The Pacific Northwest and California Grain Market - 1886

(Pacific Northwest and California Grain Market) Sibson, William Samuel and Quackenbush, Edward (owners) Sibson, Quackenbush and Co. This is a typescript and manuscript copy ledger filled with over 1200 letters chronicling the heyday of the 1886 wheat and grain expoert boom drawing from wheat farms in the Washington Territory, Idaho Territory and Oregon. The fast expanding number of wheat and grain farmers developing along newly opened railroad lines across the Pacific Northwest, fed not only domestic needs such as Henry Weinhard’s brewing company, but also San Francisco’s booming trade to China, and many cargoes to England, Scotland,and Antwerp. Portland, OR. Sibson, Quackenbush and Co. Sept 22, 1886 – Nov. 24, 1886. 48 pgs on ruled paper, each with facing pin-tinted blotter paper overlay, 698 leaves, on very thin tissue paper, with all leaves filled with TLS & ALS copied letters both from a copybook process in which freshly written, or typed letters were pressed against a damp sheet creating negative image, and then these were pressed upon the thin tissue paper creating positive images (occasional closed tears at gutter margins, some minor running of ink occasionally, others with lighter impressions possibly with enough original impression, still all readable). Original half-sheep over black pebbled cloth, red & black & gilt morocco spine labels, remnants of old printed Company logo and name mounted on front cover, stamp for J.K. Gill & Co. Stationers Portland on front paste-down (scuffing, chipping to spine, edge-wear, slightly shaken, occasional pencil and/or ink annotations) still although the binding is G, the very fragile interior tissue paper sheets are nearly all VG and legible.

This extraordinary ledger of letters, provides essential primary documentation chronicling the wheat boom of the Mid-1880s in the Pacific Northwest, fed not only by the opening of the transcontinental railroads pushing into the Washington Territory by 1883 and 1884, but also over 150 vessels in the Columbia River Grain fleet. Although the Pacific Northwest Indian Wars had slowed the growing wheat trade, as shown here, agricultural exports between the Western States, Asia, & Europe increased substantially alongside the gold rushes, and homestead land rushes. Sibson, Quackenbush & Co. not only maintained their own large fleet of wheat ships shipping 49 cargoes in 1886, but also offered insurance, underwriting, and banking services, as well as contracting for wheat shipments. Often dispatching from 10-30 letters per day, the firm maintained grain agents, commercial agents, and farmers in towns and cities across the Washington Territory, Idaho Territory, and Oregon. The detailed and expansive manuscript index provides an invaluable tool by which to track the recipients of this wealth of correspondence. The majority of the letters provide nearly daily quotes on the spot prices the company will pay for F.O.B. “Freight On Board” shipments, with some agents and farmers receiving more generous pay-outs than others. Writing to Austin, Wilkinson & Co. located in Dayton & Pomeroy, W.T., Sibson, Quackenbush & Co. notes they will pay 52 1/2 cents sacked F.O.B. cars, while only 51 cents sacked F.O.B. cars to Alfred J. Diamond in Wallula, W.T. with an admonition that he “needed to avoid shriveled or smutty wheat.” At the same time, they were offering for “good merchantable wheat” 56 cents sacked F.O.B. to R.W. Helm in Goldendale, W.T. By October, reports of falling wheat prices in Europe due to a bumper European crop, resulted in them actively sending out notes over the succeeding weeks with numbers lowering from about 54 cents to 48 cents often stating it was “impossible for us to quote over. . . cents sacked F.O.B. for good merchantable wheat, and we quote the market weak at this price.” Many of Sibson, Quackenbush & Co. agents and farmers often complained about their pay outs, or credits to their accounts, with quick replies from the Company often including such explanations as “the wheat from Mr. Isaacs was rejected on account of dirt, and needing to be run through the cleaners,” or to the Cleaver Bros. in Mt. Angel, OR that one of their railcars was rejected “because the wheat was mixed with oats,” or even a recurring problem with wheat shipments from the Preston Bros. & Parton in Waitsburg, W.T. that “they still have not changed their views on grinding wheat without wetting, and that export flour needed to be ground dry. . .” as there was “a little water in the wheat.” Many local Portland businesses were dependent on PNW grain shipments such as Henry Weinhard Brewing Co., noting in September to A. Wing in Pendelton, OR that not only was the brewer in need of his grains, but apparently 3900 bushels less were delivered to them.

