Multnomah-Marion County OR Archives Biographies.....Smith, William K. August 3, 1826 - January 15, 1914 ************************************************ 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 April 21, 2008, 3:10 pm Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company WILLIAM K. SMITH. Regular in habit and methodical in action, William K. Smith, was enabled to perform duties as varied in character as they were successful in result. His talents were used for Portland’s growth and betterment as well as for the attainment of success and his influence upon the life of the city was of the highest order. He was born August 3, 1826, in Fayette county, Pennsy1vania, a son of Peter and Barbara (Showalter) Smith, of English and Holland Dutch lineage respectively. The father was an agriculturist and also followed the carpenter trade. In 1832 he removed from Pennsylvania to Ohio, locating on a tract of wild land in Clermont county, and there engaged in farming until his removal to Indiana. Subsequently he went to Illinois and the latter part of his life was spent in Texas. He passed away in the Lone Star state and the mother’s demise occurred in Ohio. In the acquirement of an education William K. Smith attended the public schools of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois and Alabama. He journeyed to Texas with his father and remained on the home place until he reached the age of eighteen. Going to Alabama, he continued his studies in the public schools and also read medical hooks while clerking for his uncle, who was a merchant and a physician. Five years were spent in Alabama and Mr. Smith then returned to Texas, becoming a clerk in a store at La Grange. By splitting rails he earned a cow and a calf, which were left in Texas during his stay in Alabama, and when he went back to the Lone Star state he purchased a drove of cattle. For some time he was a dealer in live stock and after disposing of the business he went to St. Louis, Missouri, with the object of furthering his education. He took a course in a commercial college of St. Louis and later attended Shurtleff College at Alton, Illinois. While at the latter place Mr. Smith responded to the call of the west hoping to profit by the opportunities offered on the Pacific coast, where his brother, Joseph S. Smith, was already living, and was successful in his attempt to form a company to cross the plains. He left St. Louis with about eighty head of fine cattle and horses, hiring a few men to assist him in caring for the stock, but the party experienced considerable trouble with the Indians and the horses were stolen before the end of the journey was reached. Soon after his arrival in California, Mr. Smith sold the cattle and turned his attention to placer mining. He was unsuccessful in his quest for gold and next opened a small store on the McCallum river. After he had been in California for about a year he decided to visit his brother Joseph, who in the meantime had removed with his family to Whidby’s island in Puget sound, Washington. In 1854 he made the journey, passing through Portland, then in the embryonic stage of its development, and traveled on horseback to his destination. After a short stay with his brother, W. K. Smith returned to Oregon, becoming a resident of Salem, and purchased a stock of books, paints, oils, etc., from Dr. Wilson, whose donation land claim constituted the original site of the town. There Mr. Smith engaged in general merchandising for fifteen years with gratifying success and during that time he also secured for Salem an unlimited supply of pure water from the Santiam river. Directing his energies into industrial channels, be became the heaviest stockholder in the Salem Woolen Mills, in which J. F. Miller, H. W. Corbett, W. S. Ladd, L. F. Grover, J. S. Smith and Daniel Waldo were financially interested, and it was this plant which sent the first shipment of wool to the east from the Pacific coast. With practically the same associates Mr. Smith built the first large flouring mills in this district and an immense warehouse for storing wheat. These mills were operated by water power from the river and enjoyed the distinction of being the largest on the Pacific coast. Mr. Smith next acquired the McMinnville Flouring Mills, trading to Robert Kinney his stock in the woolen mills for a horse ranch of one thousand acres and the McMinnville mills. Gifted with keen powers of discernment, Mr. Smith visioned the future greatness of Portland and in 1869 transferred his activities to the Rose city. Here he began the manufacture of lumber and eventually became the owner of three sawmills, doing much to develop the great lumber industry of Oregon. In association with C. H. Lewis, Henry Failing and H. W. Corbett he furnished the money required for financing the Bull Run water system and was a member of the original water commission, thus rendering to the city a service of inestimable value. In financial affairs he was also a forceful personality, becoming vice president and a director of the Portland Savings Bank which was organized in 1880, and in addition was vice president and a director of the Ainsworth Bank as well as a member of the directorate of the Commercial Bank. In 1876 his energies found expression in the building of a dock and warehouse on the levee north of Salmon street, and the subject of urban transportation next aroused his interest. He was one of the organizers of the old Cable Car Company, a promoter of the electric line and assisted Ben Holladay in building the first railway in Oregon. Mr. Smith also embarked in the shipping business and was the owner of the Hattie C. Bessie, four-masted bark, which he chartered to Chinese merchants for twenty thousand dollars for a single trip to China. At one time he was prominently identified with agricultural operations in Yamhill county, owning a ranch of one thousand acres stocked with fine horses and cattle, and this property he traded for the Hattie C. Bessie. While in Salem he purchased the first bushel of apples ever sold in that city. They were grown in an orchard in Polk county and were of an exceptionally fine variety. Mr. Smith disposed of many of the apples at dollar each and sold one for five dollars to D. M. Durell, a hanker and sawmill man, who said that he would take the apple to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D. C., for it was almost the size of a large cocoanut. Later Mr. Smith operated his own properties and sold more land for railroad terminals than any of his Portland competitors. To J. J. Hill, the railroad magnate, he sold realty worth more than a quarter of a million dollars and also furnished the site for two parks in the city of Portland. In 1894 he purchased Council Crest, paying fifty thousand dollars for sixty acres. A man of rare judgment and superior ability, he was dominated at all times by an accurate sense of business exigency, and influenced the city’s upbuilding and progress to a notable extent. In 1864 Mr. Smith was married in San Francisco to Miss Debbie H. Harker, a sis ter of Charles G. Harker, who attained distinction in military affairs, serving as a general in the Union Army during the Civil war. To Mr. and Mrs. Smith were born six children: Eugenia, who became the wife of T. Harris Bartlett, of Idaho; William K. Jr.; Victor H., who was a graduate of the Willamette Medical College, the Virginia Medical College and the New York Medical College and who passed away in 1915; Joseph H., Charles B., who died when a child of four years; and Sumner, who was drowned in the Willamette river while rescuing a young woman. A man of generous impulses, Mr. Smith contributed liberally toward the support of various churches and also to Willamette University at Salem. He donated the ground for the Willamette Medical School in Portland and was an ardent champion of the cause of education and projects for moral and religious uplift. A great lover of the classics, he devoted many of his leisure hours to reading and particularly enjoyed the poems of Alexander Pope and Thomas Moore. He became a life member and a director of the Portland Library Association and continued his interest in the work until the library was taken over by the city. Mr. Smith had a genius for organization, combined with an executive force that made his work of lasting value. The elements were happily blended in the rounding out of his nature, which was finely matured and altogether admirable. On the 15th of January, 1914, when eighty-four years of age, he was called to his final rest, leaving a rich heritage to the people of Oregon and a memory that is cherished by all with whom he was associated. Additional Comments: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. II, Pages 494-495 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/multnomah/bios/smith484gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/orfiles/ File size: 9.1 Kb