USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. III > Part 71
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The political faith of Mr. Whitworth is that of the democratic party, in the activities of which he maintains a sincere interest although he has never desired to hold any public office. He is a prominent member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and in the civic affairs of Echo he also takes an active part. The success which he is now enjoying is solely the result of his own labor and he is readily conceded the proud American title of self-made man.
HON. THEODORE T. GEER.
The life record of the Hon. Theodore T. Geer of Portland, is as clear as the sun- light and is as the natural unfolding of a flower. There have been no esoteric and no spectacular phases in his career. His development has come as the utilization of his innate powers and talents and of the opportunities with which he has been surrounded, and he is today the possessor of those things which most men covet as of value, for he has been accorded the highest office within the gift of his state and as the result of his business achievement is now the possessor of substantial wealth. Whether in office or out of it he has labored untiringly for the benefit and upbuilding of city and state and his efforts have been far-reaching and resultant.
Mr. Geer was born on a farm in the Waldo Hills country in Marion county, Oregon, and for many years his attention was largely devoted to agricultural pursuits, with which he became familiar during his youthful days, spent in the home of his parents, Heman J. and Cynthia Ann (Eoff) Geer. His father before him was a farmer, his birth having occurred upon the old family homestead in Madison county, Ohio, which was the property of his father, Joseph Cary Geer, who was born in Connecticut but who in 1818 became a resident of the Buckeye state. The ancestral line of the Geer family is traced back to England, whence George Geer came to America in 1630, estab- lishing his home in Connecticut among the earliest settlers of New England. The ancestry of Theodore Geer was represented in the second generation by Jonathan Geer and the line comes on down through Jonathan Geer, Jr., Aaron Geer and Isaiah Geer, to Joseph Cary Geer and throughout all the preceding generations the family home was maintained in Connecticut, the last named being the first of the family to remove westward. Born in Connecticut in 1795, he served as a soldier in the War of 1812 when yet a youth in his teens. As stated, he made his home in Ohio in 1818, there continuing until 1840, when he removed to Knox county, Illinois. He was a man of fifty-two years when in 1847 he started with his family of ten children across
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the plains, making Marion county, Oregon, his destination and there spending his remaining days. He was one of the few veterans of the second war with England who died and was buried in this state.
Heman J. Geer was a youth of nineteen years at the time the family traveled westward to the Pacific northwest and vividly the experiences of that tedious and somewhat dangerous journey were impressed upon his memory. It was not an unusual thing to see bands of Indians and in fact the red men were far more numerous in Oregon than the representatives of the white race at the time of the arrival of the Geer family. In 1848 Heman J. Geer wedded Cynthia Ann Eoff, a daughter of John Leonard Eoff and a native of Illinois, although reared in Iowa, whence she crossed the plains with her parents in 1847. With the establishment of a home following his marriage Heman J. Geer took up the business of fruit raising, being one of the first to demonstrate the possibilities of the state as to horticultural development. In the early '70s he removed from Marion to Union county, Oregon, where he continued to reside until called to his final rest in 1903. His widow survived him for several years her death occurring in Portland in 1909.
