Portrait and biographical record of western Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present.., Part 3

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 3

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Asahel Bush, whose name introduces this me- moir, was the fifth child in order of birth, and the only one who located on the Pacific coast. He was born in Westfield, Mass., June 4. 1824. was reared in that town, and completed his lit- erary education in the Westfield Academy. At the age of seventeen years he moved to Sara- toga Springs, N. Y., where he was apprenticed to the printer's trade in the office of the Sara- toga Sentinel. Here he was employed for about four years, during which time he learned the details of the trade, it having been his original intention to make newspaper work his vocation. As he grew to maturity his views of life broad- ened, and he determined to make his life more useful by mastering the law. thereby equipping himself more fully for the struggle which he realized lay ahead of him. With this ambi- tion dominant in his mind, he returned to his native state and began the study of the law in Westfield under the direction of William Blair and Patrick Boise, being admitted to the bar of Massachusetts in 1850. Judge R. P. Boise of Salem, a nephew of Patrick Boise, who had pre- viously been a student in his uncle's law office, was a friend of Mr. Bush, and the aspirations of the two young men about this time tended in the same direction, both arriving at the con- clusion that the well-nigh boundless resources of the then new and undeveloped Northwest of- fered to them broader opportunities than the East. Accordingly they decided to put their fortunes to the test in the territory of Oregon, whither a tide of immigration was then flowing. Soon after having been admitted to the practice of his chosen profession, Mr. Bush started for Oregon by way of the Panama route, Icaving New York City as a passenger on the steamer Empire City, bound for Aspinwall. He made the journey across the Isthmus on a boat poled up the Chagres river and on the back of a mule over the mountains, and re-embarked on the

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steamer Panama, which, after stopping for a short time in the harbor of San Francisco, pro- ceeded northward to Astoria. At that point Mr. Bush took a small boat up the Columbia and Willamette rivers to Portland. A short time afterward he located at Oregon City, where he established a newspaper, which he named the Oregon Statesman, for the publication of which he had had a printing press shipped from the East around the Horn. The first issue of the States- man appeared in March, 1851. Mr. Bush con- tinued to be editor, proprietor and publisher of this pioneer newspaper until 1853, when he re- moved his office to Salem, there continuing in journalism until 1861. The business evidently appealed to him as more fascinating and satis- factory than the practice of the law, for by this time he had abandoned the idea of engag- ing in the practice of his profession.

In 1861 Mr. Bush sold his newspaper, which thereafter was known as the Union. In 1867 he engaged in the banking business in Salem as a member of the firm of Ladd & Bush, his part- ner in this enterprise being the late W. S. Ladd of Portland. This relation was sustained until 1877, when Mr. Bush purchased the interest of his partner. For the past twenty-six years he has retained control of the institution and has been actively engaged in the conduct of its affairs, and through his individual efforts he has made it one of the strongest banking houses in the Pacific Northwest. In 1867 he erected the commodious brick structure now devoted to the purposes of his business.

Mr. Bush has further contributed to the im- provement of the city through the erection of a number of stores and other buildings. He is a stockholder in and president of the Salem Flour- ing Mills, in which he has been interested for many years. In company with Mr. Ladd and others he purchased this enterprise several years ago and equipped the plant with roller process machinery. When the mill was destroyed by fire it was immediately rebuilt, and there is now a modern mill having a daily capacity of four hundred barrels. He is also financially inter- ested in the Salem Woolen Mills, is the owner of the Salem Foundry, and for some time was a stockholder in the old Oregon Steam Naviga- tion Company, the predecessor of the present system known as the Oregon Railroad and Navi- gation Company. In addition to these enter- prises, in which much of his capital has been profitably invested and to which he has devoted 110 inconsiderable portion of his time and energy, he has, at various times, been identified with other local enterprises which have helped to es- tablish the city of Salem on a sound manti . facturing, commercial and financial basis.

