USA > Oregon > Multnomah County > Portland > History of Portland, Oregon : with illustrations and biographical sketches of prominent citizens and pioneers > Part 63
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After the battle of Gettysburg, he took part in the battle of Williamsport, the pursuit of Lee's army and the battle of London Heights. He also engaged in the skirmishing in advance of Stuart's cavalry at Brandy Station, while the Union forces were falling back from Culpepper to Rappahannock Station in October, 1863. This service was followed by participating in the battles of Rappahannock Station, November, 1863, and of Mine Run of the same month, after which the regiment went into winter quarters at Warrento Junction where it was employed in guarding the railroad.
The 146th shared the fortunes of the Army of the Potomac until the spring of 1864, when General Grant assumed command of the army. The first real service the regiment saw under this great commander was at the battle of the Wilderness, on the 5th of May, 1864, when it suffered almost total annihilation-of the 600 who entered the engagement there was lost nearly 400 in killed, wounded and prisoners, Captain Jones being among the wounded, having received a severe gun shot wound in the right leg.
Being disabled for service he was granted forty days leave of absence, which was afterward extended to sixty days. He was ordered to the officer's hospital at Annapolis, Maryland, where he remained one month, when he was ordered on the recruiting service and sent to Hart's Island, New York Harbor. While engaged in this service he took 1,000 recruits to the Army of the Potomac, at City Point, Virginia, made two trips to Fort Federal Hill, Baltimore, Maryland, with 1,400 recruits, and had charge of 200 recruits while transporting them to the Army of the James. From November 1, 1864, to June 30, 1865, he had command of Company A, permanent party at Hart's Island, after which he rejoined his old regiment in Virginia, where he was entrusted with conducting one hundred men who had been dis- charged from the United States service, July 15, 1865, to Hart's Island, where they were mustered out in August, 1856.
Captain Jones was a brave and efficient soklier, and in recognition of liis faithful and meritorious services was commissioned by the President of the United States Brevet-Major of United States Volunteers. He took a genuine pride and interest in the service; thoroughly equipped himself for every duty, and on all occasions proved himself a trite soldier and a capable officer. His interest in a military life awakened amid the throes of war and stimulated by the excitement and dangers of many battlefields, still abides with him, and he continues to take a lively interest in military matters and is unusually well informed as to the methods and plans of modern warfare.
The three years he had spent in the service of his country seriously interfered with his plans for acquiring an education, but he had no sooner abandoned the life of a soldier than we find him in August, 1865, equiping himself for an honorable profession by reading medicine in the office of Dr. C. C. Reed, of Oneida county, New York. At the end of a few months he went to New York City to continue his study under the direction of the celebrated surgeon, Dr. Stephen Smith, and to attend Bellevue Hospital Medical College. After completing two courses of lectures at this institution he was appointed Acting Assisting Surgeon in the United States Army, and ordered to the Department of the Gulf, at New Orleans, where he served with great success through the yellow fever epidemic of that year. He remained in the
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Department of the Gulf until October, 1868, most of the time serving as post sur- geou of Troop M, 4th U. S. Cavalry, at different times being stationed at New Orleans, Opelousis and Monroe, Louisiana. At the latter place, in addition to his duties as post surgeon, he had charge of the Freedman's Dispensary for four months, where he had an extensive practice and gained a valuable experience.
From the Department of the Gulf lie was transferred to New York, where he attended another course of lectures at Bellevue, graduating frout this college in February, 1869. He remained in New York City, practicing his profession, until March, 1871. In the meantime, besides having charge of a class in Orthopedic Sur- gery in the 26th Street Dispensary, conducted by the Bellevue College faculty, he made two trips with United States troops as acting assistant surgeon -one to Fort McKavitt, Texas, and the other to San Francisco, California. In March, 1871, he was ordered to the Department of the Columbia, his first duty being to accompany, as surgeon, recruits to Camp Warner, and to return with two companies of the 23d U. S. Infantry from Camps Warner and Harney to Fort Vancouver. On the comple- tion of this duty he was stationed at Fort Stevens as post surgeon. In October, 1872, he accompanied the 2d U. S. Cavalry to Raleigh, North Carolina, after which he returned to New York, and while awaiting orders, took special courses of instruction in the the throat, ear and general pathology. In 1873 he again accompanied a detachment of troops to San Francisco, when he was ordered to the Department of the Columbia, and put on duty at Fort Stevens, where he remained until September, 1873, when he resigned from the service and began the practice of his profession in Portland.
