History of Oregon, Vol. II, Part 5

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

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HENRY WALDO COE, M. D.

Dr. Henry Waldo Coe was born in Waupun, Wisconsin, November 4, 1857, his father being Samuel Buel Coe, M. D., and his mother Mary (Chronkhite) Coe. He is a direct descendant, tenth in line, of Robert Coe, Puritan, who landed in New England from England in 1634, and on his mother's side is of old Knickerbocker stock. The Spelman genealogy gives Dr. S. B. Coe as a cousin of the late elder Mrs. John D. Rockefeller.

Dr. Henry Waldo Coe spent his boyhood days at Morristown, Minnesota, where his parents moved from Wisconsin in 1863. The father was a surgeon in the First Minnesota Heavy Artillery in the Civil war. Two ancestors were captains in Colonial wars-John Coe and his son John-while a later progenitor, James Coe, was a corporal in the Revolutionary war, on account of whose service Dr. Coe and his sons are Sons of the American Revolution. Dr. Henry Waldo Coe volunteered and had provision- ally been accepted by Colonel Roosevelt for his proposed overseas volunteer army as a base hospital surgeon, but when Colonel Roosevelt's project failed of government acceptance Dr. Coe was unable to secure admission into the great war, though at home he took an active part in all war activities in bond sales, Y. M. C. A., Red Cross and other auxiliary work. His three sons, George Clifford, Wayne Walter and Earl Alphonso, all college boys, volunteered as privates for such service, the two older and first men-

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DR. HENRY WALDO COE

HISTORY OF OREGON

tioned having risen in service from the ranks to lieutenants. Their records appear later on herein.

Dr. Coe, after a high school education, took his college course at the University of Minnesota and studied medicine at the University of Michigan and Long Island College Hospital, graduating at the latter in 1880. He did much postgraduate work in this country and abroad.

He located at Mandan, North Dakota, in 1880, where he was surgeon for the Northern Pacific Railroad, superintendent of the state board of health and president of the State Medical Society. Here also he was mayor of his little city and was the first member of the legislature from the state, then territory, of North Dakota, from west of the Missouri river, representing thirteen counties. He was president of the Oregon branch of the Roosevelt Memorial Association, and is one of the trustees of the National Roosevelt Memorial Association.

In 1891, seeking a larger field, with his wife and a young child, George Clifford Coe, he moved to Portland, Oregon, where he has since resided, taking an active part in medical affairs and a leading position in the development of this state, where within a few years his two other sons were born.

Among the medical positions he has held in Portland are those of professor of anatomy and of nervous and mental diseases in the Willamette University and neu- rologist of the old Portland Hospital; secretary of the Portland Clinical Society; president of the State Medical Society; president of the Portland City and County Medical Society; member of the house of delegates of the American Medical Associa- tion. He is a member in these medical societies today and also of the American Medico-Psychological Society, and an ex-president of the American Medical Editors As- sociation, and for thirty years a life member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a member of the Scottish Rite and Shrine orders of Masonry.

He is affiliated with the Congregational church, the church of his New England ancestors. He belongs to the Chamber of Commerce, the City Realty Board, the Pro- gressive Business Men's Club, the Multnomah Amateur Athletic Club, the Rosarians and the Arlington Club. He is a life member of the Portland Rowing Club and the Portland Yacht Club.

While president of the American Medical Editors Association, he made a special trip to investigate hygienic conditions at Panama and to furnish a private report of his findings, which were altogether favorable, to President Roosevelt.

While in the east securing the American Medical Association for Portland for 1905, he was in 1904, in a few days' campaign, elected by Portland to the state senate, a vacancy having unexpectedly occurred in the republican ticket a few days before the election. He was at the time the choice of both republican factions and elected by one of the largest majorities ever given a state senator from Portland.

He was until the death of Theodore Roosevelt a warm personal friend, and en- joyed, until the death of the ex-president, to a marked degree the confidence of the elder Theodore, a friendship then extending hack for thirty-five years to the early days of Dakota, where both were for the time being pioneers in territorial days. For seven years, while Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House, Dr. Henry Waldo Coe was the confidential associate as to Oregon matters, being often called to Wash- ington for conference touching the then somewhat distracted political situation in the republican party in this state, and on several occasions, though not always, he was able to pacify disturbing conditions.

