Portland, Oregon - Portland, Oregon, Its History and Builders : in Connection with the An (part 1 of 25)

Portland, Oregon, Its History and Builders : in Connection with the An

fornia Railway Company ; and various other corporations received the benefit of his acumen and experience. He retired from the wholesale mercantile business in 1892, prior to which he was largely instrumental in the organization of the United States National Bank, of which he was president for several years and guided it safely through the financial panic of 1893, which brought disaster to so many banks and other financial institutions of the country. About a year later he was obliged to relinquish the presidency to go abroad on account of failing health.

The city of Portland was in countless ways enriched by his exertions in its behalf. Whatever tended to the upbuilding of its institutions whether commercial, social, educational, religious or charitable, always found in him ready support and encouragement. He was elected president of the Board of Trade in 1881 and was reelected by acclamation for many succeeding years, during which time he was largely instrumental in inducing the United States government to build the jetty system at Columbia river bar.

His position on any question of public policy was never one of hesitancy or doubt. His business, social, private and public life were above reproach, and his honesty of the character that needed no profession but made itself felt upon all with whom he came in contact. Though essentially a man of business, he took great pleasure in the social side of life. He was for a number of years president of the British Benevolent and St. Andrews Societies of Portland, to both of which he contributed liberally. He was one of the founders and charter members and for a time president of the Arlington Club. The Clan Macleay was named after him. He was one of the founders of the Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Macleay was married March, 1869, to Martha, daughter of John Macculloch of Compton, Canada. She was a devoted Christian, a woman of cultivated mind, whose kindness, charity and benevolence endeared her to all who knew her. She died November 22, 1876. Mr. and Mrs. Macleay became the parents of four children : Barbara Martha, Edith Macculloch, Mabel Isabel and Roderick Lachlan. They were throughout their residence in Portland members of the First Presbyterian Church.

Donald Macleay died July 26, 1897. He had the satisfaction of living to see the place which he had found a mere struggling frontier town grow to a splendid city of one hundred thousand people and of feeling that he had contributed largely to that growth. He was a man of sound judgment, clear perception and industrious habits, but underneath and as a basis on which these qualities rested and which furnished the chief cause of his success, was his sterling integrity, fidelity to principle and tenacious adherence to them in every-day life. In all his relations he was at once honest and honorable. Remarkably successful in the accumulation of wealth, one of his greatest pleasures was to fill the hand of charity when ever extended in a worthy cause, and he was a most active factor in the establishment of the charitable, educational and religious institutions of the city. An enthusiastic advocate of the city's park system he gave Macleay park, a tract of one hundred and seven acres of land as an addition to the park system of the city. No man in Portland enjoyed a higher respect or held deeper regard from his fellow citizens. Few men have lived and died in Portland whose loss was felt more acutely or whose death more sincerely was mourned.

John S. Seed

John S. Seed, a general contractor in brick, stone and steel construction, is one of the pioneers in this field of building operations in Portland, where he has resided for about thirty years, arriving in 1879. For the first two years he worked as a journeyman and then began contracting on his own account. The years have marked his continuous progress and he has long been regarded as one of the foremost representatives of building construction in the city. His birth occurred in Bloomington, Illinois, September 20, 1858, his parents being John and Mary Jane Seed, the former a machinist by trade. The son pursued his education in the pubHc schools of Peoria, Illinois, for when he was quite young the family left Bloomington. Later he went to Wilmington, Delaware, and it was there that he learned the builder's trade. He continued his residence on the Atlantic coast until 1879, when he came to Portland, at which time there were no railroads in the city. He, therefore, made his way to New York and sailed for the isthmus of Panama, which he crossed by rail, embarking from the western coast for San Francisco, from which point he proceeded by boat to Portland. It was chance that kept him from becoming a passenger on the Great Republic, which on that voyage was wrecked at the mouth of the Columbia river. For two years after reaching this city Mr, Seed worked as a journeyman, being first employed on a building at the northeast corner of Front and Ash streets. Later he was engaged on the construction of a building at the southwest corner of Front and Davis streets and he also built the Lincoln high school and the Labbe building, the latter being one of the old landmarks of the city - a three story brick building, situated on the northwest corner of First and Pine streets. The last two were erected in 1883 and Mr. Seed was at that time in partnership with Thomas Mann, one of the old time pioneer contractors of Portland, of whom extended mention is made elsewhere in this work. Later important contracts were awarded Mr. Seed and he thus became an active factor in the building operations of the city. He was the builder of the first Presbyterian church and many other prominent and substantial structures of Portland stand as evidences of his skill and ability in his chosen field of labor. At different times he has been associated with various partners and in these connections has been awarded contracts on the building of the Myer & Frank block, at the corner of Sixth and Washington streets, and the Steams and the Mohawk buildings. He was alone in business when he secured the contract for the erection of the Lewis building on Park and Morrison streets. He also erected the Failing building and during the time he was associated with John Bingham he erected the first pressed brick block that wab ever built in Portland. This was the Smith Kearney building, on First between Alder and Morrison streets. The brick was brought from Philadelphia, at a cost of one hundred dollars per thousand and it is still standing, a fact which indicates the substantial nature of its construction. He also built the approach to the state house at Salem and the stockade or wall around the state penitentiary, being at that time in partnership with Mr. Bingham. As the years passed, his fame as a skilled and reliable builder spread abroad and his services were sought in various sections of the northwest. He was awarded the contract for the building of the state capitol at Boise City, Idaho, and he did the brick work on the Young Men's Christian Association in Portland. He is now building a six story apartment house, fifty-four by one hundred feet, for the Reed Institute, the rental from the apartments being a source of substantial income to the institution.

Mr. Seed v/as married in 1880 to Miss Mary Irving, and they had one child, John, who was a student in the Chicago School of Art and later attended Mark Hopkins Institute in San Francisco, California, while at the present time he is connected with the Journal as an artist.

In 1904 Mr. Seed wedded Mrs. Helen Jennings, a daughter of Captain G. A. Gore, who was an old river captain and commanded the Northern Pacific transfer boat at Kalama. He was the first man to bring a steamer over the rapids at the Cascades. By her former marriage Mrs. Seed had a son, D. V. Jennings.

Since age conferred upon him the right of franchise Mr. Seed has given his political support to the reoublican party, and the questions and issues of the day find in him an interested student. He belongs to the Knights of Pythias fraternity, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and has at- tained high rank in Masonry, holding membership in the lodge, chapter and commandery and in Al Kader Temple of the Mystic Shrine. His interest in the order is indicated in the progress he has made through the different degrees and in his life he exemplifies the beneficent spirit of the craft. His success in business is perhaps largely attributable to the fact that throughout his life he has continued in the line in which he embarked as a young tradesman. The exercise of activity is keeping him alert and he is ever interested in all that pertains to building operations, employing the most progressive and modern ideas in the construction of the buildings of Portland and elsewhere that stand as monuments to his skill, proficiency and business integrity.

Joseph M. Healy

Joseph M. Healy, of Portland, whose attention is now given only to the supervision of his invested interests, was born in Vancouver, Washington, on the 6th of February, 1868, a son of the late Patrick and Cecelia Healy. After completing his education in St. James College of his native city, he entered business life as a clerk and remained in the employ of others until 1898. In the meantime he had been gaining valuable experience, possessing an observing eye and drawing from each new duty and experience the lesson which it contained. He thus came well equipped to his new undertaking - the conduct of a real-estate and brokerage business. He had thoroughly informed himself concerning property values in Portland and his knowledge thereof was supplemented by incorruptible integrity and keen business acumen. Moreover, he had faith in Portland property as a safe and remunerative investment so that he had no difficulty in convincing others of its worth. He met with notable success from the very inception of his business, handled extensive realty interests and important commercial paper, and negotiated property transfers on such an extensive scale that after twelve years of close application to and capable management of his business he was able to retire.

Mr. Healy built the first steel construction building on the east side of the Willamette, being the four story building on the southwest corner of Grand avenue and East Morrison street, which still bears his name. He was also one of the original builders of the United Railways which is now being developed by the Hill system of interurban railways. He is one of the directors of the Merchants National Bank of this city, and maintains an office in the Board of Trade building for the direction of his personal interests.

Mr. Healy is an interested and active worker in the Catholic church and holds membership with the Knights of Columbus and Catholic Order of Foresters, and is also a member of the Arlington and Commercial Clubs.

J. C. Ainsworth, of Portland, financier and business promoter, who is identified with many corporate interests, has contributed materially to the development and upbuilding of the Pacific country. Portland is proud to number him among her native sons. He was born in this city, January 4, 1870, of the marriage of Captain J. C. and Fannie (Babbitt) Ainsworth, and completed his education in the University of California, from which institution he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1891. He afterward pursued a special course in electrical engineering in the same institution. His early business training was received in the Central Bank of Oakland, California, which his father had previously established, and in 1894 he entered banking circles in Portland, Oregon, becoming identified with the Ainsworth National Bank, of which he was chosen president. The bank was capitalized for one hundred thousand dollars and as its chief directing force he maintained a safe conservative policy that made it one of the strongest moneyed concerns on the coast. In 1902 he merged the Ainsworth Bank with the United States Bank under the name of the latter, which was then capitalized for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, while later the capital stock was increased to three hundred thousand dollars. He yet remains president of this bank, which now has a capital and surplus of over one million eight hundred thousand and deposits of some eleven millions and which has always been kept abreast with the most modern and progressive financial policy commensurate with the best interests of the institution.

