USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. III > Part 10
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CHESTER A. SHEPPARD
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speaker, but his oratory is not of the flowery type. He possesses a keen, analytical mind, the ability to state his thoughts clearly and the force of his logic is convincing. While most of his work has been along the line of organizing corporations and acting as their counsel, he excels as a trial lawyer. He is a hard, conscientious worker and a man who never gives up a cause for a client until it is won or has been absolutely and finally lost, practicing his profession not for the money he may make but for the aid he is able to give his clients. Notwithstanding reverses, which have come to him mostly through business associates whom he trusted too much, contrary to his better judgment, he has accumulated substantial holdings in lands, stocks and bonds and is secretary and a director of the Monarch Mills Company. The iron constitution which he gained through years of strennous labor on the farm and through clean living has been of inestimable value to him in working his way upward in his profession and he attributes his present success in large measure to hard work, per- sistency of purpose and firm determination.
On the 20th of August, 1902, in Grant, Michigan, Mr. Sheppard was united in marriage to Miss Ethelyn C. Kriger, a daughter of Andrew C. Kriger and previous to her marriage a teacher of English. She was a former pupil in the State Normal School at Ypsilanti, Michigan, where she specialized in the study of English and composition. To this union has been born a daughter, Margaret Ethelyn.
In his political views Mr. Sheppard is a republican but is not active in politics. Fraternally he is identified with the Masons, belonging to Imperial Lodge, No. 159; to Portland Chapter, R. A. M .; to Oregon Commandery, K. T .; to the Scottish and York Rite Consistories and to Al Kader Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He is also connected with the Improved Order of Red Men and is popular in club circles of the city as a member of the Portland Golf and Multnomah Amateur Athletic Clubs. He is also identified with the Oregon State Motor Association and his professional con- nections are with the Oregon State and Multnomah County Bar Associations. His religious faith is indicated by his membership in the Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Sheppard is fond of good literature, being especially interested in the study of history and upon all the vital questions and issues of the day he keeps well informed. During the World war he served on the legal advisory board, was one of the Four- Minute speakers for Oregon and was also active in promoting the various bond drives, doing everything in his power to aid the government in its time of need. A con- suming desire to succeed in life, coupled with a dogged determination to carry out every worthy task undertaken without regard to hard work or the sacrifice of pleasure, have won for Mr. Sheppard a place among the foremost lawyers of the northwest. He is characterized by one who knows him well as follows: "The term 'sober as a judge' exactly describes his manner, which conceals a warm, sympathetic nature and a keen sense of humor, which are discovered only by recipients of his kindness and his intimate associates and friends." He devotes a few weeks each year to hunting and fishing in the mountains and is also fond of golf, and is thus leading a well balanced life conducive to vigorous mental and physical development. Starting out upon his career with no capital except the determination to succeed, he has attained success and stands today as a splendid example of that peculiarly American product -a self-made man.
JESSE O. HALES.
A prominent and progressive farmer of Umatilla county is Jesse O. Hales, resid- ing on section 36, township 4, north, range 33. He was born in Henry county, lowa. December 2, 1868, a son of Americus B. and Susie (Stubbs) Hales, both natives of the same county, in which county also their marriage was celebrated. For some time Americus Hales and his wife farmed in Iowa, but in 1875 sold their land and came to Oregon, locating one mile east and north of the present home. In addition to taking a homestead Americus B. Hales preempted a timber claim and soon brought his land into a highly cultivated state. Later he added one hundred and sixty acres. Here Mr. and Mrs. Hales resided the remainder of their lives, well known and respected citizens of the community. The father died in 1890, at the age of forty-seven years. and the mother passed away but four years ago, at the age of sixty-seven. Throughout his life Americus Hales was a stanch supporter of the republican party and both he and his wife were consistent members of the Methodist Episcopal church. In 1861,
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upon the outbreak of the Civil war, Americus B. Hales enlisted in Company K, Fourth Iowa Cavalry, with which he served four years, lacking about seven days. He was with Sherman on his march to the sea and he participated in many of the important battles of the war.
