"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. p. 846.

TARBLE W. MARTIN resides with his half-brother, William I. Purcell, the subject
of another sketch appearing in this history. He was born in Danville, Illinois,
May 20, 1833, the son of William and Cerraphina (Weatherbee) Martin, natives of
Kentucky and New York, respectively. His parents settled in Illinois in an early
day, and in that state the father died in 1838. The mother, after having married
again, later came to Adams county, Washington, where she died in 1898.
     Mr. Martin came west with an ox team to California, in 1852. He began
mining at Downieville, California, the following year and continued thus engaged
until 1855, when he went north to Rogue River and to Portland, Oregon. During
the autumn of that year, war with the Indians broke out, whereupon our subject,
with a brother, volunteered to go to the front as soldiers. They served from
November until May, when Mr. Martin entered the employ of the government in the
Indian service. On one occasion he took a load of provisions for the Indians to
Dayton, Washington, and while enroute was captured by the war-like savages and
held prisoner for two days. He packed freight, after that time from Fort Simco
to The Dalles until November, 1856, when he and his brother went to Texas. They
remained in that state until 1860, when Mr. Martin went to Illinois where he
farmed until 1883. In the year mentioned he came to Washington, stopping at
Dayton, whence he came to Adams county. Here he filed on a half-section of land
which he still owns, and in November, 1903, he went to Oklahoma, where he
remained a brief space, from that territory he went to Texas, and thence to
points in California, returning home in February of the following year.
     On October 15, 1863, Tarble W. Martin was married to Mary J. Hogan,
daughter of Adley and Nancy (Hornbach) Hogan, the former a native of South
Carolina and the latter of Kentucky. The parents of Mrs. Martin settled in Pike
county, Illinois, about the year 1840, and there spent the remainder of their
lives. They were the parents of five children.
     Mr. Martin in 1860 allied himself with the Republican party and remained a
Republican until 1892, when he joined the ranks of the Peopleís Party, of which
he is a member at the present time. He has repeatedly held school offices, and
was elected the first assessor of Adams county, but never served owing to his
refusal to qualify for the position.


Submitted by: Georgia Harter Williams, georgiahw@earthlink.net