Saturday, December 31, 2011

Study Finds Bacteria in Unused Paper Towels

Study Finds Bacteria in Unused Paper Towels

Study Finds Bacteria in Unused Paper Towels

Recycled Paper Towels Had the Highest Bacterial Counts
By
WebMD Health News
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD
paper towels

Dec. 28, 2011 -- Grabbing a paper towel in a public restroom may leave more on your hands than you bargained for.

Researchers say they’ve found bacteria, including some that are known to make people sick, in unused paper towels. They also found that those bacteria could be transferred to hands after washing.

The study is published in the American Journal of Infection Control. It did not find any illnesses connected to paper towel use.

Experts say the findings are probably most important for people in hospital isolation units and those with weakened immune function who need to be extra cautious about contact with germs.

Germs Lurk in Paper Towels

Researchers at Laval University in Canada tested six brands of commercial paper towels -- the kind doled out in many public bathrooms.

They found bacteria in all of them, but the towels made from recycled fibers were the most heavily contaminated.

“In our study, the concentration of bacteria in the recycled paper was between 100- to 1,000-fold higher than the virgin wood pulp brand,” the researchers write.

Bacterial slime is known to be a problem at recycled paper mills, where it corrodes machines and may damage finished paper sheets.

Researchers say the new paper towel finding fits with other studies that have noted high bacterial counts in other kinds of recycled paper products.

Bacteria may thrive in recycled paper because it contains binding ingredients like starches and fillers that serve as food.

Most of the bacteria found in paper towels were Bacillus bacteria. Many Bacillus strains can produce toxins that cause food poisoning.

One brand of paper towel contained Bacillus cereus bacteria. In addition to food poisoning, B. cereus has been associated with infections of the eyes, lungs, blood, and central nervous system.

Although the found amounts of B. cereus probably wouldn’t harm healthy people, researchers note it may be more dangerous for people who have weakened immune systems, like babies and the elderly, and for people who take medications that suppress their immune function.

Germ experts said the study was an eye-opener.

“These findings are interesting in that we do not think of paper towels as being contaminated,” says Elizabeth Scott, PhD, who is co-director of the Center for Hygiene and Health in Home and Community at Simmons College in Boston.

Scott says the study also made her curious about bacteria in other kinds of paper products.

“It makes me wonder about kitchen towels. These are put to all kinds of uses in direct contact with food, for example, covering and wrapping food,” she says. “And what about facial tissues, which come into close contact with our eyes and noses?”

Advice for Consumers

Scott and other experts note that the study did not find paper towels caused anyone to get sick.

Until more is known, experts agree that this one study shouldn’t be a reason for healthy people to avoid paper towels.

“People shouldn’t think that it’s better not to wash their hands if they only have paper towels available to dry them,” says Angela Golden, DNP, who is president-elect of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.

She says 20 seconds with soap and water is still the rule, especially after activities that dramatically increase exposure to germs, like handing raw meat.

Golden says air dryers, if they’re available, may be the healthiest and most environmentally responsible option of all.

Articles: The Death of DeSoto and the Decline of the American Auto Industry

Articles: The Death of DeSoto and the Decline of the American Auto Industry

The Death of DeSoto and the Decline of the American Auto Industry

By O.V. Boone

On November 30, 1960, the Chrysler Corporation closed the DeSoto division in a move to cut its losses in the face of a downward trend in the "middle price" car market. That trend was caused by the recession of 1958 and its effects on Chrysler's competitors were equally severe. This story has a great lesson in how capitalism is supposed to work, and when juxtaposed to the bailouts by the government to save failing GM and Chrysler, reveals how today's US Government lost billions of taxpayers' dollars to delay the inevitable further closure of American auto makers.

Thanks to the uncovering of a long stored work by the National DeSoto Club from their November 1990 newsletter, we can review how Chrysler handled their dealers back then, and how they intended to smooth the transition to a leaner company. Thanks to Greg J. Walters who wrote the article I source here and reproduced the "Flip Chart" Chrysler sent out to its DeSoto dealers in regards to the closing of production.

