The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 155

JOHN B. WILLARD.

For more than three decades John B. Willard has been a resident of the Yakima
valley and is devoting his time and energies to the further development and
improvement of a forty-acre homestead on the north fork of the Cowiche. The
excellent condition of the place indicates his enterprise, industry and
determination. He was a young man of about twenty-seven years when he removed to
the northwest, his birth having occurred in Marshall county, Indiana, January
21, 1861, his parents being James Edward and Ann Eliza (Lewis) Willard, the
former a native of New York, while the latter was born in Indiana. James E.
Willard was a son of Ezra Willard, who was born in New York and who took his
family to Indiana at an early day. Farming has been the occupation of the family
for many generations. In 1872 the parents of John B. Willard removed to Kansas,
taking up a homestead claim in Rice county, and subsequently they went to
Oklahoma, becoming pioneer residents of Grant county, where both now reside.

John B. Willard acquired a public school education and in 1881 went to Colorado
where he engaged in prospecting, working in the mines through three summers, the
winter months during that period being spent at home. Later he took up farming
on his own account in Kansas and in 1888 he came to Yakima county, where he
entered government land on the Cowiche. He then turned his attention to stock
raising and the dairying business and later he rented two different farms.
Subsequently he purchased a forty-acre homestead on the north fork of the
Cowiche, whereon he now resides, and his attention is given to the raising of
wheat, oats, corn, potatoes and hay. He annually harvests excellent crops,
having a fine ranch. He has built a good home and large barns upon the place and
everything in his surroundings indicates his progressive spirit, his keen
business sagacity and his unfaltering enterprise.

On the 21st of March, 1887, Mr. Willard was married to Miss Addie Davis, who was
born in Hardin county. Illinois, a daughter of Isaac and Catherine (Hufford)
Davis, who in 1874 removed to Kansas but in 1888 came to Yakima county, where

the father purchased land and also took up a homestead on the Cowiche. He has
now passed away, but the mother survives and resides in Yakima. To Mr. and Mrs.
Willard have been born eleven children: Laura, the wife of Bert Daggett, a
rancher on the Cowiche, by whom she has one child; Floyd, who is a member of the
United States army; Ellis, who married Verna Van Hoy and is a rancher on the
Cowiche; Stella, deceased; Guy, a rancher on the Cowiche, who married Nellie
Thompson and has one child; Grace, who is the wife of Richard Roley, a rancher
on the Cowiche, and has one child; Helen, James, Claude, Ruth and Emard, all at
home.

In his political views Mr. Willard is a republican and he has served as road
supervisor. He has also been a member of the school board and the cause of
education finds in him a stalwart champion, as he believes that every
opportunity should
be accorded the young to acquire a good education and thus provide for life's
practical and responsible duties. As a business man he has proven his right to
be classed with the representative ranchers of his section of the state, for his
carefully directed labors have brought to him substantial success.

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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.