People's Transportation Company
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| Fate | sold to Ben Holladay |
|---|---|
| Successor | Ben Holladay |
| Founded | 1861 |
| Defunct | 1871 |
| Headquarters | Portland, Oregon |
The People's Transportation Company operated steamboats on the Willamette River and its tributaries, the Yamhill and Tualatin rivers, in the State of Oregon from 1862 to 1871. For a brief time this company operated steamers on the Columbia River, and for about two months in 1864, the company operated a small steamer on the Clackamas River.
The People's Transportation Company, often called the P.T. Company, was organized in 1862 to compete with the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, commonly known as the O.S.N. Almost every steamboat man not associated with O.S.N. were either founders of the P.T. Company, or were afterwards associated with it.
The principals in the founding of the P.T. company were two brothers, both businessmen and farmers: Asa Alfred McCully (1818-1886) and David McCully (b.1814). Other officers were Stephen T. Church (1829-1871); Edwin N. Cook (or Cooke) (1810-1879), businessman and Oregon State Treasurer from 1862 to 1870; steamboat captain Ephraim W. Baughman; businessman and politician Stephen Coffin; and master shipbuilder John D. Biles. There were about 65 stockholders. Stephen Coffin was the first president, and Edwin Cook and the McCully brothers were directors. The McCullys, who where heavy shippers in the Willamette Valley, had invested $3,000 into a steamer, the James Clinton to assure access to river shipping free of monopoly control.
In the spring of 1863, development of mines east of the Cascades Mountains created a demand for shipping on the Columbia River. The P.T. Company, wishing to take advantage of this, built the sidewheeler Iris at The Dalles, Oregon, to run in competition with the O.S.N. sidewheeler Idaho on the short stretch of the Columbia River between the Cascades and Celilo Rapids.
For service above the falls, the P.T. Company made arrangements with the owners of two steamers built the previous year, Spray and Kiyus, to carry passengers and freight further up the Columbia and then the Snake rivers, to Lewiston, Idaho, which was the jump-off point for the mines. O.S.N. had a portage railway to carry freight around Celilo Falls, which they refused to allow P.T. Co. to use, forcing P.T. Co. to haul freight on wagons around the falls, a much less effective means.
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Wikipedia