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 116
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In Liberal, Ore., Mr. Wright was married to Miss Lydia Jones. Her father, George W. Jones. was a native of Ohio, where he followed farming. In 1861 he started for the west with ox-teams, and six months later settled in Missouri Bottom, Douglas county, upon a tract of rented land. In 1867 he returned to the east by the Panama route and one year later again came to Oregon, bring- ing his family with him. The return trip was also made by the Panama route, and they first made settlement at San Francisco, later going to Marion county, purchasing one hun- dred and sixty acres of land in the vicinity of Salem. Subsequently he removed to Clacka- mas county, where, near the town of Liberal, he bought six hundred acres of land, which he owned at the time of his death, when seventy-two years of age. His wife, Susan Van Houter, was also a native of Ohio. One child has blessed the mar- riage of Mr. and Mrs. Wright, to whom they have given the name of Pierce. Socially Mr. Wright is identified with the Grange, and in poli- tics is independent, voting for the man who in his opinion is hest able to fill the office, irrespective of party ties. In 1894 he went to British Colum- bia and engaged in placer mining at the Pend d' Oreille mine. Four months later he returned to Oregon, but in 1897 again became interested in
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mining, and now owns stock in two ledges. He has been moderately successful in his mining ventures, but in the main is content with the sure results which accrue to the diligent farmer, and on his farm are to be seen all the evidences of good management.
C. B. JOHNSON. It is noteworthy that the pioncers of Oregon have the deepest affection for the state, the greatest loyalty for its institu- tions, and the highest faith in its future progress. Nor is Mr. Johnson, of Oregon City, an excep- tion to this rule. The son of a pioneer of the coast and himself a native of the west, the in- terest which he feels in its prosperity is a matter of inheritance as well as education. He is a member of a family that, according to tradition, settled in Delaware from Sweden in 1620, since which time each generation has had men and women of acknowledged worth and intelligence. His father, S. S. Johnson, was born in Pennsyl- vania, and in 1852 came via Panama to Portland, where he located a claim on the east side in the midst of a heavy growth of timber. During 1857 he removed to San Francisco, where he engaged in contracting and building for nine years. From there he returned via Panama to the east and set- tled near Vernon Center, Minn., where he im- proved a farm of three hundred and twenty acres. His next location was in Wahpeton, N. D., where he is now the owner of two large and valuable farms. Though at this writing eighty- nine years of age, he is quite robust and hearty and bears his years well. In politics he has voted with the Republicans ever since the organ- ization of that party.
The marriage of S. S. Johnson united him with Elizabeth Dart, who was born in Utica, N. Y., a daughter of Hon. Anson Dart. For some years Mr. Dart was employed as superin- tendent of Indian affairs for Oregon, Washing- ton and Idaho, with headquarters at Vancouver. Identified with the far west from the early '40S. he was intimately associated with the develop- ment of a state and the building up of a great commonwealth. He gave Major Simms the first permit to trade with Indians in Walla Walla, and also introduced the first wheat there. One of his brothers, George W. Dart, was also a pioneer of Oregon and became a wealthy trader. Mrs. Elizabeth Johnson is still living, as are four of her seven children. One of her sons, Simeon, is a nurseryman in Spokane Falls. Another son, C. B., who was next to the oldest of the family, forms the subject of this article. He was born in San Francisco on Christmas day of 1859 and was six years of age when the family returned cast, settling in Minnesota, where he grew to manhood on a farm. When fifteen years of age
he began to work at the carpenter's trade, which he learned under his father's instruction. Though his recollection of the far west was in- distinct, yet he often thought of its resources and opportunities, and in 1882 came back to his birth- place. Instead, however, of settling in San Fran- cisco he went to Spokane Falls, where he en- gaged in contracting and building. After ten years there he came to Oregon City, where he has since carried on contracting and building, and is the owner of both residence and business property, including his house at Gladstone, a suburb. Not only as a contractor has he gained a well-merited reputation, but as an architect as well, and many of the houses he erects are con- structed after plans of his own. Much of his work is to be seen in Gladstone, where he has built a large number of houses.
