History

Biography of Charles H. Dodd

In no summary of the forces and agencies which have made the Pacific Northwest within the last two decades take such rapid strides in material greatness, should be omitted the part bourne by the subject of this sketch. For nearly a quarter of a century he has been a conceded power for good in the commercial, intellectual and moral progress of a wide extent of country, and has left in many places and on many things the impress of his individual work. The following sketch of his life belongs very properly to the history of a city where he has … Read more

Biography of James Duval Holman

James Duval Holman was born in August 18, 1814, on his father’s farm in Woodford county, Kentucky. He was of the Holman family so well known in the Southern and Middle States. His mother was a Duval of Hugenot descent, a family of equal position with the Holmans in the south. Of Mr. Holman’s great-grand parents, three came from Virginia and one from North Carolina. His parents were John and Betsy L. Holman, who were married in October, 1810. In 1817 they moved to Tennessee, where they resided for nine years, when they moved to Clay county, Missouri. His mother … Read more

Biography of Henry E. Jones, M. D.

The subject of this brief memoir, was born in Steuben, Oneida county, New York, in 1837, and is the third child in a family of nine children of Hugh W. and Sarah (Smith) Jones. His early life was spent on a farm and during his youth his educational advantages were of the most limited nature. The humble circumstances of his parents, with a large family to provide for, made it impossible to give their children anything but the most meager opportunities for gaining an education. Until after our subject had reached his majority most of his time had been passed … Read more

Biography of Rufus Mallory

Rufus Mallory is of New England ancestry, and descended from a strong and hardy stock, well fitted for the furnishing of such elements as are needed to command success and produce laudable results in the new but rapidly growing country in which his lot was cast and where modern civilization has come with such splendid strides. About 1816 his parents left their home in Connecticut for the West, as New York State was then called, and settled in the town of Coventry in Chenango County, at which place the subject of our sketch, the youngest of a family of nine … Read more

Biography of James Steel

James Steel, banker of Portland, was born in Woodsfield, Monroe county, Ohio, on September 20, 1834, and is a son of William and Elisabeth (Lawrie) Steel. His father was born in Scotland, but came to America when nine years of age, and was engaged in merchandising nearly all of his active life. He was a man of strong character, and every action in business and private life was governed by the most rigid adherence to a lofty conception of right and justice. He was strongly opposed to human slavery, and was very active for more than twenty years prior to … Read more

Biography of William Reid

William Reid, capitalist and banker of Portland, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, November 22, 1841. His ancestors for several generations were residents of Forfarshire, and the town of Dundee. David Reid, his father, was conductor on the first railroad ever operated in Scotland, and for thirty years was prominently identified with the railroad interests of that country. The education of our subject began in his native city at St. Andrew’s Parish School, and was completed at the University of Glasgow in 1865. At the latter institution, after finishing his literary course, he studied for the bar and was admitted in … Read more

Biography of Dr. Kenneth A. J. Mackenzie

Dr. Kenneth A. J. Mackenzie was born in Cumberland House, a Hudson Bay Company post in Manitoba, Canada, Jan. 13, 1859, and is a son of Roderick and Jane Mackenzie. He is of Scotch descent and representative of a well known family of Ross Shire, Scotland, the old families of Langwell and Aldy, earls of Croemartie and Brahan, being a branch of the Mackenzies. Roderick Mackenzie, his father, was for many years Chief Fadtor in the Hudson’s Bay Company service and is now one of its retired officers, living at Melbourne in Eastern township, Canada. He is a man of … Read more

Biography of Harrison B. Oatman

Harrison B. Oatman, of Portland, was born in Courtland county, New York, February 25, 1826. His father, Harvey B. Oatman, died one year after the birth of our subject. One year later he accompanied his mother to Bellevue, Huron county, Ohio, where the family remained ten years and then settled in West Liberty, Ohio. Here they remained four years, after which they removed to Elgin, Illinois, and a few years later to Ogle county, in the same State. The latter place was at this time a new country and here Mr. Oatman commenced life on his own account as a … Read more

Biography of John Brandt

John Brandt was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, July 4, 1828, and is of German descent, his great-grand parents having emigrated from Germany, and settled in Pennsylvania, in the early history of that State. His father, John Brandt, for several years was engaged in the manufacture of rifles for the United States Government at Lancaster, and was a man of great natural mechanical ability. When the first railroad in Pennsylvania, known as the Old State road, running from Philadelphia to Columbia, and now a part of the Pennsylvania railroad system, was completed, the managers secured a locomotive of English manufacture. This … Read more

Biography of George A. Steel

George A. Steel, the present Postmaster of Portland, was born in Stafford, Ohio, April 22, 1846, and is a younger brother of James Steel, whose biography appears elsewhere in this volume. At a period when most boys have only fairly began to lay the foundation for their after career, he was thrown on his own resources. The most limited opportunities were therefore afforded him in youth for acquiring even a practical education. The school of experience and self study have been the chief means of preparing him for the part he was to perform in life’s battles. At the age … Read more

