Multnomah-Statewide County OR Archives Biographies.....Polhemus, James H. April 16, 1887 - 
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Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com June 9, 2009, 12:26 pm

Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     JAMES H. POLHEMUS.  Following in the professional footsteps of his 
father, James H. Polhemus has done notable work in the field of river and 
harbor improvement and Portland is largely indebted to him for the development 
of its seaport and also for its prestige as a commercial airport. He was born 
April 16, 1887, in Newport, Oregon, and is a son of James S. and Mary C. 
(Daly) Polhemus. His father was born in the state of New York and during 
the '70s was engaged in surveying in the region of the Great Lakes. Later he 
was active in river and harbor development in Louisiana and Texas and aided in 
the task of improving Galveston harbor. He made the original survey for the 
intercoastal canal and for some time was engaged in engineering work in 
California. A lake in that state was named in honor of Mr. Polhemus, who came 
to Oregon early in the '80s with the Wheeler expedition. For many years he was 
assistant engineer for the first Portland district, retiring in 1925, and 
practically all of the river and harbor improvements were made under his 
supervision. His wife was a lifelong resident of Portland and passed away in 
1923. She was a daughter of a Mr. Daly, a pioneer in the newspaper business in 
Portland.

     James H. Polhemus completed a course in the Central school and in 
Portland Academy. His studies were continued in Stanford University, from 
which he received the degree of Civil Engineer in 1910, and in the following 
year he took postgraduate work in mechanical and electrical engineering in the 
same institution. Meanwhile he had acquired practical experience in surveying 
and dredging, devoting eight summers to that line of work, and in 1911 was 
assigned the task of constructing a camp for the Northern Pacific Railroad 
near Spokane, Washington. Later he went to southern Oregon as transitman for 
the surveying party that laid out the road around Crater lake. For a year he 
was engaged in engineering work on The Dalles-Celilo canal and was then made 
superintendent of construction of the central division of the canal, filling 
the position for two years. During 1914 and 1915 he traveled throughout the 
United States for the purpose of studying dredging operations under the 
direction of the government and was then placed in control of dredging and 
harbor work in the Coos Bay district. He had charge of the Colonel P. S. 
Mickie dredge, which was in operation on Bandon bar, in the Umpqua and 
Coquille rivers and on Coos bay. Toward the latter part of 1917 he was made 
chief engineer and general manager of the Coos Bay Ship Building Company, 
which he represented in those capacities until 1920, and has since been 
general manager and chief engineer of the port of Portland. In the intervening 
period of eight years he has rehabilitated the dredging plant, rebuilt two 
dredges, scrapped two of the oldest, and constructed two of the finest pipe 
line dredges in the United States, creating a dredging organization which has 
increased the output from three and a half million to fifteen million yards 
per year. He built the Disel electric dredge, Clackamas, the first of this 
type constructed in the United States. It is thoroughly satisfactory and has a 
capacity of one thousand yards per hour through a two-mile pipe line without a 
booster. Under the direction of Mr. Polhemus the drydocks and machine shops 
have been rebuilt and modernized. The port now has two drydocks, one of ten 
thousand tons and the other of fifteen thousand tons. They are completely 
equipped for repairing ships of all types and tools are also rented to 
contractors engaged in making repairs on vessels. The service rendered to 
ships in need of an overhauling is prompt and efficient and meets every need. 
The port of Portland commission employs between three hundred and fifty and 
five hundred men, whose activities are ably supervised by Mr. Polhemus. He is 
nationally known as an authority on dredging and during his tenure of office 
the port of Portland, has developed and built a large drill boat to remove, 
the subaqueous rock in rivers and harbors. No contractors on the Pacific coast 
were familiar with this line of work and the means of performing it was 
evolved by deep thought and study on the part of Mr. Polhemus and his 
associates. The port of Portland is the gateway of the great northwest and is 
destined to become one of the major ports of the North American continent. 
Seven years ago the port was served by six regular steamship lines and now 
there are fifty-three lines distributing the products of this wonderful 
country to the four quarters of the globe.

     Under the regime of Mr. Polhemus the port of Portland commission, through 
its activities in improving its harbor and channel approaches, has solved not 
only the land question but also has secured an airport area in practically its 
geographic center by the adaption of Swan island, lying in the central portion 
of the harbor. Mr. Polhemus visited all of the major airports in the United 
States and after consulting with authorities in the army and navy originated 
plans for this project. In developing the dredging equipment and plant the 
main object was to provide a harbor thirty-five feet deep with a channel six 
hundred feet wide to the mouth of the Willamette river, involving the removal 
of fifty-five million cubic yards of material and the elimination of the 
narrow, crooked channel at Swan island, which was built with this waste 
material. At a low cost the port of Portland purchased this island, on which 
the dredges dumped their loads, and the Giles Lake district was also filled 
in, making it suitable for industrial sites. At an expenditure of two million, 
seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars the port has developed a straight 
channel fifteen hundred feet wide from the upper to the lower harbor and has 
three hundred and seventy-five acres of new water front property, comprising a 
frontage of over three miles on deep water. The port commissioners have made 
available for industrial purposes about seven hundred and fifty acres, worth 
ten thousand dollars per acre, and also six miles of new deep water front in 
addition to the three miles before mentioned.

     A study of meteorological and air conditions at the airport location was 
made before the work was undertaken. In addition to measuring wind velocities 
and noting directions over a period of a year, many tests were made by 
aviators under various weather conditions. It was found that the air is 
unusually quiet in this area, having none of the bumpiness that is 
characteristic of hilly country, and it was also found that the prevailing 
winds are either up or down the river and never of high velocity. This 
location, in common with the entire Portland area, is comparatively free from 
fogs, and snow and freezing temperatures are rare here, generally occurring 
for a few days only during late December or January. The airport is owned and 
controlled by the port of Portland and covers an area twelve hundred and 
twenty by sixty-seven hundred feet, exclusive of the causeway and approach on 
the mainland. It was first used publicly on the occasion of the visit of 
Colonel Lindbergh on September 14, 1927, and as a control station for planes 
in the Pacific coast air derby from San Francisco to Spokane on September 21. 
On September 27 and 28, 1927, the first Portland air derby was held at this 
airport, which ranks with the best in the United States and which is destined 
to become a great asset to Portland.

     On December 18, 1912, Mr. Polhemus was united in marriage to Miss 
Winifred W. Wilson, of The Dalles, and both are prominent in social activities 
of Portland. In politics Mr. Polhemus is a stanch republican but has held no 
elective offices. He belongs to the Portland Chamber of Commerce and to the 
University and Waverley Clubs. In the Masonic order he holds the thirty-second 
degree and he is also an Elk. He is a member of the American Association of 
Port Authorities, the American Association of Military Engineers, the American 
Society of Civil Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and 
Kappa Sigma, a college fraternity. Gifted with more than average ability as 
well as the requisite energy and determination, Mr. Polhemus has attained a 
place of distinction in his chosen vocation and his contribution to the 
world's work is one of much importance and value. 


Additional Comments:
History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. II, 
Pages 805-807

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