”HENRY A. DUGGAN is proprietor of the largest general mercantile store in Clatakanie, having developed his business along progressive lines that have secured to him an extensive patronage. Each year chronicles a growing success and the position that he has already won in commercial circles argues well for the future. His birth occurred in east Tennessee, March 25, 1863, his parents being H. D. and Susan (Ware) Duggan, both of whom were natives of the same state, where they were reared and married, there residing until 1877, when they removed to McDonald county, Missouri, where they resided for three years. The succeeding nine years were passed in Cass county, Missouri, after which they became residents of Allen county, Kansas, where they still reside, their home being in Iowa. The father is now sixty-eight years and the mother sixty-two years of age. To some extent ever since his marriage he has engaged in preaching the gospel as a minister of the Baptist church and has also followed farming but is now living retired from agricultural pursuits, spending his days in quiet at Iowa. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Duggan were born thirteen children of whom twelve are still living: Henry A.; J. R., of Allen county, Kansas; Sarah J., the wife of J. M. Rhodes, of Oklahoma City; Mrs. Elizabeth E. Thompson, of Moran, Kansas; W. J., also living in Moran; Emma, the wife of Ed Irving, of Tola, Kansas; Ellen, the wife of Ed Hart, of Bartlesville, Oklahoma; Birtie, the wife of Ira Downs, of Pawnee Rock. Kansas; Edward, of Lawrence, Kansas; Louis, of LaHarpe, Kansas; Everett and Russell, both of Clatskanie.
Henry A. Duggan spent his youthful days amid the pleasant environment of a cultured home, acquiring his education in the public schools and devoting much of his time to assisting his father in the operation of the home farm. When twenty-six years of
age he started out in business life on his own account, taking up farm work in Kansas, where he followed agricultural pursuits until 1900. He then came to Oregon, settling in Columbia county, where he secured a homestead claim which he improved until after he had secured his title, and then sold. Turning his attention to commercial pursuits he formed a partnership with a Mr. Simmons for the establishment and conduct of a general mercantile store. Success attended the new venture and in 1911 Mr. Duggan purchased his partner’s interest and is now sole proprietor of the largest store in the town, carrying an extensive and well selected line of goods. His business methods are strictly reliable and his enterprise and modern ideas constitute the basis on which his prosperity is founded. He has not confined his attention, however, entirely to one department of labor but is connected with various business concerns which are important elements in the upbuilding and progress of the community. He is a stockholder of the Creamery Company, also of the Telephone system and of the Gold Hill Mining Company of southern Oregon. He is the owner of one hundred and sixty acres of land in the state of Vera Cruz, Mexico; fifty acres in the state of Ohaca, Mexico; and has five acres planted to rubber-producing trees in the state of Chiapas, Mexico. He is likewise financially interested in the Consolidated Typewriter & Telegraph Company and in the British Columbia Coal Mining Company operating near Vancouver, and his property interests in Clatskanie include a commodious and beautiful residence.
Mr. Duggan was married, October 13, 1889, to Miss Eva M. Marvin, who was born in Neosha county, Kansas, a daughter of George and Rosa (Culbertson) Marvin, the former a native of Illinois and the latter of Des Moines, Iowa. They were married in Kansas and there resided until the father’s death in 1887. The mother still survives and is now living in Adrian, Missouri… Unto Mr. and Mrs. Duggan have been born seven children: Beulah E., who died at the age of two years; Lela V., born on the 10th of May, 1894, now attending high school and also studying music; H. Leslie, who was born in October, 1898, and is now attending school; Ethel M. and Robert E., both now deceased; Susan E. R., born in May, 1903; and Henry E., born in December, 1906.
The Duggan family hold membership in the Baptist church in which Mr. Duggan is serving as deacon. In the work of the church he takes an-active and helpful interest and is also in full sympathy with the beneficent and fraternal spirit of the different associations to which he belongs, holding membership in Clatskanie Lodge, F. & A. M., and also with the Modern Woodmen of America and the Foresters. Politically he is a republican but while he gives expression to his belief by his ballot he does not seek nor desire office, preferring to concentrate his energy upon his business interests, the capable direction of which has brought him substantial returns while the reliability of his methods has gained for him the confidence and good-will of all.”
Source: The Centennial History of Oregon, 1811-1912, Vol. 3, by Joseph Gaston, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company, Chicago, 1912, page 589-90
