The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 83 WILLIAM L. SHEARER. With the development and upbuilding of Toppenish, William L. Shearer has been closely associated. He served for a considerable period as its postmaster, has been identified with its commercial interests and at all times has worked for general improvement as well as individual success. Mr. Shearer was born in Monroe county, Missouri, October 31, 1862, a son of Joseph Mathew and Hester (Kennett) Shearer, who were natives of Kentucky and pioneer settlers of Missouri. The mother has now passed away, while the father is living retired, having put aside the active cares of business life. William L. Shearer, having acquired a public school education, started in the business world as a messenger boy for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company and was thus employed from 1876 until 1890. He then came to Washington and for fourteen years was in the service of the Northern Pacific Railway Company. In 1896 he arrived in Toppenish, having been appointed to the position of station agent, in which capacity he continued until 1904, when he left the railroad employ and in 1905 opened the first drug store of the town. This he conducted for about a year and then sold out. It was in 1906 that he organized the Yakima Produce & Trading Company in connection with A. W. McDonald and George Plank. They began the development of a large farm, having seventeen hundred acres of land which they have transformed into rich and productive fields, annually yielding very substantial harvests. This is devoted to diversified farming and stock raising and both branches of the business are proving profitable. In the meantime Mr. Shearer had served as postmaster of the city, having been appointed in 1898 and continuing in the office until September, 1913. He took the office when it paid but seven dollars per month and remained with it until it was paying twenty-three hundred dollars a year. With the substantial development of the Yakima Produce & Trading Company, they bought out the Richey & Gilbert hardware store in 1914 and now conduct an extensive business in the line of shelf and heavy hardware and implements. Mr. Shearer was one of the pioneer business men of the town and since his earliest connection with its commercial interests has been a most active factor in its growth and upbuilding. His activities have been of a character that have contributed to public progress as well as to individual success and his worth as a citizen is widely acknowledged. On the 1st of January, 1890, Mr. Shearer was married to Miss Emma Hoffman, a native of Eagleville, Missouri, and a daughter of Robert and Rebecca Hoffman, of Illinois, who removed to Missouri in pioneer times. Mr. and Mrs. Shearer have become parents of four children: Paul, who is manager of the implement business owned by his father; Preston, who is now with the United States army, having been examined six times in order to get into the service before he was accepted; Fred, who is a student in the University of Washington; and Helen, a little maiden of eleven summers, who completes the family. Mr. Shearer is an exemplary member of the Masonic fraternity, belonging to Toppenish Lodge, No. 187, A. F. & A. M., and he has also taken the degrees of the Scottish Rite. He belongs to the Toppenish Commercial Club, of which he formerly served as president. His political allegiance is given to the republican party and for three years, from 1914 until 1916 inclusive, he was mayor of Toppenish, giving to the city a businesslike and progressive administration in which he introduced many improvements and brought about various reforms. He has also been school director for twenty years. He made the first boundary lines for the first school district in the Yakima Indian reservation in 1898 and has served on the school board continuously since save for a period of three years. The cause of education finds in him indeed a stalwart champion and one whose labors have been most effective and beneficial. He is constantly reaching out along lines that look beyond the exigencies of the moment to the further development and upbuilding of this section of the state and he has accomplished much of great worth to town and community. ******************************** Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in December 2007 by Jeffrey L. Elmer. Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.