Portrait and biographical record of Portland and vicinity, Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present, Part 6

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 6

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Fraternally Mr. Mayer has been connected with the Masons since 1852, when he became a member of Perfect Union Lodge No. 17 of San Francisco, and was afterward a member and for two years master of Lebanon Lodge No. 49, also of San Francisco. In Portland he is identified with Willamette Lodge No. 2: is a member of Portland Chapter No. 3. R. A. M .: Washington Council No. 3. R. & S. M .; Oregon Lodge of Perfection No. 1; Ainsworth Chapter Rose Croix No. 1 ; Multnomah Council of Ka- dosh No. 1 ; Oregon Consistory No. 1 ; Supreme Council of Jurisdiction, thirty-third degree, and Al Kader Temple, N. M. S. For many years he was grand treasurer of the Grand Lodge of Oregon, and during 1888 and 1889 was grand master of the Grand Lodge of Oregon. He

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

is, and has been for many years, grand repre- sentative of the Grand Lodge of England and Spain, near the Grand Lodge of Oregon, to which position he was appointed in 1895 by Prince Edward of Wales, now King of England. Another office held by Mr. Mayer is that of treasurer and chairman of the education fund of the Grand Lodge of Oregon.

In New Orleans Mr. Mayer was united in marriage to Mary Auerbach, who was born in Germany, and who is the mother of six children, the order of their birth as follows: Josephine, now Mrs. Solomon Hirsch of Portland, and whose husband was minister to Turkey; Clem- entine, now Mrs. Oscar Meyer of New York City; Bertha, the wife of H. Zadig of San Fran- cisco; Rosa, now Mrs. M. Blum of San Fran- cisco; Mark A., representative of his father's dry goods business in New York City ; and Ben- jamin, who died in San Francisco at the age of twenty-three years. Mr. Mayer is a broad and liberal politician, and his exertions in behalf of his party have been characterized by the same good sense and appreciation of the needs of the community which have been discernible in his business and social undertakings. Among the political services rendered by him may be men- tioned that of United States commissioner for the New Orleans World's Fair, to which re- sponsibility he was appointed by President Ar- thur.

E. E. SHARON. To the members of the In- dependent Order of Odd Fellows Mr. Sharon is known as one of the leading workers in the organization in Portland, and, indeed, in Oregon itself. His connection with the fraternity began at Pendleton, this state, where he was initiated in Eureka Lodge No. 32, February 17, 1883. For some time he was its secretary, also held rank as past grand, and still retains membership in the same lodge. Formerly connected with Umatilla Encampment No. 17, he was past chief patriarch and scribe, and is now scribe of El- lison Encampment No. I, of Portland. When the Grand Lodge was in session at Pendleton in 1894 he was honored by election as grand secretary of the order, and removed to Portland, where he has since made his home. At each succeeding meeting he has been re-elected grand secretary of the Grand Lodge' At the same time and place (Pendleton, in 1894) he was elected grand scribe of the Grand Encampment of Oregon, and cach year since then he has been regularly chosen to succeed himself in this office. Under his over- sight there are one hundred and forty-nine lodges, forty-five encampments and more than one hundred Rebekah lodges.

The Sharon family is of English extraction.

John Sharon, a pioneer farmer of Mount Pleas- ant, Jefferson county, Ohio, had a son, James H., who was born at the old homestead there, and married Amanda L. Van Dorn, a native of Ohio, of German and Welsh descent. They be- gan housekeeping at his old home and there a son, E. E., was born January 22, 1860, he being the oldest of six children, five now living. Of the others J. L. lives in Pendleton, Ore., Mary is in San Francisco, and Jessie and Lura reside in Wheeling, W. Va. In 1861 the father took his family to Monona county, Iowa, and a year later crossed the plains by horse-train, arriving at the Rocky Bar Mines in Idaho at the close of a tedious trip of six months. In 1865 he came to Oregon and settled in Umatilla county, where he engaged in farming, surveying and teaching. In 1875 he was appointed clerk of Umatilla county and elected for a full term of two years in 1876. This election was a personal tribute to his popularity, for the county usually gave a large Democratic majority. His death occurred in 1889 in Pendleton, where his widow still re- sides.

