Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Griffith, Charles Roger December 7, 1874 - 
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Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com January 21, 2011, 4:19 pm

Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 746 - 749
Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     CHARLES ROGER GRIFFITH, president of the Griffith Rubber Mills, of 
Portland, is a man of sound business judgment and in the management of his 
present business is achieving distinctive success. He was born in Minneapolis, 
Minnesota, on the 7th of December, 1874, and is a son of William Alexander and 
Hannah (Keefe) Griffith, who took their family to California in 1876, and 
there the father engaged in contracting and building. Mr. Griffith attended 
the public schools and Oakland Academy, after which he took a commercial 
course in Idelott Business College, at Oakland. He then entered the dental 
department of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, in San Francisco, where 
he carried on his studies until three weeks before his graduation date, in 
1898, when he laid aside his textbooks and enlisted in the United States Army 
for service in the Spanish-American war. He was sent to the Philippines, where 
he served until the close of the war, when he was honorably discharged. He 
then went to Nome, Alaska, where he engaged in mining until the fall of 1905, 
when he returned to the States and located at Emeryville, California, where he 
became associated with his brother, William Edwin, under the name of the 
American Rubber Manufacturing Company, and engaged in making paper-mill rubber 
rolls. They continued together until the brother was accidentally killed while 
hunting, in 1913. Later the Emeryville plant was sold to Nat Dodge, of Dodge 
Brothers, who is still operating the mill. Mr. Griffith then came to Portland 
and organized the American Belting and Hose Company, so continuing until 1927, 
when the business was reorganized as the Griffith Rubber Mills, of which Mr. 
Griffith is president, treasurer and general manager, Franklin T. Griffith is 
vice president and L. P. Griffith is secretary. The business was first located 
at First and Ash streets, but was later moved to Front street, between Ash and 
Ankeny streets. The next move was to East Water and Yamhill streets in May, 
1920, and finally to the present location at 521-3 North Twenty-second street, 
where the company bought the plant formerly the Schaeffer Copper Works, and is 
remodeling the building, which is one hundred by two hundred feet. The company 
is engaged in making mechanical rubber goods, specializing in paper-mill 
rubber-covered rolls, which are sold throughout the northwest and British 
Columbia. The Griffith top press roll, on which Mr. Griffith has a patent, is 
now used by nearly all paper-mills on the coast in competition with the 
granite roll. The Griffith company has a well earned reputation for the 
exactness of its goods, which are manufactured under the plastometer test, and 
of any consistency, from that of metal to that of a sponge, all grades being 
absolutely uniform in test. Mr. Griffith has also developed a new "doctor 
blade" of rubber composition, for cleaning the upper roll of a paper machine, 
and which is now in general use. The blade is tough and will not break, having 
a third more strength than cast iron and of only one-seventh the weight. The 
paper-mill rolls weigh from one thousand pounds to sixteen tons each. The 
Griffith plant is up-to-date in its equipment and gives employment to eleven 
skilled workmen.

     In 1909, Mr. Griffith was united in marriage to Miss Laura Pope, of 
Oregon City, Oregon. He is a member of Portland Lodge, No. 55, A. F. & A. M.; 
Portland Consistory, A. A. S. R.; Al Kader Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S.; the 
Multnomah Athletic Club, the Advertising Club and the Chamber of Commerce. He 
is a man of strong character and indomitable will, has gained success through 
his perseverance and energy, and is recognized as one of Portland's 
progressive and reliable business men.

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