Portland, Maine

“ South Portland is served by the Boston & Maine railway. It is the seat of the State (Reform) School for Boys. At Spring Point is Fort Preble, established in 1808 and now a coast artillery station; and at Portland Head is Fort Williams. The city has steel-rolling mills, car shops of the Boston & Maine railway, and ship-building interests, and manufactures marine hardware and varnish. South Portland was part of the old town of Cape Elizabeth (pop. in 1900, 887) until March 1895 ”

“ Portland was settled in this year, and received its name from the game of "heads you lose, tails I win," by which its joint owners agreed to determine it. One of them being a Maine man, was for giving it the name which it now bears, the other partner being in favor of Boston, because he was a Massachusetts man. ”

“ Immense sums are being expended on the defences of the city by the United States government, as it is realized that in case of war with Great Britain this would be the point of attack, because Portland is the natural seaport of the Canadas, and Maine is thrust, in a provoking way, between the Maritime Provinces and the Province of Quebec. Portland can indulge in no dream of great commercial importance so long as the country which its position especially dominates is under a foreign{80} flag ”

“ The post office was established February 3, 1898, with James C. Porter first and only postmaster, and was discontinued June 15, 1899, with papers to Silver Lake. The office was named for the Porter family, several members of which had homesteads in the vicinity.
PORTLAND, Multnomah County. Portland was named for Portland, Maine, in 1845, by Francis W. Pettygrove. Whether the name should be Portland or Boston was decided by Pettygrove and A. L. Lovejoy by the toss of a copper coin. Pettygrove was born at Calais, Maine, in 1812, and came to Oregon by sea in 1843 with a stock of merchandise. ”

“ Nowadays the first thing in the history of a city is a grand map and a grander name. In 1845 Portland was started, and lots sold before it had any name. This proving somewhat awkward and embarrassing, the matter came up for discussion and decision at a family dinner party of the Lovejoys and Pettygroves at Oregon City. Mr. Pettygrove, hailing from Maine, wished to name the town for his favorite old home town of Portland, while General Lovejoy, coming from Massachusetts, desired to honor Boston with the name. ”

“ To join the brimming river;
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on forever.
HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW By GRACE E. SELLON
Among the most distinguished and interesting buildings in the town of Portland, Maine, is the rather severe-looking house built in the latter part of the eighteenth century by General Peleg Wadsworth. From the very date of its erection, this structure became the object of not a little pride among the citizens of Portland as the first in the town to be made of brick ”

“ Portland ought to mark with a bronze tablet the site of Alice Greele’s tavern. The building stood until 1846 at the corner of Congress and Hampshire Streets. It was then removed to Washington Street.
Portland had a rapid growth of population and increase in wealth during the European disturbances caused by the ambition of Napoleon. The carrying-trade of the world was almost monopolized by neutral American bottoms, and ship-building became then, as it continued to be for a long time afterward, a leading industry along the Maine coast. Great fortunes were made by Portland ship-owners. ”

“ THE OLD TOWER AT NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND.
From Wolfborough the route was east by the Maine Central Railroad to Portland, and thence by steamer to Boston. There are many beautiful places in the vicinity of Portland, and particularly about the popular summer resorts of Mount Desert Island and Bar Harbor; but much must be sacrificed to the limit of space, for no one book can ever contain pictures of all the natural scenery that is worthy to be reproduced. ”

“ From colonial times Portland has been noted for commercial interests, its trade, with the West Indies especially in earlier days, being one of its important sources of wealth. The city is still of greater importance for its commerce than for its industrial enterprises, exporting extensively grain, apples, and live stock. The foreign trade of the customs district of Portland and Falmouth in 1901 consisted of exports aggregating in value $12,416,793, and imports, $633,114. In recent years the exports have increased substantially, while the imports show a tendency to decline. ”

“ A new building was erected in Portland, and formally opened in February, 1901. The success and present prosperity of the home is due largely to the energy and per.severance of Mrs. MacGregor, the president and the originator of the plan of work. She has interested Maine people in the enterprise, and to-day the institution represents in a large degree her labor and influence. ”

“ Of General Stephen Coffin much can be said in his praise, as a public spirited man, and a most energetic and successful builder of the city of Portland. General Coffin was born at Bangor, Maine, in 1807, moved west to the state of Ohio early in life, and crossed the plains and reached Oregon City in October, 1847. Here he went to work with the industry and energy that characterized his whole life, and at the end of two years he had accumulated enough to enable him to purchase a half interest in the Portland townsite claim, as has already been stated. ”

“ With such a beginning, with the growth and development already achieved, with an invincible position and natural advantages which cannot be reversed or diminished, Portland is entitled to be called the "City of Destiny"—a destiny assured to be the greatest city of the Pacific coast of North America. ”

“ Portland stands alone in its founding and development. In less than sixty years it has arisen from an unbroken forest, uninhabited save by wild beasts and native Indians, separated from its native hearthstones by two thousand miles of unpeopled deserts, plains and mountains, to a city and seaport, one hundred and ten miles from the ocean, that ships more lumber than any other city in the world, more wheat than any other city in America, except New York, and handles more money every day than any other city in the nation of its class. ”

“ A noticeable feature of Portland is the snug and homelike appearance of the city. The streets are narrow—too narrow, indeed, for the display of the fine structures already erected and in progress; the squares are small, affording frequent streets and corner lots—so small that many of Portland's capitalists have appropriated a whole one to themselves, giving a perspective to their tasteful mansions which their business houses lack. ”