The first question Chrysler raises is "Why did Chrysler Corp. decide to discontinue building DeSoto?" Chrysler goes on in three charts with explanations to show how sales had fallen off since 1955. By an average between 1955 and 1960, Desoto sales had fallen off 83%. The 1955 sales were 104,000 units and higher still in 1956 and its pinnacle year was 1957. The recession in 1958 cut the 1957 number in half and by 1959, the sales were down to 49,000 units. In 1960 through the month of September, which is when they decided to go ahead with the shutdown, the total sales of Desoto's were 19,000 units, which was on its way to half of the year before. The charts show the "Daily rate" for DeSoto sales across the nation were down to 47 units by September 1960.

The second question was "Is it possible Chrysler Corp. let DeSoto fail by not promoting it vigorously enough?" Interestingly, the case was shown that as far as advertising budgets go, they outspent their "normally accepted" budget and it was "about four times" that of their other lines. To quote Chrysler speaking to the dealer at this point "You have spent a good deal of your own money to promote DeSoto. But even our combined efforts have not been enough to overcome the effects of the middle-price squeeze." This was a theme often repeated in the Q&A charts.

There were a few more questions on why the decision "was not made earlier" and why it did not expand its lines into the lower price fields -- they would only take away sales from the company's other established lower priced lines such as Plymouth and Dodge. There were also statistics referring to GM and Ford competitors in that niche market such as Mercury, Oldsmobile, Buick and Pontiac, and how they were hit by the same squeeze -- but they made moves to expand into the lower price fields to help their numbers. It is interesting to note that at this time, George Romney (Mitt's father) was president of American Motors and their steadfast focus on the low price field gave them a leg up on the rest and sent them into their best performing years of 1958 to 1965.

More than half a century later, the pressure continues on the car industry, as the same company's models are just "re-skinned" identical cars with interchangeable name badges. We see the quiet closing of the other names mentioned in the Q&A charts 51 years ago. Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and Mercury are gone. Even the low-end price field of Plymouth could not compete with its sister ships at Dodge. You may recall Plymouth's demise was July of 2001. Buick is reported to be on the chopping block too.

As the euro is about to fall and Italy itself is under water, one has to wonder how the FIAT Corporation can keep Chrysler afloat. It has been talked about Dodge being phased out and replaced by FIAT models at Chrysler dealers. FIAT has said that in a year or two that all Chrysler model cars will be built on a FIAT platform and on that day, Chrysler will have been completely lost. GM will no doubt clear out Buick and GMC leaving Caddy and Chevy. That is "Ruling class and Proletariat". The FIAT is already an all-out proletarian chariot.

This could have been stopped had Congress protected our manufacturing corporations from takeover by foreign creditors and stopped the labor unions from putting such a drag on the competitive viability of companies. But, that goes back to the 1936 takeovers and violent strikes by the newly formed UAW, and by design and support of then POTUS, FDR. It is a shame the unions want to take claim for the successes of the auto industry in good times, but when the industry falls on hard times, they just sit on their hands and fight tooth and nail against the need to be competitive, as if competition itself does not really exist.

In the end, here is how Capitalism is supposed to work, per the leadership of Chrysler, circa November 30, 1960,

"Faced with this discouraging evidence, the Corporation made the decision to discontinue DeSoto. This decision was based on sound dollars-and-cents considerations that any successful businessman would recognize. The continued production of the DeSoto automobile in the volume represented by the sales trend simply did not have the potential commensurate with the effort and energy and money required."

Now that is what I call real Capitalism! If it doesn't work, it doesn't stick around and we all move on to something else...as did Chrysler move on to build the Saturn V rockets that sent our men to the moon. I wonder what planet FIAT wants to aim for. We know that won't be Saturn, since GM closed it under the bailout takeover.

It also shows how the US has destroyed the practice of allowing sharp, short-term pain in the interest of good long-term decision making through corrective action.

Colorado Billboard Features ‘Terrorist, Gangster, Bandit, Gay’ Obama | TheBlaze.com

Colorado Billboard Features ‘Terrorist, Gangster, Bandit, Gay’ Obama | TheBlaze.com

Colorado Billboard Features ‘Terrorist, Gangster, Bandit, Gay’ Obama

A Colorado billboard depicting what the artist considers the “four faces” of President Barack Obama is causing quite a stir among Grand Junction residents. The “four Obamas” portray the commander-in-chief as a terrorist, a gangster, a Mexican bandit and a gay man all seated around a poker table, gambling with items representing American values, including a copy of the Declaration of Independence, a liberty bell, a toy soldier and a statue of Justice holding a balance.

