USA > Oregon > Multnomah County > Portland > History of Portland, Oregon : with illustrations and biographical sketches of prominent citizens and pioneers > Part 24
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Time will only permit me to touch upon the important events which make eras in the commerce of Oregon.
Navigation upon the Willamette above the falls at Oregon City by steamboats was opened by the Hoosier, built at Oregon City below the falls and taken up early in 1851. She ran between Cauemah and Dayton on the Yamhill.
Early in 1851 Abernethy & Co's barque, the Success, from New York, arrived at Oregon City with a general cargo of merchandise and three steamboats; two of them were small iron propellers, and the third, the Multnomah, was a side-wheel boat built of wood. The Eagle was very little larger than an ordinary ship's yawl-boat. She was owned and run between Portland and Oregon City by Captains William Wells and Richard Williams. When Wells was captain, Williams was mate, fireman and all hauds; when Captain Diek took the wheel, Wells became the crew. She carried freight for $15 per ton, passengers $5 each. Pretty good pay for a twelve mile route. She made more money according to her size than any boat in Oregon. Out of her earnings the owners built the iron steamboat Belle, and made themselves principal owners in the Senorita-two, for that day, first-class steamboats. The Washington was somewhat larger, owned by Alexander S. Murray, who commanded her. He took the boat up above the falls in June, 1851, run her there nutil the fall or winter of 1851-2, when he brought her down and run her between Portland and Oregon City until the spring of 1853, when she was again taken above the falls, where she ran until July of the same year, when her owners there, Allan Mckinley & Co., brought her below and sent her under steam around to the Umpqua river. She arrived there in safety, crossing the bars of both rivers, and ended her days there in the service of hier owners. She was known after her sea voyage as the "Bully Wash- ington." The only money ever made out of her was made by her first owner, Capt. Murray. He was a sharp Scotchman, came from Australia here and returned there when he left Oregon. He is said to be the father of internal navigation in Australia. He made money, and when I last heard of him was engaged in the navigation of Murray's river, which empties into the ocean at Adelaide.
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RIVER NAVIGATION.
The next and most famous of the steamers that were brought out after the Success was the Multnomah . She came in sections, and was set up at Canemal by two or three army or navy officers of the United States, who had brought her out, Doctors Gray and Maxwell and Captain Binicle; was built of oak staves two inches in thick- ness and of the widthi and length of ordinary boat plank, bound with hoops made of bar iron, keyed up on the gunwales; was 100 feet in length, with good machinery, and like her principal owner, Dr. Gray, fastidiously nice in all her appointments. She had no timbers except her deck beams and the frame upon which her engine and machinery rested; was as staunch as iron and oak could make her, It was as difficult to knock hier to pieces from the outside as it is for a hoy to kick in a well hooped bar- rel. She commenced running above the falls shortly after the Washington, and run there-her highest point being Corvallis, then Marysville-until May, 1852, when she was bronght below on ways in a cradle, and thereafter run on the lower Willamette and Columbia, part of the time making three trips a week to Oregon City and three trips to the Cascades. She brought down many of the emigrants of 1852. She fell into the hands of Abernethy & Co., and in the winter and spring of 1853, ran between Portland and Oregon City in connection with the Lot Whitcomb. On the failure of Abernethy & Co .; she fell into the hands of their creditors and had different captains every few trips for a year or two. She was then purchased by Captain Rich- ard Hoyt, and run on the lower Columbia route until his death in the winter or spring of 1861-2. She finally came into the hands of the Oregon Steam Navigation Com- pany, and after much more useful service laid her bones in the bone-yard below Port- land.
About the same time, 1851, a small wooden boat, a propeller, called the Black Hawk, ran between Portland and Oregon City. She made money very rapidly for her owners.
The other boats built for or run above the falls of the Willamette were the Portland, built opposite Portland, in 1853, by A. S. Murray, John Torrance and James Clinton. She was afterwards taken above the falls where she ran for some time. On the 17th of March, 1857, she was carried over the falls in high water, leaving hardly a vestige of the boat, and drowning her captain, Arthur Jamison, and one deck hand.
There was the Canemah, side-wheels, built in 1851, by A. F. Hedges, afterwards killed by the Indians in Colonel Kelly's fight on the Touchet in 1856; Alanson Beers and Hamilton Campbell. She ran between Canemah and Corvallis. The heaviest load she ever carried was 35 tons. Passage on her was $5 to Salem. She made little or no money for her owners though she had a mail contract.
The Oregon, built and owned by Ben Simpson & Co., in 1852, was a side-wheel boat of good size, but proved very poor property.
