History of Oregon, Vol. II, Part 25

Author: Carey, Charles Henry
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Chicago, Portland, The Pioneer historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 780

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LESTER MARTIN.

Lester Martin is an enterprising and progressive business man of Newport, where since 1913 he has been engaged in the real estate, insurance and loan business, in which he has been very successful, being now accorded a large patronage. He was born in Fall River, Massachusetts, February 14, 1879, and is a son of James A. and Elander (Fowler) Martin the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Massachu- setts. The father became a resident of Massachusetts about 1861 and there engaged in milling until 1882, when he returned to his native state, where he continued active in the milling business throughout his remaining years, conducting his manufacturing interests at Richmond and at Roanoke, Virginia. He passed away in 1909 but the mother survives.

The son, Lester Martin, was reared in Virginia and there attended school, also becoming a pupil in a night school at Detroit, Michigan. At the age of sixteen years he learned the barber's trade and in 1908 sought the opportunities of the west, going to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where for three years he was engaged in the real estate and coal business. He then went to Vancouver, Washington, where he resided for nine. months, and in 1913 came to Oregon establishing a real estate, loan and insurance business at Newport, in Lincoln county, and also opening a barber shop. He has since continued active along those lines and his enterprise, reliability and sound business judgment are proving potent elements in his success. He is thoroughly familiar with property values and has negotiated many important realty transfers. His barber shop is well patronized, owing to the fact that his establishment is always scrupulously clean and sanitary, equipped with the latest and most improved appli- ances along that line, and the service rendered customers is first-class in every par- ticular.

On the 19th of September, 1917, Mr. Martin was united in mariage to Miss Lila L. Lewis and they have become the parents of two children, Clydia Camille and Joseph Lester. In his political views Mr. Martin is a republican, prominent in the councils of the party. For the past four years he has served as chairman of the republican central committee and has also been state committeeman from Lincoln county. His fraternal connections are with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Woodmen of the World, the Modern Woodmen of America and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, and his religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Christian church. He has won substantial success in the conduct of his business affairs and his honorable methods have gained for him the confidence of all who have had business dealings with him. He is widely and favorably known in the locality where he makes his home, being recognized as a representative business man and a public-spirited citizen, loyal to the best interests of the community.

C. F. WRIGHT.

C. F. Wright, vice president and secretary of the firm of Ballou & Wright, extensive Distributors of Automobile Equipment, is also vice president of the Lumbermen's Trust Company and is recognized as one of the resourceful, enterprising and progressive business men of Portland whose plans are carefully formulated and promptly executed. He has always followed the most honorable and straightforward methods and has therefore gained the confidence of all who have had business dealings with him. Mr. Wright is a native of Kansas and a son of Richard and Elizabeth (Parker) Wright

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who were born in the state of New York. When but two years of age he was taken by his parents to Gallatin valley in Montana, where in the early days his father became identified with the stock industry, while later he engaged in ranching.

C. F. Wright acquired a high school education and later pursued a business course in the State College of Montana, after which he was for a time identified with insurance interests. In 1896, in association with Oscar B. Ballou, his present partner, he engaged in business in Great Falls, Montana, and after disposing of their interests at that place they came to Oregon and in 1901 established a bicycle business at Portland. Gradually extending their activities, they added a line of automobile accessories and were the pioneers in that business in Portland. They have ever followed the most progressive and reliable business methods and their trade has steadily grown from year to year until they are now owners of one of the largest enterprises of that character on the Pacific coast, maintaining branch establishments at Seattle and Spokane, Washington. Their employes number one hundred people, of whom fifty are at work in the Portland establishment-a four-story building on Broadway. The firm has purchased a desirable site at Tenth and Flanders streets and intends to erect within a year a modern five-story building for the conduct of their business. They are operating on a most extensive scale, their annual business amounting to two million dollars, ninety-five per cent of which is wholesale trade and the firm name is a synonym for reliability and progressiveness. Mr. Wright is also interested in other enterprises, being vice president of the Lumbermen's Trust Company and a director of the American Security Bank at Vancouver, Washington. He is continually broadening the scope of his activities with good results, carrying forward to successful completion everything that he undertakes.