Amid the Waldo Hills Oregon's future governor spent his youthful days and sup- plemented his early public school training by study in the Willamette University at Salem, but when he was fourteen years of age his textbooks were put aside and he spent a year in the employ of his uncle, Ralph C. Geer, in his native locality. About the time his father established a nursery in Union county, Oregon, the son became an active factor in the business of fruit raising there, but in 1877 returned to Marion county, where he began farming on a half section of land. Thoroughness and earnest- ness have ever characterized his undertakings and the result of these qualities was soon manifest in the improved condition of his farm and its high productivity. His fellow townsmen, recognizing his public spirit, called him to office by electing him a member of the state legislature in 1880 and he took his place among the members of that assembly who considered it their first duty to promote the interests of the com- monwealth. When the session ended he returned to the farm but was reelected to the legislature in 1889, was again chosen for the office in 1891, in which year he was made speaker of the house, and reelected once more in 1893. Few men who have presided as speaker of the house have so uniformly received the endorsement of the opposition as well as of their own party as did Mr. Geer by reason of the fact that his rulings were always fair and impartial and that he desired a majority and not a minority domination of the state. He was particularly active as a political worker in 1896, in which year he was made one of the presidential electors, and was chosen to carry the Oregon vote to Washington, D. C., being a member of the electoral college which officially elected William Mckinley president of the United States in January, 1897. Mr. Geer delivered many political addresses in support of the republican presidential candidate during that campaign and his labors were an effective force in winning Oregon to the support of the gold standard. His activity during that campaign brought him a wide acquaintance throughout the state, so that when, in 1898, the republicans' convention met at Astoria he was nominated by acclamation for governor. He has the distinction of being the only republican ever so nominated and without opposition in Oregon and, moreover, he is the only native son that the state has elected its chief executive. His businesslike administration greatly furthered the interests of the commonwealth along many lines and in this office, as in the state legislature, he had not only the earnest support of the members of his own party, but also the hearty cooperation of many democrats, who found in him a fair, impartial and unprejudiced leader. While serving as governor in 1901 he was invited by the republican committee of Ohio to canvass that state in the interests of Governor Nash and made fifteen public addresses during the campaign.
Governor Geer turned from public office to take up newspaper publication at Salem, Oregon, where for two years he was editor of the Daily Statesman. On the expiration of that period he purchased the Daily Tribune at Pendleton, Oregon, of which he was owner for two and a half years, and in 1908 sold the paper and removed to Portland, where he is now concentrating his efforts and attention upon the development of his real estate holdings, having platted some of the property which he sold in five-acre tracts.
On the 16th of June, 1870, Governor Geer was married to Miss Nancy Duncan, who passed away very suddenly in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1898, while on a trip to the east. Their children were three in number: Maud, who became the wife of Marion Bowles and died in 1907; Theodosia, the wife of E. C. Little of San Jose, California; and Fred,
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who is in business in San Francisco, California. Mr. Geer afterward wedded Isabelle Trullinger, a daughter of John C. Trullinger and a native of Oregon, where her father and grandfather settled in pioneer times, the latter being the Rev. Daniel Trullinger, who was the minister that performed the marriage ceremony of Mr. Geer's parents.
Mr. Geer belongs to the Unitarian church and also to the Oregon Pioneer Society. He is a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and of the Rose City Im- provement League, of which latter he was president from 1909 until 1912 inclusive, doing much work in that connection for the city's upbuilding and development. A contemporary writer has said of him: "His personal popularity is accounted for by the genial and kindly manner that arises from a genuine interest in his fellowmen and from his sterling worth of character, which is evident to all with whom he comes into contact. It has been said that true greatness lies in the adaptability of the individual to his conditions and his environment. With that quality Mr. Geer is richly endowed. On leaving office he quietly took his place once more in the ranks of Oregon's citizens, claiming nothing for himself because of the honors which had been conferred upon him, content to do his duty, yet never for a moment losing sight of the great privileges and obligations of the American citizen." During the World war he assisted in promot- ing the bond drives in Portland and in advancing the cause of the country in every possible way. He is a man of large stature whose nature matches up to his physical powers, one who in his purposes and in the results achieved is an ideal son of Oregon.
GUY WEBSTER TALBOT.