Jesse O. Hales spent his boyhood on the old home farm and received his education in the public schools of the community. He followed in the footsteps of his father, taking up farming, and is now one of the most successful and progressive members of his profession in Umatilla county. The farm is up-to-date in every respect and the farm house and outhuildings have the most modern equipment. In addition to his agricultural interests Mr. Hales is president of the Inland Mercantile Company at Adams and in financial circles'he is prominent as a stockholder in the American Na- tional Bank.
In 1892 Mr. Hales was united in marriage to Miss Grace Morrison, a daughter of John and Grace (Reed) Morrison, and a native of New Zealand. Her mother was born near Glasgow, Scotland, and her father in that city. Their marriage was celebrated there and they later removed to New Zealand, where they engaged in dairying until 1876, when they came to the United States, settling near Adams, and here Mr. Morri- son took up a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres. He improved this land and resided there until his death in 1902, at the age of seventy-five years. Mrs. Mor- rison passed away in 1898. They were representative citizens of their community and in politics Mr. Morrison always gave his allegiance to the republican party. Both Mr. and Mrs. Morrison were consistent members of the Presbyterian church and active in the interests of that organization. To the union of Mr. and Mrs. Hales two chil- dren have been born: Hilda, now Mrs. J. E. McCormack; and John, who is engaged in farming.
Since age conferred upon Mr. Hales the right of franchise he has been a stanch supporter of the republican party and the principles for which it stands. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masons and is likewise a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He is active in various affairs for the development and improvement of the community in which he resides and his reward for a life of diligence and indus- try is more than a substantial amount of success.
LOUIS BLUMAUER.
Louis Blumauer passed away on the 4th of May, 1906, and thus the city lost one who had taken an active part in shaping its history during the formative period and who for a half century was closely connected with its interests and welfare. Port- land numbered him among her native sons, his birth having here occurred on the 1st of February, 1856, and thus for fifty years his memory constituted a connecting link between the primitive past with its hardships and privations and the progressive present with its advantages and opportunities. He was a son of Simon Blumauer, who had early located in Portland.
The schools of the then little town afforded him his educational privileges and in time he was graduated from a grammar school conducted by the late Bishop Morris. He then went east for further study and in 1876 completed a course in the New York College of Pharmacy. Following his return to Portland he acquainted himself with the practical end of the retail drug trade in the store of Charles Woodward and when he felt that his knowledge and experience justified such a step he engaged in business on his own account, opening a retail drug store on First street, between Morrison and Yamhill, in 1877. There he successfully conducted his interests for several years and in 1884 organized the Blumauer-Frank Wholesale Drug Company, in association with Emil Frank. Louis Blumauer was known as one of the most practical and thorough- going business men in the northwest. All of his commercial transactions were char- acterized by a high sense of business integrity and enterprise and at all times he held to the most advanced commercial standards. He developed a trade of large propor- tions as a wholesale drug dealer, his ramifying trade connections covering a wide territory. He continued until the time of his death as president of the Blumauer-Frank Drug Company, the business becoming one of the extensive and profitable mercantile enterprises of the city.
Mr. Blumauer was united in marriage to Dr. Frances Murray, who survives him, his death having occurred on the 5th of May, 1906. In his passing Portland lost one of
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her most highly respected and valned residents. He was a public-spirited man who took great interest in everything that pertained to the benefit and welfare of the city and of the state. He was extremely charitable and during the hard times provided for many families who were in destitute circumstances. He gave most liberally where aid was needed but also most unostentatiously. He cared nothing for notoriety con- cerning his good deeds and many of his kind acts were never known save to himself and the recipient. Mr. Blnmauer was a man of very scholarly attainments. Under the direction of Rev. Dr. Rosenburg he studied Greek, Latin, Hebrew and German and he was acquainted with the best literature of all the ages. His liberal scholarship made him the prized friend and companion of many of Portland's most learned men, while at the same time his business qualifications continued him in a position of leader- ship in mercantile circles.
