Portrait and biographical record of western Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present.., Part 20

Author: Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago, Chapman publishing company
Number of Pages: 1064

USA > Oregon > Portrait and biographical record of western Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present.. > Part 20

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

ment Veteran Association. It was in New York that he gained his accurate training in military tactics and the knowledge thus acquired has been invaluable to him since coming to the coast and has been instrumental in enabling him to bring the Oregon National Guard into a position among the foremost among similar organizations of the west.

FRED BICKEL. The word pioneer is dis- tinctly applicable to that venerable citizen, Fred Bickel, who came to Oregon in 1853, and locat- ing in Portland, materially assisted in the gen- eral upbuilding of the town. He started the first confectionery store and soda water manufac- tory here and has of late years been successfully engaged in the storage business. It is also to his credit to be enrolled among the soldiers who were destined to discipline the murderous and treacherous bands of Indians who infested the plains and were especially troublesome during the wars of 1854, 1855 and 1856. During that momentous period he volunteered in Company A, Oregon Volunteers, served in eastern Oregon, and was mustered out and honorably discharged during the summer of 1856. He participated in several skirmishes with the Indians in Walla Walla Valley, one of which lasted for four days.

In his general makeup Mr. Bickel embodies the most desirable of Teutonic traits, all of whichi have been fostered and developed by a careful early training and the subsequent necessity for looking out for himself. He was born in the town of Rodenburg, Germany, on the river Fulda, May 21, 1832, and is a son of George and Elizabeth Bickel, natives respectively of Roden- burg and Solz. George Bickel was a blacksmith up to the time of his retirement, and he hrought his family to America about 1846, locating in St. Louis. Of the three children who attained ma- turity in his family, Fred is the second child and oldest son and the only one living. Like the majority of the German reared youths, Fred Bickel started out on his own responsibility at the age of fourteen, and upon landing in St. Louis, after an ocean voyage of fifty-three days. apprenticed himself to a confectioner for four years. At the expiration of two and a half years his employer died of cholera, and the youth thereafter worked for his employer's wife and her brother, Frank Dekum, assisted by another apprentice. Eventually he came to California with Mr. Dekum, the journey towards the coast being replete with many adventures. From New Orleans they sailed to Chagres, Panama, where they took a small boat up the river of that name to Corcona, the head of navigation. Thereafter they walked twenty-eight miles to Panama,

158

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

where they were compelled to wait two weeks because all transportation opportunities were en- gaged in advance for about three months. The travelers managed to secure passage on the ves- sel Anna Smith, bound for Acapulco, which, however, was obliged to put into port because of shortage of water. Finally they got aboard the Golden Gate, bound for San Francisco, which city they reached after two months, about May 21, 1852.

In Shasta City, Cal., Mr. Bickel engaged in business with Mr. Dekum, but the latter removed from Shasta City to Portland in 1853. For some time Mr. Bickel assumed control of the confection- ery shop left in his charge, but in May, 1853, it was burned to the ground, entailing considerable loss. Shortly afterward he came to San Fran- cisco, whence he embarked on the Columbia for Portland, which he reached in June of that year. Here he entered into partnership with Mr. De- kum, under the firm name of Dekum & Bickel, confectioners, which was the first enterprise of the kind in the town, and was located for the time being between Stark and Washington streets. In 1856 he started the first soda manu- factory in Portland, which he and Mr. Dekum ran for ten years, but which is now carried on by other parties. At the expiration of their re- lationship Mr. Dekum and Mr. Bickel had been connected for more than twenty years.

After going out of business with his old time partner Mr. Bickel was out of work for a time, but in 1883 built the large storage house which he has since managed, and which is 80x100 feet ground dimensions. The building is four stories in height, and the front contains two double stores. Mr. Bickel has also put up other stores ' and public buildings in Portland, and at the present time is a large holder of town real estate. He erected a block on Second street, between Ash and Ankeny, which is 150x112 feet ground dimensions, is two stories in height, and has eleven stores in front.

Through the marriage of Mr. Bickel and Catherine Karlskind, who was born in St. Clair county, Ill., near Belleville, five children have been born: Caroline Fredericka, and Louise, both of whom are living at home; George L., a strawberry rancher on Hood river, Ore .; Albert. a clerk in Portland; and Frederick, a collector in Portland. Mr. Bickel is a Republican in politics, but has never been induced to accept official recognition. He has heen prominent before the public in various capacities, and to him is due the organization of several societies in which his countrymen feel particularly at home, among them being the Turn Verein and the German Aid Society. He is also a member of the Historical Society and the Oregon Pioneers' Association.

