Multnomah-Clatsop County OR Archives Biographies.....Kendall, Fred P. June 15, 1859 - ************************************************ 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 February 15, 2011, 3:44 pm Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 972 - 973 Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company FRED P. KENDALL, manager of the northwest district of the American Can Company, as well as manager of the company's great factory at Portland, is a pioneer in the can manufacturing business in the Pacific northwest and has been an important factor in its development here, being recognized as a man of initiative, ability and sound, practical judgment. The American Can Company was organized in 1901, as the result of the consolidation of a number of can manufacturing concerns throughout the United States, and it now does about thirty per cent of the can business of the country, being the largest organization in its line in the United States. In 1904 the company built its Portland plant on Front and Thurman streets and installed six lines of machinery, with a productive capacity of a half million cans a day. The present plant, at Wilson and Twenty-sixth street north, was built in 1921, and covers approximately six and a half acres of ground. In it are operated eleven lines of automatic machinery, which produce packing cans, as well as a large general line of cans, pails and other articles in tin, over four hundred different items being manufactured. The plant has a daily capacity of one and a half million packers' cans, besides the other lines of goods. From three hundred to six hundred people are employed, most of whom are skilled and specially trained workmen. The company maintains its own machine shop on the East side, in which it gives steady employment to over sixty men in making and repairing tools and machines. The production of this plant is sold in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska. In addition to the Portland plant, the American Can Company has nine similar factories in California, one at Seattle, Washington, and one at Vancouver, British Columbia. The company runs an open shop, pays good wages and sustains such relations with its employees that at no time has it had any labor troubles. Fred P. Kendall, manager at Portland, was born in Massachusetts on the 15th of June, 1859, and is a son of Joseph R. and Sarah A. (Cutler) Kendall. Both families have long been established in this country, the Kendall family having settled in Maine in 1657. Several of Mr. Kendall's ancestors took part in the war of the Revolution and one of his maternal ancestors, Jonathan Harrington, was killed in the battle of Lexington. Joseph R. Kendall was a New England farmer, following that occupation until 1875, when he went to Nevada and California and became a mine operator. He died in Oakland, California, in 1916 and his wife passed away in 1921. Fred P. Kendall attended the public schools of his home community and studied mining engineering at the Institute of Technology at Boston. Coming to the coast, on May 4, 1878, he started to work for the Columbia River Packing Company, at Eaglecliff, Washington, with which concern he remained until March, 1882, when he went to Alaska and built the first salmon cannery in the western part of that territory for the Cutting Packing Company, of San Francisco, California. He operated the plant for seven years, after which he built another cannery in southeastern Alaska, which he ran during 1891-2. In 1893 he came to Oregon and, locating at Astoria, built the first can manufactory in the northwest. He recalls the fact that at the time he first went to Astoria in 1878 it was almost completely lacking in improvements. There was not a road in that locality, and consequently not a horse in the town. Salmon sold for fifty cents each, and in 1880 they brought one dollar each for a fish of twenty-two pounds, smaller ones being sold at four for a dollar. Realizing the value of the salmon industry to the Columbia River valley, in 1894 he took an active part, as chairman of the "hatchery" committee of the Push Club of Astoria, in the first organized efforts to protect the salmon in the Columbia river. Mr. Kendall continued the operation of his can factory at Astoria until 1901, when he sold to the American Can Company, and in the same year he accepted the position of coast district manager for that concern. Later the territory was divided into two districts and he has since been in charge of the northwest district. He built the Portland plant, of which he is now manager, and has been a conspicuous figure in the various operations of the American Can Company in this part of the country. He is at this time vice president of the American Can Company, Ltd., of British Columbia. In 1883 Mr. Kendall was united in marriage to Miss Annie B. Neal, who was born and reared in Massachusetts, and they are the parents of three children, namely: Mrs. S. B. Cobb, of Portland; Mrs. E. L. Boyles, whose husband is a graduate of the medical school of the University of Oregon and of Harvard Medical School and is now engaged in the practice of his profession at Albany, New York; and Fred Neal, a graduate of the University of Oregon, who is married and is assistant sales manager of the American Can Company. Mr. Kendall supports the Republican party and he is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, the Arlington Club, the Wanna Lake Club and the Portland Chamber of Commerce, as well as the Arctic Club, of Seattle, Washington. He is rendering effective service as chairman of the state fish commission of Oregon. He is the possessor of several souvenirs of early days here, one of which is a whole salmon, enclosed within a tin can shaped like a salmon and bronzed on the outside. This was packed in 1875 by J. W. & V. Cook, at Clifton, Oregon, and six similar ones were sent to the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia. The one in Mr. Kendall's possession is probably the only one in existence. He also owns the old desk used by Mr. Cook, who began his salmon packing business in 1872. Mr. Kendall has devoted himself tirelessly to the interests of the great company which he represents and in the Portland and Seattle plants there have been developed a number of mechanical improvements which have been adopted in all of the other factories operated by this company. Mr. Kendall is a man of strong character, pleasing personality and kindly manner and is held in high esteem. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/multnomah/bios/kendall1517gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/orfiles/ File size: 6.9 Kb