USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. III > Part 61
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When Mr. Hislop received his discharge in August he found himself in possession of nearly five hundred dollars. He then went to the Great Lakes and shipped as a cook on one of the boats. In the following spring he went to St. Louis and there engaged as porter on the steamer Amelia Poe, bound for Fort Benton, Montana. Sixty- one days were required to make the trip and while traveling through the Dakotas and northern territory, for one thousand miles they did not see a single white man. Great herds of buffaloes and antelopes were upon the plains of the west and the Sioux and Blackfoot Indians were numerous.
On reaching Fort Benton, Mr. Hislop hired out to drive a six-mule team for a freighter who proved to be a bully, but Mr. Hislop suffered no abuse because of the fact that he always kept his gun near him, though his employer weighed twice Mr. Hislop's weight. Helena was just being laid out and any individual could locate two city lots for the two-dollar filing fee. Mr. Hislop secured the two lots and then had one of the deck hands of the steamer locate another two for him, his property being situated in the block that is next to the site of the courthouse at the present time. Each owner was required to make some improvements on his property and this Mr. Hislop did by building a fence around it. In the fall of the same year he sold his lots for one hundred and forty dollars-an excellent return on his investment of four dollars, which was the price he had paid. After attempting unsuccessfully to do some mining he became a cook in a private boarding house and then, with the spirit of western adventure still upon him, he purchased a mule and saddle and rode to Walla Walla. After selling his mule there he proceeded by stage to Wallula and thence by boat to Portland. He then arranged to go by boat to Cowlitz and there hired a saddle horse to take him to Puget Sound. At Port Townsend he shipped before the mast on a vessel bound for China and spent some time at Hongkong, Amoy and Swatow. He then sailed on an Italian ship from Hongkong to San Francisco and as a deck hand came from the latter city to Portland.
Mr. Hislop's advent here was not heralded by any blare of trumpets as the on- coming of a successful business man. His cash capital consisted of but ten cents and he had no baggage beyond the clothes which he wore. Finding that a foundation was being dug at First and Stark streets, he applied for work and was given a job at two dollars per day. Just across the street the foundation was being laid for the Ladd & Tilton Bank, and after six weeks Mr. Hislop obtained work at mixing cement and helping install the iron work of the new bank building, W. S. Ladd daily watching the progress of construction. When the building was completed he approached Mr. Hislop and after talking with him for a few minutes proposed that he accept the position of messenger in the bank at a salary of fifty dollars per month. Mr. Hislop did so and was in the employ of the bank for about three years. Early in that period Mr. Ladd one day said to him: "You are getting fifty dollars a month and your room here in the bank. You can save some money. My advice to you is to save all you can and put it in Portland property. We have resources here for a big city and you will probably live to see Portland become one of the big cities of the west." Mr. Hislop never forgot the advice and in fact embraced every opportunity to follow it. In the course of his active career he probably owned something like two hundred pieces of real estate in Portland, on which he would make a small payment and then sell out a little later at a larger figure. It was his real estate investments which enabled him in time to write his check in six figures, and from the humble position of a foundation digger he rose until he ranked with the substantial citizens and business men of his adopted state.
On the 14th of April, 1871, Mr. Hislop was united in marriage to Miss Louisa Douglas, a daughter of John and Catherine Douglas, the former a native of New York,
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while his parents were natives of Scotland. Mrs. Douglas was born in Pennsylvania. In 1868 Mr. and Mrs. Douglas came to Oregon, settling in Portland, where the former was captain of the ferry plying between the east and west sides of the city across the Willamette. He continued in this business until his death, which occurred in 1875. He and his wife had traveled westward by way of the Isthmus route and when they arrived in Portland there was but one brick building in the town, this being the Ladd & Tilton Bank, in which Mr. Hislop had obtained his first real position after arriving in the city. To Mr. and Mrs. Hislop were born five children: Eva M., the wife of Casper Kilgore of Portland, and now the mother of a daughter, Edith, who has become the wife of John Vielhauer and has two children, Jack and Dorothy; Clara, who is the wife of Marion Johnson and has a daughter, Marion Louise; Louise, at home; and two children who died in infancy.