In addition, the Obama caricatures shows numerous rats, some of which are labeled as IRS, trial lawyers, the EPA and the Fed. At the top is the rallying slogan, “Vote DemocRAT. Join the game,” positioned between two vultures.

The political cartoon is being paid for by a local man who wants to remain anonymous. In an interview with local KJCT News 8, the billboard’s artist, Loma resident Paul Snover, said the unnamed sponsor wanted to “represent the influences he saw the president as having in his administration.”

Snover said he‘s unable to name the billboard’s sponsor, but suggested the parody‘s message should’ve gone even further. “If it had been me, I would have included the Republicans as part of the problem,” he said.

Snover says the billboard represents satirical political humor, but, many aren’t laughing. Mesa County Democratic Party Chairwoman Martelle Daniels has denounced the work as “racist” and “homophobic.“ ”It doesn’t incite any type of intelligent response to whatever they are trying to represent,” Daniels said. “It’s racist, it’s homophobic, it’s terrible.”

Like Daniels, Republican Party Chairman Chuck Pabst said he doesn’t like the billboard because it doesn’t further a dialogue about the president or his policies. “That kind of political positioning and statements, I think, are in bad taste,” Pabst said. “It’s reprehensible and disrespectful, and that’s not what any honorable person would put forth. To ridicule somebody in this manner is juvenile.”

“It is one person’s impression of what the country has gone to. How everything has been taken from the United States and not really been brought back. And our values have pretty much gone to the crud,” resident Yoge Mitchum told KJCT.