“ The alternation of these farms with long tracts of forest, where spruces and pines stand a hundred and fifty feet high, and myriads of wild things have grown in generations of tangle, gives to the country around Portland a charm and flavor peculiarly its own; even into the city itself extends something of the same charm of contrast and antithesis; meandering footpaths, or narrow plank sidewalks with grassy rims, running within stone's-throw of solid brick blocks and business thoroughfares. ”

“ In Portland is the constant stir of progress and commercial development—it is in the air. With the completion of a forty-foot ship channel from the city to the sea, to which end surveys are being conducted by the government, the largest vessels will have no difficulty in making Portland. Business enterprises of all sorts thrive; the building up of attractive suburbs, and of seaside resorts such as Long Beach and Yaquina bay—all these mean that here is a city of 160,000 people that will bear watching. There is no use hurrying through Portland; there is too much to be seen and done ”

“ To-day it is estimated at 30,000, or, including the suburbs of East Portland and Albina, at 40,000, and a handsomer city of its size can not be found in the United States.
In everything that distinguishes a great metropolitan city, the progress of Portland has been even more remarkable than the rapid growth of its [Pg 41] population. The handsome business blocks that line its principal streets bear witness to the magnitude of its trade and commerce, while its churches, schools and other public buildings testify to the high moral tone and refined taste of its citizens. ”

“ No estimate can be made of the value and influence of such a man, and such a life, in such a city as Portland, and a new country like Oregon. It is beyond all estimation, above all praise, and immeasurable. Such men never die. ”

“ The far Northwest bordering on the sea caught flotsam and jetsam, caught problems, as seaboard regions always have and always will. The city of Portland, Oregon, shares in these matters, though it is old, settled, and much disposed to quiet. Portland’s main concern in life is the growing of roses; but early in the war Portland had already thrown away her rose-growers’ club and set her hand to the ax rather than to the garden trowel. As a city, it is a good place for roses, but a poor place for alien enemies. ”

“ It is not hard to understand the fact of so many townsite locations having been made in the vicinity of Portland. Everybody in the country in those pioneer days, could see as well as we can now, that there would be somewhere above the Columbia river bar, a town started which would grow into a great city, and make a fortune or fortunes for the lucky proprietors. Every man had his individual ideas of the proposition. The city would either be at Astoria, where Astor located, or it would be up near the mouth of the Willamette river. It would be wherever the ships cast anchor to discharge cargo. ”

“ No class of citizens have persistently advocated and insisted upon these reforms with higher motives and less selfishness than the doctors of Portland ; and the consequence is that Portland, Oregon, is about the healthiest place to live in the United States ”

“ At this time there were two other newspapers published in the Territory—the Spectator, at Oregon city and the Western Star, at Milwaukie, a then promising young city on the east bank of the Wallamet and six miles south of Portland.
The Western Star soon after disappeared from the Milwaukie horizon, to reappear in Portland as the 77mes. The town itself proved to be too near Portland, to become a city. It has however been noted for the manufacture of flour, the building of steamboats, and the Meek and Lluelling nursery, from which this coast received its first supply of cultivated apple trees. ”

“ Seen from its water approach, Portland is a picturesque city, with a near surrounding of hills, wooded with pines and firs, that make a superb sky-line setting to the town, and to the five grand snow-peaks, of which clear days give a sight. These dark forests and spear-top fringes are a more distinctive feature in the beauty of Portland's site than even its fine waters and islands. It is to be hoped that the Portland people will appreciate their value, and never let their near hills be shorn of trees. Not one tree more should be cut. ”

“ There is not a single large city in the United States, except Portland, but what had for its foundations some sort of authority or law from a sovereign ruler or government. Portland was in a worse position than in a country where there was no law, and no claim to the country, by any state or nation. ”

“ Portland has one of the deepest and best harbors in [Pg 352] the world, with a depth of forty feet at low tide. Its surroundings are exceptionally favorable for a commercial city, and were it not for its geographical location, it being so far north of the great areas of population, it would undoubtedly have gained a prominence over most of the Atlantic cities. But Boston and New York drew all but the provincial trade and commerce, and with a sparsely settled country at its back, there was little to build up Portland and give it great prosperity. ”

“ Portland has a population of 130,000 and is a most beautiful city. It has a jobbing trade amounting to between $150,000,000 and $175,000,000 a year and also a heavy export trade. Its exports of wheat and lumber are very large. The buildings, churches, residences, and parks of Portland are thoroughly modern, and electricity, generated at Willamette Falls, plays an important part in all manufacturing, street car locomotion, building and street illumination, etc. ”

“ The mournfullest task of memory lies in realising how large a toll is yielded in a few fleeting years to the unsparing tax-gatherer Death.
Portland, although devoid of the fertile lands which encompass Port Fairy and Warrnambool, had yet beauties of its own. Its situation was romantic. Lofty cliffs rose from the beach, and from many a picturesque eminence the residences of the townspeople looked on the broad ocean and the peaceful waters of the bay. ”

“ Portland is indeed a city of homes, and workingmen own their own houses to an unusual degree. As the visitor traverses Portland's streets, he sees amply demonstrated the propriety of the cognomen, the "Rose City." Almost every yard boasts its roses, and on almost every porch the scarlet rambler or some other climber casts its rich colouring. Soil and climate are said to produce an ideal combination for the finest grades of roses, as well as of many other species of flowers. The Portland Fair of 1905 was the means of beautifying a section of the city near Macley Park. ”

“ The facts which have induced thousands of Portland's citizens to hold on patiently and stubbornly until time should prove the correctness of their views, are the facts which have made the city what it is, and will produce the great Pacific coast city of the future. The viewpoint of the pioneer was, that Portland was the nearest point that an ocean-going sailing vessel could get to the Willamette valley farms. ”