The People's Transportation Company operated steamboats on the Willamette River and its tributaries, the Yamhill and Tualatin rivers, in the State of Oregon from 1862 to 1871. For a brief time this company operated steamers on the Columbia River, and for about two months in 1864, the company operated a small steamer on the Clackamas River.
Formation of the company
The People's Transportation Company, often called the P.T. Company, was organized in 1862 to compete with the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, commonly known as the O.S.N. Almost every steamboat man not associated with O.S.N. were either founders of the P.T. Company, or were afterwards associated with it.
The principals in the founding of the P.T. company were two brothers, both businessmen and farmers: Asa Alfred McCully (1818–1886) and David McCully (b.1814). Other officers were Stephen T. Church (1829–1871); Edwin N. Cook (or Cooke) (1810–1879), businessman and Oregon State Treasurer from 1862 to 1870; steamboat captain Ephraim W. Baughman; businessman and politician Stephen Coffin; and master shipbuilder John D. Biles. There were about 65 stockholders. Stephen Coffin was the first president, and Edwin Cook and the McCully brothers were directors. The McCullys, who were heavy shippers in the Willamette Valley, had invested $3,000 into a steamer, the James Clinton to assure access to river shipping free of monopoly control.
Success on the Willamette River In the spring of 1863, development of mines east of the Cascades Mountains created a demand for shipping on the Columbia River. The P.T. Company, wishing to take advantage of this, built the sidewheeler Iris at The Dalles, Oregon, to run in competition with the O.S.N. sidewheeler Idaho on the short stretch of the Columbia River between the Cascades and Celilo Rapids.
For service above the falls, the P.T. Company made arrangements with the owners of two steamers built the previous year, Spray and Kiyus, to carry passengers and freight further up the Columbia and then the Snake rivers, to Lewiston, Idaho, which was the jump-off point for the mines. O.S.N. had a portage railway to carry freight around Celilo Falls, which they refused to allow P.T. Co. to use, forcing P.T. Co. to haul freight on wagons around the falls, a much less effective means.
The P.T. company then began a rate war with the O.S.N.
Achieving some success, the new company began expanding operations to the Columbia River. The P.T. Company put the E.D. Baker on the lower Columbia, the Iris on the middle, and the Kiyus on the upper Columbia.
Competition on the Columbia
In March 1863, the P.T. Company's new steamers, the Colonel Baker, also known as the E.D. Baker, and the Cayuse, also known as the Kiyus, were nearing completion, and expected to be finished by April 1. The Baker, being built at Vancouver, W.T. would run under Captain Hakes, the Iris under H.M. Knighton, and Cayuse / Kiyus under Leonard White. At the same time, the steamer Reliance was said to be in a position to begin running on the Willamette River upstream from the falls.
The P.T. boats posed serious competition to the O.S.N. on the Columbia, which placed the Wilson G. Hunt on the Portland-Cascades route to run against them. The E.D. Baker was considered the crack boat of the P.T. line, and one of the fastest yet placed on the Columbia, was often able to outrun Wilson G. Hunt, an older sidewheeler which had been brought around Cape Horn from the east coast.
Many years later, the experienced steamboat man William Polk Gray (1845–1929) recalled that the public favored the underdog, as he characterized the People's Transportation Company:
In May 1863, as a result of the opposition of the P.T. Company, fares from Portland to The Dalles were reduced to $1.00. From Celilo, Oregon to Lewiston, Idaho the fare was $5.00, running on the Kiyus, then under the command of Capt. Leonard White, with two brothers Alonzo “Lon” Vickers (d.1893) and E. Vickers (b.1844) on board as engineers.
The steamer Enterprise acquired
In 1863, a new independent steamer, the Enterprise, was built at Canemah by Capt. George A. Pease, backed by a company formed by Capt. Charles. W. Pope (1831–1871), Capt. Nat H. Lane Sr. (1823–1878), C. Friendly, Judge Riley E. Stratton, C. Crawford, James Wilson, C.W. Rea, and S. Ellsworth. Enterprise, the second steamer of this name to operate on the Willamette, was launched in November 1863, and ran independently for a short time under George Pease. Soon an accommodation was reached with the P.T. Company, after which Pease remained in command for over two years. In 1866, the P.T. purchased Enterprise outright from its original owners.
Enterprise was highly successful financially, earning a 33.3% profit in its first year of operations, and 66.6% in the second year, with a dividend of $50 a share, When Enterprise was purchased by P.T. Co., the original owners received $280 in P.T. stock for every $100 of Enterprise stock.
Reorganization and settlement with O.S.N. O.S.N retaliated against the P.T. Co. by placing its own boats, Rival and Onward on the Willamette.
The competition had caused the P.T. Company to lose all its surplus and sustain debts of $65,000. The company reorganized as a result, with the following officers: David McCully, president and director; L.S. Parrish, vice president; Thomas McF. (McFadden) Patton (1829–1892), a lawyer, secretary and director; J.S. Parrish, John D. Biles, Edwin N. Cooke, and S.T. Church, additional directors.
In about 1864 as the P.T. Company was seeking to raise funds to resolve the debt issue, O.S.N., through its banker, William S. Ladd, initiated negotiations which led to O.S.N. paying the P.T. Company $10,000 a year to confine its operations to the Willamette River. The strong performance of the P.T. Company's E.D. Baker probably induced O.S.N. to negotiate.