Supplying their foreign and California clients, Sibson, Quackenbush & Co. reveal in these letters a continual struggle to not only ensure their ships arrive, but also that they can be cleared through customs with the proper documentation. One of the most extreme examples revealed through a series of several letters to their client Peter MacFarlane, in Port Glasgow Scotland, involved the grain ship “Don.” On Oct. 16th they write that the “Don” had finished loading in Portland and was waiting at Astoria for 150 more tons. . . [however] Captain Drummond has run into complications with the crew except for the first and second mates, and the boatswain, libeling the ship in U.S. Court that they were treated cruelly and want greater wages.” After posting bonds to release the ship, the Company did note that “we have good hopes that he will be successful in defeating the schemes of the men, which we are convinced are nothing but blackmail.” The letter on Oct. 28th notes that the case did not go well, and in fact Captain Drummond was decided against, the crew’s wages paid, and afterwards in a drunken stupor “that Captain of your bark “Don” committed suicide” by jumping “overboard from the steamer.” A later letter justifying the expenses incurred by Sibson, Quackenbush & Co. notes that “the attorney had been convinced he could win the case” but when Drummond appeared before the judge he was so drunk the crew’s claims were considered justified. These are followed by further letters outlining the appointment of Captain James Christian (previously mate to the ship “Amana”) to operate the vessel and deliver the grain to Glasgow, Scotland, but, he too was later discharged due to drunkenness. Supplying sailors for the vessels was an ongoing problem, and even though Edward Quackenbush was a founding member of the Seamen’s Friend Society in Portland and Astoria, he also contracted with notorious “Shanghaiers” to supply sailors for their ships carrying wheat shipments, such as on the County of Fling in 1887. Their fleet of ships included the schooner “Adele” -- commanded by Captain Hansen, later wrecked off of Queen Charlotte Island, the “Andes,” the “Archer” -- later rebuilt and flagged as an American vessel after 1890, the “Astracan” with letters explaining an extra expense of burying a sick sailor who had died after they were anchored near the mouth of the Columbia River, the “SS Clan Grant built” in 1883 by the Clan Line, and many others. 

Many of the letters deal with their agents in London, Glasgow, & Liverpool regarding either shipments en-route, loading, or already landed, often objecting to the amounts quoted to be “paid in London for received Wheat is impossible;” or that offered quotes such as 33 1/3 “for the parcel of 1750 tons of Oregon Wheat was “so unreasonable that we did not reply.” An extended 5 leaves ALS from Sibson details the different pricing and cost structures between Portland and San Francisco, and how the costs of shipping down the Yakima Valley, on the Oregon Railway & Navigation Co’s line from Wallula to Portland were higher than in other areas often affecting grain prices. Louis Ringer, one of their wheat buying agents in Almota, W.T. often complained about improper credits, the weights not being correct, or “that the weight of the cracked grains and screenings were not being added to the ‘Cleaned Wheat.’” Occasionally some of their farmers and agents discovered they were often not being paid the same rate as others due to “misdirected letters” and the Company sent a number of letters soothing ruffled feathers. The bulk of their lesser grade wheat and grains were shipped to San Francisco as California’s wheat flour exports to Hong Kong, Singapore and other Asian ports had reached over 450,000 barrels a year by 1886, and they constantly worked to meet the demand for those Chinese and Russian markets. Sibson (1846-1929) was an English-American grain merchant who sailed to Oregon in 1871, married Mary Rogers, daughter of Captain Moses Rogers in August, 1876 in Astoria, and became leading grain exporter, rose grower, founder of the Portland Stock, Exchange, and later U.S. Consul to Guatemala. Quackenbush (1839-1928), was also a grain agent with Sibson for decades, involved in different charities, and Portland Civic groups, first president of the Portland YMCA, and later became an insurance broker, and gentleman farmer. See: Wright, Lewis & Dryden’s Marine History of the Pacific Northwest (1895); Robert Nesbit & Charles M. Gates, Agriculture in Eastern Washington, 1890-1910, The PNW Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 4 (Ocb., 1946), pp. 279-302; Watson C. Squire, Report of the Governor of Washington Territory, 1886, pp. 859-865; Kim Kershner, Wheat Farming in Washington, HistoryLink Essay 20504 (Jan. 19, 2018); Barney Black, The Oregon Shanghaiers: Columbia River Crimping from Astoria to Portland (2014); Osborne, Pacific Eldorado: A History of Greater California (2020), pp. 170-172.