Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 16.djvu/177



THE DALLES-CELILO CANAL 159

Shares Shares

R. R. Thompson 120 Ladd & Tilton 80

Jacob Kamm 57 T. W. Lyles 76

L. W. Coe 60 J. C. Ainsworth 40

A. H. Barker 30 S. G. Reed 26

Benjamin Stark 19 Josiah L. Myrick 12

Richard Williams 7 J. W. Ladd 4

G. W. Pope. ., 4 J. M. Gilman 2

Geo. W. Hoyt 3

The names of none of those engaged in the portage business, either at The Cascades or at The Dalles-Celilo, appear openly upon the published list, but those owners must have been included because the first board of directors of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, elected on December 29th, 1860, were J. C. Ainsworth, J. S. Ruckle, D. F. Bradford, S. G. Reed and L. W. Coe, and five months later R. R. Thompson succeeded to the place of Mr. Coe. (These were the directors who very soon afterward voted to purchase from Orlando Humason, et al., the equipment and good will of the portage business between The Dalles and Celilo, and spend the large sum of $100,000.00 for new equipment.) The portage at the Cascades, on the south or Oregon side of the River, was owned by J. S. Ruckle and Harrison Olmstead, and that on the north or Washington side by Bradford and Company, and each of these rivals held a five year contract with the Oregon Steam Navigation Co. under which they would receive one- half the freight charges between Portland and The Dalles, then $30.00 per ton, upon everything transferred across each respective portage.

The manager of the Oregon Steam Navigation Co., Capt. J. C. Ainsworth, then really played these rival portage owners at the Cascades against each other. The purchase of the rail- road iron for the Dalles-Celilo portage was authorized at a meeting which Mr. Ruckle, because of some jealousy against the Bradfords, failed to attend and the arrival of the rails from San Francisco was a surprise to him. Three miles of the