"Portrait and Biographical Record of Portland, Oregon."  A "compilation" written
by "a number of writers." Chicago: Chapman Pub. Co., 1903.  p. 21.
 
 
HON. HENRY W. CORBETT
 
     Hon. Henry W. Corbett.  The First National Bank of Portland, of which Mr.
Corbett officiated as president from 1898 until his death, March 31, 1903, dates
its existence from about 1866 and has the distinction of being the first
national bank to be organized on the coast.  From an original capital stock of
$100,000 it was gradually increased until now the capitalization is five times
as great as at first, while there is a surplus of $700,000 and deposits
aggregating about $7,000,000.  Without any exception it is the largest bank of
the northwest, and at the same time none has a wider reputation for solidity,
strength and conservative spirit in investments.
     The maintenance of a general oversight of this institution by no means
represented the limit of Mr. Corbett's activities.  Scarcely an enterprise of
importance has been inaugurated in Portland since the city's pioneer days in
which he was more or less interested and to which his support was not given,
when once convinced of its value to the municipality.  As president of the
Portland Hotel Company, he was closely associated with the building of the
Portland, one of the finest hotels on the coast, and the fame of which,
spreading throughout the country, has been of incalculable value in bringing the
city into prominence.  For years he was largely interested in the city and
suburban railway system, his position as a member of the board of directors
having made it possible for him to contribute to the development of a
satisfactory system of transportation.  connected wit the organization of the
Security Savings and Trust Company of Portland, he was its president and a
member of its directorate.  Another enterprise which received the benefit of his
co-operation and influence was the Title Guarantee and Trust Company of
Portland, while he was further connected with important local business
industries through his position as president of the Willamette Steel and Iron
Works.
     Special interest centers in the life history of one who was so closely
identified with the progress of Portland along every line of commercial
development.  The genealogy of the Corbett family is traced to Roger Corbett, a
military chieftain who won distinction under William the Conqueror.  The eldest
son of Roger was William, owner of a country seat at Wattesborough.  The second
son, Sir Roger Corbett, had for his inheritance the castle and estate of Caus.
The latter's son, Robert, went to the siege of Acre under Richard I, bearing for
his arms in this campaign two ravens, which have since been used by the family
for a crest.  Early in the seventeenth century the family was established in New
England, being among the first settlers of Milford, Mass.  Elijah, son of Elijah
Corbett, Sr., was born in Massachusetts and became a manufacturer of edged
tools, first in the Bay state, and later at White Creek, Washington county,
N.Y., where he died.  His wife was Melinda Forbush, a native of Massachusetts
and descended from a pioneer family of that state, whose history is traced back
to England.  Her death occurred in New York.  Born of her marriage were eight
children, of whom three sons and two daughters attained maturity.  One of the
sons, Elijah, came to Portland in 1864 and remained here until his death.
Another son, Hamilton, died in New York during early manhood.  The daughters
were Mrs. Thomas Robertson, who came to Portland in 1856, and Mrs. Henry
Failing, who settled in this city in 1858; both are now deceased.
     The youngest member of the family circle, as well as its last
representative, was Henry W. Corbett, who was born in Westboro, Mass., February
18, 1827.  When four years of age he was taken by his parents to White Creek,
N.Y., and later settled in Cambridge, that state, where he completed the course
in the Cambridge Academy at thirteen years of age.  For three years he clerked
in a village store.  At the age of seventeen he went to New York City, having
with him $22 in money and only a very limited supply of clothing.  He obtained a
position in a dry goods store on Catherine and East Broadway.  A year later he
entered the wholesale dry-goods house of Bradford & Birdsell on Cedar street,
where he remained for three years as a clerk.  A later position was with
Williams, Bradford & Co., wholesale dry-goods merchants.  In the fall of 1850
her resolved to come west to Portland.  At that time thousands were seeking the
gold fields of California, but comparatively few were identifying themselves
with the limitless possibilities of Oregon.  The motive that impelled him in his
decision was the fact that Oregon was an agricultural country and California
then almost wholly devoted to mining, and he reasoned that the produce raised in
Oregon would be taken to California, payments being made with gold dust; thus
Portland would be an excellent trading point.
     On the steamer Empire City, January 20, 1851, Mr. Corbett set sail from New
York to Panama.  Crossing the isthmus on muleback he then took the Columbia,
which had been built by Howland Aspinwall of New York to ply between San
Francisco and Portland.  After a few days spent in San Francisco he proceeded to
Oregon, arriving at Astoria on the 4th of march.  The next day he reached
Portland.  There were only a few business houses on Front street.  The houses
were small and poorly furnished.  Improvements were limited.  What is now a
beautiful city was then covered with large forest trees of pine and spruce.  The
territory of Oregon embraced Washington, Idaho and a part of Montana.
     Some months before starting west Mr. Corbett shipped a stock of goods on
the barque Francis and Louisa via Cape Horn.  On the arrival of the vessel in
May, 1851, he transferred the goods to a building on Front and Oak streets and
embarked in a general mercantile business.  Leaving the store in charge of a
manager, in June of 1852, he returned east via Panama, and spent almost a year
in New York, meantime shipping goods to the Portland store.  In 1853 he returned
to Portland, where he continued the business.  On the completion of the Union
Pacific Railroad it was no longer necessary to bring goods around the Horn, but
they were sent by rail to San Francisco, thence by boat to Portland.  In 1868 he
made the first trip by rail from the east to San Francisco.  Previous to this he
had made thirteen trips across the isthmus.
