History of Oregon, Vol. II, 1848-1888, Part 77

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Mrs. Frances Auretta Fuller Barrett, 1826-1902
Publication date: 1886-88
Publisher: San Francisco : The History Co.
Number of Pages: 836

USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. II, 1848-1888 > Part 77

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IMPORTS AND EXPORTS.

I will now give a few statistics concerning imports and exports. In 1857 Oregon had 60,000 inhabitants, and shipped 60,000 barrels of flour, 3,000,000 pounds of bacon and pork, 250,000 pounds of butter, 25,000 bushels of apples, $40,000 worth of chickens and eggs, 8200,000 worth of lumber, $75, - 000 worth of fruit-trees, $20,000 worth of garden-stuff, and 52,000 head of cattle, the total value of which was $3,200,000. The foreign trade, if any, was very small. In 1861 the trade with California amounted to less than two millions, which can only be accounted for by the greater home consump- tion caused by mining immigration, and the lessened production consequent upon mining excitement. This year the imports from foreign countries amounted only to $1,300, and the exports to about $77,000. During the next decade the imports had reached about $700,000, and the exports over SS00,000. In 1881 the imports were a little more than $859,000, and the direct exports $9,828,905, exclusive of the salmon export, which amounted to $2,750,000, and the coastwise trade, which was something over six millions, making an aggregate of more than eighteen and a half millions for 1881. or an increase of almost a million annually for the twenty years following 1860. Reid's Progress of Portland, 42; Hitted's Resources Pacific North-west, 57-8; Smalley's Hist. N. P. R. R., 374. The increase, however, was gradual until 1874, when the exports suddenly jumped from less than $700,000 to nearly a million and a half, after which they advanced rapidly, nearly doubling in ISSI the value of 1880.

745

COMMERCE.

The imports to Oregon have consisted of liquors, glass, railway iron, tin, and a few minor articles which come from England; coal comes from Aus- tralia as ballast of wheat vessels; general merchandise from China; rice, sugar, and molasses from the Hawaiian Islands; and wool, ore, and hides from British Columbia. The exports from Oregon consist of wheat, oats, flour, lumber, coal, wool. salmon, canned meats. gold, silver, iron, live-stock, hops, potatoes, hides, fruit, green and dried, and to some extent the products of the dairy. A comparative statement of the principal exports is given for the year ending August 1878, in Reid's Progress of Portland, a pamphlet pub- lished in 1879 hy the secretary of the Portland board of trade.

Salmon to S. F., in cases, value

1877-8. $980,956

1876-7. $1,750,350

Wheat, flour, oats, hops, potatoes, lumber, hides, pickled salmon, treasure, and all domestic prod-

ucts from the Columbia to S. F., except wool and coal ..

3,765,687

2,332,000

Wool exports via San Francisco

998,305

756,000

Coal from Coos Bay

218,410

317,475

Lumber from Coos Bay and the coast.

151,234

173,367

Total to San Francisco

$6,124,492

$5,329,192

Wheat and flour direct to the United Kingdom, value .

4,872,027

3,552,000

Canned salmon direct to Great Britain, value.

1,326,056

737,830

Beef and mutton, cauned and uncanned, value ..

133,895

365,733

Wheat, flour, and other products to the Sandwich Islands and elsewhere, value.

637,636

386,600

Gold and silver front Oregon mines, value

1,280,867

1,200,000

Cattle to the eastern states, etc.

270,000

Increase in one year ..

$14,644,973 $11,571,355 3,073,618

The number of vessels clearing at the custom-house of Portland and Astoria for 1880 was 141, aggregating 213,143 tons measurement; 93 of these vessels were in the coastwise trade, the remaining 48, measuring 40,600 tons, were employed in the foreign trade. In 1881 the clearances for foreign ports from Portland alone were 140, measuring 130,000 tons, and the clearances for domestic ports, includiog steamships, were not less than 100, making an increase in the number of sea-going vessels of ninety-nine.

CHAPTER XXIV.

LATER EVENTS.