On completing the studies of the Pendleton high school, E. E. Sharon began to assist his father in the office of county clerk, and later was with the next incumbent of the office. On re- signing he became editor of the Pendleton Tribune, a leading Republican paper of the county. In 1881 he sold his interest in the paper and went to San Francisco, where he was gradu- ated from Heald's Business College in 1882. For three months afterward he was engaged as a bookkeeper in Oakland, thence proceeded to Boise City, but soon returned to Pendleton, where he was bookkeeper for Alexander & Frazier a period of three years. Later he acted as deputy sheriff, and finally resumed the editor- ship of the newspaper with which he had pre- viously been connected. A later venture was in the insurance business and as express agent. From Pendleton he came to Portland in 1894 and has since made this city his home.

At Pendleton, December 12, 1886, Mr. Sharon married Miss Frankie B. Purcell, who was born in Muscatine, Iowa. Iler father, Thomas Pur- cell, a native of Indiana, born May 25, 1829, set- tled in Muscatine, Iowa, where he followed con- tracting. During the Civil war he was captain of Company C, Sixteenth Iowa Infantry, and while leading his men in action received a severe wound, afterward falling into the hands of the enemy, by whom he was confined in Libby and Andersonville, and finally exchanged. After the war he continued in lowa until 1879, when, with his wife and child, he crossed the plains and settled in Weston, Ore., and there engaged in contracting and also sold furniture. Fraternally he was a Master Mason and a Grand Army ad-

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

herent. His death occurred in Weston May II, 1899. His first wife, Hester Ann Myers, was born in Louisville, Ky., and died in Iowa, leav- ing three children, namely: William, a farmer of Pendleton; Josephine, in Iowa; and Frankie B., Mrs. Sharon. After the death of his first wife he married Sadie O. Arlie, of Iowa. Mrs. Sharon is a member of the Rebekahs, in which she formerly served as noble grand, and is also a member of the Knights and Ladies of Security. On the organization of the Muscovites Mr. Sharon became a charter member and was elected the first recorder, which position he still holds. In Pendleton Lodge No. 52, A. F. & A. M., he was made a Mason, and is now past master of Hawthorn Lodge No. III, of Portland ; and also a member of Washington Chapter No. 18, R. A. M., of Portland, in which he is past high priest and secretary; and a member of Washington Council No. 3, R. & S. M. He became a member of the Knights of Pythias at Pendleton in 1880, and is now past chancellor of Ivanhoe Lodge No. IO, also past grand chancellor of the Grand Lodge of Oregon, 1892-93, and for four years supreme representative from Oregon. Besides belonging to the Order of Rebekahis he is con- nected with Webfoot Camp, Woodmen of the World. Always a stanch Republican, his inter- cst in the success of his party led him to once accept the position as chairman of the Umatilla county central committee and at another time he served as its secretary. Both he and his wife are identified with the Episcopal Church, in which faith they are rearing their three children, Bessie, Leila and Allen.

HON. HENRY SPOOR ROWE. Descend- ed from an old colonial family of New England, Henry S. Rowe was born in Bolivar, Allegany county, N. Y., October 11, 1851, his parents being John S. and Hulda ( Peck) Rowe, also natives of New York. His father, who was master of seven different trades and a man of great mechanical genius, devoted much of his life to the building of grist and saw mills, first in New York and later in the south and in Wis- consin. In mechanical work with wood and iron he had few superiors. His ability in invention made it possible for him to construct anything from a violin to a large mill, and in his labors as master mason he won praise from people most competent to judge.

The wife of John S. Rowe was a daughter of Joel Peck, a New Yorker who became one of the pioneer farmers of Palmyra, Wis., where he (lied. One of her brothers, George R. Peck, is a prominent attorney of Chicago, and another, Charles B. Peck, is a leading citizen of Houston, Tex. In her family there were four sons and two daughters, of whom two sons and one daugh-

ter are now living. One of the sons, Herbert M., at the age of fourteen years enlisted in the First Wisconsin Cavalry and later was trans- ferred to the Thirteenth Light Artillery, serv- ing in Missouri until his capture by the Con- federates and subsequent confinement in Libby prison. On being exchanged he returned to the artillery service, but his splendid war record was abruptly terminated by his death, which occurred June 8, 1863, in Baton Rouge. Another son, John S., who was connected with the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company, died in Port- land. Oscar D. is a large tobacco dealer and at this writing county recorder of Rock county, WVis., where he has made his home many years.