In 1903 Mr. Wright was united in marriage to Miss Georgia Gwynne, a former resident of Salem and of Welsh descent, and they have become the parents of a son, Arthur Frederick, who is now attending school. Mr. Wright is a charter member of the State Automobile Association of which he was president in 1919 and for ten years he has been a member of its board of directors. His interest in the welfare and up- building of his city is indicated by his membership in the Chamber of Commerce and he is also identified with the Portland Golf Club and the Irvington Club. He is like- wise a prominent Mason, having attained the thirty-second degree in the Scottish RIte and also belonging to Al Kader Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Portland. He has had broad experience in a business way and has been active in pushing forward the wheels of progress in Portland and Multnomah county. His course has been characterized by integrity and honor in every relation and commands for him the respect and esteem of all with whom he has been associated.

ARTHUR VAN DUSEN, M. D.

Dr. Arthur Van Dusen, a leading physician of Astoria, was born in the place of his present residence on the 7th of December, 1886. He is a descendant of a fine old Dutch family, his grandfather having been Adam Van Dusen, who settled in New York state in the days of Heinrich Hudson and who crossed the plains by ox team in 1849 on his way to Astoria to join friends who had settled in the fur trading post established by another member of the New York Dutch colony at Astoria. Adam Van Dusen engaged as a merchant at the Astor trading post long before the city of Astoria became a reality. A son of Adam Van Dusen was Brenham Van Dusen, who was born in Astoria and still resides there, one of the city's most highly respected citizens. He married Fannie L. Dickinson, a member of a family of Virginia planters, her imme- diate ancestors coming to Oregon in the early days. Among the children born of this union was Arthur Van Dusen, whose name initiates this review.

Dr. Arthur Van Dusen received his preliminary education in the grade and high schools of Astoria and in due time entered the University of Oregon, from which he was graduated in 1910. Upon deciding on a medical career he attended the North- western Medical College at Chicago, receiving his diploma in 1914. His first profes- sional experience was obtained in the Mercy Hospital of Chicago, where he remained for eighteen months under the late Dr. John B. Murphy, one of America's eminent surgeons. In 1916 Dr. Van Dusen returned to his home in Astoria and opening an office was soon enjoying an excellent practice, which was interrupted by the outbreak of the World war. Dr. Van Dusen volunteered as surgeon in the United States navy

DR. ARTHUR VAN DUSEN

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and served with the commission of senior lieutenant. For twenty months he was chief surgeon at the Bremerton (Wash.) Navy Yard and this, with a cruise as surgeon of the United States Battleship Idaho, served as a postgraduate course. At the end of the war he returned to Astoria and resumed his practice, which has grown to extensive proportions. Although the practice of Dr. Van Dusen is general, the greater percentage of his work is surgery. Dr. Van Dusen has never married.

Fraternally Dr. Van Dusen is a Mason, having attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and is also a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, and belongs to the Elks. In the Greek letter fraternities he is a member of Sigma Nu, a literary fraternity, and of Nu Sigma Nu, a medical fraternity. In civic affairs he takes a prominent part, being a member of the Chamber of Commerce and being appreciative of the social amenities of life he is identified with many of the important clubs and social organiza- tions of the city. In the line of his profession, Dr. Van Dusen is a member of the Clatsop County Medical Society, the Oregon Medical Society and the American Medical Association. Dr. Van Dusen is popular hoth in and out of the profession and is a man any community would be proud to claim as a citizen.

MATTHEW HALE DOUGLASS.

Matthew Hale Douglass, librarian of the University of Oregon at Eugene, is a native of Iowa, his birth having occurred in Osage, Mitchell county, on the 16th of September, 1874. He is a son of the Rev. T. O. and Maria (Greene) Douglass, the former a Congre- gational minister. Mr. Douglass received the Bachelor of Arts degree from Grinnell College in 1895, while in 1898 that institution conferred upon him the degree of Master of Arts. His educational training well qualified him for the duties of librarian of Grinnell College, which position he filled from 1899 until 1908. In the latter year he was appointed librarian of the University of Oregon, and in this responsible position he is still serving. He is thoroughly efficient and capable in the discharge of the duties which devolve upon him in this connection and is a man of high intellectual attain- ments.

At Lexington, Nebraska, on the 25th of June, 1905, Mr. Douglass was united in marriage to Miss Minnie Griswold, a daughter of Ira P. and Lucy M. Griswold and a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Mrs. Douglass is a member of the faculty of the Oregon School of Music, having charge of the children's work in Piano. Mr. Douglass is independent in his political views and his religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Congregational church.

