Letter from the Oriental Limited

This letter was posted on May 14, 1929, from “Mother” to “Master Peter Gantenbein” of Portland, Oregon. As she was writing the previous day, Mother and Dad were riding the Oriental Limited by Glacier Park less than a month before it would be replaced by the Empire Builder as Great Northern’s premiere train. “The train has been creeping along,” she writes, “even with its two big engines it has hard work climbing over the mountains. Lots of snow sheds over the tracks and lovely streams along the way.”


Click image to download a 1.1-MB PDF of this four-page letter.

A little sleuthing reveals that Mother was the daughter and Peter the grandson of Henry Pittock, publisher of the Oregonian and, at his death in 1919, one of the wealthiest men in Oregon. Born in England to a family that migrated to Pittsburgh when he was four years old, Pittock apprenticed to his father, a printer, starting at age 12. When Pittock turned 18 in 1853 he trekked across the Oregon Trail. Unable to get a job at the Oregon Spectator, then Oregon’s largest paper, he talked the owner of the weekly Oregonian into giving him a job in exchange for room and board. He did well enough that the owner eventually agreed to pay him $900 a year, but that pay often came in the form of shares in the newspaper.

It probably didn’t take much cash to succeed in those pioneer days. By 1857, Pittock had enough leisure time to be one of the first whites to climb Mt. Hood, and he helped found the Mazamas, a mountain-climbing club that exists today. In 1860, when he was 25, he married Georgiana Burton, who had made the journey over the Oregon Trail with her family in 1852 when she was just seven years old. At the time of her marriage she was still only 15. They had five children, a son, Frederick, and four daughters, Susan, Caroline, Kate, and Helen Louise, who went by the name Louise or Lucy.


Click image to download a 0.2-MB PDF of this envelope.

The year after his marriage, Pittock bought out his former employer, purchased a larger printing press, and turned the Oregonian into a daily paper. To provide paper for his press, he soon invested in paper mills and forest land, and eventually in railroads, shipping, and other enterprises, all of which made him very wealthy.

The Mazamas report that two of Pittock’s daughters, Helen L. and Kate T., followed their father’s footsteps to the top of Mt. Hood in 1895. Born in 1875, at some point, Louise met John Edward Gantenbein, whose family journeyed from Pennsylvania to Oregon via Panama in 1874, when Edward (as he was known) was just three years old. The Oregon Historical Society has correspondence “concerning personal matters” between Helen and Edward from 1901 to 1905, and the two were married in 1908.

In 1909, Henry Pittock decided to build a huge home in the Tualatin Hills overlooking Portland. The 16,000-square-foot mansion featured all the latest conveniences, including central vacuuming, intercoms, and an elevator. The home was completed in 1914, and a few weeks later Louise gave birth in the home to Robert Peter Gantenbein. In keeping with family tradition, he was known by his middle name.

Georgiana died in 1918 and when Henry died in 1919, his estate was worth $7.9 million, something close to $100 million in today’s dollars. The Gantenbeins continued to be associated with the Oregonian and Louise’s and Kate’s families lived in the Pittock Mansion for another four decades.

In 1929, when Louise wrote this letter, Peter was 15 and must have been in boarding school as the address on the envelope is not the mansion. Later in life, Peter served in World War II, wrote for (and was on the board of) the Oregonian, served as president of the Urban League, a civil rights group, from 1954 to 1956, and served as president of and in other capacities for the World Affairs Council, an anti-war group, for many years.

Aunt Kate died in 1941; Louise in 1945. By 1958, Peter was the last Pittock descendent to live in the mansion, and he decided to sell it. Eventually, his friend Eric Ladd, a Portland contractor who is often described as the city’s first historic preservationist, persuaded Peter to sell it to the city for $225,000, which was basically the value of the 46 acres of land on which the house was located. The house has been restored with private funds and is now a splendid city park. When Eric Ladd died in 2000, he left $390,000 of his estate to the Pittock Mansion Society.

Getting this medication with buy generic sildenafil the precautions and safety tips through a reliable online drug store. It is the online cialis pills base of what we are today. order generic levitra Champion search engines look for links to cache web pages. You can regularly participate in copulation and purchase cheap viagra satisfy her. How do we know this letter, written on board the Oriental Limited, is indeed from Henry’s daughter? The fact that this letter is addressed to “Master” Peter Gantenbein shows that the recipient was still a youth. More tellingly, the body of the letter refers to “Aunt Kate,” Louise’s sister. Here is my transcription of the letter, with a few uncertain words in boldface. If anyone has any better guess about those words, please let me know.

Peter Darling,

We have been riding thru Glacier National Park. The rivers on my side of us and the mountains on the other with hundreds of water falls – some of them lovely.

We did not go thru the grand part that people make special trips to see but it was very pretty. We have been up quite high and the mountains have quite a lot of snow on them right down to the tracks. We are in Montana you know.

It has been raining pretty much all day so that we could not get out and walk where we stopped long enough to do so. Did get out at Spokane and had a good look at the Falls.

There are comparatively few travelers on our great big long train and no one at all interesting. There is one man we call Mr. Ford but no one holds our attention.

The train has been creeping along, even with its two big engines it has hard work climbing over the mountains. Lots of snow sheds over the tracks and lovely streams along the way. We have been very comfortable but we miss you.

Tell Aunt Kate I actually went without a dining car luncheon and shared Dad’s raisin feast. He did accompany me into dinner and had a regular meal. They served us afternoon tea in the observation car and when I went into breakfast this morning they first brought me a demitasse of excellent coffee before I put in my order. That is the first time I have had that done.

Dad seems to be enjoying the day. I hope your thesis is a grand success and that you slept well in your new quarters. It is rather hard to write but I hope you can make it out.

Dad thot you might be interested in the Goshen Center pictures if you have not already seen them. He was mistaken about Billy Smithers having a girl. Also Bruce Barman article on sleep is very good so we are sending that too. Take good care of yourself for me. Give my love to Aunty and always lots for yourself.

Mother

May 13, 1929

Please save a complete file of the daily papers for me. Daddy


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