Portland, Oregon: Its History and Builders/Volume 2/Francis I. McKenna

by Joseph Gaston

FRANCIS I. McKENNA.

Francis I. McKenna, the intelligent direction of whose labors and investments have placed him in the ranks of Portland's prominent and wealthy citizens, has been both the architect and builder of his fortunes. Earnest, self-denying labor was his lot in early manhood, but with ambition and ability to work his way upward, he has steadily progressed along lines of general usefulness as well as individual success. He was born in Perry county, Ohio, February 25, 1859, a son of William and Charity (Burgoon) McKenna, who were farming people of that district. The fact that he is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution indicates his descent from one of the old colonial families, the records of the organization indicating that it is through the maternal line that he came into connection with this society. The genealogy record on his father's side is traced to Clan Mackenna in the twelfth century, and the clan records are now in St. Mary's Hall at Belfast. Ireland. On the mother's side the ancestry is traced back to Alsace, in the fourteenth century. She was a second cousin of Archbishop Hughes, famed for having diplomatically prevented foreign interference in the Civil war.

Between the ages of six and twelve years Francis I. McKenna attended the district schools of Perry county, Ohio, from three to six months each year. Thereafter he had no school training except about five months devoted to a normal course. His parents died when he was yet a child, and he could make no plans for the future but grasped every opportunity from day to day. With ambition to obtain an education, the necessity for food and clothing demanded his attention. However, he borrowed text-books and reference books and questioned the priest, the preacher and the teacher at every meeting, using every available opportunity to promote his knowledge and thereby increase his usefulness and his chances for advancement. He labored in the mine, on the farm, on railroad construction and with the section gang. By the hardest kind of common labor and nightly study he was enabled at the age of eighteen years to put aside the garb of a common workman and take up the profession of teaching in a country school. For four years he taught in the public schools of Ohio and for two years was a teacher in Creighton College at Omaha, Nebraska. Abandoning that profession in 1883, he afterward followed various pursuits, being for a time an employe of the Union Pacific Railroad Company, a commercial traveling salesman and for a short period a retail drug merchant. The year 1889 witnessed his arrival in Portland and here he turned his attention to the real-estate business, in which the extent and importance of his operations have been such as to place him now with the wealthy men of the city. His keen discernment pointed out to him judical investments and the rise in property values, owing to the rapid growth of the city, brought him substantial returns, his sales furnishing him with ready capital, while his property holdings constitute for him a splendid collateral.

Mr. McKenna's study of the situation in Portland, as bearing upon his real-estate affairs, also led him to recognize the needs and opportunities of the city, and throughout the years of his residence here he has labored untiringly, earnestly and effectively for the improvement, betterment and adornment of Portland. He promoted the establishment of the first boulevard system of Portland, the establishment of the Portland University, now the Columbia Col

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FRANCIS I. McKENNA

lege, and the Portland Board of Trade. He made the first move toward holding an exposition in Portland by offering a resolution before the Board of Trade calling for a mass meeting of the citizens to plan for an exposition in 1902, which date was later changed to 1905. He organized the Portland Belt Line & Mount Hood Railroad, which brought about the construction of the Portland, St. John's Trautdale and Mount Hood lines of the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company. Thus he has been associated with many movements in which the public has been a large direct beneficiary, his labors being on many occasions a factor in the movements which have wrought the greatest good to the greatest number. He was the first president of the Initiative One Hundred which started the movement in the city of Portland for civic betterment and for the city beautiful.

In 1884 Mr. McKenna was married in Chicago to Miss Laura Linebaugh, a daughter of Noah and Sarah (McCaslin) Linebaugh, a granddaughter of Jonas Linebaugh and a great-granddaughter of Susana Wise, of the Wise family of Rockingham county, Virginia, who were important factors in the Revolutionary war for the freedom of America. Mrs. McKenna's mother was a daughter of Cunningham and Mary Ann (Allen) McCaslin and a granddaughter of James Allen, also of Revolutionary war fame. Unto Mr. and Mrs. McKenna has been born a son, Coe A., who was born at Omaha, Nebraska, October 22, 1887, and was graduated from the George Washington University in February, 1910, and received the degree of Master of Arts in June of the same year.

Mr. McKenna has long been known as one of the most prominent members of the United Artisans. In fact he was the founder of that highly successful fraternal beneficiary society and filled the office of supreme master artisan for eleven years, and for the same length of time was editor of its official paper, The Artisan. He now holds the honorary office in the society of senior past supreme master artisan. Strong in his honor and his good name, strong in his ability to plan and perform, he stands at the present time where he did in young manhood, as the champion of earnest labor, honorable principles and progressive citizenship. His own life record proves the value of each. He has never selfishly centered his activities upon his own interests, for while laudable ambition has prompted him to labor diligently for the achievement of success, he has at the same time done that for Portland which entitles him to classification with its real upbuilders and promoters.