Before leaving Minnesota Mr. Johnson mar- ried Della Lindsley, who was born in Wiscon- sin. They are the parents of five children : Sid- ney and Holley, who assist their father in the contracting business; Margaret. Nellie and Frank. Fraternally Mr. Johnson is connected with the Woodmen of the World, in religion is of the Methodist Episcopal faith, while politi- cally, as well as personally, he is a stanch Pro- hibitionist, both by example and precept casting his influence against the sale of intoxicants.
ALFRED BAKER. The fine rural property owned and occupied by Alfred Baker in Multno- mah county is not his by inheritance, nor is its possession due to any fortunate. circumstance which smoothed his way and made success easy of attainment. This large farmer was born in Appanoose county, Iowa, July 22. 1858, and the Civil war, which found a valiant soldier in his father, left the son fatherless because a hero gave up his life to the cause of the Union. Owing to the fact that there were several mouths to feed. and because of the rather stringent circumstances in which the mother found herself, young Al- fred relieved the tension somewhat by going to live with his uncle in Nebraska. At the expira- tion of five years he started out on his own hook and found employment with the surrounding farmers, and was thus occupied until ambition and good reports directed his steps to Colorado in 1874.
In his new location Mr. Baker drove the stage at Pueblo, and during the two years of this kind of life witnessed much of the seamy. and not alto- gether desirable, side of western existence: In 1876 he came to Portland, and his first occupa- tion proved to be of a nature which confronts many who come here, that of grubbing stumps ere aught of importance can be accomplished. His work lay in the ground where the Portland
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cemetery now rears its fine monuments, and from stump grubbing he returned to his former oc- cupation of working on a farm. After three years, during which he succeeded in saving some money, he rented land for three years, and this venture proving successful he was enabled to pay something down on a one hundred and forty acre farm on the Columbia river, although he had to run in debt for the balance. Three years later he purchased the Scott farm adjoining, and which consisted of one hundred and seventy-six acres. upon which he lived for a year. He then re- moved to his former farm, and in 1891 moved onto the farm which is now his home. Two years later he went to Portland and lived there until 1900, and then settled down on the original river farm, in 1902 locating on his present place. The forty-two acres comprising the home property is devoted to general farming, but the river farm of two hundred and seventy-six acres is utilized for a dairy.
Through his marriage in 1879 with Oceana A. Holtgreive, Mr. Baker has become the father of three children, of whom Nellie is the wife of W. G. Smith ; while Emery and Oswald are liv- ing at home. Mr. Baker is a stanch defender of Republican institutions, but has never sought or accepted official recognition. Fraternally he is connected with the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
JOHN C. CARSON. The name of John C. Carson is one of the most illustrious in the an- nals of Oregon's growth and prosperity. Few men have had so large a capacity for labor, or are so wise in its distribution and application. Continuously since September 1. 1851, he has made his home in Portland, and in the meantime his efforts have been of the enduring kind, and have been endorsed by a splendid and inspiring citizenship, touching many interests. He started, and for years maintained. the first steam equipped planing mill and sash and door factory north of San Francisco, and one which eventually became the greatest upbuilding factor of this town. He is one of the few men who organized the Republi- can party in this state, and he served for twenty- two years in the state legislature. No better guarantee could be required of his all around fit- ness, nor continued consideration of his fellow- men. To follow the career of Mr. Carson is to study one who worked with greater care, greater wisdom and secured larger results than the aver- age ; one who not only availed himself of exist- ing opportunities but created many not observable to the casual passer-by.