The public schools of Palmyra afforded Henry S. Rowe fair advantages. While a mere boy he learned telegraphy in Janesville and at the age of thirteen was given work in that city with what is now the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad. Going to Lawrence, Kans., in 1870, he was engaged as clerk in the freight house of what is now the Santa Fe (then the Leaven- worth, Lawrence & Galveston) road. After a year he was made terminal agent, his duties in- cluding the opening of all the offices in the fron- tier districts and the starting of the little ham- lets that sprung up along the line of the road. From that position he was promoted to be gen- eral agent for the Fort Scott & Gulf, and the Leavenworth, Lawrence & Galveston roads at Kansas City, remaining there until 1880. On the purchase by Henry Villard of the uncompleted road extending into Oregon, Mr. Rowe came to Portland in 1880 and was at once retained by the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company. For a time he acted as the company's agent for steamers. On the starting of the train service on the railroad in 1882 he was made general superintendent, which position he held until the road was leased in 1887 by the Union Pacific, at which time he retired from railroading.

An enterprise which had already engaged a portion of Mr. Rowe's time was the Weed & Rowe Hardware Company, which had stores at Elmsburg and Yakima, Wash. On selling out the store in the latter town in 1889 he became president of the Yakima National Bank, the in- ception of which was due to his recognition of the needs of the village for such an institution. In 1892 he organized the Albina Savings Bank, becoming president of the concern, but the fol- lowing year he sold his interest in order to de- vote himself to real-estate enterprises. July 1, 1902, he accepted a position as general agent for the Northwestern Pacific coast for the Chi- cago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, the du- ties of which position he has undertaken with the same enthusiasm and discretion characteristic of him in every post of responsibility.

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

The Republican party, of which Mr. Rowe is a supporter, has honored him at various times by election to positions of trust. He has at- tended state conventions as delegate and has served on the county central committee. His first election as mayor of Portland occurred in 1900, when he received a plurality of about one thousand over his two opponents. It is said of him that one of the most noteworthy features of his administration as executive was his econoni- ical oversight of the city's expenses, and there have been many tributes paid to him for his success along this important line. At the ex- piration of his term he took up his duties as general agent for the St. Paul road. For sev- eral years he was president of the board of fire commissioners of Portland, and was a member of the water committee during the building up of the works, thus deserving a share of the credit for securing for Portland the best water in the entire country. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Commercial Club.

The marriage of Mr. Rowe, in Independence, Kans., united him with Agnes H. Hefly, who was born in Bellevue, Iowa, and by whom he had two sons, namely: Henry S., Jr., clerk for the city auditor of Portland ; and Donald H. While in Independence, Kans., Mr. Rowe was made a Mason, and is now connected with Portland Lodge No. 55. A. F. & A. M. In the same Kansas town he was raised to the chapter. while his connection with the Knights Templar began in the commandery at Lawrence, Kans. At this writing he is connected with the chapter and com- mandery in Portland, also Oregon Consistory, thirty-second degree. Other fraternal organiza- tions which have his membership are the Benevo- lent Protective Order of Elks, Woodmen of the World and Modern Woodmen of America. While not identified with any denomination, he attends the Episcopal Church and is always in- terested in and a contributor to measures having for their object the uplifting of humanity, as he is also an enthusiastic advocate of movements for the material development and progress of Portland, his home city.

HON. ALEXANDER SWEEK. The fam- ily of which State Senator Sweek is a distin- guished representative has been connected with American history since a very early period in the settlement of the country, the first of the name establishing themselves in Virginia. Later generations removed to West Virginia, whence Martin Sweek, after his marriage to a lady of English family, removed to the then far west. settling in the primeval forests of Missouri. His son, John, was born at St. Genevieve, that state, and from there started across the plains for Cali-

fornia at the time of the discovery of gold, but the illness of the father and mother caused him to return to the old home, and not long after- ward he married there. In 1852 he again started for the Pacific coast, and this time brought the trip to a successful consummation, arriving in Oregon on the Ist of September. At once he took up a donation claim at Tualatin, where he improved three hundred and twenty acres. On this homestead he conducted general farm pur- suits until his death, in February of 1889, at which time he was sixty-eight years of age. Many important movements of his locality owed their inception to his energy. Especially was his interest in educational matters keen and per- manent. A portion of his farm was laid out for a town site, the sale of lots bringing him a neat return for his outlay of labor in years gone by. His wife, formerly Maria Beard, was born in St. Genevieve, Mo., and is now living on the old homestead at Tualatin. Her father was a minister in the Methodist Episcopal de- nomination and a pioneer preacher in Missouri.