Friday, December 30, 2011

President Obama's Anti-Gun Agenda Shows No Sign of Stopping

President Obama's Anti-Gun Agenda Shows No Sign of Stopping

Published December 28, 2011
| FoxNews.com
President Obama keeps pushing for gun control. "I just want you to know that we are working on [gun control]. We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar,” President Obama told Sarah Brady, the former president of the Brady Campaign, this past spring. 
His push as been quiet but relentless. 
Just this past week Obama signaled that he was going to just ignore two new parts of the 2012 Omnibus Spending bill. Although he signed the spending bill into law, he simultaneously issued a so-called "signing statement," a note that presidents have started attaching to legislation stating how they interpret the law they are signing or whether they believe part of it is unconstitutional. 
Obama’s statement claimed that Congress couldn’t put restrictions on how he wanted to spend to fund lobbying for gun control and the National Institute of Health studies of gun control. 
But why should the federal government use taxpayer dollars to pay for lobbying? 
Obama has had numerous false starts on gun control. Just in November, his administration moved to ban target practice on public lands, but the opposition was so swift and strong they immediately backtracked
A couple of weeks ago the Obama administration suffered another embarrassment. It was discovered that the Obama administration oversaw the sale of guns to Mexican drug gangs in its Fast & Furious program to bolster statistics of guns crossing over to the border to these very drug gangs. 
This scandal is quite incredible as the Obama administration ordered gun dealers to make sales to Mexican drug gangs against their wishes to help the administration’s push for more gun control. And this follows the revelation in July that the Obama administration had pushed federal agents involved in the Fast & Furious scandal to support gun control regulations during their congressional testimony
It doesn’t help that the Obama administration started pushing these sales at the same time they wanted to bolster their case that America was supply illegal guns to Mexico backfired. All this undercut any justification for new regulations and destroyed any support that they might have had. 
With 90 congressmen signing a "no confidence" resolution in Attorney General Eric Holder’s handling of “Fast & Furious,” last week Holder lashed out against his critics. “This is a way to get at the president because of the way I can be identified with him both due to the nature of our relationship and, you know, the fact that we’re both African-American,” Holder told the New York Times. Holder seems unwilling to recognize the genuine outrages the administration’s gun-control agenda has produced. 
Still the administration has successfully manage to push through gun control regulations in many, less visible ways: -- The Obama administration instituted a ban on importing "historic" semi-automatic rifles into the US. -- In sharp contrast to the Bush administration, President Obama strongly supports the UN Arms Trade Treaty even though he knows that any such treaty are unlikely to obtain the two-thirds vote in the Senate needed for ratification. What the regulations will do is lead to severe restrictions on private gun ownership around the world. 
The administration instituted new rules on selling "high-powered rifles," defined as a caliber of greater than .22. -- The administration nominated Andrew Traver, someone who supports gun bans, as the head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives
Obama has stuck by Traver despite his nomination being stalled in the Senate for a year and the fierce opposition it has generated. 
Obama’s most lasting impact on gun control is likely to be through the federal court judges he appoints. His most visible appointments have been the gun-control advocates he has made to the Supreme Court
Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan headed up President Clinton’s push for gun control when she worked for his White House during the 1990s. And Justice Sonia Sotomayor has signed on to a Supreme Court opinion stating that there is no individual right to "private self-defense" with guns. 
The pro-gun control views of Obama’s nominees have played a role the Senate filibustering of two Appeals Court nominees. Caitlin Joan Halligan was particularly controversial when nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit because she opposes an individual’s right to self defense and – even more damning -- she was one of the trial lawyers who had sued gun makers. Thus in New York v. Sturm & Ruger, she argued that gun makers should be liable for the criminal acts of third parties but not given any credit for the benefits from self-defense
If elected to a second term, Obama will end up appointing over half the federal judges. That sure can make a big difference. 
Most importantly, the Supreme Court is only one vote away from reversing the 5 to 4 decisions that so narrowly struck down the handgun bans in Chicago and the District of Columbia. 
Two of the Justices who voted to strike down the bans, conservative Antonin Scalia and moderate Anthony Kennedy, will be well into their 80s during the next administration. 
While a couple of Justices have made it to 90 while serving on the court, remember the rare glimpse into Obama’s views during the 2008 campaign when he referred to those “bitter” Americans who “cling to their guns, cling to their religion.” 
It surely fits his earlier statement: “I don’t believe that people should be able to own guns.” 
Yet, despite all this evidence of an anti-gun agenda, recent articles by the Associated Press and other news media paint Obama as a moderate on guns and as somebody who wants to "protect the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens” and merely support so-called “gun safety” measures
Of course, they are wrong. Unfortunately, Obama’s patient “under the radar” campaign seems to be working. He is fundamentally changing the courts and leaving them much more hostile to gun ownership. If Americans catch on, this could still be a major issue in the 2012.
 John R. Lott, Jr. is a FoxNews.com contributor. He is an economist and author of the third edition of "More Guns, Less Crime" (University of Chicago Press, 2010).


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/12/28/president-obamas-anti-gun-agenda-shows-no-sign-stopping/#ixzz1hyDl2qRy

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Pettigrove Researchers

Pettigrove Researchers

Most Pettigroves in the United States seem to have originated in Maine, coming before that from Lanarkshire in Scotland. According to Mary J. Williams in a study of some years ago, Thomas and Francis Pettigrove of Kittery, Maine, were among the very early settlers of the St. Croix River. They settled there in 1784. Each bought 100 acre tracts of land on the river, on a site that is now the St. Croix Country Club. Thomas Pettigrove, Jr., married Mary McCurdy from the eastern shore (Canada), and raised a very large family, ten of whom survived to adulthood. One son, Francis William Pettygrove, was born in 1812 at Calais, Maine. It was this man who named Portland, Oregon, having arrived there by sailing around Cape Horn with goods to start a general store. Thomas, Sr. (I may have this confused with Thomas, Jr.) had children Francis, Thomas, John, Nahum, Benjamin, Martha (who married Daniel Bohannon), Nancy (who married a Hunter), Mercy, and Betsy. Francis (brother of Thomas, Sr., I believe) married Triphena Brown from Canada and they had children John, Triphena, Benjamin, Betsey, Anna, Temperence, and Isabella. Temperence married Daniel Lane and had eight more children and moved to Alexander, Maine. John, son of Francis, married Hannah Bugbee and had Francis (1831), Eliza (1833), James (1834), Abigail (1835), Elizabeth (1838-1844), and Triphena (1841-1845). Hannah died in 1843. John remarried to Rebecca and had Eugene (1849), Alphonso (1850-1852), Emeline (1855-1855). Rebecca died in 1862 and John the following year at age 54. James married Mary Dennison (1840-1929) from New Brunswick. They had six sons and daughters: Minnie (1864-1944), John (1865-1953), Gorham (1869-1951), Lucy (1871-1962), Carrie (1874-1963), and Ernest (1883-1885). Minnie married John Allen and had one daughter Sadie (1888) who also married someone named John Allen. Gorham married Lora and had daughters Marion (1895-1978), Ruth (1901), and Margaret (1910). Carrie married Fred Young. Francis W. Pettigrove (b.1812 of Portland Oregon fame) m. Sophia and they had sons Alfred Pettigrove (Sandwich Is.(HI) 1843- ) and Benjamin Pettigrove (Oregon, 1846-). Francis W. had a sister Mary Charlotte Pettigrove who married Philip Foster in 1833 and had several children.

