New York Times
Jul 9, 1953Mrs. Zillah Oakes Jacquelin, widow of Herbert T. B. Jacquelin, a stockbroker, died yesterday in her apartment in the Westbury hotel at the age of 82.
Mrs. Jacquelin was born in Kansas City, MO., the daughter of Thomas Fletcher and Abigail Haskell Oakes.
During the period her father was president of the Northern Pacific Railroad, the town of Zillah, Wash., was founded and named after her. In later years she was an active member of the Women's Republican Club of New York and a member of the Colonial Dames of America.
Surviving are a daughter, Mrs. Charles M. Billings; a brother, Prescott Oakes of Seattle; a sister, Mrs. Lawrence Greer of Wilton, Conn.; two grand children, and two great grandchildren.
____Yakima River townsite of Zillah is named in honor of Zillah Oakes in early April 1892.
HistoryLink.org Essay 5448In early April 1892, a party of Northern Pacific Railway and Yakima Irrigation Company officials visit the recently chosen but as yet unnamed townsite on the north bank of the Yakima River. The party includes Walter Granger (General Superintendent of the Sunnyside Canal), Paul Schulze (a Portland businessman and board member of the Oregon and Transcontinental Company), Thomas F. Oakes (1843-1919), president of the Northern Pacific Railway, his wife Abby (1842-1916), and their 19-year-old daughter Zillah (c.1872-1953). The party debates what to name the new town, and they agree to call it Zillah.
Either Paul Schulze or Walter Granger suggested the name Zillah. Both men had ample motivation to flatter Thomas Oakes, as both owed their employment to his favor. Walter Granger became president of the Zillah Townsite Company. The trustees were Thomas F. Oakes, Paul Schulze, William Hamilton Hall, and C. A. Spofford (acting for railroad tycoon Henry Villard [1835-1900]). Seventy acres of railroad land grant and state-owned land were platted for the town.
Outings to scout future town sites were a common activity in 1892. The previous month The New York Times had carried coverage of a similar outing that had gone awry:
"North Yakima, Washington, March 14 -- President Oakes of the Northern Pacific Railroad and party stopped here Saturday to inspect the company's property. The party left the train and took a drive around the country in a wagon. The party was made up of W. S. Wellen, General Manager of the Northern Pacific; E. V. Smalley, editor of the Northwest Magazine; Walter Oakes and P. A. O'Farrel. The wagon, drawn by four horses, was overturned by the current in a stream which the party attempted to ford. O'Farrel and Oakes reached a shallow part, and Wellen swam ashore, but Smalley was carried into deep water by the current and went under twice before a small boat reached him. He was taken to the train and soon recovered" (The New York Times, March 15, 1892)
Daughter of a Railroad Man
Zillah Oakes was born in Kansas City, Missouri, circa 1872. During her childhood her father Thomas Fletcher Oakes rose through the ranks of the Kansas Pacific Railroad.
Thomas F. Oakes came west with his family (wife Abby, son Walter, and daughters Grace, Zillah, and Georgiana) in May 1880. At the request of Henry Villard he settled in Portland, where he assumed direction of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company. On October 25, 1880, the birth of another son, Prescott, completed the family.
In June 1881, Thomas Oakes became vice-president (under Henry Villard) of the Northern Pacific Railroad. He was charged with closing the 1,000-mile gap in track between Dickinson, Dakota, and Sprague, Washington. In August and September 1881, Oakes surveyed this gap on horseback while his young family waited in Portland.
The Golden Spike
On September 8, 1883, the Golden Spike celebrating the completion of this 1,000 miles of track was driven in Gold Creek, Montana. Train cars of dignitaries arrived from the East and one car arrived from Portland bearing Northern Pacific Railroad family members. It is very likely that Zillah Oakes, then about 10 years old, would have been among the 8,000-10,000 people who gathered to listen to United States General and former President Ulysses S. Grant speak and watch the ceremonial spike be driven.
Once the Northern Pacific had become a transcontinental line it was able to claim the massive land grant guaranteed to it under Congressional charter in mid-1864. This land was then developed (in the Yakima Valley, via the construction of irrigation canals), town sites selected, platted, and sold to settlers.
Zillah's Life and Times
During the mid-1880s the Oakes family made St. Paul, Minnesota, their home. Their large house at 432 Summit Avenue placed them among St. Paul's elite. Great Northern Railroad owner James J. Hill (who would assume control of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1896) was a neighbor. Thomas Oakes crisscrossed the country executing his duties. In 1888 he assumed the Presidency of the Northern Pacific Railroad and the family moved to a mansion ("Vergemere") in Mamaroneck, New York (Westchester County), overlooking the Hudson River.In 1893, within about a year of the naming of the town of Zillah, Zillah Oakes married George C. Rand Jr., a coffee merchant whose family home was in Lawrence/Far Rockaway, Long Island. They moved to London, where their daughters Margery (b. 1896) and Eugenie (b. 1898) were born. The family returned to Long Island about 1903, and in 1907 moved to New Orleans, Louisiana. Zillah and George Rand Jr. separated shortly thereafter, and Zillah, Margery and Eugenie moved to Manhattan. Zillah and Rand subsequently divorced.