Dr. Coe, as a republican, was either a delegate or alternate to five consecutive national conventions of that party. He avoided local and state political activity in Oregon, and it was only when Theodore Roosevelt suggested that he should do his mite in national politics that he somewhat reluctantly attempted to do so. In 1908 he helped in the convention to nominate Taft and took charge of the financial portion of the campaign, raising all the funds for the Oregon campaign and sending for the first time from Oregon ten thousand dollars to the national republican committee.

He was again a delegate in 1912, following his great leader into the progressive party movement, and was for the new party national committeeman for Oregon. He was one of the original signers of the Declaration of Rights calling the progressive national convention to meet in Chicago in 1912. In 1916 he joined with thirty-five other progressive national committeemen in the endorsement of the republican nominee.

In 1893 Dr. Coe established in Portland The Medical Sentinel, which ever since he has successfully carried forward. He was well fitted for publication work, as his

HISTORY OF OREGON

first financial venture was a newspaper at Morristown, Minnesota, and later he estab- lished the Northern Pacific Times at Valley City, North Dakota, while he was still under age and not yet a physician. At one time he was secretary of the Oregon Press Association.

In 1894 he established his sanitarium for nervous and mental diseases for the care of patients, in the specialty to which in medicine he thereafter confined his pro- fessional work, organizing what is now known as Morningside Hospital. Later he withdrew from private practice and since 1910 has devoted himself to his sanitarium work, which has since that date cared for only United States government cases, the largest private institution for nervous and mental diseases on the Pacific coast, and which is entirely owned by Dr. Coe. At present there are two hundred and forty patients therein domiciled.

Dr. Coe has been largely interested in good sized business enterprises in the northwest, including farming, dairying, mining, fruit raising and banking. It was he who colonized the Furnish-Coe Irrigation Project in Umatilla county, Oregon, and he laid out the town of Stanfield in the same region, and is a large owner of productive lands on the project and much improved property in the little city he established.

He organized and was the first president of the First National Bank of Kelso, Washington, the First National Bank at St. Johns, Oregon, and the Bank of Stanfield, and is still actively interested in the little bank. He also helped organize the Scan- dinavian Bank of Portland, now the State Bank of Portland, and was a vice president therein, as well as a director in the Scandinavian Savings Bank of Astoria. He has built many substantial edifices in Portland and elsewhere, including the magnificent home at Twenty-fifth and Lovejoy, which he presented to his first wife.

Dr. Coe again married, March 25, 1915. His bride was Miss Elsie Ara Waggoner. With her and his sons he lives in Laurelhurst, on Royal Court avenue, a quiet, con- tented and happy life, at peace with all the world.

He is a great traveler and has been in almost every corner of the world. He spends several weeks in Washington, D. C., each winter, and has enjoyed special honors at the White House. Twice during the term of President Taft he was the dinner guest of President and Mrs. Taft at the White House, while often before Dr. Coe was the guest at the White House at the table of President Roosevelt. He is erecting a bronze heroic equestrian statue to President Roosevelt in Portland to be completed in 1921, by his sculptor A. Phimister Proctor. He is deeply interested in bronzes the world over. He provided to the women of America, erecting the Sacajawea monu- ment in the Portland City Park, the bronze therein-some two tons of metal.

Dr. and Mrs. Coe spent the summer of 1920 in travel in Europe, where Dr. Coe went in study of mental and nervous diseases in soldiers one, two, three and four years later after war service than could be done in America. Mrs. Coe went for travel and a study of the old masters in sculpture, bronze and painting.

George Clifford Coe was born in Mandan, North Dakota, in 1885, graduated from Portland Academy, Belmont School and Stanford University and the Graduate School of Harvard University; enlisted as a private in the medical section of the United States Signal Corps, Camp Fremont, California, in May, 1918. Later was transferred to the Fourth Officers Training Camp at Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky, and re- ceived his commission as second lieutenant in field artillery and was assigned to the Ammunition Train of the Thirteenth Division, where he trained troops at Camp Travis, San Antonio, Texas. He is now manager of a blooded stock farm in Lovell, Maine.

