Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/736



July 1853; foreman J. B. Smith, assistant foreman H. W. Davis, secretary Charles A. Poore, treasurer S. J. McCormick. In August of the same year Willamette Engine Company No. 1 was organized, and secured a small engine owned by G. W. Vaughn. The company was officered by foreman N. Ham, assistant foreman David Monastes, second assistant A. Strong, secretary A. M. Berry, treasurer Charles E. Williams. It was admitted to the depart ment in July 1854, and furnished with an engine worked by hand, provided by the city council in 1856, since replaced by a steam apparatus. Multno- inah Engine Company No. 2 was admitted to the department in November 1856, using Vaughn s small engine for a year, when they were supplied M r ith a Hunneman engine, the money being raised by subscription. Its first officers were James A. Smith president, B. L. Norden secretary, W. J. Van Schuy ver treasurer, William Cummings foreman. These three companies composed the fire department of Portland down to June 1859, when Columbia Engine Com pany No. 3 was organized. In October 1862 Protection Engine Company No. 4 was added; and in 1873 Tiger Engine Company No. 5. - A company of exempt firemen also exists, having a fund from which benefits are drawn for the relief of firemen disabled in the discharge of their duty. Portland has suffered several heavy losses by fire, the greatest being in August 1873, when 250 houses were burned, worth $1,000,000. This conflagration followed close upon a previous one in December 1872, destroying property worth $250,000. The Portland fire department in 1879 numbered 375 members, composed of respect able mechanics, tradesmen, merchants, and professional men. Each of the six companies had a handsome brick engine-house and hall. A dozen alarm-sta tions were connected by telegraph with the great bell in a tower seventy feet in height. In 1881 steps were taken to secure a paid fire department, which was established soon after. Water-works for supplying the town with water for domestic purposes were begun in this year by Stephen Coffin and Robert Penland, under a city ordinance permitting pipes to be put down in the streets. The right was sold to Henry D. Green in 1860. In 1868 there were eight miles of mains laid, and two reservoirs constructed. The price of water at this date was $2.50 a month for the use of an ordinary family. A charter was granted to Green to manufacture gas for illuminating Portland, by the legislature of 1858-9, the manufactory being completed about the spring of 1860. Laws Or., 1858-9, 55; Or. Argus, Sept. 24, 1859; Oregonian, Jan. 21, 1860. Price of gas in 1868, $6 per 1,000 feet.

The first theatre erected in Oregon was built by C. P. Stewart at Portland in 1858. It was 100 feet long by 36 wide, and seated 600 persons. It opened November 23d with a good company, but was never permanently occupied. Or. Statesman, Nov. 30, 1858. In 1864 theatricals were again attempted, the Keene company and Julia Deane Hayne playing here for a short season. In 1868 a theatre was opened, called the Newmarket, and used for any musical or theatrical performance; but down to 1884 no special theatre building was erected, or theatrical representations kept going for more than a few weeks in the year. Portland, besides lacking the population, was domestic and home- loving in its habits, and also somewhat religious in the middle classes, pre ferring to build churches rather than theatres. The population at this time was but 1,750, there being but 927 voters in Multnomah county. In 1860 the population had increased to nearly 3,000; in 1862 to a little over 4,000; in 1864 to 5,819, and in 1877 to 6,717. In 1870 the census returns gave 8,300 ; Since that time the increase has been little more marked, the census of 1880 giving the population at 17,600, to which the five years following added at least 5,000. The original limits were increased, by the addition of Couch s claim on the north and Caruthers claim on the south, to about three square miles, most of which is laid out, with graded, planked, or paved streets. One line of street-cars, put in operation in 1868, traversed First Street, parallel with the river-front, and one, incorporated in 1881, ran back to and on Eleventh Street. The general style of domestic architecture had improved rapidly with the increase of wealth and population, and Portland business houses became costly and elegant. The gross cash value of property in Portland in 1868 was about \n