Guy Webster Talbot arrived in Portland in 1906 and through the intervening period has been identified with the management of public utilities and important corporation interests. He brought with him to the west broad experience gained in railway circles in the Mississippi valley and with the passing years his powers have increased as through an orderly progression he has advanced step by step, thus con- tinually gaining a broader outlook and wider opportunities. Moreover, his interests have ever been of a character which have contributed to public progress and pros- perity as well as to individual success. A native of Michigan, he was born in the town of Centerville, August 12, 1873, his parents being Charles Robert and Sarah F. (Webster) Talbot. In the paternal line he is descended from one of the old New Eng- land families, his grandfather being John W. Talbot, who with his brothers, the late Charles P. and Governor Thomas Talbot, of Lowell, Massachusetts, built and operated the first woolen mills in that state at North Billerica. Charles R. Talbot removed with his family to Des Moines, Iowa, and there Guy W. Talbot obtained a public school education, while later he pursued a college course at Emporia, Kansas. Through- out his entire business career he has been identified with railway interests and other public utilities. His first employment was in connection with the local freight office of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad at Des Moines and for a time occupied the position of collector with the Des Moines Union Railway Company and otherwise served the same corporation in various departments. For a time he was ticket agent at the Union depot in Des Moines and was traveling freight and pas- senger agent for the Des Moines, Northern & Western Railway Company, while at Marshalltown, Iowa, he acted as traveling freight agent for the Iowa Central Railway Company and next was made general traveling freight agent for the same company. In 1901 Mr. Talbot became traffic manager for the Peoria & Pekin Terminal Railway Company at Peoria, Illinois, and was afterward advanced to the general superin- tendency, while still later he was made vice president and general manager.
His identification with the northwest began as vice president and general manager of the Astoria & Columbia River Railroad Company and of the Corvallis & Eastern Rail- road Company with headquarters in Portland. Since that time he has been continuously associated with public utilities and in 1907 was made vice president and general man- ager of the Oregon Electric Railway Company, while in 1910 he was elected to the presidency of the Pacific Power & Light Company and also of the Portland Gas & Coke Company. With the latter two corporations he has since been continuously connected and the success of these interests is attributable in large measure to his efforts. It has always been his purpose thoroughly to inform himself concerning any task which he undertakes and he closely studies every phase of any business with which he becomes associated. His plans are therefore carefully formulated and promptly executed and
GUY W. TALBOT
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he never stops short of the successful accomplishment of his purpose. Moreover, he builds along constructive lines and with keen discrimination recognizes the possibili- ties of coordinating seemingly unrelated interests into a unified and harmonious whole. An excellent judge of men, he has been enabled to surround himself with a most effi- cient corps of assistants and he readily wins the cooperation of his colleagues and of his employes because his position is at all times tenable, the correctness of his opinions regarding business affairs being constantly manifest in the successful results which crown his efforts. He has at different periods been identified with various important interests of the northwest. He became the president of the Walla Walla Valley Railway Company, the vice president of the American Power & Light Company of New York and the president of the Hanford Irrigation & Power Company of Washington. At the present writing his official connection covers the presidency of the Portland Gas & Coke Company, also of the Pacific Power & Light Company and of the Walla Walla Valley Railway Company.
Mr. Talbot was married in Kingman, Kansas, October 14, 1903, to Miss Geraldine Wallace, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Morris Wallace. They have three children, Sarah Jane, Prudence Gertrude, and Guy W., Jr. The parents are members of the Episcopal church and Mr. Talbot gives his political endorsement to the republican party, which he has continuously supported since age conferred upon him the right of franchise. He belongs to the Hoo Hoos and the Jovian Order, an electrical society. He is a very prominent figure in the club circles of Portland, being now the president of the Waverly Country Club, a member of the Press Club, Ad Club, Rotary Club, Arlington Club, of which he was vice president in 1919, Multnomah Amateur Athletic Club, Meadow Lake Club, Snowshoe Club, Trails Club, Progressive Business Men's Club, Drama Club, Civic League, National Safety Council, Aerial League, Navy League, the Oregon State Motor Association and the Chamber of Commerce of which he was formerly vice president. His ability in executive positions has led to his frequent election to office in these different organizations and his splendid powers were called into service during the war period in various ways having to do with the support of the government. He was in charge of all of the bond drives in Portland and served as a member of the executive committee of the state in connection therewith. He was also chairman of the Y. M. C. A. war campaigns in Portland, chairman of the War Work committee and also was in charge of the subscription division for the Knights of Columbus war work. He seems to know just when and where to put forth effort in order to produce results, whether for the benefit of individual or corporate interests or for the general good. Anyone meeting Mr. Talbot face to face would at once recognize in him what the world terms a square man. His quietude of deportment, his cordiality of address and his firmness of decision all indicate a character in which there is nothing sinister and nothing to conceal. On the contrary he has ever been actuated by the highest regard for the rights of his fellowmen and while upbuilding his own fortunes he has felt the keenest gratification in the success and advancement of others. Moreover, he is a man of most genial disposition who highly prizes his friends, and their number is legion.