The Shoalwater, built by the owners of the Canemah, in 1852-3, as a low-water boat, commanded by Captain Lem White, the pioneer captain upon the upper Column- bia, proved to be a failurs. She changed her name several times, was the Phoenix, Franklin, and Minnie Holmes. Her bad Inck followed her under every alias. In the spring of 1854, she collapsed a fine near Rock Island while stopping at a landing. None were killed, but several were more or less seriously injured and all badly scared. H. N. V. Holmes, a prominent resident of Polk county, was badly injured, but jumped overhoard and swam across the river to the eastern shore before he knew that he was hurt.
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
Next was the Willamette, also built by the owners of the Canemah, in 1853. She was a large and expensive boat of the Mississippi style; run above the falls until July, 1854, when she was taken below, and in the fall of the same year was sold and takeu to California. She proved a failure everywhere and came near breaking her owners. The current seemed to be against her whether she ran up or down stream.
In the summer of 1853 a company of California capitalists bought the land and built a basin and warehouse ou the west side of the Willamette at the falls, near where the canal and locks now are. Their first boat was burned on the stocks October 6, 1853. The second was the ill-fated Gazelle, a large and beautiful side- wheel steamer. She made her first trip on the 18th of March, 1854. Ou the 5th of April, 1854, when lying at Canemah, her boiler exploded, causing great loss of lives. Over twenty persons were killed outright, and as many wounded, three or four of whom died shortly afterwards. The Rev. J. P. Miller, a Presbyterian minister, of Albany, in this State, the father of Mrs. Judge Wilson, now a widow and postmaster at The Dalles (postmistress is not known under the postoffice laws); Mrs. Kelly, wife of Col. Kelly, late U. S. Senator from this State, now resident of Portland, and Mrs. Grover, the wife of Gen. Cuvier Grover. Many other valuable citizens of Oregon were among the killed. The wreck was bought by Captains R. Hoyt, William Wells and A. S. Murray, taken down over the falls on the 11th day of August, 1855, and converted into the Senorita, of which I have before spoken. The warehouse company afterwards built the Oregon, which was sunk and proved a total loss. The property passed into other hands ; the buildings were afterwards burned, and all was swept away in the flood of December, 1861.
The first stern-wheeler upon the upper Willamette was the Enterprise, built in the fall of 1855, by Archibald Jamison (a brother of the one lost on the Portland when she went over the falls, in March, 1854), Captain A. S. Murray, Armory Holbrook, John Torrance and others. She was 115 feet in length, fifteen feet in width, and had neat cabin appointments. She run on the upper river under Captain Jamison-the first really successful boat on that part of the river-and after some years' service was sold to Captain Tom Wright, son of Commodore, better known as "Bully " Wright, of San Francisco, who took her to Frazier river on the breaking out of the mines there, where she finished her course ; as I now recollect, she was blown up.
In 1856 Captains Cochrane, Gibson, Cassidy and others built the James Clinton, afterwards called the Surprise. She was in her day the largest and best stern-wheeler upon the Willamette.
The Success, built at a later period by Captain Baughman, belied her name, and had a short and unprofitable career.
There were other steamboats during this time and afterwards upon that portion of the river which time forbids me to name. What I have already stated is sufficient to give a general idea of the growth of navigation up to the time when corporations commenced their operation. These boats that I have named, and others built and owned by private individuals, held the field until 1862-3, when the People's Trans- portation Company, a corporation under the general incorporation law of Oregon, entered upon its career. They built the canal, basin and warehouse on the east side of the river, and carried ou a profitable trade between Portland and the various points up the river, finally selling out to Ben Holladay, who, with his railroad and river steamboats, then held command of the trade of the entire Willamette Valley.
257
RIVER NAVIGATION.
An account of the internal commerce of Oregon would be incomplete without a history of the origin and growth of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company. I shall speak of it historically only, how it originated and what it has accomplished Whether its influence has been good or bad, whether, on the whole, it has been or is likely to be detrimental to the true interests of our people, are questions that are not to be discussed here. Time will only permit me to give a brief sketch of the prominent points in its history. It is an Oregon institution, established by Oregon men who made their start in Oregon. Its beginnings were small, but it has grown to great importance under the control of the men who originated it.