A man of resourceful business ability, Mr. Ainsworth has improved his opportunity for judicious investment in many other important business enterprises and his efforts have constituted a valuable element in the successful control of various corporations of the west. He was instrumental in organizing the Fidelity Trust Company Bank of Tacoma, capitalized for five hundred thousand dollars, and in 1902 he succeeded Colonel C. W. Griggs as president of the company. He is also the president of the Oregon Telephone & Telegraph Company with a capital stock of five hundred thousand dollars and is assistant secretary and treasurer of the Pacific States Telephone & Telegraph Company, which has a capital of fifteen million dollars, while its lines extend from Mexico to Alaska. His keen business discernment has led to his cooperation being sought in the upbuilding of many of the important business projects of the coast. He is now treasurer of the Portland Railway Company and his name is on the directorate of the Portland Hotel Company, the Portland General Electric Company, the Portland Street Railway Company, the Pacific States Telephone & Telegraph Company, the Los vAngeles & Redondo Railway Company, the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company and many others.

On the 26th of June, 1901, in Portland, Mr. Ainsworth was married to Miss Alice Heitshu, who is a native of California, and, moving in the highest social circles, their home is the scene of many delightful social functions. Mr. Ainsworth holds membership in the Presbyterian church and the Arlington Qub, of which he was formerly president, and his political allegiance is given to the republican party. While he is numbered among the most successful men of the northwest, he has never regarded the pursuit of wealth as the sole end and aim of life but has found time and opportunity for activity in other lines which touch the general interests of society, cooperating in many movements for the public good and upholding at all times those interests which are in Portland a matter of civic virtue and of civic pride.

James Bybee

James Bybee, eighty-three years of age, is still giving personal supervision to the conduct of his farm of one hundred acres in Clarke county. His has; been a well spent life and frontier experiences of every kind are familiar to him, for he dates his residence upon the Pacific coast from 1850. A native of Kentucky, Mr. Bybee was born in 1827 and was reared in Monroe county, Missouri, where he lived upon a farm until 1850. He then joined the emigrants who were making their way to California in an almost endless wagon train across the plains. He journeyed with mule teams and pack horses and after reaching his destination remained until November on the middle fork of the American river, engaged in mining. On account of the illness of his brother, William Bybee, he came to Oregon, the trip being made by sailing vessel to Astoria, from which point they proceeded up the Columbia in a small boat to Portland.

Indolence and idleness have ever been utterly at variance with the nature of James Bybee and he at once sought opportunity for the exercise of industry and diligence - his dominant qualities. He rented land on Sauvies Island, where he and his brother raised potatoes, which they shipped to California. So few people were then engaged in farming that all grain and market products brought a high price and the brothers made two thousand dollars a piece that year. James Bybee afterward lived upon a farm at the mouth of the Willamette, where he took up a claim and engaged in the dairy business. He then went to Jacksonville, Oregon, on a mining trip but remained only a short time and in 1862 proceeded to eastern Oregon, settling at Auburn on Powder river. There he conducted a store and did freighting but after six months he sold out there and returned to his farm, upon which he remained until 1868, when he removed to Clarke county, Washington, trading his claim for three hundred and twenty acres of land in Clarke county. This was mostly covered with timber but he cleared one hundred acres and at the same time continued general farming as the land was prepared for the plow. Prospering in his undertakings, he also added to his holdings, purchasing another tract of two hundred and thirty acres. Plowever, he has since sold all of his land save one hundred acres upon which he resides and which constitutes one of the valuable properties of this locality. He has eight acres of fruit upon his place and other good improvements but expects soon to leave the farm, for he is building a residence in Vancouver which he intends to occupy.

In 1855 Mr. Bybee was married to Miss Eudora Sturgis, of IlHnois, and of the nine children born to them seven are yet living: Gay, a resident of Vancouver; Mrs. Carrie Westfall, of Idaho; William, who is located in Sacramento, California ; Mrs. Minnie Matchett, of Portland ; Mrs. Addie Seward, also of Portland ; Mrs. Eudora Snorer, at home ; and Charles, of Vancouver. The wife and mother died in 1894 and in 1900 Mr. Bybee married Mrs. Ellen Day, of Portland, a native of Indiana. His home is situated ten miles from Vancouver, on the middle road, and two and a half miles from Fisher's Landing. His has been a busy, active and useful life and his success is attributable entirely to his own labors and his recognition and utilization of opportunities.

Ames-Harris-Neville Company

Every successful business enterprise adds to the stability, material development and financial standing of a city. The house of Ames-Harris-Neville Company, has long been known in Portland in connection with the manufacture of burlap, cotton bags, twine, rope, etc. The business was established about i860 in San Francisco, California, by E. Detrick & Company, and was conducted under the name until 1883, when partnership relations were entered into and the style of Ames & Detrick was assumed, owing to the admission of J. P. Ames, of Oakland, as a partner. Business was conducted at San Francisco until 1884, when they established a branch in Portland. They continued to operate under the name of Ames & Detrick until 1893, when the Detrick interests withdrew and the firm became Ames & Harris, E. F. Harris, now deceased, purchasing an interest in the business at that time. The headquarters of the firm have always been in San Francisco, California. In 1898 the firm of Ames & Harris was incorporated, and the corporation was conducted until 1906, when they purchased the business of Neville & Company, of San Francisco, and the Neville Bag Company, of Portland, who had been one of their chief competitors. The merged interests were then incorporated under the present style of the Ames- Harris-Neville Company.

The City Of Portland 13

The present ofificers of the corporation are: J. H. Ames, of San Francisco, president and treasurer ; Everett Ames, a brother of J. H. Ames, first vice president and manager of the Portland branch; L. W. Harris, of San Francisco, second vice president; John J. Valentine, of San Francisco, secretary. The capital stock is about five hundred thousand dollars. At the Portland branch from one hundred and fifty to two hundred hands are employed in the factory and office, which is located at Fifth and Davis streets.

David S. Stearns

David S. Stearns, engaged in the real-estate business in Portland, is numbered among Oregon's native sons, for his parents were among the earliest settlers of the state. He was born in Medford in 1857 and following the removal of the family to Portland he continued his education in the old Central high school, situated on the present site of Hotel Portland. He afterward learned the trade of iron molding with John Nation, who had a stove foundry on the present site of the Inman-Poulsen Lumber Mill. He continued in that business until about 1882, when he turned his attention to the cigar business, which he conducted for two years. He was afterward engaged in the newspaper business as route agent and later as advertising solicitor but in 1887 turned his attention to the realestate field, in which he has since operated with the exception of about a year, when he filled the office of city assessor by appointment of the late Mayor Mason. He is thoroughly informed concerning property values and has negotiated many important realty transfers, having secured a large clientage in this line.

On the 17th of February, 1884, Mr. Stearns was united in marriage to Miss Mattie A. Wilkinson, a daughter of Isaiah Wilkinson, a veteran of the Civil war, who died at Evansville, Indiana, from illness contracted while in the army. Her mother's people were early pioneers of Oregon. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Stearns has been born a son, David Lloyd, now attending the Hawthorne school. Mrs. Stearns is a member of the Taylor Street Methodist church and is much interested in its work. Mr. Stearns is a son of the Rev. Samuel E. Stearns, long a prominent home missionary of the northwest and is a twin brother of Gustavus Stearns. They are the oldest living twins born in Oregon. Both David S. Stearns and his wife have a wide acquaintance in Portland and the friendship of the great majority who know them is cordially extended.

George A. Whipple

Prominent among those who are extensively and successfully engaged in farming in the vicinity of Vancouver George A. Whipple is numbered. He was born November 16, 1854, on the donation claim at Ridgefield which his father secured on coming to the northwest. He is a son of S. R. Whipple, a prominent pioneer resident of this section. He was born in Oswego county. New York, in 1823, and there resided until twenty-one years of age, when he went to Wisconsin. Subsequently he became a resident of Illinois, settling at Batavia, Kane county, where he engaged in farming, developing his fields there until 1852, when he joined the emigrants who in an almost endless wagon train were crossing the plains, the slow plodding oxen carrying their provisions and household efifects on the long journey over the prairie toward the mountains and the fertile valleys of the Pacific coast country. S. R. Whipple made his way direct to Vancouver and took up a donation land claim twelve miles from that city at Ridgefield. There he lived until 1862, when he returned to Vancouver and lived retired until 1905. In that year he went to Los Angeles, Cali- fornia, where his death occurred in February, 1907, when he had reached the age of eighty-four years. He had been married in IlHnois in 1849 to Miss Charlotte Louisa A. Lambert, the wedding being celebrated at the home of Governor Bross. The death of Mrs. Whipple occurred in Vancouver in 1884. In their family were three children, of whom all survive, namely : Dr. Ella Whipple Marsh, who is living at Long Beach, California; Mrs. Charlotte Elizabeth Brown, of Los Angeles, California; and George A., of Vancouver.