In his political views Mr. Bush is a Demo-

crat who has always remained firm in his be- lief in the principle of free trade. He has taken an active part in the promotion of the welfare of his party in Oregon, and probably no other man has accomplished more for the general well- being of the Democracy of this state than he. For several years he was a member of the Deni- ocratic State Central Committee, of which he served for a time as chairman. In 1892 he was sent as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention at Chicago, on which occasion Grover Cleveland was nominated for the presidency for the third time. For eight years he served as Territorial Printer for Oregon, the first and only man to hold that office. He was appointed one of the board of visitors to the United States Military Academy at West Point, N. Y., filling that post in 1861, when two classes were gradu- ated for the purpose of providing officers for the army in the Civil war. For many years he was a regent of the Oregon State University, but resigned the office; and at the time of its incorporation was a trustee of Willamette Uni- versity. He is a member of the Oregon His- torical Society, and in religious faith is a Uni- tarian. In 1902 he was made a member of the Board of Directors of the Lewis and Clark Cen- tennial Exposition to be held in Portland in 1905.

In 1854 Mr. Bush made a trip to his old home in Massachusetts by way of the Panama route, returning to Salem the same year. In 1861 he made a second trip by the same route, and in 1865 he crossed the plains to the East by stage, returning home by way of the Isthmus.

The marriage of Mr. Bush occurred in Salem in October, 1854, and united him with Eugenia Zieber, who was born in 1833 in Princess Anne, Princess Anne county, on the Eastern shore of Maryland. Her father was a native of Phila- delphia, and her mother of Maryland. Her family crossed the plains in 1851, settling in Oregon City, but afterward removing to Salem. John S. Zieber, her father, became surveyor- general of Oregon in 1853, filling the office for one term. Mrs. Bush was a graduate of the Moravian Seminary at Bethlehem, Pa., and was a lady of superior culture and refinement, pos- sessed of many graces of character. She died in Salem in 1863, leaving four children : Estelle, who is a graduate of the school in which her mother received her education; Asahel N., a graduate of Amherst College, class of 1882, now a partner of his father in the banking business; Sally, a graduate of Smith College at North- ampton, Mass. ; and Eugenia, who is a graduate of Wellesley College.

It is difficult to place a proper estimate upon the services of Asahel Bush to the state of Ore- gon, and particularly to the community in which

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he has been for so long a period a most potent factor. Thoughtful men who have watched the progress of the state for the past four or five decades are generally agreed that there is liv- ing to-day no other individual whose personal- ity, sound judgment in affairs of finance, trade and commerce, broad-mindedness, thoughtfulness for the welfare of the community at large, and unselfish and disinterested desire to witness the most economical utilization of the partially de- veloped resources so abundant throughout the country in which he was a pioneer, has made, and is yet making, so marked an impress upon the trend of events in the state. For many years his strong guiding hand has been felt in nearly all important undertakings throughout a large expanse of territory within the borders of the state, and his judgment has been sought and deferred to by hundreds of men in all walks of life. A common expression in local commercial and manufacturing circles has been : "Ask Mr. Bush what he thinks about it." His integrity has always been above reproach, and his motives in all his operations have never been questioned. Honored and respected by all who have learned to know him, and well-beloved by those who have been favored by an intimate acquaintance with him, he is now-in his eightieth year- recognized as the foremost citizen of the Willa- mette valley, if not, indeed, of the entire state of Oregon.

Such, in brief, is the life history of Asahel Bush. Those whose discernment enables them to read "between the lines" and who are famil- iar with the history of the state, will readily realize the nature of the environments which surrounded him in the early years of his resi- dence here, and what courage and fortitude, as well as enterprise and energy, it required to face the pioneer conditions of the Northwest and establish large business interests here upon a profitable basis. In his undertakings, however, he has been greeted with such a measure of suc- cess that his methods naturally prove of pro- found interest to the commercial and financial world. Yet there is no secret in connection with his advancement, for his success has been at- tained through earnest and conscientious effort, guided by sound judgment and keen foresight, supplemented by principles of honorable man- hood.

