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Winch family papers, circa 1840-2000

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Winch family
Title
Winch family papers
Dates
circa 1840-2000 (inclusive)
Quantity
8 cubic feet, (13 document cases, 4 flat boxes, 2 card file boxes, 1 custom box, 1 oversize folder)
Collection Number
Coll 52
Summary
Photographs and papers of the Winch family of Portland, Oregon, including materials relating to Martin Winch, his wife Nellie Amelia Wygant Winch, their son Simeon Reed Winch, and Simeon's second wife Margaret (Mary) Tobin Winch. Additional materials pertain to related families, including the Rae, Reed, Wood and Wygant families, and Dr. John McLoughlin. Materials include financial records, correspondence, house inventories, correspondence, diaries, photographs, daguerreotypes, and drawings. Also included is correspondence of Simeon Gannett Reed and letters to Reed from William S. Ladd.
Repository
Oregon Historical Society Research Library
1200 SW Park Avenue
Portland, OR
97205
Telephone: 503-306-5240
Fax: 503-219-2040
libreference@ohs.org
Access Restrictions

The collection is open to the public.

Languages
English.
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Historical Note

Martin Winch was born December 16, 1858 to Martin and Frances Wood Winch in Quincy, MA. After the death of the senior Martin Winch in 1870, his widow and two sons came to Portland to live with Mrs. Winch’s sister, Amanda Wood Reed, wife of one of Portland's leading businessman, Simeon Gannett Reed. The younger Martin proved himself highly capable while working for the Oregon Steam Navigation Company and then the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company (in which Reed owned substantial shares), in addition to running his own printing business at night. Later the childless Reeds entrusted Winch with their Oregon business affairs when they moved to Pasadena, California, and at Simeon Reed’s death, Winch was appointed as Mrs. Reed's financial agent. When Mrs. Reed died, Winch was named executor of her will, which included an endowment for the establishment of an educational institution in Portland. To uphold this bequest, Martin Winch contested the other heirs in court from 1904 to 1912, eventually winning a settlement that allowed for the establishment of what is now Reed College. He died in 1915.

Martin Winch's wife Nellie Amelia Wygant Winch was born in Oregon City in 1859 to Margaret Glen Rae Wygant and Theodore Wygant. Margaret Rae's mother was Eloisa McLoughlin, daughter of Hudson's Bay Company Chief Factor Dr. John McLoughlin. Margaret’s father was William Glen Rae, a relative of the Hudson’s Bay Company explorer John Rae. Nellie’s father, merchant Theodore Wygant, was an Oregon pioneer who traveled overland to Oregon City in 1850. Nellie’s oldest sister, Alice, married William Whidden, a prominent Portland architect. The second sister, Maria Louise Wygant, remained a spinster. Nellie Wygant married Martin Winch in 1882, and they had one son, Simeon Reed Winch, born in 1888. She died in 1940.

After his graduation from Princeton University in 1911, Simeon Reed Winch went on a European tour with his mother, Nellie Winch, after which he attended Harvard Law school in 1912-1913. Returning to Portland, he began work at the Oregon Journal, eventually assuming the position of the paper's business manager in 1921 -- a position he held until his death in 1946. During World War I he served as Assistant Food Administrator for Oregon and later entered officer's training school, although the war ended before he could serve at the front. His first wife was Olivia Failing, descendant of Portland pioneer merchant Josiah Failing. The couple had two daughters, Nella Winch McElroy and Emily Winch Baines, and in the 1920s the family built a large house at 2665 Cornell Road in Portland. After Olivia Winch's death in 1942, Simeon married Margaret Elizabeth (Mary) Tobin in 1943, with whom he had one son, Martin Tobin Winch, in 1944, two years before his death.

Mary Tobin Winch (known for a time as Toots Tobin) was employed at the Oregon Journal at the time of her marriage to Simeon Reed Winch. She later became active in local civil rights and charitable causes and served as a trustee of Reed College. She lived in the Cornell Road house until her death in 2003.

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Content Description

The collection consists of photographs and papers pertaining to the Winch and Wygant families of Portland, Oregon, the Reed family of Portland and Pasadena, California, and their relatives. The bulk of the photographs are cabinet and studio photographs and albums of the Winch and Reed families from the late 19th century to early 20th century. Notable photographic items are daguerreotypes and cabinet photographs of Dr. John McLoughlin, a portrait of Theodore Wygant, a series of photographs of the Winch family home at SW Broadway and Main Steets in Portland, numerous portraits of Simeon Reed Winch from birth to later years, and images of Amanda Reed's residence in Pasadena. Also included are many snapshots belonging to Mary Tobin Winch taken during a late 20th century Nile trip.