The last named, as previously stated, was born upon his father's claim at Ridgefield and was there reared to the age of eight years, when he accompanied his parents to Vancouver, where he continued until he attained his majority. During that period he attended the Vancouver Seminary from which he was graduated with the class of 1873. He was also a student in the Willamette University and taught school for several years. In 1877 he purchased two hundred and eight acres of land ten miles northeast of Vancouver about five miles north of Fisher's Landing. Since that time he has purchased an additional tract of two hundred acres and, having sold only fifteen acres, is still the owner of a valuable farm of three hundred and ninty-three acres. This was an unbroken wilderness when it came into his possession, destitute entirely of improvements, and the excellent appearance of the place indicates his well spent life and practical industry. He has cleared one hundred and fifty acres for the plow and one hundred acres for pasture land, has brought his fields under a high state of cultivation, has put good stock upon the place and has erected substantial buildings, including the three fine residences occupied by his two sons and himself. He raises grain and hay and has five acres planted to orchard and is also successfully engaged in the dairy business.

The year after making his first purchase - 1878 - Mr. Whipple was married to Miss Clara Nevada Marsh, a daughter of Samuel P. Marsh, of Vancouver, who was a pioneer here and prominent in the early days of development and progress on the coast. They have four children: L. Marie, who is a teacher and resides at home ; George Eugene and Lloyd G., who are associated with their father in business; and Charlotte Ruth, who is teaching music. The children have all been provided with excellent educational privileges and are graduates of the Willamette University at Salem, Oregon. The family is a prominent and cultured one of Clarke county, having a wide and favorable acquaintance in this locality, and their home is justly celebrated for its warm-hearted and cordial hospitality. Since 1852 the name of Whipple has been an honored one in this locality and has in large measure represented unfaltering activity and enterprise in the agricultural development of Clarke county.

Captain 'William H. Smith

Captain WiUiam H. Smith, a retired steamboat man of Portland, identified with transportation interests on the Willamette and Columbia rivers since 1854, was born in London, England, June 16, 1831, his parents being Richard and Elizabeth Smith, both of whom died in England, where the father had carried on business as a wine merchant. Captain Smith attended school in the world's metropolis but at an early age found it necessary to provide for his own support, and worked at whatever he could get that would yield him a living. He saw no chance for advancement, however, and determined to go to sea_, so atthe age of fourteen years he became an apprentice on the bark Simler, a ship of _ eight hundred tons bound for Bombay, Calcutta. Abuse and hardships met him in that connection, however, and when he again reached London fifteen months later he left the Simler and shipped on the Blond as an ordinary seaman. In this way he made a trip to Sidney, AustraHa, and was also connected with the coast trade between Sidney and Newcastle as a sailor. The return voyage to London was made on an old wooden ship, the Solsett. At that time he determined to ship as an American seaman, and through the influence of a Mr. Massey, of London, he secured a position on the Margaret Evans, a fine ship of two thousand tons, on which he crossed the Atlantic to New York as an ordinary seaman. He afterward made a voyage from New York to New Orleans on another American vessel and subsequently sailed to Harve in the English channel, returning thence to Boston, Massachusetts. In that city he found his uncle, Thomas Smith, and family, who were then arranging to go to Oregon and asked Captain Smith to accompany them. He did not think it wise to go at the time but promised to meet them there later. Two more years were devoted to a seaman's life, during which he made a trip to the Spanish Main and to England. Gradually he had worked his way upward on shipboard, becoming acquainted with every duty that falls to the lot of the seaman. In fact his ability excited that of many others on shipboard and accordingly he was offered the position of third mate, but desire to try his fortune in Oregon prevented him from accepting.

When the Clipper ship Searine weighed anchor in the harbor of New York in 1853, bound on the long voyage to California, he was among the crew, but at the end of the trip, which consumed ninety-six days, he left that ship at San Francisco and engaged as watchman on the Columbia, a steamship. In January, 1854, he arrived in Oregon and hunted up his uncle with whom he lived at Chanapoeg until the following spring. His training and preference, however, made him a seaman, and with the opening of navigation he engaged on the Enterprise, a good steamboat on the Willamette river. He has followed the river almost continuously since on many different boats and is well known to all the old river men. At one time he purchased a farm near Chanapoeg but later sold it and purchased another tract of land on the French prairie. He was very successful in raising crops, but there was no market for the product at that time and, abandoning agricultural life, he returned to the river. He is now in possession of a very fine watch which was presented to him by the citizens of Portland for faithful services which he rendered in helping to raise the United States ship Charleston, the time piece being presented him on the 20th of May, 1892.

At Oregon City, in June, 1855, Captain Smith was united in marriage to Miss Margaret Ann Weston, who was born at Little Rock, Arkansas, and came to Oregon with her parents in 1853, the journey being made across the plains with ox teams. They traveled for six months ere reaching Marion county, Oregon, where they located. Thus Captain and Mrs. Smith both have long been residents of this state and are numbered among its honored and worthy pioneer settlers. Their family numbered twelve children, but the two eldest, Emily and Richard, died in childhood. The otheirs are as follows : Augusta F., who married Frank Rittenour, of Portland, by whom she has four children, Fred, Harry, Lulu and George ; Anna, the wife of B. F. Hedges, of Portland, by whom she has one son, B. T. ; Ephraim D., who married Rose Luke and resides in Portland ; Mary, who wedded C. H. Hawks, and has one child, Raymond; William E., of Astoria, who married Nannie Holt and has two children, Clyde and Emery ; Alfred, who married Rose Bernier, both of whom are now deceased, their two children, Chester and Alfred, residing with the subject; Hattie B. and Edith J., both at home; Kathrine M., who wedded E. C. Dick, of Portland, and has five children, Donald, Ellenor, Franklyn, Charles and Colman ; and Edward L., who married Ellen Fichner, and with their three children, Dorothy, Edward and Mildred, reside in Portland.

Captain Smith is a member of the Masonic fraternity and is a firm believer in the spirit and principles of that organization. His active service as a riverman, however, has prevented him from taking active part in fraternal or political interests. He is well known among those who have in any way been connected with the shipping interests of this section, and has lived to see remark- able changes in navigation from the early days when saiHng vessels brought passengers around the Horn to the Pacific coast. He can relate many interesting incidents of the early days and no one rejoices more keenly in the progress that has been made as the years have gone by than does Captain Smith.

Robert Bruce Wilson, eminent physician and surgeon, honored pioneer, educator and prominent factor in Portland's early development, was a native of Portsmouth, Virginia, born June 12, 1828. His early education was gained in the schools of his native city. He studied medicine at the University of Virginia and after graduation supplemented his college course by service in the hospitals of Philadelphia.

In 1849 he was attracted to California by the gold excitement of that year. Settling in San Francisco, he engaged in practice for about six months, when he accepted the position of ship surgeon on the steamer. Gold Hunter, plying between San Francisco and the Columbia river. In December, 1850, he came to Portland and, being impressed with its future possibilities, decided to locate here permanently.

From the date of his arrival. Dr. Wilson labored most industriously in his profession, built up a large practice in Portland and gained as well an enviable reputation throughout the state and the northwest. He was the first physician of distinguished ability and education to settle in and grow up with the city.

Personally he was a fine type of the cultured southern gentleman. He was for many years looked upon as the dean of the medical fraternity and was a potent factor in the social and civic life of early Portland. His activities covered a period of thirty-seven consecutive years with the exception of three years, which he spent in an extended tour of travel and research in Great Britain and Europe.

Dr. Wilson married in 1854, Miss Caroline E. Couch, the eldest daughter of Captain John H. Couch, and they became the parents of seven children, three sons and four daughters : Dr. Holt C. and Dr. George F., prominent Portland physicians, Mary Carrie, wife of Walter J. Burns; Virginia; Clementine; Maria Louise ; and Robert Bruce.

Dr. Wilson died August 6, 1887. His was the satisfaction of having lived to see Portland grow from the struggling frontier village as he found it to a prosperous and beautiful modern city and to feel a just pride in having contributed in no small degree to its transformation. The loss of few of the city's pioneers has been more acutely felt or more sincerely regretted.

