Portrait and biographical record of Portland and vicinity, Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present, Part 80

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 80

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Returning to Portland in the fall of 1879 Mr. Wittenberg and R. H. McMillen (son of Capt. J. H. McMillen) opened a small grocery in East Portland, and after two years Mr. Witten- berg bought the interest of his partner, continu- ing alone for about a year. He then disposed of his business and embarked in the retail bak- ery trade, purchasing a half interest in what was known as the German bakery at No. 145 Third street, Portland. For three years he had A. A. Franklin as a partner, but at the expiration of that time acquired the entire property and con- tinued alone for two years. Meantime, April 8, 1886, he organized the Portland Cracker Com- pany, with a capital stock of $30,000, and started in business on Second and Davis streets, hav- ing as partners in the enterprise Louis Nicolai & Sons. A year after the organization of the company he sold the German Bakery in order that he might devote his entire attention to the development of the cracker business. Besides acting as vice-president and manager of the com- pany, he traveled for five years in the interests of the business, and meantime visited almost every point of importance in the northwest During these years the company bought out the only other concern of a similar nature in Port- land, this being the Oregon Steam Bakery, an old established concern. Upon the reorganiza- tion of the business in 1891 the building now used for the headquarters of the concern was erected, and the following werc merged into the new company : the Tacoma Cracker Company. of Tacoma: the Northwestern Cracker Com- pany, of Scattle ; and the Queen City Cracker

Company, of Seattle. A factory was also estab- lished at Spokane under the name of the Wash- ington Cracker Company.

An important enlargement of the business was effected in 1892 in the purchase of the Seattle Steam Candy Company of Seattle and the Bern- heim-Alisky Candy Company of Portland, the two largest manufacturers of confectionery in the northwest. At the time of purchase the cap- ital stock was increased to $500,000 and the capacity of the plants greatly enlarged. This was accompanied by an immediate and corre- sponding increase in the business, which had now extended to every part of the Pacific coast. In 1894 branch houses were opened in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and the name of the company became known throughout the entire region west of the Rocky Mountains, and from Alaska to Mexico.

September 15, 1899. the fortieth anniversary of the birth of Mr. Wittenberg, the Portland Cracker Company sold out to the Pacific Bis- cuit Company, which at that time was organized with Mr. Wittenberg as vice-president and man- ager, a position which he has continued to oc- cupy to the present time. At this writing the capital stock of this great corporation is $3,000 .- 000. The magnitude of the business transacted by this concern may be inferred from the state- ment that the company is successor to the Port- land Cracker Company, the Oregon Cracker Company, and the Sweet Candy Company, all of Portland; the Seattle Cracker and Candy Company, the Queen City Candy Company, and the Portland Cracker Company, all of Seattle : the Portland Cracker Company, of Tacoma : the Washington Cracker Company, of Spokane; the Capitol Candy Company, of Sacramento; the Portland Cracker Company, and L. Saroni & Company, of San Francisco; the Southern Cali- fornia Cracker Company, the Los Angeles Call- dy Company, and the Portland Cracker Com- pany, of Los Angeles. Factories and offices are established at the following points: Portland. Tacoma, Seattle, Spokane, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Salt Lake and Sacramento. More than seventy-five traveling salesmen are employed on the road, and the total number of employes reaches nearly two thousand. The trade ex- tends to the entire territory on the Pacific coast west of the Rocky Mountains, Alaska, British Columbia. China, Japan, South America, Mex- ico, and the islands of the Pacific Ocean.

While as a rule Mr. Wittenberg has refused all offers of official position and takes no special interest in politics aside from voting the Repub- lican ticket in national affairs, and for the best man regardless of party in local matters. he has consented to serve in school offices. At this writing he is a member of the Portland school

