Henry Winslow Corbett (February 18, 1827March 31, 1903) was an American businessman, politician, civic benefactor, and philanthropist in the state of Oregon. A native of Massachusetts, he spent his early life in the East and New York before moving to the Oregon Territory. He was a prominent figure in the early development of Portland, Oregon, and was involved in numerous business ventures there, starting in general merchandise. His interests later included banking, finance, insurance, river shipping, stage lines, railways, telegraph, iron and steel and the erection of Portland downtown buildings among other enterprises. A Republican, he served as a United States senator from 1867 to 1873.
Early years
Corbett was born in Westborough, Massachusetts, on February 18, 1827. Of English descent, born into a family that had settled in Massachusetts in the seventeenth century, his parents were Elijah and Melinda Corbett.Corning, Howard M. (1989) Dictionary of Oregon History. Binfords & Mort Publishing. p. 63.Gordon C. Corbett and James L. Corbett Descendants of Robert Corbett: Thirteen Generations (in North America from the seventeenth century up to 1995). Revised by Gordon Corbett up to 2001 (first privately published in 1995 and revised by Gordon C. Corbett with additions in 2001). He was the youngest son, the fifth child, of a family of eight.
His father became the first edge tool manufacturer in Westborough, Massachusetts, and later moved his business to Washington County, New York. When he retired, he moved his family to Cambridge, New York, where he had a hotel and farm.Oregon Native Son and Historical Magazine, Vol. 1, May 1899, No. 1 He died in 1845.
There were three sons Joel Hamilton Corbett,born in Westboro, Massachusetts, June 30, 1817. Died May 25, 1854 in Jackson, Washington County, NY. He was an innkeeper in Jackson Descendents of Robert Corbett the eldest and ten years Henry's senior, Elijah Corbett III,Born December 16, 1824 in Hopkinton, Middlesex Co. MA. He married (1) Jane Robertson who died with his only child August 10, 1854, and (2) Julia Van Buskirk. who was slightly over two years older than Henry. Elijah was to follow his younger brother, Henry, to Portland in 1854 followed by his two surviving younger sisters Mary Freeland Corbett (Mrs. Thomas RobertsonMary Freeland Corbett was born May 31, 1822 and married Thomas Robertson February 25, 1845 in Jackson, Washington Co., NY. They moved to Portland in 1856. They had no children and she looked after the children of her younger sister Emily, Mrs Henry Failing, after her death in 1870. who with her husband was to move to Portland in 1856) and Emily Phelps CorbettEmily Phelps Corbett, born July 5, 1836. She married Henry Failing in 1858 in Portland. She died there of TB in July 1870, aged 34. (later to marry Henry Failing in Portland in 1858). H.W. Corbett and these three siblings lived in Portland until their deaths.
In 1831, Corbett moved with his parents to the town of White Creek, New York, in 1831. Corbett attended the local common schools and then engaged in mercantile pursuits in Cambridge, New York, in 1840. There he attended Cambridge Academy before he moved to New York City in 1843 where he worked at Williams Bradford & Co, dry goods merchants, for seven years.
Oregon territory
Oregon Territory had become an undisputed US possession in June 1846. A treaty had been concluded with the British on June 15, 1846, and ratified by the Senate on June 18, 1846. So the land South of British Columbia to the California border and West of the Rocky Mountain Divide was no longer US/British joint occupancy but undisputed United States territory. Congress passed the Bill creating Oregon Territory on August 13, 1848.The bill creating Oregon Territory was drafted by Judge Thornton, the supreme judge in the previously self organized and constituted Provisional government, formed by US and British settlers in a highly successful and sophisticated form of self-government in the then disputed Oregon Territory. History of the Pacific Northwest; Oregon and Washington, Northern Pacific History Company, Portland, 1889.
Business partnership
Corbett, foreseeing this new US territory's promise, then subject to US law, formed a three-year 50/50 partnership, signed October 12, 1850,Articles of agreement between Williams Bradford & Co and Henry W. Corbett: Henry Winslow Corbett Papers 1851-1944 (HWC Archives) at the Oregon Historical Society (OHS) Mss 1110, Box 6. with Williams Bradford & Co "for the purpose of selling goods, wares and merchandise and farming implements at Portland, Oregon Territory." Williams Bradford were to provide the goods, cash and credit. Corbett, aged twenty-three, was to go to Portland to run the business.
He chartered a bark, the Frances and Louise, and loaded it with $25,000 worth of general merchandise, mainly assorted hardware; powder, shot, nails, brooms, implements and groceries; coffee, sugar, tobacco, drugs, medicine, millinery, silk goods and shoes.pp. 129 and 131 Oregon Argonauts: Merchant Adventurers on the Western Frontier. Arthur L. Throckmorton, Oregon Historical Society, 1961 and shipping receipts (HWC archives. OHS). She set sail from New York on the long voyage through the Straits of Magellan around Cape Horn up the Pacific Coast to Portland.History of the Pacific Northwest: Oregon and Washington. Portland Oregon, North Pacific History Company, 1889
Corbett then embarked on the steamship Empire City from New York and crossed the Isthmus of Panama on the "hurricane deck of a mule" (there was no Panama Canal until 1914 over ten years after his death). At Panama City he boarded the S.S. Columbia, one of the ships of the Pacific Steamship Company. She was then on her maiden voyage en route to San Francisco. The Columbia was the first steamship built to ply the route between San Francisco and Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia River. He then embarked on the Little Columbia, sleeping on the open deck, for the overnight passage up the Columbia and the Willamette rivers to Portland, incorporated as a city a month before on February 8, 1851.