HON. ALBIN WALTER NORBLAD.
The career of Hon. Albin Walter Norblad of Astoria, now serving as state senator of Oregon, presents a notable example of what can be accomplished by men of pro- gressive ideas, alertness and energy. He has been actuated at all times by a laudable ambition that has prompted him to put forth earnest and effective effort in the attain- ment of the goal which he has now reached and his political record is a most creditable one, characterized at all times by public-spirited devotion to the general good. Mr. Norblad is a native of Sweden. He was born in Malmo in 1881, a son of Peter and Bessie (Anderson) Norblad, who were also natives of that country, the latter being of pure Scandinavian extraction. The father, an officer in the army, was a descendant of a long line of army men, the Norblad family dating back to Bernadotte, who was one of the marshals of Napoleon and accompanied him to Scandinavia. In 1883 Peter Norblad resigned from the Swedish army and came to the United States, making his way to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he engaged in business as a building contractor, continuing a resident of that city until his demise in 1910. Mr. and Mrs. Norblad became the parents of three children, Albin Walter, Clara and George.
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In the public schools of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Albin W. Norblad pursued his education to the age of twelve years and for five years prior to this time had carried and sold newspapers, thus early displaying the elemental strength of his character and the spirit of enterprise and determination which has characterized him throughout his life. In connection with his newspaper work he was a member of the Evening Press Newsboy Band, with which he toured the southern states, winning a gold medal offered by John Philip Sousa to the member of the band making the greatest advance- ment in music within a year. After leaving school Mr. Norblad secured a position with the Grand Rapids Furniture Company of Chicago, subsequently becoming a news- paper reporter, and while acting in the latter capacity he continued his long interrupted education, entering the Chicago Seminary of Science, which he attended for four years. He thus laid a good foundation for further progress along educational lines and in June, 1905, was graduated from the Chicago Law School on the completion of a three years' course. Previous to this he had entered upon the study of medicine, but aban- doned that profession in favor of the law. In April, 1904, before graduation from law school, he was admitted to the bar in Michigan and at once engaged in practice in Grand Rapids, Michigan, but at the end of a few months removed to Escanaba, that state, where he formed a partnership with Judd Yelland, with whom he continued until the latter's election to the office of probate judge. Meanwhile Mr. Norblad had been called to public service, filling the position of prosecuting attorney of Delta county, Michigan, until July, 1908. Upon dissolving partnership with Judge Yelland he con- tinued alone in practice for a year and then started for the west, selecting Astoria, Oregon, as his place of residence. Here he formed a partnership with G. A. Hemple, with whom he was associated until June, 1910, and from 1911 until 1916 he served as city attorney, having been the nominee of both the republican and democratic parties at the primary, a fact indicative of his standing as a man and citizen and the confidence reposed in his professional ability. He is an able attorney, well informed in all branches of the law, and his clear and cogent reasoning and careful presentation of his cases have won for him many favorable verdicts. In 1915 he formed a partnership with Frank C. Hesse under the firm name of Norblad & Hesse, which firm continues. He has been admitted to practice in the Oregon and Michigan federal courts and also in the supreme court of the United States and has been intrusted with much important litigation, representing as counsel many of the large corporations of the state, among which may be mentioned the Union Fishermen's Packing Company, the largest individual salmon packing plant on the Pacific coast; the Astoria National Bank and others. He is also secretary of the Shaw-Bertram Lumber Company of Klamath Falls, Oregon, and as its attorney handles a large part of its litigation. He is credited with being the "father of the port of Astoria," acting as its secretary and doing all of the legal work during its formative