Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Marquam, Hon. Philip A. February 1823 - May 8, 1912
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Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com April 11, 2006, 7:31 pm

Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea Volume II, 
Pages 37-38

	HON. PHILIP A. MARQUAM was long an honored resident of Portland, where 
he won distinction as a lawyer, success as a real estate dealer and the 
unqualified respect and confidence of his fellowmen as the result of a busy 
and useful life in which the highest qualities of manhood and citizenship were 
exemplified.  Judge Marquam was born in Maryland, in February, 1823, and his 
ancestral line shows connection with American interests at a period preceding 
the Revolutionary war.  He was a grandson of Henry Poole, one of the most 
prominent planters and citizens of the south.  During his boyhood days Judge 
Marquam accompanied his parents on their removal from Maryland to Indiana, 
where his youthful experiences were those of the farm bred boy living on the 
frontier.  He aided in the work of the fields and became familiar with all the 
tasks incident to the cultivation of the crops, but it was his desire to enter 
upon an educational field of labor and it was no unusual thing to find him 
following the plow with a book in his hand, from which he studied as he walked 
along the new-turned furrows.  He supplemented his knowledge of common school 
branches by the study of sciences, of Latin and of higher mathematics, but 
from his youth the story of men eminent at the bar thrilled him and it was his 
hope that he might become an attorney.  He pursued his law reading under the 
tutelage of G. S. Orth, afterward representative in congress from Indiana, and 
later enrolled as a student in the law school of Bloomington, Indiana, being 
admitted to the bar at Lafayette in that state, in 1847.
	Immediately afterward Judge Marquam entered upon active practice in 
that state, but with the discovery of gold in California the hope of rapidly 
acquiring wealth led him to the mining regions of California, where he worked 
with pick and shovel and met the usual experiences of life at that period 
among the gold seekers on the coast.   At times he had to join with other 
miners in repelling the attacks of Indians who strongly resented the advance 
of the white men into their territory, and on one occasion he was wounded so 
that for several weeks he was unable to work.  Following his recovery he was 
unanimously elected to the office of judge of Yolo county and for a year 
served on the bench but resigned at the end of that time in order to remove to 
Oregon.
	Judge Marquam opened a law office in Portland and almost immediately 
gained a good clientage which grew in volume and importance as the years 
passed by and he demonstrated his ability to cope with the intricate and 
involved problems that are presented before the bar.  He prepared his cases 
most carefully and his conclusions were at all times strong and logical, while 
his application of a legal principle was seldom, if ever, at fault.  In 1862 
he was called to the bench of Multnomah county and his record was so 
commendable that his reelection followed.   His decisions were ever strictly 
fair and impartial and his capability was widely acknowledged by his 
colleagues and contemporaries.  With his retirement from the bench, however, 
Judge Marquam refused to again take an active part in politics, though in 
matters of citizenship his attitude was always progressive and his support 
could be counted upon to further any measure for the general good.  He 
exercised his right of franchise in support of the republican party and always 
had strong reason to urge for his course.
	On the 8th of May, 1853, Judge Marquam was united in marriage to Miss 
Emma Kern, a descendant of John Kern.  Family tradition has it that the Kerns 
were of Holland Dutch extraction.  John Kern was born in Little York, 
Pennsylvania, in January, 1768, there married a Miss Kaylor and removed to 
Greensburg, Westmoreland county.  He was a hatter and after he retired from 
business lived on a farm three miles from Greensburg.  After the death of his 
first wife, by whom he had five children, he married Elizabeth (Singer) 
Hollinger in Greensburg.  She was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, July 31, 
1775.  The children of John Kern’s second marriage included William Kern, who 
was born January 12, 1813, and who in 1834 was married in Jarretstown, 
Virginia, to Mary Ann Shull.  In the same year they went to Washington, 
Illinois, and about 1845 removed to Stark county, Illinois, but in 1850 
returned to Peoria, where William Kern had charge of the wagon bridge across 
the Illinois river in the winter of 1850-51.  In April or May, 1851, they 
started for Portland, Oregon, by wagon and were five months and three weeks in 
completing the journey.  Their daughter Emma was born February 22, 1836, and 
in 1853 became the wife of Judge Marquam.  As the years passed they became 
parents of four sons and seven daughters:  Mary E., who married Penumbra 
Kelly; Philip Augustus, Jr.; William W.; Charlotte C., who became Mrs. Thomas 
Prince; Jessie L., later Mrs. Charles B. McLaughlin; Grant; Sarah S., who 
married Dr. Charles E. Hill; Janie H., now Mrs. C. C. Newcastle, Sr.; Kate L., 
who wedded Samuel Lockwood; Metta, now Mrs. A. K. Velten, and Thomas A., an 
attorney of Fairbanks, Alaska.  The Judge was ever a generous provider for his 
family.  Realizing something of what the future had in store for Portland, he 
made large investments in city property and in the course of years realized a 
handsome profit therefrom.  He erected the Marquam building, an unusually fine 
edifice, containing as it did the finest theater west of Chicago.  This 
building, as well as its legal warfare, was really historic in Portland’s 
annals.  At one time he was the owner of two hundred and ninety-eight acres 
known as Marquam’s Hill, constituting one of the most beautiful districts and 
attractive building sites in Portland.  The sale of this property brought to 
him a handsome fortune, so that in his later years he was able to supply 
himself and his family with all of the comforts and many of the luxuries of 
life.  He remained to the time of his death, which occurred May 8, 1912, one 
of the most valued and highly esteemed residents of his adopted city.  His 
worth as a citizen was widely known.  He possessed many sterling traits of 
character and he stood for all that was best in community life.  His aid and 
influence were potent forces in the progress and development of the city and 
state and his opinions always carried weight among his friends and 
acquaintances, for they knew him to be a man of sterling honor, of broad 
vision and marked public spirit.  He had won and throughout the period of his 
active practice always maintained a position as an eminent representative of 
the Portland bar, while his personal qualities made him a man whom to know was 
to esteem and honor.


Additional Comments:
History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Volume II, 
Chicago, The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1928

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