Nestled into an arc of headstones at River View Cemetery is
a fine marble monument that on its west face reads “Eastham” and on its east, “Morey.” Historians of Portland, especially of
Portland’s electrical utilities, may recognize those names and wonder why they
are both found on one marker. I
certainly did.
Parker F. Morey was a mechanical engineer who arrived in
Portland in about 1879 and, in 1884, started the United States Electric
Lighting and Power Company, one of Portland’s earliest power utilities. Edward L. Eastham was an attorney in Oregon
City. Prominent and successful, he was
among the first to recognize the hydroelectric potential of Willamette Falls
and began buying up water rights there with the idea of building a huge generation
plant. In 1888 Eastham, with his water
rights, and Morey, with his knowledge and Portland customer base, joined forces
and created the Willamette Falls Electric Company. Eastham was named President. The following year the new company transmit DC,
Direct Current, power from their “Station A” at the Falls all the way to
downtown Portland, a distance reported at either 12 or 14 miles, depending upon
the source, but universally recognized as one of the first “long distance”
transmission of electricity in the world.
The rest, as they say, is history.
The Willamette Falls Electric Company was wildly successful, began
buying up its competition both in generation and electric trolleys. Morey replaced Eastham as President, when the
latter died in 1891, and by 1906 the company they founded emerged as the
Portland Railway Light and Power Company.
Today that firm is better known as Portland General Electric, which
still produces power at the Willamette Falls.
But still, most business partners, even successful ones who
may have had high respect and friendship between them, don't share a burial plot and
there was no report that Eastham and Morey were otherwise related by blood or
marriage. In the normal sense, they weren’t.
Edward Eastham, born in Oregon City in 1848, died on January
18, 1891, before he ever saw how successful his power company would become. He left a widow, Clara, and six children, one
just an infant. Eastham, also a State
Senator, was mourned as “Oregon City’s foremost citizen.
Parker Morey, born in Missouri in 1847, lived longer, though
he was just 56 years old when he died.
He and his wife Maud had three children, two girls and boy, before Maud
passed in 1888. I’m not sure exactly
when, but soon after Edward’s death, Clara and Parker joined their families
into one, Clara inheriting three step-children and Parker six. When Parker died, on July 7, 1904, the entire
family was with him on their farm near Oregon City.
Clara Eastham Morey, died July 23, 1927, at the age of 72. She was survived
by two daughters and four sons, two stepdaughters and one stepson. At River View Clara's modest headstone is at the center
point of the Morey-Eastham monument. It is flanked on the west by Edward. Parker is on the east.
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