Portland, Oregon - Portland, Oregon, Its History and Builders : in Connection with the An (part 12 of 25)

Archibald M. McKenzie, a general contractor of Portland, who has resided here for a period of twenty-two years, came to Oregon from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. He was born near Glasgow, Scotland, September 8, 1850, a son of John and Jean McKenzie, both of whom were natives of the same city. There has been manifest in his life the sterling traits of the Scottish people - persistency of purpose, thrift and unquestionable business integrity. His youthful days were devoted to the duties of the schoolroom until he put aside his text-books in order to learn his trade, which he mastered in Scotland ere seeking a home in the United States.

Mr. McKenzie sailed for New York in 1872, when twenty-tv,-o years of age, and there worked at his trade for a time, after which he went to Canada, where he remained for fifteen years. Following his removal to Portland he Vv'orked as a journeyman for a few months and then began contracting on his own account. He finished the wood work on the interior of the First Presbyterian church and also had the contracts in his line for many of the finest residences in the city as well as the interior finish of many of the important business and public buildings of the city. Other important work has done by him, so that he has been constantly busy and has employed a number of workmen.

In 1874 Mr. McKenzie was married to Miss Anna Olsen, a native of Norway, who came to America about 1870. They have three living children, a daughter and two sons: Jane, the wife of A. W. Young; Archibald; and James. Mr. Mc- Kenzie is a member of the Masonic fraternity and also of the Presbyterian church, and his life has been actuated by the high and honorable principles which form the basic elements of these two organizations. His life record is creditable alike to the land of his birth and the land of his adoption.

General Charles F. Beebe

Forceful, resourceful, alert and determined, the labors and efl:orts of Charles F. Beebe have been resultant factors in commercial, industrial, political and military circles. At all times actuated by a spirit of progress, he has accomplished what he has undertaken despite obstacles and difficulties which would have deterred many a man of less resolute spirit. In all things he has held to high ideals and has accomplished what he has set out to do. His record, therefore, has become an integral chapter in the annals of Portland and he has left and is leaving the indelible impress of his individuality upon the life and progress of the city.

General Beebe is a native of New York city and a representative of an old New England family that was founded in America soon after the mother country had sent her first colonists to the new world. His grandfather, Silas Beebe, was a native of Connecticut and was for years a sailing master and built and owned a number of vessels running out of the harbor of Mystic. It was there that Charles E. Beebe, the father of General Beebe, was born and spent his youthful days, going in early manhood to New York city that he might profit by the broader business opportunities there offered. For more than fifty years, from 1840 until 1890, he ranked as one of the most prominent and prosperous tea merchants and importers in the metropolis, establishing and conducting the business as a member of the firm of Beebe & Brother. He married Jane B. Wade, a native of Springfield, New Jersey, who died in 1891. She was a daughter of Elias Wade, who was born in New Jersey and conducted a business as a wholesale grocer until 1865, when he became managing partner for the large importing and shipping house of Grinnell, Minturn & Company, of New York, thus continuing until his death, in 1878. Charles E. and Jane W. Beebe became the parents of four children, of whom three reached the adult age : William W., a graduate of Yale University of the class of 1873, who became an attorney of New York city and later of Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he died; Alfred L., a graduate of the Columbia School of Mines in New Y'ork city, who for years was assistant chemist of the New York board of health and has resided in Portland since 1898, and Charles F., of this review.

General Beebe spent his youth in the eastern metropolis and completed his education by graduation from the Flushing Institute on Long Island in 1865. He received his initial business training in his father's ofiice and was eventually admitted to partnership in the firm of Beebe & Brother, remaining with that house until 1879, when he disposed of his interests and joined Henry M. Evans in the cotton brokerage business, under the firm style of Evans & Beebe. Four later Mr. Beebe joined with his brother-in-law, A. M. Sutton, in establishing an agency at Portland for Sutton & Company of New York.

Since January. 1884. a resident of this city. General Beebe soon came into prominence along different lines which have constituted significant and vital fac- tors in the city's development. On the ist of February, 1884, he began business at No. 16 North Front street, as agent for Sutton & Company of New York, and when the business here was well established Mr. Sutton in July, 1884, went to San Francisco, the two acting as western agents around the Horn from New York and Philadelphia. A general ship-chandlery business was conducted in connection with the Portland agency and the latter was continued until 1896, when Sutton & Company withdrew from Portland. General Beebe, however, decided to remain and organized and incorporated the Charles F. Beebe Company on the I St of January, 1897, of which company he was president for about ten years, when he withdrew to take up the active management of important interests in connection with the manufacture of lime and gypsum products, owned by Charles E. Ladd and himself in eastern Oregon. He is a man of determined purpose and his unabating energy enables him to accomplish what he undertakes and in the attainment of results he employs only such methods as will bear the closest investigation and scrutiny.

Such is the business record of General Beebe but there are many other chapters in his life history of equal interest. His title has been won by service in connection with the National Guard. On the 14th of February, 1871, he joined Company H of the Seventh New York Regiment, from which he was honorably discharged in November, 1878. At the beginning of his service he was appointed aid-de-camp with the rank of first lieutenant on the staff of Brigadier General J. M. Varian, commander of the Second Brigade of the New York National Guard. Promotions followed through intermediate ranks until he was made brigade quartermaster with the rank of captain and he was retained in that position when Brigadier General Louis Fitzgerald became the successor of General Varian as commander of the brigade. Captain Beebe was soon afterward appointed inspector of rifle practice with the rank of major and so served until he resigned in the fall of 1882. Later he was appointed assistant in the department of rifle practice with the rank of major under General Charles F. Robbins, inspector general of rifle practice in New York, on the general staff, and so continued until he tendered his resignation preparatory to his removal to Oregon.

The National Guard of the latter state was reorganized in the spring of 1886 and General Beebe became second lieutenant when Company K was formed in Portland. Soon he was chosen as first lieutenant and when the company was permanently organized was elected captain. In July, 1887, he was chosen colonel of the First Regiment Oregon National Guard and was reelected at Milton, Oregon, in 1891. On the 22d of February, 1895, he was appointed and commissioned brigadier general in command of the Oregon troops by Governor William P. Lord, and four years later was reappointed by Goevrnor T. T. Geer. In this position he has bent his energies toward bringing the Oregon National Guard to a high standard of efficiency and he deserves and receives much credit for his thorough work in this connection. He is a life member of the Seventh New York Regiment Veteran Association and it was in the Empire state that he gained the military training which has enabled him to do so much for the Oregon Guard, placing it on a rank in equipment and efficiency with the best military organizations of other states.

General Beebe's position on political questions is never an equivocal one. He gives stalwart support to the republican party and though he has never had aspiration for political preferment, he accepted a position on the executive board in 1903 under the appointment of Mayor Williams and because of his thorough military training he was made a member of the committee having supervision of the police department. He has cooperated in many organized movements for the benefit of the city through his membership in the Chamber of Commerce, of which he was president for one term and vice president for two terms, serving also as a member of its board of trustees. He has also been twice honored with the presidency of the Commercial Club and has been chosen to various official positions in the Arlington Club, of which he is a valued member.

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While residing in New York city, General Beebe wedded Miss Emma Bowne, who was born at Flushing, Long Island, and was educated in Miss Porter's school at Farmington, New York. Her father, Simon R. Bowne belonged to a prominent Quaker family of Flushing. General and Mrs. Beebe are the parents of three sons: Walter Bowne, now president of the Northwest Steel Company and Gerald E. and Kenneth associated in the management of the Charles F. Beebe Company. The family attend the Presbyterian church.

Such in brief is the history of Charles F. Beebe, who has mastered the lessons of life day by day until his post-graduate work in the school of experience has placed him with the men of eminent ability. He has figured prominently in the life of Portland for many years, reaching substantial results in business because of his decisive, energetic and persistent action. His public service has not been impelled by the sense of duty but rather by a sincere interest in the various phases of public life and especially is Oregon indebted to him for what he has accomplished in the perfection of the state military organization.

James N. Davis

The only change which James N. Davis has made since his early childhood was that which brought him to Portland in 1890, since which time he has engaged in the practice of law in this city. He has, however, traveled quite extensively over the American continent, and, keenly observant, he has learned the lessons which new experiences of life have brought, so that he draws from a rich fund of knowledge and information in his practice of law before the courts of Oregon.

He was born in Taylorville, Illinois, February 24, 1858, a son of John W. and Rebecca Ellen (Linn) Davis and is one of eleven children, all living. His grandfather, Newton Davis, was a pioneer surveyor of Kentucky and was of Welsh descent. John W. Davis, born in Kentucky, removed to Illinois in 1848 and during his residence in that state became well acquainted with Abraham Lincoln. He was a rover in Kansas and Texas in the early '50s, and, being a strong abolitionist, went to Kansas to assist in saving that territory to the Union. He afterward served in the Kansas Militia at Lawrence. For many years he devoted his attention to general agricultural pursuits and is now a retired farmer. In Illinois he wedded Rebecca Ellen Linn, who was born in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania, in 183 1, and was a granddaughter of James Wilson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The historical records of Pennsylvania give the Wilson ancestry. Her father, James Linn, settled in Christian county, Illinois, in 1840.