Mr. Hislop always took an active part in politics, yet was never an office seeker. He served, however, for many years as a school director and the cause of education ever found in him a stalwart champion. His political endorsement was given to the republican party, which he supported from the time he became a naturalized American citizen. He possessed many excellent traits of character and though he suffered the lack of many advantages in his youth he came to be a man of excellent business judg- ment, recognized as well as a substantial citizen and one whose friends could count upon his sincerity and his loyalty.
LADRU BARNUM.
Identified with the growth and development of The Dalles, Ladru Barnum has for years been one of the most prominent citizens of this part of the state and is at present the managing vice president of the First National Bank of The Dalles. He was born at Moro, Sherman county, Oregon, in May, 1877, a son of Henry Barnum, who was a pioneer of that county. The father for years was engaged in the freighting and stockraising business, from which he accumulated a handsome competence. He died in 1881, when his son Ladru was only a child of four years. He married Elmira M. Masicker, also a member of a pioneer family. Mr. Barnum was a most benevolent man and in his will he provided for the maintenance of a school which he had built and presented to the county. Each child who attended this school was to receive a bonus of seventy-five dollars per year, provided he or she had attended a full three months of the school year, and it was at this school that Ladru Barnum obtained his early educational training. At the age of twenty he entered the Portland Business College, from which he graduated in 1898, and immediately thereafter became clerk in a general mercantile establishment in his home county where he remained for about a year. In 1900 he accepted employment with the Wasco Warehouse & Milling Com- pany, and remained with that corporation for nineteen years, rising from the post of collector to that of manager of the banks controlled by that company.
During his service with the Wasco Warehouse & Milling Company, Mr. Barnum was honored by his fellow citizens with many positions of trust and responsibility. For twelve years he was mayor and councilman of Moro; school director for elght years; and filled other positions. He was for many years chairman of the republican county committee of Sherman county, and for seventeen years he represented Sherman county as a member of the republican state central committee.
On March 6, 1919, Mr. Barnum was elected managing vice president of the First National Bank of The Dalles, one of the soundest and most important financial institu- tions in the state. He is also vice president of the Bank of Moro; a director of the Bank of Wasco and of the Eastern Oregon Banking Company of Shaniko. He has proved himself a resourceful and useful citizen of central Oregon. He was the prime mover in securing a loan to the farmers of Sherman county in 1912-13-14, which saved many of them from what at one time looked like ruin, the amount obtained from east- ern sources for that purpose being nearly three-quarters of a million dollars.
Mr. Barnum is a warm supporter of various orders of a fraternal character. He stands high in Masonic circles, having filled all the offices in the blue lodge, is a Knight Templar and thirty-second degree Mason, and also a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. As an Odd Fellow, he has also filled all the chairs in his lodge, and he is a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks. During the World war, he freely gave of his time and money to the service of his country and was chairman of every bond and
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stamp drive carried out in Sherman county, as well as participating in the drives organized by the Young Men's Christian Association. He acted as food administrator of his county, and no cause calculated to help this country in winning the war found him a slacker.
In 1900 Mr. Barnum was united in marriage to Miss May Kunsman, of Sherman county, and to this union no children have been born. However, they have reared and educated a sister and brother of Mrs. Barnum. Mr. Barnum and his wife stand high in the friendship and esteem of the citizens of The Dalles, and they are ever to be found assisting any cause calculated to advance the interests of the community where they are so well and favorably known.
JAMES H. MCMENAMIN.
James H. McMenamin, a prominent attorney of Portland, is also well known as a progressive agriculturist and stock raiser and in both lines of activity his efforts have been rewarded with a substantial measure of success. He is a native of the east, his birth having occurred in East Greenbush, New York, April 27, 1877. His parents were P. J. and Mary McMenamin, the former of whom engaged in farming in Illinois for many years but is now living retired in the enjoyment of a well earned rest. The mother has passed away, her demise occurring in July, 1913.