CAPT. J. C. AINSWORTH. The history of Oregon would be incomplete did it fail to give the life record of Capt. J. C. Ainsworth, who was for many years a well known factor in navigation and railway matters as well as a promoter of banking interests in the northwestern country. He was a son of John Commiger Ains- worth, who died when his son J. C. was seven or eight years of age. Captain Ainsworth was born in Springborough, Warren county, Ohio, June 6, 1822, and on the Mississippi river received his first lessons in the profession which afterward made him famous. On arriving at man's estate he was quickly promoted to the position of pilot and subsequently to that of master on a passen- gen steamer plying between St. Louis and up- river points. While in this service he first heard of the discovery of gold in California and the wonderful possibilities for labor and capital in that state. He accordingly journeyed to San Francisco in 1850, accompanied by the noted banker, William C. Ralston, and soon after his arrival on the Pacific coast he went to Oregon to take command of the Lot Whitcomb. His life in the northwest from this time until he retired, nearly thirty years afterward, was inseparably as- sociated with marine pursuits, and to his thor- ough and practical knowledge of the business in all its details was due the marvelous success achieved by the great transportation company in which he was a leading spirit from the time of its inception until it was merged from the Oregon Steamship & Navigation Company into the Ore- gon Railroad & Navigation Company. He was president of the latter company until it was sold to the Villard syndicate in 1881, for $5.000,000. He built the Missouri Pacific Railroad through from California to the Sound, getting the engine into Puget Sound twenty-four hours before the expiration of a valuable land subsidy. This, too, he completed, furnishing the means from his own pocket. He started the Ainsworth National Bank in 1883, built the Ainsworth Block in 1881, at the corner of Third and Oak streets, and started the Central Bank of Oakland, Cal., acting as its presi- dent until his death. While Captain Ainsworth made for himself a reputation as a remarkable financier among the money kings on both sides of the continent, yet he always remained a firm friend of the laboring classes. Retrenchment with him did not commence with a reduction of salaries. "Give the boys good salaries," was a sentiment he always expressed, and "the boys," since grown gray, many of them in the service of less appreciative masters, will never forget the kind-hearted employer who appreciated good services and acknowledged the same in a substan- tial manner. As an indication of the regard in which Captain Ainsworth was held by the people of the upper country, from whom much of the

159

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

revenue of the Oregon Steam Navigation Com- pany was derived, an extract from an article pub- fished in The Dalles Inland Empire after the re- tirement of Captain Ainsworth, is herewith given : "He has been at all times a gentlemanly public servant, a faithful custodian of the inter- ests of his fellow stockholders and the most equit- able and merciful of employers. In fine, he has been a good friend to friends and a semi-foe to enemies. His broad sense of justice has made him the object of an almost filial degree of affec- tion from his employes, and to his sagacity in making three voluntary reductions of freight rates without compulsion in five years' time, the growth and expansion of the Eastern Empire are largely attributable."

Captain Ainsworth's friendship for his early companion and friend, W. C. Ralston, lasted until the tragic death of Mr. Ralston, and in this con- nection the folowing story was told in the San Francisco Examiner: "When Captain Ainsworth and W. C. Ralston arrived in California they sep- arated. Mr. Ralston remained in San Francisco, and engaged in the banking business with Eugene Kelly, while Captain Ainsworth went to Oregon and began steamboating on the Willamette river. Each was successful, and one day Ainsworth saw a chance to increase his fortune if he could be- come possessed of $100,000. As he desired this amount very much he went to San Francisco and called on his old friend, W. C. Ralston, for assist- ance. The details of the plan were outlined and the required amount was promptly advanced on a sixty-day note. When Mr. Kelly returned from an eastern trip he looked over the affairs of the institution and noted the transaction. He was much displeased with the loan and insisted upon its immediate recall. Ralston defended his action warmly, but unsuccessfully, and some words passed between the partners. In the meantime Ainsworth had gone to Oregon, and the custom- ary notice was delayed until the sailing of the next steamer. Ainsworth concluded the deal, cleared up something like $250,000, and started the borrowed money homeward within a few days, and the vessel which carried the recall passed the money on the way to the bank. This transaction so angered Ralston that he withdrew from the partnership and opened the Bank of California. Before retiring from the Oregon Steam Navigation Company Captain Ainsworth invested largely in real estate in Tacoma, and was prominently identified with the construction of the Northern Pacific Railway Company between the Columbia river and Puget Sound. In 1880 he removed to Oakland, Cal., where he became interested in local banking and subsequently ex- ploited the. famous watering place, Redondo Beach, expending nearly $3,000,000 in trans- forming it into one of the finest seaside resorts on