Chas 7. Street

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board, and was serving in a similar capacity in East Portland at the time of its consolidation with Portland ; and he also was a member of the East Portland city council. He has served as a director in the Chamber of Commerce, of which he is a member : and he is also identified with the Board of Trade, the Civic Improve- ment League, the Commercial Club, and the Multnomah Amateur Athletic Association. In 1888 he was made a Mason in Washington Lodge No. 46, A. F. & A. M .; and since then has risen to membership in Washington Chap- ter No. 18, R. A. M., Oregon Consistory No. 1, A. & A. Scottish Rite, Oregon Commandery No. I, K. T., and Al Kader Temple, N. M. S. A charter member of Fidelity Lodge No. 4, A. O. U. W., he has been associated with this order for twenty-two years. Though not identified with any denomination, he is a liberal contrib- utor to religious and philanthropic movements, and always has been a friend and supporter of such projects. He is taking an active and un- selfish interest in the movement having for its object the holding of the Lewis and Clark Ex- position in Portland in 1905. He assisted in organizing the committee having the arrange- ments for the proposed exposition in charge, and was a generous contributor to the fund of $300,000 given by the original stockholders of the exposition company. Being fully cognizant of the numerous benefits to be derived by Ore- gon and the city of Portland through the con- templated fair, he is an earnest champion of street improvement and all other municipal projects that will add to the attractiveness of Portland as a place of residence and a desirable location for new enterprises. He is one of the stanchest advocates of the project for deepening the Columbia and Willamette rivers from Port- land to the sea, for the construction of a great drydock for ocean-going vessels in this city, and for the erection of smelters for the reduc- tion of ores found in Oregon and Washington. Mr. Wittenberg is interested in several other industrial institutions and business enterprises, both for the purpose of investment and encour- agement to such institutions. In fact, his in- fluence is extended in favor of all movements whose aim is to keep the metropolis of Oregon in the rank she has won-that of one of the most, progressive and substantial cities of the country.

The marriage of Mr. Wittenberg was solem- nized in Portland in 1880, and united him with Mary Alice Shaver, daughter of George W. Shaver. (See sketch elsewhere in this work.) Mrs. Wittenberg was born at Waldo Hills, Ma- rion county, Ore., and received her education in Portland, where she was a schoolmate of Mr. Wittenberg. They are the parents of two sons,

Louis Mason and Ralph Shaver. Mr. Witten- berg attributes a great deal of his success in life to the noble assistance given him by his loving wife, who, through the twenty-three years of their wedded life, has always proven a source of strength and comfort; and he claims that without her everything might have been differ- ent. Their happy home is always open to their friends, of whom they have a large circle.

CHARLES F. STREET. The art of floricul- ture has no more sincere appreciator in Clackamas county than Charles F. Street, the products of whose hot-houses find their way to lovers of flowers in Portland, Seattle and Tacoma, Wash., and many surrounding towns, and who is rapidly coming to the front as one of the most intelli- gent exponents of his truly delightful and ever expanding occupation.

That Mr. Street is entitled to his position of authority among florists and landscape garden- ers is accounted for by the fact that he has made a profound study of everything connected there- with since he was twelve years of age. He was born in Sussex, England, January 24, 1857, and is the oldest son and second oldest child born to Frank and Harriett ( Pronger) Street, natives of England, at one time residents of Kent, and now living retired in London, England. Charles F. was educated in the public schools, but his early assumption of responsibility as a florist's appren- tice interfered materially with whatever educa- tional plans he may have desired to carry out. At the age of twenty-two he sailed away to Aus- tralia as a fitting field for the exercise of his chosen work, and upon arriving at Sydney in 1879, found employment as foreman in a nursery near the town for three years. Upon coming to the United States he located at Menlo Park, near San Francisco, and after working at gardening for a year came to Oregon in 1882. Not content with the prospects he returned to Australia, re- maining there for seven years, and in the mean- time making rapid advancement along floricul- tural lines. In Victoria, Australia, he purchased eighty acres of fine land, upon which he grew flowers, vegetables and fruit, and won the dis- tinction of being the first to force tomatoes on the Melbourne market. That tomatoes were a profitable investment is best judged by the fact that he received sixty cents a pound for them at the start, but of course reduced the price as the novelty wore off. In 1889 a return was made to Oregon, where he resided for two years, at the end of which time he removed to California and continued to reside in that state until 1898, when he came back to Oregon and settled in Clacka- mas, where he bought fourteen acres of land. upon which has been built his present fine busi-

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ness. His hot-houses measure 105x26 and 36x50 feet, while yet another measures 13x91 feet. For heating purposes a thirty horse-power boiler is utilized with good effect, and hot water pipes are all over the place. For getting the water a gas engine pump is found perfectly satisfactory. Also Mr. Street owns a small apiary, and contemplates increasing his store of bees.

