Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 3.djvu/66

60 distinguished men who marveled at the logic and eloquence of this elderly woman of the border.

Mrs. Duniway's descriptive poems rank high. Oregon, Land of Promise and her Centeninal Ode, the latter in commemoration of opening day at the Lewis and Clarke Exposition, being considered among her best. Numerous works of fiction appeared as serial stories in her New Northwest during the sixteen years of its publication, which their author says will be offered to the public in book form if she can ever command the time for their proper revision. Her latest book, From the West to the West, brought out by A. C. McClurg & Company, of Chicago, in 1905, still enjoys a steady sale.

Of her family of six children, her only daughter, Mrs. Clara Duniway Stearns, a beautiful and accomplished woman, died in January, 1886. Of her five sons, Willis S. is Oregon's state printer, Hubert R. is a wholesale lumber dealer in New York; Wilkie C. is superintendent of The Portland Evening Telegram; Clyde A. is president of the State University of Montana; and Ralph R. is a prominent attorney of Portland. Her husband, Mr. Ben C. Duniway, passed away in August, 1896, beloved and honored by a large circle of relatives and friends. "My children are my highest achievement and principal asset," said Mrs. Duniway, with another of her motherly smiles, as the compiler of these chronicles ended a most interesting interview.

William Alexander Gordon, well known in the grain shipping business on the Pacific coast, was born April 29, 1864, at Woodstock, province of Ontario, Canada. He comes of Scotch lineage and is the son of the Rev. David B. Gordon, a Presbyterian minister, and the grandson of William Gordon, a well known pioneer of Canada, who lived at Bayside, Whitby. His n>other was a daughter of Alexander Bain, of Forres, Scotland, also prominent during his life in business and literary circles.

Though when a boy rather inclined toward a literary career, Mr. Gordon left school at sixteen to take a clerkship in a bank at Nevada, Iowa, but continued his studies in Latin, Greek and higher mathematics under a private tutor after banking hours for a period of three years. During this time also he became imbued with a desire to visit the Pacific coast. This idea was fostered by tales told him by his employer who had pioneered along the coast ivi the early '70s. In 1882 Mr. Gordon started for the west. Arriving in San Francisco, he found employment with the publishing house of A. L. Bancroft & Company, leaving them, however, a few months later for Portland, where he secured a position as accountant with the firm of McCraken & Mason, with whom he remained until that firm retired from business. Later he became connected with the well known firm of Allen & Lewis, filling the positions of bookkeeper and cashier and remaining with the firm some twelve years, gaining a broad and comprehensive experience that has served him in good stead in after years.

In 1898 Mr. Gordon embarked in business on his own account and was associated for several years with the late Henry F. Allen, the well known capitalist of San Francisco, and afterward with C. Lombardi, who still retains an interest in the corporation of The W. A. Gordon Company, of which Mr. Gordon is the president, and which is counted one of the conservative and substantial concerns in Portland. A branch of the company in San Francisco also transacts an extensive business.

Mr. Gordon is happily married. His wife was a Miss Garner, whose family were originally from Bourbon county, Kentucky, and related to the Peytons and Mitchells of that section. Her mother's family name was Wayne and she is a direct descendant of General Anthony Wayne of Revolutionary fame. Three