Mr. Carson was born in Center county, Pa., February 20, 1825, and claims Scotch-Irish pa- ternial ancestry. His family were represented in
America long before the Revolutionary war. In this momentous contest three brothers bearing the name served in the commissary department, and also assisted in the transporting of troops. James Carson, son of one of these brothers, was the father of John C., and his mother was Sarah (Crosthwaite) Carson, the latter of French an- cestry but born in Wales. Mrs. Carson's father was a manufacturer during his active life, and in Reading, Pa., was the owner and operator of one of the first paper mills in this country. The parents were married in Pennsylvania, and in 1834 removed with their children to Richland county, Ohio, about 1853 going to near Gales- burg, Ill., where the father died at the age of sixty-one. He was a natural mechanic, and in early life qualified as a millwright, following that trade for many years. His wife survived him un- til seventy-seven years old, her death occurring in Galesburg, Ill., in 1864. All of their eight chil- dren were born in Center county, Pa., and all attained maturity. James Calvin, the youngest of the family, enlisted in the Union army during the Civil war, and died as an orderly in the Forty- seventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry. David R. came to Oregon in 1852, married and lived in Portland for many years. worked at his trade of carpenter and millwright, and died leaving a daughter, Minnie A., now living in Portland. A daughter, Mary, came to Portland, where she married Joseph H. Kibling, and after his death returned to Ohio, where the remainder of her life was spent. Yet another son. William Porter, a graduate of Alleghany College and a theological school, entered the Presbyterian ministry ; he died of exposure in the state of Illinois. Johnson H., the oldest in the family, passed away in 1902, at the age of eighty-three, in Galesburg, Ill., of which town he was a pioneer and well known resident. Oliver Perry, the third eldest, died at his home in Dayton, Ohio. An uncle of these children, Robert Crosthwaite, emigrated to Mans- field, Ohio, at an early day, and started the first newspaper in that part of the country.
Educated in the public schools of Ashland county, Ohio, Mr. Carson entered Ashland Academy in 1846, and for three years was under the able tutorship of Professor Andrews. after- wards a brigadier-general in the Union army, and the president of Kenyon College, from which President Hayes graduated. During his acad- emy course Mr. Carson paid his tuition by work- ing at the carpenter's trade, at which he had pre- viously labored. After leaving school he studied medicine under Dr. Kinnaman of Ashland, Ohio. going deeply into the mysteries and intricacies of medical and surgical science. So interested was he that he read about all the books on medical science then in use and was qualified to practice, although he never received a diploma. The doctor
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and his pupil became warm friends, and in 1850 came to California together, intending to start a hospital in San Francisco. They reached San Francisco on the steamer which brought the news of California's admission to the Union. Mr. Carson became very ill before he reached his destination and soon after the doctor was taken ill with mountain fever. Taken all in all, their discouraging adventures prevented the fulfill- ment of the original project, and each decided to go his separate way. Mr. Carson mined for a time on the middle fork of the American river, and from there went to the Redding diggings, where he established a hotel on the Trinity mountains. This hostelry was known as the Mountain House, and its location was unrivaled, being on the trail of miners who packed over the mountains. A sign of large dimensions orna- mented the front of the inn, announcing in un- mistakable terms that the hungry would have to pay $1 for satisfying the inner man. After con- ducting this house for six months Mr. Carson retired from the management and soon after fell ill. and the amount made in the hotel diminished rapidly. Alone in a strange country, he recalled a conversation he had had in the old days with one Noah Huber, who, upon his return to Ohio from Oregon, gave glowing accounts of the ad- vantages of Oregon. Accordingly, he set sail for Portland, and reached the town with very low finances. Fortunately he found work soon after landing. through the kindly interest of H. W. Corbett, and assumed the management of the hardware store of G. W. Vaughn. A few months later he walked from Portland to Foster, at the western terminus of the Barlow road, and en- gaged as a school teacher, his salary to be $25 a month. He was obliged to look around for a place to hold the school, and, finding a cabin which had been used by some settler for a winter residence, he made it habitable and homelike and started in with sixteen scholars. However, he had no books, and the people who had hired him began to quarrel over the transaction, and he took his departure at the end of two weeks. After this experience he floated on a raft with another man from Church's Mill to the Clackamas bridge, making the journey in two and a half hours, a feat never before nor since performed. In Os- wego he worked at the carpenter's trade for $4 a day, sixteen months later arriving in Portland. He engaged in contracting. and Dekum & Bickel's store on Front street was the first building he constructed, furnishing the timber for the same.
