The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 494
A portrait of Howard B. Ames appears in this publication.

HOWARD B. AMES.

Howard B. Ames, an orchardist of Selah, who is also interested in mining
properties in Alaska, comes to the northwest from Peterboro, New Hampshire,
where he was born on the 2d of August, 1874, the width of the continent
therefore separating him from the place of his birth. He is a son of Marshall K.
and Jennie (Butman) Ames, the former also a native of Peterboro, New Hampshire,
while the latter was born in Milan, Ohio. Her death occurred in the year 1876.
Marshall K. Ames had gone to Michigan as a young man, and he and his wife were
on a visit in New Hampshire at the time of the birth of their son Howard. In
1875 the father removed to Russell, Kansas, and built the first flour mill in
that section. The family were there residing at the time of the mother's death.
Later Mr. Ames went to Colorado, where he took up his abode in 1883 and entered
the mining business. He still makes his home in Denver.

Howard B. Ames was but nine years of age when he began assisting in the mines
through vacation periods. His education was acquired in the public schools and
at the age of fourteen years he accompanied an uncle to the Puget Sound country.
They made their way to Seattle and he continued his education in the public
schools of that city. He afterward attended the University of Washington, where
he pursued a course in mining engineering, and while still a resident of
Seattle he made his initial step in the business world by securing a position in
the Washington National Bank of Seattle. In 1898 he went to Juneau, Alaska,
where he was employed for a year and then made his way to the Yukon, where he
worked for wages. In 1903 he went to Nome, Alaska, where he purchased property,
and in his investments in real estate there he won substantial success. Again
taking up the banking business, he became manager of the Bank of Cape Nome and
was identified with both banking and mining interests for a considerable period.
In 1909 he returned to Seattle and in 1910 he came to Yakima county. Here he
purchased eighty acres in the Selah valley on the Yakima river and has the
entire tract planted to apple orchards. The successful management of his
business in this connection has made him one of the prominent orchardists of the
region. His orchard is highly developed along practical lines, his place being
equipped with all the modern facilities for handling fruit on a commercial
basis. He still has his mining interests in Alaska and goes to that country
biennially to superintend his business affairs there. A. F. Guinan, also an
orchardist of Selah valley, is associated with our subject in dredge mining at
Nome, Alaska.

On the 10th of August, 1904, Mr. Ames was married to Anna Brown, a daughter of
Amos and Annie (Peobles) Brown, of Seattle. Her father was one of the pioneers
of the Puget Sound country, and her mother, with her sister, a Mrs. McIntosh,
came to Seattle by sailing vessel around Cape Horn at an early day. She came
west to teach school. Their children are three in number: Marshall, thirteen
years of age; Donald, aged seven, and a baby girl.

Mr. Ames has always given his political allegiance to the republican party and
was one of the organizers of the Young Men's Republican Club of Seattle in the
early days. Fraternally he is identified with the Masons. In the latter he has
attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and has also crossed the
sands of the desert with the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He likewise belongs to
the Arctic Club of Seattle and to the Arctic Brotherhood and the "pioneers of
Alaska." He was one of the pioneers of Alaska, being among those who at an early
date penetrated into the far northwest to develop its mining interests and take
advantage of the business opportunities offered in its development along various
lines. His experiences have been broad, varied and interesting. There is no
phase of the development of the northwest with which he is not familiar and he
has been actively connected with progress in Washington. He is now a prominent
representative of orcharding in the Yakima valley and is today the owner of
valuable property of that kind near Selah.

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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.