Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Jeffery, Edward James April 23, 1835 - December 24, 1916
************************************************
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 January 21, 2011, 2:25 am

Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 740 - 743
Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     EDWARD JAMES JEFFERY.  Research into the records of the past indicates 
how closely, actively and prominently Edward James Jeffery was associated with 
the development not only of Oregon but of California and the entire northwest. 
There were few phases in the pioneer life of the Pacific coast with which he 
was not thoroughly familiar and the story of his career, if told in detail, 
would present a vivid picture of the west as it emerged from frontier 
conditions and took on all of the evidences of modern-day civilization. Mr. 
Jeffery bore active part in promoting many projects which constituted vital 
forces in the growth and improvement of Portland and when he passed away on 
the 24th of December, 1916, his name was written high on the list of those 
pioneers whose memory will be forever honored in Oregon.

     Mr. Jeffery was born in Oneida county, New York, April 23, 1835, and in 
his infancy accompanied his parents, who were natives of England, on their 
removal from the Empire state to Lenawee county, Michigan, where they settled 
upon a farm whereon Edward J. Jeffery remained during his youthful days. He 
had reached the age of seventeen when in the spring of 1852 he left the 
district school and the old homestead to seek his fortune in California. For 
six months he traveled across the long stretches of hill, plain and mountain 
ere he reached Placerville, where through the following winter he was employed 
in the mines. With the return of spring he secured employment in a brick yard 
in Stockton, California, but in the succeeding autumn again engaged in mining, 
this time in Tuolumne county, where he remained until 1856. For two years 
thereafter he followed farming in Shasta county, California, but the hope of 
winning a fortune in the mines again lured him following the discovery of gold 
on the Fraser river. He sailed on the Cortez on its maiden trip from San 
Francisco to Bellingham Bay and from that point followed an old-time Indian 
trail to Mount Baker, but the trail there became so obscure that he was 
obliged to retrace his steps to Bellingham Bay. He then with five companions 
started in a canoe up the Skagit river and around the Sound, traveling through 
a country in which few white inhabitants were found. He finally made his way 
up the Fraser river to Fort Yale, but his search for gold was unsuccessful. He 
then worked his passage on the "Gold Hunter" back to San Francisco and for two 
years thereafter was employed at farming and brick making in Stockton, 
California. Even yet he could not resist the call of the mines and in the 
spring of 1862 started for the Caribou district in British Columbia, and on 
learning of rich gold discoveries on the Stikine river, near the present site 
of Fort Wrangel, he made his way to that district but again was unsuccessful 
and returned to Fort Simpson, from which point he shipped as a sailor on a 
Hudson Bay vessel, making a trip three hundred miles north of Sitka, Alaska. 
In November of that year he returned to Victoria and then, still 
undiscouraged, he started for the Caribou mines in the spring of 1863, working 
his way on a vessel to Fort Yale, whence he traveled on foot to the mines a 
distance of four hundred miles. After working through the summer he again came 
to Portland in the fall but in the following summer went to the mining 
districts in the Boise basin of Idaho. It was after this attempt that he 
decided to concentrate his efforts in other directions and Portland thereby 
gained a substantial citizen who as the years passed did much for the 
upbuilding of the city. His first position was in a sawmill and a little later 
he became superintendent of a brick yard owned by A. M. Eldredge. After two 
years spent in that connection, during which he carefully saved his earnings, 
he began the manufacture of brick on his own account in connection with George 
Fagg, with a yard between Yamhill and Morrison streets. Following his marriage 
in 1867 he began manufacturing brick at the corner of Twentieth and Washington 
streets, where he later erected his residence, and in 1876 he removed the 
plant to Twenty-third and Jay streets, while in 1886 the business was 
established on the Sandy road in East Portland. Steadily his patronage grew 
and from time to time he was obliged to enlarge his plant to meet the 
increasing demands of the trade. Various other business projects prospered 
through his cooperation and sound judgment. He became a partner in the firm of 
S. S. Cook & Company, engaged in macadamizing and street paving, and later the 
business was carried on, through a change in partnership, under the style of 
Bays & Jeffery. They laid the paving in many of Portland's streets and Mr. 
Jeffery also built the Grave Creek tunnel and eighteen hundred feet of the Cow 
Creek tunnel along the line of the Oregon & California Railroad, while in the 
fall of 1883 he became associated with D. D. McBean in the building of the 
Siskiyou tunnel. Important city contracts were awarded him, including the 
construction of the Tanner Creek sewer and the Johnson Creek sewer. Mr. 
Jeffery was also interested in the Arlington silver mine and aided in 
organizing the company that acquired the property. At a later period he built 
a number of the tunnels for the Southern Pacific and also four miles of its 
line in Cow Creek canyon, his active connection with railroad construction 
continuing until about 1895, when he retired. He had also engaged in street 
railway building in Portland at an early day and was the first to place the 
open street car upon Portland's thoroughfares. His business projects were all 
of a character that contributed to public progress and prosperity as well as 
to individual success. His plans were ever carefully formulated and promptly 
executed and from the beginning of his residence in Portland he took active 
part in the growth of the city. He put in the first cobblestone pavement here 
and he had the distinction of serving as sheriff of Multnomah county for a 
longer period than any other save the present incumbent, Mr. Hurlbert. He 
always voted with the democratic party and regarded it as the duty and 
obligation as well as the privilege of a citizen to exercise his right of 
franchise.

     Mr. Jeffery was married August 8, 1867, to Nautilla A. King, a daughter 
of Nahum A. King, who is mentioned at length on another page of this work. Her 
early girlhood home was a log cabin — one of the pioneer dwellings of 
Portland. By her marriage, she became the mother of five daughters and two 
sons: Hattie, the wife of Ivan Humison; Ella, the wife of J. B. Bronough; May, 
deceased; Frances; Edna, the wife of Dr. M. C. Holbrook; E. J., who became his 
father's successor in business; and Oliver K., whose record is given at length 
elsewhere in this work. Mrs. Jeffery still makes her home in Portland, her 
memory being a connecting link between the primitive past and the progressive 
present. Mr. Jeffery was called to his final rest on the 24th of December, 
1916, when in the eighty-second year of his age. His had been an eventful 
life. Hardships and privations were his in early manhood and he knew what hard 
manual labor was. He never faltered, however, in the performance of any task 
and he made wise use of his time, talents and opportunities. When he felt that 
his hope of winning fortune in the mines would never be realized he turned to 
other pursuits and found in Portland an advantageous field, so wisely 
directing his efforts in the course of years prosperity in large measure was 
his, while the methods which he followed made his name an honored one wherever 
he was known.

Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/or/multnomah/photos/bios/jeffery1390gbs.jpg

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/multnomah/bios/jeffery1390gbs.txt

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

File size: 8.4 Kb