Portland, Oregon: Its History and Builders/Volume 1/Chapter 15
CHAPTER XV.
1850—1910.
As there were no land means of transportation when Portland town was started, there was no patronage from the land side. Canoes, boats, sail boats, anything that could be floated on the water bearing goods or men, was in demand to start the town with. It naturally resulted from this state of affairs that water transportation, and the means thereto, occupied the front seat in all propositions to build up the town. First, was the necessity of controlling the point where the ships would come to discharge cargo. Ships might come in from Boston, New York, London, China, Siberia, the Islands, and they were the first consideration. Canoes, batteaux, sail boats, might come in from the Cascades, Vancouver, Oregon City or Astoria; but what of it? They could not found a city; they could tie up anywhere.
But it was soon seen that as immigration came in. as farms were opened, as saw mills were started, that these primitive means of transportation would not suffice, and that steam must take the place of paddles and sails. Then came the proposition to build steamboats. And it may be easily seen that such tireless men as Stephen Coffin, Lot Whitcomb, J. C. Ainsworth and John H. Couch, may have spent sleepless nights in solving the transportation proposition. There has been a great deal of discussion as to whom was due the credit for building and operating the first American steamboat on the rivers of Oregon. As the man is still living in the city who knows all about this history we will give his story of the whole matter and settle the question for all time. 
U. B. SCOTTJACOB KAMM
JOHN C. AINSWORTHGEORGE H. PEASE
LEADING STEAMBOAT MEN IN THE HISTORY OF THE STATE
The history of the Lot Whitcomb is mixed up with the struggle between rival towns for the location of the future city. Mr. Lot Whitcomb, one of the most energetic and ambitious men of early Oregon pioneer days, had located his land claim on the present site of the town of Milwaukie, and with the aid of Captain Joseph Kellogg started in to build a city. He had got together enough machinery to build a little saw mill, and was shipping little "jags" of lumber to the embryo town of San Francisco in '49 and '50; the profits on which were so large, that he was enabled to buy the old bark Lausanne that had brought the fifty-two Methodist missionaries out here. In the Lausanne were a pair of engines and all the necessary machinery for a steamboat. These engines had evidently been sent out in the bark from New York for the express purpose of building a steamboat on the Willamette or Columbia rivers, and had been forgotten, or overlooked as not necessary to the Methodist mission; and so Whitcomb looked upon his "find" in the bottom of the ship as an act of Providence to enable him to build a steamboat, and with her aid annihilate the pretensions of the little town of Portland. Whitcomb. lost -no- time in getting those engines to Milwaukie and made all possible haste to build his boat. He had taken time by the forelock and hunted up a man at Sacramento, California, that was qualified to build a steamboat. That man he found in the person of a young man named Jacob Kamm, who was born in Switzerland, and coming to the United States and to St. Louis had learned the business of an engineer on the Mississippi river steamboats from the bottom up, and had his papers to show his qualifications. Whitcomb at once engaged Mr. Kamm, and brought him to Oregon to put up the engines and boilers, and put all the machinery in the boat.
This was a great opening for the young engineer, and Jacob Kamm was the man to fully appreciate it and make the most of his opportunity. Young, ambitious to succeed, industrious, frugal and thoroughly conscientious in the discharge of every duty, and in protecting and promoting the interests of his employer, he won the confidence of everybody, and his fortune was made in the good name and good standing he secured from this first employment in Oregon. So that from that time on Jacob Kamm never lacked employment at the highest wages, nor friends, nor chances to get ahead in the battle of life.
While Mr. Kamm was entrusted with the most important work of putting in and operating the machinery of the new boat, Mr. W. L. Hanscom was employed to build the hull and cabin. All hands worked together with a hearty good will to complete the boat and make the best showing possible; although the reputed owner'?. Lot Whitcomb and Berryman Jennings, were in such straitened circumstances as to be scarcely able to pay the board bills of the men; having expended all their means in the purchase of the engines and machinery. The boat was practically finished and launched on Christmas day, 1850. Wm. Henry Harrison Hall was employed as pilot. Jacob Kamm as engineer, while the builder Hanscom acted as master in running the boat until she was paid for and the necessary papers issued by the collector of customs at Astoria. No authority from the government could be had to run the boat until the evidence was filed in the custom house that the men who built the boat had all been paid. Here was a veritable "snag" right in front of that first steamboat that was about as bad as a hole in her bottom. The collector of customs might wink at some violations of law, and allow Hanscom and Kamm to run her up and down the Willamette, and over to Vancouver, and down to St. Helens, but the Whitcomb must not dare to venture down to the Astoria custom house without the receipts in full of all labor, machinery and materials bills. Some high financing had to be done, and done quickly. So Whitcomb and Jennings formed a syndicate—the first syndicate in Oregon—and got Abernethy to head the paper, and then circulated it among the wheat growing farmers up in the valley and they subscribed dollars payable in wheat; and finally enough cash and farmers produce was put into the syndicate to pay for Oregon's first steamboat. Hanscom took cash as far is it would go, and wheat for the balance; Kamm took wheat and sold it to the Oregon City merchants, and finally everybody that had a dollar against the boat got their pay; Hanscom ran her down to Astoria, filed a clear bill of health on the creditors account, and General Adair issued the authority to run on the Willamette and Columbia rivers; and the Lot Whitcomb took the head of the fleet of the hundreds of steamboats that have followed in her wake; and John C. Ainsworth was appointed her first master.
As population increased, business on the rivers increased, and became more remunerative, with the stimulus of the greater business in the future incited others to try their luck at steamboating which has always been an attractive pursuit in new countries, where there were navigable rivers. Other boats were projected and built.
The Columbia, built at Astoria, not finding much business on the lower river, came to Portland and entered the transportation field here and was the first boat to run from Portland up to the Cascades. The James R. Flint, named in honor of a San Francisco merchant, was built above the Cascades by Flint, the Bradfords and J. O. Vanbergen; but not finding enough business up there was run down over the Cascades in 1861 and put on the run between Portland and Oregon City. To show the primitive character of the steamboat machinery in those days, it is said that the single engine of the Flint was geared directly to the paddle wheel shaft, which was a side-wheeler, and that this gearing made such an awful racket when the boat was in motion as to be alarming to the passengers. And on a time when Dr. Newell was aboard he innocently inquired of the purser what made such a threshing-machine-like noise below decks; and was told it was nothing but "the cook grinding coffee."
The Bradfords next built a steamer called "The Mary" with double engines to run between the Cascades and the Dalles, the Bradfords being at that time the owner of the portage on the north side of the Columbia at the Cascades. And soon after "The Mary" the Bradfords added the "Hassalo" to run on the route from the Cascades to the Dalles.
In the meantime S. G. Reed and Captain Richard Williams (known to the old timers as Captain Dick Williams) built the steamer "Belle" to run from Portland to the Cascades. Business increasing and the price of freights enormous. Colonel J. S. Ruckle and Harrison Olmstead built the "Mountain Buck" to run between Portland and the Cascades. In 1854 Jacob Kamm, J. C. Ainsworth and Thos. Pope (of Abernethy and Clark) built the "Jennie Clark" for the Oregon City and Portland trade; Ainsworth, master, and Kamm, engineer. In 1858 the Carrie Ladd was launched at Oregon City and owned and operated by the owners of the "Clark."
By 1859, the steamers, "Senorita," "Belle," and "Multnomah" had been built and were running between Portland and the Cascades, owned by Reed, William and Ben Stark, of which Stark was the general manager.
And now R. R. Thompson comes into the transportation field. Thompson had been appointed agent to the Indians in the upper country and had picked up a little ready cash, and built a few little sail boats to carry freight on the Columbia from Celilo at the upper Dalles on up the river. It was a very slim show to do a transportation business, but as the cost of moving government freight was so great any sort of a boat would pay some profits; and Thompson was in a position to utilize the cheap labor of his Indian wards. And on this meager outfit Mr. Thompson was soon enabled to commence the construction of and build the steamer "Colonel Wright," named in honor of the officer in command at Fort Dalles. Thompson had, prior to this, built a little steamer on the upper Cascades, called the "Venture," which he hoped in some way to take up over the Dalles of the Columbia; but in steaming out into the Columbia from the upper Cascades, on the first trip, the boat had not either power enough to stem the current of the river, or the captain lost control of her, and the boat drifted down over the Cascades, and was reduced to a wreck; proving that this "Venture" was too much of a venture.