Texas Christmas Honor Killings: Mass Murderer Didn’t Want Daughter Dating Non-Muslim | The Gateway Pundit

Texas Christmas Honor Killings: Mass Murderer Didn’t Want Daughter Dating Non-Muslim | The Gateway Pundit

Texas Christmas Honor Killings: Mass Murderer Didn’t Want Daughter Dating Non-Muslim

Posted by Jim Hoft on Tuesday, December 27, 2011, 8:08 PM

Aziz Yazdanpanah, dressed as Santa, shot dead his former wife, his daughter, his son, his-sister in-law, his brother-in-law, and his niece. Then he shot himself.

Aziz didn’t want his daughter Nona Yazdanpanah to date non-Muslims.

Via ABC News:

On Christmas Day Aziz Yazdanpanah shot his family dead. He didn’t want his daughter dating a non-Muslim.
ABC News reported:

A Santa-suited gunman who killed six people on Christmas morning was the estranged husband of one of the victims and the father of two teenagers who died in the massacre.

Aziz Yazdanpanah, 56, showed up to his estranged wife’s apartment on Christmas morning dressed like St. Nick and opened fire shortly after the family had unwrapped presents.

Yazdanpanah then killed himself.

The six victims were identified by ABC affiliate WFAA as: Nasrin Rahmaty, 55, who was Yazdanpanah’s wife; Nona Yazdanpanah, 19, his daughter; Ali Yazdanpanah, 15, his son; Zohreh Rahmaty, 58, his sister-in-law; Hossein Zarei, 59, his brother-in-law; and Sahra Zarei, 22, his niece.

The Dallas Morning News reported more on the killer, via Jihad Watch.

But a more ominous portrait emerged of Yazdanpanah in interviews with some of his daughter’s other classmates.

“She would come to school crying and telling us her dad was crazy,” said Lacie Reed, 18. “He wouldn’t let her wear certain things. He was always taking her phone away, checking her call history and checking her text messages.”

Friends said Nona’s father had installed cameras all around the home so he could watch the family’s comings and goings. Others said he nailed her bedroom window shut so she could not sneak out at night and see her boyfriend.

“She couldn’t date at all until she was a certain age, but when he was going to let her date she couldn’t date anyone outside of their race or religion,” Reed said.

Texas Christmas Honor Killings: Mass Murderer Didn’t Want Daughter Dating Non-Muslim | The Gateway Pundit

Texas Christmas Honor Killings: Mass Murderer Didn’t Want Daughter Dating Non-Muslim | The Gateway Pundit

Texas Christmas Honor Killings: Mass Murderer Didn’t Want Daughter Dating Non-Muslim

Posted by Jim Hoft on Tuesday, December 27, 2011, 8:08 PM

Aziz Yazdanpanah, dressed as Santa, shot dead his former wife, his daughter, his son, his-sister in-law, his brother-in-law, and his niece. Then he shot himself.

Aziz didn’t want his daughter Nona Yazdanpanah to date non-Muslims.

Via ABC News:

On Christmas Day Aziz Yazdanpanah shot his family dead. He didn’t want his daughter dating a non-Muslim.
ABC News reported:

A Santa-suited gunman who killed six people on Christmas morning was the estranged husband of one of the victims and the father of two teenagers who died in the massacre.

Aziz Yazdanpanah, 56, showed up to his estranged wife’s apartment on Christmas morning dressed like St. Nick and opened fire shortly after the family had unwrapped presents.

Yazdanpanah then killed himself.

