History of Oregon, Vol. II, Part 27

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

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Mr. Wilson was born at Columbia Falls, Maine, July 18, 1824, and came of a long line of hardy forbears. The first representative of the Wilson family in America was Gowan Wilson, who in the year 1657 emigrated to this country from Scotland, while on the maternal side the ancestral record is traced back to the Pineo family of French Huguenots, who arrived in Nova Scotia in 1617. Mr. Wilson's maternal grandmother, Eliza Pineo, was a cousin of Captain Robert Gray of Boston, who on the 11th of May, 1792, sailed his ship into the great waterway of the west, to which he gave the name Columbia river. Gladly and devoutly she welcomed the explorer home and she ever afterward held the hope that some one of her descendants might journey hence and explore and aid in the development of that vast unknown portion of our continent later to be known as the Oregon territory.

When Bushrod W. Wilson was ten years old his father removed with his family to New York city, where he engaged in business as a millwright. Bushrod, or "Bush," as he was called, displayed his energetic spirit by obtaining employment as an office boy, first working for Commodore Vanderbilt and later for Horace Greeley, and many times, at the end of a hard day's work in the editorial offices of the old Courier and Enquirer, predecessor to the New York Tribune, he slept with Mr. Greeley on bales of scrap paper in the press rooms of that publication. During this period Samuel F. B. Morse maintained a small, dark office for experimental purposes in the building in which the boy was employed and taking a notion to Bushrod he exhibited to the boy the first model of the telegraph invention which was soon afterward to electrify the world and change the course of communication the world over.

In 1842, when a young man of eighteen years, Mr. Wilson embarked at New Bed- ford, Massachusetts, on the whaling ship Harvest, under command of Captain Tabor, on a cruise of three years for whales in the waters of the North Pacific, thus fulfilling the desires of his grandmother, Eliza Pineo. He sailed near the breakers off what is now known as Lane, Lincoln and Tillamook counties, where he saw the burnt trees which to this day point spectral heads heavenward. After the whaling voyage was ended he remained for some time in New York and New England, but when the rush to California started in 1849, he sailed around the Horn in the ship William Gray, and there, with all the crew, abandoned the ship and went to the mines. After a few months' fruitlessly spent in the gold districts of the Sierras, he sailed as a passenger on the schooner Reindeer up the coast to the mouth of the Umpqua river in Oregon, and from there, in company with one shipmate named Barrett, he walked across the coast mountains into the Willamette valley. On arriving at the mouth of the St. Marys river the two young men obtained employment from William F. Dixon, whose family and that of J. C. Avery constituted the first and only settlers at this point, where now stands the city of Corvallis.

It was not long before Mr. Wilson began to take an active part in the develop-

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ment of the Oregon country. At the time of his arrival, in 1850, the population of the Willamette valley was meager and the homesteads were widely scattered. There was a growing demand for certain manufactured articles and other necessities to be brought here from the east and abroad and the Willamette river afforded an avenue of transportation the full length of the great valley, one hundred and forty miles in extent. He accordingly entered upon the transportation business by means of a long bateau, or pole-boat, and plied this avocation a year or more. The lure of the land, however, soon seized him and he took up a homestead claim in Benton county, which he cleared and developed, continuing its cultivation for some time. He then sold his land and started on an expedition to the Owyhee mines of southern Idaho in 1861, where he purchased and operated mining claims on the river, meeting with a substantial measure of success in that venture. It was during that period that he also built for Moses Wright the first ferry across the Snake river at a point where the town of Lewiston now stands. This he operated for a short time and then returned to Benton county, Oregon, where he was called to public office, being elected to the position of deputy county clerk in 1862. He was subsequently chosen county clerk, to which office he was reelected for fifteen consecutive terms, serving an uninterrupted period of thirty years.

