ABSTRACT
The experience of Portland’s elite, during its formative years, 1870–1890, supports the view that the urban Far West, rather than being open and egalitarian with innovative and unique characteristics, developed quite early a class-conscious, stratified society whose leaders sought to copy old rather than create new societal patterns. Portland began in the mid-1840s as a small trading center along the wooded banks of the Willamette River at the head of ocean navigation. A series of gold strikes in the interior and the advancement of the agricultural frontier in the Pacific Northwest, for which Portland served as a provisioning, transportation, and financial center, led the city to become by the 1880s the economic metropolis of the region, a status it maintained for a decade. The old-line elite owed their position to wealth, public service, and long-time residence. Several members had been active in local, state, and national politics.
