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tbo\if,'h in polities Mr. James was a Republican, on account of his liberal views on all questions of general interest, his paper received an equal amount of Democratic support. After this he was one of the incorporators of the Portland " Bee," Avith which paper he was connected for a year or more. Like many other new enterprises, this venture did not promise bril- liant success, and he finally drifted back into his profession of teaching, for which he seemed so eminently well fitted, and in the year 1881 founded the well-known Columbia Commercial College of Portland. Professor James has made this institution a success from the very beginning, and to-day it occupies the foremost position among the commercial institutions of the Northwest. The system of studies is so well arranged, and the method of teaching so thorough, that it affords the most superior advantages for im- parting to young men and ladies a commercial education, and, more than this, Mr. James has the esteem and confidence of the business community, a matter which is of no small advantage to his pupils. He is a member of the I. O. O. F., K. of P., I. O. O. T. and P. O. S. of A., and a past officer in each. He served as Grand Secretary of the I. O. G. T. for two years, and has tdways been a strong advocate of the temperance cause.
J B. OONGLE
Is one of the solid business men of Portland, and has by close application to business, and by some judicious investments in real estate, amassed quite a respectable fortune. He was born December 9, 1817, in Chester county, Penn. In the year 1832 he went to Philadelphia to learn the harness and saddlery trade with Mr. William S. Hansel, and in the spring of 1838 he re-, moved to Virginia, thence to Missouri, and in the year 1841 we find him in Lafayette, Indiana, where he resided for ten years. On May 21st, 1844, Mr. Ocmgle was married to Miss Ellen H. Gray, a young lady of Lafayette. Catching the gold fever, he went to California in the "days of '49," remain- ing two years in the gold mines and returning to Indiana in 1851. He came to Oregon in 18.53 and located in Corvallis, then Marysville, head of naviga- tion on Willamette river, no boats going further up the river, where he lived eight years and of which town he was the first Mayor. He was elected Sheriff of Benton county in 1857, a position he lield three months and then resigned. In 1861 Mr. Congle changed his residence to Portland, and has since con- tinued to live here. He was elected Councilman from the Second Ward in 1870, and in 1872 he was elected a Representative from Multnomah county to the State Legislature. He became a member of the Masonic order in Indiana in 1847, and in the years 1874-5 was Grand Master of that order in Oregon; in 1879 -'80 he was Grand H. P. of the same order. Mr. Congle is a married man, and has a wife and two daughters, one of whom is the wife of Hon. Richard Williams, ex-member of Congress, and the other Mrs. J. B. Wyatt. It will })e seen that Mr. Congle has lived in Portland twenty-one years, that he has been honored time and again with public office, that he is a member of the most respected private organization and a successful business man. He is at present the senior partner of the firm of J. B. Congle & Co., manufacturers and importers of saddlery hardwar
