to hold that trade to this city. In later years, he organized the Vancouver Transportation Company, and put on the steamers Lurline and Undine. His work in building up the city is incalculable. Mr. Kamm was born in Switzerland, in 1823, and is yet a citizen of Portland, with all his faculties unimpaired a the age of 87 He learned the steamboat business from engineer's assistant uj^ to owner o[' ocean steamships; commencing at the engine room »" ^J^l'^^'^ PP Smboat-another splendid example of what a poor boy can do with patient
""■■Lnry wTorbTtt'To^n in Westborough, Mass., in 1827, commenced at the
S?i?drhe-briht— rct^^So^^^^^^^^^^
2%U«=rd'ruXn1sS a'iW'aT ^^00^. ^TJ^ ^0". s? eets payh.T$i^ ^ent for it. He worked hard bemg proprietor, clerk
fa mkn 'an! bookkeeper, all in one, and at the -d of fourteen months had sold out his whole stock, cleared $20,000, and started back to New York to get
'"t:;emTned'in n"w ^^^^^^^^^ one year, but continued to ship goods to Portland for sale He ?hen determined to make Portland his home, and returned m 1853, with a laro^r stock of general merchandise, and in i860 converted his store into rnexclusrve hardware business, and in 1871, consolidated with Henry Fading, ?orm^ng the f^rm of Corbett, Failing & Company, making it the largest hardware estawTshment on the Pacific coast. Mr. Corbett's activities m business life have Teen morTextensive and varied than that of any other citizen of Portland which wTth Ws service in the United States senate, has made him one of the most useful. if not the most conspicuous, citizen of the state of Ojegom
William S Ladd reached Portland about a year after Mr. Corbett tie, too came to m^ke his fortune in selling merchandise. He had but_ little to bring with WandTad noTthegood fortune'that favored Corbett ^^.f "-f/.^-^^^f.^.tcT credit On his way here he fell in with Charles K. Tilton at San Francisco, whe e TiuSn was selling goods on consignment, and endeavored to induce Ti ton, who was an old schoolmate, to come up to Portland with ^^^ ^"^ start a sto e Tilton d'd not agree to the proposition, and without going to the gold mines, Mr Ladd came to Portland with a mere handful of goods, and made his way as bes he could The first lift Ladd got was in selling out a cargo of goods brought here bv a man named W. D. Gookin, who, however, never became a citizen of Poitland Gooldn had known Ladd's father, and so he trusted the young mam Tn this transact on Ladd cleared his first thousand dollars, and to a man of his 1^ Litf niish enterprise and persistence in business, a thousand dollars Ls^edS 'success He' c^^^^^^^^^ business, either with Gookin or starting
a new store under the name of Ladd, Reed & Co., until he engaged in banking with the aforesaid C. E. Tilton; and by pushing and pulling all the advantages The ont bank possessed, and getting hold of large tracts of land at nominal prices,
'^ '^^U\^:t "ical trfhant in all comparisons, among men who have touLed the business oT merchandising in the city of Portl-d^ He - tl^ only man among the many distinguished business men that Portland has de veloped that has been "the merchant" from first to last. Mr. Corbett bailing Ladd A nsworth, and others might be named who commenced as merchants, but switched off into some other pursuit, before ending their career. Mr Lewis, commenced his career as a merchant in 1851, and remained steadfas m he harness until death called him, January 5. 1897. He founded and built up the ereTwholeale grocery house of Allen & Lewis, until now its patrons cover the who e country from Ashland, Oregon, up to the farthest limits of A aska. Many r distressed country retail man he has helped along for years until farms and
