"Spokane and the Spokane Country, Pictorial and Biographical, De Luxe
Supplement."  Vol. 1.  Spokane, Chicago, Philadelphia:  The S. J. Clarke
Publishing Company, 1912. p. 117.
 
COLONEL WILLIAM R. ABERCROMBIE

     military commander, scientist, explorer and promoter of various
important business projects which have been of almost incalculable value in
the development of the northwest, was born at Fort Ridgely, Minnesota,
August 17, 1857.  His father, General John J. Abercrombie, who was in
Baltimore, Maryland, was a graduate of the West Point Military Academy of
the class of 1822 and after fifty-five years' service in the United States
army retired in 1877. He won distinction and honors in connection with
service in the Indian wars, participating in the Seminole and the Black
Hawk wars, also the Mexican and Civil wars. In the last named he passed
through all of the grades from that of second lieutenant to general
officer. Through previous generations this military trait has been traced,
the family being descended from Ralph Abercrombie, of the English army, who
Settled in this country after the battle of Ticonderoga. Of the three was
sons of General John J. Abercrombie two served in the army and one in the
navy. The eldest son, J. J. Abercrombie, who became captain of artillery,
is now retired and is living in Chicago, where he is conducting a brokerage
business.  Ensign F. P. Abercrombie, who was in the volunteer service, is
now division superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The two daughters
are: Mrs. W. E. Goodman, living at Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia; and Mrs.
John Cole Rutherford, of Park, New Jersey.
     Colonel William R. Abercrombie, whose name introduces this review, was
educated in Queen's county, Long Island, New York, pursuing his course in
Flower Hill Academy. He became connected with the United States army at the
age of nineteen years and was commissioned second lieutenant in the Second
Infantry by General Grant in March, 1877. In July of that year he came to
the Pacific coast to take part in the Nez Perce war. He went form, Atlanta,
Georgia, to San Francisco, thence by boat to Portland and by river steamer
to Lewiston, farm which point be marched to Spokane Falls. Here in October
the regiment was divided and Company E, of which Colonel Abercrombie was
then second lieutenant, took its station at Fort Colville.  Two companies
built log cabins there while another company went to the Palouse country
and the remainder of the troops went to Coeur d'Alene. In 1878 Colonel
Abercrombie took part in the Bannock Indian war and the following year was
quartermaster of an expedition into the Moses country in what is now known
as the Great Bend, and encamped at the mouth of Foster creek on the
Columbia river through the winter of 1879-80. In the spring of the latter
year he proceeded by boat down the Columbia river and began building a post
at Lake Chelan. Owing to the roughness of the country that post was
afterward abandoned in the fall of 1880, and Colonel Abercrombie was
appointed to duty at the mouth of the Spokane river, where he acted as
quartermaster and commissary.
     In 1882 trains began running to Fort Coeur d' Alene and with many of the
events which have marked the upbuilding of this section of the country
since that time Colonel Abercrombie has been closely associated. In 1882
lie was detailed to take the census of Indians on the Colville and Moses
reservations, and in 1883 he made a survey of Pend d'Oreille river and Pend
d'Oreille lake to the forty-ninth parallel and in 1884 commanded his first
expedition into Alaska, locating the Copper river delta. Two years later he
conducted an expedition and made a survey of the Priest river country and
from 1886 until 1896 was stationed at Fort Omaha, Nebraska. He participated
in various Indian campaigns throughout the west and was called out for
active duty at the time of the riots in Chicago, in Butte and in other
places. In 1897 he was stationed at Fort Harrison, Montana, and made
surveys between the forty-seventh and forty-ninth parallels, and from the
one hundred and ninth to the one hundred and eleventh meridians, which
included the Miras Indian reservation and other public lands. In 1898 he
was quartermaster of the Reindeer train which was attached to the
expedition for the relief of destitute miners in the Yukon country in
Alaska. and after the completion of that work, in the same year, he
commanded the Alaska exploration expedition, No. 2 for the exploration of
the Copper river valley with a view to discovering and locating an
all-American route from tide water on Prince William's Sound to the
international boundary between Canada and the United States, and Belle Isle
and the Yukon river.
     In 1889 Colonel Abercrombie commanded the Copper river exploration
expedition operating from Port Valdez, Alaska.  He discovered and located
an all-American route from Port Valdez to the Tanana river, and the same
year was appointed chief engineer of the department of Alaska  and
construction chief engineer of the department of Alaska and construction
engineer of the trans-Alaskan military road. From 1899 until 1901 he was
engaged as constructing engineer of the trans-Alaskan military road.   From
