20 Facts About Henry Pittock

Henry Lewis Pittock was an English-born American pioneer, publisher, newspaper editor, and wood and paper magnate.

Henry Pittock was active in Republican politics and Portland, Oregon civic affairs, and was a Freemason and an avid outdoorsman.

Henry Pittock is frequently referred to as the founder of The Oregonian, although it was an existing weekly before he reestablished it as the state's preeminent daily newspaper.

Pittock Mansion, a Renaissance revival mansion built by Pittock for himself and his wife, is a museum chronicling his and his family's roles in the development of Portland.

Henry Pittock subsequently attended the Western Pennsylvania University preparatory school in Pittsburgh.

Henry Pittock left home at seventeen with his brother, Robert, and inspired by frontier adventure stories, joined two other families to emigrate to the West.

Henry Pittock arrived "barefoot and without a cent" in the Oregon Territory in October 1853 and was rebuffed in his attempts to become a printer for the Oregon Spectator in Oregon City, the first and largest newspaper published in the territory.

The accommodations were meager, consisting of a space below the front counter where Henry Pittock could spread some blankets.

Henry Pittock assumed the duties of manager and editor of the newspaper.

Henry Pittock married Georgiana Martin Burton, the daughter of a flour mill owner, in 1860.

An avid outdoorsman and adventurer, Henry Pittock is credited to have been the first white man to ascend the summit of Mount Hood on July 11,1857, with four friends, although his employer, Dryer, made a disputed prior claim.

Henry Pittock began daily publication of the Morning Oregonian on February 4,1861, on a new steam-powered press he had purchased for the expanded enterprise.

Henry Pittock addressed the fiscal problems of the paper by requiring cash payment for subscriptions, and implemented a vigorous collection effort for accounts Dryer had allowed to become delinquent.

Henry Pittock was quick to invest heavily in new equipment and production procedures to stay ahead of the competition, sometimes dangerously stretching available capital.

Long a political nemesis, Daly enraged Henry Pittock by implicating him in a scheme to provide a water service to his palatial home at considerable taxpayer expense.

In 1866, Henry Pittock was a partner in the first paper mill in the Northwest, at Oregon City, and later a second mill there and another at Camas, Washington.

The mills supplied newsprint to The Oregonian and the Portland Evening Telegram which Henry Pittock established in 1877 and the expanded and widely distributed Sunday Oregonian.

Henry Pittock served as its president until his death and it survived him until it fell to a bank run in 1927.

Henry Pittock continued to manage his newspaper, maintaining long hours in his office until days before his death in Portland.

The arrangement eventually gave way to the Oregonian, "crown jewel" of the Henry Pittock empire, being sold to a succession of national newspaper chains.