"Portrait and Biographical Record of Portland and Vicinity, Oregon." Authors: "a
compilation of this work....by a number of writers".  Chapman Publishing Co;
Chicago, 1903. p. 189.
 
AMEDEE M. SMITH

     Very early in the settlement of Nova Scotia the Smith family removed there
from England, but subsequently exchanged the bleak and icebound shores of their
peninsular home for the more prosperous region of Massachusetts, and from there
proceeded to New Jersey. Freeman Smith, a native of New Jersey, became a
resident of Fayette county, Pa., and in 1842 established his home on a tract of
raw land near Cedar Rapids, Iowa, of which he was one of the founders. A man of
rare insight into causes and their effects, fortified by a determined will, and
possessing the hardihood of a pioneer, he was fitted for the task of creating a
new town on the edge of the then wilderness. His ability was inherited from his
father, Dr. Isaac Smith, a successful physician and talented man, who during the
Revolutionary war served as colonel of the First Regiment from Hunterdon county,
N. J., but resigned his commission in 1777 in order to accept an appointment as
justice of the supreme court of his state.
     In the family of Freeman Smith there were eleven children. The youngest of
these, Amedee M. Smith, Sr., was born in Fayette county. Pa., in 1839. At the
outbreak of the Civil war he enlisted in Company F, Twenty-fourth Iowa Infantry,
and served for three years as a noncommissioned officer. On being honorably
discharged from the service he learned the pottery business in a pottery owned
by his brother, Freeman Smith, in Iowa. Meantime he had married, and in 1865,
accompanied by his wife and their child, he came via Panama and San Francisco to
Portland. On this trip he was accompanied by his father and mother, who settled
at Albany, Ore., but in 1866 removed to Buena Vista, this state, where his
father died in 1881, at the age of eighty-nine years. During the same year they
had come by the isthmus to Oregon, his brother, Freeman, had crossed the plains,
and previous to this, during the '5os, three other brothers had come, Henry, who
settled near Eugene, James, who died immediately on his arrival, and W. H., who
took up land in Clatsop county.
     For the first year of his residence in Oregon Amedee M. Smith made Albany
his home, but in 1866 removed to Buena Vista, Polk county, where, having found
suitable clay land, he and his brother, Freeman, and their father, started a
pottery, which was the first enterprise of its kind on the Pacific coast. In
1870,  A. M. Smith bought the interests of his father and brother and continued
alone until 1883. Meantime, in 1881, he had brought his family to Portland and
established his headquarters in this city. From a very small beginning he built
up a plant occupying several acres of ground at this time. In 1883, on the river
front and Sherlock avenue, he erected a building 200 x 250, three stories in
height, on a lot 200 x 600, and put in six large kilns, at the same time
incorporating the Oregon Pottery Company, of which he was president and
James Steel secretary. Everything in the line of vitrified pipes was
manufactured there, while the plant at Buena Vista meantime turned out the
pottery. On the destruction of the Portland property by fire in 1890 he erected
brick buildings on the same site and a tract of land adjoining. The buildings
occupy about 300 x 300 feet, three and four stories in height, and are equipped
with steam boilers and engines of two hundred horse power, with the latest
improved machinery for the manufacture of sewer pipe, chimney pipe, flue lining
and fire proofing.
     In the early days of the pottery business in Oregon it was the custom of
the manufacturers to start out from the kilns with a load of pottery and travel
throughout  the Willamette valley until all they carried was sold. Money being
scarce, often they accepted produce in exchange for their wares. However, as the
population increased and railroads came in, the capacity of their plant was also
increased and they made their sales in large quantities, shipping by railroad.
On the death of A. M. Smith, Sr., his son and namesake was chosen president and
manager of the Oregon Pottery Company. Two years later, in 1896, James Steel
retired from the concern, which was then reorganized as the Western Clay
Manufacturing Company, with A. M. Smith, Jr., as president and manager; W. H.
Britts, vice-president; and Blaine R. Smith, secretary and treasurer. The
company is still doing business under the same name and with the same officers
as at first, the three being also the sole owners of the plant. In 1890 the
manufacture of pottery was discontinued and the plant devoted entirely to the
manufacture of their other products. Frequent enlargements have been made and
today the plant is the most complete one of its kind on the Pacific coast. The
products of the kilns are shipped to all points on the Pacific coast and their
trade extends as far north as British Columbia and Alaska. They also have an
extensive trade in the Hawaiian Islands. The office of the company is at No. 55
Fourth street, Portland.
     While still in the east, Mr. Smith was united in marriage with Miss Mary E.
Speelman, who was born in Pittsburg, Pa., a daughter of A. E. Speelman, a native
of the Keystone state and a glass blower by trade. On account of the failure of
his eyesight Mr. Speelman gave up his trade and removed to Iowa during the early
'5os, settling on a farm near Marion, Linn county. Later he went to Minnesota
and his death occurred at Verndale, that state. In religion he was a member of
the Methodist Episcopal Church. The family of which he was a member came from
Germany, while his wife was a member of the Isherwood family, of English
extraction. Seven children blessed the union of Mr. Smith and Mary Speelman,
namely : Albert G., who died at the age of nine years; an infant that died in
Iowa; Elizabeth, now Mrs. W. H. Drifts; Amedee M. ; Blaine R.; Mary E., wife of
Dr. F. C. Sellwood, and Leta R., all residing in Portland. The mother of these
children passed away in 1883, and for his second wife Mr. Smith married Mrs.
Emma J. Coulter, of Connellsville, Pa., and by this union two children were
born, Harold S. and Mildred.
     In the death of Mr. Smith, which occurred September 29, 1894, Oregon lost
one of its honored pioneers and Portland was called upon to mourn one of its
most prominent and highly esteemed citizens. His death was not only a severe
blow to the industrial world, in which he had taken such an active part and in
which he was so well known, but by his demise Portland lost a citizen who at all
times was in favor of any movement calculated to be of benefit to his adopted
state or county.
     The Taylor Street Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he was an active
member, had in him one of its most sincere supporters and at his death he was a
member of its board of trustees. His influence was always for the good, and his
sympathy, his benevolence and his kindly greeting will long be remembered by all
with whom he had come in contact. His duties were performed with the greatest
care and throughout life his personal honor and integrity were without blemish.
His character, as it was manifested to his associates, was remarkable for its
simplicity; he had great earnestness and concentration of purpose; in planning
he was deliberate but forcible. His wisdom had been largely gained by
observation, as the advantages of his youth were limited. In his business
dealings he was ever prompt, reliable and entirely trustworthy and he gained a
greater degree of success than many who at the start were blessed with better
advantages. 


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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in April 2008 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.