Major Alfred F. Sears

To a great majority business activity indicates the concentration of effort in a single place. The profession to which Major Alfred F. Sears turned his attention, however, called him to various sections not only of the United States but also of Mexico and various South American countries. As a civil engineer his labors were of inestimable value in promoting railway and business projects that have been of the utmost worth in developing the different sections in which he has labored. He has come to an honored old age, for he has traveled life's journey for eighty-four years - years in which mental development has been a continuous force in his life, the precious prize of keen intellect remaining his to the present day. Advanced scientific attainments have gained him prominence in his chosen field of labor, and with a mind receptive and retentive, he has also gleaned in his travels knowledge of far-reaching purport and interest concerning the lands he has visited and the peoples among whom he has lived. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, November lO, 1826, and is descended from Pilgrim Revolutionary stock. His great-grandfather, Zachariah Sears, of Yarmouth, Cape Cod, was a lieutenant of militia in 1776, although then seventytwo years of age. His grandfather, Joseph Henry Sears, when but fourteen years of age, joined the regiment commanded by Colonel Nat Freeman, of Yarmouth, and served with the American troops in Rhode Island. His father, Zebina Sears, inherited the family passion for liberty and in 1816 commanded the brigantine Neptune, a cruiser in the service of the states of La Plata, then engaged in their war for independence from Spain. He made three successful voyages between New Orleans and Buenos Aires with men, arms and ammunition for the patriots, but was finally captured by a Spanish frigate whicTi he fought until his own ship was sunk. He was taken to Spain for trial and sent for life to the penal colony of Melilla, on the coast of Morocco, from which he at length made his escape by aid of brother Masons, and eventually reached Boston.

Major Alfred F. Sears, the fourth in a family of seven children, pursued his education in the public schools of his native city, where he won a FrankHn medal for scholarship on graduation from the Winthrop school in 1841. He then entered the English High school and was graduated with the class of 1844. The following year was spent in a mercantile counting house, and another year in an architect's office, but preferring outdoor life he took up civil engineering, for which he was well adapted. He had pursued a special course in mathematics from Master Sherwin, of the high school, and this proved a good foundation for further preparation for his chosen profession.

On the 8th of June, 1846, he, entered upon active business connection with the profession at the Boston water-works', iirfder the distinguished civil engineer, E. S. Chesbrogh. He was afterward connected with the Cheshire Railroad of New Hampshire and subsequently became resident engineer of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, under the late Benjamin H. Latrobe.

At the outbreak of the Civil war Major Sears was acting as surveyor of Newark, New Jersey. He resigned in June of that year to raise a company which was afterward enrolled as Company E, First New York Volunteer Engineers, and in October was sent to Hilton Head, in the expeditionary corps for the capture of Forts Beauregard and Walker. After about a year Captain Sears was stationed with his company at Hilton Head in hard service and also in the initial work of investing Fort Pulaski. In that connection he located and built the battery in the rear of Pulaski on Jones island in the Savannah river, known as Fort Vulcan, thereby cutting off all communication by steamer between >the fort and the city of Savannah. He also destroyed three-quarters of a mile of telegraph line between these points. He was next sent to Florida on important service and following his return rejoined his company. After the battle of James island on the i6th of June, 1862, he was ordered to Fort Clinch, Florida, to prepare the fort for defense against land attacks. Shortly afterward he came north to confer with General Totten, the chief engineer of the army, and during the visit, in October, 1862, through special dispensation of the grand lodge he was made a Mason in Kane Lodge of New York city. A week later he returned to Florida where he remained until December, 1865 - six months after the musterout of his regiment - when he returned to Newark, New Jersey, having in the meantime been promoted to the rank of major. He was the only volunteer officer of engineers who was permitted to report directly to the chief engineer of the army at Washington.

Following his return to the north, Major Sears was employed as assistant engineer of the Newark (New Jersey) water works, being engaged chiefly in building the Belleville reservoir. Shortly afterward he was elected chief engineer of the Newark & New York Railroad, located that line and also de- signed and located the first elevated railroad in the United States, passing over the New Jersey Railroad and to the city limits, over twenty blocks. When that road passed into the hands of the New York Central Railroad he was superceded by the chief engineer of that line. Many of the positions to which he has been called in later years have come to him by reason of his power as a linguist, for he is versed in Italian, Portuguese, French and Spanish. He was engaged by an American company to visit Costa Rica where he made preliminary surveys across the continent from the Gulf of Nicoya to Puerto Limon on the Carribean sea, and on his return to the United States was selected as the chief engineer of a railroad in Central New York which he left in 1869 to take charge of the Atlantic division of the Costa Rica Railroad from Puerto Limon to the division line between the oceans. In the following year the Costa Rican government became bankrupt and Major Sears was invited by the late Henry Meiggs, railway king of South America, to visit Peru where he made a contract with the Peruvian government by which he entered the national corps of engineers of which he was a member until 1879. He lived in Peru for seven years, during which period he was appointed inspector of railroads for the government in the north of the republic. He was also chief engineer of the irrigation commission for devising a system of water works and sewerage for the cities of Callao, Paita and Piura. Finally he became chief engineer of the Chimbote, Huaraz and Reouay Railroad, where he remained until the war with Chili had bankrupted Peru.

As his son had settled in Portland, Major Sears, came to Oregon in 1879. Upon his arrival here he was appointed umpire engineer of the Oregonian railway which was then being constructed for a Scotch company of Dundee. Because of his familiarity with the Spanish language, however, he was soon invited to Mexico to become assistant general manager of the Mexican Central Railroad Company, from which position he was called a year later by the Mexican government to take charge as general manager of the Tehuantepec Interoceanic Railway. After three months' work, finding the government bankrupt and having received only one month's pay, he became disgusted and returned to Portland, where he has since resided, although frequently visiting the east, Europe and South America.

On again taking up his abode in Portland Major Sears began the practice of his profession here and also soon became a prolific periodical writer and lecturer, appearing several times before the University of the City of New York, the American National Geographical Association of New York, the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences and the Long Island Historical Society, while on many occasions he has delivered lectures and addresses in Portland. In 1 88 1 he lectured in Portland on the Iron and Railroads of the World, giving an account of an iron street-car he had built in New York in 1856 for the Sixth avenue line and a sixty-passenger car for a New Jersey line to Hackensack, and he said at that time that iron street passenger cars had been in successful use on English roads in India and "they will be in use eventually the world over."

In 1 88 1 he presented to the people of Portland, in the columns of the Oregonian, The Law of Commercial Geography, which has since created discussions in the commercial and scientific worlds, and has been presented in lectures and papers to the geographical societies of the country and the American Society of Civil Engineers, exciting antagonism until it has become accepted as immutable law in the world's economy, namely : It being understood that commerce does not consist in shipping freight from a port, but is simply tlie exchange of a country's productions for the supplies of the producer, "the commercial metropolis of a region will be that point nearest the producer which can be reached by a deep sea ship,"

The City Of Portland 21

On the 4th of November, 1900, he published in the Oregonian a letter drawn out by the visit of Mr. Mellen, president of the Northern Pacific Railroad, in which he delivered himself on notions antagonizing his position; the letter concluded with this prophecy: "The Northern Pacific Railroad will be forced into Portland by the most direct route possible. This is simply its helpless fate, on which Portland may sleep. The law of commerce, as I have stated it, is the inexorable, immutable law without exception in the world's economy." In a communication published in the Oregonian on the 12th of May, 1883, he suggested to the port of Portland board as follows : "I can think of no port so analogous in conditions to Portland as that of Glasgow, Scotland." After stating the conditions the letter continued: "If our river is to be kept open it must be done by a board like the Clyde trust, working in the interest of Portland and with her money." Shortly after this he was called to Mexico, but Ellis G. Hughes, who was associated in the Oregonian Railroad Company as attorney, of which Mr. Sears was engineer, took up the matter, visited the legislature and secured the charter for the present organization. This was the origin of the port of Portland commissioners.

In 1889 Major Sears, while engaged as chief engineer of the first electric railway built in the northwest, was urged by the people of Peru to return to the region where he had made irrigation surveys and plans, a very promising concession being made him. He was also called by capitalists to England where a syndicate for the work was formed, but the plans were upset by the failure of the house of Barring Brothers, due to the repudiation by Argentina of her bonds held in England. He then recovered his concession from the English company and tried to organize a company in New York. He had just succeeded when, in August, 1894, the revolution broke out in Peru and the project was abandoned. At the request of eastern capitalists he again secured the concession in 1898 for a party who agreed to put up the necessary guarantee bond but who failed of execution. In the meantime he had expended all of his means in his devotion to an idea, suffering heavy losses in his confidence in unworthy men. He has since lived a retired life in Portland except for some activity in civic affairs.

On the 29th of January, 1850, Mr. Sears was married to Miss Augusta Bassett, the youngest daughter of Paschall Bassett, of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, and descended on both sides from Puritan ancestry. Her mother traced her ancestry directly to Mary Chilton, who was the first woman to land from the Mayflower. Unto Major Sears and his wife were born three children, of whom one reached maturity, Alfred F., Jr., who became a prominent lawyer and was on the bench in Oregon when he died, in 1907.

Major Sears is an honored member of various societies. He belongs to the Sons of the American Revolution, the Loyal Legion, the Grand Army of the Republic, the American Society of Civil Engineers, the National Association of Civil Engineers of Peru and is a corresponding member of the Geographical Society of Lima, Peru.

