Malheur County OR Archives Obituaries.....Hope, M. G.  1927
************************************************
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:
Patty Theurer seymour784@yahoo.com August 22, 2005, 3:07 am

Malheur Enterprise, Payette, Idaho, February 5, 1927
The Malheur Enterprise
Vale, Oregon
February 5, 1927

PIONEER BANKER SUCCUMBS TO LONG ILLNESS

COMMUNITY MOURNS DEATH OF M. G. HOPE, RESPECTED CITIZEN, WAS COMMUNITY BUILDER

For 46 Years Was Prominent Citizen Instrumental In Growth Of Vale And Vicinity

M. G. Hope, president of the Farmers and Stockgrowers bank, died late Saturday 
night of an illness of several months.  His death makes the passing of another 
of the prominent empire builders of eastern Oregon.  Business houses were 
closed and hundreds of friends gathered at the Christian church Monday 
afternoon to attend the funeral service.  A comforting sermon was delivered by 
H. Jackson Perry.  Interment was made in the Vale cemetery.

Settled Here In 1883

Mr. Hope was born in humble circumstances near Vinqua, Wisconsin, on August 31, 
1859.  The Civil War left him fatherless at the age of six.  With his widowed 
mother and two small brothers the family moved to Kansas.  At the age of 
fourteen Mr. Hope was thrown entirely upon his own resources but was able to 
secure a common school education and later graduated from Bryant and Chapmans 
Commercial College of St. Louis, Missouri, at the age of twenty. 
In the year 1883 he came to the Malheur Valley and with his brother Isiah, 
settled near Vale.  In 1887 the brothers organized the mercantile firm known as 
Hope Brothers, which business later became widely known throughout Harney, 
Baker and Malheur counties.  

Community Builder

Mr. Hope was the first postmaster at Vale after the organization of Malheur 
county.  He was always active and interested in any movements beneficial to his 
community and it was due to his efforts that the Vale Milling company was 
formed in 1918.  Shortly after he was a factor in organizing the First Bank of 
Vale, which later reorganized and became the United States National Bank, of 
which Mr. Hope was president and manager until the year 1918, when ill health 
compelled him to dispose of his banking interests. 
In the year 1907 Hope Brothers built the first electric plant for Vale which 
was operated  under their management until it finally merged with the current 
Vale Power Company.
In 1910 Hope Brothers, together with their associates, Leo Schmidt, T. W. 
Halliday and T. W. Claggett, organized the Vale Hot Springs Company and built 
the present natitorium still in operation.
Mr. Hope was a prominent factor in the organization of the Warm Springs 
irrigation district and for several years acted in the capacity of secretary.
In 1920 he established the Farmers and Stockgrowers bank where he remained as 
president and manager until his death.  He was widely respected and his passing 
is mourned by a host of friends.  He was a member of Vale Lodge No. 100 I. O. 
O. F and he was a charter member of Advance Lodge No. 105, Knights of Pythias, 
both bodies having participated in his funeral service.  
Besides his widow he leaves three sons, Paul Gene and Billy, who live in Vale; 
Leslie of Oakley, Idaho, George of Portland and a daughter, Mrs. Bessie Marks 
of Rawlins, Wyoming, all of whom were here for the funeral service.
He also leaves his brother Isiah who in the obituary said, “and now that 
brother, who left with him in 1881 as a boy left home and mother to come to the 
far West and settle in Malheur Valley, who for all these 46 years knowing as no 
other knows his every action and thought, his hopes and inspirations, cannot 
refrain at this last parting as a final tribute to say the words of Mark 
Anthony:  “His life was gentle and the elements so mixed in him that nature 
might stand up and say to all the world, this was a man.”

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/malheur/obits/h/hope11gob.txt

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

File size: 4.2 Kb