The centennial history of Oregon, 1811-1912, Part 6

Author: Gaston, Joseph, 1833-
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago, The S.J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 1072

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At the age of eighteen Henry Nice be- gan to learn the shipbuilding trade which he followed for three years, having previously possessed advantages of attendance in the grammar schools of New Brunswick. After becoming well acquainted with his trade he built a boat of his own and entered the fish- ing business in which he continued for a number of years. In 1869 he migrated to the Pacific coast and worked at his trade as shipbuilder in San Francisco for ten months. He then came north to Portland and went down the Columbia river to Oak Point where he associated with Thomas Hog- kins in building a fishing trap. The fish were very plentiful and for six weeks they took out as many as one thousand salmon a day. In 1873 he went to Rainier and was assisted by his cousin, Nehemiah Nice, in building a new sort of fishing trap which proved very successful, as they took out twelve to fifteen hundred salmon a day. The fish were so plentiful that prices were low and they received only a moderate recom- pense for their labor. After spending six years on the Columbia river Mr. Nice, in 1876, went to the Fraser river, in British Columbia, and entered into partnership with Augustus Wright in the management of the King cannery. He sold out at the close of

a year and spent the next two years fishing on the Nass river, in British Columbia. Af- ter a year on Rogue river, Oregon, he was appointed superintendent of jettys at Ya- quina bay, a position which he occupied to the satisfaction of the officials at Washing- ton for six years. In 1888 he took up his residence at Alsea bay where there was at that time a small settlement with a store and a postoffice. Here he built a cannery which he · operated successfully for sixteen years, the business growing from very small dimensions until it yielded a large annual income. He was one of the best informed men in the northwest as to salmon fishing and also as to all matters pertaining to the preparation of fish for the market. While engaged with his cannery he also invested in land, acquiring twenty-five hundred acres around the bay. In 1904 he disposed of his canning interests and retired. He has also sold most of the land but still owns about four hundred acres and is a large holder of real estate at Newport.

In 1892 Mr. Nice was married to Miss Jessie Livingston Alexander, who was born in London, England, and came to America with her parents when she was six years old. They have two children: Jessie L., who is now eighteen years of age and is living at home; and Henrietta, aged nine years. Politically Mr. Nice has voted the republican ticket ever since he became a citizen of the United States. He has never sought public office as his interest has been mainly centered on his business affairs. His religious belief is indicated by membership in the Episcopal church. He has for many years been identified with the Masonic order and is a member of both the York and Scot- ish Rites and also of the Shrine at Portland. He belongs to the Elks lodge at Albany. Having early learned the great lesson of self- reliance and gained confidence in his ability to win an honorable name among his fellow- men, he bravely set forth from the land of his birth and his ambition is now realized. He ranks among the leaders in the section in which he makes his liome.

WEBSTER LOCKWOOD KINCAID, only child of Harrison R. and Augusta A. Kincaid, was born September 16, 1883, in the house built by his father more than fifty years ago on a six acre tract owned by him since 1854, · then at the south end of Olive street, now almost in the center of Eugene.

At the age of nine years this boy, who was passionately fond of outdoor exercise and did not like the routine and confinement of the school room, gained considerable notoriety for extraordinary physical endurance by rid- ing a bicycle from Salem to Wilhoit Springs and return, on one of the warmest days in the summer, at a speed that caused some of the men in the party to become completely exhausted.

At the age of about ten years, while at Newport, Oregon, with his parents, who fre- quently took him to the coast there or to the beach in Washington north of the mouth of the Columbia river, he wrote an account of

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HENRY NICE

THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF OREGON

a "Rough Sea Voyage," which was published in some of the papers and caused much amuse- ment and favorable comments on account of the spelling and the quaint description of sea-sickness of several prominent people whose names were mentioned. A steamer lying in the harbor took a party of excur- sionists out on the ocean to fish. The boy went along and described the peculiar say- ings and doing of the passengers in a style that made Mark Twain's "Innocents Abroad" dull and dreary reading by comparison.

At the age of eleven years in company with his parents he visited San Francisco and other principal cities in California.