James N. Davis pursued his education in the district schools near Lawrence, Kansas, and in the Kansas State University, where he pursued special courses in history, literature and languages and was graduated in law with the class of 1885. His father had been successful in his farming operations and gave all of his children good educational opportunities. In his youth Mr. Davis became a good rifle and pistol shot and greatly enjoyed such sports. He possessed, too, somewhat of a roving and restless disposition, which was hard to overcome, but he nevertheless continued his school work until liberal education well qualified him for success at the bar. He traveled through the southeast and west, also visited Canada and Mexico, and thus in extended journeyings learned much of the country and the characteristics of the people in various sections. His earliest ambition had been to become a soldier but with the growing wisdom of advancing years he recognized that professional and commercial fields offered broader opportunity and at length decided upon the practice of law, to which he has given his undivided attention since his admission to the bar in 1885.

His only removal in all these years has been from Kansas to Portland in 1890 and for two decades he has practiced law in this city, his success in a pTofessional way affording the best evidence of his capabilities in this line. His pleas have been characterized by a terse and decisive logic and a lucid presentation rather than by flights of oratory, and his power is the greater before court or jury from the fact that it is recognized that his aim is ever to secure justice and not to enshroud the cause in a sentimental garb or illusion, which will thwart the principles of right and equity involved. He was associated with Judge C. U. Gantenbein and Arthur L. Veazie under the firm name of Davis, Gantenbein & Veazie from 1892 to 1901.

On the 2 1 St of September, 1893, in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Mr. Davis was married to Miss Mary Evelyn McFadden, formerly a teacher of Portland. She is of Scotch-Irish descent and a daughter of Dr. James McFadden, whose father was a surgeon in a Pennsylvania regiment during the Civil war. She is a representative of one of the pioneer families of western Pennsylvania and holds' membership with the Daughters of the American Revolution. Mr. and Mrs. Davis have one child, Catherine Mary, born in 1896.

Mr. Davis has been a member of the Masonic fraternity since 1882 and is a past master of Valley Lodge, F. & A. M., in Kansas. In 1905 he attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite. While living in Kansas he served for four years in the State Militia. His political allegiance is given to the republican party and he was elected to the Oregon legislature in 1896. He believes in party government, in systematic organization and action, but has never made politics a business, preferring to devote his attention more exclusively to his chosen life work of the practice of law.

Franklin Pierce Walker

Among the well known citizens of Portland is Franklin Pierce Walker, who was born in Washington county, this state, December 3, 1852. He is a son of William and Nancy Ann (Alexander) Walker. His father was a pioneer of 1851, coming across the plains with ox team from Ohio. The party had difficulty with the Indians, who stole all of their horses, leaving only the oxen. Mr. Walker made his home for several years on the Joseph Meeks place, where the subject of this sketch was born, later taking up a homestead at the edge of Tualitin plains in Washington county. After eight or ten years the family removed to Sophia's island, where the father died about 1868. Seven children were born unto Mr. and Mrs. Walker, of whom three are living: Martin Grant, Isabel Martha and the subject of this review.

Franklin Pierce Walker was about eighteen years of age when his father died and two years later his mother was called away. He had little opportunity for acquiring an education but attended the public schools at Hillsboro, near Portland, for a short time. He started out for himself by taking up a farm in eastern Oregon, near Colfax, at a time when the country was unsurveyed. Learning that on account of his age he could not get a clear title, he gave up the land after remaining tipon it for one summer and returned to Portland. This was about 1871. He entered the employ of William Love, on the Love farm on the Columbia slough, and remained there for abotit four years. He next became connected with the Empire bakery and continued with that concern for two years or more, at a time when there were only three bakeries in Portland - the Empire, Oregon and Pioneer. About 1878 he rented the Love farm, which he operated for four years, and then, having saved some money, he purchased two hundred and twenty-five acres of land, for which he paid five thousand dollars. In order to give an idea of the increase in the value of land during the last thirtv years it may be stated that this land is now worth at least one hundred and fifty thou- sand dollars. Mr. Walker took up his residence at the corner of Vancouver and Stanton streets about three years ago and has engaged extensively not only in farming but as a horse buyer and in the course of his operations has acquired a handsome competence.

On the 27th of December, 1876, Mr. Walker was united in marriage to Miss Emma J. Stafford, a granddaughter of Captain Levv^is Love, an early pioneer of this state. Five children were born to the union, one of whom died in infancy and Anna, the wife of Edward McKeen, who passed away in 1906. The surviving children are: Mary Alice, the wife of Dr. Colver, of Butte, Montana; Charles Natlian ; and Clarence Chester.

Mr. Walker has devoted his time mainly to his business affairs but has always taken an active interest in the election of reputable men to public office. He served a term in the city council as a member from the eleventh ward about 1902. He has for many years been identified with fraternal organizations and is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Red Men, the Maccabees, the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the Rebekahs. He has practically filled every office in Peninsular Lodge, No. 128, I. O. O. F., and served on the relief committee for nearly two years. He is an enthusiastic horseman and takes great delight in hunting and fishing. In his political affiliations he is a republican. He is recognized as one of the responsible, earnest and patriotic citizens, who is always willing to perform his part in advancing the permanent interests of the community.

William Reidt

Among the men of responsibility in Portland who have attained an honorable position after overcoming many obstacles that to a man of less hardihood would have appeared insuperable may be mentioned William Reidt. He was born in the city of Marburg, Hessen, Germany, June 19, 1858. He is a son of August and Regina Reidt, both natives of the same place. On his mother's side he is descended from old families of Marburg, known for centuries as official butchers of that city.

William Reidt did not have much opportunity for school education in the old country but was early put to work at the confectionary trade. A friend of the family who had emigrated to America returned to Germany to attend the Marburg University and through this visitor our subject became greatly interested in the stories concerning the new world on the v.'estern shore of the Atlantic, and at the age of fifteen he left his old home and came with the returning student to this country, landing in Baltimore in June, 1873. There he worked at his trade as a confectioner for about a year. His mother's brothers having settled in Richmond, Virginia, Mr. Reidt went to that city and entered the employ of the Singer bakery. At the time of the centennial he engaged in the same line of business in Philadelphia, but coming to the conclusion that the west offered more favorable inducements, he selected the Pacific coast as his future home and, after living a short time in San Francisco, came to Portland in 1878, later following in the bakery business at Vancouver and Olymoia. When he arrived at the latter place he had as his capital four hundred dollars. Seeing a favorable opening for his business, he borrowed six hundred dollars and for two years conducted a bakery establishment, selling out at the end of that time for three thousand dollars. As an evidence of his business ability it may be stated that upon leaving Olympia he had a credit to his account at the bank of four thousand dollars in addition to the amount he had saved from his business. New Westminster, British Columbia, was the next scene of his operations. There he invested his savings and in eighteen months cleared thirty-five thousand dollars, and from that time he dates his start on the road to fortune.

Believing that Portland was the coming city of the northwest coast, Mr. Reidt, in 1889, came to this point and began to invest largely in real estate, operating mostly in North Portland and near the steel bridge on the east side of the river. For more than twenty years he has been a very extensive operator, always handling his own property except in the case of the North Pacific Terminal grounds from Hoyt to Vaiighan streets, which involved an expenditure of one million dollars on the part of the railway. This deal was consummated about 1903-04. In 1897 he erected seventeen houses near the steel bridge and a year later he remodeled twenty houses in the same locality. In 1902 he built a number of small houses covering four entire blocks on Twenty-first and Clinton streets, selling them on the installment plan. In 1903, immediately following the financial panic, he purchased forty houses, which he remodeled and sold on long payments. The year following he built the first flats, twelve in number, that were erected on the east side of the river. He built the first concrete building on Union avenue at Killingsworth avenue, including five storerooms, with apartments above, and recently erected six store rooms, also with living apartments on the opposite corner. In 1907 he erected sixteen houses in North Portland, and his operations at the present time are on a more extensive scale than heretofore. He has been one of the large builders of the city, and has been instrumental in supplying homes at a reasonable cost to many families who previously had little hope of becoming independent and owning their own homesteads.

On the 29th of January, 1885, Mr. Reidt was united in marriage to Annie Schade, a daughter of Joseph and Annie Schade, pioneers of this state. Three children have been born to this union : Julia, now Mrs. Frank Bates ; William, and Nellie. Mr. and Mrs. Reidt occupy a handsome residence at No. 410 East Eleventh street. North.

Mr. Reidt served during 1882 in Company G, First Oregon Infantry, and engaged in the campaign against Chief Joseph. He is a member of the Lutheran church, the Knights of Pythias, the Artisans and the Royal Arcanum. He is past consul of Webb Foot Camp No. 65, Woodmen of the World, and is now council commander of the Portland Union Degree Camp, which consists of members elected from all the camps in the city and county. He also located the headquarters of the Women of Woodcraft, of which he is a member here. Mr. Reidt is recognized as one of the most active and influential men in a growing circle of the progressive men of the city. He has attained his position by diligence, good judgment and faithfulness in the discharge of obligations which have rested upon him either as a citizen or as a friend to many who have come to him for advice and assistance. It is men possessing these characteristics that gain the confidence of the public and that are the builders and conservators of modern society.

