Clatsop-Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Gilman, Samuel LeNeve September 12, 1849 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/or/orfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com May 29, 2010, 9:24 pm

Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 328 - 329
Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     SAMUEL LENEVE GILMAN, a resident of Oregon for the past sixty-four years, 
is an old-time auctioneer of Portland who was thus active in business for 
nearly a half century. Since 1922, however, he has devoted his energies to the 
real estate business at Seaside, where he believes a great summer resort is 
developing. He was born in Kingston, Canada, September 12, 1849, his parents 
being Edward and Mary (Thompson) Gilman, the former born at Hingham, Norfolk 
county, England, March 31, 1811, while the latter was a native of Rochester, 
Kent county, England. Edward Gilman was graduated in law at Eton College of 
England and practiced his profession in that country prior to his emigration 
to Canada. After settling on American soil he served as judge of the assize 
court of Norfolk county, Ontario, for twenty-eight years. Following his 
resignation from the bench he was counsellor for the Bank of Montreal through 
a period of several years and then made his way to California, where he spent 
the remainder of his life in honorable retirement, passing away at Santa Cruz 
in the '70s. His widow survived him for many years. Their family numbered six 
children, of whom two are yet living: Mrs. H. B. Beveridge, of San Francisco, 
California; and Samuel LeNeve.

     The latter acquired a good education in the schools of Canada and crossed 
the border into this country in 1864. The experiences of his business life are 
best told in his own words: "I came to the United States when I was fifteen 
years old to visit my brother-in-law, who lived at Boston. The president of 
the Boston & Worcester Railroad saw me at the station and asked me if I didn't 
want to work for a few weeks in place of his office boy, who was sick. My few 
weeks stretched out to a year. I had been there several weeks when the 
president asked me how much I was getting. I told him I didn't know. He 
said, 'Haven't you been paid yet?' I said, 'No sir; not yet.' The next morning 
I found on my desk a fat envelope addressed to me. Upon opening it, I 
discovered it was full of shinplasters and greenbacks. I felt as rich as 
Rothschild, for that was the first money I had ever earned. I used to go down 
to the trains to meet the wounded soldiers as they came in and help the 
members of the sanitary commission during the early years of the Civil war. 
When I heard of the rich mining district in eastern Oregon, I decided to go to 
the coast, so I came here in 1864. I got a job with A. B. Richardson, the 
auctioneer. I worked with him till 1870, when I was twenty-two years old, when 
I became his partner. In 1876 Edwin Russell and I went to Albina. At that time 
the only buildings there were the iron works and three cottages. We built the 
United States revenue cutter Thomas Corwin, which, by the way, is still in 
service. In 1878 I started in business for myself at 42 First street. The last 
public sale I made was of the C. K. Henry property in Laurelhurst. The 
Sunnyside street car line used to stop at twenty-eighth street. Campbell & 
Swigert said they would extend it to the heights of Mount Tabor if we would 
raise fifteen thousand dollars and secure the right of way for them. I took 
over this job and succeeded in raising the money and getting the rights of 
way.  I had 10 acres on the summit of Mount Tabor, near Belmont and Stark 
streets. I paid two hundred dollars an acre for the first acreage I bought 
there. J. Fred Clark, J. D. Hart, Campbell & Swigert, Harvey Scott and H. L. 
Pittock had all secured acreage there. The property that we purchased for two 
hundred dollars an acre now sells retail at from two thousand dollars to 
twenty-five hundred dollars a lot. People thought we were wildcatters to go 
clear out to Mount Tabor and cut acreage into lots. What happened at Mount 
Tabor will happen with Garden Home and other districts where good service will 
put a person into the heart of the city in from twenty to thirty minutes. 
Twice I have been flooded by high water, and twice I have been burned out; but 
those vicissitudes merely add interest and incentive to life."

     Portland was a country village covered with timber at the time of Mr. 
Gilman's arrival in 1864. He became a charter member of Auld Lang Syne Society 
of Portland. In 1922 he purchased an attractive home at Seaside, where he has 
since been successfully engaged in the real estate business, being confident 
that Seaside is a great summer resort in the making. Though seventy-nine years 
of age, he is still an active factor in the world's work and enjoys an 
enviable position as one of the highly esteemed and respected citizens of 
northwestern Oregon.

     In 1870, in Portland, Oregon, Mr. Gilman was united in marriage to Julia 
C. Richardson, a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who accompanied a 
brother to Portland in the '60s. She passed away in 1922, leaving six 
children, as follows: Mary Margaret, who is a business woman of Portland; 
Elizabeth, the wife of W. A. Mansfield, of Portland, and the mother of two 
children, Katherine and Stanley; Julia C., a resident of Glendale, California; 
W. L. N., who is associated in business with his father at Seaside; Edward H., 
an employe of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, who resides in Portland, 
is married and has three children —- Constance, Marian and Arthur; and Ruth 
Agnes, the wife of Cyril S. Greaves, of Glendale, California, and the mother 
of a daughter, Dorothy. The daughters of the family are graduates of St. 
Helen's Hall of Portland, as well as of St. Mary's Academy, and Ruth and Julia 
are talented musicians.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/clatsop/bios/gilman1074gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/orfiles/

File size: 6.3 Kb