Multnomah-Yamhill County OR Archives Biographies.....Gile, Albion L. 
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Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com February 14, 2011, 2:53 pm

Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 938 - 939
Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     ALBION L. GILE.  Closely identified with the early history and 
development of Pacific county, the most southwesterly county of the state of 
Washington, are the names of Crellin and Gile.

     Albion L. Gile, proprietor of Chicona Farm, Chinook, Washington, was born 
near Nahcotta, and is the son of Henry Smith and Matilda J. (Crellin) Gile, 
the former having been born in Alfred, Maine, and the latter on the Isle of 
Man, England. Each of them came to Washington territory in 1853, Mr. Gile 
having sailed around Cape Horn during the California gold rush of 1849, and 
Mrs. Gile having crossed the plains as a girl with her family in 1852.

     Mr. Gile sought his fortune in the mines of California for two years, and 
disappointed in not finding an abundance of the precious metal, journeyed 
northward. In 1851 he arrived at Portland, where he joined a surveying crew 
with which he worked in Yamhill county for a time. Hearing about the oyster 
industry, then in its infancy, be went to Oysterville, which at that time was 
the county seat of Pacific county, Washington. There he engaged in the oyster 
business, where the small native oysters were gathered and shipped by sailing 
schooners to San Francisco, where the bivalves were considered a great luxury. 
Later with his brothers-in-law, John Morgan, John and Thomas Crellin, and 
Isaac Doone, he became associated with the Morgan Oyster Company of San 
Francisco.

     In 1858 he received a contract from the Federal Government to survey 
several townships fronting on the Columbia river and on the west side of 
Shoalwater bay. After completing this work he bought the donation land claims 
of George Dawson and William McGunnigle on Bakers bay, and in the course of 
time acquired more land by purchase until his farm contained about fifteen 
hundred acres, bordering on Bakers bay and lying between the Chinook river and 
Fort Columbia, on part of which is the present town of Chinook. Mr. Gile was 
one of the pioneers in the salmon fishing business, having constructed with 
John E. Graham in 1880 the first successful fish trap on the Pacific coast. 
Mr. Gile took a great interest in the development of his section of the 
country and in the civic and political affairs of the territory, having 
represented Pacific county three times in the territorial legislature, the 
first time during the term of the first governor of Washington territory, — 
General Isaac Stevens. He was a stockholder and one of the financial backers 
of the Ilwaco Railroad and Navigation Company, of which he was vice president 
for several years.

     Mr. Gile died in 1918, his wife having preceded him by five years. To 
them were born four children, Katharine L. and Eleanor E., who live in 
Portland, Oregon, Henry Starley, who died in 1903, and Albion L.

     Albion L. Gile received his early education in the public and high 
schools of Portland, later attending Portland Academy and St. Paul's School at 
Concord, New Hampshire. He then entered Yale University, from which he took 
the degree of LL.B., after which he returned to Portland.

     Shortly after his return from college he took over the management of his 
father's farm and fishing business, and for a number of years gave the major 
portion of his time to the development of Chicona Farm. After trying out 
various breeds of milk cows on the farm he decided to invest in a few purebred 
Guernseys, and in 1907 went to Wisconsin, where he bought a foundation herd of 
registered Guernseys, consisting of seven cows and a bull. The results of this 
investment were so satisfactory that in 1913 he went to Philadelphia, where he 
bought a carload of cows and heifers, and from these two purchases has grown 
the present Chicona Farm herd, which is the largest herd of purebred Guernseys 
in the northwest and one of the five largest in the United States. Chicona 
Farm Guernseys have been shown at all of the leading fairs in the northwest, 
and at the Panama Pacific Exposition Mr. Gile was awarded the cup as premier 
breeder, similar honors having been won at the Pacific International 
Exposition in Portland.

     Mr. Gile is one of the directors of the Pacific International Live Stock 
Exposition, also one of the executive committee of the American Guernsey 
Cattle Club, and a director of the Washington State Guernsey Cattle Club, of 
which he was former president.

     In addition to farming activities, Mr. Gile has carried on his father's 
salmon fisheries, and in 1915 organized the Chinook Packing Company, of which 
he is president and manager.

     On February 21, 1925, Mr. Gile was united in marriage to Miss Leonore 
McGowan, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Silas McGowan, and granddaughter of 
the late J. P. McGowan, well known pioneer salmon packer of the Columbia river.

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