JOHN P. COOLEY.

John P. Cooley, postmaster of Brownsville, to which office he was appointed in 1914, is one of the native sons of Oregon, for he was born near Woodburn, in Marion county, December 29, 1852, his parents being Jackson and Harriet L. (Dimmick) Cooley the former born in Missouri and the latter in Illinois. In 1845 the father crossed the plains from Clay county, Missouri, to Oregon, the journey being made with ox teams. He was accompanied by two brothers and a sister and upon reaching this state he settled in Marion county, taking up a government claim, and upon this land a portion of the town of Woodburn is now located. He cleared and developed his claim and con- tinued its operation until 1870, when he sold out and removed to Salem, where he lived retired throughout the remainder of his life. He passed away August 16, 1884, at the age of sixty-seven years and the mother's demise occurred in March, 1892, when she was fifty-seven years of age. They were honored pioneers of the state and were greatly esteemed and respected in their community.

Their son, John P. Cooley, pursued his education in the district schools of Marion county and in the high school of Belle Passi. After completing his school work he was employed in the woolen mills at Salem, Oregon City and Brownsville, Oregon, from the time he was eighteen years of age until about 1913, and during that period he also engaged in farming to some extent. On the 12th of September, 1879, he removed to Brownsville and has since resided in this vicinity. In 1914 he was appointed postmaster of Brownsville and is now serving in that capacity, discharging the duties of that office

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with promptness and efficiency. He still has farming interests, owning twenty-seven and a half acres of land within the city limits of Brownsville, and this he leases to good advantage. He is alert, energetic and capable in the management of his business affairs and is known as a man of thorough reliability and integrity.

On the 28th of November, 1875, Mr. Cooley was united in marriage to Miss Sarah E. Cole, and they became the parents of three children, namely: Oleti P., who for the past ten years has been engaged in teaching school in Portland, Oregon; Albert Sidney, a prominent attorney of Enterprise, Oregon; and Florence M., who became the wife of R. H. Jonas and resides at Forest Grove, Oregon. The wife and mother passed away August 1, 1910, after an illness of eighteen years and her loss was deeply felt by the members of her household.

In his political views Mr. Cooley is a democrat and he has taken an active and prominent part in public affairs of his community, serving as mayor, councilman and school director, in which connections he rendered important and valuable service to his city. Fraternally he is identified with the United Artisans and the Masons and in religious faith he is a Baptist. He has always been loyal to any public trust reposed in him and puts forth every effort for the benefit and upbuilding of the city in which he makes his home. From pioneer times he has resided within the borders of Oregon and his career has ever been such as has reflected credit and honor upon the state.

HOMER T. SHAVER.

Homer T. Shaver, assistant manager of the Shaver Transportation Company, was born in Portland, August 27, 1891, and is a son of George M. Shaver, who is mentioned at length on another page of this work. Homer T. Shaver is of the third generation of the family resident in Portland. He was educated in the common schools and after- ward attended the Allen preparatory school at Portland, while from Pacific University at Forest Grove, Oregon, he won his Bachelor of Arts degree in June, 1913. He next entered the George Washington University at Washington, D. C., and won his LL. B. degree in June, 1916, after which he returned to Portland and practiced law for two years with the firm of McDougal, McDougal & Shaver. Following the declaration of war he made every effort to get across but on account of the condition of his eyes was not accepted. However, he entered the shipyards at Vancouver, Washington, as employ- ment manager and was largely responsible for the upbuilding of the organization, as he hired ali of the men for all of the yards and had four thousand men working in the two wood and one steel shipbuilding yards when he resigned his position in February, 1918, to become outfitting foreman for the yards. In this position he outfitted fifteen ships with all necessary materials. He was in the employ of the G. M. Standifer Construc- tion Corporation when occupying the position of employment manager and it was through this association that he became interested in a newly patented steering gear for steam or motor vessels invented by Peter A. Johnson, foreman of maintenance work, and A. C. Fries, foreman of the machine shop, both of the Standifer Corporation. It is a new departure in mechanical steering gear, consisting of a device for controlling the rudder by air pressure instead of by steam, as is the general practice at the present time. The device has been installed on the Shaver Transportation Company's steamer Henderson, where it is being tried out and perfected. An official test run was recently made with a party of experts aboard, who were unanimous in their approval of the device. The attractive feature of this is its extreme simplicity. The vital parts of the mechanism consist only of an air compressor, pipe lines and a pair of steel cylin- ders which contain pistons connected directly with a transverse arm immovably fixed to the rudder stock. By the movement of a small hand lever in the pilotehouse, air under pressure is admitted to the cylinders, pressing on the forward end of one piston and the after end of the other at the same time, so that the rudder is quickly brought to any desired position. The vibration of the rudder in the stream from the propeller or wash of heavy seas is all absorbed by the cushions of compressed air in the cylin- ders. To market this device the Johnson-Fries Marine Construction Company has been formed, of which Mr. Johnson is the president, Mr. Fries the vice president, J. C. Neill the secretary-treasurer and Homer T. Shaver the business manager. Other directors of the company are G. M. Shaver, A. E. Crittenden and J. C. Neill.