One who knows Major Sears well has written of him: "He is essentially a polite man, a gentleman in all that the term implies. The real gentleman must possess a kindly nature, a heart bent upon goodness. The manners of Major Sears would adorn any station. I have seen him when general manager of a railroad go the entire length of a railway car to assist a poor Indian peasant woman in raising a car window with which she was struggling. This illustrates the quality of his nature. He is void of selfishness and has in an unusual degree the quality of thoughtfulness for others. He is inclined to diffidence and has been accused of supersensitiveness, yet is not slow to strenuously resist what he deems encroachment upon his rights or those of others in whom he is interested. One of his strongly marked qualities is his ability to win the confi- dence and the admiration of the humbler classes of both men and women, this frequently taking the form of an expression of admiration for intellectual predominance.

"Passing to a consideration of intellectual qualities, it may be said that Major Sears is especially developed on the side of perception. Had he held office in a parliamentary body he would have been distinguished, nay almost invincible in debate. He has cultivated an exceptionally pure rhetorical style, unique and forceful, rarely surpassed in beauty by men whose life is not devoted to literature. He has been throughout his life a student, more in the lines of science, sociology, philosophy and some branches of politics than in other fields of learning. His temperament is essentially radical, or more correctly, non-conservative. As might be deduced from the few traits delineated above, he has the very structure of the reformer and the philanthropist. The term philanthropist is used here with full appreciation of its meaning. He has been such in both theory and action. If the evidences of his work are not more numerous it is because of the conflicting demands of an exacting and laborious profession and business life which have prevented a constant abiding in one community. He may be said, in truth, through life to have loved his brother man."

William P. Jones

There is a fascination in the story of those who crossed the plains long before the building of railroads, when Omaha and Kansas City practically represented the outposts of civilization, beyond which there were vast stretches of plain and desert and the high mountain ranges of the Rockies. The story is one of hardships, endurance and courage. William P. Jones was among the number who made the long trip from the Mississippi valley to California by wagon in 1850. He was born in North Wales in 1822, his parents being John and Margaret Jones. The father was a carpenter and came to America with his family when the son was but a young lad. They located in New York state in 1832 and later removed to Illinois, while subsequently the family home was established in Iowa, where the parents died, the father in 1855 ^"d the mother in 1854.

William P. Jones was nine years of age when he made the voyage across the Atlantic. His education was largely acquired in the schools of Joliet, Illinois, and he afterward learned the carpenter's trade, working with his father and also farming. His father owned a farm in Des Moines county, Iowa, and William P. Jones aided in its cultivation while engaged in carpenter work. He was married on the 14th of September, 1846, near Burlington, Iowa, to Miss Elizabeth Evans, a daughter of Thomas T. and Mary Evans. She was born in the southern part of Wales, August 2, 1827, and in 1832 was brought to America by her parents, who located first at Utica, New York, and three years later removed to Portage county, Ohio, where Mrs. Jones attended school and resided until she reached young womanhood. Her father was a weaver by trade. He removed from Ohio, to Iowa, and both he and his wife died in Des Moines of cholera in 1845.

Following their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Jones resided in Iowa until 1850, when, attracted by the discovery of gold on the Pacific coast, he started for California on the 9th of April, there being five men, two women and two children in the party, with one wagon having four yoke of oxen and another wagon with two horses and mules. The difficulties and hardships which they experienced were those which display endurance, strength and courage. The frost was just out of the ground so that the prairie mud was very deep and the wagons frequently became stalled. They found, too, that parties ahead of them had bought up everything in the way of feed and one place where they got a little corn they had to pay three dollars per bushel for it. When a month had passed they found themselves on the western border of Iowa, reaching Council Bluffs May 13. There they found many selling their outfits and returning home, while others were trading their horses for oxen, or oxen for horses. The little Iowa party joined a train of five wagons from Lewis county, Missouri, and on the 14th of May crossed the river. Two days later it camped within two miles of a Sioux Indian city and soon the chief and six warriors paid a friendly visit. They were given supper and a tent to sleep in and in the morning it was found that the warriors had disappeared with their blankets and other things. On the 19th of May they encountered storms so severe that they could not put up their tents. On the following day a storm forced them to break camp and take their wagons to higher ground. All along the way they found it difficult to obtain provisions but on the 26th of May one of the party killed a buffalo and the camp was thus supplied with meat. From that time forward for a month or more they had plenty of buffalo and antelope meat, for those animals were to be found in large herds on the open plains. The journey was not without its amusing incidents. The company had much merriment over a visit of a Sioux to their camp. The warriors looked with admiration at one of the white men who was six feet, seven inches in height. They offered several buffalo robes and several pairs of moccasins for him and offered him three ponies and two squaws if he would live with them and swear allegiance to the Sioux nation. It was a long time before his party ceased to joke him over the trade. In June they had a few days' travel where grass and water were plenty and the road was good but when they reached the north fork of the Platte they had to make a boat by lashing two wagons together that they might make their way across and practically an entire day was thus lost. As they reached the Black Hills of Wyoming the road became crooked and hilly and one place they had to let the wagons down with ropes. They found that the Mormons had ferries on all the rivers and charged exorbitant prices for ferrying the emigrants over. In fact they felled trees on what was the right road and put up posters indicating "good road and good ferry," in another direction so as to make the emigrants pay for being ferried over. As the company proceeded westward they would sometimes leave a wagon in order to save their teams and as a general thing would burn these wagons so the Mormons could not be benefited by them. At length they found themselves in the alkali country and it was almost impossible after traveling all day in the hot sand to keep the cattle from drinking out of the alkali pools. The consequences were that they died by the score. Then, too, the alkali seemed to make the oxen's feet tender. After leaving the alkali country they traveled for one hundred and fifty miles along the Sweet Water, a branch of the Platte and had to cross and recross the stream several times. As they neared the South Pass of the Rocky mountains the road became very rough and sometimes on a mountain spur the snow would be ten feet deep, while down in the valley it would be very hot. Sudden storms came up, too, sometimes three or four in a day. On the 28th of June they reached the summit or South Pass - a gap in the mountains about eighteen feet wide. There the Mormons had posted a placard saying that they would take all letters east at twenty-five cents per letter. It is probable, however, they destroyed all mail, at least Mr. Jones' letter never reached its destination. Crossing the summit, the party started for the head waters of the Humboldt river across one hundred and seventy-five miles of alkali desert. When it was possible they would carry a little grass and water for the stock. The roads were rough, cattle gave out, companies separated and everything was left behind except provisions, that the people might hasten on their journey. On the 3d of July the party with which Mr. Jones traveled crossed the Green river, paying a toll of seven dollars per wagon. Several men in the train became ill miles of desert brought them to the head waters of the Humboldt, which they followed for two hundred miles, the little creek broadening out into a wide river and then again getting smaller and smaller until it finally disappeared in the sandy desert called the "sink of the Humboldt river." Here, however, was plenty of water and grass for the animals and after two days' rest there the party started on another stretch of seventy-five miles of alkali desert. Their greatest difficulty was to take water along. As Mr. Jones had no water keg he tied the wristbands of his rubber coat sleeves, filled the garment with water, carrying two bucketsful. On that part of the trip the party became lost, wandering from the right road. They had only provisions enough to last four days. After traveling thirty hours they came across the desert, and the next day met a solitary Indian who told them by signs that it was eight days' journey to the gold mines. They had only two days' provisions and were in the heavily timbered country of the Sierra Nevadas. There was no game to be had and the country was full of the Snake Indians. The outlook was discouraging but they pushed on and on the 25th of August found they had provisions for only a supper and breakfast left. The next morning when they were eating their last meal a solitary Norwegian came to them begging for a spoonful of flour to make soup with the tripe of a dead ox. He, too, had started on the wrong trail of the desert. He said that two men with oxen had passed him the day before. This unexpected news brought courage and the party hastened on, overtaking the men late in the afternoon. Stating their condition, Mr. Jones and his party said that they must have an ox for food, that they would give a horse or seventyfive dollars for it and would help the men along their way. After demurring, they accepted the money and the ox was soon cut up in thin strips and hung on poles around a big fire for the meat to dry. They also cooked portions of it and visited until midnight. The remainder of the animal served as food during the succeeding four days, when they traveled over rough country in the Sierras at an elevation of seven thousand feet. Again their food was almost gone and the situation looked serious but on the ist of September they met two traders with flour coming out to meet the emigrants. They paid a dollar per pound for flour and they secured another meal. The next day they arrived at the mines after traveling from the 9th of April until the 23d of September.

Mr. Jones at once began work in the mines, sleeping the first night under a large oak tree. For seventeen years thereafter he followed mining, always in California, He was also engaged in the lumber and sawmill business in Nevada county, California, for about seven years and in 1869 came to Portland, arriving in this city on the 22d of October. The removal was made that he might give his children better educational advantages, and he also had a brother, Joseph F., who was and is still a resident of Portland. Mrs. Jones, when her husband left for California, remained in Iowa but in 1853 joined him on the coast. Removing to Portland, they established their home at the corner of Sixth and Columbia streets, there remaining until 1891, when Mr. Jones erected the fine residence at the corner of Hawthorne and Glenn streets, where his widow now resides.