In 1894 he retired from public life to devote his entire attention to his business affairs, which had become extensive and important. Ever zealous and enthusiastic over the possibilities of Oregon as a great factor in the worth of the nation, in 1874 Mr. Wilson organized a corporation known as the Willamette Valley & Coast Railroad Company, which was designed to construct a railroad from Yaquina bay on the west shore of Benton county, across the state of Oregon to a connection with an eastern road then building westward, namely the Chicago & Northwestern, thus to effect a transcontinental system. Advancing from his own funds the necessary money for the surveys, he soon secured the support of other stanch citizens of the state, including the names of G. W. Houck, R. S. Strahan, J. B. Lee, John Kelsay, Sol King, B. R. Biddle, F. A. Chenoweth, J. R. Bayley, S. N. Lilly, J. S. Palmer, H. Flickinger, J. C. Avery, James Chambers, Henry Toomey, Samuel Case, W. B. Hamilton, J. M. Currier, M. Jacobs, T. E. Cauthorn, John Harris, Ashby Pearce, I. B. Henkle, B. R. Job, W. P. Keady, J. F. Henkle, J. A. Yantis, Thomas Graham, G. R. Farra, Frank Butler, Herbert Symons, F. Cauthorn, Cecil H. Coote, James McLain, A. M. Witham and Zephin' Job, all of whom were incorporators or stockholders of the original Willamette Valley & Coast Railroad Company or its subsidiaries, the Oregon Pacific Railroad Company, now the Corvallis & Eastern, and the Oregon Development Company. These intrepid and sturdy pioneers entered enthusiastically into the consummation of their various development enterprises and succeeded, despite financial depressions and obstacles interposed by jealous competitors of other proposed transcontinental systems, in build- ing the most difficult portion of their system from the coast to the summit of the Cascade mountains and establishing a five-day steamer service, with three fifteen- hundred ton steamers, between Yaquina bay and San Francisco, with daily train service to all points on the line of the railroad. The beneficial result of this system was immediately shown by the decline in freight rates of fifty per cent into Willamette valley points, which rates were maintained as long as the transportation system of Bushrod W. Wilson and his associates was in their own control. Mr. Wilson also gave his support to the building of the Oregon & California Railroad from San Francisco to Portland and was instrumental in obtaining a federal appropriation for the develop- ment of the harbor at Yaquina bay. He thus took an active and helpful part in pro- moting the work of public progress and improvement and left the impress of his individuality for good upon many lines of the state's development and upbuilding.

In 1855 Mr. Wilson was united in marriage to Miss Priscilla Owsley Yantis, a daugh- ter of James M. Yantis, who crossed the plains from Missouri to Oregon in 1852, casting in his lot with the early settlers of Linn county. He was a Presbyterian in religious faith and an active and zealous worker in behalf of the church, organizing, in association with his brother, J. Lapsley Yantis, and others, the first churches of this denomination in the northwest, these being at Marysville, now Corvallis, and at Portland. In the early days, in order to supply the pulpits of both churches, Dr. Lapsley Yantis would make the ride of ninety miles to Portland and return in all kinds of weather, every two weeks, holding services alternate weeks in the two cities. Mrs. Wilson came of a family long repre- sented in this country, the Yantises and Hamiltons settling in Virginia prior to the Revolutionary war and subsequently migrating to Kentucky wih Daniel Boone, while later they became residents of Missouri and Oregon. Mrs. Wilson proved a noble

HISTORY OF OREGON

helpmee: and from their marriage until the death of her husband the aims and am- bitions of either were the accomplishment of both. to which they set their hearts and hands with singleness of purpose, and with a well defined vision of the ultimate great- ness of their country. They became the parents of thirteen children, nine of whom reached mature years, several of the number attaining positions of prominence in medical. legal and business circles. Those who survived Mr. Wilson were: Lafayette Yantis, Eliza Belle, James Ofin. Joseph Hamilton. Robert Justice, Thomas Edwin, Minnie Angusta. Cara Helen and Bushrod Washington, Jr.

In his political views Mr. Wilson was a republican and a leader of the party in Oregon. He was frequently urged to become a candidate for the offices of governor, congressman or United States senator, but declined to serve in a public capacity, owing to the heavy demands made upon his time by the management of his extensive business interests. Always alive to the dangers of bad legislation, he was a stanch opponent of measures in the legislature inimical to the best interests of the people of the state, regardless of whether they affected his locality alone or were statewide, and he was as keenly earnest in his support of measures calculated to benefit all of the people of the state. He stood for high ideals, yet utilized practical methods in their attainment, and at all times his work was a source of benefit to the state. He passed away at Corvallis. March 4. 1900, at the age of seventy-six. and Oregon thereby lost one of its foremost pioneers and honored citizens-a man who had left his impress upon the history of the northwest and its upbuilding.

