Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Strauss, Nathan July 17, 1868 - 
************************************************
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 June 20, 2007, 9:07 pm

Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     NATHAN STRAUSS.  In the management of the business of Fleischner, Mayer & 
Company of Portland, Nathan Strauss plays an important part, also figuring 
conspicuously in financial affairs, and his record is that of a self-made man 
whose progress has resulted from hard work, coupled with the ability to meet 
and master situations. He was born July 17, 1868, in New York city and his 
parents were Reuben and Caroline Strauss. Reared in the Empire state, he 
received a public school education and in 1882, when fourteen years of age, 
began working in the New York establishment of Fleischner, Mayer & Company. 
Starting as office boy, he conscientiously performed the tasks assigned him 
and improved his opportunities, gradually mastering the technicalities of the 
business. Mr. Strauss was steadily promoted, eventually becoming a member of 
the firm, and since January, 1918, has been managing partner of the business 
in Portland. Endowed with tact, good judgment and executive force, he meets 
every requirement of the office and has contributed his share toward making 
this the foremost wholesale dry goods house on the Pacific coast.
     The history of the business dates from 1864, when Colonel Louis 
Fleischner, Solomon Hirsch and Alexander Schlussel formed a partnership and 
purchased the interests of Haas Brothers, wholesalers of general merchandise. 
Under the style of L. Fleischner & Company the business was continued by the 
new owners and enjoyed a rapid growth. In 1869 they opened a wholesale dry 
goods house and in 1875 Jacob Mayer was admitted to a partnership, the firm 
style of Fleischner, Mayer & Company being then assumed. From the start the 
success of the undertaking was assured, for the owners of the business were 
men of broad experience and progressive ideas. Colonel Louis Fleischner died 
in 1896 and at that time his nephews, Isaac N. and Marcus Fleischner, Mark A. 
Mayer and Sam Simon became members of the firm. Mrs. Solomon Hirsch, now 
deceased, became a partner, upon the death of her husband Solomon Hirsch and 
her son Sanford Hirsch became a partner several years later.
     The following description of the industry was published in the Oregon 
Journal:  “Portland has the largest wholesale dry goods and furnishing goods 
house west of the Missouri river. Not from the Missouri river westward to 
Portland only, but in all the region westward from the Missouri to the western 
boundary of the United States and to the southern boundary of California. 
There is meaning in this, for if there were a more favorable location and a 
better city from which to operate, Portland would not be the home of 
Fleischner, Mayer & Company nor the distributing depot for the vast amount of 
merchandise sold from its shelves to the merchants of the Pacific coast. And 
this big firm operates a large factory, in which is made a full line of 
overalls, shirts and mechanics’ clothing, known as the Mt. Hood brand, as well 
as the University brand of Mackinaw coats and overcoats. 
     “What foresight must have been possessed by those who founded the 
industry! How they must have peered into the future, for at that time there 
were likely timber slashings where the business district is today, and no 
doubt some towering fir trees around the public library location. There wasn’t 
as much as a ‘hoss’ car then and oxen were the motive power for considerable 
of the overland transportation. Jack-rabbits and grouse abounded in the 
vicinity of the baseball grounds and coyotes could be found loitering around 
the district now known as Fulton Park. That faith, however, which induced the 
investment of real money in the Mt. Hood factory was not misplaced. It was a 
small affair of course – nothing to compare with the present institution at 
No. 233 Couch street, where two hundred persons are employed, where more than 
one hundred and seventy-five women in a bright, cheerful, well ventilated, 
well heated building work with as many sewing machines, operated by 
electricity, and make at least double the pay their sisters receive in the 
sweatshops of the eastern cities.
     “The payroll of these workers aggregates, in round numbers, two hundred 
thousand dollars a year, and this money goes to make lives brighter, homes 
more comfortable, and to bring cheer and happiness and sunshine and joy into 
existences that without these earnings would likely be filled with gloom and 
surrounded with want and misery. And this two hundred thousand dollars helps 
to make Portland a better city, a richer city, a more desirable habitation for 
others than merely those who receive the salaries. * * *
     “Here is a factory that uses ‘made in Oregon’ material. The garments it 
turns out are of the homespun kind, only the thread and buttons being 
imported, and the latter at least could be manufactured in Portland as well as 
anywhere. The Mt. Hood people are sticklers for home production. Their own 
factory teaches them the importance of spending their money at home. They 
thoroughly believe in the doctrine. It is continually in their minds, and they 
practice what they preach.
     “Said Nathan Strauss, a member of the firm of Fleischner, Mayer & 
Company, ‘We have more than passing pride in the consciousness that our 
garments represent home production. We buy nothing abroad that can be had from 
the factories of our state and we find that it pays in at least two ways. 
First, it keeps Oregon money in Oregon, some of which is bound to return to us 
through some channel or other, and second, Oregon manufacturers have pride in 
the quality of their products.  We get a better class of material than is 
commonly found upon the market and this makes a satisfied customer, and a 
satisfied customer is an unforgetful friend. If we had no pride in our home 
city — and no one has greater adoration for Portland — if only for selfish 
reasons, we would buy these Oregon fabrics to be made into clothing in our 
factories, and for the reason stated, for if we do not build up our city and 
state with our own capital, we cannot expect strange capital to do it for us.
     “‘No matter where one travels in this northwest, or in Alaska or the 