1887-1888

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN RAILWAYS-PROGRESS OF PORTLAND-ARCHITEC- TURE AND ORGANIZATIONS-EAST PORTLAND-IRON WORKS-VALUE OF PROPERTY-MINING -CONGRESSIONAL APPROPRIATIONS-NEW COUNTIES -SALMON FISHERIES -LUMBER-POLITICAL AFFAIRS-PUBLIC LANDS- LEGISLATURE-ELECTION.

TAKING a later general view of progress, I find that the multiplication of railroad enterprises had become in 1887-8 a striking feature of Oregon's unfolding. In this sudden development, the Northern Pacific had taken the initiative, causing the construction of the lines of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Com- pany, the formation of the Oregon and Transconti- nental and other companies, and finally the control for a time of the Northern Pacific by the Oregon interest.1 That these operations miscarried to some extent was the natural sequence of overstrained effort. The city of Portland, and to a considerable extent, the state, suffered by the neglect of the Northern Pacific Terminal Company to construct a

1 I have already referred to the O. R. & N. co.'s origin and management in 1879-83, but reference to the methods employed by Villard will not be out of place here. He gained an introduction to Oregon through being the financial agent of the Germau bond-holders of the Or. and Cal. R. R., and a year afterward was made president of this road and the Oregon Steamship co., of which Holladay had been president, through the action of the bond- holders in dispossessing Holladay in 1875. In 1872 a controlling interest in the Oregon Steam Navigation co., on the Columbia river, had been sold to the Northern Pacific R. R. co., and was largely hypothecated for loans, or on the failure of Jay Cooke & Co., divided among the creditors as assets. This stock was gathered up in 1879 wherever it could be obtained, at a price much below its real value.

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747

RAILROADS.

bridge over the Willamette river, and erect depot buildings on the west side. These drawbacks to the perfection of railroad service were removed, so far as a bridge is concerned, in June 1888, when the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company completed one, which was followed soon after by the erection of the present union depôt.

In the meantime two important changes took place in the railway system of the state. Negotiations had been for three years pending for the purchase of the bankrupt Oregon and California railroad, which were renewed in January 1887. The terms of the proposed agreement were, in effect, that the first mortgage bond-holders2 should be paid at the rate of 110 for their new forty-years' gold five per cent bonds, guaranteed principal and interest, by the Southern Pacific Railroad Company of California, together with four pounds in cash for each old bond; the new bonds to be issued at the rate of $30,000 per mile, and secured by a new mortgage, equivalent in point of lien and priority to the first mortgage, and bearing interest from July 1, 1886. Preferred stockholders would receive one share of Central Pacific, together with four shillings sterling for each preferred share, and common stockholders one share of Central Pacific and three shillings for every four common shares. The transfer actually took place on the first of May, 1887, and the road was completed to a junction at the town of Ashland on the 17th of De- cember of that year. This sale gave the California system the control of the trunk line to the Columbia river, and gave encouragement to the long contem- plated design of its managers to extend branch lines eastward into Idaho and beyond. The Southern Pacific Company also purchased the Oregon railway

2 The obstructing influence in the bridge matter was the N. P. co., whose consent was obtained only after the return to power of Villard.

3 Suits of foreclosure had been entered in the U. S. circuit court at Port- land, Deady, judge, which were dismissed June 4, 1888, on petition of the S. P. co.

748

LATER EVENTS.

in 1887, which had been sold in 1880 to William Reid of Portland.

At the same time the Union Pacific, having modi- fied its views since the period when it was offered an interest in the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Com- pany, desired to secure a perpetual lease of this prop- erty. To this proposition the Oregon people were largely friendly, because it would change the status of the road from a merely local line to a link in a through line to Omaha, the other link being the Oregon Short Line railroad, a Wyoming corporation, but controlled by the Union Pacific. The lcase was signed January 1, 1887, and was made to the Oregon Short Line, the rental being guaranteed by the Union Pacific at five per centum of the earnings of the demised premises.