The six victims were identified by ABC affiliate WFAA as: Nasrin Rahmaty, 55, who was Yazdanpanah’s wife; Nona Yazdanpanah, 19, his daughter; Ali Yazdanpanah, 15, his son; Zohreh Rahmaty, 58, his sister-in-law; Hossein Zarei, 59, his brother-in-law; and Sahra Zarei, 22, his niece.

The Dallas Morning News reported more on the killer, via Jihad Watch.

But a more ominous portrait emerged of Yazdanpanah in interviews with some of his daughter’s other classmates.

“She would come to school crying and telling us her dad was crazy,” said Lacie Reed, 18. “He wouldn’t let her wear certain things. He was always taking her phone away, checking her call history and checking her text messages.”

Friends said Nona’s father had installed cameras all around the home so he could watch the family’s comings and goings. Others said he nailed her bedroom window shut so she could not sneak out at night and see her boyfriend.

“She couldn’t date at all until she was a certain age, but when he was going to let her date she couldn’t date anyone outside of their race or religion,” Reed said.

The Day After Christmas

The Day After Christmas
by Anonymous

It's one day after Christmas
I'm crabby and I'm broke.
I'm so full of ham and fruitcake
I think I'm gonna croak.

It's nice to see the relatives
I wonder when they'll leave.
They've been camping in my bathroom
since early Christmas Eve.

They're eating everything in sight
and sleeping in my bed.
I been sacked out in the basement
with my spotted beagle, Fred.

The relatives have all gone out
and left their screaming brats.
The toilet bowl is all plugged up
and I can't find the cat.

It's Christmastime at my house,
the relatives are here.
They eat me out of house and home.
and drink up all my beer.

I love the decorations,
and the sleigh bells in the snow
But I wish those pesky relatives
would take their kids and go.

Those cookie crunchers fed the dog
a twenty pound rib of roast.
His feet are sticking in the air
like skinny old fence posts.

Now they're in a free-for-all,
the girls against the boys.
They're fighting over boxes
'cause they're bored with all their toys

My mother-in-law is snoring
in my favorite TV chair.
Those kids are stringing lights on her
and tinseling her hair

I oughta wake her up
before the fireworks begin.
But I wanna see those blue sparks fly
when they plug her in.

Francis Pettygrove - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Francis Pettygrove - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Francis Pettygrove

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Francis Pettygrove
Born 1812
Calais, Maine
Died October 5, 1887 (aged 74–75)
Port Townsend, Washington, United States
Resting place Laurel Grove Cemetery, Port Townsend
48°07′00″N 122°47′09″W[1]
Nationality U.S.
Other names William Pettygrove
Occupation Merchant, real-estate investor
Known for One of the founders of Portland, Oregon, and Port Townsend
Spouse Sophia Roland Pettygrove

Francis William Pettygrove (1812 – October 5, 1887), commonly known as William Pettygrove, was a pioneer and one of the founders of the cities of Portland, Oregon, and Port Townsend, Washington. Born in Maine, he re-located to the Oregon Country in 1843 to establish a store in Oregon City. Later that year he paid $50 for half of a land claim on which he and Asa Lovejoy laid out a town named Portland after the port city in Pettygrove's home state. Lovejoy preferred Boston, but Pettygrove won a coin toss giving him the right to choose the name.

Teamed with Benjamin Stark, who bought Lovejoy's half-interest in the town site in 1845, Pettygrove engaged in a highly profitable three-cornered trade between Portland, San Francisco, and Hawaii. Making money in his stores and warehouses, in trades of lumber, grain, and salted fish, and in real-estate deals, Pettygrove by 1848 was one of the richest men in the Oregon Territory. When the California Gold Rush drew potential laborers from Oregon and threatened Pettygrove's short-term prospects, he sold his assets in Portland and vicinity. In 1851 he joined with others to start a new town, Port Townsend, on Puget Sound in what became the U.S. state of Washington. He died at the age of 75 and was buried in Port Townsend.

Pettygrove was married to Sophia Roland, with whom he had at least two children, one of whom was named after Benjamin Stark. While living in Oregon, he belonged to the Pioneer Lyceum and Literary Club of Oregon City and served as jury foreman in a trial there related to the Cayuse War. Pettygrove Park in southwest Portland and Pettygrove Street in northwest Portland are named after him.