HON. GEORGE E. CHAMBERLAIN. Be- lievers in the influence of heredity will find much to support their claims in the ancestral record of the governor of Oregon. Hon. George Earle Chamberlain. The qualities that have given him an eminent position in the public life of the northwest are his by inheritance from a long

line of capable, scholarly and influential ances- tors. The family of which he is a member came from England at an early period in Am- erican history and settled among the pioneers of Massachusetts. His grandfather, Dr. Joseph Chamberlain, a native of Delaware, was one of the distinguished physicians of Newark, that state. The lady whom he married also came of a prominent pioneer family. Her uncle, Charles Thomson, who served as secretary of the con- tinental congress from 1774 to 1789, was born in Ireland, of Scotch lineage, November 29, 1729. Accompanied by three sisters he settled at New- castle, Del., in 1741, and there became a teacher in the Friends' Academy. In 1758 he was one of the agents appointed to treat with the Indians at Oswego, and while there was adopted by the Delawares, who conferred upon him an Indian name meaning "One who speaks the truth." The possessor of literary ability, he left his imprint upon the literature of his age through his "Har- mony of the Five Gospels," a translation of the Old and New Testament, and an inquiry into the cause of the alienation of the Delaware and Shawnee Indians. His private file of letters, con- taining communications written to him while sec- retary of the continental congress and before that time, is among the most valued possessions of Governor Chamberlain, and contains letters from all the leading men of that day.

In the family of Dr. Joseph Chamberlain was a son, Charles Thomson Chamberlain, a native of Newark, Del., and a graduate of Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia. After receiv- ing the degree of M. D., he settled in Natchez. Miss., in 1837, as offering a favorable opening for a professional man. During the years that followed he built up a large practice and estab- lished an enviable reputation for skill in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. An evidence of his kindly spirit of devotion to duty and self- sacrificing labors for others is shown by his rec- ord during the yellow fever epidemic of 1871. At that time, when many physicians felt justified in considering their own health, he attended pa- tients night and day, without thought of self, until at last he was stricken with the disease and soon died.

The wife of Dr. Charles T. Chamberlain was Pamelia H. Archer, a native of Harford county, Md., and now a resident of Natchez, Miss. Her father, Hon. Stevenson Archer, was born in Harford county, and graduated from Princeton College, 1805, after which he became an attor- ney. He served in congress from 1811 to 1817 from Maryland, and in the latter year accepted an appointment from President Madison as judge of Mississippi Territory with guberna - torial powers, and resigned later. From 1819 to 1821 le again represented his district in congress,

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

where he was a member of the committee on for- eign affairs. In 1825 he was elected one of the jus- tices of the Court of Appeals of Maryland, which office he held until his death in 1848. at which time he was chief justice. His father, Jolın Archer, M. D., was a native of Harford county, Md., born in 1741. After graduating at Princeton in 1760, he studied for the ministry, but throat trouble rendering pulpit work inad- visable, he turned his attention to medicine. The first medical diploma ever issned in the new world was given to him by the Philadelphia Med- ical College. In 1776 he was elected a member of the convention which framed the Constitution and Bill of Rights of Maryland. At the com- mencement of the Revolutionary war he had command of a military company, the first enrolled in Harford county, and was a member of the state legislature. After the war he practiced his profession and several important discoveries in therapeutics are credited to him. In 1797 he was a presidential elector and from 1801 to 1807 was a member of congress from Maryland. His death occurred in 1810. The Archer family is of Scotch-Irish descent and was represented among the earliest settlers of Harford county, where for generations they wielded wide influ- ence. It is worthy of record that the portrait of Hon. Stevenson Archer appears among those of distinguished men of Maryland placed in the new courthouse in Baltimore, that state, and also adorns the courthouse in his native county.

In a family of five children, one of whom, Charles T. Chamberlain, is a merchant in Natchez, Miss., Hon. George Earle Chamberlain was third in order of birth. His name comes to him from an uncle, George Earle, who was one of the noted men of Maryland, and assistant postmaster general of the United States during General Grant's term as president. In his native city of Natchez, Miss., where he was born Jantt- ary 1, 1854, he received such advantages as the public schools afforded. On leaving school in 1870 he clerked in a mercantile store. Two years later, entering college at Lexington, Va., he took the regular course of study in the Washington and Lee University, from which he was gradu- ated in July of 1876, with the degrees of A. B. and B. L. Shortly after his graduation he re- turned to Natchez, where he remained until after the presidential election. However, prospects for success in the south were not encouraging at the time, and he determined to seek a more favorable opening. With this purpose in view he came to Oregon, which has been his home since his arrival December 6, 1876. Early in 1877 he taught a country school and in the latter part of the year was appointed deputy clerk of Linn county, which position he held until the summer of 1879. During 1880 he was elected to the lower house