HON. GEORGE CLAYTON BROWNELL.
Among the most alert and astute practitioners at the bar of Oregon, and one of the most distinguished lawyers of that state, is Hon. George Clayton Brownell, ex- president of the Oregon senate. He was born at Willsboro, New York, in 1854, the son of Ambrose and Annie (Smith) Brownell. The family was of French and English de. scent and the American branch was established in New England in the earliest history of America. Ambrose Brownell was a native of New York and a famous soldier in the Civil war.
George Clayton Brownell was educated in the schools and academies of his native state and studied law in the office of the Hon. Charles Beale, who was a member of Congress for that district. In 1882 he was admitted to practice and removed to Frank- fort, Kansas, where he soon established a reputation at the bar and a place in local politics, which assured his election as mayor of the city in 1884. At the end of his term, in 1886, he removed to Ness City, Kansas, and settled there. Here he built up a large practice and served as county attorney and as attorney for the Denver, Memphis and Atlantic Railway. Still impelled by the urge of the west he came to Oregon in 1891 and in the thirty years of his residence has not only become a noted lawyer but a factor to be reckoned with in the law-making body of the state. In 1894 be was elected state senator over his opponent, W. H. Starkweather, who was an old-time resident and a member of the First Constitutional Convention. He was re-elected in 1898, defeating W. S. Urran, and again in 1902, having been nominated by acclamation in every one of the eighty-six precincts of the county. In the session of 1898 he was chosen by the re- publican caucus to present the name of Hon. Joseph Simon as United States senator. Mr. Brownell was made president of the senate in 1903, and was largely instrumental in the election of C. W. Fulton to the senate of the United States.
Mr. Brownell's record of service to the state of Oregon is one of honor. He was the introducer and had charge in the senate of the initiative and referendum measure which has changed the entire system of elections and caused the discard of the old convention method. He has always been both progressive and aggressive. He believes in the election of United States senators directly by the people. A strong advocate of woman's suffrage, as president of the senate he signed the amendment to the constitu- tion of Oregon. He was the author of a law granting the laboring man who is the head of a family, thirty days' pay free from attachment and execution for debt. Through the instrumentality of Mr. Brownell many other progressive and valuable laws were introduced and passed in Oregon. He had charge of the Clackamas County Prohibition Committee, although a republican, when the issue carried the county by thirteen hundred majority, and in 1910 was elected mayor of Oregon City. In 1917 he was elected to the House of Representatives.
Mr. Brownell was married at Rockland, Massachusetts, to Miss Alma C. Lane of that state. They have two sons: Howard, who is practicing law at Engene, Oregon; and Ambrose, who is a farmer. The latter joined the colors immediately upon his graduation from Reed College in 1917 and was sent to France where he distinguished himself in what was known as the flash and sound department and returned home with a lieutenant's commission. His handsome residence and estate at Concord, Clackamas county, has the largest holly orchard in the west.
Mr. Brownell is especially proficient as a trial lawyer, being a brilliant and con- vincing orator. In the extra session of the state legislature he introduced a resolution
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demanding the nomination of Theodore Roosevelt for president of the United States, which was carried by a large majority. His address of welcome to President Roosevelt on behalf of the Senate and the House of the state of Oregon is regarded as a master- piece.
Fraternally Mr. Brownell is connected with the Maccabees, the Woodmen of the World, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and the Red Men. As an attorney, a law- maker and a citizen of sterling character, no man stands higher than George C. Brownell.
ALFRED L. RICHARDSON, M. D.
