Portrait and biographical record of Portland and vicinity, Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present, Part 10

Author:
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Chicago, Chapman Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 946

USA > Oregon > Multnomah County > Portland > Portrait and biographical record of Portland and vicinity, Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present > Part 10

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With Messrs. Abernethy, Clark and Ains- worth associated with him in the ownership, Mr. Kamm constructed the first stern-wheel steamer built in Oregon, the Jennie Clark. This also proved an undertaking of considerable pro- portions, for the machinery had to be brought in a sailing vessel around the Horn, entailing a great expense and risk, but Mr. Kamm had great faith in the enterprise and when his first partner, a Mr. Hall, stepped out he got the above gentlemen to take a quarter interest each, while

he put up the money for the balance. The Car- rie Ladd. another pioneer water craft of Ore- go11, was the nucleus of what afterward became know as the Oregon Steam Navigation Com- pany. This vessel was constructed under the direction of Mr. Kamm, and was owned by him in partnership with others. He was a large stockholder in the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, which was organized in 1860, with Mr. Kamm as chief engineer, which position he filled until 1865. He afterward sold his interest, which was the second largest, to a syndicate, which in turn transferred its stock to that gigan- tic enterprise known as the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company. Another company which in its days of independent prosperity operated extensively on the Willamette, and which even- tually was merged into the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company, was the Willamette Trans- portation Company, of which Mr. Kamm was one of the organizers and principal stockholders. At one time he also owned that well-known ocean coasting steamer, the George S. Wright, which, after passing into the hands of Ben Hol- liday, was wrecked in Alaskan waters. Although at one time Mr. Kamm thought of going out of the steamboat business entirely, his plans were changed through no fault of his own, but chiefly through having loaned money to a friend, with steamboat property as security.

With his years as invaluable experience in this direction, it is not surprising that Mr. Kamm has been identified with the organization of most of the large steamboat transportation com- panies of the northwest, or that to some extent he has been interested in railroads. In 1872, through a business transaction, Mr. Kamm came into possession of the Carrie, a small steamer, which proved to be the nucleus of the Van- couver Transportation Company. In February, 1874, the company was incorporated with Mr. Kamm as president, a position which he has held up to the present time. His next venture was his connection with the Ilwaco Railway and Navigation Company, but his interests in this concern were disposed of some years ago. As- sociated with others, Mr. Kamm built the Norma, which is the only boat that has passed through the famous Box Canyon on the Snake river without being wrecked.

While practically his whole life has been de- voted to navigation Mr. Kamm has, nevertheless, found the time to take up other business mat- ters, and was at one time vice-president of the United States National Bank of Portland, and he is also a prominent stockholder in several other banks in the city. His interests have ex- tended to Astoria. where he has been an int- portant factor in the upbuilding of the present enterprising community. He is president of the

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

First National Bank of that city, and one of the heaviest taxpayers of Astoria. He also has valuable property in San Francisco: and in Portland owns, among other property, the large business block bearing his name.

The beautiful home occupied by Mr. Kamm and his wife in Portland, consisting of fourteen acres almost in the heart of the city, was, at the time of its purchase in the early '6os, outside the city limits. At the present time it is hedged in by the stress of commercialismn and handsome residences, and is one of the most conspicuous landmarks which bind the past to the present. This home, with its countless memories of early days, is presided over by one of the most charm- ing women of Portland, to whose co-operation and unceasing sympathy this honored pioneer at- tributes a large share of his success in life. Mrs. Kamm, whose marriage to the subject of this brief memoir occurred September 13, 1859, was formerly Caroline A. Gray, daughter of the late William H. and Mary A. (Dix) Gray. Mr. and Mrs. Kamm are the parents of one son, Charles T. Kamm, who, like his father, has won a captaincy.

Mr. Kamm became identified with the Masonic fraternity in St. Louis, July 27, 1847, and was one of the early members of Multnomah Lodge No. I, A. F. & A. M., of Oregon City. At the present time he is the third oldest Mason in the state of Oregon; is a member of Clackamas Chapter R. A. M .; Portland Commandery No. I, K. T .; Oregon Consistory No. I, Scottish Rite; and Al Kader Temple, N. M. S. He is a member and president of the board of trustees of the First Presbyterian Church of Portland, and for many years has been a generous contributor to- ward its maintenance.

