CHARLES HERVEY LILLY

The history of Seattle and King County would not be complete without mention being made of Charles H. Lilly, as he has been a most conspicuous figure in the commercial world since 1889. He was born in Champaign County, Illinois, January 20, 1860, a son of Robert Hervey and Valeria (Gordon) Lilly. The father, an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church, was a native of Lexington, Kentucky. The mother was born in Oswego, New York, and was of an old New England family. The Rev. Robert H. Lilly was a landed proprietor in Illinois, having gone to that state in 1842 and acquired a homestead there. Upon the death of his father in 1873, Charles H. Lilly took over the management of the farm, upon which there was a heavy mortgage. He continued to operate it for the ensuing five years, during which time he succeeded in not only removing the mortgage but in also sending his younger brothers and sisters through the local schools. At last he gained clear title to one hundred and sixty-four acres of land and all of the farm buildings and machinery, the place remaining in the family until 1890, when the farm was sold.

During all of this time, however, Mr. Lilly had been studying and in 1884 was graduated from the State University of Illinois with the degree of Bachelor of Sciences. After finishing college he entered into merchandising with Mr. Bogardus at Thomasboro, Illinois. In the winter of 1885-6 he purchased his partner's interest and continued the business there alone for the succeeding two years. While in Thomasboro, Mr. Lilly was made postmaster of the town and served in that capacity until he disposed of his interests there in 1889, when he came to Seattle.

Mr. Lilly's first efforts in Seattle were in contracting and the hauling of building materials. Mr. Bogardus, his former part­ner, had gone to California after selling his interests in Illinois, and when he heard that Mr. Lilly was in Seattle Mr. Bogardus came to visit him. This resulted in another partnership between the two. The firm first did teaming and hauling here and in the latter part of 1889 established the Lilly, Bogardus & Company, grain, flour and feed. The business prospered and expanded quite rapidly, and in 1894 the firm opened a branch in Whatcom, Washington, under the name Lilly, Bogardus & Bacon. This branch company operated for four years in that city.

In 1903 Mr. Lilly purchased his partner's interests in the company and the firm became known as The Charles H. Lilly Company. At that time he took some of the junior members of the company into the business. Wilmot H. Lilly, now president of the concern, entered the business at that time as did another son, Farwell P. Lilly, now in direct charge of the foreign seed trade of the concern. The Charles H. Lilly Company is internationally known as growers of seeds and are the largest producers of cabbage seeds in the world. As producers of beet and radish seeds the firm is also ranked among the highest. In 1885, Charles Hervey Lilly was united in marriage with Julia Putnam of Champaign, Illinois. They have had four children: Wilmot H. Lilly was born in 1886 in Champaign, Illinois, but attended school in Seattle, finally matriculating at the University of Washington. Later he entered his father's business, and in 1925, when his father retired Wilmot was elected to the office of president of Charles H. Lilly Company, which post he has held faithfully and well since. In 1908 Wilmot H. Lilly and Miss Beulah Yerkes were married in Seattle. They have one child, Wilmot, Jr., who is now at the University of Washington.

Dorothy E. Lilly, born in Seattle, in 1889, attended the public schools here, after which she was a student at the University of Washington for a short time. She then became the wife of John H. Perry, a graduate of the University Law School. Mr. Perry was attorney for the Scripps Newspaper Syndicate until he entered the newspaper publishing business for himself. He has the controlling interest in the American Press and several other New York papers, as well as daily publications in Reading, Pennsylvania, and in Pensacola, Florida. He also owns and operates the Jacksonville (Florida) Journal. The Perry’s live in Irvington-on-the-Hudson and have two children, John H., Jr., and Farwell.

The fourth child of the Lilly’s is Marion F., who was born in Seattle in 1899, and was educated in Forest Ridge Convent here and at a finishing school at Marmoraneck, New York. She is the wife of Ross Downs, the secretary and treasurer of Henry Broderick, Inc., the Seattle Realtors. They have two children, William and Nancy, both born in Seattle.

Mrs. Charles H. Lilly passed away in 1907, and in 1910 Mr. Lilly and Edna Sengfelder were united in marriage in Seattle. They are the parents of three children, Janet, born in Seattle in 1911, is now a University of Washington student and a sister of the Gamma Phi Beta Sorority. Charles H. Lilly, Jr., born in Seattle in 1916, attends West Queen Grade School, and Gordon, who was born here in 1920, is also a student at that school.

Mr. Lilly is a member of the Masonic order; is a Knight Templar and a Shriner. Besides being a member of Lodge No. 92, B. P. O. E., he belongs to the Rainier, Arctic, Seattle Golf and Country, and the Tacoma Golf and Country Clubs. Mrs. Lilly belongs to several philanthropic organizations and is a member of the Seattle Golf and Country Club and of the P. E. O. Mr. Lilly has been for a number of years on the board of directors of the Dexter Horton Bank here. Since 1925 when he retired as president of Charles H. Lilly Company, he has been chairman of the board of that institution. A man of keen perception and of broad mentality, Mr. Lilly has done much toward the advancement of Seattle and King County in the commercial world, and deserves prominent mention among the leading and representative business men of this locality.