USA > Oregon > The Oregon native son, 1900-1901 > Part 47
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Heil Barnes was the pioneer tin-smith, A. B. Hallock the earliest architect ; N. C. Sturtevant, the first brick maker : Thomas J. Holmes, the first barber : Wm. Collins, the first gun store : Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Mosier, the first milli- nery establishment, A. C. Bonnell dealt in real estate, among other business, but Parrish & Holman were the first to deal exclusively in realty, and for some time the only ones. Mr. Parrish is still en- gaged in the same avocation. C. H. Myers was the first plumber, and his opening out in business would have caused a run on the banks if it had not been found out that he had used up all the materials in the city on his initial job, stock of that character being very limit- ed. Cottle & Co. ran the first soda water works, not only in the city, but north of San Francisco.
S. J. McCormick published the sole almanac ever published by a Portland man. Geo. W. Bell, after severing his connection with Pettygrove & Co., ope- rated a bakery, the pioneer one. C. A. Reed was the first sign painter. Joseph A. and Justus M. Strowbridge were the first to ship fruits to the California mar- ket-an industry throughout the state which they encouraged among the farm -. ers more than all the balance of the busi- ness men therein put together.
Pillow & Drew were the first jewel- erds, and Geo. W. Snell the pioneer retail and wholesale druggist. The first
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wali and door factory was owned by J. (. Carson. and Davis & Monastes were the proprietors of the first iron foundry . rrated in the state. Dekum & Bickel had the first candy store. D. H. Hendee was the first artist, making daguerro- :pes. photography not being discov- cred until a later date. Pioneer Engine Company was the first fire company, Thos. J. Dryer being its first foreman. St. Vincent's hospital was the first hos- pital not only in the city, but in the state as well. The first patient admitted there- to being an injured Chinaman. Adams & Co. was the first express company to have an office in the city. They estab- lished an office here about 1852, and went out of business upon the failure of their bank in San Francisco, February 23, 1855. This company operated on the ocean steamers. The next to enter the field was Wells, Fargo & Co., in 1853, operating overland. The first undertak- ers were Ewry & Belsford. The latter went to his grave without coffin or cere- monial. as he became demented while enroute to San Francisco on an ocean steamer, jumped overboard and was drowned.
The first cemetery was located near where the Masonic temple now stands.
Ross Island was first called Mccrary's Island, and so called because a man by that name used to run a still there, manu- facturing what was given the name of "Blue Ruin." Stories are told of a Madam Cooper having a stock of this stuff on a scow off shore which Dr. Eli- jah White tried to suppress, but backed out when she protested "in the name of Great Britain. Scotland. and Ireland." This island still keeps up its early reputa- tion. The first to dispense "wet goods" on shore, was a man by the name of St. Clair, and frequent were the carousals held there at times. The first "free lunch" set out was for the patrons of the "Hole in the Wall" saloon. Febru- ary, 1852. Hiram Wilbur was the first city marshal. Up to 1856 such officer was the only "copper." In that vear J. H. Lappeus became chief of police. The first "neck-tie" party occurred October 17. 1859. Danforth Balch was at one
end of the rope. The first society organ- ized was the Masons, and the next the Sons of Temperance. The first social club was called the "Dashaway." Dur- ing its life, Col. Joe Meek was invited to deliver a temperance lecture before its membership. He accepted, and the wind- ing up of his peroration was: "If I had my way with the accursed stuff, I would get it all together and sink it to the bot- tom of the Willammette, and then dive down and take one last long drink."
Among the Smith family, who were known to the inhabitants, were "Red Shirt," "Carving Fork," "Three Fing- ered," "Muck-a-Muck," "Chick-a-min," "God-All-Mighty," "Blubber Mouth," "No. 1," "Whistling Charley," etc. It was by no menas a sign of contempt that these soubriquets were bestowed, but rather as a mark of good fellowship, and is illustrative of how the early settlers enlivened their intercourse by broad humor.
The first time that the U. S. troops stationed at Vancouver participated in a fourth of July celebration in Portland was in 1863. They were under the com- mand of Brig. Gen'l Alvord. Capt. J. H. Couch built the first wharf and Joe Holliday's "Bob tailed" street car line was the first operated in the Pacific Northwest. The first harvesting ma- chinery arrived in 1852, such being a McCormick reaper. The first circus was billed as "Cooper & Rivers' Great New York Circus." It was here in 1852. and it is a matter of doubt whether any of the "equestriennes" and "renowned trapese performers" ever saw the Em- pire state. The ring was located near Fourth and Morrison.