When about twelve years old in company with his parents he went on an excursion to the state of Washington and British Col- umbia, and visited Tacoma, Seattle, Port Townsend, Victoria and other places along Puget Sound. He wrote an account of a 'Trip to Victoria," which was published in several newspapers and caused much favor- able comment as being a splendid description of the events and scenes witnessed. He received letters of commendation from dis- tinguished men.

At the age of about thirteen years he accompanied his father while secretary of state when he went to Union in eastern Ore- gon along with Governor Lord and State Treasurer Metschan to select the site for a building on the six hundred and forty acres of land that had been purchased for a branch asylum. The purchase of the land was after- ward declared unconstitutional by the supreme court and the building was not com- menced on the site which they then selected. Under later laws land has been purchased near Pendleton and a branch asylum is being built there.

When about fourteen years old along with his parents he visited Tacoma, Seattle, Spo- kane, Helena, Livingston and Yellowstone National Park. At later dates he has visited the principal cities of California with his parents, and with his father visited the Puget Sound cities and went over the Cana- dian Pacific Railway east about five hundred miles to Banff, the Canadian National Park, passing nearly all the way through the most mountainous country and the wildest scenery on the face of the earth, and returning by rail to the Columbia and then down that river by steam-boat about one hundred miles through Arrow Head lakes to Nelson and thence by rail to Spokane, Walla Walla and Portland. He has traveled much in Oregon, California, Washington, Idaho, Montana and British Columbia and has at various times from early childhood visited many of the mnost interesting places on the Pacific coast, includ- ing the Klamath Falls section of southeastern Oregon.

He is a graduate of the Eugene high school and of the University of Oregon in the class of 1908. Since arriving at the age of man- hood he has been unusually active and promi- ment in business affairs and is regarded by his numerous acquaintances all over the state as one of the brightest and most promising young men in Oregon. He is a valuable assis-

tant and adviser of his father in all his pur- chases and sales of lands and in his plans to attract settlers and develop and increase the prosperity of Oregon to the extent that its climate and natural resources amply justify. In every effort to promote the public good he has taken an active and a leading part. He is a member of the Masonic order of the Thirty-second degree. Not only as the son of a pioneer family who have taken a promi- nent and valuable part in the settlement, up- building and development of the territory and state of Oregon from a wilderness to a splen- did land of gardens, farms, orchards, vil- lages and cities, he is, as a native Oregonian, on account of superior ability and honoroble achievement entitled to special notice in the history of Oregon.

He was married at the residence of his father and mother, 85 East Ninth street, Eugene, Oregon, January 22, 1909, to Miss Dorothy Catherine Hills of Portland. She is a granddaughter of the late Cornelius Hills, one of the earliest and best known of the pioneers of Oregon. He was shipwrecked somewhere on the coast of southwestern Ore- gon, if we are not mistaken in the date, in 1847, and made his way in a famishing con- dition on foot, over logs and through thick underbrush, into the nearest settlement in the upper Willamette valley, which then con- sisted of Eugene Skinned where the city of Eugene now is, Elijah Bristow, and perhaps Felix Scott and Jolin Diamond and one or two others south of Salem. Mr. Hills settled on the north bank of the Willamette river in the mountains a few miles east of Eugene, where he owned a large tract of land, raised a large family and resided until he passed away a few years ago.

To Webster L. Kincaid and wife a son was born, April 5, 1910. He was named for his grandfather Harrison Rettenhouse Kincaid, and is about two years old. A picture with his father, grandfather and great grandfather the latter then almost ninety-five years old and now almost ninety-six, was taken when he was just one year old. On account of his extreme activity and determination to get out of doors and stay out all the time, the boy bids fair to be a true representative of his pioneer ancestors who like the Arabs were at home on the plains, in the valleys, on the mountains or wherever they happened to be, without a house and with or without a tent.

