Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/275

Rh would have been a man of mark in any community. He was needed by the new city, and he made his presence felt from his very first day in town. Nobody seemed to know from what corner of the earth King came, and he took no pains to enlighten them. But he was a valuable addition to the city, as he was familiar with all sorts of scheming, and by that early day the new town had to look out for its interests at every session of the legislature; and King was always on hand to see that there was a square deal with possibly something over to Portland.

King made enemies as well as friends. His positive disposition and his love of fair play did not always tally with predisposed politics. It is remembered that at the time Governor Curry had selected officials for the militia without respect to party affiliations, a petition was gotten up by some democrats to have the whigs (republicans) removed or their appointments canceled. When it was presented to King to sign, he read it over carefully, then as if not understanding it, read it a second time, and then vehemently tore the document to pieces, and proceeded to denounce the authors in words more forcible than polite: "that such men would rather see women and children slaughtered by the Indians than to have a good man of the opposite party hold an honorable position in the militia."

As great nations have been dependent on the sea, not only for their prosperity, but also their very existence—England for example—so it was with Portland, Oregon, in the years 1845 to 1851. And now the story turns from the land builders of the town to the hardy sea rovers working to the same end. And in this good work the name of Captain John H. Couch stands at the top of the list.

The first appearance of Captain Couch in Oregon waters is in 1840, when he came out here from Newburyport, Mass., in command of the ship Maryland to establish a salmon fishery on the Columbia. The ship belonged to the wealthy .firm of the Cushings of Newburyport, who had been induced to some extent by letters from Jason Lee to make this venture. The fishery was not successful, for there was no fishermen but the Indians, and they were not reliable to serve the Americans. And so Couch sold the vessel at the Sandwich islands and returned to Newburyport, leaving in Oregon, George W. Le Breton, an active and pushing young man, who made his mark in helping organize the provisional government. Having learned from this voyage, the conditions and requirements of trade in Oregon, Couch returned in 1842, with a stock of good? in a new brig—the Chenamus—named for the Chinook Indian chief who had lived opposite Astoria; and leaving this stock at Oregon City with one Albert E. Wilson, who also came out in the Chenamus, and Le Breton, Couch engaged his vessel in the trade to the Sandwich islands, the whole business being under the name and auspices of Gushing & Company, of Newburyport. Couch continued to manage this business until 1847, when he returned home to Newburyport by the way of China. In the following year he engaged with a company of New York merchants to take a cargo of goods to Oregon on the bark Madonna, Captain George H. Flanders coming out with the Madonna as first officer, and took command of the Madonna on reaching Oregon, while Couch took charge of the cargo, which was stored and sold at the new town of Portland on the Willamette. The two captains went into business together, and remained in Portland for the rest of their lives. And thus were two of the best men located in Portland that ever lived in the state.

Portland got the benefit of all this shipping by Captain Couch. He early saw and fully appreciated the advantages of the location for the foundation of a seaport and commercial city, and took advantage of his opportunities to locate a land claim at what has long been the north end of the city. And considering what Captain Couch did directly for the town, by making it the home port of his ships for several years, and also what he did indirectly by influenc-