An account of conditions of river and ocean navigation, and the difficulties under which the pioneers of Oregon and Portland labored, from one who took part in them will be more interesting and satisfactory than anything prepared at a later date. And so it is thought best for this record to give here the statements of Colonel James W. Nesmith, and Judge William Strong; both of whom speak from actual observation and experience, making the following statements before the annual meeting of the Oregon pioneers in 1878; says Nesmith:
"Forty years ago the few American citizens in Oregon were isolated from the outside world. Some adventurous and enterprising persons conceived the idea of a vessel of a capacity to cross the Columbia river bar and navigate the ocean. Those persons were mostly old Rocky mountain beaver trappers, and sailors who had drifted like waifs to the Willamette valley. Their names were Joseph Gale, John Canan, Ralph Kilbourn, Pleasant Armstrong, Henry Woods, George Davis and Jacob Green. Felix Hathaway was employed as master ship carpenter, and Thomas Hubbard and J. L. Parrish did the blacksmith work. In the latter part of 1840, there was laid the keel of the schooner Star of Oregon, upon the east side of Sauvie's island, near the junction of Willamette and Columbia rivers. The representatives of the Hudson's Bay Company either dreading commercial competition, or doubtful about their pay, at first refused to furnish any supplies. But through the earnest representation of Commodore Wilkes—then here in command of the American Exploring Squadron, who offered to become responsible for the payment—Dr. McLoughlin furnished all such necessary articles as were in store at Vancouver. (According to another account current among old pioneers, the boat builders feigned to be persuaded by McLoughlin to give up their plan, and go to raising wheat for him. He supplied them with ropes, nails, bagging, etc., etc., such as was necessary for agriculture, and was greatly astonished when in passing the island he saw his farmers industriously building the craft which he had attempted to inhibit, expressing his vexation in the words "curse those Americans; they always do get ahead of us.") On the 19th day of May, 1841, the schooner was launched. She had only been planked up to the waterways and in that condition was worked up to the falls of the Willamette. Owing to the destitution of means and the scarcity of provisions, the enterprising ship builders were compelled to suspend work upon their vessel until May, 1842. On the 25th of August the vessel was completed, and the crew sent on board at the falls. They consisted of the following named persons: Jos. Gale, Captain John Canan, Pleasant Armstrong, Ralph Kilbourn, Jacob Green, and one Indian boy, ten years old. There was but one passenger, a Mr. Piffenhauser. Captain Wilkes furnished them with an anchor, hawser, nautical instruments, a flag and a clearance. On the twelfth of September, 1842, she crossed the bar of the Columbia, coming very near being wrecked in the breakers and took latitude and departure from Cape Disappointment just as the sun touched the western horizon.
That night there arose a terrific storm, which lasted thirty-six hours, during which Captain Gale, who was the only experienced seaman on board, never left the helm; the little Star behaved beautifully in the storm, and after a voyage of five days, anchored in the foreign port of Yerba Buena, as San Francisco was then called.
The Star was forty-eight feet, eight inches on the keel, fifty-three feet, eight inches over all with ten feet, nine inches in the widest part, and drew in good ballast, trimmed four feet and six inches of water. Her frame was of swamp white oak, her knees of seasoned red fir roots; her beam and castings of red fir. She was klinker built, and of the Baltimore Clipper model. She was planked with clear cedar, dressed to one and a fourth inches, which was spiked to every rib with a wrought iron spike half an inch square, and clinched on the inside. The deck was double, and she was what is known as a fore and aft schooner, having no top sails, but simply fore and main sails, jib and flying jib. She was painted black, with a small white ribbon running from stem to stern, and was one of the handsomest little crafts that ever sat upon the water. Captain Gale and the crew, who were the owners of the Star, sold her at the bay of San Francisco in the fall of 1842 to a French captain named Josa Lamonton, who had recently wrecked his vessel. The price was 350 cows.
Shortly after Captain Gale arrived in San Francisco, the captains of several vessels then in the harbor came on board his schooner, and when passing around the stern read "Star of Oregon," he heard them swear that there was no such port in the world.
Gale and his crew remained in California all winter, and in the spring of 1843 started to Oregon with a party of forty-two men, who brought with them an aggregate of twelve hundred and fifty head of cattle, six hundred head of mares, colts, horses and mules, and three thousand sheep. They were seventy-five days in reaching the Willamette valley. On their arrival with their herds the monopoly in stock cattle came to an end in Oregon.
Captain Joseph Gale, the master spirit of the enterprise, was born, I believe. in the District of Columbia, and in his younger days, followed the sea, where he obtained a good knowledge of navigation and seamanship. Captain Wilkes, before he would give him his papers, examined him satisfactorily upon these subjects. Abandoning the sea he found his way to the Rocky mountains and was for several years a trapper. I knew him well and lived with him in the winter of 1843 and 18z14, and often listened to his thrilling adventures of the sea and land. He then had the American flag that Wilkes gave him, and made a sort of canopy of it, under which he slept. No saint was ever more devoted to his shrine than was Gale to that dear old flag.
In the summer of 1844, Aaron Cook, a bluff old Englishman, strongly imbued with American sentiments, conceived the idea of building a schooner to supercede the Indian canoes then doing the carrying trade on the Columbia and Willamette rivers. Cook employed Edwin W. and M. B. Otie and myself as the carpenters to construct the craft. We built her in a cove or recess of the rocks just in front of Frank Ermotinger's house near the upper end of Oregon City. None of us had any knowledge of ship building, but by dint of perseverance, we constructed a schooner of about thirty-five tons burden. She was called the Calipooiah. Jack Warner did the caulking, paying and rigging. Warner was a young Scotchman with a good education, which he never turned to any practical account. He ran away from school in the "Land o' Cakes" and took to the sea, where he picked up a good deal of knowledge pertaining to the sailorscraft. I recollect one day when Jack, with a kettle of hot pitch and a long-handled swab, was pitching the hull of the Calipooiah, he was accosted by an "uncouth Missourian" who had evidently never seen anything of the kind before, with an inquiry as to his occupation. Jack responded in broad Scotch: "I am a landscape painter by profession, and am doing a wee bit of adornment for Captain Cook's schooner."
In the month of August, 1844, we had launched and finished the Calipooiah and went on a pleasure excursion to the mouth of the Columbia. The crew and passengers consisted of Captain Aaron Cook, Jack Warner, Jack Campbell, Rev. A. F. Waller and family, W. H. Gray and wife, A. E. Wilson, Robert Shortess, W. W. Raymond, E. W. Otie, M. B. Otie and J. W. Nesmith. There might have been others on board; if so their names have escaped me. The after portion had a small cabin, which was given up for the accommodation of the ladies and children. Forward was a box filled with earth, upon which a fire was made for cooking purposes. We had our own blankets and slept upon the deck. The weather was delightful, and we listlessly drifted down the Willamette and Columbia rivers, sometimes aided by the wind. Portland was then a solitude like any other part of the forest-clad bank. There were then no revenue officers here under pretense of "protecting" American industries and no custom house boat boarded us.
In four days we reached Astoria, or Fort George, as the single old shanty on the place, in charge of an old Scotchman, was called. The river was full of fish, and the shores abounded in game. We had our rifles along, and subsisted upon wild delicacies. There were then numerous large Indian villages along the margin of the river, and the canoes of the natives were rarely out of sight. The Indians often came on board to dispose of salmon; their price was a bullet and a charge of powder for a fish.
The grand old river existed then in its natural state, as Lewis and Clark found it forty years before. I believe that there was but one American settler's cabin on the banks of the Columbia from its source to the ocean. That was on the south side of the river, and belonged to Henry Hunt and Ben Wood, who were building a saw mill at that point.
On an island near Cathlamet some of us went ashore to visit a large Indian village where the natives lived in large and comparatively comfortable houses. They showed us some articles which they said were presented to them by Lewis and Clark, among which were a faded cotton handkerchief and a small mirror, about two inches square, in a small tin case. The corners of the case were worn off and the sides worn through by much handling. The Indians seemed to regard the articles with great veneration, and would not dispose of them to us for any price we were able to offer.
