Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Schlesser, Curtice C. July 25, 1886 - ************************************************ 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 Wakley iwakley@msn.com November 12, 2009, 12:14 pm Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 255 - 256 Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company CURTICE C. SCHLESSER, president of Schlesser Brothers, of Portland, exhibits in his makeup the qualities essential to success in any undertaking — determination, industry, good judgment and integrity — and he has gained well merited prosperity. Mr. Schlesser was born in Fayette, Delta county, Michigan, on the 25th of July, 1886, and is a son of John and Theressa Schlesser. The family came to Portland in 1906 and was for several years engaged in business with his son, Curtice C., but is now retired. The mother died in this city. C. C. Schlesser received his education in the public schools, after which he was employed on street car lines and various other electric traction systems. In 1904 he went to California and for about two and a half years was employed on a cattle ranch. He returned to Michigan, where he remained about six months, and then came to Portland. He was in the employ of Frank L. Smith for two years, and then bought a team of horses and a wagon and, with a cash capital of one hundred dollars, started a small wholesale meat business, first buying a cow, which he killed and sold to local butchers. In 1908 he was joined in his business efforts by his brother, E. E., who put some money into the company. They erected a small plant on the Kendall ranch and began butchering cattle, killing an average of thirty a day, besides one thousand head of sheep. They built a good cold storage plant and soon afterward sold the business. They confined their attention to buying and selling cattle, but met with adverse conditions and in 1916 lost all they had. Nothing daunted, they immediately laid plans to recoup their loss and, buying a small lot at the foot of Tyndall street, on Columbia boulevard, started again in the meat business. A little later they bought a small retail meat market at St. Johns, which proved a successful venture and they built up their butchering business until their daily kill amounted to seventy-five cattle, one hundred sheep and two hundred and fifty hogs. They carried on along that line until December, 1925, when they changed the character of their operations and began buying and killing of range horses. The choice parts of the animals are pickeled and sold for the export trade, while the remainder of the carcass is made into fertilizer and chicken feed. They now kill about one hundred and twenty-five horses a day and are operating the largest plant of the kind in the United States, occupying about nine acres of ground and having accommodations for twelve hundred head of live horses. The animals are bought in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, are slaughtered under government supervision, and the plant has a cold storage capacity of seven hundred horses. J. E. Kennedy bought an interest in the business in 1926 and is still interested in it. The plant now represents an investment of over two hundred thousand dollars and gives employment to over thirty-five people. All of the mechanical equipment is of the most modern type, and private railroad switches facilitate the handling of the stock and products. Curtice C. Schlesser has devoted his attention closely to the business, in the management of which he has shown a marked executive ability, and theirs is now an important and prosperous industry. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/multnomah/bios/schlesse1017gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/orfiles/ File size: 4.0 Kb