The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 111

SIMON W. SHAFER.

Simon W. Shafer, who since the fall of 1917 has cultivated forty acres of land
four miles northwest of Sunnyside, was born in McLean county, Illinois, June 22,
1893, a son of W. I. and Betty (Thomas) Shafer. The maternal grandfather of Mr.
Shafer was Samuel Thomas, a veteran of the Civil war. The father is a native of
Eureka, Illinois, and a son of Simon Shafer, who was born in Pennsylvania and
removed to Illinois during the pioneer epoch in its history. In 1905 he came to
the northwest, settling in Yakima county, after which he lived retired in
Sunnyside until his demise. His son, W. I. Shafer, became a farmer in Illinois
and there followed agricultural pursuits until the spring of 1908, when he
brought his family to Yakima county and purchased forty acres of land three and
a half miles northwest of Sunnyside, whereon he resided until 1916. He then
sold that property and bought forty acres under the Outlook pumping plant. It
was then a tract of wild land but he has brought it all under a high state of
cultivation, has built a good home thereon and added many other modern
improvements, together with all the equipment of the model farm of the twentieth
century. His wife was born in Indiana and they are numbered among the highly
esteemed residents of the community in which they make their home.

Their son, Simon W. Shafer, acquired a public school education and farmed with
his father until he reached the age of twenty years, when he started out upon
his business career by renting land, which he continued to cultivate for two
years. During that period he carefully saved his earnings until his industry
and economy had brought him sufficient capital to enable him to purchase forty
acres four miles northwest of Sunnyside, of which he became the owner in the
fall of 1917. During the intervening period of two years he has engaged in the
raising of hay, corn, potatoes and wheat upon his place and also conducts a
dairy business.

On the 10th of January, 1917, Mr. Shafer was married to Miss Joyce Clapsaddle,
who was born in LaSalle county, Illinois, a daughter of Frank J. and Etta
(Carpenter) Clapsaddle, the former a native of Dekalb county, Illinois, while
the latter was born in LaSalle county. Her father was a son of Andrew
Clapsaddle, a native of Herkimer county, New York, who became a resident of
Illinois when it was a frontier state, there taking up government land upon
which not a furrow had been turned nor an improvement made. He at once began to
develop the property and thus contributed to the progress of the section of the
state in which he lived. The maternal grandfather of Mrs. Shafer was Ethan
Carpenter, who was born in Westchester county, New York, and also became a
resident of Illinois in pioneer times. The parents of Mrs. Shafer came to Yakima
county in 1910 and purchased sixty acres of land four and a half miles northwest
of Sunnyside. There the father carried on farming until the spring of 1918 but
now makes his home in the city. He made a specialty of raising fine seed corn in
addition to carrying on the work of general farming. Mr. and Mrs. Shafer have
become parents of a daughter, Barbara Delle, born December 2, 1917. Both are
members of the Christian church and are highly esteemed in the community where
they make their home. They are young people of sterling worth and well merit the
high regard which is uniformly accorded them.

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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.