of the legislature and in 1884 became district at- torney for the third judicial district of Oregon. In the discharge of the duties of these various offices he gave satisfaction to all concerned, evincing wide professional knowledge and re- sourcefulness. His talents being recognized by the governor, he was given the appointment of attorney-general of Oregon on the creation of that office by act of legislature in 1891, his ap- pointment bearing date of May 21, 1891. For a short time before this he had been interested in the banking business at Albany, being con- nected first with the First National Bank, and later with the Linn County National Bank.

At the general election following his appoint- ment he was elected attorney-general on the Dem- ocratic ticket, receiving a majority of about five hundred, notwithstanding the fact that the Re- publican majority in Oregon at that time was about ten thousand. In 1900 he was elected dis- trict attorney of Multnomah county by a major- ity of eleven hundred and sixty-two, the county being thien about four thousand Republican. The highest honor of his life came to him, unsolicited, in 1902, when the Democrats nominated him for governor by acclamation. In the election that followed he received a majority of two hundred and fifty-six over the Republican candidate, al- though on the congressional vote the state at the time was nearly fifteen thousand Republican. These figures are indicative of his popularity, not only with his own party, but with the gen- eral public. Among his large circle of friends and admirers are many who, though of different political faith, have yet such a warm regard for the man himself and such a firm faith in his ability to guide aright the ship of state, that many thousand votes were given him by people accus- tomed to vote another ticket than his own. It is doubtful if any public man possesses greater strength among the people of the state. Through the long period of his residence here he has won and maintained the confidence of the people, and his upright life, combined with unusual mental gifts, has given him his present prominence and prestige.

In Natchez, Miss., Mr. Chamberlain mar- ried Miss Sally N. Welch, who was born near that city, a descendant of an old Revolutionary family from New Engand. Her father, A. T. Welch, a native of New Hampshire, was a large planter near Natchez, the possessor of abundant means that rendered possible the giving of valu- able educational advantages to his children. Mrs. Chamberlain was graduated from the Natchez Institute and is a lady of culture and re- finement, an active member of the Calvary Pres- byterian Church and also a member of the East- ern Star. Born of this marriage are the follow- ing children: Charles Thomson, a graduate of

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Portland High School and Academy, and a mem- ber of the class of 1903, Cooper Medical College, San Francisco; Lucie Archer, Marguerite, Carrie-Lee, George Earle, Jr., and Fannie W.

The Commercial Club of Portland, Multnomah Amateur Athletic Club, University Club and Oregon State Historical Society, number Gov- ernor Chamberlain among their members. A life member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks in Portland, he is past exalted ruler of the local lodge. While at Albany he joined the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he is past noble grand and a demitted member of lodge and encampment. Interested in the Knights of Pythias, he is past chancellor of Lau- rel Lodge No. 7 at Albany. His record in Masonry is interesting and proves him to have been devoted to the lofty principles of that order. His initial experience with Masonry began in St. Johns Lodge No. 62, A. F. & A. M., at Al- bany, of which he is past master. At this writ- ing his membership is in Willamette Lodge No. I, at Portland, and he is past grand orator of the Grand Lodge of Oregon. The Royal Arch de- gree was conferred upon him in Bailey Chapter No. 8, at Albany, in which he is past high priest, and he is also past grand high priest of the Grand Chapter of Oregon. He was raised to the Knight Templar degree in Temple Comman- dery No. 3. K. T., at Albany, in which he is past eminent commander. The thirty-second degree was conferred upon him in Oregon Consistory No. I, at Portland, and he is also identified with Al Kader Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.