In April, 1859, the owners of the steamboats Carrie Ladd, Senorita and Belle, which had been plying between Portland and Cascades, represented by Captain J. C. Ainsworth, agent, the Mountain Buck, by Col. J. C. Ruckel, its agent, the Bradford horse railroad, between the middle and upper Cascades, by its owners, Bradford & Co., who also had a small steamboat plying between the Cascades and The Dalles, entered into a mutual arrangement to form a transportation line between The Dalles and Port- land, under the name and style of Union Transportion Company. There were some other boats running on that route, the Independence and IVasco, in the control of Alexander Ankney and George W. Vaughn ; also the Flint and Fashion, owned by Captain J. O. Van Bergen. As soon as practicable, these interests were harmonized or purchased.
At this time freights were not large between Portland and the upper Columbia, and the charges were high. There was no uniform rule ; the practice was to charge according to the exigency of the case. Freiglits had been carried in sail boats from Portland to the Cascades at twenty dollars per ton. I have before me an advertise- ment in an early number of the Il'eekly Oregonian, that the schooner Henry, owned by F. A. Chenoweth, now a practicing lawyer at Corvallis, and George L. Johnson, would carry at that rate.
On the 29th of December, 1860, there being then no law under which a corpora- tion could be established in Oregou-the proprietors of the Union Transportation Line procured from the Washington Territory Legislature an act incorporating J. C. Aiusworth, D. F. Bradford, S. G. Reed, R. R. Thompson and their associates under the nauie and style of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company. R. R. Thompson and Lawrence Coe, who then first became interested with the other parties, had built a small steamboat called the Col. Wright, above The Dalles, which went into the line and made up their shares of the capital stock. This was the second boat they had built at that point. The first, when partially completed, was carried over the falls and down the river in high water. There the hull was sold, fitted up and taken to Frazer river on the breaking out of the gold mine excitement in British Columbia, and much to the credit of its builders, made the highest point ever reached by a steamboat on that river.
The Oregon Steam Navigation Company, or O. S. N. Co., as it has been more generally called and known since organized under the act, J. C. Ainsworth was the first president, and with the exception of a single year, when J. C. Ruckel held the position, has been its president ever since. Its principal office was located at Vancouver, and its property formed no inconsiderable addition to the taxable property of Washington Territory. It might have remained there until this time, had it received fair treatment. But the citizens thoughit they liad the goose that laid
258
HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
the golden egg, and they killed it. By unfriendly legislation and unjust taxation, the company was driven from the Territory, and in October, 1862, it incorporated under the general act of Oregon, where it has ever since existed an Oregon corporation; in fact, as it has always been in ownership and name. Its railroads, steamboats, warehouses, wharf-boats and wharves have all been built and established by the company without public aid except the patronage by the public after they were completed.
All its founders started poor. They have accomplished nothing that has not been equally within the power of others by the exercise of equal foresight, labor and per- severance. They had no exclusive rights. The rivers are wide enough for all the steamers which can be built, and the passes at the Cascades and The Dalles are broad enough for all the railroads that may be found desirable. They are still unoccupied and open to all.
The O. S. N. Co. have diminished the price of carrying freight and passengers, whenever it has established lines from the great cost of transportation of the early times; fares have come down to $5 between Portland and The Dalles; $12 to Wallula; $20 to Lewiston; $2 to Astoria, and freigbts have been correspondingly reduced. Wheat and flour were last season brought down from Lewiston for $8, and from Wallula for $6 per ton, including handling over the boat lines and two railroads.
Of one thing the citizens of Oregon may well boast. Taking into consideration what has been done by private enterprise alone, there is no young State in the Union where so much in the way of internal improvements has been accomplished in so short a time.
The canal and locks in the Willamette at Oregon City, in the main constructed by private means, have worked wonders for the commerce on that river. Their original cost was nearly half a million dollars. Soon we may hope to see the canal and locks at the Cascades, completed by the United States, which will be of equal value to the commerce upon the Columbia river."
An entire volume might be filled with an account of the early efforts of the O. S. N. and P. T. Co., of their successes, and the adventures of their captains, as Baughman, the Coes, the Grays, Stump, M'Nulty, Snow, Pease and Troupe; and the tales of river and shore that spring up in the aquatic life of every community. But space forbids any such enticing enlargement, and instead we must be content with a list of the steamers which were built by the Peoples' Transportation, or Oregon Steam Navigation Co., or have come into possession of the O. R. & N. Co .- which absorbed both the P. T. and the O. N. Co., under the management of Villard. For this we are indebted to Captain Troupe and Mr. Atwood, of the O. R. & N. Co.
Idaho, side wheeler, 178 tons, built in 1860; Col. Wright, stern wheeler, built in 1861; Tenino, stern wheeler, built in 1861; Nez
259
RIVER NAVIGATION.
