A Seattle Pioneer Turns 84, With Four Generations at Her Table

Comparatively few people are spared to enjoy the pleasure of celebrating their eighty-fourth birthday among relatives, but such was the good fortune of Mrs. Janice Biles, at the home of her daughter, Mrs. M. S. Drew, at 612 Fifth Street, last Thursday afternoon. The residence was made even more attractive than ever when decked with roses, narcissus, ferns, pinks and smilax, and when there were gathered beneath its roof children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and kinsfolk from far and near. The scene seemed complete when the central figure, erect, happy and in the vigor of one far beneath her years, stood in the center of a group consisting of four generations, receiving loving and rare presents from their hands. The afternoon was spent in talking of the pioneer days of the state, when the Biles family and a few hundred others made up the entire population. Mr. and Mrs. James Biles and family were members of a party headed by James Biles who left Kentucky in the early fifties and made the trip to the Sound in prairie schooners, landing here in 1852. It was the first wagon train that crossed the summit of the Cascades. At 5 o'clock a dainty luncheon was partaken of. Those present were Mrs. Frank Knapp, of Portland; Mrs. Frank Sargent; Mrs. Fannie Biles; Mrs. John F. Hazzard; Mrs. D. R. Ward; Mrs. H. Sherman; Dr. Young; Miss Alice [surname illegible]; Mr. J. V. Biles, of Kiona, Wash.; Mr. George Biles, of Fairhaven; and Miss Alta Drew, the great-granddaughter of Mrs. Biles.