USA > Oregon > Oregon, pictorial and biographical > Part 4
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Mr. Smith was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, August 3, 1826, a son of Peter and Barbara (Showalter) Smith, the former of English lineage and the latter of Holland Dutch descent. The birth of James G. Blaine occurred in the same town where Mr. Smith spent his early youth. The father was a farmer and carpenter who removed from the Keystone state to Ohio when his son William was but six years of age. He settled upon a tract of land in Clermont county, where he engaged in farming until his removal to Indiana. He was afterward a resident of Illinois and later of Texas, his death occurring in the Lone Star state, while his wife passed away in Ohio.
The removals of the family made William K. Smith at different times a pupil in the public schools of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Alabama. With the family he went to Texas and there worked upon the home farm until eighteen years of age. Then leaving the parental roof, he went to Alabama, where he again attended school and also engaged in clerking for his uncle, a merchant and physician, with whom he also read medicine. After five years spent in Alabama, William K. Smith went to La Grange, Texas, where he was employed as a clerk in a mercantile establishment. Before he left Texas he had earned a cow and calf by splitting rails. He left the cattle there and
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William R. Smith
went to Alabama. When he returned to Texas, he found himself the owner of the nucleus of a small herd of cattle. Increasing this by pur- chase, he was soon a fairly extensive stock-raiser. At this period he also engaged in the strenuous undertaking of teaching school in a frontier community. An amusing memory of these days is the aston- ishing though euphonious cognomen of one of his pupils, "Thomas A. Didymus Christopher Holmes Peter Cadwallader Harrison Jones Chadowen."
Mr. Smith's education had been frequently interrupted by the stern necessity of earning a livelihood. Energetic and ambitious though he was for material success, he fully realized that intellectual training was of paramount importance. Urged by this consideration, we find him next making his way to St. Louis where he completed a course in a commercial college; and after that attending Shurtleff College at Alton, Illinois. He was for a short time the owner of a brickyard in St. Louis, and furnished the brick used in the historic Planters Hotel. He also engaged in the hotel business.
While there Mr. Smith formed a company to cross the plains, being attracted to the west by the fact that he had a brother, Joseph S. Smith, afterward a congressman from Oregon, who was living upon the Pa- cific coast and who sent back favorable reports concerning its oppor- tunities and possibilities. William K. Smith left St. Louis with about eighty head of cattle and fine horses, with a few men to assist him in the care of his stock in crossing the plains. His horses, however, were stolen on the journey. The party had considerable experience with the Indians while crossing the plains and were constantly on the alert for fear of an attack. Day after day they traveled on over the hot stretches of sand and through the mountain passes until their eyes were gladdened by the green valleys of California. Soon after reach- ing the Golden Gate Mr. Smith sold his cattle and turned his atten- tion to mining. But not finding the gold in the country that he had anticipated, he opened a small store on the McCallum river. After living in California for about a year he decided to visit his brother, Joseph S. Smith, who had settled with his family on Whidby's island, Puget Sound, Washington territory. This journey took him, in 1854, through Portland, then a new and unimportant settlement. From Portland to his destination the arduous trip was made on horseback. Arriving at dusk at his brother's log house, he was at first received with scant welcome by his brother who, not having seen him for sev- eral years and receiving no news of his coming, failed to recognize the tall, bearded stranger. His brother's baby boy, however, seemed quaintly enough to notice the kinship, as tugging at his mother's apron
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William R. Smith
he lisped, "Mamma-two papas." After a short visit with his brother Mr. Smith retraced his steps to Salem, Oregon Territory, where he purchased from Dr. Wilson (whose donation land claim was the orig- inal town site of Salem) a drug store which included also a stock of books, paints, oils and general merchandise. This store he conducted with great success for fifteen years, securing an extensive trade from the town and surrounding country.