     Through his election as United States senator from Oregon in 1866 Mr.
Corbett gained prominence among the statesmen from the west, and was enabled to
do much toward advancing the interests of his home state.  However, he was not a
politician at any stage of his career, and his service in public capacities was
only as a result of the constant solicitation of his friends, his personal
tastes being in the direction of financial and commercial affairs rather than
politics.  As a business man he contributed to the development of Portland in a
degree surpassed by none.  As early as 1851 he began to be a leader among
merchants.  He was the first business man to close his store on Sunday, this
being regarded at the time as a startling innovation.  From that day forward he
was strict in his adherence to measures he believed to be just and right.  The
business which he established shortly after his arrival in Portland was
conducted under the name of H. W. Corbett, then as H. W. Corbett & Co., later as
Corbett, Failing & Co., and lastly as Corbett, Failing & Robertson.  Since 1867
their store has been the largest wholesale hardware establishment in the north
west, as well as one of the largest on the coast.  In 1868 H. W. Corbett bought
a controlling interest in the First National Bank, of which Mr. Failing was made
president and continued as such until his death in 1898, at which time Mr.
Corbett became the executive head of the institution.
     In 1865 Mr. Corbett took the contract for the transportation of mails to
California.  Four years later he bought out the California Stage Company and
enlarged the line to carry out the contract for running the four-horse stage
coach with the mail between Portland and California.  On his election to the
United States senate he relinquished the contract.  From the early days of the
Oregon Steam Navigation Company he was one of its directors and up to the time
of his death was a director of its successor, the Oregon Railroad and Navigation
Company.  At different times he has had important manufacturing interests.  The
building interests of Portland were greatly promoted by his co-operation.  Among
the buildings which he was interested in erecting are the following:  First
National Bank building; Worcester block, six stories, on Third and Oak streets;
Cambridge block, on Third and Morrison; Neustadter building, on Stark and Fifth;
Corbett, Hamilton and Marquam buildings, etc.  An earnest advocate of the
Northern Pacific Railroad, while in the senate he gave himself to the work of
promoting the measure.  After the failure of Jay Cooke to carry the plan to a
successful issue and when Henry Villard undertook the completion of the road,
Mr. Corbett took a pecuniary interest and in many ways promoted the work.
     While living in New York, Mr. Corbett was married at Albany, that state, to
Miss Caroline E. Jagger, who was born in that city and died there in 1865.  Two
sons were born of that union, namely: Henry J., and Hamilton F., both of whom
died in Portland in young manhood.  The second marriage of Mr. Corbett was
solemnized in Worcester, Mass., and united him with Miss Emma L. Ruggles, a
native of that state.  Movements of a humanitarian nature always received the
encouragement and assistance of Mr. Corbett.  One of the worthy movements to
which he lent his aid was the Boys and Girls Aid Society, which endeavored to
arrange affairs so that children, guilty of a first crime, were not thrown among
the hardened criminals.  A home was built especially for such first offenders
and its influence has been lasting and far-reaching.
     The election of Mr. Corbett to the United States senate, over Governor
Gibbs and John H. Mitchell, occurred in 1866 and he took his seat March 4, 1867.
His record as senator was a most excellent one.  He secured the appropriation
for the Portland post office, also the custom house at Astoria, and succeeded in
having Portland made the port of entry for the Willamette custom district.  One
of the bills he introduced provided for the return of the government to specie
payment, which, though not passed at the time, was eventually adopted.  In the
senate he was especially effective in securing much needed financial
legislation.  One the expiration of his term, March 4, 1873, he visited Europe,
spending seven months in a tour that was of deep interest to him as well as a
source of recreation.  In 1896, when the St. Louis platform declared for the
gold standard, the Republican party in Oregon became somewhat disorganized on
account of the advocacy by many of free silver.  However, the influence of men
as conservative and successful as himself did much to secure a Republican
victory, and McKinley was given a majority of two thousand.  In 1900 Mr. Corbett
was the Republican candidate for the United States senate and had the majority
of Republican legislators, but was defeated by John H. Mitchell through a
combination of Democrats and some of the Republicans.  In 1898, when the
legislature failed to elect a United States senator, Governor Geer appointed him
to the office, but he was not seated on account of the ruling of the United
States senate, they declaring that an appointed senator was not entitled to a
seat caused by the failure of a state legislature to elect when they had the
opportunity.  On several occasions he was a delegate to the national Republican
conventions, where he was recognized as one of the leading men from Oregon.
Considerable of his time and thought had been devoted to his duties as president
of the board of directors of the Lewis and Clark Exposition, in the success of
which he was deeply interested, as affording an opportunity to show to the east
and to visitors from other countries the remarkable advancement made by the
northwest during the eventful one hundred years since, at the instance of
President Jefferson, Captain Lewis and Captain Clark, at the head of a small
expedition, sailed to the head-waters of the Missouri and thence crossed the
country to the coast, where they arrived November 14, 1805.  The condition of
the present, contrasted with the wildness of that period, affords an opportunity
for the student of history to note the changes that have rendered possible the
present high state of civilization, for which no class of people deserve greater
praise than the indomitable, energetic and resourceful pioneers.  On the day
prior to his death, realizing that his strength was failing, Mr. Corbett
resigned the office of president.


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