Robert Alexander Hume

Robert Alexander Hume, one of the most extensive dealers in building materials in the northwest and largely interested also in their manufacture, was born in Placerville, Eldorado county, California, September 16, 1862, a son of John and Martha (Hixon) Hume, the former a lawyer by profession. Robert Alexander Hume completed his education in St. Augustine College at Benecia, California, and afterward became junior clerk in a law publishing house. Since May, 1883, he has been a resident of Portland, arriving in this city in the year in which he attained his majority. Since that time close application to business, determined purpose and progressive methods have promoted his advancement until he is today one of the largest dealers in building materials in the northwest. He has been engaged in this business for several years, during which period he has continuously extended his trade relations and as a manufacturer of building materials he is also widely known.

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Mr. Hume has attained high rank in Masonry, belonging to Portland Lodge, No. 55, A. F. & A. M., while in Oriental Consistory, No. 2, S. P. R. S., he attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite. He likewise belongs to the Woodmen of the World and to the Royal Arcanum, and also holds membership in the Commercial and Apollo Clubs. His religious faith is that of the Episcopal church. While a republican in politics he does not hold to what have become known as the Rooseveltian principles. He is preeminently a business man, alert and enterprising, bending his efforts to the development of the business which, in its extensive proportions, stands as a monument to his ability and perseverance.

Richard Lea Barnes

Richard Lea Barnes, vice president of the United States National Bank of Portland, to whom lifelong experience in banking has brought comprehensive knowledge of every phase of the business, was born on the 31st of July, 1857, at Berbice, Demerara, British Guiana, and is of British lineage, tracing his ancestry in direct hne back to the reign of King Edward III in the middle of the fourteenth century. His birth occurred while his parents were residing temporarily in South America and, returning to England, he pursued his education in Cheltenham College, from which in due course of time he was graduated. His identification with the banking business covers thirty-four years and has been marked by steady progress, the consecutive steps in his orderly progression being easily discernible. The mastery of the duties of one position qualifying him for advancement, he has enjoyed promotion from time to time and each forward step has brought him a broader outlook and wider opportunities.

After five years' experience in the banking business in London Mr. Barnes located in San Francisco, where he continued in the same line for five years. He also spent a similar period in banks in British Columbia and for five years was identified with the banking interests of Seattle, since which time he has been in Portland, covering fourteen years. In British Columbia he was identified with the Bank of British Columbia, formerly the Wells Fargo Bank, the United States National Bank and the Colonial Bank of the West Indies. At the present writing he is vice president of the United States 'National Bank of Portland and thus occupies a prominent position in the financial circles of the city.

Mr. Barnes is a member of the Church of England and of all the leading local clubs. His prominently marked characteristics are those which make for personal popularity, while in business circles he manifests the forcefulness, keen discrimination and ready understanding of involved interests which make him one of the chief factors in the promotion of the banking affairs of the city.

Professor Isaac M. Walker

In a history of educational development in the northwest attention is called to the marvelous strides made by the Behnke- Walker Business College of Portland, which within an almost incredibly short space of time has built up an institution second to none in the character of and thoroughness of its instruction nor its attendance. Such an institution is proof that its promoters and its president, I. M. Walker, thoroughly know the practical as well as the theoretical side of business life. Their own institution is a monument to their ability and the success of their graduated students is proof of the excellence of their methods of teaching.

Mr. Walker was born in Hall, Pennsylvania, February 11, 1861, a son of Lewis P. and Babraba L. Walker, the former born in Hall, April 25, 1834, the latter in York Springs, Pennsylvania, April 13, 1840. The Walker family is of Welsh descent and of Quaker faith, nearly all of the descendants adhering to that religious belief. The mother was Pennsylvania Dutch, her ancestors coming from Holland. They were members of the German Reformed church and left Holland on account of religious persecution. Lewis P. Walker remained a resident of the Keystone state until the spring of 1877, when he removed with his entire family to Abilene, Kansas, thinking that he might have better opportunities in the middle west. Later he disposed of most of his holdings in Kansas, including two beautiful farms, and went to Arnett, Oklahoma, where he and his wife are still residing. They also own two farms near that city and also city realty.

Mr. Walker began his education in the public schools of his native town and continued his studies in the high school of Abilene, Kansas, where he worked for his room and board during a nine months' session. He had only two dollars and a half for spending money during that period. After finishing the high school course he taught in the public schools of that vicinity, spending the summer vacations as a student in the State Normal at Emporia, Kansas, his labor partially meeting the expenses of his board and tuition. For several years he taught in the schools of Dickinson, Butler county, Kansas, and while thus engaged conceived the idea of thoroughly preparing for business college work. For two years he remained in Burns county, Kansas, upon his father's ranch, comprising six hundred and forty acres of land, and then selling out everything entered the Gem City Business College, at Quincy, Illinois, where he remained for a year and a half, studying all that time, during which he completed the business and penmanship courses. Having exhausted his means he began work for the Quincy Casket Company as bookkeeper and billing clerk, holding the position for two years, when, wishing to broaden himself in business ideas he resigned his position and entered the employ of a bank, with which he remained for a year. At the expiration of that period he accepted a position in the Mount Morris (111.) College, as principal of the business department and teacher o^ mathematics, remaining with that institution for three years, when he resigned to accept the presidency of the Hayward College of Fairfield, Illinois, where he remained for three years. He was chosen for the following year and was also elected to the position of principal and superintendent of the city schools, but resigned both positions to accept the principalship of the business department of Albany College at Albany, Oregon. He had long desired to come to the Pacific coast and the work being in line for the establishment of a business college, which was the ambition that he was cherishing, he made his way to this state and spent five years at Albany College. He then resigned, thinking the time opportune for starting in the work for v^'hich he had long been planning. Twenty years had really been given to preparation, and in August, 1902, he came to Portland.

Here Mr. Walker purchased a half interest in a small shorthand school, which had a meager equipment, while a dozen students were enrolled. He paid five hundred dollars for his half interest in this school, which was occupying two small rooms in the Commercial building. One of the first steps taken was to systematize the work already installed and to rearrange the curriculum, thus making it a full fledged business college. His successful management was at once apparent in the immediate growth of the school, and after two years it was necessary to seek more commodious quarters and a removal was made to the Sterns building, then in course of construction, the whole upper floor being modeled to suit the requirements of the college, Mr. Walker himself drawing the plans. The number of students continued to increase rapidly and two years later quarters were secured in the Elks building in rooms especially fitted up for the college. Already at that time it had gained the reputation of being the finest equipped business college in the Pacific northwest. The enlarged enrollment demanded still another change, and on the ist of October, 1910, they removed to their new quarters - the Behnke- Walker building - at the corner of Fourth and

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Yamhill streets, where they have available more than thirty thousand square feet of floor space. Mr. Walker has succeeded in surrounding himself with a most efficient corps of assistants, bright and progressive young men and women, whose methods are thoroughly modern, meeting the demands of the times in every respect. Besides being president of Behnke-Walker College, he is also president of the Columbia Beach Company and secretary of the Union Pacific Life Insurance Company.

Mr. Walker has been married twice. In Abilene, Kansas, in August, 1885, he wedded Miss Anna Stow, who passed away six years later. Three years after the death of his first wife he married Miss Laura Hoover, of North Manchester, Indiana, having formed her acquaintance when teaching in Mount Morris, Illinois. The Hoover family is prominently known all through the states of Indiana and Pennsylvania. Four brothers of the name came from Germany and settled in Pennsylvania, where annual reunions are held, on which occasions a large number of the descendants of the original progenitors assemble. The family have ever been greatly interested in the cause of education. Mr. Walker had one daughter, Eva Marie, by his first marriage and unto the second marriage has been born a son, Ralph Emerson.

Mr. and Mrs. Walker are members of the First Presbyterian church of Portland. He also belongs to the Odd Fellows fraternity and the Elks lodge. He has himself created the genial, helpful atmosphere which dominates the school of which he is president, and in his life he has exemplified the Emersonian principle that the way to win a friend is to be one.

Sinzaburo Ban

Sinzaburo Ban, a leading Japanese merchant and contractor of the Pacific coast, was born in Tokio, Japan, March 4, 1854, and is the second son of Magorokuro Ban. He was educated in his native land, graduating at the age of twenty years, and in addition to the branches which were taught in Japanese, was also instructed in the English tongue. He began his active career in the service of the Japanese government, in the consulate at Shanghai, China, and later at Honolulu, Sandwich Islands. He also served in the foreign department in Tokio, but as he grew older he developed a taste for commercial life which resulted in his resignation from public service.