S. JULIUS MAYER.

The history of business progress and development in Portland should contain the name of S. Julius Mayer. who for a long period was identified with the manufacturing and commercial interests of the city, conducting for many years the business that is still carried on under the name of Mayer's Women's Wear, Incorporated. Mr. Mayer was born in Mannheim, Germany, July 25. 1545. and spent his early life in his native country but came to the new world in young manhood and was married in New York on the 7th of May. 1576, To Miss Estella Ackerman

In the same year Mr. and Mrs. Mayer arrived in Portland but before removing to the northwest sojourned for a time in southern California. On reaching this city Mr. Mayer purchased a half interest in the business of Henry Fleckenstein, a whole- sale liquor dealer. and the firm was afterward known as Fleckenstein & Mayer, con- ducting business on Front and Ash streets. In 1550 they removed to Second and Oak streets, where they remained until 1916. In 1911 Mr. Mayer purchased his partner's interest and conducted the business alone. He opened up a mail order house after Portiand had adopted prohibition, doing business at Hornbrook. California, just over The Oregon Line. under the name of Mayer's, Incorporated. This be conducted until 1516. when the United States passed the prohibition law. It was at that time he pur- chased an interest in the Ball Manufacturing Company at Fifth and Stark streets in Porland for his som. M. Monte. On the 1st of May. 1916. they removed to Fourth and Conch streets and in September of the same year M. Monte Mayer purchased the interest of W. J Ball and the name of the irm was changed to Marer's Women's Wear, Incor- porated. They manufacture everything in women's wearing apparel and the business is Dow one of extersive proporcions.

5. Julins Mayer was a veteran of the Civil war and ran the blockade in North Caroline wich cotion cargoes. He also traveled for the firm of Livingston & Company, wholesale liquor dealers of Los Angeles, and while in the employ of that frm saved enough money to give him his first start in business. As the years passed his com- mercial interests were ever wisely and carefully managed and success attended his havers Mayer's Women's Wear. Incorporated, in which business be was associated with ris som. now employs one hundred and ten people and their annual pay roll is between SXT EDÈ SeTELTFive thousand dollars. Mr. Mayer was also interested in the Logan- herTT Pher Manufacturing Company and his son, M. Monte, still retains the interest LE THE DOSIDORE.

The death of M. Mayer occurred in Portland on the 16th of December, 1915, and his widow surviving. is ret living in this city. They were the parents of three chil- örer Bogar J_ who was killed twenty-five years ago while in the employ of the General Eleric Coupery His death resulting from having taken bold of a live wire

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Grace R., who married Julius L. Meier, of the firm of Meier & Frank, and who is now the mother of three children-Jean, Elsa and Julius L .; and M. Monte, who married Mildred Rheinstrom of Portland, and has one son, Richard. Like his father, M. Monte Mayer is a most progressive, energetic and alert business man and carries forward to successful completion whatever he undertakes. His policy in relation to his em- ployes is a most liberal one, actuated by a kindly spirit, for the factory closes upon Friday night and business is not resumed until Monday morning, thus giving all em- ployes a good rest. Moreover, he is greatly interested in all civic interests of Portland. supporting all those activities which have to do with the upbuilding of the city and the maintenance of high standards of citizenship. He finds recreation in motoring. to which he turns when leisure permits, but his business affairs make large demands upon his time and energies. His interests have constantly grown in volume and im- portance and he is today a well known representative of the commercial and manu- facturing activity of Portland.

HENRY WAGNER.

Strong and purposeful, his resources and industry resulting in the accomplish- ment of his well defined plans, Henry Wagner has reached a creditable position in connection with the business interests of Portland. He has an extremely wide acquaint- ance in this city, for here his entire life has been passed. His birth occurred here on the 5th of September, 1864. his father being John Wagner, who was born in Hessen, Germany. The father continued to make his home in Germany until 1851, when attract- ed by the opportunities of the new world, he came to the United States, being then a youth of fifteen. For a brief period he remained in New York but afterward became a resident of New Orleans and in the year 1858 he arrived in San Francisco. After four years spent upon the Pacific coast he took up his abode in Portland and continued to make this city his home until his life's labors were ended in death. No native-born citizen displayed greater loyalty to America or a loftier patriotism. He was a most active and helpful member of many societies and did everything in his power to pro- mote the growth, extend the business relations and maintain the high civic standards of Portland and the state of Oregon. In early manhood he married Miss Charlotte Hergen- roeder, also a native of Hessen, Germany, who passed away in Portland in 1897, leaving two sons, Henry and Alexander, the latter for many years note teller in the First National Bank of Portland. The father passed away in 1907 when he reached the seventy-first milestone on life's journey.