Wayne Walter Coe was born at Portland, Oregon, in 1894. Graduated at Port- land Academy and Oregon Agricultural College and attended the Graduate School of Cornell University for one year. Enlisted as a private July 30, 1917, in Base Hospital Unit, No. 46, at Portland, Oregon. Was transferred to Third Officers Training Camp, Camp Lewis, Washington, January 5, 1918, successfully completing the course in field artillery; promoted to sergeant and recommended for a commission. Sailed for Europe, May 23, 1918, in a casual detachment. Detailed to Saumur Artillery School, France, where he was commissioned as second lieutenant of field artillery. Transferred to the Air Service and trained as aerial observer, Second Aviation Instruction Center, Tours, France. Assigned to the Eighty-fifth Aerial Squadron, Toul Air Dome, November 5, 1918, and remained on active flying duty with his squadron until discharged in August, 1919. Later served in the army of occupation on the Rhine. He is now acting as assistant to his father.

Earl Alphonso Coe was born at Portland, Oregon, in 1896. Graduated at Portland Academy and after return from overseas at Oregon Agricultural College, enlisted in

HISTORY OF OREGON

the regular army September, 1917, as a private and was at once assigned to the Seven- teenth Field Artillery, Battery B, then training at Camp Robinson, Wisconsin. He sailed for France, December, 1917, and remained with this outfit of the Second Division throughout their six campaigns, ending in the triumphant march to the Rhine, where in the army of occupation he remained until mustered out in April, 1919. In 1920 he spent six months in, and graduated from a business college at Washington, D. C. He is now, under civil service, an attache of the Market Division of the Agricultural Department, Washington, D. C.

M. D. MORGAN.

M. D. Morgan, editor and lessee of the Harrisburg Bulletin, published at Har- risburg, Linn county, was born in Dubuque, Iowa, May 16, 1876, a son of John and Bertha (Moan) Morgan, the former a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, while the latter was born in Norway. The father accompanied his parents on their removal to Platteville, Wisconsin, and there followed the wheelwright's trade. He was an honored veteran of the Civil war, enlisting as a member of Company I, Tenth Wisconsin Infantry, with which he served for two years, when he was discharged on account of illness. On regaining his health he reenlisted, becoming a member of Company I, Twenty-seventh Wisconsin Infantry, and served with that command until the close of the war. He received a number of wounds and several times was taken prisoner but succeeded in making his escape. At the close of hostilities he returned to his Wisconsin home, but after a short time went to Dubuque, Iowa, where his marriage occurred. In 1877 he went to Dows, Iowa, and opened a wagon shop, continuing its conduct until ill health compelled him to retire. Coming to the west in search of a brother, he reached the state of Oregon, and finding the mild climate here to his liking, he took up his abode in Salem in 1904, there residing until 1909, when he removed to Harrisburg, in which city he spent his remaining days. He passed away April 30, 1915, and the mother survived him but a year, her death occurring May 31, 1916.

M. D. Morgan was reared and educated in Dows, Iowa, and there learned the printer's trade, which he followed in different parts of the country. Subsequently he took up the study of telegraphy and for two years worked at that occupation, but not finding it to his liking, he resumed his former trade of printer and on the 1st of January, 1899, purchased the Renwick (Ia.) Times, which he operated for two years and then sold. Purchasing the Butler County Tribune, published at Allison, Iowa, he continued to conduct that paper for a period of six years and, then decided to seek other fields of operation and came to Oregon, becoming connected with the Statesman, issued at Salem, where he remained until July, 1908. His next venture was in connection with the Harrisburg (Ore.) Bulletin, which he operated until December 1, 1917, and then sold, purchasing a farm near Harrisburg, in Linn county, but this investment did not prove a profitable one. He carried on his farming operations entirely by tractor, but owing to continued drought his crops proved a failure and he was obliged to abandon the project. He then went to Van- couver, Washington, where he once more took up his former trade, becoming con- nected with The Columbian, having charge of the job department and doing editorial work. In June, 1919, he returned to Harrisburg and leased his old paper, the Bulle- tin, which he has since conducted. He is thoroughly at home in this line of work, owing to his long connection with newspaper interests, and he is making the Bulletin a very readable and attractive journal, devoted to the interests of the community which it serves and to the dissemination of home news. He has introduced the most progressive methods in management and publication and has added to the substantial reputation which the Bulletin has always enjoyed. Mr. Morgan is still the owner of his farm near Harrisburg. It comprises one hundred and fourteen acres and from its rental he derives a substantial addition to his income.