Contents

[hide]

[edit] Early life

Pettygrove was born in Calais, Maine.[2] Educated in Maine schools, he worked as a merchant's clerk in New York City before a company there sent him by ship in 1842 to Oregon City to open a store.[2] Oregon City was then part of what was known as the Oregon Country, part of the Pacific Northwest. He and his wife, their child, as well as Pettygrove's sister, her husband, and their four children, traveling on the Fama, reached their destination in 1843.[2] Stopping first in Vancouver, Pettygrove arranged with the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) for a schooner to take his store goods up the Willamette River to Oregon City.[3] There Pettygrove established the agreed-upon store in partnership with George Abernethy.[4] After building a warehouse in Oregon City, Pettygrove began trading in fur and wheat.[3]

[edit] Oregon

Francis Pettygrove (center) and others

In 1843, Pettygrove paid $50 for 320-acre (1.3 km2) of land owned by William Overton.[2] The tract was along the Willamette River in a place known as The Clearing, 12 miles (19 km) downstream of Oregon City.[3] Pettygrove and Asa Lovejoy, who owned adjoining land, decided to create a town on part of the site.[2] Strongly encouraged by John Couch, a sea captain who considered The Clearing a good site for a river port, they hired Thomas A. Brown in 1845 to plat the town. Brown and his assistant, James Terwilliger, a blacksmith, laid the town out more compactly than usual on a grid of 16 square blocks, 200 feet (61 m) to a side.[5] They allowed 80-foot (24 m) public rights-of-way for north–south streets, 60-foot (18 m) rights-of-way for east–west streets, and no alleys.[5] The short blocks and small rights-of-way created more corner lots than usual and reduced the amount of stump removal needed to create streets. A proliferation of stumps on unbuilt lots prompted a derisive nickname for the place, Little Stump Town.[5]

Lovejoy and Pettygrove, who could not agree on a name for the town, held a best-two-of-three coin toss won by Pettygrove, who named the town after Portland, Maine.[3] Had Lovejoy won, he would have named it after Boston, Massachusetts.[4] The two men cleared trees and debris from the site.[3] Pettygrove built a small log store near the river, hired a married couple to run it, and commissioned the building of a wharf.[5] He also acquired a granary and boat landing at Champoeg, site of the Oregon Country's first provisional government.[4]

In late 1845, Lovejoy sold his half-interest in the townsite (and his half-interest in a cattle herd he owned jointly with Pettygrove) to Benjamin Stark, who was the agent in charge of merchandise being shipped from Benson & Company, Pettygrove's supplier in New York, to Pettygrove's warehouse in Portland. Stark, the supercargo (cargo supervisor), arrived in Portland on Captain Nathaniel Crosby's Toulon. The three men then arranged to have Stark act as Pettygrove's supercargo on the Toulon, trading lumber, wheat, salted fish, and other goods between San Francisco, Honolulu, and Portland. Adding a second ship, the Mariposa, for a short time they controlled much of the trade in and out of Oregon.[4]

The two men engaged in projects by land as well as sea. Among these were construction of a wagon road on the east side of the Willamette between Portland and Oregon City and a wagon track along an 11.5-mile (18.5 km) route, surveyed by Brown, between Portland and the farmlands of the Tualatin Plains to the west. To increase profits from cattle, Pettygrove built a slaughterhouse along the river and sold hides to Daniel H. Lownsdale, who had opened the first tannery on the Pacific Coast on a tract just west of the town site. Fiercely competitive, Pettygrove and Stark drove others, including Couch, who had his own store in Oregon City, out of business by monopolizing trade between Portland and Hawaii, charging high rates to import goods for others and raising the price of imported salt to gain control of the salmon trade.[4]

In 1847, after the United States and the United Kingdom had negotiated a boundary treaty dividing the Oregon Country between them, thousands of pioneers entered the Oregon Territory, the part of the Oregon Country ceded to the U.S., most of them settling in the Willamette Valley. Meanwhile, after an apparent disagreement with Pettygrove, Stark returned temporarily to New England, and Pettygrove took control of the entire town site. By 1848, Pettygrove "was one of the wealthiest residents of the territory".[6] During that year, the California Gold Rush attracted so many men from Oregon that it caused an Oregon labor shortage. Seeing little hope of further short-term growth in Portland, Pettygrove began selling his assets. While Stark was out of town, Pettygrove sold the entire 640-acre (260 ha) townsite, including Stark's share, to Daniel H. Lownsdale for $5,000 worth of leather.[4] This netted Pettygrove a one-hundredfold profit for his original $50 investment.[5]

