The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 902 

JOHN L. HUGHES.

Standing in the forefront as a representative of industrial activity and
enterprise in Yakima is John L. Hughes, the president and manager of the Yakima
Artificial Ice and Cold Storage Company, controlling one of the most important
and successful business enterprises of the city. He was born in Wales in 1864,
a son of Henry and Margaret (Jones) Hughes, who became residents of Champaign
county, Illinois, in 1869, in which year they bade adieu to the little rock-
ribbed country in which they had hitherto resided and sought the opportunities
of the new world. The father took up the occupation of farming in Illinois and
there remained until late in life. Both he and his wife have now passed away.

Their son, John L. Hughes, accorded liberal educational privileges, was
graduated from Chaddock College at Quincy, Illinois, with the class of 1887 and
in 1890 he won his Master of Science degree, which was conferred upon him by his
alma mater. Taking up the profession of teaching, he successfully followed it
for many years, being superintendent of public schools in Illinois for a decade
and a half. His last two positions were at Centralia and at Charleston,
Illinois. Attracted by the opportunities of the growing northwest, he arrived in
Yakima in 1903 and started in business in his present connection. He had
previously come to Washington on a visit and was much interested in the
possibilities and opportunities of the state.

It was in 1903 that John L. Hughes and James A. Hawks organized the Yakima
Artificial Ice and Cold Storage Company and began business at No. 412 North
First avenue in Yakima under the firm style of Hawks & Hughes. The company today
has its own siding on the Northern Pacific and on the Oregon-Washington
Railroads. The plant has a frontage of two hundred feet on the east side of
First avenue and a depth of one hundred and eighty feet, together with four
hundred and twenty-five feet frontage on the west side of the street with a
depth of one hundred and forty-five feet. The buildings are two stories in
height with basement. After a time Mr. Hawks sold his interest to R. E. DeKay
and the business was then carried on under the firm style of Hughes & De Kay
until 1908, when it was incorporated under the name of the Yakima Artificial Ice
and Cold Storage Company. The present officers are John L. Hughes as the
president, L. J. Bunting as vice president, W. R. Anderson as secretary and F.
M. Raymond as treasurer. The vice president was a first lieutenant in the field
artillery service in France. The plant of the company has a daily capacity of
fifty-five tons of artificial ice made' from distilled water and its cold
storage capacity is three hundred and fifty cars of fruit, with a common storage
capacity of two hundred and fifty cars. The company also engages in the
wholesale and retail coal trade. They are likewise manufacturers of the
distilled water "Puritan," a pure aerated distilled water which has found a
ready sale on the market. They likewise operate a public packing house in
connection with their warehouse. The ice which they manufacture is not only sold
to the local trade but is also shipped in large quantities to Prosser, Sunnyside
and Roslyn. They employ from twenty-five to forty people throughout the year
and their payroll amounts to from twenty to thirty-five thousand dollars
annually. They have modern equipment throughout the plant, including the
individual motor system and the most up-to-date system for pre-cooling fruit.
They also have ice refrigerator cars used in shipping fruit. Upon ground owned
by the company are situated the boilers of the Yakima Central Heating Company,
and the Yakima Artificial Ice and Cold Storage Company, under contract,
furnished all the live steam for the former company, whose heating system
throughout the business district of the city includes one hundred and fifty
thousand square feet of radiation. The company utilizes as high as forty-five
tons of coal per day for this purpose. It has three sources of water supply the
city mains, two large wells and also water from the adjacent mill race. The
business has been developed along the most progressive lines and the most
scientific methods are employed in the distillation of water, in the manufacture
of the ice and in the care of the cold storage products. Mr. Hughes is a member
of the American Society of Refrigerating Engineers and has contributed many
valuable ideas to its meetings. He is a very progressive man, possessed of the
spirit of initiative, and, steadily working his way upward, each forward step
has brought him a broader outlook and wider opportunities, which he has quickly
and eagerly utilized.

In 1896 Mr. Hughes was married to Miss Bertha Melton, a daughter of Fred Helton,
of Atwood, Illinois, who in later life removed to Yakima, where he passed away
in 1916. Mr. and Mrs. Hughes have become parents of two children. Henry H. was
graduated from the local high school with the class of 1916 and enlisted in the
United States Army on the 2d of April, 1917. He is now a private in Company K,
Ninth Regiment, having been transferred from his former company. which was
Company E of the One Hundred and Sixty-first United States Infantry. He has seen
active service in France and participated in the battles of Vaux, Belleau Woods,
Soissons and Chateau Thierry and as a result wears two wound stripes, Fred L., a
junior in the high school, at the age of sixteen enlisted in July, 1918, in the
United States Marines and was a member of Company B. Eleventh Separate
Battalion, at Quantico, Virginia, at the conclusion of the war.

Mr. and Mrs. Hughes are consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal church and
the latter is quite active in the work of the Young Women's Christian
Association and in other community interests. She is also a prominent member of
the Twentieth Century Club. Mr. Hughes is actively identified with the Young
Men's Christian Association and in 1918 served as its president. He is chairman
of the board of trustees of his church and has been a member of the Federated
Churches of Christ in America since 1908 and of the National Education
Association since 1898, in both of which he takes a keen interest. He belongs to
the Masonic fraternity, having membership in Yakima Lodge, No. 24, F. & A. M.;
Yakima Chapter, No. 21, R. A. M.; Yakima Commandery, No. 13, K. T.; and Afifi
Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He has likewise taken the degrees of Scottish Rite
Masonry and belongs to the Knights of Pythias. In politics he is a republican.
He belongs to the National League to Enforce Peace, with which he has been
identified since its organization and is now state secretary. He has served on
the board of the Commercial Club and is a member of the Yakima Valley Business
Men's Association. These connections indicate much of the nature of his
interests and activities aside from his business and indicate the progressive
spirit by which he is ruled in all things, whether in the promotion of his
individual business affairs or in his support of plans for the public good.

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Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in January 2008 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.