The only vessel we saw in the river was Her Majesty's sloop-of-war, Modeste, of eighteen guns, under command of Captain Thomas Bailie. We passed her in a long niche in the river, as she lay at anchor. We had a spanking breeze, and with all our sail set and the American flag flying at our mast-head, we proudly ran close under her broadside. A long line of officers and sailors looked down over the hammocks and from the quarter-deck at our unpainted and primitive craft in apparently as much astonishment as if we were the flying dutchman or some other phantom ship from the moon, to plant the stars and stripes upon the neutral waters of the Columbia."
Judge Strong, attorney of the old O. S. N. Company, succinctly begins his narrative at the annual meeting of the Pioneer Association in 1878, by stating what he found upon reaching the Columbia:
"Astoria at that time was a small place, or rather two places, the upper and lower town between which there was a great rivalry. They were about a mile apart, with no road connecting them except by water, and along the beach. The upper town was known to the people of lower Astoria as "Adairville." The lower town was designated by its rival as "Old Fort George," or "McClure's Astoria." A road between the two places would have weakened the differences of both, isolation being the protection of either. In the upper town was the custom house, in the lower, two companies of the First United States engineers, under command of Major J. S. Hathaway. There were not, excepting the military and those attached to them, and the custom house officials, to the best of my recollection, to exceed twenty-five men in both towns.
At the time of our arrival in the country there was considerable commerce carried on, principally in sailing vessels, between the Columbia river and San Francisco. The exports were chiefly lumber; the imports generally merchandise.
The Pacific mail steamer Caroline had made a trip in the month of May or June, 1850, bringing up furniture for the Grand Hotel at Pacific City, and as passengers, Dr. Elijah White, Judge Alonzo Skinner, J. D. Holman and others, who were the founders and proprietors of the city. Some of the proprietors still live, but the city has been long since buried, and the' place where it stood has returned to the primeval forest from which it was taken. The mail companies steamers, Oregon and Panama had each made one trip to the river that summer, but regular mail service by steamer from San Francisco was not established until the arrival of the steamer Columbia in the winter or spring of 1850-51.
The usual length of time of receiving letters from the states was from six weeks to two months. It took, however, three months to send and get an answer from an interior state, and postage on a single letter was forty cents. After the arrival of the Columbia, they came with great regularity once a month, and a year or two afterwards, semi-monthly.
The first steamboat in Oregon was the Columbia, built by General Adair, Captain Dan Frost and others, at Upper Astoria in 1850. She was a side-wheel boat ninety feet in length, of about seventy-five tons burden, capable of accommodating not to exceed twenty passengers, though I have known of her carrying on one trip over one hundred. Though small, her cost exceeded $25,000. Mechanics engaged in her construction were paid at the rate of sixteen dollars per day, and other laborers five to eight dollars, gold. She made her first trip in June, 1850, under the command of Captain Frost; McDermott, engineer. It generally took about twenty-four hours to make the trip. She tied up nights and in foggy weather. Fare was twenty-five dollars each way. She was an independent little craft, and not remarkably accommodating, utterly ignoring Lower Astoria. All freight and passengers must come on board at the upper town. She ran for a year or two, when her machinery was taken out and put into the Fashion. Her hull afterwards floated out to sea.
The Lot Whitcomb, also a side-wheeler, was the next. She was built at Milwaukie, then one of the most lively and promising towns in Oregon, by Lot Whitcomb, Col. Jennings, S. S. White and others and launched on Christmas day, 1850. That was a great day in Oregon. Hundreds from all parts of the territory came to witness the launch. The festivities were kept up for three days and nights. There was music instrumental—at least I heard several fiddles — and vocal, dancing, and feasting. The whole city w^as full of good cheer; every house was open and all was free of charge—no one would receive pay. Sleeping accommodations were rather scarce, but there was plenty to keep one awake.
The Lot Whitcomb had a fine model, a powerful engine, and was staunch and fast. Her keel was 12×14 inches, 160 feet long, a solid stick of Oregon fir. Her burden was 600 tons, had a 17-inch cylinder, 7 feet stroke and cost about $80,000. She proved a safe and comfortable boat. Fare upon her was reduced to $15 between Portland and Astoria. She ran upon Oregon waters until the latter part of 1853, when she was taken to San Francisco and ran for some years on the Sacramento. Capt. John C. Ainsworth took command. This was his first steamboating in Oregon. Jacob Kamm was her engineer.
Jacob Kamm, the engineer, was the right man in the right place on such a boat, under such a captain. He proved himself skillful and prudent; no accident ever occurred through his want of skill and care during the long period in which he ran as engineer on Oregon steamboats. The fortune he has acquired has been built up by hard labor, increased and preserved by skill and prudence.
The Pacific Mail Steamship Company, a New York corporation, which had the mail contract between Panama and Oregon, brought out a large iron steamer called the Willamette. She was built for the company at Wilmington, Delaware, and brought around Cape Horn under sail as a three masted schooner, arriving in the fall of 1851. She was soon fitted up and commenced running, under Captain Durbrow, between Portland and Astoria in connection with the company's sea steamer. She was an elegant boat in all her appointments, had fine accommodation for passengers and great freight capacity. In fact, she was altogether too large for the trade, and in August, 1852, her owners took her to California and ran her on the Sacramento. One good thing she did, she put fare down to $10. Fare on this route went down slowly; first $26, then $15, then $10, then $8, and then $3; it is now $2. It is only within a few years that the passenger trade on the lower Columbia has been of any considerable value, or would support a single weekly steamboat. It has now become of more importance.
About the same time, 1851, a small wooden boat, a propeller, called the Black Hawk, ran between Portland and Oregon City. She made money very rapidly for her owners.
The other boats built for, or run above the falls of the Willamette, were the "Portland," built opposite Portland, in 1853, by A. S. Murray, John Torrance and James Clinton. She was afterwards taken above the falls where she ran for some time. On the 17th of March, 1857, she was carried over the falls in high water, leaving hardly a vestige of the boat, and drowning her captain, Arthur Jamison, and one deck hand.
There was the Canemah, sidewheeler, built in 1851, by A. F. Hedges, afterward killed by the Indians in Colonel Kelly's fight on the Touchet in 1856, Alanson Beers and Hamilton Campbell. She ran between Canemah and Corvallis. The heaviest load she ever carried was 35 tons. Passage on her was $5 to Salem. She made little or no money for her owners, though she had a mail contract.
The Oregon, built and owned by Ben Simpson & Co., in 1852, was a sidewheel boat of good size, but proved very poor property.
The Shoalwater, built by the owners of the Canemah in 1852-3, as a lowwater boat, commanded by Captain Lem White, the pioneer captain upon the upper Columbia, proved to be a failure. She changed her name several times — was the Phoenix, Franklin and Minnie Holmes. Her bad luck followed her under every alias. In the spring of 1854 she collapsed a flue near Rock Island while stopping at a landing; none were killed, but several were more or less seriously injured, and all badly scared. H. N. V. Holmes, a prominent resident of Polk county, was badly injured, but jumped overboard and swam across to the eastern shore before he knew that he was hurt.
There were other steamboats during this time and afterward upon that portion of the river which time forbids me to name. What I have already stated is sufficient to give a general idea of the growth of navigation up to the time when corporations commenced their operations. These boats that I have named, and others built and owned by private individuals, held the field from 1862-3, when the People's Transportation Company, a corporation under the general incorporation law of Oregon, entered upon its career. They built the canal, basin and warehouse on the east side of the river, and carried on a profitable trade between Portland and the various points up the river, finally selling out to Ben Holladay, who, with his railroad and river steamboats, then held command of the trade of the entire Willamette valley."
An account of the internal commerce of Oregon would be incomplete without a history of the origin and growth of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company. I shall speak of it historically only, how it originated and what it has d what it has
accomplished; whether its influence has been good or bad; whether, on the whole, it has been or is likely to be detrimental to the true interests of our people, are questions that are not to be discussed here. Time will only permit me to give a brief sketch of the prominent points in its history. It is an Oregon institution, established by Oregon men who made their start in Oregon. Its beginnings were small, but it has grown to great importance under the control of the men who originated it.
In April, 1859, the owners of the steamboats Carrie Ladd, Senorita and Belle, which had been plying between Portland and Cascades, represented by Captain J. C. Ainsworth, agent, the Mountain Buck by Col. J. C. Ruckel, its agent, the Bradford horse railroad, between the middle and upper Cascades, by its owners, Bradford & Co., who also had a small steamboat plying between the Cascades and The Dalles and Portland, under the name and style of Union Transportation Company. There were some other boats running on that route, the Independence and Wasco, in the control of Alexander Ankeny and George W. Vaughn; also the Flint and Fashion, owned by Capt. J. O. Van Bergen. As soon as practicable, these interests were harmonized or purchased.