the Pacific coast. Captain Ainsworth died at his home near Oakland, December 30, 1893, and few if any of the pioneers in the transportation busi- ness of the northwest have left a record which will prove more lasting or more creditable.

The second marriage of Captain Ainsworth occurred in San Francisco, the lady of his choice being Fannie Bobbitt, daughter of Gen. Edwin Burr Bobbitt, a graduate of West Point and chief of the Quartermaster Department, U. S. A. His son, Lawrence S. Bobbitt, is second in rank for chief of ordnance, stationed at Dover, N. J., and his son, Edwin B. Bobbitt, is a graduate of West Point and now a captain of ordnance stationed at Washington, D. C. Unto Capt. J. C. Ainsworth and his wife were born six children, five of whom are still living, two sons and three daughters. H. B. Ainsworth is manager of the Los Angeles & Redondo Railroad Company, of Los Angeles, Cal. J. C. Ainsworth, Jr., is represented in the follow- ing biographical sketch. The mother of this fam- ily survives her husband and resides in Portland. Captain Ainsworth was for years a very promi- nent Mason, and Ainsworth Lodge and Ains- worth Chapter, in Oregon, are named in his honor. He attained the thirty-third degree and was first Grand Master of Oregon and was for years active inspector-general of the supreme council of the Southern Jurisdiction in the state of Oregon, the highest post of honor possible of attainment in the state.

Captain Ainsworth was a man fitted by his excellent business qualities to take a leading part in the upbuilding and growth of a new country such as the northwest at the time he took up his abode here, and that he faithfully fulfilled every duty devolving upon him and carried forward to a successful completion whatever he undertook was a well known fact. Strict integrity and upright- ness were salient features in his characteristics, and all who knew him regarded him with the highest honor and respect.

(For many of the facts contained in the pre- ceding biography credit is due to Lewis & Dry- den's History of the Pacific Northwest).

J. C. AINSWORTH. One of the leading and prominent business men of Portland is J. C. Ainsworth, who is active and energetic and takes a deep interest in everything pertaining to the commercial progress and general upbuilding of the state in which he lives. He is one of Port- land's native sons, having been born in this city January 4, 1870, and is a son of Capt. J. C. and Fannie (Bobbitt) Ainsworth. He was gradu- ated from the University of California in 1891, with the degree of Bachelor of Sciences. He then took a special course in electrical engin-

160

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

eering in the same institution, graduating in 1892 and receiving the degree of Master of Science from his alma mater. Subsequent to this he spent one year in the Central Bank of Oakland, Cal. In 1894 he came to Portland, Ore., and engaged in the banking business for himself, with the Ainsworth National Bank and acting as presi- dent of the same, which had a capital stock of $100,000. In 1902 he consolidated the Ainsworth National Bank with the United States National, under the name of the United States National Bank, the same having a capital stock of $250,000 and later increased it to $300,000. This is one of the strongest institutions on the coast. He was one of the incorporators of the Fidelity Trust Company Bank, of Tacoma, having a cap- ital stock of $300,000, and in 1902 he succeeded Col. C. W. Griggs as president of the company. He is president of the Oregon Telephone & Tele- graph Company, having a capitalization of $500,- 000, and is assistant secretary and treasurer of the Pacific States Telephone & Telegraph Com- pany, which institution has a capital of $15,000,- 000, and has lines extending from Mexico to Alaska with 150,000 subscribers. He is treasurer of the Portland Railway Company; director of the Portland Hotel Company, the Portland Gen- eral Electric Company, the Portland Street Rail- way Company, the Pacific States Telephone & Telegraph Company, the Los Angeles & Redondo Railway Company, Oregon Railroad & Naviga- tion Company, and numerous others, including the Lewis and Clark Fair.