For over thirty years Dr. Alfred L. Richardson has been prominent in the medical circles of Union county. In 1891 he began practice at La Grande and there has re- mained, having built up an extensive and lucrative practice. Dr. Alfred L. Richard- son was born in Higginsport, Brown county, Ohio, February 10, 1870, a son of Joseph T. and Margaret Jane (Bolander) Richardson, both natives of Brown county, Ohio. There the father, who was also a prominent physician, received his early education, later going to Cincinnati to obtain his medical education. Dr. Joseph T. Richardson practiced at Higginsport and at other places throughout Brown county, his calls being made on horseback or in a sulky. He was a prominent and active citizen of his com- munity and represented Brown county in the state legislature at Columbus for a number of terms. Dr. Joseph Richardson in later life removed to Cumberland county, Illinois, where in addition to his practice he engaged in farming, having purchased some raw land which he cultivated by the aid of ox-teams. The death of Dr. Richard- son occurred at the age of forty-two years, as the result of typhoid fever which had been easily contracted in his overworked condition. Throughout his life Dr. Richard- son was a stanch supporter of the democratic party and as a member of the Masonic fraternity he had had conferred upon him the honorary thirty-third degree. Both he and his wife were consistent members of the Christian church. Mrs. Richardson sur- vived her husband for a number of years. Her death occurred at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Ellen R. Mason of La Grande, on November 5, 1917, at the advanced age of eighty-seven years. She was well known in La Grande as an active member of the Christian church, in which denomination she had taken a prominent part for seventy-five years.
At the age of two and one-half years Alfred L. Richardson left his native state, removing to Illinois with his parents and located in Neoga. There he received his early education and graduated from the high school. Determining upon a medical career, he entered the American Medical College at St. Louis, Missouri, in 1887, from which he was graduated in 1890. He then took postgraduate work in St. Louis until the latter part of that year. Deciding upon the west as a likely location in which to practice, he left for Oregon, and on the 23d of April, 1891, arrived in La Grande. The town then had a population of about twelve hundred people and he established offices on the site where the Huntington block now stands. It was not long before Dr. Richardson became known as a physician of ability and his practice became an ex- tensive and lucrative one. For thirty years he has made La Grande his home and in this time he has made many friends, who appreciate his true personal worth and his many sterling characteristics. His practice has so grown that he erected a fine office building, supervising the work himself. There all the up-to-date equipment necessary for his profession may be found. Dr. Richardson has never given up the study of his profession but applies himself diligently in order to keep up with the rapid strides being made in its advancement. In 1900 he attended the Bennett Medical College at Chicago, completing his course there in 1901, and since then he has done postgraduate work in Chicago, New York, Boston and with the Mayo Brothers at Rochester, Minne- sota. Dr. Richardson was the pioneer promoter of the present Grand Ronde Hospital, is one of the large stockholders and is the secretary-treasurer and manager of this very efficient institution. In addition to his professional interests Dr. Richardson takes an active interest in agriculture and he owns a two hundred and forty acre dairy, alfalfa and hay ranch, located near Baker city. The popularity of Dr. Richard- son has been manifest in his election to the office of mayor on two different occasions and he was a prominent member of the city council for three years.
In 1898 occurred the marriage of Dr. Richardson and Miss Lilian May Bates, a
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DR. ALFRED L. RICHARDSON
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daughter of James Adison and Mary A. (Leach) Bates, and a native of Cuba, Missouri. Mrs. Richardson came west at the age of fourteen years. She is the possessor of a beautiful soprano voice, having been a student under Oscar Sanger of New York, Mrs. Rose Coursen Reed of Portland, Oregon, and Arthur Alexander of Paris, France. She is well known musically as a soloist throughout the northwest.
The political allegiance of Dr. Richardson has always been given to the democratic party, in the activities of which he has ever taken an active interest. Fraternally he is identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. Dr. Richardson is appreciative of the social amenities of life and to this end is a member of the La Grande Country Club, of which he is a director. He is accorded high professional recognition by the other members of his profession throughout the county and state and is acknowledged to be a repre- sentative citizen of La Grande, Union county.
JOHN GEORGE HEIMRICH.