Henry Wagner displayed marked aptitude in his studies and was but thirteen years of age when he had completed the course at school. He started upon his business career by securing employment with C. A. Landenberger, newspaper publisher, and later he attended the Portland Business College in further preparation for the respon- sible duties of business life. When fourteen years of age he obtained a position in the dry goods house of Lewis & Strauss, with whom he continued for four years, and then he decided that the practice of law would prove a more congenial and perhaps a more remunerative business than that of merchandising. With the end in view of becoming a member of the bar he began reading law under the direction of Ellis G. Hughes and in 1886 was admitted to practice at the October term of the supreme court. The following year he took up the work of the profession and concentrated his ener- gies upon building up a practice. He won many clients and was connected with much important litigation. In IS96 he was elected to the state legislature on the republican ticket and took his seat as a member of the general assembly. The following year he became connected with the Henry Weinhard brewery and upon the death of Mr. Wein- hard in 1904 became one of the managers of the estate and has so continued to the present time.

On the 21st of June, 1893, Mr. Wagner was married to Miss Louise Henrietta Weinhard, daughter of Henry Weinhard. She passed away October 24. 1905, leaving a son, Henry Weinhard Wagner, who was educated in the Portland Academy.

In social and musical, as well as business circles, Mr. Wagner has long occupied a prominent position. He was one of the organizers of the Arion Society and of the Boyer Glee Club. He also aided in the organization of the Orchestral Union, which flourished between ISS1 and 1592. He served five years in the Oregon National Guard in Company G-a company noted for its excellency in drill. He has been a valued

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member for many years of the Chamber of Commerce and of the Commercial Club and belongs to the Waverly Golf Club, Hunt Club, Arlington Club, Multnomah Athletic Club, German Aid Society and Portland Social Turn Verein. His keenest interest outside of business is perhaps felt in music, and he has done much to advance the art in Portland and to promote a love of music among his fellow townsmen. A lifelong resident of the city, he has in every way been loyal to its interests and upbuilding, and he has, more- over, in many ways contributed to its progress, leaving the impress of his individuality for good upon the development of both city and state.

WILLIAM CLIFTON CULBERTSON.

William Clifton Culbertson, one of the best known hotel proprietors on the Pacific coast, conducting both the Cornelius and the Seward Hotels of Portland, was born in Rolla, Missouri, September 12, 1874. He acquired his education in the place of his nativity, supplementing his public school training by study in the William Jewell College of Missouri, subsequent to which time he took up the study of law at Liberty, Mis- souri, and was admitted to the bar in 1897. He next went to Kansas City, Missouri, and became one of the firm of Wallace & Culbertson, in which connection he practiced for two years. He then severed his partnership relations but continued an active member of the bar of Kansas City, until March, 1913. During his residence there he served as a member of the upper house of the city council, and it was largely due to his efforts, that the Union depot of Kansas City, was built.

When Mr. Culbertson left Missouri in 1913, he went to Montana and there en- gaged in raising stock on his ranch of eight hundred and twenty-five acres. This business he pursued very successfully. In fact at every point in his career he seemed to have reached the possibility for the attainment of success at that point. He certainly deserves much credit for what he has accomplished, for he was left an orphan at a very early age and has long been dependent upon his own resources. He learned the printer's trade in his youthful days but was ambitious to make his efforts count for much more than he could hope to do if he remained at the printer's trade, and thus he qualified for the bar and was admitted to practice. The success there attained enabled him to take up stock raising in Montana. In 1919 he came to Portland and purchased the Cornelius and Seward Hotels, two of the finest hotel properties in the city. He is conducting both of these himself, and there is never a day that he does not go through his hotels from basement to garret. He has the best help in the state, as he affirms, and he employs ninety people. There is thorough cooperation between employer and employee. His hotels are famous for their management and service and "spotless town" appearance. Mr. Culbertson believes in attaining the highest standards in hotel service and has made a close study of what the public desires in the way of hotel accommodations.

Through his interest in affairs for the advancement of Portland, Mr. Culbertson at once became prominent in the city and has long ranked as one of the most progres- sive and enterprising residents here. In his fraternal relations, he is a Mason of high rank; is a member of the Mystic Shrine and also a member of the Elks. He be- longs to the Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the Kiwanis Club. He likewise holds membership in the Portland Ad Club, of which he is one of the directors for 1921, the City Club, the Press Club and in the Progressive Business Men's Club, of which he is one of the trustees.

