Frank Dekum
| Frank Dekum | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | November 5, 1829 Deiderfeld, Rheinfalz, Germany |
| Died | October 19, 1894 Portland, Oregon, United States |
| Resting place |
Lone Fir Cemetery 45°31′05″N 122°38′31″W / 45.51806°N 122.64194°W |
| Education | "one winter in a log schoolhouse" |
| Occupation | Merchant, investor, builder, and banker |
| Spouse(s) | Fanny Reinig |
| Children | 8 - Edward (b1860), Lizzie (b1861), Otto (b1863), Adolph (b1866), George (b1867), Rosina (b1870), Clara (b1872), Frank (b1877) |
Frank Dekum (November 5, 1829 – October 19, 1894) was a prominent 19th century fruit merchant, banker, and real-estate investor in Portland, Oregon. Born in Germany, Dekum emigrated to the north-central U.S. with his family and as a young man went west in search of gold before starting a successful fresh-fruit business in Portland. Prospering as a merchant, Dekum invested in real-estate, banking, and an early railroad, was a president or board member of many of the city's companies, and was one of 15 men named to Portland's first municipal water committee.
Dekum involved himself in many building projects in downtown Portland. One of his structures, the Dekum Building, which served as headquarters for the city's government in the 1890s, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The Portland and Vancouver Railway, financed partly by Dekum, ran along the east side of the Willamette River from East Portland to the Columbia River. Dekum Street in northeast Portland is named after him.
Married to Fanny Reinig, Dekum fathered eight children. He was the president of the German Song Bird Society, which imported to Oregon many German songbirds. After suffering great financial loss during the Panic of 1893, he died in 1894.
Dekum was born in Deiderfeld, Rheinfalz, Germany, on November 5, 1829. He and his brother and four sisters emigrated to the United States to settle on a farm near Belleville, Illinois. The family later moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where both parents died. After serving as an apprentice confectioner in St. Louis, Dekum and a friend, Frederick Bickel, went gold prospecting in California and Idaho before settling in Portland.
In 1853, the two men established a fruit and confectionery store, Dekum & Bickel, which prospered for the next quarter-century in downtown Portland. Amassing wealth from the "largest wholesale fresh-fruit business in the Northwest", Dekum joined "the frenzied real-estate speculations of the early 1860s", and his large holdings included several buildings that bore his name. In 1875, he and Simeon Reed financed the city's most expensive building of the time; it was known as the Dekum and Reed Block.
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