"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. 158. CAPT. J. C. AINSWORTH The history of Oregon would be incomplete did it fail to give the life record of Capt. J. C. Ainsworth, who was for many years a well known factor in navigation and railway matters as well as a promoter of banking interests in the northwestern country. He was a son of John Commiger Ainsworth, who died when his son J. C. was seven or eight years of age. Captain Ainsworth was born in Springborough, Warren county, Ohio, June 6, 1822, and on the Mississippi river received his first lessons in the profession which afterward made him famous. On arriving at man's estate he was quickly promoted to the position of pilot and subsequently to that of master on a passenger steamer plying between St. Louis and up-river points. While in this service he first heard of the discovery of gold in California and the wonderful possibilities for labor and capital in that state. He accordingly journeyed to San Francisco in 1850, accompanied by the noted banker, William C. Ralston, and soon after his arrival on the Pacific coast he went to Oregon to take command of the Lot Whitcomb. His life in the northwest from this time until he retired, nearly thirty years afterward, was inseparably associated with marine pursuits, and to his thorough and practical knowledge of the business in all its details was clue the marvelous success achieved by the great transportation company in which he was a leading spirit from the time of its inception until it was merged from the Oregon Steamship & Navigation Company into the Oregon Railroad & Navigation Company. He was president of the latter company until it was sold to the Villard syndicate in 1881, for $5,000,000. He built the Missouri Pacific Railroad through from California to the Sound, getting the engine into Puget Sound twenty-four hours before the expiration of a valuable land subsidy. This, too, he completed, furnishing the means from his own pocket. He started the Ainsworth National Bank in 1883, built the Ainsworth Block in 1881, at the corner of Third and Oak streets, and started the Central Bank of Oakland, Cal., acting as its president until his death. While Captain Ainsworth made for himself a reputation as a remarkable financier among the money kings on both sides of the continent, yet he always remained a firm friend of the laboring classes. Retrenchment with him did not commence with a reduction of salaries. "Give the boys good salaries," was a sentiment he always expressed, and "the boys." since grown gray, many of them in the service of less appreciative masters, will never forget the kind-hearted employer who appreciated good services and acknowledged the same in a substantial manner. As an indication of the regard in which Captain Ainsworth was held by the people of the upper country, from whom much of the revenue of the Oregon Steam Navigation Company was derived, an extract from an article published in The Dalles Inland Empire after the retirement of Captain Ainsworth, is herewith given: "He has been at all times a gentlemanly public servant, a faithful custodian of the interests of his fellow stockholders and the most equitable and merciful of employers. In fine, he has been a good friend to friends and a semi-foe to enemies. His broad sense of justice has made him the object of an almost filial degree of affection from his employes, and to his sagacity in making three voluntary reductions of freight rates without compulsion in five years' time, the growth and expansion of the Eastern Empire are largely attributable." Captain Ainsworth's friendship for his early companion and friend, W. C. Ralston, lasted until the tragic death of Mr. Ralston, and in this connection the following story was told in the San Francisco Examiner: "When Captain Ainsworth and W. C. Ralston arrived in California they separated. Mr. Ralston remained in San Francisco, and engaged in the banking business with Eugene Kelly, while Captain Ainsworth went to Oregon and began steamboating on the Willamette river. Each was successful, and one clay Ainsworth saw a chance to increase his fortune if he could become possessed of $100,000. As he desired this amount very much he went to San Francisco and called on his old friend, W. C. Ralston, for assistance. The details of the plan were outlined and the required amount was promptly advanced on a sixty-clay note. When Mr. Kelly returned from an eastern trip he looked over the affairs of the institution and noted the transaction. He was much displeased with the loan and insisted upon its immediate recall. Ralston defended his action warmly, but unsuccessfully, and some words passed between the partners. In the meantime Ainsworth had gone to Oregon, and the customary notice was delayed until the sailing of the next steamer. Ainsworth concluded the deal, cleared up something like $250,000, and started the borrowed money homeward within a few days, and the vessel which carried the recall passed the money on the way to the bank. This transaction so angered Ralston that he withdrew from the partnership and opened the Bank of California. Before retiring from the Oregon Steam Navigation Company Captain Ainsworth invested largely in real estate in Tacoma, and was prominently identified, with the construction of the Northern Pacific Railway Company between the Columbia river and Puget Sound. In 1880 he removed to Oakland, Cal., where he became interested in local banking and subsequently exploited the famous watering place, Redondo Beach, expending nearly $3,000,000 in transforming it into one of the finest seaside resorts on the Pacific coast. Captain Ainsworth died at his home near Oakland, December 30, 1893, and few if any of the pioneers in the transportation business of the northwest have left a record which will prove more lasting or more creditable. The second marriage of Captain Ainsworth occurred in San Francisco, the lady of his choice being Fannie Bobbitt, daughter of Gen. Edwin Burr Bobbitt, a graduate of West Point and chief of the Quartermaster Department, U. S. A. His son, Lawrence S. Bobbitt, is second in rant: for chief of ordnance, stationed at Dover, N. J., and his son, Edwin B. Bobbitt, is a graduate of West Point and now a captain of ordnance stationed at Washington, D. C. Unto Capt. J. C. Ainsworth and his wife were born six children, five of whom are still living, two sons and three daughters. H. B. Ainsworth is manager of the Los Angeles & Redondo Railroad Company, of Los Angeles, Cal. J. C. Ainsworth, Jr., is represented in the following biographical sketch. The mother of this family survives her husband and resides in Portland. Captain Ainsworth was for years a very prominent Mason, and Ainsworth Lodge and Ainsworth Chapter, in Oregon, are named in his honor. He attained the thirty-third degree and was first Grand Master of Oregon and was for years active inspector-general of the supreme council of the Southern Jurisdiction in the state of Oregon, the highest post of honor possible of attainment in the state. Captain Ainsworth was a man fitted by his excellent business qualities to take a leading part in the upbuilding and growth of a new country such as the northwest at the time he took up his abode here, and that he faithfully fulfilled every duty devolving upon him and carried forward to a successful completion whatever he undertook was a well known fact. Strict integrity and uprightness were salient features in his characteristics, and all who knew him regarded him with the highest honor and respect. (For many of the facts contained in the preceding biography credit is due to Lewis & Dryden's History of the Pacific Northwest). ******************* Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in June 2008 by Diana Smith. Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.