Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Lambert, Henry M. February 8, 1858 - February 4, 1928
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Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com August 29, 2010, 10:00 pm

Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 565 - 567
Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     HENRY M. LAMBERT.  Endowed with vision, courage and energy, as well as 
the ability to create, Henry M. Lambert made notable contribution to the 
world's work, becoming widely known as an inventor and manufacturer, and 
Portland benefited materially by his activities, which were not confined to 
business affairs. His public spirit was manifest both by word and deed and his 
achievements brought additional luster to a name that has long stood for the 
highest traditions in Oregon's citizenship.

     A native of Portland, Mr. Lambert was born February 8, 1858. His father, 
Joseph Hamilton Lambert, who was a member of one of the old families of 
Indiana, was born December 1, 1825, in Vigo, that state, and when a boy of 
seven lost his mother. After his father remarried Joseph H. Lambert left home, 
spending two years with a married sister, and later lived with other 
relatives. At the age of twenty he started out in life for himself and made 
the trip to Iowa on horseback. During the summer of 1845 he worked on a farm 
near Des Moines and in the winter attended school at Agency City. Afterward he 
was part owner of a portable sawmill in operation at Dahlonega, Iowa, and in 
the spring of 1850 joined an overland train bound for Oregon. He spent the 
winter in Salem and in the spring of 1851 went to Yreka, California. In June 
of that year he returned to Oregon and engaged in cutting sawlogs in the 
Willamette valley. He next joined a surveying expedition which ran the 
meridian line from Portland to Puget Sound and laid out a few tiers of 
townships which included Salem. Subsequently he gained a knowledge of 
horticultural pursuits while working in a nursery and was thus employed until 
November, 1854, when he married Miss Imogene Miller, the oldest daughter of 
Mr. and Mrs. Henry Miller, of Milwaukie, Oregon.

     Mr. Lambert took his bride to Powell's valley and filed on a donation 
claim of three hundred and twenty acres where the Waverly Country Club is now 
located, in September, 1859. There they resided until Mr. Lambert and his 
father-in-law purchased a half interest in the orchard of Meek & Luelling. The 
business was conducted on a partnership basis until 1870, when Mr. Lambert 
became the owner of this notable orchard, which produced the first cultivated 
fruit west of the Rocky mountains. Not content with his success in growing 
exceptionally fine apples, he decided to experiment along another line and 
produced the famous Lambert cherry, thereby rendering a service of great value 
to this district and to the state. In commenting upon this achievement a 
contemporary biographer said: "Having gathered up a handful of seedlings from 
where they had sprung up about some of the trees, Mr. Lambert transplanted 
them into a little nursery and, when large enough, he grafted them with old 
and time-tried standard varieties. The graft died but the seedlings flourished 
and bore fruit. The new variety, because of its immense size, its rich flavor, 
fine quality and small pit, became popular at once and the cultivation of this 
new and distinctly Oregon variety has been expanded until the propagation has 
been introduced into every cherry-growing section of the country." Throughout 
the northwest Mr. Lambert was recognized as an authority on the subject of 
fruit growing and the industry which he started has become one of the chief 
sources of the wealth of his state. He continued his activities as a 
horticulturist until 1890 and in September of that year aided in organizing 
the Citizens Bank of Portland, of which he was elected president, filling that 
office until his death. In 1858 he became one of the county commissioners of 
Multnomah county and in 1864 was chosen to represent Clackamas county in the 
same capacity. His demise occurred in 1909 and his wife passed away early in 
the '90s. In their family were eight children: Albert W., Henry M., Nellie and 
Grace Lambert, Mrs. E. L. White, Mrs. A. B. Graham, Mrs. A. L. Wood and Mrs. 
Donald G. Woodward.