Success has come to Mr. Kamm, the result of his own efforts, and that too in the face of one of the greatest of handicaps-ill health, as from young manhood to the present time he has been a sufferer and there have been many times when it was only by superhuman efforts that he kept himself from giving up the struggle. Jacob Kamm is a typical representative of the stalwart founders of the civilization of the Pa- cific slope, and in his integrity, his broad-mind- edness and his resourcefulness, has met the de- mands of our splendid western citizenship. Per- sonally he is a man possessed of numerous strik- ing and delightful characteristics. Those who know him best. the representatives of the younger generation as well as those who, like him, have spent many years in useful operations in Oregon, cheerfully accord him a rank among the most enlightened, useful, public-spirited. kind-hearted and generous citizens of the state: and in him they find a man whose support of all worthy movements calculated to enhance the

commercial, industrial and social standing of the metropolis of Oregon comes from entirely unsel- fish motives. That he has come to be recog- nized as one of the foremost citizens of the northwest is a tribute to his personal worth, his indefatigable industry and perseverance in the face of obstacles that would have seemed insur- mountable by many others, and his determina- tion, inherited from his study father, to accom- plish what he could toward success by honesty and industry alone. These characteristics have made his life what it has been-reflecting great credit upon himself, and a source of the greatest inspiration to those young men of the present generation whose only hope of reward may be found in doing what lies before them in the line of duty with a firm determination to adhere to a policy of integrity, watchfulness and perse- verance.

MRS. CAROLINE AUGUSTA KAMM. The history of Oregon were indeed incomplete without due mention of the family to which Mrs. Caroline Augusta Kamm, wife of one of Ore- gon's noblest and most resourceful pioneers, be- longs, or of the place which she herself has oc- cupied these many years in the hearts of her many friends. Mrs. Kamm was born at Lapwai, Oregon territory, now Idaho, October 16, 1840, and is the oldest daughter born to William H. and Mary A. (Dix) Gray, pioneers respectively of 1836 and 1838.

The Gray family is one of the very earliest to settle in Oregon, and their impress upon the institutions which served as a nucleus for later large achievements was marked in the extreme. William Henry Gray was born in Fairfield, N. Y., September 8, 1810, and in 1836 was selected by the American Board of Missions as secular agent in Oregon. On the trip across the plains he joined Whitman and Spaulding and their wives at Liberty Landing, Mo., and the subse- quent trials of this courageous little band have been already often recorded. They succeeded in reaching Walla Walla, Wash., September 2, 1836, and, having partially accomplished his mis- sion in the west, Mr. Gray undertook again the perilous trip over the plains, that he might marry Mary A. Dix, who was born in Champlain county, N. Y., January 2, 1810. The marriage ceremony took place February 25, 1838, Mrs. Gray being the daughter of a Revolutionary sol- dier, who had decided to devote her life to mis- sionarv work. In 1838 this courageous couple set forth upon their life mission in the west, taking with them three other missionaries and their wives, and locating at Fort Lapwai, Idaho. The zeal of the missionaries is understood when it is known that two weeks after their arrival

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

Mrs. Gray had started a school for Indians under a pine tree in the wilderness, and had a member- ship of from fifty to one hundred. Nor were her efforts confined to teaching the children, for during leisure hours she instructed the mothers in keeping their homes clean, in the art of mak- ing bread, and also taught them to cut and make the clothes for their families. The following March her pine tree school was exchanged for more satisfactory quarters in a little log build- ing without any floor and with puncheon seats, and this advance in accommodations was the signal for renewed effort to give the Indians in Idaho the benefits of an uplifting civilization. In 1838 both Dr. Gray and his wife received certificates from Rev. Dr. Greene of New York as missionaries of the American Board of For- eign Missions, both of which now hang in the historical rooms together with their passports.

In July, 1842, Mr. Gray resigned from the Board of Foreign Missions, and during the sum- mer of the same year made a trip to the Will- amette Valley where he became trustee and con- tractor, and built the old Oregon Institute, since known as the Willamette University. In 1843 he was the leading spirit in the formation of the provincial government, and in 1845 he was clected a member of the legislature from Clacka- mas county. From 1842 until 1844 he lived with him family in Salem, and from then until 1846 made his home in Oregon City. He then re- moved to the Clatsop Plains, where, aided by his wife and three others, he organized the first Presbyterian Church in Oregon. During the lat- ter years of their lives Mr. and Mrs. Gray lived principally in Astoria, and her death occurred in Clatsop county in 1881, while that of her husband occurred at the home of Mr. Kamm in Portland November 14, 1889.

