and Russell took the papers and drafts on Liverpool, gave Watt the purchase price of the wheat, enabling him to pay his debt to Ladd & Tilton, and having bought the wheat, got it down to Portland, loaded this first ship and got his money back, and paid his debt all inside of thirty days.
In 1869, in the line of buildings there were erected seven of brick, aggregating a cost of $172,000, and twelve large frame buildings, costing altogether $58,000; while many smaller ones were built, making a total of about $400,000. The most conspicuous of these was the Odd Fellows' building at the comer of First and Alder streets, three stories in height, and costing $40,000; the United States building for courthouse, customs house and postoffice was begun on a scale to cost three hundred thousand dollars. The reservoir of the Water Works Company on Sixth street, with a capacity of three million, five hundred thousand gallons, was built this year. On the improvement of the Willamette there was spent thirty-one thousand dollars. Exports reached one million, sixty-six thousand, five hundred and two dollars; treasure, two million, five hundred and fifty-nine thousand dollars; and bullion, four hundred and nineteen thousand, six hundred and fifty-seven dollars. Real estate transactions were upward of half a million. The population of Portland proper was estimated at eight thousand, nine hundred and twenty-eight, and of east Portland, five hundred.
The railroad on the east side of the river was completed to Barlow, and work on the west side was progressing. The shipping of grain to Great Britain was becoming more firmly established. A greater spirit of enterprise was manifested among merchants and other citizens to publish abroad the advantages of soil and climate and position. A number of fine buildings were erected as follows: Corbett's three-story building, with solid iron front on First street, between Washington and Alder, costing forty thousand dollars; a brick block of four buildings occupying a frontage of one hundred feet on Front street, and running back eighty feet, of iron front, costing thirty thousand dollars, built by Lewis & Flanders; a three-story brick building, having one hundred feet frontage on First street and eighty feet on Ash, at a cost of thirty-two thousand dollars, by Dr. R. Glisan; all addition by the O. S. N. Co. to their block on Front street, forty by ninety feet, costing twenty thousand dollars; the Protection engine house at the corner of First and Jefferson streets, costing ten thousand dollars; a new edifice by the Congregational church at the corner of Second and Jefferson streets, with one spire one hundred and fifty feet high, costing twenty-five thousand dollars; the Bishop Scott grammar school building on B street at the junction of Fourteenth.
As 1870 fills out a decade, it is not out of place to give here a somewhat more detailed list of the occupations then flourishing in the city. Of hotels there were twenty-two: The St. Charles, at the corner of First and Morrison; The International, at the corner of Front and Morrison; the American Exchange, at the corner of Front and Washington; the Occidental, at the corner of First and Morrison, The Western Hotel, on Front near Pine; the Pioneer Hotel, on Front near Ash; The Shakespeare Hotel, at 23 Front street; the Washington Hotel, corner of Alder and Second; the New Orleans Hotel, at the corner of Yamhill and First; the Wisconsin House, at the corner of Ash and Front; the Russ House, at 126 Front street; the Railroad House, on Front near Yamhill; the St. Louis Hotel, on Front street; the New York Hotel, at 17 North Front; the Patton House, at 175 Front street; the Fisk House, on First near Main; the Cosmopolitan, at the corner of Front and Stark; The California House, at 13 Stark street; the Brooklyn Hotel, on First street near Pine. There were also twelve boarding houses and nine restaurants. Real estate agents now numbered six houses: J. S. Daly, Dean & Brother, William Davidson, Parrish & Atkinson, Russell & Ferry, Stitzel & Upton. The wholesale merchants contained many names in active business: Allen & Lewis, Baum Bros., Fleischner & Co., Jacob Meyer, L. White & Co., Seller, Frankeneau & Co., and Goldsmith & Co. Of retail merchants of that time there may be named: C. S. Silver, S.