Perces Chief, stern wheeler, built in 1863; Enterprise, stern wheeler, built in 1863; Senator, stern wheeler, built in 1863; Oneonta, side wheeler, built in 1863; John H. Couch, side wheeler, built in 1863; Iris, stern wheeler, built in 1864; Active, stern wheeler, built 1865; Webfoot, built in 1865; Alert, stern wheeler, built in 1865; Okana- gon, stern wheeler, built in 1866; Shoshone, stern wheeler, built in 1866; Rescue, Spray and Lucius, stern wheelers, built in 1868; Yakima, stern wheeler, built in 1869; Emma Hayward, stern wheeler, 756 tons, built in 1870; MeMinnville, stern wheeler, 420 tons, built in 1870; Dixie Thompson, stern wheeler, 276 tons, built in 1871; E. N. Cooke, stern wheeler, 299 tons, built in 1871; Daisy Ainsworth, built in 1872; New Tenino, stern wheeler, built in 1872; Alice, stern wheeler, 334 tons, built in 1873; Welcome, stern wheeler, 250 tons, built in 1874; Bonita, stern wheeler, 376 tons, built in 1875; Orient, stern wheeler, 429 tons, built in 1875; Occident, stern wheeler, 429 tons, built in 1875; Champion, stern wheeler, 502 tons, built in 1875; Almata, stern wheeler, 395 tons, built in 1876; S. T. Church, stern wheeler, 393 tons, built in 1876; Ocklahama, stern wheeler, 394 tons, built in 1876; Annie Faxon, stern wheeler, 564 tons, bailt in 1877; Wide West, stern wheeler, 928 tons, built in 1877; Mountain Queen, stern wheeler, 500 tons, built in 1877; Spokane, stern wheeler, 531 tons, built in 1877; Bonanza, stern wheeler, 467 tons, built in 1877; Northwest, stern wheeler, 274 tons, built in 1877; R. A. Thompson, stern wheeler, 912 tons, built in 1878; S. G. Reed, stern wheeler, 607 tons, built in 1878; Harvest Queen, stern wheeler, 697 tons, built in 1878; John Gates, stern wheeler, 551 tons, built in 1878; Willamette Chief, stern wheeler, 523 tons, built in 1878; D. S. Baker, stern wheeler, 566 tons, built in 1879; Hassalo, stern wheeler, 350 tons, built in 1880; Olympia, side wheeler, 1083 tons, built in 1883; Escort, tug, built in 1883; Alaskan, side wheeler, 1257 tons, built in 1883; S. J. Potter, side wheeler, built in 1887; Sea Home, side wheeler, built in 1889; Modoc, stern wheeler, built in 1889; Wal- lowa, tug, built in 1889. Of the Gov. Grover, Owyhee, Minnehaha, Josie McNear, Mountain Buck, Cowlitz, Belle, Eagle, Express and tug Donald, owned and operated by the companies named, we have been unable to learn when they were built.
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
Aside from the O. R. and N. Co., and its predecessors there have always been a few independent steamers on the river, making their head quarters at Portland, such as the Fannie Troup, Salem, Man- zanillo, Traveler, Lurline, G. W. Shaver, and local craft. One of the mnost indefatigable of our independent navigators is Capt. V. B. Scott, with his two Telephones, the first of which was destroyed by fire; river racers equal to anything of which the world has record. Another very solid company is that of Joseph Kellogg & Son, having two good steamboats, the Joseph Kellogg and Toledo and making a specialty of navigation upon sinall streams, particularly the Cowlitz.
With the exception of a few of the older craft on the Willamette and the new iron ships Olympian and Alaskan, all the boats named were built in Oregon.
With the opening of the Columbia to British Columbia, our inland navigation will assume a hundred fold greater proportions.
It may be remarked, however, that the Columbia river steamers are a swift and powerful class of vessels; built for actual hard service, and having a certain individuality of their own. Under Jolin Gates many improvements were made, the stern wheel developed to its full power, and the perils of our rapid and great current overcome by the hydraulic steering gear. Some of them have reached the high speed of twenty miles per hour, and all have been able to over- come a ten and twelve mile current. As the most magnificent of swimming animals have been developed in the Columbia, so we may expect the finest swimmers of man's construction to be made on its water.
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RAILROADS.
CHAPTER IX.
RAILROADS.