[edit] Washington

In 1851, Pettygrove and L.B. Hastings, another businessman, decided to establish a new town on the west side of the entrance to Puget Sound in the U.S. state of Washington. Scouting the area for a likely spot, they met Alfred A. Plummer and Charles Bachelder, who had filed land claims near a bay on the northeastern corner of the Olympic Peninsula. After the four agreed to found a city on this site, Pettygrove and Hastings returned to Oregon for their families and other settlers and returned to what became Port Townsend.[7] Pettygrove died there in 1887[3] and is buried in Laurel Grove Cemetery.[8]

[edit] Other interests, legacy

Pettygrove married Sophia Roland in 1842.[2] By 1845 they had two children, the first of whom had been born in the Sandwich Islands (Hawaiian Islands), where they stopped on the way to Oregon.[9] The second child, named Benjamin Stark Pettygrove, was the first boy of European descent born in Portland.[4]

Pettygrove was a member of the Pioneer Lyceum and Literary Club in Oregon City.[9] In May 1850, he was the jury foreman in the Oregon City trial and subsequent hanging of five men from the Cayuse tribe of Native Americans who were accused of murder committed during the Cayuse War.[10]

Lovejoy and Pettygrove used a copper Matron Head penny, dated 1835, in their coin flip to determine Portland's name. Pettygrove bequeathed this penny to the Oregon Historical Society in his will.[9]

Pettygrove Park, an 0.8-acre (0.32 ha) tract in downtown Portland, is named for him. It is one of two nearly adjacent parks developed in the 1960s in an urban renewal area. The same coin that Lovejoy and Pettygrove flipped to decide who should name the city was flipped to decide which park would be Lovejoy and which would be Pettygrove. Lovejoy Fountain Park, which features water cascades, is about 300 yards (270 m) from Pettygrove Park, which features grass mounds, trees, paths, and stonework.[11] Pettygrove Street in northwest Portland is also named for him.[12]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Laurel Grove Cemetery". Geographic Names Information System, United States Geological Survey. September 10, 1979. Retrieved March 18, 2010.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Corning, pp. 195–96
  3. ^ a b c d e f Orloff, Chet. "Francis Pettygrove (1812–1887)". The Oregon Encyclopedia. Portland State University. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g MacColl, Merchants, pp. 7–14
  5. ^ a b c d e Lansing, pp. 6–10
  6. ^ MacColl, Merchants, p. 11
  7. ^ Oldham, Kit (February 24, 2003). "Alfred A. Plummer and Charles Bachelder settle on the site of future Port Townsend on April 24, 1851". The Free Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History. HistoryLink.org. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
  8. ^ "Francis W. Pettygrove". ancestry.com. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
  9. ^ a b c Lansing, p. 487
  10. ^ Lansing, p. 491
  11. ^ "Pettygrove Park". City of Portland. Retrieved March 31, 2010.
  12. ^ Snyder, p. 190

[edit] Works cited

  • Corning, Howard McKinley, ed. (1989) [1956]. "Pettygrove, Francis W." in Dictionary of Oregon History (2nd ed.). Portland, Oregon: Binford & Mort Publishing. ISBN 0-8323-0449-2.
  • Lansing, Jewel (2005) [2003]. Portland: People, Politics, and Power, 1851–2001 (1st paperback ed.). Corvallis, Oregon: Oregon State University Press. ISBN 0-87071-559-3.
  • MacColl, E. Kimbark; Stein, Harry H. (1988). Merchants, Money, and Power: The Portland Establishment 1843–1913. Portland, Oregon: The Georgian Press. ISBN 0-9603408-4-X.
  • Snyder, Eugene E. (1979). Portland Names and Neighborhoods: Their Historic Origins (softcover ed.). Portland, Oregon: Binford & Mort Publishing. ISBN 0-8323-0351-8.