Background
Urquhart was born in Dingwall, Ross-Shire, Scotland.
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James Urquhart
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He chose the town"s name from the Indian word "napavoon" meaning small prairie.
Career
He was also elected to three terms as a county commissioner in Lewis County, Washington. He was a delegate to the Washington State Constitutional Convention. In 1873 he laid out the town of Napavine where he was Postmaster and ran the general store.
Cromarty and the Black Isle had been the home of the Clan Urquhart since ancient times.
He left Ross-shire as a teenager going first to Arbroath on the North Sea coast where he learned the merchant"s trade in an uncle"s store. He then moved on to Linlithgow where he worked on the new railroad that was being constructed, married a local girl by the name of Helen Muir, and started a family of his own.
In 1851 Urquhart left his growing family in Scotland and sailed to New New York He crossed the country, initially traveling through the antebellum south on foot to New Orleans, then up the Mississippi River by boat, and finally joining a wagon train and heading west on the Oregon Trail to the Oregon Territory.
After working at several different jobs along the Columbia River, he filed a Donation Claim, homesteaded north of the river and voted in the first election in the newly created
In 1855 the was thinly populated.The Urquhart family set off into the wilderness by canoe on the Cowlitz River, settling near Cutting"s prairie.
The entire family cleared fields, raised animals and crops and honed the skills of pioneer living. Urquhart served in the Lewis County militia in 1856. Because he had good relations with the local tribes, he did not take his family to the block house at Claquato for protection during the Yakima Indian uprisings of 1855-1856.
By 1873 James Urquhart had greatly expanded his land holdings.
He purchased a small outpost and the merchandise of his pioneer neighbor H. H. Pinto and laid out a town around lieutenant He named the town Napavine.
He ran the general store for many years and saw the railroad come to his town. He was three times elected to the Territorial Legislature, was appointed Postmaster, was a county commissioner and a delegate to the constitutional convention, and served on the school board.
In his book "History of the Puget Sound Country" William Farrand Prosser, one of the founders of the Washington Historical Society, wrote personal histories of many prominent pioneers and their families.
William had served as Mayor of Chehalis, a town he and his business associates had played a role in developing. He also served as Postmaster and Treasurer of Lewis County. Another brother, Alexander, became Postmaster of Rufus, Oregon.
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Born
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Died
February 23, 1901 (aged 78) -
Nationality
United States