"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. 820.
 
MARTIN STRONG BURRELL

     From the time of his arrival in Oregon, in the pioneer days of its history,
until his death twenty-nine years later, Martin Strong Burrell contributed
towards the progress and development of the northwestern states and territories.
The family of which he was a member belonged to the early colonists of
Massachusetts and Connecticut, but he, himself, was a native of Sheffield, Ohio.
He was the son of Jabez Lyman and Lavinia (Strong) Burrell and his mother was a
daughter of John Stoughton Strong, Sr., and Tamar Whitney.
     John Stoughton Strong, Sr., was a descendant in the fifth generation of
Elder John Strong, who came to America from Plymouth, England in 1530. The
great-great-grandfather of John Stoughton Strong, Sr., was a daughter of the
Rev. John Wareham of Windsor, Conn., a noted and prominent man in the colonies,
and his father and two uncles were, soldiers in the Revolutionary war.  (See
page 102, of the History of Strongsville, Ohio.) In 1815-16 John Stoughton
Strong, Sr., bought one-half or more of township No. 5, range No. 14, of the
Connecticut Western Reserve of Ohio.
     Jabez Lyman Burrell was a farmer and stockman by occupation who settled in
Oberlin, Ohio, when that city was a small village, and assisted in the
foundation of the noted educational institution which has since made that town
known throughout the entire country.  This seat of learning Martin Strong
Burrell attended until ill health compelled him to leave his studies and seek a
home in the far west. Accordingly he journeyed to California, and crossing the
Isthmus of Panama, joined an uncle, Lyman Jabez Burrell, who had settled some
time previously in the Santa Clara mountains. After remaining a few months with
this relative, he came to Oregon in 1856 and settled in Portland, then a town of
a little more than a thousand inhabitants. Here he secured employment as
bookkeeper for the firm of Knapp & Hull, commission merchants, and such was the
enterprise and ability he displayed that in 1860 he was admitted into the
partnership.
     Mr. Hull, in that year, retired from the business, and the new firm,
consisting of Mr. Burrell and J. B. Knapp, took the name of Knapp, Burrell & Co.
The original location of their business was on Front and Taylor streets, but
subsequently they removed to the northeast corner of Front and Alder streets.
Gradually the firm drifted into the agricultural implement business, and,
finding it very profitable, at last gave their whole attention to what
originally had been but one department of their store. In the early days they
were obliged to bring their goods around Cape Horn and one of the members of the
firm went east each year to secure the needed supply. So successful were they
that the house became well known throughout all the states and territories of
the northwest. In 1862 Richard B. Knapp was admitted into the firm and in the
spring of 1870 J. B. Knapp retired, and the business was conducted by Mr.
Burrell and R. B. Knapp until Mr. Burrell's death in 1885. The establishment and
management of the largest agricultural implement business on the pacific coast
did not represent the limit of Mr. Burrell's energies, and he became interested
with the present Senator Levi Ankeny of Walla Walla, Wash., ex-Governor D. P.
Thompson and others in the establishment of a system of National Banks in the
eastern parts of Oregon and Washington, these banks being located at Baker City,
Ore., Pendleton, Ore., Walla Walla, Wash., Dayton, Wash., and Colfax, Wash.  In
each of these town the bank organized was known as the First National Bank,
excepting at Dayton, where it was known as the Columbia National Bank. He also
invested heavily in a fleet of sailing vessels managed by Capt. W. H. Besse, of
New Bedford, Mass., in real estate in Portland, Ore., and farming lands in
Washington, and was at all times progressive, energetic and resourceful. The
Portland Board of Trade owed much to his active co-operation in matters
connected with its work, and other organizations of public utility felt, in
their incipiency, the benefit of his judicious and timely assistance.                                    
      While Mr. Burrell was never a seeker alter public office, he was a stanch
Republican, and held offices within the gift of his party, i. e.,  police
commissioner and county commissioner.  In religious belief he was reared a
Congregationalist, but with his wife he attended the Unitarian Church, while
fraternally he was connected with the Masons and Odd Fellows. His death, which
occurred April 12, 1885, was a distinct loss to the citizens of Portland and
Oregon.
     In 1862 he was married to Rosa Frazar, a daughter of Thomas Frazar, and
four children survived him, i. e., Walter F., of Portland, Ore., Herman J., who
died in Portland in 1899, Helen Strong, wife of Capt. Gordon Voorhies, of
Medford. Ore., and Margaret Alden, wife of Capt. William S. Biddle, an officer
of the United States army.   The services of Mr. Burrell as a developer of the
resources of the states of Oregon, Washington and Idaho and of the business
interests of Portland were of such a nature as to entitle him to rank as one of
the most important factors in the establishment of its present high commercial
standing.
     Aggressive and progressive, resourceful and tactful, sincere and fearless,
he possessed the greatest of all virtues among those engaged in commercial
warfare, strict integrity, and exerted an influence in all quarters eminently
beneficial and acknowledged to be free from narrow personal motives. He
contributed largely to mould the character of the city of Portland in the days
of its most rapid development, and the principles to which he always strictly
adhered formed a most substantial part of the foundation of commercial honor,
political virtue and enlightened education which underlies this great and
growing commonwealth.


*******************

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