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"Spokane and The Spokane Country - Pictorial and Biographical - Deluxe Supplement." Vol. II. The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1912. (No author listed.) pgs. 40-43.
WILLIAM HUNTLEY, vice president of the Exchange National Bank, is
recognized in business circles as a man of keen discernment and of marked
sagacity, as is evidenced in the judicious investments which he has made and
which have returned to him the gratifying rewards of industry, sound judgment
and capable management. Various business projects have profited by his
cooperation and his ability to control important and intricate interests, and
he is today one of the prominent representatives of financial affairs in
Spokane. He has displayed both originality and initiative in the handling of
his business interests, which he has recently incorporated under the name of
the Huntley Investment Company, in which equal shares are held by his wife,
their ten children and himself.
Mr. Huntley was born in Pike county, Illinois, September 19, 1858, a
son of Alonzo and Paulina (Smith) Huntley. The latter is still living but the
father died in 1899. The son enjoyed but limited educational opportunities,
for when only nine years of age he took his place as a regular hand in the
fields. At ten years of age he was herding cattle and he remained upon the
home farm until he had completed his first two decades of life. The last ten
years of that period were spent in Missouri, to which state his parents had
removed about 1868. At length he started out in life on his own account and
took up the occupation to which he was reared, following farming in Missouri
until the spring of 1884, when he removed west to the Palouse country,
settling near Endicott, Washington. There he homesteaded one hundred and
sixty acres of land and used all his rights. He next engaged in the
live-stock business, in which he continued until about 1909. As he prospered
he also extended his efforts in other directions, became interested in a bank
at Colfax, established the bank at Endicott and became owner of a store at St.
John and another at Colfax, both of which he still owns in addition to six
thousand acres of valuable land in the Palouse country. He has operated even
more largely along business lines in Spokane. He was connected with the
establishment of the Powell-Sanders Company of this city, of which he is still
a director, and when the capital stock of the Exchange National Bank was
raised from two hundred and fifty thousand dollars he bought in, became a
director and has served as vice president of the bank during the past four
years. The capital stock of the Exchange National Bank was later raised to
one million dollars, and Mr. Huntley is now the largest stockholder in this
institution. He is president of the Mechanics Loan & Trust Company; president
of the Farmers & Mechanics Bank of this city; secretary of the Inland Brewery
Company; secretary of the Boise Brewery Company; and a director and
stockholder of the American Building Company. He also has extensive interests
in other institutions and business enterprises of Spokane and his cooperation
is a prized factor in the management and support of business projects.
On the 4th of January, 1883, when in Missouri, Mr. Huntley was united
in marriage to Miss Emma Langford, of Audrain county, that state. Twelve
children have been born unto them, of whom ten are living. The married
daughter, Grace Lorean, became the wife of Ira Hunt in 1907 and lives with her
husband at No. 1604 Fourth avenue. The other children are: Jesse Blain, a
trustee of the Huntley Investment Company; Mabel Frances; Carl Raymond, aged
nineteen; Lawrence Platt, a youth of seventeen; Eunice Leta, who is fourteen
years old; Elva Dean, age thirteen; Emma Lilly, who is ten years of age; and
Ralph William and Clarke Valentine, who are eight and six years of age
respectively. It is said that when Mr. and Mrs. Huntley were married her
parents were reluctant to give their consent because of the meager financial
resources of the prospective husband, whose sole possessions consisted of a
team of mules. This opposition was overcome, however, and two years after
their marriage the young couple started for the Palouse country and, as
previously stated, preempted a claim four miles west of Endicott. Subsequently
they occupied a home about a mile from that town for fifteen years or until
they came to Spokane in 1902. In the meantime Mr. Huntley had given ample
demonstration of his worth and resourcefulness in business and in July, 1910,
he organized the Huntley Investment Company, of which he is a trustee, a
unique corporation providing against the division, distribution or dissolution
of the Huntley estate and retaining Mr. Huntley as manager for twenty years.
Arrangements were made for the distribution of the income among the husband,
wife and ten children, each receiving equal shares save that the special
provision has been made that Mrs. Huntley's income shall never be less than
three hundred dollars a month for herself and one thousand dollars a year for
each of her seven minor children. The company was incorporated for one
million, two hundred thousand dollars, the incorporators being William
Huntley, Emma V. Huntley, Jesse B. Huntley, the eldest son, and Edwin T.
Coman, president of the Exchange National Bank. Its trustees for the first
six months were William Huntley, Jesse B. Huntley and Edwin T. Coman. The
incorporation is for a period of fifty years and its objects and purposes are,
generally, to buy, sell, encumber and otherwise deal in real and personal
property, lands, mines, mill sites, town sites, irrigation ditches, stocks,
bonds and negotiable paper. The stockholders are empowered to increase the
number of trustees from time to time, this provision enabling them to make
places of the board for such of the children as may develop sufficient
interest and ability to justify the appointment as they grow to maturity. Mr.
Huntley taking this method of stimulating the interest of his sons that they
may eventually assume the management of the estate for themselves and their
sisters. At the end of the twenty-year period in which Mr. Huntley is to
serve as manager, the Mechanics Loan & Trust Company, of which he is
president, is directed to assign and deliver to each living child or to direct
descendants of such as are not living, their respective interests in the one
million dollars of trusteed stock. One feature of Mr. Huntley's business that
has ever awakened surprise and admiration among his associates and colleagues
is his remarkably retentive memory. He has never kept an ordinary system of
bookkeeping and but few memorandums, relying entirely upon his memory not only
for the principal features of his business but also for the details connected
with every transaction. He seems to have almost intuitive perception as to
the value of a business situation or the opportunity for investment.
In his political views Mr. Huntley is a republican and during his
residence in Whitman county served as county commissioner. He belongs to the
Masonic lodge and also holds membership with the Elks and the Spokane Club.
His is one of the life records which make the history of the western country
read almost like a romance. There have seemed to be no setbacks in his
career, his path on the contrary being marked by continuous progress, bringing
him at last to rank with the millionaire residents of Spokane and the Inland
Empire.
Submitted by: Nancy Pratt Melton
* * * * Notice: These biographies were transcribed for the Washington Biographies Project. Unless otherwise stated, no further information is available on the individuals featured in the biographies.