Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Sanburn, Captain Irwin B. September 15, 1849 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/or/orfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com May 19, 2010, 9:57 pm Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 308 - 309 Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company CAPTAIN IRWIN B. SANBURN has every reason to be proud of his record as a famous river captain who was active on the Upper Willamette and also in British Columbia and Alaska for a period of fifty-five years prior to his retirement. He is now living in Portland at the age of seventy-eight and is enjoying the fruits of his well directed activity and industry in former years. Oregon numbers him among her honored native sons and he is one of the few remaining "old-timers" whose memory forms a connecting link between the primitive past and the progressive present. He was born at Oregon City, September, 15, 1849, his parents being Charles T. and Elizabeth (Geer) Sanburn, the latter an aunt of Governor Geer. Charles T. Sanburn crossed the plains to Oregon City from Ohio in 1847 and became one of the first hotel proprietors of that place, conducting the Oregon House for many years. It was while en route to the Pacific northwest that he wedded Elizabeth Geer, and among those who witnessed the marriage ceremony was Mrs. O. N. Denny, the 1928 "queen mother" of the Oregon Pioneers Association. Mrs. Denny was also in the Sanburn home at the time of the birth of Captain I. B. Sanburn. The latter is the only surviving member of the family and has no knowledge of any living blood relative. Irwin B. Sanburn was a lad of but fourteen years when he began his river work under Captain George A. Pease on the steamer "Onward," being first assigned to a hand pump which was used in disposing of bilge-water. When the People's Navigation Company was formed, he became identified with that organization, together with Captain Pease, and after he had worked as a deck hand for about a year the company promoted him to the position of mate under Captain George Jerome. In the summer, when low water prevailed and there was little business, so that the captain had no need for a mate, I. B. Sanburn seized the opportunity to learn to steer and handle the boat. Therefore, when the fall trade began he was qualified for the duties of mate and accepted the position under Captain Jerome, thus serving for six years. About this time the Grangers built the McMinnville, the company which they organized for this purpose having hundreds of stockholders. Captain Jerome, obliged to decline the proffered command of the vessel, recommended I. B. Sanburn as master and the latter ran the boat for two years. On the expiration of that period he was made master of the City of Salem and subsequently became part owner of the steamer A. A. McCully, of which he served as master for five years. He then sold his interests on the Willamette river and went to Lake Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, with Z. J. Hatch. Together they built the first boat of any size on the lake and continued its operation until they disposed of the vessel to the Northern Pacific Railway. Captain Sanburn then took charge of the railway property on the lake. He built the fastest sternwheeler in the northwest to run on the lake and also constructed the Kootenai, an ice breaker. Afterward he went to the East Kootenai river in British Columbia, running from Jennings, Montana, to Fort Steel, a distance of one hundred and forty-five miles, and there he remained as master until 1898, when he was engaged by the Canadian Pacific Railway to serve on the Stikine river in British Columbia under Captain Throup. In 1899 the company sent him to the Yukon river in Alaska, where he covered the distance of four hundred and sixty miles between White Horse and Dawson. Later he was made port captain, in which capacity he built three boats for the company — White Horse, Selkirk and Dawson. During his incumbency in the position of port captain, which covered a period of six years, he built the first barge ever operated on the river and proved the practicability of a project which none of the river pilots or captains had considered feasible. The barge, a double decker for cattle and sheep, was not a tow but was so lashed to the boat that it was pushed. The building of other barges followed and river transportation was revolutionized. In 1907 Captain Sanburn returned to Portland, where he lived until 1908, when he went with the Grand Trunk Railroad at Prince Rupert for two years, being employed on the construction of that road until 1910, when he returned to Portland and lived retired until 1917, when the White Pass and Yukon Railroad again sent him to Alaska, where he spent two years as master of ships. Then, after fifty-five years of active identification with navigation interests, he came back to Portland, where he has since lived in honorable retirement. He belongs to the Master Pilots and Mates Association, No. 17. On the 2d of October, 1870, Captain Sanburn was united in marriage to Ellen Elliott, daughter of William and Nancy (Sconce) Elliott and granddaughter in the maternal line of a Revolutionary war colonel. William Elliott, a native of Vincennes, Indiana, lost his parents in early life and left the Hoosier state for Memphis, Tennessee, whence he made his way westward to Oregon, settling on a donation land claim of six hundred and forty acres at Elliott Prairie, a place lying six miles east of Woodburn and named in his honor. He had purchased the relinquishment on this claim for one hundred dollars and developed a splendid farm property. A man of considerable means, he erected one of the finest homes in Oregon and the structure is still standing in an excellent state of preservation. The floors are of oak from his own timber and there are two large fireplaces, the stones for which were cut at Scotts Mills and sawed with water and sand. The two surviving daughters of William and Nancy Elliott are Mrs. Ellen Sanburn and Mrs. J. A. White of Portland, both of whom are members of the Oregon Pioneer Association. 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