The milling experience of Mr. Carson hegan in 1857. and followed a period of successful contracting in Portland. He had just completed the erection of Amos King's residence, and with his brother he fitted up a planing mill, operating the same under the firm name of J. C. and D. R
Carson. This was the first steam equipped plan- ing mill north of San Francisco, and around it centered the pioneer milling business of the northwest., In 1861 Robert Porter became identi- fied with the enterprise, he taking charge of the outside, and Mr. Carson assuming control of the inside business. The trade increased so steadily that more machinery and greater capacity were required, and in time no better set up mill ap- peared anywhere in the country. In 1872 the partnership was dissolved by mutual consent, and after that Mr. Carson managed the business independently, devoting his entire time to it, and maintaining an unequalled management. The output of the mill was enormous for its day, yet the capacity never equalled the demand. In the meantime Mr. Carson had been doing a great deal of business through the Holliday Company, and in 1894 he turned his business over to them, and has since been practically retired from active life.
Mr. Carson built his present home in 1881, and this was one of the first residences to go up in the western part of the town. He has been one of the most interested spectators of the all around growth of the city, and to no one is Portland more indebted for a helping hand. No streets or sidewalks had been laid when he first came here, and it was his lot to build the first side- walk in the town, the city council of 1854, of which he was a member, having authorized the building of walks on different streets, and as MIr. Carson owned property on Salmon street he laid the first walk to demonstrate what was meant by the city ordinance.
A member of the town council on many occa- sions, he was president for one term, and his sage * and reliable advice invariably resulted in radical reforins. Under the school law as enforced to- day. a meeting was called to consider the erection of a new school building, and also the purchase of a lot. Mr. Carson put the motion, and Mr. Porter seconding it, it was finally carried in the face of serious and strenuous opposition. Need- less to say, the lot was purchased and the build- ing, afterward known as the " Central School." was erected. During the pending of the claims by the Hudson Bay Company he was one of a board of experts appointed by the government to investigate said claims, and to report to the United States courts of Oregon. This was in 1868, and Jesse Applegate and Major Rynear- son were the other members of the board. In the early. as in later days, he took a keen interest in politics, and his devotion to Repub- lican principles has been one of the strongest and most influential weapons with which he has forged community fetters around him. During his years of service in the state leg- islature, including six years in the house and eight years in the senate, during the period from
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'1870, when he was first elected, to 1892, when he retired, Mr. Carson carried forward many not- able bills, and his advocacy made possible the erection of the new penitentiary at Salem and the State Insane Asylum. Prior to this time the state had paid private parties for taking care of the state's insane ..
In 1887 Mr. Carson was elected president of the Senate and he was chairman of the Ways and Means committee of the Senate of the fifteenth and also the sixteenth regular session. He has been a delegate to innumerable town, county and state conventions, and his wide knowledge of po- litical affairs has caused his counsel to be sought on all important occasions. His broad minded grasp of the needs of the community has inspired the assurance that the welfare of the people could rest in no safer or wiser hands, and thus he was returned to his responsible post again and again, receiving as time went on greater and more gratifying assurances of his constituents' regard. His influence has been equally marked in phil- anthropic and religious circles, and few enter- prises of a humanitarian nature but have re- ceived the stamp of his approval. He was a member of the first Congregational Church in the city, but though subscribing to the tenets of this denomination, he has contributed towards the erection of churches of all faiths. Few men entertain such, broad and liberal views, or more clearly and disinterestedly see the good in insti- tutions and men. As a recent writer has said : " A parallel might be drawn between the life of Mr. Carson and the history of Portland, the two having started from small beginnings and both having accomplished great things. The poor young man of energy and ability ; the em- bryo city, with its possibilities all unknown, have run an emulative race. both an honor to the state and to the world." Mr. Carson has found relief and recreation from the stress of business life in various fraternal lodges, and has been identi- fied with the Masons since 1860. He is now a member of the Willamette Lodge. the Portland Chapter, R. A. M., and the Scottish Rite.