In June, 1920, Homer T. Shaver was called to his present position as assistant manager of the Shaver Transportation Company and has thus become an official in

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an organization that has been a most potent force in connection with marine transporta- tion in the northwest through many decades.

On the 17th of October, 1918, Mr. Shaver was married to Miss Florence Jacobson of Portland, and to them has been born a daughter, Catherine Susan, who is now in her second year. Mr. Shaver is a Mason in his fraternal relations and belongs to the Multnomah Club and to several college fraternities, including the Sigma Chi and the Phi Delta Phi, the latter an honorary legal fraternity. During his college days he was captain of the college eleven and won twelve monograms in three years-something never achieved before. Basket-ball was the game in which he was most interested and most proficient. His time and energies are now largely concentrated upon his business affairs and he is regarded as an unusually alert, enterprising and capable young man -one whose future career will undoubtedly be well worth watching.

STEPHEN P. BACH.

Stephen P. Bach, president of the First National Bank of Lebanon and also con- nected with mercantile interests as president of the firm of Bach-Buhl & Company, engaged in general merchandising in Lebanon, is a native of Germany, his birth having occurred at Hoch Hausen, June 27, 1860. His parents Joseph and Rosalia (Bartlemay) Bach, were likewise natives of Germany, where the father engaged in merchandising during the greater part of his life. He passed away in March, 1892, and the mother survived him for but a month her death occurring in April of that year. Stephen P. Bach was reared and educated in Germany and after his testbooks were put aside he was employed for two years as clerk in a lumber-yard. In 1880, when twenty years of age, he crossed the ocean to the United States, becoming a resident of Cleveland, Ohio, where he remained for one and a half years. He then came to Oregon and for two years worked on a farm near Salem after which he was for four years employed in a grocery store conducted by John Hughes. In 1890 he came to Lebanon and engaged in general merchandising, in which he has continued, admitting George H. Buhl as a partner in 1904. Mr. Bach later became connected with and was one of the organizers of the First National Bank of Lebanon in 1907, at which time he was made vice president of the institution. In 1912 the bank was reorganized and Mr. Bach became its president, in which capacity he has since served, most capably directing its affairs. He is a man of sound judgment and keen dis- crimination and under his management the business of the bank has steadily grown along substantial lines until it is today recognized as one of the sound financial institutions of this part of the state. It is capitalized for fifty thousand, its sur- plus and undivided profits amount to sixteen thousand five hundred and four dollars and its deposits have reached the sum of seven hundred and thirty-nine thousand, four hundred and seventy-two dollars. The officers of the bank are: S. P. Bach, president, J. C. Mayer, vice president, and Alex Power, cashier, and all are thor- oughiy reliable business men of this section of the state. Mr. Bach is also a stock- holder in the Lebanon Light & Water Company and the Pacific States Fire In- surance Company and in addition he owns considerable city property and from these various lines of activity is deriving a most gratifying income. In all that he does he manifests a progressive spirit. He does not fear to venture where favoring opportunity leads the way and opportunity is ever to him a call to action.

In January 1891, Mr. Bach was united in marriage to Miss Theresa Sheridan, a daughter of John and Kate (Michaelburg) Sheridan, the former a native of Canada and the latter of Wisconsin. Her father became one of the pioneers of Oregon, having come to this state fifty years ago, and here he spent the remainder of his life, engaging in the occupation of farming in Linn county. He passed away in 1916 but the mother survives. Mr. and Mrs. Bach have become the parents of a daughter, Bessie Louise, who was born in November, 1893, and is yet at home.