Seeing in this arrangement a future railroad war in which the Northern Pacific and Union Pacific would be, if not equal, at least coincident sufferers, Villard, who had regained his standing in the company by coming to its relief with funds to construct the costly Cascades division, desired to make the lease a joint one, by which means the threatened competition should be avoided. But competition was not unde- sirable to the people, who had more cause to fear pooling. Besides, it was but natural that the North- ern should wish to occupy all the country north of Snake river with its own feeders, and to confine the Oregon road to the country south of it. But the wheat region of eastern Washington, and the rich mineral region of northern Idaho, were the fields into which Oregon wished to extend its business. These points being brought forward in the discussion of the

"It was necessary to pass a special act giving authority to the O. R. & N. to make the lease. The legislature after much argument passed it; it was not signed by Gov. Pennoyer, but became a law without his signature. Ac- cording to the corporation laws of Oregon, the lease of any railway to a parallel or competing line is prohibited. But a good deal of the opposition to the lease came from the Oregon Pacific, or Yaquina, R. R., which desired as much territory as it could by any means secure in eastern Oregon, and feared so strong a competitor as the U. P. R. R.

749

GENERAL DEVELOPMENT.

propesed joint lease, it was endeavored to smooth the way to an agreement by conceding to the Oregon line the carrying trade arising over a portion of the North- ern feeders.

The agreement gave the right and power, after July 1, 1888, for ninety-nine years, to the Oregon Short Line and Northern Pacific companies jointly to manage, operate, and control the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company's railroad; to fix rates of transportation, to dispose of the revenues equally be- tween them, and to pay equally the rental agreed upon in the original lease. It being apparent to the enemies of this arrangement that the majority of the directors of the Oregon company would be persuaded to sign the lease, a temporary injunction was applied for in the state circuit court by Van B. De Lashmutt, mayor of Portland, which injunetion was granted March 1888, upon the ground of violation of Oregon law. It was subsequently dissolved, and the lease went into effect in July of that year. None of the parties to the agreement pretended that it would stand a legal test, but knew that it was liable to be abrogated at any time when circumstances should make it repugnant to either of the joint lessees.6

The Oregon Pacific, a name given to the Corvallis and Yaquina Bay railroad, subsequent to the incep- tion, was completed to Albany in 1886, where a bridge over the Willamette was formally opened on the 6th of January, 1887.1 It was, and still is, making its

5 That is on the existing or future feeders of the N. P. between Pend d'Oreille lake an I Snake river, and option was allowed to use either route to tide-water-via Portland or Tacoma; but unless specially consigued other- wise, this traffic should take the Oregon route.

6 It is not clear to me what was Villard's motive for wishing to join in the U. P.'s lease. The motive of that company, which the Central Pacific had kept out of California, in desiring to come to the Pacific coast is easy to com- prehend. The O. R. & N. erred, in my judgment, in yielding the control of the best railroad property on the northwest coast to a company with the standing of the U. P. The Southern Pacific will show its hand in competition soon or late, and will build more feeders than the U. P., while the N. P., on the other side, will make the most of its reserved rights, thus narrowing down the territory of the leased road.

" The first freight train to euter Albany was on Jan. 13, 1887.

750

LATER EVENTS.

way eastward from that town, through a pass at the head waters of the Santiam river. From the summit, which is 4,377 feet above sea level, the descent was easy and from Des Chutes river the route laid out passed through a farming country equal in produc- tiveness to the famous wheat-growing basin of the Columbia in Washington, taking in the Harney and Malheur valleys, running through a pass in the moun- tains to Snake river and thence to Boisé, there to connect with eastern roads. The road at Yaquina connects with the Oregon Development Company's line of steamers to San Francisco. The last spike was driven January 28, 1887, on a railroad from Pen- dleton in eastern Oregon to the Walla Walla, and other extensions of the Oregon Railway and Naviga- tion Company's lines speedily followed.

The Portland and Willamette valley railroad is an extension of the narrow guage system of the western counties before described. It was carried into Port- land along the west bank of the Willamette, in the autumn of 1887, and affords easy and rapid transit to the suburban residences within a few miles of the city by frequent local as well as through trains.

