Many of Portland's early settling families created long-lasting ties with one another through marriage and business relationships. Often leaving areas such as New England and San Francisco, the first generation of transplants found Portland to be a small town of new opportunities for trade and business from 1840-1855. Family relationships, such as those seen between the Robertson, Corbett, and Failing families beginning in the 1850s, often lasted for generations. Starting with the joint venture between Henry Winslow Corbett and brother-in-law Thomas Robertson (1817-1900), multiple other partnerships were later formed, including Robertson Heavy Hardware, Corbett, Failing and Company, Foster and Robertson and Corbett, Failing, and Robertson.
The Robertson family represented a crossroads of Portland familial relationships. Beginning with the arrival of Thomas Robertson and his wife Mary Freeland (Corbett) Robertson, from New York, multiple generations of the Robertson family went on to marry into different branches of other old Portland families, such Couch, Lewis, and Reed. Through these relationships, they also gained ties with several family lineages from the East Coast. Individuals in these families later attended elite schools, traveled widely and participated in family businesses to great success. They also contributed to Portland's civic life, becoming city or state officials, and serving as early supporters for institutions such as the Portland Art Museum and Reed College.
The papers include correspondence, photographs, wedding announcements, bills of sale, family memorabilia and ephemera relating to numerous Portland families related by ties of descendancy and marriage. A majority of the materials were created and used by the Robertson family, including numerous photographic albums, personal correspondence, and diaries. Two Robertson family world trips, from circa 1907 and 1910-1912, are documented with photographs, postcards, and correspondence with family in Portland. A small amount of materials relate to the business dealings of specific individuals, including Walter John Burns and members of the Robertson family. Also included are tickets and ephemera for the 1905 Lewis and Clark Exposition in Portland.
Other families represented include: Adams, Burns, Corbett, Couch, Failing, Lewis, Reed, Warren, Wilson, and Wood. Often, the inclusion of these materials is related to Robertson connections, in the form of marriage or other family relationships.
Collection is open for research.
The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.
Robertson, Burns, and Failing family papers, Coll 784, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
The series are arranged by overarching family groups, followed by subseries representing individuals with significant materials. Many individuals were related to several families represented at the series levels, but have been placed in a single family group for convenience.
General material relating to families as a whole are included at the end of each series.
Related collections held by the Oregon Historical Society include: Robertson Family Collection, Coll 558; Couch Family Papers, Mss 952; Caroline Couch Hoffman papers, Mss 2546; Corbett Family Collection, Coll 592; Henry Winslow Corbett Papers, Mss 1110; Henry Failing Papers, Mss 650.
Donated by William Latimer Failing Jr. to the Oregon Historical Society on September 26, 2008 (Acc. 26599)
Water John Burns was originally from Brechin, Scotland. He arrived in Portland in 1877 as the local agent for Balfour Guthrie & Company, a british grain dealer. In 1879 Burns married Mary Caroline Wilson, the granddaughter of Captain John Heard Couch and his wife Caroline Flanders Couch. They had eight children, including a daughter, Kathleen Burns, who married Thomas Robertson (1881-1924) in 1910. Through this marriage, the Burns family further joined ties with several other prominent Portland families of the 19th and 20th centuries, including the Corbett and Failing families.
The Corbett family came to prominence early in Portland's history, when Henry Winslow Corbett arrived in 1851 from New York. Arriving with $25,000 worth of goods obtained from Williams Bradford & Co through a three-year partnership, Corbett would resell the goods in the newly opened Oregon Territory. He would go on to gain widespread success in business, real estate, and politics, becoming a senator representing Oregon from 1867-1873. His descendants also played important roles in Portland's civic and economic spheres.
Originally from Westborough, Massachusetts, and later New York state, Henry Winslow Corbett was eventually joined in Oregon by his siblings Elijah, Mary Freeland, and Emily Phelps. Before embarking for Portland, Mary Freeland Corbett married Thomas Robertson from Cambridge, New York. Upon arriving in Oregon, Robertson joined Henry Corbett in his mercantile business, eventually forming Robertson Heavy Hardware, wholesale hardware firm. The descendants of Mary Freeland and Thomas Robertson would become joined to other old Portland families through marriage. In 1910, their grandson, Thomas Robertson (1881-1924) married Kathleen Burns, the granddaughter of Captain John Couch and wife Caroline Flanders.
In 1858, younger sister Emily Phelps Corbett married Henry Failing in 1858, who went on to be a leading businessman in Portland. The Failing, Corbett, and Robertson families continued to develop close business and kinship ties for generations.