Mr. Gray was a man of diversified gifts, and besides being a practicing physician for many vears, was a writer of no mean merit. Of his History of Oregon, written in 1870, Rev. Geary, D. D., when asked for his opinion, said emphat- ically : "True, every word of it, but you told too much." To Dr. Gray is due the distinction of performing the first operation of trephining of the skull on the Pacific coast, and the Indian boy who was thus benefited by his skill spread his good fortune up and down through the for- ests. In the order of their birth the children born to this noble pioneer couple are as follows : Capt. J. H. D. Gray, who died in Astoria Octo- ber 26, 1902, and was ex-state senator and ex- county judge of Clatsop county; Caroline A., Mrs. Kamm; Mary S., the deceased wife of Mr. Tarbell of Tacoma. Wash .; Sarah F .. now Mrs. Abernethy of Coos county, Ore .; Capt. William Polk; Capt. A. W., of Portland; and Capt. James T., also of Portland.

Mrs. Kamm is a very popular and well in- formed woman, and is full of generous impulses and unbounded sympathy. Her name is at the head of many charities, although unostenta- tiously she gives much towards the alleviation of human suffering. In her travels through the country with her husband she has accumulated a horde of interesting information, and is par- ticularly enlightening about the early times in which her parents took so prominent a part.

CHARLES E. LADD. Of Charles E. Ladd it may be said that he has succeeded in spite of wealth. The incentive which is supposed to animate the average actions of men being want- ing, he has yet developed a business capacity beyond the average, and which has placed him in the front ranks of captains of industry on the coast. It is usual to praise those who suc- ceed in spite of poverty ; they have an enormous advantage, in that if ambitious they must work. The man of inherited wealth possesses already all that the average successful man craves as a result of labor. Mr. Ladd has ignored every incentive save that of desiring to maintain a family prestige splendidly established by his father, W. S. Ladd, one of the best remembered of the early pioneers whose unceasing toil won him a handsome competency.

A native son of Portland, Charles E. Ladd was born in 1857 and was educated at Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., and at Amherst Col- lege, from which he was graduated in the class of 1881, with the degree of A. B. Returning to Portland, he became president of the Port- land Planing Mills, and upon the death of his father became identified as manager with the banking firm of Ladd & Tilton. Besides the numerous corporations with which he is con- nected, Mr. Ladd is a director in the Portland Library Association : a member of the board and on the executive committee of the Lewis & Clark Exposition; a member of the University, Commercial, Arlington and Multnomah Clubs ; and a member and director of the Chamber of Commerce. In Somerville, Mass., Mr. Ladd was united in marriage with Sarah L. Hall, a native of Somerville. The family are members of the Calvary Presbyterian Church.

William S. Ladd, whose worth-while career is extensively written of in another part of this work, died in Portland, January 6, 1893, leav- ing a widow and the following children: Wil- liam M., head of the banking house of Ladd & Tilton : Charles E., ; Mrs. H. J. Corbett of Port- land; Mrs. F. B. Pratt of Brooklyn, N. Y .: and J. Wesley, also associated with the banking house of Ladd & Tilton. The latter institution, founded by the elder Ladd and Mr. Tilton, and

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Gert Brownell

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now owned entirely by the Portland family of Ladd, is one of the most solid financial institu- tions this side of the Rocky mountains, and one of the most substantial in the country.

HON. GEORGE C. BROWNELL. Among the distinguished lawyers and lawmakers of Ore- gon George C. Brownell is numbered, and for the third term he is serving in the state senate, leaving the impress of his individuality upon the legislation which has been enacted during the period of his connection with the general assem- bly. A native of the Empire state, he was born in Willsboro, N. Y., August 10, 1858, the second in the family of seven children born unto Am- brose and Annie (Smith) Brownell. Of Eng- lish ancestry, the Brownell family was founded in New England at an early period in the devel- opment of this country. The father of our sub- ject was a native of New York, born in Essex county, whence he removed to Columbia county, where his last days were passed. He was a me- chanie, but at the time of the Civil war he put aside all business and personal considerations in order to aid in the preservation of the Union as a member of Company F, One Hundred and Eighteenth New York Infantry, which was as- signed to duty with the Army of the Potomac. He took part in a number of engagements and on one occasion was severely wounded. His wife was a native of Addison county, Vt.

