GEORGE HERRALL. – This prominent figure in the business circles of the metropolis of the Pacific Northwest, the connections of whose house are co-extensive with the mercantile interests of the whole boundless Pacific coast and western world, and the designation of whose industrial activity is imprinted universally in all our Pacific Northwestern commonwealths, dates the hour of his nativity to the year 1832, and looks back far across the water to the populous state of Baden, a potent political unit in the vast empire of Germany, to the scenes of his birthplace, childhood, youth and early manhood; for it was there that he imbibed the principles of industry, thrift, perseverance, economy and shrewdness for which his countrymen and the people of his vast nationality have from the most remote times been distinguished. There, by the wise counsels of his father, and by the sagacious choices of his own as yet immature but nevertheless penetrating mind, he was thriftily set to learn the trade of brewing and of coopering, thus laying the foundation for the golden reward that was to await him in our metropolis of the Northwest. In 1850 he went to France, working at his trade.
In 1853, leaving the narrow bounds and crowded life of the old world, he crossed the broad ocean to the majestic shores of America, the land for the enterprising, shrewd and noble of every nation. The ship upon which he made the memorable voyage was designated by the suggestive appellation, Yankee Plate, plying then across the brine from Havre to New York. Not satisfied with the Eastern states, but following the admonition of the sun to move west, he pushed out to Illinois, the giant state of the prairie; and, being once in the stream of surging American enterprise, he could not long be confined within the valley of the Mississippi, but was born on to the land of the setting sun, to California, the country whose rivers run with sands of gold. It was in 1854 that he made this adventurous trip; and, within only one more year, he was borne by the irresistible tides of enterprise to the fairer shores of Southern Oregon. There, on Althouse creek, he swung the pick and rocked the “long tom” obtaining by labor in snow-cold streams, and under a burning sun, the yellow metal for which civilized man will often lay down his life. In the fearful time resulting from Indian horrors and atrocities, he fled for safety to Crescent City, and bore a brave part in supplying pack trains for troops from Crescent City to Chetco, Rogue river, Port Orford and Coquille.
In 1862 he came to the busy little city by the Willamette, with the dark-green hills at her back, and the diamond-glittering crown of snowy old Hood in front, who stands as the silent, immovable, everlasting signet of the imperial destiny which awaits the city whose skirts and shoreline trail in the waters of the river that receive the snow-cold springs of the imperial mountain. A career in Idaho was only sufficient to prove that here at Portland, upon the banks of the Willamette near its confluence with the Columbia (down the waters of both of which must flow the wealth of empire, and down the rails of steel set by man along their shores must pour the tides of human industry), would rise the greatest city of the Northwest. here, therefore, Mr. Herrall set his business stake, and entered upon his vast enterprises with such success that he is now at the head of the universally known United States Brewing Company, and a man everywhere held in high esteem.