Source: Portland, Oregon, It’s History and Builders, by Joseph Gaston
Among those who have been most active in keeping navigation interest in the northwest up to the high standards maintained in other portions of the country is Ernest Whitcomb Crichton, the secretary of the Columbia River & Puget Sound Navigation Company, who for more than a third of a century has made his home in this state, identified throughout that period with business interests which have a direct bearing upon the development and upbuilding of this section of the Union.
He was born at Buckhorn Furnace, Ohio, on August 27, 1850. His father, James Crichton, a native of Scotland, was engaged in the manufacture of pig iron at that place until his death, which occurred in 1861. He had married Ruby Whitcomb, a lady of Yankee and French descent who died at Buckhorn Furnace in 1859.
In the common schools of his native town, Ernest W. Crichton began his education and later attended the high school at Wheelersburg, Ohio, from which he graduated in 1868. The following year he started out for himself, first as a storekeeper and later as a bookkeeper for the Charcoal Iron Company at Buckhorn Furnace.
He was thus employed until June 1875, when thinking that the opportunities of the growing northwest might give him better advantages, he left Ohio and came to Oregon. Locating at Oswego, he was a bookkeeper with the Oregon Iron Company until it closed in October 1876. He came to Portland, then containing only sixteen thousand inhabitants.
During 1877 he was steamboating on the Willamette River, filling the position of purser on the steamers Ohio and City of Salem with Captain U. B. Scott and Captain E. W. Spencer. The following year he again became connected with the iron industry, for in 1878, the Oswego Iron Company was organized by a company consisting of L. B. Seeley, S. H. Brown, C. R. Donhue, and E. W. Crichton, who purchased the iron works at Oswego, Mr. Crichton becoming secretary and superintendent.
In 1881 the business was reorganized, and the plant was enlarged under the Oregon Iron & Steel Company name. Simeon G. Reed, Henry Villard, and W. S. Ladd became interested. From 1878 until 1886, this plant manufactured thirty-six thousand tons of pig iron with the old stone stack still standing.
In 1888 they built a new iron stack at Oswego with modern Whitwell ovens and sixty large brick charcoal kilns, each holding fifty cords of wood. Mr. Crichton was superintendent of the wood department having charge of the wood cutting and supplying of the kilns at the rate of one hundred and fifty cords daily.
In 1891 he severed his connection there and came to Portland as secretary and treasurer of the Columbia River and Puget Sound Navigation Company, which office he still holds.
This company owned the steamers Telephone, Bailey Gatzert, Tahoma, Metlako, and Astorian on the Willamette and Columbia Rivers and the steamer Flyer on Puget Sound, running between Seattle and Tacoma. They had a route between Portland and Astoria and between Portland and The Dalles.
They built up the latter scenic route by worldwide advertising, making the beauties of the upper Columbia as famous as the Hudson River to eastern tourists. In 1903 they sold out their boats on the Columbia but still owned the Flyer, which has a worldwide reputation.
During nineteen years, up to the 1st of January, 1910, it covered between Seattle and Tacoma, one million three hundred thousand miles, and carried three million three hundred thousand passengers.
In his political views, Mr. Crichton has always been an earnest Republican and was very active in political circles while a resident of Oswego, which was in the district that included Clackamas County and controlled the state.
He always refused the office, never seeking political preferment as a reward for party fealty. Since coming to Portland, he has become a member of the Commercial Club and is interested in its purposes and works to promote the city’s interests.
Mr. Crichton was married in Oswego, December 25, 1879, to Miss Anna Wyland, a daughter of Amanda Wyland, and unto them have been born five children; James, who is a Portland agent for the Ford automobiles; William L., who resides at The Dalles, where he is an agent for the Regulator Steamboat Line; Charles, of Madras, Oregon, who is with Porter & Connelly, contractors; Ruby and Earnest, at home.
The family residence is at No. 280 East Seventeenth and Wasco Streets. Progress has been the keynote of his character, and he has built wisely and well as the architect of his fortunes.
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