Biography of William Lincoln Dudley

William Lincoln Dudley was born at Yreka, California, June 29, 1864. His father, John Dudley, for several years was engaged in the manufacture of woolen goods at Lowell, Massachusetts. He came to California in 1861, and from that time until 1867 was engaged in mining at Yreka. In 1868 he came to Portland. and has since been Superintendent and Manager of the Portland Gas Company, and held the same position in the Portland Water Works Company, until the property was sold to the City in 1885. The subject of this sketch was educated at the public schools of Portland, graduating … Read more

Biography of Edward James Northrup

Edward James Northrup was born in Albany, New York, July 4th 1834, and was a son of Nelson Northrup, long known as a merchant in old Oregon. He spent several years of his early life in school, but when quite young began his business career as a clerk in a book store in Boston, where he remained until 1852, when he came to Portland. Here he entered the general merchandise store of Northrup & Simonds, of which firm his father was senior member, remaining with them as clerk until 1856, when associating himself with James M. Blossom, he succeeded to … Read more

Biography of Joseph K. Gill

Joseph K. Gill, one of Portland’s well known business men, was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1841, and is the eldest of eleven children of Mark and Amelia Gill. In 1854 he accompanied his parents to America, locating in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he attended the city schools until he had reached the age of eighteen, when he entered Worcester Academy, continuing at this institution but spending most of his time at work to assist in the support of the family, until he had attained his majority. He then entered Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham, a preparatory school, with the idea of … Read more

Biography of Marion Francis Mulkey

Marion Francis Mulkey was born in Johnson county, Missouri, November 14, 1836, and was a son of Johnson Mulkey. At the age of ten years he accompanied his parents across the plains to Oregon. The family settled on a donation claim in Benton county and here amid the scenes of the frontier the boyhood of our subject was passed. From his parents was instilled in him a desire for an education and after a brief experience in the log school house, under the tuition of such men as Senator J. H. Slater and Hon. Philip Ritz, he pursued higher studies … Read more

Biography of William Wallace Spaulding

William Wallace Spaulding was born at Chalmsford, Massachusetts, near the city of Lowell, in 1839. He is of English descent, his ancestors having emigrated from England and settled in Chalmsford several generations ago. His early life was spent at home on a farm, during which period he received a good common school education which was supplemented by one year’s course of instruction at an academy in Mount Vernon, New Hampshire. After leaving school he went to Boston, where for four years he was employed in a butcher shop. He then purchased his employer’s business and conducted it for a year, … Read more

Biography of George B. Markle

Among the young business men of Portland none have exerted a more powerful influence toward advancing the material progress of the city during the past few years than George B. Markle. The various projects he has been largely instrumental in creating and successfully carrying out, have been far reaching in their wholesome effect upon the prosperity of Portland, and justly entitle him to a prominent place in the commercial and financial history of the city. He is a native of Pennsylvania, having been born in Hazleton, Lucerne county, on the 7th of October, 1857. Until the age of twelve he … Read more

Biography of Parker Farnsworth Morey

Parker Farnsworth Morey, without great wealth, is one of the most successful men of Portland. As an organizer and conductor of successful enterprises he has no superior in this busy city. A man of untiring energy he possesses the patience to attend to the smallest details provided success depends on them. He has the ability and the courage to make successful those undertakings which a timid, a less confident or a richer man might not dare attempt. He has a genius for inventing. As a manager of men he has few superiors. Mr. Morey comes of old New England stock. … Read more

Biography of George W. Staver

George W. Staver, president and founder of one of the largest mercantile corporations on the Pacific Coast was born in Brush Valley, Center county, Pennsylvania, November 18, 1836. He is of German and Scotch-Irish ancestry and was reared upon a farm. Soon after his birth his parents moved to Sugar Valley, Clinton county, Pennsylvania, and remained on the same farm until 1854, when they came ‘to Illinois, but a year later settled near Monroe, Green county, Wisconsin. Here his father, Frederick Staver, still resides, at the advanced age of eighty-one years. Our subject received from his father a most thorough … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Ezra Durand

Ezra Durand was born in Seneca Falls, New York, on March 8, 1833, and is the youngest of a family of thirteen sons and daughters of David and Betsey (Crowell), Durand. His father was a farmer and his early boyhood was passed on a farm. His opportunities for gaining an education were limited to a few winters at the district school. At an early age he left home and went to Worcester, Massachusetts, where he obtained employment in a musical instrument factory. This was followed by similar work in a factory at Norwich, Connecticut. He seemed to have a natural … Read more

Biography of Henry Weinhard

Henry Weinhard, the leading and oldest brewer of Portland, was born in Lindenbroun, Wurtemberg, Germany, February 18, 1830. After serving a regular apprenticeship and working at the trade of a brewer in Stutgart and other places in Germany he came to the United States in 1851. He first secured employment at his trade in Philadelphia where he remained a year. He then went to Cincinnati and at the end of two years removed to St. Louis, where he remained until 1856, when he came to California and for a short time was located at Sacramento City. In March, 1857, he … Read more