Carey, Charles Henry.  "History of Oregon." Vol. 2. Chicago-Portland: Pioneer
Historical Pub. Co., 1922.  p. 472.
 
WILLIAM J. PIEPENBRINK

     William J. Piepenbrink is a member of the firm of Whitfleld, Whitcomb &
Company, Certified Public Accountants. The business is carried on under a
partnership arrangement between William Whitfleld, Walter D. Whitcomb and
William J. Piepenbrink and their clients are numbered throughout the Pacific
coast country, as indicated by the tact that they maintain offices in tour
cities of the northwest and agencies in three others of the large cities of the
Pacific coast.
    William J. Piepenbrink was born in South Bend, Indiana, in 1884, and is a
son of W. J. F. and Julia (Knothe) Piepenbrink. Both parents are natives of Fort
Wayne, Indiana. The father is a manufacturing chemist and has specialized in
making veterinary medicine. He has spent much time on the road in connection
with the development of the business and has also been well known as an office
holder. He served under President Cleveland as collector of internal revenue for
the Indiana district and refused the position of postmaster at South Bend. He
has frequently been a delegate to political conventions and has exerted not a
little influence in that connection.
     William J. Piepenbrink pursued his education in a high school at South
Bend, Indiana, and when a boy of fourteen years initiated his business career by
accepting the position of office boy with the Oliver Chilled Plow Works. He
served five years with that corporation and won steady promotion, becoming chief
accountant by the time he had attained the age of nineteen. His poor health
forced him to give up his position and he went to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where
he was with the American Express Company tor three years. He next removed to
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and occupied a clerical position with the Fidelity Trust
Company, serving as chief  clerk and assistant trust officer. In 1911 he
established an office of his own as a public accountant and continued the
business there for two years.
     Mr. Piepenbrink left the middle west in May, 1913, and came to Portland
where he has since made his home. Before reaching the northwest he had secured
by means of telegraphic communication a position with the firm of Whitfield,
Whitcomb & Company whom he represented as efficiency man until the spring of
1917. Both Mr. Whitfield and Mr. Whitcomb entered the war in the spring of 1917
and Mr. Piepenbrink took over the business which he conducted until the time of
their return after which a partnership relation was formed on the 1st of
September, 1919. The business is carried on under the name of Whitfleld,
Whitcomb & Company. This is one of the leading firms of certified public
accountants in the west and something of the volume of their business and extent
of their clientele is indicated in the tact that they maintain offices in
Portland, Astoria, Seattle and Spokane and have agencies in Salt Lake, San
Francisco and Los Angeles.
     Mr. Piepenbrink belongs to the Oregon State Society of Certified Public
Accountants of which he is serving as a director and he is also a member of the
Washington Society of Certified Public Accountants and the National Association
of Cost Accountants.
     On the 17th of June, 1911, Mr. Piepenbrink was united in marriage to Miss
Elizabeth Briggs, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Fraternally Mr. Piepenbrink is a
Knights Templar Mason. He belongs to the Royal Rosarians, to the Old Colony Club
and to the Ad Club, of which be was secretary and treasurer in 1920-21. He is
also a member of a Trails Club, of which he was treasurer for three years and he
belongs to the Multnomah Amateur Athletic Club, the Kiwanis Club, the City Club,
the Civic League and the Chamber of Commerce. His membership relations also
connect him with the American Rose Society, with the Young Men's Christian
Association and with the First Presbyterian church, while in politics his
position is that of an independent republican. His activities and his interests
are varied and all make for progress and improvement, his entire life being
actuated by a spirit of advancement that has resulted in the upbuilding of his
own fortunes and in the promotion of public welfare along many lines.

 
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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in June 2009 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.