Page:Portrait and biographical record of the Willamette valley, Oregon, containing original sketches of many well known citizens of the past and present .. (IA portraitbiogr00cha).pdf/16

22 PORTRAIT AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD. bilities of Oregon. The motive that impelled him in his decision was the fact that Oregon was an agricultural country and California then almost wholly devoted to mining, and he reasoned that the produce raised in Oregon would be taken to California, payments being made with gold dust; thus Portland would be an excellent trading point.

On the steamer Empire City, January 20, 1851, Mr. Corbett set sail from New York to Panama. Crossing the isthmus on muleback he then took the Columbia, which had been built by Howland Aspinwall of New York to ply between San Francisco and Portland. After a few days spent in San Francisco he proceeded to Oregon, arriving at Astoria on the 4th of March. The next day he reached Portland. There were only a few business houses on Front street. The houses were small and poorly furnished. Improvements were limited. What is now a beautiful city was then covered with large forest trees of pine and spruce. The territory of Oregon embraced Washington, Idaho and a part of Montana. Some months before starting west Mr. Corbett shipped a stock of goods on the barque Francis and Louisa via Cape Horn. On the arrival of the vessel in May, 1851, he transferred the goods to a building on Front and Oak streets and embarked in general mercantile business. Leaving the store in charge of a manager, in June of 1852, he returned east via Panama, and spent almost a year in New York, meantime shipping goods to the Portland store. In 1853 he returned to Portland, where he continued the business. On the completion of the Union Pacific Railroad it was no longer necessary to bring goods around the Horn, but they were sent by rail to San Francisco, thence by boat to Portland. In 1868 he made the first trip by rail from the cast to San Francisco. Previous to this he had made thirteen trips across the isthmus. Through his election as United States senator from Oregon in 1866 Mr. Corbett gained prominence among the statesmen from the west, and was enabled to do much toward advancing the interests of his home state. However, he was not a politician at any stage of his career, and his service in public capacities was only as a result of the constant solicitation of his friends, his personal tastes being in the direction of financial and commercial affairs rather than politics. As a business man he contributed to the development of Portland in a degree surpassed by none. As early as 1851 he began to be a leader among merchants. He was the first business man to close his store on Sunday, this being regarded at the time as a startling innovation. From that day forward he was strict in his adherence to measures he believed to be just and right. The business which he established shortly after his arrival in Portland was conducted under the name of H. W. Corbett, then as H. W. Corbett & Co., later as Corbett, Failing & Co., and lastly as Corbett, Failing & Robertson. Since 1867 their store has been the largest wholesale hard- ware establishment in the northwest, as well as one of the largest on the coast. In 1868 H. W. Corbett bought a controlling interest in the First National Bank, of which Mr. Failing was made president and continued as such until his death in 1898, at which time Mr. Corbett became the executive head of the institution.

In 1865 Mr. Corbett took the contract for the transportation of mails to California. Company and enlarged the line to carry out the years later he bought out the California Stage contract for running the four-horse stage coach with the mail between Portland and California. On his election to the United States senate he relinquished the contract. From the early days of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company he was one of its directors and up to the time of his death was a director of its successor, the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company. At different times he has had important manufacturing interests. The building interests of Port- land were greatly promoted by his co-operation. Among the buildings which he was interested in erecting are the following: First National Bank building; Worcester block, six stories, on Third and Oak streets; Cambridge block, on Third and Morrison; Neustadter building, on Stark and Fifth Corbett, Hamilton and Marquam buildings, etc. An earnest advocate of the Northern Pacific Railroad, while in the senate he gave himself to the work of promoting the measure. After the failure of Jay Cooke to carry the plan to a successful issue and when Henry Villard undertook the completion of the road, Mr. Corbett took a pecuniary interest and in many ways promoted the work. While living in New York, Mr. Corbett was married at Albany, that state, to Miss Caroline E. Jagger, who was born in that city and died there in 1865. Two sons were born of that union, namely: Henry J., and Hamilton F., both of whom died in Portland in young manhood. The second marriage of Mr. Corbett was solemnized in Worcester, Mass., and united him with Miss Emma L. Ruggles, a native of that state. Movements of a humanitarian nature always received the encouragement and assistance of Mr. Corbett. One of the worthy movements to which he lent. his aid was the Boys and Girls Aid Society, which endeavored to arrange affairs so that children, guilty of a first crime, were not thrown. among hardened criminals. A home was built especially for such first offenders and its influence has been lasting and far-reaching.