The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 480

OSCAR JOSEPH SIMON.

Oscar Joseph Simon, whose ranch property on the Moxee bears every evidence of
careful supervision and practical cultivation, was born in Norton county,
Kansas, December 17, 1837, a son of J. D. and Olive S. (Olds) Simon, the former
a native of Kentucky, while the latter was born in Iowa. When young people they
removed to Kansas and in 1888, after living for a number of years in the
Sunflower state, made their way to Tenino, Washington, traveling across the
country with mule team. They were four months and seventeen days en route,
bearing all the hardships and privations incident to travel in that manner and
at that period. After reaching the northwest Mr. Simon purchased an eighty-acre
ranch, upon which he resided until 1897, when he came to the Yakima valley and
took up a homestead of eighty acres on the Moxee. He proved up on that property,
which he afterward sold and then invested in twenty acres of land, which he also
later sold. His next purchase made him owner of forty acres under the
Selah-Moxee canal, the tract being entirely wild and undeveloped, however, when
it came into his possession. He at once began its improvement and cultivation
and his labors wrought a marked change in the appearance of the place, which he
converted into a fine farm and which he sold in 1917. He now resides upon a new
ranch on the hills south of the Moxee valley.

Oscar J. Simon was brought to the northwest when but a little child and acquired
his education in the schools of the Moxee valley. In 1909 he purchased
twenty-seven acres of wild land on the Moxee and has since concentrated his
attention upon its development and improvement. He now has twenty-five acres of
the tract under cultivation, devoted to the raising of hay, corn and beans. By
reason of his practical methods, his progressive spirit and his enterprise he
has made this a valuable tract of land, from which he annually harvests good
crops.

On the 20th of June, 1908, Mr. Simon was married to Miss Bertha Vivian Phipps,
who was born at Bickleton, Washington, a daughter of Ellis and Laura (Mathews)
Phipps. They now have two children, Archie Lawrence and Clyde Ernest. Mr. Simon
votes independently nor does he seek office. He has never sought to figure
prominently in any public connection but has given undivided attention to his
business affairs, and energy and enterprise have constituted the salient
features in his 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.