Employers
"Arbeit Mach das Leben Suess" - Work makes life sweet, a traditional German Russian expression
Listed below are some of the firms that employed the the Germans from Russia in Portland. Please add your knowledge to this list and help identify the location of the employers.
Albina Fuel Company Located at 3246 NE Broadway. This company delivered coal and briquettes for wood burning stoves and employed German Russians. The building was destroyed in a fire in May 2008.
Albina Engine & Machine Works
American Can Company - 2127 NW 26th, Portland.--A block or two west of the old Vaughn Street Ball Park. Production stopped in 1960 and moved out of Portland. Manufactured metal containers (tin cans), and also beginning in the 50's fiberboard containers, The building was built in 1921.
B.P. John Furniture - The plant was located on the east side of SW Macadam across from the current John's Landing. John's Landing was named for B. P. John and was the "landing" where the logs for the factory were dropped. B.P. John was originally a vice president at Doernbecher Furniture before starting his own business.
A book has been written by Kathryn Hurd on the life of B.P. John titled “Bruno Paul John: An Oregon Legacy”. B.P. John was a German immigrant furniture manufacturing entrepreneur. Many Germans from Russia worked at the B.P. John furniture manufacturing plant on Macadam Avenue in southwest Portland (now known as the John’s Landing area) or purchased homes from him in NE Portland.
John Condon
Attorney At Law
4380 SW Macadam Avenue
River Forum One, Suite 500
Portland, OR 97239-6412
E-mail: JCondon723@aol.com
Columbia Cabinet Works
Columbia Shipbuilding Company
Columbia Steel Company
Carman Manufacturing
Cassady Fixture Works
Commercial Iron Works
E & W Lumber Company
Hyster Company
Jantzen Knitting Mills - Located at 411 NE 19th
John S. Beal (boat works) - Located at Columbia Blvd. & Derby
John Wood Iron Works
Jones Lumber Co.
Jones Stevedoring - Currently located at 2323 NW Suffolk.
Northwestern Steel - located at the foot of Sheridan St.
Union Pacific Railroad - Albina yard
Oregon Washington Railroad and Navigation Company (OWR&N Co.) - The main office was located SW 3rd and Washington according to the 1913 City Directory.
Oregon Washington Railroad and Navigation Company picnic at Bonneville in 1915. Many Volga Germans are included in this photo which is provided courtesy of Karen Spady Gallio. Click on the photo above to view a full sized image.
Oregon Washington Railroad and Navigation Company Shops in Albina. OWRN& Co. later was acquired by Union Pacific Railroad (Gottfried Schreiber Photo)
Pacific Bar & Foundry Co - Located at 60th St
Pearson Funeral Home - Located at 351 NE Knott. Pearson's performed the burials for many of the German Russian families in Portland.
Southern Pacific Railroad - The Southern Pacific's Brooklyn Yard was located in SE Portland and is now part of the Union Pacific Railroad.
Grand Rapids Equipment - Located at 752 NE 22nd (Corner of NE Bush)
Great Northern Railroad
Doernbecher Manufacturing Company - the company was established by Frank Silas Doernbecher, President and Manager. Doernbecher was a pioneer in mass production of furniture with a traveling assembly line, five miles long. Production was devoted to mainly bedroom and dining room furniture. In WWII, Doernbecher produced furniture under government contracts for Army and Navy needs. The plant was located at 1100 NE 28th at the Union Pacific railroad crossing in Sullivan's Gulch and employed approximately 1,000 people. This plant was later operated as Barker Furniture.
1926 Doernbecher Furniture Advertisement
Most Portland residents are familiar with the world-renowned Doernbecher Children's Hospital, part of the complex of medical facilities that make up Oregon Health Sciences Center on Marquam Hill overlooking Portland's downtown. Few are aware that it was a bequest of Frank Silas Doernbecher, that founded the hospital in the 1920's. Upon his death in 1921, his will directed his descendents to devote one quarter of his estate for a charity to benefit the people of the community and the state, and they elected to create the children's hospital with a bequest of $200,000.