His course from that time to the present is well known to the citizens of Portland. Thoroughly prepared for his work by painstaking, careful study, and an extended experience, he at once took high rauk in his profession. His success from the first was marked, and his reputation, both in and out of the profession, has grown from year to year, until at the present time it is not too minchi to say that he holds a conspicuous place among the most successful medical men of Oregon. His practice has been general in character, but has largely pertained to surgery, in which his success lias been particularly noteworthy, having successfully performed nearly all of the capital operations. He is a bold operator, but it is the boldness which comes front conscious skill, trained knowledge and experience. Never rash, he aims to leave nothing in the simplest surgical operations to chance or accident, still he has that faith and confidence in himself so essential to the highest success in surgery, and has never shirked au operation, however difficult or hazardous, which he believed it was his duty to perform. While he is a positive character, he is not dogmatic in his views. He is willing to learn from those even many years his junior ; is wedded to no ont- grown theories, and has ever been ready to adopt new methods which have been found superior to the old. He is not self-assertive, has little self-appreciation, is noted for extreme simplicity and modesty of character, and few pliysicians are so free from personal jealonsies or so just in estimating the attainments of their brother practition- ers. Dr. Jones assisted in the organization of St. Vincent's Hospital, and his best energies were directed to its establishment on a firm and permanent basis. From 1877 until 1885 he was surgeon in charge, and the claims of this institution received at his hands all that his time and talents could do for it, counting even the claims of his large and important private practice as secondary to those of the hospital. Those
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familiar with the history of the hospital during the period named bear willing testi- mony to the self sacrificing spirit he at all times evinced to make it a worthy institution for the alleviation of human suffering. He is still connected with the hospital as consulting surgeon and cheerfully and readily meets all the drains it makes upon his time and energies. He has also held for several years the chair of clinical and operative surgery in the medical department of the Oregon State University.
In 1879, Dr. Jones made an extended tour of Europe for the purpose of relaxation from professional cares, and largely that he might add to his knowledge of his profession. With the prestige of having studied under Dr. Stephen Smith and the friendship of Dr. Marion Sims and Dr. Addis Emmet, he was treated with great cor- diality and shown much attention by Sir Spencer Wells, Sir Morrell Mackenzie and Dr. Thornton, of England, Dr. Schwartze, of Halle, Germany, and other distinguished physicians of the Old World.
Personally Dr. Jones is a man of kin lly feeling and of strongly sympathetic nature. Familiarity and constant contact with physical pain has rather intensified than dulled his feelings, and as a physician he is as gentle and tender as a woman, while a certain magnetism of manner and genuine solicitation for his patients beget in return a degree of confidence and love such as is gained by few physicians. Out- side of his profession he has been a great reader, and despite the onerons duties of a large practice, has managed to keep unusually well informed as to the wonderful progress made in recent years in every branch of knowledge. His knowledge of men, the rebuffs of fortune and the asperities of life have not sonred his nature, but have broadened his views and sympathies and made more enthusiastic his faith in finding some good in everyone. He takes a philosophical view of things and is the broadest and most cheerful of optimists. His nature is mirthful and he believes in getting and giving good as he goes along. For his friends and intimates he has a frank, warm and loyal attachment-as warmly and loyally reciprocated. Snclı, in brief, are some of the prominent characteristics of this earnest, skillful physician, whose career has been one of constant and unflagging devotion to duty, of many generous deeds and of active usefulness.
