"An Illustrated History of Whitman County, state of Washington." San Francisco: W. H. Lever, 1901. p. 392. HON. THOMAS G. MULKEY It is within the province of tills work to present in this part brief reviews of men who have been prominent in any line of enterprise or activity connected with Whitman county, but it is especially incumbent that we make due mention of those who, like the man whose name initiates this paragraph, have been leaders not alone in the industrial development of the county, but in its politics and in everything having to do with its government and social life. Mr. Mulkey has been in public eye perhaps as much as any other man in the county, and when entrusted with official positions or honored with any form of preferment has proven true to his trust and faithful to the interests of his constituency. In fact, his life has been so ordered in all respects as to win and retain the highest regard and esteem of all. But to be more specific, our subject is a native of Missouri, born November 5, 1843. In 1847 he was brought across the plains to Oregon, his parents that year making the trip with ox-team. He grew to man's estate there, acquiring a very good general education and afterward embarking in the newspaper business at Corvallis. In that town and in various other places he followed the journalistic profession, devoting fifteen years of his life to it. At length he determined to change his residence and his occupation, so came to Whitman county, located on government land three miles southeast of Rosalia and engaged in farming and the stock business. To these related lines of enterprise and to the cultivation and improvement of his original homestead and of the quarter section acquired later he has devoted his energies assiduously ever since, with gratifying results. But, though Mr. Mulkey is an unusually enterprising and successful farmer, it is for his part in politics that he is best known and will be longest remembered in Whitman county and the state. Ever active and zealous in the public affairs of county and state, his abilities and services received fitting recognition in 1892, when he was elected a member of the state legislature. He distinguished himself particularly, while in the house, by the energy and ability displayed in securing the passage of a bill for the reduction of freight rates on grain, a measure of obvious importance to a wheat-producing region like Whitman county. In all the campaigns of his party, the Democratic, from 1890 to 1898, he was the nominee for representative to the state legislature, a fact which shows the high confidence in which he is held by the members of that party. In his fraternal affiliations our subject is identified with the I. 0. 0. F. His marriage was solemnized at Corvallis, Oregon, on November 17, 1876, when Miss Mary F. Bourne, a native of Missouri, became his wife. They have two children: Harriet A. and Dolph. ******************* Submitted to the Washington Biographies Project in June 2009 by Diana Smith. Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.