Portland improved rapidly between 1880 and 1888. It left off its plain pioneer ways, or all that was left of them, and projected various public and private embellishments to the city. It erected two theatres, and a pavilion in which were held industrial exhibi- tions. A beautiful medical college was a triumph of architecture. The school board, inspired by the dona- tion of $60,000 to the school fund by Mr Henry Villard, indulged in the extravagance of the most elegant and costly high-school building on the Pacific coast, and several new churches were erected. Citi- zens vied with each other in adopting tasteful designs

8 Twenty passenger trains arrived and departed daily, exclusive of sub- urban trains. Six lines had their terminus there. Over 30 freight trains arrived and departed-a great change from the times of 1883.

751

NOTABLE ENTERPRISES.

for their residences; parks and streets were im- proved ; street-car lines added to the convenience of locomotion ; business blocks arose that rivalled in stability those of older commercial cities; and wharves extended farther and farther along the river front.

In May 1887 articles of incorporation were filed by a number of real estate brokers, who formed a Real Estate Exchange. The object' of the corporation, as expressed, was laudable, and their number promised success, and the erection of a handsome Exchange building. The military companies built themselves an armory on an imposing design, and the Young Men's Christian Association followed with a structure of great merit, while a building known by the name of the Portland Library, and destined to be occupied

" The incorporators were Ellis G. Hughes, W. F. Creitz, T. Patterson, J. P. O. Lownsdale, L. M. Parrish, and L. D. Brown. The avowed object of the Real Estate Exchange is to secure a responsible medium of exchange of equal benefit to buyer and seller, to equalize commissions, to foster the growth of the state, encourage manufactures, and invite capital and imuni- gration. The list of stock-holders is as follows: L. F. Grover, Ellis G. Hughes, A. W. Oliver, Eugene D. White, E. J. Haight, Frank E. Hart, John Kiernan, Geo. Marshall, A. B. Manley, Robert Bell, J. W. Cook, Philo Holbrook, M. B. Rankin, H. C. Smithson, A. E. Borthwick, L. M. Cox, Geo. Woodward, John Angel, H. D. Graden, J. F. Buchanan, Fred. K. Arnold, E. W. Cornell, L. M. Parrish, Geo. E. Watkins, H. B. Oatman, R. B. Curry, J. L. Atkinson, D. W. Wakefield, A. W. Lambert, W. F. Crietz, T. Patter- son, W. A. Daly, T. A. Daly, J. Fred. Clarke, Geo. Knight, Geo. P. Lent, A. J. Young, Van B. De Lashmutt, B. F. Clayton, J. P. O. Lownsdale, P. W. Gillette, David Goodsell, H. D. Chapman, Ward S. Stevens, J. W. Ogil- bee, C. M. Wiberg, S. B. Riggen, R. H. Thompson, Geo. L. Story, Wm M. Killingworth, W. K. Smith, S. M. Barr, E. E. Lang, L. D. Brown. James E. Davis, Ed. Croft, Benj. 1. Cohen, J. W. Kern, J. G. Warner, E. M. Sar- gent, Sherman D. Brown, W. L. Wallace, E. Oldendorff, John M. Cress, Mert E. Dimmick, D. H. Stearns, W. G. Telfer, Edward G. Harvey, L. L. Hawkins, D. P. Thompson, Frank Dekum, Dudley Evans, E. D. McKee, James Steel, T. A. Davis, A. H. Johnson, John McCracken, Donald Macleay, Ed. S. Kearney, C. A. Dolph, J. N Dolph, Henry Failing, N. L. Pittock, R. M. Demeal, A. L. Maxwell, Preston C. Smith, C. J. MeDougal, James K. Kelly, John H. Mitchell, W. A. Jones, C. W. Roby, Wm P. Lord, A. N. Hamilton, J. A. Strowbridge, John Gates-95 members. Two are U. S. senators, two ex U. S. senators, 12 are capitalists and bankers, one judge of the sup. ct, one mayor of Portland, one postmaster of Portland, 2 newspaper men, one a major in the U. S. army, 4 attorneys-at-law, 8 merchants, one manager of Wells, Fargo & Co.'s express, one R. R. agent, and the remain- der brokers and real estate dealers, 40 of whom are the holders of seats in the exchange. Rooms have been taken for the present at the corner of Stark and Second sts. The admission fee was at first $50, but was soon increased to $100. No more than 100 seats will be sold, and the quarterly dues are fixed at $15.