Mr. Bach is a democrat in his political views and has taken a prominent part in public affairs of his locality, serving as mayor of Lebanon, as a member of the city council and also on the school board and in each of these connections has rendered important and valuable services to the city. Fraternally he is identified with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and in religious faith he is a Catholic. In the conduct of his business affairs he has displayed sound judgment and his energy and enterprise have gained him recognition as one of the substantial and valued citizens

Vol. II-13

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of his part of the state. Untiring in his activity for the public good and ever actuated by high and honorable purposes in all relations of life, his labors have been far-reach- ing and resultant.

BENJAMIN GARDNER WHITEHOUSE.

Character and ability are the qualities which make a man honored and which command for him the respect and confidence of others. The attainment of wealth has never, save in a few rare instances, caused a man's name to be inscribed on the pages of history. By reason of bis fidelity to the highest standards of manhood and citizen- ship Benjamin Gardner Whitehouse won the good will and high regard of those with whom he came in contact and Portland long numbered him among her valued citizens. Mr. Whitehouse was a native of Boston, Massachusetts, born December 5, 1834. When he was but four years of age the family home was established at Vassalboro, Maine, where six years later the mother passed away and five years afterward the father died, leaving him an orphan at the age of fifteen years. He went to live with his uncle, Captain Reuben Weeks, whose kind care, insofar as possible, made up to him the loss of his parents. He attended the district school in the winter months and In the summer seasons assisted the uncle in the work of the farm until he reached the age of eighteen years and then went to Boston in 1852, finding employment in an accounting house. Ambitious to improve his education he attended a private com- mercial college in the evening. A year after his arrival in Boston he was advanced to the position of bookkeeper by the firm of Door, Proctor & Company and in the fall of 1856 the firm sent him to the lumber districts of Wisconsin to take charge of the manufacture and shipment of lumber from Green Bay to Milwaukee and Chicago. There were many things in frontier life that did not appeal to Mr. Whitehouse and after two years he returned to Boston but soon made another change, owing to the influence of friends who had gone to California and wrote him glowing accounts of the opportunities on the coast.

In February, 1859, he started for San Francisco, journeying by steamer to Panama, thence by land to the western coast and arriving in San Francisco, March 22, 1859. He did not find conditions there as he had anticipated and made his way northward to Portland where he arrived May 22, 1859.

Through the intervening years to the time of his demise Mr. Whitehouse con- tinued to be a resident of the Rose City and for many years has been prominently known in its business circles. He was first employed as hotel clerk by S. N. Arrigoni, with whom he continued as long as Mr. Arrigoni remained in the hotel business. With the completion of the overland stage route between Portland and Sacramento he was appointed agent for the company and cashier for Oregon. With the building of the first railroad into Portland and the discontinuance of the stage line he sought other employment and in September, 1866, became connected with the Portland Gas Light Company and the Portland Water Company, continuing with both during their existence. He was one of the incorporators of the former and remained a director and cashier of the company until it sold out. The Portland Water Works sold its plant to the city in 1886 and in the later years of his life Mr. Whitehouse was connected with the Portland Gas & Coke Company. Another biographer writing of Mr. White- house before his death said: "It would be difficult in the space necessarily allotted in a publication of this character to do justice to a life such as is briefly outlined above. Mr. Whitehouse is a pioneer not of ordinary type and yet possessing many of the characteristics that led to the settlement of the west and the erection of a civilization that is the wonder of the world. In him were born and bred the gentler virtues-the virtues that have softened the asperities of harsher natures, whose mis- sion it has been to make the rough places smooth, while the mission of men like Mr. Whitehouse has been to present living examples of the higher traits that embellish civilization and make home a synonym for tenderness and love. Both sorts of men are necessary and both have nobly performed their work. Their monument is written in enduring characters in the hearts of tens of thousands now living in happy homes and who recognize that to the pioneers they owe the blessings they enjoy today."

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History of Oregon, Vol. II, Part 25

Author: Carey, Charles Henry Publication date: 1922 Publisher: Chicago, Portland, The Pioneer historical publishing company Number of Pages: 780

Author: Carey, Charles Henry
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Chicago, Portland, The Pioneer historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 780