Portland's Advantages as a Railroad Centre-Early Struggles for a Railroad- Curious Features of the Contest-Labors of Simon E. Elliott, George H. Belden, Col. Charles Belden and Joseph Gaston-First Survey by Barry and Gaston-Report by Col. Barry-Provisions of the First Railroad Bill Passed by the Oregon Legis- lature and United States Congress-The Importance of Provisions Suggested by Col. W. W. Chapman-Organization of the First Railroad Company in Oregon-Formation of a Rival Company-Contest over the Land Grant-Interesting Ceremonies in Connection with Commencement of Construction of the West Side Road-Progress of the Work-Bitter Warfare Between the two Companies-The Fight Carried into the Courts-The Legal Aspect of the Contest-Advent of Ben Holladay-His Character and Methods-Efforts to Build to the Atlantic States-Labors of Col. Chapman- Henry Villard and the Northern Pacific-The Southern Pacific-Prominent Railroad Managers of Portland-The Narrow Guage System.
PORTLAND is now well supplied with railway connection, not only with all parts of the Northwest, but with the whole of North America. She is the terminus of three transcontinental lines-the Northern Pacific, by the O. R. & N. and the Oregon Short Line, and the Union Pacific systems, respectively, and of the Southern Pacific by the Oregon and California Railway. She is also a terminus of the Northern Pacific on its own rails across the Cascade mountains and by way of Tacoma and Kalama, and, by the routes on Puget Sound, communicates directly with the Canadian Pacific. The Oregon Pacific, which is pushing out across middle Oregon for a junction in Idaho with still another continental line, although maintaining a terminus at Yaquina Bay, will also seek Portland, making the fifth line from across the mountains that ultimates upon our city as the chief, or at least co-important, objective. The next line from the East will probably come down the north bank of the Columbia, reaching our depots by way of Vancouver.
Aside from these main lines, our city is also served by a number of local roads. Standing first among these is the Oregon Central, to Corvallis, on the west side of the Willamette, operating a line ninety- seven miles in length. A still greater mileage is run by the Oregonian Railway Company's lines, the Portland and Willamette Valley Road,
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND. .
the extension of the narrow guage system, on each side of the Wil- lamette-to Sheridan and Airlie on the west and Coburg on the east. Another extensive line is in process of construction from Astoria to some point on the Oregon Central-Hillsboro-which, although chiefly for the accommodation of Astoria and the western part of the Willamette Valley, will connect a large region with Portland and open it up to the enterprise of hier merchants. There is talk of constructing a line from Hunter's Point, opposite Kalama, to Astoria, thereby furnishing a road to the mouth of the river, paral- leling the Columbia and making passage more expeditious for summer travelers to the ocean beaches.
Of strictly local lines, i. e., of lines less than twenty miles in length and aiming to do only local business, chiefly passenger traffic for the benefit of the suburbs, there are four lines in active operation -to Vancouver, to St. John's, to Mt. Tabor and the Hawthorne Avenue line, also terininating at Mt. Tabor, and the cable line to Portland Heiglits. At least three others are in process of construc- tion-to Oregon City, the Waverly-Woodstock line and the line to West Portland. Several other lines are projected, as that to Marquain's Hill and a line around the hills on the northwest of the city. Some of these will doubtless develop into longer lines-as the Hawthorne Avenue road, a standard guage, which is popularly expected to be pushed out to the Sandy river and to Mt. Hood.
From this glance it will be seen that of all roads built and extending beyond the city limits, so as not to be enumerated with the street car lines, there are eight; there are building four, not including the Astoria road, which will enter by the Oregon Central; and two or three more are on the tapis. This list shows prodigious railroad activity, aud the fact that all the lines are well sustained and do a paying business shows the dimensions of our freight and passenger traffic. The eagerness for further construction, and the large prices paid for privileges in the city, indicate that even our present extensive system is not complete. It is the purpose of this chapter to give something of the history of the building of these roads and develop- inent of transportation by rail.
John H. Mitchell
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RAILROADS.
Turning to the history of railroad construction in Oregon, we find there was very early agitation of the subject. In 1850 a line was projected, and even advertised to be run, from St. Helen's on the Columbia, to Lafayette, in Yamhill county. It was under the patronage of Captains Knighton, Smith, Tappen and Crosby. Of course, it was never begun. General J. J. Stevens, in 1853 and for the years succeeding, wrote voluminously upon railroad connection with the East, and four roads were projected (not all to the East), one being incorporated. In 1854 a charter was granted a road to Cali- fornia, to begin at a point below the falls of the Willamette. I11 1857 a company was formed to build a road to Yaquina Bay. None of these were constructed, however, and no rails were laid, except on1 the portage lines at the Cascades and Dalles, and a tramway at Oregon City, before the days of the Oregon Central.
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