Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/283

 energy to every possible plan to build up the new town. He sold lots at nominal prices, or gave them away to secure improvements. He did not get very far along until he felt the need of assistance, and soon found the right man in the person of Stephen Coffin, then living at Oregon City, to whom he sold a half interest in the townsite. Coffin was a man of great push and energy, and quite as much of an optimist as Lownsdale. The two men made a team that settled the future of Portland. But they did not get very far into the depths of the speculation until they ran up against so many legal snags and obstructions that they felt the need of a legal adviser. And for that man, the man who fully believed in Portland and most heartily and harmoniously worked with and approved the efforts of Lownsdale and Coffin, was William W. Chapman; and to Chapman, Lownsdale and Coffin united in selling and conveying an undivided one-third interest. So far as the town on the east side of the river is concerned, the water front and lands back of it for a mile were covered by the claims of James B. Stevens and Jacob Wheeler. But neither of these men ever contributed anything whatever to the success of locating or building a city at this point. Lownsdale, Coffin and Chapman soon put their affairs in shape for aggressive and continuous work for the town, by organizing a townsite company, of which Coffin was president and Chapman was secretary; and thus making Portland the strongest and most active townsite interest on the Pacific coast north of San Francisco. Lot Whitcomb, as the representative and principal owner of the Milwaukee townsite had been giving the Portlanders a hot fight for supremacy. In this he was ably supported by Captain Joseph Kellog, the father of all the Kellogs, and all the Free Masons in Oregon. With their saw mill and little schooner they were earning money in making and carrying lumber down to San Francisco. And just when the race appeared to be about even between the two rival cities, Whitcomb got hold of a steam engine at San Francisco, brought it up here, and with the aid of Jacob Kamm, built and equipped a steamboat, launching her on Christmas day, 1850. Whitcomb soon had her going, a first-class commodious boat for those days, and put her on the route between Milwaukee and Astoria, fifteen dollars for a single passage either way, steaming past Portland without stopping or even saluting with a blast from the steam whistle.

At the same time that Whitcomb and Kellog were waging their active opposition to Portland, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, which had at first made Astoria the end of their trip, suddenly abandoned Astoria, and came up and purchased a large interest at St. Helens, and erected a wharf and warehouse there, and made St. Helens the Oregon terminus of their San Francisco steamship voyages. Whitcomb and Kellog at once united in this arrangement, and as it was a shorter run for their steamboat, it could be and was used effectively to cut off trade from Portland by running the boat to Vancouver and Oregon City, as well as to all points on the Columbia river.

Up to this period, Captain John H. Couch had been the most efficient support that Portland had received in concentrating trade, especially the ocean going sailing vessels. Couch's influence was never fully comprehended in this contest. He had made the acquaintance of hundreds of sea captains, and was favorably known wherever these captains sailed their ships; and the fact that he had always discharged his own ship here influenced all his acquaintances on the seas to also "sail for Portland, Oregon."

But now the townsite proprietors—Coffin, Chapman and Lownsdale-must bestir themselves. They were compelled to meet the opposition of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and destroy it one way or another, or be ruined. And by this time (1850) although growing slowly, Portland had gathered in quite a village population of active earnest men, who not only had their own property interests at stake, but had a genuine friendship for the townsite proprietors. And altogether, it was decided that a long pull, and a strong pull, and a pull altogether was the thing to do, and get in a steamship in the interest of Port-