On the 20th of February, 1901, occurred the marriage of M. D. Morgan and Miss Lola Irene Michael, and they have become the parents of eight children: Leland, who assists his father in the publication of the Bulletin; Wayne, who is also con- nected with the work of the paper; Genevieve, who is the second in order of birth; and Joseph, Carroll, Donald, Irene and Edith.

Mr. Morgan gives his political allegiance to the republican party and has taken

HISTORY OF OREGON

an active interest in public affairs of his community, serving as a member of the various town councils in the communities in which he has resided. Fraternally he is identified with the Masonic order. He stands at all times for improvement in everything relating to the development and upbuilding of the county along intellectual, political, material and moral lines, and in his editorial capacity he is producing a newspaper of much interest and value to the community in which he lives.

HENRY FAILING.

It was upon the 9th of June, 1851, that Henry Failing arrived in Portland as a passenger on the Steamer Columbia, then one of the fleet of the Pacific Steamship Com- pany. Years later when Portland celebrated its carnival of roses when millions of the beautiful queen of flowers had justly won for Portland the name of the Rose City, Henry Failing could look back to that other June day, when with his father, Josiah Failing, and his younger brother, John W. Failing, he made his way up the Columbia river and on to the little town of three or four hundred population which at that time con- sisted of only one or two streets bordering the Willamette, but which was destined to become one of the great metropolitan and trade centers of the northwest. A fellow passenger on the same ship was C. H. Lewis and for many years the two celebrated the anniversary of their arrival in the city together. Great, indeed, was the contrast in his condition when he became a resident of Portland to that which he had left in the east, for he was not only a resident but a native of New York city. His birth occurred January 17, 1834, his parents being Josiah and Henrietta (Ellison) Failing, of whom mention is made elsewhere in this work.

He received thorough educational training in his early youth but continued to attend school only until April, 1846, when at the age of twelve years he started out in the business world as office boy in the counting house of L. F. de Figanere & Com- pany on Platt street, in New York. The senior partner of the firm was a brother of the Portuguese minister to the United States, while another member of the firm was Mr. Rosat, a French merchant from Bordeaux. The house was patronized by many French dealers of New York and while connected with the establishment Mr. Failing was required to speak and to write the French language with which he was already familiar. He readily mastered business principles and became an expert accountant. His next position was that of bookkeeper in the large dry goods jobbing house of Eno, Mahoney & Company, the senior partner in this firm being Amos R. Eno, a New York millionaire, who afterward told an intimate friend that it was one of the mistakes of his business life that he did not make it more of an inducement for Henry Failing to remain with him. However, the business association between the two men ripened into a warm friendship that was terminated only by death. Mr. Failing applied him- self with the utmost thoroughness to the mastery of every task assigned him and to the work of acquainting himself with every modern business principle and thus he had gained wide knowledge and valuable experience when he joined his father and brother on the trip to the west, leaving New York on the 15th of April, 1851. The journey was made from New York to Chagres, Panama, whence they proceeded by boat up the Chagres river and thence to Panama by mule train. On reaching the western coast of the isthmus they took passage on the Steamer Tennessee, which eventually brought them to San Francisco and as previously stated the 9th of June witnessed their arrival in Portland. It was the intention of Henry Failing and his father to engage in merchandising and they at once began the erection of a store building on Front and Oak streets, where in due course of time they installed their stock sent to them from the east. The father also became a prominent factor in the public life of the little community and in the year following their arrival was elected a member of the first city council of Portland and in 1853 became mayor. Following his father's retirement from the business in 1864 Henry Failing continued the management of the store alone, extending the scope of his activities to meet the changing conditions brought about by the rapid growth of the city and consequent demands along mercantile lines. He gained substantial success as a merchant and in 1869 became a factor in the banking circles of Portland where he joined with his father, Josiah Failing, and the Hon. H. W. Corbett in purchasing a controlling interest in the First National Bank from A. M. and L. M. Starr, who had been prominent in the establishment of the bank in 1866. Mr. Failing was continuously president of the bank from 1869 until his death and a