At the age of thirty-seven, Mr. Ban came to America, landing at Vancouver, British Columbia. After looking over the field he took up his residence in Portland and became actively identified with various lines of business, in which he has attained unusual success, and as a contractor, lumber dealer and shingle manufacturer, has gained a reputation which gives him a position among the active and energetic men of the coast region. He is now maintaining branch stores at Sheridan, Wyoming; Denver, Colorado; and Tokio, Japan. He has mill interests at Quincy, Columbia county, Oregon, where he built a flume two miles in length to facilitate the handling of timber, and he established a thriving village. He built and operates a shingle mill at Willamette slough, two and a half miles from Linden, with a cutting capacity of one hundred and twenty thousand shingles daily.

At the age of twenty-nine years Mr. Ban was united in marriage to Kiyo Machida. who is also a native of Japan. One child, a son, was born to the union, who died at the age of four years.

Previous to the establishment of the present form of government in Japan forty-three years ago, Mr. Ban was a subject of Toku?awa Shogun. His family has a record of its ancestors extending back for a period of four hundred years or more. This record shows that Mr. Ban is a direct descendant of Rokwzayeman Ban, whose family came out of the same district as lyeyasu, one of the most noted generals of Japan and a commander under whom many members of the Ban family have fought in numerous battles. Mr. Ban is the thirteenth in order of descent from early ancestors and he takes great pride in the fact that the blood of these fighting ancestors is found in his veins, every descendant having had a son to perpetuate the line without interruption during four hundred years, which is a most unusual occurrence.

As is demonstrated by his success in competition with many able men of other nationalities, Mr. Ban is a thorough business man and fully alive to the exigencies of trade and the means by which customers are gained and retained. There is an old saying that all men are made of "one blood" and the success of Mr. Ban is evidence that with proper education and laudable ambition, the future is in the hands of the individual and he need not be controlled by circumstances of birth or country. Reverence of ancestry is one of the deeply seated traits of Japanese character, and one to which a great deal of attention has been attracted recently. This recalls a saying of wise writers that whenever a nation loses reverence for its ancestors, it is on the road to decay - a sentiment which meets hearty response from every lover of his country and well wisher of mankind.

Joseph Harvey Roberts

Joseph Harvey Roberts, who was called from an active and useful career three years ago, just as he was entering upon the prime of his life, was a telegraph operator of unusual ability, and in the responsible position of chief train despatcher had few equals in the service anywhere in the west. He was born at Newark, New Jersey, March 25, 1868, and was the son of Jentz J. and Martha (Kelch) Roberts. His father was of "Yankee" parentage although a native of Jew Jersey, and his mother is of German descent. The family removed to Lake View, Iowa, when their son Joseph H. was one year old. They were thrifty people and bought a section of land in Sac county, which on account of improvements and increase of population has since become very valuable. Of this land the parents gave their sons three hundred and twenty acres, retaining a like number of acres for their own use as the years should pass. On May 25, 1906, the couple celebrated their golden wedding and relatives and friends gathered from many quarters to show by their presence and appreciative words the respect in which the family is held. Three years later, on January 23, 1909, the aged father was called to rest and another gathering was held at the family home - but it was of a different character from the joyous assemblage of 1906. Mrs, Roberts is still living at the old home.

Joseph H. Roberts was educated in the public schools of Lake View, Iowa. He was a bright pupil and early gave evidence of valuable traits of character that were more fully developed in later years. He attended business college in Chicago, and returning home entered the railway telegraph service and at eighteen was appointed station agent at Lake View for the Chicago & Northwestern Railway. After three years' experience at his home town, he started out for a wider field, first working in an ofiice near Omaha and later in the city of Omaha. From that position he was called to Cache Junction, Utah. This is a railway terminal point and larger responsibilities were demanded. Mr. Roberts had become an expert at the keys and possessed the alertness and accuracy which are such desirable factors in the service. His work was highly appreciated by officers of the railway. While at Cache Junction Mr. Roberts met the lady who became his wife.

Seeing opportunity for more rapid advancement at Albany, Oregon, Mr. Roberts resigned from his position in Utah and located at Albany, where he became connected with the Corvallis & Eastern Railroad, now a part of the Southern Pacific lines. After a period of six months, during which time he became familiar with the workings under a different administration from the one to which he had been accustomed, he was made despatcher and two years later was promoted to the position of chief despatcher. This position he held until about the middle of 1907, when he removed to Portland, where he bought property and established his home. He was summoned away on the 25th of October, 1907, and his body was conveyed to his boyhood home at Lake View, Iowa, where it reposes in the family lot in the cemetery.

Mr. Roberts was happily united in marriage at Ogden, Utah, July 3, 1894, to Miss Mabel Van Tromp, also an expert telegraph operator in charge as agent at Cannon, Utah. She is a native of Watertown, Wisconsin, her parents being John and Martha (Luther) Van Tromp. Her mother was a native of England and her father of Holland. Both parents came to the United States when quite young. Mr. Van Tromp, who was a contractor, died December 2, 1879, in Lyons, Kansas, and his wife died in Marion Center, that state, November 20, 1872, the remains of both being interred at Lyons. Mrs. Roberts came west with a sister when a girl of fifteen years and learned telegraphy in college and at Portland, becoming highly proficient in the art. At the age of sixteen she was made agent on the Short Line at Battle Creek, Idaho, and from there went to Cannon, Utah. One son was born to Mr. and Mrs. Roberts, Harvey Eugene, a bright child, whose birth occurred at Albany, November 6, 1905.

Mr. Roberts was a member of Lodge No. 359, B. P. O. E., of Albany, and was secretary and treasurer of the lodge. He was also a member of the Odd Fellows at Lake View, and the funeral was held under the auspices of that fraternity. He was a republican but was broad in religious views and not identified with any religious organization, although his parents were Methodists. Mr. Roberts was a busy man and one who attended conscientiously to his duties. He was a kind husband and father, and his memory will long be cherished by friends and acquaintances who always found him kind-hearted and one who extended a ready hand to his fellowmen less fortunate than himself.

Dr. James Robert Cardwell

The first resident dentist of Portland, Dr. James Robert Cardwell, still practices his profession in this city, which has been his home since 1852. As one of the organizers of the State Horticultural Society, the Oregon Humane Society, and the North Pacific Dental College, he has left his impress indelibly engraven upon the pages of the state's history. The story of his life is written in terms of honor, and in memory and activities forms a connecting link between the primitive past and the progressive present.

He was born in Springfield, Illinois, September 11, 1830, a son of William Lee and Mary Ann (Biddle) Cardwell. The first census taken in Virginia makes record of one Cardwell as the only one of the name living in the United States. He came from France and in temperament and physique was typically Latin. He married into a French family - the lady a Miss Perrin - and they settled in Lunenburg county, Virginia, where he conducted a tobacco plantation. Their family included several daughters and five sons - Richard, John, Henry, Daniel and Perrin. Family history has it that one of the daughters became the wife of the father of Robert E. Lee, which accounts for the middle name of William Lee Cardwell, father of Dr. Cardwell, who was a cousin of Robert E. Lee and to whom he was always loyally attached.

Perrin Cardwell, the grandfather of Dr. Cardwell, was an overseer - in the terms of the south - on the estate of John Randolph. He died in 1852 on his estate of six hundred and forty acres near Knoxville, Tennessee, which he had purchased from the government about 1809 for twelve and a half cents per acre. At that date he emigrated from Virginia to Tennessee, where he afterward made his home. Like his father, he was of the Latin type, dark complexion and of powerful physique, weighing two hundred and thirtyfive pounds when a young man. He was noted as a wrestler and all-round athlete. Fabulous stories are told in the family of his great feats of strength and wrestling bouts. His father lived to old age, and the mother to the age of one hundred and ten years, Perrin Cardwell himself being ninety-nine years of age at the time of his death. At the age of twenty he married a Miss Washam, a blond Saxon, aged nineteen, and they lived together for seventy-eight years. Thirteen children were born unto them, of whom nine reached middle life or old age.

Dr. Cardwell's grandmother on the maternal side was Polly Ann Capels, of Lynchburg, Virginia. The grandfather was Benjamin Biddle, the youngest son of a wealthy Welsh family, but primogeniture left him comparatively poor. Leaving home, he first went to Virginia about 1780. There he bought negroes which he took to the south, selling them to the sugar planters, and in 1830 he became a resident of Illinois. It was on Christmas day of 1829 that his daughter, Mary Ann Caples Biddle, who was then a resident of Tennessee^ became the wife of William Lee Cardwell, and in the spring of 1830 they removed to Springfield, Illinois, where on the nth of September of that year Dr. Cardwell was born, his mother being then in her eighteenth year, his father in his twentyfifth year,

William L. Cardwell had obtained a classical education, had taught school, had studied law for a short time and also was a licensed physician. He regarded farming, however, as the ideal life, and on coming to Illinois located and made his home on a sixteenth section - school land - in the vicinity of Springfield. Later he went security for a brother-in-law and in the financial panic of 1837 lost his property. He then removed to Carlinville, Illinois, and with another brother-inlaw turned his attention to building operations and furniture manufacture. He was a natural mechanic and readily took to the business, for he did not like the practice of medicine. In following that pursuit he was enabled to provide well for his family of five sons and three daughters. The three daughters died in infancy and he devoted his attention to the liberal education of his sons. Like his ancestors, he was a large, strong man, weighing about two hundred pounds, of dark complexion and of the French type. In July, 1862, he fell from a building and sustained injuries which caused his death.