During this period he established the water system of Salem, bring- ing in an unlimited supply of fine water from the Santiam river. He secured the controlling interest in the Salem Woolen Mills and associated with himself in the management of the enterprise, J. F. Miller, H. W. Corbett, W. S. Ladd, L. F. Grover, J. S. Smith and Daniel Waldo. These mills made the first shipment of wool sent to the east from the Pacific coast. With practically the same associates he built the first large flouring mills and an immense wheat warehouse. These, the biggest mills on the coast, were operated by water power from Santiam river. During this period he acquired the McMinn- ville Flouring Mills, trading to Robert Kinney his woolen mill stock for a ranch of a thousand acres, stocked with fine horses and the McMinnville mills. In such manner the extent and importance of his business interest were a prominent and effective feature in Salem's progress and commercial prosperity.
He established a branch store at Silverton, a town now well known as the home of the late artist Homer Davenport, and another one at Dayton. Today his derives keen pleasure in touring through these thriving towns and recalling the sites of his former business ventures, though often the oldest inhabitant is requisitioned to pick out the altered building where fifty years ago W. K. Smith sold "Drugs, Books, Paints & General Merchandise."
The following is a fac-simile of one of the posters used in the Salem store. "O. T." (Oregon Territory) indicates a date prior to 1859, since Oregon was admitted as a state in February of that year.
FROM
W. K. SMITH & CO.,
DEALERS IN
BOOKS & STATIONERY,
DRUGS AND MEDICINES,
PAINTS, OILS, &Co, .
SALEM, O. T.
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Malilliam R. Smith
Seeking still broader fields of labor and realizing that Portland had natural advantages which in time must make it a city of large interest, Mr. Smith severed his business connections with Salem and in 1869 became identified with the industrial life of the Rose City. He established a sawmill and thus began the manufacture of lumber. 'Through the intervening years he has been connected with an industry which has been and is one of the chief sources of revenue to the state. At one time he owned and operated three sawmills and although two of these have since been burned he is still the owner of a saw and shingle mill. Looking beyond the exigencies of the moment to the possibilities of the future, he has ever directed his efforts along lines that have been effective forces in the extension of Portland's business inter- est and connection. With C. H. Lewis, Henry Failing and H. W. Corbett he furnished the first money required in financing the new Bull Run system of water supply and was a member of the original water commission, being one of the three survivors of that representa- tive body. He later won recognition as a leading financier of Port- land, becoming identified with the Portland Savings Bank, which was organized in 1880 and of which he became vice president and one of the directors. He was also elected one of the directors of the Commercial Bank and his sound judgment was brought to bear in the correct solu- tion of many intricate financial problems. He was vice president and director of the Ainsworth Bank. He was one of the promoters and owners of the Portland Hotel. He contributed to the city's material improvement as the builder of a dock and warehouse on the levee north of Salmon street in 1876. He was also one of the promoters of the street railway system of Portland, being among those who organized the old cable car company, in which undertaking he lost considerable money. He was also among the first to agitate and support the ques- tion of establishing an electric line, thus constituting the foundation of Portland's present excellent street car service. He was interested with Ben Holladay in building the first railway in Oregon and also engaged in the shipping business, being the owner of the Hattie C. Bessie, a four-masted bark, which he chartered to Chinese merchants for twenty thousand dollars for a single trip to China. His business connections were so varied and important in Portland that it would have seemed that outside affairs could have no claim upon his time and attention. Yet he has had important agricultural interests, own- ing at one time a ranch of one thousand acres in Yamhill county, stocked with fine horses and cattle. This property he traded for the Hattie C. Bessie. While in Salem he purchased the first bushel of apples ever sold in that city; they were raised in Polk county and were
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William R. Smith
a very fine variety. He afterward sold many of the apples at one dollar each and disposed of one for five dollars to D. M. Durell, a banker and sawmill man, who said he would take the apple to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington for it was almost the size of a large cocoanut.
At present Mr. Smith is engaged in the real-estate business and handles much property. He has sold more land for railroad terminals than any man in Portland and recently disposed of realty to J. J. Hill, the railroad magnate, that was worth over a quarter of a million dol- lars. He has furnished the sites for two parks to the city of Portland. Seventeen years ago he purchased Council Crest, paying fifty thou- sand dollars for sixty acres. His realty holdings are extensive and return to him a gratifying annual income.