After acquiring his literary education in the public schools and an academy, George C. Brownell took up the study of law under the direction of Charles L. Beale, member of con- gress living in Hudson, N. Y., and in Albany, in 1882, he was admitted to the bar. He entered upon his professional career in Frankfort, Kans., where he engaged in practice with marked suc- cess, winning prestige at that bar, and in public affairs he was also prominent, serving as mayor of Frankfort in 1884-85. On the 6th of January, 1886, he removed to Ness City, Kans., and the same year was appointed attorney for the Den- ver, Memphis & Atlantic Railroad, extending from Chetopa, Kans., to Pueblo, Colo. A large private practice was also accorded him in recog- nition of his skill and ability in the line of his chosen profession, and for two years he served as county attorney of Ness county, Kans.

Since June, 1891, he has been a resident of Oregon City and a practitioner at its bar. and to- dav a distinctively representative clientage is ac- corded him in recognition of his capability. He has broad and comprehensive understanding of the principles of jurisprudence, possesses a keenly analytical mind, prepares his cases with great care and precision and therefore seldom fails to gain the verdict desired. But Mr. Brownell has

not confined his attention solely to the practice of law, having been a factor in the lawmaking body of the state. In 1892 he was made the nominee of the Republican party for state senator, but declined to accept the nomination because he had been a resident of the state for less than a year. He was, however, in the county convention, made chairman of the degelation to the state conven- tion and was chairman of the Republican central committee of Clackamas county and had charge of the convention that year. In 1894 he was nominated for the position of state senator by acclamation and defeated Hon. W. A. Stark- weather, who had been a member of the first constitutional convention of Oregon and was an ex-representative and a former register of the land office, Mr. Brownell being elected by a plurality of three hundred and twenty- seven. In 1898, after the most bitter contest that had occurred in the county in years, he was renominated by acclamation, cover- ing every one of the thirty-six precincts of the county, and in the June election he defeated Hon. W. S. Wren by two hundred and thirty-eight votes. In the special ses- sion of 1898, he was chosen by the Republican caucus to present the caucus man, the Hon. Joseph Simon, to the joint assembly as the can- didate for United States senator. In 1900 Mr. Brownell received the unanimous endorsement of the Republicans of Clackamas county for mem- ber of congress. In 1902 he was a third time nominated for state senator by acclamation and after a hard contest before the people defeated the Hon. George W. Grace, by a plurality of six hundred and ninety-five. During the session of 1901 Mr. Brownell took an active part in the election of a United States senator, and it was he who on the fortieth ballot, when hope of elect- ing a senator was about gone, presented the name of John H. Mitchell, who was later elected. Again during the session of 1903-04, when Mr. Brownell was serving as president of the senate, he was successful in having his candidate for United States senator, Hon. C. W. Fulton, elected, and in the speech made by Senator Ful- ton directly after the deciding ballot had been cast, he gave Senator Brownell the full credit for what he had accomplished.

Mr. Brownell has been a very active and val- uable member of the upper house of the state legislature and his labors have been a potent factor in framing legislation enacted during his terms of service. He was the author of and in- troduced into the senate the initiative and refer- endum resolution to amend the state constitu- tion ; was the author of the law which provided that supervisors should be elected instead of ap- pointed ; and at each session he introduced a bill to authorize the calling of a constitutional

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convention to revise the organic law of the state and finally secured the passage of the bill through the senate in 1901, but it was defeated in the house by two votes. He was also the author of the bill to elect precinct assessors, in- stead of county assessors, and this also passed the senate, but was defeated in the house by a vote of two. He introduced the bill, and secured its passage through the senate, exempting to every laboring man that was the head of a fam- ily thirty days' wages from attachment and execution for debt, and this passed the house and became a law. In the senate Mr. Brownell offered resolutions for the appointment of a com- mittee to investigate the handling of school funds of Oregon and was made the chairman of the committee, whose report gave a shortage of $31,000 in the school funds, and thus prevented other fraudulent use of money appropriated for educational work in the state. On May 20, 1903, Mr. Brownell delivered the address of welcome at the state capital as chairman of the committee on behalf of the senate and house of representa- tives of Oregon.

