Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Henningsen, Anker Paulsen July 26, 1873 - November 7, 1927 ************************************************ 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 October 25, 2008, 7:55 pm Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company ANKER PAULSEN HENNINGSEN. Portland sustained the loss of one of its prominent and highly esteemed citizens in the death of Anker Paulsen Henningsen on the 7th of November, 1927, when he was fifty-three years of age. His birth occurred in Denmark on the 26th of July, 1873, his parents being Frederick A. and Meta (Paulsen) Henningsen, also natives of that country. Anker P. Henningsen, who was the eldest in a family of twelve children, attended a boys' school in Denmark and pursued a pre-medical course. The following interesting review of his business career, written by Mr. Henningsen when he was still an active factor in the world's work, is quoted verbatim: "An uncle of mine, who was in the butter and egg business in Denver, persuaded me to come to Colorado from Denmark when fifteen years of age. After spending a year working in a printing office where I acquired a smattering of English, father, who was also in the buttes and egg business in Denmark, brought the rest of the family over and entered into partnership with his brother. I started in the produce business when seventeen and have been engaged in it continuously for thirty-five years since. "In 1891 I went to Butte, Montana, and the following year took charge of a small business started there in 1889 known as Henningsen Produce Company. When I took charge, the total assets were under five thousand dollars and liabilities over twenty thousand. It took about three years to retire these liabilities and thereafter progress was fairly rapid. The profits were put back in the business and the capital increased from time to time out of earnings until it reached a million dollars paid in, all of our capital having been earned. I was in charge of the business and controlled it and along about 1900 started to build a chain of manufacturing and distributing plants, selecting the most capable young men growing up with me as managers, giving them a percentage of net earnings to be applied to the purchase of stock in the separate corporations of which they were in charge until their percentage of stock was paid out, when their dividends took the place of the bonus arrangements. With the exception of two, the subsidiary produce houses have been successful and are operating on a profitable basis in charge of the men who started them. The two that did not pay were discontinued several years ago. Our experience has proven abundantly that a good man in a mediocre location will succeed, while a mediocre man will fail under favorable circumstances, and this no doubt is equally true in almost every other lane of endeavor. "Our produce operations have made us a profit every year but one, though some years were lean, of course. Originally our business consisted of bringing west for sale and distribution, butter, eggs, cheese and poultry purchased from other packers and manufacturers. In the late '90s we started creamery and produce packing plants in Dakota and Minnesota to control our own supply. A few years later production in the west made it necessary for us to invest heavily in manufacturing and packing facilities at all of our points to retain our grip on the business. Our principal business now is the manufacture and sale of dairy and poultry products, including butter, cheese, eggs (shell, frozen and evaporated), ice cream and poultry. "Through a mistaken sense of family obligation, I stood back of outside enterprises, which I neither initiated nor approved, that took fully a million dollars in cash out of the business between 1912 and the present time and while these endeavors are still active and now controlled by me, they have produced nothing, though they have finally become self-sustaining. "During the war, high prices caused our annual volume to nearly double and the sales of the organization were considerably in excess of twenty million dollars per annum. The food administration, unfortunately for us, so manipulated their price regulations that we were not permitted to earn much more than expenses in spite of the fact that we could have taken very heavy profits. The result was that we were denied the opportunity to accumulate any reserves while the market was booming and when the final collapse came and prices on every item we handled were more than cut in two between the first of January and the last of February, 1921, we were left holding the sack. "Our weakened financial structure (due to the heavy cash withdrawals for the outside investments mentioned and to having been forced by food administration rulings to part with our profitable purchases practically without profit) having left us without a cushion to absorb the shock of such unprecedented declines, made it evident that our next financial statement would not entitle us to the heavy line of bank credit we were then enjoying, so I took the precaution of calling our bankers together and laid the cards on the table with a request for additional support. "Our total liabilities were over two million, three hundred and fifty thousand dollars and with all values depressed and uncertain, it appeared to some of our banker friends that our position was hopeless and that additional credit was out of the question. The writer personally and voluntarily endorsed all outstanding obligations and turned over to the