Among his holdings lot one of block one, city of Portland, has considerable historic interest. This lot was the site of the first house built in the settlement and afterward of the first business store, a shingled building. It is now covered with a substantial brick building, in which, at No. 202 Washington street, Mr. Smith maintains his office.
It is impossible in so short a sketch to give more than the merest outline of the career of W. K. Smith, a romance inextricably inter- woven with the development of the country, south, southwest, middle- west and northwest. Farmer, clerk, druggist, school teacher, stock- raiser, hotel keeper, mine worker and mine owner, merchant, manu- facturer, ship owner, banker, man of affairs,-through all the kaleido- scopic changes of the west, W. K. Smith has moved, quiet and alert, with an indomitable will that no reverses could daunt; with an un- shaken faith in himself, in his chosen country, the northwest, and in his own.
Reviewing his struggles, the difficulties which he conquered, and the courage and resource that never failed him, one readily recalls the poet's lines :
"It matters not how straight the gate, How charged with punishment the scroll, I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul."
In San Francisco in 1864 Mr. Smith was united in marriage to Debbie H. Harker, a sister of General Charles Harker, who won his title by service in the Civil war. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Smith were born six children. Eugenia, the wife of T. Harris Bartlett, of Idaho, and the mother of one child, Barbara S .; William K., Jr., who is living in
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William &. Smith
Portland; Victor H., who is a graduate of the Willamette Medical College, the Virginia Medical College and the Medical College of New York and is now successfully engaged in the practice of medicine in Portland; Joseph H., connected with the Portland Electric Light Company, who married Gertrude Eger and has two children, Josephine and Deborah Anne; Charles H., who died when four years of age; and Sumner, who was drowned in the Willamette river saving the life of a young lady whose rescue he effected at the cost of his own life.
While Mr. Smith does not hold membership with any religious denomination, he has contributed liberally to the building of churches, including both the Methodist and Episcopal churches at Salem. He was also a generous donor to the Willamette University at Salem and furnished the ground upon which they built the Willamette Medical School in Portland-a property of which he obtained possession later by purchase.
From boyhood days, when he read by the flickering light by the fireplace, he has been a student and devoted admirer of the great authors. His favorite poets are Pope and Thomas Moore and he often surprises and charms his listeners with a graceful and apt quota- tion from the satire of the one or the mournful sweetness of the other. Naturally he became a strong supporter, financially and otherwise, of the old Portland Library Association and was a life member and director of that body. Since the old association was taken over by the city and became a free public library he has had an unabated interest in its welfare and still serves as director and a prominent member of important committees.
His cooperation has ever been counted upon to further progressive public measures and his labors have been of far-reaching effect and importance. He thoroughly enjoys home life and takes great pleas- ure in the society of his family and friends. He is always courteous, kindly and affable and those who know him personally-and he is widely known throughout the state-have for him a warm regard. A man of great natural ability, his success in business from the begin- ning of his residence in Portland has been uniform and rapid, and while he has long since passed the age when most men put aside business cares, he yet manages his investments and his interests, and his business discernment is as keen and his judgment as sound as it was two or three decades ago. Although the snows of many winters have whitened his hair, in spirit and interest he seems yet in his prime and out of his wisdom and his experience he gives for the benefit of others.
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PW Severson
Peter WW. Seberson
T HE real destiny of the nation is not being worked out by the men who stand in the glare of publicity; in- deed, such men are often serious obstacles to prog- ress. In society as in nature, it is the quiet, unseen forces that are most effective in molding and evolv- ing those conditions, physical, mental and spiritual, that make for the betterment of mankind.
Oregon has been developed by the quiet, earnest men and women who have gone about their allotted tasks, heedless of the discomforts, and discouraging adversities of pioneer life, content to fulfill their duty in the sphere to which they have been called. Such an one is Peter W. Severson. Modest, unassuming, even retiring in disposi- tion, he has, none the less, ever been keenly alive to all that pertains to human welfare, and while no history of Oregon would be complete without some mention of this man who cast his lot with the pioneers of the Pacific coast, yet his munificent gifts to the cause of education as represented by Willamette University, and to those grand in- stitutions for moral uplift-the Young Men's Christian Association and the Young Women's Christian Association-entitle him to spe- cial mention. The name of the donor of these wise and generous en- dowments shall endure as one of the great benefactors of the Pacific coast.
