Henry Failing

Infobox Politician
name = Henry Failing


imagesize = 200px
caption = Failing
office = 15^th Mayor of Portland, Oregon
termstart = 1864
termend = 1865
constituency =
nominator =
appointer =
predecessor = David Logan
successor = T. J. Holmes
office2 = 21^st Mayor of Portland, Oregon
constituency2 =
termstart2 = 1873
termend2 = 1875
nominator2 =
appointer2 =
predecessor2 = P. Wasserman
successor2 = J. A. Chapman
birthdate = January 17 1834
birthplace = New York City
deathdate = death date and age|1898|11|8|1834|1|17
deathplace = Portland, Oregon
party = Republican
spouse = Emily Phelps Corbett

Henry Failing (January 17 1834– November 8 1898) was a banker, and one of the leading businessmen of the Pacific Northwest of the United States. He was one of Portland, Oregon's earliest residents, and served as that city's mayor for three two-year terms. He was a Republican.

Early life

Henry Failing was born in New York Citycite book
last=Scott
first=Harvey
authorlink=Harvey W. Scott
title=History of Portland Oregon
publisher=D. Mason & Co., Syracuse
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=UsKKpvOVRRUC&printsec=titlepage
page=p. 522
date=1890] on January 17 1834,cite book
title=The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft
first=Hubert Howe
last=Bancroft
date=1888
publisher=The History Company
location=San Francisco
volume=v.30
page=p. 765
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=W3oQAAAAYAAJ] to Josiah Failing and Henrietta (Ellison) Failing, one of eleven children.Lockley, Fred. " [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jtenlen/ORBios/hfailing.html History of the Columbia River Valley, From The Dalles to the Sea] ." Vol. 2. Chicago, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1928. p. 18.] His ancestors were considered, by one biographer, "substantial citizens of the east." He was educated in New York's public schools until the age of 12. He began his business career in a French importing and shipping house, where he learned the French language and business accounting. He then became the junior bookkeeper for Eno, Mahoney & Co., one of the largest wholesale dry goods houses in the city, a few years later. He was also in charge of their foreign business. In April 1851 he accompanied his father and younger brother John in a move to Portland. Mr. Eno, Failing's former boss, would later describe the loss of Henry Failing as a business contact as a mistake.

Family business in Oregon

Henry Failing left New York on April 15 1851 with his father and younger brother. They traveled via steamer to the Chagres River in Panama, by boat up the river, across Panama by mule train, and then to San Francisco aboard the "Tennessee". The final leg of their journey, aboard the "Columbia", took them to Portland on June 9. Henry befriended C. H. Lewis, later a business associate, on the last leg of the journey.

At the time, Portland was merely a hamlet, with fewer than 500 residents. He and his father established a general merchandising business, J. Failing & Co., on Front Street, one door south of Oak Street. The business grew rapidly in its first few years. In 1853, Josiah was elected as Portland's fourth mayor, serving until 1854. [http://www.portlandonline.com/auditor/index.cfm?&a=ejgi&c=chbde List of mayors of Portland, Oregon] , Portland Auditor's Office. Retrieved 2008-04-06.] After his father's retirement from the family business in 1864, Henry narrowed the business's focus to hardware and iron supplies in 1868. He would remain associated with the business until January 1893.

On October 21 1858 Failing married Emily Phelps Corbett, sister of U.S. Senator-to-be Henry W. Corbett, who was a neighbor of the Failing family business. Emily died of tuberculosis on July 8 1870, leaving three daughters.

Mayor of Portland

Failing was elected to the first of his three terms as mayor of Portland in 1864. It was said he hadn't aspired to political office, but that the people of Portland admired his apparent immunity to typical partisan politics. The Oregon Legislative Assembly approved a new city charter during his first term, and progress was made on street and sewer planning. He was elected to a second two-year term in 1865, with only five votes cast against him.

Failing was later elected to a third term as mayor in 1875, after which he retired from professional politics. He was appointed a member of Portland's water committee in 1886, and later served as chairman of the committee. The committee purchased and enlarged the old water works, and developed plans for a new system of water supply.

Expanded career in banking and business

The First National Bank was the first bank established in Oregon (1866) under the National Banking Act, and for a number of years the only one west of the Rocky Mountains. Failing and Henry Corbett purchased nearly all its stock in 1869, and Failing became the bank's president. The bank prospered under their joint management, becoming one of the most successful banks in the Northwestern U.S. Failing maintained an interest in other business enterprises, and held valuable real estate both in and on the outskirts of Portland.

In 1871 Corbett joined the Failing family business, and two of Failing's younger brothers (Edward and James) later joined as well. The business was renamed to Corbett, Failing & Co. The business turned exclusively to wholesale merchandizing, and became the largest of its kind in the northwestern United States.

Failing was elected director of Oregon Railway and Navigation Company (ORNC) in June 1888, along with Corbett, Henry Villard, Christopher Meyer, John Hubert Hall, Sidney Dillon, Charles S. Colby, Colgate Hoyt, C. H. Lewis, W. S. Ladd, C. A. Dolph, W. H. Holcomb, and S. B. Wiley.cite news
title=Henry Villard elected
work=New York Times
date=June 19, 1888
url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A07E4D9143AE033A2575AC1A9609C94699FD7CF] Contemporary elections for the Oregon and Transcontinental and the Northern Pacific Terminal Company installed many of the same men on the boards of those companies as well. The elections were understood to signal no change at ORNC, underscoring their intent to extend the Farmington Line to the Coeur D'Alene Mines, and were viewed as a defeat of Villard and his initiative to jointly lease property of the Northern Pacific and the Union Pacific.

Later life and legacy

Both houses of the Oregon Legislative Assembly endorsed Failing to succeed William Windom as the United States Secretary of the Treasury in 1891. [Journal of the House of the Legislative Assembly of the State of Oregon for the Sixteenth Regular Session, 1891. Frank C. Baker, p. 391.] President Benjamin Harrison, however, appointed Charles Foster, a former Governor of Ohio, to the post.

Failing Street in Northeast Portland carries the family's name.

See also

* Failing Office Building
* List of mayors of Portland, Oregon

References