The bulk of the papers consist of financial records and correspondence, including ledgers, cash books, and correspondence of Martin Winch and Simeon Reed Winch. Some notable pieces of correspondence are letters, 1910 and 1911, to Simeon Reed Winch from Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt; a letter of Simeon G. Reed to the father of his future wife Amanda Wood, 1850, asking for her hand in marriage; and letters from Portland merchant and banker William S. Ladd to Simeon G. Reed, 1858, including one offering Reed a position in Ladd's newly formed bank. A diary by Theodore Wygant, a Winch relative and 1850 Oregon pioneer, is included. Other diaries include ones by Maria Louise Wygant, which include detailed accounts of her trips to the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, and expositions in San Francisco and San Diego in 1915. House inventories of the Winch residence provide glimpses into period furnishings, while the inventories of the Tolmie Estate Sale provide information about Fort Vancouver life during the Hudson’s Bay Company era. Papers associated with Dr. John McLoughlin in this collection include copies of correspondence as Chief Factor at Fort Vancouver, a transcript copy of a Hudson's Bay Company letterbook from 1829-1832, and large typescript copies of a Hudson's Bay Company ledger from 1819-1823.

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Use of the Collection

Alternative Forms Available

Also included are 2 microfilm reels of Theodore Wygant’s 1850 diary and copies of additional papers within the collection.

Restrictions on Use

The Oregon Historical Society is the owner of the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. Written permission must be obtained from the Research Library prior to any use of reproductions. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all the materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use of reproductions may require seeking additional authorization from the copyright holders.

Preferred Citation

Winch family papers, Coll 52, Oregon Historical Society Research Library

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into two series:

  • Series A: Photographs
  • Series B: Papers

Custodial History

Some materials in the collection were handed down through the McLoughlin, Rae, Wygant, Wood and Winch families and preserved by Mary Tobin Winch. The bulk of the collection was stored in the Winch home on SW Cornell Road in Portland until Mrs. Winch's death in 2003.

Acquisition Information

Library accession numbers 15738, 25314, 25344, 25830, and 28634.

Processing Note

Some materials were originally processed as Mss 1775, Winch Family. The collection number changed to Coll 52 when all materials were integrated into a single collection.

Future Additions

Unprocessed portions of the collection are: 2 cartons of news wire photographs from the 1930s and 1940s, apparently collected by Mary Tobin Winch; 1 carton containing postage stamps of various kinds; and 3 cartons containing books relating to Oregon and western U.S. history. These additions are designated Accession 25314.

Separated Materials

The following materials were separated to the Artifact Collections, Oregon Historical Society

  • Framed photograph of Nellie Amelia Wygant Winch and granddaughter Nella Winch
  • Wygant family crest ink stamp
  • Various furniture items
  • Set of silverware once owned by Francis Ermatinger of the Hudson's Bay Company

Motion picture films received with the collection have been separated to the Moving Image Collections of the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.

Four 78 rpm phonograph records titled "Ode (not owed) to President Bilderback by Three Versatile Veterinarians," dated 1940 January 5, are housed in the audio recording collection of the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.

Bibliography

Fogdall, Alberta Brooks. Royal Family of the Columbia: Dr. John McLoughlin and His Family. 1984.

Related Materials

The Simeon G. Reed collection at Reed College contains financial records, photographic images, and some biographical materials belonging to Simeon G. and Amanda Wood Reed.

An oral history with Mary Tobin Winch concerning her work for the civil rights movement, is cataloged as SR 1063 in the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.

Typed transcripts of the Simeon G. Reed papers are held by the Oregon Historical Society Research Library as Mss 1117.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Expositions--United States--Personal narratives
  • Overland journeys to the Pacific
  • Pioneers--Oregon

Personal Names

  • McLoughlin, John, 1784-1857
  • Reed, Amanda Wood, 1832-1904
  • Reed, Simeon Gannett, 1830-1895
  • Winch, Martin
  • Wygant, Theodore, 1831-1905

Corporate Names

  • Oregon Journal
  • Panama Pacific International Exposition (1915 : San Francisco, Calif.)
  • Princeton University
  • Reed College (Portland, Or.)
  • World's Columbian Exposition (1893 : Chicago, Ill.)

Family Names

  • Passmore family
  • Rae family
  • Reed family
  • Whidden family
  • Winch family
  • Wood family

Geographical Names

  • Pasadena (Calif.)--History
  • Portland (Or.)--History

Form or Genre Terms

  • Cabinet photographs
  • Daguerreotypes
  • Diaries
  • Financial records
  • Ledgers (account books)
  • Letterpress copybooks
  • Letters (Correspondence)
  • Manuscripts
  • Photographs

Other Creators

  • Personal Names

    • Winch, Martin, 1858-1915--Archives (creator)
    • Winch, Mary--Archives (creator)
    • Winch, Nellie Amelia Wygant--Archives (creator)
    • Winch, Simeon Reed--Archives (creator)

Collection processed and finding aid prepared by Diane Couture
2007

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