In Portland, June 26, 1901, J. C. Ainsworth was united in marriage with Miss Alice Heitshu, who was born in California. Mr. Ainsworth is a stanch Republican in his political views and is ex-president of the Arlington Club. His relig- ious faith is indicated by his membership in the Presbyterian Church. Through his good busi- ness judgment he has not only gained for himself success in life, but his efforts have been of bene- fit in promoting the advancement and prosperity of the communities in which he has been finan- cially interested. He is a wide-awake, capable man, quick to take advantage of a good business opportunity. A gentleman of fine presence, genial manner and handsome appearance, his good qual- ities win the regard of all with whom he comes in contact.

CAPT. JOSEPH A. SLADEN. Since his retirement from the active list of the army, in 1889, Captain Sladen has been a resident of Portland, where he was engaged for five years as special agent and adjuster for the German- American Insurance Company of New York. January 1, 1894, he was appointed clerk of the United States circuit court by Judge W. B.

Gilbert, circuit judge, which position he still oc- cupies. He is also United States commissioner, to which position he was appointed by Judge C. B. Bellinger, United States district judge.

Captain Sladen was born in Rochdale, Lanca- shire, England, April 9, 1841, the youngest of four children, three boys and one girl. His father dying while he was very young, his fam- ily came to this country when he was about five years of age. They settled at Lowell, Mass., where he attended the public schools, and left the high school to enter the army at the outbreak of the Civil war. He enlisted in the Thirty- third Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, and par- ticipated in the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac, including the famous battles of Chan- cellorsville and Gettysburg. With the Eleventh and Twelfth corps he went west to the relief of Rosecrans at Chattanooga, and took part in the campaigns under General Sherman which re- sulted in the capture of Atlanta, and in the bat- tles incident thereto. He was also in the March to the Sea, and the campaigns through the Caro- linas, which ended in the battle of Bentonville, N. C. For distinguished gallantry at the battle of Resaca, Ga., he was awarded a congressional medal of honor, and in 1866 was brevetted a first lieutenant and captain in the regular army for distinguished gallantry at the battle of Jones- boro, which resulted in the downfall of Atlanta. In November, 1864, he was commissioned a sec- ond lieutenant in the Fourteenth United States Colored Infantry, and thereafter served till the close of the war as an aide upon the staff of Gen. O. O. Howard. He was appointed a sec- ond lieutenant in the Seventeenth United States Infantry March 27, 1866, and continued on duty as an aide to General Howard, remaining on duty in Washington, D. C., until 1874, when he ac- companied that general to the department of the Columbia, with headquarters at Portland. He participated in the Indian wars in that depart- ment, that of the Nez Perces in 1877, and that of the Bannocks and Piutes in 1878. With the appointment of General Howard as superintend- ent of the United States Military Academy he accompanied that officer as adjutant general of that institution, and also accompanied him to the department of the Platte, at Omaha, when that general was ordered there in 1882.

In October. 1885, Captain Sladen was ordered on duty with his regiment, the Fourteenth United States Infantry, to which he had been trans- ferred, at Vancouver Barracks, Wash., and served there as regimental quartermaster until promoted to the command of his company in 1888. April 8, 1889, he was retired from active service on account of the loss of his right leg, which had occurred in the line of duty. In 1891 he was elected commander of the Grand Army

163

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

of the Republic for the department of Oregon, and served on several occasions as aide on the staff of the commander-in-chief of that organi- zation. He is a member, and past commander of Lincoln-Garfield Post, G. A. R., and also a past commander of the Oregon Commandery of the military order of the Loyal Legion.

In Massachusetts Captain Sladen was united in marriage, in 1866, with Martha Frances Win- chester, a native of Lowell, and of this union there have been born four children. Fred Win- chester, who graduated from West Point in June, 1890, is now a captain in the army, and an instructor at the United States Military Acad- emy, having been detailed at that institution after serving through the Philippine campaigns as an aide to Major-General Otis; Harry Stinson, a graduate of the Leland Stanford University, is now with the Portland General Electric Com- pany; Frank Joseph, a graduate of Yale, class of 1902, is a student at the Johns Hopkins Medi- cal College; and Caroline L. is the wife of Capt. John J. Bradley, of the Fourteenth United States Infantry.

