"An Illustrated History of the Big Bend Country; Embracing Lincoln, Douglas, Adams and Franklin Counties; State of Washington". Spokane, Western Historical Publishing Company, Publishers, 1904. pp. 856-857. HENRY W. SAUNDERS, a farmer whose home is nine miles west of Ritzville, is a native of Madison county, New York, born January 25, 1839. He was the son of A. V. and Perlina (King) Saunders, natives of New York, both of whom could trace their ancestry back to the earliest settlers of the ìEmpire State.î From Madison county, the family removed to Dodge county, Wisconsin, in 1846, and to Kansas in 1859, where the father and mother subsequently died. They were the parents of eight children, Julia, Lester, H. W., Devillo, Jeanette, Rose, Ella, and Adelbert. Mr. Saunders received a common school education, principally in Dodge county, Wisconsin, and at the age of twenty he went to Kansas, where he followed farming and stock raising on the plains until 1862. Upon reaching Kansas he found large game, buffalo, in particular, in abundance, and many of these animals fell victims of his sportsmanship. In 1862 he enlisted in Company C, Ninth Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, under Captain Steward, a noted character of the plains. Mr. Saunders served three years in the army, the most of which time he was doing duty on the frontier, and was mustered out at DuVall Bluff, Arkansas, in the spring of 1865. He then resumed farming and stock raising in Kansas, where he remained until 1887, when he sold his interests in Kansas and came to Adams county, Washington, during the meantime he made several trips to the mines of Colorado as a freighter. Upon coming to this county he took a homestead and timber culture where he now lives, to which he has since added by purchase enough to make him the owner in all of four hundred acres of cultivated and improved land. The general financial depression of 1893-94 which prevailed the country over was unusually severe with the subject of this sketch, and he was forced to live as best he could until the relaxation of 1896 and 1897. He, among many other Big Bend farmers, knows what it means to haul wheat miles to market and sell it for nineteen cents a bushel, -- far less than the cost of production. In the year 1869, Henry W. Saunders took for his wife Miss Anna E. Chapman, daughter of Joseph Chapman, and on March 15, 1870, she departed this life, leaving one child, Devillo D. Saunders. During October 1876, Mr. Saunders was again married, his wife being Annie E. Galbraith, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. T. Galbraith, natives of Indiana. The father lived in Kansas, and in 1888 came to Adams county and is now living in Ritzville. The mother died in Kansas in 1864, since which time the father has taken another wife. By his first marriage Mr. Galbraith reared two children and three by his second marriage. To Mr. and Mrs. Saunders have been born two children, Ray E., of Adams county, and Ralph H., who lives with his parents. In politics, Mr. Saunders is an active Republican. He is a member of the G. A. R. at Ritzville. Mrs. Saunders was a devout member of the Methodist Episcopal church. On February 17, 1896, she was called away by death, leaving many to sincerely mourn her as a noble Christian character. Submitted by: Georgia Harter Williams, georgiahw@earthlink.net