Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/207

 lime, plaster, cement, doors, window blinds, etc.," their establishment being on Front Street between Washington and Stark Streets in Portland. Still later (1862) he was in command of independent steamboats on the Willamette and Columbia rivers.

It is apparent that to Ruckel's personal enterprise the acquisition of the Oregon Portage in a single interest and the building of the railroad is chiefly due, though the Portland banking house of Ladd and Tilton must be credited with the largest financial share, as will appear later on in this narrative, and Harrison Olmstead's interest must have been not far from that of Ruckel. When he left the State, and presently dropped out of the transportation history of the Pacific northwest, Olmstead's share in the development of the country was the subject of a short sketch from which the following is taken:

His being identified with the best interests of the State in its rapid strides of progression, makes him one of our own with as strong ties of fellow kindred as could connect one to another in the bonds of consanguinity. He is one of those who in an early day were considered as "Californians" come to Oregon to eat up her wealth by pocketing the revenues of a lucrative trade in the steam navigation of the Columbia river. He was one of the pioneers of the Cascades, a prominent owner of the "Oregon side." But instead of taking away from the old State her wealth, has actually been the agency of building up and rendering valuable her wastes and wdlds. The old notions and prejudices of that day we are happy to say are fast playing out among our people and the men who have been bold and vigorous enough—like Mr. Olmstead and the majority of those now composing the corporation of which he is a member—to open up and develop its resources, are getting a share of the credit they deserve. Mr. Olmstead came to California at an early day, 1849, if we are not mistaken.

In 1870 Olmstead returned to Oregon, and the Portland