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 John Henry Woodward

John Henry Woodward was born at Peach Orchard in the. town of Tompkins (now Hector), Schuyler County, New York, February 9, 1836, and is the eldest son of John Woodward, who, with his father’s family came to America from London, England, in 1824, settling on a large farm in what was then comparatively a wilderness on the banks of Seneca Lake, New York, where members of the family still reside. Mr. Woodward received his primary education at the county district school. Later on he attended an academy at Peach Orchard under the management of John A. Gillette and was finally … 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 Samuel Coulter

Samuel Coulter was born in Tyler county, Virginia, August 20, 1832, and is a son of Samuel and Sarah (Rodes) Coulter. His father’s parents were natives of Wales and at an early day settled in Virginia, while his maternal ancestors came from England. At the age of four years he lost his father and soon thereafter the family moved to Van Buren county, Iowa. When be reached the age of twelve his mother died, after which he went to live with his half brother, Capt. B. L. Henness, who now resides near Mt. Tabor, Oregon, who kindly offered him 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 Charles M. Wiberg

Charles M. Wiberg was born in Norkoping, Sweden, 1820. His youth and early manhood were passed in different parts of his native land, engaging in various occupations until he became an apprentice at the shoemakers’ trade. After acquiring his trade he, in 1841, went to London, where he was employed for nearly three years. He then came to the United States, landing in New York in 1843. From that time until 1850, he worked at his trade in New Milford, Connecticut, New York City, Milwaukee and Janesville, Wisconsin, and New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1850, he started in business for himself … 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 Rockey P. Earhart

The subject of this sketch was born in Franklin County, Ohio, on the 23td day of June, 1837, and came to Oregon by way of the Isthmus of Panama, in 1855. Educational advantages were offered him in select schools in his native State, where he gained a thoroughly practical business training. Upon arriving in Oregon, and incidentally meeting with some of the public officials of the day, his superior clerical abilities were very soon recognized, and he received the appointment of clerk under Captain (now General), Robert McFeely, U. S. A., and Quartermaster P. H. Sheridan, then a comparatively unknown … Read more

Biography of Laurits Walse Therkelsen

Laurits Walse Therkelsen was born in Denmark, twelve miles east of Copenhagen, in 1842. He had limited educational advantages and early in life became apprenticed to the carpenter’s trade, at which he worked in his native town until he arrived at the age of eighteen years when he came to America, and, in 1861, landed in San Francisco. Here for the next ten years he followed his trade with the exception of one year at San Jose, when he engaged in contracting. In 1871, he came to Portland and for ten years following was largely engaged in contracting and building … 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 Charles Adolph Alisky

Charles Adolph Alisky was born near Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany, October 6, 1840, and is a descendant of an old and highly honorable German family which for several generations has resided at or in the immediate vicinity of the place of his nativity. His father, William Alisky, was a native of Mayence, and early in life exhibited rare musical talent, at the age of seven years playing a flute solo at a concert in Mayence. His genius for music attracted the attention of the Grand Duke of Hessia under whose protection he was sent to the Conservatory of Music at Paris. Here … Read more

Biography of William C. Noon

William C. Noon was born in Leicester, England, in 1835. At the age of nine years he came with his parents to America, settling in Andover, Massachusetts, where his father found employment at his trade in a woolen mill. He received the benefits of a common school education until thirteen years old when he began to work in a woolen mill at Andover. He was employed for several years thereafter in similar mills at Lawrence and Worcester, Massachusetts, and for some three or four years in the State of Maine. During this period he acquired a very thorough knowledge of … 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 James K. Kelly

For many years James K. Kelly has been a prominent man in the legal and political history of Oregon, and has left upon the annals of this section of the Union the impress of his personality. In positions of honor and trust he has maintained an exalted standard of excellence and according to the dictates of his conscience and judgment his influence has been cast for the agencies he believed to be conducive to the true interests of the people. A fitting record of the part he has borne in many important events during his long residence in Oregon, very … Read more

Biography of Donald MacLeay

MacLeay, Donald, was born at Leckmelm, Ross Shire, Scotland, in August, 1834, and comes from an honorable ancestry. He was educated under a private tutor and at the academy in his native town. At the age of sixteen he accompanied his parents to Canada, settling on a farm near the village of Melbourne in the province of Quebec. At the age of twenty Mr. Macleay began his business career in partnership with George K. Foster, a merchant at Richmond. Mr. Foster was a man of large means and of excellent business capacity and had much to do in moulding the … Read more

Biography of Van B. Delashmutt

Delashmutt, Van B., the present Mayor of Portland, was born in Burlington, Iowa, July 27, 1842. Ten years later the family came to the infant territory of Oregon, and settled on a farm in Polk county, in the Willamette Valley. The monotonous life of a farmer’s boy illy suited the naturally adventuresome disposition of young DeLashmutt, and at the age of fifteen he went to Salem, where he secured employment in the office of the Salem Statesman, as an apprentice to learn the printers’ trade. With characteristic earnestness and energy the apprentice served three years, and at the end of … Read more

Biography of Henry D. Green

Green, Henry D., for many years a prominent figure in the commercial affairs of Portland, was born in Tompkins county, New York, October 16, 1825. Shortly after attaining his majority, in 1853, he came to Oregon and established himself at Astoria, in partnership with W. Irving Leonard. This firm purchased the mercantile business house of Leonard & Green, which was established at that point in 1850, by John Green and H. C. Leonard, at that date the only mercantile house, except the Hudson Bay Company’s trading post, at the mouth of the Columbia river. He remained at Astoria until 1856, … Read more

Biography of John H. Mitchell

For a quarter of a century the subject of this sketch has been one of the most prominent figures in the political history of Oregon. Becoming a citizen of the State soon after it was invested with the sovereign dignity of statehood, he at once became an active man in the political arena, and so rapid was the growth of his influence that within six years he had served a term with distinguished credit in the State Senate, and was the choice of a large body of his party associates for the highest office the State had to bestow. This … Read more

Biography of William Strong

The name of William Strong is thoroughly associated with the judicature both of Oregon and Washington. His marked characteristics are indelibly impressed upon the system of law of both States, especially that of the latter. To long and distinguished service as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court and in the ex-officio character of Judge of, the District Courts in both States while they were Territorial Governments, must be added his connection with their legislation and also his brilliant career as a law practitioner, for over a generation, in all the Courts of both States. He was born at St. Albans, … Read more

Biography of William Wallace Thayer

The typical Western man is popularly conceived as a man of liberal ideas, of generous and hospitable instincts, imbued with a spirit of adventurous enterprise, and withal hardy and courageous. He is not punctilious in minor questions of etiquette or inclined to make much of mere forms and ceremonies. He is a friend to his friends, a man of sterling integrity and of firmness of character developed by habits of self-reliance. Such men are the State builders whose names and deeds are a part of the history of the newer States of the American Commonwealth. Every western community contains individuals … Read more