752

LATER EVENTS.

by that institution, was built by subscriptions obtained chiefly by its first president, Judge Deady. An im- mense hotel, costing nearly a million dllars, and an art glass manufactory were added in 1888.

East Portland shared in the prosperity of the greater city, and having a larger extent of level land for town-site purposes, offered better facilities for building cheap homes for the working classes. The Portland Reduction works was located there, and opened in the spring of 1887, for smelting ores from the mines of Oregen and Idaho. Street cars were introduced here in 1888, connecting with West Portland by means of a track laid on a bridge over the Willamette at Mor- rison street, and with Albina by another bridge across the ravine which separates them. The extensive ware- houses and other improvements of the Northern Pa- cific railroad were at Albina, which thus became the actual terminus of that road, and of all the transcon- tinental roads coming to Portland. A railroad across the plains northeast of East Portland carried passen- gers to the Columbia, opposite Vancouver, and brought that charming locality into close neighborhood to Portland.

At Oswego, a few miles south of Portland, the Oregon Iron Company's works, which in 1883 were closed on account of the low price of iron, and the incapacity of the furnaces to be profitably operated, were reopened in 1888 by the Iron and Steel Works Company,11 employing over three hundred men. The

10 Albina, as I have otherwheres shown, was founded by Edward Russell, but the property was sold in 1879 to J. B. Montgomery before the N. P.R. R. co. selected the site for its terminal works. This gave it importance, as the machine shops of the Terminal co., N. P., the O. R. & N., and the O. & C. cos were located there, to which are now added those of the S. P. R. R., making in all quite a village of substantial brick buildings with roofs of slate in the radroad yards. Montgomery dock has an area of 200x500 feet, and has hal as much as 600,000 bushels of wheat stored in it at one time. In 1887 42,000 tons were shipped through it. The Columbia River Lumber and Manufacturing co. keeps an extensive lumber yard at Albina. The owners are J B. Montgomery and Win M. Colwell. All these large enter- prises, together with the iron works, employ many laborers, who find pleasant homes in Albina.

11 S. G. Reed, Wm M. Ladd, F. C. Smith, C. E. Smith, J. F. Watson, the Or. Transcontinental co., and some eastern capitalists constituted the company.

753

SUBSTANTIAL IMPROVEMENTS.

water power at Oregon City, which ever since 1841 had been a source of discord, and had constituted at times an injurious monopoly, had finally come into the hands of a syndicate of Portland and Oregon City men, who designed to make the latter place what nature intended it to be-the great manufacturing centre of the state.12

The estimated value of property in Multnomah county at the close of 1887 was $27,123,780, and the value of transfers for that year about $6,000,000. The immigation to the state numbered nearly fifty thousand, and the importation of cash was estimated at $19,221,000. All parts of the state partook of the new growth. Salem had received the splendid state asylum for the insane, and the schools for the blind and the deaf and dumb, a manufactory of agricultural machinery, and other substantial improvements, be- sides a woman's college, and a public school building in East Salem costing $40,000.

The county-seat of Yamhill county had been re- moved to the flourishing town of McMinnville. Cor- vallis, Albany, Eugene, and the towns in southern Oregon, of which Ashland was in the lead, all throve excellently.