Originally from Newburyport, Massachusetts, Captain John Heard Couch was widely known for his voyages between New England and the Pacific Coast between 1840 and 1845. Skilled in the navigation of the notoriously tricky Columbia Bar at the mouth of the Columbia River, Couch would eventually go on to settle in the Portland area. In 1846, he became the treasurer for the Oregon Territory, and later a Multnomah County Commissioner and Oregon Port Commissioner. In 1850, Couch and his brother-in-law George H. Flanders founded a trading and wharf business.
With his wife, Caroline Flanders, he had four daughters, three of of whom married prominent Portland businessmen. His daughter Caroline Elizabeth (1833-1917) married Dr. Robert Bruce Wilson. One of their seven children, Mary Caroline Wilson, married Scotland transplant Walter John Burns in 1879. Their daughter, Kathleen Burns, married into the Robertson family, who were in turn closely tied to the Corbett and Failing families of Portland.
Henry Failing, his father Josiah, and younger brother John arrived in Portland in 1851 from New York. The Failings opened a small mercantile store, J. Failing & Co. on SW Front (now Naito Parkway) near Oak Street. They were later joined by Josiah's wife, Henrietta, and their three other children in 1853. The business was a rapid success, and Josiah Failing was elected in 1853 to serve as Portland's fourth mayor. Henry Failing later became majority owner of the business, focusing on hardware and iron supplies. In 1871, Henry Failing and Henry Winslow Corbett consolidated their hardware businesses, forming Corbett, Failing & Co. This business in turn would be consolidated in 1893 with Foster & Robertson to form Corbett, Failing, and Robertson.
In 1858, Henry Failing married Emily Phelps, the sister of local businessman Henry Winslow Corbett. Through Emily's sister Mary Freeland, the Failing family thus gained ties with the Robertson family, who owned Robertson Heavy Hardware. The grandson of Mary Freeland, Thomas Robertson (1881-1924) married Kathleen Burns in 1910, gaining ties to the prominent Couch family.
Thomas Robertson was born in 1817 in Cambridge, New York, where his family maintained a close friendship with the Corbett family. After Henry Winslow Corbett left New York in 1851 to pursue a trade good business in the newly founded Oregon Territory, Robertson and his wife, Mary Freeland Corbett (sister of Henry), later met him in 1856. Upon arrival, Robertson joined Corbett's business, eventually forming Robertson Heavy Hardware, which sold wholesale goods.
Robertson and his wife had two sons, William Edie (1854-1939), and David (1856-1891). Both sons grew up in Portland, but completed educations at the Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. William Edie later worked for Corbett, Failing & Co. David Robertson and John R. Foster operated the retail hardware store Foster & Robertson. In 1893, the two companies consolidated to form Corbett, Failing, and Robertson.
David Robertson married Hannah Hodges in 1884. He died seven years later without any children. William Edie Robertson married Sarah (Sadie) Adams Wood, who arrived in Portland in 1880 to visit family. They had six children: Thomas (1881-1924); Louise (died in infancy, 1884); Nan Wood (1885-1928); David (1888-1945); Mary Corbett (1891-1986); and John "Jack" Wood (1894-1956). Mary Corbett was the goddaughter of Henry Winslow Corbett, and never married. William Edie took his family on two trips around the world, first in 1907 and again from 1910 to 1912. The eldest son, Thomas Robertson, married Kathleen Burns in 1910. She was the great-granddaughter of Captain John Heard Couch.
Nan Wood Robertson, a popular Portland socialite, married George Atkinson Warren in 1914. George's father, Frank Manley Warren, died on the Titanic in 1912, after spending three months in Europe with his wife to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. His wife, Anna Sofia Bates Atkinson, survived the wreck. George and Nan had two sons, George Jr. (1917-1921), and William "Billy" Robertson (1923-1945). Billy, the only remaining son of Nan and George, was a radio technician on the USS Indianapolis, who later perished when the ship was sunk in 1945 by a torpedo.
In 1880 Sarah "Sadie" Adams Wood arrived in Portland to visit her aunt and uncle, Amanda and Simeon Reed (founders of Reed College). In 1881, she married William Edie Robertson, the son of Mary Freeland Corbett and Thomas Robertson. While little is known of this branch of the Wood and Adams family, Sarah Adams Wood was originally from Quincy, Massachusetts, and was a member of several early families from that area.