Dexter Horton

Dexter Horton married Hannah Eliza Shoudy in 1844. Hannah was the daughter of Israel and Rebecca Shoudy. Israel Shoudy died in 1893 in California, but is buried in the Smith Cemetery. His wife Hannah Shoudy died in 1871. Dexter then married Caroline E. Parsons in about 1873, she died about 5 years later; he then married Arabella Agard of Catharine, Chemung County, New York, whom he had known in grade school. Children of Dexter and Hannah were Rebecca (b. 1848); Alfred (b. 1856), who died young; and Nettie (b. 1862). Dexter and Caroline Parsons had one child, Caroline E. (b. 1878).

Dexter and his first wife Hannah Eliza Shoudy traveled west by wagon train in 1852, on the Oregon Trail, ending up in Salem, Oregon. On the wagon train and elected its leader at Council Bluffs was a good friend of Dexter’s, Thomas Mercer and his wife. Thomas Mercer’s wife did not survive the trip, but died on the Columbia River at Cascades, leaving four daughters. Thomas Mercker’s brother Aaron who was also on this wagon train was later the first president of Washington State University. William Shoudy, brother of Hannah (Shoudy) Horton, was also on the wagon train, and was later mayor of Seattle. The Horton and Bagley families had spent the winter of 1852 at Salem, Oregon, joined by the Mercers who first went Seattle to establish land claims. In the spring of 1853, Dexter Horton and Thomas Mercer walked to Seattle to obtain work. Dexter eventually founded the Horton Bank of Seattle, now Bank of America, and is considered one of the 10 persons who shaped Seattle, Washington. Hannah Shoudy’s brother, John Alden Shoudy was a business partner of Dexter Horton and the founder of Ellensburg, Washington, which was named after his wife, Mary Ellen Shoudy. Hannah (Olmstead) Horton, her son Dexter and many of the Horton family are buried at the pioneer Lake View Cemetery, Seattle, King County, WA.