Archives West Finding Aid

Frank J. Wilmer was a native of Wisconsin who came to the territory of Washington in 1886. A man of wide-ranging interests an civic concerns, he became involved in many business ventures throughout the Pacific Northwest. Washington's entrance into statehood in 1889 signalled the beginning of its continuing growth and development, and F. J. Wilmer began to grow with the state and the region. In the next fifty years he was a farmer, a leading businessman and a significant political figure.

F. J. Wilmer (he preferred to use his initials rather than his full name) was born April 6, 1860 in East Troy, Walworth County, Wisconsin. His parents, J. George and Elizabeth Wilmer, had been farming in the southern Wisconsin area since the 1840s. He entered the State Normal School at Whitewater, Wisconsin in 1879 and graduated in 1882. He taught school for several years in Wisconsin until deciding to seek his fortune in the Pacific Northwest.

Arriving in Washington Territory in the Spring of 1886 he again taught school for two years in Walla Walla County. In 1888 he moved to Rosalia, in northern Whitman County, where he and a partner founded the Wilmer & Dwyer Hardware business. On November 10, 1888, in Spokane he married his business partner's sister, Margaret Dwyer. She too, came from a pioneer family of Walworth County, Wisconsin, and had been a graduate of the Whitewater Normal School. To them four daughters were born: Marie, Marguerite, Frances, and Eleanor.

In 1904, Wilmer went into the banking business. He served as president of the Whitman County National Bank (from 1919) and the Pine City State Bank (from 1929). As Rosalia grew, so too did Wilmer's interests expand. He became the president of the Rosalia Water Company, Secretary-treasurer of the Meuli Land Company, Director of the Liberty Loan Campaign Committee of Whitman County (1917-1918) during World War I, and State Senator from Whitman County (1921-1933).

It was at age sixty that he first secured elective office, capping a successful business career with an increased role in public service. In 1920 Wilmer made a spectacular entrance into political office. He had long served on the Whitman County Republican Central Committee's Executive Committee but in a special election held in order to fill a vacant seat in the state Senate, he failed to gain the nomination of his party. His friends throughout the County refused to let his candidacy die. In the campaign that followed, he received twice as many write-in votes as the Republican and Democratic nominees combined. His long years of commercial experience, and his recent work in the county on the Liberty Loan Campaign, had made numerous friends for him.

Upon becoming State Senator, Wilmer was able to use his new position as a forum from which he could further his numerous long-term interests. To this end, he served on legislative committees dealing with banking, taxes, education, agriculture and good roads. During this period he was also an organizer and president of the North Pacific Graingrowers, Spokane (1930-1931), Director of the Farmers National Grain Corporation (1930-1932), member of the National Wheat Advisory Commission (1930-1932), president of the Washington State Good Roads Association (1933), and a member of the State College of Washington (now Washington State University) Board of Regents (1922-1933), serving as President of the Board several times.

Following the redrawing of district lines, Wilmer resigned his senatorial position in 1932. Most of his public activities drew to a close about this time. He lived in semi-retirement until his death at Spokane in March 1947.