About Portland, OR

Two men named Francis Pettygrove an Asa Lovejoy have a lot to do with the early history of Portland, Oregon. They flipped a coin to determine the name of the future settlement. The largest community of Portland, might never have been established without that coin toss.

In 1843 it all started when an attorney from Massachusetts named Asa Lovejoy and a drifter from Tennessee named William Overton came ashore with their canoe on the banks of the Willamette River. They were taken aback by the potential for this timber rich and mountain ringed land. Their only problem was that Mr. Overton didn’t have a quarter, which was required in order to file a claim for the land. Therefore. he made a deal with Mr. Lovejoy, which consisted of Mr. Overton sharing his claim to some 640 acres of land in return for the 25 cents.

It wasn’t long before both men became bored with building roads and clearing trees. Mr. Overton sold his half of his claim to a man named to Francis Pettygrove. However, the new partners, of Mr. Pettygrove and Mr. couldn’t determine a name for their new settlement. Mr. Lovejoy was determined to name the location after his hometown of Boston. However, Mr. Lovejoy was equally adamant about his native in Portland, Maine. They elected to toss a flip a coin, in order to determine the name of this new settlement, Two out of three flips went to Mr. Pettygrove, and thus the settlement came to be known as Portland.

With the deep water as well as an abundance natural resources, Mr. Pettygrove and Mr. Lovejoy were elated by its abundant of natural resources, and deep eater. The Two partners were confident and aware of the abundant naturalness and beauty of the land that made Portland. There might even be a day when Portland becomes a prosperous port. However, the questions were would soon it would be until would become popular, and what kinds of activates it would take to make the settlement as prominent and popular that Portland is determined to be.

During the late 1880’s, there was a dark history in Portland. A man named Joseph Kelly, who was oftentimes referred as Bunco, who was the owner of a notorious hotel. Also during the late 1880’s, Bunko was a man, who was notorious for bringing the kidnapped young men and sell them to unscrupulous ship captains. Much of bar owners also got sailor drunk in order for them to sell to the shanghai trade. This shanghai business was relatively profitable for the hotel owners, which was good for all of their businesses. One of the best in the business was Bunko who would deliver his drunken inebriated sailors to some unscrupulous crewmembers as well as captains. Bunko frequently delivered his drunken sailors to the waiting ships. In the morning, these men would be forced to work for indefinite periods of time because they were in an ocean or sea, and were stranded there.

Oftentimes, Bunko would brag that it could gather a full crew of sailors in less than 12 hours. Inevitably some ship captain would take Bunko on. One night, Bunko came upon a group that were stumbling men who had located the open cellar door. These men mistakenly believed that it was the cellar of the Snug Harbor Pun, which was really the open cellar door of a mortuary. This was all done so that Bunko could fulfill his boast. Each of the men had consumed cups of embalming fluid, which they believed to be liquor. Several of these men had died by the time that Bunko had fund them, several were dying, and several other had died. Bunko claimed that the dead were only unconscious from too much liquor. However, before the truth was discovered, Bunko had already sold all 22 men to a captain whose ship had already sailed.