An Illustrated History of the State of Washington, by Rev. H.K. Hines, D.D., 
The Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, IL., 1893, pages 415-416

	MILTON ALDRICH, a prominent pioneer of the Pacific coast and one of the
leading men of Walla Walla county, was born in Erie county, New York, September
10, 1830. His father, James Aldrich, was a native of Rhode Island, was there
married to Miss Hannah Comstock, who was a native of the same State. Soon after
their marriage they moved to the State of New York, and when Milton was five
years of age the family removed to the State of Michigan, this being about 1835,
and there the father spent the remainder of his days, dying either in Michigan
or Wisconsin, when he was about eighty years of age. His wife survived him until
1891, when she died at the age of eighty. They had reared a family of nine
children, and our subject was the eighth in order, but only three of that large
family are still living.
	Milton lived with his parents until he reached his majority, and, being a
young man of progressive ideas and high ambition, he concluded to seek his
fortune in the far West. One bright spring morning in April, 1852, he started
for the mines of California. He had earned and saved enough to buy him an outfit
comprising a good horse, team and wagon, and after a journey of three months he
reached his destination, having been but once molested by the Indians. At one
time some 150 Indians made their appearance in the camp of four wagons, and
demanded that they be given all the clothing and provisions; but the little
party well knew that if the gave up their supplies they would starve; hence they
tried a bluff game with the noble red men, agreeing to give them a box of hard
tack and a side of bacon if they wanted them, and if not they would give them
some powder and balls from the guns. The Indians pondered the matter over for
some time and then, finally decided to accept the offer, and upon receiving the
booty rode away and left the little party to pursue their way unmolested. When
our subject reached California he engaged in mining, but did not meet with
sufficient success to make a regular business of it, and after two years of
trial he left the mines and went into the freighting business and followed that
for a period of eight years, making considerable money. He then sold out his
business with the intention of going to Oregon, but after he had bought beef
cattle with the intention of preparing them for marketing in California, the
excitement arose over the mines on the great Fraser river. Realizing that all
the floating population would immediately rush off for the new locality, he to
changed his plans and started for the same place with his cattle and drove them
as far as The Dalles, where he halted for a month or so. Seeing that this was
not an eligible place in which to winter his cattle, and hearing reports of the
fine grass lands in the Walla Walla valley, he turned his attention to this
country and drove his stock to Walla Walla. Here he fixed upon a fine tract on
Dry creek, nine miles east of the present city, where he found a nice little
piece of bottom land well covered with good grass, and at that place he staked
off a claim of 160 acres, where he wintered his cattle. He then turned his
attention to the mines again, mining in several places in Idaho and Montana, and
after following that occupation for a few years be returned to his claim and has
continued improving the same until the present day. As a result he now owns
2,000 acres of the finest wheat land in Walla Walla county and is farming about
1,900 acres of it. In 1892 he raised 20,000 bushels of grain, but this was not
an average yield, as his grain suffered from drought. Our subject has a good
residence on the bank of Dry creek, surrounded by a beautiful tract of bottom
land and rolling hills.
	Our subject was married in 1863 to Miss Sarah Stanfield, a native of Iowa,
who had come with her parents to Walla Walla in 1862, and they had a family of
three children: Dora, who is the wife of Frank Walker of Boston, Massachusetts;
Fred J., who is now in New York attending school; and Shelley, who is at school
in Walla Walla.
	When our subject started out in life he had in addition to some new clothes
which were given him by his father, the nominal sum of money he had saved, but
he had to go $200 in debt. He has a wide experience and has endured all the
privations of pioneer life. In 1890 he was elected on the Republican ticket as
County Commissioner of Walla Walla county, and in the fall of 1892 he received
the nomination for County Treasurer, but was defeated by the small majority of
thirty votes. He is well known through the county and much respected.

Submitted to the WA. Bios Project in October 2003 by Jeffrey L. Elmer

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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.