Dr. Cardwell, who was the eldest of the family, spent his youth largely to the age of twelve years in caring for the babies of the household and assisting his mother in the house work. His parents instructed him in reading, writing and arithmetic, and his mother always told with some pride that he learned the alphabet in one afternoon when three years of age. As a boy his only amusement was in mechanics. In his father's shop he made kites, bows and arrows, cross bows, wagons, sled boxes, etc. He never played with other boys or has never had close association with men. He was always interested in music and from' the age of fifteen years played the flute in band and concert work, and is well known throughout this section of the country as "the flutist." He was one of the organizers of the Philharmonic Club of Portland and during its existence, covering probably twenty years, played the flute and piccolo. He attributes the good habits formed in early life and to which he has since adhered to the fact that as a boy and young man he spent his leisure hours in music instead of going out with other boys. He attended a private school between the ages of twelve and fifteen years and was thus qualified to enter Professor Spaulding's preparatory school of Jacksonville, Illinois, and take the preparatory course qualifying him to enter Illinois College. He had had twelve lessons in the Spencerian system of penmanship, so that he was able to teach penmanship in the preparatory school. He also had a private evening class and thus more than made his expenses. During the vacation period he visited St. Louis and was employed by Dr. T. J. McNair, a druggist, acquiring some knowledge of the drug and pre- scription business. In his sixteenth year he entered IlHnois College, but at the end of a half term found that his finances needed his attention, so that for a year or more he taught penmanship in the surrounding small towns, having from twenty to forty-five scholars who paid him a dollar and a half for twelve lessons. It was his ambition to pursue the classical course in Harvard and then enter Rush Medical College of Chicago. Believing that dentistry would furnish a good field of revenue whereby he could gain the money necessary to pursue his Harvard and Rush Medical College courses, he began studying under Dr. G. Y. Shirley of Jacksonville, a leading dentist of the west, who eighteen months later gave him a certificate of good moral character and competence to practice dentistry. He then visited Springfield and worked in three ofiices in that city so that he was allowed to refer to the Springfield dentists concerning his ability. Dental practice then consisted of removing tartar and extracting teeth, although to some extent the filling of teeth and the insertion of artificial teeth was practiced. But such methods were largely regarded with suspicion at that day.

In 1850 Dr. Cardwell located for practice in Decatur, Illinois, then a town of about five hundred inhabitants, and proudly hung out a sign of Japan tin on which was painted "J. R. Cardwell, Surgeon Dentist." He was the first practitioner in the town and at the end of the year found his receipts amounted to about one hundred dollars per month. Dental work was of the most primitive character and it was only the better class of people who were acquainted with the use of the toothbrush. Teeth were filled with Dunlevy's gold foil or Jones, White & McCurdy's tin foil, and he practiced twenty years before using amalgam or cement. Well-to-do people sometimes had artificial teeth inserted on gold or silver plates of wooden pivots.

In the fall of 185 1 B. R. Biddle, an uncle of Dr. Cardwell, who had gone to California in 1849, returned to Springfield. He had spent a few months in Oregon and spoke so favorably and eloquently concerning the country and its resources that he induced more than one hundred people to go with him to the northwest the next spring. He proposed that Dr. Cardwell should accompany him and take charge of a nursery and fruit farm in Oregon on an equal partnership relation, Mr. Biddle to furnish the capital. To Dr. Cardwell it seemed the ideal business life, and on the ist of May, 1852, they left the Missouri river for Oregon with a fine nursery outfit of selected growing grafts and ornamentals thickly set in a wagonload of black Illinois soil drawn by four yoke of oxen- All went well until on the banks of Snake river, on a steep hillside, the wagon was overturned and the entire contents thrown into the river and carried away by the swift current. Dr. Cardwell saved only one Chinese Daily rose and now has a growing cutting from it more than fifty years old. This ended his dream of becoming a nurseryman and orchardist and, locating in Portland in November, 1852, he began practicing as the only resident dentist in this city, which at that time contained about one thousand inhabitants. Throughout the intervening years he has continued in active connection with the profession, advancing with the progress made. He opened an office in the Kamm building at the corner of First and Washington streets. The public manifested some doubt in the ability of so young a man, but he soon proved his worth and successfully engaged in practice at a time when five dollars was charged for an extraction, five dollars and upwards for gold fillings, ten dollars for teeth on a hickory pivot and two hundred dollars for a full set of teeth. These prices, however, were only in proportion to other professional charges and the prices paid for all commodities. Dental supplies and stock were generally purchased in San Francisco, to which place they had been sent by the water route. With ten and twenty dollar Spanish gold pieces upon a blacksmith's anvil they hammered out their plates and also made their own solder.

While practicing Dr. Cardwell took occasion at times to venture into other business fields. Portland was situated in the midst of a dense fir forest. The j first salmon fishery, Chinook salmon, were selling in Oregon and San Francisco for forty-five dollars per barrel. Having some leisure, Dr. Cardwell joined a friend, I. N. Gove, who had had some experience in New England fisheries, in a barrel cannery project. The Doctor bought sixty dollars worth of twine of a local importer, learned the netting stitch of Mr. Gove, and when not occupied with professional duties made seine and gill nets. They rented an old Indian fishery on the Columbia three miles below Vancouver, and in June and July, 1853, put up one hundred barrels, all of which Dr. Cardwell dressed and packed personally. The run then stopped and the business ended. Owing to the stimulus of the high prices of 1852 the Sacramento fisheries put up a great surplus and overstocked the market, so that salmon were unsalable at from eight to twelve dollars per barrel. W. S. Ladd, then a wholesale grocer, took the output of Cardwell & Gove at the ruling price and was several years in disposing of it at small margins, notwithstanding there was never any question of the number one quality of the pack. Thus commenced and ended the barreled salmon enterprise in Oregon for more than a decade. Their books showed cash to balance even and three months' lost time.

At that day there was but one drug store in Portland and Dr. Cardwell, having had some experience at the prescription case in St. Louis, conceived the idea that a practical prescription drug store might pay. He planned with Mr. Gove to enter the business which could be accommodated in his office building where he had an unoccupied front room with shelf, counters and bay window. Dr. Cardwell planning to look after the business when not occupied at the dental chair. They sent to San Francisco for about fifteen hundred dollars worth of drugs and glassware, which early arrived, and from the beginning the business prospered and they engaged a druggist assistant for Dr. Cardwell's dental practice so increased that he could give but little time to the drug department. Later they accepted a tempting offer to sell and the business passed into the hands of Dr. Weatherford, who made enough money to invest in Portland realty and retire on a competence.

No town in Oregon was large enough to support one dentist, and it was the custom of dental practitioners to make periodical visits to other towns. In the winter of 1854 Dr. Cardwell closed his Portland office with the intention of visiting Roseburg, Eugene and Corvallis, his father and mother, four brothers and three sisters then living in Corvallis. He was liberally patronized there and was the first dentist to visit the three towns. He says that in those days 'T often improvised a head rest by placing a chair behind the patient and putting my foot on the seat and resting the patient's head on my knee. I have stood many an hour on one leg and operated thus." While at Corvallis Dr. Cardwell bought lots and eighty acres in the suburbs and set out a family orchard on his father's place. He found an old neglected apple orchard, took sprouts and roots and grafted apples between the call of his patients, and started a nursery on his own eighty acres. Ninety-five per cent of the grafts grew and Philip Ritz, for many years a leading nurseryman in Oregon and Washington and a neighbor of Dr. Cardwell, often said that it was the Doctor's success and influence that induced him to go into the nursery business, in which he made a fortune.

Dr. Cardwell made annual spring visits to Corvallis to set out growing plants and trees until 1858, when the family removed to Portland. On one of these visits, in partnership with Dr. Jackson, a resident practitioner, he built an attractive drug store and established the first drug house in the valley beyond Salem. The death of his partner three or four years later and the removal of his family to Portland caused him to dispose of all of his holdings and young nursery stock at Corvallis. As a boy he had taken an interest in taxidermy, and from 1855 until i860 his pastime and amusement was in mounting and casing the birds and animals of Oregon. He made a full collection of several hundred, including the large animals - cougar, bear and elk. He still has some of these, some are in Golden Gate Park at San Francisco, and others in the Smithsonian Institute at Washington, D. C. About 1859-60 he set out a ten-acre or- chard on the Beninion Roggers place near Milwaukie - all Oregon fruits. In the early '60s his time was fully occupied by his profession, which was now a most lucrative one, and in making and beautifying a home, including the setting out of trees and ornamental shrubs. Withal he was an enthusiastic Mason and now wears the badge of the consistory.