western British possessions, he will see men and youths wearing Mt. Hood 
factory products.  They are detected by their attractive patterns, belonging 
to the Scotch plaid families, so to speak, and by the originality of their 
cut. In rainy regions they turn the wet, and in cold protect the body from its 
severity. We cover Oregon, Washington, Idaho, California, Montana, Utah, 
Alaska and the Hawaiian islands,’ Mr. Strauss explained in speaking of the 
market for his factory’s products. ‘It is a broad territory, constantly 
increasing in population, and we are keeping pace with it. We have been doing 
a remarkably good business throughout all these so-called hard times. We have 
not been affected by the “pinch” to any appreciable extent, and this gives 
encouragement to the opinion that we are nearing the end of the business 
depression which has overshadowed the entire country for going on two years, 
and from which the Pacific coast has suffered, but in no greater proportion 
than the eastern states.  Oregon, I believe, has passed through the cloud and 
we are out in the sunshine again.’” 
     The company now has about forty traveling salesmen and furnishes 
employment to five hundred persons. The business has been developed through a 
consistent policy of fair dealing, the fixed purpose of making and selling 
goods of standard quality only, and the uniform desire to make every person 
with whom the house has dealings not only a customer but a friend. Seasoned in 
experience and service, the firm has remained young in spirit and ever new in 
outlook, always fresh in response to progress. The wholesale end of the 
business is its chief feature and the property covers an entire block. The 
main building is a three-story structure about two hundred feet square and 
attached to it are several warehouses.
     Mr. Strauss acts as chairman of the board of directors of the Federal 
Reserve Bank of Portland and exerts a potent and beneficial influence in the 
conduct of the institution. His name appears on the directorates of the 
Portland Remedial Loan Association, the Portland Industries Financial Service 
and the Oregon Linen Mills, which have profited by his business ability and 
financial acumen. Along social lines he is affiliated with the Tualatin 
Country Club and the Concordia Club. He is vice president of the Federated 
Jewish Societies and formerly represented the Portland Chamber of Commerce in 
the same capacity. In 1916 he was chairman of the trade and commerce bureau of 
the Chamber of Commerce, which began reaching out after the steamship lines at 
that time, and his views regarding the situation were expressed as follows in 
the Oregon Journal of January 13, 1916:
     “We need better steamship service between Portland and the oriental 
markets and Alaskan points, and into the interior,” said Mr. Strauss, “and it 
looks to me as if our object in this direction is nearing attainment. Details 
are not, however, as available — or at least cannot be made public — but I 
believe Portland will soon achieve her object and we will have direct 
communication with the overseas markets and with Alaska, as we ought to have 
had many years ago.
     “We must now have a general awakening of the people to this prime 
necessity in the business advancement of Portland. It will not do to depend 
upon the few, merely because these are fortunately richer than the rest of us. 
We must all pull together — we must forget self, abandon selfishness — we must 
get into the harness and — pull! We must get to work.
     “Efforts have heretofore been made in the matter of securing additional 
steamship service on the ocean. Mistakes have been made and some money has 
been lost.  This has caused some people to become timid. It ought not to have 
this effect. The mistakes of the past, though liberally paid for, should serve 
as a guide to the future, and we ought to roll up our sleeves and go at it 
again with greater energy than ever.  For a fact, it will not do for us to 
rest contented with the present conditions however cheering they may be and 
prosperous we are. There is more to be had. There is much more to be had. 
There are great things in store for this city and they are ours if we will but 
reach out and pick the fruit. We can reach it if we will. We should go after 
it with a goad, if necessary. Some men require goading. They need a shock of 
some energy to wake them up. Their ambition is drowning in dread of loss. 
Herein their mistake. We have built up a great business here because we have 
been fearless and forceful. We saw Oregon in its bud and knew that it must 
some day put forth a magnificent flower. It did, and we picked it. It is ours 
now. Portland’s bud will bloom if the stalk is nourished. Fertilized with a 
dollar now it will soon hand back five. But nothing will come back if nothing 
is put out. Our business men are understanding this. They are seeing the 
light. Our Chamber of Commerce is brushing the cobwebs away. It is blazing a 
pathway in some men’s wilderness. It is burnishing up some men’s 
understanding. It is leading them out into a broad place. To the right they 
see prosperity awaiting their companionship.  To the left they see the 
beckoning finger of opportunity. Behind them is the dim, dismal past, and 
before the golden pathway of expanded happiness.
     “Therefore I look to the future with extreme satisfaction. I can see our 
factories multiplying. I can see their products transported to the inland 
empire by river and rail; by water to all oriental seaports and to our own 
eastern coast via the Panama canal to unlimited markets. I can see Portland a 
hive of industry, because its natural resources are being cultivated and its 
opportunities improved, and a great field surrounds it.” 
     Endowed with prophetic vision, Mr. Strauss has lived to see his dreams 
realized and rejoices in what has been accomplished. His interests are closely 
allied with those of the city and state of his adoption and his personality 
has been an inspiration to progress. Possessing a nature that could never be 
content with mediocrity, he has reached a plane of broad influence and 
usefulness and is esteemed and respected by his fellowmen. 


Additional Comments:
History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. II, 
Pages 373-376

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/multnomah/bios/strauss400gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/orfiles/

File size: 13.1 Kb