Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies.....Wilson, John Thornton November 11, 1859 - ************************************************ 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 October 24, 2009, 5:53 pm Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 119-120 Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company For a third of a century John T. Wilson, of Portland, has been rendering a high type of service as an auctioneer and is regarded as having no superiors in his line in this part of the country. His success has been based on ability and honesty and he commands the confidence of all who have had dealings with him. In the paternal line Mr. Wilson comes of Scotch-Irish ancestry, his grandfather having gone from the north of Ireland to New York city, and thence to Little York, Canada, which was the early name for Toronto. His maternal ancestors were from Yorkshire, England. In the Oregon Daily Journal of July 22, 1927, Fred Lockley printed the following interesting article, after an interview with Mr. Wilson: " 'I was born in Ontario, Canada, November 11, 1859,' said John T. Wilson, of Portland. The World war made my birthday internationally known, for the Armistice occurred on that day. My father's name was Wellington Wilson. My mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Thornton. She and my father were both born in Canada. The first money I ever earned was paid me for driving a dragtooth harrow on a farm in Canada. I was twelve years old and was paid fifty cents a day. When I was fourteen I landed a job hauling logs from the woods to the mill. Later I worked at thirteen dollars a month as a farmhand. When I was twenty-one I went to a logging camp near Bay City, Michigan, where I landed a job as a sawyer at twenty-six dollars a month. A log rolled on me and injured my leg, so the boss gave me a job as a scaler. This was a fortunate accident, for I only got twenty-six dollars a month as a sawyer, while I was paid fifty dollars a month as a scaler. From there I went to Winnipeg, where I landed a job as engineer in a sawmill. Later I was given a job on the police force. I served as a patrolman in uniform the first year and for the next three years was a plain clothes man. I went on at sixty dollars a month and after two or three years my salary was raised to ninety dollars a month. " 'In 1888, after four years on the police force, I decided to go into business for myself. I went into the auction business, but after six months my partner and I dissolved partnership and I had to cry my own sales. The first sale I ever made was of livestock on the streets of Winnipeg. I had been a policeman four years and it seemed to me that everybody I had ever known passed along that street while I was conducting that auction. I made quite a bit of money in the auction business, so I became ambitious and began buying bankrupt stocks, and soon lost all the money I had made. I went back into the auction business, and have been in that business pretty steadily ever since. " 'I have had some curious experiences. While I was in the auction business at Winnipeg I was employed by the Hudson's Bay Company to sell the furniture and equipment of the Hudson's Bay establishment there. In an upstairs storeroom we ran across a lot of old records, old paintings and other junk. I knew nothing about paintings and thought I was doing well when I got five dollars apiece for these old oil paintings. An expressman bought two of them. As he was driving away a man stepped up and bought one of them from him for ten dollars. Not long thereafter this man was offered five hundred dollars for the painting. It seems that it was one of the big men of the Hudson's Bay Company and was painted by some celebrated artist. Here in Portland I bought a violin for a dollar and sold it to a well known jeweler for three dollars. I thought I had done well, but I found out that it was a valuable old violin worth probably several hundred dollars. " 'While I was in Winnipeg I was elected to the city council. The electric railway wanted a franchise, and great pressure was brought to bear on the council to give them a thirty-five-year franchise. Six members of the council voted to give them a free franchise, while six of us voted against it. The mayor voted with us and defeated the franchise. We were bitterly attacked for standing in the way of the city's growth and prosperity. The matter was brought up again, and the electric railway company offered to keep up all repairs on the streets and to give to the city seven per cent of their gross earnings, so you can see we were wise in refusing to grant the first franchise. " 'I came to Portland in 1893, when I was thirty-three years old. The Portland Savings Bank failed the day I arrived. The panic was on, and I couldn't land a job, so I manufactured Wilson's baking powder, which I sold to the grocers. Later I started a grocery store. In 1886 I married Margaret Adeline Williams, of Winnipeg. I started my auction here thirty-two years ago.' " Mr. Wilson's first auction room was at the corner of Third and Columbia streets, where he remained about six months, when he moved to Third and Taylor streets. Later he moved to First street, where he remained until 1913, when he came to his present location, at 169 Second street. Here he conducts a general auction business, specializing in furniture, buys and sells for himself, sells bankrupt stocks and handles sales for receivers and assignees. The store and auction rooms which he now occupies comprise twenty-two thousand square feet of floor space, which is none too much, for he is constantly in receipt of goods for auction and frequently handles crowds that tax his capacity. He holds regular auctions at his rooms on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, in addition to which he holds sales at other places up and down the valley, though preferring city work. His long experience has given him a wide and accurate knowledge of values and he has the reputation of securing very fair prices for what he sells and of absolute honesty in every transaction. To Mr. and Mrs. Wilson have been born five children, as follows: Gertrude E., at home; Winifred, who is the wife of Arch S. Guild, of Honolulu, and has two children, Bettie and Arch Thornton; Ivy, who is a trained nurse in this city; Dr. Milton Earl, who is connected with the Mast & Wilson Hospital at Myrtle Point, Oregon, and is married and has a daughter, Margaret Ann; and Blanche, who is the wife of Lester C. Gunther and the mother of two children, Jean and Lester, living in Paris, France, where Mr. Gunther is general manager of the American Milk Products Company, handling the Carnation and Pet brands of milk. Mrs. Wilson is a daughter of Joseph H. and Mary Letitia (Woodman) Williams, the former born in the north of Ireland and the latter in Ontario, Canada. Donald Southerland, who married a sister of Mr. Wilson's father, came to Manitoba, Canada, with Lord Selkirk, during the early days of the Hudson's Bay Company. Mr. Wilson is a member of the Woodmen of the World, the Modern Woodmen of America, the Rotary Club and the Chamber of Commerce. He is entitled to great credit for what he has accomplished, for he has been the architect of his own fortune, and the success which has come to him has been honestly earned. For this reason, as well as for his cordial and friendly manner, he commands the sincere regard and the uniform confidence of all who know him. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/multnomah/bios/wilson920gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/orfiles/ File size: 7.9 Kb