Gilbert, Frank T.  "Historic Sketches of Walla Walla, Whitman, Columbia and
Garfield Counties, Washington Territory; and Umatilla County, Oregon." Portland,
OR: Print & Lithographing House of A.  G.  Walling, 1882.  p. a40.

PHILANDER S.  WITT

	is a native of Dublin, Wayne County, Indiana, and was born February 21,
1845.  His father was physician, and there were eight brothers and sisters of
them in the family, of whom five are now living, four of them, brothers, being
now residents of Walla Walla valley, The sister, Sarah J., resides in Kansas at
Lecompton, her husband's name being J.  H.  Bonebraek.  The father, Caswell
Witt, was possessed of a nature that made him essentially a frontiersman,
although a physician he was more anxious to reach some, to him, new country, in
the advance of civilization, than to settle down to the practice of his
profession.  This disposition made of him an almost constant traveler; and among
his wanderings the following became some of the temporary homes of his family:
Cincinnati, Ohio; Marion, Indiana; Keokuk, Iowa; Fort Riley, Kansas; and Taylor
county, Iowa.  In 1858 he came to the Pacific coast by way of the Isthmus, and
made Benton county, Oregon, his first stopping place.  From there he went to
Steilacoom, W.  T., thence to Russian River; California, back to Douglas county,
Oregon, and thence to Benton county, where he was residing at the time the mines
were discovered in Washington Territory and Eastern Oregon.  In the spring of
1862 the subject of this sketch, P.  S.  Witt, in company with his two brothers,
Caswell J.  and Miles O., left home and started for the Elk City mines with a
pack train.  They passed through Walla Walla valley, which they saw then for the
first time, little imagining they were passing the place that was to be the
future home of them all, from where one, at least, was to seek the shores of
that silent river beyond which lies the dark unknown.
	For two years Philander S.  was occupied in packing to the mines, after
which, he returned to his father's home in Benton county, Oregon.  In the fall
of 1864 the home was changed to Marion county in that State, where Philander was
married to Miss Ellen Hall near Butteville on the sixteenth of March, 1865.  The
name of the bride's father is James E.  Hall, he was a pioneer of 1845, and one
of the substantial farmers of that country.  In 1866 Caswell with the father
removed to Washington Territory and settled in Walla Walla valley, where he died
November 7, 1870.  Philander S.  followed his father to the valley in 1867,
where he took up a homestead claim on which his brother, Bennett B., now
resides; and in 1876 he purchased the place that is his present home.  The farm
consists of 220 acres, and he also has ten acres of timber land in the
mountains.  It is all under cultivation and fenced.  The character of the soil
is the same as all the foothill lands, being very productive.  An exceptional
yield was of a crop of wheat in 1872, consisting of 25 acres, that produced 61
bushels to the acre.  In 1881, a field of 110 acres, lying north of the house,
produced 38 bushels of wheat to the acre.
	They have had four children, but one of whom is now living.  The cemetery
has claimed for its own the other three, Effie E., Corwin E., and little
William.  The two former died of diptheria within six hours of each other
September 30, 1879.

* * * *

Submitted to the WA.  Bios Project in February 2007 by Diana Smith.

Notice: These biographies were transcribed for the Washington Biographies
Project.  Unless otherwise stated, no further information is available on the
individual featured in the biographies.