Clatsop County OR Archives Biographies.....Parker, Captain Eben P. November 30, 1854 - ************************************************ 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 Wakley iwakley@msn.com January 17, 2011, 2:21 pm Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 682 - 684 Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company CAPTAIN EBEN P. PARKER. Among the worthy sons of Clatsop county, Oregon, who have honored their native locality by their active, useful and successful lives, stands Captain Eben P. Parker, of Astoria. His active career covered the period of the greatest development of this section of the Columbia River valley and he has been a witness of and a participant in many of the stirring events which marked the transformation of Clatsop county from what was comparatively a wilderness into one of the most attractive and desirable sections of the state. His life story was well told by Fred Lockley and printed in the Portland Daily Journal of June 5 and 6, 1922, as follows: "Eben P. Parker lives at Astoria. He is an old-time mail carrier, hotel keeper and river captain. 'I was born at Fort Clatsop November 30, 1854,' said Captain Parker. 'Fort Clatsop, by the by, is where Lewis and Clark wintered. My father, whose name was Hiram B. Parker, was born in Washington, Vermont. He came to Oregon in 1851. My mother, whose maiden name was Irene Cox, was also born in Vermont. My parents came to Oregon by water, coming by the Nicaragua route. They settled about twelve miles from Astoria on the tidewater of the Lewis and Clark river. My father worked in a sawmill there until 1853. My brother Charlie was born there. In 1853 my parents moved to Fort Clatsop, where I was born. My father worked at Fort Clatsop in a sawmill owned by his brother, Wilder W. Parker. They used to receive one hundred and fifty dollars a thousand for their lumber delivered at San Francisco. "'In 1856 my father came to Astoria and bought the "Cooney" Welch sawmill. They sawed up two shiploads of lumber and shipped it to San Francisco. The freight was fifty dollars a thousand. Instead of receiving one hundred and fifty dollars a thousand for the lumber, as they had expected, it brought fifty dollars a thousand, which just cleared the ship's charges for taking it there. This put my father out of business. He lost his sawmill and had to take a job as carpenter. A little later he went to the mines. After mining awhile he ran a butcher shop. Later he got a job taking the census. Later he built steamboats, and still later became a hotel man. He ran the Parker house in Astoria over fifty years. Lincoln, Clara and I are the children still living. Clara married Charlie Johnson, a steamboat man. When he died she married W. H. Hobson, also a steamboat man. Her first husband was a bar pilot there. While bringing in a ship loaded with rails for Ben Holladay's railroad the ship was wrecked on the beach and Captain Johnson was drowned. "'I started my career on the river when I was twelve years old as a mess boy aboard the old "Joe Lane." They paid me thirty dollars a month in greenbacks, which were worth fifty cents on the dollar. The "Joe Lane" was a revenue cutter. Her commander was Captain Scamerin. Lieutenant Hooper was the first lieutenant. Many years later he took the battleship "Oregon" back, after its long run to take part in the destruction of the Spanish fleet. Lieutenant Davidson was second lieutenant. "'In 1869 I landed a job with Hapgood & Hume. They had a cannery at Eagle Cliff, about forty miles up the Columbia, just below Oak Point. They paid me thirty dollars a month. Billy Hume was a good old scout. He was a Scotchman and he understood the cannery business. Most of the other canneries had all sorts of grief with "swell heads." In those days they paid twenty-five cents apiece for salmon irrespective of size. The fishermen would often bring in salmon weighing fifty pounds, for which they received twenty-five cents. My father started a butcher shop, so I learned the meatcutter's trade. I worked in the butcher shop from 1869 to 1872. "'Along about that time father took a contract to carry the mail to Seaside. We made three trips a week. Father wished the job on me. I took the mail from Astoria to Skipanon in a plunger. Don't you know what a plunger is? It is a small sailboat. I used to leave Astoria about six o'clock in the morning and usually I got into Seaside at about three o'clock. From Skipanon I transferred the mail from the plunger to a team and drove the rest of the way. The captain carried the mail over the old military road from Astoria to Forest Grove for a period of four years and was familiarly known to the old settlers as the "wild boy." "'In 1872 Ben Holladay bought up about five hundred acres on the beach and put up the Seaside hotel. This cost him about seventy-five thousand dollars. Holladay liked me and said to me, "Some day there will be a city down here. It will pay you to buy the property between my place and the Ocean house." That was a two-and-a-half-mile stretch along the ocean shore. George Cook owned a donation land claim of something over four hundred acres, for which he wanted one dollar an acre. Bill Hodge had forty acres along the beach, for which he wanted five hundred dollars. G. F. Clayton had eighty acres along the beach, for which he wanted six hundred and fifty dollars. Fifteen hundred dollars would have purchased the whole proposition. The city of Seaside is built on the Hodge place and the Clayton place. I wanted to take a chance on it and buy it, but my father said, "Don't do it. You will waste your money. You can't grow grass on it. This talk of having a city there is sheer nonsense." "'When I was carrying the mail from Astoria to Seaside Ben Holladay asked me, when I handed him his mail, not to go away, as he wanted me on a matter of importance. He had a negro cook named Washington, who is now living in Portland. I decided that while I was waiting I would go into Washington's cook tent and