Gaston, Joseph.  "Portland, Oregon Its History and Builders."  Vol. 3. 
Chicago and Portland, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1911. p. 737.
 
WILLIAM SCHMEER

     Among the prominent business, men of Portland who have long been identified
with its interests and who have contributed their part toward the upbuilding of
the city is William Schmeer, president of the Schmeer Carpet & Furniture
Company.  Mr. Schmeer has been a resident of the city fifty years and has been
an interested spectator of the great changes that have taken place in the
development of the city and the Pacific coast.
    He was born in Germany in 1855, a son of Peter and Caroline (Schmeer)
Schmeer, and at six years of age left the old country with his parents, who came
direct to Portland by way of the isthmus of Panama and San Francisco, arriving
at their destination in the old sailing ship Industry. The family began
housekeeping in a little four-room cottage which stood on the spot now occupied
by Ladd's Bank and the subject of this review attended school in a little log
house in the woods which occupied the site where now stands the Portland Hotel.
Peter Schmeer engaged in farming on land which is now called Schmeer's addition.
He also owned a tract of fifty-five acres on East Stark and Twenty-eighth
streets. He was an intelligent and hard-working man and one who prospered in his
business and set an example worthy of imitation by his children. In 1884,
twenty-three years after he had established himself in his new home, the father
was called to his reward, and in 1899 the mother, having reached an advanced
age, also passed away.
    William Schmeer grew up in Portland and after completing his education, at
quite an early age entered the furniture business under Samuel Lowenstein, the
firm later assuming the title of the Oregon Furniture Company, of which Mr.
Schmeer became secretary, in which capacity he served for seven years, and for
two years acted as president. As eastern buyer for the company he spent a great
deal of time visiting the eastern markets and became widely known in a business
for which from the first he seemed eminently adapted, and in which he attained a
distinct success. In 1899 Mr. Schmeer withdrew from the Oregon Furniture Company
and organized the company of which he is now the head and which, under his
management, has become one of the most important concerns of the kind in the
northwest. The company occupies the entire building of four floors, at No. 174
First street, and carries a complete and well selected stock of the very best
lines.
     In 1877 Mr. Schmeer was united in marriage to Miss Viola Burke, a daughter
of William Ervin and Rebecca (Simmons) Burke, pioneers of 1852, who owned a
large farm near St. Johns, where they lived for many years. Two children have
blessed the union of Mr. and Mrs. Schmeer: William Emery, who was married
in 1901 to Miss Jessie Pitzinger, and is associated with his father in business;
and Ethel, the wife of Jack Stanton of Portland. Mr. Schmeer is one of the best
known men of the city and holds membership in the Woodmen of the World and the
National Union. For the past forty years he has been a member of the East Side
Centenary Methodist church, being one of its earliest members and now one of its
trustees. In politics be is a republican, but at local elections votes for the
men whom he believes best qualified for office regardless of party ties. The
success of Mr. Schmeer in business has been due to characteristics of courage,
determination, persistence and patience which he inherited from worthy ancestry
and which in the long run seldom fail to lead to victory. He is known as a
public-spirited citizen who always has at heart the best interests of the city
and possesses in an unusual degree the confidence and esteem of his friends.
 

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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in December 2007 by Diana Smith.
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.