In England Mr. Street married Jane Lewis, a native of Wales, and the mother of four children, three sons and one daughter : Frank W., a florist of Burlingame, Cal .; Emaline Lily, at home; Arthur Hubert, also at home; and Ernest Albert, living with his parents. Mr. Street became a naturalized citizen of the United States in Cali- fornia, and has since been independent in politics. Fraternally he is connected with the Farmers' Grange Society, and with the Artisans. He is an agreeable, tactful and very prominent member of the community of Clackamas, and his many friends and associates feel a personal pride in his success as one of the most capable in his calling in the state.

CHARLES B. MOORES. While maintain- ing his legal residence in Salem, Mr. Moores is at present making Oregon City his headquarters, having come to this place in the discharge of his duties as register of the United States land of- fice. The district which he has under his super- vision comprises the following counties: (part of) Benton, Clackamas, Clatsop, Columbia, (part of) Crook, (nearly all of) Lincoln, (the larger part of) Linn, Marion, Washington, Multnomah, Polk, Tillamook, (parts of) Wasco and Yamhill.

The qualities which have contributed to the success of Mr. Moores are traceable to his Scotch-Irish ancestry. The family of which he is a member has been associated with Oregon from a very early period. His grandfather, Col. 1. R. Moores, Sr., commanded a regiment in the Black Hawk war and served in the Mexican war. In 1852 he came to Oregon and settled near Eu- gene soon after which he was elected to repre- sent Lane county in the territorial legislature, also served as a member of the Oregon state constitutional convention of 1857. At one time he was the candidate of the Republican party for the state senate, and in other ways he was prominent in his party and among his fellow-citi- zens. Nor was his son, Col. I. R. Moores, Jr., less conspicuous as a citizen or less worthy as a mail. For several years he represented Marion county in the house of representatives, of which body he was chosen speaker in 1865.

Another son, Hon. John H. Moores, was equally prominent in public affairs and equally worthy of the confidence of the people.

From the time that he came to Oregon, in 1852. until his death, he was loyal to the interests of the state, and for some years he represented Marion county in the state senate. By his mar- riage to Virginia L. Lamon he had, among other children, Charles B., who was born in Benton, Mo., August 6, 1849, and who was therefore only three years of age when the family settled in Oregon. The first winter was spent in Port- land, and in March of 1853 they removed to Salem, where he has since made his home. In 1870 he was graduated from Willamette Univer- sity, with the degree of A. B.

A few days after graduating Charles B. Moores became a draughtsman for the Oregon & California Railroad, continuing in the land department of that company for four years. In 1874 he went east and took a course in a busi- ness college, after which he spent a short time in the law department of the University of Penn- sylvania, continuing his law studies later in the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, from which in 1877 he was graduated with honors and the degree of LL. B. On his return to Ore- gon he was admitted to practice at Salem. In 1880 he acted as chief clerk of the house of rep- resentatives, and from 1882 to 1887 he held the position of private secretary to Governor Moody. In 1894 he was elected to represent Marion coun- ty in the house of representatives, receiving a large majority. At the following session of the house he was chosen speaker. For several terms he was a member of the city council of Salem. Since 1878 he has been a member of the board of trustees of Willamette University at Salem, of which he acted as secretary and treas- urer in former years. This position of trustee was also held by his father, who was deeply in- terested in educational matters and a man of progressive spirit. In other matters the resem- blance in character between father and son is noticeable. Both are identified with the lumber manufacturing business in Salem, besides which the father was for years a dry-goods merchant in that city. Both were leading workers in the Odd Fellows, Charles B. Moores having been initiated into the order at Portland, and now affiliating with Chemekela Lodge No. I, in which he is past grand. Both claimed horticulture as one of their many interests, and Mr. Moores is now the owner of a ranch of twenty-five acres. all in fruit, located near Salem. He is a member of the Illihee Club of Salem and the Order of Lions at Oregon City, in which he is a past officer.

November 1, 1881, Mr. Moores married Sallie E. Chamberlain, by whom he has four children, namely: Gertrude E., who is a student in the State Agricultural College: Merrill B., who is a member of the sophomore class in the same in-

adam Shaver

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stitution ; Gordon C. and Chester Alexander. Mrs. Moores was born in Michigan and in 1873 graduated from Willamette University at Salem, receiving the degree of B. S. In religious con- nections she is associated with the Methodist Episcopal Church, to the maintenance of which Mr. Moores is a contributor, though not an active member of the denomination. His prominence among the people of his state is a deserved trib- ute to his mental attributes, his genial personal- ity and broad intelligence.

