Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Helser, M. J. 1879 - 
************************************************
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 Wakley iwakley@msn.com October 28, 2009, 10:19 pm

Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 159-161
Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     One of the best known industrial establishments of Portland has been the 
Helser Machine & Marine Works, Inc., of which M. J. Helser is president, and 
which for over twenty years enjoyed a steady and substantial business. Fred 
Lockley, in the Oregon Daily Journal of 1916, printed the following 
description of this company and its early history: "The Helser & Unden Machine 
Works is an enterprising proposition located at 493-5-7-9 Twenty-second street 
north, and its function is the designing and building of special machinery. It 
occupies a building fifty by one hundred and twenty-five feet, plumb full of 
machinery, operated by twenty-five to forty mechanics, according to the 
seasons. It undertakes the construction of new things in the line of 
machinery, develops inventions, similar to the Taft-Pierce concern at 
Woonsocket, Rhode Island, and assists in solving machinery problems for those 
who may be puzzled, so to speak, as to how to make theirs work smoothly and 
effectively. It builds centrifugal pumps, and has a large business in this 
line. It has built a great number of city hydrants, and all of the Portland 
Railway, Light and Power Company's car fenders. It constructs a line of 
matchless stump pullers and stump boring machines. It constructed all the 
machinery for the government used in building the Celilo canal, and several of 
the hoists for the Willamette Pulp and Paper Company. The 'Boosters' for the 
Portland public docks and those for Astoria were made by this company. In 
fact, it is expert in the construction of any kind of wood or iron working 
machinery.

     " 'Mr. Unden and myself were machinists employed by the Willamette Iron 
and Steel Works when that plant was on Glisan street,' Mr. Helser informed the 
Journal, 'and when it moved to its present location in 1906 we resigned and 
with four hundred and fifty dollars we had saved started a little machine shop 
of our own in a small vacant store room at 250 Glisan. We worked like nailers 
and got along finely, enlarging as our means permitted. We had all repairs for 
the switch engines of the Northern Pacific Terminal Company until that 
corporation established shops of its own, and this was a decided help. But we 
employed only two mechanics, so you may imagine our business was not very 
extensive. Still, our expenses were light, and we made good money. In 1914 
William Casey, a crackerjack machinist, for years with the Willamette people, 
resigned and purchased the interest of Mr. Unden, though we still retain that 
gentleman's name, I took the general management and Mr. Casey the shop 
superintendency. This change seemed to infuse new energy into the very marrow 
of our bones, and from that day to this we have grown like milkweeds. Today we 
have a property worth at least thirty thousand dollars, and we are still 
adding to our equipment. And we expect to keep up our gait. Some day, we are 
sure, if you "watch our smoke," you will find ours one of the "big" shops of 
the city. We saw the Willamette grow and prosper when there was less 
opportunity than now. We believe that, with a growing city and increasing 
demand for our class of work, we will do likewise and not encroach upon the 
preserves of any other institution either. There will be room for all of us.'

     "Mr. Helser is an 'optimist duck.' He is one of those live wires who can 
make things go whether they want to or not. They call him 'Jack' around the 
shop, and he apparently has the faculty of 'jacking' things up so that 
business is good at 'his house' all the time. And Casey is also 'at the bat.'

     "Helser was a candidate for city councilman at the election which 
established the commission form of government. It will be remembered that 
councilmen were voted for both under the old and new system, so that in case 
the commission form should be rejected Portland would not be without a 
government. The gentleman was a candidate under the old system, and receiving 
a majority of all votes cast would have been seated had the ancient council 
idea been continued. He is a fluent talker, and it is related of him that in 
rehearsing his exploits and life experiences to his constituents of the ward, 
he named periods of time in which he had been engaged in this and that pursuit 
of honorable and hifalutin' occupations. The curious but hateful statistical 
voter, always present at political meetings, was on hand and made record of 
Mr. Helser's statements, and, to his amazement, discovered that the rosy-
cheeked, diamond-eyed, smiling, voluble gentleman, in appearance not a minute 
above thirty, actually was, according to his own asseverations, one hundred 
and four years old! However, in the minds of the voters of the ward, Mr. 
Helser was not Oslerized, so they elected him to a seat he never filled.