Zillah Oakes Rand worked briefly as an interior decorator before marrying New York stockbroker Herbert Ten Broeck Jacquelin on June 3, 1913.
Zillah's daughters Margery and Eugenie made their debut into New York society on November 28, 1914. Margery married Charles K. Clinton of New York and Tuxedo Park on February 26, 1916, and after their divorce married banker Charles M. Billings in 1934. Eugenie married George Valentine Smith of Ardmore, Pennsylvania in 1918, and after their divorce married Robert T. Oliphant.
Herbert Jacquelin died on November 11, 1931, leaving Zillah his entire estate. She lived on in New York City, dying on July 8, 1953, at age 82.
Zillah Oakes' father exemplified the powerful elite that built the empire of the American West and through their efforts made the desert bloom. The town of Zillah, and Zillah Oakes' brief public moment on the stage of history, form a small but enduring link in the chain of the Western Empire her father Thomas built.
The town, which was incorporated in 1911, is small enough that every public institution (middle school, high school, library, cemetery) bears Zillah's name.The Oakes in the Northwest
Zillah Oakes probably never revisited the town that was named for her. Her parents made Seattle their home for the final years of their life, however, and her brothers Walter (1864-1911) and Prescott (1880-1967) were prominent Seattle businessmen. All of these, and other Oakes descendants as well, are buried in Seattle's Lake View Cemetery.
It is most likely that Zillah visited Seattle through the years, riding the Northern Pacific's North Coast Limited passenger train across the rails her father built. If this was so, she would have passed close to but not through the town of Zillah. The town gained a railroad station in 1907, to serve a new branch line from Sunnyside Junction near Toppenish. The line carried fruit from Zillah's rich fields 20 miles to Sunnyside, where it was shipped worldwide. The depot was demolished in September 1975.
For Zillah Oakes, however, the memory of that April afternoon 61 years before when a town was named for her in deference to her beauty and family connections endured: her New York Times obituary stated: "During the period her father was president of the Northern Pacific Railroad, the town of Zillah, Wash. was founded and named after her" (The New York Times July 9, 1953).
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New York Passenger Lists
Ship St. Paul, from Southampton, England, arrived 26 Oct 1895
Ship Kaiserin Auguste Victoria, from Southampton, England, arrived 22 Sep 1912
Ship Paris, from Le Havre, France, arrived 14, Oct 1925
History of Bergen CountyHerbert Ten Broeck Jacquelin - A member of one of the oldest stock exchange firms in New York City, Jacquelin & De Coppet, Mr, Jacquelin is also (1923) a member of the board of governors of the New York Stock Exchange. Almost a quarter of a century of residence on Hohukus has given him identification with Bergen county affairs and place in the history of the region.
Mr. Jacquelin was born in Summit, New Jersey, son of John H. and Josephine (Stagg) Jacqueline, his paternal ancestors being Huguenots, who fled France upon revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and found refuge in the island of Martinique, whence Mr. Jacquelin's grandfather came to New York City. Maternally Mr. Jacquelin's ancestry includes many pre-Revolutionary families, among them those of Stagg, Steddiford and Ten Broeck. John H. Jacquelin was born at the Battery, in New York City and in 1862 he founded the stock brokerage firm of which Herman Ten Broeck Jacquelin is now one of the senior partners. The elder Mr. Jacquelin was one of the first New Yorkers to take up residence in Summit, New Jersey, although later he returned to his native city. His death occurred in Hohokus, New Jersey.
Herbert Ten Broeck Jacquelin attended the Berkeley School in New York City, prepared for college at St. Mark's School of Southboro, Massachusetts, and completed his education at Columbia University.
Mr. Jacquelin has not participated in Political or public affairs save as a a member of the Hohokus Council, to which he was elected several years ago as a Republican. For seven years he was a member of the Seventh Regiment, Tenth Company, New York National Gaurd, and his clubs are the following: Union, Racquet, Riding and St. Anthony, all of New York City; and the Arcola Golf of Ridgewood, New Jersey.
Mr. Jacquelin married Zillah Oakes, daughter of the late Thomas Fletcher Oakes, one time president of the Northern Pacific railroad.
