The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 1017 

ELDER E. SAMSON.

Much has been written concerning the cause of success and the best methods of
attaining it, but no matter in how much fantastic theorizing one may indulge he
must eventually reach the conclusion that honorable success is the direct result
of indefatigable effort, intelligently directed.	A noted New York financier
has said: "If you would win success you must be willing to pay the price -- the
price of earnest, self-denying effort." With a realization of these facts Elder
E. Samson has so directed his labors that he has made for himself a most
creditable place in the business circles of Yakima, being now a well known
wholesale merchant, conducting his interests under the name of the E. E. Samson
Company, Inc., marketers of fruit and produce.

Mr. Samson was born in Lyman, New Hampshire, in 1862, a son of Edwin and Phoebe
(Dexter) Samson, the former now deceased, while the latter is a resident of
California. The father during his active business career was engaged in the
cigar trade.

The son, reared in the Old Granite state, there acquired a public school
education and started out in the business world as a clerk in a store. Later he
learned telegraphy and in 1886 he made his way westward to Minneapolis, where he
was employed as telegraph operator by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company.
The year 1887 witnessed his arrival in the northwest, at which time he went to
Portland, Oregon, and afterward to Tacoma, Washington, where he acted as
telegrapher in the superintendent's office. He was afterward stationed at
several places during the succeeding three years, at the end of which time he
left the telegraph service and in 1890 entered into business at Puyallup,
Washington, as a real estate dealer, while later he took up merchandising. His
next step identified him with the banking and mortgage loan business and he
became secretary and treasurer of the Puyallup Loan & Trust Company, with which
he was associated until 1896.

In that year Mr. Samson went to Alaska and spent the greater part of five years
in that country. He was one of those who took part in the Klondike rush of 1897,
and during a part of his sojourn in the far northern country he was with the
White Pass Railway Company. He was also connected with the River Transportation
Company during a part of the time and he spent one winter at Dawson. It was in
1903 that Mr. Samson came to Yakima, where he became interested in the fruit
business, working for the Ryan-Newton Company. During the next year he occupied
the position of manager with the Yakima County Horticultural Union and continued
in that position for five years. Later he went to British Columbia, where he
spent two years, and then again came to Yakima, where for three years more he
was manager for the Horticultural Union. In 1915 he organized the E. E. Samson
Company, Inc, marketers of fruit and produce, at No. 9 First Avenue, South. This
company has a warehouse seventy-five by one hundred and fifty feet. with a
storage capacity for eighty carloads of fruit and produce. The company also owns
a warehouse at Selah with a storage capacity of fifty cars and it is represented
by buyers throughout the valley. The firm ships under the name of Samson, which
is used as a brand name for the fruit. Its annual shipments amount to from five
to six hundred cars. The officers of the company are: E. E. Samson, president:
C. D. Samson, secretary and treasurer: and C. H. Oliver. vice president.

On the 3d of May, 1887, Mr. Samson was married to Miss Margaret Willis, a native
of California, and to them have been born tour children. Harold Willis attended
the Pullman College and is now with the Bureau of Markets, in the service of the
United States government. He is also a graduate of the University of California
and he has ever specialized in horticulture. He married Gladys Lockwood and they
have two children. Clyde D. Samson, the second of the family of Elmer E. Samson,
is with his father in business. He married Henrietta Muller and has one child.
Donald, the third son, was in France with the Field Artillery, having taken
active part in the world struggle. E. F. Samson, the youngest of the family,
died at the age of three months.

Mr. Samson of this review is well known in Masonic circles as a loyal advocate
of the teachings of the craft. He has membership in Yakima Lodge. No. 24, F. &
A. M.; Yakima Chapter. No. 21, R. A. M.;  Yakima Commandery, No. 13. K. T.;
Tacoma Consistory, S. P. R. S.; and in Afifi Temple of the Mystic Shrine. Mr.
Samson is a republican in politics and is never neglectful of his duties of
citizenship. He is a member of the Commercial Club and takes an active interest
in the work of that organization for the benefit of the city. At all times he
has been actuated by a spirit of advancement that is continually reaching out
along broadening lines for the betterment of the individual and the community,
and his business activity has ever been of a character that has promoted public
prosperity as well as personal success.

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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.