At this time freights were not large between Portland and the upper Co- lumbia, and the charges were high. There was no uniform rule; the practice was to charge according to the exigency of the case. Freights had been carried in sail boats from Portland to the Cascades at twenty dollars per ton. I have before me an advertisement in an early number of the Weekly Oregonian, that the schooner Henry, owned by F. A. Chenoweth and George L. Johnson would carry at that rate.
On the 29th of December, i860, there being then no law under which a corporation could be established in Oregon — the proprietors of the Union Trans- portation Line procured from the Washington territory legislature an act in- corporating J. C. Ainsworth, D. F. Bradford, S. G. Reed, R. R. Thompson, and their associates under the name and style of the Oregon Steam Navigation Com- pany. R. R. Thompson and Lawrence Coe, who then first became interested with the other parties, had built a small steamboat called the Col. Wright, above The Dalles, which went into the line and made up their shares of the capital stock. This was the second boat they had built at that point. The first, when partially completed, was carried over the falls and down the river in high water. There the hull was sold, fitted up and taken to Frazer river on the breaking out of the gold mine excitement in British Columbia, and much to the credit of its builders, made the highest point ever reached by a steamboat on that river.
The Oregon Steam Navigation Company or O. S. N. Co., as it has been more generally called and known since organized under the act, J. C. Ainsworth was the first president, and with the exception of a single year, when J. C. Ruckel held the position, has been its president ever since. Its principal office was located at Vancouver, and its property formed no inconsiderable addition to the taxable property of Washington territory. It might have remained there until this time, had it received fair treatment. But the citizens thought they had the goose that laid the golden egg, and they killed it. By unfriendly legis- lation and unjust taxation, the company was driven from the territory, and in October, 1862, it incorporated under the general act of Oregon. Its railroads, steamboats, warehouses, wharf boats and wharves were all built and established by the company without public aid, except the patronage by the public after they were completed.
All its founders started poor. They accomplished nothing that has not been equally within the power of others by the exercise of equal foresight, labor and perseverance. They had no exclusive rights. The rivers were wide enough for all the steamers which can be built, and the passes at the Cascades and The Dalles were broad enough for all the railroads that may be found desirable."
Aside from the O. R. & N. Co. and its predecessors, there have always been a few independent steamers on the river, making their headquarters at Port
land, such as the Fannie Troup, Salem, Manzanillo, Traveler, Lurline, G. W.
Shaver, and local craft. One of the most indefatigable of our independent navi-
gators is Capt. U. B. Scott, with his two telephones, the first of which was
destroyed by fire ; river racers equal to anything of which the world has record.
Another very solid company is that of Joseph Kellogg & Son, having two good
steamboats, the Joseph Kellogg and Toledo, and making a specialty of naviga-
tion upon small streams, particularly the Cowlitz.
THE OREGON STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY.
This great steamboat monopoly, which dominated the commerce of the Co- lumbia river, and dictated all the conditions of the growth and development of eastern Oregon and Washington for nearly twenty years, makes such an im- portant chapter in the growth of this city as to require a full account of its origin and principal financial operations. In his statement given above, Judge Strong refers to the hostility which was manifested against the company in the state of Washington, and as might be expected, as the attorney of the com- pany, seeks to placate the judgment of posterity. And to understand how a single corporation could get possession of and hold the transportation of the great Columbia river for nearly a generation, and charge such prices for its services as to make all of its owners millionaires, and hold back or advance the development of three great states, it will be necessary to consider the topo- graphical features of the country which enabled this corporation to acquire, hold and exercise such absolute powers over a great region.
THE BRIDGE OF THE GODS.
A very interesting and readable novel has been written on this subject, and the great majority of readers conclude that it is nothing more than an ingenious fabrication of a fertile brain. This, however, is a very great mistake. The Indian legend, that there was once, a vast time ago, so long that Indian legends can scarcely preserve the facts, a real stone bridge across the mighty Columbia river at the point where the river has cut its channel through the Cascade moun- tains, and now called the "Cascades," is undoubtedly founded upon a geological fact.
The reasons for this belief are to be found in the geology of the country — the testimony of the rocks. Rock deposits show, as is well established by Prof. Condon's "Two Islands," that an arm of the Pacific ocean once extended in- land beyond the Cascades, probably forty miles, in the far distant past. The shells of various extinct forms of marine shell fish are found in the rocks east of the Cascade mountains to prove this fact. Great areas of a fertile country, once covered with tropical trees and vegetation and inhabited by the great mastodon elephant, three-toed horse, sabre-toothed tigers, and other extinct forms of animal life have, in distant past ages, been overlaid with vast out- flows of lava thrown out by volcanoes in the Cascade range, now long since extinct. Chief among these great builders of mountains and plains are the two mountains — Hood and Adams. These two great mountain peaks, dominating the Cascade range for hundreds of miles and furnishing great safety valve dis- charges from fiery fluid contents of the interior of our globe, are equi-distant from the Columbia river, and about sixty miles distant from each other. Both sides of the Columbia between these mountains furnish the indisputable evi- dence in rock formations that a great field of lava rock was poured out over a landscape of sand detritus and surface soil. And when in active operation, these great volcanic vents discharged such contents of molten rock that, overspreading the whole region, the lava flood from one mountain would meet a like flood from its opposite mountain at a halfway point between the two volcanoes. These slow moving rivers of lava, carrying on their frontal margin a d rift of
rubbish, rock and earth, would meet at the common center, but not coalesce. And as these deposits of lava would cool off a line of demarcation between the two lava fields would appear, and ultimately a great fissure or crevice parallel the median line of the two deposits. In subsequent ages, possibly not until the melting of the great ice cap of the glacial age of North America, a stream of water would commence to form, and following down the inclines from the Rocky mountains, would fall into this great volcanic made fissure betv/een Mts. Hood and Adams. The water would pursue its course at the bottom of that fissure. The bottom of that fissure would be on top of the original deposit of sand, rock and soil, and that stream of water, as the Pacific ocean subsided and fell away from the west side of the Cascades, would cut out a channel under the deposit of lava rock. In the regular order of nature in wearing out all ob- structions in rivers and water courses by rolling boulders and pebbles, the chan- nel in the course of ages would be steadily enlarged. And as other streams fell into it from all sides, a river would be formed. It may have taken a million years to form the Columbia river, but that is the way it was formed. There can be no doubt from the geological record that there was a great rock bridge at the Cascades of the Columbia. There were probably other bridges also formed in the same way — the water working down under the superimposed lava cap and washing out a channel. From time to time these lava bridges would break down, and their fragments falling into the torrential stream, would be rolled down stream and rounded off into great boulders as they ground out and ham- mered out a channel by the action of the waters. The perpendicular cliffs at Hood river. White Salmon, and other points on the Columbia show how the great lava bridges broke down and were washed away, leaving the upright walls hundreds of feet high mute evidence of the operations of nature. The bridge at the Cascades was the last to fall down, and when it did fall, a great dam was made across the river and the detritus of rock, gravel and earth was piled up above it in vast quantities, and can be seen at either side of the river above the Cascades at this day. And when the dam finally gave way, the great torrent carried down before it and rounded into boulders rocks that will weigh a mil- lion tons. Such rocks can be seen in the Columbia below the Cascades today; and near by them, on the banks on one side, the original deposit of sand rock containing petrified stumps which were trees before Mt. Hood had an exist- ence; and on the other bank vast deposits of boulders, pebbles and sand piled there high above the present river when the original "Bridge of the Gods" fell down and forced the making of a channel at a lower level.
