William HUME Biography

William HUME

Nov 19, 1830 - June 25, 1902

(Dictionary of American Biography, Volume IX; 1932, Scribner & Sons)

William HUME, a pioneer in the salmon industry, was born in Waterville, Me., the son of William and Harriett (HUNTER) HUME. His grandfather, of Scotch descent, and his father were fishermen. As a youth he spent little time in school, and when he was twenty-two years of age he went to California. There he fished and hunted for a living along the Sacramento River. In 1856 he went back to Maine and returned to California that same year with his two brothers, John and George W. HUME. The latter had a friend in Maine, Andrew S. HAPGOOD, who had learned the tinsmith trade and had done a little canning of lobster meat. He was persuaded to come to California and in 1864 the canning firm of Hapgood, Hume & Company was established on the Sacramento River at Washington, Yolo County. The cannery was a crude affair and William HUME peddled the first cans of fish from door to door, carrying them about in a basket. Finding the run of fish in the Sacramento rather disappointing, Hume did some prospecting on the Columbia River in 1865, and the following year a cannery was built at Eagle Cliff, Wash., the first on the Columbia. Here the Royal Chinook salmon, cooked in the cans, was packed. During its opening season the firm put up 4,000 cases, each containing four dozen one-pound cans, and the next season 18,000. The most of the early product was sold in Australia. The industry grew rapidly and in 1881 had become the most extensive in the Northwest, with the exception of wheat raising. Of the thirty-five canneries on the Columbia at that time more than half had been established by the Hume brothers. When the industry reached its height in 1883, William Hume's interest in it was larger than that of any other individual. It absorbed his interest until his death. He was conservative in business, introduced no new machinery, and opposed the establishment of salmon hatcheries. He never sought public office, was a member of no church nor secret society. In 1876 he was married to Emma LORD of San Francisco."

<J. N. Cobb, Pacific Salmon Fisheries (1917); R. D. Hume, "The First Salmon Cannery," Pacific Fisherman, Jan. 1904; Portland Oregonian, Mar. 10, 1868, July 16, 1874, Aug. 1, Sept. 8, 1881, July 31, 1883, June 29, 1902; Fishing Gazette, July 5, 1902.> R.C.C-k.

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