Religious meeting were held almost from the beginning. the Methodist being the advance guard; Revs. J. S. Smith and Clinton Kelly coming in from their homes at stated times to hold worship in a log built coopershop, which was the most commodious building for the purpose, and then in a frame structure erected in 1849 by Col. William King for church and school purposes. This building was situated on the west side of First street, one door from Oak. On it
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hung a bell, the gift of Rev. J. H. Wil- bur, the first church or school bell in the city. It now hangs in the steeple of the Taylor Street Methodist Church and rings out as clear as it did when it first called church-goers to worship. Iņ time societies began to be formed and churches built. To the Portland circuit the Methodist denomination appointed Rev. J. H. Wilbur. At the time of his appointment he had no church, in fact there was none in Portland. Being a man of physical force and power he was not only capable of filling his duties as pastor but performed manual labor as well. The great firs standing upon the lot he had secured for a church site soon fell before his axe, and the walls of the edifice he had determined to build were not long in being enclosed through. the plying of his hammer and saw, and all grew white and beautiful under the sweep of his brush. Tireless, good and true, seldom does earth know his kind. Poverty was fed at his table. Weariness rested on his couch. Sickness was cured by his medicine, and consolation given in tender manner when hours of despair weighed down by weight of woe those who came within his reach. This was the old Taylor Street church, the first built in Portland. It was torn down several years since and replaced with a fine brick structure. Rev. Wm. Roberts preached the fist sermon delivered there- in. Father Wilbur also built the old Portland Academy and Female Semi- nary, of which extended mention is made in the November number of this maga- zine. In this institution the greater por- tion of the pioneer youth of the city were educated.
Rev. Horace Lyman also came here about the same time, coming almost di- rect from palatial surroundings in the east. On his arrival in the city he found that the only permanent accommodations accessable for family purposes was a building erected to serve as a stable. Into this he moved and the winter was spent in teaching and preaching. and making ready for a church organization and church building. He was exceedingly ac- tive in religious, educational, benevolent,
and temperance endeavor, and soon be- came known all over the state as a leader in these worthy causes. He cleared with his own hands the ground ccupied by the First Congregational church, at Second and Jefferson streets, and was the first pastor of the church thereon erected.
It is an enviable honor to have an edu- cational institution named after one, es- pecially so when the seat of learning con- stitutes a portion of the great common school system of Portland. One of the best buildings of the city bears the name of the Atkinson school, and so called in appreciation of the labors, for the better education of our youth, put forth by Rev Geo. H. Atkinson, one of the earlier pio- neers to Oregon. He came in 1848, and was among the first to agitate the sub- ject of free schools, after the establish- ment of the territorial government, bringing with him a supply of school books of the latest and best authors. He was a Congregational minister and his first sermons were delivered in a log shingle shop and in an old warehouse, the congregation crowding in among the bales and boxes of goods of the lat- ter to listen to him. The public school interests are not only indebted to his untiring efforts for their good, but the religious endeavor as well.
Navigation lines began to make Port- land a terminal early in its history, and occupied a very commanding place in its upbuilding. Its rise from mediocracy to immense proportions cannot be given here, the first things only can be men- tioned.
The first transportation line estab- lished between Portland and Astoria was a row boat affair, assisted by a leg-of- mutton sail when the wind was in the right direction. The fare was twenty dollars, and the passengers "found" them- selves and also helped to pull the boat. This was run by Capt. B. C. Kindred. He made landings here from 1849 to 1850, when the steamers drove him out of business. The first line to the Cas- cades was a sailing vessel line estab- lished by F. A. Chenoweth. He ran the old brig Henry that came here from the
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east in 1846. In 1845 Capt. Nathaniel Crosby ran the Tulon between Portland and the Sandwich Islands, carrying as cargo, lumber, hoop-poles, etc. The Tulon was also the first sailing vsssel to dis- charge a cargo at Portland. In 1850 Capt. J. C. Flanders, for the firm of Couch & Flanders, took a cargo of flour, salmon and other products of the country to China in the bark Emma Preston, bringing back the first cargo of tea, cof- fee, sugar, etc., coming to the city.