James H. McMenamin pursued his collegiate course at Valparaiso University of Valparaiso, Indiana, from which he was graduated in June, 1902, with the degree of LL. B. He at once entered upon the work of his profession and for about a year was connected with the law firm of Gregory, Poppenhausen & McNab of Chicago. In 1903 he heard and heeded the call of the great northwest and, going to Tacoma, Washington, opened a law office. For ten years he successfully practiced his profession in that city and was accorded a position of distinction in the ranks of its legal fraternity, serving for eight years of that period as secretary of the Tacoma Bar Association. In 1912 he removed to Portland and has since engaged in practice in this city, his ability being attested in the large clientage accorded him. He is thorough and painstaking in the preparation of his cases, is clear and cogent in his reasoning and logical in his deductions, and his name figures on the court records in connection with the most im- portant cases tried in the district.
This, however, is but one phase of Mr. McMenamin's activity, for he is also ex- tensively engaged in farming and stock raising in Clarke county, Washington, being the owner of what is considered the best improved ranch in that section of the state. His property embraces three hundred and twenty acres, upon which he has erected an attractive residence fitted with electric light, hot water heat and all the comforts and conveniences of the most up-to-date city dwelling. His barns are large, substantial buildings, equipped with the latest appliances for dairying, grinding grain and food fodder for silo filling and his stables are models of sanitary comfort, being of the gambrel type, while his dairy is supplied with the most modern equipment. He is extensively engaged in poultry breeding, having ten thousand hens, for which he has provided large chicken houses and runways. He has been very successful as a stock raiser, specializing in registered Holstein-Friesian cattle, and one .of his cows holds three American records, while the leader of his herd is a grandson of the Ameri- can champion. He likewise raises pure bred Percheron horses and Ohio Improved Chester hogs and he ranks with the leading stock raisers of the northwest. He keeps abreast of the times, bringing to his occupation an intelligent, open and liberal mind. and as agriculture progresses as a science he advances with it, everything about his ranch indicating the scientific methods and progressive spirit of its owner.
On the 29th of January, 1914, Mr. McMenamin was married to Miss Nelle D. Diehl, a daughter of Jacob A. and Maria J. Diehl. Her father was engaged in mercantile business and in farming in the state of Illinois but is now deceased. Mr. and Mrs. McMenamin have become the parents of a son, James H., Jr.
During the period of the World war Mr. McMenamin was connected with home protection, being a member of Company A of the Multnomah Guard, having their headquarters at the Armory in Portland. His religious faith is that of the Catholic church. He belongs also to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and the Woodmen of the World. His interest in stock raising has led him to become a member of the State Holstein-Friesian Association of Washington. Politically he is a republican and
JAMES H. MCMENAMIN
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was the organizer of the Young Men's Republican Club of Tacoma, which was formed on the 3d of March, 1904. He has membership in the Press Club and in the City Club of Portland and cooperates in many plans and measures which are looking to the benefit, welfare and upbuilding of the city, his labors being a potent factor in the attainment of desired results.
LOUIS GAYLORD CLARKE.
