J.B. CONGLE. – Mr. Congle was one of the men of wealth who contributed largely to the early growth and prosperity of our state, and especially of Portland. He was born December 9, 1817, in Chester county, Pennsylvania. In the year 1832 he went to Philadelphia to learn the harness and saddlery trade, and in the spring of 1838 removed to Virginia, thence to Missouri, and in the year 1841 was at Lafayette, Indiana, where he resided ten years thereafter. On May 21, 1844, he was married to Miss Ellen H. Gray, of the place last named. He came as an argonaut to California in 1849, and returned to years later to his home in Indiana. In 1853 he came to Oregon and located at Corvallis, then known as Marysville, and esteemed the head of permanent navigation. Here he lived eight years, and was the first mayor of the city. In 1857 he was elected sheriff of Benton county, but resigned the position after three months. In 1861 he removed to Portland, and made that city his residence until his death. Positions of trust and honor he was frequently called upon to fill, and served the public faithfully. He was elected councilman of the second ward in 1870, and in 1872 was chosen representative to the state legislature from Multnomah county. He became a member of the Masonic order in Indiana, and in 1874-75 was grand master of this order in Oregon, and in 1879-80 was grand high priest.
Mr. Congle’s two daughters, one of whom is the wife of Honorable Richard williams, ex-representative to Congress from Oregon, and the other, Mrs. J.B. Wyatt, are leaders in the best and most refined society in the state. For nearly twenty-five years Mr. Congle was a leading business man of Portland; and his death in 1887 was universally deplored. His funeral was very largely attended, and his multitude of friends brought to his grave their last tokens of respect, expressing their sympathy for Mrs. Congle, who still survives as one of the leading residents of that city.