He was married in February, 1879, to Mrs Mary H. Savier, of Portland, a lady of culture and refinement, and their union from mutual tastes and devotion has been one of singular congeniality and happiness.
MALLORY, RUFUS, is of New England ancestry, and descended from a strong and hardy stock, well fitted for the furnishing of such elements as are needed to command success and produce laudable results in the new but rapidly growing country in which his lot was cast and where modern civilization has come with such splendid strides.
Abont 1816 his parents left their home in Connecticut for the West, as New York State was then called, and settled in the town of Coventry in Chenango County, at which place the subject of our sketch, the youngest of a family of nine children, was born, June 10, 1831.
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Five or six months after his birth the family removed to Steuben county. This county at that time was new and thinly settled, and the disadvantages that existed were almost as great as a few years later confronted the pioneers in opening up the country of the far West. Railroads had not reached this part of the country, and communication with the outside world was extremely difficult. School houses had been built, but instruction was limited to the common branches, and often entrusted to unqualified persons.
It was amid these surroundings that the youth of our subject was passed. Being the youngest of the family his labors on the farm were less demanded than that of the older boys, and when school was in session he usually attended, hut considering the character of the school this cauuot be said to have been much of an advantage. When he had grown old enough for his labor to be of valne on the farm, this condition of things was changed, and he was obliged to work during the summer, and his school privileges were confined to the winter months. Even at this period, and with his indifferent surroundings and opportunities, he made some progress and showed a decided aptitude for acquiring knowledge, taking rank among the first at school. At Alfred Center, eleven miles from his father's farm, was an institution known as Alfred Academy. To attend that school was the especial ambition of every youth in the vicinity who desired to gain an education. The winter that young Mallory became fourteen years of age, he was sent to this Academy and remained during a term of thirteen weeks, which constituted the first real systematic course of instruction he had ever received. This was supplemented by two more terms during the following two winters, which completed all the educational advantages he ever enjoyed. He however made good use of his opportunities and obtained a fair English education, taking advantage of which, like so many country-bred American hoys, at the age of sixteen he obtained a position as teacher, and was thus employed for several winters, working on the farm during the other months of the year.
Although there was little in his surroundings to stimulate his desire to enter the legal profession, young Mallory had an ambition to become a lawyer. He had not the meaus necessary to permit him to pursue the required study, and his parents were not only financially unable to assist him, but were not disposed to encourage what they deemed an unworthy ambition. Both of his parents had been reared under the old Puritanical theories respecting religious aud secular affairs, and they were firmly convinced that a lawyer's chance for honor was small indeed.
These discouragements and difficulties, however, did not cause young Mallory to abandon his cherished desire to become a lawyer, and an opportunity to make a start towards this end soon presented itself. In 1851 he became a clerk in a store in the small town of Andover, about four miles from his home. One of the partners in the firm was an old gentleman named Jonathan Everett. He was an excellent scholar and a well read lawyer, and had been a practitioner in New Hampshire at the same har with Daniel Webster, on several occasions having been associated with him in the trial of cases. He had quite a number of law books, the use of which he kindly loaned to Mr. Mallory. Here our young clerk began the study of Blackstone during the leisure moments when not employed at his duties about the store. Mr. Everett was of great assistance to him, and did much to properly direct his studies.
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HISTORY OF PORTLAND.
Mr. Mallory remained at Andover, spending the little time he could spare from his work in reading law, until the spring of 1855, when he was placed in charge of three flat boats, loaded with sash, doors and blinds, and proceeded with them down the Alle- ghany and Ohio rivers, selling them to the towns ou the way until he reached the mouth of the Ohio river. Returning home he came by railroad from Cairo to Chicago, and thus had an excellent chance to see the West. This trip determined him to set- tle in the West, and in the fall of 1855 lie located in Henry county, Iowa, where he taught school and read law until 1858, when he started for Oregon, reaching Jackson- ville on the 1st day of January, 1859, a few weeks before the bill admitting the State into the Union was signed by the President. He first located in Roseburg, Donglas county, where he engaged in teaching, and continued his law studies in the office of Ex-Governor S. F. Chadwick, who was then practicing law at that place. In the spring of 1860 he was admitted to practice in the Circuit Court, and in June of the same year was elected for a term of two years Prosecuting Attorney for the first judic- ial district, composed of the counties of Douglas, Jackson and Josephine, and during his administration of the duties of this office, established a reputation as an attorney and counsellor which was highly creditable, and to which succeeding years and exper- ience have constantly added new laurels.