But what has all this, or any of it, to do with the evolution of the Oregon Steam Navigation monopoly? Let us see. When the Columbia cut through the mountains in the manner described, and wore out a channel in the sand rock, a narrow strip of land was left on each side of the river for a passage- way from the quiet waters above the old bridge to the navigable waters below the old bridge foundation. The value of these passageways around the swift and turbulent waters of the rivers, tumbling and roaring down amidst the great rocks of the old lava bridge, was quickly discovered, even by the red men. It was the best place for the Indians to spear the salmon. They contended for its possession. It was a strategic point to hold back foes coming from either side of the mountains. Here the Indians had a village at the head of the falls (upper Cascades) called Wish-ram; and they took advantage of their position to make exhorbitant demands on every one — red or white — that wanted to go through that narrow pass. And when the white men came into the country, the value of the pass was seen at once. And as early as 1850, Francis A. Chenoweth claimed the land under the Oregon donation law, and proceeded to build a little tramway railway through the pass. The road was located on the Indian trail, was constructed entirely of wood, with one little car drawn by a single mule. And as there was no business at that time, and Chenoweth had no reserve cap- ital to live on, and could not subsist on hopes, he sold his rights and his rail
road to Daniel F. and P. F. Bradford, and they rebuilt the little road in 1856,
making many improvements on it. This road was on the north side of the
river, and the Bradfords owned it and all the land between the river and the
mountain on that side of the river. While the Bradfords were rebuilding this
road, the Indians attacked them and killed two men, the others fleeing in all
directions. A fort and blockhouse was built near by, and here General Phil
Sheridan had his first battle.
This railroad gave the Bradfords an advantage in the transportation busi- ness up the river that could not be set aside. They had boats on the lower river, and they had the pass and had no hesitation in demanding the lion's share — "all the traffic would bear." If the charge on the freight from Portland to The Dalles was forty dollars a ton — and that was the rate for many years — the Bradfords took twenty dollars of the forty for hauling it six miles around the Cascades on their little road.
These profits were a great temptation to opposition, and soon after. Col. J. S. Ruckel and Harrison Olmstead got possession of the land on the south side of the river and built another little tramway portage road on the south side of the river, and putting on their steamboat, "Mountain Buck," there were soon two competing lines for the freight business from Portland to The Dalles; the Bradfords on the north side of the river putting on the "Mary" and the "Hassalo" above the Cascades, and Ruckel and Olmstead putting on the "Wasco" to run opposition above the Cascades.
And now at tliis time the portage around the "dalles of the Columbia," above the town of The Dalles, was made by teams hauling the freight, and Mr. Or- lando Humason had control of this pass. So that the line of transportation for freight from the Portland merchants to any customer on the upper river above The Dalles was divided into five sections, and five separate monopolies had to be paid and satisfied before the goods could .reach that customer on the upper Columbia, and the aggregate cost of all these charges to the head of The Dalles monopoly was fifty dollars a ton.
Here then was the opening for an organizing man — a man who had the ability and address to take all the parties in all these little monopolies that had agreed to scalp everybody that came along, and make them all work together in a single combine or single corporation to accomplish the same end in making profits. Besides the men and boats named interested in this business, was the boats owned by Ben Stark and his partner and they had to be considered and provided for.
The man who had been studying the proposition most, and had evolved defi- nite and practical ideas of managing the growing business, now came to the front — Capt. J. C. Ainsworth. The remainder of the story with such additions as may be necessary to make it complete, will now be told by Miss Irene Pop- pleton, graduate of the Oregon University, who has had access to the manu- script on this subject prepared by Captain Ainsworth for his children.
"The result was that in April, 1859, a general combination of all the inter- ests as far as the middle landing of the Cascades under the name of the Union Transportation Company, with J. C. Ainsworth and J. S. Ruckle as agents. By this arrangement Bradford & Co. were to have all of the business from the middle landing to The Dalles, Ruckel & Olmstead withdrawing their steamer "Wasco" from the route.
At the time these negotiations were entered into, the Stark party were known as the Columbia River Steam Navigation Company, and Ruckel & Olmstead's line as the Oregon Transportation Company. The rates of passage were, at this time, from Portland to the lower Cascades, $6; passage over the portage from $1 to $3. This Union Transportation Co. continued to work pretty well for about one year, but there was great difficulty in conflicting ownership and interests of steamers and portages. A closer consolidation of interests seemed to be necessary, and Mr. Ainsworth set about to accomplish this, trying if pos
sible to combine at least the steamboat interests together as one company. In
fact, this was an old scheme of his, often talked over with his friend, R. R.
Thompson, but whose interests were at this time all on the upper Columbia,
making it therefore necessary for him to proceed alone, even with an element
whose interests were somewhat antagonistic to those of Thompson's ; but after
much discussion, it was agreed between the San Francisco parties owning the
control of the steamer "Julia," the parties owning the old boats of the Colum-
bia River Steam Navigation Company, composed of Stark, Reed, Williams,
Wells and Hoyt, the owners of the Oregon Transportation Company, composed
of J. S. Ruckel and H. Olmstead, and Bradford & Co., owning boats between
the Cascades and The Dalles, and J. C. Ainsworth and associates owning the
steamer "Carrie Ladd," that it would be desirable to consolidate the different
steamboat interests into one company and that it should be done if terms could
be agreed upon. This was the beginning of a long discussion as to the valuation
of the different boats that should constitute the basis of the new company. This
was finally adjusted and an agreement was reached to combine all the steam-
boat interests between Astoria and The Dalles. The next step was to bring in
R. R. Thompson who owned the steamer "Colonel Wright" and a lot of small
sailboats on the upper Columbia river. At length an agreement was reached,
and the Oregon Steam Navigation Company was formed with a capital in steam-
boats and other property at the highest possible figure of $172,500. J. C. Ains-
worth was made agent, and so remained until the company was legally organ-
ized on December 20, i860, when they procured a charter from the Washington
territorial legislature with nominal headquarters at Vancouver. The shares
were valued at $500 each, with fifteen shareholders whose holdings were as
follows :
R. R. Thompson 120 shares
Ladd & Tilton 80 shares
T. W. Lyles 76 shares
L. W. Coe 60 shares
Jacob Kamm 57 shares
J. C. Ainsworth 40 shares
A. H. Barker 30 shares
S. G. Reed 26 shares
Benjamin Stark 19 shares
Josiah Myrick 12 shares
Richard Williams 7 shares
J. W. Ladd 4 shares
G. W. Pope 4 shares
J. M. Gilman 4 shares
George W. Hoyt 3 shares
J. C. Ainsworth was elected president, which position he occupied, with the exception of one year, during the entire life of the corporation. The superior value of that portion of the new line owned by Thompson and Coe was recog- nized by giving them a much larger block of the stock than any other faction. Ladd & Tilton, the bankers, had rendered some financial aid to the owners of the steamers "Mountain Buck" and "Senorita," and in this way secured an in- terest in the corporation in which the senior of the banking firm afterward be- came quite a power. The difiiculties in effecting an organization of this company were very great, but its subsequent history was great in results and usefulness. No other steamboat company in the United States can show such a record. They commenced, as before stated, with a capital in property at the highest possible valuation of $172,500; no assessment was ever levied on this stock. The company expended in gold nearly three million dollars in creating their subsequent magnificent property, besides paying to their stockholders in divi- dends over two million five hundred thousand dolla rs in gold.
The first board of directors, elected December 29, i860, were as follows: J. C. Ainsworth, J. S. Ruckle, D. F. Bradford, S. G. Reed, and L. W. Coe. These were supposed to represent the different interests that composed the new company. On June 8th, L. W. Coe resigned as director and R. R. Thomp- son was elected in his place. Very soon after the legal organization of the company, the rich placer gold mines of Idaho territory, eastern Washington ter- ritory, and western Montana were discovered, and a rush of miners and freight up the Columbia river was the consequence. The new company was greatly overtaxed to do the business that was forced upon them. They had but few boats, most of them very indifferent, the "Carrie Ladd" being the best in the new line. The portage at the Cascades was owned by rival and hostile par- ties, yet both were interested in the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, and occupied seats on the board. These parties regarded their portage interests as of paramount importance. They looked upon the company as simply auxiliary to their other and larger interests. The portage at The Dalles was at the for- mation of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company made by teams to the mouth of the Deschutes river, a distance of about twenty miles, and was at that time principally controlled by O. Humason and his associates. The freight for the new mining country was so extensive that at times the whole portage at the Cascades was lined with freight from one end to the other; the result was, of course, heavy losses caused by damage and a system of robbery impossible to prevent. They paid damages to freight in a single month amounting to over $10,000. The most of this occurred on the portage, yet it was invariably charged to the Oregon Steam Navigation Company. The steamboat men real- ized the disadvantage under which they labored, as they were simply interested in a line of steamers that were wholly dependent on the portages, which were in the hands of rivals. They could see that the Oregon Steam Navigation Com- pany must control the portages, or the portages must control and swallow up the company ; or in other words, the whole interest must be as one. The ques- tion then was simply as to the mastery ; and here commenced the struggle. At this time the Bradfords' means of transportation over their portage was a very indifferent wooden tramway from what was known as the middle landing to the upper Cascades on the Washington side.
