Archives West Finding Aid

John W. Sweeney was born in May 1861. He lived in Portland, Oregon. He worked at the fire department in Portland, then as a roofing contractor. Later he went into the contracting business for himself. He held the first contract for highway construction in Oregon when he built a road across the Siskiyou mountains in Jackson County, Oregon. Later he put the culverts in the Oregon, Washington Railroad and Navigation Company between Hood River and The Dalles. In 1905 Sweeney's company quarried rock for Columbia River Jetty. In 1909 Sweeney won the contract to build the final 53 miles of the Pacific Railway and Navigation Company. From 1909 to 1911, J.W. Sweeney Construction Co. built the Tillamook Line S.P.R.R. In 1912 J.W. Sweeney Construction Co. won First and Second place in the Rose Show Work Horse Division Parade. In 1914 the company built Pacific Highway no.1 - Siskiyou Mountain Section. In 1926 the company built the Roosevelt Highway in Curry County.