Page:History of Oregon volume 1.djvu/836

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BIOGRAPHICAL.
785

    the county seat of Josephine co., besides having interests in various other manufacturing and railroad enterprises. He was elected to the legislature from Mulnomah co. in 1884. In politics he is an ardent republican, as was his father Jonathan Bourne, Sr, who was four times member of the executive council of Mass., and was the first delegate to vote for the nomination of Lincoln in the convention of 1860, since which time he has been a member of every republican national convention to the present time. The son inherited also the father's business talents, who was for many years the largest whale-ship owner in the world, and later interested in railroads and various manufactures.

    John Somerville, a native of Ill., was born in 1846, and migrated to Oregon in 1873 in company with his father, Alexander Somerville, born in Ky in 1816. His mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Stephenson. They had two other children, Edgar J. and Mary J. The family settled on a farm in Linn co., where the father died in 1880. John engaged in merchandising, and subsequently in stock-raising in eastern Oregon, in company with A. H. Breyman. In 1883 Somerville, Breyman Bros of Salem, and B. J. Bowman established the National Bank of East Portland. Somerville married, in 1867, Ellen E. Shelley, a native of Lane co.

    James Lotan, born in Paterson, N. J., served a term of enlistment in a N. Y. regiment in the civil war, and came to Oregon in 1864, having first been employed in the navy-yard at Washington for a year. He was foreman and manager of the Oregon Iron-works for several years, and in 1873 became a large stockholder and supt of the Willamette Iron-works. The company was incorporated in 1865 with a capital of $50,000, the money used in the business afterward increased to about $200,000; M. W. Henderson pres., B. Z. Holmes vice-pres., W. S. Stevens sec, and John Mair supt. The company in 1883 had a business worth $400,000, which fell off subsequently as the railroads were completed.

    B. F. Kendall, born in Springfield, Ill., Feb. 6, 1827, came to Oregon in 1851, and engaged in farming and stock-raising, having 80 acres of improved land in Baker co., and several hundred head of cattle and horses. He was elected county commissioner in 1883 on the republican ticket.

    S. A. Caldwell was one of a joint-stock company of 150 persons from Boston who in 1849 came to Cal. by sea in a vessel of their own. After arrival, and finding that as a company they could do nothing, they sold their vessel and disbanded, Caldwell coming to Oregon in 1850. In 1852 he formed one of a company which purchased stock of the immigrants. The winter of 1862 being a severe one, they lost 5-6 of their herd, having neither shelter nor food, and the cattle being worn down with their journey across the plains. In 1854 Caldwell settled in Eugene, where he resided for 8 years, when he removed to Auburn, and in 1876 settled near Malheur City on 160 acres, 120 of which was arable land.

    W. McClanahan, born in Ind., came to Oregon overland in 1852 in the company of William Huntington. In the spring of 1853 he went to Shasta, Cal., and engaged in mining, remaining there 5 years, when the Fraser River excitement carried him to B. C., from which place he returned in the autumn of the same year. In 1859 he married Annie Butt of Forest Grove and moved to Clarksville, where he mined and kept hotel until 1872, when he settled on a farm near Bridgeport. He secured 480 acres, 260 of which was rich bottomland, and the remainder upland, all good for farming purposes. McClanahan gives the name of James Fleetwood and William Mitchell as early settlers in his section, and mentions Frank Koontz as having erected the pioneer saw-mill here. The mill was subsequently sold to Clements. A school was established in the district, and religious services held once a month.

    H. W. Sloan, supt of the Humboldt Mining Association of Cañon City, furnishes the following: The stock of the co. is divided into 8 shares, held by 6 working members; namely, H. W. Sloan, two shares, value, $3,000; J. Sprowl, two shares, $3,000; W. C. Sprowl, H. Heppner, F. Yergenson, and H. Hunter, one share each, $6,000. They have a patent to 140 acres of min-