The Unraveling of the Northwest’s First Conglomerate
A deep dive into the financial maneuvers, coal monopolies, and failed experimental farming schemes of the Oregon Improvement Company.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
It having been given out that the Oregon Improvement Company will defer the payment of the half-year's dividend, it becomes a matter of moment to know just what the condition of the company is. The foundation of the company's property may be described as a piece of patchwork. About 1877 there was in existence a narrow gauge railroad known as the Seattle & Walla Walla Railroad. The city of Seattle had contributed about $10,000 of this; J. M. Coleman and a friend subscribed $75,000, and $110,000 was borrowed at 12 per cent against 8 per cent mortgage bonds for an agreed total of $200,000. Henry Villard later floated the Oregon Improvement Company and bought out the Seattle Coal and Transportation Company for $1,250,000. The property consisted of extensive coal fields and appliances at Newcastle, and twelve or fifteen sailing collier ships. The Improvement Company also purchased 110,000 acres of selected agricultural land and 10,000 of timber in Whitman County. An experimental farm was then established at considerable expense and placed in charge of General Tannatt. It is said that he, not being a practical man, bought dampers at the same time as plows, and some wonder that he did not contract for harvest hands as well. The farm was a failure from the start, and it has been since discontinued.
“The foundation of the company's property may be described—not in a derogatory sense—as a piece of patchwork.”
The Oregon Improvement Company operated as an early, aggressive iteration of the modern corporate conglomerate, controlling everything from coal mines to shipping lines and land speculation. Their failed 'experimental farm' and complex bond-dodging mirrors the history of speculative development in Seattle, where ambitious, poorly managed projects often left local taxpayers and shareholders holding the bag.
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