Todd, W. R. (Wilbur Russell), 1867-1929.

Mr. W. R. (Wilbur Russell) Todd was born 29 November 1867 in Clayton County, Iowa. He married Clara Newcomb on 13 June 1888 in Fayette County, Iowa. It is unclear when the family moved to Washington State. According to the U.S. Federal Census, the family was living in Tacoma, WA by 1900 with their three children: Ella (b. about 1890), Geraldine (b. 9 July 1896) and Gerald (b. about 1898). Mr. Todd is listed as a merchant. In 1906 the Hanford Irrigation and Power Company was formed and Mr. Todd was one of the original directors of the company. By about 1907, Mr. Todd was running a fleet of at least four steamboats that were operating on the Columbia River between Pasco, Kennewick, Hanford, White Bluffs, WA and all intervening points. With this operation, navigation reached its farthest point on the Columbia River. Mr. Todd and his associates were the founders of White Bluffs, WA. White Bluffs was located on the banks of the Columbia River approximately twenty miles from the Priest Rapids. The Company was involved in developing the Priest Rapids Power Project that would deliver water for irrigation to the farmers of the area. Mr. Todd and his associates filed for the first power rights on the Priest Rapids. With the establishment of the Project, White Bluffs began to blossom. Mr. Todd built a hotel at White Bluffs which eventually burned down and was rebuilt by the railroad tracks. Mr. Todd and an associate's holdings included two sections of land that were sold to the Hanford Irrigation and Power Company for $250,000. After the sale, the Company established the town of Hanford, WA. The railroad was established in the area around 1912 and 1913 which made the continued operation of the steamboats unnecessary. The Todd family lived in Tacoma, WA through the 1930's. In 1928, Geraldine Todd married Allan A. Drummond in Tacoma, WA. Mr. Todd passed away on 19 Nov. 1929 in Tacoma, WA. By 1930, Mrs. Clara Todd had moved in with her oldest daughter, Ella Todd Crowe and her family, in Tacoma. Mrs. Todd passed away on 20 Sept. 1942 in Tacoma. In 1942, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Manhattan District, surveyed the northern part of the county for a secret government project. In 1943, the government ordered everyone living in the town sites of Hanford and White Bluffs to evacuate. Shortly thereafter, a huge government construction project began, known only as the Manhattan Project. Thousands of people moved to the Eastern Washington desert. No one knew what they were building, just that it would help the war effort. Only when they heard the news of the devastation caused by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6, 1945, did the workers know what they had built. The towns were never returned to cities. They continued to be part of the U.S. Dept. of Energy's Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

From the description of W. R. Todd's papers, 1907-1920. (Washington State Library, Office of Secretary of State). WorldCat record id: 190729836