ADAM SHAVER is the owner of an excellent farm of one hundred and sixty acres located in the vicinity of Tigardsville. He was born in Lorain county, Ohio, September 9. 1834, and in early boyhood became a resident of Iowa, where he remained until eleven years of age. About that time his father died. The mother, with her children, accompanied her parents on the long journey across the plains to Oregon in the year 1852. Mr. Shaver secured a donation claim and from that time to the present has been identi- fied with the early settlers and aided in the devel- opment of this section of the country.

In 1857, when twenty-three years of age, Mr. Shaver was united in marriage to Miss Eliza- beth Palmateer, a native of Canada, and they began their domestic life in a log cabin of one room situated upon the farm which is yet his place of abode. Here Mr. Shaver has devoted his time and energies to agricultural pursuits con- tinuously since and all of the improvements upon his farm have been placed there through his efforts. At the present time he is the owner of a quarter section of valuable land and follows gen- eral farming and stock-raising, the fields being under a high state of cultivation, while in the meadows are found good grades of cattle, horses and hogs.

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Shaver was blessed with thirteen children : William E., who is resid- ing upon a part of the old home place; Lewis, who makes his home in Tualatin; Emma, who is under the parental roof; Mary, who is living in Portland : Robert M., James A., Frances, Stephen A., and Irvin, all deceased ; and Pearl, Bessie, Orrin, and Fred, who are still under the parental roof. Mrs. Elizabeth Shaver died De- cember 30, 1898.

Mr. Shaver exercises his right of franchise in support of the Democracy and of the men who are made the candidates of the party. He has served as a member of the school board and as road supervisor and in the discharge of his official duties he has ever been loyal and faithful. In matters of citizenship he has taken a deep inter- est in whatever pertains to the general progress and upbuilding of the community in which he

lives. At the same time in his business affairs he has been enterprising and industrious and these qualities have enabled him to secure a good farm.

WILLIAM S. TIDEMAN, head roller of the Portland Rolling Mills, is one of the most ex- perienced in his line in Oregon, and has quali- fied for his important responsibility in the most important rolling mills of Europe and America. From earliest youth he had before him the ex- ample of ancestors engaged in a similar occupa- tion, the forefathers on both the paternal and ma- ternal sides of his family having devoted their energies to perfecting the iron moulders' art. He was born in Degerfors, Vermland, Sweden, November 28, 1860, liis father C. G. Tideman, and his mother, Hannah (Erickson) Tideman, being natives of the same part of the kingdom, and both living in Sweden at the present time. Up to the time of his retirement from business C. G. Tideman was a boss roller in a plate mill, as had been his grandfather before him, and at that time the work was all accomplished by forg- ing. The maternal grandfather, Erickson, was also an iron worker, his father having engaged in the same business. Of the children born to these parents, eight in' number, four sons and one daughter are living, all the sons being residents of America. Carl is a machinery manufacturer in Worcester, Mass .; Frank is a blacksmith and mechanic in Brooklyn, N. Y .; and Stephanus is also a blacksmith and mechanic.

While still quite young William S. Tideman was employed in the iron works, everything in that city seeming to center around the large iron manufactories. At the age of twelve he began as a roller hand, and by the age of seventeen had become a practical worker, also having learned the machinist's trade. In 1879 he immigrated to Worcester, Mass., and since coming to America has lived in many of the most prominent cities in the country, in all working in many mills of the first magnitude. His association with the west began in 1896, during which year he lo- cated in Lake View, Wash., and for three years was boss roller in the Western Iron and Steel company's works. In April, 1900, he returned to Europe, visited his old home in Sweden. the Paris Exposition, France, Germany, England, Ireland, and Scotland, returning to the United States and Portland in the fall of 1900, associat- ing himself at once with the Portland Rolling Mills.

In St. Louis, Mo., Mr. Tideman was united in marriage with Sophia Maddox, born near the St. Joe lead mines, a daughter of Henry Maddox. born in Kentucky, a farmer in Missouri, and a soldier in the Federal army during the Civil

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war. Mr. Maddox was severely wounded at Chickamauga, but recovered, and is now living in retirement in Leavenworth, Kans. His wife, formerly Amanda Summers, was born in Ten- nessee and died in St. Joe, Mo. Eight children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Maddox, of whom Mrs. Tideman is the oldest. Mr. and Mrs. Tideman have one child, Elmer. Mr. Tide- man is fraternally associated with the Independ- ent Order of Odd Fellows, of Tacoma, Wash. He is a member of the Amalgamated Associa- tion of Steel & Iron Workers, and in national politics is a Republican.

