Gaston, Joseph.  "Portland, Oregon Its History and Builders."  Vol. 2. 
Chicago and Portland, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1911. p. 572.
 
HARVEY HART GRIDLEY

     Harvey Hart Gridley has been a resident of the Pacific northwest for
thirty-nine years and is now living retired in Vancouver. He was born in Tioga
county, New York, May 2, 1831, and remained a resident of the Empire state until
fourteen years of age, when he accompanied his parents on their removal to
Kendall county, Illinois. His education, begun in the east, was continued in the
latter county, where he remained until twenty-five years of age. For a time he
was engaged in farming in Illinois and also learned and followed the carpenter's
trade there, but the spirit of enterprise, which has always been one of his
strong characteristics, led him to seek the opportunities of the Pacific coast
country and in 1871 he arrived in Vancouver. Here he sought work at his trade
and followed carpentering for four years, at the end of which time he turned his
attention to the furniture and undertaking business and was thus closely
connected with the commercial interests of the city for fifteen years, during
which period he built up an extensive business from which he derived substantial
and gratifying profits, enabling him at the end of that time to retire from
business with a comfortable competence.
     In 1856 Mr. Gridley was united in marriage to Miss Almanda E. Cook, a
native of Portland, Maine, and a daughter of Gerry and Mary Jane Cook. They now
have two children: Charles Clinton, of Vancouver; and Emogene, the wife of W. J.
Higgins, also of Vancouver. Mr. and Mrs. Gridley have now traveled life's
journey together for more than a half century, sharing with each other in its
joys and sorrows, its adversity and prosperity. Mr. Gridley's influence has
always been on the side of improvement, reform and progress and in these
connections he has done good work for Vancouver. During his three terms' service
as a member of the city council he exercised his official prerogatives in
support of every project which he deemed of practical value to the city. In
politics he was for a long period a stanch supporter of the republican party
where national issues are involved but cast an independent ballot at county and
state elections. He leans somewhat toward the prohibition party, for he is a
believer in the cause of temperance and regards the liquor traffic as one of the
curses of the nation. To this end his support has been given toward the
promotion of temperance ideals and practices. He occupies a nice home which he
erected soon after coming to Vancouver and here in the evening of life, for he
is now seventy-nine years of age, he is most comfortably situated.


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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.