HENRY FAILING

HISTORY OF OREGON

controlling spirit in the institution, which became one of the strongest moneyed con- cerns of the northwest. He had no sooner assumed charge than the capital stock was increased from one hundred to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which sum was doubled in 1880, at which time the legal surplus and undivided profits amounted to more than the capital stock of five hundred thousand dollars. Year after year extensive divi- dends were paid to the stockholders and the bank became recognized as one of the most prominent financial enterprises on the coast. In January, 1871, Mr. Failing and Mr. Corbett also consolidated their mercantile enterprises, organizing the firm of Cor- bett, Failing & Company, which maintained an existence for more than twenty-two years.

A contemporary biographer has said of him: "Something of the cosmopolitan inter- ests of Mr. Failing is indicated in the fact that not only was he one of the most dis- tinguished and capable merchants and bankers of Portland, but was also equally active in his efforts in behalf of political, intellectual and moral porgress. He believed it the duty as well as the privilege of every American citizen to support through political activity and by his ballot the measures that he deemed most beneficial to the community and to the country at large. His position was never a matter of doubt. He stood loy- ally for what he believed to be right and advocated a policy which he believed to be both practical and progressive. He was made chairman of the state central committee of the Union party, a combination of republicans and war democrats, who in 1862 car- ried Oregon for the Union. Two years later, when thirty years of age, he was chosen mayor of Portland and his administration constituted an era of development, improve- ment and reform in connection with Portland's affairs. During his first administration a new city charter was obtained, a system of street improvements adopted and much good work was done. So uniform was the endorsement of his first term that at his reelection there were only five dissenting votes. In 1873 he was chosen for a third term and as chief executive of the city he advocated and supported much municipal legisla- tion, which is still felt in its beneficial effects in Portland. In 1885 he became a member of the water committee and when that committee was organized was unanimously chosen chairman, thus serving until his death. He was never bitterly aggressive in politics nor indulged in personalities. He believed in the principles which he advocated and, there- fore, supported them, but he allowed to each the right of individual opinion. His mar- velous judgment and powers of exact calculation are well illustrated by his service as chairman of the water committee. For many years he, substantially unaided, annually made the estimates required by law of the receipts and expenditures of the committee for the year next ensuing. These estimates are, under the varied circumstances neces- sarily considered in making them, characteristic of him and some of them are marvels of exactness. His estimate of the cost of operation, maintenance, repairs and interest for the year 1893 was one hundred thousand dollars and the actual outlay was one hundred thousand, two hundred and eleven dollars and ninety-one cents. His estimate of receipts for the year 1892 was two hundred and forty thousand dollars and the receipts actually collected were two hundred and thirty-seven thousand, three hundred dollars and eighty-five cents. His estimate of the receipts for the year 1897 was two hundred and thirty-two thousand dollars. The amount actually collected was two hun- dred and thirty-one thousand, eight hundred and sixty dollars and ninety-five cents. The magnitude of the task of making these estimates is emphasized when the fact is considered that not only the fluctuations in the population of a large city must be con- sidered, but climatic conditions anticipated and the amount of water consumed in irrigation based thereon; the amount of building and the volume of trade considered and an estimate made of the water consumed in building and in the use of elevators. These various sources of revenue were all carefully considered and estimates made which were in excess of the actual income in but trifling amounts.

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History of Oregon, Vol. II, Part 5

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