Peter W. Severson is a representative of one of the old Knicker- bocker families which left their lasting impress on the state of New York. His immediate ancestors lived for a number of generations in Broome county, and some of them participated in the bloody scenes of that Revolution which won American liberty. After the war, they settled down to the peaceful pursuits of agriculture, in which occupa- tion the father of our subject was engaged at Conkling, near Bing- hamton, New York. Here Peter W. Severson was born on March 21, 1830, his parents being Philip and Abigail (Weaver) Severson. Our subject was reared on the home farm, receiving such educational advantages as the public schools of his day afforded. He also had his share of the harmless enjoyments of youth, but that his life has always been a model of morality and temperance is evident to all.
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Peter TO. Seberson
In physical vigor this octogenarian might well be the envy of many men a score of years his junior.
In the near-by city of Binghamton, young Severson learned the trade of carriage and wagon maker, which he followed there until 1856. In that year he went to San Francisco via the Isthmus of Panama, and followed his trade for two years. Then the rush of the miners to the Fresh River gold fields caused a depression in his line of work, and Mr. Severson decided to try his fortune in Portland. Here he allied himself with two enterprising young blacksmiths, and the trio began the manufacture of wagons under the firm name of Clark, Hay & Company. That partnership continued for about two years. From that time until about ten or twelve years ago, Mr. Severson continued to manufacture wagons, sometimes alone and at other times with partners.
About twenty-five or thirty years ago, Mr. Severson and his wife took up their residence on the east side, where a thriving village had begun to develop. Mr. Severson finished some work for a man, and as pay accepted the block bounded by East Ankeny and Burnside and Ninth and Tenth streets. Blocks in that neighborhood were then selling for two hundred and two hundred and fifty dollars each. Some of this property Mr. Severson still retains. He has always been thrifty and prudent, though never penurious, and the invest- ments purchased with his savings enhanced with the growth of Portland until Mr. Severson long ago had acquired pecuniary independence.
Mr. Severson's first work was done for John Middleton, who owned the lot at the northeast corner of Fifth and Morrison streets where he lived. The debt thus contracted remained unpaid until 1861, when in order to settle his account, Mr. Middleton sold the lot to Mr. Severson, accepting for the balance due him seventeen hundred dollars in greenbacks, which at that time were worth only about fifty cents on the dollar. At that time Mr. Severson did not look upon his purchase as a bargain, but he retained possession of it until about two years ago when he sold the lot for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
In his young manhood Mr. Severson was united in marriage with Miss Sarah Ann Austin who was a native of New York state, but who was reared in Woodstock, Illinois, whither her parents had re- moved when that was considered the far west. Mrs. Severson was a devoted wife and help-meet, sharing in his discouragements and in his hopes. Their many years of happy companionship were inter- rupted about fourteen years ago when Mrs. Severson was called to
Mos PH feversen
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Peter We. Seberson
the Great Beyond, leaving her beloved partner to finish the journey alone, there being no children or near relatives to cheer his declining years.
In matters politic Mr. Severson follows the republican standard and has long been an earnest and steadfast advocate of the platforms and measures of this great party.
Like Andrew Carnegie, Mr. Severson seems to believe that it is a crime to die rich, and he decided to devote his fortune to philanthropic work. The following account of the transfer of a large portion of Mr. Severson's fortunes to the three institutions mentioned in the be- ginning of this sketch, is taken from the March 24 issue of the Ore- gonian:
"A portion of the securities he had already decided upon giving to the Y. M. C. A. and the Y. W. C. A., when he became informed about three weeks ago of the campaign which Fletcher W. Homan, president of Willamette University, is waging to raise an additional endowment fund of five hundred thousand dollars. After negotiat- ing with vice president Todd of Willamette University, and John W. Hancher, counsellor to the university, arrangements were finally completed, and the transfer of the securities to the three institutions was made in the office of J. L. Wells, Mr. Severson's Agent.