GEORGE F. MERRILL. A seer of nautical affairs who understands as much about the build- ing as he does about the management of various kinds of craft, and whose investigation upon the high seas has led him to many climes and lands, is George Francis Merrill, who for many years has been a builder of light boats and launches. Association with maritime affairs is a natural consequence of inheritance and early training, for at the time of the birth of Mr. Merrill in Portland, Me., March 10, 1831, his father, Fran- cis, was engaged in the boat-building business at the yards in Bangor, an occupation to which he devoted his entire active life. The grand- father, also named Francis, was a stevedore, and during the war of 1812 was on a gunboat. Of English descent, the father of George F. eventu- ally removed from his boat-building yard in Port- land to a similar place in Bangor, Me., but he finally settled in Brewer, that state, where his death occurred. His wife, Mary Jane (Jenkins) Merrill, who was born in the vicinity of Portland, Me., was of English descent, and also died at Brewer. She became the mother of fourteen children, ten of whom attained maturity, and six of whom are living. One of the sons, Benjamin M., is living in Astoria; Charles W. is an ex- soldier of the Civil war, and is living in San Francisco; while Frank M., also a soldier in the Civil war, is a resident of Santa Clara county, Cal.

Reared in an atmosphere altogether sea-like. George Francis Merrill, the fourth oldest in his father's family, was pre-ordained to the kind of life which he has since led, and for which he evinced the earliest and most pronounced apti- tude. In Bangor, Me .. to which the father re- moved from Portland, the lad attended the public schools, but this was incidental to the boat-build- ing industry, which he undertook to learn at the age of fourteen. A year later he took a trip to the West Indies, and afterward to New Orleans. embarking then upon the Constitution for France. In 1850 he left New York harbor aboard the clipper ship Stag Hound, and at the expiration

of one hundred and nine days landed in San Francisco, having spent five days at Valparaiso, South America. Thereafter he made a trip to Puget Sound, and upon returning to San Fran- cisco worked in the mines on Feather river for six months. He next turned his attention to steamboating between San Francisco and San Juan, Nicaragua, on the steamer Independence, but this craft met a sorry fate on the third trip, under her new commander in 1852, when she struck a rock, sprung a leak, filled with water, and of her passengers and crew two hundred were lost and three hundred rescued. Mr. Merrill re- turned to San Fancisco and soon afterward shipped on the Brother Jonathan, and in 1853 embarked on the clipper ship White Squall, the trip around the Horn to New York consuming ninety-six days, an unusually rapid trip, for the vessel was east of the Horn when only forty-two days out. After a visit of several months in his native state of Maine Mr. Merrill went to Bris- tol, England, on the Deringo, and upon returning to this country worked in a boat shop in Bangor, Me., until the breaking out of the Civil war.

January 1, 1862, Mr. Merrill enlisted in the United States navy under Admiral Farragut, as able seaman, on the ship Hartford, of the Gulf squadron, and until disabled at the end of eleven months, participated in the principal water com- bats of the war, including the sieges and taking of Forts Jackson and Phillips, the Shalruet bat- teries, up to Post Vicksburg, and down again to Baton Rouge. He was accidentally injured on board ship, his arm was broken in two places, and he was ordered to the Brooklyn Navy yard. After recovery Mr. Merrill was mustered out of the service, having served for eleven months and some days. After returning to Maine he engaged in boat-building in Bangor, after which he had a boat-yard of his own in Bucksport, Me., for three years. Later he engaged in boat-building for a couple of years in Kennebunk, that state, and in the fall of 1871 went to Chicago, Ill., where he engaged in house-building and general carpenter work. At Grand Haven, Mich., he worked in the Kirby shipyard for about ten years as ship carpenter, and in 1882 came to Astoria, Ore., and worked there until locating with his family in Portland in 1883. In 1891 he started a boat- house and shop, which has since known an unin- terrupted season of prosperity. He both builds and rents boats, and has a full complement of all kinds of small boats suitable for pleasure taking. including the naphtha launches Constitution and Hartford, and about thirty rowboats.

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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 80

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