Lewis County WA Archives Biographies.....Doernbecher, F. S. 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ila Wakley iwakley@msn.com January 21, 2011, 2:14 am

Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 739 - 740
Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     DOERNBECHER MANUFACTURING COMPANY.  It is a trite saying that the largest 
enterprises have grown from small beginnings, but the statement includes an 
element of encouragement for all who make an initial step in business in a 
humble way. The development of the interests of the Doernbecher Manufacturing 
Company indicates most clearly what can be accomplished through persistent 
effort and wise direction. The corporation controls today an enterprise that 
is ranked as the third largest furniture manufacturing concern in the United 
States, its plant being located where the tracks of the Oregon-Washington 
Railroad & Navigation Company cross East Twenty-eighth street in Portland. The 
existence of the business here covers a period of twenty-eight years. It was 
in 1900 that F. S. Doernbecher, who had hitherto conducted a small furniture 
manufacturing plant in Chehalis, removed his project to this city. It was then 
a small concern with limited equipment and few employes, but in looking to the 
future Mr. Doernbecher recognized the business opportunities of Portland and 
its advantageous conditions while at the same time studying the sources of 
supply, production and shipment. He saw that comparatively cheap 
transportation could be secured through the maritime advantages here offered 
and he realized that Portland stood in the midst of a great lumber producing 
area, that lumber of almost every kind could be secured here through the 
splendid native forests which adorn the Pacific slopes. He saw that there was 
a bountiful supply of fir and spruce that could be used in the cheaper grades 
of furniture, while maple, alder and ash could be utilized for the more 
expensive lines. Moreover, the proximity of Portland to the coast enabled the 
company to procure oak from Japan at a modest price, the lumber being sent as 
ballast in ships, and mahogany could be obtained in the same manner from the 
west coast of Mexico and from Central South America. In the development of the 
business of the Doernbecher Manufacturing Company much wood was imported from 
these various foreign markets but at the same time much native lumber was used 
even in the manufacture of fine furniture.

     The little enterprise established in 1900 rapidly grew and developed as 
the output met the needs of the community, and finding substantial profit in 
bedroom and dining-room furniture, Mr. Doernbecher began specializing along 
those lines until his house became the foremost in the manufacture of 
furniture of that class in the country. Their trade area constantly broadened 
until the field embraced the entire territory west of the Rocky mountains and 
then extended on to the Atlantic coast, until by reason of its output the 
Doernbecher Manufacturing Company was in control of the third largest 
furniture manufacturing plant in the United States, covering an area of six 
acres, with a fifty-thousand-dollar reinforced concrete warehouse, six stories 
in height, added to the plant after 1915. In addition to its Portland 
properties the company established and owned warehouses in Seattle, San 
Francisco, Los Angeles and Salt Lake City but now maintains only one display 
room in New York. Its sawmill, situated twenty miles from Portland, cuts four 
million feet of lumber annually that is used in the factory. The original 
factory force of seventy was gradually increased until more than seven hundred 
workmen were employed in the Doernbecher plant when its founder passed away.

     Prior to his death, and in order to insure the continued success of the 
business, Mr. Doernbecher had disposed of the larger part of his interests to 
his associates, namely: H. A. Green, B. P. John, Clarke E. Dye, E. S. Beach, 
F. A. and Conrad Tauscher and P. J. Lychywek. The two last named are now 
deceased. Since the death of Mr. Doernbecher various changes have occurred in 
the official personnel, which at the present time is as follows: H. A. Green, 
president; C. E. Dye, vice president; and E. S. Beach, secretary. Mr. Green is 
a native of Walla Walla, Washington, and first became associated with the 
Doernbecher Manufacturing Company when he opened a branch warehouse in Seattle 
in 1913. The following year witnessed his arrival in Portland. E. S. Beach, 
who was born in Oakland, California, came to Portland in 1914 as assistant 
bookkeeper with the Doernbecher Manufacturing Company, was subsequently 
promoted to the position of office manager and is now serving in the official 
capacity of secretary. More extended personal mention of several of the 
officials is made on other pages of this work. From time to time the Portland 
plant has been enlarged and its output increased until it is considered a most 
vital element in the commercial and industrial development of the northwest.

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