The family of John and Maria Sweek con- sisted of the following-named children: C. A., an attorney at Burns, Ore. : Alice, wife of M. W. Smith, of Portland; Lawrence, a stockman in Grant county ; Alexander ; Mrs. Lillie Harding, living on the old homestead ; and Thaddeus, who is connected with the Oregon Railroad and Nav- igation Company, of Portland. Alexander Sweek was born in Tualatin, Washington county, Ore., August 6, 1861, and in boyhood attended district school, afterward taking a course in the Pacific University until the senior year, when illness obliged him to relinquish his studies. In 1883 he took up the study of law under Milton W. Smith, and five years later was admitted to the bar, after which he took up the practice of his profession. In 1896 he was elected munici- pal judge, which office he filled for two years. The highest honor of his life thus far came to him in 1900, when he was nominated to repre- sent Multnomah, Washington and Columbia counties in the state senate. As the candidate of the Citizens' ticket he was elected over the Republican candidate by a majority of about eight hundred. During the session of 1901 he drew up the bill on assessment and taxation, which passed successfully and is now in active operation. Other measures received the benefit of his wise judgment and shrewd discernment. Among the Democratic members of the senate he is a leader, his recognized superior qualities fitting him for wielding a wide influence among his fellowmen. As a member of the state com- mittee and as chairman of the county central committee, he has done much to promote the welfare of his party. However, in matters re- lating to the general welfare, party lines are al-

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

ways sunk beneath his patriotic spirit, and, as a public-spirited citizen, he favors movements for the progress of his city and state aside from any bearing they may have upon strictly party affairs.

In the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks Mr. Sweek serves as past exalted ruler. His connection with Masonry began in the Forest Grove Lodge, and he is now a member of Har- mony Lodge No. 12, of Portland, of which he is past master. In addition he is identified with Portland Chapter. R. A. M., and the Oregon Consistory No. I, thirty-second degree, besides which he is an active member of the Knights of Pythias and past chancellor in the same.

HON. JOHN W. WHALLEY. Among the men of the west who, through their own efforts, have risen to positions of honor and prominence, is to be named the Hon. John W. Whalley, who laid down alike the responsibilities and successes of his life November 10, 1900, and passed to a Higher judgment. Beyond the advantages of fine parentage and a long line of ancestry which has transmitted those qualities and character- istics essential to greatness, Mr. Whalley relied solely on his own strength to perfect the talents which he felt to be his, and through which he rose to an eminent position as a lawyer of the state of Oregon, having held for many years the profound respect and esteem of his fellow laborers and of those who profited by his excep- tional ability. A brief résumé of his life is here- with given, representative of the type of men who made the west, and an example of perse- verance and indefatigable energy, combined with an unflinching honesty and integrity which have left no measurement as to the moral influence in the community in which he made his home for so many years.

John William Whalley was born at Annapolis, Nova Scotia, April 28, 1833, a son of the Rev. Francis Whalley, a clergyman in the Church of England, who was, at that time, under an ap- pointment from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Lands. In 1835 the family returned to England, where the father be- came rector of Rivington Parish, in Cheshire, but was subsequently appointed chaplain of Lan- cashire Castle, followed by service as rector of parishes at Churchtown, Lancashire, New Hut- ton, Old Hutton, Kendal and Westmoreland. The ancestors of the paternal line for a long period were yeomen, owning and cultivating the estate of Coventree near Dent, in the West Rid- ing of Yorkshire, to which they had become emi- grants from Norfolk, where they belonged to the same family as that of which Edmund Whalley, of the army of Cromwell, was a member. Many

of the family held honorable positions in church, army and the bar, the elder sons managing the estates while the younger followed professions. On the maternal side the ancestors were numbered among the first families of Wales, and for over two hundred years occupied, under lease for that term, Overton Hall, of Lord Kenyon's estate. The lease terminated during the lifetime of William Jones, the grandfather of J. W., of this review, who, with his family, removed to Canada, thence to New York City, where he died and was buried in St. Paul's churchyard on Broadway.