Ruckle's means of transportation on the Oregon side was a wooden tram- way the whole length of the portage ; the lower half, or from the middle landing down, was of iron strap and over this portion of the road he ran a small en- gine. The cars on the upper part of the road were hauled by mules as they were on the Bradford road. IDuring the high stage of water, say from May to August, the steamers could not run to the middle landing, consequently Ruckle transported the freight at such times over the entire portage for which he received one-half the through freight from Portland to The Dalles, and as Bradford had no tramway below the middle landing, he could not claim from Ruckle a division of portage earnings on the lower half of his road. This an- noyed Bradford exceedingly, as Ruckle's income from this source with the im- mense freight that was then moving was very great.
J. C. Ainsworth and those who were looking to the interest of the steam- boat men, now absorbed The Dalles portage. They stocked the road with teams and wagons at a cost of about $100,000. This immense caravan was taxed to its utmost capacity, as was everything else that they owned. The next step was to bring the board of directors to see the necessity of building a rail- road from The Dalles to Celilo and to convince them that the company could safely undertake it. J. C. Ainsworth was dispatched to San Francisco. He found that the house of Coleman & Company had about twenty miles of rail- road iron, which could be procured by paying freight and charges. He made arrangements to take all of the iron, as they could not divide the lot. The Dalles railroad would only require fourteen miles, so this would be enough for the Cascades portage as well. Arrangements were made for the shipment of
this iron at once, and the work of constructing The Dalles and Celilo road was
commenced. They had completed about three miles of this road at The Dalles,
when Mr. Bradford became more and more frightened at the success of Mr.
Ruckle on the Oregon side of the Cascades. This led Mr. Bradford to agree
to the construction of a road by the Oregon Steam Navigation Company the
full length of the portage of the Washington side of the river. As soon as the
negotiations for the sale were completed, the construction force at The Dalles
was taken to the Cascades and placed at work. Ruckle became convinced that
his true policy was to sell to the company. The purchase was made that gave
everything into the hands of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, Novem-
ber 4, 1862, and the price paid was $155,000.
The company that was first organized by special act of the legislature of Washington territory, with nominal headquarters at Vancouver, was dissolved December 5, 1862, and reorganized under the general corporation law of the state of Oregon. This settled the question of supremacy. The Oregon Steam Navigation Company was now master of the river, and all rival interests were now centered in the company. The capital stock was $2,000,000, represented by twenty-five shareholders, at $500 per share, as follows :
Bradford & Co 758 shares
R. R. Thompson 672 shares
Harrison Olmstead 558 shares
Jacob Kamm 354 shares
L. W. Coe 336 shares
T. W. Lyles 210 shares
J. C. Ainsworth 188 shares
A. H. Barker 160 shares
S. G. Reed 128 shares
Ladd & Tilton 78 shares
Josiah Myrick 66 shares
Richard Williams 48 shares
A. H. Grezenbach 52 shares
J. W. Ladd 48 shares
J. M. Gilman 44 shares
P. F. Doland 42 shares
E. J. Weekes 42 shares
S. G. Reed, agent 40 shares
J. W. Ladd, agent 40 shares
Joseph Bailey 36 shares
O. Humason 34 shares
J. S. Ruckle 24 shares
George W. Hoyt 18 shares
Ladd & Tilton 16 shares
J. H. Whittlesey 8 shares
The Oregon Steam Navigation Company immediately entered upon a ca- reer of marvelous prosperity which never flagged, and the company continued to grow in influence and wealth until, from the humble beginning made by the insignificant stern-wheelers like the "Carrie Ladd," the Oregon Steam Naviga- tion Company and its successors had become a power in the money centers of two continents. Throughout its entire period of activity this company suc- ceeded in keeping the good will of the people. No worthy traveler was ever refused passage on the Oregon Steam Navigation Company steamers, and many a man was not only carried free, but was given his meals as well. No iron- clad rules prevented the pursers from using their discretion, and no injustice was tolerated. The pursers were paid $150 per month, and that was extremely good pay for those times. The company demanded no bond of them, and
trusted to their integrity. They considered that the high wages paid Vv^as suffi-
cient to keep the men, and if one was caught steaHng from the company, he
was discharged without ceremony.
It was a close corporation. Soon after the organization, the Bradfords of- fered to sell their stock at seventy-five cents, or at the rate of $1,500,000 for the whole property, including steamships. This Bradford stock was purchased by A. Hayward for a pool of those who agreed to take a chance on the future of the company, and purchase its stock whenever it could be had at seventy- five cents. This pool consisted of W. S. Ladd, J. W. Ladd, R. R. Thompson, S. G. Reed, A. Hayward and J. C. Ainsworth. Arrangements were made with Ladd & Tilton to advance money on such purchased stock and charge the pool interest. As soon as Bradford sold his stock, a general stampede occurred with most of the large stockholders outside of the pool named ; many were frightened because the control seemed to be going into Hay ward's hands of California, and the offer of stock was more than the pool could well provide, but all was purchased that was offered. At first the object of the pool was to win a de- cided control of the company and work together in the management, but so much stock was offered and sold that very little was left outside, and then it was thought desirable to purchase all the stock, if possible, increase the capital to five millions of dollars and put the stock on the New York market. The result was that the whole stock was purchased by the pool and the contemplated increase of stock was put through.
The new company began its business under very favorable auspices. Early in its existence the Salmon river gold excitement brought a horde of miners into the country, and the Oregon Steam Navigation Company reaped more of the golden harvest in transporting them than any of the treasure-seekers found in the mines. The Florence City gold excitement of 1862 also brought the Oregon Steam Navigation Company a flood of prosperity. The wonderful re- sources of the new northwest were now becoming known as they had never been before. This was the banner year of the Columbia river steamboating. They could not possibly take care of all the business offered. The fleet running to the Cascades was frequently unable to handle the people who arrived on the steamships, and the portage was blocked with freight for days at a time, not- withstanding the fact that double crews were operated. A trip with less than two hundred people was light. At Portland the rush of freight to the docks was so great that drays and trucks had to form and stand in line to get their turn in delivering goods. Their lines were kept unbroken day and night for weeks and months. So, notwithstanding the enormous price of freight and passage, it was impossible to meet the demand. A few private boats found plenty of business, also the steamer "Maria" of the Independent Line, but she was seized by the government on a technical charge, and in March, 1865, The Oregon Steam Navigation Company got control of her. Another contestant was Captain Van Bergen, who secured the mail contracts between Portland and The Dalles. He controlled the People's line of steamers.
As an illustration of the large volume of business done at this time, the fol- lowing figures were taken from the books at The Dalles for 1862:
Colonel Wright March 27 $2,625.00
Colonel Wright March 28 2,446.00
Colonel Wright March 31 1,570.00
Tenino April 9 i ,405.00
Okanogan April 11 3,540.00
Okanogan April 15 1,622.30
Okanogan April 18 1,020.00
Tenino April 22 3,232.00
Okanogan April 25 3,630.00
Tenino April 27 3,289.00
Tenino April 29 2,595.00
Tenino May 5 6,780.00
Okanogan May 11 2,145.00
Tenino May 13 10,945.00
Okanogan May 17 2,265.00
Okanogan May 26 6,615.00
These are for tickets sold at The Dalles for up-trips only. Down stream the traffic was not so great, but from $1,000 to $4,000 each trip, and the freight was enormous. One up-trip on the Tenino in May produced over $18,000 for freight, fares, meals and berths. The extras and the bar privilege produced a monthly income of $1,200.
The treasure shipments that passed through Portland were in part as fol- lows : June 25, 1861, the steamer "Sierra Nevada" left for San Francisco with a treasure shipment of $228,000. July 3d, the steamer "Brother Jonathan" left with $50,000 in treasure. July 14th, the steamer "Sierra Nevada" with $110,- 000 in treasure. August 12th, $20,000; August 24th, $195,558; September I2th, $130,000; September 30th, $315,780; October 13th, $203,835; November 14th, $260,483; November 29th, $240,000; December 5th, $750,000. On Oc- tober 12, 1865, Wells Fargo & Company shipped $150,000 in crude bullion. Another trip brought 1,125 pounds of crude bullion, twenty-eight sacks, aver- aging forty pounds each.