About this time horticultural societies were being organized over the state and Multnomah county had its organization, meeting in Portland, in which Dr. Cardwell was an active and enthusiastic member. As early as the summer of 1858 he was connected with others in organizing the first territorial horticultural society in Portland, which held summer and fall meetings, made fruit exhibits and awarded prizes almost annually until the formation of the state society. The Oregon State Horticultural Society was organized in Portland, January 13, 1889, with a long list of active members and J. R. Cardwell was elected president. Each year he was unanimously reelected for twenty years, when he retired and was made honorary president. In 1893 Portland's first Rose Show was held and Mr. Cardwell, as president of the State Horticultural Society appointed a committee of ladies to promote this enterprise. The following year a large and creditable show for those days was made by the same committee, composed of Mrs. J. C. Card, president; Mrs. Ella Lehigh, secretary; Mrs. Shafford and Mrs. Lambertson. These shows were most popular events and were the forerunners of the splendid shows of later years.

In the meantime other interests and activities featured in the life of Dr. Cardwell. In reminiscences told concerning Portland and her history he speaks of how many of her citizens, including those who were regarded as the soundest and most sagacious business men, were taken in by the well told tales of dishonest promoters and more dishonest manipulators of mining property who told of the wealth to be made in gold, silver, copper and lead mines. He was among the victims and lost considerably through investments. At a later time prunegrowing claimed the attention of many of Portland's citizens as well as others throughout the state, and, as Dr. Cardwell expressed it, "The prune figured better than banking or any business, as the apple does today." Far-seeing business men speculated in prune lands. Dr. Cardwell bought prune lands and from 1870 until 1881, set out one hundred acres of prunes which, it is believed, was the first large commercial prune orchard in the United States. He had previously engaged in the cultivation of plums but found that they were not profitable for shipment and by graft he converted his plum into a prune orchard, met success in the undertaking and in so doing silenced the criticism of the conservatives and those who regarded his work only as an experiment, unjustified by horticultural knowledge. Dr. Cardwell has, indeed, been a leader in the work of cultivating fruit in Oregon, and his broad knowledge, gained from scientific investigation and from practical experience well qualified him for the presidency of the State Horticultural Society and merited his appointment to the state board of horticulture when it was created by legislative act in 1889. He was made the president of the board and so continued for ten years. On his retirement Governor T. T. Geer stated that he "made a record by resigning from a paying position." He was the horticultural commissioner from Oregon to the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, winning seventeen prizes and turning back to the state several thousand dollars of the fund appropriated for the exhibit.

While various activities and interests have claimed the attention of Dr. Cardwell, he has continued also an active member of the dental fraternity. In 1872 he became one of the charter members of the Oregon State Dental Society and was elected its secretary. Twice afterward he was chosen its president, and for ten years he was president of the state board of dental examiners, after which he reigned. During his service as president over two thousand dollars receipts of the board were returned to the state. He was active in the organization of the Oregon Humane Society in 1872. of which B. Goldsmith became president, while Dr. Cardwell was chosen one of the vice presidents. He was one of the lead- ing factors in organizing the North Pacific Dental College, of which he is now vice president and one of the trustees, and is now professor of dental history, dental jurisprudence and dental ethics. He was one of the first workers in behalf of the Portland Museum and has now an extensive collection of birds and animals which he is holding, awaiting the erection of a museum building, which question he is agitating before the pubhc. As a collector his name is catalogued in the United States and Europe. He has also collected and is growing all the conifers of Oregon, and has twenty-seven varities growing upon his lawn. He has collected and mounted all of the birds in Oregon and has given much study to the geology of the state and made a large and valuable collection of its rocks and minerals. Upon all these subjects he has written quite extensively for the press. He still continues in the practice of dentistry and finds the same delight and interest in setting out and cultivating trees, shrubs and plants. Development as expressed in life and in science has always been of the deepest interest to him, and his own labors have been a valuable contribution to the world's progress.

Captain Mellie Albertus Hackett

Captain Mellie Albertus Hackett, as president of the Columbia Digger Company, has become so well known in Portland and the northwest that he needs no introduction to the readers of this volume. His life, especially in more recent years, has been devoted to the utilization of the natural resources of the state and his efforts have been of incalculable benefit to the section at large.

It was on the 20th of April, 1857, near Lawrence, Kansas, that Captain M. A. Hackett was born and he spent his youthful days in the home of his parents, Nathan and Lavina (Thurston) Hackett. He was only four years of age when the family removed from Kansas to Colorado and was a youth of twelve years when they started across the plains by wagon train to California, where the father engaged in farming until 1872. That year witnessed his arrival in Oregon.

Captain Hackett accompanied his parents on their removal to this state and has largely made his home here from the age of fifteen years. He was first employed in a salmon cannery until nineteen years of age, during which time he familiarized himself with various departments of the business until he was able to take charge of a cannery that he built for the firm of Hepburn & Jackson on Woody Island. He afterward took charge of a cannery for John Keirnan and Everding & Parrel, at Pillar Rock, Washington, and continued in close connection with the salmon canning industry until 1881, when he came to Portland. Here he built the first ferry that operated on what is now known as the Albina ferry route, continuing in charge for some time. He was also interested in the Jefferson ferry, which he operated for fifteen years, and likewise owned and ran the Selwood ferry. He was connected with this business until the Madison bridge was made a free highway and the support of the ferries naturally fell off. He then took the m.achinery of the Jefferson street ferry, using it in the building of the steamer Hattie Belle, which he ran on the Columbia river in the service of the government. Later he sold that vessel and commanded the steamer H. C. Grady, running between Portland and Astoria, for a year.

On the 24th of March, 1899, Captain Hackett organized a com.pany under the name of the Columbia Digger Company, and they engaged in diking tide lands in the vicinity of Astoria for a year. This w^as the first undertaking in the state of Oregon where the work was done by machinery. The purpose was to reclaim the lowlands and also to dig canals for the government. Still operating under the name of Columbia Digger Company, Captain Hackett opened a sand and gravel business at the foot of Ankeny street in April, 1903. Since establishing the enterprise over one hundred and fifty thousand dollars have been spent in improvements for the business in docks, dredges, etc., and the company has today one of the best equipped plants for the conduct of the sand and gravel business in Portland, The officers of the company are : M. A. Hackett, president; Earl Hackett, secretary; and V. D. Hackett, a director. The enterprise was incorporated on the 24th of March, 1889, and the undertaking is now one of the most extensive and important of this character conducted in the northwest.

In August, 1879, Captain Hackett was married to Miss Emma Jeannette Crapper, a native of Iowa, and a daughter of Dorsey S. Crapper, who at the time of his daughter's marriage was living in Portland. Four children have blessed this union : Captain Earl A., Vernon D., Hattie Belle and Margaret. The two sons are associated with their father in business and the elder is a member of the Commercial Club of Portland. Captain Hackett belongs to the local camp of the Woodmen of the World. His extensive business interests have made him well known in this part of the country and his efforts have been a factor of large value in the development of the northwest in recent years. In establishing and commanding this undertaking he has displayed keen interest and a marvelous recognition of opportunities.

George Betz

George Betz, a well known florist of Portland, now retired, is enjoying a well earned rest in the evening of a busy life. He was born in a German colony in Lasander, Russia, July 22, 1853, a son of Henry and Mary Betz. His father died when he was twelve years of age and, having acquired a good education in the land of his birth and hoping for more favorable opportunities under the stars and stripes, he bade his early friends good-bye and at the age of nineteen landed from a steamer at New York city. Instead of locating there, he came west to Marion county, Kansas, where he remained for several months, then removing to Hastings, Nebraska. In that place he continued for five years, from 1878 to 1883, engaged most of the time in farming. However, his aspirations still beckoned westward, and on the nth of February, 1883, he arrived in Portland, where he has since made his home. For two years he engaged in various kinds of work, including landscape gardening, in which he was quite adept. In 1885 he turned his attention to the floral business, which he actively followed until about a year ago, when he turned over the management to his sons. The original location of his establishment was at No. 292 Sellwood street, where he continued for twenty years, then removing to 697 Williams avenue. In 1907 he purchased eight acres of the Jennings Lodge tract in Clackamas county, three miles from Oregon City, and there erected a residence and also buildings and greenhouses, where he raises flowers for market, making a specialty of carnations. His plant has forty thousand square feet under glass, and is one of the most complete and at the same time one of the best known of the kind in the city.

On February 11, 1878, Mr. Betz was united in marriage to Anna Bov/er, a daughter of Henry Bower, a native of the German colony of Norka, Russia. Six children were born unto the union, of whom two are dead, and those surviving are Sarah ; Joseph, who is married and has three children - Nellie, Elsie and Robert; Charles, who is married and has a daughter, Edna; and George, who is married and has a daughter, Juliana.

Mr. Betz has other business interests besides that to which he has devoted his principal attention. He is president of the Waback Mining Company, operating placer mines in Curry county, Oregon, for four years past. He is also a stockholder in the Electric Mining & Smelter Company. He is a member of the Modern Brotherhood of America and ever since he became identified with American citizenship has been an adherent of the republican party. For a quar- ter of a century he has been connected with the business interests of Portland and today, as he looks back, he recalls many faces that are no longer to be met with but whose memory awakens many interesting reminiscences. The success of Mr. Betz has been due to good judgment, industry and enduring and substantial character, which earns for its possessor a contentment which money cannot buy, and an honorable position in the community. In the fall of 191 1 Mr. Betz and wife expect to make a visit to their old home in Russia and also to tour Europe.

