Bios: Daniel D. Layton, 1848: from Crawford County
Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Candy Grubb.
candyg@theofficenet.com
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>From "History of North Washington" Published 1904
Transcribed by: Candy Grubb (candyg@theofficenet.com)
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DANIEL D. LAYTON
Daniel D. Layton is one of Washington's pioneers and well he
has sustained that character in his good labors in the past quarter
of a century here. He was born in Crawford county, Pennsylvania, on
September 11, 1848, the son of Hiram and Julia (Mahonia) Layton,
natives, respectively, of Connecticut and Ireland. The father was a
shoemaker and bought the old tannery that was formerly owned by John
Brown of national fame, and that was the place of the birth of our
subject. Daniel was educated in the public schools until fourteen and
then went into the oil regions above Pittsburgh. In 1865, he came to
Cleveland and with two others started with teams to Iowa. Later he
travelled to Omaha and in Nebraska, Dakota, and Iowa he was engaged
variously until 1874 when he came to San Francisco. Next we see him
logging in Lake county and in the centennial year he was in Victoria
and the Fraser river country. Later he explored the regions about
Sitka, returned to California, came back to the Dalles, and in 1878
came to Spokane and located at Medical lake before there was a town
there. He put in a sawmill and later built a hotel in Sprague. He,
with Bishop and Brower, first brought out the famous Medical lake salts.
Next we see Mr. Layton erecting a sawmill at the mouth of Hawk creek
on the Columbia, where he operated continually, with the exception of
four years spent in ranching and raising stock, until 1901. In that
year Mr. Layton removed the plant to the mouth of the Oro Potham creek,
on the Columbia, where he is engaged at the present. The mill cuts
about ten thousand feet per day and is equipped with planer and so
forth to turn out all finished products needed. The steamboat lines
have established a landing at his mill and a store and postoffice will
be located there in a short time. The town is in an embryonic stage
but it bids fair to be one of the good points of the county.