Through his marriage in 1854 with Elizabetlı Talbot, a pioneer of 1851, Mr. Carson has a daughter, Luella Clay Carson, a woman of intel- lectual brilliancy, who, after study at Mills Col- lege, Cal., and graduation at St. Helen's Hall, Portland, assumed the professorship of English in the Oregon State University. Mrs. Carson died in 1860, and in July, 1861. Mr. Carson mar- ried Mrs. Eliza Ann Northrop, a native of Indi- ana, who had one child by her former marriage. Frank E., now deceased. To Mr. and Mrs. Carson were born four children, viz .: Rose M., who married Eugene Sturgis, and is the mother of two sons and one daughter : Elizabeth, edu- cated in Portland and at Mills College, Cal. ; John
Dolph, a graduate of Yale College, and engaged in the wholesale supply business under the firm name of Northrop, Sturgis & Company; and Frances D., wife of Robert Treat Platt, educated in. Portland and at Miss Day's private school of New York City. Mr. Platt is an attorney of Portland. Mrs. Carson died in June, 1901, at the age of sixty-eight years. Everything con- nected with the life of Mr. Carson bespeaks the broad minded, intelligent and substantial citizen, imbued with an appreciation of mental training, of ability, progress, and enlightenment.
JOHN W. DOWTY. A citizen of Clackamas county who is prominent as an agriculturist, a breeder of fine stock and a promoter of fraternal organizations, is John W. Dowty, owner of one hundred and seventy-five acres of land, seventy- five acres of which are under cultivation. A na- tive of Wayne county, Ohio, he was born Janu- ary 6, 1850, and spent his youth and early man- hood on the paternal farm. His father, Thomas Dowty, a native of Kentucky, removed with his parents to Ohio when five years of age. and lived and farmed there up to the time of his death at the age of seventy-four years. He was one of the pioneer farmers of his section of Ohio, and was well thought of by his many friends and associates of that state. In addition to being a practical farmer, he was known as a fancier of fine horses, cattle and hogs. The mother, knownl in maidenhood as Sarah Ann Cooney, was born in Pennsylvania and moved to Moorland, Wayne county, Ohio.
At the time of his departure from his father's home in Wayne county, Ohio. in 1879, John W. Dowty settled in Smith county. Kans., with his newly married wife, whom he married in Wayne county, and who was the daughter of Ellen Tay- lor, In Kansas he bought one claim of three hundred and thirty aeres, besides a timber claim. and ten acres of cultivated land. and farmed the same for about eleven years. Mr. Dowty became associated with Oregon in 1890, and located two miles southwest of Eagle Creek, upon what was formerly the property of George Weston. Of this land forty-eight acres was already cleared. and therefore the new owner was spared much of the annoyance and exertion which fell to the lot of the earlier arrivals in the county. He has built a fine home, capacious barns and outhouses, and has introduced on his farm all the improve- ments and appliances recognized as utility pro- (lucers in the most thickly settled portions of the country. No farm in the neighborhood has more carefully selected or reared stock, among the most valuable of which are thirty head of full blooded Short-horns, including a very valuable bull. An exceptionally fine stallion is three-
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fourths Percheron and Morgan. Since living in Oregon, and he is by no means an old settler, Mr. Dowty has sold forty head of Short-horn bulls.
In addition to his prominence as a stock man, Mr. Dowty has interests of equal moment in the community. In fraternal circles he is well known all over the county, and is identified with the An- cient Order United Workmen, No. 142, of Cur- rinsville, of which he is past grand master; the Artisans of Eagle Creek, No. 188; and the In- dependent Order Odd Fellows of Kirwin, Kans. He is independent in politics, and has never iden- tified himself with political undertakings further than to cast his vote for the man he considered best fitted for the responsibility.
PHILIP BEAL. Among the citizens of For- est Grove are a number of men who have practi- cally abandoned their efforts in behalf of the de- velopment of Washington county, and in the evening of a well ordained life are enjoying im- munity from stress and worry and the pursuit of gain. Of these claimants upon the appreciation and gratitude of those who labor in the wake of the pioneers none are more interestingly reminiscent of the very early days than is Philip Beal. A native of Kosciusko county, Ind., Mr. Beal was born March 4, 1835, his father having been born in the state of Pennsylvania. Two of his uncles followed the martial fortunes of Wash- ington during the Revolutionary war, and the family was identified with Pennsylvania for a great many years, the various members being substantially associated with agricultural inter- ests.
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