DR. CHARLES A. MACRUM, one of the oldest and best known homeopathic physi- cians of Portland, devoting his attention to general practice, was born in Pittsburg, Penn- sylvania, December 28, 1861. He is the eld- est of six children, all of whom are living, whose parents are I. A. and Westana (Grubbs) Macrum. The father, a native of Pennsylvania, came to Portland in 1871, spending three years in Oregon City, after which he located in Portland in 1874. He practiced his profession for about ten years as a member of the firm of Johnson, McCown & Macrum, one of the most prominent law

THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF OREGON

firms of the city in its day. Then with others he organized the Merchants National Bank, of which he was the manager for ten years. He afterward resigned to become railroad commissioner, filling the office for six years. His death occurred in 1902, when he was sixty years of age. He was one of the best known men of the state, prominent and active in the development of Oregon, advanc- ing many ideas the practical worth of which was proven in their adoption and utilization. His wife, who is still living in Portland at the age of sixty-nine years, was a daughter of William Grubbs, who came to this state from Pennsylvania in 1870.

Dr. Macrum was a lad of about ten years when the family arrived in Portland, and in the pursuit of his education he completed the high-school course with the class of 1879, when seventeen years of age. Five years later he took up the study of medicine and was graduated from the University of Michi- gan in 1889 with the M. D. degree. Return- ing to Portland, he has since followed his pro- fession in this city as a general practitioner and is one of the oldest and best known homeopathic physicians here. He has always made his professional duties his first consid- eration, being most thorough and conscien- tious in the performance of the work that devolves upon him in this connection.

Dr. Macrum belongs to the Oregon State Homeopathic Society. the American Institute of Homeopathy, the Oregon State Medical As- sociation, the Multnomah County Medical Society, the Portland Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He is identified with the building of the new hos- . pital now nearing completion and is well known in other professional connections. He has been assistant surgeon and surgeon of the First Regiment of the Oregon National Guard for about five years, having previously been a private of Company K for two years.

Dr. Macrum, moreover, is a prominent rep- resentative of what is developing into one of the most important lines of business of the state-the production of apples. He has one of the largest apple orchards in the Mosier district of the Hood River valley, owning an extensive farm adjoining the town of Mosier, and is a life member of the Oregon State Horticultural Society. He also belongs to the Mosier Fruit Growers Association, has taken a keen interest in horticulture for many years and has been active in the ad- vancement of horticultural interests in this state, being one of the first to adopt and pro- mote modern ideas in fruit-raising.

Dr. Macrum married Miss Stella D. Dorris, a daughter of George B. Dorris, a pioneer lawyer of Eugene, Oregon, and for the past sixteen years they have resided at the Port- land Hotel. Dr. Macrum is well known in Masonic circles as a member of Willamette Lodge and of the Scottishi Rite and his reli- gious faith is evidenced by his membership in the First Congregational church. Prominent as is his position, it is but the merited ont- come of his ability and skill resulting from close investigation and research and from reading and the correet application of his

knowledge to the needs of those who come under his professional care. His courtesy, his engaging personality and his genuine worth assure him social prestige and Port- land's most prominent citizens are glad to call him friend.

WALTER FRAZAR BURRELL has been recognized throughout the years of his man- hood as a stalwart and enthusiastic supporter of every movement and project instituted for the benefit and upbuilding of the city of Portland. His business associations have brought him into active connection with its wholesale and manufacturing trade and at the same time he has been a factor in the agricultural progress of the states of Oregon, Washington a and Idaho. His judgment is sound, his discrimination keen and pene- trating. He seems to see from the eircum- ference to the very center of things and so coordinates forces that unified and harmonious results are achieved and the utmost possible for the attainment of success seems to have been reached. His days have been unmarked by events of special importance, save such as come to those reared on the western fron- tier, in a district where a spirit of enterprise is rife and where nothing seems to deter successful accomplishment.

His father, Martin S. Burrell, was a man of conspicuous business ability, who came to Portland in the year 1855, and it was in this city that Walter F. Burrell. entered upon life's journey on the 13th of February, 1863. His education was acquired in the schools of Portland and Oberlin and when his school days were over he entered the business house of Knapp, Burrell & Company, of which his father was the head and applied himself to mastering the details of a business that in- cluded the handling of vehicles, agricultural implements and sawmill machinery, and was the largest of its kind in the northwest.