In 1900 Mr. Jacquelinbecame a resident of Hohokus, where he maintains a beautiful home, surrounded by artistically planted and well cared for grounds. Mr. and Mrs. Jacquelin are deeply interested in antiques, of which they have a large collection, and Mrs. Jacquelin, like her husband, is much concerned in matters of civic welfare in Hohokus. Several years ago she purchased the old Jefferson house, so that this historic landmark might be preserved for posterity, and when the old Mansion House was about to be torn down, she purchased this structure, thus saving another reminder of past times, for coming generations. This latter house, formerly owned by Mr. Coxe, of Tuxedo, was built nearly two hundred years cago, and itd preservation is sincerly appreciated in the community.
Marriage Notes for Zillah Oakes and Herbert Ten Broeck Jacquelin
MARRIAGE:
New York TimesMarried
Jacquelin - Rand - On Tuesday June 3, 1913, at Phillips Chapel, by the Rev. Henry Sloane Coffin D.D., Zillah Oakes Rand, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Fletcher Oakes, to Herbert T. B. Jacques.
New York Passenger Lists
Ship St. Paul, from Southampton, England, arrived 26 Oct 1895
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New York Times
June 27, 1918RAND - at Los Angeles, Cal., of pneumonia, George Curtis, son of the late George Curtis Rand and Eugenia Blanchard.
Marriage Notes for Zillah Oakes and George Curtis Rand
MARRIAGE: Aberdeen Daily News
May 22, 1893New York, May 20 - A message has been recieved at the Waldorf announcing the marriage Wednesday afternoon of Miss Zilla Oakes, daughter of Thomas F. Oakes, President of the Northern Pacific Railroad to George Curtis Rand Jr., of Lawrence R. I. (siv L.I.)
Banker -- President Of Puget Sound Bank. In 1918 Forbes and Mary resided at 521 North Ainsworth Avenue, Tacoma. (Information supplied by Rob Stinson via email.)
Tragic Outing
The story �Girl Lost in Crevasse� appeared as a �3-inch high front-page headline in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer� C.H. Haskell brought his family of five and their friend, M. Horace Palmer to Rainier National Park, climbed to the 7,000-foot mark on the Nisqually Glacier intending to traverse the steep, icy slope at its lower end. The party slid along marveling at the view and breathing in the sparkling air. It was 11:00 a.m. - By August, summer heat generally has unveiled most of the mountains countless deep crevasses. Unfortunately a snow bridge collapsed causing the death of young Dorothy Haskell. The date was August 12, 1917.
Quoting from the Department of the Interior Report of 1919: Miss Dorothy Haskell, aged 14, of Tacoma, Wash., lost her life by falling into a crevasse on Paradise Glacier. The accident was due entirely to the inexperience of the party of which the girl was a member. Leaving Paradise Inn in the forenoon, unequipped for glacier work, the party, composed of Miss Haskell, her father, mother, and a Mr. Palmer, of Tacoma, ascended to the 7,000-foot level and crossed over onto the glacier, with the intention of traversing it to the lower end at Sluiskin Falls. As the party was nearing the huge crevasses cutting into the ice from below, Miss Haskell, who was walking directly in front of Mr. Palmer suddenly disappeared through the crust of snow spanning the open crevasse. The accident occurred at 11:00 a.m. At 3:00 p.m. word reached Paradise Inn and the park ranger with men and ropes hurried to the scene. The park ranger was lowered into the crevasse to a depth of more than 100 feet, and finally recovered the body on a ledge about 35 feet below the surface, under several feet of snow.
Roy George Haskell was a dentist.
Marriage Notes for Lola Lee Haskell and William A. Clark
MARRIAGE: San Francisco Call
April 21, 1895Date of Marriage: 4/17/1895 To Dr. W. A. Clarke
Haskell-Clarke� Abbott-Davenport. At the Episcopal church, at the corner of Santa Clara avenue and Grand street, Alameda, last Wednesday evening, Miss Lola Haskell, daughter of W. W. Haskell, and Dr. W. A. Clarke, superintendent of the Alameda County Infirmary, were united in marriage. The bride, attired In white silk, was accompanied by her father. The maid of honor was Miss Lucy C. Abbott of Alameda, a cousin of tho bride, and the bridesmaids were the Misses Nita and Nellie Taggart of San Francisco, also cousins. George Bennett of ban Francisco was best man. The ushers were S. C. Mastick, Charles Davis, Robert Osborn and Mr. Owens of Alameda. Theodore Vogt of Alameda was the organist. The ceremony was performed by Rev. A. T. Perkins, the rector of the church. After this marriage the bridal party proceeded to the Haskell residence, 1021 Union street, where a second ceremony was performed by the Rev. Mr. Perkins, Miss Lucy C. Abbott, the first bride's cousin, being united to!