get a square meal. While I was there they were scouring the whole country for me. Finally, Ben Holladay located me and handed me some papers. He said, "I have just bought this place. These papers are important. I want you to deliver them to my agent in Astoria. Whatever you do, see that they get there safely." I took the papers and stuck them inside my blue flannel shirt. Holladay said, "That's no safe place; they will work down your leg and get lost." I showed him my flannel shirt was double breasted, so they couldn't get out. He said, "Don't that beat hell? I have driven and owned stage coaches and pack trains, and I never thought of having a double breasted shirt as a safe place to carry papers in." "'He was so pleased at buying the property that he invited me to take a drink of whiskey. I knew how my father felt about it, and refused. He urged me to take it, and so finally did so. He opened a bottle of champagne, which he said was very mild. About all I remember about that champagne was that every time I drank a glass of it it tickled my nose and made me want to sneeze. I went to a dance that night, but I didn't lose the papers, and also I didn't know much about the dance. The next morning when I got home I told my mother about it. She and I decided I had better not tell my father. Holladay started east on a trip the next month. Joe Medley, Holladay's foreman, went to Astoria and said to my father, "Your lad was down to our place not long ago and got full. He didn't know whether he was afoot or on horseback." The next day I received a letter marked "In Haste." It was from my father. He said, "I hear bad news about you. Come home at once." I had a very painful session with my father, but there is no need of going into that. "'When Holladay returned from the east I drove him down to Seaside. He said, "You are driving a good horse." I said, "Yes, you told me to take any horse I wanted from your place except your trotting horses, so I took this one." He said, "Why, that's Hester Campbell's horse. You shouldn't have taken Hessie's horse." However, he agreed to let me keep it. Later Holladay married Hester Campbell. Two of her sisters live in Portland — Maria Smith, who lives at the Ramapo hotel, and Mrs. Latham, who lives in East Portland. All three are daughters of Hamilton Campbell, who came as a missionary to Oregon in 1840. "'As we drove along Holladay said, "Well, my boy, how has the world been using you since I have been gone?" I said, "Not very well, thanks to you." He looked astonished and said, "What do you mean?" I replied, "I don't think it is a very nice thing for a man to get a boy drunk and then go and tell his father about it." He said, "Why, I never mentioned it." I said, "Well, one of your men did." He didn't say any more until we got to his place. Then he said, "Who told your father about your being tight?" I said, "Your foreman, Joe Medley." Instantly he struck up a clamor and began calling, "Joe, Joe, Joe Medley. Where are you? Come here this minute." When Joe came, he said, "Did you tell this boy's father he was drunk?" Joe said, "Yes, I did." Holladay gave him the worst tongue lashing I ever heard. He said, "You have worked for me for ten years, but you are through. You are fired right now." Then Ben called for the hostler. He came running, and Holladay said to him, "Hitch up a team at once. Take Joe Medley to Astoria. He's fired. I won't have him on my place a minute longer." "'I used to see Holladay every day when I was carrying mail. Once when I handed him his letters he said, "You won't be seeing me around here much more. I have lost everything I have. I mortgaged the land grant of my road from Astoria to Forest Grove and they are going to foreclose. They are going to take steamships and everything." He transferred the Seaside house and the property there, as well as his sawmill, and also the Portland Street Railway Company, to his brother Joe, to keep for him until the storm blew over. Joe had been working for Ben as a barkeeper on one of the boats. When Ben wanted the property back later Joe refused to turn it over. The contest over this property kept the lawyers busy for years afterwards. "'I went into the hotel business and worked in a hotel until 1881. My father had built a steamboat, called the "Clara Parker," which plied between Astoria and Portland. I served as captain of the "Clara Parker" until 1890, when he built the "Astorian" and I took charge of her. I worked on the river thirty years. When we sold the "Astorian" to Jacob Kamm and his associates I quit the river and took up the hotel business. I have been running this hotel, the Parker house, since 1913. "'I was married, March 6, 1876, to Nellie Carr. We have six boys and four girls. As I have lived in and around Astoria for the past sixty-eight years I come pretty near knowing most of the old timers.'" The ten children born to Captain and Mrs. Parker are Thomas, Mrs. Elsie Stanfield, Mrs. Laura Shea, Hiram B., Mrs. Rose Hess, Wilder W., Charles L., Freeman F., Mrs. Irene Boyle and Eben P., Jr., all of whom are living except Freeman F. Captain Parker has had thirty-six grandchildren, of whom two are deceased, and he also has several great-grandchildren. Four of his sons, Charles L., Wilder W., Freeman F. and Eben P., Jr., served in the World war. Wilder was the only one to go overseas, where he was actively engaged in fighting, and was badly wounded and gassed in the action in Belleau Woods. The Captain has always taken a keen interest in everything concerning the welfare and progress of his community or county and at one time was a member of the city council. Though well past the psalmist's three score years and ten, he is still mentally alert and physically vigorous for his age, and throughout the locality in which he has spent his life he commands the respect and esteem of his fellowmen. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/clatsop/bios/parker1359gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/orfiles/ File size: 12.4 Kb