The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 173 

CLARENCE S. PALMER.

Clarence S. Palmer has been identified with the livery business in Ellensburg
for a third of a century and throughout the entire period has enjoyed a large
patronage which was a profitable one until the automobile cut in on the
business. He was born near Norwich, Connecticut, March 26, 1856, a son of
Stephen R. and Emeline (Vanote) Palmer. The parents, removing westward in 1857,
settled in Illinois, where they lived for a decade, and in 1867 removed to
Menomonie, Wisconsin. There the father followed the occupation of farming
throughout his remaining days, both he and his wife passing away in that state.
At the time of the Civil war, he put aside all business and personal
considerations and responded to the country's call for troops, valiantly- aiding
the Union cause on various southern battlefields.

On the 16th of April, 1877, Clarence S. Palmer, then a young man of twenty-one
years, left home and started for the Black Hills, where he spent four months. He
afterward went to Cheyenne, Wyoming, and was engaged in railway construction
work in that locality for a few months. He then devoted two years to freighting
between Colorado Springs and Leadville, driving an eight-mule team. The year
1879 witnessed his arrival in New Mexico, where he was employed on construction
work on the Sante Fe Railroad. He subsequently returned to Colorado Springs and
rode the range as a cowboy for one summer. On the expiration of that period he
returned to Leadville, where he engaged in hauling ores through the winter, and
then again made his way to New Mexico, where he remained for a year, devoting
his attention to railway work. He afterward spent a winter in the vicinity of
Denver and subsequently made his way to Pocatello, Idaho, where he arrived
about 1881. He was again engaged in railway construction work in that locality
until he went to Pendleton, Oregon, where he lived for a short time. Making his
way northward, he settled at Ainsworth, Washington, where he was employed on the
construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad, taking contract work in
connection with the building of the road through the Yakima valley. In February,
1886, he established his home in Ellensburg, where he embarked in the livery
business, in which he has since been engaged. In April, 1890, he built a fine
big barn, which he is still conducting. This is the joint property of himself
and his brother, Arthur V. They have been continuously associated in business
since the spring of 1880 and is all of their travels, the closest connection
existing between them in all of their interests.

On the 20th of March, 1888, Mr. Palmer was married to Miss Lulu H. Simon, who
was born in Menomonie, Wisconsin, a daughter of Andrew Simon, who removed with
his family to Seattle in 1884. Mrs. Palmer became a resident of Yakima City in
that year and became a teacher in the public schools in 188;, being employed as
one of the first teachers of the city. In 1886 she taught school in Kittitas
county, making the journey hither by stage. She became the wife of Mr. Palmer in
Seattle and to them have been born three children. George S., a draftsman living
in Seattle, is married and has one child. Emeline is the wife of H. R. Bartlett,
who is a lieutenant in the United States navy, doing geodetic survey work. Mrs.
Bartlett resides in New York. Clarice L., also a resident of New York, married
Fred Zeusler, who is a senior lieutenant in the United States navy, and they
have a baby girl.

Mr. Palmer is a democrat in his political views, and fraternally is connected
with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the Elks lodge No. 1102 of
Ellensburg. He attends the Unitarian church and is interested in all those
forces which make for the material, intellectual, social, political and moral
welfare of his community. As the years have passed on and he has prospered in
his undertakings he has accumulated considerable property, which places him now
in comfortable financial circumstances. fie is a well known pioneer settler,
thirty-three years having been added to the cycle of the centuries since he took
up his abode in Ellensburg, while for a much longer period he has been connected
with the northwest. He has witnessed much of its growth and progress as the
years have passed and at all times has co-operated heartily in plans and
measures to promote the public good.

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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.