The Oregon Steam Navigation Company also picked up People's Transportation's boats Iris and Kiyus, in exchange for three OSN boats on the Willamette River, Onward, Rival, and Surprise. With the settlement reached, passenger and freight rates on the Columbia, under complete O.S.N. domination, soon more than tripled. It took three years for the P.T. Company to be able to declare, in 1865, a dividend on their stock.
In December 1863, the E.D. Baker was dismantled, with the machinery and upper works being sent to Canemah, to be used on a new hull being built there by the P.T. Company. This new vessel was the Reliance. The hull of the Baker, once repaired from the sinking at Oswego, would be converted into a wharfboat or a barge.
Challenge from Willamette Steam Navigation Company Occasionally rivals on the Willamette River would arise in competition to the P.T. Company. One of the more serious challenges arose in October 1865, when the Willamette Steam Navigation Company was incorporated, with D.W. Burnside as president, Asa L. Lovejoy, vice-president, and John T. Apperson, secretary.
Willamette Steam built the steamer Alert at Oswego and placed it on the run from Portland to Oregon City. The new company also built, at Canemah, the steamer Active, and gained control of the upper Willamette steamer Echo, which John Gates (1827–1888) and Captain Alexander P. Ankeny (1813–1891) had built at Canemah, running both on the upper Willamette against the P.T. Company.
Fares dropped fast, so that a passenger could go from Portland to Oregon City for free, then on to Salem fifty cents, with meals and berth free, and then on to Albany for one dollar and to Corvallis for $1.50. Freight rates dropped to fifty cents per ton for shipments from Portland to Oregon City. The steamboats of the rival companies tested their speed against each other on a daily basis. On one occasion, the Active and the Reliance, a P.T. Company boat, raced all the way from Canemah to Salem. The speed contests between Reliance and Active were remembered many years later by one old steamboat man as the “most exciting boat racing I have ever seen.”
By March 1866, the competition had grown too much for both companies, and they decided to merge. The officers of the merged company were Asa A. McCully, president; S.T. Church, secretary; Joseph Kellogg, Capt. Lucien E. Pratt (1824–1899), George Anson Pease (1830–1918), and E.N. Cooke, directors. John D. Biles was the company's agent.
Construction of the boat basin at Oregon City
On August 15, 1865, the P.T. Company began construction of a boat basin at Oregon City. Once complete, the basin would bring the boats of the company, above and below the falls, to within 50 feet of each other.
The dam along the falls was built of 14 inch timber frames, each six feet long, and secured into the rock of the falls by iron bolts through the frame sills. The frames were covered with three inch planks, with the overall structure about 1000 feet long, and about 12 feet high, creating a basin with a water depth of from six to eight feet in a space of about 500 feet long by 300 feet wide.
The construction work was supervised for the P.T. Company by Capt. Joseph Kellogg. The work was completed on November 15, 1866, and as many as four of the company's steamers could use the basin at one time. The company was reported to have spent $100,000 building the basin and the weir.
The company had also constructed a weir along the top of the falls, which had the effect of raising the water level on the river a few feet during low water, which allowed steamboat navigation to proceed.
By November 1865, work had nearly been completed on a warehouse for the company at the boat basin, which would have an inclined railway allowing ready transfer of freight to and from boats on the lower and the upper river.
On February 3, 1866, it was reported that a few days earlier, an employee of the P.T. Company, G.B. Daley, a Wisconsin native who had served under Sherman in the Civil War was drowned in the boat basin, on account of the swamping of a small boat that he had been in.
Monopoly on the Willamette
For ten years, O.S.N. and the P.T. Company abided by their agreement.
In 1864, Capt. Joseph Kellogg merged his operations into the company, bringing in the steamer Senator which ran between Portland and Oregon City.
In November 1866, the P.T. Company was running Senator out of Portland, departing daily except Sundays at 6:00 a.m. for Oregon City, where connections were made with Enterprise, Echo, and Active, which ran on Mondays and Thursdays for Salem, Albany, and Corvallis. Senator departed Oregon City at 1:00 p.m. on the return trip to Portland. From Oregon City, the Union departed up river on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for Dayton on the Yamhill River and waypoints.
Upriver from Oregon City, in November 1866, the company promised service to the following landings: Fairfield, Wheatland, Lincoln, Salem, Eola, Independence, Buena Vista, Albany, Corvallis, Peoria, Harrisburg, Lancaster and Eugene City.
In November 1866, the P.T. Company's lowest upriver freight rate (rates were slightly lower going downriver) was $2.50 per ton for freight shipped from Portland to Oregon City. Once transshipment occurred at Oregon City, freight rates increased rapidly, starting with Fairfield, at $8.90 per ton, and going up to $12 per ton for freight shipped to Albany, and $20 per ton for freight to Eugene. The company's actual transshipment costs were reported to be 11 cents a ton in early 1869. The company did promise reduced rates for wheat, flour, and apples.
In December 1866, Asa Alfred McCully (1818–1886) was president of the company. Other officers, elected at the December 6, 1866 stockholders meeting in Salem, were Edwin N. Cooke, vice-president, Joseph Kelly, George A. Pease, and L.E. Pratt, directors, S.T. Church, secretary, and George Marshall, Chief Engineer. The company was reported, in December 1866, to have earned revenue of $19,000, even after paying expenses.