The first river steamer to tie up at the river's bank below was the Columbia, a historical craft from the fact that she was the first river steamer built of native woods in the Pacific Northwest. She was oddly constructed, being a double- ender like a ferry boat. She was launch- ed at Astoria in 1850, and ran between that city, Portland, and Oregon City, for about two years, when she was dis- mantled, her machinery placed in another boat, and her hull left to go out with the tide and lose itself among the sea shore sands. Among those owning an interest in this steamer was Leonard & Green, then merchandising at Astoria, but sub- sequently the proprietors of the Port- land water works, at that time owned by private individuals. The water supply in those days coming from some springs in the rear of the city. These same gent- lemen were also largely interested in the establishment of our first and only gas plant in the city, erected in 1869.
The city was first connected with the outer world in 1851, by steam, through the Gold Hunter, bought by Chapman, Coffin, and Lownsdale, individual resi- dents of the city, and a few San Fran- cisco stock holders, to run in opposition to the Pacific Mail Ssteamship Colum- bia running to St. Hellens. The Gold Hunter ran but a few trips and was sold while in California waters through the treachery of the holders of stock living in the Bay City. The first vessel to bring its guns into the harbor was the U. S. man-of-war Mas- sachusetts, arriving in 1856. Since that date, hundreds of vessels of nearly all descriptions have been built at the ship yards located within the city limits.
The first malitia company organized in the state, was organized at Portland, and was known as the "Union Guards." The following were the officers: Cap- tain, Henry W. Corbett; First Lieuten- ant, E. G. Randall; Second Lieutenant, Thos. A. Davis; Second Lieutenant, Jr., Simeon G. Reed ; First Sergeant, Theo. B. Trevett; Second Sergeant, Henry Failing; Third Sergeant, W. B. Gilbert ; Fourth Sergeant, W. V. Spencer ; Corpo- rals : S. J. McCormick, D. F. Harrington, H. D. Sanborn, and Marsh B. Millard, all of whom were very tall.
The company was organized in 1861, and, unlike the present, guns were se- cured direct from the government. How this was affected, was kept a secret, as the proceedings were liable to bring about trouble to the officers having a part in the transaction. Joseph N. Al- lison, first sergeant, Co. K., Ninth U. S. infantry, was the instructor of the com- pany. One day while he was absent, an officer of the company concluded to take the members out for a drill. All went well as long as the line of marchi was ahead, but on trying to put them through some of the maneuvers known to military tactics, he ran the company into the fence, and was unable to give the commands necessary to get them away from it.
The names of newer business houses and that of professional men are legion and cannot be given within the space to which this article is confined. Among the firms of long standing are, the great department stores of Olds & King and Meier & Frank, the wholesale drug house of the Blaumauer, Frank Drug Co., suc- cessors of all the early dealers in that "fine, the jewelry firm of Henrichsen & Co., Woodard Clarke & Co., so well- known as retail and jobbing druggists, the retail drug firm of Skidmore & Co., established by S. G. Skidmore, the gener- ous giver of a handsome fountain to the city upon his death ; Otto Schuman, the marble cutter: Gill & Co., booksell- ers; the Perkins, Imperial and St. Charles hotels : Holman, the undertaker ; and many other enterprises too numer- ous to mention. F. H. SAYLOR.
A TOUR OF THE WORLD.
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JOHN J. VALENTINE, PRESIDENT OF WELLS-FARGO & CO., WRITES HIS FRIEND, AARON STEIN, OF SAN FRANCISCO, AN ACCOUNT OF HIS TRAVELS.
( Published by Special Permission of Mr. Valentine.)
MUNICH, Bavaria, Jan. 17, 1900. Dear Uncle Aaron :
The last budget assumed such volum- inous proportions that the cities of Mag- deburg and Altona and some general remarks upon Hamburg were consider- ately ommitted; and I am now embar- rassed by an excess of topics. As an expressman would say, I am over on matter and short on time : so will have to give a very rambling and disjointed let- ter.
Altona is in Schleswig-Holstein, situ- ated on the right bank of the Elb, in close proximity to Hamburg and accessible to ocean traffic ; hence is a place of consider- able business. Magdeburg is the old forti- fied town ( fortress ) on an island in the river Elbe, about two hundred mile south of Hamburg and seventy-six miles from Berlin. The Cathedral and Lieben Frauen Kirche were founded probably eight hundred years ago, but the present importance of the city. which has about 225,000 population. is the beet sugar in- dustry. It is the center of that important trade. Its strategic situation and the strenght of its fortifications have involv- ed it in almost every struggle for power in Germany, perhaps the most notable in- stance that of its being stormed by Tilley, in 1631, and given up to fire and mas- sacre. Napoleon esteemed its possession so highly that he stood out against the tearful appeals of Queen Louise of Prus- sia to omit it from the general capitula- tion in 1806.