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Jones were born seven children: Anna V., who died at the age of ten years ; Joseph, who died in childhood ; William H. ; Josephine, who died in childhood ; Jennie E., who was a capable teacher in the Portland schools but died in 1892, at the age of thirty-three years; Benjamin T., of Seattle, who married Mrs. Peet; and Thomas L., who is engaged in the insurance business in Portland.

After coming to Portland Mr. Jones was for a long period in public office, serving as road supervisor and tax collector until his death, which occurred April 5, 1895, when he had reached the age of seventy-two years, eleven months and twenty-three days. In politics he was a stalwart republican, active in the ranks of the party and doing all in his power to promote its success. He held mem- bership in the Masonic lodge and in the First Congregational church - relations which indicate the nature of his interests and the principles which governed his conduct. His was indeed an honorable, upright life, and his many sterling traits of character won him high regard and lasting friendships.

Samuel E. Stearns

We are apt to think mainly of the representatives of trade, commercial and professional interests as the builders of the state, together with those who frame the laws, and yet largely underlying the labors in all those lines is the motive force of the recognition of moral and religious obligations. And while less tangible, the work of those who have been teachers in the latter field is of inestimable value to the race and to the country. It was largely in the branch of home missionary service that Samuel E. Stearns labored and his influence -was far-reaching and beneficial. He was born in Vermont, in 1813. He married Susan T. Whitaker, who is numbered among Oregon's pioneer women of 1853, in which year she came by the ox team route across the country from Rockford, Illinois, traveling for six months and five days. She was born in 1826 and is a daughter of Judge Israel and Lucinda (Schaler) Whitaker, the latter a daughter of Major Schaler, an officer of the American army in the Revolutionary war. Mrs. Stearns was born in Clermont county, Ohio, and spent her girlhood days at home with her parents until the 12th of November, 1844, when she gave her hand in marriage to Samuel E. Stearns. They began their domestic life in Ohio, where they remained for about nine years. Mr. Stearns was a school teacher and Baptist minister and was thus identified with the intellectual and moral progress of the community in which he lived. About 1852, however, he decided to come to Oregon and the following year started on the long and arduous journey across prairie, desert, mountain and stream for the Pacific coast. He brought with him his wife and two children, Louisa and Edwin Avery, and was also accompanied by his father, his two brothers, David and Avery P., and his sisters, (Mrs. Valina Williams and Mrs. Charlotte Emily Pengra and their families. It was in 1852 that Mr. and Mrs. Stearns left Ohio, journeying as far as Rockford, Illinois, where his brothers and sisters lived and from that point they all started for the northwest. The only members of the party at the outset were the relatives previously mentioned and those whom they hired to help them on the journey. They traveled as far as Laramie, Wyoming on the Platte river and by this time the Indians were proving so troublesome that they joined other emigrants for protection, thus forming a considerable train. They came on to the coast by the Yreka route through the Klamath country, Captain Hannibal acting as escort.

On reaching southern Oregon Mr. Stearns and his family settled in the Rogue river valley, where he took up a donation claim of three hundred and twenty acres that includes the present site of the town of Medford. They remained upon that place for about four years, at the end of which time Mr. Stearns entered actively upon the work of a traveling missionary and so continued until his death, which occurred in Idaho on the 29th of December, 1891. His life work was a potent element in the moral development of the community. He was an earnest and eloquent speaker and the permeating truth of his utterances proved an influencing force in the lives of many with whom he came in contact. In his family were nine children, six of whom are living, while one died in infancy and Edwin, a machinist, died in 1904, at the age of fifty-two years. He was port engineer for the Northern Navigation Company. The living members of the family are: Louisa, the wife of Charles A. Stewart, of Clon, Oregon, who is living retired ; Anna M., who is the widow of J. Frank Niles and is living in Walla Walla, Washington; Joseph O., an attorney of Portland ; David S., who is engaged in the real-estate business in Portland ; Gustavus

M., who is a twin brother of David and is mining in Yukon ; and Andi'ew J., who is engaged in the printing business in Dakota. Following the death of her first husband Mrs. Stearns gave her hand in marriage to Jacob McDuffee and they are now pleasantly located in an attractive home in Portland.

Jacob McDufifee was born in Rochester, New Hampshire, June 30, 1822, a son of James and Hannah (Ham) McDuffee, who were also natives of the old Granite state. The family was founded in America during an early epoch in the colonization of the new world and the great-grandfather of Jacob McDuffee took up land in New Hampshire which is still in possession of the family. The McDuffees are noted for longevity. James McDuffee passed av/ay at the age of seventy-two years and was the youngest of his father's household at the time of his death. He had a sister who lived to the very advanced age of ninetynine years.

The youthful days of Jacob McDuffee were spent under the parental roof. He acquired his education in the schools of New Hampshire and there learned the trade of a builder. He was twenty-four years of age when his parents removed to Massachusetts and from that time until he came to Oregon in 1896 he retained his residence in the old Bay state. He began taking contracts when but nineteen years of age and after removing to Massachusetts carried on a contracting business in Boston for a number of years, during which period he erected many schoolhouses, churches and other prominent buildings of the city.

In 1844 ^^^- McDuffee was united in marriage to Miss Martha B. Hopkinson, a daughter of Moses Hopkinson, of Gorham, Massachusetts, and they became the parents of seven children, of whom six are yet living, namely : C. S., now a traveling salesman living in Portland; William O., a contractor and builder of Boston, Massachusetts; Everett H., a salesman of Minneapolis, Minnesota; Qara, the wife of W. P. Lang, of Tilton, New Hampshire; Ella A., the wife of James M. Hayes, of Dover, New Hampshire ; and Cora B., the wife of G. W. Beach, of Minneapolis, Minnesota. One son, J. Frank, died in 1867, when but thirteen years of age. The wife and mother of these children departed this life in 1891.

Mr. McDuffee continued his residence in New England until 1896, when he came to Oregon, where he has since made his home. Here he engaged in contracting to some degree but not extensively and about two years ago retired, since which time he has enjoyed a rest to which his former labors well entitle him. His political views have long been in accord with the principles of the republican party and to it he has given stalwart support but has never sought or desired office. The nature of his interests and his principles are indicated in the fact that he is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Sons of Temperance and the Methodist church. His life has indeed been an honorable and upright one and his sterling worth commends him to the confidence and good will of all who know him.

William C. Holman

A member of the Holman family needs no introduction to Portland's citizens, for the family has long been a prominent and honored one in this city since Captain Charles Holman became identified with the pioneer development of this section of the state. Both he and his wife, who bore the maiden name of Mary E. Huntington, are now deceased. Extended mention, however, is made of them on another page of this volume. William C. Holman was born December 28, 1870, in Portland, where he was reared and in the early period of his manhood was for several years engaged in the implement business at the corner of

The City Of Portland 29

Front and Salmon streets. On withdrawing from that held of endeavor he became interested in the Portland Artificial Ice & Cold Storage Company, of which he is now the president and manager. This is the pioneer industry of the kind established in Portland and the second oldest artificial ice plant in America. He has been president and manager since 1906 and under his capable direction an extensive business is carried on along substantial lines. His fellow officers are Dr. A. S. Nichols, vice president, and W. E. Harris, secretary ; and the officers, together with O. M. Rankin and W. H. Harris, constitute the board of directors. The ice plant occupies two large buildings, one at the corner of Eighteenth and Thurman streets and the other at the corner of Eighteenth and Upsher streets. The plant is thoroughly equipped and the product is unexcelled for purity and excellence. The artificial ice industry is one of almost incalculable value to districts where climatic conditions preclude the possibility of securing natural ice. A liberal patronage is now accorded the company in Portland and the business is managed along progressive lines and in keeping with the strictest commercial ethics.

Arthur Andrews

Arthur Andrews is a retired farmer and stockman now living in Portland. He dates his residence in Oregon from 1864, the limitless possibilities of the west attracting him from his home east of the Mississippi. He was born in Ashtabula county, Ohio, on the 9th of November, 1837, his parents being Ebenezer and Jemima (Kelsey) Andrews, who were early settlers of that county, to which they removed from the state of New York. The father was a carpenter and millwright and continued his residence in Ohio until his death. The mother afterward came to Oregon in 1884 and spent her last years in this state.

Arthur Andrews was a pupil in the district schools of his native county and afterward of the Grand River Institute at Austinburg, Ohio. When his education was completed he turned his attention to farming, working as a farm hand by the month for two years, and then purchased land in Ashtabula county upon which he resided for three years. He sold his property in the Buckeye state preparatory to removing to Oregon, the trip to the northwest being made by the water route from New York and across the isthmus of Panama, thence up the Pacific coast. His brother, Harrison, who started with him to the northwest, died at sea and was buried in the Pacific. It required about six weeks to make the trip. He located at first at Brownsville, in Linn county, Oregon, v/here he worked for a time in the woolen mills, after which he removed to Polk county and bought an interest in the stock business in connection with Judge Boise. There he remained for four years, after which he returned to Linn county, where he purchased land, making his home thereon for some time. Afterward he disposed of that property and bought a ranch in Yamhill county, upon which he lived for fifteen years. On selling out there he went to Morrow county, where he purchased and also entered land, adding continuously to his possessions until at one time he owned three thousand acres. He has since sold a portion of this but still retains possession of twenty-one hundred and sixty acres. While on the ranch he made a specialty of sheep-raising. He was extensively engaged in farming and stock-raising there until 1909, when he retired from active life and removed to Portland, where he is now enjoying the fruits of his former toil in well earned repose. While living in Morrow county he served as sheriff, having been elected to that office on the republican ticket.

