THOMAS GUINEAN. – The proprietor of the Esmond Hotel, in Portland, Oregon, and one of the most popular men in his line upon the Pacific slope, was born in the city of Quebec, Canada, in 1838. In the year 1849 he was left an orphan and thrown upon his own responsibilities, and went down to Boston, but within a year left the old Puritan city and journeyed on to New York, where he took passage in the steamer California to San Francisco, arriving at the Golden Gate in the early part of 1852. He remained in San Francisco nearly one year, and from that point engaged in business at Sacramento. In 1855 he sought a new location at Coloma in El Dorado county, and leased the American Hotel at that place, which he ran until 1858. In the same year he returned to Sacramento and opened the Bank Exchange Oyster Saloon and Chop House and the Crescent City Hotel, which he sold out in 1859 and bought property on Second street one hundred to one hundred and sixty feet, and opened the Arcade Hotel, which he ran until 1865, when he tore down the original frame building and erected the present Arcade Hotel, a place which was celebrated in the history of California for nearly nineteen years as the headquarters of the supreme court and bar, and of the leading statesmen of California.
In the year 1881 he arrived in Portland, Oregon, and bought the St. Charles Hotel, which he conducted for two years and a half, when he leased the Esmond Hotel, then newly rebuilt; and under his popular management this has become the only first-class hotel in Portland.
Mr. Guinean is a gentleman of striking appearance, of easy and affable manners, and is known in the business and financial circles as a man of sagacity and very considerable wealth. He is one of the popular figures in the metropolis, and by his comfortable entertainment of travelers and strangers commends his city to the favorable notice of all.