Bluford D. Sigler

For twenty-seven years a resident of Portland, Bluford D, Sigler has been identified with the growth of the city through that era when, having no longer to struggle with the vicissitudes, difficulties and obstacles of frontier life, the business man could concentrate his entire energies upon the establishment and promotion of the enterprise which he had chosen as a life work. With this period of later progress and development, Mr. Sigler has been closely associated and his efforts have been so directed in the legitimate lines of trade and manufacture that he stands today among the prosperous men and valued citizens of the northwest.

His youthful days were spent in a district where the air is rife with the spirit of indomitable enterprise, his birth having occurred in Georgetown, Vermilion county, Illinois, on the 27th of November, 1866. Pennsylvania had been the ancestral home of the family and from that state John Sigler, the grandfather of Bluford D. Sigler, made his way to Illinois and cast in his lot with the early settlers of Vermilion county, where he followed farming. His son, Samuel W. Sigler, was there born and reared. The public schools aflforded him his educational privileges and he, too, turned his attention to farming as a life work, but put aside business interests at the outbreak of the Civil war in order that he might espouse the cause of the Union, which he defended on southern battlefields as a member of Company C, Seventy-third Illinois Volunteer Infantry, remaining at the front until the stars and stripes were planted in the capital of the southern Confederacy. While a resident of Vermilion county, he married Deborah Smith, a daughter of Jefferson Smith, who was extensively engaged in farming in Illinois, where he settled in pioneer times. In 1870 Mr. Sigler abandoned farming and turned his attention to general merchandising in Medoc, Jasper county, Missouri. Five years later he became a resident of Dayton, Oregon, and there engaged in general merchandising until 1883, when he removed to Portland, where for fifteen years he conducted a feed business, returning in 1898 to Dayton, where he now makes his home.

Bluford D. Sigler accompanied his parents on their various removals westward until they reached the coast and became residents of Portland in 1883, at which time he was a youth of sixteen years. His education, begun in the schools of Illinois and continued in Missouri, was completed by a high school course in Portland and after putting aside his text-books he entered commercial circles as a clerk in a store at Mount Tabor, having previously had some experience in this line as assistant to his father in his periods of vacation. Two years later he became identified with Smith Brothers & Company, proprietors of a sawmill on Harrison street in Portland, and, watchful of all opportunities pointing to success, he joined Samuel E, Wrenn and W. V. Smith in 1897 in the organization of the Multnomah Box Manufacturing Company, which succeeded to the business of the Multnomah Box Company. Prosperity attended the efforts of the partners during their three years' connection with the business, which they disposed of to good advantage at the end of that time. Mr. Sigler then engaged in the wholesale feed business, and in 1901 organized the Sigler Milling Company, of which he became secretary and manager. This is still recognized as one of the strong commercial concerns of the city, conducting an extensive business in flour, feed, lime, land, plaster and shingles, besides doing a general commission business.

In 1897 Mr. Sigler was married in Eugene to Miss Veina E. Adair, a graduate of the University of Oregon and a representative of a pioneer family of the state, her parents arriving in the early '50s. Mr. Sigler is a life member of the Multnomah Amateur Athletic Club, of which he has served as secretary and vice president. He is in hearty sympathy with the purposes of the Commercial Club, and as one of its members co-operates in its movements for the growth of the city in business lines. He is also well known as a local political leader of the republican party, and has been honored by his fellow townsmen with office, being chosen a member of the city council from the fifth ward in 1902. Taking a seat as a member of that body, he was appointed to a number of the most important committees and exercised his official prerogative in such a manner as to greatly further the welfare of Portland. He resigned from the council in order to assume the duties of county assessor of Multnomah county, to which office he was elected in the fall of 1904 and reelected in 1908. He had the distinction of being the first man in Oregon to assess public franchises. He regards political and club associations, however, as side issues in his life, and is preeminently a business man who has found that success is ambition's answer.

G. Zanello has long been prominently known as a leading contractor of Portland, his work being of an especially important character. To some extent he is now living retired, having largely turned over the business about five years ago to his son Fred Zanello. The family name indicates a Latin origin. Mr. Zanello is a native of Italy, his birth having occurred near the city of Turino, on the 20th of September, 1849. ^^ remained with his parents, John and Cogio Zanello until coming to America in 1872 at the age of twenty-three years. His education was acquired in Italy and he served in the Italian army ere his emigration to the United States.

Landing at New York, he remained for four years in the eastern metropolis, during which period he was engaged in the general contracting business, for he had previously learned the mason's trade in his native land. On leaving the Atlantic seaboard he made his way to the far Pacific coast and settling at San Francisco, there engaged in a similar business. He continued a resident of that city for fourteen years and in 1882 came to Portland, where he at once opened an office and sought patronage as a contractor. The early contracts awarded him here proved his ability and worth and his business grew rapidly both in volume and importance. The piers of the Morrison and Burnside bridges testified his ability and thoroughness in his work. He was also the builder of the car barns at Sellwood, the apartment houses on Twelfth and Alder streets, and also at Twentieth and Flanders. He was likewise awarded the contract for the Tilford building, the warehouse for the Marshall, Wells Company, and, extending his efiforts into other parts of the state, secured and executed the contract for the Eugene courthouse and the Polk county courthouse. He also built the foundation for the First Presbyterian church of Portland and for the J. Kahn building. He has filled contracts on other important buildings, including the Oregon Transfer Company's stables at Sixteenth and Kearney streets, the store building for Whitney & Grey at Twelfth and Stark streets, an apartment house for Mr. Murphy at Trinity place, the New York Bakery building at Seventh and East Belmont streets, an apartment house at Seventh and East Taylor streets, and many other large buildings. This brought him substantial success, and as he prospered in his undertakings he laid by a handsome competence that enabled him about five years ago to turn his business over to his son, since which time he has practically lived retired.

It was on the ist of March, 1879, that Mr. Zanello was married to Miss Eugenia Magginetti, who was born in the town of Biasca, Switzerland, of which country her parents were also natives. Mr. and Mrs. Zanello have become parents of five children, but one is now deceased. Those living are : John, born in Oakland, California; Fred, who was born in Portland and is his father's successor in business ; Emmalita ; and Ruth.

The parents hold membership in the Catholic church and Mr. Zanello is also a member of the Elks lodge. He owns and occupies a beautiful residence at No. 2)72) Larch street, and also has other property here which returns him a substantial annual rental. His life record is another proof of the fact that "America is the land of opportunity," for in this country, where labor is unhampered by caste or class, young men of foreign birth may work their way steadily upward and reach an equally creditable position with Mr. Zanello.

Augustus J. Fanno

Augustus J. Fanno has established an extensive business in the cultivation of onions, carrying on the enterprise on a large scale. He makes his home in Portland, but was born in Washington county, Oregon, March 19, 1855. The family is of French lineage and was founded in America at the beginning of the French revolution, representatives of the name fleeing to this country on account of the persecution of large landholders at the time when mob violence took control and confiscated the interests of the nobility and all who had been favored by success.

Augustus Fanno, his father, was a native of Maine and arrived in Oregon in 1845. He was therefore one of the first settlers in the state. After remaining for a short time in Butteville, he settled on a farm in Washington county about seven miles from Portland, taking up a donation claim of six hundred and forty acres, to the cultivation and development of which he devoted his energies until his death, which occurred in 1884. He was the pioneer in the cultivation of onions in this section of the country, and it was due to his efforts that the vegetable has reached the present immense size. He recognized the fact that the dampness of the climate and the soil conditions were favorable for onion produce and thus instituted a business from which many have since derived substantial profit. He was also one of the early school teachers of the section in which he lived and thus contributed to the intellectual progress of the community. He married Rebecca Jane Denney, a native of Kentucky, who was reared in Indiana and with her brothers and sisters came to Oregon in 1849, settling at Fosters. There she engaged in teaching school before her marriage. She became the mother of six children, of whom Augustus J. Fanno was the third child and eldest son. Four of the number are still living. The mother lived to the advanced age of eighty-nine years, passing away in April, 1909. E. B. Fanno, a half-brother of Augustus J. Fanno, was born in 1840 and crossed the plains with his parents. The mother died soon after their arrival, and the father later married again. E. B. Fanno is now living in Chico, California. The other members of the family are: Mrs. I. L. Morelock, living on a part of the old home farm ; Mrs. J. D. Wilmott of Portland ; Augustus J. ; and Alonzo R., a resident of Sellwood, one of the attractive suburbs of Portland.

Augustus J. Fanno v/as provided with excellent educational advantages, attending Forest Grove Academy and College, in v.diich he pursued an independent course, completing his studies in 1878. He then took charge of his father's farm. For some years he was engaged in the onion business, and in 1883 formed a partnership with his brother, Alonzo R., a connection that still maintains. They have since engaged extensively in the growing of onions and for several years A. J. Fanno has had the exclusive management of this business, his brother being interested in farming. They raise from eighteen to forty acres of onions each year and from fifteen to thirty acres of cabbages, and in 1898 were the first to begin shipping onions to Alaska.

