Multnomah-Statewide County OR Archives Biographies.....Brownell, Cyril G. 1884 - ************************************************ 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 12, 2010, 8:43 pm Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 291 - 292 Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company CYRIL G. BROWNELL, of the firm of Brownell & Slocum, is one of Portland's leading business men, his firm commanding a large and representative patronage in the insurance and bonding business. He is regarded as a man of sagacity and discrimination and has met with well merited success in his individual affairs. Mr. Brownell was born in Lassen county, California, in 1884, and is a son of DeWitt C. and Clara A. (Bassett) Brownell. He is descended from an old American family, founded in Massachusetts prior to the war of the Revolution. His paternal great-grandfather served as a member of the Illinois legislature in 1838 and the latter's son, Dwane Russell Brownell, was a veteran of the Mexican war. After the close of that conflict he went to California with the army of occupation, making the journey on foot. DeWitt C. Brownell was born in Utah in 1851, at which time his family was en route from Illinois to California, and in the latter state he was reared and educated. He studied law and was admitted to the bar. In 1888 he went to Klamath Falls, Oregon, where he practiced his profession for four years, after which he lived in Josephine county six years, during the greater part of which time he devoted his attention to the law. He became greatly interested in the question of irrigation, the desirability of which was becoming more manifest as the country was becoming more thickly settled. He ran the first irrigation project survey on the Deschutes river, a part of his survey being later used by Drake. In 1900 he moved to Umatilla county, locating on Butter creek, where he took an active part in irrigation matters. In 1902 he constructed the Brownell ditch, which is still under his control, irrigating twelve hundred acres of land. He is the father of the Umatilla Rapids dam, having started the movement which resulted in this great development work, of inestimable value to that section of the country. He established the first sawmill at Benham Falls, which he ran for one and a half years, and since 1898 has given but little attention to the practice of law. He has been a persistent and effective booster for good roads and has always stood ready to cooperate in every enterprise having for its object the advancement of the public interest. In California, in 1879, Mr. Brownell was united in marriage to Miss Clara A. Bassett, who was born in Quincy, Illinois, in 1858, and was a daughter of Isaac Bassett, who brought his family across the plains when his daughter was about four years of age. Mrs. Brownell died in 1922. In the family were six children: Don Carlos, who lives in Portland; Llewellyn, who lives in Umatilla, Oregon; Cyril G.; Robert, who died in 1919; Beatrice, the wife of R. E. Lee, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and Eva, the wife of F. M. Hofer, of Alameda, California. Cyril G. Brownell received his early education in the public schools of the various places where his family resided, and later attended Oregon Agricultural College, being graduated in 1907. He then engaged in farming with his father and brother in Umatilla county, where he resided until 1918, when he was sent to the legislature from Umatilla county. In that year he moved to Portland and in 1923 was a representative from this county in the state legislature. On coming here he engaged in the insurance business and the management of apartments, and in 1922 formed a partnership with S. H. Slocum, under the firm name of Brownell & Slocum. They are engaged in the general insurance and bonding business and are also specialists in one other line, in which they have no competition in this state, namely, the buying of bankrupt bank assets, and a goodly share of their business now consists of liquidating. As a firm they are in better condition to successfully handle matters of this kind than the bank itself, as they are able to make certain advantageous trades that a liquidating bank would not be able to do. They are wide-awake and energetic men and have shown an aggressive and enterprising spirit in their operations, in which they have met with uniform success. In 1911 Mr. Brownell was united in marriage to Miss Florence Rigdon, who graduated from the State Normal School at Monmouth and taught school for a couple of years prior to her marriage. Mr. Brownell is a member of the Masonic order, in which he has received the degrees of the York and Scottish rite bodies. He belongs to Al Kader Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S.; also to Tuscan Lodge, B. P. O. E.; the Chamber of Commerce, the Multnomah Amateur Athletic Club, the Alderwood Country Club, the Portland O. A. C. Alumni Association, and the Oregon Automobile Association. He too is a persistent advocate of improved highways and has shown himself essentially public-spirited in his stand and in his active efforts for progress and advancement in public improvements. Personally he is cordial and unaffected in manner, makes a favorable impression on all who come in contact with him and is exceedingly popular among his associates. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/multnomah/bios/brownell1055gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/orfiles/ File size: 5.7 Kb