
emigrated in 1657 to New Amsterdam, now New York City. The family records are
found in the books of the old Dutch Church.  In the maternal line H.C. Heerman
comes of English ancestry. Liberally educate, he was graduated at the Wesleyan
University at Middletown, Connecticut, in 1875 with the Bachelor of Arts degree,
and the Master of Arts degree was conferred upon him in 1878. Thinking to make
the practice of law his life work, he began reading in the office of Brown &
Hadden of Corning , New York, but after a time turned to the engineering
profession and for thirteen years acceptably filled the responsible position of
city engineer in Corning. He next purchased the waterworks system of that city
and manged the same as its owner for thirty years prior to 1908. During that
period he also engaged extensively in real estate dealing at Corning and in 1886
formed the Ontario Land Company, with headquarters in St. Paul, Minnesota. In
1889 he arrived in Hoquiam and made large investments for the Ontario Land
Company and eastern capitalists, and at once allying his interests with those of
the city and its future development, he constructed in 1889 an electric light
plant in Hoquiam. From that point forward he had been one of the most active
factors in the development of business interests which have had marked effect
upon the welfare and progress of the community. In 1898 he was the active agent
in securing the extension of the Northern Pacific Railway into Hoquiam and
constructed the Hoquiam waterworks as well as the secured the establishment of
several new industries in the city. Something of the breadth, scope, and
importance of his activities through the intervening years is indicated in the
fact that at the present time, 1916, he is president and manager of the Hoquiam
Water Company, president of the East Hoquiam Company, president of the Grays
Harbor Company, president of the Ontario Land Company  and vice president of the
Harbor Land Company. With the exception of the first named all these companies
are operating in real estate.  In 1905, he purchased the controlling interest in
the Olympia Waterworks at Olympia, Washington, and remained at the head of the
system until 1916, when he sold out to the city. He also has been president of
the Raymond Land & Improvement Company since 1905, promoting the town site of
Raymond, Washington, and he is a director of the First National Bank of Hoquiam.
It was in 1908 that he removed from Corning, New York, to Hoquiam and in 1909 he
established his home in Olympia and has devoted most of the time to the
development of Hoquiam since 1898. 
	On the 17thh of March, 1886, at Painted Post, New York, Mr. Heermans was
united in marriage to Miss Annie L. Townsend, a daughter of E.E. Townsend, of
Erwin, Steuben county, New York and a great-granddaughter of Colonel E.E. Erwin
of Revolutionary war fame , who was the original pioneer and owner of the town
of Erwin. Mr. and Mrs. Heermans have become parents of four children; Ruth, the
wife of Milton J. Beaty, now residing in Warren, Pennsylvania; Joseph F., who
was graduated and with the class of 1916 from the University of Washington and
Jerome T. and Donald, students in that school. 
	The parents are members of the Presbyterian church and Mr. Heermans belongs
to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks at Hoquiam. His political allegiance
is given to the Republican part and with the vital questions and issues of the
day he is thoroughly family, be he does not seek nor desire office, preferring
to concentrate his energies upon his business affairs, which have been carefully
managed and wisely planned. He readily discriminates between the essential and
the nonessential in business matter and Hoquiam and other sections of the state
have profited largely by his cooperation in the work of promoting public
progress. 

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Submitted to the Washington Biographies Project in September 2008 by Amber
Brock, ajbrock at u dot washington dot edu.