Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Gates, Captain John December 1829 - April 27, 1888
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com June 11, 2009, 12:04 am

Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     CAPTAIN JOHN GATES.  Four decades have come and gone since Captain John 
Gates was called to his final rest, but as long as steamers ply northwestern 
waters his name will be remembered with reverence in both the engine room and 
the pilot house. As an inventor of labor-saving devices he was a real genius 
whose works remain as monuments to his memory that time cannot efface. Captain 
Gates passed away in Portland on the 27th of April, 1888. He was born in 
December, 1829, in Mercer, Maine, and while still living in the east he became 
a skilled mechanic. He was a young man of twenty at the time of his arrival in 
San Francisco, California, in 1849, and four years later he came to Oregon. He 
first worked as engineer in a sawmill located at the foot of Jefferson street 
in Portland but soon thereafter became identified with the steamboat business 
and a little later succeeded Captain Jacob Kamm as chief engineer of the 
Oregon Steam Navigation Company. In this important position his genius 
manifested itself and in ten years he had obtained twenty-seven patents that 
proved invaluable in the operation of large vessels. Among the most notable of 
these are the Gates hydraluic steering gear, without which it would be 
practically impossible to handle big boats in these waters, the automatic 
oiler gauge, self-lubricating cup, section boilers, the spark arrester and 
several sluice pumps. The following are a few of the many boats constructed 
under his supervision: Orient, Occident, Almota, Wide West, Daisy Ainsworth, 
R. R. Thompson, S. G. Reed, Hassolo, D. S. Baker, Harvest Queen, Henry Villard 
and John Gates.

     Captain Gates was twice married and by his first wife, who bore the 
maiden name of Mary Blodgett, had three children: Fred F.; Harriet L., the 
wife of John Mair; and Mary, who became the wife of William Burrage. By his 
second wife, who in her maidenhood was Rachel Scales, the Captain had four 
children, namely: Nellie G., the widow of Albert Magoon; William H., of 
Seattle, who is chief engineer on the U. S. Grant, plying between that city 
and the Orient; Edna, at home; and John, who is connected with the Portland 
Electric Power Company.

     Captain Gates was a republican in politics and manifested a deep and 
helpful interest in public affairs. In 1885 he was elected mayor of Portland, 
giving to the city a progressive and businesslike administration. Later he 
became a runner-up for the governor's nomination. Fraternally he was 
affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and the highest 
principles actuated him in every relation of life. None stood higher with his 
associates than did Captain John Gates, one of the older river men whose 
record constitutes an integral chapter in the history of navigation in the 
Pacific northwest.

Additional Comments:
History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. II, Page 
846

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