The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 1092 

GEORGE WEIKEL.

George Weikel, who is extensively engaged in ranching in Yakima county, his
business affairs being most wisely, carefully and profitably conducted, was born
in Canyonyille, Douglas county, Oregon, on the 5th of September, 1865, a son of
John and Celestia A. (Chapman) Weikel. The father's birth occurred in Union
county, Pennsylvania, while the mother was born near Des Moines, Iowa, and was a
daughter of Andrew J. Chapman, who came to the northwest in 1852, settling at
Wilbur, Oregon. John Weikel was a soldier of the Mexican war and removed to
Oregon in 1848, after being honorably discharged from the army. His father also
became one of the pioneers of Oregon, where he settled in 1852. John Weikel
devoted his attention to gold mining in the west and to cattle raising and
experienced all the hardships and privations of western frontier life. He
participated in many Indian fights, but notwithstanding, all the difficulties of
settlement here in the early days, he persevered in his efforts to establish a
home in the western wilds. In 1865 he removed to Riddle, Oregon, and in 1871
became a resident of Yakima county, at which time he located where the old South
farm is now found near Kennewick, being one of the first settlers of the region.
In 1877 he took up his abode in the city of Yakima. He was extensively engaged
in stock raising, running over ten thousand head of cattle. He passed away at
Wilbur, Oregon, March 6, 1882, and was survived until 1890 by his wife. They had
a family of six children, of whom George is the eldest, the others being: Mrs.
George Glazier; Mrs. Eva Ferrell; Ada; Roy, a resident of Everett, Washington;
and 1Ethel, who died in 1892.

George Weikel acquired a public school education and afterward spent two years,
1875 and 1870, as a student in the Umpqua Academy. Through the succeeding, two
years he was a pupil in the Sisters' College at Yakima and for four years
attended the public schools. He early became interested in the live stock
business with his father and from an early day has been closely associated with
the business development and progress of the county along various lines. With
many lines of business he was closely associated and his activities extended to
those fields wherein the public was a large beneficiary. He was responsible for
instituting the work that resulted in the building of the Tieton canal, which he
planned and started. He also assisted in railway construction and for eight
years he was engaged in the wholesale and retail coal trade in Yakima. In 1896
he went to Alaska, where he remained until 1898 and then returned to the States.
He has since been engaged in ranching in the valley and is today the owner of
more than four hundred and eighty acres of land under cultivation. He has
seventy acres planted to fruit trees, ninety acres to hops and one hundred acres
to alfalfa. He produces large crops and as an orchardist occupies a prominent
position, having been one of the most successful as well as one of the extensive
fruit growers of this section. He is likewise engaged in stock raising and his
business affairs at all tunes are conducted along thoroughly legitimate and
constructive, his success being most honorably won.

On the 15th of March, 1899, Mr. Weikel was united in marriage to Miss Ella
Chambers, a daughter of Andrew J. and Elizabeth J. (Brown) Chambers. The father
was born in Olympia, Washington, in 1853, a son of Thomas J. and America
(McAllister) Chamber. The McAllisters came to Washington in 1845 and Benton
McAllister, a brother of Mrs. Chambers, was the first white male child born in
this state. Thomas J. Chambers was a son of Thomas M. Chambers, a native of
Ireland, who took up his abode in Tennessee about 1833, after having previously
visited America on two occasions. He subsequently removed to Kentucky and in
1843 started for the west. He spent the winter in Ohio and then resumed his
journey, arriving in Oregon in 1845, after having traveled across the country
with team and  wagon. He was among the first to settle within the boundaries of
that state. Later he took up his abode near Olympia, and Chambers creek was
named in his honor, while at a later period Chambers Prairie, between Olympia
and Seattle, was named for him. He owned and operated the first sawmill in
Washington and was connected with many events which have left their impress
upon the history and development of the state. He held many positions of trust
and was the first probate judge in Washington. Thomas J. Chambers, the
grandfather of Mrs. Weikel, was born at Hermitage, Tennessee, in 1833 and was a
second cousin of Andrew Jackson. He came to Yakima county in 1866, settling near
the city of Yakima, where he lived to the time of his death, which occurred at
the home of his daughter. He was a prominent pioneer and in the Yakima valley
was widely known as a large cattle raiser and successful dairyman and stockman.
His son, Andrew J. Chambers, was a youth of fourteen years when the family came
to Yakima county. Here he engaged in the cattle business for a considerable
period but for the past quarter of a century has given his attention to
merchandising at Ahtanum. He now has a small ranch and dairy. His wife was born
in New York city, a daughter of William and Mary J. Brown, who made their way to
California by boat and across the Isthmus of Pamela on mules. Mrs. Chambers
being at that time five years of age, the trip being made in 1854. Later the
family removed to Oregon, where Mr. Brown engaged in mining. Mrs. Chambers was
educated in a convent at Vancouver, Washington, and in 1873 canto to Yakima to
teach school on the Yakima Indian reservation. At that time were but few
settlers in the neighborhood, there being but five children in the school. Mr.
and Mrs. Chambers were married in the city of Yakima in the year 1875. The
latter was very active in nursing and assisting the sick in those pioneer times
when professional help could not be secured.

Mrs. Weikel is a graduate of the schools of Ahtanum and also of the State Normal
School of the class of 1895. She owns a ranch on Naches Heights, where the
Basket Fort Indian fight took place in 1856. She is a lady of charming
personality, always cordial and gracious to her many friends. By her marriage
she became the mother of a daughter, Elizabeth C., who was graduated as honor
member from the Yakima high school in the class of 1918 and is now attending the
University of Washington at Seattle, where she is specializing in library work.
She is also a student of music. Mrs. Weikel and her daughter attend the
Episcopal church.

Mr. Weikel has membership with the Knights of Pythias and the Knights of the
Maccabees. His political support is given to the republican party and he is very
active as a worker in its ranks but is not an office seeker. He served as a
member of Troop D in the State Cavalry Home Guard. He is one of the leading men
of his community -- a gentleman of charming manner and pleasing personality,
highly esteemed wherever known and most of all where best known. Mrs. Weikel is
a charter member of the Coterie Club of Yakima, in which site has held all the
offices, including that of president. Both Mr. and Mrs. Weikel are highly
cultured people and their home in Yakima, where they reside, is the center of
many attractive social functions. Both are representative of old and honored
pioneer families of the west and the work instituted by their grandparents and
carried on by their parents is being continued by them work for the benefit and
improvement of the district in which they live, notable for progress along
material, intellectual and cultural lines.

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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.