HANOVER.
Next in my line of traevl after leaving Hamburg and journeying through a Hat country some eighty miles was Han-
over, another city of over 200,000 people. and of too many features of really sur- passing interest to be dealt with now. I will merely mention here "Herrenh- ausen," the castle and favorite residence of the Hanoverian electors and kings- the gardens of which are laid out in the style of Versailles and interspersed with many statutes, etc.
GOTTINGEN.
The next point reached was Gottingen. sixty miles south of Hanover, in a hilly broken section, a small city of say 25,000 and chiefly notable for its university. Speaking of universities, reminds me that public schools have had slight considera- tion in these papers. They exist here as a thoroughly regulated system, and are as well housed and in every way as ad- mirably equipped as in any country in the world. Education is compulsory and universal up to fourteen years of age. Nor should I fail to state that in all Ger- man cities there are orphan asylums, homes for old people, and both regular and emergency hospitals, etc.,-these humane institutions being as much a part of a city as a hotel. Parks and recreation grounds, also, are just as general. Every city has a number of little open plaes or plazas, both useful and ornamental, and a large park-one or more-in due pro- portion to the population. I have yet to observe a single exception.
FRANKFORT.
My next step was at Frankfort on the Main, also a city of about 200,000 pop- ulation, located on the flats adjoining the river Main, some twenty miles from the city of Mamze ( or Mentz) on the Rhine. At Frankfort I visited the Goetli resi-
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dence, the "Roemer" or old Rathshouse, wcupying the site of an ancient Roman prost Goeth was born here August 28, 1749. A main hall in this building, called the Kaiser's hall, contains portraits of fifty-two German emperors. Said I to the delineator, a German woman, "From what date were these portraits painted ?" She immediately replied "Tombstones and Imagination." The cathedral was next visited, the corner- stone of which is alleged to have been laid by Charlemagne -- a most interest- ing Gothic structure with a fine tower, begun in 1415, and an inconsequent spire. .On a corner only a few yards distant from this building is what is known as "Luther's House," a quaint structure, four stories high, only twelve feet wide and forty-five feet long, each story pro- jecting about one foot over the one below it, the top story being probably on a line with the curbstone of the sidewalk. It is said that Luther delivered an address to the people here when on his way to face the council assembled at Worms to try him for heresy. I crossed the river Main on the Charlemagne bridge to Sachsenhausen-the south, or German side of Frankfort; the north or chief city side having in years agone been deemed a French city. I also went through Jew Street (Judengasse), the synagogue, the house of the original banker Rothschild, the Staedel Institute, named after its founder. and Museum, etc. A word about this institution. The founder, a rich banker of Frankfort. devised for it $1.000,000, leaving but $1.20 to his kinfolk. They contested. The case went to court, and after seventeen years of lit- igation, the city, the legatee under the will, won. The original bequest had doubled meanwhlie, and out of this fund a fine museum has been constructed. The gem of its collection of paintings is Rembrandt's "Parable of the Vineyard Laborers."
One of the finest things in art to be seen in Frankfort is in the Bethman col- lection (private property ) the mag- nificent piece of marble statuary known the world over as "Ariadne and the Pan- "ther, ' by Dannecker, of Stuttgart. I
know of nothing superior in contour and workmanship to the figure of Ariadne. The Palm Garden ( a hot house collection of plants), while limited, is especially good-particularly in camellias-and the Grand opera house is one of the finest extant It is favorably situated, in an open oblong plaza some six hundred by eight hundred feet in area ; the opera house itslelf about a hundred and sixty by three hundred feet, and well propor- tioned and designed in every respect.
NUREMBURG.