period. In 1918, in recognition of his services to his state and to his profession, Mr. Norblad was honored with the state senatorship from the fifteenth sena- torial district and is still serving in that capacity. He has done much to shape public thought and opinion and has been the stalwart champion of many measures which have found their way to the statute books of the state and are proving of great value to the commonwealth. He was one of the framers of the new state fish and game law and the bill to prohibit the publishing of newspapers in foreign languages in the state. At all times he has been actuated by a public-spirited devotion to the general welfare, and "The Oregon Voter," in giving to the people a list of the votes of the senators on every question before the senate in the session of 1919, placed Mr. Norblad's name at the head of the list as having voted more for the interests of the people than any of the other members of the senate. Aside from his professional in- terests Mr. Norblad has always taken an active interest in the civic affairs of his community and has served as president of the Chamber of Commerce, being familiarly spoken of as a "live wire." During the World war he worked untiringly to promote the various drives and was active as a Four-Minute man.
In 1906, at Escanaba, Michigan, Mr. Norblad was united in marriage to Miss Edna Gates, a daughter of Lew Gates, one of Michigan's veteran newspaper editors, and they have become the parents of two children: Albin Walter, Jr., and Eleanor Lyle, the former a high school student, while the latter is a pupil in the grades.
Fraternally Mr. Norblad is a Mason of high standing, having attained the thirty- second degree in the Scottish Rite Consistory and also being a member of the Knights Templar Commandery and the Mystic Shrine. He is likewise a prominent member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, in which he has served as exalted ruler and as district deputy grand exalted ruler. Mrs. Norblad is prominent in lodge circles as
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a member of the Eastern Star and she is also connected with the Daughters of the American Revolution. She is an active and faithful member of the Presbyterian church and a leader in club and social life.
At the close of the 1921 session of the legislature, upon his return to Astoria after serving as state senator, in recognition of his services to the county in securing the passage of many measures of local interest, the citizens of Astoria presented Mr. Norblad with a solid silver service suitably inscribed. Mr. Norblad's splendid intellec- tual attainments and thorough knowledge of the law make him most efficient in the discharge of the duties of his present office and he is using his influence to carry out the will of his constitutents, never employing his native talents unworthily nor supporting a dishonorable cause. He stands for high ideals, yet utilizes practical methods in their attainment and his life record has been a credit and honor to the state which has honored him.
FRED A. JACOBS.
Fred A. Jacobs, who in his later years was actively engaged in the real estate busi- ness in Portland as a member of the Jacobs & Stine Realty Company, was born in Chillicothe, Missouri, September 15, 1870, a son of Wesley A. and Bolena (Saunders) Jacobs, the former a native of Battle Creek, Michigan, while the latter was born in Missouri in 1850. The father went with his family to California, settling in Oakland, and there Fred A. Jacobs, who had begun his education in Missouri and who had attended a preparatory school in New York, entered the University of California at Berkeley. On completing his university course he was married to Miss G. Henry, the wedding being celebrated at Chillicothe, Missouri, in November, 1894. She is the daughter of Gustavus and Matilda (Leeper) Henry, both of whom were natives of Missouri, the Henry family coming from Kentucky, while the Leeper family was from Virginia.
After his marriage Mr. Jacobs returned with his bride to San Francisco, Cali- fornia, where he became the manager of the Germania Life Insurance Company. He was the youngest man to occupy a managerial position with the corporation and he continued to act as coast manager for several years. In 1913 he came to Portland and remained in active connection with the insurance business for a time, but later resigned to organize the Jacobs & Stine Realty Company, with which he was associated until his death in 1917.
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