The fortune that helped pay for the startup of the hospital came from his interest in the Doernbecher Manufacturing Company, at its peak one of the largest furniture manufacturers in the country. Frank Doernbecher founded his company in Portland in 1900 after having achieved success in Tacoma in the same business starting in 1888. His Portland factory stood on land along Sullivan's Gulch, now the route of Interstate Highway 84 through Portland's East Side, not far from the grand house he built in Irvington for himself and his family. Doernbecher's house is on the National Register of Historic Homes.
Eastside Mill & Lumber Company
Irvington Drug - Located at the corner of NE 13th and Fremont.
Oregon Laundry - Located at 54 NE 6th and Oak (NE corner)
Oregon Shipbuilding Corporation (Henry J. Kaiser) - construction of the yard in the St. Johns district began in February 1941 and the first two ship keels were laid on May 19, 1941. Shortly thereafter WWII was declared and more yards were needed. A second yard in Vancouver, Washington was built and its first keel laid on April 15, 1942. The Vancouver yard built 10 Liberty ships, 30 large tank landing ships, and 50 airplane carriers (built in one year!), 36 attack troop transports and C4 troop transports. In March 1942, the Maritime Commission leased Swan Island from the Port of Portland and seemingly overnight another shipyard with eight ways was being constructed by Henry Kaiser. This yard built 147 tankers for the Maritime Commission. At peak employment in the three yards (December 1943) 98,300 people were employed with women comprising 25 percent of the workforce.
Portland Laundry - Located at 324 NE Union Avenue (at the corner of NE Mill)
Stadler Fixture Works
New System Laundry - Located at 507 NE Flanders.
Rushlight Tin and Plumbing Company - Owned by A.G. Rushlight. Rushlight served as a City of Portland councilman and mayor (1911).
The Portland Cordage Company - located at 494 Northrup
Portland Electric Power and Light
SweetArts Candy Factory - located behind Watkins Drug Store on the southwest corner of NE Union and Failing streets.
Smith and Watson Iron Works - According to Sherrie Gettman Stahl, many Volga German immigrants from the village of Brunnental worked at the Smith and Watson Iron Works in Albina. Smith and Watson was incorporated in January 10, 1885 by Ferdinand C. Smith, President; Charles E. Smith, Vice-President and J. Frank Watson, Secretary. The company was capitalized with $50,000 and the corporate offices were located at Front and Harrison in downtown Portland. Smith and Watson was purchased by Henry Villard and the Northern Pacific Railroad. You will still find fire hydrants today that were manufactured to City of Portland standards by Smith and Watson (see image below).
Portland Cracker Company - The Oregon Historical Quarterly Vol. 61, page 66, states, "It was the custom to hire teenage boys in those days, and the factory was full of mostly lads from Russian and German families living in Albina. In fact, the Germans and Russians seemed a part of the secret success of the early-day bakeries. They literally carried their recipes in their heads."
Employees of the Tru-Blu Biscuit Company. Photo contributed by Marcia Staunton
Tru-Blu Biscuit Company -
W. C. Noon Bag Company
White-Mann Co. - This company sold Gibson refrigerators at 1315 NE Fremont. Telephone number was Garfield 2904.
Willamette Iron & Steel Works - located at the foot of 17th St
Domestic Help - Many girls were "mothers helpers" or took care of household chores. For this they usually received $5.00 to $8.00 per month. As they grew older they usually went to work in a commercial establishment. The Mother of the family often times contributed to the family income by doing washing or housework for others.
Hop Harvest - Hop picking was another source of income. The hop pickers would take boats down the Willamette River to the wharf of the farmer with whom they had a job. They carried along their own food and bedding and lived in temporary shacks on the hop yard. The work usually lasted three or four weeks, and a large family was often able to earn about $100. It was said that during the 1890's the entire Volga German district was so quiet (during hop picking season) that it hardly paid for the store keepers to stay open.