     Henry M. Lambert completed his high school studies in Portland and his 
creative instinct was manifest early in life. His talents were diversified and 
he demonstrated his ability as an architect and a builder of bridges and 
boats. At one time he was engaged in the lumber business and operated a large 
planing mill. He traveled throughout the United States and Mexico and was 
identified with various lines of activity in Alaska, carrying forward to a 
successful issue everything that he undertook. He organized the Lambert Tire & 
Rubber Company, of which he became president, and conducted the business in 
Portland until he transferred his manufacturing operations to Akron, Ohio. On 
February 8, 1918, at Hotel Benson, a complimentary dinner was tendered Mr. 
Lambert at the regular meeting of the Portland realty board as an appreciation 
of the honor which he reflected upon his state through having had presented to 
him by the Panama Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco a special 
medal and diploma awarded only to inventors of unusual note. The presentation 
speech was made by Hon. James Withycombe, at that time governor of Oregon. 
Each guest at the dinner received a booklet containing the menu and the 
following tribute to Mr. Lambert's worth:

     "Nearly ten years ago there was conceived in the mind of a Portland man, 
Henry M. Lambert, an epochal idea which should revolutionize the entire 
automobile tire construction. The first crude models of his principles were 
laboriously prepared. Tests indicated weaknesses. Revisions were made — still 
other weaknesses. Months, and even years of constant experiment followed. 
Satisfactory results were developed, but counteracted by difficulties which it 
seemed impossible to overcome. An ordinary man would have been overwhelmed 
with despair. Groping through the darkness of unexplored and undeveloped 
principles, Mr. Lambert in his experiments held steadily in mind the original 
idea as it first came to him, and one by one the most discouraging obstacles 
were overcome.

     "The first models were turned out personally by Mr. Lambert's hands. 
Later on others became interested with him in his work, providing assistance 
in the mechanical work, and under the supervision of Mr. Lambert more rapid 
developments began to appear. As each new type was produced and tested, 
improvements in construction, design and principles suggested themselves to 
Mr. Lambert, and each improvement has worked out and developed in turn.

     "The first real plant in Portland was located in a small store building 
on East Union avenue, just north of Morrison street. On August 1, 1916, 
developments had reached such a stage that the factory building constructed by 
the Coin Machine Company on the quarter-block at the corner of East Hoyt 
street and Grand avenue was leased for a term of years, and it is in this 
location that the public has seen the perfected tire constructed and shipped 
to practically every part of the United States, to Canada and to Mexico — all 
over the world.

     "Portland is proud to have been the birthplace of a man who is one of the 
great inventive geniuses of the age. The medal and diploma today presented to 
Mr. Lambert clearly indicate the high regard in which the committee at the San 
Francisco Fair held the accomplishments of this Oregon inventor. To have been 
the one man in the state of Oregon selected by the fair for this distinction, 
and to be one of the very few men in the entire west to receive such 
recognition, is a living testimony of his wonderful abilities."

     Mr. Lambert tendered his resignation as president of the Lambert Tire & 
Rubber Company in 1926, but retained a large interest in the firm, and 
returned to Portland. He also perfected a stretchless belt, the product of his 
fertile brain.

     On July 24, 1924, Mr. Lambert married Helen Harrington-Simmons, a 
daughter of Colonel Stephen R. and Margarita Boyle (France) Harrington. Mrs. 
Lambert's father served in the Union army with the rank of colonel and her 
maternal great grandfather, Thomas Boyle, was a commodore in the English navy. 
By her first marriage Mrs. Lambert became the mother of a daughter, Helen 
Simmons, who was adopted by Mr. Lambert after their marriage. While on a 
business trip to Akron he was stricken with heart disease and expired February 
4, 1928, at his club. In addition to his widow and adopted daughter, who 
reside on Sherwood avenue in Portland, he is survived by his brother, who 
lives in Portland; and three sisters, Mrs. Graham and Mrs. Woodward, of this 
city; and Mrs. Wood, whose home is in Oracle, Arizona. Mr. Lambert advocated 
the protection of water rights and lent the weight of his support to all 
movements destined to prove of real and practical good. He indorsed Esperanto, 
believing that a universal language would tend to promote amicable relations 
between all nations. His interest was in the common people and his thought was 
the public welfare, human happiness and a better world for all. His heart and 
hand reached out in generous sympathy to those in need and he was greatly 
beloved. Mr. Lambert judged men not by their possessions but by their 
character and lived a life in which true nobility of spirit found daily 
expression. He left us a most admirable example for he was strong and brave, 
sympathetic, wise, just and merciful.

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