For the past twelve years A. J. Fanno has made his home in Portland, from which point he supervises his farming interests and also manages his real-estate investments in this city and vicinity, owning considerable property in Portland. Various enterprises have likewise claimed his attention at times and profited by his sound judgment and discrimination, but his attention has been principally given to onion growing, and that he is considered authority upon this subject is indicated by the fact that he has been president of the Confederated Onion Growers Association since its organization in 1905.

It was on the 30th of December, 1879, ^^^^^ ^^- Fanno was united in marriage to Miss Kate Guren, a daughter of Mrs. Anna E. Guren, of Forest Grove. Her father, W. H. Guren, is an attorney of Sturgin, Missouri. One daughter has been born unto this union, Helen A., now the wife of T. M. Britten of Spokane, Washington. The family residence is at 423 Fifth street, and Mr. Fanno is a member of the Oregon Pioneer Society. His political views accord with the principles of the republican party, and he has always taken an active interest in politics, but has declined all ofifers of public office. He prefers to concentrate his energies upon his business afifairs. and his close application and indefatigable energy have constituted the salient elements in his success.

Joseph Gaston

Joseph Gaston, author of this history of Portland, whose loyalty to Oregon during the half century of his residence in this state has been manifest in many tangible and helpful ways, was born in the village of Lloydville, Belmont county, Ohio, November 14, 1833, and comes of French Huguenot ancestry, as do all, doubtless, of the Gastons of the United States - the family being represented in all of the states. On the revocation of the edict of Nantes, which had permitted the Protestant religion in France, the Gastons, together with other Huguenots, were expelled from that country, including John Gaston, who was born in France in the year 1600. He emigrated to Scotland and in the year 1662 his descendants removed to the north of Ireland, settling in County Antrim. From that settlement three brothers, John, William and Alexander Gaston, emigrated to America in the year 1700, establishing their home in the Carolinas. From this Carolina stock came Alexander Gaston, who was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1769, and was the father of Dr. Joseph Gaston and the grandfather of Joseph Gaston, of this review. Alexander Gaston removed to Washington county, Pennsylvania, in 1791, and there met and married Rachel Perry, a daughter of John Perry, a neighbor and a friend of George Washington. He served throughout the Revolutionary war as an officer of the Virginia Light Dragoons.

Dr. Joseph Gaston was united in marriage to Miss Nancy Fowler, a daughter of John Fowler, who foughf with Commodore Perry in the battle of Lake Erie and was one of the six men who rowed the Commodore through the British line after the flag ship had been disabled. Perry himself was a relative of John Perry, the great-grandfather of Mr. Gaston.

Joseph Gaston was reared in the home of his grandmother, Mrs. Jean (McCormac) Fowler, in Morgan county, Ohio, obtaining what education he could in the country log schoolhouse in which a three-months' winter session was held. The remainder of the year was devoted to work on the farm until he was sixteen years of age, when he began teaching in the country school and working in the sawmills. Laudable ambition prompted him to prepare for a field of labor in which his talents, energy and ambition might find broader scope. He studied law at St. Clairsville, Ohio, with Daniel Peck, and following his marriage to Narcissa Dodridge Jones, the daughter of Wilmeth and Sarah Jones, he removed to Oregon in 1862, after which he practiced law and edited the Jacksonville Sentinel, in Jackson county, Oregon, until 1864. In that year he took up the project of building a railroad from the Columbia river to the southern boundary of Oregon, and in 1864-5 prosecuted surveys for the road from Jacksonville to Portland. In 1864 he removed to Salem, Oregon, where he continued in the practice of law and also edited the Oregon Statesman, in order to earn money to pay his living expenses. He followed the business of promoting and building railroads in the state from 1866 until 1880, but an account of this railroad construction will be found in the chapter on railroads in this history. On retiring from this railroad work he settled on his farm at the town of Gaston and devoted several years to the work of draining and reclaiming Wappatoo Lake and converting a disease-breeding swamp into a beautiful farm. In this work, as in all others, he was most efficiently supported by an energitic and faithful wife, who devoted her time and means to the improvement of the neighborhood. She was particularly active in the Christian work of the locality and raised money and built what has since been called the Gaston Union church. In 1896 Mr. Gaston disposed of his farm and returned to Portland, where he is now living in Portland Heights, devoting his time to a fruit farm on the Columbia, opposite Hood river, and to the management of a great manufacturing enterprise in Lake county - the development of the sodaborax mines of Alkali lake.

During his career Mr. Gaston has been, as editor, connected with a number of enterprises, notably the Daily and Weekly Bulletin, competitor of the Oregonian, for the years 1874 and 1875, and with several agricultural journals, his taste for agriculture and country life leading him in that direction. While always taking an interest in politics and public affairs, he has never been an office holder and only once a candidate for office. In 1894, the populists, without solicitation on his part, nominated him for the office of justice of the supreme court, the result on the returns of the election being: Robert O. Bean, republican, forty thousand, four hundred and fifty-one; Joseph Gaston, populist, twenty-six thousand, one hundred and thirty-five; and John Bennett, democrat, eighteen thousand, six hundred and twenty-three. Mr. Gaston has always been an independent thinker, forming his opinions from close observation and thorough investigation of the subject that has claimed his attention, and from his studies and exeperience of life he has devolved a philosophy that has its root in those things which have definite value in character building and in the real progress of the world.

William Friberg

The west is characterized by a spirit of accomplishment; things are being planned and plans are successfully executed ; something is being done continuously that contributes to growth and development. It has been in the great west that William Friberg has spent almost his entire life, and the spirit of progress has found expression in his own activity. He is a native, however, of the northern part of Sweden, born February 8, 1866. His parents were Eric O., and Anna (Anderson) Friberg, who remained residents of Sweden until 1868 when they bade adieu to friends and native country and sailed for the new world, establishing their home in Boone, Iowa. The father was a stone mason and bricklayer and followed his trade in Boone for two years, after which he removed to Clay county, South Dakota and took up a claim. From that time forward he made farming his principal occupation.

William Friberg was a tiny lad of but two summers when brought by his parents to the United States. His youthful days were passed in Iowa and in Clay county. South Dakota, where he acquired his education. At the age of seventeen years he left home in order to enter business life and provide for his own support. He decided to learn the trade of bricklaying, and went to Omaha, Nebraska, where he was employed in a brick-yard in the manufacture of brick and also engaged in laying brick. Two years later he went to Kansas City, Missouri, to complete the brick mason's trade, becoming a resident of that place in 1885 and remaining there until 1887. He then traveled through the western cities, working at his trade as a journeyman, and after spending nearly four years in Denver, Colorado, and other parts of the west, he came to Portland in 1891.

Mr. Friberg has since been closely associated with industrial interests in this city. He worked at his trade in the employ of others for nearly two years, and in 1894 began contracting on his own account. In the intervening years he has erected forty-two buildings in Portland, among the most important being the Henry building, the Commercial club, the Elks building, also a fine modern business block at the corner of Fifth and Ankeny streets for the Corbett estate, and also the Seward Hotel, the Young Men's Christian Association building, and the Fliedner building. He was likewise the builder of the Jorgensen building on Third and Main streets. In 1906 he became interested in the manufacture of brick, establishing his plant in Woods addition in connection with Andrew Friberg, who is also interested with William Friberg in the contracting business. Both branches of their business are proving profitable and their patronage in every line is growing in extent and importance.

In 1894 Mr. Friberg was united in marriage in Portland, to Miss Adele Lundgren, a daughter of Abel and Ammila Lundgren, also a native of Sweden, and their union has been blessed with one son, Louis William, who at the age of eleven years is attending the Portland schools.

In his fraternal relations Mr. Friberg is a Mason, and advancing through the various branches of the Scottish Rite, has attained the thirty-second degree. In the order he has made many friends who recognize his fidelity to the teachings of the craft. His political support is given the republican party. In business circles he has won confidence by reason of his thoroughly reliable methods, and his success is the tangible proof of his ability and close application.

William Parsons Lewis

William Parsons Lewis is an architect and contractor of Portland and many of the buildings which he has put up have been erected after designs which he has made. England claims him as her native son, his birth having occurred in Somersetshire in 1852. The days of his boyhood and youth were there passed and in that country he studied architecture, thus qualifying for the profession which he has followed much of his life. He was apprenticed to an architect when twelve years of age, and continued in that service until seventeen years of age, when, tiring of the routine and the limited opoortunities oflFered him, he ran away and came to the United States, crossing the Atlantic in 1869.

After tarrying in the east for about four years, Mr. Lewis came to the Pacific coast in 1873, settling first at San Jose, California, where he remained for seven years, during which period he was connected with mill and stair building. On the 5th of January, 1880, he arrived in Portland and here he continued in the same lines which had previously claimed his attention. He operated the

Portland planing mills for a time and in 1896 established his present business as an architect and contractor. Within this period he has superintended the construction of the Lincoln high school and the residences of C. E. Ladd and W. W. Spaulding, together with some of the other leading buildings of the city. His ability as an architect enables him to make his own plans and designs, and in this he studies forms of beauty as well as of practical utility.