Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Shofner, Henry B. 1887 - 
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Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com May 31, 2010, 9:36 pm

Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Page 384
Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     HENRY B. SHOFNER.  Unfailing energy, mental alertness and sound judgment 
are an executive's chief requisites. Liberally endowed with these qualities, 
Henry B. Shofner has become an outstanding figure in commercial circles of 
Portland and is known throughout the state owing to his activities in 
connection with the tile business. He was born in this city in 1887, a son of 
James C. and Anne (Jackson) Shofner, who were married in San Francisco. Mrs. 
Shofner's mother went to California in 1849, crossing the plains in one of the 
old-time prairie schooners, and experienced the hardships and dangers of 
pioneer life in the west. James C. Shofner was a West Point graduate and went 
to Fort Vancouver, Washington, early in the '80s. For several years he was an 
engineer in the service of the United States government and his life's labors 
were terminated by death in 1925, while his wife passed away in 1923. They had 
six children, three sons and three daughters. The surviving children are: 
Wesley Shofner, who is living in El Centro, California; Mrs. Caroline Lemons, 
a resident of the same place; and Henry B. Shofner.

     The last named was reared and educated in the Rose city, graduating from 
the old Portland high school. In 1908, when a young man of twenty-one, he 
started in the tile business in association with a Mr. Whiteman, whose 
interests he purchased in 1912, and in 1919 organized the Oregon Art Tile 
Company, with which he has since been identified, his partner being J. W. 
Balchellar. Keeping pace with the progress of the city, the business has grown 
from a small nucleus to a large institution which furnishes employment to more 
than thirty-five persons. The firm has been awarded contracts for tile work in 
hospitals, banks and other public buildings throughout the state, as well as 
in many fine residences, and is now engaged in the task of completing the 
tiling in the Great Northern Depot at Klamath Falls, Oregon. The company 
executes orders for tile work in all of its branches and at the present time 
is giving special attention to beautiful color combinations in this work. The 
men who control the corporation are acknowledged experts in the line in which 
they specialize and as a result of their combined efforts this has become one 
of the leading firms of the kind in Oregon.

     Mr. Shofner is a Rotarian and also belongs to the Portland Golf Club and 
the Chamber of Commerce. In politics he is a republican but has never sought 
office as a reward for party fealty. He is deeply attached to his city and 
state and is ever ready to further projects for public development. As a 
progressive business man of high standards he has aided materially in 
improving, beautifying and upbuilding the various localities in which he has 
operated, and his worth as a citizen is uniformly conceded.

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