From Frankfort, a ride of five hours brought us to Nuremiburrg, a city of 200,000 population situated on the river Pegnitz which flows right through it, as is usual for rivers in these European cities to do. I found this the most char- acteristicallly Gothic city yet visited. Like others of its kind its origin is ob- scure, and it remains in many ways a relic of the misty past, certainly of medi- aeval times. Its "ramparts" ( fortification walls ) are ovre four miles around and probably the finest to be met with any- where, though the inner citadel wall sur- rounding the castle, etc., are not so mas- sive as those surrounding Osaca. Japan. The town reached its highest point of comparative importance in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, flourishing in the full vigor mediaeval or renassance science and art: and at this period, the latter part of the fifteenth and early part of the sixteenthi centuries, it became prac- tically one of the credit centers, or finan- cial clearing houses of Europe-Genoa. Florence and Venice having respectively preceded it, in the thirteenth and four- teenth centuries. Next after Nuremburg Antwerp became the credit center : but it was broken down by and during the war with Philip of Spain, and thence the credit center moved to London, where it- has since remained. Moreover the taking of Constantinople by the Mos- lems in 1453 set the Portugese and Gen- oese to thinking. as a result of which the Portugese rounded the cape of Good Hope and Columbus struck out due west from the coast of Spain and discovered America, changing the map of the world.
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and inaugurating new routes of com- merce.
But returning to Nuremburg, it was here and during this period-the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries-that such men as Martin Behaim, who made the first globe, Adam Krafft, the famous stone shrine artist, Veit Stoss, the wood carver, Hans Sachs, the poet cobbler, who is an important character in Wagner's Meis- tersinger, Albrecht Durer, the painter, and his master, Wolgemuth; Peter and Herman Vischer, bronze founders, and other artists lived ; and to this group of notables might be added Peter Gleonlein, the first watchmaker. The famous Nuremburg Madonna is a wooden figure carved by Veit Stoss.
In 1632 Gustavus Adolphus entered Nuremburg while Wallenstein was camped near Furth, practically speaking a suburb founded by Jews who were ex- . pelled from the city, though numbering now 60,000 inhabitants. Gustavus made an ineffectual effort to dislodge Wal- lenstein's forces, but subsequently both leaders vacated their quarters and with- drew from that locality. Commerce had previously been ruired, and Antwerp had already taken precedence of Nuremburg as the credit center.
There are good statutes in Nurem- burg to immortalize Behaim, Durer, Hans Sachs, and others : but probably the most interesting feature of the city after the curiosities of the castle. is the church of St. Lawrence, a work of the fifteenth century, in Gothic style, or remarkable excellence, including a particular stained glass window which, for richness of col- oring. I have never seen equaled. The church of St. Sebald is another structure of notable interest and indicates the transition from Romanesque into Gothic style. It is decorated with numerous pieces of curious and interesting sculpt- ure. In this church is the tomb of St. Sebald. by Peter Vischer, which is an especially beautiful example of cathedral work. The Bride's Door is also very handsome; and the parsonage has a curiously wrought or sculptured bow- window. In this church, as well as in that of St. Lawrence, appear the master-
ful handiwork of the artist Krafft. There are various churches and otlier prominent public buildings-not for- getting the new museum of Bavarian Arts and Industries-wmich, for the tourist with time and favorable condi- tions for leisurely inspection are desery- ing of close attention, but with freezing cold weather, such as we encountered- the coldest in fact since leaving Prague sight-seeing shrank into "strictly busi- ness," and was not indulged in as a fond diversion
Among the other notable buildings accessible to the tourist may be mentioned the Nassau House, the so-called "Fount- ain of Virtue," what is termed "Our Lady's Gate," in the castle or fortress wall; and particularly "La Belle Fon- taine," or the beautiful fountain, a struct- ure near St. Sebald's Church in the form of a Gothic spire, which in truth is an ex- quisite piece of cathedral-like work. This and certain examples in the churches of St. Lawrence and St. Sebald remind one of the dictum that architecture is frozen poetry. n a sort of "Platz" or little open square, is "The Gansemann- chen" (The Gooseman-or, literally. the goose-like little man) a bronze figure of the contemptible biped standing in the center of a circular concave-the whole surrounded by beautiful wrought-iron grill work or railing. Another of the fine buildings is the Pellar House, erect- ed by a Venetianthree hundred yearsago. The exterior of this is striking but the interior is a veritable junk shop and warehouse for second hand furniture. old shrines, apostles' statutes, etc. I
saw two effigies of "Our Lord" standing up against the side wall, one of them still wearing a cown of thorns. Next to the Pellar House is that occupid by Gus- tavus Adolphus, as his headquarters. There are also to be seen the houses of Albrecht Durer and Hans Sachs, in ex- cellent state of preservation. I lunched on sausage and beer, in the very resort. the "Sausage Bell," frequented by these notables four hundred years ago.
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