In Rockland. Mass., Mr. Brownell was mar- ried to Miss Alma C. Lane, a native of the Bay state. They have two adopted sons, Howard and Ambrose, the former a law student. Mrs. Brownell is a member of the Presbyterian Church and Mr. Brownell belongs to various fraternal organizations, holding membership relations with the Knights of the Maccabees, the Woodmen of the World, the Ancient Order of United Work- men and the Improved Order of Red Men.

While not engrossed with his labors as a leg- islator, Mr. Brownell finds that his time is fully occupied with a large and growing law practice of a distinctively representative character. He is especially strong as a trial lawyer, being a forceful, eloquent speaker, whose deductions fol- low in logical sequence and whose analyzation of a cause and the application of the points of law which apply thereto is correct and compre- hensive.

HON. CHARLES W. FULTON. The ju- nior United States senator from Oregon is Ion. Charles W. Fulton, a statesman of eminent abil- ity, one of the foremost attorneys of Clatsop county, and a man of exceptional talent and high character. A resident of Astoria, he is prominent in legal, political, fraternal and social eircles, and is deservedly popular and esteemed as a citizen. A son of Jacob Fulton, he was born August 24. 1853. in Lima, Allen county, Ohio, the same county in which his paternal grandfather. Loami Fulton, was born.

A native of Allen county, Ohio, Jacob Fulton was reared on a farm, and when young. learned

the trade of a carpenter and builder. He subse- quently removed with his family to Harrison county, Iowa, locating on a farm in Magnolia. During the Civil war, he served as second lien- tenant of Company A, Twenty-ninth Iowa Vol- unteer Infantry, being in the Department of the Tennessee until forced to resign on account of ill health, in 1864. Removing to Pawnee City, Neb., in 1870, he was successfully engaged in mercantile pursuits until his death. He married Eliza McAllister, who was born in Pennsylvania, of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and was left an orphan in early childhood. She survived her husband, and still resides in Pawnee City. Neb. Of the eight children that blessed their union, one daugh- ter and five sons grew to years of maturity. Four of the sons became residents of Astoria, namely : Charles W., the special subject of this brief biographical review ; George C., an attor- ney, in partnership with his brother Charles ; Dr. J. A., a well-known physician ; and Dr. A. L., a prominent physician, who died at his home in Astoria in 1900.

Obtaining his elementary education in the dis- trict schools of Magnolia, Iowa, whither his par- ents removed when he was a child of two years, Charles W. Fulton afterwards completed the full course in the Pawnee City Academy. Ambitious to enter the legal profession, he accomplished his desire by virtue of hard work. studying law under Judge A. H. Babcock, now of Beatrice, Neb., in the meantime teaching school winters in order to assist in defraying his expenses. Being admitted to the bar in April, 1875, Mr. Fulton immediately came to Oregon, and the fol- lowing three months taught school in Waterloo, Linn county. Going in July of that year to As- toria, he found that the entire population of Clat- sop county was but seventeen hundred souls, and that Judge Bowlby, Judge Elliott. Gen. O. F. Bell, J. Taylor and W. L. McEwan were the only attorneys in the city of Astoria, and of these Judge Bowlby and Mr. Taylor are the sole sur- vivors. Opening a law office, Mr. Fulton at once began the practice of his profession, which he has continued until the present time. He has met with most excellent success, having so much busi- ness to attend to that in 1884 he admitted his brother. George C. Fulton, to an equal partner- ship, and both are kept busily employed in look- ing after the interests of their large clientele.

One of the leading Republicans of the state, Mr. Fulton has ever been influential and active in local and national affairs, and since 1884 has done much campaign work at every state election. A.s state elector in 1888. he was selected to carry the vote for President Harrison to Washington in February. 1889. having previously served as chairman of the Oregon delegation to the con- vention which nominated him to the presidency,

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

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Portrait and biographical record of Portland and vicinity, Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present, Part 10

Author: Publication date: 1903 Publisher: Chicago, Chapman Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 946

Author:
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Chicago, Chapman Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 946