Louis Gerlinger Sr.: Difference between revisions
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At 41, Gerlinger left his comfortable, sucessful [[Chicago]] enterprise to move his family West. He settled in Portland Oregon. In 1896 he organized and built the Portland, Vancouver and Yakima Railroad on behalf of the Harrimans. |
At 41, Gerlinger left his comfortable, sucessful [[Chicago]] enterprise to move his family West. He settled in Portland Oregon. In 1896 he organized and built the Portland, Vancouver and Yakima Railroad on behalf of the Harrimans. |
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In the fall of [[1901]] Louis Gerlinger Sr. purchased 7,000 acres of timber in Polk County, Oregon for a railroad. Just west of [[Dallas, Oregon]], in the Coast range Mountains, grew hundreds of square miles of untouched Douglas fir and other commercial timber species. |
In the fall of [[1901]] Louis Gerlinger Sr. purchased 7,000 acres of timber in [[Polk County]], Oregon for a railroad. Just west of [[Dallas, Oregon]], in the Coast range Mountains, grew hundreds of square miles of untouched Douglas fir and other commercial timber species. |
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He incorporated the Salem, Falls City & Western Railway Company late in October of 1901 and announced plans to build a railroad from the Willamette River at Salem to the mouth of the Selitz River on the Oregon Coast, a distance of 65 miles. |
He incorporated the Salem, Falls City & Western Railway Company late in October of 1901 and announced plans to build a railroad from the Willamette River at Salem to the mouth of the Selitz River on the Oregon Coast, a distance of 65 miles. |
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Revision as of 07:36, 23 June 2007
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Louis Gerlinger, Sr. became involved in the railroad business comparitively late in life. He was born in Alsace-Lorraine (a region between France and Germany) in 1883. At the age of 17 he came to the United States, settling in Chicago. He married and had three sons (George, Louis Jr., and Edward) and a daughter. He built a prosperous store and saloon fixture business.
At 41, Gerlinger left his comfortable, sucessful Chicago enterprise to move his family West. He settled in Portland Oregon. In 1896 he organized and built the Portland, Vancouver and Yakima Railroad on behalf of the Harrimans.
In the fall of 1901 Louis Gerlinger Sr. purchased 7,000 acres of timber in Polk County, Oregon for a railroad. Just west of Dallas, Oregon, in the Coast range Mountains, grew hundreds of square miles of untouched Douglas fir and other commercial timber species.
He incorporated the Salem, Falls City & Western Railway Company late in October of 1901 and announced plans to build a railroad from the Willamette River at Salem to the mouth of the Selitz River on the Oregon Coast, a distance of 65 miles.
On May 29, 1903, the first train ran from Dallas to Falls City. At the end of June, passenger trains began regularly scheduled trips to and from Dallas and Falls City each day; the nine-mile, fourty-minute, one-way trip costing 35 cents.
Two of Gerlinger's sons, George and Louis Jr., managed the railway.[1]
References
- ^ Making the Most of the Best, Willamette Industries' Seventy-five Years, Cathrine Baldwin, 1982.