Corbett arrived on March 5, 1851, in Portland, a city of little over 821 soulsIts population was 821 in 1850 (p. 126, Oregon Argonauts: Merchant Adventurers on the Western Frontier. Arthur L. Throckmorton, Oregon Historical Society, 1961) and less than 1000 in 1851 (Gibson, Campbell [June 1998], Population of the 100 Largest Cities and Other Urban Places in the United States: 1790 to 1990. U.S. Bureau of the Census – Population Division) on the Willamette River, with a few small stores and businesses, large tree stumps bordering its two streets, Front and First, and backed by virgin forest.History of the Pacific Northwest: Oregon and Washington. Portland Oregon, North Pacific History Company, 1889.
Arriving in Portland, he climbed the riverbank to the Warren House, the principal hotel, situated on the corner of Oak and Front streets, which would "accommodate, by judicious crowding, about a dozen people".History of the Pacific Northwest; Oregon and Washington. Northern Pacific History Company, Portland 1889
Before the arrival of the Frances and Louise with his merchandise, Corbett spent two months familiarizing himself with Oregon Territory and its main settlements. He visited Astoria, Oregon City, Salem, Santiam, Albany, Corvallis and Lafayette.
Corbett felt that tiny Portland with its strategic location would make a logical hub for commerce for the Territory and for shipping supplies of farm produce and timber to California.
He rented a building there that was being erected on the corner of Front and Oak streets, for $125 per month. His shipment arrived in May. He hoisted his goods into the upper story and "slept with his wares".Oregon Native Son and Historical Magazine, Vol. 1, May, 1899 No. 1 As a Presbyterian, he was one of the first businessmen in Portland to invariably close on Sundays.
Corbett's business at that time dealt in general merchandise, hardware and farming implements - supplying the ranchers and farmers and the new settlers who were beginning to arrive by the Oregon Trail. Oregon Territory then included the large area now occupied by the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and part of Montana and Wyoming. Corbett was the first general merchant in Portland and probably in Oregon Territory.Oregon Native Son and Historical Magazine, Vol. 1, May, 1899 No. 1 History of the Pacific Northwest: Oregon and Washington. Northern Pacific History Company, Portland 1889
Corbett sold most of his initial stock of goods in fourteen months at a profit of $20,000. The cost of the entire original cargo had been $24,621.57. His total sales by then had been $83,000 with additional supplies of stock and his profit of about $20,000 was divided equally between his backers Williams, Bradford and Co. and himself. On the advice of his supplier who noted the downturn in the California Gold Rush, Corbett left for New York in July 1852, leaving his store with employees Finley McLaren and Robert McLaren. He first took them on as co-partners to continue the business while he was in New York.
Arriving in New York, he split this substantial profit with his partners Williams Bradford & Co, who tried to persuade him to stay in the East to be involved in their New York business.Oregon Argonauts: Merchant Adventurers on the Western Frontier. Arthur L. Throckmorton, Oregon Historical Society, 1961, pp.132-133. Instead he bought out their share in the partnership on August 28, 1852, for $1750.Addendum to Articles of agreement between Williams Bradford & Co and HWC (HWC archives, OHS)
Corbett had renamed the store Corbett & McLarens, and became an independent buyer.E. Kimbark MacColl with Harry H. Stein, Merchants, Money and Power: The Portland Establishment, 1843-1913. The Georgian Press, 1988 He began purchasing for his store and other merchants who wanted to buy directly from New York, rather than buying overpriced goods from San Francisco. He also offered credit to his customers, which increased his sales against competitors.
He continued to use Williams Bradford as one of his principle suppliers in the East. However he was now able to use his own resources and negotiate goods on advantageous terms of credit and he arranged for more shipments around the Horn.Harvey Scott: History of Portland, Oregon with illustrations and biographical sketches of prominent citizens and pioneers.
He also became engaged at that time to Caroline E. Jagger of Albany, New York. She was to follow Corbett to Portland to be married there once she had seen where she was to be living. Corbett and she were married in Portland, Oregon, in February 1853.She was the daughter of Ira Jagger and Elizabeth Kibbe. She was born October 26, 1829 in Saugerties, Ulster Co., NY and died July 27, 1865 in Portland, OR. Married in Portland, Oregon 1953. Henry Winslow directed in his will that her body be moved to the Woodland Cemetery in Cambridge, NY. Gordon C. Corbett and James L. Corbett Thirteen Generations of Descendants of Robert Corbett; 13 generation of descendants in North America from the seventeenth century up to 1995. First privately published in 1995 and revised by Gordon C. Corbett with additions in 2001. Also The Corbett Tree, 1827-1982 , Richard Marlitt (privately published Portland 1982).
H. W. Corbett & Co.