Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 16/Obituary: Thomas Wickham Prosch et al.
Obituary
On March 30, 1915, Mr. Thomas Wickham Prosch, Mrs. Virginia McCarver Prosch, Miss Margaret Lenora Denny and Mrs. Harriet Foster Beecher, all of Seattle, Washington, lost their lives in an automobile accident while returning home from a visit to the Washington Historical Society at Tacoma. All four of these unfortunate persons were intimately associated with the history of the Pacific Northwest, the first three from the earliest days, as is indicated by the following:
Mr. Prosch, it will be remembered, delivered the last annual address before the Oregon Historical Society on December 19, 1914. He became a member of this society in 1904 and was a frequent contributor to the pages of The Quarterly. He was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., June 2, 1850, of German and English ancestry. He came with his parents to the Pacific Coast in 1855, and San Francisco became the abiding place of the family until February, 1858, when removal was made to Steilacoom, Pierce county, Washington Territory, where the father, having had many years experience in the printing and newspaper business, established a newspaper called the Puget Sound Herald, the first issue being on March 12, 1858—the third paper in Washington Territory. At the age of nine Mr. Prosch began learning to set type in his father's office, and continued for six years. At fifteen he was a salesman in a store; a hand in a logging camp at seventeen; legislative clerk at nineteen; clerk and inspector in the custom house at Port Townsend at twenty; and between times worked at his trade. In 1872 he became the owner of the Pacific Tribune at Olympia. In 1873 he moved his plant to Tacoma, and in 1875 to Seattle. From that date to 1886 he was identified with the newspapers of that city, chiefly, the Post-Intelligencer. In 1876 Mr. Prosch was appointed postmaster of Seattle by President Grant, which office he resigned in 1878. In 1890 he supervised the municipal census of Seattle, and in 1891-1893 was a member of the Seattle Board of Education. In 1894-95 he with two other men platted and appraised the tide lands of the state in front of Tacoma, Ballard and Seattle—3,500 acres, all in King county. Soon after the latter date Mr. Prosch practically retired from active business, except so far as was necessary in the performance of the duties involved by his connection with civic organizations, and pioneer and historical societies. In connection with the latter bodies he was the author of several pamphlets and books of a descriptive and historical character, as well as many newspaper contributions along the same line, all of which, by virtue of his painstaking efforts, have become important sources of early history.
On September 12, 1877, Mr. Prosch was married to Miss Virginia McCarver, a daughter of Morton Matthew and Mrs. Julia Ann McCarver, pioneers of 1843 and 1847. She was born on a farm near Oregon City, April 17, 1851. In 1858 the family removed to Portland, and Miss McCarver secured her education at the Portland Academy and Female Seminary, and at Spencer Hall, Milwaukie, which was the beginning of what afterwards became known as St. Helen's Hall, Portland. In 1868 the McCarver family removed to Tacoma, and in 1870 Miss McCarver became the second school teacher in that city. With the exception of a year spent in California, she followed the vocation of teaching until her marriage. Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Prosch, five daughters and one son, and three daughters and the son survive their parents. Miss Denny was the daughter of the late Arthur A. and Mrs. Mary A. Denny, pioneers from Knox county, Ill., where she was born on August 14, 1847. The family arrived at Portland on August 23, 1851, and a few months later embarked on the schooner Exact for Puget Sound, in what was then known as Northern Oregon. The vessel arrived at Alki Point—West Seattle of the present day—on Nov. 13, 1851, and twenty-four persons—twelve adults and twelve children—disembarked; several of them remained there, and thus became the first settlers and founders of Seattle. Miss Denny's father took a claim of three hundred and twenty acres on Feb. 15, 1852, under the Oregon donation land law of September 27, 1850, and in the subsequent years this came to be the site of what at the present day is the heart of Seattle. On the death of her father and mother she inherited an ample fortune. This was most liberally used in promoting- the public welfare, particularly for the support of charitable institutions, schools, churches, and for perpetuating the memory of pioneers. She is survived by four brothers and one sister, all residents of Seattle.
Mrs. Beecher was the wife of Captain H. F. Beecher, a son of the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, the famous preacher and lecturer of Brooklyn, New York. She and her husband went to Washington Territory more than thirty years ago, and for a few years made their home at Port Townsend, where he was engaged in steamboat service, both as master and pilot. About twenty years ago this family removed to Seattle, and there, Mrs. Beecher became a recognized leader in literary, musical and art circles, and achieved an enviable reputation as a portrait painter.
The untimely and tragic death of these four persons, so closely associated in supporting institutions for public service, is not only an irreparable loss to the immediate relatives, and the organizations to which they contributed most liberally, but also to a wide circle of intimate friends. And of the latter, none can be more deeply affected than the writer of the foregoing feeble tribute to their worth, because of the cordial relations which have existed for more than fifty years between the first three named and himself.