The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 721 PETER J. HERKE. There is no phase of pioneer development in the west with which Peter J. Herke is not familiar and he has lived to see the marked transformation of this section of the country. He is now identified with ranching interests near Wapato. His birth occurred in Germany, July 25, 1865, his parents being Antone and Gertrude (Kramer) Herke, who were also natives of that country but brought their family to the United States in 1870. They made their way westward to California, where they lived for six months and then came to the Yakima valley by way of The Dalles, Oregon, traveling by team to their destination. They proceeded to the Ahtanum and took up a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres a short distance above the old Catholic mission. They had only a few neighbors at that time and these were widely scattered wild game could be easily obtained, including venison, for deer were then plentiful in the district. Bears were also frequently shot and there was every evidence of frontier life. The Herke family were among the first settlers and shared in all of the hardships and privations incident to the establishment of a horse in a region hitherto uninhabited by white men. The Dalles, Oregon, was their nearest postoffice -- a distance of one hundred miles. The father left Germany in order to get away from the militarism and autocracy of that country. After coming to the Yakima valley he walked one hundred and fifty miles to Walla Walla, Washington, to take out his first papers of citizenship. The kaiser was trying to get him back into Germany so that his son, Peter J., could be made to serve in the German army, but Mr. Herke frustrated that plan and became a loyal and progressive American citizen. After living in Yakima county for a time he purchased one hundred and sixty acres of land on the Parker Bottoms and resided thereon to the time of his death. He owned altogether two and a half sections of valuable land in the valley and became one of the best known and most successful farmers of the district. He passed away in the year 1908, having for a long period survived his wife, who died in 1879. They were the parents of ten children, five of whom have passed away, the eldest being Barbara, now deceased. Peter J. is the second member of the family. Kate became the wife of Adam Fleck, who has now departed this life and his widow resides in Oregon. She has eight children. J. A., the fourth member of the family, is engaged in ranching near Tampico. Gertrude is also identified with ranching interests near Tampico. Mary is deceased. Frank is a rancher near Wapato. Joseph, who follows ranching near Tampico, has a wife and two children. Philip died in infancy. Two other children of the family died in infancy in Missouri, where the family had stopped for a short time while en route for the west. Peter J. Herke has been largely reared upon the western frontier and is familiar with every phase of pioneer life in Washington. He assisted his father in the arduous task of breaking the sod and developing new land. He can well remember all of the experiences of the Indian days. The red men would come by the house, emitting wild war whoops, yet the family were never molested. It was no unusual thing to see bear tracks in the yard and wild cats and cougars made the night hideous with their screaming. As the years passed, however, the seeds of civilization were planted and bore rich fruit and the conditions of pioneer life were supplanted by modern-day conditions, making Yakima county one of the progressive districts of the northwest. Mr. Herke is now the owner of a ranch of ten acres near Donald. He also engages in selling wood and coal and he has built and operates a fine warehouse on Donald. His home is a beautiful and attractive residence near the town and he has two grown daughters: Rosie, who was born in 1896 and is the wife of Verne Brown, a resident of Kirkland, Washington, by whom she has two children; and Leona, who was born in 1894, and resides in Los Angeles, California. Mr. Herke speaks the Indian language as well as English and his native tongue and he thoroughly knows the ways of the red men. He has attended their war dances and has seen them wearing the scalps of innocent white then and women. He has looked upon many of the pole and adobe forts that the settlers made in order to protect themselves from the savages and he has lived to witness remarkable changes as the years have passed by. ******************************** Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in January 2008 by Jeffrey L. Elmer. Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.