Wells, Fargo exports of treasure were as follows:
1864 $6,200,000
1865 5,800,000
1866 5,400,000
1867 4,001,000
The policy of the company was to charge high rates ; all, in fact, that the traffic would bear. Its earnings were consequently good, the company paying as high as 12 per cent on its $5,000,000 capital as annual dividends. All freight except solids, such as lead, nails, etc., were estimated by measurement, forty cubic feet making a ton. The passage from Portland to The Dalles was $8 and 75 cents extra for meals. Portland to Lewiston $60, and meals and beds $1 each. Today the price of freight from Portland to The Dalles is $1.50 per ton and passage $1.50, and 25 cents extra for meals. H. D. Sanborn, a mer- chant of Lewiston, in 1862 received a case of miner's shovels. The case meas- ured one ton and contained 120 shovels. The freight, $120 per ton, made the freight on each shovel $1. A merchant at Hood river, eighty-five miles, said that before the railroad, the freight on one dozen brooms was one dollar. When O. B. Gibson was in the employ of the company at The Dalles, he went down to get the measurement of a small mounted cannon that had to be shipped for the government. After measuring several ways and figuring up the amount he seemed so perplexed that he attracted the attention of two soldiers who were lying in the shade of a pine tree near by. One of them finally called out, "What is the trouble, Captain?" "I am trying to take the measurement of this blamed gun, but some way I cannot get it right," said Gibson. "Oh, I will show you," said the soldier leading up a pair of harnessed mules that stood near and hitching them to the gun, "Try it now, Captain." "Thanks, that makes it all right; I see now why I could not get the correct measurement." In meas- uring a wagon or any piece of freight, the full length, the height and thickness were taken and carried out full size, the largest way of the piece. For in- stance, a wagon was measured from the back wheels to the end of the tongue, then the tongue was turned up and it was measured from the ground to the tip of the tongue again. This constituted the cubic contents, nothing deducted for vacuum, but when the wagon was shipped, the tongue was placed under the wagon box out of the way.
Following is a statement of freight charges by the Oregon Steam Navigation
Company, taken from their schedule of rates that went into effect April i,
1877:
RATES OF FREIGHT PER TON MEASUREMENT,
Portland to The Dalles, 121 miles $10.00
Portland to Umatilla, 217 miles 20.00
Portland to Wallula, 240 miles 25.00
Portland to Palouse, 317 miles 32.00
Portland to Penewawa and Almota, 348 miles 37-50
Portland to Lewiston, 401 miles 40.00
Fast freight, $2.50 per ton extra to The Dalles.
Fast freight, $5.00 per ton extra to all points above The Dalles.
PASSENGER CHARGES.
Portland to The Dalles $ 5.00
Portland to Umatilla 10.00
Portland to Penewawa and Almota 18.00
Portland to Lewiston 20.00
All bills payable in United States gold coin. That is to say, it cost to ship a ton of freight from Portland, Oregon to Umatilla, 217 miles, via Columbia river, $20 in gold coin, or nine and one- fourth cents per ton per mile. From Port- land to Lewiston, Idaho, 401 miles, $40 per ton, or ten cents per ton per mile. Compare this with the cost of transporting a ton of freight by water from Chi- cago to New York, less than one cent, or nine and three-fifth mills per ton per mile. The Missouri river from St. Louis to Fort Benton, 3,200 miles, $2^ per ton, or $1 per 100 miles, or one cent per ton per mile. Also the Missouri river is one of the most dangerous and difficult streams to navigate on the continent; filled with eddies, quicksands, and constantly changing channels — ^yet freight on this dangerous river was carried for about one-tenth the price that ruled the upper Columbia. Thus, the cost of moving a ton of freight up the Columbia was ten times greater than moving a ton along any principal watercourse on the continent. Also that which constituted a ton by weight on routes between Chicago and New York, and from St. Louis to Fort Benton on the Missouri river, and on most other of the water transportation routes in this country, constituted on the Columbia, under their system of measurement of freight, an average of more than one-third more ; in many instances, depending on the char- acter of the freight, one-half, three-quarters, tvv'ice as much, and sometimes three times as much. For instance, an article measuring a ton, but not ac- tually weighing over two hundred pounds, would cost on the Columbia and Snake rivers from Portland to Lewiston, 400 miles, $40, or at the enormous rate of $400 per ton, according to weight, or $1 per ton per mile. From sta- tistics compiled by W. J. McAlphin, state engineer of New York, about 1868, the average cost of transportation by railroad was thirteen mills per ton per mile. From a table of freight charges on the Willamette river, published No- vember I, 1866, we learn that the average charge on this river was 175 mills per ton per mile.
The following is a copy of a circular issued showing the rules of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, adopted April 22, 1878, and published by them, illustrative of the absolute and exclusive power which they exercised over the commerce of the Columbia river.
(i) This company will not take the freight to carry to any point upon the Columbia or Snake rivers above Celilo, except upon an agreement that it shall have the entire water carriage of the same to its place of final destination so far as the company's lines extend. The company, before receiving such f reight.
may require of the owner or shipper, such agreement in writing with surety or otherwise which shall provide that if the terminus of the water carriage of the shipment or of any portion of the same shall be falsely represented in the ship- ping receipt or otherwise, and the freight shall, by direction of the owner in said shipping receipt or otherwise, be landed before arriving at such terminus and shall be further carried upon steamboat or boats or vessels not belonging to this company, then the party to such an agreement shall be held for and bound to pay to this company, full freight for such further water carriage at local rates, and in the same manner as if this company had carried the same to the terminus of its water carriage, and that such re-shipment on another than a company boat or vessel, within thirty days after a landing of the same as herein above stated, from the company's boat or boats, shall be taken and held to be conclusive evidence that the terminus of water transportation of said freight was falsely represented and that the true terminus was the point to which it was finally carried. And said agreement shall contain a further stipu- lation in case action is brought thereon and a recovery by the company had, the judge, justice of the peace or court before whom or which the action is tried, shall include in the amount of the judgment as disbursements, such sum over and above the taxable cost as he or they shall determine to be reasonable attorney's fees for the prosecuting said action.
(2) All down freight from points on the Columbia or Snake rivers which is brought to Wallula, Umatilla or Celilo, on any steamboat or other water craft not belonging to this company, and is re-shipped for further carriage by this company, will be charged the usual rates of the company, from the point of shipment upon such other steamboat or water craft, which freight shall be paid in advance at the time of shipment. This rule shall not apply to produce brought by the farmer or producer in his own boat to the said shipping points of Wallula, Umatilla or Celilo.
(Signed) S. G. REED,
Vice-President Oregon Steam Navigation Company.
Owing to their obtaining high rates, opposition boats were started, more or less spasmodically, on the Columbia and Willamette rivers. A line known as the Willamette Steam Navigation Company operated between Portland and Oregon City, and from that point to Corvallis and Eugene City for several years. In 1862, the People's Transportation Company was organized with a capital stock of $2,000,000. This company had steamers on the upper and lower Willamette for over eleven years, and then sold out to Ben Holliday. The directors were: C. S. Kingsley, David McCully, Leonard White, S. Coffin and S. D. Church. The officers were : President, S. Coffin ; vice-president, C. S. Kingsley ; treasurer, A. C. R. Shaw.
When the locks at Oregon City were completed, the parties controlling them, Goldsmith and Teal, constructed several steamboats and began the navigation of the Willamette river between Portland and Eugene City; later they put boats on between Portland and Astoria in opposition to the Oregon Steam Navigation Company's boats. This opposition continued for two years. The Oregon Steam Navigation Company put a couple of boats on the Oregon City run, and the out- come of it was that they purchased a controlling interest in the Locks and the Goldsmith steamers, and organized a new company under the name of the Willamette Transportation & Locks Company, and J. C. Ainsworth was elected president. The new company purchased the basin and warehouse at Oregon City, together with the six steamers that had been rivals of the Goldsmith party.
About this time the Grangers were in the zenith of their glory and power. They resolved to ignore all other interests but their own, and were particularly hostile to all other transportation companies. They were led to believe that nearly all receipts of steamboats were profit, and notwithstanding the Willa- mette Transportation & Locks Company was transporting freight at a loss.