The family of which Louis Gaylord Clarke is a representative has ever been char- acterized by a marked devotion to duty which has been manifest under changing con- ditions in many tangible forms, resulting to the benefit and upbuilding of community, commonwealth and country. This quality has found expression in Louis G. Clarke in the high ideals he has ever maintained in connection with the drug trade, of which he is one of the most prominent representatives on the Pacific coast, being president of the Clarke, Woodward Drug Company of Portland. It has been said that fully to understand any individual one must know something concerning his ancestry, and in tracing back the lineage of him whose name introduces this review, it is not sur- prising to learn that he is a descendant of Abraham Clarke, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, who was a native of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, born February 15, 1726. He was the only child of Thomas Clarke. He acquired a good English education and was particularly interested in the study of mathematics and civil law. Although reared to farm life the labors of the fields were too arduous for his constitution and he turned his attention to surveying and also became well known as "the poor man's counselor," for his legal advice was continuously sought and given gratuitously. His reading and study covered a wide range and in the momentous times which preceded the Revolutionary war he was a close student of the vital ques- tions and problems which confronted the colonists and became a recognized leader of public thought and opinion in his native state. The significance of the trend of events did not escape him, and while his judgment was never hastily formed he did not hesitate to express his honest convictions. His fellow townsmen, appreciative of his public spirit and fidelity to duty, elected him to fill various offices in the community in which he lived and they looked to him for advice and counsel concerning many of the issues which at that period were engaging public attention. As the trouble between the colonies and the mother country approached a focus he was appointed one of the committee of public safety and later was elected by the provincial congress a delegate to the continental congress, being conspicuous among his colleagues from New Jersey in that great body. A few days after he had taken his seat for the first time as a mem- ber of congress he was called upon to vote for or against the proclamation of inde- pendence. He was at no loss on which side to throw his influence, for his patriotism was of the purest character and personal interests in no wise colored his decision, al- though he knew full well that fortune and individual safety were at stake. His name was affixed to the Declaration of Independence and his vote cast for the dissolution of the ties that bound the colonies to England. Moreover, he stood stanchly by the struggling republic through all the period which tried men's souls-the period when patriotism was pitted against hardships, privations and danger. In 1787 Abraham Clarke was elected a member of the general convention which framed the constitution but in consequence of ill health was unable to participate in the deliberations of that body. Later he was elected a representative to the second congress of the United States, held under the federal constitution, and continued a member thereof until a short time prior to his death. On the adjournment of congress in June, 1794, he finally retired from public life and in the autumn of the same year suffered a sunstroke which ter- minated his life, he being then in his sixty-ninth year. His remains were laid to rest in the churchyard at Rahway, New Jersey, where a marble slab marks his last resting place, upon which is found the following inscription: "Firm and decided as a patriot, zealous and faithful as a friend to the public, he loved his country and adhered to her cause in the darkest hours of her struggles against oppression."
Three sons of Abraham Clarke also served their country as active soldiers in the Revolutionary war, the record being attested by the adjutant general of the state of New Jersey. Noah Clarke served as a private in Captain Christopher Marsh's Troop of Light Horse of the Essex County (New Jersey) Militia. Thomas Clarke was com- missioned a first lieutenant in Captain Frederick Frelinghuysen's Eastern Company
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of Artillery, New Jersey State Troops, March 1, 1776. He was promoted captain- lieutenant of the same company and was commissioned captain thereof on the 8th of January, 1778, so serving until the end of the war. William Clarke served as sergeant in Captain Daniel Neil's Eastern Company of Artillery, New Jersey State Troops, enlisting March 7, 1776. He was wounded at Short Hills, New Jersey, June 26, 1777, and was honorably discharged January 17, 1778. In all this period in which his sons were serving in the army, the father, Abraham Clarke, never utilized his influence in their behalf, notwithstanding the fact that their sufferings were in the extreme. It was only on one occasion that Mr. Clarke invoked the aid of congress. This was when his son, Captain Clarke, was captured and cast into a dungeon, where he received no other food than that which was conveyed to him by his fellow prisoners through a keyhole. On a representation of these facts to congress, that body immediately directed a course of retaliation in respect to a British officer. This had the desired effect and Captain Clarke's condition as a prisoner of war was improved.