On the 1st of February, 1859, Mr. Andrews was married in Ashtabula county, Ohio, to Miss Elizabeth Gaut, a daughter of John and Hannah Susan (Moore) Gaut, of that county. Unto them have been born eight children: Carleton, who died at the age of sixteen months ; Eben H., who wedded Mary Kin- gery and is living in Morrow county ; Mary A., of Portland ; W. A., a resident of Albany, Oregon ; O. J., who married Rosie Height and died at the age of twenty-five years ; O. S., of Portland, who married Anna Armstrong and has five children - Eva, Loree, Arthur, Edward and Helen; Edith A., the wife of I. L. Howard, of Morrow county, who has two children, Edna A. and James A. ; Lillian P., the wife of L. L. Putnam, of Portland, and the mother of three children - Eldred, Frances A. and Edith E.

Mr. Andrews is a member of the Masonic fraternity, being connected with the blue lodge at McMinnville, Oregon, and to the Royal Arch Chapter at Heppner, while both he and his wife are members of the Eastern Star. In religious faith Mrs. Andrews is a Methodist. Mr. Andrews is numbered among the early settlers of Oregon and for forty-five consecutive years has been a reader of the Oregonian. He has been widely interested in the development and welfare of this part of the state and his influence has always been found on the side of progress. Moreover his record proves the excellent business opportunities that are offered in the northwest, for he came to Oregon with but limited capital and by judicious investment and capable business ability became one. of the most extensive farmers and stock-raisers of this section. His holdings are yet large and return to him a splendid annual income, enabling him to enjoy the rest to which his former labor justly entitles him.

Maurice B. Wakeman

Few men on the Pacific coast can look back on a more varied career than the one whose name introduces this review. A "Yankee" boy, he early came into live contact with the world and his experiences need no artistic coloring to give them interest. About every honorable occupation has, at one time or another, occupied his attention, and it was not until the tempest-tossed vessel anchored in the peaceful harbor of Portland that the skies cleared and a final haven was reached.

Maurice B. Wakeman was born at Green's Farms, Fairfield county, Connecticut, February 21, 1845, a son of Henry B. and Esther N. (Jennings) Wakeman. His father, who was a farmer, lived and died in Connecticut. The son spent his boyhood on the farm and was educated in the country school, later teaching in winter and farming in summer. The spirit of adventure in the New England lad was fanned almost into a fiame by the Civil war, but he was too young to enter the service and it did not find expression until he reached the age of twenty-one.

Then the monotonous farm life of New England became no longer bearable and one day he bade farewell to old scenes and started toward the Pacific coast. Arriving in California, he took up farming on a tract of six hundred and forty acres in the region south of Sacramento. There he remained two years, both of which were dry, and at the end of the second season he found himself entirely without funds. San Francisco was now his objective point. After several months of great uncertainty he was put to work taking the school census. Having slightly recouped his finances, he returned to the valley near Sacramento and there worked as teamster and in a lumber yard. Again he visited San Francisco and again the school census furnished employment. His next experience was in the mines at Eureka, Nevada, where he was soon advanced to the position of superintendent, remaining there one and a half years. After a short experience in the quicksilver mines of California, he for the first time experienced the pangs of homesickness and once more he gathered with the family circle in Connecticut. But the scene was changed. The farms were smaller, the houses did not appear so large and the proportion on all sides had shrunken. The great world had widened his vision and he soon learned that he needed a broader land- scape. However, he was identified for a short time with a fruit commission firm in New York city and was thinking seriously of going into partnership with his employer when the latter went insane. A Colorado sheep ranch next occupied his attention. The ranch was on the great plains thirty-five miles from Denver, and here fortune began to smile. He continued in the business for eight years, and at one time owned nineteen sheep ranches and was on the high road to prosperity, but on account of continued cold weather and snow hundreds of sheep died of thirst and starvation and the ranchman was glad to close out his diminished herd and go into the mountains as a prospector.

In 1881 Mr. Wakeman arrived at Portland. Here he began as clerk for the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company, continuing for six months, when he was placed in charge of the commissary department which supplied food for fifteen hundred men who were employed in the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad. After retiring from that position he became identified with the Oregon Transfer Company at Portland as clerk and continued with the company fifteen years, the last eight years acting as superintendent. Associating with A. P. Morse, he organized the Wakeman & Morse Transfer Company, with headquarters at Portland, the first barns being the old street car barns at Hoyt and Glisan streets. These bams being destroyed by fire, the Oregon Transfer barns were used until a large brick stable was erected at the corner of Twelfth and Everett streets. In 1906 the business was disposed of to the Oregon Auto Despatch Company. Mr. Wakeman is now secretary of the Western Lime & Plaster Company with offices in the Chamber of Commerce building.

Mr. Wakeman was married while in Colorado to Miss Emma J. Adams, a native of Westport, Connecticut, who was a woman of unusual business ability and a true friend of mankind. She was for twenty years superintendent of the Good Samaritan Hospital, where she accomplished a noble work for suffering humanity. Her earthly career ended in April, 1907.

Mr. Wakeman is a Scottish Rite Mason and has attained the thirty-second degree in the order. He is also a member of the Shrine. He has passed through experiences during a checkered career which would have daunted a less fearles man, but he has been upheld through many vicissitudes by faith in himself and in a power that rules for the best, even when the skies seem most overcast. It is the indomitable spirit of New England, and wherever it is found there is also to be found patience, fortitude and an unconquerable sense of ultimate victory. He is a member of Trinity Episcopal church and for a time served as vestryman. In politics he has been a lifelong republican and socially is a member of the Commercial Club. Motoring and travel constitute his chief sources of recreation and he finds great pleasure in flowers, being an enthusiastic rose grower and largely responsible for the ornamentation of the grounds of the Good Samaritan Hospital. His home address is No. 770 Northrup street.

Charles Hegele

Charles Hegele is now numbered among Portland's capitalists and retired business men. Taking up his permanent abode in this city in 1868, he was long closely associated with its commercial interests and, with a nature that could not be content with mediocrity, he has overcome all difficulties and obstacles and reached a position among the most successful business men of this locality, notwithstanding the fact that he started in life on coming to America in a most humble capacity. A native of the kingdom of Wurtemberg, Germany, he was born November 8, 1835, of the marriage of Christoph Frederick and Francisca Hegele. His mother died in his infancy. His father, who engaged in school teaching until his later years, passed away in Germany at the age of eighty-one.

Charles Hegele was reared in his native land and, in accordance with the educational laws of that country, attended school until fourteen years of age, when he was apprenticed to the mercantile business, serving for a term of four years. It was evident that union labor laws were not then in force, for he worked from six o'clock in the morning until ten o'clock at night and not only received no pay for his services but had to give to his employer compensation for the instruction which he received in business methods. His apprenticeship concluded, he accepted a position as a clerk in Germany at a salary of eighty florins per year, but the ambitious nature of the young man could not be content with such a condition and he resolved to test the truth of the reports which he heard concerning favorable business opportunities in the new world. At eighteen years of age, therefore, he crossed the Atlantic to Atmerica and for five years was a resident of New York city. He began there by doing general work on a railroad with pick and shovel at a dollar per day but later secured a position in an establishment that made maps, school books, etc., doing work for Harper Brothers. His initiation into western life came in 1859, when he started for California, where he spent the following three years until 1862. While en route to British Columbia, the steamer on which he was a passenger stopped for twenty-four hours in Portland and he spent the day in going over the city, with the prospects of which he was much pleased. He continued on his way to British Columbia, however, and remained in that country until May, 1868, when he returned to Portland and was closely identified with its business interests until 1901.