     " 'I am a stanch believer in Portland,' Mr. Helser says. 'Let me tell 
you,' he went on, 'the cream of the world was moulded into one entrancing 
region bejewelled with joy gems when western Oregon was created, and this 
garnished with the most precious brilliants when those garden acres east of 
the Cascades came into existence. Give us peace and industry, and one day this 
Oregon country will out-Eden Eden. It will be the citadel of such prosperity 
and contentment as language has not yet depicted. Our people will live in the 
very atmosphere of comfort impossible to picture in words. This will be the 
Glory Land of the republic! It will hand out more and greater blessings than 
you and I can think of now! Smokestacks will multiply and workmen increase, 
wives rejoice in the motherhood of a dozen babies, and the sun will kiss none 
but happy faces!

     " 'Put me down as an optimist! Tell the people I swear by this fraction 
of Uncle Sam's domain! Tell them to swear by it too. Burn it upon the hearts 
of the people to be true to themselves — and they can best do this by buying 
for themselves Oregon-made products, when these are possible to secure.

     " 'And if you will, you might also slip in somewhere that if ever in need 
of a piece of machinery, ordinary or special, or to be relieved of their 
perplexities in the building or correction of a model, Journal readers should 
make a bee line for this machine shop, and we'll guarantee satisfaction or 
their money back.' "

     Mr. Casey sold his interest in the business in 1916, from which time Mr. 
Helser ran the business alone until 1926, when it was incorporated as the 
Helser Machine & Marine Works, with Mr. Helser as president; H. C. (Heiney) 
Foster, vice president and sales engineer; Ray Lein, shop superintendent; A. 
L. Teter, treasurer; and J. E. Mendenhall, secretary and attorney. Mr. Foster 
has been with this concern continuously since 1907, having learned the 
machinist's trade here, after which he took up engineering and developed into 
a valuable and capable man. Mr. Lein has been with the company for the past 
twelve years. On December 18, 1926, H. C. Forsberg became an active 
stockholder. Increased business demanding more space, the company made two 
extensive additions to the plant, erecting a building, fifty by one hundred 
feet in size across the street, and another building, one hundred and fifty by 
one hundred and twenty-five feet, on the west side of Twenty-second street, 
but on July 27, 1928, the plant was destroyed by fire. The owners are now 
having all work done in various plants throughout Portland, thus keeping their 
old men employed. In addition to the line of work previously mentioned, the 
company is also an extensive manufacturer of papermill machinery. During the 
World war it built an average of one hundred cargo wrenches a month and 
furnished much other machinery for the government, doing an average business 
of over one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars a month, while in 1920 
the company did a large business in marine supplies, in which it is still 
engaged. It furnished and installed the sterilizer and disinfector for the 
County Hospital and since has installed a large number of the special 
disinfectors which it builds. The Helser plant has been in constant and steady 
operation from the beginning and is recognized as one of Portland's 
substantial and dependable enterprises.

     M. J. (Jack) Helser was born in Nebraska in 1879 and is a son of Henry 
and Christina Helser, who brought their family to Portland in 1886, and here 
the father was extensively engaged in contracting. M. J. Helser received a 
public school education, after which he took the International Correspondence 
School's engineering course. At the age of eleven years he began work for the 
Portland Cordage Works, with which concern he remained for five years, and was 
then with the Portland Iron Works for the same length of time. He next entered 
the employ of the Willamette Iron & Steel Company, with which concern he 
remained until embarking in his present business.

     In 1899 Mr. Helser was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Schnell, who 
was born in Nebraska but was brought to Portland in girlhood. To them have 
been born two children: Mabel, deceased, and Raymond Jack, who is attending 
high school.

     The republican party receives Mr. Helser's support and he has always 
shown a sincere interest in the welfare of his city and county. He is a Mason, 
having taken the degrees of both the York and Scottish Rites; and is a member 
of Al Kader Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S.; Portland Lodge, B. P. O. E., and the 
Multnomah Athletic Club. He is greatly interested in athletic sports, being 
himself an expert amateur boxer, and he has refereed a number of fights. He 
belongs to the Chamber of Commerce and is serving on the industrial committee, 
and is a past president of the Metal Trades Association. He is a man of sound 
business principles, good judgment and great determination, and the success 
which has come to him has been won by hard and continuous effort along right 
lines, so that today he commands the unequivocal confidence and respect of all 
who know him.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/multnomah/bios/helser948gbs.txt

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

File size: 10.7 Kb