Such is the ancestral record of the family of which Louis Gaylord Clarke is a representative. Born in Zanesville, Ohio, July 31, 1855, he attended the public schools of his native city while spending his youthful days in the home of his parents, Levi and Mary Ellen Clarke, and after completing his high school course became a student in the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, of which he is an alumnus of the class of 1876. His identification with Portland dates from 1876. Early in his business career he had been employed as general assistant in the office of the Pacific Christian Advocate and he became identified with the drug business of Portland when appointed head clerk in the establishment of Charles H. Woodward, then a leading druggist of this city. Somewhat later he was admitted to a partnership under the firm style of Woodward, Clarke & Company, the retail branch of the business being thus conducted. At a later period the Clarke, Woodward Drug Company was organized as manufacturing chemists and wholesale druggists, with Mr. Clarke as the president and manager. The business has been developed along most progressive lines and also with remarkable loyalty to the drug trade, which excludes the sale of goods to cut-rate stores and all mail order business. It has ever been their plan to assist retail druggists in every way and today their business covers Oregon, Washington, northern California, Idaho and Montana, and their manufactured specialties are also sold upon the Atlantic coast. The Clarke, Wood- ward Drug Company manufactures more than three hundred specialties, many of which are put out under the name of the Hoyt Chemical Company, and in addition it handles the stock products of the drug trade and is represented on the road by a number of traveling salesmen. The partners in the undertaking have surrounded themselves with a corps of able assistants, all being expert men in their respective lines, and the business is conducted in accordance with the highest commercial standards and ethics. In fact the house is today known throughout the Pacific coast country and to a large extent in the east. Mr. Clarke has long been regarded as one of the foremost repre- sentatives of the drug trade west of the Rockies. He became one of the organizers of the Oregon State Pharmaceutical Association, which later called him to the presi- dency, and he was made a member of the first state board of pharmacy through ap- pointment of Governor Pennoyer and was elected its first president. He has ever advocated the highest standard and the most stringent demands for service to the public in the drug trade and absolute freedom from all drug adulterations, and the name of the house which he represents has come to be recognized as a synonym for business honor and integrity wherever known. Mr. Clarke has not confined his efforts solely to the manufacturing and wholesale drug trade, important and extensive as is his business in this connection, for he is now the second vice president of the Oregon Life Insurance Company and treasurer of the Pacific States Fire Insurance Company, both well known and important corporate interests.
Mr. Clarke is most happily situated in his home life, which had its inception on the 14th of October, 1891, in his marriage to Miss Elizabeth L. Church, a daughter of Stephen L. Church, one of the pioneer steamboat men of the west and the secretary of the People's Transportation Company, which operated a line of steamboats on both the Willamette and Columbia rivers in opposition to the first transportation monopoly of the Pacific northwest-the Oregon Steam Navigation Company-and rendered a great service to the people in reducing the cost of transportation and opening up new regions to settlement. Mr. Church was one of the largest stockholders as well as the secretary of the company and his name is inseparably interwoven with the history of Portland and the upbuilding of this section of the state, for he was at all times a public-spirited man and labored untiringly to promote the general welfare.
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In 1886 Mr. Clarke became identified with military interests as hospital steward of the First Regiment of the Oregon National Guard, thus serving for three years. His political allegiance is given to the republican party and under the mayoralty of Joseph Simon he served as police commissioner. He is a very prominent represen- tative of Masonic interests and has held many offices, serving as master of Portland Lodge, No. 55, A. F. & A. M .; eminent commander of Oregon Commandery No. 1, K. T., and Grand Commander of Knights Templars of Oregon in 1916; master of Kadosh Oregon Consistory, No. 1, A. & A. S. R .; and potentate of Al Kader Temple of the Mystic Shrine. On the 27th of January, 1894, the honorary thirty-third degree was con- ferred upon him in recognition of valuable service rendered to Masonry in Oregon. He maintains keen interest and helpfulness in public affairs as a member of the Chamber of Commerce and is also identified with the Rotary Club. His appreciation of the social amenities of life is manifest in his connection with the Waverly Country Club and in the warm friendships which are accorded him wherever he is known. His life has ever been characterized by constructive measures, manifest in the upbuild- ing of important and mammoth business interests, in his efforts for the upbuilding of his city and state and in his support of all those civic interests which promote the public good. The same spirit which dominated his ancestors in the Revolutionary war is under present-day conditions manifest in his relations to the public, while thorough- ness and reliability in all that he has undertaken have been dominant factors in his career.
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