corporation all of my personal assets, including my home, though there was neither legal or moral reasons for so doing, other, of course, than my desire to see the deal through. "At a later meeting, the banks did pro-rate an additional loan for one hundred thousand dollars and while it helped, it was wholly inadequate to enable us to benefit in any substantial way from the almost immediate recovery in the market which ordinarily would have enabled us to recover our inventory losses that same year. "Nominally, the Henningsen Produce Company has been operating under the direction of a bankers committee since May, 1921. Actually, I have had the full responsibility of management during the entire time. "During the last three years through the sale of plants (mostly to Armour & Company and Beatrice Creamery Company) located in Minnesota, North and South Dakota and Montana and by reasons of heavy production in our western plants no longer essential to the operation of the balance of our chain, we have realized considerably over a million dollars. The funds realized from these sales, the earnings during the past five years and company obligations aggregating originally approximately five hundred thousand dollars assumed by me personally, have made it possible to reduce the obligations of the Henningsen Produce Company from two million, three hundred and fifty thousand dollars to less than one hundred thousand dollars at this date. Our best earning properties are still controlled by the writer but even so, to bring about the above result has required a multitude of maneuvers, under a severe strain, without working funds, having been constantly bled white to bring about this amount of liquidation and while I could no doubt continue to carry the load to its final destination, I have come to the conclusion that I have wasted too much time and energy, in short time expedients and patch work financing, sacrificing efficiency as well as peace of mind, and that it would be better for me and fairer to my family and associates, to invite outside capital into the business and thereby clean up, even though this involved parting with a share of the assets so laboriously created over a period of years. "The earning capacity we have demonstrated is much greater than appears on the face of things. Roughly, our net earnings in the produce business over the entire period (starting not only without capital but with a deficit) amounts to two million dollars but high interest charges (our financial picture never having enabled us to borrow within two per cent of the rate for prime commercial paper) and depreciation would be as much more, to say nothing about losses absorbed of at least another miIlion. Of course, we will make more mistakes and more losses but I think our percentage of errors in the future will be much reduced and at least will not expect to have the same mistakes again. "Having the idea of 'Cleaning House' in mind, I organized under Oregon law 'Henningsen Holding Corporation' with authorized capital of one million dollars, divided into ten thousand shares of one hundred dollars each—all one class of stock. This corporation is barred in its charter provisions from dealing in merchandise and is limited to owning stock and bonds and securities. It has no borrowing power. This company is organized on the basis of no organization expense, no indebtedness, no watered stock and no fixed charges or overhead. Its sole source of income will be derived from dividends and interest received from its securities and loans or profits made in their sale. "Briefly, the plan is to sell to this holding corporation at a fair book value price the cream of the stock interest we have accumulated in the corporations we have developed during the last twenty years; to sell as much of the stock within the organization as it can absorb; to elect to the directorate of the corporation the managers of the several corporations it will control; to create through it a governing body of interested, experienced and capable men to make this a hub which will radiate harmony and work out policies through quarterly meetings and which will insure safe and continuous management, thus safeguarding future operations of the company and its constituent units, through the selection when necessary, of the most capable men developed within the circle and providing means for the protection of the estates of any of its active directors in case of their death. "The companies whose stock it is proposed to turn in to the holding corporation (the individuals and managers owning stock in these companies will of course retain their personal stock in their respective companies) and their bankers are listed below. Any of the bankers named can give you information concerning the writer or the companies they are directly familiar with: Henningsen Produce Co. Ltd., Shanghai, China. Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corpn., San Francisco. Stanley Brokerage Co., Los Angeles, Cal. First National Bank, Los Angeles, Cal. Makins Produce Co., San Francisco, Cal. Crocker First National Bank, San Francisco, Cal. Oregon Milk Company, Portland, Ore. First National Bank, Portland, Ore. Henningsen Creamery Company, Tacoma, Wash. (3 plants—Seattle, Olympia, Tacoma). National Bank of Tacoma, Tacoma, Wash. Commercial Creamery Co., Spokane, Wash. (3 plants, Spokane, La Grande and Baker). Old National Bank, Spokane, Wash. Northern Creamery Company, Great Falls, Mont. First National Bank, Great Falls, Mont. Great Falls National Bank, Great Falls, Mont. Alberta Produce Company, Calgary, Alta. Bank of Nova Scotia, Calgary, Alta. Yellowstone Creamery, Billings, Mont. Merchants National Bank, Billings, Mont. Sheridan Creamery Company, Sheridan, Wyo. Bank of Commerce, Sheridan, Wyo. The banks best able to give information concerning the affairs of Henningsen Produce Company are: United States National Bank, Portland, Ore. Bank of California, N. A., Portland, Ore. Canadian Bank of Commerce, Seattle, Wash. but all of the banks named are fairly well posted with respect to my activities with the possible exception of the Canadian banks mentioned and the banks in Sheridan and Billings, as I have not come in as close personal contact with them as with most of the others. "In connection with our Great Falls operations, I might mention that after I had organized the Northern Creamery Company, the respective bankers offered to sell their preferred stock at fifty cents on the dollar. I would have taken it too but did not have the money. Half of the preferred has already been retired at par plus seven per cent dividends and the outstanding common stock is easily worth three hundred dollars a share--not bad in two years considering the concern we took over had been losing steadily for five years. I do not expect that performance to be duplicated again very soon in our line of business. "Most of our surplus produce is sold in the California market and this volume is bound to increase as the population grows and increasing land values makes dairying unprofitable, or other activities more profitable in southern California. "The various managers have already subscribed for nearly one hundred thousand dollars of Henningsen Holding Corporation stock and I have several yet to see. It is my expectation that the organization will absorb close to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars and that I must place about four hundred thousand dollars additional on the outside, though I am assured that half of this can be handled by converting my personal notes due-July, 1927, held by personal friends who exchanged Henningsen Produce Company notes held by them for my personal notes four years ago, for stock in which case two hundred thousand dollars sold for cash outside of the organization would accomplish the desired clean up, which I confidently believe will greatly increase our earning capacity by enabling us to use all of our efforts in productive channels. "My plan contemplated compensating the president and secretary of the Holding Corporation with ten and five per cent respectively of the income of the Holding Corporation rather than by way of a fixed salary. "I believe the Holding Corporation will earn over a five-year period, profits of between fifteen to twenty per cent yearly and it is my idea to pay cash dividends of eight to ten per cent yearly carrying the balance forward as a reserve to further help in the upbuiiding and development of the various units controlled by this Holding Corporation and eventually to distribute same by way of cash or stock dividends." On the 15th of July, 1899, Mr. Henningsen was united in marriage to Miss Phyllis Marie Bailye, a native of Birmingham, England, and a daughter of Thomas and Martha (Woodwiss) Bailye. Following the demise of her husband in England, Mrs. Martha Bailye came to the United States with her daughter Phyllis and after a short time spent in Idaho they took up their abode in Butte, Montana, where the latter was married. Mr. and Mrs. Henningsen became the parents of eight children, recorded below. Doris Marie, a graduate of St. Helens Hall, became the wife of Severin Harkson and now resides in Shanghai, China, with her husband and her son, Robert Warren, Mr. Harkson being manager of a plant there established by Mr. Henningsen; Anker Bailye, who attended the University of Pennsylvania and who is now manager of the Independence Creamery at Eugene, Oregon, married Yale Arnold. Arthur Paulsen, also a resident of Shanghai, China, wedded Miss Harriet McNeil, of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Robert Alexander Henningsen wedded Miss Margaret Holman, of Portland, where he makes his home. His education was acquired in the University of Oregon, where his brother, Frederick Andrew, was also a student. All of the four brothers named attended the Shattuck Military School at Faribault, Minnesota. Phyllis Martha Henningsen is a graduate of St. Helens Hall and also spent two years as a student in the University of Oregon. Ardeane Jane is now pursuing her education in St. Helens Hall, and Marjorie Louise, the youngest of the family, is also attending school. Mr. Henningsen gave his political allegiance to the republican party, believing firmly in its principles as factors in good government. He joined the Lutheran church as a boy and fraternally was identified with the Masonic order, in which he attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite and was also a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. His life was an upright and honorable one in every relation and his death was therefore the occasion of deep and widespread regret. His widow, who resides at 1717 Scott avenue in Portland, enjoys an extensive and favorable acquaintance throughout the city. Additional Comments: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. II, Pages 510-516 Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/or/multnomah/photos/bios/hennings502gbs.jpg File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/multnomah/bios/hennings502gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/orfiles/ File size: 17.2 Kb