Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Merwin, Louis T. 1873 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com and   July 14, 2006, 8:37 pm

Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Volume II, 
Pages 153-154

	LOUIS T. MERWIN.  Electric power, the perfect servant of commerce, 
enters vitally into the daily life of every progressive community in the 
United States.  Each year witnesses the amalgamation of separate utilities 
into systems which operate over unified territories, resulting in more 
effective and economical service.  In this field of activity the Northwestern 
Electric Company of Portland has won a position of leadership and the prestige 
now enjoyed by the corporation is largely attributable to the broad 
experience, pronounced ability and tireless efforts of its vice president and 
general manager, Louis T. Merwin, an electrical engineer of high standing.  
Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, in 1873, his parents, C. E. and Helen Wallace 
(Greene) Merwin, were natives respectively of Milford, Connecticut, and St. 
Louis, Missouri.  The father was an educator of note and devoted the greater 
part of his life to that vocation.  His was a long and useful life, 
terminating in 1927, when he had reached the advanced age of ninety-two years, 
and Mrs. Merwin passed away in China at the home of her daughter.  The latter 
was a medical missionary for twenty years and founded the Presbyterian 
Hospital for women at Tsi-nan-fu, China.
	Educated in the public schools of Pleasanton and Oakland, California, 
Louis T. Merwin attended the University of California, which awarded him the 
degree of Bachelor of Science in 1896.  After graduation he was for five years 
instructor in the high school at Napa, California, and in the Polytechnic high 
school at San Francisco.  He then began his electrical work as sub-station 
operator with the San Joaquin Light & Power company at Fresno, California.  In 
1906 he went to Goldfield, Nevada, as superintendent of the Goldfield division 
of the Nevada-California Power Company.  He next became electrical engineer 
for the Goldfield Consolidated Mines Company, having charge of the 
installation of all the electrical equipment in their mines and mills at 
Goldfield, Nevada, and was consulting electrical engineer for the Tonopah & 
Goldfield Railroad and also for the Tonopah Mining Company.  In 1911 he went 
to Trinity county, California, to rehabilitate a power plant for the Globe-
Trinity Mines Company.  He came to Portland, May 12, 1912 to assist in 
designing the transmission lines of the Northwestern Electric Company from 
White Salmon to Portland and later had charge of their erection.  In April, 
1913, he was made operating superintendent of the company, general 
superintendent in 1916, assistant general manager in 1919 and since November, 
1920, has been vice president and general manager.  He is also a director of 
the Union State Bank, the Portland Industries Financing Service and of the 
corporation which owns the Pittock block.
	In 1907 Mr. Merwin was married at Goldfield, Nevada, to Miss Mabel 
Dunbar, a daughter of J. A. Dunbar, of San Luis Obispo, California.  Mrs. 
Merwin was born in the Golden state and in 1898 was graduated from Leland 
Stanford University.  In politics Mr. Merwin is a republican.  Along social 
lines he is connected with the Arlington, Columbia, Waverly Country and 
Multnomah Amateur Athletic Clubs.  He has always taken a keen interest in 
outdoor sports and was a member of the first college athletic team to go east 
from the Pacific coast in 1905.  In 1906 he was chosen captain of this team, 
whose ten members are all living and meet each year for a reunion in San 
Francisco.  He also belongs to the City Club, the East Side Commercial Club, 
and the Chamber of Commerce, of which he is now a director.  In Masonry he 
holds the thirty-second degree and his professional affiliations are with the 
American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the American Association of 
Engineers, the National Electric Light Association and the Northwest Light and 
Power Association.


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

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