In 1919 Mr. Culbertson was married to Mrs. Catherine Bateson, a native of Pennsylvania. She is one of the prominent ladies of Portland and has been very active in assisting her husband. It was she who originated the slogans for the two hotels: for the Seward Hotel the slogan is "House of Cheer," and for the Cornelius Hotel, "House of Welcome," and these slogans have made both of the hotels famous through- out the northwest. By her former marriage Mrs. Culbertson has a son, Cornelius Bateson, who is sixteen years of age and a young man of fine character. He is now five feet, seven and a half inches in height and weighs one hundred and seventy pounds. He is attending the Benson Polytechnic school, pursuing a technical course, and his ambition is to be a scientific farmer. Mr. Culbertson has not only gained the respect but also the love of his step-son and a close companionship exists between them. Mr. Culbertson is a broadly read man and one who always looks at life from a sane standpoint. He is always appreciative of the good in others and accepts their faults

WILLIAM CLIFTON CULBERTSON

Vol. 11-14

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as just human characteristics. He has a host of friends and possesses a wonderful faculty for retaining their regard. His earnest and genial manner impresses all who meet him with his sincerity, and the sterling worth of his character is evident to those who come in contact with him.

J. M. POWELL, M. D.

The name of Powell has ever been an honored one in connection with the ploneer development and later progress of the state of Oregon and Dr. J. M. Powell, living at Monmouth, virtually retired, now looking after his orchard and farm interests, after more than forty years of professional work, has been actuated by the spirit of advance- ment and enterprise which dominated his forbears and which has been a most effective force in the upbuilding of the west. He was born near Albany, in Linn county, Oregon, in April, 1852, a son of Franklin S. and Louisa J. (Peeler) Powell, the former a native of Illinois. The latter was born in Tennessee but was reared in Illinois. The first repre- sentative of the family in America settled In Virginia and the name has long been a prominent and honored one in the United States. The paternal grandfather, John A. Powell, crossed the plains to Oregon in 1851 as captain of a train of emigrants and locating in Linn county, took up a donation claim which he cleared and developed and also erected a sawmill. He likewise organized and built a church, of which he became pastor and served till his death. He was the first missionary Christian minister in Oregon, his labors constituting a far-reaching and effective force for good. He was a man of prominence in his community and was called to a number of public offices, being at all times loyal to the trust reposed in him. He passed away in June, 1881, and his wife died about 1887.

His son, Franklin S. Powell, followed the occupation of farming in his native state until 1851, when with his wife he crossed the plains to Oregon as a member of the company of which his father was captain, being five months in making the journey, which in those early days was a most hazardous and difficult one. He was at that time about twenty-one years of age and had married just before starting on the trip. Upon arriving in the state he took up as a donation claim a half section of prairie land in the vicinity of the present site of Albany and this he developed, adding many improvements thereto and continuing active in its operation until about 1872, when he leased the ·prop- erty and removed to Monmouth, Polk county, where he took an active part in supporting the college, church and all civic affairs, heing a liberal contributor and a large stock- holder in building a local railroad. Here he purchased a half section, which is now the property of his widow and sons, and for many years engaged in operating his land. converting it into a valuable and productive tract, but at length took up his permanent abode in Monmouth, where he lived retired throughout the remainder of his life. He was very successful in his farming operations and became the possessor of a sub- stantial competence, which he had acquired through years of hard and unremitting toil. While residing in Linn county he served as justice of the peace, school director, and also was master of the first Grange in that section, while his wife, who had success- fully followed the profession of teaching in Illinois, became teacher of the first school in their neighborhood. Wherever he lived he was called upon for public service by his fellow townsmen, who recognized his worth and ability and his public-spirited devotion to duty. While residing in Polk county he was chosen to represent his district in the state legislature and served during 1889 and 1890 as a member of that law-making body, giving earnest support to all the bills which he believed would prove beneficial to the commonwealth. While serving as a legislator he was instrumental in having Chris- tian College at Monmouth taken over by the state as a normal school, and as chairman of the board of trustees of the college he turned over to the state the ten acres of land occupied by the institution and also its buildings. He was one of the most prominent stock raisers in the state and while operating his farm in Linn county was one of the first to introduce pure bred Merino sheep into that section, while during his residence in Polk county he raised pure bred Cotswold sheep and Angora goats and cattle and he led his community in large wheat yields. He was one of the honored pioneer settlers of Oregon who shared in the hardships and privations of frontier life and aided in laying broad and deep the foundation upon which has been built the present progress and prosperity of the commonwealth. Mr. Powell passed away at Monmouth, Decem- ber 4, 1916, at the advanced age of eighty-seven years, but his widow survives and is

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History of Oregon, Vol. II, Part 27

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