Page:Pen Pictures of Representative Men of Oregon.djvu/191

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ture gives promise of bringing him full measure of success in the professioii he has chosen. He is highly esteemed by his congregation and is making friends rapidly among our citizens generally.


W. F. BOOTHBY.

The well-known arshitect of Salem, was born at Linniugton, Maine, July 12, 1840. His early life was spent upon his father's farm. He commenced learning the carpenter's trade when he was sixteen years of age. He attend- ed the Fally Seminary at Fulton, N. Y., from 1858 to 1860, when he opeued a general commission house in Portland, Maine, where he remained until the war broke out. During the famine in Ireland, in 1860, Mr. Boothby load- ed two ships with provisions, which reached there in due season, and in a measure relieved the suffering poor. Disposing of his business in 1861 he came to California via the Isthmus, lauding in San Francisco in No- vember of that year. He at once started for the mines and was for some time engaged in Gen. Fremont's quartz mill, then the largest in the world. During the next few years he was engaged in various enterprises, contract- ing for and building houses, stores, etc., running a sawmill, selling goods, etc., and came to Oregon in June, 1864, and settled in Salem. He com- menced canvassing the city for the sale of Abbott's History of the Civil War, but the enterprise was too tame for a man of his energy and ambi- bition, and through the influence of old Father Waller, peace to his ashes, he secured a place as foreman in Jones & Reed's sash and door factory, where he remained about eighteen mouths. In 1866, in partnership with H. Stapleton and H. R. Myers, they bought out Sam. Bass' interest in a sash and door factory. In about one year's time Mr. Myers disposed of his interest in the business to Messrs. Boothby & Stapleton, who after- wards built a new factory, which was soon destroyed by tire involving a loss of some 3^20,000. They rebuilt and continued business for several years, occasionally drafting a house of some importance. In 1872 they con- tracted with Marion county for the erection of the elegant court-house building that is now the pride of Salem and the surrounding country, and which cost in the neighborhood of $100,000. In 1870 he associated with Martin & Allen, of Salem, and contracted with that city to furnish water for fire purposes and private use ; built works in 1870, Mr. Boothby serving as president of the company since that date. In 1879, owing to failing health, he disposed of his interest in the sash and door factory, and shortly after- wards opened an architect's office, in which business he is still engaged. In 1880 he was engaged by the Board of Commissioners for the erection of a brick insane asylum building, to assume charge of several plans submitted by other architects and to prepare from them, introducing ideas t)f his own, a plan for the erection of a building calculated to accommodate 4tMJ patients. How faithfully he executed that work the new and elegant building in the suburbs of Salem is evidence. It is said to be as perfect a buildiug of its kind as can be found anywhere, and it has been erected at an expense, thus far, surprisingly small, aggregating only about SK^^OOO. Mr. Boothby's services have been retained as supervising architect and superintendent of