Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Lewis, Percy W. 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com May 16, 2009, 4:48 pm

Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     PERCY W. LEWIS, manager of the Ames-Harris-Neville Company, at Portland, 
has been with this well known concern continuously for twenty-seven years, 
first as employee and in more recent years as a stockholder and officer. Mr. 
Lewis was born at Delphi, Carroll county, Indiana, and is a son of Dr. Walter 
F. and Margaret Lewis. His father practiced dentistry throughout his active 
life, and died in California, in 1926, at the age of eighty-three years. The 
family had moved to that state many years ago and the mother still resides 
there.

     Percy W. Lewis received his early education in the public schools of 
California and attended the University of California. In 1898 he came to 
Portland and for three years was in the employ of a wheat exporting concern. 
In 1901 he started to work for the house with which he is still connected, and 
in 1919 was made manager, which position he has held to the present time. This 
business was established in San Francisco, California, in the '80s by Judge J. 
P. Ames, and E. Detrick, with a small bag factory. Subsequently Mr. Detrick 
sold his interest to Mr. E. F. Harris, after which the business was operated 
as Ames & Harris. In 1906 they bought the business of Neville & Company, of 
San Francisco, and the Neville Bag Company, of Portland, at which time the 
company was reincorporated under its present name, the Ames-Harris-Neville 
Company. Ames & Harris started a factory in Portland in the '80s and were 
located then on Front street. In 1912 they built the present plant, comprising 
a splendid building, of mill construction, five stories and basement, covering 
a quarter block of space, and here they are engaged in the manufacture of all 
kinds of cotton and burlap bags, such as are required for wheat, hops, wool 
and flour, and also have their own brand and engraving plant for the printing 
of the bags. About one hundred and fifty people are employed at the Portland 
plant and the products are sold throughout Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah and 
Montana, the San Francisco house handling the southwestern business. India is 
the source of supply for jute from which burlap is made throughout the world 
and cotton sheeting for flour bags comes from the southeastern cotton mills. 
The Portland plant is modern in every respect and the quality of its products 
has always been maintained at the highest standard, so that the concern is 
well established in the confidence of the buying public. Albert T. Caswell has 
been assistant manager at Portland since 1919, and has been with this company 
for twenty-five years.

     Mr. Lewis is a stanch republican in his political views and is a member 
of the Arlington Club, a life member of the Multnomah Amateur Athletic Club, 
vice president of the Multnomah Golf Club and belongs to the Chamber of 
Commerce. 


Additional Comments:
History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. II, 
Pages 729-730

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