George Washington Weidler
| George Washington Weidler | |
|---|---|
G. W. Weidler
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| Born | October 22, 1837 Lancaster, Pennsylvania |
| Died | September 19, 1908 Portland, Oregon |
| Cause of death | stroke |
| Citizenship | U.S. |
| Occupation | transportation agent, business owner |
| Spouse(s) | Hattie Louise Bacon |
| Children | 7 |
| Parent(s) | Isaac C. Weidler Catherine Gaelbach Weidler |
George Washington Weidler (October 22, 1837 – September 19, 1908) was a prominent 19th century transportation agent, investor, and business owner in Portland in the U.S. state of Oregon. Born in Pennsylvania, he moved as a young man to St. Louis, Missouri, where he began a career in merchandising and shipping. His work gradually took him further west, to Utah Territory, Nevada Territory, California, and in 1866 to Oregon, where he remained for the rest of his life.
In Portland, Weidler worked as an agent for Ben Holladay and Henry Villard, both of whom controlled large transportation companies. He was one of the owners of the city's first street railway, and in 1880 he owned a lumber mill that was Portland's largest. He was the first person to sell electric lighting in Portland, and he helped organize a power company that was a predecessor of Portland General Electric.
Weidler was active in the Arlington, Portland, and Commercial clubs in the city. He and his wife, Hattie Louise Bacon, had seven children. Weidler Street in northeast Portland is named in his honor.
George Washington Weidler was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on October 22, 1837, to Isaac C. and Catherine Gaelbach Weidler, U.S. citizens of Swiss-German descent. As a child, he attended school in Lancaster and Mount Joy and a boarding school in Strasburg. For health reasons, he was sent to St. Louis, Missouri, where he became a clerk in a hardware store, then a freight clerk on steamboats plying the Mississippi River between St. Louis and New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1855 he was put in charge of a mule-drawn wagon train, hauling goods to a new general store in Salt Lake City, Utah. There he stayed for three years as a store clerk before becoming a Pony Express agent. In about 1861, Weidler took a job as an agent for a company that ran stagecoaches between Carson City and Virginia City, Nevada. About two years later, he accepted an offer from transportation businessman Ben Holladay to act as purser on a steamboat based in San Francisco, California.
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