Captain Sladen is prominent in Masonic cir- cles. He was made a Mason in B. B. French Lodge, of Washington, D. C., in 1866, and was afterwards master of Mount Hood Lodge at Vancouver, Wash. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, and is identified with the Oregon Con- sistory, and El Kader Temple, N. M. S. He is a member of the First Baptist Church of Port- land ; a Republican in politics, and is socially a member of the Arlington Club. Although so long connected with affairs military, and every inch a soldier in bearing and general deportment, Captain Sladen possesses a geniality and good fellowship which have won him many and lasting friends, and he has evinced in his latter day un- dertakings shrewd business and executive ability.

WILLIAM FRAZIER. In the record of the life of a successful man there is always much of interest, and particularly is this true in the case of a man who is forced to begin the battle of life in extreme youth, unaided and penniless. No greater source of inspiration can be offered a young man of ambition than the example afforded by such a life in the maturity of its success.

The death of his parents when he was a mere child forced William Frazier to undertake the solution of the problem of self-support at a very early age, but the self-reliance thereby developed proved of incalculable benefit to him. Though the years of his youth were less free from care than those of most boys, the activities of his manhood doubtless have been more successful by reason of these very deprivations and hard- ships of boyhood. He was born in Shelik, near

Ross Shire, Scotland, September 15, 1851, and was the second of three sons. The oldest, Hector, died in Washington ; the youngest, Collin, is en- gaged in farming in Grande Ronde Valley, Union county, Ore. His father, George Frazier, a ship carpenter by trade, was lost in a shipwreck off the coast of England, and subsequently the wid- owed mother brought the three sons to the United States, settling near Kawanee, Ill., where she died two years later.

When the family crossed the ocean William Frazier was a child of six years. For a time after their arrival in Illinois all went well, and he had the privilege of attending the country schools of Henry county, Ill., three winter terms. But with the death of his mother he was thrown1 upon his own resources. In 1863, at the age of twelve years, under the escort of his uncle, John McDonald, he crossed the plains to Oregon as a member of a party accompanying a train of one hundred wagons. At that time the Indians were particularly troublesome, and his party never would have reached the coast had it not been for a government escort of thirty-six mule teams and one hundred and fifty men under the command · of Captain Crawford. The great cavalcade of emigrants and soldiers proved too formidable for the wandering bands of Indians to attack, and they were permitted to pursue their course unmolested. One of the wagon teams was driven by the twelve-year-old boy, who in many ways proved himself a useful companion for the older men. Soon after their arrival at the coast, his uncle settled upon a claim in Grande Ronde Val- ley where, at the age of eighty years, he still makes his home.

After three months with his uncle, Mr. Frazier went to Umatilla Landing, where he worked in a dry goods store for Mr. Case during the win- ter. In the spring he secured employment on a pack train from Umatilla to Boise City, Bannock, Albany and Placerville, Idaho, which occupation he followed for two years, riding the bell horse and acting as cook for the train. During the fall of 1865 he arrived in Portland, where he has since made his home. At first he followed any occupation that presented itself, and availed himself of such leisure as he could command in order that he might attend to his neglected schooling. For one winter he attended Portland Academy. In the spring of 1869 he bought an interest in a butcher shop in Portland, but after a year or more began to take contracts for the piles on the lower docks of the Willamette. This work consumed two years, during which time he cleared the neat sum of $10,000. A portion of his earnings he invested in a livery stable, which he conducted for three years and then sold. His next enterprise was with L. A. God- dard, under the firm name of Goddard & Frazier,

164

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

the two conducting a large stable on Morrison and Second streets. In 1883 a three-story barn was built, 100x100, on Fifth and Taylor streets, and here he has since engaged in business, being with Mr. Goddard until 1897, and since then a member of the firm of Frazier & McLean. In addition to the renting of horses and vehicles, he has done a large business in buying and selling stock. At times he has brought in three car- loads of horses from Chicago at once, these being sold principally to loggers and lumbermen. For twenty years he has supplied the government with horses, furnishing five thousand for the Manila campaign, and in all of his contracts with the government his work was conducted with sagacity and dispatch.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Portrait and biographical record of western Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present.., Part 20

Author: Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, pub Publication date: 1904 Publisher: Chicago, Chapman publishing company Number of Pages: 1064

Author: Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: Chicago, Chapman publishing company
Number of Pages: 1064