JAMES D. FENTON. The genealogy of the Fenton family is traced to England, whence three brothers came to America, one settling in Virginia, another in New York and the third in New England. Descended from the Virginian branch was James E. Fenton, a native of the Old Dominion, born in 1798, and in early life a resident of Kentucky, but after 1820 a pioneer farmer of Boone county, Mo., where he died. His son, James D., was born and reared in Boone county and became a farmer in Scotland county, that state. From there. in May of 1865, he started across the plains with ox-teams, accompanied by his wife and seven children. Joining an expedition of over one hundred wagons, he was able to make his way safely through a region inhabited by hostile Indians. During the winter of 1865-66 he taught school near what is now Woodburn, in Marion county, Ore., but in the spring of 1866 he removed to a farm near McMinnville, Yamhill county. In addition to improving this property, he cleared a tract near Lafayette, and on the latter farm his death occurred in February of 1886, when

he was fifty-four years of age. Through all of his active life he adhered to Baptist doctrines and favored Democratic principles. At one time he held the office of county commissioner.

The marriage of James D. Fenton united him with Margaret A. Pinkerton, who was born near Barboursville, Ky., and is now living in Portland, at seventy-two years of age (1902). Her father, David, was born near Asheville, N. C., of Scotch descent, and settled in Ken- tucky when a young man. After his marriage he established his home on a plantation near Barboursville. In 1846 he removed to Clark county, Mo., and from there in 1865, accom- panied Mr. and Mrs. Fenton to Oregon. His grandfather, David Pinkerton, was a cartridge box maker and rendered valued service during the Revolutionary war. The Pinkerton an- cestors became identified with the Carolinas as early as 1745. In the family of James D. and Margaret A. Fenton there were ten children, namely: William D., attorney-at-law, of Port- land ; Mrs. Amanda Landess, of Yamhill county ; James Edward, an attorney at Nome, Alaska ; Frank W., an attorney at McMinnville, Orc .; J. D., a practicing physician in Portland ; H. L., a merchant at Dallas, Ore .; Charles R., an at- torney, who died at Spokane, Wash., in 1893; Matthew F., who is engaged in dental practice at Portland : Hicks C., a physician of Portland ; and Mrs. Margaret Spencer, also of Portland.

HON. WILLIAM D. FENTON. Within re- cent years, and particularly during the opening years of the twentieth century, William D. Fenton has gradually grown to be recognized, within the ranks of his profession and among the laity, as a man exerting a strong influence upon the cur- rent of public events in the city of Portland, and to no meager extent in the state of Oregon at large. His unquestioned ability as a legal prac- titioner and the hearty interest he has taken in affairs calculated to develop and foster the im- portant material interests of the home of his adoption have brought him prominently before the public, in whom rests an abiding confidence in his manifest capabilities, his public spirit and his integrity of character. Educated in western schools, fortified by an accurate knowledge of the west and its resources, and well-grounded in the principles of the law, he began the practice of his profession with a good foundation of hope for future success. Since 1891 he has been en- gaged in practice in Portland, where, in addition to his general practice (with a specialty of cor- poration law), he now acts as counsel for the Southern Pacific Company in Oregon.

Mr. Fenton was born at Etna, Scotland county, Mo., June 29, 1853. a son of James D. and Mar-

PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD.

garet A. ( Pinkerton) Fenton. (See sketch of James D. Fenton, preceding ). When the family crossed the plains in 1865 he was old enough to be of considerable help to his father, and during much of the journey assisted by driving an ox- team. After settling in Oregon he took a pre- paratory course in McMinnville College, and in 1860 entered Christian College at Monmouth, Ore. ( now the State Normal School), from which he graduated in 1872 with the degree of A. B. For a time thereafter he taught school in his home county. In 1874 he began the study of the law in Salem, and in December of the following year was admitted to the bar before the supreme court of the state. From 1877 to 1885 he practiced in Lafayette as a member of the firm of McCain & Fenton. During his resi- dence in Yamhill county he served one term as a member of the state legislature representing that county. He first located in Portland in 1885, but six months later the death of his father caused him to return to Yamhill county, where he continued to reside four years. In April, 1889, he removed to Seattle, where he was engaged as assistant district attorney for a while. In June, 1800, he returned to Oregon, and the following vear re-located in Portland, where he has since been continuously engaged in the practice of his profession. For some time he was a member of the firm of Bronaugh, McArthur. Fenton & Bro- naugh, one of the strongest law firms of the northwest ; but upon the death of Judge Mc- Arthur and the retirement of the senior Bro- naugh the partnership was dissolved. Besides his interests in Portland he owns a portion of the old homestead.

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Portrait and biographical record of western Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present.., Part 3

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