Gradually he made advancement toward the goal of success, making each effort count for the utmost possible, his diligence being the determining factor in the prosperity which he ultimately attained. He was one of the first to engage in the confectionery business in Portland, becoming a member of the firm of Alisky & Hegele. This partnership was maintained until 1882, when Mr. Hegele retired from the confectionery business and made a visit to his birthplace in Germany, spending four months in the fatherland. He then returned to Portland and purchased the Jackson crockery store, carrying on the trade in that line until 1901. His first location was at the northeast corner of Front and Pine streets but the following year - 1884 - he removed to the Kamm building at the northwest corner of Front and Pine streets, becoming the first tenant. He continued at that location until he sold out to the firm of Prael, Hegele & Company, who are now conducting the business as wholesale dealers in crockery at the corner of Thirteenth and Hoyt streets. His commercial interests by no means comprised the extent of his undertakings. He became one of the stockholders of the St. Charles Hotel, the first brick hotel in Portland, and was one of the first to subscribe to the stock for the Portland Hotel. In fact he became a prominent stockholder in many enterprises for the advancement of Portland while he was in active business. He is still the owner of a large dairy farm of three hundred and sixty-two acres at Scappoose, Columbia county, Oregon, whereon was conducted the first creamery in that county. The business is still continued and supplies butter to Hotel Portland. They make the finest butter in the state, keeping a splendid herd of cows and using every modern facility for the manufacture of the product. At a cost of six thousand dollars they erected on the farm the finest barn in this part of the state. The farm is now operated by a brother, G. A. Hegele. Mr. Hegele of this review owns considerable Portland realty, including the property at Nos. 145 and 147 First street. He also owns a quarter of the block at Fourteenth and Morrison streets and his wise investments have brought him substantial returns.

Mr. Hegele was married in San Francisco, in 1876, to Miss Augusta Hildebrand, who was born in New Jersey but became a resident of San Francisco about 1854-5. Two children have been born unjo them: Dr. Herbert W. Hegele, who is a graduate of Rush Medical College of Chicago and is nov/ practicing in Portland ; and Hilda E.

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Since 1863 Mr. Hegele has been a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and he also belongs to tlie German Aid Society and the Chamber of Commerce. For many years he has been a member of the Multnomah Club. Since 1901 he has given his attention merely to the supervision of his investments., taking no active part in business management. Those who know him accord him rank among the most enlightened, useful and public-spirited citizens of the state - one who in his integrity, broad mindedness .&nd resourcefulnes has met the demands of our splendid western citizenship. He is recognized as a man of personal worth who has shown indefatigable industry and perseverance in the face of obstacles that would have seemed insurmountable to many others. He has ever been actuated by a determination to accomplish what he could toward the attainment of success by honesty and industry alone.

Joseph Polivka

Joseph Polivka, engaged in business under the name of Joseph Polivka & Company, dealers and importers of fine woolens, occupies a suite of rooms, with office at No. 206 Corbett building. He has been a resident of Portland since 1880 and since 1883 has engaged in business on his own account. As the name indicates, he is of Bohemian nativity, his birth having occurred in Bohemia on the 1st of April, 1850. His father, Frank Joseph Polivka, operated a sawmill in that country. The son was reared in his native land to the age of ten years, when, owing to the death of both his parents, he was thrown upon his own resources and has since made his way in the world unaided. Leaving his native country, he went to Vienna, Austria, where for six years he worked as a tailor's apprentice, receiving in compensation his board and clothing. After completing his trade he was employed as a journeyman in some of the principal cities of Europe, remaining in Berlin, Germany, from 1874 until 1880.

Seeking still broader opportunities, which he thought to find in the new world - and in this hope he was not disappointed. Mr. Polivka sailed for America in the spring of 1880, landing at New York, where he remained for three months. On the expiration of that period he came to Portland, and soon secured a position as cutter for Mr. Newmeyer, then a prominent tailor of the city. He continued in the employ of others for three years and in 1883 started in business on his own account. In the intervening period of twenty-seven years he has built up a good business, being now one of the leading tailors of the northwest, making large importations of fine woolens, while the work of the tailoring department is unsurpassed in style as well as in texture. He has indeed the only exclusive tailoring establishment of the city and caters only to the highest class trade. The magnitude of his business at the present time indicates his high standing in his chosen field and his business ability. He has surrounded himself with an able corps of assistants, all thoroughly trained in the work which they perform and the name of Polivka has become a synonym of excellence in the tailoring line in Portland. While he devotes his attention exclusively to the trade he has made extensive investments in stock in many private business concerns and corporations and is recognized as a man of sound judgment, keen discrimination and unfaltering enterprise.

Mr. Polivka was married in this city to Miss Annie Meyer, formerly of Stuttgart, Germany, who is a daughter of George T. and Helen Meyer, of Stuttgart. Her father served for many years as secretary to the Prince of Weimar. Mr. and Mrs, Polivka have two children, Martha Eloise and Gertrude Anton.

Prominent in Masonic circles, Mr. Polivka has attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and has been a member of the Mystic Shrine since first crossing the sands of the desert on the 4th of February, 1899. For eleven years he has served continuously as treasurer of Columbia Lodge, No. 114, A. F. & A. M., and is regarded as one of the most exemplary members of the craft. His life is in harmony with its teachings and its principles and his social prominence as well as his business ability ranks him with the foremost residents of the Rose city.

Louis C. Young

Louis C. Young, .who is engaged in farming and dairying, is numbered among the native sons of Clarke county, Washington, his birth having occurred upon a farm about ten miles east of Vancouver, October 7, 1872. His father was George Henry Young, of Vancouver, who at an early day secured a tract of land and developed a farm upon which he reared his family. The public schools afforded Louis C. Young his educational privileges and his business training was received on the old homestead, where he early became familiar with the best methods of tilling the soil and caring for the crops. He was eight years of age when his parents removed to a farm which the father owned about two miles east of Vancouver, having purchased that place in order to be near the city and thus provide his children with better educational privileges. After mastering the work of the public school Louis C. Young became a student in St. James College, of Vancouver, and in the school of experience he has also learned many valuable and practical lessons.

When seventeen years of age he assumed the management of the old home farm of two hundred and sixty-four acres, and has since conducted this place, of which one hundred and fifty acres are cleared. This tract is devoted largely to the raising of hay and to dairying. In connection with his father he cleared the place and put the improvements upon it, and its excellent appearance indicates an active and well spent life that has brought him substantial returns, for he is now numbered among the prosperous farmers of the community.

William Hughes

William Hughes, a retired stockman of Portland, still, however, the owner of considerable live stock which he pastures in Morrow county, was born in Tipperary, Ireland, on the 25th of August, 1849, a son of William and Mary (Gartie) Hughes. The father was overseer and agent of a gentleman's estate in Ireland and both he and his wife spent their lives in that country. Their family numbered eight children.

William Hughes acquired his early education in the place where he was bom and in Wardford, Ireland, whither his parents removed in his childhood days. When his school days were over he went to sea and in that way visited almost every section of the civilized world. He entered the service as an apprentice and becanre an able seaman. On leaving the sea in 1869 he returned to his home, remaining in Ireland for about a year, after which he started for the Pacific coast, crossing the continent on the Union Pacific Railroad to San Francisco in 1870. He located first in Merced county where he was employed by the month on a ranch for a few years. He subsequently rented land in the same county, and continued its cultivation until 1877. That year witnessed his arrival in Oregon, at which time he took up his abode in that section of Umatilla county which is now Morrow county. The Indians were very numerous at the time and were displaying marked hostility toward the white men, so that some of the settlers left that country. One of these was Sam Donaldson and Mr. Hughes purchased his farm of one hundred and sixty acres. He then took up the business of sheep-raising, in which he has since engaged, carrying on an industry extensive and successful. In 1901 he removed to Portland but still has his sheep interests in Morrow county. To his original farm he added by purchase and entry from time to time until he had over four thousand acres, but has since sold all of his land.

Returning to Ireland in 1880, Mr. Hughes was married there on the 4th of February, of that year, to Miss Kathleen Frances Smith, a daughter of George and Fannie (Lee) Smith, of the Emerald isle. He at once started with his bride for Oregon and during their residence here eight children have come to bless their union, of whom four survive: William G., of Portland; Percy, a farmer of Heppner, who wedded Mabel Ayres, and has two children, Anita and William, Edwin, Isabel and Helena, both at home.

Mr. Hughes belongs to the Masonic lodge at Heppner and he and his family are members of the Episcopal church. His political allegiance is given to the republican party and he was appointed by Governor Pennoyer a member of the state board of equalization. Other than this he has never held office, preferring to concentrate his energies upon his business affairs which he carefully conducted up to the time of his retirement. Now he gives his attention merely to the supervision of his real estate, having made considerable investment in Portland property. His residence in Oregon now covers a third of a century and, widely known, he is also held in high regard.

Cyrus W. Sedgwick

Cyrus W. Sedgwick, a representative of the farming interests of Clarke county, has prospered in his undertaking, although he has twice suffered severe losses by fire. His holdings today embrace property in Vancouver as well as his farm, and his realty is the visible evidence of his life of well directed energy and thrift. He was born in Oneida county. New York, March 10, 1845, ^^^ is a son of Charles S. and Jane (Knowlton) Sedgwipk, the former a native of Massachusetts and the latter of England. The son Cyrus was only four years of age when his parents left the Empire state for Illinois, settling near Chicago, where the father engaged in farming through a period of eighteen years. This brought Cyrus W. Sedgwick to the age of twenty-one years. He then started westward, proceeding as far as Manchester, Iowa, where he remained for three years, and in 1869 resumed his journey toward the setting sun, arriving ultimately in San Francisco. He was there employed by the street car company for five years, and afterward was in the employ of Miller & Lux, cattle men of California, in whose service he remained for about seven years.