12 The O. R. & N. co. held formerly all but a few shares of the Willamette Transportation and Locks co.'s stock, which latter company owned the locks, canal, basin, and warehouse on the east side of the falls, with all the water-power of the falls, and the land adjoining on both sides. An Oregon City co. owned 750 shares of the land on the west side, including that not owned by the W. T. & L. co. The new organization owns all of the land, property, stocks, and water-power, purchasing the O. R. & N. co.'s shares and all its interest. It proposes to give the necessary land on the west side free, with water-power for 10 years rent free, to any persons who will build and operate manufactures. It is also proposed to construct a suspension toll-bridge across the Willamette, provided the proper authorities do not build a free bridge, as they may do. The O. R. & N. would not sell any part of its holding without selling all, therefore the new company were forced to purchase the locks, which gave them additional facilities for the use of the water-power. The state has, however, by law the right and option to buy the locks on the Ist of January, 1893, at their then value, and it is feared that this may delay the use of the power until this option is disposed of by legislation. The land and power were pooled on equal terms without refer- ence to value, and the locks were estimated at $400,000. This is paid by a mortgage on the whole property running 12 years, bearing interest for 5 years at 4 per cent, and for the next 7 years at 5 per cent. The pres't of the co. is E. L. Eastham of Oregon City,

HIST. OR., VOL. II. 48

754

LATER EVENTS.

Mining also had a strong revival in the southern and eastern counties, while new discoveries and re- discoveries were made in the Cascade range in Marion and Clackamas counties. No mining furore is likely ever to take place again in this state, if anywhere in the northwest. Placers such as drew thousands to Rogue river in 1851, and to John Day river in 1862, will probably never again be discovered. The hy- draulic gravel mines of Jackson and Josephine coun- ties have proved valuable properties, and a few quartz mines on the eastern border of the state have returned good profits. The reduction works at East Portland were erected to reduce the ores of the Cœur d' Alene silver district chiefly.13 Much Oregon capital had become interested in Cœur d' Alene, and also in the recently discovered mines of Salmon river in eastern Washington, which were found upon the Chief Moses' reservation, which is in the Okanagan country of the npper Columbia, once hastily prospected by miners in the Colville mining excitement, but only known to contain quartz mines since 1887. The total gold prodnet of Oregon in 1887 was over half a million, and of silver about $25,000.

Although there is no lack of building stone in Oregon, if county statistics may be believed," the

13 The Cœur d' Alene furnishes galena-silver ores. The Sierra Nevada mine, yielding ore consisting of galena and carbonates, is said to average $94.79 in lead and silver. A block of galena weighing 760 pounds assayed 69 per cent lead, and $110 in silver per ton. Some of the specimens are of rare beauty, the silver being in the form of wire intermingled with crystals of carbonate, arranged upon a back ground of a dark metallic oxide, and appearing like jewels in a velvet lined case. Some of the prominent mines are the Bunker Hill, Sullivan, the Tyler, the Ore-or-no-go, and the Tiger.

14 The mineral resources of the several counties are: Baker: gold in quartz and placers, silver in lodes, copper, coal, nickel ore, cinnabar, building stone, limestone and marble. Benton: coal, building stone, gold in beach sand, iron. Clackamas: iron ore and ochres, gold in quartz, copper, galena, coal, building stone. Clatsop: coal, potter's clay, iron ore, jet. Columbia: iron ore, coal, manganese ore, salt springs. Coos: coal, gold in beach sand, streams, and quartz, platinum, iridosmine, brick clay, chrome iron, magnetic sands. Crook: gold in placers. Curry: iron ore, gold in river beds and beach sands, platinum, iridosmine, chrome iron, borate of lime, build- ing stone, silver and gold (doubtful). Douglas: gold in lodes and placers, nickel ores, quicksilver, copper, native and in ore, coal, salt springs, chrome iron, platinum, iridosmine, natural cement, building stone. Gilliam: coal. Grant: gold in lodes and placers, silver in lodes, coal, iron. Jackson: gold

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History of Oregon, Vol. II, 1848-1888, Part 77

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Mrs. Frances Auretta Fuller Barrett, 1826-1902 Publication date: 1886-88 Publisher: San Francisco : The History Co. Number of Pages: 836

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Mrs. Frances Auretta Fuller Barrett, 1826-1902
Publication date: 1886-88
Publisher: San Francisco : The History Co.
Number of Pages: 836