Of the three sons and one daughter born to his parents the only one living is Richard Whal- ley, a clergyman in the Church of England, now residing in that country. John W. Whalley was the third oldest of the children and was very industrious and apt in his studies, while pursuing his grammar studies at the age of nine being able to read Cæsar, and following this up with Ovid at ten years. The reduced circum- stances of his parents precluded the possibility of a collegiate course and held out the necessity for a trade, and at the age of thirteen years he took service aboard the merchantman Speed, which sailed from Liverpool for New York City in 1847. Not caring for a seafaring life he left the ship upon his arrival in New York City and visited some of his mother's people in New Jer- sey, there meeting an uncle, Thomas Jones, who was the author of a treatise on bookkeeping and a teacher of that science. Mr. Whalley entered his office and remained there for about a year, and March, 1848, he returned to England, with the understanding that a position was awaiting him there in the Bank of England. Failing to secure the expected place, through lack of wealthy or influential friends to work for him, and recognizing as self evident that his country afforded but little opportunity of advancement for an ambitious young man, he bound himself to an apprenticeship on the Antelope, which sailed in February, 1849. for California. His ar- rival in that state was in July, when the gold ex- citement was at its height, and with a number of others he sought the mines, eager and hopeful of making a fortune. During the winter of '49 he mined on the south fork of the American river, a little below Columbia, and in 1850 he moved to the Middle Yuba. He perseveringly endured the hardships and privations of a miner's life in Sacramento, Redwood and Yreka until 1858, and not having yet found his fortune he came to the conclusion that he preferred another kind of life. Desiring to study law, and not having the means, he engaged as a school teacher at Little Shasta, near Yreka. He continued in this employment until 1864, being one of the pioneer teachers of the Pacific coast. During 1861-62 he served

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

with great efficiency as superintendent of schools, and while so engaged became a frequent con- tributor to the local press, and to the Hesperian Magasine, published at San Francisco. With a mind full of beautiful imageries and an easy, graceful style, he became a poet of more than local renown, his poems being copied extensively throughout the United States and evoking favor- able comment from the press. During his earlier days of teaching he read law with Judge Rose- borough, of Yreka, and was admitted to practice before Judge Dangerfield in 1861, in Siskiyou county, Cal.

In 1864 Mr. Whalley withdrew from his peda- gogical work, and going to Grant county, Ore., he began the practice of his profession. He was married July 21, 1861, to Lavinia T. Kimzey, who was born in Missouri in 1842, and with her parents in 1847 crossed the plains to California, where she grew into a cultured and refined womanhood. They became parents of seven children, of whom one son and one daughter died in infancy. Of the remaining five Mary was born in California and became the wife of J. Frank Watson, president of the Merchants National Bank, of Portland, and they now have two children, namely : Frank Whalley and Clif- ton Ilowe. Susan was born in California and became the wife of Maj. James N. Allison, U. S. A., who is now stationed in the Philippine Isl- ands. They are the parents of the following children : Marion, Philip Whalley, Malcolm G. and Stanton W. Lavinia was born in Portland and is now the wife of H. S. Huson, who is vice president and general manager of the Pacific Coast Construction Company. They make their home in Portland and have four children : John Whalley, Jane, Herbert R. and Richard S. Jane is the wife of W. T. Muir, a prominent at- torney of Portland, and their two children are Mary and William Whalley. Charlotte is nin- married and resides with her mother at No. 393 West Park street. All are graduates of St. Helen's Hall, of Portland.

In Canyon City, Grant county, Mr. Whalley formed a partnership with L. O. Stern which was soon dissolved. While there he had a stu- dent in the person of M. W. Fechheimer, who had lived in Portland for a time and after he was admitted to practice he returned there and opened an office. His accounts of the advantages of the city led Mr. Whalley to make this place his home, coming in 1868, where he formed a part- nership with Mr. Fechheimer, under the title of Whalley & Fechheimer, and this well known firm flourished for a number of years, being one of the strongest of the northwest. They made the bankrupt law of 1867 a specialty and the greater part of the business of this department passed through their hands for several years.

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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 6

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