John George Heimrich is one of the valued residents of The Dalles. Through the long years of his connection with the northwest he has been identified with the develop- ment of mining interests, with the building of railroads and with the conduct of com- mercial and financial interests to an extent that places him in the front rank of the foremost citizens of the state. He was born at Hooper, Nebraska, in 1875, his parents being John and Elizabeth (Knoell) Heimrich. The father was a native of Ohio and served his country as a soldier of the Union army in the Civil war. After hostilities had ceased he removed to Nebraska in 1865 and established the first successful brick manufacturing plant in that state. It had been said that the clay of Nebraska could not be utilized in making brick, but Mr. Heimrich demonstrated that he knew the business thoroughly and for nineteen years continued to operate successfully along the line of brick manufacturing. He also established the first bank at Hooper, Ne- braska, and became its president, while at the same time he occupied the presi- dency of two other banks in that state. From 1884 until 1888 he represented his county in the legislature of Nebraska and left the impress of his individuality and ability upon the laws which were enacted during his connection with the general assem- bly. In 1888 he became interested in gold mining at Mercur, Utah, and was there for- tunate enough to locate the mother lode of that district.
John George Heimrich was educated in the graded and high schools of Hooper, Nebraska, also in the University of Nebraska and in the Omaha Business College. He started upon his business career as a clerk in the Bank of Hooper and while there he learned of the McArthur-Forest cyanide process for extracting gold. His father's venture in the mining game was not proving profitable, so that the young man took up the new process with his father, with the result that he journeyed to Utah to test the value of cyanide extraction. After many vicissitudes in the business success was reached and in three years the Mercur Gold Mining & Milling Company paid in dividends three and a quarter million dollars. The mine was located sixteen miles from the town of Fairfield, on the Oregon Short Line, and the ores had to be transported by teams at great expense. John G. Heimrich was one of the important factors in the building of a railroad and finally the plans resulted in the construction of the Salt Lake & Mercur Railroad, with a length of twenty-nine miles, graded around hilltops to such an extent that at one point there were fourteen tracks one above the other. The Mercur mine interests were at length sold to and controlled by Captain De La Mar of New York. Mercur, due to the efforts of the Heimrichs, was developed from a town of practically nothing to a city of more than seven thousand population.
In 1896 John Heimrich, father of John George Heimrich, went to Seattle, Wash- ington, with the intention of investigating conditions in the Klondike. He decided to engage in business in connection with Klondike interests and organized the Northwest Commercial Company for the purpose of furnishing supplies to Alaskans. John G. Heimrich remained in charge of the Utah property until it was transferred to Captain De La Mar in 1899, when he followed his father to the Puget Sound city. There he became secretary of the Washington Trust Company and a member of the executive committee of the Washington Trust Bank. He remained in Seattle until 1904, when he went to The Dalles to look after the interests of the bank in connection with a pro- posed railroad which at that time was but a survey and right of way from The Dalles
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to Friend, a distance of forty-three miles. Mr. Heimrich proceeded to build the road and having settled the claims against the promoter, opened the road for the transporta- tion of the 1905 crop. He became general manager of the road and still holds that position. The line is known as the Great Southern Railway and has proven a blessing to Wasco county, serving as it does the ranchers from The Dalles to Friend and con- necting with the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company at The Dalles. Mr. Heimrich is also president of the Manchester Box & Lumber Company, large manufacturers of boxes and crates and also conducting an extensive business as lumber dealers. He established at Friend the Wasco Pine Box & Lumber Company, of which he is presi- dent and manager, and in this connection operates a large sawmill. His business inter- ests are indeed extensive and important. His father passed away in 1913, leaving a very large estate in a twenty-five year trust, of which John G. Heimrich is the trustee. The estate among its other assets has valuable business property in several sections, notably Seattle, where the holdings include the Maritime building occupying an entire block on Western avenue, the wholesale center of the city, also the Produce building, occupying the entire block opposite. This one piece of realty alone is worth more than a million dollars. From early manhood John G. Heimrich was associated with his father in business, the efforts of the one ably rounding out and supplementing the labors of the other. He is a man of most progressive spirit and notably keen business insight. Whatever he undertakes he carries forward to successful completion. His path has never been strewn with the wreck of other men's failures, for he has followed constructive methods and has been the builder and promoter of many important projects which have led to the prosperity and greatness of the state.
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