In 1862 he was elected a member of the legislature from Douglas county, and in the fall of the same year removed to Salem, where he was appointed by the Governor Prosecuting Attorney of the Third District, comprising the counties of Marion, Linn, Polk and Yamhill, Vice Hon. J. G. Wilson, who was appointed first Circuit Judge of the Fifth Judicial District. So satisfactorily did Mr. Mallory discharge the duties of this office, that in 1864 he was elected to succeed himself for a full term of two years.
At the general election in 1866 Mr. Mallory was elected Congressman from Ore- gon, and for two years worthily represented his State at the National Capital. At the end of his term he returned to Salem and resnmed the practice of law. In 1872 he represented Marion county in the State Legislature, and was elected Speaker of the House, in which position he was noted for the fairness of his rulings, and displayed a high order of executive and parliamentary ability.
In 1874 he was appointed United States District Attorney for Oregon by President Grant, and reappointed in 1878 by President Hayes. In 1882 he was appointed Special Agent of the Treasury Department to go to Sangapore, India, on business con- nected with that department. On completion of his business at Sangapore, he re- turned home by continuing his journey westward, and thus circumnavigated tlie globe, his actual travelling time heing seventy-eight days.
On his return to Portland Mr. Mallory resumed the practice of his profession, remaining alone until the fall of 1883, when he entered into partnership with C. A. Dolph, Ex-Judge C. B. Bellinger and Joseph Simon, a legal firm which from that time to the present has commanded a large and most lucrative practice.
Mr. Mallory was originally a Whig in politics, but since the overthrow of that party he has acted with the Republican party.
As a lawyer, Mr. Mallory ranks among the best in the State. His legal abilities have been tested in many important cases which have attracted wide attention because of new and novel questions involved, and on no occasion has he failed to acqnit lıim- self admirably. His painstaking industry, his power of incisive analysis, his large
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knowledge of the principles and precedents of the law are conspicuous in all the fields of litigation, but appear to best advantage in the trial of cases. As a pleader, he particularly excels, his style of speaking being always clear, pointed and forcible. Ile has always been a hard worker in his profession, thoroughly knowing that the lawyer who fails by severe application to keep abreast of the constantly changing conditions pertaining to the practice of the law must be content to occupy a secondary position. It has been mainly through this element of his character, with unlimited love for his calling, and a worthy ambition to excel, that his high position in his profession las been obtained.
Mr. Mallory was married June 24, 1860, to Miss Lucy A. Rose, daughter of Aaron Rose, of Roseburg, Oregon. They have one child, a son.
TEEL, JAMES, banker of Portland, was born in Woodsfield, Monroe county, Ohio, S on September 20, 1834, and is a son of William aud Elisabeth (Lawrie) Steel. His father was born in Scotland, but came to America when nine years of age, and was engaged in merchandising nearly all of his active life. He was a man of strong character, and every action in business and private life was governed by the most rigid adherence to a lofty conception of right and justice. He was strongly opposed to human slavery, and was very active for more than twenty years prior to the War of the Rebellion in the efforts made by leading abolitionists toward liberating the bond- men of the South by means of what at the time was termed the "underground railway scheme." He died in Portland in 1881, after which his wife lived with the subject of this sketch until her death in 1887.