The trade grew to very extensive propor- tions, but the father's interest in the busi- ness was sold immediately after his death in 1885. and Walter F. Burrell, who was then but twenty-two years of age, took charge of the management and development of the other properties that were features of his father's estate and included large tracts of untilled land in Whitman county, Washington, all of which the son brought under cultivation in the production of splendid crops. While he has given much attention to raising wheat and other crops of grain, Mr. Burrell has also engaged in the extensive growing of apples and pears. not only in Oregon but also in the states of Washington and Idaho.

In 1895 Mr. Burrell was married to Miss Constance Montgomery, a daughter of James B. Montgomery. a prominent citizen of Port- land. and they are now the parents of five children: Alden Frazar. Louise. Douglas Montgomery, Robert Montgomery and Vir- ginia. Mr. Burrell is a republican in his political belief. He belongs to the Arlington. Commercial and Multnomah Clubs, and served under Mayor H. S. Rowe on the board of public works of the city of Portland, but has had no ambition for office. preferring to de-

THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF OREGON

vote his efforts to furthering the interests of Portland through its commercial bodies, and also to managing the extensive business interests belonging to himself and associates, in the control of which he displays marked ability and energy, regarding no detail as too unimportant to receive his attention and at the same time controlling the larger factors in his interests with notable assurance and power.

HON. JOSEPH SIMON. With post-gradu- ate experience in the school of politics, manifesting at all times a statesman's grasp of vital questions and issues of the day. Hon. Joseph Simon has so conducted the political interests entrusted to him that while his course has awakened the opposition of those who hold radically different political views, his work on the whole has accomplished tangible and beneficial results that receive wide commendation throughout the state.

Mr. Simon was born February 7, 1851, and was quite a small boy when he was brought to Portland, Oregon, by his father in 1857. The city schools afforded him his educational privileges, and in his twentieth year he be- came a law student in the office of John H. Mitchell and Joseph N. Dolph both of whom were subsequently elected United States senators for Oregon. For two years he closely applied himself to the mastery of Kent, Blackstone and other commentaries, and was then admitted to practice in the courts of the state. Appreciation of his personal worth and recognition of his developing ability, were manifest when J. N. Dolph, one of his former preceptors, invited him to become a member of the law firm lie formed February 1, 1873. Accepting such invitation, he en- tered actively upon the practice of law and is still associated with the firm then formed, and with C. A. Dolph, who entered the firm at the same time Mr. Simon did and who has since become the senior partner of the firm which is styled Dolph, Mallory, Simon & Gearin. 'As a lawyer Mr. Simon has ever been careful and systematic in the prepara- tion of his cases, reviewing all the evidences bearing upon the cause and correctly apply- ing the principles of law to the points in litigation. He is today widely recognized as one of Portland's able lawyers and is as well one of the foremost republican lead- ers of the state.

Interested from early manhood in the po- litical questions and issues which have en- gaged the attention of the country, Mr. Si- mon was first called to office when elected a member of the city council in 1877. He filled that position until 1880, in which year higher political honors were conferred upon him in his election to the state senate. He was continued a member of the upper house of the general assembly for twelve years by reason of two successive reelections, and when the legislature convened in January, 1889, he was chosen president of the senate and in 1891 was again elected as its presid- ing officer. He retired in 1892, but in 1894 was again elected to represent Multnomah county in the state senate for another four

years' term and when the legislature con- vened on the 14th of January, 1895, he was once more elected president of the senate and again in 1897. At the June election in 1898, Mr. Simon was elected state senator from Multnomah county for the fifth time-1898 until 1902. On the 26th of September, 1898, the governor convened the general assembly in special session, and Mr. Simon again was honored by election to the presidency of the Oregon senate. His service as state senator embraced five elections, each for a four years' term, and during that period, he was five times elected president of the senate. His record is that of one of the most fair and impartial presiding officers that has ever conducted the affairs of the upper house, and he enjoyed in fullest measure the esteem and personal regard of his politcal oppo- nents as well as his political adherents. It was during the special session on the 8th of October, 1898, that Mr. Simon was chosen United States senator for a term of six years, beginning March 4, 1897, the legis- lature of 1897 having failed to elect a senator, and the state having been without one senator for over a year. At the joint ses- sion at which he was elected, he received the unanimous support of the sixty-six re- publican members of his party.

