Discovery of mines in Idaho and eastern Oregon greatly stimulated navigation on the Willamette and Columbia, and as many as twenty steamers were plying in 1862 on these rivers. In that year the population, as determined by the city directory, rose to four thousand and fifty-seven. Of these, seven hundred are reckoned as transient, fifty-two colored, and fifty-three Chinese. The Oregonian of that year remarked that the increase in wealth and population had been of the most substantial character. "Eighteen months ago," it said, "any number of houses could be obtained for use, but today scarcely a shell can be found to shelter a family. Rents are up to an exhorbitant figure, many houses contain two or more families, and the hotels and boarding houses are crowded almost to overflowing. The town is full of people and more are coming in. Buildings are going up in all parts of Portland, streets graded and planked, wharves stretching their proportions along the levees, and a general thrift and busy hum greet the ear or attract the attention of a stranger upon every street and corner." "Substantial school houses,) capacious churches, wharves, mills, manufactories and workshops, together with brick buildings, stores and dwelling houses and street improvements," are referred to in the city directory. As for occupations, the following list is given: Three apothecaries, four auctioneers, three brewers, two bankers, six billiard rooms, two confectioners, five dentists, twelve restaurants, fourteen hotels, twenty-two lawyers, five livery stables, twenty-eight manufacturers, eleven physicians, eight wholesale and fifty-five retail liquor dealers, forty-five wholesale and ninety-one retail dealers in general merchandise, two wholesale and eight retail grocers.
During 1863 a long step toward improvement was the organization of the Portland and Milwaukee macadamized road, with A. B. Richardson as president, Henry Failing secretary, and W. S. Ladd treasurer of the board of directors. The shipping lists of the steamers show large exports of treasure, one hundred thousand dollars, two hundred and forty thousand dollars, and even seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars being reported for single steamers. Six thousand to seven thousand boxes of apples were also reported at a single shipment. The old sidewheel steamer John H. Couch, for many years so familiar a figure on the lower Columbia, was launched this year. The principal building was that of the Presbyterian church at the corner of Third and Washington streets. The laying of the corner stone was observed with due ceremony. Rev. P. S. Caffrey officiating, assisted by Revs. Pearne and Cornelius. A new school house of the congregation of Beth Israel was opened this year. The arrival of thirty-six thousand pounds of wire for the Oregon and California telegraph line showed the interest in telegraphic communication with the outside world. The assessed valuation of property was three million two hundred and twenty-six thousand and sixty dollars.
In 1864 much expansion was noticed. Grading and draining of the streets was largely undertaken. The Presbyterian church was finished at a cost of twenty thousand dollars and was called the finest structure in the state. The Catholic church was improved to an extent of two thousand dollars. J. L. Parrish erected a three-story brick building, fifty by one hundred feet, on the corner of Front and Washington streets. A house was built by the city for the Columbia Engine Company No. 3, on Washington street, at a cost of six thousand dollars. The lot cost two thousand dollars. Two new hotels, the What Cheer House and the New Columbian were built, and older ones such as Arrigoni's, the Western, the Howard House, the Pioneer and Temperance House were improved. A considerable number of stores and dwelling houses were also put up. The greatest improvement, however, was the O. S. N. Company's dock on the water front between Pine and Ash streets. It was necessitated by the increasing traffic with Idaho and the upper Columbia. There was not hitherto a dock to accommodate vessels at all stages of the water. This new wharf was accordingly built with two stories, the upper being fifteen feet above the other. The lower wharf was two hundred and fifty feet long by one