Valdez to the Yukon river, covering four hundred and eighty miles, and in
1902 he was acting engineering officer of the department of the Columbia at
Vancouver Barracks, Washington. In 1903 he was in service in the Philippine
islands and in 1905-6 was on recruiting duty in the northern part of the
state of New Jersey. In 1907 he was commander at Fort Reno, Oklahoma, and
in 1908 was on foreign service in the Philippine Islands, while in 1910 he
was commander at Fort. Wright, at which point he retired from active
service and came to Spokane to make his home. He continued in active
military duty for thirty-three years, spending ten years, summer and
winter, in tents. He is now connected with mining projects, having owned
mining property since 1884. This is located at Cornucopia, Oregon, and he
is also chief engineer of the development in the Willapa Harbor, in Pacific
county. He has gold and silver bearing properties and the company is now
operating a twenty stamp mill. Colonel Abercrombie is also interested in
the Willapa-Pacific Townsite Company, the town site being located in
Willapa county, at the mouth of the Willapa river about two miles south of
South Bend. His long and varied experience in engineering work during his
connection with the army well qualifies him for important duties that are
now devolving upon him in this connection.
     Colonel Abercrombie was the first soldier that came into the town of
Spokane and the first man he met in the settlement was James Glover.  The
Indians had been dancing and making merry for a week before his arrival.
Being a good fisherman he obtained promise from the commanding officer,
General Wheaton, allowing him to go ahead of the command so he could fish.
At that time there were only about three houses in the town and these mere
shacks. In front of one was sitting a big, handsome fellow who called to
the colonel as the latter went by, and he noticed that the man did not look
very happy. His expression changed, however, to one of joy when in response
to his question as to bow many soldiers were behind the Colonel he was
informed that there were about seven hundred. The man was Mr. Glover and
Colonel Abercrombie afterward learned that be had not slept for several
nights and it was a question when the sun went down whether he would ever
see it rise again, for the Indians were getting excited and were showing
marked signs of hostility.  Colonel Abercrombie became well acquainted with
the early settlers including James Monaghan, Cowley, Dumheller, Gray,
Yetson, Post and a host of others, and it was this that induced him finally
to settle in Spokane. As he said he "learned to know these men as one only
can in days when their worldly possessions were represented by a sack of
flour and a slab of bacon."  It is in such days when privations are great
and hardships are many that the real nature of the individual is seen and
in those pioneer times men learned to know each other for what they were
really worth in character and ability. It was because of the strong
friendships which he formed in those early days that Colonel Abercrombie
returned to Spokane to make this city his home.
     It was on the 13th of October, 1886 in New York city, that Colonel
Abercrombie was married to Miss Lillian Kimball, a daughter of General A.
S. Kimball, of the United States army, under whom he had served as
department quartermaster at Vancouver Barracks, Washington, when the
General chief quartermaster of the department of the Columbia. Mrs.
Abercrombie is a Daughter of the American Revolution. By her marriage she
has become the mother of two daughters, Frances K. and Clara De Normandy
both of whom are now students at Brunot Hall.
     Colonel Abercrombie's club relations are extensive and indicate his high
standing in the different localities where he has resided for any length of
time. They are also indicative of the nature of his interests. He belongs
to the National Geographic Society, the Geographic Society of Philadelphia
and the Explorers Club of New York, of which he is a charter member. He is
likewise a charter member of the Army and Navy Club of New York, is a
member of the Arctic Brotherhood of Alaska, the Army and Navy Club of
Manila, the Spokane Club, the Spokane Country Club, the Officers Club of
Fort Wright, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Tillicum Club of
Valdez and the Wanderers Club of Hong Kong, China. His have been thrilling
experiences which can never come to one whose interests are confined to a
single locality or whose efforts are concentrated along a single line of
business.   In fact, in purpose and in activity he has reached out over
constantly broadening fields, meeting with such
experiences as have caused him to place a correct valuation upon life and its
contacts. He has preserved a splendid balance between the physical, mental and
moral development and his friendships are largely with those whom experience and
ability have raised above the ordinary level of life.
     
* * * *

Submitted to the WA. Bios Project in January 2007 by Diana Smith.

Notice: These biographies were transcribed for the Washington Biographies
Project. Unless otherwise stated, no further information is available on the
individual featured in the biographies.