The boyhood of James Steel was passed at Woodsfield and Stafford, Ohio, the family removing to the latter place iu 1844. His education was limited to the com- mon schools, and at the age of seventeen he began his business career in his father's store. Two year's later he entered into partnership with his father, continuing in such relations for three years. He then made a limited tour of the West, visiting Iowa and Kansas, and in the spring of 1856 located at Dubuque, Iowa, where he secured a position as clerk and finally as book keeper in a wholesale dry goods house. Here he remained until February, 1857, when, after a short visit home, he returned to Dubuque and became book keeper and general manager of a liardware house, remaining until 1859. This service was followed by engaging for a short time in the crockery busi- ness, which proved unprofitable and was given up.
During the memorable political campaign of 1860 he took an active part. After the contest was over he left Dubuque, and being out of employment at the time, the Member of Congress then elect from the Dubuque district proposed to secure him some political appointment, which he declined. During these later years his father had, through the kindness of his heart, been induced to lend his name to some friends by endorsing notes, which led to the loss of all his property, and while under the laws of Ohio he could have retained his homestead, yet he gave up everything to his credit- ors, but pricipally to pay the debts of others. This broke up the family and the sub- ject of this sketch then came to the Pacific Coast, hoping thereby to advance his for- tunes and thus be able to assist his father and family.
In the summer of 1862 he came to Portland, and being without means, he for a time worked for his board. He then became clerk in the grocery house of Robert
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Pittock, where he remained until January, 1864, when he took the position of book- keeper and cashier in the dry goods and grocery house of Harker Bros. At the end of two years this firm retired from business, and for a short time thereafter Mr. Steel was located in Oregon City, straightening up the affairs of the Oregon City Woolen Mills.
Upon the organization of the First National Bank of Portland in 1866, Mr. Steel became its Cashier. Banking business at this date in Portland had not reached much magnitude, and for some years all of the practical management of the affairs of the bank devolved upon Mr. Steel. It was in this position that his natural talent for financiering found a congenial scope, and during the sixteen years he was connected with this institution he gained an enviable reputation as a careful business man. He saw this bank grow from a small beginning until it became one of the largest banking institu- tions on the North Pacific Coast, and during this period his labors were most highly appreciated by those associated with him.
In July, 1882, Mr. Steel resigned his position in the bank, to engage in a general warehouse and grain business on the line of the Oregonian Railway Company, having leased from the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company all of the warehouses owned by this corporation. He had hardly gotten his new business under way when unfor- seen and unfortunate railway complications put a sudden end to the establishment of any well regulated or profitable business in this direction, and he was forced to aban- don the enterprise.
In 1883 Mr. Steel became one of the organizers of the Willamette Savings Bank. and was elected its first President. The depressed condition of affairs which came upon the country soon after this bank was organized, left little for savings banks to do, and it was determined to change the institution into an active commercial bank, and in 1886 the present Merchants' National Bank was formed, of which Mr. Steel has since been president. His labors in behalf of this institution have been marked by rare success; and to-day it is one of the most prosperous banking houses of the State.
Besides the business enterprises enumerated, Mr. Steel has been prominently ident- ified with the Oregon Construction Company, which built the Oregon Railway and Navigation line from Pendleton to Huntington, and the Palouse branch of the North- ern Pacific Railroad, and had personal charge of the construction of the road from Colfax to Moscow. He was one of the promoters of and is largely interested in the Klamath River Lumber and Improvement Company, a corporation formed with a cap- ital stock of $500,000. This company owns a large body of timber land in Klamath county; owns the town site of Klamath City; has a twenty years franchise for floating logs and timber down the Klamath river, and at the present time is building at Klam- ath City one of the finest saw mills on the Pacific coast. He is also half owner in the Oregon Pottery Company, of which he was one of the incorporators in 1884, and is Secretary and Treasurer of the Company, and is also president of the Portland Trust Company, a financial corporation of $160,000 capital, and doing a large business.
Mr. Steel is associated with his brother, George A., under the firm name of G. A. Steel & Co., in the insurance and real estate business. They, together with a few other leading business inen, purchased about 400 acres of land, some two miles south of Portland which was divided up into blocks and lots and is known as Fulton Park. In order to bring this property into ready market, the
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