Hines, H. K. "An Illustrated History of the State of Oregon." Chicago: Lewis
Pub. Co. 1893.  p. 1235.
 
AMEDEE M. SMITH

     The president and manager of the Oregon Pottery Company of Portland, one of
the largest manufacturing plants of the Northwest, was born in Geneva, Fayette
county, Pennsylvania, August 8, 1839.  His father, Freeman Smith, was a native
of New Jersey, a mechanic and shipbuilder, who, after settling in Pennsylvania,
built the first steamboat which ran upon the Monongahela river.  His wife was
Margaret Hilterbrand, who was a native of Maryland.  In 1842 the large family,
consisting of father, mother and nine children, of whom Amedee was the youngest,
emigrated to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where Mr. Smith engaged in farming and building
boats suitable for navigating on the Cedar river.  The last one of these, the
Black Hawk, was used as a transportation boat on the upper Mississippi during
the war of the Rebellion.  Young Smith procured an education chiefly by personal
effort, as school privileges were limited to about three months per year and his
services were needed constantly on the farm; but still he progressed in his
studies, taking a full course in the public schools and a subsequent course at a
normal school.  After he had attained his twentieth year Mr. Smith was engaged
as a teacher in several schools of Iowa.  Shortly after the war had opened
between the North and the South, he enlisted in Company F., twenty-fourth
Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry, and, after serving some six months with his
regiment, he was mustered out, owing to his failing health.  After recuperating,
he engaged as foreman in the pottery business conducted by his brother until
1865, when he, with his little family, accompanied by his father, mother and
brother, emigrated to Oregon, by the way of New York and the Isthmus of Panama,
and settled at Albany.
     Soon afterward fire-clay was discovered at Buena Vista, in Polk county,
when Mr. Smith, in association with his father and brothers, established on a
small scale, the first pottery works in the Northwest.  For several years the
product of the works was confined to stoneware alone.  The population of the
Northwest was so small and scattering that there was little demand for
stoneware, and it was by persistent effort that sales could be made.  The first
wagon-load of ware made was taken by Mr. Smith in person to Albany.  The
merchants looked at it and shook their heads, and walked off, not knowing what
use to make of such goods.  After all others had abandoned the idea of handling
the ware, an enterprising hardware dealer, Mr. John Conner, ordered the load
driven around to his back door, taking the entire load, some 300 gallons in all,
for which he paid 50 cents per gallon in gold.  Mr. Conner afterward became a
banker and is now a retired capitalist.  In 1871 Mr. Smith gained control of the
entire plant, and at once commenced to enlarge the plant and increase
the product, and in 1872 he commenced the manufacture of sewer pipe; but as the
manufacture of that article from fire-clay was but in its incipiency at the
East, and to obtain suitable machinery from the Eastern States was both tedious
and expensive, he invented and had built in Portland the first system of
machinery used for that purpose in the Northwest.  In 1873, the first main sewer
was made, consisting principally of 15-inch pipe.  This was placed in Stark
street, Portland, and has now been in use twenty years.  Since that time Mr.
Smith and his associates have furnished nearly all the sewer-pipe that has been
used in Portland as well as many other towns in Oregon and Washington, amounting
to many miles.
     After successfully running the works at Buena Vista for about twenty years,
Mr. Smith, in 1884, organized the Oregon Pottery Company, with a capital stock
of $50,000, he becoming its president and manager.  New works were built in
Portland at a cost of about $60,000.  These works were soon established on a
firm footing, and did a successful business until 1890, when the entire plant
was destroyed by fire.  With his characteristic spirit of enterprise Mr. Smith
at once set about to re-establish the works on a larger scale than before.  The
capital stock was increased to $200,000, and the works rebuilt at a cost of
about $100,000, and are today among the most complete pottery works of the
coast, and excelled by but few in America.  The main building, used for factory
purposes, is of brick, three stories high, with a full stone basement.  The
other building of the plant are of wood, but covered with corrugated iron
throughout.  The kilns are finer than any other used on the whole coast.  The
plans of the entire reconstructed works were furnished by the president and
manager.  The buildings of the plant cover an area of 200 x 234 feet.  This is
exclusive of the wharf adjoining the plant, which is 100 x 300 feet in size.
The ground occupied by the company is about three and one-half acres in extent.
     Mr. Smith was married in Mt. Vernon, Iowa, in 1861, to Miss Mary E.
Spielman, who was a faithful companion through the pioneer days, but she was
called to her eternal home in 1883, leaving five children:  Elizabeth, wife of
William H. Britts, of Duluth, Minnesota;  Amedee M., Jr., Blaine R., Mary E.,
and Leta R.  In 1884 Mr. Smith was married at Connellsville, Pennsylvania, to
Mrs. Emma J. Coulter, and they have two children:  Harold S. and Mildred.  The
family reside on the northwest corner of Twenty-first and Everett streets, where
he built his home in 1883.  Mr. Smith is a member of a number of secret orders,
and has always taken a lively interest in moral reforms.  He has been a member
of the Methodist Church for about forty years, much of the time in an official
capacity, and is now an official member of the First Methodist Church of
Portland.  He has also always taken an active interest in educational matters.
He is a Trustee of the Portland University, and a Trustee for the Endowment
Funds of the Willamette University.  He helped organize the Portland Trust
Company, of Portland, Oregon, and was for several years one of its directors.
He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and one of the most energetic business
men of Portland.

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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in November 2005 by Diana Smith.
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.