"The act of transfer marked a moment of solemnity. R. A. Booth and A. M. Smith, regents of Willamette University, A. F. Flegel and Vice President E. H. Todd were present, representing the uni- versity; W. M. Ladd and S. A. Brown represented the Y. M. C. A., and E. C. Bronaugh and F. D. Chamberlain the Y. W. C. A.
"As Mr. Severson affixed his signature to the documents that meant the relinquishment of the income from two hundred thousand dollars for the support of the three big institutions, not a sound broke the stillness that pervaded the room.
"In a letter given to Mr. Todd shortly after the signing of the papers, he said:
"' In the contribution which I have this day made to Willamette University, I wish to express through you, to the President and Trustees of the University, the great pleasure I have in thus being able to contribute to the higher values and larger usefulness of this worthy institution for the present and for all coming years.
" 'I have decided to do this now, to give inspiration and impetus to your present campaign for five hundred thousand dollars endow- ment. While I have made this gift without condition or reservation, I expect that you, the University authorities and patrons, will hold yourselves and all of you in honor bound to carry forward your pres-
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Peter WW. Seberson
ent campaign, until you shall have completed the net sum of four hun- dred and twenty-five thousand dollars, which you originally started to raise independent of my contribution. I want mine to be over and above that, both for the larger usefulness of the University, and for the greater good to the people who will contribute lesser amounts.'
"The donation of the securities on the Morrison street property by no means impoverishes the donor. Mr. Severson has many other holdings in Portland, secured by judicious investments, besides his residence property at 85 East Sixteenth street, and according to himself, his contributions to the University and the two Christian associations were actuated by his desire to put to a good and useful employment that which he had over and above his own needs.
" "This donation is a most significant step in the history of our campaign for increase of endowment,' said Mr. Todd. 'The inspira- tion of his unselfish aid to the University will, I believe, kindle a wave of enthusiasm among the friends and patrons of Willamette that will make far easier the quick completion of our campaign, and the additional resources represented in the one hundred thousand dollars he has given us will place the University in a position for an enormous and successful development within the next few years.
""'Would that there were more men like Peter W. Severson, in whom the sordid love of riches finds no response. Had he not been an accumulator and wise distributor of wealth, the world would yet have been enriched from contact with his noble character. His sym- pathetic nature has made him a valued neighbor and friend. The influence of his upright life has always been felt by those with whom he comes in contact, and his life of righteousness, coupled with his unselfish interest in the welfare of others, has found its natural fruition in the great benefactions here recorded.'"
It. C Leonarg
D. C. Leonard
HAVE commenced this recalling of some of the past events in my life so far and of writing up the same, which I am obliged to do from mem- ory alone (as to dates) in consequence of the destruc- tion of books and records of the old firm of Leonard & Green, which were destroyed by water, as they were stored in a cellar which was filled during a flood some years ago.
I take for my starting point, the date when I left the home of my parents when nearly eighteen years of age to serve an apprenticeship with my uncle Hermon Camp in his mercantile business in Trumans- burg, New York. My brother, William B., had preceded me some two years previously and was still there, but the time of his indenture was nearing a close, and soon after I reached there he accepted a posi- tion in Albany, New York, as register of currency of the state banks of New York under a new law then just passed. That position he held nearly or about two years; in the meantime I was still in my uncle's employ in Trumansburg. At the expiration of my brother's service in Albany, he went to New York city and obtained a situation as sales- man in the wholesale silk house of Williams, Rankin & Penniman, in Nassau street, where he remained about two years, and being very suc- cessful as a salesman, he received the second year a salary of two thou- sand dollars. He then, with John M. Birdsall and Benjamin Pom- eroy formed the firm of Birdsall, Pomeroy & Leonard in a wholesale dry-goods business. After the dissolution of that firm (Birdsall going to California early in '49) William B. joined in business with a very prominent wholesale house, forming the firm of Hurlbut, Sweetzer & Company. After closing his business with this last house in the dry- goods line, he, with James O. Sheldon and a Mr. Foster, formed the banking house of Leonard, Sheldon & Foster, located at No. 10 Wall street, afterward the firm of Leonard, Decker & Howell, 44 Broadway.
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