Remittance Men and the Character of Cannon Beach

Abstract

C. JILL GRADY Remittance Men and the Character of Cannon Beach ON JULY 21, 1885, the Daily Astorianreportedthislocalnews: Frederick Logan and Joseph Walsh, ranchmen at Seaside, Clatsop, arrived in town on Saturday.They came via Tillamook and ForestGrove,making the trip in threeand a half days. They representthe journey as a pleasant one, although the trailshad tobe opened at several points. These gentlemen are en route to the Kootenai country where they propose to establish a stock ranch on an extensive scale. The Kootenay country and other places inBritish Columbia such asVictoria andWalhacin and Cannington Manor in Saskatchewan were being promoted fordevelopment by British emigrants. William Adolph Baillie-Grohman, a wealthy Englishman, envisioned transforming the East Kootenay bottom land into an agricultural paradise, settled exclusively by and for refined Brit ish gentlemen.1 Herbert Frederick Logan and JosephWalsh were two such gentlemen, part of a group of young British bachelors living in theUnited States and Canada as "remittance men." All had arrived inNorth America with some British pounds to invest and hopes and dreams of achieving financial success. In the end, Logan and Walsh chose not to settle in Canada. Instead, they returned to theOregon coast to pursue opportunities in the fledgling destination resort of Seaside and its environs. The twomen homesteaded and developed the south side of Tillamook Head, then known as Elk Creek and now named Cannon Beach. Logan, Walsh, and other British remittance men cleared and surveyed most of the nine-mile beach. They homesteaded there, built their own cottages, and then built cottages for their neighbors. Logan organized the Elk Creek Road Company in 1890 with a group of 68 OHQ vol. 108, no. 1 ? 2007 Oregon Historical Society Unless otherwisenoted, all photos courtesyofCannon Beach Historical Society The Griffin family'sfirsthouse, shown here in the 1890s, was locatedatArcadia Beach, northof thehomestead ofJoe Walsh, one ofCannon Beach's remittance men. Seaside businessmen. He provided most of themoney necessary to build the firstwagon road from Seaside over Tillamook Head and operated itas a toll road. On his 158-acre homestead, which spanned Elk Creek (now Ecola Creek), near where the bridge stands today, he constructed and operated the second resort hotel inCannon Beach.2 JohnDelbert Griffin, inReflections on Early Cannon Beach, writes that "a number of bachelors had come over from England and were known as remittance men."3 "Remittance" refers to the financial support some British men received while living away from home, either as an advanced lump sum ofmoney to help them relocate and settle in theUnited States or through regular deposits of British pounds into a local bank.4 According to historian Lee Olson: The thingthattheyall had incommon was thattheyhad family money tohelp them seek their fortunes. Itmay have come as a lump settlement; more often it came as a Grady,Remittance Men and theCharacter ofCannon Beach 69 Herbert Logan organized theElk Creek Road Company in 1890 toconstructthe twistingtollroad overTillamook Head from Seaside toElk Creek (today'sCannon Beach). check or money draft ? a periodic remittance on a monthly, semiannual, or annual schedule. And there were instances when a young man got money by writing home in desperate need. The latter case was frequent when a young man found he was patheti callymismatched against theharsh landhe had chosen forsettlement.5 The remittance man period lasted from the 1870s to the beginning of World War I. References to remittance men are peppered throughout the oral histories found in the archive of the Cannon Beach Historical Society.6 Some citi zens of Cannon Beach remember the local remittance men as lazy, shiftless alcoholics who relied on their payments from home rather than working at a job. Yet, it is clear that the remittance men inCannon Beach played a significant role in settling the area, and they appear to have had a strong influence on the town's character. Several people who have livedmost of their lives inCannon Beach remember remittance men working at odd jobs around town in connection with the early construction and maintenance of tourist rental cottages and summer homes. As small children, they heard 70 OHQ vol. 108, no. 1 stories about the remittance men, told by town locals who gave themen nicknames such as...