To few men is political leadership so long accorded as to Hon. Joseph Simon. To oc- cupy high office for any length of time is to invite attack and criticism of those hold- ing opposing views, and yet through the course of his public service Mr. Simon has hield to the policy which he has marked out -a policy dictated by his judgment, his pub- lic spirit and his patriotism. His aid is rec- ognized as a tangible and effective force in promoting republican successes. He was chairman of the republican state central com- mittee during the biennial campaign of 1880, 1884, 1886, and in 1892 was chosen a delegate to the republican national conven- tion held at Minneapolis in June of that year, on which occasion he gave his support to William McKinley instead of to Benjamin Harrison, who ultimately received the nomi- nation. He was also a delegate to the re- publican national convention at Philadel- phia in 1902. During the five sessions of the Oregon legislature of which he was pres- ident of the senate he in numerous ways dis- tinguished himself for dispatch of business and ability to preserve order and untangle difficult questions of parliamentary dispute.

Mr. Simon is one of the best known rep- resentatives of Masonry in Oregon. He is past master of his lodge and past high priest of his chapter, and he has attained to the highest rank, the thirty-third degree of the A. & A. S. R. (honorary). He has come to be known as a man loyal to any terms made or to his pledged word, and in manner is ever courteous and obliging, recognizing his obligations to others and meeting them in full measure. He has also served one term as mayor of Portland, a fact which indi- cates his popularity and the confidence re- posed in him in his home city, where he is best known. He gave to Portland a public- spirited and businesslike administration,

THE CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF OREGON

marked by needed reforms and improvements, progressiveness and conservatism being well balanced forces in his direction of municipal affairs.

WILLIAM ADDISON HOWE, who has re- sided in Oregon and Yamhill county for al- most three decades, is one of the leading and most prominent citizens of Carlton, owning and conducting the largest general mercan- tile establishment in the town. He is like- wise the president of the Carlton State & Savings Bank and the chief executive offi- cer of the Valley Real Estate Company of Carlton and has extensive property holdings. His birth occurred in Longwood, Massachus- etts, on the 10th of October, 1859, his par- ents being S. H. and Lucinda (Savage) Howe, both of English ancestry. They are now de- ceased, passing away in the old Bay state. The great-grandparents of our subject were natives of England and emigrated to Amer- ica during the period of the Revolutionary war.

William Addison Howe obtained his edu- cation in the schools of his native state and is a graduate of Harvard University. In 1882 he removed to New York and was there engaged in business for one year. On the expiration of that period he made his way to Oregon and has remained a resident of Yamhill county continuously since. Pur- chasing a tract of land, he devoted his at- tention to general agricultural pursuits for eight years and then disposed of his prop- erty and erected the largest general mer- cantile store in Carlton, which he has since conducted with excellent success. He is also a prominent factor in financial circles as the president of the Carlton State & Sav- ings Bank, being one of the incorporators of that institution in 1910. Prior to the organization of that bank he had established and conducted a private banking concern. Mr. Howe likewise incorporated and is now the president of the Valley Real Estate Com- pany of Carlton, Oregon, which has exten- sive holdings in Carlton and vicinity. He also owns two farms in Yamhill county, em- bracing three hundred and fifty acres each, both tracts being well improved and under a high state of cultivation. His landed hold- ings likewise include various pieces of city property at Dawson, Yukon territory. Two years ago he sold the large sawmill which he had incorporated and operated and which still has a daily capacity of three hundred thousand feet, its operations extending over a radius of many miles. His connection with any undertaking insures a prosperous out- come of the same, for it is in his nature to carry forward to successful completion whatever he is associated with. He has earned for himself an enviable reputation as a careful man of business and in his deal- ings is known for his prompt and honorable methods, which have won him the deserved and unbounded confidence of his fellowmen.

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The centennial history of Oregon, 1811-1912, Part 6

Author: Gaston, Joseph, 1833- Publication date: 1912 Publisher: Chicago, The S.J. Clarke publishing company Number of Pages: 1072

Author: Gaston, Joseph, 1833-
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago, The S.J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 1072