Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/306



and reelected, serving in all eight years. Under his administration nearly all the roads in the county were located and opened to travel. He was always an active friend of the public schools, and in every way labored to promote the public welfare, and now at the age of 87, enjoys the homage and respect of every good citizen, spending 'the evening of life in a quiet, restful home on Portland Heights.

Another man influential in starting useful enterprises was Joseph A. Strow- bridge. Coming here while yet a boy, and while but recently having lost his father by mountain fever, contracted on the plains, the young man resolutely addressed himself to the very serious task of making his own way in a new country without friends, experience or assistance of any kind. He was the first person to engage in shipping apples from Oregon to the miners in Cali- fornia, and in that respect he was the father of the Oregon apple exporting business. He afterward engaged in the wholesale shoe and leather business, finally cutting out the boots and shoes, and confining his business to wholesale leather and findings. A more complete statement of his career will be found in the biographical volume.

Edward James Northrup, born in Albany, New York, in 1834, came to Port- land in 1852, and served as a clerk in the store of his father. Nelson Northrup, and Montreville Simonds, for three years. He then opened a hardware store in the town in partnership with R. H. Blossom. This was the foundation of the great hardware establishment of "The Honeyman Hardware Company" at the corner of Fourth and Alder streets. Northrup was one of the best citi- zens, taking a very active part in educational and church work.

George W. Snell, a native of Augusta, Maine, and George L. Story, from Manchester, Mass., were the pioneer dealers in drugs, medicines and paints. Snell arrived first, coming early in the spring of 1851, and bringing with him Dr. J. C. Hooper, also of Maine, from San Francisco with a stock of drugs. Dr. Hooper died in the same year, and was succeeded in the business by Mr. Story, and Story by Smith & Davis. In a few years Smith & Davis were suc- ceeded by Hodge, Calef & Co., and them by Snell, Heitshu & Woodard. This firm greatly enlarged the business and erected the handsome stone building at the intersection of Sixth and Burnside streets. Charles Woodard started a drug store on Front street at the foot of Alder street, which, being moved first to First and Alder under the Odd Fellows Temple, and then to Fourth and Washington, has grown to be the greatest retail "department" drug store in the United States, and the father of the wholesale drug house of Clarke, Woodward & Company at Ninth and Hoyt streets. But to return to Mr. Story, we find that after closing out his interest in the firm of Smith & Davis, he returned to San Francisco, and formed the partnership of Story, Redington & Company in the wholesale drug trade of that city, and again sold out there and returned to Portland in 1862, and has resided here ever since. Mr. Story has been active and influential in business and public affairs in Portland for nearly sixty years, and is still, at the age of ']'], in good health, attending to a large, fine insurance business as if he were a young man.

There were, of course, many other men in the town hard at work at the date when these more prominent leaders located here who are entitled to recog- nition, and would not be overlooked here if the facts of their lives were now accessible. To reproduce the daily life of the little town now, after the passing of sixty years has carried away forever the lives and incidents of that day. is a difficult if not impossible task, and if enough is furnished to enable the dis- criminating reader to guess at what has been lost by time, it is the best that can be done.

At the close of this period of the city's growth, the following business houses were well established : H. W. Corbett, general store ; Josiah Failing and two sons, hardware ; J. H. Couch, general store ; Breck & Ogden, general store ; C. H. Lewis of Allen & Lewis, general store; S. M. & L. M. Starr, store and