'
they organized a company and secured a large farming element as stockholders and put on the river two new steamers in opposition to the Willamette Trans- portation & Locks Company, which already had twelve steamers with only busi- ness for half that number. These Granger boats were run for nearly two years, having the whole community to back them up with credit, sympathy and busi- ness. They were managed by men wholly unacquainted with the business, but who did not learn that it costs money to build and run steamboats. The man- agers finally determined to sell their boats, as no one cared to invest good money to continue the fight with all the odds against them. The result was that the Oregon Steam Navigation Company bought the two boats at their own price. By 1871, the Northern Pacific Railroad was in the zenith of its prosperity and desired to use the Oregon Steam Navigation Company facilities in con- nection with their enterprise. They proposed to purchase a control of the Ore- gon Steam Navigation Company stock, and invited an interview with an au- thorized committee from the Oregon Steam Navigation Company to meet them in New York city. Mr. Thompson and Mr. Ainsworth were appointed with authority to sell. They met the company in New York, and after much talk and frequent disagreements, they effected the sale of three-fourths of the capi- tal stock of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, at the rate of $2,000,000 for the whole, taking one-half of the amount in N. P. R. R. Co. bonds at par and giving easy time for the money payments. The old owners of the com- pany retained one-fourth of the stock and continued in the management, so they considered that they had made a good sale, but subsequent events proved it to be a mistake. Through the failure of Jay Cooke & Company, in 1873, the Northern Pacific was forced into liquidation, and the bonds that the Oregon Steam Navigation Company directors still held and cOuld have sold for cash at about ninety cents, dropped to ten cents. The three-fourths of the capital sold to the Northern Pacific passed into the hands of the bankrupt estate of Jay Cooke & Company, and here it remained locked up for a long time. This failure served to shrink values all over the United States. The result was that Oregon Steam Navigation stock went down in the crash with other stocks. A plan was adopted by the trustees of the estate of Jay Cooke & Company to pay its creditors in kind. Each creditor accepting the proposition received fourteen per cent of his claim in Oregon Steam Navigation stock at forty per cent of its par value. This, as the creditors slowly and reluctantly came forward to accept, began to throw Oregon Steam Navigation stock on the Philadelphia and New York market. Parties taking it knew nothing about it, and offered it at once for sale, and as they were ignorant of its value, the Portland directors were not slow in improving this opportunity to buy back a sufficient amount as would again give them control. Some of it was purchased as low as thirteen cents, and the average cost of enough to give control was about twenty cents on the dollar, so in the end, covering a period of about five years, they found themselves the owners of the large majority of the stock at about half the amount that they had sold for.
In 1879, Mr. Villard came to Oregon with the avowed purpose of purchas- ing the Oregon Steam Navigation property, or commencing opposition. He asked J. C. Ainsworth whether he and his assocates were willing to sell. Mr. Ainsworth refused to take less than $5,000,000. An inventory of the company's property was made, together with a statement of the earnings for several years, with an offer to sell 50,320 shares at par. The directors thought that it was; too big a deal for Mr. Villard, but he considered it a bargain. His plan was to form a new company, the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company, with a capital stock of $6,000,000 and an issue of $6,000,000 of six per cent bonds. He got an option till October ist, by paying $100,000 in cash, which called for 40,320 shares of stock at par, to pay fifty per cent cash, twenty per cent bonds, and thirty per cent stock. He allowed $1,000,000 stock and $1,200,000 in bonds
for the Oregfon Steamship Company, and $2,000,000 stock and $2,500,000 bonds
to raise the cash required for Ainsworth. Leaving $1,800,000 stock and $1,500,-
000 bonds for the purchase of thirty-five miles of Walla Walla railroad and
Willamette Valley Transportation & Lock Company. $1,200,000 stock and
$800,000 bonds were reserved for new steamers. He submitted his plans to
jay Gould, but got a cool reception. He therefore laid the proposition before
his friends in the east. His plan was to unite all the transportation facilities
in Oregon. He asked his friends to join in exchanging Oregon Steamship for
Oregon Railroad & Navigation securities, and to subscribe for the required cash
payments for bonds at ninety with a bonus of seventy per cent in stock. He
received a prompt response. Thus the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Com-
pany grew out of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, and the Oregon
Steam Navigation Company, after a score of years, of prosperity unparalleled in
the annals of steam navigation, passed out of existence in 1879. The Oregon
Railroad & Navigation Company was incorporated July 13, 1879, with a capi-
talization of $6,000,000, divided into $100 shares. Mr. Villarcl was president.
The reference to Jay Gould above, revives the story circulated at the time
that when the United States was proceeding by judicial proceedings in the
U. S. district court to appropriate a right of way for the canal at the Cascades,
and the Oregon Steam Navigation Company was resisting the proceeding, that
David P. Thompson, who had no love for the Navigation Company, sat by and
listened to the testimony of Captain Ainsworth, and prompted the government
attorneys to compel Ainsworth to tell about all the immense profits of the com-
pany. And that after getting it on record, Thompson sent the figures to Vil-
lard, and Villard took them to Gould, and that Gould, instead of encouraging
Villard, telegraphed a sensational story to the western papers saying that the
Union Pacific Railroad, which Gould then controlled, would immediately take
steps to extend its road to the Columbia river, and down to Portland, thereby
expecting and intending to buy out the O. S. N. Company for a song. But,
that after Gould had thus flushed the game, Villard scurried around Wall
Street, got cash from other parties, and rushed to Oregon and bought out Ains-
worth & Company before (jould could get his agent out here; making a good
illustration of one railroad sharp shaking the plum tree while another, just a
little quicker on foot, picks up the plums.
GREAT OPPORTUNITIES.
When the great field of virgin soil, rich mines, and great forests are con- sidered, it is no wonder that this great monopoly so greatly prospered. No syndicate of capitalists ever had greater opportunities. And while they made millions and retired with great fortunes, yet what they achieved and what they took away was but a drop in the bucket of what they might have accomplished and gained. They were absolute masters of all the country east of the Cascade mountains in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. A region embracing every va- riety of soil, climate, timber and natural resources, and comprising an area equal to that of the states of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Delaware, Rhode Island, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. And yet they barely touched the resources of wealth along the margin of the great river, and made no attempt to penetrate the rich valleys of the interior with cheap and easily constructed feeder railways. They made so much money out of so small an effort that the glamor of the great wealth blinded their eyes to the greater possibilities beyond their vision.
INDEPENDENT BOATS.
But not all the enterprise in steamboating was put forth by the rich corpo- ration. There were others with less money, but even more enterprise and public
spirit. Jacob Kamm built and put in operation a line of steamboats on the
upper Snake river, and ran the steamer Norma into the heart of Idaho. He
also purchased the ocean steamer George S. Wright, and was the first and only
Portland man to try to develop the Alaska trade and hold it to Portland.
Kamm's enterprise in going into new fields of business to develop trade for the
city of Portland was greater and more courageous than that of any other man
ever connected with the steamboat business of this city.
And besides Mr. Kamm, there was Mr. Leonard White who built and run a steamboat named "The Forty-Nine," far up the Columbia river into British territory, nearly two hundred miles above the national boundary line, as early as 1865. Mr. White did a good business there until and during the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. And although he was somewhat remote from his base of supplies, he still claimed Portland as his home port, and, like Mr, Kamm, is still on deck and could run a steamboat as well as ever.
Efforts are being now made by the Portland Chamber of Commerce to se- cure co-operation between the provincial government of Canada and the gov- ernment of the United States looking to the improvement of the Columbia river in British Columbia in connection with like improvements of the river in the state of Washington, so that a continuous and connected line of river trans- portation may be finally completed between Portland and the head of naviga- tion on the Columbia river — a distance of about one thousand miles, by river and lakes. And it is entirely feasible, after opening the Columbia to its head- waters, to construct a short canal of about two miles over a level country and carry boats from the Columbia into the Kootenai river, and then successfully navigate the boat down the Kootenai into Kootenai lake, a hundred miles long, and then by another canal and locks of one mile pass the boat back into the Columbia four hundred miles below the point it left the Columbia to enter the Kootenai, making altogether a stretch of navigable water from Astoria to the outlet from Kootenai lake of over fifteen hundred miles and developing one of the richest mineral regions on the globe.