History of Early Pioneer Families of Hood River, Oregon. Compiled by Mrs. D.M. Coon

SHEARMAN JOHN LaFRANCE                          1875
Contributed

     Shearman John LaFrance was born in Elmira, N.Y. September 9, 1854, and was educated in the schools of that city. He was a son of Peter A. and Samantha (Breese) La France, being the third in a family of four children, having one brother and two sisters. His mother was a descendant of John Breese, who settled in the Chemung Valley at Horseheads in 1789, being one of the earliest settlers, if not the pioneer settler, in this region.
     In the father's family there was considerable musical ability and inventive or mechanical genius, but only of the former did our subject inherit, one cousin organized and was leader of the first band organized in the home city and another cousin, T.S. or "Truck" La France was the inventor of the La France fire engine.
     Shearman La France came to Hood River with the Mansfield Pacific Colony in 1875, when a young man of twenty one. Clearing land, teaching school and various other occupations filled the first few years. Then for eighteen years he was in the employ of the Kohler & Chase music house of San Francisco, traveling over Oregon, Washington and California, but keeping his home in Hood River during all of this time. He was married October 27, 1881, to Eleanor L. Smith, daughter of Lyman and Helen Jackson Smith, and two daughters were born to them, Fay, October 13, 1882, and Mary Helen, October 24, 1889.
     The latter part of 1897 he gave up traveling and bought a small store in Hood River, which he managed successfully until poor health caused him to sell the business, and soon after, in 1900 he moved to Portland, Oregon, where he made his home until his death January 9, 1910. During his twenty five years residence in Hood River he was interested in all that pertained to the development and prosperity of the valley and the welfare of its people.

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